Shoto paused at the threshold, his hand resting on the dark wooden doorframe. The soft glow of electric wall lights bathed only parts of his father's office in a warm, golden hue, it heated up the polished oak of the walls and furnishings and combined with the faint smell of smoke that clung to Endeavour constantly. The darkness, the smells, the sound of the steady ticking of an antique clock on the wall punctuating the silent tension in the house…it was all so familiar to him.
But amidst all the familiar darkness, all that fear and longing that waited in the shadows, was a figure Shoto had come to associate with something very different: safety and happiness, all the colours of a night sky, all the brightness of a shooting star. Something too fragile, too pretty, too delicate for the harsh, human reality of the Todoroki family home.
He had to hide the slightly annoying, distracting, physical reaction he went through every time he saw her. But his eyes were drawn to Ren's fluffy slippers, up over the bare skin of her legs, the gentle pleating of her black skirt, her tan-coloured winter coat hanging over her arm, the soft glinting of gold and silver jewellery around her wrists, the tight-fitting dark turtleneck and up to her face. But he was caught off guard by the look on her face. A hardness, a firmness to the set of her lips, a determined frown on her forehead. The usual dark waves of her hair that flirtatiously licked her cheekbones were now brushed behind her ears. She looked older, more serious, less like the girl next door he was losing himself in every night and more like a colleague.
As their eyes met, Shoto caught the bored, almost judgmental look on her face, the tiny, imperceptible curve of a disbelieving smile, as she noticed the way his eyes had clearly checked her out. Her gaze seemed to say, "Really? Here? A tiny, microscopic part of me is proud of you. But please focus." Something must be very wrong for Ren to be the one instilling any kind of boundary, for her not to evidently smile mischievously at him as soon as their eyes met.
Oh, he realised what the look, what the body language was; this is Ren being professional. A fleeting look of understanding passed between them, acknowledging the gravity of the situation. Ren was here not as a neighbour to ask for a cup of sugar, not as a secret girlfriend, not even as the daughter of the most famous billionaire in the country. She was here as a journalist, in a professional capacity. Shoto's back straightened instinctively as he slipped into his own professional demeanour and stepped into the office.
Endeavour, stood on the other side of his desk, opposite Ren, eyed them both suspiciously but assumed, half-correctly, that the tension in the air was simply two teenagers wondering how to navigate such a grown up world they were both a part of. Shoto glanced down at the desk to see a VHS tape glinting in the dim lamplight of the office, he looked up again as Ren spoke.
"Hey, Shoto," Ren said, her voice tinged with fatigue.
Shoto stood to his full height and completed their triangle so they all stood equidistant from each other, each now on a level playing field in whatever this was. What could have possibly happened to force Ren into a room with his father without him? "Is everything okay?"
Endeavor glanced between them quickly, his imposing figure expanding even more as he breathed in deeply. "Ren and I have been trying to contact you-"
"My phone died," Shoto replied, although not answering his father's calls was not exactly usual. A pang of guilt hit him as he caught the strain, the conflict in Ren's eyes; she had probably needed him and was unable to contact him while he was training. Had she been attacked again? Come here out of desperation to find him? Suddenly Shoto felt very overwhelmed by the realisation that this was the first time, and certainly not the last, where he and Ren would find their personal and professional personas conflicting publicly.
Ren tried not to let her annoyance sound in her voice; "I was just speaking to your father about what happened last night. There's been a... development." Preventing his eyes from widening, Shoto glanced at his father; had Ren told Endeavour what happened? That Shoto had been with her last night?
Endeavour's eyes narrowed slightly as he seemed to read his son's mind: "The officers who attended the scene spoke to me this morning. I was... surprised you didn't tell me, Shoto."
"I was busy," Shoto replied bluntly, biting back the retort that he never told his father anything. Endeavor looked between Ren and Shoto, aware but unable to decipher exactly what was happening between the two teenagers; why had his son been at her apartment so late at night? Ren had said he had dropped in after finishing his patrols in her area.
"Does it matter?" Ren interjected, not wanting to distract from the matter at hand. "We have more important things to discuss." Endeavor nodded at Ren to continue, the girl inclined her head towards the tape: "The villain that attacked me wanted me to have this-"
"What-"
"It is an uncut, unreleased version of Stain's manifesto."
"He wants you to broadcast it?" Shoto asked, concern evident in his voice. Ren smiled a little, impressed by Shoto's ability to understand the situation with very little information. She sighed as she contemplated an answer.
"He didn't actually say-"
"So there's no threat to you if you don't?" Shoto pressed.
"Not necessarily."
Endeavor leaned forward, his massive frame casting a shadow over the desk. "What do you mean? I thought the villain burned you because you wouldn't even take the tape. That's enough indication we need to know he will seek retribution if you don't do anything with this." Ren and Shoto looked at each other, both aware of the real reason the villain had burned her.
Ren chose her words carefully, fiddling, out of habit, with the clasp on her gold bracelet. "The villain was... disturbed. Emotionally swinging from one extreme to the next. I couldn't say for certain if he would come after me. I'm not sure he even remembers what happened."
A small wave of heat emanated from the Pro-hero as he suddenly realised something. "Why did you come here? You should have gone to the police, you could have gone to your father, but you chose to come here. Why?"
Ren looked as though she wasn't prepared for the question, like a deer caught in headlights she bowed her head suddenly to hide the small blush in her cheeks that crept onto her face. "I can't really trust that the police would keep this issue discrete. A story about me can get you a small fortune if you go to the right buyer."
"Especially given your reputation as a somewhat controversial public figure," Endeavour murmured.
"And," Shoto watched as a look of deep, painful sadness flew across Ren's face, barely noticeable unless you knew her well, "as for my father," she said, her voice steady, "I am loyal to him... but I am not loyal to Akira Ishikawa, CEO of Ishikawa Media Group. Let's face it, he's the most notorious buyer out there." Endeavor laughed humourlessly, missing the moment between his son and Ren.
When Ren had finished speaking she had looked up to Shoto, clearly, purposefully, hoping he could understand her completely in that moment. And Shoto, someone who was only just learning to read people, to understand being a complete human being, took in the way her eyes softened at him and understood immediately what she was saying: I am here because I am loyal to you, Shoto.
She had come here not out of fear for her own safety, faced his father, came looking for him to protect him, his career, his dreams, his principles. With this realisation Shoto felt something new, something deeper than he had felt before ignite, tingle at his fingertips, some new feeling he did not know or understand.
Ren took a deep breath as she steadied herself to admit an insecurity. "And I am not here as Ren Ishikawa, not as the heiress to the Ishikawa name but as a journalist. My instincts are to publish, the public has a right to know what the unheard sectors of society are thinking… but I am still very inexperienced. I feel like publishing the tape is a double-edged sword; It could embolden villains, sway public opinion into panic-"
"Create complete societal unrest," Endeavor finished, his tone grave, Ren nodded. Endeavor contemplating the villain who had attacked Ren, murmured to himself: "...Work of a madman."
"I would appreciate your advice and help," she said with a small hint of sweetness that did not exist before; she sounded less like the professional she was and more like the little girl they had once known. "What do we do?"
Endeavour took a deep breath as he contemplated what to do. The three, pro-hero, hero-in-training and journalist, discussed the potential consequences of the tape's release, the timeline for action, and the need for discretion. Endeavor offered to use his police contacts and increase patrols around Ren's area. The conversation touched on legal implications, future precautions against media manipulation by villains through Ren. Ultimately, they agreed not to publish the tape, tighten security, make a secure copy, and hand it over to the police as evidence.
All the while, Shoto and Ren navigated these new waters of professionalism with surprising ease. Despite the gravity of the situation, there was an underlying comfort in their collaboration., a knowledge that despite their differences, despite what was happening between them behind closed doors, when it came to it, both could put aside their personal feelings and work towards a common good. All the while Shoto found himself impressed by Ren's composure and foresight. To him, she was sometimes unnecessarily emotional and dramatic, something that he often found difficult to deal with, but she balanced her journalistic instincts with a genuine concern for public safety and hero work. This professional side of Ren, decisive and strategic was something he had never seen before.
Ren had to stop herself smiling a few times as Shoto's calm analytical approach, something she often rolled her eyes at as he behaved so robotically like someone did not inform him he was human too, was exactly what was needed to guide a conversation like this. He held back the overwhelming feeling to protect the girl he was falling for and instead respect her professional integrity. Seeing Shoto in this professional context, holding his own against his father, behaving every bit the hero she ever expected him to be, was strangely heart-warming. Was this a glimpse of what their future could be like - partners in both their personal and professional lives?
As the discussion wound down, a hint of the familiar starlight returned to Ren's eyes as she felt content with what they had come up with. "Well, I better leave you all to get ready for the agency Christmas party," she smiled broadly at them and put her coat back on.
"Shoto, walk Ren…home," Endeavour's voice trailed away as he saw the two already moving in sync towards the door. He watched, one eyebrow raising in confusion and suspicion as the two exited the room and turned left. He followed them a few feet behind, stopping at the door to his office, watching them exit the house and enter the garden…why hadn't they gone to the front door? Fuyumi came to stand beside him, her glasses glinting in the dim light, her black and red party dress rustling. "Where are they going?" Her father asked in confusion. She spied her younger brother walking in the garden with Ren; how cute! She hadn't seen that for years! She shrugged at her father with a small, knowing smile.
"Probably to jump the fence. Old habits, you know?" As Fuyumi walked away, Endeavor stared after the retreating figures of Ren and Shoto, the realisation hitting him that there was so much about his son's life he didn't know. The depth of Shoto's connection with the girl next door was just another mystery in a life he had failed to fully understand.
Landing softly on the perfectly manicured lawns of the Ishikawa estate, Ren instinctively took a side-step left, allowing Shoto to land beside her. A soft breeze rustled the bare branches of the oak tree which stood, looking dry and hollow on a particularly chilly Christmas Eve. Stars started to sparkle in the darkening sky as Ren and Shoto stood side by side, staring across the gardens at the dark, gothic and imposing Ishikawa Manor in front of them, feeling the eyes of the Todoroki house behind them.
"Do you think we'll always be caught between the two?" Ren asked, the air between them was filled with something neither quite understood, a nostalgia, a fear of the future, an understanding that things in the world were turning darker just as they were embarking on something real between them. "Staring at one house, running from the other?" Shoto looked down to her, his red and white hair lifting up a little in the breeze.
"No," he said confidently, "I think we'll make it out of here." Ren smiled, Shoto watched as that familiar starlight seemed to return to her face.
"We won't have to say goodbye at the fence?"
"I think there will be a day where we stop needing to say goodbye," Ren looked up at him, wondering if he had meant to say something so romantic. "Because hopefully we live together and it can just change to "see you later", I think goodbye would be too formal at that point-"
"Yeah, I got it, Sho, thanks." She laughed, the sound like a star falling into water; sending a tinkling into the air. Shoto, understanding that he had clearly over analysed something simple, watched the way her eyes lit up with endearment. Her soft pink lips curved into a smile as she looked up through her eyelashes at him. How was she still prettiest thing he had ever seen?
"Something has changed, Ren," he said gently and watched as Ren's stormy grey eyes turn a little darker; she could feel it too, something had shifted in the air, the world of heroes and villains was suddenly becoming more real to her, more than a world divided by policies and discrimination, but something that had a ticking time bomb set into its foundations.
"The world feels different," Ren confirmed but Shoto shook his head.
"No, I mean between us," his mismatched eyes darted across the lawns, up to the starry sky, trying to search for a way to explain how he was feeling, "what you did, coming here, to find me before anyone else…trusting me and my family like that…respecting what I stand for…" he couldn't understand what it did to him. "I feel," Ren held her breath, aware that it was probably the first time Shoto had ever started a sentence like that, "closer to you, is that strange?" The tension in Ren's shoulders that had been building dissipated as Shoto turned to her, his adorable confused face looking down at her for some reassurance.
"No," she said with a smile, "it's called emotional intimacy," Ren lifted an arm to pat him on the shoulder affectionately. "Welcome to your first day of being truly human, Shoto Todoroki- ah!" Ren gasped as Shoto leant down to her, cupped her head in his hands and kissed her gently. The oak tree stood still, the entire garden seemed to hold its breath as something Ren had fantasised about since childhood became real. Shoto pulled away as quickly as he pulled her into him before glancing back at the fence, ensuring no one had seen them. Ren seemed a little dazed, her grey eyes sparkling blankly before she shook her head gently and smiled at him. "Since when were you so spontaneously romantic?"
"You're a bad influence," he said seriously, running a hand through his dual-toned hair and sighing; what the hell was this girl doing to him? "I have to go, are you staying here tonight?" Ren smiled smugly at him and nodded.
"Yeah, no one is home, the staff are all on holiday leave, my father is still abroad…may as well."
"Maybe I'll come and see you later?" Shoto said as she began to walk away. Ren glanced over her shoulder with a look that could easily bring him to his knees.
"I think we both know you will."