Shouto Todoroki dreams of him at night. He wakes up and remembers nothing concrete. He remembers long green hair splayed across his shoulder, a knee knocking into his, a smile with crooked teeth but still so beautiful.
He always feels unsettled after these dreams, a desperate urge that he needs to be somewhere, somewhere important. He can't explain it but there's a tremor in his heartbeat, whispering go, go, go .
Usually, he goes on runs on those nights. He goes where his feet take him. He ends up goings south most of the time. He'll jog past the universities and the quiet neighborhoods. He's even visited his brother when he's working a late night shift at the hospital. It's not so bad, even if he's yawning throughout the shift. It isn't as bad as it used be, at least.
For two whole years, he would be pulled towards the East when he woke up from those dreams. Some nights, he ran for hours until he hit the bay. He'd stare at the waters until the sunrise greeted him. He tries not to think about those years. (He fails.)
It's one of those nights, where Shouto gets goosebumps up his skin from phantom touches and the taste of cherry lipbalm on his lips. He swears–as he transitions from sleeping to awake–that he can hear a whisper-soft voice saying please .
It's too late in the night to go on a run. He's got half an hour before his alarm was set to go off anyway. Might as well use this time to go over the latest police reports.
He showers, using a pine-scented bodywash that he's faithfully stuck to for nearly nine years now. It reminds him of something, someone.
Hiori is pretty sure she did something absolutely criminal in her last life to deserve this. Maybe, she was a villain in her past life and that's why she was drawn so strongly to heroics; an attempt to atone for her reincarnated self perhaps?
Endeavor is grilling her about her brother, the Devil himself: Izuku Midoriya.
"He has never had a romantic partner?"
"Not to my knowledge, sir." She answers stiffly, trying her best not to make eye contact with her boss.
Endeavors hums thoughtfully, "Then who is the father?"
"He was too drunk to remember, sir. It was a one night stand." Hiori would do anything to stop talking about her brother's sex life with her boss. Was it Miss Guidance? Was this a prank?
"How about the children? Describe them to me; personality not appearance." That's a bit weird. It could be related to the kidnapping case however.
"Well…there's Sabuki, she's the only girl. She's very independent and reserved. She tends to do her own thing and usually the boys will follow. Atsuhiko is the oldest but is the most rambunctious. He's a very athletic and curious child, he's a social butterfly. Chiharu is the youngest and is a clever but shy boy. He's a bit of a mama's boy but he's very responsible." Hiori isn't lying necessarily, but she is not going to bad-mouth her own family.
Sure, Atsuhiko climbed up the drainage pipe last month and got stuck on the roof but really, it's amazing how an eight year-old is athletic enough to climb two floors by a flimsy pipe. Sabuki keeps bringing home stray animals: cats, dogs, birds, frogs, and one terrifying time, a snake. It would be quite cute how much compassion Sabuki has for them if not for the fact, they already have three cats and a parrot. Chiharu, with a his big, innocent eyes, hides all the stuff he accidentally melts or explodes under the couch. It's such a headache to try and scrub melted plastic off of wood.
Endeavor doesn't need to hear about how the kids made a pulley system from the balcony to try getting to the other building on their third story apartment . (Hiori had woken up just in time to catch Atsu with a light net. They were grounded for the next two months.) Her boss is asking in a professional manner, so she should answer in an impersonal, professional way.
"Sounds like a nice family." Endeavor takes a sip of his coffee.
"Thank you, sir." Hiori relaxes incrementally, feeling that Endeavor will finally stop asking her about her, technically her brother's, personal life.
"You said you are half-siblings, yes? Where are your parents?" Hiori supresses a sigh. Why did she expect anything different? Endeavor liked to back off and let people think he was done, then go in with another attack to catch them off guard. She'd seen him do it multiple times in the interrogation room.
"Yes. We share the same mother. When Izuku got pregnant, our mother kicked him out. She wouldn't accept him back so I decided to go with him too. We haven't had contact with them ever since." Her eye twitches, as Endeavor takes another sip. He's got that look in his eye.
"Does your brother like Shouto Todoroki?" She has never hoped for an emergency call before but right now, she would break both her legs to end this conversation.
"I don't know sir, I've never asked." She grits out. Maybe, if she constructs a knife and stabs herself, she'll be able to leave.
It starts to rain, little by little. Kuba looks up, biting her lip. There's a lot of them and they haven't seen a road for a while, let alone any sign of other civilization.
"Okay, everyone," She slows the group to a halt, "We need to hide from the rain."
"I'm not scared of any rain!" A boy with bug eyes says, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, Sabu can just burn it off," Atsuhiko pipes up, gesturing.
Sabu smacks him upside the head, "I did that once! It was maybe the size the of an umbrella and I needed to nap afterward! How can I cover such a large area while we're moving?"
Squabbles break out, kids offering mostly illogical suggestions, like using giant leaves as umbrellas or blow the clouds away.
Koan, a boy with a shark mutation quirk who looked much older due to his size, tugged on her sleeve.
"What if we just had under some trees? When I get caught in the rain walking home, I hid under the pine trees and I manage to stay pretty dry."
"That's actually quite clever. We could ask Sabu or Chi-chi to keep everything warm." Kuba nodded, forming a plan of action.
She clapped her hands, using her quirk to amplify the sound. "Listen up guys!"
"Are we gonna burn the clouds away?" Someone cut in.
"No… we're going to hide under some pine trees and wait for the rain to end."
"Dude that's so lame."
Kuba shot a glare at the repeat offender, before grabbing hold of some the younger kids and leading them to shelter. Dejected by this logical, adult-y plan, they shuffled behind their leader, the sole person here with a brain cell (except maybe Koan).
Izuku can feel eyes following him the moment he steps into the staff cafeteria. A quick sweep of the hall shows many are turned in his direction so it could be any one of them.
He grabs a meal, exchanging pleasantries with the catering staff. Mimura pats his hand and gaves him an extra serving of yakitori.
Ono, one of the cardiothoracic residents, waves him over to his table. It's the usual crowd with him. Two of the general surgery residents, the young orthopedic doctor and Natsuo Todoroki, his children's uncle. Not that Natsuo is aware of it though.
He's a handsome man, a square masculine face with spiked white hair. Maybe in another life, Izuku would've had a crush on his good-looking coworker if not for the fact he's had kids with his brother. (It would be a lie to say that he wasn't in love with Shouto.)
"Hey Midoriya. We heard what happened. We hope they get found soon." The normally cheerful man looks especially somber, more akin to sad puppy left out in the rain. Probably an effect of his emotion appeal quirk, Izuku notes absentmindedly.
"Thank you. I hope so too." He smiles, more like a grimace. Its the kind of expression that says 'hey, things aren't looking good right now but here's hoping!' It's one he's had a lot of practice giving as a doctor and he's sure his colleagues recognize it as such.
"My father's company, as well some others, are on the case. They say they've made some headway." Natsuo offers the information, a suspiciously blank look to his face. He knows something.
"That's good to hear." Izuku takes a bite of rice when Natsuo asks,
"Is there a possibility that my brother, Shouto, is the father?"
Izuku chokes, coughing up bits of rice.
"What?" Ono has a tone of unadulterated glee creeping in, like he's heard the juiciest bit of gossip.
"Did you have sex with Shouto Todoroki?"