TodoBaku Stuff

Starting Over From Ground Zero - Part I

This is more like a short story than a oneshot, meaning it's kinda on the long side. There's also two parts to this.

Summary:
“What would their relationship have been like, if Bakugou’s pride hadn’t stood in the way? Would they have been friends, or would things have mostly stayed the same? Would Bakugou have been happier, more open and honest about his feelings and wants and needs as a person? Would he have accepted and even appreciated the comfort others offered him, rather than always keeping people at arm’s-length in an effort to maintain an image of independence and strength?

Todoroki didn’t know.

He didn’t know. But he wanted to.

Abruptly, like a bolt of lightning, he realized he actually had the chance to find out.”

(Or: that one where Bakugou has temporary amnesia and Todoroki is tasked with caring for him until his memory returns, but ends up falling in love with the part of Bakugou that Bakugou has always kept hidden away instead.)

~~~~~~~~~

When Todoroki got the call to respond to an emergency one sunny afternoon, he didn’t think much of it. The details he’d received had been brief but succinct: three villains, one already apprehended, but the last two giving substantial trouble to local officials, necessitating the call for backup. As a new intern fresh out of school, he was often sent on missions deemed unimportant enough to require the agency’s real heroes and sidekicks. Hence, his presence here was required.

It wasn’t until he actually arrived at the scene that he began to realize things were going to be different today than the routine he’d recently thrown himself into.

Screams filled the air, a fire burning somewhere down a nearby alley, smoke filtering heavy and thick into the skyline. He stepped onto the street to find it filled with surprisingly familiar faces—all familar young faces, and all contorted in various expressions of anxiety.

“Deku. What’s the situation?” Todoroki asked as he came to a stop next to Izuku, taking a loose fighting stance to be ready for whatever might happen.

Izuku spared him only a brief glance, his face serious, though he sounded relieved when he said Shouto grimly by way of greeting.

“This was supposed to be fairly small-scale, according to the report,” Izuku told him. “Kirishima managed to capture one of the three villains, but the other two have quirks that are causing us some… issues.”

A sense of foreboding settled in Todoroki’s stomach, heavy and unwelcome.

“Issues?” he replied with a frown. “ What kind of—“

A loud explosion came from the building before them, the glass shattering out and racing directly towards them. Todoroki threw up a wall of ice barely in time to stop the shards from running them through.

Izuku let out a shaky breath. “Um. Issues like that.”

Wonderful.

“What’s the quirk?” he asked thinly.

“Not sure,” Izuku mumbled as he peered carefully around the wall of ice. Todoroki followed him and found that there was no sign of anyone being present at all. Other than the distant screams, it was eerily quiet. “It seems like some kind of telekinesis quirk, but it’s way more powerful than the report said it would be. He calls himself Reaper.”

Todoroki snorted. Villains had a way of naming themselves in a manner that frequently impressed him with their sheer lack of creativity.

The two of them moved forward slowly, eyeing the building with no small amount of trepidation as they approached. Nothing seemed to move. No sounds came from within. And yet Todoroki knew, could somehow feel, that this was precisely where their targets were hiding.