Disclaimer: My Hero Academia and all of its characters belongs to Kohei Horikoshi

Rated: T for mild coarse language, implied/referenced child abuse

Timeline: Post-Sports Festival Arc

Summary: Ever since the sports festival, when learning about Todoroki's past, Midoriya continued to see his classmate in a new light. Even though he lost the fight between them, he would never regret saving Todoroki that day. Midoriya vowed to continue trying to become Todoroki's friend no matter what.

"Deku, over here!"

Midoriya jumped up at the sound of his name being called, turning his head in all directions to look for the source of it.

He spotted Uraraka standing nearby and waving for him to come over. Deku smiled, and trotted over to her with his tray of food.

"Hey, Uraraka!" He greeted as they both sat down at one of the cafeteria's tables near a couple of second years, "Where's Iida?"

"Oh, he just got in line to get his food!" Uraraka replied as she dug into her white rice with a pair of chopsticks.

Deku nodded at that, beginning to eat his food as well. He was starving throughout the morning classes, having forgotten to eat breakfast, so the lack of energy in his system was mainly his fault.

He lowered his bowl of rice to look at his friend sitting across from him, "Oh, by the way, Uraraka, I think it's so awesome that you got 20 offers for your internship! You were amazing during that match between you and Kacchan, no wonder heroes want you as an intern!"

Ochako beamed at the compliment, "Yeah, I'm really excited! Even though we still have two weeks until our internships start, I can't wait to train with Gunhead."

"Me too! I only got one offer, but I'm hoping to learn as much as I can in the time that we won't see each other."

They both indulged in conversation for a little while longer before Iida arrived with his food and sat down along with them.

Deku was enjoying his time with his friends when he saw a mop of white and red hair out of the corner of his eye.

He shifted his head to see Todoroki going to sit down at a table to eat alone, and he frowned a bit at the sight.

It was something Deku was used to seeing. Ever since the school year began, Todoroki mostly kept to himself, not really approaching anyone on his own. At lunch, he always sat alone and either played on his phone or just ate quietly. Yaoyorozu would sometimes gather up the courage to talk to him in class or sit with him at lunch, but other than that, Todoroki really didn't have many friends.

And Deku could definitely relate to that feeling.

As Iida and Uraraka continued to converse, Deku got up from his seat. They both shot him a confused look as he left his tray on their table and walked over to where Todoroki was sitting.

He wasn't sure how Todoroki would react. Besides the events during the sports festival, the two hadn't really talked much. Would Todoroki get annoyed? Would he even want to hang out with Midoriya?

Deku shook those thoughts from his mind and figured it didn't hurt to try. He knew everything that happened during the festival was a lot on Todoroki's shoulders, and he was worried about him. Maybe none of this was any of his business, but he still wanted to check up on him.

Shouto was going through some notes from class when he heard someone approaching him and looked up.

Deku gave a small wave and smiled nervously at him, "O-oh, hey Todoroki! I was just wondering if maybe, um, you wanted to sit with us for lunch? Me, Uraraka, and Iida, I mean! B-but you don't have to if you don't want to!" He rambled, mentally slapping himself for doing so.

A beat a silence passed as Todoroki just looked at Midoriya for what felt like forever, and as Midoriya waited for a response.

Eventually, Todoroki nodded and gathered up his stuff to move tables, "Sure."

A huge smile plastered over Midoriya's face in that moment, happy that he didn't have to see Todoroki eat alone anymore. They both walked back to Deku's friends and sat down, Todoroki sitting beside him.

At the sight of the newcomer, both Iida's and Uraraka's faces lit up, "Hi, Todoroki!"

"Hello," Shouto replied with his normally stoic face.

"Yeah, sorry for not telling you guys beforehand. It was a split-minute decision to invite him over," Deku spoke, rubbing a hand behind his head.

Iida shook his head, "Nonsense! It's always good having more company."

They all went back to eating and talking as Midoriya glanced at Todoroki every so often. He wasn't participating in the conversation much, only really talking when he was addressed. Midoriya tried his best to include him, not wanting him to feel left out.

As Iida and Uraraka got into the topic of english class, Midoriya looked over to see what Todoroki was eating, "You must like soba a lot, huh, Todoroki?"

Todoroki hummed, swallowing some noodles before speaking, "Yeah, my mom used to make it all the time. How did you know?"

Deku jumped up in his seat as a blush began to form on his cheeks, "U-uh! Well, I've just been watching you a lot recently and sorta noticed you always get that… Oh my gosh, wait, I didn't mean to sound like a stalker or something! Holy crap-" Deku covered his face with both hands, trying to hide his embarrassment as he continued muttering.

Todoroki just looked on, a small smile of his own forming, "It's fine, Midoriya. I know what you meant."

Midoriya peaked his head out from behind his hands to see a rare smile from Todoroki. He was dazed in that moment, and only snapped out of it when Iida spoke his name, "Midoriya, your food will get cold if you just leave it out in the open like that!"

"R-right! Sorry, Iida," he apologized before picking up his chopsticks to finish the rest of his lunch.

Ever since the sports festival, and ever since Midoriya learned about Todoroki's past, Izuku's been worried about him. Even though he lost the match between them, he still saved Todoroki that day, and that is something that he will never regret.

But wounds like the scars left on Todoroki mentally and physically don't just vanish with a couple of words, so Midoriya vowed to continue trying to become Todoroki's friend no matter what.

And seeing Todoroki smile like that, he wanted to help bring it out again and again.

Baby steps, he told himself.

"So, during the two weeks that you have until your internships begin, there is still more work for you all to be doing. With that being said, I'm going to be assigning a partner project."

The entire class groaned at the announcement, laying their heads on their desks or slouching back in their chairs.

Deku could hear Bakugou mutter "this really sucks" under his breath from his seat in front of him.

"Oh, c'mon, Mr. Aizawa!" whined Kirishima, "can't you give us a break between the sports festival and our internships?"

Aizawa's face seemed to darken at that, and the class suddenly grew silent, "If you expected to get any breaks during your time at UA, then you shouldn't have applied here."

Deku gulped. Just like Mr. Aizawa to continue throwing hardships at us. Well, maybe this project won't be so bad! Plus, we get to work with a partner, so that'll make it a little easier, right? I can just work with Iida or Uraraka.

"Anyways, I'll be assigning your partner for this assignment."

Crap. Deku silently panicked. He didn't really care who his partner was, as long as it wasn't Kacchan. And perhaps Mineta…

"Kaminari and Sero," Aizawa began listing the partner match-ups, "Uraraka and Asui. Yaoyorozu and Jirou. Todoroki and Midoriya."

Midoriya breathed a fresh air of relief as Aizawa listed the rest of the students. Even though it wasn't one of his friends, Deku was still happy to get Todoroki as a partner. It'd give him a chance to get to know him a little better.

"And that's everyone. The basics of the project is to write about a hero and their history. This includes their childhood, school life, family life, how and why they became a hero, and if they're still around today. You can pick any hero to write about, but it has to be someone within the last 20 years, got it?"

"Yes, Mr. Aizawa," the class spoke simultaneously.

"Alright then. It'll be due the day before you leave for your internships, and your papers will have to be at least 5 pages long. I don't want anyone choosing the same hero so go ahead and decide which one you'll be writing about. I'll leave a sheet up here for everyone to put down their pick."

As Aizawa finished speaking, the students got up from their seats to find their partner and start talking about the project.

Deku stood up from his desk and walked over to Todoroki, "S-so, what hero did you want to write about, Todoroki?"

Shouto looked up at Midoriya, "It doesn't really matter to me, you can choose whomever."

"A-alright, then… Well, how about All Might? I already know a lot about him and there's a lot we could put in the paper, s-so I feel like he'd be really easy to do!" Izuku shyly spoke.

Shouto looked back down at his desk, taking a couple seconds to respond before replying, "Yeah, we can do him."

Izuku softly smiled before pointing a thumb towards the front of the room, "O-Okay! I'll just go write it down before anyone else takes it."

He stepped away from Todoroki's desk and walked up to the sheet of paper that Aizawa had laid out. Picking a hero was really quick for them, so he was the first one to jot a name down. In scrawly handwriting, he wrote "All Might."

Putting the pencil down, Midoriya sighed. Talking to Todoroki was a pretty difficult feat, mostly because he really didn't talk that much and was standoffish.

But that wasn't going to stop Midoriya from trying to help and make sure he was okay. Todoroki might seem like a cold and stoic person from the surface, but Deku knew that was wrong.

Walking back to the fire-and-ice user, he figured it'd be a good idea to continue discussing what they should do for the project, "Hey, we should definitely hang out to work on the paper together. It'd make it much easier to gather information and decide how we want to lay it out."

Shouto nodded as he watched Midoriya begin to jump up and down in excitement about getting the chance to write about his favorite hero, "That's a good plan. My house is kind of off-limits though, sorry."

Deku shook his head, "No, that's okay! You can just come over my house. My mom would love to have company anyway," he chuckled, and pulled out his phone, "Do you want to swap phone numbers? Just so we can arrange a time and day and I can text you my address."

Todoroki took out his phone as well and switched with Midoriya, "Yeah, of course, but is it really alright to come over? I don't want to be a bother or anything-"

Midoriya stopped that sentence short before Todoroki could have a chance to finish it, "You won't be, I promise! We need somewhere to work on it anyway, right?" After inputting his number into Todoroki's phone, he handed it back, "So my house it is!"

Todoroki looked on with a bewildered face before lowering his head once again. He didn't give a response, pulling on the cuffs of his sleeves. Deku was about to ask him what was wrong when Uraraka grabbed his hand, "Hey guys! Which hero did you pick for your paper? Me and Tsuyu chose Thirteen!"

Midoriya smiled at his friend, "That's so cool! They seem fun to write about. You could talk about all the disasters they've saved people from. Me and Todoroki are going to do All Might."

Ochako laughed, "Just like Deku to choose his favorite hero!"

Deku blushed a bit at that and chuckled nervously.

"Oh, I wanted to ask you," Midoriya tilted his head in confusion at her, "Me and Iida were planning on hanging out after school today. Did you want to come?"

Deku's face brightened at the idea, "Sure! I could use a small break from school."

"I hear you on that one," Uraraka grinned from ear to ear.

And just like that, Deku had forgotten he'd been talking to Todoroki beforehand, and felt bad about ignoring him. He turned around to see Todoroki just writing stuff in his notebook, not really bothered.

"Um, T-Todoroki…" Midoriya began nervously as the addressed boy glanced at him from his seat, "Did you want to hang out with us too? We'll probably be going to the mall or a café, if that sounds okay to you…?"

Todoroki was shocked at the question. He'd never really hung out with people before, let alone in public spaces. He really wanted to hang out with Midoriya, but… "I'm sorry, I can't," he lowered his head shamefully, "My father was pretty persistent about training with me today."

Deku instantly grew crestfallen, knowing that Todoroki's father wasn't the nicest guy around.

Understatement of the year.

"Oh, that's okay! M-maybe next time, then…?" He looked hopeful.

Todoroki nodded, "Sure. Next time."

Deku smiled. A small victory is still a victory.

Author's Note: and that's the first chapter! i don't expect this story to be too long, maybe 3 or 4 chapters in total.

i should be able to update chapter 2 pretty quickly, so keep a lookout for that!

and as always, i love english dubs :')

-sofia