Chapter Text
Had Shoto known this was what his father wanted him for when he called him into his office this morning, he would have stayed in his own office, working.
As it stands, he’s wasted the last fifteen minutes listening to his father’s request, which he — in no way —intends to agree to.
“Do you not see how much we can benefit from this, Shoto?” says his father. Shoto’s hand lifts up to pinch the bridge of his nose, where he can feel a headache already forming.
“No, I do not see how me risking the quality of my work and giving up my time to please your friend can benefit me , father.” He replies, wondering how long this conversation will drag on and how much time he'll have to review his statement before going to court.
"You won't be risking anything. The girl just needs to work as your secretary for three months to get field experience, and she'll be on her way. In exchange, the Yaoyorozus will owe us a favor that we can use to get ahead of Might Law." Enji's blue eyes shine with the idea of surpassing his decades-old rival, Yagi Toshinori, head of Might Law firm. Shoto rolls his eyes, having heard similar musings from his father way too many times to care for them anymore.
"There's at least a dozen other lawyers in this firm who would be happy to lick your soles if you asked them, let alone take in some starlet for three months. Why do you want me to do it?" Shoto asks, at his wit's end.
His father's immediate response is a smirk that irritates him so much, he feels like a middle schooler losing school competitions out of spite yet again.
"Because, Shoto, other than myself, you're the best lawyer in this firm, as my son should be. And what's more, if it's my son who does the mentoring, then it's a personal favor, and the Yaoyorozus will have to comply with whatever I ask, whenever I ask."
Shoto sighs. "Is there a way for me to say no and for you to accept it?"
"No."
"Then," he says, going back to a deadpan tone. The following three months will be long. "I have one condition."
His father's face takes on the greedy smile of someone who knows himself a victor. "Name it."
"If she says she wants out, don't stop her."
Denki does not mean for Yaomomo to see that script.
The script in question is now open in Yaomomo's lap, with her avidly reading through, a happy smile gracing her features.
He should have left the stupid thing in the car, waiting to be taken to Kendo as a prospect, but instead he mindlessly came up to Yaomomo's house with it. In retrospect, this is absolutely his fault, and CEO Mic is going to kill him.
"Kaminari-kun, this is amazing!" she says, looking at him warmly. Denki hates when she does that — it's impossible to say “no” to Yaomomo when she's this excited about something. "Please tell me you brought this for my comeback role."
Denki is thinking so hard for an excuse that allows him to both take the script back and not make Yaomomo cry that his brain feels a little bit fried. On the one hand, if he says “yes” and the writers don't take Yaomomo as the lead, she'll be devastated and Mic will have his head. If he says no, Yaomomo will be sad and reminded of her fall from grace, and Mic will yell at him for upsetting her. Either way, Yaomomo is unhappy and he gets yelled at. Taking a deep breath, he resolves to do his duty as a manager and choose what will save her the most heartache.
"Ah, Yaomomo…" he starts, feeling bad about his words before even speaking them. "I'd love to pitch you as the lead for this role, but I'm not sure they will be open to it, y'know… because…"
"Because of my scandal." She finishes with a downcast expression. This is Yaomomo's second year without acting, ever since the scandal following her last movie. He hates seeing her like that, but he knows better than to raise her hopes up pointlessly. It would just hurt her more in the end.
There is a pregnant pause where neither he nor she says anything. Yaomomo keeps eyeing the now closed script book wistfully. Denki stares at her, thinking about how much this romantic comedy would actually be good for a comeback role and wishing he knew who to talk to so she could get it.
He's contemplating over his mental list of contacts in the industry when Yaomomo's dark eyes light up the way he knows they do when she has an idea. Wary of the dark-haired girl's bouts of genius, he asks:
"What is it, Yaomomo?"
"I've just had a great idea."
The moment Kaminari leaves the sentence dangling while explaining why she can't apply for the role, Momo feels the flash of the cameras as she passes by on her way to court all over again.
It's unfair that, despite having had all charges dropped, despite the scandal not being her fault, despite more than a decade of non-stop acting without ever having the tiniest conflict with anyone in the industry, she has spent the last two years absolutely devoid of work because of that scandal. Her once adoring fans are now filling the internet with hate comments towards her — if they bother to think of her at all. Momo tries her hardest to stay positive, but she's not getting any younger, and the acting industry isn't getting any less cut throat, either.
She stares at the script book with a longing in her eyes. While she knows there is much she has to improve, she feels a connection to this role, she knows she can do a killer job if only they give her a chance. Her eyes pass over the title, past the writer… the writer!
"Kaminari-kun! The writer for this drama is a close friend of my parents. I haven't worked with her, personally, but we've always had a cordial relationship. I could call her and ask her to take me on as the lead!" Momo says, excitedly. She goes to her phone to ask her parents for the writer's phone number and address.
"Yaomomo… are you sure that's a good idea?" Kaminari replies, sounding unsure. Momo is not unaware of the many ways this can backfire and certainly thanks him for looking out for her. She knows that without his support, she might be in a very different place today. But , she thinks, it's been long enough. I'm ready to do this.
"Don't worry, Kaminari-kun, you'll see that everything will be alright."
Denki's relief when CEO Mic doesn't yell at him is such that he might actually faint as originally planned, just from the surprise. Given that Mic's preferred method of communicating is using his outdoor voice, the thoughtful "good idea, let me know how it goes" he gets through the phone after explaining why he's waiting outside the house of the Lawfully in Love writer with Momo is actually a little terrifying. He hopes everything does go well, or this might just be the calm before the storm that loses him his job.
Here goes nothing , he thinks as the writer opens the door.
-
An hour later, he's on his way to the company's headquarters with Momo in tow. She's got her hair in a ponytail, the way she uses when she's working on something or deep in thought. Right now, Denki guesses it's the latter.
"So what happened?" asks his boss, Yamada Hizashi, better known in the entertainment industry as former singer Present Mic. The volume of his voice isn't quite on its normal levels, which Denki takes to mean that his boss is anxious about his answer. Taking a deep breath, he starts to explain.
"So we have good news and bad news." Mic's brow furrows in confusion. Offering a nervous smile, Denki continues. "The good news is, after a lot of cajoling, which I won't get into detail about-" he throws a slight glare at Yaomomo's direction, thinking back with a shudder to seeing her actually pout to convince the writer. "-we convinced the writer to have Yaomomo as her female lead. BUT-" he says as he sees his boss start clapping in excitement. “-the writer requested that Yaomomo work for three months at a law firm to get first hand experience in the field.”
Mic's face falls a little, his expression at a loss as his gaze flits from Denki to his black-haired charge. The blond haired agent knows this is the moment of truth: is his boss willing to invest in Yaomomo again? That's what will decide her fate.
"Okay." Yamada says, after what feels like an eternity. "I wanna hear from Yaoyorozu-chan. What did the writer say to you? Are you okay with that condition? How do you feel?"
Yaomomo keeps quiet for a moment, and it's then that Denki realizes this is probably what made her so pensive in the car ride over. Not without a healthy dose of curiosity over his charge's perspective, he keeps quiet and waits for Momo to speak.
"She said she liked my acting style, but that sometimes she felt like my roles were a little too studied. I am not sure what she meant by that. She said this drama was dear to her and that the lead girl was someone so genuine to her, it would break her heart to deprive the audience of sharing that feeling. She also said she thought she could trust me with the role, but to make sure I come off as natural as possible, she wants me to get experience in law first."
By the time Yaomomo is done saying this, Denki has no doubt she's going to get this role, no matter what she has to do to get it. And even though he feels like something about this is a bad idea, he’ll be damned if he's not going to support her through it.
"So yes, Mic-san, I'd like to try the… internship? I guess, and then work on the role." She finishes with a small smile.
"Wait!" Denki says, suddenly remembering something. "Just because you haven't acted in a while doesn't make you any less famous. How can we make sure this stays under wraps?"
CEO Mic raises a hand, takes a deep breath, and Denki is absolutely sure whatever he says will be in his outdoor voice again.
"Don't you worry about that, Kaminari-kun. Present Mic's got this!"
Perhaps if she'd arrived on time, Shoto would have been willing to give his new "secretary" a chance.
Instead, it's 10 AM, and there's no sign of the so-called "Yaomomo". He wonders how she got any roles at all if this is any indicator of her work ethic.
He chances a glance at the reception through his blind-covered glass wall and can make out the broad figure of his father, some of his assistants, and Shoto's fellow attorneys Kirishima and Hagakure, as well as Ashido, the receptionist. Other than pre-scheduled appointments, there are only employees in the main area, so Shoto quickly goes back to the deposition he's been drafting. He needs to have this done by Wednesday at the latest, and he doubts his new secretary will be of any help.
"Todoroki-kun, aren't you going to come welcome your new secretary?" Hagakure asks, peeking her head through the door. Shoto does a small jump in his chair — he did not feel her coming into his office. He is usually good at sensing people around him, but Hagakure is so quiet and calm, she always slips past him. Guess it must be a good trait for a family lawyer , he muses.
"If she'd shown up on time, I would have. It's fifteen past ten, Hagakure. She might as well not come at all today," he replies, flippantly directing his gaze back towards his computer screen. Just a few more paragraphs and he'll be done. He hears his colleague hum in a pensive tone and, when he doesn't hear anymore, supposes she's gone back to her office.
He doesn't mean to be so dismissive, and generally has a cordial — if not a little distant — relationship with most of his colleagues, but this situation has really put him in a bad mood. Shoto is thankful there is so much work to be done, as it keeps him from focusing on the annoyance that the situation causes him.
Time goes by with him barely feeling it, absolutely engrossed in the document he's crafting. He doesn't realize there's someone in his office until a clear rap to the glass of the door snaps him out of his focus.
He looks up. There's a tall woman with a lost look standing by the door, her black hair framing delicate features and bright onyx eyes. From a quick Google search done the night after his father imposed this task on him, Shoto recognizes her as Yaoyorozu Momo, stage name "Yaomomo". He's somewhat disappointed she didn't show up in a ridiculous ensemble, instead sporting a smart black pencil skirt coupled with a navy blue blouse and black heels — he expected her to look more like an actress, if that makes any sense.
Well, at least she looks the part , he muses.
"Good morning," she says. Her voice is soft but self assured. "I am-"
"Two hours late. In the future, show up to work on time, Yaoyorozu. I do not appreciate waiting for my assistants. You can set up in the annex." Her eyes open widely at Shoto's interruption, and he half expects her to throw a tantrum and leave.
If only , he thinks, at least that way Father couldn't make me take her back.
But the actress offers no further reaction. Her hands tighten around her handbag before offering him a slight bow and leaving.
Sighing, Shoto goes back to work, reading over the witness' statements from his ongoing cases while he waits for a call before attending to some matters at court. He's drafting an email for his friend Midoriya to stand as a witness of Mr. Aizawa's character in his adoption process when his new secretary interrupts him.
"Todoroki-san, you have a call, but the landline can't reach far enough." Yaoyorozu says, her body bent as she extends the phone to him with one hand and keeps the rest of it from falling off her desk with the other.
"Do you not know how to transfer a call?"
"Eh?" The look on Yaoyorozu's face is utter confusion. Irked, Shoto stands up and, maybe a little too brusquely, takes the phone from her hands.
"Yes, this is Todoroki. Yes. Not yet. I'll be at court at half past three. Thank you." He offers her a cold look as she sits on her desk staring at him, shame plastered on her face. "This may be a game to you, but some of us are actually trying to work. You don't have to do anything but don't get in the way. I'll answer the phone from now on."
Without sparing her a second glance, Shoto walks back into his own office, gathers his things into his briefcase, and starts to leave.
"I assume you don't know how to make copies, do you?" He asks his "secretary". She's frowning at him, face red with anger and shame as she lightly shakes her head. Shoto's expression remains impassive as he says, before leaving: "Then I'll take care of that too. Just sit there and look pretty, I guess. Work ends at 5. You can go then, regardless of whether I'm here. I'm going to court."
The end of Momo's career won't be a drug scandal. It'll be a murder charge.
First, she's going to kill Kaminari for telling her to “be there by eleven… ish” and not actually finding out what time the work day started and not telling her she was here to be a secretary. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but she read nothing about secretary jobs! It's Kaminari's fault for not giving her straight facts. And he will pay for it.
When she's done with that, she'll murder her new boss in an incredibly graphic manner. She knows it must be frustrating to train someone for a position that's supposed to aid you, but Todoroki doesn't need to be such a prick about it.
Why are the handsome ones always dicks? She reflects, thinking back to his perfectly parted peppermint hair and that piercing set of heterochromatic eyes, not without a little frustration. For someone so used to being around attractive people, Todoroki’s looks hit Momo pretty hard. Sadly, his personality sort of ruins it. Now she's sitting at her new desk, staring at the computer screen with the logo of Endeavor Law as a wallpaper, wondering what she's supposed to be doing.
She was so excited when she got there, and everyone was so welcoming — even the owner gave her a firm handshake and urged her to go to him should she need anything his son couldn't help with.
Wait… Todoroki is his son!
Momo sighs, wondering what she got herself into. She can't go to the owner and complain about his own son — that will just make her seem like a diva who can't get along with anyone — and make Todoroki antagonize her even more. But she cannot work with someone who doesn't even pretend to respect her, not even for appearance’s sake. Maybe she should have listened to her parents and taken that biochemistry degree somewhere instead of pursuing acting...
A sudden indignation takes over her. No, I will not be bullied into self-doubt. She thinks, a soft not again echoing in the back of her mind. Not being prepared for her new job is somewhat her fault, but it's nothing that doesn't have a solution.
With a deep breath, Momo decides she's going to become the best damn secretary a lawyer has ever had, and, when she's done with that, she'll go get her starring role.
"And no pretty boy lawyer is going to stop me!" She exclaims in the privacy of the annex, ignorant of the thinness of the glass walls as she opens her new computer's browser.
After her awful first day, Momo goes home and researches secretary duties for long enough to fill up her corkboard with images and tips, as well as a small notebook full of useful advice and technology shortcuts. The next day, she has Kaminari drive her extra early to work so she can practice transferring a call and using the copy machine. When the first warm, printed page comes out from the copy machine, she cannot keep herself from jumping a little in joy.
But even that happiness pales in comparison to the satisfaction she feels when she beats Todoroki to answer a call, politely greets the client, then transfers him to her boss's line. She looks straight at him all throughout, so she is able to notice when his eyes widen just enough to be noticeable, before looking at his own phone and pretending that nothing happened. Momo, knowing she got one on him, reclines back in her seat, basking in the feeling of showing him up, rejoicing in the surprise radiating from his heterochromatic eyes as she talks to the client. They are still far from being on equal grounds, but she's made some progress.
Amongst the joy and vindication, there is a feeling Momo spends her spare moments trying to figure out but doesn’t until she gets home and puts some recently purchased law books beside her college textbooks. Then, when she’s making space on the shelf, she understands: it’s the feeling of learning something new and succeeding at it — not an acting technique (although those are useful and valuable too) but something mundane which most people can do. She supposes it’s silly, but it gives her such joy that Momo goes to sleep that night with a contented smile on her face, ready for whatever her prickly boss has in store for her.
The next few weeks pass by in a blur. The life of a lawyer is hectic: there are always ongoing cases and new ones, as well as recently closed cases to archive. She soon realizes that while Endeavor Law is a little less well known as other law firms, it is not any less —and actually probably more— busy.
And it’s just her luck that the busiest person in the firm just happens to be her very own Todoroki Shoto. Well, not hers , but her boss, anyway. While some of the other lawyers she’s met handle specific types of cases, like Kirishima who is both a civil litigation and criminal court lawyer, and Hagakure who specializes in family affairs, her boss is a general lawyer — which, according to her law books, is sort of a jack-of-all-trades in the law world.
If Ashido can be trusted — and really there’s no reason why she shouldn’t be — Todoroki manages the higher-profile cases, as well as the more difficult ones. Currently, her boss seems to be handling an adoption case. Kirishima says it’s a personal favor to his former college professor, but somehow she finds it tough to believe that such a cold person would go out of his way like that — though that is probably unfair of her.
Todoroki has warmed up to her. He still hasn’t apologized for his rudeness on her first day, and he doesn’t even have the decency to join her for lunch if only to pretend they are on amicable terms, but she has not missed the agenda with his schedule on her desk or the notebook on her desk drawer with tips from the previous secretary. He will sometimes address her to give her tasks — though they are simple and quick, as if he still doesn’t trust her to fully assist him. In her spare moments, she looks up duties of a legal secretary and works towards making her workspace nicer.
One day during her second week, a client comes to Todoroki’s office for a consultation, and Momo realizes this is another chance to show him up. As it happens, being an excellent host is a side-effect of being rich, and what better way to make sure that her boss bags the client than making her feel at home? She leads the lady to his office (with her hair in a braid and wearing thick glasses to hopefully mask her identity) with natural poise, asking polite but non-invasive questions. While they talk, she brings them tea, and it’s so good that the lady requests a second cup.
Eventually, Todoroki refers her to Hagakure’s office, since he claims she can meet her needs more adequately, but the lady is incredibly sad to part with his tea-making secretary.
All in all, she is improving at her job, and she is learning much more than she thought. Soon it will pay off , she thinks at night, the Lawfully in Love script held close to her chest. I’m going to be a star again.
She’s doing it on purpose .
Every time Yaoyorozu does something well, he cannot help but have that thought. He knows, logically, that she is doing it on purpose: who would not strive to do right in their job? But when he thinks that she’s doing it on purpose, he does not refer to working well. Yaoyorozu is being a good secretary just to spite him.
He has absolutely zero proof, but every time she does something well, she’ll look at him from the corner of her eye, onyx irises glinting with something painfully reminiscent of superiority. He cannot forget her proud look when she beat him to the phone on her second day, or the way her chin went up when Ms. Shuzenji complimented her tea. The too-sweet tone as she said, “Here are the copies you requested, Todoroki-san”, without waiting for an answer. She’s trying to drive him insane.
But Shoto is too far above those childish grudges. Sure, they are annoying, but he has cases to win and people to help, and he can appreciate good work even if it is done with the purpose of undermining him. It does not take him long to start delegating more work to Yaoyorozu, and, true to her character so far, she does not disappoint him.
He still thinks she will quit sooner rather than later, but he doesn’t have to suffer through three months when he can just pass them by as normally as humanly possible given the circumstances. Perhaps he’s not giving her enough credit, but she doesn’t seem to have the sort of resilience that working in the law business requires.
Or so he thinks, until a day near her first month mark, when she offers him tea after announcing she’s getting a cup for herself. She goes out the door after hearing yes, without letting him ask for simple green tea. Pursing his lips, he goes after her to the office pantry, but even though she has been gone long enough to start on both cups, he finds her just standing by the entrance, a little ways away.
“Yaoyorozu…” he calls, but she doesn’t hear him, so he walks a little closer. Upon doing this, he notices the voices coming out from the pantry, and realizes Yaoyorozu must be listening in.
“-heard she passed out in the middle of a party.” He makes out in what is clearly Ashido’s high-pitched voice. “They rushed her to the ER and found she was high as a kite.”
“I also read that the director of her movie said they were together…” replies a second voice, which he recognizes as Hagakure’s.
Shoto quickly catches onto who they are talking about: his secretary. When he looks at her, she’s got her hands fisted and a serious, far away look on her face. He wants to say something to her or march in and tell them off for gossiping about a coworker —it’s hypocritical, because it’s not like he’s been the nicest to her, but he also has not gone out of his way to badmouth Yaoyorozu to his coworkers— but she beats him to either of those things.
With a deep breath, Yaoyorozu puts on a bright smile and walks into the pantry, as though she had not been standing there for the past five minutes.
“Hello Ashido-san, Hagakure-san!” she greets brightly. Shoto is surprised at how natural her tone is — but then, she was an actress before a secretary, so it makes sense. “Oh, is that a new blouse, Hagakure-san? It’s lovely! And Ashido-san, you’re wearing makeup today, aren’t you?”
“You know I always wear makeup, Yaomomo!” The receptionist replies in a slightly nervous tone.
“Well, I can never tell.” Yaoyorozu replies. Satisfied, Shoto goes back to his office before his secretary notices he even left.
He can admit that she’s tougher than he thought, and maybe, just maybe, she will make it through.
“Please, Kaminari-kun, don’t do this to me.” Momo pleads on the phone. That morning, Kaminari is scheduled to meet with the publicists for Lawfully in Love to discuss the drama's publicity, so he can't drive her to work.
"Yaomomo! I'm doing this for you. I'm going to get you the best publicity deal you've ever had, and then you'll be so thankful you will beg to introduce me to a beautiful actress friend of yours." He jokes. Momo is way too fond of Kaminari to hold his basically abandoning her against him, but she's really tempted.
"But my parents will insist on driving me, and you know how that goes." Momo pouts. It isn't like she doesn't appreciate her parents, it's just… they are anything but discrete. They will drive her in a limo surrounded by bodyguards, and they will evacuate the law firm's building before letting her get off the car. She knows it comes from a place of love, but she has worked so hard the past month to get along with everyone, has finally gotten Todoroki to give her actually challenging tasks and to lean on her as his legal secretary, that she does not want to undo that over a ride to work.
But she also can't expect Kaminari to bend over backwards to accommodate her, even if it is kind of his job. She sighs.
"Okay. I'm sorry, I'll figure it out. Thank you for your hard work, Kaminari-kun." she says. Momo hears his enthusiastic “ You're the best, Yaomomo!” before she hangs up and wonders how he can always be so full of energy. She certainly could use some of it.
She's about to hit the call button on her mother's private number when she realizes: she doesn't have to do that at all. Although it's risky, she can just ride the train and walk the few blocks from the station to Endeavor Law's headquarters. She smiles, onyx eyes filled with resolution, and equips her comfiest pair of flats.
In retrospect, maybe she doesn't have great ideas all the time.
The train ride is busy but not crowded, which means there are too many people to pay any attention to one more woman in office clothes wearing glasses. Momo is so glad for that, and for the blissful lack of perverts in the train, she thinks with a shudder as she remembers her college days of getting around by train.
It's not until she is a block away from the law firm that she realizes someone is following her. The district where Endeavor Law is located is full of buildings with glass walls that let her see the same man has been following her for the past two blocks, and he's been recording with his cellphone all that time.
She stops, only a few meters away from her office's building, lips trembling in fear and worry. What if he's caught her face? Momo is perfectly capable of fending for herself, but she cannot physically fight the internet — no matter how hard she tries.
"Excuse me," she starts without turning around, quickly switching her eyeglasses to sunglasses. She adjusts her scarf. "-do you need something?"
"No, but you're very pretty." The man replies, voice deep and raspy, as if he had a sore throat. It makes Momo want to run away. "Why don't you give me your number, lady?"
"I couldn't even if I wanted to," she says, slowly turning to find the man still pointing the phone camera at her. "Please stop recording me."
She betrays none of the fear in her voice, and she doesn't let it take over herself. While she waits for him to stop, she calculates the distance and how hard she'd need to pretend to 'fall' in order to throw his phone to the ground and 'accidentally' step on it. But much to her chagrin, his next action negates that possibility.
"This is going to be our viral meet-cute video!" He claims, taking two long steps towards her and making Momo's instincts react for her. She slaps his arms away so hard that he loses his grip on the phone and drops it. There is a crash, and then a bunch of scattered parts around a cracked screen. She breathes in relief at the fact, but it is short lived.
"What the fuck, lady?" he yells from the ground, trying hopelessly to put his phone back together. "This is an expensive phone!" He stands then gets really close to Momo, the anger puffing his chest and making him seem to tower over her, even though he can only be a centimeter taller than her at most. "You are going to pay for it, you stuck up b-"
He doesn't get to finish his statement. A hand shoots out to hold him by the shoulder and keep him from getting any closer to her. Momo chances a look towards the owner of the hand, only to find Todoroki looking at her attacker with a serious expression. His face doesn't seem any less calm and collected than when he is reading over his case records, but she thinks there's a hint of fury in his mismatched eyes.
"What seems to be the problem?" Todoroki coldly asks her attacker.
"What's it to you, weirdo?" the man replies. "This bitch just broke my phone after I tried to ask her out."
Momo wants so badly to speak up and defend herself. She wants to tell that guy that she neither requested nor appreciated his advances, and that she never would consent to dating a man who would use such language to refer to women — except for that one date with her college friend, but it was more of a people term. She even opens her mouth to tell him off, but the threat of a scandal ties itself into a knot at her throat, preventing her from speaking up for herself.
"She did not seem to appreciate your advances. In fact, if we take a look at the camera footage," Todoroki starts, releasing the man's shoulder to point to the various CCTV cameras across the district. "I think we might find that you were illegally recording her without her consent. That can get you up to five years in prison." Her boss' voice is cool and collected, but Momo detects an edge to it that makes it feel like a threat. The man must pick up on it too, because he backs away a few paces.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" the guy asks, "This bitch has to pay for my phone!"
"I'm her lawyer." Todoroki states, matter-of-fact. "And if we check the cameras well enough, I think we'll also find that you were making unwanted advances towards her, so she defended herself. So what do you say, do you want to settle this at court?"
Momo's gaze flits from her boss to the assaulter. The guy has a panicked expression on his face, one that Momo cannot help but silently rejoice over.
"Fuck you both!" He yells, before taking off without even stopping to look at the broken cellphone. Momo watches him go for a moment, then turns her gaze to Todoroki, who she finds is doing the same. Without a word, he turns around in the direction of the law firm, gesturing with his head for her to follow.
She does without hesitation, walking easily in stride beside him.
"You did not drive today," he observes.
"My… friend had a work thing," she offers.
"Next time, call me. You're too attention-grabbing on your own." He slides her a piece of paper. Momo's heart beats traitorously faster at his offer, even though she knows it's a practical decision.
"Thank you, Todoroki-san." she says with a light bow when they're safe in the privacy of the elevator.
"Do not mention it. Please have the records of the cases written in the note on my desk by 10:30." He says, and with that, he's back to business.
But when she hands the files to him later that same day, he looks up, heterochromatic eyes the tiniest bit warmer, and thanks her. And when Momo asks him if he will have lunch with her, she's delighted to hear him say 'I have a space at 12:30.'.
"You know you don't have to hover over them, right? They know how to do their jobs," says an amused voice.
Denki's head snaps up from its perch over one of the designers' shoulders, where it had, until that moment, been watching carefully as the poor girl did her best to design a potential poster for the drama from Yaomomo's more recent headshots. He looks behind him, only to find a pretty girl with short purple hair staring back at him, an amused little smile on her face. Denki raises an eyebrow.
"Of course I know that. I'm just making sure they do Yaomomo justice." he replies. The girl's smile widens, mockingly so. Denki feels an odd pressure at a point right under the back of his neck, and when he looks over his shoulder, he finds half a dozen designers glaring at him. He directs a nervous smile in their general direction — suddenly very aware of how outnumbered he is — and starts walking away in what he hopes is a casual manner, motioning for the girl to follow him.
She does so, still lightly mocking him with her grin. While walking to a safer area of the room, Denki examines his companion: she's shorter than him, but not by much. Her pretty black eyes wander about the network's headquarters lazily, as though bored. But judging by the continuous, rhythmic tapping of her fingers on her thighs as she walks — a practice Denki himself is no stranger to, always buzzing with energy as he is— she is actually far from unphased by the place.
He feels, oddly, as though he knows her, but can't pinpoint where from. That is, until he notices a pair of aux cord plugs peeking out from under her black jacket, and it clicks.
"Wait — oh my god! You're Jiro Kyoka aren't you?" He asks, stopping in the middle of his walk. She lets out a soft gasp, cheeks tinting pink as she looks up at him. Her eyes no longer look bored, he notes. "Me and my friend Tokoyami used to watch your guitar tutorials on YouTube all the time!" He squeals, not embarrassed in the least. "You're amazing! What are you doing here?"
"Um…" she starts. Denki notices she looks uncomfortable, so he backs down a few steps. For someone so used to being around famous people, he can really be an over-invested fan. "Thanks. Whoa, I hadn't thought of those in a while. My face doesn't show in it, how did you know?" she asks, somewhat shyly, but mostly suspicious.
"Your aux cords! You always wore them like that in the videos".
"Oh," she simply says, looking away. She still seems embarrassed, so Denki decides to change the topic.
"Hey, you didn't tell me what you were doing here."
"Ah! Um… I'll… bewritingandproducingthethemesong." she says this so fast, Denki struggles to catch on. After an awkward pause where she seems no less uncomfortable and Denki works hard to make sense of her words, he finally gets it.
"No way!" he half shouts, half whispers. He takes a moment to process it, then smiles at Jiro in a way that can only be described as electrifying. His golden eyes fixate upon her as he realizes he's yet to introduce himself. "This is great! I'm Kaminari Denki, Yaomomo's agent. She's the lead actress in the drama." he states, chest puffing with pride. “ That's not set in stone, and you aren't supposed to be divulging that ,” says a writing assistant passing by on his way to the writer's room. Denki throws him a heartfelt glare.
"What was that about?" Jiro asks, looking at him curiously.
"Oh, a technicality." Denki dismisses. "Come on, I like you. Let's get lunch with Yaomomo and I'll introduce you. We're gonna be amazing friends."
"Do I have a choice?" Jiro questions. In lieu of an answer, Denki just grabs her by the arm as he starts walking.
This is going to be amazing.
"Here are the precedents you requested, Todoroki-san." Yaoyorozu announces as she leaves a stack of papers on his desk. Shoto looks up from his computer, where he was writing his next statement on Mr. Aizawa's adoption hearing, to offer an approving nod to his secretary. In return, she smiles warmly at him, then goes back to her annex.
My stupid father will never let me live this down. He thinks. An inherently decent part of him feels bad that this is his reaction to Yaoyorozu actually being good at her job, but come on: the one plan of the old man that should have absolutely backfired, and it turns out the woman is some sort of legal secretary genius? That just isn't fair.
Although in all seriousness, he's secretly really thankful for Yaoyorozu's help. In only a little over a month, she's mastered all the duties of a legal secretary, and then some. Initially, he kept throwing harder and harder tasks her way, hoping the stress would wear her down and make her quit — instead, she just looked at him with those intense onyx eyes before showing up the next day, her outfit just the tiniest bit wrinkled, and the task completed on his desk by ten in the morning.
Where he was once reluctant to get to know her, now he feels an odd but not entirely unwelcome pull towards her. Ever since she caught a potential client lying to him ( "That's not what you said earlier." She'd interrupted the man as he'd explained the fraud charges against him. Indeed, he had been lying, as could be corroborated by the impeccable notes she'd taken. Later, when Shoto asked, she'd modestly said "I was always praised for my script-memorizing skills, though they could probably be better."), Shoto hasn't stopped looking at her from the corner of his eye. It doesn't help that, by whatever scale you measure her, Yaoyorozu is quite eye-catching.
He realizes with a start that he's spent the past ten minutes thinking about his secretary, and the embarrassment he feels at the fact makes his skin crawl. It is not like him to be distracted over a coworker, so he shakes his head in an attempt to clear his mind. The white hair he'd so carefully pushed back this morning falls on his face, and Shoto sighs in mild exasperation. A quick look at the corner of his screen tells him it's almost lunch time, and he could really use a serving of cold soba right now. Concluding that he won't get anything done for the foreseeable future, Shoto gathers his things and heads for the door.
"Yaoyorozu," he calls as he passes the annex. She's furiously scribbling on a stack of post-it notes, her hair spiking around her ponytail as she turns her face back and forth from the screen to the paper. When she hears him call her name, she startles enough for a pen to fall off her neck — as if she'd produced it, though it must obviously have been stuck in her ponytail. Cute , he finds himself thinking. "I'm going out for lunch. You may take yours as well."
"Oh, Todoroki-san, may I join you? It will work better for the both of us if our schedules are aligned," She proposes, and Shoto cannot deny the logic in her statement. He's a bit apprehensive, because he finds himself more and more easily distracted by Yaoyorozu's company, but he doesn't have any good reason to say no.
He nods.
"Alright! Let me finish writing this reference and I'll be ready."
-
"Do you really think your teacher can win that little girl's custody?" Yaoyorozu asks him around a mouthful of cold soba. He's not normally one to bring people (other than Midoriya and, when he's well behaved, Bakugo) to his favorite soba place, but he really had been craving it today. Plus, something in his gut tells him he can trust Yaoyorozu.
Shoto takes a big portion while he ponders the actress' question.
"I do." he says, a long moment later. "Little Eri has no other family, and she came from an abuse situation. She and Aizawa-sensei have grown quite attached to each other, so the judge might take that into consideration. It also helps that he has a steady job with good pay and flexible hours should she need him." He explains, feeling her gaze on him the entire time. Shoto is used to having a crowd stare at him at court, but there is something incredibly piercing in Yaoyorozu’s gaze, something that makes him kind of uncomfortable, but not enough to want to look away.
Perhaps , he thinks to himself, I should have listened to Natsuo when he wanted to talk about women.
"Well, if you believe that, I'll do my best to help you," she declares. By now, she's finished her soba and moved on to a respectably-sized bowl of ramen. Internally, Shoto marvels: he's never been one for eating much, and he certainly doesn't do it with even half her gusto.
"I left a bunch of references to check for precedents, I'll get right to them when we go back." She promises.
"Yaoyorozu, if I may be so bold-" Shoto starts, not really sure where he's going, but feeling more curious as their lunch extends. "-you don't strike me as an actress. I mean," he goes on when her cheeks pink, hoping he hasn't offended her, "you are quite capable after a short amount of training, and I understand you're a chemistry graduate?"
"Biochemistry, actually," she clarifies.
"Exactly. How come a woman like you chooses an acting career?" He finishes, fixing his heterochromatic eyes on her. Yaoyorozu is quiet for a long time, apparently mulling over her answer as she picks around her ramen. Shoto wonders whether he offended her, but, just as he's about to tell her she doesn't need to answer, she speaks up:
"I've never been asked that way." She says, offering him a small smile. "It was always 'why would a famous actress go for a chemistry degree?' — especially because I cut down on my acting a lot to do well in college. I think I like it better this way." Yaoyorozu looks away, and he follows her gaze to an old poster fixed on the wall, where a slightly younger version of herself advertises a soda. "I love acting. " she simply says. "In a lot of ways, acting is not different from chemistry: my actions on screen cause reactions on people, and those reactions are all different because they respond to a wide array of variables — people's lives. My acting used to make people happy, and that made me happy." She concludes with a wistful smile.
When Yaoyorozu talks about acting, she looks different: it is as though the whole world blurs slightly in response to such passion. Her black eyes brighten up and get the tiniest bit lost at some point far above his head, and Shoto thinks she has never looked as pretty. His eyes go wide with a realization — one he hasn't had in a considerably long time, so he resolves to call Midoriya later that night.
"Ponytail? What are you doing with this hot n' cold bastard?" Momo hears a familiar voice behind her, and when she turns, Bakugo Katsuki is standing in the court house's hallway, a badge hanging from his neck.
"Bakugo-san? What are you doing here?" she asks, smiling through her surprise. Beside her, Todoroki alternates between looking suspiciously at her and at Bakugo, quite clearly — to her — confused.
"I'm here with stupid Deku. He's testifying against that little girl's piece of shit father. You?" Momo, unable to hold herself back, walks the few paces between them to hug him. Bakugo grumbles at her actions but returns the embrace with one arm. He's cut his hair, Momo notices, now sporting an undercut and shorter hair on top — he looks well, she's glad to note. She lets go.
"I'm Todoroki-san's secretary, and I'm supporting him on the case. Please keep it discrete, Bakugo-san," she whispers. It's still a few minutes before they need to go inside, she thinks, and her boss must too, because he walks up to them wordlessly, lightly glaring at Bakugo.
"Good morning, Bakugo." He salutes briskly. Beside her, Bakugo ignores him.
"Is this asshole treating you well, Ponytail? I'll break his face if he isn't."
Momo throws him a look in reprimand, one that the blond retaliates in kind. They hold each other's gaze in a silent contest for a solid minute before Todoroki speaks up, breaking their concentration.
"Excuse me, Yaoyorozu, how do you know Bakugo?" He asks, raising an eyebrow. Bakugo glares at him, crossing his arms the way he used to when a boy in college wouldn't take no for an answer. Momo rolls her eyes good-heartedly before answering her boss' question.
"Bakugo-san and I used to go to college together. We lived in the same dorm and ended up studying together a lot, so we became good friends." She explains, smiling at Todoroki. His gaze softens just the tiniest bit when he looks at her, and it makes Momo feel as if something were about to burst from her skin. "Do you also know each other?"
"Yes," he confirms in a neutral tone. "Bakugo is dating a friend of mine."
The blond man says nothing, only a small " humph ". Momo thinks he looks angrier than usual, especially given how quiet he's being. At the end of the corridor, the courthouse officials open the door to start filing into the courtroom. Todoroki nods at Bakugo in acknowledgement, then gestures for her to follow as he turns towards the entrance.
"Don't be a stranger, Ponytail." Bakugo says before she can bid him farewell. He catches up to her boss quickly, and whispers what she supposes must be a threat in his ear. Feeling strange at the encounter, Momo walks into the courtroom, hoping the case is resolved the way Todoroki wants it to be.
-
In the end, it all goes their way.
Not that she'd ever doubted Todoroki's capabilities — but his client's lack of relation to the little girl was a difficult hurdle to overcome. Regardless, thanks to Todoroki's friend's testimony and the precedents they could come up with together, the judge rules in favor of ceding full custody of Eri to Mr. Aizawa. Momo thinks she may never forget the smile in that little girl's face as she jumped into the black-haired man's arms.
Todoroki is calm and collected as he wraps things up, talking quietly to his former teacher and accepting congratulations humbly. It's only when they are walking back to his car and she softly tells him "You did it, Todoroki-san." that he stops in his tracks. She does so too and finds him looking at her with a soft smile on his face. It is, Momo realizes suddenly, the first time he's ever smiled at her. Her hands ball into fists inside her black coat.
" We did it, Yaoyorozu." He corrects. "You played a vital part in winning this case. Thanks to your help with the case, Eri has a loving family now." he takes a step closer. "You've become quite a formidable legal secretary." He muses. "A special one."
Momo's heart rate picks up as Todoroki goes on, cheeks tinting pink at his praise. While he has been slowly opening up to her, treating her well and making her feel welcome, he has not really acknowledged her presence in the law firm. Seeing him do it now, after winning a case, in such a candid, heartfelt manner… she likes it. She likes him.
Oh. Oh. She likes him.
For all that the tabloids have loved to gossip about Momo’s love life, there has never really been a ‘special someone’ for her. Not until now, anyway.
Before acting, she never had time nor interest, and after that, the implications of dating or even liking someone were such that she came to put dating out of her mind. But some years, a drug scandal and a secretary job later, she’s not sure how to do that anymore.
It’s not like much has changed — her world may have shifted on its axis, but outwardly, everything is pretty much the same. The only difference is that, once she’s aware of her feelings, everything is suddenly imbued with meaning . Every fleeting touch when exchanging documents with Todoroki burns with a myriad of things unsaid, every time their gazes cross they linger, as if their eyes didn’t want to look at anything but each other. No longer can she go back to her job easily after a simple “ Thank you” or “ Let’s have lunch together” from Todoroki.
Now, instead of filing away the precedents and resolution of Eri’s adoption, she hangs onto Todoroki’s mismatched, burning gaze whenever he speaks to her, onto the warm cadence of his voice when he calls her name.
She feels like a schoolgirl with a crush. Momo knows she is well past that age, and she’s not certain the comparison is quite right, as she never really had crushes when she was pursuing her education, but she’s played enough lovestruck characters and read romance stories in her spare time to identify the feeling.
It’s a novel feeling, shiny and unprecedented — and so, so scary . Momo is not familiar with the mixture of trepidation and anticipation that takes over her every morning when she walks the hallways of Endeavor Law on her way to Todoroki's office, waiting every day without fail for him to meet her gaze and direct the tiniest of smiles her way before he gets back to work. She’s scared just thinking of all the added variables for both of them should they decide to date. Even more, she is terrified of the very real possibility that these feelings could be one-sided.
But as time goes on, she’s less scared of that last one. She may not be well-versed in love affairs, but she knows Todoroki doesn’t treat her the way he treats others. Sure, they spend much more time with each other than with anyone else, so it might as well just be the familiarity —but then again, it might not. Todoroki doesn’t invite any other of their colleagues to lunch, nor offers to drive them home when Kaminari is busy with the drama’s PR or wants to hang out with Kyoka (although admittedly, as far as her boss knows, her friend who usually picks her up is just “busy”). He doesn’t look at anyone any more than he has to —and she’s caught him looking at her more and more since the end of the adoption case. He doesn't smile either, but in the quiet times working in the privacy of his office, she'll answer a hard question right, or offer some insightful advice and Todoroki will give her the tiniest, softest of smiles (the same one from the courthouse) and her heart will do a somersault inside her ribcage.
So no, she's not certain he returns her feelings, but, in her heart of hearts, Momo is a scientist, and her instinct tells her this is an experiment worth pursuing —a role worth auditioning for.
"JIRO! OPEN THE DOOR, WE'RE HERE!!!!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming! Ugh, stop making such a ruckus, Pikachu," Kyoka says, on her way to her apartment door. She opens it to find an apologetic-looking Yaomomo being held by the shoulders by her agent. Kyoka rolls her eyes. "Jeez, Kaminari, I wonder how Yaomomo goes out at all without your loud butt getting her noticed."
Kaminari upturns his nose as he pushes Yaomomo into Kyoka's apartment. Ever since the day she met them, she's formed an easy friendship with them. Kaminari is boisterous and a little bit annoying, but also nice and an endearing, foot-in-mouth kind of honest. Yaomomo is a little more reserved — she guesses as a result of growing up in the spotlight. She’s only a bit less outgoing than her on-camera persona, but not any less kind and gentle. It’s odd, the way those two ended up working together.
“Oh, that was actually a funny one.” Kaminari had said when she’d asked, some days before. “Yaomomo’s original agents were her parents, but they were like… super intense. I was getting my PR degree at the same college where Yaomomo spent a semester doing something related to her biochem degree — don’t ask, I have no idea about anything that related to math.” he’d recounted, smiling teasingly as she opened her mouth, as though reading her mind. “Anyway, I was failing a class and posted an ad for a tutor, and next thing I know there she was!” He’d let out a laugh then, a blonde-and-black lock of hair getting in his face. “She was an amazing tutor. And well, we know I’m the best agent ever — ouch! It’s true! — and we just… got along. We became good friends and she offered me the position.”
When Kaminari said that, his face took on a bittersweet look, golden eyes softening. “Working with her really helped my career,” he’d admitted, “and I couldn’t help her when her scandal broke. That’s why I’m working so hard to make her comeback happen.”
Kyoka hadn’t known then whether the blonde agent had been putting up a front to get into her good graces (why he’d ever want to do that is beyond her) or simply being sincere, but as she sees the easy camaraderie he and Yaomomo have built up, sitting together on her couch and sharing takeout like lifelong friends, she finds it easy to trust him.
“So what are you two doing here?” She finally asks, about a half an hour of tiptoeing around who-knows-what later. Both Yaomomo and Kaminari flinch then, looking like a couple of kids who got caught stealing cookies. Kyoka looks at them questioningly for a moment. Then, Kaminari clears his throat loudly before standing up.
“Yaomomo wanted to talk to you. I’ll leave you two to it and be back in like… you know what? Call me, Yaomomo." He explains as he puts on his shoes. Yaomomo looks like she wants to say something towards the contrary, but Kaminari is gone before she can protest. She turns, blushing slightly, towards Kyoka.
“So what’s up, superstar?”
“Oh, Kyoka-san,” she sighs. The singer has to admit the suffix is still rather formal for her taste, but that was the greatest compromise Yaomomo was willing to make in regards to names. “I’m so sorry to bother you. I should be able to figure this out on my own but… I can’t and I… I don’t really have friends to talk to." The black-haired woman rambles. Kyoka isn't much for mushy feelings, but hearing an actress as popular as the one sitting in front of her sound so utterly lonely makes her heart go out to Yaomomo. She goes to sit by her side.
“Hey, no biggie.” Kyoka reassures her. “What's eating at you?"
Yaomomo looks at her from behind long lashes. In the back of her mind, Kyoka thinks it's really unfair of her and her stupid agent to be both so attractive. She stares curiously at her friend's rapidly reddening face, until finally, Yaomomo cracks.
She listens as the actress tells her about her internship, her initially rocky relationship with her boss and the slow and steady way it has improved. With her delicate mannerisms and clear voice, Kyoka is not surprised this woman is an actress, and as her expressions shift in accordance to her emotions, Kyoka finds she'd be ready to believe whatever she said. It's hard to pay attention to Yaomomo — not because she doesn't care, but because everything about her is so distracting.
But Yaomomo's story pretty much kills all the budding intentions of making a move on her. She's clearly into her boss, and the infamous Todoroki seems to be the cause of her friend's emotional turmoil.
"So I don't know." Yaomomo sighs, sliding into the floor and hugging her knees to her chest. "I think he likes me back, but it's been a while, and he hasn't really said anything. I don't want to be too forward in case it makes him uncomfortable, but I won't be at the law firm for much longer." She finishes, a dejected look on her face.
Kyoka slides down to see her eyes. She pats the actress awkwardly on the shoulder, thinking about what to say.
"Well, if you think he likes you, you should go for it." She finally advises. "If he doesn't, you don't have that long until your contract is over; if he does, then you can make the most of every second you have left."
Yaomomo sits on her words for a very long minute. Kyoka, unused to giving advice and not particularly satisfied with the one she gave, prepares to brush it off and take it back —that is, until Yaomomo casts a blinding smile her way.
"Thank you so much, Kyoka-san!" She says, holding her hands. "I think you're right, and it's horribly scary, but I'll do my best to follow your advice."
Kyoka looks away, uncharacteristically touched. She's going to end Kaminari for forcing her to be a girl, but that'll be later. For now, she has a movie to watch with her new best friend.
"Was I right or was I right?"
It takes all of Shoto's self control not to groan (externally, at least. Internally, he groans for so long). His father's opening line after calling him to his office for no apparent reason makes all of Shoto's petty thoughts of the previous weeks resurface. There's a tiny part of him that rejoices at seeing his father be, you know, annoying in a sort of fatherly way —but most of him is going to go home this weekend and change the locks of the training room just to spite him.
"What do you want, Father?" he asks. Instead of wasting his time in Enji's office, Shoto could be finishing up on his cases' paperwork just in time to go to lunch with Yaoyorozu, so every second he spends here is a second too long. Enji stares at him for a moment, as though sizing him up, then speaks.
“The monthly company dinner is tonight. Your secretary has never been, so I want you to take her.” This time, Shoto doesn’t hold back the groan; him and Yaoyorozu are busy , and no one knows that better than the man sitting in front of him. “Oh, don’t be like that. You’ll enjoy yourself well enough.” Enji dismisses, waving a hand.
His father knows Shoto never goes to company dinners. They’re boring, they don’t serve cold soba, and everyone always gets drunk on the firm’s tab. Sure, they’re “team-building opportunities” —but Shoto’s only ever been a temporary part of a team, and never a particularly willing one. He’s in Endeavor Law not to shadow Enji until he inherits the business but to learn as much as he can before opening his own law firm. His father would do well to remember that more often.
Though, much to his chagrin, the old man does have a point. As he said, Yaoyorozu started work the day after the previous month’s company dinner, so she hasn’t had a chance to attend. He’s apprehensive to just let her go alone, given that he knows how Ashido gets when she’s drunk, and he hasn’t forgotten the gossiping during Yaoyorozu’s first few weeks at the law firm. Who knows how she could let her tongue roll without sobriety’s inhibitions? He has to be there to run interference and keep his secretary from getting hurt by the pink-haired receptionist’s careless words.
Shoto knows there’s no reasonable explanation for this newfound need to protect her, to keep her smiling at him with those brilliant, intelligent onyx eyes of hers —at least not one he can get to without a considerable amount of introspection—, so he shoves those thoughts aside to offer a bored glare to his father.
“Fine, but you’re paying for my gas.”
“I pay for your gas anyway, Shoto.”
-
He has to admit, seeing the way Yaoyorozu’s face lights up when he asks her to the company dinner makes it almost worth the hassle.
What really makes it worth it is seeing the easy way she makes conversation with everyone, from Ashido to Kajimi - his father’s second-in-command in all but name - to even his father. Shoto spots her making quiet conversation with his father for a moment before someone else grabs the lawyer’s attention, cutting short their conversation with a respectful nod on both sides. She’s clearly enjoying herself, and that makes a warm feeling bloom in Shoto’s ribcage.
A feeling that is only augmented every time she catches him looking at her and offers him a small smile — a smile he amuses himself by thinking is reserved only for him. He’s so distracted by the way his skin would tingle every time their fingers graze each other when passing a side-dish, or how their shoulders will bump every once in awhile in the cramped space of their office’s table that he doesn’t notice how much Yaoyorozu drinks throughout the night.
By the time she’s ready to go home, she wobbles slightly as she walks. Shoto doesn’t think the rest of the company notices — but then, they don’t spend as much time with her as he does — and, to her credit, the wobble is the only thing that could give her away, since her words are not particularly slurred nor do her cheeks look any more flushed than they normally do.
He waves his coworkers a curt goodbye, offering Yaoyorozu a supporting arm as soon as they’re out of sight from the rest of the lawyers. She takes it, sending a thankful glance his way, which in turn sends a little tremble down the arm she’s holding. He has a hard time making sense of the reactions and feelings she provokes in him, but he does understand one thing: he enjoys the time spent in her company, and he wants it to continue.
In the car ride, Yaoyorozu is chatty, alternating between talking about their pending work on the identity theft case they’re currently trying to win for the victim and her final days as a student in university. Somewhere along the ride they hit a speedbump, but Yaoyorozu is so focused on telling him how she got to fire a cannon in school once, that she doesn’t see it coming, and so she is unable to keep her gesturing hands from involuntarily hitting her right on the forehead. Shoto snorts in reflex, a smile escaping his lips despite his best efforts to contain it.
Yaoyorozu stares at him for a moment, as though starstruck (oh, the irony). Then, she offers him the sincerest smile he has ever seen.
“Todoroki-san, I have never seen you smile this wide.” Shoto feels his cheeks pink. He wills his face to return to a deadpan expression, even though he still feels the smile trying to burst from his mouth. “You look well. You should do it more often.”
“I smile all the time,” he replies, just as he’s pulling up into the driveway of her apartment building. Once they’re parked, Yaoyorozu holds his stare for a long moment, then they both burst out laughing. Her laugh is a rich, invigorating sound —she laughs as though she had never heard anything funnier. Shoto thinks, in the back of his mind, that he'd like to hear her laugh that way more often.
She gets off of the car, struggling a little with the seatbelt. Shoto prepares himself to wait until she walks into her building before making his way to his own apartment, when she surprises him with her next words.
"Goodnight, Todoroki-san. Thank you for tonight. I had a lot of fun but-" She says from the car window, directing him a rosy-cheeked smile. "-I hope tomorrow will be the day our relationship finally moves forward."
She says it lightly, as though her words hadn't just turned Shoto's world upside down. Not a moment later, she turns around and walks leisurely into her apartment, oblivious to the wide-eyed, flabbergasted man she leaves in her wake.
Shoto has a lot to think about.
"I don't have to have a comeback, Kaminari-kun."
"But I do need a job, Yaomomo, so please get dressed for work." Her blond agent replies, trying to coax her from under her blankets.
Momo is not a beer-drinker, she is a wine connoisseur. That means she doesn't know how much beer is too much , and clearly last night it was way too much. Her face burns with embarrassment just from the memory of her last words to Todoroki before he dropped her off. How could she be so forward? What must he think of her now? Oh , Momo sighs internally. I've probably ruined all my chances now.
"Why don't you wanna go to work, anyway?" Kaminari asks, now rifling through her closet in a poor attempt to find her a work outfit —pointless, too, because she's never going back to Endeavor Law. "You're always so excited to go spend time with your prickly lawyer."
Momo squeals as soon as Kaminari mentions him, shame spreading out from her chest like an angry rash, and buries herself under the covers again. She mutters a resolute "I'm never working again!" that's only a little bit muffled by her duvet, and ignores Kaminari's wailing protests to “ please think about his job” .
She'll never be able to face Todoroki again.
It's not until an hour into the workday has passed that Shoto surmises that Yaoyorozu is not coming in today. Other than the incident on her first day, she has never been late before, and it’s just his luck that the day Shoto most wants to talk to her, she doesn’t show up.
He's dying to ask her what she meant by her last words, if they were anything more than a drunken jab at their former animosity — if they were a hint to something deeper. He's really regretting not having that conversation with Natsuo now.
He tries to focus on his work for a while, but it's pointless. His mind keeps circling back to Yaoyorozu's flushed face and her pretty, half-lidded eyes as she'd confessed her hopes for their relationship to "move forward". If she'd ever tried to drive him insane, she was certainly succeeding now.
Realizing he won't be getting anything done that day, Shoto makes a decision he has never made in five years at Endeavor Law. He gathers his things, walks unannounced into his father's office, and states he'll be taking the rest of the day off. Enji tries to exact an explanation from him, but Shoto doesn't even wait a second before turning around to leave. On his way out, Ashido asks why "Yaomomo" didn't come in today, but Shoto offers her the most noncommittal grunt he can muster without stopping on his way to the door.
It takes the office a good forty minutes to get back to business after that display. yan
-
"What does it mean when someone tells you they hope your relationship can progress?" Shoto asks, lying down on Midoriya's couch.
It's his best friend's rare day off, and he was coming here after work anyway, so he just drove there straight from the office. An annoyed Bakugo answered the door, yelled " Your idiot friend is here, Deku!" then shut the door without letting him in. Well, at least he could always count on Bakugo to be a dick. Midoriya then ushered him in, an apologetic smile on his face, and has allowed him to lounge on his couch while he finishes something in the kitchen until he’s ready to talk.
"What the fuck kind of bullshit question is that?" Bakugo replies, glaring at Shoto in between the levels of his video game. It's just his luck that the loudmouth detective would coordinate his day off with Midoriya. "Wait—" Bakugo says, pausing his game to direct the full power of his glare towards Shoto, who looks back in confusion. "Does this have to do with Ponytail?"
Shoto doesn't say anything, and, in doing that, he says everything. Bakugo stands up, looking about ready to dismember him. Just then, Midoriya walks in, sits next to Bakugo, and yanks him down by taking his hand, holding it firmly within his own.
"What's wrong, Todoroki? You weren’t coming over until later." Midoriya asks, gently. Shoto vividly remembers liking him in law school, perhaps too much for Bakugo's taste. The attraction has faded since then, but he still trusts him more than anyone he knows. Without Midoriya, he wouldn't be the lawyer he is today, so he tells the green-haired man about Yaoyorozu, about how ready he was to dislike her, and the steady, stubborn — but never overbearing— way in which she earned his esteem.
As he recounts the creep incident, Bakugo lies his head on Midoriya's lap, letting his boyfriend play with his hair as he listens to Shoto, arms crossed, legs dangling from one end of the couch. It makes him imagine himself running his hands through Yaoyorozu's hair, and he trails off in a daze. Annoyed, Bakugo snaps at him to " Get on with the story, bastard!".
"... Then things became… different. Neither of us was trying to one-up the other. She's quite smart—" Bakugo interjects a disdainful ‘ well, duh’. "—and she's easy to be around. But I don't know what she meant by what she said last night. Or even if she meant it." He finishes, mismatched eyes staring at his shoes instead of the couple in front of him.
The casual affection that Midoriya gives his boyfriend used to make Shoto uncomfortable, but now it only makes him a little envious. He’s gotten over Midoriya — even if Bakugo doesn’t believe so — but he still wishes, in the quiet moments alone, for that sort of companionship.
"Todoroki," Midoriya starts, gently. The tone of his voice alerts Shoto of the fact that, whatever he says next, it's going to make him uncomfortable. "Have you thought that maybe… She likes you?"
"Well I hope she does, we work together after all." Shoto replies, confused at his friend's question.
"No, you icy-hot bastard." Bakugo snaps. "Not that way. She likes you." Something about the man's fiery look, coupled with the emphasis he puts on the word is what makes Shoto understand. Suddenly, the blonde's promise of "making him pay if Ponytail so much as sneezes because of him" makes sense. Bakugo must have picked up on it since Aizawa-sensei's trial.
"That… is a possibility," he concedes. Once the idea is on his mind, it takes over every other thought. He doesn't know what to make of Yaoyorozu having romantic feelings for him.
"Oh, please, don't come into my house with your oblivious bullshit. She's into you. It was obvious at court, it was blatant with what she told you." Distractedly, Shoto thinks Bakugo is the last person he'd have expected to help him sort out his feelings, but life has a way of making the unexpected happen. "Beats me what she could possibly see in you, but Ponytail is complicated like that. Now listen here, asshole." Bakugo crosses the scant few meters between their seats to jab a finger into Shoto's chest, too fast for Midoriya to stop him. "Do you like her?"
Shoto keeps quiet for a long time. Does he like Yaoyorozu? She's beautiful, that's unquestionable. She's also intelligent and engaging, funny without trying and pushy when she needs to, but never without a reason. Whenever Shoto is with her, he feels at peace and, most importantly, he feels supported. He'd been doing his job alone for so long before Yaoyorozu that he had not realized how heavy the burden was until she lifted half of it from his shoulders. He thinks back on Yaoyorozu's kind smiles and the way she'll always bring a cup of tea to his desk in the morning. He thinks of her talking about her acting days and the earnestness she puts into everything she does. Lastly, he thinks of her crestfallen expression when she overheard their coworkers talking about her scandal and the urge that’s been steadily growing in his chest to never let anyone else make her look that way again —and suddenly, almost as an afterthought, it all clicks. Of course he likes her.
"I have to go," he says. Bakugo grabs him by the arm, staring him down, but Shoto doesn't look away. Seemingly satisfied, the blond lets go, and he's out the door in a blink.
He doesn't hear the way Midoriya jokingly complains to Bakugo about stealing his best friend nor does he watch the heated kiss he gives Midoriya in lieu of a 'shut up'. He doesn't have time.
He needs to find Yaoyorozu.
By the time he realizes he showed up empty-handed to confess his feelings for the first time ever, Shoto is parked outside Yaoyorozu’s apartment building.
Refusing to let that stop him, he looks through the list of tenants until he finds her apartment (simply labeled Yaoyorozu ) and rings the buzzer. When minutes go by without an answer, Shoto pushes the buzzer again only to see through the holes in the fence that Yaoyorozu is walking out of the building, wearing an oversized blue hoodie and sunglasses. There's a blond man walking by her side, and the sight of him makes his brows furrow into a confused scowl.
"Yaoyorozu," he says when she and the man are at the fence. She startles, looking his way but not without a little horror. Shoto is suddenly too aware of the wrinkles in his shirt from Midoriya's couch and the slight crook in his collar. He clears his throat. "May I talk to you?"
It may be Denki’s job to know everything about Yaomomo’s life (mainly so he can make sure the press doesn’t spin it in a way that hurts her career even further), but he really doesn’t want to be in the middle of this.
Beside him, Yaomomo tenses up as soon as he speaks. Denki looks at her from the corner of his eye, noticing the way the actress’ cheeks turn red, and she moves just so her body is barely visible behind his. This is so unlike her, Denki thinks, then wonders if her refusal to go to work today has anything to do with the man on the other side of the fence.
From his… ahem, exotic looks, Denki guesses the guy is Yaomomo’s infamous lawyer. He’s staring at them with intense grey-and-blue eyes that go back and forth between Denki and his black-haired charge. In the past, Denki’s university classmates would always berate him for his slowness to pick up on things, but as he notes Yaomomo’s weirdly shy demeanor and the strange urgency that paints her boss’s words, his brain easily puts two and two together. He coughs into his hand to hide the snickers that threaten to spill out of his mouth. Jiro is going to have a field day.
“Are you Todoroki?” He addresses the man. Then, without even letting him reply, “Great! Hopefully you’ll talk some sense into her.” Then he quite unceremoniously pushes Yaomomo past the fenced gate and into Todoroki’s arms. He waves at her, knowing she’ll probably fire him later.
“The benches in the middle of the park are secluded enough,” he calls, turning around to walk away. “Don’t get photographed.” And then he leaves.
He hears Yaomomo call him over but makes the executive decision to ignore her calling. Instead, he pulls out his phone, drafting a message to Jiro.
U won’t believe what just happened!!!!!!
“Kaminari-kun, wait!” Momo calls, to no avail. The blonde doesn’t so much as acknowledge her, and a mean streak that she knows won’t last much makes her think, He’s so fired later .
She turns around, facing Todoroki’s intense, stormy gaze. She’s always liked the way his fringe frames his eyes, but now she wishes it wouldn’t make them so intense. Momo feels like they’re trying to tell her something, but she’s scared to find out what. She clears her throat, uncomfortable, and turns towards the crosswalk.
“Shall we?” she whispers, turning her face away so he won’t see her blush. Behind her, Todoroki hums in agreement, and she starts towards the park, fixing her blue hoodie so it covers her face better.
They walk in silence for a few minutes. Internally, Momo’s mind runs in circles trying to figure out what he’ll tell her. Not a week before, she’d thought she had a chance with him, but, seeing his solemn expression as he walks beside her, she’s no longer sure. Finally, they walk deep enough into the park that they're only surrounded by trees and empty benches. Momo sits on the nearest one, watching as Todoroki takes a seat beside her — far enough to respect her personal space, but too close for her sanity.
"Yaoyoro-"
"Todoro-"
They both shut up, watching each other with caution. Momo struggles to keep her gaze on him, but he looks back calmly, features schooled into a gentle expression. She tries, with little success, to focus on his face now instead of the shocked expression she last saw him making the previous night. Momo is ready to take back her words and apologize, she even opens her mouth to do so, but Todoroki stops her with a raised hand.
"Yaoyorozu," he says, cautiously, as though he thinks his voice might spook her into running (and what do you know, he may just be onto something). "I was quite shocked last night-"
"Yes, Todoroki-san, I was drunk-" Momo starts, already dreading to hear whatever he says next. Todoroki has an uncanny way of speaking with barely any inflections to his voice most of the time, with the occasional emotion sneaking past his guard now and again. It makes Momo's skin itch with the need to figure out how he feels. Now is not any different, only the stakes are bigger.
"Yaoyorozu, I hate to interrupt you, but please, let me speak," he says, not unkindly. Momo purses her lips, anxious, but makes no further attempt to explain herself.
"I don't have a lot of time for myself in my line of work," he starts, carefully choosing his words. "So your words last night made me think about my personal relationships for the first time in a while." Todoroki looks intently at her. Momo holds her breath, waiting for him to continue. "I am quite slow when it comes to feelings, but I think…" he pauses, deliberately resting his hand on the empty bit of bench between them, just close enough that if she were to stretch her arm towards it, their fingertips would touch.
"I think I'd like our relationship to move forward, too," he says, echoing her words. Momo gasps, her heart trying to beat itself out of her ribcage. He can't possibly be saying what she thinks, can he?
"T-Todoroki-san… does that mean…?" She trails off, finally looking at him with unabashed hope. He returns her gaze, stormy gray and clear blue eyes glinting under the soft light that filters from the trees.
"Would you go out with me, Yaoyorozu?" He asks, cheeks lightly dusted in red. It's the first time Momo has seen him blush, and she's delighted.
"Yes!" She nods, smiling despite her best efforts to seem cool and composed. "I'd like that, Todoroki-san." Momo admits softly.
In a bold manner that Momo has come to associate with him, Todoroki reaches out and takes her hand, scooting closer so their joined hands can rest comfortably in the space between them. Momo squeezes it, not quite believing the exchange that's just transpired yet. Beside her, Todoroki squeezes back.
"You know we still have a lot of work in the office, right?" Todoroki asks her, ever the pragmatic one. It's so like him to be worried about his cases even in a moment such as this, it makes Momo's chest throb with fondness. She lets out a hearty laugh while simultaneously standing up.
"Let's go, then." She replies, smiling. One corner of his mouth lifts up, and he stands up, falling into step beside her.
He buys her lunch on their way to the office.