Stop That Flame, Hide That Power

13. Wagon On Fire

"You realise how a stupid that was? What if a someone had caught you? A quirkless person? The entire school isn't like your class!" Aizawa was clearly fuming, and the two boys looked down at their feet from where they sat, back in the dorms. Midoriya wanted to ask questions, but was smart enough to realise that now wasn't the time for that.

Aizawa sighed, hand running through his hair, reminding everyone of what had recently been discovered.

"While you boys weren't out past curfew, from what I could see, you were fighting out in the open. And with your quirks! Even if it was in self defense." He glared over at Midoriya. "I'm going to have to give you both a punishment." Both boys nodded forlornly. 

Out of everyone's view, Todoroki watched on. 

Todoroki Shoto knew his mother and father had to have loved each other at one point. But when Toya was born, and two years later started making blue flames appear on his body, something changed in his father.

Shoto hadn't been born, but from what he remembered from stories his mother had told him, they had been an idyllic family until then. His father was making his way up in the world of acting, with a beautiful and modest wife, and bubbly child.

When his sister had been born, and later showed no sign of a power like Toya, his father tried again, and got another powerless child, and then Shoto was born, just as Enji was giving up hope, and for the first time in years, his father was happy. When his power appeared, with not only fire, but ice as well, his mother told him how they'd danced around the room, how the smile on his face was so genuine, she couldn't help but fall for him again.

Whenever she told the story, Shoto could see the pain in his mother's eyes, but he thought that was because she always told him after a rough training session, when he'd been crying. She said he looked like Enji when he smiled at the end of every story, which made him want to smile less.

Then one day, she snapped.

He was five, he didn't understand what or why it happened, just that it did, and it hurt a lot and he was left with a scar around his left eye. And his mother wasn't at home when he got back from the hospital. His father gave him the day off from training the next day, and his mother didn't come home.

He stopped asking for her after a while.

It didn't hurt anymore. Nothing did. The scar stopped itching after a while, and he lived with it. His father's training to become physically fit enough to become an actor of his level and basic ways to train his fire and ice, they didn't seem as gruelling as they used to be. His wish of a normal home life and for his mother and brother to just come home, he'd given up on them long ago.

He thought he was being conceited a lot of the time. To be the son of one of the best actors in the country, training to become just like him, he should be thankful, anyone else would die for the chance. But he didn't want this. No-one else saw the asshole like he did, arrogant and desperate to cover up his ongoing mistakes.

He had lived his life in the dark since he was five, not opening up, refusing to make friends, barely trusting anyone he came into contact with, hiding his powers. Then he was sent an invite to join a prestigious and new school, and his father had jumped on the chance.

So he started at UA, and was immediately surrounded by loud and boisterous children. No-one treated him like a human, he was Endeavor's son and that was all he was to them. But he was used to acting, so he acted like it didn't phase him until he convinced himself too.

He lived ten years in darkness, and suddenly, a light was being shone in his face. So naturally, at first, he shoved it away.

Midoriya Izuku was the brightest person he'd met in a while, not just intelligence wise. He lit up the room when he walked in, and was always so friendly to everyone, it must have been tiring. Whenever he tried to talk to Todoroki, Todoroki would give him the shortest answers possible, hoping he'd give up and leave.