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Evening sunlight glistens on the waves as they lazily lap the shore, and Shouto raises a hand to shield his eyes from the source, hanging low in the sky, as he watches the surface of the sea extend endlessly into the horizon. The way the sunlight catches the tops of the waves reminds him vaguely of his ice, and the small, glittering particles that don’t quite coalesce into the whole, instead settling on its surface or dancing in the surrounding air.
A gusty sea breeze throws his bangs across his eyes, red strands overlapping white, and he shifts his raised hand to brush them aside.
“Todoroki-kun, over here!”
Shouto turns to his companion, blinking at the freckled boy beaming and waving at him a few dozen yards further down the beach, before proceeding to join him.
“Why did you bring me here?” Shouto says. Knowing Midoriya, he planned this with a specific goal in mind… though sometimes the goal is simply ‘I wanted to,’ and that’s fine.
“I want to show you something,” Midoriya says, adjusting his backpack. When Shouto glances around at the beach, wondering if this is what Midoriya meant, he continues: “n-not just this! It’s… we have to walk to the end of the beach, down there.” Midoriya points down the stretch of sand, his eyes radiating that Midoriya brand of enthusiasm that makes it impossible for Shouto to refuse whatever he is proposing.
Shouto nods, and follows, watching his sneakers sink into the sand slightly with each step. Midoriya seems right at home, but Shouto can’t say he has much experience with sand… or beaches, for that matter. It’s not like his father ever allowed him to take a day out from his intensive training schedule to go play on the beach growing up, and even when he was finally granted the ability to spend almost all of his time out of his father’s suffocating reach, their activities at U.A. have taken up most of his spare time. Not that he would even think of coming to the beach alone in his spare time. He is slightly surprised that their classmates haven’t arranged a trip to the beach at the weekend, though - that seems like something groups of friends do, if what he’s seen of normal social interaction is any indication.
Then again, the weather isn’t exactly ideal yet, the chill oceanside winds of spring whipping his hair, a mass of steely gray clouds encroaching on the purple-blue evening sky overhead. Perhaps that trip will materialize over the summer.
A hand slips into his, breaking his silent contemplation, and he looks up to see Midoriya smiling at him with a smile that Shouto suspects is reserved solely for him: tender, warm, caring, and full of admiration, the tips of his eyebrows disappearing under curly green bangs. “Do you like it?”
Shouto feels his cheeks warm, the way they usually do when on the receiving end of that smile, and he averts his gaze back to the sand. “Like what?”
“The beach! I used to come here a lot… before the entrance exam, when I was training… it’s been a long time, though. It’s kinda far away, now that we live in the dorms…” Midoriya says, watching the horizon pensively.
“So you wanted to come back here, while we were visiting your mother,” Shouto guesses. That makes sense.
“Right! But… not just for me. I wanted to— well, you’ll see,” Midoriya says, smiling again.
“I never really had the opportunity to go to the beach,” Shouto muses, hoping it’s a satisfactory response to Midoriya’s initial question.
“Ah… well, I guess that makes sense,” Midoriya responds sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with the hand not currently winding its fingers between those on Shouto’s cold half. “It’s nicer in the summer, when it’s warmer, but… I bet everyone else will want to come then, too, and I wanted this to be something just with you, so…”
He trails off as they reach a sheltered area at the far end of the beach, releasing Shouto’s hand and jogging ahead. “Ah! Here it is!”
Shouto climbs the small set of steps, glancing around at what appears to be a picnic area as Midoriya removes his backpack, setting it on one of the concrete benches near a fire pit and beginning to rifle through its contents.
“We already ate,” Shouto says, puzzled.
“Right… but we didn’t have dessert!” Midoriya responds, holding up a bar of chocolate and what appears to be a small packet of marshmallows with a grin.
“We had to come here to have dessert?” Shouto takes a seat next to Midoriya anyway, curious.
“Yeah! A-at least, you’re supposed to have it outside, I think… that’s how All Might showed me, anyway,” Midoriya says, now extracting some kind of crackers, placing them with the other items as Shouto’s gaze tracks his hands. Since becoming involved as… more than just friends, his suspicions about Midoriya having some kind of special connection to All Might have been all but confirmed. He has also accepted that, for whatever reason, Midoriya does not wish to divulge much information on the subject, and that’s why he does not comment on remarks like the one Midoriya just made any more. If Midoriya cannot tell him any specifics, then Shouto will respect that boundary, and allow his boyfriend to use anecdotes involving his mentor without the fear of interrogation.
“Okay, now we have to toast them!” Midoriya continues, holding up two marshmallows on individual skewers with a grin, making a fist with his other hand.
“Isn’t it a little windy for a fire?” Shouto says, looking around at the sky as it continues to darken.
“Yeah, but we’re not making a fire! Here,” Midoriya reaches for Shouto’s left hand, moving it out in front of him and turning it palm-up. “We can use your Quirk!”
Shouto blinks with surprise. Technically, he is not permitted to use his Quirk in public except for hero work, but… looking around, he can see that the beach is deserted. It’s not like anyone will know.
“I know… I know you have bad memories of it. Your fire. So… I thought we could make some good memories,” Midoriya says, giving him an encouraging smile as he releases Shouto’s hand.
Shouto brings his gaze up to meet Midoriya’s, and smiles back, igniting a flame in his palm.
There was a time when smiling didn’t come easily to Todoroki Shouto, and until very recently, he believed it never would… but Midoriya Izuku, it seemed, had a habit of proving him wrong. Not only had he proved Shouto wrong about refusing to use his flames, but about his ability to scrape back together any semblance of a normal life, his ability to befriend his peers, his capacity to feel affection as deeply and unquestionably as that he feels for the boy furrowing his brow with concentration as he toasts marshmallows over the fire in Shouto’s left hand. As with just about everything he sets his mind to, Midoriya is clearly taking this very seriously.
Shouto contents himself with simply observing Midoriya as he methodically rotates the skewers above the fire, tilting his head to get a better look at his progress.
“You have to keep turning it, or it’ll burn or fall off,” Midoriya says as he works, before straightening back up to examine the first marshmallow, significant portions of its outside no longer white but golden-brown. “Perfect! Here, take one of these,” he continues, offering Shouto the crackers, and Shouto complies, pulling one out of the package.
“What do I do with this?”
“Put the chocolate on top first,” Midoriya says, holding out the bar.
Shouto glances at his left hand, the flame still flickering in his palm. “Do we still need this?”
Midoriya blinks down at it, then laughs. “No! No - s-sorry, that was just for- for the marshmallows, you can stop now,” he says, obtaining a cracker of his own, then snapping off a piece of chocolate of similar size. “See, you put the chocolate on top… and then…”
Shouto watches as Midoriya places one of the marshmallows on top of the chocolate, then follows it with another cracker, sandwiching the marshmallow and chocolate before pulling the skewer free. “There!”
“So it’s a… candy sandwich?” Shouto says, staring at Midoriya’s creation with curiosity.
Midoriya laughs again. “I guess it is! I forgot what it’s called, but… it’s something people do in the summer, in America. At least, that’s what All Might said. Whenever you make a camp fire, you make this, and… I know it’s not summer, but I was thinking of ways you could use your flames to do things that aren’t training, and - well, I thought about this, so… I hope it’s okay. I-it’s good, I promise!”
Shouto finishes assembling his own candy sandwich as Midoriya speaks, watching the marshmallow become less of a blob and more of a layer as he presses the top cracker into it. Glancing back up at Midoriya, he finds the other boy happily taking a large bite out of his creation, attempting to create as little mess as possible with mixed results as crumbs scatter across his legs and onto the ground.
Noticing Shouto watching him, Midoriya gives him an apologetic smile. “It’s kinda messy… but it’s so good! Try it!”
Shouto turns his attention back to his own sandwich, and takes a bite. The first thing that strikes him is that the crackers are sweet. He’s not sure why he was expecting them to be more savory or salty, but they are definitely sweet, and paired with the layer of melted sugar that was once a marshmallow, it’s almost overwhelming. His only relief from the, frankly, criminal levels of sweetness is the chocolate.
“It’s sweet,” he says simply, contemplating the remaining half of the item in his hands after finishing his first bite.
“Well, yeah! That’s the point!”
Shouto must be making a face, because Midoriya looks over at him - his own dessert now completely gone, Shouto notes - his face falling slightly. “You don’t like it?”
“I usually prefer something salty…” Shouto says, but takes another bite anyway.
“Salty…? I… I don’t think dessert is usually salty…” Midoriya says. “You don’t like dessert?”
Shouto thinks for a few moments as he finishes consuming what he assumes is his entire weekly quota of sugar. “…I like mochi.”
“Mochi? U-um… yeah, I don’t think we can make mochi like this… well, maybe next time, we can make something salty! Like a barbecue!” Midoriya says, fixing Shouto with a determined grin as his enthusiasm returns tenfold.
Shouto stares at him with disbelief. Using his Quirk for a barbecue… he almost wants to laugh, but all that happens is an amused, contented smile, and he closes his eyes, placing his palms on the bench behind him for support as he leans back slightly. “Yeah. Next time. I want yakiniku.”
There’s a short pause before Midoriya dissolves into laughter at his side, and Shouto’s smile lingers. He opens his eyes in time to catch the final rays of sunlight skimming across the horizon before disappearing beyond, leaving only a perfect line of orange-pink-purple below the blanket of clouds slowly inching its way out to sea.
Midoriya’s upper arm nudges against Shouto’s as the other boy shifts closer.
“I think I like it,” Shouto says.
“Like what?” Midoriya says, his head softly resting against Shouto’s shoulder.
“The beach.”
Midoriya smiles, watching the horizon. “Yeah. I like it, too. We’ll have to come back again! We can bring Uraraka-san and Iida-kun and have a barbecue.”
Shouto considers it, visualizing, for the first time in his life, the very real possibility of a day spent at the beach among friends. It’s so… normal. Pleasant. It doesn’t hurt that if his father knew he was wasting time using his Quirk to cook food for his classmates at the beach, he would probably burn whatever building he’s currently inside to the ground. “I’d like that.”
They sit in silence for several minutes, enjoying the sound of the waves and the occasional gust of wind sweeping across the sand, Midoriya slowly shifting closer to press the entirety of his left side against Shouto’s right. Shouto automatically increases his temperature, allowing his circulatory system to spread the warmth from his left side to his right, and earning him a sigh of relief - as expected - as the world continues to slowly darken around them.
Shouto always appreciates these moments: the quiet moments spent between himself and Midoriya, both perfectly content to sit in silent contemplation as the minutes stretch into quarter-hours, then half-hours… though, usually, the silence is punctuated by the scrawling of pen on paper as Midoriya frantically takes notes, or the turn of a page as one - or both - of them peruse a book for whichever class requires their attention that day. He’s surprised Midoriya hasn’t taken out his phone to scroll through hero news feeds yet, but maybe he wants to make the most of his time here, considering his lack of opportunities to return in recent months. It must be an important place to him, somehow. Shouto can understand that. After all, certain places hold a special significance in his heart, too.
Eventually, though, the moment is interrupted when the symphony of waves and wind is accompanied by the rumble of distant thunder.
Midoriya sits up, glancing around at the sky. “Ah… we should get back,” he says, getting to his feet and pulling on his backpack with a sheepish smile. “My mom - I know she’ll worry if we get caught in a storm, so…”
Shouto nods, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jacket, and follows Midoriya’s lead back to the street. After meeting Midoriya’s mother, Shouto can see where his boyfriend gets it… the nervous, persistent worrying, the irrepressible tides of emotion… but also the kindness. Despite Shouto’s obvious lack of experience in a situation even remotely resembling the one he had been placed into when they arrived at the Midoriya residence for dinner earlier, she was never anything but welcoming, generous, polite… but not the performative politeness of his own family around guests. This was warm, genuine, caring… and he felt more than a little ridiculous when he had no idea how to respond to it.
“Your mother… do you think…” Shouto tucks his chin behind the collar of his jacket, searching for the right words. “I wasn’t sure what to say, sometimes… I hope I didn’t come across as rude.”
“What?? No! It’s okay if you don’t talk a lot,” Midoriya responds, watching Shouto sympathetically. “If… if she looked worried, she was probably just worried you were uncomfortable… you should have heard her when I first told her,” he continues, letting out a laugh. “I think she cried for ten minutes…”
Shouto shoots Midoriya a look of alarm, eyes slightly wider than usual. “She was upset? Why?”
Midoriya meets his gaze, and immediately waves his arms in denial. “N-no, no! It’s not like that! It’s just… she gets really emotional about stuff like that. Like when I got into U.A., and the first day of class, and when we moved into the dorms… whenever something changes in my life, I guess. It’s not like I have any brothers or sisters, so… she cares a lot about what’s going on with me!” He laughs again, rubbing his neck. “A-anyway, when I told her that I had a- a, um—”
“Boyfriend,” Shouto offers. For some reason, Midoriya seems to have trouble saying it, usually ending up stuttering for far longer than is socially acceptable while seemingly all the blood in his body migrates to his face. Shouto doesn’t mind - in fact, it’s quite charming.
“R-right! A b-boyfriend -” Midoriya blushes bright red, right on cue “- w-well, it was all ‘my Izuku, starting to date!’ and ‘you’re growing up so fast!’ and ‘I’m so proud!’” he exclaims, gesturing wildly for emphasis. “A-anyway, then after that she started asking about you and how we… how we became friends, and how we started dating, and then she was asking when she could meet you, but I didn’t know if it was too soon, so I told her that, and…”
Shouto has no idea where this is going. “So… she was crying because she was proud of you,” he says, blinking at the street stretching out in front of them with fascination. He can’t imagine his father ever saying he’s proud of Shouto for getting a date… let alone crying over it. Even his mother… she only seemed to cry when…
“R-right… anyway, what I mean is, there’s no way she thought you were rude, so… don’t worry, okay?” Midoriya’s hand finds Shouto’s again, and Shouto lifts his head to give him a smile as heavy raindrops begin to pepper the sidewalk around their feet, mismatched eyes meeting greens and finding them tender, warm, caring… full of admiration.
Midoriya was right. He does have bad memories: not only of his fire, but the childhood that had any semblance of normalcy torn from it before it ever really began.
But maybe, now, with Midoriya at his side, he can start to tip the balance, one good memory - like this one - at a time.
“Okay.”