It's a long road...

ch. 1

545 words --

bakugo katsuki was prepared for a lot of things. villains? bring it on. kidnapped? been there, done that. deku? piece of frickin' cake. extras invading his personal space? he's blast them all to smithereens, problem solved. bakugo was a very capable person, thank you very much. but, for once in his life, bakugo found himself stumped. he had no idea how to approach this situation.

how in the world was bakugo going to be able to help ice prince shoto todoroki?

this whole situation started one normal day during lunch. mina and kirishima had been their heads off at the lunch table, and bakugo was developing a severe headache. he could feel his temper rising, and he was more than ready to blast all these extras to hell. but, his therapist says when he gets that angry, he needs to "remove himself from the situation". so, bakugo took in a very terse breath, and went to the bathroom.

once he went in, bakugo heard the sound of retching. someone was throwing up. bakugo peered at the one occupied stall and saw the dumb posh dress shoes that todoroki always wore to school.

todoroki was throwing up in a stall.

he had seemed fine in class? and, he was performing fine as ever during training when aizawa had the the students sparring. (he didn't do better than bakugo, though. duh.) bakugo furrowed his brows in confusion as he tried to figure out how todoroki had gotten sick.

but, let's make one thing very, very clear here. bakugo most certainly did not care if the dumb icyhot was sick. why would he care? why would you even think that, you stupid extra? you clearly don't know anything if you think that the katsuki bakugo ever even occupied any thoughts about todoroki others than how bakugo was much, much better better than the arrogant brat. you, reader, are very clearly dumb and should stop reading this RIGHT NOW! scram!!!

todoroki was now walking out of his stall, the sounds of a flushing toilet still echoing in the bathroom. todoroki gave bakugo one very quick glance before turning to the sinks in the bathroom and started to wash his hands.

bakugo examined todoroki, noticing his chapped lips, slightly red and puffy eyes, the tremor in his hands, and the way todoroki's shoulders were tense and hunched over, like he was preparing for bakugo to hit him. todoroki was washing his hands for a bit too long. the water he was using was steaming.

todoroki then splashed the steaming water on his face, turned the water off, put in a layer of chapstick, and popped a month from his pocket into his mouth.

"mint?" todoroki asked bakugo, pulling a second mint out of his pocket and offering it to bakugo with an outstretched hand.

"why were you throwing up?" bakugo asked, carefully taking the mint from todoroki's hand.

"i have the flu." todoroki said plainly, his face blank. bakugo could hear the mint clinking around against todoroki's teeth.

todoroki then walked out of the bathroom with his usual impersonal and untouchable demeanor. much different than the shaky todoroki who was just hunched over the sink. bakugo stared at the mint todoroki had given him. it was a red striped peppermint.