#i said this in an ask a while ago but i think shouto has extreme trouble with jealousy + possessiveness

[inkykeiji]

at this point no one is safe from the todoroki men lmao even shouto whose a lil bit 'nicer' is still a todoroki >.<

exactly, anon, exactly. shouto is the lesser of three evils LMAO. shouto will treat you the best out of the three, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll treat you well.

[bakugostiddies]

Please god do a villain!au with Todoroki 🧎‍♂️ I usually don't like those but omfg with him it would totally work

Absolutely. This turned into a 4k word fic, but I am too attracted to this man to be ashamed.

Icarus | Todoroki Shouto x Reader

Warnings: eventual smut, temperature play, impact play, kind of dub-con but not really, degradation, praise, villain!au, corruption kink, no gendered terms but reader has a vagina and breasts.

NSFW | 18+

You had fucked up.

The room was dark and dank, eerily quiet save for the sound of your breathing. You looked around frantically, struggling to break loose from the bonds that held you. Shit. Shit. Shit.

As your eyes adjusted, you noted that there was a door ahead of you, a steel one with two deadbolt locks. You could feel a metal chair beneath you, rattling each time you moved even slightly. Your arms and legs were restrained by some sort of extremely strong fabric, but your mouth was unrestricted. Shit. Shit. What was Endeavor going to say? You were still just his sidekick, but this was your first big operation and you blew it completely. He would kill you when you got back, you just knew it. Endeavor took his temper out on you even when you did well, which meant you had no clue what he would do to you after a fuckup this bad. Shit.

Calm down, Y/N, you told yourself mentally. You were safe and unharmed, so maybe they just wanted information. You attempted to activate your teleportation quirk, but it didn’t work. What happened? You could feel yourself beginning to hyperventilate. You didn’t want to die here, after being kidnapped by some asshole who wouldn’t even fight you face to face.

“If you’re wondering why you can’t use your quirk, we just took it away for a while.”

A voice emerged from the shadows of the room, soft and almost velvety. You flinched. You hadn’t even realized someone was here. How could you have missed something so obvious? You felt like a shitty fucking hero.

“Who are you?” You said after a moment.

“Im surprised you didn’t recognize me. Well, I suppose it is a bit dark in here.”

And suddenly with the flick of a match, the voice became a man and the shadows around the room came to life. You swallowed harshly, all of the moisture in your mouth gone. The man stalked towards you with a sureness of a predator and stopped a few feet away from where you were sat in the metal chair. You looked up at his two toned hair, his strong, rugged figure in the flickering light. He wore a suit not too different from that of a hero’s, but he was tinged with scorch marks and small icy spikes. He looked like he was made of fire.

“Well?” He said it softly, but there was a hint of malice in his tone. “Who am I?”

You couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe, your body almost paralyzed with fear. You knew who he was, of course you did. He was the one who helped blew up that building on the case you were on a month ago. He was the one who ambushed those (kind of sleazy) businessmen on their way to a cartel. He was the one who’s name was whispered in fear and awe on the nations’ streets. He was standing right in front of you, looking… bored?

The man sighed and fiddled with his match. “Hurry it up, hero, I don’t have all day.”

You spoke almost inaudibly. “You’re Icarus.”

He smiled slightly and a chill ran down your spine.

“See? That wasn’t too hard.”

He moved a bit closer to you and leaned down, his heterochromatic eyes almost level with your own. A single gloved hand moved to touch your chin with his thumb and index finger, moving your head from side to side with a feather-light touch. You hoped he couldn’t feel how scared you were, how your body seethed and rejected his very presence.

He finally released your face and you let out a sigh of relief. Icarus removed a single glove and touched his fingers gently to the match. It went out without smoke or a flicker, just a gentle hiss of frozen silence. The room was dark again, and he was moving, knocking on one of the walls.

“Turn on the lights, Red Riot.”

Your eyes widened. Red Riot? Wasn’t he the pro-hero who became a villain after Dynamight? Holy shit, was Dynamight here? Icarus interrupted your train of thought as the lights flickered on almost menacingly. You noted your surroundings carefully, seeing a bed in the corner, a small table, and another chair. The room looked less like a prison and more like a shitty motel suite.

“Do you know why you’re here?” He sat down in a chair across from you, leaning forward with his arms on his thighs and his legs spread slightly.

“I don’t know, Icarus.”

“Heres a hint; it has something to do with your boss.”

“Endeavor?”

You could feel bile rushing up your throat but you swallowed it down. The man before you clenched his jaw rigidly, as if it pained him to hear the name, but returned to normal so quickly you might have imagined it.

“You’re a bright one. Yes, hero, the very same. And do you have any idea on what he’s planning to do, say, sometime in the next six months?”

“I’m not telling you.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

His tone was harsher now and he got out of his chair, moving closer to you again. You felt so small under his scrutiny, yet drawn to him like a moth to a flame, like Icarus himself to the sun.

“You see, I’m the only reason you’re alive. And if you want to keep your pretty little head-“ he circled around behind you- “you will listen to what I say.” His voice was barely a whisper in your ear, and your voice hitched in your throat.

“Do you understand?” He asked, straightening up.

“Yes.”

“Yes, sir.”

This was so goddamn humiliating, like your first day working with Endeavor all over again. With him, it was always a yes, sir, no, sir, please don’t make me work weekends, sir. But you swallowed your pride again and spat it out.

“Yes… sir.”

“A hero that obeys commands, what a find,” he said tauntingly. “But you could stand to lose that attitude.”

You wanted to slap him, to beat him up to the point of him being bruised and bloody and broken and then have him call you sir instead. God, if only you could teleport out of these fucking restraints-

“You’re thinking about using your quirk, correct?” It was like the asshole could read your mind.

“You can’t. Aizawa Sensei took yours away. You know him as Eraser-head.”

Fuck, Eraser-head was here too? All of the biggest villains were gathered here together and you- you could do nothing.

“So I’ll ask you again. What are Endeavor’s plans?”

At that moment, you made yourself a promise; that you would not let Icarus win. Little did you know that you would break that promise a thousand times over.

———-

Two days later:

———-

“Did Endeavor tell you about the attacks?”

“No, sir.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Come on now, you can tell me. I won’t hurt you.”

“...”

“Still no response? No matter, I have time to get it out of you.”

———-

Seven days later:

———-

“Still not talking, hero?

Look at that, the silent treatment.

I never thought an adult could be so petty. Just tell me where I can get more information.

Nothing?

Okay. Eat your soup, I can’t have you dying on me before you start talking.

And hero? You will have to open your mouth sooner or later.”

————

16 days later:

————

“Cut the bullshit, hero. We know he has plans for a big attack sometime during the next six months, so either Deku is wrong, or you are lying to my face. And Deku’s never wrong.”

“Well, I guess he’s wrong this time.”

“Then I guess we’ll return you since this has all just been one big mishap.”

“Really?”

“No. You aren’t the smartest, are you?”

“Maybe my brain will somehow recall something about this totally real attack you think is happening if you give me better food?”

“Don't be a brat, hero. I wouldn’t have gone through all this trouble if I had known you would be so inconvenient.”

“Whatever you say, sir.”

————

20 days later:

————

“Thanks for the bread, sir. It's quite an upgrade for a kidnapped person’s shitty meal.”

“You have low standards, hero.”

“Hey, why do you call me that?”

“What, hero?”

“Yeah. I have a name, you know. It's-“

“I know what your name is.”

“Okay, Jeez. If you knew it, then why not use it? Plus, I’m not even a hero yet. I’m still technically just a shitty sidekick who’s totally blown it on my first solo mission. I’m never going to be a pro at this rate, I might as well just give up.”

“I think you’re good.”

“What?”

“I said, you’re powerful and good at using your quirk. You have a lot of assets and it’s a shame your talent is wasted on Endeavor and the fools at the pro-hero agencies. It was difficult to actually catch you off guard, to get past your guards, to make sure your quirk was out of commission. And we are very strong.”

“Oh. Um, thanks, I guess?”

“Don’t thank me, hero. I’m just stating the obvious.”

————

25 days later:

————

“Why is your name Icarus?”

“It's not my real name.”

“Well no shit, dude. I'm asking why you chose it.”

“Icarus was a boy who followed his father’s instructions perfectly, but the moment he strayed from the path set out for him, he was punished, scalded by the flames of the sun, and cast away. But I think it was worth it for him in the end.”

“Why?”

“Because he was free. Because Icarus flew, and he was able to be his own person, even if it was just for a moment.”

“Do you feel like Icarus?”

“Most of the time I do, yes.”

“Sir?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you think that right now, you’re flying or cast away?”

“At this very moment, I think I am flying.”

“You know what? I think so too.”

————

29 days later:

————

“So what’s your real name, sir?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Why?”

“Classified. Also, I don’t need you to know my name.”

“But you know mine!”

“That's because you’re a prisoner, in case you’ve forgotten. You are almost unnervingly at ease here.”

“I’ve met three people so far and you have all given me no reason to fear.”

“Really? Not even Dynamight?”

“His hair makes me laugh. Plus, I can’t take airheads with overinflated egos seriously.”

“I agree with that assessment wholeheartedly.”

“You agree with my assessment- Sir, you sound like an old man.”

“I’m only three years older than you, you know.”

“Really? But you have all of these wrinkles?”

“I do not have wrinkles.”

“Fine, frown lines then.”

“That makes it sound like I don’t smile.”

“Well, you don’t!”

“It’s hard to find things to smile about.”

“God, you’re such an Edgelord.”

“What do you mean by that? hero, stop laughing.”

“You are definitely an old man.”

————

30 days later:

————

There had been a new development a couple of days ago in the kidnapping situation. You could feel your quirk again, which meant a lot of things. It meant you weren’t here against your will anymore, that you were free to go. Yet you remained. You still stayed in the same room with Icarus checking in on you in the afternoons. However, it had been given furniture- a desk and more comfortable chairs, a small rug on the floor, and thicker blankets. It was almost like you weren’t even a prisoner anymore. You could always leave, you reasoned. You could teleport out of here. Your quirk was back, and yet you stayed.

The other villains had taken a liking to you for reasons beyond your comprehension, but all it meant was that you were never short on company. Dynamight would burst in to complain about how Deku always got the best missions, Red Riot would bring in a deck of cards and the two of you would play go fish or bluff, even Deku would occasionally check up on you and make sure you were comfortable. But your afternoons? They were always set aside for your favorite visitor- Icarus.

...

“You haven’t answered my question about your name yet.”

You were sitting on the cot in your almost room, feet dangling off the edge and swinging back and forth. Icarus was sitting on his chair again, but lazily, with his arms locked behind his head and his legs precariously balanced against the edge of the bed.

“You haven’t answered any of my questions since you got here, so I don’t believe you have a right to complain.”

He was right, of course. He always was. But technically, he was equally at fault in this case. He was the one who sucked at interrogation, so much so that you took pity on his colleagues. They would have to deal with his lack of results.

You weren’t complaining, however. You enjoyed talking to him, looking at him, being in his presence. It was a stupid crush to have, but you didn’t care. He was beautiful to look at, the way his biceps curled behind his head, the lean toughness of his body, the sheer strength he possessed. Your eyes trailed down his sprawling figure, tracing each indent and dip and curve of his skin in your mind.

“Are you finished staring at me?” His words jerked you out of your stupor and you felt heat rushing to your cheeks.

“I-I wasn’t- I didn’t-“ you babbled until he stopped you.

“Don’t worry, it’s only natural to find me… appealing. You haven’t spent time with anyone else for a very long time.”

You almost screamed on the spot, burying your face in your hands. You peeked out between your splayed fingers to look at him, seemingly unbothered save for the slight pink tinge hidden beneath his bangs.

“How can you say things like that, sir?”

“Like what?”

“Uhm, never mind.”

You wanted the ground to swallow you up whole. He was so, so dense, it was a wonder he even noticed you basically eye-fucking him. You felt the cot creak beside you and a slight dip in the weight. Icarus had seated himself beside you on the small bed and was looking at you with eyes full of concern.

“I did not mean to shame you for your gaze, hero.”

He said it gently and kindly. It would be almost romantic if not for the situation you were in. You remained silent, so he continued.

“I believe it is normal for you to feel this way towards someone who has been in such close quarters with you for so long a time. You should be glad that you still have these urges.”

You suppressed a groan. This felt like having the sex talk with your parents all over again. “Sir-“

“-in fact, everyone feels them!”

He was rambling, oh god you needed him to shut up-

“I feel them for you all the time, and I’m completely normal.”

And suddenly, the air changed between you into something charged and heated.

“You… have urges around me?” You wanted to hear him say it again, just once, but he turned away from you, tensing up and rising from his seat awkwardly. His face was stony and his hair covered his eyes like bicolored curtains. There suddenly was space between the two of you, some insurmountable gap that could not be bridged.

“I apologize deeply. I have misspoken.”

“Sir, wait, you don’t have to leave!” You cried out as he made his way to the door.

“But I do. You don’t deserve this treatment, and it is cruel of me to hurt you in this manner.”

And that was when something broke within you, something that had been holding you together this whole time.

“No.”

He turned around, almost scared by the anger in your voice.

“This is when you decide to stop? You have literally kidnapped me, interrogated me, left me in all but isolation, for a fucking month. You took me from everything that I wanted and everyone that I love and yet, and YET, I wanted you. Goddamn it, I still want you. I don’t understand why. So don’t apologize to me for misleading me or whatever bullshit excuse you’ve decided to use as a sheild. Apologize for everything you have done to me, you fucking cunt.”

And then your voice broke and you could feel the tears rushing to your eyes, your vision turning glassy as your chest heaved with sobs. You could feel yourself slipping away, your breaths growing shallow and your body shaking. Why did you stay here? Why didn’t you leave when you could? What was the point, if Icarus didn’t even want you?

And then, suddenly, you felt warm.

Icarus, sir, whoever the fuck he was, was holding you tightly in his arms, head dipped down into the crook of your neck, his arms enveloping you in his warmth. He was your sun. And he could scorch you again and again but you would still be drawn to him.

Your panic died down and you wept for the first time since you arrived. The two of you sank down to the floor, his apologies muttered swiftly and quietly against your skin. You were in his lap now, your body curled up into a ball in his embrace, one of his palms cupping your face. He turned you slightly towards him.

His eyes were wet too, but only slightly, and his fingers were thumbing at the tears on your cheeks. One of them got close to the corner of your mouth and slowly but surely, with almost childlike fascination, he pushed the tip of it in. Your tongue ran along the edges of it, the salty taste leaving you wanting more.

And slowly, Icarus leaned forward, his lovely face the closest you had ever been to him. He removed his finger from your mouth and kissed you instead, gently, and then all at once.

It was a furious kiss, on that burned and heated a cold room. You could feel teeth and tongue and hot tears, a clashing finale of a kiss. It was against your lips that he murmured his name.

“My name is Todoroki Shouto.”

He said it softly, leaving your lips to place open-mouthed kisses on your neck that left you moaning and had wetness pooling between your legs. But suddenly, your eyes snapped open.

“Todoroki? As in-“

He kissed you again to silence as you felt the questions racing through your head. Endeavor was Todoroki Enji, right? But he had never mentioned having kids to you? Was Shouto lying to you? Why did he want to destroy his father? And how were you-

“Shh.” Shouto tapped his forehead to yours. “Let me take care of you.”

Fuck it. The questions could wait.

Shouto reached down to pull off your shirt and groaned at the sight of you. He looked at you in wonder.

“You- hero, you make me feel like I’m on fire.” He said it with such sincerity that you nearly cried again were it not for his palming of your breasts, his burning fingertips tweaking your nipples and making you whimper slightly.

“I am so sorry. I’m sorry for everything I put you through-“ you were placed on the bed- “I’m sorry for taking you away-“ He was kneeling, fucking kneeling, between your legs- “but most of all-“ fuck, he placed hot kisses on your stomach as he pulled your pants down-

“I’m sorry I didn’t have the courage to do this sooner.”

And with that, his tongue was lapping at you through your panties, new ones that the villains had provided for you, with reckless abandon. Your hands tugged at his hair and you heard his hum of a chuckle as a vibration on your pussy. There was pressure, so much pressure from him against you, like nothing you had felt before, and when he finally pushed your panties aside, they were soaking wet.

Shouto looked up at you for a moment, meeting your gaze with his own, eyes sparkling with desire. And then, without a word, He pressed a small kiss to your clit that had you jolt slightly before he dove in. He had you moaning within seconds, his tongue lapping at your folds before swirling around your clit. You felt yourself reaching a climax- it was too good and too fast and too much and- Shouto pushed a finger inside you and crooked it slightly and you began humping your hips upwards as he nursed at your clit. Your climax was swift and powerful, but he didn’t move throughout it. Even as you came down from your high, his mouth planted on you and his finger gently pumped in and out. Shouto added one more easily, and you swore you saw stars when he began thrusting. He fucked you with his fingers, marveling at your reactions, the sounds you made, your pussy pulling him in.

“Fuck, hero, you’re so wet. Is this all for me? Have you gotten off to me fucking you like this in this bed?”

You moaned loudly and Shouto removed his fingers, leaving you feeling empty. There was a dark look in his eyes that you remembered from the first day you arrived.

“Answer me, hero.”

You nodded your head slightly, but that wasn’t enough for him. He rose to his feet and without warning, he smacked your clit. You squealed loudly from the stimulation, the pain turning into pleasure quickly. His palm was cold as ice, and you squirmed dumbly against his touch.

“Answer the question.”

“Yes, yes, sir, I’ve thought about you fucking me everywhere in this room-“

Shouto’s palm reverted back to his normal temperature and you sighed with relief as he cupped your pussy and rubbed it gently.

“What a good, slutty, hero. Have you touched yourself when you think about me?”

You blushed slightly and hid your face behind your hands. God, this was embarrassing. Of course you had gotten off to the thought of him, but to say it out loud was a different feeling altogether.

You took too long and Shouto spanked your clit again. You let out a shriek and tried to wriggle away from him, but he just pulled you closer.

“I want to see your face, doll.” You whimpered at the new pet name. “Now, have you touched yourself when you think about me?”

“Y-yes sir-”

“Y-yes s-sir-‘ so shy for someone who wants a villain to fuck your hero pussy into behaving.” he palmed himself over his trousers, letting out a little huff of pleasure. “I want to, shit, want to fucking ruin you.”

Shouto pulled you to him as your hips thrust desperately against the air.

“Yes sir! Want you to fuck me, want you inside me-“

He groaned and humped into you, the metal of his belt buckle catching against your clit and making you flinch with overstimulation. Shouto noticed and pulled you closer as he stood at the side of the bed, your back flat against the mattress and your hips arched upwards to meet his bulge. He rutted into you again, forcing your pussy to kiss the metal of the buckle once more. You felt your body seizing up, your orgasm building inside you, and Shouto, with a sadistic gleam in his eyes, pressed his buckle harder against you.

The longer it stayed there, the more it heated up, almost more pain than pleasure, until Shouto wrapped your legs around his waist and thrust against you. There was a wet patch on his pants and you kept shrinking away from the burning hot metal that teased at your clit.

“You have no idea what you do to me, fucking hell-” He managed to spit out, “I’m not even inside you and you’re dripping all over me like a bitch in heat-”

He continued to hump you roughly, each time more forceful than the last until you came loudly as Shouto pushed your body into the belt buckle. “No more, Shouto, please, no more- its too much-”

“Too much for you already, hero? I haven’t even come yet. And you- how many times have you reached your climax today?”

You almost screamed with frustration- how were you supposed to know, you didn't fucking keep track-

“I can tell you, brat.” He grabbed your waist and flipped you easily onto your stomach. You were completely exposed to him now, unable to see his face, out of control entirely.

“You have come three fucking times. That doesn’t feel very fair to me, does it? Do you want my cum inside you?”

You buried your face into your pillow, and he pushed down slightly on your lower back, creating an arch. You startled when he teased his cockhead against the surface of your pussy, wetness coating his dick.

“Shouto, I want your cum-”

His palm came down hard on your asscheek, forcing a gasp out of you as he rubbed it softly with his palms. He leaned closer towards you, his voice whispering in your ear.

“Then beg.”

And, with your voice muffled by the pillow, you followed his orders.

“Sir, fuck me, please, please- I need you inside me, I need you to cum for me, please- Shouto, Daddy-“

Your begging got cut off by him thrusting into you. You screamed and he shushed you gently, holding your hand with his own. “Do you think you can take the rest of it?”

The rest of it? There was more? You looked over your shoulder and nearly passed out. You had barely taken half of his length and you were already completely filled up. But… you wanted to feel him, all of him, so you muttered a soft “yes.”

“Okay, baby, take it easy…” he eased a couple more inches into you before you tightened up, your pussy clenching and back arching as he slid in. “Oh fuck,” Shouto groaned. “Do that one more time and I won’t be able to hold back.”

And of course, you grinned. And proceeded to clench yourself around his length again.

Shouto nearly growled. “I warned you, hero.”

And then, he thrust into you. Hard. And he kept going, pumping in and out of your body like a machine, his thumb rubbing against your clit and his other hand on your leg. You are screaming and crying and babbling on about how good his cock is, how good you felt, how this is what you wanted. And Shouto? The cocky bastard was gloating.

“Look at you, such a good slut on my cock. Are you crying? God, thats so fucking hot. I’ve got a cute little hero crying on my dick. I know you can use your quirk now, Hero, I know Aizawa sensei returned it to you. Did you stay because you wanted me to fuck you like this? Did you want to be corrupted?”

“Yes,” you’re almost incoherent, “yes, ruin me, make me a villain, I wanna be a villain!”

Shouto slows his pace for a moment. “You would leave Endeavor? Leave the agency?”

“Yes, I would, Shouto, fuck, anything for you-”

He slapped the inside of your thigh before resuming his pace again. You had never felt so full before, his dick reaching places within you that you didn’t even know existed. His palms gripped the sides of your hips so tightly you thought you might bruise, tiny burn marks already forming in the place of his fingertips. You were close, so close, your tears and drool spilling over your pillow and your body limp and helpless before him. Shouto felt you clenching around him, completely spent.

“Do you want to cum again? What a greedy pussy you have, hero, a needy little cumdump.”

You couldnt get words out, croaking out your mumbled yeses and nodding your head vigorously. He pounded even harder into you and reached around your thighs to your clit, rubbing it in tiny circles as he fucked you. You could feel your climax building for the fourth time and you twitched pathetically beneath him. Finally, Shouto pinched your clit slightly and you came with a wail of his name.

He fucked you through your orgasm, but he was slower now, his strokes hitting you deeper than before.

“Do, fuck- do you want me to cum in your pretty pussy?”

Shouto was hunched over you, his head resting on your back and his arms caging you in so that he was all that surrounded you. His breath came out in cold pants and his thrusts got more and more erratic as he neared his own climax.

“Please, I need you to want this, I need you- shit, I...” You could hear the desperation in his voice, how he yearned for you, and you the words fell out of your mouth before you could stop them.

“Yes, Daddy! Want you to come inside, fucking breed me-”

“Oh fuck, Y/n-”

And then Shouto came with a groan, his cum splattering your insides with warmth. He pressed kisses to your spine, trailing his fingers down your arms as he turned you to the side. He didn’t pull out of you as he did so, causing you to groan slightly. Finally, he released you and gently removed his dick from where you were connected. Some of his cum oozed out and he pushed it back in with his fingers, trapping his seed within you forever.

The pair of you laid together side by side for a moment, Shouto’s fingers tracing your body with slow, lingering touches as if he was afraid you would shatter the moment he pressed too hard.

You were the one who broke the silence. “ You said my real name.”

“I did. I love your name, Y/n. It just felt... wrong to say it when you were my prisoner. It was easier to distance myself from you if I just thought of you as a random hero. But you’re more than that now.”

You stared straight into his eyes, your hands reaching up to run gently through his silky hair. “I’m not leaving, Shouto. I’m never leaving this place. And I’m not just staying for you- I like it here. The villains like me, and they respect me. You aren’t bad people- if anything, the rest of the world has been far worse than anything or anyone I’ve faced here. It feels like I’m finally home.”

Shouto gathered you into his arms and pressed you tightly to his side. “You will be mine now,” he said almost matter-of-factly.

“And you will be mine as well.” You planted a small kiss to his nose that made his eyelids flutter and a slight blush crawl onto his cheeks.

“You deserve the world, Y/n,” he said hesitantly. “And I am not even close to being good enough for you.”

Shouto’s eyes were downcast and you could see the doubt creeping in. You gently pressed your fingers to his furrowed brows and soothed the wrinkles away. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” He asked.

“Put yourself down. You are more than enough for me. And Shouto? I don’t need the world. I already reached my sun.”

He smiled at you then, with no underlying malice, no undertone of darkness. It was blinding. Goddamn it, you would do anything to see that smile for the rest of your life.

“That was terribly cheesy, Y/n.”

“Shut up, Shouto.”

He kissed you, and you could feel the butterflies in your stomach fluttering up a storm. Todoroki Shouto was your sun, and you were his. And even if you both melted away under your flames, it would have been worth the loss.

-Bonus-

2 weeks later:

“So, uhm, Y/n, Todoroki, we were reviewing the footage from Y/n’s old room the other day. While we’re all happy you two are *ahem* together now, maybe you can display your... appreciation for one another in a more private place?” Kirishima was blushing profusely and refused to meet your eyes. Suddenly, it clicked for you.

“WE WERE BEING RECORDED?”

“And?”

“SHOUTO!”

“Ah yes, how horrible and violating, I feel as though I have been exposed indecently without my permission for the perverted public to see. They will be unable to contain themselves when faced with my immeasurably sexy figure.”

“You are NOT being helpful.”

“I beg to differ, Y/n. Kirishima, is there any way you can send me a copy of the tape-”

-----------

A/N: I hope you like this and please let me know if I should do a villain!UA series because I only write under the influence of peer pressure. 

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 325: Deku VS the Outside of U.A. ~Conclusion~

Previously on BnHA: Ochako was all “dear bloodthirsty mob, this kid you see standing before you has fought harder than anyone and put his life on the line to protect you all, so please chill the fuck out, jesus christ. like, putting aside that he’s humanity’s best hope and so it’s very much in your best interests to let him rest and recover someplace safe so that he can keep fighting for us, are y���all seriously going to turn away an injured and exhausted child in front of his sobbing mother?? seriously?? come on now.” I’m paraphrasing here but that’s basically how it went down. Anyway so then the mob was all, “...” and Deku collapsed to his knees in tears, and Gigantic Fox Lady and Kouta ran over to give him a hug but then the chapter ended.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “FINE, YOU CAN HUG HIM”, which, was that so hard?? The U.A. Clown Mob is all “come to think of it, we’ve kind of been taking the heroes for granted this entire time, maybe we should be less passive in the future. anyway so Deku if it’s not too much to ask, can you please save everyone and fix everything.” Deku is all “I sure can, and by the way I forgive you for swarming around all menacingly two minutes ago and trying to deny me basic shelter and stuff.” Ectoplasm is all, “hey Todogang get a load of this. [walks in a circle].” Hawks is all, “that’s literally the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.” Rat Principal is all, “anyway so that’s what your students did today, hope you’re enjoying your new *~*ROBOT LEG*~*, Aizawa.” Aizawa is all “[lots of exposition about Kurogiri and for some reason, Toga, while being all brooding and sexy].” All Might is all “[standing here right outside of U.A. doing absolutely nothing and being foreboding AF]” and that immediately sucked away all of the warm fuzzy feelings from the hugs, goddammit.

each new week has become a waiting game of “when will Deku finally get to take a bath so people will actually be willing to go near him and give him the hugs he deserves.” the stakes have never been so compelling. I’ve almost forgotten about AFO entirely

lmaoooooo

me: for the love of god will someone please give Deku a hug before I die of old age

Mineta: YOU GOT IT!! --

Iida: [SWIFTLY CUTS HIM OFF] NOT YOU

fucking losing it at Mineta’s crying face. he really wanted to hug him. I legit feel bad but this is also the funniest thing I have seen all week, omg

somehow Kouta, who last week was only a hand’s breadth away from touching Deku’s head, is now twenty miles away from him in this new chapter

can I make a Loki reference here. is this recap a good place to insert a joke about someone using a TVA time-rewinding device to fuck with my poor boy Kouta over here. well anyway there it is

AND NOW HE’S BACK ALL OF A SUDDEN OMG

(ETA: since when is he “niichan” omg?? can’t handle this cuteness.)

BUT THEY’RE STILL NOT HUGGING HIM FFFFKFFFFF. WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO. WHO DO I HAVE TO BRIBE AND/OR BLACKMAIL

OH NO KOUTA IS CRYING THAT’S IT I’M DONE FOR

“when I heard that lady I knew that I had to go, but then stop again within inches of actually touching you because you smell like week-old rotten onions.” listen Kouta, I’m not saying I don’t get it, but you all can’t keep doing this to me. it’s the way you guys keep teasing it. like, if you’re gonna hug him, hug him. don’t just stand there with your arms held rigidly out in front of you like a molded action figure

OH MY GOSH BUT HE SAID THE THING

KOUTA SWOOPING IN AT THE LAST MINUTE TO TAKE ALL THE CREDIT FOR FIXING DEKU LIKE THAT ONE KID IN THE GROUP PROJECT WHO DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT STILL TAGS HIS NAME ONTO THE REPORT ANYWAY, WHAT A KNAVE

GASP

(  ´͈ ᗨ `͈ )

SHE PICKED HIM UP LIKE A LITTLE BABY OMG?? she just leaned right over and lifted this child like he was a small animal. like a lil baby futon that she was about to hang up to dry. oh my god

-- HEY WHAT

(: well that’s extremely fucked up. though sadly not too surprising given what we just saw these past couple chapters

incidentally, I hope that anyone who was legitimately defending the civilians’ perspective earlier takes note here of how quickly that line of thinking -- “we’re just trying to keep our families safe” and all that-- can lead to straight up bigotry. if you’re willing to deny a child shelter and protection simply because he’s not YOUR child, and because you’ve decided based on Internet rumors (no real-world parallels there, I’m sure) that he might present a threat, it’s really not that much further of a leap to discriminating against entire groups of people simply because you perceive those groups as being dangerous. I’m sure the people who turned Gigantic Fox Lady away also told themselves afterwards that they did it to protect their families. “better safe than sorry.” “she’ll be fine, someone will take her in, but as for us, we can’t afford to take that risk.” people can come up with all kinds of justifications for treating other people as less than human, and the really scary thing about it is how fucking easy it is

one last quick side note, which is that Horikoshi does a great job here of showing how scapegoating works, given that AFO is the one who’s really to blame and who presents the actual threat, and yet Deku is the one who ultimately winds up being the target of the mob’s fear and outrage despite him being as much of a victim as they are. gotta love that irony, which unfortunately plays out far too often in the real world as well.

anyway I’ll get off my soapbox now, sorry about that. let us continue

YES, FINALLY OH MY GOD!!!!

AND THAT’S THE STORY OF HOW GIGANTIC FOX LADY BECAME THE GREATEST HERO. PACK IT ALL UP, WE’RE DONE HERE KIDS

holy shit. the real MVP right there. thanks for getting it done champ

jesus christ I have had it up to here with these people

literally the bar is set so low at this point that I’ll go ahead and take it. helping him because it offers them a tactical advantage is at least one step up from not helping him at all

“WHY NOT SHIKETSU” MOTHERFUCKER I SWEAR TO GOD

-- thank you!!

okay this one guy with the antennae hair is having himself a character development speedrun here

-- okay, but this part?? fucking this part, right here??

can we repeat that again?? the part where this guy acknowledges that the problems of hero society were caused not just by said heroes, but also by said society?? the part where he acknowledges that they treated the heroes like celebrities who were putting on a show for them?? the part where he acknowledges that when push came to shove, the vast majority of those heroes, when faced with a situation that offered no reward, were nonetheless willing to put their lives on the line to protect the very same people who then turned around and blamed them rather than thanking them?? are the civilians of BnHA even allowed to have actual deep thoughts about this stuff. holy shit

bro!!

ANTENNAE HAIR GUY SHOVING KOUTA AND GIGANTIC FOX LADY OUT OF THE WAY TO SLAP HIS NAME ONTO THE END CREDITS AS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER. CONGRATULATIONS SON YOU FIGURED OUT THE CORE PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION AT THE VERY HEART OF THE MANGA. WAY TO GO BUD

meanwhile, on today’s episode of “one more chapter to go till the big volume cliffhanger, how else can I drag things out let’s see”

it’s a panel. of people’s feet. just a bunch of normal feet. with sneakers and shit

this All Might shirt guy is getting more screentime in this arc than 90% of the class 1-A kids

I guess I’m supposed to feel sorry for this dude now that he’s all “if we let you stay here do you promise to somehow magically fix every single problem that we are now currently facing?” those are some ridiculously exacting standards my dude. come on now

KACCHAN SIGHTING

thank fuck I’m not the only one who’s thoroughly unimpressed by absolutely all of this lol. I feel better now. meanwhile Iida and Kouda and Kiri are ready to run over there and hug them all. you guys are way too forgiving. damn you and your pure hearts

anyway so Deku’s like “yeah, definitely”

(ETA: almost forgot to comment on the “I’m no longer alone” part – he basically corrects the guy and says “sorry, but you’ll need to direct that question towards all of us, not just me, because moving forward we’re a team.” good stuff.)

you know what though, all joking aside... fuck yeah. because perfect victory, right. the strongest guys don’t settle for anything less. so I guess Deku has pretty exacting standards himself

also can you all just take a look at this fucking kid who’s got so much light in his eyes now that I’m gonna need eclipse goggles. hot damn. “you’re welcome” says All Might Shirt Guy as he is frantically interviewed by several local news networks asking him how he daringly managed to save Deku all by himself. “well I guess I’ve just never been the kind of guy who can sit back and let a bunch of rabble-rousers blame a little kid for all of humanity’s problems. someone had to step in and take action, you know?”

oH MY GOD THE SCENE IS FINALLY ENDING

don’t let the door hit you on your way out All Might Shirt Guy

but meanwhile, sudden Tododrama action??

oh shit

there are honestly so many ways in which Ochako’s very moving speech could have wildly backfired that I genuinely have no clue where this is headed lol. how exciting!!

so now Horikoshi is once again stalling for time with random filler panels, but this one is 10x better than the shoes lol omg

(1) was Ectoplasm’s jacket always this oversized. (2) did you guys know that if you go back to chapter 319 you can see that Horikoshi gave us a sneak peak at Enji’s Sad Detective disguise and I in fact made a joke about it in the 319 recap not realizing it was actually the stone cold truth. (3) did Shouto deliberately speed up out of impatience because Hawks was walking so fucking slow and he couldn’t take it any longer. (4) and what, I ask you, is up with these dramatic speedlines. so many mysteries here. what a masterpiece

everyone is acting all shocked about something ahh what’s going on

wait what

what the heck. did they just loop around behind everyone. what was the point of that lol. “anyway, so this is what they look like from the back” well okay, thanks for that Ectoplasm

(ETA: so it seems like they were actually hanging out someplace else away from the crowd this whole time, I guess? here I thought they had more faith in Enji’s disguise. I guess Shouto and Hawks don’t particularly want to attract this crowd’s attention themselves right now either, though.)

I am so fucking confused lmao

speaking of All Might WHERE THE FUCK IS HE lol. but yes, good, OFA brings everyone together, and Hawks is very deeply moved about this out of the blue all of a sudden. you know how it is

aw heck yeah now this is another filler panel I can get behind

Mineta really wants that hug, good lord. I genuinely love this actually. Mineta if you could just stay little and cute and keep crying about how much you love your classmates in a non-gross way for the rest of the series I would be so appreciative. you’re doing great

IIDA IS HOLDING DEKU’S HAND THIS IS NOT A DRILL. ONE TIME WASN’T ENOUGH FOR MY MAN HE’S ADDICTED NOW

what did I tell you. Kiri wants to get all of the mob’s autographs now. Kiri you’re a peach

Shouji having a conversation with another mutant type is a very nice touch! we really need to get to his backstory soon. I feel like that casual remark from GFL earlier was kind of hinting at more to come

is this the first time we’ve ever seen the Yaoyorictionary in action?? never forget that Viz tried to call it the “Yaoyorozu Reference Book” because they hate fun

last but not least, KAMIBAKU IS BACK ON THE MENU, FUCK YEAH. Kaminari trying to spice things up and introduce a little bit of controversy by smacking Kacchan on the back of the head for god knows what. I will be deeply disappointed after this if I can’t find at least one person unironically declaring that KamiBaku is now toxic and abusive

lfkdlWLWK TODODRAMA??

oh my god. Shouto’s face. Enji’s face. the back to “oyaji” again. the blunt, not-taking-no-for-an-answer, “I don’t know how much louder the universe can scream at you that doing things alone is not it, so hopefully you got the point” directness of it. fffdlkslj I’m so ready for this Horikoshi please don’t fuck it up my expectations are so high

HOLY FUCK

I SCROLLED DOWN AND HE WAS ALL “( ❛‿❛)” AND I JUST WASN’T FUCKING EXPECTING THAT OKAY. JESUS CHRIST. GIVE ME A SEC

lol okay moment over and now Enji’s pulling his hat down all dramatically like a world-weary Cowboy

OH MY GOD WERE YOU FACETIMING??

AHHHHHHHHH

(ETA: not to put Iida down or anything, but it’s kind of strange that Aizawa is all “the class rep sure did great” when Ochako is the one that was giving that whole big speech for like twenty minutes just now lol.)

(ETA 2: “thank god Iida stepped in just in the nick of time to keep Mineta from hugging Deku.” sorry Mineta I really do like you lately but it’s still low-hanging fruit lol.)

HE LOOKS SO SAD??! HE LOOKS LIKE HEARTBREAK ITSELF??! I AM BESOUGHT WITH THE URGE TO REACH INTO MY SCREEN AND PULL HIM INTO THE SAFETY OF MY ARMS??? MY GOD, AND I THOUGHT DEKU NEEDED HUGS

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH okay I was gonna just hold down the letter H for a full minute and count it out loud but within about ten seconds I realized I needed to chill lol

-- but then again NO, I DON’T NEED TO CHILL, I HAVE ZERO CHILL, ACTUALLY, BECAUSE IT’S AIZAWA WITH A ROBOT LEG AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

COMPLETE WITH ROBOT TOES FOR THAT EXTRA TOUCH OF AUTHENTICITY!! I LIKE HOW HORIKOSHI PUT ALL THIS EXTRA “!!!” EMPHASIS AROUND IT IN CASE WE COULD SOMEHOW POSSIBLY FAIL TO TAKE NOTICE. “REMEMBER, EVERYONE?” SAYS HORIKOSHI HELPFULLY. “REMEMBER THAT TIME AIZAWA CHOPPED OFF HIS OWN LEG?” oh wow now that you mention it we somehow forgot all about that. like who do you take us for

OH NO NOT THE SAD BOYFRIEND ANGST THAT I WAS SECRETLY LOOKING FORWARD TO WITH GLEE

well at least he’s not M.I.A. or back with the villains again like I thought he might be. still, that’s gotta be brutal to know your friend is in there somewhere, but to not be able to reach him again no matter how hard you try. that’s the kind of angst that pays off in final battles just when you most expect it. such is my hope, at any rate

what’s this now??

trying to decide if this is Horikoshi’s way of saying don’t worry about that, or his way of saying definitely worry about that lol

anyway so Aizawa is out here being all irresponsibly handsome once again. when is someone going to do something about him

here for Sexy Robot Leg Eyepatch Aizawa clenching his fists and making speeches about revenge. pretty sure we’re all here for that

WELL, WELL, WELL

IT’S ABOUT FUCKING TIME

I’M VERY GLAD YOU’RE ALIVE AND SEEMINGLY WELL, THOUGH!

BUT WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK THOUGH, ALL MIGHT

ffff. bracing myself for that cliffhanger next week. you’d better not touch one hair on this man’s head Horikoshi. I’m watching you 

[stillness-in-green]

Chapter 361, Abnormal Happenings

Did this chapter feel extremely short, or is it just me?

On Tenko:

Honestly, the stuff I have the strongest reaction to is the sort of things I see other fans saying about Tenko, and I’ve resolved to try to get away somewhat from responding-to-responses in these posts.  So trying to look at only what’s going on in the story itself, my problems with Tenko are much as they have been.  He feels like a weird idealized vision that’s easy to look at and want to save when the truth of Shigaraki and his grudges are much more challenging and difficult to address.

I feel like Tenko could work better as a sort of metaphorical “pole” within Tomura, a representation of, if you will, his nature contrasting AFO’s nurture.  However, this would work better if the AFO inside him were also a metaphor, rather than a literal invading consciousness.  As it stands, Tenko and AFO don’t represent equal forces in Tomura—not in the sense of being equal in power, which I wouldn’t expect them to be, but rather, they literally aren’t the same type of entity, so they don’t feel like appropriate foils.

I have read at least one rather fun fic where Tenko is a quirk vestige—a quirk neither the Shimuras, AFO, nor Tomura himself ever realized he had.  And that would certainly be a twist, though it would raise the pressing question of where the vestige for Decay is.(1)

Though, one thing that would be an entirely delightful twist—and credit entirely goes to @codenamesazanka for this—is if Inner Tenko is the “lump of lead” Shigaraki talks to Ujiko about, the source of Shigaraki’s never-ending rage.  His anger predated AFO, after all; it was forged in his childhood home and on that long walk where no one helped him.  That holds, I think, even if AFO gave him Decay.(2)  You could even draw the parallel that AFO gave Tenko his family hands to preserve the negative feelings from that day, and here we find Tenko, still covered in those grasping, clutching hands even after Tomura cast off all but one of them months ago. And he certainly had quite the angry reaction to Mirio's statement about him lacking friends!

A huge chunk of the (English-speaking) villain fanbase would riot, but I would like it.

(Speaking of the friends bit, it has been pointed out by a chat buddy that while Mirio and Inner Tenko use tomodachi there, the word the League use for one another is that good old shounen standby, nakama. So perhaps it makes sense that what falls out of the messy amalgamation that is Tomura right now is an appeal to the tomodachi he once had, rather than the nakama of today. I have been mildly placated by this.)

That all said, I do wonder what’s up with this particular flashback here?

I had assumed that this moment was ShigAFO leaning down and using some kind of quirk to detect things underground.  He even gives that word of warning to Dabi, who charges ahead regardless.  But that doesn’t seem to be even slightly relevant to Vestige!AFO thinking about his and Shigaraki’s mind-meld, so....?

On the 3As:

Mirio continues to be a good kid.  His stammered apology is good stuff, and I love him thinking that he felt Shigaraki hesitate—making villains hesitate is, in fact, a great reason for heroes to try talking to them!

More significantly, I appreciate Nejire getting some actual development.  She went felt wildly underutilized in the Hassaikai arc, and her her big thing being winning a beauty pageant while Tamaki and Mirio were out there having big dramatic flashback-filled battles against villains was just insulting.  So I like her flashbacks here, and I particularly appreciate that it circles back to her weird nosy questions.  Frankly, given the sorts of questions she asked Class 1-A when she was first introduced—asking Shouji about his mask, Shouto about his scar, Mina about her horns—it’s no surprise she makes bad first impressions!

…It is a bit of a shame to just cram Yuyu into the background of that panel with Suneater and then exclude her entirely from people Nejire reflects on learning about at UA, though.  I suppose the generous read is that she’d been friends with Yuyu prior to UA, so she didn’t need the confines of UA to learn about her.  Still.

I also don’t love the ongoing adventures of giving the gals in this comic supporting roles to the dudes,(3) even though Nejire herself has the quirk that, on the surface, should have the most raw oomph of any of the Big Three.  Eh.  It’s a toss-up, but I do like the development, anyway.

Do your best, Suneater!  Though I expect about the best you can hope for is a result akin to burning AFO alive and then watching in horror as he evolves into his next form.  At least it’s one more form down before the final one?(4)

We'll see how that works out for you or doesn't next time.

--FOOTNOTES--

1: One of my assumptions about the difference between an original quirk and one of Ujiko’s lab-created replicas is that only the original has a vestige.  So I suppose Decay could be a created quirk AFO was just carrying long enough to pass it off to Tenko at the door.

2: It had better hold, anyway.  Making AFO the author of Tenko’s grudge against society would be this manga’s ultimate high crime against its own themes, the single thing it could do that would most succinctly scoop out all of its own meaning and impact.

3: See also: Tsuyu's job in the teamwork play at USJ being to get Deku and Mineta off the ship while the boys combine forces to actually deal with the villains; Kendo dispersing Mustard's gas for Tetsutetsu to get the finishing blow in; Momo providing the tracker that got the boys to Kamino but having no role in Deku’s plan to rescue Bakugou; Ryukyu and the girls staying outside at the Hassaikai compound to buy the all-male everyone-else team time to continue on inside to where all the character development is happening; La Brava powering up Gentle; probably a bunch of school stuff I don’t remember; Mina fumbling her dose of sedative just in time to give Kirishima an extra shot at it after he blows his own; and so on.  Even when this goes the other way—e.g. Kamui Woods trying to get Midnight up close to Gigantomachia; Lady Nagant using Overhaul to distract Deku—it seems like it fails a lot more often than the other way around.

4: Or, you know—spoilers for 361—it could have no effect at all.  I choose to chalk this up to the ongoing messaging about the futility of taking out Shigaraki with violent force and not the manga being deeply muddled in how much it actually values teamwork.  More on that next time, maybe.

[hamliet]

What Does It Mean to Save?

I keep seeing it said that Deku, Ochaco, and Shouto will “save” Shigaraki, Himiko, and Dabi, but that there will be no redemption and/or no survival for them. I’m truly not trying to vague these posts and everyone is entitled to their opinion, but literary criticism is fundamentally responsive so I’m writing this anyways.

I personally think that’s not BNHA’s definition of saving nor of redemption. So here, have a deep dive into literary tropes related to redemption, genre, and character arcs as they pertain to BNHA and the question of: what does it mean to save Shigaraki, Touya, and Himiko?

Before we begin, let me say that while we might be personally uncomfortable with redemption (there’s a redemption arc in BNHA I am personally quite uncomfortable with), that doesn’t inherently mean the narrative won’t go there. The key principle I’m operating on here is BNHA’s message that heroes save people. It’s held up as the highest ideal. 

So let’s talk redemption in BNHA-verse. With this guy, whose redemption arc I dislike in principle but accept as part of the story so don’t come for me stans and/or antis. I’m analyzing because it shows us what redemption means in BNHA-verse, whether or not that is satisfying to you personally as it fits/does not fit with your own morality/philosophy.

If Endeavor can be redeemed and live, and he’s Bakugou’s negative foil, I highly doubt Shigaraki and Deku as well as Touya and Shouto and Ochaco and Himiko will be any different. Why? Because Enji is an adult character. The others--well, Himiko’s age we don’t know, but we do know that Shigaraki and Dabi are technically adults. But does the story consider them adults?

(It doesn’t.)

Child-coded characters are generally more likely to survive a redemption, which I’ll explain more later. First I have to define what I mean by child-coding, because I DO NOT mean this in the way it’s often (mis)used in fandom wank. Child-coding is a real thing, but it is not done to infantilize and it has nothing to do with shipping.

Child coding frames the character as a child for a few narrative purposes to convey a story’s theme or purpose. For example, if it’s a coming of age story coding a character as a child even if they legally are not emphasizes their journey to an understanding of self-actualization, or a true understanding of self with self-awareness and an understanding of self-value. An example of an adult coded as a child is The Kite Runner, wherein Amir is a legal adult for half the story, even married for fifteen years so we’re talking 30s-40s, but he does not truly become an adult until he returns to his homeland and takes responsibility for a childhood sin. In Attack on Titan, the main characters are now nineteen, but are still struggling to take responsibility as adults and have only started doing so now that their mentors/parental figures have started dying.

Along those lines, in any kind of story, you can code a character as a child of someone, regardless of biological relationship, to convey the type of relationship they have (usually a mentor one). For an example of this, see Bungo Stray Dogs’ Dazai and Akutagawa. Despite their two year age difference, Dazai recruited him to the mafia, abandoned him, and Akutagawa desperately seeks his approval. Usually in these stories a character will “overcome” their parental figure. This can be done through overcoming their need for the parental figure’s approval in stories where the parental figure is kindly (such as in Harry Potter, when in the final book Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave the Weasleys to find the Horcruxes despite Mrs. Weasley’s please) or through like, killing/stopping/leaving the parental figure when they are abusive (see fairy tales like Rapunzel and Cinderella). The parental link to self-actualization is because it is childlike (and a part of actual psychology that is reflected in literature) to see yourself as a part of your parent; self-actualized person would see yourself as a distinct person from your parent, but also acknowledge the ways in which they’ve shaped you.

So, how do you code a character as a child? BNHA isn’t subtle about it, because Horikoshi seldom is subtle about anything. The villain trio are all coded as children.

Shigaraki Tomura:

Who cannot achieve self-actualization so long as AFO has access to his body, as he’s literally trying to possess him. He’s trying, but it’s not gonna work because Shigaraki can’t keep AFO and become an adult at the same time. It’s a choice the narrative is setting up: your dream of destroying, or your freedom? (To get the latter, he’ll probably have to destroy AFO).

Todoroki Touya, who is repeatedly emphasized as a small child when compared to his siblings, and yes, I know he’s now tall. Specifically he’s spotlighted as the child of Endeavor:

And he’s the least self-actualized one in a lot of ways, contradicting himself constantly. I’m not Endeavor, DUH! But these are Endeavor’s flames! He’s gonna have to choose one or the other, because the tragic irony is that the more he takes out his rage on those around him, the more like Endeavor he becomes.

And Toga Himiko (who might well literally be a legal child), who is actually the most self-actualized one thus far, because she rejects Curious’s child insistence (Curious holds her in a Pieta pose, based on Michelangelo’s statue wherein Mary holds a deceased Christ):

She’s still got, like, a way to go though:

Because Himiko also wants to be like the people she loves to the point where she loses her own identity in them, which is er, not self-actualization. So she’ll have to choose whether or not she really wants to be like the people she loves or whether she wants to live her own way, which she herself tells us how that would end (death):

Deku said it himself: it’s good to focus on what someone is doing now. And look, I have issues with this statement and how it’s framed. I’ve talked about it at length and it was doomed to fail because Shouto himself told us long ago that it was annoying to hear a righteous speech by a stranger when you hadn’t gone through the same, plus Endeavor kinda failed by choosing being a hero over a dad here. But, the principle is that if the past doesn’t preclude Endeavor from seeking a better self, why would it preclude three characters coded as children, one of whom is literally somewhat the product of Endeavor’s sins? BNHA doesn’t think the past keeps someone from a better future. 

So what about Dabi’s counterpoint, which is indeed valid? Well, redemption doesn’t mean the past forgets, either. It’s complicated and nuanced, and we can debate how well Horikoshi strikes this nuance (it’s got its flaws), and admittedly I don’t know how this will go down in the future. But it is asking Endeavor: how do you redeem yourself to the people you’ve hurt? And we have Endeavor asking this question to Touya’s shrine. I mean, the foreshadowing is obvious. Endeavor has to redeem himself by trying to save Touya. However, it will still probably come down to Shouto to save Touya.

For our three villains, it’s a little harder to predict... well, sort of. For Shigaraki it’s extremely obvious: he has to help take down AFO. Dabi probably has to do something to help his family (siblings probably), but it’s vague. Toga needs help and not condemnation, but presumably she’ll help Ochaco with something.

So, is this redemption? I’d define it as redemption in the eyes of the narrative. To address what makes a redemption is another essay unto itself, but if we bring in the oft-compared Star Wars example: did Darth Vader get a redemption? Did Ben Solo? Everyone says yes to both. However, only Luke witnesses Vader’s redemption, and only Rey Ben Solo’s. So the rest of the galaxy? Doesn’t think so. When I say they’ll be redeemed, I’m defining it as their role in the eyes of the narrative, not whether or not society will accept them or even whether their victims will forgive them (of note, in canonical novels, Leia never forgave Darth Vader despite learning he was her father and obviously knowing Luke’s account of his redemption was true).

So, redemption in a narrative doesn’t mean all of society has to forgive and accept them. Dabi has still like, murdered 30 people--many of whom were thugs, but he himself acknowledges they didn’t deserve to die. Additionally, he himself also acknowledges that the families left behind--their feelings matter:

But why does that mean they have to die? Why even does it mean they have to languish in prison forever? (If there’s even a safe prison at the end of BNHA which I kinda have doubts about.) Heroes have also killed: see Hawks as Exhibit A. In fact, some people want revenge on the heroes precisely because they arrested or killed their loved ones (jail isn’t held up as a rehabilitative place in BNHA’s world. In most countries it isn’t in real life, either, but again that’s for another essay). So why don’t the League’s feelings on Twice’s death matter just as much as the feelings of unnamed and unseen (and thereby less important narratively) characters?

Additionally, regarding death... the villains routinely get called on their death wishes. Himiko’s determination to decide how/when she dies is called out because this is right  before Twice overcomes his trauma to save her, and the next arc they appear in is when Twice dies trying to save her again. Dabi’s suicide wish keeps him from getting close to others, and it keeps getting thwarted. Shigaraki’s obsession with destruction and death is clearly not a good thing, and his rejection of his family’s desire for them to join him in death this past arc is growth.

In other words: what Dabi said and what Snatch said about families and how they feel matter for the villains too. The villains are their own weird found family (Dabi as the deadbeat prodigal brother of both his families). Their deaths--Magne’s and Twice’s thus far, and I’m not ruling out further deaths in the future--affect the others. People’s feelings on losing loved ones matter. The villains are people, as Himiko said herself this arc:

Their feelings about each other matter:

How would Touya dying affect the Todorokis? At least they saved him spiritually, I guess, but that’s absolutely lame narratively, and if you have Enji eventually do a sacrifice to save Dabi (pretty likely, even if I personally think Enji will survive said sacrifice) then what’s the point of Dabi dying? How would Himiko dying affect society? As a martyr like Curious wanted her to be, even a redeemed one? A tragic warning story? What even is the point of Ochaco saving her if that’s the case? If Shigaraki dies, well, who would mourn besides Deku? How would Shigaraki dying affect the surviving members of the league? He just couldn’t be saved physically? 

It’s not impossible some of this happens, but it doesn’t seem like great writing, especially with panels like, oh, these that show us BNHA’s perspective on death:

Sacrificing something is a type of death that occurs in stories; this should happen in a redemption arc, which is why I’ve been saying Enji needs to sacrifice his hero reputation to help save Touya and even then it’ll still be Shouto imo who does the saving. But physical death?

If you want further analysis of the latter two panels and how they relate to the ending, see here.

We already have another villain who will definitely die redemptively (Kurogiri--an adult coded character--because he’s already, like, dead), and Spinner and Mr. Compress aren’t coded as kids so I hold them with anxiety towards the end. But again, this isn’t me being ageist or saying this is the way things ought to be in fiction or real life: it’s me looking at writing tropes and saying that child-coded characters tend to survive their redemptions. See: Zuko. Why? Because the death of children or child-coded characters is a tragedy. When a child-coded character dies redemptively it doesn’t feel like a happy ending and if framed as such, it’s often criticized for bad writing (see: Ben Solo). Curious even called this out in her fight with Himiko. I would hope Horikoshi doesn’t end the story being like yeah Curious was right that’s the best use of Himiko’s/Dabi’s/Shigaraki’s arcs:

Additionally, as for the believability of a character getting a new chance after so much destruction and murder... well, it’s kinda a thing in shonen and even in seinen? For better or for worse, it’s a thing. We have Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z and Kaneki Ken in Tokyo Ghoul (Kaneki, by the way, is absolutely an inspiration for Shigaraki). We can debate how well-written these redemptions are (I personally have been quite critical of Kaneki’s despite wanting it to happen narratively), but it can be done. BNHA’s Japan especially isn’t as harsh a world as Tokyo Ghoul’s Japan, so it would make even more sense for something like Kaneki’s ending.

The reality is that the cycle of revenge via hurting people and then leaving hurting families and loved ones has to stop somewhere. Someone has to be the bigger person and step up and be like “naw.” That’s heroic. That’s brave. That’s sacrificial itself. Justice itself doesn’t really exist in its purest form without mercy.

There’s another genre-reason I don’t see death or jail as likely (I could see, like, maybe a mental health ward like Rei’s? But it’s too soon to speculate).

If saving is considered a good thing for the story, if it’s truly the highest ideal, then saving someone should be rewarded by the narrative. The characters who save should have a positive result to show us this a good thing.

This is why it doesn’t work for the heroes’ end journey to be accepting that some people cannot be saved. The notion of just accepting that you cannot do something, you cannot save everyone, you cannot, cannot, cannot, is called out as a flaw of society. Determination, on the other hand, is rewarded.

We see it with Deku as well as with Mirio.

So, what if they save them and the redeemed characters then go on to sacrifice themselves in their redemption and die (come to the same end)? If saving changes absolutely nothing for the saved person, if it’s too late for the saved from themselves to change and/or do anything that matters besides die, then the narrative theme of saving as important is left unemphasized at best and undermined at worst. Simple intrinsic knowledge that the kids “did the right thing” doesn’t cut it for a story with so much focus on physical saving when the kids are already doing the right thing; moral struggles about whether to choose to be good aren’t really Deku, Ochaco, or Shouto’s arcs. It works for Aizawa’s arc with Kurogiri, but not for the kiddos. If BNHA was more of a philosophical/spiritual text, that would indeed make sense, but it is not. Genre-wise, BNHA is a fantastical superhero optimistic story, not a gritty real-world set drama.

[may-day-voice]

Prom Night Lights | The Middle

Shouto Todoroki Timeline | 172732014

please do not repost, but you have permission to reblog :)

• Watch/ Listen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7lymhRiqtrA

• Read on Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/1119594884-shouto-todoroki-pro-hero-au-172732014-prom-night

Seasons come and go - summer to winter, hot to cold, and we all adapt to the smallest changes. We strip off when the heat gets unbearable, and rug up when the chill bores to the bones. But every small change can affect us - past pains and injuries being the most sensitive to these things, and between these extremes, the smallest change could be the greatest and most powerful experience that could change you.

It could even break you.

A yawn escaped your lips while you stretched your arms up above your head, pulling at every fiber across your shoulders and chest. The graduation ceremony was long and arduous, despite you sitting in a chair for hours. Well, at least three hours, but who was counting?

You glanced around Heights Alliance, watching students walk to and fro. The atmosphere was a reminder of the hardships and the hard work put into your studies on and off campus. You recalled the training sessions, the Joint Training Exercise, the constant rivalry between the classes, which made you chuckle a little at the thought. And then there were the harder times - the War being one of a few. One that you could not assist, could not dive into the front lines, and especially, if not importantly, one that you couldn’t be beside-

“Can you believe we graduated?” piped Awase with a grin plastered on his face.

You wondered how he was doing now; what he must be thinking; how his family was going. You smiled while recalling the times you rendezvoused between dormitories worrying over the smallest things, mostly over studies. And then you remembered the radio silence when the War happened, including the slow days reconnecting with him again afterwards. It was a tough road paved with difficulties, only compounded by the fact that you were in a different class from him, constantly worrying and checking your phone.

“Hey, you okay?” asked Awase, concerned.

“Yeah, of course,” you piped, snapping out of your reverie. “Just wondering how 3-A must be doing.”

“So much has happened to them, huh?”

Yes, so much has happened, and you have been confused over the years. But you couldn’t tell if it was his aloofness or his sudden shift in behavior since the War, having to deal with the aftermath. Ever since the commencement of your second year in UA there was this tension in your gut; a heavy solid feeling that grew with anxiety outside of the times you had spent with him. On top of this, days leading up to graduation felt odd and a little strained. You had noticed a flock of students following him around campus, most likely those keen on inviting him as their date to the prom the academy decided to plan to celebrate the graduating year. The amount of students who fluttered around him left you hollow, feeling hapless to the hope of being his for the night.

You hoped he would have-

“Excuse me, hi!” Called a voice from behind you and Awase, finding another student walking up to you with an awkward smile. “You don’t know me but I wanted to ask, if you weren’t too busy that I could, I mean, I would like to take you out tonight, to the prom tonight.”

You stared, shocked at the proposal from a random student out of the blue. He looked a little rough around the edges, but you didn’t recognize him until you spotted his shoulders, his blazer adorned with buttons akin to the Support classes.

“They’d love to,” answered Awase, bringing you back to speed.

“What?” you exclaimed.

“That’s great, thanks,” piped the student with a beaming smile. “I’ll pick you up at six?”

“Six is perfect,” continued Awase with a smile of his own. “We’ll make sure they’re ready.”

The student smiled wider, happy to hear the answer before he walked away, returning back to his band of friends in the distance. All you did was stare at them before turning your eye onto Awase, still with that smile on his face.

“You’re welcome,” he said before continuing on his walk through Heights Alliance.

“Why did you do that?” You questioned while catching up to him. “I could answer for myself.”

“You stood there like a deer in headlights, so I stepped in as your proxy.”

You deeply sighed before you shoved Awase playfully by the shoulder, silent with your smile but still with a heavy weight on your own.

“Hey, Monoma’s been teasing you lately about not having a date for tonight,” explained Awase. “I just helped you secure no more embarrassment.”

“I don’t even know the guy, and besides, it’s easy for Monoma to say those things,” you muttered with a sceptical brow. “He’s got that fanatic that trails behind. Where are they from? General Studies?”

“Hey come on, not his fault there’s someone out there who tolerates him, let alone idolizes him.”

You still stared ahead with a distant look in your eye, your mind elsewhere. You had hoped otherwise. You hoped you would have heard from him about this special day, but after these weeks leading up to graduation, you hadn’t heard a word. Perhaps he wasn’t ready, still dealing with the War and his family, and having to deal with school on top of that. Conversations with him outside of it all were far and few between. Perhaps he already had a date, seeing those that flocked to him wanting to garner attention or his affection for the prom. Perhaps Awase intervening with that proposal out of the blue was a good thing.

“Look, now you have a date to the prom tonight,” he continued. “So you can’t go back against your word.”

“It’s not my word. You agreed to it,” you reiterated. “Maybe you can take him out, seems like a fair trade.”

Awase laughed at your retort, only causing you to smile in return. The plan was that Class 3-B was going as a whole group to the prom, date or no date, thanks to Monoma. He was extremely teasing towards you, knowing of your connections with Class 3-A and ignoring any other follies, such as Tetsutetsu and his bromance with Kirishima, or even Awase and his growing attachment with Yaoyoruzu. But you had not heard a word, and now with a proposed date to this prom, it would be unkind to reject it now. You rolled your eyes at the thought, recalling Monoma’s haughty tone and his ever-present need to show up Class 3-A, even after all of these years.

DING

Still, plans were made to go off the rails.

“Have you heard from any agencies?” Asked Awase, curious while his eye was on you. “Any takers?”

“No,” you trailed while you looked at your phone screen, replying back. “Have you?”

“A couple, but it’s still up in the air. Heard Class 3-A already have their responses.”

No surprise there, you thought. They were the leading class of Heroes to turnover in Musatafu, and gaining a reply from any agency was becoming a pipe dream. Hearing Awase already receiving offers only made your stomach drop a little. You’ve heard nothing, wondering if your Quirk was looking more like a liability than anything else.

As if by instinct, you began parting ways from Awase, your feet taking you away from your dormitories and onto another path, leaving him behind.

“Where are you going?” He called out as you parted ways.

“Off to see a friend,” you chirped while you pocketed your phone.

You ignored Awase’s few words behind you, something akin to Monoma’s plan for the prom before jogging across Heights Alliance towards Class 3-A’s dorms, now filled with its graduating class. Years of hopping between dorms had given you a reputation amongst your class, especially Monoma of all people. But the text message was undeniably from the one person you hoped to hear from:

Would you like to come over?

Graduation was officially over, at least the formalities, but hearing from Shouto Todoroki was a blessing in disguise. After all, you both agreed to see each other before the presumptuous prom of the night.

I’ll be there in a few minutes.

----

Reaching the large doors, you cautiously walked through to find a few of the students already relaxing in the lounge and foyer. A few were in mid-conversation, while others held up their phones in cheer. Awase was right to believe that the students of Class 3-A had already received offers to agencies once they stepped out into the world. You wouldn’t think anything less, seeing their smiles beam with joy, but your eyes glanced around with no luck locating Todoroki, until you spotted a certain brunette chiding away with friends in the foyer.

“Graduated at last, congratulations,” you chirped cheerfully while you walked your way towards Uraraka.

“You too,” she piped with a smile, turning to you. “Have you figured out what agency you’ll be placed in?”

“Not a word actually. I’m sure I’ll hear something.”

“Where have you applied?”

“Genius Office, Fat Gum, Fourth Kind, Oki Mariner…”

“Oh, that’s a good one! They could be taking their time. I only heard from a few five minutes ago.”

Well, there was hope yet if students were only receiving news just now, especially those from Class 3-A. A wash of relief swept through you, knowing that there was still time to hear any news of your residencies in Musatafu before you returned back to the task at hand.

“Have you seen Todoroki?” You asked, still looking around the foyer.

“I think he’s been cooped up in his dorm ever since we got back from Gym Gamma,” informed Uraraka thoughtfully. “He’s been awfully quiet. More than usual.”

Odd. For all you knew, Todoroki was becoming despondent over graduation, wondering if the event made him so. It was a big deal for everybody in UA, now stepping forward into another world, one that had transformed in and out of the school’s grounds.

“Thanks!” You quickly piped while you made your way towards the elevators. “See you tonight?”

Uraraka only smiled and waved, seeing you off before you entered the elevators. It was like every other day when you visited his dormitory. You recalled the floor and his door, even cringing at the thought when you arrived one too many times in the middle of the night, fretting over studies and non-existent practical exams. In fact, it was the only way to speak to him after all that he had been put through. And Todoroki had been nothing but supportive and attentive to your own worries.

A light tap on his door left you standing there by the hallways again, wondering what your response would be. It’s been a while since you actually talked with him, let alone heard any invitation to visit. You assumed the graduation was a big event for his family, always referring back to the War in your mind. Was it a good idea to visit him now that the official graduation ceremony was over? You hovered your hand above the door, wanting to knock again in case he missed the first time, but you began to wonder how he must be feeling. Already with a career in Hero Society paved for him, under his father’s name, in an established agency which by all accounts would be under question because of the family drama and his-

“This is stupid,” you mumbled, turning heel to leave before the click of his door caught your ear. You spotted him by the door, dressed casually and out of uniform, but not yet dressed for the night.

Of course, this prom was hours away.

“Oh, you made it,” he remarked, his aloof eyes staring at your almost-departed form.

“Of course, is everything okay?” You asked, returning back to his dorm door.

“I just wanted to say congratulations.”

“Oh no, all the congratulations goes to you, really.”

“Don’t sell yourself short.”

You smirked at him, a little embarrassed and a little nervous at his almost compliments, until you lightly punched him in the arm. “You asked me here to congratulate me?”

“I would be happy to meet you at your dorm if you wanted,” replied Todoroki before he stepped out from his door, shutting it behind him.

“Oh no, I would not hear the end of it from Monoma if you did.”

Todoroki chuckled while you spotted a sneaky smile from him. It was a pleasure to see him smile, even if it was brief. They were always hard to come by, and for a moment, you felt that only you could see them outside of everybody else. It made them special.

“So, have you heard from agencies?” You asked, catching Todoroki off guard. “I mean, it seems like everybody else has, and I was just curious.”

“I’m off to my father’s when I leave UA,” he replied bluntly.

“… oh.”

“And you?”

You gulped, a little paralyzed after realizing after the fact that he would ask the same question himself. “I’m… still waiting to hear back. I mean, everyone seemed to have received news not too long ago, so it shouldn’t be long now.”

“I hope so,” he replied with a smile. “You’ll do good out there.”

“You think so?”

All you saw was that smile, a larger one than the last unhidden from the world. It only made you feel warm inside, to know that he was in your corner, and open to express himself. It had been a long journey while he worked out what to do with his family and his future, tormented by the fact that-

“I asked you here because I wanted to ask you something,” he announced, catching your smiling eyes staring at him. “I know I’ve been quiet over the past few weeks. I needed to work some things out.”

“Oh, of course,” you replied. “Graduation is pretty big.”

“Yes, I needed to work out what I wanted to do and what my path was going to be once we all left here.”

He trailed a little, silent while he tried to put together the words he wanted to say. You saw it in his eyes, calculating what to do, as if he were training with you. Ever since being put together by your own choices to train one another, you had come to notice his little quirks, no pun intended. How he processed the situation, how he reacted, how he would assess his next move. It felt like that now, watching his eyes dart in thought, wondering what to say.

With all that was said, you wondered if he was trying to say farewell, even though the both of you would most likely see each other at this prom night for the graduating year. Yet he had clearly stated he wanted to ask you something on such a big occasion. And then it hit you, wondering if he was going to ask about the prom tonight. Just as he was deducing his next words, you tried to guess what they were.

Was he going to ask you-

“Would you like me to put in a word for you at my father’s agency?” He asked calmly.

“… what?”

“If you haven’t heard from any agencies by now, maybe you might not.”

That stung. You swallowed and processed his words, a little offended, but a little perplexed over the situation. Did he ask you to visit him so that he could-

“Are you offering me a place?” You asked back.

“Yes.”

“Out of pity?”

“No, I’m saying that I can get you a residency if other places don’t work out.”

“So I’ll do good but no other place would have me,” you stated, hurt.

“That’s not what I said.”

“It sounded like it.”

“I thought you’d be happy.”

“Yes, if I got in on my own merit, not because you’re able to pull some strings.”

It felt like there was a fire in your gut, the worst kind that seared so severely you felt nauseous with anger. You wanted nothing more than to leave, but something kept you here, still standing before Todoroki despite what he had called you over for. Did he truly believe that you weren’t ready or capable? Did those late study nights not prove how hard you wanted to put in the work? Or did he only see you for your faults all this time?

It was unfathomable.

“Todoroki, I appreciate your offer, I do, but you’re giving me something that I didn’t work for,” you explained, keeping calm and keeping your anger at bay.

“I wanted to say thank you for being there for me,” explained Todoroki, his eyes searching in yours. “You still reached out to me after everything that has happened, and I wanted to return the favor in any way I can. Please understand.”

Your mind trailed away for a moment, seeing the genuine look in Todoroki’s eyes. Despite his aloofness, you could see how much he saw in you, but the way he said it was-

“I can’t accept that,” you answered, looking into Todoroki’s eyes with sadness. “I can’t accept your offer. I'm sorry Todoroki.” You turned towards the elevator, leaving Todoroki behind before you realized the floor numbers were counting downwards.

“Where are you going?” Asked Todoroki, following after you.

“Back to my dorm to get ready for my date,” you informed him while you decided to head down the flight of stairs, despite being on the top floor of the dormitory. Todoroki stopped for a moment, ingesting your words in his head before he trailed after you, hopping down the stairs while he continued to question.

“You have a date?” he asked aloud.

“Yes, yes I do,” you immediately replied.

“Who are they?”

“He... is from Support.”

“What’s he like?”

“Nice guy? A little awkward.”

“So you don’t know him?”

You had only reached the fourth floor before turning to find Todoroki on your trail, his feet still on the stairs while he eyed you for an answer. You saw them searching, waiting for your breath, for you to speak.

“Why do you want to know?” You asked, part curious, part annoyed by his questioning.

The bell of the elevator took both of you out from the tension that grew in-between, finding Bakugou exiting the doors with a friend trailing behind him. It was a well-timed interruption, turning back onto Todoroki now calmer than he was moments ago.

“Nothing,” he answered in a low whisper.

“I’ll see you later,” you whispered to yourself, feeling eyes on you from the stairs other than his. All you were met with was a nod from Todoroki before you left him by the stairs, leaving with a bitter taste in your mouth.

Todoroki only stood by the stair railings, confused by your reaction, but more so his insistence. It was like a bout of energy surged through him all at once. Where did all of that come from? All of those questions interrogating you about a guy who asked you out as his date. It confounded him further about what he felt about you with somebody else. You were a friend, finding an affinity with each other despite you being in the other Hero class. But those nights studying and those days training were the closest he had ever grown to work with someone outside of his class. He even recalled how elated he felt when the classes could mix to find compatibility working together, having ever since worked alongside you.

Todoroki shook his head, wondering what this feeling was that was mixed in with his confusion until the sight of a familiar well-dressed student made their way to the elevators, immediately being able to board before they waved quickly towards him.

“See you tonight Todoroki,” they exclaimed before disappearing into the box.

He waved back, being met by a smile by the student and soon spotting Bakugou’s door still ajar to see how he was doing. A few words were exchanged between himself and the irate blond, noticing the frustrated look on his scowl, most likely from the student who had just left from his dorm. Todoroki knew too well of Bakugou’s dilemma for the past couple of years, only ever chatting in passing about the situation and also advising him.

“We all know he’s bad news. Nepotism at its best,” informed Todoroki.

“Look who’s talking Half-and-Half, son of the Number One,” spat Bakugou with disdain.

Todoroki felt the sting from his words, realizing his folly earlier. He should have realized how much of a hard-working person you were. It showed in your studies and your training, always pushing yourself to the best of your abilities despite the drawbacks, the flaws, and your failures. He loved that part of you. It left him perplexed after speaking with Bakugou, while he decided to make his way downstairs to where most of the class still spent their day.

Did he truly say something wrong? All he ever wanted was to help you in any way he could. And perhaps, after much reflection on the fact, he had only insulted you on an important day. Yet he thought he was giving you something you would have wanted. Or, was he wanting you instead?

——

Todoroki went about his day speaking to his classmates and hearing some good news between them all. Many of them were offered a residency into some fairly well-known agencies, either one or a few or a handful. And though they were primarily from their work studies, it was the best fit for many of them. Todoroki ignored some of the more exasperatedly whinier comments about his placement, but it was a given despite his own feelings about the situation. Soon, the entire class readied themselves for the night, including Todoroki who was interrogated a few times about being date-less for the prom. A simple shrug was all they received, explaining that he had declined all invitations, which almost broke Kaminari’s heart hearing that. Still, with the night early to begin the celebrations, Todoroki joined in with his classmates and friends alike, making their way to Gym Gamma.

He wondered about your date, this mysterious man who asked you out so suddenly. You had never been a liar, or at least you were a bad one for him to know. He deduced it must’ve been recent, no earlier than yesterday at least when you were asked. It still made him wonder why he chose you. Has he always admired you? Were you friends? Did you know more than you were letting him on? At the end, Todoroki began to wonder how different this man was to him.

Gym Gamma was in sight while all of his classmates made their way inside. Todoroki trailed behind until something caught his ear a distance away, drowned by the music that thumped against the walls of the auditorium. He strayed from the pack of students, walking along the side to find you with your wrist held tightly by a very inebriated man before the both of you disappeared around the auditorium. His feet suddenly flew, chasing after the both of you after spotting the concerned look on your face, even briefly around the corner. Todoroki soon laid eyes on your date, gripping your wrist with a wide grin on his face, drunkenly swaying with you and handling you carelessly while you tried to pull away.

“You’re my date, so let me be your date,” he cooed slovenly, his grip tightening on your wrist.

“Stop it, you’re drunk,” you yelled, pulling away from him, tugging at your wrist to no avail.

“I’m having fun,” he retorted, his grin wide and his breath lingering over your skin. “Don’t you want to have fun with me?”

“I’m not some toy, or some prize to show off to your friends, whoever they are!”

“They’re just teasing, come on.”

He pulled you in, closing the gap between the both of you before his breath washed onto your face, smelling the bitter and rancid smell of alcohol. You pushed against his chest, pulling your face away from his, his strength overwhelming until-

“No, let go of me!” you cried before you pulled back your hand, slapping his face hard. The slap pulled him out of his drunken reverie, but not without releasing you from his grip, finding a disdained look on his face, chuckling to himself from the assault before being refueled by rage.

“Who wants you anyway?!” he yelled back, pulling his own hand to return the favour.

Suddenly, his own wrist was gripped by another’s, pushing against a strength that overpowered his own. Todoroki stood beside you, his fingers gripping onto your date while he stared into his eyes, disapproving and venomous.

“I suggest you walk away,” he warned, watching your date flinch from the fractals of ice that began to frost across his skin and sleeve, prickling like needles. He pulled away violently, releasing his grip on you as well, walking away with a contempt scoff and affixing his attire before he stomped towards the auditorium. Todoroki kept an eye on him until he disappeared around the corner, most likely returning to the prom before he turned to you, standing there, ashamed and hurt.

The smell of alcohol still lingered, but now it no longer pervaded your senses while you fixed your own formal wear and hopped towards the wall of the auditorium outside, leaning against it, your eyes drawn towards the pavement. Throughout the mess of it all, you realised one of your shoes had fallen off, now missing part of the pair a short distance away. You felt Todoroki’s presence next to you, following after and standing by your side, leaning against the wall as well in an uncomfortable silence.

“Nice guy,” he commented.

“Shut up,” you retorted weakly, refusing to look him in the eye.

“Did he hurt you?”

“No.”

“Are you okay?”

A moment passed when it all fell silent, at least to you, still listening and feeling the vibrations of the music that echoed and reverberated through the walls. You felt like you drowned in it, washed in the overwhelming feeling of sadness that you couldn’t hold in. You breathed deeply, hoping that could staive the storm, but your tears burst from your eyes out of your volition.

“No, no I’m not,” you finally answered. “He’s right. No one wants me.”

Todoroki turned to you, watching your tears fall and holding in the hiccups that escaped your throat once or twice. He couldn’t explain it, but he hated that look on you.

“I’ve not heard back from anyone at all today. I don’t know why,” you continued, your mind elsewhere. “And, he only invited me to impress his friends, and we met up when he’s really drunk and, well, you saw what happened.”

With all that was going on for graduation, Todoroki watched and listened to your words, realising and processing his feelings over the matter. It wasn’t true. He wanted you, more than anything, comprehending his feelings and how he interpreted them all the same. Graduation was weighing on his mind just as much as any other student had all day, yet he realised now, in this moment despite what his future may hold, that this moment mattered. He eyed your shoe from afar, walking towards it to collect it from the ground until he stood before you, his eyes waiting for you to meet his.

“No, I don’t want to go inside. Not yet anyway,” you reasoned while you tried to wipe away the tears from your face, spotting the shoe in his hand.

“May I?” asked Todoroki as if he had ignored your request.

You turned to him with tear-stained eyes, only seeing him hold your shoe. It dawned on you that it was only the both of you outside the auditorium with no one else around.

“What about your date?” you asked, confused.

“They’re right here in front of me,” he stated calmly, straight-forward without flinching. “Please.”

He lifted your shoe once more, warranting a nod from you, permitting him to kneel and slip the shoe back onto your feet. He was gentle while he maneuvered it with ease, lifting himself close to you before he opened his hand, gesturing to take yours. With a calm breath, you accepted his hand before he led you into his arms, swaying to and fro despite the music that played inside Gym Gamma beside you. Underneath the stars, you began to waltz, glancing up into Todoroki’s eyes that only smiled down at you, that same smile that he expressed while you were with him.

“Thank you Todoroki,” you whispered. “I’m sorry-“

“No, I’m sorry,” he interrupted, still keeping to the rhythm of his feet. “I didn’t think about how strongly you felt about the career and the life you wanted. I was selfish.”

“You can be selfish. You’d be doing yourself a disservice if you weren’t. Now I feel like an idiot.”

The thought of your former date moments ago sprung in your mind, despite it being a last ditch effort by a classmate, even if it was innocent at first. However, you felt Todoroki clutch onto your waist tighter, hugging you into his chest while his fingers intertwined with yours.

“This is where you should be,” he motioned, his head laying on yours. “You deserve a good night.”

For the first time since arriving at this prom, you smiled, nestling into his chest and hearing the calm heartbeat that thrummed in your ear. His warmth, that familiar heat you had come to love, pervaded on your skin and kept you safe, here in his arms.

The sound of your phone broke you out from the moment, catching both Todoroki and yourself a little unguarded before you broke away a little to check it immediately. Todoroki still held you, not wanting to release you from his grip before he watched your eyes scan the screen, soon lighting up with excitement.

“Oh my god!” you exclaimed. “I got in, I got in!” You hopped on the spot, still in his arms, bubbled with elation.

“Where?” he asked immediately, only to be met by a moment of spontaneity. A sudden kiss on his lips, pulled in by your hands while you deeply pressed onto him. The moment broke as you pulled away, realising what you had done within the moment and met by Todoroki’s perplexed stare.

“Oh god, I’m sorry-“

Your words were choked by Todoroki returning the favour, pulling you into him and kissing you instead. His arms held you close to him, feeling the waves of heat from his body and his kiss alone. A fire unlike any other filled you inside, not searing through with anger, but fueled by passion which was Todoroki. As he pulled away, you stared into his eyes, pools of silver and blue while you watched him smile, caressing your cheek tenderly. You smiled back warmly with words unspoken.

“I love every part of you, my Love,” he whispered close to your ear.

“I… I love you more,” you whispered back, growing more sure with your words.

“Exactly where did you get accepted?”

“Your father’s agency,” you quipped, suddenly taking him back by surprise. “What? You thought I never considered it a top priority?”

“Why didn’t you say that earlier?”

“Because I hadn’t heard anything,” you reasoned while you fixed his suit. “It made me wonder how many applications your father’s manager had to go through today.”

A small chuckle escaped from Todoroki, soon turning into laughter along with you while he held you in his arms under the night sky. He felt like twirling you in the air, feeling you next to him and knowing you were beside him. With the prom already under way, he offered his arm with that ever-present smile, warm and inviting.

Seasons come and go - summer and winter, hot to cold. But despite the change in weather, you’ve learnt to adapt slowly over time and nurture something new through the faults. It only continues to grow from here, stronger than before.

[heyitsyn]

Oh God

TimeTraveler!Son x Haikyuu!! Part 2

a/n: hehe i wouldnt put ‘x haikyuu’ if manager y/n ends up with that certain character. youll just have to,,,, wait for the end 😏

he didnt want to lie but he had to so he could survive

hinata offered his hand to help him up and natsu winced at the scratches and the slight headache as he stood on his two feet

‘you okay?’

hinata asked and natsu nodded

‘yea, just a headache’

natsu tried to play it off as cooly as he could bc this must’ve been from the car hit before and he couldnt just say he got ran over by a damn car

‘where do you live? i can go and treat your wounds there’

natsu was about to respond but he remembers hes not in tokyo anymore and he cant just spout out his address

so he did the thing his mom told him to do whenever it was necessary

he lied

‘i-um,,,’

he fumbled for an excuse but he sighed to maintain the act

‘i got kicked out’

he mumbled and hinata had to make him repeat it twice because he said it so quietly

the tangerine boy gasped and held his arms

‘what?! why?!’

natsu sniffled

‘my dad,,,, he just,,, doesnt want me’

well, that was actually true

so a true statement could equal that lie, right?

thankfully, hinata bought it and he grabbed his arm to walk forward while his other was pushing his bike

‘i hit you with my bike so the least i could do is take you to my house and treat you!’

and that was what they did

natsu’s phone was dead even though he was sure he charged it from denki’s powerbank during practice but it remained its black screen no matter how many times he hit the power button

his surroundings was also something unfamiliar

his mother only kept him in tokyo and never took him to go visit her family because she was kicked out and had to go live with her auntie when she found out about him and his father refused to help her

‘so, sendai, huh?’

he mumbled and hinata looked at him confused

‘sounds like youre not from around here. where you from?’

‘t-tokyo’

he replied and saw hinata’s eyes brighten

‘oh?! you look like youre my age so you must have been in a high school in tokyo, right? what school?’

‘yuuei’

‘hah?! yuuei?! what is that?!’

natsu rolled his eyes and shrugged

‘a school’

hinata persisted though

‘do you know other schools?! any other school friends?! like nekoma?! or fukurodani?!’

natsu shook his head and he was supposed to be happy that he got to meet, even talk, to his idol yet his younger self was much more hyper than his mellowed out behavior on tv

‘i stick to my friends from yuuei’

‘but what are you doing all the way here?’

natsu’s throat dried up and he watched his feet kick the pebbles to distract him of his urge to just whine and throw a tantrum with the confusion from this mess

‘i dont know’

he choked out and he was so tired and confused and all he wants to do is cry in his mother’s arms like he used to but she doesnt even know he exists

hinata sensed the tension and sadness from the boy beside him and tried his best to stay quiet until they get home

to say his mom was angry was an understatement

‘SHOYO, DONT YOU KNOW TO WATCH WHERE YOURE GOING?!’

‘kaa-san i was so angry and bakageyama was yelling at me and hit me and-’

‘THAT DOESNT GIVE YOU AN EXCUSE TO RUN SOMEONE OVER!’

natsu sat there on their couch awkwardly watching the black-haired woman yell at the human tangerine

he coughed in impulse and she turned away from her son and went to sit next to the h/c boy

‘dear, im so sorry for my son and his terrible biking. i didnt catch your name when you entered, what is it?’

even hinata forgot to ask his name but thats such a hinata thing to do though

natsu froze

if he was to say his mother’s last name, it would raise suspicion that he might know her in this time period and izuku has shown him enough doctor who to show him what happens when he messes up in time

again, he lied

‘kiri,,,shima,,, natsu. kirishima natsu’

he inwardly apologized to eijirou for using his last name

mrs. hinata raised a hand to her mouth with a surprised gasp

‘oh! my daughter’s name is also natsu! natsu, dear! can you come here for a second?’

natsu heard soft sounds from the stairs and she shyly walked down 

‘come say hi’

she softly urged her daughter to come closer and the little girl ran to hide behind her older brother who gently smiled and held her hand

‘well, thats her. she just turned 10 a few days ago. look dear, kirishima-kun has the same name as you!’

she waved slightly and natsu felt his heart swell at the sight of the adorable little girl

his mother never really had time for relationships so he was an only child and never got to experience a sibling, only hearing the experience of having siblings from his friend, shouto

mrs. hinata placed a gentle hand on his arm to revert his attention back to her

‘shoyo told me what happened and im sorry that this is all happening to you’

he felt guilty at the sight of her sad eyes because this was all a lie but he knew if he told them the real reason, they wouldnt believe him

so he had to continue with the lie

‘everything was falling apart and i wanted to leave everything behind. so i just took the shinkansen to nowhere and ended up here’

mrs. hinata felt her heart tug because he was just a little boy and he was too young to experience this so she offered him something he shouldnt have agreed to but again, survival

‘you can stay with us in the mean time. our guest room has been collecting dust so you can live here’

‘what? no! i can’t!’

natsu instinctually turned it down because he hated people giving him charity

but the woman squeezed his arm to give him a smile

‘i will not allow a child to live in the streets because of something he couldnt help’

‘arent you worried youre inviting a total stranger in your home?’

but she gave him a knowing smile

‘im a mother. i can trust you, boy’

in exchange for board and food, he promised to get a part time job so he could pay her back and get out of their house as quickly as he could

shoyo led him to the bathroom upstairs so he could treat the wounds from the ground

natsu sat on the closed toilet seat while his literal idol was putting cream on his boo-boos

he still cant wrap his head with everything

maybe it was because he was so busy trying to come up with lies that he wasnt able to fully sit down and think about the fact that he just TRAVELED BACK IN TIME and could accidentally change it

‘shoyo, what year is it?’

he mumbled

‘2012′

he answered and natsu sighed but his head perked up

oh god

2012

thats a year away from 2013

the year he was born

that meant shoyo’s team manager was going to give birth to him next year

‘why? did you hit your head so far that you forgot?’

hinata joked but he paled when natsu didnt laugh

‘OH GOD DID YOU?!’

‘NO! AND STOP YELLING!’

natsu shouted, equally surprised

‘whew, thank god. again, im so sorry i hit you’

‘shoyo, dont worry about it, okay? im fine, i swear’

during dinner, mrs. hinata told him about his school situation

‘you can go to karasuno with shoyo. what year were you in?’

‘first’

‘perfect! shoyo is too so he could easily help you around the school!’

natsu nodded quietly, still out of it and his brain finally starting to accept this impossible reality

‘but i dont think i could help you with the entrance exams. im not the most-um-smartest, per se’

shoyo apologized but natsu already knew that

he was no extreme fanatic but he knew quite a lot about hinata shoyo, the player he watched during the 2021 olympics and the reason he started playing volleyball

natsu dreamed to join the msby jackals just like his idol did and eventually reach the national team like hinata did

it was during the olympics of 2021, he knew he wanted to be like him

this boy who sat next to him was the reason he came to love volleyball along with his other idol, oikawa tooru, from the argentina volleyball team after seeing that legendary match 

when oikawa hit that service ace, natsu wanted to be able to receive that

he was merely 8 and his neighbor, midoriya inko, was babysitting him and she placed him and her son who was his friend, izuku, in front of the tv where they watched the olympics match

‘someday, ill be someone great. ill be great like him’

he promised and from then on, he worked to achieve that goal 

‘natsu? hello?’

he was shaken from his thoughts as shoyo nudged him back to reality

mrs. hinata laughed

‘maybe you should head to bed early, dear. you must be tired after having a hard journey’

he nodded and was about to go and wash his dishes when she stopped him

‘no. go and sleep, ill take care of this’

‘i have to do my part in here, hinata-san. please, let me do this’

she finally agreed and he was scrubbing the plates when his mind wandered over to possible solutions on how he could go back

there was an episode that he watched with izuku that the character had to do something to go back

and he had a feeling that he would have to do the same thing

but what would that something be?

there had to be a reason he was thrown all the way in this time and it couldnt just be a coincidence that supposedly, this would be around the same time his mother would get pregnant

but who would it be?

he finished putting the plates on the drying rack and he felt really thirsty suddenly

opening the fridge, he found no water bottles and natsu had a very sensitive stomach so he couldnt drink tap water

his next favorite beverage was there and he pulled a glass from the cabinet

‘hinata-san, is it okay if i can have some milk?’

he called out and she shouted that it was okay

natsu poured the drink on his glass and started drinking it when hinata entered the kitchen and snickered at him

‘yknow, you remind me of my idiot teammate. none of my other friends drink straight milk except for him’

natsu placed the glass down and wiped his lips

‘chocolate milk make me sick and i hate the taste of flavoring in milk. but i just hate flavoring in general. except for gari gari popsicles, those are good’

natsu reasoned, watching hinata move across the room to get an apple

‘still ew. but come on! lets go to bed so i can show you around school early before practice tomorrow!’

natsu noticed his excitement by the way he bounced in place and he chuckled

it reminded him of his friends mina and denki

hinata led them both to his room so he could check his wounds again just to make sure

then something caught his eye

‘kirishima-kun you like volleyball?!’

that threw him off

partly because he wasnt used to being called by his friend’s last name

but also because of the question

‘huh? how do you know that?’

natsu asked, almost defensively

hinata shrugged

‘i saw your volleyball shoes in your bag’

hinata reasoned and excitedly pointed at them

‘you should play for us! im part of the team too! oh oh! what position do you play?!’

‘l-libero’

natsu stuttered out, slightly overwhelmed by hinata’s energy

hinata started circling him, inspecting his height and looking at him up and down

‘yanno, kirishima-kun, youre really tall. like much taller than the rest of my club. maybe not saltyshima but really!! youre so tall!!’

hinata whined in envy and natsu laughed

‘blame it on the paternal side of the family. my ma isnt really tall’

he laughs but then memories of his mother resurfaced and he suddenly felt gloomy, guilty, even, bc he doesnt know if time stopped there or it kept going and if so, shes probably worried sick

and he knew she was always one who blamed herself

hinata noticed his downcast expression and thought he probably remembers his dad and got sad since he got kicked out

so our baby sunshine freaked out and he frantically waved his hands around

‘oh no! gomen kiri-kun! gomen! i really didnt mean to make you think about him! gomen!!!’

he even bowed which surprised the h/c boy and made him stand back up

‘o-oi shoyo! dont! you didnt because i wasnt thinking about him!’

he fussed and patted hinata’s hair

‘i dont care about him. to be honest, there isnt much to think about’

he didnt think about what he said until he heard himself

natsu’s eyes widened, fearful of how hinata could take it but he flinched when the orange-haired boy’s eyes were filled with his own tears

‘OH NO!! KIRI-KUN!!!’

then launched another series of apologies and natsu had to calm him down

oh dear

it was early in the morning like 5 when hinata bursted into natsu’s room

the loud shout of shoyo made his eyes blink open and he groaned before turning to the side

‘come on, kiri-kun! we need to go to take your exam!’

‘nooooooooo’

‘yeeessssssss’

it was quite a battle for hinata to even just get natsu out of bed but he managed to bribe the latter with some milk bread from the bakery down the street

‘2′

natsu showed his two fingers and hinata sighed before nodding

‘yes. now go hurry so we can leave!’

dressed in his grey sweatpants and a yuuei sweatshirt, natsu cursed as he only has clothes good for 2 days and he didnt want to bother the hinatas so he was at a loss

mrs hinata bid the two boys good bye and natsu was yawning and dragging his body to walk while hinata was skipping over to his bike

then he finally realized the problem

he nervously looked at natsu and the taller boy didnt understand why he was looking at him that way

‘what?’

shoyo pointed at the bike and awkwardly smiled

‘uh,,, you see,,, i dont think youd,,, fit,,, at the back seat’

natsu shrugged

‘then ill bike. ive done it before’

he sauntered over to the bike and swiftly lifted his leg before testing out the brake handles

‘its good and better than mine back home’

‘a-are you-’

‘sit down, sho’

hinata gripped on to the back of natsu’s sweatshirt as he told him the directions to how to get to the school

natsu remembered watching an interview of hinata talking about his high-school life and he remembered the star player talking about his dedication to go to karasuno everyday for volleyball

and the boy couldn’t believe hes doing that right now, with his idol literally behind him, and driving to the legendary karasuno high school

from the jackals to the adlers and even some other teams like the frogs, natsu cheered for them

there was a memory of his mother sitting with him on their couch during one of her rare day offs as they rewatched the recorded copy of the olympics

it has become natsu’s favorite thing to watch

‘with great talent comes great hardships. people don’t become good overnight and i watched those people suffer through it all but look where they are now’

‘KIRISHIMA, WATCH OUT! COWS CROSSING!’

natsu was snapped out of his thoughts at hinata’s shout

then it morphed into pure and utter confusion

‘cows?’

shoyo laughed

‘since youre from the city, this must be a weird sight for you, huh? well, in the countryside, this happens a lot!’

but natsu didnt mind

in fact, he loved cows

he loved any farm animal in general

maybe it was his upbringing in the hustle and bustle of the city that he grew to love the countryside

shoto took him with his family to a trip to the country once and he remembered loving the smell of grass

they were able to do an activity in a farm where they worked in a rice farm and the peace and serenity was something he will always remember

his mother was lucky she grew up in a place like this

‘kiri-kun, ive been wanting to ask, how is your volleyball team in the city? are you a powerhouse?’

natsu felt pride bubble up in his chest

‘of course! we got second place in nationals!’

he boasted and blurted out before he could stop himself

then he felt fear

he shouldnt have said that because for all he knows, yuuei probably doesn’t exist at this time period

hinata had a different reaction and his eyes shone

‘WHAT?! WOAH! SO COOL! I HAVE TO TELL OUR CAPTAIN THAT WE’RE GETTING A POWERHOUSE STUDENT!’

‘uh-i-uh-’

natsu didnt know what to say because he had a feeling he definitely just did an oopsie

so he switched topics really quick to divert the attention away from his past

‘o-oi sho, once youre done being a pro volleyball player and stuff, we should have our own rice farm’

of course it was such a random idea but it distracted the orange boy

hinata shrugged

‘i mean,,, i have to be a pro first but i guess we can!’

‘hmm,,,, i dont think you have to worry about that’

.................................................

taglist:

@hartbeat-art​ @yakus-yakult​ @nerdyphantomlady​ @jollycowboysaladhero​ @cynicallychaotic​ 

a/n: oh god this sat in my drafts for so long and i really dont know what im doing like i kinda have a rough outline of what im doing but im just going with the flow but i dont think the flow is quite flowy 

[stellar-imagines]

SCENARIO REQUEST: ❝unpleasant news.❞

[ Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia ] [ Characters: Todoroki Shouto ]

「Scenario of Todoroki’s S/O being critically injured by villains and she doesn’t come to class one day and suddenly their phones all go off with the breaking news report about what happened.」

TODOROKI SHOUTO

"The convenience store? At this hour?" Todoroki questioned.

Todoroki took a moment to glance over at the clock sitting on his desk. It was quite late at night and not the time for you to be going out to the convenience store. He put down the pencil that he had been using to do his homework and picked up his phone before heading to his futon that was spread out on the ground. He made himself comfortable before putting his phone on speaker. He could hear you moving about in your room, grabbing a few things before leaving. He could even hear you telling your mother that you were going to head out soon.

On the other hand, you were busy putting on your shoes, your mother reminding you to be careful on your way out, even though the store was just a few minutes away. The two of you had the habit of calling each other before going to bed so calling at this hour wasn't that uncommon at all. There was just something romantic with calling before bed and Todoroki seemed to be quite fond of doing something like this every day. He believes that hearing your voice before ending the day was such a wonderful thing.

"My mom used up all of the eggs and soy sauce for dinner and those are kind of a necessity for tomorrow's breakfast so....." you were walking down the empty streets, looking left and right before crossing roads.

"Ah, I see. Anyway, be careful. I'll see you tomorrow at school." Todoroki said.

You said your goodbyes before putting away your phone. There were still a few cars here and there but the road was still devoid of people. The store itself was empty, there were only employees present at the moment, most were seen chatting by register while the rest busied themselves with cleaning. Upon your arrival, the staff greeted you warmly. You quickly bought what your mother had requested, along with some snacks that you will be having for yourself.  When you finished shopping, your mom has asked about your whereabouts while Todoroki texted you to call him once you got home and told you to stay safe. You replied to both texts while you were still inside the store.

On the way home, you heard a bit of rustling by the alleyway ahead of you, followed by a few voices. You thought nothing much about it until three figures emerged from the alleyway which made you stop abruptly. Two were men, both donning a mask the covers half of the lower face. The last one was a female who looked like she was being dragged away against her will, judging from the small cuts on her arms and the bruises. She looked no older than 30 years old who looked like she worked at a company. It didn't take long for you to understand what's going on.

"I thought you said that no one uses this road at night!"

"And I thought I told you that it depends!"

The two suspicious men argued with one another while you took the chance to assess the current situation. It was late at night and then chances of other heores coming is very slim. You put aside your bag and got into a fighting stance. Without warning, you lunged forward to secure the victim while they were still arguing amongst themselves and leaving themselves open. They both looked genuinely surprised at how quick you acted and immediately turned towards you. The villains attempted to attack you but you blocked their attack and stepped back. The woman stirred awake from all the noise and movement.  

"You're awake. That's great. You don't seem to have major injuries, please rest assured and let me handle this." you smiled gently at the woman who was still trying to comprehend what was going on.

"Judging from the way you move.....you must be a hero in training."

"Don't blame us if you get hurt."

With that, you exchanged blows with the two unknown masked figures.

The next day was a nice and clear day. Todoroki finds himself quite disturbed at how nice the day was, he woke up feeling extremely exhausted and noticed that he still had his phone in hand. He quickly got up to ready himself for school, putting his phone aside and kicking off the blankets. By the time he stepped out of the house, he had his eyes on his phone. In the end, you didn't give him a call once you got back home. Todoroki assumed that you probably didn't want to disturb him and decide to leave him alone to sleep. Then again, he could see you at school anyways.

"Good morning, Todoroki-kun!"

He heard Midoriya's voice while he was changing his shoes by the lockers. Following the green-haired male were Uraraka and Iida who were waving at Todoroki as well.

"Oh, everyone.....Good morning." 

"Uwah, what's with that tired look on your face?" Uraraka questioned.

"I was just thinking about something." the bicolored haired male replied.

The four students headed to Class 1-A, only to see that their classmates chatting with one another. Todoroki headed to his seat at the back, paying no heed to whatever was going on within the classroom. His phone vibrated within his pocket, a bit too violently that it annoyed him a bit. It wasn't until he sat down that he pulled out his phone He finds a few messages from his older siblings, others were notification from other apps that told him about the most recent news. In the group chat he was in, which had all Fuyumi and Natsuo in it, had numerous notifications. It seemed like the two were calling for him. He scrolled up and found a link to a certain page. There he saw a video of a live broadcast from just a minute ago.

"This just in! The police and pro heroes had managed to capture two villains who have been wreaking havoc for the past month." the loud volume was enough to attract a few people's attention. A few students gathered around Todoroki to see what was going on. On display was a video of civilians surrounding the site while the police tried to keep them in check.

"The two villains were famous slave traders, attacking at random patterns which threw the police force and pro heroes off guard with their timing. Here we are, interviewing the victim from last night." the camera then switched over towards a woman who was seated at the back of the hospital, fresh bandages littering her arms and some on her face.

"I remember going home and suddenly, I was pulled into the alleyway. After that, everything was blurry but I was saved by a hero. She was really kind and prioritized my safety. Even though she was still a student, I could tell that she's going to be a great hero someday. She was critically injured when I finally regained consciousness but at that moment the villains were already defeated, yet she still tended to my injuries and even called an ambulance for me. Although it might not be enough, I would like to pay for her hospital bills." the woman had a solemn yet sad look on her as if she could feel someone else's pain.

"The student turned out to be a first-year student from the hero course of UA. She goes by the name [Last Name] [First Name]....."

After that, everything became silent for Todoroki. The news was too heavy for him to take in right now. He managed to put all the pieces together. The reason as to why you didn't bother to even send him a message. His classmates began talking amongst themselves while keeping their eyes onto Todoroki's phone screen. They were so focused on the news that they failed to notice that their homeroom teacher had entered the classroom, ready to start school.

"What are you all doing? Put your phones away, it's time for homeroom." Aizawa put down his attendance book onto the table.

"Sensei! Did you know about this?" Kaminari showed the teacher his phone which had an article that contained information about your heroic deeds and hospitalization. Aizawa looked at the phone for a few moments before looking at everyone in the class to see their expressions. As expected, everyone was worried. You were one of the lively students in the class that can change the mood so this was expected.

"I know that you're all worried but there's nothing you can do about it. Let the pros handle it. You all can go visit her after school so just be quiet and pay attention because I'm not gonna repeat this again." Aizawa quickly changed the direction of the conversation and finished off homeroom. Throughout the entire day, everyone was quite worried about you.

During lunch break, Todoroki had the chance to use his phone and the first thing he did was call you. However, it was your mother who had picked up instead. Judging from how relaxed your mother sounded, Todoroki could deduce that you're not in a serious condition. Your mother had told him what he needed to know, which includes your well being and a detailed explanation of what exactly happened last night. He hung up once he heard his classmates calling him to go back to class. After he sat down on his seat and pulled out his textbook, he made a mental note to go to the bakery to buy your favorite stuff before visiting you.

As soon as classes ended, Todoroki was already packing his things as fast as possible. Midoriya, Iida, and Uraraka had stopped him before he had left, telling the bicolored haired male that they wanted to visit you as well. They stopped by the bakery by the train station before taking a 5-minute walk to the hospital. By the time they arrive, the sky’s color had changed. The receptionist was kind enough to guide the four students to your room despite the busy schedule she probably has. The moment they arrived in front of the room you were resting in, a nurse exited the room with a few papers in hand.

”Oh, you all must be [Last Name]-san’s visitors. Thank you for coming so far to visit but it's not the right time. She’s currently resting after an operation. Sorry but perhaps, maybe you can come to visit tomorrow.” the nursed smiled apologetically at the four. Iida shook his head, telling the nurse that there’s no need to apologize for something she couldn’t control.

Though they were disappointed, they knew that it was best to not disturb your slumber and let you get as much rest as you possibly could. Todoroki voiced out that he wanted to stay and said something about wanted to see you. Uraraka handed him the flowers she, Midoriya, and Iida had bought together, telling him to say hello for her in case you wake up. The three said their goodbyes before heading towards the elevator. The nurse guided the bicolored haired male into the room and drew the curtains together. Once he was within your room, he took a moment to study the interior.

The hospital wasn’t unfamiliar to him at all, since he often visited his mother during the weekends. But, he decided to explore the room. There was a wall-mounted TV right in front of your bed, it looked like the latest model. A window giving him a view of the world below. In the corner were two chairs with a short, rectangular coffee table. Todoroki set down the bag that held your favorite desserts and placed the flowers in the vase. He dragged the chair next to your bed and sat down, eyes fixated on your sleeping form. He felt useless. He reached for your hand, feeling how cold it was beneath his fingertips.

"She has internal bleeding and suffered temporary blood loss. When she came in, she was bleeding all over but thankfully, we had a donor. The doctors say that they're unsure when she will wake up but for now, they did all they can." the nurse assured Todoroki after seeing the frown etched onto his face. The nurse excused herself and left the room.

All he could think was how he could've prevented this if he offered to accompany you last night. Seeing you on the hospital bed reminded him of how dangerous being a hero actually is and how fragile a person's life was. He squeezed your hand gently, silently hoping that you would wake up and return the gesture. What if you never wake up? What would happen if you were to disappear completely from his life? From your family and friends? He didn't know when he started relying on your comfort and reassuring words.

You were like a ray of sunshine, devoid of impurities, and darkness. When he was at his lowest and angry at himself for getting riled up at the thought of his father, you were there for him. You didn't have to say anything to make him feel at ease. You would do it unconsciously, coming into his room and surprising him with some baked goods or sneaking up on him to give him a hug. Though they were only little things, it was enough to cheer him up. Your presence itself was a blessing in disguise.

He hoped that he treated you well enough.

But he knows that you're strong and that you will pull through. Todoroki knows what he should do now. He should take care of himself and be the one to take care of you once you wake up. It may not be enough to repay you for all the times you stayed with him but it was the least he could do.

"I'll come back tomorrow."

Hopefully by then, you'll be awake.

Total: 2323 words Published: 27.08.2020

Thank you to those who participated in the poll!

Thank you for requesting! ｡٩(ˊᗜˋ)و*｡ We did our best with this scenario and it turn out as angsty as we thought. And we didn’t really make that sad hospital scene. But we hope you enjoyed it nonetheless.― author Lou

Thank you for requesting! There’s a lot of things we could’ve improved but we didn’t really know what we should do. Hope you liked it, anon! ― author Natsuki

Requests are open! Matchups are closed!

Please do not mind the grammar mistakes and typos.

[the-final-sif]

Now, for the fake quarantine dating au aka the Fuyumi has gone feral au, we’ve now got 3/4 todoroki siblings hanging around the league of villains. Obviously this can only go well. Incorporating some lovely suggestions I got in here.

Fuyumi is now on quite good terms with most of the league. She’s practically adopted Toga as her new younger sister. Because really, the girl is quite sweet when she’s not stabbing people and she’s still a teenager. Fuyumi is a really good influence on Toga and while there’s obviously a lot of things she can’t help with, she’s able to at least get Toga to be better about consent and stalking.

Twice & Fuyumi become super close, at first just because Twice is keeping an eye on her to make sure she’s not taking information she’s not supposed to, but it quickly becomes a regular friendship. Twice is extremely supportive of Fuyumi and honestly he’s just so happy to be helpful that Fuyumi can’t help but like him.

She’s so used to being in a caretaker/helper role, that Twice being so eager to help her out is unfamiliar to her, but honestly a godsend at the same time. Twice helps her manage the new extra workload of being a villain, and encourages her to keep going when she starts worrying that she’ll never find Touya.

I should mention in here that the league is actually the paranormal liberation front by this point, and Skeptic/Re-Destro/the others are hanging around, and at the very least Skeptic and Re-Destro are aware of who Fuyumi is and why she’s here/that she’s not really a villain, but honestly they’re just so relieved that there’s an Adult that Tomura and the others will listen to and who seems to actually know what’s she’s doing, so they’re keeping their mouths shut.

There’s probably a good month in here where Fuyumi suspects that Geten might be Touya who got quirk swapped by AFO, but eventually that theory gets disproved, putting her back at square one.

Under Fuyumi’s guidance, the league rescues Kurogiri from jail (although none of the core members are aware of his status), so now they have two Real Adults around, which is great.

Tomura is extremely happy to have his foster father back. Kurogiri is so proud of the progress he’s made while he was gone (and he 100% pulls Fuyumi aside privately to thank her for getting Tomura to dress respectably), and the two of them have a genuinely nice reunion.

One problem: Tomura now has now been dating Natsuo for a month, has caught Serious Feelings, but nobody knows about any of this and Tomura doesn’t even know how to go about telling anyone, let alone Kurogiri.

It doesn’t help that 1) since he accidentally told Natsuo his old name, Tenko, he then had to tell Natsuo that he’s still in the closest and ask him not to mention him to anyone by name to stop that from getting out. 2) Natsuo has no idea that he’s a villain, let alone the leader of the league of villains, because for obvious reasons, Tomura doesn’t think that will go over well.

He doesn’t want to lie to his boyfriend, but he doesn’t know how to tell the truth either. There’s so many things he can’t say, and even though he’s mostly just been avoiding answering certain questions, it’s still weighing on him.

All of which comes to a head one evening when the two of them are lying in bed, not doing much besides cuddling, something that is still extremely foreign to Tomura and which makes him a bit nervous, even with special gloves on. Maybe it’s how undemanding Natsuo is for answers, or maybe it’s because getting Kurogiri back has made Tomura more brave, or maybe it’s just that he’s kept secrets for too long, but regardless, Tomura’s the one who breaks the silence.

“I feel like- I- There’s things you should know. About me. That I haven’t told you. That I need to tell you. But-” And he doesn’t even know where he was going with that, because he can’t tell Natsuo, but god he needs to.

“Hey, hey, hey, easy.” Natsuo has a grin on his face, softer than his normal one but every bit as bright. “It’s okay. I mean, if there’s things you want to tell me, than I’m happy to listen, but you don’t owe me answers or anything. I get it. Everyone’s got skeletons in their closet. If you’re not ready to tell me yet, that’s just fine.”

God, he was so nice and Tomura wanted nothing more than to take him up on that, but all the same he knows that Natsuo wouldn’t be saying that if he knew.

“I want you to know, but I also don’t. Because it’ll change things. Don’t try to say it won’t. I know it will. There’s no way it won’t. And you deserve to know about it, but I don’t know how to tell you. I want you to know, but I like things how they are too and I don’t want them to change.”

Natsuo’s quiet for a moment, clearly considering before his fingers come up to gently stroke through Tomura’s hair, and fuck if that doesn’t help him calm down.

“Okay. I get that. It’s still okay if you aren’t ready yet though. If it makes you feel any better, there’s stuff I haven’t told you either, for the same reason. I like what we have now, and I don’t want to lose it. But hey even if knowing more about each other will change things, that doesn’t mean it’ll be worse. Just different. Change can be good too. Who knows.”

Again, it takes a lot for Tomura not to interrupt and say he knows this won’t be a good change. But he manages. He doesn’t manage to find any other words to say though, too busy wondering what secrets someone as kind as Natsuo could possible have. 

“Tell you what, I’ve been meaning to get this off my chest anyways, so how about I go first? Then if you feel like telling me your stuff, you can, or we can just save it for another night. Okay?”

Tomura nods, because that sounds nice, and who knows, maybe he’ll get lucky and Natsuo will reveal that he’s a villain too or something.

“Alright, here goes; the reason I haven’t told you my last name is because it’s Todoroki. And yes, it is the Todoroki you’re thinking of. Endeavor’s my father, and Shouto Todoroki, from the UA sports festival and stuff, that’s my younger brother.”

Oh god fucking damn it.

Suddenly, Tomura’s brain helpfully supplies him with a few facts.

He has, while not directly tried to kill Natsuo’s (and Fuyumi’s???) father, enabled Dabi to attempt something of that scale.

Wait, doesn’t Dabi have a grudge against that guy? It’d always been a bit weird to Tomura, but he hadn’t really questioned it. Not until now. That’s going to be a major problem.

“I didn’t tell you for a few reasons. One, I didn’t want you to like me or not like me because of him. Two, I noticed you were kinda jumpy about hero stuff and I didn’t want to scare you off, and three, my relationship with him is kinda... complicated. Definitely not great. It’s got to do with a lot of things, but Touya’s a pretty big part of it all.”

It takes everything in Tomura’s body to hold back his instinctive responses of ‘Do you want me to kill him for you?’, because at this point he doesn’t want to make that offer unless he means it, and he might mean it soon. Depending on a few things. He let’s his gut guide his tongue instead.

“You’re brother’s pretty important to you, huh?”

Natsuo laughs, and it’s something soft and bittersweet, but fond. Still so very fond.

“Yeah, I mean, both of them are. But Touya was my older brother. He was always looking out for me. He was a pretty sickly kid, but he had a fire in him like nobody I’ve ever met. Literally and metaphorically. I still remember how some older kids tried to pick on me after school- it must’ve been ten years ago now- he was so tiny back them, but that didn’t stop him. They weren’t taking him seriously, one of them asked him what he planned to do against them when he wasn’t even up to their shoulders.”

This time Natsuo’s smile is more fond, lost in memories. Something about this is causing ideas to connect in Tomura’s brain, and he knows it’s heading towards something, but he’s scared to get there. Why though?

“Touya looked the guy right in the eye said ‘This’, and without blinking or even changing his expression, just with a little flick of his hand, he sent a wave of flames across the ground. Before they could do anything, he melted their shoes in place so they couldn’t do anything. Then, while they were panicking about it, he got his big creepy grin on his face. The kid who’d been leading them looked up and I think he almost fainted out of fear when he realized that he couldn’t fight back or get away. He apologized real after after that, promised they’d never do it again, and Touya said they better not, or next time it wouldn’t be their shoes that he melted. Then he turned on his heel, grabbed my hand and walked me all the way back home. I never got picked on again after that. But that was Touya for you, nothing ever scared him.”

Vividly, a memory flashes in front of Tomura’s eyes of some low level grunt getting in Dabi’s face. The guy had been getting a bit too friendly with Toga while she was still recovering from her eye injury. She was on pain meds at the time, and honestly Tomura had been about to decay the guy where he stood when Dabi stepped in and told him to back off. Apparently the guy thought he was hot shit because he asked why he should.

The very next second, blue flames had erupted and the guy was stuck in place, bound by his own shoes and helpless to do anything but simper out apologizes as those flames hovered around him, the smell of burning flesh hitting the air. Tomura hadn’t heard what Dabi had said, but he’d heard the rumors afterwards. ‘Next time, my flames will be burning a whole lot more than just your feet. Got it?’.

He hadn’t actually burned the guy’s feet off all the way, but it was enough to leave scars as a reminder.

Tomura had wondered many a time what Dabi was like when he was younger. Before he was Dabi.

It was almost funny, to find out that he’d always been like this. At least on some level.

Years of training was the only reason Tomura managed to keep a straight face and his voice somewhat even.

“Sounds like he was a pretty good brother.”

“Yeah. He really was. I miss him so much. All of us do. I know Fuyumi told you guys that she’s thinks he’s still out there, I don’t know if I believe that or not, but I don’t really have the heart to tell her to let it go. I probably should. It’s been years. I just... I just really like to think he’s still out there somewhere. I’d give almost anything to get him back, if I could, so I can hardly blame her for looking for him.”

Silence for a moment.

“Sorry, that’s kinda a lot to dump on you- I don’t really talk about him a lot these days.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I- I get it. My family- some of them anyways- it’s not the exact same, but it’s similar. I miss them a lot too. And-”

Tomura wanted to tell him the truth, but fuck, he couldn’t. As much as he wanted to tell his boyfriend that his brother was alive, had been this entire time, even now looked out for them because now that he was thinking about it, fuck, no wonder Dabi had been avoiding Fuyumi even while he vouched for her. But-

But it wasn’t his place to. That wasn’t his secret to share.

“-who knows, I can’t say I’m one to believe in miracles, but they do happen sometimes.”

Fuck that sounded sappy. It made Natsuo grin though, bright and wide, and so it was worth it. Worth the guilt that settled in Tomura’s chest, for all the things he couldn’t say yet.

Biting his bottom lip, Tomura decided to switch topics, meandering back to far lighter discussions of new games coming out soon. He’d wanted to tell Natsuo everything- but not tonight.

There was someone else he had to talk to first.

[nightlilly0110]

Prompt: One person is a professor that overshares, the other doesn’t say anything about their personal life, no one realizes they’re together - Shigadabi

Dabi is an ethics professor while Shigaraki teaches philosophy; their courses are co-requisites, meaning they have to be taken at the same time to get a full credit.

No one realizes they’re together mostly because their students usually see them arguing, most likely about Stain and how the hell are you an ethics professor if you condone murder????

The first time they (Class 1A) walk into Dabi’s classroom they are terrified because this man has most definitely killed someone why is he allowed to be around people???

They get used to him later on, as he’s mostly insightful and only raises his voice to makes sure the back of the room can hear him, but they’re still low-key scared about how he looks.

Shigaraki, on the other hand, acts like he’s on crack most of the time. He’s a feral bastard of a man and they’re sure that even though he dresses nicely there’s no way he picked out those clothes himself and he kinda looks like someone wrestled him into them. His attitude is mostly “I don’t give a fuck but I have to be here so I’m here and I guess that means I actually have to teach well”

Plot twist: he’s actually a really well known academic in the community and has won awards and given speeches and shit. He’s really smart but he doesn’t have anything else going for him. Of course, he didn’t tell them that. They found out because quite a few of their course readings mention him by name and of course they went digging to find out he’s highly respected. He tells them nothing. They only know his last name.

The first time anyone sees the two professors together is when Shigaraki bursts into Dabi’s 8am lecture demanding coffee. Dabi keeps a small coffee machine in his classroom because he understands 8ams are terrible and it’s free for his students to use (it’s the cheap instant stuff but no one’s complaining).

Anything said at 8am is jarring but it is even more so when it’s your rat bastard of a professor kicking open a door with the force of god yelling “COFFEE!”

Dabi, of course, does not give him coffee. Tomura says he’ll fight him for it after a solid twenty minutes of arguing. He immediately leaves and no one has ever heard anything about a fight between the two of them occurring but the next day Shigaraki gleefully walks into their 8am and makes himself a cup of coffee. Dabi doesn’t even stop lecturing and doesn’t even stop to even pretend to notice him. Every day after that, Shigaraki comes in for coffee and sits in Dabi’s chair as he drinks it, (creepily) smiling broadly, while Dabi is walking around and teaching.

Dabi overshares very much so and he is very happy to do it. He loves talking about his husband Tomura and all the stupid little things he does and why he’s in love with him and everything. One time he stopped his lecture to draw attention to the bento box his husband made for him and “isn’t that sweet he cooked it all himself and he hates cooking I love him so much”

His students use that as an advantage to stop hearing about what Plato said centuries ago and just hear cute little things about their professor. Dabi can and will rant for hours about his husband if no one stops him. He will also threaten you if you try to stop him.

The reason no one thinks that Shigaraki and Dabi are married, other than the arguing, is that Dabi always describes his husband as cute and adorable and kind and Shigaraki isn’t exactly that (at least not in public). The other reason is that Dabi always calls him by last name or “Mophead” when they’re in public.

Shigaraki will die before his students wrangle any personal information out of him and he will most likely kill you if you bother to ask him.

And yet, they still ask him. Shigaraki only cocks his head to the side, gives them the widest, creepiest smile he can manage and starts cackling for an uncomfortably long period of time.

There are so many wild bets going on based on what Shigaraki does in his spare time. A few people think he’s part of the yakuza. Kaminari is convinced he’s an escaped demon from hell and that’s why he’s so creepy and why he doesn’t give a shit about anything.

Someone once asked him if he was part of the yakuza and he said “hell fucking no Kai was a fucking mental case but he’s in jail so it doesn’t matter” and said nothing else about it. They wonder who Kai is constantly.

Kaminari said he once saw Dabi and Shigaraki civilly eating lunch together and no one believed him until Dabi once knocked on Shigaraki’s door, stuck his head in the middle of lecture and asked “Lunch?” to which Shigaraki bluntly responded “No, busy” and continued his lecture without even taking a breath.

Mina is the one that suggests that they find out whoever Dabi’s husband is because the man sounds like an absolute saint and they need to see this angel of a man. Bakugou unhelpfully chimes in that “the fucker is making it all up” because he’s mad about his own feelings for a classmate (cough Kirishima cough) and is jealous towards his prof’s happy relationship.

Shouto gets switched into both classes and is in for one hell of a trip when Professor “Dabi” calls him down on his first day yelling “SHOUTO I DIDNT KNOW YOU WERE IN THIS CLASS HI!!!!” because of course Shouto sits in the back with Midoriya.

There is no class that day as Dabi rants about his fantastic baby brother while Shouto falls asleep (on Midoriya, who is blushing) so he doesn’t have to listen to his brother’s rant. That, and he’s real tired.

Shigaraki just gives Shouto a nod, grumbles something about another Todoroki (he did not sleep the night before and he’s about to fall dead) and proceeds with his lecture as usual.

“Okay listen up I’ve got a head cold and this thermos is full of NyQuil. I’m gonna drink this and start talking but the lecture ends when your heads start turning into colourful squiggles” (from that one tumblr anecdote)

Shigaraki falling flat on his face during lecture is completely normal and it’s about as normal as Aizawa with the sleeping bag and he just continues his lecture from the floor after a small “I’m okay.” He’s not drunk or tired or sick or anything sometimes he just needs a good lie down but instead of lying down like a normal person he just splats like an ungraceful volleyball player diving for the ball. Dabi once came in and just stared at him for a while before asking “you good” which prompted Shigaraki to bolt up and shriek at him to get out of his classroom. After Dabi left he plopped down on the floor again. When he does this, sometimes he’ll start giggling for no reason. It’s like hearing a haunted doll laugh at you.

Every time Dabi mentions going out with his husband he gets extremely flustered. The first time it happened, someone asked him how long he and his husband had been married (expecting him to say a few months) and he responded with five years.

When they find out the two of them are married, shit gets fucking crazy. No one believes it. They think their professors are playing a prank on them for asking too many questions about their personal lives until Shouto is just like “yeah no that’s my brother in law”

“YOU KNEW THIS WHOLE TIME AND SAID NOTHING?!?!?!”

“.....was I supposed to?”

Most of their responses to Dabi are “Him????? Really?????”

Yes really because Dabi loves his disaster husband and the next person who says anything about it will fail their final.

[koris-crumbs]

Tea With The Todorokis:

A Todokami/Dabihawks story

Suggested by @camys1984

‘I have a todokami hc that's like, shouto and touya have sibling bonding time talking bout the energetic blonds they like, while neither the league or 1A knows.’

A/N: Sorry for taking so long with this request! I’ve been pretty busy the past couple weeks. Feel free to make more requests on this post, or go back to the original one!

Warnings: Cursing

It was cold. Even with half of his body feeling like it was practically on fire (which it was), Shoto still somehow felt cold. It made sense why, it was the end of November and it had been raining for the past couple days. Not cold enough for snow, but not warm enough for sun. Well...it was nighttime at the moment, but you get the picture. Now, you might be wondering what the hell Shoto was doing walking down the streets of Musutafu at eight ‘o clock at night, by himself, in the cold. The flickering light that came from the few streetlights was the only thing illuminating Shotos path, the streets empty as most people were waiting out the cruddy weather in their own homes. Probably everybody except for Todoroki.

To get to the main point, Shoto didn’t even want to be out here in the first place. The only reason he was out here is mainly because it would help him clear his mind, he had a lot of thoughts streaming in and out of his head...some of them more intrusive then others. You see, a certain electric blonde had managed to be occupying all the space in his brain. Yup, that electric blonde being the one and only Denki Kaminari. Shoto hadn’t even realized how it happened, hadn’t even taken notice of the times when he was staring long-fully across the classroom or the dorms at Denki. Brushed off the times when he found his mind drifting to thoughts of the bubbly, loud giggle of the human pikachu look-a-like. He had pushed his actual feelings down so much, that when he finally realized they might be a little less platonic then he originally thought, his brain just froze. Along with his entire right side.

Once he was aware of how he really felt for his extroverted and outspoken classmate, he didn’t know how to act around Kaminari anymore. It’s not like he was super close with the boy, at least he didn’t think so..? Denki usually just teased him the same amount he teased everybody else. Except for his friends that were dubbed the ‘Bakusquad’. That got Shoto thinking even harder about the subject. Was Kaminari...romantically involved with anyone? Kirishima? Sero? Hell, even Bakugo would make more sense than him getting with Shoto of all people. A dark feeling started boiling up from deep inside of Todoroki. He didn’t realize what it was at first, but then recognized it as the feeling of jealousy. It wasn’t something Shoto felt a lot, and it definitely wasn’t something he wanted to feel all the time. It made him feel...bad. Not that he hasn’t ever felt bad before. He definitely has. But, this was a different kind of bad. Jealousy was a different kind of bad...

“Something on your mind, little brother?” A deep, gravelly voice grumbled out from behind one of the nearby Japanese Maple trees. Oh. Right. There was another reason he had ventured out of the dorms this late at night. And that reason had been because of his hot-headed older brother. Touya Todoroki. Or as most of the world knew him, Dabi. To make a long story short, Touya had faked his death, lied to the entire family and had the world believing he was deceased. Going by the alias Dabi, and ‘becoming a villain’, although he knew better. The whole world believed it except for a chosen few who knew the truth. Those being Shoto, obviously, and the number two hero, Hawks. The only reason Hawks knows is because him and Shoto’s brother had gotten rather...close recently. Touya hasn’t clarified if they were romantic with each other, but it was clear that they were involved. Todoroki didn’t really feel the needy to ask about it, and really didn’t want to hear his own flesh and blood talk about how...intimate him and Hawks got. Shoto had learned enough about Touya to know that he wouldn’t hesitate in going into extreme detail about those sorts of things...

“You’ve been quiet for a while, so I’m gonna take that as a yes.” He drawled sarcastically. Pushing himself off of the tree from his position where he had been leaning against it. He shuffled up next to the heterochromic-colored eyed boy, bumping Shoto’s arm with his. The younger brother knew he had flinched, it was still weird to think that the guy who had literally kidnapped one of his best friends only a few months ago, had secretly been his brother and wasn’t even a villain technically. More like a vigilante if anything. Todoroki wasn’t gonna sugarcoat it, he knew him and his brother needed to discuss a lot more than the shit they had briefly touched on before. Shoto definitely had mixed feelings about his brother right now, but he couldn’t touch on them at the moment. Since Touya has decided teasing Shoto was his new favorite past time.

“Or...perhaps a someone-?”

“Oh shut it.” Todoroki immediately shut down Touyas jab at him. Which made the black haired males eyes gleam curiously and mischievously. A grin spreading across his face, which caused his scar to stretch in a way that made my skin crawl. Although I couldn’t really say much either.

“Oh-ho-ho, you definitely are. So, who is it? Midoriya? Bakugo? Maybe Yaoyorozu-?”

“Shut. Up.” Shoto hissed. Elbowing his older brother in the ribs. He had to admit, this was...nice. Most of Shotos family didn’t really know how to take jokes, to be fair neither did Shoto, but Touya was different. Fuyumi always treated him as a fragile little boy who would break if she said the wrong thing to him. Natsuo was hardly ever home, and the conversations they had on the phone were more like, ‘so how has school been? How’s the weather there? Etc, etc.’ they couldn’t do any joking with each other. Dad was...well, dad. And mom and him still hadn’t really gotten to that level of familiarity quite yet. Touya was the only one who he could talk to like this...the only one who would understand. Even if he wasn’t a hero, hell, he could hardly even be considered good...Shoto understood Touya. And Touya could understand him without either of them having to exchange words. So maybe...maybe he would understand this feeling that Shoto has been feeling more recently. He has experience right? With Hawks?

...It was better than asking dad.

“Touya..?” Shoto started, shoving his hands in his pockets as the two started walking side by side once again. Their shoes scraping against the concrete roughly as the two of them were dragging their feet, probably both needing to talk about something. Todoroki could physically feel his brother bristle up a bit at the usage of his real name. Being called by his fake name this entire time, it made sense why.

“What.” He responded dully. Almost as if he was bored of this conversation already. Shoto briefly wondered again if this was a bad idea. If his brother was going to be a dick about this...was it really worth it? “Spit it out, Shoto.” Touya piped up again, snapping his younger brother out of his thoughts. Shoto hesitated for another moment or so before taking a deep breath, and beginning to spill his thoughts.

“Is it normal...to feel attracted to someone you hardly know..?” Shoto asked softly, his voice barely a whisper. He didn’t like how his brother was quiet for more than a minute, it definitely didn’t calm the growing pit in his stomach. If he really had feelings for Kaminari, and Touya didn’t have anything to offer him, he was gonna be completely lost on how to make a move.

“Yeah. Attraction is totally normal. If the person looks good especially. This doesn’t seem like that though...this seems more involved. You’re romantically interested in someone it seems like...you have feelings for em.” Touya explained with a small grin on his face, staring ahead at the road in front of them. Shoto was surprised his brother had actually given him a decent word of advice. As he thought about what he had said for a bit longer, Shoto realized Touya was right. His feelings for Denki hadn’t been just a little, ‘oh he looks good’, he was attracted to the electric blondes personality. Some saw it as annoying, Shoto found it endearing. Some found Denkis constant flirting a nuisance, while Shoto wished the other male would flirt with him instead of everybody else. Huh.

Oh fuck...he had feelings for Denki fucking Kaminari...

“...Ah, okay...” Shoto awkwardly mumbled in response to his brother giving him a questioning look. He had probably been silent for too long again...he should change the subject, quick, quick. “So, I’m assuming you’ve experienced this before..?” Shoto asked quietly. Yes, he had an idea of who it was that his brother was involved with, but he just wanted to make sure he had it right and wasn’t thinking about things too much. Flashbacks of when he accused Midoriya of being All Mights secret love child flashed through his brain...which in his defense kind of made sense, but still.

“Well yeah, no shit. You think I would tell the number two hero who I actually was if I wasn’t involved with them in some way?” Touya snapped back sarcastically. The older male crossing his arms, which let Shoto get a better view of the rest of the burns and scars that were occupying Touyas arms. Snapping his gaze back forward, he thought about what his brother had just revealed. He knew there was a pretty good chance Touya had been romantically connected with the hero, but hearing it come straight from the others mouth was a whole different thing. “...He’s honestly my lifeline, Sho. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I hadn’t met him when I did...the League isn’t exactly a friendly environment to sit down and talk about how you miss your family and don’t really wanna be doing that kind of shit anymore just for kicks...” Touya continued. And Shoto listened intently. Happy that him and his brother were finally discussing something. It seemed like that was all Touya had the guts to share though, since he stopped talking soon after that. Shoto was also silent for a few moments, before finally speaking up again.

“Well, Hawks is a good person to be around. He annoys the hell out of dad as well, that’s a plus.” The half and half male attempted to joke. Only earning a slight chuckle from his older brother, before the two fell back into their awkward silence. God, this felt so weird...at the same time though, it felt familiar. Like they were just normal siblings talking about their crushes to each other. Shoto knew that Touya only focused on most of the ‘stronger’ people in his class. Bakugo, Midoriya, Tokoyami, etc...so he may not know who Kaminari was...it was fine to drop at least a couple hints...right? “...The guy I like is really loud, can be considered annoying, but he’s really sweet. And determined. He thinks he’s weak and is always striving to get better, but he’s already gotten so strong. It’s amazing how much potential he has, he just needs to realize that.” Shoto ranted. Running his hand through his multicolored hair. He couldn’t read the look on Touyas face from this angle, but he could definitely make out the slight upturn in his lips and the slight huff of laughter that escaped from his brothers mouth.

“Sounds like this guy is pretty great. But, he doesn’t sound like any of the little bitches I’ve met before in your class.” “Don’t call them that. And, that’s because you haven’t met him. And, I swear to god Touya if you go seek him out purposely and do the whole ‘older brother interrogation’ thing I’m never visiting you again.” Shoto growled in a low, warning tone. Touya raised his hands up in a surrendering sort of gesture. Shaking his head in response as he snorted.

“Calm down, I wasn’t planning on it. I’m definitely not risking getting caught right now.” Touya said in response to Shoto getting defensive. To which the younger of the two seemed to relax a bit more, quieting down and focusing his gaze onto the ground. He could practically feel Touyas icy turquoise eyes staring a hole into him, almost as if he was studying him. To which Shoto merely raised his eyebrow in response, giving his older brother a questioning look. That caused Touya to chuckle a bit, and quickly gaze back upon the road instead of at Shoto. “All I’m saying is, you sound really sure about this guy. If you really do feel that way about it, then you should do something about it.” “But-“ “Don’t give me the ‘I don’t know how to talk to people excuse’. If I can get a boyfriend of all people, so can you.” Touya said, and for once in his life, Shoto heard absolutely no hesitation in his voice. He was serious about this. And, as Shoto looked over to see his brother, he was met with Touya staring right back at him, a small smile and a sincere look in his eyes. Only having to receive a small nod from Touya, Shoto felt the corners of his lips quirk upwards.

“Fine, maybe I will.”

[random-mha-thoughts]

Little Fluffball (TodoBaku)

Pairing: TodoBaku

Genre: Fluff

Summary:  Shouto comes home before his feisty boyfriend to a cat sitting outside his apartment that surprisingly reminds him of his special someone.

Inspo: This fanart originally by @heydenhein (it’s actually been on my list of things to write for months, I’m glad I finally got to use it~)

Word count: 1,477

Tags:  @yuki-osaki​ @liviitehe​ @iamsoftsodonttoucheume-blog​ @bunnythepipsqueak​ @lonelyfangirl453

a/n:  Final post for ShouCat Week! It’s a little late but hey, it’s still Friday in at least 3 timezones sooooo I’m not late technically

This one featuresTodoBaku!  It was supposed to be Todo x Reader, but looking back at the art that inspired this, I realized I forgot the cat was actually Bakugou, so surprise ship I guess!

That’s a wrap on ShouCat Week and my first event!  Hope you guys enjoyed it~  The masterlist will be pinned for the remainder of the weekend for you to catch up on the other stories before I replace it with the brand new Navi page I made a few days ago ^^.

Chibi’s ShouCat Week masterlist 

Shouto didn't know why a cat was waiting in front of his apartment door so casually.  He had a mini staring contest with the puffy blond cat laying there like it owned the place and was locked out.  The feline had turned its head when it sensed the man approaching the door, leaving Shouto extremely confused, but minutely intrigued by it.

"Are you lost, little one?" he asked, kneeling down in front of the huge ball of taking up space in front of his door.

The cat's face scrunched up into what he could only register as annoyance, striking him as odd.  He didn't know cats could express such human emotions, not to mention them having such attitudes.  Thought, admittedly, he thought there was a tickle of familiarity scratching at the back of his head.

"You can stay the night here for now.  We'll take good care of you."  He stood to insert the key into his door and swing it open.

Without a moment's hesitation, the cat sprinted inside with its stubby legs and perched itself on the middle cushion of the couch, sinking down as it stretched and purred to make itself comfortable.

Shouto almost laughed at how it managed to make itself instantly at home, and how that space was usually where the man would find his boyfriend when he returns from work.  Speaking of, he wondered where his boyfriend could be at this hour when he was sure he had no work today.

The candy-cane haired man shrugged, figuring he would come home whenever he was ready, settling next to the soft hedgehog of a cat and stroking its surprisingly soft fur.  "You definitely remind me of someone special, little one."  A soft smile played on the man's lips.

The cat turned from its laying position to shoot Shouto another annoyed glare, this time baring its teeth at him.  From this close, Shouto noticed how the eyes were the same crimson red his boyfriend has.

The man only chuckled.  Being with his boyfriend had certainly made him immune to any pointed glares from anyone.  "You two share a lot of similarities, that's all.  Your hair's the same color, your eyes are the same, you have the same attitude as him, you even chose his favorite spot on the couch to sit.  I wouldn't mind keeping you as a pet for us, we'll see what he says when he comes back."

Shouto always knew he wanted a pet, something to share with his hotheaded partner, something to solidify and strengthen their relationship, something to call their own.

The puffy cat jumped on top of Shouto's lap suddenly, growling low and staring at him.

"What is it?  Is there something you wish to say?"  The man had no idea what to do at times like this.

"Meeeooow!" it suddenly yelped, placing a paw on his shirt, glaring its scarlet eyes straight into Shouto's soul.  Surely, this cat had something on its mind, but the lack of a shared language wasn't helping the situation as he can only stare blankly at the expectant animal.

In an exasperated huff, the cat pounced onto the floor and pattered towards the nearby coffee table next to the TV, taking a photo frame into its mouth and returning back to Shouto.

The perplexed man grabbed the frame.  "Yes, this is me and my boyfriend.  As I said, you two share many similarities-"

"MEEEOOOOWW!!!"

Shouto sighed.  "I really don't understand what you're trying to say-"

Once again, the cat growled in dismay at the dense man in front of him.  How can he see one single similarity between two people and immediately theorize that they're long last family members, but not put two and two together in this situation?

The cat sat on its hind legs and tapped one of its front paws on the man's leg.  Shouto could only find it adorable how the cat seemed to have the ability to think like a human.  It would be an excellent addition to their family.  He couldn't wait for his boyfriend to come home to tell him about it.  "You're a peculiar one, little one.  I know you two will get along nicely."  His hands scratched behind the sand-colored ears standing at attention.

At the gesture, the wound-up feline couldn't help relaxing against the man's fingers, triangle ears flattening against its giant, furry head and body.

"You must love cuddles too, don't you?"  Shouto gathered the ball into his arms to bury his face in the precious fur.  "Wow, you even smell like him too."

The cat pawed at Shouto's ear before nipping at the lobe, eliciting a petal of laughter from the man.  "Alright, maybe I should have dinner and we can go to bed to wait for him."  The man cradled the cat and towed it into the kitchen, setting it on the counter.  The man began reaching for a plate and a small bowl.  "I can't really cook, the only thing I know how to do is boil noodles."

There's a hard crackling of plastic suddenly.  To Shouto's surprise, the cat had the bag of soba noodles in its mouth by the edge of the package.  The man pat it on its head.  "How did you know I needed this?  You're so smart."

The cat rolled it eyes.  It's given up at this point.

As Shouto went about cooking his meal and turned the stove on, the cat shrieked and almost slipped off the counter pushing its paw out to lower the dial.  "MEOWW?!"

"Oh, I guess I did set it too high."  The man noticed the mistake and gave the cat another well-deserved scratch behind the ears.  "Well done.  If Bakugou were here, he would've yelled at me for almost burning the house down."

After preparing his meal and setting the table for himself, Shouto sat at the table to eat his dinner while the cat sprawled itself onto the bed in the room, closing its eyes and trying to drift off to sleep on its own as Shouto finished his dinner, showered, and came back out in his sleep clothes.

"What a tiring day," the man sighed again, his muscles still a dull ache from the hot shower.  Winding down, the stress of the day finally weighed down on him.  Admittedly, he's still worried about the whereabouts of his boyfriend.  It wasn't like him to be out terribly late considering his strict sleep schedule.

But when Shouto lifted his eyes to the mattress where the fluffy lump lay fast asleep on Bakugou's side of the bed, he couldn't help but smile again.  Usually, he would talk to Bakugou about his day at bedtime, whispering to each other into the darkness.  Perhaps this cat could be the substitute he needed for now.

He climbed onto the bed and softly stroked the cat again, amused how his motions won't wake it up.  "What a champ sleeper," he cooed, gazing out the window.  "I'm worried that you won't get to meet your other dad today.  It's strange for him to be out this late.  I even called his phone, but he won't pick up."  He looked down at the mass of blond fur, listening to its deep breathing and feeling the rise and fall of its soft body.  "I'm really hoping you two get along.  Maybe not at first, since you're too similar to each other, but I know Bakugou's actually a huge softy.  He's secretly a sucker for cute things.  Maybe he'll think of you as his child."  Shouto's chuckle barely resounded in fatigued.  "No, he's probably not the type to be an obsessed pet dad."  He glanced out the window at the night sky again, his eyelids drooping.  "I hope he's safe."

A wet muscle tickled Shouto's palm, stunning him awake, only to see the cat's tongue lick him gently and purr while its eyes were still shut.

The man stroked his finger over the cat's pink nose.  "You're good at comforting, that's good."  Shouto's body finally wanted to give in.  He turned around and collapsed with a groan, his head nestled onto the cat's body.  "Let's see if you're good at being a pillow too."  His words garbled together in rising slumber.  He just barely missed the way the cat tensed at the sudden heavy weight.  "Good night, Kat-chan."

The cat only gave a final mumble in response.  "Meow..."

.

.

.

Bonus:

The first thing Shouto noticed when he woke up was his pillow being tougher than he remembered.  The cat pillow was much squishier.  He stirred to find a better position.

"Oi, wake up, you're crushing my ribs."

Shouto pried his eyes open to meet the face of his - currently annoyed - boyfriend.  "Bakugou?"  He shot up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.  "When did you get home?  Where'd you go?"  His speech was still garbled, tongue falling over itself as his groggy mind couldn't speak fast enough for his thoughts.  "Where's the cat?"

"YOU DUMBASS, I WAS THE CAT THE WHOLE DAMN TIME!  I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU NEVER CONNECTED THE DOTS!"

[filipinoizukuu]

gooood mornin' codi I woke up way late today but I finally remembered that I was meaning to send you an ask about what your anti-pet peeves for fics are (since you did pet peeves a while ago). in more sensible terms, what are things in fics that you really like?

anyways hope you have a wonderful day byeeee :]

! g'morning snail <3<3 and omg this ask.... positive vibes! thank you for asking :'D (this got really long so i put the rest under the cut :'))

im gonna do this in the same format as last time, so same disclaimers that these are all a matter of personal preference for me and just because they're absent from a fic doesn't mean its not a good fic!! i love yall fanfic writers v v much n appreciate ur service o7

in terms of writing, i'm not really picky over grammar or spelling or punctuation errors again, as long as its intuitively understandable. the following are just along the veins of writing styles i like!

- i love love LOVE deadpan humor and snarky dialogue. characters mouthing off at each other but still in character is always my absolutely favorite thing

- actually, good dialogue in general is enough to carry even the most "overused" tropes and plot-holey fics. Characters having excellent dynamics and playing off each other's energy and generally just not talking uniformly absolutely fucks!!

- fics that have good pacing. enough said. im absolutely feral for those.

- I love really rambly writing. The kind where topics jump from different things before coming back to the main point, because I think its a really interesting sneak peak into both 'realistic' thinking processes and also the author's personality. Think something similar to Victor Hugo's writing, but a little more personal and snarky.

- Third person POVs. <3. Sometimes 2nd person if its done right, bc homestuck showed me its an excellent device for some absolutely bangin jokes

For tropes or general things i enjoy, i really really like:

- PLOTTY FICS. god. if its multi-chaptered and has a compelling plot that isn't just "defeating another baddie!" and actually puts characters in really interesting situations, SIGN ME TF UP!!! This is the reason i really liked TWYUTD and Here, Here.

- In addition to the point above, I also really like time travel fix-it fics and kid fics! (both 'x character turned into a child' and 'x ship accidentally acquire children').

- ...i also really really like canon divergence fics. like any fic that has to do with taking a path slightly different from canon?? HELL yes.

- im a. glutton for shameless tooth-rotting fluff (snail u are absolutely one of the people to blame for this omg). i love domestic fluff but also like, courting fluff. the reason i really REALLY liked Here, Here was bc of all the sappy shit bkdk did together and how smooth katsuki was. love that shit.

- OUGH enemies to lovers or rivals to lovers or meet ugly. any of these variations are GREAT as long as there is tension. I love the flirting in these fics //sighs dreamily

- self-indulgent fics where ppl make x character extremely hot. the fic doesnt even have to be about that--its just that the second i read about my comfort character (in bnha's case: deku) being perceived as pretty and badass

- mutual pining. oh god mutual pining. especially the kind where everyone else can see it nd like the only people in denial are each other

- PARENTS!! LOVING!!! THEIR KID'S!! PARTNERS!!! also just good parenting in general. i get really tired of bad parenting tropes used for backstories

for bnha specific likes?? i have quite a few

- BIG THREE BEING GOOD FRIENDS. i love it when fics have shouto, katsuki, and izuku as really close and joking with each other

- shameless everybodys-in-love-with-deku enthusiast. everyone loves him all the time. they have to.

- DAD MIGHT (bonus points if either bisexual dad might or toshinko OR both)

- class 1a being generally close, not just with each other but also with the other classes and schools. mmm thats good.

- redemption arcs or fics where the lov are just petty or slowly assimilating into like, practically harmless people. i love seeing fics where dabi and shouto argue on the phone like big brothers, or even like melancholic takes where tenko gets imprisoned but him and deku talk regularly

- MAHORO AND KATSUMA MY BELOVEDSSSS

- . tall kacchan. thats. listen i just. like it when people are tall. bonus points if also tall ochako

- DOMESTIC ROOMMATES/HERO DUO BKDK!!!! WIN TO SAVE SAVE TO WIN!!! MEDIA'S DARLINGS!!!!!!! cries ok u cant tell me they wouldnt open up a heros agency after they graduate ok? ok.

- quirkless aus except theyre all still famous whcch is absolutely why i adore 'are u dating??'

- bkdk being so aware of each other and knowing each other so well that they can basically read each others minds and practically finish each other's sentences

- oblivious idiots <3<3

- deku n bakugou being real smart <3

- quirkless vigilante deku fics........ <3

[hearts4-robin]

can i have fluffy platonic headcanons of toga befriending a young pro hero who likes to hang out with her even though shes a villain and is kinda overprotective of her.

Of course you can! I'll try my best on this one :) I may adjust a few things and maybe make it a little fluffy angst- I hope that's okay <3

-------------------------

genre # fluffy angst

anime # Boku No Hero Academia / My Hero Academia

pairing # platonic friendship, Toga x y/n

warnings # torture, crying, blood, knifes, swearing

ages # Toga : 17, y/n : 16

-------------------------

# Thursday - 11.57 am. - U.A. class 1-A dorm building - y/n's room #

You and Toga had been friends since before you got into the U.A. Almost 2 years has passed since you got in and you now have your own, official, hero's licence. And you were proud of yourself. Toga was extremely proud of you as well. You two shared almost all your secrets. Almost.

"y/n! Look, I made you a pretty little gift!" You smiled as Toga passed you the small paper bag. "Thank you Toga-" you smiled shyly to yourself as you pulled out a bracelet with see through beads, they all had red liquid in the middle. "Ouuh, what do we have here?" You looked up at her as she smiled widely. "Do you like it?" She took the bracelet from you and took out your wrist. You nodded, smiling to yourself as a slight blush rushed up your neck. She gently closed the bracelet around your wrist before pulling her own sleeve up a little. "Look! Now we're matching, almost like couple bracelets!" You chuckled, finding the idea of you two weird but also pleasing. "What's the red liquid inside?" You could visibly see Toga's eyes light up with excitement. "It's our blood! I have your's in mine and you have mine. Do you like it?" She dragged out the words, like she was drunk on the idea. "I love it-" You felt a little uneasy about how Toga had gotten your blood but you shrugged the idea away. "I got them custom made, nobody seemed to recognise me!" You nodded as she spoke. She dragged out the words and giggled between her sentences. "Why did you make these?" you cut her off, looking from her to the bracelets around your wrists. "Because I love you! And nobody is allowed to take you away from me!" You smile softly at Toga's words as she giggled, grinning widely while blushing. "I won't let anyone touch you either. You mean too much to me." You smiled to yourself as Toga clapped her hands before leaning back in the chair in your room. "Even if I was... hm... a.. Villain?" Toga looked at you, her eyes suddenly not shining anymore. You widened your eyes, your chest tightening. "You're a villain?..." you mumbled, mostly to yourself but Toga threw her head back and spun the chair, laughing hysterically. "Mhm! You guessed right y/n, congratulations!" She laughed again, throwing herself on top of you and hugging you tightly.

"Why didn't you tell me in the start?-" Toga giggled and buried her face in your neck. "I was doubting if I could trust you with it." She was back to dragging out her words. Back to herself. "But after you protected me so many times, every time I was 'caught up' in the middle of a fight. I was always the first one you evacuated, why do you think I was always there?" You widened your eyes as you realised. "L.O.V... You're a part of the League of Villains-" You were shocked and partly scared. Toga giggled, her warm breath on the skin of your neck causing you to get goosebumps. "Are we still friends?" She cooed, tracing small circles on your collarbone. You thought for a moment, trying to figure out what would be the best. If you fought her now, you'd loose your only friend, your comfort, your everything. If you didn't, you could still keep people safe and have your soulmate. "Of course we are..." You could feel Toga's heart beat faster against your chest as she smiled widely. "Brilliant!"

Toga stayed over for the night but around 3 am. she had to leave. A meeting on what she called "the next mission".

# Saturday - 00.02 am - outside U.A. dorm buildings #

"So which one of them are we taking?" Twice looked at Toga who had been the one to come up with the idea to kidnap a student. She stayed quiet, grinning widely to herself as a hard blush creeped over her neck and cheeks. "What about that y/h/c kid? The one with the quirk where whatever they draw on their skin appears?" Toga raised her eyebrows as she looked at Dabi who was leaning against one of the trees. A wide grin spread across Toga's face. "y/n..." She giggled as both Twice and Dabi raised their eyebrows at her. "Who?" Twice asked, tilting his head. "y/n!" Toga said again, standing up from her hide-out behind one of the big bushes. "She's my friend! I can easily get her to follow us!" She dragged out her words as Dabi smirked a bit. "You surprise me, kid." He said before Toga shushed both of them. "I'll go get y/n! Make sure to let Shiggy know!" She giggled as she skipped towards one of the dorm buildings, looking up towards your window. She giggled before climbing up the wall, knocking on your window.

You rubbed your eyes, groaning to yourself s you sat up. "What the fuck.." You mumbled before looking at the window. You widened your eyes seeing Toga in the window. She giggle and tapped the window with her nail. You rushed out of bed, only wearing a pair of sweats and a tank top. "God damn girl, what are you doing up so-" You looked at your digital alarm clock and frowned before opening the window. "It's 10 minutes into Saturday- girl what the fuck?" You helped her through the window. You leaned out the window, looking around making sure nobody saw. You stepped back, about to turn around as you spoke. "Girl I swear if you're gonna kidnap me or some shit I will round-house kick yo-" You widened your eyes as you felt a cloth over your mouth and nose. You let out a small gasp, grabbing Toga's wrist as she held you. "T-Toga..." You looked at your weak reflections in the window, watching as Toga's grin grew wider.

# unknown day - 03.45 pm. - L.O.V.'s base #

You squinted your eyes open, feeling extremely dizzy. "Toga...?" You looked around, trying to identify the place. You frowned as you saw a man in a black suit, a young man with a black coat and purple scars and... Toga. "y/n! You're awake!" She giggled as she skipped towards you. She cupped your face and squished your face. "Toga-, Toga stop! What the fuck are you doing-, where am I?!" You frowned deeper and noticed Toga's smile fall. She tilted her head before walking past you, grabbing the chair you had been put and tied to. She tilted it back wards a bit, giggling at your reaction. You made eye contact with the young man in the black coat. "y/n... friend of Toga." You frowned deeper before looking over your shoulder to see Toga. "Tell us, what's the next big plan for the U.A.?" You frowned, clenching your hands into fists. "I don't know." You glanced at the man I the suit in the corner of the room before the door to your right opened up. "Shiggy!" You frowned as Toga let go of your chair, making you fall forward. You groaned at the sudden change, glaring up at the young man in his coat. "Toga. You got one of the students? Class 1-A, hm?" You frowned. " This was what you planned on that 'meeting' a few days ago?!" Toga laughed as she nodded. "Now! Join us, y/n! Become a villain with me!" She held out her hand to you like you weren't tied to a chair. "That's my line-, Shut up Toga!" Toga flinched away, pouting to herself. You felt even more anger well up in your chest at the other mans outburst. "Don't talk to her like that, crusty ass-" You snapped at him before he raised his hand at your head, placing four of his fingers on your skin. "As soon as my fourth finger touches your skin, you'll pulverise in this chair." He growled lowly at you. You widened your eyes, tears welling up in them. You looked at Toga. She looked unfazed. A pain stung in your chest before a loud crash was heard and your sight went black.

# Tuesday - 04.36 pm - local police station - private room #

"y/n!" You snapped your head up as Ashido, Shouji and Shouto stepped inside. Ashido sat down beside you. You had been staring at the floor for the past 20 minutes with tear-strained face. "y/n... are you okay?-" Shouji sat down on the other side of you. Before you got to answer, a police officer stepped through the door. "Himiko Toga. She says she's innocent. Speak up please." You looked up, tears starting to stream down again. "I-... Innocent."

--------------------------

ARRRRGGGHHHH- please-. This got a little rushed and I don't know if I like it or not. I hope it's alright tough-. Thank you for the request anon, it's highly appreciated <3

[hamliet]

I think your blog is one of the best out there. Maybe becuase of this , maybe because of your awesome takes... I find it hard being in the fandom. And I wanted to share this very unpopular opinion. The more it goes on the more I wonder : how did Enji turned into this? Most of all in fandom tends to justify touya because he’s the result of Enji’s abuse. However Enji isn’t a natural born abuser. I’ve read and saw plenty: he has not manias of control. He accept easily his wife to leave him (he wanted to build an house for her and since Shoto’s accident he hadn’t forced himself on her). He wanted an heir, true and he was more neglecting (which is a form of abuse). But many time were found evidences in studies neglecting parents have issues of their own. Which can be found in their original family and / or society (if no mental illnesses are implied).

This made me wonder. I love Japanese culture , novels and society. And one of the most recurrent theme , especially some decades ago, is the high pressure people are exposed. It was and sometimes still is a nichilist model in which you die or fly and sometime you can’t hope to Rise once again when you fail. For example the concept of “you need to go at a go prek to get in a good university and find a good job” is often depict and put to extreme in many media. This inspire even books in which families are up for anything to push their children and they are under great pressure. Since Enji seems a not so bad man per se, has no mental illnesses , the only thing left is his immense obsession that must come from something. And the fact that in society a man must be successful... I think here it is.

The fact he can’t express his feeling correctly for the most of MHA , neither he can’t read them at the point of being perceived “with no compassion at all” comply the stereotype of the father with way too high standard , this can’t come from nothing. It’s not hard unreasonable thinking he was most likely pressured as much when younger , and that broke him at some point (which is a recursive theme in many others novels). This doesn’t justify him, but it might explain why he ended up like this.

But while everyone seems to be able to... forgive dabi , justifying his doings becuase of how he was raised while condamning 100% Enji. However the lingering theme of my hero’s villains is that they aren’t a monster , they’re turned into one; and society played a huge role. I don’t stand for Enji’s actions (who would) but ultimately? If all villains were broken by society at some point (being AFO the only exception for now) why can’t be him too? Broken by a society that demands from heroes to be perfect , to never be weak, even through total desperation? Society even made a joke of all might who gave his life entirely and part of his organs for Japan. Rather than only condemning Enji for his doings , much like is doing with Dabi, the spotlight should be society again.

He did wrong. Terribly wrong. and now everyone is ready to crucify him. But how society taught him better ? How society perceive heroes as humans , how far they can be weak and fails and not be blamed? Like father , like son. Touya is the result of his family , I think it should be considerated Enji was the product of a corrupted society. Which never correct itself , never tries to change... they just discard heroes and villains alike just for not being “perfect”.

Hi! Aw, thank you for your kind words <3

So, I’ll break this down a bit, because I think this discussion needs a lot of nuance. I agree society affected Enji, but I don’t quite think that a victim of society is remotely comparable to being a victim of parental abuse.

To start with, I fundamentally disagree with the notion that abusers are born, and hence don’t buy that Enji is somehow different (or better) because he wasn’t born that way.

To note, I talking specifically about physical/emotional/spiritual domestic abuse, not about sexual abuse (and I don’t wanna talk about that because it’s not relevant here, so no one send me asks about it, thanks).

Abuse is a description of an action and its affects. I’ll quote @linkspooky’s meta on Hawks last week: abuser is not a bad word, it’s not just something that bad people do. It’s an unhealthy relationship dynamic that even good people, even sympathetic people can participate in. It’d be great if we could just do a genetic test and determine if someone is an abuser (actually it wouldn’t be great; it’d be dystopian and terrifying), but that’s not how people work.

However, “abuser” is seen as a bad word, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing (nuance/abuse is horrific and takes such a toll on people that I’m glad it is given serious weight in some respects, although imo it’s overemphasized in fandom places and underemphasized in real life) and I’m not getting into good/bad/pluses/minuses of linguistic connotations here.

Hence, I would actually categorize what Rei did to Shouto as abuse, and I do think the story indicates she was neglectful towards her other children. However, I have never labeled her an “abuser” because of the negative connotation as is clear she is not a repeat offender and Shouto doesn’t even blame her--he blames Enji, and I don’t think that’s an incorrect assessment either. It’s complicated. Abuse victims can be abusers at the same time as they are victims (ask many a kid of an abusive dad what their mom was like; at best if they didn’t intervene it’s usually neglectful and often people go no contact with both parents). People we love and care for can participate in abuse.

Mental illness is also complex in its relationship to abuse. Mentally ill people are far more likely to be victims of abuse than perpetrators, and  mental illness doesn’t make someone predisposed to being a bad person. Mental illness does affect how I see Rei’s actions, because she was clearly out of her mind at the moment she burned Shouto’s face; at the same time, mental illness doesn’t erase harm done even if the person can’t be held super culpable. Enji on the other hand was not mentally ill in the same way; he was able to think logically and separate right from wrong even within society (because society clearly still views beating your kids as bad).

It’s actually not really accurate to say that Endeavor didn’t try to control Rei and just let her go--he put her in the institution to keep her away from Shouto, which may have been motivated of course by trying to protect Shouto, but was more likely “trying to protect his masterpiece.” Rei instantly regretted what she had done; Enji didn’t show regret until after Kamino. Also, Shouto himself views it as taking their mother away, not as protecting him. In fact, he sees it as removing his protector and leaving him with just the abusive dad. Plus, Rei’s doctors probably wouldn’t have let him see her. So I absolutely do think Enji is a control freak.

For Enjii, there’s no indication of prior trauma besides just not getting what he wanted. But, as you say, I do think Enji was absolutely a product of society--culturally, though I’m not qualified to comment on that, and within the manga’s own framing of that culture. However, while Enji is a product of society, he is not framed with the child framing that is present around Touya; hence, why he’s not a victim in the same sense. He was an adult when he started doing bad things, capable of reason, as far as we know and there’s no indication this isn’t the case. He was ~20 when Dabi was born, so that means he was looking for a quirk marriage at the very latest by 19. That’s like starting your career as an administrative assistant and being pissed you’re not CEO like, a year after starting! That implies that he had a sense of entitlement at a very young age, entitled to the point of believing kids were not full people but instead extensions of himself to ignore, beat up, and cast aside as he pleased. Every aspect of Enji’s personality screams of toxic masculinity as well.

Also, almost every person who has ever done something wrong (and those who haven’t!) is a product of their environment as well as of their genetics, but I wouldn’t classify everyone as a victim--even though technically I suppose they would be, but the connotations are just not particularly fitting--and I wouldn’t call Enji one. Enji might be a product of society, but his kids are victims of a deliberate choice he had to be a terrible parent. Society sucks, but we don’t choose it and it doesn’t choose us in the same sense a parent chooses to treat their kids a particular way.  So, rather than saying Enji’s a victim of society, I think it’s more of society reaping what they’ve sown in terms of their #1 being revealed as a mass abuser; it’s karmic.

So to return to his character and Enji is also a representation of toxic masculinity--that is why for me personally, his crying this chapter  actually resonated. Like, I think it was well-framed in that his victims didn’t feel sorry for him and he cried before he knew they were coming, and while I get that people think he has no right to cry (as Rei and Natsuo said!). I see why people interpret that as manipulative, and while I absolutely think it was self-pitying, I also personally see it as human and realistic, and perhaps as a slight chipping away of the toxic masculinity that he embodies. We’ll see. I’m still no fan but that was the first moment in his redemption arc that struck me as sincere.

[shions-songbirds]

Shintodo Rambles

Okay, here’s the other ship post I promised! If anyone has any other ships they wanna see me do, please tell me! I’d be happy to! Rarepairs, major pairings, if you wanna see it, just ask. This includes polyships. I mean, the fic I’ve put the most time and effort into is todokiribaku. Honestly, so long as I have some idea of what to do with it I’ll take it.

Okay, anyway! Some rambles

These two have no strong feelings either way toward each other at first

Todoroki is a bit awkward, but so is Shinsou, so the two of them just... don’t have much of anything to do with each other 

Honestly, with the way the two of them are they don’t really have anything against each other but they don’t really have anything going for each other either

And sure, they have mutual friends, but Todoroki is just growing out of his “I don’t need (I’m not allowed to have) friends” phase and Shinsou is at the start of his own so really, it makes more sense to just... not talk to each other. Ever

They have similar interests but they just... neither of them really want to engage with the other. 

Now, something important that must be established: Shinsou is a cryptid

Sure, after the sports festival everyone more or less knows he exists but they don’t really know that it’s him that they’re constantly seeing around. He’s someone you see out of the corner of your eye, someone you don’t really know for sure is there, but can’t shake the feeling that he is. 

And of course, this leads to rumors, to dumb ideas circulating around UA. Rumors and ideas that make it to Todoroki. 

Most don’t know it’s Shinsou who’s the local cryptid, mind you. Most people just know there’s a student on the UA campus that no one can ever seem to pin down, or at least they assume the mentioned person is a student. One glance and he’ll be there, one more and he’s gone. Who is he? Does he really exist? All real and regular questions

(More under the cut)

So, local conspiracy theorist, definitely into cryptids even though he won’t admit it, Todoroki Shouto, is of course interested. Extremely.

He simply must know more about the UA cryptid. But how would he find out more

He has no names to work off of, he doesn’t know the quirks of anyone really outside of his own class and, to a point, 1-B’s, he has nothing to work off of. 

But he is nothing if not dedicated

He keeps track of every “UA cryptid” sighting, strings together all sorts of ideas about it, about what might be happening, all sorts of convoluted theories that overestimate the amount of free time Shinsou has in a given day

He’s by far the most dedicated “hunter” 

Largely in part to him needing a distraction when his friends aren’t around

Blocking out nightmares and awful memories takes a lot of work, and if he’s distracted by a thousand different thoughts and loops of logic it’s harder for him to be hurt

So he spends much of his time making sure he’s up to date on every little thing

This is a fact Shinsou happens to learn by chance

He knows of his reputation, of course he does, but he never really expected to see anyone get this into it

and what can he say, he’s curious to see what the class A pretty boy thinks of his antics

He and Midoriya are already friends, there’s no harm in using that friendship to see what exactly is going on in Todoroki’s little head

and one lunch, when Todoroki’s investigations happen to come up while he’s around, he sees his in

He asks to hear more

Todoroki has never had someone actually want to hear about his theories, never had someone express genuine interest, so he’s thrilled 

However, they have classes to attend, and he has too many thoughts to get into it right then, so they agree to meet outside once the day is done 

Todoroki is eager to launch into all of his thoughts and ideas, he’s so excited. His thoughts and theories are exceptionally convoluted and entirely improbable, although some things Shinsou has to concede would be pretty damn cool if he actually did

With how much passion Todoroki has for it, their after school chats become a more regular thing, and they expand out of just talking about theories

They talk about their lives, how classes are going, and even, eventually, their own sordid childhoods. Shinsou also teaches Todoroki slang, common phrases, the occasional meme. 

They tell each other dark jokes, and talk about cats quite a bit 

Especially since cats seem to be drawn to Todoroki, somehow getting onto campus so they can nuzzle right up against his warm side

All in all, the two get incredibly close

And as time goes on, Shinsou realizes that he finds Todoroki’s convoluted rambles to be adorable, realizes every time he hears him talk there’s a fond smile on his face 

He realizes pretty quick that he’s caught feelings

Because never before in his life has he cherished vulnerable moments so much, has he paid this much attention to every little word someone said, to know that he’s one of the only people who can the Todoroki Shouto to gleefully ramble

Because the other boy is like an excited puppy when they talk, practically bouncing on his heels like yes yes hear me out on this oh my god I’m so happy someone is hearing me out on this I love you you’re an amazing friend

There’s a trust there that he holds dear

So he doesn’t think much of it when he reveals that he’s the so called UA cryptid

He realizes pretty quick that was quite the mistake

Todoroki shuts down, stops talking, and just stares at him in disbelief, and, more pointedly, hurt

The excitement that had been coursing through him just moments ago was gone

After a moment, Todoroki stopped looking at him entirely

He sounded sad when he finally spoke up again, plucking at the grass by his feet. 

“So that’s why you listened. That’s why you wanted to be around. Listen to the stupid little conspiracy theorist to laugh about it later” and maybe he was overreacting but being listened to like that... no one did that for him. There was no way the guy he rambled about the most actually enjoyed hearing his trains of thought, enjoyed hearing his thought processes. Get a laugh in about the things no one ever wanted to hear him talk about. Of course.

Before Shinsou can say anything to stop him, he gets up and walks away, head hung low

It takes quite awhile for Shinsou to be able to actually get the opportunity to talk to him

Todoroki stopped coming to their spot, and refused to talk to him during lunches, instead focusing on Midoriya, or one of the other members of the dekusquad

Shinsou’s been iced out, it seems

Eventually, though, within a few days, really, though Todoroki is obviously still hurt, they do talk

Shinsou explains that while it did start as him being curious to see what the other thought of him, he never did it with intent to laugh at him, and that he found Todoroki’s rambles cute

And Todoroki concedes he may have overreacted to hearing about it, but no one’s ever wanted to hear him ramble like that before, and learning that the person he talked about the most was listening to all of it, he assumed the worst

They stay as friends for awhile after that before either of them confesses

And despite realizing his feelings much later, Todoroki is the first to come clean, with a little help from Midoriya. 

The dates these two go on are often cutesy, fun things, like visiting cat cafes, or going to an arcade, however Todoroki quite enjoys taking him out for fancy dinners and laughing at the all the rich people who look uncomfortable to have what looks like two random kids in their midst. 

These two also go people watching a lot, stringing together elaborate life stories for the people and groups they happen to observe

and they often come to each other to have little bitching sessions, where they air out their issues with certain people, or things, without someone who will poke fun at their troubles with them 

They’re good cat boyfriends

Shinsou sits on tables sometimes Todoroki sits on the backs of couches

and things are just... nice, cozy, happy, between the two of them

They love each other a lot and once they’re older, they provide each other endless support in their careers

When Shinsou gets into rough territory in his underground work, the thought of coming how to Todoroki keeps him going

And when Todoroki fails to save someone, when he reacts too slowly, when he fails, when a villain is too rough to deal with, he knows that he’s not alone

That when he gets home he can fall into Shinsou’s arms and be vulnerable 

Knows he can cuddle with him on the couch, their cat Pringles in his lap, and be at ease