"Todoroki" called out Midoriya when he saw that he was about to go. He immediately caught the alpha attention, joining him in the hallway. "I-I was wondering if you were free after school? I thought we could start the group assignment given for our history class" he asked, clearly a little nervous about asking him about that. Upon not really receiving a reply, he continued in a hurry "O-of course if you can't I understand and we can start another time, I just thought it could be a good ide-"
"Yes" he finally received, breaking his rambling in the middle, "I am free this afternoon". This made the omega relax, smiling again "We could go to my house then, if it fine with you of course" he suggested. "It is fine for me too, I'm sure it would be more calm like that".
"Out of my way half n half, I don't need to see you two flirt in the middle of the hallway," said Bakugo, pushing Midoriya to the side a little so he could pass. Todoroki made sure to catch him, looking at him to make sure he was okay, gaining an awkward smile and a small nod.
"Kacchan, do you want to walk home with us?" asked Midoriya. He firstly saw Bakugo turn back towards them, looking at the duo, only for a stronger wave of annoyance and irritation to come crashing on him. " 'Course not, what made you think I'd want to walk with you? I'm going to train". Midoriya sigh at that, not even sure why he was even trying anymore.
"Is Bakugo always this angry at you?" asked Todoroki, a little concerned. He wasn't blind nor deaf, he had seen how bad the childhood friends relationship was... complicated at best. Everything seemed to be blown out of proportion when it was coming to Bakugo, but he could sometime see how Midoriya also seemed to have grudge held deep down. He hadn't put much attention on them at the start of the semester, but he couldn't remember them having one actually decent conversation. Despite how strong Midoriya seemed to be, always being on the receiving end of the alpha anger couldn't be good either.
"Not always... but I guess it is true Kacchan temperament got worst recently" admitted the young man, before putting a smile back on his face, "But don't worry about it Todoroki, Kacchan isn't always as bad as he seems to be" he added. Todoroki did not seem that convinced, but he didn't know Bakugo that much either, so he couldn't fully judge. Just as much as Midoriya could be biased in his opinion.
They soon decided to let that subject go, instead, Midoriya got carried away into explaining some of his latest quirk analysis. It was a much more enjoyable subject for them to talk about, but also the omega was very clearly more at ease talking about this. Lately, things had been a little bit too tense with Bakugo, so he wanted to forget about it for a little while.
"Wait, isn't that Deku?" He was in the middle of explaining some withdraw of a quirk when the voice made him stop in his track, getting suddenly tense again, looking up. "No way, it really is! And isn't that the UA uniform? I can't believe it was true that quirkless Deku managed to get in".
Bad memories were surfacing back, making his skin crawl and his body wanting to bolt as far away as possible. He snapped out of it when the three young men approached them more, playing the friendlier card despite the way they were referring to him. "Hadn't seen you in a long time, we thought you died or something" commented one of them, the one beta.
"No, still alive" responded Midoriya with an awkward laugh, trying to walk around them after grabbing Todoroki's hand, only to have his path blocked again. "What do we have here, no more Bakugo? I guess you found someone else to protect your weak ass" pointed out another one, looking at Todoroki with a funny look, as if trying to remember where he had seen him before.
"Bakugo was never protecting me" responded Midoriya without hesitation, "You should know it very well too" he pointed out, trying again to pass. "I have somewhere to go now" he tried again, only to be blocked again.
"Oh come on we're just trying to have a sm-" had started one of the alpha, trying to reach out for him, only to suddenly back off because of a flame that had blocked his way. "He said we were already busy" stated Todoroki, glaring down at the two alphas. The way he said it and the air around him sent a shiver down Midoriya's back, unsure if it was because of his ice quirk or one of those intimidating thing alpha could do. The young man had been surprised, he had never seen his classmates doing that before, although he supposed that he didn't really need to, even against Bakugo.
"Guys... I think we should go, I remember where I saw that guy, this is Todoroki Shoto, came out second in the sports festival" had whispered the beta. This seemed to make the two others backing off more, Bakugo had already been a real deal with his quirk, but if they had to go against someone who could keep toe to toe with him, they had no chance. They simply ran away, the air around Midoriya finally getting more calm again.
"Are you okay?" asked a concerned Todoroki when he didn't make a move to keep going home. "Yes" immediately came the answer, yet upon looking back up at him, he realised the alpha wasn't looking convinced. "You are shaking" he then pointed out.
Only then did he realised he was still holding Todoroki's hand, letting it go, grabbing at his own arm instead. "Maybe when you were glaring at them, remember, I am not a beta" he pointed out, only to regret it when he saw some guilt in his eyes. "But I don't mind! Thank you for helping me, I am not sure how I would have dealt with them myself" he added.
With that, he decided to keep on walking, yet this time he wasn't in the mood anymore to talk about his analysis. When they arrived home he directly went for his room, finally able to relax again once somewhere he knew he would be safe. "You really like All Might", pointed out Todoroki, looking around curiously. Midoriya smiled a little at the comment, starting to prepare a place for them to work.
They started to work in a somewhat awkward silence, up until the alpha finally broke the silence again for something else than work. "Midoriya, can I ask you something?" he said, receiving some humming as a reply, "Feel free to not answer if this is too intrusive... but are your older classmates the reason why you are so wary of people knowing you are an omega?".
This made the omega pause in his writing, hesitating. His first thought had been of simply denying it, Todoroki wasn't the kind of person who would force him to talk about it more. Yet, he himself already had learned a little more about Todoroki and never had left anything from himself be really known. He looked back up at him, before deciding it would probably feel a little better to finally talk about it with someone else. "Don't tell the others" he simply asked, receiving a nod.
"The short answer to your question would be yes" started Midoriya, as it was probably the biggest part of it. He seemed to think about it, before continuing "But it isn't just that... I learned young that being seen as an omega wasn't something good, for different reasons".
He seemed to hesitate slightly, before starting again "My father taught me that in a way, he couldn't conceive having a quirkless omega for a son... I know, I have my quirk now" he said, seeing how confused Todoroki seemed to be about the quirk part, "I was just a very late bloomer for that I guess, after all even upon getting to UA I could barely control it" he lied slightly, reassured to see it seemed to be a good enough answer for the alpha.
"He ended up leaving my mom and I behind because of that, I can still remember the fight they had when my results finally came in," he explained, his voice wavering a little at the memory of his mother crying the way she did that time, "Yeah... that was the first time I had someone react negatively at the thought of me being an omega, middle school only got worst from there, I didn't really manage to keep it a secret for very long, somehow the word had leaked about it".
"Could Bakugo be-" started Todoroki, only to be startled when Midoriya looked quickly back at him. "Kacchan didn't do it" he answered with no hesitation, "He was actually surprised to learn about it like the others did, I think he had to confirm it with Auntie for that... I never really understood where it leaked, but my best guess would be for someone in the school staff not being careful enough while talking about it".
It was a point on which UA had bested anyone, if it hadn't been for the training incident, his classmates would probably still be believing he was just another beta. Only the peoples for whom it would be important to be informed were informed and all the actual acting behind the scene to hide it was taken care of by the smallest number too. Really, he couldn't complain about how things went.
"I suppose that kids will be kids and if they see one person they see as leader acting that way they will follow just to not be left out. My middle school years were a real pain, and as much as I want to leave it behind, I know it still affects the way I act most of the times. I also know not all alphas were taught to treat us badly and that we live in a progressive world on that front, but this is still a big problem none the least.".
He had tried putting it simply, not wanting to go in detail about what kind of bullying he had been through. It was all over now and remembering it was only thing done when having nightmares about it.
"And it doesn't stop to school, random alphas will smell you are one and the way they act towards you will most of the time change. Some get more arrogant, others treat you as if you were only a child, some will treat you as if you were stupid. Before the help of Recovery Girl going out somewhere I would need to interact with people wasn't something I enjoyed doing much, but I am doing better now".
He knew it was only because he was hiding behind a facade, not because things had changed about the impression people might have of him. If things could keep on going this smoothly for him like that, he wouldn't mind taking more medication through his life to keep it that way.
A silence fell over them once he had finished explaining, but this time it wasn't as tense as before. Midoriya was waiting to see if the other young man had more question about it. It wasn't too bad explaining everything in the end, especially by leaving out the actual bullying part, supposing that Todoroki could still manage to grasp the idea. It wasn't as accurate that way, but it would be enough.
"Did Bakugo started all the harassment and bullying?" finally came the next question, taking the omega off guard, not expecting him to jump this subject this quickly. He knew others had probably assumption about what might have happened between them, their dynamic and how Bakugo was acting wasn't leading to the most positive of conclusions.
"It would be lying saying Kacchan never did anything and I will never really forget about it either," he admitted, it wasn't something he could get over in the matter of one night. After all, he had told him really hurtful things, and even once to go and jump off a roof, it wasn't something easy to take in his situation. Yet, his feelings towards Bakugo were really messy and he couldn't untangle what could be left from their childhood, what had darkened everything because of the bad treatment and what might be caused by them being a fated pair. Using only a couple of words wouldn't be enough to explain how he felt about him.
"But in a way, Kacchan has gotten better since we entered UA, he might not be perfect and with how he acts it might be hard to tell, but I think he will be able to change and get wiser on that front," mentioned Midoriya, "So please don't set your opinion of him in stone only based of off what I said, I know he can change".
Maybe this was also some of his hope pulling him to see this in Bakugo, but he had seen some change. In the past, he would always bring up him being an omega and quirkless as a way to hurt him, yet it never really came back since. Sure, maybe it was because Bakugo had decided to not leak his secret, but he could still have acted the same way when they were alone, yet he didn't.
He really wanted to believe things could get better with Bakugo. Maybe not the way they were, but better was already good enough.
"But, you know... I think being around you guys in class might help me change the apprehension I always have" smiled Midoriya, surprising the alpha with his statement, "Even if it's not really shown by everyone, I can see none of them really changed the way they see me and treat me as an equal, and I am really thankful for having you guys be so good".
"This is only normal to act that way" commented Todoroki with a smile, "It should always be that way".
A comfortable silence came after that, before being broken by a voice suddenly and joyously calling out Midoriya's name, making the duo jump slightly. The omega quickly got up, going to join back his mother to greet her, followed by Todoroki.
"I bought what is needed for Katsudon, do you want to help- Oh! Izuku you brought a friend home!" started his mother, before seeing Todoroki suddenly appear next to her son, "It as been so long since you brought someone home! Who is your friend?".
Midoriya got a little embarrassed by how enthusiastic his mother seemed to be about it, still smiling at that. It was way better having her like this than worrying about him. "This is Todoroki Shoto, I invited him over to work on a project" he explained, Todoroki next to him politely saluting the woman. "No need to be so formal, you can call me Inko, are you hungry? Would you like to stay for diner?" she asked with a smile, apparently taking the alpha off guard a little, "I should have enough for three people".
"I do not want to bother," replied the young man, visibly not used to this kind of situation. "You are not a bother, Izuku's friends are always welcome to stay over if they want to". Todoroki still seemed unsure, glancing back at the younger Midoriya, only to see him smile back to him with a nod, whispering "If you feel comfortable it could be nice".
In the end, Todoroki ended up staying for diner, their history project not being worked on much either.
Also, in the days to followed, Midoriya had the impression that Bakugo's mood was worst than it normally was, but couldn't understand what it was all about.