Chapter Text
Three years ago...
Growing up in the household he did, it was no wonder that Todoroki Shouto was excited to graduate high school and leave behind the oppressive home that had taken his childhood and his mother's sanity. But as determined as he had been to leave, he didn't think much past that. No ideas for the future, or where to go or what to do. The day after his graduation ceremony, with only the handful of personal belongings he had been allowed growing up and the junky old truck his sister helped him secretly buy, he had taken off.
And as much as he didn't have a plan for how to proceed and just drifted from town to town, the next six months spent just travelling with the sizable chunk of allowance he had been hoarding since he was small was the best six months Shouto had ever experienced. Never staying in one town for more than a week at a time, living out of his truck and the occasional shady motel, and always hopping from one place to the next with no plan for the next week, he finally felt free for the first time in his life.
But, freedom of that kind only stays satisfying for so long.
One year ago…
After traveling from one coast to the next and back, he got… bored. The festivals he visited were all the same, the sights were beautiful but remained static, and the people were all same at heart. The small little island country of Japan not big enough to show him any more than it had already.
And since he had no desire to leave, he was left to finally consider his options for the future. His father had wanted him to follow in his footsteps and go to law school, but god knows he was not about to go home and agree to that after everything he had done to escape.
In the following weeks, Shouto thought about a lot of things. His mother, still sitting trapped in a hospital, and the way they used to play when he was young. How she taught him to play piano, one of the few things Enji approved of beyond his studies, and how when the man wasn't home, they would cut the classical pieces and instead she would teach him how to play modern songs, upbeat and fun tunes that they'd sing to together, how Fuyumi would come in sometimes and sing offkey with them. None of them were singers in any way but sitting at that bench and belting out American pop songs and his mother's favorite rock ballads, translated into piano were some of his favorite memories. But his love for music was lost with his mother's sanity, and even though he had continued with piano lessons with some high paid stuffy tutor, courtesy of Enji, it wasn't the same.
He was sitting on the hood of his truck, watching the sun set over the ocean waves and trying to recall which All Might song was his mother's favorite, beside a tiny town he couldn't remember the name of, when the radio crackling beside him changed his life.
"Okay folks, we're currently taking in requests, and up first is a personal favorite of mine, "Yourself" from our wonder boy Dekiru!"
Dekiru. Some rookie kid in the music industry who had shown up one day and shook the industry to its core in a way that hadn't happened since the rock phenomenon All Might himself made his debut. He'd heard of him, of course. It was impossible to listen to the radio or log onto any social media without hearing about him. But Shouto had never bothered to listen to anything from the guy. He tended to listen to instrumental stations, but he had wanted a change of pace and chose a multi-genre station on a whim, craving the sound of another human voice.
Shouto hadn't really thought much of Dekiru. He was just another name in the crowd of young singers vying for attention. But that changed the moment he heard the guy's voice.
Smooth and gentle but with an underlying feeling of power behind his words, the voice on the other end of the radio was ear catching to say the least. Admittedly, Shouto didn't catch anything that was actually sung, the lyrics going right over his head from the stunned state that voice sent him into. It sent shivers down his spine, and the sweet piano accompaniment underneath made his heart ache bittersweet. It struck a chord in him, and when the song ended he scrambled for his phone to look up more.
Shouto spent that night sitting in a 24/7 café, bingeing everything he could find from Dekiru. The singer had a popular YouTube channel, with dozens of covers and vlogs posted over the months that the channel had been up, and after listening for hours to every cover and original song posted, he knew there was no stopping now. The lyrics were powerful, the genre varied song by song from pop to alternative to rock like Dekiru couldn't make up his mind, and with each recording he listened to, he felt that long lost excitement and passion for music he thought he'd lost long ago. The thrumming in his veins to the beat of the song, the feeling of excitement settling in his chest as he hummed along, it all woke something up in him he hadn't felt in ages.
The next week, he bought a keyboard from a second-hand store and started looking up universities with music courses.
Present day…
While Shouto is proud of how far he has come from the lost boy just trying to survive his father when he was young, he knows he didn't do any of this on his own. His sister Fuyumi had been the most supportive person in his life since their mother was hospitalized, she had helped him escape their father, and then helped him apply to Yuuei University of the Arts, the top school of arts in all of Japan. She'd even helped him find an apartment near the university and furnish it. But while his sister was supportive and cared for him, she had to keep a certain distance so that Enji wouldn't find him through her. She couldn't be the closest person to him.
That's where Shinsou and Aizawa came in.
When finally settling down to start his future, he'd realized his saved-up funds were running out. He had enough for a month's rent, and he scored a ton of scholarships with Fuyumi's help for school, but beyond that, he was running out of money. So, a job it was, and while he had just expected an impersonal job as a cashier or something similar somewhere, he managed to land a barista job in a little cat café called "Cat Nap" across the street from the university gates.
His boss Aizawa is an odd one, he sleeps most of the day like one of the cats dozing around the café and spends the rest of the time downing coffee and working on his computer, but he's supportive and caring in his own awkward, quiet way. His son Shinsou is even worse, just as tired but far more expressive in a weird, sarcastically dry way. The two of them are just as awkward as he is, and that may be why they became some sort of family to him in the past 10 months he's been working there.
They didn't talk about the past and too personal topics, and while that usually was a plus in Shouto's book, it made today even more mysterious.
Aizawa had called him last night to tell him that he was meant to meet someone after his shift today, which won't be ending until closing time, but he has no idea who this person is going to be. From what he knows, Aizawa had no family other than his son, and didn't seem like the type to have many, if any, friends. While he knows about Shouto's school plans and had even played some recordings of Shouto's piano playing over the café speakers, he shouldn't really have any contacts in the industry, as just a quiet café shop owner.
Shouto had spent all shift trying to figure out who he's supposed to be meeting. It doesn't help that Shinsou kept flashing him smug grins like he knows something Shouto doesn't, which is probably true.
He'd been so distracted, he even messed up a customer's order, which he hadn't done since he first started working.
Shouto locks himself in the bathroom of the café while Shinsou locks up shop, and changes into the nicer clothes he brought with him, just a simple button down and his nicest jeans, instead of the café uniform he wears covered in various colors of cat fur. When he comes out, the place is empty except for Shinsou sitting on the counter with his usual brand of amused smirk plastered on his face and Aizawa who is sitting at one of the many couches near the door with their resident grumpy cat Pancake atop his lap, sipping a coffee despite the late hour and working on his computer as usual. Unsure of what to do, Shouto plops himself down on a stool at the counter and gives Shinsou a narrow-eyed look.
"So. What about this person I'm supposed to meet? Am I allowed to know yet?"
"They'll be here in five minutes," Aizawa immediately responds from his spot on the couch, not even looking up from his computer screen. Shinsou hums as well, swinging his legs back and forth where they hang over the counter. It's unusual to see the sleepy-eyed student so chipper about anything, and the image succeeds in making Shouto more on edge than he was before.
The next five minutes pass in tense silence, only filled with the click-clacking of Aizawa's computer and the occasional passing vehicle. Finally, a car pulls up in front of the café. It's sleek and black, windows tinted just on the side of legal, and sends a jolt of worry down Shouto's spine. Surely Aizawa wouldn't be involved with anyone unsavory, right? So why is that car so suspicious looking?
The driver's door opens to reveal a tall, bulky looking man, and if that doesn't make him even more nervous, the fact that the man turns to the back-seat door, opens it, and bows to whoever is within, does it. It all shouts suspicious and shady, and Shinsou's grin and Aizawa's calm movement to unlock the front door don't make it any better.
Whoever is in the back-seat steps out, and when they rise to their full height, long and spindly, they tower over the driver, face hidden in shadow and body hidden within a long coat. After that comes a person significantly smaller in a dark sweater with the hood pulled up over their head, surely smaller than Shouto himself, and the height difference between the two figures would be comical if wasn't all shady as hell looking. He almost wants to shout at Aizawa to lock the door when his boss pulls it open with a lazy motion.
"C'mon already you two brats, you're scaring the kid."
Just like that, the tense atmosphere dissipates when the smaller of the two responds.
"Shouta dear, that's not very nice," a deep voice laughs, and by the shake of the taller one's shoulders, it's obvious who spoke.
"Papa! I'm so happy to see you!" The smaller figure steps into the light and launches themself at Aizawa, easily caught in one arm like his boss was expecting it. Of everything he's seen in the past few minutes, the last thing Shouto was expecting is the gentle smile that flashes across his boss' features, but it's there, directed down at the person hugging him around the waist. The other figure, the tall one, steps forward into the light as well, grinning wide down at the two. He's strangely familiar looking, ridiculous blonde hair like a lion's mane and bright smile triggering some niggling memory that Shouto can't quite pin down. It's the same feeling the smaller person's voice gave him, like he should know something, but he doesn't. Suddenly the smaller pulls away from Aizawa and turns toward the counter, to him and Shinsou.
"Hitoshi! Get over here, I haven't seen you in months!"
The figure tugs back the hood they're wearing, and suddenly Shouto knows why that voice is so familiar.
Before him stands Dekiru himself, smiling that sunshine smile everyone talks about in an oversized sweater and his signature red sneakers, hair like a halo of spring leaves, and he's just as pretty as the pictures make him out to be even with the bags under his eyes and the loose clothing obscuring his form.
Shouto's never been one for hyperbole or fancy metaphors, but he feels like he's just laid eyes on an angel.