#//His mother really did try to keep up the idea that Takehiro was only constantly working out of prefecture

[redxriiot]

Little hc dump about Ei’s dad/parents:

Takehiro Kirishima && Esperanza de la Torre; their Quirks are Geokinesis & Silky Shark respectively.

Current ages ( with Ei being 16 ) are 46 & 36 respectively.

Takehiro works in construction, though he had wanted to be a Pro hero growing up. He even trained up his Quirk to try out for several hero schools, though he’d ended up having to give up on it in order to focus on providing for his family. He still trained up his Quirk even after getting married, because it was a comfort for him. That and he wanted to be able to protect them and others if needed. He’d recently applied for a Quirk work license to better do his job, though it’s a bit of a moot point now considering the current times.

Esperanza took up work as a waitress after having gone to Japan to study Quirk science, though her family had wanted her to go into entertainment ( acting, singing and modelling ) like her mother. She kept it up during her pregnancy, quitting for a couple years, then going right back to it years later when Eijirou was able to take care of himself, before being promoted manager. She’s currently looking into getting back into her studies and what to specialize in particular.

They met when Esperanza was 18/Takehiro 28. She had been with a few friends and coming back from a shopping trip. Takehiro had been heading for drinks with his work buddies. A villain attack gave them their chance meeting, with Takehiro having used his Quirk to save Esperanza from rubble. 

She’d been smitten on first sight, especially when he’d gotten so concerned over her and smiled when she’d stammered out she was alright. She ended up thinking about him days after, so she figured it had to be love. 

So clearly the normal thing to do here was pursue the guy, right? And she did so whole-heartedly, especially after being encouraged by some uni friends. She brought him food, drinks, took him out for coffee on the odd occasion they both had a free day ( since she’d taken the time to figure out his daily schedule ), and made every effort to worm her way into his heart all while successfully juggling her class schedule and other friendships.  

Takehiro hadn’t realized at first, he’d thought she just wanted to thank him for saving her. Then he kept humoring her because he didn’t want to refuse her kindness ( in terms of her gifts ), and because he thought it was a lot nicer to spend some time with someone who wasn’t a coworker ( especially since it got him out of going to mixers and even relaxed him lots. That, and he’d initially assumed she was older than she was, so he hadn’t thought to establish boundaries ). When he belatedly realized it was a full-blown crush, he had it in mind to keep things between them as a friendship. Because while he genuinely liked her company, he had definitely been a bit put off by the age difference between them when he learned of it.

That lasted about a couple months. Because she’d been so disheartened by his rejection and withdrew from him a little then altogether, having not known how to actually handle it. In turn, he ended up missing having her around when she did. And really did not like her being upset, with him or for whatever reason. So he looked for her and asked her out with a grand gesture, hoping it would make her happy and would help things get back to normal for them.

It worked.

Neither had much relationship experience before ( Takehiro had, though he’d also been too much of a workaholic to successfully keep it and Esperanza grew up pretty sheltered ), so it hadn’t been until months later that they actually started to act like a couple. And that had been because friends had to prompt them to actually do so. They had only stuck to doing everything they had before, even with a few more–and actually calling them–dates. It just felt that natural to keep to it. They hadn’t even considered kissing and hugging at the start, sharing their first actual embrace on her nineteenth birthday, and the first kiss on Christmas. They consummated the relationship on Valentine’s Day because they’d had an argument weeks earlier and they figured maybe that would help solve things.

It hadn’t. Not entirely.

On the plus they got a kid out of it. Which gave them incentive to stay together, even when Esperanza had offered to break things off and take care of the kid herself so as to not ‘inconvenience’ him.

Takehiro took up more work hours to prepare for the kid, plus buying a bigger house for them all to live in. Esperanza had money saved up her waitressing job to help with, and ended up dropping out of uni after his birth. It took them a month after Eijirou’s birth to realize they should probably get married. When they could, they were wed on Christmas.

Esperanza’s family had not been happy she genuinely wanted to get married to a Japanese man ( more so, one ten years her senior ), so she ended up cutting herself off from the family before they could do it first. Luckily for her, Takehiro’s mother had quite taken to her and was very happy to hear of their union and support them.

Things were okay for the most part, with both being quite happy with their baby boy.

Except for the postpartum depression.

Because of Takehiro’s increase in work, Esperanza ended up dealing with it without him and occasionally helped by the neighbor’s wife ( Ei’s childhood friend Tomo’s mother ). Which of course wound up making her feel envious that even with the other’s husband’s work, her husband still spent plenty of time with her. Which did not help her marriage at all, because from that point on, she kept comparing how different they were and why that was, if maybe they were doing something wrong or she was the problem, etc.

Not to mention both Esperanza and Takehiro were wholly unprepared to handle a child. Takehiro straight up lost ten-month-old Eijirou when he’d watched him during a free day, eventually finding him happily crawling halfway down the neighborhood. Esperanza could never handle his crying and fussing, yelling him to quiet down if not otherwise accidentally making him cry more in her attempts to soothe him and resulting frustration.

They got more practice had handling him up until his Quirk manifesting happened. Then it became a struggle of trying to stop him from touching anything and anyone to minimize damage. Which prompted Eijirou to be quite conscious of his Quirk, particularly when he’d almost cut the person who would his best and only friend growing up, and then a boy he’d accidentally hurt because some other kids in kindergarten got too touchy with him during a game even when he insisted they stop and he’d swung his hands to stave them off. Which became part of why he didn’t have many friends growing up.

Who got to deal with it all? Esperanza. Who was admittedly not the most patient person, even if she tried her best to make the boy happy and understand him. Takehiro knew that part of her well, which was partly why he was happy to take up more hours away from the house. Especially since they began to bicker more and more as Eijirou grew up.

It always varied–Takehiro not being home enough and accused of purposefully avoiding them, why Eijirou choosing to spend more time at his friend’s house over his own home, if he was too independent or not enough, Esperanza’s lack of emotional openness, how stifling and obstinate she could be, the fact that Takehiro was spending too much money for some reason aside sending money to his mother, why he wouldn’t let Esperanza work, etc.

The latter eased up when Eijirou took up cooking, eventually being put in charge of making his parents lunches. Which he did so gladly in addition to the house chores because he really liked making his parents happy and helping them. Esperanza was able to work again with him taking that off her shoulders.

Ei especially adored doing everything for his mother, since she was around him more and as such she became the parent he was most attached to. Even if there were times things got tense between them too, especially when their temperaments clashed. Even still, he always sought her approval every chance he could and any way he could learn something to impress her or take care of so she didn’t have to worry. Especially since doing so usually left her in a better mood enough to shower him with affection. Because she tended to leave him to his own devices, especially the older he got, he would get increasingly creative in ways to get her attention, whether that meant deliberately pissing her off in order to make her look at him or asking about something that made her happy to take time to talk to/teach him. How each worked out always depended on the kind of work day she’d had, so he could never pinpoint what worked best. 

 He scarcely spoke to his father even when the man wasn’t at work, since he was usually asleep or out with friends, or chose to spend time with his wife when he could ( which Ei himself even prompted bc he saw how happy it made her, plus thinking how energetic he could be was really bothersome for his tired father, judging by the couple times he got the guy to play with him ). Even if Eijirou really wanted to spend time with his father and make the guy proud of him, too. Maybe more so than his mother sometimes, considering Takehiro’s praises and affections came to him a lot less than Esperanza’s did. It was a rare time when Ei would actually get one-on-one time with the man, and even then, it was typically napping or eating together in awkward silence. As such, Ei only ever saw the best of him or hardly anything at all, whereas he had more chances to see his mother’s flaws and the good combined.

Regardless of the differences, the kid did everything he could to make both his parents as happy as possible as much as he could. And it helped ease things some.

It didn’t mean the fighting stopped. Especially when Eijirou was elsewhere, like his friend’s house or off exploring with him, and couldn’t hear it all happen.

A particularly nasty fight between them when Eiji was 10 ended up with Takehiro having an affair. Esperanza found out some time later, though, in spite of the hurt she’d felt, said nothing, thinking that she would just have to bear with it for Eijirou’s sake. The boy needed a father, right? If she turned a blind eye, everything would be okay.

She did eventually break it to Takehiro that she knew during another fight later on, but they hadn’t chosen to divorce even still because they thought they could work through it for the sake of Eijirou. They thought with that, the air had been cleared and could patch things up. Through that time things did improve some between them and it seemed everything would turn out alright. 

Only for them to divorce a year later when Eiji was 13. It was a culmination of Takehiro’s mother dying, Esperanza’s grudge and accidental insensitivity, and Takehiro revealing that he’d had a child with the other woman ( not to mention had rather spitefully compared her and Esperanza ) during the resulting fight that really ended it.

Because Esperanza had been scared of losing Eijirou too, thinking he would prefer staying with his father ( she’d been so sure he would, considering they bickered a lot too, that she was so sure he hated her, but really, he still would have chosen her in a heartbeat ), she’d convinced Takehiro to leave him to her, even when he’d wanted to take the boy with him and make up for the lost time together ( read: now that the more difficult times in managing him were over or at least he thought so ).

Esperanza made sure to hit Takehiro right where it’d hurt, citing that he’d have to reveal the affair to Eijirou and the kid would NEVER forgive that. That Eijirou would NEVER feel happy with the man who scarcely bothered to stick around for him over someone who actually KNEW him, much less replaced with some strange woman who definitely didn’t. Did Takehiro even remember what he was allergic to? Bet he didn’t know it was penicillin. Did he even know his own son’s favorite foods or the best way to make him smile after a shitty day? He lamentably didn’t. He couldn’t even remember the day Eijirou manifested his Quirk or did his first errand. He sure as hell didn’t know his son was afraid of thunder and large dogs, that cats and strangers made him so nervous.

In the end, Takehiro couldn’t help but agree to it, moreover to leave the house to them and keep direct contact only if Eijirou did. Which he didn’t because Esperanza deliberately cut the means to, by giving Eijirou the incorrect phone number and thus making sure he could never contact his father. Which, in addition to outright never telling him she divorced his father ( as a result of her fears of Ei leaving her kept prompting her to ), ended up making for a point of contention between the mother and son.

Takehiro did attempt to send money to help support Eijirou and the house payments a couple times, but Esperanza always rejected it, saying she didn’t need anything from him save the house he left them with. She even took up working more hours so she wouldn’t need his help ( eventually Eijirou himself took up a job to help her too ).

Esperanza did reconcile with her family once Takehiro was out of the picture, though she was too prideful to ask them for help even still. Though they choose to give her some aid in the form of properly paying off the house for her.

Takehiro in the meantime focused on his work and the new family, learning from prior experience to properly balance work and his new wife and daughter. Even with the agreement he’d made with Esperanza, he did try to keep tabs on his son. He couldn’t do so initially, but since the boy had chosen to go to UA and subsequently gotten more into the public eye ( having noticing his son’s name as one of the people involved in the USJ incident ), the man did manage to keep up with his son’s achievements. He watched the Sports Festival and even got to see Eijirou’s debut live.

He was rather proud to learn that his son ended up going for the hero career ( compared to Esperanza who constantly worried about if Eijirou would be okay, that it was too dangerous ). Takehiro ended up gushing about him often to his daughter. While never explicitly stating it was because Red Riot was his son ( he didn’t know how she would take it after all, and thinking her too young to know just yet ), more because his Quirk resembled his daughter’s in defensive capabilities and he wanted her to have a role model like him.

His new wife Mihiro had no problems with it, nor did she hold any ill will towards Takehiro’s first family. If anything she felt guilty about the situation they gone through.

Takehiro is always tempted to reach out to Eijirou, making it seem like an accident so Esperanza wouldn’t be able to complain. The problem was how he would explain everything or if the kid would even WANT to see him. He hadn’t the slightest idea how to do that. And so he never did end up doing so.