Chapter Text
Todoroki and Bakugou would admit that the robot looked very cool. It came from the future to prevent a school bus accident in which its daughter was involved, had a pants-shitting tinny voice, shot lasers from just about anywhere, plus a chainsaw sprouted from its head.
Otherwise, the fact that it went on a rampage that left several injured and millions of property damage was lame. What purpose did the lasers and the head-saw serve in stopping a bus? None other than to impress teenagers like them.
Thus the novelty wore off quickly, something about delusional show-off parents kind of ruining it for Todoroki, and Bakugou got fed up within seconds of talking to the droid. So when the dust was forcibly settled by the heroes in training, Deku was the one who was left to take the (alive!) daughter to it (just to say hello and then go to someone safer because seriously what the hell) and listen to the woes of its motherboard, where of course the soul is stored.
Deku speaks gently to the handcuffed exterminator, and appears to be in grief for it, but doesn’t let go of the girl’s hand. He crouches down next to her, silently goading the robot to do the same if it wants to talk.
“I wish Midoriya was my father.”
“Please go away.” That’s not even the most ridiculous thing Todoroki Shouto has said to Bakugou that day. Interning with these hacks was a mistake.
“I think he wishes I was his son too, sometimes.”
“Shut up. Shut up. I do not care.”
“I noticed something recently, and then started to conduct an experiment on him. Turns out, whenever I drop the slightest hint about my bad childhood, Midoriya acts fatherly towards me.” He turns to Bakugou for his input.
“I do not care.”
Todoroki sighs, “Fine, I’m sorry, but I needed to tell someone. I don’t know if it’s alright to want this. Do you ever feel the same?”
Bakugou's fuse never burnt so fast. “HAH? Do I want Deku to be my frickin’ dad?!”
“Because you act like a brat with him. You normally suck, but when he’s around you’re really, really, seriously, so, so annoying, and he doesn’t even get mad.”
Bakugou raises a sparking hand to slap the Todoroki man into orbit, “DIE, DIE, DIE!”
“What’s up guys—KACCHAN NO!”
Deku runs and tackles Katsuki into the snow.
“GETOFFAMENERD!”
They wrestle around, and Midoriya tries to yell over Bakugou’s snow-buried yelling, “KaAHcchan, Todo—oof—roki-kun, wanna go get that new NASA dry cup noodle? I hear it’s disgusting!”
Todoroki shrugs, “Alright.”
Bakugou unearths himself, making Midoriya topple over, “I’m not eating with you people!”
“Oh, you brought packed lunch?” Deku smiles and gets up, not even dusting the snow cakes off himself, “At least come to the 7-Eleven with us!”
Bakugou, insulted, explodes five-feet into the air, “When I’m dead!”
Todoroki and Midoriya shrug the left and right shoulder respectively then start racing to the konbini close by.
They run and run and somehow, the winner of that race is Bakugou.
“HA! Slow trash!” He holds the door open for them only to gloat.
“Fast trash. You joined us,” Todoroki greets him.
“I’m glad!” Deku beams.
“Shut! Up! I’m only here for food!” Turns out Bakugou didn’t bring packed lunch.
Bakugou scans the store and marches to what he was looking for. He snatches a Hot Lava Carrot Cup Noodle (with real ghost-pepper!) from a nearby shelf. Midoriya gasps as his eyes zero in on the package.
Number 5 hero Miruko flexes one shiny and massive bicep, her face contorted into an insane grin, just double-dog daring him to pick her inedible ramen over NASA’s.
Todoroki crouches as he finds NASA Authentic Astronaut Dehydrated Chicken Ramen (no hot water needed!) on the bottom shelf, but there’s a problem.
“Midoriya, there’s only one astronoodle left. Rock-paper-scissors you for it?”
Deku shyly fiddles with a Hot Lava Carrot Cup Noodle (with real ghost-pepper!), “Um, you can have it, Todoroki-kun.”
Bakugou scoffs, “Deku, you are so pathetic—"
“Who says I have a crush?!” Midoriya snaps, cradling the ramen to his chest.
“You’re in love, Midoriya? Who with?” Todoroki enquires.
“No one!” “Rabbit-face.” Deku and Bakugou say at the same time.
“SHUT UP!” Deku shrills.
Todoroki gets up and comes face-to-face with rows of Midoriya’s schoolboy infatuation. “Miruko?”
Midoriya flushes indignantly, “I would never! She’s an amazing professional! We’ll be colleagues!”
“Stop talkin' like you got a snowball's chance in hell. 'Sides, that never stopped you from havin’ that creepy crush on All Might,” Bakugou sneers.
Todoroki grimaces and Deku shrieks, “GROSS, Kacchan! I know how I am, but I never thought of All Might like that! Before meeting him, he was like…like Santa to me!”
“Oh, so like a father.” Todoroki supplies, relaxing. Only to receive silence and judgment from his classmates. “That’s what Santa was to me,” he explains.
Bakugou rolls his eyes but Deku’s become wet and shimmery.
“Hey, Todoroki-kun, I know it’s cold, but do you want a popsicle? C’mon, pick one. We won’t tell Endeavor, yeah?” Midoriya says in a soft, deep voice that suggests he has gone through six marriages and a global economic crisis.
Todoroki shoots the briefest and most loaded of glances to an extremely disgusted Bakugou, goes “Yay,” and turns to the freezer to pick an ice cream.
Midoriya takes the strawberry Cornetto from him and the NASA noodles for good measure, definitively filling the father-shaped hole in Todoroki’s heart, then heads to the cashier. Bakugou goes after him, fuming.
He clears his throat right next to Deku, “AHEM! So the old hag once left me for half an hour in the mall to teach me a lesson. I was two!” He slides his one cup noodle towards Deku’s pile as the cashier beeps the items.
Deku looks at him sadly, “That’s awful, Kacchan.” Then he nudges his pile away from Bakugou’s noodles lest the cashier confuses himself, turns to Todoroki struggling to open his peasant ice cream, takes it and peels the thing carefully, handing it back to him with a tired grin. “There ya go, kiddo.”
“Thanks,” Todoroki gives him a little smile, “I used to have to hide to eat unhealthy things like this.”
Bakugou groans as he pays for his own noodles like some kind of loser. Meanwhile Deku stares meaningfully at Todoroki.
“Tell you what, I’ll bring my baseball things tomorrow. We’re gonna play all day, okay Todoroki-kun? I promise.”
They were skipping internship? “Cool,” Todoroki bites his cone on the side like it’s a turkey leg. Bakugou and Midoriya manage to suppress different levels of appalment (Deku, heavily; Bakugou, not at all).
Bakugou turns and fishes for an orange popsicle in the freezer, “When she came back, she pretended not to see me in that ball pit and said she was gonna leave forever. I want this,” he shoves it in Deku’s face, a last ditch.
Todoroki’s eyeballs ping-pong from Bakugou to Deku.
Deku makes a sympathetic noise, “Man, really? That must’ve been terrifying.” Bakugou bristles, but he knows he's close, shakes the popsicle at him. “It reminds me of that time you pretended I was invisible for a whole month. You’d go like, ‘guys, look at that floating bread!’ and steal my bread, haha, remember? You must have been lonely in that ball pit, Kacchan…” Deku scrunches his brows above misty eyes and unconsciously reaches for the orange pop by his nose.
Katsuki snatches it back, beyond furious. Todoroki is confused. Bakugou violently pries the freezer open once more, gets another orange, and slams a couple yen on the counter. Then he sticks one popsicle inside Midoriya’s scarf.
Deku’s whole skeleton tries to exit through his mouth, “SONOVABI—”
“I DIDN’T SEE YOU THAT MONTH IN 6TH GRADE DEKU, BUT BELIEVE ME NOW YOU’RE AN DAMN EYESORE THAT I CAN’T GET RID OF!” and with that, Bakugou stomps out of 7-Eleven with an orange icy and no ramen, which he forgets.
Deku shivers with the wind blowing from outside, “Brr, wait up Kacchan, you’ll get cold! Your noodle—Oh, orange, heck yeah.”
Todoroki lifts an eyebrow and comments, “That’s nice of him.”
“It is! Don’t know why he did it though, he looked mad,” Midoriya opens his popsicle, "oh, he's gonna wait outside."
“He thinks of you as a mother, but vestigial rebelliousness demanded that he undermine you by providing for you instead.”
Deku nods like he gets it. It’s not the weirdest thing Todoroki has said to him that day.
Todoroki eyes the orange pop curiously, “Trade you.”
Midoriya gasps, “Wow, for real?” Cornetto for an orange icy? That’s easier than convincing Aizawa to give free study instead of class. They exchange treats and tap on the shop’s glass front to try and get Bakugou, who is just sulking there, waiting for someone to notice his forgotten ramen and bring it to him, back inside.
Unfortunately, this indeed causes him to look, and from his perspective, Shitty Deku had snubbed his orange icy for Icy-Half’s half-eaten Cornetto that Deku himself had bought. Which, to be fair, is what happened. He smushes his face against the window to curse at him. Unluckily, glass is not a good hate conductor.
Midoriya points to his own ear, “COME IN I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”
Todoroki thinks that judging from the number of passersby stopping, then walking away fast, it might be for the best. A scared-looking dude with a helmet makes him remember something and he turns to Midoriya.
“You still teaching me how to ride the bike today right?”
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