Chapter Text
Shouto was not easy to leave an impression on.
Most days went by in a blur of patrols and paperwork, with the occasional city skirmish and the not-so-occasional heated arguments with his father. Even those didn’t really register in his mind. He’d learned how to blur the yelling and just let it wash over him with no real processing of what vulgar insults he was being told. It was often similar to taking care of those insignificant villains — letting their taunts and sneering fade out and be swept away in an icy blast. There were a few who were more than competent and stood as a little more than a challenge, but none ever came back after one defeat.
Except for one.
“Shoucchan!”
Deku.
Deku was declared-by-media as Shouto’s villain-counterpart, his worst enemy, his equal in a fight. And, to be fair, much of that was right. Deku was the only villain he remembered in great detail. His moves, his strategy, his costume, his voice… Shouto had almost grown to enjoy their fights. Something to break the monotonous routine his hero life kept him in. Each time Deku reappeared, Shouto was instantly on the scene. Their fights were full of one-sided dialogue from Deku, and a few replies to entertain the villain from Shouto, and their engagements were intense enough to leave Shouto sore and Deku escaping with a flirt ready as he leapt across buildings.
However, one day, Deku went far beyond his casual flirts.
Months after Shouto’s encounter with his long-time nemesis, he still cannot get the entire experience out of his head. The rooftop, the confession, the kiss….
Shouto had played the entire interaction in his mind a thousand times. Sometimes he’d press the pad of his fingers to his lips, remembering the way Deku had leaned against him. But then he’d remember the events after, and his nose would scrunch angrily and his hand would shoot back to his side in a white-knuckled fist.
Out of everything that happened that afternoon, Shouto wanted to forget the aftermath more than anything.
“I’ll see you again soon, Shoucchan.” The rooftop door shut behind Deku, and Shouto was left with steam billowing from his skin. He was paralyzed with emotion as the wind whipped his hair in every direction. He could hear the news reporters’ voices overlapping as people rushed out of the building, crying out, letting bystanders and authorities take them in. Other heroes, both those already on the scene and just arriving, made their way to the rooftop where Shouto stood completely still…
...including Shouto’s father.
“What were you doing?”
Shouto barely heard him. All he did was tense up, a different feeling than shock bringing him back to reality: anger.
“I asked you a question, Shouto,” his father pushed. Shouto could feel the eyes of the other heroes on him. The anger built up.
“I deescalated the situation. Everyone got out fine,” he answered shortly.
“But you failed to catch the culprit,” Endeavor snarled, “and he was right in front of you.”
“...er, sir, surely you understand that hostage situations are tricky because we can’t catch the culprit right away? Due to… it being a threat to the hostages?” Endeavor’s scornful gaze pointed to the hero defending his son, and they immediately shut their mouth.
“He could’ve caught him as he left, he had nothing on him! Everyone saw you let him get away!” His voice was rising. Shouto knew when to leave. He started towards the door to the stairwell.
A calloused hand snatched the back of his costume’s collar.
“Next time, you catch him,” said his father, voice low and deadly, “or I will.”
Shouto shouldered him away and strode away, down the stairs, and to the streets, where countless interviewers shoved microphones into his face. He answered no questions.
How could he when he couldn’t even answer his own.
Shouto’s cramped fingers twitched, bringing him back into the present. His hand was sore from filling out paperwork, aching from holding a pen for hours at a time and writing tirelessly. He looked at the file in front of him — the last one for the day. It was a simple daily report.
He smiled at the sheet bitterly and scoffed. Even as he wrote the few short words, his joints hurt.
DAILY REPORT
(DISTRICT: Musutafu)
HERO NAME: Shouto
LEGAL NAME: Shouto Todoroki
REPORT: Absolutely nothing happened today.
He lazily signed at the signature line before finally placing it in his finished forms stack, leaving his desk clear and declaring his shift over.
Shouto sighed. The pain that seeped in once he stood up for the first time in hours had him wincing. He took a moment to stretch properly before gathering his things. He took his phone off its charger, packed his laptop into his bag, grabbed his coat, —
The door swung open to make way for his father.
Shouto didn’t make eye contact. He quickly checked for anything new on his phone. Fuyumi texted him nine minutes ago, asking if anything happened during his shift.
“Shouto.” He didn’t respond. He texted his sister back, telling her his day was boring.
“The night shift is short on heroes—“ Endeavor started.
“No,” Shouto said firmly, shoving his arm through his coat sleeve. “I’m tired. I’m going home.” Unkind blue eyes bore into the back of his head.
“When have you ever pushed yourself?” Shouto’s face remained turned away from his father, hiding away his outraged expression.
There was a moment of uncharacteristic silence between them. Shouto was bracing for his daily lecture of how he’d never make it to the top at this rate, that he should be giving it his all rather than his half-assed attempts. But Endeavor said nothing. Shouto glanced behind his shoulder as he heard shuffling.
A small slip of paper was pinched between his fingers. He had a disgusted look on his face.
“What was this doing in your pocket?” Shouto subconsciously felt around the inside of his coat pockets as he turned completely to face him.
“I don’t know what that is,” he answered honestly. Of course Endeavor didn’t believe him. The man snarled.
“Keep your affairs at home. We don’t need the press sniffing around more than they already do.” He crumbled the slip into a ball and flicked it into Shouto’s office trash bin before turning and slamming the door with foundation-shaking force.
Bicolored eyes immediately shot to the trash bin.
Shouto crouched down next to it. It was cluttered with papers and torn snack wrappers, but at the top was the miniscule ball. He carefully undid the creases, and revealed its contents.
A phone number. One that he’d never seen.
Suspicious, was the first thought Shouto had. But the second one was, What?
Shouto had only been out once that day, for a patrol, and the agency was bustling while he was gone. No outsider could’ve possibly snuck in, unless they were scheduled to come in, like a school field trip or exclusive interviews. It could’ve been a coworker, but he’s gained a reputation among his acquaintances that he’s not someone who likes his personal spaces being intruded. It could be an old slip of paper from someone he’s long forgotten, but the paper looked neat before his father crushed it (Shouto’s melodramatic mind connected that imagery to some past events, causing a fresh pang of spite).
So the slip of paper magically appeared there?
Shouto rolled his eyes, of course not. But it was still concerning. If this was someone who knew how to sneak into the number one hero’s agency building, this could be a huge threat. ...but if they wanted to cause damage, why would they use their skills for a phone number and not, say, a bomb?
A sharp pain throbbed in his head, and he huffed. He’s gotta stop straining himself. At first he told himself, no, turn the workaholic part off and go home. But then the hero in him demanded answers. This could be bad if I don’t look into it as soon as possible.
The first step was calling the number.
He cautiously input each digit into his phone, double checking that he got everything right, before pressing the call button.
“Hello?”
“I’ve been waiting all day, Shoucchan.”
Shouto stopped breathing.
“Got nothing to say? Such a shame. I’ve missed your pretty voice.” Shouto could hear him pouting. The hero’s brain jumped back to task.
“How the hell did you get in here?”
Deku hummed. “It’s not hard to sneak through a window and steal some clothes, Shou.”
“Why would you want to? What’s your plan here?”
“Am I not allowed to keep in contact with my boyfriend?”
Shouto tensed. “I’m not your boyfriend.” Deku giggled on the other end. Shouto felt lighter than air.
“Says you. How about a date tonight? You and me?”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re excused. So, how about it?”
“No.”
Deku whined. “Why not?”
“Because you’re a fucking villain,” Shouto said, exasperated.
“That’s what you heroes have declared, yes.”
“It doesn’t take a hero to see that you’re a villain,” he said. “You’ve killed eleven people.”
Deku was oddly silent for a moment. Until he said, “it was only nine,” in a strangely serious tone.
Shouto was a little too confused to respond. He wanted to say, “nine is still a lot,” but something else, something darker and more intimate hid in Deku’s voice.
He could hear Deku’s smile return as he said, “are you interested?”
He sighed through his nose. “Maybe.” Deku squealed.
“I’ll text you where and when to meet! I knew I’d convince you in the end. I’ll see you there, Shouto,” his voice purred through the grainy speaker before he hung up.
Shouto was frozen in place as he processed the conversation before rubbing his face in exhaustion. God dammit.
So his shift wasn’t quite over.
His phone pinged and he saw a text notification under the same number.
Unknown: Takoba Shore Warehouses between thirteen and fourteen. 11:30 pm <3
Shouto looked at the time. 9:44. 2 hours. Great. He just wanted to go home and sleep this whole thing away.
His phone buzzed again. He read the new message.
Unknown: wear a disguise so people dont follow you!!
Shouto: Where do you expect me to get a disguise?
Unknown: you dont have to steal clothes, shoucchan, you have a closet. just change into something with a hood and keep your scar out of sight!
Unknown: I cant wait to see you again <3
Shouto rolled his eyes and started his walk back home. As usual, it was interrupted plenty of times by people asking for pictures and autographs, which he tiredly accepted. It took him an extra eight minutes to finally make it to his apartment after the dozens of signatures and photos. As he shrugged his heavy coat off, his phone buzzed again.
Unknown: [image]
Unknown: p.s thank you for the signature, shoucchan <333
He shook his head and did a double take of the image. An open notebook with a “Shouto” written in his best handwriting. No fucking way he signed Deku’s journal without noticing.
Shouto: How the hell?
Unknown: disguises babe!!
Shouto huffed and hung his coat on the rack next to his door. He wasn’t one to often try to hide his identity in public since he was a recognizable face, and any attempt would result in failure — he had no idea how to hide his scar.
He went through his closet and changed into comfier clothes: faded dark jeans, a red hoodie, and a plain white shirt underneath. He was hoping the red would make his left side stand out less. As for his scar… he didn’t have any makeup, so switching his contacts for his glasses would have to do.
He ate a quick snack before heading out the door again around 10:02. He looked up the warehouses (exhausted just by reading the “35 minute walk” estimation) and started heading over.
He kept his head low and avoided eye contact with anyone. He probably looked a little shady, but hopefully that’d discourage people from approaching him. There were a few times he heard his name, to which he flinched, but it was only being thrown around in conversations about the news or friends catching up as he passed them. Aside from that, he got to the abandoned seaside warehouse yard with no problems.
It was dark, only a few lights illuminating the area. It was 10:39 upon Shouto’s arrival, meaning anyone coming to visit the deserted buildings were probably long gone (or they thought it wasn’t late enough for it to be scary). The numbers on the sides of the enormous buildings were faded and scratched but still easy to discern as long as he pointed his phone’s flashlight at it.
10… 11… 12…
- And 14.
Shouto shone his light down the alleyway between the warehouses, looking for a hint of green or red. Even when he walked further into the space, there was none at all. Shouto’s face scrunched in frustration. If I came all the way out here for nothing…
“You’re early!” From behind.
He turned on his heels to see Deku standing a few steps away from him. He wasn’t wearing his usual black vest-white dress shirt-red ribbon tie combo, but instead a black jacket, sweatshirt, and pajama pants. Though he did keep his huge red boots.
“I decided I wanted to get this over with instead of stalling,” Shouto grumbled, leaning against the wall as if he didn’t just get jumpscared. Deku smiled.
“Last time you said you wanted to get something over with you ended up making out with me,” he said smugly. Shouto’s breath stuttered.
“Killing nine people still makes you a villain.” Let’s get back to what I’m here for.
Deku’s grin fell. He quietly made his way to the wall across from Shouto, resting his back against the wall like the hero did.
“I never wanted to kill them. I didn’t even kill the first two you heroes pinned to me.”
Shouto narrowed his eyes. “Elaborate.”
Deku looked down at his hands. Shouto watched his eyes glaze over in memory.
“I wanted to be a hero as a kid. I wanted to save people and make the world a better place. I want to be the number one hero, even without a Quirk. I thought maybe I could use my tech to help me climb to the top. I could be the first Quirkless hero.
“I was working on my costume at home when there was an attack. A villain crashed into the apartment building and part of it collapsed. Because of Kacchan.”
Shouto’s brow furrowed, confused. “Kacchan?”
Deku’s hands curled into a fist. “Bakugou. Dynamight.”
Shouto blinked.
“He was chasing a villain and blasted them into the side of the building. Some of it collapsed. Including the part where my mom and I lived. She got stuck in the rubble. I tried to help her out with my support tools but she was already…”
Deku’s breaths were shaky. He wasn’t crying but his eyes were watery.
“The villain landed a few doors down from our apartment. I had my stuff with me and was making sure my neighbors were okay when I got to them. They were dying. I recognized them, Yami, the person who could jump through shadows. They were trying to melt through the shadows, but they were all broken and bleeding out. Kacchan was marching up the stairwell loud enough for everyone to hear. The villain begged me to kill them before he got to them but I… couldn’t. All I could do was sit with them as they grew weaker.
“The last thing they said was to not take everything at face value. More often than not, heroes aren’t all they seem — that they tend to have pasts darker than most villains. They showed me an old scar of long tendrils, the endings of some were kinda greenish or red, and I recognized it as the hero Akaibara’s Quirk. Then they died.
“Kacchan arrived at the scene and I got scared. So I left. I had my boots on just in case and I hopped away. They didn’t work perfectly but they did what I needed them to do. I cried so much when I finally landed. I was so tired and everything hurt, even if I was just only scraped and bruised. A few hours later I saw the news about it. And it was already being swept under the rug.
“They said Kacchan had found me over the bodies of Yami and my mom, saying I’d killed them, not that his recklessness had resulted in casualties. They had pictures of me sitting next to Yami from his suit camera. They picked and chose what to show the public, and made me look like the bad guy instead of Kacchan. And I understood what Yami meant.” Deku smiled bitterly. “I was assigned the roll. I knew there’d be nothing I could do to change it. So it’d be best to go along with it rather than hiding all my life.”
Shouto was left speechless.
Deku sighed heavily. “So that’s me!” His voice was trying to be cheery, but its faults were obvious.
Shouto took a deep breath. “So those other nine people?”
The familiar smile returned. “The first few were a little accidental,” he muttered. He awkwardly scratched his cheek with a finger. “The first one saw me come out of my hideout and started blubbering about how I was Deku and everything, so… I couldn’t have that. It took a lot out of me, and I spent days with her since I was building up the strength to do it. And then the next two were heroes — I thought I had a Quirk blocker bullet loaded but…” He shrugged half heartedly.
It was silent between them for a minute or two. Shouto was processing everything as Deku re-repressed the memories he’d just laid out again.
“You have a similar story, don’t you?” Deku’s voice was a purr, smooth and easy like he hadn’t just relived the hardest day of his life.
“What?”
“Your issues aren’t hard to see, love. Everyone knows you hold a grudge against Endeavor.” Deku leaned closer, eyeing Shouto. The hero looked away, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose when they slipped.
“I think we’ve had enough trauma talk for one day,” he murmured. His breath stuttered when he felt Deku slip his hands into Shouto’s, eventually pressing closer to him in some weird hug. Deku’s head rested on his shoulder, leaning against his cool right.
“It’s okay, Shoucchan,” he whispered, sending shivers down his spine. His warm hands were still in his, squeezing and touching as gestures of comfort. He gave a shaky sigh. The emotions were welling up again.
“My mother and father were never in love. She was sold to him by her parents,” he started slowly. He’d never told this to another soul in the world. And now he was telling a villain — his sworn enemy of all villains — and it was… liberating.
“He was trying to create someone who would be the number hero, someone he could live through vicariously. When I got my Quirk, he ignored my other siblings and trained me endlessly. My mother tried to stop him, but he overpowered her. He’d beat me and I’d cry with my mother.
“She told me my left side was unsightly as she poured boiling water on my face.”
Deku didn’t skip a beat in the rhythm he’d made with his thumbs, caressing the backs of Shouto’s hands.
“She’s in a hospital now, put there by my father. I haven’t seen her in years. I’ve avoided using my fire to show my father I can be a good enough hero without his Quirk, even when he calls it me half-assing my work.”
“Shoucchan, Shoucchan, Shoucchan…” Deku breathed, brushing his lips against Shouto’s neck. He tensed. Deku squeezed his left hand. “You have a gorgeous Quirk. You should use all of it.” Shouto shook his head.
“Not while part of its power is my father’s,” he said quietly, darkly.
“It’s not his,” Deku murmured. “It’s your power.”
And Shouto fell apart.
He let the emotion overflow as he sobbed into Deku’s shoulder, hands flying to clutch at the back of his dark hoodie. Wisps of fire licked at his hands and hair, scorching part of his clothes. Deku’s hands roamed to his back, pulling his hood down to watch the flames smolder.
“Deku,” he hiccuped, “thank you.”
Deku laughed softly. “You’re thanking a villain? Isn’t that something…”
Shouto pulled away sooner than he’d like, trying to maintain somewhat of a professional persona (though he suspected crying on your enemy’s shoulder probably threw all that out a window). The two were left in silence. Deku returned to his wall, looking at Shouto intently.
“So what do you think now, hero?” Deku said sweetly.
“Of what?”
“Me. The world we live in. This conversation.”
Shouto looked down. “I still think you’re a villain for killing people. But I don’t think you were bound to come out a villain. In fact, I think you would’ve been a great hero.”
“Oh, do you?”
“You have a way with words. And you’re very smart.” Deku smirked. Shouto’s heart pounded. Change the subject. “I think our world needs to change the standards heroes live by. They shouldn’t be heroes if they have past or present abuse they’re inflicting on others. I think this was a good conversation.”
He took a chance. “I’m glad you called me.”
Deku moved closer again, sighing. “Don’t go falling in love with me, Shoucchan,” he said, voice low. “We both know how I feel about you, but you could lose everything with me.”
Shouto didn’t answer. Deku grinned and patted his shoulder. “Good boy,” he said as he walked away into the dark yard.
“Deku,” Shouto called. “Don’t get rid of the phone. I want to keep in contact.”
His phone buzzed.
Unknown: ;)
Shouto scoffed softly. And he finally admitted it to himself.
He was in love with a villain.
Unknown: my name is Izuku btw