Chapter Text
"Bam!"
One of the villain's long tentacle-like arms crashed into a nearby building. Thank god the citizens were already evacuated. Though the man had tremendous power, he didn’t seem particularly good at using it. His attacks were chaotic and uncoordinated, slamming his fists into random structures and throwing the pieces of the rubble in all directions.
Normally, avoiding the pieces would be easy, but all the dust from falling buildings in combination with Todoroki’s overly long bangs made it doubly hard to see the villain's attacks coming. So much so, Todoroki was genuinely considering freezing his hair to his head—or perhaps burning it off would be better—when he heard another loud crash.
Before he could react, a large chunk of debris came hurling towards his face. Just as it was about to hit him, Midoriya ran to his rescue, smashing the boulder to pieces.
"What are you doing, Shoto? Are you alright?" Midoriya said, visibly concerned as to how Todoroki, the 8th ranked hero, was that close to getting knocked out by a rock of all things.
Todoroki seriously started to regret not cutting his hair earlier. In his defense, it wasn’t like he could just get it cut at any old barbershop like everybody else. Ever since breaking into the top ten hero rankings last week, he’d started getting recognized a hell of a lot more often. Even on patrol, he was often swarmed by reporters who wanted interviews. He could barely deal with them in an open space, so sue him if the thought of sitting down in a small barbershop with no way to escape wasn’t particularly appealing. He especially didn't want to think of what would happen if he accidently let it slip that he and Bakugou were dating. Top heroes number 8 and 9 dating? The media would probably have a field day—though thinking about it now, Bakugou had always been good paparazzi repellent.
His manager told him if he laid low for a week or two, everyone would eventually grow tired of him, and laying low was exactly what he'd been doing, but in hindsight, maybe he should have at least brought a hair clip or something. This was getting ridiculous.
"Sorry Deku. It’s my hair," Todoroki replied, frowning slightly. "Either way, let's just get this fight over with."
Without skipping a beat, he created a ramp of ice through the rubble, so Midoriya could get close enough to finish the job.
...
"So why exactly can't you get a haircut again?" Uraraka asked. She’d just returned after helping to evacuate some of the locals.
"Getting ambushed by paparazzi on a normal day is bad enough. Getting ambushed while stuck in a barber's chair isn't exactly ideal," he explained.
Uraraka's face slowly morphed into a large smile. "I know somewhere you can get a haircut without worrying about any of that."
"Hmm, and where would that be," he replied mildly intrigued.
Todoroki glanced over at Midoriya who let out a short sigh. "Ochaco," Midoriya said slowly, sounding worried, "we've talked about this. You can't just use our friends as practice dummies. Especially not Todoroki."
Uraraka pouted, looking disappointed after being called out by her own boyfriend. The audacity.
Meanwhile, Todoroki was still wondering what this place was and what Midoriya meant by "especially not Todoroki." Was there something special about him in particular? He said as much too.
"I still don't understand. Who's this barber and why can't I go?"
"The 'barber' is me. I'm planning on getting a side job, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try my hand at it. I even have a pair of fancy hair scissors. Deku's just scared a bad haircut will affect your cold, princely image."
"Oh. Well, it sounds good to me," he said, still not understanding what his 'image' was or why it was 'cold' and 'princely.' As he spoke, the girl's face lit up.
"It's not just that," Midoriya started to interject mumbling about how ruining his image might cause his popularity to decrease and then that would make his rank go down and a whole bunch of other stuff neither Uraraka nor Todoroki were listening to.
Eventually Todoroki cut him off with a simple, "It's fine."
With that, he seemed to calm down a bit and they all made their way to Uraraka's house.
...
As expected, she lived in a fairly small but comfortable apartment. It was decorated with various pictures of her family as well as a few of Midoriya and her from their trip to America last year.
As soon as they entered, Uraraka excitedly ran over to one of her cupboard's and pulled out a shiny new pair of hair-cutting shears. From there, she took Todoroki by the arm and dragged him into the bathroom, Midoriya following closely behind them.
It was set up so Todoroki was sitting on the toilet with the lid down. Midoriya was behind him holding a trash bag close to his head to catch the cut hair. Meanwhile Uraraka was positioned over him awkwardly with a mirror in one hand and the scissors in the other. From the expression on her face, it seemed she was as excited as she was nervous. The position didn't seem particularly professional, but Todoroki didn't expect much anyway.
...
Todoroki didn't even need to look at the mirror to know it was bad. He could tell from Midoriya and Uraraka's expressions. His suspicions were only confirmed when both of them started apologizing. Guess he was going to have to call his PR agent again pretty soon. It had only been a week since he was yelled at for going on a mission without his hero costume too. Oh well.
"Can I see it?"
Uraraka handed him the mirror anxiously, obviously scared of his reaction.
Todoroki looked into the mirror to see... well... a mess. His once smooth, jealousy-inducing hair was now choppy and refused to sit flat on his head. He was almost impressed with how bad it was. It took skill—or the severe lack of it—to make his hair look like anything other than a Pantene commercial waiting to happen. Somehow the crisp line that usually split his hair into red and white looked jagged and messy. Forget almost impressed, he was completely awestruck by how awful it was. He doubted he could replicate such a monstrosity if he wanted to.
Midoriya, noticing how intensely Todoroki was staring into the mirror, tried to lighten the mood. "Well at least you don't need to worry about L'Oréal trying to put you in their ads anymore. Ha ha..."
Realizing his reaction—or rather, lack thereof—was probably making the couple uncomfortable, Todoroki looked up at Uraraka and, with the straightest face he could muster, said, "Thank you. This is fine."
"Are you seriously okay with this Todoroki?" asked Midoriya.
"I don't make many public appearances anyway. Plus its only hair. It'll grow back." This seemed to ease the tension in the room.
"I think it's time for a change of branding, anyway. I hear beanies are really in these days too!" Uraraka offered. Todoroki always thought it was amazing how she could make everything she said sound so genuine and cheerful. So much so, he found himself agreeing with her.
This, however, was slightly overshadowed by Midoriya's mumbling. Todoroki decided it was probably best to leave before the pair could feel too guilty. With that, he tugged on his hoodie and headed home.