I'll Have a Blue Christmas (As Long As You're Here With Me)

Far From Okay

He had to leave him.

Shouta couldn't take Todoroki. All he could really do was change bandages and administer painkillers. He helped Todoroki hide the presents he'd gotten for Ashido and then gotten him some food.

That's all he could do, and it felt like nothing.

Aizawa cared for all of his students, sometimes they made it hard but his job (and slight passion, admittedly) was to educate and set them up for what they wanted to do in life. With caring, always came worrying. When Midoriya had been approached by Shigaraki, he was worried. That kind of thing was haunting, encountering a villain in a place where you thought you'd be safe.

When Bakugo was kidnapped, he worried especially. The kid was hardheaded, thick skilled, and stubborn, but that wouldn't make him invincible to the mental drainage of being kidnapped.

And Iida, when his brother was injured. When he became so anguished he tried to go after a villain/vigilante who was known for killing heroes. For killing those who didn't fit his idea of a good society. Iida had suffered the consequences, Midoriya and Todoroki had suffered the consequences. Aizawa worried because those consequences were huge, going toe to toe with a serial killer.

He worried when he'd heard about Uraraka's encounter with Toga, getting stabbed and her blood stolen, mentally manipulated to slow down.

They were okay for the most part. Laughing with their friends and trying their best to be normal when they weren't training to save people.

No matter how powerful you were, how much experience you had under your belt, there was a fear that came with those things. Fighting a villain, not being able to save someone, witnessing something you weren't supposed to. Even All Might feared he might die in battle, might not be able to save someone.

Todoroki... well, Aizawa noticed that he doesn't process fear the same way as the other students. Not like anyone he's seen, actually. Todoroki doesn't seem scared of death or torture or being wounded. He never seemed scared of the villains he's seen, if the incident reports he'd seen had any truth to them.

Seeing Todoroki in action, he seemed simply scared to lose.

Except it wasn't so simple.

At first, Aizawa wrote it off as some sort of complex. Failing wasn't desirable in any setting. He hadn't met a UA student that wanted to fail at anything, not once.

But Todoroki seemed deathly afraid of failing. Like there would be something waiting for him if he failed, looming over him and causing anxiety to pour into his veins instead of out.

Aizawa knew All Might was right in some points he'd made. They didn't know the full story, they really shouldn't assume anything. But damn it, isn't that their job? Not only as heroes but as teachers? As adults who care?

Seeing Todoroki burnt and bruised and panicking in the back of a closet was unnerving. All he could think to do in the moment was stay calm and quiet. Prove to Todoroki that he wasn't there to expose this to his father. He wouldn't attract attention to the situation that might wake up Endeavor. He needed to prove Shouto would be okay if Aizawa was here.

He'd treated it with as much care as he could. Trying not to normalize the situation, but not trying to make Todoroki feel insane at the fact that it wasn't normal. Being beat up like this and forced to hide with the threat of his safety on the line, that wasn't something all kids go through. He had pushed to make that clear while not alienating Todoroki.

The burns on his body were hard to look at. The skin on his shoulder competley gone, and the way the kid didn't flinch or feel uncomfortable with any of it after he'd woken up, Aizawa had no doubt there was nerve damage. Todoroki probably couldn't even feel his own shoulder, and that would never be reversed.