"What's going on!"
"What'd you guys come here for anyway?"
"They're scouting out the enemy, small fry."
Shouto looks up from putting his things into his bag to watch as Bakugou makes his way out of the classroom through the crowd of students partially blocking the door.
He was hoping to be able to talk to Bakugou at some point after class regarding their soulmarks.
Finishing with his things he follows Bakugou out of the classroom, but loses sight of him quickly. Heaving a sigh he heads for the entrance, that's most likely where he'll have a chance to catch the volatile blonde.
Reaching the shoe lockers he heads for his, keeping his eyes open for his soulmate in the crowd of students leaving.
He spots his target turning off to the side and going around a corner toward the train station after leaving the school gate and follows him.
Turning the corner himself, Shouto finds Bakugou leaning against the wall, arms crossed and one foot braced behind him.
"What the hell do you want Half 'n Half?"
"I wanted to talk?"
"Tch," Bakugou looks to the side, eyes narrowing in a glare. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. What did you want to talk about? And make it quick, I ain't got all day."
Shouto nods, thinking carefully about how to approach the subject. "What's your relationship with Midoriya?"
"Huh?" A sneer takes over Bakugou's face as he turns to face his classmate. "The hell kind of question is that?"
"The two of you are odd," Shouto tilts his head, trying to think of the words to best explain. "You both have nicknames for one another. Yet, you physically and verbally abuse Midoriya during class. Despite this, or maybe because of it, he's the only person you seem to respect."
"Respect? How do you figure that?"
"I mentioned it before, but he's the only one you don't call an extra." Shouto takes a step forward, his eyes narrowing in on Bakugou. "So I ask again, what is the relationship the two of you have?"
Bakugou glares at his intensely for a long moment before turning away with a scoff, "Tch. Not that it's any of your business, but our mom's are friends. We grew up together. There's nothing there other than that."
Shouto blinks, not buying into the explanation at all, but dropping it all the same. It may be easier to get answers out of Midoriya at this point.
"Kacchan? Are you over here?" Midoriya rounds the corner at a light jog, his worried expression turning to one of confusion as he sees Shouto and Bakugou together. "Ah, Todoroki? What are you doing here?"
"I had a few questions for Bakugou. I'll be leaving now. See you both tomorrow in class."
Izuku watches Todoroki walk away, still not sure what he just walked into.
"Oi, nerd, let's get moving. We've still got training to get to."
"Oh, um, right." Izuku jogs up to Kacchan as he pushes off from the wall to walk to the train station.
As they walk he thinks back on his conversation with AllMight at lunch. He's not sure what to think about what he was told, just that the weight he felt being placed on his shoulders feels heavier than he expected.
"Oi!"
Izuku looks up from watching his feet to see Kacchan holding out a bundle wrapped in an AllMight kerchief.
He blinks at it in confusion.
"I forgot to give this to you on our way to school this morning."
Carefully, Izuku reaches out and takes the surprisingly heavy bento before looking up at Kacchan to see the faint pink dusting his cheeks.
"Eat it on the train home, you can't train on an empty stomach. I made it with lots of protein and calcium."
Izuku looks down at the smiling face of his mentor printed onto the cloth of the bento, a smile taking over his face.
"Thank you Kacchan."
"Don't worry about it." Kacchan won't meet Izuku's eyes, his gaze angled off to the side as he scratches at his cheek. "Just make sure you eat all of it before we get to the beach."
"I will."
The two continue to the train station in silence.
Finally managing to take a seat on the train Katsuki prods Deku into eating his food which has the boy digging in with gusto.
"Oh wow! Kacchan it's so good! I wish I could cook this well."
"Tch, it's nothing special." He refuses to meet the other boy's gaze, mind trying to go over different way Deku could use to harness his quirk.
"Hey, when you go to use your quirk, how do you go about it?"
Deku pauses in eating, looking up in thought, the chopsticks sitting just beyond his lower lip.
"Well, I visualize an egg in the microwave and trying to keep it from exploding. A shorter time, less power. I've managed to hold back a few times enough to not break my bones. That bird guy, Noumu, at the USJ, I managed to punch him and not break my arm. He jumped between me and Shiguraki, and it was really the first time I've tried to use my quirk against another person. I think I was subconsciously holding some of the power back, which is why I didn't break anything. Then again, Noumu's quirk was shock absorption, so his quirk may have been able to nullify the damage caused by my quirk's backlash."
Katsuki places a hand over Deku's mouth, stopping his rambling. "Stop and finish eating. You're not an idiot, but sometimes you're too close to a problem to find the answer." Katsuki pulls his hand away and allows Deku to continue eating.
"Look, you can't just strengthen one part of your body. When you move your arm, it uses muscles all through your chest to make that movement. If you enhance only the muscles in your arm then of course the backlash is going to break something."
Deku looks up at Katsuki, the bento now empty with only the chopsticks laying inside it.
"I hadn't thought of it that way. So, if that's the case, what do you suggest I do?"
"You need to distribute the power more evenly through your body, stop concentrating it all in one place. We'll practice tonight with you calling it up and spreading it out. Once you have that figured out we'll move onto movement before sparring."
"Sparring? Kacchan?"
"You have shit skills when it comes to fighting, you can't even through a punch right as it is, we'll start with that once you have some kind of control over your quirk."
"Right! Thanks Kacchan, you're the best!"