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Aspirations	By : Demonic_Host Category: +M to R > My Hero Academia Views: 13851 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Hero Academia. I make no money from this.

Chapter List
- 20
- 21
- 22
A/N: This chapter will contain direct spoilers for Season Five, Episode 2.
Aspirations
Chapter 21
You gave a little wave to Natsuo when the frosty haired young man looked up from his spot at the table in surprise. Unlike you, Todoroki had no hesitation in sitting down at the table. You lingered at the dining room door awkwardly until you decided to help Fuyumi with dinner. Not that you needed to cook anything, she’d already done that, but you helped her carry everything to the table. Only then did you take a seat next to Candy Cane. It seemed less presumptuous compared to sitting at the head of the table. Thank goodness you’d had plenty of practice sitting in seiza because otherwise sitting at the low table would have been uncomfortable.
“Soba?” Natsuo asked as he looked at the arrangement. “What happened to the tuna you had me pick up at the market this morning?”
Fuyumi shifted nervously in her position. “I—wasn’t sure if Shoto was going to be allowed to come when I told you to pick up the tuna. When he told me that UA agreed, I decided to make Soba instead.”
“Yeah...but why?”
“He asked if we were going to have it.”
Todoroki nodded beside you when Natsuo looked towards him. “I like soba.”
That seemed to surprise the older Todoroki sibling. You couldn’t help but wonder why. Though the revolution seemed to surprise Natsuo for some reason, Todoroki didn’t seem to notice. That or he didn’t care. You didn’t know him well enough to decide which one his casual attitude came from. You did notice that he frowned as he served himself some of the steaming noodles; something that Fuyumi picked up right away.
“What's wrong, Shoto?”
“They’re still hot.”
“You like your soba cold?” She asked with wide eyes, as though she’d just made a horrible mistake.
Todoroki nodded. You blinked in surprise when he simply started eating them regardless of their steaming state. If he liked them cold, why didn’t he just make them that way with his quirk?
“Why don’t you just cool down your bowl then?” You asked, feeling like that was at least one mystery you could get solved today.
Suddenly it wasn’t just Fuyumi that felt like they’d done something wrong. You shifted in your spot nervously as three Todoroki siblings stared at you like you’d grown a new head.
“What?” You asked quietly.
“I don’t have my license,” Todoroki said simply.
“So?” You prompted. “It’s a bowl of soup and noodles, Todoroki, not a person. I don’t think cooling down your bowl is going to trigger a Hero randomly showing up to scold you.”
You may have been teasing him by the end. He seemed so formal at what was supposed to be a family dinner. Like he was just a guest in his own house and was trying to be on his best behavior. It was an odd juxtaposition. You had no way of knowing that sitting with his siblings at dinner like this was fairly new for him. Or that Todoroki was trying to be kind by not showing off his quirk. As far as he was aware, his two siblings hadn’t trained their own quirks as their father had been disappointed that they’d been born “imperfect”.
“Here, let me,” Fuyumi said as she reached over the top as an indication for Todoroki to pass her his bowl.
“No need,” Shoto said dispassionately.
He touched his bowl with a finger from his right hand. Almost instantly the bowl gained a frosty layer to rapidly cool down the contents inside. He kept his eyes on his Soba, reasoning with himself that if his sister had offered to cool down his bowl then doing it himself must not have been showing off afterall.
The sound of a door sliding open brought everyone’s attention up from their food, especially yours. It wasn’t very long until Endeavor looked into the room, dressed in his civies. Other than the fact that half of his face was covered in scar tissue, he looked better that way. You blinked as you looked between father and son. Though Natsuo had more of his father’s face shape, there was no denying that Todoroki was his father’s son now. The similarity was a lot easier to see now that they shared a scar on the same side of their face. Though Endeavor’s scar was much worse than Todoroki’s. Endeavor’s had been made because half of his face had been torn up in a fight. You didn’t know what had caused Todoroki’s, but it didn’t have the same puckering or freshness that Endeavor’s did.
The next thing you noticed was that there was a long, tension filled look. You were pretty sure that the air was so tight in the room that it was starting to play dramatic music with the slight breeze passing by.
"Welcome back!" Fuyumi spoke with great enthusiasm from her spot across from you.
"It's been a while," Endeavor returned the customary phrase.
“...I take back what I said,” you muttered quietly towards the youngest Todoroki there. “Cooling down a bowl of Soba apparently will totally summon a Hero.”
Was that a smile? You couldn't be sure but you thought you saw the expression on his face change in a not-negative fashion. Your joke, though uttered quietly, also seemed to put a larger smile on Fuyumi's face. Unfortunately, Natsuo was not so easily entertained.
"Why is she here?" Endeavor asked as he fixed his eyes on you momentarily.
"Shoto got permission to leave campus for this," Fuyumi explained and added, "Miss Shuzenji is his escort."
Technically you had a feeling that Aizawa, who was out waiting in the car, was the actual escort. You were kind of dragged into the dinner by the other female's hospitality. There were only so many times you could politely refuse the hospitality without coming off as rude after all.
...why hadn't she asked Aizawa in for dinner as well anyways? What was up with that?
"Anyways, let's celebrate the fact that you finished a big job! Okay?"
And finally the boy who had been otherwise slurping on his cold Soba ordained it time to speak. "That's a bad scar."
Huh. For once you weren't the one that just made things awkward. Shoto Todoroki was replacing you in that category. Though the no-nonsense, flatline way he delivered the line was far from how you normally spoke. Either way, he just made it awkward. In the tense air you subtly shifted from the proper seiza you were sitting in so that your feet were still politely to your side. There was only so much of sitting on your knees and toes you could actually take.
"Hey, you two! You promised to celebrate today, remember?!"
Awe, Fuyumi was doing her best but neither boy seemed to be having it.
"Dad's finally trying to think about his family and everything! Even if you hate him, don't let it show on your face!"
You did your best to keep a neutral expression on your face. You did manage to look at the platter before you with so much interest that it was a wonder the tray didn't blush. While you had heard plenty of things from your clients about their personal lives in little segments here and there, you'd never been a part of anyone's family squabbles except your own. This had the making of turning into one really quickly. The fact that Endeavor was a new client and that Todoroki was a...student of sorts also added to the awkwardness for you. You hadn't known either of them long enough to be privy to any information about their daily lives.
"I can hear you," Endeavor said with the straightest expression, though you were doing your best not to see it.
That was a real interesting condiment. Oh yes, the best in the world…
"Sorry, Sis," Natsuo said as he slapped down his pair of chopsticks. He stood up as he continued to speak. "I don't think I can do this."
You really wanted to ask what it was he was supposed to be doing but you bit your tongue from speaking out. Literally. You held your tongue between your teeth as you tightened your jaw. You could feel the question in the back of your throat trying to come out.
"Natsu!" Fuyumi called out as she tried to catch her brother and stop him from leaving.
It was Endeavor that made him pause when Natsuo opened the shoji doors so that he could pass his father. You looked up at that to see Endeavor with his hand on his older son's shoulder.
"Natsuo, if you have something to say, then say it."
"Say it? Give me a break," Natsuo spat out as he shoved Endeavor's hand off of his shoulder. "You know, I only found out today that Shoto likes soba because you didn't want him to have anything to do with us failures."
You did you best not to wince. You really did. But you might not have succeeded. What you did succeed at was not being noticed. It helped that you could practically hide behind the youngest Todoroki. And that no one was paying attention to you anyways. Everyone's eyes were on the confrontation at the front of the room.
"For some reason, it seems like Mom and Sis are both ready to forgive you. But in my head, you're still a crazy bastard. It seems like you've changed, but you haven't changed at all. Neglecting us. Even if you became the number one hero and defeated a strong enemy, that doesn't make it disappear from my mind...Mom's screams, Shoto's crying, and what happened to our big brother Toya…" Natsuo slammed his fist into the sliding door, or rather the wood part of it; not hard enough to break it though so at least he wasn't totally unrestrained. "You had a change of heart all on your own! And you're trying to patch things up one-sidedly! It's disgusting!"
Wow...that was a lot to try and not-hear. You were really bad at not-hearing all of that. The fact that Endeavor took it so calmly was nice. Especially considering that he flamed up in your office not too long ago for a whole lot less.
"I plan to face you all from now on and atone for what I did."
"Oh yeah?" Natsuo spat out at his father. He turned back with an aggressive look still on his face to address Fuyumi. "Sorry, Sis Thanks for the food!"
And he was off. Fuyumi was close behind him as she hurriedly got up calling out a slightly shortened version of his name. She seemed to be defeated by the time she reached the sliding door. The girl looked and sounded absolutely worn out.
As she covered her face you heard her question the universe, "It's no good after all, huh? Shoto started seeing Mom, and Dad's compromising...Mom started smiling...I thought...I thought maybe we could finally be a family."
She ignored both her departed brother and her father as she hurried over to Candy Cane. Who, you just noticed, had continued to eat his dinner with the strangest disinterest in the situation you had ever seen. Fuyumi was back on her knees as she both clung to and shook Todoroki by his shoulder. You edged a little farther away just in case she knocked him into you; no need to make it more tense than it was, you'd probably find a way to do that later.
"I was so happy, Shoto!" She cried to her brother.
"Sis," Todoroki said as he turned to look at her. "That was the first time I've ever seen Natsu show so much emotion."
Well at least he wasn't been as formal as he usually was with his classmates. Though the fact that there was any formality in his words was still odd by comparison of how you spoke in your own family; how you were sure the vast majority of the population spoke to theirs. Then again he did seemingly grow up in a very traditional style house so it was probably just a family culture thing. One that Fuyumi and Nastuo didn't really share...oh well…
Regardless, his words broke though her burst of emotion and she looked at him like he'd just said something that was oddly comforting. In the brief silence that followed the news was easier to hear. You fiddled with your chopsticks a little as you stared at your plate.
"...opinions about the number one hero continue to change."
The news switched showed people on the streets being given impromptu mini interviews.
"Is he okay? He was covered with blood." A nervous woman asked.
"The League got away again, right?" one of two dudes asked. "We've already caught a ton of Nomus, right? He was having such a hard time with that level of villain--"
It switched back to the main newscaster as she said, "Voices of unease haven't changed but--"
"Turn it off, turn it off!" Fuyumi called out quickly.
Considering that the remote was at the head of the table, and you were near the end, you couldn't exactly reach for the remote without leaning across Todoroki's tray.
"No."
They flashed back to some footage of the pink haired teen that had called out in defense of Endeavor's reputation just a couple of days ago. "Who's the man risking his life for our sakes?!"
Another teen; this one had an eyeball in the middle of his forehead. "I used to be a fan of Edgeshot but I have no choice but to be his fan now!"
A man with a flame being produced from his finger said, "I'm a fire type, too, so honestly, I was delighted."
Two people with mutation type quirks were the next to be shown. The female said with a smile, "You've gotta remember that 'look! Boy,' right?"
The man with her didn't seem happy about her enthusiasm. "Who's this 'Look! Boy'?!"
Images of merchandise with the pink defender of Endeavor slid across the screen as the newscaster reported, "The boy known by the nickname 'Look! Boy' shouted out, drawing many hearts to Endeavor. In that fight, Endeavor, of course, but also Hawks…"
"The boy from back then, huh?"
You tilted your head as you continued to look between your tray and the screen. It seemed like Endeavor remembered the boy from something. Had he watched the news of the fight while in the hospital? Did they meet before the fight or something? From what you had seen there was no way that Endeavor would have been able to interact with him during the fight at the very least. Which was what got you curious — how had he remembered the pink haired Samaritan?
"It'll be the Age of Endeavor now, huh?" A male interviewee asked once they were done showing screenshots of merchandise.
"The hero, Endeavor...was amazing," Shoto Todoroki complimented. "He is amazing...but I agree with what Natsu said. I still can't forgive you for what you did to Mom."
'Where is their mom anyways?' you pondered to yourself. She kept getting brought up at this family dinner but you hadn't actually seen her at any point.
"So...as a 'father'...I want to see how things go from here because I know that something small can change a person," and right back to eating his cold soba. At least he was consistent that way.
Something that Todoroki said brought about closure. You peered up from your meal to see the retreating form of Endeavor. There didn't seem to be any anger, though his posture did seem tense. He was favoring one shoulder as he walked slowly. So slowly that Fuyumi had a chance to call out to him before he even made it past the door.
"Father! Where are you going?!"
"Fuyumi," he called out without looking back. "I'm sorry for everything. I shouldn't have said that to Natsuo."
Funny thing was that between the awkwardness and the argument… you hadn't had a chance to eat your Soba. It was still warm but it definitely wasn't anywhere near steaming.
"If you'd like," you brought up as you pushed at your chopsticks awkwardly, "after dinner I can try to help your father recover."
The complete change of subject startled Fuyumi. She looked back to you with wide, emotion filled gray eyes.
"I thought he was better?" She asked as she slowly moved towards her spot.
Between bites, Todoroki added, "He is favoring one side."
You nodded, "And from the walk, there's probably some residual damage or strain to either his hips, ankles, or knees."
She looked between you or Shoto with such surprise. "Man, the U.A Hero course is really thorough isn't it?"
"Not a hero," you mumbled as you finally started in on the food.
"They don't teach us things like that," Todoroki added.
...and the chopsticks are right back down. You turned to him, this time it was you who were surprised. "Really? Did your father teach you what to look for then?"
He nodded. It seemed like all of the explanations he felt necessary to give. With that dinner settled in to something relatively easy. Even Natsuo came back to join the food party after a while. Though he still seemed angry and tense. You just kept food constantly in your mouth so you didn't muck it up.
Except for the end when you simply asked, "Fuyumi, can you show me to your father's bedroom?"
It wasn't until after Natsuo reacted badly as Fuyumi and you were leaving the dining room that you realized you should have probably explained a bit. Oh well.
- 20
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- 22
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Aspirations