A/N: Who's ready for a little post-election day update? Reading all the best fics I could find is what kept me sane yesterday, so I'm gonna contribute now!
The next morning, though, Shouto felt so awful he could hardly get out of bed. Perhaps it was because he was no closer to correcting his critically low body temperature, or perhaps it was because he had pushed himself too hard during the stamina exercise; either way, everything hurt, breathing was a chore, and he had a splitting headache. He had no intention of going to school, but he could tell he was dehydrated, so he had to get up long enough to get something to drink. Something warm.
Shouto's hands were so stiff he could hardly hold the mug, and so he dared to light a little fire to warm the bitter cold. Unfortunately, he did this right as Fuyumi sat at the table with her plate of hot food, and the combination of the smell and the use of his fire nearly did him in, and he stood up and rushed to the bathroom. The feeling had passed by the time he got there, but the momentary exertion set off his lungs, and he sat on the floor coughing for a few minutes. When he'd caught his breath and was confident he wasn't going to get sick, he stood up and slowly walked back out to the kitchen.
Fuyumi had stopped mid-bite, and was looking anxious. "Did you just throw up?" she asked.
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Uh, yeah. I was there," said Shouto. "I was just coughing."
"Then why'd you run off?"
"False alarm. I did feel like it for a minute." Shouto reclaimed his spot at the table and tried again to wrap his rigid fingers around the mug of tea.
"Please tell me you're staying home today," said Fuyumi as she returned to her breakfast.
"Hai. I hate getting behind, but I don't think I can pay attention in class like this."
Fuyumi nodded emphatically. "If you were one of my students, I'd send you home. Do you need me to stay home with you?"
"No."
"Are you sure? I can call in for a substitute. I'm worried about you, Shouto."
Shouto secretly shared her worry, but he didn't want to launch into the whole story. "You'd probably just be bored," he said. "I won't be doing much, just reading through my internship offers and sleeping, most likely." He shivered and took another sip of tea.
"Okay. If you're sure. Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"When I sat down, you were trying to warm up with fire, right? If you're so cold, why haven't you been doing that all along?"
Shouto sighed. So much for not launching into the whole story. "Well… the warmth is nice, but it actually makes me feel worse," he said, hoping to simplify.
"Seems like it'd be worth it in the long run. I cannot believe how cold you were the other day. Have you tried checking your temperature again since then?" Fuyumi asked.
Shouto shook his head. "I feel about the same." If not colder…
Fuyumi pursed her lips and looked at the clock. "I've gotta go if I'm going to make it on time," she said. "You're a hundred percent sure you don't want me to stay home with you?"
"I'm sure."
"Alright…" Fuyumi didn't look convinced, but she reluctantly donned her jacket and picked up her bag. "Take it easy, okay?"
After two cups of hot tea, his headache had faded a little, and Shouto moved to the couch with his still-unfinished stack of internship offers. It was the deadline for deciding, and he still hadn't even read them all, much less chosen one. He hoped he'd be able to delay the decision until Monday, given his absence from school, but he didn't want to count on it, so he kept reading anyway.
A hundred or so pages later, his shaking hands couldn't hold the paper steady enough to read easily, and the eyestrain was doing his headache no favors. This is getting ridiculous, he thought, desperate to do something. It had been almost a week since the sports festival, and he seemed to only be getting worse. He decided to try taking his temperature again, but wasn't surprised when the device still couldn't get a reading. He was beginning to get frightened. He had no idea how cold he truly was, only that it was becoming a serious problem with no apparent solution. Midoriya had suggested some kind of training exercise, but—
Shit! He was supposed to be meeting with Midoriya after class, but he had no way of telling him he had to cancel. Then again… the highly observant note-obsessed boy might just have the only way out of this. Any kind of physical training was going to be hell, he was sure, but if it worked well enough to bring back his comfort with the fire, it might be worth it. He had to try.
It was still a couple hours until school was out. In the meantime, he forced himself to eat a little bit, then debated how to get a hold of Midoriya. If he timed it right, he could intercept him on campus. Until then, he returned to the couch with the never-ending paper stack and kept reading until he dozed off. When he woke up, he realized with a jolt that he was too late. School was just getting out, and unless Midoriya was waiting around for him – unlikely since he'd been gone all day – he was probably already on his way home. What now?
Midoriya was weirdly close with All Might. He had a feeling the pro-turned-teacher would know where he lived. Teachers were usually there longer than the students, so it was his best chance. Shouto quickly changed into jeans and a sweatshirt, then hurried to campus and began looking for All Might and was lucky enough to catch him alone.
"Todoroki-shonen, I thought you were home sick today," said All Might, clearly surprised to see him.
"I was," said Shouto. "But I need your help with something."
"Oh?"
"It's a long story, but I need to find Midoriya."
All Might seemed to sense his urgency, and didn't ask questions. Soon Shouto had a scrap of paper with Midoriya's address, and he thanked the hero and continued to the train station. With his hood up, no one bothered him on the subway, and since most of the students had gone home a while ago already, the train was filled mostly with quiet and preoccupied commuters. It was a forty minute ride to the station nearest Midoriya's address, and with minimal stimulation, Shouto nearly fell asleep on the way there. Fortunately, the person next to him accidentally bumped him with their bag shortly before his stop, and he managed to avoid missing it.
Of course, Midoriya's apartment was up several flights of stairs. Just what he needed. After the first couple flights, he stopped for a moment when his phone buzzed. He needed to catch his breath anyway, so he leaned against the handrail and checked his phone, which showed a text from Fuyumi. WHERE ARE YOU?
Shouto facepalmed. Text. Of course. He was part of a group text for the entire class. He could have just looked through that to find Midoriya's number and texted him instead of going to all the trouble to track down All Might in person and ask for his address. Oh well.
I'll explain later, he responded to Fuyumi. Realizing this cryptic answer would probably only increase her worry, he added, I'm ok.
Once he reached the floor with Midoriya's apartment, he was coughing so hard he had to stand against a wall to keep his balance. His eyes were watering and his chest hurt, and he knew he was probably about to make a terrible impression on Midoriya's parents, but he'd come this far. He double checked the address, found the right door, and knocked.
He immediately knew he had the right place. The woman who answered the door had the same deep green hair and kind eyes, and in spite of his unannounced visit and disheveled appearance, she greeted him like a welcome guest.
"Does Izuku Midoriya live here?" Shouto asked. "I'm a classmate of his. We had some training planned for today."
The woman he assumed was Izuku's mother motioned him inside. "He's in his room studying," she said. "I'll go and get him."
A minute or so later, Midoriya came out of his room and almost immediately started babbling. "I—Todoroki! What are you doing here? How do you even know where I live? Are you okay? You look terrible!"
The stream of questions would have been amusing if he had any energy to be amused, but he was still breathless from his trek up the hill to school and back, followed by all the stairs. Choosing one of the three questions to answer, he told Midoriya that he'd asked All Might.
"Oh," said Midoriya, who didn't seem bothered by this. "So – you can't possibly still want to train when you're like this, can you? Maybe you should go to a hospital instead of here!"
The thought had crossed his mind, but what could conventional doctors do? They could probably artificially raise his body temperature, and maybe that'd be enough, but in the long term, he was pretty sure the real problem was in his head, and Midoriya seemed to be unnervingly skilled at gaining insight into that.
"I don't think that's going to help me," he said of a hospital. "But I think your idea might. That's why I had to find you. I was too sick to go to school today, but if I don't do something about this, I'm not going to get better. I don't have any other ideas."
"Okay." Midoriya suddenly looked nervous. "But just so you know, this is just a theory; I don't really know what I'm doing. I don't know if it'll really make you feel better."
"I know," Shouto assured him. "But it's a good theory. I used my fire quirk for years outside of battle with no problems. Using it in a fight felt like I lost control over it, and since then I can't use it without feeling sick. You told me it's a matter of control with your power too, and right now when you use it, I know it hurts you. If you can train yourself to be better in control, maybe I can also reign in the fire again."
"That's the idea. Um… I wrote down some ideas we can try. Let's go down to the beach. I did a lot of my training there before the entrance exam."
Quirk practice in a small apartment didn't seem smart, so Shouto agreed to head to the beach. It wasn't a long walk, but after walking all over town already when he was so sick, he wasn't sure he'd have much stamina left for training. When they finally made it, he rested against a retaining wall, trying to steady his ragged breathing.
"We might have to try something a little different than what I had in mind," Midoriya observed. "You're in no shape for physical training."
Shouto couldn't disagree with that. He thought back to the circuit exercise from the day before, and something like that seemed impossible even just a day later. Still, he was almost certain the real problem was his aversion to his own fire. "This is probably psychological anyway," he managed to say before he started coughing again.
He was surprised a moment later when Midoriya put a hand on his back, though not as surprised as the latter when he felt the cold.
"Whoa," said Midoriya. "Have you taken your temperature? You're literally freezing."
"I tried, but the thermometer I was using is electronic and it just kept registering an error message."
"That's not good," said Midoriya, sounding alarmed. "Okay. That's it. We have got to get you warm. I should have brought some more tea or something."
He had to face the fire. After all, that was the whole reason they were there. "I think I can use the fire just long enough to ignite something else to keep a fire going," he suggested. "It looks like there are a few pits along the beach here for bonfires. We can use one of those."
Midoriya nodded and began scanning the beach for a good spot. "Good idea. We'll get a bonfire going, see if you can get warmed up a little, and then we'll decide how to keep training from there."
This chapter was one of the most fun to write... but the next one is my favorite! So stay tuned!
