"Shouto, I've been meaning to talk to you for a while now. Are you still willing to think about getting a tattoo from me? Izuku asks when his roommate come in from work on Tuesday night.
"Yes, I am. Did you design something?" Shouto hangs his jacket up and walks toward Izuku's bed where the other man is sitting, knees drawn toward his chest and a sketchbook resting on them.
He gets an excited nod from his friend who pats the bed beside him. When he sits down, Shouto gets the book put into his lap. There in the center of the page is an elegantly detailed koi fish, its colors of orange and white are perfectly balanced. "Koi are a symbol of perseverance," Izuku supplies helpfully. A slender dragon forms a circle around the koi fish. Vibrant reds and vivid oranges are offset with black shadows and shading that nearly make Shouto believe they are going to come alive right off of the page. "Dragons are strength and wisdom."
"How much will this cost, Midoriya?" He asks, finally tearing his eyes away from the drawing.
Izuku holds his hand up. "That is for me to worry about."
"Midoriya," Shouto starts sternly.
"No, you heard me. You just bring your body and a vanilla latte for your favorite friend to each appointment and I'll take care of the rest," Izuku declares with finality.
"Each appointment? How many appointments will it take?"
"Two of them at three hours each," he answers matter-of-factly. "Possibly three. Don't argue with me. Let me have my fun. It's a simple yes or no."
Todoroki hesitates before nodding. "Fine. I'll think about where I want it. Do you have any openings before my shifts this weekend?"
"I am free on Friday from 11am to 3pm and Saturday from 11am to 2:30pm," he answers as he checks his One for All appointments on his phone.
"Let's do Friday then," Shouto says, sounding resigned to his fate of being in Izuku's chair.
"Ochako, I have some juicy gossip for you," Izuku says while he cleans tables with her after the early morning Quirffee rush at 7am. They left Asui to handle any straggling customers. She is the newest employee at the café and she took to creating drinks like a frog to water.
"I love juicy gossip. Tell me more," she chimes back with intrigue.
"I'm doing a tattoo on Shouto," Izuku says, waggling his eyebrows playfully.
"No way! When are you doing it, like what day?" Ochako says, pausing her cleaning to gape at him.
"Friday morning," he answers. "He is going to tell me where he wants it to go on his body when he comes in that morning."
"I can't believe Todoroki is getting ink done by you! I probably still won't believe it until I see it."
He had put Todoroki on his schedule for One for All and had stressed to Toshinori just how amazing and exciting the entire situation was to him. Toshinori with his fun nature, got excited with Izuku. At 10am on Friday morning, he makes his way to One for All Tattoos to set up and prepare the stencil.
"You are really thrilled about this, Young Midoriya," Toshinori says as he pulls his blonde hair into a bun.
"Shouto and I have been best friends for four years and this is his first tattoo. He is trusting me with this responsibility, I want to make it the best experience I can," Izuku says, putting a headband on to push his curls back and out of his face.
"You're the best kind of person," Toshinori says, patting Izuku's back before walking away.
Fifteen minutes before the scheduled appointment time, Shouto walks through the front door to see Toshi about all of the necessary paperwork. Before Izuku can even take a steadying break, Shouto is standing in his doorway.
"Are you ready for this?" Izuku asks, smiling brightly. Shouto nods to him. "Where do you want it?"
"Here," Shouto answers, pointing to his left pectoral. "Is that possible?"
"You could ask me to put it on your eyelid and I could do it. I don't recommend that though," Izuku says as Todoroki cringes. "Okay, take your shirt off and lay down right here." Izuku gestures to his reclined chair. "Did you have breakfast this morning?" Another nod. "I have a bottle of water and a bottle of juice for you as well. This will go smoothly."
Shouto lays down in the chair calmly and Izuku adjusts it to the correct height and reclines it to a good angle, checking that it is good for Todoroki too. He explains how the process will go and to speak up if he needs a break or if he feels unwell. He cleans the area with green soap and lets it dry.
"I'm going to complete your line work today, it'll be the most difficult part really. Because of how the orange and red bleed together it'll be time consuming.
"I trust you, Midoriya." The tone of Shouto's voice is so genuine that it makes Izuku's heart skip a beat. He shows Todoroki the stencil before putting it on. The transfer is clean and Izuku opens his supplies and pieces together his tattoo gun. Gathering orange ink and a paper towel, he starts to work. Shouto doesn't even flinch.
It is silent for a while between them, the only noise is the tattoo gun and the songs that Izuku sings to himself as he works. It is comfortable, almost natural. The outline of the koi is coming along slowly as Izuku had suggested it would.
Todoroki starts the conversation first. "I made a dragon deck for game night on Sunday."
"You're a sly cat, were you just going to spring that on us at the game night? No fair warnings ahead of time?" Izuku asks with a teasing smile.
"I've had it ready for a while, I was just waiting for game night to start again," he replies with a half shrug.
"That's been my fault. I'm sorry," Izuku says, ducking his head for a moment.
"Why? How is it your fault?"
"I've been so hung up on my exes that I let go of what was truly important which is friend time and time to just let go and relax. I sorted it out though," he says with confidence.
"Can I ask you something that may seem a little personal?"
"Of course, you can Shouto."
"What did you like most about your ex-boyfriends? I'm assuming there are multiple since you said 'exes." Shouto seems to focus on the ceiling, taking in deep breaths. Izuku offers him the bottle of water in case he is starting to feel unwell.
"It's funny you ask that," he says with a small laugh. "Ochako and I were just discussing that the other day. We even wrote out a master list of all the things I liked the most." He relays the list to Shouto who nods as he listens.
"Those are rather vague likes, plenty of people can fit your tastes," Todoroki notes more to himself than Izuku.
"I'm not so sure about that," Izuku says quietly.
Once the outline is complete, Izuku cleans it up with more green soap and puts clear plastic wrap over it, secured with masking tape. "Leave this on for at least two hours, but if I were you I'd wear it during your shift tonight too. Your shirt will rub it until it's raw. I have ointment for it at the house but washing it with antibacterial soap is a must." As Izuku applies the last of the tape to the cling wrap, he lets his eyes wander over Shouto's torso. His body is lean and athletic and beautifully pale.
"I'm sure you'll keep me in line, since you live with me and all," Todoroki remarks, pulling Izuku's eyes back to his face.
Izuku bites his lip and nods. "You know it."
It is a relief to get out of One for All and over to Fire and Ice. Doing tattoos is of course something Izuku loves to do, but sometimes the air just seems stales and the walls of his work area appear to shrink in on him. The club is hot and sticky when he gets there and sets up. Earphone Jack is about him, dancing to the music as she makes it. Izuku can't help but watch her fondly. Jirou's first love is music, much like Izuku's is drawing.
"Hey Fuyumi, I want to ask you something really quick," Deku yells as she walks up the stairs to the second floor.
After a quick chat with his boss, he heads up the stairs with her and makes his way over to Jirou. "Could I pitch an idea to you for the evening?"
She turns to look at him, nodding. "I am adoring your new style of music and I want to hear more of it so would it be cool with you if I took the first two hours and you took the last two hours rather than switching in and out and covering? Fuyumi said she doesn't care as long as she has good music all night," Deku explains with a laugh.
"That is totally fine with me." EJ's smile is so bright that Deku is almost taken aback by the surprise of it. "I'm glad you like it, I've been working hard at it."
Deku's two hours go by in a flash and before long he is packed up and sitting on one of the railings on EJ's platform, just bobbing to the music. He steals glances at Shouto every few minutes, watching how he moves fluidly behind the bar as if he doesn't even have to think about what he is doing.
"If you stare any harder Deku, you'll burn a hole right through him," Jirou says from beside him. She laughs at his embarrassment, his face turning a bright shade of red. "He is a cool drink of water, definitely a thirst quencher." She winks and laughs as he buries his face in his hands.
"You are terribly wonderful," Deku remarks to her as a shy smile dances onto his face. When he looks back at Shouto, he is talking to a woman at the bar. A gleaming smile forms on Todoroki's lips as he leans on the bar toward her, listening intently. Something in Izuku flips, making his stomach drop and his blood run cold.