Work Text:
Second year is the year of realization, Shouto thinks. Momo realized the songs Jirou would compose for fun were actually all about her, Hitoshi noticed that despite what he initially wanted he's actually made a lot of friends, Kaminari has extended his flirting to his male peers and dubbed himself “UA’s local bisexual disaster,” and poor Shouto has just realized that he should keep Midoriya away from ice cream.
They've managed to snatch a couple of popsicles from Kirishima and Bakugou’s stash to snack on while they do homework. It would be really nice to actually get that homework done, Shouto thinks while squinting at Midoriya hoping he doesn't notice. Midoriya should not be allowed near a box of popsicles with a ten foot pole, he eats like an absolute pig and Shouto is surprised it took him this long to notice.
Midoriya’s chin is almost entirely covered in the sticky red of his popsicle, which also happens to be melting all over his hand. It's dripping left and right, which makes it a miracle that the carpet hasn't been stained yet. So much of that cherry flavor is being wasted, and Shouto wonders if any of it actually ends up in his mouth or if it's all just coating his hands and face.
Despite how awfully disgusting and messy the situation is, all Shouto can truly make room for in his head is how he would love to clean all that up for him. He imagines the scenario: Midoriya looking up at him as he grabs his sticky hand, “You need to be careful or you'll stain something,” Shouto would say, all suave bringing the other's half eaten popsicle to his own mouth and dragging his tongue over it. Then in the perfect world Midoryia’s face would grow as red as possible and he would stutter out, “T-Todoroki-kun!” then look away bashfully.
Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world, and the one who truly makes the biggest mess in the end is Shouto. His embarrassing fantasies always cause his quirk to act up (especially on the left), this time the consequence happens to be artificial grape flavoring all over his homework.
“Shit.”
He feels like a complete idiot. What made him believe he could focus enough to multitask? He should've just forgotten about his homework but he's here, in a room with a ridiculous amount of All Might merchandise, to impress.
Along with everything else going on in his life, Shouto is suffering immensely and there's nothing he can do to stop it. He puts himself in situations like this that leave him feeling queasy and embarrassed.
Midoriya does a double take at the sight of the mess then wordlessly springs up towards the bathroom. Shouto actually feels like crying. Midoriya comes back with an old shirt and clean hands to try and salvage what's left of Shouto’s miserable attempt at homework.
This occurrence happens to be more common than not and Shouto doesn't want to admit it. These days, sitting around Midoriya somehow ends up being awful because something either catches on fire or melts and it's always Shouto’s fault.
Midoriya pulls the half chewed popsicle stick from his mouth, “Do you wanna take a break?” he asks.
Shouto sighs, “Why not.”
They manage to reach the end of the common room when Shouto gets kidnapped. He's pulled around the corner without a sound and poorly gagged. He doesn't bother to see who his kidnapper is, probably Ashido or Hakagure.
A hand covers his eyes and he still let's it happen. What's the point in struggling when he's already embarrassed himself more than once and not even apologized about it? For now he hopes his kidnapper is Uraraka so she can float him up into the atmosphere and fling him into the sun never to be seen again.
He hears a door shut and is met with the smell of detergent and dust. It's dark but Shouto can feel the presence of at least two people. Someone clears their throat.
“Did you tell him?”
“Tell who?” he responds.
“You know !”
Oh… that.
“We are not talking about this.” He crosses his arms and huffs.
The lights click on and he finds himself facing Yaoyorozu. She raises an eyebrow at him, “Todoroki, you said you would!”
There's a giggle right behind him, he turns to see Uraraka clutching onto the fabric of Aoyama’s blouse desperately trying to keep her voice down.
Aoyama on the other hand looks indifferent, almost like he's waiting for an opening to leave. Shouto would love to leave but there's the iron grip Yaoyorozu currently has on his arm.
“I did it and it turned out well!” she says.
“Doesn't mean it'll turn out well for me.”
“You never know if you don't try.”
Shouto crosses his arms, turning away in response.
Uraraka lets out a final wheeze, standing up straight to take a deep breath, “You're our only hope or I'm going to die before we graduate!”
He pouts, she's just being dramatic. Anyway, this entire thing is stupid. Just because Yaoyorozu confessed and Jirou happened to return her feelings, doesn't mean he'll end up just as lucky. Shouto knows he's not undesirable, he's gotten enough love letters to prove that but when it comes to Midoriya he finds himself actively worrying about things that shouldn't matter. Earlier that morning, he was vigorously brushing his hair attempting to tame some awful beadhead just to impress him, then later that day he'd carefully chosen to wear his All Might socks hoping Midoriya would notice and maybe ask him about them.
Instead he's stuck here.
“Hurry up or I might ask him out instead of you.” Aoyama flutters his lashes.
“If you need help with anything then that's what we're here for.” Uraraka says, glancing at Aoyama before bursting into a fit of giggles once again.
“What's so funny?” Shouto questions.
“It's just-” she inhales. “Show him!”
Aoyama takes a deep breath, puffs out his chest, and pulls a mildly annoyed face, “Midoriya…” he says with an overly exaggerated rough voice.
“I like you.”
He turns around, changing his posture and putting a hand to his face trying to emulate surprise, “Oh, Todoroki-kun! Is that true!”
He turns again.
“Yes, Midoriya. You are the light of my life, I've been wooed by your determination, ripped bod, and cute face. I can't accept anyone else!”
Uraraka starts sputtering and wheezing, she rolls on the ground gasping grabbing onto the underside of the washing machine. Shouto is mildly offended at how accurate Aoyama is but he's also concerned, Uraraka kind of looks like she's choking. He makes a mental note to suggest taking her to Recovery Girl.
Aoyama turns around again, “I… I like you too! We should kiss.” He makes smooching noises right at Shouto and he seriously wishes he was choking right now, if not like Uraraka then preferably by a pillow or Midoriya’s thighs. Either works.
He rubs his temple. Yaoyorozu is awfully silent yet on further inspection Shouto realizes she's attempting to force a laugh down. He groans.
“It's really not that easy, you guys!”
“Honestly, Todoroki-san, it's not easy for us either. Midoriya is a chatterbox both in text and real life, and he keeps going on about how cool you are and blah blah blah,” Uraraka has somehow composed herself enough to speak normally but she's still red in the face and laying on the ground, staring up at him. “I love him and everything, listening to him speak all that and stuff but there's only so much one person can take.”
“He keeps waking me up in the middle of the night, ruining my beauty rest!” Aoyama complains. “Mon dieu! He walks in and sits there and ugh it's so frustrating right now he won't even let me give him a face mask, this is ridiculous!”
“Todoroki-san, we are dying. Iida broke 3 pairs of glasses because of this.”
Shouto sighs, “Fine. Die then.” He leaves them in the laundry room and they don't try to stop him.
He puts his pencil down to stare at the ceiling. This lesson on English verbs is taking too damn long, all he wants to do once it's over is find a bed to merge with so he can lay there forever. He's bored enough to pull his phone out in the middle of class. Lucky enough for him, the class group chat is booming, and he's even luckier that Midoriya has sent him three direct messages in the past couple of minutes.
Midorito: hey :^))
Midorito: hey do you think if mic sensei coughed hard enough his quirk would activate
Midorito: like if he was choking would his quirk help push it out????
Shouto doesn't know how to reply. He looks towards Midoriya, catching him with a sheepish look on his face.
Todobroki: uh
Todobroki: i guess so? Why tho
Midorito: hmm
Midorito: I dunno it's kept me up at night
Todobroki: how sad
Midorito: :((((
Midorito: you know what's not sad?
Todobroki: ?
Midorito: I saw something that reminded me of you :D
Todobroki: !!!
Todobroki: u should show me later
Midorito: will do!
He sets his phone down on his lap right as Mic sensei faces the class to make a terribly delivered joke then dismiss them for the day.
Midoriya rushes to his desk, grabs Shoutos wrist, and aims the brightest smile Shouto has ever seen. He should really get up and put all his books back in his bag.
“We should head to the gym after and get some training done.” Midoriya suggests after Shouto composes himself enough to pack his things and follow him out of the classroom. He's still holding his wrist and it makes Shouto a little jittery, even when he tells himself he's being ridiculous.
Midoriya stops abruptly and points to a flower bush near the dorm.
“There!”
Upon closer inspection Shouto notices there's white flowers on one side and red flowers on the other. His heart melts, although he would never admit it.
“I forgot to take a picture of it, but right when I saw them I thought of you.” His smile is incredibly sweet.
I thought of you .
Shouto has to look away for the sake of his sanity. Instead, he reaches for a couple of flowers, thorns digging into his fingers, and hands them to Midoriya as a spur of the moment thing.
“Uh, I'll meet you at the gym?” he asks, pulling his wrist out of Midoriya’s hand.
“Yeah, see you there.” He replies, holding the flowers close to his chest.
His heart thumps as he makes his way to his room to grab a change of clothes. He's sure his mind is sugarcoating everything Midoriya does, from smile to sneeze, making it look cuter than reality. He wants to bury his feelings, dispose of that filter, get rid of every bit and piece of himself that ever felt affection for him. But Shouto can't.
He thinks about what would happen if Endeavor catches wind of his situation. Surely, he wouldn't approve.
The door to his room slams shut startling him.
“What was that?” Bakugou’s voice comes out lined with irritation.
Why the one and only Bakugou Katsuki is standing in his room is beyond Shouto.
“What do you mean?” Shouto says avoiding eye contact.
“You know what I mean! What the fuck was that out there with Deku?”
“You were watching?”
“Of course I was watching, it's not like you idiots are trying to hide anything.”
Shouto sighs.
“You're both ridiculous.”
“Listen, I can't tell him.”
“So you're just gonna sit there and watch him make a fool of himself because you have daddy issues.”
That hits a nerve. Bakugou is so fucking annoying, “How…”
“You're too damn obvious. Grow a pair and tell him. Your old man isn't gonna do shit about it.”
“Leave.”
Bakugou shrugs, opening the door and walking out. It's none of his business anyway, what's he doing butting into Shouto’s life problems? Screw that, he wants to sit and stew in his conflicting emotions and Bakugou can't stop him.
They're sparring.
It's a no quirks allowed hand to hand kind of thing. Shouto is having so much trouble surviving it. Midoriya is wearing a muscle tank and it's messing with him so much that he can't properly attack and has to fall back to defense instead.
In all of Shouto’s sixteen years of life he has never been more thirsty. Sweat drips down Midoriya’s tan muscled arms and Shouto feels like jello. He wants to ask if they can fight with quirks just so Midoriya can Detroit Smash him into a wall.
A fist comes dangerously close to his face but he manages to clumsily dodge it which is a mistake because it was just a feint. He only realizes it when he's flat on his back pinned to the floor mat under Midoriya's weight. He can blame his erratic heartbeat and the red of his face on their intense sparring, but the ice seeping from his palm and the small flame he feels ignite on the back of his shirt? That can only be blamed on Midoriya himself who has his hands on Shoutos arms to keep him from throwing a punch and his thighs around his waist to stop Him from getting back up.
“I win.” The object of his affections says.
Shut the fuck up, Shouto, Midoriya is just a dude.
A dude I wanna smooch.
He rolls off of him and Shouto immediately puts out the small flame he hopes no one's noticed. He can see Bakugou on the other side of the room glaring at him while Kirishima talks animatedly right next to him. It seems they're taking a break from sparring as well.
Bakugou turns to Kirishima, holds his face which stops all the talking, and plants his mouth right on the others for a moment. He pulls away leaving both their faces pink, grabs his hand and drags him out of the room.
Midoriya hides a laugh behind his hand, “What was that about?” he pokes Shoutos shoulder.
“I don't want to know.” His response is somehow funny because Midoriya laughs even more.
“They're good for eachother.” He says handing Shouto a towel which comes with a bit of déjà vu.
Shouto takes it and lays back on the floor prompting Midoriya to lay there with him. They're cooling down, staring at the ceiling in silence until Midoriya turns on his side to face Shouto. He does the same, and regrets it because now their faces are literal inches apart. He can smell the sweat off of Midoriya and see every freckle on his face. His face is flushed red, hair sticking to his forehead, eyes closed, breathing heavily against the floor. Midoriya looks absolutely perfect. Shouto hates that he's romanticizing every miniscule detail but he really can't help it.
What Bakugou told him earlier comes back knocking somewhere in his head.
“Hey… Midoriya?”
“Hmm.” He opens his eyes a little.
“I like, uhm.” Shouto can feel his hands begin to shake.
“I like y-” he gulps when Midoriya goes still completely opening his eyes, the green digging into his soul.
“I like your tank, where'd you get it?” He wants to punch himself in the face.
Midoriya sits up, “Oh uh, this old thing? I can't remember.” there's something off about his facial expression. Usually he tries to maintain eye contact during conversation, but now…
He's looking straight ahead.
“I just remembered, I made plans to study with Iida later.” He stands, grabbing his things.
“I'll see you later.” Midoriya leaves him on the floor to melt into a puddle of regret.
Shouto pushes down the burning sensation of tears. He lays in bed, a pillow smothering his face, contemplating whether he should even go to class after their day off or what.
He's not entirely sure why he's this frustrated or why his body is shaking so much but he thinks it has something to do with the events of just two hours ago.
Every couple of weeks a handful of his classmates gather at the clearing in the trees near the dorms just to bond. this whole thing started with him, Yaoyorozu, and surprisingly Bakugou when they all had one thing in common: a dumb crush.
Eventually the group grew enough to include almost half the class. They talked about their troubles knowing someone would listen, sometimes Sato brought pastries. Shouto enjoyed it for the most part, listening to his friends complain, listening to their advice. It's comforting in a way.
It wasn't so comforting when Midoriya had somehow stumbled onto their little group and Uraraka moved over letting him sit between her and Shouto. Really, he didn't mind that part much, it was what happened after everyone left. A burst of confidence had bloomed within him once again, pushing him to completely confess even when he knew how difficult it would be for him to maintain a relationship with his situation.
He was worried for no reason because right after the confession left his mouth, Midoriya didn't reply to it.
The memory replays for the millionth time in Shouto’s head.
“Don't.” Midoriya said. His voice had cracked and he looked like he was holding back tears. He held his head down as he walked away.
Shouto did all his homework as a distraction, then the dam keeping in all of his feelings broke, and he ended up where he is now. A frustrated, broken mess.
Heartbreak hurt more than he thought it would.
He shuts his eyes for a bit of peace, swallowing down the lump in his throat, when his phone buzzes. He thinks he could ignore it and sleep through the ache in his chest, but it buzzes again.
Yaomomo: Something was off about Midoriya earlier...
Yaomomo: Do you know what happened?
She most likely already has an idea of what may have happened, she wouldn't be asking if she didn't.
He feels too drained to reply immediately, so he takes a moment to put his thoughts in order.
Todobroki: i did it
Todobroki: he didn't take it was well as we thought he would
Yaomomo: …
Yaomomo: I'm sorry.
Todobroki: i'll be fine
All wounds heal eventually. It's not Yaoyorozu’s fault. While she may have pushed him to it he knows she only had good intentions. She would never purposely put him in a position where he'd feel a pain that resembled having the inside of his chest meet a blender.
Yaomomo: If you need anything, I'm always here.
Todobroki: yeah
The day after, for some awful reason he finds himself trapped in a broom closet. It's bad enough yesterday had been a tragedy, now things like this are getting old. The most terrible thing about it too is that he has no idea who shoved him in there and he's sure no one would be too pleased if he broke the door somehow. He weighs the consequences of burning it down.
Shouto doesn't need to wait long for the door to open again only instead of being let out, someone is shoved right in with him.
The thing about the broom closet is: it's a really cramped place, barely enough to fit cleaning supplies, let alone two teenagers. It takes him a moment to properly recognize the other person although, he probably should have guessed. But he didn't think his friends had the nerve.
He accidentally meets his eyes, the vibrant green taking his breath away for the millionth time. The shadows under those eyes stand out to Shouto making him feel incredibly guilty. Midoriya makes no direct eye contact.
This confuses Shouto, he wants to say something about it, but no words come to mind. There's really nowhere else to look at other than his shoes or the ceiling. They're standing almost chest to chest, only inches apart, which seems to be causing Midoriya’s discomfort. He's fidgeting and looking everywhere but Shouto, that's not many options considering there's nothing interesting to look at.
Since Shouto can't figure out any reason for the other’s nervous demeanor, he decides to push his boundaries a little by tugging on Midoriya’s shirtsleeve. He flinches upon contact then turns to face the door.
“Please…” he puts a scarred hand on the door, posture stiffening further, shoulders beginning to shake. Shouto really just wants to understand.
In Shouto’s ideal world he would be the one to shove Midoriya into the closet with him. Then Midoriya would push him against the wall, bodies held close, hands having no boundaries, their mouths-
It's getting too hot in here.
He pulls on his sleeve again, “Midoriya?”
He stiffens, still as a board. Shouto doesn't know what to do; it hurts him more than he would like to admit. Ironically enough, something about this situation cannot be resolved without saying something .
Shoving aside the fact that he's bad with words, Shouto attempts at least something, “I- uh, I think I scared you yesterday and…” he hesitates.
“I should have made a better confession, but if you really don't like me back you should just say so.”
Shouto let's go of his sleeve and a moment later Midoriya faces him. They're close, his fantasy playing in the back of his head again. As tempting as it is, he has to shake it out of his head.
Now is not the time. Stop being dumb and gay for one second, Shouto.
“You-” Midoriya shakes a little as he breathes, “You weren't making fun of me?”
“Huh?” Shouto’s face scrunches in confusion, “What? Why would I?”
“Oh… I didn't think- even if you did, I'm not…”
Shouto wants to shake him, or hug him, anything . He just wants to make sense of this.
“I did consider that maybe you actually did mean it but, I thought you and Yaomomo had a thing going on too, and even if we did end up together I don't think I'll be able to meet your expectations. I'm not really interesting a-”
“Midoriya.” he cuts off his rambling. “I'm very gay, Yaoyorozu is nice but obviously not my type. And what makes you think you're not interesting? I could listen to you talk for hours and never get bored.”
“Oh…” he covers his face with his hands, “Ugh, this is embarrassing.”
“Mhm.” Shouto wants to see Midoriya embarrassed. He feels the bees buzz in his stomach just thinking about it.
“I am so sorry.” He rests his forehead against Shouto’s shoulder.
Shouto plants a hand in his hair. It's just as green and fluffy as he imagined it.
When Midoriya starts to tremble again he thinks he might be crying, but the thought is only there for a second because the sweet, warm sound Midoriya makes when he laughs fills the air. It's contagious because Shouto starts to feel himself smile.
“We're both so stupid.”
“Aren't we?”
In the end, Shouto never did get a proper answer. They were let out of the broom closet after Kirishima overheard their laughter. He gave them a strange look but shrugged it off in favor of responding to someone calling his name from the kitchen.
Now, Shouto lays on Yaoyorozu’s bed, recalling the events from a day ago in the broom closet while having his nails painted. Jirou pats him on his foot and Yaoyorozu assures him that he did well with his second confession. They all have no idea who locked them in there although, Shouto suspects Bakugou has something to do with it.
“So, are you guys dating now?” Jirou asks from her spot on the floor.
Shouto shrugs, trying not to move too much to keep Yaoyorozu from messing up the pink nail polish on his thumb, “We never really agreed on anything.”
She hums in response. Shouto hasn't seen Midoriya since yesterday and that's not so strange because, while they spend a majority of their time together it's not weird to see Midoriya goofing off with Sero and Kaminari or Shouto himself listening in on the juicy gossip Mina and Aoyama have to offer. Sometimes, the two can go days without a proper lengthy conversation between them and that's okay.
Still, he would love to have an answer. It doesn't feel great to have confessed twice without receiving a solid reply.
“Maybe try and talk it out again.” Jirou suggests.
“Knowing Midoriya, he's probably overthinking everything rather than figuring out what he wants.” Yaoyorozu adds.
“Hm, you're right. Todoroki should grab him and kiss the hell out of him, maybe that'll speed things up.
“No, that's too aggressive. It'll end terribly. Todoroki might end up being punched into the ceiling or something.”
“Babe, Midoriya wouldn't do that to him. At most, he'd push him away, not smash him into a wall.”
Shouto feels like directly asking Midoriya to smash him into a wall. Life would be so easy if he didn't have to live it.
He gives Yaoyorozu his other hand to paint, “This is so stupid,” he groans.
“Maybe, but if time is what he needs, then you should be patient,” she says, carefully wiping away any excess nail polish with her thumb.
“Yeah but, what if this is a sign? If he finds out about us, he's not going to be the happiest. You know how he is.”
“Listen, it's your life, not his. Plus, when have you ever let him stop you from doing what you want?”
Shouto huffs. Endeavor has been a little different since he finally reached his goal of number one hero, but that doesn't erase the fact that he could ruin many things for Shouto if he wanted. What a pain.
Jirou looks up from her phone again, “Todoroki, you should go see what your boyfriend is up to, Ashido sounds like she's having too much fun.”
He sits up abruptly, luckily Yaoyorozu has just completed painting his fingers, “He's not my-” Jirou shoves her phone in front of his face and it takes a second for him to understand the picture he sees.
There's Mina and Kaminari flashing a peace sign, behind them Uraraka with Asui on her lap. Something looks wrong they shouldn't be this high up unless… a little further down the picture green curls can be seen and-
Oh…
Midoriya looks like he's lifting them effortlessly on his arms.
That makes Shouto shiver just a bit as he wonders what it would feel like to be carried in his wonderful arms, pressed close to him, looking into his eyes while having him look back, only centimeters keeping th-
“Are you okay? Your shirt is starting to burn.” Yaoyorozu builds a short distance between them. Jirou snorts out a laugh.
“Uh, yeah. I gotta go,” he hops off the bed and runs out until he reaches the outside of their dorms where he can hear Iida yell something about safety.
He looks right as Shinso is pulled up one of Midoriya’s arms with the help of Aoyama. Midoriya looks like he has no trouble at all holding up six teenagers and an entire park bench. Shouto could swoon.
Iida stops him from walking any further which is a good call because if he hadn't Shouto is pretty sure he would've leapt right at Midoriya who goes still after noticing him. Then, he smiles brighter than the sun, a pure healing light. Shouto wonders if he's somehow eaten a swarm of bees because something starts buzzing in his gut, he feels all warm and nice.
A second after watching him sweat under the weight, amidst the chaos, Shouto begins to realize that no matter what, his impulses are to be satisfied, even when it's not the best time for them. Overcome with the strongest urge to do so and a dumb amount of affection, Shouto takes a step forward despite Iida’s warnings. He stands face to face with Midoriya who’s beginning to sweat even more, tilts his head up and kisses him.
There's wolf whistles and Iida yelling even more about terrible timing, but it all fades into the background. The only thing on Shouto’s mind is how sweet Midoriya’s lips taste, how nice and warm they feel despite being chapped, and how he's actually being kissed back even though it's kind of clumsy. That's okay, though, he's very clumsy with it too.
The kiss doesn't last long (to Shouto’s dismay), but it might be for the best because Midoriya seems to be losing his balance. Shouto grabs his waist to steady him while he puts the their friends down. Then he takes a nice long look at his flustered face and thinks, ah yes, I did that.
Midoriya hides his wonderful, freckled face behind his hands and Shouto suddenly remembers they have an audience, when the fuzziness wears off and he's forced to face more wolf whistles and yelling.
He feels embarrassed and hopes it doesn't show on his face too, but his quirk totally betrays him by acting up again, this time the collar of his shirt gets singed and his fingers start to freeze. Shouto does what anyone else in his situation would do: he grabs Midoriya by the wrist and runs.
They make it up the stairs and suddenly they're walking to Midoriya’s room. The air between them is light. Midoriya slips his hand into Shouto’s and he hopes to whatever all knowing being up there that he can keep his quirk at bay enough not to give Midoriya hypothermia or something.
Shouto feels giddy when they reach the room. He walks in and takes his designated seat on the floor, pulling Midoriya down with him. Their fingers intertwined, Shouto traces a thumb over one of his scars. His hands are as rough as they look and it makes Shouto feel weak in the best way possible.
Midoriya won't look at him, exuding nervous energy but it all stops when Shouto says, “You're automatically rich if you marry me, you know.”
He lets out a laugh, easing off whatever anxiety he seemed to have, “That's ridiculous, we haven't even gone on our first date yet!”
“We can go right now.”
“We can, but will we?”
“Probably not.” Shouto looks up at Midoriya's desk right as he says that and notices a couple of half wilted flowers standing in one of those big plastic cups.
“You kept them?” he asks.
“Oh, those? Yeah, I thought it was really sweet of you.”
Now Shouto really wants to drown in everything that is Midoriya Izuku, from his smile to his ridiculous red shoes and wonderful hands and messy green hair. His heart is turning into mush the longer they hold hands. He feels the affection in him build up again and while it's a strange thing for him to feel in such abundance, he silently accepts it.
Naturally, the urge to smooch comes back again, but this time Shouto thinks he should really respect boundaries and ask for permission before doing things. He cups Midoriya’s face with his free hand and for a moment, Shouto thinks he sees reluctance. But, as soon as Midoriya squeezes his hand he pulls him in as roughly as possible, mouths meeting off center a little painfully. They can't do any better than that, so for a good two minutes they sit, struggling to figure out how people normally kiss. Shouto feels the giddiness rise in him again.
They pull away and Shouto gasps out an ask, “Is that cherry?”
Midoriya looks dazed but replies with, “Hm? Yeah…”
“I thought stealing Bakugou’s food was our thing together?”
“Oh, no, I only had one and I was all alone. I'd never betray you like this, Todoroki-kun.”
He leans in and whispers, “I've been sending Kacchan subliminal messages. So not only does he think I hate grape flavored popsicles, but he's stocking up on more of them, we should go get some right now.”
That sends shivers up Shouto’s spine. He likes grape flavored treats.
They do sneak off and snatch a couple of Bakugou’s frozen property. And it feels special laying on the floor of Midoriya’s room, talking about nothing and everything, just eating popsicles.
Later, after having the “what are we” conversation, they consider it their first official date. It's nothing fancy, but it's so them that Shouto wouldn't have it any other way.