Archive of Our Own

Shouto Todoroki knew from a very early age that all men were not created equal. This was a fact. Most people wouldn’t hesitate to say that yes, this is true and that because of his status as the child of the number one hero, he was a part of the reason that sentiment still stood strongly in place.

He knew that if they knew about the way the “number one hero” Endeavor treated his own wife and children, they would not believe this. He had the scars to prove it, even though people only focused on the one given to him by his mother.

Despite the fact that he knew he should be ashamed of it, of this obvious sign that his own mother, at least for a second, hated him, he was not ashamed. It was an ice burn, so the scar was always cold to the touch despite the fact that it lived on his left side. In some twisted way, he knew it made him imperfect, and that it made him more his mother’s than his father’s. 

He had always hated fire. He hated it from the very first second his quirk manifested and he realized that fire made him an asset to his father instead of his son. He had only felt safe around his mother, had only felt at peace when he was cold. The heat of his own fire was already a lot to handle when he wasn’t also avoiding being burned from the blistering heat of his father’s flames.

When he was able to hide away from his father long enough for the man to grow angry and leave the house, he would cover one of the empty rooms with ice and just sit with his palms pressed flat against the ice. He felt closest to his mother, and to Touya, this way.

He discovered relatively quickly in his “training” with his father that his quirk was an awful lot like ice skating. He used to see the kids in his neighborhood skating around the lake near his house in the winter months. He had always wanted to join them. He wanted to run and play and skate and fall and get back up and keep going until his legs felt like jelly underneath him. 

His father refused to let him join the kids, so he did the next best thing. He had always been good at hiding, so he would go into one of the empty rooms of the house and wait for hours until Endeavor finally went on patrol or to go bother someone else.

As soon as he knew his father was gone, he would cover the room in ice. It wasn’t hard to create something similar to ice skates with his quirk, but he wanted the authentic experience, so he snagged his father’s credit card and bought himself a pair, replacing them as he needed to.

He had been a little wobbly at first, but he got the hang of it quickly. Before he knew it, he was able to fly across the ice as if he had been doing it his entire life. The chill in his lungs was so freeing. For once in his life, he could not feel the unbearable heat of his father’s home.

And he was good at it, like seriously good. He would rarely admit that he had a natural talent for something - his father had beaten that out of him long ago - but this was the one thing he knew he was good at. Once he was able to skate around the ice without falling, he spent hours watching youtube tutorials and learning how to do every trick he could find. 

He learned how to spin so fast that the room became nothing but the blur of the lights reflecting off the ice as he spun in dizzying circles. He learned how to leap across the ice and land in intricate poses, how to do flips and turns. He ended up getting more bruises from falling out of his axles than the “training” he had with his father.

But those bruises he could be happy about. They hurt, but they showed his progress. He was finally good at something. And it was something he actually cared about, so the bruises across his knees and hips almost made him want to smile.

The times that he was on the ice were the only times he felt like himself, the only times he could truly express how he was feeling. Showing emotion around his father was asking for a beating, for an extra hour of brutal training. But on the ice? He could cry, or scream, he could leave it all out there without actually making a sound. He expressed himself through the way he moved, the way his chest heaved as he forced in lungfuls of frozen air, the way his body moved on its own.

It became something that was his. He didn’t tell anyone about it. He was always careful to thaw the ice with his flames, never leaving even the slightest trace that he had ever been there. He felt slightly guilty from keeping it from Natsuo and Fuyumi and his mom, but this was his. This was something he could do by himself and maybe it was a little selfish, but he didn’t want to share this. Every other part of him belonged to someone else.

His quirk was his father’s, his happiness belonged to his family, his sadness was forbidden. Every physical thing he owned came from his father. But ice skating, this was the one thing he had that belonged to him and him alone. He figured he was allowed to be a little selfish.

He never had trouble keeping his secret from his family. Natsuo was only ever in his bedroom and Fuyumi was either in the kitchen or away for school, so he spent every free second he had on the ice. He created routines to his favorite songs and spent hours trying to perfect the harder tricks that hadn’t quite gotten the hang of.

So when it came time for him to move into the UA dorms, he was both ecstatic and nervous. He would finally be out of his father’s bruising grasp, but he would have no privacy. It would be impossible to sneak away to some empty classroom and create his own rink, and he doubted he could get far enough into the woods where Hounddog wouldn’t catch his scent and bring him back in.

That really only left the Gym or Ground Beta. Those buildings were usually empty after a certain time of day, and he doubted they would care that much about what he was doing if he were to be caught. 

In his first few months in the dorms, he snuck out almost every single night. Being around other people his age helped him feel more normal, but he still refused to allow himself to show any emotion around them. He knew, somewhere deep inside of himself, that he wouldn't feel the residual crack of his father’s palm across his face if he smiled or laughed, but the fear was still there. It was this dark mass that lives underneath his skin, threatening to strangle him until there was nothing left. He didn't even know where to begin, but being on the ice helped. It was the only thing that had ever helped.

He wished he could just talk about it. If he could just say the words out loud, if he could just tell someone, anyone, how scared he was, how he constantly thinks of his father’s hands on him and the way his nails would dig into his skin, the way he can still feel the way his ribs splintered underneath his father’s steel-toed boots, the way his shoulder still ached from never being set properly. 

But he couldn’t. Every time he opened his mouth to speak, the darkness inside of him crawled up his throat and forced the words back down until he was all but choking on them. The frigid air that crystallized inside his lungs was the only thing that made the darkness feel less scary.

Finally, though, the words were wrenched out of him. He wasn’t sure what happened. He was walking back from training with the rest of the class. They had just entered the dorms, all chattering excitedly about the progress they had made with creating ultimate moves. 

He felt someone grab him by the shoulder and he turned to see Sero staring at him. He raised an eyebrow at the other boy. Sero didn’t remove his hand, just smiled brightly at him.

“Yes?” he asked. He was still unsure of what Sero might want from him. 

He had been very friendly recently. He was always asking Todoroki about his day or what manga he was reading. He didn’t understand it. It didn’t make any sense why the boy suddenly wanted to talk to him all the time. But, and he would never admit it out loud, he kind of looked forward to his daily conversations with Sero. He didn’t have many friends. He knew this was his own fault, he said himself that he didn’t want them, but somehow Midoriya and Iida had wormed their way into his tightly knit circle regardless. 

Sero was different, though. He never made Todoroki uncomfortable. He seemed to know when he had reached the capacity for what he could handle and only hung out with him for a little bit at a time. He didn’t expect Todoroki to talk, he talked more than enough for the both of them. He didn’t know when it happened, but he had started to look forward to talking to him. 

“I just wanted to say that you did awesome in training today! Don’t tell Bakugou I said this, but you’ll be the number one hero someday, I know you will!”

Sero was smiling at him, but Todoroki couldn’t see it. He was back in the body of his seven-year-old self, staring up at his father’s horrifying grin and blazing eyes. He could feel the way he gripped his shoulder so hard he dislocated it.

Before he knew what was happening, he was on the ground, crawling backward as he tried desperately to escape from his dad, from the flames that danced around him, licking out at him and threatening to burn him alive just like Touya.

He grabbed his face roughly, not even wincing when his fingernails dug into the soft skin of his scar, slicing through it like it was nothing. He was gasping, trying to force the air into his lungs. He could hear people talking, whispering, but he couldn’t make out the words.

He could only look up, terrified as he saw his father advancing on him, his hand ignited in flames. He couldn’t help it. There was something loud echoing in his ears as the darkness he had kept buried deep inside of himself finally escaped, shooting out of him so forcefully he was sure he was going to choke on it.

It took him far too long to realize the sound he was hearing was the sound of his own screams.

Aizawa had only just turned around to head back to the teacher’s dorms when he heard the sound of someone screaming. He always walked his students back to the dorms after quirk training, more out of making sure no one tried to keep training when they got back. This had never once happened.

He turned on his heel, hair already flying around his face as he sprinted inside the building. He had his capture weapon at the ready, prepared to attack whoever was causing the terrified, pained scream coming from inside.

He was prepared for anything. For a second USJ, for dozens of villains to be descending upon his kids and to see them fighting for their lives. He was not prepared to be met by the terrified look of his students as they stared at a panicking Todoroki, kicking out and clawing at his face, mouth open in a neverending scream like he was being tortured by some force only he could see. Sero was in front of him, trying to wrench his hands away so he couldn’t harm himself further, but Aizawa knew enough to know that Sero definitely wasn’t helping.

He was across the room in a flash, trying to force Sero away from Todoroki.

“Everyone, out! Go! Iida, take them outside while I deal with this. Sero, go, I mean it, you can’t help him okay, you need to go with them,” he said, ignoring the frustrated, and scared, look on his student’s face. Iida got everyone together quickly and soon, he was alone with Todoroki.

“Todoroki, hey, it’s sensei. I know you’re scared, it’s okay to be scared, but I promise you’re safe. Just listen to me talk, I’m right here beside you. It’s just us here, no one else,” he said softly, speaking as if he was trying to calm down a scared cat. He had used this voice with Eri, and with Kirishima, and he knew it would work eventually. The kid was clearly disassociating. It could be tricky to get him to realize he wasn’t going to be hurt here. He knew he needed to stop him from hurting himself further.

He grabbed Todoroki’s wrists, holding them away from his face as gently as he could. Todoroki looked around wildly, flinching as Aizawa moved. He sucked a breath at his student’s expression. He wasn’t stupid, he knew what he was looking at. He knew Todoroki was reliving something horrible. He felt sick to his stomach, wishing desperately that he was out beating the shit out of the person who had made his student so terrified.

For now, he just needed to wait and keep talking until Todoroki realized he was safe. On a whim, he unlooped his capture weapon and put it in between Todoroki’s hands.

“Do you feel this, problem child? I use this to keep people safe. You holding this means you’re safe here with me, just take a breath kid, I promise you everything will be okay.”

It took a while, long enough that the sun was starting to slowly sink down behind the clouds, leaving them both covered in the last rays of golden light the day had to offer. Eventually, Todoroki slumped against the wall, breathing in shallowly through his mouth. He blinked a few times as he looked around the room.

“Sensei?” he asked, his voice cracking and raspy from screaming. He brought a hand to his scar, which was red and raw with small cuts. His fingers came away bloody, and Aizawa’s stomach churned when Todoroki didn’t seem to be even the slightest bit phased.

“Are you back with me, kid?” Aizawa asked, moving away a bit so Todoroki didn’t feel too crowded.

He nodded, moving to get up. Aizawa pushed on his shoulder gently, forcing him back down.

“Just wait for a second, problem child. Take a breath, there’s no hurry. We need to talk about what just happened, kid. We can go somewhere else, but I need to know what’s going on so I can help you,” he said, still speaking softly. Todoroki frowned.

“There’s nothing wrong, I just got freaked out for a second,” he said stiffly. 

“Please, Todoroki,” Aizawa sighed, “don’t do this. Let me help you. Whatever it is you’re scared of, I can help you deal with it.” There was a moment of silence where Todoroki just stared at him, face contorting in and out of several emotions. 

Finally, Todoroki’s eyes flashed with anger.

“Tell me, sensei,” he spat, his voice laced with so much venom that it took all of Aizawa’s willpower not to flinch. “are you going to arrest the number one hero for beating the shit out of me every day since my quirk manifested? For beating my mother so much she went insane and gave me this scar? What about the fact that he probably killed my brother and had it covered up? Are you going to arrest Endeavor for that?” he asked, his voice breaking as tears spilled down his cheeks.

Aizawa didn’t know what to say. He just pulled Todoroki to his chest, letting him hang onto him and sob. He pulled out his phone and texted Hizashi to do something with his class and to have Tsukauchi meet him at the dorms.

He held the boy in his arms as close to him as he could, wrapping his arms around him as tight as he could without making him feel trapped. For once, he had no idea how he could help.

Todoroki was screwed. He was sitting on the sofa in the teacher’s lounge, Aizawa settled in beside him, face tucked into his capture weapon like it usually was. Detective Tsukauchi was sitting across from him, shuffling through a stack of papers. He was so screwed. He never should have said anything about Endeavor, he should have kept the words in. Maybe he could lie, could find some way around Tsukauchi’s quirk. If he had even an ounce of energy left in his body, he knew he would be panicking again at the idea of this going public.

Tsukauchi seemed to finally have everything together, and he looked up at Todoroki. He expected to see sympathy on the detective’s face, but there was nothing. Just a calm, unreadable expression that somehow made Todoroki feel worse.

“Okay Todoroki, I have to ask you some questions now. I know you know about my quirk, but I have to explain it to you again. My quirk allows me to tell if a statement is true or if it is a lie. It would save us all a lot of time if you just tell me exactly what happened. If you need to take a break at any point, just tell me and we can stop for as long as you need to,” he said. Todoroki nodded his head slightly, the only thing he had the energy for.

“Okay, we’ll start with some simple questions. How is your home life?”

“Better now that I live in the dorms,” Todoroki answered. It wasn’t a lie, but he was definitely avoiding the truth. Tsukauchi just nodded and scribbled down something on one of the many papers in front of him.

“Truth. What was your home life like when you lived with your father?” he asked, resting his pen against his chin as he waited for Todoroki to answer.

“Bad.”

“Truth. The questions are going to get more specific now, okay?” Todoroki nodded again, clenching his hands by his side. He flinched when Aizawa reached out a hand but quickly settled back into his nonchalant posture. He was surprised when Aizawa draped his capture weapon across his shoulders, tucking the ends of it into his hands. He squeezed his hand for a moment before he let go, settling back against the couch once more.

Now that the capture weapon wasn’t hiding his face, Todoroki could see the anger there, the fury that settled onto his features. He was happy that that anger wasn’t directed towards him, for once.

“Has your father ever hit you?”

So there it was. The question he would have no way of avoiding. He could always refuse to answer, just sit there silently and wait until they realized he wasn’t going to answer. But he was so tired. He was so tired of holding it in, of holding the darkness inside of himself until he had no choice but to let it explode out of him.

“Yes. He called it quirk training. Said it would make me stronger so I could be the number one hero one day. It’s the whole reason he married my mom. He knew if he could breed,” Aizawa flinched at his choice of words, and even Tsukauchi’s mask wavered for a moment. “children that had a mix of fire and ice, he could train them to be more powerful than All Might. It started with Touya. And he’s missing, probably dead, so I’ll let you do the math on that one.”

“Truth. How exactly did this “quirk training” go? I need you to be as specific as possible,” Tsukauchi said. Todoroki ran his fingers over the soft cloth of the capture weapon in his hands.

“He just beat the shit out of us and called it training. I don’t know much about what happened with Fuyumi and Natsuo. As soon as my quirk manifested he kept me separated from them. We trained from sunrise until sunset. He would punch, kick, slap, just basically hurt me until I was forced to fight back. It never mattered when I did, he just kept going until I couldn’t move. He usually kept going for a while after that, too. Said it would make me stronger,” Todoroki said, staring down at his hands. He could hear Aizawa suck a breath in through his teeth, but he didn’t look up. 

“Truth. Did he ever injure you so badly that you needed medical care?” Tsukauchi asked. Todoroki looked up then. His voice had wavered, and his mask had finally cracked. The anger on his face was barely kept in check.

“Yes. I never went to the hospital though. He would hire people with healing quirks to come to the house. They were only allowed to heal me until I was able to move and wasn’t in danger of dying.”

“Truth. Can you give me an example?”

“One time he threw me against the wall so hard I blacked out. I woke up to him standing on my shoulder. He snapped it in half. The healer couldn’t fix it all the way, he wouldn’t let him. It never healed properly, so I can still feel the bones shift around when I move it the wrong way.”

“Jesus Christ, kid, why didn’t you say something?” Aizawa asked, horror dripping from his voice. Todoroki just shrugged, staring at him.

“Who would believe me? And what can you even do about it? You can’t arrest the number one hero. And you’d be insane to try to charge him for any of this. As much as I hate him, we need him now that All Might is gone. It doesn’t even matter that I’m telling you any of this, there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t help me,” he said, shrugging his shoulders again.

“Of course we can help you, problem child. I'll arrest Endeavor myself if I have to!” Aizawa said, voice slightly raised. His hair raised on his own as his quirk activated out of pure instinct. He blinked and let it fall back down to his shoulders.

“I hate to admit it, but Todoroki has a point. We can’t take down Endeavor --” Tsukauchi started to speak. Aizawa opened his mouth to interject, but Tsukauchi raised a hand to silence him.

“We can’t take him down. We need him patrolling the city. All Might being retired has caused a huge rise in the number of villains and we need him to help bring them in. What we can do, however, is take away his parental rights,” Tsukauchi finished, already fishing through his paperwork. Todoroki blinked.

“What?” he asked. His voice was barely above a whisper. They could do that?

“Your sister, Fuyumi, is old enough to have custody over you. So is Natsuo, if you’d prefer him. I seriously doubt Endeavor will try to fight this, considering the evidence stacking against him. Speaking of Endeavor, I did have to call him in to take his statement. You don’t have to be in the room, I just need to talk to him and go over the paperwork. I just have a few more questions for you and you’re free to go,” Tsukauchi said, smiling softly at him. 

Todoroki nodded, unable to speak. He wouldn’t belong to Endeavor anymore. He’d be free of him. After years of torment, he would finally be free. For the first time since he could remember, his throat felt like it was being clogged by hope rather than fear.

The rest of his time with Tsukauchi passed by in a blur. Soon, he was walking out of the building and back towards the dorms. Somewhere along the way, he found himself headed to Ground Beta, towards the area he always made his ice skating rink. He still had his bag with him, so once he had changed into his skates, he stepped onto the ice. And he flew.

Aizawa stared resolutely ahead as Endeavor entered the room. He was in civilian clothes, having just gotten off patrol when Tsukauchi called. His beard and mustache were still flaming as they usually were.

“Endeavor, please, sit down,” Tsukauchi said, gesturing to the seat beside Aizawa. He ground his teeth to the point of pain but returned Endeavor’s polite nod.

“I won’t beat around the bush, Endeavor, you’re here because we spoke to your son, Shouto. He told us some very concerning things about the way he was treated while living with you. I’d just like to go over what he told me. And please remember, my quirk lets me see when a statement is a lie, so don’t bother lying to me,” Tsukauchi said. Endeavor nodded again, seemingly waiting to see what Tsukauchi had to say.

Tsukauchi began to list off the things that Todoroki had told them. Endeavor's flames were growing hotter as each new item was read off the list. Aizawa stood up to move away when they became unbearable.

“This is preposterous, I never abused my children, I was training them. It is well within my rights as a parent to do so,” Endeavor yelled, standing and pointing his finger at Tsukauchi.

“Lie. Sit down, now. There’s no need to get so worked up. Shouto won’t be pressing charges. He will, however, now be under the custody of Fuyumi Todoroki rather than you.”

“He absolutely will not! He is my son, I will not allow you to take him away from me,” Endeavor said, flames bursting out of his hands in anger. Aizawa activated his quirk, taking an immense sense of pleasure at seeing the always-flaming heroes' fire go out.

“Maybe you should have thought about that before you beat the shit out of him and his siblings and psychologically tortured his mother until she was so scared of you that she hurt her own son. I have one thing to say to you Endeavor, so listen closely,” Aizawa spat, looping his capture weapon quickly around Endeavor’s arms, pinning them down at his sides.

His hair was still standing on end, eyes glowing red as he advanced on the much taller man.

“It sure would be a shame if someone were to go public with this information. I trust that you don’t want that to happen, so what is going to happen is that you are going to sign over custody of Shouto to Fuyumi. Then, you’re going to walk out of this building and never contact your children or your wife again. If you do, I will arrest you personally, that I can promise you,” Aizawa said, finally loosening his capture weapon, letting it fly back into place around his neck. 

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Endeavor yelled, advancing on Aizawa quickly, even without his quirk. Endeavor may have brute strength, but he was no match for the years of training Aizawa had put himself through. In a quick motion, Aizawa sidestepped him and punched him as hard as he could, knocking Endeavor to his knees, nose already pouring blood.

“I’m his teacher. Try that shit again, and I’ll kill you. Sign the paperwork and get the fuck off my campus,” he said. He nodded at Tsukauchi and quickly left the room.

As soon as he was out of sight of Endeavor, he let out a string of curses, cradling his hand against his chest. He dialed Hizashi’s number.

“Hey, I think I broke my hand, I’m going to go to the hospital before I come home,” he said, cradling the phone against his ear. He winced when Hizashi shrieked into the phone.

“How the fuck did you break your hand? Weren’t you just meeting with Tsukauchi?” Hizashi asked. Aizawa could almost hear the sound of him ripping his hair out in frustration.

“I punched Endeavor in the face,” Aizawa said smugly. He heard a tiny gasp through the tinny speaker of his phone.

“That’s so hot. I’ll meet you at the hospital. Love you, babe.”

Todoroki had been skating around the ice for hours. The floodlights at Ground Beta had finally come on, covering the ice in a fluorescent green glow that made everything seem a little unreal. 

He spun into a triple lutz, jumping and landing cleanly, already moving into another complicated move. He let his body move on its own, let his body move him across the ice. The wind whipped at his hair as he flew across his makeshift rink.

The chill in his lungs was achingly cold, but he felt like he could finally breathe. Like his entire life, his lungs were filled with water that had finally been drained away. He could finally be his own person. He would finally be more than his father’s creation, more than the quirk that had been forced upon him.

He moved into a salchow, raising his leg as he landed. He moved into a spin, tucking his body tightly against himself, letting the lights blur around him as he spun. Finally, he rose from his spin, letting his hand raised towards the sky as he moved into his finishing pose. He wasn’t surprised to feel tears flowing freely down his cheeks. He stared up at the lights, not even bothering to wipe away the tears crystallizing against his cheeks.

He jerked around suddenly when there was the sound of clapping. He spun around, shocked to see Sero standing at the edge of the ice, clapping loudly and whooping excitedly, a huge grin on his face.

Todoroki skated over to him, uncertain about what to do. Or what to say. He had never been caught before. This was completely new to him.

“I didn’t know you could skate like that, man!” Sero said, grinning excitedly up at him. Todoroki shrugged.

“I kept it a secret. It’s something that was always just for me, I guess,” Todoroki shrugged.

“Well don’t worry man, your secret is safe with me,” Sero winked. He shuffled his feet for a moment before he spoke again.

“How are you doing?” he asked. Todoroki was surprised when he felt himself smile. It was slight, but it was there. It was a start.

“I’m okay. Things are better, now,” Todoroki said. Sero smiled back at him, eyes shining from the fluorescent lights. Todoroki couldn’t stop staring at him. He looked beautiful.

“You know, I was thinking since I busted your secret, I could always show you mine someday? I do aerial silks. It works with my quirk, kinda like you with the ice,” Sero asked, his voice a little shaky.

“I’d like that,” Todoroki answered, nodding his thanks at the other boy. Sero clapped his hands excitedly.

“Great! It’s a date!” Sero said, grinning widely up at Todoroki. Todoroki raised an eyebrow at him and the grin slowly dropped from Sero’s face.

“I mean -” Sero started, waving his hands and rushing to explain himself. Todoroki put a hand on Sero’s shoulder, pulling him into a hug. He had no idea what had gotten into him, where he had gotten this newfound confidence. He wasn’t going to complain, though, not when Sero was snaking his arms around his waist and resting his forehead against his shoulder.

“I’d like that too.”