Yes
Chapter 1: I Guess You Didn't Know
The late afternoon sun filtered through the windows of room 1A, bathing everything in a light orange glow. Uraraka Ochako yawned unabashedly and hunched down further into her desk, desperately trying not to give in to the impulse for a power nap or to listen to the rumbling of her empty stomach or to ponder about how long the day that passed was.
Not that it was a bad day. Uraraka also fought the impulse to smile her dopey contented smile, too. It was a good day. A really good day.
Because of all the villainy that exploded in current society, UA pushed them even more in their combat classes. Aizawa-sensei, despite looking like on the verge of collapsing into a week-long coma with how exhausted he appeared, took extra time to pay attention to all of them individually. He had told Uraraka to polish her close combat skills even more, because with the conditions of her quirk, it certainly was a good idea for her to gain confidence in close combat. Deku-kun was nice enough to volunteer to be her sparring partner too, and Aizawa had him fly around the field and back at her to attack with his legs to build up his speed and endurance, which he could exploit in combat.
It was a good fight, and afterwards Uraraka heard him mumbling and expanding her character information page in his hero notebooks. When she teased him about his nerdiness and asked to see it, he told her sure, maybe she and Iida-kun would like to grab a bite to eat after classes, too, oh, and I'll treat you 'cos you kinda did a number on me back there.
She tried to refuse him, because she didn't really do a number on him, but he refused. She couldn't stop the flitting feeling erupt from her chest. It wasn't a date, 'cause Iida's gonna be there, but Deku-kun's gonna treat her, and they're gonna spend extra time together, which was always a good thing. Because even though she's always around Deku-kun-walking together from the dorms, walking together to Lunch Rush, walking together to class, walking together back to the dorms-it was always just walking, talking, teasing and Iida-kun/Tsuyu-chan's always there too and Uraraka couldn't feel satisfied by just the same old safe tactics and watching his back get broader by the day.
Maybe today… maybe today I could let him know, she thought with some nervousness.
They were waiting for Iida-kun and Yaomomo to finish their class rep work for the day. She could only endure seeing so much of Iida's robotic-like hand gestures and Yaomomo's blinding perfection before her gaze naturally fell on Deku-kun's figure. His seat was close to the window, and he basked in the orange light, and Uraraka found herself a little hypnotized by the small movements of his natural green perm as his head bobbed from mumbling and writing down on his notebook.
Feeling eyes on him, he turned to look at her, with a tilt of his head. "Yes?" he asked with his usual innocent smile.
He is so freakin' cute it's unreal. This has to be an illegal use of a quirk.
"What was that?"
Did I say that out loud? thought Ochako dumbly. She had trained so hard to suppress her blush, and she hoped that she was doing a proper job of it then. "Nothin'. You're mumblin' ta yerself again, as usual, Deku-kun. Even though hero classes are over," she said, forcing some disinterest in her voice.
He stammered bashfully, a blush starting to creep over both cheeks. That tended to happen a lot, especially those times when he caught her staring at him or getting too close, and thus Uraraka found it to be one of life's guilty pleasures. "I just-I mean, everybody worked so hard today, and everyone did a lot of neat things, so I'm trying to write them all down before I forget. I'm working hard on illustrations too, since the support team did a great job of modifying a lot of the costumes, and I wasn't able to get enough reference photos-"
From their spot at the back of the classroom, Iida-kun gave an enthusiastic, fierce nod. "Your tenacity and detail-orientedness is nothing to scoff at, Midoriya-kun. I commend you and your efforts."
"I'd like to see your notes one day as well, but only if you'll allow me, Midoriya-san," added Yaomomo, all grace and proper posture and Uraraka felt herself wither into an actual inferior being just listening to her speak.
Deku-kun blushed again, and Uraraka pouted just a little. Just the act of talking to girls was enough to drown his cute freckles in a sea of red and pink. Uraraka knew that it wasn't a maneuver that only she could do, and it kind of annoyed her to be honest.
"It-it-it's c-cool, I can show Yaoyorozu-san… w-well, not now… I'm k-kinda stuck at Kacchan's page, he did a lot of interesting things today but, but, he wouldn't tell me anything about his new power moves, or his costume upgrades, so I'm just really wishing that someone in class took a video of him so I could-"
While that was nothing new, Uraraka felt her pout deepen a little bit more. Deku-kun tended to stumble more on his words when he spoke to other girls, and she wasn't sure if this was a good sign or not. Maybe she should ask Tsuyu-chan about that later…
A familiar red-and-white form invaded a part of her vision, interrupting her thoughts. Todoroki must have entered the room some time ago, but as usual he was as silent as a ghost when he did so. A brief, but palpable beat of silence followed as everyone watched him walk to his desk to get his bag.
"Oh, Todoroki-san," said Yaomomo, instantly straightening from her seat. "You're still here."
He merely nodded at her effort to state the obvious. Everyone stayed silent, until he realized that people were waiting for him to explain himself, which took another beat of awkward silence. "Cleaning duty at Ground Gamma," he said simply before zipping up his bag and turning to leave.
"Oh…" someone in the room said, with the tiny hint of embarrassment that one tended to get when trying to converse with Todoroki and then realizing belatedly that he didn't feel like talking back. Uraraka could have sworn that Yaomomo's hair deflated slightly.
It was then that she caught Deku-kun staring down at his notebook hard, in the way he tended to do when he tried to make up his mind, before nodding to himself and standing up so quickly he almost knocked his pencil case from his table. "Todoroki-kun!" he declared.
His bag already on one shoulder, Todoroki turned to face the green-haired boy, his usual blank stare locked on his face. Deku-kun must have seen something akin to affirmation in that stare (a wonder really, how he was able to determine that), because he already had his notebook and pencil out as he started babbling about their hero training earlier. "I was meaning to ask you- -you had a bunch of cool moves today- -there was that thing where you punched Sero-kun with a giant hand made of ice-"
"Ice fist."
"Oh! I see! And then you countered Ashido-san's acid spray with a giant flame, which caused that huge explosion-"
"Fire fist."
"And then that part when you countered Mineta-san's grape barrage with simultaneous fire and ice-"
"A Fist of Ice and Fire."
"That's great! Oh, and then, there was this thing you did where you…"
This exchange went on for some time, and Uraraka could only watch this in awe, because even though Todoroki barely kept a conversation going with his usual monotone and single-double word answers, she could see a shadow of a smile forming on his lips, and a hint of brightness in his otherwise stoic facade. Somehow Deku-kun was able to make him sit back down as they talked shop, and he patiently answered all of the green-haired otaku's questions one by one.
That's when Uraraka saw it-a tinge of pink dusting the tips of Deku's ears, an extra smile line over the fold of his mouth. She'd never seen this before-so far,girls have only succeeded in making him red up to the clavicle, and this tended to vary based on proximity. Besides that, a new thousand-megawatt bulb was lightening his already bright green eyes, so bright it was that it threatened to take over the sun filtering through the windows.
And those eyes… couldn't keep away from Todoroki's mismatched ones.
Something heavy, unpleasant, and potentially ugly began to rose from deep within Uraraka's chest.
"Wow, Todoroki-kun, aah, you're just really amazing!" Deku-kun scratched his head bashfully, and then realizing what came out of his mouth, stumbled over his next words, "I mean, your quirk. Your quirk is amazing. It's amazing how versatile and powerful it is, and-"
"Thank you." Todoroki nodded blankly, accepting the accidental stumbling of words without a second thought.
Like the all mighty All Might famously said… Shiiiiit.
Something must have changed in her demeanor, because she saw Iida-kun look up from their paperwork and then up at her in concern. Try as she might to suppress it, the ugly feeling that she now labeled as Dawning Realization continued to dawn in her chest. Not knowing what else to do except to look away from the blinding display of admiration and something else, she looked down on her fingers and played with her finger pads.
"You know, after this, Uraraka-san, Iida-kun and I are going out for ramen," she heard him say as she tuned in to their animated conversation once more. "I found a place within campus that's pretty good. You wanna come with?"
Todoroki must have gestured in the negative, because after that, Deku-kun said, "Oh, all right, maybe next time? Oh, I forgot, you're more of a soba guy, right? Maybe there's a good soba place nearby… I'll work on finding one."
Deku-kun, how could you? thought Uraraka, feeling more hollow by the second. No… how could you, Todoroki-kun?
"I prefer to make my own soba," came the usual stoic reply from the half-haired guy.
It was supposed to be me. I was going to confess today. To him! Me! It should be me he's looking at…
"Okay, that's, that's great, great that you have your own tastes…"
Deku-kun was babbling now. He was so freakin' obvious, Uraraka wondered why she didn't notice it before. She sighed, with all her might, inside her head, and slapped both her cheeks to snap back to reality, also inside her head. "Come oooonnnn, Todoroki-kun! It'll be good to eat somethin' different once in a while, right? Too much soba will turn you into an old man before you know it. You should come with us!" she heard herself say, a bigger-than-normal grin over her mouth.
What the heck was she doing? Todoroki was now looking at her, that infuriating (… infuriating? Since when was this infuriating) blank stare unmoving from his infuriating ikemen face. He seemed to mull it over for a while, before saying, "Next time. But not today. I'm tired."
Just hearing next time was enough for Deku's disappointment to dissipate into thin air, as if it was a paper villain being punched by the hero Shouto's Fire Fist. It had a similar effect on Uraraka's insides, except all she wished for was to get A Fist of Ice and Fire right in the face so that she'd let go of all of this… this stupid jealous feelings or whatever. "Next time is okay too!" he said brightly.
"All right." As Todoroki stood up from his chair, Iida also stood up from the back seats, tapping a sheaf of papers loudly on his desk as he did so.
"We are also done with our paperwork!" he declared loudly, as if the classroom was as full and noisy as it was five minutes before homeroom. "And thus it is time for us to visit this ramen shop of yours, Midoriya-kun! Get ready as well, Uraraka-kun! Oh, and Todoroki-kun…"
Todoroki tilted his head curiously at Iida, as one robotic arm clamped itself on his shoulder.
"Please! Escort Yaoyorozu-kun back to the dorms as well."
At this, Yaomomo began to stammer something in embarrassment, but all Todoroki said was, "It's okay. Take your time, Yaoyorozu."
Yaomomo nodded and fixed her things in a hurry. Uraraka followed suit. Deku-kun, still bright and floaty, started packing his stuff as well. It's not fair, Uraraka repeated in her head. I didn't even use my quirk, and he might as well float into outer space right now…
I could… never make him feel like that…
They did go to the ramen place eventually, with her two favorite boys walking a safe pace in front of her, backs as broad and distant as ever, a safe flow of conversation flowing between them. There was a new light skip in the way Deku-kun stepped, and it was actually so cute that Uraraka wanted to cry.
Well, to be honest, she wanted to cry for other related reasons. But she didn't. Instead, she swallowed her would-be confession, along with the free noodles and soup and satisfying slices of chashu that only contributed to the heaviness and burning and longing in her heart.
The ramen was good, at least.
AN: I lost sleep over conceptualizing this series of stories. WTH is wrong with me lol.
So first, about this series: The title is inspired by one of my most favourite Tagalog songs, "Oo" by Up Dharma Down. The chapters are badly translated fragments of the song lyrics care of moi lol. I know it's cheesy but I really wanted to write this out! I wrote the first three stories really quickly, and I have sixteen stories planned out so far. So I plan to update this three chapters at a time each weekend, with the finale probably taking me another week cos I want it to be the most dramabelles of them all. Haha hope I could do it~
In any case, I hope you like the stories. They're loosely related because not all of it will revolve around Deku and Todoroki, but rather will show the butterfly effect that kinda happens after. My goal is to write in most of the 1A kids in this story. Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!
