Cassie paced back and forth in the sports festival waiting room running her fingers through her long pink hair in distress. The preliminary rounds had just finished after the Cavalry battle which she had managed to carry her and her team through with some well placed vines.
She could hear Present Mic and Aizawa talking through the intercom about the upcoming battle lineup but she already knew who she was up against. So far she had won her matches against Kaminari Denki whom she had accidentally knocked out of bounds with a giant vine to the stomach. She had honestly just wanted to scoot him out gently but he had jumped at her while activating his quirk and Cassie's reflexes had kicked in as she used her own quirk to swat him out of the air like a fly, she apologized to the poor boy afterwards of course.
Ibara Shiozaki from class 1B who had a similar quirk to hers although much less versatile. Cassie quickly found out she could use her quirk to control the other girl's plant hair, forcibly making the girl walk out of bounds with a lot of protest but little pushback. A very uneventful match to say the least as the pinkette's quirk was far stronger.
The commentary for that matchup was certainly intriguing unlike the battle in itself. Apparently Present Mic found the whole thing quite funny and kept making plant puns while Aizwawa piped in occasionally to discuss how hard Cassie had been working in his class. This was probably his way of encouraging his student to keep going and do her best.
Next up was Iida who put up a pretty good fight, almost getting Cassie out of bounds if it weren't for her quick thinking and small build. She had managed to duck under Iida's arm, roll behind him and kick out his legs from under him damaging his engines with her heavy duty boots and knocking him out of bounds.
She and Todoroki had ended their match in a draw, neither had it in them to fight each other even for a competition. Cassie had noticed before their match that Izuku had pulled him aside for a chat and Todoroki had been on edge ever since.
She had watched him finally use his right side to beat the green haired boy. Her voice was honestly kind of sore from how loudly she was cheering him on and she knew that Todoroki could hear her because once his match was over and Izuku was wheeled out to Recovery girl the duel haired boy had sought her out in the crowd locking his eyes with her in a silent acknowledgement.
The two teens stood on the field across from each other unsure of what to do. Todoroki glanced up at the monitor which was showing a live feed of their fight and then to the stands where his father sat watching his son with a frown, waiting for him to fight.
" I wonder what's happening down there? Are they sizing each other up?'' Mic asked into his loudspeaker in confusion, wondering why neither of the students were moving an inch. At this point it would only take one attack to catch the other off guard and win.
" They won't fight each other." Aizawa deadpanned, glancing at his pro hero friend who was absolutely flabbergasted. " Why not? They have to or else the match won't end!'' Aizawa shrugged his shoulders, clearly he was indifferent to the whole situation. " They just won't "
The crowd was silently holding their breath as if that would push the two students to attack each other. Cassie blushed, biting her lip staring into Todoroki's eyes, the boy doing the same to her. " You did it Todoroki, you finally used your full quirk. It was never his in the first place, you proved to your father and to yourself that you are your own person."
Todoroki nodded his head, his shoulders relaxing. Cassie's voice was so soft, so quiet that it soothed him to his very core. He felt all his worry and anger wash away like a river. He knew what he wanted to do.
He didn't need to win the Sports Festival. He had already proven himself just as Cassie and Midoryia had said yes it would have been better to win but he could manage with second or third place. Turing on his heel Todoroki marched out of bounds. To his confusion the crowd erupted with gasps and he found himself stopping turning back to look over his shoulder noting in mild surprise that Cassie had also walked out of bounds.
He was about to protest but before he could even get a word in he was tackled to the ground by the pinkette who wrapped her arms around him in a hug. The girl laid her head on his shoulder letting Todoroki sit up on the grass maneuvering the girl to perch on his lap.
Loud cheering was drowned out by Todoroki smashing his lips into Cassie's in a passionate kiss. Cassie's ears turned bright red as she was quick to kiss back, pulling away after a minute to pepper the boys face with quick happy kisses as she told him how proud she was.
Aizawa looked over at his friend with a barely visible smile. " I told you they would forfeit the match." Mic was too busy screaming loudly into his microphone to pay much attention to the other hero, just as enthusiastic as the crowd. " Well would you look at that! Young love at its finest folks but we do have to call this match a draw!" he explained, glancing at the matchup papers that lay before him.
" Lets see here, alright Todoroki and Fox as a tiebreaker you will both be fighting Bakugo Katsuki to determine who moves on to the final round! For now we will take a ten minute break for contestants to catch their breath and for Fox to prepare for her matchup against her next opponent, goodluck to the both of you!"