(A/N: Returning readers, if you were here or not here for the main ship reveal, um, debacle that happened last chapter, I want to apologize for the misunderstanding. I had no intention of misleading or 'tricking' anyone. I honestly didn't know about the pairing feature on here until someone pointed it out. Thanks again for that. This is a Tododeku fic and has now been properly tagged as such. If you decide to stop reading, I understand and thank you for reading thus far. If you decide to stay, buckle up folks 'cause this fic is gonna be a wild ride.

And now for Izuku's pov of the events from last chapter. Enjoy! ^_^ )

...

"Midoriya…"

Green eyes tore themselves away from the sight of their joined hands to meet heterochromatic eyes, one grey and one blue.

"Would it be alright if I held your hand sometimes?"

Eh?

"Only if you're comfortable of course."

Only if I'm…eh?!

Freckled cheeks, still slightly pink, flushed red in a fierce blush. Todoroki, the strong, stoic and, though he would never admit it out loud, cute Hero-in-training, wanted to hold his hand. Hands that could manipulate ice and, though he hadn't seen it yet, fire wanted to hold his own hands that could do nothing special having no Quirk to wield. The only power they offered was from hard work and a will to never give up.

When Izuku first asked to see the other's hand, he merely wanted to examine the effects of the overuse of his ice up close. No ulterior motive whatsoever. Honest! Though he would admit that he had found he enjoyed the feeling of the other's hand in his own. He might have rambled on about possible Support Items a little longer than necessary, but the ice user hadn't said anything about it nor seemed uncomfortable at his touch. Pretty grey and blue eyes simply watched as he talked.

Prolonging the contact for as long as he thought was appropriately possible, Izuku eventually let the slightly cool hand go and made to leave. He was proud of himself when he had built up the courage to ask for Todoroki's number. Strictly for Support reasons, of course. It would make it so much easier to ask any Quirk related questions he had rather than hunting the other down.

Since the hallways were still crowded, Izuku had found himself having to walk closer to Todoroki's side as they continued to talk on the way back to the Support studio. Not that he minded. His eyes had widened slightly when he felt cool fingers graze his own briefly. But the real shock was when those same fingers had reached with purpose and gently wrapped around his hand.

Izuku's head shot up to look at the taller boy, cheeks warm and red. It was unexpected but far from unwanted. When asked why, the bi-color teen simply explained how he wasn't used to such contact but liked when he had held his hand before and thought of his hand as warm.

Todoroki didn't know it but Izuku had also enjoyed holding the other boy's hand. And he understood. Having no friends growing up, he didn't have much experience being tactile with others. Save for his mother, but that wasn't quite the same as with those his own age. Plus, his dad had been working abroad since he was five. Sure, he was tactile with Mei but her friendly gestures consisted mostly of bear hugs and arms slung on shoulders. As for Hitoshi, he wasn't really a touchy-feely person in general.

So, of course he said it was fine. They were friends after all. Friends hold hands, right? Not that he knew for certain, but holding the other's hand felt right to him. Todoroki described his hand as warm while Izuku would say the hand in his was cool. It was soothing. Refreshing. Like a cool breeze on a hot day.

Is his hand cool because of his Quirk? It is his right side that channels ice. Does that mean his left hand could possibly feel warmer because of his fire? He did mention he ran warmer on his left side. I wonder if he would let me test that even though he doesn't like to use that side of his Quirk.

Figuring it would be a onetime thing, Izuku had put aside his questions and enjoyed the moment of holding his newest friend's hand as they walked through the halls. But then, when they stood there quietly outside the Support studio both studying their joined hands, Todoroki asked if they could hold hands again in the future.

Just when Izuku thought he had his blush under control, the cute boy holding his hand had to ask that. The flustered flush of red came back in a crimson vengeance. His brain seemed to stop working as he tried to process the question. Eventually he recovered and managed to let out a short agreeing answer before he escaped into the Support studio.

Did Todoroki-kun really just ask that? And did I really just say yes?! Oh boy…

"What's up with you, Izuku?"

Izuku looked up and met the yellow cross haired eyes of his friend. Mei looked at him with a look of concern, taking in his flustered appearance.

"I-I'm ok!" Izuku squeaked, his voice coming out a little higher than usual. "I was j-just coming back from training with T-Todoroki-kun!"

"Did you run back or something?" Mei asked, one brow quirked up. "You're all red."

"N-no, I, uh, T-Todoroki-kun and I were w-walking back and the halls were c-crowded," Izuku managed to stutter out before going on a full ramble. "A-and then, T-Todoroki-kun started h-holding my hand. I th-thought it was only f-for the walk back, b-but he just asked i-if he could do it a-again…and I-I said y-yes…" Knowing that his friend wouldn't judge, he also admitted, "…it was nice." A small sweet smile formed as he thought about how the other boy's hand felt in his own.

"Oh really?" Mei said, a knowing smirk on her face. "Only the second week of school and you've already found yourself a boyfriend."

"Wha?!" Izuku squawked. "I-It's not like that! We're f-friends! Friends h-hold hands!"

"How about my hand?" Mei asked, taking his hand in hers. "Well?"

"It's…fine?" Izuku replied confused, not sure what her point was. Though if he thought about it, her hand was a bit greasy.

"Fine and nice are not the same, Izuku," Mei said flatly as if it was obvious, letting his hand go. "Do you like him?"

"Eh?"

"Do. You. Like. Him?" Mei asked, poking his chest at each word.

"L-like him?! How would I know?!" Izuku retorted, hands gesturing in a flustered fury. "This is only the third time I've ever talked to him and only the second face to face! We met only last week!"

Mei didn't seem convinced but didn't press. "Well, when you figure it out, let me know." With that, she turned around to go back to her babies.

Izuku spent the rest of the afternoon forcing himself to focus on his own inventions, trying to distract himself from thinking about a certain boy. But no matter what, his mind kept wandering back to a cool hand and grey and blue eyes. Before he knew it, it was time to go home. Sighing in slight frustration for not being as productive as he would have liked, the greenette packed his bag and headed home. The train ride and walk home were uneventful, besides stray thoughts of what Mei had asked.

'Do you like him?'

To be honest, he didn't know. Before UA, he didn't have anyone he was interested in let alone friends in general. Besides, who in his old school would be interested in the Quirkless freak who muttered to himself anyway? That's all he had been to everyone at Aldera Junior High. Something Katsuki made sure of.

Once he made it to his apartment, Izuku greeted his mother and went to change out of his uniform. The mother and son shared a dinner of oyakodon and talked about their days. Izuku informed his mom that those injured during the USJ were doing just fine which she was glad to hear. Though he did call Aizawa an idiot when he mentioned that the injured man had apparently still gone to class despite being hurt and looking like a mummy. Inko couldn't help but agree with a slight giggle.

He also let her know that he would be having, much to Inko's approval, a few counseling sessions with Hound Dog. Who he then went on a side tangent of fanboying about the Hero's Quirk. He wondered if there would be time during their sessions for him to ask about it or not. Inko had to grab his attention to keep eating when he started falling into a rambling spiral.

Blushing slightly, Izuku talked about the announcement that the Sports Festival was coming up in a few weeks. Inko brought up similar concerns as his classmates had about having the event so soon after the attack. He did his best to put his mom at ease by telling her what his homeroom teacher had said. She didn't seem entirely convinced but figured that UA would do their best to ensure the safety of the students. Especially after what had happened last week.

As they ate, Izuku went on about his time in the Support studio in the afternoon. He described the different inventions he worked on and his plans for the coming Sports Festival. Inko was happy to see her son so animated and excited for the event. She planned to stay home to watch her son compete against the others, recording it to send to Hisashi later as he would probably be busy, and would of course make katsudon to celebrate no matter what place he came in.

"Oh, and I helped one of the Hero Course students today," Izuku announced with a smile. "His name is Todoroki Shouto and he's in Class 1-A!"

"Is he one of the students you met when you were observing them?" Inko asked.

"Yeah! He has a really powerful Quirk," Izuku replied, gesturing enthusiastically. "It's called Half-Cold Half-Hot. He can create ice from his right side and I think fire from his left. During the training he was able to defeat the Villain team in seconds by covering the building in ice. And today he showed me what else he could do with his right side too. He has a good grasp on long- and short-range attacks with his ice."

Inko looked fondly at her son. He always got so excited when talking about Quirks.

"What about his left side?" the mother asked with a warm smile, indulging her son in his antics. "You said it was fire, right?"

"I-I'm not sure," Izuku replied, a flash of concern on his face that did not go unnoticed by his mother. "I haven't seen him use it yet. Only his ice. I don't know why but he told me he refuses to use that part of his Quirk."

Though I wonder if it has something to do with Endeavor. He did react negatively when I asked if the man was his father.

"Anyway," he continued, figuring the reasons why Todoroki didn't use his fire were very personal ones. "Since he doesn't want to use that side of his Quirk, I offered to make him a Support Item to relieve the side effects of using his ice too much."

"That was nice of you," Inko said, smiling warmly. Though she wondered what had her son so worried about his friend not using all of his Quirk. "I'm sure he appreciates your help."

"Y-yeah," Izuku said with a slight blush as he remembered the feeling of a cool hand but didn't mention it to his mom. "He said as much."

The mother and son talked about a few other things as they finished their dinner. Izuku mentioned the present Yamada had given him and gushed over how awesome it was. Having helped her son find rare Hero merch over the years, Inko was also impressed that the Voice Hero had managed to find anything for such an elusive Underground Hero as Eraserhead.

Once they finished eating, the pair worked together to clean up and fell into their usual routine of her washing and him drying. With the last dish washed and dried, Izuku hugged his mom before going to his room to work on his homework.

Before he got started on his work, Izuku reached into his bag and took out the present from Yamada. Removing the wrappings, he took out the figurine of Eraserhead and went over to his desk. Making some room, he placed the new figure right next to his 'buddy', Present Mic. Seeing the two next to each other, Izuku couldn't help but think that they made a good pairing both as a Hero duo as well as friends. Or 'buddies'. Though he did have some suspicions that they could be more than friends. Perhaps he could find out if he was right during his time in UA.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts of what he could learn about the Heroes that taught at UA, Izuku took his homework out of his backpack and got to work. He moved from subject to subject as he completed each assignment diligently. With years of passing the time studying to fill the hours after school, he developed the habit of completing his school work as soon as he got it. It allowed him more time to research Heroes and Quirks as well as kept him busy. However, tonight he would be researching something else other than Heroes.

'Do you like him?'

Seriously, how was he supposed to know that? It's something he's never had to think about before. Which is why he turned to the internet for possible answers. But after a couple of hours of going through countless articles and taking numerous quizzes, he still didn't know. He sat there staring at his computer with a furrowed brow, no closer to answers than when he began. With a sigh, Izuku let his head fall on his desk with a 'thunk' in exasperation.

Knock knock.

"Izuku?" his mom's voice called from outside his door. "It's getting late. Is everything alright? May I come in?"

"Come in," Izuku called out. With his head still on the desk, he turned to watch his mom enter his room. Worry for her son was clear on her face. "I'm fine, mom. Just…confused is all."

Inko glanced at the computer screen and after seeing what he had been research turned back to her son.

"Would you like to talk about it?" she asked as she sat on the bed. "Maybe I could help." She patted the spot next to her.

Standing up from his desk, Izuku walked over to his mom and sat down next to her. He rested his head on her shoulder and she raised her hand to run through his green curls. They sat there in silence as the mother waited patiently for her son to gather his thoughts. Eventually he took a deep steadying breath and began to talk.

Sitting side by side, motherly fingers running through unruly green locks, Izuku plucked up the courage to tell her what had happened between Todoroki and him. He talked about how he initially was holding the other boy's hand to study the effects of his Quirk. But then had found that he liked the feel of the other's hand in his. He told her how the hallways were crowded and Todoroki held his hand as they walked. How the other boy had told him why he wanted to hold his hand and that it was warm. He described what holding Todoroki's hand felt like and that he hadn't thought he would have liked it so much. But he did. Finally, he divulged that the other boy had asked if they could hold hands again…and Izuku said yes.

"A-and when I got into the s-studio," Izuku stuttered, tears budding in his eyes from feeling exposed, uncertain, and embarrassed all at the same time. "M-Mei-chan asked i-if I liked h-him. But I-I don't know! You kn-know I didn't really have m-many friends before UA. And I-I've never had anyone that I've l-liked before. I just…I d-don't know."

Inko pulled her son into a hug and let him burrow his head into her shoulder in search of comfort. She knew that, before Izuku had met Mei on the beach, his number of friends were…few to none. Over the years, she couldn't help but notice Izuku spent more time at home than out with friends. How could she not? She's his mother. Inko also knew that he was bullied, no matter how hard he tried to hide if from her. And she knew that Katsuki was one of the ones responsible.

Inko and Mitsuki had been friends since high school and had stayed close ever since. So, it wasn't a surprise that Izuku and Katsuki had grown up together and had been friends practically since birth. However, after Izuku was declared Quirkless, she couldn't help but notice the change in how the blonde treated her son. She particularly hated when he started referring to her son by the nickname 'Deku.'

Then she began to notice a number of his injuries were burn marks that were suspiciously in the shape of small hands, prompting her to call on her friend Mitsuki. When asked, Katsuki had claimed they were all accidental and Izuku said nothing to contradict him. But Inko didn't buy it. Despite his increasing hostility, Izuku still remained close to the blonde in hopes their friendship could be repaired.

Seeing the way their relationship had changed, Inko remained close to Mitsuki but stopped arranging play dates between the two children. She knew Mitsuki did her best to try and fix her son's behavior as she had brought up her concerns about the boys. But there was only so much the blonde mother could do with his explosive personality and inherited stubbornness. They eventually came to an arrangement that Mitsuki would come visit Inko at the Midoriya home while Masaru stayed with Katsuki back at the Bakugou household. There wasn't much Inko could do to limit Izuku's exposure to Katsuki, but at least she could distance them a little at home.

As Izuku grew up, more and more injuries appeared. Izuku had tried to hide any cuts or bruises he got from his 'friends'. But she noticed none the less and helped patch him up, making sure to take pictures as evidence just in case. Inko had always been one to document everything after all. She had wanted to talk to the parents of the children who hurt her son, but Izuku would brush the injuries of as nothing and never said who was responsible.

When Izuku started grade school, the bullying continued and her son would come home hurt but still refused to say who had done it. She had called the school about the bullying numerous times, getting reassurances they would look into the issue. But, again and again her son came home hurt and nothing changed at school. Inko even went as far as to meet with the principal who waved it off as 'boys being boys' or that 'accidents happen'. But 'accidents' like this don't happen over and over and over again.

That was the reason why when her son came to her asking to take up self-defense classes, she immediately agreed and signed him up. Once he began to learn to defend himself, he started coming home with less and less injuries until they stopped altogether. However, even though he could fight back physically, it did nothing to stop any verbal abuse or other bullying involving his school things.

As her son went through school, she noticed that certain days he would come home with a less bright look in his eyes. Sometimes he would even have to ask for a new notebook or another pencil, claiming he lost or broke what needed to be replaced. He never complained about anything, but, with her motherly instinct, she could tell something had happened that he wasn't talking about.

However, without knowing what had been done or said, Inko couldn't call the school to report anything. Though she did keep track of everything she ever had to replace. Since she was unable to help him at school, Inko became more determined to be there for her son as much as she could outside of school. Which was why, even though she thought his chances were slim to none, she still supported her son's dream to become a Hero. She would do anything for her son and be there for him with all her being.

"Izuku," Inko began, carefully pushing her son away slightly so she could look at him. His eyes were slightly red and puffy and there were tear tracks down his cheeks. Gently, she wiped away a few stray tears. "It's ok to not know right away. Having feelings for someone is something that happens over time."

As the younger Midoriya sat quietly listening to his mom, she tucked a lock of green hair behind his ear.

"I didn't know how I felt about your father for a while despite having 'fallen' for him when we first met," Inko said, earning a small giggle from her son. He knew the story well of how his parents met by Inko literally running into and falling on Hisashi one day when she was running late for work. "We were friends first before we became a couple. This is only the second week that you've been in UA. How long have you known this boy?"

"F-for a little l-less than a week?" Izuku answered. "We've o-only talked th-three times. And only twice i-in person."

"So, you haven't known him for very long," Inko said, cupping his cheek in her hand. "And that's ok. Instead of focusing on if you like him, start with becoming his friend. Talk to him. Spend time with him. Get to know him. Don't worry about how you feel right now. Your feelings will form on their own. If you notice a change of how you think or interact with him, maybe write it down to collect your thoughts. Writing things down has always helped you before."

"Y-you're right," Izuku said, letting out a small chuckle and smiling warmly at his mom. "I shouldn't w-worry about it so m-much. I just need t-to be myself and take m-my time."

"Good," the mother said, leaning forward and placing a loving kiss on his forehead. "And, if you ever want to talk about it again, you know where to find me." She gave him a playful wink.

Giggling at his mom, Izuku replied, "Thanks, mom. I will. You're the best."

"I know," Inko stated with another wink, making him laugh again. "And Izuku, no matter who you like, I will support you. Unless they hurt you, 'cause then I will kick their ass!"

"Mom!" Izuku exclaimed with a blush, slightly shocked at her language since she rarely cursed.

Inko simply laughed and pulled her son into another hug before insisting that it was time for bed. Glancing at the clock and seeing the late hour, Izuku didn't protest and got ready for bed. Feeling emotionally exhausted but also lighter after talking with his mom, he fell asleep quickly. Dreams painted with reds and whites depicting images of gray and blue eyes paired with one cool and one warm hand carried him through the night and left him waking up feeling warm and happy.

Izuku couldn't wait to see and hold hands with his friend again. His cute friend.

...

Blog name: ja0-s-blank-canvas-fic

Notes extension: post/631889512201633792/chapter-33-what-are-feelings