Chapter 34

Todoroki woke up to an uptight feeling in the pit of his stomach. Only very few times had he experienced this kind of dreading the day, and most of them had been in his childhood rather than in his teenage years.

He couldn't make it out if it was because of what he had learned about Bakugou and Midoriya yesterday, because of the following mission or if something bad was coming his way today. In the end, he pushed the feelings aside and went about his day.

When Todoroki saw Midoriya leaning at a wall a few streets from his house, he immediately knew there had been a good reasoning for his feeling. He pretended not to see Midoriya, internally bracing himself for whatever the raven-haired boy might do.

Bracing for a fight, to be exact. Todoroki had good reasons to assume Midoriya was armed.

"Hey Todoroki." Midoriyas voice was different from the first time Todoroki had heard it, more quiet and casual than provokingly sarcastic. Todoroki turned to Midoriya with a stoic expression. "Midoriya. What do you need?" Everything in him screamed to turn away and run, but he refused to back off.

Midoriya gave Todoroki a slight, sphinxlike smile. "Can I ask you something?" Todoroki nodded, curious what would come. Midoriyas face was almost nice when he spoke again. "Why do you want to be a Hero?"

It caught Todoroki off-guard. "I… because I looked up to All Might and because I want to save people." Midoriyas expression became annoyed. "That's a very generic answer. Too generic. I could ask any of your classmates, any child that wishes to become a Hero and they'd answer the same."

He took a step forward and hit his pointer finger into Todorokis chest. "Let me correct myself: Deep down in you, what's the first and ultimate reason for you to become a Hero? What made you strive this far? Why didn't you go down the dark path like your older brother? Why do you run towards a death like your father's with determination?"

Todoroki didn't know if he should answer. Midoriya had done his research and hit him at his weakest point, his family. The pale boy sure seemed to be one to use the truth against one with painful precision. But Todoroki decided to answer his question.

Maybe because he had a feeling Midoriya hadn't always been this way, maybe because it seemed to him as if Midoriya searched for a reason not to do something terrifying, maybe because Todoroki wanted to tell someone… He couldn't make it out. But he answered.

Midoriya heard him out with a stoic expression, then he sighed. "What a good person you are." Todoroki didn't know what that was supposed to mean. "Midoriya, why did you want to know that?" "Because…" The smaller male came another step closer and put his right foot next to Todorokis.

"Because I feel like you're not only visually like two halves of a human. You have a complicated family. A dead man of a villain for a brother. Your father is six feet under by now. Darkness seems to run in your bloodline. Nonetheless, you decided to become a Hero. That makes you a very interesting person."

Midoriya sighed and backed off again. "Yet I don't have much on you and your future is already written in stone. You don't waver." He put a finger to his lips. "Noone has to know we met. Have a nice day. And-" He winked at the dual-haired male. "Touya is alright." Then the ashy-eyed boy vanished into the long shadows of the rising sun.

Todoroki had the weird feeling that he had been let off the hook. Of what, he couldn't know. But the butterfly effect sure had created another universe worth exploring.

-/-

Deceitful idiot…

Why would you have this much hopelessness in your eyes when you're so safe in yourself?

… I won't forget about you, believe me. Life is long enough for two games. And one has already been decided.

It's just a matter of moves until the king falls…

-/-

I woke up to beams of sunlight hitting my face. It fucking burned. I growled and put the back of my right hand over my eye, then I slowly sat up.

"Hi, Kacchan. Unhappy birthday." Dekus voice was quiet, reflective and… almost sad. He sat at the end of my bed, legs crossed and head resting in his left hand. I huffed. "Did you watch me sleep again?" "No. I just came here."

I hummed and rubbed my eyes. Then it suddenly remembered- it was my fucking birthday. I was an adult now. Although I didn't feel like a fucking adult. I grabbed my phone and checked my messenger. Too damn sure, I had tons of messages.

One from my mom, saying 'Happy birthday, shitty son', similar ones from my friends and from the rest of my classmates in the group chat. I didn't feel like answering, so I left them on read. Deku watched a slight smirk show up on my face and grinned himself. "If I hadn't turned the volume off, you'd have woken up to a million bombs going down."

I snorted. "Why thanks. That's probably the most of a birthday present I can expect from you, huh?" Then I patted onto the space next to me. "Come here." Deku rolled his eyes, but crawled over to me without another word. I wrapped my eyes around him tightly and nuzzled my face into his hair.

"You smell like damn cinnamon again." He snickered in response. "And you like caramel. Maybe we should open up a candy factory." "So you can make actual caramel out of me? No fucking thanks." Deku finally hugged back. "Oh my, how did you guess? My masterplan is ruined."

Damn sarcastic fucker.

My mean little Deku had too many sides of himself to count.