A Change of Heart - Rewrite

Lights Out

A/N:

That's right. I'm doing this. Nonbelievers can bask in my glory, and all that.

Rewriting this because people did ask, and with a ruined sleep schedule, my sense of reasoning is deeply impaired. 

The storyline is (mostly) the same, but the writing is better. The reasoning, too, because it was godawful before. I mean, it's still pretty bad because there's no way to write a Villain!Deku fanfic that won't be at least a little cringe on principle, but I'm trying my best.

i.e.: New and improved 'A Change of Heart' with 99% less XD's and neck-cracking!

...and it's not written in first person POV, because that was a terrible, terrible mistake

(I kept the old chapter title for nostalgia, though most of them will be different from now on)

-=+=-

"How trite," Izuku murmurs, shifting his stance. "Haven't we done this all before?"

He receives no verbal response. Instead, a pillar of ice erupts from beneath him. He moves with an absent hum, then brushes a thumb against his shimmering reflection.

"Don't think I'm worth your time?" he wonders aloud, craning his neck to meet a heterochromatic gaze. "You know, if you intend to take me down, these halfhearted attempts aren't going to work."

He mimes slitting his own throat and laughs. The teen before him presses his lips together.

"Not one for conversation are you?" Izuku asks, amused. The teen's glare hardens, and ice spirals out towards him.

Izuku sighs and winds around the spikes with relative ease. When the three meet, they shatter near-instantly.

"Impressive," he says, offering a slow clap. "Though I suppose that's expected of Endeavor's son."

That, ironically, lights a fire within the teen's eyes. He ducks, barely able to avoid getting his head taken off.

"Hit a sore spot there, did I?" he asks with an airy laugh. When the teen's eyes narrow, Izuku finds himself unsurprised. Endeavor had a fixed spot amongst the top ten 'villainous' heroes, after all. Then again, Izuku is fairly certain that he's the only one who actually deserves it.

"I suggest," the teen bites out, "That you stop wasting both of our time with meaningless chatter."

Izuku blinks owlishly. "Oh. Well, if you insist."

With that, he launches himself forward, knife in hand. He swipes at the teen's throat, only to be met with a thin barrier of ice in the nick of time. Izuku digs his heels into the dirt, then rounds on him once again.

"You can't keep this up forever~" he sing-songs. "Shou-to To-do-ro-ki."

The teen's lips pull back in a snarl, and Izuku winces when his leg is caught in a miniature glacier.

"Well, that's unfortunate."

Todoroki exhales, stepping towards him. "You're trapped," he says. "Now call off this siege."

Izuku parts his lips in understanding. "Ah," he lets out. "Well, I could. But that wouldn't be very fun, would it?"

The teen's brows furrow. For someone with an admirable poker-face, he's terrible at disguising his frustration. "You can't do anything. Stalling won't help anyone."

"You have a lot to learn, Young Padawan," Izuku says, leaning forwards. "You know what they say about assumptions..."

Before Todoroki can do more than part his lips, Izuku jams his knife into the ice and bursts free.