Author's Note:
Hey guys!
So this is the piece I wrote for Your Power Zine AKA Todoroki Zine. This zine was a wonderful experience and I got to learn a lot and make lots of new friends!
My theme was Autumn, and I decided to focus on the changes in Todoroki's life as a result of Class 1-A.
So, this fic (like every other fic I've ever written) got a bit out of hand when I decided to write a scene about everyone from 1-A, of course, that couldn't fit into the zine, so I had to cut down 50% of this fic so it could be zine ready.
But! There are no limits now! So, this chapter is going to be the scenes that made it into the zine and the next chapter's going to be about all the scenes that didn't!
But while I polish those scenes and get them AO3 ready...
Happy Reading!
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The unfortunate thing about life was that it never followed the rules you had
decided for it.
After his mother―
Afterwards...well, Shouto thought that had been it. That would be the event that would forever define his life.
Strip his skin away and you'd see his hatred, his rage, his hurt.
Nothing else could possibly sway or change him. That's how he was destined to remain for the rest of his life.
And that was that… until he started at UA.
"Todoroki, would – would you care to sit with me for lunch?"
Shouto looked up to see a familiar-looking girl with a ponytail peering back at him steadily.
Interesting choice of words.
Yaoyorozu Momo. Shouto had seen her before, both at the test for recommended students as well as at the society events he had been forced to attend to complete the wholesome family set his father had collected to display to the world.
A certified genius with a useful quirk and important connections.
He would have to watch out for her.
Shouto nodded briskly.
They ate their meals in silence, a void Shouto was familiar with, however this silence wasn't tinged with the same sense of tension that would accompany dinners at Endeavor's house. It was… strange.
"It's fascinating, isn't it?" Yaoyorozu said, conversationally, but not presumptuously so. Shouto raised a cool eyebrow and she continued, voice crisp and proper."Even though we all want to be heroes, our paths and reasons for becoming so are quite varied. I wonder when they'll realize that we need to work together if we're to survive UA."
Shouto suddenly remembered that Yaoyorozu, at all the social events he had ever seen her at, had been just as alone as he had, but apparently the solitude hadn't instilled in her the importance of self-sufficiency that it had in Shouto.
Or maybe, a long-forgotten gentle voice hummed in his head, it wasn't so much as a lack of confidence in her own abilities as it was thinking that the whole was greater than the sum of its individual parts.
A surprisingly idealistic notion for someone hoping to break into the cutthroat hero industry.
It was fascinating, the differences in reasons and paths.
After that, they ate in silence.
When it came time to select a class president, Shouto, against the better judgement of the voice in his head (that sounded a lot like his father), voted for Yaoyorozu Momo.
He could do with a bit of idealism.
Shouto had believed that the Sports Festival would be a chance for him to introduce himself to the world, a way for him to extricate himself from his father's image and prove himself; an opportunity for him to show his dear old man that he was better, not because of his father's flames, but in spite of them.
Only, as it turned out, it became a chance for him to introduce himself to someone who needed it the most.
As Midoriya screamed at him across the field, Shouto remembered.
"In that moment, I forgot all about you."
Shouto was not one for being intimidated.
…But, he was cautious of how he would be received after he had caused one classmate to permanently injure himself and had humiliated another in front of an audience.
However, if the way Sero Hanta clapped him on the back after he walked into the classroom was any indication, Shouto was safe from his resentment.
Unless it was a ruse to lull him into a state of complacency―surely, no one could be that blasé about losing.
"Thanks for a good match, Todoroki. My parents wanted to congratulate you, too. Man, that ice of yours kept me cold for a long time. You'd be useful to have around in the summer."
Then, Sero winked at him.
Shouto wondered if this was some new kind of psychological warfare.
"Seriously, the way you just froze over half the stadium was rad, man. It's a good thing you're on our side," Sero continued good-naturedly.
Shouto, who had traded his childhood fascination with All-Might for a lifelong commitment to resentment, didn't know how to deal with this situation. Still, he managed to conceal his bafflement and nodded shortly. Sero smiled at him one more time before moving away.
He observed the way Sero laughed as he relayed the way people around him had told him good try while he'd walked to school.
"―Man, some relatives I didn't even know existed actually called me up to tell me that. It was awesome."
Shouto blinked.
"Todoroki!"
Shouto turned to see Midoriya, who was twitchier than usual, shuffle his feet as he stood beside Shouto's desk.
"Midoriya," Shouto said evenly.
"Would you and Yaoyorozu like to have lunch with us?"
"Iida, we're headed to the cafeteria."
Shouto subtly turned his attention towards them, catching the way Midoriya was nervously biting his lip a little further away.
"Ah, Uraraka. I'm afraid that I have another matter I must attend to, but please carry on without me. I will try to join you later," Iida said, his hands lying limply by his side.
Shouto's brain quietened, every sense now laser-focused on making sense of this scene; while he had only recently become personally acquainted with Iida, Uraraka and Midoriya, even he knew that something wasn't right.
"Oh. Alright. If you change your mind, you know where to find us," Uraraka said, the usual cheer gone from her voice.
Shouto thought back to the reports circulating about the Hero Killer and his most recent target. He looked at Iida, who, away from his other friends' eyes, was now staring at his hands with an all-too-familiar look in his eyes. Shouto, for the first time in his life, felt his heart twist in worry for someone outside of his family.
Still, despite empathizing with the rage that Iida must have been feeling, he felt helpless; he didn't know how to help him.
It was strange to have a friend and to care enough to worry over them.
He wished his recent epiphany at the Sports Festival hadn't forced him to acknowledge the world and the hurt it could cause, but as he stared at Iida's back, he wondered if he would exchange it all for the emotional distance and safety of before if he could.
Shouto chanced upon the gathering by accident.
He'd been on his way to the main building, walking through the isolated areas that had mostly been left to the animals, when he saw Kouda.
But… it was a Kouda he had never seen before.
Kouda was smiling gently, a tiny bird perched upon his fingers as he murmured softly.
The bird let out a sweet trill in response.
Shouto, who had always viewed other living beings from afar, felt something within him clench in response to the sound. He wanted to draw closer, but…
Kouda looked up towards Shouto with a smile and gestured for him to join them.
Shouto held his breath, making sure both of his powers were under control before slowly walking up to Kouda, who was surrounded by what looked like the entire forest.
Kouda patted the ground next to him, and Shouto, uncaring of his uniform, but strangely scared of disturbing the peaceful scene, lowered himself carefully.
Kouda went back to talking to the bird. Shouto expected to feel the same awkwardness and unease rise within him that he still sometimes felt in the presence of others, but Kouda didn't appear to be ignoring him; it was like he was choosing to give Shouto the time to acclimate to the surroundings at his own pace.
Shouto looked around. A fawn that looked shockingly like Bambi flicked a ear at him before going back to staring at Kouda in devotion.
In fact, all the animals, from the squirrels to the cat hovering at the edge, were looking at Kouda like he was their best friend.
Shouto had never seen Kouda look so comfortable, not even in the presence of other humans.
Maybe it was the fact that no one had any expectations from him here and he was allowed to be silent, but he felt a flicker of kinship with Kouda.
As well as a little bit of envy.
Shouto was so involved in observing Kouda that he froze when he felt something brush up against him.
He looked down. The cat he had seen earlier seemed to be nuzzling his pants and circling him while making a strange noise.
Shouto, very carefully, Did Not Move.
What did the cat want from him?
In a graceful and swift leap, the cat launched herself onto Shouto's lap, making the same odd sound while rubbing her face against his left side.
Shouto, who was finding himself at a loss for what to do more and more frequently as the semester at UA progressed, looked to Kouda, baffled.
Kouda was smiling.
Using his free hand, he mimed the movement of flames with his fingers, and pointed to Shouto's left side, which was quickly getting covered with white cat hair.
Oh.
Shouto looked down, and with a buzzing underneath his fingers, reached out to touch the cat on the head with his left hand.
The rumble increased in volume until it sounded like Shouto had just started a speedboat's motor. The cat turned her head into Shouto's palm, seeking the heat.
Shouto stilled. He didn't know his left side could be used to…
Fire, Shouto remembered, also begets life.
Class 1-A was putting on a play, and Shouto, for reasons he couldn't understand, had been unanimously appointed as the male lead.
But it wasn't a decision everyone was happy with.
"No, no, no! This is all wrong," Aoyama screamed from his Director's chair.
Shouto looked back blankly.
Aoyama pointed at Shouto and said silkily, his voice somehow more threatening than when he was screaming, "You may have the looks for this part, mon ami, but you cannot pull off the dramatic flair of Romeo! Where's the romance? The desperation? The longing? The pizzazz?!"
Shouto cocked his head. While he was always willing to take constructive criticism, he wasn't even sure the last one was even a real word.
"But," Aoyama continued with a twinkle in his eye, "A hero's job is to take pity on those not as fortunate, so fear not! For I am here to bestow some of my sparkle upon you. Ouch!"
Shouto looked to see Jirou's ear-jack poking Aoyama in his side as she screamed from the audio tech chair, "You had one job ― say it right."
Aoyama rallied and putting his hands on his hips, boomed delicately, "Fear not, Pretty Boy, for I am here!"
"Better," Jirou shouted from the side.
Todoroki had a feeling he was being insulted, but didn't know about what exactly.
Thus began Shouto's lessons in… pizzazz.
However, despite Aoyama's best efforts and private tutoring, Shouto was not able to muster up the type of performance that satisfied him.
Shouto bit back a sigh as Aoyama balefully looked at the door. Shouto bit back a plaintive whine that was probably more suited to a five year old.
What was the point of all this?
Aoyama turned with an uncharacteristically serious look in his eyes, as if he had heard Shouto's inner complaint, and said, "You know, Pretty Boy, while it's important to fight well, you must also make sure to look and sound good when doing so. You have the fighting part down, but…"
Shouto blinked and slowly confessed, "I still don't understand why…"
Aoyama stared at him and said, "A hero's duty is to sparkle, so all who behold their glory shall know that they are touched by the safety of their light. Your job is to protect their heads and their hearts, but how can you reassure the public that you can defeat anything anyone throws your way and keep them safe if you can't even act here?"
Oh.
Shouto thought back to the recordings of All Might's fights and his booming reassurance that everything was alright while fighting against insurmountable odds; how heroes all-too-often walked into battles with clever quips and engaged their enemies in banter. Shouto had always thought that those heroes were more after glory than anything else, but―
Maybe it wasn't about arrogance, but about inspiring confidence in the people they were trying to save.
Their heads and their hearts.
Huh.
Shouto clenched his fist as he analyzed the situation.
There were two minutes until the buzzer rang and his team would lose in the practice hostage simulation. The villains were holding the "hostages" in the next room and Shouto was without backup.
He could hear Iida laughing his Evil Laugh, the one Shouto had heard him practicing in the mirror this morning.
"Where are your heroes now? Looks like they couldn't handle the heat."
Geez, Iida.
Chill.
Someone inside whimpered.
Shouto braced himself, pushed open the door, and loudly drawled, "Luckily, I'm not the kind of person who runs away from a little heat."
Then, Shouto set his left side ablaze.
Later, as they cleaned up the mess, Shouto heard Ashido, who was one of the hostages, whisper at a volume even he could hear from across the room, "What was that?"
She sounded strangled.
Aoyama wiped away an actual tear as he said, "That, my darling, was pizzazz."
"Now you've made him invincible," Hagakure whispered, horrified.
Shouto was confused.
"Ah, and so the student surpasses the master," Jirou said slyly to Aoyama.
"Shut up!"
The thing about life was how universal constants - the yardstick and markers used to measure every other event- could be demolished so completely, easily, and quickly with nary a hint of their prior existence.
Shouto used to think of himself as a glacier: unmoving, unchanging, unaided.
But the fortunate thing about life was that it never followed the rules you had decided for it.
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End Notes:
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I look forward to engaging with you!
Till Next Time!