Shouto Todoroki was described by most as being restrained. It was not that he did not feel emotion, he did, but he had learned from a young age never to display undue excitement or anger, or disappointment, or regret or anything. He had learned to comply with what his father wanted, and learned that complaints only meant more training.

He'd also learned to never question about his mother or his siblings. It was easier about his mother. For a long time, all he remembered was pain when he thought of her. As he grew older, and as he continued the never ending training his father put him through, he began to understand that his mother had been in pain too. He wanted to lash out at anything. He couldn't. If he lashed out at school his Father would hear and would punish him.

If he lashed out... when? Every moment of every day was accounted for.

As he grew older, he also realised that his siblings were trying to help. Fuyumi left him small treats in the kitchen. Natsuo left him the latest hero magazines on his bed. Touya... he was the hardest of all. He tried to fight Father.

Until one day when he was just not there.

Shouto missed the days before he got his quirk. He vaguely remembered playing with his siblings with their mother smiling at them. The memory faded as he grew older but it was soft and full of perfect sunshine.

But he learned that pining for the past did nothing. He learned to look forward. He figured out how to fight back. He learned exactly where father drew the line and was adept at going all the way to that line.

Sometimes he went beyond it. Then, if he was lucky, he sported a new bruise but sometimes it was burns. Never on his face. No, his mother had done that and Endeavor could not afford to do something that crude. It was always on his arms, or torso, where the burn could be a part of training. Endeavor made sure to tell all his teachers that he was in training to be a hero and that a few bruises were normal when learning combat.

Since Father was the Number Two hero the teachers accepted the words. Of course they did. Why would they believe him? They'd never believed his siblings.

Shouto learned to cope. In that way only using his ice was a benefit. Burns and bruises both responded to ice.

Nothing changed when he got into UA... though got into suggested there might be some doubt about his place. There was none, not with him getting on recommendation. The day was interesting for the others there, but Shouto didn't expect much. The only difference was his father didn't bother to tell the teacher that he was in training to be a hero.

They were all in training.

Aizawa, prohero Eraser Head did not have the flashiest quirk but he was strong. Endeavor nodded when Shouto told him which home room teacher he had. Shouto thought his father was thankful it wasn't All Might. He looked up Aizawa but couldn't find much information about him. He was an underground hero, and as such did not seek rank or the media. But one thing Shouto could find out, because his father was Endeavor, was the mission clearance rate Aizawa had. It was high, even with him teaching. He was a hero who had not let his skills lapse.

He wasn't actually sure what to do or what to think when the villains attacked the USJ. He acted. He fought but he didn't know it if was the right thing to do. His father praised him, asking how many he'd taken down. The school berated them but admitted that they had no choice.

With the Sport's Festival, Endeavor was relentless. He pushed, and he pushed, which just made Shouto pull back more. His classmates had noticed but they didn't know what to do. They left him alone. That suited him. Until the final round. Bakugo was loud, crass, and arrogant but he was also skilled, strong and practiced.

The loss had consequences. Training with his father left him bruised and burned but he refused to use the bastard's quirk. He would not use fire! Not through work experience. Not through their training with the PussyCats, not with Kamino. Not for anything.

He didn't associate fire with anything good until...

It was an odd day. He was in school as usual but then there was an explosion on the phones in the class. Aizawa looked furious but then his phone also went off. It was only when Momo gasped did their teacher look at his phone. His eyes widened, and he rushed out.

"Todoroki," Momo told him, holding out her phone.

All he saw was a headline saying Endeavor and then it scrolled to say...

No! It couldn't say that name. Touya.

Shouto blinked at the screen stupidly before he pulled out his own phone. There was a news feed blinking urgently at him. His phone was on silent otherwise it would have been screaming at him. He taped the story and was taken to a video of an interview. There were tags all over it saying it was live.

He didn't... what kind of brother was he? He didn't recognise Touya. There was a bit of familiarity around his eyes and... He'd seen Touya before. At the training camp. Touya had been there. He had been a villain.

The interview made it clear he was still a villain.

Shouto became aware of the class staring at him. He didn't know what to say. So he did what he had always done. He stood up, packed his books, and left. No one tried to stop him.

It was only after he'd left the class room did he wonder what this meant. Then Fuyumi called him. Her voice was shaking. She simply said that she thought he should come home.

He did, and found both his siblings there. They were trembling. Shouto got to watch the entire interview that night. He wasn't sure what to do. Everything Touya said was true. They all had burns.

Fuyumi cried. Natsuo tried to comfort her, but no one asked any questions. Shouto wondered but he didn't know the answer. What did they do now?

Touya was correct. He'd opened the door. It was obvious because Endeavor didn't return that night. But what did they do? He didn't know and Shouto realised he didn't like that feeling.

He went to school the next day, not knowing what else to do.

Aizawa called him out. The school wanted to know the truth of Touya's accusations. And they weren't going to ask Endeavor. HoundDog was called and a legal representative. Shouto didn't know what to say but they let Aizawa ask the questions. His homeroom teacher was an odd mix of direct and compassionate, though that compassion was hidden behind a gruff layer of supposed indifference.

"Shouto," Aizawa asked, and he could hear how tired the pro-hero was. "There's really only one question. Is it true?"

That singular question rolled through his mind. Is it true? Is what true?

He didn't want to speak. There were so many answers to that. "Is which bit true?" He returned the question.

Aizawa nodded. He recognised that the first question was too generic. "Was that your brother?" he changed his question. Shouto was thankful he hadn't asked about Endeavor. He could answer this one honestly.

"I'm not sure. Touya... my eldest brother left when I was six." He didn't remember much. Touya was simply there one day and gone the next. "You'd have to ask Fuyumi," Shouto added in an attempt to be helpful.

"You spent the night at home," Aizawa pointed out. "Did Fuyumi say anything then?"

He looked to the side. No one said much of anything. "She didn't say it wasn't," he tried to clarify.

"Shouto," HoundDog grumbled. "We are here to help you, but to help you, we have to know what happened."

He nodded. He knew that was true but... no one had ever helped before. Endeavor was...

"I don't care who Endeavor is," Aizawa seemed to read his mind, his eyes glowed red. There were so many extra meanings in that sentence.

Shouto nodded but braced himself. If they couldn't ask about Touya, then they'd ask about him. And he wasn't sure he could handle that.

Something must have shown on his face.

"I don't care who Endeavor is," Aizawa repeated. "I care about you," he added.

Shouto wasn't sure what to think about that.

"It's on public record that your father has been training you to be a hero. He's stated that several times, to several people," Aizawa continued.

He nodded. Endeavor liked to tell his teachers that.

"However there is a difference between training and abuse," his homeroom teacher stated fiercely.

HoundDog gave him a look. "No one is blaming you Shouto," UA's counsellor said. "You have done nothing wrong. We are trying to find out if the Villain Dabi was just lying."

It was absurd. He felt thankful to the dog-like hero for giving him an out. He could just say he knew nothing.

But what type of hero would be be if he couldn't face the truth? If he... What type of hero was he because he couldn't even protect himself?

Aizawa was uncanny in his ability to read him. "There is a difference between training and actual hero work. That's why you are at UA training here, and yes, you have been injured here, but that's so you don't get injured in the field. But there is a difference between training, and abuse."

Objectively Shouto knew that. But... emotionally. No, there was no difference.

"Was the Villain Dabi lying?"

Aizawa left the question hanging.

"I don't know what happened with him, or Fuyumi or Natsuo," Shouto said.

"Of course, you weren't born," Aizawa's face had a small smile on it.

Shouto appreciated the lame joke more than he'd care to say.

"He didn't do anything until my quirk came. I was with Fuyumi when it did. I had been drawing and set the paper on fire. She put it out. But then later that day, I froze my drink."

There were nods from everyone. They knew what that meant. Quirks were often difficult to control when they first came out.

"I didn't know why Fuyumi looked scared then." He remembered her expression. She'd looked at him with the softest, yet deepest pity. He hadn't understood.

His mother had been happy. Shouto knew now that she had believed that Endeavor would calm down, would change, now that he had his precious child with both quirks.

Except he didn't.

If anything Endeavor became more driven.

Nothing was ever good enough. He no longer had time to play. He never saw his siblings. All he could do was train, and train and train... and study. That was acceptable. But his bones ached. His muscles ached. He felt hot and cold at the same time. He just ached. It took him a while to learn it was quirk exhaustion.

It was his constant companion. The ache and the feeling of tiredness, though Endeavor was careful to ensure that there weren't too many physical symptoms.

It was early on, when Touya disappeared. And then his mother, though he understood that far more than his eldest brother.

Then his life became nothing but pain.

"You learned?" Aizawa asked carefully.

Shouto bit the inside of his lip. He didn't want to answer that but knew he had to. "Yes." He was not proud of how quiet his voice was. Endeavor would yell. "Father began training me," Shouto said. "Physical training mostly but I had to keep my grades up. He got in tutors if I needed them, though once Fuyumi was qualified, she could help me." It was the only time he got to see his sister.

"Your scar?" His home room teacher prompted.

That was on record. Endeavor had ensured that because it meant he could get rid of his wife. "I reminded her too much of him," Shouto whispered.

The physical pain had hurt, but that had healed. The pain of separation hadn't. At first he hadn't understood but over time he had... And he forgave her. Yet, he couldn't tell her that. There was no opportunity. There was never any opportunity to be himself.

"But she was suffering herself," he defended his mother. She had gone through it all.

Aizawa gave him a flat look before nodding.

"Shouto, you know there is a difference between training and abuse. Did your father ever hurt you?" he asked pointedly.

"He wanted to make sure I was ready."

"Did your father ever hurt you?" Aizawa repeated his question.

"They were just traini-"

"Did your father ever hurt you?" Aizawa was relentless.

"He didn-" Shouto never completed the sentence. His homeroom teacher's eyes were red and glaring at him.

"Yes." The admission hurt. It burned in his chest but... it was freeing. He felt nauseous with relief.

Aizawa drew a heavy breath and shared a glance with HoundDog. UA's counselor shook his head. There was a moment when Aizawa didn't look pleased but his features cleared quickly. "One last question," he said. "Did Dabi lie about anything?"

Shouto shook his head. "I don't think so."

Aizawa didn't look surprised at that. He grimaced but it was not the grimace of someone dealing with information they didn't already know. It was the grimace of someone who already knew the answer and know the problems it would cause.

"You can go," he said.

"What happens now?" Shouto asked.

"That depends on a lot of things," Aizawa told him. "You are one of those things," he added. "You, your siblings and your mother will have to decide what to do."

He nodded but he hadn't really understood then,

Natsuo explained it later. He had looked up the rules, had looked up what was possible, though Touya's interview was enough to case Endeavor problems. It caused them all problems. There were those who screamed that all of Endeavor's children were villains.

The HPSB came to see him over that, when they extended the Heroes Must Be Heroes psyche assessment. They wanted to publish his results. There was never any mention that he would not pass. Shouto appreciated that.

There were also those who thought that Endeavor should just be forgiven. The man had done much for society. He cleared the most missions of any hero, except for All Might. All Might cleared the same and was far more popular with the public than him. There was no competition between the two. Endeavor might think there was but All Might had won it years ago.

That's why he existed. Shouto knew that.

But Endeavor no longer seemed to care. He was busy all the time. He had been busy since taking over the Number One position but this was different.

Natsuo had initiated court action. That was all that consumed Endeavor. He cut his first and second sons out of his will. He did everything he could but Natsuo had the support of many. Dabi... Touya had, as he said, opened the door.

He hadn't just opened it a crack. He'd kicked it opened and burned it down. The fire had caught on the rest of the house.

And Endeavor, for all his control, could not stop it.

Shouto watched. He wasn't sure what to feel. It was confusing for him. At times he felt so much, at others, there was nothing. He passed the assessment. He was almost surprised. His father had said he would be a hero from the time his quirk emerged, he had never really thought about it much, but taking the assessment helped. It clarified things for me.

Somewhere along the line, Shouto had decided he wanted to be a hero. The assessment confirmed it, though both Natsuo and Fuyumi had told him they wouldn't think anything less of him if he failed. He understood their reasoning. He'd never been a choice. No one who knew that would blame him.

But he wasn't stupid. He knew Japan was comforted with the knowledge that he'd passed. They weren't comforted with the rest of the results. So many failed. There wasn't time to contemplate that. Time continued. Endeavor's court cases finally came to an end.

Enji avoided jail but his Hero license was revoked and he had to pay a very large sum to Natsuo, Fuyumi, his wife and himself.

Shouto had agreed with Natsuo and Fuyumi that after everything was done, they would set up a place for their mother to live. They bought her a house. She contributed, and was happy. He visited her. The first time was trying. He didn't cry. He didn't know how to cry but she did. Yet it was a healing visit. It was good for them both. They had pain they had to work thought but it was a beginning. He made time to visit her, and the relationship grew.

The court even ordered a token amount put aside for Touya, but since he was an acknowledged villain, any victims could claim against his known assets. The money didn't last for long. Touya made no attempt to claim it. But for Shouto, the amount was enough that with management, he'd never have to work. But he wanted to.

He wanted to make sure that no one else had to go through it. He wanted to save people like his mother, who had suffered so much in silence. He wanted to help... to show the world that he was not his father.

It was a nice thought, in a world that was getting harder.

Shouto held on to it. It was all he could do.