Everything Casts a Shadow
"He doesn't remember Fuyumi, but her hands are red and blistered like his face when one comes to rest on his unblemished cheek." (Pre-Canon. Child Abuse. Canon Compliant.) Part of A Shower of Flame, and Bloom in All Four Seasons.
Title from the poem "Details of the Woods" by Richard Siken.
He remembers his mother humming, leaning over the stove while standing in the kitchen, a song he doesn't recall enough of to recognize. She must have heard him because she glances over her shoulder as he peaks into the kitchen from the doorway. She doesn't smile at the sight of him, neither does she beckon him to join her, instead she just stares silently back at him. Waiting.
"Mom?"
She turns away then, ignoring him in favour of the pot rumbling on the stove. She takes the kettle off the red-hot element, and instead of depositing the pot on the hotplate sat on the counter next to her, she turns back towards him with it still in hand.
He fruitlessly trys again, "Mom?"
She closes the gap between them with two long unwavering strides, her eyes never leaving his as she brings the pot high above his head and dumps it's boiling contents onto her son's face.
It doesn't hurt at first, but it's so loud and the pain only seems to grow with the deafening pitch of the noise. Just as quickly as it's appearance it's gone, the noise is gone and his face only throbs painfully in place of the steady burn. He doesn't understand.
He doesn't remember Fuyumi, but her hands are red and blistered like his face when one comes to rest on his unblemished cheek. So, she must have been there too.
Casting his gaze away from Fuyumi's tear-stained face and over her shoulder into the kitchen he watches Tōya tower over their mother with smoking clenched fists. The stove is still on, burner shifting from red to grey to red again, and the kettle lays tossed aside and forgotten on the floor.
Tōya looks like their father.
(18/11/5) Hinoko has been changed to Tōya to compliment canon.
This is not one of the three I mentioned on my profile update, but it does fit with them. I have a whole bunch of short scenes like this sitting on my laptop gathering dust, they always felt too abrupt to post on their own but I rarely have something larger to attach them to. So I just went 'fuck it' with this one so there'll probably be an influx of very short stories being posted.
On a separate note, the Todoroki's have electric because having a gas stove in a house with a couple of kids that can produce fire at will doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Hinoko can be read as Dabi if you like the whole 'Dabi is a Todoroki' theory, he's the same character that'll appear in future stories of mine.
Thanks for reading, don't forget to leave a review.