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Tears glistening with every stare he had over the bruises on his skin and the paleness of it. With every day passing by, it was evident the boy was a day closer to death but he wasn’t sure whether his impending death would hurt him more or the fact Midoriya had wished that they had never fallen in love.
He averted his gaze elsewhere, anywhere would be better than the boy who had his heart in the palm of his hands. He could toy with it and Todoroki would still be fine with it but not this. No, he would never tolerate this, especially if it came from Midoriya himself.
His face sad, pained as he parted his lips to question Midoriya’s words but closed them again. It hurts too much to hear them again. The sick boy saw his hesitation as he smiled at him. The smile didn’t have the usual radiant to it like it always does. It almost felt as if he was staring into a reflection of his own. His thoughts drifting away from reality, barely noticing that he had lost control over his quirk. Ice frosting the scarred hand he held and the other charred the bedsheet.
“I wish it hadn’t happened,” Midoriya piped up as he softly squeezed Todoroki’s hand, ignoring the slight frost as he paused for a moment to brush the tears away. “This between us. It shouldn’t have happened when I’m so close to death. You deserve better than just a boy who came barging into your life…”
The words died in his throat the moment their eyes met. The glare in Todoroki’s eyes was heartbreaking. Before Midoriya could continue his own rambling, Todoroki had beaten him to it with a loud scoff of disbelief. “You’re seriously going to push me away just because you’re dying?”
The latter’s eyes softened, his left hand over Todoroki’s cheek and his cheeks burned once he leaned into the touch. “You deserve someone who is able to be by your side, Shouto,”
“You’re here now, aren’t you?”
“Won’t be for long, Shouto,”
“Then, what about being the number one hero? Are you giving that up easily when you’re so close to achieving that dream?”
Midoriya sighed, brushing a thumb over Todoroki’s lip before softly pecking them. He sighed before he said, “I love you, Todoroki. I really do… I just wished it didn’t end like this,”
Who would have thought that his own organs would be the one to end his life?
Hearing that, Todoroki couldn’t help the lone tear falling from his eye before he silently crawled onto te bed, embracing him as if his life depended on it. The rest of the day were only filled soft kisses and reassuring hugs, they only enjoyed each other companies without any words exchanged before Todoroki left the room at night.
And that was the last image of Todoroki he saw before closing his eyes.
It was only four years after that the man finally had the courage to visit his lover at the cemetery. Despite how many years apart it had been, it still hurt him all the same. His eyes tearing up almost instantly, looking away to brush away the tears before putting the flowers against the tombstone, in the middle of all the pictures of their classmates and trinkets that grew along the years.
He cleared the lump in his throat, “I finally became the number one hero like you thought I would,”
“Even ate your favorite before coming here …” He said as he stared at the beautiful portrait that contained his lover but would never be animated as he used to be. He brought his legs to his chest and mumbled the words he had kept all these years, “I miss you, Shouto,”
Tears brimmed in his eyes as the words he longed to say stuck in his throat, to question his actions because he couldn’t brought himself to understand. Instead he only says. ”I’ll enjoy everything for your sake, Shouto,”
He stood up, one hand absentmindedly going over the scar from the last time he had seen Todoroki as he whispered the words. Tears fell onto his tombstone before he walked, never once glancing back. Heart clenching tight with every step he took.
“You, giving up on your life for me. I wish it hadn’t happened,”