Deku goes back in time and becomes Rei Todoroki

Chap #2: Puke

-- ENJI --

Shoto is hiding in his mother's side. Enji has rarely seen him elsewhere.

"Come, Shoto," Enji says, controlling his voice.

Shoto stiffens and stares up, too scared to come out, even when Enji is being patient.

Enji dams up a sigh and crouches on his heels so he's closer to his youngest son's level. He gestures for Shoto with a wave of his hand. "Come."

"He's not ready," Rei says, fretting. "Enji, don't."

Enji's chest tightens with irritation at the constant nagging, like he's doing something insidious by preparing his children to be heroes. "If it were up to you, all four of them would be wilting flowers with no concept of how to survive, let alone be useful members to society."

At Enji's snap, Shoto's lip wobbles and his eyes swim.

Enji's tired of emotional nonsense from his wife and dislikes to see it mirrored in his son.

"I'll come back for him in half an hour," he says, scowling and rising to his feet. "And this time, he's coming, so prepare him."

*

He doesn't know whether Rei tried to prepare Shoto or not, but with the state of the child at this point after so much babying, there probably wasn't anything anyone could say to convince him to leave his mother peacefully. Enji ends up having to take him by force, and it's a whole thing. The two of them are a feedback loop, emotions escalating as they respond to each other. Shoto's fingers gripping the fabric of his mother's shirt as Enji pulls him away makes Rei follow after him and beg, and her begging makes Shoto cry, and Shoto crying makes Rei grab onto Enji to try to stop him, and he has to push her off of his arm to get her to let go. She keens and lets herself fall to the floor in a hysterical mess, which upsets Shoto to the brink of hysteria along with her, and the other three children are coming out of the woodwork to stare now.

It's a fiasco.

He finally gets to the training room with his son and closes the door on the ridiculous sounds that Rei is making, and sets Shoto on his feet in the middle of the training room.

Shoto keeps crying.

He stands over Shoto with his arms crossed and waits, getting steadily more disgusted with the behaviour until Shoto crescendos by working himself up so much that he gags, and heaves, then falls down on all fours and pukes.

"You're not getting out of this by crying. I won't change to your whims like your mother does."

Rei pushes into the training room, then, dropping on her knees next to Shoto. "He's only five!" she says, like it's acceptable for a five year old to act this way.

Enji furrows his brow at the nonsense. "He's already five," he says.

She ignores him, stroking Shoto and hugging him like the worst thing just happened to him, and Shoto is clinging and sobbing.

Enji grabs her by the elbow, separating her from Shoto, and ejects her from his training room. "Stay out," he tells her, and shuts the door.

He has Shoto clean up his mess as his first lesson.

-- SHOTO --

Shoto clutches his mom's arm at the dinner table and presses his cheek against her shoulder. He hiccups and occasionally his lungs shudder, the after effects from crying. Dad said they were taking a break for dinner and then going back to the training room. Dad's gaze on him feels like a physical weight pressing him down.

Toya shifts closer to him, crowding in and helping to hide most of him, and Shoto gets some comfort from it. Toya picks up Shoto's chopsticks and holds his food to him. His stomach is in a knot and he's not hungry, but he opens his mouth for Toya. Then Toya rubs his back, but for some reason that makes Shoto want to cry more. It's hard to keep it in, but Dad's gaze is a strong motivator.