#then one day Mikoto just strides in and picks him up like a stray kitten and drags him to the bar

[ridiasfangirlings]

What if sarumi met and got into HOMRA earlier while they're still in middle school? At this point while Yata is still friends with Fushimi and thinks he's important, Fushimi still has his doubts (plus they didn't live together yet) and Niki is still alive and would notice Fushimi acting strange. How would this affect Fushimi's decision later on? Also since Niki isn't dead yet, Aya wouldn't be able to use the virus on him but the real one is still there for her to tattle to about Yata and HOMRA.

I wonder if things would be even worse in this case, since we don't just have Fushimi's normal insecurities playing on him but there's also Niki just like right there making Fushimi's mental health into shit. Like I could see Fushimi thinking that maybe since he has power now he doesn't need to be afraid of Niki anymore, he can just burn Niki and make him be the one who's afraid, but then at the same time he doesn't know what would happen if he burned someone just for his own reasons, like would Homra kick him out for that kind of thing. Plus I imagine Kusanagi at least impressed upon the kids the need for some level of secrecy, like obviously there's the whole 'Red Monster' rumor going around and some of Shizume's underground clearly knows about Homra and the Red King but I imagine they can't be too bold about things or Kokujouji won't be very happy about having to cover up any problems caused. So Fushimi knows that he isn't really 'supposed' to threaten to burn his dad's face off but it's hard to keep that in check, trying to tell himself that he can just ignore Niki and there's nothing Niki can do to him now but even so his body just reacts instinctively when Niki's around. Plus on top of that now he has yet another thing that he needs to keep a secret because no way does he want Niki of all people to find out about the whole Kings and clans thing.

Even so I could see Niki finding out that his son is disappearing somewhere constantly, like maybe in this AU Aya even tries to secretly tell him where Fushimi's going in order to use the real Niki the way she does the hallucinations in canon. Niki of course knows that Aya's the one who dropped the hint but he doesn't really care what that shrimp's up to, he's way more interested in seeing what kind of cute friends his son has made. Imagine him following Fushimi to Bar Homra but he doesn't go inside, instead he waits until Fushimi's on his way home and meets him at the door, noting that it's bad for kids to go into adult bars isn't it, Saruhiko's becoming a delinquent right before his eyes. Fushimi freaks out a little that Niki knows where he's going and maybe he even ends up using his Red power almost without thinking, like just from sheer emotional torment, but rather than being scared Niki just laughs and thinks his son has found something really interesting huh. Fushimi runs off and goes to like an internet cafe for the night but now he's all tormented because he doesn't know what Niki's going to do, like what if he tells Homra that Fushimi gave up their whole secret or what if he tries to find a way to keep Fushimi from being able to stay there any longer (and maybe this is part of what makes Scepter 4 ultimately more attractive too, because Munakata notes that as a government agency he can shield Fushimi from such things without any trouble...or he can give Fushimi the means to do so himself, using Scepter 4's resources to keep tabs on Niki and make sure he can't bother Fushimi any longer).