Chapter Two: I Can't Help But Think, I Haven't Felt This Way
"You're sure about this?"
Momo was doing everything in her power not to sound as disappointed as she felt.
Shoto nodded on her laptop screen. It was angled up at him from the floor and he sat in front of it with his legs tucked behind him, leaning back on his haunches. He was dressed casually, but not "relaxing at home" casually; as if he was still planning on going out in a few minutes. Momo on the other hand was in comfy sweatpants and a large, warm shirt that fell down to expose one shoulder that her black hair fell lightly around. It seemed they had different takes on quarantine attire.
"I want to do this the right way," there was a stubbornness in Shoto's voice, but he didn't look thrilled about his decision either.
"I understand," Momo sighed, not hiding her let down well.
"It's not because I don't like you," Shoto said quickly, as close to panicked as his even voice could manage, "I do like you a lot. I just…"
"You don't have to explain," Momo felt bad for sounding so petulant about the whole thing.
Despite having some initial push back on the idea to start dating now rather than wait on the first date, she had taken the plunge and made the suggestion on this virtual face-to-face. When she considered how long this quarantine could last she wanted to scream - internally of course. They had an understanding that they liked each other a lot already, so why wait?
But his response to her suggestion was that he'd "rather not".
"I'm very sorry, Yaoyorozu," he was staring at the floor, frowning rather than deadpanning, "I don't have great relationship examples to follow and if I'm going to do this I don't want it to be half hearted. We should continue to talk everyday like we have been, though, to get to know each other better."
"You want it to be special, I get that." She couldn't keep the endeared smile from her lips even though it hurt.
His nod shook his hair into a peppermint mix on his head. It looked incredibly soft and it hurt doubly that she wanted to touch it.
"I would understand if this situation makes things too difficult to want to continue," his eyes dropped when he said it, "If that's the case, you're well within your rights to back out."
"No!" Momo rushed to sway that thought, "I think that's very sweet and gentlemanly to want our relationship to be more than just a long-distance, virtual thing. If anything...I want to be with you even more since you said that."
His mismatched eyes popped up and the tiniest, softest smile pulled into his cheek, almost unfindable on his features. Shoto didn't smile much, but she'd seen it a few times since they'd first met and the perfect expression whipped her heart around like a yoyo every time.
"I promise I will make up the time when we can see each other again," he said resolutely, "I'm sure it won't be too long."
"Well, however long it takes, let's promise to talk every day," Momo matched his enthusiasm with a confident smile, "By the time we have that date we will be closer than ever."
It was strikingly painful how much that confident resolution to make the best of their distance made her want to reach through the camera and pull him into a hug. It was a cruel sort of irony.
Momo took her tea in hand and settled in to do as they had decided and enjoy the time they had now.
Shoto stayed in his legs-back, seated position, apparently as comfortable as he wanted to be. He had always had a rather traditional Japanese style about himself in some of his behaviors and in the design of his dorm room and now she could see why that was by even a glimpse of the home behind him. The seated position being comfortable to him shouldn't have come as a surprise.
"Ochako said that she thinks this might go on for months," Momo changed the topic by way of her dismal observation.
"I haven't watched the news, but I've heard a lot of different opinions," Shoto said, "With even a lot of the heroes being restricted to their homes, I'm told that the demand for a solution by people with real influence will likely push a cure out quickly. My brother thinks it will all be over by the end of the month and that it's just a big scare over nothing. My sister doesn't agree and is trying to make him take it seriously."
"Is that what all that arguing was about yesterday?" Momo asked.
Shoto looked to his left for a moment and then shook his head. "No, Natsuo is stuck here, which means he's stuck with my father, so they were fighting." He said it like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Oh no, I'm sorry to hear that," Momo leaned forward.
Midbreath, Shoto's mouth snapped shut, his head snapping to his left again as a muffled voice broke into the background.
"Not right now," he shook his head at the voice, "You can tell him I'm busy."
"I'm not a runner, Shoto. I have to cook dinner. Text him or something."
The voice belonged to a girl. It was young and he'd mentioned that there was no house staff left to speak of so it was likely his sister.
"Is that Fuyumi?" Momo asked, hoping she remembered the names of his siblings correctly.
He looked back to the camera. "Yes-"
Barely two seconds had passed and suddenly there was another face in the camera frame, a girl with white hair flecked over in red bits, wearing glasses. She was a cute thing, leaning towards the same genetics of Shoto's right side from facial structure to the gray eyes that went large at the girl on her brother's screen.
"Shoto who's this? Is she one of your classmates from UA? Hi, I'm Fuyumi!"
Momo waved at the camera. "I'm Yaoyorozu Momo, it's very nice to meet you."
Shoto was pushing her off of himself, frowning. "I thought you had to cook dinner."
"It can wait," she waved off his comment, "Sho didn't tell us he had a girlfriend! When did this happen?"
"Fuyumi, please leave," Shoto gently pushed her to go, trying to reclaim the screen.
But Momo was excited to see a new face and meet someone from his family, even if she was becoming a blushing mess at the moment over being called Shoto's girlfriend.
Fuyumi was giggling at Shoto's attempts to make her leave and kept pushing his hands away in a halfhearted struggle, giving Momo a perfect image of scrapping siblings to warm her heart. She hadn't really believed those scenes on TV of how siblings behaved with each other to be true until then; it seemed even Shoto wasn't immune to those stereotypes. They loved each other, but also drove each other completely crazy.
"Wait, don't fight!" Momo giggled at it, but was serious about ending the conflict.
Neither of them listened to Momo.
"Oh and she's so pretty, Sho! I bet you're so cute together! Have you been on a date yet?"
His embarrassment was not as clear as Momo was used to seeing on others, but there was pink in Shoto's face at his sister stumbling in on his private business and with Fuyumi teasing it only got worse.
"I hope you're being a gentleman, Sho," she nudged him with a wink.
A lick of fire burst from the corner of Shoto's eye. Apparently it wasn't intentional and an iced-over hand slapped immediately over the flames to douse it.
Fuyumi snickered into her hands and Momo grabbed her heart against the way it squeezed behind her ribcage. It was so unexpectedly revealing and cute to see him get flustered by Fuyumi's questions. Momo wasn't much better, but she didn't have flames jumping out of her skin to show it like he did.
"Am I embarrassing you, Sho?" Fuyumi's eyes lit up, but she waved it off before he could get out his rebuttal, "Oh, don't get mad. If you were my big brother you'd do the same thing."
"No, I wouldn't," he said, fists in his lap, losing his cool with every passing second.
Before Momo could try to divert the conversation both Todorokis' heads snapped towards the direction of the door and Shoto's face went unfeeling and stiff again. Fuyumi put on a pleasant smile, though, something about it more diplomatic than strictly happy.
The voice at the door was deep, but unintelligible through her computer speaker.
Fuyumi sighed and stood. "Yes sir, I'm coming."
Without a goodbye Fuyumi swept up to her feet, leaving a light shoulder pat on Shoto before striding out of Momo's sight. She heard a door close and the tension in Shoto's shoulders dropped with a small shake of his head.
"I'm sorry about that, my family isn't very good with boundaries."
Momo grabbed her heart and practically gushed. "Are you kidding me? That was the sweetest thing I've ever seen!"
"What?" Shoto was visibly taken aback.
"It's so cute that your sister cares so much about what's happening in your life," Momo almost spilled her tea from excitement, "Your house seems like so much fun! You're so lucky you got quarantined with your family."
Shoto blinked at the camera like she'd just started speaking Latin.
"What?" Momo paled, "Did I say something wrong?"
"No," Shoto quickly assured her and scowled thoughtfully, "But… Are you by yourself there?"
Momo's chest sagged and her mouth pursed. "There's a few house staff around I guess, but I haven't seen them. It's a big house."
"Where are your parents?" Shoto sounded genuinely concerned and Momo's heart fluttered.
"The Philippines for a few more days," Momo set her tea down, but pulled out a smile, not wanting to worry him, "But it's no big deal, I'll be fine until then."
"As long as you aren't alone for too long," Shoto's brow tightened, "If there's anything I can do please tell me."
What should have been a sweet, endearing gesture, only made Momo feel awful. It was still belittling to get sympathy from Shoto, still denoting something in the back of her mind that said she was incapable. Since starting at UA she'd gone from being his runner up to falling so far behind him that he seemed to be in a completely different league. They'd both gotten in on recommendation and yet it was Shoto who had surpassed most of their class in power and skill, while her only claim to prowess was good grades and Vice Class Representative status - both great and important things, but pale in comparison to the strides he'd made in their hero training.
And it wasn't as though she resented him; he'd pushed her to find most of the confidence she now had in herself and come by his accomplishments through hard work. But she still struggled not to find his offer to help as genuine and non judgmental as it truly was. He was just being a good friend. Shoto knew she was capable of taking care of herself.
"I'm fine," she smiled away her insecurities, "But I'd love to use the free time I'm going to have to talk with you as much as possible. Me and Iida might be making some stay-home study assignments for everyone, so we could do those together over the phone. Even just staving off boredom together could be fun."
"I'd like that too," he nodded, "I can only avoid my family for so much of the day, but I will do my best."
"Don't avoid them if you don't have to," Momo said, "It's kind of nice to see you interact with your family. Fuyumi seems sweet and I'd love to meet your brothers. Not necessarily your father outside of curiosity, but I suppose that's what fan meetups are for…"
"My father doesn't do fan meetups," Shoto shook his head, "But I don't recommend meeting him either way. He's not a pleasant person."
"Well perhaps just your brothers then," Momo shrugged, "and your mom."
"Touya doesn't live with us anymore," Shoto explained, "and my mother lives in a hospital. It's just Fuyumi, Endeavor, Natsuo and me living here right now. And Natsuo was only supposed to be here for a short visit when the lockdown started."
"Wow," Momo chewed her cheek, "I'm sorry, I forgot about your mom. But… Well, it seems nice having a big family, especially right now."
Shoto's eyes were distant. "Maybe, if Natsuo and my father weren't in the same house it would. It's nice having someone else on my side, since Fuyumi just tries to mediate everything, but sometimes some quiet would be nice too…"
She chuckled and Shoto raised a confused eye to her. "Did I say something funny?"
"Not exactly," she smiled at him, "I'm sure it's not easy for you, but I can't help be jealous. I wish I had siblings around to annoy me."
Shoto nodded to himself. "I can understand that. I've only recently started to get to know them, but I like having them in my life now. At least I don't have to deal with Endeavor alone anymore."
A phone dinged and Shoto pulled the device from his pocket. "Excuse me," he said very politely when he checked the message.
"That's fine," Momo waved it off and glanced at her own phone. There was a stream of messages that she hadn't noticed coming through, but she didn't want to be bothered with them right now. The only thing she wanted to pay attention to was the boy on the other side of her screen.
"Midoriya wants to know how it's going," Shoto looked back to his screen, "What should I tell him?"
She couldn't help the giggle and he was visibly confused by the reaction.
"I think it's going well, but I mean, they're asking you aren't they?"
He nodded and typed out a response before putting the phone aside. Silence rang empty in the moments between and Momo grabbed a pillow to hug to her chest, trying to abate the awkward lull.
It wasn't her intention to blurt out the question buzzing in her brain, but she could only stand the suspense for so long.
"What did you tell him?"
Shoto's hands folded. "I said it was going well."
Why on earth was that so relieving to hear? He didn't elaborate or say anything particularly flattering, but from Shoto just that felt like a massive endorsement.
The next hour was easily filled. They got on the topic of their last assignments before lockdown had cut them off and, even though Momo felt like she was doing most of the talking, Shoto continued assuring her that he was just as happy listening to her. Which only flustered her further and made her talk even more. His lack of expressiveness and large reactions kept Momo anxious the whole time, but she knew that it was just how he was and she tried not to take it as a sign of boredom.
Eventually Fuyumi's voice came back through calling him to dinner and Shoto asked if she was fine ending their call now. In all honesty she wasn't, if anything she was deeply saddened by the idea that when the call ended she'd be left alone in this big house and he'd be in the company of his family. But she pushed out a bright smile and told him to enjoy his dinner.
"I'll call you tomorrow if you want," his own small smile met her as his finger hovered over the end call button.
Her heart did a flip. "I'd love that! I'll text you when I get up."
The call ended.
Momo buried her face in the pillow and practically squealed. She may have been a promising hero course student and heiress to an estate that would make any man's mouth water, but she was still a fifteen year old girl and the overwhelming feelings in her chest came out in the same way that it did for most girl's her age.
She flipped onto her back and clung tightly to the pillow, allowing all of the wonderful things she felt to overwhelm her chest. The upside to no one being home was that there was no one around for her to worry about seeing her like this, so she got out all of those fluttering feelings out while she could do so freely.
When they died down, though, the house once again became terribly, crushingly empty.
