You can hide behind me

lOtS oF tImE sKiPs

*Natsuos point of view

Its been three months since Touya came back. He's been different ever since. He gave up on trying to get out. Now he's put it all in. He wants nothing more than to impress our father and surpass All Might. He's blocked himself off from the rest of us. But he still talks to me, every night.

He was almost back to normal too. Then he snapped. Dad told him he could never be the best. Nobody would even look at him. And he lunged at Shoto. He tried to attack our baby brother with his quirk. So he's back to being locked in his room every night. Even when dads gone, moms scared to not lock it. When we're done talking, even I lock it again. Because he scares me.

He's always been reclusive. But lately its been even worse. He almost never plays with us. He's been through 6 psychiatrists so far and hes scared them all off.

I decide to sneak to his room while Fuyumi does the dishes and mom feeds Shoto. Dads off being a hero or whatever.

He lets me in and vents about our father. About why we were born. He has nobody he can really talk to so I'm his go to. He starts smoking as he talks and I try to calm him down. But he's hot to the touch and I pull my hand away. Its red and it burns.

"I'm not ment for this, Natsou. My body can't resist fire even the slightest. I- I can't be a hero." He whispered to me.

"What do you mean? Of course you'll be a hero, and you'll be the greatest hero of all time!" I exclaim.

"No, I went to the doctors again today. He said it'll never happen. My body was made for an Ice quirk. Or its adapted to it at least. Ever since my hair started changing... Natsou, I'll never be able to do it. Shoto replaced me. I'm, I'm a failure." He chokes on his words. This isn't venting anymore. This is him accepting it. I've known him my whole life. The next step is rage.

I cautiously step back. I see the rage flicker before completely dying out. He's given in. And I don't know if its bad or good.

"Who cares, big bro? I still love you! And nothing can stop you. Even if you can't become a hero, you can still save people. As a police man, or even a vigilante!" I think to a book I read a few days ago. I had learned about Vigilantes and I think they're cooler than heroes!

"Thanks, but thats not enough. I'll be a hero. Or die trying." He tells me.

When I leave later that night, I make sure to lock the door. He wasn't mad at us. But he might be mad in another way.

The next morning, entire day even, I rarely saw Touya at all. I didn't see him the day after either.

When I knocked, he wouldn't answer. He didn't eat anything. We can hear him training in his room. Once he went out to see mom for bandages.

He never fixed himself after that.

Days turned to weeks, to months, to years. Almost 4 years to be exact. We were expecting Shotos quirk, of course. But we were all relieved and surprised when it came.

It was a hot summer day. We played ball together and even Touya came out with us. Then we splashed around in the kiddie pool. Fuyumi and I tried to make it snow. It failed miserably but it did make the water cooler. Eventually us three older kids went in for popsicles while Mom watched shoto. When we came out, it was even hotter. Shoto was crying so mom walked over to pick him ip and out of the shallow pool.

We all gasped when a chunk of Ice erupted from the pool where shoto had just sat.

"No!" He yelled at mom, who almost dropped him in surprise. Us kids all pumped our fists and shouted.

He has an ice quirk! He'll be alright! No training, just being free to be a kid. We're all happy for him.

We celebrate with cold yakisoba that night. Father came home and was disappointed in the discovery. But we all expected that.

Touya seemed more relaxed too. Shoto couldn't replace him if he didn't have our fathers power.

He started hanging out with us again, although he kept training. Sometimes mom would let us go as a group out in the woods, exploring. He trained out there too and would cool off in the creek.

Life was good. Summer went by too fast. Fall meant school. Which was no fun.

Everyone was nice until they found out who our dad was. Then all they wanted was to see us use fire or for dads autograph. I stated saying I was quirkless so people would leave me alone.

Time kept passing and soon came the time where snow falls in buckets around our house. All four of us frolicked and made forts. Shoto and Fuyumi vs Touya and I. He kept overheating, even without his quirk, so he was my personal heater but he wasn't allowed to help throw snowballs.

We stayed out WAY too long though and got runny noes and started feeling sick. Fuyumi ran off to use the bathroom and us boys all huddled together in the fort I made with Touya. Then it happened.

Toddler sneezes are pretty cute. High pitched, spontaneous, and sorta want to make you go "AWWWW" but not this time.

As Shoto sneezed, his entire left (our right) body lit on fire and burned through his clothes. Not knowing what to do, Touya quickly shoved him into the wall of our fort, extinguishing his fire.

"What do we do? We can't let dad find out!" I panic. Touya hands me a shivering shoto and lights himself on fire completely. He whinces in pain and I gag at the smell of burning fabric and... Something else. He turns it off.

"My quirk activated all of a sudden while holding him and burnt both ur clothes." He tells me. I nod. We both race inside, him still carrying shoto.

I don't know if we can pull this off long. But maybe... just maybe..

A/N Thanks for reading! Please remember to vote, comment, etc. I might be slow on updates because we're getting backstory now in the manga and I want this to fit into that.

I hope you can understand!

Edit/ there's no way I can make this fit into that so we'll be pretending it never happened and continue this soon.