Chapter Text
Shouto chews his cold soba silently, avoiding his father’s stare over the table. Enji has been increasingly present for breakfast and dinner—especially dinner, and it’s still weird, although it’s getting better. Rei sits by his side, also eating silently, looking at peace. Sometimes Enji would pile food onto her plate (“You have to eat more, to regain your strength,” he’d fuss, and she’d smile at him. A year ago, this would be unfathomable —it kind of still is). The therapist Enji goes to must be a miracle worker, because he hasn’t snapped at his family in months .
The Todoroki family has been eating dinner together for almost two months now. Shouto doesn’t want to be the cause of their relapse. Well, technically, it would be Enji’s fault if he gets angry that Shouto ranked third on this year’s Sports Festival.
“Shouto.”
Ah, here we go, Shouto braces for impact, looking up slowly from his bowl. Heterochromatic eyes meets burning blues. The rest of the table stops eating. His sister is especially tense.
His father sets down his chopsticks. “I saw your performance in the Sports Festival,” he says, “It’s-“ He pauses. He opens his mouth to say something but vaguely shrugs it off. “Good job.”
A string of soba slides off Shouto’s slack grip.
His father isn’t finished. “You handle ice better than most pros. But your left side needs a lot of work.”
“I know,” Shouto quickly says, figuring the point of the conversation, “I’ll just intern with you again.”
Unexpectedly, Endeavor shakes his head. “No.”
“What?”
“I’ve talked to your teacher. The maritime division of the International Hero Association owes me a couple of favors. I’m calling in one,” he says while picking up his food again, like Shouto getting sent to work overseas isn’t a big deal. Shouto waits out the chews and swallow. “You’ll work under The Earthshaking Hero: Whitebeard. We just talked and he suggested one of his top men to supervise you.”
“So you’re just sending him away?” Natsuo snaps, breaking the quiet stalemate between him and Enji he has kept up for months.
“The Flame Hero: Firefist is a young, up and coming pro two years fresh out of school, yet his control over fire rivals mine. You can learn a thing or two from him.”
“But you can’t just- Mom!”
Rei looks thoughtful. “Whitebeard is a good man. It’ll be great experience for Shouto.”
Natsuo gapes, speechless. Shouto would mirror him, if his mind isn’t running, zooming a hundred miles every millisecond.
No pyrokinesis training with his father. A month of freedom, away from him but also from school, the rest of his family and his friends. Meeting international heroes, a completely different level than their local force, evident by Endeavor’s admittance of a rookie having a similar level of control to their number one hero. A different terrain, with different people, different food and—oh god, perhaps different language too?
Shouto takes a few deep breaths. “I’m grateful,” he finally says.
Enji nods, pleased. “Good. Pack your bags, you’ll be on your way next Monday.”
———
“Todoroki-kun!” greets bright freckled cheeks with wild green hair as soon as Shouto steps inside the classroom, which isn’t in anyway a surprise, but still not something that happens every day.
“Midoriya.” Shouto sits on his chair anyway.
All Might’s apprentice hijacks the seat in front of him and starts talking wildly. “I saw Endeavor in the International Hero Conference yesterday!”
Shouto blinks. So there was a conference.
“All Might came too, not as an official hero of course since he’s retired and all, but to see an old friend, and he brought me along! There’s so many heroes, more than I knew about, with so many amazing quirks!” He gestures with his hands, the cumulation of over a year being best friends with Iida. “All Might talked to Garp The Fist! He’s not really a hero but he’s a big shot US Marine and is called a hero anyway. His quirk is some kind of super strength, I think, since he mentioned chucking cannonballs with his bare hands! The strength that’s needed to do that-“
“Midoriya.”
“Ah! He’s a vice admiral but he’s mainly training new recruits now. All Might introduced me to him. He said I reminded him of someone and said I could use some shaping up. Then All Might brought up the Sports Festival and our internship and,” he finally takes a breath, laughing lightly. “I guess I’m interning at the US Marine Headquarters this year.”
“So you’re going overseas too,” says Shouto, eyes wide.
“Yeah! I can’t wait- Wait.” His big eyes squint and focus on Shouto, then yells, “Todoroki-kun, you got an international internship too?!”
That gets the whole class’ attention, every head turning to Shouto’s table in the corner of the room, like predators spotting their prey. One predator is particularly vicious, eyes screaming bloody murder though he just stepped into the classroom.
“WHA? What do you mean about you and Half-and-Half, Deku?!”
Compared to their first year, Bakugou has mellowed out—if only slightly. He works better with others and is now adept at rescues, but still stomps everywhere he goes and seems perpetually angry. Shouto should really ask his father to refer Bakugou his therapist.
“We’ll discuss that in homeroom today, actually,” drawls Aizawa, as always zipping down his cocoon out of nowhere. Class A’s vigilance is nothing to the stealth of a pro underground hero. “Get back to your seats. We’re going to talk about your internships.”
Bakugou heads to his chair with a “tch”, while Midoriya apologizes profusely to Hagakure who has been standing next to her seat all this time. Shouto looks past her invisible head to Aizawa, a stack of papers in his hand.
“Here’s the list of agencies who requested you. Pass it on.” He hands over half to Shinsou, who always sits in front ready and eager to learn ever since he transferred into their hero class, and half to Kirishima, who has been banned from sitting in the back due to deplorable grades. Excitement bubbles up throughout the class eagerly reading their prospects, except for Shouto, who received nothing.
“Please think about where you want to intern in carefully before submitting your form at the end of this week. Except for Midoriya and Todoroki”—a quick glance to the right tells Shouto that Midoriya didn’t get his list either—“whose paperwork has been taken care of.”
“Sensei!” Bakugou wastes no time in raising his hand and yells away, “How come Deku and Icyhot got special privileges?”
Their teacher sighs. “Yesterday evening, All Might informed me that his friend from the US is interested in taking Midoriya under his wing. All Might also said that Endeavor has secured Todoroki an internship with Firefist,” Aizawa says. He fixes both students a red eyed glare. “I wasn’t happy with it, I’m still not. Even though we did in a good chunk of the League of Villains at the end of last year, we’re still big targets and are under constant threat. I don’t want you where I couldn’t reach you.”
A warm feeling sweeps through the whole class. Eraserhead cares so much for them! Shouto hears Hagakure trying and failing to hide her sniffles.
Aizawa closes his eyes for a few moments before continuing. “But that’s irrational. By going overseas, you’ll not only be beyond my reach, but also the the League of Villains’. What’s most rational, as a student, is to search for as much knowledge as possible, and there’s much to learn in a foreign land. So I let All Might submit your paperworks.”
Bakugou raises his hand again, but this time, Yaoyorozu does it too and their teacher nods at her to talk before he could shout out his protests.
Yaoyorozu straightens, hands folded on her desk with poise. “Sensei, is there any way we, the other students, can also acquire international internships?”
“Yeah, Sensei!” Mina chimes in.
“Man, it’s really not fair if only Midoriya and Todoroki gets to do it,” Kaminari says.
A slew of agreements ripples through the class. Their blond hothead is especially eager. Shouto is half interested and half just wants homeroom to be over.
When the class settles down, Aizawa opens his mouth. “You’ll have to take it up with another teacher. I don’t work much with international heroes, so I can’t refer you. But if you can find yourselves one before the end of the week, you can submit your form as normal.”
Shouto’s classmates’ faces brighten up with excited non-whispers. Aizawa gives up in retaining any sense of order and goes back into his cocoon. Many of the class crowd around Midoriya, who happily answers every curiosity they have that he can answer.
“Hey Todoroki, how did you get your internship?” Jirou, who sits on his right, asks.
Shouto stares at her blankly. “My father.”
“Oh. Nevermind.” She turns around, conversation over. No one else bothers him after.
Shouto smiles, can’t help but feeling slightly amused. He drowns out the noise and takes out his notebook instead. There’s a lot of things he should plan for, since it’s a one month long internship. He scribbles checklists from his hero suit to his trusty toothbrush. He hopes his one suitcase would suffice.