To-Shoto

(not my pictures)

~Momo~

"Are. You. KIDDING ME?!"

That's Jiro-chan. Her eyes are wide and her mouth is set in an o. "You're really going to go out with Todoroki Shoto?"

"Yup. I am."

"Finally, the girl is listening to me," Ashido grins.

"Excuse me, I was listening to my mother." I roll my eyes and chuckle.

"You suck," Ashido replies, sticking her tongue out at me.

"So, you finally went and did it, huh? You confessed, Yao-Momo?" Tsu asks.

"Yeah. I went to his house and his sister let me in. She's pretty.... anyway, Todoroki-kun told me that he likes me too, he just didn't know he did."

"Dense," Jiro says.

"I know, right! Good thing, you went to him, he wouldn't know what he was talking about!" Uraraka giggles.

At that, we all laugh a delicious laugh. I love talking to my friends and I'm glad I'm no longer mad at them because they were right all along.

~Shoto~

"Do I look okay?"

"Oh shutup, Shoto, you look fine," Fuyumi rolls her eyes at me. "I always knew you were a stud, ever since you were a little kid. Of course, you didn't look it then, but when you got to be, say seven years old, I could just imagine what you'd look like as a teen, and the mental image was definitely accurate." 

"Fuyumi..."

"Yaoyorozu'll love you, you big baby."

She kisses my forehead and waves goodbye. I'm dressed in the hoodie with the ears that Yaoyorozu bought me.

I get a text from her that says meet me at the front of the place.

"The place" is an arcade.

I don't like or dislike arcades. I rarely go to them. I've been to one when I was five and I went to another because I was meeting Midoriya there. Other than that, I've never gone to an arcade and when I have gone, I didn't do much there. When I went as a child, my father paid for me to play the fighting simulators only. 

I clench my jaw at the thought of him.

Forget about him. You're going out with your crush, who is a very pretty, intelligent girl.

--

I see Yaoyorozu sitting on a bench by the door to the arcade. When she sees me, she waves and jumps up. And she's running...

What is she doing?

She's... rushing up to hug me.

She throws her arms around me the way she usually does and laughs. I feel a smile creeping onto my lips. When she pulls away from me, I do something that surprises me.

I lean in and kiss her cheek.

Goddamn. Yaoyorozu's skin is so soft. I could live an eternity with my lips on her cheek--

We're going to go ahead and forget I ever thought that.

~Momo~

Todoroki kissed my cheek. His lips are soft.

This has already become the best day of my life, and we haven't done anything yet! (Holy woah, I'm a little kid.)

"What game do you wanna try first?" I ask him once we get inside.

"Um... I don't know for sure..." He's looking around with a combination of awe and shock written all over his face.

"You don't get out much, do you?" I ask him with a grin.

"Nah, I just don't exactly go to arcades. When I came here as a little kid, my father wanted me to just do fighter simulation games..." Then he looks away, like he shouldn't have said that last part. I'm glad he did though.

I hug him again and say "Well, you're gonna do much more today!" I take his hand and run him to a Space Invaders replica (people are so cheap) and pay for both of us. 

"What is this?" He asks.

"We're gonna shoot down the aliens!" I grin.

He makes an audible "?" noise. I swear, whatever sound he just made sounds like a question mark if you could hear one.

The game starts.

I move the gun in the direction so that the lazer on the screen is on one of the alien's pixelated faces. Then I click the buttons on my gun. The alien explodes into pixel streamers.

"Oh," I hear Todoroki say.

He lights into action almost instantly. He's better than any person I've ever seen at this game. There's so much determination on his face. I blush, smile, and turn back to the game.

--

Todoroki won us so many tickets!

"Can I try out that basketball one?"

"Of course, you don't need to ask me. I'm going to try the fishing one." I walk off.

~Shoto~

I watch Yaoyorozu walk away until she's behind one of the consoles and I can't see her anymore.

I then walk to the console with the basktball hoop. I insert a coin and take a basketball from the console. The timing starts and I throw in ball after ball.

Some of them fail, some of them don't.

Most of them don't, actually.

By the time the timer has counted all the way down, I've shot 35 baskets. Hey, if the hero thing doesn't work out, maybe I can do this. 

I hear clapping and turn around to see that Yaoyorozu has been filming me the whole time. She's grinning and clapping with her phone in one hand. 

She says, "You did so well, Todoroki-kun!"

"I was alright," I answer shyly.

"No, Todoroki, you were amazing!" She gives me a quick hug and then pulls me over to the largest console the arcade has. There's a large dancefloor there.

"Yaoyorozu-chan, no."

"Auww. Come on."

"Hard pass."

"You suck, Todoroki! But here, hold my camera and film me."

"Do what now?" But she already hands me her phone and walks onto the dancefloor. I know how to film but that means I have to watch her...

She chooses the remix of Phut Hon by Phao by Kaiz.

I can tell she's just making up stuff when the song starts. She dances like a nine-year-old. It's amusing and endearing to watch. Somewhere in there she starts doing the running man, and I have to admit, a laugh breaks free.

I don't know where this came from, I don't usually laugh. But upon hearing it, Yaoyorozu smiles.

Then the beat starts accelerating, and the woman is no longer singing; it's just music.

Yaoyorozu puts her hands behind her head as if she were relaxing and swings her hips from side to side.

I feel my face heat up at this, but I still want to laugh, because--

Her face.

She looks so happy! She looks like a gymnast who just won a medal. Like a child on their birthday. Like Midoriya scribbling in his notebook. And though she begins to blush, she just keeps on smiling.

I truly admire her for that.

~Momo~

I take my phone from Todoroki. I click play on the finished video. "You have a very steady hand, Todoroki-kun!"

"Thanks..."

I get to a part where I'm doing the running man and I hear laughter. 

Loud laughter.

I had heard him from the floor, but he's much louder on the recording and I can hear his voice more. It's a sound that brings joy to my heart.

"Arigato, Todoroki! This is wonderful!" I hug him again and then ask him if he's hungry.

"A little."

"Well, there's a place called Suki's Soba Shop across from here," I tell him.

He catches himself licking his lips and says "S-sure, that'd be nice."

"But first," he takes my hand. "Let's do something with all these tickets."

I can't help but smile.

~Shoto~

I'm a much better gamer than I thought I was. I have many, many tickets. I walk up to the desk.

The most expensive thing I can afford is a box with two necklaces in it. One of them is purple and the other is blue. 

"Can I have that box?"

--

I carry the box to the place called "Suki's Soba Shop". We walk inside and someone gets a table for us.

I sit across from Yaoyorozu at a small table with a vase of roses in the center of table. Yaoyorozu fingers the roses for a second and sighs.

"I like those."

I pick up a menu and look for something simple. I decide on spicy soba with dill sprinkled in.

Yaoyorozu orders some bowl with what looks like an entire forest as the toppings.

"At least you don't need salad," I mumble.

She snickers and begins eating. Immediately after eating it, she brings a napkin to her lips and spits out the contents.

"Is it that bad?" I spoon some into my mouth and find myself spitting it out as well.

"This is a disgrace," I say to myself. "They don't deserve to be called a soba shop. Whoever made this place deserves a punishment of some sort."

I turn to see Yaoyorozu laughing at me. "Goodness, Todoroki-kun."

I laugh at myself as well. I've probably laughed more today than I have in ten years.

"Well, even though the food sucks, I'm glad we came today, Todoroki-kun." Yaoyorozu smiles at me.

I love her smile.

"I'm glad we went out today, too."

We sit there talking about random school stuff until the bill gets here. 

Then, Yaoyorozu says, "You know how everyone calls me Yao-Momo?"

"Mostly just the girls, but yeah," I respond.

"One of these days, I'm going to call you To-Shoto."

--

We pool to come up with enough money to pay for the nasty stuff someone had the audacity to call soba.

We walk to Yaoyorozu's home silently, stealing glances of each other every few moments. Yaoyorozu's hands reach toward mine. I look at her with shock on my face. She just smiles.

I hesitantly reach toward her hand until our fingers intertwine.

Her hands are soft, too.

When we get to her house, she hugs me and buries her face in my chest. I put my hands on the back of her shoulders to pull her closer to me. 

She turns her face up to me and says, "I'm glad we did this today, Todoroki."

"Me too."

Her lips inch toward mine...

I break away from her and say, "Um... well, sayonara, Yaoyorozu-chan."

I walk away, guilt piercing me from all directions.

A/N: He makes up for it in the next chapter, I PROMISE.