First I just have to say thank you for all the feedback! It was really refreshing because I've taken a pretty long break from writing for my previous fandom (although I still have plans to finish the unfinished ones and maybe post some of my WIPs) and now deciding to write for this one so it's nice to know that there's still people out there who want to read my stuff.
So since you guys liked it I figured I could keep going! Still not sure how long this will be or where's it going but I've got some ideas so here we go. Updates probably won't be very constant, as midterms are starting up, so please bear with me! I also wrote parts of this at midnight and I don't have a beta so sorry if it doesn't make any sense. If there's any errors please tell me and I will correct them!
Shouto was in a room with no way out. There were no windows or doors. The temperature was rising as well, as if someone unseen had just slowly started turning up the heater. The air was becoming stuffy and suffocating too quickly. The walls had white paint, but the heat was making the paint peel to reveal sharp red wallpaper underneath.
The teenager stepped toward one of the walls, pressing his hands to peeling paint, trying to keep it in place, but it melted in his fingers. Then the wall burst into flames and suddenly the whole room around him was on fire. He jumped back to the center of the room where the fire wasn't as dense and suffocating.
Shouto clinched his right fist, but the ice evaporated as soon as he tried to summon it. He surveyed the room again, coughing slightly from the smoke now collecting at the ceiling. There was no way out, no windows, no doors. Smoke wasn't even escaping through cracks in the wall. It was stuck inside, just like him.
He started coughing harder. His eyes were tearing up. The flames were creeping closer again. It didn't hurt his left side, but his right side burned. He was sweating from the unbearable heat. Shouto fell to his knees, his pants instantly burned through at the knees. He couldn't get a clean breath. He was choking on the smoke.
He was going to suffocate. He was going to burned alive. He was going to get crushed when the room collapsed. He was going to die. Shouto was going to die.
Brutal coughs wracked his body as he struggled to breathe in and out. His skin burned, even on the left side. His vision was blurry at best. This was it. Trapped in a room on fire, that's how Todoroki Shouto would die, huh? How ironic, for the son of the fire hero.
The teenager looked up again as his vision threatened to fade. He could hear the crackling of the fire all around. He desperately searched for something he may have missed, but there was nothing.
Suddenly, he wasn't alone anymore in the room. There was a pale green outline of someone. Who? He didn't know, but their hand was outstretched for Shouto to grab and there was no time to think about it. With his last smoky breath and his vision turning black he grabbed their hand.
Shouto jerked awake, gasping aloud, then clasping a hand over his mouth, hoping he hadn't been as loud as he thought. His room was empty, as it usually was and thankfully not on fire. His skin wasn't burned and his blankets only had the usual burn marks from his own quirk. He had a habit of burned or freezing the sheets beside him during nightmares.
The simple alarm clock read 6:32 in obnoxious red numbers. His father has left early for a mission across town so he would miss seeing Shouto off to Yuuei this morning. Although, his father's absence left the house a good quiet. Fuyami had already left for work, too.
The teenager took a few deep breaths. His quirk wasn't acting up, but his hands were shaking. A moment later he threw the sheets aside and got up.
In silence, Shouto got ready for school. He took a quick shower and used his left hand to dry his hair, parting it in the mirror, then getting dressed and walking in the kitchen for a quick breakfast. Then he left. The school was far enough away that he had to take a fifteen minute train to the station near campus. He settled in a seat near the door, noticing a woman staring in his direction as the train started moving.
The staring wasn't unusual, whether it was the hair or the eyes or the scar, Shouto had plenty of reasons for someone to stare. He just looked away from the woman with a guarded expression, glancing out the window across the car from him.
The teenager knew he should probably be excited, he was going to his first day of high school at the best hero academy in Japan. But he still felt like he had cheated somehow, whether it was because they had let him in on his father's recommendation or that this was the school that his father had picked out for him. It didn't seem like his high school, just another thing his father had done for him. Another part of his life his father was controlling.
He wasn't there to train, as his father would take care of that. Shouto was there to scope out the competition for the future, maybe salvage the little social skills he had left and try to have a few conversations with people his age. His father had kept him isolated most his life, even from his own siblings.
"Friends are useless, you are to note their weaknesses, things that will keep them from getting to the top, things you can exploit, if necessary." His father had lectured last night. No friends if Shouto was going to surpass them all. "There will be plenty talk of soulmates as well, but you don't have a soulmate, so you don't have to worry about that."
Shouto suddenly remembered his dream. It wasn't the first time he had a nightmare like that. He often had one where he went up in flames, but sometimes there was the green silhouette as well. It always was the one that helped him get out. It would show him a door or a different path or it would hold out it's hand and help him wake up.
He had always thought the green silhouette must have to do with his soulmate. He could barely recall the courtyard dreams of his childhood and had never dared tell anyone that they had stopped. His mother and Fuyami were the only ones who had known they existed in the first place. With his mother gone and Fuyami busy with her own life, no one knew remembered them anymore.
His father had just assumed that Shouto didn't have a soulmate, since he didn't have any marks and had always lied when asked about any soulmate connections.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find a way back to the courtyard. Shouto was probably an insomniac, he was always tired from training and his father and everything else, but he could barely sleep at night. When he did there were always nightmares that squashed any dreams he might have.
He figured his soulmate must have given up on him at this point, and the silhouette was just a reminder of what Shouto could have had if his life wasn't so screwed. Maybe the silhouette was just a piece of his soulmate that remained stuck in his head, while the real one had moved on years ago.
Yuuei was buzzing with activity, from the incoming first years to the returning second and third years. The campus was as nice and shiny as expected, the tall glass towers gleaming in the morning sunshine. A few pro-hero teachers Shouto recognized walked around, speaking to students and ushering them off to their home rooms. They all seemed to avoid him.
Shouto found the 1-A classroom without much trouble. The class was half filled with teenagers when he arrived, sitting in his assigned seat in the back row. Some were collected at certain desks, some bouncing around to multiple groups. One tall boy with dark blue hair and glasses lingered by the doorway, greeting everyone who walked in.
A girl with dark hair was the only one who sat anywhere near him, he recognized her from the recommendations exam. She offered him a friendly smile and a wave, but Shouto remained neutral. Part of him begged that he had just said hello back.
As the classroom slowly filled with most students, few glanced his direction. Well, no. Plenty of eyes watched him for a moment too long. Whether they were staring at his hair or his scar or the fact that he was Endeavor's son, it wasn't obvious. He cared, of course, but he had long since gotten used to the stares and they usually looked away quickly enough when he caught them.
No one, however, tried to talk to him or even smiled after the girl beside him. Shouto knew he should be thankful, he had little to no experience interacting with anyone his age beside his siblings and even they were all a good several years older than him. His father had homeschooled him for his elementary years so they could have more training time, only allowing him to go to an expensive private school in middle school so he would have some hope when met with people his age.
None of it really mattered anyway. The stares and the whispers never left him and Shouto had never allowed himself to dream of a time when they finally did. He didn't allow himself to dream anymore at all. His future was already decided.
As he observed his classmates, he could tell some of their soulmates bonds easily. A boy with spiky red hair had a black handprint on his own hand, a girl with short purple had a yellow band around her wrist, a blond, sparkly boy had a neat purple string tied to his finger, stretching out of the classroom. There were others Shouto could identify with closer attention, but some were less obvious like his own. Statistics said that 46% of people found their soulmates in high school or college.
For a moment he allowed himself a thought where one of the lucky 46% and his soulmate walked through that door right now. And he abandoned his father and he was able to apologize for the dreams and the fire and everything was perfect. Then Shouto brushed the edge of his scar and was reminded of the brutal truth. His soulmate was gone, his courtyard was gone, his dreams were gone. The only thing he could dream about now was to become the number one hero and show his father that he didn't need him or his quirk to get there. It was all he had left.
Class was almost about to begin when the class is mostly full, only a few desks remain empty as the other students returned to their seats. Two of the last students walk in. Shouto rests his head on his hand, watching the blue-haired teenager jump from his seat to the door again. He is talking to the newcomers, a girl and a boy with a simple appearance. They all seem to know each other.
Although, try as he might to not be, Shouto feels drawn to the new boy, who has curls and eyes that remind him of spring. He isn't anything special to anyone else, but for some reason Shouto finds himself wanting to be around him. He seems perfect, in some strange way that Shouto can't place. He is like a magnet for his eyes and he can't seem to look away as the boy blushes at something the others say. Class starts soon after and Shouto can only stare at the back of his head. Another voice in his head reminds him that the boy didn't even spare a glance in his direction.
The Quirk Apprehension Test was no trouble for Shouto, he barely even remembers exactly what he did to get to the second place. His classmates quirks are a variety but still, he didn't observe them as closely as he should of. Instead, that boy, who he learns is named Midoriya Izuku, captures all of his attention unwillingly.
He's unique. Someone who made it so far, all the way to Yuuei's Hero Course, yet can't even control his own quirk. He is strong, bright and it radiates from him in a way Shouto can just tell. He has some sort of history with Bakagou, who is an entire other problem, and for some reason Shouto still can't keep Midoriya from his mind. Even when Midoriya wasn't competing, Shouto wanted to look at him, wanted to watch him talk to his friends, wanted to be among them.
As they're changing back into their school uniforms, Shouto reminds himself. He is here to become a hero, to surpass his father and be better than he ever was. No one was going to get in his way, not even Midoriya. He couldn't let anything get in his way. This was all he had left. The only dream that remained.
The classes themselves are easy. Shouto can pretend to be engrossed in his work and ignore the whispers and giggles of his classmates who can have friends. Lunch, though, presents a new problem. It's a social hive, buzzing with students of all courses and years. The girl from recommendations, Yaoyorozu Momo, offers for him to sit with her and her newfound friends, but Shouto declines.
The cafeteria is loud and gives him a headache, so he collects his plate and quickly leaves without a word to anyone, hoping he can escape to somewhere quieter before a teacher notices him. Whether they do or not, no one stops him as he walks down the campus hallways.
It's a pleasant day, and while the temperature never affects him much, Shouto can recognize it's a gentle warm. He finds himself on a path leading outside from one of the left buildings. A concrete path winds in smooth curves into a secluded area of campus. The grass on either side of the path is a bright green, for some reason he thinks of Midoriya again.
As he walks, searching for a bench to stop and eat, he gets a feeling of deja vu. The teenager knows he's never been here before today, he hadn't known where he was going, and his feet had just brought him here without much thought. But that tree looks familiar and he can imagine exactly what it looks like in the heat of summer and the cold of winter. He can predict the next cracks in the cement of the sidewalk before he gets to them and exact curvature of the path as if he had walked it a hundred times before. It isn't until he comes across a bench along the path, just a simple cement bench underneath the shade of another beautiful green tree does he realize.
It's the courtyard from his dreams.
This one was long and kind of boring, but it's some plot and building stuff I had to get through. Hope you enjoyed! :)
