Work Text:
Shouto feels like he's in over his head.
There's a reason people call them the hero club, but this? That is something he can't help anyone with, not even himself, especially not himself. He'd joined this club because he wanted to empty out his father's credit cards on others who deserved it. Though, this particular issue could never be solved with money no matter how much he could potentially shove into every crevice of someone's house.
It's okay, he doesn't have to think about it now, there's no time to waste he has to focus. Shouto is busy setting off firecrackers then sprinting away after each one as a distraction while Hagakure snoops around the school. He's exhausted and hates to admit he isn't used to this exercise.
The risk of getting caught is high considering the security around a private school, but that doesn't matter, it's his job as a member of the hero club to get into awful situations and fix them for their clients.
“I got it,” Hagakure’s voice comes out static-y from his walkie talkie, and Shouto can swear he's never felt such a powerful wave of relief wash over him in all his sixteen years of life. The acid building up in his leg muscles is almost too much to bear, but he keeps running all the way to the wall of bushes along a fence in the opposite direction of where Hagakure should be while security tries to catch up. There's no time to waste.
He hauls his ass over that fence despite the thorns that cut into his clothes, in the nick of time and continues sprinting, surviving off of pure adrenaline, all the way until he reaches the back of the boys dorm. There, he's let back in through a window Sero is doing a wonderful job of guarding.
Shouto wants to pass out immediately, or die on the floor, his heart is beating so fast he can't breathe and he's pretty sure all that sweat makes him look like he's just peed his pants.
“Ouch, you look pooped.” Sero hands him a water bottle. All he can do is shoot a halfhearted glare at him and fall into the cold floor tiles. It only hits him now how dark it is outside and how many times he could have seriously injured himself.
“Good work out there, you put on one hell of a show.” Midoriya smiles, and suddenly Shouto remembers the worrisome request from a new client. He groans.
Midoriya helps him off the floor, “You should probably head off to bed.” That's all it takes for Shouto to grow conscious about the heat in his face, the sweat stains growing on his shirt, and the way he's starting to wobble instead of walk. He would really love to hide, or bathe. Hiding in the bath would be great right now, which he does a few minutes after limping his way to the communal bath at the dorm.
Two in the morning… The best and absolute worst time to be here all because of the same reason, because he's alone.
Alone with his thoughts and the client's request in mind.
She was probably the same girl from his classroom who always had her earphones in, Shouto doesn't really pay attention but being the only person in the clubroom at the time forced him to.
“Todoroki!”
Without another word the girl handed him a pretty pink envelope and hopped away before he could say anything.
It's not a love letter like he'd expected, it's contents address a job she would have probably personally requested him for anyway. Her request is most likely the strangest one he's gotten yet.
He can do it, no guarantees but he will certainly try.
But, then again… Maybe not. Asking this of someone else would have been a much better idea, he sucks at this stuff.
Shouto tucks himself into bed like he did not just outrun a school security guard and set off multiple fire hazards all around campus. Then he lets sleep drag him away from the conflict brewing in his head.
○●○
Todoroki-kun,
I'm sure you can give me courage to confess to my crush, and in return I'll help you. Meet me after class for more details.
Thanks.
That's entirely exhausting to even think about. A letter like this is completely unnecessary Shouto thinks. And, how does this girl know about his little, uh, it's not a crush, it's puberty or something. Shouto is pretty sure he doesn't have gooey feelings for anyone, where did she get that idea?
His legs ache and the thought of getting out of bed early for club activities weighs down on his weak, overworked, sad boy body.
Eventually, he makes it through classes, wondering if Hagakure had returned everything her client had asked her to steal back from the staff room after it was confiscated. Something else that happens to be on his mind is how he, the human equivalent of a drenched sandwich, is going to help this girl romance her crush.
After class, he waits by the vending machines staring vacantly into the distance. If he's going to do this he might as well put as much effort into it as he can since it's one of the handful of requests he's ever personally received. He browses for a minute then pulls up a wikihow page that might help.
“How to Confess to Your Crush
If you have a crush on someone, it can be scary to think about telling them how you feel! However, if you hope to move the relationship to the next level, it’s something you’ll have to do sooner or later. Luckily, by getting comfortable with your crush and thinking of creative ways to confess how you feel, you help calm your nerves enough to take on the conversation!”
Okay… sounds reliable.
He doesn't have time to read through the list of seemingly useful ideas because Jirou Kyouka walks into view, fidgeting with the cord of her earphones.
“Hey, Todoroki.” she looks a little nervous, “how are we pulling this off?”
“Uhm, who're you trying to confess to?”
Jirou glances around before responding, “You know... Yaoyorozu? Your club's vice president?”
No surprise there, everyone and everyone's girlfriend has thought about dating Momo at least once, she's just that kind of person.
“Listen, I just need you to tell me what kind of stuff she likes or things she's into since, you two seem pretty close.”
Shouto feels taken off guard, what about his relationship with Momo makes them seem so close? Hopefully they don't look too buddy-buddy or people might get the wrong idea, “Yaomomo wouldn't accept material things, she likes crafty, homemade things.”
Jirou chews on her lip before, “Oh, she's rich isn't she... You trust fund babies stick together don't you?” she sighs when Shouto doesn't give a reply.
The two make small talk while heading towards where Shouto knows they'll be able to catch Momo, usually helping out with the archery club or the mechanics club. Of course, Jirou already knows that, bumping into her a few times before.
“Todoroki, I'm not ready to do this, I need- we need a game plan or something. Ease into it, y'know?”
“Okay,” he pulls up the wikihow page again and shows it to her only to have her snatch his phone away.
“You know this stuff doesn't work, right? Like, it's here but it's useless.” She says, skimming through the words on the screen, “Make a card, ask them for help, let it slip?”
“What's wrong with any of those?” He tries to grab at his phone, “They sound perfectly reasonable to me.”
“They're kind of embarrassing. Plus, what if I do one of these and Yaoyorozu takes it the wrong way? Do you know how hard it is to convince another girl you like-like her instead of friend-like her?” her voice gets higher and louder near the end.
Having to help her out is kind of a pain but, Shouto just happens to be lucky today because Momo passes by at that moment, letting out a shocked gasp, making things very awkward. Jirou looks like her life just flashed before her eyes and now she's on her way to meet her ancestors, while Momo’s face goes beet red from behind her arm. Shouto coughs to hide a snicker, “I guess letting it slip is solid advice.” He mumbles so that only Jirou can hear. She makes a move to step on his toes but Momo speaks before she goes through with it.
“Y-you like me?”
And with those words Shouto sinks into the background to grant the two some privacy. He's relieved that it wasn't as big of a deal as he made it out to be in his head, and ends up walking to the clubroom to let Iida know that Jirou owes them something now.
○●○
He can't decide if he likes this part of the job the most or the least. On one hand he gets to watch and work together with his friends, on the other hand it's painful and exhausting.
Another gang fight that has to be dealt with. These usually go one way, with Midoriya attempting to reason with whatever unfortunate gang they're up against until they get impatiently violent. Then Uraraka pops in and all hell breaks loose, bodies hitting the ground, screaming, the works, the usual. The best part about this is that Shouto has front row seats to Midoriya and Uraraka kicking ass; they're a wonder duo and a miracle.
There are gangs all over the area which makes requests to handle them pretty frequent, and that means as long as he's assigned to keep watch he can oogle all he wants.
Midoriya is quick, dodging and dancing around Uraraka, sweeping people's feet off the ground and disarming them. He's stupidly fit and his face is doing the cute focused stare that's stirs something in Shouto’s stomach until he starts to realize something but, “Watch out!” Midoriya screams, and the world goes dark.
Everything is blurry and out of touch, like a strange dream. His head is pounding, something else hurts but he can't tell what. He thinks he's dying because the face of an angel slides into view over him.
“How are you feeling?” the angel asks. Shouto groans in reply. This is a dream or something. He reaches out both of his hands and cups the ethereal beings cheeks between his palms, feeling his tan freckled skin and familiar babyish features.
The figure gives him a smile, warm cheeks moving under the palms of his hands, “Shuuzenji sensei says you're going to be fine and you…”
Oh, it's Midoriya. Was that hesitation in his voice?
“You chipped a tooth? But that's okay, I can't even tell!”
The words startle Shouto and he feels around his face for something weird, but he can't really feel his face, “F-fu...fuck” he croaks out.
“Its fine, it's fine! You're also a little concussed so take it easy but try not to sleep again.” And it isn't until Midoriya is helping him sit up that Shouto feels an inkling of embarrassment, he's been staring at his friend so intensely, paying attention to every feature that he hasn't noticed the other person in the room.
“After they knocked you out, Kaminari came in and tased so many of them, I didn't know he had a taser but he's pretty good with it, should I ask Hatsume to make you something like that? Like a water gun maybe but stronger and worse, how would that work? Actually, I've been thinking-” he pauses to pat Shouto's head, “I'll grab some orange juice for you and tell the others you're up.”
And then he's gone.
Shouto is all alone with her again.
“What are you doing here?” his words slur together.
Jirou makes a face like she's mildly offended, “Aren't you my friend? I heard you got beat up so I came to check on you, but looks like your boy-crush already beat me to it.”
“He's not my-”
“Save it, loverboy. You stare at him like, all the time in class you don't even bother getting embarrassed or anything when he catches you.”
“That's not true, I don't do that!” unable to feel his mouth through the numbness, his tongue becomes an obstacle and all his words sound jumbled up.
“I know I'm right, you were just making googly eyes at him. Why don't you take your own advice and ask him out already?”
“Can't… everything hurts.”
“Valentine's day is coming up soon, I'll find you when you're doing better so I can repay you.” she crosses over to put an apple at his bedside, then leaves.
○●○
Jirou is someone who should be feared. Shouto doesn't know how she did it but, she's in his room and the window is wide open. He never opens his window and his dorm is on the fourth floor.
“Ugh, what took you so long? I've been waiting for almost an hour.” she spins in his swivel chair a couple more times.
He puts his bag down and closes the window, “How'd you get in here?”
“S’not hard to do. Anyway, I've been looking up a bunch of stuff to help you out and I found that wikihow page though, I'm still livid about that shit you pulled.”
“Oh, is it not going well between you two? Also, that wasn't my fault.”
“We're not dating yet but we're getting there. That doesn't matter now, I'm here to help you confess to Midoriya.”
“Confess what? I have nothing to say.”
Still staring at her phone, she pulls a face that makes her eyebrows disappear under her bangs, he begins to feel sheepish.
“Ahem, you should tell him soon.”
Shouto takes a seat on his bed, “I'll do it but it won't work.”
“Doesn't hurt to try.”
“Last time I told him I liked him, you know what he said?” Shouto takes a deep breath preparing to re-live such a discouraging moment.
Jirou looks up for a moment.
“I like you too, Todoroki-kun. You're such a good friend.” he repeats the words that have been bothering him ever since their recent stalker steakout together.
She gasps, “That's dense!”
A weight fixes itself in the pit of his gut, Shouto manages to nod in response. There shouldn't be anything else to say because a confession will ultimately lead to rejection.
He lets his mind take him somewhere safe, a place for a brief moment where the thought of rejection is distant and he doesn't need to worry about things like hiding his newly chipped tooth or standing a little too close to the person he likes. Somewhere he can relax with people he calls his true friends, a sunny, cozy place that protects him from responsibilities.
“Write a note and pass it to your crush or make a creative card. Notes are one of the most common and effective ways to confess a crush.” Jirou reads off of her phone, “Atleast, that's what wikihow says. Hopefully he isn't dense enough to overlook that.”
“I'll try.”
“Great. Now, I have things to do, goodbye.” she jumps off the seat and out the door like nobody is going to question what she's doing in the boys dorm or how she even got there. Shouto half hoped she would have stayed to help him draft the damn thing, but he's on his own.
Now he's really in over his head. He's never been good at saying words, he's not good at writing them either. Putting his emotions into words is foreign to him, how does he go about it? Describing how being in the same room as Midoriya disrupts his cognitive functions, becomes the reason for that buzz in his gut, the thump of his heart that travels from his chest into his throat, and the embarrassing heat on his face. Those aren't things he could simply put into words.
Shouto puts his pencil down, the scribbles on the notebook paper taking the form of circular repetitive words. All he's been doing is writing down the things Midoriya makes him feel, not why or what exactly about him makes Shouto squirm.
An image of Midoriya takes shape in his head, forming into that pleasant smile, those words of encouragement. Even in his head, Midoriya is blindingly bright. Everything clicks into place and he lets his pencil take the lead.
○●○
Chiporoki: jirou
Chiporoki: jirou
Chiporoki: jirou
Jukebox: what
Chiporoki: i think i wrote too many letters
Jukebox: 5 mins
And, true to her word, five minutes later he hears the window slides open behind him.
“What's up? I left you for two days and you haven't confessed your undying love yet?” She plops down onto his bed.
Shouto suppresses asking her how in the hell she makes it up into his room so easily, instead he points to a messy stack of papers on the other side of the room.
“I'm trying…”
“You- uhm, you're trying too much.” she shifts through the pile, “These are all drafts right?”
“Mhm.” Shouto takes a seat next to her, “I like bits and pieces of some of them individually but I can't like one as a whole.”
“Well, then no love letter, we're scrapping that.”
“What am I supposed to do with all of this paper?”
“Hmm… you should still be able to use it.” She strokes her chin for a hot moment, “Keep what you- wait, do you have a pair of scissors?”
“Uh, yeah here.” He rummages in his bag then hands them to her.
“I was thinking you could cut out the best part of each one, the part that really feels right and put those all together. Though, you could just buy a box of chocolates and a teddy bear-”
“No, it won't feel sincere.” Shouto thinks back to all those flowers his father would have delivered to his mother rather than doing something from the heart.
At that, Jirou pulls a knowing smile, “Ah, I thought so. Do you need help with this?”
Shouto shakes his head, the last thing he wants is someone sifting through all these embarrassing love letters, he can't let people know he feels.
Jirou stays with him while he cuts out the words and phrases from his pages, making light conversation of her day at the tennis court with Yaomomo. Shouto tells her about that one time he was put in a tennis match against Midoriya for an experiment some other students were pulling and ended up winning only because Midoriya had yelled at him to use his ambidextrous-ness to his advantage. He wont tell her that the thing that officially made him join the hero club was the same thing that caused the swirl of bees in his stomach the next time he saw Midoriya. From then on, he began to notice more. When Midoriya would help an underclassmen with homework, play mediator between other disputing students, or even just share his yogurt with everyone else, Shouto notices all of it. It makes him feel all gooey inside knowing he can rely on someone like that, someone who cares about everyone enough to shove away all self preservation.
There's a sudden realization that maybe Midoriya had his arm in a cast last week because he'd been protecting Shouto while he was unconscious. Maybe getting knocked out threw Midoriya off a little and forced his guard down.
He feels around his mouth for the missing portion of his tooth while his mind wanders.
Shouto wants to feel bad and he does, but more so he feels a mix of gratitude and regret. He's fairly capable of throwing a punch but he wishes he'd have been quicker to defend himself.
“Anything on your mind, Todoroki?” Jirou snaps him out of his thoughts. He puts the scissors down.
“Midoriya he's… a bit self destructive, I think.”
“Hmm, yeah Momo says so too, the kid does too much.”
Shouto's gaze lands on an untouched page; you're your own natural disaster, but to me, you're like a field of flowers, a secret oasis. He crumples up that paper and stuffs it into his pocket. He's not the poetic type, he won't start now.
Jirou shuffles a little in her spot, “He's really nice, though. So, I can see why you like him, not to mention how buff-”
“Do you think he'll actually read all of this?” Shouto interrupts her before she says anything more embarrassing.
She snickers, “You're so dense, Todoroki.” and with that, she bounces off his bed then to the window, “I'm gonna go grab you some stuff.”
Then she disappears out of the window leaving Shouto all alone with the mess of paper scraps on the floor. He doesn't get a break though because the next minute there's a knock on his door.
“Todoroki-kun,” Of all the people, Midoriya steps in, “we're making hot chocolate downstairs, do you want… some?” His words slow reasonably when he notices all the paper, Midoriya shoots him a worried look and makes to pick up some of the scraps.
Shouto isn't having it, he grabs them before Midoriya could and gently pushes the other out the door.
“I'll come down soon, thanks.”
“Do you need help with cleaning up first?”
“No, I got it.”
“Are you sure?” Midoriya grabs his arm before Shouto can shut the door, “I'm sure.” Shouto replies.
“Okay then, see you later.”
If that wasn't the most nerve wracking thing to happen to him all day, he would have worried a little more about Jirou scaling the sides of buildings with no safety gear. He gathers up all the useless paper in a pile and just lays on the floor for a while thinking of how pointless doing all of that was. Shouto would have rotted into the floorboards if Jirou hadn't come back a few minutes later.
“I hope you don't mind arts and crafts.” She heaves a backpack into his room and jumps in after it.
○●○
This is it.
The sincere confession he's been attempting. Valentine's day will be a good day for him.
Shouto can't slip an entire jar under the door but he can't break in through the door either. Jirou spent two days teaching him how to safely reach the room from the outside of the building, which wasn't so hard considering Midoriya's room is right over the ground floor. He hopes the window is unlocked as he digs his foot into a crevice and holds on to the edges of a brick for dear life. This wouldn't be so bad if he had the muscle for it. Eventually, through a couple of scares, he reaches the right window. It doesn't slide open like it's supposed to. Instead, Shouto is holding onto the windowsill with his elbows, dangerously slipping from his spot. The only thing in his head being the word fuck on repeat because his hands choose that exact moment to start sweating.
If this is what Bakugou and his sweaty hands feel like all the time, then Shouto can feel a little sympathy for him. His fingers slip from the ledge for a split second and Shouto feels his life flash before his eyes, but he catches himself before his foot can fall out of place. One last heave and a distant thought about how disgustingly sweaty he's become, the window abruptly loosens up enough to get out of the way so the ledge can support him. He ungracefully rolls into the room and lands right on his side, grunting in pain. This has been the most physical activity he's done since running away from that security guard a while ago.
He takes a minute to enjoy the sweet feeling of stable floor under him which barely distracts him from the ridiculous amount of posters on the wall. Midoriya is such a nerd, it's pretty cute. Shouto gets a hold of himself, steeling his nerves to finally leave the tiny decorated jar on his dresser where Midoriya would surely see it before the end of the day. He checks that his name is in subtle view under the gift.
With a job well done, he bids goodbye to the little jar he poured his heart and soul into, the same one he filled with heartfelt words, pieces of himself, and his emotions.