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Midoriya Izuku may be small in stature, but nothing else about him really is. He had always had a big heart. Bigger than most. Bigger than himself. In every crying child, every hurt little critter, every abandoned stray, Izuku saw an opportunity to share the love that overflowed from it. He cared deeply for every being, even those who some might say didn’t deserve it, but he couldn’t help it. His heart is just too big, so big that he can’t possibly hide it.
So, Izuku wears his heart on his sleeve, there for all to see, because he is an open book on top of everything else. Tears come easily to him, building behind bright green eyes with every emotion he feels, so intensely that it is impossible to keep it all inside. Such a tiny body was never meant to hold something so large, and yet, Izuku wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Even if his big heart is such an easy target that everyone seems to find an excuse to take advantage, Izuku wouldn’t change it if he could. It’s a part of who he is, of why he has become this person who wants nothing more than to help, to be the hero he wished he had. Perhaps there is a reason for it, as people tend to say there is a reason for everything, and even though Izuku might not know what exactly it is, why he was born with such an overwhelming amount of love and care, he knows that it’s important. Maybe it hurts, to care so deeply that every little thing feels ten times worse than it ought to be, but with a big heart like his, maybe he can shield those who need shielding.
Bruises may hurt, cuts may bleed, but Izuku’s heart will never stop beating just as hard, loving just as much. It’s big enough to take it all, it’s strong enough to help him stand back up on sore feet, dust himself off and keep moving forward. It has taught him that though life may be cruel and kick people while they are down, there will always be a reason to fight not to stay down.
Some might say it is too big, but Izuku thinks it is just right and one day he might just learn why.
***
Todoroki Shouto had a heart just the same as everyone else, once. As a child it was filled with dreams and happy memories, of laughter, hugs and kisses. Sadly, that reality didn’t last long, soon fading into twisted nightmares filled with pain and sorrow, screaming and crying while flames burned and melted away soft poufs of snow he had once loved to play with.
Bit by small bit, his heart was chipped away, like a sculpture that never looked just right so it kept being chip-chip-chipped until there was nothing left to sculpt. Nothing but dust remained, ash, the remnants of something long forgotten, all burned down to a crisp. Shouto’s heart couldn’t survive the constant abuse, bruises and cuts festering until whole chunks had to be taken out for risk of infecting everything else.
Soon enough, Shouto could no longer feel. Not truly, not like before. Love became a foreign concept, care was all but a distant memory and kindness came in the form of sad smiles and warm meals that didn’t seem to warm him at all.
Without a heart everything seems just a little duller. Shouto’s life is a canvas of black and grey, the only splotches of colour being raging reds that only paint in agony. As it turns out, hate and resentment don’t require a heart to be felt, so it’s all he really knows anymore.
It’s hard to find a reason to keep going when there’s nothing but hurt and grief, a hole left where his heart was meant to be that slowly fills with horrible bitterness and spite, corroding everything that lies around it and infiltrating further. Anger boils and brews and Shouto feels himself burning from within, even with ice so carefully laid in every path, keeping everything numb to the touch so he doesn’t feel the ache of the emptiness left behind.
A lot of things are lost along with one’s heart, Shouto finds, because everything meaningful requires giving some of it in exchange. Shouto has no heart left to give, no love left to feel, no care, no kindness. It all burned long ago, melted under scorching hot waters or simply wilted away in the midst of everything else. A heart cannot survive without being nurtured.
Some might say that once lost, his heart can never be recovered. Shouto might just believe it.
***
A war wages in mismatched eyes, like the sea in storm raging against the winds of winter, and Izuku feels cold just looking into them, a shiver running through him that he isn’t sure has anything at all to do with the dropping temperatures. Izuku’s heart aches as he witnesses the sadness surrounding a classmate he thinks he may have called a friend had he been given the chance. In the few words they exchanged he was offered a challenge, a reason for it, and nary anything else.
Izuku can tell that Shouto has suffered, not because of what he told him, but just by looking at him. His eyes carry an anger that has been brewing for long years, and one might say that they would burn with it, but they don’t. All Izuku can see in those blue grey eyes is coldness, emptiness. It hurts to see and he longs to be able to do something, anything. So, he does whatever he can do. He fights for what he believes, he reaches out a hand and prays that the other takes it.
A spark flickers back to life after what Izuku thinks may have been an eternity of nothing but cold ashes. His heart sings in relief.
It is only after the deed is done and maybe even a painfully long way down the road that he truly notices... his heart doesn’t feel so heavy anymore.
He realises with a start that in each touch he shares with Shouto he feels a little lighter, in each minute they spend together, he aches a little less, and bit by tiny bit, a smile returns to his friend’s features. It is foreign at first, as if his muscles had forgotten how to even make such an expression, but as time goes on it falls naturally on his lips, tipping their corners up and softening the edges around his once cold eyes. They feel warmer now. He feels warmer now.
Izuku’s chest feels just as full as before but he is no longer bursting at the seams.
***
Shouto’s chest no longer feels empty. There is a heart beating there once more. Somehow, he still believes his wasn’t recovered.
Someone just had a heart big enough to share with him.