HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!!

AhhH welcome everyone! This was originally posted on Patreon for Valentine's Day but in the spirit of pride, I decided I should share it here too! It will also be posted on AO3 shortly after it goes up here if you prefer to read there!

Is an Endeavor Redemption one shot what anyone expected for pride? Probably not, but here we are.

Or: Shoto wants to marry a boy. Unfortunately, that isn't legal in Japan... at least, it's not yet. Enji has his work cut out for him.

(Aka: 10k words of Enji trying to be a better father and trying to legalize gay marriage)

Minor warning: Endeavor being mildly offensive because he's an ignorant straight man... but he is trying his best guys I promise he's not homophobic. No slurs or anything, he's just sort of a moron.

Third person pov

You'd have to have been blind not to notice.

Enji Todoroki hasn't been a very good father, hasn't even been a very good hero by definition of the word, but he's far from stupid. He'd clawed his way up to the number two spot and had been able to hold it for a reason. He was more than just brawn and swathes of flame, no matter what his sons scoffed at times.

Enji has almost always known Shoto to be closed off. This does not change when he enters UA. He's blank-faced, prone to tuning Enji out if the man says something he decides he doesn't want to hear, and he generally ignores his father most of the time. He's disdainful, moody and disrespectful in a bland sort of way that would be funny if it weren't directed at him. His son has a stonewall front. 

Maybe that's why it's so immediately obvious to Enji. He hadn't really wanted to take on Izuku Midoriya as an intern. He was All Might's prodigy, possibly even his son. It felt... wrong to bring him in as an intern. There was a sense of discomfort that came with looking at that shining smile and those sparkling eyes.

Being Number One now had sucked the fight out of Enji, though. He wanted to spend more time with Shoto, who avoided him at all costs. UA's dorms meant Enji seldom ever saw his son. How was he supposed to try and mend bridges like his therapist suggested if Shoto wouldn't even reply to his texts?

Alone, Shoto would not intern with him. But with two of his classmates along for the ride... well, surprisingly that seemed like enough to draw Shoto along. He agreed without a second's hesitation when he heard that they'd be coming too. Or rather, when he heard that Midoriya would be coming too.

The Shoto that exists in the vicinity of Izuku Midoriya is completely different. Enji genuinely cannot believe his eyes when they first walk into his agency. He thinks he's dreaming, or that maybe Shoto had been body snatched and a fake had been planted on their way in. Common sense alone is the only thing that stops him from trying to check.

Shoto looks at the Midoriya boy like he hung every goddamn star in the sky himself. Like he rises the moon at night and the sun in the morning. His eyes go soft and gooey, his expression opens like a book, and he hovers around the boy like an orbiting planet. Shoto is not just enamored, Enji can see. His son is in love.

Enji... has absolutely no idea what to do with that.

At first he's just lost. Honestly, he'd never really thought about the romantic lives of his children. In some ways they were still young and small in his mind, not ready to face the world, not strong enough to survive. A part of him wished they were. At least then he'd have a real chance to truly fix things, to do things right.

That chance is gone though, and now he has to work with what he has. Whatever this even is. Enji spends practically the entire internship watching them, absorbing the way Shoto's lips curl into a real, genuine smile when the green-haired boy turns his way. When was the last time Enji saw Shoto smile? Truly, actually smile?

He doesn't know. It makes the experience all the more novel. His son in love is a wonderful thing, he thinks. Shoto glows. He looks alive, looks happy just to be there. He hangs off Midoriya's every word and takes social cues from him. He's nicer to Enji, too, like the simple act of Midoriya being there rounds his hard and defensive edges out of their deadly points.

In the beginning, Enji admits he wars with himself. Shoto's quirk is strong. It seems a waste that he should fall in love with a boy. Not just any boy, either, but All Might's. It feels like a massive, cosmic 'fuck you' from the universe. Enji likes to think he's taken it with at least some modicum of grace.

He's almost upset. Enji came from a conservative family. Deep down, thinking about it feels wrong, feels unnatural. The idea that Shoto will not get married and have children of his own, will not pass down the quirk that's run in the Todoroki family for generations... It nags at him, and he almost says something. 

But then he sees Shoto smile. Then he hears him laugh. And Enji... Enji is tired of ruining that. He doesn't want to take that away from him anymore. He can't-- he won't.

So, he doesn't. Because Izuku Midoriya had once told him that he wasn't All Might, and that Shoto wasn't him, and he's right. Shoto is his own person. He can love whoever he wants. He can have kids or he can not. He's never cared about what Enji thinks, and that's not going to change even if he voices his displeasure.  

Enji will support him instead. It's not like being gay is a bad thing. Shoto is still the exact same as he was before. He's just in love with a boy, and Izuku Midoriya is a grand choice as far as those go. He's strong, radiating heroism and positivity from his pores. He's disgustingly optimistic, but perhaps Shoto needs a bit of that in his life. 

Shoto isn't going to make the same mistakes Enji made. Shoto's goal isn't to reach the top. Shoto is going to be the best hero there is, even if he's not Number One. He's strong and he's healthy, and Enji has come to find that's more than enough. Shoto is not like him-- he's not going to fall into a borderline illegal marriage in pursuit of power.

He's... not going to fall into any marriage at all, apparently. 

Gay marriage isn't legal in Japan. Enji had sort of known this in the back of his mind, but now it roils to the forefront. Being queer in Japan isn't very common in general. Anyone who openly is oftentimes finds themselves scorned and discriminated against. 

Enji doesn't see why it really matters who likes who. Sure, Enji is the definition of an uptight straight man, but he has no idea why that would mean other people can't be gay. Why does he care what anyone else is doing? He's not them, and their love isn't going to effect him.

Enji feels determined. He wants to understand Shoto. His therapist said that supporting his kids in whatever they want to do with their lives is one of his most important tasks if he wants to have a relationship with them again. He spent so much time controlling and suppressing them, isolating them from the outside world. It's their time to take over and decide their dreams, and as their father, it's his job to help them achieve said dreams if necessary. 

It feels notably awkward and unfamiliar to type 'gay culture' into his home laptop one key at a time, because his fingers are too big to type normally on it. What pops up on the screen is essentially a slew of slurs that he will not deem to repeat. There is very little on what it's actually like to be gay. Enji supposes a man liking a man wouldn't be all too different than a man liking a woman. Just the... parts... being different.

He wrinkles his nose and reads. He frowns. He reads some more. Processes.

Gets incredibly, incredibly angry.

These articles they-- they imply something is wrong with Shoto. That he's sick, or that something is backwards with his mind. Enji's son is the epitome of strength as far as hero students go! He's highly intelligent, quick to act in battle, and with an incredibly versatile quirk that he has gained an astonishing mastery of despite his young age. Enji was not nearly as honed as Shoto is when he was his age!

Being gay in Japan is terrible! Labeled unproductive, suggesting they have been infected with a virus. The rights for queer in Japan are some of the worst he's ever seen, as in they hardly exist at all. Is this what Shoto is in for if he pursues a relationship with Izuku Midoriya? If he pursues a relationship with anyone?

Will he... pursue a relationship with Midoriya if the world is in this state? Will Midoriya pursue one with him? Enji scoffs, pushing his laptop away from himself with a huff of steam from his nostrils. He thinks about Shoto being unable to do what he wants and feels like the entire purpose of his therapy is being roadblocked!

Shoto needs to be happy. Enji wants that for him and for all his children. This-- This could ruin him. If it got out that he was queer before his career even began, the backlash he'd face... no. No, no one was going to talk to his son like that. He didn't give a damn. Shoto was a Todoroki, was his child! 

Shoto should be able to do whatever he wants unbothered. He should be able to live however he wants, with whoever he wants, doing whatever he wants. He won't having people throwing slurs at his boy in the streets. Shoto shines when he stands next to All Might's brat, as much as Enji kind of hates that it's that kid out of all the others his son could've chosen. Enji's not letting anyone snuff that light out.

But saying and doing are two different things. So the next day, the moment Shoto walks through the door, Enji grabs him by the shoulders. Steers him off to the side. Spins him around and peers down at him with the most serious air he could muster.

"Shoto." He squeezes him. His son blinks blandly at him. "Do you want to get married to a boy one day?"

You'd have thought Enji just admitted to setting a small island of puppies on fire. 

The way he pales is immediate. His expression drops like a stone in a pond, and he looks scared of Enji like he never has before. Enji realizes, with a horrified jolt, that it's already started. Shoto is already being held back by the impudence of the public.

Enji's face must reflect his stormy mood because Shoto tries to backpedal away from him and make a break for it. Luckily, Enji foresaw this. It's the reason he physically grabbed him in the first place. He tightens his grip on him before he can squirm away, eyes boring into his. Shoto sucks in a sharp breath.

The world feels like it has gone still. In that moment, it's like only they exist. Even when Shoto's eyes flicker over to where Midoriya is wildly gesticulating to a very irritated Bakugo, it's just them. He can see how conflicted his son is. Can see his resolve warring with the fear he feels.

"I-I-" Shoto chokes out. Enji doesn't think he's ever heard him stutter. "I-I can't."

"Do you want to?" Enji asks again, intent. Shoto stares at him. 

This is his youngest. This is a child he has wronged in so many ways. One who trusted Enji to protect and raise him, and instead had his childhood robbed from him. He barely knows his siblings even now, just now getting to spend time with them. He still flinches if Enji raises his voice, and he refuses to use the training room at home.

Enji has not given Shoto much, but maybe... maybe he can give him this.

"...Y-Yes." Shoto's voice comes out a whisper, like he is ashamed. He ducks his head, hands curling into fists. His tone warbles, a little wet and still so clearly afraid. "Yes. Yes, I-I do."

Shoto tenses, clearly waiting for Enji to say something against it. Maybe Enji, spontaneous as his anger can be, would've if this had come out of the blue. But he's thought about it, and he knows now what he's got to do. What's the point of being Number One hero if he can't change things? If he can't fashion the world into a place his son can happily live in? 

What is the point of being a hero if he cannot even save his own children in all the ways that matter?

He feels grim. Not because he's upset, but because this is likely going to be the trickiest thing he's ever pulled off. He gives his son one last squeeze and lets him go, mind already whirring. Shoto risks a peek up, brows furrowing. Enji rubs at his jaw. The scar across his face aches.

"...Okay." He answers after a moment. Shoto looks a bit disbelieving. Enji nods once, and then again. Yeah... yeah. He can do this. He has no idea where to start, but he'll... figure it out. He'll do this. 

Enji is a man who relentlessly stomped his way into the Number Two spot. His drive is not to be trifled with. Since becoming Number One, it felt a bit like his purpose was gone. What furnace was he supposed to fan his flames into? What engine was he supposed to fuel, what torch was he meant to carry?

This one, apparently. It had been there the whole time waiting for him. Enji just needed to light it.

"...Okay?" Shoto asks in a quiet voice. Enji blinks out of his train of thought, looking down at him. 

"Okay." Enji echoes back, and it's the start of something.

~~~

Enji's PR team is homophobic. Enji fires every single one of them, even the ones who have been with him since the start of his agency. He then realizes he no longer has a PR team. A media team, yes, but a PR team to tell the media team what to do?

He graciously takes up the mantle. 

He has no idea where to start. Google is not helpful. The Americans provide some insight-- there's plenty of gay people over there and though most of the older generations aren't very happy with it, they seem to get on a whole lot better over there than they do here. They have legalized gay marriage, at least.

The only problem is that their gay marriage was legalized pre-quirk. That changes some things, Enji thinks. From what he can tell, they just sort of spoke out loudly about it. Held parades, and protests, and all sorts of things. They basically kept screaming that they wanted gay marriage legalized at the top of their lungs and they were eventually given it.

Enji is very good at speaking loudly. His PR team would probably tell him this is a horrible idea, but they're gone and they're not coming back no matter how many times they desperately email him. His image has been terrible for years now, anyway. They clearly weren't doing very good at their jobs.

(Nevermind that his image was likely about to get about ten times worse before it got better. If it ever got better. C'est la vie, as the french say.)

He needs to be bold, but not too bold. Too bold and they'll think he's saying it just for the sake of saying it. He needs to start subtle. Make them ask about it. Enji's been playing this game a long time, and even if he hasn't always been the best at it, he does know the rules. Enji sits in the empty PR team staff room and nods to himself, arms crossed over his chest.

His support department has a lot of questions when he visits them. Enji, politely, does not answer a single one. He's no artist, but he thinks the drawing he makes them is pretty clear. He sets down the folder gently (read: slams it down as hard as humanly possible) and asks (read: demands) they fulfill his request within the next three hours.

He sits there whilst they work, and they have it done in one. Enji is sure it is simply because they are highly dedicated to their work and for no reason else. 

"Endeavor, Endeavor!" The reporter that approaches him is a woman in a pencil skirt and professional blouse. She shoves a microphone in his face, a recorder in her other hand and a camera at her back. "Is there a reason for this change to your costume?!" 

Enji puffs up. He goes through his mental checkbox. Step one, decide what change you want to make. Check. Step two, make the change. Check. Step three, wait for someone to ask. Check. Step four, when someone asks, tell them. Almost check. Why had he ever had a PR team to begin with? He knows what he's doing.

"Gay marriage should be legal." He proclaims gruffly. The flames of his costume flare off in perfect rainbow order, a miasma of striped colors. "I support the gay individuals. Queers. And think they should be able to get married." 

He nods to punctuate the statement. For some reason, the woman looks shocked silent, and the camera man has gone stock still. He has no idea why. The rainbow is supposed to be the universal sign, according to Google, so it should be painfully obvious exactly what he's trying to say.

Still, she somehow does not get it. Nobody in hearing range seems to get it either if their wide-eyed stares are anything to go off of.

"Y-You, I--" The reporter sputters. Enji's not sure what she was expecting if not that. "What?!"

Enji just told her. He raised a brow, steam escaping his nose. He scoffs. 

"I am a... straight ally." The unfamiliar term rolls oddly off his tongue. "I wish to display my support. I am a very supportive person."

He gives the camera a pointed look, hoping Shoto will see this at some point and know just how supported he is. Enji's going to make his dreams come true. His therapist is going to be proud of his progress. Enji is, as they say, healing.

"...You want to legalize gay marriage?" The woman sounds like she doesn't believe him. Are the rainbow flames not enough? The support department had worked very hard to change the fabric of his suit to make such a thing possible.

"Yes. However did you guess?" Enji gives her a withering look, his sarcasm flat, unimpressed, and biting. "Now, go write an article about it. I need everyone to know."

The woman nodded almost robotically. Satisfied, Enji turned on his heel and went about his patrol. Step four, complete. Now, step five... to bide his time and let the news spread. Enji can't help but smirk to himself, flames blaring hotter and thus brighter, broadcasting a rainbow glow around him.

Gay marriage is going to be legalized in no time, and Shoto? Shoto is going to live his best and most happiest life. And Enji's going to be the reason it happens.

~~~

Natsuo never calls him. Like, ever. Enji almost drops his phone in his haste to answer, heart pounding. He opens his mouth as soon as its up to his ear, prepared to ask what's wrong, because something must be.

"Alright, what the hell are you playing at now, old man?" Natsuo cuts him off before he gets the chance to speak. Enji pauses. "You wanna tell me why Twitter's in a frenzy saying you suddenly support gay marriage?"

Enji felt himself grin. So the news was spreading. And it had only been forty minutes! Was Twitter a news site? Probably one of those woke young people things if Natsuo was on it. He was very with the times-- maybe Enji should ask him for tips. It could help them better bond.

"So you've heard." He sniffed to himself, smug. "Excellent. Do you think they'll legalize gay marriage?" 

"I-- what?" Natsuo sounded a whole lot like that reporter, which was strange since Endeavor was quite certain that Natsuo was at least ten times smarter than she was. He was in college, after all. "No! I mean, I don't know-- why do you even care? What the fuck are you trying to do?" 

Enji thought what he was trying to do was painfully obvious. In fact, Natsuo had just asked about it, so he obviously knew. Maybe he was seeking confirmation? That was good of him. You couldn't believe everything you heard on the news, after all. 

"Trying to legalize gay marriage." Enji repeated for his son's benefit. It then occurred to him that maybe that's not the true depth of his question. "Ah, I see. I am doing this to support Shoto. He has relayed to me that he wants to marry a boy one day, and I'm seeking to make that possible for him."

It's not information he would give directly to the press, but this was Natsuo. He wasn't going to spread it around. Right now, with gay marriage not yet legalized, it could be disastrous if Shoto's romantic inclinations got out. Enji didn't want him to go through the hate he would likely get.

Natsuo fell dead silent on the other line, so quiet that Enji had to check twice to make sure he hadn't hung up on him. Natsuo tended to do that anytime Enji did manage to get him on the phone. Though, to be fair, Enji usually only got one word in before he was ending the call. 

Perhaps the information was simply that shocking. Enji hadn't been the most supportive or involved of father's. For all his promises to change, Natsuo never seemed to believe him. And that was fine. None of his children had to forgive him if they didn't wish to-- but that wasn't going to stop Enji from trying.

"...Shoto is gay?" Natsuo asked, voice softer than he'd heard it in a very long time. 

"Well, he wants to marry a boy." Enji's nose wrinkled a bit as Izuku Midoriya's uncanny smile flashed through his mind's eye. Literal shivers. "Is that not typically what gay people do? Marry those of their same gender?"

Natsuo hung up on him. Enji looked at the black screen of his phone for a moment, blinking a few times. Abruptly, it started to ring again. Fuyumi's name displayed itself across the front. Not as uncommon an occurrence, but Enji answered it anyway. Obviously.

"Hey, dad, quick question." Fuyumi's voice rushed out, also not giving Enji a chance to speak. She and her brother were alike in the strangest of ways. "Why's Twitter going crazy saying you want to legalize gay marriage?"

Enji makes mental note to look up what Twitter is later. He's starting to think it may be important.

~~~~

The criticism is... harsh. Japan really isn't very LGBTQ friendly. Luckily, Enji doesn't care, doesn't have a PR team to berate him, and has definitely heard worse. So it's all fine.

The headlines are rather absurd. One states he's homophobic, which makes absolutely no sense because he clearly is not. Something about him calling people gay individuals? Apparently it was not an acceptable way to address them which also made no sense. 

It was rather dehumanizing if you thought about it. What, so gay people couldn't be individuals now? The prejudice ran deeper than Enji had thought. Luckily, he could work with this.

"Why am I here?" Natsuo asked sharply, as if he had not come to the agency of his own accord when Enji requested him to at his earliest convenience (with sixty text messages at four in the morning from his work phone, because he'd blocked Enji's personal number, but that surely did not contribute to his presence).

The old PR office was entirely empty. It felt impossibly big when it wasn't full of bustling people. The agency hadn't collapsed without them here, so Enji has no idea why he kept them so long. He'd been basically paying them to do something he easily could've been doing on his own all along.

He would've invited Fuyumi to help as well, but her work as a preschool teacher meant she couldn't join in. Asking her take off on such short notice would be unprofessional, but she had kindly relayed Natsuo's class schedule to him so that he might find help there. It was a sign of fate that he didn't have any lectures to attend today, Enji felt.

"You love your brother, correct?" Enji asked in all seriousness. Natsuo looked startled by the severity of his tone, but this was a very severe situation. This was a high-stakes operation Enji was trying to pull off. "You want him to be happy?"

Natsuo looked at him like he was some sort of alien, which was actually quite rude. His questions were entirely just.

"Uh, yeah. Not that you've ever cared about either of those things." Natsuo's voice held a snappish quality. A glance at the clock showed it was still before seven so Enji let it go. "Look, just cut to the chase already, old man. What the hell does me loving Shoto have to do with me being in your agency at ass o'clock in the morning on a Wednesday?" 

"I need your help. It's become apparent to me that I need to get my own voice out there. The news stations-- they are not accurately relaying the message I'm trying to spread." Enji spun his monitor around grimly so Natsuo could see the list of slandering news articles. "Gay marriage will never legalize if they continue to twist my words."

Natsuo looked incredibly tired. Enji could relate. This was quite exhausting. 

They needed to act fast. Like wildfire, various, butchered versions of what had gone down were spreading. With each passing minute the tide seemed to turn more and more in the direction of Enji being homophobic. Everyone thought he was joking! Being offensive, even! 

It was terrible. Sure, the homophobes were out there-- he had expected that backlash. But to not have the support of all the internet gays? He needed at least someone in his corner! He needed to rehash his message, but he couldn't trust a reporter to do it. 

"You were serious about that?" Natsuo frowned, eyeing him oddly. As though he had never seen his father before. "So what? Now you've decided to turn into some super father who loves and accepts his kids no matter what? Pardon me if I'm skeptical."

"You're pardoned." Enji said easily. He can be amiable to his kids, see? He furiously clicked another tab, switching it to Twitter. "This. This is what we need, Natsuo. I Googled it and it says we can post whatever we wish and thousands will see it." 

It was perfect. The articles could cite his exact, typed words. Anyone could go look at them for confirmation. And he could think about them before he posted them! No more on the fly wordplay. All the needed to do was make an account, and then--

"Uh... right. You already have a Twitter." Natsuo made a face. Enji felt his reality come crashing down around him. He already had one? Why did nobody tell him?! "Your PR team is probably the one manning it. Just tell them what you want to say and they'll post it. Can I leave now? Blow my phone up again and I'll block you again, by the way."

This changed... things.

"I am the PR team." Enji rebutted, frowning thoughtfully. "They were all homophobic, so I fired them. How do I get into my Twee-ter?" 

Natsuo stared at him, face strangely blank. Enji stared back. All of a sudden, he felt himself dawn upon a stunning realization. One he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of before. It smacked him square in the forehead. Enji is such a fool!

Something must've shown on his face because Natsuo starts to lean back, his brows drawing in and face twisting into a fierce scowl. Enji is honestly surprised he hasn't walked out already. To be fair, Enji had locked the doors so he couldn't get out, but said doors were glass. Natsuo could've easily broken one with a chair if he so pleased.

(He could not, in fact, have easily broken one with a chair if he so pleased. The glass was reinforced. But that's okay because the point was that he hadn't even tried that route to begin with! Progress!)

"Absolutely not." Natsuo glowers despite Enji not having said anything yet.

"You can be the PR department." Enji realizes, ignoring him entirely. "You know how to use Twee-ter, don't you?"

"Twitter." Natsuo corrects, proving that Enji's decision to bring him onto the team was a good one. "And again, let me repeat myself: absolutely not. Fuck no, old man. You can go fuck yourself."

Well, that wouldn't do. Enji had no idea how to use Twitter, but they needed to hurry up. Shoto was technically already at marriageable age. All he needed was Enji's permission, and the Midoriya boy needed his guardian's permission, and that would be that. Or could be that-- if he could pull this off already.

"I see." Enji leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. Time to pull out the big guns. "You don't want Shoto to be happy."

Natsuo went very, very still.

"Are you homophobic?" Enji tacked on for good measure. "It seems awfully homophobic that you won't aid me in securing your brother a happy future in which he can be comfortable and wed to whoever he wants. I suppose you just don't want his lifelong dreams to come true."

(Natsuo takes over the Twitter.)

~~~

"So what the fuck even are you now?" Is the first thing Bakugo says to him the next time the kids are with him to intern, his brows raised. "Self-proclaimed guardian of the gays or some shit?"

That... sounds like exactly what he is. 

"Yes." Enji responds, and Bakugo's face does something complicated. Midoriya blinks curiously, glancing between the pair. Shoto is pale as a ghost, hovering just behind the green haired boy and looking like he has no idea what to do. "That sounds correct."

He'll have to get Natsuo to add that to his... Twitter Bio. Natsuo had showed it to him (read: shoved his phone in his face, pointed vaguely, and called him an idiot for not knowing) and apparently it was a little area to introduce yourself. His was fairly normal-- Natsuo had tried to add 'shitbag father' but Enji had pointed out that it could be a detriment to their long term plan so he'd begrudgingly deleted it.

Bakugo looked at his flaming costume, still rainbow, with drawn in brows. Like he couldn't quite comprehend what he was seeing. Enji supposed that made sense. After so long of his flames being a natural orange, it would be jarring to see them changed.

"It's really cool that you're advocating for LGBTQ rights, Endeavor-san!" Midoriya chirped out with that far-too-bright smile of his. Enji tried not to squint on reflex. "It really means a lot, especially to the younger generations! It's cool that you've gotten so active on twitter about it, too."

Well, this was a good sign. Enji had never really considered whether the green-haired brat was also an LGBTQ member. If he was happy about Enji's new undertaking, then perhaps he was, or was at least open to it. He glanced at Shoto, who looked stuck between happy and astonished. His disbelief was obvious.

Enji understood. He'd been far from a good father, but he was changing his ways! He could listen! He could get laws changed for the benefit of his kids! Shoto had told him he wanted to marry a boy, so Enji was going to make sure he could marry a boy.

He can feel Shoto's gaze on him all throughout the day. He's quieter, staring thoughtfully at his father with a small frown and furrow in his brow. Enji keeps his flames high and stops for every reporter they run across-- something he didn't used to waste his time with. 

Even better was that Midoriya seemed completely on board with it. Enji was beginning to see that he needed more assistants. Spokesmen? And spokeswomen. And spokes...non... genders? Enji was not caught up on the lingo. That would have to be his next great undertaking now that Twitter was squared away.

"Go to Endeavor-san's Twitter to sign the petition to legalize gay marriage in Japan!" Midoriya chirped out, shoving his way in front of the microphone. "Every signature helps!"

"We have a petition?" Enji blinked before he backtracked, clearing his throat. "I mean yes. Sign the petition. Now."

He gave the camera a very pointed look, something he did often. In the background, Bakugo flew past, screaming furiously as he tackled a villain through the display window of a clothing store. Midoriya made a noise of distress and flipped into action to go help. Shoto watched the entire thing with a frown, only stopping to smile reassuringly at Midoriya when the boy stopped to ask him gently if he was okay. 

It wasn't until the end of the day that Shoto finally reached out to speak to him alone. He never initiated first contact with Enji if he didn't have to, so it felt fairly significant when he grabbed his wrist and dragged him through a random door to their right. The room was empty-- Enji was actually pretty sure it used to be used for the PR team's meetings. How fitting.

Shoto looked discomforted. There was a conflicted look upon his face. He released Enji as though burned, turning to start pacing. Enji blinked and watched him go, eyes following him as he went back and forth, pinging between two walls like a ping pong ball. He held his silence.

His therapist says it's good not to push boundaries. He shouldn't pressure his children. He should very lightly nudge, let them know he was there, and then sit back and let them come to him if they were comfortable. It had clearly worked with Natsuo, who had come to the agency and was now working with him. It could work here too.

Shoto whirled on him after about two minutes, mismatched eyes blazing with both determination and uncertainty. He looked almost pained, like he had tons to say but had no idea how to say any of it. Enji blinked at him languidly as he stomped up to him, stopping a scant few feet away.

"Why?" Shoto asked with fierceness that had honestly come out of nowhere. Enji frowned. "Just-- why? Tell me why." 

He sounded frustrated and upset. It wasn't a tone he'd ever heard Shoto use. Does this mean he's starting to open up to him more?

"You're the one who dragged me in here." Enji gestured to the rest of the empty room. "I should be asking you that."

"No! Not-- this!" Shoto looked even more frustrated. "I mean why-- why are you doing all... all this? With the- the gay marriage, a-and the petition, and-- and Natsuo said that you--"

Shoto's face twisted. For a horrifying moment, Enji thought he may start crying. He hadn't gotten to that part of therapy yet. He had no idea what to do if he did start. Enji held his breath as Shoto's nose and eyes scrunched, his lips quivering. He looked angry and sad and... a lot of things.

Enji felt more than a little lost. Natsuo and Fuyumi had already asked him all manner of redundant questions, but that was to be expected. But for Shoto to be asking him? Shoto was the one who'd had him do this in the first place! Ish! 

"You said you wanted to marry a boy." Enji said, slightly miffed. 

"Yeah, but I didn't think you... I..." Shoto looked just as lost as Enji felt, his voice uncharacteristically small. His teeth clenched, and he looked down as if keeping his gaze on Enji was physically impossible. "I didn't think you'd... you'd be okay with it."

He had to force the words out. They were obviously not very easy for him to say, and Enji realized that his son was once again afraid of him. Afraid of his reaction, or perhaps just so uncertain that fear was what he defaulted to as a defense. Enji felt his shoulders slouch slightly, the fight leaving him.

He was being foolish. Why would Shoto know? How would he? Enji had never done anything good for him before. He was not someone to count on, not someone who'd ever supported him in any way Shoto had been welcoming of.

Enji knew what he seemed like. With his traditional house and his traditional attitude and his outdated knowledge of the world. He'd been reading almost constantly, wanting, needing to know more about the issue he was trying to tackle.

Shoto looked so small. Small, yet so big at the same time, and Enji found himself struck by how much he'd grown. It felt like time had flown by impossibly fast. Enji felt wrongfooted standing here before him, unsure of how to explain or convey his thoughts. He wanted Shoto to know he was genuine. That he was-- chill, as the kids said these days.

Shoto peeked up at him and there was something hopeful there. Enji had to really look to see it. It was tentative, hesitantly peeking out from behind defensive walls. Shoto wanted to believe him. He wanted this. Enji could see it, and that-- that was enough to spur him into speaking, no matter how awkward and uncertain he felt about what to say.

"As your father, it is my duty to secure your future." Enji started in a stilted tone. Emotion and opening up had never been his strong suit, but whatever. Viva la... good parenting? "It has taken me a... long time to realize that I need to secure the future you want for yourself, not the one I choose for you. If this is what will make you happy, then--"

There were arms around him. Enji, like any rational person might, froze and stopped breathing.

Shoto was hugging him. Shoto was hugging him. He'd... never done that before. Not in Enji's memories. Enji stared down at him with big eyes, still as a board. His son was shaking slightly, the faintest of tremors just barely visible in his shoulders. He buried his face into his father's costume and squeezed.

It shouldn't have made him feel emotional. It was just a hug. It was a typical thing for parents to share with their children. Only-- they had never been typical, had they? Shoto hated him to a degree and likely always would. Enji had ruined his life in so many ways, had forced him to become something he may've never wanted to be. 

Ever so carefully, Enji wrapped his arms around his son. It was a foreign action but one that made him warm in a way his fire quirk did not cause. Shoto hugged him harder, and Enji smiled.

(Shoto went back to trailing after Midoriya like a lovesick puppy after that, but the small smiles he sent Enji in-between? It made it all worth it.)

~~~

The news is split.

All Might keeps retweeting him and had spoken out his support, so that had helped a lot. Enji sort of didn't want to admit it, but Natsuo had made him or else he'd stop helping. Seeing as Twitter was their greatest weapon right now, Natsuo jumping ship definitely wasn't an option. Enji had taken the loss and resigned himself to typing out a thank you to the Number One pro and hitting the little blue post button himself.

The hero commission had been emailing him endlessly. Enji had decided to open none of them so he could call plausible deniability, as it was very likely they were asking him to stop. See no evil, fear no evil... or something along those lines.

Not the point. Some people are all for his campaign, the petition gaining thousands of signatures by the day. Others, however? Well... most of the official media releases out there weren't very supportive. Most weren't outright discriminatory-- they couldn't risk being so, lest they get called out and 'cancelled'. 

That was a term Natsuo had taught him. Apparently it had happened to him several times and he'd been none the wiser! Who knew. Clearly his PR team hadn't been up to par. It said a lot that his college-student son could do better than a team of trained professionals. Then again, Natsuo is a Todoroki. Succeeding is in his blood.

"The Number One hero: out of control." Natsuo read off blandly. Enji had gone from not just rainbow flames, but to also wearing rainbow ties with his suits, rainbow shirts when he wasn't on duty, and now carried around a pouch full of rainbow pins to give to anyone he happened to pass on the street. "What flamboyant act will he commit next? Can we expect to see Endeavor tower painted in LGBTQ colors?"

Enji slowly turned to look at him. That... is a brilliant idea.

The louder, the more insistent, the quicker he'd get results. This would be the biggest statement of all statements. Impossible to miss! His agency was in the middle of one of the biggest cities in Japan! It was the tallest building too, visible from all sides of the prefecture. It would surely draw the attention they needed.

Natsuo glanced up from his phone to look at him only to do a doubletake when he saw the look on his father's face. Enji stared at him intently. Natsuo blanched slightly.

"We need to call the painters." Enji had no idea who they were supposed to call to paint a veritable skyscraper. Could the support department do it?

"They were being sarcastic. They were mocking you." Natsuo plainly said, sounding a little panicked. "Do not paint your hero agency rainbow. That's gaudy. That's too far."

(It was painted before the week was out. Natsuo, typing out a passive aggressive thank you to the writers of the original article, wondered why the hell he still bothered.)

~~~

Enji has never been closer to his children.

Fuyumi is overjoyed that they're all getting along. Natsuo tolerates him now, maybe even begrudgingly respects him in some ways. He works alongside him, anyway, coming to the agency in his free time to grumble in the old PR office. He's taken it over as his own and hisses at anyone who comes in while he's busy 'fixing his old man's fuck ups'. 

Shoto works well with him now. He listens to him, even texts him sometimes! He tells him about his day, answers Enji's questions when he asks, and has even sent the occasional photo. Sometimes it's of a cat he came across, or a selfie of him and All Might's brat, or a picture from training. Enji saves every single one proudly (after he forces Natsuo to show him how).

"Should I even ask?" Burnin' rose a brow. Enji scowled.

"No." He snipped out. He jerked his head to the left. "Now stop dwaddling and get on the float."

The parade is a raging success, because success is Enji's middle name and he never loses, naturally. How Natsuo organized the entire thing, Enji has no idea. All he knows is that his son barricaded himself in the PR office for a week straight and refused to come out. 

When he finally did, he'd had news of the parade. The PR office had been trashed. There were at least eighteen empty bags of Doritos strewn about and dozens of half-full energy drink cans. The bags under his eyes had been so deep that Enji had almost wanted to take him to the emergency room, but Natsuo had shouldered past him before he got the chance to grab him.

He hasn't seen Natsuo since, actually. He's been a bit preoccupied. The parade had garnered all sorts. Other pros had come to show their support, Best Jeanist there-- not wearing rainbows, but instead purple, black, and grey? Apparently they were relevant. Enji didn't know.

Hawks had come too, flying overhead dressed also in strange colors. Pink, yellow and blue seemed closer to a rainbow to him. Again, Enji really doesn't know. Hundreds showed up, his float was front and center, and the entire thing had filled the streets with enough confetti to overtake a landfill. That's all he needs to know.

"Over fifty million signatures on the petition, dad! Congratulations!" Fuyumi chirped at him through the phone. Right, the petition. What was that supposed to do again? Did anyone actually listen to those? "That's almost half of Japan's population, give or take a few million! That's amazing!" 

If she said so, she was probably right. Enji pretended he knew what she was talking about. That tended to be the best course of action most of the time.

With the rise of his movement came the rise of other things. Wait, that sounded a little wrong. Not what he meant. He means that a lot of heroes were coming out as queer, which was great because if they came out, it wouldn't be so blatant if Shoto ever wanted to. He wouldn't have to feel so alone.

It felt a bit like a war. There was still actual hero work to do, but he punctuated each villain fight with a visit with the press to insist gay marriage be legalized. He threatened to revolt if they didn't. When asked what he meant by revolt, he refused to elaborate, mostly because he didn't really know either. 

He felt like he was doing something genuinely meaningful for once. Something fueled not by greed or some selfish desire to be better and stronger than everyone else. He was doing this for his son. He'd have started doing things for his kids much, much sooner if he'd known it felt this good.

"I hear you've been busy." His therapist hums. Enji doesn't have a set schedule with her. He just comes in when he feels like it, or if she calls him and insists he needs to. Usually she's right.  "There've been a lot of changes. Want to tell me about them?"

She's an elderly woman who's been in this line of work longer than he's been a hero. She's not afraid of him, nor does she ever refuse to see him again like the five therapists he tried to get before her who all flaked five minutes in and asked him to leave. She never cuts corners or hesitates to say it how it is.

"Sure." He agrees, since that's why he's here to begin with. He holds out his phone to her. "Sign this petition first?"

Turns out she already did. Enji knew there was a reason he kept coming here.

~~~

Gay people keep coming up to him and taking selfies with him. Enji gives them rainbow pins even though they really don't need them, since they're already 'woke'. Natsuo is probably so proud of his lingo usage.

It takes months. Enji had hoped he'd be able to have it all done in a few weeks but apparently things aren't that easy. In the end, the straw that breaks the camel's back is... well. He's very convincing, and the HPSC has lots of sway and drafts a lot of Japan's laws. 

The president of the HPSC summoning him is proverbial rain on his proverbial parade-- all puns intended, he's been trying to get into dad jokes. They'd been emailing him since this whole fiasco started so maybe it's not a surprise. Enji's not about to say he regrets any of it.

Shoto's internship with him has come to a close, but the boy stays in contact. Yeah, you heard that right. Shoto willingly talks to him. Enji has to initiate half the time, but who the hell cares? Shoto replies to him! Replies! He's even had lunch with him a few times!

This is unprecedented. Such progress proves to Enji what a great idea this all was. That, and the public has never loved him more. He used to be hated by like, three fourths of Japan. Now less than half resented him! 

It was amazing. His rainbow tower had also become a tourist attraction-- people constantly took pictures in front of it like it was the Eiffel Tower or something. It made passing out rainbow pins and getting petition signatures much easier. 

Natsuo doesn't appear to loathe him anymore. It's more of a mild hate. He had befriended the media team and didn't want to abandon them with no one in PR, as they would be utterly lost without him, so he stayed out of guilt. Enji tried to have lunch with him every day he was in the office if he could. 

Natsuo wasn't a huge fan of it, but he didn't try to leave. (Read: he could not leave. Enji locked the doors behind him when he did sneak in.) His college studies were going great. Apparently this work experience involving human rights would look great on his resume, maybe even better since it was technically all volunteer. Or was it if he had a credit card linked to Enji's bank account?

Enji was pretty sure the spending limit per transaction on it was the only reason Natsuo hadn't drained it dry buying All Might themed sports cars or something. Being friends with his son was nice. He even got Natsuo to take a picture with him once! He had held his phone hostage to get him to do it, but you know. Details.

"You've been kicking up a lot of fuss lately, Endeavor." The HPSC president drawled. Enji didn't remember her name but thought she looked exceptionally like a weasel. Her hair was greased back and looked incredibly oily. "We've tried to contact you several times on the matter and yet you've replied to none of our emails. Do you care to share why?"

"I didn't read them." Enji responded straight-faced. "I doubted they would be relevant to me." 

The woman's eye twitched. Enji watched with detached interest as her clasped hands flexed, squeezing together so tight her knuckles momentarily went white. The moment of tension was gone as soon as it came. Were he less observant, he may've even missed it. 

The HPSC was... special. Meddling, mostly. Enji had never liked having to deal with them, and he especially didn't now. This was more important than any wrenches they'd ever tried to throw in his hero plans. This was Shoto's future and happiness!

"They were. Relevant." The woman grit out tightly. "We need you to stop this, Endeavor. You're causing unrest. Society can't take this instability." 

Enji sees his in. 

"Oh, I see." He drawled, nose crinkling. He looks the woman up and down distinctly, leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed judgmentally over his chest. "You're homophobic." 

The look on her face says it all, and Enji knows without a shadow of a doubt that he's just done it.

~~~

With the sheer size of the petition and with Endeavor's polite conversation with the HPSC president (read: his blatant gaslighting and manipulating) it's only a matter of a few weeks before it's official. 

His children all whoop and hug him when the news breaks. Even Natsuo. The three of them pile around him, Shoto ducking his head to hide his teary eyes, Natsuo throwing an arm around him and jostling into his side, and Fuyumi wrapping him up and squealing. Enji wraps his arms around the three of them as best he can and basks.

His children are hugging him, and he's hugging his children, and they are happy. They want to hug him. He's done something that they're proud of, that they can smile about. He's changed the world in a way him being Number One never could've on its own. He's changed the world as a dad, and that's-- that's everything. 

It is insanity. There are hundreds of weddings across Japan in the hour after it finally becomes legal. Shoto's own homeroom teacher is one of them, Present Mic holding their clasped hands up for the cameras to see, grinning so wide it probably hurts, tears rolling down his face. Eraserhead himself is beaming uncharacteristically, his own eyes visibly wet.

Shoto breaks when he sees the photo of them. He sobs, and he hugs his dad, and then he sobs some more. Enji's therapist luckily briefed him during their last meeting on what to do. Enji had finally thought to ask, so he's equipped to deal with it now. Turns out it's tons easier than he thought. All he has to do is pat him a little. 

"Fuck! You fucking did it!" Natsuo laughs, grinning. It is the happiest Enji has ever had the privilege of seeing him. His cheeks are rosy with excitement, and he looks younger this way. Enji pretends his eyes don't burn. "I can't believe it, but you legalized gay marriage! You of all people!" 

Enji wants to be offended but... yeah. That's fair.

Enji thinks he'll get through it without any moments of total emotional vulnerability on his part up until the point where Shoto finally pries his face out of his father's chest to look up at him. His face is tear-streaked, but his eyes sparkle in a way Enji didn't think eyes could. Joy pours out of him, relief exuding from his very pores.

He smiles. He smiles a brilliant, light kind of smile that takes Enji's breath away. He looks like hope, and Enji wonders how much this had been eating at Shoto, how much it had weighed him down. The uncertainty of a future. The inability to have something that was right in front of him, to reach his dream.

Enji knows the type of despair that can inspire in a person. The self-hatred and destructiveness. 

There is none of that in Shoto now, if there ever was at all. He beams up at Enji, a smile reserved for his father. Enji has never gotten one quite like it. He looks at his youngest and knows this is a moment he will cherish and remember for the rest of his life. He knows that being the cause of this, of all his achievements, is no doubt his proudest one.

"Dad." He chokes out tearfully, and his smile widens. "I-I can marry a boy." 

Enji's flimsy cover of calm, cool, and collected crumbles away into dust. He smiles. It's not a big smile, but it is warm, perhaps a little helpless. He brings a hand up to cup the scarred side of his son's face. He feels a tear escape him, and then another. He makes no move to wipe them.

"Yes." Enji smiled at him, voice embarrassingly soft. "Yes, you can." 

Enji hasn't given his children much, but he's given them this. And maybe that counts for more than he thought it would.

(The next time he sees Shoto and Midoriya together, their hands are clasped together tight. Enji bets they'll have a winter wedding.) 

Bonus:

The news is revolutionary. Dabi watches from his dingy couch, sipping a beer as wedding after wedding plays on his shit TV. Teary faces and big grins shine through the screen. People are happy. They've been given something they thought impossible in the span of just a few months. Dabi watches and feels... he's not sure, exactly.

He'd thought he knew Endeavor. He's the man's son, had seen the darkest parts of him. He was supposed to be irredeemable. After all he did? He wasn't fit to be a hero. He needed to be taken down from his mantle, and that's why the identity of Dabi was born to begin with. To save his siblings and Japan from him.

Now he sees footage of Endeavor grinning ear from ear, rainbow flames flaring out from his suit, with all of Dabi's smiling siblings with him. There's no audio but he can see Fuyumi and Natsuo chattering excitedly with one another. Smushed between them is a puffy-eyed Shoto who looks so happy he might float away.

Something in his chest clenches painfully, and suddenly... suddenly Dabi can't find it in himself to be angry anymore.

He'd been angry for his siblings for so long. He'd been doing this to save them, but they don't look like they're in danger. Dabi cannot fathom the thought of forgiving that man, but after what he's just done? After the way he's just changed the world, even though he didn't have to, even though the media pissed all over him, even though he was met with defiance at every turn?

Dabi, begrudgingly, gets it. He gets why his brothers and sister are smiling. In another world, he'd be right there next to them smiling too.

He'd been so mad when it first started. He thought, like everyone else, that it was a sick joke. A new angle of his PR team trying to make him more likable, or progressive, or something along those lines. He'd been almost tempted to go storm his way down the old man's agency right then and there and burn it to the goddamn ground.

Only Dabi didn't, because that would blow his cover and ruin his plans. So he'd watched and he'd waited. He'd watched and... he'd seen nothing change, no backpedaling or anything. He'd sees the old man keep going, carrying around pins, and wearing shirts, and knotting ties. 

He sees him stop at every camera to talk about his petition, and about how they need to legalize gay marriage-- he's just as obsessed with the idea as he had been with being Number One when Dabi was growing up and it's utterly uncanny. He's scarily persistent. He brushes off anyone who tries to disrupt him and bulldozes forward, only this time he bulldozes towards something actually obtainable. 

"My eldest son and I have taken over the PR team." Endeavor says one day when someone asks why there's been no word from the official press release faction of his agency. "They were homophobic so I fired them all."

That is the exact moment Dabi realizes that he's actually being for real. And just like that, his world view changes.

Endeavor did a good thing. A beyond good thing-- he'd go down in history books for this. And fuck, he deserved to. Japan was so behind the sexuality curve it was insane. America had been with the times since before quirks were even a thing, and Japan had just... never caught up. There'd been bigger things to worry about.

Dabi feels the fight drain out of him, purpose gone. He stops going to the League's meetings, stops going to the bar entirely. This is not a monster needing to be slain, not anymore. In the same way Touya changed into Dabi, Endeavor shifted back into Enji. Dabi will never forget the past, but he... he can't ignore the future.

And it... it hits home. Because this change has bettered society, is something Dabi himself had wanted and secretly yearned for. It wasn't something he was allowed to have, but... maybe now it was. Maybe his father had given him that whether he realized it or not. And maybe, maybe Dabi was allowed to take it.

If he wasn't going to be a villain anymore, he needed to be something else. If he took this, if he tried to make a life for himself... well, a normal life was no place for someone like Dabi. Dabi had existed to kill Endeavor. But after what the pro'd just done, how could Dabi be so self-centered as to take that away? 

That wouldn't be justice. It wouldn't be some big reveal. It would not be the mercy, the service it would've been before. It would just be plain murder, and people would mourn Endeavor for it.

Dabi wouldn't forgive him. Not now, not ever. What he'd done was vile, but what he'd become now? He... he needed to see where it would go. He needed to know if it was here to stay. And in the meantime, he couldn't be Dabi while he did it.

(Maybe he'd been secretly yearning for an out. Perhaps he'd been reaching for something beyond this, wanting desperately to be more than what Endeavor made him. For a chance to fall back into his own skin and just... be.)

"There you fucking are! Fuck, I haven't seen you in forever!" Hawks all but shrieks, yanking him into his apartment when he finally gets the nerve to knock. "Where the hell have you been? Why is your hair white? Fuck, you scared me, you stupid, moronic, i--"

"Hey." Touya greeted, heart thundering. "I-- fuck. Do you want to get married?"

Hawks stares at him for a beat, and then another. He grins.

(They have a winter wedding.)