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Izuku had just finished a pot of tea with All Might one spring afternoon and was rounding a corner when he sees Shouto walking out of Recovery Girl’s Nurse’s Office. Even from far away, Izuku could read the serious, determined set to the Hot and Cold hero’s expression.
Which immediately puts him on guard.
Izuku speeds up, calling to Shouto. “Sho--hey Shouto! Wait up!”
Shouto doesn’t stop but slows his steps enough for Izuku to catch up. Once he did, Shouto resumes his speed walk, Izuku easily keeping pace.
“Everything okay? Are you not feeling well?”
“No, I am perfectly well. Thank you for asking.”
Izuku is confused but he forces himself to relax. If Shouto says he’s okay, then he’s okay.
“O-oh, that’s good! I was curious because well, you were coming from Recovery Girl and usually… well anyway!”
They walk in silence for a minute or two. “So… where you headed? I was just about to start on that rescue risk analysis project for Thirteen; wanna work on it together?”
Shouto looks at him with an apologetic smile while he makes a turn that leads them toward the forest area at U.A. “Ah, perhaps later Izuku? There is something I have to do first.”
Ground Omega rises up in the near distance.
Izuku registers what appears to be Shouto’s destination and his impulsively worrywart brain assumes the worst: “Is someone injured in the training grounds? Were they doing something risky and don’t want the teachers finding out? Shouto, you know they will write you up if they catch you helping break school policy--”
They walk through the entrance arches and as soon as they do, Izuku hears the muted explosions.
“It’s not quite that,” Shouto responds cryptically as he heads in the direction of blasts Izuku knows all too well. They hear Kirishima Eijirou’s booming laugh bookend the latest explosion.
Thousands of possibilities run through Izuku’s head about what Kacchan might possibly need from Recovery Girl that the blonde hero couldn’t get for himself.
When they step into the clearing, all the pieces fall into place and Izuku nearly facepalms himself. He should have known.
Kacchan stands in the middle of the clearing, facing off with Kirishima. His stance is a little off and his face is contorted into a disgusted grimace, pointy nose bright red. This close, Izuku can hear him sniffling.
Spring has always been the worst season for Kacchan, worse than winter actually. And this season has been a particularly prolific producer of pollen.
The two boys notice their arrival just then, but only Kirishima turns to acknowledge them directly. He greets them with a shrug of what could only be described as exasperated surrender.
“Hey Todobro, Midobro! If you came to spar with Kats, sorry to disappoint you but I think he’s done for the day.”
At this, the red spreads from Kacchan’s nose, down to his cheeks, and all the way up to his ears. If they were in a manga, steam would be coming out of his ears and Izuku stifles a giggle at the thought.
“Shut the fuck up Shitty Hair, we’re not done! Get your guard up, we’re going again!”
“Bakubro, stop. You can barely see right now and you’re sneezing every few--” and right on cue, a massive sneeze erupts from the blonde, its intensity echoing around the trees.
Izuku stays a reasonable distance from what appeared to be the two best friends’ sparring session while Shouto strides right up to Kacchan. He holds up his hands in front of the blonde; no fire or ice is coming out, but it looks like he is doing something. It’s subtle, but there is air being moved around Kacchan. Izuku can see it shimmering in the low, golden glow this late in the day.
Izuku can’t hear what Shouto is murmuring while he holds his hands in front the explosive hero, but, as they have all come to expect, it has a calming effect on Kacchan. Seeing Shouto has his sparring partner handled, Kirishima starts walking towards Izuku, waving eagerly at him with a blinding smile to match.
Now it's Izuku’s turn to squint, sheesh.
Calmer though he was, Kacchan still sticks out his middle finger to Kirishima as he passes, which the sturdy hero merely chuckles at.
“Bratty Kats, let your boyfriend take care of you,” he teases. “Come on Midoriya, let’s get back to the dorms, I want a snack!” Kirishima tugs at his sleeve to pull Izuku back towards the training grounds’ entrance.
Seeing as there is really nothing for him to do there, he allows himself to be pulled along by the cheerful redhead. He catches Shouto’s gaze and gives him a little wave which Shouto acknowledges with a brief nod before returning to his ministrations. Meanwhile, Kacchan had closed his eyes and looked like he was taking long, slow breaths.
Kacchan still looked a little out of it during dinner--allergies tended to wipe him out ever since they were kids. And like he did when they were younger, he refused allergy medication until his allergies became unbearable. The result? There was always a period early in the springtime when Kacchan was utterly miserable; at least until he gave in and took the antihistamines.
And though he had gone to sleep even earlier than normal, he looked ten times better than he did earlier at Ground Omega. This is probably why Izuku found Shouto poking at the snack options in the dorm pantry later that night. Izuku had come down for a little pick-me-up himself and snatched up the matcha-flavored Pocky that Shouto was ignoring while his fingers played over the strawberry-flavored one.
“Hey Sho,” Izuku remembers what he wanted to ask from earlier. “Did Kacchan’s allergies have anything to do with why you went to Recovery Girl today?”
Mouthful of Pocky, Shouto nods solemnly at him. After a big swallow, he responds. “I asked her if there was something I could do to ease his discomfort if he kept refusing to take medicine for his allergies.”
Izuku inclines his head in understanding. Kacchan can be so hard-headed some--no, all the time.
“I had read somewhere that humidifiers are a good way to soothe nasal passages of someone suffering from allergies so we trained with my quirk a little bit to make sure I generated the right amount of moisture for when his symptoms became too much.”
Izuku’s heart melts to the floor when he sees Shouto’s little self-satisfied smile as they walk into the elevator to head back into their rooms, a window into his private pleasure at being able to take care of the prickly hero who was usually the one taking care of others (no matter how hard he denied it).
“I think it worked.”
Shouto doesn’t see it, but Izuku is smiling too. He can already see Shouto’s big brother Natsuo tearing up when he tells this story at Shouto and Kacchan’s wedding reception, proud of his little brother for using his power to (sort of) heal someone.
Even if that someone was maybe kinda giving himself this problem in the first place.
Izuku will periodically be reminded of this moment throughout his long friendship with the Hot and Cold Hero, whenever he wields the eventually-not-so-secret Shoumidifier move during missions in ultra dry climates or building collapse rescues.