It’s Never Enough, Is It?
You know Shoto, you can’t keep acting like you can survive without me
The words keep echoing through his mind, a reminder that he’s still the son of Endeavor. His masterpiece. The word, simple as it is to other, is toxic to him and never brings any good when thought of. He wanted to be his own person now. He graduated already for fucks sake! He pays his own bills and works for a different agency as a sidekick before going off to school again! School that he’ll pay for himself!
Why the fuck can’t I just get rid of him? Why won’t he leave me alone!?
The windows shake in the massive gym as Todoroki continues his onslaught against the procedurally generated cement practice dummies that are scattered about. Even though he was furious, he was glad Cementoss was about to make this work. The only drawback being the time it took to regenerate after they were all gone [upwards of 5 minutes].
He had been here for a couple of hours now, an intense night terror waking him up only half a cycle into his sleep. This was a much longer episode too, lasting an entire 10 minutes. Normally they happen further along his sleep cycles and last about 1 minute. But, he guesses, since he saw Endeavor recently, that could be the cause of the extreme episode. He hadn’t seen his father in over 2 years, except for when he came to his graduation, but he completely ignored him that day.
But 2 years was cut to zero days Endeavor free recently. He ran into him at his favorite coffee shop, although Endeavor seemed prepared and probably paid someone to give him hints on where his son was. Todoroki almost lit the whole place ablaze, he could barely control himself.
“Nah ah ah Shoto, we’re in public now. Behave yourself.” Endeavor demeaned, his flames enlarged as a show of dominance.
“Fuck you.” Todoroki fired back, turning back to leave and forget about his order that was about to be called.
Endeavor grabbed his arm, pulling him towards an open seat at a table in the corner. “Not so fast son. I need to talk to you.” The coolness in his voice was haunting, reminding the young halved hero of his younger days. And normally, when reminded about such times he would freeze and a switch would go off, but today was not the case, for whatever reason, be it that he’s with Endeavor in the flesh and felt the need to protect himself, or the fact that they were in the coffee shop, Todoroki couldn’t quite put his tongue on it. So he complied and sat, chair smoking from the heated body.
“GRAAAAAAAAHHH” he yelled, a large fwoosh of flames destroying a third of the dummies in one swoop. If he hadn’t trained in controlling both quirks at once he would’ve had burns by now.
“What in the absolute fuck do you want Endeavor?” He bit back, not caring that the entire shop was watching, gossiping to themselves about ‘Oh my god its the number one hero!’ ‘Is that...is that his son?!’ ‘They look so alike!’ ‘I wonder if they’ll come over and talk to us?’ ‘Or at least get a picture with us!’ ‘Dude dude dude get a picture of me with them in the background, I’ll get so many followers on Enstagram!’
“We have to talk about us. Now I know we haven’t talked in a while, but I’ve been sending you birthday and Christmas cards! And I know you get them because my doormen tell me when you pick up your mail!” He said, that fake charm drawing Todoroki to be the bad guy. “You can’t hide from me forever. You live under my roof still, technically.”
“I don’t fucking care. It was what I could afford right now and I pay for it myself. Do you snoop on all you tennants illegally like that?” He replied, eyes narrowed, his glare sharp like daggers towards Endeavor. If only I could stab him right now...
“When are you going back to school? I’ve heard too much about that Deku kid. It’s your time to shine, it’s what I created you for Shoto. It’s what-”
“TAKE HIS NAME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!” He snarled, slamming his open palms on the table, rising out of his seat. One hand was covered in ice as the other made a nice Shoto-shaped-hand scorch mark underneath. “I am just fine where I am! I will go back when I want to!” He moved his hands to the round edges of the table, gripping them tighter and tighter as he raged on. “And for the last goddamn motherfucking time, I am my own person. I am not some creation of yours you can pawn around to surpass Deku. He’s not All Might. And I will never be like you. He is a kind hero that deserves his current under-pro rank.” He reiterated for what must’ve been the 15th time since meeting Deku. He kept his eyes trained on Endeavor’s, hoping to maybe just maybe break through his God-like exterior and get him to leave him alone. If even just long enough for him to find another place...
The silence between them and throughout the shop was horrifying. No one dared to speak a word when someone that has flames hotter than Endeavor’s screamed like that, to his own father. The quiet lasted for what felt like an eternity. The unadulterated rage continued coursing throughout Todoroki, ready to strike when necessary.
“You know Shoto, you can’t keep acting like you can survive without me”
He slammed his foot on the ground and shot out a lane of ice that he skated on, creating more to guide him as he traversed around the cement Endeavors, blasting each one to smithereens, alternating between ice and fire. When he got to the final one, he coated a fist in ice and punched right through it with a mighty, pained roar, only the base of it remaining. He stood there in an athletic stance, panting rapidly, sweat dripping down both sides of his face. His clothes were pretty much non-existent on his left side, spare his specialty-made flame resistant boxer briefs, and coated in frost on his right side, holes forming from the cracks as he moved. Each exhale was accompanied by a slight growl.
Suddenly, he heard the familiar soft footsteps of an old friend. But now wasn’t the time to be cordial. All he did was grit his teeth and hold his mouth in a tight line as he shot his glare in the direction of the noise at the other side of the gym.
