[Musutafu City, Japan || 06:00 AM]

As the light of dawn fell on Fuyumi's face, she opened her eyes peacefully. Her gaze fell on the roof of the room. It was familiar to her as this was the roof of her room in the Todoroki Abode. Currently, she was lying on her bed, but she was not alone. She was sleeping on the same bed with Himiko and Eri.

Fuyumi turned her head to her left to see Himiko sleeping while hugging Fuyumi with her tiny hands. She had her mouth slightly open and was drooling on Fuyumi's nightwear.

"Hehe~ Mama warm..." Himiko smiled and rubbed her face on Fuyumi's shirt.

On Fuyumi's right was a sleeping Eri. She was also hugging Fuyumi in her sleep, leaving her stuffed bear Rilakkuma to lie alone in the corner.

Fuyumi felt happy that she was sleeping with her daughters but felt a bit sour as Shido was not here to make the small family complete.

After Shido departed for America, Fuyumi brought Eri and Himiko to the Todoroki Abode. Before Shido's departure, she took a week-long leave from her job in Middle School, where she is a teacher to focus and spend more of her time on her daughters.

Fuyumi slowly crawled out of her bed as she did not want to disturb her daughters' sleep. After looking at the clock, she readied herself as the Mother of Eri and Himiko for her first day.

_______

[6:30 AM]

Fuyumi was preparing breakfast as she chopped vegetables on the platform. She was going to make Takikomi Gohan with miso soup. The dishes to be served for breakfast were less because the quantity will be significant. The breakfast is to be made for Natsuo, Shoto, Endeavor, Eri, Himiko, and herself.

Takikomi Gohan was ready just Miso soup was left. Fuyumi quickly added the chopped vegetables into the boiling broth. After a brief moment, she took the broth off the heat and added the miso paste. After a taste test and add a bit of salt to the soup, it was ready to be served.

She served the breakfast at the dining table in respective bowls,

"Natsu, Shoto, Dad, Breakfast is ready!!!!" Fuyumi loudly called for the men in the house to go to their respective schools and jobs. Well, Shoto was free as he had already cleared the UA Entrance exam and was enjoying his vacation before the classes started.

For Eri and Himiko, Fuyumi would have to Wake them up, brush their teeth, have a bath with them, feed them their breakfast. After this, she has to start cleaning the house.

While Fuyumi was contemplating her schedule for the day, Natsuo, Shoto, and Endeavor entered the dining room.

Natsuo was ready for college, Shoto was wearing his casual wear, and Endeavor was wearing his hero costume, indicating that he was about to set off for his duty.

All of them sat and ate their breakfast peacefully. Natsuo was the first to leave as he quickly ate his breakfast and ran away. Shoto was second to leave the dining table. Now at the dining table, only Endeavor and Fuyumi were left. Endeavor was slowly eating his breakfast as he had a contemplating look on his face.

"Dad?" Fuyumi called Endeavor.

"Hmm... Yes..." Endeavor hastily replied as he came out of his thoughts.

"Need a second serving? Your bowl is empty"

"Yes..."

Fuyumi scooped out a bowl of rice and handed it to Endeavor, she then refilled his soup bowl with more miso soup. Endeavor started eating again but he was looking at Fuyumi with a thoughtful look.

"Fuyumi..."

"Yes,"

"I wanted to talk about a few things with you," Endeavor said slowly. He still had his usual stern expression on his face.

"Okay,"

"Who are the girls that you've brought here last night?"

"They are mine and Shido's daughters," Fuyumi answered.

Endeavor flinched as he was surprised by the boldness which was shown by Fuyumi.

"Why are they here?"

"Shido is out of the city for some work so I brought them here until he comes back. This is their home too. Is there any problem, Dad?"

"No, I don't have any problem with them staying here but," Endeavor's pursed his lips. He didn't know how to say it. He didn't have any problems with Shido's daughters staying here but he had concerns for Fuyumi. What stopped him from speaking further is the thought that he didn't take much part in his family and now he wants to act like a concerned father.

"But?" Fuyumi asked.

Endeavor who was having a conflict in his mind steeled his mind and chose to speak his concerns.

"Fuyumi, I am a bit concerned about you. When you brought your boyfriend here for my approval, I told you that you are an adult and you can have your own choice about things. I still stand by what I said but I am concerned. When I approved your relationship, Your Boyfriend was a Quirkless, Noodle Shop Owner. I don't have any problem with that. I have accepted that fact long ago,

After that, he adopted a child. I was a bit skeptical at that time on why were you still with him. Fine. But now he has adopted another child. I am not against him adopting children. It's his freedom, What I am concerned about is, You are still with him... You two are not even married and you are proudly saying that they are your daughters.

I am not suggesting you break up your relationship with Shido but at least... at least give some thought to this. You cannot just adopt a child together and say you are their parents. Have you two ever sat down together and talked about this?

Fuyumi, Taking care of kids is not an easy thing. Having kids is a laborious task and having them before marriage is more laborious."

Fuyumi was looking at the table, She didn't match her eyes with Endeavor's,

"Dad, it would be better if you don't talk about raising children. Now if you don't have anything to say, then I should take my leave... I have to wake up 'my' daughters." Fuyumi still didn't look at Endeavor's face.

Endeavor sighed when his past actions were brought up to counter his concern. This was the reason he was feeling conflicted.

"Aside from my concerns about you, What I wanted to talk to you about is... Do you see any chance that our family may come back together?" Endeavor asked as he wanted to know Fuyumi's view on this.

On Valentine's day, after his talk with Shido, Endeavor thought about how to bring his family together and the only person who could help him do it is Fuyumi.

He was certain that Fuyumi will give a negative answer. But he just asked the question, in hopes that there may be some chance that the answer may be positive.

"There is some chance..." Fuyumi slowly said.

Endeavor who was expecting a negative answer raised his head and looked at Fuyumi. He thought like him Fuyumi still wants her family to be back together and may help him too in his plans.

"There is some chance... only if you leave that unachievable ambition of yours that tormented us for so many years and return to being the father that I and Touya-Nii knew in the past."

"No... I cannot do that. I am so close to what I want... Shoto cleared UA Entrance Exam. He will graduate in a few years and will become the No.1 Hero, Surpassing All Might. He will achieve what I couldn't do in my entire career till now. I will provide him with the resources that I didn't possess when I started as a hero. Soon, He will become the strongest." Endeavor started rambling and a small smile appeared on his face.

"Don't you see? This is the thing hindering you from getting the family back together. From the start, I looked past your faults and forgave you for your past actions as I believe you can still be redeemed. But Natsu and Shoto are not like that. If you really think about your family so much then, why can't you just leave your ambition behind and focus on your family?" Fuyumi said and left the dining room leaving Endeavor alone in the dining room with the words she said to him.

__________

[7:00 AM]

After the terrible start of her day, Fuyumi tried to put whatever happened behind her mind and focused more on her daughters.

"Now Now. It's 7 AM. Quick... Wake up. The breakfast is already ready," Fuyumi said softly to her daughters. She was feeling a bit giddy as waking them up really made her look like their real mother.

"Nnnn..." Eri just turned aside, showing her back to Fuyumi. On the other hand, Himiko grasped Fuyumi's cuff and pulled it, "Mama... sleep." Himiko then opened a side of the quilt and patted the bed, inviting Fuyumi to sleep.

This made Fuyumi's smile crumple. In her mind, this scene would have proceeded like,

"Fuyumi saying Wake Up My cute daughters. Then Eri and Himiko would slowly wake up, rubbing their eyes and after seeing Fuyumi they would tightly hug her." But it seems the kids were not following the cliche script and were enjoying their sleep.

In retaliation, Fuyumi pulled the quilt off the bed and picked up Eri and Himiko. She then went straight to the bathroom. Now she understood why Shido always had to take Eri to the bathroom to brush her teeth. The girl usually never wakes up, You have to put the effort into waking her up.

After brushing their teeth and washing their faces well, She took them to the dining hall and fed them their breakfast.

_________________

[11:30 AM]

Eri was watching cartoons on her tablet while Himiko was drawing with crayons while humming some rhyme. The kids were on the bed.

Meanwhile, Fuyumi was cleaning her room and then her phone started ringing. The call was from an unknown number. She went outside the room and picked up the call,

"Hello?"

?? - :: Fumi-chan!! Hello! How are you?:: A cheery feminine but a bit heavy voice responded.

"Fumi-chan??"

?? -:: It's me, your Mo-chan. Moe Kamiji. We used to be roommates in High School. You remember me?::

"Oh! Mo-chan... Yeah... Yeah, I remember you..." Fuyumi just said she remembered the person on the other side of the call but she still was having a hard time recalling who the person was.

Moe -:: Okay, now you must be wondering why did I call you right? I called you for two things. The first one is that I am hired as a sidekick in your dad's agency. You can ask him about me, and refer to me as Burnin, that's my Hero Name. So that means we can hang out together now::

'Burnin.' This name made Fuyumi remember the person who she was talking to. Moe Kamiji or Mo-chan for short was her roommate in the hostels in her high school.

The High School Fuyumi studied in, Iiyamakita High School is a hybrid school that had normal courses as well as Hero course in their curriculum. It was one of the biggest high schools in Japan where only rich kids came to study. The Hero Course that the school provided does not have the facilities like providing internships and the instructors were retired heroes, not still active ones like UA but it was the No.1 choice of rich kids who failed to get in any Hero School.

Burnin was enrolled in the Hero Course while Fuyumi was enrolled in the Normal High School Curriculum. Although they were from different courses, they were still roommates.

Moe -:: And the second reason is, that there will be a reunion of our batch in High School. The Reunion is after 2 weeks. So don't forget to come there with your husband::

The last sentence made Fuyumi's cheeks flush red.

"I-I am not m-married yet, Mo-chan..."

Moe -:: Oh! I thought you were. You used to be the conservative girl who never wore much makeup to class, never went to parties, and always was off the dating game. I thought you will marry someone by 21 but you are 23 now and still unmarried. It is good but still, surprising::

"I-It's was not like that. I-I was just not interested in them."

Moe -:: Hoho~ Not Interested. Not even Isao Nagamine, The Dreamboy of so many girls, interested you. He is rich, successful, handsome, and has a good personality. If that doesn't interest you, then I am sorry to tell you that you won't find a boyfriend in this lifetime::

"Well, sorry to tell you that I already have a boyfriend," Fuyumi rebuked Moe's claim. But she didn't get any reply after this. There was only silence coming from the other side of the call.

Moe -:: You have a boyfriend?!?!::

"Yeah..."

Moe -:: Send me his picture. I want to see the guy who stole the heart of the girl who is not interested in Isao Nagamine::

"Okay... But delete his picture after you have seen it. Just look at it once and delete it. No need to save it in your phone."

Moe -:: Oh~ It turns out that our Fumi-chan is an obsessive type. Who would've thought the meek cute beauty of our school has a boyfriend and she is an obsessive type of girlfriend. Well no shaming in that but just don't be a Yandere who stabs girls left, right, and center just because they talked to your boyfriend::

"Don't mock me... I am just... just... a bit protective. That's all,"

Moe -:: Yeah, no worries about that. You be whatever you want. That's between you and your boyfriend. But just take my advice that, don't be overprotective of him. Don't restrict him just because you don't like it or you don't want him to do certain things. If you do that, he will tolerate your control to some level if he really loves you, but after it crosses the limit, either he might leave you or just stay with you but he won't like you and there may be some resentment in that. I had a friend who got dumped because she restricted her BF's time to spend with his friends.

Well enough of that, Just send me the pictures, will you?::

Whatever Moe said made Fuyumi feel not so better. She was feeling discomfort as she contemplated Moe's words. The friend's case Moe mentioned was a bit similar to Fuyumi's case. Even though she allowed Shido to go to America but initially she opposed his departure and wanted him to stay. She also coerced him to stay more at home instead of going to do Vigilante stuff.

'Am I over-protective about Shido?' Fuyumi thought.

Even though she was right in making Shido stay at home and spend time with his family, she still related this to the restrictions and controlling Shido topic she was thinking of.

She couldn't even fathom the thought of Shido leaving him and now someone is saying that her way of acting may result in Shido leaving her.

"Is... Is... being over-protective that b-bad?" Fuyumi asked but she faltered in between as she was a bit terrified of the possible outcomes if she continued to act that way.

Moe -:: It's not bad and there are guys who like over-protective girls. It depends on the person we are talking about. But even if he likes over-protective girls, There is a limit to which you can control his actions. Cross the limit and Boom, the guy is gone. So just stay within the limits and everything is fine::

"How to know those limits?"

Moe -:: I don't know. You will have to find that out yourselves. Talk to your boyfriend and whatnot. You will instinctively know what are those limits. Now Send me the pictures... You have already stretched the talk::

Fuyumi was thinking while her fingers Fuyumi searched for the correct pictures to send to Moe. Actually correct pictures meant the couple pictures of Shido and Fuyumi. She sent three pictures, all of them had Shido with either Eri and Himiko or with Fuyumi.

After a brief moment, Moe replied.

Moe -:: Looks good. But I would say he is decent when compared to Isao. So what he does for a living and who are these kids in the picture?::

"Shido is a Ramen Shop Owner, and the kids in the picture are our daughters,"

Again, there was only silence from the other side of the call.

Moe- :: WHAT??!!::

Moe shouted,

Moe -:: What is the size of the shop he owns? And what did you mean by OUR Daughters? You are having kids before marriage?::

"No No, You are getting it wrong. Shido owns a middle-size Ramen Shop and The girls are adopted by Shido and we are going to be married soon, so I don't think there is a problem with me calling them and treating them as my daughters,"

Moe -:: Fumi, Fumi, Oh my sweet dear naive Fumi. What mess have you stepped your foot in?! Don't you know the basics of choosing a partner to date. Oh~ I forgot, you were off the game when everyone was enjoying. So let me educate you on this, The two most important rules when finding a date are,

1. Don't date broke/poor men

2. Don't date men with kids

Guys who are poor and have kids are for ladies in their late 30s, early 40s to date. Those aunts are desperate enough to have a chance with these types of guys. Your current boyfriend clearly breaks both of them. He is dirt poor and he has two small kids.

How come you are dating this guy and proudly calling his kids, your kids. You are out of your mind?!!

You know, Isao liked you in high school. Well, every guy in our school liked you. Heck, even some girls wanted to date you. You were the perfect girl for them. Beautiful, Well-behaved, Caring personality and your family background was the cherry on the top. Your father is the No.2 Hero of Japan!

They sent you letters, you ignored them. They tried to propose to you, you politely rejected them. Then they stopped trying, they were content with watching you from afar. They waited, waited in hopes that you will open the door to your heart and will accept someone's proposal. Well, Isao was the one we all rooted for. He was the perfect guy and you were the perfect girl. You two would've made a perfect couple!

Fast forward to 5 years and look, Princess Fumi is dating a Ramen dude with two adopted kids!!

Fuuu~ Moe calm down... No need to scold your old roommate that you just talked to after 5 years.

Listen Fumi-chan... Isao will come to the reunion and I know for sure that he still likes you, so listen to my advice and dump the Ramen dude out of your life and show some interest in Isao. He will definitely propose to you.

I hope you listen to my advice. See you at the reunion::

The call ended with Fuyumi having a neutral face. She felt a bit conflicted. She was contemplating Moe's words about being over-protective about Shido and on the other side, the same friend was angry that she is dating a 'poor' guy. Shido was not poor, he was like a middle-class man but he was indeed poor when compared to the wealth of Moe's or Fuyumi's family.

Fuyumi was clear that she loved Shido irrespective of any criteria but after hearing bad things about Shido, there were few which generated from her core.

Anger.

Frustration.

Confusion.

She was hoping Shido was here because whenever she felt conflicted, Shido would help her out. Just his presence was enough for Fuyumi but he is not here. She couldn't even call him right now as she thought he may be busy with some work. The absence of Shido only increased her annoyance.

_________________________

[1:00 PM]

Fuyumi was getting ready. She wore a new dress, applied some lipstick, made sure her makeup was okay. While she was getting ready, Eri was looking at her with a confused expression.

'Isn't it a simple video call?' Eri thought. She was confused why Fuyumi was doing make-up and all for just a video call.

'Adults...' Eri shook her head and continued watching the song she was about to perform.

...

After getting ready, Fuyumi started the video call. After some rings, the call connected.

"Hey, Shido...."