Determined

Chapter 10 ~ Hope Cherished

"Hello," Todoroki closed the door behind him, making Izuku feel jittery. There was something about having only one visitor in the room that made him nervous.

"Ah, hey! I don't know much about what happened after I passed out, but I remember seeing ice encasing the Noumu's feet. Did anything happen to you?"

"Midoriya, you're the one in the hospital gown."

"Aha... yeah," Izuku felt like Todoroki's inherent habit of not using honorifics and speaking curtly must've been unintentional. The classmate seemed to simply lack in enough social interaction to understand it seemed, which made him wonder if it had to do with the student's grudge against his father. Perhaps the Number Two Hero had raised him in isolation from friends. "but going up against that giant thing must've been scary right? It was really brave of you, Todoroki-kun."

"Again, Midoriya, you went up against the hand villain while our teacher was down. I don't believe you understand the extent of what you did."

Izuku blinked at what sounded like... praise? What was Todoroki here for? Most of his classmates gave him small gifts and told him to get well. He hadn't done either of those so for what other reason was his classmate here?

As though having heard his thoughts, Todoroki answered, "I'm here because... I feel guilty."

What?

"For what, Todoroki-kun?"

He couldn't understand. Not that he meant any offence to the boy, but Izuku didn't think his classmate could... feel to that extent, judging from his constant poker face. Even now the boy wore no particular expression despite what he said. Did he simply not know how to show what he's thinking? Was it another thing he'd learned in his household?

"When you went on ahead, I held back and sorted through the rest of the thugs, but pinning them down without freezing them completely took a lot more time than I expected. And I realised that I never thought about using ice delicately, which resulted in me arriving on scene too late. You were already~"

"None of that was your fault," Izuku cut him off, allowing the shorter student to notice his heterochromatic eyes widen the slightest bit. "I~ I was selfish. Realistically, my quirk was better suited in handling low-level thugs, but I let my thirst for knowing what's going on made me leave you behind – even though it would've been quicker if we both defeated the villains."

"But... the entire class got off unscathed while you were hospitalised."

"Yes but Asui's life was in danger! And ah," he hesitated, unsure of whether or not to say his next words. "It turns out my quirk cancelled out Shigaraki's – at least when I grabbed his hands since that's where both of our quirks are activated."

Izuku gulped at Todoroki's stare, suddenly regretting feeding the boy's suspicions, but bit down a sigh of relief when he backed off the topic, "I won't intrude on the premises of your quirk. You seem uncomfortable with the subject so the least I can do is refrain from straining the matter."

Although a realisation had come to mind, "Speaking of discomfort, I'm sure standing on the other side of the room must be a pain, would you like to sit down?"

Todoroki looked at him blankly, as though he'd crossed a line he shouldn't cross unknowingly, "Should you not focus on recovering?"

"Well unless I had a self healing quirk there's not much I can do besides eat and rest," Izuku grinned, patting the foot of his mattress. "but I just woke up from a two-day coma and a sandwich is all I managed to eat without throwing up."

"I suppose keeping you company can be a form of payment for my actions."

Something about Todoroki's tone suggested he was saying that in all seriousness, making Izuku frown, "Like I said, you didn't do anything wrong. I'm asking you to stay as a friend, not because you owe me."