Work Text:
“Izuku!”
Shouto doesn't think. He moves.
All Might has mentioned before that this is something that makes a hero. Something in peoples' bodies, something that they don't have to think about. Something that has their feet moving before their brains can.
Shouto hasn't experienced it before. He's always analyzed things, thought them through, making decisions that he thinks are going to work the best – or are going to benefit him the most. He's never moved without thinking.
Until now.
He doesn't have a plan, doesn't have time to think. His body slips in between the rockfall and the green-haired boy – facing him – so he gets a full, up-close-and-personal view of Izuku's rapidly widening eyes as he plants both hands on Izuku's chest and shoves, throwing the boy back, heels over head. Only then does he even think of using his quirk, and ice erupts from the ground around him, his hands coming up to protect his head and neck.
The rockfall still crashes down around him, smashing through the ice and knocking him down to the ground, closing him into darkness. Everything settles, and he shifts uncomfortably. He's not hurt – but he could have been. He's pinned down by the rocks, but he's relatively unharmed save for a few scratches. He's pretty sure that without his ice, that would not have been the case. He coughs, and the rocks settle heavily on him.
He realizes pretty quickly that he's not getting out by himself, and the rocks are... so heavy... he's having some trouble breathing.
“Shouto!” Izuku screams from the other side of the rocks, and then they start to shift. It takes Izuku an impressively short amount of time to unearth him, hands clawing at the rocks and shoving them out of the way. Gloves wrap into Shouto's hero costume and Izuku hauls him out of the rubble, dragging him backwards, their chests pressed together. Shouto tries to fill his lungs with air, blinking black spots out of his vision. “Shouto! Oh my god, oh my god, you idiot,” Izuku sobs, tears streaking down his grimy face and leaving clean lines. Izuku's knees seem to be failing him and together they slump half to the ground. Izuku checks frantically over the back of Shouto's head, his shoulders, his back, sputtering nonsense. “I can't believe you did that you absolute moron I could have handled that you could have been killed you can't just do that you are in so much trouble I can't believe-”
“Izuku,” Shouto interrupts him, and the shorter boy chokes off with a sob. Shouto rips off a piece of his tattered costume and offers it to Izuku - the boy uses it as a tissue to clean up his messy face. “I'm fine.”
Izuku fixes him with a stern albeit a bit watery stare, and weakly thumps his fist against Shouto's thigh. “But you could have been hurt.”
Shouto lets out a shaky laugh. He knows he could have been hurt, but the terror that had seized up his chest when he had seen the rockfall bearing down on Izuku... “But I wasn't, because you saved me.”
Izuku shakes his head weakly and drops his face, letting his forehead rest on Shouto's chest, mumbling, “You saved me first,” and Shouto knows they're not going to agree. It doesn't matter – Izuku is safe, and he's alive to see it, so everything is fine. He saved Izuku – and Izuku turned right around and saved him back – and he'll never regret it.
“Everyone is accounted for,” Aizawa's voice says, crackly and full of static, in Izuku's ear. “Except for Shouto.”
Izuku grits his teeth, narrowed eyes still searching. There's more noise from his earpiece, Momo and Ochako saying they have no sign of him. This was supposed to be an easy mission. They've only been doing work studies with their newest heroes for a few weeks – they didn't want to send them on a really hard mission. But the Villain had arrived and everything had gone to shit. All of the students – second-years now, but still students nonetheless – had been sent for search-and-rescue, leaving the real fighting for the pros.
Two of the buildings had gone down. Izuku had been in one of them, but with One For All he had been fine, protecting a young girl from debris and getting her out safely. A couple of civilians had been injured, but nothing too bad yet.
But they can't find Shouto.
Izuku's arms shake as he hurries through the building, and he's not sure if it's from the strain, the fact that he's using One For All at likely too high of a percentage, or if it's something more emotion-based. He feels like he's going to be sick, but he'll die before he stops looking.
“Deku,” Aizawa says in his ear. “Get out of there. There are emergency crews now.”
“No,” Izuku says back, his breath coming frantic and quick. “No, I'm going to find him.”
“Deku,” Aizawa says again, harsher this time. The building shifts around him. “The building is going to come down.”
“More reason for me to find him now,” Izuku shoots back, rounding a corner and ducking under a fallen beam. There's so much rubble, but it's all grey, all dusty and dark, no sign of familiar red and white. “Shouto!” He shouts. There's no response.
Aizawa doesn't argue, but Izuku can hear them talking, he can hear that emergency crews are trying to get inside, but it's slow going with the building so weak.
Well, Izuku is already inside.
He shoves his way through a collapsed doorway, breathing hard. He's alight with lightning, ready to jump at any point, ready to run, trying to move faster, search harder, to find him, that's all that matters, just find-
“Shouto!” He gasps, dropping to his knees. His hands hover frantically, shaking much harder now. The blood in his veins is colder than Shouto's ice, pumping faster than One For All activating in him. He can't breathe.
The other boy is obviously out cold, eyes shut, face slack. There's a red spot on his forehead, and he's half underneath a beam. Izuku fights the urge to throw up and works his way in next to him. Throwing up can come later. For now – just save him.
“Have you found him?”
“Got him,” Izuku grunts, shoving one foot under the beam and cranking it upwards. It hurts, but he'll withstand it for Shouto. It could be agony and it wouldn't matter. “I'll be out in a second.”
Shouto is breathing – that's a good sign. He doesn't appear to be injured at all despite being unconscious, only the head wound, and it's only bleeding a little bit. Izuku drags him out from under the beam and lets it rest back on the floor, hearing the ceiling groan above him. He works his arms under Shouto and scoops him up, the other boy's head limply rolling against his neck.
“I got you,” Izuku breathes, looking for the nearest exit. “I've got you, Shouto.”
The building sways beneath his feet, and Izuku can hear Aizawa shouting in his ear. He's got to get out. He needs to get out. And he needs to do it ten seconds ago.
Window.
He covers Shouto's face and runs full tilt. Glass shatters around him and Shouto as Izuku launches himself out through the half-broken window, careening through the air as the building comes down behind him, just moments after he clears the windowsill. There are shouts from onlookers and the other heroes as he plummets towards the street, lightning flashing around him.
He lands and skids hard, knees aching, the pavement cracking below him, his iron soles scraping loudly, Shouto clutched tightly to his chest. He's larger than Izuku but it doesn't matter, the weight is nothing. Izuku would carry a building if it meant Shouto would be safe.
“Iz...uku?” He grunts, his eyelids fluttering. His voice his crackly and pained, and Izuku hears it more in his in-ear than he does over the sounds of yelling and the building crumbling. Izuku looks down at the boy in his arms, trying to give him a reassuring smile.
“It's okay, I've got you,” He says again, turning. There are already EMTs coming for him, and he carefully passes Shouto off to them, laying him out on a stretcher, watching as Shouto stares at him with hazy eyes.
Shouto speaks again, but Izuku is too far away to hear him. It doesn't matter – his in-ear is still on. “Thank you.”
He grins, and lets the EMTs take him away. Shouto will be fine. He'll be fine. It's only that thought that lets him turn and head off to continue to help.
Shouto notices first that Izuku is bleeding.
He doesn't know how he's missed it, because there's a cloth tied around Izuku's leg like the boy has taken time to try to cover the wound and keep it from gushing blood. Shouto doesn't know how it happened, doesn't know when he had the time to tie something around it. He's been a little busy fighting himself, but he feels like he should have noticed that earlier.
“Izuku,” He calls, gritting his teeth as he dodges out of the way of a barrage of needles, shooting ice up from the ground just in time to block the ones that would hit him. “Your leg!”
Izuku just shakes his head in response, jumping forward to try and surprise the Villain, who just turns and knocks him out of the way. Izuku is slowing, but he's still impossibly fast. They've just started their third year – and Izuku has only gotten better as the years pass.
Still, the Villain is faster.
“Izuku!” Shouto shouts again, but Izuku doesn't acknowledge him. Shouto looks around for help, but the other heroes there are engaged in their own fights.
This could get really bad if Izuku loses too much blood. Fire erupts from his side and scorches the Villain. His fire burns hotter as emotions that he doesn't want to analyze swirl in his blood. We just have to take this guy out.
Izuku sprints back in, and Shouto twists his body, ice and fire spraying at the Villain – careful to not hit Izuku – trapping him in between.
The Villain chooses to block Shouto's attack, and gets an iron sole to the face in consequence. Izuku screams as he hits the Villain, and Shouto can't tell if he's in pain or if it's in fury. Blood sprays from his leg as he smashes the Villain to the ground. The Villain crumples, out cold. Shouto skids in on his ice, freezing his lower half and producing the quirk-deadening handcuffs the police had given him earlier. Izuku sways dangerously, and Shouto leaps forward on instinct to grab him before he can fall.
“Izuku?” He asks, but the green-haired boy's eyes flutter, and he goes limp against Shouto. He's breathing hard, face pale. Shouto holds him tight, eyes scanning for an exit.
There's another Villain coming at them, and Shouto scoops Izuku up, straining but shuffling him to his left side, careful not to freeze the smaller boy as ice bursts from his right foot, shoving the Villain back and back towards where Kirishima and Bakugou are fighting. They can handle that, he thinks. He has to get Izuku out of here.
Izuku moans something against his neck, sounding vaguely like I can keep fighting, but Shouto just grunts in response. The boy can't even stand. There's no way he's going to let him keep fighting. But Shouto can't figure out the best way out, and he's nervous about leaving the rest of them to the fight.
He catches Uraraka's eye, who gets one look at them and waves her hand. “Go! We've got this.” She presses her hands together and rubble comes crashing down on the Villain she's fighting. “Behind you – there's a staircase that should be clear by now.”
“No,” Izuku says weakly against Shouto's neck. “I'm fine, I can keep-”
“I'm not letting you,” Shouto growls into his ear, and Izuku shakes slightly. Shouto holds him tighter – it's a little awkward, he's carrying Izuku like they're piggy-back, but on his front, Izuku's legs resting on his hips and head caught on his shoulder, and Shouto struggles to hold him up with one hand around his back and the other under his butt. He could probably get them into a more comfortable position but the longer he stays, the longer they're in danger – the longer Izuku is in danger – so he turns and starts hurrying away.
“I'm fine,” Izuku tries again, starting to lean back, but Shouto just holds him tighter, gritting his teeth. His right arm starts to freeze over at the thought of Izuku continuing to push himself with injuries that are making him sag in exhaustion and pain.
“I'm not going to let you kill yourself,” Shouto snaps, turning his head to the side enough to catch Izuku's eyes. It brings their faces much too close to each other, but Shouto continues to stare at him. “I can't watch you die.” His voice cracks, but he admits, “I can't lose you.”
Izuku stares back, eyes watery and hazy. Seeing him like this... Shouto feels something heavy thump against his chest – and not just Izuku, who's plastered all over it. If he hadn't already knocked him out, Shouto would find the Villain who had done this to him and beat him unconscious.
Finally Izuku just nods, and he buries his face in Shouto's neck. “I can't lose you either,” Izuku wheezes, and the breath against his skin makes the hair on the back of Shouto's neck stand on end. He wonders if Izuku is letting Shouto carry him away because he knows he needs to stop or because he knows that he'd do the same to Shouto.
Either way – Shouto clutches him just a bit tighter as he runs up the stairs away from the fight. Izuku needs some medical attention, and Shouto won't rest until he gets him there.
When the knock comes on Shouto's door, he's all too quick to jump up to answer it. His phone tells him that it's way past time that he should be in bed, but he's nowhere near done studying. Still, he'll take any excuse to procrastinate some more, so he ditches his books at his desk and opens the door to a sheepish-looking Izuku, both hands behind his back and a smile on his face. Shouto tries to ignore the way his chest clenches up.
“Hey,” Izuku says, pulling both hands from behind his back. He's got a bag of chips in each hand – both family sized, both unopened. “I uh, saw you didn't eat dinner and noticed your light was still on... I figured you were studying thought maybe you could use some company and some food? Also if you're studying I could really use some help on English.”
Shouto stares at him for a long moment, trying to determine what the aching in his chest means. His throat has closed up – he blames it on the late hour, the idea that Izuku noticed that he hadn't had dinner, the fact that he showed up at his door with food and his own textbooks; he can see that Izuku is wearing his pack, likely stuffed with all his school stuff. Shouto had been putting off studying until the night before the final, and he had just realized that it was definitely going to affect his standing in class, but his eyes were drooping and he was starting to think that he wasn't going to be able to stay awake.
A panicked look starts to wash over Izuku as Shouto doesn't respond, like he's worried he overstepped. “I'm sorry! I'm sorry if I assumed or something, but I was just worried about you and I didn't want you to go hungry on the day before the exam or if, like, you were stressing about the exam, I-I just wanted, I don't know, I ju-just thought maybe-”
“Come in,” Shouto says, stepping to the side, opening the door wider. A grin hits Izuku's face like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, and the force of it nearly knocks Shouto off of his feet. Izuku bounces into the room and makes himself at home on the floor, chatting excitedly about how far he's gotten in the section of English, and Shouto sits with him, wondering where he's got all of his energy from.
They splay all their stuff out across the floor and keep each other awake, throwing chips back and forth and talking about what they're pretty sure Present Mic said in his lecture, studying until neither of them can keep their eyes open anymore. Izuku passes out first, leaned on the side of Shouto's bed, and Shouto carefully lifts him up onto the mattress and Izuku curls up on his side in his sleep, one hand grabbing onto Shouto's sleeve. Shouto finds a small smile touching his face, and he lets himself settle down next to the boy, turning off the light and closing his eyes.
Shouto is sure, without even the shadow of a doubt, without this boy, he'd be asleep, sure to fail the final in the morning, but now he remembers the information – paired with smiles and laughs. Allowing his head to fall to the side, another smile finds his face at the picture of Izuku knocked out, mouth hanging open slightly and hand fisted in Shouto's shirt. There's no space for worry in his chest anymore, not next to the emotion blooming somewhere underneath his solar plexus.
Only a few hours later finds him blinking groggily awake, and Izuku is already up. His face is slightly flushed but he digs something out of his pack – he slams two redbulls down on the floor on top of his textbook, something feral in his grin.
“Let's pass this final.”
Shouto passes the final.
“I can't believe graduation is so close,” Kaminari sighs, slumped against the side of one of the washing machines. “Only a couple more weeks.” Izuku nods absently, rubbing at his arm. It aches – but it doesn't hurt really bad. He's nearly able to use 40% of One For All, but sometimes it still doesn't feel like enough. He knows he's going to keep getting better, but he wants it to happen now.
They've just gotten back to the dorms after a particularly nasty fight. None of them had really gotten hurt, but they were all exhausted. Izuku worries most about Shouto, who had spoke of a headache and an upset stomach and retired early to bed, nearly as soon as they got back. Izuku was worried but didn't push it – sometimes fights were just draining.
And he's going to miss this, sitting in the laundry room and washing bloodstains out of clothes, talking quietly with his classmates – Kaminari slumped half on his side, Tsuyu and Ochako splayed out on the floor, Iida and Momo chatting at the far end of the room.
“Ah, my neck,” Kaminari groans, rubbing at the back of his neck. He pulls his hand away after a minute and squeezes his hands open and shut a couple times, frowning at them. “I can't believe that Villain necked me. I thought that was something only middle-schoolers did.”
Izuku chuckles, glancing over at him. He had watched the woman run between his classmates, Iida hot on her tail, and slap at the backs of their necks. She hadn't really been able to touch many of them – just Kaminari and Shouto, since they were on the edge of the group. She had almost gotten to Aoyama and Jirou, but Iida had tackled her to the ground before she could. He dragged her off screaming, and they checked Kaminari and Shouto over, but they seemed fine. She must have been trying to activate her quirk, but hadn't been able to.
“It is pretty weird,” Izuku agrees, nodding. “I would have thought that if it was part of her quirk it would have done something at least. Maybe she needed to do something else to activate it. Or maybe she was just trying to hurt you guys.”
Kaminari nods, and winces. His hand goes to the back of his neck again, eyes downcast. Izuku frowns, squinting at him. Is he going pale? “Kaminari?”
“Can't feel... my hands,” He mumbles.
Izuku's eyes widen as the blood continues to drain from Kaminari's face, sweat beading up on his cheeks and under his eyes. His lips are starting to go blue. “Kaminari!” He shouts, leaping to his feet.
Kaminari just moans in response, flopping sideways onto the cold concrete. Immediately everyone in the room is by his side, laying him out and trying to figure out what's wrong with him. His eyes are rolling back in his head.
“His pulse is getting weaker,” Uraraka reports, eyes on a timer on her phone.
“He's clammy, having trouble breathing. Nothing in his mouth or throat.” Iida says, hand on his forehead.
“Pale, eyes fluttering, unresponsive,” Izuku adds, working a hand under his head just in case he starts seizing or something.
“I've seen this before. Poison,” Momo says, and they all look up at her with wide eyes. She tears her jacket off, and a vial of something works its way out of the skin of her arm. She yanks at the stopper and Tsuyu holds Kaminari's mouth open, and Momo dumps the contents into his mouth, closing his mouth and holding her hand over his lips so it has to go down.
After a couple of moments Kaminari starts coughing, color returning to his face. They help him onto his side as he coughs violently, and Izuku leans over to look at the back of his neck. “He's got something in here,” He mumbles, and the others help him roll over, seeing a tiny little stinger, like a bee stinger, stuck in his neck.
“He should be okay,” Momo says, “But we should get him to Recovery Girl.”
Izuku goes to lift him, but goes still, realizing something very suddenly. He turns hard eyes on Yaoyorozu. “I need another vial of that,” He says. “Now.”
Momo doesn't ask, she just produces it. Izuku grabs it and flies from the room – ignoring them asking where he's going – lightning flashing around him as he launches himself up the stairs and through the halls. Panic seizes up his whole body as he sprints through the dorm building. He sends silent prayers to every single deity he can think of. Please don't let me be too late. Please let him be okay.
“Shouto!” He shouts from the end of the hall, blasting his way down the hall in seconds. The floor shakes with the pressure he puts on it and the doors rattle on their hinges with the force of the wind. He slams his fist several times against Shouto's door in a way that can only very loosely be described as knocking, the vial clutched in his fingers. “Shouto!”
There's no response from the other side of the door. The handle is locked. Izuku is sure he's been loud enough to wake him up if he's sleeping, and so he mutters a quiet apology, lifts his foot, and kicks the door in.
Wood splinters go flying as he quite literally smashes the handle off the door and Izuku rushes inside, eyes scanning. He finds him immediately – laying half on his side in the middle of the room, tremors wracking his body.
“Shouto!” He gasps, crashing to the floor next to him and rolling him over onto his back. He looks just like what Kaminari looked like – eyes rolling back, trouble breathing, lips going blue. Panicked but acting as calmly as he can, years of hero training kicking in, Izuku pulls the stopper and opens his mouth, pouring the antidote down his throat and holding his mouth closed, sending prayers in a vague upwards direction, hoping somebody somewhere is hearing him.
Shouto coughs, his eyes squeezing shut for a moment. He groans, and Izuku lets out a shaky sigh, relief washing through him sweeter than any sugary treat. He helps Shouto roll to his side, coughing more – he finds the stinger and pulls it out. Shouto winces, but the color returns to his face, his breathing starts to steady.
“Izuku?” He asks, voice raspy. He blinks up at Izuku – who's crying now, but that can't be helped, he's just so happy that Shouto is okay – and frowns. “What happened?”
Izuku lets out a shaky laugh, helping him sit up, crouched next to the taller teen. His muscles are still kinda shaky, threatening to turn to liquid. “I think you g-got hit by that woman's quirk – poison. The same thing happened to Kaminari.”
Shouto nods weakly, coughing a few more times. “You... saved me?” His fingers find the empty vial on the ground. Izuku nods.
“When I figured out what happened I ran up here. I uh... broke your door. Sorry.”
Shouto's eyes refocus on the door, the wood splinters sprayed around the room. He blinks. “So you did,” He murmurs.
Izuku rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “Sorry. I'm sure we can get it fixed. I just, I c-couldn't just... I didn't want to leave you – I mean I couldn't stand it if you – I needed to-”
He doesn't get to finish, or figure out if he's ever going to make it to the end of his sentence – Shouto shuts him up. Izuku's eyes go wide as Shouto turns towards him – incredibly calm – puts the burning fingers of his left hand on Izuku's jaw and leans in to plant his mouth right on Izuku's. They're still for a moment, Izuku's heart stopped mid-beat, breath stuck behind his lips, trapped in his body by Shouto's mouth pressing against his.
Out of all the ways to shut me up, Izuku thinks hazily, eyes trying to focus on Shouto's face, but it's too close, probably the most effective.
His brain turns to mush and he falls forwards onto his knees, pushing closer to Shouto and letting his eyes slide shut. His hands find the sides of Shouto's face, fingers sliding into his hair, letting his air out through his nose and kissing back, his body shaking as Shouto lets out a quiet hum of happiness.
Shouto pulls away first, but his hands stay on Izuku's face. He looks at Izuku with his normal intensity, and Izuku, for the first time, registers all of the emotion hidden underneath those two different colors. All of Shouto's feelings focused on him, held within those two eyes, boring into him. Izuku squeaks – just a little, he can't help it – and Shouto chuckles, resting his forehead on Izuku's.
“You saved me,” Shouto murmurs. “I wouldn't be here without you.” He lifts his head just enough to look into Izuku's eyes, holding him in place as Izuku's face flushes red. “And I wouldn't want to be, either.”
Izuku is as red as he's ever been, redder than Shouto's hair, redder than his shoes, his face hotter than a blazing inferno. “You've saved me, t-too,” He manages. “Mo-more times than I can count.”
Shouto smiles, soft, disarming, his cheeks dusted pink. “And I will continue to do so,” He whispers, pulling Izuku closer by the hand on his jaw. “For as long as you'll let me.”
“Forever, then,” Izuku says, and covers Shouto's mouth with his own, feeling Shouto smile against his lips. “But right now,” He says between kisses, pulling his face out of reach as Shouto chases his mouth, “We need to get you to Recovery Girl.”
Shouto smiles, catching him by the back of the neck. Izuku is powerless to stop him, even if he wanted to. He's pliant, he's putty in Shouto's hands. He'll do anything. He'll throw himself into harm's way, he'll run miles holding an antidote, he'll break down doors, he'll jump into rivers. So he gives in to Shouto's kisses, holding him tight, never to let go.
Shouto looks like he knows this – and his eyes echo Izuku's intensity, like he's thinking the exact same thing. Izuku's heart feels like it's going to swell out of his chest, and Shouto smiles again. He pulls Izuku back in, murmuring, “In a minute.”