Chapter Four: Light the Fire
Why won't you pick up? Yaoyorozu sounded irritated after calling Kyoka for the fifth time. She needed someone to talk to, especially for today. She's hung out with Todoroki so many times before, but times have changed. Ochako and Midoriya had assignments to take care of in the morning and would not be back until noon. It was just going to be Yaoyorozu and Todoroki. Momo let out a sigh and left her a message, "Call me when you can."
"Good morning, Todoroki," she greeted him nervously, walking into his office and closing the door behind her. She suddenly felt that her hero uniform was too revealing to be wearing in front of him and tried to use her arms as coverage. But, he did not notice it.
"Good morning," Shoto was concentrating on the blueprints spread across his desk. He looked tired and there were bags under his eyes. He shook his head and buried his face into his palms, mumbling. Todoroki didn't get a lot of sleep last night as his dad, the great Endeavor, had a meeting with him last night. He spent a great amount of time in thought.
Yaoyorozu noticed his frustration and walked behind his desk, crouching down to his level and eyeing the blueprints. She was able to identify the problem right away and pointed at it, "You don't like where they put this?"
He turned his head to her and nodded, "How did you know?"
"I didn't like it either," she smiled and went back to observing the blueprints, "If you move the door here, more people will…"
She continued talking but Todoroki was in awe of her brilliance. He enjoyed having her around and just being with her in general. He's always admired her, but he didn't know how to tell her how he felt. Although she's also the best candidate for this assignment, it was also a great opportunity for Todroki to tell her how he felt. Still half-asleep, he stroked her soft cheek and blurted out, "You know me so well, Yaoyorozu."
Yaoyorozu's face burned red. This is the first time he's touched her like that before. Oh, what is he doing?! Maybe, it's from the lack of sleep? Get it together, Momo!
He smiled and pulled his hand back onto the desk. Shoto didn't look irritated anymore and was more at ease, resting his head on his hand, "I've been meaning to go to the work site. Would you accompany me?
She stood up straight, "Of-Of course."
Todoroki led the way out of the office and proceeded outside. A company car - which seemed to be too luxurious, even for Todoroki's company – pulled up in front of them. Todoroki opened the door for her.
"T-Thank you," she blushed and rushed to go inside. She moved too fast and bumped her head on the car door opening. Yaoyorozu fell back but Shoto caught her.
"You really must be careful, Yaoyorozu," he calmly stated. His face was close to hers, making her panic.
So close. "Y-Yeah, sorry about that," she couldn't look into his eyes. He smiled and propped her up, helping her into the car.
The driver drove them to the worksite. Yaoyorozu believed it to be a long drive, even though it was only 20 minutes away from the agency. She stared outside the window, creating possible conversations for her to use. Todoroki was slowly dozing off. He almost completely fell onto Yaoyorozu's shoulder when his phone vibrated in his pocket.
Momo took notice and watched him take out the phone. He glared at it for a moment, carefully reading the message and shoved it back in his pocket.
"I hope you don't mind me leaving early today, Yaoyorozu," he explained, somewhat agitated.
Maybe it was a message from his father? "I don't mind at all."
He ended with that and stared out the window, resting his head on hand and using the side dashboard as a brace. It was silent for a while as Todoroki lost himself in thought.
"Will you…promise me something?" he finally spoke out. Yaoyorozu turned to look at him, but he continued looking out the car window.
"Anything, Todoroki," she answered quickly not even thinking about it.
He didn't move his head, but he slid his fingers between hers and gripped it tightly. Yaoyorozu blushed, and felt her heart fluttering.
"Promise me that you''ll…" he seemed to be stumbling for words, "Promise me that you'll stay safe."
Yaoyorozu felt lighter and couldn't help but smile.
"I don't know what I would do if…" he couldn't continue his sentence and cut himself off.
She knew what the rest of that sentence was and gripped his hand, "I promise."
He relaxed in his seat as if he lifted something heavy off his shoulders. Todoroki let himself sway onto Yaoyorozu's shoulder and closed his eyes, "I'm glad."
They stayed like this the whole drive. Yaoyorozu couldn't be happier.
"Hey, isn't that Yao-Momo and Todoroki?" Kirishima stopped walking and pointed at them, who were across the street and exploring the work site.
Kaminari went beside him and looked closely at them, "Eh? I never knew they were together! That Todoroki! Such a sly fox!"
"Hey now, don't look like that," Kirishima chuckled, giving Kaminari a pat on the back.
"Shut up! I can't do anything with you two yapping back there!" Bakugo yelled at them. Kirishima and Kaminari accompanied Bakugo as he went hunting for hero agencies to work at. Bakugo was busy looking through a magazine that featured the best agencies.
"Aren't you even a little curious, Bakugo?" Kaminari teased, "I mean, aren't you and Yao-Momo an item right now with all the pictures streaming on the internet?"
"I thought I told you to shut up!" Bakugo warned him, sparks going off in his fists. He growled and roughly opened up his magazine. So that's what half-and-half's playing at.
Todoroki glared him down, walking closer, "But stay away from Yaoyorozu…She's too good for you,"
"Tch," Bakugo groaned. We'll see about that, half-and-half.
"Alright! I think it's time to hit up the bar!" Kaminari cheered, throwing his fists in the air.
Kirishima agreed and roughly put his arm around Bakugo's neck, "You look like you need a drink.
Once they finished visiting the site, Todoroki dropped off Yaoyorozu back at the hero agency. She opened the car door and was about to get out when Todoroki grabbed her wrist.
His cheeks turned a little pink and he couldn't look into her eyes, "Don't….Don't stay out too late."
Yaoyorozu smiled, "I'll try not to."
"Monsters come out at night," he explained further.
She nodded, trying to control the butterflies in her stomach. He was acting like an overprotective boyfriend.
They waved each other goodbye. Right when he left, Midoriya and Ochako arrived.
"I take it everything went well?" Midoriya asked.
Yaoyorozu excitedly shook her head and went straight into business. She took out a huge binder with her notes of the work site.
Ochako gloomfully eyed the binder, "That's going to take all night to file."
"Not if we put our all into it!" Yaoyorozu confidently stated with a gleam in her eye.
Midoriya and Ochako couldn't help but be swooned by her confidence.
And here I told him I wouldn't stay out too late. Yaoyorozu felt a hint of guilt as she walked down the street. By the time Midoriya, Ochako, and herself finished processing, it was 10pm. Ochako asked Midoriya to spend the night at her place since it was closer. Midoriya steamed and stuttered nonsense. She told Yaoyorozu she could spend the night as well, but no way was she going to ruin Midoriya's fun. They wished each other a good night and went on their way.
She looked up at the brightness of the moon as she walked down the busy street. It was a Friday night so people were celebrating for the weekend.
Yaoyorozu remembered what Todoroki said, "Monsters come out at night."
She looked onto the busy crowd and assured herself that he was just overreacting. A group of ladies passed by her, giggling and rambling on about their ladies' night. She eyed a couple walking out of a sports bar.
The man was scolding his girlfriend, telling her that she had too much to drink and that he was going to take her home. She smiled like an idiot and leaned on her boyfriend. Yaoyorozu admired the couple as they walked past her.
She knew Todoroki would've done the same for her if he didn't go to his meeting. I should've kissed him.
Yaoyorozu continued, passing by the sports bar in a dreamy state until BOOM!
An explosion went off in the bar and out flew a male. He roughly landed on the sidewalk.
"I told you not to fucking mess with me!" a drunk Bakugo stumbled out of the sports bar, glass beer bottle in hand. She glared at him, irritated. Why can't I ever get away from this guy?
The opponent screamed in his highest pitch and attempted to escape from the blonde monster. Bakugo caught him by the leg. He used his free arm to take a swig from his bottle. After wiping his mouth, he roughly slammed the bottle to the ground, "You're not going anywhere, shit head!"
His hands sparked, and he was about the let if off in the guy's face. Yaoyorozu reacted hastily and wrapped Bakugo in a strong tape-like material. It caused Katsuki to fall on his side.
"What the FUCK!" Bakugo yelled, using every inch in his muscles to break free. He couldn't think well in his drunken state. The victim didn't wait for an explanation and ran off.
Yaoyorozu tightened the grip and scolded the writhing Bakugo, "You need to calm down!"
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I'll kill you!" Bakugo screamed at the top of his lungs, making sure the whole street heard.
She walked in front of him and placed her hands on her hips, "Bakugo, you know the rules!"
Bakugo shot Momo a death glare, "Ponytail!"
She created a wagon and dragged him onto it. He continued to violently wiggle his way out.
A vein popped on her forehead, "You asked for it…"
She created straps and fastened him to the wagon.
"Fuck you! You bitch!" he thrashed about like a wild animal, but was not able to break himself free.
"Hopefully no one reports you," she sighed, pulling out his wallet from his pocket. She took out his license and read it to find his apartment address. Not too far from here.
He continued to scream out curse words as she pulled the wagon behind her.
By the time they arrived at the apartment, Bakugo was sound asleep. She smirked at him, "You're kind of cute when you're not acting crazy."
He groaned in his sleep, "I'll kill you…"
She held in her laugh and unfastened the straps and tape. He was too drunk to break out into his usual bursts. Momo knew Katsuki wasn't going to remember any of this when he wakes up. She slumped his heavy body over herself and managed to get into the apartment elevator and in front of his door.
Crap. I forgot to get his keys out. She attempted to reach inside his pockets by sliding her arms under his. His face was buried in her neck; his breath reeked of alcohol. The warmness made her blush.
Yaoyorozu snapped out of it and opened the door with his keys. She readjusted Bakugo and walked him inside.
He's a pretty clean guy, she thought to herself as she observed the apartment, "Hey, Bakugo, if your apartment is so clean, why is your hair always a mess?"
He mumbled words that sounded like 'Bite me'.
She had her fun. The bedroom door was already open and she dragged him into his room. There was a sliding door leading to the outside balcony. She didn't bother turning on the lights as the moonlight was enough to illuminate the room.
"There you go," she said, dropping him on the bed. He groaned and turned to his side. His mouth was slightly open, letting out little snores. Based on the upkeep of his apartment, Momo knew he liked to keep clean, so she attempted to take off his shoes. He almost kicked her in the face and fell with his back on the bed.
She stood up and sighed. It was like taking care of a child. When he turned, his black shirt flipped up, revealing the burn mark from yesterday. Yaoyorozu observed it carefully. I wonder what that's from.
She remembered that Katsuki and Shoto were alone in the office. They must've gotten into a fight.
Thinking of their argument in her head made her roll her eyes at Bakugo's immaturity. After eyeing the burn mark, she shifted her attention to his stomach. Momo couldn't help but stare curiously at it. It was more well defined than she imagined it to be.
What are you thinking? She was starting to feel hot in the face.
It was not good for drunk people to sleep on their backs as they had a higher chance on choking on their vomit. She turned him to his side, telling him, "No, no, no, Bakugo…"
His red eyes shot open and in a second, Bakugo flipped Yaoyorozu under him.
"Don't tell me no, Ponytail," he growled, barring his teeth from his smile.