Long time no see, let's get this show on the road.
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Shouto Todoroki never received a reply to his question. The days came and went. His anger, which had been more from frustration at his father's meddling, had waned in favor of other things to occupy his mind. So with that, the confusing intern slipped from his thoughts.
It was on his first day at U.A. High School that she wormed her way back.
Their teacher, Aizawa-sensei, had set out to give them their first lesson. It was simple really, and though he said nothing, Shouto could see the merit of it. The whole goal of U.A. was to train heroes for a new generation, push them to be better and stronger.
To go beyond, Plus Ultra.
You couldn't go beyond limits that weren't defined, however, and so when Aizawa-sensei asked them to assess their physical prowess, Shouto stepped up to the challenge without hesitation. The tasks were simple, but he couldn't have predicted the outcome.
Shouto knew how to use his quirk, but watching his classmates sparked something in him. It was subtle, and if pressed he wouldn't truly be able to explain himself. Even so, watching his new classmates as they used their quirks in new ways in order to rise to their mundane challenges was… interesting. It was obvious that some had more control than others, Midoriya being the lowest on that spectrum of course.
Still, it was interesting. His Father had trained him for combat, and he knew without a doubt that he could beat any of his classmates. A quick blast of ice would incapacitate any of them, really. With that said, it was what would come after that he didn't know. Kirishima, for example, seemed to be able to change the density of his body. That would certainly change how he reacted to Shouto's ice. Different opponents, different quirks, and so many possibilities.
It was those possibilities that once again brought Viveca Goulding back into his thoughts. He didn't know exactly what her internship entailed, but he did know she had access to all types of medical research. She'd sent him his own, after all.
So, as he wondered about his classmates and their quirks, he also found himself wondering about the small girl. He could picture the last time he'd seen her, and the blatant disrespect she'd shown his Father. Her abrupt departure could've been attributed to her being obviously American and not knowing the proper customs, but she'd bowed to him.
She'd shown deference to him even with Enji in the room. It was small, and easily dismissible, but for the first time in his life someone had paid attention to Shouto even with Endeavor in the room. He wasn't just Endeavor's pawn, or even just his son. Viveca, even after the tension between them, had seen fit to show him manners he hadn't even earned.
It was refreshing, but he couldn't help but wonder what exactly she'd been thinking. In that thought process, he also realized that perhaps the last message he'd sent her hadn't been clear enough. He'd asked her 'why' but had not specified what exactly he was asking after. He hadn't even introduced himself, as impulsive as the message had been.
The signature at the bottom of her email had listed a number available for both text message and call, so he'd messaged her instead of emailing, thinking it quicker.
So, though she hadn't responded to his last inquiry, Shouto did something he couldn't quite explain. That night, he called her.
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At 15 years old, Viveca Golding lived alone. Her apartment was a small studio, a bathroom and closet being the only other doors besides the exit. She tried to keep it clean, but her summer had been tiring and hectic. Spending hours upon hours at the hospital left her exhausted, so keeping a tidy living space just wasn't one of her priorities.
If her parents had seen her living space they'd have chewed her out for sure, but luckily for her she had plenty of time to clean before they'd visit.
Her parents, while attentive enough, where busy people. Both were in the military and had been stationed in Japan for over 4 years. When they'd been deployed, it had been a big change for her. At the time, though, she'd already been well into her home schooling. Combine that with the fact that she hadn't had many friends in the first place, and the move had gone smoothly.
Aliyah and Mark Golding were both good people. Aliyah had a mild durability quirk, and Mark was able to see into the infrared spectrum. Both, of course, were useful in their chosen career. They were a good match, both strong headed and strong bodied. They met in the military and married within a year, making no secret of their affection for each other. It was a good match in the eyes of all who knew them.
It was a good match, a happy enough home, and it was… lonely. Viveca was an only child for a reason, and though no one had said it, she knew she was an accident. Hell, her Dad had gone and had a vasectomy the same year she was born.
It wasn't to say that her parents were bad to her in any way, they were just busy. Both had lifelong plans of service and having a child hadn't stopped that, just slowed them down. Often her parents alternated their leaves, but Vee could count on her hand the number of times they'd all been together at once. Still, when they were around they made sure she knew they loved her.
And yet they didn't know her.
Her Mom could recall Vee's first word, tell you every school she'd ever been to, and had never missed a single birthday. Her Dad could brag about how many grades his daughter had skipped for hours; would show off every childish drawing she'd ever made him.
And yet if prompted, neither of them could tell you their child's favorite color.
So Vee had grown up lonely; loved but never seen. Those that did see her often dismissed her. It was easy, after all. She was painfully average in every way. Brown hair, brown eyes, a little overweight. Even if she was a little awkward, she could have fun as well as anyone else, but once the fun was over she was easy to forget. She'd been left behind by friends or passed over in favor of tighter bonds often enough to know that truth.
And it was a truth that weighed on her, ate at her. Once, it hadn't been so bad, but through her years in Japan she'd found herself retreating. She'd never been very outgoing, but at the very least she'd made friends at school or in parks as a child.
After her move, though, she stopped doing those things. The language barrier had been a lot even if she was a quick study. She'd always been afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing, but that was tripled when she was thrust into a new culture. So instead of forcing herself to be social, she followed a different path. She studied.
And studied.
And studied.
She studied until she'd finished middle school, then high school. She wrote paper after paper, solved problem after problem, and she basked in her parents pride. She held onto it like a lifeline, and when the time came, she applied for her internship and used her parents pride to fuel her until she had the very thing she coveted.
Her parents understood hard work, and they rewarded her efforts with their full support. So much so that when it came time to figure out how she would get to her internship, they rewarded her with the one thing every teenager wanted most: freedom. Her apartment was cheap for sure, but it was safe and clean. Since both of her parents were active military, they had to stay on base. That didn't mean their daughter had to, though. After looking at the conditions of her internship, they realized that an every day commute just wouldn't be realistic with her odd and long hours.
So they compromised. They found her a studio apartment and they used their savings to pay the rent for her every month. She'd been good, and they expected her to continue to be good. She was smart, cautious, and they trusted her to be safe.
They trusted her, loved her, and provided for her. She was lucky, truly. She knew it deep in her heart as well as in her mind.
And yet every morning when she woke up in her small living space, she didn't feel it. Some days, she felt nothing at all.
Some days she felt too much.
She was having one of the latter days when she received the call.
She'd ignored the text message from the unknown number. She sometimes got them, knowing it was usually a wrong number or a spam number. She figured this was especially true since she hadn't given her number out in a long time, and when the hospital staff looked her up and contacted her they almost always gave their name with their message.
When she received the call, she didn't think much of it. It was a weekday, and with the normal school year back in session, her hospital shifts had been cut in order to make room for her coursework. Most of her classes were online, and at that moment she had been finishing up a paper for one of her courses.
Normally she spent the weekends at the hospital and her weekdays were for school. She was still on call for evening shifts since all her classes were in the morning, but her advisor made a point to not call her in unless she was truly needed. It was a nice reprieve from the nonstop hours she had during her school breaks.
Just because she wasn't at work, however, didn't mean it was completely out of the question for her to get work calls. So when it rang, she sat up straighter in her messy bed and picked it up without another thought.
"Yes?" she said, her voice even and her eyes still scanning her paper for mistakes.
The answering voice nearly made her drop her phone.
"Is this Goulding-San?"
Her heart seized in her chest, and it took her longer than she would've liked to find her composure.
"I… Yes it is. May I ask who it is I'm speaking with?"
Vee knew exactly who she was talking to. She knew because no matter what she did, everything about Shouto Todoroki stuck with her. The coloring, the cool attitude. The voice.
Every time she was alone, all of her mistakes often found her. Every wrong move would pop into her mind at different intervals, reminding her to be more careful.
She was alone often.
" This is Todoroki Shouto, apologize for not introducing myself to begin with," he replied smoothly.
"It's fine," she told him," what can I do for you?"
She meant that question wholeheartedly. She had no idea why he of all people would be calling her. When patients had questions, they called doctors. In fact, she'd never received a call from any patient, and wasn't sure how he'd even gotten her number. Unsure as she was in the situation, she decided to keep her work persona on.
"I had some questions about the results of my tests."
Vee blanked for a good moment, before the pieces connected themselves.
"Ahh, give me just a moment please," she said she horridly pulled up her email. After typing in his name in, she found the email she'd sent him so many nights before. The signature at the bottom confirmed her suspicions, and it took all of her hard learned composure not to swear.
She hadn't taken off her personal signature. She rarely had to, and as tired as she'd been she hadn't noticed it. It was a grave mistake, though, because she knew she shouldn't have sent him in the information in the first place. Panic beginning to rise high in her chest, she bit at her lip before speaking again.
"I can't answer your questions, I'm sorry. I can give you the hospital's number and they should be able to help you."
His immediate reply was not what she expected.
"Why not?"
She could have said a lot of things. She could have said that she didn't have the clearence, that she could be fired. She could have lied and said that she'd misread her instructions and hadn't meant to send him the files after all. She could have said a lot of things, but what she settled on was "It's not my place."
Knowing how little he thought of her already, the words stung.
"But it was your place to send the files?" he pressed immediately.
"Yes," was what she said.
'No,' was what she thought. She hoped that he would drop it and save her from digging herself into a deeper hole.
"Excuse me if I don't understand."
Shouto's voice was steady in a way she envied. Though they'd exchanged sharp words and awkward interactions, he always seemed to hold a poise she knew that she lacked. She constantly fought with herself to say the right thing, to do the right thing.
But the right thing wasn't always easy, and she was only human. She made mistakes. A lot of them, really, and her latest had been with the young Todoroki. She'd snapped at him, her insult pointless and born of her own insecurities. It had been wrong, and after seeing him with his Father, she felt all the worse about it. The feelings bubbled inside of her, tying her stomach in knots.
"Look I'm sorry for what happened on the roof," she found herself blurting, "and-and I'm sorry for sending that file. I just- " She couldn't understand why communicating was so hard, sometimes, "I thought you should have it."
"Why?"
She hadn't thought about how he would answer, but somehow she still didn't think it would have been that.
"What do you mean why?" she questioned, not quite sure what he was asking after. She'd done more than one confusing thing after all. Really, it was a record for her since she had only been around him twice and each time for less than five minutes.
This time, when he asked "Why did you think I should have it?" there was a hesitance.
That made her pause. That, of all things, she thought was obvious. But maybe the very reason she sent it was the reason he'd asked. She'd thought his Father seemed controlling, and maybe a little overbearing. The more she thought about it though, the more she'd come to realize that she really knew nothing of the Todoroki's. She'd acted on instinct, her constantly frazzled nerves showing at the worst of times. It wasn't her business, and so she'd told herself that her assumptions had be unfounded.
Now, she wondered if maybe they hadn't.
"It was your medical information," she said carefully, "I just.. felt you should have it."
"And yet you're not my doctor and you used your personal email," he stated, pulling absolutely no punches.
Vee, in turn, felt her face heating in embarrassment. Hearing it out loud made it sound all the more damning.
"Look," she bit out, "I just felt bad I guess. I'm sorry. It was late, and I was tired."
And she really didn't want to be fired because some hero's son had pushed her buttons.
"That's not very professional," Shouto said.
The weird thing was that he didn't sound angry. He didn't sound accusing either. He stated as a fact in that steady tone that was worming its way so easily under her skin.
"….I know."
Still, she could already see all of her hard work going down the drain. She'd apologized, but there was nothing more she could really say. Split second decisions had ended bigger careers for less. Even at her age, she knew that.
In fact, she was already picturing her parents faces as the silence stretched after that. The disappointment. They wouldn't hate her, but they would be disappointed. They'd bring her home, tolerating her slipup without question, but probably with a few lectures. The lectures, funnily enough, weren't what she was most afraid of. It was the fact that she knew they would just… accept the fact that she'd failed.
It was easier when your expectations weren't high to begin with.
She felt stupid for it, but her eyes began to water, and she fought to hold her quickening breathes. Though he hadn't said anything, Shouto hadn't hung up either. She knew it would make things worse if she ended the call, but as her breathing became harder to control, she found herself wishing that he would just hang up so she could deal with her increasingly overwhelming emotions.
Just as she felt herself about to crack, however, Shouto said something surprising.
"Will you get in trouble for sending it to me?"
"I don't know, probably" she replied honestly.
If she had barely skated around the rules by sending the files, then she had definitely broken a few by using her personal email and forgetting to take of her personal information.
There was silence for a while, then-
"Thank you. My father wouldn't have told me about anything in that report, but it was… useful."
She felt herself tense in a different way, then.
"I still can't tell you anything beyond what's in that report."
"Why not?"
'God, why me?' was all she could think.
"I'm not a physician. I was just filing the reports."
Shouto wasn't ready to leave well enough alone, though.
"But you're an intern for a hospital," he pressed.
She wasn't sure what his point was, and her fear was beginning to shift into something else. Vee was starting to get irritated, wondering if he was just trying to tease her.
"Yes, but I'm not a doctor so I can't help."
"So, you can't answer any medical questions?"
The word can't stuck with her, grinding at her. There was just something so… Inflammatory about the way he spoke.
"It's not that I don't know anything" she said before she could think better of it, "it's just that I'm not finished with my training and I'm not oath bound or legally allowed to treat or diagnose."
Vee had put in the work, and she often helped with nursing duties. She wasn't stupid, and her studies proved that.
"That's not what I'm asking for," he said. In that moment, as uncomfortable as it may have been, Vee wished they were in the same room. It would be so much easier to figure him out if she could see him and not just listen to his calm tone.
"Then what are you asking for?" she bit out.
"Just... advice. And I think you're in a better position to help me than anyone else."
Now that threw her for a loop. The Todoroki's had access to much more experienced (not to mentioned licensed) medical professionals. Not only was Endeavor Japan's number 2 hero, but he was rich. That meant, by extension, Shouto was rich. In her experience, rich people had access to the best of everything.
So what the hell did he want with her?
"How so?" she questioned.
"Like you said, you're not bound by legalities or oaths… so you don't have to report back to Endeavor."
Shout didn't say his Dad. He didn't say Father. He didn't even call the man by his actual name… And damn it all but Vee couldn't help but read into that.
"What makes you think I'm not documenting this conversation right now?" she asked carefully.
"Nothing," he replied, "But I had hoped to ask a favor ."
She couldn't believe her ears, the skeptic in her rearing at full force.
"What kind of favor?"
"I just want to be able to ask questions without my father breathing down my neck and…" this time, she heard a crack in that ever-present composure, "I think you understand that."
From what she'd seen? She did. Vee had thought that the large, intimidating man had a shit relationship with his son, and she'd been right. The confirmation didn't make her feel better, though. But it did make her think. It made her think of her own parents. While nowhere near as uninviting as Enji Todoroki seemed, she knew what strain felt like. Vee knew pain intimately, and did not like the thought of others experiencing it.
It was why she wanted to go into the medical field in the first place.
It was what made her bite the bullet and make what was probably another bad decision.
"Alright," she told him against all better judgement, "I can do that. But if its beyond my expertise I'll have to advise you elsewhere, and I you need to understand that I am not a doctor."
The last part she added even knowing, and maybe hoping, it would make him change his mind.
He didn't.
"It's a deal then,"
And that was how she found herself on the receiving end of oddly timed questions from one Todoroki Shouto.
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We love medical malpractice.