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His muscles screamed in protest, but Izuku had never been one to listen to his body’s limits anyway. Gritting his teeth, he picked up the pace and continued on with his evening jog.
Only 400m to go! His mind encouraged as his calves burned and his face prickled with the winter breeze. His body felt both frozen and excruciatingly hot at the same time; he flexed his crooked fingers as he ran, making sure that they didn’t get too stiff. His chest felt rough with each intake of cold air, but he couldn’t stop now. He could see the Height’s Alliance and he was close to beating his personal best.
Izuku fought back One for All, which threatened to activate, and broke out into a sprint.
‘Come on. Come on. Come on!’ He almost growled, eyes set on the concrete steps outside his dorm.
Izuku skidded to a halt and rushed to stop the timer he had left on the bottom step before he had set off on his 5K run. He then bent over and rested his hands on his thighs as he caught his breath and looked at the stopwatch.
22:14s
‘Plus.’ He panted, an open-mouthed smile plastered to his face. ‘Ultra.’
He then straightened up and went for a cool down walk around the building to ease the nausea that had started to bubble in his throat, the breeze soothing his flushed face.
When he circled back around to the front, Izuku then began his cool down stretches, enjoying the way his tense muscles loosened with each one. He started with his upper body, making sure his neck and arms weren’t tight, before focusing on his lower body. Keeping his legs straight, he bent down to touch his toes, nose brushing against his knees.
His hamstrings burned in response, but in a good way, and Izuku groaned happily and shut his eyes, palms now flat on the floor.
‘Good run?’ A voice suddenly spoke.
‘Agghhhhh!!!!!’ Izuku startled and shot up, head connecting with something hard.
Pain flared through his skull but he pushed it aside to look up at the offending object, only to find out that it was his boyfriend’s chin. Panic turned to concern and Izuku smacked his freckled cheeks. ‘Shoto! Holy All Might, I’m so sorry! I didn’t realise you were that close!’
‘No kidding.’ His boyfriend muttered through clenched teeth as he rubbed his chin, one eye squeezed shut as he puffed out his cheeks.
‘Here, let me have a look!’ Izuku reached out, ignoring the way his own head stung, and cradled Shoto’s face in his hands. His partner winced slightly, but didn’t protest as Izuku inspected his chin. ‘Just a bit red, but hopefully it won’t bruise. The skin isn’t broken. How painful is it?’
‘I’ve had worse.’ Shoto muttered.
‘Sho.’ Izuku looked pointedly at him.
‘You have a hard head, okay?!’ His boyfriend huffed, squinting at him, mock affronted. ‘Just stings a little bit.’
‘Well, I was reading earlier about the different neural fibres of pain because… Well, it’s me… And I found that the fibres that carry information about pain are actually slower than the fibres involved in positive touch, and because of that, if you try and replace the pain with a soothing touch, those fibres eventually overpower that ones signalling pain. So, when people rub an area that hurts, it actually does help lessen the pain because-’
‘Izu, if you wanted to kiss my chin better, you should’ve just said so.’ Shoto interrupted with a playful smirk, eliciting a blush from Izuku that definitely wasn’t related to his jog.
‘Do you want me to kiss it better?’ He smiled wobbly at his partner, completely enjoying the way Shoto’s cheeks also turned red. Before he could respond though, Izuku took the initiative and leaned forwards, hands still holding his face, and pressed a light kiss to a pink chin.
When he pulled away, he looked up at Shoto, whose eyes were wide; his mouth pulled into a thin line. A feeling of worry suddenly filled Izuku, and he was about to ask if he was okay, when suddenly…
‘My mouth hurts.’ Shoto deadpanned. ‘And my cheeks, and my neck… Everywhere really...’
Izuku stared at him for a moment before he burst out laughing, watching as his boyfriend smiled along with him, the pain completely forgotten.