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It was stupid, really.
Sero looked at the small trinket that was haphazardly wrapped and placed carefully in a bag. (Honestly, for a guy who has tape elbows, you’d think he’d be better at wrapping gifts, but that— Sero would tell you—is not the case.) Sero had picked it up at a small soba shop when he had been on vacation with his parents in Sapporo.
“This is so stupid…” Sero mumbled to himself. Still, a Birthday present was better than no Birthday present at all… right? “Aw hell, this is going to be so awkward.”
Sero berated himself and sighed heavily as he summoned up all of his courage just to raise his hand. Sero cringed at the timid wrapping his two knuckles were able to make against Todoroki’s door.
Sero jumped when Todoroki opened the door, which only made him feel even more foolish.
“Gah! I-I mean, hey Roki, um, how was your Birthday? I mean your break! I mean, how was your um Birthday while we were on break?”
Todoroki smiled softly, “Hi Sero, thanks for asking, it um. My break was fine—boring but fine—which is better than usual, so there’s that, I suppose.” Todoroki shrugged. It wasn’t a lie. His break was pretty dull, and that was nice. Boring meant that Todoroki Enji hadn’t been around much.
“Oh yeah? What um didja get up to? On um, your Birthday, I mean—that had to not be boring, right?” Sero wanted to die. There had to be a better way of talking to Todoroki than this.
“Oh, my Birthday was actually really nice. I was able to visit my Mom with Natsuo and Fuyumi. After seeing my Mom, we spent the whole rest of the day together, just us three. That was nice. We got some soba with boba.” Todoroki grinned—actually grinned—and not just that but blushed too, and Sero felt like he was going to drop dead on sight because of how beautiful Todoroki looked. Sero was hopeless—well, at least the birthday gift might actually go well.
“Sorry,” Todoroki offered, “I bet that sounds really juvenile, but it was a tradition of ours for a while. Mom used to take us specifically on our Birthdays. It was one of the few times we got to spend all together… soba with boba.”
“No, not at all! That sounds really nice, I’m glad you had a great birthday, and the rest of break was okay?”
Todoroki’s face fell a little—he didn’t look sullen, but Sero still felt guilty for asking.
“The rest of the break was fine,” Todoroki shrugged, “I primarily did homework, Endeav—my father was away on missions for most of the time, but when he was around, I had to train with him.”
Sero rubbed the back of his neck. He wasn’t exactly sure what the deal was between Todoroki and his dad, but Sero could guess it wasn’t exactly a smooth relationship. Actually, it kind of seemed like it was a little too rough. Sero hoped his suspicions were wrong, but the more he got to know his next-door neighbor, the more he feared that his suspicions were correct. There were days Sero wanted to ask, but he didn’t. It was up to Todoroki if he wanted to tell Sero about his home life—it didn’t seem right for Sero to pry, so he didn’t.
“Aw man, I’m sorry, but um, I’m glad you had a great sounding birthday, and um… I have um a thing for um you.”
Todoroki’s eyes wandered to the small bad that Sero had been carrying. Sero wondered if this was really a decent enough gift for Todoroki, and about of million doubts flooded his mind, but well, it was too late now. Sero took a breath before continuing, “I saw it when I was up in Sapporo—you know, with my parents? Anyway, I saw it and remembered it was your Birthday over break, so I got it for you. Sorry, it’s a little late, but Happy Birthday, Roki.”
Todoroki was stunned. Sero got him something—Sero thought of him? That was nice—very unexpected—and very nice. “Oh, thank you, Sero.” Todoroki took the bag carefully, “Can I open it now?”
Sero blushed and nodded, unable to trust his voice.
Todoroki was one of those people who unwrapped gifts carefully, which was almost funny to watch because of the not so great wrapping job Sero was able to piece together, and well considering how small the gift was, it seemed like it would have just made more sense just to rip the paper off. When Todoroki finally unwrapped it, he saw a small double-sided cell phone charm with a cute cartoon-ish calico cat with a soba bowl in its paws.
Todoroki didn’t just smile. He grinned. How did Sero know he liked cats? “Thank you, Sero.”
“H-Heh yeah no, I just… I saw it and immediately thought of you, and so uh yeah, I hope you like it.”
“I really do.”
“Well um, I’m um, I’m glad h-heh.”
They smiled at each other with their cheeks tinged pink. Todoroki was about to ask Sero if he wanted to come inside his room, but Iida came up and told them it was lights out. They both went into their respective rooms.
Sero flopped down face-first onto his bed, groaning and promptly drifting off to sleep due to coming down off of his high energy panic mode. All of that stress, due to a silly little charm, the whole thing felt so ridiculous. Still, he was really happy Todoroki liked it.
Todoroki went to bed as well, but not before Todoroki attached the charm to his phone. He smiled as he set the small device down. He had had enough. Sero’s gift gave him all the courage he needed to ask Sero out the following morning.
The next day just about everyone asked where and/or who Todoroki had gotten the charm from, and Sero couldn’t help but flush when Todoroki hadn’t paused at telling everyone the charm’s source, but he became an outright mess when Todoroki asked.
“Sero? I meant to ask last night before lights out… can I take you out sometime?”
Sero nodded, thinking maybe that birthday gift wasn’t so stupid after all.