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Midoriya lay in the hospital bed. Stiff, cool sheets encasing his broken body. The glaring pain reduced to a dull throb by copious amounts of opioids.
Deku felt like he was floating, as though Uraraka had used her quirk on him.
He smiled in lieu of a wave goodbye to his friends as Uraraka, Iida, Tsu, and Minoru were show out of the room. They had been waiting anxiously for him to get out of surgery and had rushed to talk to him as soon as he was awake.
Now he stared at the ceiling, mind drifting in an out of consciousness.
All Might came and went, apologising profusely to Recovery Girl, and whispering how proud he was to Midoriya. He promised to get a note to Deku's mother, who likely had at the very least, a minor heart attack seeing the fight.
He was snapped from his revery, by a quiet, familiar voice from the doorway.
"Midoriya."
Deku looked up, as Todoroki stepped into the room.
"Hi," Deku said.
There was a beat of awkward silence, then Todoroki stepped forward.
He sat on the stool for visitors at Midoriya's bedside. He levelled his gaze at Deku, expression giving away nothing (not that Deku was in any state to decode the intricacies of micro expressions.)
The was another short silence.
"I wanted-" Todoroki said, at the exact same time as Deku said, "I don't-"
They both stopped talking, Deku let out a weak chuckle.
"You first."
Todoroki took a breath.
"I wanted to know why you did that."
On Deku's confused look, he elaborated.
"Why did you injure yourself so badly like that? Why did you say all those things even though you likely would've won if you didn't?"
Midoriya thought about it.
"I needed to prove myself... and, well... I wanted to help you." He answered honestly.
"I don't know how to feel. I broke my vow, the one I've kept since I was little, and yet..." Todoroki trailed off, uncertain how to put it into words.
Deku hummed quietly in thought.
"You broke your vow to beat me, but in doing so you proved that you can use your left side without accepting your father, but you still feel like you've betrayed, and by extension broken, something irreplaceable." He said, oddly lucid for someone with a ridiculous amount of pain meds running through their veins.
Todoroki blinked, startled at just how true that rang.
"If it's any consolation," Deku added, "I don't think that you're accepting your father. You're doing it in spite of him."
"I-" Todoroki said, clearing his throat. "Thank you, Midoriya."
There was another stretch of silence, but it wasn't awkward anymore. Midoriya's green eyes met Todoroki's heterochromatic ones.
"You looked beautiful, you know? Harnessing the fire and ice."
Todoroki blinked, breath hitching slightly.
He stood and quietly left the room. His hand trembled slightly as a swirl of conflicting emotions filled his head.
Midoriya watched him go, wondering what he had said to make Todoroki leave without so much as a goodbye.