Archive of Our Own ^beta

And right before your eyes, I'm aching

Run fast, nowhere to hide. 

Just you and me

—//—

Tenya never liked loud places, especially those that incited violence or playing rough. 

But it was hockey season, and Tenya was a good friend. 

“It’ll be fun, Iida.” Midoriya said, as he leaned over the table. He had half his chest spread out over it, and Tenya was sure that if any of his boyfriends saw him -because Midoriya had one too many- they’ll probably pull him down to sit properly. 

“You know I don’t like loud places, Izuku-kun.” Tenya said. 

“Not even to go see Kacchan?” Midoriya bats his lashes at him. He damn well knows that will do the trick because Iida already feels himself changing his mind. 

Tenya curses that Midoriya knows about his stupid little crush on the hockey’s team captain. 

“Come on, Iida.” Midoriya sits back, a hand going up to his collar and tugging at it. 

From under it, Iida can see the black choker that wraps around his friend’s neck. He never asked questions about it, and he was surprised when out of nowhere, Midoriya just appeared with it. But if Denki’s words -one of Midoriya’s boyfriends- were anything to go by, it had to do with the weird dynamic of their relationship. 

Tenya looks up at Midoriya, and the boy is making puppy eyes at him. And he knows he has lost the battle without even stating his argument. 

Midoriya knows too. 

“Ochako and I will pick you up at 6:00 p.m at your dorm, okay?” Tenya nods, and decides to give up on even finishing up the essay that was due for his English class. 

Midoriya walks around the table and hugs him tightly, Tenya lets him because he knows it’s Midoriya’s way of showing his affection for others. 

With Tenya, he used hugs.

“Text me if anything, okay?” Tenya nods. And after Midoriya finishes picking up his things, he leaves. 

Tenya stays a little longer before he decides to go up to his dorm and get ready. After all, they were picking him up in an hour and if there was something Iida hated more than anything was being late. 

—//— 

There’s a knock on the door and Tenya’s roommate opens the door. 

“Hey, Tokoyami!” Midoriya greets, smiling. The boy with black hair and golden eyes nods before he walks back to his bed. 

Midoriya makes his way in. 

“Are you ready, Iida?” The door of the bathroom opens and Midoriya sees Iida come out. 

The boy had a simple black shirt with sweatpants. His glasses rested over his head as he dried his face with his towel. 

“Yeah, I’m ready.” Midoriya jumps in excitement before he turns to look at Tokoyami. 

“Are you going to come?” 

“Well, of course, Shoji asked me to go.” 

“Great!” Midoriya claps his hands together. “Uraraka is already waiting downstairs.” 

—//— 

They make it to the stadium. Midoriya had already bought the tickets prior so they entered without much of a fuss and found their seats. 

The seats are by the Red Hoods’ side, and Tenya is grateful at least for that. He can’t even imagine what sitting on the other side must feel like. 

The stadium is almost packed. Tenya sits between Midoriya and Uraraka, his two closest friends. On Midoriya’s other side is Kaminari, a boy with blonde hair that has a black spot on the side. According to Kaminari it was a birthmark, but Tenya has a feeling he dyes it all the time. He’s Midoriya’s boyfriend, and has been for about four months now. 

In fact, they met in a game just like this one too. Except it was out of season, and it was just a friendly game. But Kaminari had come to see his boyfriend play, much like Midoriya who had come to see his own boyfriend play. 

They met and somehow found themselves attracted to each other. And Tenya remembers the hell out of those days because Midoriya was nothing but a mopping mess back then. All sad and heartbroken that Denki had a boyfriend. Like he hadn’t been in the same situation too! 

At the end, the said boyfriends, the big idiots, were the ones who took the first step for Midoriya and Kaminari. And offered the boys to have an open relationship, with each other, while still dating their respective boyfriends. 

And it wasn’t like Midoriya’s boyfriend didn’t find Kaminari attractive, he actually did. Same thing with Kaminari’s boyfriend and Midoriya. 

So, here they were. 

They had officially made it official four months ago. 

Woah, that was a mouthful. 

Tenya shakes his head before he looks to his left, Uraraka sat with her girlfriend of three years, Himiko. She was a nice girl with blonde hair and double buns. She was funny and always liked being around Uraraka and her friends. She helped a lot with science work, one that Iida wasn’t that good with, and she loved cooking for them on the weekends. 

She was two years older than them, and was currently cursing senior year in college with her own group of friends. 

Tenya liked her a lot, she was nice and sweet. And cooked the best homemade ramen he has ever tried in his life. 

The whistle was blown and Tenya felt Midoriya grab his forearm. 

“It’s about to start.” He says. “If you have questions, just ask me.” 

Tenya knows he’s trying to be nice, so he won’t tell him he spent half an hour reading all about hockey and its rules before the game. 

“Look, Izuku!” Kaminari shakes Midoriya’s hand as he points towards the skating rink. 

To the left of the stadium, the doors open. The opposite team they’re playing tonight, the Fearless Lions, enter with their yellow and brown uniforms. 

Half of the stadium bursts into cheers and Tenya wants to plug his ears up due to the noise. 

He still feels Midoriya’s hand on his arm, holding him tightly. And he quietly appreciates the gesture, given the fact that his friend is well aware how much he hates loud noises. 

“Here they come!” He hears from Uraraka. 

The double doors opened again, and this time, the side where Iida is sitting, bursts in cheers. 

The first two players that come in have the numbers #08 and #80 on their shirts. They seemed bulkier than a regular boy would be their age but Tenya guesses it’s all the gear they have to wear under the uniform. 

They do a lap around the rink, and when their backs face Tenya, he sees the name Kirishima in big red letters on the back of their shirts. When they turn back around, Tenya sees their hair sticking out from under the helmets; red and silver. 

“The one to the left is Eijiro Kirishima.” Tenya hears Midoriya’s voice in his ear. “He plays left defenseman on the team.” 

Tenya doesn’t know why, but that name sounds familiar to him. 

“The one on the right is TetsuTetsu Kirishima, his twin brother.” Iida blinks because, twins? Really? “He plays the same position but opposite.” 

If Iida remembers correctly, and he knows he does, the defenseman were supposed to protect the goalie from upcoming shots, blocking them at any cost and preventing other players from coming closer. 

Those two boys definitely looked like they’ll get the job done with how built they looked. 

There’s a second round of applause and cheers when the second set of players come in. They do the lap around the rink first before they come to stand next to the twins. 

Their shirts say Red Hoods in the front in red letters. When they turn away from Iida, he sees their numbers and last names in the back. Ojiro #6. Shinso #07. 

Ah, the boyfriends. Iida thinks, which confirms his thoughts when he hears Kaminari shouting next to him. Midoriya is more quiet, so he didn’t shout as much, but he gripped Tenya’s arm tightly as he smiled and wiggled in his seat excitedly. 

Tenya has met them, once or twice. Ojiro is part of the hockey team and the martial arts team. He has dated Kaminari for a year now, and just began dating Izuku four months ago. As far as he knows, he isn’t in a relationship with Shinso at all, but he wasn’t going to judge if he was.

They met up for study sessions when midterms were around the corner, or when Ojiro needed help with Literature homework. Mr. Ishiyama can be a pain sometimes. 

He doesn’t know Shinso as much, mainly because the guy is quiet and keeps to himself a lot. Much like their homeroom teacher, Mr. Aizawa, who is Shinso’s adoptive dad. But he does know that he and Midoriya have been dating for much longer than Ojiro and Kaminari have. 

He also knows Shinso takes taijutsu lessons outside of school, and that he’s part of UA’s band program. He plays the clarinet. 

“Ojiro it’s the goalie, Iida.” Midoriya whispers to his ear again. “And Hitoshi it’s the right winger.” 

Iida thinks back to his research, the goalie obviously has to keep the puck from entering their net at any cost. The wingers focused on scoring, according to his research, and to set up shots for their center or for the opposite winger. 

The last two players entered the ring, the cheers got even louder. And it’s then that Iida realizes that the spokesperson has been speaking this entire time. 

“All lead by, Bakugo Katsuki, #17 captain of the Red Hoods hockey team.” 

A blonde mane laps around the skating rink, going at speeds that not even Tenya can acquire with his own two legs even if he dreamed he could. 

He stops at the front of the bleachers where Tenya is sitting with his friends, and he smugly smiles at the people. Tenya always knew he loved showing off. 

The blonde gets handed a helmet and he puts it on, hiding his spiky blonde hair. When he turns around to go to his teammates, Tenya sees the number on his back, along with his name. Bakugo #17. 

The hand on his arm let loose before it tightened again. Tenya takes it for what it means. 

Tenya doesn’t need to be told his position, because he knows it without having to be told. 

“When I play hockey, I’ll be center.” 

“Why?” 

“I want to attract everyone’s attention.” 

Center, they made sure to score. They had other jobs like faceoffs and creating chances for scoring for his wingers and himself, but Tenya knew that for him, it was all about scoring. And winning. And he has proven more than once that it is what he does best, going unbeaten two years in a row. 

Tenya is grateful Midoriya doesn’t bother telling him either. 

“And since Awase Yosetsu got hurt in our previous game, there’ll be a new left winger this game.” Tenya blinks. A new winger? 

“Poor Awase, he sprained his ankle.” Midoriya mumbles next to him. 

“Playing for the first time, we got our left winger…” Tenya sees a boy slowly do a lap around the rink. “Number 4, Todoroki…” He comes to a halt next to Bakugo, hands coming to his helmet. “Shoto!” He takes it off to shake his hair. 

Tenya is mesmerized. To say the least. 

The boy has beautiful red and white hair that it’s cut short but falls over his eyes. His eyes, even from afar, look hypnotizing, and if all the screams are anything to go by, everyone already loves him. 

But Tenya stills. 

Because something is pulling him out of orbit, and he can’t understand why he feels like he wants to stand up, walk out on the ice, and properly introduce himself. 

He would probably fall flat on his face even if he tries walking onto the ice, but he wasn’t thinking about that part. 

The whistle is blown again and the game begins. 

And for the first time ever, Tenya’s eyes stay on number 4. 

—//— 

They are on the last bit, Bakugo has the puck. Both Kirishimas are skating next to him, while they push off the defenseman from the other team. 

Todoroki appears from behind and skates next to Bakugo. The blonde passes the puck to him before he gets pushed by the other’s team center player. 

Tenya sees Todoroki do a hand sign, to which Bakugo turns back around behind him and goes to the other side of one of the Kirishima’s. 

Tenya can hear Mr. Yamada’s commentary over the speakers, but his eyes are zeroing on the players. 

Todoroki is skating in the middle, towards the goalie. Shinso is to his right while he has one of the Kirishima’s pushing off the other team’s defenseman back on the other side. Bakugo is right on the other side of them. 

Shinso suddenly halts, bumping into the winger from the other team that was tailing him. Todoroki skates faster, Bakugo picks up the pace, and Kirishima finally pushes the defenseman away. 

All three make their way to the goalie, who has one of the wingers waiting with him. 

Todoroki passes the puck to Kirishima, who plays around with it to confuse the winger before he passes it back to Todoroki. Then, Todoroki switches places with Kirishima, keeping the attention of the goalie on him. 

He takes that slight chance of advantage, and passes the puck to Bakugo. The blonde halts, swiftly moves around Todoroki and Kirishima and shoots without giving it a second thought. 

The bell rings, marking a point, and the stadium breaks into cheers. 

Midoriya and Kaminari are on their feet. Tenya sees Bakugo take off his helmet and shout in victory. He gets hugged by one of the Kirishima’s and Tenya sees the blonde take off his helmet to reveal red spiky hair. 

Tenya remembers why the name Eijiro Kirishima sounded familiar to him. 

However, his eyes trail to where Todoroki stood a few feet away from them. His helmet was off and he was drying some sweat from his forehead. His hair was sticking to it, and Tenya saw him take a deep breath that turned into a cloud of smoke when he let it out. 

Again, Tenya felt the same pull that pushed him to stand up and want to go down to the ice rink. 

Midoriya turns to look at him when he realizes that his best friend and his boyfriend are disgustingly making out in the middle of the ice ring. He’s surprised to see that Tenya, instead of looking all “distracted”, it’s actually staring at where Todoroki is bent over, trying to catch his breath. 

Todoroki is handed a water bottle from his teammate in the bench, when he feels eyes on him. When he looks up, he meets a pair of dark eyes with red irises staring down at him from the bleachers. 

Todoroki’s hand squeezes the bottle, causing the water to splash onto some of his teammates close by. He feels his heart beating fast at the sight; feels like he wants to go up to the handsome boy with glasses and ask him for his number. 

Todoroki gulps, sweat pooling at the back of his neck. There was a tug inside his chest, making his legs tingle, his mind telling him to move. 

But before he could, there was screaming behind him. He turns to see Shinso being punched in the face before he goes stumbling to the ground. 

The entire team stands from the bench and skates towards them. Bakugo is already taking off his gloves, on the verge of exploding, and they have to get to him before it happens.

Midoriya is running down the stairs before Iida processes what has happened. Kaminari is following him.  

The entire stadium is in silence, watching the boys trying to pry Bakugo off the other team’s winger, the same one who had bumped into Shinso during the last play. 

They are doing a horrible job at it, if you ask Tenya; the other Kirishima gets punched on the face, redhead Kirishima pushing the guy back and punching him in the mouth. Bakugo is still on the winger who punched Shinso, Ojiro’s arm wrapped around his waist to pull him back.  

It isn’t until a player with the #10 on his shirt, who grabs Bakugo from under his shoulders and gets a good grip on him, that they are able to get him off the player. 

Medics are on the scene right away. 

Tenya searches for the #4 jersey around the crowd. Finds him helping Shinso up with another player's help. 

Tenya is moving before he knows he is. 

—//— 

“Ah!” Shinso shouts as Midoriya puts the ice pack on his eye. 

“Sorry, babe!” Midoriya apologizes but still presses the ice pack further.

“That was such a dirty trick.” A boy with black hair says behind them. Tenya looks up at him to see that he has a piercing on his eyebrow. 

“When have you ever seen those Lions play fair?” Another boy says. The boy with the piercing shrugs, nodding. 

“That was so unmanly.” There’s a voice coming from the far end of the bleachers. 

Tenya doesn’t have to look up to know it’s Eijiro Kirishima. 

Shinso groans next to him. His left eye is starting to turn yellowish and purple. 

“Do you still want to go to eat with the team, Shinso?” Bakugo asks, coming to stand in front of the boy. By default ending close to where Tenya sat next to Shinso. 

Bakugo doesn’t even spare a look at him. 

And Tenya doesn’t ignore how badly it stings. 

“Yeah, let me just-”

“Hitoshi!” 

Everyone looks towards the side doors to see their two teachers coming up the stairs towards the bleachers. 

“Oh my God, Hitoshi.” Mr. Aizawa kneels in front of the boy and removes the ice pack. 

“I’m okay, dad, it’s just a bruised eye.” 

“Not until you get checked by the doctor.” 

“Dad, I’m fine.” Shinso reassures. 

“Shouta, if he said he’s fine-” Aizawa gives his husband a look that shuts him up. “Toshi, why not let the doctor check you up, just in case.” 

“I’m fine, Pops, dad’s just exaggerating.” 

“Hitoshi, you are going to see the doctor.” Aizawa presses the ice pack back on Shinso’s face, making Shinso shout again. “Let’s go, Eri is already waiting in the car.” 

Midoriya helps Shinso stand up, and hands him to his parents. 

“Text me what the doctor says, okay babe?” Shinso nods, half heartedly as his head drops on his dad’s shoulder. 

Midoriya sits back down, next to Tenya. 

“He’s going to be okay.” Iida reassured him. “I’m sure.” Midoriya nods, head dropping to Kaminari’s shoulder. 

“Well,  I guess the rest of us will go to Shinya’s.” 

Iida looks at Midoriya. 

“It’s a restaurant where the boys go after every game.” He explains. “Want to go?” 

Iida’s eyes go up. Midoriya follows his gaze, seeing Kacchan bicker and argue with his boyfriend. He turns to tell Iida to forget it when he realizes that’s not where Tenya was looking at. 

When he looks back, and sees over Kacchan, he sees Todoroki picking up his duffle bag and hockey stick from the floor. 

Midoriya looks back at his friend, then back at Todoroki. When he looks back at Tenya, he sees a slight blush on his cheeks. 

Midoriya’s insides squeak. 

“I’ll introduce you.” 

Tenya is being pulled by his wrist before he can even utter a word. 

“Todoroki-kun!” Midoriya shouts and the boy stops on the last step to look up at Midoriya. 

It’s the boy behind him that catches his attention though, and his heart does that little jump when he sees his eyes through the glass of his glasses. 

“Midoriya, hey.” He says, going down the last step but keeping eye contact with the green-haired boy. 

“There’s someone I want you to meet.” Midoriya goes down the stairs and meets Todoroki. “This is Tenya Iida, a friend of mine.” 

Todoroki’s eyes meet Iida’s and suddenly everything stops. 

Tenya has never seen such pretty eyes before. They were bicolor; one blue, one grey. They were a mixture of something unique, something that was pulling at Tenya’s insides. 

He couldn’t pry his eyes away, keeping fixated in the way the irises of both eyes had different shades of blue and grey. They were stunning. 

Todoroki had been right, his eyes were dark blue with a hint of red on the inside of his irises. You could barely notice it though, and only when his pupils dilated was when he did see the red come out more into the irises. 

They were beautiful, like staring at the night sky. 

Everything had slowed down, Todoroki felt a tug on his chest. His heart beat like it wanted to break free from his chest and Todoroki couldn't stop it. 

Midoriya saw it all unfold with shiny eyes. 

Neither of them had noticed how the rest of the team had filtered out already, how Midoriya had scooted back and left space for the two of them, or how they both had gotten closer. 

“I… um…” Todoroki fumbled over his words. “I’m Shoto.” He said, clearing his throat and stretching his hand. “Todoroki.” 

“Iida.” Tenya looked down at his hand before he took it. “Tenya.” He looked up at him and mustered up a smile. His glasses slid down his nose, and as per custom, he reached his hand to push them up. 

Except, he didn’t get to. 

Todoroki pushed them up for him, grasping his fingertips over his nose in the process. 

Iida’s cheeks blushed a deep red, creeping up to his ears. Todoroki pulled his hand back when he caught himself, cheeks also reddened, but it was already too late. He had already done it. 

“Eh, sorry, I…” Todoroki fumbled over his words again. “I wear glasses too, and I know what it feels like to… uh… I’m sorry!” He bowed, bumping his forehead with their still interlocked hands. He looks down at them and sees how soft and exact they looked together, fitting just perfect. 

Todoroki looks back at Iida, his face growing hot. 

“Uh, sorry.” Todoroki lets go and Iida is already missing the warmth of his hand against his. 

“No worries.” It’s all Iida says. 

Todoroki clears his throat. 

“Are you going to the restaurant?” Tenya blinks at him until he remembers the restaurant. 

“Uh, yes, yes!” He looks around for Midoriya and it’s surprised to see that he’s no longer there. “But I think my ride left.” 

Todoroki chuckles, seeing Tenya’s small pout. 

“Don’t worry, handsome.” Iida’s heart does something weird inside his chest. “I’ll give you a ride.” 

“You sure?” Todoroki grabs his duffle bag, to which he had no idea he had dropped in the first place. 

“Yeah, I don’t mind.” They start walking to the exit. “Besides, if it gets me to spend more time with you, I’ll gladly give you a ride anytime.” 

Iida’s face burns. 

—//— 

Todoroki parks the car outside the restaurant. 

“Let me…” He gets out of the car after turning it off and walks around to open the door for Iida. 

Iida’s face can’t turn anymore red if it could. 

“Thank you.” Todoroki closes the door behind him and opens his trunk to get something out. 

Tenya walks to the restaurant and waits for Todoroki by the sidewalk. The breeze it’s cold, and when it picks up, it has Tenya shuddering his teeth in retaliation. 

“Ah, I should have brought a jacket.” 

“Here.” Iida gets startled by the sudden voice behind him. He turns to see Todoroki offering him a black sweater that looks ten times his size. “It’s cold.” 

“But, what about you?” Todoroki hums, opening the sweater for Tenya, who hesitates for a second. 

“I’ve grown accustomed to the cold, I’ll be okay.” Tenya steals one last look at him before he puts one of his arms in, then the second. Todoroki places the sweater over his shoulders and pats softly. “It’s a perfect fit.” 

It’s warm.  

Iida feels it wrap around him like a blanket. And he shudders underneath it with bliss. It felt good, fuzzy and warm. It made his brain fire up like fireworks, making his cold body feel numb and hot. 

“I take it, it's comfortable, then?” Todoroki speaks and when he looks up, he meets the boy’s eyes. He smiles at Iida, who blushes. “You're cute.” 

Iida’s brain short circuits. 

“I’m not sure if you're blushing because you're cold or because of my compliment, but either way, I’ll take it.” Iida is speaking before he can stop himself. 

“I’m definitely warmer now.” 

Iida’s cheeks become crimson red with the implication of those words. 

“Good.” Todoroki says, passing one of his arms over his shoulders. Iida just realized that Todoroki was like three inches over his head. That somehow made his heart beat faster. “Let’s go inside, so we can get you something to eat.” 

Tenya doesn’t ignore how his stomach grumbles in response. His ears turn red with embarrassment but Todoroki just chuckles as he opens the door of the restaurant. 

The noise quickly fills Tenya’s ears and he winces. Todoroki, instinctively, pulls him close like the boy was going to disappear from his hold. 

“You okay?” 

“Yeah, I just don’t like loud noises.” Todoroki hums, pulling the boy towards the end of the restaurant. 

Tenya lets himself be guided by the boy’s strong hold. They sit in the farthest booth, far away from the team’s ruckus by the entrance. 

“But, wait-” Tenya grabs his hand, stopping Todoroki from going to get them some menus. “What about your team?” Iida’s gaze goes to the tables over by the window. 

Todoroki steps closer, places a hand on the table and obstructs Iida from looking towards the hockey team. 

“Don’t worry about it.” Todoroki smiles at him. “I’ll be right back, cutey.” Iida chokes on his saliva and coughs. “Yeah, you're very cute.”  

Tenya sees Todoroki walk over to the team at their table. He talks to Bakugo, and sees redhead Kirishima pulling him to sit with them. Todoroki seems to politely excuse himself before he talks back to Bakugo. 

Tenya wants to shrink in his seat when Bakugo’s eyes land on him. But just as they came, they left, and Tenya saw the blonde frowning at Todoroki.  

Todoroki talks to another one of the boys, the one with the piercing on his eyebrow, before he turns and walks back to Tenya. 

He slots himself on the booth across from him. Tenya tries to find some kind of discomfort in his face, something that will tell him that Todoroki actually doesn’t want to be with him. That he’s only doing this to be nice to him, polite, because he's Midoriya’s friend. 

But Todoroki is smiling at him kindly, cheek resting on the palm of his hand, elbow on the table. His eyes are on Iida, soft and colorful, looking at every feature on Tenya’s face. 

Todoroki’s eyes land in the furrowed eyebrows and he arches an eyebrow. He sees Iida’s eyes flicker to the hockey team and Todoroki sighs. 

Two fingers poke at Tenya’s forehead, right between his furrowed eyebrows. 

“I told you not to worry.” Todoroki says. “They said it was fine.” 

“But Kat- I mean, Bakugo, looked pretty annoyed.” Todoroki blinks, totally catching how Iida almost called his team captain by his first name. 

“He always looks annoyed.” Todoroki says, which pulls a small smile from Iida’s lips. 

Todoroki’s stomach shrinks. 

“Yeah, you're right.” The smile is gone as fast as it had come. 

Todoroki’s insides are twisting and twirling inside of him, making him feel sick. He didn’t like seeing that saddened look on the pretty boy’s face. 

“What do you want to eat? My treat.” Todoroki smiles, handing him a menu. 

“Oh, no, no.” Tenya flushes. “You already giving me so much, the least I could do is pay for our dinn-”

Tenya is fumbling to grab his wallet when he feels a hand on his wrist. He looks up to meet Todoroki’s eyes and smiles. 

“Don’t worry.” Todoroki presses a firm grip on his wrist. “Our couch always pays for our dinner meals after a game.” 

“But-”

“I’ll say you're my date for the night.” Todoroki winks at him and Tenya’s core shakes inside of him. “Okay?” 

Tenya realizes that Todoroki is waiting for a response. 

“Okay.” 

Todoroki lets go of his wrist and sits back down. 

“Pick whatever you want.” Tenya nods, not finding it in himself to be able to answer without stuttering. 

Todoroki spends the entire dinner staring at those dark blue eyes. 

—//—

Everyone is almost gone, with the exception of some people. 

Todoroki had just finished telling him how he ended up liking hockey when he was little. Tenya is just finishing up his side of the strawberry cheesecake they had ordered to share. 

“And Touya taught me how to play hockey, so here I am.” Tenya chews on the strawberry he has in his mouth before he speaks. 

“Why does that name sound familiar to me…?” He tries to think back to the people he has met, but nothing comes to mind. 

Thankfully, Todoroki comes to the rescue. 

“Well, if you are Midoriya’s friend, which I’m sure you are.” Iida nods. “You must know Uraraka, right?” 

Tenya’s brain still isn’t understanding, so he tilts his head to the side, spoonful of cheesecake in his mouth. Todoroki could die of a sugar overdose just by looking at that expression. 

“Well,” Todoroki composed himself. “Her girlfriend, Toga, is friends with a guy named Dabi, right?” Tenya’s eyes widened, eyebrows disappearing behind his bangs. “That’s what his friends call him, but his real name is Touya Todoroki.” 

The spoon falls from Tenya’s mouth. Todoroki reaches out instinctively to hold it up before it falls onto his lap. His fingers wrapped around Tenya’s hand, holding the spoon and Tenya’s hand up.  

Their eyes connect, and everything stops. 

Tenya can see from this close how the shades of blue and gray go from darker in the center to lighter as they expand out. He also sees the start of a scar under the boy’s left eye that he had completely missed earlier. It wrapped around his eyes, or so Tenya thought, he couldn't quite tell from how his hair fell over his eyes. He could only see the beginning of it right under his left eye. 

He also saw the tips of Todoroki’s hair, white and red, so unique and cool. Tenya had never seen anyone have two different hair colors. They were probably dyed, but Tenya still thought it was cool. 

Then, he went down to Todoroki’s cheeks, which were slightly pink. Then down to the boy’s lips, which parted as he let go of a deep breath. It hit Tenya’s hand and it made his body shiver. 

Todoroki could see the difference between Iida’s eyes. Most of it was dark blue like he had guessed at the beginning, and you could barely even see the red in his eyes unless you already knew it was there, or if you were this close. But Todoroki could see the beginning of red in the outside lining of his irises, which expanded or contracted depending on how big or small his pupils grew. 

Todoroki saw the uniqueness of his eyebrows, which turned up into an angle at the end. Forming a V shaped that almost looked like an arrow pointing down. 

Todoroki follows them to Tenya’s cheeks, which are flushed red. He feels his heart raise at the assumption and he can’t help the deep breath he has to take for a second. His eyes then go to Tenya’s lips, which are slightly parted, letting out a gasp of air that the boy much needed. 

Todoroki feels his bottom lip tremble with anticipation. Of what? He didn’t know. 

The moment is broken when there’s a loud noise coming from behind them. Tenya, against better judgement -and maybe it was for the better since he could feel his face growing hot- looks away from Todoroki. 

Todoroki feels his heart sink at the loss of those pretty eyes looking at him. He sits back down and looks over his shoulder. 

Bakugo is screaming at Midoriya for arriving late. The poor boy is trying to apologize, telling him there was a lot of traffic, but Todoroki knows that’s a lie. Especially with the big purple bruise that’s starting to form on the side of his neck.  

Midoriya takes a seat next to the boy with the piercing. When he looks up to ask for Todoroki, he sees Tenya looking at him. He opens his mouth to call him, but sees Todoroki’s gaze on him with pleading eyes. 

Midoriya closes his mouth and looks away. 

“I guess that’s normal around here too.” Tenya says. Todoroki’s attention is snapped back at him. 

“The arguing between those two?” Tenya nods. “Yeah, all the time.” 

“Yeah, same when he’s with us.” Todoroki sees the same reaction from before come up on Tenya’s face again. He scrambles up with an excuse to change it. 

“Do you like the stars?” Tenya is taken back by the sudden question but nods. “I know a spot.” Todoroki is already standing up from the booth. “You want to come with me?” 

Tenya looks down at Todoroki’s stretched out hand. His eyes go to where Midoriya is resting his head over Ojiro’s shoulder while he has Denki’s head on his lap. 

“We can text him in the car.” Tenya’s eyes snap up at Todoroki. “You can say no if you want, I know we just met and…” 

Tenya hears a loud laugh, and looks behind Todoroki to see Bakugo laughing. The redhead from before is clinging to his side as he too laughs at whatever was said. Tenya feels his heart sink to the bottom of his stomach, twisting his insides upside down. Bakugo reaches a hand to pet red hair and the boy looks up and leaves a kiss on the blonde’s chin. 

Tenya is grabbing Todoroki’s hand before he thinks twice. 

Todoroki pulls him to his feet and starts walking. Unconsciously, his hand goes down to Tenya’s own and interlocks their fingers together. 

Midoriya sees them pass by. He notices their hands clasp together and his eyes suddenly sting at the sight. He sniffles, which gains him a worried look from Ojiro. 

He assures him it's nothing before he wipes his eyes off. He sees, through the window, Todoroki open the door for Tenya and then walk over to the driver's side. 

Midoriya is so proud of Tenya right now, he has to make sure to buy the boy’s favorite sweets for tomorrow. 

However, Midoriya isn’t the only one who noticed. Red eyes trailed off where Todoroki’s car backs up from the parking lot and disappears in the distance.  

His heart was beating in a way he hasn’t felt since that day, years ago.

—//— 

Tenya opens the door of his dorm as quietly as he can. There could be a chance that Tokoyami could have returned before him, so he didn’t want to wake the boy up. 

When he closes the door behind him, he sees Tokoyami’s bed empty. He lets out a much needed breath, and locks the door. 

He drops on his bed, taking his phone out of his pocket. 

Todoroki-kun (11:25 p.m) 

Good night, pretty boy. 

Todoroki-kun (11:26 p.m) 

I’ll see you tomorrow. 

Iida’s face grows hot. He unclocks the phone to answer Todoroki when another notification pops up. 

Izuku-kun (11:26 p.m) 

Hey, Iida. Let me know if you got to your dorm safely, okay? 

Izuku-kun (11:27 p.m) 

I just made it to Denki’s room. And my phone had died so I couldn't text you before. 

Izuku-kun (11:28 p.m) 

Did Todoroki treat you okay? I know he can be weird sometimes. 

Izuku-kun (11:29 p.m) 

Anyways, if you're sleeping, good night. Talk to you tomorrow. I have to get Denki to sleep now. Wish me luck. 

Iida sees the last notification pop up before it disappears. His eyelids are already closing on him, he’s tired. 

He decides to answer tomorrow, and rolls over to his side. Connects his phone to the charger and instantly falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. 

—/Next Morning/— 

Iida is cleaning his glasses when he hears a knock on the door. 

“It’s Shoji, I’ll get it.” Tokoyami says from the room. Iida hums, and finishes up in the bathroom. 

“Is Iida still here?” Iida can hear a voice coming from the door but he can’t quite make out who it belongs to. 

“Iida!” Tokoyami calls. “Is for you.” 

Iida puts his glasses on, looks at himself in the mirror, and takes a deep breath. 

“Who could possibly be-” Iida goes still when he sees the person standing at the door. His eyes go down to the flower bouquet in his hands, dark blue roses, and the small oranges pack on his other hand. 

“Good morning, pretty boy.” Todoroki smiles at him, eyes closed and turned up at the corners in a smile. 

Tenya’s heart jumps inside his chest. 

“Midoriya mentioned that you like oranges for breakfast most of the time so…” Todoroki reaches out the pack of oranges in his right hand. “I bought you a pack for the week.” 

Tenya makes a mental note that he had, in fact, forgotten to buy oranges when he went grocery shopping with Tokoyami during the weekend. Of course Midoriya knew that. 

“And as for this…” Todoroki holds out the roses. “I saw them when I went to buy the oranges.” His cheeks turned pink. “They reminded me of your eyes.” 

Tenya looks down at them and realizes that while the petals are dark blue, the center of the roses are still red. 

“I hope you like them.” Tenya almost drops the pack of oranges. 

“They’re gorgeous.” He says, surprised that he didn’t stutter while saying it. 

“For someone as gorgeous as you, only the gorgeous of flowers could be enough.” Tenya’s entire face goes red, including his ears.

Tokoyami bit his tongue to not laugh. It was funny seeing Iida flustered for the first time. Ever. 

“T-Thank you.” Tenya grabs them. 

The smell of fresh roses hits his nose and he thinks of mornings at his house when his dad would have a bouquet of red roses in the kitchen waiting for his mom. 

Those were the best memories he has of his family together; mornings where Tensei and Tenya would come down for breakfast to both their parents happily serving them food, with a smile on their faces. Back when everything was fine and normal. 

“Thank you, Todoroki-kun.” Tenya mumbles, stepping back to find a vase for the flowers. He realizes he doesn’t have one, because he has never gotten flowers before, and stops in the middle of the room. 

“Here.” Tokoyami stretches him a dark purple glass vase. “I use it when Shoji brings me flowers.” 

“Thanks.” Tokoyami nods and grabs his bag. 

“See you later, Iida.” He says. “Bye, Todoroki.” He says to the boy at the door before he leaves. 

“Come in, Todoroki, don’t just stand there.” Iida says from the bathroom. 

Todoroki comes in and closes the door behind him. He looks around the room. He can totally see the differences between Iida and Tokoyami. 

Tokoyami’s side of the room was filled with posters of different bands, one big poster of a landscape forest, and LED lights throughout the edges of the roof and the walls. He had his mat on top of a low profile bed, the headboard had shelves which had some books, a recording set, and headset. His desk was at the foot of his bed, his computer on top, along with some figures of famous anime characters that Todoroki recognizes. 

Iida’s side is completely the opposite. His walls are completely empty with the exception of one poster, a picture of the action movie hero Ingenium in a running stance with his hero costume on. He also has LED lights around the edges of his roof and walls, but these are light and bright colors. His bed, almost like Tokoyami's, is a low profile frame with a mattress. He has a set of glasses on the back of the headboard, along with his charger, another glasses case, and a bottle of pills. 

That catches Todoroki’s attention; he didn’t know Iida took medication. 

Before he can think about it further, Iida comes out of the bathroom, the vase of flowers in hands. His face is still flushed, but it went down to just his cheeks. 

Todoroki could stare at his flushed face every day if he could. 

“I was wondering…” 

Todoroki sees Iida walk to his nightstand and place the vase on top. The light coming from the window gives them a shiny aura around them, and Todoroki decides he wants to keep flowers on top of that nightstand for as long as Iida lets him. 

Tenya turns to look at him, a smile on his lips. 

“I was wondering if you would like me to take you to school.” Tenya’s words get stuck in his throat. “And maybe walk you to class too, if you're comfortable with that.” 

“Eh…” Tenya’s face turns red again, giving him a shade contrasting of his eyes. “Are you sure?” He asks, shyly. “It won’t disrupt your studies, right?” 

Todoroki cracked a laugh. Leave it to perfectionist Tenya Iida to worry about studies first. 

Tenya shrinks within himself, and Todoroki stops laughing. He makes a mental note of his reaction for later purposes and steps closer. 

“I’m super sure it won’t disrupt my studies, my cute nerd.” Tenya chokes out a laugh at hearing Todoroki try to mimic his tone. 

Todoroki’s heart skips a beat. 

A sudden hand comes in contact with Tenya’s cheek. Warm and firm, and it makes Tenya’s entire core shake to the bottom of his heart to the outer parts of his body. Like an earthquake. 

“You have a beautiful smile, did you know that?” Tenya blinks up at him. “I would give anything to see you smile like that all the time.” 

Tenya’s brain short circuits. 

Tenya’s phone vibrates on the bed, and breaks off the little moment they had. 

Todoroki hides his discontent by turning and facing the door. His eyes catch the back of his sweater, gently resting over the back of Iida’s desk chair. He smiles and purposely ignores it. 

Tenya sees the caller ID and his face grows cold when he sees his dad’s name pop up. He takes a deep breath and sends the call to voicemail. 

Todoroki is looking at him. 

“Is everything okay?” Tenya shakes his head, wiping his eyes off before putting his glasses back on. “Ten’?”

Tenya stops moving, his brain short circuits for the second time that morning. 

“I, uh…” Todoroki tries to find an excuse for the nickname, but he has none. Not when he knows he's been wanting to call Iida like that since he knew he liked boys. Since he knew he liked Tenya. 

“That’s…” Tenya slowly turns towards him. “No one has ever called me like that before.” 

“Um… yeah, I, uh…” Todoroki’s heart is rising. Did he just mess this up? He hadn’t even gotten a chance to offer Iida a proper date. “I’m sorry-”

“I like it.” Tenya turns completely towards him with the biggest smile that Todoroki has yet seen on his face. “Thanks, ‘Roki.” 

Todoroki’s brain stops working. 

“If we leave any later, we’ll be late.” Tenya looks at his watch. “What’s your first class?” 

Todoroki is still processing the fact that Iida had just called him an out of the ordinary nickname, unlike “Sho’” which is what Midoriya or his sister usually called him. Or “Todo’” from his hockey teammates. 

‘Roki. 

Todoroki’s heart is going to explode. 

“Todoroki?” Tenya calls. 

“I, uh… I have physics.” 

“Great, it’s close to the Literature hall.” Todoroki smiles as he watches Iida grab his bag from his desk chair, ignoring the jacket hanging from the back rest, and walks to the door. “Ready?” 

“Y-Yeah.” 

—//— 

Iida is packing up his things, English class finished up ten minutes ago. But he stayed behind to ask Professor Yamada about their weekend assignment. 

He’s packing his laptop when there’s suddenly whispers behind him. He turns around to see some girls two rows in front of him giggling and whispering to each other as their eyes go to the door. Iida ignores them, they’re probably talking about some guy or girl, and keeps packing his stuff. 

The whispering intensifies, and suddenly, Iida realizes there’s eyes on him too. He turns to look at them, seeing more students also looking at him. 

He’s about to ask what was wrong when a sudden touch to his lower back startles him. 

“Hey, Ten’.” 

Iida jumps, back hitting a firm chest, arms catching him when he stumbles back. He hits his knee against the desk and doubles down in pain. 

“I’m sorry!” Todoroki quickly crouches next to him, a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to startle you, I’m sorry.” 

Iida shakes his head, rubbing the top of his knee to keep the pain subsided. It helps a little, and he regains motion a few minutes later. 

“It’s okay.” He says, through gritted teeth. “Skate falls are much worse.” 

Todoroki perks his eyes at him, lashes moving softly. His bangs fall over his blue and grey eyes and Tenya feels mesmerized.  

“Skates?” He asks. “You skate?” Iida nods, breathing deeply. 

“Once or twice.” He confesses, finally opening his eyes and looking at Todoroki. “But I suck, so I stopped trying.” 

“I could teach you.” Todoroki’s body starts to jolt with excitement. 

“Nah, I quit a long time ago.” 

Todoroki sees his pupils grow smaller, his gaze looking lost. He notes to ask Midoriya about that later. 

“Then, if you change your mind…” Todoroki reaches out a hand to Tenya. The boy takes it and raises up. “I’ll be here, if you want me to teach you.” 

Tenya’s ears turn red. 

“Thank you.” 

“Want to eat lunch together?” Todoroki asks. There’s some more whispers, this time more quietly and Tenya knows what those mean. 

Todoroki sees the rejection in his eyes before he even voices it out loud. He clicks his tongue inside his mouth, a little annoyed at the girls and boys whispering behind them. 

“Don’t worry about them.” He whispers to Tenya’s ear. “They can say whatever they want, I don’t care.” 

“But…” Tenya’s retort dies in his lips when he sees Todoroki’s smile. “Are you sure?” 

“Super sure.” Todoroki throws one of his arms around his shoulder. “Let’s go.” 

“Okay.” Tenya reaches for his bag but Todoroki beats him to it. 

“Let me.” He throws the bag over his shoulder and starts to walk towards the exit. “What do you want to eat?” 

Tenya feels eyes on him as he leaves the classroom. 

However, he can’t seem to care. Not when Todoroki’s arm around his shoulders are giving him some kind of strength he has never felt before. 

Tenya smiles, his chest warm and fuzzy. 

—//— 

The cafeteria is packed. 

Todoroki sees the hockey team by the tables at the other side of the cafeteria. He sees Sero wave at him. He acknowledges it with a small nod but doesn’t walk towards them. 

“Midoriya sits outside, right?” Todoroki says, walking towards the double doors that lead to the outside patio. “You want to go outside?” 

Tenya looks up at Todoroki. The boy has a neutral expression on his face. Unconsciously, Iida is looking for some kind of discomfort or annoyance towards him. 

Todoroki pokes at his forehead just like at the restaurant. 

“Stop doing that.” He says. 

“But, your friends…” Tenya looks towards the hockey table where a couple of the boys are looking towards them with questionable looks. 

“I said what I said, Ten’.” Todoroki brings his attention back to him. “And forget about them, they can live without me for an hour.” 

“But-”

“No, no, no buts.” Todoroki starts walking again, making Iida walk too. “Let’s go set our things down at the table and then we can go get our lunch.” Tenya nods. 

The line for the food goes fast. Todoroki orders for him and Iida and pays, again, for their food. Iida makes a fuss about it, but Todoroki shuts him up when he places a cup of an orange refresher drink in his hand. 

“Enjoy it, cutey.” It’s all Todoroki says before he grabs both their lunch trays. 

Tenya follows him towards the doors. He steals a glance towards the hockey team’s table and it’s surprised to see Bakugo’s gaze on them. 

Tenya shudders, letting out a sigh, before he turns to Todoroki. 

“Everything okay?” Tenya nods. 

Still, Todoroki looks up towards the table and sees Bakugo’s gaze on him. His eyebrows are furrowed, and his lip is twitching in the way it does when something is bothering him. 

A smug grin appears on Todoroki's face. 

Bakugo huffs and looks away. 

“Are you coming, ‘Roki?” Tenya’s voice gets him to look away. Iida is standing a few feet away from him, glasses slightly down to the top of his nose, straw between his teeth. 

Todoroki is sure he’s going to end up as a diabetic by the end of the week. 

“Yeah, I’m coming.” 

Before they exit the cafeteria, Todoroki makes sure to push Tenya’s glasses up, making the boy blush by such a public action. 

The door closes behind them, but Todoroki knows his goal was met. 

And if he has to lap around the rink more times than the rest of them, he doesn’t care.

The smile on Iida’s lips, the blush on his cheeks, and the way his eyes shined every time Todoroki asked him something about his career, were totally worth the laps. 

—//— 

A week had passed, and a routine had been made. 

Todoroki picked him up every morning at his dorm before heading to the school campus. He would bring either a breakfast bun, an orange refresher, or even an orange sweet. Anything that would be the kind of thing that Iida would like. 

Iida began to look forward to every morning just to see what Todoroki would bring him that morning. The morning before, he brought him a new set of flowers for his vase, dandelions. And they came with their own glass vase so that Iida could have his own flower vase. 

After, Todoroki would walk him to class every morning, leave him at the entrance of his Literature class before he left for his physics class. He would pick him after Mr. Yamada’s class and they would walk together to the cafeteria. 

The whispers had stopped since that day when Todoroki picked him up for the first time. Iida doesn’t question why, and doesn’t want to. 

They’ll eat outside sometimes, with Midoriya, Uraraka and Kaminari. But other times, they’ll eat in Todoroki’s car, listening to some random playlist on each other's phone. They took turns, and every day, there was a new song they shared a common interest in. 

Other times they would go to an empty classroom, mainly Mr. Aizawa’s classroom, to eat lunch with just the two of them. 

Iida loved those times, because he spent time with just Todoroki in a secluded space. Just the two of them, and even when his heart felt like it wanted to burst out of his chest, it felt nice. 

Todoroki talked a lot about his siblings and his mom. He never mentioned his dad, or the scar on his face, and Iida never found the courage to ask. He liked hearing about the boy’s likes and dislikes, favorite hockey teams, and favorite foods anyways. 

In turn, Tenya talked about his brother. A lot. It wasn’t a secret that Iida worshiped the man like no other, always looking up to him and wanting to be just like him. 

Todoroki loved hearing him talk about his older brother. Just like he loved when Iida talked about a new medicine he found interesting online, or an article about a new discovery in the medicine field. 

Shit, Todoroki even liked when Iida ranted about things referring to his medicine classes. Even when he had no idea what he was talking about, Iida would explain anyways, Todoroki would sit hours and hours just listening to the boy rant about the things he was passionate about. 

Todoroki just wanted him to talk; to listen to his passionate tone when talking about a new progress made in medicine. Or when he talked about his older brother and sounded so proud to have a brother like Tensei. 

He never mentioned his parents, and Todoroki never asked. He wasn’t one that could judge, not with his own problems at home, but he didn’t care either. 

It didn’t matter what kind of parents Iida had, or if he was on good or bad terms with them. All he cared about was seeing Iida smile the way he did when he mentioned Tensei or something related to medicine. And if not mentioning his parents was the way to do that, then Todoroki would say none about it. 

Today, Friday of the third week, they were in Iida’s dorm getting some schoolwork done. 

Iida sat across from him, eyes on his laptop. One of his legs was under him, while the other spread out onto Todoroki’s space. 

Todoroki had his textbook open, looking into some recent articles about business that he could choose for his assignment. 

They don’t remember when this became their normality, just sitting together in silence while they finished up school work. 

Todoroki would tend to watch over Tenya work most of the time. Before Tenya snapped him out of it and got him to work on his own work. God, how Todoroki loved when Iida told him what to do. 

Sometimes, Iida would rest his legs on top of Todoroki. Mostly when he was tired from his morning runs -which, Todoroki discovered by chance when he went out for a run and saw Tenya already out in the field- and from walking around school all day. In those cases, Todoroki would massage his feet, getting pleased hums from the boy in return.

Other times, Todoroki would rest his head on Tenya’s lap as he listened to important podcasts or newscasts for his weekly assignments. Tenya would work on his laptop while Todoroki just laid on his lap, one earphone in, listening to his podcast. 

And sometimes, Tenya would massage his head. He knew how tiring it could be to work nonstop on school assignments, and knew how much Todoroki helped him when he massaged his feet, so what better way to return the favor? 

Todoroki silently loved it. Every second of it. Even so, once he ended up falling asleep on Tenya’s lap for about two hours. 

Tenya let him, because who was he to wake up an exhausted Todoroki from his nap? 

Today, Todoroki sat across from him, both legs tucked under him as he read his textbook. Iida typed in his laptop in front of him, foot moving side to side in rhythm with the background music they had chosen to play today. 

The side of Tenya’s foot would rub against Todoroki’s thighs from time to time, but neither of them said anything. One because he didn’t want it to stop, the other because he secretly liked the feeling. 

“Ten’.” Tenya hums, something Todoroki came to learn was Tenya’s way of acknowledging you but still keeping his eyes on his work. “I was wondering…” 

Tenya stops typing and looks up. Todoroki’s cheeks are flushed and the boy is averting his gaze. Tenya finds it weird, since the boy is nothing but taking chances with him. He never got shy like this. 

“W-Would you like to come to my next game?” He blurts out, so fast that it takes Iida a second to understand his question. He giggles, shoulders moving with the motion. 

“Of course, silly.” He says. “Midoriya will probably drag me to...” Todoroki’s face turned red. “Go…” 

Tenya’s brain clicks. 

Is he inviting me as his guest? 

Like, in the way a boyfriend would invite his girlfriend to watch him play? 

Is Todoroki asking me to go see him play? 

“Are you asking me to go to watch you play?” Todoroki nods. “Um, well…” 

I mean, he did it last time, right? What could be so different this time? 

Tenya receives the answer a second later. 

Todoroki is searching for something inside his bag. Tenya sees him take out a black shirt with red stripes. It’s neatly folded with the number four on display. 

Tenya’s face is burning. 

The implication is clear as day, the tension building in the air between them. 

“I, uh…” Todoroki’s eyes are on the wall behind Iida. “I was wondering if… you wanted to…” His lips are trembling, the hand holding the shirt is shaking. “If you wanted to wear my jersey for the game.” 

Tenya’s brain short circuits for the hundredth time in the past week and a half. It’s a surprise it’s still working with how many times Iida feels like his brain has stopped malfunctioning. 

“I, uh…” Tenya looks down at the jersey. It has Todoroki's last name on the top and his number right under it. #4. “I…” 

“It’s okay if you don’t...” Todoroki is quick to say as he sees Tenya’s indecisive gaze. “I won’t feel-” Warm fingers wrapped around the hand that holds the shirt. Todoroki looks up to Tenya and sees him smiling, blushed cheeks puff up. 

“I would love to, ‘Roki.” He says, smile never faltering. 

Tenya takes the shirt from his hand and opens it. The front has the team’s name, along with the school’s name at the bottom in tiny letters. Their emblem is at the top left corner, the initials of their college under the emblem. 

“Pick you up at seven o’clock?” Tenya nods. 

Todoroki leaves an hour later, deciding he didn’t want to head out too late to his own dorm. 

Before he leaves, he stares into Tenya’s eyes for a little longer before being pushed out the door with Tenya yelling at him that he needs his sleep to be able to play well tomorrow. 

Todoroki walks down the hall towards the elevator with a big smile on his face. His roommate, Sero, is already sound asleep on his bed by the time he gets back. 

He falls asleep with the thought of Tenya. 

And if Tenya falls asleep with Todoroki’s shirt on his hand, well, Todoroki doesn’t need to know. 

—/Saturday, 7:00 p.m/—

Midoriya is gaping at him. His eyes are going from the top of Tenya’s shirt to the bottom of it, to where it reaches past his waist.  

“Is that…” Tenya’s face flushes a deep red and that’s all the answer Midoriya needs. “Oh my God, it is!” 

“Izuku-kun, please…” Tenya doesn’t know what he’s pleading for, but Midoriya seems to get the idea. 

“Okay, okay.” He grabs Tenya’s wrist and pulls him to go up the stairs. “Let’s sit, the game is about to start.” 

Midoriya got the seats around the same place as last time. Tenya has a clear view of the ice rink, and once the number four is out in the rink, his eyes don’t leave him. 

The entire game goes smoothly, the last score is done by Todoroki, who swiftly evades a defenseman and scores the winning point. 

Iida is on his feet before he can stop himself. Hands up in victory, a bright smile on his face. Midoriya is looking up at him in awe, and he can’t help but feel joy fill his chest. 

Todoroki takes off his helmet and his eyes search the crowd for dark blue hair. He finds him with his hands up in the air, a bright smile on his lips. Todoroki smiles, raising his two hands up too, signaling that he sees him. 

Tenya’s face suddenly becomes hot. 

Midoriya is gasping next to him, Uraraka is squealing. 

Todoroki pointed at the net where he just scored the winning point with one hand. The other pointed up at Iida as a smile creeped into Todoroki’s face. His hair sticked onto his forehead with sweat, but Tenya could still see his eyes. 

Todoroki spit out his mouth piece, a concrete smile forming on his lips. 

Tenya feels the world around him stop moving. 

Did… did Todoroki just dedicate his winning point to him? 

In front of the entire stadium? 

“Midoriya-kun, did Todoroki just..?” He hears Uraraka’s voice behind him but he can’t seem to peel his eyes off Todoroki. 

The whistle is blown and Todoroki skates back to his team's bench. There’s some joyful cheers and screams coming from them, and Iida slowly sinks back on his seat. 

Iida can’t hear anything; he’s sure Uraraka and Midoriya are speaking to him. But his ears are muffled. His heart pounded against his ribcage. He could hear his own heartbeat inside his ears, pumping and pounding against his eardrum. His hands gripped his pants tightly, the pressed of the shirt against his skin making him feel hot. 

“Iida, are you okay?” 

Tenya can’t breathe. His lungs are heavy, his tongue feels heavy against his mouth, his throat feels blocked. 

“Iida?” 

His vision is getting blurry, he can no longer see the scoring board at the top of the ice rink. The noise has completely muffled down, going completely quiet. Tenya feels his tongue lay flat against his mouth, hands gripping his pants. 

“Iida, you need to breathe.”   

Tenya doesn’t want to. He needs to feel heavy, needs it to feel alive, he can’t breathe. He blinks, vision slowly going black. His shoulder shakes next to him but he doesn’t move whatsoever. His hands are still gripping his pants, labor breathing coming out in shortcomings. 

“Oh, fuck.” 

He gets pushed to the side, bumps against another body, but his eyelids are heavy. His vision is going black, he can feel his body growing numb and his brain shutting off. 

Just when he’s about to close his eyes, he feels fingers grab his chin. They open his mouth forcefully and shove a piece of metal between his lips. 

The air comes in like a wave, filling his lungs and making them expand. His coughing up, throat feeling dry. There’s a hand on his shoulder, another on his cheek. 

“Ten’, can you hear me?” 

He blinks, vision going from black to blurry. His breathing is coming out rapidly but no longer short or labored. 

“Ten’, follow my voice.” 

Tenya does. He tries to filter out the noise from everything else and concentrates in the sweet voice calling him. 

“That’s it, baby.” 

The ends of Tenya’s mouth turn up into a smile without him meaning to. There’s warm pressed to both of his cheeks, it feels nice. 

“Baby, blink for me.” 

He does, blinks a couple of times, vision coming back slowly but surely. From seeing blur out objects, now he’s focusing on the scoring board. 

“Look at me.” 

Fingers grab his chin, tilt his head down, and his eyes meet gray and blue eyes. His fuzzy brain makes out the distinction of red and white hair, but he can’t still make out the face. 

“Ten’, follow my voice, baby.” 

Tenya’s chest warms at the nickname. He leans into the warmth of his cheeks, humming and closing his eyes. 

“No, no, Tenya, you have to keep your eyes on me.” 

He opens his eyes with a groan, the lights over his head bothering him. His eyes focus on blue and grey again, there’s a firm hand behind his neck. Grounding him, keeping him close, keeping him safe. 

“I’m taking him to the lockers.”  

There’s an agreement coming from his side, but Tenya can only concentrate on the warmth on his cheek. 

Suddenly, his feet leave the ground. And he’s being picked up by a pair of strong arms. The warmth from his cheeks spreads out to his entire body. 

“I’ll go get his bag from the car.” 

“My keys are in my bag.” 

Tenya presses his cheek against the warmth of a firm chest. He hums, brain all fuzzy and happy. 

He feels himself move, but he doesn’t really know. He feels his arms wrap around broad shoulders, pulling himself up to hide his face in warm skin. He noses at the skin there, humming happily. 

He hears a door open and close right away, and there’s complete silence. He smiles, just like he likes it. 

He’s placed down on a bench, and he groans when he feels the warm body leave him. 

“Hey, hey, I’m here.” A hand comes to rest in his cheek. “Open your eyes for me.” Tenya does, but winces when the light hurts his eyes. 

“I got the-” 

“Turn off the light, Midoriya.” 

There’s some shuffling around, another hand comes to rest on the side of his neck. 

“Try it now, baby.” 

Tenya blinks slowly, opening his eyes to total darkness. There’s still a light on, but it’s far away towards the back of the room. 

“Does that feel better?” Tenya nods. “Good, good.” 

Tenya hums, nodding and leaning into the warmth of the hand. 

“Hey, you want to do me a big favor?” Tenya shakes his head. The warmth of his hands goes away for a second. “Come on, Ten’, for ‘Roki?”

Tenya perks his head up. 

“‘Roki?” 

“Yeah.” The voice says, placing a hand on Tenya’s thigh for support. “Want to do ‘Roki a favor?” Tenya nods like a little kid when he’s asked if he wants candy. “Want to open your mouth for me?” 

Tenya does, and feels something being placed on top of his tongue. Before he can protest, his mouth is closed and the tip of a water bottle is placed over his bottom lip. 

“Have some water, Ten’.” Tenya nods, opening his mouth around the water bottle and drinking. 

He grimaced as he felt something bitter go down his throat. But he drinks more water to pass it. 

“That’s it, good.” The water bottle is removed and a hand comes to his cheek. “Can you follow my voice better now?” 

Tenya tilts his head to the side, concentrating on the voice. 

“Just follow my voice.” 

Tenya blinks, vision turning more concrete with each passing blink. 

When his vision clears out enough to make out who is in front of him, Tenya sees grey and blue eyes staring back at him from below. 

He blinks some more, until his vision is completely back, and sees Todoroki kneeling in front of him. Uniform still on, skates digging into his sides, and gloves thrown to the side. 

“Hey, there you are.” Todoroki smiles, the hand on his thigh moving to the back of his neck. Fingers found the back of his head and began to play with his hair. “That’s my cute nerd.” 

Tenya leans into the touch. 

When he feels like he's ready, and when his breathing is almost back to normal, he speaks. 

“W-what…” His voice is soar. Todoroki offers him more water and Tenya takes it gladly. “What happened?” 

“If I could take a guess, I think you had a panic attack.” Tenya’s eyes grow wide. He backs out of Todoroki’s arms, his back slamming against the lockers behind him. “Woah, woah, easy.” Todoroki pulls him close again, but Tenya pushes back. “What’s wrong?” 

“I-I…” Tenya’s eyes watered. “Izuku.” 

“Izuku?” Todoroki repeats. When Iida doesn’t say anything else, Todoroki asks further. “You want me to get Izuku?” Tenya nods. “Ok, I can get Izuku.” 

Todoroki maneuvers with one hand to get his phone out of his duffel bag. He searches for Midoriya’s number and shoots him a text. 

He gets a response right away. 

“He’s coming, Ten’.” Todoroki says to Tenya, who is backed up against the lockers. Todoroki can’t stand seeing the expression in his eyes, like he wants to run away from him. 

It breaks him even further when he hears Tenya sob in the quietness of the locker rooms. 

—//— 

Todoroki knocks on the door. 

It’s answered by Midoriya yet again. 

“Hey, Sho’.” He says, just like the other three times he has answered the door. “He isn’t ready yet.” Midoriya closes the door a smidge, only leaving room for Todoroki to see the beginning of Iida’s bed. “I’m sorry, come-”

“Here.” He shoves a pack of oranges into Midoriya’s hands. “Tell him I left this for him.” Midoriya grabs the pack. “The other ones must have run out by now, so I bought a new one.” 

“I’ll let him know.” Midoriya smiles. 

Todoroki turns to leave when he feels a hand grab his wrist. 

“Sho’, listen…” Midoriya comes out of the room, giving Todoroki just one second of looking into the room. 

Iida is wrapped in blankets on the bed, dark hair on his pillow, face covered. It made Todoroki’s stomach twist in a way that made him want to throw up. 

“He just needs time, okay?” Todoroki nods, already knowing this conversation by memory. “He’ll talk to you when-”

“When he’s ready, I know.” Todoroki finishes for Midoriya. “I got practice so…” Midoriya lets him go. “Talk to you later, Midoriya.” 

Midoriya sees him walk away, and notices how Todoroki’s shoulders hang low, no longer holding the posture they usually did. 

He goes back inside the room and leaves the pack of oranges inside the shared fridge of Iida and Tokoyami. 

He walks to bed and sits by Iida’s legs. 

“It was Shoto.” He says. “He stopped by to drop off a pack of oranges.” There’s no movement from the bundle of blankets. “He misses you, Ten’.” 

Midoriya can’t take it back before Iida is already sobbing into the sheets. 

“I’m sorry.” He says, as he slides down the bed to sit on the floor. “I’m sorry, Iida.”  

Midoriya stays up all night, hearing Iida’s sobs. 

—//—

Two games have passed, and Todoroki is doing horribly. Coach Toshinori is considering taking him out for what’s left of the season, but Todoroki promises to get better. 

He doesn’t. 

He misses every strike, misses every pass from Shinso or Sero, and can’t seem to coordinate well with Bakugo and the Kirishimas. He couldn't even defend himself against Shoji properly when they did a practice game, falling backwards with the full force of Shoji’s body slam. 

He sits the third game out. Doesn’t play even one inning, and only stares into his skates as he chews his mouth piece between his teeth. 

He tries to practice more, in and out of school. But nothing changes. Touya tries to talk to him, but it doesn’t work. 

Todoroki tires himself to exhaustion, until he passes out on the ice, and has to be carried out by Sero and Shoji. Touya usually comes in later, changing him out of his uniform, walking him to his dorm and making sure he sleeps during the night. 

The nightmares are back, this time about his scar. He thought he had forgotten about this, gotten over it, but he would wake up in the middle of the night with sweat pooling on his forehead and a scream escaping from between his lips. 

Most nights weren’t as bad, but other nights were horrible. 

Touya is there for all of them. 

Fourth game is around the corner, and Todoroki is practicing again. He's trying to score some points but he keeps missing. Touya went out to grab a smoke a couple of minutes ago, so Todoroki was by himself. 

He skates to the net and picks up the pucks from the ground. The door from the gym opens. 

“Five more minutes, Touya, I’m almost done…” Todoroki spins around and it’s met with dark blue eyes. “You're not Touya.” He says, pucks falling off his hand. 

“And you're obviously missing.” 

Hearing his voice was like heaven; after not hearing it for so long, Todoroki felt his hand tremble at his side. 

“Yeah, uh…” Todoroki looks back at the scoring board. Zero. 

“Touya said to tell you he’ll be back to pick you up in thirty minutes.” Todoroki looks up at him. “Gives us enough time.” Todoroki is about to ask what he’s talking about when the gate suddenly opens. 

Todoroki is moving before his mind can register it. 

He’s in front of him in an instant, hands slightly in the air in case he needs something to grab onto, but not completely reaching out.  

“I was never good with my balance.” Hands come to grab his forearms, and Todoroki pushes all his strength down to his legs to keep them both from losing balance and falling. “Maybe you can help with that.” 

Their eyes meet, dark against blue and grey, and it was like the first time. Time slowed down, it was only the two of them now. No loud noises, no cheers, no rowdy teammates, or noisy roommates. 

Just two boys who looked at each other with thousands of unsaid words on the tips of their tongues. 

“That is…” Todoroki blinks at him. “If you still want to teach me.” 

Todoroki hums, hands holding onto his forearms, pulling him up. 

“Of course I do, Ten’.” 

Tenya smiles. 

—//— 

They had done two laps around the rink in complete silence. Comfortable silence, but silence nonetheless. 

Todoroki was just happy to see him again. Happy that he was able to see his beautiful eyes and smile, happy to be able to touch him again. To be close, to be able to look into his eyes again. 

“I think my feet are starting to hurt.” Tenya grips his forearms. Todoroki blinks to look up at him. “Can we sit down for a second?” 

“Yeah, of course.” Todoroki skates back towards the side door of the rink. Eyes always on Tenya, holding onto his forearms. 

They reached the benches where the team would usually sit while the game took place and Todoroki pushed the door open with the back of his skate. He didn’t want to let go of Tenya. He steps in first and tightens his hold when it’s Tenya’s turn. 

They settle on the bench, and Todoroki reaches for his water bottle. 

“Water?” Tenya smiles and grabs the bottle. 

They spend the seconds in silence, getting some water in their systems. Once Todoroki is done, it’s when he turns to ask Iida. 

“Not that I’m complaining or anything, in fact, I’m so happy you're here right now.” Tenya giggles. Todoroki’s heart jumps inside his chest. “But, why are you here?” 

Tenya spends a second in silence, thinking over his words and what he came here to do. 

“Ten’…?” Todoroki places a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, take your time.” Tenya takes a deep breath. 

And talks. 

“When I was eight years old, my brother Tensei got into a horrible car accident that left him half paralyzed from the waist down.” 

“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.” Todoroki sees how the light in Tenya’s eyes dim down. 

“My parents did everything they could to try to find a cure for him.” Tenya instinctively scooted closer to Todoroki. The boy instantly wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “They used all their money to get him to the best doctors and specialists, but nothing seemed to work.” 

“The only progress there was that Tensei can walk, but with the help of a machine on his back. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the robotic exoskeletons before, but it was the only thing they could find that would at least help him walk.” 

“I’ve heard of them.” Todoroki says. 

Tenya takes another deep breath. 

“It destroyed my parents' marriage.”

Todoroki feels Tenya’s hand grip on his thigh. He wants to reach for it, to hold it and feel its warmth against his skin. 

But he holds back. 

“They blamed each other for Tensei’s accident.” Tenya says. “They would argue a lot, back and forth, screams filled out the house that once was a quiet loving home of a happy family.” 

“It’s that why you don’t like loud noises?” Tenya nods. “I’m so sorry, Ten’.” 

“Tensei tried to protect me from their screams and fights.” Tenya continues. “But there was so much he could do for the most part. The fighting began while he was still in a coma, so for the most part of that, I could hear everything.” 

Todoroki suddenly feels the weight of Iida’s body against his shoulder. He looks down at him to see his eyes towards the floor. 

“They blamed me sometimes.” He mumbles. “Told me horrible things that hurt me. I was only eight years old, you know, and I just wanted for everything to go back to normal.” 

Todoroki feels his heart sink when he sees Tenya’s face. He really didn’t like seeing him like that, sad and without a smile on his lips. His usual bright eyes were dim and hollow, with no life to them. 

“I developed a severe panic attack disorder from there.” Tenya says. “They’re usually triggered by loud noises, or screams. Sometimes even if I’m taken up by surprise, or if my heartbeat raises so much to the point that I feel like I’m back in that house, with my parents screaming at me the thousands of reasons why I should have been the one to crash that night and not Tensei.” 

Todoroki instantly goes down to his knees in front of Iida. The blades of his skates dig into his hip, but he doesn’t care. He could withstand that for Iida.  

He would withstand that and so much more for his Tenya. 

Todoroki’s hands go to the boy's cheeks. 

“Don’t you ever, for a second, think that you deserve to die.” Todoroki’s thumb rubs circles on Tenya’s cheek. “You don’t, and I don’t care what your parents say.”  

“Todoroki-kun…” 

“And I don’t want you to ever think that you do deserve that, because you don’t.” Tenya looks into Todoroki’s eyes. “If you ever do, talk to me, okay?” Tenya’s head is nodding. 

“I… uh…” Tenya felt his eyes sting. “I also take medication for anxiety." Todoroki thinks back to the bottle of pills he saw on Tenya’s headboard. “I became such a control freak after the accident, wanting to feel some kind of control in my life, and I developed severe anxiety. It usually happens when things aren’t done as I expect them to be done, or if someone messes with my stuff when I’m not around, that causes me bad anxiety.” 

“Forgive me, love, but that doesn’t seem severe enough to get medicated for.” Tenya leans into Todoroki’s left hand, his eyes closing. 

“I get medicated for it so it doesn't get too bad.” Tenya explains, breathing coming out in a calm wave. “Mix in my panic attack disorder and it’s like a bomb waiting to explode, you know.” 

When Todoroki thinks about it, he does have a point. His heart does a little jump, not an excited one, but one that makes his chest contrast in pain. 

“Iida, thank you.” Iida blinks at him, confused. “For trusting me with such a private thing.” 

“Don't sweat it, ‘Roki.” Tenya leans into his space, pressing their foreheads together. “We are friends after all, right?” 

Todoroki hides the wince that wants to come onto his face with a sloppy smile. 

“I came here today to make up.” He says. “I know I kind of shrugged you off after the whole game fiasco, but I wanted to say that I was sorry.” 

Todoroki is trying his best to stop his hands from trembling against Iida’s cheeks. It doesn’t work, because Iida reaches his own hands to hold Todoroki’s on his own. 

“You don’t need to apologize, there was nothing to apologize for.” 

“But-”

Todoroki presses his thumb over Tenya’s lips. 

“Don’t.” Todoroki sees Iida’s face flushed red. “I’m super sure.” He says, when he still sees the question linger in Tenya’s eyes. 

They don’t know how long they stay like that, but eventually, Todoroki’s hips are hurting. He gets up, letting go of Tenya’s face. 

“Want to go out to eat something?” Tenya asks as Todoroki sits to take off his skates. 

“Sure, I’ll-”

“Nop, not this time.” Tenya pushes himself up to stand, forgets he’s still on the skates, and loses balance. 

Todoroki catches him before he falls to the floor. His chest presses flushed against Tenya’s back, faces centimeters away from each other. His legs are trapping the boy in between, arms under his armpit, holding him up. 

Tenya’s face grows hot when he sees how close Todoroki is. He stares into his eyes before he holds onto the boy’s knees to push himself up again. 

Todoroki hates the loss of warmth against his chest. 

“I better take this off before I go anywhere.” With Todoroki’s help, Iida sits back down and takes off the skates. 

Todoroki looks at him, the boy is humming to a song he doesn’t recognize. He feels his stomach twirl in circles when Tenya looks up at him and smiles. 

Todoroki feels like butterflies have infested his stomach. 

—//— 

The fourth game went spectacular. Coach Toshinori was surprised by the 360 shift that Todoroki’s play level had done. 

He scored every single strike, perfectly synced with the Kirishima twins and with Bakugo, and didn’t even fall when the other team’s defenseman bumped into him. 

They won, Shinso scoring the winning point. 

Todoroki’s teammates skated towards Shinso, to celebrate his first ever score. However, Todoroki skated towards his team’s bench. The coach looked at him weird but said nothing. 

Todoroki skates up to where Iida is sitting with Midoriya, Kaminari and Uraraka. He presses his forehead against the glass, locking eyes with the boy. 

Iida feels the eyes on him, but he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care, not when Todoroki is looking at him with those beautiful eyes that would melt mountains if they were made of ice. 

He stands up, hearing Midoriya and Uraraka squeal next to him, and goes up to the glass. He presses his forehead against it, hand coming to stop where Todoroki’s own is pressed against the glass. 

“You did a good job.” He mumbles, Todoroki reads his lips and smiles. 

“Thanks for coming.” He responds back.  

“Thank you for inviting me.” 

There’s a lot of noise around him. But the presence of Todoroki, even through the glass, brought so much calm to Tenya that not even the noise was affecting him. 

He looks up into blue and grey eyes. He needs more. 

“Meet me outside in ten, okay?” Tenya nods. 

Todoroki steals one last look at him before he parts ways from the glass and begins to skate back to the center of the rink. His eyes never leave Tenya, who is still standing by the glass, his hand pressed against it. 

Tenya can’t stop the way his heart wants to burst through his chest. 

—//— 

Tenya knocks on the door. It opens right away to show the boy with the eyebrow piercing from the hockey team. 

“Oh, it’s you.” The boy looks over his shoulder. “Todoroki, your boy is here.” 

Your boy? Tenya’s face blushes. 

“Ah… thank you, Sero.” Todoroki is at the door, he has sweatpants on and a blue shirt that has a band’s name on the front. 

Tenya looks up at his face, and chokes on his saliva. Todoroki’s hair was short, no longer falling over his eyes in bangs. Instead it sticks out in different directions, falling flat over his ears. 

His face grows hot and he’s sure he has a blush in his face. It’s confirmed when Sero is looking at him up and down before he teasingly smiles at him. 

“I, uh…” Todoroki knows Tenya is looking at his hair. “Wanted to surprise you.” He says. 

“Well, consider me surprised.” 

They stared at each other for what felt like forever. 

Sero chuckles next to them. 

Todoroki turns away to sneer at Sero. The boy raises his hands in surrender. 

“I’m heading out.” He says, before grabbing his bag and stepping past Tenya to leave the room. “Put a tie on the door if you don’t want me to come in later tonight.” 

Todoroki’s face becomes red, matching the half of his hair that was of the same color. Tenya looks back at the boy but he doesn’t give him an explanation. 

“C-come in, Ten’.” Todoroki says, still red on the face. “I got everything almost set up.” 

They were watching a movie tonight. Tenya chose it, Todoroki let him do so anyways. 

“Did you bring the snacks?” Tenya nods. “You can sit on my bed, if you want.” Todoroki opens his laptop on the bed as Tenya places his things on top of Todoroki’s desk. 

“You still want to watch All Might 2?” 

“Of course I do, silly!” Todoroki reaches a hand to Tenya’s hair and ruffles it. “I’ll watch anything with you.” 

Tenya smiles at that, and his eyes earn a spark on them. Todoroki melts at the sight. 

“I bought some orange sweets, the ones you are always bugging Midoriya to buy for you.” Tenya’s cheeks turn pink. 

“Thanks.” 

“Of course.” Todoroki sets the laptop by the end of the bed and settles on the pillows by the headboard. “You comfy?” He asks. 

“Yeah, thanks.” Tenya opens one of the bags of chips. Todoroki presses play. 

—//— 

Their half way through the movie, and neither has realized that they have unconsciously scooted closer to the other. 

Todoroki’s arm rested behind Tenya’s, cushioning his head. Tenya’s cheek pressed against Todoroki’s shoulder. Both their hands laid in between them, unmoving and barely touching. 

Something funny happens, or not so funny, All Might had just punched the life out of a villain, but Tenya giggles. And the vibration hits Todoroki’s core like a slap to the face. He melts into the warmth of Tenya’s body. 

“Todoroki?” 

“Mhm?” Todoroki doesn't open his eyes, but rubs his chin against Tenya’s temple. 

“I can leave if-” An arm wraps around his waist. 

“Don’t leave.” Tenya smiles at the childish tone on his voice but says no more. He closes the laptop with his free hand and makes sure to place it on the floor before he leans back. 

There’s a moment of silence, Tenya listening to Todoroki’s breathing.  

“‘Roki?” 

“Mmm?” The hand around his waist pulls him close, chest against back. 

“Sleep well.” Tenya mumbles, his eyelids becoming heavy. “Have good dreams.” 

Todoroki hums, nuzzling at Tenya’s hair. Tenya takes it as a response and decides to go to sleep too. 

Todoroki does have good dreams. 

—//— 

Midoriya is giggling. When Midoriya giggles, nothing good ever comes out of it. 

Iida looks up and down at him, zeroing on his eyes, which are staring at his phone. 

He giggles again. 

“What's wrong with you today?” Tenya asks, placing his tray on the table. 

“Um, nothing.” Midoriya shuffles to put his phone away. Iida arches one of his eyebrows at him. 

“Izuku-kun…” 

Midoriya it’s out of his seat before Iida can think of his next words. 

“You have to tell me, Iida!” Midoriya is shaking his shoulder. “Is he a good kisser?! Did he kiss you first? Or did you kiss him first?” Iida feels the beginning of a question form on his lips but nothing comes out. “Was there tongue? Or is he too vanilla for that?” 

Iida feels like he’s going to be dizzy. 

“I have to know, Iida!” 

“Midoriya!” Iida didn’t like to shout, but it seemed like that was the only way to get Midoriya to pay attention to him. “What are you rambling about?”

Midoriya sits back down on his chair. He fishes his phone out of his pocket and unlocks it. 

At the same time, Todoroki arrives from getting his breakfast. 

“Morning, handsome.” He says, nudging at Iida’s sides. “Sorry I couldn’t come with you to the cafeteria, I had to go see the coach first.” 

“No worries.” Tenya nudges him back before he giggles and places his head over his shoulder. 

“What I’m talking about is th-” Midoriya blinks when he sees Todoroki sitting down with them. 

“Morning, Midoriya.” 

“Morning.” Midoriya looks at Iida. “Im talking about this.” He flips his phone to show a picture. 

Iida spits his refresher all over Midoriya’s face. 

“Ew.” The boy grabs the sleeves of his sweater and cleans off the excess juice off his face. “Thank you so much, Iida, for your bad aim.” He says, sarcastically. “This is why you don’t play sports.” 

Iida it’s not listening to him, his eyes on the picture. It was of him and Todoroki, sound asleep, on Todoroki’s bed. 

Iida’s cheeks flush when he sees the position they’re in. Todoroki is hugging his torso, Tenya’s face is flushed against the boy’s chest and their legs are tangled together. 

Todoroki chokes next to him.

“Oh, I’m going to kill him when I see him.” 

Tenya is still too shaken to process Todoroki’s words. It’s not even the photo that's bugging him right now, it’s the fact that his face looks peaceful.  

Tenya hasn’t looked like that since before Tensei’s accident. 

“So, who tops who?” Midoriya asks bluntly. 

Both their brains short circuit. 

—//— 

It’s the semifinals, and the entire stadium is packed. Todoroki got him front row seats for him and his friends. 

So far, the other team was ahead. They kept pushing back against the Kirishima twins, therefore they kept scoring points on them. 

Tenya was frustrated. For Todoroki. The boy seemed to be trying his best to keep the other team from scoring but he kept missing the shot. 

Tenya was wearing his shirt today, and Todoroki hadn’t noticed yet. 

The other team scores and the coach calls a time out. The team skates towards the bench, and takes a break. 

Tenya is standing up before he can have second thoughts. He walks up to the edge of the rink, he goes to where there’s no glass in between the seats and the bench and pokes his head in. 

“‘Roki.” He calls. Todoroki chokes on his water as he looks up. 

Sero is whistling next to him. 

He stands up and walks over to Tenya. 

“Ten’?” Todoroki looks down and notices the shirt. His face instantly turns red. “You're wearing it?” 

“Of course, I have to show support to my favorite player.” Todoroki’s ears turned red and he could hear his teammates wooing and whistling behind him. 

“Uh, t-thanks.” Todoroki looks down. “But I’m not doing so well right now.” Tenya’s hands go to Todoroki’s face and he pushes his head up. Their eyes meet. 

“Shoto.” Todoroki’s brain short circuits. Tenya has never called him by his name before. Hearing it for the first time was making his heart do weird little jumps inside his chest. 

Tenya leans into his ear. 

“If you win this, I’ll let you take me out…” Todoroki’s body goes still. “On a proper date.” 

Todoroki doesn’t know how, from his ears, smoke hasn’t come out with how many times he has felt that his brain has stopped working properly. 

Soft lips pressed against his temple, Todoroki feels his legs become jelly and he needs to hold onto the edge of the wall before he goes falling down to his knees. 

Tenya leans back, eyes meeting blue and grey. 

“What do you say, handsome?” 

Tenya is aware the entire team is looking at them, but he can’t bring himself to care. He can’t bring himself to care even less when he knows red eyes are staring at him from inside the bench. 

Todoroki raises his arm up and pulls Tenya close by his shirt. Their faces are centimeters away from each other, eyes locked with the other. 

“I say yes.” Todoroki leaves a kiss on Tenya’s forehead before he lets him go. “Thank you.” He whispers before pressing their foreheads together. 

“Any time.” 

The whistle is blown, giving the signal that time is up. Todoroki backs up and reaches for his hockey stick. 

“Start thinking of the place you want to go, Ten’….” Tenya is looking at him as he steps into the ice rink. “Because I’m winning this game.” 

Todoroki puts his helmet on as he skates closer to where Tenya stands. 

“I’m counting on it.” He shouts, cheeks flushed and heart fluttering inside. 

Todoroki smiles before he puts his protective mouth piece between his teeth. 

The whistle blows again and the game starts. 

The pep- talk worked wonders. Todoroki wasn’t missing anymore, he hit every strike, gaining a new score each time. Him and Tetsu combined techniques and smashed one of the other team’s defenseman against the glass wall. 

Him and Bakugo synced on one play, leaving the way free for Shinso to score another point. 

This was the last point, they were tied and Bakugo had the puck. He passed it to E. Kirishima and skated farther up towards the enemy’s goalie. Todoroki is behind them, dodging one of the defenders. 

Sero pushes a player who wants to push Todoroki and presses him against the wall. Shinso is behind Todoroki, backing him up. 

Kirishima passes the puck to Bakugo, who then passes it back to him. They keep this game up to when they reach the goalie. Bakugo then plays with it some, until the enemy’s goalie loses focus and then he passes it down to Todoroki. 

Tenya is on his tippy toes with anticipation. 

Todoroki hits the puck. The goalie reacts too late, the puck goes in between his gloved fingers and hits the net. The bell rings, determining the end of the game. The entire stadium burst out in screams.

They had just made it into the finals. 

Todoroki can feel his teammates coming up to him. But he’s moving before any of them get to even say a word. His feet are moving faster than he can process, only one goal in mind. 

Tenya is already waiting for him right where he left him. There’s a bright smile on the boy’s face and that just makes Todoroki’s legs move faster. 

He was almost there. Sero skated by him, said something that he didn’t understand. But he didn’t care to stop and listen. 

He had one goal. 

“You did such-” Warm lips pressed against cold ones. 

Tenya’s eyes widened in response, seeing blue and grey looking back at him. Todoroki sees the sudden uncertainty in his eyes and thinks maybe this was a bad idea. Who knows if Iida ended up back like at the second game, when he had a panic attack.

But Tenya is kissing him back, cold lips slightly turning warmer as they meet Todoroki’s in a slow dance. Todoroki’s arm wraps around his waist, pulling him up more, and realizing that there’s a wall between them that keeps them from getting close. 

Todoroki doesn’t care.

His other hand comes to rest on the back of Tenya’s neck, grounding him. Iida leans into it, tilting his head to the side to make the kiss more accessible. 

Todoroki laps at his bottom lip, Tenya hums in approval, and Todoroki’s fingers thread dark blue hair between them. 

They back away when the need to breath it’s present. Todoroki loses the grip on his neck but not the one on his hip. Their eyes meet, their pupils are equally dilated. Tenya’s cheeks and ears, and his entire face in general, are red. Todoroki finds it cute. 

But he had always found him cute; from the moment he saw him reading before their first morning class on freshman year of high school. Todoroki always knew that Tenya was the one who he wanted to be with.  

“Go on a date with me, Tenya.” 

Iida smiles, pressing their foreheads together. 

“Take me out on a date, Shoto.” 

—//— 

Tenya is getting ready to head out. He has checked himself in the mirror like four times, and each time Midoriya tells him that he looks the same way he did when he checked last time. 

But Iida couldn't help himself, he was finally going on a date with Todo- Shoto- he was going on a date with Shoto. And he wanted to make sure he looked good. 

On his bed, Midoriya is lying down playing videogames with Tokoyami. 

“You ready?” Midoriya asked.

“Yes, I think.” 

Both boys look back at him; he has one of his dress short sleeve shirts on, button up and in white. He has black jeans on with his favorite pair of white sneakers. The first two buttons of the shirt are undone, per Midoriya's request, and he brushed his hair down, no gel. 

“You look handsome, Iida.” Midoriya says. “Right, Fumikage?” The boy next to him nods, giving him a thumbs up. 

“Great!” Iida goes to grab his coat when his eyes land on the sweater on top of his chair. He grabs the sweater instead and puts it on. 

“Good luck!” Iida grabs his keys and looks back at Midoriya. 

“Thanks.” 

—//—

“You look handsome, Sho’.” His sister is brushing his hair. “When do we get to meet the fortunate girl?”

Todoroki doesn’t look at his sister’s eyes, but Fuyumi notices the slight furrow between his eyebrows.  

“Or guy, no judgment here.” She adds a second later. Todoroki looks up at her through the mirror. “So, a guy then.” 

“Y-Yeah.” 

“What’s his name?” 

“Ten-” The door is slammed open. Fuyumi jumped, dropping the brush on the ground. Todoroki looks through the reflection at his father walking in. He looks pissed. 

“You didn’t have enough with choosing to play some childish sport like your brother Touya.” Fuyumi is shaking next to him and Shoto tries to cover her with his body. “You also had to go and be a faggot too.” Fuyumi jumps at the words. “The only normal around here seems to be Fuyumi, and what a disgrace that is.” 

“Don’t talk-” The first hit always burns the most. 

“Don’t you dare talk back to me.” 

Shoto rubs the side of his cheek.

“I’m so tired of you and your brothers’ acting outs, it’s time I put an end to it.” His dad grabs his wrist and pulls him up. 

Even with broad shoulders and strong hockey player muscles, his dad towers over him by an extra foot, he could never compare to such a monster. 

“Let me go!” Shoto can hear Fuyumi’s cries behind him. “You're making her cry, stop it!” His dad tugs harder.

“I’ll show you to be a real man.” 

Shoto pulls on his dad’s hand, scratches his arm and tries to pull away. But the man only grips tighter. 

“Stop moving, you little shit.” The next slap makes his tongue taste like iron. “It’s time you finally learned your lesson.” 

“No, let me go.” There’s another slap, Fuyumi is a mess of sobs behind them. “Let me go.” 

Shoto looks up, to meet blue eyes. He had always hated those eyes, even hated himself for having them. 

It wasn’t until a boy with dark blue hair, about his same height back then, with dark blue eyes came up to him one day.

“Your eyes, are they real?” 

“Yeah, why?” 

“They’re very pretty.” 

Shoto treasured that moment from there on. It was the only thing that kept him going, the one thing that made him hate himself a little less with every glance at the mirror. 

Those words had saved him. And those feelings harbored into something more when they reached high school. 

But Shoto hadn’t had the courage to tell him how he felt. He had been too late. 

But life had taken pity on him, and gave him a second chance. One he wasn’t going to throw to waste. 

“Let me go, asshole.” 

His face is hitting the floor before he registers what happened. His sister is screaming somewhere by him, his dad is shouting over him, he can’t hear anything. 

He tries to corporate himself, but his body hurts. A great deal of pain pulses at his cheek and he can’t open his right eye. 

“You're just like your brothers, useless, all for nothing the three of you.” There’s a kick to his stomach that has Shoto doubling in pain again. “Why don’t you keep following Touya steps and move out once and for all? It seems like you love doing that a lot these days.” There’s a hand on his hair, fingers gripping tight. “No one is going to save you anymore, Shoto.” 

His face hits the floor again, and he’s sure his nose is bleeding. The door it’s slammed shut. Fuyumi is at his side in an instant. She rolls him over and instantly starts crying again. 

“Sho’.” She’s sobbing over his chest. “I’m sorry, Sho’.” She mumbles. “I’m so sorry.”

Shoto can’t make out what else she is saying, his eyelids feel heavy. His vision became blurry and his entire body hurts. 

His eyes shut close with one last thought. 

Looks like I won’t make it in time. 

I’m sorry, my cute nerd. 

—//— 

Midoriya is running. Tokoyami’s chat opened on his phone. He ran down the hall towards Iida’s dorm. 

Before he knocks, something chatters from the other side. He forgoes knocking and opens the door. 

He has one second to duck before a vase is flying to his face. It barely grasps his hair, missing by an inch. 

“Iida.” The boy is standing in the middle of the room. 

The entire place is trashed; books and textbooks everywhere. Tenya’s bag was thrown on the corner, his desk chair was turned over. His bedsheets were pulled out of the mattress and thrown on the floor. There’s broken glass on the ground, a bouquet of white roses scattered on the carpet. 

The bathroom door is closed, where Midoriya knows Tokoyami is hiding from the storm.

“Iida, talk to me, what happened?” 

Iida screams again, voice breaking, and Midoriya comes to a stop. He has heard these screams before. In fact, he recognized this kind of mess from before too, but it was just less than what it was now. 

Midoriya is running to Iida in a second. His arms wrap around his chest in a tight grip.

“I’m so sorry, Iida.” He says. “Please listen to my voice, okay? We can work this out, we can fix it, just talk to me.” Iida holds still for a second. Midoriya expects him to try and shrug him off. 

Then he hears Iida sobbing. The boy slowly drops to his knees, Midoriya following him. 

“W-why me?!” Iida’s voice is so broken, Midoriya is already crying before he can stop himself. “Am I the problem? Am I defected?” 

“You're not, Iida.” Midoriya tries to soothe him. “You're perfect, and no one can say otherwise.” 

“Then, why?!” Iida cries. “It’s always the same. I gave it my all but in the end, the only one who was truly trying was me.” Iida’s body begins to shake in Izuku’s hold. “Am I not enough?” His voice cracks again, sounding shattered and broken.

“I-I…” Izuku doesn’t know what to say. 

He, in fact, does not know why Todoroki would do that. In honesty, he doesn’t think the boy is capable of even thinking of that. He knew how much Todoroki was trying to win Iida over, it made no sense that when he finally got him to go on a date, he would just not show up. 

But try telling that to a broken-hearted Iida, who has gone through enough things to not want to ever open his heart again.

But he did, for Todoroki. 

“I’m sorry, Iida.” Izuku decides to say, hugging the boy tighter. “I promise we’ll figure it out.” Iida is still sobbing. “I promise.” 

—//— 

Midoriya starts asking around. Apparently Shoto hasn’t shown up to practice either. The coach was pretty frustrated with the final game around the corner and all. 

He hasn’t gone to class either, according to Sero and Shoji who have classes with him. And he’s been skipping lunch and afternoon drills with the hockey team. 

Midoriya is starting to worry. 

Iida has gone back to taking his anti-depressant meds. He has black circles under his eyes and he can barely make it to the bathroom before he plumates to the ground. 

He hasn’t been eating either, his body is weak, and Midoriya has no choice but to call his brother. Iida begs him not to, and promises to get better. Midoriya agrees, and only gives him a week before he calls Tensei. 

Iida keeps his promise, and in a week he’s back on his feet. Wobbly feet, but his up nonetheless. He's eating more now, not a lot like a regular person should, but something. He’s still taking his anti-depressants to Midoriya’s dismay but there’s nothing he can do about that. 

Todoroki is still a no show. And Midoriya hears from his boyfriends that if he didn’t show up by the beginning of next week, the coach was going to sit him out for the last game. 

Todoroki shows up on Tuesday. But he didn’t seem the same. Midoriya can see it in the way his face looks hollow, in the way he adverts his eyes to avoid eye contact with everyone.

When Tenya sees him, it’s during lunch time. 

Todoroki is sitting at the hockey team’s table. Tenya drops his lunch tray and he’s already walking over before Midoriya can stop him. 

“You!” The entire table looks up at him. 

“Oh, no.” Ojiro says out loud. 

“This oughta be good.” Sero is mumbling under his breath. 

“How dare you!” Iida is mad. “You court me, flirt with me, give me gifts and offer to take me on a date.” Iida grabs Todoroki’s shoulder. “And out of nowhere decide that you’ve had enough?!” 

“Iida, let’s go.” Izuku is pulling his arm. But Tenya isn’t done. 

Oh, he’s far from done. 

“What was it, huh? A joke? A dare?” Iida slams his fist against Todoroki’s shoulder blades.

“Hey, watch it.” Sero warns him. A hand comes to rest on Sero’s arm though, keeping him from turning towards Iida. 

Tenya doesn’t care. He stopped caring the moment his heart was broken for a second time, and in the same fucking way. After he gave it his all and dropped all his defensive walls down again, someone came and broke his heart. Again. 

“Did one of your little friends dare you to pick on the nerd, huh?” Iida pulls Todoroki’s arm to turn him around. “Was it all just a game to- for fucking sake, Todoroki, fucking look at me when I’m talking to you.”

Izuku’s eyes widened, never in his years of knowing him had he heard Tenya cursed before.   

Todoroki turns, but doesn’t meet Tenya’s eyes.

“I said...” A hand holds Todoroki’s chin. “Look. At. Me…” Iida’s words die on his lips when he sees Todoroki’s face. 

There’s a purple bruise on Todoroki’s right eye. It seems old now, about a week. Some parts of the edges were still a little yellow, so it couldn’t have been that old but not that recent either. The purple wraps around his right away like a blanket, much like his left scar. 

No, almost exactly like his left scar. 

Iida’s anger is gone in an instant. 

“What happened to you?” Todoroki doesn’t answer and starts to pick up his things. “Don’t do that.” Tenya reaches for his arms to stop him from leaving. “Talk to me, ‘Roki, I’m here for you.” Todoroki doesn’t listen. 

He picks his hockey bag and heads to the exit. 

“Todoroki, I’m still talking to you.” 

Todoroki keeps walking. 

“Todoroki, don’t close off like that, talk to me.” Tenya is still talking behind him. “I know I talk a lot, but I promise to shut up and listen to everything you have to say.” Iida grabs his arm. “Please, just talk to me.” 

Midoriya covers his mouth to keep the sob from coming out. His eyes filled with tears. 

Todoroki’s hand lets go of the doorknob and reaches for Iida’s. He grips tightly, Iida smiles thinking he finally got through to him, but changes his mind when Todoroki pulls the hand off him. 

“Shoto, don’t.” Tears began rolling down Iida’s cheeks. “Don’t leave me, please.” Iida scrambles to hold onto his shirt. “I-I…” 

Todoroki grips the handle of his duffle bag tightly, teeth sinking into his bottom lip to keep him from letting out a sob. 

“I’m sorry.” It’s all he musters to say before he opens the door and leaves. 

The door closes in front of Iida’s face. The tears intensify, vision goes blurry, and Iida sobs. Thank goodness Midoriya muffled it with his chest. 

“I’m here, Tenya.” He mumbles into his hairline. “I’m here.” 

—/Two Days Later/— 

Tenya is sitting outside today. The breeze is nice and he can’t stand being inside his dorm anymore.

Midoriya went to get some snacks from the cafeteria before heading this way. They were going to work on some assignments that were due this weekend. 

There’s a shadow casting over Iida. He turns, an enthusiastic greeting beginning to form in his lips. It dies on the tip of his tongue when he sees the person standing behind him. 

“B-Bakugo?” 

The blonde was on his hockey uniform, hands inside his pockets, and the usual scowl on his face. 

“W-What are you doing here?” 

“We need to talk.” He steps closer and takes a seat next to Iida. “About half and half.” Bakugo pauses. “And us.” 

Iida gulps but faces forward and sits with his legs crossed under him. 

Bakugo stays quiet, just staring into the horizon. 

“Half and half is a good guy.” 

It takes Tenya a second to realize that he’s referring to Todoroki. 

“He isn’t an asshole like me.” Tenya turns to disagree but Bakugo shuts him up with a one look. 

He has always been able to do that, expressing himself with his eyes, and Tenya had always known how to tell what each look meant. He still did.

“He isn’t a coward, like I was.” Tenya turns towards the blonde. “Back in high school, I liked you too.” Tenya can’t help the jump his heart does inside his chest. This is what he always wanted to hear from the blonde’s lips. There’s a pulse in his ears and he feels his earlobes heating up. 

Except, it no longer feels the same somehow. 

“The day you asked me to meet up after school, I knew why you wanted to meet up.” Bakugo continues. “It was kind of obvious in the way your eyes shined when you gave me the letter.” 

Tenya remembers that day; he had decided he wanted to come clean about his feelings to Bakugo. He had written him a letter telling him to meet up after school at their special spot behind the school’s yard. 

“I didn’t show up.” 

Tenya knew that. But he had always tried to convince himself that it never happened. Hearing Bakugo say it out loud somehow made all those memories resurfaced again from where Iida had them locked up. 

“I was a coward. I didn’t want to confront my feelings because it meant accepting a part of me that, at that time, I wasn’t comfortable with.” 

Tenya’s eyes slowly turned to Bakugo. 

“I think fate has a funny way of doing things.” Bakugo’s shoulders relax and he finally looks down. “I knew half and half like you too.” Tenya does a double take, thinking he had heard wrong. “But I didn’t say anything because I enjoyed having your attention on me.”  

Tenya is still stuck on the part where Todoroki apparently had feelings for him. 

“I was selfish.” Bakugo says. “Even now, years later, I’m still selfish.” Bakugo grumbles as he turns his head towards Iida. “Seeing you so happy with Todoroki made my stomach twist in a way I didn’t like. And I wanted your eyes to be back on me.” 

“Bakugo…” 

“I didn’t realize I wasn’t only being selfish again, but I ended up hurting Ei in the process.” Bakugo sighs. “I always thought that, every time I looked back, you were going to be there.” Tenya’s chest presses hard against his heart. “Even after all these years, I still expected you to feel the same about me.” 

“I-I…” 

“Don’t.” Bakugo says. “I know that has changed.” He says. “And I’ve changed too, I’ve learned from my mistakes. Me and Kirishima talked it out and decided to take a break until I fix the unresolved feelings inside of me.” 

Tenya can’t help wanting to reach over and hold the blonde’s hand. But he knows Bakugo isn’t one for PDA, so he pushes the feeling deep down. 

“I think talking to you it’s what will help.” He says. “So, here I am.” 

Tenya looks back at him, the blonde’s eyes are on him. Waiting. 

“I, uh…” Tenya takes a deep breath. “I was really hoping that you would show up.” He says. “Kind of sucked when Midoriya showed up instead, you know.” 

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Bakugo says. “I know it won’t change anything, but I did feel something.” 

Tenya expects those words to make his heart beat faster, for his face to grow hot and for his stomach to do the funny jumps it did whenever he would look at Bakugo back in high school. 

However, they don’t. 

Instead, his mind goes to Todoroki, and the way he would smile at him. The way Todoroki always bought him oranges packs and brought him flowers. Made sure he had orange sweets inside his car, or in his bag, for whenever Tenya had the craving for them. The way he would always buy him an orange refresher every time they went to the cafeteria.  

His mind thinks of the warmth of Todoroki’s hand on his cheek, on the way it enveloped him like a cloak, just like when he put on his hockey sweater for the first time. He thinks of how Todoroki’s hands are always soft against his cheeks, or his arm, or anywhere they touch his skin. He thinks of how his eyes always look at him, as if Tenya held the world in his hands and Todoroki was the moon orbiting around him. 

Tenya realizes then, that it had never been casual. Their interactions, their conversations, their shared moments together, whenever they would pressed their foreheads together, their first kiss. 

Nothing had been casual. It never had been. 

Tenya bursts into silent tears. Bakugo reacts right away, looking worried and confused. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you-” A hand presses against Bakugo’s hand. “Four eyes?” 

Tenya smiles through tears at the nickname. 

“Thank you, Katsuki.” He says, leaning over to hug the blonde. “Thank you.” Bakugo doesn’t move but doesn’t return the hug either.

Tenya finds that he’s fine with that. 

“I… I still have one more thing to say.” Tenya leans back against his heels and cleans off his face. “Half and half, he… um… it’s complicated, okay?” Tenya tilts his head to the side. “I’m not going to say anything, it’s not my place, but don’t give up, okay?” 

“Give up?” Tenya asks. “Why would I give up?” 

“Someone gave up on him a long time ago too, and he hasn’t opened his heart to someone in years.” 

Tenya feels his stomach flutter. 

“Until you came along, and I think you changed something in him.” Bakugo brushes his hair out of his eyes. “Don’t give up on him, four eyes, he needs you now more than anything.” 

Tenya feels a new wave of tears resurface. 

“I heard from Sero that he’s heading to the ice rink this afternoon.” It takes a second for Tenya’s brain to process the information. 

He’s on his feet in an instant. 

“Thank you, Kat’.” He says, not even realizing the nickname slipped up. Tenya picks up his things and grabs his bag. “Thanks for the talk, and…” Tenya looks into his eyes one last time. 

Red eyes meet dark blue, and Tenya slowly realizes that his heart is no longer beating fast at the sight of them. He realizes that he no longer shy away or shrinks within himself under that intense gaze. 

He realizes, after so many years, that it no longer has the same effect that it had on him before.

His hands no longer shake, his face no longer gets red, his stomach no longer turns and twists inside of him. His mind no longer drifts away, his heart no longer beats fast. 

Now, they were just a pair of simple red eyes looking back at him. 

They weren’t blue and gray, the hair wasn’t white and red, his lips weren’t thin, his cheeks weren’t chubby or blushed pink. And they didn’t look at him the same way blue and gray looked at him. 

Tenya takes a deep breath; the emotions once felt towards the blonde in front of him piled up in that single breath. He exhales, all those emotions gone once he lets the air leave his lips. 

He opens his eyes to look at Bakugo, who is still sitting on the grass. 

“Goodbye, Katsuki.” He says before he turns and starts to run towards the school’s ice rink. 

Bakugo sees him run away, his back to him. His eyes start to get blurry, wet tears piling up at the corners.

“Goodbye, Tenya.” He mumbles, voice breaking with a sob. 

It was the end of a chapter for the both of them, one that healed many unhealed wounds from the past. 

Goodbye, Katsuki. 

Goodbye, Tenya.

—//—

Todoroki is listening to a podcast when he opens the door of the rink. 

He enters, eyes still on the floor, and makes his way towards the ice rink. 

It isn’t until he has put his bag down, along with his skates and school bag that he finally looks up. 

Tenya is slowly moving around the rink. Hands holding onto the edge of the walls, moving his legs slowly. Todoroki can tell that he’s shaking like crazy, knees wobbling and giving up under him. To which Tenya responds by reaching for the goalie’s pole and latches onto it. 

“Damn, how does he make this look so easy?” Todoroki can’t help the snort that escapes from his lips when hearing the proper and respectful Tenya Iida use a curse word.  

Iida looks up, eyes finding him right away. 

Todoroki feels his chest swell when those eyes look back at him. It almost makes him melt on the spot, his knees giving up under him this time. 

“‘Roki.” Tenya calls out to him, excitement in his voice. He raises his hand to wave and his skates slide down. Tenya holds onto the pole again. “Eh, a little help please?” 

Todoroki is on his feet in an instant. He changes his shoes to his skates and enters the rink. 

Tenya is waiting for him by the goalie net. Todoroki stretches his hands for Tenya to grab. When Iida grabs his hand, he impulses himself off the pole, skates sliding on the ice, and Todoroki pulls him instinctively. 

Their chests flush together. And their eyes meet each other. 

Tenya can’t help the frown that comes up on his face when he sees Todoroki’s bruised eye. He also realizes that his hair has gotten a little longer since last time. 

He grips Todoroki’s forearm tightly while he lets go of the other and reaches over to touch Todoroki’s face. The boy backs away with a wince on his face. 

Tenya’s heart breaks. 

And at the same it rages at the thought of someone hurting his boy. 

Todoroki seems to notice his action and tries to play it off. But it’s too late, Iida already knows. 

“Is it someone in school?” He asks. Todoroki doesn’t answer, averting his eyes from Iida. “One of your siblings?” Still nothing. “Is it your parents?” That seemed to catch Todoroki’s attention, who quickly looked up. 

Tenya sees the desperate look in his eyes and wishes nothing more than to punish whoever hurt his boy to the point that this is the face he makes when someone tries to touch him. 

“Momma would never do this.” Todoroki scrambles to say, voice breaking in between words. “She’s good, she’s nice, she loves me. I…” 

If Tenya’s heart broke before, now it felt like a knife had been stabbed and twisted inside of him. 

“She… she…” Todoroki’s eyes welled up with tears. His breathing accelerates, coming in rapid successions. His entire body is shaking, hands gripping Tenya’s forearms. “She wouldn’t hurt me.” 

Todoroki bursts into tears. Tenya pulls him into a hug, Todoroki’s face is pressed against his chest and he sobs. 

Tenya holds him. Holds him as the boy cries, screams and sobs into his shirt. And doesn’t let go even when he feels his legs wiggle under him. 

Somehow, they find themselves laying down on the ice. Sides pressed against the cold ice under them, bodies pressed together, hands intertwined. 

When Todoroki came back to his senses, he was hiccuping on Tenya’s chest. The cold of the ice made his shirt wet. Tenya’s arm wrapped around him protectively, soothing small circles on his back as he hummed a soft song into his ear. 

“Are you back with me?” Tenya mumbles when he feels Todoroki moved in his hold. The boy blinks up at him through wet lashes, dry tears make his cheeks cold. “Hi.” 

Todoroki tries to speak but feels his throat sore. 

“It’s okay, you don’t have to talk right now.” 

But I want to. 

I need to. 

I- 

Todoroki feels a poke on his forehead. He looks up at a smiling Tenya. 

“Don’t do that.” Todoroki blinks at him, perplexed that Tenya just used his own words against him. “Talk to me.” 

Todoroki grips the side of Iida’s shirt with his free hand. 

“Would it be better if we move to sit on the bleachers?” Todoroki shakes his head. The ice felt nice against his body, it made at least one part of his body cold. 

The cold had always made Todoroki feel more grounded, it was one of the reasons he loved playing hockey. Even if his father thought otherwise. 

The cold made him feel like he could let go of everything and just concentrate on skating. Or on taking the puck to the other side of the rink to score. By skating on the ice, Todoroki gained some kind of control to be himself here. 

In the rink, Todoroki was no longer the scared little boy who cried every night in his mom’s arms. In the rink, Todoroki was no longer the boy who grew up in a hostile and abusive household. In the rink, Todoroki was no longer the little boy who had cried and begged on his knees, for his mom not to leave him in that hell hole. 

In the rink, Todoroki was no longer his father’s new target for abuse. In the rink, Todoroki was no longer the one who protected Fuyumi when his dad got drunk and decided to take his anger out on his children. In the rink, Todoroki wasn’t the boy who had begged Touya and Natsuo to take him with them when they moved out. 

In the rink, Todoroki wasn’t the reason his mom left. In the rink, Todoroki didn’t have a scar on his face, or a broken heart, or bruises all over his body. 

Inside the glass-wall ice skating rink, Todoroki wasn’t Todoroki. He was Shoto, the boy who loved hockey. The boy who loved the cold, and to hang out with his friends. The boy who liked cold afternoons, winter season and ice cream. 

He was the boy who found his first friend in Midoriya. He was the boy, who despite not liking his character, let Bakugo take care of him the first time he showed up with a bruised lip. He was also the first one that he told about his family.

He was also the boy who fell in love with Tenya, the cute nerd from class 1-A back in freshman year of high school. He learned all his habits, his favorite snacks, favorite meals and even favorite movies. He went to Midoriya countless times, asking about Iida and his favorite things, before taking the first step in courting Iida. 

In the rink, Todoroki was just Shoto, a boy who loved hockey, cold soba and Tenya. 

“Okay, we can stay here.” Tenya’s voice brings him back. “Take all the time you need.” 

Todoroki presses the side of his head against Tenya’s chest and concentrates on the sound of Iida’s beating heart. 

They don’t know how much time passes. And Iida is sort of dozing on and off between the awake world and the sleep world. And who could blame him, he has Todoroki laying on his chest, arms around his waist while Iida traces circles on his back with one hand and pets the hair behind his ear with the other. Add to the fact that he’s been humming his favorite lullaby song that Tensei used to sing to him to get him to sleep on nights where his parents would argue nonstop. 

But then Todoroki speaks. 

“My dad abuses me.” Tenya instinctively pulls Todoroki close. “He has abused all of my siblings and I.” The hand on Tenya’s chest grips his shirt tightly. “He drinks until he passes out, and on nights where he would get angry, he would take it out on us.” 

“That’s fucked up.” Todoroki is still not used to hearing Tenya curse, it’s such a weird thing to experience if he’s completely honest. “No one deserves that.” 

“He would abuse my mother too.” Todoroki continues. “Much worse than any of us.” Todoroki’s body starts to tremble. Iida pulls him closer, almost having the boy on top of him. “She broke first.” There’s a pause and for some reason Iida’s hairs stand up in the back of his neck. “One day, after my dad had finished hitting her, she went to prepare some tea.” 

Tenya felt Todoroki's hand tremble on top of his chest. 

“I wanted to make sure she was okay so I went to the kitchen.” Todoroki slowly looks up, eyes meeting Tenya. “I overheard her talking on the phone about how she could no longer stand living here anymore.” Tenya sees Todoroki’s fingers come to his left scar. 

Somehow, Tenya already knew the answer as to how he got it. 

“When she turned, and saw me at the door, she let out a scream that still haunts me to this day at night.” 

“Did she…?” Iida wishes that he never asked. Because the look that Todoroki gives him is empty and so shallow, it makes Tenya’s inside contract against each other. 

Iida wants to throw up. 

“She spilled the boiling water over my eye in a moment of desperation.” Todoroki’s nails dig into his face. “She saw my dad in me, and she couldn't bear it.” The nails dig deeper. “I’ve hated looking at myself in the mirror since then, always looking at how I got one of his eyes. It always made me want to claw it out of the socket.” 

“Sho’.” Tenya says softly. “Let go.” Todoroki looks up at him, blinking in confusion. “Let go.”

It isn’t until Shoto feels blood pooling in his nails that he realizes that he has pierced his skin. Tenya grabs his hand and slowly pulls it away from his bleeding scar.  

“She left after that.” Todoroki says, reaching out to clean the blood but stopping when Iida grabs his wrist. 

“Hands on me, okay?” Iida places his hand back on his chest. “Let me.” 

Tenya reaches his hand to clean the boy’s face and is met with the hurt expression that Todoroki makes. 

“It’s me.” Tenya mumbles. “You're safe.” Todoroki opens his eyes slowly, Tenya’s hand is a few inches away from his face. Palm facing up, showing the light skin and lines stretching over it. “You’ll always be safe with me.” 

Tenya lets the boy take the first step. Lets him lean in first, allowing him to feel comfortable with his touch, before cleaning off the blood from his cheek. 

“There you go, all clean now.” Tenya pulls his hand away, not wanting to push Shoto too much. “Anything else you want to talk about?” 

“Touya and Natsuo left once they reached eighteen.” Todoroki leans into the warmth of Iida’s chest again. “I always resented them for leaving me in that hell hole, but I’ve been able to cope with it.” 

“Touya does seem more attentive to you now, right?” Shoto nods.  

“After a year, they both reached out again, and we sort of made up. Natsuo doesn’t talk to me as much though, afraid that if he gets too close, dad will get to him again.” 

“But that’s not the case?” 

“Of course not, I would never let my dad hurt any of them again.” 

“But he hurt you.” Todoroki has nothing to say. “You can protect people however long you want, but you can never put their safety over yours.” Tenya grabs Shoto’s chin and pushes his face up. “No one’s safety is more important than your own, Sho’.” 

Todoroki hums, laying his head back down. 

“I don’t like when you call me like that.” He mumbles. Tenya looks down at him and sees a pout on his face. “What happened to ‘Roki?” 

“You want me to keep calling you that?” Shoot nods, eyes away from Tenya. “You sure it won’t make you think of your dad?” 

A cold hand presses against Iida's cheek. It guides his face down to meet a pair of awaiting lips in a cold kiss. 

It ended as quick as it happened, and Iida’s cheeks were flushed. 

“Ten’, you made me like my eyes.” Todoroki smiles, for the first time in the entire time they’ve been here, and Tenya melts. “How could I not want you to keep calling me by the nickname you created for me?” 

“Well… I just…” Tenya suddenly realizes the implications of Shoto’s words. “What do you mean I made you like your eyes?” 

“I don’t know if you remember, but back when we were small, you came up to me one day while I was reading in our teacher’s classroom.” 

“I don’t think I remember, no.” 

“That day you asked me about my eyes, and I told you they were real.” 

Tenya’s brain clicks. He does remember, he had been dropping off his bag at Mrs. Nemuri’s classroom, when he had seen Todoroki sitting alone in the room. 

“Do you remember now?” 

“I do.” Tenya looks down at him and with one hand pushes his bangs back off his forehead. “I told you that your eyes were pretty.” Shoto nods. “It was the first time I ever talked to you.” 

“Yeah, it was.” Shoto smiles. “That simple gesture is the only reason I’ve made it this far. You pushed me forward all the times I felt like giving up.” Tenya can’t even begin to think about what it would be like if Todoroki hadn’t made it this far. “Your words came back to me every time I looked at myself in the mirror. You made me hate myself a little less every time I stared into those eyes that only brought me nothing but pain and anger.” 

“‘Roki.” 

“Yes, Ten’?” 

“Thank you.” 

“For?” 

“For trusting me with such a private thing.” Todoroki’s chest warms up when he remembers those exact words being said. But instead, he was saying them to Iida, not the other way around. 

“I would trust you with my life, Tenya.” 

And there, right on the floor of the ice skating rink, Tenya realizes something. 

He would give everything in the world, just to see Shoto smile. He would do anything in his power to never see that saddened look on Shoto’s face. He would endure any kind of pain just so his boy didn’t carry bruises in his body. 

Its then, that it hits Tenya. 

He loves him. He is completely, utterly disgustingly, but overly flooded, in love with this boy. 

And he’s not scared anymore. 

He can’t wait to show off to the world how much he loves this boy. He can’t wait to take him on dates, to buy him his favorite cold soba, his favorite strawberry shakes. He can’t wait to hold his hands while they walk to class together, when they go to the park, or grocery shopping for their dorms. 

Tenya can’t wait to kiss his lips again, and maybe this time spend more time tasting the strawberry chopstick Shoto always seemed to wear. He can’t wait to play with his hair as he rests his head on his lap, until he falls asleep. He can’t wait to spend countless nights watching movies together and falling asleep in each other’s arms. 

Tenya can’t wait to discover the world with Shoto at his side. 

“Tenya.” The boy blinks his way out of his thoughts. “Want to head out for the night and watch a movie?” 

“Anything you want, my pretty boy.” 

Todoroki’s chest warms up, cheeks flushed red. They help each other stand up, or rather Todoroki helps Tenya stand up without falling flat on his ass. 

“Maybe we should stop by my dorm to get a change of clothes.” Tenya says as he steps out of the rink. 

Todoroki reaches for his bag and takes out his extra shirt and pants. He hands them to Tenya and the boy’s ears turn red. 

“Those are my extra, you can use those.”

Tenya’s ears are still red, even as they leave the rink. Todoroki’s clothes are much bigger than his. The hem of the shirt goes past his waist band. 

Todoroki’s heart pounds against his ribs as he sees Tenya with his clothes on. Maybe he should start offering the boy more of his clothes.

Mhm, I’ll think about it.  

They settle in Todoroki’s bed and press play on a random movie. 

It doesn’t pass long before their both tangle up in the bed, sound asleep. Tenya’s cheek pressed against Shoto’s shoulder. Shoto’s chin resting on top of Tenya’s head.

Hands met in the middle, fingers intertwined together. 

They both slept soundly that night. 

—//— 

“This is where I come when I want to be alone.” 

Tenya looks over at Todoroki. They were at the back of their school building, in an empty parking lot. The light posts were all turned off, leaving a clear view of the clear night sky. 

“It calms me.” 

“Thank you, I feel much better.” 

“Not like the cold much?” Tenya shakes his head. “I see.” 

“You do?” Todoroki nods. “Is that why you choose to play hockey? Besides because of your brother.” 

“Yeah, that’s right.” 

They stay quiet for a minute. It’s a comfortable silence though, and Iida finds himself enjoying it. 

“We should head back.” Todoroki says. “It’s getting late.” 

“Yeah.” 

Todoroki drives off to the dorms. He makes sure to walk Iida up before he leaves. 

“I should probably return this.” Tenya begins to take off the sweater. A hand stops him. Tenya looks up to see Todoroki smiling at him. 

“Keep it.” He says. “It’s going to be cold all week. Keep it so you don’t get cold.” 

“But-”

“Give it back to me when you’re ready.” 

Tenya looks up at him confused but places the sweater back on his shoulders. 

“Good night, Iida.” Todoroki presses a firm hand over his head. “Sleep well.” 

“Good night, Todoroki.” He answers back. “Sleep well too.” Todoroki gives him one last smile before he heads towards the elevators. 

Tenya looks at his hands, where the sleeve of the sweater covers half his palm. 

“Give it back when you're ready.” 

He has no idea what he meant. 

—//— 

Tenya makes sure to grab the sweater before he leaves his room. 

“Are we going to be late?” Midoriya asks.

“Come on, Izu’.” Kaminari says next to them. “Have you ever known Iida to be late to anything?” Izuku giggles, Kaminari laughs, Iida stares at them. 

“I would have you know, that being on time is very important.” 

Kaminari doesn't care, he keeps laughing. Tenya ignores him, used to Kaminari’s teasing. 

“Let’s go, before we arrive late.”

—//—

The team is coming in, Iida finds the #4 jersey right away. Their eyes meet, and even though Todoroki has his helmet on, Iida can still see his beautiful eyes from up here. 

The whistle is blown, and both captains meet in the middle to shake their hands. 

“To a fair game.” The referee says. 

The entire stadium burst into cheers and Iida tries his best to keep his eyes on Todoroki. 

“It’s going to be okay.” Midoriya whispers next to him. 

Iida nods, it’s not like he spent all night diving deeper into the rules and guidelines of hockey just to be prepared.  

Sometimes Iida wonders why he didn’t choose to be a lawyer instead. It sure as hell would have fitted his obsessive behavior of knowing every rule in the book. 

The score bell rings, and Iida looks towards the score to see the guest gain one point. His legs start to shake. 

Everything’s going to be okay. 

Everything’s going to be okay. 

It wasn’t like he was planning on asking Todoroki to be his boyfriend tonight after they won the game. 

“Dude, breath.” Kaminari says. “You look pale.” 

“Sorry, I'm just nervous.” He says. 

“You get used to it, trust me.” Midoriya assures him. 

Iida really hopes he's right. 

—//—

They’re at half time and they’re taking a small break. Iida stands up to walk down to the benches. As soon as Todoroki sees him, he stands up to meet him by the side. 

“Hi.” Iida says. Todoroki’s eyes land on his shirt and the sweater he’s wearing. “Like what you see?” Todoroki’s cheeks flushed. 

“And what if I do?” He teases. He doesn’t really know what Iida will do with so many people around them. He knows the boy is a little nervous when it comes to showing his relationship in front of those that aren’t his circle of friends. 

So, Todoroki is taken by surprise by Iida's next words. 

“Then you better do something about it.” Tenya teases with a smile. “I heard some boys were staring at how these jeans make my ass look bigger.” Todoroki chokes on his saliva, the ability to speak lost somewhere between his brain and his throat. 

Sero is wooing behind him. 

“Damn bro, he got you with that one.” Tenya looks past Todoroki, to where Sero is sitting down next to Shoji. He goes to say a remark that’ll probably make the boy stunned when his eyes go behind Sero.  

Bakugo is sitting down, legs open, and a big redhead muscled boy stands in between them. His hands are on Kirishima’s thighs, and Kirishima is looking down at him with a smile. 

Tenya smiles, happy that they were back together. 

“Looks like they're back together.” 

“They’re still working through stuff, but there’s no way to pry those two from each other.” 

Iida hums, just happy that they were both trying to fix their things. Iida would never admit this out loud to anyone, but he did think they both were a pretty cute couple together. They were made for each other. 

“Hey.” Iida looks up at Todoroki. “Good luck kiss?”

Iida looks up at Todoroki. The boy had a smile on his lips, a slight blush on his cheeks, eyes zeroing on Tenya’s face. 

Katsuki had been right, fate had a funny way of doing things. 

They would have never worked out. Just like water and oil didn’t go together, or the way you couldn’t force two magnets of the same polarity to stick together. 

Katsuki and Tenya were on the same side of the magnet, pushing at each other’s ends. They would have never been compatible with each other, Katsuki was too much to handle for Tenya. 

But Shoto… he was different. He was just the exact amount of too much that Iida could handle. And in turn, Todoroki knew exactly how to handle him. The fiasco game being a big example of that. 

Shoto also took his time to learn his favorite things. Made sure to always have extra orange sweets in his car, or bring him orange packs at the beginning of each week. He bought him flowers too, and always bought him a refresher drink for his lunch. He even knew about his obsession with superhero movies and his love for his older brother. 

Tenya didn’t see anyone else doing that. 

“Ten’?” Iida blinks back again to reality. The bench behind them is almost empty. “You okay?” Tenya’s heart swells when he realizes it had never been about Katsuki. 

From the moment he talked to Shoto on that day in elementary school, when he told him about his eyes, that was fate’s way of pulling them to each other.

“I’m ready to return the sweater.” He says, smiling. His heartbeat had increased, his hands shook where they held the wall between them. 

Todoroki’s heart stops beating for a second. 

“I love you, Shoto.” And Iida has never been so sure of something in his life before. 

Shoto’s cheeks turned red, matching his red hair. He places a hand on Tenya’s cheek and pulls him in for a kiss. Tenya returns it with the same eagerness and joy. 

“I love you too, Tenya.” He says, pressing their foreheads together.

“Now, go beat some ass, baby.” Todoroki chuckles, backing up and grabbing his helmet. 

“You need to stop spending time with Izuku and Denki.” 

Iida could hear Izuku’s offended gasp from here. He could act innocent all he wanted, but Bakugo was starting to rub off on him more. Even if both of them denied it. 

“You secretly love it.” Todoroki grabs his hockey stick. 

“I do, never stop.” He says. Iida smiles as he sees Todoroki step onto the ice. 

“Shoto.” Todoroki skates around to meet him. 

“Yes, love?” 

“Win this…” A smile began to creep into Todoroki’s face. “And take me out on a proper date this time.” Todoroki chuckles, wrapping an arm around Tenya’s neck and pulling him close. 

“Start thinking of the place, my cute nerd, because I’m about to win this.” 

“That’s my baby!” Tenya says, kissing him on the nose. The referee blows the whistle again and after another kiss, Todoroki skates towards the left side of the rink. 

Iida goes back to sit next to Midoriya after the second point is scored by Shinso. 

—//—

They’re at Shinya’s, and this time, Tenya is sitting with them on the table. They chose an outside table this time because there just wasn’t enough space for all of them inside. 

Tenya is happy, surrounded by his new friends and his closest friends. As well as… His eyes go behind him, looking over his shoulder towards Todoroki. 

The boy is smiling at something Tetsu said. His face is bruised up, much like everyone else’s. 

The end of the game had been a disaster. The other team had been mad about losing, and took it out on their team. They were suspended from playing hockey ever again. But that didn’t stop Todoroki and his teammates from getting bruised lips, broken noses and bruised eyes as a consequence. 

They weren’t all too bad though, and as Bakugo had said, at least they got some punches of their own in. So, they weren’t completely bruised up. 

Tenya feels warm arms wrapped around his waist where he sat over Todoroki’s lap. His face turned red. 

In the last few minutes that he’s been with the team, he has realized that they didn’t care about showing off their partners. Or show any PDA for that matter. 

Shinso and Ojiro spoiled the shit out of Izuku and Denki. Granted that Tenya hasn’t seen them together in one room for more than two hours and it was just for studying. It was so different seeing them in this environment, totally different from what he’s used to. Tenya sees why Izuku is always such a spoiled brat when he’s around him; his boyfriends give in to everything he wants. 

Then there’s TetsuTetsu and Eijiro, who keep teasing Bakugo back and forth between each other. The blonde bickers with them a lot, but Tenya can see the way the corner of his mouth turns up into a smile when Eijiro’s or Tetsu’s eyes spark at his outburst of energy. 

Across from him is Tokoyami, who is comfortable sitting down on Shoji’s lap. Much like he is, and Tenya swears he has never seen such a bright smile on the usual monotone and neutral boy. 

Todoroki presses his cheek against his back and he laughs. The vibration runs throughout Tenya’s body. 

“So, are you guys officially or not?” Midoriya asked from across the table. “There’s already been a lot of kissing, but no announcement yet.” He has the dignity to look offended. 

Todoroki and Iida look at each other. Hands on his hips grip hard, grounding him. Iida’s cheeks flushed a deep red, Todoroki hums. 

“Ten’…” 

“Yes, ‘Roki?” Their foreheads came to rest against each other. It didn’t matter that they were surrounded by their friends, in fact, if you ask Tenya years later, he’ll tell you it was the best decision ever. 

“Do you want to be my boyfriend?” Todoroki whispered against his lips. Tenya felt shivers run down his spine at the feeling. 

Tenya answered by pressing his lips against Todoroki’s. The white-red haired boy smiled and kissed him back. 

There were cheers around the table. Sero whistled and wooed at them in obvious teasing. Midoriya was squealing, shaking Denki’s by his shoulders. Bakugo only smiled, pulling Eijiro closer to his side. 

When the now boyfriends separated, Tokoyami was the first to congratulate them. 

“Congrats, Iida.” 

“Thank you, Tokoyami.” 

Midoriya almost jumped over the table if he could, he was stopped by Shinso though, however he still reached over and wrapped Iida in a tight hug. 

“I’m so happy for you.” 

“Thank you.” 

Bakugo didn’t say anything to him, but his face carried a soft expression even when his eyebrows furrowed together in a scowl. His eyes weren't looking at him angrily and a small, barely noticeable, smile was on his lips. It was probably the first smile that he had ever given him, and probably the last one too, but Iida took it for what it was. 

Iida smiled back.

Thank you. 

The rest of the night was spent between laughs and stories about old fights that the team had gone through in previous games. 

Tenya was happy, enjoying the warmth pressed against his back. He couldn't wait to tell Tensei that he had finally found the one. 

The one who finally put him first. 

This is the last time you tell me I've got it wrong

This is the last time I say it's been you all along

This is the last time I let you in my door

This is the last time, I won't hurt you anymore

This is the last time I'm asking you this

Put my name at the top of your list