You can hide behind me

Expectations

"Everyone has a story.

Well, this is mine.

There's a lot of rumors about me. And I'm here to say that most of them, maybe even all of them, are true. I am the son of the pro hero Endeavor. I'm not an only child. My brother is the one who made the news a few years ago. Yes, we're rich. But I'm more than just the spawn of my father.

I like to swim. My sister Fuyumi took me to a pond and taught me. We swim all the time now.

My favorite food is rice balls. My mom makes the best ones.

I like race cars, and I want to be a racecar driver. If that doesn't work then I want to run an orphanage fir kids with bad parents.

My name is Natsou Todoroki and this is my story" I finish my essay. As expected, I receive thundering applause. And as expected, when my teacher asks for questions, not a single one was about race cars. Or rice balls. Nor swimming.

"Do you have a fire quirk?"

"DOES YOUR DADS POOP BLOW UP BECAUSE OF HIS FIRE?"

"Can endeavor be burned?"

"What's your mom like?"

"So lucky, I wish MY dad was endeavor!"

"IS IT TRUE THAT YOUR BROTHER STOPPED VILLAINS WHEN HE WAS 2 YEARS OLD?"

"What's your mom's quirk?"

"CAN YOU LIGHT MY HOMEWORK ON FIRE??"

I sigh, wanting to go back to my seat towards the back of the room.

"No, sometimes, I don't know,  nice I guess..? No you don't, not really, same as mine, no." I answer so quickly they don't know what answers went to which question. I quickly take my seat so Watari-kun can give his oral essay.

I will always live in his shadow,  won't I? Touya chose to try to burn his flames to be seen within that shadow. To bring light to the darkness. But now that my existence has been declared, I realize I'm just as trapped. But I have no flame to warm me and I'm stuck, in the cold and dark, all alone.

Schools done me some good though. I think I finally found my medium as my teacher says. I love literature and being poetic is FUN. Or she's lying. I've noticed that I can do no wrong in school.all my grades are perfect. At first I thought that I was a genius or something. Then I realized that other kids and I could turn in the same thing and get different scores.

My teachers pass me with flying colors because of who my father is. And in turn, the other kids hate me. So why try? No one wants to be my friend. And my grades aren't going to fluctuate, even if I turned in blank tests. So I simply do what I want.

I want to write poetry and short stories until I go home. So I do. I don't want to talk about my family. So I don't. Simple.

I leave myself a mystery and when I'm older I'll dissappear. Change my name. Move far away. Possibly dye my hair. I'm thinking black. Gets colored contact lenses. I don't know but I am starting over one day. And the less these people know the better. I haven't even told these kids my quirk. And I plan to keep it that way.

My teacher announces the grades. C, B, C ,C+,B ,A- ,A- ,A ,A- ,C ,B-,A, etc. Surprise Surprise, I got an A+ and a round of unethusastic applause from my glaring classmates.

I didn't even write anything. I just stood up and talked.

We're finally released from class and I walk to find my body guard. It's a private school. Two more years and I'll legally be old enough to be shipped to some distant but expensive boarding school, which I'm sure I will be. Touya said so at least.

I get home and I see Touya and Shoto sitting on the couch. Touya has a level of resentment towards our little brother. He hides it but I can see it. Do you blame him? Shoto is everything Touya wanted to be, without trying.

But the love is obvious too. He cares still. I know that. But sometimes he scares me. I see a flash of someone else. Raw anger, unbridled hatred, seething fury. All combined with unstable, cunning,  twisted-

"Sobas done!" Fuyumi proudly waltzes into the room with a tray of food she clearly did herself. Quickly interrupting my thoughts. I can smell burnt meat but she really has a neck for cooking and it tastes amazing.

Mom's lying down again, sick. There might be another baby on the way. It fits with what Touya said, because shoto is just barely 4 now.

"Soooba" He giggles and holds up his now empty plastic bowl. Fuyumi always makes the Soba cold because it's easier she says. I don't see how. But I guess baby shoto isn't found of it.

His left side bursts into flames, torching the couch as flames lick the ceiling. Ice spreads out from his right side as he gleefully clapps his hands as the bowl falls to the ground.

We're more than ready.

Fuyumi pulls an extra baby suit out of her pocket she sewed into the inside of her skirt. It's identical to the the he's now wearing.

Touya pulls off the rest of the tattered suit while I shove put brother into a pike of snow I formed on the ground. He fights it with his fire but quickly overheats and exerts himself, putting his flames out. His ice soon follows and we throw him into a new baby suit. All problems have been solved.

Well, all linking it to sho. But one half the couch is a peace of charcoal and the other is ice so dence that even touya couldn't thaw it in under 10 minutes, which is about how much time we have until an adult will pass through. Dads training but will probably take a break and/or grab touya for a lesson or two any minute now. Touyas training days are spread out now but it's been weeks since his last, meaning that he is due for a hard one any day now. Murphys law dictates that as today.

What can we do? It's not like we can swipe Dads credit card and get a new couch. I mean,  we could. Easily. But it'll take at least a day to get  Amazon to deliver it.

Fuyumi suggests just this and Touya laughs.

"Our best option here is to say I lost control of my quirk and you accidentally used your quirk too harshlytoput the fire out." He tells her.

"No, he'll beat you!" She exclaims. They should REALLY keep it down.... but of course they don't.

"Hey guys, we should probably b-" I start but am interrupted.

"Well what do you expect us to do? We can't hide this!" Touya begins to shout.

"Hey guys-"

"Maybe we should tell the truth! It might not be as bad as you think, he could-"

"Guys??"

"Fuyumi, you're a moron! You only care about yourself and you don't think about anything or anyone else!" Touya screams, and I try to hold back tears. I can see the Touya that scares me. The one that wants to watch the world burn. But it's not a flash. He's here.

"GUYS!" I try to get their attention. But they're both lost in their own world, oblivious to mine. Shoto begins to cry softly.

"WELL ITS NOT MY FAULT OUR LITTLE BROTHERS THE CHOSEN ONE! Ok?? It's not MY fault that he got BOTH quirks! We allwish we were him. But GUESS WHAT? WE'RE NOT! WE. ARE. NOT. S-"

"WHATS GOING ON IN HERE?" Our father booms, the ever present shadow of expectations has now become literal as the three of us freeze in fear. And shoto begins to cry more. And I wish that I could just be him. More than ever. Because I have forgotten how to cry.

And right now,  it's all I want to do.