・・・ ・・・ ・・・
"(S/N) (Y/N) versus Todoroki Shoto!" Present Mic announces. She gazes over at him, shoulders relaxing despite him getting into a stance to fight.
"Do you want me to quit?" She asks softly.
"What?" He barks. It was a tone of voice he hardly ever used, confirming her theory that he seemed distressed.
"You know I don't want to be here, doing this. Do you want the break?" He watches her raise her arm to get their attention, mouth opening to say she quits.
"We both want to be here." He cuts in before she can say it. "We both want to fight, don't act like you don't." (Y/N) smiles a bit, arm dropping as she assumes the same position he was in. He went to move, but couldn't as a strange feeling washed over him. It was as if static had filled his body.
Both stand up thanks to (Y/N)'s movement. "I just learned what this actually feels like, so sorry about how strong it is." They both say.
"Come on! Make this fight interesting!" Present Mic shouts.
(Y/N) sighs. "Nevermind." The feeling is ripped away from him, making his mind feel more clear. "Go ahead." He shifts his right foot and she follows, but the feeling comes back to him again.
"No." They both say. "I don't like the cold, I'm not gonna let you use that." Again, the feeling recedes.
"What is with all of you trying to get me to use my left side?" He growls, both running towards each other. Just as they're rearing up for a punch, the feeling hits him again and they slip around one another.
"I've realized a pretty important lesson just minutes ago. Quirks aren't to be hated or judged or suppressed. They're tools, powers; they're abilities and perks. Just because it's tied to trauma doesn't mean it's the fault of your quirk itself. Trust me, I understand." They both say. She switches from controlling him to him controlling her in a second as they both go flying forward again.
"You're one to talk!" He shouts at her. And the feeling of pins-and-needles it back as both stop in their tracks.
"I know I am." They say together. They reach out their hands, gripping them together as if they were going to make a pledge. "And it's because I just realized how stupid I've been that I think I should tell you the same."
It leaves again and Todoroki grits his teeth, but (Y/N) just looks somber as she clutches onto his hand. "You can be a hero, Todoroki Shoto. You can use your quirk. It doesn't matter why you hate it. It doesn't matter that you think it's not worthy of being utilized. Because by being a hero, you've told the world that you are yourself. What's a hero that won't even use half of their power? It's a coward. It's somebody who doesn't understand the world. They don't understand themself. Your quirk isn't ice, it's both. Use them."
She drops his hand, backing away and then settling herself on the floor. "I'm not moving from here, and I'm not fighting against fire."
Todoroki sneers. He sends up a massive bundle of ice, so much so that it extends over the edge of the stadium. (Y/N)'s legs were incased and she shivers a bit.
"Chilly." She grumbles.
"Can you move, (S/N)?!" Midnight shouts. To his surprise, she sighs and nods, standing up. She looked annoyed, if not angry.
She wiggles her fingers and he does the same, unable to control his body. All the while, she stalked closer and he did the same. She definitely looked pissed.
They both reared their heads back and slammed them into each other.
Todoroki shifts. Some sort of shuttery breath was easy to hear. He opens his eyes to the infirmary ceiling. As he tuned in, he realized there was a faint whimper, too.
He sits up, looking over to the window on his left. He then turns to his right. (Y/N) was sitting up in her bed, clutching her skull with tears pouring down her face. She was panting and gasping, making her back tremor as it tried to match her breaths.
He holds his own forehead, a dull pain beginning to throb from the base of his neck. He looks up when the door slides open and Recovery Girl slips in as well as Endeavor. He hardly fit in the room.
"Here you go, dear." She says in a soft voice, handing Todoroki a cup of water and some medication.
"Shoto-!" Endeavor starts, but he's quietly cut off when Recovery girl shushes him. Todoroki watches (Y/N) who let out a silent sob at the loud noise. She had earplugs in again and she was clutching her temple just like after the USJ attack.
"What are you doing here?" Todoroki asks his father with a small glare. He made sure to keep his voice quiet. He remembered how any noise would make her jerk.
"You used your fire against the green boy. Did you think you needed to hold back against a girl?" Endeavor asks. His voice was still too loud, making (Y/N) try to curl into herself more than she was already hunched. Todoroki ignores his father, reaching out to touch her shoulder and cool her down.
"I told you. I just... forgot about you when fighting Midoriya." He goes to pull his hand back but hers snaps down, gripping his wrist.
"I-" She winces at her own speaking. "Fuck." She huffs. "I said, Todoroki, I don't like the cold." She picks up her head a little bit, face scrunched in pain. "I did not get a migraine for you to be a wimp here. I heard-" She coughs, making her drop his wrist as she crunches together all over. Tears dribble onto the bed. "Shit." She pants a bit before forcing herself to look up again. "I heard what you told Midoriya."
"What did-"
"And you need to shut up." She snaps at Endeavor. Another hand goes to grip her head over her eye. "I'm sorry, sir, but you seriously need to bring it down. My head is exploding from the inside right now and this drug is taking forever to kick in."
"Give me your arm. It should be in by now." Recovery Girl says. There's a short pause as she injects something into (Y/N)'s arm. "I'll talk to your mother-"
"Please don't. Just tell me the dose." She looks away from Recovery Girl to Endeavor with a glare of her own. "When you have kids, you need to parent them. Whatever you've done to him has killed any respect for you he might've held one day. This is a time when he's growing and he's now deciding if his opinions are based on grudges and emotions or if they're based on facts. It's only a matter of months before he makes his decision, and it doesn't seem like he's going to change from where he's at currently.
"If I could tell my own mother to grow up and be an adult and to stop bullying children, I would, but I can't, so I'm at least going to tell you. Children are not pawns or dolls. You cannot live your fantasy life through them, nor can you use them to benefit yourself. You're lucky he's even still wanting to be a hero because I can promise you, that is rare when you grow up hating your own power."
"What does a little girl know?" Endeavor asks. She winces at his loud voice.
"Let's throw in a little sexism, too, huh? There's no need for you to mention my gender. As for your question: the abused recognize the abused. People don't just hate quirks for no reason, especially not their own. There's always a reason." The building shakes with a loud thud, making her gasp and clutch her head again. Recovery Girl pulls her arm down, staring at the medicine with confusion.
"We're going to need to get you on some stronger pain meds. This isn't doing anything for you." She states.
"There's nothing stronger. It is helping, the pain is just terrible." (Y/N) says. "I already asked and the doctor said we can only raise it to the max dose and I'll have to deal with it from there. How much more can you give me?"
"Nothing. We've hit the max. Actually, I've given you the maximum for adults, so you need to stay in here for a bit to make sure it doesn't hit your system bad." Recovery Girl answers. "Strong quirks have strong drawbacks, I guess."
"I'm not gonna get addicted to heroin, right?" (Y/N) laughs, but winces at that. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize, dear."
"Can you tell them I'll drop? I know we likely ended in a tie so I'd rather Todoroki continue. He actually wants to fight and win this." Recovery Girls asks if she's sure, and she says she definitely is. She gives a short glare at Endeavor while turning to look at him, extending a fist. "Beat those bitches with everything you've got. For me?"
"Don't curse, (S/N)." Recovery Girl says.
"I... will try," Todoroki responds, also glancing at his father before matching her fist.
"Also, um, can you cool me down? I'm dying over here."
"Okay. Sweatpants or Bloom Later?" (Y/N) suddenly asks.
"Huh?"
"This migraine is really killing me when I sit in silence so I'd like to drown it out. Do you wanna listen to a rap song or a soft song? We can share." She extends her hand, offering an earbud. "I'm probably going to sing along and those earplugs are shit so at least you can listen to the song and not my terrible voice." She chuckles a bit. Thankfully, it didn't seem to hurt her too much, though her one eye did twitch.
"I don't think your voice is bad, (S/N). I don't really care which you listen to." Todoroki states. He does accept her offer to listen along. When he takes it, she grabs his hand. She bobs her head. He could feel her skin burning to the touch.
"We'll try the rap song first..."
It was an interesting song, not something he'd ever imagined sweet and spacey (Y/N) to listen to. He tried to pick up as many English words as he could, but there wasn't a lot he got, though she mumbled along with it as she bobbed her head, so she seemed to know.
After it ended though, she immediately zoned back into the room and scrunched her lip. "Nah. I keep trying to do my dance routine. We're gonna listen to the soft one." She tells him, smiling at him.
"You have a dance routine to that?" He asks. He wasn't sure how that would work since it was so fast-paced, but she nods.
"I don't really know what to do with some of the verses but I've got the chorus down." She answers. "Anyway, Bloom Later then."
This one was also English, though a lot easier for him to understand. (Y/N) sang along softly, rocking back and forth.
And after that, she continued flipping through songs as they finished. She would tell him each name. Given, which she said was from an anime, then Butterfly's Repose, which she specifically mentioned was a slowed version, finally finishing with My Tears are Becoming a Sea. Actually, they didn't listen to the last one because Recovery Girl reentered the room as it was starting.
"Are you feeling better, Todoroki-kun?" She asks. He nods his head. The simple ibuprofen or whatever it had been was just enough for him. "Your match with Iida will begin once you get down there." She dips back out the door.
Todoroki slides out of his bed. He presses his fingers into (Y/N)'s palm a bit as he cools her down again before she lets his hand go since before they started listening to music. He pulls the earbud out and sets it in her now lonely palm.
"Fight with everything you've got." She says, her voice barely above a whisper. "And if everything you have right now is ice and emotional baggage, then that's what you've gotta fight with. I'd love to see your full quirk one of these days. I'll even show you mine." She again extends her hand in a fistbump and slowly, he matches it.
"I'll try, but I can't guarantee I'll be able to make myself do it."
"But as long as you consider it! That's progress enough for me." She gives him a cheerful smile as her hand pulls away. "Bye, Todoroki Shoto. I know you'll do well."
"Goodbye, (S/N) (Y/N)."
(Y/N) hadn't really been too concerned with watching the matches beforehand. This time, though, she did want to watch Todoroki's. He was against Iida for this match.
Really, she didn't know a whole lot about Iida. He seemed like a bit of worry-wart, and a bit over-enthusiastic about things, but that was all she had gathered from the little she paid attention in class.
Todoroki got a lovely win. He narrowed Iida's space to run with walls of ice and then plugged one of Iida's engines, taking the sacrifice of a kick to do it. He knew Iida would grab him and run him to the border, so he simply waited for that to happen before encasing the blue-haired boy in ice.
Still, there was no fire, though it's not like fire would've really been at all helpful in this fight. But at least he looked a bit less conflicted when using his heat to melt the ice and let Iida go. Slow progress was progress nonetheless. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
His match against Bakugo was where things got interesting. He continued using his ice's brute force for the beginning. Bakugo purposefully forced Todoroki to use his left hand, but he didn't use fire, just threw the blond off to the side. It wasn't until a standoff where Midoriya could be heard screaming for Todoroki to not lose and to do his best does his fire burn and crackle.
He raised his arm at Bakugo spiraling towards him, but she saw it... The look that washed his face: his life playing before him in his eyes, reminding him why his quirk was only for destruction. She knew the look all too well.
His hand lowered, flames dying quickly as they waved to the wind. Bakugo sent off a spiraling explosion. Todoroki hadn't been focused on the enemy in front of him, and he now lay against his splintering ice, passed out. Bakugo immediately began running over and grabbed him by the collar, but his head only lolled back.
"At least he can be peaceful now." She whispers. How many times she wished she could simply pass out after she'd remembered her life.
Bakugo was put to sleep by Midnight's quirk and announced the winner. The crowd cheered and the camera panned over them. If she could move her legs, she would've been running out to the field to see him.