Chapter Text
Touya sighed as he glanced down at the dark bruise that was slowly forming on his right arm. He had attempted to turn his father’s ire toward him instead of his mother earlier that afternoon when she interrupted Shouto’s training and he had paid for it. The bruise was the least of his injuries, the burns were worse, but he at least had some cream to put on those. They happened often enough that he knew how to deal with it.
He was walking down the hall toward the kitchen when he saw his five-year-old brother rubbing at his tired eyes and slowly pushing the door open as he let out a large yawn. Touya smiled slightly when he saw the child, happy that he was uninjured for once, and mentally noted that he needed to make sure Shouto got to bed early that night if he was already that tired. He was about to call out toward Shouto when he heard words that had him stumbling to a halt as his eyes widened and his heart began to frantically pound within his chest.
“Mom, I know it’s not right but I can’t do it anymore. The children, they’re…like him more and more every day. And Shouto…his left side. Sometimes I look at him and hate what I see. I can’t raise him anymore. I shouldn’t raise him…”
“Mom?”
Touya thought his heart had stopped in his chest when Shouto spoke, his small voice confused and upset at the words he had just heard. Touya swallowed hard and slowly edged closer toward the open kitchen door, not sure what was going to happen but knowing he needed to be there to protect his brother. He had promised himself years ago that he would do whatever he could to protect the youngest Todoroki, whether it be from his father or his mother. He had noticed, of course he had, that his mother had become more and more withdrawn from them. Sometimes, he was scared of what he saw in her eyes. The words just confirmed what he had been thinking the last few months.
She hated them.
It wasn’t surprising, not with the way their father was. Not knowing that her own parents had forced her to marry their father when he offered a large sum of money. Touya remembered a time when they had been almost happy but those days were long gone. They had been before Fuyumi had even been born.
Shouto barely knew that version of their mother. He caught glimpses occasionally but…but more often than not, those moments were beaten down by their father.
He peaked into the kitchen and flinched at the look in his mothers’ eyes. That was the look, the one he had noticed when they ate dinner last week. The one he saw when he had used his quirk for a few seconds to entertain Shouto. And now it was directed at his youngest brother. He watched as she grabbed the kettle on the stove and slowly walked toward Shouto, who was looking up at her with such a trusting look on his face that it broke Touya’s heart. Then the kettle was lifted –
-and Touya moved before his mind even caught up to what was happening.
With a loud shout, he jumped in between the two and pulled Shouto against his chest, leaning over to protect the small boy as boiling water was poured over his already burned back. Touya screamed in pain, holding Shouto tighter in an effort to protect him, as Shouto began to cry and shake in his arms. He distantly heard his mother, repeating the same words over and over again. “Wrong, shouldn’t have been born, just like him, wrong…”
“Mom? Touya!”
“What is going on?!”
“Touya?”
“What have you done?!” Endeavor bellowed and Touya glanced over his shoulder to see his father holding his mother by her shoulders as he shook her harshly, her head snapping from side to side as he did so. Touya tried to move forward to get him off of her but his back exploded with pain and he collapsed onto his knees with the movement. Fuyumi’s hands shifted nervously over him as she followed him to the floor. “Nii-san?” Shouto cried and Touya forced himself to give him a smile from where he was now in Natsuo’s arms. The nine-year-old was staring at Touya in horror, tears streaming down his face.
“Call the doctor,” Endeavor ordered Fuyumi. “I’ll take care of this.”
He was gone with their still babbling mother before Touya could demand to know what those words meant. Fuyumi pushed herself to her feet and grabbed the nearest phone, dialing the number she knew by heart. It was a familiar call, a doctor that made house calls and didn’t ask too many questions. Especially not of the number two hero. She sobbed as she spoke to the man before trying to help Touya to his feet. He couldn’t stop the hiss of pain that escaped when he moved and felt his shirt pull against his back. “Don’t,” Fuyumi cried when shifted to take the shirt off. “You – it’s stuck, Touya. Don’t pull it.”
He clenched his jaw at the news, knowing that the fabric was going to have to be cut away and pulled from the wounds by a professional. He stumbled as he walked back toward his room, his siblings trailing after them as they each sobbed. He slowly moved toward his bed, lying on his stomach as he buried his face in his pillow so they wouldn’t be able to see his own tears. He was the oldest. He had to be the strongest. He had to protect them. “Nii-san!” Shouto yelled again and Touya turned his head to see the small boy pull himself away from Natsuo and dodge around Fuyumi as he scrambled on the bed.
“Shouto, don’t!”
“He’s fine,” Touya gasped, trying to push aside the pain so he could comfort his youngest brother. “Sho, don’t touch my back, okay? You can lay down. Here,” he lifted his arm slightly, wincing as he did so, but Shouto was quick to worm his way under the arm and curl up in Touya’s side.
He didn’t know much of what happened after that. He knew the doctor arrived. Knew the shirt was cut off of him and the wounds cleaned. Knew there was some fussing from Fuyumi, something applied to the burns that had him crying out and Shouto crying once more. Then, thankfully, something was given to him that made him fall into an uncomfortable sleep.
By the time he woke, Shouto was asleep at his side while Fuyumi watched him from a chair by the bed. “Natsuo?” he managed to gasp as his body lit with pain.
“I put him to bed,” Fuyumi whispered, reaching out to squeeze Touya’s hand. “Shouto refused to leave.”
“We can’t stay here any longer,” Touya says after a moment of silence. Fuyumi’s hand tightened. “Shouto has been completely isolated. He’s always covered in burns and bruises…he’s worse with him than he was with me. Probably because I was a disappointment but Sho’s his little ‘masterpiece’… Fuyumi, we have to get out of here.”
“I don’t think-“
“You never do,” Touya snapped, then hissed as the pain flared once again. “I won’t let Sho go through this anymore. And now that mom...” he broke off and cleared his throat. “We have to go.”
Fuyumi’s hand dropped away from his and she closed her eyes tightly. Touya knew that look – it was the one she got whenever she thought he was being ridiculous. When she didn’t want to believe what he was saying. It was the look she gave him after he told her that their father had caused the burns on his arms and legs. “We shouldn’t be talking about this. Not now,” Fuyumi said, opening her eyes. “You’re just…you’re on pain meds, Touya. I’m sure things will be different after…after all of this is fixed. You need to heal.”
“Nothing is going to change.”
“You think that now, but I’m sure after-“
“No.”
Fuyumi sighed in exasperation, as if Touya was being the unreasonable one. “Go back to sleep, Touya. We’ll talk tomorrow.”