Mistakes ~TodoBaku~

Chapter 3: professional mode

TW // use of f-slur, fairly graphic description of murder 😊

Shoto Todoroki

"Hello Katsuki, I'm Shoto. It's nice to meet you"

He looked down at my outstretched hand with the same look of suspicion that Shinji had given me just half an hour ago, but contrary to the older inmate, Katsuki smirked, sitting down and ignoring my hand. I removed it in a way that tried to show that I wasn't bothered, but he spoke before I could properly figure him out.

"Heh, nice not havin' a fuckin' guard breathin' down my neck all day, tellin' me not to be rude. Gotta say Halfie, that's a nice room you've got over there."

He looked smug, as if he knew he'd caught me off guard. I tried to collect myself by saying "thank you Katsuki. Shoto will be fine"

"Whatever Halfie. You gonna let me talk or what?"

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and composing myself. It was always hard to deal with people who were good manipulators, even though I consider myself to be rather good at the art too. Katsuki clearly knew he was getting to me, and I could practically hear the smug grin that was plastered over his face.

I looked back up at him, and saw for the first time that he had a tattoo on his neck. It looked like some kind of rose, but it had drops of liquid, presumably blood (he's not the type to have dewdrops), falling from the petels. I couldn't deny, it was incredibly well done, and I didn't even see the moment when Katsuki realised I was admiring it.

"Oi, you're hear to listen, not check me out. You're cute n'all, but you're on that side of the glass, and I'm on this side. Unless your office doubles as a gloryhole, do your fuckin' job"

"I presume, Katsuki...that you do actually wish to discuss something with me. If all you've come here to do is tease me and flirt aimlessly, then I'm afraid I can't help you. Like you said...wrong side of the glass for me.

"Hmm...same room though...interestin'. M'not a fag, by the way, just the way it goes in here. Fuck or get fucked. You wouldn't understand, with your preppy little internship"

"I-"

"You know what? Don't speak. Cuter that way. You let me do the talkin', and you just listen and do your job, got it kid?"

He knew exactly what he was doing. It felt like a practiced routine, despite this being our first meeting. I had to suppress the thought that he'd actually make an excellent psychologist, instead focusing on the little details. His twitches, his eyes scanning his surroundings. Try to find out his weak spots from his body language, which is definitely a language I understand.

But he still wasn't talking. He just sat there, smiling to himself as if there was something hilarious behind me. I got impatient, and simply said "well, if you want to talk I'm ready to listen. Don't feel-"

"Cut the professional bullshit, I don't need to be told that I don't have to do somethin'if I don't wanna to"

"Ok...then talk. Or leave."

His smile wavered slightly at my nonchalant tone, his eyes narrowing a little as well. He clearly hadn't anticipated my response, but never mentioned it, just relaxed back into his chair and looked at me.

He waited until I opened my mouth to speak again before he started, and I bit my lip to hide my anger as he started to talk.

"...dunno if there's actually somethin', jus' feel like talkin' to someone an'...can't exactly talk to my cellmate, so...m'here."

"...do you not get along with him?"

"He killed his three year old son. No, I don't 'get along' with him"

"I see...you view your crime and his as different?"

"He killed a kid. I killed an entitled asshole to defend myself and someone else. Big difference"

"...you wanna tell me about this asshole?"

"Not really, but m'gonna. He was my boss, CEO of his company. Distribution an' logistics an' shit. I worked in a warehouse that he visited a lot, think his wife was manager or somethin'. Anyway, caught him fuckin' a secretary in the bathroom. He attacked me with a hammer the next day, that's how I got this"

He shifted his overalls down over his muscular shoulder, showing me his jagged collarbone. It practically looked to be separated in two, and I couldn't help but hold my breath as I admired it.

I also got a proper look at the tattoo that was on his neck, seeing that the roots of the flower stemmed from the crack in the bone. It was...beautiful, to be honest.

"...did it hurt? I can imagine it did, it looks like it's not recovered fully"

"Never will. And yeah, it did hurt. A fuck ton. I knew I had to do somethin'. His wife had found out about the secretary and stormed out on him, so he'd assumed I'd told her. I knew he'd hurt me, and probably her, if I didn't deal with it first."

"...is that the reason you killed him?" I probed gently, remembering that he'd never revealed a motive for killing the man.

"...didn't wanna kill him. Just fend him off from both of us. They had a kid, didn't want her to get hurt either. Unfortunately...m'stronger than I look. Didn't realise how hard I'd swung back at him. Managed to grab the hammer and...do you wanna hear the rest? I ain't cleanin' if you puke"

"Please, go on"

"If you say so. Got the hammer and shoved him into a table, pressin' his head down. Raised the tool above his head and BAM! Cracked his skull, he bled out before I could even acknowledge what happened. Turned myself in an hour later."

"...what did you do in that hour?"

"Took a shower, had some food, watched a bunch of porn and jerked off...wanted to enjoy a bit of freedom before comin' here. Only done two of those things here, and I ain't get to choose when"

"Did you ever regret it? What happened?"

"...no, not really. I knew it was me or him, so I chose me. I don't think anybody understands how easy that choice actually is in that situation. You definitely don't."

He seemed...a lot more withdrawn than he had been when he came in the room. As if he'd relaxed, and let himself become more natural. I got an email about someone else wanting to see me - I vetoed it. I wanted to listen to more of what Katsuki was saying.

"...no, and I won't pretend to...is there something that troubles you about thinking about it? You said you didn't really want to talk about it..."

"..."

He didn't say anything, looking to the side and blushing a bit. A surprise to me, since he hadn't hesitated to tell me anything so far (once he started at least)

"...if you don't say anything, I'm gonna slip back into professional mode and tell you you don't have to if you don't want to"

He smiled a little at that, but still said nothing, and I took the hint. He stood up then, muttering "m'done" under his breath, standing and just looking at me until I responded.

I decided to extend my hand again, curious more than anything about whether he would shake it or not.

He looked down at it, scoffed, and said "piss off Halfie" before he simply walked out of the room, getting handcuffed by the guard the second he left.

...guess not.
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Baby steps, Shoto, baby steps

It's quite nice being able to ease into revealing things about characters again! I'd forgotten how cool it was to write multiple chapters about the same thing!

Fact of the Day: I really enjoyed writing the psychological aspect of this chapter, it's definitely up there with my favourites