Chapter Text
Momo crashed through the seemingly endless hallways of her family's house. She stumbled around blindly as a haze of tears and sobs clouded her vision. Occasionally she would bump into an expensive side table or an overpriced vase as she desperately attempted to reach the sanctuary of her room.
Who would make a house so big? Why did her parents feel the need to have so much fancy furniture and such an unnecessarily large amount of unused rooms and hallways? Especially when there were only three of them and half the time one of them wasn't even there.
All the way from the front foyer she could hear the slamming of the large oak doors. Her mother was always home first, and her father was always soon to follow. She knew that in a matter of minutes she would hear the hysterical screams of her mother and the retaliatory shouts of her father echo through the painfully large house. No amount of walls and hallways and furniture could mask that sound.
Then came the next painful slam of the front door. Yelling ensued.
Hurrying her pace, she felt along the walls for her familiar door. With each painful step she took, the shouts seemed to become louder, the commute to her room longer.
She gasped in relief when her fingers finally glided along the smooth surface of her bedroom door. Hurtling herself into the unlit room, she slammed the door, not caring how loud of a sound it made, and slid down against it. She melted into her sobs as shrill arguments carried over hallways and floated through walls, unimpaired by the barriers.
"This is your fault! You never stop working! It's like you can't even stand to be around us. I practically raise Momo by myself!"
"Yeah well who makes the money in this family? Because I don't see you stepipng up for that job! In fact, when is the last time you did anything except bitch?"
"How could you say that?! I go and work nine to five every day, then bust my ass at home taking care of Momo. I make her breakfast, I make dinner, I clean the house, I do the laundry, I do everything around here and you have the balls to tell me I'm bitching!? Yeah, well, you know what, next time you come home at one in the morning, drunk off you're ass because you were "having a drink with your buddies", I won't bitch, I' ll just throw you out on your ass!"
And this was normal. On an especially bad day, they wouldn't even talk. Instead, they would just sit in stone-cold silence until one or the other just up and left, packing their bags to go stay at a relative's.
Momo covered her ears with her hands. She balled her knees up to her chest and begged the yelling to stop. She sobbed and sobbed and sobbed and the tears didn't stop. They just didn't.
She let out heaving cries as she broke down in her own arms, utterly defeated. She was broken. Cracked like a vase and she didn't know if she could manage to glue herself back together if this kept up. More tears slipped down her face, running down her knees and mixing with the remaining rain that sat on the surface of her skin as she ran a hand through her wet, raven hair and let her head drop against her door.
Eventually, when it seemed that she had no more tears to shed, when she was just dry sobbing into her knees and the satisfaction of tears never came, she stood herself up.
With shaky legs she stumbled over to her full-length mirror, examining her reflection. Her raven black hair was matted down and her clothes were soaked all the way through. She sighed as she stripped from her wet school uniform and tossed it aside, too tired to care about relocating them to the hamper.
With tired, red eyes, her body aching, and her throat still burning from an hour of sobbing, she fell into the merciful throes of her bed, letting herself pretend for one moment that she didn't have to care. Just for that moment. Wouldn't anyone save her from this hellish nightmare?
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(Monday: First day back from break)
Todoroki smiled. In fact, he was almost giddy with the idea of getting to see her face after a long torturous Christmas break spent with a family in shambles. Really, it was the only thing getting him through such a hellish home life: the idea of going to UA. Being with the people who accepted him. Being with her. Knowing that he wouldn't have to endure another painful "family" dinner for another few months.
In his first year his year his father had told them he was going to try and atone for what he'd done in the past. But, wounds that deep don't heal over night. And apparently, three years isn't enough time either.
It's not that his father hadn't been improving, but it was slow, painful process, and Natsu and Endeavor still weren't on the greatest of terms. Thankfully for Todoroki, though, the obvious tension that seemed to hang around the "family" had lessened over the years into more of a dull, unspoken agreement that terrible things had happened, and they were going to move on.
Still, he was exponentially grateful that they still kept the students in dorm rooms. He didn't know if he could stand living in that house year round.
He took his place in class at the back where he had sat for the past three years. Always in that same place and he had never one thought of switching seats. In his first year it was because he could tolerate Momo and the idea of being seated next to any of his other painfully annoying class mates seemed undesirable to say the least. But in his later years at UA he found himself unable to imagine not sitting next to the beautiful, raven-haired girl.
That very girl seemed to enter the room, as if responding to his silent wish, at that very moment. His dual colored eyes locked onto her in an unintentional gesture.
She was so beautiful.
She with her silky black hair and her shimmering dark orbs. And her smile. Oh, that smile was enough to make any man go crazy fawning over her. And the best part was, Todoroki had gotten to sit next to that girl every day for three years. How did he get so lucky?
She wore a smile as she sat herself gracefully next to him. "Hello Shouto!" She greeted with a wave as her eyes locked with his.
She had gotten into the habit of calling him by his first name about half way through their second year. Normally, he would've detested the fact (Mydoria once tried calling him Shouto which resulted in him not-so-calmly explaining why he would do good not to use his first name again) but hearing it fall from her perfect lips made him beyond happy...So he put up with it.
"Hello." He greeted simply. Recently it seemed to be getting harder and harder to hide how he truly felt about her. How painful it was every time she reminded him how good of friends they were. It was much easier in his first year when he didn't even understand the idea of romance. Sure, he would blush at her touch and his heart would stop when she cried, but it's much easier to brush it off when you don't know what you're feeling, to excuse it as an illness or something of the sort.
Now he was doomed to try and one day fail to hide his feelings from her forever until they parted ways or she found someone who actually had the guts to tell her how they felt. He sighed at this fact.
His brain snapped to attention as he heard her let out a small yawn. Turning his eyes to once again indulge in the sight of her, he noticed something missing. Something in her eyes. A liveliness or cheerfulness she had somehow lost over the week of winter break. He suddenly found himself missing something he hadn't even realized was there until it was gone.
"Momo, you look tired. Did you get enough sleep last night?" He wanted to interrogate her, tell her to get some rest, maybe hold her until she fell asleep on his shoulder, but he restrained the urge to do much of anything, keeping his cool and calm demeanor. What if she stayed up too late studying, it seems like something that could happen. What if she had a nightmare?
"You're sweet to worry, but I'm fine." She lied expertly. I know she's lying, but now doesn't seem like the time to bring it up. She smiled sweetly.
He frowned but didn't get the chance to say much more before Aizawa strode lazily into class. Todoroki silently questioned this (as he presumed the rest of the class did as well) and raised an eyebrow at the man who looked as dead outside as he acted.
This wasn't a normal occurrence.
Normally, Mic, would come in, rambling about anything under the sun, and then promptly proceeding to teach them English in a voice that was all too loud for the morning. So, to say the least, Aizawa, who almost strictly taught hero training, walking into class on the first day back from break was a surprise.
"So you're probably wondering why Mic's not here, right?" He quickly disposed of any formalities, or even really any greetings at all. Some nodded their head in silent attentiveness, but most just stayed quiet. "Well, he's sick. That dumbass caught a cold over the break, so now I have to teach you brats." The circles under his eyes seemed darker than usual and it was clear he had probably woken up all to early for his taste.
Probably why he's in such a bad mood. Though, he's always in a bad mood, so it comes as no surprise.
"But since you're my class, I'm gonna teach you the way I want. And that's why," He paused, building up anticipation. "We're going to be doing hero training." The class cheered, but Todoroki held his hopes in check. This was Aizawa we're talking about. It's not going to be so clear cut.
A rare, rather creepy, smile crossed his features, shutting the class up immediately. "Heh, don't celebrate just yet." Called it. "Choose a partner."
Almost immediately the class began pairing up, scrambling around the room to make sure they were with the person they wanted. As for Todoroki, he already knew exactly who he wanted his partner to be.
He leaned back in his chair, cocking his head to the side with a one raised eyebrow as he made eye contact with Momo. He could feel himself blush as her eyes locked with his. He tilted his head a little farther to emphasize his point and she nodded with a giggle. Todoroki couldn't help but smile slightly in response. He barely kept his cool.
Without warning Jirou slammed a hand down on both of their desks, shooting a glance towards Momo. Presumably she was there to ask Momo to team up, which only made Todoroki smirk ever so slightly at her when she realized the situation, her eyes darting between the two.
Jirou, surprisingly, was the first person to ever find out about Todoroki's slightly-more-than-a-crush on Momo Yaoyorozu, and even more surprisingly, had managed to keep it secret. Though, this meant that ever since the beginning of the year when she caught Todoroki staring at Momo for a little too long, he and Jirou had been in a silent turf war over who got to spend the most time with the irresistible girl. This time, he had won.
"Oh I see," She narrowed her eyes in an almost-glare at him. "Fine, you win, but I get her at lunch." She not-so-discretely whisper-yelled, causing his eyes to widen in alarm. With a grunt she turned her attention to a yellow haired boy. "Hey Pikachu Dumbass!"
Promptly leaving their desks, She headed across the room, leaving Momo with a confused look on her face, and Todoroki now thinking of a cover up story so that the person he was kind-sorta-maybe-a-little-bit in love with didn't find that out even though he technically wanted her to know.
He despised feelings. When could he go back to being the emotionless bastard child he was in his first year?
After a quick briefing on where they would be heading, and the appropriate dress for their training exercise, the class promptly made their way to the gender separated changing rooms, suiting up before heading to training ground Beta.
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