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Todoroki and Iida– Shouto and Tenya now, have slowly but steadily been progressing in their relationship, Shouto can barely believe it some days, having this with Tenya is something straight out of his carefully tucked away and smothered dreams, rose-coloured and marshmallow-sweet in the way a child’s dreams are, but laying in bed with his boyfriend twenty minutes before curfew feels anything but dream-like tonight. They are graduating in two months, they are leaving the safety of a set routine, the comfort of the four walls of UA, the reassurance of the noisy dorms and the creaking doors and—
“What are you thinking about?”, a strong hand covers his mindlessly tracing fingers atop Tenya’s chest. Shouto looks up at his boyfriend, he cannot see his face from this angle, his head on Tenya’s chest.
“Graduation”, Tenya hums, letting him know he heard him. The few seconds of silence after it is enough for the bitter weight of anxiety to settle in the bottom of his stomach, everything is going to change now, they will be moving in together, they will stop parting ways after 9:30, they will be the last thing they see before they fall asleep and the first thing they see when they wake up. It is a concept that thrills Shouto just as much as it terrifies him.
Shouto hates himself for it, his heart knows he loves his boyfriend deeply, that this goes beyond his wildest dreams, and that his soul will sing every night they get to come home to each other. But his brain has always been one of his oldest foes, his brain is screaming that he will be tying himself down to something he could never leave unscathed, that he is offering himself up on a silver platter to be hurt, to be picked apart and irrevocably changed into something he will no longer recognise. Now of course he knows Tenya won’t hurt him, but there is always a tiny voice in the back of his mind whispering terrible things to him, things that haunt these beautiful moments.
He can’t help but wonder if his mother ever lay in bed with his father like this, happy, safe, thinking a life next to that man wouldn’t be bad at all, just as he is right now. He can’t help but think about how easily the palm covering his hand could press down too hard, bruise, and break and hurt. How easily soft kisses that convey devotion and joy could turn demanding and possessive and and and–
Tenya’s fingers start drawing senseless figures on his palm, mimicking Shouto’s earlier actions and the reality of his twisted thoughts hits him, his boyfriend is here with him, in the warmth of his room, in the softness of his bed and Shouto is thinking about all the ways his soothing hands could hurt him. In moments like this, he feels inadequate, impossibly tainted and dirty compared to the noble, kind man beside him.
“Shouto?”
“Huh?” He closes his eyes as Tenya’s chest vibrates underneath him.
“I know we haven’t been dating for long, but since we will be moving together, don’t you think it’s time to meet each other’s parents? Formally I mean”.
Shouto hums, he understands, they haven’t formally introduced each other to their families, sure Tenya has met Fuyumi and Natsuo separately, and his father knows he has a boyfriend he is planning on moving together with after UA, but the concept of introducing Tenya, sweet, gentle Tenya to his family, not to Fuyumi, not to Natsuo, but to the “Todoroki Family”, makes his heart drop; meeting Tenya’s family in change seems like the least taxing option, yet he knows he will have to put on the “I was raised with love and care” mask on. Even though the world knows of Endeavor’s past, Shouto has found people are way less receptive to the effects of being raised in a dysfunctional home than the fact itself.
“You are right, do you have any dates in mind?” Now Shouto is not a hypocrite, he just knows there are certain things you must go through for social etiquette, and meeting the parents is one of those things. Normal people do it all the time, several times, he can do it too.
“I was thinking maybe next week? We have Friday afternoon off for graduation preparations, and then we can get this over with on Saturday so we are free as soon as possible”. Shouto’s tension vanishes with that last comment, he knows for as proper as his boyfriend is, he also hates these social milestones as much as him. His boyfriend being open like this in the privacy of his room, with Shouto of all people makes him feel special, like he is someone worthy of knowing all these facets Tenya doesn’t show to the world.
“That works for me, I’ll text Fuyumi so she can tell my father.” He sits up, looks at his boyfriend, and knows the question before Tenya speaks. “Do you want me to meet your father?”
“You already know him”
“That’s not what I meant, I know him as Endeavor, I don’t know him as my boyfriend’s father, and he doesn’t know me as your boyfriend.” Shouto knows what he means, yet he doesn’t want to let his father anywhere near Tenya, he wants to have this for himself and himself only, yet if he decides to keep his father around once he graduates, it would be easier if he at least knows the man his son will be living with, won’t it?
“I mean I don’t want to, but wouldn’t it be weird if I invite him to my wedding in 10 years and he doesn’t know the groom?” Shouto doesn’t understand what he implied until he looks at Tenya’s progressively redder cheeks, ah, he covers his face with his hands and damns the moment he openned his mouth.
“Ah, I mean, wouldn’t it be–”
“No, you are right!” Tenya grabs the hands currently on his face as he interrupts Shouto. “It would be proper to formally introduce each other to our families.” Shouto lets his earlier worries get washed away by the giddiness of knowing Tenya also imagines a future by his side, even this early on. It settles his unsteady heart and once again makes it evident that they share this understanding of what they are to each other.
He’ll have to text Fuyumi later, but for tonight, he’ll take what time is left before curfew to curl up against his boyfriend and find comfort in his undeniable affection.
Sometimes Shouto forgets what tension feels like, he is used to predictable conflict amid battle and training, to joy and relaxation with his friends and Tenya, but the moment he knocks on his childhood’s home front sliding door, it overwhelms him and sits on his bones like it belongs there, and for a second it feels like that’s all Shouto has ever known.
Albeit less and less around his siblings as they bond past childhood grievances, Fuyumi and Natsuo bloom into new people the more he spends time with them, or perhaps these are the people they always were, just not with Shouto. But the moment his parents entered the picture, everything was immediately…harder.
His parents like ice and fire carried their guilt in equally strong and radically different ways, his mom’s guilt left him devoid of warmth as she hesitated to take steps to finally get to know the son she was separated from, now that she was out of the hospital, the unfamiliar routine hit their budding relationship hard.
With his father…. things have never been okay and Shouto doubts they ever will be, his guilt feels like gunpowder in his mouth, igniting in cold flame every once or twice, when Shouto can’t take what he knows is real guilt over what his father has done to them, when they are all together it blows up in their faces, there’s too much anger, too much resentment from everyone involved. Shouto doesn’t think his father understands how deep the wounds of their childhood run, he regrets them, but he doesn’t understand them. He has gotten better, in a way, but the wounds he inflicted on all of them have never stopped bleeding.
Fuyumi slides the door open just as Shouto reaches out to squeeze Tenya’s hand before knocking again.
“Ah! Welcome! Come in, come in!” His sister says with a blinding smile on her face. She beams at him with a knowing smile, and he proceeds to pretend to glare at her, although his soft smile betrays him. He does love getting to see her in the midst of their chaotic family dinners.
“Hello Shouto, care to introduce this dashing young man to your favourite sister?” She is grinning ear to ear like she has been waiting all her life to do this, and he softens when he thinks maybe this is as unexpected of a chance for her as it is for him.
“You already know him Fuyumi.” he rolls his eyes for the dramatic effect.
“Good evening Todoroki-san!” Tenya releases his hand to bow to Fuyumi.
“Ah, could it be the man of the hour?” Natsuo sprints towards them and stops right in front of them, he is wearing matching smiles with Fuyumi.
“Good evening to you too Todoroki– ah, Natsuo-san”
“Call me Natsuo or that’s about to get really confusing tonight when you have three Todoroki-san in one table.” He claps Tenya on the shoulder in familiarity. They have seen each other a couple of times now, with Shouto and Tenya becoming some sort of package deal nowadays.
“Got it, Natsuo-san” Natsuo makes a face at the formality.
“Stop teasing my boyfriend like you don’t know him already” Shouto says just mildly annoyed by his sibling’s antics.
“Ah let us have our fun Shouto! We never thought you’d bring a boyfriend home to meet our parents.”
There it is.
He would resent that if it weren’t for the fact that he thinks the same way, he can barely believe he is here about to introduce a boyfriend to his parents, he wonders if everyone can tell how awkward and inexperienced he is at this, at living like a normal person, like bringing a boyfriend is not the living proof that he is more than what happened to him and instead just is a teenage milestone like it’s meant to be for everyone else.
He wonders if his mother will like Tenya, if she will imagine his hands stealing the life out of her youngest son, or if they’d be his hands instead. He wonders if his father has truly accepted this is who he loves, if the guilt he feels is stronger than the expectations he had for his most powerful son.
He is hit by how unprepared he is to let his parents into this side of his life, albeit for different reasons. As if Fuyumi could read his mind, she asks, “Are you ready to see Mom and Dad? We can wait in the living room”
“I think I'm ready for Tenya to meet my mother, I’m less sure about father”, he makes a face at the thought that startles a laugh out of Natsuo.
“Alright, I’m leaving before he comes home, I rather not see him ever again, you still have the chance to just never introduce Tenya to him!”
“Natsuo!”
“What? It’s not like he has any right to our lives!” He can tell his brother wants to say more but refrains for the sake of their sister, the conflict on his face is as evident as Shouto’s apprehension to agree with him.
“See you later Shouto, Tenya!” as quickly as he appears, he vanishes. Shouto curses the moment he started depending on his siblings to get through dinners with his father present, as he starts feeling his tolerance ebb away with his brother’s absence.
Shouto sighs and Tenya reaches out for his hand and squeezes, both for his own sake and Shouto’s, he squeezes back.
“Of course Todoroki-san, lead the way”.
As Fuyumi leads them to the living room, Shouto wonders if Natsuo still shows up because of this house and the memories it carries for him. There are nothing but aching memories for Shouto here, but for Natsuo and Fuyumi the pain is not the only thing this house represents, these are the corridors they ran in, the gardens they played in, the rooms they shared. These are the walls with memories of Touya from before Shouto even existed.
He wonders if his siblings think of him as a stranger outside of the four walls of the dojo, if they think of him as a foreigner in these halls. If they can picture the child they barely saw playing alongside them, or if it’s his seventeen-year-old face. If that’s why it’s easier to bond outside of their home, because he exists outside of it, because he belongs outside of it.
As they make their way into the living room they notice his parents are already there, his father sitting on the edge of the couch next to his wheelchair, his mother next to him like he’s never done anything to her, like his father deserves the devotion of his battered wife.
“Endeavor-san! Todoroki-san!” Tenya is the first to react, standing straighter, letting go of Shouto’s hand and bowing deeply in front of his parents. Shouto wonders how he can bear to pay respects to his father when he knows what Tenya really thinks of him. His mother stands up to greet them and he gives her a tense yet happy smile, she is his mom after all. He might not understand her motives to stay next to the man who hurt her, he might not agree with it or like it, nor bear to see it with a straight face, he might not– it’s his mom and he loves her, that’s what is important.
“You must be Tenya” His mom approaches Tenya and takes his hands into hers, “It’s lovely to meet you, you’ll have to excuse my husband for not standing to greet you”, it surprises Shouto, the pettiness of it, the venom behind it. It makes him feel uncomfortable, poison like this has no place near Tenya, not tonight.
“Ah– that’s me, ma'am, Iida Tenya”
“From the Iida family,” His father interrupts, rather rudely, with a hint of unexpected pride in his voice. Like he is happy Shouto at least chose a man with a prestigious lineage or whatever.
“That’s right sir”. Shouto can see the tense line of Tenya’s shoulders as he answers his father’s question, Tenya takes pride in his family lineage, unlike Shouto, so he imagines having a pride point turned into something ugly, something that defines your worth in the Todoroki family house, would bother him.
Fuyumi intervenes as their mom shoots their father a look, “Why don’t we sit down to eat? We are having sukiyaki!” Shouto watches as fake smiles appear on every member of his family’s face. As his mom slowly moves towards his father to push him to the living room as if the wheelchair had no push rims.
“Let’s go”, Fuyumi’s manufactured smile turns towards him, gaining an inch of genuineness as she watches them walk towards the dining table.
Shouto wishes he had shot down Tenya’s ideas of meeting each other’s families, wishes he had at least suggested not meeting his father, or meeting him separately, he doesn’t know if it would’ve fixed the rehearsed nature of his mother’s speech, but it would definitely reduce the amount of strain in the room.
“So tell me, Iida, do you plan on taking Ingenium’s name?” His father asks while Tenya is still swallowing the fish cake he dipped.
“He already did, Father,” Shouto says, voice clipped. Fuyumi cringes.
He cannot stand it.
He reaches out for Tenya’s hand, Tenya hesitates but never leaves him with an extended hand, he can see the moment his father sees their joint hands, he watches him as he stares at their hands, Shouto squeezes his boyfriend’s hands and catches his father as he lifts his eyes and makes eye contact with him, breaking it instantly and looking down at his food instead, he has the gall to look ashamed, to look remorseful.
He lets go.
“And tell us, how did you two meet?” His mom redirects the conversation to something safe when he spots her husband looking miserably at his dinner.
He lets Tenya answer, that’s the entire reason why they are here, for him to talk to his parents and get “familiar” with them. “Well, as you know, we met in UA, on the first day of school in the first year!”
“You are in Class A too?”, his father follows his wife’s line of questioning, and absolutely ruins any hope of this dinner going any semblance of okay. He drops his chopsticks unceremoniously and for a few seconds, the clink of them is the only thing that’s heard in the house.
“Ahem, yes–”
“You are unbelievable, did you know that?” Shouto will apologise to Tenya for this later, “We’ve been classmates for three years, he has been mentioned in passing in almost all conversations I have with you, there’s no way Fuyumi didn’t tell you he’s a classmate, there’s no way in hell you don’t know he is the one that helped me save Touya during the war!”
“Don’t speak to me in that tone!” Fuyumi flinches. This is it, there he is, his father like he’s meant to be, angry and all-imposing.
“I will speak to you however I want, I cannot believe you, I bring my boyfriend home, the man I’ll be moving in with, and this is what you do? Do you really care this little? Do you have any idea what he did to get me to Touya in time? This is the man responsible for me being able to save Touya! When you were useless and left me alone! This is who was beside me! The least you could do is show him an ounce of respect!”
He feels the shame crawl up through his oesophagus, his face heats up in anger and mortifyingly, his eyes fill with unshed tears. He looks into his father’s guilty eyes, and he watches as he tries to apologise, how his mother helps him into his wheelchair with trembling hands, and in the end that’s what undoes him, what makes the hot tears fall freely, the haunted look in his mom’s eyes.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you Mom, I’m so sorry” The tears evaporate and freeze on each side. His father has wheeled away in shame and all that remains is a crying Shouto, a terrified Rei, a pitiful-looking Fuyumi and Tenya, Tenya who is speaking to him, saying things Shouto cannot hear, focused instead on the way his mother’s hands shake.
“It’s not you, love. It’s not you.” His mother lies, this is what he’s noticed, she lies, she lies when she tells him he doesn’t have to apologise, she lies when she says none of this is his fault, she is a liar.
“Todoroki-san, Fuyumi-san, thank you for dinner, I think it’s best if I take Shouto back to UA now” He’s ruined it, not even half an hour in and Shouto’s ruined the chance he had of making Tenya and his mother like each other. He scared his mother, he’s ruined dinner. He’s ruined everything again.
His mom says something he doesn’t hear and suddenly the cool air of the evening is hitting him in the face. “Tenya?”
“Yes Shouto?” Strong arms are leading him somewhere, a warm hand in his. “Are we leaving?”
“Yes we are, we are going back to UA, I’ll tell Aizawa-sensei to pick us up early.” Shouto hums, his cheeks still wet and his eyes fixed on his feet. “I’m sorry”.
“You don’t have to apologise for anything, Shouto”. His fists open and close. He is so tired.
Shouto sneaks into his boyfriend’s room that night and Tenya lets him despite breaking curfew rules, he sleeps curled tightly against him, he thinks he hears Tenya apologising to him, for what he has no idea.
Shouto wakes up the next day, in a familiar room, in a familiar bed that’s not his, there’s an alarm blaring somewhere, coming from Tenya’s bathroom, where his boyfriend most likely is.
Tenya emerges from the bathroom door as if summoned, immediately noticing Shouto is awake. “Ah! Good morning Shouto! Sorry if the alarm woke you up, I forgot to silence the alarm last night.” His boyfriend sits by the edge of the bed, right next to Shouto.
“Come lie down it’s still early.” The most adorable blush decorates Tenya’s face and Shouto moves his head so it rests on his boyfriend’s lap. “It’s 8 am Shouto, it’s important to have a regular sleep schedule for your sleep health.”
“Uhu, I know you want to lie down Tenya.” There’s a strain in his boyfriend’s touch as he moves to play with Shouto’s hair. “What is it? What’s wrong?” Shouto feels quite dumb after asking, as if he doesn’t know what this is about. The damned dinner.
It was a disaster, Shouto ended up blowing up like he was Natsuo or Touya, ruining dinner and scaring his mother, no matter how many times she said it wasn’t him, Shouto ruined everything aga– “I’m so sorry Shouto.”
What?
“What are you talking about? What are you apologising for?” Shouto fell asleep in one world and woke up in another from the looks of it.
“It was my idea to go meet your parents and I ended up pressuring you to go back to your father, even after knowing what happened. I’m so sorry Shouto.” Woah okay, this ends now.
“Stop, you have nothing to apologise for, I had no idea it was gonna end that badly. I agreed to it thinking I could handle it, I was just wrong.”
“What happened yesterday?”
“I don’t really know.” Shouto sighs, time to try and communicate like a normal person, like Tenya does, like his classmates do.
“I think, I underestimated how angry any slight towards you was going to make me. It’s fine when it’s to me, my father unintentionally does that all the time, I thought I could handle it as long as it was directed towards me.” Shouto closes his eyes, savouring Tenya’s touch as he tries to put thoughts into words.
“There was something so… fake about the entire thing, I couldn’t have you there, not with my father there while everyone pretended everything was fine, like it’s not fucked up that my mother is still there, that Fuyumi won’t leave, that Natsuo has left, that Touya is not dying in a stupid tube because of him. I couldn’t have you in a place so… tainted.” Words spill out without Shouto being able to make sense of them.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry I didn’t think of what it might do to you.” Shouto opens his eyes and sits up, looking Tenya right in the eye, “Stop apologising, you didn’t know, just like I didn’t know.”
“If anything, meeting your parents is going to be easier after this.” Shouto tries to lighten the mood although it comes out with his signature flat tone.
“You still want to meet my parents?”
“Of course, they are your parents and you love them. Don’t we have tonight free to go?”
“We do, I just thought, after yesterday….” Tenya looks away.
“Well, from what I’ve heard your family is nothing like mine.” He means it as a compliment and hopes Tenya treats it as such.
“I’m really excited for you to meet Tensei and my parents, but if you aren’t feeling like it tonight, we can always postpone.” Shouto shakes his head, “No, I want to meet your family, I’m already feeling better, I promise.”
“Okay, but we can leave whenever you want,” Tenya says seriously, and the thought of forcing Tenya to leave a dinner with his loving family is outrageous but he still nods and smiles.
“Okay, now lie down, there’s no classes today, we can sleep in.” Shouto flops back into the warm sheets that smell like Tenya. “Shouto, your sleep schedule….”
“Mmmm, I can fix my sleep schedule later, come sleep,” he says closing one eye and looking at Tenya with the other one. “I’m going to be lonely if you don’t take a nap with me.” The first time Midoriya heard them speak and say things like that to each other, he laughed so hard he almost choked on his rice, Shouto doesn’t understand why saying sweet things in a flat tone is funny, but he enjoys his boyfriend’s reactions to it. .
“That’s not acceptable,” Tenya says following Shouto’s game with as much seriousness as when he follows him into battle and he finally flops down next to Shouto. “Boyfriends aren’t allowed to be lonely.”
“That’s right they are not.” He says as he takes Tenya’s glasses off his face and sets them on his bedside table. “Okay, time to nap.”
“My family might try to embarrass me, don’t listen to them.” Shouto smiles as Tenya gives him several warnings about his family trying to show him baby pictures or tell him embarrassing stories. He can’t wait till he becomes acquainted with this part of Tenya’s life, although not knowing what to expect is daunting.
Iida Tensei is coming to pick them up and in predictable Iida family fashion, at least what he knows of it from Tenya, he shows up at 6 pm on the dot, not a minute early, not a minute late, he rolls out of his van in his power chair, steadily wheeling towards them.
“Tensei! You didn’t need to come pick us up! We could’ve taken the train.” Tenya immediately starts fussing over his brother.
“Of course, I wanted to come pick my little brother and his boyfriend up, I wanted to be the first one to meet him! Go on, introduce us!”, Iida-san makes a gesture and Tenya stands up straight.
“Brother, this is my boyfriend, Todoroki Shouto.” Shouto feels Iida-san’s stare and a smile appears on his face as he catches Shouto looking, his cheeks colour and he bows with respect.
“Nice to meet you Iida-san”
“None of that Todoroki! Call me Tensei!”
“Tensei,” Shouto sounds it out and Iida-sa– Tensei, smiles at him.
“So you are the man after my brother’s heart, huh? I gotta admit, I knew something was going on the moment my brother here came back talking about the amazing kid that beat him at the Sports Festival, but I didn’t know it would end like this!” Tensei beams at them and Shouto steals a look at Tenya finding him sputtering and gesticulating with his hands.
“Brother, please! At least wait till dinner!” Tensei laughs, so carefreely, so genuinely, none of that modulated, manufactured laugh Fuyumi does every once in a while when tensions are high.
“Alright, alright! Are we ready to go then?” Tensei wheels back into his van, and Tenya opens the backseat doors for them. As he settles in the backseat he notices the undeniably fancy car is worn down, dog claw marks on the window, and wheelchair trails in the carpeting. It looks lived in.
“Ah, you noticed Takoyaki’s little gifts, huh? You’ve got a good eye!, Tensei notices him looking at the dog marks in the rearview mirror as he manoeuvres the manual pedals.
“Takoyaki?” He can’t help but smile at the name, it’s truly ridiculous.
“My girlfriend’s dog! He stole a full order of takoyaki the first day Satomi brought her home, hence the name!” Shouto hums, and wonders if speaking in all caps is an Iida family trait, loud and cheery, with no threat underneath the volume.
He wonders if they fight.
“Do you want pets, Todoroki-kun?” Ah, the test has already started.
“Uh… I don’t have any.” He was never allowed any pets, as they were distractions to his father’s eyes; although he liked looking at the decorative fish tank his father had in some rooms of his agency, bright coloured fish that were meant to convey wealth to anyone who saw it, but to Shouto they were a reprieve from the expectations and mistreatment he was subjected to when his father forced him to go into the agency when he was younger.
He wonders if any of the sidekicks and heroes signed under Endeavor noticed how harsh his father was on his youngest son if they questioned the bandages, the bruises and the antagonising nature of their relationship. He is not sure it would’ve changed anything, but shouldn’t they have tried? Very few of them quit after Touya revealed their… dysfunctional nature to the world. He wonders if the handful of heroes and sidekicks too sickened by it to quit ever noticed before that.
“Do you want any?” Tensei’s question snaps him out of his thoughts and he quickly replies, “Yes, I want a cat, or ah, a rabbit.”
“Ah, my parents had an old cat when I was born, Mister was very cranky but managed to put up with my kid antics for a few years.” The Iiida family had a cat? Why hasn’t Tenya mentioned it? As he shoots his boyfriend a questioning look he catches the rest of Tensei’s story. “Unfortunately, it died before Tenya was born but a few months later I had a new baby brother that made me forget all about how sad I was.”
Shouto could hear the smile in Tensei’s voice and see the one on Tenya’s face. He is pretty sure his siblings would’ve been happier with a cat than with the arrival of the youngest Todoroki. He wonders what it feels to have someone admit so brazenly that his existence brought them happiness.
“Ah, Tenya was a heavy baby! He had the cutest little engines on his calves from birth, I remember the day he was born, the best day for an 11-year-old.” This finally pulls a full smile from Shouto’s face as he imagines a dark-haired baby with engines on his calves like he already has somewhere to be.
“Do you think your mom will show me pictures if I ask?”
“Oh, I’m sure she’ll love to!” Tensei smiles widely at the prospects and Tenya squawks like he is being personally inconvenienced.
“Shouto!”
“Nuh-uh, I’m not leaving your home without baby pictures just because my family has no baby pictures of me for you to see!” Shouto meant it casually, but the sudden tension in the air lets him know he has once again blundered his way through a conversation.
“They have no pictures of you as a baby?” Tenya asks aghast.
“It doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about it”, not here, not in front of your brother, he begs.
For the rest of the drive, Shouto is aware Tensei is attempting to make conversation, he hopes the mask he put on for it is enough to convince him he is a normal person.
The Iida home is as similar to the Todoroki property as it is different, they both have an air of wealth coming from several generations of heroes, however, the Iida residence looks modern in contemporary architecture styles in comparison to the ever-traditional Todoroki residence, but the differences grow more and more apparent as he enters the house after Tensei, crossing the front door to be received by a couple who can only be Tenya’s parents.
“Good afternoon sir, ma'am, thank you for inviting me to dinner tonight”. He bows deeply and the over-politeness spills clunkily from his lips.
“Hello, Todoroki-kun. It’s lovely to meet you, I’m Akiko, and this is my husband Keitaro, we’ve heard lots about you!” As he emerges from his bow, he notices the words are almost identical to the ones uttered in his home, despite that, with how earnestly they are said here, he finds himself getting caught in the honesty of them.
Tenya’s mom, Akiko-san, is a short woman with the same straight blue-black hair and reddish brown eyes as both of her sons, and in her beautiful face he recognises the shape of Tenya’s nose and the same curve of the lip, her demeanour radiates warmth the same way her oldest does.
Are you happy?
As for Tenya’s father, he is a tall tall man, almost as tall as his own father, with brown hair, light brown eyes and a face that doesn’t look anything like his sons but for the shape of his eyebrows. Shouto thinks he must resent his wife, none of his sons look anything like him. However, from the way he glances at Akiko-san, it looks like he is wrong. Maybe Keitaro-san is unbothered by not passing down features and judging from the engines in Akiko-san’s shoulders, his quirk, to either of his kids.
Is it fake?
Shouto looks at his hands, they aren’t scarred from hero work, they look big, soft and gentle, different to his father’s like the sun to the moon.
Do you hate her? Have you laid hands on her?
“Come, come, young man, you must be starving!” Tenya’s father gestures at them with the same hands to follow him and Shouto takes a chance to try and get out of his head and look at the interior of the house. There are little trinkets everywhere, little pieces of decor on the walls, alongside a thousand picture frames depicting the Iida family in different times, places and situations, with only one constant, they all look content.
Shouto walks by pictures of Tenya winning race tracks in elementary school, of Tensei as a child holding the cat he mentioned earlier, a wedding picture of Akiko-san and Keitaro-san, the couple beaming at each other when the moment was captured, a picture of Tenya and Tensei as children, and another one of them a couple of years ago. The house is brimming with these memories Shouto isn’t privy to, but they beam light instead of casting shadows in the halls of this home. Shouto wonders if this is the difference between being able to choose to start a family.
“Ah, I can smell dinner, you really outdid yourself today, Tensei!” Tenya says enthusiastically and Shouto attempts to sniff the air to try and guess what dinner could possibly be. The familiar smell of his favourite meal hits his nostrils and he turns to look at Tenya.
“Tenya…did you tell him to cook cold soba?” He truly cannot believe it, his boyfriend went out of his way to tell his family to make something so Shouto would eat it. He knows he is terribly picky with his food, something about texture and smell just isn’t right in most dishes he tries so the fact that he did all this…
“Actually, Father was the one who asked what your favourite meal was so we could have it ready for tonight.”
What?
“Cat’s out the bag, we wanted you to have a good impression of us, oops” Tensei wheels around to say, and Shouto can feel his face warm up, these people who don’t know him, these people he’s judged wanted to make a good impression, instead of being the other way around, these people wanted Shouto to like them. Why? Just because he was important to Tenya? He couldn’t imagine his father ever doing the same, not ever going as far as to ask what his son’s partner’s favourite food was.
“So, have we succeeded?” Says Tensei, a joking hint at the end of his words he recognises from Tenya. “Uh.. yes, of course, you really didn’t need to do that.”
Damn him and his problems with adults, the hyper-awareness of the ever-so-alien overtly polite attitude tugs at his mind, these are not his parents, there’s most likely no ulterior purpose than to spend a pleasant evening getting to know their son’s boyfriend. He needs to try harder to learn how to act like a regular person, he didn’t expect this surprising act of kindness towards him. He doesn’t know what to make of it, and it has thrown him out of balance.
“Come then, it’s time for dinner!” They have a low dinner table, just like at the Todoroki residence, but it feels completely different, the Iida family sit around, talking amongst themselves, like they do this every day, hell they might actually do this every day.
Could it be true?
He sits next to Tenya and he can’t help but latch to his hand under the table. Call it nervousness, apprehension, every word in the dictionary to convey how out of sorts he felt, he doesn’t know these people, he doesn’t know their limits, they look happy and they sound happy, something his family never quite managed, but are they?
Shouto is better at performing casual conversation than he was in his first year, thanks to the years of media training they were forced to take from the minute the League attacked Class 1-A, he is able to mask through what he knows now are routine relationship questions.
“So, Todoroki-kun, tell us, why is cold soba your favourite food? I can’t say I expected it from someone so young.” Keitaro-san asks.
“Ah… my mom used to make it for my siblings and me when I was really little, at least that’s what my sister told me when she used to make it for me. I think that might be why” Shouto’s cheeks burn with shame, he isn’t trying to bring his family into everything, especially not now after telling these people about the time Tenya broke the sound barrier to arrive to their date in time, but the things going on in the Todoroki household haven’t been private in a long time and have tainted everything he has, everything he likes, everything he is—
“Hey isn’t it Touya’s favourite too?” Shouto stiffens, unsure where Tenya is going with this, he doesn’t really bring up his brother around heroes anymore, a lot of them lack compassion, and a lot of them denounce Touya in front of him like he isn’t his brother. “Maybe he was responsible for your mom cooking it so much when you were young?”
Huh? He’s never considered it, but it makes sense, did his preference for cold soba stem from a little brother copying his older brother's routine or is it just a coincidence? Shouto thinks he would like it if it was the former, a sense of normalcy in a childhood full of sorrow, a predictable dynamic in an otherwise non-existent one.
The table goes quiet as Shouto gets lost in thought, however what Akiko-san asks next is something that grounds him back to Earth like he is a ship and questions the anchor, as no one but himself has ever asked, “How’s your brother, Todoroki-kun?”
Shouto isn’t an outwardly emotional guy, he hasn’t been since he was five. In certain ways, the ability to act unbothered and channel heavy unfamiliar emotions into more known ones like anger and indifference, has saved him from much suffering in a household like his. Still, since meeting his friends at UA, since meeting Tenya he’s found himself wishing he could communicate like everyone else. He’s found himself yearning to be seen and be able to see.
At that moment, as Akiko-san’s question registers in his mind, he feels seen, he feels known in ways only Tenya’s shown him. He is washed over by feelings of gratitude towards this woman, who doesn’t know him but recognises the grief on his shoulders, he wonders if everyone in this house can see it, recognising it from their own experience with almost losing a son, a brother, a pilar of their family and household.
Could it be true? To these people, Could Touya be Shouto’s brother before Dabi the same way Tensei was their son before he ever was Ingenium?
“He is still inpatient, but doctors think he will be able to be released into house arrest soon.” That’s one of the biggest reasons why Shouto wants to move out of the Todoroki residence, to have a place of his own where he can house his brother if he so wishes. A place where they can grow outside of their father’s shadow. Maybe then they will build bridges that had never had the chance to be built before. Before time runs out.
“That’s good to hear, it must be terribly lonely in that hospital,” Tensei says off-handedly like the compassion in his voice doesn’t rattle Shouto’s heart. “I remember my time in-patient, I couldn’t wait to leave.”
He imagines his brother in that tube, surrounded by people who judge him, people who eye him from the corner of their eyes while taking his vitals, people that don’t have pictures of him as a child before his father fucked up any chances of Touya being healthy and sane. So utterly and painfully alone after a childhood straight from hell.
Just like Shouto used to be.
Shouto coughs out the tears in his voice, “I try to visit him every week, sometimes he doesn’t feel well enough to see me.” And if that’s not a description of what his teen years have been he doesn’t know what is. Constantly waiting for people to be well enough to see him after his father destroyed any chance of having a normal healthy relationship with them.
“Shouto and I have discussed the possibility of moving him with us once he is released if Touya-san wants to.”
Shouto thinks this is it, this is the limit of their kindness, they don’t know Shouto, they don’t love Shouto, and they have no reason to be okay with this, with their beloved kid sharing space with a former villain, no matter who he is.
“Good, that kid deserves some peace,” is what comes out of Tenya’s father’s mouth instead.
Gentle hands, gentle hands and gentle hearts.
Tomorrow Shouto will be embarrassed as all hell for crying at the dinner table again, but today he cannot seem to care. The response around him is completely different here, Tenya comes near him to pat his back and someone brings him a glass of cold water and a tissue. They don’t know him, they have no reason to do this other than for the sake of it.
Because that's how they are.
He is so used to forcing himself into places, to forcing his opinions on dinner tables with his siblings, to fighting for people to see his brother as human in the hospital, on the streets, at school, to his personality, to his opinions, to his dreams not fitting in the circle of people he surrounds himself with than when faced with open-hearted acceptance and earnestness, he doesn’t know what to do with himself but let tears run down his face and hope the emotions choking him pass soon.
“I’m so sorry son, I didn’t mean to upset him.” He hears Tenya’s dad speak somewhere in the room, presumably talking to Tenya.
“No, no, it’s okay,” he downs the glass of water in one go, feelings settling at the pit of his stomach instead of fighting to spill out of his throat. “I don’t know what came over me, please forgive the outburst.”
“None of that Shouto, I’m sure my parents aren’t bothered,” Tenya says as squeezes Shouto’s knee under the table in an attempt at comfort.
“He is right young man, you have nothing to worry about. If anything we are happy our son is with someone so compassionate.” Shouto’s cheek colour red once again, with the exception of Midoriya, Tenya and Fuyumi, no one has ever said anything of the sort to Shouto. Definitely not an adult who hasn’t spent seven and a half thousand days trying to unravel the mystery of Todoroki Shouto, but then again, the Iidas have a way of making him feel exposed in a way that makes him feel noticed.
It’s conflicting, Shouto yearns to feel this understood by his own family, and he doesn’t know what it says about his own parents that these people who don’t know him responded to an emotional outburst better than they did. That he can see himself ending up in a picture on the wall alongside the ones that they already have one day better than he can see himself on the walls of the Todoroki state.
“Thank you.”
Thank you for showing me kindness, thank you for preparing my favourite food, thank you for understanding what Touya means to me, thank you for not exploding the moment I burst into tears. Thank you for your home not being like mine, thank you for your family loving each other, thank you for everything.
“Thank you for everything” is what Shouto ends up saying, hoping these strangers can tell he means it. That they can tell how monumental this is to him.
“Nothing to thank us for, young man. Shall we continue with the dinner then?” Akiko-san asks, and just like that, they are back on track, as if there are no barriers between them and Shouto, as if the bruises he bears in his soul are no deterrent to them, like the broken pieces of the Todoroki family picture, jagged, sharp and ugly where Shouto’s face should be, fit with their picture-perfect family portraits instead. ,
Maybe they could.
I don’t think these people would hurt me.
The yearning that takes hold of Shouto’s heart is not unknown, but the real possibility of reaching what he yearns for is. Shouto wants to fit in at this dinner table, he wants to know these people by name, he wants to be in their family pictures, and he desperately wants Tenya to fit in with the family members he loves too….
“Hey Tenya, do you want to meet Touya?”
The smile Tenya gives him is all the answer he needs.