Chapter Text
It starts, like most things do, with a question.
“Did you see they’re rescreening Laputa: Castle in the Sky in theaters this month?”
Shouto looked up from his spot in Fullmetal Alchemist to stare at Sero, lying on his back at the edge of Shouto’s futon and scrolling on his phone, his own volume of Fullmetal Alchemist closed off to the side. A piece of once folded-over tape stuck out of the middle, bookmarking his spot.
“No,” He replied. “Is it good?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never seen it. But I’ve seen a couple of the other movies by the animation studio, and I’ve been reading reviews for the past couple of minutes. I haven’t seen a bad one yet.”
Shouto hummed, recrossing his feet. He was sitting on the futon as well, his pillow sandwiched between his back and the wall. The sun shone lazily through the waxy shoji, illuminating the room with a fuzzy mid-afternoon glow. Behind the screen, the door was cracked open slightly, letting in the soft rustling of the breeze and the occasional bird into the space.
“Why do you ask?” he questioned.
“Well,” Sero said, pulling himself up to look at him. “I was hoping maybe we could go see it together.”
But Shouto avoided his gaze, deep in thought.
“I don’t know.”
“Aw, why not?”
“I... don’t know.” He does know. But he doesn’t feel like getting into it right now.
“When’s the last time you went to see a movie?” Sero pressed.
“I think I was 5.” Shouto knew exactly what age he was the last time he saw a movie. He was 5 and it was one of the last things he and his mother did before she left for the hospital and he came back from one. When his father looked into his one, unbandaged eye with a face filled with contempt, Shouto knew there would be no more time for movies. He had never attempted to go after that.
“Damn! You’re, what, 16?” Sero protested.
Shouto felt his breath still as he waited for Sero to continue. Here it comes...
“Do you know how much theaters have changed since then? They’re a whole different ballpark!”
Shouto looked up at Sero now, and he must have been looking at him weirdly because the black-haired boy started a little at the sudden eye contact before beginning to talk again.
“I mean, they’re a lot nicer now. They used to be worse. The seats even recline now. At some of the theaters, at least.”
Shouto felt a smile begin to play on his lips. “The seats aren’t the problem.”
“Then what’s the issue, then?” Sero grinned back at him.
“It just never crossed my mind.” That seemed like a safe answer. For now.
It’s not that Shouto didn’t want to tell Sero about his past. There was just never a good time to bring it up. And besides, Sero never asked about Shouto’s life before UA. Which wasn’t a bad thing. It’s not like he didn’t know; Shouto would be surprised if anyone in Class 1-A, much less Sero, didn’t know that Shouto had baggage.
But Sero never pressed him on it. He let Shouto drop snippets of his past, random ones like how Fuyumi always sneezed six times in a row, or how Natsuo won first place in the prefecture judo competition two years in a row, but never pushed him for more than what he was comfortable with. It was like Sero had a map of Todoroki’s boundaries; he knew exactly where he could walk without crossing the line. Which was more than what some of his classmates could say (Because as much as he liked him, Iida had once straight up asked him if his father had called when Shouto had walked back into the cafeteria holding his phone and wearing what must have read as a despondent look. But he had backed off after Uraraka and Midoriya each gave him dirty looks).
He and Sero had always been friendly with each other but only started getting closer a couple of months ago. Shouto had first approached him a while after the Sports Festival to properly apologize for encasing Sero in hundreds of meters of ice. They hadn’t interacted much outside of their match, each being drawn into their current friend groups at that point.
But Shouto felt like he had to say something. Sure, he threw out an apology as he melted Sero out of the ice wall. But to him, Sero was synonymous in his mind with guilt for the way he attacked him during the Sports Festival. He let the emotions against his father take over during his match with Sero, and he was scared that Sero secretly harbored resentment towards him because of it. And with everything going on in his life after the Festival, (Stain, exams, the training camp attack, rescuing Bakugou), Shouto didn’t have time to ask Sero for forgiveness.
So when he saw that Sero was alone in the common room a couple of days after they had moved into the dorms, sprawled out on the couch and lost in a book, his side pressed into the cushions, he decided to take the opportunity if only to ease his mind. But before Shouto could even utter so much as a ‘Sorry’, he saw what Sero was reading and stopped dead in his tracks.
After about 2 seconds, Sero looked up from the pages and jumped at his classmate staring at him.
“Todoroki!” He exclaimed surprisedly. “What’s up, man?”
“You read Naruto?” Shouto murmured, still in disbelief.
“What? Oh! Uhhh,” Sero looked down and seemed almost surprised to see the manga in his hand. He sat up. “Yeah, I do.” He said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.
“When you’re done with that one, I have the whole series if you want to borrow the next one.”
Sero stopped the rubbing to give him a confused look. “Huh?”
“It’s all at my house, but I can get someone to bring them down for me.”
“Wait, wait, wait, wait, you have the whole series? Doesn't Naruto have, like, 72 volumes?” Sero’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates.
“Yes,” Shouto said. “That’s the 9th volume, right? What part are you on?”
“The— Neji and Hinata are about to fight. I didn’t know you read Naruto!”
“I do. I read a lot of manga.”
“Oh really?” Sero’s eyes were twinkling. “Me too.”
Long story short, if Kirishima and Kaminari hadn’t come to get Sero for a study session with Bakugou, they would’ve ended up talking on the couch about manga for the entire night. They parted ways with a promise to talk again soon, and that was that. It wasn’t until Todoroki left that he realized he had never apologized. But by that point, it was easy to tell that Sero had never hated him. Not even close to it.
So that was how their weekly manga reading sessions came to be. After Shouto called Fuyumi and got her to ship the rest of his manga collection to the dorms (he already had some of it with him, but after his sister sent the other 7 boxes, he had every manga he had ever purchased in his room), he texted Sero that day.
>> Do you remember when we were talking in the common room about manga?
<< yeah, why?
>> My sister just dropped off the rest of my manga collection and I was wondering if you wanted to read through the rest of the Chunin Exam Arc with me.
<< ofc i would!
It was just supposed to be a one-time thing, but then it wasn’t, and then it quickly became Shouto’s favorite part of the week: every Saturday afternoon, splayed out on the bed (or the futon in Shouto’s case; they switched bedrooms every week), reading through series together, talking about whatever crossed their minds. Just two friends decompressing after a long week.
Friends. Up until he had arrived at UA, that word was foreign to Shouto, a concept that existed only in theory and never in practice. He never had time to make friends. No, his father never allowed him to have time to make friends. But UA had changed everything. After spending his entire life alone, he finally had people he could call his friends, that could thaw him a little.
Midoriya was the first, standing across from him at the Sports Festival, yelling at him for the first time in his entire life that he wasn’t his father and that he didn’t have to be. Iida came next, after the incident with Stain, followed by Uraraka and Tsu, since of course Midoriya would get Shouto to be friends with his friends. He would be lying if he said that he understood the concept of friendship entirely. But he seemed to be doing something right.
And now, of course, there was Sero. He liked to think he was on good terms with everyone in his class (Well, except for Bakugou). And there were other people as well that he could probably call acquaintances: Yaomomo, Kirishima, Hagakure, Shinsou. But of everyone, those five were the closest.
“Well, there are two seats open at the Kiyashi Ward theater at 4:25 tomorrow.” Sero’s voice brought Shouto back to the conversation, and he saw Sero give him a playful smile. “The seats recline and everything.”
Shouto exhaled through his nostrils. “I feel like we’d fall asleep if the seats reclined.”
“Nonsense! Watching a movie while lying down actually enhances the viewing experience, ‘Roki.” Sero proclaimed.
“I suppose I’ll have to see for myself,” Shouto replied.
“Wait, so that’s a yes?” Sero asked, smiling wider.
Shouto couldn’t help it this time. He reciprocated the smile at his classmate as an undefinable, almost imperceptible warmth began to spread through his body. “Sure.”
He would tell Sero soon, he decided. About everything.
“...And then he smiled at me! Like, actually smiled at me!” Hanta’s proclamation was muffled by his pillow, which his face was buried deep in.
“Dude,” Hanta couldn't see Kaminari, but judging by the laughter in his voice, he was probably shaking his head. “You are down bad.”
“I know,” Hanta groaned. There was no point denying it.
In his defense, it wasn’t like he had intended to fall for Todoroki. Or at least, he thought he could keep his feelings under control when they began hanging out more regularly. Turns out that was easier said than done.
“I might have it bad, but at least I don’t simp for someone with a bowl cut,” Kaminari teased.
“At least I made a move today. Because last I heard, you were too busy dragging your feet to ask Shinsou to do anything with you.” Hanta snapped back as he sat up to better verbally attack Kaminari, although there was no bite to his words.
“Hey, we interacted yesterday!”
“You congratulated him by saying ‘poggers’ after he beat Hagakure during training.”
“He laughed, though!”
“You’re hopeless,” Hanta replied, his turn to shake his head.
He was in Kaminari’s room right now, sitting on his bed while Kaminari watched on from his desk chair. These positions were very familiar to the two; usually, when either of them had to rant about their crushes, the talker took the bed while the listener took the chair, or the floor, or sat next to them on the bed.
The story of how Hanta and Kaminari became partners in yearning was an incredibly short one. After Hanta had worked up the courage to come out to Kaminari as bisexual (his first time ever coming out to someone), Kaminari had sent back the meme of the Spidermen pointing at each other.
Shortly after that conversation, Hanta caught Kaminari openly staring at Shinsou as he and Midoriya walked into 1-A’s classroom one morning, with a look that he had only ever seen on Kirishima when Bakugou was around, and vice versa.
“Him?” Hanta had mouthed at Kaminari once he had got his attention, jerking his head towards the purple-haired boy.
Kaminari flipped him off in response, which Aizawa just so happened to catch as he walked into class.
So it was no surprise that after Kaminari’s detention ended that day, Hanta opened his door to find Kaminari standing there unannounced, looking like he regretted knocking on the door in the first place, his eyes trained on the door frame like it was the most interesting thing in the world. But who would Hanta be if he didn’t know what was eating Kaminari up?
“Is this about Shinsou?” He asked.
Kaminari looked shocked for a second, then sighed.
“Was it that obvious?”
Hanta said nothing, only opened the door further so Kaminari could walk in.
“God it’s just… where do I even start?”
Just like the manga reading sessions with Todoroki, it was supposed to be a one-time thing until it wasn’t. Kaminari kept knocking at his door, talking about Shinsou this and Shinsou that, and Sero kept listening to him. And he was glad to do it too; after all, that’s what friends were for. But it was always Kaminari talking about his crush. That small reality never bothered him, but Hanta didn’t have anyone he could talk about the same way.
Until Hanta fell for Todoroki. And of course, because Kaminari and Hanta were involved, he had to make it known to his friend in the stupidest way possible.
“I mean, I don’t understand!” Kaminari had said the day he found out about Hanta’s crush. “Shinsou is the hottest guy in our class!”
“Yeah...” Hanta said, trailing off, holding the can of Coke Kaminari had given him in his hands. He was in Kaminari’s room this time as the blond paced back and forth in his room. Hanta was admittedly only half paying attention to what Kaminari was saying, thinking instead about the way Todoroki had chuckled when Hanta made a joke about Kirishima earlier that day.
“Well, except for Todoroki, but what girl doesn’t have the hots for Todoroki?” Kaminari continued, not paying attention to his friend who was blissed out on the memory of his crush.
“I’m not a girl, though,” Hanta offered absentmindedly.
It took Hanta four seconds to realize that Kaminari had stopped pacing and was staring directly at him.
“Wait, no! That’s not what I…” Hanta trailed off as Kaminari bent over, cackling. But it was too late. So Hanta sank down into the bed, covering his face with his hands.
“So… Todoroki, then?” Kaminari asked through peals of laughter.
Hanta could hear the shit-eating grin from behind his closed eyes as he wiped his face in exasperation. Instead of responding, he opted to groan into his palms.
“Hey, hey, respect, man!” Kaminari said, getting himself under control. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
He jumped onto the bed next to Hanta, who was still covering his face with his hands. “So tell me about him,” Kaminari inquired. “Don’t you hang out with him every Saturday? That’s really cute.”
“I’m going to end my life,” Hanta said instead. If his face was as red as it felt, he reckoned he could give Kirishima’s hair a run for its money.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Welcome to my world. Now come on, I know you want to tell me,” Kaminari nudged him.
Hanta sighed. “Well, it started a couple of Saturdays ago…”
So that’s how, every time Todoroki would do something terrible and awful and adorable, Hanta would go straight to Kaminari’s room to freak out in a controlled environment, much like Hanta had done for him. Every time he knocked, some story about Shouto threatening to burst out of his mouth, Kaminari would open up and give a fake dramatic sigh.
“Again?” He always said, but he never refused Hanta. He was self-aware enough to know that Hanta had to sit through weeks of him waxing poetic about how soft Shinsou’s hair must feel. This was the least he could do. Plus, Kaminari knew what he was going through on a personal level. So unless Kaminari was busy, Hanta found himself faceplanted on his friend’s bed at least once a week.
Also, it gave Kaminari a lot of ammunition.
“But hey, for real,” Kaminari said, his voice shifting from joking to genuine. “Congrats on the movie date.”
“That’s the problem, though,” Hanta lamented. “It’s not a date. I’m pretty sure he only sees us as friends.”
“You don’t know that.”
“But I do.”
“No, you don’t. Unless you’ve heard it straight from his mouth, you have no way of knowing.”
“Sure, I guess,” Hanta flopped back down on the bed dramatically, staring at the ceiling.
“You just have to make your intentions clear.” Kaminari’s voice advised.
“You’re one to talk. You don’t even do that shit.” Hanta replied, glancing in Kaminari’s direction.
“Yeah, I do! Why do you think I’ve been talking to Shinsou more? Because I genuinely like the guy, I want to get to know him more, and by trying to talk to him whatever chance I get, I’m showing him that I’m interested and value our relationship.”
“I don’t think saying ‘poggers’ to anyone counts as building a relationship. Also, since when did you become the love doctor?”
“Listen here, you little bitch. Do you want my advice or not?”
“I don’t know, I’m not entirely convinced that I should be taking it from you.”
“Fine,” Kaminari huffed. There was a pause and then pressure to his right. Kaminari had joined him on the bed, lying down next to him. “Think of it this way. Why did you invite Todoroki to the movies?”
“Well, because we’ve always hung out together in the dorms, and on campus. We’ve never done anything off campus together, and I want to get to know him more because...”
“Then tell him that!” Kaminari cut him off. “And if you’re too scared to tell him that, show him through your actions.”
“And if he rejects me?” Hanta’s voice was smaller than he wanted to admit.
“Trust me, he won’t,” Kaminari said confidently. “First of all, you’re Sero fucking Hanta. You’re a catch and a half. And I would know, I’m into dudes. No homo, though.”
Hanta grabbed the pillow next to him and tried to hit him. Kaminari somehow managed to dodge, still talking.
“Second of all, there’s no way you’ll know for sure how he feels about you until you try. I’d rather see you try and fail than not try at all. So tell him. Or show him. But make sure he knows how much you care about him.”
Hanta’s head was spinning. Kaminari’s advice was actually pretty sound.
What if he rejects you? A voice (that voice) in the back of his head began to whisper, and Hanta could feel the voice’s snakelike tail begin to wrap itself around his body. You’ll be devastated. For a second, Hanta almost gave in as the scenarios flashed through his head. Todoroki, looking at him with cold disdain as Hanta’s heart bore a pit in his chest. Todoroki, avoiding eye contact with him in the halls. Hanta and Todoroki reading manga alone in their rooms, with more than one wall separating the two of them.
But then he saw it again: Todoroki’s smile when he said yes to going to the movies tomorrow, a smile he had already committed to memory. He had never seen Todoroki smile like that before, not even when Hanta snuck a peek at him and his friends at lunch (which he didn’t do that often, thank you very much). Based on his observations, Todoroki was always pretty serious around everyone, Hanta included; even when cracking jokes, his face remained neutral, which lent itself well to his dry sense of humor. When he would smile, it was always a small grin, a tug on his lips, really.
But what he just saw an hour ago was the closest thing Hanta had ever seen to a full-on smile from Todoroki.
Okay, so It wasn’t a full smile in the traditional sense of the word, but it might as well have been compared to everything else Hanta had seen. And he would do anything to get that look to come back to Todoroki’s face again, all crinkled eyes and soft lips upturned more than usual and a flash of teeth and slightly scrunched nose and holy shit was that a dimple? And as far as Hanta knew, he was the only one who had seen Todoroki smiling that widely. Why did Todoroki give that smile to him, of all people? Did he know exactly what he had done to him? Smiling at him with the same feeling of a curtain dancing in a sudden gust of wind, ethereal and free and over too soon? But maybe it didn't do well to dwell on the why. All he knew was that Todoroki had smiled at him, the strongest smile Hanta had ever seen the boy wear. And he found himself selfishly hoping no one else had ever seen it.
Because as long as that smile existed just for him to see, Hanta decided, there was a chance.
Hanta released the breath he didn’t even realize he was holding in the form of a sigh. “Thanks, Kaminari. That actually really helped.”
“Hey, anytime.”
“You know, I think I might have to start going to you for relationship advice now.” Hanta turned to look at Kaminari.
“Oh shit, really? I was just telling you what Jirou told me.”
“Never mind.”