Chapter Text
“Shouto…” The call is soft, hesitant, a far cry from the normal demanding exasperated tone it normally held. Despite that fact, the mere utterance of his name shattered the numbing silence that had descended upon the complex when night came. The bicolored boy in question remained silent, sitting up in bed, his gaze fixed blankly on the wall ahead. Everything he looked at was shifted just slightly to the right, his left eye firmly bandaged behind swaths of gauze. The doctor had visited earlier in the day, they told him his eyesight would be a little worse but he wouldn’t lose it completely. His breathing was slow and mechanical. No thoughts filtering through his head. The soft pattering of feet rung through the room as someone made their way across the floor, the bed dips gently and a pair of red eyes framed by fluffy blonde bangs pops into view.
“Shouto.” The call comes again, and small hands are forcefully grabbing his face. They wrench Shouto’s gaze away from the wall, and he finds himself staring into the face of Katsuki Bakugou, Katsuki Todoroki, his new brother. The other’s brow is furrowed, and his mouth is pulled into a scowl. His eyes rove over Shouto’s face several times. He doesn’t find what he’s looking for and huffs accordingly.
“Stop being dumb.” Katsuki demands, dropping his hands from Shouto’s face. He tangles their fingers together in a death grip and pulls the other boy down so they’re lying in the sheets. Shouto is too numb to do anything against the manhandling and he falls back into the downy feel of the cushions.
“You’re better than this.” Katsuki scolds, brushing Shouto’s hair from his face. Shouto thinks it’s weird, this brand of worry. How could Katsuki afford it. It wasn’t even like they were real brothers, a thought that Shouto voices aloud.
“What?!” Katsuki snaps out, his gaze growing hard. “I know that, stupid.” Katsuki rants, poking Shouto’s forehead multiple times. The other child winces, he didn’t understand why Katsuki was there then. His real siblings didn’t check on him when he’d screamed, didn’t hoover in the hallway when the doctor came. Katsuki did. Katsuki had come running as soon as he shrieked, and the two had worked through the traumatic experience in the only way that only children could. He had fought to stay by Shouto’s side, even when Enji had torn him off and thrown him into the hall. He spit insults and wordless screeches at the Todoroki monarch the whole time.
What a weird set of circumstances that led them to be together. Shouto thinks that Katsuki would’ve been better had their positions been swapped. He thinks that Katsuki’s drive would’ve synced perfectly to Enji’s wishes and then Shouto would be free to play with his other siblings. Now though, now they’re both stuck, but it’s better now than it was before. Before Katsuki, it was an endless cycle of eat, train, schooling, train, sleep. Now though, now the focus wasn’t all on him.
When Enji had pulled Katsuki from the catastrophe that was the burning shopping arcade the media had swarmed. Wanting to know all about the sole survivor of the incident. The poor traumatized miracle child pulled from the rubble. What would Endeavor do? Who would take responsibility? Endeavor vowed to find a home for the child playing on how his own son was the same age, what a tragedy this was. In the end, Enji added another child to his motley collection of defunct progeny.
It would’ve ended there, with Katsuki being a PR piece Endeavor could call forth again and again. Katsuki wouldn’t stand for that though. He didn’t stand for that, he demanded attention. He demanded that he be trained alongside Shouto and when he wasn’t, he trained on his own. He demanded the same tutors Shouto had, harassing them when they told him to shoo. He sat in on Shouto’s lessons, tested punches, kicks, holds, and tosses on the same dummies Shouto did. Shouto always wondered why.
“Katsuki.” Shouto mumbled drawing a grunt from the other. “Katsuki.” Shouto mumbled again, it was weird. The other was weird, Shouto didn’t like any of the things he did with his father, their father? Did Katsuki think of Enji as his own father? He couldn’t possibly.
“Katsuki.” Shouto curls closer to the other his voice wavering. He drags both of their hands into his chest, tightening his grip. His eyes begin to fill with tears. The damaged one stinging and uncomfortable beneath the bandages as the salty liquid began to seep into them. Katsuki clicked his tongue.
“Shut up, he's gonna hear you.” Katsuki hissed, slapping a hand over Shouto’s mouth. He shifted slightly to look at the door, and glared at the sobbing Shouto once he deemed it clear. As Shoutout curled further into himself in an effort to stay quiet, katsuki huffed out a sigh.
“Does it still hurt?” Katsuki asked, poking at the bandages around Shouto’s eye. Shouto nodded gently, wiping at his uninjured eye with a free hand. Katsuki hummed to himself, and pat down Shouto’s hair before leaning forward and placing a light kiss over top of the bandages. Shouto blinked in surprise, tilting his head back to look at Katsuki in bewilderment.
“What?” Katsuki asked defensively. He reared back his face morphing into a scowl and his eyes darting off to the side.
“Why?” Shouto asked. His gaze roved over Katsuki’s reddening face with a muted sense of awe.
“I dunno, my mom used to do it.” Katsuki said, his voice faltering at the end. The two went silent, their thoughts shifting quietly. “I'm tired.” Katsuki announces abruptly, pulling the covers over the tops of their heads. Shouto blinks as the light from the moon outside is abruptly cut off and they’re shrouded in darkness.
Shouto squints against the inky darkness, looking in Katsuki’s general direction. He couldn't imagine what the other was going through. Joining a new family, especially one as dysfunctional as this, but he was glad that Katsuki was there. That there was another child around him, that made it a point to be in his space, that he could share time with so he wasn’t alone. Leaning his forehead against Katsuki’s he selfishly thanked whatever tumultuous god that decided to bring them together through such unfortunate events before drifting off to sleep.