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Their connection proved pretty useful during fights. Izuku’s keen eye and observation skills helped Shouto see details he would have missed normally and they were able to watch each other’s backs and make plans without having to speak out loud. Their connection was great for fighting side by side, but they hadn’t considered what it would be like fighting against each other.
-X-X-X-
Shouto immediately heard Izuku’s thoughts pick up when Aizawa-sensei announced the sports festival during class.
“Oh yeah, I totally forgot about the sports festival with everything that was going on, that’s awesome! Wait, what if we have to fight? We’ll hear each other’s strategies for everything! What if there are team events? Is this considered cheating? That wouldn’t make sense, we don’t have any control over it. What about-”
“Izuku, calm down,” Shouto cut through the increasingly loud and fast thoughts filling his head. After being around each other in class every day, they had grown somewhat used to having the other’s thoughts running through the back of their minds, sometimes using it to their advantage to bounce questions and ideas off one another. However, Shouto still wasn’t quite able to handle when Izuku’s mind really started running and usually had to say something to slow those thoughts down before his headache got too bad. They hadn’t quite perfected the connection, but they were getting the hang of it. “We can talk through it after class, sound good?”
“Right, yeah, sounds good.” Shouto could still hear his thoughts running in the back of his mind for the rest of class, but they were noticeably quieter and calmer. As soon as the bell rang, Izuku was at his side with a pensive look, muttering just loud enough for Shouto to make out what he was saying as they walked out of the school into the street. He reached to grab the green haired boy’s hand as they walked, letting his gentle voice wash over him for a moment.
“I feel like the biggest issues is going to be the fact that we’ll be able to hear each other’s strategies, which means we’ll be able to see what’s coming which complicates things, but it’s not like we can turn it off so- wait! We can basically turn it off if we stand far enough away from one another.”
“So if we just stand far enough apart before the events we won’t hear the other’s strategies.”
“Exactly.”
“Works for me.”
“What if there’s team events? I mean obviously I would want to work with you, but…” he trailed off, eyes narrowing in thought, “it somehow feels like cheating.”
“I don’t think it would be cheating, but if it bothers you we can just agree to not be on the same team, assuming we’re the ones choosing.”
“I know it wouldn’t technically be cheating, there’s just something that doesn’t sit right about it with me. But yeah, the easiest solution is that we just work on different teams.” “That just leaves fighting each other.”
“We could try and stay out of range during the fight?”
“Says the person with the long-range quirk,”
“You could just mentally scream the whole time so we can’t hear anything else?”
“Who’s to say I won’t be doing that anyway?” Izuku said with a laugh. “I feel like if we do end up fighting each other there’s nothing we can really do about it. We’ll just have to figure it out once we’re there.” Izuku suddenly stopped short, tugging on their linked hands. “I… I don’t want to hurt you if we fight.”
Shouto turned towards the other boy, taking in his wide eyes full of emotion and downturned lips. He took a step forward to stand directly in front of him and raised his free hand to cup his cheek.
“Obviously I don’t want to hurt you either. But it’s just like training we do in class, it’s not like we’re going to kill or irreparably hurt each other. Plus, I’d like to fight you without either of us holding back. You’re strong, I want to see how I measure up against you when you give it your all.”
They stood there in silence for a moment, Izuku turning what he had just said over in his head a bit before he looked up at Shouto with a determined smile.
“Bring it on.”
Shouto huffed out a small laugh and pulled his boyfriend into a tight hug. “Give it all you’ve got.”
“Plus Ultra!! No wait, come back! It’s basically a conditioned response at this point, don’t blame me!”
-X-X-X-
The days flew by and before they knew it, they were standing in a mass of first year students, all waiting for the signal to start the obstacle course. Izuku bounced on the balls of his feet, running a thousand scenarios through his mind and itching to start when a thought cut through all the rest.
“Good luck, Izuku”
“Good luck, Shouto!”
Izuku glanced over and gave Shouto a quick nod and a smile before the alarm sounded and the race began. All 11 classes pushed their way into the bottleneck entry way, elbows flying as they all tried to force their way to the front. Before he even had a chance to start thinking of a way through, Izuku felt a tell-tale chill surround them and saw his soulmate skate out of the tunnel to take the lead, their connection cutting off as he made it out. Izuku couldn’t help but feel a little pride at Shouto’s quick thinking before focusing on using the ice path to move forward without falling on his face and making a fool of himself in front of all the important heroes watching them.
Once he made it out of the tunnel, he felt the connection spark back to life and glanced up from his careful steps on the ice to see his soulmate standing before an army of familiar foes.
“It’s the robots from the entrance exam!”
“So this is what you guys had to fight?”
“Yeah, this is the kind of robot I broke my arm on trying to protect Uraraka,”
“Don’t break your arm this time, we still have the whole festival ahead of us.”
“I’ll try not to, thanks,” Izuku thought with a small laugh, already trying to think up an attack plan that would allow him to make it through with his arm intact.
“Well, better make quick work of them, considering dear old dad is watching.”
Izuku could almost hear the sneer in Shouto’s voice as he thought those last words, but didn’t dwell on it long, preferring to watch in awe as his soulmate released an impressive wave of ice, freezing the giant robots like it was nothing. Izuku couldn’t help but take a moment to appreciate the sight of his boyfriend. He was standing strong with a determined look in his eye, hair mussed and breathing hard from putting so much power behind his quirk. Despite the situation, he couldn’t stop a few less than appropriate thoughts from popping up in his mind.
-X-X-X-
“Fuck, that was hot. You look so good right now.”
“As nice as that is to hear, now is really not the time.”
“I know but still. Also, you do realize we’re going to have to unpack whatever you just said about your dad eventually, right?”
Shouto sighed as he ran and felt the connection short out again. He knew he would have to tell Izuku about Endeavor sooner rather than later, but still didn’t feel quite ready for his soulmate to know about everything his father had put him through. He really should have taken a page from Izuku’s book, who had told him the truth about one for all and All Might the second day of classes, preferring him to find out with a full explanation than from some vague thought that ran through his head. He would tell Izuku about his family soon enough, but for now he just needed to focus on getting through the race as fast as possible.
The pit posed no real challenge and Shouto quickly arrived at the final obstacle: the mine field. He was carefully making his way through it, neck and neck with Bakugo, when a large explosion shook the field and he felt his soulmate connection spark back to life. Before he had a chance to think about anything, loud, familiar thoughts filled his head.
“ahhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HOLY SHIT”
“Izuku? Are you ok?” Shouto shot a quick look over his shoulder, trying to find that familiar head of green hair while still avoiding explosions from the landmines as well as Bakugo. What he hadn’t been expecting to see was Izuku flying overhead on a sheet of metal, quickly gaining them. “Oh my god what is he doing? He’s… He’s going to pass us?”
“I’m losing speed… What should I do… Wait… This is my chance!”
“Your chance to what?!” Shouto thought, a little concerned about what his boyfriend could be planning.
“Sorry, Shouto!”
Before Shouto could register what was going on, he felt a foot on his back and saw Izuku slam his make shift sled onto the ground between himself and Bukugo. The explosion blew them both sideways and propelled Izuku forward out of the minefield and across the finish line, Shouto hot on his heels, their heads filled with shared thoughts of finishing the race.
-X-X-X-
“It worked… I… I won!” Izuku couldn’t help but revel in the moment as soon as he crossed the finish line.
“Good work, Izuku.” He turned and saw a panting Shouto walking toward him.
“Shouto! You did great out there! I’m sure everyone has their eye on you now after seeing how impressive your quirk is, and that was only half of it; wait until they see the whole thing!”
“They’re never going to see the other half,” Shouto thought as he wrapped his arms around Izuku’s shoulders and buried his face in his hair, ignoring the questioning look Izuku was giving him. “Congratulations on the win, that was an impressive stunt at the end there. Where did you get that piece of metal you used?”
“Oh! It was part of the robots from the beginning,” Izuku said as he relaxed into the hug and caught his breath.
“The robots at the- wait,” “you carried that with you the whole time?”
“Yeah, I thought it might come in handy so I held onto it.”
“I’m not entirely convinced you don’t have some sort of intelligence or foresight quirk.”
Izuku couldn’t help but laugh as he pulled back to look into soft heterochromic eyes. “You really did do amazing out there. And looked great doing it.” They stood there for a long moment, lost in their own world of shared thoughts until Izuku felt a large hand come down hard on his shoulder, jolting him back to reality.
”C’mon, lovebirds. You’re going to miss the next event if you just stand around here eye fucking all day,” Kirishima said with a loud laugh, pushing them towards the stage where Midnight was waiting to explain what was in store.
-X-X-X-
The Calvary battle was madness from the first second, and Shouto and his team didn’t even make it close to Izuku’s team until halfway through. The moment he used his ice to isolate their teams from the others, he was hit by Izuku’s racing thoughts, hearing him run through possible attacks and defenses of both teams.
“Kaminari is the real risk when it comes to dark shadow.”
“Good to know, thanks.”
“Hey! No! Plus we already knew that and factored it into our plans so we’re ready anyway.”
The time ticked down as Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, and Tokoyami did most of the battling, save the occasional bit of ice from Shouto. With a minute left, Iida told them about his special move that he’d been saving.
“Special move?”
“Who has a special move?”
Before Shouto had time to think anything else and accidentally give away the plan to Izuku, they were flying forward faster than he thought possible.
“Holy shit!”
“What the fuck, Iida?!”
“Got it!”
“SHIT!”
He heard Izuku’s thoughts scramble as he tried to come up with an idea to recover their points in the final seconds.
“We have to go in on his left,” Izuku thought, catching Shouto’s attention.
“If he comes in that way I can’t use my ice without risking hitting Iida,” he thought, desperately trying to come up with a defense if Izuku did decide to attack on the left.
“In that case, here we go.”
He heard Izuku start shouting directions at his team and saw them charge towards where his team was standing. Shouto raised his left arm in defense, small flames igniting along it against his will.
“It was the last one they took, so I just have to grab the one on top.”
“No, Izuku, don’t, I’ll burn yo-” his thoughts were cut off as a burst of energy cut through the air, dispersing his flames, and a hand reached forward to rip a headband off his neck.
“We did it! I got it!”
“Except that I didn’t put your headband on top.”
“You mean… then this is… No… I failed them… We lost because of me.”
Time was called and Shouto immediately jumped down and started heading over to console his boyfriend, who’s thoughts were getting increasingly depressed as the seconds passed. A few steps before he made it over though, he saw Tokoyami and dark shadow hand Izuku a second headband.
“Shouto’s headband?” He heard, reaching up to touch his hair and realizing he had lost his headband for the first time. “This means… WE MADE IT!” Shouto watched with a small smile as Izuku started crying and gathered his team in a group hug.
“Good work, I’m proud of you.”
Izuku released his teammates and turned towards him with wet eyes and a blinding smile. “We might have that fight after all.”
-X-X-X-
“Come with me, I want to talk to you” Izuku heard as Shouto pulled him away from the group into a nearby hallway while everyone headed to lunch.
“Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I just-” “Have you heard of quirk marriages?”
“They were pretty big when quirks first started appearing, but are a lot less common now, right?” “Where is this going?” Izuku wondered as they settled on opposite sides of the small hallway from one another.
“They’re less common, yes, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still happen,” Shouto paused and sighed heavily. “My father married my mother for her quirk. He wanted a child that inherited both fire and ice, a child he could train to be even stronger than him, a child that could surpass All Might. When my quirk manifested, he said I was his greatest creation and started me on an intense training regimen so I could one day pass All Might and become the number one hero, like he had never been able to.”
Izuku stared at his soulmate with wide eyes, slowly processing everything he was hearing. “Greatest… Creation?”
“Sometimes I wonder if he ever thought of me as his child, or if I was always just an object to him. Anyway, you already know what happened with my mother,” he said, raising a hand to touch the scar around his eye. “She couldn’t handle how much I reminded her of Endeavor, she was so scared of him. He locked her away in a hospital and just started training me even harder, not caring how many bruises or burns I ended up with, or how bad they were.”
Izuku could hear the pain and bitterness in the other’s voice as he told him about everything Endeavor had put him through. “Shouto, that’s not even training at that point. That’s just…” he couldn’t bring himself to even think it.
“Yeah, I know,” Shouto said, voice barely above a whisper as he stared at his left hand with something akin to anger and disgust. He let his arm fall back to his side and raised his eyes from the ground to fix Izuku with a determined look. “Which is why I won’t use my left side. I can be a great hero with just my mom’s quirk, I don’t need his fucking flames. I won’t give him the satisfaction.”
Izuku had wondered why he never used his flames a few times, but assumed it was something like not wanting to burn his shirt or something small like that. He never once would have imagined this. He quickly crossed over to Shouto and wrapped him in a tight hug. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
They stayed like that, holding each other close in that empty hallway, until they were called back for the third event.
-X-X-X-
After a slightly stressful match against the kid with the brainwashing quirk and the worlds fastest match between Shouto and Sero, the time had finally come for Izuku and Shouto to face off. As they walked into the arena and took their places, Izuku could feel their connection spark back to life and smiled at his soulmate across the battle ground.
“Bring it on.”
“Give it all you’ve got.”
“Plus Ultra!”
“Wow, that really is a conditioned response for you, isn’t it?”
“I basically have no control over it.” Before Izuku had the chance to think anything else, Midnight was announcing the beginning of their match and he was summoning one for all to defend against the ice wall headed his way.
They continued like that for a while, Shouto shooting off ice walls and Izuku breaking his fingers to blow them away, their minds a jumbled mess of thoughts about winning and the periodic small “ow” from Izuku when he broke another finger. After the 8th wall and the 8th broken finger, he finally heard a clear, confident thought from Shouto for the first time since their battle started.
“You’re out of fingers. I’ve got you now.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Izuku thought as he sent a burst of one for all through his already broken finger. “Fuck, that stings.”
“Why are you like this? Shit, I’m moving slower, I’m so cold.”
“Stop holding back!”
“What?”
“You’re not even using your left side to regulate your body temperature. You’re only using half your quirk on me even though you said you’d bring your all.” Izuku thought as he destroyed another ice wall sent his way, cringing at the thought of how cold Shouto must be.
“I told you, I don’t want to give him the satisfaction.”
“IT’S YOUR POWER!" Izuku shouted across the field. "It’s your quirk, not his. This power is what you make of it, and you will do so much better with it than he ever did.”
“Izu-“
“You’re only using half your quirk, which isn’t fair to yourself or me. We promised we wouldn’t hold back, and you said you wanted to see where you measured up against me. Don’t offend me by saying you think you can beat me with just half your power. Come at me with everything you’ve got!”
Izuku watched Shouto’s face shift from determination to shock during his outburst. As Shouto’s hands fell to his side, he started to wonder if he was wrong.
“Shit, I pushed too much after you told me about this just a few hours ago. I’m sorry, I just wanted a fair match with us both giving our all.”
There was no response from the other boy, but before Izuku could start worrying even more, Shouto smiled at him from across the arena and his left side promptly burst into brilliant, bright flames.
-X-X-X-
“Look I know I just said we should give it our all and everything, but I have a boner now and can’t fight like this so…”
Shouto laughed as he heard his boyfriend’s thoughts. “Time for the real fight to begin.”
“Let’s go.”
Shouto could see Izuku’s smirk as the got in position. Distantly, he could hear Midnight and Cementoss talking about stopping the match, but he was too focused on living up to his promise and fighting Izuku at 100% to register what they were saying.
They both attacked at the same time, Izuku launching himself forward right as Shouto released more ice and fire than he knew he could, both of them ignoring the rising cement walls between them. The combination of Izuku’s force and Shouto’s fire and ice all hitting the cement caused an explosion that threw everyone in the stadium back. Shouto barely had the sense to keep himself from flying out of bounds with his ice.
“You good, Izuku?” Shouto thought as he waited for the dust and debris to settle enough that he could see across the arena. “Izuku?” He thought a little more insistently, realizing he couldn’t hear anything or even feel their connection anymore.
When the dust finally settled, he saw his soulmate’s limp body leaned up against the stadium wall, unmoving. Shouto rushed over and kneeled down in front of him, unable to believe what he was seeing.
“IZUKU?!”
-X-X-X-
Izuku’s first thought when he woke up was “This is my fault. I did this to him.” Wait, that wasn’t his thought.
“Shouto?”
“Izuku? You can hear me?”
“Hey, Shouto"
“He’s safe. He’s ok.” “I’m so glad you’re ok,” Shouto said, letting out a long sigh and putting his face in his hands. “I thought I’d…” “I thought I’d killed you.”
“I’m ok,” Izuku reached out to grab Shouto’s hand with his own, only then registering the bandages encasing his hands and arms. “What happened?” He thought as he inspected the bandages a little more.
“Recovery girl said you shattered your hands and arms and that she was going to have to operate on it to remove the bone fragments before she could use her quirk to heal you.” “I did this. I made you-”
“No. You didn’t make me do anything. I don’t regret what I did, no matter what the price, and I would do it all again right now if I had to,” He said quickly, his tone leaving no room for discussion.
“But, why?”
Izuku nudged his boyfriend’s hands where the sat on the bed with his knee. “Because I love you. You didn’t deserve to go through any of that with Endeavor and what happened with him and you mom, none of that was your fault. You shouldn’t be holding yourself back and hating who you are because of something that isn’t even your fault,” he said with a gentle smile.
In that moment, he saw more emotion in those heterochromic eyes than he had seen his soulmate express in the time they’d known each other. Shouto leaned forward to rest his head on Izuku’s leg, squeezing his calf gently with his warm left hand.
“I love you too.”
-X-X-X-
Later that day, after Izuku was mostly fixed up by Recovery Girl, after Shouto came in second behind Bakugo, after Shouto gently held Izuku’s crooked hand as if it was still broken to inspect it and pressed feather-light kisses to every new scar and crooked bone on his hands and arms, the boy’s finally left UA hand in hand, exhausted from a long day of emotions and hard work.
“I’m proud of you, Shouto,” Izuku thought, smile brighter than the sun setting in the distance.
“Thank you, Izuku.”