Hisashi was the first one awake the next morning. The house was perfectly silent, lit just enough by the early sun through the windows left open.

He crawled out of bed quietly and exited the bedroom, careful not to wake up Inko. He was used to getting up first, since he usually left pretty early. So he knew how to not wake up the rest of the house.

What he wasn't prepared for, though, was to stumble into the living room sleepily only to see four children sleeping on the couch.

Tenko was the biggest body, leaned against the back of the couch snoring. Izuku was stretched across his lap, stomach down, drooling puddles. Shoto was on the left side, cuddled up close to Tenko, and hugging his arm as he peacefully slept. Hitoshi was upside down on the other end, a foot in Tenko's face and a hand catching most of Izuku's spit.

Hisashi quickly covered his mouth to hold in a snort, not wanting to wake any of them up. He smiled behind his hand at the scene for a minutes before pulling his phone out and snapping several pictures, then he turned and headed into the kitchen for some much needed coffee.

It was about an hour later that, as he looked through the latest news article on his phone while sipping on his coffee at the dining table, he heard urgent whispering. "Dad!"

He leaned back and peered into the living room, smirking as he saw Tenko awake. The teenager was frowning, unable to move underneath two sleeping children, and trying to push the bothersome foot out of his face with his head, but failing as Hitoshi stirred slightly. Finally, Tenko looked at Hisashi and pouted. "Help me!"

Hisashi chuckled softly. "What do you want me to do?"

Tenko grunted. "At least get Hitoshi's foot off my face, it's disgusting!"

Chuckling again, Hisashi stood up and walked over. "Fine, fine." He grabbed the purple haired kid's ankle and gently moved the foot to rest on the couch beside Tenko. Shinso shifted slightly, and Hisashi paused, but luckily the boy settled again.

Hisashi let out a breath, setting the foot down, then looked back at Tenko's predicament again with a smirk. Tenko frowned back at him.

"How'd this happen?" Hisashi asked.

"They all fell asleep on me while we were watching a movie." Hisashi cooed and Tenko rolled his eyes. "Shut up."

With one more glance to be sure the kids were sound asleep, Hisashi's smirk widened. "Did you just tell an S Tier villain to shut up?" He whispered.

Tenko gave him a flat look. "Yeah, I did. Your point?"

Hisashi spun around and started back towards the kitchen. "Fine, guess I won't help you then."

"Wha- Dad, wait!" Tenko whined quietly after him. "Come on! My arm is asleep!"

Hisashi snickered as he sat back down at the table. "They'll wake up soon enough, you'll be fine."

Tenko groaned and let his head fall back in defeat. Hisashi sipped his coffee.

—-

"EW! IZUKU!"

Following the scream, there was a squeak, a thump, a groan and a gasp, the sound of ice forming, someone letting out a hiss and a yelp, and then Hisashi sighed. Inko, who had been sitting across from him at the table since she woke up thirty or so minutes earlier, was already scooting her chair back.

When Hisashi leaned back, he saw a very different scene in the living room than when he'd checked a few minutes prior.

Then, the kids had been pretty much in the same positions as the last few hours, aside from Tenko having fallen back asleep at some point. Now, Hitoshi was frantically wiping his drool covered hand off on the armrest, Izuku was on the floor rubbing his head, and Shoto was worriedly apologizing to Tenko, who was toppled over, clutching his now very ice-frozen arm.

Hisashi couldn't help but snort, and Inko whacked him on the head for it before hurrying over to help.

—-

Hisashi watched curiously from the couch as the door to the very noisy bedroom opened, closed, and Shoto walked down the hall, staring down at his phone.

He didn't say a word as the boy silently passed him and went into the kitchen. He wasn't even sure Shoto had realized he was there.

Once the boy was out of his sight Hisashi let his head fall back again and his eyes fall closed, but he kept his ears open, listening closely.

At first he didn't hear anything. The footsteps stopped, and all he could hear was his own breathing. Then there was a beep and ringing.

A long, long, very obviously stalled moment later, just before the call would have gone to voice mail, there was another beep.

"Shoto."

It took a lot of self control for Hisashi not to react audibly at Endeavor's stern voice through the phone speaker. Instead, he stayed quiet, if now sat up straight and eyes open, and listened.

"What do you want?" Shoto said lowly, but his voice held a note of nervousness.

There was a moment of quiet again where Hisashi bit the inside of his cheek, before Endeavor spoke again. "Training begins at ten."

"What?" Shoto asked, echoing Hisashi's thoughts, and somehow sounding shocked and not surprised at all. But confused. He reiterated after a second. "Ten?"

"This morning."

A pause. "But- that's in an hour."

"It is." Endeavor's voice was void of any and all concern.

"You weren't supposed to be back from your mission for another day. I should had another whole day."

"My mission's ended early," Endeavor was clearly losing patience. "You had your fun, which you're lucky you got at all. Now you will come home, and you will not be late."

"But-"

"And you will be using your fire. That is final, Shoto."

Silence.

Beeping. Clatter.

Silence.

Hisashi stood and strode into the kitchen, where Shoto was bent over his phone, which was upside down on the dining table. His clenched fists were planted on the table and his shoulders were stiff.

"No," Hisashi heard, a near silent breath.

Hisashi stayed quiet for another minute, but when Shoto still hadn't noticed him, he stepped forward. "Shoto?"

The boy wasn't surprised or startled like Hisashi had expected. He'd stayed still for another second before his head slowly turned to look at him.

Hisashi was startled by the amount of emotion swimming through those dual colored eyes. He couldn't even begin to decipher them, but none of it was good.

"I won't," Shoto muttered, a bit louder and more determined.

There, that was an emotion he could identify in those eyes. Determination.

Hisashi bit back his words, and observed Shoto for a second. Then he smiled softly. "Come sit, you could probably use a break before you go back to playing."

Shoto's eyes went dim again and his gaze fell back to his phone as he stood up straight, though slumped in defeat. "But I don't have time…"

Hisashi crossed his arms. "Your father can deal with you being a bit late."

"But-"

"We'll worry about that later, Shoto," Hisashi said, voice softer. "Right now, just come sit down, ok?"

The boy hesitated for a minute, but eventually nodded. Hisashi nodded in return and turned to head back to the couch, Shoto following behind.

Once they were sat down, Hisashi went back to his relaxed position from earlier, leaned against the back with his legs and arms crossed, trying not to put attention or pressure on Shoto to say or do anything. The red and white haired boy sat stiffly on the edge of the couch, fiddling his fingers and keeping his eyes down.

They sat like that for several minutes. Eventually Hisashi closed his eyes, but peeked one open every few minutes at Shoto, who was slowly but surely relaxing back into the couch as well.

The boy had finally let himself lean all the way back when he finally spoke, quietly. "Hisashi?"

Hisashi hummed in response, but opened an eye so Shoto knew he had his attention.

"You… you have a fire quirk, don't you?"

Hisashi sat up and opened both eyes, curious to where this was going. "I do," he went along with the lie that he had a fire breathing quirk. It wasn't really a lie, he did have a fire breathing quirk. But- well, you know.

Shoto looked up at him. "Don't you worry about hurting people?"

Hisashi tilted his head. "Where's this coming from, Shoto?"

Shoto looked back down, pausing. "I won't use fire," he said under his breath. "I can't."

…

Shoto had been refusing to use his fire during training. He'd refused to use it for anything. He thought of it as his way of refusing to be like his father. He'd never use his father's fire, especially not in a fight.

He'd been afraid of his own fire ever since Touya's death, relating it to the fire that caused it and his father's fire that hurt this family. But he'd been forced to use it anyways for training.

He'd only really put his foot down and started refusing, no matter how much Endevaor tried to force him, after he accidentally burned Natsuo and his brother had naturally yelled his father's name angrily.

That had been the last straw for Shoto. He didn't want to hurt anyone, and he didn't want to be related to his father, so he wouldn't use fire. He would be a hero with only ice, and go against his father.

That's what Hisashi learned in the next few minutes.

"I won't use a my father's quirk."

Hisashi watched Shoto closely as the little boy clenched and unclenched his left fist. He stared at the prominent scar over the boys eye. He observed the deep red hair that abruptly switched to white. He studied the one teal eye and one grey eye. He was truly a unique boy.

Then his eyebrows ticked up slightly as it hit him.

This was about more than his quirks. This was about him as a person.

On the outside, Shoto was half of two very different people. He looked like a piece of both of those people. He was half of someone he loved, and half of someone he hated.

And that's all he could see. All he could see was his mother, and his father. He couldn't see himself.

But he couldn't change how he looked. So he was taking advantage of the one thing he felt like he had control over. His quirk. He was suppressing the piece of him that reminded of him of his father. He was suppressing what he thought was his father.

He saw himself as half of his father. He saw that quirk as his father's.

He wasn't seeing what was so obvious to everyone else.

Maybe Hisashi could help push him in the right direction.

"So, you think fire is bad?"

Shoto looked up him, then his eyes went slightly wide. "Uh- no, not- not fire itself. Because, your fire is good. You'd never use it to hurt an innocent person."

Hisashi nodded. "What if I got my fire from my father, who was a villain? Would that make me a villain because I have his quirk?"

"N-no!" Shoto turned to face him. "That's- that's not what I'm saying."

"Then what are you saying, Shoto?"

Shoto settled back down again, blinked at him a few times, opened and closed his mouth, then looked away finally.

Hisashi looked up, pretending to think. "You know, I agree with what you're saying."

Shoto's head popped back up again, eyes wide and shocked. "Really?"

Hisashi nodded. "Your father is bad. He's used his quirk to do very bad things to you and your family. His fire has been used to do evil things." He looked at Shoto intensely. "But was that the quirks fault?"

Shoto's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he shook his head.

"Would you do the kind of things your father has done with your fire?"

Shoto started looking almost panicked, and shook his head harder. Hisashi put a hand in his shoulder to calm him, which helped.

He watched the boy, waiting for any sign of realization or the idea clicking, but the boy still just looked confused and nervous.

Finally after a moment of thought, Hisashi sighed and decided to try another approach.

"Say, you don't agree with any on who calls Hitoshi a villain, right?"

Shoto shook his head again, looking more curious.

"Do you know why people think he's a villain?"

Shoto's thought for a second. "Because he has a villain's quirk?"

Hisashi tilted his head. "Do you think it's a villain's quirk?"

Shoto shook his head again.

"Why?"

He looked away thoughtfully. "Izuku explained it once… He said that, a quirk can't be villainous because it's not the quirks decision. It's the person's. A quirk can be good or evil, it just depends on how the person with the quirk uses it."

Hisashi nodded and smiled, silently commending his son. "Exactly. So what does that say about your quirk?"

Shoto blinked and furrowed his eyebrows.

Hisashi gave a long huff but smiled. "Just think about it bud."

The boy pursed his lips in confusion but nodded.

Hisashi ruffled his Shoto's hair and smiled warmly at him. "You're not your father, Shoto."

Shoto looked up at him with wide eyes.

Hisashi huffed. "You've got about as much Endeavor in you as Izuku does All Might." Realizing that sounded a bit off, he added, "Aside from biologically."

Shoto blinked.

Hisashi stood up. "Go start packing up I guess, we don't want your father too mad."

With another blink, Shoto nodded and stood, hurrying down the hall.

Hisashi sighed as he heard the bedroom door shut. That was a fail.

But it didn't matter. Izuku would probably beat some sense into that kid sooner or later if he had to guess.