Finding Me (Todoroki x Reader)

Chapter 90

After Mera finished his long-winded speech, the men in the black suits handed out our official hero licenses.

They were small, plastic cards with a picture of us on it. Beside the picture was a list of our personal details and our school's name. Our full names were printed in large letters at the top, whilst our hero name was printed in bold at the bottom. It was basically a regular student ID card, but it was so much more than that.

In my hands I held the offical permission of society to engage in heroic activities, if necessary. I almost couldn't believe that the little, plastic card held so much power. It was the difference between me being a regular hero student to a hero student pursuing their Pro Hero goals. Although I was nowhere near ready to be a Pro, this was certainly good start.

"Wow," I breathed out, eyeing how the sunlight reflected off my card's shiny surface. "I can't believe I actually got it. It seems almost surreal to be holding it right now..."

"Your picture is nice, at least," Shoto said.

I looked up to see that Shoto was staring at my hero license, not giving anything away in those heterochromatic eyes of his. However, I could feel his longing, the want to hold a hero license in his hand almost overwhelming my senses. A stab of guilt pierced my heart, and so I shoved my license into my pocket.

"Sorry," I muttered, unable to meet his eyes. I'd been so caught up in my own success that I had temporarily forgotten Shoto's misfortune.

"Don't be," he said. "You have every right to look at your license, Y/N. It's yours, after all; and you worked hard for it."

"You worked just as hard, Shoto-"

"And yet I still failed. Let's not sugarcoat the fact that I was the one who screwed up. I did this to myself, so please don't feel guilty for something you had no control over."

I guess he did have a point. Shoto was the one to have engaged with Yoarashi, and had let his ego and hatred for his father cloud his vision to the task. However, I had tried to stop them, yet I failed to do anything. Nothing I had done made a single difference except for being just another liability in the grand scheme of things.

A liability, like back at Kamino Ward.

Remembering what happened that night sent shivers rattling down my spine, reverberating throughout each bone until they hit the core. The same happened when I remembered the night in Hosu City against the Hero killer, and also back at the USJ incident. Was that all I was when it came to hero work? Just a liability?

I clenched my fists. "I could've done something more to help you, Shoto. I could've-"

Cold and warm hands gripped my own, startling me silent as my E/C eyes met blue and grey ones.

"There's nothing you could've done," Shoto said, voice sincere and honest. "Y/N, you got your hero license today because you acted as a hero should. Yoarashi and I... If we both let our damn egos control us like that so easily, then we're nowhere near ready to be allowed to help in real situations. Real emergencies. You shouldn't have been in the situation you were put in. Heroes shouldn't have to save other heroes from themselves."

His eyes - although pooling with shame and regret - held a tiny flicker of light in them. A flicker of hope. Shoto might've made a few mistakes today, but he was slowly starting to make up for them. I could see that's what he meant to do, that flicker of hope being a sign of his determination.

My astonishment dissolved into a happy smile, and my fingers gently squeezed his in return.

"Since when did you become so well-versed in words, Shoto Todoroki?" I muttered, eyes shying away from his.