Chapter Text
Izuku first saw the boy with red-and-white hair on a rainy day in October.
He was shivering, the hair plastered to the sides of his head. There was a mark on his left side, a splatter of angry blood-red that forced the eye shut. Izuku paused from where he was standing on the rooftop, and after a moment of indecision, scuttled down the building.
The boy looked up, his good eye blinking rapidly. He flinched away, and his left hand shot up to cover his face protectively.
“G-Go away.” His hand shook.
Izuku put his own hands up in a calming gesture. A drop of water dripped off of his hair and onto his nose. “I’m not gonna hurt you,” he reassured. “You just...looked lonely.”
The boy sniffled, but made no further response. Izuku sat down next to him, back leaning against the alley wall. The concrete felt rough against it.
They sat in silence for a while, listening to the rain pit-patter against their skin.
“You alright?” Izuku asked finally.
The boy turned and looked at him. “I’m f-f-fine--” He stopped, then curled in on himself. With more conviction, he whispered, “It hurts.”
Izuku hummed. “Who hurt you?”
“M-Mama thought I was Daddy and she--” He stopped, shivering. “It’s not her fault , he broke her, just like he breaks everyone and there was a teapot and it’s not her fault-- ” His voice faded away.
“My Daddy burned Mom,” Izuku said softly. “He was angry and everything was on fire.” He let his sleeves rise up slightly, red peeking out from beneath them.
The boy looked at him with a kind of wonder. Izuku knew what he was feeling, the relief that couldn’t be put into words, that someone else understood .
“My name’s Izuku,” he told him.
The red-and-white haired boy blinked with his one good eye, the rain disguising the tears running down his face. “Shouto,” he whispered.
They sat there, sat until the rain had faded and a girl’s voice called out for Shouto.
He looked at Izuku, then stood up carefully. “D-Daddy’s really big, and strong. Lots of p-power.”
Izuku nodded. He knew what the boy wanted. “I’ll see you again,” he promised.
Shouto nodded, then darted out of the alley. Izuku heard a distant call of “‘Yumi!”
After a couple moments, Izuku darted up the fire escape, the last raindrops dripping down the curls of his hair slowly.
The second time Izuku saw Shouto, it was four months later, snowflakes drifted down gently, and the boy was hiding in an alleyway while a large man wreathed in flames thundered around.
Izuku hummed from his perch on the rooftop. He knew this man, had seen him on TV. He’d even had (in that time so long ago, that he only faintly remembers, a time where he had a room and a family--) a picture of him.
Endeavor , a television anchor had named him a week ago, when he took down a villain by almost burning him to death.
Izuku didn’t like him. Heroes didn’t hurt people.
“SHOUTO!” came the shout, and the flames flared in accompaniment. Others were joining the search, coming up to Endeavor and splitting off to call for his son. Izuku saw Shouto curl up and scoot further back into the alley.
He shimmied down the building-- no rooftop jumping when everyone was this alert-- and quietly walked towards the alleyway. No one looked twice at him; a part of the landscape that the well-off liked to ignore.
“Shouto?” he called softly.
The form huddled at the end of the alley shot up. A shield of ice shot up almost instantly. “D-Don’t touch me!”
Izuku crept closer. As he touched the ice wall, it crumbled beneath his touch-- a thin barrier thrown up in desperation. “Shouto. It’s me, Izuku.”
Shouto squinted at him. His eye looked better, now, and now Izuku could see that his eyes were two different colors--one grey and one blue. The tension leaked out of his posture as he seemed to recognize him. “I-Izu.” He shivered and collapsed against the wall. “Izu, I’m so tired.”
Izuku tilted his head.
“I’m done. I can’t train any more because I’m tired but he keeps kicking me up again and again and again so--” Shouto hiccups. “--so I went to the bathroom and r-ran outside and kept running--” He shivered, and Izuku abruptly noticed his left side was covering in frost. There was an old tarp, so Izuku picked it up and laid it on Shouto gently, who hiccuped.
“So. En-dea-vor is your daddy?” Izuku asked after Shouto quieted. He sounded out the word carefully-- it wasn’t Japanese, and it had been a long time since he’d said the name.
Shouto shivered and nodded. “He’s a hero, and I’m going to be like him.” There was no pride or joy in his tone, only a statement of fact.
Izuku shook his head. “No. He’s no hero.” He gently reached out to trace Shouto’s scar. “Heroes don’t hurt people.”
Shouto flinched slightly at Izuku’s touch. “Really?”
Izuku nodded with the solemnity of someone older than their age. “I promise.”
It was a woman with bright pink hair that turned the corner and saw them. “I found him! He’s over here, under a tarp and--”
“WHAT?” Izuku could almost hear the flames in Endeavor’s voice, far away but quickly approaching..
The woman squinted and walked further into the alley. “There might be someone else with him--?”
Shouto turned to Izuku in panic. “You have to go, go go go I can’t have you get hurt too--!”
Izuku nodded. “I’ll see you again,” he promised, darting up the wall at the back of the alley like a cat. When he reached the top, he looked over the edge to see the flaming man approaching Shouto, fiery anger to cold terror, and swore he’d help him get away.
But not now. I have to be safe, for Shoucchan.
And with that, Izuku disappeared into the night once more.
The third time Izuku saw Shouto, the red-and-white boy was calling for him.
Izuku tilted his head, recognizing the voice he’d last heard a month ago, and leapt along the rooftops toward it. He spotted him quickly-- Shouto was huddled over with a backpack and was wearing a poorly-fitting hat. His eyes lit up when he spotted Izuku, who landed softly next to him.
“Are you okay?” asked Izuku.
Shouto nodded, movements jerky and panicked. “I don’t know what h-happened but he got really mad at T-Touya and everything was on f-fire so I knew no one would notice if I d-disappeared.”
Izuku nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe.” He grinned, and with a rare flicker of childish innocence, whispered, “I have a hideout that no one’s found yet.”
The red-and-white haired boy smiled softly, the first that Izuku had seen from him. “I trust you.” He adjusted the hat on his head, trying to cover his hair.
“Follow me,” said Izuku, and, like ghosts, the two vanished into the shadows of the alleys as the Todoroki Estate burned blue.