Chapter Text
Shouto had never bothered with making friends, well not since he was small and he realised friends weren’t part of his father’s plan for him. Despite this, ever since UA, ever since meeting Midroiya, people had started hanging out around him more and more often, the way friends do.
He’d initially ignored it, thought it was simply the way classmates acted. And it was, partly. But a few people - Midoriya, Iida and occasionally Uraraka, really did act as though they were friends with him. And a big part of him really wanted it to be true.
He couldn’t even lie and say that it bothered him, having to constantly worry about people because he’d started caring, having to take time out of his scarce breaks to ask how someone was doing. It should have bothered him but it didn’t. He loved it all, because everything he gave, he seemed to receive. And he had never been cared for, never been taken care of, the way his new friends seemed to do for him.
And for the first few months of UA, his friends had formed a small group and it had been good, new and almost exciting. He didn’t get excited very often, sometimes wondered if something was wrong with him. He’d tried to bring it up to Iida a few times, but he’d only offered to help him find professional help, which was a nice gesture, but Shouto needed something else. He wasn’t sure what it was that would bring him comfort though and it was truly frustrating.
It was right after an impossibly hard workout that Aizawa had had them do and most of his classmates were laying wherever they could in the common room, most of them settling for the floor.
Bakugou was leaning against the couch while sitting on the floor, crouching as always. Hanta looked around the room, trying to identify the rest of his friends. Mina and Denki were slouching against each other, complaining one after the other about the pains each of them had. And Kirishima… Ah. He was fidgeting, moving from one foot to the other, looking at Bakugou and then away, around the room frantically. Hanta had noticed it more and more often lately. Kirishima seemed to glance at Bakugou regularly with an anxious look on his face. He wasn’t sure what it was about.
Finally, he seemed to decide Bakugou was unapproachable that day. He put on an easy smile and went to join Mina and Denki where they were sitting. Hanta’s gaze moved to their other classmates. Midoriya was lying with his head in Uraraka’s lap and his feet on Iida’s. And… a small chuckle made its way on Hanta’s lips. Todoroki was sitting a bit away from them, although it was clear he was a part of the group, with a blank, innocent look on his face as he stared off into space.
Hanta thought he had three options: join Mina, Denki and Kirishima and listen to them complain about the workout that he wanted more than anything to forget, try to sit next to Bakugou without dying and, well, seeing what Todoroki was up to.
He’d honestly been thinking about approaching Todoroki for a while now. They were the type of person that wanted to be on friendly terms with everyone in the class (except Mineta) and he’d been slowly making his way through, saying hi to different people and exchanging opinions on random things for a bit.
So, Todoroki it was.
He walked over to the couch and immediately caught onto Midoriya’s rapid mumbling and Uraraka and Iida’s occasional comments. They were in their own world just like Todoroki was in his. He sat down next to him so their sides would be pressed together. Todoroki jumped and turned to look at him, clearly confused.
‘Hi,’ Hanta grinned his “let’s be friends grin”.
Todoroki’s eyes lingered on his face, seeming to take a moment to study him. Like he was an enemy he would have to fight any second. But he wasn’t looking at him like he was angry or actually wanted to fight him. Hanta wasn’t sure exactly what his look really meant. ‘Hello.’
Hanta felt his grin turn genuine, which meant softer. ‘I’m so tired, I feel like my arms will fall off any second. I don’t understand how you, Bakugou and Midoriya have the stamina you do.’
At the mention of his name, Midoriya looked at him and waved, followed by the other two. Hanta greeted them back and returned his gaze on Todoroki.
‘You’re far better than me at stamina,’ he answered and then seemed to pause and think for a second. ‘Objectively,’ he added.
The little frown on his face made Hanta want to slap himself awake. The girls weren’t joking when they said Todoroki was gorgeous. Objectively.
Hanta placed his hand on his shoulder and his eyes immediately snapped to the place where they were touching. He raised an eyebrow at Todoroki, but he didn’t tell them to take the hand off so he let it rest there. ‘Thanks, dude! I have felt like I’ve been getting better lately with all the swinging.’
Todoroki looked as if he was about to say something but then looked over Hanta’s shoulder. Hanta turned to see what had happened and saw Denki, Mina and Kirishima come over.
‘Hi Todoroki,’ Kirishima greeted him and patted him lightly on the back.
‘Hello.’
‘We’re thinking of getting Bakugou to make us lunch, what do you want?’ Denki asked.
‘Ummm whatever you’re having, I don’t have any ideas.’ He turned to Todoroki. ‘Do you want something?’
He seemed to snap awake again and looked at Hanta, frowning cutely again. ‘Nothing, thank you.’
The others nodded and left to silently approach Bakugou, who promptly grimaced and asked them what the hell they wanted from him again. He’d been losing his touch lately, it was becoming easier to get him to do stuff for them. He loved them, really.
‘Having Bakugou as a friend is amazing.’
‘Aren’t you afraid he’ll blow you up?’
‘Nah,’ Hanta waved a hand in the air lazily. ‘We’ll just hide behind Kirishima.’
Todoroki spaced out for a few more seconds and then turned back to him. ‘Bakugou reminds me of a character from Demon Slayer,’ he said like he was surprising himself as well.
At that, Hanta eyes widened and a smile started to grow on his face. ‘You’ve read Demon Slayer!’ He’d meant it as a question, but it came out more as an accusation.
‘Well, I’m reading it. I only have the first 9 volumes right now and I hate reading online.’
‘You should borrow mine!’ they offered, his excitement growing by the second.
Todoroki paused again. ‘Really?’
‘Of course! Come over to my room any time. I’m not proud of a lot of things, but my manga collection is, like, my greatest accomplishment.’
Todoroki’s eyes crinkled, as if he was about to smile, but stopped at that. ‘Thank you,’ a bit more silence, ‘I think I will. Borrow them, I mean.’
‘Great.’
They both jumped as they heard a loud sound from the kitchen.
‘You should probably go help with, um, managing Bakugou.’
Hanta laughed. ‘Yeah, you’re right. See you soon?’
Todoroki nodded, and, with one last grin (that felt a bit more genuine than his usual ones) he left to the kitchen.
After they ate, they all went to Hanta’s room because it felt the most spacious, although they were all really the same size, to watch a movie. It was Mina’s turn to pick and they were all terrified. She had a tendency to choose the horror movies that would keep them from sleeping for weeks to come.
And, as expected, she picked one such movie. They were all sitting bundled up together, Denki between Hanta’s legs, leaning back against his chest with Hanta’s arms squeezing him tightly with fear. Mina seemed to be completely unaffected by what was happening on the screen, and Bakugou and Kirishima were sitting sort of together, clearly just as disturbed as Denki and Hanta but without touching. Hanta wondered why Kirishima was sitting with Bakugou instead of joining their hug-situation for comfort, but he wasn’t going to address it.
There was a knock on his door and they all jumped, Denki yelping loudly. Hanta frowned and got up, Mina immediately being attacked by Denki who was seeking comfort again. They opened the door and his eyes widened upon seeing Todoroki there.
‘Todoroki?’
‘Hello. Is this a bad time?’ he asked, his hands fidgeting, almost unnoticeably.
‘No, of course not,’ he said, his grin back on. ‘What’s up?’
Todoroki blinked at him as if he didn’t understand the question. ‘I was wondering if I could borrow volume 10? I finished my homework and my eyes hurt when I use my phone too much so I’m bored.’
Hanta made a mental note to ask about the eyes problem later, when they would be closer. His thoughts surprised them. He really did want to be closer with Todoroki though. There was something…weird about him. Weird and endearing. It made them want to spend more time with him. ‘Of course, one second.’
He turned to go back to his room, but his hand faltered on the handle. He could vaguely hear Denki and Kirishima’s whimpers of fear on the other side of the door. He truly did not have any desire to finish that movie.
‘This might be sudden and it’s totally okay if you don’t want to, but would you want to watch a movie? In the common room? It’s just that the guys are watching a horror movie and I kind of want to sleep at night.’
This was one of the many times Hanta would see Todoroki going through the four stages of what he liked to call “understanding socialising”: he would blink at them with a completely blank expression, then frown and pinch his lips together, trying to know why Hanta would ask him of all people, decide it wasn’t worth questioning and, finally he would search their face trying to decide if to accept the invitation or not.
‘Alright.’ A pause. ‘But I still want the manga.’
Hanta let out a surprised laugh. ‘Of course, I’ll be right back.’
He went in trying to make as little noise as possible, but all heads turned immediately to him, Mina pausing the movie.
‘Who was that?’ Kirishima asked. He’d inched closer to Bakugou while Hanta had been in the hall.
Hanta ignored the question and went to his manga collection, grabbing three volumes. He could feel the stares burning the back of his head as they waited for an answer. He sighed. ‘I’m gonna go help Todoroki with something, enjoy the rest of the movie.’
They grinned and sprinted out the door before anyone could ask any more questions. He didn’t mind them knowing he just wanted to hang out with Todoroki, but he didn’t want to offend Mina by skipping her movie on purpose.
When he stepped out of the room, he saw Todoroki sitting against a wall, on the floor, mumbling something to himself. There it was again, the need to smile at how adorable Todoroki was. He wasn’t even doing anything for fuck’s sake.
‘Ready?’
Todoroki nodded and got up, reaching out a hand towards the manga.
‘I got you volumes 10 and 11 and then I have one for me as well, in case you feel more like reading than watching a movie.’
He considered this for a while and then reached out again for the manga. Sero placed two of them in his hand and waited. ‘I’m okay with watching a movie. We can read some other time,’ he said and started walking towards the common room.
Some other time?
Todoroki Shouto had just made Hanta blush.