The Man Behind the Screen

A Threat, What's it Worth?

MIDORIYA'S POV

"Daddy! Look!" Daiki yelled while pointing out the window in the living room. "Mommy here!" At least he was excited to see her, even after how she treated him when she dropped him off last week.

"Yeah, she is." I set my hand on the top of his head and ruffled his curls. "Hey, buddy, I need to talk to mommy alone for a little while. Why don't you pick up your toys and the mess from the blanket fort."

His curls bounced as he nodded his head quickly. He watched Itsuka walk up the sidewalk for a second before running down the hall to his room. When he was in his room, I opened the front door for his mom.

"Is he ready?" She asked quickly.

"He's cleaning up," I replied. "Come in. We need to talk." My fists were clenched by my side as my eyes locked on her neck. She had a rather large hickey on the left side of her neck. My eyes trailed down to her left hand. She was still wearing her wedding ring.

"Did you really drop him off without telling me, walking him to the door, or waiting for him to get inside to hook up with someone for a week?" Anger continued building inside of me.

"You left me, remember? Why do you care if I hook up with someone?" She snapped.

I rolled my eyes and opened the door further, silently asking her to come inside. It was mid-spring, so it was still chilly from time to time.

"Itsuka, I don't care who or what you do in your personal time." I did think it was a little soon for her to disappear with someone for a week, but that isn't any of my business. "What I care about is that you dropped our son off like you did. I don't actually care what the excuse is. Nothing will ever justify you putting Daiki in any sort of danger."

She rolled her eyes. "He wasn't in any danger. He walked maybe 30 feet from the edge of the road to the door."

The edge of the road? "Wait, you didn't even pull into the driveway for him? You made him get out on the side of the road?" She rolled her eyes before looking down the hallway, trying to peer into Daiki's room. Our son isn't stupid. He knows that if we say we need to talk alone, he won't come back out until we call him, or there's an emergency.

"How many times did we stop and watch kids walk next door to their friend's house? Or walk down the block because we know how terrible some people are. I know Daiki isn't six or seven like the other kids are, but a child who is barely three shouldn't walk anywhere without someone's eyes on him." I'm still beating myself up for losing him in a crowd when he saw Kirishima. At least there, we were surrounded by other heroes.

"Next time I drop him off, you can watch him from your front door," she snapped.

"I could have done that this time if you had called me. I don't mind taking him at any time, but you have to tell me and preferably with enough advance to find a babysitter while I go to work."

"I'm sorry that I just wanted time to do something I wanted to do!" She yelled. She's completely missing my point right now.

"You can do the things that you want to do, Itsuka. You just have to make sure Daiki is somewhere safe before you do." She looked down at the ground and avoided my gaze. "Maybe it's time for us to tell the world we're separating. I think Daiki has had enough time to adjust. He's not going to fully understand because he's only three, but he understands enough."

She didn't take more than a nanosecond to think about it before shooting the idea down. "No."

"Itsuka, I think he's ready," I mumbled.

"Well, I'm not!" She snapped. "I'm not ready to tell the world you left me!"

Unfortunately, this isn't just about her. Our divorce will be finalized soon. The custody we agreed on was already finalized. We're just working through some financial stuff right now.