Hero swallowed hard, his nerves starting to get the better of him. He needed to do this…he needed to talk to Toji and Natsu but he was absolutely terrified. It was driving him crazy that he could face the High Divine and the rest of the upper gods without any problems, and even give them a piece of his mind when it came to it. Attempting to talk to his nineteen year old son and his boyfriend, however, was proving to be almost impossible.

Hawk reclined in the back of Toji’s truck with Jordan, drinking a beer, something the two rarely ever did. It was a holiday weekend so they decided to treat themselves. Plus, given that Jordan had just survived a brutal fight with a band of lower rank demons out to attack the Children of the Veil and kidnap some of the souls and imps, it only seemed fair they get to enjoy the rare treat.

He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “He’s not going to kill you, babe,” he said for the dozenth or so time. 

“Says you,” Hero said, folding his arms over his chest, leaning against the side of the truck with Elaine. “He likes you better.”

“I cannot dispute that. However, if you ever want to start rebuilding your relationship and showing that you actually do accept Natsu as a part of your family, you’ll get your ass over there and taaaalk to them.”

Hero caught Elaine’s gaze. “Come with me.”

“Nope,” she said with an adamant shake of her head. “You are on your own, twin.”

“My guy, I’ve faced down powerless angels that are braver than you,” Jordan laughed. “Why don’t you try using some visualization technique or something?”

“Like what?”

Jordan shrugged, taking a sip of his cold beverage. “Imagine him as a little kid who’s eager to hang out with his daddy after you were gone for a few days.”

Hero slowly turned his head up to glare at him. “Yes, because seeing him as a child is a good idea.”

“Twas merely a suggestion.”

Hero was mumbling a suggestion about something Jordan could do to himself when Elaine smacked him over the back of the head. He glowered at her, rubbing the offended area.

“Really?” he exclaimed.

“Really,” she said. “Quit being a little bitch and go talk to your grown-ass son. I swear, he’s acting more mature than you are.”

They all turned to see Toji chasing after Havik, two slobber-coated fingers outstretched to stick in his little brother’s ears, Natsu telling him to knock it off with an exasperated shake of the head.

“Of course, that term is relative in this family,” Hawk commented.

Hero sighed. “Fine,” he muttered. He began to walk toward his son when his husband called out to him.

“Remember, baby, my money’s on him!” 

He turned to see all three of them giving him a thumb’s up. He shook his head. “Fuck all you guys.”

It was Natsu that noticed Hero’s approach first. He gave Toji a gentle shove, the other with his arm around Havik who was struggling to escape the dreaded Wet Willy. Toji’s expression sobered and he relaxed his grip on his brother.

“I’m telling Yin,” the younger threatened.

“Do it and I burn your books.”

Havik glared, turning to their father. “You’re a witness.”

“Toji, don’t threaten your brother’s books, please,” Hero said with a sigh, the tension fading from his face. He turned to Havik. “Can you give us a minute?”

“Gladly.” Havik walked away, waving his hand behind him as he went to find his cousins.

Toji and Natsu stared at Hero, doing their best to keep their expressions neutral.

“I, uh, wanted to catch you guys before you head back out with the rest,” Hero said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

The other two said nothing.

Hero cleared his throat, his gaze wandering over the staggered crowd before landing back on the two terrifying boys before him. “Can we talk?”

They didn’t move.

“Privately?”

“I prefer witnesses,” Toji said. Natsu elbowed him hard in the ribs and he bent, clutching at his side.

“That will be fine,” Natsu said. “There’s a trail that leads to an overlook not far from here.”

“Babe,” Toji said under his breath. “Witnesses?”

Natsu glared up at him. “There are no witnesses when it’s family.”

Hero didn’t even bother to suppress his grin. He had heard a great deal of Natsu’s confidence when it came to dealing with Toji, had even seen examples of it himself, but it was still amusing, if not a little shocking at times, to see it happen in real time. He really had no fear when it came to Toji’s temper. He followed the two away from the campground and up a trail that led to a small overlook less than a quarter of a mile away.

The walk itself had been nice enough, with Toji and Natsu talking quietly between themselves. Hero even heard Toji chuckle, and his chest constricted when he saw his son’s wide smile, something he hadn’t seen in a very long time. He grinned to himself, once again amazed at the smaller man at his son’s side.

Once they reached the outlook, Hero’s nerves once again began to fail him. Toji had accused him for years of not listening to him and now he was worried it would be the other way around; Toji would ignore his words and give him a few of his own.

“So?” Toji said after a few moments of tense silence. He kept his arm around Natsu, clutching at the back of his shirt. Natsu pretended not to notice his hand shaking against his skin.

Hero stared out over the vast expanse of trees before them, trying to organize his thoughts. He knew what he wanted to say, what he thought Toji wanted to hear. But now that they were alone like this, his mind was a complete blank. He was going to apologize officially, the same way Ava had done. He was going to offer to promote him, or even to let him train more with Nox which he knew Toji not only needed, but wanted. A year would probably be a good idea…

“Dad?”

Toji’s voice brought him back around. He turned to look at him, and his stomach flipped. This had to be the first time he really saw Toji. He was taller, six feet at least, like Hawk. His skin was darker, tanned from being out in the sun so much lately. His mismatched eyes, the ones that always threw him off guard for their unique and mysterious appearance, shown from beneath his bright red hair. Hair that couldn’t be tamed.

He looked so much like Hawk it broke his heart sometimes. He wondered just what he had managed to pass on to him, outside of his red eye, the shape of his mouth, and love of June’s meatloaf. He wondered, did Toji allow himself to be vulnerable with Natsu? Did he cry in his lap, play with his hair, reassure him when Natsu was uncertain or scared? Did Natsu do the same for him? The way he had watched the two interact in the last two days had already answered these questions and so much more.

He averted his gaze, took a deep breath, and, without giving it any more thought, said, “I’m the biggest hypocrite in the entire universe.”

They stared at him, both of them wondering if they should say something, but deciding against it.

“Lucifer and the angels kept me and Hawk apart for thousands of years and never once gave it a second thought. They didn’t care that we were suffering, that we wanted to be back together, that we belonged to each other. They only had their own goals in mind and we were the tools to help them reach them. I was a human, in love with a demon, who turned out to be a demigod born of a god and a star. Hawk questioned his existence, believing wholeheartedly he didn’t deserve me, and even suggested once to break our bond so I could live a normal life.”

Toji stiffened. He had never heard that before in any story they told. 

“We went through some pretty horrible shit in the beginning.” He swallowed, looking back out over the horizon. “But I never gave up. I struggled through my own pain and trauma and came out stronger for it because I knew the one I was with was the one I was meant for. I had always known that if we had been separated again, if anything terrible had happened to him, I would lose it.”

He turned his gaze back to them. “And yet, with full knowledge of what I was doing and believing it was the right thing, I forced you to feel that same agony. Both of you.”

Natsu dropped his gaze, clenching his fist as Toji pulled him closer to his side.

“There’s a law against separating soulmates solely because of what me and Hawk went through. It punishes those who deliberately keep one from the other, knowing the consequences of their actions, and doing so without remorse or consideration. I’m not immune to that, even though I’m the one that put it in place. The only difference is, I did feel remorse.” He swallowed, fighting against the tears that threatened to rise from his chest. 

“Toji, I regretted what I put you through every single day, but I refused to acknowledge it. I would walk by your room some nights, even sit outside your door, and listen to you scream and sob until your throat was raw. The maids thought you were sick because they always found blood on your pillow.”

Natsu shot his gaze up to Toji, eyes wide. “You what?”

Toji shook his head, averting his gaze. “I told you, I was fucking miserable and dying without you.” He lifted his eyes to his father. “You heard me and did nothing?”

Slowly, and after a brief hesitation, Hero nodded. “I did nothing,” he agreed softly. “There isn’t one damn thing I can ever say or do to make up for it, either.” He ran a hand through his hair, doing his best to maintain his composure. “I did a lot of cruel things out of pride and in the distorted belief I knew what was best for you. For both of you. You’re a God Prince and Natsu was a cook…the amount of ridicule we would have faced would have been devastating. I would have lost even more face than I already had with the breakup of the engagement and I couldn’t accept that.”

One hand rested on the back of his neck as his gaze dropped to the side. “I chose all of that over you,” he said quietly. “Over your happiness and your love for each other. I’d known exactly how you both felt from the beginning; I saw it in your eyes when I banned you from returning to Helman Hall, and when I confronted you not long after,” he said to Natsu. “I saw that love, that connection, and the energy that was waiting to bind you both through the Veil behind your eyes. And I still kept you apart.”

Toji’s entire body was shaking and Natsu felt like he was going to scream, but they held themselves back. There was a point to all of this, not just Hero trying to explain away what he had done, and they both knew it.

“I don’t deserve your forgiveness,” Hero said, one tear finally breaking free and trailing slowly down his cheek, dropping off the end of his chin. “I don’t hold out any hope that I’ll even be able to do what it takes to earn it. But, I’m selfish enough to ask for it, anyway.”

“You’re right,” Natsu said, drawing Hero’s attention to him, his back straight and his fists clenched at his sides. “You don’t deserve it. You don’t deserve anything after the bullshit you put us through. Ava was a bitch for what she did, but you?” He swallowed hard, gritting his teeth. “You were a fucking cunt.”

Even Toji was taken aback. He’d seen Natsu angry before, had been chewed out by him numerous times for being stupid. But never, in the five years they’d known each other, had he ever heard Natsu talk that way. The fact that he was willing to go that far to call a god that to his face, spoke to the level of anger, resentment, and soul-wrenching agony he felt toward Hero and the decisions he had made to get them all to where they were now.

To Toji’s immense surprise, Hero didn’t demand an apology, didn’t go up and hit him, didn’t kill him where he stood. He simply stood there and took it.

Natsu took a few slow steps forward, closing the distance between the two men before they were less than a foot apart.  “What you deserve,” he said, his voice low and shaking, “is to get the ever loving shit beat out of you for what you’ve done. You ignored your son, Hero, your own flesh and blood, regardless of how he was made. You made him suffer, watched it happen, and let it continue. You recruited his best fucking friend to aid in his imprisonment, to betray him. Just so you could look cool to the rest of the popular kids.”

Hero kept his gaze cast down, allowing the tears to fall silently to the grass at his feet. Toji stood rooted to the spot, both proud and terrified of what Natsu was doing. If it had been him, Hero would have knocked him on his ass by now.

“You deserve absolutely…nothing.” 

Hero’s eyes shut, expecting the punch that would be thrown, the slap to the face he had coming, even for Toji to join in on the verbal assault.

Warmth enveloped him, arms holding him with such gentleness and kindness as though he were the child and not the parent. His eyes opened, wide with disbelief as they caught Toji’s own shocked expression. Natsu wasn’t even sharing his energy; this was simply…him.

“You deserve nothing less than a chance, Hero,” he said in his soft, gentle voice. “You gave me your son, you allowed me to finally love him the way I’ve always wanted to, you accepted me even though you believed you had no reason to. You’re taking responsibility and owning up to your mistakes and that’s reason enough for me to give you the forgiveness you are selfish enough to ask for.”

Hero’s arms slowly wrapped themselves around Natsu as his entire body gave in and he broke down and sobbed. When he felt Toji’s door to their link reopen, and the onslaught of thoughts and feelings he had been keeping to himself for so long, he buried his face in Natsu’s shoulder, grasping his shirt tightly, and fell to the ground, taking Natsu to his knees.

Toji’s warm waves surrounded him, comforting and full of the same level of forgiveness Natsu was giving. There was no ulterior motive behind it, no sense that he was being disingenuous in any way. He didn’t hate him…he didn’t hate him…

Toji shook his head. “Not anymore.”

Hero gazed up at his son, his vision blurred by his tears. He saw him standing there with his hands in his pockets, his head tilted the same way Hero did sometimes, a small smile like his own, full of love and understanding. Hero’s face crumpled as he wept loudly, held in the arms of the one human in the entire universe that was able to successfully bring him to his knees. And he did it all with one simple hug.

-*-