Todoroki had never been the "friendly" type, and of that he was certain. At least, he had been certain, until his duel with Midoriya during the sports festival.

Something about Midoriya's ability to penetrate years of psychological abuse regarding his feelings towards his left side left Todoroki in awe. After all, he hardly knew Midoriya as anyone more than the kid in class who scored lowest on their very first test of abilities before the event, or the kid who jumped out to save All Might when the League of Villains first attacked. And then, Midoriya went and blew both him and Bakugo away in the first trial of the games in order to take the lead. That grabbed Todoroki's attention more than anything; while he knew Midoriya was not the best at using his quirk, he had the most heroic mindset of anyone Todoroki knew – besides All Might.

He supposed it surprised him that following the sports festival, battered and all, Midoriya made an effort to talk to Todoroki, the way Todoroki assumed friends did. It started simply enough – Midoriya sat next to him at lunch, and soon after Todoroki became comfortable with Midoriya, Ochaco and Iida were sitting with them, too. Sometimes Todoroki felt uncomfortable surrounded by that many people, but then Midoriya would say something just for him, ask him if he was okay or if he needed some time alone, and everything felt alright.

Except sometimes that left an uneasy feeling in Todoroki's stomach. He'd been trained by his old man, Endeavor, to be cold and distant and instead focus on developing his Quirk. Midoriya's friendship sometimes felt intruding and intimidating, and sometimes even terrifying, with the way Midoriya read him like an open book.

But then Todoroki noticed that it had nothing to do with him; it was just Midoriya. Despite his powerful Quirk, sometimes Todoroki wondered if Midoriya really possessed the ability to read minds, or if he'd just developed a sixth sense for catching onto people's emotions.

Todoroki noticed this one day when Iida came to class exactly two minutes and twenty seconds late. Todoroki could tell something was different about him, but he assumed maybe Iida had forgotten to brush his hair or something. Later at lunch, he saw Midoriya pull Iida aside in the lunch line. "Hey, I noticed you're looking pretty sore," he had said, passing Iida a pill bottle. "I had some painkillers in my bag from Recovery Girl."

"I thought I hid it well," Iida sighed. "I can't look weak – I'm the Class Representative!"

"Oh—it's not like that," Midoriya shook his head. "You hid it really well! I just recognized that you were relying more on your right leg when you walk, and I remember you got hit on your left side yesterday…" he rubbed his neck sheepishly, and Iida chuckled and patted him on the shoulder.

"Thank you, Midoriya."

Todoroki almost asked, a few times, how Midoriya did that. One time his sister had the flu and Todoroki didn't even notice until she got up and fainted on her way to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Up until that point, he had assumed she was just…hot. Overheating? Did she do that, too? Todoroki supposed he never bothered to ask.

All of this is to say that Todoroki eased up around Midoriya, especially after they moved into the dorms. In such close proximity to Midoriya, to everyone, really, Todoroki got a bit anxious. He thought of times when he had nightmares as a child and woke up because his room had frozen over, or worse, his bed had caught fire. That hadn't happened in years, but Todoroki feared it might come back just to haunt him. But whenever Todoroki's mind began to spiral about all the dangerous situations he could put Midoriya in, Midoriya would always grip his shoulder. Subtly. Never for too long, and never noticeably enough that anyone would call them out for it. Midoriya somehow knew just how to soothe Todoroki – and that would have scared Todoroki early on in their friendship, but at that point it didn't.

Shoulder grabs turned into more casual shoulder nudges. Just a little moment that Todoroki and Midoriya shared, like a quick message to one another to say "Are you doing alright?" or "I'm thinking about you." The shoulder nudges had at first been meant to replace the shoulder grips, but it became easier and easier for Todoroki to lean over and nudge Midoriya, or for Midoriya to nudge Todoroki to ask if he was alright. It turned into their own little language at some point, because the two began to mutually understand that longer touches meant something was wrong, and if the other touched their fingers, they needed to get out of there.

This was especially efficient one night when Midoriya and Todoroki decided to take a short walk after class. The sun was setting and usually they'd be required to be home before dinner, but Midoriya had told All Might that he and Todoroki were doing a bit of extra training and of course All Might supported their efforts to becoming heroes. Midoriya felt extremely guilty, but technically he wasn't lying; he was sure heroes had to go on walks sometimes and unwind. They were training for that part of heroism.

Todoroki nudged his shoulder. "You look like you're going to be sick, Midoriya," he said. "We can turn back if you want to."

"No," Midoriya shook his head. "I'll just explain when we get back. You told me you needed to talk about something."

That was true – Todoroki had asked Midoriya earlier that day to accompany him because he had a few questions about heroism. At least, that was how he kept his nerves from getting the better of him while he waited for the moment to arrive when they'd be far enough away from campus that Todoroki wouldn't be scared to actually talk to Midoriya. After all, Midoriya knew little to nothing about Todoroki's past besides the whole "my old man is a scum bag" bit. Todoroki never really told Midoriya why Endeavor was so cruel, not fully, but he didn't need to. Any time he mentioned Endeavor, Midoriya immediately scowled that way Midoriya does (which is, to say, his face contorted in a way that was meant to seem intimidating and angry, but Todoroki just found it…cute).

While they walked away from the campus, Todoroki and Midoriya talked mostly about their classes earlier that day. They had done a training exercise in which the class was divided based on Quirk types, and Midoriya and Todoroki had spent a majority of the afternoon separated from one another. Todoroki would have been lying if he said it didn't make him nervous spending so much time away from Midoriya. He brushed it off as being worried for his classmate that somehow always found himself in Recovery Girl's office after trainings such as these.

Actually, Todoroki decided to venture straight to Recovery Girl's office once classes finished for the day. He was surprised to find that Midoriya stood next to Todoroki's locker, patiently waiting for him, with no bandaged limbs and no prominent wounds. Midoriya's face lit up with a smile once he saw Todoroki, and he waved and they left and now they were here, just past the boundaries of the Yuuei campus.

"…and Kirishima almost got me!" Midoriya said with an exasperated sigh, flailing his hands and sometimes his feet to act out the events of their training earlier that afternoon. "His Quirk is super strong! I tried to kick him but he didn't even flinch! And then Mineta did—well, something, I didn't really see. But then my feet were stuck to the ground!"

Midoriya always spoke with an excitement that would normally drain Todoroki. But he had gotten used to it, and he found it rather endearing now to listen to Midoriya go into incredible detail about the battles they fought – whether they were in his work study or at the school. A smile unknowingly crept to his face and Midoriya immediately put a finger up to Todoroki's lips, grinning himself. "You must have had a good training session, too," Midoriya teased. "Did Kacchan try to blow you up?"

"Of course he did," Todoroki muttered, and Midoriya laughed a bit.

"Of course he did," Midoriya repeated.

Midoriya went back to describing their training session, speaking highly of each of his classmates as he did. Todoroki supposed Midoriya knew more than anyone how hard it was to earn a spot at Yuuei, so he often made a point to brag about his classmates' abilities anywhere he could. Todoroki often got embarrassed when Midoriya bragged about him, because never did Midoriya brag about the awesome Quirk he had—he knew that was a touchy subject—but rather Todoroki's control, Todoroki's strength, Todoroki's knowledge. It was like receiving the praise Todoroki never got as a child, like validation for all the years of intense studying and physical training.

They reached a bridge stretching over a creek just as Midoriya began to describe how cool Iida's use of his Quirk had been. Midoriya sat down and let his legs hang from the side of the bridge, and Todoroki soon followed suit. They sat shoulder to shoulder, as they usually did when they got the chance, and continued to chat about the previous school day. Midoriya could tell Todoroki wanted to talk about something, so he wrapped up his thoughts and waited patiently for Todoroki to find his voice.

"Um," Todoroki said after a few moments of silence, "Midoriya—"

Both of them heard a splash come from behind them in the creak. Out of habit Todoroki nudged Midoriya's shoulder, tapping on his fingertips, a feeling of dread and nervousness that they'd been followed looming over him. He wondered if this would be it, if the league of villains had found two of the best heroes in Class 1-A, if they were able to catch them so off-guard—

But then there was crying, a small child, and they both whipped their heads around quickly. A young boy stood at the edge of the stream, screaming, while an even younger girl drifted down the creek, head submerged. "Shit," Todoroki whispered, quickly throwing his hand up and creating a wall of ice to stop the child from floating further downstream. "Midoriya!"

Midoriya had already thrown himself over the railing of the bridge, falling into the water below just in front of the ice wall Todoroki had made. Todoroki's Quirk made the water much colder than it already was (which, during the early spring, was quite cold in and of itself). He bit his tongue to keep his teeth from chattering as he scooped up the young girl, using the strength in his legs to boost them out of the water and back towards the boy at the edge of the bank.

Todoroki met them there after dismantling the ice wall. The ice floated down the creek unceremoniously as Midoriya knelt next to the children. "What happened?" he asked the young boy, speaking as gently as possible. Todoroki always let Midoriya do this part (in the very few instances they'd used their Quirks outside of class).

The young boy sniffled, trying to quell his tears. "W-we just were playing tag! And s-she fell!"

The young girl's teeth chattered, and Todoroki took off his school jacket to wrap around her shoulders. "Everything is okay now," Midoriya assured. "Let's walk you home, okay?"

The kids' home was a few blocks away. When they arrived, the children's mother (Midoriya presumed, anyway) delivered a scolding to them. "What do you tell these nice gentlemen?" she said finally, after reminding them for the third time that they were specifically told not to play by the creek.

"Thank you!" both the children chirped, seemingly missing their mother's entire message. The mother removed Todoroki's jacket from the young girl's shoulders and replaced it with a towel. Meanwhile, Midoriya found it much harder to hide the fact that his teeth were chattering.

"Young man, do you want to come in and towel off?" the woman asked once her children went back to running around the small home. Midoriya shook his head and smiled.

"Our school is just a few blocks from here. I'll be alright. Thank you very much."

"Thank you," she replied quickly. "I don't even want to know what would have happened if you weren't there."

"Good thing we were," Todoroki murmured quietly.

After having to decline payment—several times—Todoroki and Midoriya made their way back toward the school campus. Midoriya's teeth chattered openly now, and almost immediately after they left the woman's house Todoroki threw his jacket over Midoriya's shoulders. He kept his left side pressed up against him, his mind so preoccupied on keeping a stable temperature that he nearly missed when Midoriya uttered a soft, "Thank you."

"For what?" Todoroki asked, bewildered, the heat in his side dying quickly.

"Throwing up that ice wall," Midoriya replied with a grin. "If she would've slipped past me, then I don't know how long it would have taken me to get to her."

"Oh, but she didn't slip past you," Todoroki pointed out. He honestly felt like he hadn't done much in the situation.

"But you were there if she did," Midoriya grinned up at him, and Todoroki felt his chest flutter. His cheeks dusted pink and Midoriya laughed cheerfully, nudging him with his shoulder. "We make a good team, don't you think?"

"I could have told you that," Todoroki scoffed.

Midoriya's teeth didn't chatter so openly when he carefully wrapped his arms around Todoroki's left arm. The feeling immediately made Todoroki's entire left side heat up, and Midoriya could see some steam rising from the cold water coating him, but he didn't let go. Todoroki regulated the heat quickly, apologizing several times ("But you didn't even burn me," Midoriya argued). That was how they presented themselves as they walked back through the doors to the Class 1-A dorm – Midoriya clinging to Todoroki's arm, Todoroki concentrating all his attention on making sure he didn't spontaneously ignite. Todoroki wore a bright pink blush, both from concentration and from having Midoriya cling to him like a lifeline.

Someone whistled when they walked in. All Might looked up from the couch and immediately rose to his feet, approaching the two. "You were training, huh?" All Might asked, eyeing Midoriya up and down. Under All Might's gaze Midoriya let go of Todoroki and crossed his arms over his chest in defense.

"Well…"

"A child fell in the creek," Todoroki said quickly. "We were on our way to go train, but…"

All Might shrugged. "Well, I'm glad you were there, then. Go take a bath, Young Midoriya. You look pretty cold."

"Y-yes sir!" Midoriya bowed quickly, taking off toward the baths without a second thought. The group soon lost interest in the exchange and so did All Might, leaving Todoroki to return to his room.

Todoroki's mind reeled thinking about Midoriya again. He'd acted on pure instinct, had already launched himself into the water before Todoroki could even act. Did he have that much faith in Todoroki? Did he have that much faith in himself? Todoroki began to imagine what would have happened if he wasn't there. Sure, he hadn't done much to actually help the child, but would Midoriya have gotten sick without him there to keep him warm temporarily on the walk back?

Todoroki blushed suddenly, remembering the feeling of Midoriya pressed against him. Suddenly his mind was stuck on that detail of the day, like a broken record. He'd thrown himself onto his bed and had been lounging there for maybe ten minutes, still deep in thought, when his phone went off. He squinted at the bright screen and saw that Midoriya had texted him. Four times.

M: hey uh, this is embarrassing

M: but my clothes are still wet

M: and well I don't have anything to wear

M: please help I don't want to run through the dorms naked!

Todoroki snickered silently at the message (the closest he'd ever gotten to laughing, he thought) and stood and stretched. He wondered if Midoriya meant for Todoroki to grab clothes from his room, or if Todoroki should just take a set of his pajamas. While he wavered on whether or not to supply Midoriya with a set of his own clothes (the thought of Midoriya in Todoroki's pajamas made his chest feel tight for some reason), Midoriya texted him another two times.

M: please Todoroki! I'm getting cold :(

M: omg are you sleeping? Sorry I'll ask Iida!

Todoroki thought absently that, if he had been sleeping, his phone would have certainly woken him up. He sent a quick text back to Midoriya saying he'd be down in a second, to which Midoriya responded with seventeen smiley-face emojis, and grabbed a set of old pajamas from his room.

When Todoroki walked into the locker room, he found Midoriya on a bench – wearing only a towel. Something about that flustered Todoroki; despite having all changed together in the same locker room plenty of times to prepare for trainings and such, Todoroki felt a sort of embarrassment walking in to just Midoriya. He supposed some of the embarrassment could have been a result of his blatant overthinking of Midoriya clinging to his arm just an hour or so prior.

He cleared his throat and Midoriya whipped his head around and smiled, his cheeks flushed from the steam of the bath and his hair clinging to his cheeks. "Thank you thank you thank you!" Midoriya chirped, bounding across the room to grab the set of clothes. He eyed them suspiciously, and if Todoroki didn't know any better, he might have thought Midoriya's cheeks grew even pinker.

"What's the problem?" Todoroki asked finally.

"I thought you'd bring my clothes, is all," Midoriya laughed and rubbed his neck nervously. "Thank you all the same! I'll get these back to you as soon—"

"Keep them," Todoroki said with a shrug. "They don't fit me anymore, anyways."

A laugh bubbled out of Midoriya's mouth, almost nervously, as Todoroki turned to leave. "Oh, Todoroki?" Midoriya called just as he pushed open the door.

Todoroki turned around again. "Yes, Midoriya?"

"Thank you again. This means a lot!"

As he spoke, he put the clothes on, and Todoroki flustered. Luckily, he'd already put on the boxers; Todoroki felt he might implode if he accidentally saw that. His chest felt tight and his cheeks grew hot as he observed the way his clothes were just one size too big on his smaller friend. The tee shirt Todoroki had grabbed hung just far enough off Midoriya's neck for his collarbone to peek out, and Midoriya had rolled the shorts once to keep them from falling down. Stop it, Todoroki thought, he's going to notice you staring.

"They're a little big," Midoriya admitted sheepishly under Todoroki's gaze, "but I might grow into them someday."

"Maybe," Todoroki said with just a hint of a smile. He turned away and left, then, trying to use his right hand to cool off his cheeks.

A number of times in the weeks that followed Todoroki and Midoriya's impromptu child rescue mission Todoroki felt that same strange (albeit not entirely unwelcome) feeling. One day while Todoroki and Midoriya were studying in Midoriya's room, Midoriya let a pencil hang out of his mouth while he puzzled together the English homework they were working on. Todoroki stared for a moment, his chest feeling tight and warm, before he finally reached over and plucked the pencil from Midoriya's mouth. "Hey!" Midoriya had said, trying to mask a giggle with a hurt expression. Todoroki fought back a smile.

During their lunch break another day, Midoriya, Iida, and Ochaco invited Todoroki with them to eat outside near the dorm area. Iida and Ochaco gladly led the way, arguing about some television show that Todoroki had never heard of. Midoriya and Todoroki walked a few paces behind them, bumping shoulders every so often. "Right, Midoriya?" Ochaco interrupted her and Iida's conversation to turn around and gain some sort of validation from him. However, Todoroki could tell that Midoriya was just as lost as he was, and the flustered sputtering that followed made Ochaco and Iida laugh, and it made Todoroki want to melt into a puddle. It must have been a little obvious, because seconds later Midoriya asked, "Todoroki, why are you steaming?!"

Those weren't even the worst of it. Todoroki began to lose track of how many times Midoriya caused Todoroki to feel that strange weight in his chest. Though, he couldn't say he despised the feeling. Not truthfully, anyway. Something about it felt warm, but not in the same way that his left side felt warm when he used his Quirk. That warm was sweltering and dangerous, but this warm felt more like a weighted blanket that laid just across his chest, almost…comforting.

He finally decided that the feeling was nothing more than that of a reminder of how much Todoroki cared about Midoriya, as a friend. If Todoroki was being honest with himself, he'd never really experienced friendship before Midoriya, so the most logical conclusion he could draw was that this was how all good friendships were. That didn't stop Todoroki's need to bump shoulders with Midoriya every chance he could, but Todoroki passed that off as friendship, too.

He assumed Midoriya felt the same, knowing a small bit of Midoriya's past. He recalled one night that they were studying alone in the common area, both bent over the same book in awkward positions to each be able to read it. Their shoulders touched every time one of them shifted, and neither of them said a word about it – that felt natural, at least to them. And Midoriya had broken the silence as they tried to work through a mathematics problem in their heads by snapping the book shut and groaning up at the ceiling, flopping backwards.

"I'm never going to need this again," he mumbled to himself. "Why do I need to learn it?"

Todoroki shrugged. "Maybe you'll meet a villain whose Quirk is calculus?"

Midoriya laughed, but Todoroki hadn't entirely meant to joke. He knew a variety of people with intelligence-based Quirks, and to him a calculus Quirk wasn't impossible. Abnormal, certainly, but not impossible. He supposed it did sound sort of silly, and let out a small chuckle.

Midoriya looked up at him from the floor, wearing a soft blush across his cheeks from laughing. "Do you know anyone with a calculus Quirk? Maybe you could call them and ask them for help."

Todoroki looked down at him curiously, then glanced away. "No, but it's not impossible."

"I guess you're right. I was hoping you had someone in mind, though, so I didn't have to keep worrying about this."

Todoroki finally laid down next to him, letting their shoulders press together as they stared at the ceiling. Midoriya turned his head, and instinctively Todoroki turned his own, and their noses brushed together, making both of them blush. Midoriya didn't move, but Todoroki sat up quickly, that heavy feeling in his chest growing stronger and a bit uncomfortable. He wondered if Midoriya felt it, too.

"Todoroki," Midoriya began cautiously, "what was middle school like for you?"

"That's a bizarre question," Todoroki said idly, breathing slowly to lift that warm weight from his chest.

"S-sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"I didn't really talk to anyone," Todoroki cut him off, leaning back on his elbows and looking back to the ceiling. "Nobody wanted to talk to me, and I wasn't about to go out of my way to talk to them."

"Oh."

Todoroki could hear Midoriya fidgeting, and then he felt Midoriya's shoulder against his own once more. "I didn't really have any friends, either," Midoriya continued in a soft voice. "Except Kacchan, but I don't think you could really call that friendship. He was just my neighbor, and we spent a lot of time together as kids."

Somehow Todoroki couldn't imagine a universe in which Midoriya didn't have friends. Everyone in Class 1-A had looked up to Midoriya at one point or another because of his kind heart, and Todoroki felt a pang of anger thinking about anyone who didn't appreciate that. He already had his eye out for Bakugo and would, if it came down to it, freeze him to the ground to keep him from coming at Midoriya (and actually did, one time, and immediately got scolded by Aizawa for using his Quirk so recklessly in the school hallway).

"Why?" Todoroki asked finally, almost to himself, but with him sitting in such close proximity with Midoriya of course the other heard him.

"I was a really late bloomer," Midoriya said sheepishly. "It's easy to pick on the Quirkless kid, or whatever." He sighed then, shaking his head. "Sometimes I wonder if that's the only reason I have friends now."

"Absurd," Todoroki scoffed immediately. Midoriya looked over at him with wide eyes.

"You don't think so?"

"I'm not friends with you because you can punch and kick super hard," he deadpanned.

"Well, why are you?"

Todoroki had a hard time thinking of all the reasons he enjoyed Midoriya's company, and perhaps Midoriya took Todoroki's hesitation to answer the question the wrong way when he laughed, a little bitterly, and stood up. "It's getting late. I should probably head up to my room…"

"You were the first person to care about me," Todoroki said finally. He supposed that encompassed a lot of the reasons he loved having Midoriya around so much. And it was entirely true; others in Class 1-A may have chatted with Todoroki before he and Midoriya faced off at the sports festival, but none of them seemed to actually care about Todoroki's well-being. With Midoriya, it felt like Todoroki was the only thing in the world that the boy cared about whenever they were together.

The way Midoriya's face lit up, cheeks flushed bright pink, made Todoroki think maybe he'd overstepped. He felt a little like maybe he should have been embarrassed, but he held his ground, because it was true. If it was an embarrassing thing to say, well, he didn't care; Midoriya deserved to know just how much Todoroki appreciated him.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Midoriya squeaked, that cute stuttering mess beginning to poke through.

"Exactly what I said," Todoroki replied. "Before you, nobody spent time with me because they cared about me. You make me feel like you care."

"Because I do!" Midoriya said quickly, nodding his head for emphasis. "I care so much about you! And Iida, and Ochaco, and Kacchan—"

They were interrupted as Aizawa came into the room, half-stumbling with sleep, his eyes still piercing and frightening even in his groggy state. "Go to bed," he grumbled, making his way to the kitchen.

"R-right! Sorry, sir!" Midoriya bowed apologetically as Todoroki pushed himself off the ground. They walked to the elevator, bumping shoulders as they went. Once inside, the two turned and immediately laughed to each other – something Todoroki was only comfortable doing when Midoriya was around and nobody else. Even then, it was rare, and Midoriya cherished his laugh every time he heard it.

"Did you see his bunny slippers?" Midoriya giggled, and Todoroki nodded, chuckling ever so softly.

"They had the same red eyes as him," Todoroki noted.

When the elevator stopped on Midoriya's floor, Todoroki walked him to his room. Midoriya insisted it wasn't necessary – after all, it was just a few paces down the hall – but still Todoroki felt the need to spend as much time by Midoriya's side as possible. When they finally parted ways at Midoriya's door, the smaller boy let his fingertips brush on Todoroki's, and he wished him goodnight. Todoroki lingered outside his door for a moment even after Midoriya closed it, trying to calm his racing heart.

Still, even now it hadn't occurred to Todoroki that perhaps his feelings weren't just that of friendship. He almost felt incapable of love, and so it never even began to cross his mind that he might have a crush on Midoriya. In his mind, Midoriya was his best friend – and anything more than that felt impossible.