Seeking Comfort ( Izuku X Uraraka)

Chapter 23

Thanks for all the nice comments!

It didn't take her long to make her way to the gym the students had been allowed access to. The training facilities were available until midnight and Ochaco was afraid Deku would stay there until he was kicked out. She wasn't entirely sure what to expect of him – he had been pretty calm on the way home from the meeting – but knowing him, he was probably training himself tired to take his mind off the events of the day.

Ochaco entered the gym through the front and let her gaze sweep over the room, searching for her green-haired friend. She saw Todoroki, Satou and a few of the others, but Deku was nowhere in sight. The brunette felt worry gnaw in the pit of her stomach, but she pushed it down and headed straight to Todoroki who was practicing hitting targets with both quirks simultaneously.

"Todoroki-kun." She called out to him to alert him of her presence and to avoid startling him and becoming a new target for him. That had happened to Deku before, but his amazing reflexes had saved him and he had gotten away with only a bruise from where he had deflected the icicle hurled towards him.

The prince of the class looked up at his name being called and ceased fire, literally. Waves of heat rolled off him and Ochaco briefly wished she had taken off her jacket before coming inside, but she shook her head and continued forward, hoping he could help.

"Yes?" He asked and walked over to meet her halfway. At first glance, he didn't seem tired, but once he got close enough Ochaco could see tiny puffs of air leaving his mouth as his breathing was slightly labored. His left side had beads of sweat rolling down his skin and his clothes appeared damp, while on his right side the clothes had frozen over in several places and wisps of mist flowed from his skin and hair.

"How long have you been here?" She couldn't help but ask. He, along with Iida and Deku, was among those who frequented the gym the most, surely he didn't have to push himself so hard?

'That is exactly why they are so much stronger than you.' The uninvited thoughts snuck up on her and she quickly drowned out the voice with reason. Of course they would be stronger than her if they trained so vigorously every day. Ochaco was also improving steadily and that wasn't going unnoticed.

"It's been a couple hours." Todoroki shrugged and wiped his forehead with his sleeve, scrunching his brows together when the moisture started freezing. He really needed to control his temperature regulation better without his costume – that was probably one of his biggest hurdles at the moment.

"Have you seen Deku?" Ochaco noticed that Todoroki's footprints left scorch marks or ice every time he took a step and wondered if he was aware or simply didn't bother controlling his quirk in his feet.

"He was here a while ago, over there." The normally quiet boy pointed to where a handful of dummies had been lined up against the wall. Ochaco wordlessly walked over to the mangled dummies and Todoroki followed silently behind. Midoriya had abandoned some of them lying in heaps on the floor, but he had easily gone through half a dozen still standing upright.

Ochaco made a choking sound when they came into view. All of the dummies were tattered and destroyed from overuse. Marks showed where Deku had punched and kicked the most and his blows had only gotten harder. The backsides of the dummies were all ripped open and their stuffing had fallen out most likely from impact of a quirk-powered hit.

"He went pretty hard at it." Todoroki remarked as they surveyed the damage done by their friend. He must have been really upset if this was the state his equipment was in. To Ochaco's horror, she saw specks of red spattered across the front of one dummy.

"Is that blood?" She pointed to the dummy and Todoroki stilled. He had watched Midoriya do reckless things on a number of occasions, but he hadn't noticed his friend's frustration that seemed to have caused the kindhearted boy to punch his hands bloody.