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Lunchtime at UA. Peaceful, relaxing, safe. Midoriya was showing Shouto a new section of his notebook, and Shouto was planning out the quickest escape route in his mind.
Midoriya often had his head ducked over his notebook during free periods, so this was nothing new. Sometimes, if he was feeling up for it, he would share his findings with whoever was around hi, which was Shouto more often than not. He enjoyed hearing Midoriya talk, even though he couldn't follow it a lot of the time.
What threw him off this time was the fact that Midoriya was obsessed with him.
Now, Shouto wouldn't have minded if Midoriya focused his hero obsession on him. It would be a little embarrassing, but he had to admit that it would be quite flattering. He imagined Midoriya's intense stare on him as he scribbled notes, and a flush spread over him. He wouldn't mind that at all, really.
But he was not, in fact, obsessing over Shouto himself. Instead, he was fixated on his cringey middle school vigilante persona. The one Shouto had made up when he was empty besides for his anger, and only knew how to channel it into his quirk. And calling it vigilantism was generous; he would sooner call it "out of control quirk usage and general violence towards criminals," the distinction being that he was fueled by teenage angst rather than any sense of justice.
He was shut down pretty quickly after his father caught him sneaking out one night - and punished severely - but not before he gained a bit of local fame in Musutafu.
Musutafu, where Midoriya lived as well.
"-and Frostbite would swing around street poles so that his attack worked in 360 degrees," Midoriya continued, showing Shouto a short clip he found online. There were very few clips of him, courtesy of Endeavor's lawyers, and the few that were out there were too grainy to identify him. Still, seeing the video sent a chill up his spine.
How had he ever thought that pole dancing was a cool move?
"Interesting," he said passively. Luckily - or rather, unluckily - that was his usual response, regardless of how interested he was, so Midoriya took that as his cue to continue.
"And he had this majorly cool move where he would freeze part of a building so that it crumbled, take a brick, freeze ice around it, and then throw it at the villains."
That's no better than just throwing the brick. He had thought of a name for the move too: Ice Projectile. But since his quirk wasn't refined enough at the time to make actual ice projectiles, he had to use something else as a core. Hence the bricks. He grimaced, then noticed the table in front of him slowly covering in frost, which he melted before Midoriya could notice.
This had to be some new form of torture.
"Sounds like he caused a lot of property damage," he said coolly. "I can't admire someone like that." Not to mention that he'd had to do busywork for his father for a year after to pay off the costs of the damage, so he was still quite salty about it. Middle school Shouto wanted to fuck shit up, not be an errand boy.
Midoriya blushed. "Well he's not a hero or anything. If he was a hero then of course I wouldn't think of him so positively. But he's a vigilante, so I judge him a little... differently. They don't abide by the same rules, you know?"
As he stammered, Shouto's face nearly dropped. He was more obsessed with Frostbite than he originally thought. And by that extension, he was more obsessed with Shouto than he originally thought. He fought the urge to rub the back of his neck.
"I just think he's so cool," Midoriya said. "He retired like a year ago, but he's impacted the crime scene in Musutafu so much. Incredible, right?"
"Yes, quite," Shouto said carefully.
"You live in Musutafu too. Did you see or hear anything about him before?"
Of course I've heard of him. He's me.
"I saw him once," he said, sweating a little bit. "He was stopping a purse snatcher."
Midoriya's eyes lit up. "You saw him in person? I'm so jealous, Todoroki! I can't believe you never told me before."
"I didn't think it was so important," he said, bristling a little. "We see pro heroes every day in school. Celebrities are all around us."
"Yeah, but this is an undercover vigilante celebrity. Plus one that's no longer active, which means no one else'll ever meet him again. I've never met anyone who actually met him before. What was he like? Was he as cool in person as he seems?"
"No, he wasn't impressive in the slightest," he said, and melted the table down yet again, leaving droplets of condensation on the surface. "His quirk control was sloppy, and he did far more property damage than he had to. The purse snatcher had to be hospitalized afterwards. He seemed like an adolescent who needed therapy instead of a disguise."
Shouto clamped his mouth shut, realizing that he probably said too much. He hardly ever spoke about his vigilante days besides for with his father, who only used it as a lesson and as a way to keep Shouto in his debt. He also brought it up to his therapist once or twice, since she was under oath and all, but he never enjoyed it. He was never proud of it, not even back when he was actually doing it. It was just a thin excuse to rage at people who vaguely deserved it.
Midoriya's face fell.
"You're right," he said, tucking his notebook hastily into his bag. "I shouldn't be fixating on someone like that. He just reminded me of myself a little when I was in middle school."
You also went around beating people to a bloody pulp because of your issues with your father? he didn't ask. Instead, he just waited for him to continue.
"My quirk wasn't really developed when I was younger, so being a hero seemed like it would be super hard, but then I heard about vigilantes and how they fight villains no matter what kind of person they are. Like, a lot of vigilantes are quirkless, you know?" Shouto didn't. "I know that Frostbite wasn't quirkless, but I just thought that it would be so cool if I could do what he did when I was that age.
"I know better now," he continued quickly, interpreting Shouto's wince as if it were aimed at him rather than at himself. "I'm so fully on board with being a hero. But it feels nostalgic, you know? Like living the vigilante dream I never got."
Shouto thought about Midoriya's strength that awes - and scares - him more and more by the day, and then he thought about a younger Midoriya using that power to punch petty thieves in the face in the dead of night.
"That's probably for the best," he said seriously. "But I am sorry for snapping at you about him. After Stain, I've become disenchanted with vigilantes."
Midoriya nodded like this made sense, which was good, because Shouto had never been good at talking out of his ass.
"I get it," he said. "And besides, your quirk is much more impressive than Frostbite's. There's no reason for you to look up to him." He flashed him a smile, and Shouto's left side flared.
"Yes," Shouto said, never good at accepting compliments. "Right. Okay." He decided there that he hoped that Midoriya would never make him his own section in his notebook and show him. His heart - and the cafeteria table - wouldn't be able to handle it.