Chapter Text
"That's him?" Todoroki asks, peering at man in the polaroid.
"That's him," Jirou confirms solemnly, waving away Hermit Purple.
Bakugou curses softly, then says what they're all afraid to. "That's so fucking wrong. It's his goddamn body, isn't it? All Might's?"
It's as obvious from the star-shaped birthmark on the muscled back to the two signature strands of crimped blond hair melting into the shadows surrounding the imposing figure. The only other thing they can make out in the photo is an open coffin, with the letters D-I-O on its clasp. Todoroki glances at Bakugou, notes the tight set of his shoulders, the unhappy tension trying to hide behind an angry twist of the lips. He knows the other boy blames himself for All Might's fall, for being weak enough to need saving, even though he was only a child at the time. Strong as his Stand was, even then, Bakugou couldn't have hoped to go up against the Stand-stealer and survive.
"But how much of All Might's Stand powers did he gain, too?" wonders Todoroki.
None of them want to know the answer to that. And besides, even All Might's successor wouldn't know for sure.
"I'm out," Momo announces abruptly. "I'm sorry. I know I said I would do this, but… he's going to have to die. There's no way around it. And I swore that my Gold Experience would only ever be used for creation. I can't in good conscience fight at your sides, knowing that I might not be able to stop myself from using it to take a life."
There goes their most powerful Stand and its user, Todoroki doesn't say. He understands, because he envies her. His Hot and Cold, like Bakugou's Killer Queen (or as Bakugou likes to call it, Lord Explosion Murder), are Stands dreadful in their capacity for destruction. Momo chooses to see the brighter side in everything, though, and her Gold Experience is at the top of that list.
"You know who we need," Todoroki intones to Bakugou, ignoring the annoyed click of the tongue that earns.
"Fuck no."
Todoroki calls Midoriya anyway.
Part of it is because he enjoys pissing Bakugou off, probably too much for his own good, but this is balanced out by the fact that he's calling Midoriya out of his own sense of self-preservation. Which he does have, thank you very much. It's how he's avoided getting his face exploded for the last two months even while being drawn in ever closer to Bakugou's fiery epicenter.
It's irresistible, the turbulence that belies the steadiness of the character underneath. This strange fascination with order in chaos is why Todoroki had not only survived but thrived, he supposes, when his mother could no longer protect him and his father stabbed his six-year-old son through the eye with a Stand arrow. Hot and Cold had pulled it out and sealed the wound shut with fire, all the while trying to freeze Todoroki's bastard father to the floor, the boy's duality on display in his Stand even more than in his physical body.
Hot and Cold looks like his mother (looks like a mirror-version of him, everyone else insists) and so Todoroki can't resent it, even after everything his father does to him afterwards (even after everything he did before -- Touya wasn't as lucky as Shouto. He hadn't survived Burnin' Alive). It's a formidable Stand, too, with its elemental powers, but All Might's Stand is a thing of legend.
"Want to kill god?" Todoroki asks over the phone.
Midoriya can't say no, and Todoroki only snorts when he tries to imitate Aizawa-sensei with a world-weary protest of yare yare daze. When Midoriya arrives the next day, Star Platinum manifests to greet Todoroki and Bakugou. Todoroki can't help but be impressed by the immense Stand, towering over its current user. Anyone else, Star Platinum would engulf in All-Might's shadow, but Midoriya's smile shines as bright as the gold decorating dangerous studded gloves, his own battle cries no less fearsome and determined than the mighty Stand's.
Star Platinum is so solid, so real, and Todoroki willingly takes a blow in their reunion sparring match to prove it to himself. There's no way the enemy got away with more than a cheap imitation of Star's power, he thinks to himself in a daze.
"How can I compare with All Might, anyway?" Midoriya asks, pulling Todoroki to his feet. "I don't think I'd even be able to control twenty percent of his power."
Todoroki stares at him blankly. He doesn't understand, and he doesn't think it's the knock on the head either. "It's your power," he says. "Isn't it? So use one hundred percent of whatever you've got."
Midoriya looks at Todoroki like he'd hung the stars, and Bakugou clicks his tongue in annoyance at the scene. "I thought we were here for murder."
So they go to fight the Stand-stealer, All Might's former nemesis who now wears All Might's body. Nameless, faceless, until Jirou's photo. They guess they'll call him DIO.
They don't know what Stand powers DIO's cobbled together from the lives he's taken, although Momo has armed them with several probable conjectures. Whatever it is, the three of them can deal with it. Probably.
"Icyhot's got the distance, the nerd has the punch power, and if I can't blow his stolen face off the first time I get my hands on him, you bet I'm siccing Bites the Dust on that shit so if something goes sideways I can keep going till I get him."
Declarations of lethal intent shouldn't be so appealing, but Todoroki thinks that's the moment he falls in love with Bakugou.
It's stupid, really, as stupid as Bakugou's own dumb, heroic determination, but then Bakugou's said that to Todoroki so often by now that it just bounces off. It's simple, is what it really is. Todoroki wants Bakugou; he doesn't know if he needs him, but he knows he would die to find out.
So he dies.
More than once, body split perfectly in twain at the very end, and Todoroki doesn’t remember any of it but later he finds out that Bakugou watches, helpless, every time before Bites the Dust explodes time back for yet another attempt.
Bakugou's looking on with haunted eyes now as Todoroki reveals the secret of DIO's World for what is probably far from the first time, no matter how it feels to Todoroki; Bakugou's out of range and Todoroki can't help but wonder what exactly has happened before to redden the rims of red eyes so. Even as he wonders, his field of icy stalactites and stalagmites shattering simultaneously and bringing with it the faint beginnings of pain, numbed only by his desperate splash of flames that melts the face off a clock tower, time stops.
But this time, it's Midoriya.
And this time, they win.
Bakugou and Todoroki are ablaze with the dawn, raw with pain and adrenaline. It was Midoriya's victory, in the end, but they've given everything to get him there.
"Did you figure it out yet, half-'n-half bastard?" growls Bakugou, singed fingertips roughly grabbing Todoroki's own, eyes still sparking like firecrackers even though Killer Queen reached its limit a long time ago.
How many times he's watched Todoroki die before he got the chance to ask that question, Todoroki doesn't know. But he'd figured out that The World stops time the same number plus one of deaths he's died, so he knows that's not what Bakugou's asking.
"I did," he replies, because it's so obviously true. He needs Bakugou, needs him so much, maybe even more than he wants him. Todoroki knows he wouldn't be here without him.
"About goddamn time," Bakugou grumbles, and finally kisses him.
Todoroki smiles into the kiss. It took them no time at all, and yet he can't help but agree.