Shouto's life has become a lot more exciting since he met the Midoriya's.
His daily routine was a balancing act between the joy the small family gave him and a deep fear his father brought and how the man could destroy everything.
Of course, there was also the worry about his mother.
Was she alright? How was she feeling? Would he see her again one day? Had he lost her forever? Did she hate him now? Did she still fear him?
It… hurt.
Of course, Izuku tried to take away his fears and sorrows and to distract him, but how long would it take until his father realized that his declaration was half a bluff and took his angel away anyway?!
He couldn't let it be just a threat then but would have to run away for real.
And if Endeavor then really hurt Mum…? Then… he really didn't know.
But Inko and Izuku were there for him now and Mum had burned him – even though she surely didn't mean to!
It was just confusing and made his head- and heart-ache.
"We're going to take off the bandage today." he was told by the doctor that took care of Izuku and him for two days now since their actual doctor was on vacation.
It was no question, no offer, it was an order and Shouto just silently stared at his bedsheet and wished for Izuku to be here.
When he was confronted with situations like this, his voice always got trapped in his throat and his body froze. It was as if he was dragged away for training by Enji again, without being able to fight it.
And if Izuku was here he would reprimand the doctor and tell him to leave him alone; but like this, he just trembled a bit as the man stood next to him and began to take off the bandages.
"A scar is left. It will fade over the years, but it will never be completely gone.
And your eye will be rather photosensitive now but shouldn't be like that too long. You won't be able to see much more than outlines with it, but otherwise, everything is perfectly healed.
When you feel you're ready to see yourself, just go into the bathroom and look in the mirror."
And then the man was gone again and just left him alone.
He nervously touched his face. The skin around his eye felt strange and he wasn't sure if he wanted to see it.
It was surely an unsightly look.
For a long time, he just sat on his bed and stared at his hands.
What would Izuku think of him, now that his eyes were visible?
Would he compare him to his father as well and conclude that he was too similar to him? And what about Inko?
He didn't want them to hate him as well!
The door handle was pressed down and he hid under his blanket so that his friend wouldn't have to deal with seeing his face.
"Shouchan? Shou, is everything alright?"
He shook his head and wrapped the blanket tighter around himself – he wanted the bandages back so that he could hide behind them.
Dad would tell him that he was a coward and that heroes can't be afraid, but he really didn't want to be a hero right now, he wanted to be a scaredy-cat.
"Okay… that's okay. You don't need to feel good, you can feel bad. …Was it your Dad?"
He hesitated shortly beneath his hideout, then he shrugged. It wasn't like Enji didn't indirectly contribute.
"So it's partly his fault… uhmm… was… was it a nightmare?"
A head-shaking was the answer.
"Good. That is nice, that you slept well. It isn't my fault, is it?"
He almost bolted out from under the blanket to get that absolutely silly idea out of his friend's head, because how could Izuku – Izuku! – have any fault for any pain of another person?!
Instead, he hissed a small, insulted "No!".
A small, relieved giggle was to be heard and he felt how the mattress sank on one side of the bed before the other boy groaned and the trough became deeper.
Apparently he sat next to him.
"Did they take off your bandages today?"
He froze.
How should Izuku know that? He couldn't know that.
"Shouchan, we're leaving the hospital in a week, it was only a question of time before your bandages would be taken off.
You can show me – it can't look worse than my arm."
That drove him out of his hiding spot.
With his mouth wide open his head shot up and he had just taken a breath to tell this idiot his opinion, when he realized the smile on the lips of the greenette.
The white blanket fell silently from his shoulders and gathered on the bed behind him, while he stared at the other boy with big eyes, who still looked at him with a smile.
"That… you said that on purpose." the hero's son stuttered aghast and managed to create a shameful look on the face of the smaller one.
"Maybe… but!",
a scarred hand with trembling fingers on a scarred arm reached for his face and he just sat there with a racing heart as Izuku's finger touched the scar and traces its outline,
"It isn't bad. You look really cool. I think it shows that you're strong."
And then the messy-haired boy smiled at him broadly and shining, with closed eyes and tilted head and something became so much warmer and something tingled in his stomach and please let him get sick so he can stay here longer.
Izuku's expression became worried.
"Is really everything okay, Shoucan? Your hair is burning."
He quickly patted his head and it was indeed on fire. He hurriedly turned it off and hid again under his blanket, ashamed.
And his angel just laughed next to him.
"May… may I see your hand again?" he asked quietly and the injured body part was placed on his lap again.
With cool fingers, he traced the jagged and glassy edges of the scar as well as the indentations of the stitches.
It looked painful.
His finger stayed on the molten scar-tissue which was much brighter than Izuku's actual skin.
"Does mine look the same?"
The greenette shook his head.
"No. It's red."
Red? Huh… he couldn't really picture that.
"Could you come with me? I think I wouldn't dare to do it alone."
The smaller boy nodded and jumped out of the bed.
Side by side, they toddled into the small bathroom and Izuku patiently held his hand and waited for him to dare and look in the mirror.
For a long time, he just scrutinized the stranger in front of him.
He knew that he saw himself, but it wasn't him!
That was someone else but not the person he saw himself as – so it had to be a stranger!
The hair of the boy was two-colored.
The one half red, the other white. They were smooth and reached a little under his chin and should actually be cut again.
Beneath his mismatched eyes were purple shadows that hinted at exhaustion and sleepless nights.
The eye of the white half was grey, like the winter-sky before a blizzard and the eye of the red half wasn't just blue, it was turquoise like a silent mountain lake and just as cold and just as… lifeless.
He did not like that eye, he decided, it was heartless.
The eye was surrounded by a big red taint of irritated and smelted skin, it was scarred and molten.
It covered about a quarter of the face.
It was disgusting.
Tears formed in the boy's eyes and Shouto felt a spear of pity pierce his heart and how it entangled with his flesh, stayed stuck inside him, and tore his heart apart with each of its beats.
This poor, poor boy.
Before he even realized it he was kneeling in front of the mirror with one hand pressed up against the disfigured face while the tears collected themselves in the other kid's eyes.
Such a poor boy.
Defaced by the people who should have given him love.
He hated, how weak that boy was!
His shoulders were shaken ruthlessly by toneless sobs as his fist formed itself against the cold glass.
He pressed his brow against the flawless material which separated him from this pitiful child and screwed his eyes shut when the tears poured over and something like acid collected in his throat to cut off his breath.
When he stared back into these eyes weak eyes, mirrors of a helpless soul, endless depths filled with hatred he couldn't take it anymore.
The scream was louder than the sound of his fist banging against the mirror.
He was just as loud as on the day when he received this scar.
Truly, what a weak and pathetic boy he was…
A weight draped itself over his side and held onto him, as he screamed, while his vocal cords ceased to work when his voice broke, even after the screaming turned into screeching and cawing and even then when all of the horror, all the pain, the sadness, and the fury roared out of his chest and were replaced by piteous sobs of regret and despair.
Izuku loyally remained at his side – stayed with him and listened to him when he realized that that thing he was kneeling in front of really was nothing but a mirror and no grotesque painting – just as he promised.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
"Good morning, Rei-san."
The white lady gave the other woman a weak and exhausted smile.
"Good morning, Inko-san. How are you?"
"I'm great. I visited our sons this morning – they slept on Izuku's bed this night – and Shouto still has the habit to use Izuku as a Teddy-replacement.",
reported the woman with an amused half-smile and watched pleased as something like love and adoration shimmered in Rei's eyes for a bit.
"And how are you today? Ready to draw?"
The woman stroked a stray lock behind her ear and nodded with soft eyes.
It was a disgrace that her family sold her to such a horrible man; that she had been treated this inhuman in the first place.
Far away and isolated from outer influences and especially from her monster of a husband she turned out to be a lovely, calm woman with a gentle soul, soft voice, and such a feathery touch as if she was fearing everything around her was made out of the thinnest porcelain.
It was the ultimate proof that she would never hurt Shouto if her psyche hadn't been so worn down.
They had to lock her into a safety-cell for the first three days because she tried to hurt herself as a punishment for causing her baby even more agony than he was already suffering.
Rei regretted from the depths of her heart what she had done to her little son and she soaked up the words from Inko's lips whenever she talked about their sons like they were the only water amid a desert.
The woman had been so terrified when she heard that her husband had gotten her a private nurse and even Inko's best efforts did nothing to gain the trust of the other mother.
But then Izuku told her one evening that she should try to talk about him and Hisashi, maybe even mention Shouto.
And that's what she did.
She remembered clearly how she was washing the other woman's hair because Rei's hands still were coffined in muffs so that she couldn't use her Quirk and her nails against herself, and how she opened her mouth for the first time in four days to say something different than Smalltalk or to declare a schedule.
"You know, I have a son, too. His name is Izuku and he's five. I actually wanted a sibling for him so that he didn't have to grow up alone but my husband went oversea before my little treasure turned two, since then he only calls for holidays and birthdays – I'm afraid he forgot us, or he at least positively suppressed any thought about us. But we do well on our own, and my little angel is so strong. A true hero, really. He always smiles for me even though all the kids hurt him for being quirkless."
– that seemed to catch Rei's attention –
"Right now he's in a hospital because one of the neighbor's kids broke his arm. It's sad how cruel some people are. And everybody says that this boy is going to be a great hero someday. I don't really see it, to tell the truth."
Rei started to murmur little questions after that, to ask about how Izuku was in whispers, short comments regarding some of the stories about the everyday life of Inko's little family were breathed.
And over the days her voice became louder. The sentences were longer and her reactions more expressive.
Now, almost a month later, Rei behaved like a grown-up human woman and not like a frightened little animal.
Inko and the doctors were hopeful, they guessed she'd be able to see her children again at the end of the year without suffering some kind of posttraumatic fit.
Of course the way until then would be hard and long and exhausting, but even with her delicate figure, her defiled body, and her broken mind, Rei always picked herself up, dusted off and straightened her clothes, pulled back her shoulders and lifted her chin like a Queen who has been robbed off crown and kingdom and who decided to get both back on her own since her army left her in times of need.
And she would be successful in the end, and may it just be for her iron will.
And the more time went by the more majestic was the way she presented herself, the more elegant became the way she walked, the taller she stood and one single derogatory glance or a scornful twitch of her lips was everything the white-haired woman needed as a weapon to make somebody shiver or force them to surrender.
Inko had just witnessed the other day how Rei stared an audacious visitor to the ground until the man was at her feet and begging for forgiveness; and if someone were to ask the grenette when Rei Todoroki stopped to simply be a patient in her eyes and instead caused butterflies to flutter in her stomach, then she probably would name exactly this day, and exactly that moment.
Almost a month after meeting each other she was totally infatuated with the other mother and even though she was hoping for it to be a mere crush, that it wouldn't be something serious, that it would go away with time, she also was very sure that this was not a case of youthful hormones kicking in very late, but that is was something more.
But she wouldn't act on her feelings. Not now.
Not while Rei's life was about to change and while her own was overshadowed by the uncertain threat of Enji Todoroki.
Later, maybe, should she still feel the same, and if Rei did not decide to return to her husband.
Until then, and even after that, she would be happy to be a good, if not her best friend.
Still, she will ask Izuku how he would feel about maybe having two mothers and maybe some more siblings when a fitting moment arrives.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
Enji was having a bad day.
It really was that simple.
Sometimes you just have those days where everything that can go wrong will go wrong and this day was one of those.
His alarm clock shut off during the night and he overslept! That never happened to him before!
Because of that, he didn't get his coffee and also had no chance to eat breakfast.
He arrived too late for a meeting.
And then had to fight against a few villains with some of the most ridiculous Quirks known to mankind.
What kind of genetic foundation did someone need to have to allow them to control everything that is considered trash of all things?! What went wrong in that regard?!
The guy with the goo-rain didn't make his day any better and then his path crossed with motherfucking All Might's, with his fake grin and that horrendous enthusiasm and his well-hidden method to look down on him and make fun of him, always thinking he was so much better than Enji!
And now it was early evening and he knew the fat bint still was with his lunatic wife so she won't be able to stop him from having a choice of words with Shouto and took up their training again which was long overdue.
High IQ or not, the brat in his son's room was still weak, with a broken and burnt arm and quirkless – so no real threat.
His feet felt stuck like they had been glued to the ground when he rounded the last corner before the hospital room only to see a fragile figure in blue shorts, yellow T-Shirt and red socks, the mop of green curls completed the chaotic color-palette.
That could not really be happening right now!
As soon as he stopped cold, calculating, green eyes looked at him and fixated him where he was for good.
"Hello, Endeavor-dono."
The hero gritted his teeth when he heard the mocking tone that was used for the honorific.
That damn brat was making fun of him!
"I suggest you turn around now and not return to this room today. It would be a pity if one of us came to harm because of such a trifle thing."
It was hard to not let his Quirk react and to just take a step forward with bared teeth, the kid didn't even bat an eyelid.
"And why do you think you could stop me from doing something or harm me in any way?"
The brat actually had the guts to smile at him!
"Why do you think that my mother was here every time that you arrived? And why is Shou keeping so close to me? He doesn't trust easily, he knows what secrets he has to hide. But you really aren't behaving subtly. Someday you are going to reveal yourself and then all my work would have been for nothing. But please, by all means, do continue to do so, Endeavor-dono, because then I do not have to take care of you anymore."
The kid pushed himself ways from the door it had been leaning against and looked right into his eyes.
Even though he was more than twice the size of the greenette he could just feel how the body was looking down on him.
Cold sweat pooled at the back of his neck and he could not stop himself from leaning away from the burning eyes.
He knew that feeling of blistering-cold claws that dug into someone's heart mercilessly just to show how easy it was to squash it.
It was the Aura that Nezu enveloped himself in.
His throat dried out and he tried to swallow.
The brat knew.
Probably had evidence.
Was lying in wait like a coiled snake, ready to snap its jaws shut.
"I want to be honest with you. Shouto means a lot to me. I want him to be happy. He is my only friend and he didn't deserve what was done to him.
Today was awful for him because his bandages were taken off without really asking for his permission.
You did not see or hear how he screamed once he dared to look in the mirror…",
At this point, Izuku got lost in his thoughts for a while.
Shouto's wailing was still ringing in his ears like a ruthless echo and he could not really imagine that he would ever be able to forget the sound.
Finally, he cleared his throat and looked back into the eyes of the man in front of him.
"It is your fault, so life with the consequences! And one of them is that you have to give Shouchan the space and peace so that he can recover from your actions.
If you want to know how he is, wait until tomorrow for the arrival of my mother. I already asked her to not come today."
Enji growled and pushed the brat out of the way to get to Shouto with a bit more force than it was ultimately necessary considering the boy's delicate frame.
He had to know how big the blemish his creation suffered really was, but before he even reached the doorknob there was a short pricking sensation in his upper thigh and his legs gave out as his arms ceased to work.
"You are going to wake up in ten minutes.", was the last thing that he heard, it was chirped by a childish voice before he was violently dragged into the depths of sleep.
So, yeah, today really wasn't Enji's day.