TWO POWERS (Todoroki Shoto x Reader)

Chapter 26: Saving

"What is it, Y/n?"

"We need to talk."

"Do we?"

"Even if you don't want to talk about yesterday, I've actually been trying to tell you that I regained control over my birth quirk again."

"Yeah, I figured. Congratulations," he says quite disinterestedly, not looking up from the potato he is chopping.

"Why are you acting like this?" After no reply, you keep pressing. "Hey, Shoto. Look at me. Please."

He finally looks at you, anger burning in those sweet eyes. "You're angry."

"Am not," he denies.

"Hey, keep your hands moving!" Iida instructs from somewhere. Having had it with his meddling, you send him an annoyed look and sigh as you return to your peeling.

"So, about what Iida said yesterday"—

"I don't need to know. You didn't tell me for a reason, right?" The knife hits the chopping board especially forcefully.

"Well, yeah, but now that you know about it, you should know about the whole thing," you say, looking for any eyes to gauge out. On the potato.

"No, it's fine. Let it be your secret you share with Iida."

"And Mr Aizawa and Endeavour," you add. "Iida only knows about it because he saved me."

"So you told my dad and not me? I didn't realize you two got along so well."

"It's because you worry so much!" you snap back.

"Oh wow, I'm sorry. I forgot you're a perfect human being who doesn't need anyone to help her."

You slam the final potato onto his chopping board and walk away, eyes tearing as if you had been cutting onions. Why couldn't I have been nicer to him?

Stomping away your feelings, you make your way to the sinks to start washing the dishes that were used during prep. You roll up your sleeves without giving a damn about your scars and start doing the dishes. People notice you took on the job and start bringing you more dishes to wash. You're silently grateful for having a solo-activity.

"Oh, thanks a lot, Tsukauchi," Iida says.

"No prob," you reply, keeping your gaze on the dishes.

"But," he says, leaning to inspect your arms, "what are these? I'm pretty sure these are rather new. Did something happen?" he asks.

"None of your business," you snap, continuing the washing, but then turning to look at him and lovingly adding, "and I mean that in the nicest possible way."

He gasps and is a bit taken aback, but seems to recover quickly and walks away without saying a word. The people using the stoves on the other side probably heard everything, but once again you don't care. You never were too friendly with them anyway.

You eat in relative solitude and observe others having fun. You were hungry, but not hungry enough to be willing to gulp down so much subpar curry in one go. But still you eat. You won't make the same mistake as yesterday.

After eating, you leave the dishwashing to someone else. Now that you have calmed down, you realize that it's not a good idea to sully your reputation and be too careless with your secrets you need to keep. You reflect during cleaning, after which you take a quick shower and go to sleep.

The following day's training is the same as before, although you feel like you've hit a plateau with your skills. Isn't 100% the maximum anyway? So you just go through the motions but this time without restoring your energy to the max, so by the time training finishes for the day you are quite tired. Then the cooking, again, although the food is better than last night.