Chapter Text
Shouto takes a deep breath, collects his words, and speaks.
"Midoriya, I like you. As in, I like you in a romantic way. I mean, I like you as a friend, too! Not just as a romantic interest, because you're a really sweet person, which isn't to say that you're not good looking, because-"
His pillow, despite being faceless, manages to look so underwhelmed that he stops short.
"I just want to kiss him," he groans, shoving his head into the pillow to stop it looking at him.
Curled up on his futon, head surrounded by his duck feather pillow, Shouto doesn’t think he’s ever felt so pathetic. Bad training day? Could have been worse. Failing the provisional licensing exam? Didn’t count, he just had to do remedial work. Got beat up by a villain during patrol? Sleep it off. Feeling feelings for his dear friend and being unable to articulate them? Not even to a pillow? Set up the gallows, he’s ready to be dead now.
His cosy pyjamas are soft, the room is dim, and the sound of a winter evening filters in through the window. Bakugou is yelling something - from all the way in the kitchen, it sounds like – but from this far away, it’s less grating. Background noise. The sort of yelling that means someone stole some of his cooking and he’s annoyed, not the sort that used to keep Shouto up as a young child.
He rouses himself and leaves his room and his judgemental bedding in order to go investigate.
Someone has, indeed, stolen a little savoury muffin. Bakugou is on a health kick and has been meal prepping for two weeks, much to the despair of his pack of friends, who benefit most regularly from his good cooking – and apparently Kaminari has nabbed a snack.
“Just fucking ask, fuckwit!” Bakugou all but screams, “I coulda made more goddamn food if you asked! Now I’m one short! The fuck am I gonna eat instead, huh?”
Shouto, having sidled around the counter during his ranting, pulls another muffin off the cooling rack and shoves it in his mouth. Bakugou and Kaminari stare, stunned and fearful, respectively.
Bakugou reacts first; “I'LL KILL YOU!”
Shouto shrugs, and chews.
Bakugou mellows almost immediately at the lack of response. It’s amazing the difference nearly two years and the destruction of a villainous league makes to one’s temper. “The fuck happened to you?”
Shouto swallows the last of the muffin. “I’m in love and I’m in pain.”
“Yeah, that'll happen,” Bakugou says sagely.
“How would you know?” Kaminari asks.
“I have an approximate knowledge of many things,” Bakugou replies flatly, “Who’re you in love with, and why is it painful?”
“Midoriya.”
“WHAT.”
“And I can’t do... feelings.”
“Oh, well if you want help from someone who also can’t articulate his feelings, feel free to keep talking to Bakugou,” Kaminari grins, dodging a clawed hand to come around the counter to him, “If you’d like to talk to someone who isn’t emotionally constipated for advice, you should go see Kiri. He knows what’s up.”
“ICY-HOT-"
“Is he in his room?”
“IF YOU GO NEAR THAT SHITCUNT-"
“Yup! C'mon, I’ll walk you up.”
“I'LL DESTROY YOU!!!”
“Thanks for the muffin, Bakugou,” Shouto says.
“DIE.”
In Kirishima's room, seated on the bed, he is gently quizzed on how deep his feelings for Midoriya are, and how long he has felt thusly.
By the time Bakugou troops in from packing his food away, they have reached a consensus. Shouto is terminal.
“Baku-bro,” Kirishima says as he shuts the door and comes to drop cross-legged on the floor, “Todoroki has it bad, man.”
“Well he better fucking watch it, or I’m gonna explode his goddamn face off,” Bakugou snarls, glaring at Shouto with all his might.
“N’aww, you and Midoriya really do get along now, huh?” Kirishima grins.
“What colour do you want your hearse to be, asshole?”
“Red, duh!”
“Typical.”
“This calls for the Council of Five, I think,” Kaminari says from his perch upon the desk, “I already called the cavalry.”
Shouto blinks as a knock sounds at the door.
“Living in the same building is great, huh?” Kaminari grins.
“Its open!” Kirishima calls that it’s unlocked, and Sero and Ashido file in. They are filled in on the situation, and agree: Shouto is doomed, but he should embrace his demise.
“You should ask him out,” Ashido says with finality, “We'll come with.”
“Wait-"
“THE FUCK ARE YOU SAYING?”
“C'mon, Todoroki, what’s the worst that could happen?”
“I could lose my best friend?”
This brings the group up short, except for Bakugou, who rolls his eyes.
“Deku isn’t gonna stop talking to you over this kinda shit. He’s too nice.”
The blessing of their leader apparently given – “I DIDN'T SAY HE SHOULD FUCKING CONFESS, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU IDIOTS?” - they rise again and escort Shouto down to Midoriya's door.
“We'll go over there,” Kirishima says, pointing down the hall while restraining Bakugou with the other hand, quirk engaged to keep the blond from biting the hand clamped over his mouth. “Do your best!”
Then, being a horrible person, he knocks on the door and bounds down the hall – Bakugou in tow - thus removing Shouto's chance to flee.
He’s still in his pyjamas. Dear god, he's not even wearing socks-
The door opens.
“Todoroki-kun!” Midoriya grins, “What's up?”
Shouto opens his mouth, then closes it again.
“Todoroki-kun?” he asks again, looking worried, “Are you okay?”
His green eyes are huge and expressive, freckles dusting his cheeks and scattered more sparsely around the rest of his face. His too-large All Might sweater shows off more of his collarbone than Shouto thinks is decent. His hair is floppy and looks soft.
Shouto just wants to kiss him.
“I like you,” Shouto blurts, finally, having stared for far too long, “You’re one of the most genuinely good and nice people I’ve ever met, and you’re beautiful. I- would you-”
He huffs.
“Would you like to go out for lunch, sometime?”
His gaze has strayed to Midoriya’s feet, and he manages to bring it back up to take in his face.
Which is apologetic, and sad, and Shouto starts rapidly planning ways to get onto UA’s roof to give wingless flight a shot.
“I’m sorry, Todoroki,” he says, gently, like Shouto might shatter is he speaks too loud. “I’m seeing someone.”
“What!?” yells Kaminari, destroying the illusion of privacy.
Midoriya sticks his head out into the hall to stare at them as Sero yells, “Who?”
He rolls his eyes and pulls back into his room. “I really am sorry,” he says again, nibbling at his bottom lip for a moment, before asking, “How do you feel about polyamory?”
“WHAT!?” several voices yell from down the hall.
Shouto blinks.
“Um. As in- as in a relationship with you, knowing that you’re in a relationship with someone else and that they’re okay with it? Or as in a three-way-relationship?”
“It’s called a throuple,” Bakugou calls.
Midoriya sticks his head out again. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, it’s dumb. Come on, fuck-knuckles, your job here is done,” he says ushering his squad toward the stairwell, skipping the lifts in favour of leaving the scene faster.
Once the door is firmly shut on Ashido's protests, Shouto turns back to Midoriya, who steps back to invite him into his room.
“Thanks,” he says, going to sit on the desk chair as Midoriya hops onto his bed.
“What I was suggesting was the triad, by the way,” Midoriya says as he settles in, “My boyfriend and I once made a promise that if you ever asked either of us to, uh, you know. We said that we'd be allowed to say yes without consequences. But that was before we were serious.”
“But would he be okay with me joining in now?” Shouto wonders, still reeling and trying very hard to stay cool in the face of the unexpected.
Midoriya shrugs, “We'll have to ask him.”
There's a knock at the door.
“It’s me, idiots,” says Bakugou.
“Come in, Kacchan,” Midoriya calls.
Bakugou stomps in, slamming the door behind him, and comes to loom over Midoriya with great menace. “The fuck are you signing me up for?”
“It was just a suggestion!”
Shouto blinks; “You’re dating Bakugou?”
“Got a problem, Shortcake?” Bakugou growls, though without the usual level of simmering rage.
“This is the boyfriend that agreed to let you... “you know” with me without consequences,” Shouto says to Midoriya, stunned, “Who also said he’d “you know” with me.”
“Have you looked in a mirror recently?” Bakugou snorts.
“Sit, Kacchan,” Midoriya mutters, tugging on the hem of Bakugou's shirt to bring him down to the bed by his side, “But yeah. If you want to go out with me, we're sort of a package deal. I think we'd get too jealous, in our own ways, if either of us dated someone else alone.”
Shouto purses his lips. “I... I would have to think about it.”
“That’s fine,” Midoriya says, gentle and kind as ever, “Kacchan and I will have to talk about what it means for us if you decide you want to. We should all take our time in deciding what we want to do.”
“Okay,” Shouto says, swallowing and rising from the chair, “Thank you, Midoriya, Bakugou. I think I'll head back to my room.”
Midoriya let’s him out with a quiet “goodnight" and closes the door on him with Bakugou still inside.
Shouto takes a deep, steadying breath, and turns to the lifts.