Icyhot #2 (OCxBakugo)

Surpassing Shoto

Throughout the rest of the week, I'd wake up two hours earlier to meet my father in Gym Gamma for training. I was still meeting up with everyone for breakfast and tried my best not to raise suspicion. I didn't want Shoto to know. He'd either want to join me or protect me, and he'd be getting in my way, either way.

On just my second day of training, I received special bracelets from the tech support students and I was finally beginning to gain more control. While training with the others, I stood on top of the tallest pillar in Gym Gamma and I expelled flames from my hands before getting them to spin around my body. I was working on creating shapes and trying to solidify my flames. While the flame spun around me, I tried shaping it into a dragon. It slowly thickened and the head of the dragon began to form until I lost control. I looked around at the chaos around me. It was hard to focus with so much happening in every direction. I looked down at my oblivious brother as he focused on using his fire and ice at the same time. It was smart of him to train harder in that, but I smiled at the thought of me surpassing him. I created a large snowflake in one hand, and a small phoenix in the other. Before the bracelets, I could already shape what I wanted, but it took a lot more energy and I couldn't do it at the same time until now. Shoto has always been stronger, but my quirk has always been sharper. If I couldn't beat him in strength, I knew I could beat him in technique.

On the fourth and last day of training, many of us had improved and I had finally caught the attention of my brother.

"Ah! Dragon!" Aoyama screamed as the fire dragon I was working on finally came into fruition. It was large, defined and scary, just like I wanted. I rode its back in laps around the gym as I laughed happily. Once I wanted to get off, I made it descend as I made it smaller, until it wasn't strong enough to hold me. It soon disappeared and I landed in front of my Ectoplasm copy.

"How was that?!" I excitedly asked.

"Incredible." He answered. "You've improved tremendously."

"Yea, that was amazing!" Yelled Sato as he and a few others approached.

"I can't believe you were able to do that in just a week." Shoto said. "That really was amazing."

"Thank you." I smiled at him although I felt a little guilty.

"That was so scary!" Hagakure yelled, making me laugh.

"And badass." I heard Katsuki say from behind me. I was loving the praises, but we all had to continue training until the end of class.

"Is it the tech?" I heard Shoto ask as we walked to our next class.

"It helps." I casually answered. "I've been working hard."

"I know... but so have I. I'm proud of you, but I feel like I'm doing something wrong."

"You're not. You've been trying to use both quirks at once, at full strength and you've been doing great. I've just been trying to strengthen my fire side. I can't do what you do and you can't do what I do, so I'd say we're pretty even."

"That's true, but I guess I'll have to work harder too. I can't just let you be better than me."

He smiled and I smiled back before rolling my eyes. "You do that, but I'll still be better than you sooner than you think."

Once the weekend came, we were all getting ready to leave campus. I decided to go with Shoto to see our mother again and Katsuki had mentioned that he was heading out with Kirishima before going to see his parents. Our camping trip was the next weekend, and he offered to buy me a backpack for camping. I chose between a few colors, but ultimately let him choose.

"Ready?" Asked Shoto as he walked up to me. I nodded and walked to the front with him where we waited for the bus. After about an hour, we got to the hospital and checked in. Shoto and I had bought some flowers at the gift shop and went to her room. "Hey mom." Said Shoto as he walked in.