Work Text:
The summer was relentless this year. It was, to put it mildly, absolutely sweltering. And of course, this summer happened to be the summer the air conditioner had stopped working. Izuku and his mother had always meant to get it fixed before the summer heat set in, but had forgotten about it until it was too late. The most they had was an electric fan, but that did little to combat the heatwave.
So, Izuku could only think of one thing to do in the situation. He was nervous about the idea, but he figured that he might as well add to the list of visitors he’d had in his home. He wondered if he should start a guest book.
The phone rang once, twice. And then Todoroki picked up.
“...Midoriya?”
Izuku stumbled over his words as he stuttered, “O-oh! Hey Todoroki! Uh, how’s your day going?” Izuku ran a hand down his face, mentally kicking himself for sounding so stupid. In turn, he got a handful of sweat and grimaced as he wiped his palm on his shorts.
Todoroki’s smooth voice was as cool as ever. “Fine. It’s… hot,” he said, though didn’t sound very inconvenienced by the weather, unsurprisingly.
“Right, so… are you busy?” Izuku asked awkwardly.
“No.”
“Uh, well, our, uh, our air conditioning isn’t working and we were wondering if, uh, maybe…” Izuku trailed off, not really sure how to end the question. Oh, yeah, hey Todoroki, would you be cool (haha) with me exploiting your quirk because we’re melting over here and you’re the only solution I could think of! He hadn’t actually planned this all the way through.
“You want me to fix it?” Todoroki asked, puzzled.
“Oh! Well, uh, I mean, I was just sorta, uh, thinking maybe youcouldjustmakeitcoolerinourhousewithyourquirkorsomething,” Izuku quickly sputtered out.
There was a short pause and Izuku was sure Todoroki was judging him for such a dumb idea, but after a moment, his calm reply: “Right. I’ll be over soon, then.”
He didn’t wait for Izuku’s reply and hung up, leaving Izuku in a state of shock. He actually agreed? Did he even hear what I said? He totally thinks I’m joking, doesn’t he?
Izuku’s mother plopped down on the couch next to him, leaning forward so her face was near the electric fan.
“One of my friends is coming over,” Izuku said, leaning back so that his head rested against the back of the couch.
“Oh? Which one? You have so many now,” his mother beamed.
Izuku fanned himself as he replied, “You might have seen him in the sports festival. His name’s Todoroki. He’s-”
Endeavor’s son. Izuku stopped himself. That label didn’t seem right for Todoroki, now that he knew about Endeavor. And he was sure Todoroki didn’t want to be associated with him in any way. Even if Todoroki wasn’t here to hear it, Izuku felt like he should honor Todoroki in this way at the very least.
“He’s got an incredible quirk,” Izuku finished.
Izuku’s mother smiled, and Izuku noticed the way her eyes wrinkled slightly in a soft, familiar way. If it wasn’t so hot, he would have hugged his mother. He would give her the world if he could; God knew she deserved it. But, for now, a cool house was about all he could do.
The doorbell rang and broke the comfortable silence that sat between Izuku, his mother, and the whir of the fan.
Izuku practically leaped out of his seat. He scrambled to the door with a quick “I’ll get it!” to his mother.
Sure enough, when he opened it, Todoroki stood looking as cool as ever. He didn’t even look like he was sweating, though that wasn’t surprising.
“Ah. Hey,” Todoroki greeted softly, raising a hand and giving the tiniest of waves.
“H-hey, Todoroki! Come in!” Izuku stuttered, stepping aside as Todoroki hesitantly stepped into the hallway.
“Pardon me,” Todoroki half-mumbled as he glanced around.
Izuku’s mother appeared behind him, gasping as she looked over Todoroki.
“Oh! I remember you! You came second in the sports festival. You were incredible,” Izuku’s mother said, grinning sweetly.
Todoroki seemed to freeze for a moment, but nodded politely and simply replied, “Thank you, Miss.”
Izuku realized he hadn’t actually planned on how to go about this. The plan seemed… well, it seemed mediocre in hindsight, but now that Todoroki was actually here, he was a little unsure of what to do.
“Ah, you weren’t kidding. It’s… well, it’s burning up in here. And you also look pretty hot,” Todoroki said, turning to Izuku with a passive face.
And Izuku’s face was kind of heating up, too. He excused it with the weather, but somewhere in his head, he knew it wasn’t just the heatwave. Well, he figured a sentence like that was bound to happen anyway.
“R-Right! So, uh-” Izuku started, but stopped as Todoroki held out his hand and the room was instantly cooler. The floor covered over in a thin layer of ice, not enough to be slippery.
His mother gasped in surprise, and Izuku sighed, almost wanting to just curl up on the floor in the coolness.
“Ah! You’re so incredible, Todoroki!” Izuku muttered, taking in the cold.
“This is… it’s only temporary. I can take a look at your air conditioner, if you’d like,” Todoroki offered, giving Izuku a side glance.
Izuku’s mother chimed in first, “Oh, that would be wonderful! In the meantime, why don’t I make some tea for you two?”
Izuku was about to protest about not wanting to take up Todoroki’s time, but he nodded politely and turned to the air conditioner. Izuku followed him, not really sure what else to do.
“Uh, is this alright?” Izuku asked, rubbing the back of his neck. His neck was still a little damp from sweat, but it was quickly cooling with the temperature of the room.
Todoroki gave Izuku a meaningful look, replying, “Of course.”
He got to work after that. Izuku quickly found out that Todoroki was surprisingly pretty handy. He took a break for tea after about ten minutes of working, then finished it up in about in hour tops.
Izuku’s mother had even joked through chuckles, “You’re pretty cool, Todoroki!”
Though, Todoroki… didn’t really understand the joke. He had replied, “Ah… yes, that’s part of my quirk.”
Izuku figured that explaining the joke to Todoroki wouldn’t do much, so he left it at that.
Once finished, Izuku’s mother fawned over him, telling him how amazing he was. Todoroki seemed a bit flustered to Izuku’s surprise, but thanked her politely.Izuku wondered how Todoroki was doing with his mother after he had started visiting her regularly. He wondered if maybe one day, he’d be able to meet Todoroki’s mother, too. He hoped so.
Izuku stepped outside to see Todoroki off. The sweltering heat of outside rushed back to his cool skin, and he was back to sweating almost instantly.
“Thank you so much for your help, Todoroki, really!” Izuku beamed, wiping sweat off his forehead. “Summer really isn’t a problem for you, huh?”
“You’re back to being hot,” Todoroki said, ignoring Izuku’s comment.
There’s that wording again. Izuku’s face is back to feeling warmer than the heatwave. He… really needed to work on not getting so flustered all the time.
“I-I’m pretty cold natured,” Izuku said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
Todoroki took a step toward Izuku, looking intently at his face, not really helping Izuku’s embarrassment.
“Your face… it’s pretty red, too,” Todoroki observed. Without waiting for a response, he reached his hand out towards Izuku’s face.
Trying to find a way to respond, Izuku sputtered, but couldn’t push any words out. His tongue stops working when Todoroki lays a cool hand gently on Izuku’s cheek.
It was… a strange sensation. Izuku knew his cheeks were burning, but the coolness from Todoroki’s hand immediately contradicted the feeling. Mind melted and frozen at the same time, Izuku leaned into Todoroki’s hand, his eyes falling half-lidded.
Todoroki’s calm voice echoed into the back of Izuku’s mind, “Summers usually aren’t too bad. My quirk gets a workout, but for once, the drawback isn’t too bad.”
Izuku snapped out of his weird hot-cold trance after a moment and blinked, realizing Todoroki’s hand still resting on his cheek. He jumped back, and the moment Todoroki’s hand left his face, the summer heat and the heat from his cheeks worked together to make sure he was dripping hot with sweat.
He stuttered to try to find a response, some kind of way to redeem himself, but Todoroki turned to leave.
With an amused smile, Todoroki cooly purred before turning and leaving without another word, “Don’t stay outside too long. You could get a heat stroke if you get hot that quickly.”
Izuku actually sort of did feel like he might have a heat stroke, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t from the summer heatwave.