Chapter Text
Todoroki Shouto stands in the training field, only a half hour before curfew. Aizawa keeps his distance, but Shouto can feel his presence, looming like a shadow. He's here to test a new technique. One he's been developing himself. Figuring it out for himself because the last time he asked his father to help him learn something about using fire, back in the second semester of first year...
Well.
That had gone poorly.
He may or may not have jumped out the window of Endeavor's office, and ran across a couple of rooftops, leaving an angrily confused Endeavor to fume and stew.
Hopefully his self-taught technique goes better.
Under Aizawa's slightly unsettling stare, Shouto raises a hand to his chest. He presses his own crushing cold into himself. Strangling, icy pressure engulfs his lungs, constricts his throat.
All at once the choking feeling snaps off.
Not from Aizawa's gaze. It's not the nerve-scraping void of Erasure in him.
He had forced frost into himself. Flame answers. Not his usual red-orange blaze, but twisting blue flames. Immediate success leaves him slightly shocked. Shouto clenches his fist to stop himself from shaking. It's oddly nostalgic. Also a little bit frightening.
There are three people who can use blue fire now. His father, himself... and Dabi.
For just a moment, a fuzzy memory floats in his mind, easing his nerves. A bandaged, overly warm hand pats his head. He blinks it away, and focuses on the heat building under his skin.
He extends a hand and a blue inferno roars across the training field, scorching and cracking the concrete. A sweep of his arm and a wall of flame mimics his movement, cutting across the field.
He repeats the gesture with more emphasis. A swirling, towering ring of flame surrounds the training field. Shouto's vision blurs, just a little. He has to quickly change his footing as his balance wavers.
Emptiness sweeps through him. He looks up to see Aizawa's blood-red stare. Shouto can't pretend he's good at reading people, but his teacher looks concerned, possibly deep in thought... and quite irritated.
"That's enough. Let's see Recovery Girl."
Aizawa was coming with him?
Shouto smells singed hair and burnt fabric.
Oh.
It isn't until they're almost at the infirmary that he notices the burn scar on his face stinging a little.