Handheld Ice Pack

When Yaoyorozu gets injured during training, Todoroki is there to numb the pain.

They're training for the next day's competition when it happens. Mr. Aizawa had given them clear instructions—two students would spar while the rest of the class observed, taking notes on potential strengths and weaknesses of each other's quirks and ways to effectively combat them. It would be especially handy knowledge for the upcoming competition.

Of course, the two class reps had volunteered to go first.

The match itself was initially rather uneventful—Yaoyorozu stayed mostly on defense, avoiding Iida's attacks. When Iida appeared to grow tired, though—she saw her chance and went for it. Leaping towards her opponent, she focused her mind on the composition of a staff and drew it out of her arm as she landed…a bit further out than she had planned. She lunged forward to compensate for the misjudged distance…

Things seemed to move in slow motion as Iida's right foot connected with the side of Yaoyorozu's face. The force of his Recipro jerks her head back and sends her flying. She lands, skidding across the ground on her arm before coming to a halt, face up.

To be fair, he hadn't been aiming for her face, but with her sudden shift in direction, Iida hadn't been able to change the trajectory of his kick with his ultimate move activated. It had been an unfortunate accident. The fact that Yaoyorozu was still on the ground though…that was concerning.

"Oh my gosh! Yaoyorozu, ARE YOU OKAY? I'm so sorry!" The class rep runs over to his classmate as she shakily props herself up on her arm. She gives a wordless nod of her head, gingerly bringing her other hand up to her face which is visibly red on one side. The rest of the class clamors around as Iida jumps up and approaches their homeroom teacher who's still standing a ways away.

"Mr. Aizawa! I'll use my quirk to get her an ice pack for her injury as fast as possible! This was entirely my fault, after all."

He's off before Aizawa can get a word in. The teacher blinks, incredulously. It seems Iida isn't thinking clearly. If he was, he would have realized certain things. Like how it is completely unnecessary to get an ice pack when there's…

The homeroom teacher's mouth quirks up amusedly at the sight of Shouto Todoroki crouched on the ground by Yaoyorozu as the rest of Class 1-A crowds around. The boy has a concerned expression on his face—one Aizawa knows all too well. He takes his time walking over to them.

"Oi."

All eyes immediately turn to him except for Todoroki's and Yaoyorozu's.

"Don't let this small mishap cut into your training. As your classroom representative, I'm sure Yaoyorozu wants you all to do your best in the competition tomorrow." Yaoyorozu finally looks up to meet his eyes, and she gives a small nod in agreement.

"Thank you for your concern, everyone," she addresses them, her voice weak but determined. "But Mr. Aizawa is right. I'll be fine in a bit."

"You heard her." Mr. Aizawa takes a step closer as the students slowly disperse. He assesses the damage—she seems a bit dazed but there's no blood, just some redness and swelling in the impacted area. Todoroki finally looks up.

"Todoroki, can you stay with Yaoyorozu until Iida returns with an ice pack? It doesn't seem like the injury is too serious but we should make sure she doesn't have a concussion."

"Yes, Teacher."

"Thank you." Trailing behind the crowd of students, Aizawa allows himself one glance over his shoulder before directing his thoughts entirely to training.

Shouto looks down at the girl beside him.

"Are you ok, Yaoyorozu? Do you need someone to take you to Recovery Girl?"

He asks, but he's not actually worried. He knows she can withstand more than this; she'll bounce back. Yaoyorozu's strong, there's no way something as minor as a turbo-powered kick to the face will keep her down for long.

"I think I'm okay," she responds, stretching out her neck carefully. She gently placing her fingers on her neck and jaw, wincing. Shouto notices the affected area is swelling and slowly transforming from its original angry red into a mottled purple. It looks bad. Really bad.

Okay, so maybe he's a little worried.

"Can you stand?"

"Yeah, just…" She takes a deep breath. "Let me take a breather first."

He says nothing, shifting from his crouched position to sit on the grass next to her. He watches as she stretches out her left arm, gingerly twisting to look over her shoulder for any injuries there. Finding a few scratches and scrapes—nothing too serious, she turns her attention back to her face.

"It's not…" She winces again as she skims her fingertips along her cheek. "too bad. I think the ice pack will be sufficient."

He wonders how long it'll take Iida to get back. They're pretty far out from the main building, and another glance at her injuries convinces him the swelling and bruising is getting worse. The pained expression on her face is more evidence of that fact. If only there was some way he could numb the—"Hey, Yaoyorozu."

She looks at his outstretched arm, hand hovering by the side of her face, and her expression changes to one of confusion. "What?"

"My quirk."

Understanding washes over her features, and she nods. "Yeah, that'd be great."

He concentrates on lowering the temperature in his hand, and holds it out to cup her face, slowly, slowly drawing closer—

"Wait! Actually—"

He pulls his hand away immediately. "Sorry, what is it?"

She doesn't respond. Instead, he watches as she generates an object from her left arm and holds it out to him.

It's a glove.

"You're not supposed to put ice directly on injuries, right?"

"Oh, right." Trust Yaoyorozu to remember something like that even at a time like this. He slips it on—it fits his hand perfectly, somehow—and wonders how Yaoyorozu managed to do it given she just suffered a head injury. Then again, he'd expect nothing less from one of 1-A's other top students.

He finally presses his gloved palm gently against her jaw, thumb and forefinger against her cheek and the rest splayed across the side of her neck. She sighs, leaning into his hand. "Ahh, that feels better."

They stay like that for awhile. Yaoyorozu periodically punctuates the air between them with questions, and his replies seem to put her at ease. It puts him at ease, knowing her injury isn't affecting her cognitive abilities—that means it isn't that serious, right? He starts to feel resistance in his arm, but focuses on maintaining the cool temperature of his right hand and keeping it raised to her face. Shouto finds himself wondering what it would feel like to touch her skin without the thin fabric of the glove in the way.

"Hey, isn't your arm getting tired?" She's moved her own hand up to brush his gloved one, looking at him questioningly.

"No, it's fine."

Iida chooses that moment to make an appearance.

"YAOYOROZU!" He yells, panting. He skids to a stop, ice pack in hand, breathing hard as he puts his hands on his knees, focusing his eyes on the ground. "I ran to the health office as fast as I could to get you ice but then I REALIZED—"

He stops as he looks up at the two of them.

"O-oh, SORRY! Am I interrupting something?"

"No, no—Todoroki was just filling in as a temporary ice pack while we waited for you to return," She waved her hands dismissively. "Todoroki, you can rest your arm now. Thank you."

"No problem." He removes his hand slowly, checking the injury underneath. The purple discoloration has dulled somewhat, but it seems as if the red has distributed evenly to the rest of her face.

Iida locks eyes with him as he steps back. Shouto isn't sure what to make of the questioning look the male class rep is giving him—but Iida's subsequent grin makes him scowl.

Shifting his attention from Todoroki to Yaoyorozu, Iida steps forward, bowing as he holds the prized ice pack out. "Here you go, Yaoyorozu! Please accept my apology for that unnecessarily hard blow!"

"Thank you. And no apology needed, we should be going all out if we want to do our best at the competition tomorrow." She smiled up at him. "Please don't worry about it anymore and focus on your training."

"OF COURSE! Don't let this injury set you back from doing your best tomorrow, either!"

He engages his quirk, dashing off to join the rest of Class 1-A.

"Hey, Todoroki…" She starts, once she'd pressed Iida's hard-earned ice pack into the side of her face.

"Yeah?"

"You didn't have to…" Her eyebrows furrow as she processes her thoughts. " You could have just used your quirk to make a piece of ice for my injury…right?"

"Oh. I didn't think about that."

"Ah. So that's how it is…" She doesn't look at him, instead taking an interest in the top of her shoes.

Yeah…that's how it is.

He wishes she would look up at him or something. They spend the rest of the period in silence.

The bell rings soon after, and Mr. Aizawa comes back, thanking him for monitoring Yaoyorozu's condition and commenting on the glove on his right hand, which he had totally forgotten to take off.

Yaoyorozu's words echo in his ears.

He won't admit it but the thought had occurred to him. And he wasn't sure why, but he had—for better or worse—decided to ignore it.

The glove comes off his hand and finds its way into his pocket. He continues contemplating this, and eventually decides that…

It was good practice.

He'd gotten so used to using his quirk offensively and explosively that Yaoyorozu's injury had been a good opportunity to focus on merely maintaining and enduring a lower temperature in his hand.

Looking down at his other hand, Shouto resolves to find a way to utilize his other half in a similar capacity.

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(But…maybe deep down, he just really wanted an excuse to hold her face.)

(A/N: Was Yaoyorozu really that hurt? *shrugs* who knows... =P

More fluff—pretty sure the next thing I post will be angst, though. I actually really, really like angst but find it hard to write. Woe is me TwT)