It wasn't necessarily that he'd never had a friend before or that he'd never been allowed outside, but the weight of Endeavor's thumb that had been felt without fail for the entirety of his life suddenly seemed…lighter, now that high school had begun. He could attribute that change to the excellence in education he was receiving at UA, but it was much more likely he had a particular freckled ray of sunshine to thank for his sudden ability to claim his own freedoms.
Todoroki Shouto wasn't stupid. Perhaps he had been a bit of a spiteful, impulsive child (for valid reasons), but ever since the Sports Festival, a confident young hero was emerging out of the woodworks of his heart. Part of that judgment which came in hand with pursuing professional heroics rendered him unable to deny that he was unabashedly and undeniably intrigued by Midoriya Izuku. He had tried talking to Bakugou Katsuki (he and Midoriya were…friends at some point…right?) to get to the bottom of it, but all he got was an uncharacteristic pause before more kicking and screaming from his belligerent classmate. He had even tried silently watching Midoriya from a distance ever since regular classes had resumed, for some sign pointing to an answer. Why did the boy push him so hard in their fight during the festival? What was it he was after? How did he know exactly what to say to set Todoroki free?
Todoroki felt his face heat up at the thought, but only because he had been so lost in it that Midoriya caught him staring from across the cafeteria. The boy shot back a blinding grin and trotted over to sit across from him at the one relatively empty table in the entire room. Behind him trailed his ever-growing group of friends – Tenya Iida, Tsuyu Asui, and Ochako Uraraka respectively. Todoroki looked down at his plate as they approached, attempting to coach his face into its normal pensive expression.
"I hope you don't mind us joining you, Todoroki-kun! We got stuck talking to Aizawa-sensei and before we knew it the cafeteria was full!" Midoriya said through one of his ever-present smiles before practically diving into his katsudon. Todoroki just shook his head.
"Hey – kero – we have a whole weekend ahead of us. Maybe we should get together and do something?" Tsuyu suggested.
Ochako jumped up immediately, adding, "Oh! We could go to a movie! Or go shopping! Or –"
"Let's go to an arcade!" Midoriya declared emphatically, rice sticking to the side of his mouth.
"Mm, yeah, that sounds like fun too! We can practice our heroics within the safe confines of classic video games," Tenya decided, fixing his glasses on his face, "Todoroki-kun, you'll come too, right?"
He had never been invited out by friends before, but the thought didn't occur to him until he was tossing and turning the night before they planned to go. It just seemed so natural to say yes, to take the invitation in stride, to have it on his phone calendar. But the giddiness and nerves hit him all at once and he couldn't sleep for all the right reasons. He hadn't ever even been to an arcade! All of his gaming up to this point was done in solitude, on his Nintendo 3DS during those nights that he couldn't sleep through the nightmares and the calm early morning tunes of Animal Crossing were his only solace. He was getting to play games…with his friends. The thought kept coming back as he willed his excitable heart to rest. His smile, however, would not budge.
They chose not to meet the next day until the evening at the train station close to Todoroki's home. He was, naturally, the first one there (he had always been chronically early and over prepared – a symptom of being raised in the home of a pro hero maybe?). He kept an eye on the group chat Tsuyu had created for them, just in case anyone said they were going to be late. However, looking at the chat turned into looking at social media and three piano covers of his favorite anime openings later he was startled by a tap on his shoulder. Ochako smiled at him softly, and they made small talk until Tenya, Midoriya, and Tsuyu arrived shortly after.
Their train ride to downtown left Todoroki staring out the window, listening intently to Midoriya and Ochako bounce game plans off of each other. Tenya butted in at the mention of Dance Dance Revolution, insisting that he was quite good at it and simply had to dance battle everyone at least once. Todoroki instinctively glanced at his feet, rubbing his eye for a second to hide the nervousness that surely showed on his face at the thought of dancing in front of his friends. He really, really didn't dance. But when he looked back up, Midoriya was peeking at him from across the way, eyes absolutely sparkling.
"I can't wait to dance with you Todoroki-kun!"
Before they even got to stepping foot in the arcade itself, Tsuyu and Ochako dragged them into the room with all of the prizes. The girls found giant Totoro pillows and plush cat keychains, while Tenya found a glowing lava lamp alarm clock that he was rapidly calculating just how many tickets he would need in order to win it. Todoroki didn't really look for anything in particular, though some All Might merchandise caught his eye. Midoriya followed him to the stand, thumbing through the posters before grabbing one, looking like he had just won the freakin' lottery. Apparently, he was aware of Todoroki's gaze, because he looked him dead in the eye and said with conviction, "I need 2,000 tickets. I've been looking for this poster for years."
To this, Todoroki had no other reaction than to let out a small laugh of a snort, but considering how Midoriya's face went swiftly from determination to wonder, he realized he had likely never laughed in front of his friends. It was disheartening, but only for a second. He got jolted out of his thoughts by Ochako and Tsuyu jumping onto either side of him, and the present was forced to resume.
"I know what I want to get with my tickets! Let's game!" Ochako trumpeted, equal parts cheerful and competitive, raising a determined fist in the air.
The hours passed much quicker than the young hero could have envisioned. At first, he mostly watched. But then, very slowly…he started to have fun. So slowly in fact, that he didn't consciously realize that his chest felt lighter or that his smile came to his face quicker than before until much later. He really, really wanted to beat Tenya on Rainbow Road playing MarioKart! He teamed up with Ochako on Space Invaders, but they still did terribly. He redeemed himself when Tsuyu taught them all how to play some of the musical games, which luckily came to him quite naturally. The tickets were flowing, determined grins were worn en masse, and sodas were being endlessly refilled...
His awareness came back into focus rather abruptly when it came time to play Dance Dance Revolution, but everyone seemed aware of his fears without needing to voice them and didn't pressure him to participate. Anyways, everyone wanted a go at Tenya, who went down almost immediately when Ochako won her first round, and then again in her second against Tsuyu. Midoriya was an endearingly terrible DDR dancer and lost to both Tenya and Ochako, but when all turns had been exhausted without Todoroki, Midoriya turned those terribly large pleading eyes in his direction and dramatically knelt at his feet.
"Todoroki-kun, may I have this dance…" he barely got the words out without absolutely erupting in laughter so contagious, Todoroki's brain went uncharacteristically quiet and he agreed to dance with an easy grin. And it was so fun. They were equally terrible, stomping all over the place and occasionally all but keeling over in laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Even though he knew Tsuyu was undoubtedly recording them for her Snapchat, the cheers and exhilaration kept his anxiety at bay long enough for him to beat Midoriya.
"Daaaamn, I can't even beat you at DDR!" Midoriya moaned in defeat, before bouncing back up, "One day I swear I'll beat all of you! I'll be the reigning DDR champion!"
"Sure sure, Midoriya-kun, one day…" Tenya fixed his glasses, wearing a sly smile plain as day (he seemed to have forgotten he only won one round).
Once they had exhausted both themselves and their game cards (and wallets), each of them meandered to the prize room, stopping only once to haphazardly bundle into a purikura for a quick souvenir. Midoriya and Ochako got a bit carried away with the stickers and Todoroki ended up with cat ears and whiskers, but it wasn't that embarrassing once Midoriya mentioned that he looked "cute." In fact, it made his heart feel fuzzy as radio static. Interesting.
Once in the prize room, Midoriya practically ran to the All Might stand, searched for the poster that he had hidden towards the back, plucked it out, and sprinted to the counter. Torodoki followed him slowly. H e hadn't seen anything he needed earlier, so it seemed best to participate with Midoriya, since he was so excited – that was, until his face fell. Todoroki approached the counter apprehensively and asked what was wrong.
"I don't have enough tickets. I'm about 500 short! I thought I had gotten more…" his voice trailed off and he stared at the poster, clearly resisting tears.
Todoroki faced the employee, "I thought these were only 2,000 tickets?"
"Most of the posters are, but that's a rare print. The rare ones are 2,500."
"Was there any sign saying that that was the case?" he insisted.
"No, we haven't marked them yet I guess.."
"Well then it isn't his fault that you didn't mark it."
At that point, Midoriya butted in, "T-Todoroki-kun, it's okay, really. I'm uh…I'm sure I'll find it somewhere else!"
"No, it is clearly unfair," he replied pointedly, "Can you check to see how many tickets I have please?"
The cashier nodded, visibly annoyed, but swiped his card through anyways. "You have 1057 tickets."
"Perfect, then please use some of my tickets to make the full purchase for this poster."
Midoriya began to speak, but then seemed to think better of it. Instead, he turned to Todoroki and beamed, body slumped in relief, with beads of tears still in his eyes. "Thank you so much, Todoroki-kun."
All Todoroki could do was smile at his feet, willing the heat in his face to die down a bit. What is this?!
In the end, they all got something. Even after sharing his tickets, Todoroki still had some left over, so he got a small All Might keychain for his house keys (mostly to piss off his father, partially to make Midoriya smile). Tenya successfully redeemed his tickets for the lava lamp clock. Ochako got a small Totoro plush, while Tsuyu found a good quality frog enamel pin for her backpack. They took the train back home in comfortable silence, all tired of being on their feet for so long. Yawns were passed around every couple minutes or so, but no one said anything about it. Todoroki, who was standing next to Midoriya this time, alternated between watching the city night life flash by and watching the light of it dance on the shorter hero's freckles and reflect off of his half-lidded eyes. Midoriya seemed to be on the lookout for something (or at least, he was as alert as he could be considering how sleepy he looked).
"What are you looking for, Midoriya-kun?"
The question seemed to startle the boy, but only for a second. He turned to give Todoroki a half smile, "Just keeping an eye out. You never know what will happen with villains these days! I want to be the greatest hero so…so I'm just in the habit of keeping an eye out, you know?"
"I see," Todoroki smiled back, "Thank you for watching out for us."
Watching the lights play off of Midoriya's blush, he decided, had been the best part of the evening.