Fractal | Shouto & Touya Todoroki | poetry/prose | 580 words
Shouto’s world changed when he woke up in the hospital.
Touya’s world changed when he woke up in the hospital.
His face had been burned, the doctor told him.
He had burned his body, a stranger told him.
Shouto remembered the shouting.
Touya remembered the desperation.
The kind of argument that felt like it shook the walls around him.
The disappointment in his father’s eyes, twisting up his insides as Endeavor shouted and raged and forced Touya to stop.
(He was being burnt up)
(He was being replaced)
Long after the echoes of his father’s voice had faded, Shouto remembered walking into the kitchen.
He remembered watching his mother’s unmoving form while she refused to say anything- anything- and then Touya blazed out the door without looking back to see if her expression had crumpled with regret.
He remembered watching his mother’s face flit from terror to anguish in the span of a breath as he entered, looking like she had been shattered by his soft-footed, pattering approach.
By then, Touya knew better than to search for regret in his father’s eyes.
And then the woman before him became unrecognizable.
Endeavor didn’t think Touya was strong enough but he was. He could be.
Shouto burned with the memory of a pain more intense than any he’d ever felt before.
Touya remembered the screaming in his veins, remembered the burn- harsher than anything he’d ever felt before. Remembered a startling break in the anguish and thinking, with his last shred of clarity, that this had to be good enough for his father.
It left Shouto numb and shivering beneath the thin, white hospital sheets.
It had to be.
“Mom..?” Shouto croaked and the doctor shook his head no.
It had to be.
Shouto didn’t cry when he saw the scar marring his face, but something inside of him felt sick.
Touya didn’t cry when he saw his mottled, purple reflection held together by crude stitches. Or when they told him he had died.
Shouto let the shock pool over him like ice and held the freezing shards close to his chest, hoping that they might be enough to douse the monstrous pain in his chest.
The disappointment was his own when he realized that he hadn’t been enough, after all. That he never was and never would be.
Shouto thought of the heat that always seemed to lick at his father’s eyes and fists when he shouted- warm enough to be felt even when Shouto couldn’t see the flames through his closed eyes or hear the words through his ragged, warbling breaths.
The bitterness was his own, too, but the expression in the mirror was startlingly familiar.
Heat thrummed uneasily beneath Shouto’s veins and the second he realized that the fire within himself was nothing more than his father’s furious legacy, pawned off onto Shouto like a lead shackle, was the second that Shouto Todoroki decided to freeze.
The second that Touya realized he was wearing the face his father had always greeted him with was the second time Touya Todoroki died and left a rotten shell of himself to walk the earth.
Shouto cast his eyes downward and didn’t respond to the doctor.
He didn’t notice that his father couldn’t look him in the eye.
Shouto grew older and decided that he and his mother were both victims of Endeavor.
Touya grew smarter and decided that the world would soon know who had driven him to an early death.
I’m rewatching death note rn and I love how ryuk, who is supposed to be above human concerns and is watching light’s life play out like a reality tv show, still saw him throw away that mini tv and was like, I can’t tell if ur cautious or just a spoiled brat 😒
this is kinda stupid but i googled heart monitors for two seconds and came to a conclusion
omg ur writing is so good like how have i never heard of u before
-seafloor509 (im asking anon bc if i ask regularly itll show up as smth else and i dont want that)
(also u liked my ONE ONLY post so i came and found u and like ong ur writing is so t a s t e f u l)
thanks so much!! that really made my day :,)
and yes i remember your piece! i really enjoyed reading it. you have a strong voice and the atmosphere was really interesting
When you want to write Katsuki as his own complex, multifaceted, deeply fascinating individual who's a force of nature shaped by a militaristic system, with independent motives free of romantic dynamics, but somehow, his every waking breath is devoted to the freckled boy he left in the river
From now through March you can send me an ask with a (sfw) prompt you'd like me to write! As long as I'm comfortable with it, I'll start working on my responses in April.
Prompts can be for fic or your own original idea and while I mostly write for MHA, if you have smth else in mind there's no harm in asking if I'm familiar with the fandom :)
also, if you're interested in any of the fic wips i've talked about on here (or my in-progress ao3 fics) you can send me an ask with the title and i'll be sure to set aside time to work on them and share snippets of my progress! (fic wips listed below the cut)
I'm excited to see your prompts!!
tumblr fic wips
short for grenade: talked about here, here, and here a la three wise men and a baby (i seriously need a better title for this series lmao): part 1 & part 2 probably not, dabihawks version: here (and the official, slightly more polished version of the platonic-ish bkdk 'probably not' piece is on ao3 here) let it sink in: here spelling bee monster: mentioned at the bottom of the fake tweet post, here trophy husband, who?: here cat-suki: here (legitimately forgot i'd posted about this one lol)
ao3 wips
summer daze: here little troubles: here
For you're writing requests:
I had an idea months ago of adult bakudeku being very domestic and in love in the middle of summer just absolutely dying of heat in their shared livingroom but refusing to be apart because WAHHH BAKUGO WORKS SO MUCH IZUKU BARELY GETS TIME ALONE WITH HIM LIKE THIS HE REFUSES TO LET GO and then Ochako and Todoroki show up with smoothies and popsicle and everything is so cool now
Can use in any way you want if you want to at all. I just think they're neat.
Author's note: Hi! First of all thanks so much for the prompt!! It was definitely a cute one to write and I hope you enjoy what I came up with :) Second, brief warning for Bakugou's swearing
Katsuki released a long sigh, sweat pooling uncomfortably on his brow and the place where his back met the hardwood floor of his living room. The fan he and Deku had bought on clearance at the beginning of the summer sent a pathetic wave of hot air towards his body, barely strong enough to be noticeable. Deku’s warm breath near his ear was much louder and much more obnoxious.
Katsuki rolled his eyes at the ceiling. His sweat was explosive for christ sake.
“Deku, I swear to god-”
“No don’t do that,” Izuku interrupted, rolling slightly off of Katsuki’s chest, then compensating for the loss of physical contact with a leg thrown over Katsuki’s stomach.
Katsuki angled his head down to frown at Deku- who was too busy trying to subtly tuck himself against Katsuki’s side to pay Katsuki’s expression much mind.
There was a suspiciously forehead-shaped sweat stain just over his heart. Right where Deku had face planted the second he’d returned from his latest overtime shift an hour ago.
It was a testament to how little they’d been able to see each other these past few weeks that Katsuki didn’t even complain at first. Sidekicks were worked to the bone for little pay and he and Deku had gone in on rent together knowing this. They’d confessed to each other one unsuspecting day in their third year of high school knowing this. Knowing that it wouldn’t be easy.
They snuck handholds and short, firm, meaningful kisses behind the backs of their superiors whenever they crossed paths and they knew, now, how horrible it was to actually experience being apart.
Somehow always on opposite shifts, Deku would traipse into the bathroom with his bedhead and bleary eyes, one hand on Katsuki’s arm or back or face at all times while Katsuki washed off the grime of the night-shift and Deku got ready for the morning and then Katsuki wouldn’t see him again until he was on the way out the door for his own shift.
It was complete and utter bullshit, in Katsuki's opinion. But it was fine.
Or, it would be fine, once they get enough experience to finally start their own agency together and got a little more control over their schedules. Or hell, any control over their schedules.
It would be worth it when Katsuki got to kick ass with Deku on the streets and then come home with him, too. No more of this passing ships in the night bullshit.
“You’re thinking something sweet,” Deku murmured, poking at the soft center of Katsuki’s cheek and then drawing a gentle line down the bridge of his nose.
“No ‘m not,” Katsuki said. “Sweaty ass.”
Deku pinched Katsuki’s nose closed, then laughed when Katsuki elbowed him in mild retaliation.
“You are too,” Deku insisted. “You’re making that face.” Katsuki scowled. “What face?”
Deku tapped the space between Katsuki’s eyebrows and Katsuki stared at the blue-green veins now taking up most of his field of vision.
“The one where you don’t have any frown lines here. And your eyes go all soft. And the corners of your mouth start to do this wobbly thing that-”
“Alright, alright,” Katsuki complained, swatting Deku’s hand away from his face and its apparently numerous tells. “I get the point already shithead, now quit touching my sweat. It’s a fucking fire hazard.”
Deku shoved himself more insistently into Katsuki’s side, nose squishing flat where it was pressed against the top of Katsuki’s ribcage.
“Not unless you detonate.”
Like this, Deku’s voice had a muffled, slightly nasally quality and Katsuki felt the corners of his lips wobble with the want to smile. It was sickening, really, the way Katsuki melted for Deku even while they were slowly being burned to a crisp in their shitty apartment.
“And who says I won’t?” Katsuki challenged.
He couldn’t even tell how much of the sweat on his body was his own, right now, and he wouldn’t trade a second if it for the world.
“Our insurance bills,” Deku replied dryly.
Katsuki scoffed, dragging his knuckles gently across the divots in Deku’s spine.
“Those fuckers,” he said, licking a line across his teeth. “One of these days I’m gonna fucking kill ‘em.”
Deku muffled a snicker in Katsuki’s tank top. “Kill…our insurance bills?”
Katsuki flicked Deku’s ear. “You heard me. I fucking hate those guys.”
“I’d help you hide their papery bodies, Kacchan.”
Katsuki bit down a laugh. Flicked his eyes down to Deku’s growing smile. Watched the shape of it for a while once he realized Deku’s eyes were serenely closed.
“Obviously,” he said, brushing a stray curl off of Deku’s forehead.
“Obviously,” Deku agreed, tightening his grip. Quieter, he said, “I missed you.”
With a drawn out groan, Katsuki pushed Deku onto his back and rolled on top of him, twining their legs together and plastering his own sweaty forehead onto Deku’s collarbones- which were jumping from Deku’s laughter and not entirely comfortable. Still, Katsuki didn’t move.
“Stop making me feel things, asshat.”
Deku pressed a kiss to the top of Katsuki’s head, still laughing. “Oh no,” he said, exaggerating the syllables. “The great and mighty Kacchan brought low by affection. How terrible.”
Katsuki reared his head up enough to nip at Deku’s cheek, a flush rising on his face.
“Jerk.”
Deku cupped Katsuki’s cheeks and pressed an even gentler kiss to his nose. “Love you Kacchan,” he murmured.
Katsuki swallowed and allowed his reddened face to be held in Deku’s large and clammy hands. God, he'd missed this.
“I lo-”
“Delivery!” Ochako sang out, slightly muffled from behind the front door of their apartment, followed by three loud knocks.
Katsuki let his forehead fall unceremoniously onto Deku’s chest, where his grumbled complaints were muffled.
Deku pet soothingly through Katsuki’s hair. Then tried to be subtle about the way he wiped his hand on the rug a few feet to their right a moment later.
“The knocking was just for show,” Ochako announced, voice much clearer as she pushed into their front door with the jangle of keys and the rustle of plastic bags Katsuki couldn’t be bothered to get up and investigate.
He kind of hoped it was another fan though, since she was already here.
“Hello. Sorry for the intrusion,” Todoroki called out next.
He kind of hoped Deku would put him out of his misery, actually.
Deku patted Katsuki’s back in silent apology and Katsuki understood that he would not be throwing his friends out on their asses like they deserved.
“Guys, we gave you that spare key for emergencies,” Deku reminded them from his spot on the floor, still trapped beneath Katsuki and his unwillingness to socialize with trespassers.
“Ochako said this counted.”
Katsuki could practically hear Todoroki’s apathetic shrug.
“Right, but…” Deku started, slowly sitting upright and maneuvering Katsuki’s legs and arms around himself with absolutely no help from Katsuki. “Um, what’s the emergency?”
Katsuki tried not to feel too pleased when Deku lifted them both from the ground with ease, his hands locked securely underneath Katsuki’s thighs. Sidekick shifts were hell but damn if they weren’t also paying off.
The rustling of plastic bags briefly paused. “You’re joking,” Ochako said.
Deku settled them into one of the two barstools beside their kitchen counter and Katsuki kept his eyes and mouth stubbornly shut, even if he could tell by the slight decrease in temperature that Todoroki was sitting on the other one.
“Uh, no?” Deku replied uncertainly, arms circling Katsuki’s torso like a beloved teddy bear. “Guys, is there actually something-?”
“Surprise!” Ochako shouted, dropping the seriousness from her tone and likely shoving something towards Deku’s face that Katsuki couldn’t be bothered to look at. “We came to save you from your badly insulated apartment!”
Then there was a loud pop and the vague sensation of something falling into Katsuki’s hair.
“...was that a fucking confetti popper?” he muttered in Deku’s ear.
Katsuki felt Deku nod against his temple. Fucker was probably smiling, too.
“What the fuck,” Katsuki said.
“Aw, that’s so nice of you!” Deku said, ignoring Katsuki’s confusion.
Annoyed, Katsuki opened his eyes and used the edge of the counter to spin their chair around. “Oi, what-?”
Todoroki shoved two plastic cups towards Katsuki’s face, both of them varying shades of pink. Katsuki stared. The one on the left had a single piece of blue confetti stuck to the lid.
“We brought smoothies,” Todoroki explained.
“And popsicles!” Ochako added.
Katsuki shifted his eyes to where she did, in fact, have a row of colorful popsicles lined up on the counter.
Slowly, Katsuki accepted the smoothies.
“Bribe successful,” Ochako whisper-cheered to Todoroki.
Katsuki clicked his tongue, and took a sip of the smoothie with the confetti. “I fucking heard that Pink Cheeks.” Then he cringed slightly at the taste of tropical fruits and handed it to Deku. “This one’s definitely yours.”
Deku smiled, seemingly unbothered about being turned away from the conversation. “Thanks Kacchan.”
“Bribe successful,” Todoroki agreed, offering her a fist bump.
“Fuck you both,” Katsuki said, narrowing his eyes over Deku’s shoulder while he drank from the strawberry banana smoothie that, on second glance, he could see had a sticker of a grenade on the far side. “I’m not so fucking easily swayed.”
Laughing, Deku squeezed Katsuki tighter with one hand and used the other to press his cold smoothie against the back of Katsuki’s neck. “Right.”
Katsuki hummed a pleased sound. Still, he said, “You’re damn right. Bastard. I'm un-bribe-able.”
Then Deku spun the chair back around to make cheerful small talk with their friends and Katsuki decided, just this once, that he wouldn’t confiscate their spare key. Not when Deku’s hand was scratching so gently up and down his side and Todoroki occasionally sent a spray of ice flurries over their heads. Even Ochako amused herself by balancing popsicles on Katsuki’s shoulders.
And it wasn’t often that he and Deku got to spend their days like this.
Katsuki tapped Deku three times on the hip.
I love you, it meant.
hit me with your class 1-a thanksgiving headcanons
who’s in charge of deserts? who’s been exiled from the kitchen by 8am? is anybody wearing hats that look like turkeys? who’s starting drama? did todoroki misunderstand the holiday and in what way? and/or anything else you can think of
Tentatively poking my head through the door... what's happening in Tumblr land?