Chapter Text
"It's your power, isn't it?"
Todoroki Shoto wasn’t one to put much faith in others.
As much as he wanted to believe that Yuuei might actually listen; no one had ever listened or been able to help him and his siblings.
(Well, what remained of his siblings. Toya was gone - Endeavor had told them that Toya had died, but Shoto didn’t- couldn’t believe it. Toya was everything, Toya was the one who said that it was alright to use the flames, Toya was the only one of his siblings who understood. As much as he loved Fuyumi and Natsu, they just didn’t understand - Fuyumi was gone most of the time for college and her teaching job, and Natsu had left ages ago to go to College.)
He kept distant from his classmates. The explosive boy, the shy but strangely powerful green-haired boy, the bubbly girl with a gravity quirk, the Iida boy, the Yaoyorozu girl…
None of them knew what it was like. A few of them even compared him to his father -and, oh, did that make the fire in his chest burn - but his use of his ice easily deterred those compliments.
The U.S.J. happened, and the fire spat out in his voice against the villains. Soothing back when it had been released, only to fight to be shown to the world when he managed to get back to the majority of his classmates and seeing the green-haired boy breaking his bones to fight the main villains. Seeing his teacher broken on the ground, seeing the fear that yet to be trained out of his classmate’s eyes and bodies.
(But he noticed when he locked eyes with the green-haired boy - Midoriya; a fitting name for him - Shoto could only see determination. Sure, there was fear, but it wasn’t for himself, but for Midoriya’s classmates.
The fire flared in Shoto’s chest when he took the time to notice how flippantly the boy broke his bones. Destroying his body with his quirk to buy them all some sort of version of time)
Shoto found himself watching the boy more carefully leading up to the Sport’s Festival.
The green-haired boy was an enigma. Shy, a stuttering mess, smart, surprising amounts of confidence that would quickly disappear under a bundle of anxiety.
That’s why he challenged Midoriya in the waiting room just before the Sports Festival started.
He wanted to figure out why the powerful boy was so scared of his own shadow half the time, why his quirk was so alike to All Might’s, why the green-haired boy seemed so different compared to the rest of their classmates.
And Midoriya didn’t disappoint.
He snatched the first place from Shoto’s grasp -nevermind the fact that he should’ve just ignored Bakugo and used his ice to go faster than the explosive blond - and somehow managed to make it through to the third round after holding onto the 10K point headband until the last moment where Shoto had just managed to grab it.
The green-haired boy didn’t even need to use his quirk for the first two rounds.
But he used his quirk to snap himself out of whatever that Gen-Ed kid’s quirk was, however, that was the only instance.
Then when Shoto pulled Midoriya aside just before his own match, explaining one of the reasons why he challenged the green-haired boy, the horror on his classmate’s face was only more fuel to the fire burning in his chest.
His father appeared, then he incased Sero in a mountain of ice.
Finally, his match with Midoriya appeared. He stood in the arena, waiting for the boy who had yet to arrive.
Midnight-sensei was a moment from calling the match as a forfeit, when Midoriya appeared, making his way to his position across from Shoto.
There was a determined rage on the green-haired boy’s face as he faced off against Shoto, Midnight-sensei counting down.
“Eyes on me, Todoroki-kun,” the other called out, warning him.
Those green eyes narrowed on Shoto, making the fire in his chest flare. He raised an eyebrow in response to Midoriya’s word.
“You’re not the only one with an arsehole for a father with a fire quirk.”
The match started, and Shoto was stunned enough for Midoriya to get in a hit before Shoto came back to his senses, releasing a wave of freezing cold at his opponent that Midoriya destroyed with a simple flick of his fingers.
Shoto would admit to losing a part of himself during their match. He was more focused on keeping the fire contained and using the ice than actually fighting the green-haired boy.
And Midoriya called him out on it.
“It’s your power isn’t it?”
“It’s yours, not his!”
And the green-haired male had the gall to actually laugh in the face of seeing his flames explode.
“I don’t know why you’re happy,” Shoto called to the other.
Midoriya shrugged, that grin still on his face despite his bruised fingers, “You shouldn’t be under the power of someone else.”
And Shoto felt the fire dim in understanding. But not a moment later, they engaged in a fight full of explosive waves of air.
And the fire in his chest warmed in sync with his freezing ice.
A peace that he hadn’t felt for over a decade filled his bones.
(And then Midoriya went flying out of bounds, Shoto panted weakly from quirk overuse in the middle of the arena. He had to be helped by Recovery Girl’s bot to the medical room.
He found himself glancing over at the unconscious body of his classmates afterwards in the medical room that Recovery Girl was using.
Boy that was an enigma, the boy who didn’t make sense, the boy who had destroyed himself to try help Shoto.)
(Nevermind the fact that he could no longer remember why he’d refused to use his fire in the first place.)