Chapter Text
Shoto felt weirdly nervous sitting in the waiting room of his phycologists office. It was not his first time here; he’d been her patient since his first few months at UA when Aizawa had noticed some of his less than normal tendency’s. The initial plan had been for him to go in for a few weeks of diagnosis but with everything that went down with Endeavor and the war he hadn’t really the had time to spare.
After the war was over the students were given 6 months off to recover physical, mentally, and take a well-earned break. Shoto had spent the first month and a half with the rest of class 1A in the hospital.
Covered in burns he lay in his bed and slept, his mum and siblings visited updating him on Touya and their dad. Hanta also came to visit him a lot he knew now that it was because he had a crush on him but back then he had found it quite strange.
He and Hanta got together after Hanta had confessed his feelings on the hospital roof and Shoto had had his first kiss. He really liked Hanta, no he loved Hanta. He was like a best friend but better because they kissed. He also really liked kissing.
He spent the first few months of his break his lazing around in bed, watching movies with Hanta, and playing games with his siblings. Once his body had recovered enough, he began to go for runs and training his quirk again.
Once school got back and class 1A became class 2A Aizawa approached him about going back to see his phycologist. He wasn’t apposed per se he just didn’t really feel like talking about anything that had happened in the past year let alone his childhood, but with a lot of support and convincing from Hanta, his friends and family he found himself back in this office waiting for Dr Ito to call him in so they could discuss his results.
~~~
“Hello, Todoroki” she greeted him opening her office door “it’s nice to see you again” Shot gave her a small smile bowing his head
“Why don’t you take a seat, and we can get started” she said closing the door. Shoto headed towards the soft gray couch, he sat with both feet on the floor and looked around the familiar room.
Dr Ito’s office was quite nice. It was simple with soft green walls and gray furniture. She had pictures and quotes on her walls and large shelfs with rows of books and baskets of fidget toys.
“So based off of all the assements we did together you came back with four diagnoses” she told him “Today I would like to go over these with you, give you a safe space for you to process this, and talk about treatment plans and how we can manage this together. How doe that sound?” she looked at him waiting for an answer “okay” he said in a small voice.
“So, like we suspected you have PTSD, I’m sure this one is less of a shock, we’ve talked about your childhood as well as more recent traumatic events and I’m hoping we can come up with some coping mechanism that you can start to put to use.” He just nodded; she was right this was not a surprise
“Anxiety and depression were also something we discuss a bit in some of our early session, we can look into trying medication and expand on some techniques we’ve learnt about already” he just nodded again preparing for the last one
“You also have ASD or autism spectrum disorder; do you know what that is?” she asked. It took Shoto a minute to find his voice “that’s like when your awkward and don’t like tags in your shirt, right?” he said.
He didn’t tell her about how his dad use to call him the R word when he was a kid and didn’t understand certain things or got overwhelmed by sounds or texture.
she gave a slight chuckle “yes lack of social understanding and sensory issue are an aspect of autism but it’s a lot more than that. It’s a form a neurodiversity and effects all different aspect of your life.” She told him about all the ways she had noticed his autism and gave him lots of resources to look at
“Is it similar to ADHD” he asked knowing his boyfriend had said condition, “yes and no, in simple terms ADHD had more to do with you mind constantly running and being unable to turn it off whereas autism has more to do with you mind taking in more information and processing it faster. But both conditions involve sensory issues”
Shoto had noticed many similarities between himself and Sero’s struggles that would explain why.
“I think today was went very well Shoto, I will be seeing you next week for our regular appoint, I’ve also talk to your teachers about your diagnosis, and you will be having a meeting with them on Monday to discuss accommodation for school”
Shoto gathered his files and thanked Dr Ito leaving her office and heading back towards the dorms.
He decided to take the long way back and walk through the forest a bit in order to collect his thoughts. He had suspect most of the results he got but something was still nagging in the back of his mind, the voice of his father telling him he was worthless, damaged goods.
~~~
He headed back to dorms an hour or so later and was greeted by his smiling boyfriend, “How was it Roki” he asked grabbing his hand and leading him to the common room.
“It was okay I guess” he said sheepishly but Hanta didn’t push he just smiled and heading towards to kitchen and grabbing two cups
“Would you like some jasmine” he asked to which Shoto nodded, accepting the warm cup that was passed his way.
He and Hanta spent the remainder of their Sunday curled up on the couch watching movies and reading books, they headed to bed early parting ways.
Once his teeth were brushed and he had changed into his pajama’s he crawled into bed praying for a good sleep.
As usual Shoto does not get what he wished for.
He felt like his body was on fire, like acid was burning him from the inside out, he could smell his own burning flesh. As his eyes opened, he was meet with the terrible sight of Endeavor touring over him “worthless” he spat at him kicking him in the shins
Shoto tried to yell but his throat was burnt raw, he watched as Endeavor berated him for being weak, for having to go to a shrink, for dating a boy
He just lay there and took it silent tears streaming down his face he willed it to end, willed his dad to stop.
He received a hard blow to the face and felt his quirk reaction without his permission. Flames licked his side, and he couldn’t stifle them.
This would happen to him a lot when he was a kid, but he hadn’t struggled with quirk control for years.
He heard yelling but it didn’t sound like Endeavor, it sounded scared, he tried to move towards the voice drift towards it
“Shoto, you need to wake up”
He felt himself being pulled back into his body and woke with a start. He was in his room, on his futon, but it was hot stiflingly hot. It was then that he heard more yelling it sounded like Aizawa “Todoroki you need to calm down”
He opened his eyes and was meet with blinding orange and red, his room was on fire. He started to hyperventilate, and as his panic grew so did his flames.
Aizawa’s pov
He had been woken by his students in the middle of the night telling him there was something wrong with Todoroki.
He knew of the boy’s tests today and he immediately put on his slippers and rushed to the boy’s room
His students had indeed been correct as he opened the after many knocks he was surrounded with flames
shit
In the middles of the room was a small sobbing multicoloured boy screaming bloody murder, he immediately activated his quirk stopping Todoroki from creating anymore flames.
After the flames were extinguished, they were left with a sobbing boy still trapped in his own mind. Aizawa urged the students to leave except for Sero who he allowed to stay in hopes his presence would calm the boy.
Hesitantly he released his quirk and moved towards the boy slowly “hey Todoroki, do you know where you are” he asked slowly he boy hiccupped “room” he said in a voice so quiet he almost missed it “yes good job, let’s take some deep breaths together, okay?” he said sitting next to the boy
He exaugurated his breaths and waiting for Todoroki’s to match “good job Kiddo, can I touch you” he asked “Sero” he responded and without missing a beat Sero wrapped his arms around his boyfriend “you’re okay roki, I’m right here”
They spent the next thirty minutes calming Shoto down until eventually he feels asleep against Sero’s chest.
Aizawa let Sero sleep with Todoroki for the night and headed back to his apartment, he filled out an absence report for Todoroki and Sero for the next day and crawled back into bed with Yamada.