Fading into the background

Chapter fourteen: Internship in hell

After the medal ceremony Shoto goes directly back home. He knows most if not all of his classmates and even students from other classes, courses and grades are staying for longer to celebrate together, but he is not allowed to. The car ride back is even more tense than the one to get to UA and this time Endeavor does not break the silence. Shoto fears the reason for that.

Once at the traditional Japanese mansion both father and son exit the vehicle in silence and walk to the main door. The moment they are behind closed doors the youngest Todoroki is harshly slammed into a wall. He has the breath knocked out of him and has trouble getting it back as Endeavor holds him in place.

"You are an embarrassment to this family" His father growls next to his ear.

Shoto can't help but to think that Enji didn't even win the sports festival when he was in UA. He also knows better than mentioning that, he would like to stay to not lose any more pieces. Therefore he keeps his mouth shut hoping the punishment won't be too bad.

"You are lucky you need to be in public tomorrow, boy" Endeavor spits out as he throws his son to the floor and walks past.

He cannot believe how lucky he is. Deep down he fears that the consequences have just been pushed to later and he will have to pay a bigger price, but he decides not to look too deep into the gift he has just received. He scrambles to his feet and rapidly goes to his room upstairs, without running because running is for weaklings and cowards and he is not willing to push his luck with his father.

Next day in class Aizawa-sensei hands them the papers for the agencies that have offered them an internship with them. Shoto has a veritable mountain of paper that can barely fit on his desk. He can't help but wonder why they printed all that information instead of sending it to them online. He isn't even going to read any of it. The agency he is going to intern with had been decided before the sports festival, probably even before he joined UA. He is going to Endeavor's agency, his father's workplace.

Todoroki ignores the pile of paper on his desk and turns around to look for his friends. He is happy to see that Tokoyami has his own stack of offers, looking to be the largest one after his own and Bakugo's. The rest of his group is sitting behind empty desks. He can see the relief washing over their faces when Aizawa-sensei informs them that those who have not received any offers will be assigned an agency by the school.

The rest of the period is left free so they can talk about the internships while Aizawa takes a nap. Most of his classmates are moving around to check if they are going to share their internship agency with someone else or simply out of curiosity for other people's choices.

For the first time since the beginning of the year, the three separate friend groups that had formed early on are intermingling indiscriminately. Shoto doesn't really want to talk to 'new' people, he has five friends now. That is five more than he has ever had and it is exciting and perhaps the best thing that has ever happened to him. However, the amount of new experiences and disconcerting situations is daunting enough as it is, he doesn't need to add anyone else to his short list of people he likes. He couldn't help but feel awkward when Midoriya and Uraraka approached him. They were both beaming with excitement, their faces glowing with enthusiasm.

"Wow, Todoroki!" Midoriya started, his eyes wide with admiration. "You're going to intern with Endeavor? That must be amazing! He's the number two hero!" Todoroki doesn't want to answer to that, it's not like he knows how to anyway. Thankfully he is saved by Uraraka chiming in.

"Yeah, it must be so cool to have such an experienced hero to learn from, and he's your dad too!" Uraraka nodded eagerly.

Shoto's smile feels forced as he struggles to comprehend the situation. This is somehow worse than Midoriya's sentence, at least he asked a question. He really doesn't know what to do with Uraraka's statement, does she expect him to answer with something? When the silence prolongs and Midoriya and Uraraka keep staring at him expectantly he determines that they do want him to answer. The only problem now is that he has no clue of what to answer since there was no question asked in the first place. Eventually he settles for the most vague, insubstantial phrase he can think of.