petals for armor, shoto todoroki.

01. people watching.

❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。

For as long as she could remember, Karin dreamt the same thing again and again.

It started with her in a dim room with cream colored walls and high ceilings, not much light came in despite most of the wall in front of her being taken up by the window. This was due to the sun blockers known as curtains. She hesitated, checked to make sure she was alone, and then she finally drew the fabrics back to see the outside world.

Heroes. Just a few steps away. Of all kinds and calibre, from varying agencies, she could see them as they all worked together in order to achieve one common goal.

Peace.

She reached out, barely at first and before she knew it she found herself at the front door.

Before she could unlock it though, a familiar voice stopped her in her tracks. "There you are, my darling." Her mother stood, just a few steps away, hands on her hips,"I've been looking all over for you— come, let's continue with your lessons. After you're finished we can have dinner on the patio, I promise."

She hesitated once more.

Just a few steps away...

And then she woke up. She never made it far enough into the dream for them to have dinner on that patio.

Reality was a whole lot less dramatic, but still, Karin felt just as trapped as in the dream.

She was still homeschooled, and though she could go outside whenever she wanted, it always came with a warning. Don't stray too far, if you don't recognize the area turn the other way and head home immediately. If you see anyone with a quirk, heroes or villains, turn the other way and head home immediately. The list went on, places and people to avoid.

In short, Karin's mother was strict.

But what her mother didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

And what she didn't know was that any moment she was out, a single second she could get alone, Karin was practicing, attempting to understand the quirk she was born with and forced to repress because her mother had sworn off heroes.

It was a lot easier said than done, especially when Karin couldn't help be curious about the life her mother had left behind. It didn't help that at every corner was a convenience store with hero manga, hero themed bubblegum, and posters galore. It didn't help that all news channels seemed to document on was the every move of heroes and who held what place in a hierarchy of favorites. It really didn't help when she, herself, had the ability to go beyond what was considered normal.

And it really, really didn't help when the son of one of the world's most popular heroes lived in a big house not too far from their own— mysterious, intriguing, and calling Karin to him like a moth to a flame.

The first time she saw him she was exploring the places she wasn't technically supposed to know. She'd long since stopped recognizing the area she was in, but strict parents raised the sneakiest of kids and she was proof of that. To avoid getting lost she'd left behind clovers in the cracks of the pavement where weeds had begun to grow, she was working up the strength to continue the strip of ivy against a wall when she felt cold, followed by extremely hot.

She looked up, surveying her surroundings after getting lost in her art.

Up in a window was where he was.

At the time she didn't know who he was, just that his surname was Todoroki, or at least that's what was written on the side of his house.

He couldn't have been further away.

Really, he was just a few feet from where she stood, but it very quickly became clear to her that he wasn't quite there. He was lost in his own thoughts and seeing him stare out like that reminded her of herself and how the world was restricted to her.

He almost looked haunted, with his dual colored hair (half red, half white) and the harsh scar over his left eye. He looked around her age and she couldn't imagine who would do such a thing to an eleven year old, much less how an eleven year old that looked so dissociated could cause himself an injury that bad.

Karin tried waving to catch his attention, but after several minutes of it and a fear of calling out to him, she gave up. She frowned as she looked away, down at the big break in the cement under her feet. She knew she'd have to get home soon, she'd only recently convinced her mother to let her stay out longer than usual. And so, with much disappointment, she followed her path of clovers all the way back.

The last one she'd left was a four leaved one in front of the Todoroki house.

It was after seeing him that she began to have different dreams, flashes of that white and red hair, that sidewalk and the growing ivy on the wall outside the biggest house on the block. It all started and ended with him.

Maybe those dreams were why she pushed and pushed until her mother finally caved and agreed to stop her homeschooling in order to attend a real school. Or maybe she just wanted to finally experience society beyond what her walks around the neighborhood provided.

Whether it was or wasn't, it most definitely was fate that he happened to go there too, and that he was in all the same classes.

Shoto Todoroki.

He drew out her general curiosity even more, for she knew that one way or another their paths were meant to cross.

She may not have a future seeing quirk, but she was as sure of it as the grass was green.

━━

take a shot every time i say hero/use plant analogies ( tip: don't actually unless u want alcohol poisoning )