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It’s not everyday you get to dine with the no. 1 hero.
Hawks was honestly surprised when his assistant gave the letter to him. Apparently, someone came by delivering a letter while he was away on his afternoon patrol. It didn’t come from the post office, it seems, as the courier was separate from the usual daily mail delivery. It was someone in a hero costume, his assistant said, delivering the red envelope and telling her to have Hawks read it as soon as possible.
He got curious about it, was it a distress signal? A request from someone? Judging by what he just heard, the person who delivered the letter is probably a sidekick or something, running menial errands for his boss. Poor fellow, he thought, but he remembered that he used to be like that during his time as a sidekick, doing paperworks at the office and also getting lunch for the head of the office. Oh well, he smiled a bit…
Hawks opened the red envelope, as expected, there’s a letter inside with a… really nice handwriting. A refreshing change of view from reading all those incomprehensible handwriting he often received in his fan mail pile. The header at the top of the letter reads “ENDEAVOR HERO AGENCY”.
“It’s from Endeavor,” he said, “Wonder what he’s up to this time…”
It’s been a week since the incident with the Noomus downtown, Endeavor has gone back to work just three days after his discharge from his hospital. Hawks haven’t heard or contacted Endeavor again since that day, he didn’t want to do further damage to the image of the no. 1 hero.
Also, he’s feeling guilty about it, since everything that happened that day was mostly his fault…
“Huh…” Hawks said, reading the letter, “Well this is interesting…”
“What is it?” his assistant asked. Hawks handed her the letter so that she could read it herself.
Hawks,
At my daughter’s insistence, I, apparently, have to show you my gratitude for helping me that day with the Noomus and the strange blue flame murderer-villain, also known as Dabi. I was going for a nice gift, a good expensive shirt, or a nice Endeavor edition fountain pen, but my daughter commented that it doesn’t seem enough considering what you managed to do that day. We both agreed that perhaps the gratitude should come from the family, not just me.
And so, I am inviting you to a nice dinner with my family, at my house. The dinner will be held on Saturday night since that’s the nearest time Shouto, my youngest son, can get a permit to leave UA grounds. My daughter, Fuyumi, will be there, of course. But my other son, Natsuo will need to check his schedule first. As I’m writing this, he hasn’t replied to my messages yet.
If the dinner doesn’t bother your schedule, and if you could come, please send a message to my agency office. Another message concerning the details of the dinner and the address of my house will be delivered to you shortly.
Signed,
Endeavor.
“Well, apparently, I’m invited to a dinner party,” he said, “At the Todoroki house! This sounds fun…”
“Are you coming then?” his assistant asked, reminding herself the many things her employer did that managed to upset a number of heroes, “This is the no. 1 hero we’re talking about, so you should definitely come!”
“Yeah,” he answered, “I guess I can’t reject a dinner invitation from the no. 1 hero, right? Send a reply, tell him I’m going to come on Saturday,”
“Excellent, I’ll get on it right away,” his assistant then heads for her desk, but she suddenly remembers one slight detail about it, “Oh, and I expect you to behave while you’re there, sir,”
“Ah come on!” Hawks protested, “It’s like you don’t trust me or something! Name one event where I don’t behave like a good person!”
“Best Jeanist’s Christmas party, two years ago…” she said.
“Name three events where I don’t behave…”
“The annual hero Halloween gala, one year ago, and Ingenium’s retirement party, six months ago,”
“Name five events…”
“Look, sir, I can list nearly every event or party that you went to,” she said, “But just for once, I ask you to please behave, don’t make yourself look bad to the current symbol of peace, please?”
“*sigh* fine,” he said, “I’ll try my best then…”
His assistant leaves him alone in his office. He spun around in his seat afterward, feeling excited about the dinner party, actually. Thinking about what outfit should he wear, what time he should arrive at the place, what should he ride there? Take the bus or train? Nah, that’s going to attract a lot of people. He could always take his handy old motorcycle, one of the remnants from his younger years. He bought the motorcycle for cheap when he got the money, kept it ever since, even when he got to the top 10.
A sound suddenly interrupts his thoughts. It was a text message notification, coming from his phone.
“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me!” he said, “Not now!”
The week went by pretty quickly, Hawks thought. There’s not much going on, actually, with the exception of a couple of villain attacks. They were pretty bad for a villain, though, as he managed to finish them off in an average time of four minutes. Weird, they usually last a bit longer…
And then it was Saturday.
After the usual Saturday shift at his agency (he works on Saturdays, but only until 1 PM), he went back to his loft to get ready for the dinner party. The invitation said that he should come at 5.30 PM, as the dinner will be served at 6.30 PM. Endeavor mentioned that he could perhaps use that one hour to meet his family and have a nice and decent conversation with them (don’t know why he mentioned those exact words in his follow-up letter, though).
He arrived back at his loft at around 1.30 PM, figuring he still had a bit of time left, he went to take a short nap for around an hour. At 3 PM, he began preparing for the night’s event, taking a nice shower and putting on one of his nicer clothes for a change. He left the loft at 4.45 PM, riding his precious old motorcycle.
Hawks arrived at the Todoroki house exactly 5.23 PM, seven minutes early than what the invitation said. The gate to the large house opened automatically when he pressed the doorbell. He parked his motorcycle in the stone path leading to the front door of the house, finding nowhere else to park it.
The front door opens, and a tall woman with white and red hair, wearing glasses came out from the house. She walks towards the hero, greeting him.
“Hello,” she said, shaking Hawks’ hand, “I’m Fuyumi Todoroki, welcome to the Todoroki house! Also, thank you for helping my father!”
“Ah, uh…” Hawks felt a bit nervous around Endeavor’s daughter, she looked really kind, also, pretty.
Other reason why he’s nervous right now: the whole incident was his fault.
“It was no big deal, actually!” he answered, “I, uh… thank you too for inviting me here for dinner!”
“It’s the least we could do,” she said, “Now come along, my dad and my brothers have been expecting you…”
Fuyumi escorted Hawks to the main living room of the Todoroki house, they passed through the nicely decorated hallway of the house. Everything here looks… incredibly traditional, wow, even the paintings are traditional. He never actually thought that Endeavor would be this conservative when it comes to his interior design style. The man never gave any clue about his preference, his agency’s building has a normal high-end office style, he remembered, but this was unexpected.
“My father has a knack for traditional Japanese style,” Fuyumi said with a smile, recognizing the look of surprise and astonishment at the hero’s face, “Don’t worry, everyone who came here the first time shows that kind of face,”
“Okay, uh… cool…” Hawks said, trying to stay calm.
They arrived at the main living room just a moment later, there were two people inside, a teenage boy with red and white hair, and a tall young man with a spiky white hair. Must be Endeavor’s sons, he thought.
Speaking of the devil…
“Uh… where’s dad?” Fuyumi asked, realizing her father isn’t in the living room anymore.
“Upstairs,” the teenage boy, answered, “Said he needs to send a quick e-mail, he’ll be back shortly,”
“Of course he does,” the tall young man, commented, looking very much annoyed, “Classic Endeavor, never has time for anything except for hero work…”
“I’m sure he’ll come back soon,” Fuyumi said, “Oh, Hawks, these two are my brothers. That’s Shouto, and the grumpy one is Natsuo,”
“Nice to meet ya,” Natsuo said, shaking hands with the hero. The young man was really big, Hawks thought, a bit taller than himself, but at least he’s smiling now.
“Grumpy, huh?” he asked, “What’s that about?”
“It’s a long story,” Natsuo answered, “I’m probably only grumpy around my dad…”
“Your dad’s only grumpy around me. Hope you won’t be the same as him…”
“Oh ho ho! Trust me, I’m trying my best not to…” he chuckled.
“Hawks-san,” Shouto greets him, “An honor to meet you, sir…”
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Todoroki-kun,” Hawks said, “I’ve seen you during the UA sports festival, thought you did well! Ah, wait, you’re classmates with my former intern, aren’t you? Tokoyami-kun?”
“Yes. Yes, I am,” he answered.
“Good kid, good kid…, can’t wait for him to come back to me. Birds of a feather, amiright?”
“Y-yes?” Shouto responds, feeling a bit confused with the joke. He soon hears a voice coming from the back garden, it was his plus one for the evening.
“Shouto, I found a rather peculiar species of fireflies!” he said, walking towards the living room, “They were flying around your fish pond, and I took pictures of them, but I think I scared them… oh…”
Hawks gulped the moment he saw the kid coming from the back door of the living room. He knows him, he’s seen him, he met him before… uh oh…
“Tenya,” Shouto said, “I apologize, but I brought my boyfriend along with me. Dad said I could bring anyone I want…”
“He’s been pretty loose with the rules lately…” Fuyumi commented, “Anyways, Iida-kun, this is…”
“Hawks…” Iida said, looking a bit annoyed with the hero, “Yes, I remember you, sir…”
“Uh… you’re… um… you’re Tensei’s little brother, aren’t you?” he answered, “I… didn’t expect you to be here…”
“So was I…”
“I think I forgot to tell you that Hawks would be joining us…” Shouto said.
“Yes, that’s pretty clear, Shouto, thank you…”
“Uh, um… listen, about what happened during your brother’s retirement party, uh… I, uh…” he nervously said, “I’m really sorry about that, I didn’t think that it would get that far...”
“*sigh* no need to apologize, sir,” Iida answered, “It was disastrous, yes, but my brother was never angry at you about that. Just last month, he told me that he thought it was… fun of you to do that thing…”
“What are they talking about?” Natsuo whispered to his younger brother. Shouto whispered the answer to his brother’s ear directly, to keep things quiet. The answer prompted a blush, a laugh, and the word “NO WAY!” exclaimed out loud in the room.
“Well, uh… I’m glad Tensei didn’t have any hard feelings about it…” he said, “Again, I’m really sorry about the incident, I really am!”
“Apology accepted, I believe,” Iida said, “Hawks-san, sir, you didn’t happen to bring… it here, I assume?”
“NO!!” Hawks loudly answered, “Absolutely not! I would never think of bringing ‘it’ here after last time! Nope!”
Right after Hawks said that they heard footsteps coming from upstairs. Endeavor entered the living room soon after, feeling a bit confused looking at Natsuo unable to hold his laugh, a very nervous Hawks in front of his son’s boyfriend, and Fuyumi and Shouto drinking their tea on the living room table.
“Hawks,” he greets him, “Something I should know?”
As scheduled, when the clock shows 6.30, everyone heads toward the dining room for supper.
They all sat on the dinner table, Fuyumi went to the kitchen along with Shouto to bring out the evening’s meal. He was honestly a bit curious about the place, not noticing anyone at all except for the family and Iida, of course, which was strange…
“You don’t have any servants, Endeavor-san?” he asked, “A house this big gotta need some help cleaning around, right?”
“The cleaning service comes every two days at 8 and leaves at 10,” Endeavor answered, “Other than that, I have no use for them. So, no, there’s no permanent employment here…”
“Sounds pretty reasonable…” Hawks said, “Uh, how is your…”
He stopped talking the minute he remembered. The word he was about to say was “wife”, but then he realized that the particular word seemed to be a controversial topic in the household. Not a lot of people knows about the fate of Endeavor’s wife, all he remembered from the news back then was that she had a nervous breakdown and accidentally injured her youngest child. She was sent away for her own good, and the hero doesn’t like talking about it anymore.
Iida seemed to have noticed this the moment he paused his question. Hawks glanced at the boy, he’s shaking his head a bit, signaling the hero not to say that exact word.
“How is my what?” Endeavor asked.
“Your, uh… your scar? Yeah, how is your scar?”
“It’s fine for now,” he answered, “Thank you for asking…”
Natsuo on the seat across from him looked… pissed off about it, while Iida is just glad that his boyfriend is in the other room. Fuyumi and Shouto came back from the kitchen after that, carrying plates of food towards the dining table.
“Sorry to keep everyone waiting,” she said, “Dinner is served!”
The whole dinner was pretty much quiet, neither Fuyumi nor Iida had said anything while they were eating, and Hawks thought that he shouldn’t either. He knows that this dinner, this family, they’re practically a battlefield.
The last thing he wants to do is accidentally step on a landmine…
Wanting to stir things up a bit, Hawks decides to speak, but carefully considering his words. Which, to be frank, isn’t exactly his vice.
“So, uh..., h-how is school for both of you?” He asked Shouto and Iida.
“It’s been pretty good, lately…” Shouto answered, “We have a transfer student from the general department coming in, I think…”
“That sounds interesting…” he commented, “Go on…”
“Our homeroom teacher is helping him to get in,” Iida said, “He has potential, alright, and the whole class seems to be fond of him as well…”
“Is it that purple haired kid from the sports festival?” Natsuo asked, “His quirk is really useful,”
“Yes, that’s him…” Shouto said.
“That’s going to be hard…” Fuyumi said, “No one managed to transfer to the hero dept. during my time at UA,”
“Nor mine…”
“You all went to UA?” Hawks asked.
“All of my children went to UA,” Endeavor said, “But only Shouto made it to the hero course,”
“Wonder whose fault was that…” Natsuo commented, munching his serving of teriyaki chicken.
Hawks stayed a bit at the house after dinner, chatting with Endeavor and the Todoroki children. Turns out, that Iida boy is a very pleasant person when you don’t mess with him. Both Shouto and Iida told him about their experiences with the hero killer, one of the headlines from a while ago. He heard that three students from UA were there during that messy day in Hosu city, but they managed to avoid the commotion and helped to defeat the Noomus instead.
“I was actually… injured by one of them,” Iida said, “If it weren’t for a friend, I… I wouldn’t be here today…”
Hawks could see through his lie but chose not to do anything about it. If they prefer to keep it a secret, then so be it, he has his own secrets after all…
Endeavor escorted him out from the house around fifteen minutes later. The wing hero shows him his motorcycle, but the old man wasn’t exactly impressed by it, or so he thought…
“Looked like mine back in the days…” he commented.
“Y-you used to own a motorcycle?”
“Still have one, they’re parked in the garage on the back,”
“Never thought you would ride one, actually…” Hawks said, “Then again, I never thought you would live in a large traditional house…”
“This has been… pleasant…” Endeavor said, “Maybe I should do this more often…”
“You mean dinner with your family?”
“I eat my dinner alone most of the time,” he said, “Never thought that having one with my family would make any difference, actually…”
“Well, Endeavor,” Hawks said, putting on his helmet, “It’s been a pleasure, I’ll see you around!”
“Goodbye, Hawks…”
Hawks didn’t go straight to his loft after that.
He made a quick stop at an abandoned factory on the outskirts of town. He entered through the rusty door, just like the many times he’s done this before. Someone was inside, expecting him…
“Did you get what I requested?” the person asked.
“Yeah,” Hawks answered, taking out a small vial from his pocket, “A sample of Shouto Todoroki’s blood, as requested,”
“How’d you do it?” he asked.
“I pricked a bit of the kid’s foot with one of my feathers,” Hawks answered, “He’ll probably won’t notice it until he changed his clothes. And when he did, he’ll probably think if it as a small insect’s bite or something like that…”
“Excellent,” he answered, “My friend will be happy. Thank you, Hawks, next time you see the family, tell them this…”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Tell them… Touya says hi…”
The figure disappeared into the darkness afterward. Hawks exited the factory building, still feeling guilty about what he’s done so far, making a small cut on Shouto’s leg during the dinner, and collecting his blood without him noticing…
He hoped that the Todorokis would never have to get involved in his business ever again…
Little he knows, one is already deeply involved.