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Todoroki Shoto did not make friends easily.
It was a deceptively simple truth. For all the reasons behind it, his sheltered and tumultuous upbringing, his family position as ‘hero royalty’ compared to many of his classmates, his own awkwardness in the face of so many personalities, no matter what they were, he was simply worse than his classmates at connecting with people.
Midoriya was the first exception, of course. By extension, those closest to the boy had warmed to Todoroki’s presence. Yaoyorozu, too, seemed to welcome him into conversations and extend an invitation to her study sessions with the other students. His time with Bakugou and the Shiketsu students during their supplemental classes had similarly made him feel more connected to them. And truthfully, he had grown closer to the class as a whole during the year, if only out of sheer necessity.
But he still felt like an outsider. He struggled where the others thrived. In casual conversation, in everyday complaints and jokes. Sometimes he would watch the others from the corner of his eye, gathered around to complain about homework or chat about their favourite TV shows. He wanted to speak up, join in with the class, but words would more often than not elude him.
They weren’t bad people, they weren’t trying to exclude him. If anything, people like Midoriya were trying their best to give him a space to fill.
So why couldn’t he ever seem to fill it?
The answer refused to come to him as he walked on the outer edges of the group through the Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall. Even now, picking up on the conversations carrying on without him, he couldn’t seem to break through the invisible barrier that separated him from the class. He wasn’t sure why he bothered to come along. Their little expedition to the mall, chaperoned rather unenthusiastically by their homeroom teacher, was a non compulsory trip. They rarely left campus in such a large group, though he had overheard Kaminari and Sero theorising that it was a reward from Aizawa for their efforts during the school festival. A chance to shop and enjoy each other’s company outside of UA before the weather got too cold to take such trips.
The late autumn chill carried through the open plan mall, each gust of wind ruffled hair and elicited small shivers from shoppers. It only served to further alienate Shoto from his peers, they huddled together to try and withstand the cold winds. His left side ran hot, and his right was used to far colder temperatures. He had no need for the companionable closeness the others were sharing, but the absence of it made him burrow a little further into his scarf anyway.
“Cold, isn’t it?”
The sudden voice startled Shoto from his thoughts. He glanced to the side, meeting Asui’s gaze.
“I suppose,” he offered as a reply. It seemed pointless to explain his personal defences against the weather to her.
Asui hummed in acknowledgement, though offered no further attempt at conversation. Instead, she covered her face as a long yawn overtook her, followed by a shiver.
“You don’t deal well with the cold because of your quirk,” he observed.
“That’s right,” she blinked, noticeably slower than usual. “It’s not enough to put me in hibernation, but I am getting pretty sleepy.”
“Why aren’t you wearing any gloves?”
Asui looked down at her hands, then back up at him rather sheepishly. “I forgot them back at the dorm.”
Shoto looked down at her large hands, slightly paler than usual, then away to where Iida was directing them with large, rigid arm movements. It was unlikely that the girl would be so careless as to leave her gloves behind, and even more unlikely that their class representative would allow her to continue on without giving her his own. He admired that kindness in Iida.
“Would you mind?”
Once again, Asui’s croaky voice pulled his attention back to her. Shoto’s steps slowed as he looked between her face and the hand she had tentatively stretched towards him.
“Would I mind what?”
Asui blinked slowly up at him. “You run warm on your left side, don’t you? I can feel it just standing here.”
Intuitive as always, she picked up on his confusion without further questions and directed his attention to the backs of their classmates. In front of them, Hagakure and Ashido were all but fused together, arm in arm as they stopped in front of a store window to look in at the display of dresses.
“You want to... walk with me?” He was uncertain even as he said it. In truth, he wasn’t all that close with Asui. She was a capable hero in training, and a classmate he held in high regard, but they weren’t exactly friends. Even after all they as a class had been through. He couldn’t even bring himself to properly comfort her when she cried about the rift he and the others had caused after the Kamino incident. He could only stand to the side while the others hugged and cried with her.
But he didn’t have to bring himself to do anything this time. Asui was the one out on a limb, asking for something from him. Asking for help.
Something akin to pride bloomed in Shoto’s chest at the prospect of his classmate needing him. Even if just for a little while, just for some solace against the cold of the November morning, he was needed.
Asui was still waiting for his reply, patient as ever, neither pressuring him to take her hand nor drawing away from his unresponsiveness. She simply watched and waited for his decision.
This was his chance.
Shoto took her outstretched hand, tucking it against his elbow. At the acquiescence, Asui stepped closer and laid her other hand on his forearm, letting out a pleased little ‘ribbit’ as the warmth permeated the material of his sweater and chased away the chill in her fingers. They began walking again, and Shoto cleared his throat uncertainly as he matched his pace to hers.
“Is there a shop you’d like to visit specifically?”
“No. Though maybe a hot cocoa would be nice,” Asui shrugged noncommittally, wriggling closer to press more comfortably against his side. “I just wanted to spend some time outside of the dorms with my friends. What about you?”
Friends. The word reverberated through his head. What exactly moved someone from classmate to friend? Was it time, or experience, or connection? Was it admiration?
He considered the group walking in front of them yet again. They weren’t nearly as separated from him as he thought. Uraraka and Midoriya were originally at the front of the group, but had fallen behind slightly, turned and waving for the pair of stragglers to keep up. He realised that Sero’s occasional glance back wasn’t to get a look at the stores the passed as he thought it was, he was checking if Todoroki had fallen too far behind. Even Mina and Hagakure, walking arm in arm, were noticeably slower than they once were now that he took the time to notice it.
He supposed, then, that he was becoming friends with more people than he realised. In their own little ways, rather than announcing it, they were all extending hands for him to take. Asui was simply the one to actually do it.
“Todoroki?”
Still patiently waiting for an answer. Of course she was.
“I suppose I’m the same,” he finally answered. “Though I think Sero wanted to check out some new manga releases, I wouldn’t mind doing that.”
“Let’s see if we can go with him, then.”
She said it so simply.
And he supposed it was that simple.
So he spent that trip with Asui tucked into his side. They joined Sero in his shopping, bought hot drinks with Uraraka, Midoriya and Iida. They watched with rapt attention as Mina explained the pros and cons of a pricey outfit she was considering buying, giving opinions when she asked for them. When the coach arrived to take them back to the dorms, he settled into the seat beside his companion, lending her his scarf as she was pulled to sleep by the gentle hum of the engines. He did not comment on the pair of gloves shoved into her back pocket, only offering her a silent thank you by offering her his arm if she needed it again during future trips.
Todoroki Shoto did not make friends easily.
But he gained them nonetheless.