Chapter Text
Shoto once again looked over at Midoriya out of the corner of his eye. His classmate was writing notes down in one of his notebooks and didn't notice the blue eye and gray eye looking at him.
Since the sports festival, so many things had happened. Shoto had gone to visit his mother for the first time in a decade, and now visited her at every opportunity. Endeavor now looked at him with a smug, cocky grin, like he was reveling in the fact that his son now used his left side. Training was different now: Shoto now took time to develop both his fire and his ice quirks.
And of course, there was Midoriya and his feelings toward his green-haired friend and classmate. What Shoto had said to All Might during the awards ceremony was true in more ways than one. "I'm starting to understand why you're so interested in him." Not only was Midoriya a good person, and powerful, and driven to become a hero, but he also never let anyone get to him, not even Bakugou, who often yelled at and insulted his childhood friend.
Shoto wanted to be like that. He admired Midoriya for it. He wanted to be able to look at his scumbag of a father and be absolutely certain that whatever words came out of his mouth wouldn't bother him the way they usually did. But even now, just the mention of Endeavor was enough to set him off.
"Remember to study and prepare for the test coming up. Class is dismissed." Mr. Aizawa picked up his yellow sleeping bag and left the room, probably planning to take a nap. Shoto packed up his books and picked up his bag, ready to go to lunch, when a few of his classmates walked to his desk.
"Hi, Todoroki!" Uraraka waved and smiled, cheerful as always. Iida only nodded, smiling. Shoto smiled and greeted the two of them, finally turning to focus on Midoriya, who was standing the closest to him.
Midoriya smiled warmly at him and asked, "Are you eating lunch with us again, Todoroki?"
The three of them were probably the closest people to him out of everyone in class 1-A. Shoto was still considered mysterious and aloof to everyone else. "Of course. I was planning on it." Midoriya smiled wider this time, eagerly nodding. It was adorable, to say the least.
"We'll save you a seat, then!" Iida said, a little loudly. "I look forward to eating with you." Shoto nodded and smiled at the class rep, and he walked out of the room followed by Uraraka.
"You can go with them, Midoriya," Shoto said to the only person left at his desk. Midoriya looked like he was waiting for Shoto to head out, like he wanted to walk to lunch with him. "I don't mind."
"No, it's okay, really. I don't want you to be the last one to leave." Midoriya's face was slightly red as he said this, making him look a little like a tomato.
"Thank you. I'm just about ready to go anyway." Shoto stood up, pushing in his chair. Midoriya moved out of the way a bit to give him some space.
The two didn't talk much on the way to lunch, the silence between them comfortable. Shoto allowed himself to get a side view of Midoriya as they walked. His green eyes, the same color as his hair, were happy, the faint pink blush on his face making him look a little flustered or excitedly nervous. Midoriya's green hair was just out of the way of his eyes, nearly falling over them. Shoto suddenly stopped staring as some students from class 1-B walked by, looking interested in his shoes or the floor. "I thought we were the last ones to leave class," Midoriya thought out loud after they passed.
"Perhaps Aizawa allowed us to leave early." It wasn't out of the ordinary for their lazy, sleep-deprived teacher to cut class off by a minute or two.
"Maybe," Midoriya said, shrugging. He turned to face Shoto. He suddenly changed the subject, asking, "How's training? Any control over your left side yet?"
"I haven't seen much improvement yet, though I'm sure I'm getting better." Shoto smiled gratefully at Midoriya, happy his crush was asking about something like this. Then again, maybe Midoriya asked everyone about their quirk training. Or he was genuinely interested in Shoto, but Shoto wasn't about to jump to conclusions.
"That's normal. Some pro heroes took a long time to really develop their power and stuff. Not that you're going to be that way, but-" Midoriya trailed off, blushing bright red this time and avoiding meeting Shoto's eyes.
"I understand you didn't mean it that way. You're fine." Shoto put his right hand on Midoriya's shoulder, hoping to calm him down. Midoriya jumped a little, and Shoto was quick to pull his hand away. "Apologies. It looks like I did something wrong."
"Oh, no, it's just...." Midoriya laughed nervously. "You just startled me. And your hand's cold." Of course. Shoto had used his ice quirk hand, which seemed to always be freezing cold.
"I wasn't aware of it at the moment. I'm sorry." The cafeteria, when they arrived, was crowded with students talking and laughing. True to his word, Iida had two empty seats right next to each other at the table he was sitting at with Uraraka, Asui, and Hagakure. He waved them over while still sitting down, Uraraka standing up and calling out to them.
"Hey, guys! Over here!" she called, and while Midoriya and Shoto took the two seats, Iida was already scolding her.
"You should not be speaking at such a high level, Uraraka. It's not fitting of a school such as UA." Uraraka just sighed, already used to her friend's behavior, while Hagakure and Asui just ate their lunch.
"So this test," Midoriya started to say, looking at Shoto, "do you think you're ready? I'm not too worried about it." Shoto admired that about Midoriya: his tendency to prepare and study for any test or quiz coming up.
"I'll likely have to study more, but right now I feel like I'll be fine." It was the truth too. Endeavor hadn't only been strict about training his young son, but he'd also been strict about making sure all his children passed their exams for school and studied hard.
"That's good to hear! I'm sure you'll do well." Iida smiled approvingly at Shoto, somewhat reminiscent of a proud parent. Asui backed up her friend's statement with a 'ribbit.'
"I bet everyone's planning to study with Momo," Uraraka said.
"Maybe not Kacchan or Kirishima though," Midoriya pointed out. Bakugo was the one solely responsible for forcing his red-haired classmate to memorize everything necessary, by any means.
"You're right about that, ribbit." Asui smiled, amused. "I'm surprised Kirishima puts up with it."
"He is one of the few people Kacchan calls a friend," Midoriya reasoned. "And I'm sure Kacchan means well."
"Wow Deku, you really can't hate Bakugo, huh?" Uraraka smiled and laughed.
"Not really, I mean, he's really trying to become a hero! And he's really powerful, you know?" Midoriya smiled. How Midoriya could say that completely honestly was beyond Shoto. Bakugo's and Midoriya's relationship was a one-sided rivalry, the explosive blonde taking every chance to put Midoriya down. But his green-haired crush still spoke about him with an obvious admiration.
"Yeah, you're right about that," Uraraka admitted.
"Todoroki? I was just thinking...." Midoriya began to say, face still slight red and getting redder every minute or so. "If you ever want to study at all, you can study with me! I won't mind!" Midoriya looked around, amending, "You guys can, too!"
"I appreciate the offer, but I study best on my own." Iida smiled apologetically, Midoriya waving it off.
"I might join Yao-momo and the others!" Hagakure said, turning towards where Yaoyorozu was already surrounded by Kaminari, Ashido, Sero, and Jiro. Momo looked thrilled at the idea of tutoring her classmates.
"That's okay! Yaoyorozu's a good teacher," Midoriya admitted. Hagakure probably nodded in agreement, but it was hard to tell.
"I'll take you up on the offer," Shoto said, not regretting a word, and feeling even better about saying it when Midoriya brightened and eagerly nodded, obviously happy.
"Okay, good! I mean, cool! So, uh, when do you want to study?" Midoriya asked, clearly flustered.
"I'm going to visit my mother at the hospital tomorrow, but I can probably find you when I come back." Shoto often spent a good part of the weekend visiting his mother, who always was so happy to see him come through her door.
"I get it! I can wait for you." Midoriya smiled. "How is your mom, anyway?"
"She's doing well. I wish I'd gone to see her sooner. I missed her when she was put in the hospital. My father looked down on the idea." Uraraka and Asui looked curiously at Shoto, but were scolded by Iida for attempted eavesdropping.
"I'm sorry I brought up so many memories of her at the festival," Midoriya suddenly apologized. "I just wanted to help you out with your fire." He looked down at the floor, embarrassed.
"You did a good thing." Shoto used his warm hand to lightly grip Midoriya's arm. "I should have gone to her sooner."
Shoto and Midoriya were facing each other now, turned in their seats. They'd seemingly gotten closer together during their conversation, and Shoto could only imagine what he and Midoriya looked like to someone watching them.
"So we'll study tomorrow then?" Midoriya perked up, his whole body perking up along with his facial expression. The motion caused Shoto's hand to slide down his crush's arm and get close to his scarred hand, which had happened during the sports festival courtesy of Shoto's ice attacks.
The two stared at their almost-connected hands, Shoto feeling like he was somewhat in a trance and Midoriya was the only thing that mattered in the world.
"Yes, we will." Green eyes met heterochromatic blue and gray, and if Shoto wasn't under some spell before, he definitely was now.
Green was Shoto's new favorite color.
"Okay! I can't wait!" Midoriya said cheerfully, looking a little disappointed when they separated and went back to normal at their table. Iida, Uraraka, Asui and Hagakure all remained quiet, looking very interested in their food and not looking at Shoto and Midoriya.
Shoto blushed faint pink and busied himself with looking at something and nothing in the distance at the same time. He was going to study with Midoriya, just the two of them. Alone.
He hoped he would be able to act natural when they did.