Chapter Text
This occasion did not take the liberty of being the first time that Todoroki Shoto had experienced a nightmare, and it certainly would not be the last.
The boy had jolted awake shivering in a cold sweat, frantically examining his room. The walls were covered in ice as a result of Shoto having subconsciously activated his quirk out of fear. Shoto stood, activating his fire to warm the room.
‘ My fire, huh,’ Shoto thought to himself, seemingly having forgotten about the smoke detectors in the dorms. That is, until he began hearing an ear bleeding beeping sound.
He grimaced at the noise, melting the ice quicker in the foolish hope that perhaps it would stop when he finished fixing his room. He continued with this until a loud knock sounded at his door.
"Todoroki, man? You okay in there?" Sero's voice sounded from the other side of the door. Shoto flinched. He would never get used to being in such close quarters with his classmates, even if they'd already been living in the dorms for a few months.
The nightmares had stopped when he moved in, since he wasn't constantly living in fear that his father would hurt him or Fuyumi. Shoto wasn't sure himself how they had managed to creep back into his mind tonight.
Another loud knock redirected Shoto back to the problem at hand. Shoto edged to the door, trying to figure out a viable excuse for setting off the smoke detector. He opened the door, defaulting to a poker face. A boy with mid-length black hair, a tank top, and plaid pants, is on the other side. Sero Hanta was his name.
"Did you need something, Sero?" Shoto asked, feigning obliviousness to the obvious issue since he had failed to come up with even a half baked excuse to the smoke detector issue.
"Uh, YEAH. It suddenly got super damn cold on the side of my room connected to yours, what's up with that?" Sero explained while scratching the back of his head, obviously having been disturbed. Shoto nearly opened his mouth to reply, when Sero started to continue. "And if that wasn't weird enough, the smoke detector going off REALLY wacked me out. Are you okay, dude?"
"Errr, I’m sorry. My quirk just activated in my sleep and I had to melt all of the ice. I wasn't mindful of the effects my fire would have on the smoke detector, and I apologize," Shoto apologized,still not quite sure what Sero wanted him to say. Sero just shot him a confused look.
"Todoroki that... wasn't exactly what I was asking? You don't have to apologize, it doesn't seem like you did that on purpose. I was just asking if you were okay. Did you have a nightmare or something?" Sero asked, lowering his voice as he spoke. so Sero wasn't upset with him? Shoto thought that was rather strange, along with how Sero immediately deduced that Shoto had experienced a nightmare.
"How did you know it was a nightmare...?" Shoto asked warily, wondering if Sero had some sort of second quirk that had something to do with mind reading, all while managing a straight face. It was better not to upset Sero with all his emotions.
“Man, c’mon... we've been attacked by villains time and time again, we all definitely have some form of trauma and sometimes that comes out through nightmares," Sero replied, and Shoto finally invited the boy into his room. “Y’know, I’ve had them before too. Not to seem like I’m assuming what your nightmare was about, of course! But… do you want to talk about it?”
"Uh, er, it’s really not that big of a deal, Sero. Just some stuff about my old man," Shoto sighed, letting Sero sit next to him on his futon in his custom-built room.
"You had a nightmare about your dad? Why is that?" Sero asked, tilting his head. "Did he do something bad?"
"It's... really not a big deal. It's not like it's out of the norm or anything, I guess," Shoto shrugged, confused as to where Sero’s surprise was coming from.
"But, did he do something that might have caused this?" Sero persisted, for whatever reason.
Oh, right. Shoto had forgotten that most of class 1-A wasn't in on the way Endeavor acted behind closed doors.
"Uh, in my nightmare or in real life...?" Shoto asked, tilting his head at Sero.
"Either works, I suppose? If you're having nightmares about a real life event involving him then you should probably explain that so we can help you get over your nightmare easier." Sero explained, frantically gesturing. It was clear that Sero and Shoto weren't exactly close friends, but it didn't matter to Shoto at that moment.
"Ah, well you probably already know Endeavor isn't known for his public approval rates, nor his kindness to the public. Most people would assume he's just got a cold exterior, but I suppose that isn't true. He... well, doesn't act very much different at home," Shoto shrugged, as Sero’s eyes widened. "It’s really nothing to make a fuss over, though. I think. He’s done worse than just act cold"
"Um, Todoroki? Acting cold isn't necessarily normal behaviour for a parent either. And you're telling me he's treated you worse? Man, that is not okay. Please tell me he at least doesn’t hurt your mom or something," Sero grimaced, even sounding worried. Now Shoto was even more confused. It wasn’t that bad, surely?
"You’ve heard of quirk marriages, right? My dad bought my mother's family into marriage with her, to have a child with a quirk that would surpass All Might," Shoto sighed, having said it in one breath since he didn’t think he would be able to pause while admitting something of that nature. "He’s a bitter man, indeed."
"Sorry, Todoroki? Endeavor is more than just bitter. Quirk marriages are illegal. That man should be behind bars right now! If he wasn’t the only thing keeping our society from collapsing right now, I swear I would-"
"It’s okay, Sero. that's not the worst thing he's done I promise-"
"you're telling me it gets worse...? Todoroki I am going to beat the shit out of your old man, I don't care if you and I aren't really close, that is not okay," Sero growled, then glanced over at Shoto and gave the okay to continue.
"My old man treated my mother like she was nothing, insulting and hurting her, until one day, she couldn’t take it anymore and lashed out. She called me a monster and poured scalding water from a kettle over the left side of my face. My father had her admitted to a mental ward and I didn’t see her for nearly ten years," Shoto said, closing off his emotions when tears dared to spill. "Midoriya convinced me to visit her, after the sports festival. I was convinced she resented me only for her to greet me with happy tears and apologize for what she did all those years ago."
Sero covered his mouth, eyes widening.
"Todoroki, i'm so sorry. You know none of that is normal, right? You know parents are supposed to respect their kids and love them?" Sero asked, seeming thoroughly... shocked?
"Wait, I get the whole quirk marriage and training thing being out of the normal, but what do you mean?" Shoto wondered, his eyebrows showing confusion.
"Training? What?" Sero asked. Oh, Shoto supposed that he failed to mention Endeavors training.
"As soon as I developed my quirk, my father put me through rigorous training. My 3 older siblings might have been subjected to that too, but Endeavor deemed them unworthy of being his protege and sent them to live with my grandmother. Except for Touya, who ended up being trained by my old man until, well... I don’t know what happened to him. His body couldn’t handle his flames and one day he just... disappeared," Shoto explained, looking downcast when Touya was brought up.
"Sorry... your father started training you when...?" Sero almost whispered, offering his hand to Shoto. Shoto grabbed it and squeezed it, grateful that Sero wanted to listen to Shoto’s problems.
"After I developed my quirk, he would train Touya and I together, and Touya usually took the brunt of it, and would help me bandage up, but when he vanished, I was left alone... it was pretty harsh after that. Sometimes I would throw up and he would make me get back up..." Shoto admitted, thinking perhaps what he was put through wasn't okay and maybe he did deserve better.
"Your dad... Endeavor, trained a four year old. A four year old?!?!?!" Sero nearly wrapped his arms around Shoto, until seemingly having had a realization. "Is that why you're so antisocial...? Is that why you almost never express your emotions? Is that... is that why you refused to use your fire at first?"
"About the fire, yes. I told Midoriya before our match, and, well, he convinced me to use it. That it was my quirk. I'm grateful to Midoriya and all he's done for me," Shoto smiled, which seemed to have been barely noticeable to Sero. "Honestly? about the rest... am I emotionally repressed...? Is that what it is? I don’t understand."
"Todoroki, I'd say you do seem to be emotionally repressed. We hardly see you express emotion, and it's only during seriously emotional situations that you seem to. I've also noticed your lack of social skills, for example you don't quite seem to understand metaphors, or figures of speech. It's kind of worrying, yknow?" Sero explains his thoughts on the situation, closely examining Todoroki’s reactions.
"I don't seem to understand figures of speech? Thinking back... was the thing about girls dying because of my smile a metaphor...?" Shoto wondered aloud. Sero gave him an incredulous, almost… jealous? But also kind of a humorous look.
"Y...you're kidding, right. Right...?" Sero muffled his giggles with his sleeve, and shoto couldn't quite figure out why.
"What does it mean?" Shoto couldn't help but ask, and immediately realized how dumb he sounded when Sero laughed even harder.
"Man... it means, your smile is attractive. The girls dropping dead part is an over exaggeration, it just means people think you're cute!" Sero chuckled, making it clear that he meant no harm. Shoto couldn't help but laugh with him, looking back on his stupidity in a fonder way, while also maybe a little flustered.
"That's... quite the compliment to give,'' Todoroki held a hand to his chin, his gaze emanating the 'hm' sound like in an over dramatic comic book.
"Really though, man. I hope you know that the way your dad treated you wasn't normal. The way he treated your family was abusive. And on the hero side of things, that man shouldnt be allowed to walk the streets. I knew the hero system was fucked, but I had no idea it had gotten this corrupt," Sero said. "One of the reasons I want to be a hero is to possibly help fix our, well, essentially celebrity-run police state, but I had no idea it was this bad. Todoroki, I'm sorry you had to go through all of that."
"I... thank you. I want to become better, heal from this... trauma? And, after this, if you could, please just call me Shoto. I, well, it might seem a bit personal but, I trust you a lot, Sero," Shoto admitted, smiling.
"Alright then, call me Hanta then, man!" Hanta said, and got a decisive look on his face. "Will... will you be okay on your own? Should I stay with you...?"
"Ah, if... if you're okay with it, Hanta," Shoto said, a little embarrassed but also knowing that he had made a new friend today, and that brought him joy. Hanta and Shoto somehow managed on his futon, and the boys quickly fell asleep after realizing that it was 3 am.
Shoto couldn't help but wonder what surprises were in store for him in his future.