Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was something massively wrong with Midoriya.

He knew it, most people didn’t come back after they died, most people couldn’t look at their dead body slumped below them as they were, surprise surprise, dead. Most people weren’t ghosts.

There, he said it. Midoriya wasn’t one to believe in the supernatural, but it was really, really difficult to ignore the empty eyes of his own corpse.

He took a deep breath; it did nothing. He shuddered lightly. That’s right, he’s dead, so he doesn't need to breathe.

If Midoriya had a working heart, it would be racing. He felt his knees weaken and slowly slumped down in front of his body. A deranged laugh bubbled up in his throat. He’d finally done it, finally ended it, and it still wasn’t fucking over. He wrapped his arms around his torso as he tipped over with hysteric giggles. 

“I’ve got to have the worst luck in the world,” He hissed between breaths.

His laughter died down after a few minutes, and it was still a few minutes too long.

“No, no, this has to be a dream.” 

Because if this was real, Midoriya thought he might just die.

Oh wait. He paused his pondering to stare into the empty sky. He couldn’t.

Midoriya shook his head in a depressing attempt to dislodge the growing hysteria. This, with a lack of a better word, was bullshit.

Midoriya gazed blankly at his hands; they were transparent with a light green tinge, glowing softly in the dying light. It was a nice distraction from the raging emotions battling in his head, a welcome one at that. He waved them slowly, admiring the lime light carefully.

His eyes gradually unfocused and his attention was forced back to the very dead body in front of him. 

He felt a boiling emotion begin to bubble up in him, solid and harsh. This wasn’t fair. Nothing ever was with him, not life nor death. His hands closed into firm fists. Of all the people in the world, it just had to be him. His eyes narrowed as the unwanted feeling flooded his body like poison.

Midoriya forced himself up, taking note of how his feet barely grazed the floor, for later, once he’d figured (at least) something out. 

The lack of contact felt as if it were mocking him. 

Midoriya brushed off his trousers, not that it would do any good, and returned his glare to his body. He huffed, and tried to kick it but his foot phased through uselessly. 

He hissed in anger and slammed a fist in the direction of the alleyway wall, pleasantly surprised when it made contact. His frustration hastily drained away like sand in an hourglass, replaced with replenished curiosity. It hadn’t done that before, when he’d accidentally backed through it. 

He reached out hesitantly, as if the bricks would crumble under his touch. The feeling of stone on him felt unnatural and illegal, soft and foamy, contrasting to the sensation it had when he was still alive.

Maybe there was still hope of leaving for good, he thought as he placed his other hand on the rough bricks. The motion itself had no effect, but the contact felt draining, as if his energy were being sucked out of him slowly.

If he could just lose it all, there was a chance he could dissipate and be gone forever. He plastered his arm to the wall and attempted to force himself to the ground. There had to be a way, right? There had to be some way for him to finally be free. He lay down, resettling a couple of times before he lay flat on the concrete. 

It was difficult to stay there; it felt to Midoriya like an eternal battle against air resistance.

The effect was slower than he expected. His entire self was touching the floor, his energy should be gone by now, like his consciousness. He lost focus for a second and shot up as if repelled by the ground. 

He hissed in frustration, kicking the wall. What was the fucking point? He wasn’t getting anywhere and he never would, just like when he was alive. (God, did that feel weird to think.)

A few tears welled up in his eyes, from anger and sorrow. He couldn’t even end things right, could he?

He stayed, hovering slightly above ground level with salty droplets running down his face and mixing into the beginnings of rain starting to spit down. The pathetic fallacy was that exactly, pathetic.

Just like him.

Controlled sobbing slowly transformed into full on weeping, with each useless breath wracking his body with tremors. Once it reached its crescendo, it took its time before it degraded back to surface level sniffling.

Midoriya felt heavy, as if he were still alive. He brushed his nose on the back of his sleeve. Running fingers through his hair, he slowly calmed himself.

He exhaled.

Not that it would make a difference.

There was nothing much he could do. It wasn’t in his control anymore, Midoriya convinced himself as he took another look at his body, broken in front of him. He felt his nails dig into his skin, prickling his nerves which weren't even there. 

Midoriya sighed for what felt like the upteenth time, slumping down and shifting to a cross-legged position against. There were a few options of where to go from his current situation.

He could travel the world, see anything he wanted with no normal limits like money or shelter, he could experiment with what he could do in this form, whether he could interact with his body or not and dispose of it once he was done, or he could haunt the shit out of his bullies and teachers who fucked over his life.

He pondered for a second. He didn’t really like moving about much, it was inconvenient and time wasting, and the whole world seemed bland when what he was used to was much, much brighter things where he was.

Like his eyes used to be. Not so bright anymore, huh?

There wasn’t much, if anything stopping Midoriya from following through with the last two. He picked himself up again, ignoring the fatigue scratching at him, and clapped his hands, forcing a grin across his face.

You’re used to that, aren’t you Midoriya?

“Right.” Midoriya breathed.

He huffed, shaking his curly hair out of his face.

“Better get started then.”

Midoriya began with the experimentation. He looked back at his body, the one he’d dragged all the way from school, leaving a suspicious trail of red in its path. There was a fine coating of sand on its underside, no doubt from the beach he was currently at. 

He crouched down and poked it. There was no movement, but it was softer than he’d been expecting. He solidified his hands and picked up his arm, bending the elbow. It seemed almost fresh, not as if it’d been dead for at least three hours. Rigor mortis should have set in a while ago. 

He frowned and rolled the body over. He dusted off the sand carefully. Leaning over the face, he gently pried open the left eye. Instead of the mid-dilated pupil he was expecting, the black circle was constricted to a pinprick. Midoriya didn’t know much about death, but he was pretty fucking sure that wasn’t supposed to happen. 

He was confused, there was no doubt about it. He reached down to the neck, searching for a pulse. As he thought, there was nothing. Even though he was quite clearly not alive, it was as if he were only resting. 

Midoriya placed a finger over his mouth in thought, it could be the work of a quirk, but he hadn’t made physical nor eye contact with anyone in at least three days. He would’ve assumed that this happened to everyone if it weren’t the lack of others and the state of his supposed corpse.

The student stayed like that for a second before searching the unmoving body for any signs of no blood flow. He reached the face and lifted the hair by placing a hand on its cold forehead. 

Nothing happened at first, then a tugging sensation seemed to pull Midoriya forwards and down. It was like when he’d tried to lay on the floor, but reversed. 

Midoriya felt his feet slip out from below him as he was forced to the ground. A pulsing darkness sprung up in his vision and before he had time to react, he was gone.

There was something flashing in his face. Midoriya groaned, lazily raising a hand to block the faltering light. He pried open his eyes and brought one hand to rub them. 

It was too late once he realised that, hey, I’ve been laying in sand, maybe this isn’t the best idea.

He let out an ungodly shriek.

“OW, OW, OW, Holy shit!”

He shot up, blinking rapidly in a fruitless attempt to get the grains of pain out of his eye.

With tears streaming down his face, he met eyes with a figure who seemed strangely familiar. 

“Jesus, fuck, ow.” He muttered under his breath before attempting actual speech.

“Hello?”

The figure looked at him in a similar way one might look at a rat. 

“It’s past curfew, you should get home.” Their voice was gruff from overuse and was coated in disappointment.

Midoriya winced, from nothing more than reflex.

“I- I kinda just had a quirk crisis?” It came out as more of a question, but given the circumstances, Midoriya thought it was excusable.

He looked down at his hands, at his solid, fleshy hands. They were nothing like before and he would assume it had been some kind of freak hallucination if it weren’t for the noticeable dots of blood trailing to where he’d been laying.

If there wasn’t sand in his eye, he probably would’ve seen the stranger raise an eyebrow.

“Are you injured at all?”

That was a reasonable question, with all the destructive quirks nowadays.

He scanned himself. There were patches of blood staining his uniform and one of his elbows didn’t seem right, and now he was thinking about it, most of his body was screaming in agony.

“Perhaps.” There, that was a safe response, right?

The figure took a hesitant step forwards. 

“Is your quirk still active?”

“I don’t think so.” 

It was hard to tell, and he hadn’t had enough time to figure out anything.

The stranger paused, “Am I allowed to get closer?”

Midoriya nodded. He obviously recognised this person from somewhere, and trust came naturally. It was a weakness of his.

As they approached, the cogs in Midoriya’s brain finally clicked.

“Eraserhead?”

Honestly, he was disappointed in himself for not realising sooner, but by the look on the hero’s face, he wasn’t supposed to realise at all. 

Eraserhead stiffened and a dangerous look made itself known in his eyes.

“Who are you?”

Midoriya blinked slowly, then consequently had to repeat the motion three more times because of the sand.

“I’m..”

Midoriya fought the instinctual ‘nobody’ from his tongue.

“Just a kid. I- I think I should leave now.”

He began to edge backwards. Here’s where his problem begins. He’s tired, the teenager had just discovered, ten years too late, that he had a quirk, had to die for said discovery, went through five stages of grief and then dragged his own body to a beach. 

He was exhausted, mentally and physically.

There was also an on-edge hero right in front of him just because he couldn’t keep his stupid, stupid mouth shut.

Midoriya didn’t turn, he knew better than to look away from others.

He took another step back, right on to a broken pipe. The mentioned pipe gave no support as he tumbled over, back first into breeding grounds of bacteria.

He yelped as he made contact with the floor, the sensation of metals and stones digging into his body being slightly more than uncomfortable.

Midoriya let out a quiet hiss of pain, staying as still as he could whilst the hero got closer and closer.

There was a sigh, and white fabrics curled under his body and raised him off the ground.

“Right, you’re coming with me. Once you’ve been checked over, we’ll question you and you can leave.”

Midoriya tried to nod, but his head was heavy, not dissimilar to his eyelids. He felt them close, just for a second, he assured himself. It was an obvious lie.

Chapter Text

For the second time in as many hours, Midoriya woke up in a place he didn’t recognise. His surroundings were bright and pale. It didn’t take a genius to figure out it was an infirmary. He blinked; this wasn’t some shady hospital to the side, with stolen equipment, it was expensive, with thick mattresses for the beds and not-too bright lights. 

The teen forced himself to remember the events leading up to here. It didn’t take long for him to piece together memories, and all arrows pointed to the underground hero bringing him there.

He placed a hand thoughtfully over his mouth. Eraserhead. A man with two jobs, one being heroics, the other..

Midoriya’s eyes widened.

There was a cautious knock from beside him, and the student flinched so hard he tripped over.

He scooted back, as to not get in the way of the opening door. Eraserhead, followed by Recovery Girl (Midoriya mentally squealed) walked in. 

Midoriya hastily scrambled back into the bed, desperate to avoid awkward explanations. It seemed he didn’t have to worry, as the expressions on the heroes’ faces were much too serious for small talk. 

The teenager barely resisted the urge to flinch under the eye contact.

“H-hi!” Midoriya said, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

Eraserhead nodded in greeting and pulled out a chair. Recovery Girl mirrored him, the pair side by side.

Eraserhead cleared his throat.

“I’m afraid we’re going to have to ask you some questions.”

Midoriya nodded; he couldn’t say he wasn’t expecting it.

“Alright, just so you know, this isn’t an interview, it’s your choice to answer the questions and you can leave anytime you want.”

The teenager hummed in agreement. At least they didn’t need parents present.

“Okay.” Eraserhead exhaled.

He pulled out a notepad, flipping it open with a pen hovering over the paper.

“Would you like to explain how you ended up with a split skull, over fifteen fractured bones and two and a half liters of blood missing, and still live?”

Midoriya looked to the side.

“It’s to do with my quirk.”

The hero wrote something down, the angle too steep for the student to see what.

“Next question, what is your quirk?”

There was a moment of unbroken silence, the slightly awkward kind.

“I… I don’t really know. It’s- It’s difficult to explain.” Midoriya responded, head tilted to the side as if an adequate description would roll through his head and out of his mouth.

“Can you try?”

Midoriya pondered for a second.

“I mean, could I just say I astrally project when I die?”

Silence refilled the room with renewed vigor. The teenager glanced at each of their faces. Little to no emotion was displayed.

“It’s only a theory, but, you know, given the circumstances-”

“Yes,” Eraserhead interrupted.

“The circumstances. Would you care to explain?”

Midoriya sucked in air through his teeth.

“Remember, you don’t have to answer.” Eraserhead reminded him.

The student rubbed his hands against each other.

“No, no. I have to do this at some point.” He muttered.

“Okay,” He breathed.

“Okay. I- I jumped.. From my- from my school roof.”

Tension was strung tight, almost restrictingly through the room. The teenager could’ve heard a pin drop.

“Thanks for telling us.” Eraserhead finally responded.

Midoriya shakily nodded.

This was fine, everything’s going okay.

“Can you describe how it felt when your quirk was active?”

“Yeah, uhm- At first it was like I wasn’t solid, like, I phased through the wall of the building, and I was kinda transparent, but then I figured out I could touch stuff if I focused enough. I- I tried to use up all my energy, but it.. Didn’t go to plan.”

Eraserhead raised an eyebrow. Midoriya ignored it.

“Then… I guess I accepted it. There wasn’t much I could do, so I,” He cut himself off, blushing from embarrassment. 

“I planned to haunt my teachers and bullies.” There was a muffled snort from the hero. Recovery Girl (Midoriya had almost forgotten she was there.) Smiled lightly; it was a sadistic thing and Midoriya found himself slightly surprised by the undiluted malice.

“And then?”

“And then I wanted to see what I could do as- as a ghost.”

“I’m guessing this has to do with the blood trail that led me to you.”

Midoriya nodded.

“So, what’d you find out?”

Flipping through his memories, the teen recalled the past day for the heroes.

“Even though there was no way for it to be possible, it was..” He sighed.

“It was almost like I was only sleeping. No rigor mortis, decent circulation, which shouldn’t’ve been possible since my heart wasn’t even beating. My eyes were normal too, reacting to light and stuff. It,” He took a deep breath.

“It wasn’t natural.”

He shuddered. The thought alone was distressing enough, even without an additional existential crisis. 

“Well,” Recovery Girl spoke up for the first time.

“Your heart still isn’t beating, but we can confirm your blood is flowing as it should and the rest of your bodily functions aren’t impared.”

That sounded about right, Midoriya thought.

“There was also a.. Worrying amount of scars.”

By nothing more than habit alone, Midoriya flinched.

“Now, you don’t have to tell us what happened, but if you do it might help with their punishment.”

“P-punishment?” Midoriya questioned, curiosity peaking up.

“You were physically and probably mentally abused for god knows how long, I think the people who did that deserve a little more than a slap on the wrist.”

“But I-” Midoriya cut himself off. He was going to say ‘But I’m quirkless.’ But that wasn’t true anymore, was it?

He stared down at his hands.

“Why?” He whispered, voice as fragile as thin glass.

He couldn’t bring himself to look the adults in the eyes, not with tears building up in his own.

If he had, he’d have seen an exchanged look of concern.

“Not only is it our job to do things like this, but what kind of people would we be to let this continue?”

Midoriya shrugged.

“Normal ones?” He guessed. The following silence told Midoriya he was wrong.

“Listen, Eraserhead-”

The hero cut him off.

“Aizawa.”

“Okay, Aizawa-San, most people don’t do that kind of stuff. It’s like the unspoken rules of society. If someone you don’t care about is getting hurt, you ignore it.” He threaded his hands into his hair and tugged.

“Why?” He whispered.

“Why are you different?” His voice was desperate and shaky.

There was something raw about Midoriya’s emotions, easily picked up by both Aizawa and the recovery hero.

“The people you’ve met have been the exception, not the rule, I’m afraid.” Recovery girl took a step forwards to lay a hand on the student’s shoulder.

A lone tear tracked down Midoriya’s cheek.

“‘S a pretty stupid rule.” He sniffled, brushing his face with his sleeve, instead succeeding in smearing the saltwater across him more.

Aizawa agreed.

“Thank you,” The teacher said, pointedly looking at the teenager. When given a confused blink in response, he elaborated.

“For answering the questions.” His gaze switched between the greenette and the door briefly.

Aizawa smiled.

“I’m really proud of you.” 

Near instantly, a second round of tears began to well up, replacing the first.

With a promise to call back the heroes via the phone numbers, (His inner fanboy jittered with excitement) Midoriya was allowed to leave. Of course, there were quite a few things to sort out; registering his quirk, possible therapy and finding a new, better school.

In Midoriya’s opinion, it was a large overreaction, but Aizawa’d said that was because ‘He was so used to putting up with others' bullshit that anything better felt overwhelming and unnatural.’

He huffed, tracing lines in the thick sand. He didn’t want to go home just yet; in all honesty he could do with some calm in his currently hectic life. Midoriya took a deep breath in, closing his eyes as the salty scent of the ocean soothed his mind.

“I should be allowed to rest.” He stated, voice too weak for determination. His brain felt heavy with fog, thoughts sluggish and half-formed, concentrating felt like running through honey, an impossible task that resulted in no gain.

He blinked slowly, eyelids sticking slightly, all the more difficult to open. He could lie down, right?

Just for a second..

Chapter Text

Todoroki was, for the lack of better phrasing, people blind. Trying to figure out what his classmates or family were feeling was strangely and unfortunately difficult. He’d once mistaken honest joy for hysterics, and from then on he never felt sure of other’s emotions.

It was slightly embarrassing, to be unable to understand something so human, even if it wasn’t his fault in the slightest.

Todoroki ran a hand through his hair, tugging through the tangles with practised ease. The crashing of waves on sand filled the air with practised ease, both calming yet stressful at the same time.

He began to create small crevices in the sand, dragging his fingers through the grains. Stray seaweed strands were dragged up on occasion, always an unpleasant surprise.

Todoroki tilted his head back, relishing the salty air brushing against his face. In the moment, he could almost pretend it was the loving touch of his mother, long forgotten. 

There was an impact in the sand, probably a quarter of the beach away. At first, Todoroki thought he’d imagined it, that his brain had twisted the sounds of the sea into something human, but over the heaped piles of trash, the shape of a teenager was laying sideways, looking peaceful. Todoroki blinked. He hadn’t been expecting that; who would’ve? 

He silently stood, wincing as his joints cracked hollowly. The boy began to make his way towards the stranger. There was a distinct lack of alertness; something rare with a homelife like his own. 

Todoroki crossed the beach in a relatively short amount of time, and managed to get a closer look at the stranger. He appeared to be a similar age to himself, fluffy green hair sprawled out around his head in a mock of a halo, clusters of honey freckles dotted across the middle of his face all brought together by a childlike face and thin frame. 

He looked around. There was nobody else even walking past the beach; Todoroki could see how the trash was off putting. 

He returned his gaze to the boy. It was dangerous to be sleeping outside, not to mention the tides. His mind flicked through several ideas of what to do next. He couldn’t just take the greenette, that was kidnapping. He couldn’t just leave him there, god knows what would happen. He pondered for a few seconds longer. A glance at his watch and his mind was set.

He gracefully collapsed into a cross-legged position. He’d just wait for the stranger to wake up, he had more than enough time.

Todoroki had no idea how people could nap for such long periods of time. His curfew was long past and there was no doubt Endeavour had sent out searches for him already. He felt his own eyes start to shut, just as the stranger in front of him began to stir. 

Wide green eyes focused on him, taking a second to process his existence. 

“Wah!” He squeaked, scooting away from Todoroki through the sand.

Todoroki merely blinked.

“Hello there.”

There was a moment of silence, which was hastily broken by the stranger. 

“I-I’m so sorry for bothering you!”

The greenette attempted to stand, a bad idea at speed on sand, and landed right where he left off. 

Todoroki winced in sympathy, and was about to offer a hand up before he remembered he was on the same level as him. 

“Do you mind me asking why you’re sleeping on a beach?” He questioned, straight to the point.

The stranger blushed. 

“It’s a long story..” He explained, tangling his hands together.

Todoroki shrugged, glancing at his watch.

“I’ve got time.”

“And then he had the audacity to throw it out the window.” The stranger ranted.

“He sounds like a bitch.” Todoroki commented, voice emotionless.

“He is.” The boy agreed.

“So what did you do next?” Todoroki didn’t want to admit it, but he was slightly more than curious to the events leading the teenager here.

“Oh, I jumped off a building.” The boy’s voice was so nonchalant that he could only stare in shock.

“Then it turned out I do have a quirk, which is glorified astral projection, so I dragged my body here, met this hero dude, passed out, got taken to UA, had to explain all this shit, fucked off and got here, I suppose.” He sighed.

“It’s… It’s been a long day.”

“No shit!” 

The stranger chuckled.

“I like you. What’s your name?”

He bowed as well as he could sitting down.

“Todoroki Shouto, a pleasure to meet you.”

The other offered his hand.

“Midoriya Izuku, thanks for listening!” The newly dubbed Midoriya smiled as he took his hand and shook it.

Todoroki attempted to return the gesture, but it ended up as more of a grimace. At least he tried. 

The pair were silent for a while, basking in the lack of human noise. It was tranquil, something the both of them deserved, at least for a while. They stayed like that for some time. 

When the two met again, it was under rather stressful circumstances. Midoriya’d gone out for a snack; well deserved in his opinion, and Todoroki had gone out for a simple second of escape from his household. 

Their paths crossed in a simple corner shop. Neither knew the other was there until said ‘stressful circumstances’ were put in place.

Todoroki was softly humming as he looked over the assorted food products. There were all kinds of things he’d never even heard of before. He held up a tin in curiosity. 

A gunshot sounded, and he dropped it. The metal made contact with the floor less than silently, but the solid clang was lost in the panic.

“Hands in the air or this kid won’t be the only one dead!” A voice shouted, audible even over the screams of bystanders.

Todoroki’s heart dropped. Someone was already dead, and who knew when the heroes would be there.

He pushed his way forward, padding softly towards the source of the sound. He could feel his heartbeat in his ears and hands, fast and rabbit-like. Panic was bubbling up in his throat but he pushed it down, he had to focus on the situation at hand.

Todoroki finally managed to force his way to the front, crouching down behind a stack of energy drinks. He felt sick as his shoes smudged a growing puddle of blood. It was deep red and thick and stained the base of his footwear crimson. He assessed the situation, eyes staring blankly at the criminal as he thought. 

He could freeze the villain, but he didn’t know their quirk; the risk wasn’t worth it, and possibly could just make them more annoyed. Fire was out of the question, and his quirkless combat was far from decent. 

As he was pondering, he failed to notice how far the blood had spread. He readjusted his position slightly and his foot slipped in the garnet liquid. The criminal’s head whirled to face him, eyes locked on to his downed form.

He swore in his head as he readied an ice attack, but he was too slow. By the time the beginnings of ice were beginning to frost over the floor, the trigger was pulled, sending a bullet aimed at his unprotected torso.

He scrunched his eyes shut and waited for the pain. 

It never arrived.

He slowly, cautiously blinked. Right in front of him, intercepting the inevitable path of the bullet, was Midoriya. He looked different though, borderline transparent and tinged with minty tones. Todoroki blinked again. If he was here like that, then..

He looked at the source of the blood spill, and lifeless viridian eyes stared back blankly. A new wave of nausea threatened to suffocate him. His friend, this whole time, was dead, and he hadn’t fucking noticed? His attention was snatched back by movement, bringing him back to the moment. 

“What’s wrong?” Midoriya teased, taking pride in the pure horror plastered across his murderer’s face. “Scared?”

In Todoroki’s personal opinion, that had no right being so hot. (He was right, of course.)

Midoriya took a step towards the criminal, the bullet visible through the outline of his ghost. The rounded metal cone twisting angrily, rotating at an increasing speed. 

The criminal’s eyes were focused on the boy who should be dead, the boy who, by all technicalities was dead, and promptly fainted. Todoroki didn’t blame him, his friend was unfairly attractive. 

Midoriya dusted off his ghostly hands and turned to Todoroki.

He flashed the taller a smile before floating forwards to check on his body. There was a halo of ruby surrounding his head and matting his hair, clearly indicating the source of the crimson liquid. 

Straining with the effort, Midoriya began to push the body into a some-what upright position so he didn’t choke on his own blood the second he repossessed his corpse.

He coughed, shuddering.

“God that.. fucking sucks.” He hissed, holding a hand lightly over his now solid torso.

Todoroki stared.

Midoriya pulled his shirt forwards to see the extent of the damage, frowning at the circle of scar tissue that greeted him. He patted it down, raising his head to look back at the bicoloured teenager.

The teenager in question was still staring at him wordlessly. Midoriya blinked, waving a now very solid hand in the boy’s immediate field of vision. 

“Hello?” He dragged out the ‘o’ and leaned in closer.

Midoriya frowned, and began to wave a hand in front of the boy slowly in the vague hopes of being noticed.

Cowering being the counter, an extremely concerned, confused and probably slightly concussed cashier watched them with eyes wide enough to see one-eighty degrees in every direction.

Midoriya felt a pang of sympathy for them; Monday sucked enough without almost being murdered, watching someone die, finding out that said someone didn’t die and still having three hours on shift.

Returning his focus to the boy before him, he furrowed his brow further. The far-away look in his eyes was a cause for concern, so he grabbed the bicoloured teenager and gently led him out of the soon to be police-ridden store. 

Chapter Text

When Todoroki finally blinked for the first time in what felt like forever, his eyes were burning and his surroundings unrecognisable. He groaned, rubbing a hand over the hot pain in his head and stretched his arms, pulling them back in as soon as he felt them make contact with another human. 

His eyes, much to their own protests, snapped open and he turned to see Midoriya looking at him, more specifically, looking at his hand that was pushed right into his cheek, squidging his face.

“Welcome back to the world of the living!” Midoriya said, voice slightly muffled from the fist in his face. 

Todoroki was silent for a second, still adjusting to the situation. As soon as the pieces clicked together, he withdrew his hand hastily and bowed his head in apology. Midoriya instantly let out a sigh of relief, shoulders dropping.

He cleared his throat, still feeling awkward about the previous embarrassment of a waking. 

“Aren’t,” He coughed.

“Aren’t we supposed to give a statement or something?” He questioned, looking everywhere but Midoriya’s face.

Said boy laughed nervously.

“Technically, yeah, but if people find out about my quirk, I’d be fucked over thrice.” He let that sink in for a moment.

“Imagine what the government could do with an immortal soldier who can become a ghost and revive.” He let out a mirthless chuckle.

“I-I never thought of that.” Todoroki admitted.

He turned to face him.

“What are you going to do about the future?”

Midoriya shrugged.

“Ignore it until it arrives, I suppose. I mean, there are certain people I could tell about my quirk who’d actually understand why I’d have to hide it; I think people like Nedzu-San and Eraserhead would get it, but people like,” His face soured, as if he’d seen a spider.

“Endeavour” He spat the word as if it’d burned him and called his mother a whore. Knowing the man, he wouldn’t doubt it.

“They just want power and they don’t care how they get it, which means they would use me as a human shield or force me into a role I don’t want.” He sighed.

Todoroki was silent for a second, he opened his mouth to speak, to ask how he knew about Endeavour, but closed it again until he had a better response.

“You’ve really thought about this, huh.” His voice was weak, to nobody's surprise.

“Of course! To be honest, I always hated the idea of immortality. You know, living alone as everyone you love dies around you again and again in some horrible roundabout of hell that never ends. It sounded awful, but now that it’s actually happening, it seems those thoughts are actually useful now.” 

Todoroki blanched; it was a morbidly honest view on the situation, although it’s not like he was wrong. It took him a second to reform his thoughts.

“That.. That makes sense.”

Midoriya grinned widely.

“Thank you! God, nobody in my class even cared about that aspect, they all told me to shut up. I don’t even know how I’m going to cope, but I just gotta hope there’s some kind of exception so I don’t become a wrinkly old man who smells like mothballs.” He huffed, scrunching up his nose as if imagining the unpleasant scent.

Todoroki chuckled, and it was then that he realised he’d never laughed before he met Midoriya. There was an odd huff of amusement during his younger years, but it’d been almost a decade since then. It was sad, he supposed, that a stranger could make him happy when his family didn’t even try.

There was a minute of silence, during which the greenette had begun to vibrate with excitement, increasingly more noticeably as time went on.

Todoroki turned to look at him. The boy was staring through him, eyes unfocused yet sharp. He let his gaze drift down to the other’s lips, which were being bitten shut as if to silence words. 

It was painfully obvious the teenager was buzzing to talk to him about something only god knew about.

“What’s up?” He asked, voice dry from sudden overuse.

Midoriya let out a questioning hum, blinking the fuzz out of his vision.

“You- you look like you want to say something?” Anxiety gnawed at him; did he really misread yet another person? God, he felt awful.

“Oh! Uhm, I saw the ice earlier, and I was wondering what your quirk is? You don’t have to tell me, please don’t feel pressured too and I’m really, really sorry if you don’t want to bring it up or anything and I’m going to shut up now because I’m talking too much!” True to his word, the boy’s mouth was forced shut, teeth clacking together in a painful ‘click’.

A small dusting of red was rising on his face out of embarrassment.

Todoroki pondered, debating telling Midoriya for a second. The poor kid had spilt almost his entire life story to him, with next to no prompting required, he’d poured out his emotions and taken a bullet for him even though they’d only met twice. In all honesty, it wasn’t that much of a difficult decision.

“My quirk is called ‘Half hot, half cold. On my right side, I can use fire and on my left, ice.” Todoroki swore he saw sparks light up in the other’s eyes. It was nice.

“Woah..” He gasped, leaning far into Todoroki’s personal space.

“Does that mean..” He cut himself off and reached forwards to grab his hands. As Midoriya had expected, one was cool and the other warmed.

“You’d be a godsend in hypothermia and hyperthermia cases, not to mention with global warming! Are you fire proof? Temperature resistant?” He bombarded the bicoloured teen with questions.

Todoroki, who was still trying to cope with his hands being held to respond, opted to stay silent. 

There was something calming about the borderline absence of manmade sound out side of the conversation, with just the wind as company. Midoriya had begun to mutter under his breath, hands still entwined with the other’s. Todoroki wondered if this was what friendship was like; it wasn’t as if he’d had any prior experience.

Either way, he enjoyed it. Todoroki would say he could grow used to the sweet sound of murmurs, but he already had, which was funny considering he’d only known Midoriya for two days. Was all friendship supposed to be this.. Fast?

He hoped it wasn’t like a candle, burning bright ‘till it went out far faster than planned. He felt Midoriya’s hands slip from his own, and, disappointed from the sudden lack of contact, rested his head on the teenager’s shoulder and closed his eyes.

After living his whole life at speed, it was therapeutic to finally get a rest. A rest from training, a rest from his father, a rest from the expectations.. He could happily say he never wanted the moment to end, and wasn’t that a thought. Happiness was a myth in his suffocating household, a mere memory to be forgotten or looked at with sad, sad eyes.

The boy, so young, had almost lost sight of humanity in the endless fight to finally be good enough for his pathetic excuse of a father. 

Midoriya stood suddenly, resulting in Todoroki’s head falling abruptly, hastily being righted. 

“You know what, I know what we can do.” Todoroki was confused.

“I think you’re thinking about everything too much, so we can get everything off our chests for once, what’cha think?” He grinned, and was his smile always that nice? (Probably.)

The bicoloured boy nodded dumbly and allowed himself to be gently dragged in the now familiar direction of the beach. He stumbled multiple times, and his heart almost melted when Midoriya slowed each time, holding him up so he wouldn’t fall. 

They reached their destination and the sand felt soft even through Todoroki’s shoes, giving way under him, leading to multiple trip-ups. Midoriya, on the other hand, seemed as if he were in his natural element, going with the (Quite literal) flow until they were at the water’s edge.

The greenette hiked up his trousers, rolling them up to his thigh and looking at Todoroki, indicating him to do the same. He did so, and when he looked up again, Midoriya was knee deep in the sea, gazing at him expectantly.

“Come on in, it’s freezing!” He laughed.

He joined him, discovering that the teenager wasn’t kidding when it came to the temperature.

“Alright, so we just shout everything out, and nobody can hear us, okay?” Todoroki nodded; it sounded simple enough.

“Do you want to start?” He shook his head, he didn’t want to do anything wrong and risk messing things up.

“Okay. I suggest covering your ears, though.” He chuckles nervously, tugging on a strand of hair gently.

He nodded in understanding.

Midoriya took a deep breath before shouting out, “I hate Bakugou fucking Katsuki!” Todoroki was glad he’d taken the other’s advice, he honestly hadn’t expected him to be so loud. 

“It’s your turn now,” Midoriya explained, pushing his hands against the side of his head in preparation.

“I-” His voice cracked slightly, but his friend’s encouraging smile enticed him to try again.

“I hate my dad!” He was a lot quieter than Midoriya, but by the way he was hugged, he supposed he must’ve done something right.

“I hate quirk discrimination!”

“I wish I was allowed to feel safe at home!”

“I hate my quirk!”

“I hate mine too!”

The pair carried on until their voices were horse and their throats dry. At some point during the ordeal, their hands had slipped into one another, to nobody’s complaint. It was surprisingly relaxing, but Todoroki doubted it would’ve felt as calming if it weren’t Midoriya by his side.

They dried off and Todoroki turned to begin his journey home. Midoriya grabbed his wrist in a grip so gentle he could barely feel it.

“Wait! Uhm, Would- Would you like to have a sleepover?” After all the screaming, his voice was delicate, but he still spoke on.

“I know it’s childish and all, but I’ve not had a friend in so long, and I really, really don’t want you going back there if I can help it, and it’s not like he knows where I live so he shouldn’t be able to find you if you just message him or something and this was really dumb, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t’ve assumed-” Todoroki cut him off.

“That sounds wonderful, if you’re sure.” He kept polite, even though he was internally screaming in celebration.

If he were to go home, he was sure that Endeavour would never let him see the light of day again if it weren’t heavily monitored and tracked; might as well make the most of his remaining freedom.

Midoriya grinned wide enough that Todoroki was concerned his face might split in two. He returned the sentiment soon after. Relaxing would be nice after the fucking awful day they’d shared.

The flashing lights from the television illuminated Midoriya with warm colours, and Todoroki felt breathless just looking at him. The pure emotion his mind was dedicated to the teenager had long since passed the ‘Platonic feels’ category and was neck deep into ‘Holy shit, I wonder how soft his lips are, let me think about this for the duration of this movie’. 

Not that he was complaining, and in all honesty, he was about three conversations short of asking him to be romantic partners. It wasn’t his fault his first friend was breathtakingly perfect in looks and mind. 

Midoriya yawned, eyes crunching up briefly, and Todoroki felt his heart melt even more into a slush of simping soup.

“Would you like to go to bed now?” He questioned, concern lacing his features.

The other nodded sheepishly, and began to fold up the numerous blankets used to create a nest of warmth for the pair.

Todoroki was lead to a plain room with the colour scheme of ‘black, white, and is that a wall covered in yellow post-it notes?’. Overall, it was nice. Midoriya slumped into his bed, face first and lay there for a second. It took Todoroki longer than it should’ve to realise he was supposed to do the same.

Awkwardly, he crawled in. He didn’t even last a minute before arms wrapped around his waist and dragged him into a cuddle. He blinked, once, twice, just trying to get his head around the situation.

He gave up shortly, though, around the same time his hair was nuzzled into. 

One of Midoriya’s hands rose to gently caress his face, and Todoroki couldn’t help the rush of blood to his head at the action.

“God, I love you.” He muttered under his breath.

“I think I love you more.” Came the reply of Izuku, in that sweet, sweet voice of his.

And even though Shouto’d had a pretty shit day, a pretty shit life and was eternally people blind, to him, that made it all worth it.