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Eijirou was a little scratched up, he’d definitely need a few bandages over his arm, but he was proud. He was still standing. The villain had been apprehended thanks to Todoroki’s ice, and together they’d made sure the civilians around them were safe. Everything was perfect, except for the intense headache he’d had since the battle ended.
He grabbed Todoroki’s shoulder, they shared a weak smile, and they got back to Fatgum by sliding on ice together.
“Well done, Red Riot and Shouto!” Fatgum exclaimed when they arrived and briefly hugged both of them.
It had taken Todoroki a few weeks to open up to the cheerful attitude of their mentor, but he seemed happy with the hugs now. He reminded Eijirou of Amajiki in a way. His senpai was still working with Fatgum, but as a sidekick, he needed less supervision than the two second-years who were still novices in the field.
“Did you get hit by her Quirk, Kirishima?” Todoroki asked, frowning.
He wordlessly took out some bandages from one of the first-aid cylinders on his waist- seriously, why were they shaped like that? - and offered them to Eijirou. Then, he started disinfecting a cut on his own cheek.
“What was her Quirk again?” Eijirou said.
Fatgum pointed a finger at him. “Red Riot, I showed you the file for a reason!”
“Sorry, Fatgum, won’t happen again!” he said with a sheepish smile. The Hero ruffled his hair, the spikes immediately bouncing back up.
“It linked the feelings of any two people she touches within an interval of ten minutes. The last person Akira touched will experience what the first person feels!”
“That doesn’t sound useful for villainy,” Todoroki said in a monotone.
“Which is probably why she was using a gun and explosives!” Eijirou responded.
Fatgum sighed and put down his takoyaki, inviting the two interns to sit down with him. Eijirou all but collapsed on the bench and threw his head back, rubbing his temples.
“Fatgum, is a headache on the list of things her Quirk can cause?” he asked.
The Hero sighed and started looking for the copy of the file he’d brought in the pockets of his pants.
Beyond his own concern of having been hit, he was starting to feel something slightly foreign in his brain, radiating a self-aware kind of fear. Like someone who didn’t want to be exposed. Eijirou looked at Todoroki, and they both seemed to realize it at the same time.
“Yeah, okay, we were hit!” he said.
“Boys, boys, did you do anything risky again?” Fatgum asked, putting a hand on Eijirou’s shoulder.
Todoroki stared at him as if daring him to protest. “It was necessary.”
“How does it feel? Do you think you need to go to a hospital? The file says it’ll go away on its own in about 36 hours,” the pro Hero said, tone laced with concern.
Eijirou was very tired, and his headache was starting to dissipate the more he massaged his temples. The strange new part of his brain was settling down into occasional bursts of emotion, so it wasn’t terrible. At least it was Todoroki he’d been linked to. He couldn’t imagine having to feel Amajiki’s feelings for an entire day.
“It doesn’t really hurt anymore. I want to go to the dorms, if that’s okay,” he said. Todoroki nodded almost enthusiastically, his eyes half-closed.
“Are you sure?” Fatgum asked.
Eijirou’s resolve strengthened as he imagined the comfort of his own bed.
“Yes! It’s just emotions, I’m okay! Plus, it’s gonna be gone by tomorrow night, so I’ll be like new when we come back on Thursday!”
Fatgum finished the last of his takoyaki and stood up, gesturing toward Eijirou with the stick. “Then you can leave as soon as you want. Call the school nurse if anything happens, Kirishima! You did a good job today, young Heroes!”
The two students thanked him in unison and started walking toward to train station, dragging their feet. They caught the last train that would take them to Heights Alliance before curfew.
After they sat down, Todoroki spoke, and Eijirou felt his apprehension, his desire to cover himself up so he wouldn’t be so exposed.
“Let me know if you’re ever uncomfortable, and I’ll try to adjust. I don’t like this situation at all, but I don’t blame you for it.”
“Thanks, Todoroki, that’s manly of you! I’m sorry this happened!” Eijirou responded with a tired smile. This could’ve definitely gone way worse.
Todoroki nodded. “I’ll stay in the common room for a bit when we get back, if you want to join.”
“Sure thing, bro!”
At some point in the past few weeks, Eijirou had realized that he and Todoroki were friends now. He’d never had anything against the other guy, obviously, but he was surprised at how easily they got along. They’d started hanging out outside of internship work, too. Todoroki was a great listener, he tended to agree to any plans that others suggested, and Eijirou could tell they both wanted to be Heroes for similar reasons. That was enough for them to be bros, wasn’t it?
*
When they got to their dorm, Todoroki basically face-planted into the couch, and Eijirou wasn’t far behind. All of his muscles were aching. Across from them, Yaomomo, Midoriya, Jirou, Kaminari and Tokoyami were having a study session. Eijirou managed a wave before he closed his eyes for a bit, trying to ignore the small burst of disappointment from the foreign part in his head as the group stayed focused on the Math they were doing. Todoroki and Eijirou sat in companionable silence for a while, watching the others. Then, Tokoyami figured out an integral and Midoriya smiled at him, wide and encouraging.
Nothing could have prepared Eijirou for the burst of light in his brain. Even his fingers felt warmer, and it was like Katsuki had exploded something over his chest.
He jolted up. “Todoroki, how do you live like this?”
“I’m not sure what you mean, Kirishima. I live fine,” the other responded, a bit of confusion flashing through the link.
“It’s just a smile! How do you function if this is how you feel when he smiles ten meters away from you?”
Todoroki looked resolutely down, his right cheek flushed a slight pink.
Eijirou felt bad for asking so crassly, but he couldn’t believe it. When he was told he would be able to feel what Todoroki felt, he wasn’t expecting much of anything, honestly. On the subway ride, all he’d gotten was dull tiredness and the tiniest smidge of excitement when they’d reached their stop.
“Oh. That. Please ignore it,” Todoroki said, curling into himself on the couch.
Eijirou had just recovered from the shock.
“Ignore it? How?”
“Breathing exercises can help,” Todoroki said in a monotone. “I can think of Bakugou to detract from it if you can’t stand it.”
A shard of irritation pricked Eijirou’s mind, softened by some kind of vague attachment but clearly displeased overall. He was almost offended on Katsuki’s behalf.
“I guess that worked.”
Todoroki nodded and turned to the TV. Some kind of Korean drama was playing, probably courtesy of Hagakure and Sero. It was on the third season, so Eijirou doubted he understood what was happening all that well.
He seemed to want to end the conversation, but an intervention was in order. The feelings were definitely mutual, because Eijirou and Midoriya’s main form of interaction lately had been complaining about their crushes to each other. It had started with a half-coherent text from Midoriya about Todoroki’s new workout shirt, and it had escalated from there. When Katsuki pinned him to the ground while sparring, Eijirou knew he’d go to Midoriya’s room to complain about it later.
They’d spent a fair bit of time speculating on whether Katsuki liked Eijirou back, and on whether Todoroki was even interested in men. Eijirou felt a little vindicated, because it had been so obvious. He was itching to text Midoriya, but he held back. That would be really unmanly.
He tried to encourage Todoroki, putting a hand over his arm. “You should just tell Midoriya, I bet it’ll go well.”
The mix of disbelief and resentment he got in return was so strong it felt like a punch in the gut.
“No, it won’t,” Todoroki responded, shrugging his hand off.
Not this again. He was going to grab these two and smash their heads together.
“How can you be so sure?” he asked, trying to appear calm.
Todoroki gave a small shrug. “I’m obvious enough. He never said anything”
“I can say for sure you aren’t obvious at all, I had no clue!” Eijirou said.
Vague surprise flooded his mind, compounded by sadness and the effort it took to repress it. If Todoroki’d reached the point where he needed to choke his feelings down, Eijirou needed to back off. It would be really unmanly to stress his friend out.
“Ok, I won’t insist! But I really think you should go for it!”
The sadness amplified, this time twinged with some irritation. He peculiarly wanted to smack himself over the back of the head.
“I appreciate the intention, but no.”
Todoroki stood up and left the room, drawing some concerned looks from the group at the table, but they appeared to be too focused on the problems to go after him. Midoriya took his phone out and started typing something. A few minutes later, Eijirou left the room as well, exhausted.
There was a burst of warmth through the bond while he was brushing his teeth with his special shark-resistant brush, but Todoroki was still sad when Eijirou finished his bedtime routine and turned off his light.
He was no stranger to the feeling of dread that lying alone in bed could sometimes give you, but his heart broke a bit when he felt it coming from Todoroki that night. It was like drowning in waves of despair, until there was a shred of guilt and the negativity toned down to a simmer. Then Todoroki fell asleep, leaving the part of Eijirou’s brain that was now dedicated to his emotions empty, and letting him rest at last.
*
Waking up with someone else’s feelings in your brain wasn’t amazing. Three out of ten, Eijirou wouldn’t recommend. He didn’t actually feel much besides some grogginess until he was walking to class the next morning with Mina, and a strong surge of affection ran through him, leaving him almost dizzy. So, Todoroki had probably met Midoriya. Eijirou sighed with the knowledge that they were close friends, so he’d have to deal with this a lot. It was cute, but it was in his brain.
He opened the door to the classroom and he saw Todoroki, with Iida and Midoriya. The latter was considering how Kamui Woods and Mount Lady could make a combination move work.
Eijirou walked to his desk, which was just close enough to Iida’s that he could hear the conversation. The warmth clouding his mind made it difficult to socialize with his own friends. Oh well, he’d say he was tired and they’d understand.
“Maybe they’ll just have to fight side by side,” Todoroki said.
Eijirou would’ve never guessed what he was feeling but for the quirk; his exterior was so cool and collected.
“There has to be something…Maybe he could hold someone in place and then she could knock them unconscious, but that’s probably very risky in her giant form. I think they might want to include Edgeshot, but then they’d just all fight together. But they have different styles, he’s more apprehension and she’s more attack, that has to mean something…”
Midoriya’s voice became faster and quieter, the way it always did when he was muttering.
Eijirou was sure he was going to faint soon with the way his head got a bit lightheaded, like he was drunk on joy. He also felt a surprisingly strong need for attention and some subsequent frustration, probably because Todoroki didn’t know how to respond. Huh. Maybe Katsuki had been right after all that Todoroki liked attention if it was from the right people. So Midoriya.
“We could watch their next group fight together! It would help us learn how to be better heroes!” Iida proposed, eliciting a soft wave of gratitude and anticipation.
“That could be interesting,” Todoroki said, his voice once again betraying nothing.
That was an art, really. Eijirou needed to ask him for lessons or something.
“Really? I’ll text you guys the next time they have a mission, then!” Midoriya beamed.
His smiles always had the same effect on Todoroki. When Eijirou inexplicably wanted to go up to him and kiss him, it was too much.
“Todoroki! Could you help me with something, please?”
“Ok.” Some very mild confusion, echoed by Midoriya and Iida’s faces.
Just what was Eijirou’s life right now? He’d rather run out of the classroom than have this conversation, but communication was the good thing to do. He knew that, and yet it still sucked.
“Look, man, I get that you don’t control your thoughts,” he said as quietly as he could when Todoroki reached him. “But please, I don’t like wanting to kiss Midoriya! It feels so weird, because I don’t want to.”
At least he had the decency to be embarrassed.
“I understand, but I’m not sure what to do about that,” Todoroki said, looking away from Eijirou.
“Maybe it’d help if you focused on our emotion link? So every time you think of kissing him, it’s like I’m doing it, too. I’m guessing you wouldn’t want that!”
Eijirou could barely refrain from a triumphant grin when a spike of anger made him want to hit something. Perfect. They could do this; cooperation was very manly. Todoroki agreed, his face still sour, and left for his own desk, since their Math class was about to start.
For the first time, Eijirou was kind of grateful for the Quirk accident. Todoroki’s general calm and the occasional surges of pride he felt when he solved an exercise were the only reasons he didn’t hate Math that morning. He almost enjoyed Algebra through osmosis or something. That’s what Katsuki would say. Or was it through mitosis? Maybe he’d ask later.
“Ojirou! Are you paying attention?” Ectoplasm exclaimed.
He evidently wasn’t, because he failed to solve the second-degree equation that the teacher pointed him to. He’d probably been distracted by Kaminari petting his tail again.
“Children, children! You’re just provoking me when you do things like this!” Ectoplasm said, raising a hand in a mock threat. By now, Eijirou was used to his villain impressions, so he chuckled along with the rest of the class.
While Ectoplasm was (unnecessarily) reassuring them that he was only joking, Eijirou realized he couldn’t breathe anymore. His head was clouding with panic, he needed to run now, the class wasn’t safe. He covered his face with his hands and hardened them on instinct, trying to focus enough to identify the danger.
Eijirou would not freeze. He wasn’t that person anymore, he needed to protect his classmates.
When he took his hands off his face, he saw that the classroom was… normal. Nothing was happening. Most people were looking at the board, Denki was playing with his pencil, and Mineta was trying to look up Yaoyorozu’s skirt. Was something wrong with Todoroki, then?
With concern, he turned around, still overwhelmed by fear and anger, but getting better at separating his own emotions from Todoroki’s. Slowly, the emotions faded, and Eijirou realized that Todoroki was turned away from him, in a silent conversation with someone across and in front of him. Finally, he started to breathe, and both of their heads were flooded with relief.
Todoroki gave the person he was talking to a small, grateful smile, and a deep warmth curled inside Eijirou’s chest. Wait. Midoriya was right behind Katsuki, and Katsuki was in front and across of Todoroki.
That was so sweet and manly. Midoriya had talked his friend out of what was probably a panic attack, and Eijirou wanted to cry a little. He was worried for Todoroki, too, but he knew by now that they guy wouldn’t appreciate being questioned on what was most likely a very sensitive subject, so he limited himself to wishing that the other overcame whatever it was that had scared him.
*
Oh, absolutely not. Why couldn’t this have happened in a day when they didn’t have any physical activities? If he had to choose, Eijirou would’ve preferred Hero Training to P.E. Changing went very awkwardly to say the least, with him gently placing himself between Midoriya and Todoroki, to the latter’s mix of annoyance and embarrassment.
For a short while, the students all focused on their own exercises.
Ugh, why did it have to be so warm in the gym? Why couldn’t Midoriya just deal with the heat, only for one day, for the sake of Eijirou’s innocence?
After a few minutes, he snapped. “Midoriya! Please put a shirt on!”
Midoriya finished his push-up and jumped off the floor, sweat dripping down his body. Okay, Eijirou could understand Todoroki, he was gay too, but come on. He felt the disturbing need to pin Midoriya down, and that… probably wasn’t him.
“Kirishima-kun, I’m sorry! I didn’t realize it bothered you!” Midoriya said, waving his hands.
He knew he looked like the world’s biggest hypocrite; he could tell Mina was looking at him like he’d grown a second head, but he had a limit. He did not want to feel Todoroki’s emotions about this more than he had to.
Speaking of Todoroki, he was right behind Eijirou, going through a cardio sequence. Perfect. It was time to debrief.
Eijirou grabbed his friend’s shoulder, very nearly burning himself- wow, okay, so Katsuki was right that Todoroki’s Quirk malfunctioned with emotions- and dragged him away from where most of the class was. He made a quick excuse about getting water to their teacher.
“Todoroki! Can you think of Endeavor naked or something?” he said when they got to a bench.
He almost threw up right there, which, okay, he probably deserved that.
“I’d prefer not to,” Todoroki responded. “But I will count in my head for the rest of the class. I’m sorry, Kirishima,”
“It’s okay, bro, I get it! Thanks for looking out for me!” Eijirou responded, clapping his shoulder. Todoroki’s tense muscles relaxed a little, the embarrassment dimming.
Both of them went through the rest of P.E. without any incidents, bar the fact that Katsuki was looking at Eijirou a little weirdly. They’d talk later. Todoroki was pretty bored of counting by the end of the class, but he kept it up, and Eijirou was grateful for it. He’d always known Todoroki was a bro.
*
Unluckily for Eijirou, Midoriya was sitting next to Todoroki at lunch, so he was enveloped by that giddy warm feeling again. It wasn’t bad, per se, and he didn’t want to stress Todoroki out too much, so he kept quiet and went to his own table.
Luckily for him, he was alone with Katsuki for the day. The others had gone outside to see Mina try to perform some dubiously legal acid-based acrobatics. Normally, he’d have joined them, but he was exhausted. Feeling enough for two people was really getting to him. He didn’t even go get food, unable to lift his head from the table.
Katsuki wordlessly brought him beef stew, and Eijirou couldn’t muster more than a weak thank you, his head still on the table. He wished he felt good enough to appreciate the gesture properly.
“Oi, Shitty Hair, what’s wrong with you? Why were you staring at Deku?”
The more things he was forced to feel, the more he was unable to keep smiling and being energetic. Eijirou should’ve remembered how observant Katsuki was.
“I must’ve spaced out. Sorry, Kats!”
“Don’t give me that bullshit, you’ve been staring at him the whole day!” Katsuki sneered. “You trying to compete with Half ‘n Half or something? I thought you had better taste.”
If this was any other time, Eijirou would’ve been happy to hear that Katsuki noticed so much about him. Maybe he would’ve texted Midoriya to ask if he was jealous. Now, he zeroed in on the part about Todoroki.
“What do you mean by that?” he asked, cautiously.
“Tch, are you dumb like all the other extras? Icyhot’s a fucking disaster with the nerd.”
Eijirou chuckled. That was pretty accurate.
“Okay, can I tell you a secret?” he asked, finally giving up the pretense that he’d eat much today. He put his chopsticks down.
“Do I look like a damn snitch to you?”
Katsuki for yes. Okay then, he could finally share this madness with someone.
“I got hit with a quirk yesterday after the fight,” he started. “I’m okay, it wasn’t violent!” He quickly added when some concern mixed with the characteristic rage on Katsuki’s face.
“It’s just that I can feel Todoroki’s emotions! It should only last until tonight, but it’s really taking a toll on me,” Eijirou said, finally lifting his head from the table to show Katsuki how annoyed he was using his eyes.
His friend barked out a laugh, and the tension on his face dissipated. “So that’s why you looked like you wanted to shove Deku against a wall in P.E.?”
“I’d rather not talk about that,” Eijirou said, grimacing into his beef. “What should I do?”
Katsuki looked at him like he’d suggested they go make friendship bracelets for the whole class. “What do you mean? Just wait until it’s over, dumbass!”
“I think it’d be manly to try to get them together!”
“What’s gotten into you now? They’ve been disgusting for months!”
He could understand why Katsuki knew what Midoriya felt, they had that weird not-friendship of theirs. But…
“How’d you know about Todoroki?”
“Do I have to teach you how people work? Look at how he acts, idiot! If Deku told him to jump off a building, he’d do it, no questions asked. He goes out of his damn way to pretend they need to talk or some shit every five minutes. You shouldn’t need me to know this, Eijirou!”
Huh. Insightful. Katsuki was a person of many talents.
“So, how do we do this, Kats?” Eijirou asked, finally hopeful.
His friend sneered, but it lacked any real heat. “Who the fuck told you I’m joining?”
Eijirou pouted. “Come on, I need your ideas!”
“Damn right, you do!” A smug smile. “Fine, I’ll help the shitty nerds, but only because you’re asking!”
Eijirou put his hand over Katsuki’s in gratitude, and the latter blushed and turned his head away. Cute. His hand was warm, which Eijirou knew was because of the frequent explosions.
All of that was irrelevant. They had to focus on the task at hand, or Eijirou would go insane and he’d never get to see Katsuki blush again, because he’d be kicked out of Yuuei.
“I know what to do,” Katsuki said, turning his head back. “We’ll make one of them jealous!”
The way he dug his chopsticks into his mapo tofu was almost triumphant. That was actually genius. Eijirou had even explicitly clarified earlier that Todoroki was the type to get jealous.
“You’re amazing, Kats! I’ll just pretend to confess to Midoriya after school!”
Katsuki choked on the bite he was taking. “Neither of us is confessing to Deku, I’ll throw up,” he said. After a few seconds, his frown deepened. “You know what, you aren’t confessing at all! I’ll go to Icyhot.”
“I can do it, you don’t have to!” Eijirou protested.
“I’m not saying that you can’t, dumbass, I’m saying that you won’t, because I don’t want you to! Are you done?” Katsuki said, getting up to take his plate back to Lunch Rush. Eijirou’s cheeks heated up, but he followed, even though his food wasn’t finished. He wasn’t that hungry.
He dreaded the rest of the day, but it proved to be unfounded. The next few hours went by pretty smoothly, with Todoroki tuning down his emotions every time they became overwhelming, probably by thinking of other things. Eijirou recognized the few times he used Katsuki as a distraction from last night’s experience. As the hours went by, his connection to Todoroki grew dimmer and dimmer, and by the end of the school day, it was barely there, an occasional flicker of emotion.
When their last class was over, Katsuki dragged Eijirou to the common room and they stood in silence for a few minutes, waiting for Midoriya and Todoroki. He leaned onto Katsuki’s shoulder as he yawned and he started to close his eyes.
“Don’t you fucking fall asleep before this shit’s over, Eijirou!”
Ugh, right. He forced himself back up, right in time to see their targets walk in. As soon as Todoroki sat down, Katsuki stalked toward him confidently.
He stood directly in front of the couch, staring into Todoroki’s eyes with a hand on his hip. It was kind of hot- not now.
“Oi, Half ‘n Half, go out with me!” he said, with some anger in his voice.
Todoroki tilted his head to the side. “Bakugou?”
“I like you. Go out on a date with me!”
Midoriya frowned, looking equal parts confused and sad. A spark of annoyance bloomed in Eijirou’s chest through the Quirk-bond.
“I told you I’m in love with Midoriya two days ago. Do you have memory problems?” Todoroki said.
Silence. He seemed to realize what had come out of his mouth and who was sitting next to him, so a patch of frost started to spread from his right hand across the couch.
“You’re what?” Midoriya squealed, his face reddening.
Katsuki turned away from the two with a satisfied smirk. “My memory’s fine, Icyhot. You’re welcome.”
Behind him, Midoriya had tangled his fingers with Todoroki’s, smiling softly. They’d be okay. Eijirou was happy for them, and surprised he couldn’t feel anything through the link anymore. It had probably worn out. He sighed in relief.
More importantly, Katsuki was absolutely stunning. He radiated confidence, and Eijirou was proud of him for helping his friends. What kind of man would he be if he didn’t match that assertiveness?
As soon as Katsuki sat down next to him, Eijirou grabbed his face in both hands and ran his thumbs across his jaw.
“Tell me if this isn’t okay,” he whispered and leaned in. Katsuki didn’t say anything.