Always tired (bnha agere)

Chapter Twelve: Spiral, Shoto!

Cw: Katsuki antics, physically threatening behaviour, implied build up of stress

It started in the morning. Shoto made toast. Despite usually going without breakfast, he'd recently began making something for himself. Yawning, he sat at the table. He hadn't regressed in a while - quite a while. It had been two weeks in fact.

At first, he didn't think it was having an effect on him. At first, he thought he'd be okay. That didn't stay. He sat, eating his toast as some of the others moved about the kitchen and communal area. Kaminari made coffee and chatted with Kirishima. Sero drowsily poured a bowl of cereal. It was just like any other morning.

"Get out of my fuckin' way." An angry Bakugo shoved his way into the communal area. Bags hung under his eyes. Todoroki sighed, observing the boy. It was too early for all this snarling. Uraraka squeaked as Katsuki slammed her into the wall, simply uncaring of her reaction. Shoto blinked at the chip in the table.

How could Bakugo be so ridiculously rude? Shoto didn't have much of a clue but he, for unknown reasons, wasn't feeling as gracious this morning.

"Bakugo, don't push her." he said, rising from his seat, plate in hand.

The blonde spun around, curling his lips like a vexed dog. Todoroki wished that the boy would for once, shut the fuck up and not respond. Of course, Katsuki was practically unable to do such a thing.

"I'll do whatever I damn well want, half n half bastard." he snapped, slamming a fist on the counter as though he thought Shoto would actually be intimidated. Todoroki stood idle in front of the boy. Sometimes Bakugo spooked him but that was rare.

Shoto turned his head slightly, sensing Midoriya behind him. The green haired boy was slowly making his way over, rubbing his eyes.

"Dude," Kirishima's concerned protest was cut off completely when Todoroki felt the plate yank from his grasp. He barely had time to return his gaze to Bakugo before-

Smash!

The thundering noise resounded as Bakugo thrust the plate into the floor. It crashed, separating into many different pieces. "Don't fucking ignore me!" Bakugo roared, glaring at Shoto with his fiery eyes. Todoroki instinctively covered his ears. From behind him, Mina let out a squawk of surprise along with a few confused gasps from Koda and Iida.

Kirishima was grabbing at Bakugo's arm; his face switching between nervous smiles and unbridled rage. He had a right to be angry. Everyone did. That was destructive and dangerous. Kaminari had scrambled up onto the counter, timidly grasping his coffee, too busy to make any proper remarks.

Shoto pressed his back against the wall, uncovering his ears. That had been damn loud alright. And now there were hazardous shards all across the floor that somebody would need to clean.

"Kacchan, someone could have gotten hurt!" Izuku stammered, coming in next to Shoto. His eyes had jumped alert and he was looking from the shattered plate to Bakugo every few seconds as though the events hadn't set in just yet.

The blonde crashed out of the kitchen. Eijrou let him go, opting to clean up the result. "He hasn't got good sleep lately. I promise he wouldn't usually do that." he muttered. "It wasn't very manly of him."

Todoroki blinked at him. Was Kirishima stupid? "He's a villain, not a hero." Shoto commented. He didn't immediately realise the dead, intense silence around him. Izuku's face got hot and he fidgeted. Nobody said a thing.

"I mean," Kirishima paused, giving Todoroki a bit of an alien look. "A bit harsh. He got kidnapped by villains but he's not one of them. Just an angry sort of person." Todoroki stepped away. Was that Eijrou's form of sarcasm or was he serious? Shoto didn't think he cared about an answer.

On their way to class, Izuku shuffled in close to his friend. "Are you okay?" he asked, his fluffy hair fluttering in the wind. "You're not usually that type of rude to Kacchan. Maybe he deserves it but it's just a bit out of character for you. I mean you usually just look at him with a blank stare or miss his point completely."

Todoroki kicked a stone across the pavement, keeping his eyes in front of him. "He shouldn't have smashed that plate. It was loud and made a mess." Shoto said. The incident had ticked him off but it wasn't just that. Perhaps a build up of stress he hadn't realised. He was feeling more irritable than he often would.

Izuku had asked many times over the two weeks if Shoto wanted to regress but Todoroki simply hadn't felt the urge. He'd been doing okay, painting, reading, listening to true crime and indulging in other hobbies of his. He hadn't had a seriously anxious pit in his stomach for a while so he thought he'd do without.

But now that anxiety was creeping back - Todoroki didn't want to go back to regressing. When he thought about it, it made him cringe. It was a weird, puzzling coping mechanism. He wanted to drop it like a passing trend, avoid it where possible however that wouldn't prove to be helpful...