Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Midoriya’s hair is really fluffy today. And adorable.

It looks even brighter green despite the rain and depressing dark grey skies outside. And even more adorable.

He has a pen tucked behind his ear. The end is a little chewed up. Which is adorable.

He takes a break from his notes every so often to stare out at the raindrops on the window and how they distort the view of the warm-colored leaves on the tree right outside. And whenever he realizes he's doing it, his head snaps right back to the front of the room again. The way his cheeks are slightly more pink every time is adorable.

“Todoroki-kun?”

Shouto blinks and looks up at the front of the room only to see Cementoss looking right back at him, along with half the class - including Midoriya, oh shit . He must have missed something from the lecture.

“Um.” Shouto’s eyes instinctively shoot to Yaoyorozu in a silent plea for help, but she only gives him an apologetic smile in return. “Sorry, could you repeat the question?”

Kaminari snorts.

“Do you think the author really believes in true love by the end of the poem?” Cementoss asks.

What a coincidence.

“...I’d say he does,” Shouto answers. Literature is his worst class, he has no idea if he's right.

“And why do you say that?” Cementoss continues. “He doesn't explicitly say it, doesn't he?”

“He doesn’t.” Shouto frowns. “But his tone becomes much more optimistic by the end of the poem when he starts using words like ‘may’ in line 21 and ‘maybe’ in line 24 and 26 to indicate that he at least believes in the possibility.”

“Thank you.” Cementoss picks up a pen and goes to the whiteboard, now addressing the whole class. “That is the kind of answer all of you should try to formulate in this class.” He writes the word “claim” on the board, then writes “specific evidence” right below it with an arrow connecting the two. “You cannot just make a statement and leave it at that. You think the author believes in true love, why? Where in the poem did you get that impression?” He taps the word “specific” with his pen. “It's what I've been saying all year, there are very few wrong answers in literature as long as you can defend yourself.”

His monologue is cut short by the bell signaling the end of the school day and the shuffling of papers being stuffed in bags in a rush to get out of the building.

“Remember to finish the analysis packet by tomorrow, each of you will be randomly selected to present your answer one of the questions!” Cementoss calls, knowing half the class is already out the door before he's finished.

Shouto sighs and stands up, putting his composition book in his bag along with the aforementioned analysis packet. How is he fifth in the class when he's spacing out like that?

“Todoroki-kun?”

“Hm?” Shouto adjusts the strap on his bag and turns around, not knowing who he expected to see besides Midoriya, despite Midoriya being the one person he doesn't want to talk to right now. “What is it?”

“Are you... okay?” Midoriya asks, “That was the third time you were called out for not paying attention in class today-”

“I know.” Shouto feigns a smile, hoping that it doesn't look too fake, that his lie isn't too obvious. “I'm fine. It's just one of those days, you know?”

“Yeah, just-” Midoriya frowns, unconvinced. “Tell me if you need anything, okay?”

“Oh.” Shouto can feel his eyebrows shoot up on his forehead. “I will. Thank you.”

“No problem.” Midoriya starts walking toward the door. “Have a good afternoon, Todoroki-kun!”

Midoriya jogs the rest of the way to catch up with Iida and Uraraka in the hallway, leaving Shouto pretty much alone in the silent classroom.

He has it so bad .

Slinging his bag over his shoulder, he walks out of class 1-A and prepares to face the rain waiting for him on his walk to the dorms. He didn't bring an umbrella today and while the walk isn’t that long, he’ll still get wet.

He sucks in a breath and lets the water soak his hair, his bag, and his jacket within a few seconds. He doesn't run, because he knows that'll only make him more wet, but he just wants to get out of this rain already. It's cold October drizzle that makes the sky all dark and gloomy, and he only likes that environment when he's inside and dry.

“Good afternoon, Todoroki-san!”

“Hey.” Shouto knows it's Yaoyorozu before he even turns around, but he doesn't expect her to be holding a black umbrella out to him. “What?”

“You looked like you needed it.” Yaoyorozu smiles, spinning her own red umbrella above her head. “The weather is pretty terrible today.”

“It's okay, I-” Shouto realizes Yaoyorozu won’t take no for an answer and hesitantly takes the umbrella, wondering if she made it on the spot. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome.”

They walk next to each other in silence the rest of the way. When they're back inside the dorms again, Shouto tries to give the umbrella back, but Yaoyorozu tells him to keep it, and he doesn't want to argue with her.

“I'll see you in an hour?” Yaoyorozu asks.

Shouto nods, and the two of them go their separate ways to their rooms.

He doesn't really know how this started. He’d started studying with Yaoyorozu every Monday and Thursday as soon as they moved into the dorms, and since then, his literature grade has never been better. Of course, they'd become better friends as well, and conversations completely unrelated to schoolwork are strangely common for two of the most bookish students in their class.

And if he ever decided to tell anyone about his stupid crush, she'd be the first to know.

After a quiet elevator ride up to the fifth floor, Shouto opens the door to his room and hangs his wet jacket on the hook on the door on his way into the bathroom. He puts on sweatpants and a faded t-shirt and washes his face, the not-quite-warm-enough water waking him up after a long day.

When he comes out of the bathroom again, the rain has picked up outside and periodic but intense gusts of wind are blowing leaves off the trees along with it. He's glad he's inside for the next few hours; this is shaping up to be a pretty bad storm.

He hopes Midoriya isn't still in the main building. He doesn't want him to walk back to the dorms in weather like this.

Shouto frowns when he realizes how quickly and effortlessly Midoriya popped into his head. This is all dumb, he's so dumb .

He spends the next hour reading the news on his phone and staring out the window after realizing he's going to need Yaoyorozu’s help to answer some of the questions in the literature packet. It rains the entire time, a steady drizzle that isn't bad on its own but becomes outright obnoxious when combined with the wind, the kind of sideways rain that an umbrella can't block. He's starting to dread going back for dinner if this keeps up.

At four fifty-six, he gathers the books, notebooks, and worksheets he needs to finish tonight’s homework and walks back down the hall to the elevator, riding down alone again.

“Hey, Todoroki!”

As the elevator doors slide open, Shouto looks up and sees Kaminari standing by the front door, wearing a raincoat and tossing his umbrella from one hand to the other.

“I need to go buy some replacement parts for my costume, want to come with?” Kaminari asks, jerking a thumb out the door behind him.

“I can’t, sorry.” Shouto’s gaze shifts from Kaminari’s grin to the storm right behind him and he wonders if he would have said yes if he didn’t already have plans.

“Ah, yeah, I don’t blame you, it's kind of nasty out there.” Kaminari tosses a glance over his shoulder out the window. “See you later!”

“Bye.”

Kaminari pushes the door open and opens his umbrella before he walks out, the raindrops hitting his umbrella as soon as he's out under the open sky. Shouto, meanwhile, finishes his trek across the common room, clutching his stack of books to his chest.

Just as he's about to press the button for the elevator up to the girls’ side of the building, the door opens again and for a second he hears just how bad the storm has gotten, the wind howling and raindrops crashing against the ground a hundred times a second. He turns around almost instinctively, trying to get a glimpse of who it is now.

It's Midoriya - of course it is, it's always Midoriya - who walks in first, without a jacket or an umbrella and completely soaked. His hair is stuck to his scalp and he's panting hard, leaning over to rest his hands on his knees as soon as he gets inside. Uraraka follows close behind in a similar state, and Shouto realizes both of them are wearing their gym uniforms.

“Hi, Todoroki-kun!” Uraraka gives Shouto an enthusiastic wave while Midoriya just holds up a hand and smiles while still trying to catch his breath.

“What were you two doing?” Is Shouto worried? That's barely a question, of course he's worried.

“We were... in the gym,” Uraraka explains, voice strained from exhaustion, “Working on combat training... and stuff.”

“And I told her... not to run back.” Midoriya’s chest visibly rises and falls with every breath he takes. “Because more raindrops hit you... if you run through the rain... instead of walking... you know?”

“But I wanted to get back... as quickly as possible,” Uraraka finishes.

“Oh.” Shouto frowns. “You should both change into something dry when you get to your rooms, you don't want to catch a cold.”

“Thanks, Todoroki-kun.” Midoriya chuckles, walking past the common room couch to the elevator leading up to the the boys’ rooms. “I’m going to go shower, see you two at dinner!”

“See you!” Uraraka shouts as Shouto presses the button for their elevator.

When it comes, they're the only two people inside, and the ride up is fast enough so they don't have much time to talk. Uraraka gets off on the fourth floor, and Shouto rides the rest of the way in silence, getting off on the fifth floor and knocking on the first door he comes to.

“Hello!” Yaoyorozu answers the door right after the first knock, eyes bright with recognition.

“...Hi.” Shouto narrows his eyes. “You seem excited.”

“I had a question to ask you about the math homework,” Yaoyorozu says, beckoning him inside.

“Good, because I need to ask you something about the lit packet.” Shouto sits down on the floor, setting his things down next to him.

“Oh.” Yaoyorozu sits down across from him after grabbing a stack of work off her desk. “In that case, you should go first. I can wait.”

“No, you ask first.” Shouto subtly moves his math notebook to the top of the stack.

Yaoyorozu looks like she's going to argue for a second before she just smiles. “You and I both know that if we start arguing about this, we won't get anything done, so sure, I'll ask first.” She gets her math textbook from the bottom of her stack and opens to tonight’s assignment. “This is going to seem silly.”

“So?”

Yaoyorozu sighs. “How do you find the period when you're making a sine wave graph?” She frowns down at the problems in front of her. “I took notes and everything, but it just doesn't make sense to me.”

“I wrote down the example problem from class if you want to see that.” Shouto opens his notebook to the notes from today’s lecture. “I might be able to explain it if you still don't get it.”

“That would be helpful, thank you.” Yaoyorozu smiles. “I finished the packet early, so you can look at my notes if you want.”

“Oh.” Shouto takes the composition book Yaoyorozu holds out to him and flips through page after page of neat and organized notes and homework. “Thank you.”

“It's no trouble!” Yaoyorozu has her own math notebook out now, no doubt adding to the notes she already has.

Shouto finds today’s date easily from Yaoyorozu’s table of contents in the front of her literature notebook, and finds the analysis packet answers all in one place. She's written a lot for every answer, more than he has at least, and he has to flip another page before he gets to question three, the first question he's confused about. It's a question about the figurative language in a passage, and he's always been bad at identifying that.

But what catches his eye on the next page is what looks like a small doodle in the top margin. It's neat and simple and very Yaoyorozu-like, but she doesn't seem like the person to doodle in margins. He isn't, either, not really, but it's much more strange for her.

Especially when the doodle in question is a small heart with “Jirou Momo” written inside it in Yaoyorozu’s typeface-perfect handwriting.

“Um, Yaoyorozu?” Shouto asks.

“Todoroki-san?” Yaoyorozu asks at the same time.

They ask “What's wrong?” in unison, too.

“Sorry to be rude, I just wanted to ask you something.” Yaoyorozu holds Shouto’s notebook out to him.

“I was going to do the same thing-”

Yaoyorozu’s clearly not asking him anything about the notes. Once Shouto gets a good look at the page, it's obvious that she's asking about the small doodle of his own on the side of the page.

The one that reads “Midoriya Shouto” in tiny but legible letters that Shouto definitely does not remember writing.

“Um,” Shouto says. How is he supposed to explain this? He can't, that's how. All he can do is push Yaoyorozu’s notebook back toward her and hope she gets the hint.

Yaoyorozu leans over to look at her notebook and flushes when she sees the heart in the top margin. “Wait, that was today ?”

They look at each other for a second, words on the tips of their tongues that they don't know how to say. Shouto can’t help but think that in the past two seconds, something fundamental about their relationship has changed.

“I'm so sorry.” Yaoyorozu breaks the silence first, eyes downcast. “I should have just ignored it.”

“Same here, I shouldn't have mentioned it,” Shouto says.

“No, I said it first, it’s my fault-”

“We literally said it at the same time.”

Yaoyorozu chuckles dryly, looking from her notebook to Shouto’s. “I suppose we did, didn't we?”

The awkward silence returns, suffocating every chance at a normal conversation between them for the rest of the night.

“Well, as I see it, we have two options.” Shouto holds up two fingers. “We can either ignore this and pretend it never happened or... not.”

He doesn't know which one he wants.

“What does not entail, exactly?” Yaoyorozu asks.

“...I don't know.”

“Oh.” Yaoyorozu smiles a little. “Because I was going to tell you. Eventually. Probably. It’s just a little... early, that's all!”

“You don't need to justify it,” Shouto says, “I won't mention it if you don't want me to.”

“No, that's not it.” Yaoyorozu’s cheeks glow pink under the ceiling light. “To be honest, I’m glad someone else knows now.” Her smile widens even as she tries to hide it. “We can talk about it now! You know, like friends do!” She freezes in her tracks. “But it's fine if you don't want to talk about it-”

Shouto shrugs. “It would probably be healthier if I did.” Not like he’s ever cared about his health that much when it comes to things like this.

“So we’re...” Yaoyorozu pauses. “Confidants?”

“I guess so.” Shouto looks back down at his notebook. “If you're ready to hear five months’ worth of me being an absolute idiot.”

Yaoyorozu giggles, hiding it behind her hand. “You definitely aren't the only one, Todoroki-san.”

“Oh, thank god.”

“In all honesty, though, I can’t say I’m surprised,” Yaoyorozu comments, more smug than Shouto’s seen her in... well, really more smug than he's ever seen her.

“Oh?” Shouto blinks. Is it that obvious?

“You were staring at him all day.” Yaoyorozu pauses for a second. “I don't think anyone else noticed.”

“That's not exactly reassuring.”

“I know.” Yaoyorozu smiles. “I've done the same thing.”

“Mm.”

The silence that follows is still a little awkward, but not nearly as bad now that they know they're in the same boat.

“I'm sorry if this comes off as intrusive,” Yaoyorozu says, hesitantly starting the conversation again, “But how long have you liked Midoriya-san?”

Shouto blinks. “I...” Might as well tell it like it is. “I don't know.”

“What do you mean by that, exactly?” Yaoyorozu looks like she's about to laugh again. Traitor.

“I mean I have no idea when it happened.” Shouto frowns. “It was probably at the sports festival. Or internships. Or something around there.” He lies back and looks up at the ceiling. “I just didn't realize it until a few weeks ago.”

“Ah.” Yaoyorozu nods, still obviously holding back a giggle.

“I told you, I was an idiot for five months. That’s why.” Shouto realizes right after he closes his mouth that he said that wrong because he is definitely still an idiot. “What about you?”

“I-” Yaoyorozu purses her lips into a frown, eyes downcast as her cheeks start to glow. “I've liked Jirou-san since the beginning of the year, essentially.”

“Oh.”

“It's been an... interesting year, to be sure.” Yaoyorozu traces the offending doodle in Shouto’s notebook with her eyes.

“Tell me about it,” Shouto mumbles.

His phone buzzes from next to his literature packet, which he highly suspects he’s not going to get to tonight. Oh well.

He knows he’s fucked the second he sees “Midoriya Izuku” at the top of his screen, because of course it has to be Midoriya texting him at a moment like this. He doesn’t know if he even wants to read the text because it’s just going to embarrass him more-

From: Midoriya Izuku

5:11 PM

Thanks for worrying about me lol I guess one of us has to!! (´｡• ω •｡`)

“Todoroki-san!”

“What-”

Shouto recognizes the smell before he sees the smoke rising from his left arm and a tiny flame flickering right below his shoulder. God dammit.

“Do you need help with that?” Yaoyorozu’s eyes are wide as she backs away. “There’s a fire extinguisher in the hall if you need it!”

“No, it’s fine.” Shouto closes his eyes and wills the smoke to retreat back into his skin. His shirt only has one sleeve now, but at least it’s an old shirt he doesn’t care about and a short-sleeved shirt at that. He’ll get over this. If he manages to get back to his room and change before dinner without anyone noticing. “Sorry I almost set your room on fire.”

“It’s all right, just-” Yaoyorozu frowns. “What was that?”

For a second, Shouto debates not telling her. But he holds his phone up anyway. It can’t be worse than what she already knows.

Yaoyorozu leans forward and squints to see Shouto’s phone better. She stares at it for a second, no doubt scrutinizing his life decisions up to this point-

She laughs. She actually throws her head back and laughs . Shouto hasn't seen her laugh without trying to hide it somehow, and the fact that she's laughing at him only makes him feel worse about this whole ordeal.

“I’m sorry!” Yaoyorozu covers her mouth, but there’s still laughter in her eyes. “I just didn’t know-”

“And now you do.” Shouto puts his phone down again and crosses his arms. “It’s bad.”

“Well-” Yaoyorozu points at her notebook. “You can’t have it any worse than me.”

Fair enough.

Chapter Text

Shouto walks back to the dorms alone more often than not at the end of the day. Most of the people he considers friends spend an hour or so training or sparring after school, and he really only feels up to that one or two days a week. So he gets a chance to walk back without having to hold up a conversation, and he doesn't mind that.

He thinks today is going to be one of those days, until it isn’t.

“Todoroki!”

Shouto turns around, not quite recognizing the voice at first, only to see Ashido and Hagakure running down the path toward him. “...Yes?”

“We just wanted to let you know that Jirou said she was going to play something for us in the common room at eight tonight,” Ashido says, “Just in case you want to come or know anyone who'd want to.”

“Oh.” Yaoyorozu immediately comes to Shouto’s mind. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome!” Ashido smiles. “So you’re thinking of coming?”

“I might.” Shouto shrugs. “Depends on how busy I am.”

“Ah.” Ashido nods. “Well, hopefully we'll see you there!”

“Bye, Todoroki!” Hagakure runs off ahead of him and Ashido follows her, on their way to tell everyone else they can find.

Shouto keeps walking, wondering if he can actually make it. It's not like he goes out to the mall or the park with everyone else very often, as much as they invite him, and he wants to change that. And he doesn't have a lot of homework tonight, he could probably fit it in.

At the very least, he has to let Yaoyorozu know about it. He's sure Ashido and Hagakure are telling the whole school, but what if they miss her? She'd want to go to something like this.

He takes out his phone to type out a quick text, but he sees another message waiting for him on his lock screen before he gets the chance. He must have forgotten to turn off silent mode after school ended.

From: Midoriya Izuku

3:47 PM

Did Ashido-san tell you about Jirou’s performance tonight?? It sounds really fun, I'm gonna go!

Well, that settles that.

To: Midoriya Izuku

3:53 PM

See you there

Shouto has already stuffed his phone back in his pocket before he realizes, once again, how ridiculous this crush is. He doesn’t even like parties.

He walks just a little faster, trying to hide how red his cheeks are.

The rest of the afternoon is uneventful. Once he gets back to the dorms, he goes up to his room and does his homework, goes down to dinner with everyone else, and goes back up to his room again. It’s almost eight before he realizes he’s still in his school uniform, and a second after that, he realizes that he should probably wear something else. Not like he has much.

He eventually decides on jeans and a t-shirt, grabbing his only hoodie on his way out the door in case it gets cold. That’s normal for something like this, right?

The doubt lingers even after he closes the door behind him and walks down to the elevator. He’s still thinking about it when he gets in-

“Todoroki, hold the door!”

Shouto pushes the “door open” button long enough for Sero to run in with him. The door closes behind the two of them, and thus begins the slow ride down to the first floor.

“You’re going to listen to Jirou, right?” Sero asks.

Shouto nods. He supposes that’s indirectly the reason why he’s going. He doesn’t want to tell Sero the direct reason. He would probably rather die.

“Cool.”

They spend the rest of the ride talking about mundane things like homework and quirk strengthening - Sero apparently used his tape like a lasso for the first time today - and before they know it, they're down at the first floor. Sero immediately runs off when he sees Kaminari’s hair sticking out in the dark, leaving Shouto to find a place to camp out for the evening on his own.

Everyone from class A is here, and as if the common room wasn't already crowded enough, some of class B is, too, along with various other students scattered around the room. Satou’s bringing a platter of cookies around, and Aoyama follows close behind with a tray of sodas in dinky plastic wine glasses.

“There he is,” someone whispers, and Shouto has a weird feeling that the “he” they're talking about is him.

“Can he even fit on this couch?” Someone else hisses.

“We can all squish,” the first person responds.

“No, we're not doing that-” a third person starts.

“Todoroki-kun!”

Shouto follows the first voice now shouting his name and sees Uraraka waving at him. She's sitting in the middle of one of the couches, with Iida on her left and Midoriya on her right. Iida looks like he's about to tell her off for something or other, and Midoriya looks like he wants to somehow have Hagakure’s quirk for the rest of the night.

“Want to sit with us?” Uraraka asks, “There's room!”

“Uraraka-kun, there really isn’t-”

“Scootch!” Uraraka shoves Iida closer to the corner of the couch and grabs Midoriya’s arm to pull him closer to her, presumably leaving the corner next to Midoriya open for Shouto to sit down. It’s not like he doesn’t appreciate the sentiment, but everyone just seems a little uncomfortable.

He decides to look to Midoriya for a judgment call. Like that’s anything new. “Is this okay?”

“Oh!” Midoriya’s eyes go wide as his cheeks flush red. “Yeah, of course, go ahead!”

Shouto sucks in a breath and sits down, immediately noticing how much he’s squished between Midoriya and the armrest at the end of the couch. He doesn’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. All things considered, it’s probably both.

There’s a makeshift stage set up in the front of the room, right in front of the windows, which now have strings of tiny white fairy lights hanging from them. A mini spotlight even shines down on a currently-empty stool on the floor in front of a microphone, all three probably made by Yaoyorozu just for the occasion. There are large speakers on each side of the room, no doubt Yaoyorozu’s creation as well. Shouto’s considerably more amused than he should be when he imagines the conversation that must have happened between her and Jirou to set that up.

“Do you think Jirou-san’s okay?” Midoriya asks in a secretive whisper, “It kind of seems like Ashido-san and Hagakure-san peer-pressured her into it and she might get stage fright or something.”

“I think she’ll be fine,” Shouto whispers back.

Why did he say that? He doesn't even know her that well.

The speakers shriek when Jirou walks on and taps the microphone, an acoustic guitar in her hands. Even she grabs the ends of her earphone jacks with her hands to mute the noise.

The applause starts from somewhere in the back and spreads across the room until everyone’s clapping. Someone’s whooping near the kitchen, and Midoriya’s smile is contagious. Like it isn’t always.

Jirou waves and turns away from everyone else to hide the blush coming to her face. She sits down on the school and takes a small breath, putting her hand in position on the guitar’s neck.

“What are you playing?” Kaminari shouts.

“I was getting to that,” Jirou hisses into the microphone before the expression on her face fades into a nervous smile. “Um, hey, everyone!”

The applause starts up again, the cheering in the back even louder.

“Thanks for coming out tonight!” Jirou pushes a stray hair behind her ear. “And, uh, thanks, Mo, for the killer sound system!”

Shouto wishes he could see how red Yaoyorozu’s cheeks are after Jirou called her that. Or maybe that isn't new. He doesn't know.

“I just have a few covers for you guys, I know some of you wanted me to play something I wrote, but-” Jirou shrugs. “Maybe next time.”

She strums the first chord, quiet and hesitant even when it's the only sound in the room. The song is familiar, the kind of pop song that’s a few years old and plays in department store dressing rooms, but Shouto can't place the title.

When Jirou starts singing, her voice is soft but solid, on pitch even as she pushes and pulls the tempo when she sees fit. From the lyrics, it's clearly a song about young, innocent love, about dancing and holding hands and the exhilaration of it all. It doesn't seem like something Jirou would sing, but she makes the song her own.

When the song ends and everyone applauds again, Shouto looks for Yaoyorozu and finds her standing next to Ashido along the wall. She's blushing, her face a light crimson, and he wonders if Jirou notices.

The next two songs Jirou plays are more obscure, songs Shouto’s never heard before. Considering the fact that he doesn't listen to pop music unless someone in class wants him to show him a music video, that can't mean much, but they're certainly less popular than the first.

And in all honesty, he's not thinking about the music so much as he's thinking about the fact that he's squished next to Midoriya on a three-person couch that four people are currently sitting on. It's an anxious buzz in the back of his mind, silently freaking out at the possibility of something, anything happening.

So when Midoriya’s head drops onto his shoulder at the beginning of the fourth song, he can't say he hasn't thought about it happening but he can't say he's prepared for it, either.

Except for Jirou, the entire room is silent, which makes Shouto’s pounding heartbeat sound that much louder. Is Midoriya asleep? He usually stays up late reading or studying, he could be tired enough. But he can't find out or wake Midoriya up without drawing someone’s attention and being rude to Jirou, so what's he going to do? Just sit here and try not to set the entire building on fire? Midoriya’s on his left, he can probably feel the heat.

Hopefully it's warming him up.

Shouto sucks in a breath and tries to focus on the music, but that doesn't work and all he can think about is the weight on his shoulder. No matter how he slices it, the fact of the matter is that he's a mess.

He finally lets the breath out after the song ends and uses the applause break to nudge Midoriya’s shoulder. He doesn't budge the first time, so Shouto nudges him again, a little harder. After that, he sits up and slumps forward, eyes drooping and threatening to slip closed again.

“Are you okay?” Shouto asks.

“Yeah-oh god, did I fall asleep again?” Midoriya groans, bringing one hand up to rub his eyes. “Sorry, I've been getting to bed really late and I -”

“Don't apologize,” Shouto says, putting a hand up to stop Midoriya from going any further. As if he’d want an apology for that.

Midoriya hums and drops the subject as Jirou starts the next song. She plays a sixth, a seventh after that and still, the only thing on Shouto’s mind is the fact that Midoriya is absurdly close to him and his head could fall onto his shoulder again at any moment.

Before he knows it, Jirou’s little performance is over and it’s almost nine. Everyone gets to their feet as she takes a tiny bow and goes to put her guitar in its case against the wall. The spotlight turns off, the overhead lights turn on, everyone who isn’t in class 1-A heads back to their own dorms, and in a few minutes, the common room is just as normal as it’s always been.

Midoriya stands up first, apologizing to everyone on their couch that he still has homework to do before tomorrow. Naturally, Shouto joins Iida and Uraraka and telling him that his schoolwork comes first and that he should go back to his room and do it. Midoriya laughs and agrees, running back to the elevator with a wave and a “Night, guys, see you tomorrow!”

Shouto stands up next and goes to help Ashido clean up. He tries to tell himself it’s not just a distraction from the events of the last hour as he awkwardly stands next to one of the speakers and waits for whatever he's supposed to do.

“Todoroki-san, is everything all right?”

“Hm?” Shouto turns around to see Yaoyorozu frowning at him with a long cord in her hands. “Yeah, I was just wondering if there's anything I can do...?”

“Oh!” Yaoyorozu’s eyes go wide as she looks around the room. “Well, someone needs to move the furniture back to where it usually is after everyone leaves. If you can manage it, of course!”

“I can.” Shouto glances back at the two couches. Uraraka and Iida are still sitting and talking on one while Ojiro and Shouji are standing up from the other. Only one of the folding chairs behind the couches is occupied, and Tokoyami’s probably going to head back to his room before too long anyway.

“Great, thank you!” Yaoyorozu smiles before she starts walking across the room again.

Shouto heads for the empty couch and starts pulling one side, dragging it across the floor until it’s at the right angle.

“Hey, Todoroki-kun, need any help with that?” Uraraka asks, wiggling her fingers with a grin.

Sure, her quirk would be useful, but she and Iida both have things to do. “I can manage on my own, thank you,” Shouto says.

“All right!” Uraraka stands up and stretches her arms up above her head. “We’ll get out of your way, goodnight!”

“Goodnight, Todoroki-kun,” Iida says with a wave as he follows Uraraka away from the couches. “See you in the morning.”

“Night.” Shouto waves back before he continues dragging the couch. As soon as he's satisfied with the placement of one of them, he moves to the other, pushing it this time. It isn't any easier, but it isn't any harder, either.

“Hey, Mo,” he overhears Jirou say.

“Y-yes?” Yaoyorozu sounds more outwardly nervous than she has in a long time.

“Thanks for helping tonight,” Jirou says. When Shouto looks up at her for a second, she's smiling. “I really needed it.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble!” Yaoyorozu smiles back, eyes wide. “I was happy to do it!”

“Thanks.” Jirou laughs. “Is there anything I should do before I go back up, or...?”

“We've got it from here, Kyouka!” Ashido shouts, putting a stack of newly-cleaned dishes in a cupboard in the kitchen. “Go get some sleep, you deserve it!”

“If you're sure-” Jirou starts.

“We are!” Ashido gives her a scolding look. “Night!”

Jirou narrows her eyes before she gives up, giving a small wave and a quick “night” before she starts toward the elevator with her guitar case on her back.

“Goodnight, Jirou-san!” Yaoyorozu waves back before going to help Shouto move the second couch. She gives him a look that says something like “I'm about to die” and he completely understands.

With the two of them and Ashido working together, the couches are back where they were and the folding chairs are neatly stored in the closet within a few minutes. Everything looks like it was, like this never happened. A glance at the clock tells Shouto it's only a little after nine.

“Thanks for helping, guys,” Ashido says with a smile, “This was fun!”

“Definitely!” Yaoyorozu’s cheeks are red when she smiles back. “I hope we can do it again sometime.”

“Same here,” Shouto says. Hopefully next time, he can actually listen without... other things getting in the way. Jirou is a talented guitarist, she deserves her audience’s undivided attention.

“Great!” Ashido starts walking toward the elevator. “I'll tell her you said that, she'll probably believe you a lot more than she'll believe me!” She presses the button and steps into the car when it arrives. “Night, you two!”

“Goodnight!” Yaoyorozu calls before her eyes fall on Shouto, now the only other person in the room. “So.”

“So?” Shouto quizzically tilts his head to the side.

“Did you have fun?” Yaoyorozu asks.

Shouto nods. “It was nice.”

“That's good.” Yaoyorozu smiles with a glance back to where the stage used to be before she walks over to grab her bag from next to the wall. “I'm going back to my room, so I suppose I'll see you tomorrow.”

“Oh.” Shouto holds his hand in in a half-wave. “Goodnight.”

“Sleep well, Todoroki-san!” Yaoyorozu walks toward the elevator and waves back before getting into the car.

Shouto’s completely alone in the silence of the common room before he realizes that she probably said that just because she’s the one person who knows he won’t exactly be able to sleep well after this.

Wednesday night is a rough night, and Thursday morning is similarly difficult. But somehow, Shouto makes it through the day without falling asleep in class or dipping too much in his performance during combat training. Iida, overly enthusiastic offers to get Shouto a coffee after school and all, is a good person to be paired up with on a day like today. Bakugou would probably blow both of them up, Kirishima and Kaminari would get nosy, and Midoriya... Shouto doesn’t want to think about what would happen had he been paired up with him.

At the end of the day, Shouto isn’t staring at Midoriya like he was this time last week. Instead, he’s staring at the clock and waiting for the bell to ring. He hasn’t been able to focus very well all day, and he’s going to have to ask Yaoyorozu to explain pretty much everything that happened while he was in his sleep-deprived trance.

He jumps when the bell rings, coming back to his senses as everyone starts stuffing papers and notebooks in their bags and getting ready to take advantage of the rest of their day. Before long, the classroom is almost entirely cleared out. Almost.

“Hey, Todoroki-kun!”

“Hm?” Shouto looks up from the spot on his desk he’s been staring at for the past few minutes and sees Midoriya jogging toward him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” Midoriya puts his hands up in front of him. “I was just wondering if I-” He blinks, lips turning into a frown. “Are you okay? You seem really tired.”

“I’m fine.” Shouto waves it off, not wanting to get into that any more than he has to. “What were you going to say?”

“Oh!” Midoriya’s eyes go wide. “Well, Uraraka-san, Iida-kun, and I are buying tickets for a concert in a few weeks and it's one of my favorite bands so I was wondering if you wanted to come with us because if you do, I want to buy your ticket, too, so you can sit with us if you want! But it’s like electro-pop kind of stuff, so if you don’t like that-”

“I’d love to,” Shouto says. He doesn’t even know if he’s free that day, but if he isn’t, he’ll make it work.

“Really?” A smile plays at the corner of Midoriya’s mouth, and he’s obviously trying to keep it hidden. “It’s on December 9th, I think that’s a Thursday.”

“Okay.” Shouto nods, surprised he hasn’t burst into flame yet. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Midoriya’s eyes light up. “Me, too!” He grabs the straps of his backpack with both hands. “I’ll buy your ticket tonight!”

“I can pay you back-”

“You don’t need to do that!”

“Yes, I do.” Shouto narrows his eyes. “Tell me how much it comes out to tomorrow, I’ll pay for it. It's no trouble.”

Midoriya looks like he’s about to say something before he frowns and gives up on protesting. “...Okay.”

“Thanks for asking, though.” Shouto lets himself smile, just a little. “See you later?”

“Yeah.” Midoriya starts walking toward the classroom door. “Bye, Todoroki-kun!”

“Bye.”

As Midoriya walks out with a new spring in his step, Shouto just sits there for a second and wonders exactly what just happened. Is that a date? No, of course it’s not, because Iida and Uraraka are going to be there, but Midoriya asked him . To go to a concert with him. What does that mean? Does it even mean anything?

Shouto, now entirely alone in the room, lets his head hit the desk and sighs for an absurdly long time at an obscenely high volume.

When Yaoyorozu opens the door to her room an hour later, she frowns almost instantly, the concern clear on her face. “Todoroki-san, what’s wrong?”

“A lot,” Shouto deadpans.

“Ah.” Yaoyorozu nods, fully understanding his predicament without him even having to say it. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Shouto shrugs. “I think it'll come up no matter what I do.”

Yaoyorozu just smiles.

Once they're inside, sitting on the floor just like last week with their books and two mugs of tea between them, they're reminded that their friendship has changed a lot in just a week.

“How was last night for you?” Shouto asks, “Because I lost sleep over it, and that's something I'm never going to get back.” Like he hasn't lost sleep over Midoriya before.

Yaoyorozu covers her laugh with her hand. “You sound angry about that.”

“I just want to get a normal amount of sleep for once in my life.”

“That's understandable.” Yaoyorozu looks down at the ground. “Last night wasn't exactly good for my heart.” Her cheeks quickly go pink as she looks up again. “She called me Mo, Todoroki-san, no one’s ever done that before!”

“Do you not like it?” Shouto frowns.

“No!” Yaoyorozu gives him an embarrassed smile. “No, I liked it. It was just unexpected, that's all. I have no idea what it’s supposed to mean!”

“Mm.”

“So what happened to you?” Yaoyorozu asks, “You seem... frazzled.”

“Do I?” Shouto sighs, holding up one finger at a time. “One, Midoriya fell asleep on my shoulder last night. Two, he asked me to go to a concert with him an hour ago.”

“Is it a date kind of concert?” Yaoyorozu asks.

Shouto shakes his head, almost tempted to laugh. “There are other people going,”

“That makes things less stressful, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s not like I can just believe that,” Shouto says.

“I know.” Yaoyorozu smiles. “If he asked you as a date, would you have said yes?”

“Of course.” Shouto leans back on his hands. “But I know he doesn’t like me like that.”

“How do you know that?”

“I just do.”

Yaoyorozu just looks at him for a second. “He fell asleep on your shoulder.”

“That doesn’t mean anything.” Shouto narrows his eyes. “If anything, it means he trusts me, and I don’t need more than that.”

“Todoroki-san, he definitely likes you back.” Yaoyorozu looks like she’s about to laugh.

“No, he doesn’t.”

Shouto has the feeling Yaoyorozu has given up.

“I feel like I should help you through this,” Yaoyorozu says.

“Do you have a particular reason?” Shouto asks.

“You’re slightly oblivious.”

“I’m being reasonable.”

“No, you’re not!” Yaoyorozu barely avoids a snort as she tries not to laugh. “If I convince you to ask Midoriya-san on a date, will you believe me then?”

“...Possibly.”

“Then that settles that!” Yaoyorozu claps her hands together. “Trust me, he likes you.”

Shouto frowns. “Do you think Jirou likes you?”

“That’s not relevant!”

“That’s a little hypocritical, if you ask me.”

“Well.” Yaoyorozu looks back down at her stack of books with a subtle smile. “I guess we can help each other, then.”

Chapter Text

Somewhere in the grand scheme of things, Shouto made a big mistake. He had a momentary lapse in judgment, during which he made one very very stupid decision, and now he has to pay for it.

He fucked up by saying yes, and now he and Midoriya are sparring in the gym after school on a cold November afternoon.

It’s not like they haven’t sparred before. They’ve done that plenty of times since becoming friends after their sports festival fight, that’s normal enough. What’s not normal is Midoriya wearing a tank top in the middle of November.

Shouto has quite the disadvantage.

Midoriya goes on the offensive, attempting to throw a punch that Shouto easily avoids with a simple shift of his weight to one side. But Midoriya regains his balance in a few seconds, jumping back to think of what to do next. He bounces on the balls of his feet and scrunches his face up in thought and preparation.

Shouto takes the few seconds he has to breathe and think of something himself. Fighting against Midoriya is incredibly difficult, mostly because his fighting style is unpredictable. He adapts to every situation with ease, gears in his head turning at supersonic speed as he comes up with strategy after strategy in seconds. While Shouto relies on a list of moves that he’s done hundreds of times, Midoriya makes things up on the spot and has very little regard for what he’s done before. He's been able to keep up with everything Shouto’s tried to throw at him, and Shouto in turn can only try to do the same with no guarantee of success.

Midoriya runs at him again, and Shouto figures that the only thing he can do is try to get him off-balance somehow. Sidestepping hasn't worked, and he really doesn't want to kick Midoriya or anything like that if he can help it. And they've decided to go without using their quirks this time - at Midoriya’s request - which means using his ice is also out of the question. But there has to be something , right?

He ducks down to avoid a hit aimed somewhere on his head, but as it turns out, that was his biggest mistake.

In the few seconds he's in a squat, he can't see Midoriya’s eyes, can't read them for a clue of what he's going to do next. And the moment he starts to get up, he feels Midoriya’s arms around his torso and the sensation of solid ground beneath his feet disappears as Midoriya effortlessly flips him over his shoulder.

Shouto lands hard on his back on the floor and stares up at the bright gym lights and the clouds through the skylight. He couldn't predict that, he couldn't even hope to counter that, and here he is with the air knocked out of his lungs and all the blood in his body rushing straight to his cheeks.

And Midoriya has the nerve to be wearing a tank top right now.

“Oh my god, Todoroki-kun, are you okay?” Midoriya pops into his field of vision, a concerned frown on his face. “I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-”

“It's fine.” Shouto sits up. “I would have been disappointed if you'd gone easy on me.”

“Yeah, but I don't want to hurt you!”

“And you didn't,” Shouto says. He stands up and brushes his hair out of his eyes. Yeah, he’s still winded. “How about we call it a night?”

“Sure.” Midoriya nods, walking over to grab his sweatshirt from the side of the gym. “I need to study for the English test anyway, Mic-sensei’s pretty ruthless about grading.”

“I was going to do the same thing.” Well, Shouto intends to do the same thing. There's no guarantee that any studying will actually happen.

“You could probably pass without studying at all,” Midoriya says.

“So could you,” Shouto responds. He's seen Midoriya look at a vocabulary list for the very first time ten minutes before a quiz and go on to ace that quiz, and he actually pays attention in English class - something Shouto can only he say he does around seventy percent of the time for a predictable-but-not-very-good reason. Midoriya’s going to be fine no matter how much he studies for it.

“Ha ha, very funny.” Midoriya chuckles. “Want to do this again tomorrow?”

“...I’ll let you know.”

“Okay.” Midoriya smiles from the gym door. “Have a good night, Todoroki-kun!”

“You, too.” Shouto picks up his own jacket in the corner as Midoriya walks out, shutting the door behind him.

The walk back to the dorms is slow, and Shouto’s legs are sore. He and Midoriya must have been at this for at least forty-five minutes, but he didn't notice how much time that actually was until now. Actual fights barely ever get that long.

“Hey, Todoroki! Just the guy I wanted to see!”

Shouto barely registers that someone said his name before Ashido’s slung an arm around his shoulder with a smug grin. “Do you need something?” he asks.

“Funny you should ask!” Ashido lets go and takes a seat on the couch, where Kaminari’s staring down a piece of paper. “We’re stumped on the chemistry homework, and you're good at science-y stuff, right?”

“I'd ask Bakugou for science help,” Shouto says.

“We've tried that!” Kaminari whines, “He just won't help us!”

“Then see if you can find Iida,” Shouto suggests. He would help, but he knows that if he gets roped into this, he’ll end up doing the whole worksheet for both of them, and he just doesn't have time for that. And Iida and Bakugou are better at science than he is anyway. So is Yaoyorozu. And Midoriya. Midoriya’s never gotten below a 97 on a science test. And he looks cute in a lab coat and goggles. Not like that matters. Because it doesn’t. At all.

“What are you so busy doing, anyway?” Kaminari asks.

“Yaoyorozu and I study together on Thursdays.”

“Come on!” Ashido huffs. “You two are some of the smartest people in class, you don't even need to study!”

Shouto would agree except for the fact that recently, the not-studying side of their study sessions has become increasingly more important. So he starts walking toward the elevator.

“Wait, before you go-” Kaminari starts.  

“Yes?” Shouto stops and turns around.

“Is zinc higher than copper on the activity series?”

“I don't know.” The activity series isn't something you just memorize. “You should have the table somewhere.”

Kaminari pouts but doesn't ask any more questions, leaving Shouto to walk the rest of the way to the elevator and press the button.

Just as he's about to step into the car, he hears Ashido whisper “Man, I wish I could join Todoroki and Yaoyorozu’s elite study club” and almost laughs once the doors close.

***

“You're early.” Yaoyorozu opens the door after only one knock. Her smile turns into a half-smirk as she checks up and down the hallway before asking, “What did he do this time?”

“How about we save that for when we're not in the hallway?” Shouto follows her into the room, where he takes a seat on the floor as Yaoyorozu grabs two pillows, one for her to sit on and one for him.

“Do you feel ready for the test?” Yaoyorozu asks, surprisingly not bringing up Shouto’s crush right off the bat.

“Kind of.” Shouto flips through his English notebook, all the notes and exercises familiar but not familiar enough to replicate tomorrow morning. “Do you think Midnight-sensei is going to give us a quiz tomorrow?”

“I doubt it.” Yaoyorozu smiles. “She has a pattern with her pop quizzes, and the next one should be on Tuesday.”

“Really?” Shouto never pays attention to when the quizzes are, he just does the homework whenever he can and hopes there isn't a quiz on the days he didn't have time for it.

“She gives a quiz, waits two school days and gives another one,” Yaoyorozu explains, “Then she gives another after three days, then two again and so on.” She picks up a pencil and twirls it in her fingers. “The last quiz was yesterday, so she’s supposed to give another one on Tuesday.” She laughs a little. “As long as she thinks we don't know about it, she’ll keep using that pattern.”

“Good to know.” Shouto nods.

“Here's a proposition, Todoroki-san.” Yaoyorozu meets his eyes with a smile. “In exchange for that valuable information, how about you tell me why you look like you’re about to catch fire?”

Shouto half-groans. “Is it that obvious?”

Yaoyorozu pauses for a second to think. “Probably not to the casual observer.”

“That’s not the answer I was hoping for.”

“Then I apologize,” Yaoyorozu says, “What happened?”

Shouto sighs. “Midoriya and I were sparring after school.”

“ That's what he was doing!” Yaoyorozu’s eyes go wide with realization. “I saw him walking to the gym on my way here.” She narrows her eyes with a strangely mischievous smile. “He was wearing a tank top.”

Shouto stares up at the cracks in the ceiling. “Don't remind me.”

“Were you distracted ?” Yaoyorozu asks.

“Not really,” Shouto deadpans. Not any more than usual , he thinks. “I was more concerned that he flipped me over his shoulder.”

“Ah.” Yaoyorozu nods. “Are you all right?”

“I'm fine,” Shouto says. Physically, at least. He supposes that's the most he can hope for.

“That's good.”

“Yeah.” Shouto almost lets himself smile. “Midoriya would have been worried if I'd gotten myself hurt.”

“The way you said that doesn't indicate that you think it's a bad thing.”

Shouto doesn't say anything. He and Yaoyorozu both know what he's thinking.

“All right, I won't ask any more questions.” Yaoyorozu chuckles, looking down at her notebook as she pushes a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She eventually takes the elastic out of her hair and does the whole ponytail over again. “You clearly need some time to recover.”

“I do not-”

“You do.”

Yaoyorozu’s right, of course, but Shouto’s not going to admit that.

In the midst of the silence between them, there’s a clear knock on Yaoyorozu’s door.

“I’m coming!” Yaoyorozu calls, standing up and opening the door wide. “Oh! Hi, Jirou-san!”

Shouto leans a little closer to the door. Not for any particular reason, of course.

“Hey.” Jirou pokes her head inside the room. “Hi, Todoroki.”

Shouto puts his hand up in a half-wave and opens the first book on his stack to make it seem like he’s not listening.

“Is anything wrong?” Yaoyorozu asks.

“No, I just wanted to ask you something,” Jirou says.

She drops her voice down to a whisper that Shouto can’t even hear, let alone understand. The only hope he has of understanding it is through Yaoyorozu’s reaction.

“What?” Yaoyorozu fails to hide a blush, eyes wide with what looks like surprise.

Well, then. It was definitely something , at least.

“It isn’t a big deal.” Jirou smiles. “No need to sound so nervous about it.”

“Yes, but-” Yaoyorozu blinks, gesturing back to herself. “You're asking me? Really?”

“Who else would I ask?”

“Oh.” Yaoyorozu smiles back. “Thank you.”

“Come to my room after school tomorrow?” Jirou asks.

“Sure.” Yaoyorozu nods. “I’ll be there.”

“Thanks, Mo.” Jirou waves a goodbye before she walks off down the hall.

Yaoyorozu closes the door and looks like she’s about to scream, with a hidden but excited smile on her face that doesn’t look like it’s going to go away anytime soon.

“What was that?” Shouto asks.

Yaoyorozu sits down again, still smiling. “She asked me to listen to one of her songs to see if it sounds all right.”

That explains it. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you!” Yaoyorozu sucks in a breath as the look of excitement on her face turns to one of dread. “Todoroki-san, I don't know anything about music, what am I supposed to do?”

“I thought you used to play the piano,” Shouto says.

“I quit when I was nine.” Yaoyorozu frowns in thought. “And even if I didn't, I doubt classical music knowledge would be useful. You've heard Jirou-san play, that isn't her style.”

“I have.”

“Why would she ask me?” Yaoyorozu sighs. “I wouldn't be able to help her.”

“You were pretty quick to say Midoriya liked me back when he fell asleep on my shoulder the other night,” Shouto points out.

“This is different-”

“It really isn’t.” Shouto narrows his eyes. “Are you nervous?”

“What do you think?” Yaoyorozu looks like she’s about to laugh out of something like disbelief that this is all happening. “Of course I’m nervous! She asked me to listen to one of her songs! That’s a very personal part of her life, and she’s just letting me in!”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Yes, but-” Yaoyorozu shakes her head. “Never mind. I’m just worrying over nothing.” She looks at Shouto with a carefully hidden smile. “How do you manage to be so comfortable around Midoriya-san all the time? I can’t talk to Jirou-san without stuttering.”

“Okay, first-” Shouto holds up a finger. “I feel like I’m about to set myself on fire whenever I talk to him, and I don’t think that counts as being comfortable. Other than that-” He shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“That seems to be a common theme with us.” Yaoyorozu chuckles. “Neither of us knowing what we’re doing.”

They both sit there in silence for a second. Shouto looks back down at the book he abandoned when Yaoyorozu started talking to him again and realizes that he didn’t understand any of what he was reading when Jirou was in the room.

“I thought we were supposed to be studying,” Shouto says, remembering the English test that he hasn’t studied for at all that’s supposed to happen in just over seventeen hours.

Yaoyorozu doesn’t say anything.

Shouto, in more ways than one, is fucked.

Chapter Text

The weeks leading up to end-of-term tests at Yuuei are always interesting. The tests are hard, everyone knows that, but no one really knows what’s going to happen, and the most people can do is guess.

But no matter what happens, you can bet on the fact that Midoriya Izuku isn’t going to sleep as much as he should.

The test is still two weeks away, and Midoriya’s been averaging five hours of sleep a night. Iida told him multiple times to get more sleep, but then he turned around and planned a get-together for all the first-years in the 1-A common room like he didn't know Midoriya would want to come.

And no matter how much Iida and Uraraka told him to get to sleep early and not go, he went anyway. Because of course he did.

Midoriya is on Shouto’s left - which means he’ll be the first to tell if Shouto catches fire because of him, dammit - and Kaminari is on his right. Kirishima, Bakugou, Ashido, and Sero are all here, too, along with Uraraka and Aoyama. Monoma, Tetsutetsu, and Shiozaki represent class 1-B, and other than that, the only person Shouto recognizes is Shinsou, on the floor on the other side of the circle.

Shouto wishes he could have learned about the complexities of Shinsou Hitoshi’s quirk in at least a semi-controlled environment. A sparring match during a combat training drill, maybe, or next year’s sports festival at the very latest.

A game of truth or dare is obviously not a semi-controlled environment.

“Uraraka.” Kaminari grins. “Truth or dare.”

“Hm.” Uraraka looks up at the ceiling in thought. “Dare.”

Sero whispers something in Kaminari’s ear and Kaminari laughs a little too hard. Shouto wonders if he should be worried.

“Do-” Kaminari can’t even say it without bursting into giggles. “Do your best Bakugou impression!”

Uraraka blinks. “What?”

Everyone’s laughing now, except of course, Bakugou, who’s visibly seething at the end of the couch.

“Fu-” Uraraka swallows before bringing her voice down about two octaves. “Fuck!”

“She said fuck!” Sero hisses.

Kirishima snorts obnoxiously loud.

“Shut the fuck up, fucking Shitty Hair, I'm trying to be edgy to hide the fact that I actually fucking study and probably helped a little old lady cross the street this week!” Uraraka, who's clearly been trying not to laugh this whole time, finally breaks and leans on Midoriya’s shoulder as she cracks up.

Midoriya starts laughing, too, causing Shouto’s heart to skip a few beats.

“That really wasn't that far off!” Kaminari looks to Bakugou for confirmation. “Wouldn't you say?”

Bakugou flips him off.

“Hey, Bakugou!” Uraraka leans into the circle to state him down. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare,” Bakugou mutters.

“Hmm...” Uraraka smiles. “I dare you to be Kirishima’s footrest for five minutes.”

Bakugou draws back, looking absolutely disgusted. “What the hell, I'm not doing that-”

“Would you rather choose truth?” Uraraka asks.

Bakugou pauses before he rolls his eyes, sliding off the couch and onto the floor. “Fucking whatever.”

He gets on his hands and knees right in front of where Kirishima’s sitting and groans. Kirishima, on the other hand, looks absolutely delighted as he puts his feet on Bakugou’s back, bright red socks and all.

“Hey. Vine girl.” Bakugou glares at Shiozaki across the circle. “Take your pick.”

“Oh! Me?” Shiozaki points to herself, eyes wide. “Truth.”

“Dammit,” Bakugou mutters.

“Did you not prepare for that?” Kirishima asks.

“Who was the last person you texted?” Ashido blurts out.

“Um...” Shiozaki takes her phone out of her pocket. “Tetsutetsu.”

Tetsutetsu puts up his hand for a high-five and Shiozaki slaps it back.

“Okay.” Shiozaki looks around the circle. “Shinsou, truth or dare?”

Shinsou looks up at her. “Truth,” he says, entirely passive.

Shiozaki smiles. “If you got to choose whether to be in class 1-B or 1-A, which would you pick?”

Monoma’s the one to snort this time, and Kendou promptly tells him to shut up when she passes their circle on her way to the kitchen. Everyone else in the two hero classes watches with baited breath as they wait for Shinsou to answer.

“B,” Shinsou responds.

“Ha!” Monoma looks down at Bakugou with a grin. “I knew it. He wants us .”

Shiozaki sighs.

Shouto isn't paying attention to any of that. His eyes are on Shinsou, who's scanning the circle for someone to ask next. They make eye contact for a second, during which Shinsou just smirks at him.

What's that supposed to mean?

“Midoriya, truth or dare.” The way Shinsou says it doesn't sound like a question.

Midoriya grins, obviously knowing exactly what's going to happen when he decides. “Dare.”

Shouto watches what happens next without blinking, without looking away.

Midoriya slumps forward first, shoulders heavy. The expression his face drains until he's a blank, emotionless slate with half-lidded eyes practically gazing through the wall on the other side of the room and lips barely parted. He doesn't look like himself.

“Come over here for a second,” Shinsou says, his voice cutting through the silence of the rest of the circle.

Midoriya does, standing up before he walks almost robotically across the circle. He stops at Shinsou’s side, looking like he could pass out at any moment. Shinsou whispers something in his ear and he barely nods in response before walking back to where he was before.

Except not quite.

He comes to a stop right in front of where Shouto’s sitting on the couch, and for a second, the two of them lock eyes. Well, maybe, since Midoriya still seems to look through Shouto instead of at him. Everyone else is watching them, too, mostly in silence. Kaminari and Uraraka are both trying not to laugh. And failing.

Without a word, Midoriya sits down in Shouto’s lap and Shouto’s more than a hundred percent sure he's going to die right here, right now. And fail his finals, because he can't exactly study if he's dead.

Kaminari’s mouth hangs open as he stares at the two of them, Sero and Aoyama looking similarly shocked. Ashido’s grinning, Uraraka and Monoma are laughing so hard it looks like they can't breathe, and everyone else is somewhere in between those three reactions.

Except Shouto, who, as previously mentioned, is currently dying.

“Midoriya, what are you doing?” He whispers, uncomfortable with how fast the words come out of his mouth.

Midoriya doesn't say anything. Of course he doesn't say anything. He just curls up into a little adorable ball and Shouto’s honestly surprised he hasn’t caught fire yet.

Shouto glares at Shinsou across the circle. “What the hell?”

Kirishima cuts in before Shinsou can respond. “Oh my god, is he asleep?”

Oh, fuck .

“Oh, wow.” Uraraka leans down to look at Midoriya’s eyes. “Yeah, he's out.” She gives Shinsou a strangely genuine smile. “Thanks.”

“What are you thanking him for?” Shouto half-hisses.

“You know how messed up his sleep schedule gets before finals,” Uraraka whispers back, “I asked Shinsou-kun what he could do and we came up with this. Kind of.”

“So you knew Midoriya was going to choose dare?”

“Did you think he wouldn't?”

That's fair.

“Sorry,” Uraraka says, “You look uncomfortable, I don’t know-”

“It's fine.” Shouto lets out a breath. Is he really that uncomfortable? Maybe, but he can get past that. He's still wondering why Shinsou chose to do this , though. Unless he's a sadist. Which he very well could be.

“So the game’s just going to end there?” Sero asks.

There's an awkward silence before Kaminari speaks up again, taking Midoriya’s place.

“Monoma, truth or dare!”

Monoma tilts his head to the side. “Truth.”

“Hm.” Kaminari grins. “If you had to date anyone in class 1-A, who would you pick?”

Monoma draws back in mild disgust to a chorus of laughs from everyone else. “Excuse me?”

“Hey, Todoroki-kun,” Uraraka whispers.

“Yeah?”

“Can you do me a favor?”

“Probably.”

Uraraka turns to look at him, a laugh in her eyes that Shouto’s just close enough to see. Traitor. “Can you take Deku-kun back up to his room?”

Shouto’s heart briefly jumps into his throat. “Yeah.” He takes a second to breathe, because even that is painfully difficult now. “I can do that.”

Uraraka smiles. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Shouto looks down at Midoriya, still sound asleep, and regrets everything. Is this still Shinsou’s quirk or is he just that tired? There’s really no way to tell, isn’t there?

Either way, he only has one option. And he really isn’t ready for it, but he doesn’t have a choice.

Midoriya is a lot lighter than Shouto expects him to be when he picks him up, and he’s immensely glad that at least the physical part of this is easy. But if anything, that just makes everything else harder, especially when everyone else is looking at him and not at Monoma. No one says anything, though, so he should really count his blessings.

Yaoyorozu, in the middle of a conversation with Jirou and Kendou from 1-B, gives him a look as he walks into the elevator. He mouths “I'll tell you later” as the doors close behind him.

The elevator ride is quiet and still except for Shouto’s rapidly-beating heart and the soft whirring of wires as the car slowly makes its way up to the second floor. It's only one floor up, why is it taking so long?

There’s no one in the hall when the doors slide open again, and it takes Shouto a few steps more to fully realize what's happening. Midoriya’s asleep in his arms and he's princess carrying him. It sounds like a fever dream, but it's happening.

The entire time, Shouto wonders what would happen if he just leaned down and kissed Midoriya’s cheek. Or his nose. That would be weird.

He's screwed.

“...Huh?”

Midoriya blinks his eyes open and Shouto has no idea what to do. Does he put him down and make it seem like none of this ever happened? Does he try to explain himself? Does Midoriya even remember anything?

All the disorientation of the moment fades in the blink of an eye as Midoriya’s eyes go wide, no doubt as he realizes the position he's in.

“T-todoroki-kun?!” Midoriya stutters, a horrified look growing on his face. “Oh god, what did I-”

“Don't freak out, it's fine.” Shouto’s been saying that a lot lately. Maybe he should actually start believing it.

“But I-” Midoriya puts his hands up to cover his face. “Oh my god.”

“Do you want me to put you down?” Shouto asks.

Midoriya nods.

Once he's on his feet again, he and Shouto just look at each other for a second, not quite sure what to say.

“I'm sorry-” Shouto starts. He's not even sure if that's the right thing to say.

“No!” Midoriya smiles, albeit sheepishly. “Don't be sorry, it's okay, it's just weird.” He chuckles. “I have no idea what just happened.”

He almost sounds excited about that.

Shouto narrows his eyes. “You don't remember anything?”

Midoriya shakes his head. “I totally blacked out.” He blinks. “What did I do?”

“It wasn't anything bad,” Shouto says, “You just curled up and fell asleep in my lap and that was it.” Actually saying it only makes it harder for him to breathe.

“I- shit,” Midoriya curses, “I'm so sorry.”

“Don't.” As if Shouto would accept an apology for something like this. “Don't worry about it.”

“Well, uh-” Midoriya shoots a glance at the door to his room behind him, still looking like he wants to melt into the floor. “It’s been a long day, so I'm going to get to bed.” He spins around in a rush to open the door, his voice speeding up with every word. “Goodnight, Todoroki-kun, seeyoutomorrow!”

He slams the door behind him and just like that, it's over.

Shouto decides to go back up to his room, too. He's not sure he can just join in again downstairs after that, and the events of the last few minutes have exhausted him beyond compare. The elevator ride up to the fifth floor is even quieter than the one to the second, even as his heart threatens to beat out of his chest.

He has his phone out before he even opens the door, hitting the send button on a text as soon as he gets inside.

To: Yaoyorozu Momo

10:41 PM

I'm so fucked

Shouto can't stop thinking about what happened for the entire night and then some. He wakes up later than usual after getting to sleep later than usual and spends his Sunday staring out windows and just thinking , which has its share of problems.

But he can't not think about it. He princess carried Midoriya. Midoriya was asleep in his arms and he princess carried him. He actually princess carried Midoriya Izuku and that has to mean something-

“Shouto?”

“Yes?” Shouto blinks, realizing with embarrassment that he ended up in a Midoriya-induced daze while visiting his mother . He really needs to get a handle on this. “Sorry.”

“It's all right.” His mother laughs, and it sounds like bells. “You seem distracted today, is anything wrong?”

“No.” Shouto shakes his head, even though he knows the answer is yes. “Nothing out of the ordinary.” At least he can say that with certainty; after all these months, he's accepted losing the ability to breathe around Midoriya as a completely normal aspect of his life.

“Ah.” His mother nods. “The end of the term is coming pretty soon, isn't it? Do you think your tests are going to be hard?”

“Of course,” Shouto says. This is Yuuei they're talking about, every test has some kind of curveball.

“Are you studying?”

“Yes.”

“Then you'll be fine.” His mother smiles. “Don't worry too much, you have a lot up here.” She almost playfully taps the top of her head a few times.

“Thanks.” Shouto smiles back.

“Oh!” There's an excited flash in his mother’s eyes. “Isn't that concert this week? The one you're going to with your friends?”

Oh, god. That went fast.

“...Yeah, it's on Thursday,” Shouto says.

“That sounds so fun, I'm excited for you!” His mother’s smile grows wider. “You've been talking about your friends a lot, I’d love to meet them.”

“Have I?” Shouto tries and fails to stop the heat from rushing to his cheeks at the thought of introducing Midoriya to his mother. He has it bad . “I'll try to arrange that.”

“I'm looking forward to it,” his mother says, “They all sound like very nice people.”

Shouto nods. “They are.”

“Well, have fun on Thursday.” His mother cuts herself off with a chuckle. “Who am I kidding? I know you're going to have a great time!”

Shouto lets himself smile at that, just a little. “I hope I do.”

“You probably have a lot of things to do before the weekend’s over, don't you?” His mother asks, “I'll leave you to it.”

“...Okay.” The first thing that comes to Shouto’s mind is Yaoyorozu’s text from this morning that basically read “Are you okay?” - that he still hasn't responded to - and he realizes that his mother is probably right.

“See you next week?”

“Next week.” Shouto’s halfway to the door before he realizes how long that seems with the concert in between. “Bye, Mom.”

“Bye, Shouto.” His mother waves as her eyes crinkle in a smile. “Have a good time!”

“I will,” Shouto says as he shuts the door behind him. He exchanges quick goodbyes with the people at the reception desk and soon he's out of the hospital and in the open air again.

He savors the feeling of fresh air in his lungs as walks down the street to the train station. Yuuei’s considerably closer to the hospital than his house is, and that cuts his travel time by about fifteen minutes each way, but it's still a long trip. Which makes for even more thinking.

He should really talk to Yaoyorozu when he gets back. Just to tell her that he's okay and that his cryptic text last night was just an exaggeration.

But was it?

Before he can ponder that any more, he crosses the last street before he reaches the train station. It's a small station, since this part of town is fairly far from the center of town, and it's not even remotely busy this time of day. Even so, the train between here and Yuuei comes fairly often, and he catches one within five minutes of getting to the platform, grabbing a seat right next to the doors.

The announcement for the Yuuei stop comes sooner than he realizes, and he's off the train practically as soon as he gets on. On his way onto campus, he passes Satou and Ashido, who say they're making a grocery store run and ask if he wants anything. He says no and continues on his way to the dorms.

The common room is oddly empty when he gets there, but he doesn't make much of it, instead walking up to his room. He pulls his phone out of his bag once his door’s shut behind him, trying to think of what to say to Yaoyorozu. “I'm fine” isn't true, but he doesn't want to make her worry, either.

To: Yaoyorozu Momo

2:44 PM

It's just the usual

He really hopes that's enough, especially when he feels the buzz of Yaoyorozu’s reply.

From: Yaoyorozu Momo

2:45 PM

That's actually pretty reassuring, thank you!

What's that supposed to mean ? Shouto thinks, before Yaoyorozu sends another text.

From: Yaoyorozu Momo

2:45 PM

Can you come to my room? I need to tell you something.

Shouto can't see why not.

To: Yaoyorozu Momo

2:45 PM

Yeah ill be there in 5

From: Yaoyorozu Momo

2:46 PM

Thanks! :)

For the entire walk, Shouto wonders what Yaoyorozu could possibly need his opinion on. She's a lot smarter than he is, and she's more level-headed, too; her decision on whatever this is would no doubt be a better decision than his.

He pushes the thought out of his mind as he knocks on the door to her room.

“Hi, Todoroki-san!” Yaoyorozu says, a wide smile on her face. She looks more excited than usual, for whatever reason. “Sorry to ask you on such short notice-”

“It’s fine.” Shouto narrows his eyes, trying to make something out of her expression. “What is it?”

“Well.” Yaoyorozu leads him inside before closing the door behind them. “I’ve made up my mind, and I’m going to tell Jirou-san how I feel this week.”

“Why are you so sure?” is the question Shouto decides to ask. It sounds meaner than he intends it to be. “ How are you so sure?”

“You remember her asking me to listen to the songs she wrote, don’t you?” Yaoyorozu starts talking faster and faster, not quite unlike Midoriya when he gets excited about something. “Listening to them made me feel like it was... easier for me to tell her something like this.” She tries out three different beginnings to the next sentence before she pieces the words together. “They were sweet, they were beautiful , but they were very emotional and I think I should reciprocate somehow.”

“So you’re going to do that by telling her that you like her.”

“Essentially, yes.” Yaoyorozu holds the smile for a second before it drops with a sigh as her shoulders slump forward. “This is hopeless, there’s no way it’s going to work!”

For a second, the tension hangs thick in the air like fog and it really does seem hopeless, even though that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“Would you feel better with a concrete plan?” Shouto asks. He knows he would. He wishes he had one.

“...Yes?” Yaoyorozu looks up at him, eyes narrowed in confusion.

“Then you should probably come up with one before actually going through with this.”

“I know I should, but-” Yaoyorozu frowns. “In every movie I have ever seen, these things aren’t choreographed or planned or anything of the sort! It’s spontaneous and embarrassing and-”

“Movies have scripts, everything’s planned. There's no shame in having one.” In that split second between sentences, Shouto makes another fatal judgment error. One he knew he eventually had to make. “I’m going to need one myself.”

Yaoyorozu’s eyes show her smile before her mouth does. “Really?”

There is no way this can end well.

Chapter Text

Yaoyorozu makes tea for both of them, and it isn't too long before they realize they really need it. This is... difficult, to say the least.

“So.” Yaoyorozu sits down on the floor, just like she would if she and Shouto were just studying together normally. Whatever normally means now. “I don't want to make too much out of it.” She pauses. “Do you think that's a good idea? Because this is kind of important, maybe I should make an effort to-”

“If you don't want to make it a big deal, don't,” Shouto says.

“Right.” Yaoyorozu nods. “I think I'll just tell her after dinner one night, or sometime when we don't have any other things to worry about.” She frowns. “But what do I say?”

“I have no idea.”

“I should have known you would say that, I'm sorry.”

“It's okay.”

Yaoyorozu lets out a quick breath. “Well, first, I'm going to start a conversation, right? I'll ask her how she's doing and that should lighten the mood a little bit.” Her expression darkens bit by bit with every word. “Then I'll ask her if I can tell her something, and I hope she’ll say yes to that because that's when I'll tell her that I like her.” When she finishes, she looks like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. “How does that sound?”

“It sounds fine,” Shouto says.

“It seems too simple, doesn't it?” Yaoyorozu asks, “Because all in all, it really isn't that much.”

Shouto shakes his head. “It doesn't.”

“If you’re sure.” Yaoyorozu smiles again. “Well, enough about me. Do you have anything?”

“...No.” Shouto supposes that at some point, he had to accept that he knows just as much about confessing as Yaoyorozu does. Which is to say, absolutely nothing. He's already guessing the number of times he’ll have to apologize to Midoriya for making a fool of himself. It's a high number.

“Then how about you tell him that you need to talk to him after class one day and tell him then?” Yaoyorozu suggests, “That's a start, isn't it?”

Shouto frowns. “That is not happening.”  

“Why not?”

“If I say that, he'll be nervous about it when he really doesn't need to be,” Shouto says, “I'm not going to do that to him.”

“That's a good point-” Yaoyorozu cuts herself off, clapping her hands together. “I've got it!”

“What?”

“The concert!” Yaoyorozu’s eyes flash with excitement. “It’s on Thursday, right? You can tell him after that! You'll both be tired, so you'll be less nervous about it.”

She has a point. Shouto’s inhibitions are definitely lowered when he's sleepy, if only a little. The chances are slim no matter what he does, but that seems like the easiest way.

But there's still the problem of what to say. He's never been that good at talking to people to begin with, and talking about this is going to be even worse.

“Do I just... tell him?” He asks, “Like we’re walking back up to our rooms and I walk down to his room with him and just as he’s about to close the door I say something like ‘hey, I like you’?”

“When you get down to it,” Yaoyorozu says, “That’s the only thing you actually need to say, right?”

“Right...” Shouto slowly nods once, twice. This isn’t a good idea, there’s no way this could ever be a good idea.

“You’ll be fine.” Yaoyorozu smiles. “I know you won’t believe me, but he likes you.”

She’s right. Shouto doesn’t believe her. And he knows she wouldn’t believe him if he told her the same thing.

But really, why would either of them be doing this if they didn’t have a little hope that it would work?

Thursday comes fast, faster than Shouto expects it to, and before long he’s standing in front of his closet after school with no idea what to wear.

He’s never worried about this before, he’s barely worried about how he looks ever . Up until now, he’s been fine either in his school uniform or a t-shirt and sweatpants, but now that doesn’t seem right. He has to make an effort tonight, no matter how casual this is.

Concerts are usually hot, right? It doesn’t matter much to him, but a t-shirt seems like a good call. It just has to be the right t-shirt, which he doesn’t seem to have. All he has are old, faded school shirts and solid colors that never looked good on him.

But when he pulls a blue-gray t-shirt out of a dresser drawer with a Yuuei logo so faded it’s barely visible printed on it, he realizes that faded school shirts might not be a bad thing. And when he combines it with a pair of blue jeans and the pair of black sneakers he’s worn exactly twice, it surprisingly works.

The nervousness sets in again as soon as he leaves his room. Of course it does, he’s going to confess tonight and no matter how fun the concert ends up being, he’s still going to think about that all night.

This is going to be a mess.

“Todoroki-kun!”

Uraraka spots him first as soon as he walks out of the elevator, frantically waving with a wide grin on her face. Iida turns around second, Midoriya third.

“Hey!” Uraraka’s gaze shoots from Shouto to Midoriya. “You two are matching!”

“What?” Midoriya blinks, looking from Shouto’s shirt to his own faded green All Might shirt that Shouto guesses is at least five years old. “Oh yeah, we kind of do!”

Oh, god.

“Sorry to keep you all waiting,” Shouto says.

“It’s fine!” Midoriya chuckles. “We’re not going to be late or anything.”

“If you say so.”

“Come on!” Uraraka starts off toward the doors, swinging her bag at her side. “We have to catch the first train if we want to get food before the show!”

Shouto frowns. So he was late after all.

“Don’t worry,” Midoriya says with a smile, almost like he can read Shouto’s mind, which Shouto really hopes he can’t. “If we don’t make it, we’ll just get snacks there.”

“But they’re more expensive, right?” Shouto asks.

“Yeah, but-” Midoriya shrugs. “It’s not much of a difference. Don’t feel bad.”

With that, Midoriya jogs to catch up with Uraraka and Iida and Shouto is almost left behind. He suspects that he’ll be feeling like that all night, no matter how close he is to the three of them.

They can’t all walk in a line if they want to fit on the sidewalk, so Shouto falls to the back with Iida while Midoriya and Uraraka rush ahead. That doesn’t stop the conversation from encompassing all four of them, and Uraraka especially asks enough questions to make sure Shouto feels like he’s a part of this, even if it’s just for a night.

The rush hour traffic means that they have to stand when they get into the train, and they’re all pressed together like sardines along with the other passengers. At the station after Yuuei, even more people get on, only squishing them closer.

When Shouto ends up being one of the lucky few to grab a strap hanging down from the top of the car, he tries not to think too much about how Midoriya grabs his hand. He’s just trying to keep himself steady, right? It’s not a big deal.

His traitor heart sure seems to think it’s a big deal.

They manage to squeeze out at their stop without much trouble, and they actually have enough time to get dinner before the show. It’s not much, just fast food, but it’s filling, and by the time they get to the theater, they’re full enough to save their wallets from the overpriced candy and sodas for sale.

Their seats are near the front, and Shouto finds himself next to Midoriya on the end, not quite unlike they were on the couch back in October. Shouto almost laughs at the coincidence. He doesn't laugh because he's nervous as all hell.

Midoriya’s practically bouncing in his seat as the opening band comes on, leaning over to excitedly whisper to Uraraka when they start playing. He whispers loud enough for Shouto to hear that he only found out about this band when he saw they were opening tonight, and he'd accidentally gotten hooked.

“This is my favorite song!” Midoriya whispers as the band starts their second song, dancing a little in his seat that leaves Shouto breathless even though he isn't looking directly at him. Like the sun.

And as if that wasn't enough, when the chorus starts, he sings along. He's a little out of tune and he's more shouting than singing, but all Shouto hears is something that came straight from the vocal chords of an angel. Midoriya’s smiling, laughing, out of breath after only a minute or two of singing at the top of his lungs, and Shouto wants this to last forever. It could just be the opener and he'd be happy.

But eventually, the group finishes their set, they take a bow, and the crowd goes wild as the main performer comes onstage. The first song she plays is one Shouto’s actually heard before, rare as that may be, and he finds himself tapping his foot to the beat. The bass pulses underneath the seats and through the theater, so loud that Shouto can barely hear much else, but he knows Midoriya’s singing his heart out next to him.

“How can you not sing along to this?” Midoriya asks with a giggle during an instrumental. “You know some of the lyrics, right?”

“Probably,” Shouto mumbles. The lyrics aren't the issue, the issue is that he doesn't sing. He's tone-deaf, he can barely keep a rhythm going, it's just a bad idea. No matter how much fun everyone seems to be having, he won't do it.

“Then will you sing the next chorus?” Midoriya’s eyes flash like shooting stars with anticipation. “No one’s going to hear you, especially since you're right next to me, promise!”

Shouto looks into Midoriya’s wide, excited eyes and takes in the grin on his face and realizes that he's more head-over-heels in love than he thought.

He nods before he can stop himself and Midoriya’s smile softens with satisfaction as he dances along to what little instrumental there is left. Shouto, meanwhile, tries to remember what the lyrics are and hopes he doesn't embarrass himself too much.

And when the chorus comes back, he sings as quietly as he can to convince Midoriya he's actually doing it. But Midoriya looks more than happy with that, he looks ecstatic, and he doesn't stop laughing the whole time.

As much as he doesn’t want to admit it, Shouto laughs a little, too.

The second song starts, the third, the fourth, and Yaoyorozu was exactly right: Shouto’s energy drains fast. But as tired as he is, the momentum keeps growing, and he sings along to whatever songs he knows well enough. He can't remember the last time he felt this happy, and he's not looking forward to going back to the dorms again.

But Yaoyorozu was right about another thing: confessing is going to be a lot easier after this.

The last song is a slow one, and Shouto barely avoids setting himself on fire when Midoriya puts his arm around his shoulder. He, Uraraka, and Iida are all swaying back and forth to the beat, and lack of rhythm be damned, Shouto joins in. The song is a love song, and there are three times during the song when Shouto contemplates leaning over and whispering to Midoriya that he's in love with him right then and there. But he doesn't.

The applause at the end almost makes his eardrums explode, and it's well deserved. This was fun.

“God, we have to do something like this again sometime!” Uraraka grins as the four of them walk out of the theater and back to the train station. The buzz of conversation is out of place for a Thursday night, but Shouto oddly likes it.

“We really should.” Midoriya looks exhausted but happy, with the same excited glint in his eyes. “Thanks for coming with me, guys.”

“Don't mention it!” Uraraka slings an arm around his shoulder. “It was really fun!”

“I enjoyed myself more than I thought I would,” Iida says, “I'm glad I went.”

Midoriya smiles wider. “You guys can pick the band next time, then.” He looks to Shouto, effortlessly bringing him into the conversation again. “What kind of stuff do you listen to, Todoroki-kun?”

Shouto shrugs, trying to hide the fact that he barely listens to anything. “I don't have any specific favorite bands or anything.”

“Well, then we’ll just have to introduce you to all of ours, right, guys?” Uraraka laughs. “Though I don't know if what I listen to is your kind of music, just warning you.”

Midoriya and Iida laugh like they know exactly what Uraraka’s music tastes are, which they probably do.

“We should get back soon.” Iida looks up at the sky, then down at his watch. “It's late, and we have school tomorrow.”

Uraraka rolls her eyes. “I know, I know, we’re just having a little fun first.”

They walk into the train station and up to the platform with five minutes left before their train back to Yuuei comes. They all stand together, realizing just how cold this December night is after being in the hot theater for a few hours.

“Hey, Todoroki-kun?” Midoriya asks, voice hushed like he doesn't want Iida and Uraraka to hear.

“Yeah?” Shouto whispers back.

“If I-” Midoriya laughs, his cheeks turning red. “If I hold your hand, could you use your quirk to warm me up?” He looks down at the ground. “If that's how it works, I don't know. You don't have to.”

Shouto nods, surprised he can still move. “Yeah, I think I can do that.” He holds his hand out, he feels Midoriya’s fingers weaving into his own and he thinks that maybe, just maybe , this confession thing won't flop as much as he's expecting it to-

Someone screams from downstairs.

“What was that?” Uraraka asks, eyes wide.

Midoriya’s already running for the stairs.

“Midoriya-kun, wait!” Iida shouts, “We’ll miss our train-”

“I don't care if I miss the train!” Midoriya shouts back, racing down the stairs. “I have to do something !”

For a second, time seems to stop. Iida looks like he's about to protest more, Uraraka looks like she's debating running after Midoriya, and Shouto has no idea what to do.

He can't let Midoriya do something like this alone. He's going to get himself hurt or worse if someone isn't there to stop him, no matter what's waiting for him down there. So obviously, Shouto’s considering going downstairs himself.

But the dread quickly sets in that Shouto’s the only one out of the four of them without a provisional license. Legally, he can't do anything but wait and hope.

“Deku-kun!” Uraraka shouts, sprinting toward the stairs.

“Uraraka-kun-!” Iida starts.

Shouto starts running before he really gets a chance to think about it, and he's never been as thankful for his long legs as he is right now. He runs down the stairs two at a time, almost falling over more than once, but it's worth it. He reaches the ground floor just a second after Uraraka does.

There are four villains surrounding Midoriya in the middle of the hallway as a young woman lies on the floor next to the wall, eyes wide with fear. Midoriya must have saved her, or at least pushed her out of the way.

“You're one of those Yuuei brats, aren't you?” One of the villains asks, walking in a close circle around Midoriya. “Thinking you're all that because you have your learner’s permit ?” He laughs, sending a shiver up Shouto’s spine. “Please! You ain't shit!”

Midoriya grits his teeth into a scowl, ready to snap.

“Todoroki-kun,” Uraraka whispers.

“Hm?”

“Make sure the lady over there gets out okay.” Uraraka looks straight ahead, eyes narrowed. “Iida-kun and I can back Deku-kun up.”

Shouto knows she only asked him to do that because he doesn't have his provisional yet. And he's pissed he doesn't have it, pissed that he can't do nearly as much. But despite all that, he nods, walking through the crowd gathered at the bottom of the stairwell to find the woman, who's now sitting against the wall, knees pulled up to her chest. She looks terrified.

“Hey,” Shouto says, tapping her on the shoulder.

She whips her head around quickly before her expression softens. “Are you from Yuuei, too?”

“Yeah.” Shouto nods, glancing up at the villains and Midoriya for a second. “Follow me, I'll get you out of here while they're distracted.”

“Right.” The woman hesitantly gets to her feet, and she and Shouto retreat back into the crowd, disappearing enough not to be noticed. As soon as they're far enough away, they start running down the hallway, following the signs to the exit.

“Do you have any idea why they're after you?” Shouto asks, “You don't have to answer if you-”

“I don't know,” the woman says, “I'm sorry.”

“Don't be.” Shouto frowns as the exit doors get closer and closer. “There's a taxi bay out here, I can pay for it.”

“No, you don't have to-”

“I should.” Shouto runs out into the open air first and takes a sharp left to the taxis. He waves to the first one in line and digs a few bills out of his wallet, handing them to the woman just as she gets in the car. “Stay safe.”

“Th-thank you!” The woman bows from her seat.

“Don't mention it.” Shouto turns around and runs back toward the doors so fast that they barely open by the time he gets there. He can't waste any time getting back, he needs to be there.

He doesn't think he's had to run this fast in his entire life, with his heart pounding so loud and hard against his ribcage. The adrenaline is pushing him so far forward that he doesn't even take how tired he is into account. His mind races even faster than his legs do, trying to come up with something he can do without his provisional. But he's not Midoriya, and he can't just do that in the blink of an eye like he can.

“Hold on there, hero!” Someone taps Shouto’s shoulder with what feels like a long fingernail.

“Huh-” Shouto turns around on reflex and finds himself looking into a pair of dark, all-encompassing eyes that swirl like black holes. The rest of the world starts to fade away until they're all he can see, all he can think about. A voice in the back of his head screams at him to look away, to look around him and behind him, but it's muted and he can't quite understand. All he sees, all he knows are those two incredible eyes-

“Todoroki-kun!”

Shouto doesn't feel himself get shoved, but he definitely feels himself hit the floor. The hit snaps him out of the trance he'd fallen into and drags him back to his senses, and his arm throbs with a dull pain from landing on it.

The black-hole eyes are gone, and the ones looking into his now are Midoriya’s emerald green ones, full of worry and concern.

“Are you okay?” Midoriya asks, voice starting to rush.

Shouto wants to say he's fine, but when he opens his mouth, all that comes out is a confused “Huh?”

“You might not want to look into her eyes from now on.” Midoriya laughs weakly, chest shaking. He looks bad, with a bruise on the side of his face and a tear in the shoulder of his costume, and Shouto doesn't want to think about what the villains are able to do to make him look like that.

“Yeah.” Shouto nods. “I think I got that.”

He pushes himself up to his feet and finds that the villain with the eyes has disappeared into the crowd. So he just has to avoid looking into anyone’s eyes from now on. He can do that.

“Todoroki-kun, what are you doing here?!” Uraraka shouts, “You were supposed to get the woman out!”

“And I did!” Shouto shouts back, “Were you expecting me to just leave?”

“No, but-”

“Do you really think I can't do anything without my provisional?”

“It’s not about what you can and can't do!” Iida calls out, “You're going to get in more trouble by being here, I hope you know that!”

“I know it's total bullshit!” Shouto scowls. “I'm doing what I can without using my quirk, I'm not going to do anything less-”

Midoriya shrieks. For a second, Shouto’s entire world stops, the sound fading to silence as he turns around.

Midoriya’s floating in midair at the mercy of a telekinesis quirk. He’s been in this position before - he’s friends with Uraraka, how could he not have been? - but this is different. His face is pale and his eyes are wide and locked on one of the villains in front of him, who waves his hand toward the wall.

By the time Shouto realizes what’s about to happen, he’s already too late.

Midoriya goes flying toward the wall at a speed too fast to comprehend, biting on his lower lip to choke back a scream. There’s a crack as his back hits the wall and his elbow slams hard into it, and he squeezes his eyes shut to hold back the tears that still come.

He falls to the floor in a heap of limbs, and goes still.

Shouto’s heart is racing, every impulse in his body is telling him to run, but he can’t move. He’s frozen, unable to do anything but watch.

“Todoroki-kun!” Iida shouts.

“What?” Shouto’s voice cracks.

“Uraraka-kun and I can handle it from here!” Iida grunts, kicking one of the villains square in the gut. “The pros are on their way, it should only be a few more minutes!”

“But-” Shouto starts.

“You want to do something without your provisional?” When Uraraka turns around, there are tears waiting at the corners of her eyes. “Get Deku-kun out of here!”

At that moment, Shouto finally feels something in his legs again, and it’s only a split-second before he starts running, ducking around posts and hopping over debris as he sprints across the corridor. He’s already wasted enough time standing there doing nothing, he has to be faster or-

“Midoriya?” Shouto kneels down and puts a hand on Midoriya’s shoulder. “Hey, wake up.”

Midoriya’s breathing, but that’s about all he’s doing. He doesn’t wake up, doesn’t move, doesn’t anything .

“Midoriya, please ,” Shouto whispers, feeling his breath catch in his throat. This wasn’t supposed to happen, none of this was supposed to happen-

“Todoroki-kun?”

Midoriya’s eyes open slowly, and his voice sounds so weak and there’s a scrape on his cheek bright red with blood but he’s there , he’s alive and everything’s going to be okay.

“Hey,” Shouto says, fast and breathy no matter how much he tries to stay calm.

Midoriya shoots up like he’s just woken up from a nightmare. “Wait, are-”

“They're okay.” Shouto not-so-subtly pushes him back down. “You're okay, everyone’s okay.”

“But I have to-”

“No, you don't.” Shouto looks down and takes in the grimace on Midoriya’s face. “You're in pain, what's wrong?”

“It's nothing,” Midoriya says, obviously a lie.

“It's clearly not.” Shouto frowns. “What is it?”

“I-” Midoriya’s focus shoots to the left for a second. “It's my arm, I think I broke it when I hit the wall.”

“Noted.” Shouto tries not to look too closely at all the bruises. “How's your head?”

Midoriya gives him a weak smile. “Not great.”

“Do you think you can walk?”

“Walk-” Midoriya’s eyes go wide. “Where are we going? You can't just drag me away from this, I should-”

“You're injured, I can and I will.” Shouto looks up for a second to check that the villains are still distracted. “You know what, never mind, I'm not going to make you run out of here.”

“What are you-”

It's a lot easier for Shouto to just scoop Midoriya up in his arms than it was last time, and it's a lot easier to just run than it’s been all night. He really shouldn't have any stamina left right now, but he'll gladly take what he can get.

He finds himself back at the taxi bay, which he supposes is the best option. The train would take too long to come, and they're too far away to run back.

Midoriya gets back on his feet just before the two of them get into the first cab in line. Shouto tells the driver where they're headed, and he nods without a word. The car starts with a few clicks and a hiss of the engine.

It's only when they're on the road that Shouto realizes just how tired he is. He melts into the seat, which really isn't that comfy but one he could fall asleep in nonetheless.

The only thing that stops him from doing that is the incessant ringing of his phone in his bag.

“Hello?” He puts the phone to his ear without checking the caller ID.

“Todoroki-san?” It's Yaoyorozu, though the voices in the background make it obvious that she's not alone. “Iida-san told me what happened, are you okay?”

“I'm fine.” Shouto looks at Midoriya, who's staring out the window with a frown on his face. “I can't say the same for everyone else, though.”

There's a rustling of static on the other end before Kirishima ends up with the phone. “Where are you guys right now?”

“Midoriya and I are in a taxi back,” Shouto says, “Iida and Uraraka are staying behind until the pros show up.”

“How long’s that gonna be?”

“I don't know.” Shouto frowns.

Another crackling of static. “We’ll be here when you get back,” Yaoyorozu says.

“It's late, you don't have to-” Shouto starts.

“That isn't important.” Yaoyorozu cuts him off for possibly the first time ever. “We’ll be waiting.”

“...Thank you.” Shouto glances out the window, hoping to see the Yuuei campus pop up on the horizon. It doesn't. “See you soon.”

“Bye, Todoroki-san.”

Shouto hangs up first, putting his phone back in his bag with a sigh. For a second, everything is silent except for the drone of wheels on the road.

“I can pay for the taxi,” Midoriya says, not looking away from the window.

“What?”

“We both would have taken the train if it wasn't for me.” Midoriya frowns. “I'm sorry.”

“Don't be,” Shouto says, “You did the right thing.”

Midoriya gives him a dubious look before taking two bills out of the wallet in his bag. “How about we split?”

Shouto considers protesting, but he knows he isn't going to get Midoriya to back down, even with a broken arm and possibly worse. “Okay.”

They get back to Yuuei before too long, but it still feels like forever. After Shouto gives the driver his and Midoriya’s combined fare, he puts his arm around Midoriya’s shoulder and they walk to Recovery Girl’s office slowly, as slowly as Midoriya needs to go.

Recovery Girl says she’s been expecting them, that Yaoyorozu explained everything Iida sent her, and after she reprimands them - mostly Midoriya - for going into a situation like this without thinking about it, she pulls Midoriya behind a curtain for treatment.

Just before he disappears for the night, Midoriya offers up a smile and a weak “Goodnight, Todoroki-kun!” that only makes Shouto feel worse.

“Todoroki-kun,” Recovery Girl says.

“Yes?” Shouto turns around, expecting to be scolded further.

“You should get some food and a good night’s sleep tonight.” Recovery Girl half-smiles. “As a teacher, I'm not supposed to tell you to skip class, but if you feel that taking tomorrow to rest would benefit you, no one on this campus is going to stop you.”

“Oh.” Shouto nods. “Thank you.”

“Now get back to your room, it's late,” Recovery Girl says, “And tell the others to come here when they get back.”

“Right.” Shouto nods again, ducking out of the office and starting the long walk back to the dorms.

He only sees Yaoyorozu’s text when he's halfway there. She sent it a few hours ago, when Shouto was eating fast food for dinner and worrying about how he was going to confess and everything was okay.

From: Yaoyorozu Momo

6:49 PM

Jirou-san and I are officially dating now! Good luck tonight!

That makes Shouto smile a little, despite everything else.

“There he is!”

“Todoroki!”

Shouto looks up to see pretty much his entire class bunched by the doors to the 1-A dorm. Kaminari’s waving, but he isn't smiling. No one is.

“Hey,” Shouto says, letting himself slump forward as he gets closer.

“God, you look exhausted,” Ashido says, eyes wide, “Are you okay?”

Shouto nods. “Barely.”

“I made cookies if you want one,” Satou offers.

“I'll pass for now.” Shouto holds up a hand. “Thanks, though.”

He starts walking toward the elevators, not because he wants to ignore everyone else but because he's tired and he needs a moment to himself. And for once, everyone here seems to understand that.

“Todoroki-san?” Yaoyorozu asks from behind him, voice hesitant like she doesn't know what to say.

“Yeah?” Shouto turns around, noticing the way she's fiddling with her hands. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Yaoyorozu says back, “I just wanted to ask if you need anything.”

Shouto shakes his head. “I'm fine.” He isn't, not really. “Congratulations, by the way.”

For a second, Yaoyorozu looks like she's going to cry before she wraps her arms around Shouto’s shoulders in an awkward but not entirely unwelcome hug. “I can't believe you.”

“What do you mean?” Shouto asks.

“You don't need to congratulate me,” Yaoyorozu whispers, “You have more important things to concern yourself with right now.”

Shouto narrows his eyes. “You did it, though.”

“I mean, yes, but-” Yaoyorozu pulls away with a quiet chuckle. “I'll let you get to sleep, you look like you really need it.” She smiles. “Goodnight, Todoroki-san, see you in the morning.”

“Night,” Shouto says, stepping into the elevator.

He hears Yaoyorozu shout “Iida-san just texted me, he and Uraraka-san are on their way!” just as the door close. Everyone cheers as he rides up to the fifth floor, and he wishes he could be that optimistic.

Chapter Text

Shouto doesn’t sleep that night. Whenever he closes his eyes, it isn’t long before he sees Midoriya hit the wall again and he shoots awake covered in a layer of cold sweat. He eventually stops trying.

Iida and Uraraka get back a little after eleven, and Uraraka updates Shouto on Midoriya’s condition not long after that. He has a mild concussion and a broken arm, but Recovery Girl’s already healed him for the most part and he’s going to be fine. He just has to rest up tomorrow to recover from the loss of energy.

That doesn’t exactly help.

It starts raining around midnight, and it’s clearly going to be one hell of a storm. Shouto can’t see much outside his window in the dark, but he can hear the howl of the wind and the rustling of tree branches down below. After a few minutes of listening, he takes a blanket and sits in front of the window, wrapping it around himself as he stares at the darkness outside with tired eyes. He can see the rain falling almost sideways on the deck, and he doesn’t think he’s seen a storm this bad since moving into the dorms.

He kind of likes it.

At one o’clock, he digs his flashlight out of his closet and takes a book off his desk. It isn’t anything for school, it’s just one of the fantasy novels he likes to read for fun, and he basks in the combined distraction of his book and the rain outside for a while. For at least a few minutes, he doesn’t think about the train station or Midoriya or all the things he didn’t say and finds himself in another world, and by two o’clock, he thinks he might be able to actually fall asleep this time.

At two-thirty, he realizes that’s not going to happen.

He traces the cracks on the ceiling with his eyes, hoping his eyes will just fall shut on their own, but they stay open. He pushes his blanket off of him, pulls it back on, but it’s always too hot and too cold at the same time because of course his quirk has to backfire on him at three in the morning.

He sighs, resigning himself to thinking and looking up at the blank white plaster above his head, wishing it was the open sky. At least in the stars, he might be able to find something and not be bored out of his mind. Here, he's just forced to look up at a huge expanse of nothing because there's nothing else to do.

At five o’clock, he decides to wake up, take a shower, and go downstairs. He doesn’t put his uniform on; he’ll have time to change later, and he’ll be fine in a hoodie and sweatpants for now.

Besides, he really needs to get outside before class.

It's stopped raining by the time he gets outside, which is good because he really doesn't want to bother with an umbrella or a raincoat. It's a little windy, and there are puddles on the sidewalk, but he can get past both of those things without much trouble.

Yuuei’s campus is huge, especially after the dorms were built over the summer, and a web of concrete connects every building to the others, so there's no shortage of paths for Shouto to take. But he doesn’t need that, not really. He could walk around the same circle over and over again for an hour and he'd be fine. He just needs fresh air.

He wanders around aimlessly for a while as the sun starts to peek up over the horizon, bathing the sidewalks in a pale orange light. Birds start chirping as they fly from tree to tree and land on telephone poles in between, and slowly, the school starts to wake up.

Eyes down on the sidewalk, he doesn't realize he's walking toward Recovery Girl’s office until he's practically already there. There's a direct entrance from outside, and Shouto takes a very long time deciding whether he wants to go in or not. He knows the office is going to be unlocked. It always is, just in case students need band-aids or anything after hours. But there's more to it than that, things he doesn't want to admit.

He pulls the door open before he can doubt himself anymore, making sure his steps are quiet as he walks inside. It's silent and still at first glance, just as it should be early in the morning.

“Hello?”

Shouto freezes. Dammit, of course Midoriya’s awake right now, he wakes up early. Not this early, but early.

“Who's there?” Midoriya asks.

“It's me,” Shouto says. This is a lot more embarrassing than he imagined it being.

“Todoroki-kun?” Midoriya leans out from behind the curtain in the back of the room. “What are you doing here?”

“I just thought I'd check on you.” Shouto wills his legs to move for at least ten seconds before they actually do. “I didn't really get a chance last night.”

“Thanks, but-” Midoriya giggles. “It's six in the morning, why are you awake?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” Shouto crosses his arms. “You're supposed to be resting.”

Midoriya smiles, almost playfully, despite the bandages wrapped around his head and the sling his arm is resting in. “I heard what Recovery Girl told you, you're supposed to get a good night’s sleep.” He blinks, smile quickly morphing into a frown. “You didn't do that, did you?”

“How did you know?”

“You look like you haven't slept all night.” Midoriya scoots up to the front of the bed. “There are really dark circles under your eyes and you're slouching more than usual and you-” He looks away, cheeks slightly pink. “You know what I mean.”

Shouto nods, not wanting to give all the details. “You never told me why you’re not asleep right now.”

“Neither did you,” Midoriya says.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“Me, neither.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” Midoriya smiles, shaky and weak. “It’s been a rough night.”

“I’m sorry-”

“Don’t be,” Midoriya says, putting his free hand in his lap, “You keep apologizing, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

Shouto begs to differ on that, but he doesn’t say anything. “Are you feeling any better?”

“Yeah.” Midoriya nods. “I’m just exhausted. You know.”

“Mm.”

“Hey, Todoroki-kun?” Midoriya asks.

“Yeah?”

“This might sound rude and I’m really sorry if it does,” Midoriya says, looking up at Shouto with big, nervous eyes, “But did you have trouble sleeping last night because of me?”

Yes , Shouto wants to say, I’ve been having trouble sleeping because of you for months now but this takes the damn cake please don't hurt yourself like this , but he silently nods instead.

“Were you worried about me?”

Shouto nods again.

“Oh.” Midoriya looks down at the hand in his lap. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” It isn’t the first time, anyway.

Midoriya narrows his eyes. “Are you just saying that?”

“No, it's really fine,” Shouto says, “I can get over one night.”

Midoriya laughs. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Shouto wonders what would happen if he told Midoriya that he's been able to get over a lot more than one night. If he said everything he wanted to say last night. It's a lot harder to do now than it was then.

“Todoroki-kun, is something wrong?” Midoriya asks.

“What?” Shouto blinks. “No, why do you ask?”

“You look like you're thinking about something important.” Midoriya frowns. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

Almost anything, Shouto corrects. “Yeah, I know. It's nothing important.”

“...If you're sure.”

“I'm sure.”

Midoriya just nods, not entirely convinced. He never is, he always wants to know the truth.

And he will, just not right now.

“Are you going to class today?” Midoriya asks.

“Yeah, why?”

“I was wondering if I could copy your notes.” Midoriya scratches the back of his head with a nervous smile. “You know, since I won't be there.”

Shouto nods before he says anything. “I'll stop by after school.”

“Thanks.” Midoriya’s eyes light up. “I think I'll be back in my room by then.”

“That's good,” Shouto says, and he means it.

“I just have to check in with Recovery Girl when she gets here, and I have to-” Midoriya stops in his tracks. “Can you do one more thing for me?”

“Mm?” A harder question would be to ask what Shouto wouldn't do.

“Recovery Girl told me that I can't walk back to the dorms alone and I don't want to be stuck here for too long, so can you...?” Midoriya doesn't finish his question, but Shouto knows exactly what the last three words are.

“Yeah.” Shouto doesn't sound like himself. “Of course.”

“I mean, if you're going to be late for class otherwise I won't ask you to do it, but I doubt it's going to take that long-”

“I can be late for class once .”

“No, you can't!”

With a devastating combination of relief and sleep deprivation, Shouto can't help himself. He laughs a little at that.

Midoriya laughs a little, too.

Shouto sits down in a chair next to the bed and for a while, he and Midoriya just talk. It's a weird feeling, talking about mundane things like the plan Midoriya and Iida are hatching to take Uraraka to a cat café for her birthday and the final essay they have to write for Cementoss’s class. Shouto’s nervous, of course, but only barely. The nervousness sits in a place at the very back of his head where all he can feel is a dull buzz of adrenaline.

When Recovery Girl arrives, a little after seven, she's confused but not surprised to see Shouto there, and doesn't shoo him away when she starts talking to Midoriya. She lets the two of them go before too long, handing Midoriya a bag of pain medication in case he needs it. He takes it and says “Thank you” about fifty times as he follows Shouto out of the office.

Midoriya walks slowly, slower than usual, but that's to be expected. And Shouto slows down to match him stride for stride.

But it's December, and the morning is cold, with remnants of last night’s storm present in the wind blowing from one end of campus to the other. Midoriya’s only wearing a t-shirt and jeans, exactly what he was wearing last night, and he looks freezing.

“Are you cold?” Shouto asks.

“What, me?” Midoriya looks up. “No, I'm fine.”

Shouto doesn't believe him. “Because if you are, I can give you my coat.”

“No, you keep it.” Midoriya smiles, nose and cheeks red from the cold. “The walk isn't that long.”

“You look like you need it a lot more than I do.” Shouto’s already unzipping his sweatshirt because he'd really hate himself if he didn't do everything he could right now.

“Todoroki-kun, wait-”

Shouto sets the jacket on Midoriya’s shoulders, careful not to jostle his arm around too much. “Is that better?”

“Yeah, but-” Midoriya narrows his eyes. “Aren't you cold?”

Shouto shrugs. “Nothing my quirk can't fix.” He could also hold Midoriya’s hand again, but he doesn't trust himself not to burn him in the process.

Midoriya smiles, swinging his free hand back and forth. “I guess you're right about that.”

They walk for a while in silence as Midoriya pulls the jacket closer around him like a blanket. Passing Iida and Ojiro on their way into the 1-A dorm, Shouto wonders if he'll be late for class after all.

Everyone’s happy to see Midoriya alive and mostly well, and he has to deny at least four hugs - from Uraraka, Kirishima, Ashido, and Hagakure - because of his arm. That doesn't stop everyone from telling him to get well soon as he and Shouto head back to his room.

Shouto can't help but notice how his dumb crush doesn't even seem to matter. Instead of feeling anxious, he feels grounded, like just being by Midoriya’s side is the only home he'll ever need. There's an abstract feeling of bright orange sunrise warmth in the same spot where his heart raced for months, spreading to every corner of his body in a way his quirk never could, and he thinks that maybe this is the right moment to tell Midoriya all the things he's spent forever figuring out how to say.

“Thanks for walking me up here,” Midoriya says, fumbling with his key as he unlocks the door to his room.

“Oh.” Shouto freezes in front of the doorway. “You're welcome.”

Midoriya turns around with a smile and walks in. “You can come in, you know.”

Shouto blinks. “Oh, no, it's okay.”

Midoriya reaches out and grabs Shouto’s hand, pulling him inside the room with a weak squeeze. “I want you to come in, Todoroki-kun.”

Shouto feels lost in the bright colors of the posters on the walls and the early morning sun shining in from outside. His mind is racing with speculation on what Midoriya means, what he wants to do or say against the backdrop of books and All Might memorabilia.

“Look at me,” Midoriya says.

Shouto complies, feeling like a deer in the headlights as he takes in Midoriya’s freckles, dark against the pale, sickly tone of his skin.

“Look at my eyes , Todoroki-kun.” Midoriya’s voice is quiet but determined, like he's trying his best not to cry.

And Shouto does as he's told. He lets his eyes meet Midoriya’s until they're locked into each other. Midoriya’s eyes hold so much, an ocean’s worth of honesty and emotion, and Shouto can't put what he's seeing into words.

Tears start to form at the corners of Midoriya’s eyes, and before Shouto can ask what's wrong he's trapped in a one-armed hug as Midoriya starts to sob into his chest. It's the only sound Shouto can hear.

“Midoriya-” He starts.

“I'm sorry-” Midoriya hiccups. “I just-” He buries his face in Shouto’s shoulder and scrunches up the back of his shirt in his hand, hiding his sobs from view.

“It's okay,” Shouto says, not quite sure what to do. “Take your time.”

“When-” Midoriya sniffles. “When that villain got you and you were just- just staring , I was so scared, I thought she could have made you do something worse.”

“Hey.” Shouto hugs Midoriya back then, without even having to think about it. “I'm okay.”

“I know, just...” Midoriya trails off, voice muffled by Shouto’s shoulder.

“Yeah.” Shouto nods. He doesn't think about everything he felt seeing Midoriya hit the wall the first time, the second, the third. That's all in the past. They're okay.

They stay like this for what feels like forever, holding on tight just to make sure the other is still there. Midoriya cries until he can't anymore, punctuated with muffled apologies and other things Shouto can't make out, and eventually his sobs become tiny sniffles and hiccups and Shouto thinks that maybe this isn't the right time after all.

When Midoriya lets go, Shouto feels a jerk as time speeds up again and the moment ends. The second hand on the clock on the wall keeps spinning, and-

He has ten minutes before the bell.

“Todoroki-kun?” Midoriya looks up at him with worry in his eyes. “What's wrong-” His gaze follows Shouto’s to the clock. “Oh crap, I'm so sorry!”

“It's okay-”

“You have to go!” Midoriya weakly pushes him toward the door with one hand. “You're coming after school, right?”

“Yeah.” Shouto nods, walking backwards with the push until he's out in the hallway. “I'll be here.”

Midoriya smiles. “Thanks.”

“Anytime,” Shouto says.

As soon as Midoriya shuts the door, Shouto runs for the stairs, not wasting any time waiting for the elevator. His legs feel like lead and it just sets in now that he hasn't eaten breakfast, but he's done just fine on no breakfast before. He only wonders if he'll be able to handle no breakfast and no sleep on the same day.

In four minutes, he has his wrinkly uniform on and sprints out the front doors of the 1-A dorm. Six minutes until class, six minutes to get to homeroom, he thinks he'll be okay if he runs fast enough.

He gets to the main building with a minute and a half to spare and almost runs into too many people to count as he dashes up the stairs. Everyone stares at him as he takes his seat in class 1-A just a few seconds before the bell, but no one says a word. He's sure they all know why he's running late.

“Good morning, everyone.” Aizawa walks in right after the bell, looking the class over row by row. “Nice save, Todoroki.”

Kirishima snickers.

“As you know, finals week is next week.” Aizawa takes his spot in the front of the room. “Today, I'll be meeting with all of you individually to discuss your grades and help you figure out which classes you should focus your studying on over the weekend. So for the rest of you, that means study hall.” He glares in Kaminari’s direction. “And that means one thing: you have to be studying .”

Kaminari mock-salutes. Aizawa calls Aoyama’s name.

Shouto’s head hits the desk.

There always seems to be combat training on days when Shouto’s at his most sleep-deprived. And today’s luck is even worse than usual.

“What the fuck are you doing ?!” Bakugou shouts, “Give me all you got, IcyHot!”

“‘m trying,” Shouto mutters, jumping back to avoid a shot aimed at the spot where he's standing. He can take Bakugou most days, he can even beat him one-on-one on a good day, but today isn't one of those days and just going up against him renders the little sleep Shouto got during homeroom and lunch completely useless, let alone going up against him for thirty minutes straight.

Bakugou scowls and fires off another explosion, and Shouto ducks under it, seeing just in time that Bakugou aimed too high. That's all Shouto’s doing, ducking and defending himself, that’s all he really can do, but Bakugou doesn't seem to think that's good enough for him.

“Don't go fucking easy on me!” Bakugou hisses, eyes narrowed. “Who do you think I am?!”

Shouto frowns, sending a wave of ice out from his right foot that coats the ground all around him. Bakugou notices it quickly and hops into the air to avoid being swept off his feet, firing again once he's airborne. Shouto starts running, an expert at keeping his footing on the ice, and plans his next move.

He's not going to last much longer, not because of quirk overuse or anything like that, but because he's just physically exhausted. Every muscle in his body is sore and begs for a break, a break he can't take just yet. Whatever he decides to do, it can't be something that requires a lot of... well, anything. This has already gone on for too long.

When Bakugou lands again, Shouto stands still and puts up ice wall after ice wall until Bakugou’s surrounded. He reinforces every wall twice over, knowing that even that won't hold Bakugou for very long, but hopefully the cold is distracting enough to give him a tiny advantage.

There's a rumbling sound before Bakugou breaks out, and Shouto keeps his eyes out for cracks in the ice, cracks he doesn't see.

Every wall explodes at once in a flash of light, so blinding that Shouto has to cover his eyes. Which turns out to be his biggest mistake.

Another explosion knocks him off his feet, and when he's on the ground, before he has a chance to think, one of Bakugou’s gauntlets pokes him in the chest.

“Looks like I win.” Bakugou grins as the smoke clears.

“Fine.” Shouto doesn't care in the slightest.

As the sparring matches end and everyone goes back to the locker rooms to change out of their hero costumes, Shouto feels dead. His movements are almost robotic, and he doesn't really focus on anything much. He can't .

It's when he's walking back to the dorms with everyone else after the school day ends that he remembers he has to give Midoriya his notes. Are they even that helpful? He doubts they are. Why didn't Midoriya ask Iida to do it instead?

When he knocks on Midoriya’s door, he thinks for a second that Midoriya might not even be awake right now. He really shouldn't be, at least, but Shouto knows he's not the kind of person to sleep all day.

“Hi!” Midoriya opens the door with a smile that quickly turns to a frown when he sees Shouto’s face. “Are you okay? You look sick.”

“Is it really that bad?” Shouto asks. He would laugh if he wasn't already about to pass out.

“You're really pale.” Midoriya’s eyes are filled with the kind of concern that makes Shouto never want to lie to him again. “What happened?”

“It's nothing.” Shouto waves it off, because the only word he didn't say is “new”, and that barely adds any meaning. “I just got paired up with Bakugou in combat training.”

“Ah.” Midoriya nods with an understanding half-smile.

“Yeah.” Shouto takes three notebooks out of his bag, thankful the math notebook Yaoyorozu borrowed that one time isn't among them. “Here.”

“Oh!” Midoriya’s eyes light up as he takes the stack and sets it down on his desk. “Thank you so much, should I take them back to your room when I'm done or...?”

“You can just give them back tomorrow...”

Shouto feels himself fall to the floor, feels himself collapse, but his head is fuzzy and he doesn't realize what's happening until he feels a jerk that brings him back to reality.

“Todoroki-kun?!” Midoriya talks fast, and that's when Shouto notices that it was Midoriya’s free arm that broke his fall. “Oh my god, what's wrong?”

“I'm okay,” Shouto says, letting Midoriya pull him inside the room before he sits down and leans back against the cold, hard door.

“No, you're not!” Midoriya squeezes his hand tight. “This is all my fault, isn't it? I'm so sorry-”

“Nothing’s your fault.” Shouto’s voice is slurred from exhaustion, but in the daze he's currently in, he doesn't really care.

“You should stay here,” Midoriya says, all of a sudden after a few awkward seconds of silence.

“What do you mean?” Shouto asks.

“I was going to try and sleep for a few more hours before dinner,” Midoriya says, looking anywhere but at Shouto, “And I have extra pillows and stuff in my closet and my curtains block out pretty much all the light from outside and you could-” He deflates with a sigh. “Never mind, this is a bad idea.”

“No, it makes sense.” Shouto doesn't say why.

“Really?” Midoriya tries and fails to hide a smile that almost makes Shouto smile back. Maybe they have the same idea after all.

Shouto nods.

“Hold on.” Midoriya stands up and jogs over to the closet.

Shouto just stares at the wall, feeling how heavy his eyelids are. After a forced all-nighter and the nightmare that was just trying to get through the school day, he shouldn't be surprised, but he is. He's even more of a mess than he thought he was.

But he's here. He's okay, Midoriya’s okay, and he's right here, too, just in case Shouto wakes up from a nightmare doubting that.

“Here.” Midoriya sets a pillow down on the floor. “Now lie down, you look dead.”

“Fine.” Shouto’s tempted to roll his eyes, because Midoriya’s the injured one, why is he so worried about him? But he doesn't. He just does as he's told, lying back on the floor and resting his head on the pillow.

Midoriya still looks too concerned as he hands Shouto a blanket. “Tell me if you need more.”

“You're worrying about me way too much,” Shouto says, laying the blanket out on top of him. It's thin, but it's fuzzy and warm and exactly what he needs.

Leave it to Midoriya to give him that.

“I’m making it up to you. For last night.”

“You didn't need to-”

“Yes, I did.” Midoriya narrows his eyes, clearly not taking anything else on the subject, before his expression softens and he smiles. “Goodnight, Todoroki-kun.”

Shouto’s filled with a muted warmth then, one that courses through him like a tiny tidal wave, but it only forces his already heavy eyelids shut. “Thanks,” he says, slipping into unconsciousness.

I love you , he means.

Chapter Text

Shouto’s glad that Yaoyorozu managed to amass the courage to ask Jirou out, he really is. He's happy for his friend, a little jealous, but happy. There's just one tiny problem with that.

“It's Sunday , Todoroki!” Jirou looks like she's about to laugh.

“I know it's Sunday,” Shouto says, trying not to think about his personal failures too much.

“You did say you were going to tell him on Thursday,” Yaoyorozu chimes in.

“I couldn't exactly do it on Thursday, could I?”

“You could have done it on Friday.” Jirou looks down at Shouto from her spot on Yaoyorozu’s bed. “Or yesterday.”

“I really couldn't.” Shouto remembers how dead he felt on Friday and how swamped he was yesterday with all the work he didn't do on Thursday or Friday. That wasn't fun. At least he got to see his mother yesterday instead of today, that relieved the stress a little. Not much, but a little.

“So when are you going to tell him?” Yaoyorozu asks, “If you don't do it this week, you'll have to wait all of winter break before you get another chance.”

“I don't want to distract him from studying, though.” Shouto frowns. Finals are hard enough as is.

“Dude, he's Midoriya , he's going to be fine no matter what you do,” Jirou says.

“If we're being completely honest, you're the one whose study habits I'm more worried about,” Yaoyorozu adds.

Shouto gives her a look. “I'll be fine.”

“That doesn't sound convincing, Todoroki-san.”

“Look at what Mo did.” Jirou leans down over the side of the bed and threads her fingers with Yaoyorozu’s. “She asked if she could talk to me after dinner on Thursday night and then she just told me. It's not that hard.”

“I picked the day in advance and planned it all out beforehand, though,” Yaoyorozu points out.

“I tried that, except...” Shouto frowns. “You know.”

Yaoyorozu nods, and for a second the room is filled with an awkward silence as everyone thinks of what to say next.

“You know, there's nothing stopping you from just doing that again,” Jirou says, “I mean, you didn't get rejected .”

“She's right.” Yaoyorozu smiles. “Pick a day and go through with it. It's harder to put it off that way.”

“I guess.” Shouto shrugs. “Which day do I-”

“Tuesday,” Jirou and Yaoyorozu say at the exact same time.

Shouto blinks. “Why is that such a good idea?”

“It's not Monday, because Mondays suck, but it's still early enough to make your entire week if it goes well,” Jirou explains.

“ When it goes well,” Yaoyorozu corrects.

“That's what I meant.”

“How do you two know these things?” Shouto asks.

“Mo really likes romcoms,” Jirou says.

“We had a movie marathon last night!” Yaoyorozu adds.

“Ah.” Shouto nods. “Fun.”

“Wait.” Yaoyorozu’s eyes go wide. “After you ask Midoriya-san out, the four of us can go on double dates!”

“Yeah.” Jirou smiles with an idea of her own. “We should go get ice cream together, I've always wanted to try that new place.”

“Kyouka, it's the middle of December, why do you want ice cream?”

Jirou smugly crosses her arms. “Ice cream time is all the time if you believe.”

“Great.” Shouto stands up, not sure if he's going to get anything done with the other two around. “Tuesday it is.” It's not like he has any better ideas.

“Good luck!” Yaoyorozu calls as Shouto opens the door and steps out into the hallway.

“Do it for the ice cream, Todoroki!” Jirou shouts with a laugh just before Shouto closes the door.

***

Shouto wakes up five minutes before his alarm on Monday morning. The light from his phone screen hits his eyelids and pulls him out of sleep, and he wonders what someone would want from him so early.

There’s a text waiting for him and in a drowsy haze, he opens the message.

From: Midoriya Izuku

6:24 AM

Wanna go on a run with me before class?

Shouto blinks, the word “yes” already on the tip of his tongue.

To: Midoriya Izuku

6:25 AM

Sure

Still half-asleep, Shouto sits up, still holding the phone tight in his hands as he waits for it to buzz. It still makes him jump when it does.

From: Midoriya Izuku

6:25 PM

Great!! Meet me in the common room at 6:40?

Shouto could go right now if he wanted to, but 6:40 it is.

To: Midoriya Izuku

6:25 PM

Yeah ill be there

Putting his phone down on the futon, he stands up and stretches, first up above his head then down to touch his toes. There's a lot he has to do in the next ten minutes.

If there's one thing he has plenty of, it's athletic wear. It's not hard for him to pick a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and he doesn't take much time getting dressed, either. His hair is, thankfully, manageable today, and though his bed head has never been that bad, he's glad he barely has to do anything to make it look okay.

A year ago, he wouldn't have worried about any of this. He supposes that's just what a crush does to someone.

At 6:37, he quietly opens his door and slips down the hall to the elevator, walking on tiptoe so as not to wake anyone up. He's alone in the elevator as it slides down, clunking to a stop on the ground floor.

When he gets out, Midoriya’s already in the center of the room, stretching his arms out behind his back.

“Are you sure it's okay for you to be doing this with your arm?” Shouto asks. He remembers hearing that a kiss from Recovery Girl can shrink a five-week recovery down to just a few days, but he's not sure what happens after that.

“Hey!” Midoriya turns around with a smile before his gaze awkwardly shifts to his previously-broken arm. “And y-yeah, Recovery Girl said I could start doing more physical stuff yesterday, so it should be fine.”

“If you're sure.”

“I am!” Midoriya laughs, bright like the sunrise this early in the morning. “Ready to go?”

Shouto nods, ready as he’ll ever be as the two of them walk out into the cold December air.

It's not Tuesday yet, so Shouto really doesn't have anything to worry about. He just has to avoid making a fool of himself and he'll be fine until tomorrow.

“I just wanted to make a loop around campus if that's okay,” Midoriya says, keeping his speed up even as he turns to look for Shouto’s approval.

“That sounds fine,” Shouto answers.

“Good.” Midoriya hums to himself. “I really needed to get out before finals, you know?”

“It's a rough week,” Shouto agrees. He silently adds the “in more ways than one”.

They take a path around the back of the dorm buildings, keeping pace with each other even with the height difference between them. Midoriya talks about everything and nothing at the same time, not expecting Shouto to respond most of the time but not shutting him out of the conversation, either. Shouto doesn't mind that; he could listen to Midoriya ramble for days on end and not get bored. Listening to him talk about the rookie heroes he saw on TV last night and the kinds of trees he sees lining the concrete makes the morning come alive.

It's a nice morning, as cold as it is. Birds are chirping, there aren't any rain clouds in sight, and the rising sun casts a pink glow over all the school buildings and the pathways that connect them. It's perfect Monday morning weather - something new is going to begin today, and Shouto has no idea what it is.

“Let's stop here for a sec.” Midoriya turns off the path toward a small wooden bench and stops in front of it. He doesn't look tired or out of breath, but Shouto doesn't make much of that. If he needs a break, they can take one.

Midoriya takes a seat and Shouto sits next to him, both of them looking out at the scenery. They're all the way over by the third-year dorms, and they get a beautiful view of it all, tinted orange by the sun behind them. Time seems to slow down, just a little.

“Um, Todoroki-kun?” Midoriya asks, not meeting Shouto’s eyes.

“Yeah?”

“There's-” Midoriya folds his hands in his lap. “There's something I want to tell you.”

“Oh.” Shouto doesn't have anything to say back, he's not ready, he doesn't know what to say. “Go ahead, I'm listening.”

“I never got to say thank you. For Friday.” Midoriya smiles, taking a deep breath before his voice inevitably speeds up. “Thank you for going to the concert with me, it was really fun and I would totally do it again. Thank you for doing everything you could at the train station without your provisional, I would have been a lot worse off if you weren't there. Thank you for coming to talk to me on Friday and taking me back to my room and staying with me after school. Thank you for...” He laughs, and it echoes across the grass. “Well, everything , really.”

“Y-you’re welcome,” Shouto says, “Is that it?”

“No!” Midoriya shakes his head with a grin. “There's more.”

Shouto just looks at him, waiting for what's coming next.

“ Weeeeell .” Midoriya draws out the word, obviously stalling for time. “The truth is-” His expression darkens. “I wanted to say-” He frowns. “Dammit.”

“You can tell me later-” Shouto starts.

“No!” Midoriya balls both his hands into fists. “Just give me a second.”

Shouto would gladly give him all the time in the world.

“I-” Midoriya takes a deep breath and smiles, not a cheerful grin but a tiny quirk up of his lips that Shouto hopes no one else can see. Shouto can see his chest fall, his shoulders fall as he lets his built-up stress go.

“I like you, Todoroki-kun.”

For a second, time grinds to a halt and Shouto thinks he must have misheard. There's no way Midoriya likes him, that's too good to be true.

“Sorry,” Midoriya says, looking anywhere but at Shouto, “I shouldn't have-”

“No, wait-” Shouto starts.

“This is-”

“Hold on for a second-”

“But I-”

Shouto can pinpoint the exact moment when his heart takes the reins and shoves his brain out of the way, because that's the exact moment he decides to lean in and kiss Midoriya Izuku.

Midoriya makes a startled noise against Shouto’s lips but he doesn't pull away. His eyes still stay open, hesitantly locked on Shouto’s like he doesn't know what to do next. But he's still here, and he seems to have no intention of leaving.

Shouto doesn't really know what he's doing, and that in itself is unusual. He's spent his entire life jumping from solid plan to solid plan over nearly every unknown chasm below, he's spent his entire life knowing . But now, the simple fact is that he doesn't , and he's scared, sure, but he thinks that maybe not knowing where something is going isn't always a bad thing.

So he lets his eyes flutter shut and basks in the excitement of it all.

Midoriya’s lips are chapped from the cold, but Shouto doesn't register that. He only feels softness and warmth, the same aura he's been feeling from Midoriya this whole time. He can't say he's surprised.

He is surprised when Midoriya pulls him closer, making the kiss that much deeper, that much more real . His mind goes completely blank, and as if on instinct, he brings one hand up to the back of Midoriya’s head and brings them even closer.

He feels like he's going to die before finals even start and he's perfectly okay with that.

Time abruptly starts again when Midoriya pulls away and Shouto opens his eyes again, and for a second they just look at each other without saying a word. Like they're wondering if what just happened was a weirdly vivid dream instead of reality.

Midoriya’s shoulders shake, and Shouto worries that he's going to cry. But he isn't crying, he's laughing with his mouth closed like he just drank something and he'd spit it out all over Shouto’s face if he opened his mouth even a little.

When Midoriya caves and starts actually laughing, he sounds like everything Shouto imagines happiness to sound like, and that alone convinces Shouto to join in without even thinking about it.

He can't remember the last time he laughed this much. Or the last time he was this happy.

“Um...” Midoriya’s eyes are bright like the sun.

“...So, uh, yeah.” Shouto, unsurprisingly, has completely forgotten how to talk. “I like you, too.”

Midoriya looks like he's going to cry again, but this time he hugs Shouto tight and Shouto thinks he's actually going to cry.

“How am I supposed to pass my finals after something like that?” Midoriya asks, muffled by Shouto’s shoulder.

Shouto feels himself smile without even having to think about it. “I'm asking myself the same thing.”

“You jerk!” Midoriya laughs again before he cuts himself off and pulls out of the hug, looking up at Shouto with wide eyes. “Can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead,” Shouto says, wary that everything’s going to fall apart as soon as Midoriya opens his mouth.

“Well, uh, if I like you and you like me back and you kissed me and I kissed you back,” Midoriya says, lips moving a mile a minute, “Does that make me your boyfriend now?”

Shouto has a mini-heart attack right then and there. “Uh...”

“Sorry, that was too forward-”

“Well, um, honestly, it depends.” Every word, Shouto is less sure of what he's saying, but he's sure of what the best case scenario would be. “Do you want to be my boyfriend?”

“Do you want to be mine?” Midoriya asks.

“Yes.” The word is out of Shouto’s mouth before he even has a chance to think.

Midoriya smiles. “Me, too.”

Shouto feels the fireworks going off in his head and even though it's only seven in the morning, he knows today is one of the best days of his life.

I kissed him , Shouto thinks.

I actually kissed him , he thinks again.

And just for good measure, his brain comes up with I kissed him , I kissed him , and I kissed him, like anything would change with emphasis on a different word.

“Todoroki!”

Shouto shoots back to his English class in a split-second, embarrassment taking over a little bit of the euphoria “Yes?”

“Daydreaming? Tsk, tsk.” Present Mic shakes his head, but he’s grinning. “And a little birdie told me you dozed off in homeroom the other day, too.”

“Sorry.” Shouto’s trying his best to hide a blush, but he doesn’t think it’s working. He's still too far up in the clouds on an emotional high to really care, anyway, which is weird but not entirely unwelcome. “It won’t happen again.”

“Finals start tomorrow, that wouldn’t be very convenient.” Present Mic’s focus shifts in an instant. “And Midoriya!”

Shouto sees Midoriya stiffen in his seat.

“I’m not a plant guy, so do you wanna tell me what’s so interesting about that tree out there?” Present Mic asks, glancing out the window.

“NothingIjustlostfocussorry!” Midoriya apologizes with a dip of his head in a quick bow.

Shouto wonders if he's the only person who knows why.

“Todoroki-shounen?”

“...Yes?” Shouto almost wants to laugh at the fact that everything that happened this morning put him in such a daze that even All Might noticed, but that same daze made him fall flat on his face not too long ago, so he's not sure how much of a blessing it is after all. “Is anything wrong?”

“That's the question I was going to ask you,” All Might says, “You seem distracted today, is something on your mind?”

“Oh.” Shouto’s eyes go wide for a second before he shakes his head. “No, it's nothing. Just finals week, I guess.”

“Ah.” All Might looks like he knows Shouto’s lying, but he doesn't press him for any more answers. “Well, make sure to get a good night’s sleep and eat a good breakfast before your tests.”

“Thanks for the advice,” Shouto says.

“You're very welcome.” All Might smiles. “Don’t worry too much, I'm sure you'll pass with flying colors!”

“Thank you.” After this morning, Shouto isn't quite as sure about that, but he's glad to hear it. “Have a good rest of your day.”

“You, too!”

It takes Shouto a few minutes to get back to the locker room and change out of his hero costume, but it isn't too long before he's walking back to the dorms with everyone else. For once, they're all walking in a pack, and he finds a spot in the back of the crowd.

“Hey, there you are!” Midoriya slows down until he’s right by Shouto’s side, smiling all the way. “What did All Might want to talk to you about?”

“What do you think?” Shouto asks.

Midoriya just laughs. “Sorry about that!”

“You really shouldn't be apologizing for something like that.”

“I can't help it!”

Shouto sees the dopey smile on Midoriya’s face and realizes for the fiftieth time today that Midoriya is his boyfriend , they kissed , and they're technically dating now.

“Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out in a little bit?” Midoriya asks, “We could watch a movie in my room or something.”

Shouto wants to say yes, but he hasn't been able to talk about... this with the one person who really deserves to know. “I can't, sorry.”

“Oh, that's okay!” Midoriya doesn't look angry or even really disappointed. “We can do something later.”

“Wait.” Shouto frowns. “Are you free after dinner?”

“Yeah!” Midoriya nods excitedly. “So you want to come?”

“Sure.”

Midoriya’s eyes light up like fairy lights before his expression darkens as his voice drops to a whisper. “Oh god, I have to clean my room.”

Yaoyorozu seems to pounce on the door, opening it almost before Shouto even has a chance to knock. It's just her this time; Jirou is nowhere to be found.

“Todoroki-san, did something happen this morning?” Yaoyorozu asks as she beckons him inside, “You've been acting...”

“Weird?” Shouto supplies.

“Yes.” Yaoyorozu nods, settling on the fact that that word is exactly the right one. “Finals start tomorrow, I'm worried about you.”

“Oh, you definitely don't need to be worried about me,” Shouto says, the same exact exhilaration from before filling his mind like a drug.

Yaoyorozu laughs. “What happened?”

“Well.” Shouto’s heart is starting to race just talking about it, what is wrong with him? “This morning, I got a text from Midoriya asking if I wanted to go on a run with him before school, and I did, so we went out around campus for a while.” Realistically, it was only twenty minutes or so, but that’s all semantics in the grand scheme of things. “Then we sat down on this bench to take a break or something, he told me he liked me, I kissed him, and I think we’re dating now.”

Yaoyorozu just stares at him for a few seconds like her jaw could hit the floor at any second. “And this all happened before school started this morning?”

Shouto nods.

“Wow.” Yaoyorozu smiles. “Well, I’m really happy for you. You look very...” She pauses, trying to find the right word. “Bright?”

“...Thank you?”

“You’re welcome.” Yaoyorozu picks up a notebook. “Do you want to copy my notes? You didn't look like you were paying very much attention in class.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Shouto takes the notebook and flips through to the back. He only realizes he has Yaoyorozu’s literature notebook when he spots the heart doodle that started all this for half a second on his way to the most recent set of notes, a last-minute review of the most important topics of the term. “Okay, I don’t remember any of this.”

“I thought you wouldn't,” Yaoyorozu says.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Shouto asks.

“It means you're a little lovesick, which means that letting a day of class float right over your head is perfectly justified.”

“Lovesick” is a good word for it. The entire day definitely felt like a fever dream, at least.

“I like seeing you like this,” Yaoyorozu says out of the blue.

“Hm?” Shouto looks up from the notebook. “What do you mean?”

“You look happy.”

“Well...” Shouto, all things considered, is pretty happy right about now.

“I know, I know.” Yaoyorozu laughs. “But I can actually see it, it's nice.”

“Oh.” Shouto isn't exactly easy to read, and he knows it. But Yaoyorozu can somehow do it, somehow take the barely-there hints of smiles and blushes and read him like a book, something that only two other people he knows can really do with any semblance of accuracy - those two being, obviously, his sister and Midoriya.

“I'm sorry, that was...” Yaoyorozu trails off.

“No, it wasn't anything,” Shouto says, “It's fine.”

“Are you sure?”

Shouto nods. “Yeah.”

Something clicks in his head then, something he really shouldn't have overlooked. Not just today, but this whole time.

“Yaoyorozu,” he says.

“Yes?”

Shouto takes a deep breath, knowing Yaoyorozu can see the smile waiting on the tip of his tongue clear as day. “Thank you. For everything.”

Yaoyorozu smiles back. “Thank you , Todoroki-san.” She looks down at the notebook in Shouto’s hands. “I suppose we really did help each other.”

“Yeah.” Shouto glances at his own math notebook on the floor next to him and realizes that all in all, this whole thing went pretty well. “I guess we did.”

Shouto brings his hand up to knock on the door, noticing how it shakes right in front of his eyes. He shouldn't be this nervous, he really shouldn't be nervous at all, but he is. Behind that door lies something new, extremely exciting but different , and he doubts he’ll know what to do once he steps inside.

He knocks three times, the sound echoing down the hallway.

The door swings open wide and there Midoriya is, a grin listing up his face like the sun. He's carrying a stack of books in one hand, a mix of textbooks and other things. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Shouto repeats, not moving.

“Sorry, I was trying to clean up a little before you got here.” Midoriya puts his stack of books down on his desk.

“I can come back later-”

“Wha-” Midoriya snorts out a laugh. “ No , oh my god, it's fine!” His smile softens as he looks back at Shouto again. “You can come in, by the way, you don't need to wait for me to invite you like you're a vampire or something.”

Shouto nods, cautiously stepping inside the room and looking around. He's been in here a few times, but he's never gotten the chance to really see it. The bookshelf in the corner is packed with books of all types, and the walls are covered with hero posters and, more recently, strips of pictures of Midoriya, Iida, and Uraraka packed into a photo booth. A string of fairy lights is hung up along one wall, and Shouto wonders if that's a new addition.

“I went back to my house this weekend and brought some DVDs over,” Midoriya says, kneeling down to comb through a bin on the bottom shelf of the bookshelf, “They're mostly Disney, though, just warning you.”

“That's fine.” Shouto can't say he's seen a lot of Disney movies. He's seen a few for dorm movie nights, but he feels like that isn't enough.

“Okay.” Midoriya turns around again with a stack of DVDs in his hands before dropping it on his bed. “You choose.”

Shouto walks over to the bed and realizes just how many movies there are. He hasn’t even heard of some of these, let alone seen them, and he wouldn’t exactly mind staying here with Midoriya until he’s finished every last one.

But there’s not enough time for that, so he scans the pile for one perfect movie for the night. He knows a lot of Disney movies are musicals, and he would love to hear Midoriya sing again, but there doesn’t seem to be a wrong choice other than the ones he’s already seen. That rules out Beauty and the Beast , Aladdin , Frozen , The Lion King , High School Musical 1 and 2, and the three Toy Story movies, which really doesn’t narrow it down that much considering just how many movies there are.

“What do you want to watch?” He asks, knowing his judgment isn't going to be great compared to someone who's seen everything in this pile.

“Me?” Midoriya looks over the stack with a frown. “Let's see... Oh!” He picks one DVD case up and puts it in Shouto’s hands. “Does this one look good?”

“‘Hercules’,” Shouto reads the title out loud to himself, “What's it about?”

“Greek mythology,” Midoriya answers without skipping a beat, “There are some really good songs, too.”

Perfect. “Sure.”

“Great!” Midoriya quickly takes the DVDs back to their home at the bottom of the bookshelf before he practically dives for his laptop like he isn't still healing from a broken arm. He grabs a blanket before sitting down on the bed in the middle of a sea of pillows, patting the spot next to him. It takes too long for Shouto to realize that means Midoriya’s asking him to sit next to him.

“Sorry in advance for my singing voice,” Midoriya whispers, but Shouto doesn't care about that. How could he? Midoriya has a nice voice and he's much more preoccupied with the fact that they're closer together now than they've ever been before and he's a little nervous.

Midoriya presses play, and his eyes reflect the light of the screen, bright and excited, as the opening number starts. Shouto can't decide whether to focus on him or the movie more, so he tries multitasking and misses quite a bit of plot, but that's okay. It's not hard to follow.

Just as Shouto hoped, Midoriya sings along to every song, lyrics committed to his memory. He does a different voice for each of the muses, giving Shouto a look every time he unveils a new one like he’s trying to make him laugh, and it works. As much as it could for someone like Shouto, anyway.

Shouto realizes too late that he’s never heard Midoriya sing something soft or sentimental. It’s always been loud and fun, like at the concert or watching High School Musical , or funny and exaggerated like with the muses or Gaston’s theme from Beauty and the Beast , but never emotional and quiet. And by “too late”, Shouto means the first note of “Go the Distance”.

He’s barely singing, voice low with the opening notes, and Shouto’s thoughts are stuck on how he’s the only person in the entire world, the entire universe who can hear this and right now, he feels like the luckiest person alive.

Midoriya’s voice gets louder at the chorus and Shouto’s heart does something he can’t explain. All he knows for sure is that he underestimated just how beautiful his voice could be.

“Hey,” Midoriya says a minute after the song ends, “You okay?”

Shouto blinks. “What do you mean?”

“You look like you’re about to cry.” Midoriya frowns. “Everything okay?”

“Oh.” Shouto smiles as a reassurance. “Everything’s fine. It’s just been a long day.”

“That’s fair.” Midoriya giggles. “We can stop early if you want, you should get some sleep.”

“Not yet,” Shouto says, completely aware of the ulterior motives.

“Okay.” Midoriya looks back at the laptop before he slowly puts an arm around Shouto’s shoulder.

Shouto involuntarily stiffens at the touch.

Midoriya pulls his arm back instantly. “Sorry, is that okay?”

Shouto pauses for a second before he nods. “Fine.”

“If you’re sure.” Midoriya puts his arm back where it was with a fair degree of hesitation. “Just let me know.”

Shouto nods. “I will.”

Midoriya puts his finger on the space bar but doesn’t press it. “You know what?”

“What?”

“I was going to tell you everything after the concert.”

Shouto almost laughs at the coincidence. “So was I.”

“Really?” Midoriya actually laughs. “You’re kidding!”

Shouto shakes his head. “I’m not. I was going to actually tell you tomorrow.”

Midoriya grins. “Guess I beat you to it!”

“You did.”

“Well.” Midoriya leans his head on Shouto’s shoulder and Shouto has to really concentrate just to avoid setting himself on fire. “I’m glad.”

“So am I,” Shouto says.

Midoriya presses play and they both fall silent, focused mostly on the movie. Maybe a little on each other, but mostly on the movie. Okay, maybe mostly on each other.

By the time the obligatory love song starts, they’ve already fallen fast asleep leaning against each other and Shouto knows he’s the luckiest person alive.

Chapter Text

Finals start and end, winter break comes and goes, and before Shouto knows it, it's January. School doesn't change much with the new term or the new year; he has all the same teachers and the only substantial difference is All Might teaching History of Heroics instead of the practical training class he taught before, switching with Present Mic in that regard. He also turns sixteen shortly after school starts again, and he's pleasantly surprised when his classmates pop out from behind the common room couches with cake and presents in hand after he gets back late from a sparring session with Midoriya and Kirishima. In hindsight, that may have been intentional.

The biggest change the new year has brought, though, is... well, this .

Shouto stands outside Midoriya’s door once again, waiting to knock on the door until he knows he’s not going to make himself look like an idiot when he does. There’s a part of him that knows he can’t really look like an idiot in front of Midoriya, but that is a very small part and one he can’t exactly bring himself to listen to.

The collar of his shirt scratches his neck and the button sits a bit too tight and high up. His shoes fit weird, and he really should have worn something more casual. But now it's too late and if he goes back to change everything’s going to be thrown off. So here he is.

He finally gathers the courage to knock and hears a muffled “Coming!” from inside. Carding his fingers through his hair one more time and wondering if he's overdone it, he waits for a few seconds more.

When Midoriya opens the door, Shouto’s immensely relieved to see that they're wearing almost the exact same thing: jeans and relatively nice button-down shirts under a warm jacket to deal with the cold weather. So he didn't go overboard after all.

“Hi,” Midoriya says.

“Hey,” Shouto says back, noticing the wobbly smile on Midoriya’s face. “Are you nervous?”

“What, me?” Midoriya blinks before he scrambles to cover up any possible signs of anxiety. “No, of course not, why would I be nervous -”

“I'm nervous, too.”

“See, you- wait, you are?” Midoriya stares up at him in disbelief.

Shouto nods. “Definitely.” He narrows his eyes. “Did you think I wouldn't be?”

“No, I just-” Midoriya sighs. “I don't know, I thought you'd be worried about bigger things. More... important things”

“What makes you think this isn’t important?” Shouto asks, “I think it is.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“Um...” Midoriya stalls for the for a few seconds before he pushes past Shouto out into the hallway. “We should go, I don't want to hold you back any longer!”

Shouto frowns at his word choice but doesn't press him on it. “Did you want to take something with you?”

“Right!” Midoriya ducks back into the room to grab his backpack and is back in the hallway just as fast. “Okay, let's go!”

Shouto doesn't know what to say to make Midoriya look less anxious about this whole thing, but he wishes he could say something, because Midoriya looks almost terrified.

“Hey.” Shouto quickens his pace to catch up with him, which doesn't really work until they're both in the elevator. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing, don't worry about it!” Midoriya smiles, but it isn't convincing in the slightest.

“It's not nothing.”

“It's stupid, though!”

“I can pretty much guarantee that's not true.” Shouto only wants to know so he can do everything he possibly can to make it all right. “What is it?”

“I'm just worried everything’s going to go wrong .” Midoriya’s voice starts to rush, a telltale sign. “Like villains are going to show up and I’ll do something stupid and get myself hurt again and you...” He brings his voice down to a barely audible whisper. “You’ll think I’m too dangerous to- to be with, you know?”

“What?”

“I know it’s dumb-“

“No.” Shouto has no idea what he can say except the truth. “What you said about me, I'd never do that.”

“I know that, but-”

“There aren't any buts about it,” Shouto says, “Do you think we would be here right now if I thought that about you?”

“No, but you might-”

“I won't.” The tension hangs thick in the air and all Shouto wants to do is cut it, but the elevator reaches the first floor before he can and he hopes that's enough.

“All right.” Midoriya’s wobbly smile is back again, but he looks like he's trying to make the most of things. “This is going to be fun.”

“Of course.” Shouto nods along, already convinced.

“Oh!” Midoriya stops in his tracks as the dorm’s front door closes behind him. “I almost forgot, there's something I wanted to tell you.”

“What is it?” Shouto stops, too, looking at Midoriya’s face for some sort of clue.

“Well, uh, since this is a date and all,” Midoriya says, scratching the back of his neck with an awkward grin, “You can call me Izuku. If you want. Anything works, I guess.”

Shouto’s heart hops right into his throat as he runs the name over his tongue. It feels weird, just as weird as he expects it to, but that isn't a bad thing. “Um, in that case, you can call me Shouto. Only if you want to, though, I don't want you to feel like you have to do it or anything.”

Midoriya giggles. “Maybe we should wait a little longer, then.”

“Maybe,” Shouto agrees. He knows it’ll happen at some point, just not right now. These things take time.

They walk to the train station together, able to fit next to each other on the sidewalk. Midoriya fills the quiet evening air with lively conversation that makes Shouto less nervous and more excited with every word. This is going to be great.

The train is crowded when they get on, and they end up squished against each other in the middle of the car, but Shouto doesn’t mind that. Midoriya’s warm in a way Shouto’s quirk can’t compensate for, and it’s just the warmth Shouto needs.

They’re meeting Yaoyorozu and Jirou for ice cream two hours from now, which gives them two hours for dinner and whatever else Midoriya wants to do. Shouto suspects that’s going to mean spending at least a solid half hour in a bookstore or looking at hero merch, but he’s fine with that.

“So where are we going for dinner?” Midoriya asks as soon as they’re off the train, “Or is that a surprise?”

“No, it’s a restaurant my sister took me to a few years ago,” Shouto says, hoping he can remember where the place is. That would put a wrench in the works.

“Oh.” Midoriya smiles, a tiny spring in his step. “I’m excited.”

“So am I.”

Midoriya hums to himself. “Is it far from here?”

“I don’t think so.” Shouto frowns. He really should have looked the place up before leaving. “It’s called Cafe Daffodil.”

“I’ll keep an eye out.” Midoriya’s eyes scan the street, lit up with the reflections of neon signs. “What does it look like?”

“Lots of plants,” Shouto says, trying to remember what the restaurant looks like, “Big windows. You can hear the classical music on the street.”

“Okay.” Midoriya nods, a puzzled look on his face. “Do you want to look it up, just to see if we went out the wrong exit at the train station or something?”

“That's a good idea.” Shouto takes his phone out of his bag and types “cafe daffodil” into the maps app. Nothing comes up. “That's strange.”

“Is it not showing up?” Midoriya asks, leaning over to get a look at the screen.

“Yeah.” Shouto opens Google instead, typing the restaurant’s name and the neighborhood they're in, just in case. Online maps can't catch everything.

The results load quickly, and Cafe Daffodil’s absence from the map makes much more sense now.

“Apparently, it went out of business a year ago,” Shouto says. He has no idea why; the food was really good. He supposes the place was kind of empty when he and Fuyumi went, but she had to hear about it from someone, right?

“Aw.” Midoriya frowns at the phone like it personally offended him. “I'm sorry.”

“It's okay.” Shouto turns his phone off and puts it back in his pocket. “We can find something else. Where do you want to go?”

“Well...” Midoriya’s eyes flash as he mulls the question over. “There was a ramen shop a block or so back, we could go there.”

“Are you sure?” Shouto doesn’t mind ramen, he just wishes they could be doing something a little more... romantic? God, he's dumb.

“Yeah, it's fine,” Midoriya says, “And it's pretty fast, so we’ll have more time to go there .”

He points to a building a block and a half away from them, covered with brightly-colored lights from head to toe.

“What is that?” Shouto asks, squinting his eyes to read the swirly type of the sign. He can't do it.

“Only the biggest hero merchandise store in Musutafu. Maybe the country.” Midoriya grins, excitement clear in his eyes that gives off an air of childlike wonder. “I've been once, when I was seven, and so many new heroes have debuted in the past eight-odd years, right?”

“We can go as soon as we eat something.” Shouto turns around and starts heading for the ramen shop. “I'm starving.”

Midoriya doesn't tear his eyes away from the storefront until Shouto subtly pulls his arm in the right direction, and he follows him with an embarrassed chuckle. His breath fogs up in the cold January air every time he exhales, and he sighs with content once they're inside. The shop is heated but not too much, just enough for them to be comfortable when they take their coats off.

They sit across from each other at the table, and after they order, Shouto finds that he has no idea what to say or even how to hold a conversation. Thankfully, Midoriya has that covered.

“So how do you like All Might’s new class?” Midoriya asks.

“I think it's interesting,” Shouto says, and he means it. It's a class he looks forward to, and he's never tempted to fall asleep during lectures. “It seems like he's more... connected to the events he talks about, it's a different feeling than last term.”

“Right?” Midoriya smiles. “I really like it.”

“You already know everything, though, don't you?” Shouto asks. He knows how much of a nerd Midoriya is about this kind of thing, it's definitely possible.

Midoriya snorts, sending Shouto’s heart into frantic mode. “No, of course not!” He pauses for a second, avoiding Shouto’s eyes. “Okay, maybe I know most of it.” He perks right up again. “But I don't really know the details that All Might does, like about all those quirk registration laws and stuff, and hearing those helps me understand everything more, you know?”

“Yeah.” Shouto nods.

“Sorry, I kinda geeked out there.” Midoriya chuckles, pushing a strand of hair behind his ear.

“Don't apologize.” The corners of Shouto’s mouth quirk up into a smile without him even having to try. “That knowledge is going to help you a lot later on.”

“You're just saying that!”

“No, I'm serious,” Shouto says, “Intelligence isn’t a weakness.”

Midoriya’s cheeks glow in an embarrassed blush. “Thank you...?”

“You’re welcome.”

Their food comes before Midoriya can change the subject, and their conversation falls to the wayside once their mouths are full. The noodles are delicious, and Shouto thinks that for a first date, this isn’t all that bad. Really, who cares about romance when the food’s good?

By the time they stand up to leave, Midoriya’s almost bouncing with excitement and when they leave the shop he practically sprints to the end of the block, too fast for Shouto to keep up with him.

“Midoriya, wait !” Shouto calls out, knowing it’s hopeless as the light turns green and Midoriya runs across the street. He’s going to miss the light, what if they lose each other?

He sighs, waiting at the light for what feels like forever as Midoriya disappears inside the store. This isn’t a big deal. It can’t be that big, right?

The store is huge .

When he first gets inside, Shouto can only stand and stare as the environment bombards his senses with light and color. Every shelf almost stretches to the ceiling, packed with merchandise and memorabilia, and he instantly spots a wall of “vintage” All Might merchandise even amongst all the people milling about. Midoriya isn't there, though, and Shouto realizes that finding him might be harder than he thought.

Thankfully, his phone buzzes before he gets the chance to worry too much.

From: Midoriya Izuku

7:08 PM

Meet me on the 3rd floor I think I'm gonna die!!!!!

Shouto blinks.

To: Midoriya Izuku

7:08 PM

Please don't die

He boards the escalator and rides up to the second floor and then up to the third, where he naively expects Midoriya to be waiting out in the open. He isn't, and the floor stretches out so far that Shouto has no idea where he could reasonably be. If he's somewhere reasonable at all.

“Todoroki-kun!”

Shouto turns around and sees Midoriya waving from the other side of the floor, a wide grin on his face. “Should I come over there?”

“Yeah!”

Shouto nods, walking across the store until Midoriya runs up to grab his arm and drag him toward the corner nearest the window. “What's going on?”

“You have to see this!” Midoriya sounds like a little kid. “I completely forgot it existed!”

“What is it-” Shouto finds himself looking at a display spanning multiple shelves with a large sign hanging down from the ceiling that reads “Looking Ahead”. It seems to be dedicated to heroes-in-training from all the major schools, though the section dedicated to Yuuei is by far the biggest.

"Remember that merchandise license form we all signed at the beginning of the year?” Midoriya asks, completely starstruck.

Shouto nods. He remembers turning in that form and not making much of it after that.

But seeing keychains and buttons with his friends’ faces on them, with his face on them, fills him with an unfamiliar but pleasant feeling that's some mixture of pride and disbelief.

“Just look at this!” Midoriya reaches out to grab an Iida-shaped plush. “This is so cute!” He puts it back with a smile. “I can't believe this is happening, I'm in the Looking Ahead section of Hero Haven, do you know how long I've been dreaming about this?”

“It is pretty surreal.” Shouto runs his finger along a line of magnets with Uraraka and Asui’s faces printed on them before picking up a pair of keychains to give to Yaoyorozu and Jirou later.

“Oh my god, look!” Midoriya grabs a phone case adorned with rhinestones in a very familiar color scheme. “It's your costume but sparkly , should I get it?”

“Don't waste your money, that's probably ridiculously expensive,” Shouto says, embarrassed that Midoriya would even consider buying that.

“Okay.” Midoriya grins, clasping his hands behind his back. “Then what should I buy?” He hums as he slowly looks down each shelf. “What kind of biggest fan would I be if I didn't have some of your merch?”

Shouto feels faint for a second. Okay, maybe longer. Does Midoriya even know what he's doing to him?

“Okay, if you’re going to be embarrassed about me buying your stuff, compromise.” Midoriya holds up two small boxes. “I don't know which poster I'm gonna get until I open it, so I'm technically buying yours but I'm also not. Is that good?”

Shouto shrugs. He supposes he can't stop him, anyway.

“Good.” Midoriya smiles, bending down to get a closer look at the lowest shelf. He gasps all of a sudden and picks up a small notebook with the same pattern as the phone case on its cover. “You know what, never mind on that compromise, I have to buy this.”

Somehow, Shouto feels okay with that. And when Midoriya’s busy at the cash register, he subtly grabs a notebook of his own.

“Moment of truth.” Midoriya sits down on a bench once they weave through the crowds and make it outside the store, taking the first poster box out of his bag. “There are two in each box, so I'll get four total.”

Shouto sits down next to him, watching with baited breath as he peels back the plastic wrap and opens the box. “Who did you get?”

“I don't know.” Midoriya takes the first poster out of the box and laughs when he sees his face on it. “You can have this one.”

“Fair enough.” Shouto takes the poster and rolls it up tight before watching the next two reveals. The other poster in that box is of Kirishima, and the first one in the second is of Kaminari.

“Here, you open the last one!” Midoriya excitedly hands the box over, and Shouto hesitantly pulls out the final poster.

Of course he ends up staring right back at his own face. Of course .

“Do you want me to take that?” Midoriya asks.

Shouto nods, feeling his heart beat erratically in his chest.

Midoriya smiles, putting the poster in his bag. “Is it time for ice cream yet?”

“I think so.” Shouto looks at his phone. 7:45 PM. Close enough.

“Good.” Midoriya stands up and stretches his arms up above his head. “Lead the way.”

“Right.”

They walk down the sidewalk together, talking about their classes and their friends and everything else they can come up with. Midoriya always seems to bring Shouto out of his shell a little without any effort, and to Shouto it feels completely natural.

He thinks about the two of them staying up all night, staring up at the stars as they just talk for hours on end without ever getting bored, only realizing how long it's been when the sun starts to peek over the horizon, and he wonders how he became this stupidly sentimental. He likes it, though. He likes this .

“Come on, Todoroki-kun, we’re gonna be late!” Midoriya shouts, already half a block ahead before Shouto realizes he's fallen behind while lost in his thoughts.

When he catches up, Midoriya grabs his hand and even though it's his right, he feels it burning up.

“Is this okay?” Midoriya asks, his voice a barely audible whisper.

“Yeah,” Shouto says. He thinks “definitely” would give a weirder impression.

“Remind me why we’re getting ice cream in January again?”

“It's what Jirou suggested.” Shouto has to agree with her, there's never a bad time for ice cream.

“Okay.” Midoriya nods, pointing down at a sign at the end of the block. “Is that it?”

Shouto looks up at the sign, which reads “Wonderland Ice Creamery” in neon pink letters. “I think so.”

“Cool.” Midoriya grins and walks a little faster for the last stretch, dragging Shouto along behind him.

The shop isn't crowded, typical for January, and Yaoyorozu and Jirou are easy to spot at a table in the corner by the window. They haven't ordered anything yet, and Shouto wonders if they've been waiting.

“Hey, there you two are!” Jirou looks up from her phone and raises her hand in a half-wave.

“Sorry we’re late,” Midoriya says, sitting down in one of the two empty chairs at the table.

“Don't worry, you're actually three minutes early.” Yaoyorozu smiles with a quick glance at the clock in the back. “What were you two doing?”

“Dinner, mostly.” Shouto takes the other seat and digs through his bag for the keychains. “We stopped by Hero Haven, too.”

“The merch place?” Jirou asks.

Shouto nods. “Have you been before?”

“Nope.”

“Did you have fun?” Yaoyorozu asks, “I've always wanted to go.”

“It was amazing .” Midoriya’s eyes go wide, like he's still standing there looking at the rack on the third floor. “They had, like, everything you could think of!” His expression of awe quickly shifts to one of the best kind of pride. “And there's this section called the Looking Ahead section, and it's basically dedicated to-”

“I got them keychains, don't spoil it,” Shouto whispers.

“You did?” Midoriya raises an eyebrow.

“Yes.”

“Keychains?” Yaoyorozu repeats.

“Yeah.” Shouto grabs both keychains and holds them in one hand as he offers them up.

Yaoyorozu quietly gasps, putting her hand over her mouth to try and fail to hide her excitement.

“Holy shit,” Jirou whispers.

“It's me!” Yaoyorozu holds up her keychain as if she's showing it off, all attempts to be polite and reserved about it out the window. “I'm on a keychain!”

“You're also on a button,” Shouto says, trying to remember what he saw at the store, “And a transit pass cover. And a mug.”

“I'm on a mug?!”

Jirou picks up her own keychain, running a finger over the rubber. “This is crazy.”

“I think I saw earrings that were supposed to be your earphone jacks,” Midoriya says with a grin.

“No way, that's ridiculous!”

Midoriya bursts out laughing, and soon the rest of them join in, high on disbelief and excitement.

“Okay, but look at what I got.” Midoriya pulls the notebook out of his bag. “Isn't this the actual cutest?”

“Midoriya-san, you sound like my mother.” Yaoyorozu giggles.

“It is, though!” Midoriya flips through the pages. “It's really high-quality, too!”

“Dang, I would get so much more done if I got my lyrics down in one of these,” Jirou muses, everyone knowing exactly what she's implying.

“Kyouka!” Yaoyorozu’s cheeks go bright red. “Don't say things like that without warning me!”

Jirou shrugs. “Sorry,” she says in a way that doesn't make her seem sorry at all.

Shouto doesn't comment on how they ended up with each other’s keychains.

“Should we order now?” Yaoyorozu asks, “Since we’re all here and all.”

Somehow, everyone tears themselves away from the collection of merchandise on the table and follows Yaoyorozu to the counter. The options seem endless, with too many flavors of ice cream to choose from and a sea of toppings, and Shouto’s inner sweet tooth almost convinces him to get more scoops of ice cream than is healthy or necessary, but in the end he decides on a simple strawberry milkshake.

Midoriya takes one look at the cup in his hand and promises to give him some of his hot-fudge cookies-and-cream sundae. Shouto tries to refuse, but Midoriya’s already picked up a second spoon before he can get a word out. All Shouto can do is grab a second straw.

“Did you really just get a shake?” Jirou asks with a smirk, carrying her and Yaoyorozu’s ice cream cones back to the table.

“It's good,” Shouto says between sips.

“Can I try?” Midoriya asks. Shouto nods, putting the other straw in the glass, and Midoriya takes more of a gulp than a sip but Shouto doesn't mind. “Okay, yeah, this is really good.”

“Are there strawberry bits at the bottom?” Yaoyorozu asks.

Midoriya grins. “Of course , those are the best kinds of shakes!”

Jirou, mouth full of double chocolate ice cream, grunts her agreement.

It's only then that Shouto realizes the nervousness from back in the dorms has completely faded away. He doesn't have to think about it anymore, everything just feels completely normal, even sharing Midoriya’s sundae with him like they're in a cheesy romance movie or something. He's already more used to this whole dating thing than he thought he'd be.

He can definitely get used to it more.

“Question.” Jirou points her spoon at Midoriya. “What was the coolest thing you saw at Hero Haven?”

Yaoyorozu giggles. “You're not usually this excited.”

“Who wouldn't be excited after finding out they have their own merch, Mo?”

“Fair enough.”

“Well...” Midoriya looks up at the ceiling in thought before his eyes light up with almost mischievous excitement.

Oh, god.

“Was it the phone case?” Shouto asks.

“Phone case?” Yaoyorozu raises an eyebrow. She was probably expecting something flashier.

Midoriya mock-sighs. “Yes, of course it was the phone case.”

Shouto rolls his eyes. Midoriya laughs, jokingly shoving his shoulder.

“Are you two gonna tell us the punch line or not?” Jirou asks.

“He saw a phone case with the pattern of my costume on it in rhinestones,” Shouto says.

Jirou looks like she's trying not to laugh. To be fair, it is a pretty funny concept.

“That's adorable!” Yaoyorozu gushes, “Did you buy it?”

“No, I bought the notebook instead,” Midoriya says, like he actually regrets not buying it. Traitor.

“We should go back and get you that phone case,” Jirou says.

“How about we don't?” Shouto doesn't want to die from embarrassment tonight. Wait, he's saying that like he hasn't already. He doesn't want to die again from embarrassment tonight.

“Yeah, I can go back some other time.” Midoriya makes a weird face that cracks into a yawn. “I'm kinda tired.”

“So am I,” Yaoyorozu agrees, “We should head back, it is a school night after all.”

“Right.” Shouto nods, finishing off the last of his milkshake before he stands up. The rest of them follow suit and in a few minutes, their table is clean and they're walking back to the train station.

The train is a lot less crowded than it was on the way here, and all four of them find seats right next to each other. Shouto can't say he misses the feeling of being squished up close to Midoriya like they were a few hours ago, but he also wishes he had an excuse like that again. Oh well. There are going to be more chances down the road.

“So next time, we’re all going to Hero Haven, right?” Jirou asks.

“Why are you so fixated on that?” Shouto mumbles.

“Because it's cheesy as hell.”

“Fair point.”

“Don't worry, Todoroki-kun, the phone case probably won't even be there by the time we go,” Midoriya says, an almost-genuine attempt at consolation that Shouto hates to admit doesn't work.

They fall silent after a while, and eventually, Midoriya’s head drops onto Shouto’s shoulder without any warning.

“Is this okay?” Midoriya whispers.

“Yeah,” Shouto whispers back, despite the panic rushing through his veins.

“I'm not going to fall asleep on you again, don't worry.”

“Okay.” Shouto doesn't say that he wouldn't exactly mind that.

When they get off the train, the conversation starts up again, now focused on school and asking Yaoyorozu for tips for their math quiz tomorrow. Shouto tries to pay attention, but he's a little distracted by Midoriya holding his hand and not letting go. Oh, well. If Midoriya isn’t making a big deal out of it, Shouto probably shouldn’t, either.

They get back to the 1-A common room with everyone else’s eyes on them, no doubt perfectly aware of why they weren’t inside doing their homework on a Wednesday night. Midoriya just gives Shouto a look and playfully rolls his eyes, like he has no idea what that does to Shouto’s heart rate. Who knows? Maybe he doesn’t.

“I’m going to head up,” Jirou says with a yawn. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Yaoyorozu smiles. “Sleep well!”

“You too, Mo.”

With one last hug, Jirou retreats toward the elevators, pulled into a conversation with Ashido on the way that she’s obviously trying to avoid before she disappears behind the sliding doors.

“I’m going to try and get some sleep, too,” Midoriya says, covering his mouth just in time to catch the yawn from Jirou. “Thanks, Shouto.”

Shouto’s thought process grinds to a halt. Did that just happen? Did he hear something wrong? What the hell?

“Midoriya-san, I think you broke him.” Yaoyorozu hides her laughter extremely poorly.

“Oh god, did I?” Midoriya’s cheeks turn bright red. Understandable.

“I’m-” Shouto actually squeaks , what is wrong with him? “I’m fine .”

“Too much?” Midoriya asks, voice small as he looks up at Shouto with a look of pure concern in his eyes that’s way too much for the moment.

“Maybe a little,” Shouto answers.

“Okay.” Midoriya nods with a tiny smile. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for that.” Shouto can feel the hint of a smile waiting at the corners of his mouth. “I’ll get used to it, just give me a few days.”

“I will.” Midoriya gives Shouto’s hand one last squeeze. “Night.”

“Night.”

Midoriya jogs off to tell Uraraka something on the couch, leaving Shouto, for all intents and purposes, alone with Yaoyorozu.

“How did you like it?” Yaoyorozu asks.

“It was good,” Shouto says, “You?”

“I really liked it.” Yaoyorozu smiles. “We have to do it again sometime.”

Shouto narrows his eyes. “And get me the stupid phone case?”

Yaoyorozu laughs. “That, too.” Her expression softens a little. “By the way, there was something I wanted to ask you.”

“And that is?”

“I was talking to Kirishima-san this morning,” Yaoyorozu says, “And he said he was having some trouble with what we’re doing in chemistry right now, so he was wondering if we could help him with it tomorrow.”

Shouto takes a few seconds to process what she’s saying, but it doesn’t take him much longer to realize exactly what she means, especially with the uncharacteristically smug smile on her face.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” he says.