Shoto collapses in the middle of dodging another bust of flames from his father. He tries to play it off. Tries to pretend it was on purpose, to roll with the downward motion of his body, but his arms strain against gravity and his legs get tangled and he's left in a panting, sweating, exhausted heap on the floor. He can't drag in a full breath without choking on the humidity. He's shivering and overheated and his mouth tastes like ash and he kind of wants to cry, but he'll save that for later. Save that for when he's alone in his room.

Endeavor is awash in flames on the opposite side of the room, not even having the decency to be breathing hard. They've been at this for hours.

"Get up," he demands. Shoto tries. He tries, but it takes more than a minute to get to his hands and knees, and his empty stomach tries to crawl out of his throat. Endeavor glares, but the flames recede. "Very well. I expect you to work harder tomorrow. Go get ready for dinner."

The flame hero strides from the room and Shoto collapses onto the scorched floor. Endeavor's training has never been easy. They work for hours at a time, sometimes skipping meals, and often working past the point of exhaustion and pain. Shoto has bleary memories from before his quirk manifested of his siblings receiving similar training. Fuyumi's ice quirk, so similar to his own. Natsuo's thermo-manipulation quirk, with all the same drawbacks of Shoto's without the power behind it. Their other brother, a boy Shoto hardly remembers aside from a rush of blue fire and a blurry figure playing with Natsuo and Fuyumi. They all worked so hard for so long. But then Shoto presented with fire and ice, the best points of his siblings quirks condensed into one, Mother and Father's quirks combined into perfection.

His siblings were released from training. Shoto was pushed harder and harder.

There was a point, once, at the beginning, when his siblings tried to protect him. Tried to lighten the load. That stopped after their brother went missing, stopped after the fire that took out half of the fireproof training room. Stopped long before Mother poured boiling water on him.

Now, with UA on top of Endeavor's training, the demands on Shoto's body are reaching and passing his limits. Endeavor doesn't seem to care that Shoto has physically and mentally challenging classes. Doesn't seem to notice all that effort he puts in to get good grades on regular school work. Fuyumi is the one to congratulate him on his near perfect scores. Natsuo is the one who helps him study for tests and organize essays when all he wants to do is sleep.

All Endeavor ever says is try harder.

You're my masterpiece, he said, accused, at the sports festival. Never mind that Shoto was leading the entire time. Never mind that he only lost against Bakugo because he was an emotionally wreck after fighting Midoriya.

Shoto forces his breathing to slow. He's careful to go slow while balancing out his temperature. It's challenging sometimes. His handling of fire isn't nearly as practiced as his ice. He's nearly sent himself into shock a few times when he rushes. Once back to a more reasonable temperature, he struggles over to the wall, grasping blindly for his water bottle only to find it empty. He groans, thumping his head into the wall. It's an easy enough fix. He traps the bottle between his knees and cups his hands together. Fuyumi taught him and Natsuo this when they were younger. Ice in one hand, fire in the other, and water drips down to slowly fill the bottle. Natsuo has to rapidly heat and cool the air to acheive the same effect.

He downs the water when he starts shaking too hard to keep up the fine manipulation of his quirk.

It's a long time before he can actually stand to get ready for dinner.

—

Less than twenty four hours later, Endeavor is dragging a shell-shocked Shoto into his room, pushing the boy roughly towards the bed even as he grabs a duffel bag out of the closet. Shoto can only stare, not really comprehending. His father yanks open drawers, shoving handfuls of shirts, underwear and pants into the bag before raiding his closet for school uniforms and training clothes. The bag is near to bursting before Shoto blinks into reality again.

His father is shaking. There's a fine tremor in his hands, his flames a hissing, scraggly yellow. He fumbles a pair of shoes twice before managing to pick them up and, unable to shove them into the bag, knots the laces together and wraps them around the strap.

"F-Father?" he starts to ask and is interrupted by Grandmother's sharp, "Enji," from the doorway.

"Fuyumi will drop you off at Midoriya's on her way out," Endeavor says. His tone is even, but he's not making eye contact. He pulls Shoto up by the arm and drops the bag over his shoulders. "I forgot you were supposed to stay with him this week. For that project."

There is no project. Shoto is fairly certain his father wants him nowhere near Midoriya unless there is some sort of competition and Shoto is winning. And now he's…? "Father?"

"Typical," Grandmother scoffs. "How is the boy supposed to succeed when you can't even keep track of where he is supposed to be?"

Shoto darts a glance at the woman. He's never met her before. She and Grandfather arrived this morning with packed suitcases, stating that they would be staying while their house was repaired. Fuyumi had been the one to fetch Endeavor and Shoto from the training room, only minutes before they were scheduled to finish. Shoto had honestly expected Endeavor to erupt over the interruption. He hadn't. Instead, he got quiet. Two deep breaths and he was thanking Fuyumi and sending Shoto to get ready for school - morning training being much easier than after school training.

It was weird.

Still is.

Endeavor gets his size from Grandfather. The man is huge, looming, filling any room he enters. He's tall enough to need to duck under most door frames, broad enough for two people. He's where Endeavor's red hair comes from. The glare burning with the source of the Todoroki fire. The grin just as sharp.

Grandmother fills the room with presence alone. She is, in a word, elegant. Long black curls pinned up atop her head. Ember bright eyes lined with a minimalists idea of makeup. She wears her age like a crown, doing nothing to downplay the beginnings of wrinkles deepening the skin around her eyes and mouth. Compared to Endeavor and Grandfather, she is small, but she tops Shoto's height by a good ten centimeters. Something about her bearing makes her larger than life, though. She doesn't fill Shoto's room so much as she makes the room smaller just by standing in the doorway.

And Endeavor is quiet. Quiet like he was at dinner, like he was when Shoto came back from school and met him, Grandmother, and Grandfather in the training room.

Endeavor went easy on him. Didn't go out of his way to knock Shoto on his face. Didn't yell. Didn't scream for Shoto to use his fire more, to stop relying so much on ice.

Grandmother and Grandfather made quiet comments in the back of the room, easily staying away from stray attacks, and never once looked like they approved of anything. When training was over, Shoto could still move, could walk over and drain the last of his water. He didn't feel dead. Actually, he felt like he got a good workout, something he usually only experiences at school. His grandparents made a few noises about how well developed his quirk is, how strong he is, how impressive he is going to be with the right training.

And somehow, Endeavor's snarled masterpiece sounded like a more genuine complement.

Now, with Grandmother standing in his room, the walls squeezing in around them, his father's normally looming presence feels more shield than threat.

Shoto brings his hands up to grip the bag. "Sorry that I didn't remind you, Father," he says and doesn't quite know why. "Aizawa sensei likes giving us last minute work." But the walls stop closing in on them. They settle back into their physical dimensions as Grandmother's attention shifts from Endeavor to Shoto. He straightens his spine and gives her his media smile. Bright, honest, with a hint of Midoriya earnestness thrown in. "I apologize that I will not be able to see you and Grandfather often. It was nice meeting you, Grandmother."

"It was nice to meet you as well, Shoto," she says. Cool. Elegant. Like the warmth of falling asleep for the last time in the snow. "The offer of training stands."

"He's training at UA under All Might," Endeavor says as Shoto leaves, and his stomach twists.

—

Still number two hero, Enji? How long has it been? Always a step behind the best.

Not as useless as your brother, I suppose. He ran off to America. Abandoned his wife and son, from what I've heard.

Fuyumi, yes? You are twenty two? And a teacher already. Quite the accomplishment. Yes, I can see the Todoroki drive to succeed in you.

You have another brother, don't you? Aside from Shoto.

Two. Enji has three boys. Although, I suppose it's only two now. Couldn't raise third one properly and he ran off. Not enough discipline in this house. How young Shoto is supposed to learn anything under such poor instruction, I have no idea.

Mother. Father. Perhaps we can have this discussion after dinner?

Shut up. Always trying to weasel your way out of listening to criticism. Always so ungrateful when all we have ever done is show you how to make something of yourself.

It's no wonder Shoto came in second in the sports festival.

You know, Shoto, your Grandfather and I could take up your training. You would actually be doing something worthwhile with your time then.

—

Shoto settles onto Midoriya's couch without much recollection of how he got there. Fuyumi drove, he knows that. Shoto sat in the front and stared into space until Midoriya - Izuku, because his mother's here too and Shoto's brain is a little too scrambled - took his bag and bundled him up in a blanket on the couch.

This is his first time meeting Izuku's mother. She looks a lot like him.

And the tall man with a head full of Grandmother's dark curls in the picture on the wall shares toddler Izuku's bright, blinding grin.

He blinks again and his friend and his friend's mother are crowded around him. Izuku sits on the small table, frown practically brimming with concern. Inko sits in the chair across from them with a cup of tea and a thoughtful look painted across her face.

"Todoroki Shoto, yes? Enji's youngest?" she asks. Soft with a smile and nothing like the reporters or disgruntled public. Shoto nods. Izuku's frown takes on something bitter, but no less concerned. "I haven't seen him since Hisashi took off. He didn't want to draw any unwanted attention to Izu and me, I'm sure, but it would have been nice if you boys could have grown up as cousins."

Shoto and Izuku make eye contact with perfect timing. Shoto feels like a slight breeze could knock him over at this point with all of the day's revelations. He doesn't know which is more important, though. His grandparents acting like…that. Or Izuku being his cousin.

Luckily, Inko - Aunt Inko? - takes their stunned silence as an invitation to continue. "The three of us grew up together. We met in our second year of grade school. Or, Hisashi and I did. Enji is a few years older than us. We stayed in contact until the end of middle school. Both boys went into UA, but I didn't want to apply, so they were very busy without me. Hisashi didn't go into heroics, of course. But UA is the best school around, no matter the discipline."

She smiles at them, smiles Izuku's sunshine smile and Shoto buries his face in the blanket to hide from it. "Honestly, Izuku reminds me more of Enji than he does Hisashi. You might not know it now, but Enji was the brightest little ball of sunshine as a child. He was always trying to make others smile. Especially Hisashi. Said that he was going to be the best hero. That he was going to save everyone." She sighs, a little sad. "That changed after high school. I haven't seen him smile for real since his wedding - terrible what happened with your mother, darling - and then, well. I haven't seen him in person for years."

"I'm going to bed, boys. I'm sure you have lots to talk about, but don't stay up too late. You have school in the morning." Inko bustles out of the room, giving neither teen a change to say anything.

Izuku speaks first. "Um, ah, that, uh, us being cousins aside - which, what? How did I not know my dad is a - how long, I mean. What happed? And how long do you need to stay?" Then he clamps his mouth shut and sits on his hands like that's going to stop him from muttering.

"My grandparents showed up," Shoto says. He swallows and fidgets with the edge of the blanket. It's really very soft. "They offered to take up my training and —"

He's training at UA under All Might.

Endeavor was dragging him away from the table before Grandmother even finished the suggestion. Under he flames casting flickering shadows across his face, his skin was white, expression rigid with what looked like the beginnings of fear.

"— Father sent me here."

He meets Izuku's eyes. Endeavor sent him to Izuku, to his cousin and family he didn't know existed. Sent him to All Might's prodigy - not his secret son, which is mildly disappointing. Blatantly said that Shoto is training under the number one hero when most days he refuses to acknowledge All Might exists as anything other than a challenge.

"What's going on?" Shoto asks and Izuku can only shrug.