𝐊𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐢𝐞𝐬 || S. Todoroki x Reader

1 - Shark Tank

PART ONE

What is freedom if you've never tasted it?

***

Control; something people kill to have and die protecting. It was only after everything did you realize how much power there is in taking control, as much as letting it go. 

Teenagers, by far, were some of the strangest creatures on earth.

They were the least predictable, they were emotional and unstable, and walking into a cesspool filled to the brim with them didn't seem like the best idea. But, it wasn't yours.

UA stood in front of you like some radioactive beacon lighting up the street, campus so big it crowded nearly everything else out.

The old remnants of a breakfast apple burned on your tongue, and you blamed the constricting of your throat on the food rather than nerves. This was what you'd been trained for since the day you were born.

Just because this place was crawling with hormonal teenagers with way too much self-confidence or lack thereof, it still didn't make this any less of a battlefield. The environment was new, but people were predictable, the patterns of their choices were calculable.

Swallowing, you glanced down at the new watch rubbing against your wrist. The metal felt too cold against your skin, like it was trying to burn its way inside your flesh.

Hawks had pushed it across the dinner table over too-expensive take-out and reusable chopsticks, shooing your bowl of noodles out of the way so the tiny box of metal could stare up at you.

The only reason you put it on was because you knew there really wasn't choice, it wasn't like Hawks to get you something so meaningless, especially a watch of all things.

You glanced up, arching a brow as you swallowed a bite of food.

"Don't worry," Hawks said while pushing around the vegetables in his bowl. "I already checked for cameras or mics."

It was hard not to scoff. "You think they'd make it that easy?"

"I think they knew you or I would take it apart. So it'd be rather pointless." He took a bite.

You looked down. The watch caused the glare of the overhead light to shine into your eye. "Touche."

"Aren't ya going to wear your present? They probably picked it out special for you."

You stared at your reflection against the smooth glass. "It's hideous."

"No kidding. Now eat your vegetables or I will."

Students moved past you like fish against a sea current, all buzzing too excitedly for their own good. Everything here was in motion, all of the time. Everywhere you turned someone was yelling or someone was falling or someone was hovering a few feet above the ground.

You'd give it a week before the first fight broke out.

The superficial feeling left your mouth feeling tacky and too sweet, and eyeing where the students with welcome badges stood, made a note to return one of their smiles with a smaller one of your own. It didn't have to be real, just believable.

The conditioning classes weren't for nothing, and lying through your teeth came almost as easy as breathing now; people were gullible, you just had to find their weakness and suck it dry.

"You ready for tomorrow?" he asked, watching you struggle to push the small piece of metal through the band of your fancy new watch.

You licked your lips, the aftertaste of broth still fresh on your tongue. "Would it matter if I was?"