Hello, isss mee!
Back at you again with another update. Thank you all for your reviews, comments, criticisms, and support. It may be small but it really helps motivate and push me to write better. Really, I can't thank you enough. Thank you for improving this story with me.
This chapter doesn't spoil anything new, so no spoiler ratings! Hooray!
Enjoy :)
Midoriya stood awkwardly outside the bathroom door, listening to Todoroki empty his insides into their toilet. He fidgeted with his pajama bottoms, waiting for a response. Reluctantly, he knocked on the door, but the door must not have been shut all the way because when he knocked it opened inwards. "S-sorry," Midoriya started to apologize, but his words caught in his throat when he saw Todoroki.
"Todoroki," Midoriya pushed the door the rest of the way open and walked into the small restroom. "Are you okay?"
Todoroki's knuckles glistened white under the fluorescent lights as he gripped the bowl of the toilet, vomiting furiously. Frost had started to creep around the porcelain fixture, stretching up from his hands unto his arms and face. Midoriya touched a hand to his shoulder and recoiled immediately at the chill. He crouched down next to the boy, making sure to stay a good enough distance away to avoid being hit by Todoroki's spewing. Midoriya tentatively placed a hand on his friend's back, trying his best to comfort him.
"W-water," Todoroki choked out finally, between heaves. Midoriya nodded and quickly ran to the common room to fetch a glass of water for the frozen boy. When he returned he swiftly barged into the bathroom without knocking and noticed that Todoroki had taken off his shirt. The frost still hadn't subsided and was stretched across his shoulders and chest. Midoriya began to stammer out an apology when he noticed purple bruises covering Todoroki's chest, stomach, and shoulders as well as red burn marks that wrapped around his upper arms and stretched across his back. Before Midoriya could say anything about it, Todoroki quickly grabbed the water and drank it in one gulp.
"Hey slow down, if you drink too much –"
Todoroki immediately ran to the sink and threw up most of the water. "You'll get sick again," Midoriya sighed. "Hey, Todoroki, you're frosty…" Midoriya noticed his vomit-stained shirt on the floor. "If you don't warm up soon you'll hurt yourself." Todoroki didn't respond, and instead slumped on the floor next to the sink.
Midoriya ran into the bedroom and quickly grabbed his blanket off his bed. He also rummaged through the care packages his mom had sent and pulled out a small space heater. In the middle of summer he never thought that it would come in handy, at least not for awhile. He ran back into the bathroom and held out the blanket to Todoroki, who looked at him hesitantly. "If you don't warm up quickly, your skin could really get damaged," Midoriya stated, pushing the blanket into his hands. He also put the heater next to him and plugged it in, turning it on high.
"A space heater?" Midoriya swore he could hear a hint of a smile in Todoroki's tone. "When did you get one of those?"
Midoriya chuckled a little bit, turning away slightly to hide his embarrassment. "My mom, I told her about how you like it cold and she was worried that the dorms might be a little drafty." Midoriya sat down quietly across from Todoroki, and played with the drawstring on his pajama pants. He knew that this was an intimate moment and that Todoroki would probably prefer to be in private, but he felt the need to monitor the frost on the boy's skin, which had, thankfully, started to recede.
"Are you okay?" Midoriya finally gathered the courage to ask. "You're back early." He added, making a conscious effort not to bring up the injuries or the vomiting.
"I could ask you the same thing," Todoroki responded quickly, voice flat.
Midoriya let out a small, nervous chuckle. "I decided I would try and get a head start on my training for next week," Midoriya bluffed. "I'm sorry if you had planned to have the room alone."
Todoroki shook his head. "No, I didn't think I would be back tonight either," Todoroki sighed. "I'm sorry for waking you up… especially like this."
Midoriya shook his hands and smiled, "no, don't mention it. I wasn't …" Midoriya struggled. "I wasn't having very restful sleep," he added quietly.
"Are you going to see recovery girl tomorrow?" Midoriya asked, deciding that it was the most low-risk way to bring up his friend's injuries.
"No," Todoroki replied smoothly.
"But, aren't you … ? Won't you…" Midoriya stumbled over his words. "Won't it be difficult to train this week in class with those injuries?"
Todoroki shrugged, standing up and stepping out of the blanket, handing it back to Midoriya. Midoriya was relieved to see that the frost had subsided and that there was no lingering frostbite on his friend's skin. "They're just minor training injuries," Todoroki explained, walking out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. "It's nothing serious. I've been training like this since I was five."
Midoriya felt the color leave his face. He'd talked about training injuries in his diary before, and the struggle to not let them show during hero training lessons. Not to mention that he'd been undergoing this type of training for the last ten years. His dad gave him those burns, Midoriya thought to himself, glancing at Todoroki as he looked for a new shirt. They look like they hurt. Todoroki found a shirt and began to put it on when Midoriya noticed him wince as the fabric grazed the burns on his skin.
"If you're not going to see recovery girl then you should put some burn ointment on those," Midoriya suggested, as he turned off the small heater and walked into the room. He dug out the first-aid kit his mom had sent with him and held it out to the injured boy. Todoroki turned around and glanced at him. Midoriya felt self-conscious as Todoroki stared at him blankly.
"There are a lot on my back," Todoroki stated flatly.
"D-do you need help?" Midoriya stammered, staring at the shirtless boy. Todoroki just nodded, and sat at the end of his bed quietly, his back to Midoriya. Midoriya quickly grabbed the first-aid kit and started running cold water in the bathroom. When he returned he sat behind Todoroki and clamped his mouth shut, suppressing a gasp. The fibers from Todoroki's last shirt had been burned into his pale skin. Several large burns stretched across his skin and Midoriya bit back tears. He grabbed the tweezers from the first aid kit and quickly tried to remove the clothing fibers from his friend's burns. Todoroki flinched, but didn't say anything.
"Do they still sting?" Midoriya whispered, not quite sure why he was being so quiet. Todoroki just nodded again, refusing to say anything.
"I'll be back in a minute," Midoriya called to Todoroki as he left the room, heading towards the common area. He wasn't sure that he would find what he needed, but was relieved when he opened the fridge to see a tomato in there. He didn't know who it belonged to, but he took it without a second thought and sliced it up.
"Okay, so this is w-weird," Midoriya mumbled to Todoroki as he walked back into their shared dorm. "But trust me." Todoroki didn't even bother to look at Midoriya, eyes still trained on the wall in front of him. Midoriya placed a small slice of tomato over the burn, holding it tightly against Todoroki's skin. The burned boy exhaled happily.
"What is that…? The stinging is almost immediately gone." Todoroki's muscles relaxed.
"It's, uh, t-tomato," Midoriya stammered, alternating between pulling fibers out of the wound and applying the red fruit. "My mom used to treat my burns like this when I was younger, Kacchan would give them to me a lot… it always made them feel better." Midoriya made quick work of the burns, making sure to use the tomato often to ease the pain. Once he had pulled all the fibers from the wounds, he went to the bathroom and wet a washcloth under the sink that had run cold. He turned off the sink and wrung out the washcloth.
He returned to Todoroki and quickly cooled the burns while gently wiping them clean. He took out the burn ointment and applied it liberally to Todoroki's injuries, trying his best to be gentle. "Midoriya," Todoroki broke the silence that had set in between them.
"Y-yeah?" Midoriya asked, tenderly applying the ointment to his friend's injuries.
"Why didn't you tell me to use my left side?" Todoroki asked quietly. "When I was cold just now. Why did you bring a blanket?"
Midoriya couldn't help but laugh. "I guess it's kind of s-silly. Bringing a blanket to a guy who can literally light himself on fire," Midoriya ceded, finally pulling out the gauze and began to lightly cover Todoroki's burns, protecting them from the abrasion of clothing. "I guess, I was worried that you maybe didn't want to… use it… and that's okay." He finished, tenderly covering the injuries. Todoroki stayed quiet and Midoriya made quick work of the bandaging. Once he had finished Todoroki quietly performed the same steps on the burns that he could reach himself.
"You should probably take some aspirin," Midoriya held out some pills to him. "Is your stomach still feeling sick?"
Todoroki grabbed the pills from his hand and thanked him. "No, my stomach is feeling fine. It was just a reaction from the training," Todoroki explained calmly. "Thank you, Midoriya," Todoroki paused, looking up at Midoriya for the first time since he had helped him with his injuries. "For everything," Todoroki's eyes were calmer now, and much of the pain and sadness that was there before had receded. They almost looked at ease.
"Yeah, anytime," Midoriya responded, quickly looking away to pack up the first-aid kit. For some reason, when Todoroki looked at him like that he couldn't help but look away. Todoroki was vulnerable and that made Midoriya uncomfortable because Todoroki was never vulnerable. He was always calm and composed - shut off from everyone else. "You should probably replace that gauze every day to prevent an infection."
Todoroki nodded in agreement and quickly got dressed. Midoriya bit back tears, silently wishing that there was more that he could do to help Todoroki out. Todoroki had been vulnerable with him, and Midoriya was so afraid of overstepping that he didn't say anything more. He laid in bed again for several hours before he was finally able to fall asleep again. This time, he was so exhausted from helping Todoroki that he was finally able to get a peaceful night's rest.
In the morning Todoroki had vanished from the dorms by the time Midoriya had woken up, and he didn't return all day. Midoriya spent his day practicing in the courtyard, training his body for the coming week. Aizawa-sensei told them that the Provisional Hero License exam would be next week and he needed to master Full Cowling by then if he had any hope of passing. That afternoon Uraraka found him outside and they had lunch together.
"Are you okay, Deku-kun?" She finally asked, putting her lunch down.
"Y-yeah, sorry, that was you yesterday, wasn't it? In the hall?" He felt a heat fill his cheeks as he remembered someone calling out to him in the hall yesterday, but he was too distraught at the time to have a conversation.
Uraraka laughed nervously. "Yeah, I saw you storm in and I was worried. I thought you were going to be gone all weekend."
Midoriya sighed. "I did too, speaking of which," Midoriya glanced up at her, "why were you in the boys' side of the dormitory?"
Uraraka's face immediately reddened. "I-I was just h-hanging out with some people who had stayed back is all," she shook her hands in front of her, trying to placate him, "we were just talking is all."
I thought almost everybody left for the weekend, Midoriya thought to himself, deciding not to press her on the issue. "Oh," Midoriya returned to eating, "well I hope you had a good weekend."
"Yeah, you too Deku-kun," Uraraka finished her lunch, standing up to throw away her trash. "Everyone should be back pretty soon, huh? We'll definitely need a good rest before Aizawa-sensei's intense training tomorrow." Midoriya nodded and the two of them headed back to the dormitories.
It wasn't long after lunch until most of the rest of Class 1-A returned to the dorms. Everyone shared their weekend activities and they spent the rest of the time until dinner in the common room. Midoriya, however, couldn't help but notice that Todoroki was missing. Dinner time came quickly, and Todoroki was still gone. He headed to the dining area with Iida and Uraraka, and they had started to notice how distracted he was.
"Earth to Midoriya," Iida waved at him, "you've hardly touched your dinner. If you don't intake the proper nutrients, your training will suffer." Iida informed him, pointing to his barely-touched dinner.
"Oh yeah," Midoriya pulled himself from his haze and began to eat.
"Are you okay, Deku-kun? You've been pretty distant all day," Uraraka noted.
"Y-yeah," Midoriya tore his eyes away from the empty table across from them. Normally Todoroki sat there, alone, but today he was gone. "I'm okay. I've just been tired is all."
Iida nodded, "then I think tonight I will, as class rep, enforce an earlier curfew upon everyone so that we can be at our best tomorrow. The Hero Provisional License exam is a test of our strength, and we will all need to perform our best!"
Uraraka and Midoriya nodded. Midoriya secretly wondered if anyone had noticed Todoroki's normal seat gone. Despite having the strongest quirk in the class, outside of exercises and lessons Todoroki went largely unnoticed. Unless there were girls from other classes around of course, because then Todoroki was always exceedingly popular.
After dinner the three headed back to the dorms and Uraraka and Iida both took some time to finish their assignments due for tomorrow. Midoriya headed back to his room, hoping to find Todoroki, but the boy still wasn't there. Midoriya sighed and laid on his bed, checking his phone. No messages. He groaned and reached under his bed to grab the journal he had hidden there once again. Why is he so hard to read? Midoriya thought to himself. I wish that he would talk to me. I wish that I could help him somehow. Midoriya bit his lip and opened the journal. It was wrong – so wrong, but how else would he be able to understand his roommate? How else could he help him?
May 1
I beat Midoriya in the sports festival… but I could only do it using my father's quirk. The look on his face afterward disgusted me. He wants to start training again, and this time he wants to train harder.
But I didn't use it for him. I didn't use it to become the number one hero and surpass All Might.
I used it because of something Midoriya said that resonated with me. He told me that it's my power. In the moment I forgot about Endeavor and All Might and the number one hero spot and I just remembered what she told me.
I can be any kind of hero that I want to be. I'm not bound by his blood.
I think I'm going to go visit her finally.
Midoriya felt is breathing catch in his throat. Is this the person that he visits every weekend? He remembered the Sports Festival vividly. It was the time that All Might had told him that being a true here wasn't about winning and that sometimes being a hero is just giving help that's not asked for. Is that what I'm doing now? Midoriya wondered quietly. Or am I just doing this for myself? To ease the pain I feel every time I see Todoroki alone?
His phone buzzed underneath him and he nearly threw the journal across the room in surprise. He quickly hid it back underneath his mattress and opened his phone's messaging service. It was Uraraka – she had finished her homework and was wondering if he wanted to spend time with her and Iida in the common room. Midoriya replied that he would be right there and left the room, double checking to make sure the journal was secure under his mattress this time.
Midoriya did his best to push thoughts of the journal and Todoroki out of his head and enjoy time with his friends. The rest of the night passed by uneventfully, and when Todoroki finally returned he quickly went to the dorm without really bothering to talk to anyone. Once it was time for curfew, which Iida enforced strictly at nine, everyone grumbled but agreed to retire to their rooms for the rest of the evening.
When Midoriya returned to the room he was surprised to find that Todoroki was shirtless, struggling to reach the gauze at his back. "T-Todoroki," Midoriya stuttered, "do you need help with that?"
"I didn't want to be a bother," Todoroki responded, his expression composed.
"It's really no bother," Midoriya replied gently, grabbing his first aid kit from under his bed. "Really, I'd be happy to." Todoroki nodded and sat at the end of Midoriya's bed, waiting patiently while the green-haired boy gently replaced the dressings. "Does it feel better today?" Midoriya asked, noticing the wounds had already begun to heal. He didn't mention the new burns that had appeared, but treated them anyway. Todoroki nodded, and thanked Midoriya for helping him again.
The rest of the week passed quickly. When Midoriya had matched up with Todoroki for sparring, he was careful to avoid the places where he knew Todoroki was burned. Every day at lunch Midoriya would watch as Todoroki sat alone, eating zaru soba. Same place, same meal, every day. During hero training, while everyone in class attempted to come up with special moves for the upcoming licensure exam, Todoroki would train alone, away from everyone else. Then, at night, they would go through the ritual of tending to Todoroki's injuries in complete silence.
Midoriya, who typically found himself feeling awkward in silence, had grown comfortable with Todoroki's distant personality. He no longer took his friend's silence personally, and he decided that the way that he was going to help Todoroki was to simply be there for him. When Todoroki was ready to talk, when he was ready to tell him about his vanishing act on weekends or about the injuries, Midoriya would be ready to listen.
"Hey, Todoroki," Midoriya finally broke the silence on the night before the licensure exam. Todoroki didn't respond, but turned his head attentively toward Midoriya.
"Let's do our best tomorrow. Let's pass the exam together!" Midoriya encouraged, smiling. "I want to be a pro hero with you."
Midoriya felt Todoroki's skin warm underneath his hands and his friend stood up, pulling away from Midoriya, and electing to finish the bandaging by himself. "Yeah, let's win this thing," Todoroki smiled and Midoriya couldn't help but grin back. A smile from Todoroki was rare.
Midoriya went to bed peacefully that night. Tomorrow was a chance to prove to All Might, his classmates, his mom, and himself that he was ready. He was going to become a hero and he was going to live up to All Might's legacy. Right now, more than ever, he felt that it was do or die, and failure was not an option.
This is a TodoDeku fanfic and I find it so difficult to express Todoroki's character. He's such an internal character that what he presents on the outside is minor compared to the amount of thinking in his head. Let me know if you see any errors in characterization and I'll do my best to improve. I also have Chapter 4 nearly done, so you can expect another update soon.
As always, to quote All Might,
Thank you for your continued support!