Whether thanks to the fatigue or the knowledge that his father wasn't home, Shouto slept better that night. In the morning, the house was again empty, and he warmed up with a bowl of miso soup before heading to school. He still felt run-down and cold, especially in the pouring rain, but he was looking forward to the normalcy and familiarity of going back to class, especially after such a strange few days.
Aizawa-sensei announced their recruitment numbers after the festival. Shouto had received more than any other student, including the festival winner Bakugou, but he dismissed his lead as a product of his father's influence. After selecting their preliminary hero code names, the lists of their recruitment offers were handed out, and Shouto was unnerved to find that his father's agency was one of them. Can he not take a hint?
The rest of the day, he did his best to focus in class, but struggled to keep his mind from wandering. He had literally thousands of internship offers to choose from, and very little time to make a decision. He was also still preoccupied with his intense mixed feelings about the events of the sports festival, his fleeting reunion with his mother, and of course his sudden temperature dilemma. Plus, he'd been meaning to talk to Midoriya and ask how he was doing – both his arms were still heavily wrapped in bandages – but he'd been surrounded by classmates and busy with other conversations during most of their free time, and there hadn't been a good moment to approach him without it becoming a group discussion.
Shouto startled at a tapping on his desk, and looked over to see Yaoyorozu trying to get his attention.
"Todoroki!" she whispered loudly. "Aizawa-sensei asked you a question!"
Wide-eyed, he looked back at his teacher. He had no idea what the question had been.
"Sumimasen. Itte kudasai?"
Once classes had ended for the day, Shouto was relieved to be going home. Though he was glad school was back in session, he was tired. After a decent night of sleep, he'd started out the day feeling a little better, but as the day had gone on, he was more and more aware of his lingering illness. He was about to leave the building when Yaoyorozu caught up to him.
"Hey! Todoroki! Now that we're past the sports festival, a few of us are getting together to study and get our focus back on academics. Do you want to join us?"
Shouto shook his head. "Sorry, Yaoyorozu, I'm going home. I'm not feeling well."
"Oh." She looked disappointed. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe another time?"
"Sure." He turned away to avoid coughing on her, and she frowned.
"Okay, another time then," said Yaoyorozu. "I hope you feel better!"
"Thanks." Shouto coughed again and waved to Yaoyorozu on his way out the door.
It was a full house when he arrived, but he was relieved when his father didn't bring up the matter of the internship. Shouto could only guess that he didn't know the internship offers had been circulated. He was far from deciding, but he sure as hell wasn't going to discuss it with the man who made it a difficult decision in the first place. Hoping to avoid the topic, he spent the remainder of the afternoon on homework, emerging only for dinner. He hadn't used so much as a spark of fire that day, so he was able to eat better than the day before. The frost on his right hand made his fingers stiff though, so it was difficult to eat even though he was feeling up to it. Fortunately, Endeavor didn't notice this, and was content to let his children carry on about their business after dinner.
Shouto finished his homework, then sat on his bed and continued reading through the stack of internship offers he'd begun to review during lunch. After the first half dozen or so, his eyes began to glaze over, and the information seemed to run together. How am I supposed to choose in just two days? That time frame was all well and good for students with only a handful of offers, but he didn't even know where to start narrowing down a field of thousands. He rubbed his eyes and started reading the next sheet for at least the third time, and halfway down the page, he realized he still hadn't comprehended anything it said. Paper still in hand, he closed his eyes, and it wasn't until after dark that he woke up and realized the stack of papers had fallen to the floor and was in disarray.
Having fallen asleep without blankets, he felt like a human snowdrift when he woke up. He looked down at all the paper all over the floor and sighed, but couldn't bring himself to deal with it. He was still wearing his school uniform, but there was no way he was getting undressed when he was so cold. Resigned to sleeping in his clothes and with the lights on, he shifted enough to get under the blanket and pulled it over his head.
Just like in the nurse's office after his match with Bakugou, the blanket had virtually no heat to reflect, and so no matter how tightly he pulled it around his body, he was still freezing. Between the cold, the bright lights, and the myriad of worries spinning around his head, he could hardly sleep. The few times he did drift off, it wasn't long before he woke up coughing. Soon the sun had risen, and he lugged himself out of bed, bringing the blanket with him.
"Yikes, you look rough," said Fuyumi when he emerged. "Still sick, huh?"
"Uh huh."
Shouto picked at a meager breakfast until it was almost time to leave, then picked up all the papers he'd dropped the night before. Once they were back in order and tucked into his bag, he put on a mask and his winter coat and headed for the door.
"You're still going to school?" Fuyumi asked in disbelief.
"I don't want to get behind. And uh… I don't think this is contagious. If it was, you and Dad would probably be sick by now. You're still feeling okay, right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Fuyumi confirmed. "But you look miserable! You should be in bed!"
"I will be as soon as I get home."
Before his sister could convince him otherwise, Shouto hurried to school. He braced himself before taking off his coat, then washed his hands after putting it in his locker. With the last minute before the warning bell, he savored the hot water on his hands and breathed in the steam.
"You're here!" said Yaoyorozu when Shouto took his seat next to her in class. "I wasn't sure you'd be here today or not, but I brought you something." She handed him a little bundle.
"What's this?"
"Some lozenges my aunt makes. They're the best when you have a bad cough or a sore throat."
"Oh. Thanks," said Shouto. "That's really nice of you."
Yaoyorozu blushed and smiled. "I hope they help."
Figuring he might need them to get through class, he unwrapped one and took it right away. Soon the bell rang, and it was back to taking notes with his stiff right hand.
Changing into his gym uniform was a special kind of frozen hell. On the way out to the field, Aizawa-sensei promised them a challenge meant to increase their stamina, and Shouto wondered whether this would warm him up or knock him out. The exercise consisted of a lengthy circuit of several different stations, none of which could be passed in quite the same way. Aizawa told them they were free to use their quirks, but not every quirk would be suited to each challenge, and so they would need to rely on their physical strength, agility, and mental acuity for the remaining stations.
Shouto watched as the other students began their runs through the circuit, observing how they approached it, and debating how best to get through. Usually, he would use ice to his advantage, immobilizing moving obstacles, or creating ramps to slide up and over other barriers; but he was afraid if he used that much ice now, especially outside, he'd risk immobilizing himself with frostbite and causing potentially dangerous levels of hypothermia. He was still inexperienced and clumsy with the fire, and even if he could make use of it in the circuit, he didn't like the risks of that approach either.
Midoriya was next in line for the circuit, and Shouto paid particular attention to how he approached it. He knew Midoriya had poor control of his quirk and tended to use it sparingly if at all during such exercises, and he had two badly injured arms on top of that. If he could make it through the challenge, then it had to be possible without fire or ice. Midoriya had only passed the first few stations, though, when Aizawa-sensei sent Shouto to the starting line.
Okay, he thought, preparing himself to begin the challenge and hopefully finish it without using either quirk. He wondered briefly if this might arouse suspicion in his teacher, but he didn't have time to dwell on it, so he turned his attention to the first obstacle – a fifteen-foot wall with only minimal handholds – and started climbing. Usually, he would have formed an ice bridge over it and been on to the next obstacle in no time, but without that advantage, it took him several minutes to reach the top. His arms were shaking and his lungs were burning by the time he reached the top, and still he had to get down the other side. And there were still twenty-six obstacles after that.
Several other students passed him as he worked his way through the course, but he couldn't let that bother him. By station twenty-two, he was lightheaded from lack of oxygen and hardly able to keep his feet. His muscles screamed at him to stop, but his father's voice in the back of his head was louder. Five more.
Finally he reached the end, and he braced his hands on his knees, coughing violently. He was exhausted and starving for air, but it hurt to breathe, and even after all that strenuous exercise, the sweat trickling down his face felt like glacial melt.
"Todoroki, daijoubu desuka?"
Shouto looked up and saw Midoriya, who looked similarly spent after the circuit. Shouto straightened up and tried without much luck to slow his breathing. Not wanting his over-enthusiastic classmate with surgically repaired shattered arms to worry on his account, he assured him that he would be okay.
"Are you sick?" Midoriya asked anyway.
"Sort of."
Shouto wanted to ask how the other boy was doing, and how he'd gone through the circuit with those injured arms, but before he could, Asui and Mineta finished the circuit and swarmed Midoriya with some unrelated conversation.
Once he was back at his desk, Shouto realized he had run out of the lozenges from Yaoyorozu. He tried to stifle the incessant coughing, but it was no use. After several minutes of this, Aizawa-sensei was fed up with the interruptions and sent him out of the classroom. Embarrassed, he apologized to the class and gathered his things.
The day wasn't even half over, and he didn't want to go home so early after dragging himself to school and surviving the brutal stamina exercise, so instead he went in search of a warm, quiet place to continue reading through his internship offers. The library wasn't far, so he headed there and searched for a spot near a heater vent. He found not one, but a back corner where several vented to the same place from different directions. Perfect. The only place to sit was the floor, but at least it was warm.
He'd read through a couple dozen of the offers and was starting to go cross-eyed when he heard footsteps. Midoriya was standing next to the bookshelf, holding a notebook and wearing an odd expression that was somehow equal parts relief and nerves.
"Midoriya!" Shouto was surprised to see him – or anyone – in this strange corner of the library. "What are you doing here?"
Midoriya held out the notebook. "I wanted to give you the notes from the end of class that you missed. What are you doing here? It's sweltering!"
Shouto sighed. He wanted a straight answer about Midoriya's health, so it didn't seem right to lie about his own. "I can't get warm," he said.
"Even with your fire? I know you don't like using it in battle, but…" Midoriya's brow furrowed, and Shouto could practically see the gears turning in his head.
Shouto turned towards the wall as he started coughing, then looked back at Midoriya, but couldn't bring himself to meet his eyes. "You gave me a lot to think about. I still don't know if I did the right thing, using my left side against you. I know you're right, and it's my quirk to use, but…" he stopped and shuddered. "There's so much history. Right now I just feel uncertain. Every time I try to use the fire since that battle, it makes me nauseous."
"Is that why you're so cold?" Midoriya asked.
"Partly. I was foolish in the early rounds, excessive with the ice. Every quirk has its limits, and I pushed too far past mine. You were right about the imbalance in battle. I think I pushed my body temperature down so far that without the fire, I can't regulate my temperature correctly."
"And now you can't get warm…" Midoriya finished for him.
"So desu," Shouto nodded. "As if my own quirks were laughing at me, I seem to have caught a cold from the chill of my own ice."
Midoriya looked worried. His face mirrored Fuyumi's from that morning, but somehow it felt different to see it on someone he didn't know very well. "I didn't see you at lunch. Aren't you hungry?" he asked. "Maybe some hot food will warm you up."
Shouto shook his head. "I can't stomach much the past few days."
"Are you sure? Maybe just some hot tea?"
Okay, now Midoriya was just being adorable. He could see why the others in the class enjoyed talking to him. "What are you," he asked, "my nurse?"
"No, of course not, just trying to be helpful, and you're a classmate, and it's kind of my fault that you're in this mess, and I'd hate to think of you hiding out here all by yourself when you're sick and I thought you might want to copy my notes from class so you can study and—"
Shouto laughed, which of course made him cough. "Alright, alright. I'll go copy your notes and try to drink some tea."
Once they were in the cafeteria, Midoriya asked again if he was sure he didn't want to eat anything. Shouto thought about it for a split second, but as soon as he smelled food he knew it was out of the question.
"I'm sure," he confirmed as they headed toward the tea.
With that in hand, Midoriya found a place for them to sit, then opened his notebook, turned to that day's notes, and handed it over. Wow, Shouto thought as he looked over them. Unlike Midoriya's disorganized rambling, his notes were incredibly neat and detailed, complete with diagrams and extra notes in the margins. Shouto thought of himself as a good student, but these notes were truly impressive. "These are really thorough," he told Midoriya. "Do you always take notes like this, or just when you know someone else might need them?"
"Always." Midoriya looked embarrassed, though Shouto didn't know why. He'd intended the comment as a complement. "I guess there's a reason Kacchan always calls me a nerd."
Ah. That made sense. The rivalry between those two was a bit mysterious to Shouto, but he knew the two had history, and Bakugou certainly seemed to be on top of the power dynamic. It seemed a shame to him. Midoriya was kind and extremely driven, working twice as hard as everyone else to succeed, and still finding time to do things like go out of his way to bring notes to a sick classmate he barely knew, yet Bakugou had a habit of making his so-called friend feel as though his strengths were something to be ashamed of.
"What's his problem?" Shouto asked, sipping his tea and savoring the warmth on his hands. "You two were childhood friends, right? But you couldn't be any more different. When you and I fought… even though you really wanted to win that battle…" He turned away to cough, feeling self-conscious both because he'd taken the mask off to drink, and because he was finally broaching the topic he was both eager and nervous to discuss. "It was like getting through to me was even more important, even though you and I wanted the same thing. I don't entirely understand, but that seems admirable and humble. But Bakugou… I think he might well have killed me if Midnight hadn't subdued him after he'd won. I know you have a history with him, but I don't. Why is he so angry?"
Midoriya looked pensive, tapping his fingers along the edge of the table. "I… I think he's overcompensating for being insecure. I helped him out once after he fell in a river when we were kids, and he's always held it against me, like taking my hand made him weak and he hated me for it."
That's it? Shouto wondered. Even if the boy did have a massive superiority complex, getting a little help from a friend seemed like a pathetic reason to hate someone, and an even worse reason to be mad at the whole world. "I don't think anyone's that pissed off just because someone kept them from drowning," he said. If that was a solid reason, then I should hate you much more than he does, but I don't.
Midoriya shrugged, and his face told Shouto that Bakugou's boundless anger was just as much a mystery to him, even with their history. "There probably is more to it than that," he said, "but in case you hadn't noticed, he's not exactly the type to talk about feelings."
Shouto laughed at this understatement. "Yeah, he said something like that," he said, recalling the conversation – if one could call it that – he'd had with Bakugou shortly before their match. He hoped even though they weren't close, he could take a step towards dispelling the cloud of self-doubt Bakugou's bullying had cast. Midoriya had done far more than that for him already, and Shouto wanted to return the favor. He tapped Midoriya's notebook. "Don't let what he says get to you. You need brains just as much as power if you want to make it to the top, and you obviously have them. And what you did out there… it could have been you fighting him in that final round."
"Maybe. I still have a lot to learn about harnessing my power, though. You probably would have beat me anyway."
Shouto did still wonder if he could have beaten Midoriya with ice alone, as he'd originally planned. Maybe, maybe not. They'd been in a stalemate for much of the match, and it probably would have come down to whoever depleted their endurance first. He probably could have withstood a little more frostbite, though considering what Midoriya had already done to his bones, it was probably a good thing the match had ended the way it had. He shuddered at the thought of how damn cold he'd be if he hadn't used any fire at all during the match, and at how gravely injured Midoriya would be if they'd kept fighting much longer.
"I guess I'll never know now," he said as he began to copy the notes. He didn't get far before the bell rang, but Midoriya told him he could keep it since he had other notebooks he could use for their next class.
"How many notebooks do you have?" Shouto asked.
"A lot of notebooks."
"I'm not surprised," said Shouto, thinking of all the space it took to keep such comprehensive notes. He put on a clean mask and placed the borrowed notebook in his bag.
Throughout the remaining classes, he worked double, writing concise notes for the current class on one page and hurrying to copy the morning notes on another. He managed to finish by the time the last class ended, and he walked quickly to the front of the classroom to return the notebook before its owner left.
"Arigato, Midoriya," he said, tapping the boy's arm to get his attention. "You take excellent notes. I couldn't have done much better if I'd been in class myself."
"Oh, you're welcome, I'm glad they helped." He looked much happier than he had when he'd been nervously calling himself a nerd. "Sounds like the tea helped too, huh? You weren't coughing as much in that class. But still, you really are cold. Is your right hand always so cold?" Midoriya touched the cold spot on his arm, seeming to analyze it. After looking at his notes all afternoon, Shouto could almost imagine the new ones forming in Midoriya's head in real time as he considered the cold.
It was a valid question. Normally, his right side did run cooler than his left, but no, it didn't usually feel like icicles. He shook his head, and Midoriya's eyes lit up as he took in the new information.
"You must be right about your body temperature regulation," he said. "I've been thinking about that. I've had to work really hard to be able to use my quirk in a way that's actually useful. It's not the same as what you're going through, but maybe some similar practice would help you be able to harness your fire in a way you feel good about."
"Interesting," said Shouto. He hadn't thought about that parallel before. And there it was again, Midoriya going to extraordinary lengths to be helpful. Was he like that with all of his friends, nay, acquaintances? "That's really thoughtful. Why are you so invested in helping me?"
The pointed question caused Midoriya to get all flustered again.
"Oh… I don't know, it's just… helping people is what I got into the hero track for in the first place. We've all been so focused on competition, but I think heroes will all make better heroes if we help each other too. I still need plenty of practice," he rambled on. "Not that you really need practice, I mean you got in on recommendations for good reasons, but maybe if we train together and work on putting our quirks to better use, then maybe you can use your fire enough to get warm."
Rambling or not, the kid had a point. "That's a good idea. How about tomorrow?" Shouto suggested. "Tonight I need to finish reading through these offers and decide where to do my internship."
"Okay! After class, then?"
Shouto nodded and turned to head home. "Mata ashita."
