Hey guys! This is my attempt at a MHA fic featuring the best boys Shouto Todoroki and Izuku Midoriya. For whatever reason, I ship them like crazy, so I decided to write something. That's how it usually starts with me: I see, I like, I write. Now, I only write Fairy Tail fics so this is gonna be a strange experience. Forgive me if all the 1A students get a bit OOC, I'm not used to writing them (yet). Hopefully that'll change as this fic progresses. ENJOY!!!
Midoriya POV
I grimaced, shrugging my backpack further up onto my shoulders. Late for class again? Dammit, Izuku, pull yourself together! I could almost hear All Might's voice in my head, chastising me for being such an irresponsible student.
But I wasn't late for class all the time. Only once or twice a month, when I either forgot to set an alarm for the next morning or slept through the alarm. Today was a new record for lateness, though. I was almost thirty minutes late. It was embarrassing, and just terrible. You've really done it now, Izuku...
The whitewashed walls around me seemed extremely tall and ominous when there were no other students around to fill them up. My footsteps reverberated off of them and echoed back to my ears several times, seeming outrageously loud now that there wasn't the din of other kids' voices to shatter the ominous silence. I shivered, slightly unsettled by the hollow emptiness around me.
U.A. really was a creepy place when you were walking through it alone. I was just glad it wasn't dark. I'd be so paralyzed I wouldn't be able to move if it were nighttime, if there wasn't natural daylight flooding in through the large, evenly spaced windows on my left side. Just between you and I, I've always gotten scared whenever I was left alone in a dark room, ever since I can remember. My mother likes to tell me I'm afraid of the dark, but I know that isn't true because I don't mind the darkness at all so long as someone else is with me.
I don't fear the darkness, I fear what hides within it.
Finally, I reached the right classroom: a large door on my right side, labeled with a letter and a number in bold print. 1A. My classroom. My home.
Taking a deep breath, I pushed the door open and hesitantly peeked my head around the doorway.
Aizawa, the teacher, immediately snapped his head around to glare at me, thick and messy black hair nearly concealing his bloodshot eyes.
"Young Midoriya, I hope you have a good excuse for arriving at class half an hour late." he said. His eyes were flashing with anger, but his voice was low and monotonous, his facial expression deadpan and void of emotion like it always was.
"I'm sorry, Sensei. It won't happen again." I clasped my hands together in front of me and dipped a neat bow before hurrying over to my seat, turning bright red with embarrassment.
My rival and childhood best friend, Katsuki Bakugou, snickered loudly, smoothing a rough hand through his spiky blonde hair. I bit my lip, trying to hide my annoyance at this. He always managed to find amusement in every mistake I made, whether big or small. Didn't matter how relevant my existence was to him.
"Now, as I was saying before Midoriya so rudely interrupted, today is all about core muscle work." Aizawa cleared his throat loudly, bringing everyone's attention back to him. The entire class groaned loudly, and the ghost of a smile touched his pale lips. "Yes, I know. Everyone's favorite. But it's good for you. And the sooner you get it done, the easier your lives will be."
"Core work makes our lives harder, if anything." Iida remarked, from where he was sitting. "It leaves us tired and sore, thus making the rest of our days significantly more difficult than they would've been if we had skipped core muscle workouts."
"Here, here!" Kirishima agreed.
There were several other muttered agreements from around the room, jumbled together so I couldn't identify any specific voices. I didn't say anything because I knew I might end up in trouble if Aizawa decided to single one of us out for discipline (even though most everyone in the room was doing the exact same thing), so I just nodded enthusiastically.
"Oh, be quiet." Aizawa rolled his eyes and turned to the door. "If I hear so much as one more peep out of anyone before we reach the gym, I'll double your work load." the very idea of having to do extra core muscle work was enough to cause the entire class to go deathly silent, much to our cruel teacher's approval. "Good, that's what I thought. Now, let's get this over with." he turned and strode out of the room, the ends of the thick, pale gray scarf around his neck trailing out behind him.
Everyone was wise enough to stay silent as we rose to our feet, gathered our gym uniforms, and hurried after him. I honestly enjoyed the silence, it made it easier for me to think as I moved with them.
Another grueling day in the gym, it seems... I thought to myself, as I walked behind Tsuyu and Uraraka, following them down to the gym. I'm not looking forward to it, but it'll be good for me if I'm to completely master One For All. Perhaps today I'll find myself stronger than the last time we were forced into core workouts. Oh, how I wish All Might were here. He'd give us a fun but educational game to play, rather than making us do impossible workouts.
"Midoriya!" Todoroki hissed from behind me, and I realized with a start that I had been muttering my thoughts out loud like I had a habit of doing. "Shut up or you're gonna have your work load doubled!"
I jumped a little and turned my head to lock eyes with the taller boy, giving him a grateful nod in response.
Shouto Todoroki, one of my friends here at U.A. He was a few inches taller than me, with eyes so pale blue they were almost white and paper-pale skin. The left half of his hair was bright red, like fresh blood. The left side was pure white, like snow in sunlight. A blotchy pink scar covered his eye on the left side. He had told me it was where his own mother had thrown boiling water on his face because she couldn't stand to see him like that. He was thin but well-built, his entire body rippled with corded muscles. To me, he was extremely attractive. I'd never admit it, but I kinda liked him. I had no idea I was... Well, you know... Gay... But... Something about him just really made my heart race. With his left hand, he could create fire. His right created ice. It was quite the amazing quirk, a cross between his father and his mother.
I realized I had been staring at him for too long and quickly looked away, blushing like crazy. I pressed a hand to my face, silently praying that nobody could tell how red I was.
Todoroki was always looking out for me in more ways than one. He let me know when I was muttering at bad times so I didn't get in trouble, and if he ever caught Bakugou being an ass, he'd step in and stand up for me. I really appreciated the help. And I guess that's what caused me to start feeling weird things whenever I was around him.
The feelings I got were hard to describe. It was like an aching, burning desire in my chest that was almost painful. A desire to siddle a little bit closer to him, to touch him, to just be around him. A desire to say something, anything at all that might make him look at me, that might make him smile even just little bit. I wondered what these feelings meant. I didn't know why I got so eager whenever he walked in the room, why I always wanted to sit next to him whenever possible, why I always got excited at the very thought of him and intentionally did things I knew he liked so he'd notice me. It was strange, and I didn't like it.
I made a mental note to ask Uraraka and Iida about it later. They were my closest friends who I trusted with everything, surely they'd know what my feelings meant and how to fix it.
The rest of the walk was uneventful, with the exception of Todoroki elbowing me whenever I started muttering to myself again. Thanks to him, Aizawa never caught me, so I ended up doing the same workout routine as everyone else. Or, almost everyone. Kacchan had his work load doubled because he kept talking back to Aizawa, whom wasn't having any of it.
Everyone except Kacchan got to stop for five minutes to breathe and get some water if they needed it. Kaminari saw the opportunity and seized it before someone else did.
"Karma is a bitch, Bakugou!" he shouted.
Kacchan snapped him an absolutely venomous flare from where he was lying on the foam mat of the gym, doing sit-ups. Kaminari laughed loudly at this, and all his friends joined in. That's how we were. If someone got publicly disciplined for their bad behavior, one of us would take it upon themselves to make some sort of smart remark that was well-deserved, well-placed, and annoying as hell.
"Maybe if his ego wasn't twice his size, he'd find it a lot easier to get along with our Sensei." Yaoyorozu remarked, as she stretched her limbs and prepared for the next round of workouts.
"Exactly. Sometimes it amazes me that we're teenaged girls, and he somehow manages to have a bigger attitude than all of us combined!" Jiro agreed.
"Well, nobody's perfect. I'm sure good ol' Bakugou will get his act together... Someday." Uraraka said wistfully, causing the other girls to giggle loudly.
I grimaced. Although Bakugou was the cause of a lot of my suffering, I still didn't enjoy seeing everyone else trash-talk him right in front of him. They all knew he could hear them, but they did it anyway because he was in no position to stop them. I guess that's just human nature. To prey on those who cannot do anything to defend themselves.
Sometimes it's hard to tell who the heroes are and who the future villains are. I thought, casting a wary glance at my classmates, whom all seemed amused by Bakugou's angry expression as he powered his way through the grueling workouts Aizawa had given him. But Kacchan's tough. He can handle it. Right?
"You guys are so immature." Todoroki remarked, from where he was standing by Iida. "Just leave the man be, he's already got it hard enough as it is without you throwing yourselves onto the pile. Feh!"
That was the last time anyone said anything bad about Bakugou that day. Although Todoroki wasn't the class representative nor did he hold any other such respectable position, all of class 1A knew better than to defy him. That was basically a law in itself: one does not simply mess with Todoroki.
The rest of the workout session was brutal but uneventful. We were all working so hard that we couldn't even talk to one another. That was how Aizawa liked it. He'd rather hear grunts of exertion and heavy breathing, not quiet side conversations. I was okay with that. Although I considered myself to be a social person, more on the extroverted end of the spectrum, I still treasured silence because I was always lost in thought.
Silence made the fact my head was in the clouds look normal.
Once the excruciatingly difficult class was over and we were dismissed for lunch break, I was extremely tempted to follow Todoroki out so I'd have an excuse to sit with him. He'd been sitting by himself this past couple weeks, and to be honest I'd noticed and I was a little worried about him. I also just wanted to be near him. But I bit back my own desires and instead walked out with Iida.
We chatted about this and that as we walked to the boys' locker room to change out of our gym clothes and back into our school uniforms. Iida was all kinds of excited about a certain bit of school drama that was unfolding between Kaminari and Jiro. He said that they'd been particularly irritable toward each other lately, and that he suspected they might have feelings for each other and were using tsundere personas to cover it up. I'll be completely honest, Iida's speculation of the entire matter was completely ridiculous.
The whole reason Jiro and Kaminari had been fussy with each other was because they had recently become rivals. Jiro had apparently used Kaminari for his electric power to charge up her own quirk... And she somehow did it against his will. I didn't know the details, but now they just generally hated each other. There were no secret crushes going around.
But I still listened to Iida and pretended to agree with his ridiculous ideas because I try my hardest to be a supportive friend, especially to him. Being the class representative isn't exactly an easy job, so I don't feel the need to call him out every single time he's wrong. He already has it hard enough as it is.
We eventually finished cleaning up and changing clothes, so we joined Uraraka at our usual table in the mess hall. She always managed to arrive faster than us, even though Iida had a speed-based quirk. We just took longer because we talked the entire time we were in the locker room. And she was excited to see us, as always.
"Oh goodness, I thought you two would never get here!" she clapped her hands together excitedly as Iida took his seat next to her and I sat down across from them. "What was the holdup?"
"Oh, the usual. Iida just would not shut up." I replied, good-naturedly.
"Hey, come on. You know you like getting the inside scoop on what's going on around school. Plus, I feel as though my theories on local drama are of some interest to you." Iida shot back, grinning in return.
"That's one way to put it." I shrugged and took a bite of my bento.
"You guys." Uraraka laughed and hit Iida's arm playfully, tossing one strand of unruly brown hair over her shoulder afterward. "Sometimes I wonder if Midoriya actually likes hanging out with us, or if he just mildly tolerates our various shenanigans."
"Haha! You know I love you guys, both of you are my best friends." I smiled and relaxed back into my seat, enjoying the stillness after two hours of working out.
"And we love you too." she was beaming like a little ray of sunshine. It made me happy to see the two of them so happy.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" I suddenly sat bolt upright as I recalled the mental note I had made earlier. "I wanted to ask you guys a serious question. It's about something I've been feeling lately, and I want you to try and tell me what it means."
"Oh?" Iida tilted his head to one side curiously. "Go on, you have my undivided attention..."
"And mine." Uraraka nodded her agreement.
Feeling slightly shy, I decided to omit Todoroki's name and just explain my feelings. "Let's just say there's a certain person I'm friends with. Now, we aren't super close friends, but we know each other well. And this person... Has been making me feel weird things lately."
"Weird things?" the brunette girl asked, and I gestured for her to be quiet so I could continue.
"Like... I can't get away from this person, I always have to be around them. And when I'm not around them, they're all I can think about. I can't get them out of my head, and it's driving me crazy." I explained slowly, carefully choosing my words before I said them so I didn't accidentally reveal too much. Iida and Uraraka were listening with wide-eyed interest now, it seemed I really had caught their attention. "Well, you see... I almost can't stand being around this person, because when I am, I just want to get as close as possible and touch. Not in a gross way, but I want to feel the warmth of their skin on mine. Like I'm not whole without them. And I'm always saying or doing things just to make them look at me, in hopes I can get them to smile because I love it when they smile. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Do... Do you know why those feelings mean, guys?" I finally stopped, out of breath.
My two friends stared at me for a moment, jaws dropped open, before Iida shut his mouth tight with a snap and polite cleared his throat.
"Midoriya... I believe what you just described is feelings of intense love." he declared, straightening the collar of his shirt.
"Yeah, but you don't just love this person, though. You're in love with this person. You've fallen in love with them, if that makes more sense." Uraraka jumped in, nodding enthusiastically. "And I'm sure you didn't tell us who it is for a good reason, but do you mind if I ask who this special someone is?"
"Uhh... Would you be mad if I decided not to tell you?" I blanched and recoiled a little, but not because of her. I just couldn't believe what she and Iida had told me. Love. I'm in love with. I've fallen in love with.
"Nope, not upset at all!" the brunette smiled in her familiar, easygoing way and sat back. "After all, I'm sure we'll figure it out soon enough when you announce that you're together with this mystery person. Whoever it is will be so lucky to have you."
"Thanks." I managed a little smile at that. "But... I don't think I'm ready for a relationship with this person. Given who they are and what I've seen in their behavior, I don't think I have a chance with them."
"Ugh, everyone says that about their crush. Everyone." she rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue at me.
"Midoriya, listen. You'll never be ready for this. Never. So don't bother trying to wait until you are. Just go for it. You'd be surprised at how often people find that their crush likes them back." Iida interjected, before Uraraka could launch into one of her cheesy lectures about romance and how to make it work. "The fact that you think they just want to be friends is human nature. You don't think you're ready for them because you think they'd never love you. But just... Shoot for the stars. And like I said, you 'd be surprised at how good the outcome might be." he finished with a confident nod.
"The both of us believe in you, Deku." Uraraka saw her chance to get back into the conversation. I glanced at her and saw she was still smiling. "You've got more romantic skills than you think. You're very charming and sweet, even without trying."
All of this was helping, but only a little. I was glad they had such faith in me, it was very reassuring. And it meant I wasn't nearly as hopeless and desperate as I thought I was.
But there was still the one defining factor that kept me from having faith in myself. Todoroki was a male. Just like me. He was the same age as me. We went to the same school with the same people, in the same class. As such, I reckoned that he was like all the other boys in our group, including Iida. Todoroki probably liked girls. He probably got crushes on the really pretty ones, like Yaoyorozu. He probably went out with girls on dates, became their boyfriend, and did all the things a partner should do. The point is, he was more than likely straight. Completely and utterly straight.
I glanced around the mess hall until I spotted him. He was sitting all alone near the darkest corner of the room, eating his lunch in silence. Even from this distance, I could still read his eyes. He seemed distant, almost vacant, like he was completely lost in his own head.
Kinda like me, I couldn't help but think. I was no stranger to zoning out, to finding myself so immersed in my thoughts I couldn't get out again.
I couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe my friends were right and I actually did have a chance with him. Only time would tell. I wasn't ready to confess yet, didn't know him well enough to even consider crossing that line yet. So I decided to do everything in my power to be around him and get closer to him, to make him into my very best friend, all the while being as discreet as possible.
Little did I know that I was about to get involved in something that was way over my head. Something Todoroki couldn't deal with alone, though he really and truly believed he could. And he tried to, but his own efforts were never enough. He needed me, but neither of us knew it yet.
To be continued...
Heh I know I've already published something new today but I thought why the hell not publish something else, seeing as the corona virus causes my school to shut down so I'm trying to make the most of all this free time I've suddenly found myself with, which means I'm not afraid to write all the things I've been wanting to write lately. I'm not too busy to publish two chapters of two completely different fics from two completely different animes in one day. I hope y'all liked it. Leave a review and tell me what you think? Much love! See you next chapter!
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