Almost forgot to post! Hope you guys have been enjoying the story so far - we're slowly approaching the midpoint. See you all Thursday!

The first thing Todoroki felt as he woke up was warmth, and it only took a moment to remember why.

The sun. The desert.

Wincing, he pulled himself up from the ground into a sitting position before tenderly touching his head. It felt much better than yesterday and his mind felt clearer, but it still wasn't perfect. At the very least, he hoped that his quirk would be working all right. Both his and Izuku's lives depended on it.

At the thought of the other boy, his head turned to look at him. Izuku was still asleep a few yards away, his arm resting over his chest. By the pained expression on his face, Todoroki knew he couldn't be feeling all that great even in his sleep. His brow lowered. Could he be worse off than yesterday?

"Midoriya," he said, loud enough for his friend to hear. "We should get up now."

Izuku didn't even stir.

Concerned now, Todoroki pushed himself up from the ground and steadied himself to stand. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the remains of the fire he'd made last night and made a note to not step on it. He took a few steps toward his friend, bare feet crunching against the sand, and then stopped at his side.

"Midoriya, wake up," he said as he peered down at him. "Midoriya?"

Izuku let out a small groan, the lines on his forehead deepening. Todoroki frowned and crouched beside him, suspicions rising of what he believed to be wrong. Slowly, he reached out his hand before placing it on the other boy's forehead.

It was hot.

Pulling his hand away, his eyes widened as he realized what this meant. Midoriya has a fever. It was hard to tell how bad it was with the sun being so hot, but there was no denying the unmistakable warmth in his skin as well as how pale he looked in contrast to the desert sand.

He's sick.

He cursed aloud. This was not good at all. He'd hoped they'd be able to travel more today or at least be feeling better, however, things were not going as planned.

I at least need to wake him up, he thought, and ask him how his arm is doing. Yesterday must have made it worse. It probably needs to be cleaned.

He put a hand on Izuku's right shoulder and gently shook it. "Midoriya, wake up."

Izuku's eyes fluttered under their lids in a struggle to return to consciousness. "Wha…" he murmured, before he seemed to jolt awake. "Ah, Todoroki?" he shouted, eyes flying wide open. He began to sit up but immediately cried out and fell back down to the sand.

"Easy now," Todoroki warned. "Don't hurt yourself. How are you feeling?"

"I…" Izuku struggled to catch his breath. "I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"I only just woke up, g-give me a minute." Izuku closed his eyes again as if trying to concentrate. A moment later, they opened and he tipped his head. "Okay, I-I think I can sit up now."

Todoroki raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

"Y-yeah."

"Okay…" Todoroki helped pull the other boy up from the ground, albeit slowly, until Izuku was in a comfortable sitting position.

"Thanks," Izuku said. "I'm fine now!"

Todoroki hardly believed that but decided to hold his tongue for another few minutes so he could ask some more questions. "Well, good."

"What time is it?"

"Oh, I… I didn't check. It's probably around seven or eight."

Izuku squinted. "So when are we leaving?"

"Leaving?" Todoroki pursed his lips. "I don't think we should be traveling at all today."

Alarmed, Izuku's head jolted up. "Wait, what?"

"You can't have forgotten what happened yesterday, could you?" Todoroki said in exasperation. "If the same thing happened today, who knows what would happen. It's not worth it."

Izuku blinked. "But… I'm not going to use my quirk again."

"That's not the point. I'm just trying to say that you're still injured. And Midoriya…" His tone lowered. "There's something else. Before you woke up, I felt your forehead to check if you had a temperature." His eyes were hard now. "You have a fever."

Izuku sucked in a breath, his body going stiff. "It must have just been the sun," he said quietly. "I'm fine."

"You're not fine! Stop saying that!" Todoroki chided. "At this rate, you're going to kill yourself before we even reach help! Now-" He stuck out his hand. "Show me your arm."

Izuku's eyes widened. "Why?"

"I want to check it."

"I-I cleaned it last night."

"Midoriya…" Todoroki gritted his teeth. He was hiding something. "Show it to me now. I need to see how bad it is."

"No!" Izuku protested, and he pulled his sling closer to his chest as if he were protecting it. "Look, it… it looks worse than it feels, okay? I don't want you to worry."

Both of the boys stared at each other for a long time, before Izuku's eyes finally broke away.

"I'm sorry, I can't," he repeated.

Todoroki frowned, disappointed. If Midoriya wouldn't show it to him, there wasn't much else he could do. They weren't close enough for him to try and talk him into showing his arm, and he knew that Izuku wasn't stupid. If his arm was truly life-threatening, he would seek help.

"Fine. We'll talk about this later," he concluded. "Just take care of it. And if it starts hurting-"

"Tell you, I know!"

Todoroki sighed and leaned back on his knees. "Do you think you'll be able to walk today? I don't want to push it if you're not feeling up to it."

Nodding, Izuku sat up straighter. "Definitely! I don't want to slow us down anymore."

"All right, then. If you're still feeling 'fine', we'll try to set off after breakfast."

"I'm not hun-"

"Midoriya, you need to eat something," Todoroki interrupted. "How are you supposed to heal with no energy? We still have a few granola bars left and we'll finish off those until tonight. Then we'll try to find some kind of animal to eat."

Izuku's eyebrows lifted. "You mean, you want to hunt?"

"It's not that I want to, it's just that we don't have much of a choice." Todoroki pushed himself up off the ground and quickly brushed off the sand that had collected on his pants. "You get dressed and I'll get the water and food ready."

Izuku glanced back over at his folded grey uniform he'd used as a pillow last night as if realizing he was only wearing the white shirt that was underneath. His belt also lay off to the side next to his backpack- it would be too uncomfortable to sleep with.

Todoroki had done the same thing last night. Both of them were eager to rid themselves of any sort of clothing during the night- it was actually warmer than he thought in the evening, as the temperatures were high enough in the summer to sustain them- and also because of all the sand that had collected on it. During the day, though, they both put their uniforms back on to prevent sunburn (the sun would only affect Todoroki's right side, but still would be painful), even if it did make it hotter.

As Izuku went to work slipping his uniform on over his sling, Todoroki returned to his backpack where all the provisions were. Because Izuku couldn't handle too much moving of his shoulder, he'd had to take the load of their items and was the director of what came in and out of the packs.

After a minute of searching around, Todoroki found the last two granola bars and his own canteen of water. By the time he was turning back to Izuku, the other boy had almost finished dressing and seemed ready to sit back down.

Todoroki held up the granola bars as he came closer. "Which one?"

Izuku's nose wrinkled. They were both smushed. "The right one."

"I guess that leaves me with the left, then." Todoroki handed the bar over and then quirked his eyebrow. "How's your arm feeling now that you've dressed?"

"Oh, uh…" Izuku's eyes seemed to want to look anywhere but at Todoroki. "Okay, I guess. Just sore."

"Sure." Todoroki hardly believed that. He could only hope that it felt better as the day progressed. "Let's sit down and talk."

Izuku swallowed but didn't protest. He lowered himself to sit down on his blanket (neither of them wanted to sit directly on the sand) and Todoroki followed suit on his own blanket.

"What did you want to talk about?" Izuku asked him while he unwrapped the granola bar. "Walking today?"

Todoroki nodded. "Yes. We need to figure out where to go."

Izuku looked up at the sky and his eyes searched for the sun. After a moment of thinking, he pointed to their right. "It's that way!"

"I know," Todoroki said. "But that's not what I mean." He leaned forward slowly. "I was going to ask earlier, but do we even know we're going in the right direction? Town could be the other way if we're wrong."

Izuku blinked. "But yesterday-"

"I know what I said yesterday, but I've thought about it, and it might be too much of a risk to keep moving in that direction." Todoroki sighed, noting the other boy's disappointed look. "I just don't want to move around too much if there are people out looking for us. If they started flying around with a helicopter and went over a place we just were at, then us walking would be all for nothing."

"We still should move," Izuku argued. "We have to do something."

"I know. And that's why I think we should travel a bit more today, but stay put tomorrow." Todoroki began to open his granola bar before continuing to speak. "You're right to think that civilization could only be a few dozen miles away, but in this heat, distance can be deadly. Even walking a mile is hard in the sand. We'd have a much better, safer chance at getting rescued if we waited for someone to find us here- which I'm sure they will- rather than lose all our strength walking around."

Izuku looked down at his sagging breakfast with a frown. "Yeah, you have a good point. I just… I just thought we could rescue ourselves."

"We can't always be the heroes," Todoroki reminded him. "Sometimes it's better to leave it to the pros."

"Like in Hosu?"

Todoroki stiffened as memories of that awful night rushed through his mind. "What about Hosu?"

"We had to be the heroes there, even though we didn't have to be." Izuku looked up with a more confident expression. "If we waited even one moment, Iida would have wound up dead. Even though the other heroes could have handled it, we had to take the initiative. I'm not saying that this situation is exactly alike, but based on the lesson we learned there… I do think that we shouldn't give up. If we count on someone else to get us out of it then we could die waiting."

Todoroki couldn't help but admit that his argument did make sense. They were both injured but they could still walk… and maybe if they did that much, then they could get out of here.

"All right," he agreed. "We'll keep walking for now. But if either of us isn't feeling well-"

"Then we stop for the day," Izuku finished. "I get it!" Seeming relieved, he took a bite into his granola bar. His expression hardly said it tasted good, but at least it was food.

Todoroki looked down at his own bar and sighed. He didn't completely agree with what they decided on, but it was their best bet on getting out of here.

It was going to be a long day.

Todoroki was talkative today.

That was one of the main things Izuku had noticed since breakfast, and it was a pleasant realization. Yesterday he'd seemed to want to do anything but talk and only wanted them to both walk in silence. However, today Todoroki managed to keep a light conversation going between them as they walked. Somehow they had gotten into the topic of quirks and Izuku was having trouble holding back from asking too many questions.

"So, your quirk's been really strong ever since you were little," he confirmed. "Amazing… and you learned how to control it right away?"

Todoroki only shrugged. "My father had a role in that, but no, I never had much trouble."

"Incredible… with such a powerful quirk and so many ways to use it… it's-it's amazing!"

Raising an eyebrow, Todoroki looked mildly concerned. "It's not as "amazing" as you say it is. I was taught to use my quirk ever since I was little and not many other children were trained as I was. From the moment I was born, I had a head start."

"Still, I think it's remarkable that you did so much so young!" Izuku continued, and his hands itched to pull out his notebook to take notes. "I was… I was wondering, well, I wanted to ask some questions about your powers. With every quirk being amazing as it is, I like to study them, and if it's all right I'd like to look into yours a little more to see if I can learn anyth-"

"Midoriya, what's all this about?" Todoroki cut him off. "You don't usually ask these kinds of questions."

"Oh! Well… I guess since we never really talk, I just wanted to…" Izuku swallowed. "Uh, never mind. It's not a big deal!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah!" Izuku said, but he wasn't really.

I just wanted to ask him what his highest and lowest temperatures were for his fire and ice, he thought regretfully. Oh well. Another time.

His mind searched for another thing to talk about. Although he was more talkative than usual, Todoroki did seem to be losing interest in the conversation and Izuku certainly didn't want to spend the rest of the day in silence again. He had to think of something at least a little interesting quick.

And as he looked up at the hot sun, a topic came to him. "You know what I'd kill for about now?" he asked.

Todoroki wiped the back of his hand against his sweaty forehead. "What?"

"A shower." Izuku grunted as they began to climb up the next sand dune, this one steeper than the last one. "I don't care if it's hot or cold… I just want to be clean for a change."

And that was true. Ever since he'd arrived here, he'd been covered in sweat, grime, and dust (sometimes even blood), and he didn't even have a change of clothes to get into. Todoroki didn't smell much better than him, either.

His friend laughed dryly. "That sounds like a good idea, but I'd rather have something more along the lines of toothpaste."

"Just be glad we haven't had much to eat, or it'd be a lot worse," Izuku replied.

Todoroki nodded. "True. But the sand…"

Izuku shivered. "Yeah, I don't think I can stop spitting it out either."

"I just want to get out of this hellish place already." Todoroki looked up at the sun, seeming to want to curse it. "Of all the places we could've been stranded in, it had to be the desert."

"At least you can make water," Izuku reminded him. "And neither of us have gotten badly sunburned yet! That counts for something."

"I suppose…" Yet Todoroki didn't seem convinced. "It's bad enough being injured like this, but with nothing to help us out, we're in an even more precarious situation. We need to get out of this place soon."

"Well, at least we can't be too far out," Izuku said. "Haashim couldn't have sent us that many miles away. I bet they'll find us within the next few days!"

Todoroki smirked and only shook his head.

As the two continued walking quietly, Izuku noticed the throbbing in his arm getting a little worse. It hadn't been terrible this morning, but now with the constant hustle of walking and the strain of his backpack on his shoulders, it was taking its toll.

Wincing, he touched it through the sling and tried not to cry out. Todoroki hadn't noticed his expressions yet and he planned to keep it that way. But still… he needed a break, and soon. Maybe I'll ask for a water break, he thought. And to check the time. I don't think it's past ten yet.

"H-hey, Todoroki?" he asked. The other boy glanced over at him and Izuku smiled nervously. "Want to take a quick water break?"

"Oh. Yes… it's about time, I think." They both pulled to a stop and Izuku let out a quiet breath of relief. Maybe this rest would make his arm feel better.

After slipping off his backpack and taking out his water bottle, Izuku sipped eagerly but was surprised when Todoroki only watched him. Once finished with his drink, he pulled the bottle away and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Nothing, I-" Todoroki seemed to be debating on asking something. "How's your arm? I thought it might have been bothering you earlier."

He noticed? Izuku thought, alarmed. I thought I was being careful!

He kept his tone light. "It's, uh, you know…"

"No, I don't know."

"It's fine! I guess… I don't know…" His hand tightened around the water bottle. "It's just hard carrying my backpack like this. I guess my arm's acting up a bit with the extra weight."

"What? You should've told me earlier," Todoroki berated. "How bad is it hurting?"

"I don't know…" Izuku deeply regretted mentioning it in the first place. "Don't worry about it. It should be fine now that I've had some water."

"No, we're not putting any unnecessary strain on it," Todoroki told him. "Now, if you're finished with your water, you can put it back in your bag and I'll take it for you."

"What? No!" Izuku stepped in front of his backpack defensively. "I'm not making you carry my bag too! Your head is still hurt and it's really hot out here-"

"I'm okay, Midoriya," Todoroki insisted. "Last night's rest was all that I needed and I feel much better now. Carrying your bag wouldn't be a problem. Just give me it- you can make up for it tomorrow if you want to."

Izuku quieted. His arm was feeling pretty bad and he didn't want to push it much more, either… and maybe if he carried Todoroki's bag tomorrow as payment back…

"Are you sure?" he asked him. "It's-it's pretty heavy."

"Midoriya, I've carried worse for longer periods of time." Todoroki held out his hand. "Give it to me. We need to keep your arm from getting any worse."

Although embarrassed, Izuku finally dropped his water bottle back in the bag and quickly zipped it up. Then, he picked it off the ground and handed it off to Todoroki. "Again… are you su-"

"I'm sure," Todoroki repeated. "Thank you for checking, but I'm not a child." He slung the yellow bag over his shoulder and nodded. "No, it's not heavy at all. I'll be just fine."

Giving a tight smile, Izuku nodded back. "Thanks! I'll make it up to you soon!"

"I'm sure you will. For now, just try to stay out of trouble."

Izuku laughed. "Yeah."

"All right, now that we've got that settled…" Todoroki jutted his chin in the direction they were walking towards. "We should start walking again."

"Don't you want to have some water first, too?"

Todoroki shook his head. "I don't need it. With my quirk, I don't get dehydrated as easily. I'll just drink more at our next stop."

"Oh, all right… just say when you want to take a break next, then!"

"Sure." Todoroki squinted. "Ready to leave now?"

"Definitely!" And Izuku meant it. He was going to make everything up to Todoroki, and that first step was getting them out of the desert as quickly as he could.

One hour.

It had been one hour since they'd last spoken a word with each other. Izuku hardly liked this, but any time he attempted to start a conversation, Todoroki found a way to shut it down.

He'd talked about the weather, their friends, and had even gone as far as to ask Todoroki about his family in the hope of eliciting some kind of response, but immediately stopped when Todoroki gave him a dark look. He'd covered everything and still couldn't find a way to keep them occupied.

And better yet, his arm was feeling worse. While taking his backpack off had helped at first, it didn't take the fact away that he was still badly injured and had to walk in the extremely hot temperature. The jostling of his shoulders and the uneven steps of his feet proved to be a poor combination and left him feeling sick to his stomach.

To add to that, his head also felt fogged up and throbbed at the sun's rays. Todoroki had told him he'd felt a fever earlier, and if he was right…

Izuku swallowed. He just had to make it through today. No more problems like yesterday- they would walk as far as they could, no matter what his arm felt like.

So focused on this new resolution, Izuku was caught off guard when his foot suddenly collided with something on the ground and he yelled out. Before he could fall over, Todoroki swerved and caught him by his shoulders.

"Are you all right?" Todoroki asked as he helped Izuku stand back up. "Is it your ankle?"

"No, I…" Izuku blinked. "I tripped over something."

"What? There's nothing but sand out here. You must have lost your footing."

But Izuku was unconvinced. It hadn't been sand, it was something much harder.

He glanced over at the spot where he'd tripped and noticed a slight dip in the sand as if it were keeping something underneath. Slowly, he took a few steps toward it and ignored Todoroki's calls for him to come back. As he finally towered over the slight hole, he noticed something that looked yellow and white pushing out of it.

What… was that?

"Midoriya, what are you doing?" Todoroki asked. "We have to keep going!"

"Todoroki, there's something here," Izuku said as he bent over and reached his hand into the sand. What was this strange object? His fingers searched through the yellow dust to see if there was more of it and sucked in a breath when he felt additional hardness. Curiosity burning now, he clawed through the sand as he tried to uncover the rest of the object.

And that's when he finally saw it.

"Oh…" he whispered as his face went pale. His stomach suddenly felt sick and he lowered to his knees, pulling his hand away.

It couldn't be...

"What is it?" Todoroki called. "Is there something there?" When Izuku didn't respond, Todoroki walked over to him but was stopped in his tracks when the other boy gave a fearful glance into his eyes.

"Todoroki…" Izuku swallowed. "It's a skull."

Todoroki froze. "What?"

"Someone… died here," Izuku managed out. He could still feel his body trembling a little. "Someone just like us. The rest of the body is somewhere underneath the sand here, and it's been covered for who-who knows how long. With all the wind out here… I can't believe we even found it."

And that was very true. Wind brought up sand daily, stripping one location of it before bringing it to the next. The dunes seem to constantly shift and move, easily devouring things over time. Anything could be revealed as the sands shifted, having buried them in their depths for only God knew how long. All of these things together made it very easy for them to lose all sense of location and time when walking through the desert.

Which meant… it would be very easy for them to die out here as well.

"Midoriya." Todoroki interrupted his thoughts. "Calm down. This doesn't mean we're going to end up like that."

"I'm sure that's what he thought too," Izuku breathed out. "But he still didn't make it. Who knows how many years he's been out here? Did anyone even know that he died or is he still marked as missing? Did he have a famil-"

"Don't do this to yourself," Todoroki warned. "I feel bad too but there's nothing we could have done for him. This does tell us one thing, though."

Izuku blinked. "W-what?"

"If a warp quirk didn't bring him out here, then he'd have to have walked or been dropped off by a jeep."

Izuku sucked in a breath. "Which means…"

"Yes, civilization could be closer than we think." Todoroki offered him a hand, and startled, Izuku looked at it. Although looking uncomfortable, Todoroki offered a little comforting smile. "Let's go, Midoriya. We're still alive and now we know that we have a chance."

Izuku blinked. We have a real chance.

He nodded and slowly he took his friend's hand. "T-thanks."

"Don't thank me, thank him. Or her." Todoroki hoisted Izuku up until he was standing. "We're going to make it out of here. And you were right, we should keep walking. I don't like it but it's our best chance right now."

"Y-yeah, I guess," Izuku said half-heartedly. "I just wish they could have made it, too."

Sighing, Todoroki rubbed his temple. "I know." He glanced up at the sky and squinted against the sun's heavy light. "We should take a break and then keep walking some more. If we want to get out of here within a week, we have to keep this pace up."

Izuku nodded. "Right! And if they're searching for us by helicopter then we might be found even quicker."

"That's true," Todoroki agreed.

"I wonder what they're doing right now," Izuku murmured. "Mr. Aizawa and All Might, I mean."

"Probably worrying about us and figuring out whether our class should go back home. Either way, it doesn't really matter. We're getting out of here. With them, or by ourselves."

"I guess so…" Izuku bit his lip. He desperately wanted to see his friends again soon, as well as his mother and All Might. As much as he liked Todoroki, it was getting a bit lonely with just the two of them. He already missed the happy company of Uraraka and Iida. So, he had to get out of here. He had to see their faces one more time.

He just hoped they'd live long enough to see them again.