1: The Creation of Ice and Fire

Even as calm and collected as he presented himself to be (and believed that he was), Shoto Todoroki felt his composure creak and strain under the weight of Yaoyorozu's mansion. He acknowledged how well-off his own family was, of course- as much as he hated his father, Endeavor provided no shortage of financial support as the number two- number one, he corrected himself ruefully- hero. The Todoroki estate was large, yes, but not in any way that showed off the sheer amount of wealth available to the family. The traditional Japanese architecture portrayed a sense humility, and seemed to blend into the background even as Endeavor continuously added new training facilities and offices. That was one of the few things Shoto could, begrudgingly, respect about his father: For a man driven by pride, he didn't try to show off to the world beyond attempting to prove his superiority as a hero.

The mansion towering over Shoto was a completely different beast. Arches, buttresses, pillars… it was as if all Western architectural ornamentation had come together to create a beautiful, if over-the-top, monument to the family's money. And, if Yaoyorozu herself acted as a model for her family, they were probably completely oblivious to just how much it all was. In the best of times, Todoroki would find this intimidating.

Regardless, all that this anxiety resulted in was a momentary pause before he reached for the buzzer. Her request gave him a couple of days to prepare himself; Yaoyorozu telling him that she needed his help creating ice sculptures for a ball her family was hosting gave him a pretty good idea of what to expect. He tried to tell her that he didn't have that kind of control yet, but she hastily pushed aside his trepidation with a throw-away "There's no need to worry, we have ice sculptors on call!"

It took all of his self-control to not let his jaw drop at that, but her bubbly personality soon put the thought out of his mind and he accepted the offer.

Seconds after he rang the bell, Momo Yaoyorozu's voice crackled over the intercom. "Ah, Todoroki! Y-you're here! One moment… there! Come on up!"

The gate's electronic locks clicked open, and the heavy metal frames glided apart from each other. Before he could take a step, the intercom's static replication of his classmate's voice called after him.

"Oh, wait wait wait, come back!"

She seemed more flustered than usual, but that seemed par for course considering how her study group talked about her. Apparently she was 'excitable.'

"Yes?"

"Just wait there, I'll send a cart to come get you! It's a bit of a walk, and I don't want you to get tired or anything…"

Todoroki's eyes widened. Had he heard that right? She would send a cart? He took a quick look at the paved road to the mansion, and while it was certainly a trek, he wouldn't call it a long walk by any stretch. To ask someone to take the time to drive the mere hundred meters (maybe) from the main house to the gate, just to get him, seemed downright absurd. He couldn't say that, but of course he couldn't accept it, either. It was just too much for anyone to go through to save him a little bit of walking. "Please, do not worry about it. I will be up shortly, there's no need to bother anybody."

"It's not a bother to anyone, really!"

"A walk will give me the chance to warm up my Quirk and allow me to control it better for the job."

"We'd like to have tea ready by the time you get up here, and it will cool off too much if you walk!"

Todoroki stared at the intercom, and, somehow, he could feel Yaoyorozu staring back. The little camera on the electronic box even zoomed in slightly in emphasis.

Todoroki sighed. While the 'tea' argument didn't hold up under scrutiny, he knew better than to reject hospitality someone was so insistent on providing. "Alright."

"Wonderful!" The girl's voice disappeared for a couple of seconds, but the instant Todoroki began to walk into the estate to make it easier for the driver, she came back in full force. "What kind of tea would you like? We have anything you could possibly want, so there's no need to feel shy!"

In the presence of such overwhelming hospitality, the boy who rarely asked for anything from anyone could only process so fast. He still couldn't believe he accepted her offer to drive him up, and was in no place to go through the infinite catalogue of teas he drank in his lifetime, so pushed the burden of answering back in the most covert way he could: "I'd like to try whatever your favorite kind of tea is. Thank you, Yaoyorozu."

"O-of course! It will be the perfect temperature when you arrive!"

With that, the static from the other side cut out, and Todoroki was left to watch as the lights of a small cart descended from the house on the top of the hill. As he tracked the hypnotizing yellow lights against the dark greenery of the orange, sunlit yard, a thought crossed his mind: He could control the temperature of a tea cup by himself, so regardless of if he walked or not, it would be the perfect warmth anyways. Yaoyorozu was an extremely intelligent person, and no doubt knew this. He on the other hand, the one with the Half-Cold Half Hot Quirk that allowed him to do it in the first place, forgot completely about his own capabilities.

In a moment of relaxation, after he moved out of sight of the camera, Todoroki let a blush of pink embarrassment paint his cheeks.

'If she just told me they were drones, I would have said yes the first time…' Shoto thought, stepping out of the self-driving golf cart. That got a dropped jaw out of him when it rolled up, completely empty, but by then the sheer craziness of it had worn off a little bit, so he was able to recover his composure quite quickly.

The two massive wooden doors to the mansion opened and let out a stream of golden light, backlighting the ever-elegant Yaoyorozu Momo. "Todoroki!" she cheered, throwing her arms wide. "Thank you ever so much for coming! I'm sorry for springing such a job on you with so little warning! Especially one that takes such shameless advantage of your Quirk…"

Todoroki nodded as he stepped into the ornate palace. "It's no trouble. I'm sure you get asked to do similar jobs all the time."

"Yes, that's true. I'm still thankful for your help, though. Some things, like the ice blocks we need, are just too large for me to create, and we had such short notice ourselves… asking you was all I could think of." She turned and fell into step slightly in front of him, leading him towards a kind of open closet for shoes and, during the colder months, jackets. "So, really: Thank you."

The 'closet' had no real walls separating it from the rest of the room, seeming to simply be a section of the hall cut off buy a decorative fence, so Todoroki could cast a sweeping gaze over the entry hall, lit by chandeliers and lines with vases, statues, and other decorations. The red-dominant carpet blended well with the golden lighting, and the intricate designs woven into its stitching were both beautifully attention grabbing and muted enough to not be gaudy. However, as he kneeled to take off his shoes, something else caught his attention. Yaoyorozu's fingers played with the end of her dress's sleeves, and…

"Wow…"

Luckily for Todoroki, he managed to keep his voice at barely a whisper. Compared to all of the awe he had felt previously, this was something else. At first, his battle-trained mind noticed the long sleeves, and simply thought 'That doesn't seem like it would work very well with her quirk,' but once his analytical brain cleared, she completely winded him. The dress was terrible for her quirk, admittedly; long sleeves made of patterned gold and semitransparent lace wove their way up her arms, winding and curling into marvelous plant-like images as they made their way to her shoulders. The dress portrayed something akin to royalty, while at the same time being subdued and, in some weird way, simple. The design of the sleeves continued over the rest of the dress, elegantly spreading the design like the roots of a tree to just barely above the floor. The fact that Yaoyorozu looked amazing in whatever she wore stayed true here, but amplified tenfold because she knew what she could not just wear, but own.

His general disposition didn't allow him to spend much time focusing on how well the dress accented her body's natural beauty, but the thought definitely passed through his psyche. He turned away before she could realize he was staring, hoping to hide his faint blush. "Did you create that dress yourself?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her blink and fumble. "Ah- N-no, actually. I can, now that I've seen it, but when it comes to fancy designs like this I have trouble just creating them out of the blue."

"Ah. I see. It's nice."

A blush. "Thank you very much," she replied, but in a burst of what seemed to be nervousness she pushed the conversation forward, "Anyway! The tea is waiting! It's Golden Tips Imperial, one of my family's favorite flavors, so I do hope you'll like it. I was thinking about sharing some of it with the rest of the class, if the chance ever came up."

"They will surely love it."

She smiled. "Wait until you taste it to say something like that… I would give you the grand tour, but I'd really like to have the ice first so the sculptors have enough time to put everything together. Excuse me!"

A butler emerged from basically out of nowhere, shocking Shoto as their presence suddenly came into being mere steps behind him. Even with his training in being, he had no idea they were there before they chose to reveal themself. That was… intimidating, to say the least.

'Butlers… huh.'

Yaoyorozu spoke without pause, seemingly unaware of how much of the population didn't have butlers and how surprising the fact that she did could be. "Could you please move the tea into the ballroom?" The well-dressed man disappeared in a flash before Yaoyorozu could even say "Thank you," but judging from her reaction, she was used to this. From the recesses of his memory, thoughts of his father's treatment of his sidekicks surfaced and roiled about, but Todoroki quickly shook those away. If anything, juxtaposing those times past with his classmate's polite words just emphasized Yaoyorozu's kindness, and he chose to focus on that rather than be swept up with thoughts of Endeavor.

The walk to the ballroom was rather uneventful, but the fact that it took nearly five minutes was, to Todoroki, an event in and of itself. The Vice President took the time to point out certain pieces of art, or where certain rooms were as they passed them, but didn't make much of an attempt at conversation, and only really answered any questions he had about specific pieces. It was… nice. Midoriya was a wonderful friend, and someone Todoroki truly owed a debt to, but the boy could be overbearing when it came to conversation, as if trying to pull Todoroki out of his shell by force. Shoto knew that he was a quiet person by nature, so when people understood that and were willing to just talk at him, it made him feel at ease. Yaoyorozu had a bounce in her step as she recited the history of different pieces, and her innocent pride in herself brought a very slight smile to his face. Unlike his stereotypes of the extraordinarily rich, she actually knew at least the basics of every single artifact, painting, sculpture, and even went into depth when talking about some of the rooms they passed and there history; the mansion was rather old, apparently (or, as old as Western architecture in Japan really could be).

Before he realized it, she threw open the doors to the ballroom and drew the impromptu tour to a close. The room was huge, like everything in the house, and split into two different halves: one with a shiny wooden floor for dancing, and the other with pristine dinner tables, fully set and ready for the night. Floor-to-ceiling windows walled the dance floor off from the outside world, giving a gorgeous view of trees tinged with fire by the sunset. Each corner held a stone base, presumably for his ice, and he found a fifth in the middle of the dining area after another scan. Just beyond that, one of the dinner tables had an ornate tea set and two pre-poured teacups on it, which Yaoyorozu eagerly motioned him towards.

"Oh, I'm so excited that you're here! This tea is a household favorite, and more than any other, we always make sure to have it in stock!" Todoroki cut off his naturally abrasive response about how she had said that already, mentally cursing himself. He wasn't even annoyed, it was just a response that had ingrained itself in him from a young age; it was his father's response. But Yaoyorozu's smile, her absolute radiance that she took on outside of school, burned away the inner struggle. Smiling, he sat across from her.

"You're smiling!" she sounded shocked, but her grin grew ever wider.

"Yes," he replied, resisting the urge to stifle the expression now that she had pointed it out. It was a bad habit of his, but he tried to work on it whenever he could. "I know, it's a rare sight," 'but I'm trying.'

He left that part unsaid. No need to dampen the mood.

Pride exuded off of the young girl; in any other situation, he would have thought she had won some prestigious award. He wouldn't be surprised if she won a bet with some of their other classmates; he was often the target of a slew of such wagers. He would never forget the day Kirishima walked up to him with an egg and asked him to hold out his left hand…

It wasn't his favorite memory, to be sure, but the laughter of his friends made up for being used as a stove. He carefully picked up the fancy teacup and placed his right hand directly against the glass, feeling the temperature out through years of practice. Determining that Yaoyorozu had indeed perfected the art of serving tea at the perfect temperature, he took a small sip.

"Well? How is it?" his counterpart asked, leaning across the table with sparkling, determined eyes. The yellow lighting of the room amplified the gold on her dress, turning her into a sparkling sun of bubbly anticipation.

"It's heavenly," he replied, speaking nothing but the truth. "You should definitely share this with the others sometime."

"Ah, yes!" she threw a fist into the air, victorious. "I knew you would love it, I just knew it!"

After her brief celebration, they settled into a conversational back-and-forth, with Todoroki participating more actively than he had during the walk over. Something about this excitable side of her just put him at ease; if she was willing to show him this side of her, he should be willing to show her a more social side of himself. But, as soon as he realized he was having fun, two empty teacups hit the table, and he had to proceed with the job she hired him for.

Yaoyorozu gave him general instructions regarding the size of the blocks, but graciously didn't ask him to make any kind of fancy shapes. The sheer strength of his Quirk made controlling smaller amounts of hit harder than it was for him to create huge, glacier-like ice formations, but with some concentration he was able to stay relatively within the guidelines. Soon, diamond like pillars of ice shown throughout the ballroom, beautiful even in their unrefined, jagged forms. Their frozen beauty sparked a cold ache in his scar, but he ignored it, as he always did when he used his ice. Yaoyorozu thanked him profusely, adopting her 'class rep' persona and slipping into a more business-like dialect. That didn't mean her less serious side disappeared, however; through the corner of his eye, Todoroki could see her taking in the majestic stalagmites. He didn't often use his ice outside of battle… having it admired in this way, for its artistic potential, was a new, pleasant feeling.

As he worked, the ice sculptors she had mentioned earlier entered and bagan to mill about, measuring their canvases. Once all was satisfactory, he found himself being ushered out by his host into another room, much smaller than the last, but with a dinner table set in the same way as the ones in the ballroom. His host motioned him towards the table, and he finally got a good look at the food: One bamboo-woven plate of noodles sat in front of a single chair, flanked by chopsticks and a small bowl filled with dipping broth.

Zaru Soba. His favorite meal.

He looked back at Yaoyorozu, stunned, but his question got lost in the sound of power tools starting up in the dance hall. She just smiled at him apologetically. "Sorry, I have some stuff I need to handle in there, but I will be back promptly! Enjoy your meal!"

With that, she ducked back through the door, leaving him alone with his food and questioning just how she knew that he would eat cold soba for every meal if he could. He didn't flaunt the information around, and could not remember telling anyone in their class outright that it was his favorite.

Even as thankful as he was, he couldn't help but think, 'Has she been stalking me?'

A valid question to be sure, but not something he entertained long enough to be troubled by. He was quite hungry, after all. Over the weekends, the UA's dining halls closed in the late afternoon, so he wasn't able to secure a proper dinner before retreating to his room in the 1-A dorm. He planned on getting something on the way back to campus, hopefully before curfew set in, but had let Aizawa-sensei know that he may be late ahead of time. Even that took some ungodly amount of paperwork, so he couldn't imagine what Yaoyorozu had to go through to return home for the night.

As he pondered such questions, Todoroki absentmindedly went through the motions of eating, but the moment the food touched his mouth any stray thoughts fell away. He knew this recipe. The buckwheat noodles were perfectly cooked and chilled, seasoned with a combination of chopped vegetable garnishes that he was very familiar with. The broth held only the faintest flavoring of wasabi, just how he always liked it. Just how his mom always made it, especially for him. It was the same recipe the earned him endless teasing from his older sister, joking about how he 'couldn't handle the heat,' but she continued making it for him regardless, until, finally, he starting making the recipe for himself, not so long ago.

'How did she-'

"Hey, Todoroki?" Yaoyorozu slowly opened the door, peeking in at him.

After making sure he hadn't started crying or anything, he faced her and answered. "Yeah?"

"Listen, um…" she slid in through the door, very carefully keeping both her hands behind her back. "There's something I wanted to ask you."

His heart skipped a beat. Pieces started to come together. He didn't have the full picture yet, but he could see the outline. "What is it?"

"Well, actually… what I mean to say is, there's this… school d-dance coming up."

A dance? Todoroki wracked his memory, but nothing about a dance-

She must have seen his confusion and nodded vigorously to stop his train of thought. "No, you wouldn't know about it yet. We haven't announced it yet. We being the class reps, I mean. We are all working on putting it together, and I just wanted the chance to, you know… ask you first. Before anyone else could."

"Me?" Him? The cold, aloof loner, who spent all of the time before the Sports Festival being a complete ass? Why would anyone want... "Real-"

"Yes, really!" she said, whipping out the object she had kept hidden behind her back. "You're a really cool person, Todoroki, and you're the only reason I passed my final exam! You inspired me to become a better hero, and I really admire that about you!"

Todoroki blushed and ran through all of the reasons why he wasn't any of the things she said she was, how he wasn't anyone to look up to and was still trying to make his place in the world, when a faint sparkle caught his eye. The ice glistened, unblemished (for the most part). A small sculpture of two dancers locked in a close waltz stood atop a miniature pedestal. As he stared, he realized that the two were frozen caricatures of Yaoyorozu and himself. The ice sculture may not have held up in any kind of competition, but to him it was breathtaking. Someone thought highly enough about him to carve him into ice, to create such a bright and dazzling image?

She blushed and looked down at her feet, fidgeting slightly. "I tried to sculpt it myself, so I'm sorry it didn't turn out perfectly. I haven't gotten a lot of time to practice, because- I mean, I just started planning this out recently, and I- I couldn't use my Quirk, of course-"

"It's beautiful." It was Todoroki's turn to interrupt. "And yes, I would be happy to go to the dance with you."

She stood there silently for a moment with her lips barely parted and eyes wide. Then, as if a switch had been flipped inside her, she stepped past him, placed the sculpture onto the table, and pulled him in for a hug. After a brief second of hesitation, he returned it, carefully keeping his arms near normal temperatures as they ever-so-awkwardly wrapped around her.

AN: So that's that. This idea just hit me and I had to write it. It's short, yes, but it's what it needs to be. I hope I did these characters justice (heh) and created a story for some people to enjoy! I love both of them so much.

As for this story as a whole, I'm going to be writing a collection of similar stories all revolving around the dance. Some will be heartfelt and emotional, like this, others may be more comedy-focused, it really depends on the characters I'm working with at the time. As for an update schedule, it'll be pretty freeform, but since they're going to be mostly standalones that shouldn't cause too much of an issue. There will be some continuations of different plot threads though, so think of this as something akin to Tsurezure Children.

Anyways, I'm always trying to improve my writing, so if you have any critiques, just let me know! If you just want to say you enjoyed it (or didn't), I would really appreciate that, as well!

I hope you all have a fantastic day,

Peace!

-ND