Chapter Text
Kayvan very carefully presses the wooden roof to the top of the miniature building. He steps back from his creation, smiling, not that you could see his smile considering the medical mask he was wearing so as not to inhale fumes from the glue.
“Completed!” he announces to his younger sister Allie. Upon turning around, though, he finds that Allie is asleep on the sofa. Well, it was late out…and Dad still wasn’t back. It wasn’t like Kayvan couldn’t handle himself, though; he was 23, after all, and while he usually lived at university instead of at his childhood home, he was on a gap year to further his education. More specifically, he was waiting for his father to obtain a role on a television show with a high budget, so he could learn the art of the stage and backstage directly from the source. That may have seemed like an unlikely thing to wait for, but Evan Callthorn had a few auditions lined up. And while he’d never been in anything big, Kayvan’s father was hardly an inexperienced actor.
It’s at this point that the door to the house opens; Kayvan, careful not to wake Allie, runs to the entrance.
“Dad!” he says, looking up at the other; the both of them, as well as Allie, had the same light brown hair.
“Hey.” Evan says, wearing an expression of concern.
“What’s up?” Kayvan asks. He pulls off the mask; he’d forgotten he was wearing it.
“You like My Hero Academia, right?” Evan asks. Kayvan stares.
“Are you saying you got a role in—in MHA?” he asks, hardly daring to believe it; that was one of his favorite book series, and it was popular enough that the upcoming show was promised to have a huge budget. And if his father had managed to get a role…
“A really major role, too. A main character. I have a week to accept.” Evan says, with a slight smile. Kayvan hugs him, but then steps back, thinking. His dad was a good fifteen years older than all the adult main characters Kayvan could think of. Who…
“Did you get All Might?” It’s the only character he can think of about his father’s age; Evan hadn’t really had that diverse of roles previously, so him being the big strong hero again wasn’t too different from what roles Kayvan usually saw him in. The problem was, though, that All Might was only buff in the first few books of the series—after that, Evan would no longer fit the role.
“Who are the main characters of the series?” Evan asks. Kayvan frowns.
“The Todoroki family. Plus Izuku and Katsuki. But you aren’t any of the kids.” Kayvan mumbles. Who else was there?
The Todoroki family.
“No.” Kayvan says, spluttering in realization.
“Er.” Evan manages.
“You—you—ENDEAVOR?”
They’re both lucky Allie didn’t wake up.
***
Kayvan and Evan are sitting at the kitchen table, a few papers set out before them.“Endeavor.” Kayvan says, incredulous. Because his Dad was his Dad. And even though Evan had been in a few varying roles before, he’d always been typecast, to say the least. Endeavor was a completely different ballpark.
“You know I don’t know that much about MHA.” Evan says. Kayvan nods. “They had me try out All Might at first, because typecast, you know? But then one of the auditors said I should try Enji. I didn’t know who Enji was. I tried it, and about halfway through I figured out who exactly I was playing.” He laughs.
“And you…?” Kayvan asks.
“According to them, I killed it.” his father answers. Kayvan blinks.
“Do you want to take the role?” he asks.
Evan pushes the paper of lines nervously.
“I mean…good money, I’d be in a major thing for once, you’d be part of a major thing too since they agreed I could bring you along for your gap year study, MHA is one of your favorite book series, and I can’t say there isn’t something really fun about trying a new type of role. Not just trying it, but getting it. It’s just…the man Enji is, it makes me feel a little uncomfortable, you know? And I figured, I don’t know what you’d think…and Allie.” Evan says.
“There are lots of pros, and few cons.” Kayvan considers. His father and Endeavor, the main anti-hero of the series, were at complete opposites of every kind of spectrum. It was jarring to think of his father replacing the mental image he’d gotten of the character, while reading the books; to think that his father would be the mental image everyone would come up with when they thought of Endeavor. He didn’t like that much.
But.
His Dad was incredibly, incredibly talented. If anyone could drastically flip their entire personality, it would be him.
“You know, Allie did see Spearfall.” Kayvan finally says.
“I told you not to show her! She’s eight!” Evan protests. Kayvan lifts up a finger.
“Don’t worry, I did it cleverly. Took her to watch in the studio while you were filming the scene.” he says.
“What scene.” Evan says. He’s not asking, because he already knows the answer.
“Where you get stabbed through with darkness spikes, die painfully and then are briefly resurrected as a soulless zombie.” Kayvan says, recalling the particular reasons Evan hadn’t wanted his youngest child to see one of his movies.
“How did she take it?” Evan asks.
“Really well, how else? The green screens and special effects were all clearly in view, never mind the amount of times your co-star tripped on her sword and you had to redo some of the scene. It was pretty fun.” Kayvan says. Allie, seven years at the time, was of course smart enough to understand what acting was.
“We watched the actual movie in all its glory later. She thinks you looked like you stepped on a Lego.” Kayvan laughs.
“You say that as if stepping on Legos is not equal pain to being impaled by darkness spikes.” Evan says, in a falsely grave voice. He sighs.
“So, Endeavor?” he asks. Kayvan leans forwards and holds his dad’s hands.
“You don’t have to worry about anything. Look, I—you know I don’t like Endeavor at all. He’s terrible. But you, you’re you, and you’re wonderful.” Kayvan says. Evan smiles.
“All right, then. Endeavor.”
***
“Hey! Yuki!” Kayvan shouts, waving at his friend. He’s sitting in the driveway, waiting for his dad to bring the last things they’ll need to the car before they all move to the set. Yuki, who was walking on the other side of the street, comes over, taking out his earphones; despite being a full four years younger than Kayvan, he was still taller than him.
“Are you moving, or something?” Yuki asks. He’s got spiky black hair with ridiculously short bangs and, rather oddly, resembles Evan more so than Kayvan does.
“Dad got a part. It’s a huge part. I’m so excited!” Kayvan says, tapping the pavement with his hands.
“Your dad’s an actor, right? I don’t think I’ve met him.” Yuki says.
“Then you’ve got to say hi before we leave. Oh, there he is!” Kayvan says, spinning around as the door opens; Allie runs out followed by Evan, who’s carrying a box on his shoulder.
“Uh.” Yuki says; Kayvan, though, isn’t looking at him.
“We’re going to another set! I love sets…” Allie sings.
“What, uh. What’s the part your dad got, again?” Yuki asks, sounding somewhat faint; the question doesn’t really sound like a question at all.
“You know MHA? He’s going to be Endeavor.” Kayvan says, turning around to face his friend, who appears to be going through multiple existential crises at once.
“I’m…going to be working on the MHA show.” Yuki says, finally.
“Really? Why didn’t you tell me before?” Kayvan asks.
“Because despite getting offered the job I was having a hard time deciding whether to go or not due to…reasons…like the fact that here, there is that, which is the most absolutely fricked thing but then again I have this terrible curiosity that I kind of want to satisfy even though I know I’ll regret my decision and it’ll be a bad idea. Which judging by this…yeah.” Yuki says.
“I understood none of that.” Kayvan feels the need to point out.
“I’m an idiot.” Yuki mumbles, pushing his hand into his forehead as though he can remove all idiocy from himself through physical pressure. He sighs.
“I’ll see both of you at the set, I guess.” he says, finally, and leaves after waving goodbye. Kayvan’s slightly disappointed Yuki didn’t get to say hi to Evan properly, but if they were really going to be at the same set, well, that could happen later.
“That’s your odd friend, then? The one you keep telling me about?” Evan asks, placing the final box in the car.
“He’s not odd.” Kayvan insists. This was only partly true.
Upon arriving at the set, Kayvan is entranced immediately. Due to the fact that Endeavor didn’t really appear in the book until the Sports Festival, lots of filming had already taken place, and would continue to while the Callthorns got settled in. The Todorokis were some of the main characters of the show, but interestingly enough, they weren’t introduced first off and only in parts across the story. It was, Kayvan thought, a cool way of doing things.
“Do you think the other Todoroki actors are here yet?” Kayvan asks.
“Er.” Evan says. He looks off his stride, again. Right…that would be due to the nature of Evan’s character concerning the rest of the Todorokis, wouldn’t it?
“How about I go find them first?” Kayvan offers.
A boy with red-white hair is speaking rapidly to a green-haired one, and it takes a few seconds for Kayvan to get over his starstruck-ness of meeting the boys who’d be playing Shouto and Izuku. Those two characters had been huge influences on him, he thinks, knocking on the open door. They both look up.
“Hey…Theo and Matthew?” Kayvan asks, reading the names posted up on the wall.
“Hi!! Who are you?” Theo asks, bouncing out of his seat to run over to him.
“You’re excited, huh.” Kayvan says.
“I still can’t believe I’m in My Hero Academia. Like, I’m actually…and I’m SHOUTO! Isn’t that epic?” Theo asks.
“It’s pretty epic. You’ll get used to it.” Matthew says, grinning.
“Let me guess. Theo, you’re new to acting, Matthew not so much?” Kayvan asks.
“I’ve had small parts in things before. This is really big for me.” Matthew says.
“It’s my first time, yeah. Wait—who are you playing?” Theo asks. It’s a little hard to believe this kid is going to be Shouto, Kayvan thinks, remembering the character’s seriousness, but that was the magic of it all, wasn’t it?
“I’m not playing anyone, I’m going to be helping with the special effects. I honestly can’t wait. I’m Kayvan—nice to meet you.” he says, holding out his hand, which Theo enthusiastically shakes.
“I know someone you’ll probably want to meet, Theo. If it’s cool if we go?” Kayvan asks Matthew, who nods.
“Who am I meeting?” Theo asks, as they walk through the halls.
“You guys are just finishing on the USJ arc right now, I think? So I suppose you remember what comes after that.” Kayvan says.
“Sports Festival.” Theo says.
“And I suppose you remember Shouto having some especially important character development there, concerning one other character.” Kayvan says.
“Yeah! He and Izuku become friends.” Theo says.
“That, and Shouto learns to stop holding himself back to spite his father.” Kayvan says. Theo stops walking.
“Oh…I’m meeting the guy who plays Endeavor, right?” he asks, in a small voice.
“You good?” Kayvan asks.
“Endeavor is the worst.” Theo says.
“Absolutely. I promise you, though, that the guy who plays him is the best.” Kayvan says. This was really weird.
“You know him? He’s cool? I mean, I figure he’d actually be a nice guy, because it’s acting, but I was…kind of worried. Because, like, who wants to play Endeavor?” Theo asks. Kayvan answers the question by opening the door to the side room he’d left his father and sister in.
Allie is helping Evan unpack into the trailer they were going to be staying in—or, more accurately, she’s sitting on his shoulders and directing where everything goes.
“Put it on the microwave shelf.” Allie orders.
“I’m not putting the alarm clock on the microwave—what are you talking about? The microwave’s on the counter, not a shelf.” Evan points out. Allie, in turn, directs his attention to a shelf in the kitchen area.
“Microwave shelf.” she says.
“There’s no microwave there, Allie.” Evan sighs.
“Yeah! But there could be! So it’s the microwave shelf!” Allie insists. Kayvan looks at the shelf. It doesn’t seem particularly microwave-suited, but it wouldn’t be implausible for one to fit there.
“It’s the microwave shelf because…there could be a microwave there?”
“Yes.” Allie confirms. Evan’s stare is thousand-yard.
“Oh, Kayvan, I didn’t notice you came back—who’s this?” he asks, turning around.
“IT’S SHOUTO!” Allie shrieks, abandoning all sense of dignity.
“Theo, meet Allie and Evan. Guys, meet Theo.” Kayvan says, and Theo carefully enters the room.
“Hi?” he says. Kayvan squints up at his dad’s brown hair.
“They’re probably going to dye your hair soon.” he says, looking back at Theo’s red-white. Theo laughs.
“It feels so weird with my hair in these colors.” he says. There’s a pause.
“Let’s sit down at the table outside.” Evan offers. They do.
“You’ve met my son already?” Evan asks. Theo blinks.
“He means me.” Kayvan clarifies. Theo looks from him, to Evan, to Allie.
“So you actually have kids?” he finally asks.
“I do.” Evan confirms.
“And you’re gonna be…Endeavor.” Theo says, a slight note of incredulity in his voice.
“I am.” Evan says. Theo, suddenly, spins around and leans over the back edge of his chair.
“Hey, MOM! I’m over here!” he yells. Kayvan turns to see a woman running across the area between the main set and the trailer towards them.
“I was looking for you! You said you were with Matthew, and then Matthew said you went off with some special effects guy—you have to be careful—oh, who’s everyone here? Hello. I’m Caroline.” the woman says; she has short straight hair and looks rather out of place. Kayvan introduces himself and his family; Caroline peers over her glasses at them.
“So you’re going to be playing Endeavor, then.” she says. There’s an odd sort of pause.
“Dad is the best Dad. So if he’s gonna be pretending to be Theo’s Dad I bet he’ll be the best at that too.” Allie says, giving Evan a hug and therefore confidently showing off both how 1) Evan’s probably an okay guy, actually, and that 2) she has no idea who Endeavor is, at all.
They should…probably explain that to her before the cameras start rolling, Kayvan thinks.
“I think I know you…you were in Spearfall, weren’t you? The mentor figure to the hero, or something.” Caroline says.
“That was me, yes.” Evan says, looking somewhat gratified to be recognized.
“And he got stabbed by darkness spikes!” Allie shouts before poking him multiple times.
“Allie—“ Evan starts, laughing.
“Yes, I remember that.” Caroline says, with a brief smile. After Allie calms down, Caroline sits at the table with them. Kayvan claps his hands.
“What we want is for the show to go well, and for all of us to have fun. Therefore, if my dad’s going to be Endeavor, and your kid’s going to be Shouto, we probably all have to talk. And figure out how to be friends.” he says.
“Everyone is friends now. I command it.” Allie says.
“Wish it was that easy.” Theo laughs.
Theo, as it turns out, is a big fan of dinosaurs. Kayvan can’t help but listen to Evan and Caroline’s conversation as he shows off some of the digital design he’d made to the younger kid.
“I’ve been on the acting scene for a while now, but I can’t say I’ve ever played a role like this before. And your Theo, he’s new to all this?” Evan asks.
“He really wanted to go to the tryout. We both were so happy when he actually got the role, we hardly believed it…but this is a whole new world. I also don’t think either of us thought the whole thing through, but he’s here now, and he’s having so much fun.” Caroline explains.
“I’m just hoping…I don’t suppose you heard about that one actor who played the evil Prince on what was it, A Song of Ice and Fire? He did such a good job at being such a bad guy, everyone hated him. MHA is just a book still, and Endeavor’s probably one of, if not the, most hated character across the whole fandom. Which I’d say he deserves, of course. And now it’s my job to play him, and I…well, if people end up hating me, I guess that means I’ll have done a great job. But here, while we’re all here, filming these scenes—I’ve always made good friends with my co-stars. I don’t want that to change just cause my variable in the equation has.” Evan says. Caroline hums at him.
“I’ve heard a lot of things about the world of acting. Especially concerning child stars. And Todoroki Shouto is quite the role for him to start off in, especially what with…Endeavor. I suppose I can be reassured somewhat by meeting you, and your kids.” she says, finally. And everything else, Kayvan supposes, will have to wait to be seen.