A Freeing Touch

Chapter Eight

Internships had finally become a thing of the present, and Midoriya’s first experience was, quite frankly, strange. That was saying the least. Walking into your internship to find a presumably dead body was not a fun experience, though he was lucky enough that Gran Torino was, in fact, not dead.

He felt much less lucky when he found he wasn’t that fond of Gran Torino, and really just wanted All Might to bail him out. He wasn’t sure he’d really get much out of the experience, but was caught quite off guard when challenged by the retired hero.

The short battle was, in his opinion, kind of embarrassing. To have not landed a single hit despite analyzing the situation to the best of his ability wasn’t something to be proud of. But the advice given to him following the fight was left lingering in his mind for some time.

Even more embarrassing than the fight, though, was his incessant thoughts to talking to Todoroki. They’d managed to talk more and grow closer, however grueling the process was due to Todoroki’s near unwillingness to change and the trouble he had due to trauma that Midoriya was sure spanned far beyond what he’d been told.

(Trauma was not the cause, Todoroki would say. It was just common sense not to grow too attached, as attachments meant weakness. His father may be the person he hated most in the world, but he’d managed to push more of his ideals and beliefs onto Todoroki then he’d like to admit.)

Midoriya: hey, how’s the internship going?

Tododoki: Fine. About what I expected.

Midoriya: i see

Midoriya refrained from pushing the subject, knowing exactly who he was with.

Midoriya: well;; i got beat up by gran torino

Tododoki: Ouch.

Midoriya: yeah, but he kind of complimented me at the end? i think?

Todoroki didn’t respond for several minutes, and Midoriya found himself chewing on the inside of his cheek, wondering if Endeavor had him doing something. Nothing good, he decided. His hatred for Endeavor almost rivaled Todoroki’s itself. He had no respect for heroes who upheld justice in the eyes of the public but acted as cruelly as villians in the background.

Tododoki: That’s good. I have to go.

(Todoroki was loath to leave his little haven of comfort during this internship, but a voice beckoned him to train, and he had to listen to it. His father’s deep, discomforting voice grew closer to his location, and he was brought back to memories of a smaller him, face freshly marred by his mother, shaking in his bedroom as a deep voice paired with heavy footsteps approached. He was a child all over again, being forced to do what his father told him, or else he faced consequences, which he inevitably did as he refused to blindly follow orders without argument.