"Wait"

I stopped.

The voice was familiar, but one that had never been directed to me, sounding rather odd in my ears. I turned slowly, facing the person who had prevented my exit, the familiar duo tone hair caught my attention right, red overlapping white down the middle and stone cold heterochromic eyes bore into mine. For a reason unbeknownst to me, I felt a twinge of fear pinch at my nerves, perhaps from the serious furrow in his brows, or the lack of emotion that swam in his eyes.

"Todoroki?" I mumbled under my breath "did you need something?" my hands moved to clutch the strap of my book bag tightly, my throat tightening as I struggled to gulp out of nervousness.

His eyes lingered on mine for a moment, scanning my face for something I couldn't name, before lowering to my left arm, the pink plaster visible through the open half of my sleeve.

"Why are you here?" his words shocked me, brows furrowing I clutched my bag tighter "I don't und--"

"Is it worth it?" he cut me off "to be here at the cost of your own skin? You can't tell me that it's worth it" Todoroki's brows were furrowed and it was then I knew he wasn't asking out of spite, not asking to harm me in any way, but out of pure curiosity.

At the discovery, I could feel my tense muscles relax and a breath I didn't even know I had been holding slipped from my lips heavily. The corners of my lips tugged up in amusement and I let a quiet, breath filled laugh escape my lips "it is worth it" I spoke up, shoulders dropping as I relaxed. Stepping towards him, I ripped the plaster off of my unmarked skin, barely flinching as I felt the pain of hairs pulling away along with the sticker.

Holding out my hand, I watched as the plaster rose, floating perfectly still in the air, slowly folding on itself my smile grew. The plaster had folded and stuck to itself until it had managed to form a minuscule origami crane.

My eyes flickered up from the origami crane to the male in front of me, his eyes were glued onto the crane as the small folded wings began to flap slowly and with a gentle push of my finger it was slowly, gracefully flying around the room, spinning in circles, gliding up and down and circling the room.

"If my pain means someone can be saved then it will always be worth it" I spoke up, Todoroki tore his eyes away from the crane to look towards me. Reaching out, I took hold of his right hand and held it out, palm up, the crane flew over, landing on his palm and going limp as I dropped all control on it.

I released his hand, pushing his fingertips to push the plaster closer to his person before stepping back "I'm doing this for the people who can't do it for themselves, and if that hurts me, then so be it, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make to become a hero". Pulling the strap higher on my shoulder, I flashed the male a brief smile "well I have to get home, was that all?".

Todoroki's expression was somewhat confused, obviously still going over my words in his head, different pigmented eyes glaring down at the ground in hard thought "then..." I trailed off to catch his attention. Shoulders jumping the slightest inch at my voice, he rose his head to stare up at me "I'll see you tomorrow?" I offered, head tilting to the side as I waited for his response.

"Yeah, tomorrow" he agreed, bowing his head. Smile widening, I mirrored the action, bowing my head, turning on my heel and jogging out of the room.

--

Chop sticks in hand, I pushed and prodded and the food on my plate as my parents chatted on happily about their day, their pride over my first day and their excitement for the day to come. My explanation of the day passed was brief, lacking in details, not because I found my day uninteresting, nor because I didn't trust my parents, simply because I wished the excitement drumming through me over my first day to stay my own.

Arranging the peas on my plate one my one, I gripped them gently between the thin wooden ends of my chopsticks until it formed a small but rather adorable smiley face. I could feel my lips pulling into a smile which mirrored the vegetable doodle.

"(Y/n)? Darling?" I could hear my mother's concerned voice wafting into my ears, "huh? What?" eyes widened, I lifting my head off of it's rest on the heel of my palm. "Are you okay? You've hardly touched your food, did something happen today?".

The smile on my face widened and I leaned back, pushing the plate away with my fingers "I'm okay, just got a lot on my mind, I think I'll skip dinner tonight and just head to bed, we did P.E all day". Running fingers through my hair, I cringed at the dried traces of sweat left at the roots, my parents cast a brief glance at one another before caring smiles spread across their faces and a nod of permission followed suit.

Standing up slowly, I pushed the chair away with the back of my knees, the legs of the chair emitting a quiet squeak at the friction of wood on tile. Bidding my parents goodnight, I quickly made my way up the stairs to my room, door closing behind me a deep breath escaped my lips. Leaning back against the door, my eyes fell closed and I could feel a hard rush of excitement and dread run through me at the day to come.

--

The next day came almost alarmingly fast, from the exhaustion of the day before I had fallen asleep as soon as my head had hit the pillow. Rising in the morning was far more difficult than necessary, slipping on my uniform, I folded and neatly tucked my costume into my book bag.

Rushing down the stairs before my mother had even called for me, I dished a mouthful of steaming rice into my mouth, pressing a kiss against my mother's cheek, minding her shocked expression. Giving my father a brief sideways hug and leaning down for him to place a kiss of his own on my cheek. Muffling out a goodbye, I rushed out of the door and slammed it behind me before my parents could even utter a word.

I took the walk to school far more leisurely than the day prior, reassured by the time I had saved in the morning. Turning down the plant lined walk way, I turned into the enterring walk way of UA high and quickly spotted a familiar brunette.

Swallowing down the last bit of rice, I tightened my grip on the strap of my book bag, racing towards her "Uraraka!" I called, to which she paused, turned, and grinned in my direction.

Standing either side of her, was Lida and Midoriya, who both paused in their tracks as they waited for their friend to catch up. Jogging up to her side, we bade our good mornings and began our trek towards the main entrance.

Filing into the classroom, we took our respective seats and kept our conversations hushed, not wanting another repeat of the day before as we awaited Aizawa. when my eyes drifted towards the male sitting to my left, I struggled to stifle my laugh, his brow was set hard and furrowed, glaring down hard at the table in front of him. The same expression I had left him with the day before, that of utter confusion and concentration.

As I was about to lean into the isle between us, lips parted in preparation of forming a word, the sliding door slammed open and I immediately straightened out, facing the board. I prepared myself to see the lazy dragging of Aizawa's feet as he staggered inside, hair messy from his hourly nap, eyes drooping with detest for the idea of teaching.

But instead, instead there was a loud booming laughter that nearly shook the room, familiarly obnoxious as it echoed around the room. I restrained my urge to cover my ears at the loud sound before a heavy foot slammed itself down inside the room, and soon a body followed. Towering over us, latex of his costume bulging with well trained muscles. Hair that seemed to defy gravity, a bold golden colour. Grin so wide and so pleased that it seemed to be drawn on.

"All might?!"

Midoriya slapped his hands down on the desk, standing up so quickly that the back of his knees hit the edge of the chair, legs scraping against the floor with a loud screach. Cheeks flushing in realization of his outburts, he gave a nervous trembling laugh, slowly sinking himself back down in his seat, hands clasping tightly in his lap and head down to hide his features.

I felt a flash of sympathy as he cowered further at the quiet laughs that followed throughout the classroom "Good morning students!" All Might's voice boomed over us, easily drowning out any noise in the classroom "today, let's have some fun".

I could hear myself audibly gulp when he angled his head down, shadow casted over his forever determined eyes, grin coiling at the edges to a smile far more sinister than I had ever expected on the face of everyone's favourite hero.

--

My arms wrapped around my body, holding itself as close as it could as my veins thrummed with self consciousness. Standing out in the open, at one of the outside practice areas with our newly formed constumes.

I stood towards the back, listenin vaguely to the explanation All Might washed over us, I was filled with even more uncertainty. Nervous and afraid of what was to come, I would never have imagined that we would be fighting with each other on the second day of school.

I gripped my hands nervously, fingers tingling as I listened closely for my name as All Might called out groups. I clenched and unclenched my jaw nervously "Team B! Mashirao Ojiro and (Y/n) (L/n)" I steeled at the mention of my name, hurriedly turning to look at my classmate. Ojiro blinked in surprise as he looked over at me, corners of his lips pulling into a gentle a reassuring smile at the sight of my obvious distress.

Though small, I could feel myelf relax slightly at the smile and shot my own back at him "vs. Team I! Mazo Shoji" I tensed at the name of my opponent, wide eyes dragigng over the different faces in the crowd to land on the masked hero in training, towering over the other students, strong and intimidating. Gulping nervously, I willed myself to focus my attention back on our teacher for today.

"And Todoroki Shouto!"

Eyes widening in horror, I turned to look at my seat neighbour, and took a reflexive step back. The idea of fighting these two, two who were so obviously strong, so obviously in their comfort zone, sent a harsh rush of dread running through me.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me"