Serendipity

reconciliation

After a long night of doing nothing but sitting, thinking, and listening to music together, Todoroki fell asleep on his shoulder. That was about four hours after he'd actually set his head on Katsuki's shoulder, four hours after Katsuki decidedly did not throw him off. The sun rose and Todoroki closed his eyes. He's not sure if Todoroki knew what he was doing, what something like that implies (or how it made him feel) but Katsuki didn't mind it. Even when it became a small burden to not change position to sleep comfortably. Todoroki let him lean his head to the side, too, despite not liking touch.

And, when they woke up, and Katsuki made them breakfast and brought it up to Todoroki like he was a prisoner locked in his room, Katsuki demanded (softly, because it's Todoroki) to know what was going on.

He's tired of being left in the dark.

Todoroki told him what he remembers, which is more than what everyone else knows, but still not much for his being the one to experience it.

Katsuki makes a mental narrative of what Todoroki compiles:

Before the 'dark room', as Todoroki calls it, he was with 'the white haired woman a lot'. That's the woman they showed on the News, Todoroki Rei. Todoroki's mom.

The reason he has his burn scar.

Even then, he was getting beat. He described it as punishment, and training, but Katsuki will call it as it is. If Todoroki didn't have his scar until he was five, and he had his scar in the dark room, that means he must've only been three or four when Endeavor first started beating him.

Todoroki said he doesn't remember much about before the dark room, that the memories are all muddy.

Todoroki tried his best to explain how the dark room worked, but it sounded like he didn't really know, either. How long he stayed in there before he got to eat (explains why he's so thin)is a mystery. How often Endeavor visited him in the dark room just to punish him, is a mystery. How often they trained is directly correlative to how often he was allowed to eat; again, left a mystery.

Todoroki went silent for a few minutes before revealing what the League was like. He was strapped to a chair for the first few days, and they would burn or decay his skin, demand to know what he knew about Endeavor. Then, they artificially healed him, which was apparently a painful process. He mentions a window, somewhere in between it all. For the rest of the ten days, he was left to Dabi and Twice to wreak havoc and complete the failed mission.

Hawks took him, got those pictures taken, revealed that he knew about it the whole damn time. The public was not notified that their 'hero' is also a criminal. Todoroki Shouto got to live with Aizawa, then Endeavor threatened them, and that's why they both came all panicked to the dorms.

Fast forward to yesterday, when a detective and Aizawa allowed abuser to meet victim 'one last time'. Endeavor kicking Todoroki to get him to smile, to talk and drink. That sounds a lot like Endeavor was expecting something to happen publicly. But, if someone were to capture and post photos online of Endeavor and his son enjoying each other's presences, it would be an insurance plan.

A shitty publicity stunt.

Now Katsuki has to sum all of that up into a small explanation for the rest of the class. The extras won't leave him until they know, because they'll know that he knows and he kind of regrets knowing because being left in the dark is more comfortable than being shown the light, in this instance.

Kastuki taps the ground next to Todoroki, drawing him out of his own mind. "Are you still tired? I want to tell the rest of them so we can get it over with."

Todoroki nods, standing and stepping forward to close his balcony door. Katsuki looks at their plates. Todoroki didn't eat two-thirds of his meal, about. Usually, he always eats a full plate.