Work Text:
"No!"
"My food!"
"WHY?"
Izuku hummed pleasantly to himself as he walked down the street, a light pink leash in his hand and a black face mask on. Rivaille trotted happily beside him, panting as she swept an icy gaze around the city and across the streets.
He had been trying to exercise her to the best of his ability, doing it every day, but apparently, he was being too slow today. She had let him know that by counter-surfing on the bar and swiping Dabi's fries.
Fries aside, the trail of slobber on the counter had Kurogiri giving Izuku a look. He had practically sprinted to grab the leash and clip it to her collar. If he didn't, he truly feared for his life.
After getting Rivaille, the tension between him and the rest of the League had melted rather easily. It wasn't like a real friendship, but he wasn't nervously darting from corner to corner as he snuck out to buy cleaning supplies. He was brave enough to walk out in broad daylight to get his Windex.
Well, broad artificial LED lighting from the bulbs hanging above his head.
The point was, he was not hiding his constant buying of every cleaning product to ever exist. And another thing he had discovered was Rivaille was too goddamn smart for her own good.
She had picked up on the fact Izuku didn't have a great relationship with food and decided she was going to solve that. By being smarter than Izuku on a good day. How, one might question, was she able to do this?
Emotional manipulation.
On the third day, after he set her bowl down, she looked from it to him and sat back. She stared at him, not touching the bowl or changing her expression even minutely, the blue seeming to look through his very soul.
He had shifted very uncomfortably, and with lack of something to do, he reached out and grabbed a granola bar and took a bite. And as he did, Rivaille leaned down to grab a mouthful of her food, chewing it and swallowing.
He had relaxed, relieved she had finally broken that terrifying stare she had on him.
And then she took a drink of water and sat back again, looking at him. Again, with that terrifying soul-piercing look that just told him to get his shit together or she would do it for him.
He had taken another bite of his granola bar, and she had taken another bite of her food. He had run out of granola bar quickly, but she stared at him even longer. He blinked, and they stared for another long while.
He broke down and grabbed a bag of chips.
She took one mouthful for every bite he took.
Like he said, too fucking smart. He couldn't very well let her starve because he had mental issues. But he was also having troubles eating all that food because then he would just get even fatter, wouldn't he?
So she had placed him at a very inconvenient crossroads.
And she knew it.
Too damn smart, and he would stand by that until he died.
The dog in question turned to him as they walked, nudging his hand with her nose before turning and moving quicker than before. Izuku didn't enjoy running with a mask on, because he felt like it stole his oxygen from him, which was always annoying. But Rivaille was moving with a purpose towards the park in the center of the city, a determined look in her eyes.
Izuku rolled him and took up a light jog to keep up with her, moving quickly through the city. The two ran down the sidewalk, passing by buildings in a blur of grey and black, the dark grey sky bringing the promise of rain with it later.
Dodging people and kids and other animals, Izuku and Rivaille it to the park rather quickly, and Rivaille looked so pleased with herself. She drew herself up higher and puffed out her chest, her ears standing regally.
"You're so majestic," Izuku told her, reaching out to rub the spot between her ears. She shook her head, ears flicking as she shot him a glare. He laughed at her, and the two started to walk further into the park.
Rivaille had her nose to the ground, almost seeming like she was tracking something. Izuku was content to let her have her way, following at her side as if the positions were reversed and he was the dog.
"Maybe I should try to do scent work with you," Izuku hummed thoughtfully to himself as she led him further down a secluded path, surrounded by trees and mostly untrodden. "I bet you would have fun doing that, and you could be our cadaver dog."
Rivaille wagged her tail once as if to signal she heard him and almost sort-of approved of the idea. Izuku had seen videos online and had a general idea of how to go about teaching her since he couldn't very well put her in a class.
Maybe he could, if he grabbed a wig or something... he didn't think scent work classes did very deep background checks, right?
...Right?
Rivaille suddenly gave a sharp jerk on the leash, almost tripping Izuku, who was still trying to catch his breath from running. Blinking, he caught his balance shakily and braced his hands on his knees, heaving in a deep breath.
"You can't pull me like that, I'll fall over," he said, tugging back on the leash that was still straining.
Rivaille whined but came back to him, nosing the underside of his neck and trying to push his head up. Izuku sighed and placed a hand on her back, reaching up to take off the face mask and straighten. He was again tugged forward by the pull of Rivaille, and he looked up to see what exactly she was straining so hard to get to. He didn't appreciate being pulled so much.
And there was a person standing in front of him.
A specific person he happened to know.
...shit.
Shouto hadn't been having a good day.
He hadn't been having a good month and a half, really. Ever since he somehow managed to wind up with pneumonia and stuck under the watchful, oppressive eye of his older sister Fuyumi. She had kept him locked up for three weeks. Three weeks.
His only saving grace was that Endeavor had made himself scarce.
So he ends up on house arrest for three weeks, and then when he does get back to school, Midoriya is gone and no one will tell him where he went or what happened! All he knows is that there is an empty seat in the classroom and noticeable darkness over the students.
Very descriptive. Very helpful.
He tried texting and calling Midoriya's number, only to find it had been taken out of service. He had later found out his friend -his only friend- had been declared missing. How wonderful.
He was ready to break some bones to yank an answer out of somebody, out of anybody.
He was never getting pneumonia again. Bad things happened.
So yes, Midoriya Izuku had effectively vanished from the face of the Earth, and no one would give him so much as a hint as to why. He took his lunch breaks in his dorm room in front of a folder with possible reasons why Midoriya had gone and where he could be.
He was-
He was worried.
And now, it was like an unspoken taboo to even mention him in the classroom. If he did, the entire world was going to implode and come crashing around his shoulders. This was getting him nowhere.
Finally, he had reached his breaking point in the dorm rooms. Three weeks mostly sleepless had taken its toll on him, and there were black smudge marks under his eyes. His end had come when Bakugou had decided to make one remark.
And he still didn't get any damn information about what the hell was going on.
Shouto was tired beyond tired as he walked out of the kitchen, phone in his hand as he walked forward, worrying his lip between his teeth. He was fairly certain he had picked up that one from Midoriya. He was heading back to his room from being outside, shoes still on when he walked straight into something.
"Move it dumbass. Why the fuck are you even glued to that damn screen? Stalking someone?" Bakugou sneered, a cruel twist in his expression and a horrible, unforgiving glint in his gaze.
Shouto had never liked him. And he was so goddamned tired of being left in the dark. "Just trying to find our missing classmate. Not that you'd care, of course."
A heavy silence fell over the room. Shouto didn't care. He wanted them to feel uncomfortable, to feel like they had failed. Because they had. Midoriya, the sweetest person he had ever met, was gone and it was their fault.
"Good riddance." Bakugou muttered.
And that was enough to break his fragile self-control.
Ten minutes later, he was walking out of the dorms with a few minor burns but left behind a frost-bitten, third-degree burned, black and blue Bakugou. Kirishima, for his efforts, most likely had frostbite as well.
Now he was walking into a nearby park he liked to frequent, especially as a kid. He took one of the secluded paths that hardly anyone knew about, much less used. He needed to cool down, he guessed. And probably get the burns on his arms treated sometime soon, but that came second. He would be fine for now.
"I bet you could do that, and you could be our cadaver dog."
No.
Not only was that sentence an incredibly odd, very suspicious one, but Shouto's breath was catching because he recognized that voice. Was it really him? Was he just hallucinating because of his own need to see him again?
That was the only he got before heavy footsteps were racing for him, and he was freezing in the middle of the path as a very large dog appeared in front of him. She was a harlequin Dane, it seemed, with cold blue eyes.
"You can't pull me like that, I'll fall over!"
The dog was straining against the leash, trying to get to Shouto before turning back around and nudging at the greenette huffing beside her. She pushed at him with her nose, whining.
The boy finally sighed and reached up to place a hand on her back, using his other hand to take off a plain black face-mask he had been wearing. But then he straightened, and Shouto was still there frozen because he couldn't quite comprehend what was happening.
Midoriya froze, looking incredibly guilty. The two of them stared at each other, unable to move forward or backward or anywhere on the path, because both of them were right there.
Shouto was moving before he could understand he was even moving, rushing forward, steps silent across the ground and still unable to take a breath, to stop and realize that he was in front of him.
He reached out, wrapping his arms around Midoriya's shoulders and pulling him close, one hand cupping the back of his head as he leaned down, resting his forehead in the juncture between shoulder and neck.
"Midoriya," he gasped, holding him tight.
Midoriya stiffened, and shook his head, resting his own forehead on Shouto's shoulder. He started shaking, and he could feel the water soaking through his shirt as Midoriya stood there, arms at his sides.
"Todoroki," Midoriya said, and god it had been so long since he had heard the voice, god how he had missed it, missed it saying his name, missed the rambling and muttering that was always so Midoriya. "Todoroki, you have to go."
Shouto didn't move. "Why?"
Midoriya's voice was shaking and cracking at the edges, breaking. "Todoroki, you have to get away from me. I'm bad, Todoroki. I'm a villain. You have to get out of here. I'm a villain now."
"I don't care."
And that seemed to be what he needed to say, because Midoriya was holding him, and they were standing there in the middle of the path, just holding each other because they could. He had found Midoriya.
Who cared if he wasn't a hero? He was still, irrevocably, irreparably, Midoriya.
"You're here." he found himself saying, choked up and small.
Midoriya just rubbed one hand over his back in a soothing motion, nodding against his shoulder. "Yes, Todoroki. I'm here."
And if that wasn't what he needed to hear.
Izuku held a leash in one hand and Shouto's in the other, pulling him forward as they walked back to the bar. Rivaille bounced in between them, sniffing at Shouto or nudging at Izuku.
He spared a small smile for his dog, black facemask in place once more. He walked down the street, turning a corner and walking down the rickety old stairs. Moving forward, he reached out and opened the door, motioning for Rivaille to go in.
The dog walked inside happily, leash dragging behind her as Izuku pulled Shouto inside. He shut the door behind them, flicking the lock as he always did when he came inside. It was a deeply ingrained habit he couldn't rid himself of.
"Izu-kun, I hope you got me more fries to help account for your devil dog," Toga called, though her face was glued to the TV screen.
Izuku ignored her, holding Shouto's hand tightly and pulling him down the stairs. They walked swiftly across the area, down the hall, and heading for his room. Still, the others caught sight of the red-and-white haired boy, and Dabi dropped his phone with a small curse.
They were ignored as Izuku pulled Shouto into his room, letting Rivaille step in before closing the door and locking it. He turned to Shouto, who was glancing around. Izuku pointed to the bed silently as he walked to his bookcase, grabbing his medkit and walking back to Shouto.
"Give me your arm." He ordered.
Shouto complied.
He grabbed cream and a wet rag, spreading the cream lightly over the burn and then placing the rag on top of it. The coolness infused with the cream felt like pure relief, and unknowingly eased the tension in Shouto's shoulders.
Izuku looked at him with sparkling green eyes, a focused gaze he could find himself so lost inside of.
"What are you going to do?"