Archive of Our Own ^beta

Shouto Todoroki knew something was wrong the second he opened his eyes.

And it might’ve had something to do with the fact he was frozen to his blanket.

Like, literally.

He must’ve lost control of his ice in his sleep, because his special blanket was frozen to him and then frozen to his bedsheets.

How that happened was unknown to him — it had been years since he had lost control of his quirk, especially his ice side with how much training he put into his ability to control when he was and wasn’t using it.

It took an embarrassing amount of time for him to tear himself away from the bed. He's pretty sure the sheets tore.

Once he stood upright, the world turned upside down and he stumbled into his desk. He couldn't tell if it made a noise or not — which was odd, his hearing should be fine — but the things on his desk looked like they rattled through his bleary eyesight (that he couldn’t blink away).

His body actively shivered more than it should’ve been. He didn’t shiver much in general, since the fire side of his quirk worked well as a personal heater in the colder weather. He was very good at regulating his own temperature, so this was weird.

Ignoring it, he walked past his mirror without a second look, exiting his dorm for the self-promise of breakfast. A soft smile was worn, since he knew he had no classes.

——

Kirishima was lounging on the couch with Kaminari and Sero. The two were playing some new video game on the TV in the common room, and he made himself comfortable watching. It was a little embarrassing how bad he was at these kinds of games.

Some other classmates were hanging out lazily, as they didn’t have school today. It was comfortable.

Then Todoroki came in.

He looked like death walking.

“I'm gonna make you eat it harder than you can- holy shit is that- woah you look dead!” Kaminari said, his sentence going all over the place. The sound of his character dying and Sero hooting followed.

Everyone's eyes moved to Todoroki, who stood in the doorway.

His eyes were rimmed red, unnaturally so. His nose was the same, as were his cheeks. And- were those icicles in his hair? Kirishima swore they were only on the white side of it too.

“Are you okay, man?” Kirishima couldn’t help but ask, his natural, caring side coming out with ease.

Todoroki sniffled. “I feel odd. But yes, I think so.” He answered.

He sounded worse than he looked. One hundred percent.

Mina spoke next. “Todoroki, babe, you’re totally sick!” She said, approaching him. Her hand raised and went to his forehead.

“For someone with ice in his hair, you’re piping hot, babe!”

“Is that supposed to be a backhanded compliment?”

“I have to agree, Todoroki.” Sero said, looking over the back of the couch. “You look like a dead man walking. I think Mr Aizawa has medicine somewhere.” He advised.

Todoroki was honestly confused. Yeah, he felt a little hot but couldn’t stop shivering, and yeah he got frozen to his bed ten minutes ago, but maybe he overworked his quirk? Training yesterday was more tiring than usual, and maybe this was a side effect he’d never come across yet?

There's no way he could get sick.

“I must have overworked myself. I'll be fine.” He excused, walking past Mina and the rest of those watching, entering the kitchen.

“Does he have part of his bedsheet frozen to his blanket?”

“I think he does?..”

——

He got worse.

After eating some simple breakfast, Todoroki sat with Kirishima on the couch to watch Sero and Kaminari game.

It took fifteen minutes for him to go from a shivering mess to sweating through his shirt, blanket, and onto the pillow he was resting on.

“Man, you should really go to Aizawa.” Kirishima said, hands hovering over his friend like he wasn’t quite sure what to do.

“I agree.” Kaminari said, genuine concern slipping through his usually lighthearted tone. "That's like, a lot of sweat.”

True to the electric boy’s words, it was dripping down his temple and off his top lip, soaking his shirt. And yet, he shivered.

In the room was also Midoriya, Ochako, and Iida, who had also repeatedly advised going to Recovery Girl, if not Aizawa.

“This is not something we should deal with, Shouto.” Midoriya said, obviously worried like everyone else. “You’ve clearly got a fever of some sort, and it’s messing with your quirk’s ability to regulate your temperature properly.” He rambled slightly, unable to help himself.

Todoroki sniffled. He didn't think it would get this bad, but he was achy, and shaking, and sweaty a lot, and his head pounded and his eyes burned.

Maybe they were right.

——

Recovery Girl sighed when she saw him.

“Fever.” She said simply, reading the thermometer. “Your temperature is currently 43.33°C. The average fever temperature is normally closer between 36.1° and 37.2°, but with the nature of your quirk, I'm not shocked it’s much higher.”

After that, she gave him some prescription fever medication that was for individuals with element based quirks like his. It was stronger to help with temperature regulation.

“I would advise a lukewarm towel to his forehead, dears.” She told the group — Midoriya, Iida, and Kirishima — who came with. “It should help somewhat in the meantime. Not too cold though or too hot though, as it’ll bring him to freeze quickly, or back to this.”

“We will do that!” Iida said with a curt nod. “Let’s go, Shouto. We’ve got you.”

As Todoroki walked — leaning heavily against Iida and gripping Kirishima's forearm, with Midoriya chatting to fill the silence, Shouto knew they had him.

It sucked, and this had never happened before, but now he knew that his friends had his back — even if he froze his bed and made them laugh, and then concerned them sweating through the couch.

(He would later freeze himself to the dining chair during dinner, getting rounds of laughter that made him hold back a smile. His quirk usage was harder to manage than normal, but he was grateful when Kirishima handed him another dose of the meds he was given. He'd be fine, he was sure.)