Inspired by Chapter 200 - 201 of the manga.
After the joint training class finishes, Todoroki looks for Yaoyorozu to make sure she's alright.
Match two of the joint training class ends and Yaoyorozu's team loses all four of their members at the hands of Kendo, Komori, Kuroiro, and Fukidashi.
"Kendo lives up to her rep!" Tetsutetsu loudly remarks and raises his hand in triumph as they watch the conclusion of the fight on the big monitor.
"I just hope Yaoyorozu doesn't lose heart over this." Todoroki thinks out loud. He found himself doing that a lot while watching her when he's usually good at keeping his thoughts to himself.
When Tetsutetsu praised Kendo during the second match, Todoroki felt provoked and ended up responding by arguing about Yaoyorozu's strengths. Those competitive feelings ended up carrying over into their own match. He couldn't remember the last time that he talked so much with someone from another class.
As soon as thoughts about Yaoyorozu come to mind, he finds them escaping his mouth before he knows it. Regardless, in this instance he certainly did not regret it. She is strong, smart, and an extremely capable leader, yet stays humble and never stops improving in any way that she can. Several people from Class 1-B verbally supported their classmates (including their teacher), so why shouldn't he do the same? He would gladly do it again and again until others would also recognize how capable she is.
And yet, despite her knowledge and skills, she suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of her rival. It dwells on his mind throughout the day.
The joint class is long over and everyone is back at the dorms. Knowing that she previously had confidence issues (which he still had trouble understanding), he worries that she may revert all of the progress she has made thus far and steps in front of her door with something he bought in hand.
Doubt begins to creep in as he stares at the wooden door. "What am I doing?" Todoroki mutters to himself.
Although he is sure his intentions are in the right place, he realizes that he hasn't quite thought this through. She is strong in many ways, which he clearly stated earlier. So did she really need his help? He recalls some of his past experiences where people would misinterpret or even feel insulted when he talked to them. A flashback plays in his head of the time when one of his father's fans approached him and he accidentally made them cry. What if the same ends up happening here? Or what if she is simply sleeping to replenish her energy and he disturbs her?
He recognizes that he is simply looking for a reason to run away and it is working.
His body often moves faster than his brain can process. This habit usually benefits him when he is training or out in the field, but betrays him in this instance when his knuckles tap on her door before his legs could carry him back to the elevator. His assumptions of Yaoyorozu either being asleep or not inside her room prove to be incorrect as the door creaks open several seconds later.
"Hm, Todoroki-san? What can I do for you?" She asks while tilting her head in confusion. He sees that she let down her hair and he could feel his heart pounding against his ribcage, distracting him from articulating the words he had in mind.
From the first time that he saw her with her hair down, he finds his heart always beats faster whenever he sees her with her hair like this. He theorizes that he may have a heart condition. Perhaps a visit to Recovery Girl is in order.
"Yaoyorozu, I just wanted to make sure that you were... alright." He manages to say. It sounded less lame in his head.
"...Why wouldn't I be?" She asks with an even more befuddled expression.
Trying to think about the exact words to say only results in several seconds of awkward silence to brew between them. He is too used to just saying whatever comes to mind so trying to filter them requires more mental effort than he initially anticipated.
Seeing that this development isn't progressing and the silence only growing, he decides to go back to his usual direct approach and hopes that it works out. "I was worried that you would be feeling discouraged after the training. I thought you did well, considering the circumstances, yet the results didn't seem to match."
"Ah, so you're looking after the wellbeing of your classmates. As expected of Todoroki-san! I should follow your example."
He thinks about sharing that he would not do this for all of their classmates but sees that she's not done talking. "As you say, the results were disappointing. We lost all of our members while taking none of theirs! Fortunately, it is only training so the results aren't as important as the learning experience."
"Right." Is his brilliant response. Even he finds it lacking, though once again struggles to verbalize anything more. In his mind, however, a single thought is ringing loud and clear.
'As I should have expected of Yaoyorozu, she's already planning the next step, which is to implement today's training for future use. She really is well prepared for everything.'
"A-ahem, thank you for the compliment, Todoroki-san." She coughs and a light blush forms on her cheeks.
He realizes he must have communicated his thoughts once again and concludes that he really should really fix this habit of thinking out loud when it comes to Yaoyorozu.
Unaware of his inner troubles, she continues. "Though I said all that, results are what we are judged by as heroes. Your team did quite well in that regard. You managed a tie and only barely missed out on victory."
"Yes, both of us had close matches. My bad habit of using my ice quirk first without properly reading the overall situation is something that I've been trying to fix, but I did it again anyway... Sorry, you probably don't want to hear me talk about this now."
She flashes him a small smile. "I enjoy listening to you speak, Todoroki-san, you never stop trying to improve. And reflecting on our mistakes is something that is necessary for us to become the greatest heroes, or else we'll keep repeating them. Speaking of which, could you tell me what I have to improve on? Aizawa-sensei mentioned to us in our post-match analysis that it can be a lot of pressure to be focused by multiple villains, though I can't help but feel like I was rendered effectively useless…"
This was something that he had also pondered about in the intermission between their matches, and so he had an answer ready. "I think you did as well as you could have after being caught by Kendo. The goggles and the anti-fungal spray that you delivered were crucial to Tokoyami and almost resulted in your team's victory. Perhaps sending Dark Shadow to scout ahead of time was a mistake since you had some knowledge about Kuroiro's quirk, but that's easy to say in hindsight. No one could say with certainty that his quirk could take control of Dark Shadow. It was a low risk, yet powerful, first move that could have decided the outcome depending on the opponent.
"But since you're asking for advice, I believe that in the future you may face even greater pressure due to your strong quirk and stronger mind. Especially when your popularity increases in the future and villains will have more knowledge about you. I know that if I were facing you in the same scenario I would try and crush you with all four members of my team before you could do anything. Otherwise, the threat you pose could single-handedly turn a losing situation into a favorable one. As for countermeasures, you know yourself better than I do. I'm confident that you will be able to figure out a solution."
"I see. Thank you for the valuable advice and encouragement, Todoroki-san. That was very informative, I knew I could count on you!" He ignores his quickened heartbeat to continue listening. "I have several ideas. First, I need to improve my close-range prowess. I was completely helpless once she caught me alone. Although beating her in close-range is a tall task even if I train due to the different specializations of our quirks, if I stall long enough my teammates may have been able to support me and we could have outnumbered her. She was, after all, isolated from the rest of her team. Even if stalling her that long is impossible, I should at least have something ready to try and create some distance between us. For that, creating some kind of distraction item would be best. Oh! I could also have a mobility item ready for escape…"
There was something enchanting about the way that she rambled when talking about her match. Todoroki notes this is not the first time that he's lost himself when she speaks passionately about something.
"...If I could trouble you, Todoroki-san, could you practice with me later?"
"Sure, but not today." He luckily manages to snap back to reality to reply and holds up the bag that had been in his hand. "I got this for you."
"What's inside that bag?"
"You still looked exhausted even after Recovery Girl's checkup, so I got you something from the dessert shop that opened up around here that you said you've been meaning to try. You once explained the greater the mass of the objects you create, the greater the energy expended. You created a cannon, which is the heaviest object I've seen you create. I don't have a taste for sweets so I asked the cashier. She recommended the chocolate cake since it was freshly made."
"Oh, Todoroki-san, you shouldn't have." Though she says that, there's a spark in her eyes that says she's looking forward to trying it. "I know the perfect tea to complement these sweets with. I simply must go to the kitchen to prepare some from my collection! Ah, Todoroki-san you can stay inside my room if you'd like, I'll be right back."
"No, that's okay." He refuses. The idea of waiting by himself in any girl's room, let alone Yaoyorozu's, just seems... wrong. He hopes that she is not so innocent as to allow any boy to stay in her room. He can think of several boys in their class that have proven not to be so trustworthy. He observes that she still has some fatigue on her features, if only a little, so he tells her "I can get you your tea if you would like."
"I couldn't possibly ask you to do that. You've already done so much for me."
"Understood. Goodbye then."
"Huh?"
"I only came by to make sure you are fine and deliver this. Now that both tasks are finished, I'm going to leave."
All that he said was that he was leaving, but he notices that her eyebrows immediately furrow, similarly to when she faces a difficult question in class. She stares straight at him but he doesn't have the faintest clue what she is looking for. Her face then brightens up as if finding an answer to the same difficult question. "Have you tried the cake yet?"
"No. I don't like sweets."
"Todoroki-san, that won't do! The reviews for this place have them absolutely raving about all of their confectionaries. If you try them, perhaps it will change your taste in sweets."
"I don't think that's how it works…" He replies but already concedes that he will try it if she insists.
"Pardon my forwardness, but I insist!" She says energetically.
He's not sure if he accidentally revealed his thoughts again or if she is just that good at reading him. He does his best to maintain his composure and returns to the previous topic, wishing that she doesn't notice. "Should I get you your tea or not?"
They go back-and-forth and end up compromising for both of them to go to the kitchen together.
"Thanks again, Todoroki-san." She says as they both wait for the elevator. "For everything." She clarifies.
"Anytime."
I've wanted to write at least one fanfiction based on Chapter 200-201 for a while and I've finally done it!
As for this fic, Chapter 2 is pretty much done (just need to proofread) so that'll be released in a few days and the last chapter (Chapter 3) is still a work in progress.
I've hit a wall trying to write Chapter 2 of another fanfic I've been working on (it's passable as a one-shot but I want to write more) and wrote this +1 more fic close to completion in the meantime. I have too many TodoMomo ideas that I want to post, but I'm a terrible procrastinator so a lot of them aren't even halfway done. Sorry about that!