Last update until I leave for vacation! Hope you enjoy!
Shouto was not a stranger to hospitals.
He had practically lived a month of his life in one when he had been given his scar. His father had insisted anyone with a healing quirk anywhere near Japan to come fix his damaged creation. None of them could.
He visited the mental hospital that held his mother regularly. He would wait in their waiting room when she was busy or if she was in treatments. The receptionists and a few of the nurses there knew him by name now.
There had been the time in middle school when Natsuo had broken his arm and they had all visited him then. Rarely, his father got hurt during work and Fuyumi would usually make him visit him too.
He had stayed in one in Hosu and plenty of times as a child when his father went too far and Fuyumi would insist he needed medical attention. Any doctors working the emergency rooms those nights always got payed a little extra to pretend that Endeavor's son hadn't showed up with too many burns and bruises for a 'kitchen accident'.
This hospital visit, however, was incredibly different than all of the previous ones. He wasn't here for himself, nor his mother or any member of his family. He was scared for someone else's life. Shouto wondered offhandedly how many people had died in this white walls.
How many soulmates had been split, their bonds severed so unceremoniously?
The doctors said he would be okay eventually. They said he would heal, but that didn't stop the fear flowing through him, thick and suffocating. He didn't think he'd be okay until he saw his soulmate with his own eyes, truly saw him alive. Doctors could lie just like the rest of them.
Another thought poked and prodded at him as he waited. What would he have done if Midoriya has died tonight, unaware of his soulmate right beside him? What if he died, thinking he was all alone?
Most of their class was still sitting in the waiting room. A few of them had gone home, but an overwhelmingly majority still sat there.
Midoriya's injuries had been the worse, his soulmate had been in surgery for a few hours now. Most the others who had been hurt had already woken up and been healed by quirks. Momo had been the most recent one, the remainder of the class shuffling in her room to express their excitement that she was okay. They didn't seem all that excited, despite their words.
How could they be, when there was still a ghost lingering in the waiting room?
Everything was quiet, beside the ticking of the analog clock. It was past midnight. Kaminari and Sero hadn't cracked a joke yet. Iida hadn't assured everyone that it was going to be okay. Most of them just stared at the floor, a few of them played on their phones until they died, but it was obvious everyone seemed to be mourning.
Shouto felt like he was watching a funeral through someone else's eyes. It didn't seem real. It didn't seem like it had happened to him, to them. Stolen and injured right under their noses.
Despite all of them, despite Bakugou's absence, Midoriya was still, stubbornly, the only thing on his mind. He was worried about him, he had been worrying about him for the last several hours. He had passed out in his arms after crying enough that he probably dehydrated himself along with all his shattered bones. It was unlikely he would be out of surgery, much less wake up, anytime soon.
Shouto knew he wouldn't, couldn't, leave until he saw him. His father could walk through those doors right now and command he come home, but he wouldn't. Not until he knew his soulmate would be okay.
At least he had it better than Kirishima and Bakugou, he knew where Midoriya was. He knew his soulmate was going to make it out alive.
The ticking of the clock mocked them.
"Todoroki, can we talk?"
Shouto looked up from a particularly interesting floor tile to see Kirishima standing beside his lonely chair. The rest of the class had collected in the center of the waiting room, sitting together, some of them hugging or touching in support, but Shouto had secluded himself in a corner away from them and they all knew better than to bother him. Even Uraraka and Iida hadn't said a word to him.
He didn't feel like talking to anyone about anything, but Kirishima had a strangely serious look on his face so Shouto just nodded and allowed the redhead to lead him away.
They stopped in a fairly empty hallway. Their only company was a doctor or nurse every once in while who walked past them without a glance. Shouto waited for Kirishima to say something, but for once his classmate looked lost for words.
He finally dug his hand in his pocket and held out two small pieces of metal. Two identical soulmate clocks, each made of the same dark stainless steel and counting up in unison. The only difference was that one had a single thin crack through the glass between the seconds and hours.
"We're soulmates." Kirishima announced, offering both clocks to Shouto. He took them and flipped them over in his fingers, barely processing each one's scratches and dents. Watching through someone else's eyes. "Bakugou and I."
Shouto gave them back to Kirishima and he pocketed one, but held onto the cracked one. "Congratulations." The taller teenager said finally.
"I'm going after him." The redhead blurted out. Shouto blinked at him and Kirishima continued. "I don't know if you'll agree, or understand, but I have to go after him. He's my soulmate! I hate this. I hate just sitting here and waiting for some pro to show up and tell me he's dead. They made me just sit there before, I couldn't even go and fight. They just made me sit there, while my watch fell off." He growled out the last part, holding onto the clock tightly. Someone must have recognized it's similarities and given it to him. Shouto wondered who had been the one forced to deliver that news.
Kirishima spoke again, shaken by his own imagination. "I can't just wait around anymore, I have to find him, I have to find out wha- what's happened to him, or else I'm going to go... I'll go insane. Yaoyorozu created a tracker and she has the League's location, so I'm going after him, she might be coming too, I don't know yet." He fell silent as a nurse with a clipboard walked past them.
"If you were soulmates, then why did it take so long for your watches to fall off?" Shouto asked eventually.
Kirishima brushed a finger over the crack, the seconds steadily growing. "There's different types of soulmate watches, usually they count down to the moment you meet or talk for the first time. Those are the most common ones, the ones you always hear about. You can tell what kind you have from the metal they're made of, usually. Mine, ours, it counts down to when one of us is scared they might die." He frowned, then added firmly. "It doesn't mean he's dead."
But it could, Shouto finished silently.
"Why are you telling me all this?" Sure, he was honored that Kirishima thought he was someone to trust with this information but it didn't make sense. Shouto understood maybe one of his friends, Kaminari or Ashido, maybe even Iida, since he was the class president, but him?
"When he wakes up, I'm going to ask Midoriya to come with us." That made more sense.
Kirishima finally put away Bakugou's watch and looked Shouto in the eyes.
"I'm not to pretend to understand what's going on with you and Midoriya, I don't know what's the deal between you two or your soulmates or whatever and you don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to. But I know he's really important to you, and you're important to him, too. You guys look at each as if you are each other's soulmates. He's going to come with us, I know he will, you know he will, too, so I figured you would want to come with us. Plus we're gonna have to fight some villains, I figured you'd be a good addition." Shouto fell silent. Another nurse walked past them while he debated his words.
Hospitals always smelled the same, antiseptic and chemicals and death.
"I'm not doing this for Bakugou. I honestly don't care about him, but... You're right, I do care about Midoriya. I'll go if he does." Shouto answered. Kirishima gave him a strained smile.
"Thank you."
"Oh, Todoroki-kun. Your hair is showing." His soulmate ducked down to where he was sitting on the bench and started to fix the black wig.
Shouto couldn't breathe for a moment. He was so close to him. He counted the freckles on his cheeks to keep his body temperature down. "There you go." Midoriya moved away and sat beside him.
"Thanks." Momo and Kirishima has gathered around Iida to help paste on his mustache. The two watched them for a moment before Midoriya took a deep breath beside him.
"Thank you, for coming. I know you don't like Kacchan very much, but I-" The green-haired teenager paused. He continued in a whisper, looking down at his arms. White bandages were visible underneath his sleeves. "I appreciate you coming."
Shouto wanted to tell him his real reasons for coming. He wanted to tell him that he was only here because he didn't want to be in Kirishima's place, afraid his soulmate might be dead. He didn't ever want to feel like that. Sure, the redhead was laughing now at Iida, struggling with his disguise, but the stress was obvious in the other teenager.
Kirishima was terrified.
"You're welcome. I don't want anything to happen to anyone, so I figured it would be best to come, too." Shouto said instead.
Midoriya smiled, glancing at him shyly. It felt like another dream, where they were safe and peaceful on a bench together in a misty courtyard. This wasn't a dream, he reminded himself.
"I actually- I wanted to talk to you. About something..." Midoriya admitted quietly, looking away. He played with his fingers in his lap.
"What?" Shouto frowned. He couldn't imagine what it could be about.
"It- It's about your s-"
"Hey!" Kirishima walked over, a sharp, fake smile on face. "You guys ready to go?"
"O-Oh, yeah!" Midoriya jumped up and Shouto followed behind.
They left the store, the street filled with chatter. Shouto fell into step beside his soulmate. "Midoriya, what did you want to talk about?"
His soulmate shook his head, pointedly looking away again.
"It's not important..."
Shouto thought he had faced villains. He had defeated the Hero Killer, those members of the League at USJ. He fought the League at the summer camp. He fought his father every night.
All for One, that had been what Midoriya had murmured beside him, going stiff against his side. His hand was gripped tightly in the other boy's, pressed against him in some version of support, or maybe he was seeking it. He wasn't sure when he had grabbed his hand, but it had been a long time ago, or maybe time was just passing too quickly.
Shouto couldn't move. He could barely even process how close his soulmate was to him. He was too scared to actually tremble in fear, he felt Midoriya solid against him. He thought he had faced villains before, but he had been wrong. None of those people had really been villains, none of them even compared to All for One.
The villain spoke, a cool, deep voice that was nothing like anything he had heard. He didn't seemed concerned with the pros that he had just fought. Of course he wasn't, he had just defeated them all in seconds. His voice struck some deep fear in him, different than his father's growls or the crazy sentences that had flowed from the Hero Killer's mouth. Ice climbed up his limbs, frost crackling underneath his sleeve.
There were more sounds on the other side of the devastated fence, before a familiar voice broke through the rest. Midoriya squeezed his hand and Kirishima visibly stiffened.
"Kacchan." His soulmate gasped beside him, barely loud enough hear.
The green-haired teenager suddenly stepped forward, and Shouto moved to follow him, he'd follow him anywhere, but a firm grip stopped them both. Shouto turned and glared at Iida, the taller teenager glaring back.
Before anyone else could say anything, a loud voice echoed through the ruined street. "All for One! Give me back my student!"
All Might. All Might was here.
Their group relaxed at the sound of the number one hero. He would save them. Midoriya however seemed even more horrified at the sound of their teacher. He was still clutching Shouto's hand like a lifeline, even after the battle between All Might and All for One began.
"If Todoroki-kun can make a ramp with his ice, then Iida-kun and I can use our quirks to gain speed and fly over the villains and out of the way of All Might and All for One. Kirishima-kun, you're going to have to call out to Kacchan, and he'll come to you. Once we're out of there, All Might won't have to worry about us." Midoriya explained his plan rapidly.
A burst of wind violently shook their fence and they all flinched away. "Do you think that's really going to work, Midoriya-kun?" Momo asked, hugging herself. She looked incredibly pale.
"It's all I have. If we don't act quickly, All Might is going to lose or we're going to be discovered, then he's going to have to worry about us on top of Kacchan and the other villains." He said. They all exchanged looks.
"I'm in." His classmates looked at him in surprise. "I trust Midoriya. We came all this way to rescue Bakugou, let's do it."
Iida sighed. "We don't have any other options. I'm in too. But as soon as we have him, we are leaving!"
Kirishima was the last part of the plan, they glanced at him. The redhead looked nervous, watching the ground. His eyes flickered up to lock onto Midoriya. "Do you really think he'll come to me?"
He nodded. "You're his soulmate, you know he knows it too. He'll come."
Kirishima was silent for a moment before he nodded, determined. "Okay. Let's do this."
They spread out to their positions, Momo peered through a thin crack in the fence boards. Iida and Midoriya stood behind her, waiting for her signal, Kirishima in front of them.
"He's running from one of them now. If he gets ahead, then that'll be our chance. He'll be separated from the rest of them." She decided, looking back to them. Kirishima somehow seemed more shaken by her words.
"Todoroki-kun." Shouto glanced away, surprise to see his soulmate suddenly by his side. "No matter what happens, please promise me you'll run away after this, back to the main streets or something." The green-haired teenager commanded quietly.
He blinked. "What?"
Midoriya frowned, glancing at the broken concrete ground. He sighed, a painful exhale. "Please. I can't let anything happen to you."
"I'm not going to leave you." Shouto argued.
His soulmate grabbed his hand, definitely not an accident this time. Midoriya stared him down with a determined, yet equally desperate expression. He had never seen him look like that before. "Todoroki-kun, please."
"You guys!" Momo called. "He's isolated now!"
"I'll call you, when we're both out." He answered. His tone was obvious. If his plan failed, Shouto would be the first one over that fence.
His soulmate looked like he wanted to argue more, but they didn't have the time. Shouto let him go and Midoriya nodded apprehensively. They returned to their places, the green-haired teenager grabbed onto Kirishima alongside Iida.
Green electricity crackled around them and Shouto turned and leaned down, pressing his hand to the cracked cement. An ice spike grew from the ground, stretching upward in seconds. He let out a frosty breath as they ran past him, the wind tossed his hair.
He watched as they climbed, the blue exhaust fire from Iida's engines, Kirishima's fire colored hair. More than anything, however, he saw his soulmate, glowing green.
"Todoroki-kun, we've got to go. They're going to investigate where this ice came from." Momo said beside him, head tilted toward the sky. Shouto didn't say anything.
"Come on!" He heard Kirishima scream desperately, high above their heads.
Explosions burst into the night sky and Shouto finally nodded. "Let's go."
"You're next."
The crowd erupted at All Might's final words, exploding in a deafening cheer. Shouto felt like he couldn't breathe, with the noise and the people and the adrenaline. The pressure.
His body buzzed.
The sickly, skinny version of the former number one hero pointed to the camera, blood dripping down his sunken eyes. Shouto couldn't tear his eyes from the screen. There wasn't enough air in his lungs.
Despite the overwhelming noise, he could clearly hear the sounds of his soulmate sobbing beside him, wiping desperately at his face.
Those words seemed to mean something more to Midoriya. He didn't understand what, but he wasn't the only who noticed. Bakugou glared down Midoriya on his other side, seeming more frustrated than actually angry. Kirishima was holding his hand, smiling proudly at the screen. His eyes sparkled, reunited with his soulmate.
Shouto locked eyes with the spiky blond, the screaming of the people around them drowning out anything he could have said.
Bakagou stared him down with crimson colored eyes, a thousand cheers surrounding him.
How I imagine Kirishima and Shouto's conversation going:
Shouto: I could not care less about rescuing Bakagou.
Kirishima: Midoriya is coming.
Shouto: I suddenly care very much about rescuing Bakugou.
I had a lot of people asking about Bakugou's soulmate/soulmate watch, so I hope that satisfied you guys! My idea was that this was the first time Bakagou was actually scared he was going to die. He was overly confident at USJ, and Kirishima was with him then, too, so he wasn't worried at USJ either. Thanks for reading!