Work Text:
Shouto Todoroki was a very reserved child, veering away from other children his age when he was younger almost unconsciously.
Oh, come on, Shouto! It’s not like the other kids will bite!
His sister, Fuyumi, used to encourage him to go play with the other children in his neighborhood whenever she had the chance.
And, eventually, he did.
Your son is dangerous.
What is wrong with that boy? Does he go and flaunt his quirk at any time he wishes to do so?!
Teaching your son some proper manners should be a simple endeavor for a hero of your stature.
Which was the second biggest regret he’s ever had in his life-
Well, technically, he’s gotten over that and the crippling self-loathing he used to feel because of what had happened to his mother.
But some things- some physical things, are harder to shake off than emotional ones.
---
Shouto had noticed the “self-sustain mode” that his quirk possessed when he and his family had gone out for a hiking trip when he was five years old.
Barely being able to control his quirk, Shouto would end up freezing his limbs or leaving scorch marks on various apparel back at home-
And Enji, Shouto’s father, was fed up in having to buy new chairs every damn week.
So, Enji decided to train his son’s control over his quirk further in the mountains, hiding it under the guise of a “family outing”.
The weather up in the mountains was harsh and unforgiving; the cold wind almost always ripped through the air harshly, and if one were to be underequipped- like say, had no scarf, frostbite was all but assured.
This did not faze Enji, however. For his quirk naturally kept his body at normal temperatures, even when he had decided to greet the early morning of their second day wearing nothing but his boxers.
And, apparently, Shouto could as well.
The young ice user felt undeterred with the severely cold weather due to his quirk. The fire side of his quirk seemingly activated itself whenever Shouto’s body temperature reached a certain point; and in the span of a few seconds, the boy could barely feel the cold spreading through his body prior.
Of course, Shouto never understood why or how. Neither did Enji; mainly because the second top ranked hero hadn’t noticed at all. He just thought his son was innately resilient to the cold weather like he was.
But Shouto had managed to finally figure out the workings of his “self-sustain mode” when he was in middle school.
---
He was confessed to-
By a girl he barely even knew.
Thoughts jumbled, lips taut and a cold sweat ran down the side of his face. Shouto could never really wrap his head around the whole “romance” thing, and it never once came to mind up ‘til that very moment.
Here he was, at the back of the school where a girl from his class was bowing down to him, asking him in the politest manner possible to go out with her.
Shouto’s mind hay-wired and he opened and closed his mouth several times without muttering a single sound.
Blood rushed up to his cheeks and he felt even more embarrassed when the girl had stopped her bowing to peek up towards him, curious to see why the dual color haired boy had neglected to give her an answer for the past two minutes.
As the blood slowly but surely exited all parts of his body and went directly to his face, Shotuo could feel a creeping coldness encompass the nape of his neck-
Which quickly spread to his jawline, then to his cheeks, then to the tip of his nose and finally freezing his lashes.
Needless to say, the girl wasn’t expecting that as an answer.
---
Shouto then woke up in the infirmary, all of his afternoon classes finished and dismissed.
Propping himself up using his elbows, Shouto frowned when he had noticed his face ache rather badly; as if he’d just stuck his head inside of the freezer for a good hour or so.
The girl who had confessed to him sat at the edge of his bed, visibly nervous and distraught at the strange turn of events.
When she had noticed Shouto stir in his sleep, she quickly turned to him and apologized, to which the ice user replied with an apology of his own.
Setting himself straight and telling her that he was flattered about her proposal, Shouto politely declined; feeling relief wash over him when the girl had given him a bright smile instead of a forlorn one that he was expecting.
As the girl left the infirmary and told Shouto her goodbyes, the school nurse immediately entered and told him the gist of what had happened.
Apparently, the girl had called out for help when Shouto had literally frozen his own face. His own face.
Blood rushed up to his cheeks and the ice user slowly felt the same crippling frost at the base of his neck; shaking his head and immediately dispelling himself of his embarrassed blush.
That was when Shouto understood.
He remembered feeling normal up in the mountains a few years back thanks to his quirk, and now he realized that half of his quirk also did the same.
Taking his leave when the nurse had diagnosed him one last time and finding nothing wrong with the boy, Shouto decided to test his theory back at home.
Rubbing vigorously on his arm until he felt the friction generate heat, Shouto’s eyes widened in surprise when a thin sheet of ice had started forming on top of his slightly warm arm and underneath his palm; almost instantly cooling off his skin.
With this newfound information, Shouto decided to keep his emotions more in check-
Lest he end up becoming a Todoroki Popsicle again.
---
“That’s pretty strange.” Ochako spoke through the food in her mouth with one eyebrow raised curiously.
“How so, Uraraka?” reprimanding the brunette about her talking while eating, Tenya furrowed his brows.
“Well, that’s a… err,“ the brunette shrugged “Pretty lenient payoff for such a cool quirk.”
“Subjectively speaking, it kind of is,” Izuku nodded his head in agreement, but turned to look at Shouto, who was in their company as of the moment “But I don’t think it’s healthy.”
“Indeed,” Tenya readjusted his glasses “Continuous use of his quirk will surely leave his body in bad shape-“
“Leaving it either overheated from overuse of his flame ability,” the blue haired male continued “Or it may perhaps lead to hypothermia if he were to exceed the use of his frost ability.”
“Ohhh!” Ochako nodded her head vigorously, turning to smile at Shouto “I see!”
The dual color haired male smiled a bit “Well, it’s not normally a problem because I can simply regulate my body temperature using either at any given time.” taking a bite from his food, Shouto felt pleased at the progress he’s made with socializing with his peers.
Well, Izuku technically forced him to join them for lunch, and Shouto would’ve probably declined if he and the green haired male weren’t in such good terms with each other.
“Ah, yes,” turning to look at the ice user, Tenya raised an eyebrow “Todoroki, you’ve been called by sir Aizawa to go to his office later this afternoon.”
Shouta raised an eyebrow as well “Why?”
Shrugging, the class representative readjusted his glasses “Something about assessment for your performance back when you had fought him with Yaoyorozu if I recall correctly.”
“And speaking of Yaoyorozu, she shall be accompanying you as well,” checking on his wristwatch and surmising that there was still ample time for chat, Tenya slightly reclined in his seat “Please do tell her when you get the chance.”
“Alright-” the mention of the pony tailed female made Shouto’s heart skip a beat, and his discomfort visibly showed.
Tensing up and taking ragged breaths, the ice user calmed himself down by breathing through his nostrils.
“Todoroki?” Izuku furrowed his brows a bit “Are you okay?”
Pushing his plate away and huffing, the ice user reprimanded himself internally “I’m fine.”
Shouto’s been feeling rather under the weather every time Momo’s name is mentioned; he’s traced it back to ever since he’s had that training exercise with her and Shouta Aizawa.
What peeved him off the most is that he can’t wrap his head around why he’s acting so strangely at the mention of her name.
It was even worse during class, though. He would constantly feel the need to steal glances in her direction just to scrutinize her face, her nose, her eyes, her lips, her-
And there he goes again, fantasizing about his seatmate.
The three in his company did not find Shouto’s silence strange; no, that was normal Shouto.
What caught their attention were the redness of his cheeks and the slow formation of ice by his neck area.
“Your face is red, Todoroki!” Tenya decided to address the conundrum, slightly moving forward in his seat to eye the ice user more carefully.
“Not to mention you’ve got ice on your neck!” Izuku gasped, pointing towards the ice formation that had almost reached Shouto’s chin.
Shouto shook his head and the ice slowly melted off “What?” he muttered out, blinking his eyes a few times in the process.
“Your cheeks were absolutely red,” Tenya started “Plus ice had started forming by your collarbone.”
“Really?” Shouto feigned ignorance, feeling irritated at himself for having put on that show for his classmates to see.
But what irritated him more was the fact that he had gotten to that point because he was simply thinking about Momo.
His mind wandered off to the fact that he was probably going to spend an hour or two with her and Aizawa later that afternoon; that single thought made his heart race, but he managed to successfully thwart his own blush and self-sustain mode by extension.
“Well, our class starts in seven minutes,” Tenya cut Shouto off from his thoughts “Let’s all leave for the classroom in two minutes.”
Eyeing Ochako quickly eat her food whilst Izuku cheered for her made Shouto smile a bit; perhaps whatever will happen later that afternoon won’t be that bad.
---
“Your coordination was less than subpar,” Shouta snorted “If it weren’t for Yaoyorozu’s quick thinking, you two would’ve never passed.”
“But I digress,” the instructor lifted his eyes from the papers that he was holding towards the two students that stood in front of his desk “You managed to give Yaoyorozu your trust and thus led to your victory.” taking a lazy look at Shouto, the raven haired teacher then turned to look at Momo.
“Be more confident in yourself,” he stated to Momo bluntly as he cleared his throat “And don’t look down on your peers so much, Todoroki.”
“They will be pro heroes like you after all.”
Shouto felt a cold sweat run down the side of his face. The scolding slash suggestions that Aizawa was giving him proved as a useful distraction to the fact that he was literally an inch or two away from Momo.
Gulping audibly, Shouto managed to nod his head. He could certainly feel her body heat emanate from her arm; some of it passing onto him in the process. Shouto hated his sensitivity to temperature at times like these.
“Hrm,” Aizawa eyed the two students carefully, easily spotting Shouto’s unease “Alright.”
Standing up from his seat and making his way towards the two students, the instructor placed an arm on each of their shoulders “Here’s the deal.”
“As far as I’m concerned, you two have the lowest chemistry out of all the students in your class,” leaning down a bit to their ears, Shouta smiled “And that won’t do.”
The two yelped in surprise when the raven haired man had took both of them by the wrists “I know you two are probably not in the best of terms with each other, given your backgrounds and all.”
“But we can’t be too picky with our partners, yeah?” making the two students fingers intertwine with each other, Momo gasped when she had felt the warmness of Shouto’s palm-
Only to gasp again when the dual color haired male had fallen to the ground; his chest up 'til his hair completely encased in ice.
“Huh,” Shouta smirked, but quickly wiped the smile away when he had turned to look at the worried Momo who was now kneeling beside the half-frozen Shouto “Go tell Recovery Girl that she’s having a patient soon.”
---
“What did you do, Aizawa!?” Toshinori peeked through the glass window of the infirmary, his brows furrowing at the sight of the unconscious, but thankfully thawed out Shouto.
“An experiment,” the raven haired instructor snickered “I wasn’t expecting that to happen, though.” Watching a frantic Momo explain what happened to a confused Recovery Girl surely made Shouta’s day.
“Experiment?” the blond instructor raised an eyebrow “What do you mean?”
“Todoroki’s quirk automatically activates itself when his body reaches a certain temperature, yeah?”
“Well, yes, but what does that have to do with anything-“ pursing his lips when Shouta had let out a carefree laugh, Toshinori was even more confused at what was happening.
First one of his students use their own quirk on themselves then Shouta Aizawa; the Shouta Aizawa, known as the ruthless “Eraserhead” just laughed like a normal person.
“That boy needs more than physical training,” turning to leave with a pleased smile on his face, Shouta waved goodbye “Go get him an emotional counsellor whenever you can.”
“Emotional… counsellor?” Tohsinori frowned as he turned to look at the inside of the infirmary.
Momo seemed to have calmed down and Recovery Girl looked like she was reassuring the pony tailed student about something; probably about Shouto.
“Hmm,” the blond instructor turned to scrutinize the sleeping Shouta “Emotional counselling, huh?” nodding and reprimanding himself for not noticing this before, Toshinori decided that he was going to help Shouto out with his “emotional turmoil” in however way he could.