Sooo. I haven't written in a long while, and I'm notorious for never finishing anything… But I finished my last piece, so I hope to find joy in this as I did in that. No promises, but I'll post this in hopes that I can convince myself to take the story somewhere.
o.0.o
Quirks.
Special, superhuman abilities that some individuals possessed, generally unique to their user and classified in many ways. No one knew how or why they existed, only that they did and they could be both beneficial or harmful to society depending on how they were used.
In her field specifically, quirks where something that were valued immensely. Quirks could tip the scale between saving a life or losing one. As an aspiring doctor, Vee knew just how important that sensitive scale was.
In a hospital, a nurse with X-ray vision would be able to find veins seamlessly, a doctor with enhanced eyesight could make the most precise of incisions, the psychiatrist who could sense moods would be invaluable, and the list would go on, only getting more and more specific. She knew, without a doubt, that the better the ability the better the medical professional.
She knew, not because she had seen the proof (though she supposed she had, at some point or another), but because that was what had been drilled into her head since she began her medicinal studies.
As her legs dangled over the edge of the ledge she sat on, and the wind blew gently across her face, Vee sighed and recalled the words she heard a thousand time, in a thousand different ways.
"What's your quirk?"
A simple question, but one that haunted her none the less. Over and over she'd been asked that question, and over and over she'd had the same reply. It wasn't even that she had tired of answering people as they questioned her, it was that she'd grown tired of their reasons behind their questions.
They didn't ask her if she had quirk because that was such a normal thing to do. For her chosen career path, having a quirk wasn't a requirement. In fact, it wasn't even all that common.
There were thousands of doctors that got along just fine without any sort of quirk to aid them, so that wasn't the issue.
'No,' she thought, her dark eyes sliding shut, 'the issue is always going to be me.'
And as Vee sat on the roof of Musutafu Medical center, contemplating the thoughts she wished would just go away, she wondered how it was that her most beloved dream had left her so…bitter.
o.0.o
He wasn't looking for anything in particular, really. He'd been wandering, even if he knew he shouldn't have been. It had simply been a very long day, and Shouto had needed to get away… from his Father.
That was why when he saw the sign for the stairway leading to the roof, he followed it even though logically he knew he probably wasn't allowed up there. Still, after a long day of finishing the final paperwork and requirements to attend U.A., which unfortunately he needed his Father with him to do, he needed a breather.
Fresh air had always helped him refocus and mediate away the anger, and after the last conversation he had unfortunately had to participate in with his father, he needed to get a lock on his emotions.
'Pathetic.'
The world echoed in his mind, and it made him grit his teeth as he attempted to push away his seething rage at his Father's displeasure during Shouto's physical.
Too scrawny, too short; there was always a problem with his son that needed correcting as far as Enji Todoroki was concerned. Though he had grown a thicker skin over the years, there was just something so demeaning about standing in front of his father half naked as his physical fitness was assed. No matter his protests, Enji had insisited on staying during the examiniation.
He'd said it was his 'right as a Father' to be there during his child's doctor's appointments, but Shouto thought that to have the rights of a Father you had to act like one first. He didn't, of course, say that in front of the doctor, but he liked to think Enji had seen it in his eyes as they stared eachother down.
Shouto was by no means out of ship, nor was he developing wrongly for his age, but that wasn't enough for his Father. The older man was much larger and much more muscular not only in that moment, but his physique at Shouto's age had been larger as well. As such, Enji was convinced there was something wrong with his son.
'There will always be something that needs to be fixed,' Shouto thought as he finally reached the top of the stairs, and pushed the roof access door open.
He knew his Father simply wanted a child that could surpass his ultimate rival, but Shouto knew that in the end, no matter what he thought of himself, his Father would always find something in him… lacking. And with that, Shouto also knew he'd be severely punished for the perceived shortcomings.
As he stewed in his thoughts, his fists clenching and both his cold and hot sides fighting to break through, he nearly missed what would have been an awkward interruption to his impromptu mediation.
The rooftop itself was simply a wide open space, but the railings around the edges spoke to how often people truly came up. At one of the railings, not far from the door, sat another person. With their back to him, he could only really make out a large knot of curly, out of control hair, and a small form curled around the bars of the railing as their feet dangled free over the edge.
Immediately stopping his stride, Shouto's immediate response was to call an apology and leave as to not burden the other person with his prescience. Like him, it seemed they'd come to be alone, and he didn't truly want to interrupt that.
Before he could, however, the person turned and he was face to face with what appeared to be a young girl. Her coffee colored skin was pinked, mostly likely due to the chill in the air outside, and as large brown eyes took him in, her neutral expression morphed into one of irritation.
o.0.o
Tense, Vee stared at the young man and pushed away the quick burst of anger his presence brought…. After all, he was the reason she was up there in the first place.
Not directly, of course, but as was the nature of the world, his being in her hospital set of a natural chain of events that unfortunately, had not left her alone.
Musutafu Medical center, despite its distance from her home, had been her final pick of internship for one easy reason: because of its proximity to U.A. High School, it held a sort of partnership with the prestigious institution. Sure, the school had Recovery Girl, but it was always good to have other trusted medical professionals on call. Both because of their long history of competency, and now in part to the fact that they had a strong partnership with the hero school, Mustutafu Medical Center was home to some of the best doctors in Japan, even if it wasn't one of the larger hospitals. The wealth of knowledge available as well as the assurance that she'd be seeing enough action to keep her occupied is what finalized her decision. Well, that and the fact that while busy enough, the town was for sure less hectic and disorienting then a large city like Tokyo would've been.
So, when all was said and done, it was no surprise that as part of their set of entry requirements, Mustutafu Medical Center was U.A.'s destination of choice for first year candidates to get their physicals. Now as far as she knew, not all students had such a requirement; just the ones who where supposedly getting in on 'recommendation'.
A month before the start of the semester, the students were asked to come in to get full, in depth evaluations of their physical health, and to some degree, their quirks. For something as trusted as a recommendation, it had to be verified that their quirks where actually real, she supposed, and not fabricated… Which was something she'd actually come to learn that people had tried to do.
Still, as she took in the split coloring of the guy in front of her, she doubted whatever he was capable of was fake. If the physical manifestation wasn't enough of an indicator, then the serious façade he seemed to project was enough of an answer for her. Whatever he was doing, she didn't think he was the type to play around.
She could respect that, and if anyone asked, that would be her excuse as to why she chose to address him in the blunt way she usually reserved for people who weren't the ones she was supposed to be healing.
"Patients are not allowed at this level. Leave."
She could have said please, buuuut…. He and his future classmates where the reason she'd once again had the fact that she was quirkless shoved in her face, and ended up moping away her lunch break in the first place.
o.0.o
Though the first thing he had noticed about her had been her youth, Shouto found that the second largest thing to stand out to him had nothing to do with her appearance- it was how rude she was. Though he usually wasn't one to let such insignificant things get to him, he found the time he'd spent with his father in the past few hours to be wearing his patience thin.
"If patients aren't allowed up here, then I believe you should be leaving as well," he bit back at her, not bothering to take the coolness from his tone.
Even behind the thickness of her messy bangs, he could see her dark eyes narrow. All at once, the relaxed disposition she'd held before went away, instead replaced by something hard as her back snapped ramrod straight and she scrambled to her feet.
"I can be on the roof for as long as I want," she all but growled at him.
Even standing, her eyes flashing and her wild hair making her seem nearly feral, Shouto wasn't impressed. She looked heavyset and out of shape, and couldn't have been more than five feet tall. Though he wasn't bothered in the least by her display of anger, he did wonder where it had come from.
Dressed in scrubs as she was, he figured she was either visiting a family member or being treated for something.
"Visiting your grandmother or whoever doesn't make you any better than me, and if you're here being treated for something, that just makes you a hypocrite," he told her evenly.
That, it seemed, had been the wrong thing to say because if possible, her wild curls only seemed to frizz larger and she began to speed towards him, left hand shoved firmly in her pocket as she seemed to dig for something. For one split second, as she closed in on him, Shouto seriously thought she would hit him, and he went to make the appropriate steps to avoid her assault when instead of a punch, a shiny plastic badge was shoved right in his face.
She invaded his space without a single thought, but that was not what truly threw him off.
What had his eyebrows rising, and disbelief coloring his face was, in fact, the solid lettering on what appeared to be her clearance badge that announced for all the world to see that she was an intern.
Maybe it was the impending change to his life as he finally had a solid pathway to his goals in his grasp, maybe it was the stress of the day, or maybe it was just the fact that he was a teenage boy, and no matter how hard he tried, not even he always said or did the right thing… But the words that came out of his mouth next probably could've been said better.
"That's a joke." The girl looked about 12, and he highly doubted she was allowed anywhere near medical equiptment.
Wide eyed as she been, her anger running hot in her eyes, Shouto had been expecting an outburst. Something snappy in reply maybe, or possibly just a plain old show of physical aggression. Maybe he'd wanted it even, just something to give him a reason to feel the anger that had been bubbling inside him all morning.
What he hadn't been expecting was her to freeze, eyes going impossibly wider, before slowly stepping back and letting her arms drop to her side. He could see her jaw clench, and it was obvious she'd been hurt by what he said. For as dark as they were, her brown eyes where oddly expressive.
In that moment, Shouto knew he should probably just apologize before the situation got worse. It seemed he waited a moment too long, however, because her face quickly took on a startling blankness and she was moving past him before he could think through a plan of action.
Without looking back, she grabbed the door handle and yanked it open, her parting words slicing through him in a way she had no way of knowing would hit home:
"No, what's a joke is someone like you ever thinking they could become a hero."
o.0.o
Vee missed exactly three things as she fled, her hurt threatening to rise up even as she pushed it down in to that yawning void of emptiness in her chest.
The first was the look on the boy's face as her words filled the air.
The second was that the temperature outside suddenly dropped a good 20 degrees.
The third was that without knowing it, the conviction of her words betrayed a feeling she didn't often share.
She hadn't meant to hurt him, not really , and the girl had no way of knowing the weight her words held.
See, the sad truth of it all was that Viveca Golding didn't just think the angry boy on her roof was a joke for wanting to become a hero, she just didn't believe in all those hyped up 'heroes' in the first place.
After all, what worth was a hero to a girl who knew not a single one of them could save her from herself?