Chapter 3
Elena POV
A week after her first day, Elena has gradually adjusted to school life at UA. The rhythms of attending class with a sleepy Aizawa-sensei, listening to Bakugou's daily explosive rants, and laughing at Midoriya's obsessive note taking have become normal. She looks forward to her work-study sessions with Recovery Girl, who has begun teaching her the basics of urgent care for heroes.
Elena has also become friends with a few of her classmates, especially Uraraka and Tsuyu. The small moments like walking with them to the dorms after a day of classes or watching movies in the common room on the weekends makes Elena feel like she has known them since the beginning of the school year.
During lunch, she is sitting alone in the cafeteria, doodling in her notebook. She should be reviewing her notes on the basic Heimlich maneuver, but keeps getting distracted. Suddenly, Todoroki seats himself across from her, placing his lunch tray on the table in between them. This is her second time getting caught off guard by him and she makes a mental note to step up her concentration game.
"Explain your Quirk," he says, bluntly. This is the first time that they have interacted since their conversation in the hallway on her first day of school. Elena laughs at his bluntness.
She sits behind him in class so she enjoys the opportunity to see him up close. Aside from the scar etched into his face, his skin looks milky and smooth. His tousled hair hangs down low, parting around as if it knows to make way for his eyes. Those eyes. His severe heterochromia intrigues Elena, one deep gray iris with flecks of gold and brown and one bright icy turquoise eye outlined with a deep scar. She senses a deep hollowness in his eyes that seems vast and endless, and all she wants to do is know why.
"Hi Shouto, I'm Elena. It's nice to meet you too," she responds. He furrows his eyebrow in confusion.
"Of course I know who you are," he says, failing to register her joke. "Explain your quirk."
"I can feel people's emotions. That's all it is," she says.
He shakes his head, that fresh scent of his wafting towards her again. With his full attention directed onto Elena, she can't decide how to feel. His gaze is both unbearably hot and cold.
He suddenly begins eating. He delicately dips the cold soba noodles into a small bowl of broth with great precision, so that not a drop of the soup drips off the noodles before entering his mouth. She watches as the smallest smile of satisfaction tugs at the corners of his lips and senses a slow rush of happiness surge through his body. She laughs internally. Soba takes him to his happy place, noted.
"That doesn't explain how you can foresee movements and attacks."
"I can't foresee movement. It's really not that cool. My Quirk isn't really combat-oriented, so I don't matter much," she deflects, avoiding his question. Aizawa-sensei had sternly informed her that she had overdone it during the fight against Bakugou and Midoriya. He wants her to lay on the downlow for the next few weeks so that she can start using her Quirk to find the potential mole. Unfortunately, the frown on Todoroki's face suggests that she isn't fooling anybody.
"You beat my only two opponents in minutes. You're the only one that matters," he says.
Elena's eyes widen. He obviously means that she is the only opponent who matters. She stares back at him, unsure of what he wants her to say. After too much time passes, he notices how uncomfortable he has made her and turns his gaze back to his soba. Social skills not quite there, also noted.
"I'm sorry. I know I can be kind of intense," he mumbles.
"How about this, I'll tell you one fact about me for each fact you tell me about yourself," Elena suggests, offering a compromise.
He shrugs, agreeing to her suggestion. She smiles. This is a perfect way to get some information on him and begin her observations.
"Tell me how you are able to predict attacks," he repeats.
"I can't exactly predict attacks. Everybody has an emotional response to every decision that they will make. Emotions are the pathways that lead to actions. All I do is follow the path. If I can process emotions faster than my opponent can act on them, I can predict what they will most likely do," she explains. He listens attentively. "It takes a lot of concentration, and sometimes I'm wrong. It works better for opponents who are emotionally volatile or out of control, like Bakugou."
"What about your-"
"Hey! It's my turn to ask a question," Elena interrupts, slightly laughing at his intensity. He sighs, setting his chopsticks down on the tray and looking at her with an exasperated grimace. She definitely struggles with making friends at first, but this guy is on an entirely different level. "What's your favorite season?"
He doesn't hesitate to respond.
"Winter."
It is obvious that he avoids using his left side, which he has inherited from his father. His immediate and obvious affinity towards the cold only confirms that he and his father obviously are not close. Daddy issues, noted.
"Does your Quirk have a time limit?" he asks. She shakes her head.
"There's no set time limit. But if I lose my focus, I can't use my Quirk. That's why I close my eyes," Elena says.
Before Elena can ask another question, she detects an angry presence approaching her rapidly as a scratchy voice begins bellowing in the cafeteria. Bakugou is stomping towards her, clad in his crumpled school uniform which is rumpled and not fully buttoned at the top.
"WITCH GIRL! YOU DAMN MOTHERFUCKIN SON OF A BITCH. I WILL KILL YOU. REMATCH RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!" Bakugou roars, charging at her with deafening stomps.
"She's a girl Bakugou. You can't call her the son of anything," Todoroki says, not bothering to look up from his soba. Clearly everybody else is used to Bakugou's outbursts.
"LIKE I GIVE A SHIT. YOU SNUCK UP ON ME AND USED SOME WEIRD ASS VOODOO MAGIC ON ME. I WANT A REMATCH," he demands, angrily plopping himself on the table besides Todoroki.
It is Elena's first time getting a good look at Katsuki Bakugou. His spiky blonde hair appears much softer up close, although his dark red eyes are hard as ever. Even through his school uniform, she can tell that his muscles are well-defined. A tight scowl is plastered on his face, accentuating his defined jawline. He smells like smoke and a day of hard work, although it is only noon.
Both of them sit, staring at Elena somewhat expectantly.
"Why are you both talking to me all of a sudden?" she asks, laughing uncomfortably. Bakugou angrily puffs, rolling his eyes.
"Damn Aizawa-sensei forbade us from approaching you for the first week. He said you're still adjusting or some bullshit and told us we'd fail the assignment if we tried to talk to you. But yesterday was the last day of your first week, so I want a rematch right now," he says, sparks shooting from his palms. She can't help but deflate a bit, slightly disappointed by their ulterior motives for talking to her. Yet what could she say, she was basically there to spy on her classmates.
"I'm not fighting you again Bakugou. I don't have any time to waste. I'm behind in almost every subject since I started school so late and I need to study," she lies, attempting to provide a reasonable excuse to get him off her case.
"SO FIGHTING ME IS A WASTE OF TIME?!" he shouts, anger rising to alarming levels. Her eyes widen, instantly regretting the decision to appeal to his nonexistent logic. Severe inferiority complex, noted. "WHY ARE YOU SITTING WITH THIS HALF-AND-HALF BASTARD THEN INSTEAD OF STUDYING? HE CHALLENGED YOU DIDN'T HE?!"
"I didn't mean that! I don't want to fight you or Shouto! Aren't we supposed to become friends?"
"If you're not even capable of keeping up in these easy classes, maybe I don't need to worry about you at all. Let me teach you something you damn Witch. Lesson number one, we're all fighting for the number one spot. We're not here to make friends. If you aren't going to take this seriously, you don't belong here at all," he growls, glaring daggers at her. He is right, but Elena needs to distract him.
"I never said I wanted to be number one Bakogou. It's already obvious who number one is anyways," Elena responds casually, doodling absentmindedly in her notebook. As expected, both boys practically jump out of their seats.
"Who?" they both demand, hungry eyes demanding recognition. Elena glances around the cafeteria, her eyes locking on her unfortunate victim.
"It's obviously Tokoyami," she says, casually gesturing towards the poor boy who is sitting nearby with Ojiro eating lunch. Instantly, Bakugou storms over, demanding a battle and completely frightens both boys.
Elena laughs, then realizes Todoroki is brooding across the table.
"What's wrong Shouto?" she asks. He looks up, intensely frowning.
"Explain to me why Tokoyami is Number One. I beat him during the Sports Festival, and during the Quirk assessment I-"
"Shouto, I just said that to get Bakugou out of my hair! I didn't really mean it, it was a joke," Elena laughs, attempting to calm him down. The intensity in his eyes slowly simmers out. Elena realizes that Todoroki is just as passionate and competitive as Bakugou is, but he simply shows it differently.
"A… joke," Todoroki says, repeating the words after her. On his tongue, the words sound wobbly and unnatural. His eyebrows are furrowed. "Why do you always make jokes?"
"Hmm.. I like to laugh," Elena says, slightly pouting her lip in thought before answering the question. He blinks. "And I think that I can make anybody laugh."
"I don't think you can make me laugh," he says.
Todoroki isn't challenging her, simply stating a truth. Elena pauses, realizing that she has not once heard Todoroki laugh during the week she has known him. Elena can't imagine going a full day without laughing, but an entire week? This boy is in desperate need of a good chuckle.
Instinctively, she playfully reaches out for his left hand, placing her hand directly on top of his.
"That's cheating," he protests, but his hand remains still and the sensation of their contact sends tingles down her spine.
Right before she can alter his emotions to make him laugh, she suddenly sees a memory materializing in her mind. It's misty and grainy, but Elena sees a woman with long white hair turning around. As the image becomes clearer, she realizes that the woman appears to be holding some sort of pot. Suddenly, the skin around Elena's left eye starts burning and bubbling as if scalding hot water has been splashed on her face. She shrieks in horror, squeezing Todoroki's hand out of pain.
"Elena-chan!" his voice snaps her back to reality.
She immediately lets go of his hand, breathing heavily. As she looks at his hand, she realizes that she had been holding his hand so tightly that the marks of her fingernails are embedded into his skin. Her eyes dart to the metal cup in front of her, checking her reflection. Her eye is completely fine, although it had felt as if she had been severely burned.
Looking up at Todoroki's concerned eyes and his burn, placed exactly where she had felt the pain, she realizes that she has likely just witnessed the origin of that injury.
Elena has seen countless horrible things when accessing the emotions of her patients. She has witnessed murder, adultery, death, and suicide as she walked through the memories of the mentally deranged and the criminals of society. But seeing Todoroki's memory breaks a piece of her heart in a new, refreshingly painful way. She is certain that the woman who had inflicted the burn was his mother.
Todoroki POV
When Elena touches Todoroki's hand, he feels a sudden burst of electricity, as if Kaminari is nearby. Immediately, he panics when he realizes that she can access those emotions.
He awkwardly clears his throat, attempting to remain calm despite the sensation of her soft hand on top of his. He looks down at her delicate hand. Her skin is a warmer color than his, without any scars or bruises, and he can't help but notice how warm her touch is.
He composes himself, attempting to convince himself that there shouldn't be any emotions that he would need to hide from her. She's just a girl. A pretty girl. With pretty hair. And pretty eyes. And pretty hands. Damn it Todoroki.
He is too busy worrying about what she might be sensing when he finally realizes that she isn't saying anything at all. She is sitting with her eyes closed, her eyes gently flickering underneath her eyelids. Suddenly, she inhales sharply and squeezes his hand so tightly that he feels her nails digging into his skin. Her labored breathing culminates into a sharp cry.
"Elena-chan!" Todoroki exclaims.
Her eyes snap back open and a look of horror flashes onto her face for a split second before it's gone. She blinks, still breathing heavily. She immediately releases her hand from his, and although her grip had slightly hurt, he slightly wishes she had kept it there a moment longer.
"Elena-chan, are you okay? Did you.. Did I do something wrong?" he asks. His mind is racing. What did she see in his mind? What could have scared her so much? A horrible scenario plays through his mind. Did she realize that he thought she was pretty and that was what had scared her so much? His face flushes with hot embarrassment.
"No, no! I just.. I was just messing around! I'll make you laugh without using my Quirk," she says, avoiding eye contact with him. She still seems shaken up and Todoroki wants her to calm down. He pauses, trying to think of something comforting. Suddenly he remembers that she had told him she likes laughing.
"Did I break your Quirk?" he asks, attempting to make a joke. Her eyes widen, and she begins frantically shaking her head. He realizes that his joke has completely fallen flat.
"No, Todoroki. I was just-"
"Oh.. I.. I was trying to make a joke," he says, awkwardly. Internally, he curses himself for trying to make her laugh. He has no experience with talking to girls, much less telling them jokes.
However, a small smile forms on her face and becomes a full laugh. She is definitely laughing at him, although not in a mean way. Even if it were in a mean way, Todoroki is sure that he wouldn't have minded because he had been the one who had made her laugh.
She begins explaining how jokes have to be executed with a playful expression or else others won't be able to understand the humor, but Todoroki isn't fully listening. He is relieved that she is talking normally again, although he is still curious about what had just happened.
But Todoroki was never one to talk much. He figures that if something needs to be said, she would tell him.
He sneaks another look at her freckled face. He isn't sure why he likes looking at it so much, but everytime he looks away, he wishes he could have one more glance.