Solar Storm

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/30511920.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Category: M/M, Gen, Multi
Fandom: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero
Academia
Relationship: Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto, Midoriya Izuku & Todoroki Shouto,
Todoroki Fuyumi & Todoroki Shouto, Midoriya Hisashi & Midoriya
Izuku, Midoriya Izuku & Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko
Character: Midoriya Izuku, Todoroki Shouto, Todoroki Fuyumi, Todoroki Enji |
Endeavor, Midoriya Hisashi, Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko,
Kurogiri (My Hero Academia)
Additional Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Child
Abuse, Todoroki Enji | Endeavor's Bad Parenting, Midoriya Hisashi's
Bad Parenting, Abusive Midoriya Hisashi, Midoriya Izuku Has a Quirk,
will add more as they come into play, Explicit Language, izuku has a
fire quirk, izuku and shouto bond over having fire quirks and fucked up
families, Strong Midoriya Izuku, but also soft, Soft Midoriya Izuku,
Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Villain Midoriya Hisashi,
Vigilante Midoriya Izuku, Forced Villain Midoriya Izuku, Strategist
Midoriya Izuku, Imprisonment
Collections: The Very Best of TodoDeku, My Favorite My Hero Fics, Works I've
read, Looose Goose My Hero Fics, bnha loved fics, mha fics that are
my will to live
Stats: Published: 2021-04-06 Completed: 2021-05-03 Chapters: 18/18 Words:
29563

Solar Storm
by aloserkid

Summary

Shouto hadn't intended to acquire a quirk instructor who looked like he was loved by the
sun itself, but here we are.

Izuku hadn't intended to talk to the son of a hero, but the way he was training was just too
stupid, so what could he do?

Notes

remember to check the tags, ill be adding them as they come into play

See the end of the work for more notes

 Early Afternoon In Summer When Nobody Wants To Be Outside

Despite it being just the beginning of summer, the weather was sweltering, and Shouto found
himself using his ice quirk to keep himself cool more often than not. He supposed that was the one
silver lining; at least he was improving his best quirk.

All the same, though, he knew he had to train his fire. If only to keep it under control when using
his ice. He would never use it when training with his father, but if he didn’t learn to use it at all, it
could be dangerous when he became a hero. He also didn't want to go to Yuuei without full control
over his quirks. If he was going to surpass his classmates, he couldn’t have one of his quirks going
wild

This meant he had to find a place completely isolated where he could practice a potentially
destructive fire quirk without anyone caring. His home was not possible. Even if they did have a
practically fireproof training room, his father could come home at any moment and see him.
Shouto just see how smug he would be.

He couldn’t go to a park because fire and plants were not a great mix. Where then?

Maybe a place with a lot of concrete, where nobody was around. There were plenty of those areas,
considering the frequency of villain attacks. Or so he’d heard on the news.

He pulled out his computer, yet another example of the gifts his father used to buy his affection.
Shouto gritted his teeth at the thought, but he still had research to do, so he used it anyway.

It wasn’t as if there was some map of all the abandoned urban areas, that was just asking for
people to go and do stupid things (just like himself), but he could kind of figure it out. Any
widespread villain attack that destroyed significant amounts of property while also making those
properties unlivable through destruction of basic amenities left an abandoned area behind,
particularly in lower income areas.

Wealthy people like his father had no trouble rebuilding, after all.

Moving on, there seemed to be one that was relatively nearby. Not close, but he could run there in
maybe half an hour or so. It would have to do. He’d go there tomorrow afternoon and see if it
would work out.

_______________

The next afternoon after doing his homework and physical training, Shouto was about to head out.
Then something was thrust in front of him.

He squinted at the object, which turned out to be a thermos.

“Fuyumi…?” He looked at her uncomprehendingly.

“Take it,” she smiled at him.

“But I-”

“Take. The water,” the smile was still soft, but… It felt like she wouldn’t accept further arguments.
He took the thermos. It wasn’t like he would need it, but if it made Fuyumi happy, that was fine.
He stuffed it in his backpack with the snacks that Fuyumi had also forced on him.

Shouto was off moments later. He jogged to the spot he had located the night before, and looked
around.

Abandoned was almost an understatement. Even the birds and the bugs seemed to have left,
because the place was dead silent. If he remembered correctly, the villain had some kind of water
quirk, where he consumed water to gain power. He had sucked the entire area dry and then
demolished it.

That was all fine and well, but it also meant that this place was like an oven. It was drier than a
desert, and the heat of the sun seemed eager to bake Shouto into the ground. Not the ideal
conditions for practicing his fire quirk, but this would have to do.

He iced his body in an attempt to avoid heat exhaustion or heatstroke, and got started.

What was most important here was not firepower, which his father seemed to focus exclusively on
when training him, but control.

He would do it the same way his sister had taught him fine control over his ice quirk when he was
younger.

“Make it into shapes, Shouto. Start with a cube, and then keep increasing the numbers of sides
until you have a perfect sphere.”

It had been good advice then, so it would probably be good advice now.

But.

Making shapes with fire was a lot harder than doing it with ice. The problem with fire, he
contemplated as he failed again at creating even a basic cube out of fire, is that it isn’t solid like ice
is. Shaping flaming gas was a much greater degree of difficulty than creating solid objects.
Visualizing it was also a lot harder.

Clearly he was not putting enough focus into this. He stopped using his ice quirk so he could focus
more, and immediately felt the oppressive heat of the sun bearing down on him. God, Shouto hated
summer.

Heat radiated from every direction as Shouto continued to fail at creating three dimensional shapes
with his fire quirk. He could kind of create a square or a triangle, but expanding that into a cube or
pyramid was proving to be impossible for him. There was no way this was impossible, though.

He just wasn’t working hard enough.

Shouto kept at it for a few more hours, not keeping track of the time passing by, not noticing all of
the moisture drained from his body by the sun and concrete. The thermos of water and snacks lay
untouched in his bag on the ground, a distance away from where he was training.

He had to do this, there was no way he couldn't even control-

“Why are you training like that?”

Shouto froze, wobbling a little on his feet, and turned to face the person who had just spoken. He
was smaller than Shouto, with a head of fluffy, green hair and the most vivid green eyes he had
ever seen. The color of the leaves in spring. The sun shone from behind him and he shone with it as
well, a golden glow reflecting off his leaf green hair and seeming to set it aflame.

Shouto was stuck there for a second staring at him out of pure shock. When had he gotten here?
How had he approached so silently? Who was he? Why was there a burn on the side of his jaw?
And most importantly,

Who was he to tell Shouto how he should train?

Shouto’s tongue felt like lead, but he managed to force out a, “none of your business,” before
turning around and getting back to practice, ignoring the way his body felt heavier by the second
and how his hands shook.

If he hadn’t turned around, he would have seen the kid’s brows furrow in worry, but instead he just
heard, “whatever, have it your way.”

He still felt the kid hovering behind him from a safe distance, though. Shouto supposed that was
fine, the kid didn’t seem hostile and it wasn’t as if he was practicing some super secret move.

So, he kept training while trying his very best to ignore the very green presence in the background.

_____________

His vision was a little blurry. That was odd, but nothing he hadn’t experienced. The blurriness
made it seem like he could actually see waves of heat rising from the ground. Shouto raised his
hand to keep working but he found he could barely even hold it steady.

Was he really shaking that much?

He also felt… Like something was pressing down on him.

His vision got blurrier.

And blurrier.

Having only just realized what was happening, Shouto tried to use his ice quirk to cool himself
down but he couldn’t call it out.

He swayed, trying to steady himself, but there wasn’t a wall to support himself on. He took a step
forward… Was the heat affecting his brain this much? His balance was horrible and he fell to the
side.

Before he hit the ground, he was caught by something soft and even warmer than the surroundings.
The only thing he saw as his eyes slid closed was a vivid green.
 Shouto's First Friend(?)
Chapter Summary

Shouto has human interaction and social connection with someone completely
unrelated to him? Wow, his bastard father probably wouldn’t like that.

Shouto’s eyelids felt so heavy that opening them was difficult. While he was struggling, he heard a
slightly familiar voice say, “relax, you’re in a safe place, take as long as you want to wake up.”

It was the green kid. Shouto wasn’t about to listen to the requests of a total stranger. He forced his
eyes open and sat up. It looked like he was in a cafe…?

“Where did you bring me?” Shouto demanded.

“It’s just a small cafe near where you passed out. Are you feeling alright?”

Shouto ignored the question, “why did you bring me here?”

The boy seemed to weigh his options before responding, “well, you passed out from heat
exhaustion and quirk overuse in a place that would only make your heat exhaustion worse, so I
took you somewhere cooler.”

That was a reasonable answer. However, while looking at the green boy, Shouto found a logistical
issue.

“You’re scrawny and short. How did you carry me?”

The boy huffed in offense, “I’m not that short and I’m not really scrawny either,” he rolled his shirt
sleeve up and flexed, displaying that he did in fact have muscles.

In the process Shouto realized two things. First, how weird it was that the boy was wearing long
sleeves in summer when even Shouto didn't want to, and second, how many scars ran along those
arms. Burns, cuts… Long story short, it was a little concerning, especially when connected to the
burn on his jaw. As a prospective hero, Shouto would try to look into it. That didn’t mean that he
would be making friends with the boy, though.

“Ok, fine. Why didn’t you bring me to a hospital?” Not that Shouto would’ve wanted that but it
was what a normal person would do.

The boy scratched the back of his head, eyes wandering, “I wasn’t sure if you would want me
to…? I was planning to ask once you woke up,” the boy focused on Shouto again, “so, do you want
to go to a hospital?”

“No.”

The boy laughed. Why? Shouto didn’t think he said anything funny.

“Well, I’m glad I didn’t then. By the way, I’m Izuku,” he smiled and pointed to himself.
“No last name?” Izuku’s smile stiffened.

“No.”

“Then I’m Shouto,” Izuku smiled again, this time more sincerely. Why was he hiding his last
name? Did he, like Shouto, have a shitty parent who happened to be a hero?

Then Shouto noticed that there wasn’t much light coming in from the windows, “what time is it?”

Izuku checked his phone, “about 10:00, why? Do you have a curfew or something?”

It was too late. His father would already be home. The later Shouto was, the angrier he would be,
so Shouto had to leave, now.

He looked around for his bag, finding it near his feet.

“Sorry, I have to go.”

He walked away as quickly as he could with his exhausted body, ignoring Izuku’s shout of, “wait!”

When Izuku realized he wouldn’t wait, he yelled, “at least get some more rest!”

Shouto ran, or more like jogged, home. His muscles were not pleased with him, and he just knew
they would ache for days after this. His vision was also not up to par yet, which was unfortunate
because as soon as he got home, his father dragged him inside and they sparred until Shouto
couldn’t stand at all.

Granted, it was shorter than usual because he was already so exhausted, but it still meant his father
left him half-conscious on a scorched concrete floor with burns littering his body. He only knew
how he got to bed because he had just barely been able to crack open his eyes to Fuyumi treating
his wounds while holding back tears.

His heart unsettled, he fell into a fitful sleep. His eyelids were heavy as lead, but the heat and his
mind kept waking him up in an uncomfortable sweat.

Eventually, it was morning.

Another day of horrid summer to live through.

_________________

He went through his usual routine and ventured out again, this time taking the water and snacks
with him from the beginning.

Fuyumi stopped him again though, “actually drink the water this time.”

Shouto opened his mouth to protest but stopped and nodded demurely. If he drank the water,
maybe he wouldn’t pass out this time. His sister smiled in satisfaction and waved him out of the
house.

He walked this time. His daily workout would have to be enough running for the time being, he
didn’t want to be more tired than necessary when he started practicing his quirk.

When he got there, someone was already practicing their quirk. It took some squinting to see
through the golden haze of flames but, yeah, that was Izuku. He had an ugly bruise on his cheek, a
mottled brown-purple marring his face.

Huh.

A fire quirk, a shitty parent(?), the need to hide the last name… Could Izuku be his illegitimate
brother? All of those things made it sound like he could be related to Endeavor. Hmm. He’d ask.

Then Izuku’s eyes snapped open and the contrast between the golden flames and the green of his
eyes mesmerized Shouto until Izuku stopped using his quirk.

“Why are you back?” The question didn’t give Shouto enough time to recover, so he ended up
blurting out,

“Uh?” Wow, what an intelligent response, Shouto. Good job.

Izuku seemed to understand what he meant, though, because he answered with, “you passed out
yesterday from heat exhaustion and you’re back here again today, when it’s just as hot. What, are
you gonna train in that ridiculous way again, too?”

Shouto glared at him, “it’s none of your business how I train,” he had one person controlling how
he trained and that was already more than enough.

“Maybe not,” Izuku shrugged, “but I have a fire quirk too, so wouldn’t it be helpful if I just gave
you some pointers?”

Him?

“You look like you’re, what? Twelve years old? What advice could someone younger than me
give me about quirk training?”

The kid frowned.

“You shouldn’t judge people by their looks. I’m fourteen and, judging by how you were training
your quirk yesterday, I’ve been using my fire quirk for far longer than you’ve been using yours.
Even if I was twelve, what’s age in the face of experience?”

Shouto took a moment to process all that and realized he had been arrogant. He wiped a cool hand
across his face.

“You’re right, I apologize,” now, how to ask him if he was related to Endeavor…

Izuku brightened and grinned at him, “no problem! Now, what are you aiming for, control? I doubt
you’d be practicing to increase firepower.”

Shouto nodded. He would like to be able to use fire if necessary, but he didn’t want to throw it
around like his father.

“Ok, I can definitely work with that. I know someone who has a quirk similar to yours and he can
seriously hurt himself if he fucks up with it…” Izuku tapped the corner of his mouth as he thought.
Shout noticed as the boy tapped that he had golden freckles all over his face? That was… Kinda
cu-

“The most basic step in controlling a fire quirk is learning to keep the temperature steady. Have
you already been doing that?”
Shouto thought about how unstable his fire yesterday was, shifting to different colors, “... No.” He
couldn’t even do the most basic thing…

“That’s fine,” Izuku waved his hands, sensing Shouto’s discomfort, “everyone starts somewhere!
Now hold on a sec.”

He scampered off to the side to where a duffle bag sat, unzipped it, and rifled through it until he
found what he was looking for. He came back and displayed a metal sphere in front of Shouto,
smiling like he expected Shouto to know what it was.

Shouto did not.

“... What is this?”

Izuku appeared surprised, “it’s a thermometer, of course! It can withstand huge amounts of heat, so
I often use it for quirk practice warm ups.”

Oh. That made sense.

“So I can just… Set it on fire?” He squinted suspiciously at the sphere. It didn’t look like it could
withstand that much heat, but Izuku nodded brightly.

“Yep!” Then he pushed it into Shouto’s hands, “try it!”

Shouto hesitantly surrounded the sphere in a small flame and watched as the screen lit up and
displayed 150 degrees celsius. As he tried to keep the flame steady, the temperature fluctuated
wildly.

“Hmm,” Izuku looked over his shoulder and Shouto stiffened, “I’d try to keep it within at least a
ten degree range at first, and then decrease from there,” why was he so close?! Shouto could
practically feel him breathing!

Izuku turned to look at Shouto, as if to ask whether what he’d proposed would be okay, and in the
process bumped against Shouto’s face. He immediately backed away, blushing wildly and
stuttering, “I’m- I’m so sorry! Oh geez I must have made you so uncomfortable, I didn’t realize I
was that close,” he continued rambling on like that, his eyes squeezed shut almost like he was
scared, until Shouto stopped him.

“It’s fine,” it did make Shouto a little uncomfortable, but not to the point that this reaction was
necessary.

Izuku stopped short and stared at Shouto in disbelief.

“R-really?”

Shouto nodded.

“Okay then,” Izuku’s smile was sort of wobbly, “let’s, let’s get back to training…”

Shouto spent the next hour or so practicing temperature control, but he kept Izuku’s reaction in
mind.

He had managed to get the temperature range within twenty degrees when Izuku asked if he’d had
any water. Apparently his blank face was more than enough of a response because the boy
marched back to his duffle bag and grabbed two bottles out of it before Shouto could even tell him
he had his own.

He could almost see the irritation rising from Izuku’s skin. Wait, no, that was a very controlled
flare of his quirk. Izuku glared at him when he gave him the water bottle.

“I can’t help you practice if you don’t take care of yourself,” he put his hands on his hips and
stared at Shouto until he took a drink. Shouto pointed out what he thought made this a little
hypocritical.

“You haven’t drank any water yet either.”

“I’m not practicing my quirk! Besides, I have a pretty strong resistance to this level of heat…” He
trailed off and rubbed his arm. If Shouto remembered correctly from yesterday, there was a burn
scar there. His theory of Izuku being Endeavor’s illegitimate son grew clearer in his head.

The question popped out of Shouto’s mouth before he could think about it, “are you Endeavor’s
son?”

Izuku spit out his water and gaped for a few seconds before bursting into uproarious laughter. That
wasn’t a very polite answer to Shouto’s question. Izuku laughed so hard he cried, and Shouto stood
there as Izuku laughed so hard he had to bend over. He laughed so hard that tears streamed down
his face. Shouto truly did not understand what was so funny about this.

Eventually Izuku’s laughter died down and wiping away tears he said, almost somberly, “me?
Endeavor’s son? You’re way off,” then he grinned slyly as if to offset how oddly dark his tone was
and continued, “besides, shouldn’t I be asking you that question?”

Oh, so Izuku knew who he was, “was that why you got close to me? Because I’m Endeavor’s
son?”

Izuku gasped in what seemed to be genuine offense, “of course not! I approached you because you
were training in the worst fucking way! I would’ve done the same thing if you weren’t related to
Endeavor!”

He appeared sincere, and the way he had acted up until now wasn’t particularly ingratiating, so
Shouto elected to believe him. This was the second time Izuku literally steamed from irritation
today, so Shouto let him off the hook.

“Ok, I get it. You’re innocent and decided to help me just out of the goodness of your heart,” it was
kind of cute how Izuku smiled triumphantly. He also seemed kind of dazed though? He was staring
so long that Shouto was a little worried...

“Precisely! How dare you misunderstand my intentions?” Oh, he was fine. Izuku checked his
watch, “now you’d better get back to practice, sun’s starting to set.”

And so it was.

Shouto practiced for the next hour and managed to just barely get his flame to hold pretty steady at
a twelve degree range of temperatures. Once they’d seen the results, Izuku grinned and held out a
fist. Shouto stared at it.

“What are you waiting for? You did a great job, fistbump me!” So Shouto hesitantly bumped his
fist against Izuku’s. The boy stifled laughter but Shouto couldn’t tell why.

Shouto packed up to leave, but there wasn’t much to pack so he just picked up his backpack and
turned to head home before Izuku spoke.

“Hey, why don’t you come at night next time? Y’know, when it’s cooler?”

Shouto tilted his head, “because it's past my curfew.”

“Now I’m not telling you to break the rules but… Your father doesn’t need to know.”

Shouto was already kind of sneaking out. Granted, Fuyumi knew and it was only when his father
wasn’t home, but Endeavor did sleep pretty soundly, and Shouto was capable of being stealthy.

“I’ll consider it.”

“Great, I’ll see you when you come back!” Izuku grinned and jogged back to his bag, presumably
to pack up and leave like Shouto.
 Fuyumi Loves Her Brother and is Very Concerned About Him
Chapter Summary

meanwhile Shouto is very concerned about the sudden disappearance of his new
friend, and even more concerned with how he reappears

Shouto returned home before curfew this time, only for his sister to inform him that Endeavor
would be staying over at his agency that night. Apparently they’d caught a big break on one of
their cases.

“Why didn’t you text me?” If he had known, he could have stayed longer…

Fuyumi side-eyed him from in front of the oven, “because you usually wouldn’t care.”

That was true, usually he wouldn’t care. But Izuku was fun to be around, and Shouto felt like they
were similar in some ways. Speaking of…

“Fuyumi, do you know if Father has any illegitimate children?”

Fuyumi stared at him, completely forgetting whatever was cooking on the stove, “what on Earth
would make you ask that?”

Shouto avoided eye-contact, “no reason…”

She squinted at him, “huh… I doubt it, honestly. As bad as his reasons were and still are, he
married our mother for a specific reason.”

Right. What were the odds that Izuku also had a mother with Endeavor’s desired ice quirk?

“Thanks…”

“Of course,” they had omurice for dinner, one of the many less healthy meals that Fuyumi would
serve when Endeavor wasn’t home to pay attention to what Shouto ate. A small rebellion.

Shouto appreciated it nonetheless.

___________________

Shouto and Izuku met almost everyday for the next couple weeks, and Shouto managed to make
his fire quirk stay steady within three degrees. Izuku said he learned extremely fast, which made
him swell with pride. Meanwhile he tested the waters at home. Every night he would wander
around the house, waiting for his father to wake up. He never did. After about a week of doing this
while meeting Izuku during the day, Izuku stopped coming.

It had been four days now since he’d seen the boy. Shouto couldn’t deny that he was a little
worried, but he tried to rationalize it. Izuku probably had something come up, or he wasn’t
available during the day anymore.
To speed his tests on Endeavor’s sleeping depth, he went to the 24/7 convenience store at night to
see if the man would notice.

He’d had a pretty nasty training session today; his father getting angrier as Shouto got closer and
closer to the beginning of high school without using his fire quirk in training. Due to this, Shouto
had more than a few burns and bruises. The bruises he could wait out, but the burns had to be dealt
with and they’d run out of ointment.

As he walked there, he thought once again about the possibility that Izuku was his brother, this
time with the hopes of discarding it. There were indeed similarities to Shouto himself; the injuries,
more specifically the burns, the fire quirk… The more he thought, the more he realized these were
the only real similarities. Izuku looked nothing like Endeavor at all, didn’t act anything like him,
and indeed didn’t seem to be raised by him. The way he acted would not be acceptable to Endeavor
and it would’ve been trained out of him.

Shouto concluded that Izuku was not related to him in any way whatsoever. It made him happy to
realize that, but he wasn’t quite sure why. Maybe because he was just relieved that Izuku hadn’t
had to grow up under Endeavor’s control? That was probably it. Then again, his actual parents
didn’t seem that much better, not that Izuku ever talked about them.

Whenever Shouto asked, Izuku would smile awkwardly and change the subject in the least subtle
way that Shouto had ever seen… It left a bad taste in Shouto’s mouth.

He was near the entrance of the convenience store when he bumped into someone. Someone very
short. Shouto looked down, only to see terrified green eyes, one of them ringed with what was very
obviously a bruise. Shouto’s heart thudded.

“Izuku?” Instead of responding, the boy pushed him away and ran off like he was being chased.
Green eyes, he was wearing a hood but Shouto had seen the fluffy hair. That was definitely Izuku.
Why was he here? Did he really live that close to Shouto?

Why did he run…?

Shaking off his concerns, Shouto resolved to ask Izuku about this incident the next time he saw
him.

He purchased his ointment and went back home.

_____________

Despite Shouto's hopes, despite him meeting Izuku so many times already, the next time he saw
the boy was when the black eye had already healed. Shouto didn’t understand why Izuku was so
wary. He had shown Shouto his scars without so much as a second thought, so why was a black
eye so much of a concern to him?

This time he had opted to go at night, hoping Izuku would be there instead of the oppressing heat
and emptiness that Shouto had been facing during the day.

It was cooler at night, and using his ice quirk made the heat tolerable, but Shouto still sweated a
fair amount getting to the abandoned spot where they trained.

Or rather, Shouto trained. Now that he considered it carefully, he had never seen Izuku use his
quirk except for a couple times when he was demonstrating something or that one time when
Shouto had surprised him.

As he approached the spot, Shouto saw something glowing. He squinted to get a better look.

It was Izuku, and he shone like the moon. It was a soft, glimmering light that seemed to radiate
from inside him, and as Shouto walked closer, he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off. Izuku, on the
other hand, had his eyes closed, as if he was meditating.

Shouto stood there for a few minutes, debating whether to wake Izuku from whatever trance he
was in or to simply start training on his own. In the end, he didn’t have to make a decision. Izuku
woke up entirely on his own, and immediately scrambled back, his face pale.

Shouto’s heart hurt, “Izuku?”

Izuku’s smile was fake, “hi Shouto, are you ready to get started?”

Izuku seemed so scared, but… Why?

“Did I do something?”

Izuku started at him uncomprehendingly, like he was unaware of how unnaturally he was acting,
“huh?”

“Did I do something to make you this afraid of me?”

Izuku stiffened, then shook his head vigorously, his eyes guilty, “no, you didn't do anything at all.
I’m sorry for making you think that…”

“It’s okay,” Shouto wasn’t sure that it was, but he didn't know how else to respond.

“Great!” Izuku exclaimed with false cheer, “Let’s get started then! You can keep your flame at a
steady temperature now?”

Shouto nodded.

“Alright, let’s practice lowering and raising temperatures at a steady rate!”

He said ‘let’s’ so did that mean… “Are you going to be practicing with me this time?”

“Yep! I need some practice with this too, and it’s night so my quirk is easier to control.”

Shouto wanted to ask further questions about Izuku’s quirk but the boy had looked startled as soon
as he’d finished speaking, like he hadn’t meant to say as much as he did.

“By the way, I’ve meaning to ask,” ah, so he was changing the subject, “your quirk isn’t just fire, is
it?”

Shouto formed a small sphere of ice in his hand, “nope.”

Izuku’s eyes lit up, “that’s so cool! How much control do you have over ice? Have you always
been able to do this? Is that why you can withstand that heat?”

“I can use it pretty well. I prefer to use it more than my fire quirk,”

Izuku’s eyes glanced over Shouto’s face, “I can understand why.”

“It’s the only way I get through summers like this. If I didn’t have my ice quirk, I think I’d die.”

Izuku chuckled to that, which Shouto considered a victory, then stopped and said, “wait, ice quirk?
You have two quirks?”

Shouto flexed his hand. Whether to explain or not…?

“The ice quirk is my mother’s, the fire quirk is my father’s.”

Izuku squinted at him, “so… You have a combination quirk? It’s not like your parents actually
gave you their quirks, right? They were combined into one.”

“No,” Shouto started stubbornly, “I have two, fire and ice.”

“I don’t want to deny you that, but there has never in history been a case where reproduction
resulted in a child with two quirks. One quirk that seemed to have both sides, yes. Two quirks, no.”

That couldn’t be right. If it was one quirk, then…

Izuku then seemed to realize something and stared at Shouto with something akin to horror, “wait,
does that mean you just… Haven’t been using half of your quirk until recently?”

Shouto felt his lips turning downward. Why didn’t Izuku understand?

“I didn’t want to use my fire. It reminded me of my father,” actually saying it made Shouto feel like
a petulant child.

“I’ll get to your father later. He seems like a scumbag,” Shouto would nod emphatically if he
wasn’t so sullen, “I get why you’re not using that part of your quirk, but Shouto, that’s dangerous!
Quirks that are balanced like yours can cause serious damage to your body if one side is overused
and the other underused.”

That… Was true. And it felt nice that the reason Izuku was so worked up was out of concern for
Shouto.

“Well, I’m practicing it now, aren’t I?”

“Yeah,” Izuku rubbed his face with his hands, “yeah, you’re right,” there was a long silence as he
suppressed the urge to continue scolding Shouto, “how shitty of a father is Endeavor if you don’t
even want to use the part of your quirk that reminds you of him?”

“So shitty,” Shouto was always ready to verbally rip his father to shreds, “he bought my mother for
her ice quirk and forced her to have children for him. I wasn’t born yet but she told me he’d hit her
if she said no.”

Izuku sucked in a sharp breath. Shouto continued.

“She had three children before me. I was the only one born with the quirks, or quirk, that he
wanted. He started training me for combat as soon as I got my quirk. He would hit my mother if
she tried to stop him, even if I was vomiting from getting punched in the stomach or near
unconscious from exhaustion.”

Shouto kept his voice bland in an attempt to restrain the anger that raged inside him, begging him
to set the whole area aflame. Izuku, on the other hand, was trembling with rage, tears streaming
down his face.
“Do you hate Endeavor?”

That was not a question Shouto had been asked before. Anyone he’d told before, tutors and one
police officer… “You don’t think I’m lying? Or that him being a good hero makes up for being a
scumbag father?” He felt something bubbling up in his chest, a pressure behind his eyes.

Izuku sneered in disgust at the idea, “I would never think you would lie about something like this.
Also, him being a hero and him being a father? Completely different things. Being good at one
can’t make up for being horrible at the other, and even if it could, only you would be allowed to
decide that.”

Shouto felt all the tenseness leave his body and slumped onto Izuku, almost involuntarily, “thank
you,” for saying what he had always wanted someone to say.

He felt tears slip out of his eyes as he buried his face in Izuku’s shoulder, awkwardly hunched over
to accommodate for the difference in sizes. Izuku stiffened but only for a second before he gently
pulled Shouto down and they both sat on the ground.

Although the air was still unpleasantly hot, for some reason sobbing on Izuku’s very warm
shoulder was not uncomfortable. They stayed there for a while, Izuku rubbing his back soothingly
and whispering comforting words that Shouto didn’t hear. When Shouto’s tears finally dried up, he
didn’t want to move.

Izuku whispered, “tired?”

Shouto nodded against his shoulder, and Izuku picked Shouto up, waking him a little bit. While
holding Shouto with one arm (how was he so strong?), he rustled around in what was probably his
duffle bag, but Shouto wasn’t sure because his eyes were still closed and he had no plans of
opening them.

Once Izuku was satisfied with whatever he’d done, he sat then down again, Shouto’s head pillowed
against his lap and the rest of him lying on… Shouto cracked one of his eyes open. Yes, that was
definitely a sleeping bag. If Shouto were more awake, he might have questioned why Izuku had a
sleeping bag in his duffle bag, but alas.

Before he drifted off, Izuku asked, “do you want your father dead?”

Too sleepy to really focus on what an odd question that was from someone who was so kind,
Shouto answered, “no, but I do want him to be punished for what he did to my family. I want
people to know about it, and I want them to care…”

He fell asleep to Izuku gently stroking his hair and whispering, barely audibly, “They will, I
promise. Goodnight, Shouto.”
 The Sun Begins To Fall Towards The Horizon
Chapter Summary

Shouto does more research, oh boy!

Shouto woke up to a quiet dawn and an increasing heat beneath his head. He squeezed his eyes
open and slowly pulled himself off Izuku, who seemed to be becoming warmer as the sun rose in
the sky. Shouto was sure by this point that his quirk was dependent on the sun, but by how much?

Soon after Shouto had pulled himself to a sitting position on the sleeping bag, Izuku yawned and
stretched his arms above his head.

“Morning, Shouto,” his sleepy voice was just the slightest bit raspy, and it made Shouto’s heart
pound. Hmm. He’d have to ask Fuyumi if that would be an issue.

“Good morning, Izuku,” Shouto stood up. He didn't really want to leave, but he had to get back
home before Fuyumi got worried about him. As he felt his phone buzz in his pocket, he realized it
might have been too late for that, “I should probably go…”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Izuku wilted a little, “sorry for keeping you.”

Shouto wasn’t about to let Izuku feel bad for Shouto crying on him and then falling asleep on him.

“I’m not annoyed with you at all, I just have to get home before I worry my older sister too much.”

And just like that, Izuku brightened again, “oh! Well, I’ll see you when you come back here!”

Before he left, Shouto typed off a quick message to Fuyumi, assuring her that he was safe and on
his way home and no, he hadn't been kidnapped.

Once finished, Shouto jogged off, then remembered five minutes later that he’d completely
forgotten to ask Izuku about why he was at the convenience store and, more importantly, why he’d
ran away.

He sighed, resolving to ask Izuku the next night.

But Izuku didn't show up the next night.

Or the night after that.

___________________

After another couple days of going there and not seeing Izuku at all, Shouto moped back to the
house. This seemed like a situation where someone might call the police, but what would he even
say? ‘The guy I meet sometimes in an abandoned oven of a neighborhood didn’t show up for a
while’? They’d laugh him off the phone.

For all he knew, Izuku was on vacation or something, and just hadn’t told him…
The next morning, when Endeavor had already left and Shouto was munching absentmindedly on a
piece of toast while looking through his phone at hero fights, hoping to catch a glimpse of
signature green, Fuyumi interrupted him.

“Shouto, are you okay?”

He stared blankly at her, “I’m fine.”

She did not look particularly convinced but took his answer anyway and kept eating her omelet.
This had happened many times before, and she probably figured Shouto was so out of it because of
their father.

“What does it mean,” Shouto started, Fuyumi looking up from her meal, “when you usually meet
someone somewhere, but then they stop coming?”

Fuyumi dropped her fork, the metal clanging to the ground in the quiet house. After staring at him
like she didn't know him at all for what felt like hours, she coughed and started at talking as if all
was perfectly normal.

“It can mean a lot of things. It may mean that the person who stopped coming just didn’t want to
see the other person again,” Shouto's heart dropped in his chest, “but it might also mean that the
person had something stopping them. Has the other person tried contacting the person who
stopped coming?”

“They never exchanged contact information,” and at first Shouto hadn’t wanted to because he
didn't need friends or companions or whatever, then it was because they met everyday so why
would he need Izuku’s contact info? He’d just… Forgotten to ask…

“That’s odd…” Fuyumi looked slightly disturbed, “the person you’re talking about, you never
exchanged emails or phone numbers?”

Shouto didn’t ask how Fuyumi knew this was about him, he wasn't really trying to hide it. He
shook his head.

“If they liked you enough to see you every day, typically they would want to contact you outside of
that one meeting…” Fuyumi’s face paled, “how did they always know when you would be there if
you didn't talk beforehand?”

Shouto shook his head, “the first time we met by coincidence, and then we just met at the same
time in the same place.”

“Was it a coincidence? That’s fine then, I guess. If you want my advice, I’m not really sure. I’d say
go back to the place where you met them a few more times, but if they don’t show up, you might
have to give up.”

Shiuto didn’t want to give up. He wanted to see Izuku again. He thought about what Fuyumi said.
He had assumed it was a coincidence that Izuku was there the first time they’d met, but wasn't it a
little odd? Izuku did say he practiced there before, but Shouto didn’t recall seeing scorch marks
before he’d started practicing, and Izuku certainly left them when he used his quirk.

And how did Izuku know to come at night the last time they’d met? The suspicions were beginning
to pile up in Shouto’s mind. He didn’t think Izuku was evil or anything, but perhaps he’d had some
sort of reason for getting close to Shouto…

But it wasn’t like Shouto could read Izuku’s mind or find his diary, so he would have to dispense
with these speculations for now and try to find him. All Shouto had was a name and an appearance,
both of which could possibly be fake.

He kept going back to the abandoned area for another couple days just in case Izuku came back.
Also, Izuku or no Izuku, Shouto still had to practice his fire.

Izuku still didn’t come. It was as if he had disappeared.

Wait. There was one more person who would have seen him. The convenience shop worker from
that night. Maybe Izuku had been there multiple times. That could give Shouto some kind of clue,
because looking up his name hadn’t given Shouto anything at all.

Once he was done with his hour of quirk training (if he overworked, he could feel Izuku glaring at
him despite his absence), he jogged past his home and straight to the convenience store.

Luckily, the same clerk was in as the night he’d seen Izuku.

“Have you seen a boy, about my age, fluffy green hair, bright green eyes, glows a little bit?”

The man thought about it for a few seconds, tapping his chin, “yeah, a couple times. Why?”

That much information wasn’t helpful at all, “he’s my friend and I can’t contact him. Do you
remember anything particular about the times you saw him?”

“Yeah, now that you mention it. He was injured both times. The first time he had a limp and the
second time it was a pretty nasty black eye. Does he get into fights a lot?”

Shouto didn’t bother answering the question, “thanks,” and then he left.

Great, all he’d found out was that Izuku got injured often. He already knew that! The boy was
covered in scars, or at least his arms were, and Shouto wasn’t feeling optimistic about the rest of
him.

He checked the news again. There was this villain on the rise. ‘Dragon’? That was a lazy name.
Sure, he breathed fire, but Ryuukyu could literally turn into a dragon and her name was more
creative, so what was this guy’s excuse? And it seemed like he was often accompanied by some
hero? No, he scrolled down the article, apparently they were a vigilante that only did their
vigilantism around Dragon.

Shouto zoomed in on the vigilante, nicknamed by the public ‘Knight’, because he fought the
Dragon. Very original. He didn't fight him, though, he left that to the actual heroes. The only thing
that Knight seemed to do was pull innocent members of the public out of the way of Dragon’s
destruction. Also, Knight was short. Extremely short.

An idea started forming in Shouto’s mind and he looked up videos of Knight. The vigilante was
wearing a silvery, heat resistant costume that covered his hair and eyes, but he seemed to be exactly
the right height…

Shouto watched more videos and noticed one more thing about Knight before everything fell into
place in his mind.

Knight glowed.

In the daytime it was hardly noticeable because of how bright the sun already was, but in the night,
he had a silvery glow.
Now, Shouto could neglect the height. A lot of people were short. But the height and the fact that
the vigilante glowed exactly the same way that Izuku did? That couldn’t possibly be a coincidence.

Knight and Izuku were one and the same.

He found the most recent videos because if Izuku was a vigilante then there was a very real
possibility that he was injured in the process of committing his crimes. But no, the most recent
video was from before Shouto had last seen him and past that, both Dragon and Knight seemed to
have gone entirely off the grid.

So something else had happened to Izuku. Shouto turned to the potential connections between
Izuku and whoever was behind Dragon’s mask, because surely there was some kind of relationship
there. Knight only showed up at Dragon’s fights.

He tried looking up Knight, but there was startlingly little information about him. He never used
his quirk either, but he was very in shape, which led people to speculate that he had some sort of
body-enhancement quirk. Incorrect and very unhelpful, in Shouto’s opinion. Due to the night glow,
there was a conspiracy theory or two about him being related to the glowing baby. The one from
the start of quirks. Shouto doubted it, but he couldn’t tell one way or the other.

Most of the subject matter had to do with Knight’s relationship to Dragon. There were a lot of
different ideas floating around. One of the ones that seemed to be floated around the most often
was that Dragon was Knight’s boyfriend and they had some weird kind enemies to lovers but still
enemies type of relationship. Shouto crossed that one right off the list of possibilities in spite of all
the fanfiction that had been written about it

And there was a lot. Did people really have this much free time?

Shouto’s main reason for getting rid of this one straight away was because he simply couldn’t
imagine Izuku being in a romantic relationship with someone he knew to be terrible. Izuku seemed
to have pretty good judgement when it came to people, so this was unthinkable. Also, it would
imply that Dragon was Izuku’s age which would mean he was Shouto’s age and honestly? Shouto
just couldn’t see it.

The next theory was that Dragon and Knight were brothers, a cliche Cain and Abel situation with
one on the side of justice and the other on the side of evil. Shouto considered this hypothesis more
seriously. If Dragon was Izuku’s older brother (and no, he was not considering the possibility that
they were the same age), and he abused Izuku, then Izuku’s occasional bursts of nervousness
would make a lot more sense. It would also explain all the burns on his arms.

However, those would also make sense with the last theory, and the one that Shouto leaned
towards the most. The theory that Dragon was Knight’s father. And granted, Izuku had never
spoken about his father, but the way he acted when Shouto told him about Endeavor seemed
empathetic in a way that only someone who had similar experiences could be.

It might also explain why Knight never fought Dragon directly and only saved people in the
background. Dragon, if he was anything like Endeavor, would have burned it into his son’s mind
that he could never stand up to him.

Dragon himself was pretty strong. His fire breath on its own was stronger than a flamethrower and
much, much hotter. In fact, it was so hot that it came out almost blue. One of the heroes that had
fought him had half of their arm turned to ash.

He used it with skill, too. He had excellent directional control and grasp of timing. Shouto was sure
that, if he was a hero, Endeavor would spare no expense to hire him. Even if the rest of his
personality remained the same.

This was actually his strongest evidence that Izuku was Dragon’s son; many of his moves, and the
way he used his quirk as whole, seemed to be derived from the mix of training techniques and
advice that Izuku had given Shouto. Izuku had learned all of that from someone else first, or maybe
the other way around? Dragon didn’t seem too creative.

Shouto continued researching Dragon while sitting at his desk, but eventually gave up in
disappointment. There was plenty of info about him and his quirk and his fights but his identity?
Nothing. People had even searched the quirk registry but there were so many fire based quirks that
they couldn’t narrow it down. The only real information was that he’d been around for a while, and
only fought heroes. Only in public places too, like he had something to prove. This led to the
theory that he might have dropped out of hero school, but there wasn't any evidence of that either.

When he saw that, he considered searching the quirk registry for Izuku, because as common as fire
quirks were, he was sure golden flames and glowing at night were far rarer. His father was likely a
villain though, which meant it was unlikely that his quirk would have been registered honestly, if it
had been registered at all.

So even if he knew who Knight was, it didn’t matter. It didn’t help figure out where Izuku was or
how he could see him again.
 The Action Scene You’ve All Been Waiting For
Chapter Summary

all of the tension crescendos to a peak, and things get bad fast

The next day, Dragon fought Endeavor.

And lost.

He didn’t get caught though, he just barely managed to escape with horrible burns covering a good
half of his body. For having a name like Dragon, he wasn’t all that heat resistant.

Shouto… Wasn’t sure what to think about it. Izuku would probably get a break from his vigilante
work with Dragon’s injury, but on the other hand, it probably also meant they would be stuck in
the same living space.

He wanted to do something, but what? What could he do?

He asked his sister, because that was the only thing he could think of. After all, what would he
even say to the police?

“Fuyumi,” he sat down at the dining table. Fuyumi looked up from where she was grading papers.

“What’s up?”

“If I know a person who might be abused by a relative, but I don’t know where they live, I only
know their first name and I have no way to contact them, what can I do?”

Fuyumi thought for a while in the silence, “is this the same person you asked about before? The
one that stopped coming to your meeting place all of a sudden?”

Shouto nodded. She pondered for a few minutes, to the point that Shouto felt a little impatient.

“I don’t know, sorry, I really don’t. If you don’t know anything about them that could identify
them, then trying to get them out of that situation is nearly impossible,” she rubbed her chin as she
relayed her thoughts to Shouto, freezing as she thought of something, her eyes brightening, “don’t
you know what they look like though? Since you saw them practically everyday?”

Shouto went back and forth inside his head before deciding to tell her everything he knew about
Izuku, as well as the information about Dragon and Knight he’d found online.

This resulted in her staring at him for a solid minute, as if in disbelief.

“You really care about this kid, huh?” He could understand her incredulousness. He had, until very
recently, refused even the possibility of making friends.

“I want to make sure he’s okay.”

Fuyumi stopped gaping at him and sighed, “I should've known when you first asked about him…”
Shouto tilted his head in curiosity, “did you tell me everything you know about him?”
He nodded again.

“Yeah, I can see why the information you have wouldn’t be helpful. I’m sorry.”

Shouto supposed that meant she couldn’t help. He stood up and went to his room, Fuyumi’s
concern burning into his back.

That night he fell into another fitful sleep, dreaming of fire and yelling, scalding water and crying,
the smell of burning plants and hair.

Shouto woke up with a start, gasping, at 4 in the morning, unable to go back to sleep. He decided
to take advantage of it and go on his morning run, hopefully working out the tension from the
dream. He couldn’t remember all of it, but what he could recall was unpleasant.

He tied his shoes and put on a headband to push the hair out of his face, feeling… Heavier than
usual.

Shouto started his usual routine, the tension growing instead of fading. It was warm and humid, but
since it was before dawn, it was less an oppressive heat and more of an uncomfortable stickiness.
The sky was still dark, but just barely lightening. It was quiet outside, occasional murmured chatter
from shopkeepers beginning to set up for opening.

Why did he feel so unpleasant? By all accounts this was normal, and yet there was something
writhing inside his chest. The same feeling as before his father came home unexpectedly.

By this point he was nearing a point in his route that had very few people. It was a narrow street in
a quiet residential area. The temperature was suddenly significantly warmer and Shouto was
attacked by a torrent of blue-yellow flames from an alleyway. The same color as Dragon’s. He
dodged and created an ice shield so the flames would create minimal damage.

He observed his surroundings as quickly as possible. There didn’t appear to be any civilians, so
Dragon wasn’t just creating chaos, he was targeting Shouto directly.

Just as he concluded this, Dragon himself sauntered out of the alleyway, burns on full display with
a grin that practically dripped malice.

“Shouto Todoroki. You’re Endeavor’s brat, yeah?”

Shouto did not respect him enough to answer. He was also busy dodging the flames that Dragon
kept spitting at him. What Dragon seemed to lack in creativity, he made up for with quirk stamina.
Instead, he asked his own question.

“Where is Knight?”

Dragon laughed through his fire, “how should I know?”

Shouto continued using ice to dodge and block the concentrated blasts of fire, but this wasn’t a
very open space, and controlling his quirk to both keep himself unscathed while also protecting the
nearby buildings was extremely difficult, not to mention how hot the area had become. It was
draining his energy just being here, much less constantly moving around.

“Isn’t Knight your son?”

Dragon appeared truly surprised for a second then replied mockingly, “oh, so you know little
Izuku?”
The contempt he had for his son was tangible and Shouto wanted to punch him for it but not
getting burnt was already hard enough.

Dragon had truly picked an area in which unidirectional quirks were advantageous and whenever
Shouto tried to move locations he would begin to target the residences on either side. Shouto didn’t
bother asking why he was doing that; he had already made it clear he was a bastard. The only
reason so few people had been harmed thus far was due entirely to Izuku’s efforts.

Shouto snarled, “What the fuck did you do to him?”

Dragon jumped out of the way of a miniature iceberg, somehow shrugging mockingly, “I didn’t do
anything, he’s just in… Time out!”

He breathed out fire with the last two words, at an unusually low temperature. He was running out
of stamina.

Shouto could finish this.

He kept fighting, and Dragon kept on losing steam. Or smoke, more accurately.

Eventually, Dragon was on his knees, coughing tiny fireballs onto the ground.

Shouto surrounded the man with ice, covering him up to his neck (his mother told him to never
freeze past that, people died from suffocation so easily). He then called the police, and only looked
away for a second then he heard a familiar voice scream

“SHOUTO!”

And then he was knocked forcefully into one of the walls on the side of the street as a burst of
blue-white flames, the hottest yet, raced past.

He heard a scream of agony from whoever had tackled him combined with the stench of scorched
flesh.

Shouto forced his eyes open through the pain and the first thing he saw was Izuku’s face, twisted
in pain.
 Let’s Rewind This Back and Look At It From Another Angle
Chapter Summary

Midoriya Izuku and Todoroki Shouto should have never met

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Izuku had never meant to meet Todoroki Shouto. He knew about him, of course, through his
surface-level investigation of Endeavor, but it was a complete coincidence that they ended up in the
same place, at the same time.

He was just trying to get out of the house since Hisashi was in a bad mood, so he was planning to
slowly meander his way over to the bar to destroy Shigaraki in Mario Kart.

Izuku was distracted along the way by some idiot training their fire quirk in a way that fire quirks
are not meant to be trained, especially in an area that was already so hot. He could practically feel
his sneakers melting as he got closer.

He wasn’t even really planning to talk to them; maybe they had a particular type of fire quirk
where this shape-making method actually worked. As he got closer, he realized that this was
Shouto Todoroki and considered turning around and leaving because getting himself involved with
this boy when their fathers were who they were seemed like a mistake.

But he saw the sweat and strain on Todoroki’s face and sighed. He never was good at minding his
own business.

“Why are you training like that?”

Todoroki turned around and stared wordlessly at Izuku, like he was shocked by his appearance.
Izuku glanced self-consciously down at himself. He didn’t look that bad, did he?

Then Todoroki told him to mind his own business, which Izuku, lest we forget, does not excel at.
Izuku essentially told him he would, but still stayed around.

He observed Todoroki while he was standing there, noting down all of the burns and cuts and
bruises that he couldn’t have possibly gotten anywhere but at home. His face too… It didn’t look
like a scar from direct flames like Endeavor’s quirk… His current condition was also not ideal.

Todoroki was practically swaying on his feet, and if he fell on the scorching hot concrete, that
would be a recipe for disaster. He clearly was getting heat exhaustion, and if he spent time on the
ground, it could easily become heatstroke.

Izuku had done a lot of research on the Todoroki family, so he was aware that Todoroki Shouto
had a dual ice and fire quirk. The question was, why, in this disgustingly hot environment, was he
not using his ice quirk to maintain his temperature?

He was sure that if he asked the boy himself, he wouldn’t answer honestly, so he just waited until
Todoroki exhausted himself.
Meanwhile, Izuku texted a friend who just happened to be the owner of a nearby cafe and asked if
he could bring a friend over. They wouldn’t text back for a few minutes, but at least Izuku had
given them some warning.

Around sunset, Todoroki fainted into Izuku’s arms. Or rather, fainted onto the ground which Izuku
had to sprint to prevent him from actually hitting.

Izuku took a moment to breathe under the heavy weight before dragging the boy onto his back. He
was slightly grateful for the brutal training he’d had to go through, at least it helped him do things
like this.

He slogged through the heat to the cafe, nodding at the owner who was leaning against the counter
of the cafe.

“I’m taking him to the booth in the back if that’s alright.”

“No problem,” he said, turning back to his phone. Izuku wondered how this cafe stayed open. It
never seemed like there were any customers but him, and the owner was a former villain. The only
reason the man was so nice to him was because he hated Izuku’s father, and knew how he treated
Izuku.

Izuku carried Todoroki over to the bench and laid him down as gently as possible, then took a cold
compress out of his bag and put it on Shouto’s forehead. He considered trying to get him to drink
water, but that could wait until he was conscious.

So Izuku waited, playing Candy Crush until he beat Shigaraki’s high score. It was something
vaguely entertaining that he could make fun of the man for when he actually got to the bar which,
depending on how long it took Todoroki to wake up, could be pretty late.

Occasionally he would glance over to check on the boy, often staring longer than strictly necessary.
He was very pretty, after all, with long eyelashes and what looked like very silky hair. His face was
also very gentle when relaxed by sleep, a great contrast to during his training when his eyebrows
were harshly furrowed and his lips were twisted into a focused frown.

The hours passed until it was fully night. Todoroki began to stir, his eyebrows furrowing like usual
as he tried to open his eyes. Izuku told him not to push himself, he had just woken up from a nasty
case of heat exhaustion.

Then Todoroki interrogated him about who he was and why he had taken him here. Izuku
answered all of the questions as honestly as he could. Then he insulted Izuku, the gall. Izuku could
accept that he was short, because he was young and he would grow, but scrawny?! Offensive.

Izuku had to prove him wrong by flexing on him and that was that.

They introduced themselves, no last names because obviously, then Todoroki, no, Shouto, had to
leave. He left in a real hurry, too. Izuku had to shout some advice at his back. He probably had a
curfew, it would make sense for a hero’s kid.

Things got dangerous late at night.

Once Shouto left, Izuku hauled himself up and said goodbye to the owner of the cafe, and then
walked over to the bar, slumping in one of the chairs. He may not have trained, but standing there
in that heat, even with his heat resistance, was pretty exhausting.

“Hey, brat, I just beat your high score in Candy Crush,” Izuku didn’t need to look up to see that
 Shigaraki had already sat down two seats away.

“Already?” Izuku stayed slumped on the counter until he heard glass sliding and something cold
on his arm, then he straightened up.

“You looked like you needed a drink,” Kurogiri said, nudging the cold glass of water at him as if
Izuku didn't always have at least two bottles of water on him at all times.

Izuku wiped the condensation off the glass with his finger, watching with fascination as it clouded
again. There were a few minutes of almost silence, Kurogiri doing something in the back room and
Shigaraki playing Candy Crush next to him. Once he heard the telltale sound of Shigaraki winning
a level, Izuku spoke.

“Can I crash here tonight?” He looked up at Shigaraki.

“Sure, but the rooms are full so you’ll have to take the couch in the back room,” Shigaraki didn’t
look up from his phone, but the fact that he’d agreed was enough of a sign that he was in a good
mood. That meant Izuku could actually stay for the night, so he took his duffle into the room and
settled down on the couch.

Shigaraki was volatile, so whether his agreements actually held depended entirely on whether he
was in a good mood or not (unless it was an agreement his Sensei was involved in). If not, he might
withdraw his agreement and Izuku would be out of the bar, or worse, in the basement. Or at least,
that was how he was in the beginning. He’d gotten a little calmer over time.

Izuku shook his head to clear his mind of those thoughts and pulled out his computer and notes to
do research on a new hero Hisashi wanted to target. Flora, the flower hero. She had a plant type
quirk and was a remarkably easy target for Dragon. As expected, Hisashi cared less for the
challenge than he did the fear he could inspire.

A couple hours later, Izuku finished the analysis and closed his computer. He collapsed onto the
couch and slept until dawn.

Chapter End Notes

u thought i would just be doing this from shoutos pov? nah its me bitch i cant write
without going in depth into different characters perspectives
 Hisashi is Truly The Worst Kind Of Trash
Chapter Summary

To his extreme displeasure, Izuku has to see his father multiple times

tw for child abuse in this chap

When he woke up, he packed and left to get back to Hisashi’s house (not his home, never his
home). The man demanded that Izuku turn in his analysis in person, for whatever reason.

He waved off Kurogiri asking if he wanted breakfast and headed back, crossing the abandoned
area, glancing around to see if just possibly Shouto was there. Not at this point, but maybe later.

The house was in good shape, because Sensei paid pretty well for hits he wanted done, but once
you went inside, a lot of the furniture was burnt or destroyed entirely.

And Izuku’s father was waiting for him on the couch.

“What took you so long?” A question that both of them knew the answer to.

“I didn’t want to be in your hair last night, so I slept at the bar,” it was always good to phrase things
so they were to Hisashi’s advantage.

“I see. You have the analysis?” Izuku wordlessly unzipped the duffle and handed over the papers
for the man to flip through them, “good analysis. Fighting style’s easy enough to combat.”

He closed the files with a flourish, “you did well, but you still left the house without my
permission. According to our rules, how should you be punished?”

Fuck, he though he’d gotten past it today. Izuku’s voice shook, “a backhand for disrespect.”

“Right. I’m glad you still remember,” his father’s smile when he had an excuse to hurt Izuku
sickened him to the bone.

Izuku kept his eyes on Hisashi’s hand right until it impacted against his right cheek, knocking him
to the side. Izuku stood there, not reaching up to soothe it or leaving, those were against the rules.
Hisashi paced around him.

“You don’t fall over like you used to,” Izuku silently retorted that if he fell over, Hisashi would just
kick him in the stomach until he threw up, then call him weak, “and you’re not chatty like you used
to be…”

Izuku stayed silent.

Hisashi kicked him in the back of his knee, forcing him down into a lunge, his joint aching, “stay
there for fifteen minutes and then get some ice to cool off.”

Yeah. Because Izuku was the one who needed to cool off. Sure.

The rules Hisashi had made were so interesting because the only one who had to pay attention to
them was Izuku. He couldn’t break the rules or else he would be punished, but Hisashi could
punish him whenever he pleased with whatever excuse. There were only two reasons Izuku still
obeyed.

The first was that the overall treatment worsened the more rules he broke, whereas Hisashi was
almost normal, fatherly, if Izuku managed to go a while without breaking any.

The second reason was the most important. Inko. Izuku’s mother. She had raised him until he was
six, until his father defamed her in court as unfit to raise a child with a lawyer hired using Sensei’s
money. He had claimed she was negligent and abusive with no evidence whatsoever, but the
lawyer was so eloquent that everyone believed him, despite what both Izuku and Inko had to say.

If Izuku was careful, sometimes he would be able to sneak away and visit his mother, who had
moved across the city. She was able to afford a better place without having to take care of Izuku,
although whenever he saw her she told him she would rather live in a trailer with him than a nice
apartment without him. Sometimes he considered running away with her but with Sensei’s
information network, Hisashi would find them.

If he wasn’t good, Inko would end up injured somehow, and if he really fucked up, he had no doubt
that Hisashi would kill his mother.

He was lucky that Hisashi didn’t make completely outlandish demands of him, like attacking
heroes. Only gathering info and knocking out potential competitors. He even allowed Izuku to save
civilians during his attacks as Dragon.

The first time he’d done it though, when he was twelve and tired of seeing innocent people be
casualties to Hisashi’s ambitions...

Hisashi punched Izuku in the face and, once he was on the ground, kept kicking him in the
abdomen, snarling, “what the fuck was that out there, kid?! Did I fucking say you could get in my
way like that?!”

Izuku couldn’t answer because he could barely breathe. Then. Pain. Something in his chest
cracked, probably a rib, and Izuku suppressed a scream.

Once Hisashi had stopped and Izuku had finished coughing blood and bile onto the concrete floor,
he attempted to make a logical argument.

“If…” He coughed again and continued, “if I save civilians, you’ll still get the fear and awe from
defeating heroes, and if you ever get caught, it’ll shorten your sentence.”

Izuku felt like he wouldn’t be able to speak for another hour, his stomach hurt so much.

“Oh, so you were actually thinking about me, what a good son,” the sarcasm was not concealed,
“fix up those injuries,” on his own? “and if you can get some gear to hide your face, I’ll allow you
to continue acting on your stupid hero complex.”

Then Hisashi walked away.

It took Izuku an hour to drag himself to the bar, because there weren’t any nearby clinics and
Kurogiri had medical training.

His ribs hurt, but it didn’t feel like they’d punctured anything. Not that he would know if he had. It
just felt a lot like the other times he’d broken his ribs.
He collapsed just past the door of the bar, Kurogiri rushing over, “young Izuku!”

This was not the first time he’d seen Izuku in this condition, and it would not be the last. Izuku
passed out while Kurogiri was taking off his shirt to check the injury on his abdomen.

_______________

Since then, Hisashi hadn’t had a problem with Izuku’s saving of civilians in the ‘Knight’ persona.

Where did he get the gear? He made it, partially. The costume was made out of sewn together
scraps of the fabric Izuku used to make Dragon’s costume, and since Hisashi never kept track of it,
there was no way Izuku would’ve been found out. He then used one of those new clothing dye
spray paints, in metallic chrome. He couldn’t believe they actually worked, but the end result
looked super cool. The odd seams from the patched together pieces were negligible, really.

The helmet was more difficult. That piece he’d had to seek outside help for, along with the shoes.
Giran had found it for him, eventually. It was a motorcycle helmet made specifically for those with
passive flame quirks, so it was heat resistant. It also cost a pretty penny, which Izuku paid for by
doing some hero analyses. They were only ones he knew for a fact were shitty, but Giran was
satisfied enough.

The shoes, though, he had gotten those from Shigaraki.

He had been bemoaning the lack of inexpensive fire resistant shoes to Kurogiri’s ever so patient
face, when Shigaraki had stood up in a huff. Izuku had flinched away because usually when
Shigaraki moved that fast, it was to commit an act of violence. Especially when he seemed to be
reaching for Izuku’s wrist.

When he looked closer, though, Shigaraki was wearing his artist gloves, which meant he had no
intention of disintegrating Izuku. He grabbed Izuku’s wrist and dragged him to his room, which
was dark but surprisingly neat. Shigaraki flipped the light switch and his weirdly normal room
appeared. It was a lot like Izuku’s, actually, but with games instead of heroes and much less
lighting.

He had black out curtains over the only window, which Izuku had always felt to be vaguely serial-
killer-esque. Shigaraki then stalked over to the closet door and pulled it open.

“What’s your size?”

Izuku had been absorbed with the possibility that this was where he would die when Shigaraki
asked, so his response was, “huh?”

“Your shoe size, idiot.”

“7,” Izuku answered before he even realized what he was answering. He walked a little closer to
the closet to see that it was full of… Red shoes? Of varying sizes?

Shigaraki shuffled through the pairs until he found the right size, then shoved the door closed.

“These are almost impossible to destroy. You can have them as long as you don’t tell anyone what
you just saw.”

Izuku nodded seriously and took the pair of bright red shoes. He looked down at his own. They
were… Remarkably similar. Except just from feeling them, he could tell Shigaraki’s were of higher
quality.

Then, Shigaraki led him out and they never mentioned it again.

The thought of the shoe closet still haunted Izuku sometimes, but he had his shoes. He then used
the same chrome spray paint on both helmet and shoes to make them look cooler.

After all, the only proper opponent for a Dragon was a knight in shining armor, right?

Izuku’s own joke made him cringe as he pulled out of the lunge. It had been fifteen minutes, and it
was time to get ice for that bruise he could feel forming on his face. Hisashi somehow always
knew when he ended his punishment early, the man had monstrous hearing or some kind of sixth
sense.

After he got the ice pack, he returned to his room and sat numbly on the bed. There were a lot of
things to do. He had online classes to take care of, he had physical training and quirk training to do.
Hisashi would probably demand he do something later on…

Izuku didn’t want to do any of them. Instead, he sat there and stared at the charred remains of an
All Might poster until he found the motivation to drag himself out of bed and, one by one, complete
all of the tasks on his mental to-do list.

While doing the dishes and cleaning up after Hisashi’s last rampage, he realized the man must have
left the house not long after Izuku had gone to his room because it was blessedly silent.
 It Was Hot Outside, And That Was Gross
Chapter Summary

Izuku remains better at taking care of other people than he is at taking care of himself

After he had finished his assignments and his workout, he decided to go to the place he’d met
Shouto for quirk training. It was a good place to practice. There was no way he could hurt anyone
with his quirk or damage property.

The one time he’d made the mistake of practicing in a forest, he’d nearly caused a wildfire and he
felt guilty about it for weeks. Wood, shockingly, was flammable. Concrete wasn’t.

The only person he could possibly hurt was Shouto, if he was there, and there was no way he
would be. Nobody was stupid enough to come and do fire quirk training in a desert of a
neighborhood the day after literally fainting from heat exhaustion, right?

Izuku found out that day that there was indeed at least one person who was that stupid.

As he was practicing his quirk, trying to work out the mechanics of surrounding himself in his
flames without burning his clothes, he heard soft footsteps and felt a presence in the surrounding
area.

He opened his eyes and there was Shouto, who was apparently a world class idiot with no concept
of self care. He also had more injuries than he did yesterday. A bruise here, a burn there. Not that
Izuku was in any condition to judge.

Shouto was staring at him though, which Izuku understood. He wasn’t arrogant, but more than a
few people had been stunned by his flames. Like sunlight, they said. And just like the sun beating
down on the Earth, Izuku’s flames burned hot. Izuku still had to knock Shouto out of it, so he asked
the obvious question. Why on Earth was he here?

When Shouto gave a response that made it perfectly clear he hadn’t fully recovered, Izuku scolded
him, then decided he would help him train. He couldn’t bear to watch Shouto continue to harm
himself when Izuku was perfectly positioned to help out, and also he was in desperate need of
someone to spend time with who was both his own age and not a villain.

Hard characteristics to come by when your controlling dad is a villain and only lets you associate
with his friends.

So he made the offer, and Shouto had the gall, the nerve to call him a twelve year old?!
Unacceptable. When he couldn’t even control his quirk’s temperature? Izuku lectured him because
he was being awfully judgemental. Then he apologized, which Izuku hadn’t expected. It was very
nice.

Izuku thought back through the last few months of his life. His father hit him a lot, and used his
quirk on him, never apologized. Shigaraki disintegrated his phone and almost his arm while they
were sparring, never apologized. Kurogiri did get him a new phone, though. Dabi almost murdered
him, never apologized.
Izuku felt… Lighter, somehow.

He thought about the best way for Shouto to practice. Based on what he was doing before, he
probably wasn’t aiming to throw fire like Endeavor, he was trying to control it.

That meant he would need the thermometer. After getting it, he gave it to Shouto, who… Didn’t
know what it was? How could someone with a fire quirk not have used- hell, not even seen- a
heavy duty thermometer?

Did he use the fire half of his quirk at all before yesterday? Izuku smiled and kept these questions
inside himself as directed Shouto on acceptable heat ranges.

Izuku had to get a little closer to him to read the thermometer, but he didn’t realize just how close
he was until he accidentally kissed him on the cheek.

He stumbled back, his face on fire from the unexpected contact, ashamed because there was no
way Shouto was comfortable with that. And indeed, he was rigid, staring at Izuku with pure shock.

He apologized as quickly as he could, closing his eyes from habit. He never liked to see the fire
before it hit and yeah, he knew Shouto had been really nice up until now but-

Shouto said it was okay? Shouto didn’t hate him? He wasn't gonna burn him?

Okay then.

Izuku would have to sift through these thoughts and feelings later, but for now Shouto needed
training. They kept at it for an hour before Izuku saw the same signs as yesterday.

He should have noticed earlier that Shouto wasn’t drinking any water. He grumbled, his quirk
beginning to make its presence known. It was always harder to keep it under wraps in the middle of
the day. At least he had two water bottles.

He handed one to Shouto, making it clear this training was dependent on him taking care of
himself, to which Shouto called him a hypocrite. He resolutely pushed down every time Shigaraki
had stared at him wide-eyed and commented on his total lack of self-preservation.

Instead, he defended his decision. It wasn’t as if he was also training, and though this level of heat
wasn’t pleasant it also wasn’t any threat to him. He liked the sun.

And then Shouto asked if he was Endeavor’s son. That was out of left-field. Like, really out of left-
field. So out of left-field that it wasn’t on the field at all any more. That question was standing in
the middle of the highway ready to get hit by a car.

Was Shouto asking him if they were brothers? Izuku couldn’t do anything but laugh.

Izuku, child of a hero? Izuku, who despite his own wishes, was both villain and villain
accomplice?

Endeavor seemed like an asshole, but at least if Izuku was his son he could stand in the sun without
any shame. After answering Shouto’s question, he realized how serious it had come across, so he
turned it on Shouto, who, unlike Izuku, was certainly Endeavor’s son.

Shouto then decided to ask yet another stupid question. As if Izuku would approach anyone for
their parents... If anything, Izuku would avoid Shouto for his parentage, not the other way around.
Izuku was so irritated that his quirk started to react, vaporizing the sweat on his skin.
Luckily Shouto seemed to believe Izuku when he told him that it was just to give him training tips.
Then Shouto called him innocent! And Good! Neither of which he was, but Izuku would ignore
that for now because Shouto had smiled this really soft smile when he said it and wow he was so
pretty and Izuku didn't know he could smile like that-

Fuck, he looked too long and the smile disappeared. Izuku threw out some dumb, cocky response
and they got back to work.

Shouto had great progress! He was probably somewhat used to temperature control because of the
ice side of his quirk, but he managed to control his temperature much faster than Izuku had when
he first started learning.

He needed a reward for this kind of progress, but Izuku didn’t have anything that he would want,
except… To be honest, it didn’t seem like Shouto had friends… Izuku didn’t want to use his
friendship as a ‘reward’ per se, because that would imply he didn’t want to be friends with Shouto
unless he had mastery of his quirk, which would be weird. Instead, maybe a signifier of friendship,
some praise? Or perhaps…

A fistbump! Somehow he had a feeling that Shouto had never experienced one before.

And he was correct, the confusion on Shouto’s face when Izuku held out his fist was hilarious. He
looked like… Yes, he looked somewhat like a confused cat trying to comprehend some foreign
object. Very cute.

Then he immediately had to leave, which was disappointing. Really, it’d be better if he came at
night because it would be less hot, so it would put less strain on his body and Izuku would be less
at risk of his quirk activating without his consent.

All Shouto had to do was sneak out, and if he had asked for in depth advice, Izuku could have
easily given it to him. After all, Izuku snuck out of the house on a weekly basis, if not more often.
Shouto agreed to ‘consider it’ which Izuku took to mean ‘no’ for now.

As he walked back to his bag, Izuku considered giving Shouto his phone number, then quickly
discarded the idea. Hisashi would sometimes go off on a power trip (his favorite activity) and
demand to look at all of Izuku’s contacts on every platform he used to communicate. Which was
only email and text but still. If he saw any trace of Shouto on Izuku’s phone, it would be bad for
Izuku, because Hisashi didn’t like it when he didn't have total control over his son. It also wouldn’t
be great for Shouto, because it meant that he could be used against Izuku the same way Inko was.

It had already happened once before.

Izuku didn’t want to let that happen, so no contact info.

Dusk Sets In Over The City and The Rats Begin To Crawl From The Gutters
Chapter Summary

Children often take the unjustified blame for their parents’ bad decision making skills

After he left, Izuku deliberated on where to go. He could go to the bar, and face the same
consequences he had this morning, so that wasn’t ideal.

Izuku decided to go back to the house. Not his home, because no matter where he lived, his home
was with Inko. Hisashi’s house.

Izuku went back to Hisashi’s house, finding that, blessings abounding, the bastard wasn’t home
yet. He did a little cleaning up, in the off chance that Hisashi threw a tantrum over the state of the
house. Izuku, of course, was never to blame for how messy the house was, but that did not prevent
Hisashi from blaming him.

After making sure everything was spic and span, nothing Hisashi could possibly complain about,
Izuku fell into bed and into sleep pretty much immediately. This day had started exhausting and he
hadn’t recovered.

Luckily, the next couple weeks went by with minimal problems. He met with Shouto pretty much
everyday, even if one of them couldn’t stay for very long for whatever reason. Usually it was
because Endeavor was demanding Shouto come back for training which, based on its effects on
Shouto, Izuku would not confidently call training.

He would call it abuse but whenever his eyes lingered on that burn on Shouto’s face, he looked
so… Desolate. So, Izuku never asked about Shouto’s father, and though Shouto was unsubtle in
some areas, he had enough emotional intelligence to not ask Izuku after the first few times. Shouto
did give him offhand comments about his other family members though.

“Fuyumi is the only thing keeping this family together.”

“Natsuo is never home anymore but sometimes he would play with me as a kid.”

“I used to have an older brother, but he died when I was pretty young, so I don’t remember much
about him.”

Shouto had only said the last one after he had what seemed to be a very tiring day. Apparently his
father had dragged him through training from 5am to 8am without giving him a rest (that wasn’t
how training was even supposed to work why were fathers with fire quirks literally insane-)

Shouto was emotionally vulnerable and Izuku hadn’t taken advantage of him because he wasn’t
that kind of person, but he had sat down near Shouto and listened to him talk while he halfassed his
training. Frankly, Shouto was doing so well he could afford to halfass it.

Shouto seemed deadpan and emotionless, but when he talked he talked a lot. Still didn’t say
anything about Endeavor, but that was fine. Izuku already knew enough about him.

His oldest brother, though…

“He was father’s favorite before I got my quirk, but when I did, it was like he lost all value.”

“He treated me as a child. He was the only one who did.”

“Sometimes he would help me hide from father, or he would bring me food or help me treat my
injuries.”

“He wasn’t nice at all. I remember him making me cry multiple times. He was good though. He
wasn’t nice, but he was good.”

Based on everything Shouto had said about this ‘dead’ oldest brother of his, Izuku had some
suspicions about his identity. More specifically he had suspicions about his supposed death,
because he sounded quite a bit like someone Izuku had met recently, especially…

“His quirk was too strong for his body, so he burned himself a lot. His flames were so hot they
were blue, but his body was more like our mother’s…”

… Come on. That was a clear giveaway, right? Blue flames with a penchant for getting burned, and
a bad attitude on top of all of that?

That had to be one of Shigaraki’s new bastard housemates! That ‘Dabi’ guy!

Izuku couldn’t be one hundred percent sure yet, so he chose not to tell Shouto that his brother might
be alive. He imagined it would also be a pretty nasty blow to discover that your beloved,
presumed-dead brother was actually a villain with an even worse reputation than Izuku’s father.

That was probably just an issue of competence, though.

Although these kinds of suspicions as well as concern for Shouto’s mental and physical health
were constantly floating through Izuku’s mind, he managed to keep most of it off of his face and
calmly instruct Shouto on his quirk training.

Shouto was also very polite once Izuku got past the initial wall, saying thank you whenever Izuku
gave him advice and apologizing whenever he thought he did something wrong. The apologies
didn’t come too often thankfully, considering the last time Shouto had done something wrong was
when he called Izuku a twelve year old.

More recently, when he saw Shouto, this warmth spread through his chest. It kind of felt like his
quirk, but also not at all. His quirk was an almost overbearing sun-like warmth, baking him from
the inside out, but Shouto was like warm fizzy bubbles. Like warm soda if warm soda was good…
Izuku was realizing he did not excel at the art of metaphor.

Anyway, Shouto was great and being able to see him was great and Izuku’s heart sunk lower and
lower whenever he imagined how Shouto would react if he found out about his father, about
everything Izuku had done for him.

Would he reject him, hate him? Or worse, would he pity Izuku, treat him like a piece of glass, tell
him he had no choice and act like he’d had no agency? Erase his sin but erase his personhood at
the same time? Izuku didn’t want those. He wanted to face Shouto on equal levels but he also
wanted Shouto to never find out.

It was in the midst of this internal conflict that he’d fallen into a deep sleep, sweating from the heat
because Hisashi had something against paying for air conditioning.

He was sleeping peacefully for once, dreaming about a persian cat with heterochromia and a bad
attitude, when he was shaken awake. Izuku opened his eyes to figure out what was going on, only
to see the crazed figure of his father, who smelled like smoke and burnt skin.

Izuku woke up very quickly and sat up.

“What’s going on?”

“What do you know about Endeavor?!” Hisashi’s voice was pitched high in fury, this time not
directed towards Izuku. The burnt smell suddenly made a lot more sense.

“A lot. Do you want a report?” Izuku replied as professionally as possible. Hisashi wouldn’t want
comfort, he would see it as condescension.

“I want to know fucking everything, I want to tear him to shreds,” Hisashi was pacing the room
now, ranting, smoke seeping from his mouth. Izuku was reminded of why he had never been very
frightened of Shigaraki.

“How soon do you want it?” Hisashi stopped pacing. He stopped moving entirely and turned to
stare at Izuku.

“That’s a stupid question. Now, I want it fucking now,” he approached Izuku and Izuku leaned
back out of instinct, but he just put his hand under Izuku’s chin and tilted his head up to force Izuku
to look into his eyes, “I’ll give you a few days because the bastard’s a bigshot, but if you leave
anything out…”

A stream of fire left his mouth and scorched the wall behind Izuku, leaving a small burn on his
face. The hand on his chin felt hot enough to scald.

“You won’t be the one paying the price for it.”

And then he left. As if he hadn’t threatened to murder his ex-wife and his son’s mother. Izuku
heard the front door slam as Hisashi left. Probably going out to take his anger out on some
unfortunate fuck.

Izuku’s hands shook as he got out of bed and faked nonchalance as he walked into the living room.
There was nobody to perform for but it was habitual at this point. He texted his father.

‘I’m going to the bar to gather information. Is it alright if I stay there for the next few days?’

Hisashi’s response was short but ominous.

“Fine. ill be checking on u every day’

Well, it was still better than being in the house with him, where he could fly off the handle at any
moment.

Izuku gathered the necessary things: notebook, computer, water, sleeping bag, food… He
considered the thermometer. He’d told Shouto that he still used it for warmups, but that was a lie
to make the boy think that Izuku hadn’t gone out of his way.

He shouldn’t even meet with Shouto for the time being. If his father’s newfound obsession with
Endeavor turned its furor onto Shouto, Izuku wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle the guilt. It hurt to
leave him alone, but Izuku was sure it would be better in the long run.

If he wasn’t going to see Shouto, he didn’t need the thermometer. Shouto probably also didn’t need
it. He had enough money for his own, and besides, his control was good enough by now that he
probably didn’t need one at all.

He packed his bag and left, swaying a bit from exhaustion.

If There Was A World’s Shittiest Dad Contest, Hisashi Would Win The Prize
Chapter Summary

*roblox oof noises*

Having pushed himself to the bar, he practically collapsed onto the couch. It was quiet except for
Kurogiri washing dishes in the back.

Izuku had always thought it was weird that the bar closed at night, the time when most bars were
full to the brim with people. He had thought that right up until the night he’d stumbled in, drunk
out of his mind from his first contact with vodka, and made some stupid fuss about having
Kurogiri show him his quirk. It made him cringe thinking about it, even years later. Anyway,
Shigaraki had stomped downstairs and given him the most venomous glare.

“If you say one more word, I will disintegrate you limb by limb.”

He had waited until Izuku nodded fearfully before sneering and slouching back upstairs.

Classic Shigaraki.

Izuku didn’t want to make the same mistake again so he was careful to groan into a cushion instead
of into the air. He regretted that immediately once he remembered how many people sat on those
cushions everyday.

He rifled through his bag for his toiletries, fully ready to wash his face and brush his teeth, when
he heard the water in the kitchen turn off. It seemed Kurogiri had finished washing the dishes.

“Izuku, what brings you here?” Kurogiri could not be considered especially kind, but his neutrality
made him highly preferable to Izuku’s father, and made him seem much more trustworthy than he
probably actually was.

“Hisashi wants Endeavor dead and wants me to help him,” Izuku made sure to whisper

Kurogiri stopped wiping the glass and stared at Izuku, who solemnly nodded.

“Does Hisashi-san know,” Kurogiri started hesitantly, “that Endeavor is the number two hero
because of his skill, not his popularity?”

At least Kurogiri agreed.

“He knows. Endeavor managed to burn him so he’s completely lost it. Hasn’t even considered his
own limitations, but…” Izuku glared at Kurogiri in what was supposed to be a threat, “you didn't
hear it from me.”

Kurogiri coughed to hide his snickering, which Izuku heard despite the man’s best efforts.

“Of course, Izuku. This information was related to me via dream.”

Izuku trusted Kurogiri (kind of) to keep that promise. He at least trusted him to keep it from
Hisashi, who nobody liked except Shigaraki’s Sensei, maybe.

“One more thing. One of our renters was recently eliminated, so his room is usable if you’d like.”

Izuku would like.

He shot Kurogiri a quick smile, “thanks!”

He then walked off to find the one room with the door open. Doors in this place were only ever left
open if nobody lived inside. Everyone had something to hide or something to steal, and the risks
were just too high to not be cautious.

Izuku found the room as soon as he’d gone up the stairs, being very careful so as to not make them
creak. These stairs were really the only thing that convinced Izuku of Shigaraki’s combat skill.
They creaked like hell, but Izuku had witnessed the man glide up them silently on multiple
occasions.

He finished his ablutions in the communal bathroom, struggling to keep his eyes open all the time,
and then collapsed onto the mattress in what would be his room for the next few days. The antics in
the bar would surely keep his mind off of Shouto.

Izuku woke up six hours later, the sun streaming directly onto his face. He felt like he hadn’t slept
at all and scratched his back as he pulled himself into a sitting position.

He observed the room he had fallen asleep in. Whoever lived here before certainly had…
Interesting taste. An odd mix of body builder type inspirational posters and extremely demeaning
playboy centerfolds decorated the room. Izuku was glad he hadn’t met the previous tenant, he
didn’t think they’d get along very well.

It was fine, though, because Izuku would never meet him. And neither would anyone else. He was
‘eliminated’ after all.

Izuku picked up his laptop and computer and walked downstairs. Kurogiri made an excellent
breakfast and he wasn’t about to miss it just because Hisashi had dropped the worst task onto his
head.

The only person down there other than Kurogiri was Dabi, who just glanced at Izuku before
turning back to his phone. Izuku was tempted to ask him about Shouto, but… If he wasn’t
absolutely sure, that could leave Shouto open to risk, so he didn't say anything.

Instead he sat down at the counter and opened his laptop, first getting all of the info on Endeavor’s
recent fights. Wow, Dragon wasn’t even mentioned. Izuku almost laughed thinking about how
inconsequential his father was.

Aside from that, Endeavor had a myriad of fights that Izuku could take notes on. It looked like he
got into something at least twice a week. No fucking wonder he was the number 2 hero, his
visibility was off the charts. If you looked at all the news stories about heroes, thirty percent were
about Endeavor, forty percent were about All Might, and the other thirty was for everyone else.

Izuku took pretty much the entire day to take detailed notes on every one of the fights; every move
Endeavor used, every opening he showed, and nearly every potential weakness. Deep down he
knew that alone wouldn't help much. His father could have all the information in the world and he
wouldn’t be able to beat Endeavor without an excellent strategy.

Hisashi was an good fighter, and his quirk was pretty strong, but he couldn’t be considered a
strategist. Typically, that was Izuku’s job.

So Izuku kept researching, farther and farther back into Endeavor’s career history. Nobody in the
bar spoke to him at all, the only interaction he had was when Kurogiri slid him a sandwich for
lunch. He supposed they could sense that he didn’t want to be bothered. Shigaraki did stare at him
a couple times, though, maybe because Izuku felt different researching this than he had before.

He was always told that everything he thought and felt showed on his face. Izuku would beg to
disagree.

Right now, Izuku felt like garbage.

Around 7 pm, Hisashi strolled into the bar, welcomed with silent hostility by Shigaraki. Izuku
flipped his notebook to the beginning of the notes he’d taken today and looked up.

“Whatcha got, squirt?” Izuku faked a smile.

“I’ve taken notes on all of Endeavor’s fights in the last couple years, I’d like to do some more
research on earlier fights, see if that reveals any weaknesses, as well as his school days.”

“I’ll come back and check on you tomorrow, then. See ya!” And then he left.

As soon as he was out of eyesight, Izuku ran into the bathroom and retched into the toilet, glad that
he hadn’t eaten dinner before Hisashi had come. His faux amicable and doting attitude made Izuku
sick. He’d never hit Izuku in the bar, only when they were at the house, like he wanted to seem
decent. Pretty much everyone saw through it (everyone being Shigaraki and Kurogiri) so they
didn’t like him much.

After the unpleasant restroom experience, Kurogiri served him a bowl of plain white rice, excellent
for nausea. Izuku nodded at him in gratitude and ate while watching more of Endeavor’s hero
fights. After he finished his dinner he went to bed, Endeavor’s fights playing and replaying in his
mind while he was trying to sleep.

When he woke up, he did the same thing again, looking at Endeavor’s older fights and his time at
Yuuei. Given the information Izuku had about his family, it was a miracle Nedzu had let him
graduate. Nedzu seemed like a cool dude(?), so maybe Endeavor had changed, become a worse
person in his quest to rise in the hero rankings.

Just as yesterday, Hisashi appeared around dinnertime, acted chummy, then left. Izuku managed to
hold in the vomit this time, but he was still given a plain bowl of white rice. He ate it then went to
bed. Tomorrow would be a stressful day; he was planning on looking more into the man’s family.
 Why, Endeavor?
Chapter Summary

Izuku questions Endeavor’s intentions, just as anyone in their right mind would do

The next day Izuku opened his eyes to the Imperial March, the sound of his alarm. It truly imbued
the perfect amount of trepidation with which he faced the day.

He sat up but decided not to go downstairs to research today. He didn’t want anyone to be able to
look over his shoulder and see Endeavor’s family information. Izuku didn’t want to do research in
this room with it being decorated the way it was, posters and shit, so he took them down and
stuffed them in the trash bin. Once the room was finally clean, he got started.

Endeavor came from a middle-class family. His father was an employee of the HSPC and his
mother was a housewife. There wasn’t much info about his mother, but Izuku supposed that was
normal. With her husband and son being who they were, having her information out there would be
a danger to her. His father, though, he had a history.

A history of partner abuse, that is. A pattern that was unlikely to have stopped with Endeavor’s
mother, and maybe even Endeavor himself.

Izuku couldn’t get detailed information on it, because a lot of it was classified, but it looked like
Endeavor had lived with him until he graduated from Yuuei. That must have sucked. So then
Endeavor continued the cycle to achieve his goal… That brought about a whole nother question:
why did he want to be the number one hero so badly? So badly that he got married for it, had
children for it?

Izuku wondered if his father had anything to do with it, but there was no way of knowing that, and
Endeavor was extremely reticent in all of his interviews when the topic fell onto his family. He
also had a sister, but it looked like she moved out of the house when she was sixteen and got a job
in an industry completely unrelated to heroes. Whenever someone came to her for an interview, she
said it was a fucked up family and they were better off not looking into it.

All that put together a fairly complete picture of Endeavor’s childhood. This was information that
Izuku did not mind giving to Hisashi, because both of his parents were dead and he didn’t seem to
care much for his sister. In other words, it seemed like it had more value than it actually did. Not
like Izuku would be telling Hisashi that.

Izuku wanted to dedicate the next day to Endeavor’s current family, so he divided what he’d
currently found in half, and only shared the first half with Hisashi when he came by.

After he left, Izuku threw up again, then went down for food. He hadn’t eaten all day and he was
feeling peckish. Luckily Kurogiri was some sort of mindreader because there was rice and a glass
of plain water sitting on the counter.

He sat down next to Shigaraki, who in a rare moment of concern asked, “you alright?”

“No,” Izuku dug into his rice, eating it as fast as he could without upsetting his stomach. He
wanted to take a shower because he’d smelled himself and realized that he was rank.

“Oh.”

Shigaraki was capable of concern, but terrible at following through. Could not comfort someone
properly if his life depended on it.

Once he’d finished his sandwich, Izuku took his shower and fell into bed.

The next day, Izuku focused solely on Endeavor’s recent familial issues. His wife… There were
rumors that it was a quirk marriage because they hadn’t dated at all before getting married, and
there was no evidence of their communication before marriage. The dots were pretty much all
connected by the fact that his wife’s family, originally living in poverty, happened to have enough
money to purchase a nice house right after their daughter was married.

Granted, this just could’ve been a gift from a wealthy man to his wife’s family, but… He never
took her anywhere. There were no signs he loved his wife. She’d been sent to the hospital a couple
times after their marriage, or so the tabloids said. It was only the tabloids, but checking court
records, there were more than forty cases from Endeavor alone litigating newspapers for slander.
The slander in particular? That he abused his family.

He only left the tabloids alone because they were already so untrustworthy.

It seemed like it wouldn’t be too harmful to tell Hisashi about Rei Todoroki, because currently she
was in a mental institution for that burn on Shouto’s face. Izuku was sure that Endeavor had more
reasons for institutionalizing her than that, but… At least it meant she would be safe from Dragon,
even if he knew about her. It was a high security institution, multiple heroes patrolled the area.

And then his children… Izuku already knew quite a bit about them from Shouto’s oversharing.
Now that he thought about it, Shouto was way too trusting, just giving Izuku, a total stranger, all
that personal information. It was dangerous and Izuku would have to tell him that the next time
they saw each other. If they saw each other again.

Fuyumi Todoroki seemed very nice, she was a highly rated elementary school teacher in a local
public school. If Hisashi targeted her it would be a disaster. He couldn’t tell him about her. Natsuo
Todoroki went to college more than fifty kilometers away, and he was still there and would be for
the next few months, so Izuku could probably tell Hisashi about him. Hisashi wasn’t about to go
that far away just to have something to hold above Endeavor’s head.

The oldest brother had the least information of all of them. White hair, electric blue eyes, and a fire
quirk so strong that a misfire had apparently killed him. Yep, sounded a lot like Dabi. He wasn’t
dead, sure, but once Izuku had seen him napping on the couch and thought he was dead.

Hmm…

Izuku would have to get Dabi in a position where he couldn’t kill him and ask about this.

And then of course there was Shouto. The only one of his children that Endeavor brought to any of
his public events, the only child that was on the enrollment list for Yuuei. Shouto was in a very
dangerous position because Izuku wasn’t sure if he could keep him secret from Hisashi. Shouto
was strong but Hisashi was an experienced villain.

Well, Izuku would have to try as hard as he could. He just wouldn’t tell Hisashi, and if he asked,
Izuku could just make up some excuse that hopefully Hisashi would buy. Izuku had gotten pretty
good at lying on the turn of a dime.
The next time Hisashi arrived, Izuku told him about Rei, and the similarities between her and
Endeavor’s mother. Hisashi was gettin noticeably frustrated, though. He’d begun to realize that
Izuku wasn’t giving him useful information.

He was in the bar, though, so he was the cheerful kind of angry that screamed that Izuku would be
in pain when he came back to the house.

“Is that all?” The cheery demeanor was wearing extremely thin.

“Yes, sorry. I’ll have all of my findings summed up by tomorrow.” Hisashi squinted at him, trying
to analyze the truthfulness of this reply.

“You’d better,” then he stalked off.

As he was eating, Izuku noticed that Kurogiri was staring at him.

“I’m fine,” Kurogiri looked doubtful but stopped staring at him.

It was Friday, and Hisashi would be coming back for Izuku’s final notes that night. Izuku compiled
all of the information about Endeavor that he could theoretically tell Hisashi without putting
anyone in danger. Anyone except Endeavor, who was fully capable of protecting himself.

His hands shook as he rehearsed and re-rehearsed in his mind how he could give Hisashi this
information without mentioning Endeavor’s children, or if he was forced to, only talking about
Natsuo and Touya. He thought up excuses for why he wouldn’t tell Hisashi about Shouto or
Fuyumi.

‘Endeavor won’t care’

‘You’ll just increase your prison sentence if you get caught’

and so on.

So when Hisashi came that night, a little later than usual, Izuku thought he was prepared.
 Night Sets in and Darkness Encompasses the City
Chapter Summary

Shigaraki is actually an okay friend, sometimes

tw: child abuse, again

“.... This is everything?”

They were in the bar. Hisashi had entirely lost his pretense of civility at this point and loomed over
Izuku like his villain namesake. Izuku could feel people watching, curious about how this would
turn out.

“I mean, there’s also some other stuff, but I didn’t think it would be important enough to mention.”

Hisashi flipped through the pages of Izuku’s notebook. Izuku realized all of a sudden that the bar
was silent. Everybody had stopped what they were doing to watch him and Hisashi.

“You’ve got his combat tactics and weaknesses, that’s well organized…”

He flipped through the notebook so slowly it was agonizing. Izuku hoped to God he wouldn’t
notice anything off and would just go home.

“And his family. Wow, Izuku, didn’t know you were so cruel,” he grinned, “guess you take after
me.”

Izuku flinched and resisted the urge to deny it. The only people he put in that notebook were
unlikely to be in any harm from Dragon knowing about him.

“His mother, father, sister, wife, and children. This is a lot of detail,”

Hisashi ruffled Izuku’s hair and Izuku kept stock-still. He wanted to relax but it was clear Hisashi
wasn’t done yet.

“There’s just one thing missing,” Hisashi stroked Izuku’s face. Izuku’s stomach turned over, “why
did you fail to mention his most prized son?”

He pulled out his phone while Izuku stood, frozen. Hisashi showed Izuku a photo of Shouto.

“Todoroki Shouto. Why isn’t there anything about him in here?” Hisashi shook the pages.

Izuku’s heart jumped to his throat. He cleared it before saying, “he brings him to events and
everything, but if you look at his private life, it doesn’t seem like he cares about him and-”

“He doesn’t care?” Out of the corner of his eye, Izuku noticed that Hisashi was clenching the
notebook so hard the pages were crumpling.

“Yeah, I mean-” the punch that Izuku hadn’t even seen coming knocked him to the ground. He was
nearly blinded by pain but still kept his mouth shut because any groaning or moaning was
complaining in Hisashi’s book.
“Endeavor’s bet all of his shit on one horse, Todoroki Shouto, and you try to tell me he doesn’t
care?” He sneered, “you really think I’m a fucking idiot?”

“No, I-”

“There’s gonna be consequences for this. Tomorrow, you’ll be begging to give me better info.”

He dusted off his hands and left.

Izuku was still sitting on the floor. He reached a shaking hand up to feel at the black eye he was
sure Hisashi had just given him. It hurt so badly that Izuku couldn’t see out of it, and it felt wet. He
must’ve opened up a cut.

He sighed and used one of the bar stools as a crutch to pull himself up. When he was standing,
albeit on very unsteady legs, he felt a soft tug on his arm. He looked up to see Shigaraki, who
pointed in the vague direction of the bathroom.

“I’ll treat that for you.”

Izuku nodded in thanks. He didn’t need to say anything, Shigaraki knew what he meant.

Izuku walked slowly to the bathroom, and Shigaraki was more patient with him than usual. Maybe
because that was the first time Hisashi had done that in public.

Shigaraki lightly pushed Izuku to sit on the toilet seat and began treating the wound. The alcohol
he used to sterilize the cut made Izuku hiss in pain. Shigaraki paused for a moment until the sting
had disappeared.

“That didn’t go well.”

“Nope.”

There was silence for a few more moments as Shigaraki smoothed a bandage over the cut.

“Wanna play Mario Kart?”

“...Sure.”

They played until late in the night and passed out on the couch, Izuku pushing Hisashi’s threat to
the back of his mind.

Izuku woke up to his phone ringing. He groggily felt around for it and pressed the answer button.

“Hello, Izuku? Sweetie?” Izuku shot up, very awake now.

“Mom?” He could feel Shigaraki shifting next to him, probably starting to wake up.

“Yes, dear. I’m just calling to tell you I had a rather nasty fall yesterday and ended up breaking my
leg. Apparently, I also have a concussion.”

The dread from yesterday reappeared in full bloom. This was his fault. After Hisashi left, he
should’ve called to warn her, he should’ve done something-

“Sweetie?”

He faked calm.
“Yeah, mom. Sorry, I was distracted. Do you want me to visit you in the hospital?”

“Only if you have time. I don’t feel too bad, so I should be able to leave in a few days.” Izuku
would make time.

“Alright. What did they say about your leg?” If Hisashi had maimed her…

“They said it was a clean break. It should be healed in about a month and half without any residual
issues,” the one thing making Izuku feel a little better was that Inko didn’t sound too unhappy or
pained.

“Well, that’s good. I’ll come by sometime soon,” he was about to hang up when Inko started
speaking again.

“How is Hisashi?” From experience, Izuku knew she was not asking after the man’s wellbeing.

“Not too bad recently,” this was Izuku’s response every time she asked, even though they both
knew it to be untrue.

“Okay. If he gets worse you can always come stay with me…” Another falsehood that only served
to make them feel a little better.

“I will,” and then he hung up. Shigaraki sat up next to him.

“That your mom?”

Izuku nodded.

“Dragon sucks, huh.”

“Yeah.”

Izuku wiped his eyes of the tears he could feel forming and walked to the counter where Kurogiri
had set out a veritable feast of breakfast foods. Kurogiri answered the unasked question of why
there was so much food.

“We’ve started offering a breakfast buffet on Saturday mornings.”

Izuku took some rice and eggs, slowly gnawing at them to drive away the nausea and stress from
Hisashi.
 What’s The Word For Betraying One’s Morals To Protect Those One Cares
For
Chapter Summary

Izuku makes some decisions

The rest of the day he spent writing extremely basic information about Shouto and Fuyumi, about
their quirks. The guilt rising in his stomach exacerbated his nausea, but he managed to keep it
down with the hopes that Endeavor was at least smart enough to have protections set up for his
children.

Surely Hisashi would not be the first villain to go after the number 2 hero’s children to get at the
hero himself.

When Hisashi arrived that night, Izuku handed it over with no hesitation.

“Good, I see you learned your lesson.”

Izuku clenched his fist, but nodded anyway.

“No strategies yet?”

“I still need to write them all down.”

Hisashi nodded, “they’d better be good this time,” he gave Izuku a warning glare and seemed to
delight in the way Izuku shivered.

“See you tomorrow.”

Izuku didn’t look up until he was gone.

The guilt squirmed around in his stomach until late at night, and he decided to go out to try to calm
himself down. Just to go on a walk, being outside and smelling the fresh air, even in the dead of
night, always made him feel a bit better.

It was still hot out, unfortunately, but Izuku felt his breathing evening out as he kept a steady pace,
wandering around. By the time he came back to himself, he was in a semi-familiar area. More
specifically, he was near the Todoroki mansion. He was planning to leave immediately, but there
was a convenience store right there, and he wanted more ointment for bruises.

He didn’t need it now, but he probably would whenever he went back to Hisashi’s house. Burn
ointment would also be helpful, and some bandages.

He made his purchases and opened the door, but bumped into someone on his way out.

He looked up.

Shouto?
Why was Shouto here? Oh wait, this was near his house but still it was like two in the morning so
what the hell-

Izuku had to leave. Izuku had to leave immediately because he had given Hisashi information
about Shouto, his friend, had sacrificed him for his mother and he didn’t deserve to see him
because he had betrayed him-

And before Izuku noticed, he was running away. He ran all the way back to the bar and dashed
through the door, panting. After a moment to breathe, he went back up to his temporary room and
tried to sleep.

He wasn’t able to sleep at all. He just laid there thinking until dawn rudely shone through the crack
in the curtains. He thought about what Shouto would say if he knew that Izuku had sold him out.

Would he understand why? Shouto seemed to care about his mom so maybe he would… But he
might also think that Izuku betrayed him, betrayed his trust (despite that fact that everything Izuku
told Hisashi was stuff someone could pretty easily find on the internet).

He got up and went down to the bar with potentially the worst eyebags he’d ever had, bringing his
notebook with him to organize strategies.

There were a number of strategies a person could use against Endeavor, rating from totally
ineffective to lethal. He wrote down a few in detail plans, wondering whether to call the police to
warn them about Dragon.

Even if he did, it was debatable that they would believe him, and if they did believe him, what
would they do? Give Endeavor a bodyguard? Probably the only person capable of protecting
fucking Endeavor was All Might.

Instead, he surreptitiously left out any plans that involved threatening Endeavor’s family members.
They weren’t very good plans anyway, and they involved a lot more variables than just attacking
Endeavor on his own.

Izuku kept writing and realized by the time he stopped it was far past the time that Hisashi had
visited in the past few days. He checked his phone in case the man had messaged.

Hisashi: I’ll be coming in a couple days, I have something to deal with before then. Have some
solid plans by then.

That was good news. Kind of. It at least meant that Izuku wouldn’t have to see him.

Over the next few days, Izuku compiled all reasonable strategies that a person like Hisashi could
use against a hero like Endeavor.

Then he was stuck.

Which should he give to Hisashi?

Hisashi could kill Endeavor with the right plan, but did Izuku want Endeavor dead? Kind of. With
how he seemed to treat Shouto, Izuku thought that he might be better off six feet under.

But he shouldn’t be the one to decide that. No, that had to be Shouto, which meant he had a reason
to meet him again.

As Izuku walked to their meeting spot, he was both terrified to face Shouto, but also more excited
than he had been in a while to see him again. If he happened to show up. Izuku was going there at
night and, even though they’d spoken about it, they had never met at night.

Izuku had a feeling that Shouto would be there, maybe it was because he’d been at that
convenience store so late at night.

When he got there, the place was deserted, but Izuku didn’t leave right away. He was prepared to
wait for hours on the off-chance that Shouto might be there. Fuck, he’d even wait until the next
day if he had to. Shouto had a right to decide whether his father should live or not.

Now that Izuku thought about it, that would be a very strange question to come out and ask, so he
would have to direct the conversation such that when he did ask, it seemed at least kind of normal.

He would start with what they’d been doing so far; training, then see where he could go from there.

Izuku waited, sitting in the half-crumbled remains of what used to be a bench. He closed his eyes
and took deep breaths, preparing himself to meet Shouto.

Shouto came sooner than he expected, though. He arrived when Izuku was still trying to get a hold
on himself, and Izuku couldn’t help but back away a little bit. He didn’t want to know what Shouto
thought of him after being abandoned and betrayed (even though he didn’t know about the betrayal
part).

He faked a smile and said hi. He wasn’t expecting Shouto to notice, so his response to his friend’s
question was awkward.

Shouto thought he was afraid… Of him?

No! No, he had to dissuade him of that notion, and apologize for even putting the idea in Shouto’s
mind.

Shouto accepted the apology, but he didn’t seem convinced. Instead of handling that, Izuku
changed the subject to training and, to distract him ever further, decided to train with him this time
instead of simply observing from the side.

He also mentioned a little too much about his quirk. He didn’t dislike it or anything, but he
preferred other people to have as little information about it as possible. Knowledge is power, after
all. Izuku questioned Shouto about his quirk to bring the conversation closer to Endeavor and also
to avoid talking about his own quirk.

Shouto’s quirk was genuinely fascinating to Izuku, so although he already knew the answers to the
questions he was asking, both the confirmation and the display of Shouto’s powers was incredible
to witness.

One thing displeased Izuku.

The way Shouto kept referring to his perfectly balanced quirk as two separate quirks. There was
only one person Izuku knew who was able to use more than one quirk, and it was Shigaraki’s
Sensei.

He asked Shouto, who gave an explanation that made sense if you don’t know how quirks work
and also hate one of your parents and thus hate their contribution to your quirk. The main issue
was, If he kept using it in such an unbalanced way, he was going to hurt himself. He also wouldn't
be a very good hero if his quirk had a perfectly useful function that he refused to use.
Finally, Izuku managed to get it across to Shouto that he really only had one quirk that he should be
using to its full potential, but he could understand Shouto’s reason for not using the fire element of
his quirk. The only reason Izuku wasn’t reluctant to use his was because he had the good fortune of
a quirk that looked and operated nothing like Hisashi’s.

And now Izuku could get down to the questions that he had come out and met Shouto for. What
was Endeavor like as a father?

Izuku had some idea from what he’d read on the internet, but listening to Shouto describe what
he’d gone through made his blood boil. He was furious. Fuck, he’d kill Endeavor himself if Shouto
wanted him to. God, he was so angry he’d started crying. All of the rage built up as Shouto was
speaking and it got to his eyes and Izuku couldn’t do anything but cry it out.

He didn’t know if Shouto hated Endeavor, but Izuku knew he would if he was Shouto, just as he
hated Hisashi for treating him in similar ways.

But the things people had apparently told Shouto when he’d reached out for help to adults he
should have been able to trust? Disgusting. It almost made Izuku want to fully join the Shigaraki’s
weird little villain gang.

Izuku wouldn’t be like them. He believed Shouto completely and wouldn't dismiss his opinions and
feelings just because his dad was a hero. That was garbage bullshit, frankly.

When Shouto collapsed into his shoulder, Izuku felt all the anger leave him. Shouto was heavy, but
in a good way, like a weighted blanket.

Shit he was crying.

Izuku didn’t know what to do for a second because usually he was the one who was crying, but
after a second he sat on the ground so Shouto could lie down. It wasn't as hot as during the day so
he wasn’t at risk of being burnt by the concrete.

Izuku rubbed Shouto’s back like his mom always did to him when he broke down in front of him,
and whispered comforting nothings like ‘it’ll be fine’ and ‘everything gets better eventually’. Both
things that Izuku had no way of knowing and kind of hoped Shouto wasn’t really paying attention
to.

Much like Izuku after a twenty minute crying episode, Shouto seemed exhausted. Izuku hadn’t
exactly planned for this, but he always tried to be prepared for any situation, so he had a sleeping
bag with him. When better to use it than now?

He picked Shouto up, he really wasn’t that heavy, no, Izuku wasn’t doing this to prove how strong
he was. Then he unzipped his duffle bag and pulled out the sleeping bag. After getting it laid out,
he settled down on the ground and helped a very sleepy Shouto lay down on the sleeping bag with
his head in Izuku’s lap.

He had been previously told his thighs made good pillows, so he figured it was fine.

Fuck, he forgot to ask the key question. Luckily, Shouto was still a little bit awake. Awake enough
to answer the question but asleep enough to not question how weird it was.

Shocking that Shouto didn’t want Endeavor dead. Was Izuku just a worse person for hoping
someone would kill Hisashi…?

…
No.

Endeavor at least had some positive impact on the world as a hero (probably), while Hisashi had
none whatsoever.

Izuku stroked Shouto’s hair to help him fall asleep. He knew just how nice it felt.

Izuku figured that Shouto would wake up sometime around dawn, the part of the day when Izuku’s
skin would start to become uncomfortably warm. He set an alarm for about ten minutes before
tomorrow’s predicted dawn, then turned it off. For once, he wanted Shouto to be able to wake up
naturally.

Izuku quickly fell asleep too, his emotional rollercoaster of a day leaving him just as exhausted as
Shouto.
 Things Are Okay For A Little Bit
Chapter Summary

the calm before the inevitable storm

Izuku woke up at his usual time; a little before dawn, when the sun was just barely approaching the
horizon. It was hard not to wake up when he could feel his body becoming warmer, no matter how
used to it he was.

He didn’t move just yet because he didn’t want to startle Shouto, who seemed to be peacefully
asleep. After a few minutes, Izuku could feel him starting to shift, so he cracked open his eyes to
see Shouto’s (beautiful) sleeping face, his eyebrows furrowed just a little with discomfort. Izuku
had to stop himself from reaching up to smooth them out.

Eventually, Shouto actually sat up. Izuku pretended to have been asleep the entire time and
yawned. He stretched his back out because God he was sore after sitting like that for hours.

Shouto had to leave right after Izuku said good morning, and Izuku remembered that Shouto
actually had family members other than Endeavor who were probably very worried about him and
all the guilt came rushing back.

Izuku pretended to be happy, dragged that brightness onto his face, and told Shouto he’d see him
again. He hoped it wouldn’t end up being a lie.

As Shouto was leaving, Izuku thanked all the gods above that he had never asked what was up with
Izuku at the convenience store. That was one question that Izuku didn’t want to answer. He could
make up some bullshit, sure, but he wanted to lie to Shouto as little as possible.

On the other hand, he probably shouldn’t see Shouto again. It was weird that they had even been
hanging out with what their backgrounds were, and it definitely wasn’t acceptable for Izuku to
continue taking advantage of Shouto’s kindness. He couldn’t keep in contact with him when
Hisashi was scheming to kill his father and Izuku had not done enough to stop him.

Izuku packed up his shit and headed back to the bar. The only people awake seemed to be Kurogiri
and Dabi.

“Would you like breakfast, Izuku?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Even if Kurogiri wasn’t one hundred percent trustworthy, he could always be counted on for
delicious and fantastic food.

Today's breakfast was scones with a variety of different jams and accoutrements, as well as a very
crisp mint tea.

“Getting back into baking?” Izuku asked. It had been awhile since Kurogiri had made something
like scones.
“I never stopped. I simply haven’t had much time recently.”

Kurogiri spent at least three hours of the day cleaning glasses that were already clean, so Izuku had
no clue what he was talking about. It didn’t matter, though, because these scones were the God’s
honest truth, especially with the raspberry jam. A testament to their deliciousness was that the
fragrance lured Dabi from where he was sitting on the couch.

“Can I get some of those?”

“Of course.”

Kurogiri served him a plate with three scones, which Dabi quickly got to absolutely dousing with
strawberry jam. He seemed to be in a relatively good mood, so Izuku decided to ask what he had
been wondering.

“Do you have any siblings?” Izuku tried his best to sound casual, as if he wasn’t really interested.
He wasn’t sure if he had succeeded.

Dabi glanced at him in a way that made him feel like a cold knife was being held to his throat.

“Not anymore. Why?”

Izuku laughed instead of pushing further, “no reason, really, I just thought you kind of seem like an
asshole older brother.”

“I’ll give you asshole,” oh Shigaraki was here, “but older brother? You think this dick could be
responsible for anyone?”

Izuku wasn’t sure what to say to that, but luckily he didn't have to because Dabi fully agreed with
him.

“Exactly. If I had any siblings to take care of, they’d probably turn out like shit.”

Izuku was offended on Shouto’s behalf because after that ‘not anymore comment’ he was
absolutely sure that Dabi was his oldest brother he held such fond memories of. That being said, he
wasn’t going to say anything because clearly Dabi didn’t want to talk about it.

After breakfast, Izuku began to compile and reorder all of the strategies for fighting Endeavor. In
fact, that was what he did for the next few days because Hisashi still hadn’t come back from
whatever thing he was busy with. Probably threatening some poor gang of minor villains he
thought were encroaching on his turf. Whatever it was, it was taking longer than expected. Izuku
wasn’t about to complain.

He even had a little time to go visit his mom in the hospital.

She was in one of the more expensive single rooms, which she could afford because she was an
excellent lawyer.

“Hey, mom!” Izuku slung his backpack gently onto the floor and made his way over to his mom,
hugging her gently, “how are you feeling?”

Inko smiled, “not too bad. The concussion is really the worst part, but they said it wouldn’t leave
any permanent brain damage.

Izuku sat down on the edge of the bad, a twang shaking his heart as he looked at the cast encasing
his mom’s leg, “that’s… Great,” he wiped away the tears he hadn’t noticed sliding down his face,
“really, that’s fantastic!”

“Izuku…” She took his hand in hers and he watched her swallow the question of ‘are you alright’.
No point in asking something you already know the answer to.

“So, when did you say you could leave the hospital?” He wanted to help her leave, if at all
possible.

“In a couple days or so…”

“Do you need help getting home?” Inko took a moment to think before answering.

“I suppose so, with this,” she gestured to her leg, “and all. I was planning to ask one of my
coworkers who also happens to be a good friend. We’ve been texting a lot while I was in the
hospital and she’s come by every day to visit me.”

“It’s good that you have a plan,” Izuku was glad that his mom had other people she could depend
on. That she had friends. When Hisashi had first taken Izuku she’d been devastated, and she had
only really begun to pull herself together in the last few years, finally making use of her license to
practice law.

For the next few hours, basically up until visiting hours ended, Izuku watched bad daytime tv with
his mom, occasionally showing her a funny meme he thought she’d understand. Generally they
made light fun of heroes. All Might was both meme-makers favorite hero and their favorite
punching bag. His special moves were named after American states so how could they resist?

“Okay, mom, I gotta go. Call me if you need anything,” Izuku looked his mother in the eyes, “and I
mean anything.”

Inko responded with the same faux seriousness, “of course. Bye, Izuku!”

And he was out the door. It was getting dark, so he pulled up his hood and scurried back to the bar.
People often thought he was an easy target because he was short. He wasn’t, and it didn’t pose
significant danger to him, but it did serve as a significant waste of his time. Thus, he preferred to
not have that happen in the first place by being minimally noticeable.

When he was on his way to see his mom, the distance felt negligible, but now that he was going
back, it felt like forever. By the time he had finally gotten back to the bar, he was sweaty and gross.

Thank God the only person there to witness it was Shigaraki, who truly did not care and looked up
from his DS just once before going back to losing against the Pokemon League in Pokemon
Platinum.

Izuku walked up the stairs, trying his best to be quiet, took a shower, then threw himself onto the
bed. He thought about reading the news, decided against it because it would be too stressful, and
played a pokemon simulator before falling asleep.
 The Wind Picks Up and the Clouds Gather Ominously
Chapter Summary

for worse and worse only, Hisashi is back

tw: child abuse, again

When he woke up, he had breakfast and returned to his task with new vigour. Over the next couple
of days, he subtly removed or altered all of the most viable strategies for killing Endeavor such
that, even if they were used, they were unlikely to cause serious damage. He also took out all of the
really bad ones because frankly Hisashi might get angry at him just seeing them.

They were joke strategies, almost. In the language of Plan A, Plan B, those plans were Plans Y and
Z. Once he had all of his strategies altered and compiled to perfection, Hisashi still had not
returned.

It had been a solid few days since Izuku had seen Shouto. It had been more than a week since he’d
seen Hisashi. At this point he was wondering if the man had gone off and gotten himself killed. It
would’ve been doing the world, and especially Izuku, a favor.

Unfortunately, much like a boomerang on fire, Hisashi returned.

Izuku was once again sitting in the bar, minding his own business, absentmindedly doodling a bad
sketch of what Shouto’s hero costume might look like when the door was slammed open. Hisashi
strode in, a small splatter of blood on his pant leg, while Izuku weighed the possibility that the man
had gone insane.

Had he completely given up on keeping up appearances? Even when he was out of costume?

Izuku turned to face him and held out a binder that had been notated and indexed to hell and back
before the man could even ask. It was snatched out of his hands without so much as a thank you.

After he had found what he wanted, he ruffled Izuku’s hair a little too violently.

“Thanks, brat,” then he grinned at Izuku just a centimeter too wide to be normal, and left. That was
it?

If he was being himself, he would sit down at the bar, look through the plans, ask Izuku to run him
through the benefits and costs of the plans he thought were best and so on. The normal things
someone should do before attacking a famed hero. Hisashi was definitely not in at his prime when
Izuku had seen him the week before and he’d lost it in the bar, but this was new.

Izuku couldn’t say he was generally worried about his father’s welfare, but he was curious about
whether the man was okay or not. If he flipped his shit in a police station, Izuku would probably go
to jail too, so Izuku would prefer that man was either sane and terrible, or a dead lunatic.

After Hisashi had left, Izuku was too worried to eat or sleep, so he decided to delay his concerns by
mocking Shigaraki for not being able to win his game. This unfortunately was followed by
Shigaraki forcing Izuku to win it for him. Despite this meaningless and entertaining task, Izuku
couldn’t find it in himself to relax.

He decided to walk to the abandoned area where Shouto practiced. Not to meet him! Just to… See
him. Make sure he was alright. He had justification too. If Hisashi really was unhinged, he might
skip over Endeavor entirely, like he had clearly considered before. So, this was Izuku’s way of
protecting Shouto, at least for the finite amount of time he practiced the fire side of his quirk.

He probably came at night, though, if their last meeting was any indication. That meant Izuku had
time on his hands with no orders from his father, and absolutely no desire to do quirk analysis after
all that Endeavor research.

Hmm. He didn’t want to play video games with Shigaraki anymore… He did kind of want to warn
the police, at least give them an idea of what might happen… Even if they didn’t believe him, the
results would probably be the same whether he gave his identity or not. Actually, it would probably
be better if he provided an anonymous tip, they wouldn’t believe the son of a villain.

And so, Izuku spent twenty minutes or so submitting anonymous tips to the police and various hero
agencies, warning them of Dragon’s vague plans. He then took a sleeping pill, chugged a glass of
water, and was out like a light until nightfall.

When he woke up, he felt surprisingly refreshed, ignoring the fact that he had slept for more than
ten hours. He got up and jogged over to where he usually met Shouto.

He waited for a while, and after a couple hours or so, Shouto showed up. Izuku made sure that he
was hidden behind the walls of a dilapidated house and far enough away that his presence couldn’t
be felt.

Shouto looked around and seemed disappointed. Izuku didn’t want to get ahead of himself and
assume it was because of his absence, but all the same it made him feel both guilty that he had left
Shouto alone, and happy that Shouto might have cared about him enough to miss him.

Eventually, Shouto started practicing with his quirk, and Izuku noted that he had become much
more steady and skilled at both raising and lowering the temperature of his fire. He was almost
jealous of the boy’s talent. Another couple hours passed, Shouto looked around again, and then
left.

Izuku slowly walked back, feeling drained. He wasn’t tired though. He had already slept too much
to go back to sleep, so he just played Mario Kart on Shigaraki’s DS until the sun came up. He
tossed the console away as quickly as possible when he heard light footsteps descending the stairs.

Oh. It was just Kurogiri. Of course it was, Shigaraki didn’t wake up before 10 if he didn’t have to.

Izuku got up and sat back down on one of the bar stools while Kurogiri puttered around in the
kitchen, probably making breakfast. It took twenty minutes, but soon a steaming plate of rice and
eggs was set in front of Izuku along with a strong cup of coffee. Good thing too, Izuku would
definitely need that to get through the rest of the day.

Izuku, as always, was polite, “thank you.”

“Of course,” a few moments of silence, interrupted only by the buzzing of the fridge and
Kurogiri’s quirk, “do you know when Hisashi is planning on attacking Endeavor?”

“Huh?” Why would Kurogiri ask that?

“Sensei is rather curious about his intentions…”

“Ah, that makes sense. I’m not sure, actually. The last time I spoke to him was when he last came
to the bar. He hasn’t contacted me since.”

“I see.”

Izuku kept waiting, the feeling of being on edge never quite disappearing. He couldn’t relax and
sleeping was difficult. If that bastard got arrested, he would pin as much of it as possible on Izuku
to lighten his sentence. If he lost, survived, and escaped, Izuku was fucked because that would
mean his strategies failed (as they were meant to), and Hisashi wouldn’t like that at all. No matter
what strategy he used, Izuku would be punished.

Even if he won! It would just mean that Izuku would have to keep living with him, keep tolerating
him. Really, although he knew Endeavor was an abusive dick, he was at the very least cheering for
him in his fight against Dragon. He truly hoped Endeavor would kill Hisashi.

______________

It happened a few days later. Dragon attacked Endeavor at the intersection in front of a busy mall.
Luckily, Endeavor was patrolling with two sidekicks, who were able to competently clear the area
of civilians without too many people being harmed. Izuku was almost glad that Hisashi had tunnel
vision, because he didn't bother causing any collateral damage.

A feeling of unease, stronger than the one that had already been there, began to rise in Izuku’s gut.
Hisashi wasn’t really using any of the strategies that Izuku had given him. Yeah, he was using the
general strategies that had worked from him in the past, and those had also been created by Izuku,
but this was different. It was like he went in without a plan. Izuku just knew that if this failed,
despite it not even being his fault, the backlash would fall onto him. Somehow it felt even more
bitter knowing that Hisashi wouldn’t lose from Izuku’s own strategy.

Izuku shivered as he watched Endeavor hit Hisashi with another blast of fire. Maybe Hisashi
wouldn’t come back from this. Could this be it? Would he finally…?

“Can’t believe I’m actually cheering for Endeavor,” Shigaraki muttered under his breath, “fuck
him up, asshole! Kill Dragon! C’mon!”

Shigaraki also happened to be the only person in the bar who was openly supporting a hero (despite
actively hating all heroes). Many patrons of the bar disliked Hisashi, but they weren’t quite so
unsubtle about if.

Dabi sidled up, looking all kinds of displeased, “you’re really gunning for Endeavor?”

“Only right now,”Shigaraki’s eyes were too glued to the screen to really pay attention to Dabi’s
displeasure, “I still hate him, just less than Dragon. It’s a personal grudge kinda thing. Also, he’s
fake as shit and it’s gross.”

The same could be said for Shigaraki’s Sensei, in Izuku’s opinion, but he was not looking to start a
fight today.

Izuku kept watching the fight, as Hisashi got hit again and again with flames too hot for him to
handle, until he was burnt to the point where Izuku could barely recognize him.

Hisashi had been using a pretty simple strategy for the last few minutes, the one where he appeared
to lose energy and dulled down his firebreathing to appear weaker than he was. It made his
opponent underestimate him and also allowed him to save energy for a super intense burst.

Surely, Endeavor could handle this? He would kill Hisashi in self-defense or whatever excuse he
gave when he murdered people and it would be done?

No. No, no, no, why was he letting Hisashi escape? Why didn’t he see through that last
concentrated blast of fire?! It was Hisashi’s last resort! Instead of stopping him, Endeavor fucking
let Hisashi get away. Hisashi was grievously injured, but still this was possibly the worst way for
this fight to end. The sidekicks couldn’t do anything because they were too busy dealing with the
civilians…

The bar was dead quiet. There was nothing to celebrate. Izuku’s head sunk into the cradle of his
arms as he tried to breathe evenly.

Those burns looked bad. Maybe Hisashi would die on the way and not come back and Izuku
wouldn’t have to deal with him. His mom wouldn’t be used as leverage against him anymore. Deep
down, Izuku knew that wasn’t possible.

He knew Hisashi’s heat resistance like the back of his hand. This level of burn was enough to put
him in agony and infuriate him, but it wasn't enough to kill him. Hisashi would be back, and he
would take this out on Izuku.

Would he even survive that?

Izuku pushed that question as far back in his mind as he could.

He had to stay in the bar.

If he was at Hisashi’s house there were no witnesses and Hisashi could do whatever he wanted. If
he was at the bar, the people there would be a mitigating force. Though judging by the look on
Hisashi’s face as he slipped away, not by much. Still, he would hopefully calm down a little in the
presence of others, and if he became too much, Shigaraki might disintegrate him against Sensei’s
wishes. Shigaraki was not known to excel at following orders in the heat of the moment.

While Izuku was waiting at the bar, his heart in his stomach, he texted his mother to ask if she was
okay, and more generally see how she was doing. She said that she had come back from the
hospital and that her friend from work was with her.

Izuku responded to tell her to make sure she was with someone at all times. She was still typing
and by the time she sent the word ‘okay’, Izuku’s wrist had been grabbed so hard it hurt and he
was being dragged off of the stool.

Hisashi had returned. There was a manic look to his eyes that Izuku couldn’t say he liked, and he
liked it even less when Hisashi was pulling him downstairs with way too much force and without
explaining anything.

Izuku had repressed the memory that there was a technologically advanced dungeon underneath the
bar, but now he was viscerally reminded.

Izuku’s arm hurt. He could feel the bruises forming on his wrist. Why was Hisashi taking him
here…?

Hisashi typed a code into a keypad, and one of the doors opened. He tossed Izuku inside, who hit
his head against one of the walls before sliding to the floor.
“You do a lot of research for me, and I’ve trusted you,” Izuku felt dread rising in his gut, “but after
I left last time, I did a little bit of my own research.”

Hisashi’s voice was superficially calm but it was about half an octave higher than usual. Anytime
he spoke it pulled at the burnt flesh on the left side of his face and came out a little slurred.

Izuku didn’t respond which was fine because Hisashi seemed perfectly happy to monologue.

“I’ve been… Connecting some dots, you could say…”

He was pacing, too. It was just making Izuku nauseous.

“I thought about your refusal to give me information about some of Endeavor’s family, and then
there were these,” he pulled a wad of half burnt paper out of his back pocket and threw it at Izuku’s
face, “subpar excuses for plans. What, you thought I wouldn’t notice?”

Izuku tried his best to restrain his shock. Hisashi didn’t usually question what Izuku gave him. Not
too much anyway…

“You’re too fucking nice, but you’re just selfish enough to value Inko over most of the people I ask
you for info on. Doesn’t make sense that would stop when it comes to Endeavor.”

Hisashi stopped pacing and crouched down to where his face was just a foot away from Izuku’s.

“Unless…” Hisashi let the word trail off as he watched his almost certainly concussed son’s
reaction, “unless you know one of the Todorokis.”

He saw the fear in Izuku’s eyes and laughed.

“Couldn’t be any of the ones that you fell over yourself to give me information about. No, you
couldn’t care less about them,” Izuku felt a sharp stab of guilt, “it had to be either Fuyumi or little
Shouto.”

Hisashi stood up again, sneering.

“At first I figured it was Fuyumi, y’know how it is with young boys and beautiful women,” he
punched Izuku’s shoulder gently, like he was just joking around. It was still hard enough to hurt,
“but she’s an elementary school teacher, and besides, when would you meet?”

He stepped on Izuku’s foot, at first lightly, but slowly increasing the pressure. His nostrils flared as
he spoke, and smoke was beginning to rise from his mouth.

“Then I remembered you’ve been sneaking out! Yeah, you really thought you were subtle?!”
Hisashi stomped on his foot and Izuku felt pain arc up his leg, “Fuyumi Todoroki was always
working when you were off somewhere doing something!”

Hisashi stomped harder and Izuku felt something crack. He couldn’t help groaning a little.

“Oh, listen to that! You think you’re in pain?!” Hisashi twisted his face into a grimace and
laughed, a painful high-pitched thing, “Look at me!”

He crouched back down at a speed that made Izuku want to back far far away and held Izuku’s
chin in a bruising grip.

“Look at me!” He growled, “Fucking look at what Endeavor did to me.”

Izuku looked, and nearly cringed back from the scent. Hisashi held his chin harder and forced
Izuku to look him in the eyes

“I’m gonna get revenge. I’ll fucking take his prize horse out of the running and I don’t need you,”
he shook Izuku’s head roughly, “getting in my way.”

He stood back up and clapped his hands, as if cleaning Izuku off of them.

“And when I come back, you’re next.”

Hisashi didn’t bother looking back, and slammed the door as he left.
 Escape The Room - Nightmare Mode
Chapter Summary

Sometimes it seems so easy to give up

tw: imprisonment i guess?

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Izuku stayed in the same position, shaking slightly. After taking a few minutes to slightly recover
himself, he shifted to a comfortable sitting position to try and gather his thoughts. Hisashi had
somehow put everything together, despite Izuku’s efforts. How did he even know? When Izuku left
the house to meet Shouto, Hisashi was usually already busy.

No way any of the neighbors would tell him, they didn’t trust Hisashi. So, how? Izuku thought
back to how Hisashi was always aware of when Izuku finished his punishments early, whether it
was coming out of time out or standing up from a lunge. Maybe it wasn’t hearing or a sixth sense at
all. No, it would make much more sense if Izuku was being monitored.

He couldn’t believe he didn’t think of it before. He’d been blinded by the thought that his father
was too careless to monitor his own home, and was smart enough to not document his own abuse.
Izuku supposed the benefit of knowing what Izuku was doing outweighed the potential costs in
court.

Izuku sighed and rubbed the back of his head, but the pain made him flinch. His hand came away
red with blood. Hisashi did throw him into the room pretty hard. It probably also gave him a
concussion, so his vision was a little blurry and he had a throbbing headache which made it harder
to think.

The one silver lining was that Hisashi didn’t tie him up or anything. That was an option, judging by
the manacles on the wall.

Izuku pushed through the pain and all of the other thoughts struggling for attention to focus on the
most important thing: Shouto.

Shouto was in danger and he didn’t even know. Hisashi would be ruthless, too. He’d do to Shouto
what Endeavor had done to him.

Izuku looked around the room. It wasn’t huge but it wasn’t quite as small as a typical dungeon cell,
not that Izuku knew for sure what a dungeon was supposed to look like. There was a cot with
minimal bedding pushed up against the wall, a small metal toilet in the corner with some toilet
paper, and a metal desk that looked pretty firmly attached to the floor.

Everything except the bedding and the toilet paper looked to be metal, which was not good news
for Izuku. If he used his quirk, this cell would quickly become a furnace. He was heat resistant,
yes, but not that much.

The door was metal as well, and very thick. There was a little window on the upper half with bars
over it and a little plastic divider.

Izuku used the wall to support himself and stood up, whimpering as he put as little pressure on his
injured foot as possible. He managed to half-walk over to the door despite the pain. He could see
outside through the window, and the plastic portion appeared to be movable. He pushed it a little
and it slid out of the way. Seemed like it could be useful. Izuku would be able to communicate with
people outside of his cell. Maybe he could ask someone to let him out!

There wasn’t anyone there, though. If Hisashi had done this when there were a lot of people in the
bar, someone would have probably come, but the bar was mostly empty. Izuku would come back to
that later if he heard footsteps.

“Does Hisashi even have the authority to imprison me here? It’s not like it's his hideout.”

“No, but he is my employee. My deepest apologies, but he requested I keep you here for an
undisclosed amount of time in exchange for a task I asked him to fulfill.”

Izuku knew that voice. That was Shigaraki’s Sensei. He had only spoken to Izuku directly maybe
five times before. One of the few things that Izuku knew about the man was that he only took deals
that were in his favor, so Hisashi must’ve done something pretty useful. It also meant there was no
way he’d let Izuku out unless Izuku offered something worth more than breaching the relationship
of semi-trust the man had with Hisashi.

Izuku considered it, thought about offering his analysis notebooks, thought about offering to fulfill
any task Sensei asked him to do, but he stayed silent.

From how Shigaraki turned out, Sensei kind of seemed like a worse bastard than Hisashi, and
making that offer would be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. There was no guarantee
Sensei wouldn’t order Izuku to kill Shouto, just to cut off ties he had with the outside world. Izuku
wouldn't put it past him.

He would just have to escape on his own, or get someone to let him out who wasn’t as much of a
bastard. His best option was probably Shigaraki, who at least kind of liked him, and sometimes
transgressed against Sensei’s orders.

He would wait for Shigaraki to come by, he probably would eventually, if only out of curiosity. In
the meantime he continued investigating, all while ignoring the horrible foot pain.

The vent was tiny, barely big enough to fit both his hands in if he managed to pry off the cover,
which was firmly screwed on. That wasn’t a possible escape.

All the furniture was welded to the ground, Izuku had no chance of moving them. On the upside,
the cot was comfortable. Izuku didn’t think he’d be sleeping much though.

His headache was getting worse and he was starting to feel hungry. The worst thing, aside from all
the other terrible things, was that Izuku had no clue what time it was. There was no
clock, and since it was underground, he couldn’t tell by the window. All Izuku had for company
was the fluorescent lighting.

As Izuku was internally bemoaning his situation and tugging fruitlessly at the vent cover, he heard
a clang in the desk area. When he looked over, there was a bowl of rice, a glass of water, and what
looked to be a bottle of aspirin.

Kurogiri. He couldn’t be trusted to let Izuku out, but he wouldn’t let him starve either, and Izuku
was at least grateful for that.
“Thank you,” he said to the empty air. He had no idea if Kurogiri heard, but he hoped the misty
man felt Izuku’s gratitude.

Izuku ate slowly, his stomach still very unsettled. He didn’t think he’d feel well until he was sure
Shouto was safe. When he was about halfway through the rice, he remembered the aspirin. He took
a pill and swallowed it with the water provided. For a moment, he considered the possibility that
the provisions were drugged, but quickly dismissed the idea. He was already trapped, it would be
redundant to sedate him as well.

The aspirin worked slowly, but by the time he’d finished the rice, his headache had settled down a
bit. At that point, most of the pain came from the sluggishly bleeding head wound.

As soon as he finished the rice, the plate dropped through a portal and another clatter welcomed
the arrival of a bottle of clinical alcohol, cotton pads, and a roll of bandages.

Kurogiri was… Very considerate, but now that Izuku thought about it… He looked up and
squinted carefully at each corner of the room before finding the camera.

Of course. It made sense for a dungeon(?) cell to be monitored.

Izuku sighed. The surveillance really lowered the chance of someone letting him out, because
they’d probably get punished the same as him.

After Izuku had finished cleaning and wrapping his head wound, he accidentally saw his reflection
in the chrome surface of the desk. Yep, he looked ridiculous. Leaning back in the chair, he
estimated how much time had passed since he’d been thrown in here. It must have been at least a
couple hours. Probably late afternoon by now.

Shouto could be dead by now. Izuku gritted his teeth and rejected that possibility.

He kept investigating the room, limping between every single fixture in the room.

His fingernails bled from pulling at the vent cover. He’d put his arm down the toilet to see if there
was anything down there. Of course, there was nothing down there. Izuku wasn’t sure what he
expected. He checked under the bed and desk, trying to find a hidden panel.

He tried to touch the camera but he couldn’t reach it. He jumped towards it from the desk, but it
sent an electric shock through him when he tried. He spent multiple hours checking and rechecking
everything.

Eventually, he went back to his most common pastime in this room: seeing if anyone was outside
the door.

He limped to the door and slid open the plastic.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” The only response to his question was its echo.

… There was no way out of this room.

He tried melting the door despite what he’d thought at the beginning, but he was immediately
doused with fire extinguishers from the ceiling. He looked up, only to see the sprinklers recede
back into the ceiling panels.

He sat down on the bed and waited, continually watching the door to ensure that nobody could
pass by without his knowledge.
A few hours later, Izuku heard light footsteps approaching his room. Familiar footsteps. He got up
and hopped towards the door. Shigaraki got there before he did.

“Hey,” he was a little too casual for Izuku’s liking.

“Hi.”

“How are you doing?”

“My father dragged me into a dungeon and locked me in here. How do you think I feel?”

Izuku watched the cogs turn in Shigaraki’s head as he attempted to empathize.

“Not great?”

Izuku chuckled bitterly, “I’d say that’s an understatement.”

“Oh,” watching Shigaraki try his absolute best to understand how Izuku felt made him dislike the
man’s Sensei even more. There was no way he was like this from the beginning, right? “Can I, can
I do something for you?”

Izuku wondered if that was the first time Shigaraki had ever said that. He lowered his voice, “could
you let me out?”

Shigaraki’s face hardened, “no.”

“Why not?” Izuku didn’t get angry, he hadn't expected Shigaraki to agree right away.

“Sensei said you had to stay here,” and that was exactly the response that Izuku had expected.
There was no way Sensei didn't know about the relationship between his protege and Izuku, so of
course he warned Shigaraki.

Izuku couldn’t argue this on moral grounds, so… “If you don’t let me out I’ll never play video
games with you again.”

Shigaraki looked startled at that, as if somehow he thought he could get along with Izuku the same
as ever after this.

“Never?”

Izuku nodded. Shigaraki looked like he was seriously thinking about it but...

“Still no.”

“Why not?” Izuku’s voice came out whiny and he cringed internally.

“What are you gonna you do if I do let you out?”

“I-” Izuku grimaced.

“Sensei told me. He told me you got involved with some hero brat.”

Fuck.

“He’s not a hero, his shitty dad is, and he’s my friend and I-” Izuku realized he sounded desperate
but he couldn’t help it.
 “And you what? You’re gonna go off and sacrifice yourself so you can save his dumbass from your
shitty father? Not happening.”

“Please, Shigaraki!”

“Look, I don’t give a shit about Endeavor or his spawn, and you shouldn’t either,” his voice
softened, “I’ll see you later,” Izuku didn’t want to look at him, “... I’ll bring you your notebooks…”

Then he walked away. Izuku slid down to the foot of the door and sat there, no energy left to
withstand the pain of getting over to the bed. Shigaraki cared about him, but not in the way Izuku
wanted him to. The pressure that had been building up in his chest finally burst and Izuku started
crying, his tears sizzling as they hit his skin. They left salty tracks wherever they hit as he
continued to cry.

Hiccupping and gasping still, Izuku heard the thump of the notebooks falling onto the desk. He
didn’t want to look at them right now, and he couldn't write in them either without a pencil.

Izuku cried until his tear ducts dried up and his eyes hurt, and then there was only sniffling.

He stayed on the floor. His face felt stiff and uncomfortable, and he took back what he said about
this being a less terrible dungeon cell. There was no sink. What was he supposed to do, wash his
face with water from the toilet?

While staring at the toilet, Izuku continued to listen for footsteps. He was too tired to move, but too
awake to forget that he was imprisoned and his only real friend was in danger. At some point in
time, he started crying again, like his eyes were a leaky faucet. The tears streamed down his face
and Izuku couldn’t be bothered to stop.

Chapter End Notes

i tried to have shigaraki be as canon as possible i guess? like. he likes izuku and has a
wider general understanding of things than him, but is also selfish and has imprinted
on all for one. the tendency towards vaulting ones family members has rubbed off on
him. like. he cares more about izukus safety than his opinion, so hes willing to let him
be imprisoned and his friend die than see the potential of him being seriously injured
or dying. this is related to why he doesnt retaliate against hisashi himself: afo basically
told him that if he killed hisashi, izuku would take hisashis place in one way or
another. if hisashi dies on his own, that doesnt apply. basically, shigaraki is def
attached to izuku and cares about him, but unofrtunately he was raised by an abusive
supervillain. sorry abt this rant i just love him
 Dabi Comes in Clutch and The Dark of Early Morning
Chapter Summary

escape the room?

Chapter Notes

this ones short bc i do not excel at portioning chapters

A while later, Izuku had no idea how long, he heard the sound of footsteps. Somewhat heavier than
Shigaraki’s but slower, more languid.

Izuku stood up again and tried to restrain the tears. He’d gotten good at it over time, so it didn’t
take more than a few seconds before he could see clearly. Dabi was strolling down the hallway
without a care in the world.

“Are you even allowed down here?”

“Not sure. Door wasn’t locked,” huh. Shigaraki must have forgotten to lock it, or simply hadn’t
cared, “what are you doing here? Thought you made plans for the league?”

“Not the league, just my dad. Same fuck who locked me down here,” maybe he could get Dabi to
empathize via shitty father solidarity.

“Sucks ass,” Dabi didn’t seem like he had anything else to say but he kept hanging around, so
Izuku figured he’d at least try.

“Could you let me out?” Dabi raised an eyebrow.

“Me? I don’t even have the code.”

“I do. I saw my father enter it,” Hisashi hadn’t bothered hiding the code.

“Huh. I think I’d be in a whole lot of trouble if I let you out. What’s in it for me?”

This was the moment.

“Do you know Todoroki Shouto?”

Dabi’s face lost the vaguely amused boredom and cooled down fast, “nope,” he turned around to
leave.

“If I can’t get out my father’s gonna kill him!”

That stopped Dabi in his tracks.

“What?”
“Endeavor burned my father, and he knows he can’t beat him so he’s gonna go after Shouto.”

Dabi stared at him to ascertain the honesty of his answer, “your dad’s Dragon, yeah?”

Izuku nodded.

“I’m gonna regret this,” Dabi muttered under his breath, then sighed, “what’s the code?”

“1183,” thank God he still cared about his family.

Dabi groaned and moved to the side to type the code in. The door opened.

“Thank you so much!” Izuku couldn’t stay here for long, “I recommend that you get away from
here and go pretty far away if you don’t want to face consequences for this!”

And then Izuku was running, ignoring the excruciating pain in his foot, the feeling of the bones
scraping against each other. As he escaped, he heard Dabi groan louder, “you couldn’t have told
me that first?”

Izuku ran up the stairs into the bar. He stopped short when he saw Kurogiri, but the man just
glanced at him and kept washing the dishes. Huh.

His phone was still on the counter, shockingly it had not been stolen or confiscated, so he took it
with him.

Izuke left the bar and sprinted until he was what he considered to be an acceptable distance from
the bar, then checked his phone. When he had started his vigilantism, he needed to know where
Hisashi was whenever he was out doing official villain shit, so he had planted a gps tracker in his
villain outfit. It was miniscule, so it was no wonder he hadn’t noticed it.

It looked like he was in a residential area… That couldn’t be good. Izuku ran towards the location
on the screen as fast as he could, suppressing the whimpers of pain.

It was early morning, so almost nobody was around. As Izuku got closer, he heard the sound of
something shattering, over and over, and the temperature kept increasing. It was so hot that Izuku
was already sweating. He ran faster.

When he was so close he could see the bursts of flames and the neighbors peeking over their
backward walls, the temperature abruptly cooled down. It wasn’t objectively cold, but it was as if
much if the heat had been cooled down.

As he turned the corner, he understood why. Hisashi had been encased in a block of ice with only
his head left free, and the air was shimmering from temperature shock.

It looked as if Shouto had it pretty much dealt with, so Izuku was about to call out to him. Then
Izuku noticed something about Hisashi. Despite being surrounded by ice, his throat was lightly
glowing.

Fuck, Shouto hadn’t noticed! As Izuku screamed to warn Shouto, Hisashi blew a stream of some of
the hottest fire Izuku had ever seen. Izuku didn’t have a choice.

He tackled Shouto into the wall and felt the flames just barely brushed his back and he screamed
because he could feel his back burning-

Izuku’s face twisted as he took deep breaths and tried to manage the pain. It wasn’t working. The
flames on his back were licking against his clothes and he was still burning.

“Shouto-” he clutched at Shouto’s shirt and hoped he was still conscious enough to hear him,
“Shouto- ice me, I’m still on fire, please-”

Then a coolness spread across his back across his entire body. Izuku was still gasping in pain from
what were probably the worst burns he’d ever had on his back, but the ice had put out the fires.

“Izuku, why did you do that, why are you here?!” Izuku opened his eyes to look at Shouto,
suddenly feeling very woozy.

“Dragon-” he pointed at the bastard and gasped, “my dad, he wanted to h-” Izuku tried to breathe,
“hurt you but I care about you-”

Shouto looked awfully blurry. His eyebrows had deep furrows and he looked like he was saying
something but Izuku couldn’t quite catch it. He felt his legs starting to give out.

“Shouto- I think I need a hospital-”

Everything hurt.
 The Warmth of a Quiet Dawn
Chapter Summary

The storm, as many storms do, passes

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Izuku very slowly awoke to a quiet but insistent beeping. He felt very heavy, so much so that it was
hard to open his eyes.

He was in a hospital room, and it looked like an individual suite. All of a sudden, he remembered
how he got there and sat up filled with anxiety, startling the person half-asleep on the side of the
bed. Inko?

She got up and looked at him with wide eyes, her arms half outstretched as if afraid to hug him.
Instead, she slammed the ‘call nurse’ button and ran outside the room.

He could hear her yell from down the hall, “he’s awake!”

How long had he been asleep? And where was Shouto? Was he okay?

Less than a minute later, a nurse and a doctor walked into the room with Inko in tow. The doctor
sat down in the chair.

“Midoriya-san, glad to see you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

“Heavy. What about Shouto?” He was what really mattered, though he felt a sense of guilt rise in
his chest as he watched his mother quietly panicking in the background. He did notice that his
voice felt rusty, like he hadn’t spoken in a while.

The doctor thought about it for a second, “the Todoroki boy? With the red and white hair?”

Izuku nodded urgently.

“He’s injured, but nothing too bad,” Izuku sighed with relief, “I have some things to tell you, so I’ll
bring him in when I’m finished talking to you, alright?”

Izuku nodded again, not feeling like speaking. He couldn’t wait to see Shouto again, he wanted to
affirm with his own eyes that Shouto was okay.

“First, I’m Doctor Hagimoto,” she smiled at Izuku and gestured to the nurse, “and this is Takizawa-
san, feel free to call for him in the future if you need anything, okay?”

“O-” Izuku coughed, “okay.”

“Great. Now then, about your injuries,” she flipped through what must have been his medical
record, “you’ve been in a coma for a week and a half from that head injury-”

“A coma?” His concussion was really that bad?

“Don’t look at me like that young man. It wasn’t just the concussion, it was also the sleep
deprivation and repeated shocks that sent you into the coma.”

“Oh,” that made sense.

“You also have second degree burns all over your back and neck, and those will leave scars, I’m
sorry to say.”

Izuku could live with that. Small price to pay for Shouto not being burnt to a crisp. Burns,
though…

“Why don’t they hurt?”

“You said you felt heavy? That’ll be the morphine. Now then, you’re very lucky these burns are so
light,” she checked something in his file, “heat resistance?”

Izuku nodded.

“If you didn’t have that, I don’t think we’d be able to talk today. About your other injuries, you’ve
got a couple fractures on your right foot…”

Ah… From when Hisashi was stepping on it…

“Those will heal if you give them enough time and don’t put pressure on your foot,” she gave him
a sharp stare, “I’ve heard how you ended up here and you seem very brave, but no heroics for the
next few months, alright?”

Izuku reluctantly answered, “okay…”

“You also had quite a few bruises and scratches, but those have healed for the most part. Now let’s
talk about the future!”

Future? What future? He’d probably be arrested as Dragon’s accomplice…

“You’ll need to be kept here under observation for a few days, just to make sure your condition is
stable. After that, your mom can take you home.”

He stared at her, “I can just leave?”

“Yep!” She wrote something down on her clipboard, “Takizawa checked your vitals and everything
using his extremely convenient quirk, so that’s all I need from you for now. Make sure to get some
beauty sleep, because you’ll be getting some tests done tomorrow!”

And she was out the door.

“Very brisk, isn’t she?” Inko’s voice was raspy, her face pulled into a teary smile.

“Yeah…”

“Izuku, you can be honest with me, how are you really feeling?” Inko sat down in the chair next to
the bed and took Izuku’s hands in hers.

“Hisashi…”

“He’s been arrested. He won’t be able to hurt you anymore.”

He squeezed her hands, “or you… Why aren’t I handcuffed?”

Inko stopped short, “what?”

“I’m… Dragon’s accomplice, and if they’re interrogating him they know that, so…”

“Izuku, look at me,” he did, staring into Inko’s earnest green eyes, “none of that was your fault.”

Izuku begged to differ.

“They do know… But they also know about the role you played as Knight, about the efforts you
made to ruin Hisashi’s plans through anonymous tips. Even all of the bad stuff you did, it was only
to other villains.”

As she spoke she became more choked up.

“Oh, Izuku,” she burst into tears, “I’m so sorry you had to go through all of that!”

Izuku wiped away her tears as they fell down her face, “so then… What’s going to happen to me?”

Inko sniffled, “the police are coming to talk to you, probably tomorrow afternoon. You need to be
honest with them, but they said that if everything I said was true, you wouldn’t face any charges.”

Izuku felt a weight that had been on his chest for years become a bit lighter, “really?”

Inko smiled, “really,” then she stood up, “do you want to see that Todoroki boy?”

“Yes, please!” God, Izuku wanted to see him so badly.

Inko opened the door, “you can come in now.”

And then he walked in. Shouto. Izuku checked him over for injuries. He looked okay except for the
bandage around his head.

“How are you, Shouto?”

He seemed… frustrated, as he took the seat beside Izuku’s bed. The one Inko had been sitting in.

“I should be asking you that question.”

“Me? I’ll be fine, apparently. I look worse off than I am,” Izuku smiled.

“Fine? Izuku you were burnt by 1400 degree flames!!” Shouto was… Worried about him?

“But…. I’m heat resistant. It only gave me second degree burns…” His voice trailed off into
mumbling because Shouto didn’t look any less worked up. In fact, he looked like that had riled him
up even more.

“So that means you should put yourself in danger like that?!”

The morphine made Izuku feel less in control of his emotions and tears started rolling down his
face even though he knew Shouto was justified in being angry, “if it had hit you, you would’ve
gotten much more hurt than I did…”

When Izuku started crying, all of the anger drained out of Shouto. He started trying to soothe
Izuku, he truly hadn’t meant to make him cry.
 “I’m sorry, I was just,” he slumped against the bed, “I was just so worried about you. When you
pushed me out of the way and I heard you scream, I could feel how hot those flames were,” his
voice cracked, “I thought you were going to die, Izuku.”

“I- I’m sorry…” Izuku didn’t know what else to say.

“No, don’t apologize,” he scrubbed fruitlessly at his eyes, “I just keep dreaming about it and every
time I woke up I was so scared. I was so scared that when I woke up you would’ve died and I
wouldn’t be able to thank you for saving my life and-”

“You don’t need to thank me,” he didn’t look at Shouto’s face.

“What do you mean, you-”

“I gave him the information about Endeavor. About you and your family, I-” he didn’t want to cry
because it felt manipulative but he couldn’t stop, “it’s my fault he even attacked you, it’s all my
fault!”

He covered his face with his hands and sobbed, too cowardly to face Shouto’s anger. He froze
when he felt a gentle hand combing through his hair.

“Hey, Izuku,” why was Shouto’s voice so soft? “can I see your face?”

Izuku slowly lowered his hands to see that Shouto didn’t look angry at all, “why aren’t you angry
about this?”

“I can’t say I’m not,” Izuku drooped, “but not at you! Dragon spilled everything, he told the police
how he threatened you, how could I blame you for protecting your mom?”

The guilt still sat in Izuku’s stomach, but…

“Does that mean we can still be friends?”

Shouto smiled that soft, gentle smile that felt like the dawn after a thunderstorm.

“Of course.”

Chapter End Notes

this is the end! lmk what u think

End Notes

hope you enjoyed!! if u wanna chat, this is my tumblr!! pls leave comments, i love to hear
what u think!! Please leave kudos if u liked it bc i am desperate for validation
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