QUICK NOTE ABOUT AGES: I describe Shouto, Inasa and Toph as seven year olds, but apparently Shouto's birthday is in January—therefore he's actually only six throughout the whole kidnapping thing, and it's only been about nine months since he got the scar. Toph is actually older than both of the boys, with her birthday just after the start of the school year in April.
I like to keep track of these sort of things, but only after totally ignoring them in my own writing. Endeavor is 37 if anyone was wondering. Poppy is 35, Lao is 40.
A woman drums her fingers against the steering wheel of her car, adding to the percussion beat of rain against her sunroof. She twists the rearview mirror to get a better look at her hair as she takes out her hair ties. It's raining a lot today, and it's ruined the braided bun she usually puts her hair up with. It doesn't matter all the much, she's not that vain, but too much moisture in the air makes her feel gross. Damp, cold days are just inconvenient, you know?
She also forgot an umbrella, so there's that.
Her eyes fall to the picture balanced on her dash, and she smiles a little despite her irritation. She catches movement out the corner of her eye and instinctively she reaches for the picture as the passenger-side door opens abruptly. She leaves the picture face-down as a rain-drenched Endeavor shoves his way into her car, muttering viciously about one thing or another and completely ignoring her.
She raises an eyebrow as the car begins to steam up from his facial… fire-mask thing.
"Hey, no flames inside my car, Mr. Hero," she warns him, already feeling sweaty despite the chilled air he's let in. "Come on, Endeavor, I'm serious."
"What, Ito?!" He barks, clearly not listening. He's too busy shoving the seat all the way back so his legs can fit in her sedan. "This car is awful."
"The flames," Detective Ito says again urgently. "Turn it off! You're not even in costume!" And he isn't, for once, instead wearing an overcoat and a regular business suit beneath it. She's never seen him out of his flaming pajamas before. Honestly, this whole case has been such a mind fuck for Ito.
He just scowls, the flames dissipating quickly.
Ito looks away when he's done bitching, pressing a button to crack the windows open. She fiddles with the settings of her windshield wipers too. "So, Endeavor—" She turns, noticing that he's already looking at her with an odd, not-angry expression "What?" She asks instead, and he quickly looks away, having been caught staring.
"Nothing," Endeavor mutters.
Well, she wouldn't be much of a detective if she didn't know when to push her luck. "What's with the face?" It seems important, he looked pensive. "Endeavor?"He has his arms crossed, so she prods his hand.
"It's not—" His gaze is still focused on the dusty glove box in front of him. "It's nothing. Your hair just looks a lot like my wife's right now." He bristles like an angry cat at his own words. "It's none of your damn business, Ito."
"Oh. Sorry I asked," she says slowly, bewildered by his train of thought. She did push, though, so this is what she gets. "You're a little uptight today, I was hoping you taking a day off meant you'd relax a little." she ventures carefully. After ten days of Endeavor bursting into the precinct to bitch about the Elementals, it was odd to get a phone call from his office telling them not to expect the Flame Hero. "Sure you don't need another sick day?"
"Just drive, Detective Ito," he replies coldly, only looking at her from the corner of his eye. "I'm not sick."
She hums, turning down the heat and holding out her phone to the hero. "Put the address in my phone, will ya?"
Thankfully he takes the phone without question, inputting the coordinates for the prison. "It's quite far. Are you sure you're up for the drive?"
"Well, I'm not letting you drive my car," she answers bluntly. In fact, she'd rather he take a damn taxi to their destination, but technically they need her badge and the approval forms and a few other forms of ID just to get through the front gate. Oh, the joys of bureaucracy. "Make it quick in there, alright? I have an appointment this afternoon," she warns him.
"Another one? You should just take a sick day," he sneers. It would be funny if he actually meant it as a joke, not an insult.
"If only I could afford it," she answers anyway, "I'm not exactly swimming in cash, if you couldn't tell."
"I'm aware," Endeavor sticks her phone back onto the little stand and the directions light up the screen as she pulls out of the parking lot of the precinct. "Your shitty car made that obvious enough."
Shitty car? Really? Ito glares at the road, but her voice stays sickly sweet as she replies, "You'd be much closer to becoming the Number One Hero if you weren't such a shitstain."
She regrets it as soon as the words leave her mouth. He doesn't answer. She's going to get demoted for this. Ito risks a glance his way—"Oh my god, you look awful, I'm actually a little sorry now."
He looks ready to strangle her, but he also looks incredibly stunned (and maybe a little hurt, ha!). "For Kami's sake," he growls, turning away. "If you're so against working with me, why'd you volunteer for this?"
She drums her fingers on the steering wheel again, more nervous than before. "It was either me or Kanto, we played rock-paper-scissors for it." She let Kanto win. She didn't like Endeavor much, but Kanto always sweats a lot around Endeavor and then stinks up the whole office.
"Of course you fucking did," Endeavor scowls, sinking heavily in his seat. "It's not like this is important or anything."
"It really isn't," Ito insists, like she has been for the past week and a half of working with this insufferable asshole. "Your source is wrong. Cults like Amon's Vision rely on a charismatic leader, and no one's better than Tarrlok. Taking him down brought down the whole thing, it's as simple as that."
"AV was all about replacing the Avatar, and so were the Elementals. There's a clear similarity in their thinking—"
"You know what Amon's actual vision was, in the legends?" She cuts him off impatiently. "He wanted to take away all bending abilities. It was a power only granted to the Avatar—so yes, technically speaking, Amon was trying to become as powerful as him. That's the part that AV's following focused on. But what Amon wanted most of all was equality through the erasure of quirks. Balance between the weak and powerful. That was Tarrlok's ultimate goal. So why would he be interested frankenstein-ing an Avatar from those kids? He wouldn't grant that ability to anyone but himself."
Endeavor gives her a suspicious look. "Is there a reason you're bringing all this up right now? You didn't say a word about the Avatar myths while I was actively researching them."
Ito huffs. "Why give you all the answers, huh? You're dead-set on seeing this through either way."
"If you had any sense of duty, so would you," he snaps, making her flinch. "If you don't have any real questions about my work than you're free to stay quiet the rest of this trip."
She stares down the road, caught a little off-guard by the anger in his tone. Ito knew he had a quick temper, she expected his rage, but to be lectured? Chastised by the Number Two Hero? It's a strange feeling.
After a moment she composes herself. "Um. So, you got a game plan for interrogating our guy?"
"I did," Endeavor replies irritably, shifting in his seat. "But Tarrlok's a skilled waterbender, and with all this damn rain…"
"You don't think he'll try anything, do you?" She asks in alarm. "I mean, you're the Flame Hero. And he's got a dozen guns pointed at him at all times."
"He's serving a life sentence with no chance for parole," Endeavor grumbles. "He's got nothing to lose and nothing to gain from this, and the rain makes him stronger."
"Then why are we even going to meet him?" She complains, deflating a little. "And are you even going to meet him? You're soaking wet, he could… oh. Right." She realizes her mistake halfway through her thought when Endeavor gives her a disparaging look. "Hey. For half a second I was actually concerned for your safety," Ito says defensively.
"You can stay in the car, Detective," says Endeavor dryly. "I just needed you for the papers."
"Good to know I'm still useful," Ito remarks, unable to hold it in.
The Flame Hero just sighs, not rising to the taunt.
After a moment he takes out more files from the briefcase shoved between his feet. He begins reading, and Ito takes the hint, rude as it is, to let the conversation die away. For one of the most successful heroes in the country, Endeavor sure is unsociable. It makes her life so difficult.
Ito isn't unsociable. The silence is weird. She flicks on the radio to fill the void, picking some obnoxious boy band because, yeah, she's petty. Her car is fine. She can hear Endeavor swear under his breath.
Yep. Worth it.
It take a few weeks of hero-chasing before Inasa comes across a fight dangerous enough to warrant the Number Two Hero's help. After being unable to find the Beifongs again he did try camping outside of Endeavor's office, but the man had to have some kind of secret entrance or something, because Inasa never saw him enter or exit! This is why he needs Toph around, she would've figured it out way quicker than him.
Man, he misses Toph a lot. He still practices his quirk in the forest, and he's definitely improving, but nothing beats training with Toph. She's a great teacher on top of being a great fighter…
Anyway, that's why he's sprinting down the street, towards the huge plumes of smoke a few blocks away. He can't hear any more explosions so Endeavor probably beat that acid villain already, so he has to be quick. The closer he gets to the scene, the more people there are, crowding the streets either in a panic or as an audience.
Inasa shoves past elbows and flailing arms, grateful that he's big enough not to get pushed around too much. In his pocket he has a photo. After all the craziness with the Elementals, his parents finally decided it was time to get Inasa a phone. Before that, though, he only took a few blurry pictures with on with his mom's phone. It didn't help that Toph had zero interest in taking pictures… but nonetheless, he had ONE usable photo. So he printed it out for reference. A lot people had no idea that the Beifong family even had an heir, and Inasa wanted to make sure Endeavor knew who he was talking about.
And—there he is! "Endeavor!" Inasa shouts, leaping ahead of the crowds. "ENDEAVOR! WAIT!"
He sprints forward, buoyed by a gust of accidental wind, and the hero stops—the wind made his flames kind of flare up, whoops—
"What the hell are you doing?" Endeavor snaps, quickly pulling the flames down.
"Sorry!" Inasa exclaims, tugging the photo out. "But I needed—" The paper is knocked out of his hand so abruptly that Inasa stumbles back in alarm. "Hey!"
"Get out of my way, kid. I don't have time for autographs." Endeavor eyes him disapprovingly. Suddenly it seems to click, and his eyes narrow. "Yoarashi, isn't it?"
Inasa nods vigorously. "It's me again! I don't need an autograph—"
"This is an active crime scene, get out of here—"
"—Do you remember Toph?" Inasa steamrolls on desperately, "I haven't seen her lately, have you?"
The hero goes rigid, and then his expression goes from disapproving to downright cold, "I said get out of my way."
There's nothing but frigid rage in his eyes, and for once in his life, Inasa is honestly scared. He steps back, tripping over rubble. He pulls his eyes away, scrambling to his feet and retreating from the scene in a haze.
He doesn't realize that his picture's gone until that night at home. But when he goes up to his mom to ask for another one, she gives him an apologetic look and tell him she must've deleted the picture when making room on her smartphone.
"I'm sorry baby, but why don't you just take another one? Who was this girl again?"
"Toph," Inasa explains, for what feels like the hundredth time. His mother only gives him a mildly interested look. "She has an earth quirk? She was with me during the kidnapping, mom."
"Oh, that must've been awful," his mom says sympathetically. "I'm so glad you came home safe, you know that?"
"Yeah," Inasa frowns, because the kidnapping wasn't awful because Toph saved them. Why was that always the part Mom forgot? "But I haven't seen Toph since then. I don't know what happened to her, and Endeavor doesn't care either!"
"You met Endeavor again?" She asks in surprise. "Oh my, did you get an autograph? I know he's one of your favorite heroes."
Inasa throws up his hands in frustration. "I'm going to bed!" He declares angrily, stomping up the stairs.
"Inasa? Inasa, it's six o'clock, we haven't had dinner yet!"
Without a word, Inasa pulls hard on the air around himself, whipping the bedroom door closed with a SLAM. Then he falls face-first onto his bed and screams into his pillow until tears trickle down his face.
Toph is gone. Endeavor doesn't care at all about them. And it seems like his parents don't care either, with the way they just brush off his concerns all the time! Inasa isn't being unreasonable! What if something bad happened to Toph?
Or, thinks the cynical part of his mind, What if she just doesn't want to be friends with me anymore? She used to sneak out all the time to find me, she's so skilled, if she wanted to keep hanging out she would've done it.
But her parents are overprotective. So there's also a good chance that she's just being super sheltered by them now. The Beifongs are so rich, they could probably afford a cloaking device to hide away from the world. No wonder Inasa couldn't find them, he's not as smart or as strong as a pro hero or anything. Thanks a lot, Endeavor.
Inasa bites down on his pillow viciously. Either way, Toph is gone. And there's only one thing for him to do.
Become a hero. There's only one path in life for someone as hot-blooded and good-hearted as Toph Beifong. If they're both still reaching for the same goal, they're bound to meet again.
And if you're not there when I become a hero, Inasa promises, then at least I'll be good enough to save you.
Toph isn't too crazy about school. Her parents enroll her in an elite elementary school that is so well-protected, many famous politicians, businessmen, and heroes send their children there. So there's a lot interesting people all around her, and while she's a little unpopular because of her blindness, the school is accommodating and no one's going to bother a Beifong.
She goes through an entire year of school with no problems.
She talks to classmates, she does assignments, she even asks questions once in a while. Her therapist asks if she's making any friends, and Toph shrugs, honestly uninterested in becoming close friends with any of the girls she talks to in class. If her parents think it's a problem, they haven't mentioned it. They're back to basically ignoring her existence now that she's "settled down."
The girls in her class are kind of petty. Really, who cares if Best Jeanist has the most luxurious hair ever? What's the point in knowing whether or not Miho-chan has a crush on Nishiya? Still, Toph endures their gossip. It's nothing to her.
Her classmates begin to shuffle to their feet, indicating the end of the lunch period. Toph follows suit, giving a smile to the girl on her left offering to straighten her jacket out.
After classes end, Toph is driven home. Her father's been working in Singapore for the last month, and her mother is visiting a factory in Hokkaido, but she still has a therapy session with Ms. Aiko, and the woman arrives at the Beifong home at four o'clock sharp.
Ms. Aiko is a short woman with a sturdy frame and a generous figure. She wears soft sweaters that make no noise and matches them with clunky combat boots for some reason. Directly after the Elementals debacle, Toph had to meet with Aiko twice a week and explain all about her quirk, her friend Twinkletoes, and what happened during the kidnapping. After about a month they switched to weekly, and then every-other-week sessions.
"Hello, Toph," she says kindly.
"Hello Ms. Aiko," Toph replies plainly, flopping onto a leather couch. They use one of the many sitting rooms in the Beifong home for their talks.
"So, how do you feel now that your first year of school is ending?" Aiko leans her chin into one hand, slouching a little in the armchair next to Toph.
"I'll be a little bored without classes," Toph answers.
"Oh really?" Aiko says, not too convinced by her tone. "You don't have anything to fill up all that free time?"
Toph smiles sweetly. "Well, Mother thinks I ought to learn how to play the tsungi horn. I like music, but I'm not sure I want to carry a huge tube of brass around me. I'll look like a balloon."
"Toph," Aiko giggles at the thought, tapping her hand to chide her. "Be honest with me. You're not still training to be a hero, right?"
"Nope."
"And you're not going to associate with any students looking to become heroes?"
"No," Toph says again. Aiko's hand on her wrist feels cool and smooth. "All the kids of heroes in my school are pretty lame anyway, y'know. They think they're better than everyone because they have strong quirks."
"You have a pretty strong quirk too," Aiko murmurs. "But you're not going to do anything dangerous with it, right?"
"No, I—" Toph catches herself. "My quirk isn't strong. I can't do anything that could hurt me."
"Good," Aiko says in relief, letting her hand slip away. "You're doing so well, Toph. I'm not sure how much longer we need these sessions, to be honest."
Toph smiles sweetly at Ms. Aiko, the same smile she presents every day.
When Endeavor finally returns to the car, all the paperwork in his hands from the prison's records, his mind is racing.
Tarrlok is dead according all the reports, his body cremated just a year ago. But the man in the last recorded images of him doesn't look anything like the man they captured. He slams the car door shut and tosses the papers on the dash. "Drive," he tells Detective Ito, who's tapping away on her smartphone. "I need to get back to my offices."
"Back to your offices?" Ito puts the car in reverse to pull out of the parking lot. "You're looking pretty fired up, don't go smoking up my car again," Ito warns him. "It's stuffy enough as it is."
Oh. He has the flames on. Enji quickly shuts them off. "Tarrlok was supposedly killed a year ago," explains, carefully placing the files into a leather briefcase.
"So all that crap about AV's involvement really is just crap?" Ito surmises easily, her eyes fixed on the road. She makes a noise of annoyance and cranks up her windshield wipers as the rain really begins to come down.
"Not at all," Endeavor shakes his head. "I saw the footage of the riot that killed him. The man in the video wasn't the man we captured—"
"What?!"
"—He's been out of prison for over a year and nobody's said a thing!" Of course the prison claimed to have sent the proper reports out and it must've 'gotten lost in transit'. It was bullshit. This whole case was a shit show.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ito exclaims, the car swerving a little in alarm. "Out of prison?!"
"For fuck's sake woman, don't you know how to drive?" Enji growls, clutching one of the handles attaches to the car's roof.
"Fuck you," she answers promptly. "You just dropped a bomb on me! What do you mean, Tarrlok's been out for a year? How do you know it isn't him in the video?"
"He's too short," Enji says impatiently. "His build is all wrong. He has the hair and the coloring, but that's all. If anyone in that prison cared at all, they would've noticed the swap straight away." He scowls. "I can't trust any of those officers. That's why I need to get back to my offices, alert the Hero Association, see who else I can put on this case."
"Okay, so now you're accusing the prison of corruption too?" Ito asks annoyedly, shooting him a cold look. The car swerves a little again.
"Pull over," Enji demands. The rain's gotten worse. "Pull over, Ito, before you crash your damn car." Even if it would be an improvement for the vehicle...
The detective lets out a noise of frustration, but does as she's told, and the car jerks to a stop.
She eyes him angrily, but doesn't even comment about having to pull over. "First it's the Beifongs, then it's my precinct, and now it's a prison twenty miles away? At some point you're gonna have to trust someone other than yourself and the two and half sidekicks you deem tolerable," she sneers.
Endeavor rolls his eyes. Ito's a decent officer, and out of the whole precinct, she's been the least reluctant to help him. "I tolerate you, don't I? Even though you've been nothing but a drag on this investigation, Detective."
Ito pauses, blinking at him in surprise. "So you do trust me?" she asks haltingly, brow furrowed.
He nods impatiently. "Isn't that obvious? Why else would I be telling you all this?"
"Oh." She hums in consideration. "I—I appreciate that, you know." Endeavor's eyes slide over to look through the blurry windshield of the car, waiting for the emotional detective to calm down and start driving again. He feels something brush against the side of his hand and suddenly his vision goes foggy, like the whole world is as hazy as the rain-washed windows. There is a voice, molten hot in his mind. "... I'm not sure that you should."
Be still, the voice says. He can't move. He can barely think. Thoughts move sluggishly through his head, no matter what he tries. It's the physical contact he knows it already. He could break this fog if he could move his hand away from hers.
Enji focuses everything on the limb. Move, he wills it desperately, seeing her pale blue hair out of the corner of his eye, ignite, ignite, fire—his finger twitches—bURN, BURN HER, BURN HER, MOVE—
But then her free hand reaches for his chin, and the second point of contact makes his muscles go slack once more. Enji sinks further into a fog.
"You almost had me there, hot shot," she teases, her tone light and breathy. So benign, so demure like Rei used to be. Why did he tell her about Rei, anyway?
Ito turns his head towards her face until he's forced to look directly into her violet eyes, and her voice drips like honey as her quirk activates again. "There's a few things we need to discuss, Endeavor. First of all, the Beifongs don't have a daughter."
A/N: Aaaand that's Book One! Don't you love a good cliffhanger? If you have questions, drop a review – I like replying to comments!
