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“Iida?” Todoroki asked, looking between his boyfriend and the small box in his hands, painted in varying shades of blue, mixing and blurring together to look kind of like the seaside he and his friends had visited over the summer. “What’s that?”
“I—” Iida’s face turned bright red as he placed the box on the low table. “It is a gift.”
A noise stuck in Todoroki’s throat, face quickly growing warm, as he gingerly picked the blue box up, eyeing the thick white ribbon wrapped gently around the edges. The box itself was barely bigger than the palm of Todoroki’s hand, and he wondered what could possibly be inside.
Not soba noodles—the box was too small for that. Not chopsticks or stationary either, for the same reasons. He glanced up, eyes darting over Iida’s red cheeks before he gently tugged on the white ribbon, letting it unravel into his lap. Then, with all the gentleness he could muster with Iida’s intense gaze boring into him, he slid the lid of the box off, brows furrowed in confusion. Inside, sitting among pretty white wrapping paper were four glass vials, three packets of tea, and two of what he recognized as bath bombs, thanks to shopping with Uraraka.
“What are these for?” he asked softly, reading the labels on the vials. A variety of bath salts, apparently to help the user relax and fall asleep better. The bath bombs and tea were to provide the same effects. At the silence from Iida, Todoroki peaked up, only to see the other boy fidgeting, arms jerking at his sides. “Iida?”
“I just—” he broke off, trying to keep his arms by his side before giving up. “You mentioned a couple times that you have trouble sleeping, and these reminded me of you. I hoped they might help…”
Todoroki smiled softly, looking over the small contents in the box as warmth that had nothing to do with his quirk flooded his chest. “Thank you…”
“O-of course!”
“I don’t know if this would be too forward of me, but… I think I would sleep better with you next to me.”
“Todoroki!”
“I don’t mean we need to, just… like when we have group sleepovers. You hold me, and it makes me feel safe and warm and-and—” and loved, Todoroki doesn’t say, can’t say. Not yet, not while everything is still so new, but the way Iida’s flush revitalizes, deepens… Todoroki knows Iida knows anyway.
Maybe that's what Iida was saying with the gift.