Hi all,

The Todoroki Family is my Roman Empire. This story started out with intentions to be a crack one-shot, but spiraled into a messy pile of Endeavor & Touya father-son angst, so naturally, I spent way more time on this than I needed to because I was crying while writing. Thinking of updating if there's enough demand.

Feedback is appreciated, please enjoy!


Endeavor drew in a heavy breath before deciding to enter the barren holding cell in the basement of his hero agency. The chamber was windowless and barricaded in knee-deep layers of concrete on all sides, so it was kept alit only by a dim overhead fixture that was long overdue for a replacement. However, the overpowering flames that wreathed Endeavor's uniform quickly rendered the idea obsolete and filled the room with a billowing amount of luminance and heat.

The Flame Hero stood opposite to the chained-up villain that adorned a hefty pair of quirk-cancelling cuffs. He stared mercilessly at the latter with an intensity that matched the ferocity of his fire. The villain smirked as he slouched back in his seat nonchalantly with his feet propped up on the table that divided the pair.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the Man of the Hour himself. To what do I owe the pleasure, Mr. Number Two?"

The Number One Hero hardened his expression ever so slightly at the mislabel before delving straight to his point, "What were you doing in my house, Dabi?"

Dabi clicked his tongue, "Wouldn't you like to know."

Endeavor struck the table with his fist, clearly scorching the surface with a pronounced imprint, but it failed to elicit any reaction from the detainee. "I do not like repeating myself, so I suggest you start taking this seriously and answering my questions as concisely as possible. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," Dabi echoed with comfortable ease, his wry smile never faltering from his face.

"Now tell me, what business does someone from the League have trespassing on my damn property?!"

Enji seethed furiously as he recalled the scene from last night. That evening, he had just finished drinking himself numb after a full day of mourning. The rest of the family went to bed early, but the flood of decade-old memories didn't allow him to do the same. When he went to pray for his oldest son one last time, that's when he caught the raven-haired criminal casually loitering around his living room with the confidence of someone who owned the place.

What kind of death wish did he have breaking and entering the home of a top pro-hero? And with his villainous presence desecrating the shrine of his son that day of all days? It disgusted the Flame Hero how despicable the disregard was for the sanctity of his family's sacred space, and it unsettled him how easily the criminal seemed to bypass all the security measures he had in place and enter his abode nearly unnoticed.

Dabi shrugged in response; his expression failed to hide his continued amusement at the latter's mounting frustration. "All I did was drop by to pay my respects. You know, for the dead and forgotten? Actually, I have to say that I'm far more surprised that you of all people remembered to be home for the occasion, old man. After all, your oldest just ended up being another one of your botched guinea pigs, a weak and pathetic piece of work who wasn't even worth half the time you wasted on him when he was alive, isn't that right?"

"SHUT UP!" Endeavor grabbed a fist full of the latter's shirt. The metal chains clattered taut as he yanked Dabi forwards over the table like he weighed no less than a small child. "You don't know anything about my family, scum, so don't you dare act like you do!" The temperature in his grip surged threateningly and he growled, "And I'm just about done playing your games, so I'm warning you right now: if the League's plans remotely involve putting my family in any kind of danger, I won't hesitate to incinerate you on the spot!"

Endeavor mistakenly took Dabi's prolonged silence as the first sign of a crack in his guise. He glowered apprehensively at the villain whose head was lolled listlessly forwards so that his ebony locks that were starting to root white veiled his expression. However, it didn't hide the unnervingly throaty cackle that started to pierce through the silence.

The captive suddenly threw his head back, his widened eyes glinted with a feverish intensity as his laughter swelled into a bout of erratic guffaw that echoed the hysteria and derangement that seethed just beneath his surface. Endeavor deepened his scowl in disgust.

"Oh, the fucking irony. Well then, I guess you have no choice but to kill me so you can save your beloved family, Endeavor! So go ahead, do your worst! Let's finally put it to the test to see how much of those notorious, red-hot flames I can handle!"

WHY, YOU!

Endeavor growled gutturally. Jets of heat radiated off his body with deadly intent. Dabi's clothing smelted off, revealing an extensive patchwork of stiches and scars that coated most of his arms and chest. Endeavor had done enough placement work in rehab facilities to recognize what butchered skin grafts looked like, but based on his knowledge of what the League of Villain's member was capable of, it was more than likely this amount of damage was the outcome from training dangerously with his own quirk.

YOU!

But Dabi didn't show any signs of struggle, not even when the fire began engulfing his entire frame. He continued to spew fits of discordant laughter to disguise any kind of pain he might've felt, just to defiantly uphold his façade of invincibility. He stared down Endeavor with his maniacal gaze the entire time.

YOU-

The Flame Hero couldn't help but look past his expression and the frayed scars that contorted the villain's face just to understand how young he really was. The boy was one of Japan's most wanted felons, but he couldn't be much older than his own children. He couldn't be much bigger than Touya would've been if he was still here today.

You…

Touya's eyes… He suddenly remembered that his eldest also had a pair that shone the brightest blend of turquoise when it was fueled by his naïve and unwavering resolve to one day become a hero that would outrank his own father. He saw so much of himself in Touya, and he was inadvertently beginning to see too much of his deceased son in a villain that grew up to be so different from him, yet so similar at the same time? Maybe his thoughts were still clouded from the stress of that day.

"You…"

Enji heaved as he withdrew his flames and set the latter down on the ground. He noted Dabi's ceaseless attempts to wear his signature, unyielding expression, but the detainee couldn't hide the involuntary tremors that plagued his newly blistered limbs and how his breathing began to labor.

"Don't tell me that's all you've got! I devour flames like those to warm-up! Or is it that I'm not even worth killing for you? Huh?!"

Enji ignored him and asked his own question in a low, dampened tone, "That day… why were you praying at my son's shrine?"

Dabi paused like he was slightly caught off guard by the question. "Why? Did that piss you off?"

Enji continued to detail, "Experts from my team checked my house three times over and they found nothing stolen or bugged, no explosives planted. There was barely a hair out of place." His piercing gaze scoured Dabi's expression as though it concealed the last piece to his puzzle of understanding. "Why would you break into my home just to do that?"

Dabi's manic grin slowly unraveled. He turned away from Endeavor's expectant gaze while Enji waited for him to bite back with another sharp retort that never came.

Enji took his silence as permission to continue. "You were clearly close to him. I'm sorry, I don't remember who exactly you were to Touya, but you… remind me of him. He was my pride and joy, but his body couldn't handle the potency of his quirk either."

He sat himself down on the ground and leveled his eyes to the latter. "Look at me." He ordered sternly, unsure why he felt so lost when he could no longer find those stark, striking eyes, and even more confused at why Dabi followed his command in turn. "As a Fire quirk user, I'm warning you now that you are fighting a battle that you cannot win just to prove yourself as a villain, and unless you want to end up like my son, it's not worth it."

Dabi scoffed like there was something especially comical about what the pro-hero said. "Don't act like you know shit about what I've been through after all these years, old man. I don't need you to lecture me like I'm some pitiful child, and I don't need to hear any more of your fucking lies!" He growled, "Pride and joy? Don't make me laugh! If you had both of those boxes checked off already, your precious, first-year shit stain from UA wouldn't exist."

Enji knitted his eyebrows as he stood back up, his broad, imposing figure towered over the latter's haphazardly sprawled frame with a juxtaposed air of grounded composure. "I understand you now. This spectacle never had anything to do with the League, and everything to do with your sick obsession with me and my family."

"Well, I can't take all the credit. Because really, you're the whole reason I joined the League in the first place." Dabi gathered his limbs and found the strength to push himself up from the ground to try to match the latter's height as far as the chains permitted.

"I know all too well about the side you keep hidden from the public eye, and that's what really makes me sick to the bone. It should be illegal for fuck-ups who can't even do good by their own family to call themselves heroes, and society should be punished for allowing someone like you to even dare to dream of being number one!" Every word Dabi spat out was laced with years of pent-up malice and spite.

"That's what the League truly stands for, and they've been oh-so kind enough to supply me everything I need to successfully orchestrate and witness your downfall unfold. So, if I were you, I'd finish the job while a glimmer of a chance exists, because I can assure you that as long as I draw breath, I won't stop until I see everything you've built up crumble before your very eyes, especially your precious, little masterpiece, Shouto Todoroki."

Enji turned his back to Dabi and remained unshaken. He had the villain figured out now, and he refused to let himself be baited by him any further. "I don't have to stoop down to your level and kill you to keep my family safe. I'll see to it you get put away for good, so you'll be damn lucky to get within a ten-mile radius from any of them."

Dabi cackled whole-heartedly, "Isolating me away from them? Now this… this is starting to feel like home!" Dabi remarked. "For a minute there, you made me think that you were starting to grow a soul. But I guess I was worried over nothing, because you truly haven't changed one bit since that day."

"We're done here." Endeavor seethed as he walked towards the exit without plans to turn back. Echoes of the captive followed him out with each step.

"Where're you going? Not even a kiss good-bye?"

Endeavor reached the steel-barred exit and nonchalantly gave the signal for security to unlock it.

"So that's it? You ignoring me now? After all this time you spent roasting my guts out for nothing?"

He pushed down on the handle and swung open the bulky door with ease.

"Hey, Endeavor? Hey! I'm talking to you!"

He stepped outside the perimeter of the room. The attention-starved pleas sounded somewhat quieter from out here, even when the shouting became more frantic and fraught with desperation.

"DON'T YOU HAVE ANY SHAME, YOU COWARD? COME BACK AND FACE ME LIKE THE SHITTY HERO YOU CLAIM TO BE! YOU CAN HEAR ME, I KNOW YOU CAN!"

He let go of the door, gradually allowing it to hinge close.

"FUCKING- LOOK AT ME! DAD!"

Enji widened his eyes and froze.

He instinctively moved to catch the door slightly ajar just enough to keep it from locking shut. He stared at the floor. He must've heard wrong, or this was just part of another one of his head games. Either way, he couldn't help himself. It sounded just like… back then…

Silence ensued from both sides, but the Flame Hero didn't need to look at Dabi to know he was gloating while watching Endeavor succumb to his lure once again.

"… They never found a body, right?" Dabi hoarsely asked, his voice on the verge of giving out. "'Bones turned to ashes'… 'Nothing left but a measly piece of the jawbone'… Pretty convenient if you ask me, but I suppose I should be flattered. After all… I'm the one that started that fire."

Enji didn't care anymore. He had no more restraint as he whipped the door open to march back inside to violently pin the latter against the wall with the brute, uninhibited force from his forearm. "What the fuck are you implying?" He snapped through gritted teeth.

Dabi hacked out a chunk of blood and rasped through broken breaths. "I was planning to do this later, but since the cat's out of the bag now, I guess it doesn't matter anymore." Dabi sighed with vague sense of disappointment and stared back at Enji with surprisingly soft and rounder eyes. They were his. Enji's eyes watered.

"If it's any consolation, even if you came to Sekoto Peak that day, I don't think things would've turned out any different. You still would've found a way of turning me into a monster, Dad."