Drunk omega Izuku and drunk alpha Katsuki sleeping together and getting lost in the moment and Katsuki bites his neck and the bond. But when they wake up Katsuki doesn’t remember. So Izuku decides to ask alpha Kirishima to bit over it for a new bond so he doesn’t hurt so bad. Katsuki is pissed and they fight about it and Izuku is yelling at him “I only did it cover up the one underneath!” Katsuki is instantly worried. ‘When did he get bonded before?’ 'who did it?’ 'did they hurt him?’ 'Was it against his will?’ He settled on “you know you could have asked me” Izuku is brought to tears and whispers “it was yours” and Katsuki only has more questions but this time laced with regret.
Lingering touches faintly seem to caress your back, ghosts of unwanted memories surging from the deep box you made sure they were buried in. Sad, broken eyes - but not really, not anymore - trace the figure of you standing across the street, a bit off kilt and your head in bubble wrap. You can hear, even smell, the memories resurfacing when you see his face, not long forgotten, always marked in carbon behind your eyes. They taste bittersweet, and seem far older than you give them credit for: but it’s been years, even from the last time you thought about him, or that past you still would like to keep forever on the bottom of a drawer in the back of an your head. He’s just that kind of man: one you can have for a while to yourself, and whose memories might warm you up in the coldest of winter nights - but they fade away with time, leaving behind the unconscious void of something-never-quite-there. You can’t explain the surge of feelings, slithering around your back and inside your veins when looking at his form, his lithe steps and the way he holds another girl’s hand and smiles openly, as if nothing could ever bring him grief or regret. And you smile a little bit to yourself, because maybe that is the truth, and the thing you certainly did not have, was not much a thing at all to him. And it would make sense, because as smiles and bruises, heated whispers, choking gasps, the cold wall behind your shoulder blades and the hot mouth kissing the world away, flood and replace your surroundings, he is not looking anymore. He walks past you, shoulder against shoulder and you keep walking ahead, not knowing whether he does turn his head around, even if you can guess where the heated gaze on your nape is coming from, and faintly touching the point he used to worship right above your collarbone, near a little mole you never noticed. The day ticks away, as the arrows on the clock run from each other, but a photo on your old phone refuses to let you leave. It’s him, just standing there - smiling, carefree, yours. But then you look at your phone, and it is your husband calling, and you feel like the time to toss that other phone away has come. A finger hooks on it, and presses the ‘off’ button, tossing forever away the memories, the faint smell of morning sex and wilted flowers, the burnt cigarettes and the idea of him. The past has enough of that, already - and there is no space for it now. Not here. Not with you. Not anymore.
character : katsuki bakugou genre : angst, fluff, crack words : 2.5k+
themes : pining, ongoing fic, truth or dare, angsty, fluff, kissing masterlist
synopsis: bakugou isn’t one to back down from a dare, so when he’s dared to make y/n fall in love with him, he does just that, not expecting to fall in love himself.
important - this is a rewrite of the original i made a couple months ago so ignore them they’ll be deleted shortly after uploading this!.
your quirk : telekinesis, you can make yourself float and occasionally fly, your hair lifts up as well, you can use your hands and mind but usually use your hands since it stabilizes the power, you can also transfer power into any limb you desire which gives it strength for however long. if you use too much your nose bleeds and you can faint.
listen to: cigarette daydreams | cage the elephant please never fall in love again | ollie mn let’s fall in love for the night | finneas these are all on my “bakugou.” playlist on my spotify : VIYA
“the girls are going to be here in 10 minutes sooo why don’t we play truth or dare until then!” denki smirked looking around the circle of boys.
(this game is a little different, you spin a bottle and whoever it lands on first has to ask the second person it lands on and the second person picks a piece of a paper out a bowl getting either “T"or “D”, there are more truths in the bowl than dare”).
“seems cool!” kirishima agreed sipping his soda as sero and some others agreed, “bakubroo you in?” denki widened his eyes at him mimicking a cat “do i have a choice?”.
“no no you do not!” the electric blonde concluded, groaning he mumbled out a “fine.” making the boys cheer.
sero placed a bottle in the centre of the circle, the first time it landed on kirishima and then todoroki who picked out a piece of paper with a small “T” written on it. “hmm todoroki, who’s your best friend?” as soon as the question left the red-heads mouth everyone groaned knowing the answer.
“y/n” he stated. “WE ALREADY KNEW THAT SHITTY HAIR” the angry blonde yelled with a frown, “i wanted to start off easy!!” kirishima defended sheepishly.
the next round the bottle landed on sero and bakugou who got truth, “bakugou, who out of the girls do you find a worthy opponent to spar with” sero smirked knowingly, “probably l/n, before either of you say shit it’s because she doesn’t hold back” the boy defended.
“ugh i love y/n, i think i annoy her though” denki thought out loud pouting, “that’s because you record her doing random things because it gets you views” ojiro laughed thinking back to all the times you scolded him for it.
“HEY WELL, i didn’t know she’d be so popular on tiktok when i first included her, and all she did was glare at the camera” he fake sobbed.
“did you not see the tiktoks after kacchan’s spar with her? they just sat out of breath sweaty and that got millions of views” midoriya spoke pointing at bakugou.
denki shrugged muttering a quiet “not fair”. once again the bottle spun landing on kirishima and denki, “denki who do you like” he immediately blurted out, “i thought that was obvious?.. jirou”.
“was that meant to be a secret?!” bakugou raised an eyebrow at the red-head, “I DIDN’T KNOW MAN!” he yelled in fake annoyance as everyone laughed.
this time the bottle landed on denki and bakugou who finally got a dare, “FINALLY OKAY, time to give you an impossible dare” the electric boy cackled with a hand on his chin in thought, “i dare you to make y/n fall in love with you!”… silence.
“don’t you think that’s a bit harsh” midoriya whispered, “hey cmon y/n doesn’t have time for boys or need them, bakugou will finally fail at something” he smiled at the blonde who only rolled his eyes.
“seems like a shitty idea” he stated as todoroki agreed, “c’monn bakugou you’re not a chickdn are you?” denki teased clucking.
“coward” he added making the blonde glare, “FINE” he yelled, the other boys groaned shaking their heads.
and as if on cue you walked in.
you raised a brow at the unnerving silence sitting in between midoriya and todoroki who made space for you, mina waltzed in after followed by the other girls ‘what’s with the silence” mina said in a sing-song voice.
“we’re playing truth or dare tonight” todoroki explained to you as you felt a pair of eyes on you, many actually as if waiting for you to do something.
“what?” you questioned as the boys quickly shook their heads you sat with your legs crossed staring into the ceiling “you just look very pretty” sero quickly made up an excuse not lying.
“thanks sero” you mumbled as uraraka hugged you from behind muttering something in your ear “bakugou keeps staring at you” she giggled, you rolled your eyes slightly at her antics turning back to the circle “so?”.
“sooo you’d look cute together” she smirked giving you a quick forehead kiss crawling back to her place before you could push her away groaning.
a couple rounds went by, this time landing on denki and bakugou, “dare again bakugou!, i dare you to kiss the person opposite to you”.
the room went silent looking at the person opposite him, unfortunately that was you and you were trying to fix a thread loose on todoroki’s shirt, “y/n” he looked at you as you gave up using your hands and tried using your quirk instead “shut up i’ve got this” you spoke looking up.
“oh shit, who died” you sat down as the circle peered at you, “apparently you” jirou snickered, “why did i die” you asked a little scared, “you have to kiss a pomeranian” momo answered grimacing.
“fuck i got a dare? we don’t have a-” but you shut up as she pointed to the pomeranian in question.
denki burst out laughing as you sighed staring at the boy, i mean this couldn’t be too bad right.. at least it isn’t mineta.
you basically chanted the last sentence in your head as the group pushed you into the middle.
thankfully the music in the background meant it wouldn’t be completely silent so you stared as you both kneeled in front of each other, “surprised you’re not screaming” you joked.
he rolled his eyes staring at your features “yeah me too” he boldly stated, you inched your face closer to his, his face now a shoe away but before you could come any closer he grabbed your jaw with his thumb and pointer immediately pressing his lips to yours.
you flinched a little in surprise but relaxed into it, he momentarily pulled away noses still touching and placed another hand behind your neck to deepen the kiss prodding his tongue at your lips as if asking you for permission which you granted but only for a second, you pulled away first.
his hand left your jaw as his eyes met yours, his crimson eyes stared into your e/c ones, but you took this as an opportunity to tease him so you looked into one eye switching to the other and then his lips before pushing yourself back into your seat.
the others basically yelled as you both got seated “well” you thought, that wasn’t horrible… you had butterflies.
…
maybe it was the way your heart raced afterwards or the lingering eyes, i mean who wouldn’t feel like that after something as intense as that.
denial.
there was always more to him than just his anger, no his anger was a mask for his insecurities.. was that not obvious or did no one else pay enough attention to him like you do.
nobody else had experienced the blissful moments, the times of calm under the scorching heat, when you’d both fall to the ground sweat covered but content with your training.
“you’ve gotten stronger” it was a fact not surprise, just a fact. “damn right i have” he replied like he would, “but if we still keep tying then you’ve gotten stronger as well”.
the simple things, the little words, sentences he’d add as if to reassure your strength as if to say “you’re doing well too but i’d never admit that so take the hint”.
but you didn’t notice this yet.
it had been about an hour since you kissed the infamous hot head and the game went on as normal, “y/n you have to make a thirst-trap with me” you choked on your peach tea as shoto patted your back accompanied by midoriyas furious patting as if you were on deaths door.
you sighed burying your head in your hands as your friends cackled.
“y/n you look tired” todoroki stated turning to the time, “deku and i trained a little late” you yawned as the green haired boy snored on your shoulder.
“baku-bro if you stare at him like that any longer he’s going to have a nightmare” kirishima nervously laughed as the blonde scoffed at midoriya turning away.
“i think i’m going to go up to my dorm” you told the dual-haired boy getting up, you lifted midoriya with your quirk swinging him over your shoulder so his head was in the crook of your neck, “do you need some help y/n?” todoroki asked as you broke the circle from the group.
“yeah can you open the door”, the boy did just that as the others said goodnight.
“sleep well greeny” you lifted midoriya onto the bed, staring curiously at all his all might figures, “having fun?” a familiar voice spoke making you flinch slightly at the voice amidst the near silent snores.
“not particularly” you replied swiftly shaking the blanket from under the duvet and placing it over your friend but just as you did that his arms reached out grabbing you and hauling you onto the bed.
you stared wide eyed before the blonde burst into silent mocking laughter with his hand over his stomach, you grumbled at him attempting to wiggle out only making him laugh harder, “fucking help!” you whisper yelled at him waving your arms around. bakugou raised an eyebrow “say please”, you glared attempting to wiggle out again only for his eyes to tighten.
“you know what i’ll stay here” you fake smiled snuggling up to midoriya, at that bakugou had enough, he stomped over and grabbed your arm and pulled, nothing.
“oh” he stated realising, “yeah, i’ll get his left arm you get his right” you sighed, “don’t tell me what to do!!” which made you groan at his stubborn nature.
“fine stubborn, let’s do the fucking opposite”
“no just do what you said!”.
“i fucking hate you”.
minutes later and you’re finally out of the small green boy’s grasp, “i’m gonna go up now, goodbye” you said after thanking bakugou, the guy you didn’t talk to very often other than sparring or when its convenient for you both.
“you’re not tired” he caught up to you walking up to the elevator towards your floor, “you clearly are”.
“i guess, answer me” he rubbed his head well past his bedtime.
“no i’m not tired” he glanced over to you as you pressed the button up to your shared floor, “then what do you do when you’re not tired?”
“game usually” you replied shrugging, “like?”.
“genshin mostly, i stream with denks a lot” he nodded as you opened your doors at the end of the hall opposite each other.
“see you tomorrow bakugou” he hesitated in responding, as if he wanted to say something else, “sparky asked me to join so i’ll join the damn party, invite me” he demanded before closing the door.
“nice conversation bakugou” you laughed at the closed door.
…
“denki, invite bakugou” you twizzled around in your chair loading into genshin, “he wants to play?!” denki questioned, “i was surprised too”.
“yayyy!” he screamed as bakugou joined with a ping.
“i’ll win at this game” was the first thing he said clearly not having played before.
“bakugou you don’t win at genshin, well you can level up and i guess surpass us?” you explained hearing the complaints of the tired angry blonde, “fine i can do that”.
2 hours in and this was a nightmare the blonde still had not grasped the concept of artifacts and also found ruin guards horrifying.. but would never admit it.
“FUCK ITS ONE OF THEM, THINGSSHITSHITSHIT” you stifled your laughter running over to your struggling friend “you’re good, now denks where are-”
“y/n?” you turned to your door only to be greeted by midoriya, “oh hi izuku” hitting the mute button you turned to him, “hey y/n! thank you for carrying me up, i move a lot in my sleep” he laughed leaning over you watching you play as bakugou yelled into the mic about “damn deku” being there.
“sorry that noise is only denki using his vacuum.. they spilt popcorn everywhere” you smiled ignoring the growing pest in your mic, “just wanted to ask whether you wanted me to stay again” midoriya asked, you had both been been having nightmares but it only happened when you slept in your own beds, so you swapped every now and then.
“i’m not planning on sleeping, i’ll probably train later so you should sleep, i feel bad keeping you up”. you smiled apologetic.
“nono! its been fun, really if you ever need me i’m here!, plus i sleep better here” he added quietly still watching your game play, “in that case you can sleep here”.
“really, i don’t want to-” - “no really if i want to sleep i’ll just take your bed don’t worry”.
midoriya smiled giving you one last thank you before disappearing behind you.
your attention back on your two friends,
“y/n…”denki’s voice pierced the mic,
“yes”,
“can i come to your room?”,
“why?”,
,“wanna say goodnight!!” you could hear the pout through the screen,
“no”,
KNOCK KNOCK
“denki go away!” you smiled as the door shook from the weight of the knocks, “NOT DENKI!” a gruff voice yelled through the wood, “fuck” you sighed getting up.
you lodged your foot in the door so if bakugou tried pushing it open he couldn’t get in, through the slight crack he eyed you “what are you doing?!”.
“i’ve been playing genshin with you for the past couple hours..” you raised an eyebrow watching the boy swing his arms around as if animated.
“let me come in!!”.
“no”.
“i need to talk to you!”
“then talk” you laughed at his growing rage, he growled once again attempting to open the door, “come downstairs.” and with that he let go of the door.
“what was that?” midoriya turned over rubbing his eyes with a hint of sleep in his voice “just some angry dog, i’ll be back soon” you replied as he took no notice too tired to question anything.
“hey y/n! wanna play with us” kirishima smiled watching you walk down the stairs “sure”.
“can you help bakugou out he doesn’t know how to play but won’t ask for help” he scratched the back of his head pointing towards the bakusquad sitting in front of the tv.
bakugou looked up at you you sat next to him, “you’re pressing the wrong buttons”- “NO THE FUCK I-” you carefully moved his fingers to the right buttons and sat back in your place.
“i play a bit too much” you spoke as he stared at where your hands once were, “train with me tomorrow” he mumbled picking his character, “sure” you stiffled a smile leaning your head back onto the sofa.
“y/n..” you turned back to the blonde his face a little closer than expected, you held your breath not daring to look away “yeah” he looked towards you which is when you turned away, he’s pretty.
“if you say shit i’ll kill you, but show me how to play”, you put your hands over his and moved each finger where it needed to be, not realising his eyes lingering on your face rather than the screen, “pay attention” you grinned watching him huff in offence.
“wasn’t looking at you” he said in almost a whispering manner “mmhm”.
“i’m gonna sleep actually” you told him about to stand up “where”.
“what?” his eyes flickered over to yours “i’ll come”.
at this moment you didn’t think anything of it completely forgetting you’d be going to deku’s room.
I just had a sad realization about the MHA universe and I think it’s so very sad.
TW: Mentions of suicide
I was watching a TikTok about which anime world you’d want to live in and I said “Fairy Tail” because you can actually pick witch magic you study and your life won’t be flashing before your eyes every two seconds.
I also thought about My Hero Academia universe and how I wasn’t going to risk be part of the 20% of the quirkless population. I actually said aloud “I’d rather die than be in a world were people can fly and breathe fire when I’m quirkless”. It hit me that a lot of people (especially kids) have actually committed suicide because of that reason. We all want to be accepted by society so they probably felt hopeless. And remember when Bakugo told Deku to jump off the roof? In that scene I think he actually contemplated doing it.
I just really think it’s sad that some people will off themselves because they don’t feel like they belong anywhere. I know we are all quirkless in this world, but a lot of people feel like they don’t fit in. I want you to know that you don’t have to be special for your life to have worth. I want you alive and I love you. Even if I don’t know you, I want you to keep living. If not for me, then do it for your future. ❤️❤️❤️
wc: 2.2k | gn reader | angst to fluff+smut | warnings: jealousy, arguing, hickeys, thigh riding, slight choking
> you can come and get your things tomorrow. (2:12 pm)
shoto rolled his eyes at your message before slipping his phone into his coat pocket. it seemed that you were a lot more upset about your argument last week than he had thought. he didn’t think you had really meant it when you suggested ending things that night. since then, shoto had gone back to his family’s estate, wanting to give you space before he would return and talk things through with you.
it was just a silly argument. that’s how he remembered it, at least. that night he had been so exhausted, wanting nothing more than to sleep off the stresses of the day but you were adamant on arguing with him about something as trivial as an offhand joke.
ignoring the usual stares and whispers coming from the people around him, shoto paid for his items and left the shop to make his way to your apartment. you may have told him to come tomorrow, but he knew better than to let the situation fester any longer. he had already let too much time go by and knowing how stubborn you were, he wasn’t going to get on your good side easily.
when he got to your door, he didn’t bother knocking and immediately entered the passcode he had grown accustomed to using for months. it was his and your birth months. that always made him smile. but instead of hearing the familiar click of the door unlocking, there was silence as the numbers on the keypad flashed red.
you changed the code.
tension gripped him tight as he briefly considered the possibility that you might actually be done with him. it took everything in shoto to refrain from simply freezing the lock and kicking your door down. instead, he let out a deep breath and calmed down before knocking. you probably would have loved to get a rise out of him like that. luckily he was in a good mood and only wanted to make amends with you.
he might not have shown it enough but shoto loved you deeply, you were the first relationship he had taken seriously after all. it was curious, the effect a stubborn, quirkless assistant had on him. not that he would ever admit that.
“who is it?” you drawled from the other side.
“it’s me.”
shoto heard some shuffling from inside before your footsteps drew closer. when you opened the door, the sight of you made the already strained grin on his face fall.
before him, you stood in an outfit too dressy for just spending the day off lounging around your apartment like usual. you looked like you put a little more effort than necessary into your appearance. you preferred not to go out much and you didn’t know he was coming today so why were you dressed so nicely? whowere you dressed so nicely for?
his expression now dark, shoto shifted his gaze behind you to scan for any signs of another person in the apartment.
“um, what are you doing here? i told you to come tomorrow,” you said nervously, slightly closing the door to obstruct his view.
unsettled by your behavior, shoto shoved the flowers he had gotten you into your hands and pushed his way inside. he quickly noticed the two wine glasses on the counter and the low music playing in the living room.
“yeah? so you can have a little fun with whatever asshole you have in here?” shoto seethed.
you calmly watched as he made his way through your apartment, stomping furiously in search of what he most likely suspected was a secret lover. after he ripped open your bedroom door, a sly grin played on your lips. you had succeeded. so that was what a jealous shoto todoroki looked like.
you delicately set your favorite flowers on the counter as he continued opening every single door in your apartment. he even looked under the bed. shoto heard you giggling behind him and whipped around to face you. when you saw the absolute fury in his eyes, however, you began to rethink your whole plan.
“who the hell was here with you, y/n?” he stalked closer to you.
a chill ran down your spine and you mentally scrambled to decide whether to continue your game or defuse the situation. of course, no one had actually been there with you. all you wanted to do was give him a taste of his own medicine and make him feel how you did.
last week you were both at an event honoring shoto and a few of his colleagues for their achievements as heroes. things were going fine until one of his friends, denki, had made a joke that rubbed you the wrong way.
“is this your date, todoroki? wow, what a looker! i hope you told your work-wife momo about them, you player.”
you knew it was a joke but when shoto only laughed along and made no move to reassure you, along with the fact that you caught momo blushingat him all night,your jealousy flared. when you confronted shoto about it later on, all he did was give you a bored shrug and say it was just denki being an idiot. maybe he was, but you weren’t. you knew momo would have loved to be with shoto, her self-admitted crush back in high school. in fact, the whole country already shipped the two heroes together romantically. it had never really bothered you until then.
in a moment of insecurity and frustration, you told shoto you couldn’t date someone so unconcerned about your feelings and suggested breaking up. the words had just spilled out of your mouth before you could stop yourself. you thought he would tell you that he was sorry, that he loved you and you alone. you didn’t expect him to give you a blank expression before grabbing his keys and leaving.
“i’m not doing this with you right now. you’re being ridiculous, y/n.” he had said.
angry and hurt, you spent the following week ignoring his existence at the agency and shooting him glares when he wasn’t looking. you knew he wasn’t seeing momo behind your back or anything, but when he spent a whole day patrolling with her and still hadn’t tried to speak to you… you wanted to get even. it was petty, but your feelings were hurt. and not wanting to be the first one to apologize, you decided to pull a harmless prank on him instead.
but as you stared at him in that moment, when he looked so furious and on the brink of possibly burning down your apartment, you regretted it all.
“answer me, y/n.”
“no one! i’m sorry!” you admitted. “it was just a joke! nobody was here!”
his deadly expression didn’t falter. “a joke.”
“i wanted to make you jealous… because i was still mad… about before.” you cringed, feeling childish as you uttered the words.
shoto let out a frustrated sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound right now?”
you wished you hadn’t apologized. your anger was reignited and you were taken back to that night all over again.
“stop calling me ridiculous! you’re the one with a side-chick at work! now you know how i felt! you’re lucky i didn’t really have someone here. maybe i should-”
before you could even finish, shoto had grabbed you and thrown you over his shoulder effortlessly before making his way to your bedroom. “wait-shoto!”
you let out a huff as he dropped you onto your bed. just as you were about to sit up, shoto straddled you, his knees trapping your legs in place and his hands pinning yours above your head.
“so you think i’m fucking yaoyorozu? is that it?”
he was so close you almost couldn’t think straight. in that position, you were embarrassed but didn’t want to give him the upper hand by reacting, so you turned your face away from him defiantly.
that was a mistake. shoto only chuckled darkly before pressing his lips to your neck, inching closer and closer to the spot under your ear that always made you melt. that combined with his hips on top of yours had you reeling.
“don’t tell me you actually believe that,” he whispered against your skin.
“maybe. you don’t even care abou-” a gasp escaped you when he bit down on your neck before smoothing over the spot with his tongue.
“when have i ever given you a reason to think that i want anyone else, hm?”
you halfheartedly struggled in his grasp, wanting to have an actual discussion with him but desperately aching for more of his touch. it was as if he had filled your every sense, clouding your judgment. he was so addicting and he knew it. you were sure that if you just gave in, shoto would give you everything you wanted. when he repositioned himself so that one of his knees was in between your legs, you knew it was over.
“oh my god…fuck,” you whined, slowly grinding your hips against him.
shoto stopped his assault on your neck and pulled away. he looked down at you and shook his head disapprovingly despite the smirk on his face.
“no, baby. we’re talking, remember? finish that sentence.”
you almost forgot what you were even upset about until he slid his knee away, taking your pleasure along with it.
“no, no, no,” you begged. “i’m sorry, sho. please.”
warmth and triumph spread through his chest at your words. you never had to beg him too much, he’d always given you what you wanted. but after a week apart, he wanted to enjoy your desperation a little longer.
unpinning one of your hands, shoto slowly trailed his fingers down the side of your face before gently gripping your neck. “say it.”
“what?”
“earlier, you were saying ‘maybe i should…’ maybe you should what, baby?”
letting out a frustrated sigh, you turned your face away. “maybe i should…call midoriya cute nicknames at work too.”
shoto’s eye twitched. he didn’t think you’d say something like that. and he really didn’t think you’d dare to utter another man’s name in bed- especially his best friend’s name.
“i know this was stupid.. i just… i have to hear about you and her being perfect together so much. and when you didn’t even care that i was upset it hurt my feelings.”
his anger immediately depleted, shoto smiled down at you softly before kissing your forehead. he wasn’t really tempted to tease you anymore after seeing the distant look in your eyes. the fact was that shoto didn’t want momo. he felt nothing even remotely romantic towards her, so when you were jealous last week, he found the whole idea insulting and a waste of time. he hadn’t even come up with that stupid nickname and certainly never called momo his work-wife. that combined with him already being so exhausted with work, he didn’t care to argue about it.
he knew he shouldn’t have left that night and even planned on apologizing the next day, but when he saw how adorably determined you were to give him the cold shoulder, he decided to play along. if he had known you were truly hurt, he would never have let you go a week thinking he didn’t care.
wanting to make it up to you, shoto slid his thigh back up between your legs and grabbed your hips to move you just how you liked it. "i don’t want anyone else, y/n. you know that right?”
’“i- i know,” you moaned in response. “but she wants you.”
“well that’s just too bad,” he leaned down again to press a kiss to your lips. “because i only love you.”
you shuddered at his words, pleasure pooling in your lower stomach. sensing how close you were, shoto slid his hand into your jeans and between your legs while he deepened the kiss, hurling you toward your orgasm. he swallowed your moans in his mouth and let out a pleasured sound of his own at the taste. he was unbearably hard, but you were all that mattered at the moment and he had all night to make up for lost time.
as you caught your breath, shoto settled himself beside you and gently pulled you into him to rest your head on his chest. after sitting in comfortable silence for a while, he spoke.
“i’m sorry about that night. i didn’t mean to hurt you. i love you, y/n. so much and i shouldn’t have left you alone. i should have been there for you after you told me how you felt. i never want you to have doubts like that again. will you forgive me?”
he felt you smile against him as you let out a hum.
“i love you too, sho. but don’t let anyone be called your work-wife or whatever else.” you hugged him a little tighter. “you’re mine.”
gazing down at you lovingly, shoto lightly traced his fingers up and down your back and kissed the top of your head. “of course. i’m yours. only yours.”
you exhaled, satisfied. “same.”
“are you sleepy?” he asked teasingly.
“i don’t like being mad at you, it’s tiring.”
“hm. you changed the door code. i almost panicked.”
“i was being dramatic…” you murmured. “i didn’t think you’d react like that though. i thought i really messed up.”
“you were enjoying some of it.”
“maybe just a little.”
shoto grinned. “you’re ridicu-”
before he could finish, you rolled on top of him and claimed his lips with your own.
A/N: just a quick fic while i work on getting out of a writer’s block with my other stories. my friend’s bf said he had a “work wife” last week and we were like… what.. i need to write more for bnha anyway. i’m also working on some 'getting back together’ headcanons for bnha and haikyu so those might be up soon! ᵔ◡ᵔ
Warnings: Angst, mentions of death, fluff in a way?
A/N: Unedited af cause my computer was fighting with me, Also contains spoilers
~~~
Arguing was a daily occurrence now. Not a day goes by without an argument. It was like second nature at this point. Wake up, argue throughout the entire day, then go back to bed to only repeat the same cycle over and over again. You didn’t know what to do. Even if you tried to avoid him, there was always something that he brought up. You’ll admit, sometimes you wondered if he even liked you with all the vile things he’d say to you. So you just did your best to dream of a time when you guys were talking instead of fighting.
~~~
Silence. You never thought you would enjoy it as much as you were now. You were lying down on the rooftop of the base and looking at the stars. The only sound that rang through your ears was the sound of your own heartbeat. It would have been pitch black if it weren’t for the stars in the sky. It was so calming, so different. You finally felt at peace, knowing nothing could ruin such a moment.
While looking at the stars, a feeling raised in your chest, and a thought entered your mind. Sure, you thought about such a thing before, but why now did it cause such a pain in your chest? Maybe cause you finally knew what you had to do and that waiting any longer will only cause the pain to get worse. Plus, there’s no reason to stay when all he does is say how much he doesn’t need you. How he wished he’d never met you.
All the wasted nights crying and going to bed angry were not worth it anymore. The dark circles under your eyes and small white hairs appeared in your hair. You weren’t trying to age any faster, and you were for sure weren’t about to waste the rest of your life with a man who doesn’t love you.
Standing up, you looked at the stars and took a deep breath asking them for luck before leaving. The sounds of your footsteps made your heart beat faster, knowing that what you were about to do could change the course of your life for the better. Sighing, you grab your phone and shoot him a text telling him to meet you at the park where you guys first met. You could feel your eyes water remembering such a time when you were so much happier.
“What are you doing here by yourself?”You asked the man sitting on the swing.
“Why aren’t you running in fear? Calling the cops? I know you saw what I look like and who I am.” His gravelly voice only made you chuckle as you sat next to him on the other swing.
“So you did see me checking you out? Was it that obvious?”
“Checking me out?”
“Of course, silly! If I really wanted to call the cops, wouldn’t they be here by now? Plus, I say me and you have much in common.” You could see his eyes widen at your words. You smile at his reaction.
“What could me and you have in common?”
“Well, I suppose we share the same views. It’s nice to see someone actually voice what’s truly wrong with hero society. So many people are brainwashed into thinking that they can do no wrong. It’s sad as it is sickening.” For once, Shigaraki Tomura had felt something other than hatred in his chest as he listened to your words.
“Not to mention how brave it was to attack USJ. You are the first person to even pull such a stunt. It’s admirable, really.”
He didn’t know what to say. He was so shocked to find someone who shared the same views as him and not Stains. Not to mention how you praised him, telling him how you were impressed. He was never told such things by anyone other than his master. So, for someone as breathtaking as you to say you were impressed and admired him, it gave him newfound confidence to crush the hero society. He would make a world where villains reined supreme and maybe, just maybe, with you by his side.
You sat at the same swing you did so long ago. Hearing his footsteps come up from behind you made you tense, but you quickly collected yourself. He sat at the same swing he did as well before looking at you with a scowl on his face.
“What do you want, and why did you text me to come here?” His voice snapped at you. At the moment, you thought about backing out, but you knew you couldn’t now. It was now or never.
“I think we should break up.” Those words felt like venom coming out of your mouth. Despite how much shit he’s done, you still loved him deep down in your heart. You’ll admit, you weren’t no saint either. When you guys would fight, both of you would say shit that you knew would hurt the other person. You didn’t want to be that person anymore. You didn’t want to be the person who brought up bad things from a person’s past. You wanted change. Even if said change meant leaving who you felt like was the love of your life.
“What?”
“I said I think we should break up.” It was quiet. Too quiet. You could hear a pin drop even if you were in the bustling city.
“What, did you change your mind on how you view hero society? Typical should have expected it from you. Stupid of me to think anybody would understand.” You felt rage bottle up inside of you. Did he really not see what a shit show your relationship had turned into? Did he really jump into blaming you for something you both had equally participated in?
“You saying shit like that is the reason why Shigaraki. We can’t even have a normal conversation anymore that doesn’t include fighting or-”
“-Or what?”
“That exactly! Interrupting one another. Talking over the other! We can’t even sit in the same room together without one of us picking a fight! I know I’m no saint. I know that I have done shit wrong. Despite me still hating hero society and still agreeing with your views, I just can’t do it anymore. I can’t let myself turn into someone that I don’t recognize.” You stood up from the swing. You clutched your fists as tears started to spill from your eyes.
“You sound so pathetic! If you really agreed with my views, you’d know that there is no room in this society that allows people with such shitty morals to have a fun life. Or hell a life at all!” You could hear him going on and on. Your fists were shaking as you struggled not to turn back and scream at him, but you just wanted to get it over with, and then maybe finally would you be able to sleep well at night.
“Despite what you think of me or say of me, I’m not listening to it. I’m tired of the arguing, the sleepless nights, and the fear I feel when you leave for days on a mission and not text me.” Your voice turned shaky as the sound of your sobs could finally be heard.
“I love you. I love you so fucking much Shigaraki. So much that there’s not enough stars in the sky to explain how deep my love is for you. It’s you who I want to wake up next to every morning. It’s you who I want to spend the rest of my life with. Even after this, I will never stop loving you. I’ll love you till the day I die, but I can’t do this anymore.” You turn around and start walking towards the bright street lights.
“Goodbye Shigaraki. I hope your dream comes true. I believe in you.” You turn around and send him a smile before walking down the street and away from his view.
He watched you leave his view. Watched as the swing you were just sitting on finally come to a halt before it finally hit him. The emotions he was so desperately trying to hide came over him like a wave. He grabbed his chest at where his heart should be before letting out a cry of anguish.
He fell off the swing and to his knees before tears streamed down his face. His whole body was shaking as his sobs rang through his ears. It hurt so fucking much. He’s never felt this type of hurt since the incident so many years ago. Now, once again, he was all alone.
He was angry with himself. Why did he have to say that? Maybe if he would have tried to be understanding you might still be in his life but no. His pride got the best of him and said things he truly didn’t mean. He just said it in the heat of the moment. He didn’t know how to diffuse a situation. He didn’t know how to communicate properly. And now thanks to that, he ruined another good thing in his life.
Even if he didn’t say it much, he loved you too. He loved you so much that would die for you. He wanted to wake up every morning knowing that you were proud to call him yours. You were the one he wanted by his side as he took down hero society. You were his everything, and now, he couldn’t tell you how much you truly meant to him. And knowing that, only made him cry harder.
~~~
It was hard the first few months. You thought the sleepless night would stop after you left, but now, you’d cry yourself to sleep. Despite desperately trying to move on with your life, you just couldn’t find a way to get over him. Everything only seemed to remind you of him. From walking by happy couples to looking at videos on the internet. It didn’t help that most of the shows on tv revolved around him. Talking about what his next attack was or would be.
You would be lying if you said you didn’t watch them. It wasn’t healthy in the slightest but you couldn’t help but worry. You still loved him after all, you wanted to know that he was okay.
When video footage of him would come out of him attacking a hero, he didn’t even seem bothered by the fact that you weren’t alongside him. Of course, you knew that he wouldn’t let things like that get him unfocused from his missions. Besides, he seemed more calculated than when you were with him. Like he was focused more. In every fight with a hero that’s come crossed him, he always managed to win, even if that meant the hero losing their life or being wounded to the point that they couldn’t raise an arm.
You were so proud of him. From an impulsive man going into battle without thinking, to someone who plans his next decision carefully. He’s grown so much in the past few months. He’s even managed to take down the Shie Hassakai leader and quite literally took the only way to use his quirk. He’s even grown a sense of style and ditched the ragged black clothes that he use to wear. He was still beautiful in your eyes, no matter what he wore and nothing could change that.
~~~
You’ve never left his mind since that day. No matter what, his mind would always race back to you. It didn’t help how you left things in his room when you broke up with him. When he figured out that you left some clothes in his room, he slept with a shirt that you always wore since it was your favorite. It still after all these months, had your scent on it. While he was looking around the shared room, he noticed something peeking out from under the bed. Once he grabbed it, it felt like he’d been punched in the gut.
It was a picture of you and him. He remembered when you took this picture even. You guys decided to go to an arcade for a celebration of a mission that went well. You took this picture after he had just won a game that allowed you to get the giant stuffie on the top shelf. In your excitement, you pulled out your phone and took a picture of you both, and at the last minute, you kissed his cheek.
He didn’t know where you got this printed but he wasn’t complaining. He took out the picture carefully before folding it up and putting it in his pocket. Now, you would be with him everywhere he went. You would always be by his side cheering him on.
He would do it all for you no matter what he did now. Even if you didn’t know it, he would make you proud and maybe be able to forgive himself for not telling you how much you meant to him.
~~~
The war was all anyone could think about. Worrying about all the heroes who were sacrificing their lives. Worrying about what could happen if the villains truly won. Cries of fear could be heard when people realized how much the heroes were truly up against.
But all you could do was cheer them on.
You watched as they destroyed everything in their path and showed the hero societies’ true colors. Showing them that secrets are never hidden and will always come out. You cried tears of joy when you saw them standing tall and proud.
All of them gave it their all and showed society how they failed. Showing them that they were more than just villains. Showing that even if hero society failed them, they will always have a found family.
You could even remember jumping off the couch when you saw him.
Even after everything he’s been through, he’s still managing to stand tall. He’s worked hard to get where he is and it all payed off.
Watching as the news revealed that the heroes had fled. That they couldn’t defeat the bad guys. That hero society isn’t as strong as the brainwashed people were lead to believe.
You could feel tears well in your eyes as you saw Shigaraki standing tall. Victorious, knowing that it had all payed off. And in that moment, a smile reached your face as you looked at the TV.
“I always knew you could do it. I love you so much Tomura.” you turn off the tv before heading to your bedroom, not before looking out the window.
I absolutely loved working on this piece for darkestlordsaroon’s work for the @bnhawhump bang 2021! Please go check out the accompanying fic! It hurts so good~
Ayeeeeee, I actually wrote something! I’m proud (kinda). It’s a Hawks x reader one shot kinda thing and I finished it today. I’ll edit and post it tomorrow so stay tuned for that. It’s kind of angsty but not a lot (Atleast in my opinion).
Don’t forget, askbox is opennn (pls send me stuff I’m desperate and can’t find the creativity to find my own ideas). Also I forgot to mention this, please be specific as to what you are requesting (like what you want the story to be about) I will not be doing any broad request (unless I’m feeling creative)
You knew what you were going to do was wrong. You knew this could ruin your relationship with Shoto forever. This could end in two ways: he broke your heart or you broke the trust he has in you.
You shouldn’t give Shoto Veritaserum without his consent. You never thought you were going to get to this point. You were desperate and you need to know the truth. You need to know if he loves you or he is only with you because his father wants that. You couldn’t marry Shoto without knowing it first.
“Do you love me?” you asked after seeing how he finished drinking the glass of wine that you had served him.
A part of you already knew the answer. Shoto’s eyes never transmitted love to you, his kisses were scarce and when he gave them they seemed to be more out of obligation than out of love, and if his kisses were scarce not to mention his “masters” who felt empty. In the first months of your relationship, you thought that over time I would be more open with his feelings. But the years passed and everything remained the same, you didn’t believe that he really loved you. For a moment you had hope when he proposed to you but he didn’t even seem interested in the wedding. Every time you asked him something like What flowers do you prefer? o What flavor should the cake be? He told you that you would choose what you like the most. Hell, even Enji seemed more interested in always asking when the wedding would be.
“No” the answer came so naturally from their lips that they were both surprised.
No further questions were required. You had what you wanted to know. Without saying a word you got up from the table, ignoring Shoto’s calls, and left. There was no point staying to listen to him, what explanation was he going to give you? He had lied to you for years. No matter what Shoto said, the damage was done.
I made a kofi so if you want you can help me by giving me a tip or asking for a commission: https://ko-fi.com/mai_dragoste
Summary: Hogwarts AU. You end up in the infirmary.
“Eijiro, you have to go,” you said trying to sound serious but clearly couldn’t take you seriously when you were smiling. But you couldn’t help it when your boyfriend had you in his arms and wouldn’t stop kissing you “Eijiro, I have to go to the library and you have to go to Quidditch practice”
“But I want to be with you” I smile at you.
“We both know that if you come with me you won’t let me study” you try to get away from him “Besides, Tetsutetsu will get angry if you miss practice again”
“Kirishima!”
And just talking about the king of Rome.
“Go, I’ll see you at dinner.” You gave him one last kiss before your boyfriend was dragged away by Tetsutetsu.
But the next time Kirishima saw you it wasn’t at dinner. But in the infirmary. When Mina appeared in the middle of practice and just by looking at her face she knew that something bad had happened to you.
Hogwarts was supposed to be like your second home, you were supposed to be safe. Lies.
Kirishima hated seeing you like this. The red nose, the irritated eyes, and your face full of tears. The worst thing was the embarrassed expression you had. He killed him to see you so destroyed. Shit, you hadn’t done anything wrong. You were not to blame for anything. You are perfect and because of some idiots, you felt ashamed for your roots, for being a muggle daughter. And that was not the worst, the worst thing is that those sons of bitches cornered you and left you marked as if you were won.
Helplessness, disappointment, pain. That was what Eijiro felt. Impotence because he couldn’t do anything because he hadn’t been with you to defend you. Disappointment because he promised that he would never let someone hurt you and now you are in the infirmary with your arm marked with “Mudblood”. Pain because it broke his heart that of all people you had to suffer this.
“I’m sorry” he apologized looking at her hands.
“Hey, it’s not your fault,” you said instantly.
“But…”
“You hurt me?”
“No, but”
You took your boyfriend’s face in your hands making him look you in the eyes “See? You didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t hurt me, it’s not your fault”
“I should comfort you, instead of you comforting me”
“Well, then starts kissing me” you replied making him laugh a little and you felt your chest get hot as it always did when you heard him laugh.
Eijiro listened to you and kissed you. He spent the rest of the afternoon by your side, filling you with sweet words and hugs until Madam Pomfrey told him it was time to go to rest.
You knew it would be difficult for you to overcome the attack but Kirishima was going to be by your side and every day she was going to remind you that your origins are not a bad thing, that you are perfect just the way you are.
Bonus:
“Guys, you don’t have to accompany me everywhere,” you said looking at the Bakusquad.
You hoped that after the episode your boyfriend would hang out with you all the time, he never wanted to leave you alone, but you didn’t expect your friends to follow his example. You couldn’t even go to the bathroom alone, Mina was with you.
If Kirishima had to go to train for Quidditch matches then you had Bakugo, Sero, Mina, and Denki by your side. The truth at first did not bother you, because you were still a bit scared but after they expelled your attackers you expected this to end.
It literally seemed like you had bodyguards, some classmates were afraid to approach you because they were too intimidated by your companions, exactly Bakugo.
“Are you tired of us?” Mina asked putting a hand on her heart dramatically.
“I did not say that”
“But it seems like you are,” Denki said joining Mina’s drama making you sigh.
“Look, guys, I love you but that’s enough”
“Enough of what?” Sero asked playing dumb, if it wasn’t because you were holding hands with Eijiro you would have hit him.
“Enough of being my bodyguards, I can do things alone, they don’t have to always be watching over me, I can defend myself” you answered with a frown.
“We know, baby. But we’re still worried ”Kirishima admitted kissing your hand.
“So there is no way we will leave you alone,” Bakugo announced.
“I hate all of you”
I made a kofi so if you want you can help me by giving me a tip or asking for a commission: https://ko-fi.com/mai_dragoste
Todoroki, Iida, and Kirishima relationship angst :’)
Just some angst/problems that might come up with dating these guys. By the way, this is by no means an attempt to ruin your comfort characters! These are just some ideas on maybe parts of a relationship they wouldn’t be so good at. No one is perfect,either in a relationship or as an individual, and I still really like these characters overall :)))
warnings: trauma, minor angst, slightly unhealthy habits
–
-Todoroki Shoto-
Understandably… anything regarding physical contact is a bit of a weird subject
He had pretty mixed feelings about it at first and the two of you agreed to avoid it. Eventually, he started to get more comfortable with it, and the two of you began doing things like hold hands, hug, and cuddle a bit
No matter how gentle you are, he tenses upon the initial contact and then slowly relaxes
He’s so softwhen you touch him. He wraps his limbs around you, buries his head in the crook of your neck, and blushes softly as he drinks in all the physical contact he never got
Sometimes he thanks you for really random stuff, like remembering how he likes his soba. Asking specific questions about his day/how he’s feeling. Letting him talk about his interests. And it isn’t an idle “thx btw” it’s a sincere “thank you, so, so much for doing that, I truly appreciate it” and it kind of breaks your heart how low his standards are for how people treat him
The only reason he’s been seriously addressing his trauma is not that he’s upset about it, but because you’re upset he isn’t upset
The “meet the family” conversation was avoided for so long. If you both have bad home lives, you probably avoid it indefinitely
If you have a good family though, while Todoroki probably had a great time spending time with your family, he probably felt guilty that he couldn’t offer the same to you
He makes up a lot of excuses to his family to avoid putting you in a weird situation. He worries his sister would use you as proof that the family was healing, his brother would probably try to make you side against Endeavor, Endeavor might try to get you to talk to Todoroki for him… no way is he putting you through that
He wasn’t the best at expressing affection at first, but as he began to realize that “wow, you aren’t going to hurt me or try to use me :)” he became more open
-Iida Tenya-
Iida holds himself to SUCH high standards and can be really uptight, and I don’t just mean in terms of his hero work and academics, but in terms of being a boyfriend too
He wants to be the model boyfriend: strong, supportive of you, protective, encouraging, funny, charming, good at planning dates, romantic, calm and cool, etc
Sometimes the of you can laugh about it — Iida’s bad flirty lines, Iida’s list of your likes/dislikes, how dramatic he is about little things
Other times… you can’t laugh. Depending on the type of person you are, you might like how organized and list-based Iida’s dates are, or at least appreciate the work that goes into them. Or, you might be annoyed out of your mind, wondering why the two of you can’t just say “hey let’s hang out” without Iida making an itinerary
If he ever forgot an important relationship-related event like an anniversary, birthday, or Valentines Day, he would feel AWFUL and completely freak out about it. Dozens of apologies, trying to act perfect for days on end to make up for it, being especially uptight… you get the idea
Even when he doesn’t mess up, it’s difficult for Iida to really relax into a relationship. After you’ve been dating for a few months, he’s still quite stiff with affection — not because he’s unaccustomed to it, he’s just a naturally tense person
Veryguilty of being a bit of a workaholic and making you feel like… yes, he’s physically there, but he’s not there,like when you finally convinced him to watch your favorite movie, only to see him reviewing notes the entire time
And thinking about the “wow, I saw Iida’s to-do list for today and I’m literally nothing but a box for him to check off” can lead to some real FUN arguments
Sometimes when you cuddle his grip on you is just a little too tight because he’s so worried about something happening to you
-Kirishima Ejiro-
Similar to Iida, Kirishima also puts a lot of pressure on himself to be a good boyfriend
But unlike Iida who gets so worked up that it’s obvious he’s upset, Kirishima is waytoo good at hiding the strain he puts on himself
He could’ve just had the crappiest day of his life, but he’ll force a smile for you, offer to help with your homework, and get you something to drink
He goes so far out of his way to do things for you to show how much he loves you — carrying your books and backpack on top of his, even when his arms are shaking from being overworked; staying up late to talk to you without mentioning that he promised to wake up early to help Bakugou train; letting you have some of his lunch even though he forgot breakfast and will probably end up giving part of his dinner to Kaminari
It isn’t toxic masculinity because Kirishima is certainly still soft on you and in touch with his emotions, but his standards for himself are definitely too high
Part of him knew this wasn’t healthy, but the other, unconfident part of himself convinced him it was worth it every time you bragged to the others about how amazing your boyfriend is
When you realized what Kirishima was doing to himself, you were honestly devastated with yourself for not realizing sooner
And when you confronted Kirishima about it he reacted like a hurt puppy because he thought you were going to break up with him
You two had a long, long chat about communicating boundaries and such
Aside from that, Kirishima is like,,, really, really good with relationships??? He communicates well, is flexible, understanding, etc. Sometimes he does push himself a bit too hard in training or doesn’t feel like he’s good enough for you, but you’re there to cheer him up :)
A/N: So, if you may be curious why this has taken me about 2 weeks, it wasn’t supposed to. Basically, this was originally supposed to be a sort of sequel to the Spiderman Imagines but with different characters in the style of Iron Man. Instead, it became an “I write a 6k word fic about Todoroki that only mildly relates to Iron Man because I didn’t feel like watching the movies.” I may still do those imagines but for now, here’s this.
Characters: Shoto Todoroki x GN Reader
Type: Fluff with a handful of Angst.
Warnings: Mention of guns, descriptions of a hostage situation, and hospitals.
Summary: Marvel AU, the MCU but with BNHA characters and quirks. You’re pretty sure you knew enough about Shoto Todoroki when you suddenly became his personal secretary, but you quickly learn that you were (almost) all wrong.
Word Count: 6k
There were three facts that you knew about Shoto Todoroki when you applied for the newly opened secretary position at his company: he’s an entitled rich boy, a playboy, and a heart-throb.
When you made it through the initial interview, you were ecstatic. Todoroki Industries was a good paying company and even better on any future job applications. When you returned to the large, city building for your second interview, however, your excitement turned into complete nervousness. “This is actually a position to become my personal secretary.” The head of the company Todoroki himself let you know, “We didn’t put that specific information on the application in order to decrease the amount of– ’joke’ applications."
"Would you still be willing to interview for this position?” He concluded. And, when you nodded yes, you learned three real facts about Shoto Todoroki.
1. He’s an entitled rich boy.
Todoroki Industries, since its inception, is a family corporation. As the CEO became too old, the title would be passed on to the most capable son. Needless to say, Todoroki grew up rich, having everything he needed, and likely in the comfort of his father’s expensive homes and planes. So, as his personal secretary, you expected to hear some entirely privileged bullshit come from his mouth that was usually hidden from public ears.
Instead, you were revealed a much bigger secret.
Shoto had a tendency to spend the majority of his day in his office with the door tightly shut. Well, he had informed you that it was unlocked and, “If you need anything, feel free to come in.” Although, his stern expression and voice had made it seem like he really did not want you to enter. So, you almost never did.
Until, you got a call from a particularly important business partner. When you called to transfer the man to your boss, there was no response. You may have never worked at such a high-up position before, but you were pretty sure it would be unprofessional to tell the man to call back later. All of that being the rather simple reason you traveled the short distance to your boss’ shut office doors with your shaking hand hovering just above the wood.
“Todoroki, sir?” You knocked on the door, “You have an important call."
There was no response.
"Is he dead? They didn’t explain what to do if he dies!” You thought.
“Um– I’m going to come in!” You called out. There still was no response.
“He didn’t say I couldn’t come in. So, he can’t get mad! Unless he did say something and I didn’t hear him, oh no–” The door had already been pushed open when you reached that train of thought. But, instead of the stern, icy-glare of the CEO,
… there was no one there, “Huh?”
You were sure you watched him enter the room. He had told you too that he would be busy for a bit, hadn’t he?
“Todoroki, sir?” You awkwardly stepped inside. It was deafeningly silent and brought strums of nervousness throughout your body as you worried about standing alone in the room.
“That guy has already been on hold for long enough– maybe I should just say he’s busy–” Just as you were making the decision to return to the phone call, an odd thump came from the left side of the room.
Your head snapped to the left wall. It wasn’t much different from any other part of the room, there was a set of three bookshelves that were built into the wall with the fourth panel being empty. Although, the longer you stared at the wall, the weirder the fourth panel looked.
“Is that a sliding door?” You were sure you could see the similarities.
“I didn’t even realize there’s a door to that room from here. Have I ever been in that room at all?” Your wondering continued as you approached the wall to confirm its door status. You knew there was a large room-like space next to Todoroki’s office but had been assuming it was just a connected meeting room.
As you were simply scanning the area, an electronic voice suddenly sparked to life. “Welcome, (Y/N) (L/N).” The voice triggered a part of the wooden panel to click, turn, and the whole thing to slide away into another room entirely.
It was highly technical which made sense for the company you were in. But, what you hardly expected was two familiar faces: the stoic face of your boss and the neutral mask of the newest hero “Red Shift”. The hero had only recently begun to grace the city, but they were easily able to take down any villain (quirked or otherwise) with their amazing fire and ice ability.
“Did you need something, (Y/N)?” Shoto easily stood from his previous sitting position. Clearly, he was modifying the suit.
“I um– you have a call…” You weren’t quite sure what to say about it all. Do you mention the elephant in the room or just act like nothing was happening? He was acting pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. Was this in your contract and you just didn’t read it?
“Oh, sorry. I guess I got distracted,” he apologized, “feel free to send the call over."
Even as he stood and began to clear what was previously his workspace, he didn’t mention any of it. "Does he expect me to know what’s going on here? Is he Red Shift? Or does he just make his equipment?” You tried to work out the mess of thoughts in your head.
“Uh– you– what is this?” You tried hard to keep even the slightest image of professionalism at work. But, this instance blew that completely out the window.
“It’s just my equipment?” Todoroki himself seemed confused at your question.
“I don’t believe you mentioned any of this before.” You took a moment to conjure up the words rather than, what you would rather be doing, completely freaking out.
“Oh,” his eyes widened at your words, “sorry, I thought I did."
Whatever he was organizing was completely abandoned in favor of coming up to stand before you, "I’m the hero Red Shift."
"Well, I don’t prefer the name. But, I suppose there’s no point in my identity being secret if I chose a name.” He continued on as though this was some normal reveal.
“I didn't– you– um– why?” You cursed your stuttering and even the question you settled on.
“Why?” He repeated the question.
“I just– didn’t expect you would be a hero.” You hoped he didn’t interpret it in the completely negative way you knew it meant. Why would millionaire, Shoto Todoroki, living in luxury his whole life, ever want to be a hero?
“I guess it could seem odd.” He started, “I’ve seen a lot of bad things happen to innocent people from people like– my father and others like him. So, I felt it should be my responsibility to prevent that when I’m completely capable and have more resources than others."
"Although, I understand that the hero role has generally been held by people within the communities they help. And, there could be some anger seeing that it’s someone like myself in that role instead,” He looked back towards the polished container the empty suit was currently in, “so, I choose to keep my identity a secret for now."
"I know that this could be a lot. Um– feel free to ask any questions you have, but I might need to take that call you mentioned.” He concluded.
“R-right!” The reminder of the call snapped you out of your focus on his story, “I’ll get to that."
"We can talk more later, then.” He said as a final send off while you rushed out of his office. All the while, you were completely unsure how to process the information.
2. He’s a playboy
Despite him not being quite as entitled as you initially thought he was, you were positive that this fact was true.
Sure, tabloids could lie. They showcased your boss fairly often (mostly because he was young, hot, successful, and popular) on the front cover with a model-worthy woman walking right beside him. It was always plausible that the images were exaggerating reality, though. Out of the hundreds of pictures they take or get from other paparazzi, they could easily pick and choose the couple where Todoroki happened to be walking down the street with a woman and usually a different woman from the last.
But, when it was on his personal social media account, it seemed less plausible that it was nearly as fake. His Instagram boasted dozens of high-quality pictures of himself in other countries or just highly expensive vacation homes, beach houses, or event banquets. And, if he wasn’t standing beside some equally rich, young, and hot businessman, he was with a woman. Scrolling through his Instagram, you could easily differentiate at least eight different women during his time posting.
That was enough for you to decide he was a playboy. Todoroki got whichever woman he pleased and then easily moved on to the next when he was done.
“(L/N), you’re still here?” Your attention was startled away from your phone by the voice of your boss in question.
Right, you had been on Instagram for a reason. It was raining, and the bus stop you needed to get to wasn’t covered. The bus wouldn’t come for at least 30 minutes (assuming it was on time today), so it was easier to just wait inside than wait just the same in the pouring rain.
You explained just that to Todoroki, “That seems reasonable. Since you’re here, would you mind if I asked you about something? I was going to wait until tomorrow, but if you have the time now it might be helpful.”
“Sure, what is it?” You replied.
“Would you mind coming with me this upcoming weekend to my family’s beach house? All your expenses would be covered, and you could bring whoever you’d like with you. Your organizational skills would be really helpful to me.” He explained.
“Um–” You weren’t quite sure what to say at first, “is this for some sort of event or…"
He flushed red, "Y-yes, it’s a– sort of social media PR event. In the past, I’ve had my assistant come with me just to keep me on track with other work. But, if you aren’t comfortable then you don’t have to."
"No, no, I was just curious,” You could feel all the blood rushing to your face as well, “I could probably go, but I’ll let you know."
"Of course, take all the time you need.” He replied quickly.
The two of you stood together in silence for another moment before Todoroki abruptly announced, “I’ll be going, enjoy your night.
"Yeah, I need to go catch my bus. Have a good night!"
That was the simple version of how you ended up on an almost entirely empty, private beach on a Sunday morning and also with an entirely different view of who Shoto Todoroki (and Enji Todoroki to some extent) was.
When you arrived the day prior, the intention of this event was clear; Todoroki would get pictures with his "girlfriend” for his social media and some other modeling material.
One quirk of that description came within the first couple minutes of your arrival. You easily struck up a conversation with the “girlfriend” who you had seen in a couple of Todoroki’s previous pictures. She was rather nice, and one of the few people in the room who wasn’t currently busy, surprisingly.
“I couldn’t imagine doing photoshoots all day. It seems exhausting to sit in front of a camera that long.” You commented when she mentioned the long hours she anticipated being on set that day.
"Yeah, it really just depends on the photographer. Some days can be a bit exhausting while others are super understanding and give a lot of breaks. That’s really just what modeling is about.“ She replied
"Oh, I didn’t realize you were a model!” You replied.
“Why else did you think I was here?” She laughed.
“I mean– I kind of thought you were Todoroki’s girlfriend,” You regretted answering honestly rather quickly, “sorry, that was probably rude of me to assume."
"No, it’s alright,” the awkward laugh in-between did not reassure you that much, “It happens a lot, but I guess that’s also the point of these photoshoots…"
You didn’t get a chance to ask what she meant when someone called out her name, "I gotta’ go to hair and makeup. I’ll see you around!”
“Yeah, good luck!"
As much as you wanted to forget that conversation, especially how it awkwardly ended, you couldn’t help but question what she had said, "That’s the point of these photoshoots.” It hadn’t been hard to lose focus of it either; you had practically no work. Other than sending him a file the previous evening, you were free to do whatever you pleased and got paid for it.
It was no wonder that he suggested you bring someone along with you, and, of course, you hadn’t since you assumed it would be a work event. With the photoshoot yesterday, you’d been practically barred from going on the beach. So, with uncertainty of the schedule today, you got up early to take a moment to sit on the calm waves of the completely empty beach.
It was rather nice: the cool ocean breeze, the light waves, lack of seagulls, of the sound of the water–
“You’re up early.” You gasped as a voice suddenly came from your left. To your immediate relief, it was just Todoroki.
“You scared me,” You clarified as he sent you a worried look, “I didn’t know you could be so silent."
"Sorry, it must be the hero-work.” He took a seat beside you in the sand.
“I’d be fucked if I was any sort of criminal,” You laughed but paused when you thought through your words, “I guess I shouldn’t swear infront of my boss "
Luckily, Todoroki also found it amusing. A small smile graced his face as he replied, "I don’t mind. You aren’t technically working yet, either, if it helps."
"That’s good to know. I got fired once for something like that, y'know.” You mentioned.
“Really?” He asked.
“Yeah, it was a really stuck up place. I was making a joke to a coworker too, and my manager heard me and got me fired that same day. I almost went to key that guy’s car when I left.” You explained. “Maybe pretend you didn’t hear that last part either."
He laughed at your last comment. You’d only heard him laugh a few times, but it was exactly fitting for him. A sort of breathy, quiet laugh that you would miss if you weren’t looking at the smile on his face or the slight shake of his shoulders. "Hopefully I won’t need to fire you for any reason."
"Hey, I didn’t actually key his car.” You joined in with his laughter.
When the conversation between the two of you calmed enough, the waves being the only sound filling the space, you decided to move on, “Why did you come over here?"
"I haven’t had a chance to enjoy the beach yet. I’ve always loved this area, but it seems I’m always here for work.” He explained, “What about you?"
"Sort of the same reason. I couldn’t really come out here yesterday because of the photoshoot, so I thought I would be here today before they started.” You responded.
Todoroki hummed in agreement, “Hopefully they won’t ask to do any more today. They always find something wrong at the worst times."
You considered his words for a moment before asking, "Just out of curiosity, why do you do these photoshoots if you don’t really enjoy them? That’s the impression I get, at least."
He was rather quick to respond, "It’s my father’s decision."
Todoroki had only brought up his father, Enji Todoroki, a few times. But, it was generally associated with a sort of malice you’d never heard from him otherwise.
"Well, it’s my PR team who chooses to– manage my social media and handle all the modeling aspects. But, he continues to keep them employed, so I don’t have much of a say in it.” He explained further.
“Oh,” You weren’t sure what else to say at first, “So, did you have any input on this?"
"They usually let me choose the model I’m with for the month, but that’s all.” He laughed bitterly.
“You can’t fire the team at all? I mean, your father retired a while ago now.” You continued your questions.
“The company has a certain image that needs to be kept. I wouldn’t really know how to maintain that on my. So, it’s better if I don’t argue about it.” He replied.
“Well, wouldn’t the image be up to you?” You asked.
“What do you mean?” Todoroki asked in response. His eyes had moved to stare right into yours, was the left one always that blue?
“I mean, you aren’t your dad, right? So, you can do what you want to do and how you feel the company should look like. If I’m not wrong, I thought every time Todoroki Industries changed management that the image changed a little bit with it.” You explained.
“I really wish it were that simple,” Todoroki replied solemnly, “My father still has a lot of control behind the scenes. And, most of the higher-ups would prefer to listen to him over me. So, there’s not much I can really do on my own without risking significant damage."
"Well, you could just start on yourself,” You noted his confused expression and decided to continue, “Like, control your personal image. Even if it’s small things like doing less photoshoots or getting even a bit more of your own input into where to go or what you want to do, just doing more things that you want on that front."
There was a long pause after you explained your advice. Todoroki was looking across the rippling water before the two of you as he seemed to be thinking. It went on for long enough that you almost thought he wasn’t going to respond at all until, "I– appreciate the advice, (Y/N). I appreciate you actually. You never worked for my father, but it’s still nice how you see me as– me. Rather than an extension of him."
"I guess I don’t really know much about your dad other than what’s in the news about him and what you’ve told me. But, I think you try really hard to be a much better person than him and have your own values and identity– it’s their own fault if other people don’t try to see that.” You replied.
Todoroki stood up quickly after you spoke, but you were sure you could see a bright tint of red over his ears before he could stand. “That– really means a lot to me. I should go get ready. Enjoy your time on the beach today."
"You too!” You called back as he quickly returned towards his beach house.
3. He’s a heart-throb.
"I don’t know how you can do it all day.“ You remembered Mina having said as she stirred her coffee with a plastic stopper.
"Do what?” You asked as you took a sip of your own drink.
“Just– sit so close to Todoroki all day! Like, I’d be spending the whole time staring at his face… that’s probably why I wasn’t promoted to his personal secretary.” She mentioned the last part mostly to herself.
Mina was in another secretary position at Todoroki Industries; she’d been working there for a couple of years now. You didn’t really mingle much with others at your workplace since the people who occupied the upper floors of Todoroki Industries were largely engineers and other business people that almost never took long breaks from their jobs. During one of the few times you had been around the large building, you met Mina. She was very enthusiastic to get to know you, and her other co-workers confirmed she was like that for every new person working in the building.
“Well, he’s kind of in his office all day. There’s not much to stare at but the door.” You shrugged.
“But you would stare if he were just around, right!” Mina insisted. You shrugged once again.
You hadn’t been quite sure how to feel about Todoroki in the nearly half a year you had been working with the man now. The frequent trips (the PR ones had notably decreased compared to normal business trips, much to your joy) you took with him didn’t exactly help, either. Half the time, you were in his personal vacation homes too, and (on top of that) he would ask if you wanted to stay in one of the guest rooms there with him. “The nearest hotel is a bit far. It might be easier if you were closer.” Even the wording of his reasoning didn’t help you much either. You know you should keep things professional with him, and it would certainly be scandalous for the CEO of Todoroki Industries to be dating his secretary. But, your mind always went to the what if.
“I guess it’s kind of hard to see him that way when he’s my direct boss.” You lied.
“True,” Mina didn’t seem to notice, “I’ve seen him glare at my department manager. I’d drop dead if he did the same to me."
You continued talking with Mina until the two of you returned to your workplace at the perfect end of your break. The pink haired woman took her leave to her office on the first floor while you swiped your ID badge to the highest floors of the building where you worked. When you exited the large elevator, you were met by the usual chime, a kind "Welcome back, (Y/N)” from the elevator’s AI, and a gun to the face. The last one was, obviously, unfamiliar to you.
“Where’s your boss?” The guy directly in front of you asked. As you looked at him longer, you realized that the “gun” seemed to actually just be his fingers. He had a quirk.
“I– he's…” You looked frantically around the office. There were five others; all of them were in similar black and red clothing while trashing the office. You could see your cracked laptop on the ground just around the corner, but it was clearly the least of your concerns right now.
“He’s out of office,” It wasn’t a lie, per say. Todoroki had adorned his hero outfit just before you left for your break and said he would be out for obvious reasons, “But, I can take a message for you."
You really cursed the snarky comeback as you were now inches from the edge of Todoroki Industries’ very very high roof. Your feet were just barely scraping the metal edge, and the gun-hand guy seemed to be the only thing keeping you from falling.
To only add to your stress and fear were the multiple news helicopters that had cut between the clouds to seemingly get some footage of your precarious situation. Not to help you, mind you. The guys, holding you hostage now, didn’t appear too upset about the helicopters. Actually, they seemed to be playing their actions up for the cameras: pulling you closer to the edge of the building, firing warning shots and explosives that were intended to miss –some even aimed at you with the sole purpose of getting some verbal reaction from you.
"Is he gonna’ show up soon?” You gasped just slightly as gun-hands once again pushed you backwards slightly. When you stepped back to balance yourself, your foot fully went off the edge behind you. At the least, you were facing away from the large, plummeting drop beneath you.
“He’s coming.” One of the other guys responded. You’d been mentally referring to him as the computer guy since he was actively holding and monitoring some sort of footage on a computer. You could only assume it had some sort of way of showing Todoroki or “Red Shift” as he would be currently.
Only moments later, you saw the subtle crawl of ice on the opposite side of the roof, and a body shot out past it only a second after: Todoroki was here. He was fully masked, yet he still managed to make a graceful landing at the perfect center of the building.
“What do you want, Cryos?” Red Shift spoke instantly. Despite it still being Todoroki, his voice was distinctly different. There was more aggression in it, and the tone was obviously muffled by the full face mask (no matter how technical it may be underneath).
“Glad to see you finally joined us.” Cryos, as you could now identify the gun-hand criminal, replied. Maybe, if you had paid more attention to hero media, you would have recognized him sooner or perhaps known how to get yourself out of this predicament.
“What do you want?” Red Shift repeated with a greater space between each word.
“Just for you to show your face,” he gestured towards the news cameras, “show who you really are.”
“Drop (Y– them, first.” You didn’t miss his initial slip-up.
“Drop them?” Cryos spoke tauntingly as your body easily moved from your small leverage at the side of the roof to completely dangling off the side. You wanted to scream.
“Hey, I don’t care what shit you guys have but that doesn't–” He didn’t care what you had to say as you could feel your body slightly slip from his grip. Your protest ended in a yelp from the action.
“Keep struggling and I’ll fuckin’ drop you.” He threatened.
“Or,” his attention turned back to Todoroki, “Take off the mask and they just might not die."
There was another pause from Todoroki. Clearly, he was weighing the situation around him which, honestly, wasn’t ideal. Cryos could shoot at any moment, and he was at such a far distance that any sort of attack would have to come from the front and be easily noticed. Not to mention, the other five must have had some sort of more hidden quirk considering Todoroki hadn’t even attempted to attack them yet. Unless, that was because of you. If he attacked the others, Cryos could easily drop you in the mix. Or, if he attempted to save you, one of the others would get an attack on Todoroki. Despite your limited knowledge, it was a clear ambush which made all the more sense as Todoroki’s hands lifted towards his face in an action to remove the mask.
"No!” You suddenly protested.
You weren’t sure yourself what you were doing. Was it stupid? Yes, you were dangling several hundred feet off the ground. But, who would think realistically as they’re being held hostage, dangling off a building.
“D-don’t do it. Just– I’ll be fiN–” You didn’t quite get to finish your sentence nor see what happened next as you were rather quickly free falling towards the ground.
You could see the sky growing bigger, the other tall skyscrapers coming into view as you reached further and further towards the hard pavement below, and your falling reflection in the large windows of Todoroki Industries. It was hard to believe only a moment ago you’d really just been talking to Mina about how hot your boss was. Noise reached your ears next, it was mostly the roaring wind as your body cut hard through the air interspersed with what sounded like sirens from the ground below, and then–
Nothing…
You awoke to distant sounds of beeping and multiple people talking. Following that, you were hit by the harsh– hospital smell was the only way to describe it: alcohol wipes and just general hospital cleaning products.
Opening your eyes confirmed the fact, you were in a hospital bed, an IV and other monitoring equipment at your side, and a TV hanging from the corner was playing from above you. The distant voices you could hear were coming from that. The volume of the TV had been set very low in exchange for subtitles that scrolled across the bottom. The subtitles weren’t really needed all too much when the footage spoke for itself.
It began by showing far away footage of Todoroki Industries. The cameraman quickly zoomed in to the point of attention a dot aka your body falling down the multiple stories. Only seconds later, it cut to regular pictures of you. Whoever submitted or found those pictures of you would definitely hear some choice words from you when you found them. The anchors seemed to discuss who you were before returning to the same footage as before.
This time, it showed cascades of ice coming from a second, quick approaching dot. The following clip made it clear that this was Shoto Todoroki. Not Red Shift or a new hero, just Shoto Todoroki. Much as the report had done for you, it followed up by showing several pictures of the half and half millionaire. Of course, he was the main focus of the story.
“I guess he revealed his identity anyways.” You thought, “Maybe I should just be thankful that I didn’t die."
Once you gathered that the news channel was beginning to just become speculation about Todoroki, you decided to try and change to something else. If you could find the remote that is.
Your quick visual scan of the room left you more shocked than informed, however, as to your left was the same half-red and half-white haired man that was still being shown on the TV. You gasped loudly and nearly fell out of the bed at the sight, "To-Todoroki?"
His response was an irritated sort of mumble, and his head turned the opposite way. It was oddly hard to tell that the man was asleep. His bangs and tilted forward head completely obscured his eyes, and he somehow managed to fall asleep with completely stiff shoulders. Maybe if you returned to work you could schedule a massage for him someday.
"Should I wake him up?” You wondered, “He doesn’t look too comfortable.”
As you were weighing your options, you looked back towards the TV. The news report was still playing, this time it showcased a much closer version of the footage you’d been looking at before. Todoroki had caught you with ice pillars cascading from his shoes to give the effect of flight. He gracefully took a step onto the pavement with you in his arms all the while: like a true Hollywood heartthrob.
“(Y/N)?” You were, once again, startled by the presence of Shoto Todoroki as his voice came from beside you. It might have helped to remember how he mentioned that he was a light sleeper in the past.
“Hey, how–” You began your greeting to him only for it to become muffled in the fabric of his shirt. He was huggingyou.
“You’re alright.” He spoke quietly, but it was loud and clear from your close proximity. Still, you couldn’t quite tell if he was addressing you or reassuring himself.
“I’m so sorry.” He was quick to move on, though. This time, he spoke much louder with a clear intent of speaking to you. “I should have kept the place more secure or warned you that they were coming– God, I knew they were coming, but I didn’t think they would come for you– this was my fault, and I’m so– stupid for not having done anything.”
The words spilled out of him all at once. You had trouble tracking what he was trying to say as he seemed to get more and more upset as he spoke. “Todoroki.” You tried to break his downward spiral.
Instead, he pulled away instantly, his hand came up to wipe what must have been tears forming at the corner of his eyes. “I apologize if I made you uncomfortable.” His voice returned to his usual monotone.
“No, you didn’t.” You took a moment to think through what to say next, “I– Thank you. Even if it’s your duty as a hero or whatever to not let me die, I still want to thank you. You didn’t have to do all of that just for me."
You both glanced towards the TV as you spoke. The channel seemed to be showing previews for the stories after the upcoming ads, most were about Todoroki, Red Shift, and whichever criminal group "Cryos” was a part of.
“It’s not just a hero duty. I wouldn’t have let you die even if I didn’t have a quirk.” He replied quickly.
“I care a lot about you. I couldn't– I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything bad happened to you there. And I just,” Todoroki paused, “your life is far more important than my secret identity or the idea that I won’t be accepted by whoever is out there. It doesn’t matter to me anymore. The people I have close to me are more important than whatever the media has to say or what my father’s opinion is."
"I love you, (Y/N).” The words seemed to surprise both of you. It made your stomach flip, and Todoroki’s eyes clearly widened at the admission.
“I apologize if that’s forward or if you don’t feel the same. I feared that if I didn’t share it with you then there may be a time where I– wouldn’t.” He added.
You took a moment to sit in wonder at the words. Clearly, it was a lot for you to process. But, too long for Todoroki as he began to stand, “I’ll give you time to– think. Let me know when you’re feeling better–"
”No!“ You called out a bit louder than you intended to with a strong grip on his hand to match, "Sorry.”
“It’s alright.” He took his seat again.
“Todo– Shoto, I did a whole bunch of reckless shit out there. Like that whole yelling thing at the end, I don’t know if you even heard that, but it wasn’t definitely why that guy dropped me– anyways. It wasn’t your fault, okay. You don’t control Cry-boy’s mind or whatever he was called.” A small smile came over his face at your mention of the villain, “the point is, this wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t your fault that that guy was sick and needed to defend himself behind a hostage to even go against you. And, it’s not your fault either that it worked on you because that’s what villains like that guy do."
"I love you too, Shoto. I was worried out there that you would give up too much just because I was in the way. I know how hard you’ve worked to be better than your shitty dad and help others, and I didn’t want you to ruin the things you’ve worked for just for me.” You continued.
He took a breath to start speaking again, but you interrupted, “It’s not about that though. We both made our own decisions and wherever that takes us can’t be changed. So, stop saying sad things like you might never get to tell me you love me again, okay?"
Your hand moved from on top of his to rest on his check. You gently moved some long strands of red hair away from his eyes while he contemplated what to say next. Whatever was going through his head, he settled on the simple question, "Can I kiss you?"
Sue you if you didn’t really think about the immediate, "Yes” you gave in response or the several you repeated quietly until your lips met.
Now, there were three facts you knew about Shoto Todoroki as his secretary and his partner: he’s a hero who cares deeply about other people, a poor flirt who somehow managed to make you fall in love with him anyway, and, for sure, a heart-throb.
A/N: Here’s the last Dabi oneshot I wrote and edited! If you’ve noticed, I ended none of them conclusively which I did not notice when I originally wrote them, and I feel bad about it now. As of right now, there’s only one more older piece of writing that I plan on posting and, after that, I’ll be caught up to everything I’ve rewritten.
Characters: Dabi x GN Reader
Genre: Mild Angst and Fluff
Warnings: The reader gets kidnapped/taken hostage and there’s several talks about murder. Also, explicit spoilers for Dabi’s real identity.
Summary: A series of unfortunate events leads you to meeting who you thought was your long-dead best friend, but you didn’t die atleast!
Word Count: 2.5K
You glared at your boss’ office as you finally left the office. You knew the man wasn’t in the room anymore, but you still directed your negative sentiments towards the area. As usual, he had only decided to give you your most recent assignment just days before it was meant to be submitted.
“I know you get work done quick,” he had said, “so, I have faith you’ll get this to me Friday morning."
Now, it was nearly midnight on Friday morning. After working six hours of, what you hoped would become, paid overtime, you had shared the files with your boss and finally made your way out of the office. Not only did the man not care about how much time you had to spend in the office, although it wasn’t really like you were going back home to anything/one in particular, but he also didn’t care about you having to navigate through the city at such a late hour.
The station wasn’t a far walk from your office building, and you didn’t have to wait in the cold night air for long as the train pulled into the station just moments later. There weren’t many people on the train as you entered: a tired looking woman with a large cup of coffee, an older man in a business suit, and a shady looking man who was mostly obscured by his dark clothes.
"I really need to get a new job.” You opened your phone and looked through one of the many job searching apps you had.
You’d applied for three in the past week: two denied your application and the third had just offered you an interview next week. You still planned to apply to more just in case, but it was promising. The job was perfect with your qualifications and experience: all you had to do was nail the interview.
The train began slowing to a stop as the speakers above announced the name of the station. You didn’t really care too much for the announcement, though. Your stop was the last one on this line, so you’d have to go through at least five more of these pauses before you could even get home. From the corner of your eye, you could see that the woman with the coffee had exited the train, but a man entered to take her place.
Despite your better judgment, you glanced up at the man who just entered. He was tall and had very broad shoulders; he had to step sideways to enter and slouch to not hit the roof. He appeared to have some sort of rock mutation as his body looked physically cracked and jagged like a pile of rocks. Not to mention, he practically shook the cart with one step. And of course, the man’s eyes immediately met yours.
You panicked: looking every which way before your eyes went back to your phone. “It’s fine, he just has a mutation quirk.” You mentally reminded yourself.
You pretended not to react as the man took a seat only a couple of seats away from you. “There’s plenty of seats around, why does he have to be so close to me!” You subtly attempted to glance around at anyone else around. Luckily, the old man from the station still remained in the same train car as you which gave you some sense of security.
You attempted to ignore it as the train continued moving. But, you didn’t get that luck once the train came to the next stop. No one entered the train at the next one, but the rock-man moved uncomfortably close to you in the time before the train began moving again. Then, to make it even creepier, he rested an arm over your shoulder.
“Um– e-excuse me–” You weren’t quite sure what to do in the situation then to try and get the man away from you or atleast get the attention of somebody else.
“Talk and I’ll crush your head.” The man spoke. His voice was low and horribly threatening.
Your eyes widened and you took quick glances towards the old man who you’d noted earlier. He wasn’t far away; he should have noticed what was going on, right? But !s you kept looking back at him, it became increasingly clear that this guy was asleep.
“Shit,” You muttered at the realization, “is there really no one around?"
You didn’t have a quirk suitable for fighting against someone, first of all. And, even if the other man did, there was no certainty that he could stop the rock-man before it was too late. You certainly didn’t doubt that this man could crush your skull.
For a moment, you felt entirely hopeless about what to do when, suddenly, a door opened. Your eyes were on the door that connected the train cars in a flash; someone who seemed completely awake was here. He was the guy from your initial stop, dark clothing and a mostly obscured face. Although, the flourescent lights of the train illuminated that his hands had some sort of purple scarring.
You attempted to try and clue him in on what was going on with your eyes. But, you couldn’t see his own eyes, and his lack of response made you suspect he wasn’t paying attention at all. He took a seat across from you two and seemed to keep his gaze fixed on the ground.
"We’re getting off here.” The man spoke again as you felt the train slow.
“Should I say something? Could he even do anything or would this rock guy get to him first?” You wondered. Even though you knew it might be hopeless, you continued to stare hopefully at the man across from you.
The doors opened before you even knew it, and the guy was basically carrying you out. You didn’t even listen to which stop this was, so you had no clue where you were even being dragged off to.
“Walk faster.” The guy said, the jagged rocks that made up his hands pressed painfully into your shoulder.
“Ow…” You muttered at the uncomfortable feeling.
“What’d I say about talking?” He practically growled while sending you an angry glare.
“I didn't– I'm–” You spluttered. You felt the need to correct yourself, even though you owed nothing to this man who practically took you as hostage, but it was clearly backfiring on you.
“Hey,” your heart jumped to your throat as a new voice entered the scene, “What’s going on here?”
“None of your business, man.” The rock guy called back. His grip on you managed to get even tighter.
“Yeah, sure, just let them go.” You were unable to turn around since the man was still keeping you captive with an arm over your shoulder, but the guy behind you seemed almost annoyed by this interaction.
“Are they a hero? I thought heros would be more formal about this. Maybe a vigilante?” You questioned.
“Like you’d do anything to stop me.” Your captor spoke with arrogant confidence.
There wasn’t another word from whoever was saving you, but there was a response of a blast of flames. It seemed effective as the man let go of you to protect his body with his arms. You almost didn’t move for a moment even though you felt your body burn painfully hot from the close proximity to the fire.
“This isn’t worth it.” The man muttered before stomping away.
“Holy shit.” You muttered in pure astonishment as the blue flames slowly swirled away.
You look right towards the source of the flames. Despite the darkness of the area, you could recognize the man as the one who was just on the train. You hardly cared about recognizing him from the train though; you remember him from elsewhere.
Touya Todoroki. You became close to the boy when you were around five. At the time, your parents had been a sidekick at Endeavor’s agency and were eager to get you some more friends with children your age. And, Endeavor himself having children your age was a perfect opportunity. In the end, you practically grew up with the fire user from the time you were five almost to high school.
You remember the fun times with the boy: playing in the park, around his massive house, and spending countless evenings at your house. However, you couldn’t forget some of the more worse things that occured: his constant quirk training that scared his body and changed his hair or his many rants about Endeavor’s treatment of Touya and his siblings.
You were devastated after hearing of his disappearance and, later, death. Your family had attended the funeral but never saw the Todoroki family afterwards. You only found out several years ago that although Endeavor treated Touya badly, his wife and youngest son were treated far worse.
Those blue flames were something you couldn’t mistake. As you looked towards the man now standing across from you, the only thing you could ask was, “Touya?"
The guy paused for a moment before taking a couple of steps closer to you, "The one and only.” He appeared to run a hand across his hair to take off the hood of the jacket he was wearing.
He was definitely different from before. His hair wasn’t quite as wavy as before and, more notably, it was a dark black. Touya’s scars were much more prominent too, under his eyes and covering the bottom half of his face. But, his eyes were the exact same glowing blue.
“Holy shit,” You exclaimed, “I thought you died!” Punctuating the sentence, you pulled him into a tight hug.
“You’d really think some fire would kill me? I was fine.” He brushed off the event as if it hadn’t haunted you for years.
“Where have you been then,” You asked, “Vigilantism or something?"
"Something like that.” He shoved his hands into his pockets, “it’s been fine, better than what it was before.”
“You could’ve at least come to us, y'know. Like, we would have done something! I– you seriously decided you’d rather go missing than do that?” You might have regretted voicing your concerns the way you were later, but, right now, the only words you could manage were the concerns you’d had for the past several years.
“Would you really have? Endeavor’s still out there right now like he’s been since you knew about what he was doing.” Touya responded.
You didn’t take the hostility in his voice at first, “Well, they were cowards then. They didn’t even bother telling me why they cut ties with your dad ‘till I graduated college."
"We could do better than that, if it’s what you want,” You admitted, “I missed you Touya. Like, I wondered for the longest time if your death was my fault. And, if I wasn’t so stupid and had told someone what was going on, then you would have have fine, and we could have got into the hero course together. I still tried for the exam, y'know? I didn’t pass, but it was worth a try."
"There wasn’t anything you could have done, (Y/N). I was already set on who I was going to become at that point –probably would have just taken you down with me.” Touya answered, “I’m better here."
"Can we atleast talk again?” You asked.
Touya was silent for a while before he responded, “I’ll see you around, (Y/N). Get home safe."
"Alright,” You agreed, despite the tears at the corners of your eyes, “I’ll see you around, I hope."
You turned around in pursuit of the train station. It almost felt like forever ago that you had been dragged here by some twisted kidnapper instead of maybe only 20 minutes. Your movements were quickly halted by a strong hand holding your arm in place behind you, ”(Y/N),“
You turned back to see Dabi again. His hand was hot, it made you picture the blue flames at his fingertips as you stared into his eyes, "Y'know where Akamai park is?"
"Uh– yeah? I think.” You responded, his hand cooled as you spoke.
“Meet me there, 7pm.” He let go of your arm and swiftly began walking the opposite way of you.
You paused in shock for a moment; he was already a block away when you finally replied, “I’ll see you there!"
Dabi entered the train with a simple plan: kill (Y/N) (L/N). That was all he had to do really.
It was easy –it should have been easy. It may have been over 10 years ago, but he remembered a lot about you and your quirk. It was nothing compared to his own, especially now, and your combat skills weren’t far behind. Actually, when he first started looking into you again, he really hoped for a challenge. You promised you were going to try for the UA Hero Course with him, yet he found you working some 9 to 5 corporate job and an equally boring life outside of it. Honestly, he was rather disappointed even though the author decided to give them that story.
So, he had little remorse as he entered the train late at night alongside you. He was so confident, even, that he didn’t bother watching you for the first half of the ride.
That was a mistake. And, Dabi was quickly checked on that when he looked towards you and noticed that a large, rock-like man (that he knew had no connection to you) had suddenly decided to pick you as a target. That much was clear when Dabi moved to get a better read of the situation, and you looked at him like you were about to be murdered.
"You should just let that guy do whatever he wants,” Dabi thought as he slumped into the seat across from you, making a point to ignore your fear, “Natural selection."
The train stopped, the rock-man brought you out of the train (at a stop Dabi knew wasn’t yours), and he stayed still. "But, I have no idea if he’s actually going to kill them.” With that thought, he slipped out of the train and silently followed you two before easily chasing the guy off. It almost haunted him the way you had asked, “Touya?"
He couldn’t count on his fingers how many chances he had to set you ablaze, there were too many. Dabi was sure the mistake was that he let you begin talking because once the words came spilling out, ”they were cowards then“ he lost all chances of letting it happen.
As you spoke, he remembered years of, admittedly, childish memories: playing heroes together, helping him train his quirk when Endeavor wouldn’t, getting ointment for his burns, all things that very few people even in his family did for him. And, he let you walk away.
”You aren’t a coward, Touya.“ He tried to remind himself.
”(Y/N)!“ He called out one more time.
He grasped your wrist and allowed his hand to prepare for a fire large enough to engulf you instantly. Wide eyes stared back at him, and he just couldn’t find himself letting go of it.
"Do you know where Akamai park is?” He let the fire in his hand rescind.
bam’s note : this is a part of @okkatsudon ; “somebody new” collab! it’s always been my dream after watching mha to write this, literally seizing this opportunity as soon as i saw the event!
warnings : angst, unrequited/one sided love, crushing, no happy ending, some cursed words, deja vu, third wheel character, one part is slightly suggestive, long fic (almost 3k words omg wat- )
it was sweet to love him.
you met todoroki on the very first day of school, pretty cherry blossom trees were blooming and portions of petals were falling down the ground.
lost in the scenery, you didn’t took notice of the person walking your way until you bumped into them. all the books and papers you were carrying got knocked to the floor. you instantly apologise to that person and crouch down to collect your things. another hand that’s not yours help pick the few left ones before handing them to you.
that was the first time you got to drown in those mismatched heterochromatic eyes.
a stranger with evenly split hair between two colours; white and red. he was rather well-built and tall for someone around his age. though he has quite a strange large scar on one side of his face. despite that and the seriousness he wore you swear you viewed him as the hottest guy you’ve ever met.
you again haven’t noticed that you were staring at him for far too long until this unknown man need to clear his throat and gently jab the stuffs to you once more. you felt your cheeks burn in embarrassment as you quickly look away and mumbled quiet sorry for your bad manners and thank him for his help.
he only nodded in response before about to turn and resumed back on his way. you interrupted him first by calling out, “what’s your name?”
the man spare you a glance, evidently heard you, still he decided not to reply. making you frown and follow him, proceeding to ask him questions “hey, what’s your class? perhaps we’re on the same one, and with that perhaps-” he suddenly took a turn around the corner, consequence come in you almost tripped on your own feet. this time you managed to grab the wall, then run up to catch up to him. frowning, why is he gotta be so fast?
“hey! wait! you’re still new here like me right? how about we walk to our classroom together? i’m y/n by the way, and was about to head to class 1A. do you perhaps have any idea where-” it was as though all you babble was nix as the arrogant dude, you could call him, doesn’t seem to even give a damn.
but it’s alright, because it seems like he share the same destination as you. 1A label presented in front of you, and the stranger you met earlier already disappear by walking into the room before you can even registered what’s going on.
all your dreams, wishes, hopes, were right here. heart hammering hard in your chest, you felt your body slightly shook in both excitement and anxiousness as you slowly stride after that two colours haired guy.
and your whole life changed ever since.
you later learned by a group of girls you’ve been hanging out with, his name was todoroki. shototodoroki. your eyes and mind were already mindlessly trailing to the figure of him, far away from your friends voices, away from any other environment. he was scribbling something to his note. looking effortlessly so cool, so handsome.
and somehow you were tapping your lips. thinking of a way of trying to get close to him, what a stupid act. you just met him a week ago, but something about him already intrigued you this much??
“y/n. y/n, are you even listening?” mina’s voice snapped you out of your trance. you blinked a couple of times, regaining your attention back to her while searching for a suitable response.
“ah- sorry i got distracted, what was it again?” you lightly scratch your cheek, looking confused.
“are you perhaps interested in todoroki-kun, y/n-chan?” tsuyu pointed out, and uraraka nodded her head in agreement.
“yeah, we saw you were looking at him. is there anything going on between you two?” the browned tilted her head curiously, all the girls turn their head to look at you, too.
“nothing! it’s nothing really, i’ve just been wondering of… a way to…” you nervously switched your gaze anywhere and everywhere but their watchful eyes. trying your best to contain your blush.
“get closer to him…” you quietly whispered to them.
an ‘oooooo’ and squeals buzzed among them, and you have to cover your face up with a hand. glancing one last time at the person who caused all this, you felt your heart skipped a beat when you saw that he was, coincidentally or not, looking at you too.
at lunch, all thanks to the efforts of those girls. makes you sitting beside him right now, finding it hard to get a grip of yourself. blushing like crazy, you can’t help but be a stuttering mess.
“i- uh uhmm- hey, not sure if you remember me. but i’m-”
“i remembered. you were that annoying girl who keep pestering me all the way to my classroom”
the statement make you shock a bit. no, very.
“don’t say that” your eyebrows bundled as you speak, “it’s quite a rude thing to say to someone you don’t know”
mismatched apathetic eyes locked with yours, no emotion showed on his expression as he simply answered, “and it’s also quite rude to keep bothering a stranger who obviously show no interest in being friends already”
his words sharp as a knife, you felt a heavy lump forming in your throat. “i’ll make you change you mind” your voice was quivering, but you were too hurt to care for that. “just you wait”
with that, you got up and marched off. heading straight toward the girl’s bathroom.
guess things always hurt when it’s right.
but being the super determined person you were. you still didn’t give up on the following days, or weeks, or months. the always failed attempts of trying to follow him, be close to him and getting to know him more.
despite each time the boy snapped and stabbed you with hurtful words, the very next day he’ll still find you sitting in his usual spot at the cafeteria. running to the front gate to wait and walk home together.
your girl friends are also behind all these scenes too, silently leaving only you and him to bring the notebooks to the teacher’s room saying they were “busy”. purposefully leave right away to give you two alone time, well not really since they stay at an appropriate distance watching, and when he hurt you again, they always make sure to be there comforting and encouraging you to never loose hope.
and perhaps the world wasn’t too cruel. because eventually the once unconcerned todoroki slowly start to warm up, especially after the u.a. sports festival.
“todoroki-kun~ may i join you for lunch today?” you jovially asked him, despite completely know the common incoming disinterested answer.
though today, much to your surprise, he merely nodded. you stared after him, baffled. and shoto turn his head back to you after a few steps, slightly tilting his head in confusion as if saying, 'what are you waiting for?’
speechlessly gaping, you cannot exactly describe the fluttering feeling in your stomach. 'aw fuck it’ you thought and quickly pursue after him.
that day was the first day you grasp the real meaning of the word 'hope’. all your friends jump and cheer for you afterwards when you return to them.
“cheers to y/n and her soon-to-be boyfriend!” hagakure sang while mina threw her arms around you, blathering nonstop how happy she was for you. laughing at how supportive they all were, as though he was already your s/o, but you must admit that you couldn’t ask for anything better.
from here on out, the former cold relationship between you and shoto seems to grow warmer, like winter slowly turn into spring.
time flies by faster than anyone could imagine, right now most of you guys already received provisional hero license. although todoroki and bakugou still have to go to a special course.
“sho-chann” you called for him late at night when you guys about to parted to your own rooms. “tomorrow’s your first day of the special course right? good luck!”
small smile cracked at your sweet encouragement, he mumbled a thank you. and you grinned back at him, afore, a soft kiss was planted wordlessly against your forehead.
for the 3rd, or 4th time or more counted, that he had made you surprised. although you didn’t get to say a word as he was already pacing away. leaving you brushing your fingers on where the kiss landed, still all fuzzy and blushing.
not to mention that he was smiling to you more often. directly. like after you guys watched some random movies, you deliberately tease him of 'how we should hang out more often’ while shooting him a wink. the stoic man’s upper lips were tugged up in response. and shockingly agreed to what you’ve just said.
HE. DID. SMILE. AT. YOU.
dear god, you weren’t imagining it.
it wasn’t until winter ran by did you confront him. mustering up all the courage you got, you have to say it, no matter what.
“oh, hey y/n” shoto greeted you, coming to meet as requested right outside the dorms. it was nighttime and the only lights available except the moon were from the lamp posts.
“hi sho-chan” you smile in return, nervously fidget with your fingers.
“so what’s up?” the half white red haired questioned curiously. taking silent note at your uneasy posture.
gulping, there’s no turning back now. “do you know that, if you’re confessing on the first snow. the higher chance that your crush’s response might be positive?”
a quizzical look contorted over his face. “really…?” he replied, touching the scarf swathing around his neck. “and what did that has to do with why you called me?”
“i-” you began, then stopped to purse your lips. suddenly snow was falling to your hair. your cheeks were flushed and a smoke flows from your mouth as the words slipped. “i think i like you, sho-chan”
silence settled over you both for a moment. his wide-eye gaze never leaving you, until you have to break it when it’s becoming rather uncomfortable.
“please say something…” you murmured embarrassingly while looking away. making the man clears his throat apologetically and answered.
“i appreciated the feeling you hold towards me, y/n” he paused for a moment, carefully pondering for the right sayings. “but i’m still not so sure of my own feelings yet… could you give me some time first?”
you felt your heart squeezed as he soon excused himself after that. slightly opening your mouth and blinking a few times in frozen position, feeling torn whether to feel sad or continue to stay hopeful.
so you waited. for days, weeks, months, you felt deja vu during so. here you are, waiting for slim chances that’s most likely end up with rejection by him already forgetting given prolong period.
even worse that any time you brought it up, it was always the same answer, 'please give me more time’.
yeah, for sure. but for how long, mr.todoroki?
sighing languidly at this on loop thought, you walk past your empty classroom, about to heading back to your dorm. or so you thought. as you came across an over-limit unexpected scene.
a scene that makes you want to take back the idea you once thought, that perhaps the world wasn’t too cruel. because it definitelyis.
“i- i think i have a crush on you, todoroki-kun!”
similar sentence. yet the person who say it is…
“don’t worry y/n-san” yaoyorozu soothingly rubbed your back, “i’m pretty sure he will see it soon someday” she said with a gentle smile. all the while offering herself to be a shoulder for you to cry on.
why her? why the person who used to always stick by your side?
whywhywhy?
right now you were only listening. but then you start creeping closer, trembling hand slowly crack the door open slightly, only enough to take a peek inside.
you regretted it before you even saw.
hands clutching her skirt. cheeks bashfully tinted red. she spare a second to push her loose soft looking black strands behind her ear and shifted her gaze. the sun was setting down out the window, giving the room beautiful pale red, orange, purple, and yellow light. what a romantic sight for sore eyes…
“i know you might not feel the same. and that it’s super inappropriate for me to confess to you even though you’re still in the middle of giving y/n-san an answer. i’m so sorry, but i really like you. i- i-”
no. no. no.
todoroki cuts her off by pulling her into a passionate kiss. momo, without hesitation, promptly give in to the kiss and pull him closer. and he reciprocated by letting his hands roam over to her hips. before gently gripping them and angled his head to deepen the kiss.
your hands and blood run cold. you felt your whole body went numb as you have to bring a hand up to cover your broken sobs. trying your hardest to contain the… too late, the tears were already streaming down your cheeks. and you felt your heart wrench painfully at the sight before you. it was agonising really.
to learn that all your efforts were all for nothing.
and your body moves its way, out of control. the door was forcefully hauled open by you all of the sudden. startling the people inside, they froze abruptly before immediately pull away. shock, embarrassment and shame painted clear on their faces.
you still not dare to say a word, only tremulously stare at both of them while more tears brimming at the edge of your eyes.
they look as if they want to say something, but momo kept quiet and dropped her gaze to the ground. and the young man hesitated to reach his hand out to you, mouth in motion of gaping and closing.
“it’s not what you think, y/n… i can explain-”
“right now i do not want to hear it shoto” you clenched your hands into tight fists, and bit your lips as hard as you could.
“please excuse me” eyes cold and unreadable expression, you make a quick turn on your heels and stormed out. ignoring all the shouts and names calling for you.
“y/n i-”
“shut up!”
about a couple of hours later, you were in your room. shoto was also trailing behind you, wanting badly to apologise and make things up with you.
but to no avail, he only make you cry harder, angrier. to be specific.
“why didn’t you tell me in the first place shoto? why didn’t you tell me that you weren’t interested in me? so i didn’t have to hold hopes and wait for so long!?”
the guy went silent. regrets and guilt were heavy in his chest, and he could only flinched when you screamed “answer me!” in his face.
“i’m so sorry y/n…” was all he mumbled, tears todoroki didn’t know he was holding back starts to fall down.
you should’ve known.
you should’ve known of the fact why you always saw them together. getting along incredibly well even at the beginning where he was still cold towards you.
now you began to understand that gentle look on his face when he wipe the foam from the iced latte off her mouth. unintentionally linger his hand there far too long, that alone was enough to tell that the half white red haired adored her.
or when he was always willing to stay up late just to comfort and listen to her rambling all her overthinking doubts and problems. be there for her whenever she needs him and help her with everything he could…
something he never do for you.
ah,fuck this world.
fuck this cruel world.
“y/n i didn’t mean to…” the man look away. trying to find words for explanation. this is probably the first time you ever saw him like this. so vulnerable and lost.
his current state almost makes you want to forgive him, if what he’d done to you was something more forgivable.
“i-”
“no, don’t even waste time on elaborating. i should be the one who say sorry” his heterochromatic eyes immediately jump up to yours in surprised and confusion. even so you continued, “none of this was your fault, i was out of my mind. i’m sorry. it should’ve been your choice to choose who you want to be with”
wiping a hand over one of your teary eyes, you felt as if hundreds of knives were stabbing you. suffocating and agonising pain seeped through you over and over.
“y/n…”
you tried to bit back the huge waterfall and pent-up emotions that threatened to escape you anytime as you choked out the last words.
Synopsis:You confessed to Katsuki on the last day of middle school only for him to say “I’ll never love a weak girl like you.” A year later, he shows up as your co-worker at your mother’s flower shop. You’re forced to face the feelings you’ve buried, and Katsuki begins to question the true strength of your unwithering love.
Pairing:Bakugou Katsuki x fem!reader
Warnings:Mild swearing
Word Count: 9k
A/N:Shout out to @smolmilkyways for letting me use this beautiful piece of fanart above!
Taglist: Reply to this post to be added for future chapters!
You haven’t seen Katsuki since the day he pinned you to a tree and called you out for lying, and as much as you hate to admit it… he was right, you haven’t been honest with him.
Or with yourself.
Forcing yourself to move on clearly hasn’t been working, and now that Katsuki called bullshit, well… What good is a lie if no one believes it? Besides, you don’t want to live a lie anymore since it just proves you’re too weak to live with the truth. But the last time you were truthful, it led to a harsh rejection and a year’s worth of wakeless nights.
Even if you were honest with him, would your relationship have changed? And if your mom hadn’t interrupted…
Would Katsuki have kissed you?
The way he looked at you, well, you’ve never been on the receiving end of such a look. His gaze molten upon tracing your form, eyes darkening despite the specks of light reflected in them.
If he can look at you that way just one more time.
Speaking of the boy living in your mind rent-free, Katsuki hasn’t spared a single glance in your direction since his arrival this morning. The two of you have been setting up the Paradise Blooms booth in silence. You’re wearing matching Garden Glow 2020 t-shirts. Though your mother had to shove Katsuki’s on with muscles you didn’t even know she had.
“It’s company policy, Katsuki.”
“Like I give a shit-”
“Language, Katsuki.” She taps the swear jar that’s sure to be filled by the end of the day.
“Ah c’mon I’ve been saying ‘shit’ since I came outta the womb!”
“That’s ¥100, wanna go for 200?” She raises an eyebrow.
The swear jar is doubled today.
To avoid having to pick a side, you busy yourself by fiddling with the tablecloth, but standing within hearing distance to catch what’s happening.
Katsuki throws his hands up. “What the fu- Seriously, call my mom, she swears it was my first word!”
“Whether or not that’s true- which yes, as a matter of fact, I will call her because you’ve piqued my interest now, thank you very much-”
Katsuki looks away, scowling like a typical moody teenager, while your mother continues.
“I made it clear to you that I will not tolerate any cursing or violent behavior today. No exceptions.”
Katsuki mutters, “I haven’t blown anything up yet, have I?” He leans back against the tree.
Your mother sighs. “Just put the shirt on, Katsuki.”
Katsuki scoffs. “Looks like grape boy shit art.”
“Idesigned it.” Your mother grits her teeth before she turns to you with a thoughtful expression. “I’m sorry, but who’s ‘grape boy’? Is that someone I should know?” You shrug in return.
Katsuki shakes his head. “Nevermind. Hire a pro next year. It’s hard to look at.”
Your mother sighs, like she knew this was coming. “If you’re not gonna put it on, guess I’ll have to do it for you.” She cracks her knuckles, forcing the shirt over Katsuki’s head.
“OI GET THE HELL OFF SHITTY WOMAN”
“Stop fighting!”
“STOP TOUCHING ME”
Katsuki’s arms flail, but to your surprise, your mother goes head-to-head against Katsuki without his quirk. Seriously, has your mom secretly been hitting the gym or what?
You don’t see as much as hearthe crackles; so does your mother.
“Don’t you even think about blowing me up, Katuski, or so help me I will not hesitate to fire you on the spot.”
“ARGGHHHHH GET THE FUCK OFF ME YOU HAG”
Sparks flare dangerously close to your mother, and you close your eyes, unable to look, but it’s fairly anticlimactic when Katsuki pops up from the hole of the shirt. His scrunched face and frazzled hair resembles an angry pomeranian.
And that’s how your mother got Katsuki to wear matching shirts.
Garden Glow is the biggest event of the year for you and your mother. It’s how you’ve grown your clientele and how Paradise Blooms stays afloat.
Your mother claps her hands. “Team huddle, c’mon you two, let’s go!”
Katsuki scowls, but otherwise obeys. He’s at the mercy of your mother who has Mitsuki on speed dial. But that doesn’t stop him from taking his sweet time, trudging with his hands in his pockets like he doesn’t have the energy to care, reminding you that everything important in your life is like a speck of dust to Katsuki.
“Give me your hand, honey.”
Darting a glance at Katsuki, you shake your head, but she ignores your silent plea, grabbing your hand before going for Katsuki’s who whips his own hand away in time.
“Leave me alone. I already put your stupid shirt on.”
“Actually,I put the shirt on you.” She’s met with a glare, but she ignores that too. “C’mon, it’s tradition to do a team huddle! We do it every year, right honey?” You try not to outwardly cringe when she puts you on the spot.
“Mhm…” You weakly agree.
“See?” Your mother smiles which only fuels Katsuki’s outburst.
“FUCK OFF!”
Katsuki’s heaves, the veins in his forearms bulge from how tight he’s clenching his fist because he knows he screwed up.
“Fuck.” Katsuki lamely finishes.
Did you mention the swear jar is doubled today?
Your mother smiles, wiggling her fingers in a teasing manner toward Katsuki. “I’ll let it all slide if you hold hands?”
He glares at her hand before snatching it. “Not like I got a choice”
The only ones not holding hands are you and Katsuki. You don’t know if you should reach out or not. What if he refuses to hold yours because of last week? You would have to tell your mom, only because you don’t want to lie to her after what happened last time. But would he actually make a scene in front of her? And what would she say if-
Your hand is abruptly pulled in.
Fingers intertwine with yours, his grip is sweaty enough to make anyone pull away, but you only want to hold on tighter.
Your mother clears her throat for her famous Garden Glow pep talk. “Today’s the big day we’ve been working toward all year. I want to thank you both for making it possible.” She turns to acknowledge Katsuki. “Katsuki, you’ve grown so much in these past two weeks. When you started at Paradise Blooms, you couldn’t go five minutes without igniting your quirk or yelling profanities. Now, you’ve managed to accumulate a clientele that personally asks for you when they want to make a purchase.”
“Three clients and one of ‘em’s the Hag.” He shrugs, but you notice how the praise relaxes his grip.
Your mother shakes her head with a smile. “Even if one of them is Mitsuki, you worked hard for the other two. That’s an accomplishment to be celebrated, so thank you for taking the job seriously. And Y/N…” You look down.
All you’ve done lately is disappoint her.
“I understand it’s difficult, being thrusted into a leadership position, and I won’t deny you’ve made mistakes along the way…”
Here it goes. The lecture that throws all your failures back in your face. Your shoulders hunch, a mechanism to protect yourself from what’s to come.
“But I wouldn’t have put you in that position if I didn’t think you were ready.” Looking up, you’re surprised to find her eyes lined with pride. “The way you’ve learned from your mistakes proves I can trust you to run Paradise Blooms. I am certain the business I’ve spent half my life building will be in good hands one day.”
The first smile of the day blooms across your face.
“Thanks, mom.”
You squeeze her hand, tenderness crinkles her eyes as she squeezes your hand back.
“Alright, team, we have an event to run!” Your mother claps her hands. As soon as she does, Katsuki rips his hand from your hold. “Garden Glow on three!” She says, putting her hand in the middle of the circle. You really don’t want to, but you can’t leave your mom hanging after she said all those nice things. You reluctantly place your hand on top of hers.
“C’mon, Katsuki, Garden Glow on three!” She says.
“Bite me.”
“Don’t tempt me,” she retorts.
Without his extensive vocabulary of curse words, his comebacks pretty much suck. (Though you’d never in a million years admit this to his face).
“Fine, I won’t push it,” your mother concedes, “but that’s only because we have a minute left ‘till showtime.” She locks eyes with you. “On three, okay sweetie?”
You hide behind your hair to avoid Katsuki’s reaction, but you realize he probably doesn’t care enough to tease you for the nickname. You don’t know which is worse.
Counting to three, you both chant “Garden Glow” while raising your hands. You and your mother share a look when Katsuki grumbles a quick “Garden Glow” under his breath.
“Oh, before I forget!” She exclaims. “I signed you two up to represent Paradise Blooms in the Flower Crown Show-Down. Okay, bye!” She runs off before either of you can react.
“What!?”
“Hah!?”
You’re both left standing in shock.
Katsuki notices you staring. “Tch. The fuck you lookin’ at, extra?”
He brushes past you without another word.
Guess he’s not over what happened last week.
“How’s everyone doing today!?”
The crowd is filing into their seats so there’s not much of a response at first.
“What was that? I’m havin’ a hard time hearing the people in the back. Let’s try this one more time- how’s everyone doin’ today!?”
This time the crowd’s fired up, practically shaking the amphitheater and getting the cars to honk from the street. The host laughs, giving an appreciative whistle.
“Whew you almost busted my eardrums with that one- but makes my job much easier, so keep doin’ what you’re doin’. Let’s get another round of applause because why the heck not?”
More cheers pierce the air, along with claps, whistles, and handmade Garden Glow signs waving around.
“If you don’t know me, my name is Myoga Haruto. It is truly an honor to host this year’s Garden Glow.”
Your mother was persistent enough to score a late night host for this year’s Garden Glow. His show broke record ratings when he covered the sludge villain incident last year, something you’ve wanted to ask Katsuki about, but doubt he’d talk to you about it.
“We have flower shops from all over the city here with us today. Their booths line all around the perimeter for you to check out- and if you have any questions, feel free to ask anyone with a Garden Glow volunteer shirt. Like him, in the purple shirt.”
Myoga points to Katsuki who scowls when everyone turns to look at him. Sparks ignite from his palms when someone cat-calls from the audience.
“Now, let’s give a warm round of applause for all the workers and volunteers that made this event possible today.”
The audience claps, smiling at the workers and the volunteers.
“There are events planned throughout the day, but you definitely are going to wanna save a seat for the much anticipated…” A drum roll plays to hype up Myoga’s next words…
“FLOWER CROWN SHOW-DOOOWWWWWNNNNN”
People jump out of their seats, giving it their all for the biggest cheer yet.
The Flower Crown Show-Down is what brings in the most traffic every year. Flower shops from all over the city participate, battling to be crowned the next Flower Crown Master. The press the winning flower shop receives means a consistent flow of business for the rest of the year, secured with a loyal clientele base for years to come.
Which is why it makes absolutely no sensefor your mother to sign you up with Katsuki.
Everything’s in full swing after the opening announcement. You nor Katsuki have had a second to breathe with the constant line of customers. Your mother’s seasonal collection was sold within the hour and backorders have already been placed.
Your favorite customer, Tanaka-san, walks up to the booth when you wave him over with a smile. He’s pushing a woman in a wheelchair wearing a vintage flower pin in her hair.
“Tanaka-san, you made it!” You lean across the booth to give him a hug. He laughs in surprise at your amicable greeting, but returns your hug nonetheless.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, dearest.”
His words are sincere. He’s supported you and your mother at every Garden Glow since he became a Paradise Blooms regular.
He gestures to the woman sitting beside him. “I believe you two have yet to meet. Y/N, this is my wife, Akina.”
You’ve seen plenty of pictures of Akina-san, but it’s nothing like seeing her in person. Her hair has grayed, but it falls gracefully around her shoulders, and the lines engraved around her mouth show she’s smiled a lot in her lifetime.
You bow in the same respect you would for Tanaka-san. “It’s an honor to finally meet you, Akina-san, I’ve heard so much about you!”
She chuckles softly. “All good things I hope.”
“Only the best,” you reassure her.
Tanaka-san claps Katsuki on the back. “Katsuki! How are ya, my boy?”
“Ugh! I’m not your boy!” He shoves the hand off his back and returns to packaging flowers in an offensive manner.
“How’s the hero training coming along?”
“Fine.” Katsuki grunts.
“You know you’re going to have to re-tape-”
“I know.” Katsuki snaps at you.
“The U.A. sports festival is a week away if I’m not mistaken?”
“Yeah.”
Tanaka-san’s lip quirks. “Are you ready?”
“HAH!?”
This gets Katsuki to stop what he’s doing. He slams the tape so hard that it bounces off the table and you have to pick it up off the floor. He stares Tanaka-san down, despite him being an elder, but this doesn’t bother Tanaka-san in the slightest, in fact, his smile grows at Katsuki’s agitated snarl.
“‘COURSE I’M READY DUMBASS! I’M MOTHERFU- shit - I’M KING EXPLOSION MURDER FUTURE NUMBER ONE HERO!”
Um…
King Explodo what now?
Tanaka-san howls, wiping tears from his eyes and patting Katuski’s back again like he’s his long-lost son. “Oh Katsuki, you bust my chops, but save that for the ring next week and I guarantee you’ll walk away with first place. We’re all rooting for you, my boy.”
“ARGH FOR THE LAST FREAKIN’ TIME, OLD MAN, I’M NOT YOUR BOY!”
Your mother sent you and Katsuki on a much-needed break. For the past ten minutes, you’ve been figuring out break the silence eating at you, though Katsuki looks like he could care less with the way he’s been scrolling through his phone.
Any conversation dies before it can even begin when a little boy in the play area declares-
“Have no fear, I am here!”
An All might cape flutters behind him and a much too big yellow bucket covers his head.
The other boys follow his lead, quoting their favorite heroes, including the only girl in the group wearing a flower crown. It looks custom made, with an array of glittering Dahlias and what looks to be Peruvian Lily, but you can’t be too sure from this distance.
All eyes go to her when she stands on a chair, towering over the boys. She twists side to side nervously before mumbling, “My hero name is Fairy Princess and I’m here to save you all with my fairy dust!” She gains much needed confidence after saying this, giggling and throwing imaginary fairy dust on the boys.
The boys pause to look at each other before dropping to the ground and rolling around in uncontrollable laughter.
“That’s the stupidest name I’ve ever heard!”
“And what a lame quirk!”
“You’llneverbe a hero!”
The girl hunches in, looking a lot smaller even though she’s still standing over the group.
You look around, wondering if anyone is going to intervene. Katsuki stays quiet to your surprise, choosing to purposefully look away for some reason. You thought he’d be the first to step in since he’s literally training to be a hero.
“Look guys, she’s crying! Gimme that.” The All Might wannabee climbs up to rip the crown from her head; he dangles it over her, as she jumps to try to get it back, but it’s out of her reach, only causing the boys to laugh harder.
“Give it back! My mo-mommy m-made it for me!” She stutters, and you can tell all too well from past experience that she’s trying her best to stay strong and hold back her tears.
The boy croons. “Aww… guys her mommy made it for her, how cute. Too bad.”
You almost hear the screams of the flowers as they’re brutally ripped to shreds, the petals stomped on by each of the boys and splattered on the ground like pieces of a broken heart. The girl drops to her knees to salvage what she can, but it’s no use.
You look at Katsuki, thinking he’s finally going to step in and teach those boys a lesson, but he stays still, choosing to disengage from the scene altogether.
No one else steps in so you do.
“Hey, that’s enough!”
The All Might kid pushes the other boys and they escape the scolding you were about to lay on them.
Bending down so you’re eye level with the girl, you wipe the tears she finally allows to stream down her cheeks. “Are you alright?” you softly ask. Her knees are scuffed, but she looks otherwise fine.
The girl sniffles, nodding. You’re about to help her up when a woman rushes over to kneel next to you. “Lily, are you okay, sweetie? What happened?”
“Mommy!” Lily throws herself, crying into her mother’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, mommy, the c-crown y-you made is r-ruined…”
“Oh don’t you worry ‘bout that, hun, I’ll make you another one.” She caresses her cheek before softly smiling. “Thank you for standing up for my little girl.”
“Of course.” You smile back before turning to Lily. “Us girls need to stick together, right?”
Lily laughs, nodding through her tears.
Out of nowhere, the sun comes out. That’s weird, you think, but shrug it off. Squinting, you can barely make out Lily turning back with a sad smile. Despite the sweat gathering on your forehead, you give her an encouraging smile, waving goodbye.
It’s only when they’ve disappeared into the crowd that you realize you could’ve used your quirk to make her a crown. You sigh.
Why do you always think of the right thing to do after the moment’s passed?
Unbeknownst to you, Katsuki watches from afar.
The girl’s tears have stopped, and though the glassiness in her eyes remains, it has taken a new form, one of admiration. She looks up at you with a smile Katsuki knows all too well, one that stretches from cheek-to-cheek, wide enough to show the gap of her missing tooth.
And he knowsyou’re the reason.
You wave and wave, standing in the middle of the relentless heat until you can no longer see the little girl. Rays of sunlight pierce the clouds, bright, like the start of a new day. With your back turned, the light halos you, and where shadows should lie, pure, unadulterated sunshine glows in their midst, as if the sun itself chose to spotlight you. Like out of the billions of people in this world, you were deemed worthy enough to be acknowledged in this moment.
Turning your head, you look back at Katsuki, with that same smile he knew you wore all along.
You’ve peed five times within the hour. Your throat clicks every time you swallow. And your palms are sweaty, if not sweatier, than Katsuki’s after training.
You’re waiting backstage with the rest of the showdown teams. He’s calm, you’ve never seen him so calm. You wish he wasn’t because this Katsuki looks like he couldn’t care less whether or not you lose.
Your mom is in the front row, smiling and chatting with Tanaka-san and Akina-san. She catches your eye, giving you a thumbs up.
Oh god, you’re gonna be sick.
You want to prove what she said is true- that you’re capable of running Paradise Blooms one day. But you’ve blown every chance she’s given you.
The band fades when Myoga runs on stage. “Ladies and gentlemen, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…” He pauses, a drum roll enhances the anticipation, edging the crowd.
“The Flower Crown SHOWDOOOOOOWN!”
The whoops and cheers don’t pump you up like it does everyone else. You need to find the nearest restroom. Fast.
Myoga laughs. “Alright, alright, settle down so I can explain the rules and get this show on the road.” Myoga waits before carrying on like a true professional. “Flower shops from all over the city sign up for this event, but only the top five are selected to participate on this stage today. The team that makes the best flower crown based on the judge’s score within five minutes, yes folks, you heard that right, only five minutes, will be crowned this year’s Flower Crown Master.”
There’s no way you and Katsuki can win. All the other duos are showdown veterans that you’ve competed against in the past with your mom- your mom who grew up in a literal field. Katsuki has worked at Paradise Blooms for two weeks. What was she thinking making such a last minute decision? Is this her mid-life crisis kicking in early? She knows that she’s putting Paradise Blooms on the line, losing out on much-needed publicity and clientele.
You breathe in so you don’t hurl all over your poorly designed shirt. (Yes, you admit it, your mother willnever be the next Coco Chanel despite her protests that she is a competent fashion designer.)
Turning to Katsuki, you make a last-ditch effort to make amends. “Look, I know we aren’t on good terms, but… this means the world to my mom. So can we please put aside our differences for now and work as a team?” You add another ‘please’ because you’re pretty much desperate at this point with your stomach making nauseating waves like a freaking tsunami hit it.
Katsuki stares at you for a good thirty seconds. “No. I hate people telling me what to do.” He walks away.
You wilt under Katsuki’s words, tears welling up, but you swallow them down before anyone can see. All you can do is follow him on stage.
And just your stupid luck, you’re placed next to your ultimate rivals… the evil twins from flower crown showdown hell, Jin and Jinny. You swear they were put here on this planet just to torture you.
Jin side-eyes you, as if he can’t be bothered to turn his head, else god forbid, he’d ruin his stupid hair. “Well… if it isn’t, Y/N. I see your mommy’s not here to bail you out this year. What a shame… I was really looking forward to a challenge.” You scrunch your nose at the uncomfortable way he licks his lips.
“Nice to see you again, Jin, always a treat.”
Jinny pops up from behind, her ponytails bounce in time with her shrill voice. “Typical Y/N, too scared to talk back.” They do some weirdo handshake that should be made illegal in the state of Japan. Like right now.
The crowd “ooooo’s” at the insult, and some random person even yells “burn”! You fail to recognize the “burn” in Jinny’s lame comeback.
Myoga steps in to narrate the scene. “We’re less than a minute in, folks, and we already got some trash talk between Paradise Blooms and Flowerworks.”
Katsuki snorts. “You call that trash talk? Please, my dead fish, Killer Chain, can do better than that.”
The audience gasps.
Jinny goes tomato red. “Excuse me, you did notjust compare me to your preposterous-named dead fish!”
“You really do need to work on your nicknames,” you whisper.
“Shut up,” Katsuki snaps.
Jin pulls her behind him. “Hey! No one talks to my sister like that.”
“Get a better sister.” Katsuki shrugs matter of fact.
Jin marches up to center stage. “Who is this asshole? I’ve never seen him before in my life.”
Katsuki shrugs. “I don’t waste my time with extras.”
“Be careful, Katsuki, my mom can hear.”
You make the wrong move by placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Get off me!”
“Oh… I get it!” There’s a glint in Jinny’s eyes. “He’s your booooooooyfriend!”
You and Katsuki both let out a “hah!?” The audience laughs, drinking in the drama as if it were a play at the theatre and not your life hanging by a thread.
You flush, flailing your arms back and forth. “No, no, no, no, we-we’re not-”
“Call me that again, dipshit, been lookin’ for a reason to tear shit up.”
“You’re cute,” Jin looks Katsuki up and down, licking his lips again. “But I don’t play with guys who think with their fists.”
“I talk with ‘em too, wanna see?” Katsuki smiles a little too wide for comfort, explosions popping in his hands.
“Now, now, wait a minute here,” Myoga intervenes, “Quirks are allowed during the competition, but damaging an opponent or their work is grounds for immediate disqualification.”
“Hold up, I know you.” Jin steps into Katsuki’s space, until they’re almost nose-to-nose. “You’re the kid who was attacked last year in the sludge villain incident. You must not be that strong if you needed All Might and that green-haired kid to save you.”
Murmurs swell, trying to confirm if Jin’s right.
You don’t have to look to feel the anger emanating from Katsuki, not the wildfire anger he resorts to when Tanaka-san or your mom get under his skin. No, this anger simmers from a much deeper wound.
You don’t ever want to be on the receiving side of this anger.
Sparks of deadly promise rise from his palms, as he raises his fist to strike Jin.
“Don’t, Katsuki.”
His hand stills, shaking, struggling not to strike you.
“Move.” He’s not even looking at you.
“My mom will fire you on the spot.”
“Y/N.” You inhale the dark look now trained on you. “Fuck off if you know what’s good for you.”
You don’t “fuck off” like he tells you to. Not this time. You stand your ground, even if it means getting caught in the crossfire, because you can’t afford to lose before the race is even started.
“You’re angry, believe me, I am too.”
“You don’t know jackshit, extra.”
“Let’s use that anger to win this thing.” Taking a deep breath and knowing the risk you’re about to take with your next words, you say them anyway.
“Make them regret ever calling us weak.”
“Fuck you!” Katsuki shouts. He sidesteps you, heading straight toward Jin, but you stop him.
“No, Katsuki, fuck them.”
You glance at Jin and Jinny, then at the audience. His eyes find yours, and with a shared glance, you know exactly what he’s about to do before he does it.
He reigns in his quirk, marching center stage and making sure to brush past Jin as hard as he can. He snatches the microphone and shouts into it like a blow horn.
“PARADISE BLOOMS WILL BE CROWNED THE 2020 MASTER! FLOWERWORKS CAN EAT SHIT!”
There’s a good thirty seconds of shocked silence before someone says-
“FUCK YEAH! GO PARADISE BLOOMS!”
Your jaw drops.
“Mom?”
The crowd goes wild, following your mother’s sentiment to jump out of their seats with newfound vigor.
Myoga laughs. “Now that’swhat I call a real declaration of war in the spirit of competition! We shall see who will be crowned the next Flower Crown Master. Let’s get a round of applause from the people who think Flowerworks will win!”
There’s a good amount of cheering which sets Katsuki’s quirk off. Jin and Jinny smirk only at you, too afraid to raddle the beast next to you.
“Now let’s hear it from the people who think Paradise Blooms will win!”
Standing on benches and whooping their hands around, cars even honk from the streets- the noise overbears the pathetic applause Flowerworks received.
“Seems like Paradise Blooms is the favorite to win,” Myoga comments.
“Fuck yeah! Suck on that, Flowerbitches!” Katsuki whoops.
You’re about to apologize for Katsuki’s foul language, but his words only serve to fire up the crowd. He promised a juicy fight with that declaration, and you’re worried he over-promised with all the trash talk- Paradise Blooms might become the butt of the joke for the rest of the year if you don’t deliver. There’s only one option.
Win.
“This year’s theme is A Night Under The Stars. You have five minutes to create a flower crown that best embodies this theme. Get ready, teams! In five-”
The crowd joins in the countdown.
“Four, three, two…”
The horn blares.
“ONE”
Chaos ensues.
Everyone on stage shoves each other to get to the materials table first. Some use their quirks, including Jin, who mudslides his way to the front of the line.
“Hell if I’m letting that fucker get all the good stuff.” Katsuki snarls, igniting his quirk, about to force his way in.
“Wait, Katsuki! You don’t even know… what we… need.” You slump when you realize talking is useless.
“MOVE BITCHES COMIN’ THRU ”
“Hey! You can’t threaten us with your quirk!”
“That’s not fair!”
Katsuki returns, dumping a huge pile of materials on the table. You gape at the sheer amount of stuff.
“I didn’t know what we needed so I took one of everything.”
Even Myoga looks at the judges, unsure if this is legal, but when he receives no response, he shrugs as well. “There’s nothing in the rules that limits what you can take. Go wild!”
The crowd laughs, cheering Katsuki on. He’s quickly become the crowd favorite.
In shock, a laugh bubbles from your throat. “Alright. Since we’ve got enough materials to make five crowns, I’m going to focus on making the centerpiece. You can start twisting the vines like this.” You show Katsuki and he catches on quick; his destructive hands become nimble enough to twist the vines. You let him know how many vines to twist, which is not many as the crown’s circumference will be small, made for a specific wearer in mind.
You close your eyes to focus on creating the centerpiece. A green bud sprouts in the center of your cupped palms. A vision becomes clear in your mind as the flower grows. You make the petals larger than nature would normally allow, and more saturated in color, the bright fuchsia wash is deepest at the center, fading a brilliant white at the edges. Freckles bloom across each curved petal.
“OI! WAKE THE FUCK UP!”
You open your eyes. “Huh?”
“Shitty fuckin’ treehugger,” Katsuki growls. Grabbing your shoulders, he physically turns you towards the ticking clock. “LOOK AT THE TIME!”
You gasp. Shoot, did you really take that long? To be fair it was a large flower, one you had to pull from memory and create with intricate detailing.
That doesn’t change the fact that you wasted two minutes on a single flower.
As if Jinny can read your mind she puts her annoying two cents in with a nasally snort. “Ha! Good luck tryna make a flower crown with one flower! As if!” Jin and Jinny both laugh, flaunting their almost finished flower crown.
“Shut the fuck up,” Katsuki snaps, “Worry ‘bout your own shitty crown.”
“Oh no, Paradise Blooms is off to a rough start. Can they pull through with only three minutes remaining?” Most of the crowd says yes, with a few occasional “boos” thrown in there.
Jin and Jinny probably paid those hecklers, you think bitterly.
You’ve never seen him look so out of his depth. His eyes dart back and forth- from the clock to the pieces of your unfinished crown, to Jin and Jinny’s crown, before they land back on you.
You activate your quirk once more, but Katsuki holds your hands tight.
“No. More. Quirk.”
The touch takes you aback, but you can’t afford to think about it right now. Later… when you’re alone.
You twist out of his hold. “Don’t worry, the flowers I’m gonna make won’t take long. Look-”
Palms up, you create an assembly line of significantly smaller flowers. “We’ll alternate between different types of lilies, and make it messy- like a starry night- it’s a risk, we might lose points, but we don’t have much of a choice now.” You point to the flower that took two minutes to create, sitting pretty in full bloom. “And thiswill be the crown’s centerpiece.”
“Two minutes left on the clock, folks!” Myoga says. “Looks like Flowerworks is the first to complete their crown. Paradise Blooms is struggling to make a comeback. Will they have a complete crown by the end?”
Katsuki pricks himself. “Shit,” he curses, wiping the blood on his jeans.
“Rookie mistake,” Jin chimes in.
A single explosion pops, and what was once beautiful petals are now a crestfallen pile of unusable bits and pieces.
“Katsuki!”
“Dammit!” Katsuki kicks the table.
“Whoa, looks like Paradise Blooms blew their chance, quite literally!”
Katsuki narrows his eyes at Myoga who quickly moves on to another team.
“Hold on, do that again.” The vision of the flower crown changing before your eyes- one that is much better than what you originally planned.
“Hah!?”
You make a couple more lilies and drop them into his hands.
“Trust me alright?” Making a few more lilies, you drop them into his hands.
He cocks an eyebrow. “You better not fuck this up.”
You don’t comment, but that’s rich coming from the guy who just blew up your flowers. He sighs before blowing them up again, the bits and pieces glittering in his palms like fallen stars.
Perfect.
“Now let’s glue these bits onto the crown.”
Shaking his head, he argues, “That’s gonna take too damn long.”
You smirk. “Not if we do it like this.”
“That’s a cute trick, but that won’t be enough to beat us.”
You bite back a groan at Jin effectively ruining your badass moment. You feel a clawing urge to strangle both of them with some vines.
“You’recute for thinking we’re finished,” you bite back.
Katsuki looks at you with pleasant surprise as the audience rewards you with some cheers.
You turn to Katsuki. “Give me your hands.”
“Hah!?”
“Your hands, give them-”
“No.”
You glance at the clock. Twenty seconds left. “Please?”
“Why?”
You don’t really know how to say it without seeming weird.
“I need your sweat,” you say, hoping he doesn’t get the wrong idea, but of course he does with the way he wrinkles his nose.
“I knew you treehuggers were weird, but that’s a whole ‘nother level of nasty.”
Your face burns from the suggestion.
“I-It’s not like that!”
“Ten seconds left!” Myoga and the crowd countdown.
Your heart beats in double time.
“Do you wanna beat those idiots or not?”
Katsuki narrows his eyes. “Yes.”
“Then give me your hands.” Biting your lip, you glance at the clock.
Eight seconds.
Throwing his hands up he says, “Fuck! Fine. Here.”
Katsuki reluctantly lays his palms up and you place your hands face down on top. They’re warmer than this morning and in this position you realize how much bigger his hands are compared to yours.
You focus on the task, hoping he doesn’t catch sight of your burning cheeks. “I need you to secrete a little bit of sweat at the same time I create a vine. Th-the sme- um…” You clear your throat, refusing to look up at Katsuki. “The smell might earn us a few extra points.” You mutter in one go. Suddenly, you regret wearing the Garden Glow t-shirt, because it’s not just your cheeks that are burning anymore, and you can feel Katsuki’s eyes on you, watching every expression flitter on your face, making you regret even suggesting it in the first place.
He shrugs like he couldn’t care less. “Whatever. Just take it.”
You chance a glance to see his cheeks burning bright red too, but as soon as he catches you he scowls a “nerd” at the end for good measure. You look down at your hands touching, but that only makes it worse.
“R-right,” you stutter.
At the same time, you create vines while Katsuki secretes sweat. Your nose twitches from the sweet scent. Once the vines have been thoroughly soaked, you glue them expertly to the crown, and finish just as the clock beeps.
“Time’s up!”
Jin looks yours up and down, spewing out, “Lilies are so last season.” He places his crown in front of yours, Penta flowers line the vines, and you hate to admit it, but you wish you would’ve thought to include Pentas, with their star-shaped petals.
No, you shake your head, you picked Lilies for a reason. Your flower crown shimmers in the sunlight, reminiscent of stars shining in the night sky.
The judges walk up the stage, stopping at each table to thoroughly assess each flower crown. Katsuki crosses his arms, glaring at how slow the judges are. You can relate, with your stomach swirling with nerves, though you don’t openly broadcast your annoyance.
Apparently Katsuki’s had enough because he huffs. “Can you fuckin’ hurry up and come judge ours?”
“TELL ‘EM, KATSUKI, TELL ‘EM!”
Everyone turns around, including the judges. You gape at who the heckler is.
“Mom!”
“Whoops, my bad.” With a weak smile, she sheepishly bows. “Got carried away there- ahem- carry on!”
“Alright then, moving on to Flowerworks,” Myoga transitions, stepping next to Jin and Jinny. “The judges agreed that the use of Pentas to represent stars was an excellent idea. Plus, the specific alignment of the flowers provides an overall aesthetic appeal. For that, Flowerworks receives an 8.5 out of 10.”
The whoops and cheers force you to wring your hands together, a knot forms in your stomach at the formidable score you have to beat.
Jin flips his obnoxious bangs with a flourish of the hand. “And that’show it’s done.”
Jinny nods like a bobblehead. “Mmhm, mmhm!”
A low growl sounds in Katsuki’s throat making you slide your flower crown away from his sizzling hands.
“Those dumbass flowers are nothing more than a shit bucket. We’re taking the win this year.” Katsuki states matter of fact, like the only possibility in this scenario is to win. His raw confidence detangles the knot in your stomach.
Katsuki tenses up when noticing your stare. “What?”
“Who knew flowers could get you so fired up?” You bump your shoulder against his playfully, he scoffs in response.
“It’s not about the flowers. It’s about the win.”
He’s right. You have to win.
“And last, but definitely not least,” Myoga stands next to you and Katsuki. “The judges were surprised at Paradise Blooms’ crown this year. They expected a much more… skillfully crafted crown.”
That’s true. From the quickly woven vines to the scattered petals, your crown lacks the proper technique and experience only your mom possesses. But you didn’t have her. This was all you and Katsuki. And what you created together, albeit explosive and messy, was enveloped in a sweet aroma and a unique design that’s not normally seen in flower arrangements.
You wait for the inevitable loss, but you don’t feel as disappointed as you should, instead a small smile slips from your lips- proud of your beautiful mess.
“But what you lacked in technique, you more than made up for with creative integrity. The risks you took far outweighed your skill, and for that, Paradise Blooms receives a score of 9.5 out of 10.”
You look up to see the audience in much the same shock as you.
“Paradise Blooms is this year’s Flower Crown Master!”
Everyone is quiet, eerily quiet, in shock with the outcome… that is until Katsuki releases a triumphant roar.
“FUCK YEAH! FUCK YOU BITCHES! SUCK ON THESE NUTS! TAKE YOUR DUMBASS FLOWER SHOP NAME AND YOUR DUMBASS CROWN TO HELL!”
Everything happens at once - the twins squealing, the crowd jumping out of their seats to cheer you on, bright cameras flashing one after another in domino effect, and your mother crying tears of joy in the front row.
“Oh my god! We did it! We won!”
Shooting you a cocking grin, he replies. “Course we did, I always win.”
You realize it before it’s too late. You must’ve hugged him on instinct, all the adrenaline fuzzing up the part of your brain that homes doubt. With the way his body’s pressed against yours, you can smell that same aroma you asked for moments ago, it tickles your nose and stirs up childhood reminiscence colored in bright yellow.
Katsuki must be in a similar position because he pushes you away, hastily getting as much distance from you without calling attention to everyone. You don’t miss the cherry that paints his cheeks.
“T-they ch-cheated!” Jin points at both of you.
“Yeah! They combined their quirks!” Jinny echoes.
“There’s nothing in the rules that states participants aren’t allowed to use their quirks together,” says Myoga.
“I’m more than happy to show you my quirk on its own.” Katsuki smirks like he’s been waiting all day for this opportunity. Jin and Jinny squeak a quick “no thank you!” before finally shutting their mouths.
“That’s what I thought. You fuck with Paradise Blooms, and I’ll kick your ass.” The twins nod in understanding.
Stepping aside, Myoga makes way for you and Katsuki. “Now, let’s have a word from the winners.” He hands you the mic as the audience chants “Speech! Speech! Speech!”
Flushing at the sudden onslaught of attention, you grip the mic with two hands, afraid it might slip from your sweaty palms. Taking a deep breath that echoes throughout the park, you finally gather the nerve to start.
“H-hi… um…”
The eyes are discomforting, but an encouraging nod from your mom is exactly what you need to push through.
“My mom would probably disown me if I forgot to say this, but our booth is over there with the purple sign.” You point to the booth with the Paradise Blooms banner. “Or you can come up to me or Katsuki for any business inquiries.”
Myoga grabs for the mic when you remember-
“Oh! And one more thing, uhhh… Lily? Lily, are you still here?” You spot the same little girl from earlier bouncing on her seat. “C’mon up here!” You say, waving her up. Lily looks to her mom who takes her hand and leads her to the stage.
Bending down so you’re at eye level with her, you say, “These are a type of lily called stargazers.”
She gazes in awe at the wreath of pink flowers. “Pretty,” she breathes. Smiling, you place the crown on her head, like one would during a coronation.
“I deem thee… Fairy Princess of the sky!”
The look of pure adoration on her face, her glassy eyes looking up at you like you were her… you were…
you were her hero.
“Th-thank you, Y/N! Thank you so much! I’ll be sure to be the bestfairyprincess the sky has ever seen! I won’t let you down!” She bows multiple times, despite being a princess now.
Amidst the sea of eyes, Katsuki’s burn into you. Turning around, you offer a small smile, and to your surprise, he shares one of his own. The faintest quirk of the lips, but a smile nonetheless.
As soon as you’re off the stage, you’re tackled in a hug by your mom.
“Oh honey I’m so proud of you! Come here, you!”
“T-thanks, mom, oh okay-”
Without recognizing her strength, she squeezes tighter.
“Alright, settle down. Mom? Look, I love you, but you’re hurting me- OW”
Smacking her back has no effect as she continues to waddle you side-to-side in the biggest bear hug of your life.
Struggling for air, you wheeze out what feels like your last two words. “Can’t….Breathe…”
“Oh! S-sorry, hun!” After watching you gulping for air like your life depends on it (which it kinda does) she gives you a sheepish smile. “Wow, I really do need to tone it down, don’t I?”
Wheezing a bit more, you hit her with a- “You think?”
“Oh I can’t help it, with all the adrenaline flowing, and you know how competitive I get! Ah! My baby won the Flower Crown Show-Down!” After ruffling your hair, she whips her phone out. “Now I get to brag to all the other moms in yoga class. Oh, your kid got valedictorian? That’s cute. My daughter just won Flower Crown Master, suck on that, Sasha!”
You’re too busy rolling around in the million and one questions you have for your mom. Noticing your perplexed look, she puts her phone away. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
You shake your head. “Nothing, just…” You bite your lip, figuring out your next words as you say them. “I know we won… but that was a huge risk you took. I mean, you even said it yourself, you spent half your life building Paradise Blooms, the most important thing in the world to you!”
You look down at your shoes, some of the left-over nerves still tingling your fingertips, before asking with a voice softer than Akina-san’s.
“Do you really believe in me that much?”
Waiting for her answer feels like waiting for a seed to grow into a Cryptomeria tree. What you don’t expect is the resolve in her voice, like what she’s about to say is an indisputable fact, no matter the road ahead.
“Honey, the shop isn’t the most important thing in the world to me.”
She tilts your chin up.
“You are.”
You want to believe her, but you’ve let her down before. And maybe you just got lucky today because Katsuki was there. Would you have been able to win on your own? What if you didn’t win at all? Would your mom still be saying this?
You have to ask now, even if your throat is tightening at the thought; your muscles vibrate, and every fibre of your being is screaming at you to run.
“But what if- what if I…”
Choking up, tears pressure your eyes, begging to fall freely, but you keep them locked. Just like you always do.
Breathing in deep to gain control of your emotions, you pull from the depths a resolve of your own that you never believed you had, so you could finish what you set out to ask.
“What if I failed?”
Your mother smiles, with the same tenderness as when she tells you, “I love you.”
“Then you would’ve tried again next year.”
You’rereallynot looking forward to the clean up.
Boxes pile high in the Paradise Blooms storeroom. A hard thud signals that Katsuki brought in the last box. After maneuvering through the boxes like a maze, you manage to make your way to the storefront where your mother enters. Any flyaways or smudged eyeliner are re-touched, her Garden Glow shirt replaced by a stunning ruby dress.
Remember the elusive “favor” your mom hired Katsuki for? Apparently, Mitsuki set her up with a co-worker who’s just your mom’s “type.”
“Are you sure you’ll be alright closing up? I could stay and-”
“Nope. Like heck I’m letting you miss out on your first real date in years. Go on, shoo-” You begin pushing her out the door, because if you don’t get her out now she’s just going to make some excuse about needing to stay and help.
Laughing at your antics, she concedes. “Okay, okay, I’m going.”
“Good.” You nod in approval. “Now, go make awkward small talk until one of you finally decides to make a move.”
You hear Katsuki snort from the back.
She kisses the top of your head in typical mom fashion. “There’s leftovers in the fridge if you get hungry.” She raises her voice. “And thanks again for your help today, Katsuki. I’m very proud of you too.”
Katsuki smiles but grunts, which is his way of saying ‘you’re welcome.’ “Have fun I guess, or don’t, I don’t care.”
Rolling her eyes, she gives a wave before leaving you with the keys. An hour passes before the store looks manageable, enough to leave the rest for tomorrow’s shift.
The hydrangea by the window catches your eye. Despite the improvement, the petals have begun to wilt, the stem slumping more everyday. Picking it up, you place it off to the side so the sunlight doesn’t hit it as much.
Locking the door, you’re suddenly alone, face to face with Katsuki. He doesn’t say anything, and neither do you.
All you get is a nod before he walks away.
You really don’t want the night to end, because tomorrow morning will end the exact same way, and the next day, and the next. You miss your study sessions, where you got to see a side of him that wasn’t always shouting, or cursing, or blowing things up. When he thought of you as someone worthy enough to open up to.
Your thoughts are pathetic, you feel pathetic, but you can’t help it because… because…
“Then you would’ve tried again next year.”
Your mother’s words ring in your ears, pulling the resolve you now know you have, deep from within you, and making you brave enough to ground yourself in your truth. No matter how many times you get uprooted.
“I think I’m still in love with you!”
Crap, he’s turning around, yep he definitely heard you. Why wouldn’t he hear you? You were loud enough to wake the whole freakin’ block!
But you’ve doubled down at this point, so you keep going, word after word pouring out of you, words you’ve been dying to tell him, but you’ve been too afraid to admit, even to yourself.
“You asked me why I covered for you, and the answer’s simple really, I did it because I care about you, Katsuki, because I didn’t want to see yougo, not when I had a second chance-”
Shaking your head, you clumsily move on. “The day I… you know… and you…” Your throat catches, unable to bring up your confession last year. “I- I tried to move on, I really did, but- and it helped, you know? Not seeing you in class everyday, I really thought I could be happy without you in my life, but then you showed up again and completely screwed up my plan.”
This is the second time Katsuki’s given you his full attention, the sensation is still new enough to stop you in your path. Everything about him screams intimidation, from his dark crimson eyes to the scowl that protrudes his already angled jawline. Not to mention the street lamps casting a pearlescent shadow, further darkening his face.
You clear your throat as you try to navigate your way to an end to this impromptu confession. “Ahem- so yeah, I think I’m still- wait, no, what am I saying?”
You stop yourself once more, because you’d regret being anything less than honest with him. With that, you take in a much needed deep breath, preparing to face him head on with your next words.
“I don’t think I’m in love with you. I knowI am.”
A solid thirty seconds pass when Katsuki raises an eyebrow.
“Done?”
“Yep.” You confirm, voice wavering.
He looks at you with an expression you’ve only seen when he actually cares about something, like when he’s tackling a problem during a study session.
“My answer hasn’t changed.”
“I didn’t expect it to,” you shrug, “being your friend is enough, and friends don’t lie to each other.”
“Who says I need friends?” The amused twitch of his eyebrow lets you know he’s joking. You huff out a laugh.
Standing in silence with Katsuki is not as uncomfortable as before. In fact, you could stand here all night without saying a word until the sun comes up.
“I saw you stand up for that girl.”
For the first time, Katsuki’s the one looking down at his shoes while you stare straight at him. His hands are moving in his pockets, and the crease between his eyebrows looks like he’s glaring at the ground, like it’s the reason for his trouble.
“You weren’t strong enough to get into U.A., but-”
His eyes meet yours with newfound respect.
“Today you were a hero.”
Your breath catches, and without giving you the chance to respond, he turns around.
“See you tomorrow, flowerchild.”
Walking away, his silhouette grows smaller with each step, until all that’s left is a shadow of once was.
An unspoken promise changes the air- that tomorrow will be different from today. A chance for a flower to bloom in the turnover of once soiled soil.
This is a work of fanfiction, all thecharacter mentioned or that appear are property of Kōhei Horikoshi, all the credit of them is given to him. This is not meant to be kept under the canon storyline (and kinda outdated since i have not seen the last season).
Any problem detected on the information given may be comunicated to me via DM.
