todobaku | burning touch

Pain

Shouto, Bakugou, Iida, and Asui stood facing each other, Iida and Asui side-by-side, and Shouto and Bakugou...six feet apart, but still technically standing near each other. Bakugou still wasn't thrilled about being partners with Shouto, and Shouto would be lying if he said it wasn't making their partnership a little...tense. Shouto wasn't too worried about actually working together with him, however; Bakugou may harbor a fiery hate for Shouto, but he wasn't the type to let his animosity interfere with his grades. If he did, Shouto didn't doubt he'd be failing all his classes considering the amount of people he seemed to hate.

Aizawa spoke in his usual monotone manner at the head of cluster of students. "You four will be participating in a search and rescue situation. Two of you will be playing injured civilians, and the other two will be playing a villain and hero, respectively. The objective is for the hero to save the civilians and apprehend the villain without any casualties. Now pay attention, because I'm only saying this once." Aizawa gave a heavy sigh. "Todoroki and Iida, you two will be the civilians. You will find a spot to hide and stay there until Bakugou, who is the hero, finds you and brings you back here. Asui, that leaves you as the villain. Do whatever you can to stop Bakugou from finding the civilians. The exercise ends when Bakugou finds and rescues Todoroki and Iida or it surpasses twenty minutes. Everyone got it?" They all nodded. Shouto thought about mentioning how awful he felt, but decided against it. It had always gone away before, hadn't it? It would probably disappear soon. There was no reason to interfere with his training because of a little discomfort.

"Todoroki and Iida, go and find a spot to hide. You have five minutes."

Shouto set off at a jog to find a suitable area to conceal himself, but had to stop just a little ways into the training area to lean against a wall to catch his breath and gather his bearings. He had been hit with a sudden wave of dizziness, and he blinked rapidly at the black spots that threatened to overtake his vision. This - was not good. But at least his only job for this training exercise was just sitting and waiting, so - the feeling would go away soon, and no one would be any the wiser about how Shouto was feeling. It would go away soon.

That was the thought he clung to in order to convince himself everything was fine and he did not need to visit Recovery Girl. He was fine. It would go away. He was fine. He was-

Shouto swallowed back nausea.

-fine.

It took a few more moments for the dizziness to go away, but it did, just like Shouto had told himself. The feeling that he was burning up from the inside out and the perpetual pricking on his skin - it would go away too, soon. Soon.

He moved slowly around the edges of various buildings, coming to a halt when he saw a dilapidated building just a few yards ahead. That would work. He entered the nearly demolished building, skirting around the rubble that littered the ground and settling down in a corner that was well hidden by towering mounds of broken concrete.

Then he waited.

He didn't know how long he sat there, the only noise he could hear being his own labored breathing. It could have been minutes or hours - Shouto didn't know either way. He struggled to stay awake, the black spots dancing at the edge of his vision getting bolder the more he tried to blink them away. With every second that passed, the itch grew stronger until he was curled up on his side, hands clawing at his skin, trying to find any sort of relief. He shuddered against the dusty concrete, gasping for breath. It'll be gone soon. It'll be gone soon. It'll-

He wasn't sure how long he could keep believing that. The flame roiling in his gut was all-consuming now, and he could barely think outside of it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurtshurtshurtshurts-

An explosion sounded in the distance. Bakugou, Shouto thought deliriously, Bakugou can make it better. Bakugou can make the pain stop. He tried to sit up, but his limbs wouldn't respond. Instead, they just clutched tighter at his sides, as if Shouto was trying to suffocate the pain.

Bakugou, Shouto tried to say aloud, but all that came out was a gasp of pain. He needed to tell Bakugou where he was. If Bakugou could just find him, then it would be fine.

He forcefully uncurled his fingers from his side, stretching his hand out despite his body's protests and the stabbing sparks of pain that zipped up his spine. It'll be fine.

Closing his eyes, Shouto focused on one purpose: tell Bakugou where I am. He repeated it in his head, over and over, trying to tell his body to respond to what he was thinking. Tell him where I am. Tell him where I am. Tell him where I am.

And - Shouto winced at the cold - his quirk answered. Ice spread over his fingertips, the ground, his eyelashes, his hair. He blinked a bit, trying to get himself to focus, and then-

-a tower of ice crackled into existence, shooting into the sky. Shouto felt as if he could cry. Bakugou would come now, he'd come and touch Shouto and Shouto would be okay. He'd be okay.

He passed out.
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Ah, the old "and he passed out" ending. An oldie but a goodie.

I hope this chapter made sense???? It's kinda short, sorry. Also if you were wondering why there was a lot of sentences near the end that were just variations of "it'll be fine" or "Bakugou can make it better" it's because I was trying to kinda give the reader a better understanding of what Shouto was thinking and how his brain was stuck on those two thoughts and just getting the pain to stop. Yeah lol

Hope you enjoyed!!