Chapter Text
Fire.
Blazing, eternal, consuming, destructive.
He knew fire. Has lived it, breathed it, burned by it, bathed in it.
He knew the fire that warms, the fire that lights in the dark, and the fire that destroys.
He has seen the fire that burns in people’s hearts, fueled by whatever emotion it’s fed with.
He knows it, understands it.
Because he is fire.
And yet…
As he stared into the evergreen gaze that never once failed, never once cowed, never once faltered- like the fucking queen she called herself to be; beneath his own hardened teal glare that burned hotter than the flames on his neck and face, he was taken aback.
He has only ever seen those eyes… when he looks at himself in the mirror.
It had nearly been a decade, but once more, the Todoroki manor shook with roaring fire, this time of green and teal…
and it went…
like…
this…
Todoroki Enji rarely returns to his home of a manor, especially since his wife was confined to the hospital. Even more so when Shoto finally had the gall to talk back to him and stubbornly proclaimed he can get stronger without ever needing his help.
How foolish.
Even he, a man who strongly believed in the strength of oneself, would admit that a novice wouldn’t go anywhere far if left to their own devices. There’s only so much help books and videos online can do. Nothing was comparable to being under the tutelage of someone who actually knows the trade and has mastery in it. He, himself, could give that credit to his own father and his former teachers when he was at U.A.
So he humored him. He humored Shoto on his rebellious whims and let him realize the futility of not accepting his guidance. The boy should learn how to take advantage of whatever resources he has no matter how he disliked the source. None of that will matter once he’s achieved what he’s meant to be.
So imagine Enji’s surprise when he came home one day, no thanks to a certain pink-haired support, and learn that Shoto’s been coming home late for the last few days. Fuyumi had told him so when he asked, wondering why his youngest hasn’t been home yet when school had already finished an hour ago. The fact that his daughter had said it with obvious concern only added gravity to the behavior that it was not just some once-in-a-while occurrence.
It made him livid.
Surely, the boy wasn’t wasting time doing meaningless things teenagers do nowadays after school, right? He thought him better than that. Since it was the only thing he could do, he waited. But when Shoto finally arrived home and saw the familiar training weights strapped around both his wrists and ankles, and the state he was in as if he was ready to collapse at any time, the long tirade of lecture and interrogation died on the redhead’s tongue. He knew what exhaustion from training looked like, and Shoto at that moment was the very picture of that description.
Part of him was relieved, even a little proud, that Shoto’s insistence of self-training hadn’t been all talk. He will let this slight slide, but Enji still stood firm on the belief that Shoto will finally open his eyes soon. Worst case scenario was that Shoto would remain stubborn until he enters U.A. and therefore, waste precious time when he could’ve already gone ahead from his peers.
After all, with the law explicitly banning non-licensed citizens from using their quirks, Shoto would only be able to strengthen his body and not his quirk, and who else would teach him how to handle his eternal blazing hellfire but his own father?
‘What is this boy doing now?’ he couldn’t help asking himself when he caught his son on another rare chance he went home.
Fuyumi and Natsuo were out, and he had just arrived from the office when he passed through the engawa leading to the manor’s courtyard on the chance Shoto would be there training and maybe knock some sense into the boy’s stubborn head.
What he saw was something he certainly didn’t expect.
Shoto, his youngest son, his masterpiece, sat on one of the flat stones decorating the courtyard in a familiar lotus position he himself had only recently been acquainted with. He and Sakura had been talking about the ways how they practiced control over their quirks when she suggested breathing exercises. He scoffed, of course, but she had been insistent and wouldn’t stop going on and on how it’s actually a really helpful and healthy exercise, especially to those with elemental-based quirks like him.
He only relented just to shut her up and because what he taught him was called Breath of Fire.
It definitely wasn’t because he felt at ease at how peaceful she looked when she did the exercise with him.
Unsurprisingly, they began to add that exercise in one of their routines when training together.
But Shoto… does he even know what he’s doing?
“What are you doing, Shoto?” he broke the silence once he was a few feet away from his son’s still form.
He watched as the bi-colored teen took a deep breath through his nose before releasing it through his mouth. He’s also still wearing his training weights, “Training.”
“Are you now?” Enji raised a skeptical brow and the disbelief carried in his voice as it advertently caused a wrinkle between Shoto’s brows to which he quickly recovered from by taking a deep breath.
“…calm mind… silent… and serene heart…” he barely heard his whispered words.
The redhead pushed, “Shouldn’t it be time for you to cease this childish rebellion and start training seriously? You will be graduating by the end of this school year and enter U.A. It’s best that you make a good impression and advance farther than your peers if you’re to be number one. Have you even started preparing for the recommendations test?”
He scolded, and huffed when he noticed the visible clench of Shoto’s jaw at his words.
‘Still a stubborn brat I see.’
However, instead of verbally retaliating and spreading a coat of ice like he normally would, Shoto surprised Enji by keeping to his posture and take even more measured breaths. One of Shoto’s flaws was his apparent lack of self-control, in both his quirk and emotions. It’s a bad recipe that would prohibit him on the field no matter how powerful his quirks may be. But the fact that his son has found a way to manage himself (though how far has yet to remain questionable) … well, he may be a prideful man, but he’ll still give credit where credit is due.
After one, last, long exhale, Shoto finally opened his eyes to meet his. Though he was successful in controlling his quirk from manifesting, his mismatched eyes still reflected that tenacious anger.
“If you’re just going to nag me, don’t bother,” he said as he stood from the stone, “I’m not listening to a word you say and frankly, you’re interrupting my training.”
Enji could feel a vein throb on his temple. It seems that his son has gotten mouthier and even more arrogant.
“This is what you call training?” he mocked, “Don’t be a fool, Shoto. You need to get it through your head that you need proper guidance. Not some half-baked instructor you probably just found a video of in the inter-“
“Don’t,” Shoto interrupted with a firm, threatening voice, “Don’t you insult my mas- my methods in training.”
Ignoring the little stumble in his sentence to address the audacity of the boy before him, Enji took a step closer and deliberately loomed over his son.
He will not tolerate this kind of disrespect.
“Bold words,” he began lowly, tauntingly, “for a method that’s hardly impressive. What do you think you’re going to do to villains, Shoto? Breathe them to death?”
One moment their eyes were locked in a fierce competition, the next second they were duking it out in the manor’s training room.
It didn’t take long for Shoto to lay defeated on his back, with new bruises and sore spots on his body, as coats of frost and licks of flame from both his and his father decorated the entire room.
“May this be a lesson,” Enji grounded in dismissal before turning on his heel to leave his son to wallow in his defeat.
“Damnit!” his son’s shout of frustration was cut as Enji closed the door behind him. No doubt this little spar of theirs would make him realize that he was still nowhere near his level, because no matter the power, it can never beat experience and true skill.
However, unbeknownst to the upset teen, his father, too, had realized something as well.
Enji’s mind whirled as he stared at his arm where Shoto had hit him earlier. It still stings from the fire he coated his fist with, and no doubt it would leave a small bruise later. It wasn’t that strong, at least by his standards, but there was a noticeable power that clearly told him that Shoto had gotten stronger.
All these years, Shoto refused to use his left side. No matter how much he tried to drill it into his head, the boy stubbornly insisted he would get by with just using his mother’s quirk. But now…
Now, he had not only showed that he had been taking his training seriously (albeit without his help), he was also not averse to using his fire anymore either.
He should be proud, ecstatic even… but…
“There’s something fishy going on here,” he couldn’t help being suspicious as his analytical mind took over. His gut kicked him that there was something more than what was being shown on the surface.
He knew Shoto had inherited his temper and pride as much as he inherited his quirk.
To sway him from relinquishing that stubborn pride… something must’ve happened.
Not to mention his fighting style was reminiscent of mixed martial arts, and he hardly even used his quirk. The boy had never shown interest in that area before. Shoto couldn’t have gotten it from him. Although he knows how to throw a punch and kick, Enji’s own style of fighting primarily centered around manipulating his flames to do his bidding. He would be lying if he said this new way of fighting didn’t surprise him. If it were like before, Shoto would’ve indiscriminately use his right side and fill the entire training room before they could even begin.
Had something inspired him? Or was it someone?
There were other heroes who use martial arts in their style of fighting like Gunhead and White Rabbit, but neither has ever piqued the boy’s interest before. In fact, the only hero Shoto has ever looked twice at was All Might, as annoying as that was, but he had only been a little boy then. What about now?
Either way, the notion that someone was able to worm their way into his son’s head when he should’ve been trudging through the path of the mighty- his, left a very unpleasant taste in his mouth.
Which then led to the current situation.
It wasn’t his day off, but he needed to get a few ledgers from his home office. He had no intention of making himself known to whoever’s currently present in the house. Except, maybe Shoto, in case he catches him in the middle of his ‘training’ again. Maybe this time, he could get the boy to confess how, when, and where he got the idea of using mixed martial arts in his training.
He was just about to round the corner to where the corridor opened to the engawa overlooking the courtyard when he heard it.
“That’s it, Shoto. Remember, don’t fight it.”
That voice.
Months of working closely together, both in and out of the office, had made his ears attune to that soft, playful, sometimes commandeering, voice. It would be impossible not to after all those conversations they had about anything under the sun. Mostly about work and each other’s perspective about certain events, and occasionally about their personal lives; his Support can be as silent as a shadow if she wanted to be but she always had something to say when asked. And her answers were all sensible too, even if she tends to ramble when she’s particularly keen on a topic.
He’s confident he could identify it from anywhere. However, to hear her voice within the walls of his house was certainly something he isn’t pleased, much less expecting, with.
‘What is that woman doing here?’
True enough, there she was.
Clad in one of the qipao-style dresses she’s fond of, with her pastel pink hair clashing with the fairness of her skin under the sun’s rays, she stood before his manor’s courtyard like a flower blossoming in the sunlight. Back straight and turned just slightly to show him a bit of her profile.
However, once the redhead noticed the focused look of those shamrock eyes of hers, he broke from his momentary tunnel vision of the woman. He followed her gaze, and what he saw caused a deep furrow between his brows.
In front of her was Shoto, sitting on his rock in that lotus position just like the last time he saw him. The only difference, was the shroud of cold mist and licks of flames leaking from his bare torso.
Both of his quirks were manifesting… at the same time.
“Now don’t get too excited. You’re nearly there. Just hold it a little more. You’re doing great,” Sakura continued giving his son words of comfort and encouragement, her voice cutting through the silence.
Part of Enji wanted to march right in there and demand an explanation, of why she’s here, as well as what’s going on, but his shock and curiosity had him rooted on his spot. There was also this dense, suspenseful atmosphere that preceded him. Making him hold his breath as a foreboding feeling that something big was about to happen.
A sharp intake of breath came from Shoto.
“It’s flowing steadily now. I can feel it,” he said with his eyes still closed, wonderment and awe evident in his voice.
“Good. Now, Shoto, just… let… go.”
From his corner, Enji watched as Shoto took a lungful of air as he cocked his head back facing the sky, and in three… two… one… he exhaled, and a tower of fire burst from his parted mouth as frosted breath spilled from the corners of his lips. Not only that, but on both of Shoto’s sides, ice and fire coated him like a cape- like a pair of wings. Spewing forth from his neck down to the tips of his fingers, meeting on his back. But what really caught his attention was the fact that Shoto hardly showed any discomfort from the opposing temperatures.
The most common and glaring dilemma of temperature or elemental-based quirks was the handling of temperature. Just as he can resist high levels of heat for an extended period of time before the threat of overheating, his wife and children can endure colder temperatures than the average person before freezing as well.
The plan for Shoto was for him to learn how to master alternating between his fire and ice, in order to compensate the weakness of the other. That’s why he’s very insistent on teaching the boy himself, because compared to the other, his Hellflame was a lot harder to control. Just the idea of being able to use both at the same time is nigh impossible, and yet…
What the hell is he seeing?
Enji barely heard the couple of shocked gasps as he froze in his own surprise at the display.
By the end of it all, the tower of fire and cold fog died on his lips and Shoto finally opened his eyes. The only evidence left of achieving this milestone was the remaining layer of snow and licks of fire partially burning the grass on both his sides.
.
“Well done, Little Carp. That was exemplary,“ Sakura said proudly as she released the breath she hadn’t realize she had been holding onto that entire time. It made her wonder if this was what Tsunade felt when she was able to destroy a boulder to pieces with only one flick of her finger for the first time.
“Oh Shoto! That was amazing! I’m so proud of you!”
“That was so cool, Shoto! As expected of my little brother!”
Sakura couldn’t help the smile on her face as both Fuyumi and Natsuo almost tackled the still-bewildered boy to the ground. It had taken a while, at least by her standards, but that was understandable, given Shoto’s later entry into actual training compared to the standards she grew up in. She also knew he was still reluctant in using his left side despite the release of his transgressions. She doesn’t know the full story between him and his father, she has no right to that story unless they willingly share it. After all, as close as she may have gotten to the remaining members of the Todoroki family, she’s still technically an outsider to them. She’s not family.
Frankly, she hoped it would stay that way. For her sake and theirs. It’s bad enough that she had grown fond of the bicolored teen who now looks at her the same way she would look to her former master.
It’s one thing to acknowledge your demons, it’s another to face them, and all Sakura could do was to make sure Shoto doesn’t let his demons rule him. Not before he’s ready to confront them.
Once Shoto was able to free himself from his siblings’ crushing hugs, he turned to her fully with an almost reverent look on his face.
Sakura cocked her head to the side, wondering what he’s going to do as he took a step closer to her. She watched as the teen brought his hands up to his chest in a proper palm hold fist salute and bowed his head deeply. She was about to do the same, but what he did next shocked her for the first time since she came to Japan.
“Thank you very much for your guidance, Master!” he said with such pride and sincerity that also surprised his siblings.
If there was any doubt of Shoto’s devotion and fidelity to the pink-haired Queen, it’s practically nonexistent now.
Breath caught at his bold display; Sakura had to take a moment to will herself back to reality. She knew he would slip the title one day; the boy wasn’t exactly subtle in his actions; she just wasn’t anticipating him to do it so soon and so openly at that.
“You shouldn’t call me that, Shoto. It’s illegal, and could get me in big trouble,” she rebuked, making the teen snap his head up to her in shock and worry, but that very expression on his face caused her walls to crumble. Sakura felt her own face soften as she extended a hand to cup his cheek and let her thumb caress the bottom border of his scar, “but… I suppose I could make an exception. Just this once.”
She smiled, and ignored the clench of her heart, because Shoto smiled back.
A moment of silence was all they were granted with before their little bubble of peace was burst by a deafening roar.
“MASTER?!!!”
Three flinches. One hand snapping back to the side. Three expressions of dread turning. One back straightening.
“Oh shit…” Natsuo cursed beneath his breath.
‘Oh shit indeed,’ Sakura silently agreed.
For this to happen so soon… it seems that she exhausted all her lucky stars on Shoto for his breakthrough.
No, she doesn’t regret it.
She knew this little secret of theirs would be revealed to him one day. Something like this couldn’t remain a secret for long after all.
At times like this, it’s best to just face the music.
Sakura turned on her heel with her chest out and chin held high. Her green depths met his infuriated glare head on as she greeted with a polite dip of her head, “Hello, Endeavor.”
“Master,” he said in a mixture of a scoff and growl. His face twisted into that stern expression of his as he continued to stare down at her in the same way when they met for the first time.
“D-Dad… a-aren’t you supposed to be a-at work today?” Fuyumi asked; so nervous she stuttered.
“I was just stopping by to get something, and thought of checking in Shoto’s training. So imagine my surprise… when I saw this instead,” Enji answered, his eyes not once straying from hers as he stomped closer to deliberately loom over the pinkette. He asked in a low, demanding voice, “Shamrock Queen, what exactly are you doing here?”
She noticed Shoto making a move from her periphery. No doubt to stand between her and his father’s evident ire. So she held her arm out to block his path, giving him a silent command to not interfere. He wasn’t the one that had been addressed anyway.
“Your children invited me over,” she answered truthfully.
“And since when have you been acquainted with them to be invited over?” the vein on his neck pulsed.
It’s like watching a kettle on a stove, where steam has already been spewing from its spout, knowing that any second it will finally reach its boiling point… and scream.
“Three weeks. They’ve been inviting me over to lunch and dinner whenever I have the day off on a weekend.”
“And I don’t suppose you’ve known Shoto longer than that, do you?” he growled and clenched his fists on his sides so hard she heard the fabric strain. When her silence only affirmed his question, his brows burrowed ever deeper, “Do you?!”
The flames on his face and around his shoulders grew hot and high, flapping in a frenzy to a nonexistent wind that only showed how angry he’d become.
Sakura knew fire.
Has breathed it, played with it, ate and drank it.
Because her will and the shape of her soul is fire.
She was born of fire.
“Yes,” she answered curtly, “I have been helping Shoto for a while now.”
“SEMANTICS!” he roared at her face, “Haven’t I told you to mind your own business?! And yet you dare do this to me! BEHIND. MY. BACK!”
It was Sakura’s turn for her brows to deepen into a frown.
“Who I meet and befriend outside of work isn’t any of your business,” she breathed, her own voice cracked with her own impeding growl.
“It is when it’s my own children!”
“Fine! I’m sorry I never told you I met them, but it’s exactly because I know you’d react like this that I didn’t say anything! I didn’t want you to think I have some hidden agenda by befriending your kids.”
She knew he was the kind of man who marked a clear line between work and home. Unfortunately for him, that’s not something she could easily follow. In Konoha, that line is a faded area because your friends and comrades are your family, and by extension, their family becomes yours as well. It’s the value of camaraderie, and in order to further enforce a stronger bond. Sakura respected this line of his, that’s why she didn’t say anything, but her culture also made her relent to his children. That’s why she never called them by their last names.
Because she didn’t want them to think she’s seeing them as her boss’ kids.
“But you did!” the redhead jabbed a finger at his son behind her, “You’ve been training Shoto! Acting like some teacher, and now he calls you Master! Just who do you think you are?!”
“Look, I never asked for this! Shoto and I met by chance. He begged me to train him. I refused, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help him!”
“Stop sidestepping and just say it! Just admit that you’ve been training him all this time!”
That effectively made her lips clamp up. She knew he was right. That she had only been skirting around the words to deliberately avoid saying it out loud, because doing so would make her openly admit it. Admitting would create a pattern of leniency, leniency would lead to gradual exposure, and exposure would eventually reach the ears of her comrades in the shadows and therefore- her Hokage.
Because words have power.
And frankly, between her boss and her Kage, she’d rather not risk breaking the laws of her village than getting herself fired.
“Who do you think you are?!” Enji bellowed, seeing that she wouldn’t utter a single syllable to cow to his earlier demand, “I thought you better than this! Thought you had more brain in that pretty little head of yours than the rest of these two-bit heroes! But what do I expect from a foreign heroine from a backwater village who knows nothing of our ways?!”
“AND YOU KNOW NONE OF MINE!” she roared back with such ferocity as her own sights focused solely on the man in flames before her. Wholly unaware at how her anger shook the three children behind her as they, then and there, looked at her with wide eyes from fear and admiration for standing up to their father. “Listen here, you overgrown matchstick! I don’t give a rat’s ass what you call me in this misguided tantrum of yours but I swear on the fires of the black pit, if you insult my village again, you will be sorry!”
“Is that anyway to talk to your employer?!”
“Well, we’re not exactly in the office right now, are we?!”
“No, we’re not! You are in my house! And yet you had the gall to waltz in here and claim a position you have no right to!”
“What right?! To help Shoto?!”
“The right to lead him to the path of the mighty! Shoto will be the one to set a new precedent in the name of heroes! And I’ll be sure to see to it! YOU KNOW THIS!”
“AND HE WILL! Shoto has shown more promise as a hero than any other person I’ve met since I came here! And I have no doubt he will exceed your expectations! But it’s one thing to lead him down that path, it’s another to make yourself the only option!”
“And you think you’re any better?! What do you know?! You hardly even have the same quirk as he does!”
Is this guy for real?
“I don’t have to! Didn’t you see what he just achieved just now?! You think training is just about making your body and quirk stronger?! Damnit, I thought you had more sense than this!” at this point, Sakura’s ready to tear her hair out. Anger can always lead to blindness, and it’s even more frustrating when it’s from a stubborn person, “What about pride? Honor? Discipline? Balance? The heart of a warrior?! What makes him a real hero?! Have you thought any of that, oh mighty one?!”
Beneath the ever-increasing flames, the redhead’s face flushed from her open mockery.
“Shoto knows better than that! He is my son! I am his father! I know what’s best for him! It is my power he inherited!”
“Oh just WAKE UP, will you?! He’s only literally half of you! So what if he has your fire power? He may be your legacy, but how he chooses to trudge that path is his own decision!” she gestured sharply to where Shoto stood frozen behind her (unaware of his wide eyes in shock and newfound respect and admiration towards her), as she never once broke from Enji’s dangerously narrowed gaze, “If he decides to not follow your path because he doesn’t want to be seen as another you, then so. Fucking. Be it! Stop coddling him!”
“CODDLING?! You think I’m coddling him?!” he nearly added a laugh at that, “That boy has hardly ever looked twice at me! This is all because of his childish rebellion, and you’re indulging him! You think his Hellflame is just some ordinary fire?! What he has now is because of me!”
Oh, for the love of god!
“Eh-bel kizu ro mo!” she couldn’t help cursing in her native language, surprising the outsiders around her even more, “Would you stop talking about Shoto only to circle back to yourself?! This is NOT. ABOUT. YOU!”
Sakura roared the last bit with a single foot stomping the ground, causing a crater the size of her feet and creating a tremor that simulated a magnitude 5 earthquake. But even as the Todoroki children scrambled to hold onto their footing and the sounds of car alarms blasted around the neighborhood, both heroes with fires for their souls remained stubbornly standing their ground against the ferocity of the other.
While one of them had his Hellfire nearly consuming his entire body as it billowed and crackled loudly against the tense silence, with a heat so intense it started to burn the grass beneath his feet, the other had hers as an internal wild inferno that could only be reflected by the green emeralds that were her eyes. Making the usually calm, soft, and even playful, greens, into a kaleidoscope of viridian that looked as if there was fire literally burning behind her dangerous irises.
She looked absolutely breathtaking.
“Get out of my house,” Enji said in a low voice unlike the ones he used to warn his impending shouts. No, this one held the entire weight of his seriousness.
It told her he’s had enough of this conversation, but that doesn’t mean it was over nor did it mean he lost.
“No!” Shoto finally voiced, with every intention of defending the pinkette.
“Shoto-“ Sakura began softly but it was drowned by the teen’s own shouts.
“She doesn’t have to listen to you!”
“This is my house,” Enji grounded, teal eyes still locked with hers, “My word is above all of you, and you better shut your mouth, Shoto.”
“As if I-!”
“Shoto,” she interrupted loudly, firmly, as for the first time since her and Enji’s deadlock, she broke from his gaze to send the teen a reassuring look over her shoulder, “Thank you for your concern, but I’ll be fine. I promise.”
Her message was meant for the three siblings, but she didn’t wait to see if they all received it as she stared back up at the redhead. Her eyes this time, had also simmered somewhat but they still kept their hardened steel.
One… two… three… ten heartbeats later of nothing but tense silence, and Sakura turned on her heel where she disappeared in the next moment.
The only evidence of her presence- were the leaves that had been on under her feet, swirling in her wake.