Chapter Text
“Y’know, I don’t see why you’re not putting yourself out there more. You’re doing a lot better, and all the babies you’ve got now adore you!”
Enji frowned at the voice in his ear as he picked up a pack of chicken and stared at it. High in protein, low in fat, relatively alright cost… He dropped it into his shopping basket before he was moving down the frozen aisle. Really, he should have gone to the local butcher shop, but he didn’t have time for that this week.
In the supermarket, there were always mothers with their children, older shoppers, and even some high school kids possibly making their own meals. Enji rarely ever paid much attention to other people, seeing as his schedule was so tight. Most of his days were filled with meetings and calls, and when he wasn’t as busy, he was going down to his department to double check documents and make sure the company was going to be good for the next audit. After coaching, speaking with his secretary a million times a day, and moving around meeting times between customers, it would be close to 7 P.M., late enough for him to be at home making dinner. Fuyumi, bless her soul, typically only asked him to pick up ingredients rather than make the meals themselves. She set aside time out of her own days to cook for her, her father, and Shouto. Natsuo and Touya, naturally, were living with their mother.
He wished he hadn’t thought of the word ‘naturally’ so quickly.
“Nemuri, I’m not so sure about that. There are a few people I’m just recently growing comfortable enough with to share more than just dinner with. Between the handful of them, time gets a little constrained.”
He could practically hear Nemuri rolling her eyes on the other end of the line. So he was a little old-fashioned? Sue him! Enji was trying to get back into the dating game after being out of it for so long that he didn’t want to misstep and set himself back to square one. His relationship with his ex-wife had gone about as well as imagined, and when his two eldest sons proclaimed they’d be moving into the house that Enji was required (loosely, since he would have gotten her a mansion if she asked for it - Rei deserved at least that much) to buy for her, Enji hadn’t even fought against their decision. He knew it was for the best, what with all of the tension from his various questionable choices as a husband and father over the last nearly three decades.
It had taken him a while to get back on his feet, sure. And right now, he was seeing a few people on rotation, all under contract to not utter a word about their perceived relationship to Enji or his empire. It was a good move, one that Nemuri had brought up when they initially met on a dating site. Granted, he’d thought she was gorgeous, but they both found that between their pasts and personalities, it was likely best that they be friends rather than something more.
She’d shown him the side to dating that he had absolutely no idea existed. Sugar babies, specifically, though they weren’t her typical way of forming potential relationships with her clients. Enji had money, enough that he paid so much in alimony that Rei wouldn’t ever have to work for the rest of her life. While it was court mandated that he pay, Enji hadn’t liked the number that Rei’s divorce attorney low-balled her with and asked that it be nearly doubled.
Needless to say, Todoroki Enji’s finances were just fine. Enough so that he could afford to share his wealth with a few more people other than just his children and ex-wife.
“Yeah, Enji, I get that, but you gotta make time for this kinda stuff! If you wanna get to know these people, then the ones with good intentions won’t just come to you most of the time! You don’t wanna just date around for the rest of your life, do you? You’re the type of guy that wants to come home to somebody consistently. You like the dates, but you’re not the dating type. You and your ex didn’t even date before getting married, remember? It was an—”
Enji sucked in a breath, reaching for three packs of Shouto’s favorite instant soba noodles. He didn’t need to be reminded that he and his wife were matched as part of a miai, an arranged wedding. Enji’s parents had seen that he was ‘destined for greatness’ and wanted to give him the best shot at starting a family early on while his career was still a budding plant. While he was thankful for that, Rei, and their four children, he didn’t appreciate all the pressure and expectations they’d put on him. If he got the chance to redo his twenties, he was sure he wouldn’t be getting married and having kids at the beginning of them again.
“Okay, sorry,” Nemuri deflated. She meant well, but sometimes she could get caught up in her tangents and lose the plot of what she really needed to tell him.
“What I mean is that if you don’t get to know these people, you’re setting yourself up for a revolving door of SB’s coming in and out of your life for your money or sticking around without any real emotional connection, or you could end up in a relationship with one of them that you think you know until you really don’t. What’s gonna happen if you marry some new person and your kids hate them because they’re only there for the money? Or worse, they don’t even wanna deal with your kids? Not saying they’re children now, I mean the oldest is like, almost my age. Which is… scary to think about. But! The point is that I think you need to get your ass out there and make a real meaningful time out of getting to know someone you actually like!”
A part of Enji knew that she was right. Nemuri had never steered him wrong in the two years that they’d known each other. She’d reintroduced him to dating, gotten him somewhat back into physical intimacy—hell, she’d even taken the time to listen to him rant about work, which people never did. He always got too intense, and the only person that would stick around was his therapist because she was paid to be there! Nemuri had sparked Enji’s desire to get to know other people again, which was great!
“So when am I going to find all this ‘time’ that you keep referencing, Nem? I’m sorry, but my job is only getting busier, and these people don’t really want to hear me talk about work. I can function in a suit and tie at fancy dinners, but I just feel like I’m meeting a client for lunch rather than getting to know somebody that I’m supposed to want to be romantically involved with.”
There was a beep on the other end of the call, and Enji checked his watch. Nemuri had just finished her half-hour on the stair master, and now she was going to lift weights. Luckily, her at-home gym made it so they could talk while she worked out, but the fact that she could go that long without even sounding winded always shocked him.
“Then take ‘em somewhere else! Don’t do ‘fancy’, pick something you’re comfortable with! I ever tell you about the time I made an ass of myself because I picked a restaurant I didn’t know had a dress code, and I didn’t send it to my client? That lady showed up in ripped jeans and a t-shirt, and I was in an evening gown! I had to pivot to somewhere we could go with my short-sighted thinking, and I took her to a sukiyaki shop two streets over. We were there until the place closed, and now she’s my longest-standing client! You’ve got to make space for yourself, otherwise you’ll end up falling face-first into lackluster relationships. And we both know that you’re better than that, Enji. You just have to wake up and tell yourself that before you can actually start believing it.”
Enji was silent as he continued to shop, listening to Nemuri’s points as she continued to talk. To him, it was like he was being coached by a senior at work. He needed someone who wouldn’t sugarcoat their points and talk to him out-right. Otherwise, he wasn’t going to learn anything.
By the time he’d gotten the small mound of bags in the car and gotten home, a bigger part of Enji was agreeing with Nemuri. He didn’t want to keep dating around, not because he couldn’t, but because he liked consistency. Every single first date inevitably edged on a ‘wow, you’re boring, huh?’ comment due to his lack of variety in his days. He was pushing fifty-five and working like his life depended on it—what time did he have to dawdle?
“And that’s the thing, En. You’re great at being organized and doing everything you got to so you get your job done. But these relationships aren’t like your job. If you treat them like it, like you’re trying to get to the next promotion or wanna make more money, things are gonna fall apart. Getting to know a person is like going out to a new hiking spot. You were so upset when I picked a trail that was farther away from your job and in the mountains, but by the end of it, you loved it. You woke up and saw the sunrise, drank coffee on the porch, didn’t even think about looking at your work phone. You’ve gotta find somebody that makes you feel the way that trip did. And don’t say you can’t because I know you can.”
As Enji sat in the car, he couldn’t find it in himself to say no. Nemuri cared, and by proxy, he wanted to make her proud in this odd, mentor-mentee way. He could find time, he just had to be careful about it.
“Okay. Fine, I’ll make time,” Enji concluded. “But I hope you understand I’ll be asking you for help every step of the way.”
Nemuri’s smile was audible on the other end. Did she ever really expect anything less?
“That’s just fine, big guy. My phone’s always on for you. Now get in that house before your daughter panics about dinner—I heard that car shut off!”
Enji’s laugh was deep, genuine. They said their actual goodbyes, allowing him to check his notifications before getting out. He has a few too many messages, most from sugar babies he’s been on dates with and meets semi-regularly, like Keigo and Rumi, and a few new ones that he’s gotten a bit of cold feet on responding to. Enji got out and gathered his suit jacket and the grocery bags to take inside, swearing to himself he’d answer the messages later. Fuyumi had asked for a bunch of instant noodle packs, but he wasn’t entirely sure why. He fumbled with his keys before finally getting the back door open.
At first, Enji thought that no one’s home from how quiet it was. Usually, Fuyumi and Shouto weren’t the rowdy type, but he could at least hear them moving around the house. The house could be empty, or they could just be busy. Enji set the bags on the counter and went about emptying his pockets before he heard his daughter’s voice in the other room.
“—but I guess I get why you’d see it that way, if the professor’s been teaching it like that…”
She was helping Shouto with school then. Enji could always count on his daughter to be responsible beyond her years, though it pained him to think it. He was starting to put the groceries up, setting out the chicken and noodles first, when he heard another, very unfamiliar voice.
“That’s what I thought! It makes sense, but every time I try to look up these theories, the points don’t line up one-to-one. I thought it might be because we were learning from a new set of curricula, but these theories have been around for a while.”
Enji’s interest was piqued the moment he heard a newcomer in their home. It was only every blue moon that Fuyumi brought over a colleague or friend, and even then it was just for dinner or to hang out. Shouto, on the other hand, never brought friends over. He talked about them often, though it was mostly to Fuyumi rather than to Enji. Their relationship was… strained, at best. Enji was trying, and he could tell that it was difficult on his youngest’s part with how much he had to worry about with school and work (which he didn’t have to do, but he’d insisted on working to ‘have his own money’). The person he talked about the most was a boy named ‘Izuku’, though Enji hadn’t ever seen the boy before.
That was, until today.
The first thing Enji saw when he poked his head into the living room was a mop of forest green curls right next to Fuyumi as she went to sit. They bounced as the boy – young man, technically, since he was Shouto’s age, and Shouto was turning 20 next year – listened to Fuyumi and nodded along to what she was saying. As she pointed to the page, emerald doe eyes followed her finger attentively. When he tilted his head up to look at her, it was easy to see the freckles all across his face as the light hit them. Round cheeks, a button nose, mile-long green lashes, and a full-lipped, perfect smile when Fuyumi said she’d look into it a little more. Even his laugh was like bells, soft peals of mirth that floated to Enji from the end of the dining table.
Enji stood there in the archway to the dining room for longer than he should have. He was staring longer than he should have been. Before anyone could notice him, he ducked back into the kitchen and stood amongst the stainless-steel appliances and perfect, white tile in an attempt to gather himself. His heart was thundering hard in his chest, and his mouth had turned into a desert with how dry it was. Why— what was happening to him? Why had he just stared at this boy— young man— like he’d never seen another human being before? Gripping the countertop with shaking hands, Enji leaned back against it and drew in a deep breath in an attempt to ground himself. The lights were too bright, the counters too cold, even the sound of Fuyumi walking into the kitchen was so loud –
“Dad? Is everything alright?”
Oh, gods. Did he look like a mess? He was probably pale, and his fiery hair only made the lack of color stand out more. He raked a hand through his hair, sighing softly.
Lie. He needed to lie.
“Just a long day at work, but everything’s fine,” he fibbed too smoothly. Fuyumi tilted her head in that characteristic ‘was it bad enough that you need to talk about it now?’ way, and Enji shook his head. Her smile reappeared then, and her eyes traveled to the plastic bags that had been put away in the net they kept near the garbage can and then the noodles and chicken he sat out on the counter.
“You came back just in time, I was about to start dinner! Want to help me? Shouto has his friend over for the weekend, so I’ll be making four portions for the next few days instead of three.”
Fuyumi was already reaching for her apron, and Enji felt his heart sinking. The entire weekend? Something in him said this was bad, very bad and that he should get that changed as soon as possible. But, when he thought about it for a moment longer, Enji realized that Shouto had long told them about him bringing his friend over. Enji had just forgotten, it seemed.
He never could have known that Shouto’s friend would be so cute.
The very intrusive thought had Enji straightening like a board and giving a robotic ‘sure’ in response to his daughter’s question. He excused himself to change into something more comfortable right before he realized that he’d have to pass by the dining room to get to the hallway and to his own room. Without Fuyumi as a distraction, the two of them would be able to look up and see him just fine, though it wasn’t like it would make a difference for Shouto.
It wasn’t that bad. It would be fine. Enji kept telling himself that as he went to walk by the archway. Perhaps it was his heavy footfalls on the wooden floors, or maybe it was even his shadow casted in the dining room as he fully passed by the door. All he knew was that there were green eyes darting up to him the moment that he was being greeted by that voice that had taken him off guard.
“Oh—Todoroki-san, it’s nice to finally meet you! My name is Midoriya Izuku! I thought I should formally introduce myself, seeing as I’ll be staying at your home for the next few days. I bought some souvenirs from my mother’s last business trip as a gift!”
Help him, Enji was going to explode.
He was stock still, staring down at the man that had scrambled to his feet to bow in greeting. He was so small, shorter than Shouto. Even in his jeans and loose-fitting tee, Enji could see that Izuku wasn’t all bone. Honestly, he looked soft. Plush, his mind readily supplied, and Enji had a strong urge to fill his head with laundry detergent before putting it on a hot cycle.
He muttered something about ‘yes of course, nicetomeetyoutoo’ before he was taking long strides down the hallway. What had gotten into him? He was running away from a child! The pounding in his chest and dryness in his mouth told him this was what he needed to do.
The moment he got to his room, Enji eased the door shut and closed his eyes. He thought about calling Nemuri in his panic, but he was a grown man! He could deal with his emotions on his own! At least, he needed to try.
He just never thought that those emotions he thought he’d never feel would be directed towards his youngest son’s best friend.