Chapter Text
What started off as a normal day was soon to change.
Those events would alter our path and us forever.
We always knew becoming heroes came with risks along the way, but the peaceful days in school made us feel almost complacent. As much as we thought we were prepared, we were not enough, never enough for the possibility of one of our friends to die …
It's sunny outside today. Todoroki gets in the classroom and things seem a bit feisty this early on. Some of his classmates seem very excited, discussing about something they read online that morning. Bakugou, his chin on his right hand while laying against his desk, looks at them with a death stare, finding them noisy as hell. The ruby eyed gaze turns to him for a second and their eyes meet. The blond tsks and pulls out a book from his bag, busying himself. Todoroki is a bit confused, not sure what this just was about. Had he done something to irritate him especially ?
Deku then walks in next to him and sees the overall excitement. Uraraka joins them with a smile and holds her hands together behind her back. “Hey, good morning !”
“Good morning, did something happen ?” Midoriya looks at the others, wondering what this is all about. He sees Kacchan seems in a bad mood too, but that wasn’t out of the ordinary.
Iida walks up to them with a smile on. “Good morning ! And to answer your question, I think they saw the city buses in the parking lots of the school perhaps.“
“Oh hey Iida. Buses from the city ? Wait … do you think they are sending us somewhere today ? “ Now he feels a bit of excitement too.
Their class rep shakes his head. “We do not know yet. It’s all speculation at the moment.”
“Maybe, but that would be exciting right ? We don’t get to go on missions that often. At least not as a full class. And if it’s planned like this …” She notes.
The door of the classroom opens and the teacher is behind it with a dying expression on his face. “Enough with the ruckus...”. The whole class falls in place and silent in a second. They were getting better at this. Aizawa walks to his desk. “Good … I hope you guys had a good sleep last night. Today is going to be a long day.”
Ashido lifts her hand, but speaks right away without waiting. “Professor ? Does it have anything to do with the buses in front of the school ?”
His answer comes out strained. “If you let me finish …” This is bringing a cold wind to the entire class's mood. “Yes it does. As some of you are already aware, the city is still under a lot of repairs with the fight the league of villains caused. We’re being asked if we could give a hand. Now, this is not a fight, this is a support mission. During your training we’ve shown you what rescuing is about, but that’s just part of it. Workers will clean up and rebuild, but sometimes heroes will come in to help facilitate the process while being on standby in case anything goes wrong.”
Bakugou makes an annoyed expression. “Urg, we’re going to babysit extras all day …” Clearly not looking forward to how much this will be a hassle for him. He isn’t good with dealing with people much and prefers working alone. But he doesn’t have any choice here.
“That sounds kinda lame.” Kaminari was hyped to get out there, but it is turning out to be way different then what they all were expecting.
Todoroki presses his lips to the side, thinking out loud. “Wouldn’t we be more useful searching for some of the criminals that might have run away ?” He doesn't mind doing more minor work from time to time, he just finds this a bit inefficient in a way.
Todoroki isn’t wrong. We’re not supposed to go looking for a fight, but it seems like we would only be in the way of the workers … wait. Deku raises his hand.
Aizawa sighs, but gives him his turn to speak. “Yes Midoriya ?”
“Could this be because some villains might be in the city so it is some sort of patrol mission ?” Deku points out.
Their teacher answers; “Seems like you are getting it. After a big event like this, it is likely that some of the villains could be trying to hide among the people. We have also seen regular people end up falling into the rhythm and try their hands at crimes in the following days since the authorities are too busy taking care of things. It could happen that we discover some dangers in the rubbles as well.”
Sato sounds stressed. “Wait, you don’t mean something like a bomb right ?”
“Well, it could be. That would make sense they might have dropped or left behind part of their armory…” Tsuyu comments, a finger to her chin and looking at their teacher.
“Exactly. I repeat, this is not a fighting mission. You are to keep an eye up and report anything you may find suspicious. All weapons should be secured so citizens cannot approach them. If you find anyone suspicious, do not engage directly and let us know. I brought here communication devices so we can all talk with each other through the day easily. Professor no.13 will be coordinating and I will be evaluating you all. So do not disappoint.”
On that note, he dismisses the class so they can go prepare.
* * *
The class gets to the meeting area where other heroes are gathered. Smaller names that work mostly with the people and don’t end up in fight against big bad guys usually.
After some waiting time, they get their assignment by no.13. “This mission is going to be a bit different than what you are used to. The area to cover is very large so you’ll each be working alone.
“Alone ?” Jirou sounds a little worried.
“You won’t always have the luxury of working with a team. Here, we want to take advantage of the situation to test your interactions with the people. After all, you are becoming heroes to protect them.” Aizawa explains.
No.13 completes; “That’s right. You need to individually be able to give reassurance if needed as well as protection. That said, if you need backup, we will adjust accordingly.”
“… Some of us work better alone anyway. Gonna be easier to not have any of you in my way for once.” Bakugou doesn’t seem displeased with this predicament.
“Aw come on man. Don’t be like that. We work well together.” Kirishima whines a little.
Standing besides them, Todoroki comments; “Let’s try not to start a fight this time …”.
Bakugou makes an angry face “Huh ?!”
“Our last rescue mission was on the licensing exam and didn’t end up that great …” He points out more as a matter of fact. Still a bit feeling guilty about how this went down. Even if they had completed their license now.
“You’re the one who ended up failing because you started a fight with that loud wind guy.” Bakugou rants. He looks at Todoroki now from the side, to see his reaction.
“… you failed the exam too, right ?” He looks at him back, wondering at what he’s getting at.
“Just because those fake victims were actors that didn’t bother if they were saved or not !”
“… right.” Todoroki makes a slightly annoyed face.
Bakugou lifts an eyebrow. “What’s with that face you stupid icy hot ?!” He’s being loud.
“Stop fighting you both, now is not the time. Act responsibly, we are getting our assignments.” Iida steps in and splits them up.
The teachers explain the remaining details.
After this, the 20 class 1A students are assigned areas to cover through the city destruction sites. The first few hours goes without major issues and they get to help a lot of people. Some of them quickly adapting in talking with bystanders, some others good at finding potential threat to the rebuilding efforts and so on.
Then all things changed.
A loud noise resonates through the coms, making them wince all at once.
“What the heck man ?!” Kirishima exclaims.
“What was that ??” Hagakure follows suit.
A static on the coms maybe ? Deku looks around him to see if anyone else outside them heard anything, but it does not seem so. The sound really came from their communication earpiece and not from someone or something around the site they are covering.
Bakugou frowns. That sounded like … The others didn’t seem to spot it, but he wonders.
Then they all hear some more static noises, but not as loud. Through the sounds eventually change for something else; “mister ? … mister, wake up !” This seems to be a young kid’s voice. They can also hear him crying just after speaking. Everybody stops in their tracks.
“A kid ?” Uraraka asks.
Kaminari tries to talk to the kid; “Hey kid, get off the line. We’re working over here !” Not really reassuring to say the least, but also assuming the kid might have stolen the earpiece from one of them.
“Ah shut it Kaminari. He’s not using the device. Sounds like it's picking him up from the background instead.” Jirou chastises the electric head.
“Wait you both. Listen to what he just said. Someone might have dropped their earpiece.” Tokoyami points out, observant as ever.
Yaoyorozu thinks for a moment. “Yes or be injured. Jirou, Shouji, can you find where it’s coming from ?”
“We cannot all leave our post, but when we find who it is, the closest that are free should go see.” Deku suggests. Something wrong might have happened he realizes, which worries him.
“I agree with Midoriya. Ok, let’s do the presence count. It could be faster” Iida suggests.
Good idea, this way whoever isn’t answering will be the one we’re looking for. Deku is impressed once again by their class president's quick thinking.
Iida then starts naming everybody in class number order.
“Wow … you memorize all of our numbers ?” Sero cuts him along the way, sounding impressed.
Taking a solemn tone, Iida takes a second to answer him before continuing. “This is merely one of the many responsibilities of being the class representative. Hmm ... so, let's continue. #8, Kirishima.”
“I’m there”
“#9, Koda”
“… yes” Koda signals furiously, but his voice came out as timid as ever.
“Speak louder man, we barely can hear you” Kaminari suggests.
“#10, Sato.”
“Yeah, I’m here !”
“#11, Shouji”
“Present ”
“#12 Jirou ”
On the teachers side, no.13 looks at Aizawa. “You’re sure you do not want to intervene ?” They ask him.
Sounding calm, he has a simple answer. “They need to be able to handle these kind of situations.”
“And if it gets too dangerous ?” Not disagreeing, but they're still wondering if it is going too far. They are just 1st year students after all.
“If things get too out of hand, we’ll jump in.” He sighs.
Back on the field;
“#14, Tokoyami “
“Affirmative.”
“Alright, next is #15, Todoroki.”
There is a silence on the line, no answer.
Bakugou stops walking and looks behind him. This idiot better not ...
“Todoroki, are you there ?” Iida asks again, his tone sounding slightly worried.
Deku, starts mumbling, thinking out loud. "That’s not like Todoroki to just drop his equipment and not notice. Where was he stationed again ?"
They hear some more crying by the kid from before. “Mister, you gotta get up. Please … you’re a hero here to help us right ? … you gotta hand on !!”
They quickly all understand Todoroki might be unconscious, unable to answer or even hurt next to the boy since he sounds like he is speaking to him directly.
I’m … the 19th quadrant. Urakaka is in the 11th, Iida in 6th .. Deku goes on enumerating everybody to himself and where they went so far as he could remember. So Todoroki should be …
“Freaking icy hot bastard !” Bakugou yells, reacting before him and starts flying fast in the direction of the quandrant Todoroki was assigned to work in.
“Everyone, Kachan and me are close to where he is, the 16th quadrant. We’re going to try to find him.” Deku activates his quirk and jumps up to get an higher view.
Their classmates that are the closest hear the explosions and start heading the same way.
“I’m near too, let’s meet up there” Sato says loudly, rushing in the same direction.
Followed by Ojiro. “Me too !”
Iida answers to them with clenched fists. “Alright, keep us posted.” They can’t all drop everything and go, some of them need to continue their rescue and help mission. Even if they’re all worried, there are other people hurt and needing them right now.
“I don’t need your help Deku, get out of my way !” Bakugou rants at Midoriya once he is close enough to hear him face to face.
“Come on Kacchan. What if he’s hurt ? We all know he would not go down that easily.”
Bakugou clenches his teeth, biting down a “dammit.”
They all arrive at the same time to where there seems to be some ruckus. A group of people are sitting on the ground and seem scared. Hiding quickly behind boxes nearby, they observe the scene.
“Look there, that guy seems to be telling them what to do and there’s the kid crying.” Ojiro points out with his tail.
“Yeah, so Todoroki must be …” Deku points with his index and follows the logical trail drawn in his mind from the few infos they got so far.
And then they spot him. Todoroki is laying on the ground, face first in a blood puddle that seems to come from his head or upper body. He’s not moving and it seems like he fell down and didn’t even try to stop his fall by how his arms are laying on each side of his body, his palms up. They all freeze in shock. Before they can even say anything, Bakugou just rushes out all guns blazing and yelling towards a man who is standing next to him and seems to be the villain here by how the hostages seems scared of him. Deku follows quickly after him using his quirk to jump as fast as he can.
Ojiro tries to stop them. “Wait, guys !”
“Iida we got a situation here.” Sato decides to report to the others as things are about to get ugly.
Bakugou doesn’t care, he’s charging in. “You bastards, you’re going to die right here !”
Iida panics and tries to rein in the situation from where he is. “Wait, disengage ! I repeat, we’re not supposed to engage !!”
But it is in vain, a fight starts immediately. The man who’s standing right next to their friend didn’t come alone. They’re a group of 3 villains, all with quirks that permits them to hold their own against our heroes. Deku, Sato and Ojiro go up fighting the other 2. One with an impressive shield ability quirk and one that can attack from a distance. Bakugou fights against what seems to be the leader, the man standing near Todoroki, a man who can throw daggers and weapons and makes them invisible.
“Told you that killing a hero wasn’t a good idea. They were gonna notice and send reinforcements.” One of the grunts yells at their leader.
The 4 students react in the same surprised way; “Kill ?!”
Feeling his blood boil, Bakugou isn't gonna let this fight last long. “Die you freaking fucker !!” He sends off a huge explosion around the site causing beams to fall down in a really over the top way, but still calculated so none of the by standers would get hit by it.
The other grunts turns grey from fear. “Huh … you sure they’re just kids ?”
The fight ends kind of quickly there. They were not that strong, they just likely used some element of surprise to win against their classmate. Sato and Ojiro tie the villains up, but Bakugou lands right away next to Todoroki and kneels down. He reaches to touch his shoulder. “Hey …”.
No answer.
He clenches his teeth and turns him around gently. His eyes widen discovering Todoroki has been hit to the head on top of his eyebrow on his right side. There is a big gash there bleeding on. Quickly, he puts pressure on the wound with one hand and searches for anything he could use as a wrapping cloth. He’s not the kind to carry things around that he doesn't need for fighting.
But Todoroki might. He starts checking the capsules at his belt with his free hand and does find some bandage wrappings. That’s no medkit, but it will have to do. He doesn’t know much about 1st aid either tho. “Hey, teach ?” He asks on the coms.
The victims properly secured, Deku comes back and jogs toward Bakugou and Todoroki. He sees his dual colored hair friend on his back, bandages around his head. Bakugou lets out a “ok, where ?”, nods and proceeds to pick him up in his arms, bride style. Making it look like Shouto weights next to nothing as he does.
“Todoroki ! Is he ok ?!” Deku, reaching them.
“Does he look ok to you ?!” Kacchan yells at him, looking like he might bite his head off for the idiot question.
Deku winces at the rage, but then looks at him. Bakugou moves Todoroki a little so his head would lay against his shoulder. He made sure to pick him up on the side his wound wouldn’t be the side laying against him.
“Kacchan …” He’s never seen Bakugou with this kind of expression before. He seems … worried ? Maybe they became more friends than he realized, he thinks to himself.
Walking away, Bakugou talks to him, sounding irritated. “You’re coming with us nerd”
“Huh ?” Deku makes round eyes, but does follow.
“We’re going to the infirmary. I can’t fight like this if there’s a problem, right ? So you’re going to be backup. Be useful for once, Idiot.”
“Right !”
Bakugou walks in the direction Aizawa told him the infirmary was with a tsk. At least Todoroki should be stable for now after he followed instructions from no.13 on how to provide 1st aid. The bleeding was stopped, but Todoroki is still unconscious, which made him feel more than uneasy. There is a pressure in his chest. He isn’t sure what these feelings are. But now is not the time to think about it.
Behind them, Deku explains to the class what happened as they are walking.
* * *
The day just ended and class 1A is assembled in the bus. The ride is silent and they’re worried.
Yaoyorozu leans forward a little and asked Aizawa what everyone is wondering. “Professor, do we have any news on Todoroki ?”
He looks at the class and reads the room. Slowly, he sighs, turns around and stand so they can see him properly. “Listen. Risks are part of this job. We wanted to test you on the field today as I’ve said before and you did good. Your reaction time was quick and you were able to provide support accordingly. Todoroki is going to be fine. He is with Recovery girl right now.”
They all sigh, relieved to hear it.
They get to school after this long silent ride and start walking to the building. On one side, some of them discuss;
“I wonder where Bakugou went.” Tsuyu looks around and see he is not there at all, they all noticed it in the bus.
Deku hearing her, answers. “He’s with Todoroki.”
Uraraka joins in. “Oh ? Is he okay ?”
“Yeah. When we arrived, they said Todoroki would be sent back to school and Kacchan said he would go to tell what happened in case it could help Recovery girl. He didn’t say, but I think he was really worried.” Deku plays with his hands, feeling like he should do more, but there is nothing any of them could do for now, except wait.
They all go back to the dorms after getting changed and that’s it for the day.
The next day, they are getting ready to leave for school and Kirishima looks around. “Has anyone seen Bakugou ?”
“I haven’t seen him since yesterday. Maybe he left for class already ?” Jirou taps twice on the floor with her right foot to push her shoe in properly. Her right earphone jack floating around her head like little snakes on a medusa head.
Ashido speaks out loud her worries. “Do you think Todoroki came back yesterday in the end ?”
“We haven’t heard any news yet. But I’m sure he’ll be fine. He’s in good hands.” Iida tries to be reassuring as he joins them. He hides it well, but he might be among the most worried. Knowing his friend wouldn’t have gone down easy, so who knows what wounds he might have had. Especially since it looked like he hadn’t come back at all to the dorms yet.
Despite being worried too, Deku tries to reassure them. “Right. Recovery girl patched me up a couple of times. I’m sure she’ll be able to heal him just fine.”
They get to class and neither guys are there. Aizawa gets in and starts the class as usual and doesn’t mention anything. Bakugou shows up 2 mins later. He looks a bit tired, but fine otherwise. “If you’re going to be late, have a signed paper to justify the reason.” Their teacher tells him, but there is no anger behind it really or reproaching tone surprizingly. He doesn’t even look at his student and has his eyes on some papers instead.
“Yeah, yeah sorry.” Bakugou answers, detached. He walks to his desk and sits down. People are curious, but now is not the time to ask.
Class goes on until lunch time from there. His classmates have questions, but he leaves back fast to avoid them. Not feeling like dealing with their noises right now. He walks down the corridors and opens up the door to the infirmary.
A few days go by a bit like this and class 1A has been told not to go bother Todoroki who is still at the infirmary right now, recovering. Near the end of the week however, Aizawa addresses the class on the subject. “Todoroki is awake and should be coming back to class tomorrow.”
Everyone seems relieved at the good news and happy.
“That’s great news.”
“Yeah !”
“We should go see him”
Bakugou looks down at his desk in silence while people rejoice. He should be happy like they are right. Well, he is, not that he would openly show it, nobody knows how relieved he is by this, but at the same time something irritates him, a lot. Kirishima looks in his direction and sighs, discouraged a little at seeing his expression right now. When the bell rings, the explosive young man picks up his bag and leaves.
Midoriya calls for him, seemingly surprised. “Wait kacchan, we’re going to go see Todoroki if you want to come...”
“For what ? This is waste of time, I’m gonna go training.” He brushes off the nerd’s offer. Why would he want to go with all of them to make googoo eyes to half-and-half with everybody else and be all cramped with that many people in that small room anyways ? He stops after a few steps and talks more calmly. “He’s gonna be there tomorrow anyways.” and then proceeds to get out of the room.
“Kacchan …” Deku looks sad. Was he wrong reading Bakugou as being really worried before ? But he couldn’t not think about how his friend had rushed to help Todoroki and lifted him in his arms all the way back to safety. He never did that for anybody. He even went with the ambulance back to school. What was really going on ?
* * *
The class gets to the infirmary. “He should be good to go back with you all in a few minutes.” Recovery girl doesn’t stop them from visiting as Todoroki is about to be discharged.
So they walk to him and Todoroki isn’t wearing any bandages to his head like on the day he got hurt, Deku notices. Their nurse did some miracles yet again. Their friend seems surprised to see them all visit. “Hey guys…”
Kirishima grins, trying to lighten the mood. “We heard you were coming out and since you were gone for a week, we thought we could all go back together.” He just think it's sad Bakugou didn't came with them. His friend was so prideful at times...
Sato points out that they barely heard the details, but they were still worried.
“That bastard attacked you all backstabby style” Kaminari comments.
“How are you feeling ?” Tsuyu thinks she should ask what everybody is really wondering about.
“I’m fine. Recovery girl healed me up.” His heart feels warm to see they were worried for him. He scratches his cheek, a bit shy. They all smile at that. He isn’t one used to kindness from people, so he is not sure how he should react.
He then looks to the other side of the bed, where they are not standing. There’s a chair that was put against the wall and someone left a book there. “?” He picks the book, doesn’t recognize it and now wonders where it came from.
Soon after, they all leave for the dorms together. Todoroki is lost in his thoughts as he’s surrounded with them starting up conversations about various subject. Kaminari wants Tokoyami to listen to this sick music group he just discovered. Sato is considering making a cake for tonight to share with them all and the girls are more then excited at the idea, etc.
“Have you talked to kacchan by any chance ?” Midoriya’s small voice brings him out of his reveries.
Bakugou ? He blinks and he feels his heart skip a beat or two at the mention of their explosive friend. “Huh ? No, why ?”
“I see… Forget I said anything, then.”
“ ? “ He presses his lips together and frowns. Why is he suddenly worried ? “Is he ok ? Did something happen ?”
Deku makes round eyes. “Oh no no. It’s nothing really. I was just curious.” Now he feels bad to have made him worry. Seeing Todoroki nod and ease down has him curious now however.
Once at the dorms, they all eat together and eventually say good night. In his bedroom, Todoroki checks the notebook while sitting at his low table. These class notes are really clean… Doesn’t seem like something professor Aizawa would do … who am I supposed to thank for that now ? He feels bad that he doesn't remember his classmates writing styles by now. He should have paid more attention. He smiles getting to one part where there is a little ranty note on the side about something that was kind of obvious.
Starting the next day, things are back to normal. Classes and training resume for him. He was told to take it easy if he feels bad, but that he should be fine by now.
He doesn’t notice, but Bakugou checks on him once in a while. Its small things, glances when he’s not looking, a rant about him being in the way and sit the fuck down when he is pushing himself a bit too much and so on. Nothing that could seem out of their ordinary interactions from an outside view. But it is there.
One day during recess, some of the other students are talking, getting heated and enthousiastic inside the class. Bakugou is at his desk, listening to some music on his headphones. Those idiots are so loud … seriously. He looks towards the group, seemingly annoyed, then his gaze slides to the right slightly. Icy-hot is alone, reading some boring book and has his right hand to his head looking like he got a headache. Bakugou frowns. He stands up and walks through the group. “You dorks are being freaking loud.”
They all blink a bit stunned as he walks past them, his hands in his pockets. They start talking again after a few seconds. Too enthusiastic about whatever they are talking about.
Todoroki’s wincing at his desk a little, his head feeling like it's gonna split open. Reaching him, Bakugou suddenly grabs him by the arm and unceremoniously drags him on, the chair he was sitting on almost falling down along the way.
“What … what is it ?” Shouto asks while he is being manhandled.
Bakugou doesn’t answer and that makes him feel annoyed. He drags him all the way to a window farther in the corridor. They reach the window and stop. Todoroki pulls back his arm. “What do you want Bakugou ?” He sighs and calms back down. His headache was making him feel irritated to begin with, which made him acting defensive. Bakugou seemed like he wanted to kick his ass for no reason right now, which didn’t help much.
There is a long silence in which they both end up looking outside.
Bakugou tsks and reaches for the window and opens it violently, surprising him. “Those idiots were being loud as heck.”
“… yeah.” He can’t disagree on that, for sure. There’s an awkward silence. Then he blinks while Bakugou makes his usual angry resting face. “Recovery girl told me one of my classmates came to visit me every day to tell me about what I was missing in class...” He risks.
Bakugou pouts intensify.
Silence again.
“The hag is getting old, she must be imagining things…” The blond finally answers.
“Lying isn’t really your type you know.” The dual colored hair young man lifts an eyebrow at what he gathers might be a lie.
Bakugou makes an angry tsks.
But since he is not saying anything, Todoroki continues. “… I thought I might have dreamt it out but …” He stops for a second, a complicated expression showing on his face. Bakugou frowns looking at him finally, trying to figure out the face he is making. “I could hear someone’s voice, someone familiar. That was you, wasn’t it ?” He finally ends up asking.
Bakugou’s reaction is angrier “Listen, you … !” But he stops his sentence midway, his eyes widening, taken by surprise.
Todoroki is making the softest and prettiest smile he’s ever seen. And he is looking at him, of all people. “Thank you.”
There is a light breeze at this moment, bringing Bakugou back to his senses. He turns his head away, embarrassed and not wanting icy-hot to notice. “Don’t makes such a big deal out of it, geez” He talks with a pouty expression on, admitting he did come visit him after all.
Todoroki continues smiling, still looking at his friend’s behavior. He lets out a small sigh and looks down. The fresh air is helping his headache.
“You kinda suck at taking care of yourself huh ?” Bakugou notes his observation to try to move the subject away in another direction, looking back at him.
Todoroki takes a moment to think about it. “Yeah, I guess …”
“What kind of answer is that for a question like this ?!” The guy really was a dense freaking idiot. What the hell.
Candy cane chuckles.
Bakugou growls. “… You’re impossible” Why was Icy-hot acting like this. Why was his smile and laugh so sweet ? And why the heck is his heart beating so fast right now ?
The bell rings at this point and they have to go back to class.
* * *
A few days later, Midoriya, Iida and Uraraka walk in the common room during the evening, discussing how they should split the work about today’s dinner preparations.
Uraraka blinks looking ahead of them. “Todoroki ?”
He has fallen asleep while reading on the couch or so it would seem.
Iida gasps now that he sees him. “That’s no place to sleep !”
“You’re right, he will catch a cold at this rate.” She walks up to him. Although wondering if he can even catch a cold now that she thinks about it.
Deku follows, worried. “I guess he is still having a hard time. Was his injury that bad ?” He feels guilty about not asking more about it to his friend, but he didn’t want to push him if he didn’t want to talk about it. Todoroki was not really shy about telling his truths if he felt it was needed after all.
Bakugou walks in the kitchen to grab some drinks in the fridge and spots them walking up to Todoroki. “ ? “
“Hey Todoroki, wake up. You’re going to get sick if you sleep here…” She tries to be gentle and puts a hand to the arm rest.
“… huh ?” Sounding like he came out from a very deep sleep, he wakes up, groggy. He spots his 3 friends who look worried at him.
“Are you ok ? You look pale.” Midoriya asks.
Forcing his brain to wake up for him to speak properly; “I didn’t sleep well yesterday…. It’s nothing. Sorry.” Todoroki gets up and walks towards his room while the others move on to what they were doing. They mention that it’s kind of weird and out of character for him, but if he says it was a little lack of sleep, maybe they shouldn’t worry too much.
Except Bakugou notices it might be something more, but doesn’t do anything about it, yet. He follows him back up, going back to his own room. His gaze watching the mismatched colored haired student slowly climb the stairs. He frowns. Yeah, there was definitely something wrong here.
In the following days he notices his non-friend (they definitely weren’t friends !) seems to either be falling asleep more then once in the common room or almost in the class a few times. Bakugou gets more and more pissed by it.
One night, he gets up to grab some water and walking back to his room he spots the idiot’s lights seem to be on. It's slipping out from under the door, now noticeable with the corridor’s lights off. It is the middle of the night at this point and everybody is asleep. He stares at the door. What the heck is he doing ? … urgh. He walks to it and knocks, with his right foot. He hears some shuffling and the door opens after a minute.
“… Bakugou ?” Todoroki makes round eyes upon seeing him stand there, not expecting a visit at this time, least of all from him.
With half closed lids and an annoyed expression, the angry young man answers him. “It’s late.” Without asking, he walks in.
“Huh … welcome in.” Todoroki has no choice but to step on the side as he gets in.
Bakugou has never visited before, so he looks around a bit surprised. His place doesn’t even look like a dorm room anymore what the hell . Tho it fits him somehow huh.
Todoroki closes the door and wonders what he is looking for. Since Bakugou is silent for a time, he goes to the table and closes whatever book he was reading. The blond turns around looking at him go. “You know, if you stay up that late every night, no wonders you are tired all the time.” He sounds kind of accusatory, although his voice is calm for once. Icy-Hot doesn’t respond, now seated on his knees at the table. Bakugou frowns, looking at the face he is making. He looks like a kid getting scolded. Is he … sulking ? A vein pops on his head, both irritated and surprised at the same time. He leans forward, looking on the side to be in Todoroki’s line of vision. “What ?”
But Shouto turns his head on the side to stop looking at him.
Are you freaking kidding me ?! Did the fucking bastard really wants to get his ass blown out the window at this time of the night ?
Finally breaking the status quo, Todoroki speaks after an uncomfortable minute. “… it’s silly.”
Bakugou crouches down, his wrists laying on his knees. He’s still holding eye contact, but he lets him continue at his own pace for once. Analyzing this expression he hasn’t seen before on Todoroki’s delicate features.
“… I’m scared.”
“Huh ?” Really not the answer he was expecting.
“Last week at the infirmary … I wasn’t just asleep and resting for a week. I kept having those… dreams where I was running but couldn't wake up. Recovery girl told me I fell into a coma and wouldn’t just wake up.” Todoroki normally explained stuff with a matter of fact kind of tone, but this time it’s different. He feels shaken by all this.
Bakugou eyes widened. “What ?!” Why did the hag hide this from him when he came over that many times ? Now he was gonna have a few words with her on the next day for sure. He thought that Todoroki had just been under painkillers, sleeping the pain off while he was healing or something.
But Todoroki continues on; “I’m supposed to be fine now, but part of me is scared I won’t wake up if I …” He trails off.
So that’s why .. he holds until he falls asleep with people around huh. Bakugou thinks. He presses his lips together. It’s not like he could help really. Unless … “Want me to wake you up tomorrow ?”
“Huh ?” Todoroki looks at him with round eyes.
The blond scratches the back of his head, mumbling. The suggestion came out before he could think about it. “Well, you’re scared you won't wake up, I can just wake you up then. If your alarm isn’t enough and all.” Yeah, let’s just make it sound like something casual, no need to make it weird.
Todoroki stares at him, silent, a bit confused. His heart is pounding a bit faster. Don’t misread this, he’s just trying to be kind. He tells himself. “If it’s not too much trouble …”. But despite that, he is still starting to blush a little.
Katsuki answer comes out as a rant. “Of course it’s a pain in the ass ! But it's not like it can be helped. Pick up your phone.” He ends up ordering him. He grabs the phone roughly from his hand as soon as icy-hot is done unlocking it. He types in his number and writes Todoroki’s number in his phone, all the while acting like it’s a big pain.
A small smile draws on Todoroki’s lips. When did Bakugou become so endearing, he asks himself. The other young man gives his phone back and he sees a little dog that looks angry next to the new number. “Your avatar’s a dog ?” It’s cute actually.
“Got a problem with that ?” He gets a glare for asking.
“No. It’s just … fitting. How do you put an avatar anyway ?”
Silence.
“Are you for real ?!” Bakugou almost yells, bewildered that the bastard doesn’t even know that. What is he, 60 ?! He growls and slides next to him, their shoulders pressing together and points on Halfie’s phone. Todorki blushes a little at the proximity, not used to physical contact much. Bakugou presses a few things on the phone and changes Todoroki’s avatar. “Like this, idiot. See, here ?
“Oh. Right” He let’s him play through his phone, listening but clearly distracted.
"Seriously, how don't you even know about ?"
"Sorry"
Bakugou sets a calico cat as the avatar while showing an annoyed expression.
“Huh ? Why a cat ?” He asks him.
“It fits, that’s why. You got the same face.” The blond answers flatly.
”Yours too” Todoroki comments back, pointing the obvious out.
Bakugou turns his head looking at him, with an irritated expression. “Are you looking for a fight, Halfie ?!”
Halfie ? Now that was new … but fuck was Katsuki too close like this, which was making him steam just a little.
Bakugou tsks and gets up. “Anyway, go to sleep. It’s late.” He puts his own phone in his pockets and walks towards the door and quit without waiting for an answer.
Todoroki looks down at his phone then, smiling with a puzzled expression. His phone vibrates, making him jump. “ ? “ He reads the text.
“You’re still online. Go to sleep you stupid icy-hot bastard.” The message is from his explosive friend who haven’t even waited to be back in his own room.
“He’s right, but he doesn’t have to be so …” He has a light discouraged laugh.
* * *
The next morning, his alarm rings and unsurprisingly, he feels really tired. It feels like someone trampled him, twice. He rolls over after shutting the loud ring down. Few minutes later, his phone vibrates on the side table where left it. “Who’s … ?”
Todoroki picks it up and sees a new message. Opening the screen up, he sees a notification and it’s from Bakugou. Events from last night come back to him. He hurriedly unlock his phone and opens up the message by clicking on the tiny angry dog yelling at him. What he reads makes him smile. “Alright, alright. I’m coming down.” He says out loud, but nobody is there to hear him.
The msg reads: bring your ass down here if you want to eat.
He grabs his things, changes quickly and walks… definitely not run, down the stairs.