run boy run

never brothers

shoto drew out a long breath resting his head on the wall behind him, still sat down on the cold tiles, shoto could almost feel cold.

"you good?" a gruff but gentle voice brings him back to the present. he realizes that he was still clinging on his teacher, the man's arm in his grasp he quickly lets go and coughs out the awkward tension.

"yeah yeah im good im better" he says the melancholy obvious in his voice.

aizawa doesnt buy it. "you know you just had a panic attack right?"

"i am well aware thank you, but now i got it out of my system, the beast back in its feelingy cage, i can kick endeavors tiny balls and get this over with"

"oi, i wanna talk to you" bakugo says putting his hand on the other's shoulder "alone" and aizawa immediatsly understands that thats his cue to leave. he reminds both that they should be back in the court room in about ten minutes and then leaves.

"my vulnarable heart cannot handle an emotional beating, please go easy on me" shoto says dramatically

"bitch? i was going to be nice about this"

"you. katsuki bakugo. was going to be decent? shocker"

"i may look like a rock on the outside but on the inside im filled with cheese and sap"

"sure you are"

"i can be nice if i want"

"we have to be there in about nine minutes"

"oh yeah yeah i- look, im saying this only one time, one fucking time so you better listen"

"i certainlt will captain"

"i know this is going to be cheesy but i need you to bear with me"

"wow, listen to the cheese king preach"

"look man, i dont kniw what youre going through, i never will know. ive never been to a court room and i never have tried to run away. i never had to hide shit from my parents and theyve never laid a fucking hand on me. i dont know what youre going through, but what i know is that after youre done with this were gonna drink tons of strawberry milk and eat so much soba that moving becomes painful.

"i dont want you thinking youre alone in this shit, i swear ill do whatever the fick you want but please dont do that again. i was scared as fuck i thought yiu were going to pass out or some shit. ill chamge my name to beatrice and go live a country life before ever letting you down because were in this shit together and im going to kick balls, the same balls you want to kick just tell me-"

"kats what are you saying?"

"im saying that from.... from brother to another that i love you. PLATONICALLY, fucking platonically i would skin you alive before i let go of eiji. but i love you, youre the best fucking thing ive ever brought home and fuck if i know how many pests i used to bring home with me in my plastic bottles.

"so please. get yourself together for the next two days and then you can anny the fuck out of me all you want. and if you cant fucking pull through ill pull some strings and help you out. just tell me when i need to p- hey hey dix i do something wrong? why are you crying? fuck shit i-"

"you did great"he rasps out "you did amazing, i- i just"

"then what?"

"your parents arent adopting me katsuki"

"what?"

"they uh theyre not. after this youll be ealking olly on your own, and shit like that theyre not they-" shoto suddenly pauses at the ring from katsuki's phone. they look at each other and the boy checks who was calling him.

"aizawa" he says.

"shit, we have to go"

"yeah"

_____________

"masaru bakugo please stand" the man gets up looking at his wife and proceeds to walk down to the end of the room where he was supposed to be seated "who are you, with respect to todoroki shouto?"

"i used to be his private tutor, and now ive been fostering him eversice he ran away"

"and during the tutoring sessions, was there anything suspicious?"

"yes"

"elaborate"

"he uh, he used to take very advanced classes for his age, things that normal children who go to a middle or primary school shouldnt be learning. and even if it was hard for him, he used to be very stressed at every mistake he made and he kept asking me to make him do it again and not tell endeavor about it"

"and physical abuse?"

"ive never witnessed it. well i have once... it was the day i got fired"

"and what was going on that day?"

"i saw endeavor uhm... he uh- i-"

"mr bakugo?"

"i saw endeavor rape shouto" he says his head sunk low unable to look at anyone especially shouto who stood there wide eyed as everyone stared at him.

"and you got fired why?"

"endeavor saw me. he threatened my family, said that if i ever get the word out bad things were going to happen. so i didnt say anything, i got fired after teaching him for six years"

"and during those six years, was there ever a sign of any other form of abuse?"

"a child is not supposed to be as composed as shouto used to be. he used to be scared of making mistakes, would flinch a lot, he would start shaking a lot of the time. children arent supposed to be scared of their parents. not to that extent"

"thank you very much" the judge says and masaru returns to his place looking at shouto, his shaking body and hunched posture as aizawa rubbed circles on his back as a way to tell shouto that hes here for him and before masaru could reach out he hears the name of a woman "fuyumi todoroki please come forward"

__________________

after a long and painful day aizawa finally nudges the boy awake gesturing him to get up as the court case was over for the day. shouto asks him to be patient as his feet wobbled and his voice cracked.

he was told that all his friends or loved ones were waiting outside to be able to leave. dread takes over his body, scared kf just what people might say when his outside fully concentrated on the people he loves and cares about.

today they had found out more than what shouto wanted them to know. they knew about his acedemic achievements (the painful process that came with) the sexual encounters he had endured, the abuse (that no one had actually seen) and endeavors worse habits.

oh how he longed for the days where he had nothing to worry about (except for endeavors arrival) how easy things were. how simple it was. bad meant hit good meant lighter hit or some type of sexual dirt, but now? oh, he gets smiles and its okays and whatevers all of the time.

he was confused.

and lost

and homesick

and hurt.

"you know what?" says aizawa stopping shouto "lets sit this out a bit they can wait right?"

shouto nods.

"im not going to ask if youre okay that would be stupid"

shouto doesnt say anything

"but let me ask you this, what do you need? what do you want to prevent once you go outside"

"i dont want us to talk. about anything. i dont want a pep talk or someone to tell me that im going to be okay. i dont want that bullshit. i want to go home and eat soba and fucking relax"

"okay" aizawa says "thats it?"

"and strawberry milk if thats okay"

"sure kid. come on, lets get out of here"