Work Text:
Life as a Todoroki is all about control. Life as the Todoroki Meant To Inherit Endeavor's Legacy is all about flawless, perfect control. It's unthinkable Shouto would have anything less than total dominion over his own body, his mind, and naturally, his Quirk. At least it is to his personal trainer, who unfortunately also happens to be his father.
But Shouto knows - knows - some things are not meant to be controlled. They are too wild, too savage to be held on a leash by mere human beings. His left side is one of those things. There is no such a thing as a controlled fire. And even if there was, Shouto wouldn't use it anyway. Fire is his father's trademark, and he wants nothing to do with that. Nothing at all.
Touya doesn't quite seem to agree with his reasoning.
"That's nice, and normally I would be one hundred percent on your side," Touya declares as they run across the corridor, "but you're just being ridiculous right now. We're kind of the middle of a breakout in case you haven't noticed. Not the moment to be picky."
He's being awfully judgy for someone who bailed on them for five years and only reappeared out of nowhere to kidnap Shouto under their father's nose just to be little shit. Not that Shouto is complaining exactly. But still. Surely his ice is enough contribution to this mission, not to mention less likely to explode in their face.
"Look. It's your power, little brother. He can't take that away from you if you don't allow him to, so just let it go."
Shouto blinks. Surely Touya doesn't mean… "Like the Disney song?"
"Oh my god, since when are you allowed to watch kids shows?" Touya groans. "Yes, Shouto. Exactly like that. Now please do Elsa the fuck out of this house so we can leave this hell. Don't worry about Natsuo and Fuyumi; they're already out. Just think about the face the old geezer will make when you finally decide to use your fire but only against him."
And Shouto. Shouto is nothing if not deeply, unapologically spiteful.
Fire erupts from his left side, licking away his clothes, igniting his mind. In retrospect, it's crazy how fast the fire spreads. Shouto would think Endeavor would have made an effort to fireproof it better considering the number of fire hazards living between its walls. The house of his childhood goes down so quickly, and Shouto can't be bothered to feel anything but dull satisfaction. He'll never be forced to train until he passes out from exhaustion in the dojo anymore. He'll never spend entire nights staring numbly at the ceiling again, wondering what he ever did to deserve this. He'll never pad carefully over the wooden floor and lurk against the walls, terrified to be noticed by the master of the place.
It's all going down in flames, and that's because Shouto wanted it.
Touya and Shouto run away, leaving only ashes of their childhood behind and the satisfaction of screwing with their father's well-crafted plans. And it feels hella good.
.
.
The life of a fugitive is fun and exciting for about three hours, the time for the adrenaline rush to fall down. After that blissful period of pure freedom, the uncertainty of his situation drops on Shouto like a cold shower. His life at the Todoroki's house has been hell, yes, but at least it was well-stocked hell. The closest Shouto ever got to the clandestine lifestyle was that time he got lost in the mall when he was four.
Thankfully, Touya seems to be more prepared than Shouto is. Which, admittedly, doesn't mean much. If readiness was a scale, Shouto would be solidly rooted in the negatives. He's going completely blind in here. Still, he can't help but feel elated nonetheless. He's finally free. Free to live a clandestine in the streets, but it counts.
His fire sparkles comfortingly underneath his skin. He never thought the day would come when he would consider his Quirk a friend instead of an enemy. But then again, he never thought he'd be on the run with his presumed dead brother either.
"Okay, we're going to be staying there for a while," Touya says, gesturing at the empty squat they just broke into. "Not the luxury you're used to, I know, but it's not forever."
Shouto hums in agreement. Not like he can afford to be picky. Shouto is no expert on clandestinity, but he's not an idiot. "It's okay. I won't get cold anyway."
Touya barks a laugh. "Ain't that the truth. Reminds me we'll have to find a place to train you to use your fire."
Shouto brightens at the prospect. Fire is nice. Fire is cool. Fire is Shouto's best bro. Fire is never gonna give Shouto up, fire is never gonna let Shouto down, unlike some people. If fire doesn't solve your problem, then you're not using enough gasoline. That's his new philosophy in life.
Anyway. Shouto likes fire.
It's only after he burns down their squat because of a fly that he realizes he might have gone a bit too far on the road to arson. In his defense, it was a big, ugly, loud, and extremely annoying fly. Whoever hasn't dreamed of carbonizing one to ashes at least once in their life can throw him the first stone. Shouto isn't letting his dreams be dreams anymore.
...Maybe he should tone it a bit though. Just a bit. Fire is nice for sure, but he can hardly live in it.
"Look, Shouto," Touya sighs as they watch the building get consumed by the flames. "I know I made this big speech about owning your power and taking your independence against the old man, but that doesn't mean you should burn everything down each time you get frustrated, okay?"
Shouto cringes when the roof collapses in front of them. They were the only ones living in the building. He checked. He's an arsonist, not a murderer. "I'm sorry."
"Yeah, yeah, don't do it again," his brother grumbles, his hands buried deep in the pockets of his leather coat. "I'm aware you're new to the runaway life, but nice squats like that are on short supply and high demands."
"I understand." Shouto nods along mournfully.
The western wall cracks under the heat. Touya shakes his head. "Jesus fucking Christ. I think I created a monster."
Now that's blatantly unfair. Sure, Shouto might be a little too on board about this fire thing, but Dabi has no room to talk. "And who burned my sweatshirt yesterday? Because it certainly wasn't me."
"That was an accident, you little shit. And a hoodie and an entire house aren't on the same scale."
Touya's coat blows dramatically behind his back when he turns on his heels. Shouto wants one like that too. It looks so cool with the firestorm raging on the background. "C'mon, let's get the fuck out of here. I heard Daddy Dearest got a new house already. Let's go roast that instead."
Shouto perks up visibly at the prospect. "Really?"
"Yeah, really," Touya says, rolling his eyes at Shouto. "Only if you promise to be more careful next time."
"I promise."
Touya pats the top of his head. "Then you can have your fun with his house. If we don't have anywhere to sleep, I don't see why Endouchevor should, amiright?"
It sounds perfectly logical to Shouto's ears.
.
.
Endeavor's new house goes down even faster than the old one. Setting it on fire is more satisfying than the first time, considering Shouto has no emotional attachments to the ridiculously overpriced building his father picked and none of his siblings live there anymore.
"Good job, Shouto." Touya clasps his shoulder proudly. "Oh, look, we're being recorded. Say hello to Daddy. I'm sure he misses you a lot."
Shouto casts a glance to the camera hidden sideways. There is no going back from this now, he realizes. In theory, he could have played the 'stolen and forced by a villain' card his father threw around and came back home. For a given value of home.
It's just ridiculous how his father is desperately trying to do damage control on every show that will have him. Well, good luck explaining that to the masses. Frankly, he should have seen it coming. He's been teaching Shouto to deal with his problems by using his fire since forever. Well, that's exactly what Shouto is doing. He's burning whatever shit is standing in his way, which coincidentally happens to be his father's shit. Sad, so sad.
He turns his head, stares intently at the camera, and flips it the finger. Touya hysterically bursts into laughter next to him.
Shouto has zero regrets and zero shit to give.