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Recently, Izuku had noticed that Todoroki had been acting strange around him.
It began with the little things: a small cough here and there, some cut-off sentences, a little hesitation at times. At that time, he’d paid it no mind. But now, as the problem intensified to include increasingly-frequent Quirk mishaps, Izuku was beginning to grow concerned.
Is it possible that he was hit by a Quirk some time ago and we never noticed? He wondered to himself. Oh, gosh, that means that our inaction resulted in the problem blowing up so badly… Aizawa-sensei is always telling us to report everything we noticed; how could we have been so careless?
He’d been keeping it to himself for a while, assuming it was just a cold or something, but at lunch on Tuesday, he finally decided to bring it up to his friend.
“Hey, Todoroki…”
The dual-haired boy turned to him. “Yes, Midoriya?”
Izuku hesitated, trying to find the correct words. In certain cases, the victim would be triggered by certain phrases as the Quirk tried to prevent itself from being discovered, so he would have to speak carefully in order to allow Todoroki to answer instead of shutting down.
“Uh… recently… have you gone anywhere besides coming to school?” he asked, then winced. That was a bit too broad, and Todoroki would certainly be able to respond, but whatever information he disclosed likely wasn’t going to be of much use.
Todoroki inclined his head. “I’ve gone home. Every day, in fact.”
Izuku mentally facepalmed. “Anywhere else?” he prodded.
“I went to the mall with you weeks ago.”
A lightbulb lit up in Izuku’s head. That’s it! Something must have happened to him while I had my back turned, or when I was in the dressing room trying on that All Might Silver Age costume… oh, that means it’s all my fault.
“Did anything happen- wait- I mean, what did you, specifically, do that day at the mall?” he tried.
Todoroki’s face scrunched up in concentration as he tried to recall. “I… we got lunch at the food court, you convinced me to try your favorite katsudon place, you took me to the clothing store and we walked around while you looked at All Might-themed items, you found a bookstore and picked out some comics for me, and then you came with me to visit my mom,” he said in one breath, then looked up at Izuku. “Oh, and I think we rode the train home together.”
Never mind how the way that Todoroki said ‘we’ and ‘together’ was making Izuku’s heart flutter. He had bigger things to worry about — such as the fact that he had apparently dictated the itinerary of the entire mall trip by literally dragging his friend from place to place and monopolizing his time.
And on top of that, the one time he managed to leave his friend alone, Todoroki had probably gotten hit by a Quirk. Great.
“Anything else happen that day?” Izuku prompted. “Anything strange, maybe?”
Something flashed across Todoroki’s face and he inclined his head quickly. “I started to feel a bit weird after we got home. My stomach especially felt funny — it wouldn’t settle down for two hours.” He pauses thoughtfully. “And for a while I thought I was having heart problems but Recovery Girl said I wasn’t. So I’m not really sure what was wrong.”
Seeing as Todoroki is so aware of what’s been happening to him, it probably won’t do any harm if he says it outright, will it?
Izuku bit the bullet and spit out the words. “I think you were hit by a Quirk, Todoroki-kun.”
Todoroki frowned. “I don’t recall being approached by anyone during our trip,” he muses, “but it is a possibility especially if the Quirk has an amnesia aspect to it…”
“Exactly!” Izuku exclaimed. “We should remember to tell Aizawa-sensei when we see him later today. Or we can talk to Mic-sensei since we have him right after lunch.”
Todoroki’s fear of asking teachers for help wasn’t much better than Izuku’s, but uncharacteristically, he nodded. “Okay.”
For the rest of lunch, Izuku’s mind was racing as he tried to recall anything out-of-the-ordinary that had happened that day, or any Quirks he had seen before with similar effects, but his efforts were to no avail.
We’ll just ask. The teachers should know; they’ve seen so many Quirks and Quirk accidents before that they’ll probably be able to diagnose it immediately.
He couldn’t focus during the lecture on conjugations and tenses, and when it was his turn to translate a sentence about coffee and cats he fumbled so badly that Present Mic sent him a sympathetic look and allowed him to take his seat again. When the bell rang, Izuku practically leapt up, grabbing Todoroki and dragging him to the front of the room. “Tell Mic-sensei,” he said. “He should be able to help.”
Todoroki took a deep breath, turning to face Present Mic. “Sensei, I think I was hit by a Quirk when I went on that mall trip with Midoriya. Could you please help me?”
Present Mic’s eyes widened comically. “Whoa there, listener, why don’t you slow down and start over from the beginning?”
Todoroki bobbed his head. “Sure. So when we went to the mall, we got lunch from the food court first, and then we shopped around…”
When he finished recounting the story, Present Mic sighed. “I see. And what did you say were your symptoms?”
“Erratic heartbeat, upset stomach-”
Oddly enough, Present Mic coughed at that one.
“Quirk mishaps and general lack of control, inability to focus during class, and a little bit of a fever, I think,” Todoroki finished.
Present Mic glanced at Izuku before turning back to Todoroki. “I may know what’s going on. But I’m not sure I’d be able to tell you what it is with Izuku present.”
Izuku’s eyebrows furrowed. “Why?”
Present Mic shook his head regretfully. “I can’t tell you that either. But trust me- you don’t need to worry about him; I can tell you that.”
Biting back a “how is that supposed to make me any less worried,” Izuku obediently exited the classroom, watching through the glass panel on the door as Present Mic leaned in close to Todoroki and angled himself so that his words were impossible to make out. The pair conversed in hushed tones for a long while, and when Todoroki finally came out, his stoic-as-usual face revealed nothing.
“What…?”
Todoroki shrugged. “He said it’s not a Quirk.” He didn’t elaborate, and Izuku knew better than to push, as much as he wanted to.
If it’s not a Quirk… then what is it?
Izuku was on high alert for the rest of the week, watching Todoroki closely for any sign that might give away what his mysterious affliction was. Yet for some reason, despite all his observing, he was no closer to figuring out the answer.
His best guess had been the Quirk accident, but now that he knew that theory was wrong…
Could he just be sick? No, I don’t think so… usually sickness doesn’t have such a strange variety of symptoms, and if he were deathly ill Present Mic-sensei wouldn’t have told me not to worry…
Could something be going on at home again? Probably not- if that were the case, how would Mic-sensei have known immediately?
Could it be that he’s just… going through puberty…? It’s a bit late for that, isn’t it…
He had absolutely no idea what was going on, and it was driving him insane.
What drove him even more insane was that Todoroki’s condition had somehow gotten even worse over the past few days. He was flushed fifty percent of the time Izuku saw him, and he couldn’t hold eye contact for longer than two seconds now.
Please… I just want to know what’s wrong with my friend…
Finally, he made a decision. If Mic-sensei wouldn’t tell him, maybe someone else could. After all, if it was so obvious, wouldn’t other people be able to reach the same conclusion and not hide these things from Izuku?!
He drew in a deep breath that day at lunch. “Hey, Ochako?”
She tilted her head. “Yes?”
“Do you… would you by any chance know what’s up with Todoroki?” he asked.
She thought for a moment. “He seems fairly normal to me — I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary recently,” she replied.
No way…
“You know how he’s been acting weird lately?” Izuku tried again, elaborating. “He’s been having some symptoms that he told me about, like an erratic heartbeat, lack of control, inability to focus, flushed face, et cetera? I thought it was because he got hit by a Quirk or something, but Mic-sensei said that wasn’t the case, so now I have no idea.”
Ochako looked at him for a long moment, shooting him a pitying look, before reaching over and patting him on the back. “Deku, have you ever considered that he likes you?”
Izuku waved his hands. “How in the world did you jump to that conclusion?”
Later that day, they were paired up for a training exercise, and Izuku couldn’t take it anymore. All the avoidance, the shifty looks, the half-baked answers — he refused to settle any longer.
They got through the training exercise, which focused on strategy and stealthy execution, by the skin of their teeth. The moment they had changed out of their gym uniforms, Izuku tapped his friend on the shoulder.
“Hey, can we talk?” he asked.
“Of course, Midoriya-kun,” Todoroki replied- and oh, that smile. Izuku couldn’t take it for a completely different reason.
“Uhm,” he said intelligently, trying and mostly succeeding to shove that thought to a corner of his brain for now. “Why don’t we… talk outside the entrance? As we walk to the station, maybe?”
Todoroki nodded. “Sure.”
And they walked. In fact, they walked in awkward yet companionable silence for so long that Izuku had to be the one to break it again.
“So, uh…”
“Yes?” Todoroki turned to him, mismatched eyes meeting viridian ones.
“What exactly did Present Mic-sensei tell you?” Izuku questioned. “Why couldn’t you tell me about it? I mean, if it’s too sensitive you don’t have to say it, of course, but I was just getting really concerned-”
Todoroki cut him off. “You were concerned about me?”
Taken aback, Izuku nodded fervently. “Why wouldn’t I be? I care so much-”
Todoroki blinked at him owlishly. “I care about you a lot too, Midoriya-kun.”
That was it. Izuku was going to explode from crushing too hard. He would be the one going into cardiac arrest, not Todoroki.
He cleared his throat. “So, anyway. Are you okay?”
“Oh, that?” Todoroki looked down and then back up again. “I have a crush on you, Midoriya-kun. Apparently it’s quite severe, too. But when I asked Mic-sensei for advice, he said to come right out and tell you. So…”
Izuku was positive that they could both hear his heartbeat pounding rapidly in the silence between them. “You- you-”
“He also said to tell you that if you didn’t feel the same way, it’s okay,” Todoroki added. “I like being your friend.”
Izuku waved his hands frantically. “No, no, I do feel the same way!” he blurted, feeling his cheeks flame. “I really like you too.”
“Really?”
Izuku had never seen his friend look so unsure of himself. “Really,” he affirmed.
“Hmm…” Todoroki mused. “Mic-sensei did say that he was pretty sure you felt the same way. I suppose he was right.”
Izuku buried his face in his hands. “Was I that obvious…?”
Todoroki patted his head. “It’s okay, that’s one of the things I like about you.” Then he withdrew his hand, staring at it in shock. “Sorry, I-”
Izuku beamed at him. “It’s okay. I don’t mind since it’s you doing that.”
Suddenly, the hand that Todoroki was holding gingerly was lit ablaze, and they both jumped back.
“Oh, I guess that was the reason for all your Quirk mishaps,” Izuku said, chuckling. “Looks like it really wasn’t because of a Quirk accident after all.”