It felt like falling for eternity. Wind whipped around him at such high speeds that he was deafened by the sound. His very senses were dulled into nonexistence, and Todoroki fought to keep his eyes open just to retain his sense of reality, but inevitably he lost that war. He had no way to ascertain where he was, or if he was anywhere at all. All he knew, was that wherever he had been dropped into it felt deathly empty, a place where nothing had ever existed, and nothing ever would.
He couldn't pinpoint the exact moment that it stopped. He knew he should by all logic recall falling onto hard ground, or seeing light suddenly bloom around him, but there was nothing. One second he was nowhere, and the next he was on all fours sucking in air as if he had been suffocated, and attempting not to retch from the rolling in his stomach.
Minutes passed as he struggled to composed himself, but they felt meaningless. He could see the white earth beneath his fingers, but the whooshing in his ears had not ceased. He felt more than heard his own panting, his lungs struggling for oxygen as if he had been choked. His fingers twitched against the ground, curling the dusty particles beneath them, but it wasn't until his breathing calmed and his ears finally popped that he had any real resemblance of understanding. Wind blew all around him, whipping his hair into his eyes and chill pierced deep into his bones, causing his freshly awakened nerves to scream.
He stood slowly, and looked around. The air was biting, and he couldn't see much through the snowstorm that raged on around him. Crouching down to test the soil, Todoroki frowned at the lack of snow that had collected upon it. In fact, the ground was warm and dry, as if the water that fell upon it could not even seep into it before it was heated up and sent away in heavy gusts of steam. Wherever this place was, it was unlike anywhere he had ever heard of before.
"This weather is insane." He looked around again, raising an arm to shield his eyes from the onslaught. It was no luck, he would have to find some kind of shelter and try to wait out this storm.
A loud boom caught his attention, the air behind him seeming to pressurize and scatter away. Todoroki turned quickly, raising his right hand in preparation to attack, but lowered it slowly whenever he saw a looming mountain. He caught a glimpse of a small figure at the base of it preparing to send another shattering kick into the mountainside just before the air pressurized once again. The sound echoed in his ears against the whirl of the blizzard that had once again settled between him and the figure.
It was difficult to tell at this distance, but there was no mistaking the patch of green hair. Todoroki raced after the receding figure as Midoriya made his way into the makeshift cave. Todoroki slid into the entrance, skidding to a halt as he saw Midoriya turn on his heel and light with the green lightning that signified he was preparing to use his quirk.
"Midoriya, wait!" He called, taking a step back and preparing to block the hit if it came to that, but luckily it didn't. Midoriya lowered his fist, blinking for a long moment, his eyebrows knitting together as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing was real.
"Todoroki, you're here too? Is anyone else here?" Midoriya came over, placing a hand on Todoroki's bicep attempting to console himself that this wasn't some sort of dream or illusion. Todoroki could feel the frozen gloves through the material of his hero costume, and frowned shuddering at the contact to his left side. His left arm had risen up in goosebumps but the temperature regulator on his back aided in warding off the worst of the weather effects.
"I didn't see anyone, but it is impossible to see anything out there. If anyone else is here though, your blast will signal our location." That also of course meant that they would have to be on guard for anyone who heard it and was not friendly, but Todoroki assumed by the way he had been greeted that Midoriya was already well aware of that. Todoroki raised his left hand, placing it on the shorter teen's forehead, letting some of his warmth seep into the other hoping to help warm him. He relied solely on the natural warmth, he couldn't risk using his flames not with as little control as he had over them.
Midoriya looked up at him with wide eyes at the contact, but his lips slowly transformed into a bright smile. Todoroki assumed that the warmth had to be helping because the flush on Midoriya's cheeks deepened. It wasn't much, but at least it was something.
"Thanks Todoroki. I'm glad you're here with me, I don't think I could have survived this cold in these clothes by myself." Midoriya laughed, and was met with a small smile from Todoroki who set out looking through the small cave that Midoriya had carved into the mountainside. It was no warmer inside of here than it was outside, leaving Todoroki to assume that whatever caused the earth here to be so warm, it didn't apply to the inside of the rocks.
He considered the small area for a moment before setting about creating support beams with his ice all along the walls and ceiling to keep the mountain from becoming unstable. This really wasn't the ideal way to find shelter, but neither of them were up for trekking through a blizzard for an unknown amount of time in a direction they couldn't even see.
Once he was satisfied that it would hold, he settled into a crouch and began warming the flooring in hopes that it would be enough to keep them from shivering. This at least, he didn't have to worry about being careful for, allowing his flames to spread along the base until they glowed a near orange he deemed it good enough.
When Todoroki finally settled back against the rockwall, he saw Midoriya sitting opposite him in the small area. It was only wide enough for Todoroki to be able to lay down flat without hitting both sides of the cave, though from where they sat at the back it was quite a bit longer until the cave entrance. Green eyes were trained outside, watching the snowstorm turning everything into a flurry of white. A frown tugged at Midoriya's lips, and Todoroki wished there was something he could say to ease the other's worries, or at least distract him, but that had never been his strong suit.
"Where do you think we are?" Midoriya's tone was purely a question, holding no hint of the fear that gleamed in his eyes. Wherever they were, it certainly wasn't the Japan that they had left behind. After all, it was currently summer, there was no way that a blizzard like this was happening anywhere on the island nation.
"I don't know." It wasn't any sort of comfort to either of them to have this fact stated, but Midoriya looked at him and gave him a small smile anyways. 'A hero who smiles in the face of adversity. ''All Might...I wanna be like him…''*. Todoroki watched the other carefully, tracking the emotions that chased each other inside the large green orbs. He couldn't find it in himself to return the smile, though that didn't seem to dissuade Midoriya any.
"Well, it'll be alright. After this storm dies down we will go see if we can find any landmarks nearby, or people to talk to. Once we find out where we are, we can make a plan on how to get home." Todoroki could tell Midoriya was trying to keep his tone light, trying to put all their rescue knowledge into action as they found themselves in a precarious and likely dangerous situation. Console the bystanders, show that you have control over the situation and that there is nothing to fear because the heroes had arrived. Ironic that they always found themselves to be the ones who needed to be rescued.
"Wherever we are, we will find our way back. I am sure if nothing else my father will be looking for me once he finds out." The words left a bitter taste on his tongue, but it at least meant that if they were stranded somewhere that they had someone back home with the money and power to bring them home.
"Right! And I'm sure UA will be trying to get us back as well, whatever that takes!" With how many issues UA was already facing after the previous villain attacks, this would look very bad on the school's reputation. Todoroki doubted they would be able to fully recover from this, even if everyone was found and brought back within a reasonable amount of time. It wasn't something Todoroki had to really concern himself with, since his father would never let him attend a hero course anywhere other than his alma mater, but for other students, students like Midoriya, this could mean giving up on UA for good.
"Yeah." Todoroki stared up at the ceiling, noting the multicolored facets set into the rock. It was beautiful, like colored stars winking at him.
They fell into a comfortable silence, Todoroki zoning out as he considered where they could possibly be and what quirk that villain had to have in order to get them here. It was certainly powerful; they had to be pretty far away from home to experience such a drastic weather change. He didn't realize how long he had spent zoned out until a soft whistling brought him back to his senses, and he looked around for the source of the noise, immediately on guard.
The noise stopped for a moment, every muscle in Todoroki's body tensed and ready for action, the teen already sprung into a crouch. When it came again it was followed by familiar mumbling, and Todoroki had to suppress a laugh. Midoriya had curled up on his side, and had fallen asleep with surprising ease. Green locks had fallen into his face haphazardly, and the smaller boy's lips were parted slightly as he mumbled nonsense in his sleep. The sight was perhaps more shocking than any enemy attack would have been.
That warmth he had come to associate with gentle adoration spread through his chest, and he was glad that no one was around to see the startled blush that had risen up on Todoroki's cheeks. He had never watched someone sleep before, and couldn't help being mesmerized by the rise and fall of the other's chest with even breaths, and the way Midoriya's hand or face would twitch sometimes signalling some sort of dream.
Todoroki finally pulled his eyes away, looking down at his hands for lack of a better place to train them, his mind wandering to what kind of dreams Midoriya might be having. Whatever they were, Todoroki hoped they were pleasant ones; it could be awhile before they got any good sleep again.
A/N: Thanks to everyone who is reading this! This is the shortest chapter in the series. If anything stands out to you, if you have any particular thoughts/feelings about anything I encourage you to leave me a comment. It tells me if this story is worth putting out there, and how I can improve this story as well as other works I do. :) This story has no official beta, if you see anything wrong, please let me know.
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I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and I will see you all next Friday!