Author's Notes: Hi all! I apologize for the short update especially after such a long time. Hopefully it will be incredibly sweet making up for its length. Please enjoy!
The first day of school after their return from summer break had been full of excitement, teachers and students getting reacquainted with each other. With the added presence of Melina, absolutely nothing got accomplished. The students were too busy focusing on their former teacher and her ever growing baby bump to pay attention to their present teachers to even go over the syllabus for the upcoming months until winter break.
Therefore Melina was asked to stay in the administrative building far away from the classrooms. She sat at the desk designated for her located between All Might's and Aizawa's in the faculty room just outside of Principal Nezu's office. It was Friday, the last day of the first week back at the academy, and there was already a stack of test papers to grade on her desk.
Aizawa was not giving these kids any breaks. To appear to be such a lazy, affectless man, he sure did drive his students hard, expecting nothing less than excellence. Of course he did. He knew the danger his students were in and that they could not afford to be anything less than at their best at all times. If not, his students risked severe injury or death since it seemed they seemed to be the favorite target of villains, any villain really.
Time to begin, she reminded herself internally. Her mind wandered often, and she was tired. Thank goodness it was Friday. Inhaling a deep breath to prepare herself, Melina picked up her red pen and took the first paper from the tall stack. Unfortunately, these tests were not going to grade themselves.
An hour later, she was only halfway through the big pile. Aizawa had been cruel enough to make half of the test essay questions. Ethics questions. What ifs and where to fors of hypothetical situations the students might, but hopefully never would, have to face. Such as, what do you do if you accidentally injure the person you are trying to protect? If given the opportunity to kill a particularly nasty villain when less lethal options are available, do you choose to kill without exception? Somehow she had the feeling some of these kids had already been confronted with the dilemma posed by the last question.
Putting down her pen, Melina tilted her head back to relieve the tension in her sore neck. She had been craning her neck over the papers for far too long. Her lower back ached as well so she decided to stand up and walk around a bit. The muscles twinged in her belly as she strode to the window. She patted her tummy feeling the unusual tightness under her hand. She had been sitting for far too long.
The bell chimed signalling the end of second period. Students began to flow from the buildings, filling the courtyard between the administrative building and the classroom building across the sidewalk. Melina searched the many happy, laughing faces for one or two of the familiar ones she knew from class 1A. They might be in the courtyard between the other buildings. She sighed in disappointment. She had been hoping to get at least a glance of Shoto.
Being with him day in and day out for a little over a month during summer break had spoiled her. Although she knew she enjoyed being with him, she had no idea how profound the loneliness would be without him. Oddly, being this close to him but not being with him made her desolation worse. They had not seen each other much this week considering how busy he stayed with classes. All Might, Aizawa, and even Principal Nezu kept her super busy in the office.
There was a knock on the outer frosted door leading into the teacher's offices. Melina expected All Might to poke his head in asking for 'just one more little favor' so she steeled herself for the request and turned to the door with a 'yes I would be happy to do it' smile already on her face. The Principal had been gracious enough to allow her to return to the school to help out. How could she say no when it was her job?
Instead seeing wild and unruly yellow hair, a beautiful red and white head along with gorgeous dual colored eyes, one brilliant turquoise and the other dark grey filled her vision. Her heart leapt with happiness and sped up like a runaway engine. The baby kicked her hard in the ribs as if warning her to calm down.
"Hi," Shoto greeted her shyly, raising his hand in a wave. "Are you busy?"
"I was just taking a break," she replied, meeting him at her desk.
"Good. I brought you something," he said, pulling a cup from behind his back. "A strawberry smoothie. I thought you might need a snack."
"Oooh, thank you," she returned gratefully, taking the cup from him.
"There's pieces of real strawberry in it."
"My favorite."
Since the first day of school, she had made it a habit to stop by the smoothie place they passed on the way to the academy since it was difficult for her to eat food so early. This morning she had been running late due to oversleeping and had to skip her breakfast smoothie. It was sweet of him to notice and bring her one. But he always noticed those kinds of things.
"Did you get permission from Principal Nezu to return home this weekend?" Melina inquired, chewing on her straw as she waited for the answer.
"Not yet. That's why I came here." He blushed lightly, his eyes darting away from hers then returning as a sheepish smile tilted his lips. "That and to see you."
"I'm glad you came to see me," she said, her voice barely above a whisper due to the emotions constricting her throat.
A warm sensation spread through Melina's chest as she looked at him. Unable to stop herself, she reached out to run her fingers through his hair. Pushing into the soft red strands, they flowed through her fingers like silk. After stroking his hair, she pressed her palm to his cheek, her thumb skimming the underside of the scar around his turquoise eye. Her breathing halted when he closed his eyes, pressing his cheek into her palm. Her heart filled with love for him until she thought it might burst.
"Shoto, I - "
Before she could say the words to express what she felt in her heart, the door opened again and Enji Todoroki entered the office. Shoto's eyes flew open, and he wrenched his body away from her breaking the warm and hypnotic spell that had encapsulated them. Spinning around, he saw his father staring at them from the doorway where he had not yet completely entered the room.
"Hello, Shoto. Melina," he greeted her with a nod which she returned.
"What are you doing here?" Shoto snapped, annoyed by the interruption and more so by the person who perpetrated the interruption.
"I just came to talk to Principal Nezu about you're coming home this weekend. You can't miss Sunday dinner," he said, his deep voice rising in an attempt to be light hearted.
"I don't need your help. I can handle this," he retorted irritably. "Besides, I know how important it is for me to be there for Sunday dinner."
Melina understood his aggravation with his father for unnecessarily using his influence as the reigning number one hero. She was glad Shoto did not remind his father he had only been able to move into that number one slot due to All Might's retirement for health reasons. Her hand clutched Shoto's wrist gently as he stepped forward.
"Oh, hello, Endeavor," Principal Nezu declared when he stepped out of his office. "Is there something I can do for you?"
Melina wondered if Mr Principal could feel the tension outside his door and stepped out to see what was going on.
"Actually, I came by to speak to Melina," Endeavor lied in return. "I believe Shoto has something he would like to discuss with you."
"Come in to my office," Mr. Principal invited Shoto.
Melina let go of Shoto's wrist as he stepped toward the glassed in office. Her attention turned to Enji. Her eyes met his glowing turquoise ones that were just like those of his sons - especially now that they had taken on that special softness only love and warm feelings can bring. Despite his change of heart, he had many years of damage to heal before his family could implicitly trust him.
However, she was definitely glad to see the coldness and the severe edge of brutality were gone from his eyes. She had recognized that same hateful cruelty in Dabi's eyes when they first met. Never had she seen that in Shoto's eyes. Pain, sadness, a resistance to affection but never the harshness and ferocity those two exhibited. The only time she did see those emotions in his eyes was if it was directed at one of those two men.
"Was there really something you wanted to say to me?" she asked Enji as he continued to loiter at the door.
"As a matter of fact, there is. Did you want me to drive you to next doctor's appointment?' he asked her.
"That's two weeks away," she reminded him.
"It never hurts to have a plan."
"You would know. You always seem to be the man with a plan. It's a habit you've had ever since you were Shoto's age as I recall." When he allowed her remark to glide past him without acknowledgement, not even a change of expression, she added, "Hibiki is driving me. He will pick me up from the school then bring me back. I have lots of work to do."
"Can I take you to lunch today?" he inquired, undaunted. He seemed desperate to make someone in the family happy today.
"That's two hours away. Besides, I've got something," she said, raising her cup.
"That's hardly lunch."
"I'll grab something in the cafeteria."
"Hmm," he hummed, the flames on his face flaring out slightly. "Are you two angry with me for some reason?"
"I understand you're trying to help, trying to be a good father, but..." She paused, choosing her words carefully. "He's not accustomed to you being there for him. It might be...it might be too late to be a father to him in some ways."
His luminescent eyes never veered away from her face. Neither did they fill with anger or resentment, his expression remaining neutral. His flames also stayed the same without lashing out which were often a dead giveaway to his anger.
"Shoto is a strong, independent young man. You'll just have to stand back and watch," she said as kindly as possible.
"I suppose you're right," Enji Todoroki agreed, turning his back to leave. Pausing before walking away, he looked back over his shoulder at her. "I believe he made the right choice in choosing you for a life partner."
Life partner? That sounded so cold and sterile - and un-romantic. But then again, a partner for life was decidedly romantic.
Melina could feel her face flushing hotly whens he allowed herself to feel pleased by his words. She was thankful he was walking away so he could not see her blushing. Quickly sitting down at her desk, she returned to grading the tests.
Several minutes later, Shoto exited the Principal's office.
"Thank you, Sir," he said, bowing to the principal.
Melina kept her head down, staring at the paper in her hand but not seeing anything as she waited for Shoto to approach her.
"I trust all went well," she said as he pulled up All Might's chair and sat down.
"It did," he confirmed. "Want to meet in the cafeteria for lunch?"
"Do you think it would be appropriate? We've been trying to avoid each other to prevent any, shall we say, inappropriateness from occurring."
Shoto smiled at her, one corner of his mouth rising higher than the other giving him an impish appearance.
"I can control myself if you can."
"I don't think I can," sh admitted. "You weren't in front of me five minutes before I already had my hands on you." She slid her hand through his hair again. "Remember?"
"Oh, yeah."
Shoto definitely remembered. He blushed lightly, his eyes lowering from hers. Taking her hand in his, he brought it to his face and pressed his cheek into her palm once more, taking up where they left off after being interrupted.
In turn, Melina took his hand and brought it to her belly to feel the very active baby swimming around. The smile, both peaceful and joyful, stretched his lips as he slid his hand over the top of her ever increasing mound to follow the baby's movements.
"She's moving around a lot," he murmured, feeling a tapping against his hand that lay along Melina's side.
Melina grunted as the her daughter kicked her heartily several times in the ribs.
"She recognizes your voice," she stated, placing her hand over his.
"You think?" he asked, his eyes meeting hers.
"Well of course," she returned. "How could she not after all those hours you spent reading books to her?"
Melina recalled the many lazy afternoons during summer vacation spent lying on the cloud like couch in her sitting room, Shoto's head resting on her belly as if it were a pillow. Playing with his hair and listening to his hypnotic voice as he read a story from one of the many books in the already extensive collection had lulled her and the baby both to sleep. At some point he would fall asleep too because later she would wake up to find him konked out with the book lying on his face or chest.
She missed those blissful moments. But as she gazed at his tranquil, happy face while his gentle hands skimmed over her abdomen, she looked forward to many more to come.