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Nothing is worse than one of the class pranksters finding out someone’s secret. When does it ever end well for everyone? This time was likely no exception.
It’d been a little incident in the kitchen area of the shared dorms, sometime in the early morning. Kaminari wasn’t normally up this early but eh, what can you do? Sometimes you just wake up for no reason. He’d gone down into the kitchen, music playing over his headphones so as to not disturb the sleeping students and put a kettle on for some hot tea. He hummed along to his music and bobbed his head while he waited to the kettle to whistle. He didn’t hear the normally early riser enter the kitchen.
Todoroki was a bit surprised to see Kaminari of all people up this early but shrugged it off. He was still a bit sleepy. He moved across the kitchen but was caught off guard when Kaminari turned with the hot kettle in hand.
Both men let out a noise of shock but each had drastically different reactions. Kaminari caught himself and steadied the kettle to not spill any of the piping hot water while Todoroki skirted as far back across the kitchen as possible. What was most shocking was the fact that the normally stoic man was tinged with frost on his right side and had steam rising on the other. He was tense and staring wide eyed at the other.
“Dude, you okay?” Kaminari asked after his quick recovery.
“Get that away from me,” the other said, voice as tense and defensive as his body.
It was only then that Kaminari realized that Todoroki wasn’t looking at him but at the pot in his hand. Slipping his headphones off of his ears, he looked between the kettle and his classmate in confusion. “What? The kettle? I know it’s hot but-”
“Please just get it away!”
“Okay, man! Calm down!” he replied, turning to set it on a towel on the counter. “Want tea? I’m making some.”
Todoroki visibly relaxed his shoulders when the pot is moved and lets out a sigh. “Sure,” he said softly, accepting the offer.
As he prepared the tea, the gears were turning in Kaminari’s head but he wouldn’t reach his conclusion until Midoriya also entered the room. What was with these guys getting up so freaking early?
He’d share his experience with his friends later at lunch though none of them believed him. “There’s no way you scared him!” Ashido would say, and “He’s not exactly easy to faze, Denki,” Sero would say.
“I’m telling you its true! He’s scared of tea kettles!”
“Do you not realize how ridiculous you sound?” Sero continued with a shake of his head as he prepared another bite of his meal.
“I can prove it! I’ll do it when we all go back!”
Ashido and Sero looked at each other a moment and then shrugged. “All right, Denki. 2000 Yen says he won’t do anything.”
A smug grin passed over his face as he boasted, “Prepare to lose 2000 Yen then because I’m not losing this bet.”
“Like you weren’t going to lose the last ones?” Sero snickered.
The day felt too long for Kaminari but for Todoroki and everyone else, it was an average day with no idea what was going to happen once they turned in for the evening.
As per usual, the group mostly settled into the commons area for light chat and televised entertainment with the exception of a few who went to their rooms for one reason or another. Ashido and Sero sat together on one couch, Mina flopped backwards over his lap as she scrolled through her phone. Bakugou and Kirishima sat at another, Bakugou staring off at the television while Kirishima and Sero chatted. Ojiro watched the TV between Tsu and Hagakure, who was lazy playing with the hair at the end of his tail. Kaminari was sitting on the floor, playing phone charger while watching the screen.
He noticed Todoroki leave his seat in one of the chairs to leave the room. Seeing as he didn’t quietly announce his going to bed, Kaminari assumed he’d be coming back. Now was the time to strike. “Hey, Mina,” he said, turning to look at her. “Ready to lose that 2000?”
She just hummed agreement, not really paying attention, but it got Sero’s attention. “You’re still goin on about that?”
“Hell yeah I am!” he said, running off to the kitchen.
“What’s he doing?” Kirishima asked, silently drawing everyone else’s attention to the situation. Even Bakugou though he didn’t show it. He was listening, just not watching.
“He thinks he can scare Todoroki.”
“Now that’s something I’d like to see,” Hagakure piped up, earning a very unsure look from Ojiro beside her.
Denki returned with the same kettle as that morning, leaving everyone except Ashido and Sero extremely confused. He tucked himself next to the doorway that Todoroki had left though and waited with an child-like grin on his face. In his mind, this was going to be hilarious on top of humbling the classes most popular student.
The result did not match the expectation. The moment Todoroki entered, he saw Denki. Kinda of hard to hide with hair like that. But then his eyes dropped to the kettle in hand and he all but flew away from him, into a nearby corner. Steam and sparks rising from his body and a thin layer of solid ice creeping up his right side. “Get that thing away from me!” he cried, his voice almost threatening. His tone didn’t match the defensive position his body had taken.
The other students were genuinely shocked. Even Bakugou was watching now.
“See? I told you guys,” Kaminari boasted, taking a few steps closer to the cowering student.
Todoroki was beginning to let off flickers of flame as his eyes became distant. It was easy to see that this could only end in one of two ways if he didn’t stop.
“Denki, stop!” Kirishima piped up, standing from his seat. “You’re going to burn the dorms down!”
“Or freeze us to death!” Sero added, completing the thought.
“Relax guys. I’m not hurting him,” he said, that smug grin still plastered on his face as he walked closer, causing the flames to grow brighter. The smell of smoke was beginning to seep into the air.
“it’s not funny anymore! Leave him alone!” Ashido all but screamed.
With a frustrated growl, Bakugou pushed himself up from his seat and stormed over to the idiot prankster. Without a word, he statched the kettle from the other’s hand and swung it around to bash him in the head before throwing it away with a loud clatter. Denki dropped to the ground, clutching the quickly swelling lump, crying out.
The other students rushed into their injured classmate. “Bakugou, you could’ve killed him!” Kirishima yelled.
“Good. Dumbass deserves it,” he scoffed, walking over to stand over Todoroki who was only smoldering now. “Get up Icy Hot. You look pathetic.”
Todoroki braced himself on the wall and properly stood himself up. After a second of cooling down and taking in the situation properly, he said quietly, “Why did you do that?”
Bakugou leaned in and muttered only loud enough for Shoto to hear, “Because I know trauma’s a real bitch.” He then turned and headed for the stairs. “Screw you losers, I’m going to bed!”
Unlike Denki, it didn’t take long for Shoto to piece some things together about the class’ number one hothead; he knew about what he’s been through, and he’s gone through something bad too. Was that… an act of sympathy? Mirdoriya would be proud.