Fighting With Myself

~Shoto~

How do I say it?

You're a great student. You're smart and you shouldn't doubt yourself. I can't say that, that's strange.

"ICY-HOT BASTARD!"

Sigh.

"Bakugo," I greet him.

"Don't give me that sh--! I just wanna know why nobody ever called me in for backup! I'd kick that Stain guy's a--. You underestimated me!!!"

"If you don't mind, I'd like to get to class now."

"WHAT?!! WHO THE F--K DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TALKING TO, NERD?" Bakugo continues to yell after me as I walk away. I'm not in the mood to deal with him right now. Father got on my case today while I was trying to leave the house and it didn't help my attitude.

"You think you're BETTER THAN MEEE?!"

I just walked to class.

"BAKAAAAAA!" He yelled after me.

Usually I would put up with Bakugo, but not today. Father just made me so angry today. 

"Greetings, Todoroki," Mr. Aizawa welcomes me into class.

"Greetings, Aizawa-san." I bow respectfully and walk to my seat. Yaoyorozu is on the left of me as usual.

"Greetings, Todoroki-san," Yaoyorozu whispers to me.

Dammit. I can't just ignore her like I do Bakugo. I warn myself to keep my emotions in check. "Greetings, Yaoyorozu."

Don't ask me any more questions.

"Did you enjoy the soba noodles? I hope they were okay. I know store-bought isn't as good as homemade."

Damn.

"Yes," I reply, slightly cheering up. The soba noodles were delicious and they calmed me from the state I was in at the time. I'm very grateful she did that.

She doesn't say anything else. Thank goodness. 

~Momo~

I get the feeling he doesn't want to talk to me.

At first, I'm hurt, but I tell myself that there could be a number of reasons why he might not want to talk to me right now. I know that I still kinda don't want to talk to my friends about the Sports Festival after what happened. 

So I don't bother him.

After class, I meet up with Jiro and Uraraka.

"Did you see how down Todoroki looked today?" Uraraka recounts.

"Yeah," I answer.

"What did you guys talk about?" Jiro asks me.

"Oh, we just talked about the soba that I bought him while he was in the hospital..." I trail off as my fingers circle each other.

"Hmmm?" Jiro and Uraraka both say.

"What?" I raise my eyebrow.

"Don't play around, Yao-Momo, you like Todoroki," Jiro says.

"Huh????" I clench my fist and stiffen.

Uraraka collapses into a giggle fit. She clasps a hand over her mouth as she laughs. I don't find any of this funny, though. Why did Jiro say something like that? I don't like Todoroki, I just admire his heroic skills.

"Well, I'll see you at lunch, Yao-Momo," Jiro waves at me as she walks away. 

Darn her, why'd she have to say that? Now I'll be thinking about that for the rest of the day.

Just because I think Todoroki's an exceptional student doesn't mean I have feelings for him. We're not even friends. When I visited him at the hospital, that may have been the first time we've talked in a while.

One half of me dismisses what Jiro said while the other half keeps thinking about it.

Whyy?

~Shoto~

I walk toward the cafeteria door and I scan the room for an empty table. As I walk through the room, I pass by Yaoyorozu and she waves for a brief second before snatching her hand down with her other hand. That's peculiar, but I don't say anything.

I sit at an empty table and I start eating, but the table isn't empty for long. Kirishima Eijiro, Kaminari Denki, and Midoriya Izuku sit with me.

Oh, well.

"Hey, Todoroki!" Kirishima waves.

"Hello."

Midoriya pays no attention to me. He's digging into his food rapidly with the usual "I'm-being-held-at-gunpoint" look in his eyes. He must be extremely hungry.

"Gosh, Midoriya! Are you trying to beat the clock?" Kaminari looks at Midoriya with an intense fear.

"I'm just very hungry," Midoriya manages in between bites. The day has taken a toll on him. He seems to struggle with his quirk and so he works very hard. I don't blame him for eating like a person who has fasted for two months.

Once Midoriya finishes his lunch, he rests back in his chair and looks to me. "Noticed you had much better food at the hospital than Iida and I, Todoroki-kun."

My face grows warm for no reason I can think of. It's not like me to be embarrassed. "Yaoyorozu brought it to me."

A smirk stretches across Midoriya's face. He begins to laugh softly. Kirishima and Kaminari start laughing as well. I raise one eyebrow at them.

"I don't know why you're laughing. It was very nice of her to do that for me."

"Oh, you're so dense, Todoroki-kun," Kaminari chuckles.

It irks me that I can't understand them, so I hurry up and finish my food. Then, I rise from the table, taking my now empty tray with me.

--

When I arrive at home, I search the house for Natsuo or Fuyumi. I find Natsuo first, on the couch playing a video game.

"Whassup, little bro?" Natsuo smiles and looks to me for a second before turning back to the television screen.

"I'm fine, and you?"

"Pretty good! Father isn't here right now, so I've been chill. Fuyumi's at the store but she'll be back soon."

"I have a question for you," I say as I drop my backpack on the floor next to an armchair. I sit in the armchair and look at Natsuo with curiosity. 

"Fire away."

"So, you know about what happened in Hosu, right?"

"Mhm. Must've been rough. I felt real bad for you guys."

"Yes, well while I was in the hospital, a girl from my class brought me some soba, knowing it's my favorite food. And when I told my friends at lunch about that today, they started acting strange."

He pauses the game, sets the controller down at looks at me. "Strange how?"

"Well, Midoriya started laughing, and so did Kaminari and Kirishima. When I asked why, they called me dense."

Natsuo does it too. He laughs. "Seems they think she likes you."

"Well I guess I like her a little. We don't know each other that well, but she's friendly and smart."

"Not that kind of 'like', Shoto. More like they think she might have a crush on you."

"Excuse me?"

"Gosh, bro, you really are dense. And a little clueless." Natsuo types something in his phone and then hands it to me.

After I read the definition of "crush", my eyes widen. "An infatuation? Of course not, we're not even friends!"

"Well, she could have brought food to anyone, but she chose you." After that, he unpauses the video game and goes back to playing it.

She chose you.

She chose... me???

I decide then and there that I've got to talk to Yaoyorozu tomorrow. Alone.

~Momo~

I swap my books out in my locker. After what Jiro and Uraraka said, I feel really uneasy sitting next to Todoroki. I try my best to avoid his gaze, or rather, avoid gazing at him. I feel anxious around him now.

But why?

I can't have a crush on Todoroki. Besides, why would an exceptional student like him have any interest in a nobody like me?

He wouldn't as much as give me a sideways glance.

Why does that thought make me sad?

I walk through the halls, head down. Mom would scold me if she saw me, but I don't care. My emotions have taken a blow by my own thoughts. How silly. 

Eventually, not looking where I'm going leads me to bump into Todoroki. 

Sh--!

"Yaoyorozu! Just the person I've been looking for!"

What the-