#when shouto said ‘don’t give up on us’

[confusedmomfriend]

Can I say this is the most INTENSE first chapter of a fic I have ever had the absolute pleasure of reading. All the characters feel so authentic and the fic is so well written. All the characters are impeccably flawed and the tensions between them is so authentic. It has all the intricacies of being young and in love and experiencing heartbreak and sexual frustrations. Begrudgingly falling for someone you never thought you could and slowly moving on from the someone you thought as forever. It also portrays reader’s conflicting feelings so realistically. She doesn’t just immediately get over shouto because bakugo is nice to her and exhibits her growing conscience and maturity in the most intricate ways. The entire read felt so safe like the author knew exactly where they wanted to take the fic and it’s just an incredible piece in my opinion.

chapter one: the cabin in the woods

of love & lemons | k.bakugo | m.list

▸ ▸ ▸ warnings: angst, making out, pining

▸ ▸ ▸ wc: 6.3k

▸ ▸ ▸ a/n: here we go (again!) i really hope you enjoy this the second time around ♡ if you find any instances of reader "blushing" pls let me know! there were so many and i am one woman 😵‍💫

It's been a semester and a half at UUA, and all of the "young professionals" in the Hero Course have been worked to the bone; both academically and physically. 

You glance around the clearing and beyond at the massive fir and cedar and redwoods softly illuminated by the flaming fire not ten feet from your boots, up at the moon shining so vividly amongst the stars in the blackened sky. 

Just up the main trail behind you is the mansion of a log cabin the lot of you are staying in, and honestly, you just wanna slip back inside and snuggle up in your futon. 

This training camp was supposed to round up the semester by way of bettering the students and letting them enjoy the college experience, all in the seclusion of the most expensive log cabin on the most densely wooded mountain the universtiy could afford. 

However… you're not really feeling it.

This first night has everyone gathered around the campfire, Ochako and Mina toasting marshmallows, while everyone else listens with baited breath as All Might tells one of his never-before-heard stories about his early heroic endeavours. 

Turns out sometimes being a hero can be disgusting work. He says he smelt like rotten flesh for days afterwards.

You sit between Shouto and Kaminari on your long log seat, Momo on Shouto’s other side and Kyoka on Kaminari’s. It doesn’t bother you that Kaminari and Kyoka are getting cosy beside you, but the other two… that’s a blow you were half expecting. For too long you’d harboured secret feelings for Shouto Todoroki, and the past year he’d made it painfully clear he was into Momo.

You're ecstatic, though; Aizawa brought beer.

“Don’t tell your mom.” He warns you, cracking it open and handing it to you.

“What, like I'm not 22 years old?" You scoff, taking it with a grin and a roll of your eyes.

"Don't need the board knowing I'm actively supplying my students— the next generation of heroes— with contraband."

"Is there heroin in this beer?"

"Your smart mouth's gonna get you in trouble one of these days." 

"Or…" You flutter your lashes overdramatically. "Out of it?"

"Get outta my sight." He grunts, nose wrinkled, waving you away. 

You decide against returning to your previous spot; sure, no one is kissing or getting handsy, but it’s still awkward on your behalf. Sandwiched between two couples? No thanks. 

The only space open is between Bakugo and Sero, so that's where you set your sights. 

“Tastes gross.” You mumble, shuffling closer to Sero, butting in on his conversation with Sato.

“What were you expecting?” He laughs, elbowing you gently in the side, nursing his own can.

“Ah, something easier to drink.” You laugh, taking another mouthful with a scowl before noticing the slender bottle in the bigger man's hand. "What's that?"

Sato's eyes widen a smidge before guit takes over. "Hm? Vodka… cranberry?"

"Swap with me!" You huff, accusatory, practically leaning over Sero to get to him. 

"Not a chance, grumpy." Sero places his whole hand over your face and pushes you back. 

"'m not gr'mpy!" You manage to get out. 

Sero and Sato tease you mercilessly, until the conversation somehow shifts to Shouto and Momo across the campfire. Slyly, you eject yourself from their gossip, leaning away from them and glancing over to Bakugo, who’s watching Izuku sit down next to Ochako. 

You watch for a bit, too, notice how she builds him a s'more and practically shoves it down his throat. She's got hearts in her eyes, for sure, and he's more than happy to humour her. 

Bakugo’s expression— something you can only equate to longing— hurts your heart a little, makes you glance back over to Shouto and Momo.

They're laughing, and he's sat his varsity jacket over her shoulders like some kind of claiming ritual. 

“Let’s go for a walk.” You finish your can, crush it, melt it down in your hands with your quirk, and toss it into the fire. “Bakugo.” You say a little louder when he doesn’t move.

“Talkin’ to me, shitface?” He hisses, not even moving to look at you.

“Yes, asshole. Come on.” You stand, hands on hips expectantly. Surprisingly, he stands. He stuffs his hands into his pockets and steps over the log you were sharing with the other two, you follow suit.

“Where are you going?” Aizawa asks, voice just loud enough to stop conversation.

“For a walk, professor.” You sigh. “I promise I’ll protect your precious Katsuki from harm if we happen to cross any.”

“Fuck you, bitch.” Bakugo hisses venomously.

“Okay, don’t get lost! The trees here are thickly packed.” All Might waves, opening a can of soda and taking a long drink.

“Sure, professor. C’mon, idiot.” You mumble, walking past him and into the thick of the trees, following a barely there dirt path.

When you’re far enough away from the fire, the laughing and canoodling, he stops. “Why the fuck are we out here?” He asks gruffly, glancing up at the glowing moon through the trees.

"Just think we needed to get away from it all."

"Speak for your damn self, loser." He scoffs. 

"You didn't exactly look like you were having a blast either." You glare, annoyed. 

"I was fine."

"Liar!" You accuse, a little louder than you shouldve, getting into his personal space. You take a deep breath, calm your fraying nerves. "You were giving Ochako the goo-goo eyes and she was givin' em to Deku."

“The fuck I was!” He hisses, pushing you back against a tree with a handful of your sweater.

You raise your hands in surrender, glance down at his fist bunched at your chest. “You were! And it’s… okay, but she’s not… she… she loves Deku, right?” You probe, gently. His nostrils flare and you think he’s gonna punch you, but he doesn’t.

“I don’t like her, she’s just… she’s nice, okay?” He admits, stepping back from you; you smooth down your shirt. “Not like you and fucking Halfie.”

Anger flares in your chest and heat emanates from your clenched fists. “Don’t act like I’m some lovesick loser.”

“Aren’t you?” He asks almost softly, crimson eyes narrowing, trying to decipher your expression.

Your heart throbs, and your anger deflates. 

“I don’t know.” You whine, run a hand down your face. “Fuck.”

“And what? You think we’re the same, so we can have a heart to fucking heart about it and support each other? What kinda fucking crap is that?” He resumes his hunched standing, kicks a stone.

“No, I…” What were you expecting? “Ugh, I don’t even know.”

You always could be yourself around Bakugo, really let loose. He doesn't take your shit, and you don't take his. You wouldn’t say you’re friends, but you and Eijiro were the only ones not to be frightened off by his explosive exterior, back in high school, and even now at University.

“Let’s just walk then. C’mon.” He’s exasperated, but he’s inviting you to stay with him, so you do.

And hey, no name calling. Things are looking up.

You wind through trees, hot on his heels, until you get to a clearing with a pond; moon and stars shining on its surface. Bakugo sits on a boulder, looks up at the sky. You find your own seat, cross your legs on the grassy edge of the pond.

“I don’t get him, ya know? I mean, you’d be perfect, right? Someone to always train with, an equal.” He’s meeting your gaze when you turn to look at him, confused. “You’re fucking flame resistant, and you’ve shown on multiple occasions that you can melt his shitty ice.”

“So, he should find me sexually attractive?” You raise a brow at him, lean back on your hands.

“You’re not the ugliest person in class.” He rolls his eyes.

“And you’re so charming.” You say melodramatically, falling back into the grass, hands behind your head, eyes finding those stars again.

“I guess if it were me picking outta you and the nerd, I’d rather you.” He shrugs, picking up at stone and throwing it into the water with a plop.

“If you want me to say I’d pick you over Izuku, you’re gonna have to bribe me.” You mumble, and he actually laughs—not full blown laughter, but definitely a throaty chuckle. Bakugo is hot, no doubt, but his attitude sucks ass; this side of him… it’s different. Rare.

You cast a sideways glance at him, admire the bone structure of his face in the moonlight. It accentuates his scowl. He's wearing that orange beanie one of his fangirls decorated him for his 21st birthday; she'd cross stitched the kanji of his hero name on the front with his signature explosion headpiece bordering it. 

Honestly, it's really cool, and a lot of the other guys were super jealous, but that's not something you're willing to tell him. It's never a good idea to stroke Bakugo's ego. 

You both stay there for a long time, Bakugo tossing stones, you overthinking. What was it about her? What was it with Momo? She may be a femme fatale in every aspect but personality, but the fact that she's a really genuine person only makes you feel worse. She's honestly flawless, and Shouto could only be so lucky. 

And you. You need to get over it.

“C’mon, let’s go back.” Bakugo sighs, standing and stretching. When you don’t move, he stands over you, scowling and pouting. “You told Aizawa you’d protect me.”

And you laugh then, at the bizarreness of the situation, at the look on his face, his soft words. He holds his hand out and you take it.

“I suppose I could use a bath.” You sigh, and he pulls you up with a little too much force. You smack right into his chest, palm splayed, and he grabs your hip with his free hand to steady you. “Sorry,” You whisper, unnervingly close to him. He makes a sound from deep in his chest, you cough, step away from him. He glances away.

“This way.” He mumbles, and you realise he hasn’t called you anything offensive for at least half an hour.

Aizawa and All Might are the only people left at the dying fire when you return, and you wonder how long you’ve really been gone.

“Goin’ to bed.” Bakugo mumbles, pushing past you and towards the house. Aizawa and All Might watch him leave, then both sets of eyes are on you.

“Young Shouto asked us to wait up for you.” All Might says, taking a can from the cooler box. Orange soda. For some reason, it makes you angry. If he cared so much, he would have waited himself.

Aizawa can see your mind ticking, yet he stays quiet.

“Well, sorry, then. For making you both wait up.” You mumble, stifle a yawn. “See you at breakfast.”

All Might calls a goodnight, and you’re repeating his sentence in your head like a crazy person as you walk away.

Young Todoroki asked us to wait up for you.

Young Todoroki asked us to wait up for you.

Young Todoroki asked us to wait up for you.

Young Todoroki asked us to wait up for you.

Your chest tightens up and you clench your teeth, an overwhelming sadness washing over you. Your feet crunch on gravel and tears well in your eyes. You sniff, rub your face and make it to the wooden steps of the cabin before collapsing in a heap on them.

You tell yourself it’s the alcohol making you so dramatic. You tell yourself you’re just tired. But nothing works, tears run down your cheeks, slow and fat and full of heartache. 

A hard hand lands on your shoulder and you hide your face in your hands. “You’re stronger than this, idiot.” Bakugo grumbles, falling to sit next to you.

“Go… a—away.” You sob helplessly, trying your hardest to stay quiet.

“Fucking hell.” He says under his breath, and he just sits there with you for a while as you cry, let it all out.

He huffs a sigh from his nose, and a hand wraps around your shoulder, forcing you down into his lap. His hand doesn’t leave your arm, he gently rubs it, uses the fingers of his other hand to pry your hands from your face.

“Seriously,” He frowns, and you finally look up at him, eyes wet and puffy. “Use that fucking brain of yours.” He scolds, but he’s not as harsh as he usually is. “He. Ain’t. Worth. It.” He drills into you, poking your forehead with each syllable.

You sit up, wipe your eyes, frown at him. “I can't… I can't help it.”

The front door creaks open, and you both turn to see Ochako standing there with a phone light shining at you, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She gasps when she sees the state of you, and you turn away to hide your face.

“Bakugo, leave her alone.” She gasps, jumping to her own conclusions.

“Wha—” He starts, but you cut him off.

“No, Ochako, it—it’s just me. I…” You take a deep breath, glance over at Bakugo’s offended expression. “I had way too much beer.” You manage, forcing a laugh. “This asshole’s actually helping me.” You say with the best chuckle you can muster, wiping the remains of your tears.

“Oh.” Her eyes jump between you and him, then fall to the floor. “Well, don’t stay up too late, hm?” She smiles tightly, turning and heading back inside. She closes the door softly.

“Fuck.” You breathe, falling back down into his lap. He bristles. “What, the tears stop, and I can’t use your lap anymore?” His hands grab your shoulders, sit you back up.

“Yes.” He glares. “My compassion has limits.”

You roll your eyes. “Well, I’m sorry you had to waste it on me.”

“I didn’t waste it on you, you stinkin’ turd.” He folds his arms, eyes narrowing at you.

For some reason, you have the overwhelming urge to either deck him or kiss him. Your own frown grows on your face, uncomfortable with the idea of the latter. “Go to bed, Bakugo, I’m fine.”

“No, you go. Last time I left your drunk ass alone, you came back cryin’.” But there’s no malice, and it’s confusing because this is Bakugo, the angriest guy you’ve ever met.

And for the second time tonight you’re thinking he’s actually incredibly good looking under that scowl he wears, and he’s… caring? He must see your mind ticking, because he stands up, holds out a hand for you to take, which you do; you’re fascinated by how small your hand is in his, then he lets go, practically pushes you up the steps.

“Go to sleep.” He grinds out, as you tumble up to the door. You glance back at him— arms crossed, scowling pout— and forget why you were crying in the first place.

“G’night, Bakugo.” You smile, gently open the door and slink inside.

+

In the morning you remember. You remember Momo’s hand on Shouto’s knee, the smiles on their faces, the jacket around her shoulders.

It’s entirely too early to be up, but you throw on your running gear and sneak out of the girls' room. There’s a 10k track that Aizawa made you all run yesterday, so you take that.

It’s a cold morning—so cold that you feel it in your lungs— but it doesn’t take long for you to heat up. You could use your quirk, but where’s the normality in that? The track takes you up the mountain, and you breathe in the scenery, stop at the halfway point to overlook the ocean. The sun’s rising against the water, and you can’t hold back a gasp at the sight.

It's gorgeous, and kinda puts into perspective how wide the world is outside of the UUA bubble.  

When you get back, almost everyone’s bleary eyed, drinking hot chocolate and coffee and tea around the dying embers of last night’s fire.

Tsuyu calls your nickname. “Come have a hot drink.” She’s sitting next to Momo, who’s sitting with Shouto. Your chest tightens at the sight of them, barely an inch of space between them.

“You really should have woken me!” Iida sighs in disappointment, stealing your attention. He’s between Deku and Ochako, they both wince at the sheer volume of his talking voice so early in the morning. “Putting us all to shame.”

Shouto stands up, heads over to you with an extra mug. “Here,” he holds it out to you. But you’re sweaty, and overwhelmed with the sight of him. His eyes stare into your soul, expression unreadable.

“Thanks, Shou.” You smile, hold up a hand. “I just really need a shower.” You chuckle and turn towards the house. “I’ll be back in a bit!” And jog off.

You think about how it looks, you running away at the campfire, turning down his offer of whatever he was drinking —tea, probably— and running again. All through school you’d been the fire to his ice, but since he’d embraced his fire, he’d stepped away from you; out of your reach completely.

In the house, you gather your clothes, a towel and head towards the communal showers. You really need to stop dwelling on him. His rare smile and handsome face.

The contrast of his hair, his eyes, the strength in his jaw and the way he's filled out with age. 

Seriously.

Stop.

Then you do stop. Everyone’s outside, you can use the onsen.

A smile cracks your face. With the bath being the only one on the premises, Aizawa had given the group strict times on when they can and can’t bathe. Girls first, then boys. 7:30-8:00pm and 8:00-8:30pm, respectively.

He didn’t say anything about mornings.

You wash off in the shower, wrap yourself in your towel and head out— shivering— down the pebbled path, to the bamboo encased rock pool, the steam rising high in the cool morning air. Stones and boulders are built up at the far end of the pool, a waterfall flowing from the top.

Just as you’re about to untuck your towel, you hear Bakugo’s rough voice. “Oi! Don’t fucking think about it!” He growls, his head and shoulders emerging from the steam, finger pointing accusingly at you.

You squeal. “Why aren’t you with the group?” And then you’re aware of how much skin you’re showing, cheeks heating in embarrassment.

“I missed out on bathing last night, because of some blubbering idiot.” He growls, but his cheeks are pink, and you don’t miss the way his eyes scan your legs. You feel warmer.

“Right, well,” you take a deep breath. “I missed out, too.” You say boldly, meeting his eyes. His eyebrow quirks when he realises what you mean, but he says nothing. “So, turn around, asshole, or you’re gonna get an eyeful.” You step towards the bath, untuck your towel and hold it in place.

“Wha— you’re fucking wired, you know that?” He hisses, sinks into the steam and turns around. You swiftly drop your towel, step down into the water. It’s hot, almost too hot, but you love it.

“Ah, it’s good.” You moan, leaning against the edge of the pool. You can’t even see Bakugo through the steam.

He says something, but you don’t hear him over the splashing of the waterfall.

“What?” You call, and he says it again. “I can’t hear you.” You mumble, wading closer to him, making sure to keep the water covering your chest.

“I said: you’re going to get us in troub—” he must have been coming closer to you, too, because the sight of you a mere foot away, has him practically shoving his fist in his mouth.

You stare at each other for a long moment, your eyes on his, trying to read what he’s thinking, him maybe doing the same. He looks like he’s thinking, his mind seems to be ticking, but what? How annoying you are? How he managed to get into this situation?

He sighs, turns on his side and sinks to his chin in the murky water. “At least you’re not fucking crying anymore.”

Your eyes narrow. “You say that like I cry a lot. I do not cry a lot. It was the beer.” You huff, splashing him with some water. He blinks but doesn’t retaliate.

“You had one fucking beer.” He sneers, the hint of a grin on his face.

"I don't drink a lot!” You say indignantly.

“And it was a light beer.” Now there’s definitely a smile on his face. It’s contagious, and you can’t really remember a time where he’s smiled at you.

“Alright, asshole, leave me alone. As far as I’m concerned, it never happened.” You huff, swimming over to the edge, overlooking the forest.

In hindsight, you should be more alert about being naked in the onsen with a man. Man. You glance over your shoulder, the steam lessening with the rising of the sun. He’s under the waterfall, hair flat against the back of his head, water rushing down the very defined muscles of his—

You feel the heat grow across your face, frantically whip around towards the sprawling forest the onsen overlooks.

Oh no, he’s really hot.

You need to get out, you need to remove yourself from the situation and get to safety. Being exposed to that is doing something to your heart, something that generally only happens when you’re alone with Shouto.

Yet… you can't help but glance back again. He’s out of the spray of water, shaking droplets out of his hair. He’s waist deep in the steam, chiseled chest, abs— he opens his eyes, looks straight at you.

You turn back around, bury your face in your forearms which are resting on the edge of the pool. Fuck, you’re hot all over. 

And he saw you perving.

“I’m getting out, so don’t fucking move.” He warns, and you can only whimper a broken sound and wave a hand up in the air in response.

There’s splashing from behind you, dripping, then his feet crunching away on the pebble path.

You stay there for a few more minutes before you leave, calming yourself down enough to face the rest of your class. You didn’t know who you wanted to avoid more, Shouto or Bakugo.

+

“First up, is the 10k run.” Aizawa sighs, lazy eyes falling on you. “Considering you already did it, you two can cook breakfast.” Two? No one went with you.

Everyone’s stretching, mumbling about the run, complaining that it’s too early. Then your eyes find Bakugo, who’s standing next to All Might, scribbling in a notepad looking extremely annoyed.

“Ah, professor?” You say softly, approaching Aizawa. He spares you a glance. “I did the 10k by myself.”

“My precious Katsuki woke up even before you and did it. Must have missed him by not even ten minutes.” He mocks your words from the night before, shrugs, yawns.

“Ah, right.” You laugh shakily, looking to your feet and then up to the relatively cloudless sky.

Someone familiar calls your name. “Can I have a word?” You look up and see Shouto a few feet from you, looking a little… stressed? You open your mouth, but Aizawa answers.

“No, you need to go.” He orders. Shouto raises knitted brows. “Did I stutter? Go.” Your mouth is hanging open a little, and you watch as Shouto sends you a look, and jogs off towards the group.

All Might is at the starting line and transforms to call, “Ready, set, GO!” Before abruptly vanishing back into Small Might.

A hand rests on your shoulder. “Is there anything you want to talk about?” Aizawa asks, an eyebrow raised.

“No.” You say too fast. He nods knowingly, removes his hand.

“I’ll take my eggs scrambled. Lots of butter.” He mumbles, walking towards the house. Bakugo’s doing the same, so you follow suit, trotting up the path, up the steps and winding into the kitchen.

Bakugo’s in there alone, staring at his notepad.

“Can you believe our punishment for exercising is cooking for every bastard on site?” He growls, picking up the pad and holding it out to you. It’s a list, each name and how they like their eggs.

“What the hell are ‘cloud eggs’?” You snort, reading Momo’s preference. When you glance up to Bakugo for a response, he’s in the fridge, yanking out milk, cheese, butter, eggs.

“Some fucking asshole likes their whites whipped and then cooked.” He grits out, not even sparing you a glance. Well, at least, he’s not drilling you about perving on him.

“Do you eat the yolk?”

“Yes, idiot.” He sighs, exasperated. “You sit it on the egg white ‘cloud’ and bake it.”

“How the hell do you know that?”

“How the hell don’t you?” He hisses back. You sigh, rub the bridge of your nose.

“We probably shouldn’t start on the eggs yet, anyway.” You say, putting the pad down on the bench. “They don’t take long to cook, and the 10k takes around an hour.” He stops to consider your suggestion, picks everything back up and slams the fridge open.

“Won’t even need to start the bacon for another half an hour.” He mutters, placing everything back piece by piece.

“You think Aizawa will be grading this?” You ask, leaning against the kitchen island and folding your arms.

“Doubt it.” He grunts, slamming the fridge door. Then he looks at you, and your heart starts to race. You glance away. “What?” He practically hisses.

“Nothing.” You frown, rolling your eyes.

“If you’ve got something to say, fucking say it.” He mirrors your stance, leaning against the counter across from you.

“I don’t have anything to say, Bakugo.” You growl, annoyed. “Why? Do you have something to say?” He just snarls and glances away from you. “Use your words, Bakugo.” You bait. He sends you a glare then, but his eyes dance down your frame, back up to your face, and to his feet. The small gesture has your heart racing, your body warm.

He clears his throat. “Heard you got a job at Endeavour’s agency lined up for after graduation.” Ah, news had gotten around. “Must be a kick in the guts, huh? Having his dad like you more than he does.”

“Wow, real mature.” You snap, angry. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to talk unless you had something nice to say?”

“No, she taught me not to take shit from anybody.” He grinds out, teeth clenching

“It would have been handy if she’d taught you how to make friends. Y’know, so you wouldn’t have to go through life an angry, bitter, man-child.” You bite back, just as furious.

“I don’t let people disappoint me, what’s so fucking bad about that? At least I didn’t end up a lovesick idiot mourning after a relationship I’ll never have with someone who’ll never notice me.” His words are like ice on a broken tooth, attacking you like an exposed nerve.

It takes you a while to reply, mostly because it’s true.

You take a deep breath and calm yourself. “What does it even matter?” You sigh, tired. “I’m not taking the job at Endeavour’s, so it’s a non-issue.”

“What?” He asks, on the annoyed side of surprised. You look over at him, raise your eyebrows for him to elaborate. “He’s the number one hero in Japan, and you’re not going because his son isn’t in love with you?”

“Okay,” you breathe, slam your hand on the counter, turn away from him. “I don’t have to put up with your fucking attitude. I’ll be back in half an hour to help your sorry ass make breakfast.”

“Like fuck.” He growls, grabbing your arm as you try to walk away. “Take the job, it’s huge.” His eyes are borderline wild, and you stare up at him in shock. “If you don’t take that fucking job, I’m telling Icyhot that you love him.”

“The hell you will!” You hiss, mortified.

“I will.” He drops your arm. “Try me.”

“You’re insufferable!” You holler, throwing your arms in the air. “You tell him, and I’m telling Ochako.” You glare. His nostrils flare.

“I don’t like her like that.” He says warningly, still terrifyingly close.

You grin, but it doesn’t reach your eyes. “You’re a liar. Yes you do.”

“No, I. Don’t.” He bites out the three syllables, inching closer to you each time, trying to scare you into submission.

“Oh, sure you don’t.” You sing-song, unaffected by his intimidation.

“Tell her then, I don’t fucking care.” He shoves his hands into his pockets, steps back a step. “You’ve got more to lose than me. Hell, even I’d work for Endeavour.” He steps back a few more times, leans his lower back against the counter.

There’s a long silence; you both simmer down some.

“What are you doing after you graduate?” You ask, a little quieter.

He sighs. “I got a few offers, but I don’t know what I wanna do. Probably go to the States for a bit.” He shrugs, your eyes widen.

“USA? Like, leave the country?” The idea sounds crazy to you, but, if anyone could pull it off, it’d be Bakugo.

“Yeah, I got three offers over there; four in Europe. One in Australia.” He shrugs, like it’s nothing.

“Bakugo, that’s amazing.” You smile, in awe and excited for him. He regards you with an unreadable expression, glances to his feet. “You’ll need to take Kirishima with you,” you snort, he looks back up to you expectantly. “As a buffer? Because you’re an asshole and they’re all gonna think you’re a villain.” You laugh at your own joke, and he frowns, picks up the roll of paper towel on the counter behind him, throws it at you.

You just dodge, still laughing.

“You’re an asshole.” He accuses, but there’s no malice.

“You’ll come back with a yankee wife.” Still laughing. “And she’ll call you Kat-suwkeyyyy.”

“Shut up, I’m not marrying a foreigner.” He rolls his eyes.

“But the only Japanese woman you like is going to—” there are tears in your eyes, you’re carrying on so hard. “Marry your… rival!”

“Shut up!” He yells, leaping towards you and putting a hand over your mouth. You try and pull it away— your chest hurts because you can’t stop laughing— but you’re weaker by a mile.

You grab for his face instead, your hands falling to the collar of his shirt, then— in a moment of madness— you lick a wet stripe up the valleys of his fingers.

He blushes, pulls his hand away. You grin at his response, pull him closer to you.

“What? Can’t handle a little rough play?” You ask, licking your lips, voice husky from laughter. His nostrils flare, eyes take in your face as you do the same, cheshire smile on your lips.

Then he kisses you.

Just lips at first, a hard press of his on yours. You stare at him, but his eyes are closed— still scowling— so you do the same. You dig your nails into his chest, push back against him. He takes a breath and you use initiative, run your tongue along his bottom lip, push your body into his.

You can feel his heart beating under your hands, racing along with yours. Then his tongue is moving against your lips, your own tongue, and his hands are on either side of your jaw, holding you in place.

Just as your insides start to melt, and your knees go weak, there’s a sound: someone’s clearing their throat.

You both open your eyes, stare at each other for a millisecond before he jumps away, and you both turn to stare at the source of the noise.

“I really hope there was none of this when you two went for your ‘walk’ last night.” Aizawa deadpans.

Words escape you. You can’t think; what even just happened?  You spare a glance to Bakugo, who is ten shades of embarrassed, and then back to your professor.

“She fucking kissed me!” He hollers, the stinky fucking liar.

You gasp, offended. “You kissed me! You dirty little creep!”

Aizawa glares at the two of you. “You were both into it. I’ve been standing here longer than I care to admit.” A grin twitches at the corner of his mouth. “Where are my eggs?” He frowns, staring at the empty countertop.

You both set to work wordlessly, Aizawa sits on a stool at the island and watches with a lazy grin.

“I’ll do the scramble.” You mumble. “You can poach and make the stupid cloud eggs.” He just grunts in response, no argument. He lays the bacon out on a few trays, puts them all in the oven to bake.

Still, Aizawa sits there, shit-eating grin on his face. Says nothing. Just watches.

“Sir…” You mumble, whisking eggs. His eyebrows raise, eyes fall on you. “You’re not gonna… tell anyone. Right?”

He takes a moment to think about it, then he shrugs.

“Eh, if anything, I support this turn of events.” He grins lazily, you and Bakugo both bristle.

“That… it was nothing. Meant jack shit.” Bakugo glares, prepares the pot for poached eggs.

“Agreed.” You snap, narrowing your eyes at the eggs in your pot. “Move over.” You grumble, lighting the hot plate next to the one Bakugo’s using. He shifts, but there’s no way you’re both going to be able to comfortably cook your eggs at the same time.

Still, you’re both too stubborn to voice the realisation. Aizawa chuckles under his breath, sighs and rises from his stool.

“I’m just going to fetch All Might. Don’t do anything suspicious while I’m gone.” He warns, narrowing his eyes at the pair of you.

When he’s out of the room, you turn your glare to Bakugo. “I can’t believe you kissed me, you perv!” You hiss, trying to keep your voice low. “What the hell were you thinking?” Your face is hot, remembering the kiss, but you keep your stare even.

He glances at you. Says nothing.

“Oh, the silent treatment?” You roll your eyes, stirring the eggs gently, careful they don’t burn.

“I’m sorry, okay?” He grits out, glancing at you. “I… don’t know what the hell came over me.” Guilt eats at you when you meet his eyes. You did kiss him back, and you were enjoying it.

“Me too.” You sigh, turn the heat down on the stove. “I mean, it wasn’t terrible.” You try to joke, make light of the situation, but the words leave your mouth in a totally serious way.

Before you can rectify the situation, both professors return, the two of them pulling up a stool to each watch you awkwardly dance around each other in the kitchen.

They make jokes you half heartedly react to, and then breakfast is cooked, eggs in the metal warmers— too many eggs, really— and bacon in there, too. You put bread out by the toaster, along with butter and spreads.

Just as Bakugo lays the plates out on the table, the first three return. Iida, Midoriya, and Shouto. They’re sweating, gasping for water, and All Might throws each of them a bottle from his cooler.

You glance over to Shouto and find him staring at you. He nods his head towards the door, wants you to go with him out the back, by the onsen.

You take a deep breath and steel yourself, find Bakugo’s eyes for a second, and then follow Shouto. When you step out the door, his jacket is unzipped, hair around his face damp from sweat.

It's quiet, the only sound other than him trying to catch his breath and your thumping heart, is the waterfall flowing steadily into the barely steaming onsen. You briefly wonder how your encounter with Bakugo would have been if you'd joined him around this time. 

Then you remember Shouto. 

“Bit hot out there, huh?” You try and break the ice, but he doesn’t crack a smile, just stares at you, face flushed red and unreadable.

“You’re upset with me.” He murmurs, jumping straight into it.

“No, I’m not.” You shift your weight from your right foot to your left, clasp your hands together behind your back. 

“Don’t lie to me.” He frowns softly, takes a step closer to you. “You asked Bakugo to go for a walk with you, not me.”

You take a half step back. “You were… occupied.” And you try not to sound bitter, you really do, but you fail. Miserably. His eyes widen a fraction, and you realise your mistake. “I’m happy for you, Shouto, I promise, it’s just…” Lie, lie. Lie! “I don’t know how to third wheel, and I didn’t want to make it weird.” You smile shakily, pray he believes your lie.

“Well, you failed in that regard.” He sighs, rubbing the sweat from his forehead with the bottom of his shirt. 

“Look, I don’t wanna get in your way, ok? It’ll be weirder for her if I’m sticking to you while she’s putting moves on you.” God, what are you even saying? Whatever trash comes out of your mouth, he buys it, sends you a small smile.

He puts a hand on your shoulder, smiles warmly at you. “Don’t give up on us. You’re my best friend.”

Your heart cracks, but you smile at him, anyway. “No doubt, Shou.” 

“Let’s go wait for the others.” He suggests with a tilt of his head, walking past you and back into the house.

“I’ll be a minute.” You call, and he looks back at you from the doorway. “My, uh, sister text me.” You slide your phone out of your pocket, hold it up for him to see. He nods and walks away.

You stand there dumbly for a long minute, stare up at the sun shining brilliantly in the cloudless sky. He doesn’t want to lose your friendship, which is nice, but… fuck, you’re a shitty friend.

[todomitoukei]

Japanese vs. English Todoroki Family Finale - A 426 Comparison

Just a few days after Horikoshi announced that there were only 5 chapters left, the so-called final chapter for the Todoroki family came out, as always sparking lots of discussion and bringing forth countless questionable takes, followed by the release of the official English translation.

So let’s take a closer look at the Japanese lines, starting with the Todoroki family’s short conversation before going to see Touya:

「来なくて大丈夫って言ったのに！」

「来なくて ; konakute」-> not coming 「大丈夫 ; daijoubu」-> okay; alright 「って ; tte」-> quoting particle (casual of と) 「言った ; itta」-> said 「のに ; noni」-> even though

= “Even though we said it’s okay not to come.”

「それを言うなら貴方た��もよ冬美夏雄」

「それ ; sore」-> that 「を ; o」-> direct object marker 「言う ; iu」-> to say 「なら ; nara」-> that being the case; on the topic of 「貴方たち ; anatatachi」-> you (plural) 「も ; mo」-> also; too 「よ ; yo」-> emphasis particle 「冬美 ; fuyumi」-> Fuyumi 「夏雄 ; natsuo」-> Natsuo

= “On the topic of saying that, you too, Fuyumi, Natsuo.”

What stood out to me here was Rei calling him Natsuo, when usually, everyone else (except Endeavor) calls him Natsu-kun or Natsu. Calling him by the full version of his first name rather than a shortened version might be done to indicate that things have changed, although not necessarily in a negative way. It's more that there has been a shift.

By the way, I am working on a masterpost talking about how the family addresses + refers to each other. Yes, I am going through the entire manga for that (this is a cry for help). Once the manga is finished I will post it (at some point), so look out for that if you’re interested in finding out exactly how many times who gets called what (yes, I am counting and making graphs)!

「お母さんでも…」

「お母さん ; okaasan」-> mom 「でも ; demo」-> but

= “But mom…”

「それを言うならおまえもだ冷」

「それ ; sore」-> that 「を ; o」-> direct object marker 「言う ; iu」-> to say 「なら ; nara」-> that being the case; on the topic of 「おまえ ; omae」-> you 「も ; mo」-> also; too 「だ ; da」-> be 「冷 ; rei」-> Rei

= “On the topic of saying that, you too, Rei.”

I love that he almost fully copies Rei’s phrase here. This is the first of many unoriginal lines that he has in this chapter. It only goes downhill from here.

「義務感で来たんじゃねぇから！皆そうだろ」

「義務感 ; gimukan」-> sense of duty (obligation) 「で ; de」-> with; by 「来た ; kita」-> came 「ん ; n」-> explanatory particle 「じゃねえ ; janee」-> isn’t 「から ; kara」-> because; so  (used to change the other person’s thoughts etc.) 「皆 ; mina」-> everyone 「そう ; sou」-> so; that way 「だろ ; daro」-> right?

= “I didn’t come out of a sense of duty! Everyone is that way, right?”

Usually, a second phrase would follow up the kara, but can also be left out when the meaning of that second phrase is implied enough. Since Fuyumi said Shouto didn’t have to come (if he didn’t want to, didn’t feel comfortable etc.) there is an implication that perhaps he only showed up because he felt like that was expected of him. Ending his clarification of “I didn’t come because I felt obligated” with kara “so” the implied follow up would be along the lines of “don’t worry”, which then gets wrapped up suggesting that all of them are showing up not because they feel pressured to do so, but because they want to visit Touya - since they basically just went around in a circle letting each other know they didn’t have to come if they don’t want to.

「会話は可能ですが一日に数分が限界です」

「会話 ; kaiwa」-> conversation 「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「可能 ; kanou」-> possible 「です ; desu」-> to be 「が ; ga」-> but 「一日 ; ichi nichi」-> one day 「に ; ni」-> at; in 「数分 ; suufun」-> a few minutes 「が ; ga」-> subject marker particle 「限界 ; genkai」-> limit 「です ; desu」-> to be

= “Conversations are possible, but a few minutes a day is the limit.”

I’m not sure how long Touya has been in here, but this line indicates that the staff members have been talking to him and I’d be curious to know what those conversations were like. What did they talk about? What kind of attitude did he give them? What was his reaction when he first regained consciousness? These are the questions we want answered, but alas, the Todoroki family plot simply isn’t about him. All the way to the bitter end it shall remain focusing on the most underrepresented group of them all: rich middle-aged men.

「緩やかに死へと向かっている…それが今の轟燈矢です」

「緩やかに ; yuruyakani」-> slowly 「死 ; shi」-> death 「へと ; e to」-> towards 「向かっている ; mukatteiru」-> to face; to head toward 「れ ; sore」-> that 「が ; ga」-> subject marker particle 「今 ; ima」-> now; current 「の ; no」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe 「轟燈矢 ; todoroki touya」-> Touya Todoroki 「です ; desu」-> to be

= “Slowly heading towards death… that is the current Touya Todoroki.”

The particle e is a directional particle that can be translated as “toward”. Adding the particle to after it adds an emotional emphasis to the part that follows the to particle as opposed to just stating a fact, there is sympathy in this claim.

As for the claim itself - I know that a lot of people are convinced he is going to die because look! Random nameless character #47AAB7 said so, it must be true! But to be honest, I’m not even going to entertain that thought because despite all the criticism I have for this story, Horikoshi isn’t that bad of a writer. If he had wanted Touya dead, he could’ve easily killed him at the end of the last war. It makes zero sense for him to be saved and then pass away quietly and peacefully in a hospital (or whatever that place is).

Even if we were to say that Shouto managed to save him emotionally, so that counts as a win! It’s kind of a shit win if the only difference is that you now get to die “at peace”, which also could’ve been accomplished on the battlefield. At this point, it’s just inefficient and therefore, him dying at this point is not going to happen.

「........ぞろぞろと」

「ぞろぞろ ; zorozoro」-> in droves; swarming 「と ; to」-> adds emphasis

= “....In droves”

Zorozoro is used to describe several beings (can be humans or animals) that appear or move together like a swarm. This certainly is the first time the entire family is together, so it’s not surprising the rare sight is being pointed out in a joking manner, although he undoubtedly means this in a positive way as it contradicts his prior belief of no one in his family caring about him or missing him.

The fact that, upon first waking up after his coma as a teenager his immediate thought was to return and apologize, and now after ten years he finally gets the chance to talk to them and what is the first thing coming out of his mouth? Calling them a swarm. Forever and always the most relatable character.

「ハハ…観光名所じゃねぇんだよ........」

「ハハ ; haha」-> haha 「観光名所 ; kankoumeisho」-> tourist attraction; sightseeing spot 「じゃねぇ ; janee」-> isn’t 「んだ ; nda」-> explanatory particle 「よ ; yo」-> emphasis particle

= “Haha… It’s not a tourist attraction, right?”

If he was a tourist attraction, Hori better drop the location right now. Please. For research purposes or whatever.

「燈矢」

「燈矢 ; touya」-> Touya

= “Touya.”

「今後の話をしに来たんだ燈矢」

「今後 ; kongo」-> from now on 「の ; no」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe 「話 ; hanashi」-> talk, conversation 「を ; o」-> direct object marker 「しに来た ; shi ni kita」-> came to do sth 「んだ ; nda」-> explanatory particle 「燈矢 ; touya」-> Touya

= “I came to talk about the future, Touya.”

Kongo literally means “after now” or in other words, the future.

「俺はヒーローを引退するよ」

「俺 ; ore」-> I  「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「ヒーロー ; hiirou」-> hero 「を ; o」-> direct object marker 「引退する ; intai suru」-> to retire 「よ ; yo」-> emphasis particle

= “I am retiring from being a Hero.”

He says as though he has a choice. This is also one of those “This could’ve been an email” kinds of lines.

「元より戦いが終わったらそうするつもりだったが 最早自力で立つことすらままならん」

「元より ; moto yori」-> all along; from the first 「戦い ; tatakai」-> war 「が ; ga」-> subject marker particle 「終わったら ; owattara」-> when it ended 「そう ; sou」-> so; that way 「する ; suru」-> to do 「つもり ; tsumori」-> to plan 「だった ; datta」-> was 「が ; ga」-> but 「最早 ; mohaya」-> already; no longer 「自力 ; jiriki」-> one’s own strength 「で ; de」-> with 「立つ ; tatsu」-> to stand 「こと ; koto 」-> nominalizes prior word/phrase 「すら ; sura」-> even 「ままならん ; mama naran」-> beyond one’s control; unable to do as one wishes

= “Since after the first war ended, I decided to do so, but I not I am not even able to stand on my own anymore.”

Mamanaru combines the words mama “as it is; as one likes” and naranai “to be unable to” to create a word that describes that something is beyond one’s control, one is unable to do as they wish or something is not going the way one wants it to. In other words, a great word to sum up Endeavor’s entire life story.

The way he continuously takes over conversations that are supposed to be about the entire family - aka his victims - and makes it about himself while pitying himself - in front of his victims - never fails to impress me. At least he is consistent I guess, but it would have been great to see him actually change in the end. Surely he is done, oh no, nevermind, he keeps talking- 

「ヒーローエンデヴァーは焼かれて死んだ

おまえの炎は誰よりも強かった」

「ヒーロー ; hiirou」-> hero 「エンデヴァー ; endevaa」-> Endeavo 「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「焼かれて ; yakarete」-> burned 「死んだ ; shinda」-> died 「おまえ ; omae」-> you 「��� ; no」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe 「炎 ; honoo」-> flame 「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「誰 ; dare」-> anyone 「よりも ; yorimo」-> more than 「強かった ; tsuyokatta」-> was strong

= “The hero Endeavor was burned and died. Your flames were stronger than anyone else’s.”

「そっか　ご愁傷様　事が済んでから諂うなよ…卑怯者…」

「そっか ; sokka」-> I see 「ご愁傷様 ; goshuushousama」-> my condolences 「事 ; koto」-> things; matter 「が ; ga」-> subject marker particle 「済んでから」-> after it ended (済む + てから) 「諂う ; hetsurau」-> to flatter; to suck up to; to carry favour 「な ; na」-> na (negative command form) 「よ ; yo」-> emphasis particle 「卑怯者 ; hikyoumono」-> coward

= “I see. My condolences. Don’t suck up to me after it’s over… coward…”

Here is my beef with the official translation: they keep making Touya say the most random words and phrases, but then don’t make him say “don’t curry favour”?? “Don’t be toady”?? “Don’t be toady, Todoroki” would go so hard… wait… you know what… Here’s a little extra from me to you:

Back to business:

「そうだな　燈矢は誰のことをよくわかってる　ずっと見てたんだもんな」

「そう ; sou」-> so; that way 「だ ; da」-> be 「な ; na」-> sentence ending particle; used to seek confirmation 「燈矢 ; touya」-> Touya 「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「誰 ; dare」-> anyone 「の ; no」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe 「こと ; koto 」-> nominalizes prior word/phrase 「を ; o」-> direct object marker 「よく ; yoku」-> well 「わかってる ; wakatteru」-> to understand 「ずっと ; zutto」-> continuously 「見てた ; miteta」-> was watching 「んだ ; nda」-> explanatory particle 「もん ; mon」-> because; indicates reason 「な ; na」-> sentence ending particle; used to seek confirmation

= “That’s right, isn’t it. You know everyone so well. Because you have been watching continuously.”

「俺に見てほしかったんだもんな

なのに見なかった…」

「俺 ; ore」-> I  「に ; ni」-> at 「見てほしかった ; mitehoshikatta」-> wanted me to look 「んだ ; nda」-> explanatory particle 「もん ; mon」-> because; indicates reason 「な ; na」-> sentence ending particle; used to seek confirmation 「なのに ; nanoni」-> and yet; despite that 「見なかった ; minakatta」-> didn’t look

= “You wanted me to look, right? Despite that I didn’t look…”

If I didn’t know any better I would say this was a conversation with a toddler. I usually like to point out that Horikoshi really nails the sibling experience, but he is also, unfortunately, really good at accurately writing how privileged middle-aged men talk. A mangaka of many talents, but at what cost?

「俺はお父さんの子どもなんだから」

「俺 ; ore」-> I  「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「お父さん ; otousan」-> dad 「の ; no」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe 「子ども ; kodomo」-> child 「なんだ ; nanda」-> explanatory particle 「から ; kara」-> because; so

= “Because I am dad’s child.”

「おまえはエンデヴァーじゃない！！」

「おまえ ; omae」-> you 「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「エンデヴァー ; endevaa」-> Endeavor 「じゃない ; janai」-> isn’t

= ”You aren’t Endeavor!!”

Yes. That’s why we love him.

「誰が何と言おうと........　おまえの炎（ねつ）は俺のヘルフレイムだ

あの告発映像を毎日見続けている」

「誰 ; dare」-> someone 「が ; ga」-> subject marker particle 「何と ; nanto」-> what 「言うと ; iou to」-> to try to say 「おまえ ; omae」-> you 「の ; no」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe 「炎 ; honoo」-> flames 「ねつ ; netsu」-> heat; rage; mania 「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「俺 ; ore」-> I  「の ; no」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe 「ヘルフレイム ; herufureimu」-> Hell Flame 「だ ; da」-> be 「あの ; ano」-> that 「告発 ; kokuhatsu」-> complaint; prosecution 「映像 ; eizou」-> footage 「を ; o」-> direct object marker 「毎日 ; mainichi」-> every day 「見続けている ; mitsuzuketeiru」-> continue to watch

= “Whatever people try to say… Your flames (rage) are my Hellflame. I’ve continuously watched your prosecution video every day.”

This wouldn’t be a translation breakdown if we didn’t have a case of the furigana don’t match the kanji! Essentially what this means is that the furigana - written in brackets - show what the character says out loud, while the kanji shows what the character means. This time, when we get the kanji for flames in the second sentence, the furigana read netsu, which can meat “heat”, but also refer to “rage” or “mania” and since flames are hot, “heat” wouldn’t make it necessary to opt for a different reading, hence Endeavor is saying that the rage of Dabi was, in fact, Endeavor’s Hellflame.

「おどお゙さん見で」

「おどお゙さん ; odoosan」-> dad 「見で ; mide」-> look

= “Dad, look”

You might notice that the words are spelled differently from the normal otousan and mite. Softening the t sounds to a d sound highlights the difficulties he has speaking while being on fire. In addition to the softened t to d, the u also gets changed into an o with dakuten (the two lines on top), which only exist for the sounds that can become softer (t->d, h->b, k->g, s->j), which can’t be done to a vowel like o. In this case, the dakuten suggests that the o is said with emotion and somehow stands out from how it would be said normally.

「これからー」

「これから ; korekara」-> from now on

= “From now on-”

「毎日来る　話をしよう」

「毎日 ; mainichi」-> every day 「来る ; kuru 」-> to come 「話 ; hanashi」-> talk; conversation; chat 「を ; o」-> direct object marker 「しよう ; shiyou」-> let’s do/have

= “I will come every day. Let’s talk.”

「あまりに遅すぎたけれど話そう」

「あまりに; amari ni」-> too much; overly 「遅すぎた ; ososugita」-> was too late 「けれど ; keredo」-> however 「話そう ; hanasou」-> let’s talk

= “I was much too late, but let’s talk.”

Both amari ni and adding -sugiru to the stem of a verb can be translated as “too much” and in combination place an additional emphasis on the verb, in this case, being late, which could be referencing anything from the specific instances he showed up to too late (i.e. when Touya set himself on fire on Sekoto Peak) or in a more general sense him trying to show up as a father too late (the only example would be showing up in the hospital here and the fact he has retired and plans on protecting the family from facing any consequences for all of this, although even that is still more the bare minimum of making up for his mistakes rather than being a father but I doubt he understands the difference).

「心拍数上昇これ以上は負担が」

「心拍数 ; shinpakusuu」-> heart rate 「上昇 ; joushou」-> rising; ascending 「これ以上 ; kore ijou」 - > any more; any further; any longer 「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「負担 ; futan」-> burden, load 「が ; ga」-> subject marker particle

= “His heart rate is rising. Any more will (be) a burden.”

The ga would normally be followed by a verb (in this case most likely kakaru = to put), but is being omitted here as the meaning can be understood regardless.

「冷　夏雄　冬美　焦凍が…　残してくれた時間で話そう」

「冷 ; rei」-> Rei 「夏雄 ; natsuo」-> Natsuo 「冬美 ; fuyumi」-> Fuyumi 「焦凍 ; shouto」-> Shouto 「が ; ga」-> subject marker particle 「残してくれた」-> reserved for us (残す+くれる) 「時間 ; jikan」-> time 「で ; de」-> with 「話そう ; hanasou」-> let’s talk

= “Rei, Natsuo, Fuyum. Let’s talk with the time Shouto reserved for us.

Adding -tekureta after nokosu implies that someone did a favor for the speaker. Here, it means that Shouto reserved the time to talk to Touya for them.

「憎いなら…憎いと　なんでもいい　ぶつけてくれ…！」

「憎い ; nikui」-> hateful 「なら ; nara」-> if 「憎い ; nikui」-> hateful 「と ; to」-> speech particle 「なんでもいい ; nandemo ii」-> anything is fine; it doesn’t matter what 「ぶつけてくれ ; butsuketekure」-> throw it at me

= “If you hate me… hate me. Anything is fine, throw it at me…!!”

「燈矢兄私も…！」

「燈矢兄 ; touya nii」-> Touya-Nii 「私 ; watashi」-> I 「も ; mo」-> also; too

= “Touya-nii, me too…!”

「話したい事たくさん��るの」

「話したい ; hanashitai」-> want to talk 「事 ; koto」-> things 「たくさん ; takusan」-> a lot 「ある ; aru」-> to be 「の ; no」-> explanatory particle

= “There are a lot of things I want to talk about.”

This is about him getting piercings and dying his hair isn’t it. Maybe even taking off his shirt on live TV in front of the entire country. If only we could see that conversation…

「今日は止めにしましょう！！また明日にでも…」

「今日 ; kyou」-> today 「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「止めにしましょう , yame ni shimashou」-> let’s stop 「また ; mata」-> again 「明日 ; asu」-> tomorrow 「に ; ni」-> at 「でも ; demo」-> or something

= “Let’s stop for today!! (You can come back) tomorrow or something…”

「最後に一ついいですか　聞きたかったことあるんだ」

「最後 ; saigo」-> final 「に ; ni」-> at 「一つ ; hitotsu」-> one 「いい ; ii」-> good 「です ; desu」-> to be 「か ; ka」-> question marker particle 「聞きたかった」-> wanted to ask 「こと ; koto」-> thing 「ある ; aru」-> to be 「んだ ; nda」-> explanatory particle

= “Can I (ask) one last thing? Because there is one thing I wanted to ask.”

The first panel or first sentence ends in the polite form using desu ka as he is asking the employee for permission to ask one more question. The second panel or sentence, on the other hand, is casual as it ends in da, so without even waiting to receive an answer from the employee, he instantly goes to directly address Touya-nii for this extremely important question.

「燈矢兄　好きな食べ物何？」

「燈矢兄 ; touya nii」-> Touya-Nii 「好きな ; suki」-> to like 「食べ物 ; tabemono」-> food 「何 ; nani」-> what

= “Touya-nii. What’s your favorite food?”

Everybody liked that. It was really great when the spoilers came out and as soon as Shouto said he wanted to ask Touya something everyone instantly knew what the question was going to be. Also a lot of pressure for Touya. Wrong answer and his little brother can pull the plug. 

「......体力の限界ですね今日は眠らせてまた…」

「体力 ; tairyoku」-> stamina; endurance 「の ; no」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe 「限界 ; genkai」-> limit 「です ; desu」-> to be 「ね ; ne」-> sentence ending particle; used to seek confirmation 「今日 ; kyou」-> today 「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「眠らせて ; nemurasete」-> to let someone sleep 「また ; mata」-> again

= “This is the limit, isn’t it. Let’s let him sleep again for today.”

「蕎麦」

「蕎麦 ; soba」-> soba

= “Soba.”

These lines are always my favorite to break down. It’s not easy translating such complex phrases so please recognize the years of studying it took to be able to perfectly translate this kind of high-level sentence. Thank you.

I can only imagine him going back to his classmates, looking at Bakugo and saying: “You were wrong. It’s soba.”

「おんなじだ」

「おんなじ ; onnaji」-> same 「だ ; da」-> be

= “It’s the same.”

Usually, the word same is written as 同じ and read as onaji. In itself, these two spellings have the same meaning, however, the more standard onaji would be used in the sense of something or a situation being exactly the same, for example attending the same school as someone or facing the same problem. Onnaji, on the other hand, indicates something has very similar properties and is used more in the sense of the same color, taste etc, which is why this spelling has a bit more emotion associated with it.

So Shouto is saying that it’s the same, but he says so with emotion. Rather than stating a fact, them having the same food holds meaning to him. 

「これ以上は平行線だ　交わるよ　無理にでも」

「これ以上 ; kore ijou」-> from here on; any further 「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「平行線 ; heikousen」-> remaining far apart; not reaching an agreement 「だ ; da」-> be 「交わる ; majiwaru」-> to cross; to mingle with 「よ ; yo」-> emphasis particle 「無理に ; muri ni」-> forcible; forced 「でも ; demo」-> even

= “From here on it’s parallel lines. I will cross, even if by force.”

「焦凍…　ごめんな…」

「焦凍 ; shouto」-> Shouto 「ごめん ; gomen」-> I‘m sorry 「な ; na」-> used to say something emotionally

= “Shouto… I’m sorry…”

If only… Shouto had heard this… and they could’ve talked about this… that would be crazy, right? No, why don’t we focus on the main character again, instead of getting a conversation the entire story has been building up to.

「俺はここまでだわ　悪いけど気持ち変わんない　俺はもう付き合わない」

「俺 ; ore」-> I  「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「ここ ; koko」-> here 「まで ; made」-> until 「だ ; da」-> be 「わ ; wa」-> 「悪い ; warui」-> sorry 「けど ; kedo」-> but 「気持ち ; kimochi」-> feelings 「変わんない ; kawannai」-> unchanged 「俺 ; ore」-> I  「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「もう ; mou」-> already 「付き合わない ; tsukiawanai」-> don’t associate with

= “For me it’s (ending) here. I’m sorry, but my feelings haven’t changed. I won’t associate with you anymore.”

The particle wa is used when reflecting one’s view toward a situation after coming to a conclusion. There is a nuance of confidently affirming the phrase or regretting the situation, depending on the tone, which we don’t have here, but this reads more as a confident statement than one of regret, although it might just be a little bit of both.

「ああ」

「ああ ; aa」-> Ah

= “Ah.”

「彼女と籍入れたい　式は挙げない紹介もしない」

「彼女 ; kanojo」-> girlfriend 「と ; to」-> with 「籍入れたい ; seki iretai」-> to get married; to want to have a name entered in the family register 「式 ; shiki」-> (wedding) ceremony 「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「挙げない ; agenai」-> to conduct 「紹介 ; shoukai」-> introduction 「も ; mo」-> also 「しない ; shinai」-> won’t do

= “I want to enter the family register with my girlfriend. We won’t conduct a ceremony and I also won’t introduce you.”

Normally, to talk about marriage or getting married you would use the word kekkon (suru). Here, Natsuo specifically uses the term “to enter in the family registry.” While these two words can be used to mean the same thing (= getting married), entering the family registry differs in that one person enters an already existing family registry rather than creating a new one upon marriage, which is why this can also be used for when a child gets adopted by a step-parent or if a child takes on their other parent’s last name after a divorce.

Again, this can just be treated as a synonym for getting married, but it might also be to emphasize this as an act of removing himself from his father rather than an act of love. It surely feels like an odd time to be thinking of marriage, with the current situation not having him in the right mental or emotional state for such a big step to be smart (he already did the whole “cutting my hair during a crisis” so he should follow that with dying his hair or something else that is going to affect his life less than marriage).

Let’s face it: had he said this while they were with Touya, his big bro’s heart monitor would have gone crazy before he would have broken out of that machine to talk some sense into his little brother.

Also, not to insult Natsuo because he is very sweet, but I just have to mention the irony of him getting married as a means to solve his issues when that was also his dad’s first step. It’s obviously different, but still worth pointing out.

「ああ…分かったな」

「ああ ; aa」-> Ah 「分かった ; wakatta」-> understood 「な ; na」-> sentence ending particle; used to seek confirmation

= “Ah, I get it.”

「姉ちゃんは？仕事やめたんだろ？」

「姉ちゃん ; neechan」-> big sister 「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「仕事 ; shigoto」-> job 「やめた ; yameta」-> to quit 「ん ; n」-> explanatory particle 「だろ ; daro」-> right

= “What about you, big sis? You left your job, right?”

I do like the symbolism of him standing in the middle of the street, ready to use the crosswalk, while the rest of the family remain on the side of the road, but I am also worried he is going to get hit by a car.

「うんでも　生徒のお母さんが新しい職場紹介してくれてねサポートしてくれるって」

「うん ; un」-> yeah 「でも ; demo」-> but 「生徒 ; seito」-> student 「の ; no」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe 「お母さん ; okaasan」-> mom 「が ; ga」-> subject marker particle 「新しい ; atarashii」-> new 「職場 ; shokuba」-> workplace 「紹介してくれて ; shoukai shitekurete」-> introduced me (as a favor) 「ね ; ne」-> sentence ending particle; used to seek confirmation 「サポートしてくれる ; sapooto shitekureru」-> support (as a favor) 「って ; tte」-> quoting particle (casual of という)

= “Yeah, but the mom of a student introduced me to a new workplace. So she’s being supportive.”

Similar to before, the -tekurete suggests that this introduction as well as the support is seen as a favor.

「........正直責任は果たしたと思う　罰も受けたと思う…もういいんじゃねーの？」

「正直 ; shoujiki」-> honestly; frankly 「責任 ; sekinin」-> duty 「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「果たした ; hatashita」-> accomplished; carried out 「と思う ; to omou」-> to think 「罰 ; batsu」-> punishment 「も ; mo」-> too 「受けた ; uketa」-> received 「と思う ; to omou」-> to think 「もういい ; mou ii」-> that’s enough 「ん ; n」-> explanatory particle 「じゃねー ; janee」-> isn’t 「のか ; noka-> question marker particle seeking an explanation

= “Frankly, I think we’ve fulfilled our responsibilities. I think we already received our punishment. That’s enough, isn’t it?”

This line has gotten some negative attention as fan translations have this line directed toward Endeavor, whereas the official English translation has this line be directed toward the entire family. As you can see in the breakdown above, there is no explicit human subject in this sentence to clarify who is being addressed here, in addition to the fact that he has his back turned to us readers with no indication as to who he is looking at.

However, the last person he directly addressed was Fuyumi, who was also the one speaking right before this line. Furthermore, the next line is Endeavor saying that he will ensure to take the blame and whatnot from here on out so that they do not need to face any more consequences for this.

With that being said, to me this reads as him talking to the family, specifically as a response to Fuyumi suggesting that her former student’s mother introducing her to a new workplace and supporting her is somewhat of a favor. While we don’t know exactly why she left her job, there is still a suggestion that this situation has impacted her negatively and that people showing support is somehow worth noting. And yes, Japan has a culture of blaming the entire family when a family member commits a crime, however, Natsuo’s line then seems somewhat frustrated at this, feeling as though they all already faced consequences (like Fuyumi leaving her job), and that they shouldn’t have to face consequences for the rest of their lives, let alone feel overly grateful for any person that still treats them as individuals rather than an accomplice for something they had nothing to do with.

Overall, this line reads more like he wants them to be able to move past this, rather than have this now haunt them after they have already been struggling their whole lives by growing up in the Todoroki household.

「犯した罪の賠償と謝罪を一生をかけて続けていく

見ていなくていい子どもたち（おまえたち）に降りかかる火の粉をできる限り俺が受け止める　生き延びた意味があるとすればそれだけなんだ」

「犯した ; okashita」-> committed 「罪 ; tsumi」-> crime; sin 「の ; no」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe 「賠償 ; baishou」-> compensation; reparations 「と ; to」-> with 「謝罪 ; shazai」-> apology 「を ; o」-> direct object marker 「一生 ; issho」-> whole life 「を ; o」-> direct object marker 「かけて ; kakete」-> make; put out 「続けていく ; tsuzuketeiku 」->to continue from now on (続ける+いく) 「見ていなくて ; mitenakute」-> not looking 「いい ; ii」-> good; okay 「子どもたち ; kodomotachi」-> children 「おまえたち ; omaetachi」-> you (plural) 「に ; ni」-> to 「降りかかる ; furikakaru」-> to happen; to befall 「火の粉 ; hi no ko」-> sparks 「を ; o」-> direct object marker 「できる ; dekiru」-> to be able to 「限り ; kagiri」-> limit; degree 「俺 ; ore」-> I  「が ; ga」-> subject marker particle 「受け止める ; uketomeru」-> to catch; to stop the blow 「生き延びた ; ikinobita」-> survived; lived long 「意味 ; imi」-> meaning 「が ; ga」-> subject marker particle 「ある ; aru」-> to exist 「とすれば ; to sureba」-> then; if so; if 「それだけ ; soredake」-> that much; to that extent; only that 「なんだ ; nanda」-> explanatory particle

= “From here on out I will continue to make reparations and apologize for my committed crimes for my whole life. I will catch as much of the sparks that fall on you kids who don’t have to watch. If there is any meaning in my survival, it is just that.”

Again, he says “you” but means “children”. The miteinakute ii is used to say that “it’s okay not to watch”, in other words he does not expect them to keep in touch with him or anything along those lines.

The -teiku after tsuzukeru is used to imply that something will continue from this moment forward. While he didn't make up for his mistakes, from now on he will.

「........地獄だぞ」

「地獄 ; jigoku」-> hell 「だ ; da」-> be 「ぞ ; zo」-> emphasizes the speaker’s will or opinion; can be inviting to the listener

= “........It’s hell.”

「ああダンスの誘いを受けたんでな」

「ああ ; aa」-> Ah 「ダンス ; dansu」-> dance 「の ; no」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe 「誘い ; sasoi」-> invitation 「を ; o」-> direct object marker 「受けた ; uketa」-> to accept 「んでな ; ndena」-> explanatory particle

= “Ah, I did accept the dance invitation.”

「…初めてだよ　お父さんの事　かっこいいって思えたの」

「初めて ; hajimete」-> first time  「だ ; da」-> be 「よ ; yo」-> emphasis particle 「お父さん ; otousan」-> dad 「の ; no」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe 「事 ; koto」-> nominalizes prior word/phrase 「かっこいい ; kakkoii」-> cool 「って思えた ; tte omoeta」-> to seem; to appear 「の ; no」-> explanatory particle

= “It was the first time that you seemed cool.”

 Natsuo has called Endeavor by many (disrespectful) names. This is the first time he calls him by the standard/polite term for father. This is not to say that he likes him now. With the whole marriage talk in mind, this feels more like him letting go of his feelings for a second to make a somewhat neutral statement. Neutral in the sense of being able to recognize and view something his dad has done in a positive light rather than letting his feelings completely take over his judgment.

「焦凍は？学校戻るんだろ？」

「焦凍 ; shouto」-> Shouto 「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「学校 ; gakkou」-> school 「戻る ; modoru」-> to return to 「ん ; n」-> explanatory particle 「だろ ; daro」-> I think; right?

= “What about you, Shouto? You’re returning to school, right?”

「うん」

「うん ; un」-> yeah

= “Yeah.” 

「乗ってけよ姉ちゃんも」　

「乗ってけ ; notteke」-> I’ll give you a ride 「よ ; yo」-> emphasis particle 「姉ちゃん ; neechan」-> big sis  「も ; mo」-> also; too

= “I’ll give you a ride. Nee-chan, too.”

「ありがとう」

「ありがとう ; arigatou」-> thanks

= “Thanks.”

「親父　お母さん　俺にはA組（みんな）いるから大丈夫だよ！　俺は自分でなりてえようになれるから！」

「親父 ; oyaji」-> dad 「お母さん ; okaasan」-> mom 「俺 ; ore」-> I  「には ; niwa」-> as for 「A組 ; e gumi」-> class A  「みんな ; minna」-> everyone  「いる ; iru」-> to be  「から ; kara」-> therefore  「大丈夫 ; daijoubu」-> alright  「だ ; da」-> be 「よ ; yo」-> emphasis particle 「俺 ; ore」-> I  「は ; wa」-> topic marker particle 「自分 ; jibun」-> myself  「で ; de」-> with 「なりてえ ; naritee」-> want to become (casual of naritai)  「ようになれる ; you ni nareru」-> to reach the point where; to come to; to begin to 「から ; kara」-> because; so

= “Dad, mom. I’ll be okay because of Class A (everyone). I can reach the point of being what I want to be!”

Just like before we get furigana that differ from the kanji. Shouto says that he will be alright because everyone is there, but he specifically means Class A when he says that.

「地獄でも」

「地獄 ; jigoku」-> hell  「でも ; demo」-> even though

= “Even though it’s hell.”

「おーう早かったな！！大丈夫だったかあ！？」

「おーう ; ou」-> Ooh 「早かった ; hayakatta」-> early 「な ; na」-> sentence ending particle; used to seek confirmation 「大丈夫 ; daijoubu」-> alright 「だった ; datta」-> was 「かあ ; kaa」-> question marker particle

= “Oh, you’re early! Was it alright!?”

「おなかすいた」

「おなかすいた ; onaka suita」-> I’m starving

= “I’m starving.”

「見てる人がいる」

「見てる ; miteru」-> looking 「人 ; hito」-> person 「が ; ga」-> subject marker particle 「いる ; iru」-> to be

= “There is someone who is watching.”

Me. I’m the one watching. But at what cost? The family’s two most used words have got to be “hell” and “to look” . Someone please teach them some more words.

That concludes the Todoroki family interaction in this chapter and supposedly for the story (everyone disliked that). Personally, this does not read as a conclusion so I am going to just treat this as the beginning of the conclusion, instead. And perhaps the final in the sense of the whole family not getting together anymore because Natsuo isn’t going to be around Endeavor anymore.

Personally, my biggest issue with this chapter is the fact that while it’s called final and set up as though the family and we finally get closure by everyone reuniting with Touya, it’s just another episode of self-pitying with a grown-ass man that has still not changed or understood anything despite everything. Yes, he finally managed to talk to Touya, to apologize and acknowledge both Touya’s pain as well as his own accountability in the entire affair. However, the rest of the family could have been left out of this chapter entirely since they said nothing other than “we have lots to talk about” which is obviously a beginning, but I’m sure we all have been waiting patiently to get an actual conversation not just hear them say that they want to talk at a later point, which we then won't ever get to see.

The soba part is amazing, of course, but it could and should have played a bigger role in this chapter.

People have been expressing various opinions in regards to the family’s current situation and their future, though - again - it would be great to see more of that because this chapter only briefly touched on various interesting points and then didn’t explore these points more because if there is one thing this world needs more is privileged people whining about how hard their life is and the many sacrifices they have had to make (= barely facing consequences).

That being said, we’ll see what the final 4 chapters will offer and whether we will see the Todoroki family make another appearance.

And no, Touya won’t die.

[kitthepurplepotato]

Side note: I’m not back from my hiatus I’m just posting this because I magically managed to finish this chapter before going berserk! Yay!

Chapter 20 - Can I show you how much I love you? (18+)

Summary: You just wanted to eat breakfast. So how did you end up in the shower with your freakishly handsome boyfriend, kissing each other senseless?! And the bed?! When did you get there? What’s going on?! WHAT IS THIS SHENANIGAN?!

Warnings: Swear words, 18+!!! Contains a sex scene. (It’s mostly smut, so please, if you are not okay with that or you are under 18, skip this chapter or well… you know... 😂 Thank you!)

Also, this chapter is 7K so get some water and something to snack on!

First Chapter Master List

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

“Rise and shine, you drunkard.” You giggle to yourself as you look at your fluffy, absolutely adorable boyfriend who’s already frowning from the light coming in through the window.

“Hey, you wanted me to have fun, which I certainly did.” Izuku retorts sassily. You can’t help but gawk at him which only makes the green head laugh. “I’ll be fine after I take my pills. I’m not in more pain than usual, I swear.”

“Still, drinking this much in your condition…” You mutter, probably ruining the mood completely but fuck, you are so worried. It’s terrible to see such a hard working man so down, physically and mentally. You want him to be healthy and happy again, you want him to smile freely and sleep peacefully like he used to. You want to shield him from any harm, make sure nothing prolongs his current suffering but at the same time, you understand that’s he’s not a fragile human being who needs to be pampered the entire time, however, you still can’t help but want to do that.

“Sweets, I asked.” Izuku sighs. “The doctor said it’s fine. I’m fine. You are fine. Everything is fine.” He slowly strokes your cheeks until you finally relax. It takes a little bit of time, but eventually, you get there. “What do you want to do today, love?” Izuku smiles at you and it’s quite pathetic how your heart rate rises every time he’s sweet to you, even to this day. You’ve been together for long enough to get used to these touches but somehow, you just… can’t.

“Well, Katsuki, Ei, Shouto, Mirio and Tamaki went ‘monster hunting’ early in the morning. By that, I think they meant they are going to climb the big mountain. Denki is still KO so Hitoshi brought him back to their own cabin when Katsuki and the gang left for their adventures. Kyouka and Momo went down to the high street for a shopping spree. Rody went down with them to spend some time with his family. So once we clean up the bedding from the floor and… maybe we can just… chill today? In our own cabin? Try the onsen? Maybe?” Your cheeks are so flushed you are surprised Izuku haven’t commented on it yet.

“Hmm…” his cheeky hands find their way to your tummy under your shirt, slowly stroking your naked skin with a smug smirk on his face. What happened to shy Izuku?! Where is he?! Who’s this man?! “Sounds like a plan to me, Sweets.”

“If you keep doing that, we will never make it to our cabin.” You murmur into his ears with a shit-eating grin on your face. Izuku is out of the bed before you can say anything else, stuttering nonsense under his nose as he moves the so called “bedding” - a bunch of decorative pillows and massive blankets scattered on the floor - back to where they belong and he’s out of the door without a single word. You can’t help but giggle the whole way home.

“Why are you in such a hurry?” You snicker under your nose and Izuku gives you the sassiest side eye you’ve ever seen. It’s absolutely hilarious. “What?!” Oh no. You can’t stop giggling like an idiot. You really don’t need another tummy ache after yesterday’s shenanigans!

“I’m going to the onsen. Right now.” Izuku declares.

“No, not before breakfast.” You retort, standing with your hand on your hips like an angry mother.

“Oh yeah?” He comes closer, his smile bigger and bigger as you flush from his closeness. “Watch me.”

Ladies and gentleman, what happens now must be a fever dream… because Pro Hero Deku AKA Midoriya Izuku AKA Izu-Izu takes off his fucking shirt in the most attractive way possible and slowly sheds every single clothing off while you yell like a virgin with your eyes covered by your own hands.

“What the fuck, Izuku! Stop! Keep the boxers… oh my god, STOP THE VIOLENCE!” You laugh, cheekily peeking out between your fingers. “You also need to shower before going in! IZUKU LISTEN TO ME, YOU MENACE!”

“Only if you shower with me.” Izuku WINKS at you and you swear your soul just left your body for a second.

“Only if you eat breakfast.” You retort and by the surprised look on Izuku’s face, he didn’t think you’ll even consider saying yes to that question.

“You will… shower with me?” Izuku’s confidence is gone just like that, in a matter of milliseconds and you kinda feel the urge to just push him into the bathroom to prove how serious you were but you are way too hungry to even think properly right now so…

“After we had breakfast. I’m starving, Izu-Izu.”

“But… for real?”

“Well, we’ve been together for long enough to share a shower, haven’t we?” You answer with a massive blush on your face.

“I’ll re-heat the food Katsuki left for us.” Is all the answer you get before he trots away into the kitchen.

The mood… is heavy. There is just something in the air you can’t really describe, this weird tension, but not the bad kind… you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that today… something big will happen. It might just be the shower, seeing each other completely naked for the first time, but maybe it won’t stop there, maybe…

All the blood from your face goes somewhere else.

Calm down. Jesus Christ, woman, just calm down.

You were so deep in your thoughts you didn’t even realize the that the food is already heated up and ready to eat on the small table in the kitchen. The lovely scent of Katsuki’s food makes your tummy grumble; it might be weird to eat lunch for breakfast, but you literally can’t even be bothered to comment on it; in your household, it’s quite normal to eat whatever you guys want, whenever you want it, thanks to Izuku’s inhuman shift patterns. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, afternoon snack; food is food. That’s your household’s motto.

“The food is served, my princess!” Izuku’s adorable face appears in front of you; he bows low and makes that arm movement the butlers do in those dramas in the TV. The whole scene would be quite funny if he wouldn’t be wearing one single underwear and nothing else.

Let’s just say it’s hard to laugh when you are too focused on… well… the curves. The shapes. The godly body. Those massive fucking legs which could crush your head like a watermelon without even flinching…

“The food is indeed served.” You mutter under your nose, loudly by accident and Izuku starts to laugh, tears prickling his eyes as he holds his tummy, probably trying not to throw up once again.

“Oh… my… god… Sweets… I didn’t see that coming.”

“Me neither!” You yell as you pass by your stupidly attractive boyfriend, completely avoiding eye contact because there is no way you can look at him right now with how embarrassed you are. “Put on a fucking shirt!”

Izuku laughs some more but obliges at the end.

Thank fuck.

~•🥦•~

“If you changed your mind, that’s okay.” Izuku caresses your face as you two stand in the bathroom, still clothed. You are quite sure your face is the color of Eijirou’s hair right now. Your limbs are shaking like a leaf and you feel so much anxiety you could cry. It’s stupid, really; it’s not like it’s your first time to be naked in front of somebody, yet it really does feel like it is; Izuku is not like the others, he’ll actually look at you, look at your curves and the tiny little flaws and he’ll remember everything until the day he dies, cherish them like they are something special, because that’s who Midoriya Izuku is; the most caring, most loving partner the world has ever seen.

“I want this.” You declare confidently. “Yes.” You nod to yourself with a tiny pout on your face.

“Yes.” Izuku parrots, making the same, tiny pout then he gives you a smile that makes your insides melt right away. “You are so cute, Sweets. I love you so much.”

“Shut up and get naked!” You yell with a red face. He’s too much. This is too much. He’s too perfect. You can’t even take his teasing seriously with how much love you see in his eyes as he does it.

“Hey, you are not the only one freaking out here!” Izuku yelps awkwardly. “Turn around… please?”

His wavering voice make you look up to his face; he’s flushed and trembly as he slowly takes his shirt off, the movement full of hesitation. You really feel the urge to mention how only an hour ago, he wasn’t this shy about stripping in front of you, but you keep your thoughts to yourself.

“You can also change your mind, you know.” You finally turn around to give him some privacy.

“I’ve been waiting for this ages. There is no way in hell I’ll back out of this just because of my stupid anxiety.” Izuku grumbles, more to himself than to you. “You’ve seen me naked before. You’ve seen my scars. You know all my secrets. I have no reason for me to feel so ashamed of myself. It’s all in my head… I know I’m not ugly. That’s a lie, fuck… I know… I know you think I’m… okay. I know you won’t mind… me looking like this. Most and foremost, I know you love me for who I am and not for how I look like…” he mumbles and mumbles, not realizing you managed to get out of your clothes by the time he managed to get to his underwear. Your eyes are filled with tears from his words, you want to slap him in the face for hating himself like that and kiss him senseless out of pride for finally realizing it’s all in his head.

With that said…

“Izuku, look at me.” You appear behind your boyfriend, probably standing way too close for it to be appropriate, but you don’t care right now.

Izuku bumps right into you when he turns around; a tiny yelp leaves his mouth as your breasts bounce on his chest. “If I ever hear you calling yourself ugly I’ll pull out every single one of your leg hairs with a tweezer, one buy one, in the most painful way possible. Now turn around, finish what you are doing and see you in the shower.”

“That’s weirdly… evil.” Izuku snickers but by the look of it, you plan worked because he looks much less anxious now. You quickly go inside the shower cubicle to hide, not giving the man too much time to check you out… yet.

You can hear some rustling from outside then Izuku takes a few deep breaths and steps inside the now foggy shower and… you forget how to breathe.

Izuku looks gorgeous on a normal day, but this… is downright sinful. Izuku is stocky but not in the wrong way; you knew that already but with his underwear now gone, you can see how perfect the proportion is. He’s perfect. His shoulders are massive, but he has a nice curve to his body and there is a tiny trail of green hair leading towards his perfectly trimmed intimate area, also pine green just like his hair… then… that’s… a monster between his legs. Yup. You slowly look up and to the side to calm yourself down because that sight went straight into your core and this shower doesn’t feel that innocent anymore.

“Sweets, I… I’ll have problems down there if you keep looking this pretty, just giving you a heads up.” Izuku whines with a high pitched voice. By the time you wake up from your daze he already turned his back to you (you try your best not to stare at that gorgeous fucking ass, because hell, that thing looks like it was carved by a horny but extremely talented sculptor), probably ashamed of himself for feeling this way. You can’t help but speak up.

“If I would… have the same thing between my legs, I would have the same problem.” You admit sheepishly.

“Why are we so awkward about the stupidest things?” Izuku giggles. You want to pinch him. (His ass. You want to pinch his ass. That’s what you want to do you cheeky sod.)

“I don’t mind. I think it’s really… us, that we act this way. I wouldn’t have this any other way.”

“I don’t deserve you.”

“Say that again and I’ll forcefully kiss you.”

“Hm. That doesn’t sound that bad.”

“IZUKU!“ you yell into the small space as you hide your face in your palms like that helps anything. Your forehead ends up on Izuku’s back and he yelps helplessly; you don’t need to see his face to know he’s red all over because even the back of his neck is the color of a lobster.

“Okay, I’m done with this awkwardness.” Izuku takes a deep breath and the next moment, your back hits the wall. You can’t help, but whimper. “Sweets, you are the most perfect human being I’ve ever seen and I’ve been waiting for this moment for ages, so I’m sorry for… uhm… being a little bit too excited right now but I really want to wash your back if you… uhm…” Izuku stops in the middle of the sentence as he’s incapable to continue thanks to your mouth being on his.

You can’t help it. Just… can’t. Your body moved on its own.

Izuku is irresistible. His gorgeous muscles, the veins on his arms, the softness of his wet skin, topped up with his kind words and pretty freckles is just too much after all this time; you wanted to touch him for so long, you wanted to feel him for months which honestly, feels like decades at this point… it feels like the love is about to burst out of your chest but there are no words strong enough to satiate your soul, to make it clear enough for the other the understand the depth of your feelings and your body is not listening to you anymore; the desire has festered into something unstoppable, it clouded your mind completely until there were no thoughts there just Izuku himself, freckled cheeks and pine green hair, the broccoli…

Wait.

“If this is your way to make this less awkward… it works.” Izuku kisses you back with a newly found vehemence, scorching hot yet so careful, but you don’t kiss back anymore… you push the man away like he just burned you, because… “Y/N? What’s wrong?”

“I forgot!”

“What?”

“How did I forget about it?” You whimper, completely ashamed of yourself. “I can’t believe I was so astonished by your… uhm… that I forgot to check it out! I’m the worst!”

“I have no idea what you are talking about, is the water too hot?” Izuku blinks at you, completely lost.

“The broccoli! I forgot about your broccoli! I can’t believe this!”

Izuku… bursts out laughing. He’s folded in half, his forehead basically cushioned by your boobs, shaking like a leaf from guffawing too hard.

“You pushed me away in the middle of a heavy, naked make-out session because you wanted to see my tattoo?” He looks into your eyes with an incredulous, but fond gaze.

“It’s important to me!” You mutter under your nose and Izuku doesn’t even answer you anymore; he just moves away and pushes his hip out, showing off his tiny, adorable broccoli tattoo sitting on his hipbone. You can’t stop your fingers from reaching out, caressing the colored skin with nothing but wonder in your eyes. “It’s so cute.”

Your boyfriend looks so much leaner than he usually does - you realize as you caress his strong hipbone, your fingers cheekily running over the dip by his waist.

Damn, you’ll never ever get over his thighs. Every time you look at them you remember his photoshoot with Mirko, the one that made Izuku a fashion icon, a genderless beauty because hell, Izuku is as manly as they get but… that man in Mirko’s costume kinda made you question your own sexuality.

Maybe you are just Izuku-sexual. He could be a man, a woman, someone between the two, hell, a fucking midget and you would still be attracted to him.

“You are so beautiful, Y/N.” Izuku sighs, right next to your ears. The fire burns even stronger inside you. The feeling only gets worse when his hand travels from your waist to the side of your breast, his thumb cheekily caressing the plump, soft skin. You make the mistake of looking down out of pure embarrassment just to be face to face with the proof of how much Izuku likes what he sees.

You can’t see it, but you can feel him staring at you; you look up and you are met with two heavily lidded eyes taking in the sight from the top of your head down to your feet, over and over. There is a new shine to them now, hot and scorching and you completely melt under that loving gaze; he takes that as a permission to take it further and starts peppering kisses all over your wet neck. You can’t help but move your hand into his soft, dripping curls; you clench your hand around the strands and Izuku makes a sinful sound which goes right into your center and the next few minutes are kinda a blur; things fall from the small shelving system inside the cubicle, someone slips, someone bites, someone moans, there is a constant pressure by your belly, something hard, but also soft to the touch, there are hands on your chest, on your back, on your thighs, everywhere, really.

Your whole body is on fire and so is his; the water is way too cold, but even that can not ruin the moment you two are having.

There are no thoughts in your head, just him. Izuku Midoriya. Midoriya Izuku. Calloused fingers and the feeling of scars under your hands, hard muscle and soft skin, bouncy curls, the scent of Izuku’s shower gel, which somehow decided to appear out of nowhere (he probably took it off the shelf while you were too busy kissing him senseless and actually decided to be useful and clean you up while touching you all over), there is so much going on yet your mind is completely empty.

This is what Izuku does to you on a daily basis. He comes close and you forget who you are.

The scent of Izuku’s shower gel only sends thrill down your spine; the knowledge that for the next few hours you’ll smell like him, taste like him just ignites your body once again, the flames even stronger than before, you can’t help but touch him, first just his arms, then the tattoo on his side, the back of his neck, his collarbone, then the soft hair right on top of his member. You didn’t touch him properly but a wanton moan leaves Izuku’s mouth right as your fingers start to caress the hair down there then suddenly, Izuku gently slaps your hand away from that area.

You don’t have time to freak out about “going too far”; the next moment your back hits the wall once again, your legs somehow make their way around the man’s extremely attractive waist then he slowly moves you lower and lower until you feel something soft but sturdy right between your folds, just like the last time you two enjoyed each other’s company in the hot tub.

“Tell me to stop.” Izuku whimpers right into your ears then ends his sentence by biting down on your ear. His whole body shakes from the restraint, his palms are aggressively gripping your side and the back of your neck; Izuku is doing his fucking best to not move his hips forward, to not let him feel the pleasure of the friction because once it’s done, there is no way back for him; there is a limit to his restraint, there is a limit to how much of this can Izuku take without losing his goddamn mind…

You tear Izuku’s walls down with one single movement, with just a tiny little friction and you both moan in tandem as the pleasure creates goosebumps on your skin, but maybe, it’s just the cold water coming from the shower head; it doesn’t matter though because your answer is loud and clear and that’s all it takes for Izuku to turn off the shower with one hand and manhandle you into a towel-burrito before he takes you to the bedroom like a princess, his teeth clattering from the cold.

You should feel shy and embarrassed. You should be freaking out when Izuku drops you down on the bed and towers over you with your boobs halfway out of your towel.

You don’t feel any of that. Neither is he.

It just feels… normal. Exciting.

“Finally…” Izuku giggles with excitement sparkling in his gorgeous eyes. He pulls the cover on top of you both and takes a few deep breaths to stop the shaking of his body; he waits a few minutes in silence, just staring at your chest and face, remembering it all while your bodies get warmer under the cover and the goosebumps are finally gone. You trace the old scars on his chest and his tummy, you give them all the love you possibly can without saying a single word. The silence isn’t awkward… this silence is… precious. It’s like there’s no need for words, no need for verbal communication because everything is written all over your faces, it’s in every single caress, every single kiss, every single sigh that leaves your mouths as you touch each other in new places. Your hand can’t get away from that perfectly trimmed bush on top of Izuku’s member so you find yourself there once again, just caressing the prickly skin, enjoying the way it feels under your fingertips.

The mood is calmer now, more mature but still full of those flames from before; it’s a weird, conflicting combination but it somehow works for you two. “Sweet pea.” Izuku whimpers while his free hand fondles your boob. You can’t help but moan into the air between you two as his thumps finds your bud and starts fiddling with it. “Can I show you how much I love you?” All you can do is nod weakly, your eyes full of tears. No one ever treated you like this, like you are a goddess who deserves to be worshipped, like every caress is a gift, like your body is something worth cherishing and you feel so loved already you kinda want to tell him to not even bother anymore, but you don’t have the heart to do that after looking into his half-lidded, excited eyes.

“Please.” You smile at your boyfriend happily. He bumps your foreheads together for a few seconds and smiles right back; this moment is special, it feels like there is a red string connecting you two together, the one that’s indestructible and infinite; the strings of faith are almost visible now as Izuku leans down to connect your chests, but maybe you are just too delirious and too aroused to be able to distinguish delusion from reality.

Izuku seals the deal with the hottest kiss known to mankind and you are halfway to your orgasm already and he haven’t even touched you yet.

“Plus Ultra!” Izuku gives you one last smile before he dives under the covers, right between your legs and you scream his name as you come in less than 3 minutes. Three. Fucking. Minutes.

He just… went in and… oh my god. Midoriya Izuku, goddamn Pro Hero Deku just… he’s… really talented with his tongue. Let’s just leave it at that.

You need 5 to 7 days to get over the fact that you just received the best oral you’ve ever had and it was from your favorite pro Hero who you are ridiculously in love with.

“Don’t worry, I’m not done.” You can feel Izuku’s smile on the inside of your thighs as he starts peppering kisses all over the area. It’s so loving and so careful, so slow yet so passionate… you can’t help but feel the arousal wake up inside you once again. “I really love your legs. I always wanted to kiss them. They are so soft and your thighs are so… ahh, I wanna sleep on them. They are better than the best memory foam pillow on the market. You also taste really nice. I think I’m becoming addicted.” Izuku goes back to the “treasure” and leaves tiny kisses all over your folds, teasing the most sensitive parts with his tongue to steal another taste. You can’t help but whimper; it’s extremely sensitive now but the touch is light enough to be pleasurable even in this state.

“I also love your tummy. Having a six pack is great, but I really enjoy soft and cute things.” Izuku adds with an obsessed tone which makes you blush like a virgin. “You are the softest and cutest of them all. I love you.” Izuku leaves a trail of kisses all over your tummy until he reaches your chest; he pops your bud into his mouth and does something with his tongue that makes you see stars; it almost feels like swirling water, soft and languid. It’s extremely hard to describe the feeling without comparing Izuku’s tongue to a tentacle, which, let’s be honest, would make this fanfiction so much dirtier than it really is.

“I’m not even going to try and give these two a justice with my words.” Is all Izuku says before he takes your other bud into his mouth to give it some love. If you think this can’t get more hot, you are wrong; Izuku starts to nibble your chest gently, sucking on the soft skin without leaving a mark, his eyes downright manic as he makes sure there isn’t a single millimeter left unloved.

Needless to say, you guys will need to change the sheets after this because well… you are soaking wet. Again.

You try your best to hide this information from your boyfriend for now because while Izuku is a man on a mission, you also have your own plans and knowing how much Izuku enjoys giving, he wouldn’t let you do anything today until your “situation” is “sorted.”

“Izu-Izu.” You rake your fingers through Izuku’s hair, clenching your fist on the top of his head just to hear him moan once again. And again. And again. Hell, Izuku has the most sinful moan, high pitched and weirdly feminine; he always tries to stop himself in the middle of the sound and the way his voice falters and breaks, then goes so high in the last one second… just makes your “situation” even worse. “Let me love you too, goddamnit!” You whine and moan at the same time. Izuku stops with his shenanigans for one second and that’s all you need to finally manage to roll him over and end up in his lap. You are not going to lie, it took all of your strength to be able to do that and you are panting a little bit but it was all worth it for the sight; he is blushing like crazy and he looks so lost now that he’s not in charge. You don’t even try to stop yourself from kissing him senseless, it’s physically impossible to do so.

“I feel like I’m going to explode.” You admit between two kisses. “Fucking hell, Izuku, are you even human? Is this another quirk of yours? Are you a lust demon? How can you do stuff like that with this adorable, innocent face? How?” You complain, while Izuku giggles. “Don’t fucking giggle, I’m serious!”

“I think I have a thing for being manhandled. I’m also about to explode.” He admits sheepishly with his hand wondering down to your bottom cheekily. You take a deep breath and move down to his belly, not letting him touch your private parts because it’s your turn now to love him endlessly and you want to do it without any distractions.

“Good. Suffer with me.” You retort cheekily and Izuku giggles once more. “You have so many freckles on your chest and tummy, I love it so much. I love your freckles, have I ever told you that?” You mumble as you kiss Izuku’s hard abs. His hands wander into your hair the same way yours did and you can kinda understand why is Izuku so hot and bothered when you do that to him.

“No, you didn’t.” Izuku chokes on air.

“Well, now you know.” You answer simply. “You have the body of a god, but I like your face the most. And your hair. And how some of your scars are softer to touch than your normal skin. I love the texture. Like this one.” Your hand moves up to Izuku’s pecks, caressing the massive scar on the side of his left breast. “You are so handsome but nothing is as pretty as your soul. Izuku, you look perfect from the outside but compared to you as a person, it’s fucking nothing. If I would have a quirk I would want to be able to go inside your soul… just so I can kiss it senseless.” You make no sense. You are aware of it. No need to comment on it. How the fuck are you supposed to stay coherent in this situation?! It doesn’t feel real. It’s too fucking good to be real.

A tiny sob cuts through the tension and you emerge from the covers to look into your boyfriend’s eyes. Of course, he’s crying. “You are such a crybaby.” You smile down at him with nothing but fondness. “My little crybaby. I love you so much.” You leave a tiny kiss on his mouth.

“No one… ever… made me feel like this.” Izuku admits between two sobs. “Like I’m the best thing in the whole world. No one ever managed to actually make me believe them, but you… you make it sound like it’s possible that I’m not… a failure. I feel so loved I don’t know what to do with it.”

“Enjoy it. You deserve it. You are the best thing, at least for me.” You leave tiny kisses on your boyfriend’s neck to divert his attention.

“And you are the best thing, for me.” He retorts with a sigh. “I want to build a shrine to you and pray for your well-being every day. I want to do this every day… I want to eat and drink YOU, I want to become YOU… I want us to become one and stay like that forever, because I’m the best thing only because you are next to me. Fuck, that doesn’t make any sense and it sounded so much cooler in my head…” Izuku mutters shyly, looking at the wall due to his embarrassment.

“Let’s become one, then. We can’t stay like that forever, but… I want… uhm…” you mumble with a red face as you move one of your hands under the covers to caress his painfully hard member with one finger. Izuku almost chokes on his saliva just from this one touch. It fills you with pride.

You absolutely enjoy the way Izuku is writhing under you, his face contorted by the pleasure while your hand moves on his member up and down, slow but steady. He doesn’t let you enjoy the game for too long; one second you are in charge then the next your back hits the soft bed once again and Izuku’s finger finds his way to his folds, slowly easing the first finger inside, followed by the second almost immediately.

“Sweets… you really like me this much?” Izuku moves his fingers around your folds to feel the wetness around the area. You can’t help but look away shyly, completely embarrassed from being so excited. Your plan failed. Goddamnit.

“Sorry…”

“What? No! Don’t be!” Izuku freaks out for a split second. “I’m just… really happy. I loose my confidence in bed really quickly but you make it so easy for me. Your whole body speaks to me, it tells me it’s okay, that this is good for you and I’m so thankful.” Izuku slowly eases the third finger in; a quiet whimper leaves your mouth as he starts scissoring inside to make this as easy for you as possible. “I’ll make sure to thank you by being the best partner now and forever. Sweets… Y/N… can I…”

“Fucks sake, Izu, yes. You can do whatever you want. I’m yours and you are mine. That’s all I need to know.”

“Okay.” Izuku nods, clearly spiraling a little bit. “Yeah, uhm, I’m gonna get the… stuff. Just stay here.”

“Damn, I was about to run out for some coffee.” You add jokingly, but Izuku is on a mission and he can’t understand sarcasm…

“I’ll get you some coffee from the kitchen, then!”

You start laughing like a maniac.

“Oh my god, I was joking, you silly. Hurry up!”

“Oh… I’m an idiot.” Izuku takes the box of condoms out of his backpack. You will make sure to ask him later about the fact that he had some with him… Cheeky little fuck.

You also try your best to not stare at that perfect butt. Damn, you are eating well today!

He has a few stretch marks on his back, but it’s only visible when you look really closely; which you do because you can’t help yourself, even though you literally just said that you won’t.

“Yeah, but you are my idiot. Now get back here and love me.” You continue to stare at that perfect peach, but Izuku turns around and you look away swiftly because the front is just as delicious as the back and you honestly don’t think you can take more of this right now. It’s quite comical how the color of his broccoli tattoo is the same as his hair down there; its a little bit sad how you’ll never be able to boast on your “Deku lovers” group chat about it. They would probably laugh in your face anyway, thinking you are a liar because there is no way the perfect pro hero Deku has a silly little broccoli tattoo.

“Okay.” Izuku grins with a flushed face and barges back into the bed, right into your arms.

He starts peppering kisses all over your neck, giggling happily like a schoolboy, then moves back to your face to leave another scorching hot kiss on your mouth while his hand slowly wonders down to your intimate areas to make sure you are ready for the “good stuff.”

It takes all your self-restraint to not come from the sight on top of you; Izuku’s hair is disheveled and he looks so fucking out of it that you would think he’s being touched himself, but your hands are in his hair and you feel no friction anywhere on your body which means he just… enjoys pleasing you so much it makes him look like he’s five seconds from coming. His fingers stop moving and he slowly retracts them, leaving you empty and sad for a split of a second but then he puts the condom package into his mouth and tears it open while keeping eye contact with you the whole time and you swear you see stars. Izuku is just too much. Too hot and too dirty but also so innocent and loving, it just doesn’t make sense, really… but…

“Are you ready, Sweets? Tell me if it hurts, okay? Promise me.” He looks at you worriedly and your heart just melts inside your chest and becomes nothing but a big lump of goo.

“I promise… OH MY GOD.” You almost yell as you feel the first few centimeters inside you. Izuku bites his lips once and takes a few deep breath, not moving, just waiting for you to get used to the sting, to the almost foreign sensation because damn, the man isn’t small and it has been ages you’ve been in this situation with anyone. “I’m fine, I’m fine, keep going, Izu.” You try to reassure him as best as you can. It starts to feel really good down there even though he’s not even halfway in.

He slowly moves further and the sting is back but it’s not as bad as it was before; it really quickly turns into an intoxicatingly amazing sensation that makes your whole body tremble and Izuku drops his face on your chest, his whole body shaking like a leaf.

“Relax or I’ll really embarrass myself. Please. You feel too good. Why didn’t we do this sooner?” He mutters into your breasts and if you wouldn’t be so aroused you would have laughed in his face for being so cute, but…

“You can move. Please. Move.” You stutter as a sudden wave of pleasure hits you just right. Izuku doesn’t say anything just moves back to his original position and slides out a bit and then back again and you are so happy everyone is out and about because you are quite sure the whole neighborhood just heard you moan. “Izu…”

“I think I’m going to cry again, but it’s happy tears.” Izuku admits sheepishly while he starts a slow but steady pace. His moans are quiet and his voice breaks quite frequently but there is something about it that makes you tremble in pleasure; probably the fact that you are the reason he sounds like that, deep but also squeaky, you are the reason his face is flushed from all the bliss… you feel so lucky to be able to experience this, to feel all this love, to be the reason for Izuku’s happy tears; you are so thankful for taking that big leap of faith by moving in with a stranger all those months ago.

“I love… love you. Izu. Izuku.” You stutter as Izuku’s pace picks up and you are absolutely incapable to think from this point; you both moan each other’s name in tandem as you chase your orgasms, Izuku clearly tries his best to keep his focus on you, to listen to where and how it feels the best and slowly but surely that pleasant feeling starts to build up with every thrust Izuku delivers to the right spot; Izuku’s arms start to tremble and it makes you stop for a second; this shaking doesn’t seem to be from the pleasure and Izuku looks a little bit stressed as you look into his eyes so you put your hand on his chest, silently asking for him to stop.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Izuku starts to apologize but you are not having any of that.

“Lay down.” You command kindly. Izuku looks utterly confused for a second but he does it anyway. You don’t give him a single warning before you sit in his lap with your hands perched on his naked, beautifully sculpted chest and slowly ease yourself back down on his length. Izuku’s face contorts in utter pleasure, now that his arms are not hurting anymore and you pat yourself on the back inside your little mind palace for realizing something is wrong even while your mind was clouded by all the new sensations. “Good boy.” You caress Izuku’s muscly chest. Izuku moans loudly and moves his hip upwards, finding that special point once again, even in this new position.

Izuku looks ethereal from this point of view; his hair is splayed out on the white pillow, no curly strand the same as the other, his face is flushed and his eyes are sparkling like a rare gemstone, gaze full of love and lust and by that look on his face, he doesn’t mind this position either; every single movement makes his face scrunch up, his moans becoming hiccups and silent pleas to keep doing what you are doing, just like that, and it barely takes 10 more minutes for you two to feel the coil inside your tummy snap, Izuku doing the same a few more thrusts later.

You’ve never come this hard before. Your body shakes violently and you barely keep yourself up right while Izuku moves his hips up and down really slowly to prolong this amazing feeling, tears prickle your eyes from the pleasure, and once the feeling is gone you collapse on Izuku’s chest; you didn’t realize how much you strained your legs by doing this until you came down from your high, but when it it hit, you couldn’t help but whimper, this time, from the pain.

There are some other parts of your body that feel a tiny bit funny right after you two separate with a whimper, but honestly, you’ve seen that coming.

“I’ve never done this this way.” Izuku admits shyly.

“Never?” You look up at your boyfriend as you slowly move to his side; you need to lay down properly for a second. Everything is spinning.

“No. It was always… me doing everything. I want to do this again. And again. And again.”

“I’ll need to hit the gym then.” You giggle to yourself and seeing your boyfriend’s confused face, he doesn’t really understand the problem. “Izuku, this position… needs a lot of leg muscles. I don’t have any. I’m quite sure I pulled at least one muscle in both of my legs.”

“I’m more than happy to help you with that!” Izuku sits up excitedly. You give him a side eye. “Not like that, you silly! Actual training! And that, too, of course, but only if you want to do it again. I’m okay with anything until it’s you.”

You want to put this man on a plate and eat him. How can he be so sweet?!

“I love you, you weirdo.” You giggle into his hair then you leave a tiny kiss on his neck as a silent thank you.

“I love you too, Sweets. Let’s have a few minutes of rest then let’s go to the onsen.”

“Oh my god, the onsen sounds magical right now.” You sigh, utterly pleased. “Izu?”

“Hm?”

“Are you happy?”

“I’m the happiest fucking freak in the whole wide world, Sweets.” He smiles. “Are you happy?”

“I think I’m high on happiness.” You pant, exhausted.

“Good. Me too.”

… to be continued!

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Potato ramble:

- I can’t believe this finally happened! Honestly, I’m not a big fan of writing these kind of things but even I was excited about this to finally happen because the tension was absolutely ridiculous! 😂 Not gonna lie, I have many other ideas about what this version of Izuku likes but I probably won’t be able to use them as they would be too dirty for this otherwise innocent story. 😂 I love these two so much, they are so perfect for each other!

- I hope you guys are okay. Sorry for not responding to your lovely comments, I read them all and I send you all hugs! I hope I will see you soon but to be honest with you, I don’t think it will be sooner than 4 weeks, maybe more if shit goes south in my life.

- There will be changes to my uploads when I come back, I’ll leave a note for you guys once we get to it. I might need you to answer some questions too, because I have no idea what to do 😂

- Random personal ramble: so funny story about my recent life; I went home to my home country to see my mom and I told her about how much I want an airfryer but I don’t really have space for it nor money to spare. I didn’t know she actually owns one so I got really excited when I saw it! A day after I came back to England there was an Amazon order on my doorstep that I didn’t order. Guys, my mom went on Amazon and bought me an airfryer. I’ve been making cakes and baked apples every day since. Get an air fryer if you can. It’s amazing. Thank you for listening. 😂

Here’s a quick, delish recipe for you: get some apples, cut them in half, get rid of the stem, put a bunch of Nutella in it then sprinkle cinnamon on top (or pour half of the bottle on it like I do. Lol). Bake it for 40 mins on 160C. You are welcome. (You can also use dark chocolate instead of Nutella if you wanna make it healthier. You can also hide a walnut inside. Omnomnom.

- I’ll shut up now. Tell me your thoughts!

TL: @garfieldthomas @porusuniverse @stickygumchewer @sixxze @mily-moo @aei-sedai-moiraine @aymasakusa @katsuari @kenzie-deadly @shiviwrites07 @lukerycyja-reblogs @cloroxisadelectabletreat @coffeent @kisskissshutmydoor @bobcar1 @yazminetrahan @cringefan @ronimacaroni77 @themultifandomgirl @dangerousluv1 @emperatris-rinaka @shotos-angelic-whore @angelsdemonsmonsters @norvacaine @rei165 @unofficialmuilover @yao-ai @happydragonfrog @eeerreehhh @vinivave @alyss-eiz @sleepisfortheweakpooh

[oshiawaseni]

Remember when Kacchan complained about Izuku obviously skulking around with All Might and how they need to be less conspicuous about their connection with each other? When you think about it, no one cared that much what the heck Izuku was up to… except for Kacchan himself. And in hindsight, that interaction is just so freaking cute. Just because this guy is always hyper aware of Izuku and the people surrounding him and absolutely concerned with his business, he thinks others will be too.

Take Season 2 for example at the sport festival… How did he even come to eavesdrop on Todoroki in the first place? By following and being invested in what Izuku was doing with him because Kacchan got so jealous about Todoroki declaring war on his shitnerd 😩 he couldn’t stand the idea of them going off alone somewhere together.

Stop the cap. You were there because you followed Izuku, Katsuki. 

Kacchan’s always overly concerned about Izuku and on top of that, he was jealous of Shouto taking his rival nerd from him. So when he got curious seeing them go off somewhere alone, he followed them and eavesdropped.

And another time he eavesdropped on Izuku in Heroes Rising.

He’s so focused on whatever Izuku’s doing or saying, he tunnel visions like hell. Here he forgot about his icey and it melted off the stick. 

Not only does he always give Izuku his undivided attention, he definitely wants it returned.

Izuku’s always looked at his back, right? Whether that was walking behind him in the woods, or being seated behind him in class... I think at some point Katsuki came to crave his gaze on him and secretly loved his praise too and that feeling was exposed in the joint training arc with his “Keep your eyes on me, Deku” 😂

Oh Katsuki don’t lie ❤️

You knew he’d be watching you like this with his big and shiny doe eyes didn’t you ;)

Turns out you’re allowed to be obsessed with Kacchan, Izuku. He was just being a hypocritical tsundere whenever he said stuff like this:

Remember when there were a bunch of Kacchan apologists that victim blamed Izuku for sticking around when he was told to leave him alone? What if I told you Katsuki never truly wanted Izuku to leave? Because if he did leave, then who would Kacchan stalk? 😂

Honestly!!! Kacchan’s Izuku complex and how he projected it onto him like Deku is the only one who’s obsessed, is one of my biggest sources of amusement with this ship. Heh. 🤭 They are true equal partners in a lot of ways…

Between all the “Did I do better than Deku?”, 

the eavesdropping

and every single time Katsuki targeted him, if you’re able to describe all of this as nothing other than PURE UNADULTERATED OBSESSION...?

DING DING DING. You’re damn right it is!

Then you flip the hate around because it turns out he was wrong to hate that person in the first place after all, and what does Katsuki’s obsession start to look like? Maybe a little something like this.

They’re obsessed with each other and always have been and this is perfectly fine. It used to be very antagonistic attention on Katsuki’s end but his attention has since become all soft and gentle because now..? Now he’s just in love. ❤️ And that’s the tea~ ☕️

[shotorozu]

HEYYYY i really wanna see a shoto x reader with the HMM HOW DO I SAY THIS the started dating them to see if he could make them fall in love with him/ started dating them as a challenge but ended up falling for them trope WITH A HAPPY ENDING please help 🙏🙏🙏🙏

just a bet

ft. todoroki shouto (bnha)

use of Y/N and L/N, gender neutral reader, quirk’s not specific

bullet form -> full fledged fanfic (basically it’s written in a bullet form but it turns into your standard fanfic format with paragraphs and such)

fluff, angst with happy ending (shouto misinterprets things said)

note(s): i forgor my format so i made a new one 💀 btw i don’t really see shouto dating someone as a bet, but i can’t see any other way to write this request— so i made my own spin and interpretation on it 😁 anaïs from the future here, and i may or may not have gone overboard 😭

»»————-　♡　————-««

todoroki shouto

as mentioned in the notes section, i don’t see shouto as someone that’d date someone as a challenge— to see if they’d fall in love with him and such, or as a bet.

shouto’s not really invested in his love life when it comes to when he’ll find someone, but that doesn’t mean he won’t take it seriously.

he saw the domino effect his parents’ failed romance had on his family, and refuses to be in an imbalanced relationship— let alone date someone he isn’t dead set on.

so with that being said, a misinterpretation of words is what triggered the current set of events.

kaminari had noticed that the way shouto looked at you couldn’t be friendly, platonic yearning. whether or not shouto thought he was being obvious of not, or if he even realized it— he definitely had feelings for you.

and it was starting to become excruciating to watch for kaminari— to witness a cool, popular and attractive guy, not date this equally cool, popular, and attractive person he likes.

so then, that’s when it started.

scenario (pt. 1)

hook—

“i bet ¥1,200 that you can’t date L/N, todoroki!”

shouto stops in place, giving kaminari a side eye. “i don’t need ¥1,200. i have more than enough in my pocket money.”

line—

kaminari lets out a sigh, forgetting that todoroki’s pockets hurt. but he doesn’t falter one bit. “i meant that, i bet you can’t confess to them, ‘s all. the money was just a bonus.”

and that’s what really catches his attention. “confess to them about what?” he inquires genuinely, like he was trying to recall if he needed to tell you something regarding this.

kaminari’s eyes dart around, like anyone would be around to witness the absurdly. “that you like them? what else??”

shouto thinks for a moment, and it looks as if he’s trying to recall things from a different perspective. “… have i not been clear?”

“to me, yes. to them.. probably? maybe? most likely no.” kaminari says exasperated, hand now coming up to pat his shoulder. shouto feels stiff as a board under the brief contact. “you’re a popular dude, if they realized then you two would’ve been dating for months now!”

“i don’t think confessing right now is necessary. i believe i’m fine with just staying near them. our friendship.. is quite satisfactory.”

—and sinker.

“so you don’t have any courage to confess? does that mean you’ll just let someone else snatch them up?” after the words left his mouth, shouto makes a significantly obvious pause.

kaminari thinks to himself loudly, “hmm.. i wonder who will it be?” he questions, rhetorically. “should i do it? should class 1-B’s ever so cocky monoma do it? they seem to get along swimmingly. or maaaybe—”

“that won’t be a concern.” shouto coldly cuts in. “because i’ll do it.”

kaminari holds back his smile, instead— replacing it with a shocked expression (which isn’t really fabricated becaus he didn’t think he’d actually fold) “really? woah, i didn’t think that’d change your mind so quick.”

“but then wait, what do i get if you lose?”

“hm, what do you get when i lose..” shouto mimics the question— although its not said as one.

“yeah, we are betting on this, right?”

shouto shakes his head. “then it would be an unfair bet.”

“because i’ve planned on confessing and dating them regardless. i will win.”

and he did in fact go on and win the “bet” by a landslide (if you’d even call it one 😭)

he confessed his feelings— pulling you aside one afternoon after class, heart practically hammering in his chest, and stomach fluttering with butterflies.

and you accepted— which made all the anxiety worth it.

he was the ideal boyfriend. not just because he was tall, equipped with stunning and harmonious facial features with equally stunning manners, but it was also because he was just so good to you, and he allowed you to be so good to him too.

he did things he didn’t even have to do, and it all feels comfortably new even months into the relationship— which made you realize that as unbelievable as it sounds, you’re really dating your crush, todoroki shouto.

you felt so sure of yourself when you’re around him.

and that’s why you reacted so harshly when everything that was built up for months seemingly got demolished in minutes.

the two of you were getting warm drinks, when mineta appeared just a few feet away. “you two make me realize that the train tracks look good to lay down on.” he mumbles bitterly.

you laugh, stirring your drink “really now?” kaminari appears shortly after, agreeing. although he doesn’t look as bitter as your shorter classmate.

mineta perks up at that. “yeep. which makes me wonder.. how long are you going to do this for, todoroki? kaminari already lost, y’know?”

todoroki’s eyes widen at the question, “i don’t.. what?”

kaminari turns his head in mineta’s direction, like he said something of great offense, and was about to say more. “mineta, just don’t man.”

“no no, but i’m like, just super curious y’know?” mineta continues, “like, wasn’t it just a bet for you? how did you two get this far?! this is unfair! i didn’t know it would be that easy to get in a relationship!” your grape haired classmate whines, unable to read the sudden atmosphere change.

kaminari gulps, as you set your mug down.

“what does he mean.” you turn to your dual haired boyfriend, you try to steady your breathing to sound nonchalant, but the slight crack in your voice at the start of your sentence betrays you.

shouto opens his mouth, but it just confirmed it for you when he was a second too late to answer.

“you see—” kaminari scrambles to give an excuse, “it was proposed as a bet, but it wasn’t actually a bet, so technically—”

“that sounds like a bet, dude.”

“mineta—”

“it’s not as it sounds. it wasn’t a bet.” shouto answers, “though.. the circumstances should’ve been different.” he admits regretfully, heterochromatic eyes drifting from your face to your feet, noticing how you shift away from him.

and his body runs cold like a quirk malfunction when you grab your mug— fingertips against the now cool porcelain “i.. i just.. no, nevermind, it’s alright. i’m gonna go now, so..”

you know your face and voice will betray you if you stay longer, so you leave.

and shouto stands there, wondering if he should give you space and watch your figure disappear into the dark hallway, or run after you.

he chooses the later.

scenario (pt. 2)

you heave when you finally reach your room, fingers gripping your mug so hard it might just break. your vision’s starting to blur with tears of all the things you’ve been feeling these last few minutes, which is causing you to drop your dorm room’s key and miss the keyhole several times.

when you get the key in, you turn the lock and almost crumble right in when you feel a warm hand placed on your shoulder. you try not to focus on how it’s grip is firm enough to keep you in place, and blazing with familiarity.

he says your name with desperation, and you open your door more and step into your room to create space— the framing of your doorway practically being an invisible barrier.

“no, just no, i can’t,” you say, feeling pathetic when your face started to become wet with tears. you’re still unbelieving that he’d even do this, but the fact that these few months happened under not so standard circumstances was…

“i thought this was— this was something that’d happen out of those stupid teen movies we’d watch, i thought you’d never— i thought—” you hiccup, bringing a hand up to wipe your face with a hand.

he doesn’t say anything, and just breaks the barrier by stepping in and closing the door, setting your mug down on your desk. he then closes even more distance— the space between his brows creasing as he frowns, looking just as upset as you definitely look.

“when did it start? was it before we became close? was it before you asked me out? who else knew? was it all real—”

“it is real!” his voice booms with volume, clearly panicked that the idea of you thinking that his feelings weren’t real was present.

he settles his hands on your shoulders, an attempt to gather your full attention “it’s.. it’s real. if there’s one thing i’d ask you to trust in right now, it’s this. there’s some things i’d like to clarify.”

“please explain,” you practically plead, “i don’t know what to do with this information. i also.. don’t want to break up with you.”

“if you must come to that,” though he looks at you like he prays it won’t come to that. “it must be under the condition that you’ve hurt me instead. not because i’ve caused you hurt.” he lets go of you to sit down on his knees and at your feet.

“shouto, stand up—”

“i.. it’s true that i didn’t confess normally.” he starts off, ignoring your request. “i’ve liked you ever since we’ve became close friends. the moment i realized it, i assumed i was being obvious about my feelings, but kaminari betted that i wouldn’t have the courage to confess and.. someone would get to you first. i took that as a threat.”

you almost laugh at the idea of a jealous shouto, but you don’t— instead, letting out a strangled cough instead. “but i did not date you just because of a bet. i was challenged, but it was never a bet. it wasn’t a bet because there was no chance i’d never confess.”

you sniffle, bending down to be at his level. he reaches up to wipe his thumbs under your eyes— thumbs grazing at your cheekbones. “did you get anything in return? for winning?”

“i got you. that was all i needed.”

“i see..” you lean closer like you were going to whisper him a secret. but instead, you finally touch shouto by circling your arm around him— one arm wrapped around him, and the other flew to entangle your fingers in contrasting locks of hair.

“my drink became cold.” you mumble, rubbing his back when you feel him shake just as you did earlier.

he wraps strong arms around you, returning the affection.

“i’ll warm it up for you.”

[andypantsx3]

fingerprints | 7 | todoroki x reader

pairing: Todoroki Shouto / Reader

length: 4k of est. 35k words | 7th of 9 chapters

summary: When you’re outed as pro hero Shouto’s soulmate on national television, there are really only two sensible things for you to do: blame someone else and run.  

tags/warnings: romance, soulmate au, fluff, pining, not actually unrequited love, aged up characters, eventual smut

It was worse than you could have ever imagined.

Almost as soon as you’d gotten inside, your neighborhood had begun crawling with unfamiliar people. Your phone had started ringing incessantly, your texts and twitter notifications suddenly exploding.

From the brief flashes of the messages you could see, it all had to do with Shouto. Text whizzed past–hiii i saw your handle posted in a thread, are you really running girl? and Is it true?? Are you Shouto’s soulmate???? and worst of all, die in a ditch bitch you’re too ugly for him.

Your stomach churned.

You didn’t dare open your laptop or turn the television on, for fear of how far the speculation had spread, and what people were saying about you. You tried to ignore the murmur of the crowd amassing outside your apartment building, and opened a random book with shaky hands, trying to focus on something else.

You were not quite successful.

Your apartment building was old and thin-walled enough that you could never fully block out the drone of dozens of voices, the shutter click of cameras, and the loud, authoritative tones of someone ordering people back—likely Shinsou’s aforementioned partner, Real Steel. It all coalesced into an unsettling undertone that kept you on edge for hours.

It wasn’t until that evening, a hundred unread pages later, that conditions changed. The sounds of a muffled argument came through the wood of your front door, and you couldn’t help but peer out the peephole, to find Shinsou looming over your roommate Ami, clearly blocking the entry to your apartment.

“It’s my friggin’ house!” she was saying when you poked your head out.

At the sound of the door, Shinsou turned to eye you. “Stay right there. I need to put her under before she can come in, in case she’s using an appearance altering quirk.”

Your roommate did not look thrilled by this prospect. But Shinsou did not look like he was going anywhere.

Intrigued by whatever Shinsou’s quirk might be, you watched as your roommate gave up, letting him do what he wanted. He murmured a question, and your roommate’s eyes suddenly went vacant with her response.

“Drop your quirk,” Shinsou ordered her. You didn’t know what was supposed to happen–but when nothing did, he looked satisfied.

He gestured her inside, giving you a significant look over the top of her head. “Todoroki says don’t look at anything online.”

You nodded. “I–yeah, I uh–it doesn’t look kind out there. I guessed I shouldn’t…”

Shinsou watched you for a minute, violet eyes sliding over you in some kind of assessment. “Whatever shit they’re saying, disregard it. They just want a piece of Todoroki’s flat ass.”

You blinked, a shocked laugh spilling out of you. “I don’t–-it’s not flat!”

One of Shinsou’s eyebrows lifted, that smirk touching his mouth again, and you whirled around, yanking your roommate through the door with a strangled, “Anyway thanks!” You slammed it behind you before you could say anything else embarrassingly revealing of the stock you’d taken of Shouto’s…assets.

Your roommate gaped at you, immediately demanding the details of how you of all people had gotten caught up in the biggest romantic scandal in hero history. You summarized it as best you could, trying to ignore her slack-jawed look.

“But you’re so normal,” she said when you finished. “You’re just–-you.”

You hid a wince, but had to agree. The last couple of months had been a giddy blur, but you still were just some girl with an hourly wage, working in an animal shelter and living in a squashed little apartment with zero merit to your name.

“Yeah, it’s…It doesn’t feel real,” you said. “Maybe we’re dreaming this.” You thought back to the time you thought you’d hallucinated Shouto in the doorway of the shelter. “Maybe we’re all just experiencing some mass hallucination…”

Ami nodded seriously, like this was an option. She floated off to her room, where you heard her answer a call from another of her friends—“It’s true, you are never gonna believe what she told me!”—and you quickly retreated to your own room, trying not to think about the shock she’d exhibited, or any of the unsettling messages that had flashed past before you put down your own phone.

It made you rethink the events of earlier in the day, frowning as you went over lunch with Shouto’s mom, your wild shopping spree–events that felt light years away now. You could have even sworn that Shouto had been waiting for something as he left you outside your apartment–lingering, watching your face, standing so close like he’d been expecting you to lean up and—and—-

But no.

That was crazy. And Ami’s reaction, plus the reaction of thousands of other people online underlined that.

You’d let your mind run away with you just because Shouto had made you feel like someone. Someone special to him—but that was fucking unhinged. Delusional. Deranged.

As if drawn by your need to remind yourself who you were, you opened your phone again. Hundreds of texts from friends clogged your message app, and your twitter notifications numbered in the thousands.

Hey it’s Mari, one text from your coworker said. I’m covering your shifts for the next couple days, management is asking you not to come in or the crowds will agitate the animals.

Your heart sank. You loved the pets at the shelter, and they were possibly the only beings in your orbit who wouldn’t know or care about your newfound notoriety. You suddenly wanted nothing more than to snuggle into the patchy fur of shelter cat, run off your anxieties with the dogs on the track out back. You would settle for Princess giving you her smug little stink eye over Shouto’s shoulder, even.

And how were you ever supposed to achieve your dream of opening your own rescue if you were suddenly being denied shifts? You hoped they didn’t have to let you go over this—you didn’t want to dip into your tiny pile of hard-earned savings to cover your rent and food, didn’t want to backslide on months and months of progress all because people couldn’t be chill over a man who didn’t even like you like that.

As if to torture yourself further, you let yourself flick through your twitter notifications. Some bordered on kind, things like omg i’m soooo jealous of you and this girl’s first reaction to finding out she was shouto’s soulmate was to RUN AWAY?? queen of relatability but there were many more that were just as you had feared.

Guys relax, it's obviously not real, someone had tweeted. Look at Shouto and then look at her. Another had posted, it’s not even that he’s in a different league, they’re not even playing the same sport.

When a glance at the sidebar showed you that #shoulmatehoax was the highest trending topic in your area, your stomach twisted. You quickly clicked out of the app, retreating into your own room to hide under the covers.

Part of you blazed in rage that people were being so awful about you—you were just a normal fucking person! You never asked for any of this, you had tried your best to mind your own business, and you weren’t a supermodel by any means but that didn’t give people the right to be assholes!

But another part of you knew you’d gotten too big a head over Shouto and needed to be brought down. Spending his money, meeting his mother, thinking he was going to kiss you? You were playing a different sport altogether, and you needed to remember that.

You tossed and turned, rolling around under your blankets, feeling hot and cold and ashamed and embarrassed. No matter how much you tried to put it out of your mind, you couldn’t.

You lay awake for a long while, thoughts roiling, until eventually, when dawn had finally started to creep under the gaps in your curtains, you slipped into an uneasy sleep.

In the morning, you were awoken by your roommate pounding on your door, her voice high and strangled.

“Y/N!” she screeched. “Y/N you’re gonna wanna get out here right now!”

Her fist pounded with urgency, heavy staccato beats. She sounded panicked.

Your eyes shot open and you fell out of bed, clumsy with sleep. You tore the door open, heart in your throat, only to find Ami on the other side, flanked by a tall, handsome silhouette you knew only too well.

“Sh–Shouto!” you garbled out, fuzzy with shock and the clinging threads of slumber. “Why are you–? What are you–?”

He peered at you calmly over Ami’s head, eyes trailing slowly down your form. A white eyebrow went up. You realized with horror that you were still in your sleep clothes, an old tee shirt and the world’s tiniest pair of shorts that clung unflatteringly to the swell of your thigh. Your hair had to be a bird’s nest, your face puffy and pillow-creased.

And here Shouto was, perfect and put together, looking like he’d just stepped right out of the pages of like, a Ralph Lauren catalog. Damn him.

“You were not answering your phone,” he said. You watched, mortified, as his eyes dipped back down to your bare leg and pinned there, like he couldn’t help himself. Your face heated in shame.

He probably couldn’t believe the nerve of you to show yourself like this to him.

“Sorry, sorry,” you said, trying to angle yourself in front of Ami to hide, but he was tall enough that his eyes followed you right over the top of her head.

“Ami, please entertain Shouto for a minute while I, um, put clothes on,” you pleaded, then threw the door shut in both of their faces before either could respond.

You raced to your closet and frantically dug out the first sweater you saw, then tripped over to your dresser and unearthed your pants, bra, and panties. You yanked it all on at the speed of light, and then frantically did your hair, cursing as your fingers tangled in it. You ran into the bathroom and hurriedly washed your face, power washing your teeth with all the speed and force of a carwash.

You spilled out a few minutes later, to find Shouto looking out of place on your couch, shamelessly looking through the collection of things on your coffee table–Ami’s incense burner, a pile of your books, a well-watered succulent in a tiny pot, and a few sheets of what looked like one of Ami’s nursing assignments.

Ami pulled on her coat to head to work, looking almost relieved that she was about to be out of the same room as someone as hauntingly beautiful as Shouto.

“He’s real,” she hissed as you passed one another in the hall. “And he looks like that!”

And then she was out the door, Shinsou’s drawl greeting her as she stepped into the hall.

The door clicked shut, leaving you alone with Shouto. Your heartbeat spiked.

Shouto watched you for a long moment, those pretty, heterochromatic eyes sliding back down to your now-clothed legs as if to affirm you were properly attired now. You watched a tiny smile tease at the corner of his mouth as he eyed your slippers, before his eyes flicked back up to your face. Your skin went weirdly warm.

“Um, sorry I wasn’t dressed,” you said, cheeks heating. “I didn’t expect, um, company. Or to leave the house, really, for the next few days–-”

Shouto interrupted you by getting to his feet, and in two long strides he had reached you, pulling you close to him with an arm around your back. He was so tall and warm against you, and that faint cologne of his lingered at his pulsepoint. Your blood went molten in your veins, your brain suddenly blue screening.

“Shouto–?” you asked, muffled into his shoulder.

A large, calloused hand came up to cup the back of your head, pressing you more firmly into his shoulder. Almost automatically, your hands went around his back, fisting in the material of his coat. Every inch of him felt like relief against you, and you had to fight not to slump bonelessly into him, not to curl up and hide in him.

“You were not answering your phone,” Shouto said, finally, his voice a low murmur against the side of your head. “I had thought…” he trailed off, like he was unwilling to finish the thought.

The soft, concerned tone of his voice, and the way he was holding you too him made a weird, shivery sort of feeling well up inside of you. He had seen—he knew what some of the people had been saying about you online. You suddenly wanted to hide your face in his neck, something horrifyingly like tears prickling at your waterline.

Obviously he’d known, already, that you weren’t compatible in the way that soulmates usually were, as evidenced by the fact that he hadn’t made a move on you and was most probably seeing someone already. But hot shame twisted in your gut at the idea that he would have to be confronted with it all over again, for it to really be driven home that with the kind of soulmate he deserved, he’d been given you instead.

You blinked quickly, trying to fight the sudden wave of emotion back. How embarrassing.

“I’m fine,” you insisted, hoping you sounded normal. Really, you could handle a couple of assholes online. It’s not even like they were wrong, necessarily. “Really it’s fine.”

“It can be…overwhelming,” Shouto said, his mouth in your hair. He made no move to pull away from you, just stood there holding you, like it didn’t bother him at all. “You do not have to be fine.”

The care in his voice almost undid you. You clutched harder at his jacket, trying to breathe slowly.

“Shouto–”

“Y/N,” he said quietly. “You do not have to be fine. You did not ask for this.”

You quickly shoved your face into his shoulder as a pair of hot tears finally spilled over, embarrassment curling in your belly. It was just a couple of kind of rude tweets! Shouto was a pro hero and had been subjected to so much worse over the years–-especially given his relation to a notorious war criminal, and the still-widely-condemned former number one hero. It was horrifying that all it took was a couple of asshole tweets to drive you to this, especially when they weren’t even incorrect.

You struggled against the rest of your tears but they kept coming, slipping out and wetting the fabric at Shouto’s collar.

“The agency was able to get the book delayed, and Yoshizuki Ayumi’s next few interviews suspended. She has recanted her speculations in a tweet, but I do not anticipate that the news will be suppressed forever,” Shouto said.

His hand petted over your hair softly, and you wondered, half-crazed, if this is what Princess got to feel like all the time.

“It’s fine,” you said. “It’s fine.”

“There is…something else,” Shouto said. You were too embarrassed to turn and look at him inquisitively, so you made a questioning noise into his coat.

“I regret that…you will not be able to return to the shelter,” Shouto said. “It won’t be safe for you there.”

Your heartbeat stopped, hammering to a halt in your ribcage.

The shelter. Your job. Your dream—

If you couldn’t go back to the shelter, then you couldn’t go back to your job. Couldn’t make rent. Couldn’t put away funds for a rescue.

And if you couldn’t work at the shelter, where else could you go? Was it only that kind of job that was unsafe? Was any public-facing job unsafe? How were you supposed to work anywhere and not show your face—unless…you could get a job washing dishes in the back somewhere. Or maybe unloading trucks or something?

Your breath came fast and you strained in Shouto’s grip, trying to keep collected. You wouldn’t cry over this too–you could find something else. People lost jobs all the time…

“Oh, I—” you fumbled. “I. Yes, right. Um, I’ll look for—something else. You will have to advise me—”

You cut off, horrified when your voice began to creep up into something high and reedy with upset.

Shouto suddenly stepped back from you, and you had a wild moment of terror and disorientation, before he leaned back in, cupping your face in his hands. He tipped your chin up to him, looking grimly handsome and horribly, horribly regretful.

Your tears came harder and you stared at him wide-eyed, not knowing what to do or say.

“I am sorry, love,” he said. “I did not mean for this, when I came and found you.”

You swallowed, conscious of his fingers where the tips brushed your throat, then shook your head. “No, no. I’m so happy that you did. Of course I am—you’ve been so unbelievably kind. Shouto, don’t ever think that.”

Shouto’s mouth was a hard, serious line. “It’s where I met you properly, for the first time. I do not like to see you leave the shelter under these conditions.”

You wished you could stop crying, to be even a modicum of more reassuring. “It’s fine. People have to leave jobs all the time. I have a couple months of savings, and I’m sure like, washing dishes doesn’t need too many creds, or–you’ll have to tell me what else you think could be safe…”

Shouto’s brows knit, and his mouth twisted into a frown. “Washing dishes?” he echoed.

You watched his eyes trace down your face uncertainly. “That’s a bit dramatic. Obviously there’s other stuff. I just thought…out of the public eye…”

Like, unless you had developed a quirk in the last five minutes, there was no way that you could defend yourself against someone who came looking for Todoroki Shouto’s soulmate, regardless of the fact that you weren’t his romantic partner or anything.

“I had wanted to tell you some other way,” Shouto said, his thumbs brushing away stray tears. “But I suppose now would be best.”

You watched him curiously through watery eyes as he let go of your face, hand sliding into his pocket for his phone.

He pulled something up quickly, then turned his phone to face you. You blinked as a shop front came into view, a few lingering tears squeezing themselves out with the motion. It was a kind of charming, free-standing brick building, surrounded by a neat little parking lot. It looked to be a picture on some property portfolio–a map at the side of the page showed a red dot not far in location from Shouto’s apartment, sandwiched between his home and his agency.

It didn’t look like it was open, whatever it was, and you looked at Shouto doubtfully.

“Are they…hiring…?” you asked, mystified.

Shouto’s mouth twitched. “Unless you planned to rescue all the animals by yourself,” he said.

It took a minute to register what he’d said, but when you did, it felt like the floor had opened up underneath you. You took a dizzy step back.

“An animal rescue? My animal rescue?” You asked, thoughts reeling. There was no way. There was no way.

Shouto nodded seriously. “If you like the location. I’ve put an offer in, but if another location suits better, it is changeable. And you’ll need to tell me where you want things—it’s feasible to put a run in, where the parking lot is, they’ve said. And it will be taken apart to install the proper security measures, layer by layer, so it may take some time…”

He trailed off, peering at you somewhat anxiously, you thought, eyes widening when he noticed an embarrassingly fresh stream of tears spilling down your cheeks.

“Do you not like it?” he asked.

You grabbed his forearm, panicked. “No!” you shouted, wincing with your own volume. “No, I love it. Shouto—I—but you can’t—I don’t have the money to pay you back right now. I don’t even have the full funding plan yet, I haven’t—”

One of Shouto’s hands came up to take you by the chin again, thumb stroking just under your eye, smearing the tears there. You thought you’d never been touched so terribly gently.

“I should like to be your funding plan,” he said. “I do not want money from you. You can collect other donations, if you like. But I will fund you fully. And my mother has asked to be included—there is a significant family fortune that needs spending, she says.”

You didn’t know what to do with your face, or where to put your hands, or how to stop crying. You didn’t know anything, except that all you could do was throw your arms around Shouto again, and muffle a hoarse "Thank you," and a sudden sob into the collar of his jacket.

His arms came around you, clutching you to him tightly.

Wave after wave of emotion hit you–anxiety, confusion, happiness, anticipation. It was all a jumble, a wild tangle of things you could do nothing but stand there, holding Shouto like a lifeline.

He held you there for a long time—an embarrassingly long time, actually, while you cried out all your feelings from the last twenty-four hours. You liked that he didn’t prompt you, just stood there silently, tall and strong and warm against you, letting you figure yourself out.

When you were finally able to pull away, Shouto peered down at you, those heterochromatic eyes curious. He murmured something quiet, a query on your feelings.

You took slow stock of yourself, registering a slight caffeine headache and a bone-deep dryness, as though you were a sponge that had been wrung out. You thought you should probably feel other things, too, but those two sensations were the most overwhelming.

“I think…First I need water and also a coffee,” you told him. “I will have to figure out a repayment plan later, when I’m not a mess–”

Shouto opened his mouth but you put a hand over it, heart beating hard with how daring you were being, touching him this much.

“--We can talk about it later,” you said. “Right now, I’m thinking coffees for both of us. Does that…sound okay?”

Reluctantly, he nodded. “I am sorry to have woken you,” he said around your hand.

You glanced at the clock, eyebrows raising when you realized it had already passed lunch time. As if on cue, your stomach growled, and you felt Shouto’s mouth quirk against your hand. You quickly drew your palm away, your whole arm tingling with the feeling of his mouth. Your fingers had left little smudges of color at the side of his mouth, almost like you had kissed him, had left an imprint of your lipgloss on him…

“I had also thought we might cook together, if you like,” Shouto said, interrupting that embarrassing train of thought. You followed his gaze over to your door where a tote of what were clearly recently-purchased groceries lay to the side of your door. You spied leafy greens and a bag of rice crowning the top.

“There is a lunch recipe Fuyumi sent me that I would like to try,” he said.

Your heart warmed with the idea, and the knowledge that Shouto had definitely brought food as a means of distracting you from the things people were saying on twitter–to give you something else to do and to focus on. He was so unbearably good.

You could feel your heart ballooning with helpless affection for him as he watched you expectantly–as though there was ever any way you could say no to him.

“Lunch sounds amazing,” you told him. You padded over and scooped up the groceries, then led the way into your cramped little kitchen.

Shouto followed after, his face so carefully still, finally, that you could tell he was trying not to look too smug. You smiled, so full of emotion that you couldn’t even bring yourself to be self-conscious about the state of your kitchen or Shouto’s tear-soaked coat or the thousand other things you should probably be remembering.

And in that small moment, you thought things might actually, unexpectedly, turn out okay.

[bnhaobservation]

Was Rei a bad mother or not?

Maybe I’ve bad luck but I often happen to stumble into this debate. Some want to paint her like a saint, some want to paint her like a monster, some have more moderate opinions.

Credits when it’s due, Todoroki Rei is clearly the least explored Todoroki in the manga. She doesn't even have a profile yet!

While part of the reason clearly rest on how this is well, a story about Heroes aimed to male Japanese teenagers in which even the main character’s mother hardly get some digging so it’s kind of to be expected she wouldn’t get much digging as well, there are likely other reasons at play, which are important because they influence the way the facts are presented to us.

The first is that likely originally she wasn’t planned to have a big role, part of it is likely because some things about Rei are related to stereotypes well known in Japan who don’t need to be explained to Japanese readers (but the same can’t be said to westerns), part of it is because.

So, before answering to the starting question let’s dig into those two reasons.

Which was meant to be Rei’s role in the story originally?

Likely solely to be the source of Shouto’s drama.

In the prototype Shouto was meant to go so far as to hate her (and long for his father’s love)...

...then things were turned over and he ended up hating his father and loving his mother but Rei’s role didn’t change much, Shouto suffers for her condition and mainly feels anger toward his father DUE TO WHAT HE DID TO HIS MOTHER, which means Rei is still the source of Shouto’s drama (along with Enji, of course). Even as the story will go on, Shouto will claim his main reason for having troubles to forgive him is what Rei suffered… and he feels confuse on what to do when he discovers his mother instead wants to forgive his father, leaving him at loss on what to do.

At the time of the U.A. sport festival, when Shouto’s past was shown, the Touya/Dabi plot either wasn’t planned at all or it was just an embryo.

That’s why there seems to be a clash in how in chap. 39 she claims she can’t take care of the children and single out Shouto’s specifically for how his left side reminds her of Enji...

...when in chap. 302 it was Touya’s gaze what freaked her out...

...while Shouto was the only one in the family trying to protect her.

The whole chap 302 didn’t exist yet in Horikoshi’s mind when chap 39 was planned, possibly the whole Touya/Dabi plotline wasn’t planned yet, so everything ends up on circling around Shouto.

Later on, when the Touya/Dabi plotline was more or less set, it was still likely that Horikoshi didn’t plan to involve Rei much in it, as in chap 250 Fuyumi said her mother was hospitalized BEFORE Touya burned himself.

This would have made possible a plotline in which Rei supported both Shouto and Touya and her being hospitalized and therefore being absent could have contributed to the Touya tragedy.

However, when creating chap 301/302 for the magazine, Horikoshi decided that Rei would still be around when Touya died, so that Enji’s escalation toward her and Shouto could be blamed to the loss of his son…

...only to go back to the first plan when someone pointed the retcon out, so that in the volume version Rei gets hospitalized BEFORE Touya’s assumed death.

All those changes ends up conflicting with previously established facts, making them confusing if we try to look at them all at the same time, which can make harder for some readers to understand Rei’s role.

To understand which kind of mother Horikoshi wanted to portray we’ve to look at her story in blocks, not as a single, streamlined narration.

We can, of course, try to connect each fact and work out a Watsonian explanation for what doesn’t work, but this might lead us astray on understanding which kind of characterization Horikoshi was aiming to give her in each sector and add to them some info about Japanese culture which might help us to get a better picture of how he meant for us to read Rei.

So how I’m going to tackle Rei?

I’ll try to list and analyze each single accusation I saw being moved at her, looking at what the narrative says but also looking at the cultural contest in which her actions are meant to be read. While it’s likely not going to be a perfect analysis for the reasons mentioned above, I still hope people will get a better picture of Rei.

I’ll also make a premise about the ‘timeline’ in this, aka more or less when facts happens. Yeah, the info I’ll give you are canon (according to the manga volume version, anime and magazine version follow different timelines), I won’t quote the sources so as not to make the post unnecessarily loaded.

Enji married after he turned 20 and prior to turning 22.

Touya was conceived around April in the year in which Enji would turn 22 and had birth in January in the following year. Fuyumi was conceived in the same year in which Touya had birth, around March and was born always in that same year in December.

Touya’s Quirk started to burn him when he was 3, likely in summer, meaning he started training at 3 or younger. That’s because Natsuo is conceived AFTER Touya started to burn himself, when Touya  still 3, around October, and has birth the following year, in July when Tōya is 4, Fuyumi would turn 4 and Enji would turn 27.

Shouto is conceived April, in the year in which Tōya has turned 7, Fuyumi would turn 7, Natsuo would turn 3 and Enji would turn 30 and has birth the following year in January, some days before Touya would turn 8. Short after Shouto is born, his siblings are forbidden to interact with him.

Rei snaps in winter, when Touya is 13, Shouto is 5, Natsuo has turned 9 and Fuyumi has just turned 13 and Enji is 36. By the volume version canon, Touya dies short after, while he’s still 13 (though he should have been close to turn 14).

Shouto will visit his mother in May when he’s 15. By then Touya is 23, Natsuo is 18 but about to turn 19 and Fuyumi is 22 but about to turn 23. Enji is 45 about to turn 46.

So let’s start with the list.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE ACCEPTED TO MARRY ENJI DESPITE KNOWING HE WANTED TO USE HER CHILDREN TO FULFILL HIS GOALS GOING SO FAR AS CHOSING HER TO TRY TO CREATE THE PERFECT MIX OF QUIRKS.

So, let’s start with something important culturally.

Before deciding if Rei is or not a good mother, let’s accept Rei was a ‘good daughter’.

Why good daughter is between quotation marks? I’ll get at it.

Even though her father and family head didn’t force her, she sacrificed herself for the well being of her birth family. As it was expected of her being the daughter of a traditional Japanese family. No one likely found what she did admirable or exceptionally good. Doing that was part of the standard expectations traditional Japanese families like the Himuras had for their children.

Let me introduce you to ‘Oyakoko’ (親孝行 “filial piety”), an important Buddhist virtue of respecting and caring for one’s parents and that therefore requires the children ‘to be good’ to their parents, often through acts of great respect, kindness and support. It might sound nice but, although things are changing currently, in the past this meant doing what the parents wanted, including marrying who they were to pick up for you, continuing the family business or fulfilling their dreams.

Also let me talk to you about ‘Sanjū Shitoku’ (三従四徳 “The three obediences and four virtues”), a set of moral principles and social code of behavior for maidens and married women in East Asian Confucianism. In specific the three obediences instruct that a woman is obligated not to act on her own initiative and, at home, she must submissively obey or follow her father’s orders before getting married, her husband’s after getting married, and her sons’ after her husband’s death.

When Touya, in chap 302, says Rei had no choices, he’s likely not referring to the fact someone pointed a gun to her head or that she was dragged to the altar kicking and screaming. He’s referring to the fact that even if Rei, as she’ll say, was given ‘options’, the only option socially acceptable for her was to marry the guy who would fix her family’s economical troubles. As a good daughter she HAD to pick up the option that was best not for herself but for her birth family.

The result of Rei being educated into this being what a ‘good daughter’ would do, is that she likely expected her children to also be ‘good children’.

In short, she wasn’t educated to think that Enji wanting them for a specific purpose should have been a sign that should have caused warning bells to ring in her head but something totally socially acceptable, and that she was expected to raise ‘good kids’ who would want to do this for Enji the same way she had done this for her parents.

Things are changing in Japan too, but still, to Rei to hear a man claiming he wanted her to sire kids for his own goal wasn’t meant to sound creepy. It was a normal part of an Omiai marriage, a marriage that’s not based on love (in the past in Japan it was believed marriages based on love were meant to fail) but on how beneficial the marriage would be to the families of the two spouses, a marriage that still exists in Japan (even if it’s slowly disappearing). And yes, Omiai marriages include checking the genetic pool of the wanna be spouse, even if normally one looks for genetic illness (physical and psychological), for lack of blood purity (the person isn’t purely Japanese) or for relations with people that are considered outcasts in Japan (like the burakumin).

So Horikoshi doesn’t mean to portray her as a bad mother because she merely followed social conventions, he just points out the downsides of said social conventions.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE KEPT ON SIRING CHILDREN WHEN TOUYA TURNED OUT NOT BEING ABLE TO FULFILL ENJI’S DREAM

Back to the ‘Sanjū Shitoku’ (三従四徳 “The three obediences and four virtues”) we go.

Rei was meant to follow Enji’s wishes, to keep the harmony in the house, the fact she actually argues against them, saying it would be “too cruel” and tries to change his mind speaks volumes for how she actually cared about Touya.

In reply Enji says they’re doing this for Touya, claiming this will make him stop training himself. This corners Rei as, not only she shouldn’t question her husband’s decisions and yet she’s questioning them but she’s also called to choose between her son’s psychological well being and her son’s physical well being. If this work Touya will stop burning himself. This is a good thing.

At the same time though, Rei was likely also put pressure by how she seems to realize Enji too, like Touya, won’t stop wishing for someone to beat All Might. Enji’s words aren’t completely selfless, he thinks by having another child he’ll kill two birds with one stone, he’ll have a heir who’ll surpass All Might, and this will put him to rest, and Touya will also be forced to quit. Now a friendly reminder this is not a post about Enji, it’s about Rei, so I won’t discuss Enji’s actions more than necessary as they’ll deserve their own post.

We see at this point Rei doesn’t question him anymore. She likely slips into the role of the ‘obedient wife’ and does what her husband asks of her even if she’s not fully persuaded it’s a good choice.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T LOOK AT TOUYA, WHO KEEPS ON BURNING HIMSELF

Yes and no.

In Japan is believed looking after the children is solely a mother’s job, so yes, she wasn’t looking after Touya well enough.

However she had another child to look at who’s smaller than Touya and Japan doesn’t believe in the need to supervise small children (they had recently rejected a law which proposed to make mandatory for parents not to leave unsupervised kids of 8 and younger).

Look at the opening of the manga/anime.

Midoriya, Bakugou and their friends are alone at the park. There’s no adult supervising them, which allows Bakugou and his friends to beat up Midoriya without anyone stopping them. The playground isn’t far from Midoriya’s home but not close to it either (we can see Midoriya’s home in the distance). Inko is a housewife so it’s not like she’s at work yet, same as all the mothers of all those kids, she’s not under any obligation to look at her 4-year-old child.

In my country it would be a crime, we can’t leave 4 years old unattended. In Japan it’s okay.

This translates in 3-year-old Touya saying he’ll go play at some park in the neighborhood and Rei not feeling compelled to go with him to make sure he won’t instead go somewhere else to train himself and remaining at home to look after Fuyumi, who’s 11 months younger.

Rei getting pregnant again and then having to take care to a newborn only makes things more complicate. Natsuo has birth when Touya is 4

For general knowledge I’ll tell you it’s a terrible choice to have another child when you’ve troubles looking after the ones you have, because adding another child to the family means diverting a lot of energies and attentions on the new child, who’s a newborn with plenty of needs, depleting the resources you previously had to use solely for the children you previous had.

Pregnancy is already energy consuming and the more you advance in it, the less you’ll be comfortable moving around, never mentioning the appointments to the doctors that take time.

Childbirth can put a mother out of commission for some days, as many deliver in hospital and spend there the first days and, once they’re back home, not only they often aren’t back in full strength but they’ve an extremely needy infant to look after, an infant who needs to be feed, changed, lulled to sleep often and regularly and that can decide to keep you up at night.

If Rei had troubles looking after Touya when she only had to split her attentions between Touya and Fuyumi, who are young and would need plenty of attentions even if Touya weren’t having troubles copying with the situation, try to picture how things become messy when Natsuo is thrown in the mix.

And then, 3 years and a half later, Shouto is also thrown in the mix. Rinse and repeat what I’ve said above only now with more kids to look after and with Touya’s psychological health in an even worse place.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, Enji decides Shouto should be kept apart from his other siblings. Meaning Rei can’t anymore gather all her children in a single room and look at them there, but she has to keep them in two different rooms and since she doesn’t have the gift of ubiquity and Shouto is smaller and more needy she’ll have to spend more time with him than with her other children… which is exactly what Natsuo in “School Briefs” reports.

All of sudden his mother had no time for him anymore as she’s busy taking care of Shouto. If she had no time for 3-year-old Natsuo, it’s hard she could find the time for 8-year-old Touya, even though Enji insisted on how she should look at Touya.

The situation worsen further when Enji starts training Shouto and the training turns out to be too much for a child of 5.

In an attempt to protect Shouto she argues with Enji, gets hit, her psychological health start to deteriorate, things start becoming too much for her.

Her situation is one in which she’s constantly asked to choose which child she should prioritize as she can’t keep them together and she can’t be in different places at the same time.

She prioritizes Shouto, who’s younger. It doesn’t mean she didn’t care anymore for all her other children. In Touya’s case she’s specifically shown trying to persuade Touya not to go training, so it’s not like she had completely given up on looking after him. We also learn Touya now trained with body parts he could easily cover with his clothes, so that his parents couldn’t realize he was training so while she could guess the situation still wasn’t good, she had not a clear grasp of how bad it was.

Touya needed more, Fuyumi needed more, Natsuo needed more, even Shouto needed more, that’s true but the real question is ‘could she give more?’

What’s more she had chosen to prioritize Shouto’s well being over Touya when Enji basically told her to do the opposite (get out of his way when he was training Shouto and keep her eyes on Touya) so she ultimately disobeyed her husband, failing her duties as a wife.

Ultimately Rei snaps because she couldn’t bear giving any longer. The pressure, combined with the physical abuse, had turned too much for her. Society won’t be kind with her if it were to know as in Japan people are expected to endure and if they snap they’re only weak and have themselves to blame, an idea which likely added to the pressure she was already feeling.

So yes, by Japanese society’s standards she didn’t do enough.

Her children though, all view her as a loving mother. Even Touya regrets snapping at her.

Her failing to handle the situation correctly it’s more because the situation is for her too big to handle than due to a lack of will.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T ASK FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP FOR HERSELF OR FOR TOUYA

In Japan there’s a strong stigma on therapy and psychological help which carries along a connotation of shame as it’s generally seen as something only ‘crazy people go’. Remember when we were talking about the Omiai? Having a family member who had/had had psychological problems is one of the reasons that can make you unsuitable as a spouse in an Omiai.

Long story short, even if it’s possible to get psychological help, people don’t want it.

Parents are lead to think it’s up to them care for their children and, if they’re in troubles they ask for counseling from school or their elders or read self-help books (啓発本 ‘Keihatsu hon’ or, for full 自己啓発書 ‘jiko keihatsu-sho’)… like Touya said Rei was doing.

This was the acceptable way to get psychological help, Rei reading self-help books and trying to put them into practice to help herself and her children.

When things become too much she’s also shown asking her own mother for help and advices… though by then it was too late.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T DIVORCE FROM ENJI AND TAKE HER CHILDREN AWAY FROM HIM

In Japan divorcing from the other party is rather hard if your spouse doesn’t give you permission, and it’s extremely shameful for the woman, regardless of who’s at fault, and even for the children. Plus, in case your spouse agree to it, only one parent can be the children’s guardian.

If divorcing from Rei meant to give up on the custody of the children, especially Shouto, so that Enji wouldn’t be able to train him anymore, well, you can easily guess he wouldn’t agree to it.

At the very best the most Rei would accomplish would be take Touya, Fuyumi and Natsuo with herself, toss on herself and her children shame and leave behind Shouto.

Yes, if the woman is abused by the husband it can help her get a divorce even if he doesn’t agree with it. However from when BNHA has started things have improved in Japan (both in terms of divorce and support in case of abuse) and Japanese women still lament how hard it is for them to prove they were abused and to get help to leave their husband (a protection order is generally issued solely if they can prove they fear for their own life).

It’s not because Enji is a rich Hero who knows people in the police that Rei doesn’t divorce from him. It’s because he’s a Japanese male and she’s a Japanese female and this makes her chances to get a divorce extremely slim.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T REPORT THE ABUSE HER CHILDREN RECEIVED

Remember when I said for a woman is hard to prove she was abused?

To prove the children were abused is HARDER.

First of all, in Japan there’s the general belief a father doesn’t have to get involved in raising his children, so if Enji says he has no time to look after Touya, Fuyumi and Natsuo… well, he’s not to blame, it’s up to the mother to take care of them. Enji is doing his part by working and paying for what they need. Things are changing but you get the drill. No one will scold him for working till late and not having time to look after his kids when that should be Rei’s job in the first place.

Okay but what about Shouto?

The law that forbids parents from hitting children is recent, when BNHA started it wasn’t yet in place and, while back then too you couldn’t abuse your kid, exactly because you could hit him it was hard to prove when you’ve crossed the line or when you were just administering educative punishment. That’s why a law now ban physical punishment, because kids died due to it.

But that’s not the core of the problem.

While abuse of children is prohibited in Japan, there are no laws that explicitly extend this prohibition to training.

Human Rights Watch interviewed and surveyed more than 800 former child athletes from Japan for a 2020 report. Athletes from 50 sports described sexual violence, and being beaten, deprived of water, choked, and whipped with whistles or racquets. Athletes spoke of the “normalization” of these abuses, the lack of systems to report or seek remedies, and the absence of accountability throughout Japanese schools, federations, and elite sports. By the way, plenty of kids had been driven to suicide due to it.

While Enji’s training isn’t related to sport, we see that BNHA compares Hero training to sport training, right from Shouto’s first day at U.A. high. Very likely they’re meant to be viewed as equivalent.

Long story short, it doesn’t matter what Enji does to Shouto during training. It will be likely waved off as training.

In the end there’s little Rei could report that would have helped her to protect her children.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T CARE ABOUT TOUYA

It’s true we don’t get cute scenes between Touya and Rei like we get for her and Shouto. She’s not shown soothing him as he cries, she’s not shown watching TV with him behind Enji’s back, she’s not shown telling him he can be a hero.

She’s however shown caring about him.

Enji wanted to have Fuyumi because he wanted a child with a dual Quirk, but she was in favor of having her because she thought she would support Touya (and he would support her).

As mentioned before she was against having other children after it turned out Touya’s Quirk hurt him, because she thought it would be cruel toward Touya and argued with Enji about it (remember? She’s supposed to obey, not argue).

When Touya argues with Enji, she’s worried Touya is overheating and would want to cool him down.

After Touya attacked Shouto, to Enji’s solution to just keep the children parted, she insists Touya just wants for him to look at him, basically defending her son’s side. As he refuses she basically accuses him of cowardice (and here she’s taking her son’s side over her husband’s side).

Much later she tried to stop Touya from going to Sekoto Peak and tried to encourage him to play with his classmates.

She likely reads ‘self-help books’ also to try and find a way to help him.

She tries to talk with him and encourage him to become something different that’s not a Hero, fundamentally telling him it’s okay if he doesn’t fulfill his social role as Enji’s firstborn.

When, at the hospital, she hears he died she gets even worse.

When Touya tried to nuke Japan she apologized to him, tried to cool him down so as to save him or else die with him and later, went to visit him and told him she wanted to talk with him.

I’ll say all of the above are pretty good signs she cared for him and loved him.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T UNDERSTAND TOUYA

Yeah, she didn’t understand him.

She didn’t encourage his dream to become a Hero, thinking only it would be bad for his health.

She wants him to socialize when instead he only wants to train.

She also made it look as if it would be easy for him to give up on social conventions when she herself ended up where she was due to social conventions.

She knows he’s suffering due to Enji’s neglect but doesn’t admit it to his face, as if this wasn’t part of the problem, as if he could just ignore this.

Ironically part of this comes from her wish to help him.

Protecting his physical health is important, but prioritizing it over his psychological health ends up equally damning.

She wants him to socialize, which is important for a child’s growth, not understanding what Touya had told Enji when he was 8, all the children in his class want to be Heroes, while it can be Touya isn’t as bullied as Midoriya was because he’s not Quirkless, he likely feels like an outcast just the same. Differently from what his parents hope, other children won’t distract him from his dream of being a Hero when they too want to become Heroes, they likely expect Endeavor’s firstborn to become one, accidentally pressuring him more, and if he were to reveal he can he likely feels they would shun him out as defective the same way his father did so he shun them out first. Probably when Enji and Rei were young there wasn’t all this wish to become Heroes but now it exists and Touya has to deal with it and they don’t understand it.

She likely though she was being supportive in encouraging him to give up on social conventions the way she couldn’t do, not realizing (or better not wanting to realize) instead not only how hard it would be for him to do it but how that’s not his only motivator.

She blames his dream on Enji, on social conventions, hoping to make easier for him to drop it, basically denying him agency in what he wants.

So, while she tells to both Touya and Shouto they shouldn’t feel tied by Enji’s blood, her speech to Touya is a big fail because although it’s moved by the same wish to help him same as Shouto, her goal here wasn’t to encourage Touya to do what he truly wanted but what she thought it would be better for him.

She doesn’t want to believe he wants to be a Hero despite Touya spending years saying he wants to be one, because she doesn’t believe he can become one. Hence she wants him to find for himself another way. When she talks with Shouto instead, she encouraged him to become a Hero on his terms, which was exactly what Shouto wanted to do. She didn’t question his wish to become a Hero, even if Shouto is 5.

In a way Rei is like Inko before Midoriya got One for All.

They both gave up on their children’s dream and didn’t support them. Inko will get the chance to change her mind. Rei won’t be given such opportunity. Both mothers though weren’t moved by ill will toward their children but by genuine belief their dream couldn’t be fulfilled so they wanted their children to just move on instead than keep on focusing on such dreams.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO LEAVE HER KIDS

Yes, she wants to leave them because she has started to realize she’s becoming unstable and could become dangerous for them. As said before in Japan there’s a stigma on getting psychological help so she’s trying to get help from a more acceptable source, her mother.

Still she wants to leave her children to protect them, not to hurt them, even though Shouto is clearly hurt when he hears her saying so.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE HURT SHOUTO

Yes, Rei threw boiling water at Shouto but the point is… she didn’t know she was throwing boiling water at Shouto. She was getting paranoid and seeing Enji in her children, Enji who physically abused of her. From her absolutely panicked face we can tell she thinks she’s throwing the water at Enji in self defense because he might have heard her conversation with her mother and might be angry.

The moment she realize the one she burned was Shouto she broke down in sobs, apologized multiple times and tried to soothe the burn.

She never meant to attack her child, in a way it was an accident she ended up scarring Shouto.

REI IS A BAD MOTHER BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T TAKE THE BLAME FOR HURTING SHOUTO

Hum… actually she did.

As said above the moment she realized she hurt him she started crying and apologizing (yes the anime doesn’t show the scene but it allows you to hear the audio of it).

Much later, when Shouto went to visit her to the hospital planning to apologize to her, she apologized to him again, crying.

She also acknowledges having been the one who hurt Shouto when Hawks asked about the scar.

Shouto blames Enji for the scar he has because he understands if Enji didn’t corner and abuse Rei she wouldn’t have snapped, panicked and hurt him by mistake, because he understands in normal conditions Rei wouldn’t have hurt him. It’s not like he does so because his mother told him to.

And, with this, we’re at the end.

So was Rei a saint or a monster?

In media stat virtus.

She clearly wasn’t a perfect mother, she made mistakes, some of them pretty big, partly because social conventions taught her the wrong way to react to something, partly because the situation was too big and difficult for her to handle and she just failed to do so.

However she loved her children, she wanted the best for them and she tried to prioritize them over herself even if sometimes she didn’t know what was the best for them.

She was a single woman forced to bear too much, so in the end she broke and made matters worse. Way before Midoriya went through the Dark Hero arc, Rei tried at it but since no Class A came to support her she broke and failed.

It’s part of the BNHA message, there are things we can’t handle alone, we need a helping hand or we’ll break.

It’s absolutely fair to say she made mistakes, that she took bad choices, that she failed to understand some important things, that in deciding Shouto was the one who needed more protection, she ended up on neglecting her other children. But I also think it’s important to acknowledge that said mistakes weren’t done because she was evil or selfish or didn’t love her kids. In the end she was just a lone woman in a situation too difficult for her to handle, so difficult she ultimately failed handling it and the consequences she had to face for her failure were horrible and ended up affecting her children as well.

Horikoshi didn’t want to portray an evil woman or a saint, just a woman making mistakes and cracking in a difficult situation.

If you still think it would have been easy for her to get psychological help, divorce or protect her children, I encourage you to research on Japanese laws, especially the ones around the time in which her story was being written (as said before some laws have been improved recently). It might help you get a better perspective of how hard things were for her and how much she still tried.

[shdo-xplosion]

Hi Dove! I hope you’re day is going well and I think that your event is the cutest thing! 💖

For your event, may I ask for Shouto from BNHA and number 8 💙?

oh thank you! this one tickles my fancy for sure. good choice!

8. 💙 BEST FRIEND’S SISTER • s. todoroki

dub-con, first time blow job, manipulation, semi rough head, she/her pronouns for reader

Midoriya would be so upset with him.

Shouto is supposed to be his best friend, someone Midoriya trusts with his life. With your life.

‘Take care of her while I’m away, Todoroki,’ he’d said in his good natured tone. Keep you safe, keep you fed, keep you out of trouble. That’s what Midoriya had meant.

Not this.

Shouto is supposed to protect you from predators, and instead he’s becoming one—you’re turning him into one. Staring at him so sweetly, voice like music when you ask, “like this?” while cautiously pumping Shouto’s cock.

Jaw twitching, Shouto nods and releases a short, “yes,” while wrapping his own hand around yours and guiding you directly. Add more pressure, a little faster.

This isn’t what he had in mind when he’d brought dinner over, but you’d invited him in and started talking with Shouto, sharing with him, how much you missed your brother when he was away on missions but how it was sort of exciting not having him around. Shouto knew Midoriya has always been protective of you, from childhood and now into adulthood; he just didn’t realize how sheltering his friend is when it comes to you.

‘You know I’ve never even kissed a guy. I’ve never done anything.’

You weren’t asking for Shouto’s help, but a wicked little voice had chided him. At least if it’s him, he can make sure you learn from someone kind.

‘Do you want to?’

You were alarmed at first, but Shouto quickly put your worries to rest. He has a pretty face and a nice voice and he knows it, though he rarely uses it to his advantage like this.

The first kiss was soft. Shouto let you lead. The second, he showed you how. With tongue and melding lips, and now suddenly, he’s huffing against your mouth, using your smaller hand to fist his leaking cock, and you are so entrapped by him and everything he’s teaching you.

“Do you want to put your mouth on it?” he asks like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Shouto has been told before that he’s blunt, not an ounce of cushion to any of his words. Apparently, that’s a bad thing. But in situations like this where lines need to be black and white (no matter how gray they are in his head), he thinks the less sugar coating the better. “Do you want me to show you how to give oral?”

That wary expression returns to your pretty face, and Shouto combats it with a soft smile he’s learned gets him whatever he wants.

“Um… o-okay.”

“Okay,” he nods. “It’ll be easier if you get on the floor.”

You slink onto your knees in front of him, and Shouto has had a lifetime’s worth of practice of keeping a level head, but when he feels your tongue against his sensitive cockhead, he almost sets the apartment on fire.

Silk. You’re like silk all around him, shy mouth exploring and experimenting. How much can you fit before you gag? How much spit is too much (impossible)? How deep can you take him into your throat before you can’t breathe anymore?

“Does it feel good?” you ask quietly, Shouto’s dick still bobbing right in front of your lips.

He nods since it does, but still offers, “want some advice?” Of course you do. You want to be the best at everything, take after your brother that way. Shouto knows you’ll nod yes before even asking it.

“Drop your jaw,” he commands, “and try to relax your throat. Keep your lips curled over your teeth…” you do everything he tells you, all the while staring at him in a certain adoration. “And trust me.”

Shouto starts slow, holding you by the back of your head as he makes you bob up and down his length. You don’t put up any resistance, just let him move you as he pleases. So, he starts pushing a little harder, a little faster, getting hot over the slick sounds your mouth is making on his cock. He hears you whine quietly, but you don’t protest any further than that, keeping your jaw wide open for him to fuck into.

He can feel something wet hitting his thighs, tears probably. He’s getting a little rough. You just feel so good, though, so pliant, drooling so much it’s dripping down to his balls. You’ll look so pretty when he’s finished with you. Lips swollen, face wet, eyes red, voice all scratchy.

His only warning before he cums is a short gasp, and then he holds your head in place as he bucks into your mouth, mumbling, “it’s okay, swallow, s’okay,” as his eyes roll in his head.

When he has the core muscles to move, Shouto leans forward to wipe the tears and snot from your face, thumbing at your lower lip to make you open your mouth.

When he sees there’s nothing of him left on your tongue, Shouto sighs and nods approvingly, “good girl.”

You look debauched, hair a mess where his hand was, face splotchy, but you still beam up at him. “That’s how you do it? That’s all it is?”

You get back to your feet only for Shouto to pull you into his lap. “That’s one way to do it, but I can always show you more.”

event masterlist ✿

[ofmermaidstories]

i totally think we need an angel boyfriend merms! i can't decide who would be the best angel for it though... grumpy angel bakugo... earnest angel izuku... enthusiastic angel kiri... otherworldly angel shouto... (kindest angel taishiro i mean what who said that)

omg i am so glad u agree with me anon. 🥹 i was like oh no one else wants an angel boyfie… 🥺🥺🥺 but OKAYYY eyeee have some thoughts. 😌

grumpy angel bakugou = ends up in our life bc he gets tossed here somehow during some giant heavenly war, and his whole thing is about being anxious about Getting Back and Kicking Ass, but ofc he ends up learning humanity’s worse lesson—that we are prone to falling in love. 🥺

earnest angel izuku = we caught his eye one day while he was doing angel things (idk) and ever since then he’s been keeping close. 👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️ taking note 👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️ and ends up getting revealed accidentally and then is like, soooo relived because now he can do things like talk to us! maybe he’s involved in some Great Heavenly War too (spoiler alert they’re all gonna be lmaooooo) but he’s so torn bc now by associating with us we’re in danger—from his own side.

enthusiastic angel kiri = he’s our guardian angel 🥺 he’s been with us all our life 🥺 the shining light we see at key moments in our life, like a car crash in our teens or one moment of despair in our early twenties. and then we run into a friendly red head who’s so sweet and kid and gallant and—we don’t know it, but it’s our guardian made flesh. caught here after interfering one time too many.

KINDEST ANGEL FATGUM!!! the giant commander of one of heaven’s mighty battalions. 😌 the war throws him off course, leaves him crashing in the middle of a quiet cemetery in the middle of a giant city, and he gives us such a fright when he emerges from it in the dark!! giant and NAKED!!! 😧

i wanna SCREAMMM i wanna do an angel au so badddd REEEEEE

edit: shouto here bc i got excited and. forgot him. 💀💀💀

[itsheccincheebs]

The calm before the storm...

You’re about to call it a night, not because you’re all that tired but because Kaminari, in his increasingly desperate bid to kickstart his high school romance once and for all with the remaining time he has left, has started trying to goad some of his classmates into playing some childish American game of spin the bottle. Much to your horror, some of them are starting to warm up to the idea.

And frankly, you’re not about to run the risk of locking lips with that whole mess. So you make a show of stretching and yawning and you’re just about to get up when the front door opens.

Midoriya walks in, looking adorable in a fluffy cable knit sweater and you slowly settle back down to admire the rosiness of his freckled cheeks and the sparkle of those large doe eyes that somehow retain that youthful, boyish glimmer despite already nearing his 18th birthday. It’s taking every atom of your very being to not rush over and plant a fat one right on those pink lips.

To your left, Shinsou does a spit take (gross) and almost chokes on his tea. “Oh my god,” he wheezes while thumping his chest. He’s doing this weird coughing laugh and you curl your lip, moving away slightly. “You’re so whipped, holy shit.” You freeze as he gives you a look that says all his dreams came true at once. “That’s your type? I never would’ve guessed.”

You stomp down hard on his foot while ignoring the sinking feeling of dread. He’s definitely going to blackmail you about this later, the bastard.

Shouto appears right after holding a small paper bag, which he hands over. “I remember you saying you liked these,” he offers as explanation and when you take a peek, you smile at the paw print candies stashed inside.

“You keep doting on her and people are gonna get the wrong idea,” Shinsou interrupts before you can thank Shouto for the gift.

“Like what?”

“Shouto, I thought you had detention,” you cut in, derailing the conversation entirely. You’re so done with Shinsou today and he’s starting to get on your nerves. “Aizawa still let you go out?”

For some odd reason, Shouto’s face colors, just the faintest line of pink across the bridge of his nose. He glances at a spot over your shoulder and scratches his neck. “I…had today booked since last week. He didn’t keep me too long.”

You blink. This is very uncharacteristic behavior from your best friend. You’d almost think he was…

“Sho — ah, Todoroki-kun,” Midoriya pipes up from behind you, sending your heart into overdrive. From this close, you can see he’s wearing lip balm for the weather, making his lips look so soft and just a bit shiny. You want to scream. He has no business looking that cute, what the fuck — “Do you want to come up to my room later and start on that essay for Mic-sensei? I’m having a bit of trouble with it and I could use some help.”

Your heart leaps into your throat. As the resident English expert, you’ve already finished that essay. Wouldn’t it be the perfect opportunity to…perhaps help Midoriya with said essay? You try to catch Shouto’s eye so he could do you a solid and be your wingman, but alas, your best friend has many strengths, but picking up social cues isn’t one of them.

“Yeah, I’m just going to take a shower first. I’ll be up later,” Shouto answers, shrugging off his coat and missing your sullen glower completely.

“Shut down,” mutters Shinsou under his breath.

You round on him, having just about enough of his shenanigans. “You are just asking to get your ass kicked today,” you hiss, swearing when he catches your oncoming fist. “It’s like you don’t know when to shut the hell up.”

Shinsou barks out a laugh, mocking grin on full display and snagging your other fist. “Not my fault your game’s so weak,” he retaliates. “Watching you was starting to get painful.”

With a snarl, you shove him off the couch, but he takes you down with him and you land hard on your elbow. “Asshole!” you snap, eyes watering from the pain. What follows feels like the world’s most aggressive wrestling match, with Kaminari and Sero sliding in to do some improv sports commentary on the side and several spectators cheering you on.

Eventually, Shinsou gains the upper hand because the guy’s got at least forty pounds of pure muscle on you and you’re tapping out before long. “Good match. Just no biting next time,” he pants, trying to ruffle your hair.

You duck away with a grunt, out of breath and sour-faced. “Whatever. Hope it gets infected,” you add just to be spiteful.

Midoriya’s long gone, and so is Shouto, the traitor. You straighten up with a stretch, twisting from side to side when you spot something lying on the arm of the couch. “Oh…Shouto forgot his coat,” you mumble. When you pick it up, you pause at the faint whiff of cologne that wafts from it. The hell…? Since when does Shouto wear cologne?

---

Oh good golly gosh, y'all are not ready for the shitshow that's comin'. I don't do Hurt No Comfort cuz I'm too chickenshit, but there's definitely a lot of whump in this future one-shot. So hold onto yer butts.

[slexenskee]

Ru-kun’s Excessive Guitar Collection

Fell down a rabbit hole debating what guitar Ru-kun plays and decided there was no reason to narrow it down to one lol. Also he’s totally the type to just have way more guitars (and shoes) then he could possibly ever use and should totally have one of those epic guitar walls whenever he gets around to making that recording room.

Squier Contemporary Jaguar HH ST Electric Guitar (Sky Burst Metallic): His first guitar. He bought it as a teenager living in Endeavor’s house to a) make noise and piss his father off and b) because he really liked the color. It’s still his favorite. He played it in his junior-high garage band Band Aids. Fans saw a bit of it during the first few years of No Scrubs’ live shows, back when they still played in tiny dive bars and Ru-kun was so close you could touch him 😭. It makes fans very nostalgic whenever they catch sight of it. 

Fender American Ultra Stratocaster Electric Guitar (Arctic Pearl): Another guitar he bought because it was very pretty (let’s be real, that’s the reason he bought all of them). Achieved critical acclaim as a fan favorite when Ken-chan grabbed it out of his hands on stage and threatened to beat a belligerent drunk out of the venue with it. She was talked out of it after Ru-kun said she’d have to pay for a new one if she busted it over some guy’s head. 

Gibson Les Paul Traditional Pro V Flame Top Electric Guitar (Blueberry Burst): Super glossy beautiful guitar with a great sound. Recorded the albums Thanks I Hate it Here and Good News for People Who Love Bad News with this guitar. He also gives it away in MDNSY Ch 39 to Shouto, who treasures this beauty as it deserves, even if he really doesn’t know how to play it all that well. 

Gretsch “Stump-O-Matic” Electromatic Electric Guitar (White): He really likes to play this one during live shows, very versatile and unfussy. Played it all throughout the ‘Scrubs Unite’ tour and eventually gives it away to Izuku in MDNSY Ch 38(?) and reclaims it briefly in FLW Ch 29 to play Say It Ain’t So. 

Gibson Lzzy Hale Signature Explorerbird Electric Guitar (Cardinal Red): His guitar for the “I’m never going to Hosu again” show Makoto dragged them all to during their hiatus in MDNSY Ch 15, aka the guitar he serenaded Tensei with 🤣 Also recorded Glass Onion Heart on this guitar, bc I love the idea of him playing Misery Business on this baby. He also posed for his magazine cover for Sound & Sundry in FLW Ch 20 with this guitar. 

D’Angelico Premier Series Gramercy LS Acoustic Guitar (Matte Sky Burst): I call this the Limitless guitar cause it’s just the perfect color to match his eyes lol. He went out and bought this just to record the acoustic album Tensei guilt-tripped him into making, Don’t You Know Who I (Think) I Am. Also serenaded Hawks with it during the No Scrubs radio interview with Present Mic in FLW Chapter 23. 

Fender American Pro II Stratocaster Electric Guitar (Miami Blue): Very cool vintage blue guitar he recorded Death Before Decaf on, bc I love the very neon 90′s era look and I love the idea of him playing Nirvana/Weezer/3EB tributes (even if no one knows they’re tributes) on it even more. It’s also Yui’s favorite guitar, for obvious reasons. Did he buy it because he knows it’s her favorite color? Probably. He already promised he’d never sell off his collection (gifting them is another story) but he especially promised not to part with this one. It’s a legacy guitar that’s going to end up in the hands of someone special someday (aka Eri lol)

Fender H.E.R Stratocaster (Chrome Glow): I have been told rather reliably by the mysteriously large amount of friends I have in indie bands that there’s no such thing as too many guitars, and on a related note, no such thing as too many Stratocasters. I am obsessed with H.E.R’s stratocaster and I can 100% envision it being custom made by Fender for Ru-Kun once No Scrubs reaches the international critical acclaim they deserve. He names it Infinity, and records the album Infinity on High with it. In recorded performances for the album he alternates between this one and the Gibson Explorerbird. 

Duesenberg USA Starplayer Electric Guitar (Crimson Red): Yet another stunning guitar with a very vintage vibe. I was so torn on whether I liked the black one or the red one more bc both are so beautiful. Let’s be real he probably buys both but plays the red one live just because it’s pretty and shiny and red always reminds him of Hawks’s wings ♡ Records the May Death Never Stop You album on this baby, and plays the tour of the same name. Also the guitar 

Taylor 614ce Special-Edition Grand Auditorium Acoustic-Electric Guitar: Has a lot of Feelings™ and goes out and drops 3k on this baby just because it reminds him of Hawks and that’s got him feeling a way and records his second acoustic album with it. He absolutely plays a lot of Anti-Hero on it, just bc the brand name lol 

[artzychic27]

I'd like to see some more MHA stuff.

Well, I do have one au where Izuku is basically Cruella DeVil, and one where he’s Regina George but with green hair

Izuku DeVil

Izuku remains quirkless, but he has the personality and fashion sense of the villain, Cruella DeVil, and enrolls in Yuuei’s Support Course design department

He’s WAY more confident when dealing with his bullies back at Aldera middle school, and on top of that, the left half of his hair is white and the right half is green

Even when Izuku didn’t get his quirk, his confidence never wavered. He just took one look at a quirkist, snapped his fingers and said, “You don’t exist to me.”

Inko ADORES her son, and will always take him shopping whenever he asks

Hisashi is still around, yay! And no, he didn’t cry when his precious three-year-old son critiqued his fashion choices

With her position as his official aunt, Mitsuki often brought Izuku with her to her small but successful fashion house so he could help her critique and fix any errors in the clothes made by the young designers. The designers were not at all expecting a four year old in a Gucci suit sipping apple juice out of a fancy glass to give them fashion advice

When it was announced that Izuku was quirkless at five years old, that only scared Katsuki. Because all this time, Izuku eccentricity and natural flashiness wasn’t powered by some dormant quirk. And he’s terrified to see how it’ll progress as he gets older

Izuku does this with his outfits, a lot⬇️

He carries around a riding crop to emphasize all of his points

No one knows how he pulls off his dramatic entrances in such a secure school. When Aizawa was introducing him to class 1A as the new designer for their hero uniforms, he descended from the ceiling using an aerial acrobatics ribbon

Class 1A is also scared of him

Izuku: You all will become my personal projects.

Class 1A: …

Mina: Is it too late to run?

He adopted Neito and Shinsou on the spot. Neito shares his love of fashion, and he just kidnapped Shinsou and gave him a complete makeover. And that how friendship works

Those two are his Horace and Jasper, and help him with all of his schemes

Kyouka sings the Cruella DeVil sing every time he walks by

No one’s figured out why, but whenever Izuku sees a Dalmatian, he just stops and stares at it. His eye twitches and his hands look as if they’re trying to grab something. All it takes is a firm hand on his shoulder to snap him out of it, but no one’s quite sure why that happens

When the dorms are implemented, Izuku’s dorm gives his classmates some Gothic Victorian/Hell Hall vibes. The room is painted black with some hints of green, there’s a chaise lounge in the corner, a small canopy bed with curtains, an armoire filled with fur coats, and a sewing station with all of his materials

Katsuki often hides in the vents when Izuku is having… A moment. He urges his classmates to do the same, but they haven’t known Izuku long enough. So, they end up becoming his live mannequins

Whenever they cross paths, Izuku and Shouto just look at each other and nod. Many suspect it’s due to their similar hairstyles

Pony Tsuntori once pointed at him and screamed, “Oh my God! It’s Cruella!”

Shouto is up to his conspiracy theories again and suspects that Cruella De Vil is a quirk. Because, if people can have quirks based on animals, why can Izuku have a quirk based on a Disney villain?

Knowing his similarities to Cruella De Vil, people are terrified of the day Izuku gets his drivers license

When they watched the Cruella movie during movie night, Class 1A wondered if Izuku has a tragic backstory like the title character

The day Tooru brought a Dalmatian pup into the dorm, Katsuki flipped out

Katsuki: Why did you bring that here?! You know how Deku gets around Dalmatians! He will turn it into a fur coat!

Sero: Relax, Kats. Izuku won’t even realize it’s here.

Ochako: Besides. He’s in the 1H dorm right now.

Izuku: *From inside the dorm* I sense a familiar canine presence!

Class 1A: …

Katsuki: … HIDE THE DAMN DOG!

Mean Boy Deku

When Izuku is five and announced quirkless by his bitch pediatrician, he just rolls his eyes and goes back to sketching out some outfit ideas for his mother, saying, “Okay, and?”

Idiot: And, having no quirk means-

Izuku: Means a death sentence. I know. I can read newspapers, Tsubasa. I learned what an ignoramus was last week, and I’m sitting before a big one right now.

Inko: *Snickering*

When it’s announced by the teacher that Izuku is quirkless, the kids all want nothing to do with Izuku, and honestly, he’s fine with that. It shows who his real friends are… Which is no one, apparently. Even Katsuki is avoiding him

Izuku refused to hold his tongue. So, when the teacher tries to reprimand him for literally nothing he just says,

Izuku: Here are the five things wrong with your outfit. The sweater gives you a uniboob, that watch is too gaudy, the pencil skirt, those tacky flats, and that necklace is a desperate cry for attention. I’ll escort myself to time out, thank you.

Hisashi is a good dad in this one, too! Yay!

Izuku’s always had a bit of a mean streak, and no one is safe. Not his teacher, and especially not his classmates. He made his principal cry

When Izuku gets his first cell phone, he creates an Instagram account where he critiques the outfits of pro heroes. And one thing’s for sure, he’s extremely mean about it. But, he does gain quite a large following

At age ten, Izuku discovers the Pre-Quirk era movie, Mean Girls. He is enraptured by how Regina George and her fellow Plastics cause the other students such misery. His favorite scenes are those that involve the Burn Book

And, after a particularly bad day at school, Izuku storms into his room and pulls out a green binder he never used, along with a yearbook from last year. He cuts out a photo Tsubasa, and glues it to the first page, then writes, “Tsubasa is a moronic little brat who won’t shut his bitch mouth, and can’t do basic math to save his life.” He doesn’t stop until everyone in his class has a page

That’s Burn Book #1. In it, contained not only Izuku’s rants about the students and teachers at that sorry excuse for a school but also some secrets he’s sure they wouldn’t want to get out. What a shame that would be…

Izuku only gets more creative with his insults as he gets over, and has made about twelve students cry in one week

Inko: Sweetie, the principal called and said you got into a fight at school.

Izuku: I wouldn’t call it a fight. I simply pointed out that Daiki should invest in some cosmetics for those hideous pores of his. He’s the one who got all huffy about it.

Inko: As long as you’re using your words.

By his final year at the hell hole known as Aldera Junior High, Izuku’s own version of the burn book had become so full that he had to buy a second binder… And then a third. There was just so much to rant about the students and teachers, and he wasn’t just going to keep those thoughts to himself

Izuku: And just what the hell gave you the right to tell this entire room comprised of quirkist little shitheads about my future plans?

Idiot teacher who obviously has a perm: Midoriya, that is no way to talk about your classmates.

Izuku: Oh, so they can call me a useless Deku, use their quirks to physically assault me, and tell me to off myself on a daily basis? Favoritism at its finest, you pointy-nosed bean pole. Lemme guess, grammy was discriminated against by quirkless folk during the dawn of quirks, and now you feel the need to lash out at me? Pathetic. You feel the need to harm a child just to feel superior. Or, perhaps, you were never loved as a child due to having the weakest quirk, so you take it out on me, someone without a quirk. That’s just sadder, you perm-using fuck

~Later~

Katsuki: Take a swan dive off of a roof and pray for a quirk in your next life.

Izuku: Okay, do you want me to quote that in my letter? I’m sure my dear mother and father will love to read that their unofficial nephew told their darling son to jump off of a roof simply for being quirkless. Katsuki, if there’s two things I’ve learned it’s that my legs look gorgeous in high heels. And that, I get a kick out of seeing the world burn.

Katsuki: ...

Izuku: Here’s what going to happen, honey. I’m not going to Yuuei with you, you’re stuck at Yuuei with me. I’m going to be a living nightmare for you while I’m in the Design department. Who knows? Maybe I’ll paint your equipment my signature shade of green. That way, you can think of me… Bye! *Leaves*

~Later Again~

Izuku: Oh, like hell I’m letting you touch me. *Pulls out a bedazzled pepper spray canister and sprays it into the sludge monster’s eye for about ten seconds until All Might arrives*

All Might: Excellent work, young man! I’ve been trying to hunt them down for days!

Izuku: As if I would let that thing touch my sneakers.

All Might: Well, even so, you seem to have the true makings of a hero.

Izuku: Flattered, but I prefer to make heroes look better, outfit-wise. Quirkless Quipster, at your service.

All Might: Wait… Aren’t your the boy who tore into my Silver Age costume and called it a disaster of epic proportions?

Izuku: It had to be said, sir.

Also, Izuku makes his first friend in years! Yay! It’s Momo! Yay! They became close after Momo commissioned a gorgeous dress

When it comes time for the Support Course Entrance Exams, Izuku discovers that he has quite the fan base among the hopeful students, who surprisingly don’t have a problem with him being quirkless

Power Load: ‘Cause in the Support Course, we don’t take kindly to quirkism

Now, according to some, Power Loader doesn’t have an “Eye for fashion,” so Midnight will be handling Izuku’s entrance exam (Which he passes)

So now, he's going to Yuuei. And Inko couldn't be more prouder. She gets so drunk, that she screams over the balcony for everyone to hear, "HEY, BITCHES! MY BABY GOT INTO YUUEI! SO, SUCK IT, FUCKERS!"

Hisashi: That's my pretty wife.

When it's announced that Izuku's going to Yuuei, Katsuki is having none of that and corners him in an alley after school while his lackeys keep watch. He threatens Izuku into rejecting his application, but Izuku is having none of it, and gracefully tells him to fuck off

So, Katsuki grips the sides of his head and activates his quirk. Before he can storm off, Izuku grabs his wrist and forces Katsuki to look him in the eye as his hair singes

Izuku: Transfer to Shiketsu. Transfer to Ketsubutsu. No one at Yuuei is going to let you play their reindeer games.

When he heads back home, Izuku shapes his hair into an undercut style. And when that's over with, he pulls a Regina George and puts his name in Burn Book #2

~The Following Week~

Izuku: *Crying* I-I found this in the bathroom, Tamaka Sensei. It says all sorts of horrible things about the students, teachers... You.

Idiot Principal: *Flips through the pages* What does this say? "Akido Hana is a..."

Izuku: Pasty snitch.

But, he didn't stop there. Izuku had made several copies of each page in the Burn Book and left them all over the hall for the students and teachers to find when the bell rang. Now, imagine that scene from the movie, but with destructive quirks

Izuku calls the police in tears and begs for them to come quickly as the school descends into chaos. He just walks out with a smile on his face

Aldera got shut down, police are investigating the Burn Book, and will be on their way to making many arrests until eventually, they just shut down the entire school district

During the first week of school at Yuuei, Izuku's first assignment was to watch the Battle Trials from the observation room and make ten critiques for each outfit. Instead, he has ten pages for each outfit. Actually, he has fifteen for Katsuki. Nedzu is impressed, and Power Loader is afraid

When Aizawa introduces him to the class and explains that they will all be a part of Izuku's design project, Izuku makes it very clear that the only person he likes is Momo. The rest? He doesn't like or trust... Yet. He's especially not fond of the "Bakusquad" that's starting to form. To him, they're just the Yuuei versions of Katsuki's lackeys

Uh, what else?... Neito, Mei, Momo, and Shinsou are his most trusted allies

Neito has full access to Burn Book #4, Izuku and Momo give Shinsou a much-needed makeover, and Mei gets a kick out of making Katsuki's gauntlets the same green as Izuku's hair

[autumnmobile12]

The Summer Camp Ambush Simulation: Behind the WIPS: Deleted Scene from Ch 4

Okay, so originally the plan for the meeting in Chapter 4 was the Vanguard and UA teachers were going to have a falling out over what to do about Toga: UA arguing Toga's too young to take part, Vanguard firing back with how stupid that is.

And that was going to result in negotiations breaking down and UA deciding, "Well, since we can't agree, we might as well arrest the Vanguard once and for all," leading to an all out fight between the UA staff and the Vanguard.

Except in typical UA fashion, it's just a test.

Three reasons why this got deleted:

The whole plot of Ambush Simulation is the events of the Summer Camp Arc was just a test and pulling the same trick twice in one fic would've made it repetitive.

A situation where the UA staff is 'testing' the Vanguard is redundant. Everyone already knows they're a pretty formidable group. Granted, this could have been some payback for all the trouble they've caused over the years but...

I really didn't want to write anymore fight scenes than I had to, plus the chapter was getting long.

However, I did save some of the notes from that part and I want to share those interactions, so here is some of the deleted section:

...

“I trusted Mr. Aizawa’s judgment when he recommended the seven of you for this task,”  said Nezu.  “But now I fear we have reached an impasse.  You are determined to not leave your young friend behind and while that is admirable, we simply cannot allow a high school student to take part.  Especially not without a parent or guardian’s permission, which from what I hear of Miss Toga’s circumstances, that will be unlikely to obtain.”

“Well, since they’re no longer of use to us,”  Miss Midnight rose to her feet, and Himiko realized she now had a crimson whip pulled taut across her shoulders.  “What do you say we finally put an end to the Vanguard Action Squad.  They’ve been a public nuisance long enough, don’t you think?”

“Sounds good to me,”  said Mr. Eraser.

Himiko whipped her head around.  What?

“Oh, hell, you gotta be fuckin’ kidding me!”  Shuichi shouted.  “We were set up?”

“What a devious twist,”  Atsuhiro huffed.  “I suppose that’s what comes of trusting Pro-Heroes, isn’t it."

Only Tenko seemed to be remaining calm, glaring daggers at the Principal.  No, not at him.  At Mr. Yagi?  The skeletal man clenched his jaw and turned away, almost as if he were about to cry.  What was going on?  Were he and Tenko friends?

“You better run, little kittens,”  Miss Midnight was saying in her sultry voice.  Her whip cracked against the floor.  “Tell you what, I’ll give you a headstart before I start my pursuit.”

...

“This doesn’t make any sense,”  Magne was yelling.  “Why go out of their way to drag us all here?  They know where we live!  They could have apprehended us at any time!”

“It doesn’t matter now,”  Touya snarled.  “Fuck, I can’t believe we were so stupid.”

This is hurting,  Himiko thought.

“I think it does matter,”  said Tenko.

“What are you even talking about?  Even your uncle’s gone and betrayed you,” shouted Jin.

“That’s the thing, though.  He would never do that to me.”

...

“So that’s it?  It’s a test?”

Himiko looked around at the appalled expressions on her friends' faces, silent with shock until Touya finally muttered,  “I really need to be nicer to Shouto.”

“Okay, so it’s just a profiency test.  A demo,”  Shuichi conceded.  “How are we gonna handle the cement guy boxing us in like this?”

“Easily.”  Touya stood up.  “One of the main aggregates of concrete is sand.  That means it melts.”

“Are you mad?”  Atsuhiro grabbed his belt and yanked him back into a seat.  “Sit down! You’re going to turn this whole stage into a cremation oven if you do that!”

[bnha-more-like-bnh-gay]

Headcanon prompt: Izuku accidently called All Might 'Dad'. How did this happen? What is the fallout?

I eagerly await your thoughts. 😀

NSJCNSIDNAIFNW YESSSSSSSS I LIVE FOR SLIP UPS OF THE STUDENTS CALLING MIC/ALL MIGHT/AIZAWA/MIDNIGHT MOM/DAD

Izuku hadn’t slept in days. A side effect after the war/nightmares/insomnia/etc. and everyone can kind of see that he’s loosing it

Momo gives him some sleepy time tea, Tokoyami and izuku stay up and keep each other company sometimes, kaminari offers to knock him out, Uraraka asks if they should get midnight to use her quirk on him (I don’t claim to acknowledge what happened to her in canon, I know this to be true)

Nothing though.

It happens after training one day

All might asks to meet with him some time that week after classes, so they’re setting up a time and izuku says, “see you then, dad!”

And walks away

What a mad banquet of darkness

He does not realize the class staring wide eyes at what just happened

He does not realize all might’s shocked and blushing face

He does not realize Shouto having a heart attack because, holy shit, I told you guys-

He does not realize what he said until walking down the halls with a near comatose Kirishima and Tokoyami

He stops walking

He goes red in the face

He stops breathing

Now, Kirishima and Tokoyami realize that he must not have exactly been “all there” for the previous conversation with all might, and is now just registering what he’s said

“Mido-bro, you okay?” 😬(<- kiri trying to smile, but being absolutely terrified of izuku running off and starting a new vigilante arc because he just referred to his mentor as, “dad”)

Tokoyami watches in mild horror as izuku dissolves into a muttering storm

Kiri, Tokoyami, and dark shadow pick up a few words here and there, “dad,” “villain origin story,” “goodbye,” “disowned,” “hates me,” “deku,” “this is it,” etc.

Dark shadow, bless their heart, is trying to calm izuku down too but honestly, izuku is a little too far gone at the moment

Kirishima and Tokoyami really don’t know what to do, but they eventually get now in shock izuku back to the dorms, where he promptly sits as still as anyone has ever seen him for several hours

Everyone is concerned

Meanwhile, all might is happier than he has been in a long while. His son protege called him dad? Holy shit.

Aizawa and mic will not admit that they wanted to be called dad before all might, but it’s true

Midnight is having the time of her life here after she heard what happened. She starts referring to all might as a dilf, and the man resembles a tomato again

Shouto 10000% walks up to all might after it happened and asked him why izuku felt the need to lie when he asked if he was all might’s secret love child during the sports festival

All might is shook

Everyone is in a state

The only ones who knew that this was inevitable were Shouto (obviously), Uraraka, Kaminari (who usually buys into Shouto’s conspiracy theories), shoji, toru, and Jirou

The next few days consist of all might trying to catch izuku’s attention and izuku promptly avoiding him

He’s gotten even less sleep than before, and his work is starting to show that

Eventually, it is time for his meeting with all might and for the first time, izuku is NOT looking forward to it

He’s still not used to people, let alone adults (save for mama Inko), caring about him, and he had a huge slip up with the man he’s idolized since he was practically born

All might has also been stressed this whole time because his son/protege has been avoiding him!!!! Did he do something wrong? Is he embarrassed? Does he not actually think of him as a parental figure?

When izuku gets to his office, they sit there silently sipping tea for a few moments

There totally aren’t a dozen students/faculty listening in on them

Not at all

They would never

Eventually, izuku breaks the silence with a slew of apologies and how it’s okay if all might hates him now or doesn’t want to be his mentor

All might is confused, sad, and mildly horrified

The prince of nonsense has made a come back

How could izuku think that he doesn’t want to help him anymore? All might is more than happy to play the mentor roll and even happier to play the parental roll for this absolute dork

He stops izuku’s onslaught of apologies, and second guessing, and hurt, and tells him point blank that izuku’s name in his phone is literally, “son :)”

Izuku cries

All might cries

The people eavesdropping in the vents and outside the door cry

Nezu smiles

Shouto is insufferable about it

An absolute menace

Izuku tells him that, no, all might is not his biological father, he just has come to be a parental figure for izuku and that they love each other like father and son

Shouto is not buying it.

Neither is Kaminari

Monomais also insufferable about it, but for a different reason. He just likes to tease izuku about it (does offer to fight his birth father though)

Eventually, it comes out that izuku’s birth father left after izuku was diagnosed quirkless (personal headcanon. Daddy issues. Huzzah.) and then everyone is out for blood

Now, one time, Midoriya hisashi comes back and tries to be all parental after his son saved the world, because would it really be one of my headcanons without hurt/comfort/drama/etc? No, I’m a sad motherfucker

So, imma say that he comes to UA and tries to pick izuku up from school early

Hah. Hahahahahha

No.

All might asks who he is, and he says that he’s izuku’s father

Izuku is uncomfortable and confused and ajifnajfjsjfjejbd

Totally does not expect all might to go, “oh, sorry, you must be confused! See, I am Izuku’s father”

Class a is in shambles

They’re all 1000% there for izuku and glaring daggers at Midoriya hisashi, but the dadmight fan club is beside itself

Hisashi is #confused tm

Did Inko re-marry???

No. Izuku just adopted the #1 hero (fuck endeavor) as a father :)

He does make a scene though :/ the motherfucker

Belittling izuku, berating him, etc.

Iida’s thinking about his stain arc again. Maybe premeditated murder really isn’t that bad?

Shouto is also thinking about iida’s stain arc and wondering if he can join?👀

The entire class is just wondering how the fuck someone as kind, and heroic, and smart, and caring as izuku could be related to. That.

They’re all training to be heroes, and this man is hurting someone. That means he’s a villain, right? I mean, present mic was 1000% ready to fight reporters who were trespassing and harassing students, this man is doing just that, so. Villain.

Izuku starts dissociating though, because really, his sleep deprived brain does not want to be dealing with this right now, which is completely understandable

His class and Real Father have his back!

Eventually, hisashi leaves and Nezu puts him on a no entry list

After class, all might brings izuku into his office for tea, and helps ground his son

*Dadmight mode activated*

It’s never really deactivated, but it’s going into overdrive

After izuku is grounded, they go out for ice cream. Because izuku deserves ice cream and affection goddammit

Izuku’s contact name for all might is also 10000% dadmight

Shouto saw before this whole thing happened and put it in his PowerPoint of proof for the secret love child theory

Thank you for this prompt!!!!!! Found family is by far the best trope😭 I hope you enjoyed though!!!!!💙💙

[piedpiperart]

Menagerie part 7

PART SIX

“Why did we have to come to the school so early?” Shinsou complained. Izuku felt bad for him, considering the dark marks under his eyes and the way he kept yawning and rubbing his eyes. He was pretty sure his tie was tied wrong too.

“That’s why I brought coffee!” Denki exclaimed, showing up behind the four of them. In his hands he had drinks with their names written on them in sharpie. How he knew what drinks to get, Izuku wouldn’t know, but when he took a sip he was pleasantly surprised to find it was hot chocolate. 

“Marry me,”Shinsou sighed, clutching his coffee like a lifeline. He sipped it and practically melted. Denki just laughed, handing Todoroki his frappuccino. 

“How’d you know what drinks to get?” Ochako asked as they made their way to the training gym. She had gotten some sort of sugary mocha. 

“Ah I just guessed. We talked about coffee a bit in the chat so I knew Shinou was an addict and that Shouto hadn’t tried it,”Denki explained, and Izuku was in awe that he remembered all of it. Shinsou didn’t even protest about being called a coffee addict, only sipping his drink in bliss. “I figured a frap was a good beginner coffee drink. And hot chocolate for Izuku cuz he doesn’t like coffee.”

“Blasphemy,”Shinsou glared at Izuku with a look of disgust. Izuku waved his hand in distress. 

“I-it’s fine, it just makes me really jittery,”Izuku hastened to explain. Shinsou just huffed and turned back to his coffee, so Izuku considered himself safe for the moment. 

“How do you like yours?” Ochako asked, and Izuku turned to see she was talking to Shouto. 

“I like it,” Shouto declared. Denki, who had gotten some sort of chocolate mocha, had offered Shouta to try some of his too. Uraraka then demanded to try some too, and they found that Shouta liked the frappuccino most, but liked the mochas too. 

“Come on Shinsou, you gotta let him try,”Ochako pleaded. 

“Yeah man, how will we know if he really likes coffee or just sugary drinks?” Denki cajoled. 

Shinsou scoffed, hiding his coffee. “You keep your filthy hands away from my coffee.”

“I’ll give you some of mine!” Denki offered. Shinsou gave him a look. 

“Izuku’ll make you some coffee tomorrow morning from Aizawa’s magic coffee beans,”Uraraka blurted, and Izuku startled. 

“What?” He asked, and to his horror, Shinsou seemed to actually consider it. 

“Sure,”Shinsou said, passing his coffee reluctantly to Shouto. He received the frap in return and gave it a disgusted look. 

“Wait- what?” Izuku repeated. “Aizawa doesn’t let anyone use his coffee beans.”

“Think of it like hero training!” Ochako explained,”And besides, its for a good cause!”

“It’s for science!” Denki cheered. Shinsou shrugged, sipping the frap and immediately grimacing. 

Shouto sipped Shinsou’s coffee and grimaced, giving a full-body shudder before passing the coffee back to Shinsou solemnly. “Don’t like it?” Shinsou teased, handing him back the frap. Shouto shook his head, mouth still downturned like he’d eaten a lemon. 

Denki and Ochako, curious, held out grabby hands to Shinsou’s drink to try. With a sigh, Shinsou passed it to them too while Shouto coughed. 

“I don’t like whatever that was,”Shouto managed to say. He took a big sip of the sugary monstrosity in his hands to rid himself of the taste. Izuku laughed, watching as Denki and Ochako tried Shinsou’s coffee only to dramatically gag and pass it back to him. 

“Well I think it’s delicious,”Shinsou said pointedly, but Izuku could see his lips turned up into a small smile. It was cute. 

Not long after that, they had arrived at the training gym, and Izuku and Uraraka led everyone through stretches before giving them a run down on Izuku’s quirk. Shinsou was the only one not so comfortable with fusing yet, so he opted out of that part. Ochako promised to show him some combat moves after demonstrating. 

“Usually you just have to think about your feelings towards one another, and if they’re positive and you’re willing to fuse, it’ll just happen,”Ochako explained. “Movement and teamwork help a lot to activate his quirk though too.” 

“It happens a lot by accident, but it doesn’t hurt and if you change your mind during any part of it, the quirk will deactivate,”Izuku explained. Shouto and Denki nodded enthusiastically. 

“I like that your quirk has built-in consent,”Denki said thoughtfully, making Shinsou snort from his spot on the floor. He’d since finished his coffee and had confiscated Denki’s to drink. 

“Alright, so Izuku and I are gonna fuse and then you guys can try it with him, okay?” Uraraka said, and gave a thumbs up to where Mic was grading papers on the bleachers. He returned the gesture and she turned to Izuku, offering a hand. 

Izuku was nervous to have an audience this time, but laughed his worries away when Uraraka spun him around, and then suddenly they were one person. Denki clapped his hands, excited to see the process and to see Zura again. 

“Ta da!” Zura posed, grinning. “Any questions?”

“Do you feel like one person or two?” Shouto asked. 

“A bit of both,” Zura said. “I’m more of an experience,”They said thoughtfully. “I just feel like.. Love I guess. It’s hard to explain, sorry.”

“What’s your quirk?” Denki asked. “Gravity, right?” 

Zura nodded. They were once again wearing an amalgamation of clothes from each other, but since they were mostly in UA gym clothes or workout gear, it wasn’t as chaotic as usual. “Uraraka has to touch things to make them float, but I can make anything float or get heavier.” As they said it, the empty cups around Shinsou floated upwards and then crashed to the ground. “No other questions?” 

No one else had questions, so they unfused in a flash of light. “Who wants to go first?” Ochako exclaimed. 

“It might be easier for Denki first, since we’ve already fused before,”Izuku pointed out, and Denki fistpumped. Shouto meanwhile sat down next to Shinsou to observe. Ochako stayed standing but backed away towards to two boys on the ground. 

“Are you nervous? I’m kind of nervous but like also really excited,”Denki rambled, bouncing up to Izuku. “Do we.. we dance right?” Denki asked, extending a hand to Izuku. 

“Um, yeah, if you want to?” Izuku smiled nervously, feeling a bit flushed from fusing already before. He took Denki’s hand and they awkwardly danced in small steps before Denki took the lead and hummed along to whatever song popped into his mind. 

“You’re really good at dancing,”Izuku smiled as he was spun under Denki’s arm. 

“Mina taught me,”Denki beamed. “She tried to get me to join the cheer team in middle school, but you know,” Denki shrugged, and Izuku felt little sparks through his hands. 

Izuku hummed, and before he knew it, he was opening his eyes as Bolt. “O-oh woah,”He breathed. “I didn’t expect that to work so fast.”

“Woo!” Uraraka cheered. He turned to see her sitting down with Shouto and Shinsou, all who were smiling at Bolt’s excitement. “Try not to run into a wall this time!”

Bolt blushed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I.. how?? I don’t even know what I did last time,”He muttered. Tentatively, he took a small step forward. Nothing. 

Bolt glanced over to Present Mic, who was watching them intently. He focused on a spot in front of him and- he hit the wall. 

“I said don’t hit the wall!” Ochako’s voice rang out, much farther behind him than before. 

“Ow,”Bolt whined dramatically, rubbing his nose. He turned, and squinted out at the group. “How do I stop going so fast?!” He called, a bit scared to move. 

He wrinkled his nose, taking a step forward shakily. And then another. He kept focusing until he was a few feet away from the group. “You’re doing great!” Shinosu cheered, and Bolt’s concentration snapped. He immediately activated his quirk and tripped over his feet at the same time, landing flat on his face. 

Barely concealed laughter rang out and Bolt groaned, pulling himself up off the floor. “Help?” He pleaded, looking at Shinsou in distress. Shinsou seemed surprised, but then shrugged. 

“None of us have speed quirks, dude,”Shinsou said, and Bolt groaned again. “Maybe you can ask Iida. I bet he’s had the same issues.”

“That’s a great idea!” Ochako said, slyly putting away her phone from where she was filming. 

“Hey-” Bolt started, trying to pick himself up off the floor before he activated his quirk again and suddenly crashed into the bleachers on the opposite side of the room, a few feet from where Mic was sitting. They hit awkwardly, unfusing at the same time and ending up sprawled half on the gym floor or on the bleachers. 

Both of them groaned, and Mic asked how they were doing. “You okay?” Ochako called, and they held up a thumbs up from their spots. After a moment of stumbling, they made their way back to the group. 

“Ouch,”Denki grumbled. “Coolest quirk, and 10/10 experience but maaan, why is it so hard to stop crashing into things?”

“Maybe you should call him Crash instead of Bolt,”Shinsou suggested, and Denki pouted. 

“We should ask Iida,”Izuku thought aloud. Ochako passed him a water bottle and he sipped at it, then looked to Shinsou. “Weren’t you guys gonna train?”

“Bolt crashing into stuff would be too distracting. Plus it was fun to watch,”Shinsou smirked. 

Izuku sighed amusedly, and turned to Todoroki. “You want to fuse now?”

“I… yeah,”Shouto murmured. He got up and pulled Izuku to his feet after offering his hand. “I don’t know how to dance though.” 

“That’s okay,”Izuku smiled, “I was really bad at it before, but Uraraka’s been kind of teaching me. I can teach you if you want?”

“Sure,”Todoroki nodded, and Izuku offered his hands out for Shouto to take. 

They took things slow, listening idly to the three chatting softly behind them. They did a box-like dance, Izuku leading as they got comfortable with each other. “Are you supposed to feel different.. Before?” Shouto asked uncertainly. 

Izuku hummed. “Not really? There’s many ways to fuse, I guess dancing has just been the easiest to activate it. Is this okay?”

There was a pause before Shouto answered,”Yes,”and Izuku frowned, slowing down. “We can do something else if you want,”Izuku said, looking into Todoroki’s nervous eyes. He seemed to deflate at Izuku’s sentence. 

“Sorry, I thought..”Shouto trailed off. “I don’t know.” 

“That’s okay!” Izuku rushed to reassure. “I’m not going anywhere if you want to try another time. We can try when you’re ready, or not at all. It’s okay.”

“It is?” Shouto asked, surprised. “I thought.. We’re friends?”

Izuku let out a breath,”Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you have to try my quirk. I’m happy to just hang out with you, and I’m proud of you for telling me when you weren’t comfortable.”

“Oh,”Shouto responded, eyes suspiciously wet. 

“Do you… do you want a hug?” Izuku asked, holding out his arms. Shouto hesitated, but nodded, and Izuku wrapped his arms around his friend. 

“Thank you,”Shouto said, and Izuku hummed in response, reveling in his friends warmth and pressing his face into Shouto’s shoulder. They stayed like that for a while, and when they went to pull apart they found they had become one person. 

“What-” They stammered. “I thought- you didn’t want- No it’s fine- this is- this is nice,”They said, humming to themself. They looked over their arms and clothes, finding themself taller than usual. Their clothes were a mesh between Izuku’s hoodie and the gym clothes they were wearing, and they had to brush their bangs out of their face to see it. They pulled some hair closer to see the colors but they weren’t sure up close. It reminded them of watercolors, with mixes of pink and red and green and white in all shades. They hummed quietly, thinking and feeling for a moment. 

“Oh my god! Your hair!” Uraraka cheered. “Can you even see??” 

To-Izu- they turned towards their friends and calmly walked over, sitting so they were all in a circle. “I can see fine,”They said, mind still occupied with new thoughts and feelings.  

“Are you… okay?” Shinsou asked, tilting his head to the side. It was hard to tell what they’re feeling without being able to see their eyes. 

“I am good. This is nice,”They said with a slight smile. It was nice to be around friends. Shinsou made a face.

“Have you decided on a name? Do you know your quirk yet?” Denki asked, bouncing in his seat. He looked like he was restraining himself from touching the fusions clothes or hair. 

They took a moment, bringing their hands together in front of them. The others leaned forward from their spots, intrigued at what they were doing. After a moment, water began pooling into their hands and Denki gasped. 

“It’s water! Maybe because Todoroki had fire and ice, so the middle ground is water?”Denki added, excited.

“Mn,”The fusion responded, and as more water pooled into their hands, it began to take shape as a bubble- like shape, floating off into the air. 

“Aw, that’s so cute,”Uraraka gushed as more water bubbles floated into the air. Denki reached up to touch one and it jiggled but stayed intact. 

“Can you control them?” Denki asked, poking another one. 

The fusion didn’t respond, only moving their arms fluidly, and the water droplets came together to make a bigger, more fluid looking shape that circled around and through the group. The fusion hummed, smiling contently. “Rain.”

“Hm?” 

“Rain? Is that the name you want?” Uraraka asked, taking out her phone. “Hey can I take a picture of you for Aizawa? He’s gonna be sad he missed another fusion.”

Rain nodded, an answer to both questions it seemed. The group didn’t let the silence of their new friend bother them, and went with the flow. It unnerved Shinsou a little, but with time everyone was relaxed. Uraraka and Denki filled the silence no problem, understanding that their fusion can be a lot of things to process at once, and they thought that maybe with two introverts, the silence made sense. 

“What do you think about starting combat training then? We still have a little while before class starts,”Uraraka said, pointedly looking to Shinsou, who perked up. 

“I’d be cool with that,”Shinsou nodded. Denki got to his feet with the rest of them, excited to start combat training too. 

“I can show you some moves Aizawa taught me, but you’ll have to do other training on your own like running and weight lifting. It’s important to keep in shape,”Uraraka said, poking Shinsou’s noodle arms, and he jerked away from her and stuck his tongue out. 

“I knowww, but that’s so boring,”Denki complained. “I wanna learn how to flip someone. But hey,”Denki said, turning to Shinsou,”Maybe we can train together, run to school or something.”

Shinsou gave him a look, already regretting the answer. “Fine,”He said reluctantly. “I don’t know weight training though.”

“That’s fine! I can teach you!” Uraraka but in, flexing her muscles. Shinsou was loathe to admit he was jealous. 

“Oh my gosh you’re ripped! Can I feel your arm?!” Denki exclaimed, and Shinsou sighed, looking to Rain- only. Rain wasn’t there. 

“Uh,”Shinsou stammered, when he caught sight of Rain talking to Present Mic, who gave the fusion a thumbs up and- Rain started walking towards the exit. “Uh guys- Rain’s leaving!”

“What?!” Uraraka and Denki exclaimed, turning to where Rain was nearly out the door. They let out a yelp and ran after them, Denki grabbing Shinou’s arm and pulling him along. “Rain! Where are you going?!”

Rain paused in their movements, waiting patiently for the group to skid to a stop in front of them. “Explore,”They explained. “New. Just looking.”

“Ah, everything’s new to you, right? I didn’t really get to look around much with Bolt being so fast,”Denki nodded like it made sense. Shinsou supposed it did. 

“Oh!”Uraraka exclaimed, then ran to their bags, pulling out a notebook and running back. “If you want to write about things you see, you can use this! It’s Midoriyas, but he was gonna use it for fusion stuff anyways.”

Rain gently took it, and Shinsou realized just then how tall they were. “Thank you,”Rain said with a small smile. Then they turned a bit, pausing. “I go now.”

“Aw,”Denki sniffed, wiping a fake tear out of his eye. “They grow up so fast.”

“Is that.. Normal?” Shinsou asked, watching Rain walk down the hallway. At one point they stopped to touch the wall and then wrote something in the notebook before continuing on their path. 

“Yeah,”Uraraka shrugged. “They’re their own person, you know? I think with Me and Izuku, Zura wanted to get stronger so we trained a bunch. Bolt wanted to control his quirk, but I think Rain just wants to explore. It’s.. It’s hard to explain but everything feels different and new,”Uraraka explained. And Shinsou could understand that. 

“Plus, they’re both introverts,”Denki added,”I think they just wanted some peace and quiet or something. Might be nice for them to do it together.”

“Huh,”Shinsou hummed. Maybe someday he’d want to try it. At least for Rain, they seemed happy to exist. 

“Alright! Time to kick butt!” Uraraka clapped her hands together. 

Soon, Shinsou would be regretting not going with Rain on their impromptu adventure. 

PART EIGHT

[inkykeiji]

Those prompts are so cute. 28 with sd-natsuo!Touya -🦒

prompt: time for [blank] series: sugar daddy natsuo warnings: touya is his usual abhorrent, despicable self, toxic relationships, noncon touching, female reader, use of the pet name princess, daddy kink words: 1.1k

i know right!!! i really love them!! thank u so much for requesting sd!nat touya giraffe bb!! <3

Time for… has become one of your least favourite combinations of words. You’ve learned to fear what comes next, the beginning of that sentence always sending splinters of ice shooting through your veins, leaving behind an unsettling chill of dread.  

Because time for is one of Touya’s favourite phrases. 

And nothing good ever follows.

“Oi, wake up,” rough hands curl around your shoulders to shake you from your slumber, dirty fingernails digging into your bare skin. “It’s time for school.” 

“Leave me alone,” you grumble, attempting to wiggle out of his grasp, his grip only tightening in response, callouses decorating his palms sanding against your flesh. “I’m not going anywhere if it’s with you.” 

“Hey now,” he begins, and you can hear the shit-eating grin in his voice, the barely restrained amusement fizzing with anticipation in his tone. “Daddy’s rules, not mine.” 

“I don’t care.” 

This is the fourth morning in a row that you’ve been woken up by someone other than Natsuo, who has apparently been needed at the hospital all fucking week. For the first three days of Daddy’s on-call shifts, Shouto had been there to wake you, to dress you, to feed you and bring you to school and take you back home, with his gentle voice and tender hands and murmured out praises, floating on the tails soft laughs, sandwiched between private smiles and twinkling eyes. 

But it was only a matter of time until it wouldn’t be Shouto.

As it always is when it comes to Touya. 

He’s inescapable, looming in the background of your mind, the everlasting threat of him tinging every interaction, every experience, everything.

“I don’t care if you don’t care, you brat, Daddy says so. And what Daddy says goes, whether you like it or not, whether it’s from my lips or Shouto’s.”

Yeah, sure, except whenever the order is coming from Touya’s lips it is always, without a doubt, tainted—dipped in his own opinions, coated in his own special brand of venom and malice and deranged glee, and it always overrules whatever Daddy actually said. 

“Screw you,” you spit, trying to wrench yourself from his hands, to turn over and roll away from him, face scrunched with the force of your squeezed shut eyes.

But Touya is faster, Touya is smarter, Touya is larger. 

And that means Touya is better. 

He’s on you in a flash, nothing more than a blur of sapphire and ink, yanking you flat on your back, trapped between him and the mattress. Jagged hips squirm between your soft thighs, bones carving into flesh and pinioning your body to the bed, coarse palms collecting your wrists and cuffing them, pinned high above your head. 

“Screw you, huh?” his breath wafts across your face, spicy nicotine stinging your eyes. “That’s cute. Though I know you’d like to supplement that with a dirtier word,” he leans forward, presses his forehead to yours, noses brushing. “And I am just begging you to do it.” 

It bubbles up on your tongue, a caustic curse that erodes your teeth as it tries to escape.

Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you! 

Fury thrashes in your chest, and Touya raises an eyebrow, smirk stretching into a full grin. Your molars mash together, jaw flexing with the action, and you swallow thickly, a desperate attempt to keep those two little words from escaping, letters scraping the walls of your throat as you force them down, leaving a burning ache in their wake. 

You know what game he’s playing. You know how to play it, too.

And you refuse to give him the satisfaction of winning.

Fuck you, you fucker. 

“I’m not going to school with you,” you say instead, the words ground out through clenched teeth. “You’ll have to drag me by my hair.”

“That can be arranged,” Touya says simply, and he looks like he’s genuinely considering the prospect, weighing the pros and cons to determine if it’s truly worth it, when his phone begins to buzz.

He transfers your wrists to one hand, putting pressure on the joints as he leans to the side and fishes the device from his pocket, bones grating together between his palm. 

Your resounding yelp does nothing, doesn’t even seem to phase him at all as he answers the phone, wedged precariously between his shoulder and his ear. Sharp hipbones dig into the flesh of your inner thighs as Touya shoves his hips down harder, an attempt to garner more leverage and steady his arched upper body. 

“Hi, Natsu, what’s up?” 

“Daddy!” you gasp, the word rushing from your mouth in an involuntary gush, Touya throwing you a look of warning. 

“I wish I could say everything’s fine, but I’m having a bit of trouble with your princess.”

And, really, he does sound regretful; you’d mistake him to be genuine had you not been able to see the sharp glint in his eyes, the malicious smile slapped across his face. 

“No, unfortunately she’s being quite uncooperative this morning; no, I don’t think Shouto had any issues,” sapphire eyes glance toward your face, and he winks. 

You glare back at him, steadily holding his stare. Blue flames blaze, licking around his pinprick pupils, and your eyes water a little, beginning to burn. 

It hurts, like gazing directly into the roiling center of a bright inferno, but you will not look away, proud and stubborn as your glassy eyes, now shielded with a thin film of reflexive tears, bore into his. 

Squirming beneath him, you shove your hips into his, a feeble attempt to throw him off your body, and he grunts a little, gruff sound bleeding into a vicious chuckle. 

“No, I’m fine,” he says to Natsuo on the other line, voice just a hint huskier than normal. “Of course,” he becomes a little more serious, features flattening out a bit, eyes glazing over as they focus past your face, suddenly concentrated. “Hey, listen, don’t even worry about it, alright? Nii-san will handle it...Promise. Love you, too.”

And then he’s hanging up, tossing his phone on the mattress beside you, device bouncing a little upon impact. Touya’s eyes refocus, knocked back into kilter as his attention hones in on you again, gaze sharp, crisp, distinct. 

“Daddy isn’t very pleased with your behaviour,” he tells you, mocking pet name dripping off his tongue. “You’re such a stupid little thing, y’know that?” 

His laugh vibrates against your chest, his free hand beginning to creep up your bare thigh, fingers sinking into tissue and dimpling skin as they knead higher and higher and higher, slipping beneath the lace-trimmed silk of your skimpy nightgown. 

“You think you can just act like a disrespectful little bitch with me and get away with it?” his tongue licks at your parted lips, tip tracing the bottom one before dipping inside your mouth to lick at your teeth and gums and you recoil, face screwing up in a soured wince. “It’s time for retribution, baby.”