I've been thinking about what it'd be like if enji got a chance to fix things. Maybe he gets sent back in time, or to another timeline, somewhere after shouto was born. Stranger things have happened. Quirks don't follow rules and enji won't look a gift horse in the mouth

It's weird, at first, seeing everyone under the same roof. Rei's here. Shouto's tiny. And /touya/. Alive and in the fresh. Hates him, still, but at least he's here to do it.

I imagine enji spends a long time trying to find a way back before realising... Maybe this is a chance.

Maybe he was given a gift - he can fix his mistakes. Erase his regrets. He's still a little selfish so he's not so much thinking of their sake but this is how he can be a father, finally. Maybe he can make his family love him again.

He can't act like someone else, they'd never

Believe him, but he can be a little kinder. A little calmer. They still look at him like he's a bomb waiting to go off and his heart clenches when shouto flinches away from him - how did enji never notice shouto used to be so expressive before he shut himself off? When did it

Happen? Did enji do that?

Stupid question. Of course he did. Maybe now it's not too late to undo it, though. They still have to train, shouto still needs to be number one but this time enji pulls his punches, doesn't make shouto keep going after he throws up

And it feels fundamentally wrong - there's this voice screaming at him that he's being too soft, shouto won't ever get anywhere like this, what was the point of marrying rei in the first place if enji's just going to treat shouto like a /child/

Which... Is exactly what he is,

Enji realises when he sees shouto still needs to get on tippy toes to reach the kitchen counter. The granola bar looks gigantic in his hands. Someone's painted his little fingernails blue - probably fuyumi. Enji would shouted at her if this was ten years ago, and at shouto too

Instead enji asks what he's doing and shouto says "'m hungry, Papa," and then catches himself. “Father.”

Ah. He’d said that, hadn’t he. That if Shouto was to address him, he’d do it properly, like an adult. “You can call me Papa.”

Shouto’s eyes widen. “But you said –”

“I know what I said. I was wrong. You’re going to learn that someday,” Enji says, trying for an approximation of a smile. “Sometimes I – sometimes adults can be wrong. Let’s save Father for when you’re older.”

Shouto's an adorable child, really. All of them are. They look so

very much like Rei. Enji’s struck, suddenly, with the inane desire to give him something. Sweets, maybe. His credit card. He settles for a raisin cookie. Probably Rei’s doing. He never usually allows junk in the house.

Shouto lights up. "Really? I can?"

(CHRIST twitter are you done?? Did you have fun being down while i was right in the middle of writing something???

Ok sorry here's more)

So easy. It’s /so easy/ to make a child happy and he’d just never done it.

So maybe he goes a little overboard. It's not like his family ever really wanted for anything but Enji makes it a habit to bring home little trinkets. Touya won't touch them and Rei's suspicious but

Shouto is overjoyed (Enji wishes suddenly that he'd let the kid believe in santa for a little while)

Things are... odd. He can't (won't) talk about why he's done a 180 but he thinks they're starting to relax around him. Rei still won't look him in the eye and Natsuo's flighty

But then Enji fucks it up royalty, he /hurts/ Rei.

The thing is he genuinely doesn't mean to, he'd just been carrying a chair that Natsuo had moved for some reason, and he hadn't seen her behind him. He clocks her in the shoulder with an uncomfortable /thud/ noise

His heart stops. Falters just for a moment. This is it. This is the day everything goes to shit and all the clumsy building blocks come down around his underserving head.
Rei’s face contorts. Natsuo’s already half-standing, scrambling out of his chair to run to his mother’s side

And rei /hits him back/

It’s laughably weak. A barely-there smack on his bicep while she pouts like a teenager. Enji stares at her. Natsuo slowly sinks back into the sofa

She seems to realise what she's done and they stand there, awkward in a way entirely unbefitting of adults

She smiles, the tiniest smile, and goes off to make tea or something. Enji's stunned. Stands there like an idiot until Fuyumi comes in asking if she can go to lunch with her friends.

Oh, and the first moment Shouto asks to be picked up Enji's heart /soars/

He hasn't held a child (anyone, really) in so long, and Shouto weighs absolutely nothing but seems to love being high up off the ground. Enji lets him sit on his shoulders and tries not to feel too self conscious at the incredulous looks everyone else is giving him

Maybe he suggests, in his clumsy way, that the others see a therapist. Natsuo blows up - "you treat us like shit and now you want us to think we're all crazy?"

"No," says Enji. "It's for what I put you through. I'm going too."

Touya, surprisingly, is the first one to agree

And maybe this doesn't erase what he's already done but at least Shouto has a chance to grow up happy and Rei doesn't need to be sent away, Touya doesn't need to die and Fuyumi and Natsuo don't have to grow up too soon

Every night he lies in bed, worried that this is the last one. Tomorrow's going to be the day everything goes back to normal and his family hates him again. Or maybe he's switched places with a younger version of Enji who's going to wonder why grown-up Shouto looks at him with

ice in his eyes. Or, hell, maybe he's dead and this is his one chance at a decent afterlife.

I don't know where I'm going with this, it's just something I've been thinking about. Maybe I'll write it, maybe I won't. I just wonder what Enji would have done differently if he could

I'll update if i can think of anything i guess. Anyway have a good week y'all https://ko-fi.com/E1E2OGQQ