Like An Ember Ready To Ignite - A Shoto Todoroki Fanfic

Chapter Two

Todoroki POV

Ito reached up on her tiptoes, her hand feeling along the top of her doorframe, her skirt swaying from side to side with each movement. Todoroki stood just behind her. She had slowed down as they passed his house, and again at the top of his road, but he had just continued to walk next to her. Ito clutched the key in her hand which wasn't holding her phone, facing him, leaning back against her door. "Did you want to come in?"

He didn't want to go home that was for sure. Shoto nodded, and she opened the door. He took off his shoes, placing them next to hers, dropping his bag down on the floor. Ito stood for a moment, mouth open slightly like there was something she wanted to say.

"Oh." She looked down at her phone, opening it up and placing it to her ear. "I was just going to message you."

Shoto glanced down. A black cat with white patches pressed itself against his left leg, tail up in the air.

Ito sighed, leaning the phone against her ear and shoulder as she picked up the black cat, holding it in front of her with a frown. "Traitor."

She rolled her eyes, setting the cat back down. "It's just Todoroki-kun. We got back off the train."

Her pet walked in circles around his leg. Ito nudged the cat away from his leg with her foot, and nodded for him to follow her throughout the apartment. "I don't know, brother, do you want me to ask him?"

She huffed again, sliding open a door to their living room, and again the door to their garden. "Sora, don't be—"

Holding out her phone to him, Ito offered the smallest of smiles as he took it, staring at her.

"He wants to talk to you."

He pressed the phone against his ear. "Hello?"

"Todoroki."

"Ito-san."

"How long are you planning on staying?"

"I don't know."

"Are you a traitor too, hmm?" A second cat, the polar opposite of the first one, white with black patches in the exact same places, walked in the back door, and Ito picked it up before it could get to his side. It nuzzled it's head against her and she carried it with her out of the room.

"Stay out of her room."

Well that was forward.

"And don't try anything with her. I'll know if you do."

"I won't."

Ito had been his friend in middle school, always upbeat, and always with a smile, and although she never seemed to be able to keep quiet, Shoto felt like he barely knew her. Ito talked, but never about herself, about who she really was. He should know, he was an expert in deflecting questions. He wasn't interested in trying anything with her.

"And Todoroki?"

"Yes, Ito-san."

"Thanks... for making sure she got home okay."

Shoto nodded, even though he couldn't be seen, and he called for her, "Ito-san?"

Noroki stepped back into the room, setting a selection of hot and cold drinks on the coffee table, as the cats followed her in. She took her phone back from him, with that smile, and sat on the sofa. "Brother."

She stroked the white cat, who climbed onto her lap. "Use Kaze. I know, Sora."

As if on cue the black cat jumped on to her lap, sitting directly on top of the other one, purring under her touch. She dropped her phone back on the table and made herself comfortable. The room was small, not claustrophobic, in fact, it felt comforting, littered with pictures of Ito, or of her with her brother, but you wouldn't fit a family inside the room.

"I couldn't remember what you liked." She gestured to the drinks. "Help yourself."

He moved to one of the pictures.

"They don't normally like strangers." Noroki nodded to the cats which once again had moved to his leg. "I think Sora makes them hate strangers."

"How would he do that?" He knelt down, stroking the two animals which seemed attracted to the warmth of his left side.

"It's part of his quirk, talking to cats. And that traitor likes to make him worry."

Talking to cats. That's how he had known Shoto was in the apartment, and how he intended to keep an eye on them. Shoto stopped petting the animals, much to the black one's dislike. Now that he thought about it, her brother had always picked her up from school. "Doesn't he have a tail?"

"Yeah and cat ears." She smiled. "If ever I want something, he's really partial to a scratch behind his left ear."

She picked up the white cat, which had been pawing at his right hand. "This is Kami, and that dirty, little traitor is Kaze."

"Traitor?"

"He told Sora that a man was in the house with me."

Which had been why he called. He had thought Ito was in danger.

"I can't believe he wanted to talk to you. I'm so sorry, he can be so embarrassing sometimes."

Ito gave him a tour, and in case Shoto had forgotten Kaze stood in her bedroom doorway, hissing at him. He made sure not to take a single step inside. There was her brother's bedroom, a kitchen and bathroom, and that was all.

He'd noticed there wasn't a single picture of her parent's that he could notice, and it was clear she didn't live with them, in fact he couldn't remember ever hearing her mention them. Before he left, she put her number in his phone, and gave him a smile, but it wasn't like the other ones she had given him, there was something dark that lurked in her eyes. And it lingered in his mind as he stood just outside her doorway.

Shoto sighed and turned back to the door, knocking.

"Todorok-kun?"

"What time is your brother home?"

"Sora? Oh, I don't know, whenever he's finished in Hosu."

"I can stay until he's back."

"I—You—" she looked at the floor. "That would be nice, if you don't mind."

He wondered what made her hate being alone as he stepped back inside, dropping his possessions on the floor, and joining her not in the living room this time, but out in the garden. Despite it being almost evening their garden kept the last remnants of the sun, covered in brightly coloured flowers.

"Why don't you have cat ears?" Shoto lay back down on the grass as she sat next to him, pulling at the strands.

She let out a little laugh. "We have different quirks."

"That's a shame."

"Sorry?"

Shoto closed his eyes. "It would suit you."