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Endeavor had been furious when Shouto had slammed down his internship papers, Mom’s signature on the dotted line. It hadn’t helped that Shouto had waited until he literally had to leave the estate or risk arriving late to his internship. Wouldn’t that make a good impression?Shouto had been lying, of course, since Aizawa-sensei had offered him an internship despite being still mostly a mummy.His goal for this internship was to learn how to control his fire. Endeavor might be the highest ranking hero with a fire quirk but control? Control had never entered his mind, first. Oh, later, after Shouto’s flames were stoked, Endeavor would turn to control but Shouto didn’t want that. He wanted control first, over power.And Aizawa-sensei was nothing but controlled power in every sense.“...didn’t you have literally thousands of offers?”In response, Shouto tilted his head. Who was–oh. Midoriya’s opponent before Midoriya fought Shouto, the one with the voice quirk. Then he shrugged.“I wanted to intern with Aizawa-sensei.”“Fair enough.”The hair at his naple prickled and Shouto jerked his head to the side, right at the yellow sleeping bag crawling over the ground. As soon as Shouto noticed him, Aizawa-sensei sighed and went upright, wriggling out of his bag.“Good, you’re both here–Yes, your transfer request has been approved, Shinsou, which means this is your first hero course student exercise.”Shinsou seemed to be hyperventilating almost, his breath going fast as Aizawa-sensei settled his hand on Shinsou’s shoulder. Hmm, they did look similar enough…“Todoroki…I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t think you’d take me up on my offer but I’m glad you did. I’ll have to get Shinsou up to speed on several things including the regulations you’ve learned during hero tr–”“All Might only has us doing practical work.”“...goddamn that man, okay, so I’ll have you two working ahead. Physical conditioning, maybe some morality lessons. Now, what do you two want from an internship with me?”“...I’m just happy to be a hero student, now? But…I do need to learn how to fight when my quirk isn’t enough.”Aizawa-sensei nodded and turned to Shouto.“I want to learn how to control my fire.”“Both goals are doable…or at least starting to learn how to achieve your goals is certainly something I can do. Prepare for hell.”It wasn’t. Hell, that was.Shouto knew hell and it wasn’t training with Aizawa-sensei and Shinsou, although Shinsou begged to differ. Even after that scramble in Hosu –thankfully Aizawa-sensei had cursed and then given them permission to defend themselves and others using any means necessary including their quirks–the training didn’t tick up to unbearable.In fact, Shouto was dreading the return to Endeavor’s training schedule.Shinsou stumbled next to Shouto and dropped down with a groan. “Fuck, somewhwat glad this is the last day of internship, then again, knowing this is what it will be like every day from now on…”“It’s more self-driven when not in an internship. You’ll have to keep up with training without being needled by Aizawa-sensei.”Something like “Let me dream” slipped out of Shinsou’s mouth. Finally, he heaved a sigh and staggered to his feet. “Come on, Todoroki. Let me buy you an ice cone in honor of our last days. Ever heard of strawberry lemon?”“...no, then again, I’ve never eaten ice cream. I’ve wanted to, though.”“...you haven’t lived. Come on, now it’s definitely my treat.”Shouto followed but unfortunately he never got his ice cream. The moment they entered the park with the “bestest and cheapest ice cream around in this part of the city, who also does a half-and-half-scoop” ice cream vendor, a glowing kid ran smack into both of them, the kids meaty fists grazing Shouto’s and Shinsou’s bare wrists.The kid was followed by a mother who apologized profusely.And then revealed that her kid’s quirk swapped the quirks of two people for one week.Well, then.Hearing that, half of Shinsou’s outfit went up in flames.“It appears,” Aizawa-sensei growled with the bridge of his nose between his hands, “that you cannot even go to the park without causing some kind of problem, problem children #2 and #3.”Curious how Shinsou’s spine bowed, as though he was feeling Aizawa-sensei’s disappointment on a physical level. Even more curious how Shinsou yelped as one side of his body caught on fire and when he tried putting it out with his other hand it was encased in an ice block.Shouto had never thought much about how not being a walking hazard was already an excellent exercise in control.Aizawa-sensei’s quirk flickered to life and fire and ice died down.“Why can’t your quirk cancel the effects of this one, Sensei?”Red eyes wandered over to him and–Shouto blinked, it was as though his head was suddenly dipped into black paint, well, opaque black paint.“Because this is an incredibly passive one. Elemental quirks are by nature always running as soon as activated and passive ones are near the mutation mark for me. Anyway, Todoroki, I hate to ask this of you but…unless you’re certain you can control it. I’ll be taking custody over Shinsou for the next week since–” Shinsou yelped again as ice spread over the floor and he tripped on it.”–apparently I can’t expect him to have control of Half Hot-Half Cold within one week.”“It’s not like I talk much…or know what his quirk really is.”“We…never told you?” Shinsou grimaced before he visibly steeled himself. “My quirk is called Brainwashing. I ask a question, when someone answers I can put them under control for I don’t know how long or until someone physically jolts them out of it.”…Shouto just had the most unholy of ideas.Both Sensei and Shinsou backed away when Shouto smiled.“SHOUTO!” Endeavor screamed as soon as Shouto entered the estate. Shouto let him scream as he dropped his luggage beside him and untied his shoes before pulling on his slippers.Endeavor was still screaming his heart out when Shouto interjected. “Could you please shut your mouth?”For one blessed moment, Endeavor stared at Shouto gobsmacked and stunned, then his flames flared higher. “How da–”The area around his head brightened as though a halo of stars were beginning to twinkle. With almost no thought, Shouto cast out a mental net and felt hinges snap shut, just as Endeavor fell silent.Malicious glee filled Shouto.“You will print out and sign a form releasing Mom’s agency to her while also signing a contract ensuring that you will provide for her indefinitely, even should she divorce you. You will send both of these forms to the hospital and your lawyers to file them immediately. Afterwards, you’ll find a second hand shop and buy an All Might Cosplay and dance the macarena in the middle of the biggest mall you can find. Make sure that no one jostles, touches or hurts you and that you don’t hurt yourself. Afterwards, you’ll forget this encounter and believe I returned home while you were training in the dojo.”His father nodded woodenly, turned around and left.On Monday morning, Shouto’s eyes snapped open as heat and cold flooded back into his body. He meandered past the boarded dojo his Father had retreated to and left for school, leaving a fretting Fuyumi behind in their kitchen.Shinsou was already sitting on Mineta’s seat by the time Shouto arrived, scrolling through his phone.Shouto marched right up to Shinsou. “So, your quirk can make your victim retroactively forget you gave them the order. I’d use it to protect the mechanism behind it. It will give you a safety net.”“How–” Shinsou broke himself off, glanced back down on his phone –from this near, Shouto could make out the headline of an article covering Endeavor’s embarrassing PR stunt of dancing in an All Might suit with the unfortunate side effect that the suit broke in the middle of his performance – glanced back up at Shouto and paled.“...You’re scary, Todoroki.”It sounded like a compliment.

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