Chapter Text
Shouto had not exactly expected to get kicked out of the house by his father. Sure, it had always been a possibility, after he once again failed to meet his fathers impossibly high expectations. He remembered Touya getting kicked out on multiple occasions during their messed-up childhoods, and it was always something that lingered in the air for days afterwards.
And so it was only mildly surprising when his father told him to get out of the car after he failed the provisional license exam. They had been driving home for the weekend, and Shouto didn‘t have anything on him except for his school bag full of as-of-yet undone homework, his phone, and his wallet, thankfully including a „borrowed“ credit card.
His father drove off, and Shouto stood, backpack slung over his shoulder, in the middle of an empty street at 21:34 in the night.
He did what Touya always told him to do, entering the next dark alley for cover and protection from the weather, while being on high alert for people that might try to attack him.
"What are you doing here this late? This is not the right place for a hero-spawn to be walking at this hour.“
Shouto turned around, a hand raised in front of his chest on instinct to defend himself if needed, and found himself face to face with a man, older than him and with a scar down the middle of his forehead. He was smoking, a cigarette hanging limp from his lips, his hands shoved in his pockets.
"I got kicked out by my father“
The answer was sporadic, lacking any identifying information that his two-toned hair and the unmistakable scar on his face had already revealed, regardless of the little smither of light shining into the alley from the main street Shouto had just come from.
"You ever lived on the streets before?“
Shouto shook his head, he hadn‘t. But he could remember some of the tips his older brother had given him when he was barely five, shortly before he died in that fire of his own making. He has a strong quirk and enough hand-to-hand combat training to deal with the thugs who would probably attempt to attack him over the weekend, until he could return to the UA dorms. He could deal with this.
"You want some food and shelter? I can help you.“
The offer was tempting, Shouto hadn‘t eaten since that morning. Shelter wasn‘t strictly needed, he had no problem with the freezing temperatures of the nightly streets in the downtown district. But food…He had money, but all the shops had already closed for the day. He sized the man up. He didn’t look like he had a lot of muscle mass, but that didn’t mean anything. Midoriya was a prime example for that. Shouto still nodded, if it came to a fight he could simply freeze the man and run.
"That would be appreciated, thank you.“
The man nodded in return, signaling for Shouto to follow him, and walked past him deeper into the alley, turning left at the corner. Shouto hurried to catch up, and followed him until they got to an old abandoned apartment building. There was a bar on the ground level, and the stranger knocked on the door, but didn't hesitate to open it without hearing a reply.
They both entered the building, and when his eyes finally got used to the dim lighting in contrast to the pitch-black of the streets, the door had already been closed behind him and the exit was obstructed by a man in a mask and a tophat, who looked suspiciously like… Mr. Compress?
"Look who I found!“
The man who brought him there exclaimed loudly, his voice suddenly different.
Shouto looked around the room and recognized several people. Kurogiri was standing behind the countertop, cleaning a glass while staring at him. That meant the man hindering him from escaping really was Compress. Dabi was sitting on one of the bar stools, his head resting on the counter, his hand clenched around an empty glass, while Toga sat next to him,sipping something that was hopefully tomato juice (but probably wasn‘t) from a glass with a pink straw. Tomura Shigaraki was seated on the worn down couch, hunched over a controller of some kind, staring at him in disbelief, for once missing the hand on his face. It made Shouto want to laugh. That meant the man who brought him there was… Twice?
Shouto took a minute to take the new situation in. He just got kicked out by his father for the first time and immediately got semi-kidnapped by the League of Villains? Somehow?
Twice forced him to sit on the couch, next to Shigaraki of all people.
"Apparently, he got kicked out by his father. Isn't that so sad? Boohoo cry me a river and get over it!“
Shouto noticed Dabi tensing, but didn’t know why. Why would a villain that tried to kill him and his classmates care that he was thrown out?
Kurogiri forced a plate of food in his hands, rice with some kind of sauce, but Shouto didn't react to it. What if they had poisoned it? Toga was suddenly next to him, looking at him closely and asking the question that must have been running through all their heads.
"Why?“
"I failed the provisional licence exam. He didn‘t like that. He used to throw my brother out too, so I should have probably seen it coming.“
All of them, though mostly Shigaraki, Toga and Kurogiri looked surprised at that, then angry. He couldn’t really see the others faces, Compress still had his mask on, Dabi didn’t have his head on the counter anymore but his face was carefully blank, like how Touya had taught Shouto when he was four. Twice looked affronted by the news.
Toga squeezed in between Shouto and the armrest to sit on the Sofa. He would rather sit next to her than get anywhere closer to Shigaraki than he already was, so he resisted the urge to scoot to the other end of the couch. Her face was sad, as if she knew how he was feeling and could relate.
"I got kicked out by my family too. But now everyone here is my family! You should join!“
Shouto wasn‘t sure what he had been about to answer, but didn’t have to think about it for long because he got interrupted by Dabi, who jumped up from his seat at the bar angily, his face distorted by the sneer on his lips and the fire burning in fierce blue eyes eerily similar to his fathers in their anger.
"Absolutely not! That is Endeavor’s son! The number 1 hero’s son! He doesn‘t have a place here. We‘re literally the League of Villains, he is a hero in training!“
"I was forced to attend UA“
Shouto didn’t know what made him spill that little droplet of truth, but he was relieved that he did when he saw the surprise on the villains faces. He wanted to become a hero when he was little, like everyone did. But seeing his mother‘s mental health deteriorate because of his hero father, witnessing his brother‘s death from a far because of training, seeing Bakugo chained up on that podium… It was easy to admit, being a hero, and the way to becoming one was not as great as it had seemed when he was a child
"My father always wanted me to become a hero, to surpass both him and All Might. He trained my brother, and later me, from a very young age so we could reach his goal. My brother died in his own fire when I was six."
The infodump was sure to catch the villains off guard, but the surprise didn't last long. They all just looked resigned, as if it wasn't that surprising to them.
"That's not true."
Dabi looked away when he said it, the anger shifting to unbelieving shock that he spoke out loud, then furious disappointment. He continued nonetheless.
“Touya-” Dabi flinched and grimaced at the name, as if it pained him to say it out loud.
“Your brother did not die in his own fire.”
The use of his brother's name made Shouto falter. Nobody aside from his family knew Touya’s name after he died. How did Dabi know it?
The moment Shouto wanted to confront the fact, wanted to ask the villain how he knew of his brother’s name, the door opened rather abruptly, banging against the wall behind it. The Person who walked in was not very tall, blond, and…
“Hawks?”
The number two hero entered the room full of wanted villains like he lived there, no surprise given to multiple criminal’s presence, ignored Shoutos admittedly quiet question, and nearly ambushed Dabi with the force with which he hugged the man. Said man didn’t move much, as if he was used to the enthusiastic affection, only hugged Hawks back in an attempt to hinder them both from falling to the floor.
“Birdie, this is kind of a bad timing”
Hawks pulled back from the hug and looked at Dabi curiously, and then looked around the room in search of the thing that might make the moment deserving of that comment. His eyes skipped over Shouto at first, but then he did a double-take. And that was when the suspicion set in.
“Todoroki-kun, what are you doing here?”
It was obvious from the expression on the hero’s face that he did not expect him to be there, and that he was more than a bit surprised by Shoutos presence in what was with rising chance the League of Villains hideout.
“I could ask you the same question, Hawks.”
His answer was dry and sporadic. Shouto sure as hell had not expected the number two pro hero to enter the League’s space as if it was only natural for him to be there, and judging by the way he was still embracing Dabi and completely at ease with that fact, it probably wasn’t a rare occurrence for him to exist in the same space as arsonists and mass murderers. Shouto should have been more alarmed by that, but somehow he wasn’t. He should also be more alarmed by his own situation, but again, he wasn’t. Since they haven’t attacked him yet, they probably wouldn't either, depending on what he would say. If he continued to surprise them with unexpected information about his home life, they would be too shocked to think about it hopefully.
That’s when Toga interrupted their awkward stare down/trying to figure out how to handle the delicate situation.
“Do you want to be my new brother? If your father kicked you out that means you could live with us, right Shiggy?”
The nickname caught Shouto off guard, and he fully expected Shigaraki to kill the girl on the spot for the disrespect, but the villain just frowned at her as if he was used to it, didn’t necessarily like it, but knew he couldn’t do anything to make her stop addressing him by the horrific shortened version of his name. Then his gaze slid over to Shouto, who guarded his expression immediately, looking at him not exactly hostile, but not friendly either.
“If he would spy for us, that would be a huge advantage for our party. He even fights with ranged attacks, so he could support Dabi in fights… What are your thoughts on hero society?”
Shouto didn’t know what to say. The hero/villain system was incredibly flawed after all, he of all people would know that. He wasn’t entirely sure how often his older brothers had gone to the police or other heroes to report the abuse of their mother, the less that unsafe training methods or the neglect towards Natsuo and Fuyumi, but he knew they got turned away often enough for them to give up trying. And he’s trying to not get killed, so telling the truth would probably work in his favor in this case, even if it never had before.
“It’s a nice concept, but heroes can’t protect everyone. Some people just… slip through the cracks that nobody notices I guess.”
It seemed he had said the right thing, because Shigaraki lit up like the fires Dabi had set in the forest during the attack on their training camp.
“And did you slip through the cracks, Shouto Todoroki?”
He should have seen the question coming, and the answer was obvious to him. It must have been obvious on his face too, because Shigaraki didn’t even let him answer.
“In that case, I would like to extend a party invitation to you. Join us, and we will help you with whatever you need help with.”