[Even if Dabi finds him painfully dull and would rather end it than have to be around him, Enji isn't going to let it happen. Despite how things turned out, it's impossible not to change the way he feels about the villain once he knows that he's the very same son he'd spent hours some days just staring at his picture and agonizing over his failures as a father. That he even has a change to get to know him again is something he never thought he would have--or deserve. Yet here they were. Dabi being...Dabi. That's definitely what he deserves for what a piss poor job he did trying to raise him and his siblings.Although he can only really take credit for training Touya and Shouto. One wanted more than anything to be a hero like his father while they other fought desperately while Enji forced those expectations on his youngest.
The point remains, he's not letting Dabi die, and he's not letting himself get killed by him either. Not until he gets the answers he wants, or the chance to make Dabi understand how sorry he is--especially since the young man refuses to hear Enji even say the words.]
I'm not letting you kill me. [He states it like it's fact. Like there's no fathomable way that he could ever believe that Dabi could come out on top if the two of them had to fight. Maybe that's his ego speaking, but did he have the room to make such declarations when he about dropped to his knees in horror when he first found out. He couldn't fight his own child.]
I want to understand why you do what you do. Is it just because you hate me? Because you want to show how much you tried to be the opposite of your old man? [Every so often he'll glance over to Dabi, then straight ahead again to look for that outpost. They have to be getting pretty close now.]
Everything? Are you sure you want to give me that kind of credit? [Enji is bad at jokes, but there's a sarcasm there that can't be read as anything but a poor attempt at humor.] I might have done the wrong thing with how I handled you, but I didn't know anything about raising kids. I was doing my best, or what I thought was best, and I was a shitty father, but it's not my fault that you didn't understand that everything I did was to save you from yourself. You were destined to burn yourself up from the inside, and even in trying to stop it I pushed you faster down that path.
I don't wonder if I did the right thing, I know I didn't, but I do wonder if I'd have done things differently if maybe you'd be different.
[For the two of them it's a more complicated situation than not having told Dabi he loved him often enough, or not having spent enough time with him.] It's a waste of time going over the past again. [Enji mutters as he reaches out to touch Dabi's shoulder for emphasis, but remembers how he responded the last time he tried to touch his son, and draw his hand back to his side instead.
Eventually he would stop walking on eggshells for Dabi, but he's slowly coming to terms that he would just be Enji's number one weakness/handicap for the rest of his life.]
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The point remains, he's not letting Dabi die, and he's not letting himself get killed by him either. Not until he gets the answers he wants, or the chance to make Dabi understand how sorry he is--especially since the young man refuses to hear Enji even say the words.]
I'm not letting you kill me. [He states it like it's fact. Like there's no fathomable way that he could ever believe that Dabi could come out on top if the two of them had to fight. Maybe that's his ego speaking, but did he have the room to make such declarations when he about dropped to his knees in horror when he first found out. He couldn't fight his own child.]
I want to understand why you do what you do. Is it just because you hate me? Because you want to show how much you tried to be the opposite of your old man? [Every so often he'll glance over to Dabi, then straight ahead again to look for that outpost. They have to be getting pretty close now.]
Everything? Are you sure you want to give me that kind of credit? [Enji is bad at jokes, but there's a sarcasm there that can't be read as anything but a poor attempt at humor.] I might have done the wrong thing with how I handled you, but I didn't know anything about raising kids. I was doing my best, or what I thought was best, and I was a shitty father, but it's not my fault that you didn't understand that everything I did was to save you from yourself. You were destined to burn yourself up from the inside, and even in trying to stop it I pushed you faster down that path.
I don't wonder if I did the right thing, I know I didn't, but I do wonder if I'd have done things differently if maybe you'd be different.
[For the two of them it's a more complicated situation than not having told Dabi he loved him often enough, or not having spent enough time with him.] It's a waste of time going over the past again. [Enji mutters as he reaches out to touch Dabi's shoulder for emphasis, but remembers how he responded the last time he tried to touch his son, and draw his hand back to his side instead.
Eventually he would stop walking on eggshells for Dabi, but he's slowly coming to terms that he would just be Enji's number one weakness/handicap for the rest of his life.]