Always

13

Todoroki POV

Touya led us to one of the very few places I hated. The building I was held captive in for two months. "It's a trap" Kat paused "if they're here, it's a trap. With Deku being their leader they know we know about this place. He came with us to rescue you so he knows what this place means, to both of us"

"And that's why he thinks he has the advantage, face it who would want to come back to the place they almost died? Who would want to come back to the place their loved one almost died? Nobody. As far as he's concerned you've both probably forgotten about this place" Touya had a good point. They both did really. But as Touya said I had pushed the memories of this place so far to the back of my mind I had almost forgotten it.

"What's a villain doing with you guys?" The others had joined us Kat rolled his eyes "long story short he's with us he's also Sho's brother now let's focus on the task at hand" we decided to split into two groups of five. I walked behind Eijiro Katsuki and Kyoka, Touya walked next to me. The others searched on a different floor. "Shoto, you sure you're okay? You don't have to be here if it's too hard" Touya spoke so only I could hear him.

"You wanna know what's wrong with me? Fine. Just don't tell anyone especially not Kat" just the fact that I didn't want Kat to know made Touya realise how serious it was. "I don't feel good enough, not for being a hero, not for Kat, I'm just not good enough"
"That's crazy, of course you're good enough you're insanely strong and..."
"That's just it though, I'm not strong." I stopped walking and so did Touya. I turned my back to the others and faced my brother. "What number one hero gets themselves captured by the same group of villains twice? What kind of hero can't even save themselves? If I can't even save myself, how can I even begin to hope to save other people?"

"When it happened I couldn't do anything to stop it. I hate that he made me make those noises, I hate that I couldn't push him away, I hate that just someone asking what happened makes me break down but most of all I'm scared okay. I'm scared that it'll happen again, I'm scared that Deku will try to take Kat to get back at me, I'm scared he'll kill Kat, I'm scared that Kat will realise he deserves better than what I can give him"

"Don't be stupid koala" I froze up at the realisation that Kat was stood behind me. I slowly turned around "h..how much of that did you hear?" He pulled me into a hug before answering "pretty much all of it from when you turned around" he paused and told Touya to join the others. "I get it okay, honestly I do. When it was happening I tried everything I could think of to get out but I couldn't. I couldn't protect you, I couldn't save you from that fucking nerd, but it's in the past now, we can't change that as much as I would like to. Also it's okay to break down, I did when they took you. The first thing I did was call for my best friend and cry. Hell, if it had been the other way around I wouldn't even be here. If you weren't here I'd probably break down right now because honestly I have never felt that useless in my life, but I'm trying to stay strong, for you, because you have every fucking right to break down over this" he kissed me on the forehead. "You don't need to be scared okay. I won't let him do anything to you again, he's going to jail for what he's done..."

"I can't" I had started crying a little "I can't go to court with what he did, I can't face him like that, so, no, he won't pay for what he did to me because I'm too much of a coward"
"I wasn't done koala. He can try to take me and that's fine because I won't let him take my quirk again, now that I know he has that fucking drug I can be more careful of it and as for, how did you word it. Oh yeah you think I'll realise I deserve better than what you can give me right? No, you're wrong on that too, because if either one of us here doesn't deserve the other, it's me, I don't deserve you and even now I wonder why you fell for me. You deserve the world and I'm gonna try my fucking hardest to make you the happiest man alive, got it? It's also okay to need help sometimes idiot". He wiped away my tears "and you're not a coward, you're not weak. You are the strongest, bravest person I have ever known. Now shall we rejoin our group?" He took my hand and intertwined our fingers "yeah"

It wasn't long before we had caught up to the others and Kat still hadn't let go of my hand. Not that I wanted him to, it made me feel safe. We carried on searching the building Kat never letting go of my hand.