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The first time Izuku realized that Todoroki had a slight indifference to spending money was when they were out on a da- evening excursion at a restaurant out in the town.
The place itself was cozy and inviting as the scents of freshly prepared food wafted through the air and the shaded lights casted a warm glow around the main dining room. Quiet conversation bubbled around them as they enjoyed their respective meals and each other’s company.
Izuku chewed through his katsudon slowly, eyes drifting around the room, but they continuously stopped and lingered on his friend who sat across from him.
Seeing Todoroki in any other clothing besides the school uniform was already a bit of a change for Izuku, but Todoroki wearing a nice dressy-casual outfit had Izuku sweating in his own rather plain clothes. The outfit itself wasn’t anything truly special, but Izuku found himself charmed by the simple yet stylish dark blue jacket Todoroki had on that opened to a pale gray v-neck.
Todoroki looked up from his cold soba and met Izuku’s gaze. He cocked an eyebrow inquisitively and Izuku nearly choked on his mouthful of pork as he quickly tried to look away, heat rushing to his cheeks.
“Are you enjoying your food?” Todoroki spoke up, breaking the silence that had settled between them since the food arrived. Izuku looked back at him, swallowing his food and nodding his head at the same time.
“Yeah, it’s really good! How about you, Todoroki-kun?” Izuku asked, thankful that his cheeks did not feel as hot as they had been before.
“It’s good too,” Todoroki responded simply, and Izuku nodded.
“That’s good.”
The conversation drifted off there, and though it should have been awkward, it wasn’t, and they finished the rest of their meal in peace. Todoroki wasn’t one for long conversations, and Izuku was content to enjoy some quiet with the other boy seated across from him.
When the lady came around to check on them after they had finished eating, Izuku began to ask for their separate checks before Todoroki cut him off.
“One check please,” he said smoothly, looking up at the waitress nonchalantly. Izuku was drawn aback, and he sputtered to try and correct the waitress as well as Todoroki. However, the lady was already gone, and Izuku turned his flabbergasted gaze on his friend.
“Todoroki-kun, are you sure? I could’ve paid for my meal myself,” Izuku said, but Todoroki simply shrugged as he slid his wallet out of his jeans and pulled out a credit card.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it, Midoriya,” he said as he waited for the lady to come back.
“I wouldn’t worry about it so much, but neither of us have jobs yet and I think our meals together would have been a lot even though this place has relatively cheap meals. And on top of that this is our first dinner together and I don’t want you to pay for me, not to say that it isn’t welcome, but I still would rather I pay for myself, especially if we start making this habit, but uh we don’t have to make this a habit if you don’t want to, I just don’t want you to -”
Todoroki chuckled softly, and Izuku stopped in his tracks to blatantly stare at Todoroki as he did so. It wasn’t that Todoroki laughing was a complete obscurity any more, although, Izuku felt a thrill every time he was able to get one out of him when it was just the two of them since he did not laugh often in the company of others. No, Izuku stopped talking in favor of staring mostly because his stomach fluttered at the sight of Todoroki bathed in a warm light, his face soft and open without the usual stoicness he adopts when they are normally out in public. His eyes crinkled at the corners and Izuku swore he could see the slight dip of a dimple on his right cheek.
His laughter, though quiet, seemed to drown out all other sounds around them, and Izuku was utterly stricken. Transfixed, he watched Todoroki as he slowly stopped laughing at him and instead smiled. He said something, but it went deaf on Izuku who was utterly entranced. Todoroki turned his head to talk to the waitress who had appeared, but still, Izuku was only left staring with his heart hammering in his chest and a heat spreading across his cheeks so wildly untamed, Izuku was sure his face would burn completely off.
Izuku was finally brought into reality as his eyes glanced down at Todoroki’s hands and saw that he had already paid for the bill. Astonished, he stared open-mouthed for a moment as the burning in his cheeks slowly subsided. Then, he sighed, and the noise caused Todoroki to glance up at him briefly.
“Ah, Todoroki-kun, just please let me pay next time, okay?” Izuku said with a small smile. He was too distracted from before to stop him from paying the tab for the both of them...curse his weak heart!
Todoroki stared for a second, then his the corner of his lips quirked up into a small smile and he nodded.
“Okay, Midoriya.”
They grabbed the little stuff the brought with them and left the restaurant, stepping into the cool evening air. As they walked back to the train station to head back to the dorms, Izuku filled the air with companionable chatter and they walked close enough to where they continuously bumped into each other.
Each time sent a little thrill through Izuku, and he hoped he could say that the cold in the air was what was causing the heat in his cheeks. The trip back and for the rest of the week, Izuku momentarily forgot their promise about paying for the food.
But as Izuku would see the next weekend, Todoroki did not, in fact, intend on allowing Izuku to pay the bill ever.
The two started to make a habit of going out into town to eat dinner every week or so. They were well into their second years at U.A. and the league of villains had calmed down the tiniest bit which was worrisome in and of itself, but the momentary peace was tentatively welcome for the school to let the students have breaks to visit places off campus.
However, that was not the current problem at hand.
The problem at hand was that Izuku had not had a single chance to pay for both of their dinners since they started this weekly tradition. Todoroki would just swoop in and take the bill before looking innocently at Izuku when he protested. He would slip out the same credit card while he nodded along and lead Izuku astray while the waiter or waitress took away the check. After he had signed the bill he would agree to let Izuku pay the next dinner bill.
And then the cycle began anew.
Izuku had come to point of begrudgingly accepting Todoroki’s gifts of free food every week.
However, it was one thing to spend extra money on food for Izuku, and a whole other beast to buy some nonsensical item for the hell of it.
They, and a few other classmates, were out at the mall shopping around. It was a rather small group of them this time, consisting of Tsuyu, Uraraka, Kirishima, and Mina. The six of them had a list of things they wanted to check out, but they were in no rush to go get everything, so as a group, they walked around the shopping center and entered any store of interest.
They all chatted amongst themselves, mostly in pairs, and Izuku was mostly talking to Todoroki about something or another related to heroes. Todoroki did not contribute much as per usual, but he did put in his two cents here and there to show that he was listening, which please Izuku to have Todoroki’s attention.
Their conversation was halted when Mina suddenly exclaimed, “Holy fuck what if we just got a huge bounce house for the dorms?” and she pointed toward a store selling party items that advertised such a huge inflatable.
“Bro, that would be awesome we should totally get one!” Kirishima explained, “We could just split the cost!” The group’s stroll through the mall was abruptly halted, and the two pulled the rest of the group with them toward the party store.
“I mean, we could, I just don’t think the school would allow us to set it up,” Tsuyu responded thoughtfully, a finger placed on her chin while she mused and Mina and Kirishima yelled excitedly as they neared the store.
“Yeah, but it would be a lot of fun and really funny, wouldn’t it?” Uraraka said cheerfully.
“True,” Tsuyu nodded.
“Okay, but we probably couldn’t afford it and we could get in to a lot of trouble if we set it up without permission,” Izuku said exasperated, looking to Todoroki for help who only shrugged when they met eyes.
“Let’s just go check it out,” Todoroki said and Izuku sighed as the rest of the group cheered.
When they entered the store, Mina and Kirishima made a beeline for where the inflatables were kept, leaving everyone else to follow behind at a much more leisurely pace.
“Ah fuck, that’s a lot of money,” Kirishima whined, and when the rest of the group got closer, he pointed to the price tag slapped onto one of the boxes containing a rather cool looking bounce-house that also had a slide attached to it. “52,710 for the only one they have left.”
“That much? Split between the 6 of us is way too much for any of us to afford,” Tsuyu said.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have had much to contribute to begin with, let alone for something that cost that much,” Uraraka said morosely.
As the group despaired over what could have been, Izuku chuckled softly and a little fondly, glad that they actually couldn’t go through with it. Because from the way it sounded, besides the price being a deterrent, there was a worrying large consensus among the group that they wanted to get the bounce house for real.
He turned to Todoroki to speak before he was interrupted by the boy himself, “I can pay for it.”
The group is silent for all of a second before the group, sans Tsuyu and Izuku, were yelling all at once.
“Todoroki-kun are you serious? Are you sure? Isn’t that a lot of money?” Uraraka fired off several questions at once, eyes bugging out of their sockets. Izuku was completely floored with Todoroki’s extravagant use of his money, shocked into utter silence as the conversation ran away from him.
“Yeah, it’s no problem,” Todoroki said nonchalantly with a shrug. “Let’s just get it now and pick it up later, I wanted to check out another store first.”
“No bro, back it up a sec. Are you a hundred percent sure you’re fine with getting it? I mean, we did really wanna get it, but you don’t have to pay for it all by yourself if you don’t want to or definitely if you can’t,” Kirishima said, hands held up and his face held concern for Todoroki who was about to waste a lot of money on something super radical.
“Yeah, it’s fine,” Todoroki repeated, and he glanced at the box once more before he started walking back to the front of the store to pay for it. While everyone else was dancing around the boxes and talking about all the different things they would do with it - as well as how loaded Todoroki was to be able to do this - Izuku finally shook himself out of his shock and took off after Todoroki, protests spilling out of his mouth.
He caught up to Todoroki who was picking through a glasses rack and trying on different shades near the check out line.
“Todoroki-kun don’t pay for the bounce house, the others will understand if you don’t want to do it,” Izuku said hurriedly, watching Todoroki put back barred glasses in favor of a hot pink, heart-shaped pair.
“No, it’s fine,” Todoroki said and he glanced over at Izuku over the frames of the glasses. “Seriously, Midoriya, it’s fine. I don’t mind.”
“But you’ve already been spending a lot of money though. Besides this, you still haven’t let me pay for dinner yet either, don’t think that I haven’t noticed that, Todoroki-kun,” Izuku said indignantly. Todoroki’s lips twitched and he glanced at the little mirror attached to the glasses stand.
“I didn’t think that you hadn’t noticed. But I wasn’t ever going to let you pay for dinner,” Todoroki said simply, and as he spoke, he took off the glasses he had on and traded them for ones with star-shaped frames. He looked in the mirror once again before continuing, “I like buying you things, and if the rest of the class will have fun with this, I don’t see what’s wrong with it.”
Izuku blushed, before he tried, “I highly doubt that.”
Todoroki pushed the glasses up to rest on top of his head before he turned to Izuku.
“What part? The one where I said I like buying things for you?”
Izuku nodded, before he said, “No one else has ever given me this much, so there’s no reason for you to.”
Todoroki’s face softened at this and he stepped closer to Izuku. He hesitantly reached for Izuku’s hand, giving the boy enough time to pull his hand away if he didn’t want it to be held. Upon realizing this, Izuku’s face burned intensely, but allowed for his hand to be held anyways. He faintly realized that Todoroki’s hand was very warm, and it was his left hand that held his.
“I like taking care of you, Midoriya. I like knowing that I am helping you, even if it’s in a small way like paying for food. If I did mind, I wouldn’t do it at all. So don’t worry about it, okay?” Todoroki spoke softly.
Izuku was quiet, the small admission finally hitting him before he’s blushing and throwing his free hand out and waving it around, causing Todoroki’s lips to lift into a smile and for a small laugh to escape his lips. Seeing this, Izuku’s blush worsened and he sighed, finally resigned to his fate of death by Todoroki’s smiles and laughter.
“Okay, fine. But what about Endeavor? I highly doubt he likes you spending this much money, even if it’s your own,” Izuku took one last stab at a way to talk him out of it.
Todoroki gently dropped his hand and took out his credit card out of his pocket. He waved it around carelessly and responded, “Oh it’s not my money. He’s been too busy to check his bank account, so I stole his credit card a while ago.”
And with that, Todoroki flipped down his star-shades, gave a little shrug, and walked up the counter, leaving Izuku behind near the glasses rack.
“Holy fuck,” Izuku whispered, before tearing off after him and commending him on giving Endeavor the metaphorical middle finger.