She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. The man before her was strange. He saved her and the little boy with almost no issue, but his attempt to talk to her was charming. His slightly outstretched hand towards her invited her for something more than the man. He couldn't seem to notice it himself, but the slightest shade of pink was appearing on his pale face. She glanced at his hand. Momo placed her own in it.

"I'd love to, but shouldn't we know each other's names first?" she chuckled as his face grew pinker.

"Uh, yeah, we should. I'm sorry. You already know me as Frostfire, but my name is Shouto Todoroki. It's nice to meet you."

"Pleasure to meet you as well, Todoroki, though I kind of already knew your name. My name is Momo Yaoyorozu, I'll debuting under the hero name Creati soon." Momo shook his hand, which had been holding onto her own instead of shaking.

"Yes, I'll see you out there?" a small nervous smile emerged onto his lips.

"Yes? Why did you say yes?" she tilted her head towards him.

"Um…" he couldn't meet her eyes. "I don't know."
"Well, do you want to exchange numbers?" Momo took charge of the conversation.

"I mean, sure. We wouldn't be able to communicate otherwise and uh yeah." he pulled out his phone, seeming to have regained some of his posture.

Shouto drove away with Midoriya from the scene with a wistful smile on his face and Yaoyorozu's phone number in his contacts. He kept glancing at it on his phone screen. Midoriya gave him a small smile. They were heading onward to Mina's party. The two men had parted from the fire area and left the police to do their investigation work.

"I've never seen you so interested in someone before. Who is she?"

"Momo Yaoyorozu. She said that she was going to be debuting as the hero Creati soon."

"Huh?!" Midoriya almost stopped the car right there. "Momo Yaoyorozu was one of the people who were recommended into U. A. like you! She didn't go because she went to Shiketsu instead, but she's really highly skilled. Uraraka sometimes talks about her."

"What?" Shouto's eyes widened.

"You just scored big time, Todoroki!"

When Shouto and Midoriya arrived to Ashido's house, Uraraka practically broke down the front door to hug the two. She kept her arms around them tight with her voice straining. Shouto could spot Ashido with a hand on her chest. A few people from inside came rushing outside to see Midoriya and him. Their class 1-A friends, bright and passionate like always. Shouto sighed, accepting the other people's worries. Kaminari was next to him along with Jirou. The two were bright as ever with their hands intertwined together.

"Don't you two dare worry us like that again! You always keep getting injured, Deku." Uraraka finally let them go.

"Well, it's okay. We were able to get everyone out safely, that's what's important."

"Why are you two even here?! You should be at home right now." Kaminari pointed out. He was holding a cup and had headphones over his neck.

"Some things never change with you two. Always getting into trouble." Jirou rolled her eyes.

"We're perfectly fine. Todoroki ended up saving a couple people. Including someone who I think is a friend of your's, Uraraka. You don't talk about her that much, but you've mentioned her before a-" Midoriya was cut off.

"Todoroki?"

Shouto's eyes, which had been dazed and unfocused, were now wide open and looking straight at the woman at the door with Ashido. There she was in all her glory. The soot on her face had been washed away, but there was still ash in her hair. He immediately froze as their strings tugged towards each other again. She brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Their strings were glowing. Everyone was looking in between the two.

"You two have met?!" Uraraka pried herself away from Midoriya, turning towards Yaoyorozu.

"Actually, we just met today. He's the hero who saved me from the house." she gave him a shy wave.

"WHAT?!" Uraraka's head did a complete 180 towards him.

"It's what heroes do?" Shouto tried taking a page from Deku's book and say something heroic to get Uraraka off his back. His voice ended up betraying him as it went an octave higher than it usually was.

"Woah, Todoroki getting flustered? Never thought I would ever see it!" Kaminari joked. Jirou immediately poked his eye with an ear jack. "Ah!"

"So you two finally decided to show up?"

Everyone's head turned to Bakugou at the doorway. His head turned from Yaoyorozu to Shouto, then back again. He immediately scowled and rolled his eyes.

"Hey Kaachan! How's the party going?" Midoriya grinned.

"Great until you two got here." he shoved his hands into his pockets, turning away from the two to go back inside. "Hurry up and get in here, everyone else wants to see you dumbasses."

"Bakugou, what the hell is with your language?!" Uraraka ran off from Midoriya's side into the house.

"Hey, hey, everyone chill out! Uraraka, don't float Bakugo around!" Ashido ran into the house to follow the two.

"Jirou, do you want to start up a party game with me?" Kaminari was walking back inside with her.

"Just promise me it won't end in us calling Iida again. He doesn't understand prank calls."

"I should go make sure Uraraka is alright." Midoriya pat Shouto's back with a grin and bolted into the house.

Yaoyorozu leaned against the door frame as he passed. She smiled at Shouto, who was standing dumbfoundedly at everyone suddenly leaving.

"They're a bright bunch, aren't they?"

"Yeah. Always have been and always will be." he gave some sort of half smile towards her.

"Would you like to join them?" she brushed a lock of hair behind her ear.

He. Couldn't. Stop. Staring. The string connecting their pinkies kept tugging towards each other. It was like the forces behind the string wanted him to get even closer to her, which he seriously could not do considering how he had just met her that day. Shouto kept closing and opening his mouth to reply to her, to get literally anything out, but nothing came. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away from her.

"Do you have something to say?" Yaoyorozu walked down the steps, her hands behind her back. She tilted her head at him curiously.

"No?"

"No?" she repeated his question. "Are you sure?"

"Yes?"

"You keep doing that." Yaoyorozu put a finger up.

"Doing what?"

"Saying things like they're a question."

"I guess?"

"There you go doing it again." she giggled.

"I-Is it meant to be funny?"

"No, it's more…" she tapped a finger to her lips. "Endearing."

"Oh."

"Oh?" Yaoyorozu moved in a little closer to him with a teasing tone.

"TODOROKI, COME HERE!" Ashido's voice from inside rang.

"Ah, well you're very observant." he moved around her to walk towards the door into Ashido's house. Shouto stopped at the door frame, looking back to her.

"And you're very courteous." she past by him with a small smile on her lips to walk inside.

The inside of the house was wild. The TV was on with some sort of video game flashing on the screen. Kaminari and Jirou were with Koda and Tokoyami. They were sitting around a coffee table with a board game on it. Pieces were thrown about and cups were placed in awkward places as Tokoyami said his line, "Revelry in the dark." when Jirou drew another card. Uraraka and Midoriya were chatting along on the coach. Sero and Shoji were partaking in the video game, both of them giving looks towards each other.

It always went back to Bakugou. The man stood in the corner of the room, mindlessly looking towards the TV. Shouto tried not to stare at him. Ever since the incident, it had been hard to keep looking on. The dangling string from Bakugou's pinky finger was a constant reminder. It was broken. A frail string that never tugged or flared with life. No one wanted to be reminded of that day.

Ashido grasped onto Shouto's shoulders.

"Come with me, we're going to the kitchen!"

A pair of floating shorts and shirt in the kitchen pointed a spoon to the two. Shouto sighed. Hagakure… The sweet smell of pastries caught his nose. Sato stood near the oven, constantly looking at his watch for when whatever was in it would be done. The spoon moved closer to Shouto's face and soon enough tapped onto his nose. The red string on her invisible hand twisted throughout the kitchen to Ojirou. He gave a small smile to Shouto, encouraging him to say something to the two women.

"Look at this pretty boy trying something new!" Hagakure tapped his nose with the spoon again.

"Huh?"

"A video of you holding Yaoyorozu's hand went viral. My fans have been messaging it to me for the last hour! It'll be all over the news, Todoroki!" Ashido let go of his shoulders and sighed. "Out of all of us, I never thought of you being the irresponsible one with your public image." she put her hands on her hips with a huff.

"It was nothing romantic. I was just reassuring her after a traumatic experience. Aizawa taught us a lot about it in high school and I wanted to start getting bett-"

"But the media's going to misinterpret it! You're going to have to deal with a bunch. Be careful next time, Todoroki. Yaoyorozu's just about to debut and having something like this might bite back." Shouto could imagine her frowning.

"Sorry?"

"Say it more definitely!" Mina pointed a finger to his face.

"Sorry." he sighed at the two's enthusiasm.

"Good! Now, do you wanna help us ice Sato's cookies?"

"Like literal ice or—"

"We mean frosting ice, Todoroki. Frosting ice." Hagakure pulled out a bag of it from the fridge to show him.

"Yeah. That sounds right."

"Ooo! Can I help?"

She was too fucking close. The smell of her perfume intoxicated Shouto and he couldn't get enough of it. Judging from his little knowledge of perfumes from obscure things Aoyama says and what he remembers from high school, she was wearing the Midnight brand of perfume. A sweet and alluring scent that calm every nerve of the body. Yaoyorozu stood next to him, looking over at the cookie he was trying to ice. Hagakure, Ashido, and Sato had already blasted through icing twenty so far, but he was still on his first one. He couldn't seem to do it right.

"We don't have any more icing bags, but you can switch off with Todoroki. He seems to be struggling there." Ashido teased.

"I'm not much of an expert in," he tried to outline the shape of the circle cookie, but the red icing went off onto the counter again. Shouto huffed. "Controlled movements."

"Here, let me help you!"

He handed the icing bag to her and let her take a go at it. Yaoyorozu's hands were steady and slow as the cookie started to fill with icing. Shouto just stared, perplexed to how she was doing it so perfectly. The cookie was about halfway filled when she turned to him. It all flowed nicely together and had the smoothest surface.

"Would you like to give it another go?" she smiled at him.

"I wouldn't want to ruin what you've already done."

"You won't." she handed the bag to him.

Shouto started slowly going over on the rest of the cookie. His hands had the strangest tremble to them. The icing went onto the table again. He quietly place the icing bag onto the table and shrugged at her. She picked up the bag, giving him a wink.

"It's okay."

A/N: I've been racking my head over this fic for the past months and I'm finally ready to start pursuing it again. I hope you're all doing well and enjoying it. Look forward to more regular uploads of chapters

Also, hey, what happened to Bakugou's string? O-o

If you want to find the music for this chapter, it's titled "It's okay" and it's from the YT channel Ambition.