"So… this thing isn't going to stop or break, is it?" Todoroki had his nose pressed against the glass of the Heaven's Gate gondola, gazing down at the white spikes of frozen pines below. Their car rose steadily, higher and higher, slowly crawling its way across the steep gorge. The wind was picking up now, and the cables holding them aloft emitted a strange vibrating whine that penetrated their little car as it rocked gently from side to side.

"We're pretty high up."

He sounded more curious than afraid, though, little circles of white breath clouding the glass and then disappearing just as quickly. Izuku wondered if Todoroki nurtured the same habit he did; of running various situations and catastrophes through his mind, forming random rescue plans to stave off anxiety and boredom. He watched Todoroki's gaze gradually hover over each of the four other boys in the car: Tokoyami, Sero, Kirishima, and finally, himself.

Izuku estimated about a hundred foot drop into the deepest gullies they passed over — maybe thirty on average, not including trees. Worst came to worst, he could probably survive a 60-foot fall if he used his quirk. Maybe. So that meant better than average odds for him. But the others… Izuku began quietly assessing the weights and falling trajectories of his friends in the event of an emergency.

"Hmm? Oh, yes, it stops all the time," Tokoyami replied, casually enjoying the tension in Todoroki's white-knuckled grip on his seat. "But break? No. If it stops it's likely because someone wasn't able to get off at the top. In that case, you just wait patiently."

Izuku felt Todoroki's elbow relax a little against his side.

"However, if you swing the car too violently, you could derail the cables and plummet down to a violent, icy death…" He grinned wide, hawk-eyes narrowing, each word a quiet and menacing hiss. "Though there haven't been any fatal chairlift accidents this year. Yet. "

"Oh come on!" A bark of laughter erupted from Kirishima sitting across from them, destroying Tokoyami's sinister mood. "-He's just mad because I pissed my name in the snow bigger than him!" He and Sero slapped their high-fives and Tokoyami sulked just a little lower in his seat.

"Who, Tokoyami?" Izuku tore himself away from his muttering calculations.

"No, Bakugou!" Sero laughed. "You should have seen their contest today, we were playing-"

"Oh! Hey! Midoriya!" Kirishima shouted, shoving Sero aside. " Truth or Dare!? "

Uh oh.

Oh no.

These games never ended well for him, Izuku knew that well enough. He was always too gullible and eager to please and took things way too far. But then again, thinking back to the few times he'd played, he'd always played with Kacchan, and that usually ended up with him getting hit. Or burned.

In more ways than one.

The tension in their tiny metal cabin thickened as all eyes focused on him and Izuku tugged at his collar, internally convinced the air inside was getting warmer by the second. Todoroki stopped staring out the window, blue-grey eyes now burning into him, and Tokoyami's mischievous grin began creeping back onto his face.

This was how it was gonna be, huh? Kirishima wiggled his brows. Oh well , Izuku sighed. All things considered, maybe it was for the best now that he was out in the open and pretty much all of UA knew he was bisexual.

"Uh…" Izuku looked around, surrounded by the crushing entrapment of adolescent peer pressure. "D-dare, I guess."

A gloved finger pointed square at his chest. "Take off your ugly jacket! And the shirt!"

"No!" He shrank back. "It's chilly out!"

"Oh, come on." Kirishima laughed, elbowing Sero for support. "Be a man!"

"I'm enough of a man, thank you." Izuku folded his arms petulantly. "I don't need to be a man with pneumonia."

Sero and Kirishima began chanting " Do it! Do it!" in perfect unison.

"Besides," Izuku continued, "you two put yours back on. We saw Ashido's phone at lunch! I-" He looked desperately over at Todoroki for an opinion, some backup, anything.

Todoroki shrugged. "You want to play the game?"

Sellout.

"Fine," Izuku huffed. "I'll- I'll unzip the front. Shoto, you're on thermostat duty if we're all suddenly getting nakeder up in here."

Todoroki blinked. "I most certainly am not, " he mumbled while Izuku unzipped his pink coat.

"Attaboy!" Kirishima reached across the car, offering a solid high-five. "That's the stuff! Hey- what's that in your pocket?"

"What is?" Izuku jammed his mitted hands down his pockets, empty except for his phone and lift ticket, which he already knew.

"No, the inside one!" Sero poked at the breast of Izuku's jacket, both of them definitely feeling something strangely firm there. And it wasn't a breast.

"There's an INSIDE POCKET?"

"Quiet down," Todoroki yawned, his attention slowly drifting back outside the car. "I've never been skiing before, and I knew that..."

"Oh, shut up, icehole." Izuku nudged the smug asshole with his elbow. "Go connect to the snow." He began thoroughly patting his chest up and down, feeling the outline of a very solid object that couldn't possibly have been there before. "Huh. Weird." His hand brushed across a pull tab hidden inside the lining. "I just thought it was lumpy because it's really old. It's actually kinda been bugging me all day. It's-"

He pawed at the tab with his mittens for an infuriating amount of time until Tokoyami took pity on him and commandeered the task, opening Izuku's pocket in one swift motion.

"Cookies!" Izuku shouted, plucking the sandwich baggy stuffed with chocolate biscuits out of the polyester lining and hoisting it aloft. "And a note!"

Jackpot!

Sero cackled with glee. "Did your mom make those?"

"Duh!" Kirishima kicked him. "Midoriya's mom's sweet like that! What's more amazing is that you've been carrying those around all day without noticing."

Of course she would. Of course his mother would want to surprise him on his special trip, reminding him of her love and dedication. Izuku marveled at the bag of treats in hand. When did she have time to bake these? He'd had to get up at 4 o'clock in the morning just to make it in time for the bus. She must have done it after he went to bed the night before. Izuku smiled to himself, any embarrassment well worth the love put into the gesture.

"You guys want one?" He cracked open the bag, releasing the pleasant scent of chocolate and icing sugar into the tiny cabin. Kirishima and Sero immediately shoved their hands in, fighting for the largest one.

"Todoroki?" Izuku shook the bag in his direction.

Todoroki's nose was back on the windowsill, clearly using his quirk to keep the frost away from his view. "No thanks." He said, almost inaudibly quiet. Strange. "I'm not really sup-" his voice trailed into nothing. "My-" he tried again, apparently struggling for the right words. "No thanks."

"You sure?"

Torodoki clearly seemed a little offput by the gesture, even as Kirishima and Sero loudly covered themselves in crumbs. Was it the thermostat comment? No. He was pretty adamant at lunch about how healthy those gross macro bowls were. And, to be honest, Izuku couldn't recall Todoroki ever eating any sort of junk food whatsoever.

"I mean," Izuku continued, "my mom made them special!"

Was he some kind of obsessive health nut?

"Don't push the subject, Midoriya."

Defeated at last, Izuku shrank back, lowering the baggy to his lap. Todoroki kept his eyes on the trees below. Disappointing. Guy wouldn't even eat a cookie. He did have… very nice lats, though. Maybe he was onto something? Still, rude.

"Fine." Izuku said, a little more harshly than he'd intended. He didn't know why he felt so dejected. It was just a cookie, wasn't it? Was Todoroki really that conscious about his figure? "Tokoyami?"

Tokoyami didn't hesitate. "I want Mina's as well," he said, stuffing his hand in the bag.

A brief moment of silence settled over the gondola as four boys muched in peace, and Todoroki continued his sulk in the corner. The cookies were, by Izuku's own unbiased admission, fantastic.

"You should really stand up to her at some point, you know," he said between licking the icing sugar off of his fingers. "She walks all over you because she knows she can get away with it."

"She is…" Tokoyami sucked in a deep breath, glaring around at the other boys with tense suspicion.

"Yeah?"

His shoulders suddenly drooped and his gaze fell to the ground. "...Very cute."

"Oof." Kirishima reached out and slapped him on the knee. "You poor bastard."

Sero nodded. "No recovery from that one. Another valliant man fallen. Hey, Midoriya, these cookies are kinda warm like your body."

"There a problem with that?"

"No, just…" he made a vague gesture with his hands. "I'm picturing this cookie next to your sweat."

Tokoyami sighed, holding his last chocolate fragment between his fingers. "I don't know what to do about Mina…"

"Just eat your sweatcookie, Sero." Izuku shifted back to Shoto, still staring glassy-eyed out the gondola window. "What are you even looking at?"

Todoroki frowned. "We're supposed to be keeping an eye out for Asui, remember?"

"I can't handle it, ok!?" Tokoyami's shout dominated the car, catching the other boys off-guard. "Whatever she demands, I cave! She's always yelling at me or hanging off of me. She- She pulls at my feathers! I want to tell her no. And like, I'd rather spend my time with someone like Asui, like you said, to be honest… but." Tokoyami sighed, exasperated, and exhausted. "There's just never a moment to say anything."

"If that's how you feel, then you should just tell her that." Izuku patted his friend on the shoulder, offering him another cookie.

"You're one to give advice about relationships, Midoriya…" He took one anyway, nibbling it with his beak. "Can't even tell when someone likes you."

"WAIT WHO LIKES ME!?"

The other boys reeled back as the spittle from Deku's mouth hit Tokoyami in the face. The words escaped his mouth before Izuku had any reasonable moment to think about them or shut himself up. Ochaco? Was it Ochaco? Should he have waited for Ochaco? Did he stand her up at lunch? Was she expecting him? WAS IT OCHACO AND DID HE MISS HIS CHANCE TO SWEEP HER OFF HER FEET?

Tokoyami's eyes flit back and forth between him and Todoroki. "I've, uh…" he paused, suddenly very unsure of himself. "I've been sworn to secrecy," he choked, left eye twitching as menacing rimes of frost crept along the gondola floor, slowly inching their way up his ski boots.

"So, what does the note say?" he tried to cough an awkward laugh. "I mean, truth! Midoriya, what does it say?"

"No, it's my turn." Izuku shook his head. "Shoto."

"Truth."

Well.

He wasn't expecting that one. Shit. He just wanted to dare the sworn health nut to eat a cookie. Crap. Crapdamn. Izuku sat, blinking as the seconds ticked by, trying to think of a solid backup plan.

"So… uh." He fished around for ideas. Come on. Stab in the dark. Stab in the dark. "Um... Is there someone you like?"

"Yes."

The cabin fell silent.

Kirishima looked at Sero.

Sero looked at Tokoyami.

Tokoyami looked at Izuku.

Todoroki looked out the window.

"Who are you texting?" Tokoyami watched Kirishima quietly, casually, slide his phone out like it was nobody's business.

"Yaomomo," he grinned. "She owes me about a thousand yen. For, uh, no reason."

Incredible. Just like that, no hesitation. Todoroki was either brave or foolhardy or both. "Who is it?" Izuku gasped. "Who do you like?"

Todoroki shook his head, steely poker-face set in solid. "Nope. My turn. Tokoyami. Truth or dare."

"Truth, then."

Shoto thought quietly for a moment. "What's something that embarasses you?"

"Being stuck with you idiots." Tokoyami didn't waste a moment of breath.

"Oh, diss." "Burn." Sero and Kirishima laughed as their gondola shook gently in the wind, still cranking slowly up the mountainside.

"Well now you're not gebbing emy mo cookiefv!" Izuku choked, two in his mouth, cradling the dwindling sandwich baggy in his palms.

"Alright, fine then," he shrugged. "Sometimes when my chest hairs grow in, they grow in as feathers. And hate it, and I try to rip them out, but then they bleed and hurt a lot and that's why I sometimes have weird blood stains on my shirt."

That was...

"Oh, nast," Kirishima gagged.

Izuku's face blanched. "This just got weird."

"You asked," Tokoyami pointed out in smug mock-offence. "Midoriya, truth or dare. Just pick truth, I want to know what the note says."

"Fine, fine." Izuku wiped his crumbly fingers on the front of his jacket and flipped open the little post-it note his mother had folded and tucked inside. "It just says… Hi son, hope you're having a great day. Rest when you need to. Here's a snack, love mom. "

Fuck anyone else's opinions or laughter. Izuku had the best mom hands down and he was ready to fight anyone to prove it. Even smug jerks with mystery crushes who didn't want cookies.

"Todoroki. Truth or dare."

"Dare."

FUCK , now he wanted to ask this slippery weasel who he liked. That Sneaky Devil. Fine. Fine. Backup plan. He wasn't going to let him just get away like that.

"Eat a cookie."

"No."

"Come on."

"No."

"That's your dare."

"I said no. I don't want it." He peeled his gaze away from the window, over to Izuku, staring him up and down like he, his coat and the bag of cookies were all cursed.

Izuku sniffed, unable to hide his annoyance. "What's the big deal? Like, calories and shit?"

"Midoriya-" Shoto's voice was deep and tense, the one he used when warning his opponents not to underestimate him.

"No really. What's wrong?" he should stop. He should really stop. And yet, something made Izuku Midoriya push further. Maybe it was the insult to his mother, maybe it was Shoto's smug attitude. Maybe something else. But he wasn't going to let this one go. "My mom worked so hard for these and you're looking at them like they're poison!"

Todoroki's flat expression began to contort into ugly annoyance, eyes narrowing under furrowed brows full of hate and… how was he still so handsome when he was angry?

Kirishima tried to jam his leg between the two boys stuffed into their seats. "Midoriya. Chill out, dude, it's ok. He doesn't have to-"

"No!" Izuku spat in Todoroki's face. "He does! That's the game!"

He could feel the temperature in the car rapidly dropping as Shoto's jaw clenched, and his eyes flit between Izuku and the bag.

"I'm not doing it."

"Cut it out, guys."

"It's like one cookie."

"I SAID LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!"

The Heaven's Gate gondola arrived at the top of the platform with a jagged, halting screech. Sagging with the weight of six-foot icicles hanging from its belly, the cable car hit the landing platform with a terrible thump, clanging and shattering ice against the metal guide rails and screeching its way to an awkward jolting stop.

Traction cables whined under the strain of the explosive cold crunching through the machinery as attendants killed the engines and rushed to chip through the three-inch layer of ice coating the gondola with a crowbar. After wrenching the door open, and dumping out the waist-deep chunks of solid ice filling the cabin, five teenage boys hobbled out of the car, shivering and quietly subdued.