Archive of Our Own

When Todoroki had left the dorms to visit his mother this morning, it had been a sunny, albeit chilly, autumn day with no potential chance for rain. Now, four hours later and dangerously near dark, he was caught standing under the awning of the train station, already soaked through and praying that the torrential downpour would stop.

Of course he could get caught in the rain on the day that he didn’t have an umbrella.

Sighing heavily to himself, Shouto ran a hand through his already drenched hair before shaking it back into its original position. He stuffed his, frankly freezing, hands back into the pockets of his jacket, frowning disapprovingly at the downpour that decided to ruin his trip back to the UA dorms.

He had a few options here. One was to wait out the storm and look ridiculous standing under the awning of the train station, the other was to spend a stupid amount of money on a taxi back to UA and the third was to just book it back to the dorms and pray he didn’t get sick from being completely and utterly soaked through.

With another heavy sigh, Shouto checked the weather on his phone before biting gently at his bottom lip as he put it away. The radar was showing that the weather and rain had no signs of clearing until tomorrow. If anything, it was going to get heavier and more nasty outside. And colder. A lot colder. Looks like he was going to get drenched on his way home. It was getting colder, anyway and just standing around wasn’t necessarily ideal to Shouto.

“Dammit,” He grumbled, wringing out some of the last bits of annoying dripping water from his hair. “Maybe I should’ve had Midoriya come and meet me with an umbrella…” But of course, he would never inconvenience Izuku like that. Even if it meant getting completely soaked through on his way back to the dorms.

Izuku sat curled up in the common room, a book on his lap, though he wasn’t focusing on it whatsoever. Instead, his gaze was directed outside, his eyebrows furrowed. Todoroki had been gone since early that morning, and when Izuku had waved him off, he didn’t have an umbrella.

In Shouto’s defence, it wasn’t supposed to rain today. But that didn’t necessarily matter by this point considering that the weather hadn’t wanted to cooperate and it rained despite the less than 10% chance of rain all their weather apps had declared that morning.

“Where is he…?” Midoriya muttered under his breath, checking his phone again to see if Shouto had texted him back.

“Where’s who?” Kirishima asked innocently, plopping down beside Midoriya on the couch and tucking his feet underneath him. He lets out a low whistle as his gaze followed Midoriya’s out the window. “Damn! It’s really coming down out there, huh? Is that sleet? Is it cold enough for sleet?”

“Todoroki-kun,” Midoriya answered slowly before checking the temperature and the time on his phone for the millionth time that evening. “Yeah, it’s only 7 degrees outside.” His eyebrows furrowed in concern and he refused to stop staring out the window.

Kirishima gave a soft hum in understanding before he flopped back lazily against the couch, curling up in one of the blankets that Momo had made and left hanging on the back of the couch. “I’m sure Todoroki’s fine. I mean,” Kirishima gestured wildly and Midoriya had to move out of the way as to not be hit in the face, “He’s icy-hot and immovable! This is probably nothing for him! Plus, he’s a good boyfriend and wouldn’t want you to needlessly worry. He’d have let you know if something was wrong.”

Midoriya’s eyebrows only furrowed more in worry and he gave a small nod to let Kirishima know that he had heard him, though he didn’t necessarily believe him. Todoroki was notoriously bad at checking his phone and texting back. “Yeah. He’ll be alright.” If anything, Todoroki could have stayed at his own house that night, although highly unlikely, or maybe was staying with his mother for dinner that night. There was a slew of explanations as to why the other was so tardy.

Soon Midoriya found himself engrossed back in his book, with the sound of sleet mixed with rain and even snow battering at the windows. Kirishima and him made small talk for a small while and eventually Uraraka came in with Tsuyu and brought them all tea.

It was three hours later when Midoriya heard the door to the dorm close, and wet squeaky footsteps became louder. Instantly, Midoriya jumped up and whipped his head around so that he could see who was coming into the common room.

“Todoroki!”

The other was positively soaked through and looked an absolute mess. Todoroki’s teeth were clearly chattering and he had his arms wrapped tightly around himself as if trying to keep what little warmth that remained, in. His bangs were plastered messily to his forehead, completely soaked with water that dripped down his cheeks and his face was pale as a sheet, a tremble obvious in his shoulders. His clothes and hair were dripping water onto the floor, and Shouto paused his escape to his room to tiredly look towards Midoriya, shrugging off his useless coat and draping it over his arm.

“Hi,” He rasped before making a vague, apologetic gesture. “I’m back. Er, I’m, uh, gonna go...change. And try to warm up.” And just as quickly and quietly as he had come, Todoroki was shuffling off again, clearly miserable in his soaking wet state.

Uraraka had brought a towel just as soon as Todoroki had retreated and she glanced over to Midoriya, frowning slightly. “You should go check on him in a bit. No doubt he’s going to get sick.” The towel was handed over and Izuku took it with a sigh.

“Who even knows how long he’s been in those wet clothes, too.” Kirishima sighed, cocooning himself further in the blanket he was swaddled in. “Just looking at him made me cold.” As if to accentuate his point, Kirishima shivered.

“I’ll take him some tea and maybe some soup,” Midoriya mumbled, mostly to himself before getting up and setting his now shut book on the table. “I don’t want him to come down with the flu or something.

Uraraka tapped her chin for a moment before offering Midoriya a sympathetic smile. “He probably will, to be honest. It’s been going around the school like mad. And didn’t Bakugou have it last week?” Kirishima moaned miserably at Uraraka and she hummed in amusement. She plopped herself in Tsuyu’s lap, taking a sip of her own tea before offering it to the other girl. “But give him some space. Let him crawl in bed and go to sleep. If he wanted something he’d let us--er, well he’d let you know.” Uraraka added, taking another drink of her tea as it was handed back to her by Tsuyu.

“He looked ready to faint!” Izuku retorted, his voice rising slightly in pitch, eyes wide and wild with unbridled concern. “Did you see how pale he was? And the shivering…?”

“He looked like a drowned rat,” Tsuyu chimed in and Izuku couldn’t stifle a groan of misery.

“None of you are helping!” Izuku cried, dragging his hands through his hair in a frustrated manner. But, Uraraka was right. Todoroki most likely wanted to dry off and go to bed. He had been out since 9 that morning and it was creeping up on 11 that evening. No doubt he was worn out and craving the comfort of his pillow and blankets.

So Midoriya sat back down, sent a goodnight text to Todoroki which got no reply, and picked his book back up to continue reading until he fell asleep.

The next morning, Shouto didn’t show up, though that surprised absolutely no one. Word that he had shown back up at the dorm, an hour to midnight, looking like a kicked puppy whom someone had left out in the rain for a week had spread like wildfire among Class 1-A’s students. While he was a notoriously late sleeper, (only Izuku could manage to wake him up if Shouto wanted to sleep in), surely that wasn’t the case today.

“You should probably go check on him now,” Kirishima tapped Izuku gently on the shoulder as he wandered past the other and stole a piece of Bakugou’s muffin from him, the other, blinking in surprise for a second before shouting after Kirishima in a fit of irrational rage.

“I should.”

“You should.” Uraraka and Tsuyu affirmed in unison from their position on the couch, curled into one another and sharing a plate of eggs.

“I should.”

“You should! I dunno what you’re doing, but you should!” Ashido chirped to Izuku as she bounded excitedly into the kitchen, having just woken up. “Dunno what you’re talking about, either, but go do it!”

“Take some cold medicine with you, Deku! And hot tea!” Uraraka called from the couch as Izuku gathered the mentioned items and stalked off towards the elevators that would take him to Shouto’s dorm. He waved a hand in response and disappeared from the common room to go and attempt to resurrect one Todoroki Shouto.

Izuku played all the possible scenarios of what he was about to walk into in his head as he made his way to Todoroki’s dorm. One was that Shouto was just sound asleep, content as a cucumber to be sleeping his Sunday away. That happened more frequently than Shouto would ever care to admit, but Izuku found it adorable how hard Todoroki could be to rouse from the arms of sleep.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Izuku smiled to himself and looked up, finding himself in front of Todoroki’s closed dorm room door. Raising a fist, he knocked gently before quietly announcing that he was coming in. “Shouto?” He called quietly, instantly frowning when he saw the lump buried under a mass of blankets.

“Damn, he really cranked the heat on…” Izuku sighed, wandering over to change the thermostat before he sat down next to Todoroki, raking his fingers carefully through the other’s only visible sleep mussed hair.  “Shou…? You alive under there?”

A low groan was Izuku’s response and he had to repress a laugh.

“I figured you probably weren’t feeling very well. Was I right to assume so?” Izuku’s fingers stilled in Todoroki’s hair before he allowed his hand to travel lower in an attempt to find Shouto’s cheek hidden by the covers.

Another grumble from Todoroki was his answer and Izuku gave a weak smile.

“You’re really burning up, Shouto.”

A rough cough came, but no true response and Shouto just twisted himself tighter into the cocoon of blankets he had wrapped himself in. Izuku sighed, fingers lazily stroking at Shouto’s cheek before he pulled away and stood up.

“‘Zuku…?”

Izuku turned around and looked towards Shouto, concern crossing his features. “Yeah? What’s up? Would you like some tea? It might help you feel a bit more human.”

Todoroki shook his head from under the blankets, curling up tighter before a series of coughs wracked his frame. “Don’t feel well…”

A sympathetic smile made its way to Izuku’s face and he picked up the tea and sat down beside Todoroki again. “I thought so… here, Shou? I have some tea with honey for you. And some medicine. What doesn’t feel well?”

“E’rrything…” Came the muffled reply and Shouto shifted himself so his fingers could find and tangle themselves with Izuku’s own. He gave a little squeeze before wriggling up in his blankets so that his half-lidded, exhausted looking eyes were visible to Izuku. “What time is it?”

“Noon, last time I checked.” Izuku brushed his fingers over Todoroki’s forehead again before sighing quietly. “Lemme help you sit up so you can drink some tea and take some medicine. We need to bring this fever down.”

Shouto was more than compliant and pliable in Izuku’s arms as he was dragged into a sitting position, only to flop down against Izuku, hiding his face in his neck. He was freezing and pressed himself as close as he could to the other. “S’cold.”

“It’s because you’re feverish. Really feverish. Were you not feeling well before this morning? This came on rather quickly. Though I’m sure being in the rain for as long as you did didn’t help. Did you shower last night and try and warm up that way? You should have stayed for tea with us or come and gotten some--” Izuku muttered, fingers stroking worriedly through Todoroki’s hair.

There was no response to Izuku’s muttering from Todoroki and he nestled himself further into Izuku, stifling a series of coughs that break Izuku from his muttering. “Oh Shouto, you sound terrible--” Izuku runs his fingers through Shouto’s sweaty bangs, moving them away from his forehead. “Drink the tea.”

Todoroki pouted and shook his head no at the idea, hiding further against Izuku’s collarbone.

“Shoucchan.”

Another shake of his head.

“ Shouto.”

Slowly, heterochromatic eyes glanced up and blinked at Izuku owlishly and Todoroki let out a sigh of defeat. He pulled himself into a sitting position, his shoulder leaning heavily onto Izuku as he attempted to think clearly for a few moments. “Tea…?” He murmured, holding his hands out for it, only for Izuku to place the cup in his hands, and then promptly handed him two pills for his fever.

The pair sat in silence, save for Todoroki’s rough sounding coughs and miserable sniffles as he slowly drank his tea. Shouto shivered slightly, curling up closer to Izuku before he finally and barely finished off the tea and handed the empty cup to Izuku.

The more Todoroki kept himself pressed Izuku, the more miserable and worse-off he looked. With worried eyes, Izuku kept brushing his fingers against the other’s forehead before he let out a resigned sigh and help to ease him down into his pillows and blankets. “You need to sleep.”

“I was doing that earlier…”

Izuku rolled his eyes, tucking Shouto into his covers. “You can be such a brat when you’re sick.” But his voice was fond and Todoroki managed to give a weak smile to Izuku in return.

“Will you stay?” Shouto rasped quietly, glancing with a slight squint towards Izuku. “Please? Just for a little while…” Izuku hummed his response and nodded, fingers brushing over Todoroki’s forehead again. “Thank you,” He breathed, nestling lower into the covers and Izuku pecked his forehead.

“You’re welcome. But don’t get too comfortable. I need to take your temperature.”

Instantly Shouto’s face twisted up and he tried to shy away from Izuku, tugging the covers up and over his mouth and nose so that his eyes were only visible. He stifled a couple coughs before attempting to roll over in bed, only to be caught by Izuku and dragged back.

“I have no idea why you have such an aversion to thermometers, but it’s not going to hurt you. C’mon now, Shouto--” Izuku sighed, propping up the other slightly with his hand. “It’ll take like a minute, please? I’ll leave you alone after words and you can sleep to your heart’s content.”

“But I don’t wann-mmf!”

Izuku grinned triumphantly as he managed to sneak the thermometer in Todoroki’s mouth, waiting the few moments before it beeped. He took it and frowned at the number on the screen before glancing down at Todoroki. “39 degrees, Shoucchan. You most definitely have a fever. If it gets any higher, I’m dragging you to Recovery Girl.”

Izuku was met with a low groan from Todoroki and his forehead creased in worry. “Shouto, you’re really scaring me, you know. Your fever isn’t something we can play around with or ignore.”

Silence was the response and Izuku huffed out quietly, fidgeting a bit beside Shouto’s bedside. He had a million things he wanted to say, wanted to do, but Shouto clearly wasn’t really with him, dozing in and out of fitful sleep. So Izuku resigned himself to his vigil beside Shouto’s bed, periodically checking his temperature.

Shouto’s fever far too high, Izuku could tell just by sitting beside the other and he frowned slightly at the idea that Shouto’s quirk most likely had something to do with that spike in body temperature. When Shouto got sick, he tended to get the worst of it, this was something Izuku had noticed last time Shouto had gotten sick when the flu had been going around the dorm. He had been down for the count longer than anyone.

Izuku grimaced at that, getting to his feet to rewet the cool wash cloth that had been placed on Shouto’s burning forehead. There was a bit of a quiver in Shouto’s shoulders and Izuku’s brow creased once more in worry. Seeing Shouto weak and shivering, mumbling quietly and a bit incoherently was more than jarring to Izuku.

He was highly aware that often times the overuse of his quirk could leave Shouto feeling less than ideal; but this was the worst that Izuku had ever seen him. Izuku had seen everything from the onset of the shakes and a low grade fever, to seasonal allergies (Shouto’s sneezes were adorable, but he got grumpy when his allergies acted up), but this was something else entirely.

But, Shouto seemed to have drifted off into a light sleep, and Izuku was grateful that he was at least getting some form of rest, even if it wasn’t the deepest or the best sleep that Shouto had ever gotten. It was better than nothing, and it gave Izuku time to address other things. Like the temperature in the room, what medicine to force down Shouto’s throat when he woke up next despite the other’s most likely vehement refusal and claims that he was fine; and whatever else it was going to take to get the other up and on his feet again.

“This is why smart people who aren’t stubborn use umbrellas, Shouto.” Izuku grumbled, brushing some of Shouto’s sweat-slicked bangs away from his forehead. “I’m sorry you feel so poorly.” The words were soft and Izuku lowered his head so that his forehead gently touched Shouto’s own, a low sigh leaving him.

Shouto didn’t wake up for another good four hours, right around dinner time. Slowly, he stirred, a low, miserable groan leaving him as he forced himself into an quasi-upright position, blearily staring around his strangely and distinctly Izuku-less dorm room. 

His head hurt, his hoodie wasn’t oversized enough and his Izuku-less dorm room was the damned last place that he wanted to be. But here Shouto sat, curled up miserably under a mass of blankets that should have made him feeling like he was suffocating rather than the current cold feeling that he was trying to shake.

But, the real question was, where was Izuku? Shouto, despite his throbbing headache, wanted to find his long-lost and elusive boyfriend. Each cough into the crook of his elbow only alerted Shouto to just how bad this damned illness was.

Shakily, Shouto pushed himself to his feet, shuffling miserably over towards where his slippers were. The attempt to put the actual slippers on proved a bit more taxing than had initially been intended.

Shouto frowned, gripping the doorframe as he shoved his foot into his fluffy, perfectly warm slippers all too aggressively, immediately jamming his toes into the doorframe.

“Mother fucker. ” Shouto swore quietly, wincing as he curled his toes against his slippers. He huffed in annoyance, throwing the door open before shuffling out of the room, completely unaware at just how badly he was swaying on his feet.

Shuffling was an overstatement. He was more of...swaying. And hobbling. And grasping onto everything he could. Why was the hallway so...so tilty? No matter. He had an Izuku to go and find.

“Maybe he has like...pneumonia or something?” Came a voice and Shouto paused, grasping the wall and listening quietly. It wasn’t Izuku’s voice, obviously. Too feminine. Perhaps Uraraka? “He was out in the rain all that time and didn’t really take the time to dry off.”

“I guess. I don’t know. He’s not acting himself. Lethargic, not with it, sort of spacy…”

Ah. That was Izuku. Shouto sniffled, crumpling up his tissue and shuffling into the common room, silently making his presence known. He saw the back of Izuku’s head and immediately buried his face into his boyfriend’s shoulder blades. Much better.

“Hi, Shouto.” Izuku smiled slightly, turning around and pulling Shouto into his arms, bundling the other up and smooching the side of his head. “How do you feel?”

Shouto seemed to contempled it for a moment. “I feel like leftovers you put in the microwave to warm up that you heat up but actually didn’t get heated up all the way.”

“What...what does that mean?” Izuku asked, laughing quietly. He ruffled his boyfriend’s hair, kissing his forehead gently. “I think that means you feel like crap?”

“I feel like crap. And ,” Shouto glowered down at his slipper-covered toes, wriggling them against the interior of his slippers before looking back to Izuku. “And I stubbed my toe,” He murmured. “Against the doorframe.” He stared down at his feet, specifically his slippers, as if they had personally wronged him. Which, in truth, they sort of had. Damned traitors.

Izuku snorted, clamping a hand over his mouth. He grasped Shouto’s shoulders and carefully directed him to the couch, shoving him down so he was sitting before gently pushing him over so Shouto flopped to his side on the couch. “You tipped over way too easily, Shoucchan.”

Shouto made a noncommittal noise, letting his eyes flutter shut. At least he was sort of comfortable. On the couch. Magically covered in blankets. It was warm, that was something, and he was more comfortable than he had been back in his bedroom. But, something was missing.

Izuku.

Izuku was missing and Shouto sat himself up with a low groan, squinting at his boyfriend who bustled around the common room, tidying up, finding Shouto tissues and placing the damned accursed thermometer near him so that Izuku could take his temperature.

“...Y’gonna come snuggle?” Shouto rasped quietly, cracking an eye open to watch Izuku through the lenses of his glasses. Despite them, he squinted a bit and cocked his head to the side, burying himself deeper in the oversized blanket that Izuku had wrapped him up in.

“In a minute, you need to just sit there and do nothing.”

Shouto wasn’t sure whether or not to feel insulted or blessed by the notion of not doing anything, specifically being ordered to not do anything by his boyfriend. Silently, he leaned back into the couch and snuggled up in the blankets that had been draped over, around and on top of him, successfully cocooning himself in them.

A minute was all it took and Izuku flopped down beside Shouto, pulling his boyfriend into his arms and pressing a mug of tea into his hands. “Drink this, okay? It’ll help that sore throat of yours,” Izuku murmured, pressing a loving kiss to Shouto’s temple.

The tea was soothing and everything Shouto needed against his sore, raw throat, and soon he felt himself nodding off against Izuku. Safely wrapped up in his boyfriend’s arms, Shouto couldn’t ask for anything better, except the fact that he was sick.

...Too bad he didn’t expect Izuku to catch a cold the next day, with poor Uraraka bustling around to try and get them both well before it became an epidemic in the dorm. At least, Shouto thought, he and Izuku could be miserable and sick together.