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Falling in love is a tricky thing, or at least, it must be. Shoto doesn’t really think he has any idea about it, but he also tends to have more important things to worry about, and doesn’t think that it matters if he has any idea or not.
He’s young, anyway, and he isn’t in any hurry to get to that point. The sort of people who hurry to find a relationship have ulterior motives, he thinks, and there would be nothing wrong with being alone forever, just as long as he knows that he isn’t pursuing someone with the wrong sort of motives. He’s still young, but he understands some things, things that others are often lucky enough to never have to understand.
Shoto doesn’t know anything about falling in love, and that’s alright. He barely knows anything about making friends, but that’s something he’s been learning, slowly but surely, now that he has the chance to be around people, unsupervised. Those feelings take him by surprise a lot at first, as he isn’t used to having anyone that he actually wants to be around, but his classmates, particularly Midoriya, Iida, and Yaoyorozu, break through to him.
It’s nice, it’s really nice, to be able to be around people and be himself, even if he’s still figuring out who, exactly, that is. Though he doesn’t allow himself much free time outside of school right now, there comes a time when he starts agreeing to make plans, but only practical ones. Such as, when he’s asked to join study groups, he makes an exception and tags along, even though he’s not so good at explaining things to others, and therefore isn’t able to help anyone with what they don’t understand.
“The answer is C,” he’ll say, and if someone asks why, he’ll start to try to explain it, only to realize they’re not getting anywhere, and someone, usually Iida, will interject.
The first time Yaoyorozu comes in to explain his explanation, she gives him an apologetic smile and says, “I didn’t mean to interrupt you, I’m sorry, Todoroki.”
“No, that’s fine, I wasn’t making much sense anyway,” he replies.
“I understood, though,” she says, and he gives her a half of a smile.
“Only because you already knew the answer, right?”
“I do think you made sense,” she insists, and he wants to ask her something, but he can’t think of how to phrase it, or even what he really wants to ask, and then, someone else asks another question and she goes to help them, and the moment has passed anyway.
~X~
She is the one to approach him next, inviting him to her house to study. Yaoyorozu doesn’t make eye contact as she asks him, and when he asks who all will be there, she jumps, before saying, “W-well, actually, I was getting to that part. I’ve only invited you so far, because I had some things I wanted to go over with just you. If you don’t want to, though, you don’t have to! Or, if you’d like to invite a few other people, that’s fine too…”
“No, that’s fine,” he answers, before he’s even thought about it. “What was it you wanted to go over?”
“It’s just...well, you said that you didn’t feel like you could explain things in a way that makes sense, but you usually have the right answer. I can understand what you’re trying to say, usually, so...if you’d like, I could help you with that!”
Shoto is surprised by the offer, but also touched. It’s not often that people show direct concern like that, and he can’t see any reason for her to want to help him like that. It’s strange, how involved she tries to be with others, but he admires it, just as he’s always admired a lot of things about her. Yaoyorozu really is special, he thinks, and he could never turn down an offer like that from her.
~X~
At first, he doesn’t think anything of being alone with her, and their first study session goes rather well, though he still isn’t so sure that he’s getting the hang of things. She is a dedicated teacher, however, and invites him to come over more often, and he agrees, allowing himself more free time than usual. Of course, once it gets out that he’s going to her house, there are comments made, and he’s teased by some of the guys about spending time, alone with a girl. A few even express nearly tearful jealousy at his luck, and Shoto really doesn’t know how to react to that.
Falling in love is tricky, and he doesn’t realize that he’s doing it, not at first. At first, all he knows is that he enjoys the time he spends with Yaoyorozu, and he feels strange whenever one of his classmates tells him how lucky he is, or how jealous they are. He doesn’t realize that this means that he likes her, or that he’s falling in love with her.
Really, he doesn’t even realize that he’s been spending all that much time with her, until his mother comments that he’s been busy lately, though when he tries to apologize, she just tells him that she’s glad he’s making friends, and that’s the end of that. He thinks about telling her about Yaoyorozu but, for whatever reason, he feels embarrassed and doesn’t bring it up.
~X~
For all her help, he still doesn’t feel confident in his ability to teach, and when she apologizes for not helping, he assures her, “It’s not you, trust me. You’ve been great, I just don’t know if teaching can be taught.”
“If you want to give up, we can,” she says, somewhat sadly. “But I won’t give up until you’re ready! I just understand if you don’t want to keep trying…”
He feels guilty, seeing her sad, and says, “Well, we haven’t studied with a larger group in a while, so who knows? I don’t think we can really know when it’s just the two of us.” Even as he says it, he thinks about how he’s starting to prefer it with just the two of them.
“I’ll keep trying my best!” she says, and she says it with that earnest, determined expression that he likes so much, and he feels like his chest is being squeezed. It’s the first time in his entire life that he’s felt compelled to kiss somebody.
That thought takes him entirely by surprise. Falling in love is tricky, and he has no idea how it feels or how it’s supposed to go, nor did he know, before this exact moment, what it felt like to want to kiss someone. But right now, he wants to kiss Yaoyorozu, and right now, he’s starting to understand that he likes her.
Shoto doesn’t kiss her, or tell her how he feels, or do anything differently, and it’s almost as if nothing has changed. Perhaps nothing really has changed, since he’s sure this must have been going on for longer, and he’s just been oblivious. All he does is smile at her and say, “Alright, let’s get back to work.”
It’s the first time that he realizes that he wants to kiss her, but it’s not the last time he feels that desire, and, though falling love may be a tricky thing, he isn’t able to stop himself from falling in love with Yaoyorozu.