Like Friends Do

Chapter 1

Todoroki had never been the "friendly" type, and of that he was certain. At least, he had been certain, until his duel with Midoriya during the sports festival.

Something about Midoriya's ability to penetrate years of psychological abuse regarding his feelings towards his left side left Todoroki in awe. After all, he hardly knew Midoriya as anyone more than the kid in class who scored lowest on their very first test of abilities before the event, or the kid who jumped out to save All Might when the League of Villains first attacked. And then, Midoriya went and blew both him and Bakugo away in the first trial of the games in order to take the lead. That grabbed Todoroki's attention more than anything; while he knew Midoriya was not the best at using his quirk, he had the most heroic mindset of anyone Todoroki knew – besides All Might.

He supposed it surprised him that following the sports festival, battered and all, Midoriya made an effort to talk to Todoroki, the way Todoroki assumed friends did. It started simply enough – Midoriya sat next to him at lunch, and soon after Todoroki became comfortable with Midoriya, Ochaco and Iida were sitting with them, too. Sometimes Todoroki felt uncomfortable surrounded by that many people, but then Midoriya would say something just for him, ask him if he was okay or if he needed some time alone, and everything felt alright.

Except sometimes that left an uneasy feeling in Todoroki's stomach. He'd been trained by his old man, Endeavor, to be cold and distant and instead focus on developing his Quirk. Midoriya's friendship sometimes felt intruding and intimidating, and sometimes even terrifying, with the way Midoriya read him like an open book.

But then Todoroki noticed that it had nothing to do with him; it was just Midoriya. Despite his powerful Quirk, sometimes Todoroki wondered if Midoriya really possessed the ability to read minds, or if he'd just developed a sixth sense for catching onto people's emotions.

Todoroki noticed this one day when Iida came to class exactly two minutes and twenty seconds late. Todoroki could tell something was different about him, but he assumed maybe Iida had forgotten to brush his hair or something. Later at lunch, he saw Midoriya pull Iida aside in the lunch line. "Hey, I noticed you're looking pretty sore," he had said, passing Iida a pill bottle. "I had some painkillers in my bag from Recovery Girl."

"I thought I hid it well," Iida sighed. "I can't look weak – I'm the Class Representative!"

"Oh—it's not like that," Midoriya shook his head. "You hid it really well! I just recognized that you were relying more on your right leg when you walk, and I remember you got hit on your left side yesterday..." he rubbed his neck sheepishly, and Iida chuckled and patted him on the shoulder.

"Thank you, Midoriya."

Todoroki almost asked, a few times, how Midoriya did that. One time his sister had the flu and Todoroki didn't even notice until she got up and fainted on her way to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Up until that point, he had assumed she was just...hot. Overheating? Did she do that, too? Todoroki supposed he never bothered to ask.

All of this is to say that Todoroki eased up around Midoriya, especially after they moved into the dorms. In such close proximity to Midoriya, to everyone, really, Todoroki got a bit anxious. He thought of times when he had nightmares as a child and woke up because his room had frozen over, or worse, his bed had caught fire. That hadn't happened in years, but Todoroki feared it might come back just to haunt him. But whenever Todoroki's mind began to spiral about all the dangerous situations he could put Midoriya in, Midoriya would always grip his shoulder. Subtly. Never for too long, and never noticeably enough that anyone would call them out for it. Midoriya somehow knew just how to soothe Todoroki – and that would have scared Todoroki early on in their friendship, but at that point it didn't.