Seungmin didn’t always hate his father. There was a time, right before his power manifested, where he loved his dad. And then his power came in and everything went downhill. Well, that’s how it seemed in his memories. One minute he was less than three and loved his dad, next he was…….four maybe……and he hated him. He didn’t remember what exactly happened to cause the change, but he also didn’t care. His father was a monster, what did it matter how he came to realize that?

His mother tried to talk him out of his hate, but her words fell on deaf ears. Honestly, it just made him angrier. How could his mother defend her abuser like that? How badly had that monster twisted her mind for her to do that? More importantly, was the damage too much to be fixed? Would his mother always be sympathetic to his father? Always defend his actions?

He never really got an answer.

His mother found out about his father cheating on her. The woman was a hero herself; younger with a stronger power, rich family, and good placement on the charts. The poor woman finally snapped and took her own life. Seungmin would always remember coming home from school to find his father laughing with some of his hero buddies, totally unconcerned with his missing wife. When the cops showed up at their door to report that his mother had jumped from a highway overpass, his father acted every bit the distraught husband. The news ate it up and his father’s popularity went up a bunch.

But once the cameras were gone and Seungmin was alone with the man, the care vanished. In place of tears were curses because how dare that woman do something so selfish. Who could look after Seungmin now? His father would have to waste money on a nanny or something. It wasn’t like he could get his girlfriend to do it, she was too well-known of a hero. People would notice her taking care of someone’s kid and ask questions.

It made Seungmin sick.

With his mother gone, the beatings also got worse. After all, he was now the only target for his father’s rage. To make it worse, no one seemed to think twice about the bruises his father couldn’t cover. Everyone saw the black eyes or the sprained wrists or whatever the monster had done and assumed his father was just starting his hero training. Seungmin was thirteen after all, that was the age most hero kids started training. The odd black eye was normal.

It wasn’t normal.

Seungmin’s hate grew.

--

“This should be it,” Seungmin said, pulling his hood farther over his head. It would do him no good to be recognized, especially so close to his goal.

Seungmin had been watching the Twin Flames since they killed their first hero. He hadn’t thought too much of them at first, they weren’t the first villains to go after heroes, but as time passed he started to notice something about them. They said they wanted to change the system, that they would never kill the innocent and……..damn if they didn’t stick to that. As their crimes grew, as they gained more allies, it was harder and harder to ignore them. To brush them off as just another villain team.

It had been three, almost four, years since the Twin Flames had first appeared. Seungmin had spent the last year trying to track them down without anyone noticing, a task easier said than done when you were the child of number twelve. There was always someone around, someone waiting with a camera looking for a hot scoop. But he’d finally managed to do it! He’d tracked down the Twin Flames to a small bar on the poor side of the city. Now all he needed to do was go in and ask for their help.

Hopefully they’d listen to him.

He walked into the bar to find the group of ‘villains’ already dealing with the appearance of another who wanted to join them.

--

“I don’t think I can heal a lot of these,” Woojin frowned as he looked Seungmin over, “the scars are just……they’re so old.”

“He’s been beating me since I was little,” Seungmin replied, tone bitter and filled with hate. Felix and Jeongin were quick to rush to the young man’s side so they could hug him.

“Can’t believe no one saw what he’d been doing,” Hongbin huffed from his laptop, “I mean, there’s dozens of blogs dedicated to following you around. There’s hundreds of pictures showing you bruised and bandaged. How has no one put two and two together yet?”

“The power of the media,” Chan sighed, “pose with enough babies and puppies and people will start to think that’s reality.”

“And this loser poses for a lot of good causes,” Jisung added, handing Hongbin his phone, “I mean, look at all of it! If I was part of the ignorant masses, I’d buy it, too.”

“This is everything you could find on his schedule for the next two weeks?” Sanghyuk clarified, not glancing up from the papers on his desk.

“Yeah,” Seungmin nodded, “well, I didn’t take anything regarding dinner and lunch dates with his new bimbo. Those are on his phone so I could only get a glance or two at them.”

“This is more than enough,” Taekwoon assured him, “Lix? In? Can you guys show him to a room?”

“Sure,” Felix grinned, “do you mind sharing? Or would you rather have a place to yourself?”

“I don’t mind either way,” Seungmin replied.

“You can share with me!” Jeongin grinned, “Hyunjin and I used to share an apartment, but he’s moved into Lix’s room.”

“Sorry,” Hyunjin winced, trailing behind the three. He knew how much Jeongin hated being alone. Even though the youngest liked to act all grown up and strong and unhindered by his past, he still got scared like anyone else. He still had nightmares like everyone else in their family.

“It’s alright,” Jeongin laughed, “you just wanna spend time with your boyfriend. I don’t mind.”

“You’re more forgiving then Chan,” Jisung laughed as he and Minho joined the group, “he kept complaining about noise.”

“It’s why he moved out,” Minho giggled.

“Like he’s got any room to talk,” Hyunjin playfully rolled his eyes.

“Hey!” Chan yelled, trying to hold back his laughter, “that’s slander, young man!”

The others all laughed and Seungmin…….he felt…….warm.

Was this……a family?

Was this what he’d wanted all his life?

--

“What do ya know?” Taekwoon huffed a small laugh, “the news is right for once.”

The group was gathered around the TV in Sanghyuk’s apartment, watching the evening news. The reporters were talking about Seungmin’s father. The day before, all they could talk about was the tragedy of his recent murder. But now the police had turned up some rather…….interesting information about him. It wasn’t anything about how abusive he was, just how he’d been getting a few different crime organizations to bump off some higher ranked heroes. Apparently he hadn’t done much to cover his tracks, leaving the files just lying around his house.

But now the cat was out of the bag.

Now people wouldn’t see him as this perfect angel, an example of what a hero should be.

“I’m checking blogs,” Hongbin reported, “there’s a bunch of people going over his career, picking everything apart with a fine toothed comb. I don’t think this is the last we’ve heard about this guy’s dirty little secrets.”

“No,” Taekwoon nodded, “I think we’re going to talking about this for months to come.”

“Won’t be enough to change the system, though,” Chan frowned, “the other fakes are probably just gonna start covering their tracks better.”

“We might get some more support though,” Felix smiled, “no better proof that we’re right than something like this.”

“True,” Chan nodded after a moment, “very true. This guy is probably the best advertisement we could get for our cause.”

“Are you alright?” Jeongin whispered to Seungmin, “I mean, this is still your dad. Killing him……it can’t be easy.”

“I’m……ok with it,” Seungmin replied, “Is it…..weird that I really don’t feel anything? Like, I was right there when Hyunjin turned him to stone and I just……..I didn’t feel anything.”

“It’s normal,” Sanghyuk finally spoke up, “with what you’ve been through, I think that feeling nothing is normal.” He looked at Seungmin for a long moment before continuing, “Now for the more important question, what do you want to do now?”

“Do now?” Seungmin blinked, “I…..don’t know. I never really thought about it. I’ve been so focused on seeing him dead, what comes next……..I never thought about it.”

He’d honestly never thought that he could actually kill his father. He’d always imagined that he’d spend his whole life as that man’s punching bag until he snapped like his mother had. Now that his father was dead, now that he was free…….he had no idea what he wanted. Well, that wasn’t totally true. He kind of wanted to stay with Sanghyuk and Jeongin and Felix and Hyunjin and everyone else. He wanted to be a part of their family. He just…..wasn’t sure if he could ask them for that. He had come to them looking to use them for his personal revenge, did he have any right to ask them for anything after that?

“You’re more than welcome to stay here until you figure it out,” Sanghyuk offered, “I’m sure Jeongin wouldn’t mind sharing his space for…..however long you want to stay.”

“I wouldn’t!” Jeongin grinned brightly, “I like having a roommate!”

“Alright,” Seungmin nodded after a moment, “but only until I know what I’m gonna do now.”

Seungmin never left.

A/N: so I was originally gonna have Seungmin and Changbin share a chapter since they joined within hours of each other. But then I started to write it and it just……it didn’t work. What I wanted to do with them…..they needed their own chapters! Also, poor Seungmin. I feel really bad about this, but…….it needed to be done. From go, I wanted one of the group to be the abused child of a pro hero and Seungmin……he ended up being the one I picked. Also, Seungin's power. It took me ages and ages to figure out what I wanted for him before going with fire. Mostly, it's because I want to showcase just how common a power like fire is in this world. Seriously, powers like fire or water and speed are honestly a dime a dozen, yet because they're pretty flashy they aren't treated as lesser powers.