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None of this would have happened if Todoroki didn't happen to walk by the girl's room on his way back from the bathroom. And none of this would have happened if Mina hadn't asked Jirou if she had a crush on anyone.
But both of those things happened at the same time, which resulted in Todoroki startling when he heard Mina exclaim: "You have a crush?! Tell us who!"
Todoroki probably would have ignored it if Mina had yelled anything else. But considering that they were teenagers and a lot of his classmates liked to talk about crushes, he was curious. So he knocked at the door.
The girls on the other side went incredibly quiet, until a moment later Uraraka opened the door. "Todoroki? What are you doing here?" Clearly not expecting him.
"I was walking by and overheard you talking about crushes. I have a question about that," he explained.
Uraraka looked behind her, but none of the others said something against it. So Mina squeaked loudly and pulled Todoroki in the room and made him sit down. "What does the hottest guy in our school want to know?"
Todoroki frowned at her. "Hottest guy…?", he asked. He glanced at his left hand.
Mina shook her head. "Don't distract from the topic! What is it you want to ask?"
"How do you know if you have a crush on someone?"
Mina cooed loudly. "Todoroki! Do you have a crush on someone?"
"I'm not sure. That's why I'm asking." Todoroki looked expectantly over to Jirou, who instantly blushed a deep red and fiddled with her earphone-jacks.
"You want to be around them a lot," Jirou finally admitted to the ground.
"Isn't that what friendship is? Midoriya said that friends are people you like to hang out with."
Mina laughed. "It's obviously different."
"But how?" So far this really wasn't helping him.
Mina shrugged. "It just is, I guess."
That wasn't a satisfying answer.
"Don't your feelings for your friends differ from your feelings for your crush?", Uraraka asked hesitantly.
Todoroki thought about that for a second. He had started to consider Uraraka and Iida as friends. But he never felt the same urge to be around them.
"Well, you could imagine what it would be like to date your potential crush and see how you feel about that?", Yaoyorozu suggested.
"I don't know what dating someone is supposed to be like," Todoroki admitted.
Mina grinned widely. It was slightly unsettling. "It means going on dates - just the two of you. And holding hands and cuddling and-", her grin widened into something dangerous, "-kissing."
Todoroki tried to imagine what that would be like.
Oh - he kinda wanted that. He couldn't stop the light blush from crawling on his face.
Mina squeaked in joy. "Todoroki has a crush!"
Todoroki got up and nodded at the girls. "You were really helpful. Thank you."
"You're welcome, Todoroki," Uraraka managed to reply before Todoroki disappeared again.
"Should we be worried about him?", Tsuyu asked into the room, but Mina dismissed her.
"It's gonna be fine. You have to trust in the power of love."
|||
"What took you so long?", Denki asked Todoroki the moment he came back into the boys' room, only to be shushed by Sato, who angrily pointed at their sleeping classmates.
Todoroki didn't bother to answer Denki and just walked over to his bed next to Midoriya, who was already asleep.
Oh well.
He didn't have to do this tonight anyway, he decided and went to bed as well.
|||
When Todoroki woke up the next morning the bed next to him was already empty.
"Where is Midoriya?", he asked Iida, who was already getting ready.
"I think he's already at breakfast. He has been up before me."
Todoroki nodded and got ready as well. He still felt a little sore from yesterday’s training, but he's been through worse.
Iida actually waited for him and they walked together to breakfast. It was nice to chat with Iida. This must have been the friendship, Midoriya described. It was nice.
When they made it to the dining area, Uraraka and Midoriya were already at one of the tables and waved them over. Iida pointed at the buffet someone had put up on one of the tables, to show them that they would get food first before joining them at their table. But Todoroki had something else he wanted to do first. He told Iida to go ahead and made his way over to the Uraraka and Midoriya.
"Good Morning, Todoroki," Midoriya chirped, smiling as brightly as always, making Todoroki's stomach feel warm.
Todoroki nodded at the two before turning to Midoriya.
"Midoriya," he started and Midoriya looked up at him with his beautiful green eyes. "I have a crush on you. Would you like to go out with me?"
Midoriya dropped his chopsticks, mouth hanging open, eyes wide.
He could hear someone almost choke on their food and another person yelling 'what?'.
Midoriya hadn't said a thing, just kept staring at him.
Todoroki bowed. "Please think about it," he said, then left to get himself some breakfast as well.
Iida passed him and asked what he had missed.
While Todoroki was getting his breakfast, Mina ran up to him and hit his arm. He looked at her confused.
"What the hell was that?", she asked.
Considering that Todoroki hadn't been the one to hit her, he had no idea what she was talking about. Apparently his expression showcased that well enough for Mina to understand.
"Why did you confess to Midoriya in front of everyone?", she clarified.
"I realized I had a crush on Midoriya after our talk yesterday, but Midoriya was already asleep when I came back to our room. This is the first time I've seen him since then."
Mina blinked at him as if she had a hard time understanding him. "Why didn't you ask to talk to him alone and confess then?"
"Why?"
Mina opened her mouth, then closed it again. She did that a few times, before her jaw snapped shut and she nodded at him with determination glinting in her eyes. "Don't worry. I got this," she announced.
"I'm not worried," Todoroki replied. But she ignored him and walked back to her table.
He didn't really know what that exchange had been all about, so he elected to ignore it. He walked back to Midoriya's table after he had picked up his breakfast.
He sat down beside Midoriya and opposite of Iida. Midoriya blushed when he sat down and tried to hide his face behind his arms. It was cute. Uraraka, who sat across from Todoroki, looked at him as if he was crazy. He didn't know why she did that. Iida just looked utterly confused.
"Midoriya, did you go running this morning?", Todoroki asked.
But instead of answering him properly, Midoriya made a few embarrassed noises, before excusing himself. Todoroki noticed Mina watching them from her table. Maybe he shouldn't have told Midoriya. He'd rather keep his feelings to himself than not having Midoriya talk to him.
Some of his feelings must have shown on his face, because Uraraka soundly got that same fiercely determined look on her face that she usually only got on when she had decided to help someone.
He could just hope that he hadn't screwed up his relationship with the first friend he ever had.
|||
"Who is this about again?", Kendo asked.
"Todoroki and Midoriya," Mina explained.
"Ok," Kendo shrugged.
"It's for love! We have to help for such a pure goal," Shiozaki Ibara argued.
"But you want 1B to help rig the test-of-courage draw. We could get in trouble if we're caught," Pony argued.
Mina rolled her eyes. "If we're caught."
"I'm sure our teachers would understand and not get too mad," Uraraka explained. "But we definitely have to do something. Todoroki looked absolutely heartbroken at breakfast when Deku avoided him."
"And how sure are you that this is what Midoriya wants?", Kodai Yui asked.
"He likes Todoroki too, he's just nervous," Tsuyu said.
Kendo sighed. "Ok. Tell us what you need us to do."
Mina smirked widely. "There's no going back now."
|||
"Midoriya, what number did you get?", Mina asked, pretending to be innocent.
Midoriya turned his paper around to show her. "Number 3. And you?"
"Number 3? Just like Todoroki!", she replied, acting surprised, as if she hadn't orchestrated the whole thing.
Midoriya looked over to Todoroki, who was currently talking to Uraraka, and his entire face turned red.
Midoriya managed to avoid Todoroki for the next half an hour until Mandalay called their team number.
With a red face he walked up to the start line and waited for Todoroki to join him. They didn’t talk, only exchanging awkward glances. They entered the dark forest.
When they couldn’t see the clearing anymore, Todoroki broke the silence. “Midoriya, are you okay?”
Mirodiya flinched and flailed with his arms. “I’m okay,” he squealed.
“You have been avoiding me since breakfast.”
“Well, you see- it’s, well-”, he stammered.
“I’m sorry, the confession made you uncomfortable.”
Midoriya finally risked a glance at Todoroki and what he found made him stop. Todoroki never showed much emotion. But right now he was looking down, sadness and something almost like shame clear on his face.
“Todoroki.” Todoroki stopped as well and turned to Midoriya, even though he still avoided his eyes. “I didn't hate that you… did that. But why did you do it in front of everyone?"
Todoroki looked confused. "Mina said something similar. Why does it matter?"
Midoriya wasn't sure how to answer that, he was still flabbergasted how oblivious Todoroki was to a lot of social norms that Midoriya had never really thought twice about.
"Wouldn't everybody find out about it anyway?", Todoroki asked.
"I guess they would, but what if we decided to date in secret first? That would be impossible now."
"Why would we do that? I like you, I'm not ashamed of that."
"That's not why people date in secret. Okay maybe sometimes it can be. But some people do it because they don't want anyone giving them unsolicited advice or they wanna figure out the relationship before they go public with it or someone in their life doesn't want them to date so they have to keep it a secret. For us for example: I wouldn't be too sure how much your father would approve of you dating me, considering that you have both pointed out my relationship with All Might."
Todoroki looked thoughtful for a second. "I hadn't considered that my father wouldn't approve of this, but I think you are right."
"Are you rethinking your confession?", Midoriya asked nervously.
Todoroki shook his head. "No, that only makes you more appealing."
Midoriya turned beet red and buried his head in his hands.
"Are you alright Midoriya?"
"You can't just say things like that," he mumbled, clearly even more embarrassed.
"Why not?"
Midoriya sputtered, not giving a coherent answer.
"You have been talking like you are thinking about accepting my confession."
Midoriya was still red when he lifted his head. His eyes were downcast, but he slowly nodded.
Todoroki didn't know what to do, after this morning he had thought this would go in a completely different direction.
"I like you too," Midoriya admitted quietly and surprisingly enough, he didn't hide his face this time. He even slowly looked up until his eyes met Todoroki’s.
“Do you want to go out?”, Todoroki asked.
Midoriya looked away again, but a moment later he nodded. He looked back up and saw the softest little smile on Todoroki’s face and his hand stretched out to him. Midoriya smiled back shyly. It took him another moment to gather his courage and take Todoroki’s hand in his.
Todoroki’s smile widened a little more, his eyes turned a little softer. It almost hurt to think that this expression was only meant for Midoriya. That he was the reason for Todoroki to smile. He squeezed Todoroki’s hand lightly and Todoroki squeezed his back.
“Come on,” Todoroki said and pulled at his hand. Right, there was still a test of courage to pass, even though Midoriya was sure it was nothing after what he had just had the courage to do.
He was wrong.
A girl came up through the ground.
Midoriya screamed and clung to the nearest person in fear, while Todoroki’s reaction was limited to a surprised little “Oh.”, which didn’t even have an exclamation mark.
Even Midoriya clinging to Todoroki for dear life managed to pull a greater reaction out of him. A light blush was spreading over Todoroki’s cheeks and he looked the slightest bit flustered.
Midoriya jumped back and profusely apologized to Todoroki as soon as he realized what he was doing. Todoroki told him it was okay. This time it was Midoriya who offered his hand to Todoroki. He took it and the two went on through the forest and the test of courage.
They didn’t know what was about to happen, but it would be a little easier with them at each other’s side.