Enji woke up exhausted. He wasn't used to sleeping with anyone, so little Izuku's every movement had been bringing him back to the grim reality. Which wasn't bad, since thanks to this he hadn't missed the moments when the boy had been waking up from woeful dreams. It gave him an opportunity to be there to provide comfort, when the boy had been opening tearful eyes, with the call for mum on tiny lips.

Still, he felt awful, wringed out mentally more than ever, when he opened eyes in the morning. Izuku wasn't by his side. Right, that was what woke him up this time – the feeling that the boy got up.

"Wanna go to the toilet?" he murmured tiredly.

"Yeah..." Damn, the boy again looked so sad and lost. And no wonder, the wound of losing his mother so fresh, and the first night in a strange house adding to the stress. Still, Enji could just imagine how much worse it would be if he hadn't stayed with Izuku overnight.

"Okay, let's go." He, as usual, did not let his drowsiness stop him from immediately getting up. A hero never had much sleep anyway.

"Sleep a little more, dad, it's okay, I'll go by myself," Izuku assured. Sweet boy.

"I'm fine, come. It's a big house."

"I have a good memory," a shadow of pride in the boy's voice. "I'll find it myself!"

"Lead the way then," he smiled and ruffled the boy's hair.

"Are we really going to your agency?" he asked after they both used the bathroom and headed back to Izuku's room.

"Of course."

A smile reappeared on Izuku's face. "When?!"

"After you change from your pyjamas and eat your breakfast."

Izuku sprinted to his room to Enji's amusement.

888

Everyone immediately stood up as they entered the main floor. He had told his employees a couple of times there was no need for that, that he cared for the results of their job not for the external gestures of respect, but they still did it every time. Not that it particularly bothered him, it was better if they were wary of him than to let them be too relaxed. It wasn't a preschool after all; it was a dangerous job people's lives depended on.

"Good morning. I know you all missed me." He barely had been in his agency last week - with the Russia mission and everything that was happening in his personal life - doing the paperwork remotely and taking hero assignments from wherever he had been at the moment. The faces were carefully neutral, with the exception of smirking Sparkle, who was a prohero of such experience, talent and position Enji expected him to soon start his own agency. The man definitely did not need to fear Enji's anger.

"This is my son, Izuku." He made sure to glare at all of them, even though he knew no glaring was going to stop the gossiping that would start the moment he leaves the place. They all knew he had fo- three kids. And none of them was named Izuku and looked completely unlike his wife. "He wants to be a hero one day, so I decided to show him how the hero agency works." That he brought his kid here was no surprise to anyone. Everyone was allowed to bring their children here; they actually even had a nursery and preschool on one of the floors of the huge building. Enji knew many females hesitated to pursue hero career, certain it wouldn't be possible to combine having children and working in this difficult field. So he wanted his agency to be an exception. He couldn't imagine life without children, so he would do he best to help other people achieve both things.

But, of course, the very kid, the kid who suddenly popped into existence, definitely had to be a surprise, even if no one showed it.

Izuku was staring at everyone with huge, starry eyes, so much in awe he did not even utter a word, which said a lot about how impressed the child was, and, of course, All Might plushie was clutched in his hands. He noticed everyone noticing the plushie, so he glared some more, quite effectively too, since everyone immediately started to ignore the toy.

He laid a kind hand on his boy's broccoli hair. "Izuku."

"Oh!" exclaimed the boy half nervously, half excitedly. "Hajimemashite! My name is Izuku Midoriya!" Ouch. Midoriya. He forgot about that. Oh, well, it's not like the media would not sniff things out sooner rather than later and make it public. "I wanna be a great hero like All Might-" Double ouch. He noticed a couple of raised brows. "-and my dad! Um, and you all! Douzo yoroshiku onegai itashimasu!" Despite the All Might part he felt a tickle of pride that Izuku remembered the whole phrase, like a proper courteous Japanese citizen. And with itashimasu instead of shimasu, too. He couldn't help but smile.

"And, um, are these your gauntlets, Sparkle-san?!"

Sparkle grinned. "They certainly are, kiddo."

"No way! They're so cool! I saw how you used them yesterday catching these bank robbers! That was so cool! And there was only one of you against them! And they had guns! And you just swiiish and whoooosh and they were all, like, down! And-"

Now all the brows have risen. And more and more people visibly tried to hide smiles. Sparkle grinned even wider as Izuku launched into one of his overawed rants.

"-so I was wondering if they, like-"

"Izuku."

Izuku stopped and looked at him questioningly. "Dad?"

"I'm going to go to my office. You can stay here with Kurumada-san, and ask the heroes some questions, but do not bother them too much, they need to work."

Izuku nodded very fervently, obviously happier to stay here with the proheroes he had never met personally before, rather than to watch his dad signing papers and making calls in his office. He nodded to Kurumada and got a pleased smile in return. Which was weird, actually; Kurumada, just like Enji, was one of these eternally angry with life and world people. But, of course, just a short time spent with Izuku had been enough to completely buy the man. Maybe the boy had a Quirk after all - one that made it impossible not to like him.

So he went to the office while Sparkle already approached his boy, his gauntlets in his hands.

When the huge door closed he sighed and took out his phone.

"Mishima?"

"Todoroki-sama."

"Will you be at the agency at your usual hours?"

"Yes, I'm already on my way there."

"Please, take with you Rei's demands."

There fell a short pause.

"Of course." He was sure he heard a very carefully concealed relief in the lawyer's voice.

"When can I see you?"

"I will be there at 9, we can discuss the divorce immediately, Todoroki-sama."

"Good." He looked at the time. Twenty to nine. Twenty minutes of his family life left. Twenty minutes to hope for a miracle.

Haha, right.

He sat down behind his desk and skimmed through the most important mails.

888

They all practically jumped when he got out of his office. No wonder, he usually spent at least two hours in the morning here, dealing with administrative matters, never getting out, only calling whoever he needed to see. He hid his smirk as he watched them torn over whether there was a point to rush back to their desks now that he had already seen all the work in his agency effectively stopped as everyone was too busy drooling over his son.

"Dad!" The boy waved at him enthusiastically. "Sparkle-san let-"

Sparkle started to cough very loudly and then said, "How about you tell your dad how you learned how to assign heroes based on the type of accident, Izuku-kun? This is very important in a hero's job."

Izuku immediately started eagerly recounting everything he had been told about the topic, but Enji still glared at Sparkle. The idiot probably let Izuku do something dangerous, he just knew that. The rest of his employees reluctantly got back to their desks, but not without sending friendly smiles towards Izuku. Enji did not think he ever saw such an... amiable atmosphere in this place. Even when he had been bringing Shouto here, it had been tense, the boy in an obvious way trying very hard not to show how curious he had found the hero agency in an effort to not give Enji any satisfaction of being able to please his son. People here were smart, and immediately picked up the strain between father and son. Now it was completely different though. He'd swear he even saw a couple of stray, weak smiles aimed at him, which was unheard of.

But for his child's sake he forgave them this lax atmosphere.

"I'm glad you're learning so fast, Zuku." He stroked the boy's hair. "I am going to a different floor now. Behave yourself."

"Can I go with you?!" asked Izuku, stars of excitement twinkling in his eyes.

"Ah, I'm going to the legal department, it's very boring. No heroes there. You stay here with Kurumada-san and Sparkle-san, okay? I'm sure Sparkle will want to show you many things," he added glaring at Sparkle again. Sparkle just grinned shamelessly.

888

He was staring heavily at the paper before him. One mere sheet, one mere press of a hanko and he no longer will be a part of his own family. Well, at least not really. It will be done and there will be no going back to the past. No chance for the future he dreamed about.

'But it has already happened, hasn't it?' whispered the tiny voice in his head. 'You've lost again, you weren't good enough to keep your family together,' it added. 'It's all Rei's fault!' he snapped back internally, but the guilt was still there. Could he have done something differently? Could he have done something better to prevent this all from happening? Well, he could have not slept with Midoriya back then... Though when you thought about this sweetest purest child...

He sighed. No sense in pointless pondering.

"So... what does she want?" He hadn't read it yet, despite all the staring.

"To have custody over your three children with child support of 50 mans each monthly, and to not be contacted by you. She is leaving you the freedom to choose one day a week to see the children in a place chosen by the children. She also... wants you to promise you shall see a therapist, but even Sakamoto-san agrees with me that this kind of condition has no legal power. She has no right or way to enforce it."

He stared and stared at the paper.

At least he will have one day a week.

"Whole day?"

"Yes, if that is what the children will want. She had stressed she wants it to be ensured the children will be seeing you only if they are willing."

"Wait, no. How do I know she won't be preventing them from seeing me?"

"I have expressed the very same objection, so it was ensured you will be able to contact your children directly about your meetings, without any interference from Rei-san."

"But still, how do I know she won't be pressuring them not to see me?"

Mishima sighed.

"There is not much we can do without involving the court in such a case."

Enji pondered about all this darkly.

"However if your children claim they don't want to see you, even in court it will be difficult-"

"I understand," he couldn't help but snap.

Mishima did not seem to be offended, fortunately.

Enji stared at the paper some more, wanting to drag these last moments as long as possible.

Not that it could change anything. Not that a miracle could happen in these last minutes.

"Make it double."

"Child support?"

"Yes."

He'd swear Mishima's eyes softened the slightest shade as he reworked the document on his computer.

"They are going to have a very comfortable life with that amount of money."

"They are my children."

Finally Enji realised there truly was nothing more he could do or ask. No point in delaying it even further.

He took out his hanko and pressed it against the paper.

It felt like a boulder pressed onto his heart.

"You have made the right decision, Todoroki-sama," said Mishima consolingly.

"It certainly doesn't feel right," he answered darkly.

888

"You absolutely have to come again!" said Backdraft waving to his Izuku eagerly. The chorus of enthusiastic „Yeah, Izuku-kun!", „Promise us" and „We'll miss you!"s came from all over the place. Enji rolled his eyes on principle, but did not really mean that, and nobody seemed to actually care much. The idiots immediately noticed the boy was his weak spot and came to the unfortunately rather correct conclusion that Izuku's presence equaled their life being easier. He already noticed he had been handed more paid leave and raise requests on this day than usual. 'So obviously trying to use my boy like that!' he snorted internally.

And if he did approve those requests, it was only because they deserved it, certainly not because Izuku had told him this was the best day of his life and that he loves everyone in his agency (which actually made a lot of these sappy idiots misty-eyed).

And they couldn't even get in the car like the normal people because the idiots opened like half of the windows and kept waving at Izuku and shouting praises and encouragements for him to become a great hero. Izuku looked like he was going to simultaneously melt and vibrate out of his skin with joy.

„Come, Izuku, it's already late. I will bring you here again, I promise."

„Tomorrow?"

„Okay, tomorrow. But you will have to spend a little more time with the kids this time."

His agency couldn't be disrupted like that every day.

'Sadly.'

He did not think that. No, he didn't. He wasn't a bakaoya for whom indulging his child was more important than the life saving work.

'...who was he lying to, really?' he sighed. He drank every second of Izuku's enjoyment as if it was the nectar of the olympian gods, happy the boy was distracted from his loss. Happy to be distracted himself, the image of the divorce papers with his stamp on them in the back of his mind almost all the time.

"Hey, Izuku, hey!"

"Sparkle-san!"

At the current pace they might as well stay here for a night shift.

"Oi, kiddo, look whom you left!"

Izuku's mouth made a big O.

"All Might! My All Might!"

He couldn't help but feel a drop of gratitude towards Sparkle. His Izuku would not go to sleep without his plushie if Bakugou was to be believed.

"Well, he'd be safe in our agency, but still!"

"Thank you, Sparkle-san, you're such a cool hero!"

"I know," Sparkle grinned smugly. "You really have such a nice, friendly, pleasant kid, boss!" he added ruffling Izuku's hair. "You sure he's yours?" He laughed goodnaturedly.

"You're lucky I value you so high," he growled, but with not much bite in his tone.

"Haha, you'd better! Well, have a good evening, Izuku-kun, Endeavor-sama!"

The car finally moved and Izuku immediately jumped onto his lap. His heart melted in response. So far he was leaning into Enji's touch, but never initiated it himself. He thought it would take more time than this. It made him so happy.

After all, that was the only child he had left now.

"You okay, dad?" The boy was as perceptive as his Fuyumi.

"Sure, kid, only tired. I had a lot of paperwork."

"Can I help you with it when I'm bigger?"

He smiled at him and hugged him tight.

"Of course you can."

His phone buzzed. It was Bakugou.

"Your auntie is calling."

"Ooooh, I need to tell Kacchan everything!"

But apparently Kacchan was outside with the other kids, so it was the poor Bakugou that had to listen to Izuku's lengthy enthusiastic recap of the visit at the agency. When he finally gave Enji back the phone they were almost at their gate.

"I never saw him so happy since Inko-chan died," Bakugou told him. "'I had my doubts... but you're doing a great job there."

"Thank you," he answered, not letting his dissonant emotions reach his voice. He was so happy to hear these kinds of words now, now that his family left him, now that he proved he hadn't been able to keep them together. But at the same time the words hurt. If he was a good parent then why, why hadn't he been able to make his other children happy?

"You're sad," said Izuku as the call ended. "You can sleep with me tonight too. It will make you less sad."

He smiled and kissed the small forehead.

888

The days were passing quickly and slowly at the same time. On one hand he had, as usual, plenty of things on his mind; paperwork at the agency, patrols, assignments, urgent hero calls; taking care of the legal aspect of Izuku's custody, moving him to the preschool in his agency, since the boy fell in love with it, Bakugou's visits, simply spending as much time as he could with his little kid, especially since Izuku was the clingiest little child he had ever met, not that he had anything against it. But at the same time he could feel every minute that was passing in this house with so many empty rooms – Fuyumi's, Natsuo's, Shouto's. He left everything the way they had left it with a hope that maybe they will want to come back, one day, a little voice in him whispering though that this hope was futile. He could almost count the hours since the moment he had stamped the papers, a part of him waiting impatiently, aching, for the answer from Sakamoto.

And finally Mishima called to tell him everything had been legally settled and that his children would like Saturdays to be the seeing days. His heart almost leapt out of his chest with joy! Finally! He missed his kids so much! He felt like the only thing that helped him survive the horrible pain in his chest was Izuku hugging him, welcoming back, sleeping in his arms at night, watching him with so much awe. Now, finally, he could see his kids, he could check how they truly were, he could tell them how much he loved them.

The meeting place was in the centre. It was obvious it wouldn't be where they were living now, since Rei lived there, but he hoped they would come home. Of course Izuku was here, but he wanted them to meet, he wanted them to see what a sweet child their halfbrother was. His kids were good kids; the more he thought about them the more he saw they would have never been mean to Izuku. And he wanted them to see their intact rooms; he wanted them to know they always have their place here, that they can come back, they can spend as much time as they want in their home. Cause it was a home for them, wasn't it? They had been living here since they had been born, all their memories were carved in these walls... But they have decided on the neutral ground. Maybe their home with a new child would be too much. He needed to dispel that. They weren't replaced by Izuku!

He thought about all these things when he was driving to the Seven Rainbows, his kids' favourite shopping centre. He needed to tell them all this. He needed to tell them how much he loved them.

But when he left the car in the underground parking and reached the front door of the centre he saw only Fuyumi.

He recalled how hastily she ended her call when he wanted to speak with his boys, telling him they were outside.

"Dad," she was smiling weakly, she looked very nervous.

"Where are Natsuo and Shouto?" he asked, feeling a grave burden in his chest crushing previous joy from meeting his kids. Well, from thinking he was going to meet his kids.

She became even more pale and actually looked frightened.

"They- they didn't want to come yet..."

"Yet?" he approached her. She immediately moved back.

"Um, well, you know them..." She was scared of him. She was scared of him. Now he saw it clearer than ever. Was it because he hadn't seen her for a couple of weeks? Was it because he got used to Izuku, who behaved completely differently around him?

"Are they scared of meeting me?"

"No, dad, but you know them," she sounded beseeching now.

"I don't know what you mean," he replied, his fists clenching with pain. "Did your mother turn them against me even more? Told them I'd hurt them for running away with her?"

Her breath was so quick now, eyes wide; she looked so much like Rei now, both physically and in behaviour, it hurt.

And then she clenched her fists too and took a deep breath, some kind of determination appearing in her eyes, even though she still was pale, she still was shaking.

"Dad, mum never told us a bad word against you."

"Why are you saying this? Did she tell you to say that? You know it's not true."

"I'm not a liar!" she suddenly shouted and tears appeared in her eyes. People started to look at them. Some probably recognized him. Some might be paparazzi. Fuck them all.

"Why are you like this, dad?" The tears started to fall. He felt horrible. It wasn't supposed to go like that. "Why can't you see? She never said a bad word about you. She didn't have to. We all saw... we all saw how you treated her."

"That's- that's something else. I-"

"No, it isn't! She's our mum! We love her! Everytime you shouted at her it was as if you were shouting at us! How can you not understand that?"

"Fuyumi-chan, my love, the things between me and mum are something completely else-"

But Fuyumi just shook her head and hid her face in hands. "You just don't want to see it. Natsuo is right."

"Fuyumi, my love, don't cry, please," he didn't know what to say. This was horrible. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't his fault! All this was Rei's fault! But how could he explain that to these kids, who loved their mother so much?

"I never meant to hurt any of you, I never did! I love you, all of you, more than anything in this whole world! I was arguing with your mother, because I was worried about you! You know what happened to Touya..."

"And what happened to Touya is all mum's fault? It's all her fault?" Now she was staring him right in the eyes - her beautiful steely ones, identical with her mothers, against his small pools of blue – as if she was daring him to say that out loud.

"...I'm not saying it's only her fault," he mumbled, frantically thinking how to calm things down. He did not come here to argue with the one kid that wanted to see him!

"Yes, you did! Plenty of times! We heard it! Do you know how it hurt her? How would you feel if someone kept telling you it was all your fault?! Why couldn't you ever think how mum feels?"

He shut up. He... never bothered to think about Rei's feelings. Not since Touya started to burn himself, since he stopped listening to him, since Enji started to blame her. She was supposed to take care of the kids! That was her job! He couldn't be there with his hero work!

"And... besides even if you are right, and I don't think you are, how long can you punish her for that? Why is it always Touya and Touya? Why don't we matter anymore?"

It was unbearable pain to hear that. They don't matter? He'd die for them a thousand times if it was necessary! How can she say that?!

She moved away, scared again of something she saw in his eyes.

But he quelled the anger, his usual response to pain, cause he would absolutely never hurt Fuyumi, even if only with words poisoned by fury.

"Fuyumi-chan, nothing matters more than you," he said in a broken voice.

She bowed her head.

They stood like that in silence.

"...I'm sorry, dad. I love you so much," His heart stopped for an eternity. "and I did not want to come here to blame you or to hurt you or to shout at you... but I just don't know how to make you see."

He let her talk.

"How to make you see that mum loves us, and she is a good mum, and we love her cause she deserves it, not because she manipulates us. And we are scared of you, because you are scary. Even if you never hurt us, you were hurting mum all the time. She never said a word against you, ever. She never had to. How can you not see you were hurting us all?"

She fell quiet. He had no idea what to say, his mind blank for a moment, maybe beside one memory, from very very long ago ('He's going to be a villain!').

Was that really who he was? Was he really that blind? But he truly, really- He never wanted to hurt his kids! Never! He loved them so much! It was all Rei's-

He closed his eyes. He no longer knew anything. Anything at all.

"I'm sorry, dad," Fuyumi finally said quietly. "I really love you. I want to keep seeing you. Do you hate me now?"

His mother hated him crying and had been making his father beat it out of him. And it wasn't bad, learning not to cry. He always had been reforging all the horrible, painful, tearing him apart emotions into anger, and it helped him very much on his road towards the top, against all the odds, against the mother who had never believed he could be a hero, who always had been telling him he was a material for villain, against the villains trying to kill him, against his own weaknesses.

But for the first time since what seemed to be forever he realised he couldn't stop his tears, he felt them rolling down his face.

"Fuyumi, I could never ever hate you. I could never ever stop loving you, my child." He hid his face in hands. It was too much, too much. When did it all happen? How can they not see how much he had always loved them?

"I- I know you always loved us," she said as if reading his mind. "I could see that, always. Shouto and Natsuo are too young, but I remember all these little things, the way you looked at us. But I thought... that maybe when I say this all... you'll stop."

"No. No, nothing you could say could change that." She might be saying she saw his love, but the very fact she thought her words could change how he felt about her, about them all, told him best they never truly saw his feelings for what they were. That this wasn't just selfish love expecting to be loved in return. That he'd love them even if the whole world collapsed.

"Then why... why can't you see, dad?"

They stood like that for another moment, Enji not knowing anymore what to say or do. He wasn't sure he would ever know. If Fuyumi was right... then it meant he had absolutely no awareness of what was wrong or right. If that was the case how could he go forward with his family life? How could he take care of Izuku? Was he really a horrible parent who never saw what he was doing to his kids? Like Bakugou? Like his mother? He wanted to scream.

"Dad... will you go to this therapist?"

"...I will," he whispered, completely broken and defeated.

There was another pause. The wretched rain started to fall onto their heads, as if in a bad movie.

"I'm sorry, dad. I-"

He reached out, unsure, watching for any signs of her flinching away, but, to his surprise she leaned into his hug.

"Don't apologise," he whispered. "I am sorry. I never wanted to hurt you. I never did."

"Do you... do you still want to spend the day with me?"

"Do you?"

He felt her tightening the slender, having so little power arms as much as she could.

"I love you, dad. Of course I do."

888

He felt empty when he came back home. He just did not feel like feeling anything anymore ever. He was a monster, apparently. He hurt his own children, and never even noticed his fault. He wanted to die. Of course, he would never kill himself, he wouldn't do this to his kids, and besides he had a duty, people to save. But if he got killed in action... he wouldn't mind. He truly wouldn't mind. It would be the best. It would be th-

"Dad!" shouted little Izuku as he ran towards him and jumped into his arms, as he tended to do recently.

He stared at the little one.

"Dad, what happened?"

He hugged the boy tightly. A moment ago he felt too empty to cry, but now the tears started to fall down again.

"It's okay, dad," said Izuku. "Cause I am here."

He kissed Izuku's forehead, his eyes still spilling tears onto the boy that was supposed to have a safe haven here, not a broken father.

"I know. I love you. I am so happy you are here."

"Tomorrow you'll save everyone," said his boy.

„You're right. There is still tomorrow."

Author's Notes:

I am worried if Fuyumi won't come across as ooc in this chapter, but I thought the actual divorce might be a horrible blow for her, since she was that person in this family who always dreamed of them being happy together one day. So I thought this pain of her, and Enji's thoughtless words once more showing he completely absolutely doesn't see what he has done in the face of her world crumbling, might be what would make the last string snap. Though I do admit it still might not be convincing enough. Originally I intended the therapist to be the one who slowly would break the truth to Enji, but when I started to think about the first Saturday with Fuyumi this scene just did not want to be written the other way.
Also, of course everyone and their dog in Enji's agency would love Izuku, the boy managed to become friends with every single person he had met, and they would all kill everyone and then themselves if something happened to him. I love everyone'ssunshine!izuku