Ice, Fire, Love, Explosion: Season 2 | My Hero Academia

Chapter 21: My Life Without You

For the event in this chapter, everyone wears the same outfits as the art above. This is my absolute favourite anniversary art ❤️

3rd Person POV

It was a rather cloudy day. The fluffy, white clouds shielded the land from the bright, comforting rays of the sun... leaving only a dull blue sky.

The grass beneath all the stones to remember others by was a beautiful, fresh green. You would figure for a cemetery the grass would almost be dead, as if mimicking those who slept beneath its soil... but no. This was a cemetery where only Heroes rested, whether Pros or not... as a payment of respect to them.

Todoroki walked through one of the pathways towards the back of the cemetery, passing by rows and rows of graves. Though his stoic eyes never left the rectangular stone directly at the end of the specific pathway he was on.

He crouched down in front of the rectangular stone, his voice lowering into a soft yet emotionless hush. "Hey." Slowly lifting up his right hand, the ring around his index finger unable to shine from the absence of the beautiful sun... did he run his fingertips across the 3D emerald butterflies with black outlines that decorated the stone, as if flying off high into the sky... and his half-lidded eyes followed his fingertips.

"Love, um... It's... been a bit, hasn't it."

Running his fingertips across the last butterfly, he slowly sat down on his knees as his hands fell down to his thighs.

"I'm sorry for only coming back a few days after the funeral."

He spoke in a soft, emotionless hush, his voice unable to go any higher nor show any feeling. And his half-lidded eyes that stared at her full name and her hero name underneath it engraved into the stone were equal to his voice... solemn.

"It... It never gets easier. Coming to see you, I mean. I'm sorry."

"I'm still at the manor. I... still haven't been back to the dorms since the day after that night. It doesn't feel like home anymore."

"I can't return there." His chin slightly fell, eyes staring down at his hands that intensified their grip on his pants. "It's like... all those feelings from that horrible night hit me. It's suffocating. It's almost as if I—" He bit down on his lip, eyes drastically constricted and shaking. "It's almost as if I... can still feel you there, but—"

He blinked. His half-open eyes were dead.

"But I know you're not. And you never will be."

"I... finally understand why you locked yourself in your room." He glanced up back at the stone, and to the words engraved into it... more specifically her first name. "You really felt there was no point in anything anymore... and I feel the same. I can't leave the house other than to come see you."

"Love, my—" He tried to say, but all that came out was a soundless, shaky breath... and his voice desperately cracked.

"My world has come to a stop."

"I don't know what to do anymore, I—"

His head fell as his lips quivered just as his voice winced, feeling his eyes begin to water up.

"I'm all alone... I can't live without you..."

No longer gripping his pants, he turned his hands around and glanced down at his open palms, the back of his hands resting against his thighs. His gaze looked to the silver ring around his cold index finger, the hole in the shape of a heart pressed against the fabric.

"I can't find it in myself to not wear my ring. Even if you can no longer wear yours."

His warm hand mindlessly lifted to his chest to grasp the ring around his neck attached to a thin chain. It was his late girlfriend's ring... and he always wore it around his neck as a necklace.