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“Mom! Mom!”
“Sh! She’s sleeping!”
“Natsu’s crying again! Mom!”
Rei stares at the door from her spot on the bed and prays the voices will go away. She’s been awake for over an hour but hasn’t had the will to get out of bed. The nanny Enji allowed her to hire can take care of the kids while she rests. Except she doesn’t rest, not really. She hides under the warmth of multiple blankets, willing them to rid the chill in her bones despite it being August, but mostly she just wants to be left alone in the dark of her bedroom.
She’s twenty-two. She should not feel like she might shatter at any given moment, but giving birth to three children tends to change the body.
It’s not her body that’s the problem, she thinks. It’s her mind. She doesn’t know what’s wrong with it. All she knows is something isn’t right. She needs to do something about it, but that would require her bringing it up with Enji. He won’t like it. He’ll say she’s just being lazy - that she’s making it up to get out of doing things. The children are her responsibility. She has to take care of them. The first few years of a child’s life are so important. She needs to be there for them.
But instead, she rolls over, turning her back to the door, and begs them to leave her alone.
When Touya and Fuyumi were born, she was scared but excited. Spending time with them was exhausting, but it was also a gift. They were her babies, and she loved them. Touya was too small and had to spend more time in the hospital, which made her nervous, but Fuyumi was healthy and sweet to compensate. Still, she couldn’t stand the idea of leaving him alone in the NICU.
Now she prays for the hours that Natsuo sleeps so she has a break from holding him, feeding him, tending to him. Healthy like Fuyumi, he doesn’t require as much attention as Touya did at his age, but even healthy babies require so much. Attention means energy and desire, and she simply doesn’t have it. Give her time. It’ll come back. She loves Natsuo so much. Her darling baby boy with his tuff of white hair and grey eyes like hers. She’ll get up and hold him for hours to make up for this hour she can’t give him.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t have three-year-old twins, one of whose quirk manifested two weeks after Natsuo was born. Potty-training them while she was pregnant was a struggle. Sitting down to help them with their pants, standing up to lift them onto the toilet, and sitting back down to help them again was difficult with a swollen belly. They can use the step stool on their own now, but if one goes to the bathroom, the other cries about needing to go within seconds, impatiently hovering outside.
She considers herself lucky that they picked it up so quickly. Touya had an accident only once a week ago after Enji yelled at him, but it was hopefully an isolated incident.
At least Fuyumi is independent for a toddler. The moment she learned how to use silverware, she preferred to feed herself. She likes picking out her own outfits. She plays quietly with her toys while Rei deals with the baby. She still needs her mother, of course. She’s three. She likes to be read stories and books, for Rei to color with her, to go to the park, help to do her hair and to get dressed. The nanny says Fuyumi is advanced for her age.
Touya is...clingy. Technically her firstborn, but it’s hard to tell. They might be twins, but Fuyumi is taller and weighs more. She looks almost a full year older than him already. It makes Rei terribly anxious. He eats so much like he’s constantly starving. At first, she was scared he was throwing it up later without her knowing, but no, he eats and eats, and it goes right through him. His pediatrician believes it has to do with his quirk. His fire is already hotter than Enji’s. He suggested scheduling an appointment with a quirk specialist, but Enji is certain he can take care of it on his own.
It’s only fire, after all. It won’t hurt him, even if it is dangerous and makes her wary. Enji knows how to control it. He’s harsh, but he’s the most experienced teacher Touya can have.
He might whine about wanting to cuddle with her and tugs on her shirt when she’s busy with Natsuo and says he’s hungry at least twenty times a day, but he’s happy. His quirk isn’t exactly what Enji wanted when he explained what he expected of her, but it’s strong, so she still considers it a win. He’s already starting Touya on breathing regiments and motion exercises before he actually trains him. Touya is scared but excited. He can’t wait to make his father proud. Fuyumi pouts and is obviously jealous of the attention she’s never received from her father, but her quirk hasn’t shown yet.
Things are fine. They’re fine. She can sleep a little longer. They don’t need her. She just needs some time to herself. That’s important too. All she needs is time…
Shrieking startles her awake. High-pitched wails and confused screams. She can’t tell if it’s Touya or Fuyumi, but her brain jolts to alertness and her heart skyrockets into her throat. Ripping the blanket off and throwing it to the side to get out of bed, she doesn’t bother finding her slippers or putting on a robe as she storms out of her bedroom.
Can’t they just let her sleep in for once? She’s so tired of waking up to Touya banging on her bedroom door. They have a nanny. Can’t he bother her? Do they have to be so loud? They’re kids and kids are loud, but honestly, this is ridiculous. They know better. They’re never loud like this when Enji is home. It’s only her. It’s always her, and she’s so exhausted. She agreed to have Endeavor’s kids, but she didn’t plan on basically being a single mom in her early twenties. She needs a break.
Instead, she finds them in the playroom. Smoke permeates the room as a stuffed animal burns on the floor. Fuyumi is crying, tears pouring down her face, and Touya is shrieking, fire flickering in his hands, and she sees red. All he has to do is not activate his quirk. He’s three, but it shouldn’t be that difficult. Enji told him he wasn’t allowed to use it except when he was around.
Why can’t Touya listen? Why does he have to be so difficult?
Rei doesn’t even realize she’s yelling the questions at Touya until she grabs him by the arms to stop him and has to jerk them back when her palms burn. It stings something painful. She’s sensitive to heat, even more so to fire. She and Enji warned him to be extra careful with his quirk. Before she can snap at him for hurting her, she notices the ugly red marks on his arms where his flames have gone past his hands. Horror drops her heart into the pit of her stomach.
He’s not screaming out of anger because he and Fuyumi got into a fight. He’s shrieking in pain. His quirk is hurting him. His flames are burning him alive.
And she was yelling at him for waking her up and bothering her.
What is wrong with her? She’s never done that before. She’s never snapped at him like this. She didn’t even know she was yelling at him.
“Oh my god, Touya! Oh my god! Baby, you need to stop! Deactivate your quirk!”
Rei drops to her knees and uses her quirk to smother his flames. It's subtly strong, but she very rarely uses it and so she ends up overdoing it in her panic. Instead of crying from the shocking change in temperature or the ice coating his arms, Touya stops screaming and takes a deep, shuddering breath that shakes his little body. He doesn’t flinch away like Enji sometimes does when she accidentally touches his bare skin.
Even though the pain must be immense, once the flames are gone, Touya stops crying, likely in shock from what happened. So far, he’s only used his quirk with his hands. They assumed he was fire resistant since he has a fire quirk, but what if he’s not? At least not fully. She examines his hands carefully, but finds them smooth and unblemished. Under her ice, his skin is blistered from the fire. Tears streak down his face, his eyes and cheeks red and swollen.
“Touya, baby boy, I’m so sorry,” Rei cries. He doesn’t even move when she wraps her arms around him and pulls him into a hug. She tucks her face into his small shoulder and clings to him like he normally does her, rubbing a soothing circle over his back, but he stands limply in her arms like a doll. “Mommy didn’t mean to yell at you, sweetie. You just scared her, is all. I’m not mad. I love you. I love you so much. Please don’t forget that.”
How could she have yelled at him like that? Touya might be needy, but he’s undeniably sweet. Some parents at the park complain about how rude and mean their boys are, but not him. He likes to play with her hair. He calls her pretty. He hugs her at random. He picks flowers from the yard to give her that she keeps in a vase in her bedroom.
She loves him. She loves Fuyumi. She loves Natsuo.
They’re good kids. She’s a good mom. They might not be a normal family, but they’re a happy one. She’s fine. She’ll be better. She just needs to sleep a little more, and everything will be okay.