Tired of pretending (kiribaku)

Chapter 22: A recollection of events brought to you by the off-brand candy cane

Todorokis P.O.V

Everything that has happened has confirmed my suspicions, Bakugos tough act is nothing but a facade.

Of course you could guess that after seeing him yesterday but today confirmed whatever doubts I had in my mind.

Ive seen it before, in myself that is, when I was younger. I know the feeling of hiding behind a mask all to well.

When I was younger I was always confused , confused on why my mother did what she did, confused about why my father forced me to train every single day, nothing made sense to me. I couldn't cope with all the pain.

After  my mother got sent away due to the incident I was even more lonely than I was before , my siblings had tried to help but my young mind couldn't take the endless training and yelling.

My only escape was school and even then no one talked to me, I was alone.

The loneliness eventually got the best of me and I started to relive the pain I felt through different means, I didn't know what I was doing at first , I thought it was what everyone did to help with the stress, but I only realized what I had done when it was to late.

Luckily my siblings noticed my change in character and figured out what I was doing, eventually helping me stop, I still felt the urge to every once in a while but I controlled it.

Once I got to high school I finally started to talk back to my old man.

I met so many wonderful people a UA and the sense of loneliness and isolation slowly faded until the void I always felt was filled.

I never told anyone at UA about my old habits as they were in the past, but I still had the scars from what I had done.

I didn't want anyone else's to have to go through that pain again.

When I first met the angry blond boy I thought he was just a jerk who enjoyed bullying people, I was surprised that he even had any friends, I respected his power but knew his personality needed work. But now.. I feel like I've been lied to this whole time, I knew he was smart but the mask he put up was nearly unbreakable, it took a quirk induced nightmare to get me to notice what was happening to the explosive boy.

I had always know  that he was particularly bright as he was always on time to class and had perfect grades but lately I had noticed they were slipping, I should have suspected something was wrong but I just played it off as bakugo being lazy or having other things to do.

I felt terrible for not noticing that the same thing that I had gone through was happening to another one of my classmates, all the signs were there in flashing lights. He flinched at the slightest touch, he distanced himself with a personality that made people avoid him and he never changed in front of us. He was clearly being hurt by someone, just like my old man had done to me before I spoke up about it. We were on better terms now but I still knew how alone I felt when he screamed at me to do better and forced me through his brutal training sessions, to him I was just a project to replace him, a machine.

I could only imagine what bakugo was going through at his house, I knew he wouldn't tell me right away so I would have to get it out of him some how, he was spiraling downward and there was no one to catch him.

The only one who might have known what was going on was Kirishima, it was so obvious that they both had a crush on each other but bakugo was to much a tsundere and kirishimas low self esteem made him oblivious.

Maybe if they got together bakugo would tell Kirishima and they would help fix each other.

For now I was going to keep my distance from them, making sure he didn't hurt himself anymore, I couldn't let anyone suffer the same pain as me, no one deserved to endure that.

It wasn't his fault he had to deal with all of this, no one asked if he was okay, I bet he heard all the words that were whispered behind his back as he walked down the hallway, I could tell the words hurt him. He always shrunk back whenever someone yelled at him even if it was one of his friends which caused my heart to break .

I would help him.

      "Todoroki ...?" A voice called out from behind me , snapping me out of my thoughts.

I was standing in the corner of the dorm rooms with a somber expression on my face which was probably pretty weird to anyone who came across me.

      "Midoriya..?" I asked , tilting my head at the smiling boy.

     "Are you alright todoroki ..? You have been staring at the wall for a while now.?"

He was always so kind, the freckled boy. On the first day of UA he was the only one that talked to me, he had helped me stand up to my old man and claim the other half of my quirk as my own. I owed him a lot as he always seemed to stick by me no matter what.

"Sorry I got lost in thought for a moment.." I apologized, giving him my best attempt at a smile.

"It's okay..! Do you wanna watch a movie or a show with me.. no one else is around..?" He asked, staring at me with his giant emerald eyes.

"Sure... do you wanna pick... I'll make the popcorn."

"Yay..! Thank you todoroki-kun..!" He smiles and hopped onto the couch.

I took out a bowl of popcorn kernels and let flames engulf half of my body. The kernels popped up and were soon a crisp white color.

Taking the bowl, I sprinkled a bit of salt on it before making my way over to the couch and sitting down next to midoriya.

He had picked Hell's Kitchen to watch, which was odd since I didn't take him as the cooking type.

"I like to watch a good competition.." he chuckled while rubbing his neck sheepishly.

I nodded and turned my face back to the Tv screen , munching on some popcorn.

We binged watch the whole season of that show before midoriya drifted off to sleep.

I turned off the Tv and laid against the other side of the couch, my eyes growing heavy as well.

I hoped bakugo was doing alright but I would have to wait until morning to do anything about his situation.

"Goodnight Midoriya.." I muttered before drifting off into a dreamless slumber.

——————————————————————————A/n: this chapters a bit different I just wanted to change it up and get todos point of view to see why he is so concerned for bakugo besides the fact that he cares for his class mates. Warning that the next chapter might get a bit dark so I wanted to add some fluff before then.