I don't care what any of you would say, Red Eye would be a wholesome father fight me. Lol, anyways, I saw this ages ago and thought of Red Eye, also, you may have seen this on the pregnancy chapter in my last one shot fic for Red Eye.

THIS WILL NOT MAKE SENSE IF YOU DON'T READ THIS NOTE!!

You guys use fake names, instead of White Eye, you go you go by Winter Thorton whereas Red Eye goes by Scarlet Thorton. The both of you work from home, your an animation designer but no one really knows what your husband does. If you've read any of 'Blood Red Eyes,' ignore that time line, it isn't compliant with this one shot. Also, yes Red Eye is pretty OOC in this, but I feel like he'd do anything for his child if they really wanted it, and that includes the contents of this chapter, enjoy!!

P.S. Enjoy an image of Gacha Thalia. :)

P.P.S. This slam poem is not my own, it was written and performed by Jesse Parent and it is awesome 😊

Despite having been married to the man for twelve years, there was only a handful of times when you'd seen your husband so... frazzled, to say the least. The most notable time you had seen him like this was when you'd gone into labour with your daughter who was now almost ten years old. It was slightly ironic, you thought, that the only time Red Eye had well and truly freaked out before was because of his daughter and there he was, pacing the length of your bedroom almost a decade later because of a note your daughter had brought home from school that afternoon.

'Dear parents/caregivers,

As you may already know, 4C has recently completed their poetry project in English. With the year coming to a close, our class recently decided to have a 'slam poetry' competition for the parents to take part in. Only one parent or caregiver is required to enter, but two or more are always welcome. Please fill out the form below and have your child return it to Ms. Cinders by no later than next Wednesday so we can ensure that we have an adequate schedule planned for the day. Family members not competing are also welcome to come in and spectate, however you must indicate as such on the form below.

**Slam poetry is a competition arts event, in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. (Wikipedia)

Kind regards,

Avanni Cinders

4C Teacher'

Normally you were the one who did school things with Thalia, but this time she wanted her daddy to do this for her and she wasn't letting up. Admittedly you could understand some of Red Eye's fears. Shortly after Thalia had been born the three of you had moved to a small village that was far away from people who might be willing to or accidentally inform Ashtem of your whereabouts. To anyone else, you were simply the Thorton family, Scarlet, Winter and Thalia. The alias you used was similar enough to your White Eye identity that you were comfortable in using it, and you'd gotten used to hearing and responding to the name as your own. Red Eye on the other hand was a different story.

You were confident that without your mask, your former associates would fail to recognise you, you had only been a BeyTrainer after all. Things were different for Red Eye though, he had been Ashtem's protégée and most of the Snake Pit had seen him without the mask, with him as your husband it had been difficult to make yourselves disappear to say the least. You were grateful for how mature your daughter was at least, she knew not to let anyone know that her last name was technically Kurenai, or that at home her parents called each other Red and White instead of Scarlet and Winter. She also knew that if her beloved father said that he couldn't do the competition for her then it was for a good reason, unfortunately there was very little that Red Eye could deny his daughter and both of you knew it.

"You know she'll understand, right Red?" You sighed from where you sat on the edge of the bed, ready to get some sleep. Instead of sleeping though, you were trying to calm down your husband.

"She shouldn't need to understand White, should be able to do normal things with my daughter like a normal dad, instead..." He trailed off, roughly tugging on the shaggy locks of his snowy hair, frustrated with how helpless he felt. Your heart ached to see him like this, even after all this time it was still sometimes weird for you to seeing him without his mask on, both of your masks were locked away safely in a small safe box beneath a loose floorboard beneath your bed, but you didn't thing you would ever become completely accustomed to always seeing your husband's real face, especially when seeing him made you think of the Shu Kurenai he had once been. You'd done your research on his former identity after old friend's of Shu had come looking for him at the Snake Pit, but despite knowing who he had been you never truly thought of your Red Eye as Shu Kurenai. You loved Red, you didn't even know Shu. Your reminiscing was cut short by your husband shaking his head and sitting down next to you.

"Seeing how hard all of this is on you and Thalia, sometimes I wonder if gong to the Snake Pit was the right decision." He confessed quietly. Immediately you were torn between smacking him upside the head and hugging him tightly. Your heart squeezed painfully in your chest and you settled for taking his hand in both of your own.

"If you'd never gone to the Snake Pit we never would have met, we wouldn't even have Thalia." You reminded him gently, wondering what his reaction would be.

Red Eye shook his head again, his eyes becoming gentle as they met your own. He must have seen your hesitancy in them because he pulled you against him tightly and brushed his lips against your's.

"We were always going to meet," he told you with an absolute certainty that made your heart skip a beat. "We always were going to find each other."

"I always was going to join the Snake Pit, Red." You said firmly. Red Eye inclined his head, not wanting to push you on the only topic that was always off-limits to you, your past. You'd spoken to him about it once, answering all of the questions he had and then letting him distract you when the conversation was done. You'd been a very angry person a long time ago, hating the world and everyone in it, utterly filled with rage and unchecked spite. Meeting Red Eye had tempered you slightly, helping you remember that there was some good in the world, even if that piece of good had been as fucked up as you were. Even if you knew back then that one day you would achieve your current sense of serenity, nothing could have stopped you from being indoctrinated into the Snake Pit. The irony of it all amused you at times, how some of the greatest things in your life had sprung from a decision you'd made when you were young and angry.

"Let's not talk about that now," Red Eye said, smiling at you with a gentleness that was absolutely uncharacteristic of him unless it came to his family. "Besides, it's getting late."

"I know," you pouted playfully. "I've been trying to go to sleep for ages now but I've been helping you out instead."

"Shut up," he grumbled.

_______________________________________

"Mum!" A loud voice exclaimed before a blur of black and red slammed into into your waist. With a practiced movement, you scooped up your nine year old with ease and lifted her into the air. Her arms wrapped around your neck and her legs around your stomach, a large smile on her face, red eyes twinkling with glee.

"Hey love," you returned her smile and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "How's school?"

"Boring," she rolled her eyes immediately. "Can we go home after this?"

"We'll see," you decided, already knowing that you'd be signing her out and grabbing take-away for lunch or something. Still, you needed to bite your lip as to refrain from laughing out loud at her attitude, not encouraging her behaviour like the good mother that you humbly thought you were.

"Is dad here?" She wondered, craning her head in an effort to try and catch a glimpse of her father. Her eyes lit up in the way that Red Eye had told you only happened when you got a look of trouble on your face.

"He's over there," you told her, laughing quietly and pointing over to the side of the hall's stage where your husband was standing with her arms folded, as stoic as ever amongst the other chatting parents. Much to his chagrin, word had gotten around the school about the fourth grade classes' competition, and now the entire school was all bunched up in the hall to see a bunch of adults 'roast' life and society in general. "He'll come over when he's done."

You took your seat in the back, Thalia sitting beside you after she'd checked that it was okay with her teacher. Thankfully the rest of the students were all sitting cross-legged on the floor, so even though you were at the back of the room you had a great view over the sea of heads. Luck however, was not on your husband's side it seemed, because an hour later 'Scarlet Thornton' was finally called at the very end of the line up.

Everyone watched as the glaring man stepped up to the microphone. Some sixth year student in front of your whispered to his friend, about the kid who's dad he was. You weren't the only one you caught it apparently, because you had just enough time to see your daughter glaring at the back of the boy's head before she jumped onto her seat and shouted across the room:

"I LOVE YOU DAD!"

Red Eye's lips quirked up into a brief smile. Satisfied with his response, Thalia fell back into her seat, aiming a lethal glare at the boy who turned around to see who had shouted. You were incredibly pleased at the way his blood drained from his face and he spun back around like he'd seen a demon. Thalia looked up at you with an adorable expression, as if asking for your approval which you happily gave in the form of throwing and arm around her shoulders.

You heard him inhale deeply, amplified by the microphone in front of him, before stating in a loud voice that made you grin.

"TO THE BOYS WHO MAY ONE DAY DATE MY DAUGHTER!" Your wolf whistle was piercing, several people burst out laughing and Thalia buried her face into your side. It was ironic, how she'd been more than willing to shout out how much she loved her dad in front of her entire school, yet this was what she found embarrassing.

"I have been waiting for you," Red Eye lowered his voice to a much more respectable volume and openly glared at the entire school as if any one of the boys sitting there may one day potentially lay a finger on his baby girl. You sat forward in your seat, eager to see how the rest of this would play out.

"Since before her birth, since before my spark took hold and ignited the fire in her mother's belly, I have been training to kill you." You shook your head as he mentioned you, but as usual you didn't feel even the slightest vestiges of embarrassment when it came to your husband.

"When you took your first steps, I was preparing to make it so you never walked again."

It was official, Red Eye could definitely be intimidating without his mask on. He was more than capable of striking fear into the hearts of several hundred children to say the least. Thalia was no longer quite as embarrassed as when he'd begun the little poem he'd spent hours penning, if anything she too was growing more and more amused and had since uncovered her face.

"When you played at war, I was perfecting headshots," he fired a finger gun into the audience, you were pretty sure you saw a couple of students unconsciously shift out of the way of his imaginary bullet. "You can't catch up at this point."

Red Eye paused and sent a soft look toward where Thalia sat beside you. "And when you first meet my daughter and fall in love with the look she sends over her shoulder, her crescent-moon eyes framing her laughing smile... you are going to want to talk to her."

A golden warmth curled in your chest at your husband's words, and you gazed down lovingly at the little girl in question. Her own red eyes were sparkling with love and adoration for her father, you smoothed her snow coloured hair and looked back just in time to see Red Eye's face harden.

"And when those hours pass by like sprinters during that first timeless conversation, you will also know with a deep and impending sense of dread, that you are going to have to talk to me."

"When you first come to my home and see the bone carving over my threshold, try not to imagine your own femurs so expertly carved." That was a lie and your entire family knew it, there were no bone carvings over anyone's threshold, though you did know from experience that Red Eye was good at carving them. He'd made you a necklace once and it had been beautiful, absentmindedly you made a mental note to remove any and all bone carving materials from your household when Thalia started to approach the age when she'd be interested in dating.

"Pay no attention," Red Eye continued. "To my 'ample crawl space,' my 'room with a rubber mat and a drain,' be careful-"

He paused for a moment, eyes once again fixating on your daughter. Anyone who didn't know him would never even come close to guessing that he was currently as close to choking up as he could possibly get. He began speaking again, and his eyes never left Thalia.

"Be careful to only approach me with love for my daughter. I have been seeding her childhood with tap-root hugs, to weed out indifference and apathy." His voice raised ever so slightly, but compared to the soft spoken tone he had only just been using it seemed like a roar as he switched back to the room at large and addressed the room at large once again.

"There will be no 'Daddy Issues' for your teenage talons to latch upon. If you break her heart; I will hear it snap with the ear I pressed against her mothers belly, the elbow I cradled her head in will send a message to my fist-"

He broke off and mimed punching out into the air. The suddenness of his movement was so abrupt that half of the room flinched in response.

"My cheeks are attuned to her lips and I will know if they tremble." You took that second to raise an inconspicuous hand to quickly swipe the back of your hand over your eyes.

"I have taught her that a man should never hit a woman-"

His line of sight met your's this time. All fun and games, you narrowed your eyes at him warningly. You'd seen this part briefly a few nights ago, trying to get a glimpse of whatever he had taken upon himself to write. Red Eye had wanted to keep it a secret, so you hadn't snooped any further, but you had forced him to add something to the little part you had managed to see. He'd promised you he would, but this would be the moment of truth.

"And her mother would like me to add that you really shouldn't ever hit anybody," Red Eye paused, waiting for the first bout of laughter he had drawn to die down before he could continue talking. You nodded, happy that he had listened to you, and he sent you a quick wink. "But I have taught her that a man should never hit a woman."

"Consider my genes a mark of Cain; you will suffer seven times whatever you do to her."

You weren't sure that too many people caught that little piece of allusion, but glancing around it was obvious that a few of the adults did. The mark of Cain was an omen, a warning. Cain was under God's protection from anyone who sought to harm him or from premature death, if someone did something to harm Cain then the damage would come back sevenfold.

"And she will not keep your secret," Red Eye's spat as though the very notion physically disgusted him. "Because you can't make fire feel afraid!"

He was forced to pause again, to wait for the cheers and smattering of applause to die die before he could speak properly again.

"I have been teaching her love, all her life." He took a deep breath, and you caught a momentary glimpse of pain flit across his face before it disappeared just as quickly as it had materialised. "And all I ask is that you continue the lesson."

"Love her, befriend her, protect her even though she's definitely more than capable. Be there when I can't and when my body gives up to the grave, let the grin that eternity carves into my face be a reflection of the peace that your love brings to her. And if you can do that, we should get along just fine."

Clearly that was the end, people began clapping for your husband's terrifying but ultimately heart touching poem before he looked as though he were in deep thought for a brief few seconds. You knew this had to be for show, and waited with anticipation for whatever Red Eye had coming next. He held up a hand and patiently waited for the clapping to die down.

"Addendum," he paused again, but this time it was for dramatic effect.

"TO THE GIRLS WHO MAY ONE DAY DATE MY DAUGHTER!"

You fell back against your seat, knowing full well that your face was uncharacteristically full of mirth and amusement at the turn Red Eye's speech had taken. You were even more proud of him than usual in that moment, and wondered what he was planning on saying after this. It actually took a few minutes before he could speak this time, some of the kids where even slamming their hands on the ground for a drumroll kind of effect that actually worked surprisingly well for them.

"My wife is a better shot than I am."

You smirked openly with unconcealed malice and satisfaction when at least three quarters of the students assembled turned to look at you. You cocked your head innocently enough, but it still sent a collective shiver down everyone's spine, which was exactly the fear-inspiring effect you had been going for. Dare you even say that most of them looked more afraid of you in that moment than they had throughout the entirety of Red Eye's turn up on stage. Your pride in yourself fizzled out barely a moment later when you saw that Thalia was no longer sitting beside you.

While the children were all turning back around, your eyes were scanning over the expansive room for any sign of your daughter, panic rising in your chest as your heart began to beat out a tattoo against your ribs. You relaxed however, when you caught sight of Thalia's long plait streaming out behind her as she sprinted around the mass of students and wove expertly around the other parents and teachers, all so that she could meet her father when he was coming off the stage and slam into his side, wrapping her arms around his waist with all of the strength that her small body could muster. 

Please forgive any spelling mistakes I made while writing this, my puppy walked over my keyboard a few times while writing this. I've tried to delete the random chuncks of letters but I could have missed some. Personally I think they're some of the best spelling mistakes I've made because my pup contributed 😊😊❤❤