“Urgh why do I have to go there again?”

“They are your family Touya!”

“Doesn’t mean I have to be hanging around them.”

“You’re meeting your injured father and that’s final!”

“But Baby Bird!”

“No Buts.”

“Oh come on!”

“Todoroki Touya, you better not get on my nerves and get into that room without another word!”

I give out a childish whine and Kaito, who's been listening to Keigo and I bicker about visiting the injured Endebitch, snickers at my whine. We are currently back at the same hospital that we were in before, after securing Kaito from the police precinct, Shouto messages us about our father waking up from his operation. The old man and Shouto had entered the fray with the Greenie and Pomeranian against Shigaraki; and the old man had injured himself while trying to keep the three kids safe. He was now being treated at the very hospital whose walls I was walking through begrudgingly, towards his room.

Keigo is the one that opens the door and I momentarily freeze as I realize who else is in the room with the flaming pile of trash.

Fuyumi and Natsuo stare at me in shock, while tears have started to form in my mother’s eyes as it registers who just entered the room. Shouto, who already knows of my situation, innocently stands aside as he observes the rest of our family. Keigo, who is at this point exhausted to death, ignores my family and plops onto the couch at the other side of the room unbothered. Kaito, who all this time has been following behind Keigo and I, pokes his head around me and sees his family for the first time.

It is my father who speaks up first.

“Is that my grandson?!” he almost cries out and the rest except for Shouto are now standing there with their jaws dropped.

I sigh and nod. Reassuringly, I make Kaito step towards his grandfather, who immediately hugs and starts doting on him. Keigo is already fast asleep on the couch and snoring. I stare at my father; my siblings and I look upon the sickly amount of love he is pouring out on Kaito, causing me to feel a bit jealous. I see it’s the same for my siblings, as Shouto finally asks.

"Ummm. That's not our father, is he?" Shouto asks, his face filled with surprise and shock at the scene in front of us. I give him a slow nod, not trusting my words. Fuyumi and Natsuo stand there flabbergasted. It takes all four of us a few moments to get out of the funk we are in and shake our heads and Mom, who all this time was standing on the side of Endebitch's bed, approaches me.

“Touya?” she asks and I smile back at her, tears forming in my own eyes.

“Hi Mama.” I say softly and we hold each other's hands.

Fuyumi and Natsuo are still processing that I am still alive and that I have a kid and I can see it clearly in their eyes that they are unsure of what is happening in front of them. Still holding one of Mom’s hands, I wave at the two of them.

“Long time, no see you two.”

Fuyumi looks at me with narrowed eyes, while Natsuo is nervous. Mom then decides to say something.

“Todoroki Touya!” she starts scolding. “What is the meaning of this young man?! You have a child and we get to know now?”

“Sorry Ma.” I say sheepishly. “I got to know a few months ago too. Keigo had him ten years ago, right after I left. I am sorry for leaving too.”

“That’s right!” she fumes. “Leaving the house and having a kid at such a young age! Is this how I brought you up?!”

“I know Ma.” I take her into a hug this time. “Don’t worry Ma. I’m taking responsibility now.”

“You better do it!” she says and then proceeds to get out of our hug and smother Kaito, who is now looking at me frightened at being ensnared by the two old people he just met.

Just as Mom starts to check Kaito out, Fuyumi decides it's her turn. Though she is more physical than vocal.

SLAP! The sound reverberates around the room as everyone finally turns towards us. Keigo wakes up at the sound of the slap too and is now staring at us startled, as Fuyumi’s tears start to flow, a side effect of her anger.

“You idiot!” she screams and my heart clenches. “Do you know how much it hurt when you left us alone?! I was crying for you for months! Hoping you’d come back to us! And now you casually traipse into our lives years and years later and expect everyone to just accept you're alive and that you have a kid?!”

I tremble as she continues. “For ten bloody years! TEN YEARS HAVE I BEEN SUFFERING! Do you know much it took for me to try and bring this family to some semblance of normalcy?! All while you were parading around doing who knows what?! I had to be so strong! When all I wanted to do was curl up in a corner and cry! You! YOU! HOW DARE YOU?!”

Her face is contorted with sadness and anger at this moment. It’s not only us with tears flowing free from our eyes; Natsuo does his best to hide his own, and Shouto looks on with sorrow clearly on his face. The room is deadly silent now, except for a sob or two escaping the two of us. I finally engulf Fuyumi into my hold and we stand there, crying it out, with an occasional “Sorry” from me escaping here and there.

Kaito and Keigo just watch the family they are now a part of, cry and finally come back together.

A few days later, Keigo and I accompany the rest of the heroes as we start to round up the escapees from Tartarus, which had been taken down by All for One who we learned had manifested himself partially within Shigaraki. We had left Kaito at U.A at Eraser’s and the Rat-bear-man principal’s suggestion, as it was right now one of the safest places within the country. The entirety of Japan is now under chaos, the escapees devastating the daily lives of heroes and civilians alike. Each day, reports of the horrors they would cause reach our ears; and we did our utmost best to catch as many as we could within the day. The green broccoli child who had left U.A behind with us, helped us round these villains up, going as far to break contact with us at times to pursue leads he would get.

Rebellious citizens have started flocking the streets as many heroes are yet out of commission due to the war with the Liberation Army and many had started to lose faith within the Hero Society itself, seeing that the Hero Commission was taken down. It is a tough period of time for all of us who swore to protect the civilians.

Endebitch is a part of the group whom I am assisting and he creates a daily irritation by approaching me when I don't want him to. I may have returned back to my family, but it doesn’t mean that I am that open to spending any ‘quality time’ with him. My hatred for the man shows up on my face the many times he tries to approach me and I know the other heroes have started to notice it.

“Touya, come on now.” Endewhore follows me desperately. “Have dinner with me, please?”

I look at him with my eyes narrowed and in a deadly and threatening tone I say, “No. Fuck off.”

This surprises Best Jeanist, who is tagging along with us today. As I walk away from the man I am supposed to call my ‘father’, leaving him with an expression of hurt, Jeanist follows me, and so do the other heroes with us.

“Pheonix-san.” he addresses me with my hero name. “Don’t you think you are being too harsh?”

I huff in irritation. “He deserves it.”

Jeanist and the others look at the man, who sits dejectedly now, poking at his dinner.

“That makes me wonder what he must have done to have warranted this sort of behavior from you who is his blood.” Jeanist muses.

“You should be asking what not has he done.” I scoff back.

As Jeanist and I are talking, Keigo and the other heroes have already surrounded us, Keigo sitting down next to me, and the others settling down around us with their own share of food.

“Well we do have some time before we need to leave.” one of the heroes, named Snipe says as he takes a bite of his bento.

Keigo grabs ahold of my hand, squeezing it, as if signaling that it was going to be okay. Everyone’s eyes are trained on me. I take a deep breath, giving into their curiosity as I begin my tale.

“So it started way before I was born, my mom was married off to my dad in a quirk marriage and………”

By the time I finished my story, I could hear sniffles. Snipe keeps dabbing his eyes and Jeanist sits with a concerned expression. The Endebitch, who eavesdropped on the entire thing, sits with his head down in guilt, his food abandoned. A sense of satisfaction comes onto me as I see the rest of them look at him in contempt, anger in their eyes for the bastard. It is after a few counts of silence that he stands up and says.

“I am so sorry, Touya. So sorry.” he sniffles and walks away.

I just turn my head around and ignore the man as he flies off and makes his way towards the next location where we deduced more of the villains are at.