Welp... My grandmother is in the hospital again. Doctors wish-washing with what they think the actual problem is. *Rolls Eyes* Since I'm useless at the moment, I figure I'll just stay here in my little Emergency Room chair and at least attempt to do something productive (like actually posting something for once).

Thank you for all your support!

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A Day In Your Life

Chapter 14

Todoroki felt like he'd been through hell and back as consciousness returned to him, body sore in ways he wasn't sure he'd felt even after growing up as Endeavors 'perfect creation'. He opened his sleep-heavy eyes slowly, deeply considering keeping them closed with the exhaustion he was experiencing.

It was only because of the sensation of a trembling hand clutching his own that Todoroki decided against resting more; there were only two people in the whole world that would be sitting by his bedside like this, and he knew better than to keep either of them waiting. Fuyumi and Izuku.

Todoroki's vision was still blurry when he finally managed to look over to the source of the familiar sniffling. It wasn't hard to figure out which of his two closest people it was, the blonde hair and strangely red, bloodshot, puffy eyes letting him know it was poor Midoriya crying over him again.

It didn't take him long to find his steadfast sister there as well, passed out in a restless sleep on the unforgivingly hard piece of furniture hospitals think is a bed. Fuyumi was clearly exhausted if the bags under her eyes were anything to go by; in fact, the clearer Todoroki's sight became, the worse the two of them looked.

"H-hey…" he attempted to say, his voice hoarse and weak from disuse and lack of saliva.

Maybe it was because he still felt sluggish, but Todoroki was caught off guard by how quickly Midoriya seemed to react to his voice. Strong tan arms wrapped around him fully and yanked him up from his mattress, crushing him in the best way as he sobbed in relief.

Todoroki's sister was around the bed and smothering him from his other side within moments of startling awake, the sensation reminding him of just how much he'd gained since high school… He'd never stop being grateful for the life he had now, or the people—the person—that had helped him achieve it.

"Wh-what…" Todoroki managed to mumble, his memory still slow to return to him. "What happened?"

"You were almost gone, Shoto." Midoriya whispered. "They said you weren't going to come back."

Todoroki could feel both Midoriya and Fuyumi shaking against him, the fearfulness in his best friend's voice making him break out in a cold sweat. It was that same terrifying feeling that brought the events of his last patrol crashing back into his mind. "That's right…" Todoroki thought anxiously. "Those villains… They outnumbered us and had such powerful quirks. With all the chaos and citizens in harm's way Eijiro and I—"

"Wait, Eijiro!" Todoroki almost shouted with alarm. "Where's Eijiro?"

There were several heartbreaking moments of silence before Midoriya seemed to curl even more into himself, hiding his face more insistently into Todoroki's body. The dual user couldn't even breathe his heart squeezed so painfully, lungs feeling like they were filled with the very ice he protected people with.

"He…" Midoriya explained, shuddering once more before pulling back to look Todoroki in the eye. "Eijiro was hurt badly, as well… But Eri—Eri is going to help him too, Shoto! She healed you and once she recovers, she's going to heal him too."

'Hurt badly' was an understatement in Todoroki's opinion; Red Riot had been partly crushed beneath a building and then who knows what had happened after that bitch with the lightning quirk sent down her final attack. He searched both Midoriya's and Fuyumi's faces with growing panic, finding the thought of Eri helping only marginally calming since he knew how unpredictable her quirk was.

"Eri…?" Todoroki questioned, vaguely remembering waking up face down and looking over to see Aizawa cradling the young girl. He'd passed out again soon after that, never having had the chance to consider what had been happening. "She healed me? She controlled her power?"

Midoriya nodded and flashed that wobbly grin. For the first time since All Might had passed away, he saw true hope daring to enter those now red, watery eyes.

"Tsk. I knew the little unicorn could do it." Bakugo grunted smugly, pride practically overflowing in his voice. He could only laugh as Midoriya gasped in scandalized shock, clearly disapproving of the nickname as he reeled back.

"Kaccchan!" he hissed. "Her name is Eri! Not 'little unicorn'!"

The explosion user simply shrugged though, not seeing any problem with it. Besides, the child wasn't even awake to hear them since she'd passed out directly following the use of her quirk and was still out cold.

"Ah, come on Deku… She hasn't picked out her hero name yet so I'm just trying to come up with some options to help her out." He insisted jokingly, moving to leave the room since they had places to be. "Besides, we both know she's a boss; she could get called anything and it make it cool."

Midoriya couldn't help but smile, shaking his head with mock disapproval. "Well, I guess that's true."

~0.0~

They left the hospital together in silence after that, both remaining uncharacteristically quiet for most of the car ride to their destination. The young men were stuck in their own heads, wondering what the next hour would have in store for them.

From what they understood, Swap had requested a meeting with them together but refused to say what it was for. For all they knew, the woman could just want to rub their faces in the situation or worse, use their increasingly desperate situation against them.

"Do you think she's going to agree to let us have our bodies back?" Midoriya thought out loud, hoping Bakugo would have some insight since he'd visited her just a week prior.

The elder Pro sighed heavily and sagged lower in his seat, flickering his gaze over to his passenger. Poor Midoriya was staring at him with pleading, questioning eyes. "I don't know, Deku." He admitted quietly. The last time he and Swap met, she'd seemed truly moved by Midoriya's plight, but the woman was crafty.

"She said she was sorry, though, right Kacchan?"

Bakugo nodded noncommittally, his naturally suspicious nature making him question the sincerity of her actions. Yes, he could admit to himself that Swap may very well have been sorry to see that Midoriya's body was in such sad shape, and sure… the lady did comfort him when he practically broke down out of guilt. But all that didn't negate the fact that she was a criminal and after being forged in the fire that was the League of Villains during his adolescence, Bakugo struggled not to deal in absolutes when it came to criminality.

"Deku, I…" he sighed, trying to find the right words. "Look, I know all I've ever done is fuck with your head and made you lose hope for the future. I don't want to be that guy anymore but I'm not going to lie and say I think she's going to just give us what we want."

Midoriya somewhat laughed though, the sound a mixture of hopeless and hopeful, cynical and positivist. "You think she's going to make us a deal, right? She'll swap us back in exchange for something she wants like, a get out of jail free card."

"Yeah, something like that." Bakugo agreed, wishing he could just believe in the natural goodness of people like Deku could. "But" he added, doing his best to be more like the boy he'd been in love with since he was a toddler, "I've been wrong about a lot of things, right? Maybe I'm wrong about her."

Midoriya looked over at him with a softness in his expression, gratitude swelling in his chest as the doubt seemed to evaporate from his features. "Yeah, maybe…"

Midoriya was still anxious despite how Bakugo had done his absolute best to calm him down in the car ride as well as their entire trek into the prison. He paced back and forth in the meeting room, feeling uncertain, to say the least.

"Will you just sit down, Deku?" Bakugo eventually urged, grabbing his hand to pull him to the seat beside him. "You've always believed in the good inside of people so, yeah… just take a breath or something."

Midoriya was barely able to get his breathing back under control before the door opened and Swap was led inside, the three staring at each other tensely. The woman ran her eyes over Midoriya's body first, now fully aware of what lay just beneath the long-sleeved shirt. She moved on to Bakugo's apparently much healthier form next, her jaw grinding tightly.

"Ground Zero came to visit me, you know…" Swap stated, finally meeting Midoriya's apprehensive red eyes.

"I'm aware," the young pro responded carefully. "He said you seemed like a good person deep down and I—well, we… Kacchan and I were actually planning to set up a meeting with you when the prison called us. We were hoping you'd help us... That you'd switch us back to our own bodies."

Swap kept her movements coy as she slowly lowered herself into the chair across the table from them, refusing to give much of a hint as to what she was thinking. As she took in the two Pro's she determined there couldn't have been heroes so different as the two that sat in front of her now.

Bakugo, despite having changed greatly from the young man that had been so threatening during her arrest, was still much more aggressive and confident than Midoriya. It was their eyes that ultimately gave away who was dwelling within each body—she guessed the old saying was true; eyes really were the windows of the soul.

"Before we talk about what I gain by swapping you heroes back, I'd actually like to know what you get out of it." She stated, leaning back in her seat. "I mean, I already explained to sparky here that I can't transfer quirks, just the 'person' and he made it seem like putting you back into your own body would be the end of the world as we know it, Deku."

The two Pros were quiet, both wondering if it was a good idea to tell the woman that they may have found a solution to Midoriya's injuries. It was good news, of course. So long as Eri could control her powers like she had while working on Todoroki, Midoriya would at least be in far less pain even if she wasn't capable of keeping his body at the level needed to tolerate such powerful quirks.

But that also meant it was even more important for them to be swapped back. Aizawa was already allowing Eri to do far more than what they'd expected him to, but he'd made it clear Swap had to play ball when it came to swapping them back. Reversing another person's quirk was the absolute most difficult thing for someone to do and they were already asking far too much of the young aspiring Pro.

Admitting this necessity, however, meant that Swap had even more leverage than she'd had before.

"Look, Ms.—" Midoriya started.

"It's Swap. I don't like it when people call me by my 'given name'. It's so unworthy of someone of my… status."

"R-Right!" Midoriya agreed quickly, practically feeling the irritation beginning to simmer in the young man beside him. "Ms. Swap… Well, the thing is, Kacchan wasn't lying when he said I'm in a lot of pain. A lot of days I'm not sure that I can keep being a hero and sometimes I don't even want to. But my friends and innocent people are being hurt because Kacchan and I aren't there to help anymore, so, I—"

"So, you're what?" Swap snorted with a mixture of admiration and criticism. "You're just going to keep 'saving people with a smile on your face' anyway?"

"That's right you—"

"Kacchan!" Midoriya hissed in warning. He took a deep breath before turning back to the still-smirking woman across from them.

They sat in silence once more, but this time Midoriya's anxiety had dissipated. He'd been so afraid for so long about the future and his role in it… He'd been back in that dark place he'd fallen into right after All Might had told him to give up on his dreams. Yet just like then, life had intervened and given him the second chance he didn't think would ever come.

"I could be healed." He eventually explained, taking the gamble of letting Swap know. "I'm not sure if it's going to work yet, and honestly it could go so wrong that nothing that happens today matters, but I have to believe in the person who is going to try and help me. I have to believe in the people training her and myself… And I'm choosing to believe in you now, too."

"Ah?" Are you serious, Deku?" Bakugo huffed, though he hadn't really thought Midoriya would settle for anything less than the most heartwarming speech he could come up with in the moment. "Let's just go already; she's not going to do what we want."

"Come now, Ground Zero…" Swap responded, quirking an eyebrow. "You came down here yourself just last week for my help and here you are again having accepted my invitation to meet."

"Hoping isn't really my strong suit, lady," Bakugo grunted, nudging his shoulder into Deku with pride. "That's his skill set. Now, just tell us if you're going to help or not."

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Thanks for reading! LMK what you think!