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The plains stretched out before them, monsters around in small groups and herds. The swordmaster looked over the groups while the apothecary checked his satchel for the fifth time that session.
“Okay, we’re good on potions, regeneratives, and revives. So what’s the objective again, is this the quest to defeat the Despoticus or-”
“Little of the Despoticus, little of gathering ingredients.” The swordmaster’s voice came through the headphones tinny and echoing. “You said you got that recipe for the flashbangs last week, but that the ingredients included light grass. The only place I’ve seen that is here.”
“Ah, you’re right! Wait, and the flashbangs are useful for that boss dungeon that opens up next weekend, right?! I can’t believe you remembered!”
“I always remember when it’s you.” The swordmaster said gently, his character turning to face the apothecary. Though the expression on his face didn’t change, Izuku would have sworn that if it could, his friend would be smiling at him. “Ready to battle, Deku?”
“Ready as ever!” Talk was slowed as the pair descended into the valley and began taking down monsters and gathering plants and drops like there was no tomorrow. “Wonder why we’re the only ones here right now…”
“Wasn’t the flashbang a rare drop until recently? The people who don’t already have it are probably still trying to get it, and the ones who have it probably missed the bit in the announcement that the dungeon would be dark-type and light sensitive creatures would be there. That or they think they can blitz it without using items.”
“Amateurs.” Izuku laughed quietly, with no real heat in it. “When has anyone been able to beat a dungeon in the first weekend without using some kind of recommended item?”
“There’s that, then there’s also the probability that people are still in after-school clubs right now too.”
“Oh yeah. I forget about those since mine only meets like once a week.” Izuku was quick to gather ingredients, and kept healing items on hand for if one of the mobs managed to get a lucky hit in, even darting in and jabbing at the area boss with twin daggers when he saw an opening.
The pair warped back out of the area to a nearby town afterwards, finding a space just outside of the walls to sit and relax while Izuku crafted the flashbangs. “I might need to make another run back to the plains area for another round of ingredients, but we can always do that another day this week.”
“I’ll transfer the ingredient drops I got to you, and I’ll top up curative ingredients too, since your club meets tomorrow.” The swordmaster remarked, before pulling up his inventory and transferring several stacks of herbs and containers. “Is this one of the extra-long meetings?”
“I hope not…” Izuku sighed. “I think it’ll be a short one, actually, to go over the training schedule for the off-season. We might have to discuss the inter-school tournament too, but that’s not until we get back to school after the summer break, so I don’t think we’ll have much to talk about. You’re lucky you don’t have to go to any clubs…”
“I wouldn’t say ‘lucky’,” the other huffed. “More like my family is weird and would rather I not. I think if they had their way I’d be locked up in a tower or something.”
“Oof. Frost, that sucks.”
“Yeah… hey, did you check your messages yet today?”
“Huh? No, not yet. Why, did you get another invite to a guild or something?”
“Well, yeah, but I already turned it down since I know they don’t see the point in having healers. I’m not interested in lumping myself in with people who have no sense, and besides, I like playing with you.” The swordmaster sounded like he was smiling, or at least as much as one could over a potato of a mic. “They’re starting to announce the lineup of events for the one year anniversary of Heroes Journey.”
“Already?” Izuku asked, stunned. “But that’s like two months away!”
“Yeah, well- you know they got that deal to release a console version, too, so I’m betting we’ll be hearing about that closer to time as well. Probably get a release date on the year anniversary. So they have to hype it up just to make sure us OG mobile players don’t jump ship.”
“True. So, anything that looks really interesting in it?”
“You could always check your mail and read it yourself,” Frost teased.
“Well, yeah, but then I have to stop crafting flashbangs and I know you’d rather me do that.”
“Fair enough. Well, starting next week they’re going to do double exp for two weeks, which means if you go into the second area you can catch up the last couple of levels until we’re on par again, and build your rogue skills up too in no time. There’s also a special item drop for the first 100 people from each region who beat the new dungeon. I think our region’s drop is some new armor based on the guy who played the superhero in that one old sentai show.”
“You say that like you aren’t a fan of All Might too,” the apothecary teased, before he opened up his mail and clicked on the notice. “Huh, yeah, looks like it’s upper armor. Which means new breastplate for you and new cloak for me if we get it.”
“Like we wouldn’t.” Frost scoffed, good-naturedly. “You act like we won’t be up at six in the morning blitzing that dungeon first thing before school.”
“I thought it opened on Sunday.”
“...oh yeah. It does. Well, then, six in the morning blitzing that dungeon before doing our homework or… whatever you do on your weekends.”
Izuku sighed, the sound a rush of static in his mic. “No, that’s… that’s about the norm for me. Especially this weekend. My friends are busy or they’d probably be asking if I’d go with them to the mall or the movies or something in the afternoon. As it is, my mom will probably ask me to go grocery shopping with her.”
The two fell into a companionable silence for a while, until Izuku had finished crafting all the flashbangs he could from what he had. “Say, FrostBurn.” He said, slowly, as if he were considering his words very carefully. The other hummed that he was listening. “What if… on the year anniversary… we met up? I mean, we live in the same region, and it’s not like it’s huge, so we could meet up in one of the cities nearby, if you wanted…”
“Are you kidding?” Frost sounded giddy. “Of course I want to! Wait, how far are you from Numazu City?”
“Not far at all!” Izuku laughed. If he lived in the city, then he wasn’t actually far from it, was he? But as much as he liked this guy, he wasn’t so foolish as to give away his location. Basic internet safety 101, right there. “Are you-”
“No, not far either.” FrostBurn hurried to say, mic echoing with his excitement. “So… we’re doing this?”
“Sounds good to me! The anniversary is on Sunday this year, so… let’s meet up that day.” Izuku could hardly wait already.
FrostBurn had come up to him in the opening plaza just after he had created his healer. Izuku had already had a couple of people come up and ask for boob pics, thinking that he was a girl playing a guy just to avoid harassment. Because only girls would play healers, right? So when the swordmaster had approached him, he had expected more of the same. It had been a pleasant surprise when he asked him to party up for the starting quest instead.
(He had admitted later that he thought Izuku was a girl, actually, but that he had seemed very cool, and besides, FrostBurn wasn’t the kind of guy to start a conversation with ‘send nudes’.)
After a bit longer, crafting curatives and boosters, Izuku had to get off the game to go eat dinner and finish his homework. It was almost a little depressing, to not have Frost there in the background chatting with him, joking in that dry manner of his. Maybe after this meetup they could exchange numbers, meet up more often…
It’d be nice, Izuku mused as he closed his notebook, to finally meet the person he considered quite possibly his closest friend.
–
“Izuku!” A soft body slammed into his back, a tell-tale scent of soft flowers and vanilla hitting his nose just seconds after impact.
“Ochako, you shouldn’t-” Another voice called out, crisp and clear as a bell. The girl let go of Izuku, moving to stand beside him and sticking her tongue out at the other boy, though it was done with a smile (and no real heat in the emotion).
“C’mon, Iida, you know Izuku’s just ridiculously huggable! I mean, look at him!” The girl’s hands (surprisingly rough, if one didn’t know that her parents worked in construction and that she was known to help on breaks and holidays where she could) came up to cup his face, gently squishing his cheeks. “Squishable, cuddleable, perfectly sized for snuggles!”
“Yeah, Iida, come on. You know you wanna. Bring it in,” Izuku teased, opening his arms. The taller of the two boys just sighed, but knocked his side against Izuku’s and smiled indulgently.
“This is unseemly behavior, especially for a class representative.”
“Lucky for us then, that we aren’t,” Izuku laughed.
The trio seemed like the most unlikely of friends, if one looked from the outside, but to Izuku, they were some of the best friends that he could ever have hoped for. Middle school had been rough on the boy, bullied and tormented for his interests and hobbies, and entering high school, he hadn’t had much hope for finding friends.
Then Ochako had come up to him and remembered him from the entrance exam, and started talking to him, comparing schedules. They found out they were both in Class 1-A, started talking, and just… hadn’t stopped. Iida had been a little more of a ‘how did this happen’ situation.
Iida had scolded Izuku at the entrance exam for mumbling as he looked over his notes one last time before the test, and when Izuku had seen him in the same class as him and Ochako, he had felt very intimidated. When Iida was declared the class rep, Izuku felt his heart drop as he thought that he would never be able to make friends, that he’d be under constant surveillance. And he was right- to an extent.
Iida had been nearby one day when an upperclassman had tried to upskirt Ochako. The girl had heard the camera shutter, and had taken his phone and snapped it, which had brought a couple of the jerk’s friends out to try and intimidate the girl. Izuku had walked up, not knowing quite what was going on but could tell that Ochako was outnumbered and that it looked like a fight was brewing, and had immediately charged in shouting and doing his best to defend Ochako. He wasn’t much of a fighter, but damned if he wasn’t going to try to help the one person who had made an effort to be his friend. It looked like it was about to come to blows, until Iida stepped in with a nearby teacher to break it up and get the whole story.
Ochako had gotten a telling off for snapping the kid’s phone, Izuku had gotten a telling off for unseemly behavior, and Iida… had stepped in to defend the pair. “Why are they getting in trouble,” he asked, drawing attention for his gestures and clear voice. “If senpai hadn’t acted inappropriately, his phone would still be intact. And if Uraraka-chan hadn’t been at risk of getting hurt, then Midoriya-kun wouldn’t have stepped in.”
“Actually, I would have,” Izuku explained later, as the trio left school following a detention. “I mean, three guys facing off against one girl? That’s just dirty.”
“And I could have handled it,” Ochako pointed out, which was when they found out her parents worked in construction. “If they had done anything I’d have kicked their asses, and if I had failed? There’s a whole bunch of guys in my parents’ company that would have made sure I was avenged.”
“Either way, what he did wasn’t okay, and I’m sorry that you got dragged into this trouble as well…” Perhaps an apology could help smooth the situation between him and the class rep… So it was a huge surprise when Iida turned to him and bowed low.
“I had the wrong opinion of you, Midoriya-kun. I apologize- I thought at first you were going to be a detriment to our class, but now I see that you might be one of the greatest assets. People willing to step in and defend others are rare anymore. Please forgive me.”
It had taken a solid minute for Izuku to stop stuttering and relate that he thought Iida had thought he was going to be disruptive and a troublemaker more than anything, and Iida didn’t have to apologize. And from that day on, the trio were practically inseparable.
“So, do you think the teacher will let us pick our partners for that big project?” Ochako asked, tugging her chair around to face Midoriya. “I mean, he’s been hyping that up for a solid week.”
“I hope so… that project is going to suck…” Izuku sighed.
“A research paper over chemical compounds and traditional uses for that compound? And the history of that use? I mean… it could be interesting,” Iida tried to soothe the pair. Ochako, apparently, wasn’t having it.
“All it tells me is that the history teacher and the chemistry teacher still haven’t come right out and told people that they’re ba-”
“OCHAKO-CHAN!”
“Ooh, you got an honorific out of Iida, that’s rare! How long has it been since he called you ‘-chan’?”
“Hm… Oh! Sports day, second year, just after lunch!” Ochako and Izuku laughed, even as Iida wavered between shock, laughter, and questioning how they remembered it so specifically. A loud ‘ahem’ startled the whole class out of their varied conversations, and they all turned to face the teacher.
“Well, it seems like everyone is excited for our big project,” the teacher smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. And that was precisely the moment Izuku knew that they were screwed. “Wonderful. Then let’s begin with our partners- be ready to move when you’re paired.”
“Oh hell.” Ochako whispered. Iida made a quiet noise of disapproval, but Izuku couldn’t really disagree with her. They couldn’t pick who they worked with? This was going to suck. All he could do was listen and pray he wasn’t paired up with Bakugou… their personal history would get in the way of the project and it would just be middle school all over again.
Gods knew that had been a special form of hell.
“Midoriya Izuku… you’ll be working with Todoroki Shouto. Go on, get a move on.” Well, at least it wasn’t Bakugou. It still felt like the walk from the Green Mile though.
Todoroki-kun… he mused on what he knew about the boy, which was… not a lot, actually. Sat at the back of the second row from the window, nearest the shelves. Quiet. Didn’t seem to interact with anyone aside from Class President Yaoyorozu, and even with her he seemed distant. Then there was the matter of the large scar over his left eye, which there had been rumors about in first year but nothing concrete. It didn’t seem to dampen his popularity with girls though, because there was always one or another from other classes and years that seemed to be mooning over him. Maybe it was that cool, aloof demeanor…
“Hey,” Izuku grinned, trying for casual and completely failing. “Looks like we’re working together on this…”
Todoroki said nothing, but cast a glance over at the other boy. And that showcased another oddity of his- in addition to his hair (red on the left and white on the right, which it was rumored to be dyed but no one had ever managed to find out for sure), his eyes were two different colors as well. Gray on the right. Vivid blue on the left, a stark contrast to the old discolored scar around it. Izuku wanted to say something, to try to draw the other into a conversation, but… he couldn’t find the words. So they sat there, waiting for the other pairs to be decided and to get their compound. When handed the paper with their assignment rubric on it, the pair looked.
Carbon dioxide.
“Well, let’s not narrow it down too much.” Izuku huffed, not expecting the small sound Todoroki made. It sounded almost like a laugh, but when he looked over, he couldn’t see a trace of a smile on the other’s face. It seemed like everyone else felt similarly about their own pages, and the teacher smiled.
“Good. So, you have your partners, you have your papers… you’d all better get busy now, because this is the only class time you’re going to have to work on this.” There was a chorus of voices complaining, but the teacher shut it down quickly. “Yes, we’re still going to be working on book work while you do this project! You’re third years, aren’t you? You’re going to have to learn how to work on two topics at once now if you haven’t already! Do you think universities just stop lectures because you have a project?!”
“...sounds wrong but okay.” Todoroki’s voice was so quiet that if Izuku hadn’t been right by him he would have missed it. He almost asked what he meant by that, but in the next second those mismatched eyes had fixed on him and stopped the question from coming out. “You always have your notes ready, right? Get the section on compounds and let’s compare them to the book. We can start drafting out an overview.”
And that was how the rest of class went, Izuku occasionally seeing Ochako look over at him with a concerned look. She would have asked him how it went, he knew that much, but she didn’t have a chance at lunch, and after school she had a meeting of one of her clubs to go to.
–
“Hey, Deku.”
“Frost,” Izuku smiled, knowing that the other couldn’t see it but would be able to hear it through the mic. “So what are we up to today?”
“Same thing we’re up to every day,” the other teased.
“So trying to take over the continent?”
“Mmyep.” The two chuckled as they set out for the grasslands. “Limited time event going on today- take on the Peaking, and get two times the drops. I know you’ve been wanting to get a King’s Plume for a while, if you wanna take it on a few times.”
“Even with two times the drops, that’s… 1.6% chance that we’ll get it.” There was a laugh from over the speakers, and Izuku stared at the screen carefully, as if he could scrutinize the other character in full detail.
“I just might have gotten a nice drop from another monster at lunch. You remember the Slime Emperor in the volcano area?”
Izuku could have been knocked over with a feather. “You did not- that drop is like .005% chance! How many times have you had to take that on to-”
“Just a couple of times. Five total I think. But I had a good feeling while I was eating lunch today, so I took a chance and got the Platinum Lucky Charm. So with that, what does that up our chances to, hm?”
They got several plumes, enough for Izuku to craft what he wanted several times over if it failed the first time, and sell the rest on the marketplace if he succeeded on the first go.
“So… what did you want the plumes for?” FrostBurn asked, the mic crackling as he spoke. They had found a rest area where monsters didn’t spawn, and the minute they had sat down Izuku had started crafting, his avatar tapping away at something in his hand, a board spread over his lap as if it were a lap desk.
“You’ll see,” he murmured, checking his ingredients and their order again before starting the tiny rhythm game that was the crafting system. Frost was quiet while he focused, and a tinny laugh sounded when Izuku hissed out a small cheer at the short ‘crafting successful’ jingle. What he was left with was an orb on a leather string, the color shifting from blue to violet to red in turns. “And finished! Here you go.”
“Wh- you wanted the plumes for a casting stone?”
“Strengthening. You took that second class on for the magic boost, right? I noticed the other day that your fire spells weren’t quite as powerful as your others, and I have a feeling that if we need flashbangs for that dungeon opening this weekend, we’re also going to need a boost in firepower- pun unintended. So… I thought you might want this.”
Well, laid out like that Izuku felt kind of like a dick, and he wondered if he could have worded it better, but the next second the notification that FrostBurn had accepted his gift flashed on his screen, and the other’s voice chimed in.
“Thanks, Deku. This is great, I appreciate it. I’m attaching it to my sword, that way I get the boost for attacks too. How much stuff have you had to craft to get to that level, though, that has to have taken you hours outside of crafting potions. I mean, doesn’t that recipe require level 65 in crafting as well as level 50 in offensive spells AND in buffs to unlock?”
“You throw out a typhoon here and there, and it adds up,” Izuku laughed sheepishly. Truthfully, when he had gotten a notification a few months before that new offensive and boost items had been opened in his rogue classification, he had been quick to open the forums and see if the requirements had been posted. If rogue had been his first classification it would have been much lower and he probably could have crafted it from the get-go, but it wasn’t. So he just had to work with what he had.
Besides, the apothecary classification had been for the best, especially when they first started out. When they had only had literally 25 HP and were struggling against chipmunks and basic enemies. The recovery magic had been literally lifesaving in those early days.
“Seriously, Deku… thank you.” Frost’s voice was gentle, even over the crap mic, and Izuku could almost picture him smiling softly, the face in his mind the same as the sprite onscreen- pale skin, blue-gray hair, gray eyes. He wondered if Frost actually looked that way in real life, or if he was wildly different.
If he was dark haired instead of light, or bright-colored eyes instead of gray.
If he wore glasses or not.
What clothing did he wear, did his school require a uniform?
“Deku?”
“Ah? Sorry, sorry! I was just thinking…”
“I noticed. You were muttering.” Frost laughed, but it wasn’t mean. “I didn’t catch any of it, though. What was it?”
“...I just kind of wondered what you look like in real life. You don’t have to answer, I just wondered!”
A sigh rushed over the other end of the mic. “Honestly… I’ve wondered too. I mean, I’m pretty sure you don’t have bright green hair, or pointed ears, but… I guess I kind of see you in my head as your character. You have the same issue too, right?”
“Right in one.”
“Hm… I’ve got an idea. We’re meeting up in two months, we ought to be able to identify each other by then. I mean, we should still do something like wear a certain color or something… but what if we get one question each day, you ask one one day and I ask the next day, so we can kind of get an idea?” Frost sounded almost hopeful, and Izuku felt his heart soar.
“Yeah! Besides… I feel like I know you, but I know next to nothing about you. So… why not?”
It was decided, and the two played the rock-paper-scissors minigame that had been added after the forums had gone nuts over having to keep something to help make decisions with handy due to the game being a full-screen affair that would log you out if you minimized the window. (The minimize feature had been added after some others griped about the rock-paper-scissors option, but there were going to be some people who were never happy, no matter what you did.)
(At least Frost had liked both- the rock-paper-scissors because it was a handy way to kill time if you didn’t have crafting to do and you were just waiting for an area to repopulate so you could try again to get a rare item, and the minimize option because that way if his family looked over his shoulder he didn’t have to try to explain why he was playing a game to them.)
“Looks like I get first question!” Izuku laughed. “So… hm… oh! Does your school have a uniform?”
“Yep.” Frost laughed. “But I’m not telling what it looks like even if you ask. Too easy to narrow it down. You could be a crazy murderer.” It was a joke, and Izuku knew it, laughing even as he played along.
“Oh no, you’ve seen through my clever disguise! Internet stranger by day, insane killer by night!” The pair snickered for a minute, and Izuku sighed. “No, it’s fine, I don’t blame you for not wanting to give that out. Even if the only thing I kill is mosquitoes in the summer.”
“Ugh, me too. That’s about the only thing I’m not looking forward to, is the mosquitoes. It feels like there’s always someone coming in or out of my home, or leaving a door open or something. My older brother came in talking about switching out his cologne for something more summery the other day, but every summer I just end up smelling like smoke and citronella.”
“Summer, the new scent by FrostBurn.” Izuku teased. “Bottle it up, we’ll make thousands.”
“Heh, I’m just glad it’s still fairly cool, and that our meet-up isn’t in the height of summer. Then I’d look like a singular welt. Mosquitoes see me and they hear the dinner bell.” Frost sighed over the mic. “Ugh, now I want to ask my question, but that wouldn’t be fair.”
Izuku wanted him to ask, he wanted to know more about his friend, but before he could say anything he looked at the clock by his bed and sighed. “I’d be down for it, but the problem is the time. I ought to get some sleep, if I don’t want to almost run into traffic again.”
“...again? Oh. Yeah. I forgot, you said something about almost falling asleep on your run after last year’s Golden Week event. Sleep well, Deku.”
“You too, Frost. See ya tomorrow?”
“See you tomorrow.” Frost’s laugh was gentle, and when Izuku logged out of the game and unplugged his headphones he found himself missing the sound already. He had never really felt lonely when he went to sleep before, knowing that his mom was just in the other room, but for some reason tonight he was feeling it.
–
The morning’s run was what he had needed, Izuku mused, headphones screwed into his ears and playing something Ochako had sent him, something with a good beat that was good for the cool-down portion of his run. And then something caught his eye before he turned onto the street that would take him back to his apartment.
“Hey! Todoroki-kun!” He called, waving. The other jolted, almost as if he had been shocked, and turned around to look for the source of the voice. He stopped when he noticed Izuku running towards him, waiting for the other to catch up. “Sorry, sorry, just noticed you- you’re headed to school early.”
“Thought I would get a bit of work on our project done before school. Exercising?”
“Training, more like.”
“Ah… you’re in cross-country, aren’t you?” Todoroki asked, and Izuku could almost have been knocked over with a feather. “You placed last year in regionals. Toshinori-sensei was ecstatic.”
“Ah, yeah, he was proud we got our first win at regionals in a while. I guess he was afraid he couldn’t coach us well after he had that surgery. Proof positive that he’s a good coach though!” Izuku grinned brightly. Todoroki nodded curtly. “Uhm… sorry, yeah, I just… noticed you and thought I’d say hello. Didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“...what are you listening to?” Todoroki asked slowly. The song had changed without Izuku noticing, and without a second thought he offered up a headphone to the other, who took it and listened for a moment. “...American pop music?”
“That’s what it is?”
“...yes. Have you been… listening to it without knowing what it says?”
“Ochako sent it to me, said it had a good beat and she’d been listening to it while in the gym lately. Said it was good for cardio.” Izuku admitted. “I mainly just have it for the beat.”
“Well, the beat does work for running, I’ll admit that. But the lyrics are… I wonder if Uraraka-chan knows what they mean.”
“Knowing her? She probably has at least half a clue.” Izuku laughed nervously, accepting the headphone back. “I’ll ask her later today. We trade music sometimes, but I usually end up sending stuff from the 90s. Stuff my mom remembers, things she plays while we make dinner, stuff like that.”
“Plastic Love and the like?” Todoroki was actually grinning at that, and actually laughed as Izuku nodded. “Yeah, my oldest brother was on a nostalgia kick a while back and almost drove my sister crazy playing that over and over. She had to call his friends to get him out of the house before she snapped the CD in half.” The two laughed quietly, even though Izuku didn’t even know Todoroki’s sister. He could just picture a girl that looked like Todoroki snapping a disc in half with a blank look though, and the idea was funny. “I liked that song though. My mom would play it when she felt happy…”
“Todoroki-kun?” Izuku asked, looking curiously at the other as he watched his face fall. His left arm twitched and he shoved his hand further down into his pocket, shaking his head.
“You’re going to be late if you don’t hurry.”
“Wha- oh! Oh crap, you’re right! I’ll see you in class, right? I wanna talk to you about meeting up to work on our project actually, so I’ll catch you there! See you later!” And like that Izuku took off, heading for home double-time so he could at least get a quick shower before he headed out for class.
Iida managed to catch him as he ran in the gate, stopping him to fix his tie. “Worse than usual- were you running late this morning?”
“Yeah- ran into Todoroki-kun while I was on my morning run.”
“...not literally, I hope. His father would likely skin you alive if you hurt him.”
“No, not literally! I just saw him heading up here early and I thought I’d say hello. What do you mean his dad would kill me?”
“Skin you. Killing you would be a mercy.” A female voice said from behind the pair. The other class representative, Yaoyoruzu Momo, was stopped behind them, her bag held in front of her as if she were some demure princess from a manga. “Todoroki-san is very protective of Shouto-kun; he’s his youngest and heir apparent to the family empire.”
“Oh, he wouldn’t consider Fuyumi?” Iida asked, a brow raised. Yaoyoruzu fixed him with a look, and the pair sighed in unison. “Of course not, he wouldn’t have her run things, even if she showed an ounce of interest.”
“Your brother speaks to her, correct? Is she still in her teaching courses?”
“Finished, actually, teaching elementary students.” Iida grinned. “He says she loves it. And the kids love her from what I’ve heard.”
“Wonderful. Now, back to the matter at hand- Midoriya-kun.” Yaoyorozu’s gaze was steely, and had the shorter of the trio pinned to the spot. “Shouto-kun has always been very closed off. I might be the only person he’s routinely talked to for years that isn’t family, and even then we don’t exactly… socialize. So if he didn’t just greet you then say goodbye, you’ve done something many have never managed to do.”
“He… and I talked for a bit about music. He wanted to know what I was listening to. Todoroki-kun’s actually the reason I was able to clean up before I got here.” Izuku admitted. “That’s… probably why my tie was done worse than usual today, Iida.”
“Music, hm… Please be kind to him, Midoriya-kun. Shouto-kun has dealt with quite a hard hand life has played him, and I would like to see him come out of his shell before we graduate, frankly.”
“Wha- but- that’s only like three months away!” Izuku yelped. “Don’t you think- I can’t- that’s a really tight timeline!”
“Shouto-kun doesn’t do things by halves.” Her face softened and she smiled. “If he’s going to commit to something, he goes all in. Probably why you ran into him this morning; he was coming up here to research, wasn’t he?” She actually laughed as he nodded furiously. “I knew it. Don’t let him take on all the work alone, please.”
“Wasn’t going to. I don’t abandon my partners to work on projects alone, that’s just really awful. Oh- sorry, excuse me, I see Ochako and I need to talk to her. Hey, Ochako!”
The representatives were still talking as they entered the school, but Izuku was too busy grilling his friend to care what they were talking about. Turned out she DID know what the lyrics meant (“you really ought to pay better attention to the lyrics, it actually does help your English skills, Mina-chan was right!”) and she was almost rolling that he had actually let Todoroki-kun, Prince of Class 3-A, listen to it. When they entered the classroom, Izuku beelined for the dual-toned teen, who looked up at him in shock.
“Hey again.”
“...Good morning. Again.”
“I said I wanted to talk about meeting up to do research, right? So… do you have any clubs or anything? Days, times, that sort of thing that don’t work at all?” Izuku asked, digging a piece of paper and a pen out of his bag. “Days that work better than others?”
“...no, no clubs. I would be okay to meet here and stay late after class, but I would need to be home before 4:30, 5 at the latest if I let my sister know.”
“Okay- at school, no later than 4 ending. That sounds good to me, actually. Oh, wait, but I can’t do Fridays. That’s our day to meet up and discuss training schedules for the next week.”
“Training schedules? You mean you don’t train with Toshinori-sensei?”
“No- I wish we did,” Izuku admitted. The teacher had once been an Olympic contender, until an accident had injured him and ended that. He had tried to keep training, keep active, but the last surgery he had had put an end to that as well. “We can have him oversee our training, which that’s part of why we meet on Fridays, but I mostly do my training in the morning before school. That’s what I was doing today. Since I’m not on track and field I don’t have to do hurdles or vaults, so I can just run.”
“You aren’t going to be able to compete this year, though- right? I thought the season was in Fall.”
“No, but at this point I like having the outlet, and some of the juniors like having seniors to talk to and help sort training schedules out. This was my last season, and I don’t know if I’ll keep competing in university, but…” Izuku shrugged. “It’s given me a routine, at least.”
“Hm… routine is nice, I suppose.” Todoroki hummed, and looked like he wanted to say something else but the teacher’s entrance cut him short. “After school, then? Today?”
“Sounds good to me. See you at the library?” Todoroki’s short nod was all the answer he needed, and Izuku went to sit down.
–
There wasn’t much to do in the game that night- the typical supply run to harvest ingredients for curatives and the like was done in next to no time, and the pair found themselves sitting outside of a town, trying to hide away from other players and avoid being spammed with the usual ‘join my guild’ and ‘asl’ questions.
“Do you think that they’re going to keep servers relatively low on people?” Izuku asked, watching another horde of players walk right past the little area that they had managed to find.
“I’d hope so. It seems crowded enough already with the amount here, and I know compared to other games it’s really small. Ugh… flashbacks to Lost Tales Online.”
“Wait- that furry game? You played that?”
“Please no.”
“Hey, no judgement,” Izuku hurried to say. “I tried it. Used the free week trial to give it a shot. But… it was too crowded and I couldn’t get into the story enough to want to pay what they asked per month.”
“Yeah, you didn’t miss much.” Frost sounded almost relieved. “I tried it because a family friend wanted someone to play with, but I told her I couldn’t stand it after a month. I think she was relieved, actually. The spell system was stupid laggy with how many people chose to play wizards and the like.”
“Ugh, yeah, I remember that much. And no one wanted to talk unless they knew you, or you were playing a rabbit character. Ugh… Okay, now I’m having flashbacks and I only played that one week. New topic.” The disgust in his voice got Frost laughing, and Izuku found himself smiling.
When they met up, would his laugh really be that nice? It would have to be nicer, wouldn’t it? After all, his mic was crap, and he knew it was, but said if he asked for a nicer one his family would have questions and he wasn’t up to answering them. It was just easier to get the cheap headsets with the mics from the conbini on his way to school, he had said.
“Well, I still haven’t asked my question for the day, and it’s still early- I don’t have to be offline for a couple of hours yet. So we could have a rapid-fire question and answer night?”
“Breaking the terms of our agreement already?” Izuku gasped jokingly.
“Only… reworking them. Since we don’t have anything else we need to do and I don’t want to log off yet… no, that’s not entirely true. I don’t want to log off because I don’t want to quit talking to you yet.”
And if that didn’t just make Izuku’s heart flutter in his chest… he leaned back against his pillows, trying to will himself to calm down. “I… don’t wanna quit talking to you yet either.”
“Then rapid fire questions? I have so many I want to ask!” It was the most excited Frost had sounded in a while, and it was hard to picture anything but the tiny swordsman avatar staring at him with a bright smile and brighter eyes.
“Maybe… not rapid? Question for question, I’m okay with, but quick succession makes me… kind of nervous.”
“Oh. Yeah, no, makes sense. I mean… if someone just fired questions off at me I’d be nervous too. But question for question sounds fair.” Frost hummed as he pondered his first one. “Oh, right, what I wanted to ask last night. What year are you in?”
“Oh, that’s easy enough. Third.” Izuku laughed.
“What, me too! And I’m telling you, I’m so done with the eternal reminders that ‘your professors won’t be so easy on you in university’. My brother said his professors don’t even care if you turn up or not, so long as you turn in your work and pass the tests.”
“Maybe it just depends on major.” Izuku mused. “Speaking of, what are you thinking of majoring in?”
“I’m… undecided right now. Everyone in my family has an opinion and I just don’t know what I want to do. I don’t even know if I want to go to university anymore, but I know if I don’t I’ll let everyone down.”
“I don’t know either,” Izuku admitted sheepishly. “But my mom says go in with an open mind and try lots of different things. She said my dad went in for one thing and then found out he was good at something else when he audited a course.”
“Huh. Your mom is pretty smart. That’s what my sister says too. Except she knew what she wanted to do from the start and just stuck with it.” Frost sighed. “So what do you like to do outside of the game?”
“I read a lot,” he admitted, “though lately it’s been old superhero comics. And you know I still like the All Might series- have you seen the reboot of the manga? It’s amazing!”
“What, wait, hold the phone, reboot of the manga?! Okay, I know where I need to stop on my way to school tomorrow. Hopefully I can hide the Jump from my teachers…”
“I’ve been reading it online. The first volume is set to be out in bookstores this summer though, so I’m going to buy it then. I’d rather support the artist exclusively than buy the Jump every week and have it pile up in my room for one story out of ten.”
“Oh, man, link me the site, I want to see it! Oh, wait, no, voice chat gets interrupted if you minimize the window, doesn’t it? Ugh, maybe we should move to Discord or something instead of relying on the server voice chat feature.”
“Let’s see if they announce something with the anniversary, maybe it’s a feature they’re working on.” Izuku thought hard for a second before he pulled up the keyboard and messaged a link directly to Frost. “That’s the site I use, it’s probably in the top ten popular lately. And I advise turning comments off, they get frustrating.”
“Block comments, got it. Thanks, Deku. Wait- is it your turn or mine?”
“I think it’s my turn, so on that note, how many siblings do you have?”
“Too many,” Frost grumbled. “I’ve got two older brothers and an older sister. The sister is okay, but my brothers are… something else. One went hard on his rebel phase and hasn’t come out of it, and the other is kind of a jock and usually avoids the house when he can. It’s… complicated.”
Complicated meaning please don’t ask any more. Izuku could respect that and hummed his agreement. Frost took a moment to think about his next question, before finally coming up with it.
“Where did you get ‘Deku’ from? Like are you a Zelda fan or something?” Izuku couldn’t help the hard bark of a laugh that escaped him, and there was a weird noise from the other end of the mic. “Sorry, should I not-”
“No, no, it’s fine.” The boy sighed heavily. “It’s kind of hard to get into without some history though. I don’t dislike Zelda, but I’m not a big fan, so no, it’s not for the tree. Plus that would be kind of conceited, wouldn’t it? Oh I’m going to use this name for this great and powerful and wise character because I want to sound like I’m great and wise and powerful. Nah, nothing like that.
“I had… well, he was a friend, once, when we were really young. But then for some reason he decided that he was better than me and stopped being my friend. I tried, and kept trying, all through elementary and middle school to keep being his friend. But he and his crew would bully me and finally- one day he told me… well…”
“Hey, it’s okay, you don’t have to-” Frost started, sounding concerned. Izuku shook his head, then remembered that the other couldn’t see it.
“No, it’s… well, it’s not fine, but it’s better than it used to be. The way my name can be read can make it sound like ‘Deku’. And he would use it as a way to call me useless. The name stuck in middle school. It got… depressing. I almost was ready to hide away in high school. Then he said it in front of one of my friends, and she said it was a name that made her feel like it belonged to a person who could do anything. It still bothers me, but I stopped letting it show, and he stopped calling me that.
“I still asked her not to call me that, though. Just… too many bad memories associated with it.”
Frost was silent for a few minutes, and when he spoke again it was soft. “I’m sorry, Deku. I get where she was coming from, that’s all I’ve ever seen with your name- someone determined to do good things. I… I wish I could hug you right now. I shouldn’t have asked that question.”
“What- no, it’s fine! I wouldn’t have used it as my screen name if I wasn’t better with it, and you’ve helped give me better memories to go with it too! And if I hadn’t wanted to answer… I could have said no. I’d still take that hug though.”
“Heh, I’d still give it,” Frost said, and he sounded relieved. “Hell, I probably will give it when we meet. Just a big old hug, right in the middle of wherever! Pick you up if you’re shorter than me.”
“Probably, I’m shorter than most of the guys in my class!” The image had the pair laughing for a few minutes, Izuku’s mom peeking in to check on him. She saw the headphones and held up a hand to her ear, as if asking if he was on a call. Izuku wobbled his hand to say ‘sort of’, then motioned his fingers like he was playing on a game controller. The woman smiled, gave him a peace sign, and left, closing his door behind her. “Sorry, I was probably laughing too loud. Mom checked on me.”
“Your mom knows you play?”
“Yeah. She pays the phone bill, she knows. I had to ask her to get us on the unlimited data plan. She’s fine with it, though, she likes that I have something to do on days I don’t have my club and someone to talk to.”
“Wish I could tell my family… My oldest brother would probably tease me about being a nerd but he’d think it was pretty cool, I bet. Sis would want all the details and to know if it was something her students would enjoy, and… well, I don’t know about my second brother.”
“Wait, so your sister is a teacher? That’s gotta be a tough job… I mean, we were just griping about our teachers hounding us about university and workloads and stuff…”
“Yeah, but she teaches younger kids. I think her big problem is just making sure no one pushes anyone else down on the blacktop.”
“Huh, back in my day it was the sandbox.”
“Kids have apparently gotten much meaner since we were young.” The pair started laughing again. “We sound like old men.”
“We do. Maybe I should get a fake beard for when we meet, that could be our identifying signal.”
“Please no.” Frost was deadpan, and Izuku fought down another laugh. “We ought to figure out what we want to do though… I think you get first question tomorrow.”
“Huh? But tomorrow should be you, I asked if your sister was a teacher.”
“Yeah, but I asked you to retell trauma, and that’s… never easy. So you get to ask a question tomorrow. I’m going to have to make a list of what I want to ask… and I’m probably never going to get through it. For now… what can we do in Numazu City, just off the top of your head?”
–
“Midoriya-kun.” A gentle voice called as the boy entered the classroom. He had managed to arrive early that day, planning on just sitting and researching things to possibly do at his meetup with FrostBurn in just under a month and a half. Since the Q-and-A night they had had, the pair had been making at least one suggestion a day as to what they could do, and so far nothing had just really jumped out at them.
Frost had made the suggestion of going to a local aquarium the previous night, and Izuku had laughed it off by saying it would look like they were going on a date. He hadn’t quite caught what Frost had said after that, but he had to admit that his idea of going to a nearby amusement park had sounded much the same.
“Hey, Todoroki-kun. You’re early.” Izuku said, waving and walking over. The other boy smiled, a blink-and-you’d-miss-it grin that he’d been wearing a bit more recently.
“So are you.”
“Woke up waaaaay too early and by the time I realized it, I was already dressed and ready to go on my run. So I just… went early.” He pulled the chair out of the desk in front of him to sit with Todoroki, fairly certain that Fumikage-kun would be there later and wouldn’t mind that he had used it for the time. “What about you? And what’s in the box?”
“Oh. I promised my older brother I’d stop by the cafe he’s part-timing at this morning for breakfast, and they had a deal. Buy a coffee, get a muffin. He gave me his too, before he sent me off to school.”
“He didn’t want it?”
“He’s surrounded by baked goods all day, three days a week at least. He said if he never sees another cookie again after this he won’t cry at all.” Todoroki’s grin turned a little more evil. “Which means I need to ask my sister to make more sweets if I know he’s going to be around.”
“Torture is outlawed by the Geneva Conventions, Todoroki-kun.”
“It’s revenge for seventeen years of the same from him.”
“Ah, well, I don’t think revenge is covered then. So it’s muffins?”
“Yeah, but… I got mixed berry. He got lemon poppyseed.”
“Huh. Can’t say I’ve had that one before.” Izuku admitted. At that, Todoroki perked up.
“Want to try it? I’m not a fan of that one, so I was kind of trying to figure out what to do with it.”
Izuku laughed and started to rummage in his bag. “How about we split it? I ate a protein bar on the way here, but it wasn’t very good and I could still eat more. That way if he asks if you ate it you can at least say you tried it. If you don’t mind me using my pencil sharpener to cut it.” He held up the little box-cutter sharpener, and when Todoroki nodded and opened the box he snapped the old end blade off and used the new one to cut the muffin in half.
After that first tentative bite, Izuku found himself practically inhaling the muffin, much to his classmate’s amusement. Todoroki picked up the sharpener and used it to cut the mixed berry muffin in half too, putting one part in front of Izuku before he picked up his own half of the lemon poppyseed one.
“This is… actually pretty good.” The two-toned boy admitted, looking a little stunned. “I wonder what’s different about it…”
“Age, maybe? I didn't like peppers as a kid, but now I’m okay with them.”
“Perhaps… oh, here’s your sharpener back.” Izuku put the thing back in his bag and caught Todoroki’s curious look. “...was that an All Might sharpener?”
“Oh… uh… yeah. Yeah, it was.”
“I didn’t know they had those.”
“A few years ago they did. I don’t know if they do anymore.”
“...wonder if they have them online.” There was that blink and you’d miss it grin again, and Izuku felt something in his chest thump as a smile bloomed on his own face. “Used to watch it with my mom, when I was a kid.”
“Me too. Mom would hide and let me find her, so I could play hero. I still like All Might though. There’s a new manga out, did you know about it?”
“I heard.” It seemed like they were going to talk a bit longer, but more students started to pour in, including Fumikage, and Izuku had to get up. Todoroki pushed half of the other muffin towards Izuku, nodding as he took it, and the pair split for the time.
–
“Thanks for meeting with me today,” Izuku grinned as Todoroki arrived at the public library. “Sorry to take your Saturday afternoon though.”
“It’s fine, I wanted to get out of the house.” The other admitted, looking at the building before him. “Suppose we’ve exhausted the school library offerings then.”
“Eh… not so much, but it feels like everything we’ve managed to get so far has just been more of the same, doesn’t it? I figure there are probably some more detailed books here. And if not, I guess we just have to accept that the only info we’re getting about carbon dioxide is going to be very general.”
Within five minutes they had a stack of books and a study room staked out, and were working on notes from the books. Todoroki was staring at him when he looked up after a while, and Izuku felt himself blush. “Something wrong?”
“You were mumbling.”
“Oh crap… sorry, happens when I get absorbed.”
“Don’t apologize for it, it’s fine. Kind of helped me too. It’s too quiet in here…”
“Yeah, I guess so. It’s not like at school, where there’s always something going on.”
“No siblings to interrupt you either.” Todoroki laughed. Izuku stared at the other, who looked confused after a few minutes. “What is it?”
“Nothing- just. You have a nice smile. And laugh. I just… no one ever sees you smile.”
“I try to keep people from noticing me too much on purpose.”
“Tch, like that’s going to happen.” Izuku gestured at the other with the eraser end of his pencil. “You’re fit, quiet, mysterious- of course everyone’s going to notice you. You know they call you the prince of class 3-A?”
“The ice prince. Not exactly a positive moniker.”
“Because they don’t know that you’re actually a pretty cool guy.”
“...cool? Hardly. Besides, all anyone wants to know about is the scar, and once they find out about that then it’s just pity.” Todoroki’s hand went to the rough skin around his left eye, and he frowned. “I’m surprised you haven’t asked about it yet.”
“Well, I figure it’s your story to tell, when and if you feel comfortable.” Izuku shrugged, leaning back in his chair. “After all, everyone has their own stories. Some are worn more openly than others, and some are never told because they’re too painful. Anyone who would demand you tell them your story and not accept no doesn’t deserve it.”
Todoroki seemed to think on this for a while, their studying going silent for a while until his quiet voice rang out behind his book. “Not today, but someday… I’d like to tell you about it, if you’re willing to listen.”
“Hey, whenever you’re ready.” Izuku grinned, and that was that.
–
“Frost, to your left!” Izuku warned, casting typhoon even as he called out to the swordsman. It hit the orc king head on, staggering it just long enough to allow the other to cast inferno and finish it off. The pair were up so late it was early, taking on another dungeon that had just opened for the second time, getting the experience in and some more loot that they could maybe sell at the auction house. As soon as they had collected their treasure, they warped away to town, finding their quiet area to hide from other late-night gamers. They didn’t even bother with a campfire there, and honestly…
Well, it was kind of nice. The darkness both in game and in his room (lamp off, only lit by his phone screen) was warm and soothing. There was the faint sound of wind and traffic in the distance, and it was comforting in a strange way. Like he wasn’t alone, but he was- just with Frost. “Well, second time was a little easier.”
“Always is. At least we made it through without using all of our cures.” Frost sounded like he was trying to keep his voice low. “Thanks for the save.”
“Hey, that’s what I’m here for. Besides, you’d have gotten it whether I cast typhoon or not.”
“You’re always saving me, either healing me or defending me. I don’t know if I ever say thanks though.” Frost sounded thoughtful. Izuku didn’t know what to say, but he didn’t have too long to think about it. “Oh, hey. I almost forgot. I couldn’t craft anything but… I did find something on the auction house that I thought you might like.”
A gift notification pinged on his screen, and Izuku opened it to see a note from FrostBurn, just a heart emoji. The attached item was a shield charm- and a damn powerful one at that. Izuku had to hold his hand over his mouth to keep from yelping right into the mic, much to the other’s amusement.
“Frost, there’s no way- this is too expensive, it had to be, you have to have spent actual money on this, there’s no way someone was letting it go for gold!”
“Eh, I don’t have anything big that I usually spend my allowance on. So I might as well buy something for you. Like it?”
“Yeah, but- I can’t take something you spent actual money on! That’s too much- maybe you can get your cash back-”
“Nope. No take backs. It’s yours. I feel like I can’t always be right there to protect you the way I want to… so I want you to have the charm so I know you’re safer. So I feel like I can be there to protect you even when we’re tag-teaming two different enemies.” Frost sounded gentle, and for some reason Izuku could picture him putting the charm onto his character, weaving the accessory into the tie holding his mop of curls back. It was a gentle scene that made him blush. “Deku?”
“Frost… I appreciate it… even if it’s too expensive for me to feel entirely comfortable taking!” Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to watch that scene in his head play out, he took the accessory and put it into his equipment, looking at the new feather that dangled from his leather tie. “Huh, so that’s what it would look like.”
“I like it. A blue-green feather… Looks good on you.”
“Oh, go on, tell me more about my looks.” Izuku teased, trying to fall back on their usual banter. Frost was apparently in a serious mood tonight though.
“I would if I knew what you look like in real life. You’re so kind, there’s no way you can’t be handsome too. I don’t know why I’m so sure about that, but I am. Deku…” A static sigh came over the headset. “If… if I ask a couple of questions, will you answer honestly? Honestly and seriously?”
“I mean… I haven’t answered anything but honestly this whole time, but yes, I’ll be serious too.”
Frost seemed to take a few minutes to gather his thoughts, and just when Izuku was about to ask if he was still there he finally spoke up again. “Do… do you have a significant other?”
“Huh? No… no one’s just lining up to date me, I’m not exactly what you’d call a big deal or anything. I had a crush on a friend of mine back in year one, but I think she’s more interested in girls than boys. I’m just happy to be her friend, anyway.”
“So… you aren’t gay? Or bi?”
“I…” Izuku paused, murmuring something about giving him a minute, parsing the question to give it the consideration it deserved. Was he straight? He had only really had crushes on girls in high school, or at least those were the ones he had admitted to himself that he had.
But he certainly liked Frost. Possibly as more than just a friend. It seemed that way if he had imagined that tender scene of the other weaving the charm into his hair earlier. And then there was how he was starting to look at Todoroki…
That smile he had given him the previous Saturday at the library. How that had made his heart flutter in his chest. That almost-sucker-punch sensation when the other had a rare moment of laughter. The soft feeling when he made one of his rare dry jokes about something they were looking up.
“I think I might be bi… girls are nice, yeah, but… guys are too.” He finally said, soft as a sigh.
“Yeah? That’s… that’s good. Makes this a little less awkward.” Frost sounded nervous, and Izuku felt his heart thud in his chest like a hammer. “Deku… I think I like you. Like… like. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head for a while, and… I’m having a hard time waiting. This last month is going to be torture, if just the past week is an indication. I’m… I’m sorry, I didn’t want to put this on you, I was going to keep it to myself, but…”
“No, it’s… I’ve been… I’m having a hard time waiting too, honestly. I want to meet you so bad it’s ridiculous. I want to know what you look like, how you sound when you’re not on a cheap mic. I want to know how your laugh sounds, what you look like when you smile. If I already like these things about you, I… think it’s pretty safe to say that I like you too.”
A rush of air came over the headset, and when Frost spoke again he sounded relieved. “Yeah- yeah, I hoped so. Otherwise this was going to get really weird. Ugh, my brother could have told me that confessing you like someone was going to be awkward… can’t believe he did it twice.”
“Oldest one?”
“Yeah. But I think something’s broken in his brain, maybe he doesn’t understand being nervous. Aaaand now I’m more nervous than before, because… what if our meeting… was a date too? I know, it’s probably too much, but- I want to go on a date with you.
“I want to go see a movie and hold your hand through it.”
“What if my hands get all sweaty?”
“I’d still hold them.” Frost said softly. “Because it’d be your hands. Mine would probably be all sweaty too, actually. But I want that experience with you. I want to hold hands in the movie theater. I want to go see the aquarium with you, and see what catches your attention there. I want to go to the amusement park with you, and win you one of those ridiculous oversized plushies and kiss you on the ferris wheel. All the stupid romance movie tropes.
“I don’t think they’d seem so stupid, if it was you.”
“...I’ve never dated anyone before. I don’t even know what to do on a date.”
“Neither do I. So we’ll go into it together- I mean, if you’re okay with that.” Frost sounded nervous again, and Izuku couldn’t help his soft laugh.
“Yes. Yes, I’m okay with that. I’m more than okay with that. Augh, a month can’t pass quick enough! I need a time machine, fast forward, something!” Frost was laughing at Izuku’s dramatics, and it brought a smile to his face.
He could sort out what he felt for Todoroki-kun later. For now all he knew was that Frost liked him, and something about it just felt right. That maybe after their meeting, he could be Frost’s, and Frost would be his.
It didn’t stop the confusion when he woke up the next morning from a dream where Todoroki’s face kept superimposing on Frost’s… The weird guilt that was associated with that dream.
–
“Okay, careful…” Todoroki murmured, slowly adding a chemical to the solution in the beaker as Izuku slowly turned the flame on the burner higher. “All right. Now we wait for it to change color and then remove from heat.”
“Sounds like we’re making tea almost,” Izuku joked. Todoroki looked like he was about to laugh too, before chaos broke out.
It started with a shatter, a ‘SHIT’ (Bakugou’s voice, Izuku knew that much), and then the fire alarm going off. The chemistry teacher was over there in minutes with a fire extinguisher, and the cacophony of voices faded to a buzz in the back of Izuku’s mind (“Shitty hair, you should have added the fuckin’ stuff slower!” “Hey, you were cranking the heat like it was going to run away!” “Would the both of you just shut up, damn it, you broke a beaker, TURN THE BURNER OFF WILL YOU YOU’RE GOING TO GAS US TO DEATH!” “Someone open a window!”).
Todoroki was crouched in the floor, eyes wide and frightened. Izuku didn’t think twice, he turned off their burner too and crouched down. “Todoroki-kun, hey, take a deep breath. Okay, in… and out… Good job, very good. Can you tell me three things you can see?”
“Oh, look, the ice princess got all scared!” Bakugou called out, and something in Izuku just snapped. He didn’t get up, just turned his eyes to his former friend and glared at the cruel smirk on his face.
“Hey, why don’t you shut up?” he asked, and that was what got the room to quiet down. No one had ever seen Izuku talk back to anyone, much less Bakugou. Sure, they didn’t really get along, but Izuku usually seemed content to avoid him. To actively confront the other? This was new.
“What’d you say, useless?”
“I said, shut up!” Izuku’s voice rose. “You fucked up, that’s on you! But you don’t get to make fun of someone who’s suffering because of your screw up!”
“Say that to my face!”
“I just did you overblown-”
“Midoriya-kun…” Todoroki’s voice was shaking, and there was a hand twisted into the fabric of his pants leg. “Don’t…”
“Teacher, I’m taking Todoroki-kun to the nurse’s office.” There was no question in it, and the teacher didn’t even say anything as Midoriya hoisted the other to his feet and hustled him out of the room, shooting one final glare at Bakugou.
(At least the blond had the decency to look astonished.)
“I don’t need the nurse… I’m not hurt…” Todoroki protested, dragging his feet as they approached a water fountain.
“No, you just had a full blown panic attack in the middle of the lab. Ugh, I could punch him… that bastard, hasn’t grown up since middle school…”
“You know him from middle school?”
“Preschool, actually. He’s only gotten worse as he’s gotten older. Don’t let him get to you, just… are you going to be okay? Seriously, I think you ought to go to the nurse’s office and lay down for a while. I can go handle Bakugou…”
“No- no. Please. Just… if you’re here with me, I think it’ll help me stay calm. Please…”
Well, who could argue that? The nurse seemed confused as to why Izuku was there with the other teen, but she consented to him staying with Todoroki as long as he needed to stay there. She left them alone to go check the others in the lab to make sure she wasn’t needed. Todoroki was curled up on his side, back to Izuku, and just when he started to think that the two-toned boy was asleep…
“My scar… it’s a burn.”
“Huh?”
“My mom…” Todoroki sighed, curling tighter around himself. “My dad has never treated my mom well. Emotional abuse, I think was the bulk of it. I saw him hit her a couple of times… I was four years old, I couldn’t do anything to stop him. She… she had a mental breakdown.
“My dad has blue eyes… like my left one. She saw me looking around a corner and thought it was him… she poured hot water over my face. I think she came back to herself after that and tried to ice it.”
“Todoroki-kun…” Izuku breathed, resting a hand on the other’s back, feeling him shaking.
“Dad had her institutionalized. I was in the hospital for two weeks. I was lucky not to lose my vision in that eye. I go visit her on Saturday afternoons usually.”
“And I asked you to- oh hell I’m sorry…”
“Please don’t be. She was happy I was going to hang out with someone my age… I might have told her about you. How you’re a good friend…” Todoroki sounded almost tired. “She wants to meet you someday- when she gets out of the hospital. She’s hoping to be able to come to graduation.”
“I would like to meet her. I don’t think I’ve ever met any of my friends’ moms. Bakugou’s aside. Is she on track to be released?”
“Yeah. I think my oldest brother is trying to set her up with an apartment of her own. We’re hoping she divorces dad, but… I think somewhere deep down she loves him. I don’t know about him though. No one knows what he’s thinking.”
“Hey. Your mom is going to make the best choice she can make for herself. Moms are pretty awesome like that. If- no, when she comes to graduation, I’ll introduce her to my mom too. I bet they’d be friends.”
“That would be… nice… Midoriya-kun…”
“Hey, we’re friends. Izuku.”
“...Shouto. Please stay…”
“I’m here.” Izuku reassured him, feeling his breath even out even as he rubbed the other’s back. Through the rest of that class period, and for the next, he stayed by Todo- Shouto’s side, willing to accept any trouble he could get into just to be sure his friend wasn’t alone.
–
“Hey. He okay?” Bakugou asked as Izuku came out of his club. This was something else- first, how did Bakugou know where they met, and second, why had he waited? He didn’t have a club meeting today, did he? “Hey, earth to Izuku.”
“Shouto’s okay. Why do you care?”
“Because… damn it. Because you’re right. I shouldn’t have laughed at him. He didn’t get hit with glass, did he?”
That really had Izuku astonished. Eyes wide, he slowly shook his head. Something tense in Bakugou’s shoulders loosened, and his hard face softened a little. “How do you know where we meet? And when?”
“Tch… Kirishima’s a member too, isn’t he? He’s supposed to come to my house for supper tonight. And I’m supposed to help him with his math homework. Don’t give me that look!”
“I’m surprised, is all. I thought you hated everyone in our class. We’re all beneath you or something.” Izuku couldn’t help the cold edge to his voice, and the blond rubbed the back of his neck.
“Yeah, yeah, guess I deserve that too. And yeah, I went into high school thinking that, but… ugh. Shit happens, you know? Fuck, you ought to know better than anyone- who would have guessed you and the Ice Prince?”
“Shouto and I what? Became friends? It’s easy to manage when you don’t go into it thinking that you’re the biggest badass to ever exist and the rest of the world should kiss your feet and worship the ground you walk on.” Izuku glared. Bakugou looked ready to say something, but there was over a decade of pain that was at the door, and it had a battering ram at the ready. “No, you’re going to listen to me for a change, because I’ve spent years listening to you and taking all your shit to heart.
“I tried my best to be a good friend to you, you know that? I was ready to forgive anything. Then you told me to kill myself and- like a damn idiot I almost did, because hey, you were the sun in my life for so long. It wasn’t like I had any other friends, especially after you pulled that isolation shit. The only thing that stopped me was Mom, and how heartbroken she’d be. And that’s the one thing I can’t forgive. I never told her about it, how close I was.
“But now you know. So you get to shoulder your share of the blame. So whatever crap you want to insinuate about Shouto and I, just come right out and say it! Because I don’t have time for some stupid two-step around YOUR hurt feelings that I managed to live through the hell you wanted to put me through!”
“Whoa… Izuku, bro, deep breaths.” Kirishima’s voice rang out from the door behind him, and Izuku realized that his eyes were burning with tears. “Yeah, there ya go. Okay- what’s all this about?”
“I was… don’t make me say it, bastard…” Bakugou blushed… wait, actually blushed? That was a shock. And when Kirishima came around him to throw an arm around his shoulder, he didn’t push the redhead away. And suddenly something clicked in Izuku’s head. “Oh look there, he got it.”
“You… and… hold up, I need to process.”
Kirishima just laughed, reaching out his other hand to pat Izuku on the back. “Bakugou’s a little rough around the edges, yeah, but when ya get past that…”
“Shut up, shitty hair…”
“See? Like that!”
Izuku shook his head a couple of times, took a deep breath, and looked between the pair. “Okay, so… you encouraged him to apologize… and he did it… which, for the record, thank you, and Bakugou, I appreciate it, but you really should apologize to Shouto. But,” he said, looking at the shock on the pairs’ faces, “what are you talking about, Shouto and I?”
“Whoa, first names already? Whew! You sure move fast!”
“Kirishima… they aren’t. Look at his face, he’s so confused- shit.” Bakugou sighed. “Told you you had it wrong.”
“Wait, so you and Todoroki-kun aren’t dating?”
–
“It’s not funny, Frost!”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but… it kind of is, you know?” Frost was still giggling intermittently, and Izuku scowled. “Only you could convince someone you’re dating a classmate because you’re being a good friend.”
“Ugh… I mean, I’m glad we cleared it up, but still!”
“Should I be jealous of this classmate? I mean, I already am, a little… they get to see you every day, and I still have to wait to see you.” Frost still sounded amused, but there was that bit of sadness in it too. “I wonder if we’ll be able to see each other every day when we graduate…”
“Depends. I just got an acceptance letter to Shizuoka University in the mail today…”
“...yes. Say yes. Please say yes, we can rent an apartment together.”
“You certainly move fast!” Izuku laughed, his earlier huffy mood cleared instantly.
“Deku, for a year you have been the closest person to me in my life aside from my own family- no, closer than them even, really. I want to be able to see you every day. It’s so bad… but I made a friend at school recently. And I can’t help but compare them to you… you’re similar, actually, you’re both very kind and genuine. But if I had to pick between being able to be with you and staying here to stay their friend, I’d pick you in a heartbeat.”
“Frost… you haven’t even met me, what if I’m some kind of gross old man, or a shut-in, or something? How can you be so sure that you want to be with me?”
“I have a good feeling that you aren’t.” Frost sounded absolutely certain, and there was that thud of his heart again. Could Frost hear it? What would he think? “I don’t know how I’m so sure, but I haven’t been so sure of anything in my life. Besides, you told me you’re a third year high school student. I can pretty reasonably infer that you aren’t a gross old man or a shut in from that. The otaku bit… we’ll have to see.”
“Oh my god… I’m not! Unless you want to count All Might.”
“Then we’re both in that boat. Deku… three weeks until we meet. I’m ready for it.”
“...me too, Frost.” And Izuku was surprised at how much he wanted to say screw it and meet with the other player early.
His dreams that night were weird though, and he was going to blame that on Kirishima and Bakugou. After all, they were the ones who thought he was dating Shouto. So it had to be partly their fault that it wasn’t Frost’s avatar he saw in his dreams that night, but Shouto in the swordsman’s armor. Reaching for him. Holding him close.
Yeah, no, they were at least 80% responsible for that.
–
“So then, Izuku somehow managed to trip over the cable we had JUST taped down, did the most ridiculous spin ever, but still managed to set the tray down on the table before he fell, and managed not to spill a thing!” Ochako laughed. Izuku groaned and hid his head in his knees, while Shouto grinned. “And if you think THAT’s impressive, there was the time he had a full bowl of katsudon and slipped on who knows what on his way over to our table, fell flat on his back, but didn’t spill it!”
“That actually is impressive. One of my brothers tripped me once, I thought Fuyumi was going to murder him because I smacked my nose on a wall and got a nosebleed.” Shouto took a long sip of his drink, grinning as Izuku looked over at him. Iida looked astonished.
“Fuyumi-san? Really? She’s so sweet though!”
“Oh, you must not have seen her around Touya lately though. She’s been ready to kick him out of the house whenever he shows up lately. I think he’s trying to rile Dad up by talking about Mom very loudly in front of him. Dad’s already upset I said I was going to Shizuoka University instead of Tohoku-”
“Wait, you’re going to Shizuoka? Me too!” Izuku grinned brightly, emerging from his attempt to hide in his own legs. It got Ochako to laugh harder, and even got a grin from Iida. Shouto looked stunned, then thrilled.
“So we can still hang out! Great! I was worried, since I don’t know anyone in Shizuoka…”
“Me too! This is going to be great.”
The bell rang to signal the end of lunch, and Izuku got to his feet, grabbing the remains of their lunch packaging and heading for the trash cans with a call that he’d catch up with the others in the classroom. Ochako was by him, helping sort before he even thought about it.
“You don’t have to-”
“No, I want to talk to you anyway. You and Todoroki-kun seem like you’ve gotten close…”
“Oh no, not you too!” Izuku groaned. “Look, he’s had a hard enough time of it, and he’s a good guy, but we’re just friends, that’s all!”
Ochako raised a brow at that. “Just friends huh? Friends don’t look at ‘just friends’ like that, Izu.”
“Please, Ochako… Please. I have enough on my mind lately without this… can this be a crisis for later, maybe? Please?” Something on the girl’s face softened, and as soon as all the trash was thrown out, she hugged him tight. “Thanks…”
“Hey, you know it’s okay if you aren’t straight. I mean… you already know I’m not. And if anyone gives you trouble over it, well… they ought to remember what happened our first year!”
“The fight that never was?”
“Not what the rumor mill was saying.” Ochako laughed as she stepped back. “I heard you decked an upperclassman through a door.”
“Oh yeah? That’s wildly different from what I lived, but if people want to believe stupid things… Thanks, Ochako. You know, if you need a wingman for your crush…”
“Thanks, but no.” She grinned brightly. “Tsuyu-chan and I are actually doing pretty well. We finished our project a couple of weeks ago, and we’re going to the movies this week to celebrate.”
Oh.
Oh hell.
The damn project. At least they had it all sorted out, but there was still the board to put together, and they still had to take it from an outline to an actual report… shit. Izuku didn’t bother to say anything else to Ochako, he knew she would understand, and took off running down the hall to catch up to Shouto. He managed the feat in next to no time, turning the other around by grabbing his shoulder. “Project… due date…”
“The project? It’s due… Monday… oh shit.” It was possibly the first time anyone had heard so many words from Shouto in one sitting, and definitely the first time he had cursed in front of anyone. He grabbed hold of Izuku’s arms, eyes wide. “Okay, don’t panic, we can’t panic-”
“I’M NOT PANICKING I’M NOT-”
“YES YOU ARE! Deep breath. Okay. What do we have left? Poster board, and going from outline to report, right?”
“Yeah… yeah,” Izuku nodded, wishing that he hadn’t been so caught up in personal crises and trying to pull Shouto out of his shell to remember the damn report that had pulled them together in the first place. “Oh crap, and a powerpoint we have to present to the class…”
“Yeah, but that won’t be too hard, that’s just use the outline and present. We can get it done today, after school. Okay?” Shouto sounded resolute, and Izuku couldn’t help the small nod he gave. It was like seeing Frost’s character come to life, and…
Well, hell, if Frost was half as cool as his character and Shouto, Izuku really had never stood a chance at all, had he?
“I had thought you two would be done before any of us…” Iida admitted. Shouto just grinned nervously.
“If I claim family issues will you believe it?”
“Given what I know of your family? I would, if you hadn’t just said that.”
“I mean, it’s partly true. Time really did just get away from me though… a lot on my mind lately. Don’t worry, we won’t damage the class reputation.” Shouto’s smile widened just a little, and if one didn’t look too closely they would miss the manic look in his eyes.
“They can’t be too surprised by anyone forgetting though, right? I mean… a month for a project? We can’t be the only ones who forgot…” Izuku asked, brow knitted in thought, before a squeeze to his arm stopped that short.
“Hey, we’ve got this. After school I’ll run to Daiso and pick up some craft supplies, poster board… You head to the library and start working on typing up the report, okay?” Shouto sounded calm, and the tone reassured Izuku that they could manage it.
Slowly, Izuku nodded, and Shouto let go of his arms. “I’ll… I’ll give you some money-”
“Nah. Don’t worry about it. If I can’t use some of my dad’s money to help a friend, then what good is it?” The words were strikingly familiar, and through the afternoon Izuku kept thinking back to them, wondering where he had heard them before.
–
“I’m back! How’s it coming?” Shouto asked, ignoring the hiss from the librarian. Izuku looked up from the computer screen, a smile coming over his face. “That good?”
“Half done already. We basically wrote the whole thing out, phrasing and all. Are you sure you don’t want any money from me for the Daiso run?”
“If you want to throw money at me, just buy me something to drink on the way off campus.” Shouto grinned. Izuku just flashed him a thumbs up before turning back to his typing. A pat to his shoulder, and a moment later Izuku could see Shouto out of the corner of his eye at a table, unloading a plastic bag and flattening out a rolled-up poster board. Glue dots, washi tape, and was that… a glitter pen? Quickly he turned his focus back to the report, typing as fast as he could. When he finished, Izuku got up and stretched, cringing as he heard his back pop. Shouto looked up, a bit of tape stuck on his face, smiling as Izuku laughed quietly.
“I take it you’re done?” Shouto asked, reaching up to peel the tape off his face and pressing it to Izuku’s forehead.
“Pretty much. Take a look, see what you think.”
“Sounds good. I’ll start the powerpoint too, I can work on it some at home tonight if I can’t finish it here. If you can finish the poster…”
“On it!”
By the time the library was closing and they were shooed out, the poster was almost done, and Shouto guessed that the powerpoint would just need a couple more slides and some cosmetic touches to make it look perfect. It was decided that Izuku would take the poster home for safekeeping, and Shouto would hold on to the outline. Before they parted ways, Izuku stopped by a soda machine and held up his All Might coin purse.
“Still want that drink?”
“Yeah, actually. Oh, hey, yuzu soda, that looks good.” Izuku paid for the drink and handed it over to Shouto, buying a warm milk tea for himself. “Aren’t those too sweet?”
“Huh? No, not this brand. Wanna try it?” The shorter boy asked, not even thinking about it, and handing the can to the other. Shouto took a small sip before handing it back, nodding, and Izuku immediately realized that he had probably just goofed a little. Indirect kiss…
“Huh, you’re right. It tastes pretty good, actually. Wanna try mine? Since I tried yours.” Well, he was already in it this far, might as well. Izuku took a sip and cringed. “Well that’s a face.”
“You were worried about mine being too sweet? Yeesh…” It was worth it for the laugh he got out of Shouto, and the pair huddled in the little alcove the drink machines were set in. “Oh, hey, did you save the powerpoint to my drive or yours?”
“...crap.”
“I’ll email it to you…”
“Use the school email, yeah?”
“I was going to… you have more than one?”
“Well, yeah.” Shouto sounded confused. “School for projects, notices, that sort of stuff… mailing lists I really don’t have any interest in being on… another for personal stuff. You don’t?”
“No, I do, I just don’t use it much. Ochako, Iida and I share a dropbox thing for music and we spam memes on Line, so aside from that and a couple of forums I’m on, I use my school email for most things. Guess that’s going to change soon though, huh? Shizuoka University…” Izuku grinned and took another sip of his tea. “Can’t believe you’re going too.”
“Yeah, small world. You know what you’re majoring in?”
“Not a clue yet. You?”
“Nope.” Shouto shook his head, a soft smile coming to his face. “But a friend of mine said that they were told to experience as much as they could, and they’d likely find what they wanted to do along the way.”
“Huh… My mom said that too.” Izuku grinned. “Sounds like that’s the way to go then. Crap, speaking of, I probably ought to head home, she’s likely to be home any second now…”
“What about your dad?”
“Don’t have one. It’s just me and Mom. Oh, I mean- I have a dad, obviously, but he’s never around. Works overseas.” Izuku grimaced. “Never comes home. That sort of thing.”
“But he doesn’t have any kind of interest in where you go to school?” Shouto asked, looking almost astonished.
“If he does, he’s never said. And if he has one that he wants to disclose now, he can cry about it.” Izuku shrugged, and the pair left the relative safety of the alcove back into the chilly late February air. “If he doesn’t care enough to come see Mom at least once in a while, then he doesn’t get a say in the life of the child she raised alone.”
The rest of their walk was relatively quiet, the two pausing at a crossroads. “Shouto, I’m…”
“If you say you’re sorry you have to drink the rest of this soda,” Shouto deadpanned, grinning at the wince that flashed across Izuku’s face. “All I’ve had since I was five was a dad, and he didn’t exactly do a great job raising me. I’m crediting Fuyumi with how I’ve turned out… well, mostly Fuyumi. I guess Touya and Natsuo helped too, but sis did the most of it. So I get it, okay? Besides… I vented to you about how my mom was treated. I don’t mind you venting to me about how your mom has been treated.
“See you at school tomorrow?” Shouto asked, extending a fist with a tiny smile on his face. Izuku grinned widely and fistbumped him, nodding.
“I’ll bring the poster, we can finish it at lunch.”
“Sounds like a plan. See you then.”
–
“Hey, Deku.”
“Hey, Frost. Any plans for the night or is it more of the same?” Izuku asked, sitting up at his desk and carefully writing out cards to attach to the poster.
“I’d just like your company tonight, honestly. I’m working on a school project that I forgot was due soon, and I wanted to talk to you while I did it.” Frost sighed over the mic. “I can’t believe I forgot about it…”
“We’re in the same boat it seems. I forgot a project too, so I’m working on it while I talk to you. You’re actually the only reason I logged on tonight.” Izuku put a card to the side but was slower to pick up a new one, slower to start the next heading.
“I feel honored- no, really, don’t laugh!” Frost was none too convincing, laughing as well. “So we just get to hang out, our avatars idling and us talking… well, at least we got the login bonus for the day, right?”
“Yeah. I guess they’ve started pulling out the big guns since we’re down to under a month until the anniversary. I didn’t expect a hi-power potion set. Don’t those usually sell in the shops for something like 500,000 gold?”
“Something like that.” Frost hummed, and Izuku could hear faint clicking in the background. “Sorry, if you hear clicks it’s just me typing. My friend and I got partnered up for this project, and I told him I’d take care of this last bit. He’s already done so much.”
“Sounds like you got lucky on the project lottery- to be fair, I did too. I didn’t say I was finishing anything up on mine tonight, but I want to surprise my partner. Maybe if we get this finished we both can just relax the rest of the week, at least for this class.” Izuku finally started on another card, careful to make his writing legible and working not to smudge the ink as it dried. “Plus I know my mom would be thrilled that I’d be home on time again, she was worried when I was late tonight.”
“Must be nice. My dad was home when I got here, but aside from hearing him on a conference call, that was all the interaction I had. Everyone else was out until almost dinner. Had to cook for myself.” The other boy sniffled dramatically. “Instant noodles and canned tea for me.”
“Mom made meat buns, those were pretty good. I’d have given you some.”
“I’d have taken them. Wait, can you cook, or are we just out of luck when we go to Shizuoka?”
“I can… kind of… cook. Not great but passable.”
“Huh… maybe my friend can- oh yeah! So, I know we’re only meeting soon, but… I found out that a friend of mine is going to Shizuoka University too! I want to introduce you two sometime, he’s the one I was saying kind of reminds me of you.” Frost sounded giddy almost. “I bet you two would get along great… just don’t leave me behind when you two become buddies though, or I’ll be sad…”
“Frost, if you think I’d leave you behind you’ve lost the plot. Besides…” Izuku stammered, feeling his face heat up. “W-weren’t we going to share an apartment?”
“...if it weren’t for my family I would scream right now. I am officially the happiest guy on earth.” There was something in his voice that made Izuku laugh. “Hey, don’t laugh at me, I meant it!”
“I’m not laughing because of that, not really, but… you don’t even know me, I could end up being the worst roommate in the universe!”
“Doubtful. After living with my family, you’ll be a breath of fresh air, even if you… I don’t know, leave your laundry on the chairs or something.”
“Heh, no, Mom managed to train me into being fairly neat. I’ll get her to write some of her recipes down so maybe we can learn to cook and not live off conbini food.”
“Shame. The 7-11 pizza buns are pretty amazing…”
“Ugh, I know… the pork buns are good too though… okay, maybe we’ll have to make one night a week conbini night.”
“We’ll see if I can’t convince you to up that number.” Frost teased lightly, the pair falling into a warm silence as they worked on their projects. “...hey, Deku, how do you spell ‘multitude’? I abbreviated it on this outline and I can’t figure it out.”
Izuku slowly spelled it out, their companionable silence resuming until Izuku finally sat back and groaned, leaning until his back cracked loudly. “Oof, that was a little painful.”
“Sounded like it felt good. Guessing you’re done for now?”
“Oh yeah, got what I needed to done. Now all that’s left is putting it together and making it look good. Ugh, I really want to go take a bath, but I don’t want to leave you…”
“You could take me with you…” Frost suggested. It only took a couple of seconds for the idea to process and for Izuku to start stuttering, Frost laughing at the flurry of cut-off syllables spilling from his mouth. “I mean, I wasn’t entirely serious, you know!”
“...you know what, no, you made the suggestion, you get to live with the consequences.” Izuku finally managed to spit out, before he grabbed fresh clothing from his dresser. It was Frost’s turn to stammer, and Inko gave her son a curious look as he passed the door into the living room. “My friend made a suggestion thinking he was going to embarrass me. I’m going to get a bath.”
“...okay…” Inko said, blinking in confusion, and the boy made a mental note to explain to her later. She was a good mom, she didn’t deserve to live thinking her son was (entirely) crazy.
“Your mom saw you?” Frost asked.
“Yep.”
“Oh dear god please apologize to her, you don’t- auuuughhhh…”
“Oh, I’ll explain to her, but you’re going to have to deal with her teasing you too when you meet her.” That was enough to stop him in his steps as he closed the bathroom door behind him, and Frost made a quiet choking sound. “Was that…”
“I was wrong, I thought I couldn’t be happier than I was earlier. I will gladly take any teasing your mom gives if you’re serious enough that you want me to meet her. I will take it and thank her for it, and for being your mom, and for having brought you into the world.”
“Okay, you’re going to have to stop or I’m going to have a permanent blush. You’ll be able to find me no problem when we meet, I’ll be the guy who looks like the stoplight. Give me a minute, I’m changing.” Izuku took out his earbuds before he changed, popping one back in before he sank into the hot water.
Frost laughed quietly, and Izuku could almost picture him sitting there, leaning on the edge of the bathtub. “You sound a little like an old man…”
“Like you don’t groan when you hit hot water. Everyone does it. Especially after they’ve been sitting for a while.” Izuku leaned his head back, careful to keep the cord out of the water. “Now I’m kind of wishing I had teased you like that…”
“Nah, you’d have a worse time of it. My sister would wonder what was going on, my oldest brother would make a dick pic joke or something, and eventually someone would yell at me for taking too long in the bath. Would not recommend. The problems of a big family. Oh, I looked at that apartment listing you linked me the other day. It’s not a bad area, but… it’s a little far from campus, isn’t it?”
“The price was good, and they have a good public transport system from the looks of it.”
“...you know, I can afford to put us up somewhere closer-”
“I don’t want to depend on you alone,” Izuku sighed. “I appreciate it, I promise I do, and it’s very nice, but… I wouldn’t feel right about it.”
“Deku… please let me spoil you, already.” Frost sighed, something that sounded a little like a groan at the end of the sentence. “I want to give you the world, can I at least give you a place to live?”
“...we can look at other listings when we meet, if you want…” Izuku couldn’t help the flush that spread from his face down to his chest; how could Frost be so serious about him and not even really know him? Though, honestly, Izuku could have asked the same of himself, and how he could be so sure of Frost when he kept dreaming of Shouto and confusing the boy he saw as a friend and avatar of the voice he loved.
It was heinously confusing and hard and why did the heart have to be so difficult? “Deku?” The voice over the earbud kept him from sinking into the water and grumbling, narrowly saving his mic. “Are you okay? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up, I-”
“No, no… I promise, it’s not you, Frost. I’m just… I want to meet you already. I want a face to put to the voice, because my dreams are driving me insane and it’s… it’s difficult.”
Frost was quiet for a few minutes before Izuku could faintly hear a couple of odd noises. He made a noise in his throat that seemed to ask the question for him. “Sorry, I could hear my oldest brother sneak in, I was locking my door and hiding out. I want him to think I’m asleep, or he’ll bother me. Plus… I get it. I’ve dreamed about you every night since we finally cemented this plan, and I’m ready to meet you. I only regret that we promised to wait until that day, because I’ve had almost five weeks to consider asking you to meet up with me early.
“I’m just… impatient, I guess. I want to meet the guy who managed to save my ass multiple times… both in the game and out of it. You’ve managed to keep me from being lonely, and… my dad found out about me deciding to go to Shizuoka. He was…”
“Oof…”
“Yeah. But I told him that I had friends going there, and I wasn’t going to go further away where I didn’t know anyone just so he could have the clout of saying his son went to the top-rated university. And… you gave me the courage to tell him that I wasn’t interested in taking over the family business. I wanted to try a few things to see what I liked, and if I decided it was business then that would be my decision, but he wasn’t going to push me into it.”
“...how… how did that go?” Izuku asked, voice soft.
“Surprisingly, it went good.” Frost sounded relieved, a sigh crackling over the feed. “I guess my sister has been talking sense into him, or he’s been regretting how he’s acted towards all of us, or something. He said he’d rather I go somewhere else, but he understood that I wanted to live my life, and be close enough to visit my family when I wanted, and he could accept that. I know he still wants me to go into business and plan to take over his position when he gets ready to retire, but he’s trying to accept it, and that’s…
“Well, that’s better than the past seventeen years of my life. And if you hadn’t come into my life, I’d have just gone on and followed his plan because it would be easier to burn everything down from the inside. I’d have let spite rule my life and suffered for it. So… thank you, Deku.”
“...Frost, you’re going to have to stop, or I’m going to start crying, and I am an ugly crier.” Izuku said, finally deciding to get out of the tub and get ready for bed. “At least, according to one of my friends.”
“Please don’t cry, I would have to figure out how to track you down so I could comfort you. Three weeks can’t pass quickly enough…”
And honestly, he was right. Three weeks couldn’t pass quickly enough for him, either.
–
“...In conclusion, the uses of carbon dioxide as a compound are many and varied, and make this an unsung hero in our daily lives.” A polite smattering of applause sounded as Shouto clicked over to the final slide of their presentation, and Izuku wrapped up the report. The chemistry teacher nodded approvingly.
“Good job, boys, very well done. Okay, tomorrow we’ll finish the presentations out with Kirishima and Bakugou, Hagakure and Ojiro, and Kaminari and Fumikage. Class dismissed.”
The teens were out of their seats like shots, ready to leave for the day, and Izuku and Shouto gave each other a high five and a grin. “We managed it.” Izuku said in relief.
“Sure did. Can’t believe you wrote all the cards out that night though, you didn’t have to do that.”
“Made it a lot easier for us to finish the poster though. And what about you, did you get any sleep the night you made the powerpoint? Seriously…”
“Hey, all I had to do was get the info on there then just… format. It was easy enough. My sister had to make one for her students the other day, so I just remembered a few of the tricks she used.” Shouto hefted his bag onto his shoulder, and looked like he wanted to say something but stopped himself short. Izuku’s questioning noise seemed to spur him on however.
“Thanks for… inviting me to hang out with you and your friends while we worked on this. It was… it was nice.”
“What do you mean? Do you think you aren’t welcome to hang out with us now that it’s done?” Izuku asked. Shouto looked up, confused, before Ochako collided with his back, hanging off his shoulder and grinning. Behind her, Tsuyu and Iida were following, Iida making noises about inappropriate behavior and Tsuyu just shaking her head with a fond smile. “See? You’ve got Ochako on you now, you’re stuck with us. If she’s comfortable enough to hang off you like that, you’re one of us. Sucks, I’m sure, but them’s the breaks.” The grin on Izuku’s face quickly turned into laughter, and the girl dropped from her hold and pouted up at Shouto.
“Did you really think you were going to ditch us so easily? I think not! Nope! In fact, we were going to go get something to eat to celebrate all of us finishing our projects and presentations. Wanna go with us?”
Shouto looked almost stunned for a moment, before he started digging for his phone in his bag. “Let me tell my sister I might be late, and that I won’t need dinner… wait, Izuku, are you going?”
“Of course.” Truthfully, he hadn’t intended to until that moment, but seeing the hopeful look on his friend’s face, he couldn’t say no. He fished his own phone out, looking at a notification that had popped up from Heroes Journey (apparently today’s login bonus was a mana package that usually ran 25k in shops, and 1.5 XP boost), before he sent a quick text to his mom that he was going to be late.
(Inko had been amused by his explanation of what Frost had done, and it had given him the courage to admit to her that he thought he was in love with the other. Inko had nodded as if she had always known, hugged her son, and made him promise that he would be good to the other, but not take mistreatment. The two had ended up crying on the couch that night, and since then he had been making an extra point to involve her in his day-to-day, realizing that he had been so wrapped up in school and exams and his game that his mother had been missing out on a lot of his life.
It was a painful realization and one he was determined to correct.)
The five made their way to a local burger joint, taking up a large booth when they got their meals, Tsuyu and Ochako taking one side and squishing close together. Iida sighed as he saw the spectacle.
“I take it you two assume I’m going to be the human shield for your PDA, then.”
“You mean you won’t?” Tsuyu asked, staring up at him with her big, dark eyes. Izuku would have sworn he heard the taller boy curse, but he wasn’t willing to bet money on it.
“I never said that… you two have to learn how to behave in public.”
“Would you have near as much fun if we did?”
“I’d have a few less heart attacks, for sure!”
“Wait… you two are together?” Shouto asked, and all conversation at the table shut down for a moment as the group processed.
“...we are… is that an issue?” Tsuyu asked, resting her and Ochako’s linked hands on the table top. Shouto quickly shook his head from side to side.
“No, absolutely not. I’m actually… well, I’m happy for you two, firstly. And I’m gay, so I’d be a hypocrite if I had a problem.”
Well. That was news. Shouto looked over to Izuku and quirked a brow, and the other figured he looked as shellshocked as he felt. “Wh- hey, no issues here. Bi.”
“Oh.” Shouto looked a bit astonished himself, but the look was quick to vanish as he looked over to Iida, and grinned. “All right, so as it seems we’re all coming out to each other here, you?”
Iida just shrugged, and that was frankly enough said about that. Ochako changed the conversation over to something lighter quickly, and by the end of the evening Shouto had been added into their Line chat and was laughing at some of the memes from the past week. He and Izuku split from the others, waving and calling out goodbyes as their paths split.
“...I didn’t realize they were dating.”
“Yeah, they keep it quiet since the school could give them trouble. Stupid old rules about no dating, we’re teenagers, we’re going to date if we have interest in it. All they’re accomplishing is teaching us to either be ashamed that we’re human beings with interest in others, or how to hide our relationships. Neither of which are good lessons.” Izuku huffed.
“Seriously… If I want to learn how to NOT hide a relationship I’ll ask my oldest brother. Two boyfriends and within two hours of each I think my whole family knew. Including my mom.”
“Wait, huh?”
“My oldest brother- Touya. He’s seeing the guy who owns the cafe, yeah, but… there’s some other guy he’s seeing too, hell if any of us know where they met. I still don’t know how my mom found out…”
“Huh… well, if he’s happy, and they’re in agreement…”
“...how are you so calm about it?” Shouto asked, pausing. “No one else in my family was calm about it. Even Fuyumi was screaming at him. So how are you… so chill?”
“Because he’s a consenting adult and it’s his choice? Because who you fall in love with is less a choice and more just how it happens? I mean,” Izuku shrugged. “It’s called falling for a reason. I’ve always figured that it’s staying in love that’s more work, but it’s a partnership for a reason. And how it’s anyone else’s business who someone stays with has always confused me.”
“...huh. I mean… you’re right about that much. Was that mom wisdom or…”
“Eh… a little? The falling in love bit, and the working together bit, yeah. She and my dad are still in love despite the distance, and I know they talk fairly routinely. I’m just… a little bitter that he’s never come back to see us, and I don’t have much in common with him so I just don’t talk to him much.
“But the part about it not being anyone’s business who you fall in love with, that’s my observations.” The two fell into step again, Izuku sighing as he tried to line his thoughts out and articulate them. “People get so upset over who’s holding hands with who, and they don’t even know them. So why is it anyone’s business what complete strangers are getting up to as long as they’re in agreement about it and it’s not hurting anyone? There’s a lot of things in the world worth getting upset over. I don’t get why love is one of them.”
Shouto fell silent as he seemed to process this for a bit, finally speaking again just before they parted directions. “You have a point. I… haven’t told anyone but Touya that I’m gay because I knew he wouldn’t judge me for it. Maybe… maybe I should tell the rest of my family.”
“Only do what you feel safe doing. My mom is very chill and accepting, so I knew I had a safe space. But from what you’ve told me about your dad… first and foremost, I want you to be safe. Over everything else, I want your safety.” Izuku reached out and rested his hand on the side of Shouto’s arm, staring firmly at him. Those mismatched eyes glanced from him to his arm, and back to Izuku’s face, and a slow smile spread across his face.
“Maybe I should only tell my siblings… thank you, for being concerned for my safety though.”
“What are friends for, if they aren’t concerned for your wellbeing?” Izuku laughed before he slowly moved his hand away, fingertips still tingling faintly. “I… probably had best head home, otherwise my mom might start worrying. Let me know when you make it home? You’ll likely get Iida’s message in a few minutes, actually.”
“That might be the buzz I felt just a second ago then. But yeah… you do the same, okay?”
The two nodded at each other, turning and taking a few steps away before Shouto’s voice called out again. “Hey, Izuku… see you tomorrow morning, yeah? I’ll… I’ll bring muffins from the cafe Touya’s part-timing at again, do you want lemon poppyseed?”
“Uhm… surprise me? And I’ll bring some extra lunch to pay you back, don’t think I’m just going to accept your food without paying you back. See you tomorrow, Shouto.”
And with that the pair parted ways.
–
“Countdown to our meeting…” Frost almost was purring over the dodgy connection, and Izuku could tell it was almost time for him to get a new headset by the fluctuations in volume. “We’re at… seven days?”
“Six, you goof. It’s after midnight.” Izuku’s voice was soft, trying to keep from waking his mom up. He knew he would be miserable in the morning, tired and dozy, and all he could hope was that he didn’t worry Shouto at their twice-weekly breakfast meetup.
“Oh, you’re right. I didn’t… realize the time, sorry,” he apologized as a yawn broke the sentence in half. “School is going to suck tomorrow. At least they’re just doing last-minute exam prep and my friends and I have been reviewing for a week.”
“Yeah? Mine too. It’s hard to believe it’s almost over… We’ll meet up just after exams end… at least mine, they’re doing them over three days, towards the end of this week.”
“Mine too,” Frost said. “Do we go to the same school, or do they all just have the same calendar for exams, I wonder…”
“Probably just the same calendar. Makes it easier, and then universities know when to expect new students by, I guess.” Izuku shrugged, wriggling under his blanket. “Sorry, was getting cold.”
“Yeah, we’ve got this last cold snap to get through, then cherry blossom season will be on us. Hey, maybe we could go cherry blossom viewing after we get done with all the graduation mess. That’d be a nice second date…”
“Mmhm…” Izuku murmured, feeling his bed cradle him. It was still a weird feeling, being lonely for someone you hadn’t even met, but hearing his voice was a good way to take the edge off that loneliness. “I bet we have our graduations on the same day, or I’d come watch you get your diploma.”
“Same… we’ll have to trade numbers or Line or something, and send each other pictures. I want to see your uniform and diploma.”
Izuku huffed a sleepy laugh, and a smile curled on his lips. “I want the second button off your jacket, you know.”
“What would you do with it?”
“I dunno… I’ll think of something when I’m not so sleepy. You have a claim to mine too, you know…”
“I’d hope so. Go to sleep, Deku. I’ll be here tomorrow…”
“Mmkay, g’night, Frost… love you…” It was almost second nature, the thought, and he almost didn’t realize it had become words until he heard the choked sound from the other end of the line. “Frost?”
“I… don’t worry, I’m okay. Just… didn’t quite expect that. I love you too, Deku. Sleep well. Six days until I can hold you. Just… keep that in mind.” And with that the connection cut, and Izuku closed out the game before he fell asleep.
The next morning, he slumped into the classroom to see Shouto with his head rested on the desk and no takeaway box from the cafe. Instead, it was a paper bag from a 7-11 and a pair of coffee cups. “You okay?”
“Bwuh?” Shouto lifted his head up and showed off dark circles under his eyes. “Sorry, sorry… I was up late last night, couldn’t sleep… was talking with a friend until late and forgot I was going to the cafe until after I passed it… are you opposed to bread?”
“Not a bit. Bread is great. And I’m glad you got coffee, I overslept and didn’t have a chance to go by anywhere…” Izuku admitted sheepishly, flopping into Tokoyami’s chair and resting his head against Shouto’s desk. “...didn’t even get to go on my run this morning.”
“Wow… exam stress?”
“No, I was talking to a friend. We lost track of time and… I almost fell asleep on them while we were chatting.”
“Heh, must be going around. C’mon, coffee. I grabbed some creamers and sugar too, if you want any.” Shouto shoved the bag at the other, and without another word Izuku popped the lid off the cup and dumped in several packets of sugar and a cream before he started all but chugging the drink. “Whoa… you okay there? That’s… a lot of sugar.”
“Coffee bitter. Izuku tired. Sugar rush helps.” To hell with full sentences that were grammatically correct. There was a time and place, and with today being the last day for exam review before they started their final tests of the year, this was currently neither. Shouto didn’t say anything, just grunted his agreement and followed suit, with a noticeable grimace before he added more cream.
“This is no longer coffee. It’s coffee-flavored syrup.”
“Delicious.”
“...can’t disagree.” As the pair half-dozed in their seats, Yaoyorozu entered, looking between the two in something akin to horror.
“Pardon my saying, but you two look like death.” Two pairs of tired eyes turned to her, and she shuddered. “Exam stress?”
“Poor time management skills,” Izuku admitted.
“Couldn’t sleep.” Shouto confessed, for his part. The vice-representative nodded curtly, before she claimed her seat and began preparing for the first round of reviews.
“Perhaps you should set an alarm for when you need to start winding down to go to sleep. Have some chamomile tea or warm milk.”
“Ugh… Yaomomo, you know how much I hate both of those things.” Shouto grimaced. She looked from the coffee cup to him with a raised brow.
“Well, seeing as it’s been a while since we have met up at anything aside from school, things could have changed. After all, you never used to like coffee. You always said it was as bitter as your father’s attitude.”
“It’s… still not a favorite. But I really did only sleep like three hours last night, and it wasn’t exactly… restful.”
Yaoyorozu softened a bit at that, and she shifted to sit sideways in her chair, fixing the pair with a gentle look. “I understand that it’s tempting to let good habits slide at the end of the term, but we still have our final exams to get through, before we can have a well-deserved break. Just think, we only have three days left.”
“You’re right. Tomorrow will be better, Yaoyorozu-san. Promise.” Izuku grinned tiredly, lifting his cup in a salute. The representative lazily waved her hand as if waving away something.
“Bah, you’re Shouto-kun’s friend, aren’t you? Yaomomo is fine.”
“I had a hard time saying her last name as a kid,” Shouto grinned, his voice a stage whisper. “So I just combined her names.”
“Ah, that sounds ridiculously cute…” Izuku admitted. Yaomomo snickered.
“Should have heard it when he lost his first tooth. I think I laughed for a solid half hour.”
Before they could start a real conversation, more students flooded in, several yawning, carrying their own cups of coffee, and Yaomomo’s attention was divided between her classmates. But between everything, she found a moment to flash a smile at Izuku, soft and grateful. He grinned back at her, before he reached out to push a lock of Shouto’s hair out of his face. The other jolted a little, blinked in something like confusion, before he rested his face against Izuku’s hand for a moment as he dozed back off.
Morning classes were harder than usual for Izuku to pay attention in, both from the remaining sleepiness, and from the feeling that he had betrayed Frost by just touching Shouto. But… had he? It wasn’t like he was doing it in anything but friendliness.
But you think he’s handsome, a vicious little hiss sounded in the back of his head, and Izuku tried to quash it before it got a firm hold on his brain.
He was just grateful that Iida sent him pictures of his notes, neat handwriting easy to read and concise even on his small phone screen. Lunch was spent copying them down in his own notebook, Shouto on one side of him and reading over his shoulder until Iida offered to send him the notes as well. The copying helped, and Izuku promised himself that he’d go to bed earlier that night.
It was a little later in the evening than normal when he finally logged on to the game, FrostBurn pinging him with a voice chat request just seconds later. He didn’t even get to say hello before Frost spoke up.
“Sorry, I had to set an alarm so we don’t talk until the early morning… please don’t be upset.”
“I’m not,” Izuku laughed, moving from his desk chair to his bed to kick back. “I was actually going to say I needed to log off early tonight so I can sleep, exams start tomorrow. I don’t know how I managed to keep myself awake in class today.”
“Same.” Frost sighed heavily, and the wobble in volume told Izuku that the other needed a new pair of headphones soon. Actually… maybe he could surprise him with a new set, that would be something. “-ku? Deku?”
“Huh? Sorry! Was thinking. What did you say?” The response got a laugh from the swordsman, and he felt his face heat up.
“I said I was in the same boat, but a friend gave me his notes. I was just between falling asleep and imagining meeting you. You know… we never did decide how we would know each other when we got to the plaza.”
“Crap, you’re right! I mean… you always read about people saying they’ll be holding flowers or something but… that’s just kind of giving someone something to carry all day, and they’d wilt besides… Wearing a specific color is kind of hard too, since there’s probably a lot of other people wearing the same color…”
“Fair. What if…” Frost mused, his voice fading and rising. “What if we agree to log on at one, and we can find each other that way? Then there isn’t something to carry, or us getting confused by people wearing the same color, like you said.”
“One small problem- you’re going to need a new mic before then. You’re fading in and out again.”
“I just got this- goddamnit. My brother must have borrowed them while he was here, he was giving me shit when I got home for looking tired. Like he doesn’t look like a costume design student’s final project. Punk ass…”
“What could he have done to mess up a new headset?”
“Wrap the cord around his phone all damn day. Mess the wires up with how tight he wraps them- why do you think I don’t get good headsets?” Frost was laughing about this now, though, so Izuku knew he wasn’t really mad. “I mean, yeah, it’s a money saver, but if he keeps stealing my headphones… ugh, I might be the youngest but he sure doesn’t act like he’s the oldest.”
“Well… just don’t get anything too expensive. I might want to get you a present, after all.”
“...Deku, you are too good for this world. And- ugh. Sorry, sounds like my brother’s at my door again. Guess I need to log off for the night. Are you going to be on tomorrow night?” Frost sounded hopeful, and Izuku laughed.
“I may be studying but I’ll be here. Sleep well, Frost. And good luck on your finals tomorrow!”
“You too. I… uhm… Iloveyou.” It was all in one breath and Frost had logged out moments later, but the suddenness of it had Izuku lying there staring at his ceiling for a solid thirty minutes before he logged out as well and finally went to sleep.
He hadn’t expected to run into Shouto the next morning, but he was at the corner near the cafe he had said his brother worked at, two drinks in hand. “Morning- promised to go see your brother again?”
“He owes me. Bastard broke my new headphones. Speaking of, do you mind if we run into a conbini on the way to school? I need to grab a new pair.”
“Okay? But why get ones from there? They’re going to break fairly fast, aren’t they?” Izuku asked, confusion growing as Shouto’s smile took on a soft sort of cast.
“A friend of mine offered to get me a new pair. More like he told me he was going to, so I don’t want him to think I don’t appreciate it.” He looked almost sheepish as they took the short detour to go into the store. “I think it’s a graduation present, kinda.”
“Huh. That’s pretty nice of him. Oh, hey, look. Kit Kats.” Izuku pointed, and the pair beelined over to the display. Shouto quickly grabbed a matcha kitkat and a mint chocolate one, before looking over to Izuku. “Huh?”
“Which ones do you want?”
“What?”
“Which. Flavors. C’mon, they’re good luck, right? We need all the luck we can get, I think.” That teasing lilt was back, and for a second Izuku almost saw FrostBurn’s avatar over Shouto’s face again, before he shook his head and grabbed an adzuki and a strawberry one. Shouto had stayed in front of the display for a moment longer before he grabbed up two more in the same flavor, and hurried to get in front of Izuku to pay for not only their chocolate but a new pair of earbuds.
“What was the last two for? Iida doesn’t buy into fortunes, and Ochako said that she and Tsuyu already went and got Kit Kats over the weekend…”
“I’m meeting my friend in a few days… and it may be a little late but I still want to get him something.” The faint flush spreading across his face had Izuku laughing gently, before reaching into the bag to grab the strawberry candy, eating a bar and drinking what turned out to be a green tea latte as they walked. “Hey, Izuku… if I say something you won’t think badly of me, will you?”
“Huh? Nah, why?”
“Because… the friend I’m meeting… I like him. A lot.”
“...and?” Izuku asked, confused. “I mean, you already explained that you’re gay, and I’m bi so why would I think badly of you?”
“Just… you kind of remind me of him, with how nice you are, and… ugh, sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.” It made Izuku’s heart tighten in his chest a little, but honestly?
He had kind of expected that Shouto had someone he was interested in.
So he just grinned and nudged the other with his shoulder lightly. “Hey, that’s flattering. If I remind you of someone you like, then they have to be an extraordinary person, eh? If I’m even a fraction like that, it’s a compliment. I wanna meet them someday. Make sure they know to treat you right.”
“Maybe… you can introduce your friend to them too, then. He’s going to Shizuoka too.”
“Huh. Small world!” Izuku laughed. Conversation tapered more to short reviews of what they were testing on that day from there, and the pair lapsed into a comfortable almost-silence.
–
“We did it!” Izuku cheered. Exams had finished, they were officially done with school. And…
And the day after tomorrow…
He was finally going to get to meet Frost. Frost’s new headset was crackly and awful, but it was still better to be able to hear him at all.
“We sure did. Congrats.”
“You don’t even know if I passed yet!”
“Neither do you. But I know you did. I can feel it.”
“Oh? And what else can you feel, oh powerful one?”
“I feel a mob oncoming.” Frost deadpanned, and the pair lapsed into their usual teamwork as they took on the dungeon before them. Today’s bonus was 2x exp, extra drop chances, and the pair were just ready to tackle some monsters to release the post-exam stress. As soon as they had finished attacking the mob that had attacked them, conversation picked back up.
“So the plan is for us to log in at one and give each other hints to find each other?” Frost asked.
“Yep. Sounds like a good plan to me. And we’re taking you to pick out a good headset after that!”
“I… might be bringing you something. Just something small, nothing much, and it’s a little late but… better late than never, right?” Frost was still audibly nervous, and Izuku couldn’t help but laugh.
“You sound like my friend! He bought us both snacks yesterday morning, some Kit Kats, and said it was better late than never! I guess he wasn’t wrong, anyway.”
“You were lucky to be able to find them,” Frost hummed. “I went to buy some more after school yesterday, but they were out pretty much everywhere. So, uh… I hope you don’t mind the green tea and sakura flavor.”
“I don’t think I’ve tried that one. Hey, where do you think we should go eat after we meet up?”
Conversation turned to other things after that, about the game and their imminent meetup, and Izuku found himself regretting that he had already made plans to help his mom clean the apartment top to bottom tomorrow. He wanted to go meet Frost already!
Forty-eight hours couldn’t pass quickly enough.
–
The plaza the pair had agreed to meet in was crowded as usual, and Izuku shoved his hands into the pockets of his loose pants, looking around. There were so many people here, how was he going to find Frost?! The buzz of his phone caught his attention, and he pulled it out to turn off the alarm he had set to remind him of when to log in to the game. He had barely gotten logged in when there was a voice chat request from Frost, one that he quickly accepted before popping in an earbud.
“Are you there, have you made it?”
“Hi to you, too, Frost. Yes, I’m here. I’m in front of…” he looked around before settling on a landmark, hurrying closer to it. “I’m in front of the fountain!”
“The fountain? Wait, which one? There’s one at each end!”
“Uh… Oh! The one in front of the florist, uh… Hanabira? I think? Yeah, that’s the one! Hanabira!” Izuku stopped right in front of the fountain, fighting to hear Frost over the singing of the water, the music playing over the loudspeakers, and the people crowding around him.
“Okay, you stay there! I’m not too far from there- I’ll see you in a few minutes!” Frost sounded like he was about to take off running, and Izuku fidgeted with his phone and looked around.
It was ridiculous, he knew that- he didn’t even know what Frost looked like, how would he know him when he saw him? But he was at least going to look out for him.
What he didn’t expect to see was a familiar red-and-white haired boy, cheap neon yellow headset in one ear and looking around almost nervously. He looked nice and- well, that made sense, he was supposed to be meeting his friend, wasn’t he? A blazer, slacks… he almost looked like he was going on a date…
Wait.
“Frost?” Izuku breathed, feeling his legs shaking.
“Yeah?” Shouto’s lips moved, a short syllable. There was no way… was there?
“Look… look right in front of you.”
Shouto’s mismatched eyes glazed over the crowd until he spotted the fountain, and saw Izuku. Those eyes widened, and he breathed a single word.
“Izuku?”
“H… hey.” The voice chat cut off abruptly, and Izuku exited out of the game nervously, tucking his phone and headphones back into his pocket, blinking tears back out of his eyes. There was no way- surely he wasn’t supposed to meet Shouto here, was he? And now that Shouto knew he was Deku, there was no way he was going to–
“Izuku!” Shouto was closer than he had realized, and he almost thought the other was going to tackle him, until he slowed his steps as he drew right up on him. “Izuku… you’re Deku?”
“Yeah…”
“So… wait, let me guess. Bakugou gave you the nickname, Ochako turned it into something positive.” Shouto was… smiling? “Heh, I should have figured…”
“Wait, you- you aren’t disappointed?” Izuku asked, stunned. “I mean… I’m Deku! There’s no way I’m the awesome person you described on either end of the line!”
“Well, unless someone else snagged the username ‘FrostBurn’ on day one of Heroes Journey, it looks like I’m him. Wait… you aren’t disappointed, are you?”
“What- no!” Izuku shook his head rapidly, tears spilling over his freckled cheeks and a smile beaming. “God, no! I… actually, this makes things easier!”
“Easier? Oh, shit, you’re crying, damn it…”
“Because all this time I was in love with Frost, and now I find out that the person who kept reminding me of him… IS him! I’ve felt guilty all this time because I kept seeing you as Frost, and seeing you in my dreams, and-”
Strong arms pulled him into a crushing hug, and let him hide his face in the soft knit of the other’s shirt. He smelled like cool water and cedar, and Izuku didn’t care who saw him, he wrapped his arms around Shouto’s waist. The other’s arms just tightened more, and it was like all the other sounds around them faded into a soft static. All he could hear was his whisper.
“This makes so much sense- no wonder I kept seeing similarities between you and Deku… this couldn’t have gotten any better, really. Wait, so the friend you kept mentioning was me, wasn’t it? God, you build a guy up, you know that?”
“Oh, like you’re any better? So I guess the other two Kit Kats you got are for us, then?” Izuku’s teasing tone got Shouto laughing, and he leaned down to kiss the other’s cheek. It brought a vivid red flush to the shorter boy’s face, and Shouto’s grin took on a devious quality.
“So you can take your phone into the bathroom and take a bath while talking to me, but you blush at a kiss where no one else is paying attention to us?” Shouto’s laugh sounded like bells, even as Izuku shoved him lightly. “I want that again, for the record, and if I can’t get that in person just yet I’ll accept over the phone.”
“I take back all the compliments I gave you, you’re heinous, simply terrible, a wonderful swordsman but just so rude otherwise. Teasing a man…”
“And you think that wasn’t teasing me? Gonna go up to your mom at graduation, introduce myself as the boy her son took to the bathroom with him.”
“Terrible. Absolutely terrible. I hope I get to meet your mom soon so I can tell her you’re a bad influence.”
“Blame Touya.” He finally stepped back, letting Izuku dry the remainder of the tears from his face before lacing their fingers together. “Two boyfriends, basically does everything either for the aesthetic, spite, or some combo of the pair, and he’s the one who comes home more frequently to freeload and eat Fuyumi’s cooking so of course I was influenced by him. I don’t think she’ll be surprised, honestly. I’ll take you with me when I help her move into her apartment. Now, I think we never did agree on what to eat, and I was so nervous to meet you that I couldn’t eat breakfast. So…”
The pair started down the plaza, debating the merits of various restaurants, favorite foods, and planning for the future yet to come. Now, though, it was less in the abstract and more along the lines of certainty.
They had been meant to find each other, one way or another. And they certainly had.