Bakugo swings, missing Todoroki just barely and he feels frustration bubbling up, yelling in annoyance at Todoroki's agility.

Stupid Todoroki. Why did he have to go and read his stupid message?

That was Bakugo's private conversation with his dad. Todoroki just had to be nosy and in the damn way.

He doesn't know who tackles who, but Bakugo ends up on the ground when he hears Mr. Aizawa in the back, telling them to cut it out.

Bakugo feels weak, stomach empty and throat absolutely burning as his wrists beg to be scratched, beyond itchy.

Why did Todoroki even want to meet after school? To blackmail him?

To tell Bakugo he knows he takes medication and will expose him unless he does what he asks?

Hell no, Bakugo was not going to take any shit from anyone, so he swung, not even giving Todoroki a chance to spew his stupid shit.

Trying to push Todoroki off of him, he barely registers Mr. Aizawa leaving, not even trying to pull them apart.

Both of the teenagers struggle, Bakugo ending up on top before Todoroki does this weird leg shit and pins Bakugo to the floor.

Then all of a sudden his eyes burn like hell, distracting him from the fight as he shuts his eyes tightly, feeling like a brand new person, mind empty and his throat doesn't burn, his arms don't itch, and he notes that he's not hungry before opening his eyes to find himself-

What?

He's pinning himself down?

What?

All of a sudden, his usually thoughts come rushing through his mind and he doesn't feel like he's on top of the world anymore.

Although he feels physically okay.

Well, other than the fact that he might have a heart attack because he's pinning himself to the ground.

He scrambles off, confused to feel how weird it is to move, eyes finding it hard to adjust, and when he stands, something is off.

Why is he looking at himself?

He turns to Mr. Aizawa who's suddenly there again, but he has company. The teacher is shaking his head, sighing in disappointment with his arms crossed over his chest.

Bakugo looks back at himself who's groaning and getting up slowly.

"What?"

Bakugo looks back at Mr. Aizawa and he feels like he's going insane.

What is going on?

"Bakugo?"

Said teen looks back at himself, so confused and trying to figure out what's going on.

He stretches out his arms, noticing that these are not his arms and when the thought that he might be in Todoroki's body flashes through his mind, he immediately reaches his hand up to his face, feeling the bumpy texture of a scar that's definitely there.

What the fuck?

Bakugo turns back to Mr. Aizawa after he sees Todoroki grimace at talking and looking downright uncomfortable.

"Why does my throat burn? Bakugo, are you sick?" Todoroki asks in Bakugo's body.

Fuck.

Fuck shit fuck.

Bakugo stares at Mr. Aizawa, mouth open in shock and eyes wide.

"Mr. Aizawa, what did you do?"

That voice, that's not his voice. This is Todoroki's voice.

Because apparently he's in Todoroki's body.

"Hello there. I'm Hoku," the random man says, bringing Bakugo's attention to him.

He kind of forgot he was there in his panic.

Fuck Todoroki's going to know.

"Sorry about all the confusion. Let me explain-"

"Just switch us back," Bakugo interrupts, not caring about this stupid guy's quirk, just wanting to keep his life private from his fucking classmates.

Is that so much to ask?

"That's what I'm getting to. I can't. My quirk lasts about a week. I switch two people, sometimes more and it activates by giving you this burning in your eyes," he starts, already making Bakugo want to run for his damn life.

"Then for a quick second, you feel the person's mind. For example, if you're an insecure person switching into a confident person's mind, you feel their confidence briefly. You'll get your own thoughts right after, but then in about four hours, you start to develop the person's thoughts again, keeping them for the remainder of the switch."

Bakugo is going to kill himself.

What?

"Wait, so you're saying we're stuck like this for a week and in four hours we're going to feel like the other person?" Todoroki asks and it throws Bakugo in for a loop because he's looking at himself talk, but that's Todoroki.

Todoroki is in his body.

Fuck, he's definitely going to find out, then.

~~~~~

Bakugo was annoyed. Beyond annoyed actually. He was fucking pissed.

Why the fuck did that Halfie idiot have to go out and fight him. Bakugo had a reason to be mad, and even though he doesn't really contain his anger well, he figures that he was right to be mad.

Todoroki had none.

He was the one who went and looked at his dad's message.

Actually- okay, yeah, it was an accident. Bakugo would've looked, too, but the point is Todoroki did it to him, so he's mad at him now.

And now because of that damn fucking Halfie idiot, they're stuck in each other's bodies.

Todoroki is kind of just- he's just kind of empty, honestly.

It's kind of concerning, but Bakugo will find out more soon enough.

That stupid Hoku guy can't even undo his own quirk. How shitty.

One week.

Bakugo is stuck in Todoroki's body for one week and Todoroki is stuck in his. Bakugo's fucking depressed and anxious, but he'd rather live his own shitty life than Todoroki's shitty life.

That brief moment where they felt each other's emotions was kind of bizarre.

Yeah, Bakugo wasn't full of self-loathing thoughts for that moment, but he didn't really think anything.

What he does feel bad for is the burning throat and the itchy arms Todoroki is going through in his body. Bakugo's body.

Looking at his body from a different person's eyes is insane. He's definitely not overweight, so his eating habits should go back to normal once he's back in his own body. That's not really the problem, though. He's tried telling himself he's fine. It's just a habit now. A bad one.

Bakugo liked throwing up, too.

It made him feel better for some reason. Like if all the badness in his body was just expelled.

Fuck.

Fucking Todoroki.

"So we have to talk," Todoroki tells Bakugo after the blond had left in a hurry right after their switch.

It's Todoroki, but Bakugo is looking at his own body and holy fuck it's confusing.

"You clearly," Todoroki says, pointing at his wrists. Yeah, those are annoying and itchy all the fucking time.

Bakugo nods, feeling embarrassed and shitty as fuck. He wonders what Todoroki's mental health is like. Is it always so blank in his mind?

"What else is up with you?" Todoroki asks, fighting the urge to scratch at the cuts under the sleeves.

It's like he doesn't want to hurt Bakugo's body.

Bakugo really doesn't want to talk about how he makes himself puke to lose weight because he feels gross and big because looking at himself through Todoroki's eyes now will make him sound fucking ridiculous.

"My throat burns. Is it cause you're sick?" Todoroki asks, cleaning his throat and wincing when it hurts even more.

Bakugo shakes his head and exhales heavily, deciding that he has to get this shit over with if they're going to do this shit. He sure as hell doesn't want any of their classmates knowing about this.

"I threw up earlier," Bakugo blurts, feeling really weird at the sound of his voice because it's not his voice, it's Todoroki's.

Bakugo takes that time to look at Todoroki's body, stretching out his arms and looking at his legs, getting used to the change.

"On purpose?" Todoroki asks, already knowing that the answer is yes.

Bakugo nods, looking as he opens and closes his fists, or, well, Todoroki's fists.

"Alright, you better not do that to my body, I'll tell Aizawa if you do," Todoroki threatens, actually sounding mean with Bakugo's voice.

Bakugo shakes his head, waving his hands in front of him and cursing.

"I'm fucking losing it. This is insane. Is this not insane? I'm fucking looking at myself and hearing you talk with my voice- what the fuck?"

Todoroki actually has the nerve to smile, holding back a laugh.

"I need something for my throat, and these cuts itch. How do you function like this?"

Baking shrugs.

"I think I'm fucking great and also the fucking worst at the same time. They kinda work," he admits, not really caring what he says as Todoroki's going to be in his mind anyway.

In four hours they're going to have each other's fucking mental health.

What a way to put yourself in other's shoes. Fucking literally. Bakugo's going to kill that guy.

"We gotta talk about our lives. We have to go home," Todoroki says, reminding Bakugo.

"Alright, fuck, you go first, then," Bakugo says, rolling his eyes.

Todoroki sighs in annoyance.

"You know Endeavor?" Todoroki prompts, and Bakugo glares at him.

"No shit I know Endeavor."

"Okay, he's very stubborn. Says I was born to surpass All Might, so if you're going to be living as me, you should know he's a jerk who likes to beat the hell out of me."

Bakugo's left reeling.

What the fuck?

"What?"

His asshole dad beats him? Just for the hell of it?

"He does it to test my strength, but I don't fight back on purpose. I really don't know if we should keep our switch a secret. I don't want you to have to-"

"No. No way am I letting people know that we switched all cause of a fucking fight. I'd rather eat shit."

"Bakugo, you don't eat."

Bakugo scoffs, not sure if to be offended or to laugh because that was funny.

He ends up laughing, pushing Todoroki slightly.

"I'll give that one to you, fucking loser. Anyway, anything else I should know?"

Todoroki breathes in, thinking about it.

"I have a schedule every single day that my father expects me to follow. I'll send it to you. We'll keep our own phones. Besides the shitty dad, I think that's it," Todoroki says.

Then it's Bakugo's turn.

"My parents are gone pretty much all the time, but we were supposed to talk today about their work. I take pills for my fucked up brain. I take them at night and in the morning. Other than that, there's nothing."

Todoroki nods in acknowledgement.

"Alright. I'm in your body so I'm hungry and I would like to properly clean and wrap these arms. One more thing, we need to go to the store to buy a throat spray. I can't stand it," Todoroki says, grimacing after he swallows.

Bakugo huffs, embarrassed, but pretends not to be.

"Fuck I really hate this shit," Bakugo curses and Todoroki nods in agreement.

"That makes two of us."

~~~~~

Walking into the Todoroki mansion sure is something.

Bakugo's thoughts are altered now, enough time passing so they started getting each other's thoughts.

It's quiet. Dead quiet, but Bakugo knows that he's supposed to be doing homework right now.

He's Todoroki, so in order to avoid getting caught, he's doing Todoroki's work and Todoroki is doing his. That is, for now. Tomorrow they will exchange papers and switch the names.

They talked a little bit over a small meal.

Todoroki told Bakugo he had to get home soon or else Endeavor would find out and be mad.

Bakugo is not a big fan of getting beat up, so they ate quickly, chatting faster before they went their separate ways, using a GPS to find each other's homes.

Apparently, it's just Todoroki and Endeavor now. His sister moved out not too long ago, but his brother had been gone as soon as he'd turned eighteen.

Bakugo sighs, remembering which room was Todoroki's based on memory since Todoroki had explained without proper instruction whereas Bakugo gave Todoroki a specific route to follow to get to his room.

It's too late to ask for better instruction, so Bakugo shrugs, deciding to wing it based on the vague information Todoroki gave.

When he finally finds the room, he sighs in relief, flopping on the bed before remembering that he should be doing homework if he doesn't want to get a beating.

That quickly motivates him to get his ass up.

Todoroki's room is much like his dorm. There's not really anything personal to even prove that a teenage boy lives here.

Like if he wasn't allowed to express himself or was trying to hide himself from others.

Either way, it made a pit form in the bottom of his stomach.

It's a little while later that he starts getting that empty feeling again. It's weird, but he pushes through it and kind of likes how he doesn't feel so horrible.

He's done with homework when Endeavor arrives, and Bakugo checks the time, sighing when he realizes that it's 'training with Endeavor' time.

Bakugo hears the stomping all the way to Todoroki's bedroom, and anxiety starts clawing at Bakugo.

Okay, so Todoroki is not all empty feelings.

Bakugo knows to stay neutral, though. So he erases the last few things he wrote and pretends to be finishing up when Endeavor barges into the room loudly with the loudest yell of, "Shoto, get into the training room, now."

Bakugo gets up and pushes the chair in, turning to Endeavor and nodding.

"I'll be waiting for you," Bakugo says in the most neutral voice in the world.

He'd changed earlier to be ready for training and while he was changing, he'd really started hating the switch because they had to shower and use the restroom in each other's bodies. How fucking weird and shitty, in Bakugo's opinion.

As he walks to the training room, he slowly starts getting some of Todoroki's deepest and most pressing memories.

The one that almost has him falling to the floor and having a breakdown is the memory of Todoroki's mother looking at Todoroki with the most horrifying look on her face and pouring boiling hot water on him.

For some reason, the thing that hits him harder than the fact that his mother physically hurt him was the look on his mom's face.

She was genuinely horrified and looked at him with so much disdain and hate.

It hurt him, but, surprisingly, Bakugo didn't feel the urge to cry no matter how fucking sad that was.

Okay, wow, this bastard deals with shit the exact opposite of himself.

Instead of lashing out, he bottles absolutely everything up.

Bakugo is left in the training room alone, stretching as he waits for Endeavor, already nervous because he has no idea how Endeavor fights and this might end up really bad.

The only problem, Bakugo realizes, is that he can't let it out.

He can't let his emotions out at all, and he thinks that that might be worse than how he is because at least he gets some relief when he cries or lashes out.

Todoroki doesn't get that, apparently.

This whole thing is fucked up.

Bakugo finishes stretching the best he can and still has time to spare, so he tries out moves on his own to figure out how to move in Todoroki's body.

It's disorienting.

The height difference isn't much, but it's different from his every day life.

After about ten minutes, Bakugo hears the stomping of Endeavor's loud self and cringes as he realizes that he does that, too. He should definitely stop that seeing as it's obnoxious and Todoroki clearly doesn't like it if his accelerating heart rate is anything to go by.

Muscle memory, Bakugo guesses.

"Shoto, you better be ready."

Bakugo rushes to sit in a certain spot that Todoroki had told him about, saying that Endeavor liked for Todoroki to be sitting there waiting for him.

Bakugo could only assume it was to assert dominance.

When the the doors to the training room slam open, Bakugo's soul leaves Todoroki's body, but he doesn't outwardly react.

This fucking asshole might have had a field day with that if he'd seen Todoroki react.

"On your feet now."

His voice is so demanding and way too loud for such a small space. It's only them two.

Okay, so Bakugo needs to stop yelling, too. Even though it has slowly been calming down, he thinks he should probably speed up that process for himself if he doesn't want to be perceived just like this bitch.

He does get on his feet in record time, and as soon as he's up, Endeavor lunges forward, which almost catches Bakugo off guard, but he remembered that Todoroki told him that Endeavor did this often, so he was able to react on time.

As soon as he dodges, Bakugo turns and tries to use Todoroki's quirk, remembering the explanation Todoroki had put him through.

Successfully, he activates it and imagines himself pushing it out, hitting Endeavor straight on, causing the man to grunt and react quickly.

Fuck.

This man is big.

Endeavor's foot lands, he quickly spins, and before Bakugo can even react, Endeavor has punched him square in the chest, causing the air in his lungs to get pushed out harshly.

He's barely able to gasp as he falls back, feeling the air get knocked out of him from falling, too.

His lungs absolutely fucking ache and desperately crave air which seems impossible to get right now.

"Shoto, get up."

The man sounds so pissed that Bakugo makes a move to lift himself up, but he can't fucking breathe.

He genuinely can't get any air into Todoroki's lungs and he tries and tries to inhale.

As the lack of air finally gets to Todoroki's body, he feels tears well up as his chest absolutely burns with the need for oxygen.

Yeah, he's definitely passing out.

Endeavor yells angrily, standing over Bakugo as he feels himself finally faint.

~~~~~

When he wakes, he's cold and his breaths are weak and shallow.

The lights in the room have been turned off and Endeavor is nowhere to be found. Bakugo can't even hear him as he strains to listen for any sort of noise anywhere in the house.

Maybe he left?

He's a pro hero with responsibilities.

Carefully, Bakugo gets up, taking a minute once he stands up because getting air into his lungs is extremely hard.

His throat hurts like a motherfucker, too.

When he swallows, he winces, noting that this throat pain is different from the burning in his throat from vomiting.

He walks slowly to Todoroki's room, praying that Endeavor is gone and he can shower and get to bed. Whatever fucking time it is, he's going to bed. Fuck everything else.

When he makes it to the plain room, he closes and locks the door behind him, walking over to Todoroki's desk where he'd left his phone.

It was almost midnight.

Okay, yeah, he's definitely sleeping as soon as he showers.

He cringes at the thought of showering in Todoroki's body, but quickly forgets about that when he sees all the messages that Todoroki had left.

At first it was just questions like where he usually sits at the table and things like that.

Then they'd progressed to worrying and spam texting if he was okay.

Then there were a few missed calls (twelve missed calls) before the texting went crazy. It's when he gets a new message, that he decides to just call.

He puts the phone up to his ear and before he can even clear his throat, Todoroki answers.

"I did not like that, Bakugo. We said we'd answer each other. You were not answering. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he starts and pauses immediately when he notices that he sounds absolutely winded.

That might be because he is fucking winded.

"Bakugo, that does not sound okay. What happened?"

He tries to get a deep breath in, but it hurts like hell, so he gives up, gripping his chest where his lungs hurt, trying to play it off.

He's definitely going to get Todoroki's body healed tomorrow with Recovery Girl.

If this was his body, he'd risk it, but this is Todoroki's. It's on him to be responsible.

"Your dad knocked-" he pauses, breathing in, "the wind out," another breath, "of me."

"Shit, Bakugo that does not sound good at all. How did that happen?"

"I got a hit," he breathes, damn he can't even finish a fucking sentence, "in, and he," a breath, "got pissed."

Todoroki is obviously panicking and anxious on the other sure. It's clear that Bakugo's own mental health has gotten to Todoroki.

"What about you?" Bakugo wheezes, not very adamant on talking because it hurts.

"I talked with your parents. They basically told me that they were gonna be gone for a month or so. Bakugo, they didn't even care about your mental health. They know that you're depressed and hurting yourself, they just don't care," Todoroki says, sounding stressed and hurt for Bakugo.

They're still not completely the other person, so Bakugo can't really tell if Todoroki sounds sad because he feels bad for Bakugo or because it's him in Bakugo's place and he hates that they disregarded him so easily.

"Yeah, they do that."

"Endeavor should be gone now. Do you want me to-"

"No," he says as fast as he can, not wanting Todoroki to worry, "I'll go to Recovery Girl," he takes a much needed pause, "in the morning."

There's silence, well, almost silence because Bakugo is wheezing before Todoroki decides to ask another question.

"Do you have any tips? To stop yourself from self harming?"

Okay, there's that shame that's been hiding.

"Melatonin, exercise, or," he really needs to stop talking, "videos."

Todoroki hums on the other side of the phone.

"I'm showering. Bye," Bakugo says, trying to convey what he means in so little words because he feels absolutely horrible.

"Okay. I'll text you where we should meet. Goodnight," Todoroki concludes, clearly understanding that Bakugo wants to stop talking because it hurts.

"Goodnight."

When they hang up, Bakugo goes over to Todoroki's dresser. He opens the first one and rolls his eyes at the neatly folded pajamas that Todoroki has lots of.

There are, like, at least twenty sets of pajamas in this drawer alone.

He opens a different one, deciding to look for more comfortable looking clothes and also underwear.

After a while, he finally finds the shorts in a different dresser across the room.

What a weirdo this Halfie is.

A long time later, Bakugo gets into bed and tries to not to do too many strenuous things.

When he's finally laid on his back, he stays there, trying to catch his breath from how much work he did just getting comfortable.

He tries to relax, hoping that will help him drift off faster.

After successfully falling asleep, he wakes up multiple times, in pain and trying to catch his breath because he accidentally breathed in too harshly while he was unconscious.

Okay maybe the sleeping couldn't be called successful seeing as he has woken up at least six times.

Once he's woken up one too many times, he rolls his eyes and gets up, extremely slowly and carefully, deciding that sleep was not gonna happen while he's injured like this. He's in too much pain and something could happen.

He doesn't know what, but he's not risking anything.

It's around four in the morning, so he gets up and starts getting ready for the day.

Taking his time is definitely on the list and he even has to start walking earlier so that he can meet Todoroki at whatever time he wanted to meet.

It's going to take him a while to get there if he's going to walk slow. He can't be doing too much until after he's healed.

So he does everything slowly and ends up in the kitchen over an hour later, deciding to cook himself breakfast. Something simple but filling enough.

Maybe making lunch for himself and Todoroki could kill some time.

It does.

It kills a lot of time because by the time he knows it, it's well past six and class starts at eight, meaning he only has a little over an hour to meet with Todoroki and go to Recovery Girl.

He grabs his phone, walking to Todoroki's room and getting his school bag, making sure he has everything he needs before leaving and grabbing the bentos of lunch on the way out.

It's like the idiot knows when he left because Todoroki is calling as soon as he locks the door, so he answers and puts the phone up to his ear.

"You suck at answering. We'll meet at the train station. I'm already on the train, but my house is closer so we should be arriving around the same time. Good?"

"Yes, good," he answers.

He knows it's brief and he maybe sounds like a huge asshole for it.

Walking while trying to breathe correctly is fucking hard, okay?

"See you soon," Todoroki says, signaling the end of the call.

"Fuck off."

Todoroki got there first, and texted Bakugo where he was at, so as soon as Bakugo was off the train, he was headed to Todoroki's location.

When they meet, Bakugo definitely feels like he's dying and shoves the two bentos at Todoroki.

It's fucking weird and awkward looking at himself from a different point of view.

"You doing okay? You look horrible," Todoroki smirks.

Bakugo flips him off. "See if I," he breathes, "try to fix this," Bakugo threatens.

Todoroki frowns worriedly at Bakugo. "Okay, let's go to Recovery Girl. That's making me nervous," Todoroki admits.

As they walk, Todoroki slows down his pace, noticing how hard it is for Bakugo to keep up as he fights for his life. "Give me your bag," Todoroki says, holding out his hand.

Bakugo, lost in thought and trying to stay alive, looks at him in confusion, not noticing how Todoroki was looking at him the whole time.

"Your bag. Give it. It'll be easier on you. Easier on my body. Give it," he repeats.

Bakugo rolls his eyes, but gives Todoroki his bag nonetheless and they tread on.

"I was thinking we should let Recovery Girl know about the switch," Todoroki says after a while of walking.

It's about two blocks more until they reach the front gates.

"Okay," Bakugo agrees, not feeling up to fighting Todoroki on this.

It's a great idea, too, honestly. It would be smart to let their nurse about how they're in each other's bodies if Bakugo is being honest.

"How hard did he hit you?" Todoroki asks.

"Very. Right here," he explains, pointing at the center of his chest.

Todoroki grimaces in silence all the way until they get to the nurse's office after that, pushing the door open for Bakugo who nods as a small thanks.

Immediately, Recovery Girl goes over to Bakugo. She probably just noticed that Todoroki had been holding all the stuff so he was okay.

"My my, Todoroki what's wrong?"

Bakugo forgets that he has to answer because he's Todoroki right now.

"Chest," he answers, looking at Todoroki and nodding at him to explain and tell her about the switch.

Recovery Girl looks at Todoroki, too, and quirks an eyebrow.

"We fought, Aizawa had a guy come in and switch us, so I'm Todoroki and that's Bakugo," Todoroki starts, explaining the switch first, "Bakugo and my dad had a sparring match and Bakugo was hit square in the chest, hard. He's been wheezing and struggling to breathe since last night."

He explains so quickly and acts as if it's so normal that Recovery Girl doesn't say anything at first, just processing all the information.

When she does, she scoffs, slapping Todoroki's arm and glaring at the both of them.

"You children. I swear, you're going to be the death of me," she sighs, shaking her head as she motions for Bakugo to sit down.

He does so, slowly as too not breathe in too much.

"I'm going to have you breathe in as deep as you can for me," she says, putting on her stethoscope and placing the end on his chest, "go ahead and do that for me, exhale as much as you can, too."

Bakugo does as told, inhaling first and stopping when it hurts too much and exhaling just as much.

She instructs him to do it a few more times before she sighs, shaking her head.

"That's, horrible, Todo- Bakugo," she corrects, remembering the whole switch talk.

"This will probably take two sessions if you don't wanna miss class. What's better?" She asks them, looking for both of their opinions.

Bakugo speaks first.

"If Todoroki takes," a breath, "notes, do it all now."

He's actually able to get that out with only one break. That's some improvement. Kind of.

Todoroki nods in approval, and Recovery Girl smiles a weird smile. Bakugo doesn't even have time to question it because she kisses him and he immediately feels sleep pull at him.

"You better take good notes," Bakugo says, barely even aware of what he's saying before he knocks out.

~~~~~

Apparently Todoroki dreams.

Dreams of a happy family and present parents. His siblings care for him and they're all just happy, which completely throws Bakugo off.

Then he realizes it's a dream.

Bakugo knows he's not supposed to see this because this is Todoroki's mind. These are Todoroki's hopes and dreams. Something that can't happen anymore because Endeavor ruined it all.

Still, the dream is good.

He didn't dream last night. The pain distracted him and never let him fully relax.

This dream is just like a regular life with a regular family. Sure, Endeavor is still a hero, but he's happy and he doesn't abuse his family and traumatize the hell out of them.

He messes up Todoroki's hair when Todoroki makes a jab at him and his older sister Fuyumi rants about her job, happily, talking about how much her kindergartn students remind her of Todoroki when he was a child.

Like if she knew him growing up.

Which is the complete opposite of real life, but Todoroki dreams this and he feels happy. Bakugo can feel it.

In the dream, Todoroki smiles when he feels joy and cries when he fails an exam he studied so hard for, but then his mom comes in and speaks words of encouragement to him.

So easily and she looks at him with love and joy, not hate and regret.

This is just in the dream, though.

Bakugo can feel how much Todoroki wished this was real.

He feels the ache in his chest, more mental than physical now and somehow it hurts more because he can feel what Todoroki craves.

Todoroki just wanted stability.

That's the main focus of his dream.

His mom gets fired from her job, but they get through it as a family.

His brother flunks out of college but they get through it as a family.

His dad is still not the number one hero, but they get through it as a family.

But it's just a dream, and he knows it. Todoroki's body knows it, too, but it's obvious Todoroki craves this because it feels so real. It feels like this could happen.

Life could have been this great and simple if it weren't for the selfishness of his father's goals and wishes.

The absolute stubbornness of having to be the best no matter what he has to sacrifice holding him back from being a good man.

In the dream, though, Endeavor doesn't neglect his duties as a husband and father. He shows up to Todoroki's school events, every single one.

Cheers him up when he doesn't place first here and there.

His mom bakes him cookies to cheer him up and kisses his forehead as he does homework at the kitchen table next to Fuyumi who's grading assignments for her class.

Bakugo feels like he's intruding because he's not supposed to see this. This is Todoroki's mind, not his.

He knows he's definitely not supposed to feel bad for the guy, but it's sad and Bakugo's only human.

It's absolutely heartbreaking to see that the most calm and independent looking guy in the class secretly hopes for a life where he has a happy family.

Unbroken.

Calm.

Normal.

It's clear that Todoroki gets these ideas from movies, noticing the familiarity of a few parts of his dream.

Somehow that makes Bakugo really fucking mad at the movies for taunting Todoroki. Telling him, "haha you don't have this and you wish you did."

Showing Todoroki what a relationship with your siblings should look like.

What a father should say to you to when you mess something up or when you're not perfect.

How your mom should look at you when you look back at her.

In the dream, Todoroki is happy and Bakugo wishes that Todoroki had this life, too.

***
Word Count: 5,521
My bad for taking so long guys. I've been having some serious stomach issues since last semester (and this semester is over) so I finally went to the doctor just for them to tell me to go to a gastroenterologist. I still haven't met with one, but I got bloodwork done and I have anemia💀LMAOO that explains so much. Also I'm pretty sure my stress has caused my stomach problems because this has happened before and growing up I was always stressed and always had stomach issues which made me more stressed so!!! Here I am😃 also the stomach issues could be why I have anemia and it's stressing me the fuck out which is hurting my stomach more🐥 anyway I hope y'all are enjoying the fic so far. Next chapter will go up next Sunday at 8pm central time. I love you all and tysm for reading <3