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Shouto Todoroki had always been a sickly and soft-spoken child.
From the very day he was born, he cried softly, too weak to do anything but whimper and cough up mucus.
Shouto Todoroki had been born with two-toned hair and heterochromatic eyes and Enji Todoroki had finally achieved his ideal quirk-marriage child at last, but as clear as it was that Shouto had the perfect quirk, it was equally clear that Shouto could never become a hero, not with his weak physical state.
As it was, Enji refused to accept that the product he had at long last produced would be inadequate in any way, and thus as soon as he manifested his dual-elemental quirk — from the day that Shouto sneezed and a snow flurry erupted from his runny nose instead — he began to join in on training sessions with his older brother Touya.
Despite being seven years apart in age, after Touya's initial flare of jealousy died down, the pair quickly became inseparable outside of training. They were bound to the same fate, after all; the same day-after-day endless cycle of beration and criticism and grueling training.
Touya wished to become the hero that his father spoke of constantly. He wished to fulfill those expectations that he had borne for so many years, but now not only that reason but also to shield his little brother from the very same thing.
Shouto wanted nothing more than to be freed from the burden of heroism. If asked what he wished to do, back when he was still four-and-two-months old and newly manifested, he would have answered that he hoped to become a medic like Natsuo when he grew up. Though the answer had quickly been beaten out of him, it was clear that the desire still burned inside.
And as cruel fate would have it, Enji had selected Shouto and not Touya as his Chosen Child, the one who would bring glory to the family and surpass All Might in the end.
When the day comes, Touya passes the UA Entrance Exam with flying colors, top of the top, tied for number one among all the recommendation students.
He passes every heroics and academic assessment after that in the same manner, either ranked number one or number two, neck and neck with the same girl who'd tied him at the entrance exam.
Still, this is not enough.
Shouto is pushed to take the very same exam two years earlier than planned, with strict orders to "earn that number one spot properly, not like your useless brother who had to share it. You think All Might likes to share?" This is a feat that he manages to pull off, but only barely, and honstly only thanks to the extra training that he and Touya put in the days leading up to it.
Three months after graduation, following a short stint as a sidekick in Endeavor Agency, Touya opens an agency of his own with two of his UA classmates. The hero Plasma debuts on the hero rankings at number 17, a cause for celebration for Touya's partners but not in the Todoroki household, not when Hawks has recently debuted in the Top 10.
There is a nonzero amount of yelling and frustration that night, but it is not something they dwell upon, for less than a week later, it is the day of Shouto's first Sports Festival. The better son. The one who, in theory, can achieve ultimate greatness with the best medical care in the country and now Recovery Girl's attention (never mind that Shouto had been seeing a whole host of doctors since he was born and was only slightly less sickly as a teenager).
Shouto wins the festival, as expected.
Yet their celebration is short-lived, for the very next day he collapses during training and does not wake up for five days after that.
When he finally does, Recovery Girl and their old family doctor deliver the grave verdict together: "His condition is unstable and his physiology is entirely out of order from chronic exhaustion and overexertion."
"And what of his fate in heroics?" Enji asks, stony-faced.
"Uncertain," says the doctor, while Recovery Girl answers, "unlikely."
From that day onward, something shifts irreparably. Enji dials down on Shouto's private training while upping Touya's whenever he comes home. The backup plan has become the only plan, Touya is finally the one with all of his father's hopes and dreams riding upon, the one with all the full attention that he'd lost when Shouto joined him. He has the Number Two Hero helping him to surpass everyone else. He should be happy.
He isn't. In fact, he's the opposite of it.
Along the way, years ago, things had changed for him. And as glad as he is that Shouto may have a chance to escape the path of heroics that had been laid out since he was born, Touya can't help but wish that it hadn't been this way. That maybe he could've had somebody who knew him better than anybody else to debut with and fight alongside and mentor. Or, perhaps, that Shouto hadn't had to be pushed to the point of nearly breaking before he received his reprieve.
He wishes things had been different.
Now, it is all he can do to try and support his little brother as best he can. It is all he can do to bear the burden of being the son that fate ultimately chose.