the bells echo the

“Next time I’ll do everything for me, if it makes you feel better,” Todoroki says.“Next time is too late,” Bakugou replies.

Failure happens to everybody. It’s natural, it’s normal – but failure for a hero means something different than it does to most people. A salaryman at his office job might be permitted to fail once, twice, multiple times, many times; on the other hand, a hero need only fail once to have their very identity called into question.

Still, failure happens to heroes, despite the unrealistic expectation that it should be avoided altogether.

Todoroki and Bakugou have never talked about it. It’s one of several topics that they simply don’t talk about, unspoken taboo topics – conversations that could become dangerous like a double-edged sword, driving the same blade into each others’ hearts without ever meaning to hurt or be hurt. So they avoid those conversations altogether – but there are times when one of them comes back home to find the other lying down, poised in a particular way that’s impossible to misinterpret: eyes closed, inhaling and exhaling slowly, body not so much relaxed as it is defenseless.