"Your Quirk would be perfect material for a Quirk Marriage. All you have to do is marry my son after graduation," my dad said before smiling. "Think of it as a win-win. You get to be a part of the family, not have to worry about money or anything all in return for—"

"Dinner's ready!" Hatsuko's voice boomed over Dad's, so Tami and I didn't have to hear the rest of his sentence.

We turned our heads to see Hatsuko and Mamá carrying two different dishes. Hatsuko had a huge pot full of rice that still steamed from the top while Mamá had a plate full of enchiladas, which was a dish my mamá was really good at making. I get that she never seemed to mind about being a stay at home mom, but I knew Tami didn't want that life. We talked about it a lot whenever I would bring up what she wanted to do after college. That was one thing I knew Tami wanted to do: further her education. If for some odd reason we could make things work, we would do it after she graduated.

Forcing Tami to do the same thing my mamá did would be torture. I looked over at Tami as my mamá or sister came in. She just kept looking down at her stress ball, giving it a few squeezes.

"May I—may I be excused for a moment?" Tami quietly asked as the food hit the table. "I'm, uh, I'm suddenly not feeling too good."

Before my dad could answer, my mamá nodded her head. Tami must have looked up at that very moment because she leapt from her chair and darted out of the room. The stress ball was still being held tightly in her hand. I didn't even think as I quickly jolted out of my chair and followed her out into the hallway, only to find that she was no longer there.

Behind me, I could hear my dad yelling for me to get my ass back into the room, but I didn't care. What he did to Tami was beyond wrong. There was nothing that could excuse what he did. He crossed the line when he asked that, especially since my mind had never trailed to that possibility, not even once.

I turned my head to look towards the front door. Thankfully, I could still see Tami's puffy pink coat hanging up on the coat rack. It usually wasn't extremely cold this time of year, but she still wore it instead of a light jacket. Seeing it there, there was only one place I could see Tami going inside this entire house.

Realizing that, I turned to my left and ran until I noticed the bathroom door that was closest to the kitchen was shut. It was the smallest bathroom in my home, but it still made for the perfect get-away place for Tami to escape to. I carefully placed my hand over the nob and twisted it slightly, so Tami wouldn't hear me. Just like I had thought, the door was locked.

A sigh escaped my lips as I took my free hand and gently knocked on the door. When Tami didn't answer, I leaned on it, laying my forehead on my forearm.

"Hey, Tami, look, I know you're in there," I said.

There was no response. I slowly closed my eyes, hoping I could hear something from inside, but she did her best to stay quiet. While I knew I should have respected that, I couldn't. The last thing I wanted was for Tami to overthink everything like she normally did. I just wanted her to be okay, and there was no way she could have felt any of that with what my dad just said.

"Well, if you're in there by chance, could you just hear me out?" I asked. "I—"

"Raiden, what the hell are you doing?"

My eyes widened at that moment as I recognized that voice. Here, I thought my mamá and sister would be able to keep him away, but hearing him so close, I knew it wasn't good. I slid my arm down from the door and took a few steps away. Standing there was my dad. It didn't matter how many inches I had grown over the years, he still towered over me, even if it was only by a couple of inches. His dark eyebrows furrowed together as he crossed his burly arms in front of him.

It never made sense why people looked up to my dad. During my time at U.A, I kept it as quiet as I could that I was related to him because every time someone figured out who my father was, they'd always gush on how great of a hero he was. They'd say that he was strong and was the one hero who got straight to the point. He never got into personal affairs with the people he was saving, leaving that sort of stuff to his sidekicks, including my sister. Sure, my sister was considered more of a Pro Hero than a sidekick, but as long as she worked for him, that was how people would view her.

Unless people really got to know him, that was all they could really think about him. Guess I couldn't really say much because I thought the same thing for the longest time. I knew better now, but there was one thing I couldn't shake off every time I saw him, and that was the terror that crawled inside of me.

There was no doubt he was going to yell at me right there, or worse. With Tami nearby, I didn't want her to get involved.

"You were not excused," my dad continued to say when I didn't answer. "You're never going to be a Pro Hero if you're going to be rude and disrespectful to people like that. You're lucky I even accepted you into my agency, otherwise—"

"You're wrong," I whispered, but he didn't listen to me as he continued.

"You would never have a chance of being a Pro Hero!"

"Tadashi!"

My dad turned around to see my mamá standing there with a giant spoon in her hand as she shook her head.

"¡Cómo te atreves a hablarle así a nuestro hijo! Vuelve al comedor. Hablaré con mi hijo," my mother said in her native language.

Unfortunately, he didn't listen as he turned to look at me. "You've gotten worse ever since you started talking about that girl. Either you take my offer or you need to break—"

"Fine!" I shouted, throwing my hands up in the air. "I give up! You want it one way or the other? Then have it your way. I'm leaving."

"No you're not, young man," my father started to say. "That wasn't an—"

I was quicker. "Oh yes, I am! You fucking think you know what's best for me, but every time I listen to you, things go downhill. Well, you know what? I'm tired of your shit! You were the one who pressured all of us to become Pro Heroes, but Luz and all my other older siblings who aren't heroes are doing fine. You forced me to do my first internship under you because you said I'd learn more from your agency than anyone else's, but newsflash! I was hired at Mr. Elastic's Agency because I took my work study with Dark Titan very seriously. Oh, yeah, that's right. You wouldn't have ever known that cause you don't give a damn about me or anyone in this family. All you do is work and say you provide, but you're never fucking around, and I'm fucking tired of taking all your fucking shit! You can go to Hell for all I care, but you telling me how to live my life, well, that ends today. Do whatever the fuck you like. I'm out of here!"

I didn't wait for my dad's reaction. The blood inside of me was boiling even more than it ever had before. I was just sick and tired of everything my dad had to say and do. He never listened to anyone.

Next thing I knew, I was in my room. While I knew I stormed my way inside, I felt as if I was still stuck in that argument. I looked around, seeing the room out in front of me. It was then, everything hit me like a ton of bricks.

Tami was just inside the bathroom. She heard everything that happened. If there was one thing she could never deal with well, it was tension. I cursed under my breath as I threw my head back on my door. How could I have been so stupid? Hatsuko and I told her to go to the bathroom to get away from the stress my dad could bring, and there I was, taking it to her.

Shit. How stupid could I be?

No. I couldn't think about that right now. It was hard to tell how much time I had left. Knowing my dad, once it got into that thick brain of his that I was serious, he'd come marching in my room, even more furious than before. Until then, I had to get my stuff together. Just enough to spend the night at Kaito's house. Surely, he'd let me crash for the night or two. That'd give Hatsuko enough time to get the rest of my stuff and get it out of here.

I was glad I kept my room cleaned. True, it was always kept clean because I couldn't handle things out of place. If I ever had something laying on the floor for too long that didn't belong there, it'd drive me nuts. Everything had its place for a reason, plus I was rarely in my room for it to be messy.

That, and the fact that I didn't have a lot of stuff. I didn't need much.

I walked over to my closet first, grabbing as many school uniforms as I could that hung up. My leg kicked an old duffel bag that was laying in the corner of my closet. Once it was out, I dropped the uniforms inside and grabbed a pair of pajamas that was on the top shelf of my closet, along with some other things I thought I might need to get by.

Seeing as my dad didn't disrupt me, I turned to the side table by my bed, seeing a picture of Tami and me sitting under my reading light. In the picture, Tami was leaning on my shoulder as we had both fallen asleep. Neither of us knew, otherwise, it wouldn't have happened. It was the perfect opportunity for one of my older sisters to sneak a picture of us. Normally, whenever Luz would do that sort of stuff, it'd anger me, but it was a decent picture. It was back when Tami still had her short blonde hair, making her look a lot more innocent than she did with her longer hair. I mean, she looked good with her longer hair, but her short hair just seemed more fitting.

She decided to grow it out in the middle of our first year, but I wasn't going to say anything about it. It was her hair after all. What she did with it was her business, not mine.

My hand quickly grabbed it to toss it in the bag. Dad would definitely throw it out or tear it to pieces if he had the chance. There was no way I was going to let that happen. It was the only picture I had printed of the two of us.

I was about ready to grab some blankets and pillows off my bed when I heard some knocks at my bedroom door. Hearing them, I knew my time was up. I let out a sigh, as I grabbed the first blanket and pillow I found before I walked back and opened the door.

On the other side of the doorway wasn't my dad; it was Hatsuko and Tami. Hatsuko had her lips pressed together while Tami stood behind her, tucking her hands into her coat pockets.

"You're really leaving, huh?" Hatsuko asked.

"He didn't give me much of a choice," I snapped.

My sister didn't say anything about the attitude I had as she nodded her head. "I get it, I do. Just text me when you find a place to stay. I know Niko and Montez both still live in town."

"I'm not getting any of them involved," I growled.

"They're familia, Raiden. They're going to want to know—"

"I don't fucking care what they are!" I shot back at Hatsuko. When I did, I noticed Tami flinched behind her. I closed my eyes seeing that. This was a side I didn't want Tami to witness. She's seen it too many times before, but after becoming friends with her, I tried getting better at controlling it. After a few seconds, I took a deep breath. "Thanks for trying to help, but I got this. I don't want to deal with any of our familia right now. Kaito's older sister just moved out a couple of months ago. I'm sure his parents will be more than okay with me crashing at their place for the night. I just don't want to deal with any of them right now. Tomorrow, I will, I promise."

When I opened my eyes, I saw Hatsuko nodding her head. She never seemed to get angry whenever my temper would go off the wall, which wasn't something I could say for the rest of my older siblings. There were eight of us in total, with me being the youngest. While there were two siblings that were closer in age than Hatusko was, she was the one I felt closest too. Maybe it was because we both decided to become Pro Heroes, or maybe it was something else. Either way, I knew she'd understand.

"Okay. Just call, and keep me posted, okay?" Hatsuko asked.

I didn't say a word. I just looked past her, seeing Tami still standing there, not knowing what to say. Seeing her like that, I knew I screwed up big time. There was nothing I could do to turn back time. It'd be neat if my Quirk could do that rather than multiply my own strength, but Quirks were usually genetic. Only a few people, like Tami, were lucky to get a unique Quirk that had nothing to do with their heritage.

"Let's get going," I said, grabbing Tami's attention.

She snapped her head up at me, showing off her brown eyes that were being covered by her bangs just seconds ago. They were lost, almost as if she wasn't sure what she should do. Without thinking about it, I just tucked the blanket and pillow under the arm that held my old duffle bag and grabbed her wrist with my free hand.

Tami and I didn't say a word as I dragged her out of the house. All I knew was that I needed to get her out of here as quickly as possible. The longer she was here, the worse things would get. She didn't need to be in this toxic environment, and the only reason it got so bad was because he decided to show his face tonight of all nights.

Of all the things he could have said about Tami, I still couldn't believe he had the audacity of bringing that up. I needed to make sure he never set eyes on her again.

But that thought was short lived as I found my dad standing in front of the front door. His mouth sneered as his eyes started to twitch because of how livid he was. Even though he was out of his Hero Costume, I could see his muscles bulging a bit, almost ready to break out of his clothes at any moment.

My dad was just asserting his dominance. He was trying to intimidate Tami and me. There was no way I was going to let him win.

"Son, I'll give you two one last chance," he warned.

"We're not taking it," I shot back, pulling Tami behind me. "I'm done living under your rules, and there's no way in hell I'm letting you do the same to Tami. Now, get out of our way."

Before my dad did that, he shook his head. "You're making a mistake," he warned. "You walk out those doors, and I'll make sure you don't even rank in the Billboard Charts."

"I don't give a damn about that," I shot back. "A Pro Hero's job isn't about rank as much as it is about saving people, but I guess you wouldn't know what that exactly is, do you?"

Even though I wasn't talking about any particular incident, I could tell my words cut through like a knife. My dad stumbled to the side a bit, giving Tami and me the break we needed to get out of there. I didn't even look back as I grabbed the door handle and pushed it open.

We would have gotten through it, if I didn't feel Tami stop. I turned my head, seeing my dad grabbing her shoulder. My eyes widened at the sight as Tami froze dead in her tracks. Her eyes widened in fear as she looked up at him, but that didn't stop my dad.

"If anything happens, just know, it's all on you," he sneered.

He let go before I could even shoot something back at him. I still would have, but Tami was so scared that she quickly rushed out the door, pulling me with her.

✧ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ✦✧✦ ▬▭▬ ▬▭▬ ✧

Neither of us said a word as I walked her back to her house. At some point, she took my pillow and blanket from me, but I think it was to comfort herself more than it was to help me. Every time I'd look at her, I would see her squeezing the pillow and blanket close to her chest. Watching her, I realized she was avoiding my gaze.

Guilt washed over me as I realized this. It was all my fault. I should have handled that a lot better than I did, but I couldn't control a thing that came out of my mouth. My dad had a way of doing that. He had a talent for getting under everyone's skin. Until tonight, I just went with it and listened to whatever thing he had to say. With Tami there, I couldn't just sit and take it, not when he involved her into it.

He was never interested about who my friends were or wanted anything to do with Tami until tonight. It didn't make sense. I mean, Hatsuko was a few years older, and she wasn't even married! If he should be harping on anyone to get married, it should have been her!

Then again, the more I thought about it, Hatusko never even had a boyfriend, or girlfriend if she was into that kind of thing.

Still, he didn't need to take it out on Tami. She was already nervous because of the big news she had to tell me. Then she had to go through that. It was luck she was still breathing because I would have personally broken something if I was in her situation. Usually, Tami would have panicked a lot more than she did.

Hearing her silence just didn't seem right.

"Look, about earlier," I started to say, before I stopped, not entirely sure what to say. I wanted to make Tami feel better, but this was one of those incidents where I was utterly clueless how to do that.

Comforting people wasn't exactly my strong suit.

Luckily, Tami answered for me. She still kept her eyes glued to the dark sidewalk in front of us, but she still acknowledged I said something. Then again, it was pretty dark out that without the street lamps, it was kind of hard to see.

"Sorry," Tami whispered. "I-I got you kicked out. I t-tore your family apart. It's because of me—you feel ashamed of me, don't you?"

I stopped as I heard her say that. Granted, Tami's self-esteem wasn't the best, but it was better than what it was a couple years ago. She had grown so much. All she needed was a bit of confidence.

All that confidence she had built up over the years vanished all because of my dad.

"That's not true," I told her. Tami froze, and turned around to face me, but she never looked up from the sidewalk. "My dad was never around. Not in the same sense as your parents or anything, but he just chooses to stay extra hours at his job rather than being at home. You remember Luz, right? She, along with most of my siblings, were kicked out because of him. You had nothing to do with any of that."

Tami shook her head. "B-but what about that—the Quirk marriage? Don't you—don't you want your k-kids to have a better Quirk? I don't think I can give that."

Of course my dad would get under her skin with that. If we weren't already halfway towards her house, I would have marched back and punched him for making her think that all we wanted for our family was better Quirks. That was something I didn't want.

And to be honest...

"I haven't thought that far about my life," I admitted to Tami. "All I know is that I don't want to be in some loveless marriage where I have to force someone to bear so many kids to get a valuable Quirk. That's just wrong."

While that should have been enough to get Tami to calm down, I could tell the wheels inside her brain were working overtime. She didn't even lift up her head as she squeezed my pillow closer to her chest.

"B-but what about your parents," she asked. "They—they're married because of a—of a Quirk Marriage."

I shook my head. "And look where that got my mamá: Quirkless because of some disease she caught after having Luz and before having me. I love my mamá, don't get me wrong, but I think she gives my dad waaaay too much credit because of their marriage. It's not on you, trust me. It's on them. All I know is that I don't want what they have, okay?"

Tami nodded her head, but didn't say a word after that. Her silence was uneasy. Hearing nothing come from her mouth made me wonder what she was thinking. She was one person I could never quite understand, no matter how much I tried.

It was hard to understand people, but if I could just figure a way to just put her mind at ease, that would be enough for me.

"Just don't worry about it," I told her as I walked closer to her and grabbed her one hand, guiding it down to her side. "I don't want to rush you into anything, and I definitely don't want to think about that right now, especially when I have other things to worry about."

My girlfriend simply nodded her head when she heard that, but didn't say a word. I couldn't say I didn't blame her though. It was getting late, and her mind was still probably turning faster than it ever had before.

We walked towards her house a bit more, and as we did, I slipped my hand away from hers and wrapped my arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to me. There was no way I would have ever thought of doing this with her a year ago. That wasn't because I was afraid of what people would think, but rather, how she would react to it. She had always been hesitant around people, especially when it came to physical touch. Even now, I had to be careful as I wanted to help her relax, not worry her anymore. Looking down at her, she still clutched my blanket and pillow close to her, but I could see her shoulders dropping a bit.

Seeing that slight moment of relaxation, I knew it was okay.

"Like your first Pro Hero job," Tami whispered. "Are you going to Mr. Elastic's Agency?"

Her words caught me off guard for a moment, but I tried not to show it. Mr. Elastic was probably my biggest mentor at U.A. He was my homeroom teacher ever since the first year at U.A., so I guess there was always that. It just seemed right that I would work with him because I was the only person he offered a position at his agency.

Yet, there were three other agencies I had to think about. No matter what I chose, I knew it would be much better than going into the Herculean Agency with my family. They weren't any Pro Heroes I knew personally, but I figured I could at least gain some sort of experience from the others.

Despite all the choices, I still had no idea which one I was going to choose. I had to make my decision tomorrow, but I still didn't know.

So, I shrugged. "I'll figure that out before school tomorrow, don't worry about that. But, in case you were ever wondering, I never thought about working for my dad."

Tami nodded her head. "I get that," she said before looking up at me. "Again, I'm sorry. I feel like I started this whole thing. If I—"

"Tami," I sternly told her. "You did nothing wrong. My dad is just an asshole. I knew this would have happened eventually. I just thought it was going to be when he realized I didn't take his job offer at his agency, that's all."

She drew in a deep breath. "But still. I want—I want to help. I—you can stay at my house for a bit. I know it's a lot smaller and you might have to sleep on the couch, unless you want to sleep in a bed. I could always sleep on the couch instead, and—"

"Thank you," I stopped her, shaking my head. "But I don't want to worry your parents anymore than they probably already are. Besides, Kaito's family won't mind, I promise."

We stopped right then as we stood right in front of her house. Tami looked over at the one story house that, even in the darkness, looked a bit different than the other buildings. I remembered when I was younger, Kaito told me that the contractor drew the wrong blueprints for this house and they didn't realize it until after it was built. It didn't seem to matter because Tami's family was able to move into it. In a way, it was just kind of fitting being that they were all from America, and they all moved inside the one home that was just a bit different as it was smaller.

I pulled my arm away from Tami's shoulders as I gently tugged my pillow and blanket out of her arms. Kaito only lived a couple houses down, so I would be able to handle it from there. Once I had it all secured in my arms, I noticed Tami was still standing there. Her hands were tucked inside her coat as she kept looking down.

"I'll text you when I get there," I promised. "Just try to get some sleep tonight, okay."

"I should be telling you that," Tami muttered.

"Eh, it's like I said, I was just waiting for the day he'd do it. I just didn't think you'd be there when he'd kick me out or anything, so you went through more shit tonight than I did. Just eat something good, maybe those dino nuggets you like and just lay down, okay?" I told her.

Tami nodded her head. "Okay," she said, looking up at me shortly after. "J-just call me if you need anything, or if I can do anything or—"

"I will. Now get inside before your brother comes out here and throws a fit," I warned.

For the first time tonight, Tami's mouth curved up into a small smile. Seeing it, I knew she would be okay. Her eyes closed as she shook her head.

"Ollie isn't going to throw a fit," she claimed.

"You never know, so just get inside, okay?"

Her smile didn't seize as she nodded her head and walked towards her home. I watched her as she knocked a few times on the door, and waited for a moment. Shortly after, it cracked open to reveal a boy about Tami's height with glasses on his face. It was weird seeing her brother so tall. He was still short, standing just above five feet, but when I first met him, he was a good foot or two shorter than that.

He didn't even look at me as he closed the door behind Tami, but that was okay. I only stood there to make sure she actually made it inside safely. The last thing I wanted was for her to be taken away just outside her home.It happened a few times before where she was taken away in front of me. As long as I could prevent it, I wasn't going to let it happen again.

All I wanted was for her to be okay. After the night she had at my house, I knew she was far from it. All I could hope for now was that she could get some sleep before school tomorrow.

Authors Note:

To those of you who know me, I do not curse often, so having Raiden say about seven curse words in one dialogue tag and in this chapter in general...it made me very very uncomfy.

Does anyone have any soap they want to lend to clean all those nasty words out of Raiden's mouth? Or, you know, more importantly, a parenting 101 book for Raiden's dad as he is CLEARLY not anywhere near parent of the year?

Okay, but in all seriousness, lets get to this chapter's question. If you could work for any Pro Hero in the BNHA universe (whether it be as a secretary, a sidekick, whatever), who would it be and why?

Also, I had received some fanart, that I think is best to be featured here. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

First up, we have the very first, official Taiden Fanart from the wonderful Juni_Penguin_. Ahh!! Words cannot describe how much I LOVE this!! It's so cute!! Thank you so much for bringing my OTP of the series to life!

And now for the Character Spotlight, with art created by sun_jin ! Again, I'm absolutely in LOVE, especially since it reminds me of that end scene credits in Jujustu Kaisen, the one with the really good closing song. Thank you so much for creating this!

Character Spotlight: Tami Smith
Quirk: BioChange
Likes: Dogs

Song: Torment from Violet Evergarden (yes, I know I've used this song before in a previous book...but it's just so fitting! Plus, the title kinda goes with what's going on here).