Work Text:
Trial and error , Todoroki reminds himself, huffing in frustration as he still can’t seem to regress, even while Bakugou is cuddling him and they’re watching a kid’s show, which had worked previously, and multiple times.
“Let’s try something else.” Bakugou says, seeming to notice how frustrated Todoroki is with their lack of success.
“Okay.”
They tried different shows, oversized clothes (which kind of helped?), and coloring, but none of them work.
Bakugou even tried to baby Todoroki a little, but Todoroki quickly shut him down on his attempts, laughing and saying it was too out of character for the other boy.
And quite frankly, Bakugou agreed, so he stopped, and they moved on to try other things to help Todoroki regress.
That day, the trick was something Todoroki had seen online earlier. Warm milk with vanilla and sugar. Angel milk. (With cuddling, a kid’s show, and oversized clothes, of course.)
They took a note of what worked that day and what didn’t, and moved on.
—
Trial and error, Bakugou reassured himself as he held a sobbing Todoroki to his chest, guilt ravaging him.
Todoroki had broken one of their rules - he’d talked back multiple times - and had decided he wanted to try one of their punishments. Namely, he wanted to try kneeling in a corner.
But of course, that pulled up some bad memories from his childhood, and here he was, having a PTSD attack he had failed to suppress in Bakugou’s arms.
Bakugou took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, nuzzling against Todoroki’s head reassuringly. Even if it hurt more, he had to try to help somehow.
“Hey, breathe, okay? I’m here. I’m gonna protect you from him, at all costs. I promise. You’re safe with me.”
Todoroki cried a little harder, and clung tighter, sobbing out a broken thank you that hurt Bakugou’s heart. But it seemed to have helped, because Todoroki was able to pull away a little bit later, wiping his eyes and sniffling, giving Bakugou a watery smile, giggling weakly.
“G- Guess we know that one’s not a good idea.”
“Shouto, no!”
—
“Trial and error.” Todoroki said, when Midoriya came to him, asking how he and Bakugou figured out what worked and what didn’t in their relationship.
“Really? Is… that it?” The other hero-in-training asked, clearly doubtful.
Todoroki laughed softly, but smiled fondly. “Yeah. Lots of it. Lots, and lots, of trial and error. Why do you think we didn’t seem super compatible at first?”
Midoriya paused, and then smiled. “Trial and error.”
“And communication.”
Tilting his head, with an amused little smile, Midoriya spoke. “And communication?”
Todoroki grinned right back at him, thinking of all the times Bakugou and himself sat down to talk about what worked and what didn’t, their lists that they now had memorized of what to do and what not to do. “And communication.”
Midoriya laughed.
“Thanks, Todoroki.”
“Any time, Midoriya.”
The green-haired boy left, and Todoroki turned to his phone, smiling as he went to text Bakugou about their date plans for two days ahead.
“Trial,” He said, laughing softly. “And error.”