Chapter Text
Todoroki Shouto was 16 years old and didn’t live at home, yet somehow his father still controlled every action that he took. Any attempts of furious rebellion were squashed until Shouto didn’t know right from wrong, only that this didn’t feel real.
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Old Man
~The car is waiting outside, come now.
Read 3:45 PM 12/04/2020
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Midroyia would worry, as he tends to do. Whether or not Shouto had the energy to soothe that worry was another matter. Everything has been so exhausting lately. He opened his chat with him.
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Midoriya
~ How are you Todoroki?
Shouto
~ Fine
Midoriya
~ That’s great! How about we hang out sometime today.
Shouto
~ Okay
Midoriya
~ Great, I’ll come around your room in a few minutes!
Read 4:13 PM 11/04/2020
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Sighing, Shouto decided against it. Midoryia tended to worry every time Shouto went home which was understandable but he was… exhausting in his worry. He would just talk to him later.
Shouto heaved his body up and left his room, forcing himself to even out his body’s harsh breathing.
You’ll be fine. He’ll train you. It’ll suck. Then you can see Fuyumi and come back here. Everything will be fine.
All the sudden, it was like he was dying and he lost track of everything as the elevator descended. His chest was aching and his hands shaking.
By the time he reached the ground level, he was floating above it. He hears a loud noise coming from his right and turns to glance, sure that it was his father already here, ready to hurt him. Instead, he noticed Bakugo and Kirishima were hanging out, playing a video game of some sort - Shouto wouldn’t know which one.
He remembers that Bakugo used to remind him of Endeavour, especially after the Sports Festival. But then, one day he walked into the dorms and found Bakugo reluctantly cooking for everyone. Kirishima offered Shouto some of it and while Bakugo told him off for that, he still shoved a plate in Shouto’s direction.
His father never raised a finger for anyone but himself. Shouto thinks that if Fuyumi hadn't risen to the mantle after Mom’s hos- well, Shouto and Natsou would have starved.
Shouto walks out the front door, signing out at the office and then walking to the car idling on the curb. Clicking it open, he sat down and they were off. It would take 15 minutes to reach home. That was 15 minutes for Shouto to get his shit together; he wouldn’t be able to do anymore than run away from his father if he continued to panic like this. He reached up and yanked at his hair, flushing his head with a cutting, but refreshing feeling.
You’ll be fine. He’ll train you. It’ll suck. Then you can see Fuyumi and come back here. Everything will be fine.
Panic still surged through his chest, leaving his limbs shaking and prompting Shouto’s contemplation of jumping out of the car. He saw his house coming up in the distance. The sight left him floating again. Faintly, he registered his limbs tense and felt exhausted. The car parked. His body stepped out and thanked the driver. His body stepped into the house and slipped off the shoes. His body trudged through the house to the dojo/hell/early grave. Sliding the door open, the sight of Endeavour flushed his body with adrenaline, bringing him back and forcing him into reality.
You’ll be fine. He’ll train you. It’ll suck. Then you can see Fuyumi and come back here. Everything will be fine.
After a while, those words meant nothing.
Endeavour stood there, flame beard in full force and seeming as if 10 feet tall. His presence imposed a depression into Shouto’s chest; he could no longer breathe.
“Shouto, I hope you have not slacked off at school. It is time to test your abilities!” Endeavour roared, stomping forward. Shouto legs spread into a wide stance, trying to keep his body in control. He clenched his fists and placed them protectively in front of his face, ignoring how they shook. From there they fought.
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Every attempt Endeavour made to build Shouto up, only seemed to break him down further.
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The rocking of the train almost lulled Todoroki Fuyumi into a light doze, before it lurched still at her stop. Stretching up and struggling with her bags, she quickly got home, thinking about the papers she needed to mark tonight if she wanted to be able to go out Tanaka tomorrow. It was well anticipated and her stomach fluttered at the thought of it. There would be a lot of marking, but if she wasn’t interrupted after dinner, it should get done. Then, she could have a glass of wine and relax in the bath. She fumbled with her keys and pushed the front door open, immediately taking off her shoes and walking towards her bedroom to get started. However, the further she walked into the house, the warmer the air got, until she reached her bedroom, two doors down from the dojo, and could feel the sweat dripping on her back.
Shouto was home.
She scampered to the dojo, listening carefully outside the door before pushing it open and rushing towards her little brother, who was collapsed on the floor, unconscious. She almost cried when she saw the burns along his arms and she felt her chest seize, she was struggling to breath, her arms were frosting up and going numb what was shegoingtodo.
Shouto groaned awake.
“‘Yumi, that’s cold.” Shouto’s voice was hoarse and his eyelashes were clenched shut, as if in pain.
She had been grasping hard at his arms, trying to cover his burns with barely there frost, but she noticed that Shouto’s skin was so hot with the burns that, even though it was his colder side, her fragile frost was melting against the blistered skin.
Snap out of it.
“Hey Shouto, can you help me carry you up. I’ll take you to the living room.”
When he was little, she would get Natsou to help her carry him to one of their rooms and they would wrap bandages around his arms.
Before he was born, they did the same for Touya.
Shouto struggled to sit up, his stomach and back trembling with the effort as his arms gave out when he tried to lean on them. Once there was enough room between the mats and his back, Fuyumi slipped her arms under his armpits and lifted him up the rest of the way, slinging one of his arms around her neck. She walked slowly and steady while Shouto weakly attempted to carry some of his weight. Fuyumi felt as if he was going to crush her. They reach the living room and Fuyumi shuffles over before gently letting down Shouto. An inch below, her hands slipped and he feel, a deep groan involuntarily emerging from his chest and stabbing her through her gut with guilt.
She scampered to the kitchen to get the First Aid kit and came back to find Shouto’s eyes glazed and staring at the blank TV, like Mom used to. She turned it on so that she could pretend that he wasn’t totally dissociated. At least he had been lucid when he first woke up. When he used to live at home, he would zone out for days at the time. Thank god for the dorms.
Fuyumi slathered burn cream and managed to place painkillers on Shouto tongue, tricking him into swallowing them when he blocked his nose and flushing water down his throat, before she tucked him in beside her and they finished the movie that was playing. The next morning she woke up, neck sore and Shouto gone. She woke up and saw his shoes were no longer at the door. She wandered back to her room, found her phone that she left with her stuff last night and opened her messaging app.
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Fuyumi
~ I won’t be able to come tomorrow, sorry! Some family matters came up :((
Tanaka
~ That’s a-okay Fuyumi-san, we’ll take a raincheck :)
Fuyumi
~ Thanks for understanding, how about next Thursday, same place and time?
Tanaka
~ Great! See you then!!!
Read 9:53 AM 13/04/2020
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Fuyumi
~ Missed you this morning, did you get to the dorms okay???
Shouto
~ Yes
Fuyumi
~ Text if you need anything.
Read 10:15 AM 13/04/2020