A few days after the dinner event with Denki, Shouto had remembered that at his own event they were required to dance. He called Denki to ask him to come over for another practice date.

Shouto should've easily guessed what Denki had behind his back when he knocked on his door later that day.

"What did you bring?" He asked.

Denki smiled and pulled a bouquet of flowers from their hiding place. "Flowers!" He cheered.

"You shouldn't have," Shouto said, eyeing them wearily.

"I just thought that maybe if someone asked if I ever got you flowers, we'd be able to say yes." Denki smiled. "You know, to play off the dating thing?"

As Denki explained himself, Shouto's heartbeat sped up. "No," he took a breath. "You really shouldn't have, Denki. I ..."

"Oh? Why not? Are ... Are you okay?"

"I just ... Come in," he shook his head and stepped aside to let Denki in. Watching Denki awkwardly set the flowers outside, seemingly unwilling to bring them in and let them be in Shouto's sight any longer, make Shouto feel slightly less panicky. "I ... Don't like flowers very much."

Denki looked around at Shouto's apartment, stopping just after taking off his shoes. "Yeah, I could tell. Are you alright, Shouto?"

"I'm ... Yeah, I'm alright, it's just-my father, he-let's go sit down." Shouto led Denki to the living room and they sat on the couch.

Denki sat close enough to comfort but not close enough to touch, and Shouto was okay with that. He preffered it, actually. He wasn't in the best state of mind and he wasn't sure if any sort of contact would go over well. Even if it was comforting and caring instead of harsh and unrelenting, he couldn't be sure his mind wouldn't relate the two anyway.

"My father ... He used to bring my mother flowers." Shouto explained.

Denki frowned. "Oh?"

Oh right. He doesn't know. Shouto sighed. "Basically, my father is a piece of shit. He sucks ass."

"Oh."

"He was ... Is abusive still, but has let off a little because he's been more in the spotlight since the All Might Co. shut down. Anyway, he bought my mother's hand in marriage, and never really made any moves to be genuinely nice to her. He was always rude and threw tantrums when she'd do something he didn't like, and it got to the point where he'd beat her. He ... Did that in front of me and my siblings. She's ... In the hospital right now, for doing this to me when I was five." Shouto lifted his hand and ghosted it over the scar on his face. "My mother is a whole different story, but she poured water on my face because I looked too much like my dad. I don't blame her, though I know I should at least be a little mad at her.

"My oldest brother left as soon as he could because of him, and I can barely remember his face. My father also hit us. He hit me the least, and I know I got lucky, but I don't feel lucky. I'm only treated slightly better because I have to take over his company in a few years and he can't have me 'defying him' like the rest of my siblings did. I don't even want to take over his company ..."

"What do you want to do, then?" Denki asked.

"It doesn't matter." Shouto shook his head to clear his thoughts. Flowers, right. Denki looked like he was about to protest, so Shouto started talking again. "Anyway, my father was always mean. But he would always bring my mother a bouquet and be strangely kind before blowing up. When my mother was hospitalized, he started giving my sister a single flower before berating her for not doing all the family work properly. I thought she did a well enough job for being almost ten, but my father apparently didn't think the same. When she turned sixteen he started yelling at her to start a family.

"Flowers have always meant the calm before the storm for me, so I've tried to avoid flower shops as much as possible. I guess I never thought about receiving flowers until now, since I haven't properly dated anyone before."

Denki was silent for a moment. ".. Shit, man. I guess it's a no go on flowers then. I just happened to walk by a florist on the way here and I thought it'd at least be a nice gesture, if not another thing to help our relationship be believable and not entirely based on lies. I'm sorry."

Shouto sighed. "You didn't know. If I had thought about it, I would have told you not to get me flowers. But ... At least now you know how shitty my father is."

"Are you sure you have to take over his company?" Denki asked, clearly concerned.

"Yeah, unfortunately, I do. I'm the only one of my siblings left that's able to. Natsuo purposely messed up his chance to take it over, and my oldest brother left with no hints of where he is or how to contact him, and my father doesn't want to hand the company over to a girl, so Fuyumi is out of the question. I'm his youngest and only child left. I don't want to know what he'd do if I refused." Shouto fidgeted, not used to talking so much.

"Damn," Denki bit his lip. "Well, what did you want to do? I know you said it doesn't matter, but maybe you can find a way to still do it on the side! Or you can at least do that before needing to focus on the company!"

Shouto went quiet before mumbling, "I ... May be minoring in graphic design. But taking classes is the closest I'll get to doing anything with it. My father only approved because I'm still taking the classes for the major he wants me to graduate with."

Denki lit up. "Dude!" He gasped. "That's so cool! You could totally do something with it still!"

"Should you really be calling me 'dude' if this is technically another date?" Denki calling me dude kinda rubs me the wrong way ... But why should it? We're not really dating, and we're alone. We don't have to keep up any façades.

Denki ignored him. "You can make posters and help redesign the website and everything!"

Shouto studied Denki's face. Denki was so, so excited about the possibility of Shouto doing what he wanted, even if only a little, and it hurt. It was cute and endearing, but it hurt. Because he knew he couldn't. "My father won't let me. He's always said that I'll be too busy with everything else and keeping up appearances to do anything I actually want to do."

"But, if you're in charge, then you can do what you want!"

"Denki, I won't be able to do anything. I'll be 'in charge' to the public, but my father is still going to be in charge of what I do. I have less than five years to do what I want, and then I'll be the head of the company full-time." Shouto felt close to tears. He didn't like showing emotion. He felt uncomfortable and overly vulnerable, something that also made him anxious because of his father. Emotional vulnerability was just asking for it to be exploited.

When Shouto looked up, not realizing he had even looked down at any point, he saw that Denki was actually crying.

"Shouto ... I'm so sorry you have to deal with that. Let's make the best of these five years, alright?"

Let's? Shouto's heart raced. He wanted to confirm his suspicions. "You mean ... You'll be around?"

"I mean! Yeah!" Denki laughed nervously. "We're friends! And I think we've been friends long enough to know that these next five years should go without a hitch for us!"

"Right. Thank you." While Shouto's hopes deflated, he was also glad to know that Denki wanted to at least stay in his life for the long-term. Yeah, he might have preferred ... Something a little more romantic than friends, but he'd take it. Keeping Denki in his life was something he wanted to do, and he hoped he could stay friends with him even after taking over his fathers company when he turned twenty-five.

Shouto smiled. "Anyway, I guess we should practice for the dance on Saturday. Fair warning, I have two left feet."

"Alright!" Denki's stomach growled, amd he laughed. "Can we eat first? I'm starving!"