Moments after Best Jeanist and Hawks left Endeavor's room, the atmosphere, well, it didn't relax, but it lessened a degree. This was the first time in a very long while that the (majority of) the Todoroki family was in one room together after all, but it settled into a blanket of heavy tension that was familiar to Shoto all the same.

Then there came yelling and screaming that Todoroki was also, unfortunately accustomed to.

"DEKU YOU FUCKING BASTARD!"

The yell jolted most of the Todoroki family slightly, but Shoto simply turned to look in the direction of the door. It seemed Bakugo was awake as well. He'd heard from Kirishima and the others that he was going to be fine, but hearing him screaming was another matter. He'd expected a few more hours before... this .

"WHY THE HELL AM I AWAKE WHEN YOU'RE STILL SLEEPING, HUH?!"

Then there was shouting from a host of their other classmates, and what sounded like a scuffle broke out. Shoto listened for the pop of explosions as he headed toward the door, but there weren't any. By the time Shoto had entered the hallway, Bakugo had been dragged down the hallway, presumably back to his own room, tied up in Asui's tongue.

So he was looking for Midoriya, then. Shoto closed his eyes as the image of Bakugo pushing Midoriya out of the way of Shigaraki's tendrils pierced his mind. The confusing amalgamation of relief and pure terror-

He shook his head. He almost wanted to stop his classmates dragging Bakugo away. And if Bakugo could force his way in to see Midoriya, then Shoto could probably get in by following Bakugo's wake of destruction. But it wasn't as if he could stop or even get the attention of his classmates, short of using his quirk in the hallway.

He lowered his hand and watched blandly as Bakugo was dragged back to his room by a force of overprotective classmates as Bakugo continued to yell incoherently. Just as they rounded the corner, Bakugo managed to get a hand free and pointed straight at Shoto, yelling something he couldn't make out over their classmate's raised voices.

Shoto stood in the hallway for several moments, considering his options. The threshold back into his father's room suddenly seemed like an unsurmountable barrier. He saw Natsuo watching him out of the corner of his eye. Endeavor was still recollecting himself. His mother was inside, outwardly as calm and placid as a frozen sea. His instincts still told him he couldn't allow himself to leave them in the same room together. Flashes of half-remembered moments in the years before mother left flashed behind his eyes-

Just as he was gathering the strength he didn't have to rejoin them, his sister leaned forward to give him the shoo-ing motion.

Bewildered, he watched her repeat the action again, more forcefully, before his feet were leading him down the hallway toward his room. The meaning was clear in a way only a school teacher could be- get out of here. He technically shouldn't have been out of bed either. If the nursing staff weren't so brutally overworked at the moment, getting caught might have actually been a concern. He left his father's room behind in a haze.

He didn't make it to his room, only because he found a window, and from that window he could make out the street, which, of course, was full of reporters. Reporters because of the message D-Touya had put on national TV. Possibly the biggest hero scandal of all time. He watched the figures move and shift for several long moments before continuing on, past his own room without noticing. He wondered how long it would take for them to abate, weeks, months, or if the shadow of his father's doings would shadow him his whole life, as he'd once feared.

He couldn't leave the hero wing, or even the secured floor, media and all. He knew he shouldn't have even left his room. There were injured heroes on this very floor that would be very angry at his family. People who lost friends-partners, even, teachers-by his brother's hand. His fist clenched, the bandages squeezing painfully across his burns. His head began to swim. Burns his brother- that Touya, who was alive- who had burned himself alive, who had tried to burn him to-

he was alive. And because Shoto had been born,

he'd burned-

"Half and half? You fucking lived, too, huh?"

Shoto only became aware of his own harsh breathing when he heard Bakugo's voice from the room he'd been trying to pass. He passed a rough hand across his eyes quickly, trying to clear the haziness and dizziness that had encroached. He took a few seconds to recollect himself before he backed up a step to be in view of the open door and peer in.

It was Bakugo's room but the others who'd dragged him back into his room were gone now and he seemed to have cooled off marginally, though it easily could have been due to blood loss. He was at least sitting up in bed, and though most of his body was unscathed, Shoto knew the major damage was to his torso, after all, he'd been trying to keep his blood from soaking the battleground just two days ago. The blond boy had a breathing mask on his side table that he was clearly meant to be using, judging by the fact the machine was still on. But seeing as he didn't seem to be following any medical orders, he didn't know why this one would be different.

Shoto pointed to the machine questioningly anyway. Bakugo's face scrunched up in a unique mix of outrage and confusion only he could achieve.

"What the hell are you doing, half-face?"

Shoto sighed inwardly and stepped into the doorway. In his quietest voice he managed. "You...sh-should-" he cut himself off when what felt like ash crept up into his throat.

"Eh?! What was that? I can't fucking hear you?!"

Inwardly rolling his eyes, Shoto walked up to Bakugo's beside and tapped insistently on the machine. He hadn't intended on being the hospital police but here he was anyway.

"We-ar," Shoto managed quietly. He hadn't intended on speaking anymore but his throat closed up on him anyway leaving him trying to very calmly breathe out of his nose and wait for the pain in his throat to pass. He'd overdone it badly when talking to his father, but his voice was his least concern in that situation.

Bakugo was looking at him like he was trying not to yell some more and was piecing something together, because of course he was. He was scary smart.

Shoto rolled his eyes, which did wonders in releasing some of the tension building in his body, and took a seat before his shaky body could decide to take one for him. He'd powered through where he'd needed to though, so he didn't have regrets there. But his adrenaline was spent and now he was sitting silently in Bakugo's room like a wallflower as the other boy fumed.

"What's wrong with your voice? Did your shitheel of a brother do something?"

Shoto just stared levelly at Bakugo, inclining his head slightly in agreement. Then, as an afterthought, pointed to the bandages on his neck.

Bakugo stared back for a few long seconds, which made Shoto suddenly feel self-conscious about how he looked like he'd just climbed out of a furnace, and it wasn't too far from the truth.

"Don't expect me to pull out any JSL knowledge or anything, Icyhot. It's your own fault for coming and following me and the nerd into that shitstorm," Bakugo grunted, finally turning away.

Shoto didn't know much either, and his hands were damaged enough he couldn't write well, so he certainly couldn't sign clearly either. He wished he could, or that he hadn't been so in shock to see his mom visiting that he'd remembered his phone. Suddenly the prospect of getting his phone, literally one room over, was too much to consider.

So he couldn't say anything he wished he could back and instead tried to see if he could get some answers. He tapped the side table with a finger to draw Bakugo's gaze again. The looking away wasn't going to work right now. Shoto had a hundred questions floating around in his head, mostly about Midoriya, mostly ones Bakugo couldn't answer. He sat there helplessly for a moment before he pointed at Bakugo and tilted his head.

"I'm fucking great, asshole. I'm pissed that worthless nerd isn't up yet. The gall of that bastard, sleeping in like this." Bakugo started getting up again and Shoto rose and held out a hand in front of him, which Bakugo pushed past to stand up.

Shoto sighed inwardly before scrubbing his face with a hand despite the discomfort it brought.

"Well as much as I enjoyed what must have been our worst conversation yet, I've got fucking places to be, namely shaking some consciousness back into Deku." He glanced back slightly to look at Shoto. "Go fucking crash or something, you peppermint-haired mime bastard."

Shoto shook his head, joining Bakugo in the hallway and pointing in the direction Midoriya's room was in. He wanted along for the ride. It was probably going to be his only chance until Midoriya was well on his way to recovery. And he'd been in such bad shape…

"You're following me, the hell?! This is a stealth mission, I need to get past Deku's fucking goons. They're like patrolling the hallways or something." At Shoto pointing blandly to himself, Bakugo unprickled a bit. "They'll let you by. Alright, fine. We'll give it a shot."

Badly injured, they were making progress, though admittedly slow progress down the hallways to the other side of the hero wing. Bakugo's eyes glanced over to the name plate once they were walking down the hallway he'd been apprehended in.

"Enji Todoroki," Bakugo ground out, "that's the room you were leaving when I saw you."

Shoto shrugged helplessly.

"Everyone fucking heard. I've been awake for an hour and even I've seen Dabi's propaganda shit," Bakugo started.

Shoto suddenly found the corner of the hallway to be the most interesting thing he could be looking at.

"The country, if not the world, is gonna be airing the Todoroki dirty laundry," he continued.

Shoto thought about the news crew that hadn't dispersed yet outside. Wouldn't, probably, until they got pictures, a status update on him or his dad, or a statement. Books would be published about the event and the implications of the hero industry. The victims of Dabi would rightfully hate them. He leveled an exhausted stare at the other boy. Bakugo must have been too busy using walls as a handhold to glare back at him.

Another burning question pushed to the forefront of Shoto's mind. Not a question, really, an acknowledgement he desperately wanted to address. He gestured to Bakugo's torso.

Quietly, he wheezed, "Sa-aved Midori…" his voice cut off on its own and he had to stop walking for a moment to let a round of wheezing, wet coughs shudder through his body. That couldn't have been good, but then again Bakugo had been coughing up blood half an hour ago, so it was the status quo.

"Oi, shut the hell up! Don't even try with that shit, you sound like lungs were cooked!" He yelled, pointing at Shoto. Shoto gave him an impatient look, still holding his painful throat and blinking the tears out of his eyes. He hadn't gone through that just to have his question ignored.

"Christ. Fine, yeah, I shoved him out of the way. I knew I could handle it better than shitty Deku and did you see him, anyway? He was out of his fucking mind. I did what I had to. I figured we were all gonna bite it anyway." Bakugo said. "Clearly I missed some things in the fight though, because you weren't this fucked when I went down."

Shoto nodded. Yes, he'd missed a few things. Midoriya losing any semblance of sanity for one, Dabi for another.

"Ah! Bakugo, you shouldn't be up! Allow-" Iida appeared from around the hallway, in Shoto had no choice to believe was in fact a patrol route. The class rep broke off when he noticed Shoto a few steps behind. The ice and fire user gave the other boy a small smile in greeting. "I- Hello, Todoroki. How are you-it's to say-" Iida fumbled for words, arm knifing the air.

"Engine legs, shut the hell up and quit pussyfooting around! It's fucking annoying to listen to you blab," Bakugo ground out. "We're going to see Deku."

Iida ran up the Bakugo to put a hand on his shoulder, but Shoto walked over to meet him, putting a hand on his shoulder and shaking his head. Iida met his eyes, and strangely, the fight started to leave Iida. He quickly diverted his gaze, a droplet of sweat beading on his forehead. "Well, if Todoroki is going to keep an eye on you, I don't see why I should refuse...but I must insist you two get back to bed as soon as you're done!"

After that, Iida beat an even hastier retreat than usual. Shoto let out a sigh. Another of his friends, treating him differently now that they knew. How much would this shake Class 1-A to its core? Was it salvageable, or were they going to think of him as the abused boy with the not-dead villain brother from now on? He just wanted to find Touya and figure out the rest later.

"Oi, Icyhot. Get over here," Bakugo called. While Shoto had been in thought, Bakugo had pulled ahead, and he looked pissed about waiting. "You're my fucking get out of jail free card, since know one wants to say 'no' to the abused kid. You're gonna follow me around while we're here, got it?!"

Shoto leveled Bakugo an annoyed stare but followed anyway. It didn't have the same hurt, coming from the class loudmouth, somehow. At least there was one person he could rely on not treating him differently.

I wrote this chapter shortly after these chapters came out. I'm definitely open to writing more and have an idea of a plot. Let me know if you're interested in reading more :)

ALSO- me and like 8 other people have a class 1-A rp chat on discord, if anyone wants to join! I'll tell you who's still available. You can comment here or message me on discord at runfastcooldude#0381 :)