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Shouto Todoroki is surprisingly not an emotionless deadpan. Blunt? Yes. Unobservant when it comes to anything that's not hypotheticalising over his classmates' potential bastard parents? Most definitely. But unlike what he lets everyone believe he’s not actually a no-nonsense person, in fact if you ask most of his friends Shouto is, to quote Uraraka ,“a lovable little shit” who jokes around quite a bit. But staring at the ceiling on this godless day has made Shouto wish he was someone who never joked around or never had feelings like everyone believes, if only to save him from the embarrassment that is sure to melt him into a puddle of vaguely Todoroki shaped goo if it continues on for even a second more. Glancing to his left side Uraraka seems to be in a similar state of overwhelming despair and mortification, half bent over with her eyes bugged out, face as red as a fire truck. God, how are they always getting into these messes?
Kaminari and Mina had been teaching Shouto internet humor and, much to the dismay of Iida, Shouto took to it like a fish to water. There was hardly any humor to be found in Shoutos household growing up as he was barred from the internet, friends, and the outside world at a very young age, so the moment the dorm system was put into place he was ecstatic to have access to the same internet content that his classmates were chattering about most of the time. Shouto used his newfound freedom both to send his friends memes in response to all their text messages (mostly because no one had yet to tell him that they weren’t supposed to be replacers for most messages yet) and to try to catch up to his classmates in his pop culture knowledge so that way he would be less utterly confused every time one of them talked. Why does Kaminari scream “why are you running?” when they're doing laps in the gym? What is yeet? Is tik tok just the clock app that's on his phone and if so, why are all his friends obsessed with it? Suffice to say he has many questions and very few answers, which is why he is currently sitting in the dorm common area listening to Mina’s very passionate rant about why Ms. Midnight refusing to let her use the hero name Alien Queen is the very definition of Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss. She could be a very good public speaker or teacher, Shouto thinks, as he has learned more about those three things in the past ten minutes than he ever would have in his individual studies on internet culture. He also thinks that his Father, despite his gender might fit under the Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss umbrella too.
“And that is why I believe that it is completely unjustified for Ms. Midnight to deny my original hero name despite other heroes having way more violent and scary hero names like death arms!” Mina finishes her rant with a huff, crossing her arms over her chest and falling backwards into the couch seat right next to Kaminari, who was currently doubled over in painful laughter.
““the walking BDSM commercials gonna lecture me on what's appropriate?” Mina where do you come up with this stuff? *wheeze* don’t you think you're taking this a little too personal?” Kaminari Gasps out between laughs, giggling like a hyena.
“Oh no Honey I absolutely know I'm taking this too far, but I think I deserve to be a little petty considering Iida and Shouto didn’t put any real thought into theirs! Er, no offense.” she replied, picking up her soda to take a sip.
“None taken” he responds, face wrinkling as if deep in thought “I was unaware you two were dating.”
Mina spits her drink out onto an unsuspecting Kaminari who has once again dissolved into uncontrollable giggles. “NO! Nonononono no no No!” she screams, each “no” being emphasized with her pushing Kaminari further off the couch. “Why would you even think that?”
Shouto frowned in confusion. “You called him Honey.”
The yellow haired boy wheezes with laughter. “It’s not like that Roki, we just call each other pet names like that because it's kinda funny? The vibes of it just seem right.” Kaminari tries to explain between gasping breaths, but Shouto only catches every third word. He is not as gifted in public speaking as Mina is, Shouto thinks.
“I do not understand”
Mina thankfully turns towards Shouto and explains. “Remember when we talked about how some friends will call each other insults affectionately like how Bakugou calls everyone nicknames? It’s kinda like that but like, the opposite. Sometimes friends will call each other Bae, Love, Darling, Wife/Husband etc. etc. It's just something that some close friends do? People who do that aren’t actually in a relationship with each other but they’re often just really close friends who vibe with each other and use the nicknames jokingly.”
Shouto doesn’t fully “get” it, but he can definitely see the appeal of it. He never did really enjoy calling his friends mean nicknames even if they were just jokes. His home life had been full of insults from his father directed at everyone who had the unfortunate experience of making him mad, so he often felt uncomfortable calling his friends mean things like Bakugou did, although he understands why the explosion boy does so. In fact, the concept sounded nice to the dual haired boy. After all, he loved his friends very much, and it sounded nice to be able to remind them of that through little names all the time. He nods to tell Mina he understands and the conversation switches to Mina and Kaminari discussing whether or not Aizawa is aware that his disgusted face at the most recent press conference for UA has become a viral meme and if not how many copies of it does Shouto think they can tape around the school before they get caught. All in all, a quite normal conversation for the three.
The next time Shouto encounters this concept in the wild is during a weekly gameboard night with what Mina and Kaminari have aptly named the Dekusquad. Piled into Shouto’s room surrounding a small table piled with an absurd amount of junk food, Iida, Midoriya, Uraraka, Tsu, and Shouto all sit with a game of headbands on, trying and failing to guess what card they currently have stuck to their heads.
“It’s kinda like a bucket, kero”
“Is it a basket?” Shouto asks, eyeing the timer on the table's edge. He hopes he can guess what the card is in time, as the winner of this game gets fruit roll ups. So far Iida, Midoriya, and Uraraka have all lost this game due to running out of time, leaving Shouto the burden of beating Tsu, the queen of game night who was currently surrounded by a pile of chip and cookie containers from her past winnings.
“No, but I suppose it’s like a basket in the fact that you can carry things around in it.” The frog-like girl replies, staring at Shouto from over the fruit roll ups box with a fire in her eyes. The timer starts counting down from ten seconds leading Midoriya to let out a sad whine of despair as Iida turns around and looks away. The dual haired boy doesn’t know whether he should be offended or not by their little faith in his headband skills.
Shouto purses his lips together as the clock hits five seconds. “... a bag” Tsu’s eyes get impossibly wider as Uraraka sits up from where she had collapsed on the floor in defeat and makes a keep going gesture. “A grocery bag?”
The three losers of the round cheer as Tsu stops the timer and pushes the box of fruit roll ups towards Shouto in defeat. Shouto takes the box of the table and starts opening it to claim his prize.
“Hey Shouto, can I have one?” Izuku ask hesitantly, his bright smile slightly warming the icy boy's heart. Unfortunately, this is game night where Ruthlessness rules, and Izuku’s smiles don’t work nearly as well here as they do in combat training.
“You didn’t believe in my headband skills, so no. Uraraka can have one though since she was supportive.” He replies, leading the gravity reverser to jump up with a cheer. Midoriya sulked for a second before shrugging it off to grab the next board game.
“Thanks sweetheart!” Uraraka chirps happily, causing Shouto to freeze for a second as he tries to wrap his head around the words. Uraraka had never shown any romantic interest in him before, so why did she call him that? Unless it was a mistake? Maybe she meant to say ‘you're a sweetheart and it just got jumbled? Wait, this is like the thing with Mina and Kaminari isn’t it! It’s just Uraraka’s way of showing that she thinks of him as a close friend! He should probably ask her though just to be sure.
“You mean that in a friendship way, right?”
“Yeah!” Uraraka replied, mouth now full of fruit roll up. “Er, did that make you uncomfortable?” her eyes widened slightly as she put her hands up in front of her. “I’m sorry! You're just such a close friend, and it kinda slipped out! I won’t do it again!”
Shouto let out a breath of relief he wasn’t aware he was holding. Honestly, he wasn’t sure of what he’d do if she said no. Romance had always been an odd thing for him, and he didn’t know how he should handle a friend having a crush on him. Thankfully that wasn't the case in this situation.
“It’s alright, I'm ok with it actually. It's … nice … we vibe … Platonically”
Uraraka lowered her hands in relief. “Oh! Ok then! Just making sure, erm, I like your vibes too!”
Shouto smiled at this. He was so lucky to have such nice friends.
“This is sweet kero, but both your vibes are going to lose at monopoly this time”
“Bring it on!”
Since that game night Uraraka and Shouto had started using terms of endearment with each other. Shouto quite liked it actually. It made him feel happy that he was gaining more close friends, especially since for a while after the sports festival he was unsure if it was too late into the school year to try making friends. Thankfully the rest of the class welcomed him with open arms, and he was able to find a group like the Dekusquad to accept him with all his flaws. And Uraraka was fun to hang out with! She helped him learn how to use a microwave, and was one of the few students in 1A besides himself who hadn’t had Netflix before the dorms, so they often watched loads of movies and shows together. She never questions why he might not know things that most people should know like certain kids' games, or internet stuff, or how to cook. She just gets him. Which isn’t to say that his other friends don’t, they do, but unlike Mina and Jiro she doesn’t laugh when he mentions not knowing what memes are, and she doesn’t stare at him with concern when he mentions how happy he is to be able to eat whatever he wants for once like Midoriya and Tsu do. It’s part of the reason why he felt so comfortable with her calling him things like sweetheart and honey, and vice versa. It was nothing romantic, Shouto had no desire for her to be his girlfriend and he really didn’t think he was into girls, but the friendship they had together meant a lot to him. So, he got more open and comfortable with the nicknames. And outside of a one eyebrow raise from Shouji no one really questioned it when he said “thank you Love” to Uraraka when she handed him the chip bag, or called Iida a “total Sweetheart” for making sure everyone ate healthy after their game nights, or when he told Midoriya that he was “stunning Darling” once during training like Aoyama had told him to do which for some reason caused the green haired boy to go red in the face and miss his next punch. And his friends replied back the same way too, collectively deciding that if this was the way their odd friend was going to show affection then they were all onboard with it. Afterall, it was much better than that time Uraraka called Midoriya bitch jokingly and landed the whole squad into a two-hour lecture on appropriate language from Iida. and maybe that's why Shouto and Uraraka got so comfortable with the nicknames to the point that they accidentally used them during a real hero patrol.
Since they had gotten their provisional licenses, members of class 1A were allowed to go on patrols so long as they were in groups of two or more. Shouto and Uraraka didn’t usually go on patrols together, but Tsu was sick and Uraraka needed a partner to go with her, so Shouto offered to join her. So far, the patrol had been a simple quiet one with not much going on, at least until a hijacked semi-truck went flying down the road followed by several cop cars and heroes. Uraraka and Shouto followed to help, Shouto freezing the semi-truck in place to stop the chase. The villains were a group of four who looked like stereotypical cartoon bank robbers with two bags of money each under their arms and a gun or two each. They ran out of the truck and tried to get away, but not before Uraraka grabbed the closest one and flipped him over her shoulder into the ground, disarming him in the process. The rest were taken down by the heroes on scene just as swiftly. After that cleanup began, Shouto using his fire to unfreeze the road and truck while Uraraka floated the debris from the chase above people's heads and towards another hero there who was fusing the road debris back together. Now had Shouto been paying attention to his surroundings, maybe he would’ve noticed that he had met this hero before at his father's agency, but alas, observance is not his strong suit. This is why he didn’t give the next godforsaken interaction a second thought.
“Hey, can you unfreeze this part of the road for me?”
“Sure dear”
“Thanks love!”
And from that small interaction Shouto’s personal hell would emerge.
Todoroki Enji or Endeavor to the public was not a man who believed in down time. Life needed to be scheduled, structured, and shaped to keep everything orderly and neat. He had no time for small talk or dilly dallying, which is why his agency had a rule in place that Sidekicks were only allowed to spend fifteen minutes at a time in the common area, a rule that absolutely no one followed such as is the situation now. He cursed as he walked towards the entrance to the room. If he had it his way Enji would fire everyone who refused to follow this rule but unfortunately firing four dozen sidekicks at once brings too much bad press.
“Does anyone want to explain why you're all wasting everyone's time right now?”
The six sidekicks turn to look at him, Burnin holding a newer sidekick named Fuse by his shoulders as if she had just been shaking him a few moments beforehand. The room seems to have a nervous aura, which would have been normal for the agency as most people were nervous around Enji had it not been for how giddy several of his sidekicks looked. Burnin dragged Fuse to the doorway, practically skipping with excitement.
“Tell him! Tell him what you told us!”
Enji pinched the bridge of his nose, thoroughly done with Burnin's antics for the week. Surprisingly when he looked up fuse was mirroring his pose, although in a more skittish way.
Fuse lowers his hand from his face and rubs his arms nervously. “Burnin, I’m sure Endeavors aware of his own son's girlfriend, there's no reason to act like this is big news”
Several thoughts flash through Enji’s mind. A girlfriend? Natsuo had never mentioned having a romantic partner. But then again if his newest sidekick knew about it then it couldn’t have been Natsuo because he despises his agency and plans his route to and from work to avoid areas under the Endeavor agency’s patrol routes. It would make more sense for Fuse to be talking about Shouto since he comes and visits the agency sometimes. But since when did Shouto have a girlfriend. Was this just another part of his rebellious phase? He told Shouto that relationships would be a distraction to his hero training so of course he just had to get involved in such affairs. Honestly the things he put up with. “Who’s his girlfriend”
Burnin perked up and slapped Fuse’s shoulder. “Oh, so you don’t know about this! HA! Well then Fuse tell the man!”
Fuse’s face turned red as he recounted the interaction from earlier in the day. “Well, earlier Shouto helped to stop a robbery with another hero in training from UA. we were doing street cleanup after the fight and then-”
“And then Shouto called her Dear! And she called him Love! The little Endeavors got a girlfriend. I’m gonna tease him so much for this when he visits again!”
Enji sighed in annoyance. “Quiet. This doesn’t answer my original question.”
Fuse fiddled with his sleeves while Burnin made a face. “The girl with the gravity control quirk from class 1A. Her hero's name is Uravity I think?”
Gravity control? Enji hummed in deep thought. Originally he didn’t want Shouto getting into any relationships because he needed to focus on training and because he needed to have a partner with an equally powerful quirk to carry on the Endeavor legacy, and Shouto had proven multiple times throughout his rebellious phase that he didn’t give much thought to either on any occasion. However a quirk that can control a force of nature like Gravity which is so complicated that scientists can spend their whole life studying its complexities is quite the powerful quirk. And if they were out on patrol together then that means that Shouto isn’t ignoring his studies like Enji feared he would. Perhaps he needs to look into the matter further.
“If this was what the blatant disregard for the fifteen-minute agency rule was about then you can all go back to work.”
Several sidekicks groaned and shuffled off, Burnin pulling one with her by the wrist to be her poor victim in combat training for the next hour. Enji just sighed and turned around, starting immediately on his new task of pulling up the sports festival recordings to watch Uravity’s fights and see if her quirk truly holds up to the Todoroki standards. He should probably try to figure out what her patrol schedule is too with her intern agency so he can see if she’s actually a hard worker or if she’ll be a drag on Shouto’s success. Afterall, Enji is nothing if not a good father who cares for his son.
Endeavor is a terrible father who hates his son. That is the only thing Shouto can think as he watches his father walk towards the 1A dorm building dressed in normal clothes for once. Why. Why this man couldn’t let Shouto have a week of peace he would never know. Honestly, what had he done to make his father mad this time? He answered his text albeit a week late. He was even going on more patrols recently! Shouto inhaled a deep breath and released it right before his father knocked on the door. Uraraka looked up from the baking show on T.V. she, Shouto, and Sato were watching only a moment beforehand in the common room. His father knocked again.
“Shouldn’t we open it?” Sato asked, unsure of why the other two had yet to open the door seeing as both were on the couch closer to it.
“Maybe if we don’t, he’ll go away?” Uraraka replied jokingly.
Shouto released a sharp breath from his nose as the knocking increased. “Unfortunately, he won’t.”
Shouto opened the door to his father who for some reason didn’t look as angry as usual? What happened? He was always super angry. Yet even his normal scowl was replaced with a smaller one today. Shouto blinked at the unnerving sight. This was all uncharted territory for him, and suddenly every plan he had for this interaction to promise to work harder so his father would leave him alone had suddenly flown out the window.
“Shouto! It’s nice to see you again, the stretches between us seeing each other seem to get longer every time don’t they?”
Shouto blinked confused. This was definitely uncharted territory. “Hi. Why are you here” the dual haired boy asked, causing both Sato and Uraraka to sputter in the background. For some reason Uraraka’s sputter seemed to catch his father's attention however.
“I would like to take both you and Uraraka Ochako out to lunch today. I would like to have a conversation about some things.”
Ok, now Shouto was even further than uncharted territory. Why was he taking him out to lunch? Restaurant lunch days were only ever at the end of the month due to Endeavor's strict dietary schedule he had him on before the dorms. And what did he want to discuss with Uraraka? Could this be about internships? Uraraka was skilled enough for him to believe that was the case, but his father should have been able to look her hero name up in the database and find that she already had an internship with Ryuk going so he wasn’t so sure. Nevertheless, both teens followed the number one hero out the door and into a car. The restaurant he brought them to was nice, and what Shouto was guessing was expensive if the way Uraraka was gaping at everything was to go by. Prior to ordering they only spoke small talk, and then they all sat in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes afterwards until Uraraka broke the silence.
“So… what was it that you wanted to talk about?”
Shouto watched his father shift in his seat uncomfortably. If Shouto didn’t know any better he’d say this was a dream, because his father had too much pride to feel uncomfortable, and yet he was woken up by Iida this morning for Sunday training so he knows that's not the case. Shouto lifted his arm to take a sip of his water, keeping his eyes trained on his father.
“Right down to the point, that's admirable. I brought you here to tell you both that I am aware of your relationship, and I approve of it.”
Shouto choked on his drink. What? “Father, I can assure you it’s not like that.”
His father simply waved him off. “There's no reason to keep it a secret anymore, Shouto. One of my Sidekicks told me, he then turned to Uraraka “I did some background checks on you and have found that you keep up a structured patrol schedule and are within the upper ranks of your class. Your quirk is also most definitely strong enough for the Todoroki standard. Shouto, I am proud of you for taking this seriously. I was worried that with your rebellious phase you’d act like Natsuo and date a bunch of girls unworthy of the Todoroki name.”
Uraraka scrunched up her face in confusion turning towards Todoroki for an answer, but he was just as lost as she was. A sidekick told him? But he never told anyone that they were dating, because they weren’t, and he hadn’t talked to any of his father's sidekicks all week! The only sidekick of his father's he’d seen this week was of that new sidekick who helped fuse together the street after the car chase, but he didn’t remember who he was until he got back to the dorms and Midoriya went on a mutter rant about his quirk. But even then Shouto never said anything to him, the only thing that happened was him and Uraraka helping him repair the street and even then - oh. Oh no.
“The Todoroki standard?” she asked cautiously, eyes floating around the room to avoid contact with anyone else.
“To ensure that the Todoroki family continues protecting Japan as heroes, I only allow strong quirked spouses to marry into the family to help the gene pool. I’m sure you can understand, afterall I can’t imagine the type of powerful quirks your parents would have to create gravity control” Enji explained as if it were a normal conversation topic and not the spouting's of a man who created several designer babies for selfish reasons and expects his offspring's to do the same.
“We're not getting married-” Shouto tried to say, only for his father to interrupt him yet again.
“Of course not, you're both far too young for that. However, there will be a day for that, and you’ll have my support when the time comes.”
Shouto slumped down in his chair, hands on his forehead as Uraraka’s face grew beet red. “Father, what your sidekick heard last Thursday-”
“Did breach the codes of conduct I set out for you, yes I am well aware. Honestly, Shouto, be more careful with how you speak while on patrol, imagine what the media would do if they found out about this, especially since you didn’t tell me first.”
Shouto groaned and slumped even further. For the next hour both Uraraka and Shouto tried and failed to explain to his father that they were not in a relationship to no avail. Finally, both conceded to just nod along as the mortifying situation continued. Finally, finally, they were driven back to UA. Both were vaguely shaped blobs of embarrassment by the time they walked through the door and towards the kitchen to put their leftovers away, but thankfully the awkward tension didn’t last long as it was movie night in the dorm which let both teens relax and laugh about the situation with their friends. Shouto was at least glad that he didn’t have to see his father again for at least another few weeks since he was always so busy. Maybe by then they'll all forget this embarrassing day.
His phone beeped with a new message. He opened it to see several teasing texts from Natsuo and Burnin about his “Girlfriend”. He sighed and fell face first into his bed with a thud. How is he always getting into these messes?