Chapter Text
Shoto decided he had a new favorite pro hero the moment Hawks called Endeavor out live on national television. Winning the spot of number one was Endeavor's life dream. To see it questioned the very second he'd officially earned it was Shoto's dream come true.
And that line he'd used! "Just watch me"! Shoto snorted. From any other hero, it might have sounded cool. But from him, they were empty words. His actions already showed that as a hero (as a father, as a husband, as a person), Endeavor was coarse, rough, irritating, and he got his flames everywhere. Shoto just wished more people could see it.
Idly, he brought up the website for the Japanese Hero Billboard Chart and swiped through the photos from the press conference. With his ridiculous Hellflame mask and hair, getting a decent candid shot of Endeavor was nearly impossible. Even professionals sometimes struggled – as was evidently clear halfway down the page when Shoto nearly had to stifle a laugh. The photographer had tried to capture Endeavor's reaction to Hawks whispering at him on stage, but his fire must have flickered right as the picture was taken. Endeavor's eyes bugged out in a glare and his nostrils flared so wide it looked like he was inhaling his own stupid moustache.
Thank you, Hawks.
He messaged that one to Fuyumi. It would take her a while to top it.
He glanced through the rest. He'd already gotten what he wanted and he was tired. He gave a moment's re-appreciation to Hawks' face as he struggled to keep his silence and savored Endeavor's ire when Hawks finally broke. He left the last image loading while he prepared for bed.
When he picked up his phone again, he nearly dropped it.
This. Photo...!
He was halfway through another text to Fuyumi before he stopped himself.
He couldn't send her this.
It was against their rules.
They'd promised to send each other a quality Endeavor only one at a time. (Because who in their right mind could deal with more than that? Especially Fuyumi considering she still had to live with him.) Until she responded to the challenge he'd already issued, this perfect image was out of bounds. ...But who knew how long that would take her?
He closed his eyes and tried to focus. It was fine. He didn't need to show this to anyone right now. It wasn't life or death, here. He could wait.
Except he couldn't.
He had to show this to someone.
In another timeline, he would've simply done the logical thing and texted it to Midoriya with an unprecedented use of the crying while laughing emoji and that would've been the end of the story. Unfortunately for Shoto, in this timeline he gave in to the temptation of forcing his father to rue the day he asked the world to watch him.
Shoto pursed his lips and gave his laptop a sidelong look. The internet would be the obvious way to do it. And sitting at the end of some news site's endless press conference photo gallery where no one else would ever find it didn't count. He needed to get people to really look at it, to talk about it, to spread it far and wide, to—
Twitter.
He needed twitter.
It was the best avenue for sharing civilian-driven hero news and... Shoto didn't have one. He'd... looked at them before? Most heroes used it as an informal connection point with the public and Shoto expected he would too by the time he left U.A. But right now? What would he even tweet about? Ectoplasm's weird dislike of integral expressions? He could just say that normally.
But, Shoto decided, looking between his futon and his computer and settling at his desk, he had something to say now. How hard could twitter even be? Shoto knew what a hashtag was. And he'd been captioning photos of Endeavor to make Fuyumi smile since he'd had a phone that could send images as attachments. Even if he just posted this one time... it would be worth it.
It was the work of moments to set up an account, confirm his email, and link it to the mobile app. It took slightly longer to decide on a user photo before he realized the answer was staring right at him. He cropped a perfect 100 by 100 pixels from the masterpiece he was linking: Endeavor, with frown fixed in a perfect half circle and a downdraft from Mighty Wings fanning the flames around his face in every direction. He looked like an angry sunflower had caught fire. Hawks hovered over him, hands together as if he were a proud parent cooing over a petulant child.
One quick little line and three hashtags later and Shoto was clicking send on his first ever tweet.
Just Watching
@no1tryhard: Looks like the new number one hero #Endeavor got SOMEONE on board #justwatchme #fantheflames https://bit.ly/2sZ80XB
He went to bed, feeling a little like a hero.
There were unfamiliar notifications on his phone when he woke up in the morning.
He blinked at them in confusion and then blinked completely awake. People had liked his tweet! He took a deep breath and with iron will, set his phone aside. He'd pack up his futon, shower, get dressed, get his school things, and then eat. He'd have plenty of time to savor these messages after breakfast.
He did not have time after breakfast.
Ashido and Kaminari had appeared on either side of him as he finished his natto rice wheedling to know how he'd answered the grammar exercises for Present Mic. They hadn't left until Iida fended them off. Then on the walk to the main campus building, Yaoyorozu engaged him in an actual discussion on the same subject. When they finally got to Class A, he only had time to settle down with his things before Aizawa-sensei caterpillared in swathed in his yellow sleeping bag to make his daily homeroom announcements.
For nearly half the day, Shoto was too busy to check his phone. It was technically against the rules anyway, but with U.A. moving all the students to on-campus dorms, the teachers had become less strict when someone snuck one out of a pocket or bag during breaks. The assumption, Shoto knew, was that they were assuring their parents they were okay and not that they were checking their twitter mentions in a quiet moment five minutes before fourth period to see if anyone else was laughing at their parent.
Well, some things just couldn't be helped.
Shoto set his phone down on his desk and opened the app to see what the world had to say.
— omfg their faces
— P R I C E L E S S
— hawks: IS THIS YOUR NUMBER ONE?
hawks, five seconds later:
— i love hawks he's such an arrogant ass lol but endeavor fukkin delivered. "just watch me"???? i died
— I watched the presentation live how did I not SEE THIS?!?!
— oh yeah hawks can really """fan""" endeaovors's """flames""" if you know what i mean ≖‿≖
— tbh........ i ship it DON’T @ ME LMAO
The first few were good. The Endeavor praise was worse. But some of these he didn't get. "Ship it"? What was that even supposed to mean? But scrolling through the rest of his notifications, the word kept popping up. He sighed, opening a new tab on his browser. This wouldn't be the first time he'd had to moogle slang. He fired off his query and stared at the results.
"...a 'ship' is the concept of a fictional couple..."
Well, that one wasn’t right.
"When you imagine 2 people would be good together in a relationship, so therefore you 'ship' them."
...No.
"Shippers are people who care deeply about the romantic relationships between their favorite characters — and sometimes, celebrities or even the people in their own lives."
Shoto glared at his phone. He'd reached the end of the page and there hadn't been any variation to the results. He didn't... he didn't understand. So those tweets were actually seriously suggesting...? But no one should ever "ship it" with Endeavor! Ever! The idea alone was just so wrong. Besides, Endeavor would never tolerate it. After all...
Shoto wasn't often allowed to play with his eldest brother, but that didn't stop him from wanting to. When he'd beckoned him over one day, Shoto went.
"Look at this," he'd said, crouching to Shoto's height. He held a picture in front of Shoto’s face. It was on flimsy paper, not thick like a photograph. "What do you see?"
Shoto glanced from the illustration to stare wide-eyed at his brother. "...All Might. All Might and Endeavor."
"Very good," his brother drawled. "And what are they doing?"
Shoto considered the picture again. "Touching faces."
"It's a kiss. They're kissing."
"It looks gross." He wrinkled his nose.
His brother laughed. "But don't you want to know why they’re doing it?"
Shoto shook his head. "Can we play hero now?"
"Hmm, no. Not yet. Let's make a deal. You go ask daddy about kissing All Might and then we can play hero, okay?"
It didn't sound very fair to Shoto, but his brother was smiling. Fuyumi and Natsuo always smiled when they promised to play with Shoto, though their eyes never looked like daddy's when they did it.
"...Okay," Shoto agreed, stomping out of the room and tiptoeing toward the training hall.
He knew to go there because that's where Endeavor always was, mostly. Peeking around the doorway, some of the tension sprang away from his shoulders when he saw daddy wasn't wearing his fire face today. He hovered in the doorway and it took several long moments for his father to notice him.
"Shoto. Come in. It's not time for your training right now. What do you need?"
Shoto was relieved. He didn't like training with daddy. It was hard and hurt and daddy shouted whenever he didn't do his quirk right, which was often. Confident that none of that would happen now, he edged up to his father.
"Come now, Shoto. Out with it."
And so Shoto piped up, "Did you kiss All Might once?"
That was the first time Shoto had seen Hellflame engulf Endeavor's entire head.
He turned, scrambling out the door, running straight back to his brother, who took one look at the tears streaming down Shoto's face and threw his head back in a laugh.
"Ahhh, so sad, Shoto-chan!" He reached forward, tugging on Shoto's cheeks. "Look at you! Did daddy scare you? Don’t cry!" He pinched down harder and Shoto squirmed to get away. When his brother didn't let go, he screamed.
Endeavor had stepped in then. Like most memories involving his father, it didn't have a happy ending.
So no, Shoto couldn't imagine Endeavor reacting well to finding out people were shipping it between him and Hawks. Even though pissing off Endeavor was the whole point. And even though it would probably make Endeavor spontaneously combust...
Well.
Maybe there could be some merit to a ship. Despite the personal injury to himself, Shoto could admit in retrospect that aspects of his brother's prank had been kind of funny. But then, it hardly mattered. Now that Hawks had pushed Endeavor's buttons in front of the whole country, it wasn't like they'd ever even be seen together again. RIP @no1tryhard. At least some people had enjoyed it.
The bell chimed the end of break and he swapped out his phone for his notebook and pencil.