NOTE: CROSSPOSTED ON AO3

One of the freakiest things to happen for Todoroki was waking up with blood all over his face. It wasn't through any nefarious means - just the weather. The freaking weather, it seemed stupid as heck.

But it was true.

It had been a particularly cold couple of weeks and the yearly winter cold was slowly making its way around the UA dorms. Living in such close quarters meant that without a doubt in the world - everybody was going to get it. Except for Todoroki it seemed. Perhaps it was his quirk – or just a blessedly strong immune system – but when it rolled around that the people on his floor of the dorms fell sceptical - it passed him by much to the annoyance of the rest of the class (why should they have to suffer with rough throats and stuffed noses and he didn't).

Due to this phenomenon Todoroki was more than happy to cuddle up with Midoriya when it was his turn to suffer.

"You're going to get sick," Midoriya mumbled, pain running through his skull caused by an unfortunate sinus infection.

Todoroki sighed, shaking his head as he ran a hand through his boyfriend's curls in an attempt to try and soothe him through the pain.

"If I was going to, then I would have already"

"I suppose."

If Todoroki could eat his words he would.

It was a little past 2 in the morning when something woke him from his sleep. His room felt cold, much colder than it had when he'd gone to bed. Todoroki's eyes fluttered open, his face felt warm, warmer than it should have. That's when he noticed it, the strange dark stain next to his head. No longer sleepy, he was at full alertness as he flipped on the closest light to illumine the small pool of blood that had trailed down his pillow, onto the edge of his futon and onto the floor.

Raising a shaky hand to his face, Todoroki brushed beneath his nose as it came away red, slowly dripping down his face onto his shirt. Blood generally didn't faze him, it was a part of him, why should it? But at that moment, feeling it run hot and sticky down his face, coating his bed, dripping down onto his shirt - it was a little . . . Freaky. Scary. Horrifying. All of the above?

Shucking off his covers with his one clean hand, Todoroki made his way into the joint bathroom of his room intending to grab some toilet paper just to try and ease the mess of blood that was still spilling freely - except there wasn't any . . .

Well shit.

He'd meant to replace that and completely forgot.

It was way too early in the morning to ask anybody for some, to the kitchen it was. Great, 5 flights of stairs in the middle of the night. Oh joy. Todoroki could feel the way the blood was now soaking through his cupped hand, dripping between his fingers and slowly begin to run down his arm. Well fuck, this was going to be fun times. There was no way he was going to make it downstairs without creating some sort of mess (well more of a mess than he already had).

That was impossible though because with each step Todoroki could feel the way warm blood kept slipping through his fingers and the small noise it made as it dripped to the linoleum floor as he made his way down stairs. Taking the lift down might have been faster but, and it might have been due to possible blood loss, the motion of the lift would have just been too much for the pain in Todoroki's head. So, the stairs it was - and if that wasn't half a task. A few steps at a time, hand that wasn't clutching at his face, clamped tightly onto the banister as the world swirled slightly before his eyes. There was a sick feeling in his stomach that hadn't been there before, and it made Todoroki regret his decision to leave his room even more.

Each flight of stairs was a trial and he knew, without a doubt, there would be a nice trail of blood down the stairs following him as a gory reminder of what had happened. Sure, it wasn't the most devastating thing in the world, but it wasn't pleasant either and Todoroki could have really done without it - fuck nosebleeds, honestly.

Eventually, Todoroki made into the ground floor, stopping for a few short moments to try and ease his spinning head and taking a few deep breaths through his mouth. There was an odd burning sensation at the back of his throat, like had hadn't had a drink in a while or he was coming down with something. However, it also had a sharper, faintly metallic feeling to it that Todoroki had an idea why but really didn't want to dwell on as the implication (and reality) was just simply gross. Once he felt secure enough on his feet, Todoroki made his way into the kitchen. He just wanted to take some kitchen roll and disappear back into his room but instead found the kitchen light on and . . .

"Izuku?" It kind of came out mumbled thanks to the hand in front of his face but also clear enough that Midoriya, who had been rummaging through a cupboard, turn dramatically.

"Oh, Shouto I'm just . . . Are you okay?"

Todoroki would have replied but a rather swift flow of blood had him very quickly grabbing for the roll of kitchen paper and hung his head over the sink, watching his blood feather as it dripped into left over water. Ripping kitchen roll off with one hand, he turned the sink on, letting it wash the blood away as fast as it fell.

"I'm okay," Todoroki eventually replied to Midoriya who had been edging closer until his hand was rubbing gentle circles on his back. "I'm fine."

"You sure?" Midoriya questioned.

Todoroki stole a glance towards his boyfriend who clearly wasn't over his illness. His eyes were still a little red rimmed, his nose still sore looking, and his voice roughened by coughs - despite that he still looked somewhat brighter.

"I'm sure," he paused to turn the piece of bloodied kitchen roll over before pressing it back to his nose. "How come you're awake?"

Midoriya frowned, clearly not taken by Todoroki's attempt to steer the conversation away from his still bleeding nose. Midoriya folded his arms, staring curiously towards his boyfriend.

"Couldn't sleep," brief and to the point. "What happened to you?"

"Woke up like this," Todoroki answered shortly, experimentally taking the sodden kitchen roll away from his nose but more blood continued to drop into the sink.

Behind Todoroki, Midoriya sighed, ripping off more sheets of kitchen roll and handing it to Todoroki who quickly balled it up to hold against his nose once more. He was still not feeling great; his head was sore, and that sick metallic feeling was still lingering at the back of his throat and to top it all of his stomach was slowly becoming more unsettled. Normally Todoroki would have k own what caused all of the issues, minor blood loss and blood running down his throat when he was sleeping, but in his sleep addled state - it was all above him completely.

He just wished it would stop so he could go back to his room, change the sheets and sleep. At that moment, sleep sounded so good. Midoriya was once again rubbing circles into Todoroki's back and he appreciated the gesture, even if it didn't do much to ease his suffering.

"You feeling better?" Todoroki glanced towards Midoriya who smiled softly.

"Maybe I should be asking you that."

It felt like an eternity when blood finally stopped draining from Todoroki's nose. It looked like a murder had taken place in the kitchen sink. Blood splattered in the metal basin and up the sides, bloody kitchen roll and bloody handprints on the counter. It was kind of awful. Todoroki groaned, realising he had double the clean up to do - but before he could move, Midoriya had jumped in with the kitchen bin, swiping the used kitchen roll into it.

"Don't do that Izuku," Todoroki complained. "It's not your mess to clean up."

"It doesn't bother me really," it really didn't. Blood was just something he'd got used to, kinda came with the job he planned to do. "Plus you don't look so good."

So Midoriya could see it then, he must have looked as bad as he felt. Sighing, but not saying anything further, Todoroki processed to wipe down the counter top and sink, determined to not let Midoriya clean up his entire mess despite how tired and sick he really felt.

It could have been a few minutes or a few hours, but Todoroki was eventually able to go back to his room, this time with Midoriya supporting him - all feeling of energy had completely left him by that point.

"Aw, shit."

They had made it back to Todoroki's room only to realise he still had to clean up the mess in there - and Todoroki just couldn't be bothered. He was tired, sick and dizzy and the last thing he wanted was to do more cleaning. Midoriya glanced towards his downtrodden boyfriend and smiled gently.

"Why don't you sleep in my room and we can clean this up tomorrow."

"No, that's too much Izuku," Todoroki mumbled, he was really losing the fight to stay awake.

"It's probably better that way, also since I-" Midoriya stopped, not really wanting to say that he wanted to keep an eye on Todoroki because he was worried - which was the truth - because he knew, without a doubt, Todoroki would try as best he could to fight his way out of it. Sleep deprived or not. At that point, however, Todoroki was just too tired and let himself be lead to Midoriya's bedroom.

Todoroki had little more than enough energy to flop onto Midoriya's bed and curled in on himself. He was so tired. Feeling less sick might have been a good thing but there was still an incessant pressure in his head that he just knew would stop him from sleeping. It had turned out to not be a very good night at all.

"I told you you'd get sick."

Todoroki hadn't even noticed Midoriya climbing into the spot next to him, so Todoroki rolled over and buried his head into Midoriya's stomach, he wanted to tell him not to gloat about how right he was but, well he just couldn't. It was past the point of tiredness and into exhaustion. It seemed absurd that it could be like that since he'd been sleeping beforehand - maybe bleeding unknowingly did that to your body, Todoroki could honestly say he had no idea. So, to try and comfort himself he snuggled closer to Midoriya.

"You feeling any better?"

"Not really," he could have lied and said he felt totally fine, but, nah, that wasn't happening. Todoroki knew he couldn't lie his way out of true state he was in - and it sure was quite a state. He could feel the way Midoriya sighed and a feeling of guilt settled in Todoroki's chest. "Sorry for bothering you."

"Bothering . . . What?" Midoriya could have laughed. "You worry me."

"Sorry for that then."

It was a slightly mumbled response, but Todoroki was enjoying the way Midoriya was holding him around the shoulders, his hand stroking the wispy hair at the top of his neck. It was very . . . calming. Unlike the rest of the night and Todoroki couldn't help the way his eyes closed.

Midoriya could feel the way Todoroki relaxed body losing the tension it usually held and the way his breath evened out. For a few moments, he continued so it, holding Todoroki gently, watching him in the half darkness. Smiling, Midoriya carefully shifted his sleeping boyfriend off him and pulled the covers up around them both. Snuggling close to Todoroki, Midoriya let himself fall asleep knowing that if anything should happen, he'd be there for Todoroki.

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