Chapter 8 Why am I on Fire? by Yojimbra

Papa!" Fuyumi came running around the corner and slammed into my leg with the speed and force only a toddler could muster. She hugged my leg tight with her entire body, in what had become a nearly daily ritual with her.

Not to be outdone Touya flew from around the corner and tackled my leg as well. "You're home!"

"Home? No, I'm dad." I'd love to claim that being an actual father for these past few months had forced some kind of metaphysical evolution within my soul that made me spew out dad-jokes on a moment's notice. But really, I've been saying dad jokes since I was Touya's age.

Touya dug his chin into my leg and glared up at me.

Fuyumi just smiled. "Papa! Can you cast fireball?"

"Totally, now come on, let's go see your mom."

It always baffled me how easy it was to slip into a routine, how quickly things became normal. Even for a drastic change as this to my life, it had only taken four months before I stopped feeling like I was waking up in the wrong bed. Coming home was auto-pilot now, as I no longer had to double-check where I was on my way back. Things were comfortable.

Not just for me but for All Might as well. Things with the Shimuras were going well, though they still weren't expecting a child yet. I'd never say it out loud but there was a good chance that All Might might have cock-blocked Tomura out of existence. Which, was, uh, odd? Then again, at this point, I might have done the exact same thing to Natsuo.

At this point, my relationship with Rei was that of roommates, friends, and parents. In theory, the romance was there. Or at least I thought it was. We were kind of flirting? I think. Maybe? It's really hard to actively be romantic with two kids that aren't even in school yet, especially with how long and generally exhausting being a hero was.

The old Endeavour was an insane mad man that worked upwards of 14+ hour days.

But I wanted to be home enough to make sure that my family—and it was my family now—was happy. And I really think I was doing a good job. As made evident by my kids grabbing onto my legs and refusing to let go even as I walked. I remembered doing something similar to my father when I was their age.

I took long wide steps, both Touya and Fuyumi giggling as I waddled through my house like I was treading water. With their guidance, I managed to find Rei. She was in the kitchen, her bright white hair was pulled into a ponytail and her light blue apron matched well with her black long-sleeved shirt.

Just seeing her made me smile.

She was easily my best friend in this world. Sure, I could call All Might, and Nezu my friends, but that was different. Probably because I spent so much time with Rei. And I still wanted to find more time with her.

"Mama!" Fuyumi called, tossing her head back while she continued to cling to me like a cute hyperactive sloth. "We found Papa!"

"Oh, you found me?" I asked holding my leg up.

Fuyumi laughed. "Yeah!"

"Oh, okay, Rei, they found me." I shrugged, still holding my leg up and pulling Fuyumi off me. Why were kids so good at grabbing onto things?

Rei turned towards us, her smile made getting punched earlier today feel like it didn't even happen. There was just something about smiles, the way that they just kind of happened, the way that they just made other people smile too. But Rei's smile was special. It just made everything feel right.

"They did?" Rei kneeled down onto the ground and held out her hand. "Great job Fuyumi."

Fuyumi dropped off my leg, landing on her feet and darted over towards her mother to give Rei a big hug.

Rei stood after a moment, her grey eyes locked onto mine. Somehow, I was more nervous talking to her than I was fighting villains or telling All Might off. "Welcome home," Her smile grew wide, her eyes shut, and her head tilted just enough to the side. It was like she was smiling with her whole body. "Enji."

I got a tingle in the back of my spine when she said my name. It wasn't like she never called me that, but, there was something special about the way she said it. To everyone else, I was Endeavour, to my children I was Dad. But to Rei. I was just Enji. That made her special.

All Might didn't count.

Same with Nezu.

"Thank you, Rei." I stared at her, completely dumbfounded as I looked at her. I was fairly certain that my mouth was open. I shook my head a bit and gathered myself. "Do you need any help?"

She laughed and pointed a spoon at me. "Go wash up first, then you can help me in the kitchen."

"Yeah, you stink dad," Touya said, still holding onto my leg.

"Stinky!" Fuyumi echoed hiding behind her mother's leg now. I honestly had no idea what my daughter thought of me. Sometimes she was a daddy's girl, other times she was jumping in to team up against me. Maybe she was just laying both sides.

"Fine, I'll go take a shower." I lifted up my Touya covered leg and looked at my redheaded son poking him on the forehead. "Unless you want to get washed with my suit I suggest you let go."

Touya stuck his tongue out at me.

"Oh, before that," Rei muttered and took another step towards me, but stopped. "Are you going in this weekend?"

I blinked and paused, going through my memories as I tried to figure out if there was anything important happening this weekend. It wasn't a birthday or anything like that. "I don't think so, why?"

"Oh good, we can talk later then. But now, hurry, hurry, or I'll finish cooking before you can help me."

I gasped. "You wouldn't."

"Try me."

With a mock feared face that had Touya giggling, I darted out of the kitchen and took a quick shower, making certain to scrub as quick as I possibly could. With my quirk, drying was actually really quick and easy. But even with that, it was all for naught, by the time I arrived, Rei had already finished the meal and the kids were sitting at the table looking at me with annoyed hungry faces.

"Too slow~" Rei half-sung winking at me with playful mirth.

Dinner, dishes, training, bath, bedtime stories, had become so routine now that they didn't even feel as chaotic as they once did. Once again, Touya seemed to like his training, he was fully devoted to becoming a hero and wanted to be just like me. Actually, he wanted to be just like All might, but technicalities. The highlight of my nights however were those twenty minutes spent reading with Fuyumi alongside Rei.

It was like dancing with words, and something we had both grown to love.

Once both kids were tucked in and the hour grew late Rei pulled me aside.

"Enji?" She asked softly, grabbing onto the sleeve of my shirt, her hair was still in that ponytail that was the physical embodiment of all my weaknesses. Her smile was small, sleepy, and drained, but filled with so much life that I couldn't help but smile back.

I stared at her for a moment, the dull light of the hallway, amplified for a moment when my shoulder caught fire. I put it out with a light touch. I nodded. "Rei."

"Umm," She gave a soft lip-bite that was really just killer. "Could you come with me for a while?"

I nodded and followed her to the living room. A blanket was neatly folded onto the couch, and several pillows were catered about on top of it. On the table were light drinks and snacks as well. I was honestly more surprised that those had gone untouched with Touya and Fuyumi in the house.

"I've been trying to figure out a better way for us to spend time together." Rei shrugged and made her way over to the couch. "Without the kids and I kind of took inspiration from what you told me."

"What did I tell you?" Honestly, I told her a lot. I moved over and sat down on the couch next to her, an entire Touya of empty space was between us.

Rei nodded and pulled her legs up onto the couch, forcing her to scoot just a bit closer. "Well, you mentioned that you enjoyed staying up just a bit too late watching shows and other stuff, and I," Rei paused, her head making a small bob as she tried to find the right words. "Read online, that watching shows is better with a friend, so I figured, why don't we find a good series to watch and watch an episode or two a night? Just the two of us, after the kids, are asleep."

I wanted to scream.

"That sounds like a great idea Rei." My ability to play it cool was sabotaged by my inability to not randomly catch fire. I slapped my head and relished Rei's small laugh. "Did you have a show in mind?"

Rei nodded. "Yep, I think it's something that we'll both enjoy."

"I will trust your judgment." I smiled and relaxed onto the couch. Should I try to make a move? I mean, she was my wife, right? And she did say she wanted to stay married, and I was pretty sure that Rei at least kind of liked me. Well, she did have low standards compared to her last husband. "Wait, what does this have to do with this weekend?"

"Oh," Rei sat up and pulled her hair free from her ponytail. A glorious moment that in the dull light made it look like she had stars tangled up in her hair. "Well, I was talking to my parents."

Was this going to be another meeting with them? The last one I went to both her mother and father had glared at me for the better part of dinner. It was uncomfortable.

"And, they agreed that they'd be willing to watch the kids for the day." Rei shrugged. "Maybe even have them stay the night."

I blinked. A day without kids? A night without kids?

Wait. No. That was the wrong way to look at it. A day with just Rei. The idea both excited and terrified me. I was instantly looking forward to it. The weekend was just one day away. Maybe we could drop them off tomorrow, and I could come home early and then I could have nearly a whole weekend with just Rei.

What would we even do?

What would I even do?

My best idea for a date was exactly this! Netflix and chill was pretty much the only thing in my playbook! Sure, sometimes there was dinner involved but when it came to actual dates I just didn't know what to do because I never really had that much cash to—wait. I had money. I literally owned a home.

I coughed for no reason and scratched the back of my head. "That sounds great. I'm sure the kids would enjoy it." Rei nodded. "But we should do something then."

Her eyes sparkled and she nodded eagerly, her hair taking a life of its own for just a moment. "That's the plan."

"Did you have something in mind?" I asked as I started to wonder what exactly would do for a weekend kid-free getaway. Was this a date? I'm going to assume yes. That's why there were no kids involved.

Rei nodded again. "I was hoping we could go to Asakusa."

The old part of Tokyo?

"I," Rei started again, wiggling slightly. "I want to wear Kimonos and walk around the down."

"That sounds amazing." I smiled at her. Thank god I didn't have to come up with the date. "I'm looking forward to the weekend even more now."

Rei nodded and scooted a bit closer. There was less than A Fuyumi between us, she stopped and looked at the T.V. "Oh right, the show. Uhh, let's get comfortable alright? Enji, the blanket."

The blanket was a tactical length, in order for both of us to be covered, we would practically have to be sitting cushion to cushion. Which was fine with me. I was a cuddler. The show hooked us both immediately. Rei's eyes were locked onto the T.V. and I had to choose between watching her watch it and actually watching the show. Every so often she would catch me watching her, and smile.

It felt like each episode the distance between us shrunk, and shrunk, until, on the fourth—or was it fifth?—episode we were touching, arm to arm, leg to leg, Rei's soft skin was wonderfully cold against mine.

The last thing I remembered was Rei's head falling against my shoulder.

"Dad!"

I heard Touya yelling at me as I struggled to fully wake up. My back was stiff, and it felt like my neck had been screwed on completely wrong. I blinked and saw the blue screen of the T.V. in front of me. Touya standing in his pajamas. I wasn't in my bedroom.

Did I fall asleep on the—much more important than that I felt a weight move off my side and I saw Rei give a long yawn and a stretch that had me blushing. There was nothing lewd about it, nothing that I should be blushing about, but, just seeing her so early in the morning, stretching so lightly as she had just woken up, was worth everything.

I wanted to savor that image.

Touya had other ideas.

"Dad!" He pushed on my arm, again. "There's someone with a pointy nose here for you! He's at the door?"

"Huh?" I blinked and shook my head. "Why did you answer the door?"

Touya shrugged. "He was knocking really loud."

Right. I stood and gave Rei one last glance as she wiped the sleep from her eyes. She shrugged and fell down into the empty spot where I had been. If only I had my phone on me.

I stumbled and made my way over towards the front door, Touya, had left it open. And the man standing there didn't seem familiar to me. Though Touya was right, he did have a large pointed nose.

The man had orange hair and was wearing a black pinstripe suit with a green dress shirt underneath it and a matching tie. He had a wide smile that was just the right kind of slimy for me to want to shut the door in his face. Besides, I was mildly annoyed that I had been woken up and couldn't enjoy Rei sleeping on me.

"Ahh, there he is." The man extended his arms wide. "The talk of the town, Endeavour."

I yawned. "Sorry, I just woke up, who are you and what exactly do you want?"

"Me? I'm Rikiya Yotubashi, and I must say it's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Todoroki." Rikiya gave a light bow. "I'm the President and Ceo of the Detnerat company, we're dedicated to producing items that will help those with quirks live a normal life, I was hoping that we could have a chat."

Ahh.

This was Re-destro.

At my front door.

Fuck.