"You know..." Mineta is chewing through a bite of a cake pop, "Sucks you had to kill someone. With our looks combined, we'd get all the ladies." He finishes the cake pop, Todoroki is a bit confused on why everyone seems so comfortable bringing up what he did. It's not an easy subject.
"Can we not talk about that please?" Hizashi always tells him to voice his feelings. He doesn't want to talk about father right now.
"Fine, party pooper." Killing his dad was a...party?
"How come you get to patrol later and I'm doing totally useless stuff?" He complains, lip jutting out in a pout. "I'm the real hero here."
"Katō is going with his team to Hosu, so I have to go along." Does he apologize? He hates not knowing the safe and unsafe apart.
"Hosu is where all the babes are at. Hey, you should give out my number to them!"
Todoroki rubs the back of his neck nervously. "They might uh... they might run from me though. And isn't that dangerous?"
"You're totally smarter than you look, Todoroki!"
They approach the first hero and Mineta hands him an egg sandwich, Todoroki gives him the berry tea he ordered. They go through each hero until the orders are gone, and then there's Mt. Lady's drink.
Todoroki leads the way to the elevator when he finds out Mineta hadn't been paying attention to the tour Katō gave. It's sort of comforting, being in charge of something that isn't him. But then his mind wanders, asking if it's the right way, what if there's a villain in the elevator? What if father is in there? What if father hurts Mineta?
He's dead. He's dead.
They step into the elevator and Mineta is silent for the first time today. Despite apparently fearing Todoroki, he's just a talkative person. Most of his choice topics are about women, Todoroki has never heard someone talk for thirty minutes about breasts. He doesn't understand the appeal.
"Before you get your feelings hurt, I'm not gonna talk to you at school. I don't want you to scare the ladies away." Mineta finally speaks, Todoroki almost wishes he hadn't.
"Okay."
"Why don't you feel anything! You're totally annoying like this!"
Todoroki looks at his feet. "Sorry."
"You should be. Hey, when we get there let me walk in with the stuff. You stay outside."
"Okay."
So he does. Mt. Lady complains and asks for another drink to be ready when she comes down to the first floor later on. Todoroki should be leaving by then, so Mineta's going to have to remember her order by himself.
Mineta says goodbye to him when he leaves, breaking down the word you get 'good' 'bye'. Mineta wishes his leave to be good. It's nice.
Katō likes classical music. He plays it loudly and waves his finger around to the sound of a piano. Todoroki wonders if he ever played the instrument. He might've, he seems the type.
"So what's your quirk again?" Katō turns the radio down, looking forward at the road with those white eyes. "Fire, right?"
He hates that's what people think. Endeavor's son must have fire. He killed him with ice...
"Fire and Ice." He manages. Things are starting to get blurry the way they do whenever his father is brought up.
"Oh nice, double quirks. Always envied people with that. Is it hard to- you know-" his hands move in some weird incantation Shouto doesn't recognize. "Control them both?"
YOU ARE READING
The King is Dead
Hayran Kurgu"All Might kneels, his shadowy face staring into Shouto's eyes. Shouto doesn't stare back, instead, he looks at his blood-covered feet. He thinks about the bruises underneath his sweatpants, the burns that nobody but him has seen. All Might waves hi...
