Chapter Text
It had started with a fight.
“Girls are better.”
“Boys are better.”
It had been as childish as children are. Momo was red faced, ignoring the fact that her mother was glaring at her for being so unlady-like, never mind she was still five years old. Shouto, on the other hand, stared at her without muttering a single word.
“Shouto,” his mother had called. When he turned, her eyebrows were frowned and Shouto immediately looked down. He hadn’t intended to make his mother upset. “Apologize. It’s not good to say that.”
‘But is true,’ he wanted to say.
“I’m sorry,” he said instead. “I guess…Girls are as good as boys.”
It didn’t taste right in his mouth.
“Yeah,” his mother said. “Girls are as strong as boys.”
“That’s a given,” Shouto said, without hesitating. Everyone looked at him confused.
Everyone except Momo. She was still glaring, her face all red and tiny hands formed into a fist. Silently, Shouto glared too. This war was not over.
“Girls are better,” Momo said again, once they were in elementary school.
“Boys are better,” Shouto answered, looking up from his book text.
It had been during recess. Momo was standing in front of him, face neutral as a silent threat, Shout sitting on a bench next to the football courts. They stared at each other with narrowed eyes and a powerful feeling boiling inside their chest. They were yet to know what it meant.
Out of the nowhere, a crowd of children surrounded them.
“Yeah, Momo is right!” a girl behind her cheered. “Girls are better than boys!”
“Are you crazy? Boys are better than girls!” a boy besides Shouto said. “Even Shouto agrees with us!”
They caused some sort of war in their fourth grade of elementary school. Girls didn’t let guys borrow their glue, and guys didn’t let girls play with them during recess. Momo and Shouto were considered the leaders of each side, even when they never actively tried anything against the other.
They simply stared at each other with glares that burnt holes in their skulls. For some reason, the adults thought it was cute.
Once they reached sixth grade, for some reason, the war stopped. Girls stopped picking fights with guys, and guys were less harsh towards girls. The ones who had raised a fist were now holding hands. Enemies were lovers, and friends were enemies.
Everyone stopped their fight except those two.
“Girls are better,” Yaomomo still said.
“Boys are better,” Shouto still answered.
The cheer that followed their statements were less and less strong. And suddenly, as they reached middle school, it stopped completely.
“Girls are better,” Momo said.
“Boys are better,” Shouto said.
The girls no longer picked Momo’s side. And only the childish guys picked Shouto’s side.
“You’re sexist,” many girls called Shouto. Frowns in their faces, and disgust over their shoulders.
“You’re sexist,” more boys called Momo. They laughed as they flirted with her, calling her things that shouldn’t be called.
The one who come in to save her was Shouto. He punched the guys who told her she was a bitch, and kicked those who flirted with her.
“Girls are still better,” she said once again, as Shouto offered him her hand.
He was the only one who didn’t call her bad names when she said so.
“Boys are still better,” he answered.
It no longer sounded like war, but it sounded more like peace.
Yaomomo stopped saying ‘Girls are better’ when she entered high school. If she said so, girls would look at her weirdly, and boys would laugh.
Shouto stopped saying it, if no one asked.
“I love this boy,” a girl said.
“I love this girl,” a boy said.
“Who do you like, Yaomomo?”
“Who do you like Shouto?”
“It’s a secret,” Yaomomo answered.
“No one in particular,” Shouto answered.
Everyone acted like it was normal. Three guys confessed to her in the span of a week. Five confessed to Shouto in that same week.
“I’m not interested,” they both answered. It wasn’t a lie.
Their silent stares were still there.
‘Girls are better,’ Momo would try to tell him.
‘Boys are better,’ Shouto would try to answer.
“Yaoyorazu likes Todoroki!” a girl once said.
Everyone agreed.
Everyone thought they were dating.
No one confessed to them after that.
“Girls are better,” Momo had finally said once they were in university. She was in the couch of someone’s house, Shouto by her side.
“Boys are better,” Shouto answered, a cup filled with booze in his hand.
They were eighteen. Everyone laughed at them when they heard them say so.
“Are you ten?” someone asked, mockingly.
No, they weren’t.
But it had taken them courage to say that once again. A ‘bottle of vodka and three shots of tequila’ brave. A ‘five years old’ brave. An ‘I could conquer the world’ brave. A Greek hero brave.
An ‘I’m young and scared’ brave.
They held hands, as a sign of solidarity. They chugged down the last bit of beer there was in their cups and fell asleep on top of each other. Too scared that, if left alone, they could hurt themselves.
“They’re dating,” someone said behind their backs. “I bet they get married before they finish the university!”
They no longer cared.
“I’m gay,” Momo had finally said.
They were in the park. Two in the morning, two weeks after finals, and two years after the party had ended.
“I…Think I am too,” Shouto had answered.
“Twenty years,” she said with a sigh. “That’s how long it took us to say it out loud.”
“Could have taken longer,” was Shouto’s of support. After so many years, Momo had grown used to it.
“Girls are better than boys,” Momo said out loud.
“Boys are better than girls,” Shouto said in return.
They both smiled.
They were both fine.
“An arranged married,” Shouto repeated, words stuck in his throat.
Yaomomo didn’t dare to keep talking, so she simply nodded. Shouto saw how her shoulders tremble and her breath hitch.
They were sitting on Yaomomo’s apartment, the tv serving as background noise, and the night outside was making them cold.
“They can’t force you to do that,” he said.
“It’s tradition,” she answered, and covered her face with her hands. “They…won’t leave me alone until I get married.”
Maybe it was the fact it was three in the morning. Maybe it was the fact that his father had said a few hours ago the exact same thing.
‘You should get married to a pretty girl,’ Enji had said, his sneer present in his face as he spoke. ‘That girl Yaoyorazu is a good match.’
Maybe it was the fact that he was tired. Tired of having to put up with stupid people telling him how to live his life. Or the fact that Momo, his best and only friend since he was a kid, was crying by his side.
But, whatever the reason was, he decided to do it.
“We should get married,” he blurted out, without thinking.
Yaomomo stared at him. Her watery eyes staring at him, startled.
“I mean, if you want t-“ he tried to fix his mistake, but Yamomo got up before he could finish.
“Yes!” she said. Suddenly, the tears running down her face weren’t sad one, but ones filled with joy. “Oh my god, we could! And when we have someone we coul-“
“-Get divorced,” Todoroki finished, and a small smile tugged the corner of his lips.
“Yes!” Yaomomo cheered. Her sadness gone, she stepped up and climbed up the couch. “Think about the possibilities!”
“By possibilities you mean ‘taxes’?” Shouto asked, confused, as he grabbed the arm rest of the couch, too scared of his giant friend outburst of emotion.
“And sleepovers!” Yaomomo shouted. Her arms were stretched towards the ceiling, and a wide pure smile crept in her face. “And split chores! And Netflix Saturdays and-”
“-take out for dinner,” Shouto finished. Even he felt a little bubble of emotion in his chest. It didn’t sound bad.
“Yes!” Yaomomo jumped high, and landed in the floor a few meters away. Shouto worried her toes would hurt. “And I can flirt with girls without my parents thinking is weird!”
“My father will actually leave me alone,” Todoroki said, eyes wide, suddenly feeling a weight, he didn’t know he was carrying, lifting from his shoulders. “Oh…my father will leave me alone…”
“Think about this Shouto!” Momo rushed to clasp Shouto’s cheek in between her hands. They were squishy and soft. “This will solve everything! And we get free vacations out of this!”
“Okay, it does soun- wait, free what?” Shouto asked, suddenly opening his eyes.
“My family’s wedding gift, most likely…or your father’s if we play our card well,” Momo mussed as she played around with Todoroki’s cheeks.
“Make my father pay it, and we have a deal,” Shouto said, and Momo smiled widely.
“Then, it’s settled!” Momo cheered, letting go of Shouto and falling to the ground. “I’m finally free…”
Shouto watched as his friend, his best friend, was laying on the floor, eyes closed and smile wide. She looked more healthy and relaxed than she had in the past few months. Maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea, he thought.
He sighed and looked to the tv, a single question popping in his mind.
“Does this mean I have to buy a ring?”