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Izuku should have been asleep. He had been, he really had, but he had trouble sleeping through thunder. Usually he didn't get up to bother his mother, but he heard her voice coming from the kitchen and decided that it was okay to go and get a hug from her if she was already awake. But as he trudged down the hallway, her voice grew louder and Izuku halted. Not to eavesdrop, he knew better than that. He just wanted to hear a small bit of what she was saying so he would know if it was okay to go to her or if it would be better not to interrupt whatever she was doing.
"Honestly, at this point, I'm considering just moving," she said, before stopping for a split second. "Yes, really. With Hisashi gone, this place is just a gross reminder of his lies, and there's another hospital in the next district over that's hiring-" she continued, before pausing again. She was probably on the phone with someone.
"Yeah, everything is. Rent, mostly. I'd have to save up for a while before I'd have enough money to actually convince a landlord to give me a chance. But what else can I do, Yui? Izuku came home with burns today. It was easy enough to think that all of the bruises and scratches were from rough play- you know Izuku's always been a little reckless. But at this point? It's getting to be too much. Too many little injuries, and now burns . You can't think that the burns were just from friendly play."
So Mama was talking with her coworker on the phone. About him. Izuku hadn't done a good enough job explaining his injuries, and now Mom was worried. She was worried enough to try and move . Izuku knew she liked her job, and she didn't want a new one. She liked her coworkers, and her boss, and everything about it, really. Izuku didn’t even think it was true that she wanted to leave the apartment. She loved his dad, didn’t she? Before Izuku was diagnosed as quirkless, they had so many happy memories. She took all of the pictures of him down, but Izuku remembered them. And on top of all of that heartache, she'd have to save to move? Izuku couldn't put that kind of stress on her. Money was already kind of tight, anyway. But maybe her friend could convince her not to? Izuku liked Yui- she babysat sometimes, and was really good at playing heroes with him. Her quirk-
"I don't know, maybe! The worst kid here, I'm pretty sure, is Katsuki, and Katsuki has a pretty unique personality. Maybe Izuku would be bullied anywhere, but I think he'd be hurt a little less somewhere else. And…" she sighed, "he still loves Katsuki, you know? It's so much harder to be hurt by someone you love than to be hurt by someone you already know is no good, isn't it? It's less confusing, at least, and I want Izuku to learn what an unhealthy relationship looks like! Maybe if he gets away from Katsuki, it'll be easier for him to see. I mean, what kind of mother would I be if I just let him get hurt by his 'friend' and never showed him that it's wrong . He can't end up like- no! I am not projecting! I'm worried, because I have gone through something similar, and I know better now!" There was another brief pause.
"Oh, no I am not . If you saw the burn, you'd probably say I'm under-reacting for not having pulled him out of that school already! And-" her voice cracked, "he's just so scared now. He flinches at everything , he doesn't sleep well, and he's scared to talk to anyone because he doesn't want to inconvenience them! I have to interrogate him to get any answers about who’s hurting him. Honestly, he could be stabbed and slowly bleeding out, and he still wouldn't call an ambulance, because he’d figure the paramedics have more ‘important’ things to be doing. He just- he thinks he's a burden at best, and nothing I say changes his mind. I'm scared for him." Another pause, much longer this time.
"Yui…" Izuku heard more tears in his mom's voice, and his own body was shaking. She was right of course, and Izuku didn't want her to be sad, but trying to hide his problems just made her more sad! What was he supposed to do? He'd do it. He'd do anything if it meant Mama wouldn't cry anymore. "Yui, I don't know what to do. I can try to talk to him, but he won't be honest. He cares too much to let me worry, or to let Katsuki get into trouble" This was also true. She gave a small, terribly sad laugh.
"Yeah. I wish- I wish he could be. He'd be an amazing hero."
Izuku almost broke down on the spot. He knew his mother didn't fully support his dream to be a quirkless hero, but it still hurt to hear. She wanted to protect him, but… she didn't say that she didn't want him to, or even that he shouldn't. It was always that he couldn't.
"Yeah… yeah, with that big brain of his- it's just… I'm scared that if I feed this dream of his, he'll be devastated if he can't find a way. I- I just don't feel like I can take that chance."
It hurt. It hurt badly . Not that he doubted she loved him or anything! He would never. But he didn’t know how to make her believe in him. Surely telling her about how easily the other kids hurt him wouldn’t help, but hiding it didn’t, either. What could he do?
"Of course I have faith in him! He'll grow into a wonderful young man, I'm sure of it… of course he knows that! I've told him so!... Oh. Oh god, you're right. I have to- oh god- I- Do you really think…? Oh, my baby. I’ve- I’ve been hurting him, haven’t I, Yui? Oh-" she choked before falling into harsh sobs that she tried to muffle in her sweater.
Mama was really starting to worry Izuku. Why was she so upset? She was so good and kind, and she always did what was best for Izuku. So whatever she was blaming on herself, she had to be wrong. No, this had to be Izuku’s fault, right? What had Izuku done that's so wrong? He'd stop if he knew.
Yui was good at calming people down. She made an excellent nurse, and a good friend. Mama relaxed again quickly.
"Yeah… thanks Yui. I'll talk to him. He'll probably insist we don't move; he’ll find some bullet-proof argument, and I'll probably give in… well, I'll find a way to help him, even if he says nothing's wrong. I won't let my baby down anymore! I won’t! Thank you… thank you again, Yui. I'll see you Sunday, yeah? Goodnight, hon."
When Mom turned and tried to walk back to her room, she found a quietly sobbing Izuku in the hallway. He said he was crying because of a nightmare. She didn't look like she believed him. At least he did get that hug he wanted.
Shouto was supposed to go to sleep after dinner. Then again, Shouto was supposed to do a lot of things. He was supposed to worship his father. He was supposed to obey his elders. He was supposed to train a powerful quirk to become a master of both fire and ice.
However, Shouto did none of those things. All he did, really, was hurt his family.
It started, as everything in Shouto’s life did, with his father’s pride. He wanted Shouto to be his perfect creation; a god of fire and ice that would rule over Japan just because he could. His first three children were his failures. Two white-haired children with ice-based quirks and one red-haired child with command over fire. And then there was Shouto. With his perfectly bicolored hair, Father didn’t wait for his quirk to show before he started conditioning. Todoroki’s developed their quirks early anyway, and surely a quirk as powerful as Shouto’s would show up extra quickly. But then Shouto turned three, with no sign of a quirk. Then he turned four, and Father started to lose his patience. Shouto turned five, and his father abandoned him entirely in favor of training up his second-youngest child instead. That was Touya, with a fire quirk that was supposed to be stronger than their father’s. Their mom insisted that he continue to wait for Shouto. He showed all the biological signs of having a quirk, from his appearance to his pinky toe, everything about him screamed that he had a quirk. But Father wouldn’t wait forever, and the more Touya and Mother resisted, the meaner he got. So he beat discipline into them, he tried to beat a quirk into Shouto, and Fuyumi and Natsuo huddled together and prayed for it all to be over soon. There was just something wrong with Shouto, and his whole family suffered for it.
All of that was to say Shouto didn't really care that he wasn't asleep, when he was supposed to be. Compared to the rest of his life, it wasn’t much of an offense. So, he laid awake in his bed brooding, only startling when he heard Fuyumi start talking on the other side of the wall between their rooms.
"Oh, Natsuo, thank god," she sobbed out. Which was weird, because Shouto had heard Fuyumi enter her room less than an hour ago, and there was no reason for Natsuo to come find her now when he could have just talked to her before bed time. And Fuyumi was scared of Father. Too scared to disobey for no reason.
" Shhh , Fuyumi! We'll get in trouble!"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I'm just glad you're safe."
"I am; he's asleep."
"Are you sure?"
"Like seventy percent sure."
"Okay… so why did you want to sneak into my room in the dead of night?"
“We need to talk privately. Totally privately. I don’t want Father or the boys to hear this.”
Shouto was ashamed to feel curious, but he did. Secrets from Father were not uncommon for the Todoroki children. They’d keep everything from him if they could. But secrets were not kept from each other. They relied on each other too much for secrets to survive long, especially among the three neglected kids.
“Right, but about what? What’s so secret that not even Shouto can know?”
"It's… he would just feel guilty. Guiltier than he already does." Shouto grit his teeth at that, prepared for anger, guilt, sadness, or whatever other unpleasant emotion would come from his brother's next words. "H-him and Touya… we..." Natsuo groaned in sudden frustration before barreling on. "They're going to need our help, now that Mom's gone. With the way Father treats them and with their injuries, it's going to be hard for them."
"Wha- no- Natsuo! Stop! Mom will come back soon! Any real doctor who talks to her will see she's not crazy-"
"She's not," Natsuo agreed quickly.
"Then, why-!"
"Because Father doesn't want her to. With the story he created and the right amount of money, he can find a doctor who will keep her until Father decides she can come back."
"But doesn't he want her here? It's not like he'll enjoy taking care of kids himself."
"Right, but she’s been fighting back more and more, so she was a threat to both his physical and emotional control over Touya.”
"But- but still! Four kids is a lot of work for a man with a busy job who doesn’t even like kids ! He can’t possibly expect us to pick up the slack, right? I'm eleven !"
"And I'm thirteen. But if he thought that was a problem, he would have had Mom out of the hospital as soon as Shouto was able to give his own account to the police. But she’s still there, and I don’t know what we can do except be there for them."
"Let's go to the police! They never asked us for our story, but we were there! We can tell them what really happened, and just say Father was confused!"
"Not likely, since we don’t have proof."
"So what? We were both with her when he spilled the water on himself and started screaming. We ran into the kitchen with her!"
"That doesn't matter! How could we say, "yes, officer, our seven year old brother randomly decided to make tea of all things and promptly poured the boiling water from the kettle directly onto his eye ! It sounds so fake! Plus, according to what Father told the police, you and I have been raised by a mad woman with a vendetta against him! We're the favorites because we don’t look like him, he said. So it would make sense if we just went to the police with a story that made her innocent. And who would you believe, two children, or the number two hero?"
That was fair, Shouto thought. He knew what happened, so he knew that the story wasn't good enough to overrule Father's. He was doing fine; he successfully climbed onto the counter after a few tries at using different drawers and cabinet doors as foot holds. He got the teapot from the sink to the oven by shimmying along and pushing it. He set it up right. But then he got off of the counter. He wasn't sure why he did it, but he did. He set a cup on the counter, and went to pour using both hands. But it can be difficult to pour something heavy when it is directly above you and you can only touch the handle. So, he tried to pour, and just- absolutely everything when wrong. The lid fell off, shattered on the ground. Water fell from both the spout and the top, landed on his face, and scalded him until he was curled on the ground, screaming and crying.
Fuyumi had a nasty cut on her left hand from the lid. She was crawling on the ground, trying to grab him, to see his face, and she just wasn't looking. Not that it was her fault- she shouldn't have had to take care of him. He shouldn't have spilled the water in the first place.
"Okay, okay, I get it. No one would believe us and we'd get punished for disobeying. I- you've- you've really thought this through... haven't you?"
"Yeah… I have. And that's why I'm so sure that Mom won't come back anytime soon. I just hope that whoever Father bribed will be kind to her. I- she's not crazy, I just, I think she couldn't take much more. That's maybe why she started fighting so hard, and why she tried to keep Touya from him that day. I don't know, just, maybe she would have started going crazy if she had to keep going on like this, with nothing ever changing no matter what she did. S-so if she's with a good doctor, maybe they can help make her mind stronger, so she can protect her soul from Father. And then she can come and protect us, too."
There was a long, long pause.
"Natsuo…" Fuyumi sounded like she was crying. "I… do you remember what she was like before Father started training Touya?"
"Yeah…"
"I miss that."
"I do too, Fuyumi. I miss having her here more, though."
"Yeah."
Shouto thought they were probably both crying. He wondered if she would have been better if Shouto had been good enough for Father. She'd have had Touya safe, at least.
"But! We need t-to be strong! Touya and Shouto need us now, and Mom would want us to be there for them, r-right?"
"Right, and I- I do want to take care of- of them, but… Natsuo, how?"
"I think we'll just have to do our best. Help them, teach them. Feed them, make sure they brush their teeth, and-" Shouto heard a sharp inhale, and the next words came out wobbly "- and protect them. One of us has to al-always be here so-" Natsuo gasped "if the-ey need some-some-one we- we ca-n-"
Shouto heard the blankets in Fuyumi's room ruffle, and he couldn't hear her next words, but he could hear his big brother crying.
Shouto considered going over there to hug them. He could pretend that he had a nightmare and he was just coming to Fuyumi's room because he was scared. But that would make it worse, wouldn't it? They were sad because they had to take care of Shouto.
After a long moment, Fuyumi spoke again.
"It's okay, Natsuo. Let's do our best." She paused. "But Touya… Father won't stop going after Touya. I don't think we can protect him from that."
"You're right, so we… we have to do the next-best thing."
"What's that?"
"We'll have to, um, p-protect his spirit if we can't protect his body. You know? Like Mom always did, when she’d curl up with his and brush his hair, or watch tv, or..." Natsio trailed off, and a thoughtful pause followed.
"That makes sense. Maybe tomorrow, then, we can do our best to make Touya smile! He hasn't in a while…"
"Yeah, neither has Shouto. Even before the incident, Father was really wearing on him."
"Maybe we should… play a game with them?"
"Yeah," Natsuo agreed. "Yeah, let's try that. We can do it, Fuyumi. He can take care of our brothers. We can make them smile again."
"I know we can," Fuyumi said quietly. Another moment passed before Shouto heard their rushed 'goodnight's and the soft sounds of Natsuo creeping back to his room.
Shouto tightened the blanket around himself. He didn't want to fall asleep. The sooner he did, the sooner he'd wake up to a world that had been steadily beating down everyone he looked up to. But Natsuo and Fuyumi would be waiting for him, wouldn't they? They thought they had to take care of Touya and Shouto, but maybe… maybe they all had to look out for each other. He couldn't let them down, right?
So Shouto decided it was time to sleep. The sooner he did, the sooner he could wake up to his loving brothers and sister.
Poor Hitoshi had been asleep. He didn't always sleep easily, but he was finally asleep and he was not a fan of being woken up. Especially not by a loud bang being followed by an undetermined amount of screaming people.
He could have gone to check it out. He would have, but an insistent tapping on his window distracted him. Hitoshi saw, hanging by a thin white strand, a man dressed in all black. Hitoshi thought it might be an absolutely awful decision to open the window and let the man in. However, Hitoshi was a seven year old child with no impulse control who hadn't been taught any better. That, and he was absolutely terrified by the noises outside his door.
So, Hitoshi decided to be an absolute moron and open his window so the strange man in all black could come inside . Great.
Instead, the other end of the thin white strand wrapped itself tightly around Hitoshi and pulled him into the man's chest. Immediately, the man grabbed him and in a second they were both on the flat roof of the apartment building. Hitoshi wasn't allowed up here.
As if his lack of roof access was the main cause of concern at the moment.
The man let Hitoshi down immediately, and the white thing settled on the man's shoulders like a weird scarf. He then crouched to look Hitoshi in the eye, which might have worked if he wasn't wearing a slit visor over his eyes, a lot like there might be on a knight's helmet, except there was no helmet or armor. Just a pale man with hidden eyes. Not like a knight at all, Hitoshi decided. After a moment, the man seemed to come to a similar conclusion, because he sighed and lowered the visor- or maybe goggles was a better word- until it sat hidden amongst the many layers around his neck.
"Sorry about that, kid. They were supposed to wait until I got you out. They're new." His explanation did not help Hitoshi at all. The man sighed again and dragged a hand over his face. "I'm Eraserhead, a hero. Your mom was doing bad things, and you weren't safe with her. So, we came to get you away and to hopefully stop her. But getting you out of here is the most important part, so I'm going to take you to a police station now, and they'll help you. Got it?" Eraserhead's voice was gruff, but not mean like Mom's friends, so Hitoshi cautiously nodded. But when the man went to grab him again, Hitoshi startled and stepped back.
"Mom said- she said that I can't."
"You can't what, kid? Go to the police?"
"Y-you shouldn't do that!"
"Do what?"
"That! You shouldn't respond to me! What if I use my quirk? I could control your mind!"
"Do you want to control my mind?"
Hitoshi paused, confused. He expected horror, not a mildly impatient tone.
"No?" he answered.
"Then I'm not worried about it. Now, will you let me take you to safety?"
"I-I don't… my mom says I shouldn't talk to heroes, or go to the police, because of my quirk…"
"I don't understand. What about your quirk?"
"It makes me a villain! I don't want to go to jail! I don't want to!"
"You won't. We don't put kids in jail, especially not for something as natural and uncontrollable as a quirk."
"But it's a villain's quirk! And Mom said that heroes would know that."
"It's only a villain's quirk if a villain uses it," Eraserhead answered, with a surprising amount of emotion (including, but this time not limited to, irritation) behind the words, "and you aren't a villain. Even if you've broken a law or done something bad, it's not your fault. It sounds a lot like your mom wanted you to think you had no choice, and I don't expect you to know better until you're much older."
"But… I don't have a choice."
"You do. That's why I'm taking you to the police. They can make sure you get to live like any other kid, with any other quirk."
"But I'll… I'll do something bad, eventually… if I'm not stopped by my mom. I need her."
"Do you want to do something bad?"
"... No."
"Then stop worrying about it. You can be whatever you want, okay? And if you ever get into trouble like that, I'll just come get you. Sound good?"
"You'll… come get me?"
"If I have to. I’m a hero, remember? But I don't think I will. You're a good kid, Hitoshi. I know it."
Hitoshi didn't think to ask how a hero knew his name. He didn't think much at all. Everything that had just happened felt so surreal to him, and at this point, he wasn't sure that he wasn't still asleep. So, when Eraserhead asked again if he was ready to go, Hitoshi just nodded numbly and let the hero pick him up. They swung into the night dramatically on his weird scarf.