My Hero Academia Oneshots

Stay - Todoroki Family pt2

Trigger Warning: intrusive thoughts toward the end

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Class 1A was bubbling with excitement as the students counted down the seconds to leave class. It was Friday, and that meant they were able to leave campus and return to their families for the weekend. But Shouto had no family to go home to, not anymore.

Touya and Endeavor where whisked away to separate prisons. Fuyumi was too busy to care for a teenager, and she barely made enough money to support herself alone. Natsuo just didn't have what it takes to care for a kid, he could barely take care of himself. He was grieving worse than anyone, now knowing Touya had been alive this whole time and he didn't even know.

Shouto was lucky enough to have previous living arrangements at the dorms, at least he had a place to stay that wasn't always void of any person other than himself, although, that's how it felt on weekends.

Todoroki stared out the window as the few classmates he just might consider friends talked joyously around him. His mind tuned out everything, every conversation around him, every concerned glance, every effort to get him to open up, everything other than the swaying of the leaves on the trees below and the thoughts racing through his mind.

Almost all the students held a collective breath as the clock finally ticked away the last second and the bell rang. Time for everyone to go home.

Almost everyone.

Todoroki sighed as he stood and collected his notebooks, pushing them into his randoseru backpack and glancing toward the door, ready to drag his feet back to the dorms where he would spend the weekend alone.

"Todoroki-san, stay after class a second." Aizawa's voice was unmistakable. Todoroki's eyes shifted as he set his bag back down on his desk, rolling his shoulder to ease the pain of carrying heavy books.

The students hurriedly filtered out in groups, some slowing a second and shooting a sympathetic look in the apathetic boy's direction, but no one offered to stay and wait. This wasn't some romantic, everything-works-out-in-the-end story where the protagonist just pushes down all their trauma and forgets it in order to love someone else, he knew that much. He knew they didn't really care. They didn't know what to do with a quiet, seemingly emotionless boy when they met, and now, after Dabi's little stunt, they certainly didn't know how to handle someone so broken.

"Yes, Aizawa-sensei?"

"I have an important offer," he paused, wondering how to word the situation and wishing he had practice this beforehand.

Shouto hummed in a questioning manner.

"I've been consulting some officials and observing legal documents, and I was wondering if you would... be alright with me and my partner becoming your temporary or permanent guardians?"

The room was silent, the air tense.

"What?" Shouto felt his heart beat quicken, gazing into the eyes of his teacher. Surely, he couldn't be serious. He was though, it was clear. The look in his eyes was one not of boredom, as usual, or of playfulness, if this was some mean-spirited joke.

He was serious.

"...Of course."

Time went on and Todoroki had surely integrated into Aizawa and Hizashi's family. They both had a special caring nature to them underneath their hero personas. Hizashi, especially, loved to make dad jokes and check in and make sure Shouto was "doing okay" every few hours. Aizawa, on the other hand, was more reserved and handled less of the "emotions stuff," but was easily the most supportive person the teen boy knew.

It had been a month or so of living together when they sat him down on the couch, Aizawa's perky kitten deciding the best place to be a part of the conversation was Shouto's lap and cuddling into his warmth. Serious civilized conversations like this were new to him; normally when his father had to tell him something, he would barge into his room or just call him and yell at him, but he was adjusting. He knew his guardians would never hurt him on purpose, physically or mentally, and they truly wanted the best for him.

Shouto scratched the playful kitten behind its ears, averting his attention from the bundle of fluff to the two men on the couch opposite of him.

"Shouto, we received a call the other day..." Present Mic started, pulling at a strand of his blond hair, which Shouto had noticed long ago was a nervous habit of his.

Shouto eyed the two, who in turn eyed each other, the louder of the two using his eyes to push the burden of the news to his partner.

Shouto did not like where this was going.

"Basically... your brother, Natsuo, got a promotion in his job. He's making enough to support much more than one person and said he would be more than happy to take you in 'like he should have before,' his words, not ours. We were just wondering if you'd... prefer living with actual family?" Aizawa struggled to spit out each word, knowing he enjoyed playing the role of a supportive father. He had even been working to ease Shouto into more positive training habits and had been structuring a regimen to apply, should he choose to.

They're kicking you out.

They're tired of you.

Who wouldn't be?

They don't care, they never cared. How could you even begin to think someone actually wanted to care for you, you're broken beyond repair. You're shattered into a fine powder at this point. No one would care if you ju-

"Shouto! Hey, come on, breathe with me," Aizawa urged, wanting to help the young boy before him steady himself, but not daring to touch him and give him unwanted flashbacks. He had to be patient and wait for his breathing to settle first.

"We just wanted to see if it was something you would prefer, honey," Hizashi coaxed, his eyebrows creased more than usual in concern. "We would still adore having you here, and we're more than happy to continue being your parental guardians, we just wanted you to have the option to do what you felt was right, okay? We still love you."

They... love me.

Someone cares.

Shouto looked up at them, eyes wide, "I want to stay here."