Chapter Text
You have been assigned a new mission!
“Dear All Might,
I’m here asking for your help one more time. However, this time it is not for me, but for my friend. Is this allowed? I hope so. You see, she’s my best friend and I just wish she could find love. I have the suspicion that she’s in love with our other friend, but she won’t tell me anything (maybe because we’re exes?). Could you please help them find their way? I know for a fact they would be great together. I’d do anything for both of them, to be honest, so I just want them to be happy together. I’d appreciate some help, since any attempt I have made so far was laughable, at best. I wanted to give you more details, but my mom said I should keep this prayer short, not like last time when I prayed for 10 minutes straight. I’m sorry about that, by the way! Thank you for making it come true!
Thank you for any blessings,
Midoriya Izuku”
Todoroki stares at the note in his hands one more time. The lettering doesn’t change, the prayer is still the same.
Right.
A love mission.
Not a fight.
A mission about love.
Where his expertise won’t be of any help.
Where he would have to get humans together on behalf of a request from another human.
No fight involved , just… matchmaking. Because that was his mission. His job as a newly hired cupid. A love mission. A matchmaking… thing. From a cupid. Him. The cupid.
Right.
How hard could it be?
Todoroki looks up from the papyrus and into All Might’s smiling face.
“I can do it.”
Famous last words.
______
Truth be told, he probably should have had some training before taking the new job, but his father had been hot on his wings from quitting the Heavenly Army, and the Miracles Department had been desperate for help. Something about a human crisis and a sudden influx of requests. So it didn’t take long at all between telling his father to shove his feathers off his face and starting as a newly hired cupid.
There had also been something about him being too high in the hierarchy assuring he was more than capable for the job. Todoroki doesn’t know, to be honest. He didn’t pay attention. He probably should have, considering he was starting a new job he knew nothing about, solely to get his revenge on his father, but a millennia of working with Endeavor has guaranteed he’s deaf to anything an authority may tell him. Who could blame him, really?
Well, if anything, he should blame himself for the current situation he is in, but that’s neither here nor there. Todoroki will gladly put the blame on his father and move on.
The current situation, of course, is a room full of other cupids who are all staring at him, as they all wait in line to be sent down to Earth. He can hear the white noise of too many whispers around him, too many eyes staring when he isn’t looking and avoiding when he does look. He lifts one of his arms to send a quick wave and three cupids flee to the other side of the room. Todoroki frowns.
Not all entities, be them angels or not, are allowed to go down to Earth outside of official missions, so this is already something completely new for him. He's had many battles on the earthly dimension, but usually the whole garrison would go down as one by other means than the open streamline of missions, miracles and visitations. He remembers charging into battle one too many times alongside his dad and his siblings, fighting demons, akumas, spirits, youkais. Remembers thinking his father should also be fought with, just like the evil they warred together. But none of those times involved a waiting line. It sets his wings in disarray.
Perhaps it’s unfair to call one of the big Seraphim evil, but a millenia alongside his father has left him no other way to call his iron grip on the whole garrison, especially the ones he calls his children. It isn’t a coincidence that has made the Todoroki command the most feared one, even if Endeavor isn’t the strongest Seraphim. But that’s a discussion Todoroki isn’t interested in repeating, not when it isn’t relevant for the predicament he’s in.
His feathers shuffle on their own and a high pitched scream cuts through the mostly silent room when his flames flicker a bit higher with the movement. He turns and looks down to see one of the other cupids shaking their clothes to put out the small fire that started at the hem of their robes.
“I apologize.”
The cupid looks up with terror written all over their face. Todoroki notices they have a pleasant face, with round, rosy cheeks and shiny eyes. It would probably be more pleasant without fear, but there’s only so much Todoroki can do to help.
Speaking of, he raises his other arm and a flicker of his ice passes through the cupid’s clothes, drawing a loud gasp from them but putting out the fire altogether. Todoroki notices that the robe’s hem is frozen now, but he figures it’s better to be frozen than burnt.
He looks at the cupid’s face again, waiting for any sort of reaction besides fear, but no such luck. When a beat passes with no indication from the cupid, Todoroki nods and starts to turn away, but something catches his eyes and he turns back again. The cupid gasps, but he pays it no mind. Indeed, it’s the same weapon as all the other ones are carrying.
It’s his chance.
“Excuse me,” he starts, voice as low as it can go. The cupid screams a bit again, but doesn’t move away. “Can you help me?”
They nod.
“Where did you get the arrow from?” Todoroki starts, somehow even lower than when he first started. He doesn’t feel shame, but he also doesn’t want to give his father reason to pull him out of the cupid work. Heaven has good ears all around. “And the bow? I assume it is… needed… for cupid work.”
They continue to stare at Todoroki with no indication they understood his question or that they’re willing to reply to him. It takes some time, but eventually they lift a trembling finger towards the right side of the room, back where Todoroki came from the Miracles pathway. He looks at it, figures he might as well, then turns to the small cupid.
“Thank you.”
They move their lips and show a bit of their teeth. Todoroki wonders if they’re somehow wounded. He nods, lifts his hand in a blessing for their recovery, and walks down the pathway back to Miracles.
Halfway down, there’s an audible tap of impatient feet on the floor and he walks towards it, hopeful of some sort of direction.
“There you are,” a voice calls out to him as soon as he steps under a marble archway.
He turns and sees a hare.
“I thought you were going down without your bow and arrow. Honestly, I don’t know how All Might convinced Ookuninushi to allow you to work for them. You seem to be lost, boy.”
I am , Todoroki thinks secretly, but is wise enough to keep silent.
The hare thumps his foot twice. “Right. Look around, grab whatever bow and arrow calls to you.”
Todoroki glances around the room, taking it in for the first time. There’s sunlight streaming in through the arches and columns, as there usually is in the Heavenly dimension. Around the room, infinite arrays of arrows and bows glisten in gold, silver, bronze, glass, iron and steel. Some of them are bigger than others, some have hearts engraved, some look like weapons of war. He strolls slowly through the room, watching silently for any sign of what kind of weapon he should choose. His creation is of ice and fire, but he finds none of the weapons match him. After some time looking with no set target, he closes his eyes and lets himself feel. There’s a tug, small and pulsing, calling out to him.
This time, his steps are slow and sure as he moves blindly to the pulling force. There’s nothing special to it, his senses cannot decipher a connection or any particular message, but he goes anyway. Soon enough, he opens his eyes to see himself eye to eye with a bow and arrow encased in a glass frame. There’s a swirling, glistening liquid at the very tip of a golden arrow. The arrow lies atop of an engraved bow, its beauty so profound Todoroki can’t process it. He turns his eyes and notices that there are more arrows, half of them golden, half of them leaden, encased in a leather pouch beside the bow.
There’s no other way to put it, but he doesn’t think that’s the bow and arrow he’s supposed to use. He can’t say why he was attracted to it, but he’s definitely not going to use it. Firstly because he doesn’t think it’s for open use, otherwise it wouldn’t be encased inside the glass protection. Secondly, it definitely was already used, if the dirty tip on the arrow was anything to go by. He wonders what it could even mean, or if he should move away.
“Not many people find this corner, Todoroki-sama.”
Todoroki turns to see the hare sitting on its pawns, staring at him. He stares back.
“Do you know what this means?”
“That not many people walk up to this place.” He replies at once. The hare tuts.
“It means power attracts power.” It walks close to Todoroki and both turn to stare at the bow and arrow. “Do you know to whom these belong?”
“I have no idea.”
“This is the bow and arrow Cupid used when he fell in love with his wife, Psyche.” The hare starts slowly. There’s a quality to its voice that’s lulling, as if it could turn it into a lesson or a dare at any moment. Todoroki pays attention, even as he stares at the engraved figures on the bow. There are constellations swirling at one side, the slow turn of the Venus atmosphere on the other. The power of ages old War marr the underside of an arch, entrenched with undying love in its core. He’s known war, that’s true, but he cannot conceive the possibility of there being love in its midst.
“I have never heard of him.”
“He’s Venus’ son. He was assigned by his mother to make Psyche fall in love with a monster.”
“What did Psyche do to deserve that?”
The hare thumps its foot once. “She was born pretty enough to be venerated by the mortals. Venus grew jealous of it and wanted revenge.”
Todoroki frowns. “I don’t think I like Venus very much.”
The hare snorts. “You work for her now, kid.”
His feathers fluff in indignation. He contains them least them let it clear he’s used to hating his boss.
“What happened then?”
“Cupid found Psyche asleep. When he went to strike her side with the arrow, she woke up and looked straight at him. He was invisible, of course, but it still surprised him. That’s why, instead of hitting her, his arrow pierced him instead.” Todoroki looks at the point of the arrow, now understanding the liquid must be ambrosia from when Cupid struck himself. “That’s how he fell in love, and decided to defy his mother’s order.”
Todoroki has met one of the Faiths once, and he knows they are extremely precise, but he can’t help but think of how much of an accident it all seems to be. Cupid accidentally falls in love with the human, deciding to rebel against his mother in the name of love.
It’s stupid. If anything, Cupid should have rebeled against the idiotic order first.
“And then they live happily ever after.”
The hare laughs. “Oh, not at all. Nobody would fall or marry Psyche, and that’s how she learned she was meant for a monster. She decides to confront her fate and go live in the monster’s mountain and that’s how she and Cupid got to be together.”
Todoroki nods, happy for Psyche. She seems like a curious mortal, worthy of being loved by a God.
“Of course, love never sails smoothly. Cupid wouldn’t show himself to her, and in order to stay together, she couldn’t peek at him.”
Todoroki privately repeats his thought that it’s all very stupid, but prefers to stay silent. He needs the job.
“It’s what they say, love is blind.” The hare continues.
“That’s stupid,” Todoroki replies. Unfortunately, he’s never been too good at keeping quiet.
The hare laughs. “That’s probably what Psyche thought too. After her sisters nagged her about her marriage, she grew suspicious and tried to see Cupid while he slept. When she saw his handsome face, oil dripped from the lamp and burned him. That’s how she lost her husband.”
Silence falls between them. Outside, energy flows with the coming and goings of other entities, but inside the room all Todoroki can feel is the immortal presence of the hare, himself, and the powerful flow of the bow and arrow.
There are many things to be said about the story, but Todoroki doesn’t know where to begin. He’s never known romantic love and isn’t too inclined to learn about it. Maybe that’s why he was chosen for this mission within the Miracles department, since he’s detached enough to perform the task as an observing outsider.
Truth be told, watching the bow and arrow in front of him is the closest he’s ever been to romantic love in his undying life. His garrison was formed by soldiers, and he barely had time to observe Earth, or any of the other worlds. He’s known love for his brothers, his sister, his mother, even his father. The Creator. His partners in war. He knows joy, anger, and love, in a way. There’s a saying that every creature in the Heavenly realm is somewhat made of love, and he thinks that may be true.
Although it definitely does not mean romantic.
He turns and stares at the hare, and this time he doesn’t quite care if his face betrays how stupid he thinks the story is.
“Is this a lesson, then? Love is blind and ends when there's suspicion?”
“In a way. But love is also about trust.”
“Hm. Is that it, then?”
“No. Psyche tried to get Cupid back, but Venus wouldn’t accept them. So she had to do trial after trial until Cupid was strong enough to beg to Jupiter. He interceded and Venus accepted their love in the end. She was made a goddess and they’re still married.” The hare stops for a moment, then continues with a twitch from its ear. “But not before there was another trust trial. One of Venus’ trials required trust. Psyche wasn’t supposed to peek inside a box, but she did anyway. Cupid saved her, but not before asking if she didn’t learn her lesson.”
“Hm.”
“That sounded judgemental. What do you think?”
“That if he loved her, he’d know she was curious.” Todoroki casts a glance around the room then looks at the hare, surprised to see its red eyes boring into him. “So if he loved her just like she was, he shouldn’t punish her for being herself.”
Silence falls between them once more, and Todoroki wonders if that was the final straw for the hare. Would he be fired from Miracles even before starting his first mission? Could someone even be fired from a Heavenly departed? His garrison knows he gave his father more than enough reason to fire him, and still he held the post of Second-in-command for ages -- even if he spoke his mind one too many times. Surely his luck wouldn’t stretch that much.
Then the hare starts to laugh.
“I like you, Todoroki. I think you’ll do great.”
Todoroki looks around. Nothing in the shiny room gave him an idea of how to respond; there wasn’t a clue, not even between the many arrows or the swirling engraving of Cupid’s bow.
“Thanks, I guess.”
“Grab that bow and arrow over there. It is made with the first bark of the oldest redwood on Earth and blessed by All Might.” Its right ear points towards a bow and arrow almost hidden behind a pillar, its arrows resting in a socket under the bow. “Do you know how to use it?”
“I have martial training in all weapons ever invented on all the realms.” Todoroki replies absent minded, his attention on the bow and arrow ahead of him. He approaches it fast, then holds it in his upper hands. They’re light, much too light for their size. There’s a red tone to the wood, but despite what he would think, it isn’t exactly red. He frowns in confusion, but lets the thought go. He’d rather not have another story told to him that day, lest he delays even more his departure. Or even worse: his father finds him for yet another lecture and tries to order him to go back to the garrison.
“Yes, but do you know how to shoot Cupid arrows?”
Todoroki turns with an eyebrow raised. “I don’t believe they’re all that different from a soldier’s bow and arrow.”
“Well, no.” The hare taps its foot impatiently. “But their effects are different. Once you hit the target, they’ll feel mild infatuation towards the first person they look at.”
“Mild infatuation? I thought it would make them fall in love.”
The hare tuts. “Only the Cupid can make people fall in love.”
Todoroki frowns in confusion. “There’s a whole room of cupids out there.”
“No, no .” Tap, tap, tap, tap. “Those are cupids . You are a cupid . I mean the Cupid. Capital C. Eros. The son of Venus, Aphrodite.”
“Right.”
“No entity besides the major Gods can make mortals fall in love.”
“So what do we do here?”
“You help the humans fall in love by themselves .”
Todoroki stares. He’s not sure if he quite understands it.
“Then why-”
“Pay attention, boy.” The hare gets on its feet and suddenly it is as tall as Todoroki is, staring down at his eyes. He’s suddenly reminded that no matter the appearance it may hold, all sorts of powerful entities rest on the Heavenly realm. He may be a millennia old, but so’s the hare in front of him. “Miracles aren’t about doing the work for the humans. It’s about helping them do it themselves. Do you get that?”
Todoroki nods, mildly shaken from the intensity of its beady eyes.
“And love, love is the biggest miracle of all.”
_____
Fuyumi , Todoroki prays to his sister as he waits in line to descend to Earth yet again. You will not believe just how bureaucratic Heaven can be.
I don’t think you understand just the kind of work I do for our father, Shouto. His sister answers promptly and he can hear her soft laugh along with the words in her prayer.
He hums, wondering when it will be Fuyumi’s time to be free from Endeavor as well. Natsuo had been the first of them to break rank and get out of the garrison. And now him.
Okay, that’s a lie.
Touya was the first one, but they don’t talk about Touya. Not since he defied their father’s order. Not since he fell.
Todoroki remembers being a newly created soldier, being promised a place of high command in the garrison. He remembers being introduced to the family, and remembers his brother’s face. One of the first emotions he ever learned that could corrupt an angel was hatred, and he saw it written all over Touya’s face. Remembers how he laughed as he fell, no sign of hatred or devotion, or even love, as he did. To this day, he still wonders how he could describe Touya’s expression as he took the final jump out of the Heavenly realm.
So no, angels cannot simply go to the Earthly realm, otherwise they fall. Their wings burn and they become something they weren’t meant to be. That’s why he waits in line to go down to Earth. That’s why he sometimes closes his eyes and wonders about what could have happened to his lost brother.
That’s no time to think about Touya, though. Instead, he thinks of Natsuo. Technically he stopped being his brother when he left the Todoroki command, but Shouto was secretly fond of Natsuo and still called him his brother. Truth be told, he didn’t reach out to talk to him, not when he was so busy in between battles, but Fuyumi knew his mind and always made sure to update how Natsuo was faring.
Then, there was Fuyumi. The secret backbone of the whole garrison. She dropped her sword a little after Touya left and since then had been doing intelligence work. She was the commander behind the commander, and although Shouto never quite understood the work she did, she was the only angel in the whole garrison he revered.
Fuyumi, and also his mother.
Todoroki slowly shakes his left wing, mindful of the people in the room with him, mindful of the ghost pain of a past wound. That’s a story he would rather not think about either.
Sometimes he can’t help but think that Heaven isn’t all it is promised to be.
What did you have to do? Fuyumi prays to him again.
I had to sign around 300 scrolls just to get a bow and arrow from a hare. Thinking it out loud to his sister helps him realize just how absurd the whole situation is. I didn’t even have a signature until now.
He can hear Fuyumi’s laughter in his mind and smiles softly at the lightness of it. Why didn’t you just touch it with your grace? That works just the same as a written signature.
His good mood turns sour immediately. Because I didn’t know that.
When her laughter invades his thoughts once more, he can’t help feeling a bit grumpy. How was he to know? He is a soldier, not a bureaucrat.
Luckily enough, it is his time to descend to Earth and he lets his sister know instead of abruptly ignoring her.
Good luck. Don’t forget your bow and arrow. Make us proud.
Thank you. Give father a hard time. Don’t tell him where I am.
Shouto…
Be with peace.
And you.
The descent to Earth is made in light. He lets it engulf him as he changes dimensions, the light traveling through his grace like a caress. His fire flickers warmly, playful with the light bathing him. His ice glitters like diamonds. His wings open and he feels himself floating, down down down down towards noisy, messy Earth underneath him.
He watches, amazed, the globe approaching under him. It is magnificently blue, huge in its mortal glory. He can touch the sound waves as they pass through him, loud and chaotic, coming from all around. Slowly, his feet touch the rare atmosphere, then his wings cut through it with a spark. For a moment, he fears they will burn, just like Touya’s did, but the light that surrounds him protects them from catching fire that doesn’t come from Shouto’s grace.
Once he realizes there is no reason to fear, he calms down and watches the world around him as it gets closer and closer. It may not be the first time he visited Earth, but it was the first he had the time to admire. Long gone were the time of the dinosaurs, or even the pyramids, but still the same blue shone on the ocean, the currents powerful in its deepness. He could see under the tectonic plates the fury of metal and fire, shaking Earth down to its core. Then around him he feels the wind and clouds, his descent now fast enough for the atmosphere to start singing in his ears, against his wings. His snow halo rejoices in the coldness of the upper air, his fire instead burning glad with how fast he moves.
Down, down, down, and he can see the sun shine on land. An island the mortals now name Japan, as he has been told. A silly notion, he thinks, to name a piece of land; but at least the name they chose had been a beautiful one -- although inaccurate. The sun doesn’t rise from land, and its light shines first on another island.
Even closer and now he can see buildings, tall as he is when in the Heavenly dimension, stretched thin or full of mirrors reflecting the sunlight. Some of them have colorful words, some have images, some have dark rock all over it. And in all of them, people mingle about, unaware of other dimensions, living their mortal lives as they are meant to.
Creation is magnificent, and he is part of it. For the first time, he truly feels Holy. A Heavenly entity, born to protect, to safeguard the mortals in their brief existence. He isn’t a Todoroki soldier, but an Angel, a part of Creation and its Beauty.
He closes his eyes and focuses on the mission one last time, on the miracle he is to perform. He may not know about love, or even many emotions, but he knows how to perform a task well. He’s been in Heavenly war for as long as he can remember, and he remembers it all. There’s no task he can’t perform. It doesn’t matter that he has no idea what he’s doing, or that all he’s known from Cupids or Love deities are questionable at best: he’ll do his task, he’ll do on his own terms. Then he’ll turn to his father and show him he doesn’t need him. That he is more than the soldier his father trained him to be.
When he opens his eyes, he finds himself staring down at another beauty of creation, a mortal with green eyes and freckles.
Midoriya Izuku.
Todoroki Shouto stares, then speaks solemnly: “I’m here for you, mortal.”
And is promptly answered back with a terrified scream.