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Todoroki wasn't good with emotions. He knew that. No one ever explained to him how he was supposed to feel and what to do with those feelings. But it never really mattered.
By now he mostly recognised when he was happy or angry or sad. And his friends were really helpful. Listening to him, communicating clearly and helping with social cues he didn't get. All was great. Until it got complicated again.
The problem being his best friend. Sero Hanta. Todoroki didn't even know any more how exactly they had become so close. Between game nights and their shared interest in manga they spend pretty much time together. And Todoroki was feeling happy when he was with Sero. But there was something else he couldn't quite identify. And then there was that incident.
It was a normal school day, starting with a morning run with Sero. He still knew how that had happened.
Todoroki always had his morning runs and one morning met Sero in the kitchen, in front of the sink drinking some water.
“Can I get some too, please?”, he had asked and turned Sero's attention on himself. Who had choked and spilled half his glass over his front.
“Ah shit, ehm good morning Todoroki”, he had spluttered while getting a rag and cleaning the water off the floor. “Already running this early I see”
Todoroki had got himself some water and taken a quick sip, then wiping some sweat off his face with the bottom of his shirt. It was almost summer and pretty warm already, even that early.
“Yeah force of habit”, he looked back down at Sero who stared down at his shirt, “oh did I spill something too?”
“What? Oh no I was just ehm thinking? Yeah thinking that I should start running too, my stamina is shit”, he sounded out of breath somehow.
And so they started a little routine. Within the first few weeks Todoroki helped him to keep jogging for a longer and longer time. With as much help you can be when it comes to running individually. But Sero really didn't seem to mind running behind him so he at least had the feeling he was helping him keep pace.
Also included in their little morning routine was breakfast. Forcibly shared, because Sero could never keep his long kleptomaniac fingers to himself.
The first time that had happened Todoroki had just stared at him for almost a minute, not knowing how to express whatever it was he was feeling. And Sero had somehow become uncomfortable enough to give Todoroki some of his own breakfast, which had gotten the black haired boy a smile and thanks. Sero had just stare back confused. But, because why not, Sero had not stopped.
Today he was stealing some of Todoroki's strawberries and getting some of his cereal stolen in return. The rest of their squads joined slowly and at one point the Dekusquad left first because of Iida and Todoroki - as always - joined them. Leaving Sero with his own louder group of friends.
Their morning lessons were pretty boring, Todoroki spacing out in one or the other lesson. He was excited for hero training in the afternoon. It was the best part of the day. Although he would meet up with Sero after school. So maybe it was just one of the best parts of the day.
And he wasn't the only one excited. At lunch Uraraka told them she wanted to work on a special move and Midoriya instantly started blasting numerous suggestions, words tumbling out his mouth faster than any of them could follow. It was fun.
In the end the lesson contained mostly of sparring in pairs and alternating between quirks and no quirks. The first few rounds went as normal, he defeated Ashido and Ojiro, both being acquaintances, he wasn't too close to. It wasn't necessarily challenging but a good warm up and they really had gotten better.
For their third match he was matched with Sero who already greeted him with a “Hey 'Roki” over half the hall. He didn't think about it much any more, but there were the nicknames, 'Roki being the most used one. He liked it. It mad him feel special somehow.
“Ready to go? Everything alright?”, Sero asked as he got into position.
“Yeah I'm fine thanks. Ready when you are”
Again it wasn't a long match, with quirks being allowed. But Todoroki was a little more cautious not to hurt Sero. Nonetheless he quickly had the other pinned, holding his arms down with his legs and one arm one his chest, keeping him on the ground.
And for a moment he just stared. Sero was panting beneath him, grinning although his loss was inevitable. He looked nice. Todoroki could feel a light blush on his cheeks – at least one cheek, the other remaining cool. Sero's eyes were shining with something mischievous.
Todoroki tilted his head and was about to ask him to surrender when he felt a pull on his leg and mere seconds later their roles were reversed. Sero had managed to wiggle his arm free enough to shoot a little tape at Todoroki's knee and pull him off balance. Not only that but another strip of tape was now wrapped around his wrists, which Sero held over his head.
The new position brought Sero above Todoroki, pointing out their height difference. They were also closer, their faces only a few centimetres apart while Sero was basically caging him in. And Todoroki felt hot and tingly all over.
“Look who has the upper hand now, pretty boy”, Sero was smiling widely, showing off his teeth. He looked beautiful, leaning over him, still holding his wrists, his face red from the exhaustion, his dark eyes were gleaming, all proud of his move. It was hot. And Todoroki could literally feel his face heating up.
“Yo Todoroki you surren-”, he was cut off as bright flames forced him to scramble backwards, “Ow! Hey I thought we were done”. He pouted, rubbing his hand. And Todoroki was burning.
But Sero's exclamation had made him aware enough to sit up, the flames slowly dying down. He was still feeling hot in the face, but now a little worried.
“Oh are you alright? I'm sorry I didn't mean to”, Todoroki stammered stood up, keeping a distance, self-conscious. He hadn't burned Sero, had he?. What if he had seriously hurt him and he didn't want to be friends any more? Who would he share his manga with? Who would talk to him for hours and answer any of his weird questions? Who would listen to his latest conspiracy without getting exasperated?
“What's going on and is someone hurt?”. Aizawa's drawl cut Todoroki's thoughts short and the last of his flames died.
“Oh no, everything is fine just an unexpected move. It really isn't that bad just a little burn. It's nothing really”. Oh no. So he had hurt Sero. With a few steps Todoroki was by his side, gently grabbing his hand to inspect.
Aizawa also stepped closer. “Doesn't matter. You kids are way too reckless and disregard your well-being too much. Todoroki, take him to Recovery girl”
And with a stern expression Todoroki nodded. He really felt guilty for hurting Sero, so the least he could do was make sure he would be well again. So he started walking and gently pulled Sero along by his hand.
“Hey, no seriously I'm fine and ouch Todoroki, no need to pull on the hand that's hurt”
“So it does hurt and you're not fine. Come on”, still needing to pull Sero he took his other hand and started walking again. Sero threw one last look over his shoulder and then let himself be dragged to the nurse's office.
The walk was short and mostly silent. Todoroki just happy that Sero let him take care of him.
“Oh boy what did you boys do now?”, Recovery girl asked when they arrived at her office. Her examination didn't last long and he would just have to put some cream on it for a few days to make the little burn marks go away.
“Oh it was nothing, you know just sparring and I thought I had Todoroki pretty good, but then he just went off in flames and it was a little unexpected honestly”
Recovery girl glanced at Todoroki a little suspicious. He stammered, “I really didn't mean to I felt all hot suddenly and I really didn't want to hurt Sero, it was an accident”.
She just pinched the bridge of her nose. “No no it's fine Todoroki, it probably wasn't your fault, in your age there can be some bodily changes influencing the control of your quirk”
“What changes?”
He could hear the face palm before he could look at Sero for help.
Recovery girl just stared at him for a moment “I really need to talk to Aizawa about this, but puberty my innocent child, you are going through puberty”.
Hm, he should google that back at the dorms, maybe that would explain those weird feelings about Sero.
“You can leave now, lessons are almost over, so just report back to Aizawa shortly and you can go back to the dorms”, she was shooting some look at Sero, who blushed prettily and then he was the one being pulled by his wrist back to the gym.
After a short report back, they got changed and left for the dorms.
When they stood in front of Sero's door Todoroki was fiddling with his fingers, still a little worried.
“I really am sorry, I didn't predict your move and well then I got all hot and-” Sero snorted, interrupting him.
“You're fine, darling, relax”, and there was that hot feeling again. He blamed that stupid nickname. It was definitely that other nickname that made him burst in flames, too. Even thinking about it he could feel his face blushing.
“And not to make you uncomfortable or something but you are smoking again”
Todoroki quickly looked down his right side panicking but couldn't see anything. “I'm kidding 'Roki, you're fine”, he was smiling softly at him, ”come on I wanted to show you that new part of the series we've been reading”. And Todoroki was letting out a last sigh and started smiling too. Sero was so light hearted and it helped immensely to calm him down from all the worries of the last hour.
They sat on Sero's bed, scuttling together and leaning against the wall. They began paging through the new volume, commenting on some panels and laughing together at others. This really was the best part of Todoroki's day.
They were sitting close enough that their shoulder's were touching and Todoroki really wanted closer. So he shuffled a little and leaned his head on Sero's shoulder. It was a little bony but comfortable and they kept reading for a while, until Sero was lightly shaking him awake. He hadn't even realised he had nodded off.
“Hey morning sunshine, you wanna get some dinner? It's getting late and you shouldn't go to bed without eating first” he whispered, Todoroki sleepily nosing at his jaw. He was so nice and warm. And now his chest was shaking with a quiet laugh.
“I'll keep that in mind, come on” and he slowly extracted himself from Todoroki, who just whined, keeping his eyes shut and clung to his waist, keeping him from standing up.
“I had really hoped it wouldn't have come to this”. At that Todoroki opened one eye and saw Sero, grinning mischievously down at him. The light behind him was giving him a halo and his breath stuttered at the sight before his eyes.
And then his eyes were scrunching shut again when Sero attacked his ticklish sides. He laughed loudly trying to roll away from the vicious attack. “Stop it oh my god Sero stop”. Holding his sides, he tried to hold Sero off, but he was determined, grabbing one wrist and only tickled that side. Todoroki giggled again, scuttling a little further to the wall on the bed.
But Sero followed his movements and now also grabbed his other wrist, pining them above his head. His giggles died down and he was staring up at Sero once again, their position resembling their moment in the gym.
Todoroki really was beautiful, laying under Sero, face flushed from all the laughing, hair splayed around his head like a dual coloured halo. His usually serious face was grinning wide, wider even than the little smile he normally gave Sero when he was happy about something. His blue eye seemed brighter than his grey one in the almost dark room. He looked absolutely stunning.
“Please don't set fire to my bed? Sleeping in the hammock isn't as comfortable as one would think”, Sero said quietly, but he was still grinning.
Somehow Todoroki wanted to kiss him. And that revelation was not something he was prepared for, but he also didn't know what to do with it so he shrugged it off. He should discuss this with someone who knew more about feelings than him.
“So...dinner?”, he asked instead, raising an eyebrow.
“Uhm, yeah sure dinner”, Sero scrambling off of him and reached out a hand to help him up. He was blushing. Todoroki already missed his warmth.
He wrote a quick text to Uraraka asking if he could come over later.
After that they quietly went down and fixed some of the leftovers the others had put in the fridge. Todoroki was quite distracted by having this new revelation.
“You seem lost in thought. Everything alright?”, Sero was sitting in front of him, slowly picking away at his plate.
“I'm fine really, just thinking. I need to speak to Uraraka about something”, he answered truthfully.
“You know it's getting late, maybe you can do that tomorrow and catch some more sleep first? You seemed really tired”
“Thanks but I really am fine actually, the sleep I got was very refreshing”, at that Sero blushed again, Todoroki tilted his head a little, squinting, “But are you okay? You've been blushing very frequently today”.
Sero mumbled something under his breath that Todoroki couldn't hear. He waved it off though, “oh you know just the weather”. Todoroki squinted more, “Yeah sure, the weather”. But he dropped it, not wanting to make Sero uncomfortable.
Soon after they put their plates in the dishwasher and said their good nights, Todoroki having gotten a positive reply from Uraraka.
When he arrived at her dorm and knocked she opened up and let him in. He instantly flopped into her bed, groaning.
“So what's got you up this late”, she asked sitting in her desk chair and restarted painting her nails.
Todoroki turned his face to her and started to try and formulate his thoughts: “What do you do when you want to kiss someone?”. He wondered if Uraraka's head had cracked, as fast as she had turned.
“Tell me everything”. So he sat up and started his retelling at the afternoon lesson and recalled the events leading to his emotional crisis. Uraraka had interrupted him at some point or the other, squealing or commenting “he didn't”, to which Todoroki always replied “he did”, otherwise continuing unbothered.
By the end Uraraka's nails were painted and Todoroki was still clueless as to what was going on.
“Well, if you still want advice, do you want to date Sero?”, she asked, straight to the point. And Todoroki hadn't thought about that. He knew the concept, but hadn't really understood the purpose until now. “What exactly do you do when you date?”
“Normally you like spending time with one another so mostly that, but for many it also includes hand holding and more physical contact, kissing and cuddling, you know”, she wiggled her eyebrows, though her own cheeks were a little pinker than usual.
He imagined doing those things with Sero. Holding his hand would be nice. He had nice hands, very long fingers and Todoroki had wanted to trace them with his own for a while now. And the kissing he had already thought about in passing, but imagining Sero all close and maybe holding him, he could feel the blush returning to his cheeks.
“I think I'd like that”, he replied, smiling to himself.
“That settles it, you can now ask him out if you'd like. If that's too direct you could write him a letter, or something, or you can wait. From what you've told me you shouldn't need to worry about your feelings being reciprocated and it is Sero after all”, she waved her hand dismissively.
Todoroki nodded. That all seemed very good option, but he had to think about this a little more by himself.
“Thank you Uraraka, you've been a big help”, he thanked, standing and walking to the door. “Have a good night”.
“You too Todoroki and feel free to come by if you have any more questions”, she answered and he closed the door with a quick reply.
He was smiling the whole way over to his own dorm, problem solved and looking forwards to asking Sero out. Or something. He really hoped Uraraka was right about Sero's feelings, but she usually was, so he decided to trust her. But maybe he should choose the wait option and see what happens for now. Problem solved, he drifted off, in a dream involving dark hair and nice hands.