"Hey, Todoroki."

"Hm?" Todoroki looks up questioningly toward Ashido.

The two heroes-in-training are in the common area of the Heights Alliance dormitory with several of their other classmates, eating dinner.

"I've been wondering something about your quirk," she elaborates, staring at a spoonful of curry.

Midoriya and Iida look up in interest from their seats on either side of Todoroki. Hagakure, who is also sitting with the group at their table, might be looking up as well, but no one would know unless she said something due to her invisibility.

"What's that?" Todoroki asks after a beat when Ashido doesn't continue.

"So, like…do you ever get a brain freeze?"

Todoroki furrows his eyebrows together in confusion. When he glances at Midoriya and Iida, he is encouraged by the fact that they did not seem to expect her to say that either.

"Uhm, what?" he asks, uncharacteristically dumbly.

"Do you ever get a brain freeze?" she asks again, looking him in the eye now. "The other day I was eating some ice cream and I suppose I had too much in one bite because, yooowza, it hit me hard. It just made me think about how you probably never have that problem since you can just use your hot side to make it go away."

"That would be a nice perk," agrees Hagakure. "Or maybe if I had your cold quirk to cool off my mouth after eating some of this curry… Seriously, Bakugo needs to lay off the spices." She coughs and reaches for her glass of water. "It's a bit much."

"I…suppose…" Todoroki finally manages to get out. "I never thought about—"

"—WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY?!" Bakugo storms over and starts arguing with Hagakure while Todoroki is still trying to wrap his head around the previous conversation.

His quirk being as…well…flashy as it is, he is used to receiving questions about it. But he has never gotten this question before.

"—MAYBE SOMEBODY ELSE SHOULD DO THE DAMN COOKING FOR ONCE—"

"—said it was a bit much. That's all!"

"—IT'S CALLED BOLD FLAVOR YOU—"

"So, does it work like that? Can you eat really cold stuff, or foods that are really spicy or hot without it bothering you?" Ashido asks, shoving at Bakugo's shoulder so that she can look at Todoroki properly.

"—OI, KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF, PINKY—"

"—Calm down, Kacchan…"

"—You're being extremely loud, Bakugo. Please—we are all friends here—"

Todoroki eyes Bakugo wearily as Midoriya and Iida are now trying to calm the explosive blond boy. "I guess so? I've never had to think about it before. But, now that I do, I suppose it just comes naturally to me to use my quirk to regulate the temperature in my mouth, too."

"—DAMMIT! DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, DEKU!"

"So cool!" Ashido squeals. Personally, Todoroki does not see what the big deal is. Although maybe that is just because he has never had to worry about it before.

"—Ugh, we were having a nice time before you came over and ruined it, Bakugo!" Hagakure huffs.

Ashido giggles at Bakugo's incensed expression. "I wonder if you can handle more spice than even Bakugo," she throws out.

"Tch. Like I care!" Bakugo replies to Hagakure.

Todoroki considers Ashido's words. "I don't see why not," he concludes.

After all, it seems even without his quirk he has a higher tolerance for spice than some others given that he finds the curry to be quite pleasant even though the other four members of the table have been guzzling water down with nearly every bite.

"OI, HALF-AND-HALF, GET THAT CREEPY ASS SMIRK OFF YOUR FACE!"

Bakugo's attention is now on Todoroki.

Was he smirking? Not purposefully, at least.

"Oh, leave him alone, Bakugo. We are all suffering enough with how intense this stuff is," says Hagakure.

Bakugo grins. "Oh? Too spicy for you, Icy Hot?"

"Not really," Todoroki deadpans. "It's pretty mild for me, actually."

And even though he does not mean it to be contentious, Bakugo's sudden narrowed eyes and downturned mouth give him the impression that he has unknowingly set forth a challenge.

"Cocky bastard," Bakugo bites. "I toned it down for you weaklings. If I made it as hot as I wanted, you wouldn't be able to handle it."

"Maybe." Todoroki shrugs.

Bakugo slams a hand on the table. Hagakure squeaks and bumps into Ashido, who is watching the exchange with glee. Midoriya and Iida look hesitant.

"You think you're hot shit, acting all cool like that."

"Am I acting cool?"

"Oh, cripes, I think he's about to blow…" mutters Hagakure quietly, though the whole table hears her.

Todoroki means it as a legitimate question as opposed to the snarky comeback that Bakugo seems to have taken it for. He does not usually bother to provoke the blond boy (he typically doesn't have to, since his mere existence seems to provoke Bakugo some days) but seeing Bakugo riled up like this is strangely satisfying.

"We're settling this, Icy Hot!" With that declaration, Bakugo stomps over to the pantry and starts rummaging through it.

Exchanging wide-eyed looks and concerned expressions, the others slowly settle back down and start eating again. Todoroki shakes his head and returns to his curry. He does not exactly know what Bakugo means by 'settling this' but he is sure he will find out sooner or later.

"DAMMIT!" Bakugo's voice erupts from a few feet away from their table a few minutes later.

"What is it, Kacchan?" Midoriya ventures.

Bakugo moodily returns to their table. "I don't have everything I need to make another batch of curry. Especially the spicy kind I like." Todoroki notices that Bakugo glares at him as he says this.

So that's what he meant. He was planning to make more curry—spicier curry, maybe—and… What? See if Todoroki would eat it? Not very threatening.

"Hey, I know!" says Ashido. "Why don't we see who can eat more hot peppers? You had plenty extra, right, Bakugo?"

When she says this, Todoroki recalls the unreasonably large bag of peppers that Bakugo brought back from his grocery shopping trip earlier that evening. He announced that he was going to make curry for everyone and one of their classmates—Kaminari—practically started to sob when he saw the amount of peppers that Bakugo intended to use. After quite a bit of shouting, cursing, crying, and smacking, Bakugo finally agreed to 'tone it down' as he put it.

And so now there is still a pretty excessively large bag of peppers sitting in the fridge.

Bakugo grins wickedly at Ashido's suggestion. "Good idea, Pinky. I'll wipe the floor with you, Icy Hot."

Todoroki stares back. He should really put a stop to this. They have class in the morning and it sounds like this is exactly the kind of thing that would keep him up past the bedtime he kept every night. He is a responsible (mostly) hero-in-training, after all. He cannot let immature squabbles like this detract from his goals.

But he is also a bit of a prideful bastard and a teenage boy with a rebellious side. So, instead of declining to participate, he says, "You can try."

Within minutes, Ashido gathers every single one of their classmates into the common area. Bakugo and Todoroki are sitting on either side of one of the tables, with their classmates divided into 'cheering sections' behind each of them. In support of the 'Spicy Boom Boy' (as their classmate Kirishima has just referred to Bakugo) are Kirishima, Sero, Aoyama, Tokoyami, Ojiro, and Mineta. Backing the half-hot, half-cold hero-to-be are Hagakure, Iida, Uraraka, Asui, Jiro, Kaminari, Shoji, Koda, Sato, and Yaoyorozu.

"Uh…please don't throw up." And then there is Midoriya who does not seem able to decide whether to support his childhood friend or newfound pal and stands in between the two on the side of the table.

"Ok, here are the rules," says Ashido. "There are twenty peppers in front of each of you—"

A strangled sound cuts her off. "Shit, Bakugo, how many peppers did you buy?!"

"Shut your damn mouth, Kaminari!" Bakugo scoffs. "Fucking weakling," he adds, which earns him simultaneous scolding and reprimanding from Iida and Yaoyorozu. However, their attempts seem weak. Todoroki suspects they have all but given up after getting on to him about his language so many times already.

"Anyways…" says Ashido. "Whoever eats the most peppers wins. If one of you finishes your plate before the other, then you win."

"What do we get if we win?" asks Bakugo.

"Uh… Bragging rights?" Ashido suggests.

"Fuck that—"

"SLAP BET!" comes an enthusiastic suggestion from behind Bakugo.

Bakugo's face twists into a malicious smile. "For once, shitty hair, you are a genius. Alright, Icy Hot. When I beat you, I get to slap you as hard as I possibly can right in the fucking face. Agreed?"

"Why would I agree to that?"

"That's a thing?" comes Midoriya's scandalized voice from Todoroki's left.

"Hey, if you win, you get to slap him in the face," says Kaminari from behind Todoroki. "That would be pretty sweet, right?"

"Do it, Todoroki!" Uraraka urges. He frowns, a little taken aback by the rather…violent look in her eye.

Todoroki does not particularly care to slap Bakugo in the face. And he definitely doesn't want Bakugo to slap him in the face. But right now, everybody is looking at him expectantly and no matter how much effort his father has put toward training him to be a machine and harden his heart for combat, part of him is as much a teenage boy as the others and wants to have fun, develop friendships, and impress his peers in addition to honing his skills as a future pro-hero.

So, he looks Bakugo in the eye, lips curling upward slightly in a devilish smile, and says, "You're on."

"Guys…doesn't that seem a little…extreme?" asks Midoriya nervously.

"Shut your face, Deku, or I'll slap you instead."

"Alright, everybody ready?" Ashido asks from her spot opposite Midoriya, between the competitors.

"Here, Todoroki. Make sure to drink this when you need to," says Yaoyorozu. She reaches from behind him and sets down a glass full of milk in front of him. "It's better than water for helping with the spice," she explains, placing a nearly full pitcher of milk next to his glass.

"Thank you," he says with a nod. He is a little surprised that she and Iida did not object to the slap bet. Perhaps they want to see Bakugo get slapped in the face as much as Kaminari does.

He can't let them down.

"GO!" cries Ashido.

Todoroki and Bakugo both pick up peppers and shove them whole into their mouths. Todoroki clenches his jaw to try to relax the puckered feeling in his face as he chews as quickly as possible before swallowing. His tongue already feels like it's on fire—he forgot just how potent fresh peppers are. When Todoroki opens his eyes from his immediate reaction to the taste, he sees Bakugo smirking at him as the blond eats his pepper with a straight face.

Shit.

Their classmates are cheering wildly. The ones standing directly behind Todoroki are jostling his shoulders a bit, which definitely isn't helping the queasy feeling arising in his stomach as he chews his fourth pepper.

"C'mon, man, you got this!"

"Do it for the slap, Todoroki!"

"Stop pushing him," comes Yaoyorozu's authoritative voice, for which he is thankful. "You're going to make him throw up."

A gasp. It sounds like Hagakure. "—and then nobody gets to see Bakugo slapped."

The jostling stops immediately. Todoroki swallows and drains the last bit of milk in the glass with a grimace. He isn't fond of milk, but Yaoyorozu was not wrong about it helping.

"Let me refill that for you, buddy!" Kaminari practically jumps to provide his assistance.

Todoroki glances to his right to see the scoreboard that Yaoyorozu created for Ashido to use. It shows that Bakugo has finished six peppers to Todoroki's four. He promptly shoves his fifth and sixth peppers in his mouth simultaneously, willing his ice quirk to quell the unbearable heat purging his mouth—he has to catch up somehow. He won't lose this.

"FUCK."

Todoroki looks up as he is swallowing to see a red-faced Bakugo slam his fist in to the table and then down nearly an entire glass of water (Todoroki's cheering section has been keeping diligent watch over the milk).

The half-hot, half-cold hero-to-be grins and picks up his seventh pepper. It seems like Bakugo could be hitting some kind of limit soon. That is good considering Todoroki is not sure how much longer he has until the milk and his cold side will no longer be enough to quell the spice.

"You guys are crazy!" comes Kaminari's awed voice.

"You can say that again. Boys are kind of…dumb."

"If it's so dumb, then how come you're here cheering, Jiro?"

"It's—I came with Yaomomo! She wanted to watch. Gah, shut up, jamming-way."

"I didn't necessarily want to watch," says Yaoyorozu. "I'm just here to make sure that nobody gets hurt."

"Is that why you're cheering Todoroki on just as much as the rest of us?"

"I think you just want to see Bakugo get the shit slapped out of him."

"I—of course not! I would never condone such senseless violence. And watch your language, Kaminari!"

"Yaomomo, you've been muttering 'come on, come on, come on' under your breath this whole time. You totally wanna see that slap."

"Yeah, well…" Yaoyorozu's voice drops so that Todoroki can barely hear it. "Maybe Bakugo deserves a good slap in the face."

Todoroki chokes on his ninth pepper as an unbidden laugh arises from his chest.

"Todoroki!" Yaoyorozu cries.

He feels a thump on his back and then hears Kaminari's voice. "Dude, you ok?"

Todoroki nods as he swallows the pepper and reaches for his glass, which Jiro has just refilled again. The scoreboard reflects that Todoroki is now one pepper ahead of Bakugo. He pauses to check out the state of his competition.

Bakugo is still red in the face and now sweating bullets (though from the feeling of his bangs matted on his forehead, Todoroki probably is too). Bakugo wears a queasy expression as he chews on his ninth pepper. When the blond catches Todoroki watching him, he shows the half-hot, half-cold boy his middle finger. This act is met with an uproar from the group behind Todoroki.

"Very inappropriate, Bakugo!" Iida scolds, while Todoroki's trembling right hand picks up another pepper.

Looking at the pepper in his hand, he gets an idea. In an instant, the pepper is half-frozen. He raises it to the side of his mouth and chomps down.

It is a lot easier to manage. As he chews, Todoroki grins at Bakugo, who narrows his eyes.

"HEY, THAT'S CHEATING, SCARFACE."

As he chews the rest of the pepper, Todoroki glances over at Ashido—their unofficial referee—and raises a questioning eyebrow.

"We decided that use of quirks is allowed, so I don't see anything wrong with it." She shrugs.

"Fucking—fine—" Bakugo poises his hand over the remaining peppers on his plate and lets off a series of small explosions.

"WATCH IT, BAKUGO! We do not want to spend the weekend remodeling the kitchen. Again," says Ojiro.

"Relax, Tail Guy," is Bakugo's response. He raises a well-roasted (charred, actually) pepper and tosses it into his mouth.

"Nice one! I bet that makes it a lot easier," says Sero.

"Yeah, but doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose of the contest?" asks Asui, as Todoroki begrudgingly follows Bakugo's lead and alights a small flame around a handful of his own peppers. He shoves two or three into his mouth and chews rapidly—now that they have found a way to make the spice more tolerable, it seems that it might have become more a matter of speed.

"Nah. They're still spicy," Sato answers. "Just not as spicy."

"Todoroki, not you too! You guys seriously need to be careful. If this place burns down, I for one am not helping you two rebuild it."

"Todoroki, don't shove them in your mouth like that! I can't keep count!" whines Ashido.

"Yeah, but just think how great it would be as a team-building exercise to rebuild our dormitory!" says Iida. His exclamation is received poorly if the boos coming from both sides of the table are any indication.

After swallowing, Todoroki falls back in his chair, breathing heavily. An invisible hand grabs his glass of milk and offers it to him.

"Drink up! You're almost there! Just seven more peppers and then Bakugo gets slapped." The cheering behind him grows with renewed vigor and they start chanting, 'Get that slap,' 'Get that slap'.

Grinning, Todoroki accepts the glass from Hagakure and chugs half of it. Even with his mouth burning like hell he is having fun with all the excitement this is bringing to his classmates.

Bakugo and Todoroki are neck-and-neck now with thirteen points each on Ashido's scoreboard.

Bakugo shoves three peppers into his mouth and proceeds to chew them while simultaneously sipping on his water through a straw that Ojiro found.

Todoroki responds by roasting and then stuffing into his mouth four peppers. He nearly chokes on them.

"Don't be so hasty," scolds Yaoyorozu while somebody whacks him on the back.

"Dumbass," adds Jiro.

"You're mean, Jiro. He's just tryin' to win."

"Still a dumbass, Kaminari. How's he going to win if he chokes and dies?"

Todoroki briefly thinks about how that would be an awfully embarrassing way to go and then shakes his head to clear it. He needs to focus.

Before he is completely finished chewing the peppers currently in his mouth, Todoroki lifts a weary hand and grabs the three remaining peppers to add them.

Bakugo's eyes widen. He swallows and then crams his remaining four peppers into his mouth as well.

The cheering quiets as everybody is watching aptly for signs of who will finish first.

"This is so exciting," Hagakure squeals softly.

Scrunching one eye closed and keeping the other eye locked on Todoroki, Bakugo starts pounding the table repeatedly.

Todoroki forces himself to swallow, knowing that he should chew his peppers more before doing so but also knowing that Bakugo will beat him if he waits much longer.

Panting, he opens his mouth wide, letting his tongue loll out lazily, to show that he has finished.

The group behind him—and several of the people behind Bakugo—erupt in cheers.

Bakugo stands suddenly, knocking his chair over, and slams both fists on the table.

"Dude, watch it or you'll choke!" Kirishima says.

"DAMMIT, ICY HOT! YOU BASTARD!" Bakugo roars as soon as he has swallowed his remaining peppers.

"Dude, that was sick," says Kaminari, leaning over Todoroki's shoulder. "And now you get to let Bakugo have it!"

"Uh huh…" Todoroki doesn't entirely register what his classmates say to him as he stands on wobbly legs. He buckles and nearly falls when he tries to take a step, but fortunately Shoji catches him.

"I don't feel so good…" he murmurs to no one in particular before coughing.

"What do you expect after eating twenty hot peppers?" asks Yaoyorozu.

"Get him some ice cream!" Hagakure suggests, but Todoroki waves her off.

"I don't want to put anything else in my stomach for a while…"

"I'm honestly a little surprised that you both finished all of them," says Uraraka. "That was a lot."

"Are you ok, Todoroki?" asks Midoriya.

"I don't know," he moans. Shoji leads him over to a couch and he falls onto it.

"No, no, you can't fall asleep!" Uraraka urges. "We have to do the slap!"

Todoroki cocks an eye open and swivels it around the room. He sees Bakago on another couch, leaning forward with his arms on his legs.

"Don't tell me you're wimping out," says the blond in a hoarse voice.

Todoroki forces his body to move into a sitting position and then he slowly gets to his feet. "Alright. You ready?"

"Wait!" Jiro leaps in between them, finger moving hastily on her phone. "I have to record this." She raises her phone and backs away a bit. "Ok, ready when you guys are!"

"I don't know how to emotionally prepare myself for what's about to happen," Kaminari says in a hushed voice.

Bakugo stands to face Todoroki. "Just make it quick. I don't have all night."

"Alright." Todoroki raises his hand and pauses to gather himself. And aim.

"COME ON, FUCKER, JUST—"

SMACK!

There is a collective gasp when it happens, and a brief period of silence follows.

"Oh shit," hisses Kirishima. "That. Was awesome!"

"Tch. You slap like a girl, Icy Hot."

"Oh, yeah?" says Jiro as she walks toward Bakugo. "Wanna compare?"

"No," replies Bakugo hurriedly, and the rest of the group laughs.

Todoroki grins and then collapses back on the couch, hardly noticing the stinging in his hand with his mouth still crying over the previous abuse. "This was fun."

"Todoroki! Are you…ok?" Midoriya asks as Todoroki slumps into his desk.

"I feel like I'm in hell," Todoroki groans back, laying his head down.

"Did you…sleep ok?" Midoriya asks hesitantly.

"I woke up at three in the morning to vomit. I didn't stop fully until six. I don't think I have anything left inside of me."

A giggle from Todoroki's left captures his attention and, with effort, he rolls his face to eye his seatmate.

"Why are you laughing at my pain, Yaoyorozu? I thought you were better than that."

"Sorry," she says. "It's just funny. I didn't realize that you could be a stupid teenage boy, too."

"Yeah, well, here's the evidence."

"Maybe—" But whatever Yaoyorozu was about to say is cut off by Aizawa asking the class to settle down. Midoriya gives Todoroki a pitying grin and then hurries back to his own desk.

Todoroki slowly moves his face so that he's resting his chin on his desk and can look toward the front.

"Ok, so today we—" Aizawa stops. "Bakugo. What is wrong with your face?"

The class erupts into a fit of giggles and laughter. Todoroki smirks as Bakugo squirms in his seat.

"Nothing," the blond answers brusquely.

"Sure…" says Aizawa as he eyes the laughing students.

"Here, I can show you!" Ashido pulls out her phone and rushes to the front.

"I don't really care," Aizawa says, but he allows Ashido to show him the video anyways.

The class quiets, but then erupt into laughter once more after the smack from the video resounds through the classroom.

Todoroki notices for a brief moment that Aizawa's lips curl upward before returning to his usual deadpan expression. When he looks up, he looks straight at Todoroki. For a moment, the hero-in-training is worried that he might get into trouble. Then Aizawa's eyes shift back to Bakugo.

"You two are idiots," he says. "Bakugo, get some ice for the swelling after class."

A/N: Thank you for reading! This was mostly just written for my own amusement, although I tried to keep everybody in character as best I could. Bakugo didn't get as much love and his portrayal is a little one-note, but that's just how it shook out - he's actually one of my favorite characters. In my mind, after this, Yaoyorozu creates a bag that she gets Todoroki to put some ice in and then passes to Bakugo. Because they care. 3

I had fun with this and am considering following up with it because I definitely think slap bets would catch on as a trend with some of these characters (or that Bakugo would want another shot at slapping Todoroki at least). If anybody has suggestions/prompts for a slap bet that they would like for me to write about, please let me know because I am not the most creative and have zero ideas as of now. I won't make promises, but I'll certainly try if a good idea comes to me.