Work Text:
1
Things were going great with Todoroki – Eijirou really felt like he was making progress. His classmate had very quickly gone from weekly sleepovers to daily hangouts, and, not to brag, but Eijirou was pretty sure the guy seemed happier. He wasn’t there full time – he still went home, if only to keep up appearances – and he would occasionally see his siblings, although Eijirou now knew the guy well enough to guess that those relationships were strained.
Eijirou did feel a little guilty though – he was definitely sacrificing time with his other friends to hang out with Todoroki, and it was clear it was hurting them.
“We haven’t had a bro hang out in ages, dude!” Kaminari was whining, and he was right, but Eijirou couldn’t just ditch Todoroki.
“I know, bro. And I promise we can do something this weekend, but I have plans tonight!” Kaminari huffed, pouting at his friend.
“You’ve always got plans with Todoroki. And, no offense to the guy, but I don’t really get it – you guys have never been close before. Why become friends now?” Sero asked, oddly serious. Eijirou, too aware of the promise he made Todoroki, instantly flailed for an explanation.
“It’s – me and Todoroki are… different,” he finally settled on, knowing it didn’t quite make sense, knowing it was rude to Todoroki to describe their friendship as different just because there were more alarming circumstances around it. But the way they became friends was definitely different from how he normally befriended people.
Kaminari and Sero shared an oddly intense look – like Eijirou had said something unexpected but also confirmed their suspicions, before both turning and nodding at him.
“Ok dude,” Kaminari said.
“Whatever makes you happy,” Sero added.
The conversation went back to normal after that – what they would do this weekend, why Yamada was evil for the English homework he’d assigned – and Eijirou put the conversation out of his head. It wasn’t that odd, after all. How was he supposed to know the ridiculous assumptions that would come from it.
2
Eijirou couldn’t tell whether or not he was imagining the odd looks directed his way. It wasn’t all the time, and it wasn’t from everybody, but he could swear whenever he talked to Todoroki, or arrived at school with him because the other boy had fallen asleep at his place on a school night, his classmates would look at him in a strange, considering way.
Except Bakugou. Bakugou always just looked angry.
“Why are you always showing up with Half-and-Half?” he asked one morning, seeming to finally snap out of his ‘I don’t give a fuck attitude’ and asking about the two.
“Hmm? Oh, sometimes he’ll crash at my place when it gets too late or he’s too tired to go home. No big deal,” Eijirou shrugged, watching in fascination as the pencil in Bakugou’s hand snapped in half.
“You never invite us to your place,” Bakugou muttered almost petulantly, and Eijirou forced himself to let out a carefree laugh.
“Well, you never ask,” he pointed out, hoping that Bakugou wouldn’t take that as his cue to ask, because he knew he had to tell his friends at some point that he lived with their teachers, but he wasn’t ready for that yet.
Luckily, Bakugou just grunted and stomped over to his seat. Eijirou rolled his eyes and then caught Todoroki’s, who held his gaze for a moment, pointedly looked at Bakugou, and then looked back at Eijirou. I can’t believe you’re into him, Eijirou knew he was saying, and Eijirou just managed to flip him off before Aizawa entered the room and began the lesson.
The first few lessons before break went by pretty quickly, but Eijirou was eager all the same to be let out for break. He wanted to talk to Todoroki about what he thought of Bakugou’s little show that morning, but the two tended to keep to their other friends during the school day. Which was still good, because Eijirou had to show his friends a YouTube clip that he found the night before.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Midoriya awkwardly rubbing the back of his head and shooing his friends off to lunch, and Eijirou had a feeling that it had something to do with him.
“Oi, let’s go,” Bakugou said when he noticed Eijirou stopped moving. Ignoring him, he caught Midoriya’s eye and pointed to himself. At Midoriya’s hesitant nod, he clapped Bakugou on the shoulder and told him to go ahead.
For a moment, Bakugou looked like he was going to argue, before aiming a vicious scowl at Midoriya and stomping off.
“Hey, dude,” Eijirou said enthusiastically when it was just the two of them left. “You need to talk to me?”
“Yeah. It’s, um… It’s about Todoroki.”
“Has something happened?” Eijirou asked instantly, straightening up and dropping his easy going façade. He could call Aizawa – his guardian would know what to do-
“No, no, no,” Midoriya was saying, shaking his head and waving his arms in front of him.
“Oh, ok. Sorry for freaking out there,” Eijirou said with a nervous laugh that Midoriya copied.
“I just – it was probably stupid anyway, I just wanted to thank you?” Midoriya said awkwardly while Kirishima frowned at him.
“Thank me? For what?”
“Todoroki just… he seems happier since you two started… yeah. And even though I, well,” Midoriya coughed awkwardly while Eijirou tried to figure out what was going on. “You know. I still appreciate what you’ve done. Todoroki deserves to be happy.” Midoriya seemed firmer now, straightening up and looking Eijirou in the eye.
“Well, we definitely agree there, dude. And sorry if, you know, I’ve been taking up all of Todoroki’s time – you guys are best friends. Just tell me if I need to back off,” Eijirou offered up, because he didn’t want to jeopardize Todoroki’s friendships.
“No, I… I understand. It’s different for you guys,” Midoriya said with a wobbly smile, and Eijirou agreed enthusiastically, because that’s what he said only a few weeks ago.
“I’ll let you get to lunch now,” Midoriya said, waving goodbye and then disappearing, leaving Eijirou to meander his way back to his friends.
He wasn’t quite sure what happened – Midoriya thanked him for being friends with Todoroki? – but he was pretty sure whatever it was Midoriya wasn’t completely happy about it. Maybe Eijirou was going to have to cut down on his time with Todoroki to make sure the guy was giving enough time to his other friends, especially since he was pretty sure Midoriya was just as into Todoroki as Todoroki was into him.
No matter. Eijirou would figure something out. Even if his line of thinking was in the complete wrong direction.
3
The growing coldness between them had nothing to do with Todoroki’s right side, and everything to do with Eijirou being unable to keep his mouth shut.
On one hand, Eijirou got where Todoroki was coming from – he had broken his promise, and Todoroki had a right to be mad. On the other, Todoroki didn’t have to deal with seeing a large, ugly bruise spread across his friend's ribs that he could’ve prevented.
It went like this:
“Pass me the crisps?” Eijirou asked, too lazy from his position on his bedroom floor to grab them. Todoroki stretched up, and maybe I was the shirt, or maybe Eijirou was just at a perfect angle, or maybe it was because the bruises were just that bad, but for a moment Eijirou saw – not everything, but enough.
“Holy-” he said, cutting himself off to lunge towards Todoroki and pull his classmate's shirt up, not caring that he had prompted Todoroki to spill the crisps he was holding everywhere. “Dude,” he whispered as he got a good look at the bruises and small burns spanning across his friend's ribs.
“Don’t,” Todoroki warned, yanking his shirt down. But Eijirou had already had the realization, had already thought to himself what the absolute fuck am I doing?
He had realized, after weeks of friendship and knowing Todoroki’s secret, that keeping his friends secret was nowhere near as important as keeping him safe.
So, he waited until Todoroki went home – much sooner than usual, but for once that was ok – and he sat Aizawa and Yamada down and told them.
He was almost petrified that his guardians would be disappointed in him, would yell at him for not telling them sooner, or that Aizawa would use his quiet, ‘I thought I taught you better than this’ voice. Instead, the two adults had shared a look, and he was pulled into a hug from Yamada while Aizawa rested a hand on his shoulder and promised to sort it out.
The next day, Aizawa asked Todoroki to stay behind during lunch, and Eijirou hadn’t been able to meet his eye as he scurried out of the classroom.
At the end of the day, Eijirou’s first opportunity to talk to Todoroki, Eijirou had barely been able to open his mouth before Todoroki spat out a, “Don’t talk to me.”
It was crushing.
It was also very public.
Those who weren’t there for their ‘fight’ were caught up quickly, and Eijirou was sick of the pitying looks and being asked if he was ok.
And that brings us back to now, Eijirou staring at Todoroki from across the cafeteria miserably while his friends had a conversation without him.
“What happened?” Mina asked, not for the first time, but for the first time with such an annoyed tone.
“Mina,” Sero scolded, but couldn’t help but look interested.
“You either need to figure out how to fix it, or get over it, because I’m sick of you moping,” Mina said, and she was right, but…
“I don’t know how to fix it,” He muttered, letting his head drop down onto where his arms were resting on the table.
“Who cares? It’s just Todoroki,” Bakugou said.
“I like Todoroki,” Eijirou snapped, and the table went quiet for a minute, before Bakugou glared at him.
“Yeah, I’ve been made very aware of that. So go and fucking apologise then,” he snapped back, before shoving his mouth full of food.
Eijirou went back to staring at Todoroki, who was very good at ignoring him, before deciding that he should get to be angry as well. And he wasn’t sorry, and he needed Todoroki to know that. So, instead of approaching Todoroki and making a scene like he knew his friend would hate, he pulled out his phone,
It wasn’t like he hadn’t tried this approach before, but this time he was determined to make it work.
From: Eijirou
To: Todoroki
Let me talk to you so I can explain
Eijirou watched across the cafeteria as Todoroki pulled out his phone, scowled, and then put it face down on the table.
From: Eijirou
To: Todoroki
Come on you have to at least let me explain
This time, Todoroki waited a few minutes before finally looking at his phone, this time not responding but not putting it back down.
From: Eijirou
To: Todoroki
I can see you reading these, you dick
No response.
From: Eijirou
To: Todoroki
Do you want me to make a scene?
From: Eijirou
To: Todoroki
I’ll make a scene right now if it’ll get you to talk to me
No response. Damnit. He didn’t want to make a scene.
“Damnit, move your food, would you? I have to climb on the table,” Eijirou said miserably, everybody but Bakugou complying without question, but even with Bakugou’s food there was enough room for Eijirou to hop up.
He was moments away from calling for everyone’s attention before he was yanked down by an angry Todoroki.
“You’ve made your point,” he hissed, dragging Eijirou out of the cafeteria and to an empty classroom. The two of them stood looking at each other for a moment, before Todoroki cocked up an eyebrow.
“You’re being unfair,” Eijirou blurted out, because yeah, he wanted to talk to Todoroki, but he hadn’t actually planned out what he was going to say. Todoroki made as if to leave and Eijirou had to fist his shirt to stop him. “Wait, fuck.”
“You promised me. We made a deal,” Todoroki said, voice quietly angry.
“I know. And I’m sorry – not for what I did, but that I ever made that promise. But dude, look. If… if I had to choose our friendship, or knowing that you’re safe… it was hard, but I’d pick you being safe a hundred times over,” Eijirou said, almost cringing over how mushy it sounded.
“I am safe. You don’t live with me, you don’t know what it’s like at home. It’s not your choice to decide whether I’m safe or not,” Todoroki argued, and Eijirou shrugged.
“Whatever you say, dude, but… If you had seen me, with the injuries that you had, would you keep it to yourself, just to keep a promise? If I had decided to keep… to keep the incident quiet, and you had been the only person who saw what happened to me, would you keep it a secret if I begged you to, if I told you that you didn’t understand, and I was actually safe at home? Because if you would… I’m not sure I could even call you a friend,” Eijirou said hoarsely, still not able to discuss the incident without getting a little choked up.
Todoroki said nothing for a moment, and then bowed his head.
“I would do anything to stop you getting hurt,” he said, not meeting Eijirou in the eye.
“I know you would, dude. That’s why you’re going to be such a good hero. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but I’m just sorry that it took me so long to tell Aizawa and Yamada what was going on. You went through more than you should have.”
“It was better, spending so much time with you,” Todoroki admitted quietly, and Eijirou grinned.
“So, friends again?” he asked hopefully, and Todoroki gave a jerky nod. “Aw, man, hug it out!”
Eijirou had slowly been introducing Todoroki to non-violent touches, and had been building up for weeks to give him the crushing hug he gave him when Todoroki sighed, rolled his eyes, and stepped towards Eijirou’s outstretched arms.
“We better get back to lunch,” Todoroki muttered after Eijirou had been hugging him for at least a minute. “I want to finish before it’s time for class.”
“Of course, dude.”
Eijirou had to deal with all sorts of comments when he got back to the table –mostly teasing and some that he didn’t really understand, but Eijirou was too happy to question them. He no longer had to keep any secrets from Aizawa, Todoroki was his friend again, and hopefully Todoroki would never have to see his father again if he didn’t want to.
4
Eijirou had no idea how the legal systems worked, and was, for the most part, being kept out of the investigation being done on Todoroki Enji, but he did know when his friend was upset. And, coming into class in the middle of the day, looking defeated and barely taking notes, Todoroki was clearly upset.
Unable to get the boy to meet his eye or check his phone, Eijirou had to resort to a desperate attempt – tugging Todoroki away from his classmates in the ten minute break between classes and shoving the two of them in what looked like a janitor’s closet.
“You ok, dude?” he asked needlessly, just able to steady himself when Todoroki basically collapsed onto him.
“We had to give our statements today. I hadn’t – me and my siblings never talk about it. It was just… difficult,” Todoroki muttered, and Eijirou brought his arms up to wrap around the other boy.
Much to Todoroki’s surprise (but definitely not to Eijirou’s, anyone could’ve seen it coming), Aizawa and Yamada had filed for temporary custody of Todoroki while the investigation into his father was underway, and it had only brought the two of them closer.
Eijirou didn’t have a brother, but he assumed that it felt almost like this.
“There’s going to be a lot of sucky days like this with all of this shit going on, but dude, you know it’ll be worth it in the end,” Eiirou said, even though he didn’t even know if that was true.
“Yeah, if they actually do anything about it,” Todoroki muttered darkly. “He’s the number one hero, and he’s being doing all this shit to his own family for years now without any suspicion from other heroes. If this gets out, there’s going to be outrage, and disbelief, and people are going to lose faith in heroes. Assuming they actually believe us, instead of thinking that we’re making stuff up to cause a fuss.”
“Even if nothing happens – even if this gets covered up and that shitbag remains a hero, at least you’re away from him now, and there’s no way Aizawa and Yamada – hell, or me – would let him take you back. So, if anything, you’re safe,” Eijirou muttered comfortingly, happy to feel Todoroki squeeze him once to confirm that at least some of what he was saying was comforting.
And then the door opened.
Now, Eijirou couldn’t explain why he did it – and he was sure Todoroki was in the same boat – but as soon as the door was yanked open he let out a little yelp and pulled away from Todoroki as fast as he could, as if guilty of something.
Mina was on the other side of the door – because of course it was Mina – along with a few of their classmates.
“I told you guys I saw them go in here,” Mina said smugly.
“You’re making us late for class,” Bakugou said, something odd in his voice.
“You didn’t have to follow us. We were busy,” Todoroki said, an expression on his face that Eijirou couldn’t quite place but was almost mischievous. Well, so long as he was feeling better. Bakugou turned away and marched off, not even glaring at Todoroki, which meant there was definitely something weird going on.
“Let’s go to class,” Eijirou said, vowing to get it out of Todoroki later.
5
Aizawa and Yamada’s apartments was by no means large. They weren’t planning on having kids, so two bedrooms seemed like more than enough when they got the place. Of course, not that meant that Eijirou and Todoroki were sharing a room.
It didn’t particularly bother the two of them. Sometimes they needed some privacy, but they each had their own friends that they went out with and it wasn’t like they were spending all of their time together, so they were pretty happy to share a room, at least until Aizawa and Yamada found a new place that would fit their new family a bit better.
It was just, sharing a room maybe made it so that they were a little too familiar. And while Todoroki was good with dealing with it – good with keeping how they were at home separate from how they would act at school – Eijirou just… wasn’t.
“Hey, Shouto, what did you get for question five?” Eijirou asked absentmindedly as the class worked silently. It was only when he didn’t get a response that he looked up, frowning and ready to repeat the question, to find the whole class staring at him.
It was an even longer moment before he realized what he had done wrong.
“To-Todoroki!” he corrected, far too late and doing nothing to dispel the immediate whispers. He pulled a face at Todoroki, who was giving him his (signature) ‘why are you like this’ look before rolling his eyes fondly.
“It’s 4.152 x 10-6,” he said, and suddenly the whole ‘first name incident’ wasn’t the biggest issue.
“Crap,” he muttered, erasing his answer and wishing that people would stop talking about him.
“This is meant to be a silent study session,” Aizawa called out after another minute of this, getting a chorus of “Yes, Aizawa-sensei,” in response.
Eijirou saw, just for a moment, Sero and Kaminari seemingly comforting a stiff-looking Bakugou, but figured he must’ve been mistaken and obviously they were trying to cajole him into helping them with their work.
+1
Eijirou would be the first to admit that his classmates were weird. But he had known them for so long that their brand of weirdness seemed normal, and so when they were acting extra weird, it was obvious.
Eijirou hadn’t been late to class that morning. He had almost been, thanks to Yamada’s hair emergency, but he got there on time, if later than everyone else. And thus the weirdness begun.
The class was almost deathly silent when Eijirou walked in, the only response to his chirpy greeting seeming to be sympathetic smiles and Midoriya looking so unbearably guilty that Eijirou could only assume that he’d killed someone’s dog. That was the first clue that something was wrong.
Eijirou had looked to Todoroki for an explanation, but the other boy just shook his head and looked away, looking defeated. Eijirou knew that that meant something had happened and he would explain later.
But the class seemed to take that head shake to mean something different, and there were many disgusted glares and huffed breaths in response. Bakugou even blew up the pencil he was holding, and wasn’t even scolded for it. Not even by Iida.
“Um… what’s going on, guys?’ he asked as he slid into his seat, but before anyone could say anything, Aizawa showed up and started class.
For some reason, his friends seemed to stick to him closer than usual, tugging him along and keeping him as far away from Todoroki as they could. Eijirou kind of expected Todoroki’s friends to be doing the same to him, but Todoroki seemed to have been ostracized from the class, and no matter what his friends wouldn’t let him near him.
“I don’t want to be the one to tell you,” Mina said, voice pained, when Eijirou asked again what was going on.
“Fucking IcyHot bastard,” Bakugou kept muttering and sending evil looks Todoroki’s way.
It all came to a head in combat training. They were paired off and had to fight against one another without using their quirks. He and Midoriya, having started a little later than everyone else because of how weird Midoriya was acting, were the last pair still going at one point, making everyone wander over and watch the fight, looking much more interested than they should.
Maybe it was because of how badly Midoriya seemed to be doing, unwilling to try and hurt Eijirou and only half-heartedly blocking his blows.
“What the hell are you doing?” Eijirou snapped eventually, sick of not being given a real challenge.
“I don’t want to hurt you any more!” Midoriya blurted out, before clamping a hand over his mouth, his eyes wide. Eijirou was done with this shit.
“Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?” He asked for the last time, exasperated.
“I think Todoroki should be the one to tell you that,” Kaminari said darkly, shockingly different from his usual self. There were muttered agreements, and Eijirou whirled around to where Todoroki was on the edge of the group. He blinked for a moment, surprised at being put in the spotlight, before shrugging.
“I asked Midoriya out,” he said monotonously.
“What? You bastard,” Eijirou accused, ignoring the muttered “here we go,” from one of his classmates, and the nervous expressions from others. “You said you would tell me before you did that!” His proclamation drew silence from the group.
“Wait, why does everyone hate you because you asked Midoriya out? And you looked sad. Did Midoriya say no?” Eijirou whirled around to a stunned looking Midoriya. “Dude, I thought you liked him back! Oh, man, this is all my fault, I convinced him to do it!”
Once again, there was silence. And then – “Wait, what?” Kaminari asked, prompting similar outbursts from the rest of the group.
“Why would you want Todoroki to date Midoriya?” Mina asked, and Eijirou just gave her a confused look.
“Because he’s my friend, and I think they’d be good together. Why is everyone being so weird?” Eijirou asked, looking at Todoroki just as he seemed to have a revelation.
“Oh. Oh. You guys think me and Kirishima are dating,” Todoroki said, and all Eijirou could do was laugh, because it was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard, except nobody was laughing with him.
“Wait. What the fuck? You guys actually thought we were dating?”
“You said your relationship was ‘different’,” Kaminari yelped in his defense.
“You practically confirmed it when you were talking to me,” Midoriya added, looking lost but a little hopeful.
“You had that lovers spat that made you go all mopey and pining,” Sero agreed.
“We found you together in a closet, looking guilty as fuck!” Mina exclaimed, looking beyond excited that Todoroki and Eijirou weren’t dating.
“You did call Todoroki by his first name, kero,” Tsuyu added, and, Eijirou supposed, when they didn’t know the truth of it, it did kind of make sense that they drew that conclusion. Even so, he wrinkled his nose.
“Gross,” he said emphatically, adding on a shudder just to see Todoroki’s eyes narrow in mock offense. “But it's sweet that you guys had my back!”
“Bakugou was minutes away from challenging Todoroki to a duel,” Mina declared excitedly, dodging as Bakugou tried to blast her.
“Aw, Blasty, you do care,” Eijirou cooed, laughing as he dodged away from Bakugou’s hands.
“Obviously,” the blonde snapped to Eijirou’s surprise. “Now are we going to get back to fighting or what?” he stomped off, leaving others to trail after him or partner up again, all of them surprised that Aizawa hadn’t put a stop to their conversation sooner.
Eijirou was happy to see People apologizing to Todoroki before they went off, him accepting them all with a nod. Todoroki waited until they were alone before sidling up to Eijirou and nodding at Bakugou. “You’re so in,” he muttered, happy to take an elbow to the stomach for it. “He’s been so jealous this whole time. He’ll say yes when you ask him out.”
“Oh my god,” Eijirou said, a stunning realisation slamming into him. “Oh my god, you knew!? You knew that they thought we were dating, and you… used it to try and get me a boyfriend. Damn, I guess I can’t be too mad.” Todoroki smirked and shook his head.
“I didn’t know that they all thought so, but I was pretty sure Bakugou had his suspicions. After he came to me and told me I better treat you right I knew.”
“Oh my god,” Eijirou repeated, feeling light headed. “If you weren’t about to be busy I would definitely grill you on that,” Eijirou muttered, nodding his head in Midoriya’s direction, their classmate hovering anxiously, obviously waiting to talk to Todoroki. “Have fun.”
“Go die,” Todoroki hissed, and then cautiously approached Midoriya. Eijirou watched them for a moment, both of their faces flush, before someone jammed their foot into the back of his knee and made it give away.
“Oi, Shitty Hair, are we going to fight or what?” Bakugou snapped, but if Eijirou wasn’t just reading into it, the other boy didn’t seem quite as moody as he’d been before.
“Of course, dude! And while we do it, you can tell me all about how you would’ve fought Todoroki in my honour.” It was definitely worth stumbling to avoid an attack to see the way Bakugou’s face flushed.
Things weren’t perfect – the Todoroki’s were still having a hard time dealing with their father, Aizawa and Yamada would have a hard time keeping custody of Todoroki, and it would take one incredibly stupid plan of Mina, Sero, and Kaminari’s for Bakugou and Eijirou to stop dancing around each other and finally get together – but things were good.