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Two minutes passed between the moment when the edge of the sun touched the horizon of distant buildings, and when it fully disappeared, hidden far to the west. The sky went from glorious reds and golds to understated purple and blue hues, and finally to a deep black. The night was clear and Todoroki could see stars beginning to dot the vast expanse. They were dulled by hundreds of artificial lights. They needed to take a vacation, he figured. Somewhere away from the city, where they could truly see the stars.
He was a professional hero now, so quiet moments like these were rare. And while he knew people ran around in their busy lives without a single thought for the sunset, the passage of time an unnoticed thing, sometimes it almost felt like the city itself held its breath as the blue sky turned to night.
“Here you are! I was wondering where you went, Shouto.”
Todoroki smiled as Iida’s arms wrapped around him. He leaned against the other man, feeling the press of firm chest against his back. After all they’d been through together, he trusted Iida to support him, even in this laughably mundane sense of the word.
“I was watching the sunset,” he replied.
“And now the stars are coming out.” Iida stared up at the sky. “Did you know, when I was a kid, I loved the stars? I learned the constellations and everything. For a little while, I wanted to be an astronaut.”
Todoroki glanced up to Iida’s face above him. “What happened to that?”
Iida shrugged. “I decided I wanted to be a hero instead.”
“Noble profession,” Todoroki replied in a teasing tone.
“Look!” Iida took one arm off Todoroki to point at the sky almost directly above. “That bright star? That’s Arcturus. It’s part of the constellation Bootes.” He adjusted his pointing finger north a tad. “And there’s the Big Dipper.”
Todoroki could see the cup-like shape.
“Now, if you imagine lines coming away from the handle of the Dipper, you can sort of trace Ursa Major—it’s a bit hard to see right now with the lights,” Iida admitted.
“Ah, Amenominakanushi,” Todoroki remembered.
Iida nodded. “Yes, according to the Shinto religion, the seven brightest stars there,” he traced them with his finger, “belong to the first kami. I’m surprised you know that.”
Todoroki was silent. His family wasn’t particularly religious, but he remembered liking the folklore when he was younger. Fuyumi would read him bedtime stories and he’d listen, imagination taking him on magical adventures.
“From Ursa Major, I guess you can’t really see Gemini with all the buildings, but that would have been over to the west. Ah, north! To the north of the Dipper section, you can still see Polaris, the north star, which is part of Ursa Minor.” His arm pointed up again, where they started. “Remember Arcturus? If you look south, that bright star is Spica, part of Virgo. West of Virgo is Leo—the brightest star there is Regulus. And,” he paused, eyes squinted at the sky, “it’s hard to see Hydra right now. Shame, I used to love that constellation.”
By this point, Todoroki could only guess which stars Iida was pointing at, but he enjoyed listening to the other man speak so passionately. He could listen to Iida speak for hours, it felt like.
“Sorry that I’m geeking out,” Iida apologized, returning his arm to its place around Todoroki. “I’m probably boring you.”
Todoroki shook his head. “Never.”
Chuckling, Iida commented, “you have a great amount of patience, then.”
Todoroki covered Iida’s hand with his. Iida jerked in surprise. “You’re cold! Come on, let’s go inside.”
Todoroki took one last look at the sky, stars twinkling dimly in its muted expanse. “Let’s take a trip,” he suggested. “Just a short one. Somewhere we can see the stars.”