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“You know,” Izuku said, turning in a slow circle to make sure that yes, absolutely everyone in the airport was frozen. “This could have been really handy at literally any other point of this entire adventure.”
Everyone but the two of them.
“Hm,” Rody articulated, hobbling on the crutches. After all the time they had spent together, Izuku was pretty sure it was an agreement. “Pino’s still moving.”
“You said he’s kind of like your soul, right?” Izuku said, moving slightly closer. You know, just in case. “If you’re not affected, it’s only logical he wouldn’t be, either.”
“Right,” Rody smiled weakly. “So… Any idea what’s going on?”
“Quirk, probably,” Izuku shrugged. “Has anything weird happened to you on the way here?”
“Not really,” Trying to shrug, Rody had only succeeded in nearly falling off his crutches. He would have, had Izuku not been right beside him. “Any other ideas?”
“Magic?” Izuku suggests, trying desperately to scrape up some other reason why they might be in this situation as he helps Rody collect his crutches. Pino chirps at him as he does and Izuku does not have to be an expert in Pino to understand that Rody is doing the soul equivalent of rolling his eyes at him.
“Magic? That’s your answer after a quirk?”
“I mean, what else do you think it could be if it’s not a quirk?” Izuku challenges. Rody does not offer a second opinion and Izuku takes the win and does not push the matter further, “Whatever happened, it has to have an end condition, we just need to figure out what that is.”
“Right, right, the end condition, totally,” Rody says, falling into step beside Izuku as he walks up to where Kacchan and Todoroki are frozen as they went to board the escalator. He waves his hands in front of his friend’s faces, wondering if movement closer to them might shake them out of it.
Nothing happens though, not even as Izuku attempts to shake them. They remain just as they are. Even a small dose of One For All injected into his veins is not enough to move them.
“Okay, seriously, what the hell?” Rody says from where he is watching Izuku, Pino nestled in his hair. Both of their eyes are wide as they meet Izuku’s gaze.
“There has to be something affecting the area that isn’t affecting us, or something that we did that’s kept us immune. Unless of course everyone is affected the same way we are and they’re all assuming they’re the only ones unaffected as well. We might all be frozen with no idea at all, our brains receiving signals that our bodies aren’t telling us.” Izuku mutters to himself, trying to parse through what the problem might be.
“Okay, uh, one thing at a time I guess. You said it might be the area? What if we tried to leave?” Rody looks around the airport and Izuku does the same. As far as he can see, everything is at a complete standstill. Even the television monitors announcing flight departures are frozen, words stuck mid-scroll.
Izuku nods. “Stay here. I’ll check it out with One for All—I don’t want you running around on that leg.”
Rody rocks forward as his mouth opens, looking like he wants to argue (and if Pino angrily chirping is anything to go by, he does). Izuku hesitates, waiting for him to object. Nothing comes.
“...stay safe, yeah?” Rody finally says. Izuku softens his stance for a moment and smiles before nodding once.
“Yeah,” Izuku answers, his voice gentle, and then he’s off. One for All crackles beneath his skin as he runs, tingling painfully beneath the cuts and bruises still littering his body. This probably isn’t the smartest thing he could be doing mere days after getting beat within an inch of his life, but if there’s a malicious quirk at work then he needs to be ready.
Izuku feels the air change around him in an instant, and it’s the only warning he gets before ramming himself headfirst into a solid wall of… something. He reels back and clutches his nose with a hiss as hot blood begins to dribble down his chin.
That hurt, Izuku thinks to himself blearily. He halfheartedly wipes at the blood with the back of his hand, though it doesn’t do much to help. Giving up, he considers the space in front of him.
“What… what are you…?”
To his naked eye, it doesn’t look like there’s anything in front of him. By all rights there shouldn’t be, and yet there must be. Why?
Reaching out a tentative hand, Izuku brushes his fingertips against the barrier. The air ripples visibly at the touch like throwing rocks in a still lake, compelling him to press harder. The air solidifies beneath his firm touch, entirely impassable.
“That can’t be good,” Izuku can’t help but say aloud.
He runs the perimeter around them just in case, hoping to find an opening in their invisible prison to no avail. When Izuku is well and truly convinced that there’s no obvious way out he returns to Rody.
“Any luc—Deku! What happened to your nose?!”
“Ah, just ran into something,” Izuku says, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. Rody struggles on his crutches to get a tissue out, and Izuku feels bad about it, but the handkerchief is pressed to his nose before he gets a chance to protest. “So, here’s the bad news: we can’t leave the airport.”
“What?” Rody stared at him, eyes wide. “Are the doors locked or-”
“There’s some sort of an invisible barrier,” Izuku shakes his head minutely, mindful of the way Rody is still pressing the tissue. “I can’t do anything about it. Some kind of a power field?”
Rody presses his empty hand to his chin, deep in thought. “We didn’t consider someone’s invention being the cause for this,” he said. “Kind of an oversight, considering what we had to deal with.”
Izuku snorted. “You know, as crazy as this whole adventure was, I’m glad I got to spend that time with you.”
Freezing, Rody stared at Izuku, his eyes wide. He almost got worried Rody got somehow frozen as well, if it weren’t for Pino flying gently towards Izuku’s shoulder, nuzzling into his jaw.
“Aww,” Izuku cooed, using a finger to scratch the little birdie. Rody made some sort of a choking sound, pulling Izuku’s attention back towards himself. “Ah, Rody, you’re kind of bleeding from your nose now, too.”
Rody seemed to shake himself out of the stupor, finally removing the handkerchief. “Well then,” he said, moving as if he wanted to clap his hands together before remembering there was blood involved. “What can we do, then?”
“Let’s sit down first,” Izuku offered, leading him to a nearby bench. Just because everyone was frozen didn’t mean they had to keep standing, too. “It might take a while to figure it out.”
Without a protest, Rody followed him towards the bench, smirking as they passed close to Kacchan and Todoroki, frozen on the first steps of the elevator.
“Did anything feel… Weird, when it happened?” Izuku asked, trying to work out what the possible cause was. And why weren’t the two of them affected?
“I- Not really?” Rody shrugged, massaging his thigh absently. Izuku did not let his eyes wander. “I don’t know, one moment you were going to leave, then the next-”
“We’re trapped in here, together,” a realization was knocking on the doors, begging to be let in, but Izuku didn’t have the key. Window would have to do. “Alone. And together.”
“Well, I’d hardly call this alone,” Rody said dryly.
“Rody,” Izuku took one of Rody’s hands into his own, holding it gently. The speed at which Rody’s head snapped up was genuinely alarming. “I have to go back to Japan.”
“I know!” Rody flinched, straightening up. “I’m not- I’m not doing anything-!”
“It’s not your fault, I know, I have a different point,” Izuku interrupted. “I have to go back, yes, but that doesn’t mean I’ll forget about you.”
If it was even possible, Rody stiffened further. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Rody…” Izuku turned his attention to the hand he was holding, all the calluses and the nicks. “We’ve gone through a lot during that last week. I… It changed me, a little.”
He could hear Rody swallow nervously. Izuku couldn’t blame him, the only reason his own hands didn’t tremble from nerves was because they were holding Rody’s hand.
“If you wanted to… to try, I know long-distance d-dating is not exactly ideal, but-”
Izuku got interrupted by Rody’s free hand lifting his chin, lips pressing against his own.
“OI, DEKU, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WASTING TIME ON NOW?” Came Kacchan’s shout.
Which meant… The airport was unfrozen.
Izuku spent a long second delaying that realization, but eventually, he had to come up for air. The way Rody was staring at him made him blush.
Pino launched herself out of wherever she had been hiding, preening against Izuku’s jaw, aggressively tickling him.
“I have to go,” he said, regret thick in his voice.
“I know,” Rody nodded. “But we’ll see each other again. And I have your number. I’ll send photos of Pino with sad eyes if you ignore me for too long.”
Laughing, Izuku stole one more quick kiss before running to join his classmates.