Disclaimer: I don't own jack!

Summary: It only takes one change to alter a person's path in life. For Touya, he knew exactly when he'd had that moment.

Story Warnings: Canon Divergence, Snippet Series

Pairing: Todoroki Touya/Higurashi Kagome

Of Butterfly Wings

Chapter One: Repulsion

Touya hitched the strap of his bag over his shoulder.

For years he'd dreamed of this day. He'd imagined himself strolling past the gates of his father's Alma Mater and bearing the crest of his school with pride. He'd pictured himself as the top student, acing into the hero course with ease. He'd always thought of himself as strong—stronger than the man who claimed the number two spot of the hero chart for many decades. Yet now that he was right where he wanted to be, he had to confront a new reality for himself.

He was no hero.

In fact, he would never be able to become a hero, let alone use his quirk ever again.

His gaze lowered to the patchwork burns that scarred the entirety of his arms. His flesh was barely being held together with staples and piercings. If it weren't for all the metal he pieced himself together with, most of his skin would've fallen off by now. It was hard to look at even from his own perspective. He knew all too well what others thought about his appearance.

This was the price he had to pay for his power. A quirk that burned everything in sight and a body that was steadily dying with each breath he took. The reality of this world was that power always came at a cost.

"Ew, look at that freshman." He heard the familiar sneer of his peers. "He's so gross that I feel like throwing up."

Touya pointedly ignored the comments.

He was used to them by this point. For the past two and a half years all he'd heard were the same comments. People pointing at him, sneering at him and using him as an example to their children. In his effort to surpass his father, he'd become the poster boy that the medical industry pointed to in order to prove that the Quirk Singularity Theory was no longer just that. It was a very real problem their society had to face and he was just a victim of his circumstances. At least that's what all the professionals said. He didn't care either way. His body was ruined, his life could wither away at any moment and he had no real desire to even continue his education.

What was the point?

He was just spending his days waiting for death to take him.

"You think what he's got is contagious? Like some kind of crazy disease?" An upperclassman leaned down towards the girl beside him. "Better not get too close before it spreads to you."

Said girl giggled as she clung to the upperclassman's arm, following him into the thick of the crowd.

His grip on his bag tightened.

It didn't matter.

He was dying anyways.

There was nothing left in this world that he was living for anyways.

Touya turned on the ball of his heel, passing beneath the daunting gates of U.A. There was no point in going somewhere he wasn't wanted.

The teen paused as he felt something collide against him. His gaze lowered towards the ground where he found a girl close in age to him sprawled out, her bag had flown open and all of its contends spread across the concrete.

"Oh this is just not my day!" Her lips pulled into a sulky pout.

Touya blinked.

He had to admit that she was conventionally attractive. With long, willowy legs and wavy hair that looked as thick as it was soft. He was certain that she'd glance up at any moment and recoil at the very sight of him. Perhaps stutter out an apology or find him just as repulsive as everyone else.

"Sorry about that," The girl tilted her head up and plastered on an apologetic smile, "I didn't mean to run into you. I was in a bit of a rush trying to get to the entrance ceremony."

He blinked yet again.

That meant that she was another freshman like himself. She didn't look like she'd be in the hero course. Her muscles were toned but not bulky. On top of that she didn't appear to have much battle sense if she ran straight into him without looking. Her spatial awareness was quite lacking.

"It's fine." Touya groused.

After all, he was just leaving anyways.

"Oh," The girl took stock of all her items being kicked around by the students rushing past them.

Touya felt a small twinge of guilt at the sight. Even though she was the one who ran into him, he didn't quite like the idea of all her items being dragged across the ground by careless idiots.

Fighting back a sigh, he crouched down and started gathering her books and belongings without a word.

A few stopped to stare at them, pointing and gesturing as if they were some sort of spectacle. Some were even shameless enough to pull out their phones and begin taking pictures; as if this were some sort of plot to a film that needed to be recorded in real time.

Touya bit his tongue, fighting back a caustic remark.

He really hated this damn school.

"Thanks!" The girl beamed up at him as he passed her belongings into her arms with a wordless shove. She pressed onward, completely clueless to his growing irritation. "Seriously, I really am sorry about knocking into you like that but thanks again for helping me out all the same. I'm Higurashi Kagome by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

For the first time he decided to meet her gaze directly.

She was nearly a head shorter than him. He was already fairly short for his age, so she was positively petite. A wide, grateful smile played across her lips as a slight flush of embarrassment stained her cheeks.

He could say without reservation that she was at least a little cute, but he wasn't foolish enough to fall for that alone.

"Sure." Touya ground out between gnashed teeth.

The girl paused at the sound of the bell chiming off in the distance.

"Oh no, we're late!"

Without permission, delicate fingers curled around his own with a surprising amount of force and began dragging him back towards the school. In truth, this had been the first time anyone had willfully taken his hand since the day he'd burned himself three years ago. He was so used to strangers recoiling at the slightest touch. Often pretending that they had to rush off somewhere else but not before wiping their hands on their thighs as if to rub off whatever 'infectious disease' they thought he might have.

"Hey," Touya groused again, digging his heels into the concrete without much effort. "What are you doing?"

She fell short beside him, her gaze tipping up towards him with curiosity.

"Trying to make it to the entrance ceremony, duh?" Kagome shot back at him as if it were the most logical thing in the world. "You're a first year too, right? Not much point coming all this way if you're just going to skip out now."

He blinked, staring down at the young woman brazen enough to take his hand and drag him off as if they were old friends.

"I never said that I was a first year." Touya turned his head away, pulling his hand free from her surprisingly firm grip.

Kagome cocked her head to the side, "True but you've got your schedule sticking out of your front pocket. So it wasn't hard to figure out." Her lips pulled into a wide grin, "Looks like we're going to be in the same class this year!"

Instinctively, his eyes lowered to his front breast pocket of his school uniform. Just as she'd pointed out, the upper half of his class schedule was visible to the naked eye. On top of that the label 1-C was exposed for all to see.

He felt his cheeks flame in embarrassment.

In truth he had never been in this sort of position before. How exactly was he supposed to react to her enthusiasm? She seemed so excited at the prospect of being in the same class as him, so how was he supposed to react here? He wasn't happy. Not in the least. Yet he was completely irritated either. He just felt like he'd stumbled across an equation he had no idea how to solve.

"Enough dawdling, we'll get into trouble if we don't at least sneak in with the rest of the students!" Kagome tugged on the cloth of his sleeve that time, "So come on!"

Touya growled beneath his breath.

He didn't want to go. He didn't want to sit through all the self-righteous speeches of those who'd made it into the hero course. He had no desire to put himself into the public sphere and have everyone gawk at him while they were supposed to be paying attention to their principal's speech. He'd experienced the same thing over and over again so many times these past three years that just thinking about putting himself out there was frustrating.

"Oh," Kagome tilted her head to glance over him as she continued pulling him along. "I never got your name!"

He dragged his feet, purposefully slowing them down.

"That's because I didn't tell you."

Touya didn't like this.

He didn't like that she was still hanging onto him nor the fact that his body refused to do what he wanted it to. From the second she ran into him, he couldn't bring himself to just walk away from her. Maybe because he was too damn tired from the usual reactions that he found it interesting when someone didn't find him repulsive. Yet he still wanted to get as far away from this situation as possible. He didn't like being dragged along as if he had no will of his own.

"Aw come on, I'll find out in homeroom anyways!" Her lips pulled into a wide grin, "Unless you plan on telling the teacher to not address you at all."

He rolled his eyes at that one.

It was true that she got him with that. She would find out his name once class started. Provided he didn't find a way to escape her before then.

"Touya." He responded after a long moment. "Just call me Touya."

Kagome's grin widened, "Nice to meet you, Touya-kun! Now let's go!"

Touya blanched as she pulled him through the last doorway that led into the main building.

Somehow he got the distinct feeling that his time here at U.A. would be exceptionally drawn out and difficult.

A/n: Good grief it's been so long since I'd written anything that I feel completely rusty. In any case, I'm mostly just posting this in good fun. With the Todoroki family having gotten their final conclusion and the manga coming to its end, I just wanted to play with an alternate universe in which Touya was rescued by Endeavor rather than being picked up by old All For One. There are other changes as well compared to canon, but I'll get into those later. So for now, this is meant to be more of a light exercise in what could have been for Touya. I intend on keeping the chapters shorter for this one since it has been so long. Currently the plot is supposed to run from Touya's first year in U.A. through the start of canon. So roughly a seven-ish year span. I also want to play with another Inverse idea, but I'll work on that later. In any case, let me know what you think!