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It was no secret that Izuku had nightmares.
No secret at all. It was a common known fact in the U.A. dormitory; everyone knew it, everyone did what they could to comfort him through it (even if it was just leaving a cup of tea outside the door; he didn’t always want to talk to people after his nightmares).
But that didn’t make it any easier to cope with.
Todoroki was, for some reason, always the first to realize what was happening, and it wasn’t a rare occasion to find him and Izuku curled up together like cats on the couch in the common room early mornings. Whoever found them first would throw several blankets over them both, then continue about their business.
Izuku was...quiet, when he had nightmares. None of his classmates banged open the door of his room after hearing him scream; no, it was always a very...quiet ordeal. Izuku would usually come to them, if things got particularly bad; he’d come downstairs and find whoever was awake (there was always someone, of course--high schoolers had no sleep schedule), and they’d sit for a little while, maybe fall asleep on the couch together.
Izuku was like the entirety of Class 1-A’s little brother, and he was always so encouraging and upbeat to them; it was only fair that they would be encouraging back, and try and help him through whatever he was struggling with.
It still hurt, though. It hurt a lot.
On one particularly bad night, though, Izuku did wake up screaming, which...didn’t happen. It never happened. Izuku had nightmares, yes, but they were quiet nightmares; his classmates didn’t know about it until he came to them first.
But this one was different, because Izuku woke up screaming.
It took minutes for the Class 1-A students to wake up; some of them woke up directly from Izuku’s screams, and the rest of them awoke to pounding footsteps of students running to investigate. The screaming didn’t stop, and it was worse this time because Izuku never screamed like this.
With the way he was screaming, it sounded like he was in immense pain. It sounded like something horrible was happening to him.
Iida was the first to make it there, throwing open Izuku’s (blessedly) unlocked dorm room and racing inside, pursued by a few other classmates who had already arrived. Izuku was leaning over the side of the bed, choking and gagging, one hand clutching his chest and the other braced against the bed to keep himself upright.
Iida grabbed him without warning, sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling Izuku into a tight embrace. There were tears streaming down Izuku’s face, and his eyes were squeezed shut; sweat plastered his bangs to his forehead, and his face was pale.
Iida’s palm pressed against Izuku’s forehead as Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero, and Tokoyami pressed forward to see what was going on.
“He has a fever,” Iida said, eyes stern and serious but also laced with concern. “Sero--”
“I know what to get,” Tokoyami cut in, and he turned and fled the room, followed immediately by Sero, Kirishima and Kaminari. On their way out, they nearly bashed into Todoroki and Uraraka on their way in. Todoroki crossed the room immediately, taking a seat by Iida on the edge of the bed.
The met eyes, but didn’t say anything; wordlessly, Todoroki reached out and settled his right hand on Izuku’s forehead. Izuku’s features relaxed, just slightly, but not by much; he cracked his eyes open, gaze bleary and exhausted.
“I-Iida,” he gasped, and his eyes flitted over to Todoroki. “S-Shouchan…”
“Don’t talk for now, Midoriya,” Iida said, resting his chin atop Izuku’s head. “We’ve got you, it’s alright.”
Izuku blinked at him, slowly and tiredly. He was cying, tears streaming down his face, sobs getting stuck in his throat. “I-I...I-I’m...I-I’m s-sorry--”
“Don’t be,” Todoroki cut in, smoothing Izuku’s bangs off his forehead and settling his right hand there again. “It’s not your fault. It never is.”
Izuku didn’t seem convinced, but he didn’t argue again. Rather, he nodded shakily, swallowed hard, and shut his eyes again, leaning his head against Iida’s chest.
Tokoyami returned with a bottle of fever relievers and a glass of water. It took a second, but they got Izuku to sit up long enough to take two pills, and then he was dead to the world again, still sobbing, this time leaning up against Todoroki’s shoulder.
“I-I’m sorry,” Izuku choked, barely coherent. “I-I’m sorry, I-I’m s-sorry, I’m sorry…”
“You don’t have to be sorry,” Todoroki said again, right arm around Izuku’s shoulders with his hand against his forehead still. “You’re sick. Just try to calm down, it’s okay.”
Izuku squeezed his eyes shut again, a strangled sob in the back of his throat, and Todoroki tightened the arm around his heaving shoulders.
They decided to move Izuku downstairs; he’d puked over the side of his bed, and they’d clean it up later, but for now, they were more focused on getting Izuku to a place he could rest soundly.
Which led them to bringing him downstairs.
Satou carried him. He made it look ridiculously easy. The rest of 1-A marched in front, behind, and around him like soldiers on a mission, and as soon as they were downstairs, the group dispersed, everyone going a different direction.
Uraraka and Ashido went to the couch immediately, rearranging blankets and pillows to make a comfortable spot. As soon as Satou settled Izuku on the couch, Uraraka pulled several blankets over his trembling form, and Izuku curled in on himself, shivering, still sobbing.
Aoyama brought a bowl of water from the kitchen, and Hagakure grabbed a hand-towel from the nearest bathroom. Uraraka soaked it in the water and settled it across Izuku’s forehead; it wasn’t much, but it was something.
Tokoyami made a batch of simple broth in the kitchen with a few others. Yaoyorozu found a thermometer and (somehow) managed to take Izuku’s temperature, even though he was only half aware of his surroundings (39.1; not too bad, but definitely a fever). It was an unspoken decision to wait until morning to see how Izuku fared; any worse and they’d send for Recovery Girl.
Until then…
“We should stay with him,” Kaminari suggested, saying what everyone was already thinking. “I’m gonna go grab a few blankets from my room, be right back…”
“Me too!” Sero agreed, taking off after Kaminari, and soon they were all running for blankets and pillows (though they always made sure Izuku was never left alone--that was something they couldn’t do right now). Iida volunteered with Satou to clean the mess in Izuku’s room, and Kirishima promised to grab a few blankets and pillows for them, saying their “sacrifice was manly.”
(And it was--no one wanted to clean up puke.)
When they arrived back at the common room, arms full of blankets and pillows, they quickly set up, taking up the entirety of the floor around the couch. It was cramped, all of them in a limited space, but it didn’t matter.
Izuku was sleeping fitfully again, although the sleep was fragile and they didn’t know how long he would stay sleeping. Yaoyorozu managed to take his temperature again (39, exactly--it’d dropped some, thank goodness), and after that, they all found their spots and laid down. Iida and Satou returned not too much later, and Todoroki pointed them to their spots.
Once everyone was situated, two dozen whispered good nights and sleep wells broke the silence, and then, the students all fell asleep.
Todoroki didn’t remember being woken up.
He did, however, remember lifting his blanket for Izuku, and he remembered Izuku curling against him, his burning forehead pressed into Todoroki’s neck. Todoroki remembered wrapping his arms around Izuku tightly, acknowledging (but not caring) that he’d most likely wake up sick tomorrow.
Todoroki ran his fingers through Izuku’s hair for a long while until eventually, Izuku fell asleep again, just like that, feverish and scared but not alone. Todoroki pulled him a little closer, then buried his nose in Izuku’s sweaty hair and fell asleep himself.
At some point, Kirishima flung an arm around Izuku, loosely, but securely. And then someone else rolled over and did the same thing to Kirishima, and so on and so forth. Iida actually woke up, but didn’t stop it; rather, he yanked people’s blankets back over them and laid down again by Izuku, reaching out and settling his hand on Izuku’s shoulder.
In the end, they all ended up half on top of each other, sprawled in awkward positions, curled against each other’s sides, some with blankets and some without. Izuku himself had the most people curled around him, specifically Todoroki, but Uraraka was there, too, arms around Izuku’s waist, forehead between his shoulder blades, and Kirishima was laying on top of Izuku’s legs, snoring loudly. Iida still had his hand on Izuku’s shoulder, where it stayed all night.
Yes, it was no secret that Izuku had nightmares--nightmares made even worse when there was a fever involved.
But he never had to go through them alone.