Chapter Text
Moving from Japan all the way to California should’ve been a fun experience; something exciting. Though under the circumstances, there was really nothing for Shoto to be excited about.
His mother, Fuyumi, and him weren’t moving. They were fleeing the country. Running away from the monster that still lived there. The monster that would no longer be able to reach them if they were far enough. Fuyumi and Shoto’s father. His mothers husband. Their shared nightmare.
They left in the dead of night, carrying all their belongings in a suitcase, hopping in a cab, and never looking back.
Shoto’s mother cried on the drive to the airport, and her children held her while she wept. They were free. Her children were safe, at last. All except two, who had fallen victim to Enji’s cruel behavior earlier than the rest of the family.
Once at the airport, they boarded their flight immediately, as if something was chasing them, and maybe something was. A lingering shadow that whispered discouraging words into each of their ears, sharing the same voice.
Shoto sat by the window, leaning his face against the cold glass, his warm breath fogging it up a bit. He hadn’t spoken since he’d been woken up, it all felt like some sort of sick dream. Shoto thinks he should be feeling some sort of relief, but all he could think about was his new life in California, where the people were different, and new. Where they’d speak English instead of Japanese.
The place wasn’t exactly ideal, but if it meant his mothers happiness, then Shoto would endure it. After years of abuse, his mother deserved at least this. And it wasn’t like they’d be completely alone either. They’d be living with Rei’s parents, Fuyumi and Shoto’s grandparents. And at least ... at least they’d have each other.
Shoto slept throughout the rest of the flight, dreaming about the days to come.
-
“Shoto, Fuyumi, Rei!”
Shoto’s head shot up at the familiar voice from where he was retrieving his suitcase. A warmth spread in his chest as he caught sight of his withered grandparents waving excitedly at the trio, standing towards the edge of the sidewalk.
”Mom, Dad!” Rei grinned, almost toppling Shoto’s grandmother from the force of the hug.
“Shoto, Fuyumi, look at you both. You’ve gotten so big!” Their grandfather chuckled, pulling them both in for a a hug.
“Grandpa, it’s nice to see you. We’ve missed you.” Fuyumi spoke, backing away from the hug a bit to get a look at her sweet elder.
“We missed you guys, more!” Grandma giggled, still holding onto Rei.
“What about you Shoto? How’ve you been?” Grandpa smiled, petting his hair so affectionately, Shoto almost pulled away. Affection like that was hardly ever allowed around Todoroki Enji.
“I’m just tired, grandpa.“ He answered, even throwing in a fake yawn to sell the act. In all honesty, Shoto just wanted to go home. Wherever that may be. He had a lot on his mind.
“Oh that’s right, you kids must be exhausted from the long flight! Let’s go, the car’s in the parking lot.” The trio collected their suitcases and followed their family through a gate, and wow LA was really sunny.
“You guys are probably going to want to buy some sunglasses. It’s super hot here in LA.” As if reading his mind, Grandpa pulls on his own black sunglasses, and Shoto smiles a bit. He looked like a spy in one of those movies.
Shoto hauled the suitcases into the trunk, and took his seat next to Fuyumi in the back, leaning his head on her shoulder. She looked troubled, and Shoto didn’t know how to comfort someone the proper way, he figured he was doing just fine since she sunk into him, leaning her own head on top of his.
“We’ll be ok, Shoto.”
Shoto was surprised to find his grandparents house could accommodate three more people. Fuyumi and his mother would have to share a room, though they didn’t seem to have an issue with it. Shoto had his own room, which didn’t seem fair to him at first but decided that sharing a room with a ... woman wouldn't be a good idea.
Shoto didn’t have many personal belongings, and if he did, he had left them back in Japan, deciding that they weren’t important enough to bring with him. The only things he packed were all his clothes, and picture frames of his what was left of his family.
He set one of the frames on his bedside table. A picture of his mother, the person he loved the most. He pulled out an old selfie of Fuyumi and him, in polaroid form, from his wallet and placed it in the corner of his mothers picture. He stares longingly at it, probably longer than he realized, as he was snapped out of his trance by a shout from Fuyumi about dinner being ready.
He was inwardly delighted to find soba noodles sitting on the table, his mother must've said something.
He ate quietly as everyone conversed cheerfully, laughing and chatting like they’ve been doing this for years. Like everything was normal.
Shoto clenched his chopsticks, and continued to eat, unaware of the worried glances he received.
For the next few days Shoto practices his limited english, and napped most of the hours in the day, still not used to the timezone difference.
Fuyumi and Shoto explored the neighborhood a bit, walked to convenience stores, the park, even the beach, which was conveniently placed only a few blocks away from his grandparents house.
There were lots of white people, Shoto noticed. Though it wasn’t just white people, they did make up majority of the population where his grandparents lived. And they all spoke fluent english, which sounded like a bunch of garbled noise to him. He knew some basic words and phrases like, “Hello, my name is Shoto, your name is?” and “How was your day?” He also admittedly learned most of the english curse words when he was younger because he thought it made him cool. He guessed it could be useful somehow, now that he was living in the states.
”Shoto, pick your snack so we can go. Moms waiting.” Fuyumi chastised gently, already waiting by the register.
“Sorry.” He mumbled and grabbed the closest thing he could find, which turned out to be chocolate flavored pocky.
He placed them on the counter and stood next to Fuyumi, watching her pay with her limited english. He should learn how to do stuff like this so Fuyumi didn’t have to embarrass herself so often.
“Sorry if this is a bit rude, but you guys are Japanese, right?” Shoto’s head snaps up at the employee who had just spoken a fluent Japanese sentence out of nowhere.
Now that Shoto was getting a good look at him though, he noticed the slightly slanted emerald eyes that adorned the boys face. Along with the cute freckles that were sprinkled right underneath them, but that was besides the point.
“Ah, yes! We just moved here from Japan actually.” Fuyumi grinned, visibly relaxing at speaking her native language.
“Oh that’s cool! I was born in Japan as well, but I moved to LA when I was just a baby.” The employee -Izuku- explained while putting Shoto’s pocky in a small paper bag.
“Your Japanese is really good! I would’ve expected you to have lived in Japan all your life with a vocabulary like that!” Fuyumi complimented, and Shoto found himself agreeing. How’d Izuku manage to keep up with his native language even after all these years?
Izuku flushed, and batted his hand dismissively. “I practice a lot, is all. I’m even taking a Japanese language class in school to improve even more.”
Fuyumi gasped in awe, and Shoto saw where this was going. “What school do you go to?”
“Fuyumi.” Shoto whispered, as a warning to maybe not pry in somebody else’s personal life.
Fuyumi scowled at him and Izuku laughed it off politely. “I go to Saint Michael’s. It’s actually not that far from here.”
Shoto sighed inwardly as Fuyumi practically beamed. “Thats the one Shoto’s going to attend! Maybe you two could be friends!”
”Fuyumi.” Shoto whispered louder, nudging her shoulder with his.
Izuku handed her the bag of snacks. “I’m a sophomore— u-uh, the equivalent to a second year in America. What about you Shoto-kun?“
Shoto cursed Fuyumi in his head. “Me too.”
“Shoto, don’t be rude.” Fuyumi chastised. “Forgive him, Izuku-kun. We’re still getting used to the timezone difference. We’re always tired.”
Izuku laughed brightly, waving his hands dismissively. “It’s fine,” Then he turns to Shoto. “Hopefully I get to see you at school, Shoto-kun.”
Shoto ducked his head and nodded softly, not taking his eyes off the floor which had suddenly become extremely interesting.
Fuyumi and him said their goodbyes, well Fuyumi said goodbye. Shoto kinda just stood there awkwardly shuffling on his feet, itching to get home and sleep because despite it being the middle of the day, he was exhausted.
”He was nice, wasn’t he?” Fuyumi said, once they stepped out onto the sidewalk.
Shoto nodded mindlessly, hands shoved in his pockets. Fuyumi watched him from the corner of her eyes, and frowned.
Once Shoto got to his room, he ripped open the bag of half melted pocky sticks and began chomping on them with his eyes shut, his mind drifting back to Izuku and the topic of school.
School would be hard to adjust to, but Shoto thinks as long as Izuku was in the same grade as him, he’d be able to manage.
At least he wasn’t the only Japanese kid.