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Todoroki Shouto has been raised to greatness. He knows he is top of the class and he knows that he is expected to lead. So when the portal villain separates the class he knows that he needs to defeat these henchmen as fast as possible and make his way back to the entrance.
He takes down his opponents with a sweep of his right arm.
He doesn’t see the invisible girl.
He threatens them with frostbite until they tell him what he wants to know.
He doesn’t hear the call for help.
Todoroki Shouto leaves.
***
Aoyama Yuuga has been raised by normal parents to lead a normal life. He knows he’s beyond average and is not expected to amount to much. So when the portal villain separates the class he knows that he needs to find a place to hide so he won’t get hurt.
His feet hit the ground in the landslide zone and he ducks for cover before anyone can see him.
The temperature drops and Aoyama Yuuga peeks out to see one of his classmates icing the villains to the floor.
“Aren’t you embarrassed to lose to a child?” Todoroki Shouto asks, cool as a cucumber and totally chill.
“For god's sake, you’re adults. Put up a real fight.”
Aoyama Yuuga ducks his head in shame. Quirk or not, he knows he’ll never be a hero like Todoroki Shouto.
They’re just on different levels and Aoyama Yuuga knows he doesn’t have what it takes.
So while Todoroki Shouto interrogates the villains, Aoyama Yuuga turns his head.
A couple of villains try to sneak up on his classmate, and like the badass he is, he stops them cold with a stomp of his foot and a twist of his hand.
The villains are trapped, iced from head to toe in jagged waves of frost.
Todoroki Shouto leaves.
Aoyama Yuuga stays.
***
Hagakure Tooru had never been particularly afraid of her quirk.
‘It was useful’ They said.
‘It would make her a hero’ They praised.
‘It’s going to get me killed’ She thinks.
So when the portal villain had separated the class Hagakure Tooru had known it would be dangerous if she were found while on her own. She’d submitted a weapons request along with her initial costume design but they’d both been denied as too expensive to make, leaving her defenseless and exposed.
Removing her gloves and boots in an effort to be totally invisible had seemed like her best option at the time.
She has never been more aware of the fact that her hero costume is literally nothing than right now.
Todoroki had been surrounded by villains and had shot out ice along the ground in an even sweep. As soon as the ice had reached a target's feet it had begun to spread until it entrapped the entire body.
Unfortunately for Tooru, she learned this the hard way.
Her breath had been instantly forced from her lungs at the biting cold squeezing her in a vice-like grip. She’d tried her best to call for help but could only manage a faint whimper.
“Listen well, if you stay frozen your cells will slowly die as your body succumbs to frostbite and hypothermia.”
Hagakure Tooru panics.
Her short pants of breath were hard to draw in before and almost impossible now.
She screams as loud as she can but all that leaves her lips is a faint puff of air.
Todoroki Shouto manages to gain information and then turns to leave.
He doesn’t seem to hear her chattering teeth.
He doesn’t notice the lump of ice frozen in a vaguely human shape.
Todoroki Shouto leaves.
Hagakure Tooru breaks.
***
Aoyama Yuuga cannot bear to watch his classmate’s walk of triumph.
He turns away.
And he sees.
***
Tooru feels like her body would be shivering hard enough to shake itself apart if it wasn’t trapped so tight. As it is, her head is trembling and jerking so hard she can’t think.
It’s so cold and she can’t move and.
And she knows.
Even as she keeps trying to shout and scream.
Keeps trying to force words past numb lips and chattering teeth.
She knows.
No one will find her.
Not if they can’t even see her.
There’s a foreign taste in her mouth and something wet sliding down her chin but the feeling is. Distant. Unimportant.
It’s not enough to pierce the only thought left in her head.
‘I’m going to die here.’
“You will not die here! I give you my word!”
***
Yuuga’s eyes land on a small pile of something, neatly tucked behind a rock.
Usually he would be unable to make out any specifics at that distance but his flashy eyeglass guards are actually a support item and are zoom-focus enabled to help him with aiming for his quirk.
He lifts an eyebrow and narrows his eyes to activate; the image jumping forward and automatically enhancing.
Yuuga inhales sharply.
Thats. Hagakure’s hero costume.
The boots are laying flat side by side with the gloves peeking out from the lip and that means-
“Nom de dieu” he breathes. If his invisible classmate is around she could be in trouble! Would Todoroki have known? Did he see?
Or is she-
He turns his head and the still active zoom snags another image.
It’s one of Todoroki’s leftover ice lumps... though small and... kind of humanoid shaped… and there’s-
The image sharpens.
“Putain de merde!!!” he’s up and running almost as soon as the floating trail of blood registers in his sight. The zoom is running wild but he can’t be bothered with the sequence to turn it off, opting instead to just toss the thing, flinging it away in his haste.
“Hagakure!”
He calls as loudly as he dares, unsure if there are still villains around. “Mon amie, are you alright?”
‘What a stupid question, of course she isn’t!’
He falls to his knees in front of the ice, hands hovering but unsure where to touch.
The red lines visible over the ice prison tilt slightly from side to side almost as if Hagakure’s head is lolling. He quickly tugs one of his gloves off his shaking hand and presses it to where he assumes her forehead is.
“Merde” he hisses, pulling back his hand at the cold, hard skin.
He stares at the ice holding his classmate in place and tries not to panic.
‘Todoroki had mentioned frostbite and hypothermia when he was threatening the villains. Is that- is she- can I even-’
There’s a tightness in his chest and a lump in the back of his throat but he pushes everything back down and hastily pulls off his other glove.
He can’t freak out right now.
Later.
He can do that later.
For now.
He has to get her out.
He runs his hand down the ice to judge thickness, ignoring the biting cold as he uses them as a guide to finally activate his quirk.
It’s slow going and he has never been more careful not to hurt someone in his life.
He lasers off the outer edges and lets the heat melt the bits closer to his classmate.
His hands are carefully testing every step of the way to make sure he doesn’t hit her skin.
There’s a sting as he nicks his thumb and a familiar pressure building in his stomach but he ignores it all.
Later.
He’ll deal with it later.
Finally, enough of the ice has melted that Hagakure slips free and Yuuga struggles to catch the body he can’t see before it can hit the icy ground.
His own breath is visible as he shakes with cold but Hagakure’s body is still. He can’t even feel embarrassed at her lack of clothes because the skin beneath his hands is beyond icy and he quickly tugs the cape off his neck and wraps it around her instead.
‘Hypothermia. Hypothermia. What do I- Blue or black skin? But I can’t see- she’s not shivering. Not conscious. Is she breathing?’
His hands are too numb to feel anything so he leans his head down to where he now knows her mouth is and waits.
It’s slow. And shallow. But there’s a faint puff of air on his cheek and for now that’s enough.
He wants to hold her close to help her warm up or maybe give her some of his clothes. But.
“Putain.” He spits, looking down disgusted at himself.
His costume is armored and metal, sharp and pointy and so beyond useless for this situation that he has to bite his tongue to hold back another curse.
There’s a chance Hagakure can still hear him. So he needs to be calm.
Like a hero.
Even if he isn't one.
He shifts her to his back and rewraps her in the cape using the end to tie her hands around his neck. He stands up, his classmate held up by his shaking hands in the most desperate piggy back ride he’s ever given.
And all the while he says.
“You will not die here! I give you my word!”
***
Yuuga grunts with the effort and makes a promise to work out more.
Hagakure’s dead weight- (Merde! Don’t think that!) presses down on him, so cold that it seeps through his hands and neck, chilling him to the bone. His stupid cape wrapped around her is as worthless as he is and he struggles to pull himself together.
Aoyama Yuuga knows he’s not a hero.
But right now he’s all she has.
He keeps forcing himself to move forward, one step at a time.
The icy floor is slippery and the going is slow.
Hagakure trembles against him, barely even shivering and he keeps his thoughts calm by singing the sailor moon theme under his breath.
He can’t panic now.
He can’t.
Just keep going.
One more step.
And one more step.
And one more-
He catches sight of a villain at the same time the snake woman spots him.
He has half a second to weigh his options before aiming his laser and firing.
The long stream easily cuts through the ground at her feet and she falls.
Yuuga feels a familiar burn of pain in his stomach and bites his lip to keep from bending over.
A shorter burst would have saved him damage but.
He knows how dangerous his quirk is.
He hadn’t needed Thirteen’s speech to make him aware of what would happen if he used it directly on someone.
His quirk counselors had warned him enough.
His quirk. Is just as useless as he is.
Sweat slides down his face and he shakes his head to focus.
He can feel himself slipping from the present the way he used to.
Back when the pain became too much, when the other children would laugh at him.
He’s still walking, still cold and tired and pushing forward as hard as he can.
But it’s starting to feel distant.
Like he’s floating away and he has to bite his tongue in an effort to ground himself.
Not yet.
Soon.
For now just.
Just take.
One more step.
One more step.
A few more villains and Yuuga is forced to fire off short bursts to keep them back followed by another long stream to split the ground.
His body is agony, both his stomach and back screaming in protest.
But he can’t stop.
He knows he’s not a hero.
But he’s all Hagakure has.
Just.
One.
More.
Step.
***
Tooru is warm and laying on something comfortable and for a moment she thinks she is safe at home; that being trapped in an icy prison while she slowly froze to death was nothing more than a horrible horrible nightmare.
But then she opens her eyes.
This is. Not her room.
She has a brief moment to feel the heaviness in her limbs before succumbing to panic as the reality of what nearly happened sets in.
She really had been trapped.
And left behind.
And…
And…
And she’d had no hope.
No chance of rescue.
Who would have been able to see her?
To find her?
Notice that she was even gone?
Did it take till the attack was over?
Did everyone board the bus back to school and only then realize she was missing?
Did…
Did the bus leave without her?
How-
Who-
Did-
A warm hand grasps hers and she jolts.
“Breathe ma cherie. You are safe now. I give you my word.”
Aoyama?
But-
‘You will not die here! I give you my word!’
Oh. That wasn't a dream.
Aoyama lets out a sigh of relief as she manages a small gasp of air.
He doesn’t let go of her hand.
She looks over at him but he’s not looking at her, indigo eyes staying trained on the window.
“You were quite lucky,” he says, voice as perky as always while still sounding a bit off. “The doctors say it was close but you were brought in just in time.”
The hand holding hers spasms lightly and his lip twitches before he continues.
“I will of course be faster next time... It took me too long to free you and then at the entrance…”
He stops.
Bites his lip as his shoulders lower and his eyes remain firmly fixed on the window.
“Merde I… really don’t remember that part.”
He smiles and chuckles but it sounds so wrong.
“They tell me I was delirious and wouldn’t let go of you.”
His hand spasms again and he slowly pulls it away.
“How silly and… childish… They had to waste time sedating me and you almost-”
He springs up and Tooru’s hand snatches his wrist almost on reflex. “D-don’t.” She croaks.
Her voice cracks but she forces herself to speak. “D-don’t… say th-that…” There’s a lump in her throat and tears in her eyes and she can’t imagine what hell he had to go through to look so dejected when he managed to save her. “Y-You’re… m-my… h-hero… A-Aoy-yam-ma”
He stiffens before finally turning to face her, and- Oh.
There are tears of his own streaming down his cheeks.
His free hand lifts to cover his eyes as if he’s ashamed but when she pulls on his hand, he doesn’t fight it, merely allowing himself to be tugged onto the bed beside her.
It’s not too long before they stop crying.
But it’s a long time before they let go of each other’s hands.