Like An Ember Ready To Ignite - A Shoto Todoroki Fanfic

Chapter Eight

Shoto POV

His phone hummed intermittently as it vibrated against the cabinet, moving it's way closer to the edge. Midoriya and Iida looked up, at him as he noticed the name illuminating the screen. "Ito?"

"Are you okay? I saw it on the news. Stain."

"It's late."

"Shoto, are you okay?"

"Fine." His mind took a moment to register that she had called him by his given name. Or was it just because he had told her that was his hero name. "Ito, shouldn't you be sleeping?"

Her tone dropped, and she sighed. "Sora still hasn't come home."

"Are you worried?"

"Of course, you could've died, Shoto."

He continued to stare straight ahead, not making eye contact with either of his two classmates. He'd wondered if she was worried about Sora, but he didn't feel like correcting her. He didn't trust himself to say anything.

"Shoto?" Her tone was soft, quiet, almost like she sat next to him, whispering in his ear. "Oh, you should be resting right? I'm disturbing you. I should leave you be."

"You don't have to."

"Don't you want to rest?"

He did, but Noroki always called him so easily, whenever the thought crossed his mind, he froze, wondering if it was an inconvenience to her. He'd wanted to call her when she was due to get off her train, so that she could talk to him as she did when they walked home. He didn't want her to feel alone. And that smile. It had only been a few days since he'd seen it.

"Are your friends okay too?"

"Well, we're all alive."

"The news is saying it's this league of villains thing, you know those people that attacked your class before. Stain was one of them. Did you get hurt? The news just said that some Yuei kids were involved."

"Just some cuts."

"His quirk is to do with blood right?"

"How did you—"

"Oh, easy." Noroki went on to explain that she had been bored yesterday and had been looking into Stain because her concern for Sora. She looked into his history, patterns, victim statements. She had an idea that it would be a blood related quirk so she checked the quirk registry, cross referenced—Would she have done all that research if she was concerned about him. "So I've narrowed it down to this guy who controls you through blood or this guy who paralyses you. Of course, his quirk could be unregistered, but that's unlikely."

Whether it was just her or her quirk, Shoto wasn't sure, but there was no doubt Noroki had a brilliant mind. "Did you tell anyone?"

"Well I told Sora, and he nagged that I shouldn't be hacking into police files." Shuffling, she either stood or was moving around. "Sora just got back, so I should go. Rest well, Shoto."

Heat rose to his cheeks. "You too, Noroki."

He heard from her every day for the rest of the week, despite messaging her that he was out of the hospital and fine, she still felt the need to check. It gave him the courage to call her and she had invited him round. She still called him Shoto, and she hadn't said anything when he called her Noroki.

Her front door opened as he raised his hand to knock. Sora froze in his walk, hand still holding the door, cat-like eyes assessing him. He dressed in black tracksuit bottoms, a white vest and an oversized hoodie, headphones around his neck. Kami emerged from inside his jacket, jumping over the zip and pawing at Shoto's trousers, her claws catching his leg. 

"Ito-san." He bowed. "Is Noroki home?"

"First name basis."

Shoto stood firm, ignoring the cat, unsure if she was acting on her own. "She called me the other night, to see if I was okay and she..."

"When you and your friends decided to play hero." Sora's ear twitched before his shoulders dropped and he moved to the side, letting him enter, shutting the door behind him. "Are you just going to stand there? She's in the garden." 

He nodded, removing his shoes as he made his way to the garden. Shoto had only spent a limited time in their home, it felt inappropriate to walk around like that on his own. Whenever he had been there before, Noroki was with him, or Kaze was watching him.  That said, Shoto glanced over his shoulder, Sora stalked behind him.

He stood in the doorway to the garden, when Sora pushed past him. It looked like Noroki had been hitting a punching bag, but the bag itself had flown off it's base, through their fence and had knocked over a tree across the road. That tree had been standing at over two stories tall when he'd walked over. Now it was snapped from just above the base.

"What the hell did you do?"

She jumped, spinning around. "What do you think I--Hi, Shoto."

He nodded in acknowledgement, stepping out into the small garden. If she'd hit that all the way over there, and it had enough power to break a tree... He'd never asked her to confirm what her quirk was.

"Go and get it. And whatever plans you two had, are cancelled." Sora's tail whipped from side to side. "You are not going anywhere until this is fixed."

"It was an accident, Sora."

"It would have still been an accident if someone had been walking underneath it and you'd killed them, Noroki."

She didn't answer, crouching down and jumping over to the tree, slinging the bag over her shoulder and landing back in the garden. All Might jumped like that.

"Noroki."

She dropped the bag on the floor, where it landed with a heavy thud.

"You have until I get back from my run."

Noroki huffed but didn't answer back as Sora left them too it. Shoto nudged the punch bag with his foot. How she had managed to lift it and carry it amazed him. Her mother's strength quirk, perhaps, is that how she could jump too?

"You can go if you want, you don't have to help."

"I don't mind, I'll just go get my shoes back on." By the time he'd returned, Noroki had tidied away the punch bag, and the base it stood on. She collected the broken pieces of fence and had piled them up near a tool box, and she lifted the broken tree out of the road.

Shoto had never known someone go on a run so long. Noroki had broken the tree into chunks and brought it back to the garden, where he had set the pile on fire, while they rebuilt her fence. It must've been a common occurrence, because they kept a stock pile of planks in a small shed. 

As she always did, Noroki chatted while they worked. She'd asked him a few questions about Hosu, Stain and interning with his father, and she had filled him in on her week, not that he asked, but he liked listening to Noroki talk, the way she became so animated, telegraphing her emotions with smiles, eye rolls, and hand gestures.

"You know you really didn't have to stay and help, Shoto."

He nodded, but stayed quiet. Noroki moved next to him as they looked at the fence, wrapping her arm around his, giving him a squeeze.

"Thanks." She smiled, resting her head against the side of his. His heart rate spiked, and she chuckled.

"What?"

"It's just, I've never noticed it before, because I always stand on the other side of you, but you're really warm on this side."

"Is it a problem?"

"No." She pulled away, looking up at him. "It just never occurred to me. I guess that's why Kaze always clings to your side."

Noroki smiled again, moving in front of him. Her cheeks must hurt with the amount of smiling she did, unless she only smiled around him. Shoto liked that idea as she stood less than a step away. She was so close to him, he could learn forward and they would collide.