Viridity

40

Todoroki stepped into his house as the floor creaked under his weight. Based on muscle memory, he took off his shoes at the entrance and placed them in their usual spot on the shoe rack. And like a routine, he went to the kitchen to grab himself a bite. By now, Fuyumi would have cooked something for him because she usually had to grade some papers from her school afterwards.

But today, he was greeted with the sight of his older sister humming as she cooked the noodles in the pot of water. As she mixed the water with her chopsticks, he announced monotonously, "I'm home." A smile made way to his sister's lips as she turned to him.

"Welcome back! Just give me a minute-" She closed the stove and strained the noodles before washing them and soaking them in ice cold water, and finally taking them out to place in a bowl.

"Ah! Alright, I'm done!" She turned over and greeted Shoto with a saccharine smile, "I saw your Sports Festival! Congrats on getting second, you were amazing!" She praised as the youngest Todoroki nodded and sat down at the chabudai, where Fuyumi placed the soba in front of him, along with the dipping sauce.

"I made your favorite as celebration! You did really well, Shoto!" She continued to praise him and the younger brother continued to nod as he finally began to eat.

"Thanks..." She was expecting him to talk about how he wasn't happy with second place and how he would definitely take first place next year, but he did none of that. All he did was silently eat his food.

"Shoto?" The said boy hummed while slurping his noodles, not bothering to look up from the sauce, "Are you okay? You kinda look... out of it."

Ahh... She really did know him well...

Well, he wasn't that surprised. She had practically raised him after his mother was sent away. Speaking of his mother, Shoto was having mixed feeling about his next words and how he would break the news to his sister.

So he just decided he'd tell it to her tomorrow when he's about to leave.

"I'm fine, just tired." Luckily, she decided to drop the topic and let him eat his food in peace.

The next day, Shoto got dressed for a simple meet-up and walked towards the kitchen where he knew his sister would be at. It was a good thing that UA had given you all a day off to rest after the festival.

"Fuyumi." Shot started as his sister turned to him with her characteristic smile, "Yeah? Do you-Oh, are you going somewhere?" He nodded and began to walk to the entrance to wear his shoes.

"I'm going to visit mom."

Crash.

"W-What?! Shoto, are you sure you're okay?!" She rushed out, apron still tied around her form as she looked at her brother in worry, "You-You never... visited Mom, in a while... I just-"

"Fuyumi." Her breathing hitched at what she saw.

A small, yet obvious smile rested on his thin lips as he continued.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine."

For once, after many, many years since their mother was sent away... Fuyumi was actually happy; really, really happy.

Todoroki took this as a sign to leave before making his way out the door.

As he arrived to the hospital, he could feel his heart hammering against his chest. He thought back to Midoriya's words back at the Sports Festival.

It was his power... And he wanted to be different from his father. If the first step for him to accomplish that was to finally meet his mother, despite the fear he felt that she might hate him and kick him out, he was willing to do it.