I am the other Todoroki

Chapter 3 - Old wounds

'Oh, shit'

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

I knew this would happen I knew he would eventually confront me. He motioned his head back on the direction of the common room and I followed after him. We went back into the now empty common area.

"Is it true?" when he said it, it came out as a rush. He sounded desperate.

"Yes...like I said before I wasn't lying."

"But why only now am I seeing you, I knew that...I knew that you were in your room in the house everyday, but I never knew you. Every day our father would take meals to the room that was off-limits due to..." he trailed off.

"Due to what?" I looked at him eyebrows raised

"He used to call you 'the dangerous other one'" he said looking embarassed

I chuckled slightly "Really he couldn't think of a better name"

He didn't say anything before looking at me with an embarrassed grin on his face like he had made up the ridiculous name.

"A-anyway, as I got older I figured it out, I assume that there was another one of us that he didn't want to get out. I mean kinda obvious but I was only 10"

'one of us' the words hit me like a train. I knew that we were more or less experiments to him but the way Shoto says it makes it seem like it's a normal thing.

"The sicko" he said more to himself than to me. His expression hardened a little as he looked like he was thinking about something.

"Which one of them are you?" I knew what he meant I had heard those words before, I don't know how but I remember when I developed my quirk at age four, the first thing Endevour said was "Which one of us is she?"

"I'm nither, I wasn't like Mum and I'm not like father I didn't get there quirks which no one could explain" he scanned me, he took in my bright blue eyes and my white hair.

"I can't conjure ice or create flames not even close the only thing I got from our parent where their looks." he takes me in for a while, he seems to be trying to asses something about my features, I don't think much of it and just stand their staring at him

"Why did you never leave the room, why were we not allowed to see you"

The first thought that came to my head was 'duh, because I was dangerous' but the second thing was 'how could he know, he basically never met me'.

I stand in silence, this is something I never wanted to talk about again, even though everyday it ate at me inside, like a consuming virus that would never subsided but never quite kill me.

"I'm-I'm not proud of what I did I regret it everyday, well most of it" I say bitterly, I give him a apologetic look.

"I used my quirk as a child well more lost control and father thought, he knew that I was a danger to the family. So rather than get rid of me he kept me hidden he didn't want anyone to know who or what i was, doesn't want to tarnish his name as a hero".

"What did you do?" He said sternl. He was not going to let go till I told him the whole truth.

"He drove me insane, all I wanted to do was die or have him dead and one day I cracked, the interalized rage and consuming loneliness I-I couldn't control my quirk. It went inside doubling the strength of even fill grown adults. I created a nightmare that came to life as if it was flesh and blood. I used it to try and kill him and almost succeeded but...but you were there and just in the way and I-I almost killed you too. But when I saw you, how innocent you were and small you seemed, the nightmare faded. Endeavour realized what a danger I was to the family". My head drooped and I now relized that tears had welled in my eyes, i hadn't thought about that so vividly in years.

"Thats why your eyes are different colour the nightmare struck out and hit you in the face
,god it could have been so much worse" I say running my hand over my face.

"It got your eye in the process the trauma to the nerves changed the colour."

His pupils receded.

"Mum had always told me it was genetics"

"You know that they lie, she did it because he told her to." I could hear the anger and contempt in my voice.

Shoto then did something I was not expecting he took a step forward and embraced me, I was stunned I hadn't been hugged in years.

"I used to hate it" he whispered over my shoulder "I used to hate hearing you cry not being able to do anything about it, hearing you scream and only wanting to comfort you, hearing your cries of pain when he abused you. All I ever wanted to do was to make you feel better even though I had never met you. But I do know why, it was Endeavour's fault, it's always his god damed fault."

I pull out of the hug, I'm slightly angered at his words. He had mum to protect him and eventually he could leave. I could never leave, I never had Natsuo or Fuyumi or Mum. I had no one to save me.

"Do you know, do you understand". I take off my jacket and pull my t-shirt off over my head to expose the scars, bruises and burns that never completely healed.

"You really don't know what it was like, you...have...no idea, what it was like." My fists are clenched and my jaw is set I don't look at him because I don't want him to see the anger in my face.

"I'm sorry, your right I don't know what it's like but, I still can sympathise a little."

I hate it but I know he's right Endeavour wasn't exactly sunshine and rainbows when around his children.

"Don't worry cause now ill be there for you, ill always be there when you need me and ill never let that happen to you again." He seems so sincere, so honest, so caring, now that wasn't a word that came into my mind very often. His words make me start to cry and he gives me another hug and this time I recognise what he was trying to show me in the first one. Love.