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The first time it happens they are on a class outing to the mall. Even with the war over and no current threats to the class they had been advised to stick in groups of at least two for safety.
Midoriya had gone off with Uraraka and Tsuya, and Iida and Yaoyorozu had disappeared leaving Shoto alone. Most of the other groups had already dispersed as well, leaving Bakugo and Kirishima as the only ones left.
"Can I join you?" Shoto asked Bakugo, walking up to join him and Kirishima.
"Where's your nerd group?" Bakugo scowled looking around for them, "They leave you behind?"
"Midoriya went off with Uraraka and Tsu, and I don’t know where the others went." He pouted slightly, hoping Bakugo would let him join. He turned his pout to Kirishima, knowing he'd be a lot easier to convince.
"Of course you can join us, right, Bakubro?" Kirishima immediately said, nudging Bakugo's arm to get him to respond.
"Tch. Fine, whatever." Bakugo said, already walking off "Keep up."
Shoto made sure to stick close to Bakugo's side so they wouldn’t get separated, whilst Kirishima kept up constant commentary on Bakugo's other side. But as it got more crowded it became hard to keep up. Not wanting to be left behind and trying to follow Bakugo's instructions for Shoto to keep up, he reached for Bakugo's hand.
The second he grabbed it Bakugo whipped around, staring at him in shock.
"What are you doing?!" He screeched, shaking the hand Shoto was holding.
Shoto gripped tighter so that he wouldn’t lose contact. "You said I had to keep up? I didn’t want to lose you in the crowd" he explained, ignoring the scowl now taking over Bakugo's face.
"And the only way to do that was hold my hand!" Bakugo continued yelling.
Suddenly an arm slung over Bakugo's shoulder, deepening his scowl. "C'mon Bakubro, we are supposed to stay in a group. We don’t want to accidentally lose Todoroki."
Bakugo shoved Kirishima off but didn’t let go of Shoto's hand, instead he gripped it tighter and started dragging Shoto after him. "Tch, fucking fine. Hurry up candy cane bastard."
Shoto quickly picked up speed so that he was next to Bakugo and not being dragged behind him. He looked down at their joined hands, despite the tight grip Bakugo was using, it was very gentle, it felt...grounding. "Thanks", he whispered, and Bakugo kept looking straight forward, but Shoto could swear he saw a faint nod.
They spent the rest of the afternoon with their hands clasped together, and Shoto couldn’t keep the faint smile off his face. It felt nice to hold Bakugo's hand, it was warm and surprisingly soft. He hoped he would get to hold his hand again.
The second time it happened was during training. Shoto and Bakugo had been paired up and were supposed to be playing the villains hiding in a building. The second Aizawa Sensei had said it was their turn Bakugo had marched off, determined to get there and set up so he could win with the fastest time.
"Bakugo, wait for me! It's supposed to be a team exercise." Shoto immediately chased after him.
"Don't be so slow Icyhot, we need to destroy them!" He yelled back, not slowing down at all.
"Aizawa won't start the timer until we are in the building. Running now won't make a difference." Shoto pouted, finally having caught up to him.
"So? That doesn’t mean be lazy." Bakugo sped up even more now that Shoto had caught up. Shoto reached out and grabbed his hand, to make sure that Bakugo wouldn’t get out of range again. "What are you doing?!" He gasped, and just like the last time, started trying to shake Shoto off his hand.
"It's easier for me to keep up when I'm holding your hand." He explained, not letting go. Bakugo's hand was as soft and warm as he remembered, and he was going to hold on for as long as he could get away with it. It was surprisingly comforting to be in contact with Bakugo, and he had meant it when he said it was easier for him to keep up with the other boy.
"Tch. You could just move faster." He scowled but didn’t let go, just continued towards the building that was supposed to be their hideout.
Shoto smiled faintly. "This is better though." And Bakugo didn’t respond, just kept holding his hand until the training exercise started.
Shoto wanted to do it again, reach out and grab Bakugo's hand, feel the comfort it brought him. But he had to find an opportunity where he could justify holding his hand, so that Bakugo wouldn’t pull away.
It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later when he got the chance again. It was another training match where teams of five were going up against one another. Bakugo and Shoto had been put on the same team and were currently on the rooftop of a building in Ground Gamma. Bakugo was fighting against Kirishima whilst Shoto was fighting against Mina.
"Hurry up Icyhot, we have to take out these two before Deku gets here!" Bakugo yelled out to Shoto when they almost bumped into each other.
The building started to shake as Shoto caught sight of black whip through a crack that appeared in the roof. Midoriya must have caught up to Tokoyami, Shoto thought as he tried to keep his balance as the building kept shaking and Mina continued to throw her acid through his ice. He carefully let out some fire from his left side, still wary of using it in such close quarters with his classmates.
The building shook again, even harder this time. Shoto stumbled, nearly crashing into Bakugo before catching himself and stepping back toward Mina.
"Bakugo, watch out!" Shoto heard Kirishima yell, and he whipped around to see the floor beneath Bakugo had completely crumbled. Bakugo was only a couple of feet from him and started to fall through the gap. Kirishima couldn’t reach him as the floor had crumbled between them, so Shoto threw himself forward.
He managed to catch one of Bakugo's wrists and reached down to grab his other hand, before pulling him up. Their hands had only been clasped for a second before Bakugo pushed himself away.
"Didn’t need you to save me. I would have been fine." Bakugo grumbled not looking at Shoto. He decided to take that as a thank you since Bakugo didn’t even try and yell at him for it.
Shoto didn't respond, just looked down at the hand that had been clutching Bakugo's. Despite the lack of yelling or overly negative reaction from Bakugo about grabbing his hand, Shoto couldn’t help but pout. He'd barely got to hold onto Bakugo's hand before he had pulled away. It wasn’t long enough, Shoto didn’t even feel like it counted as holding hands it was that short. He would have to try better next time.
A week later Shoto was still pouting over the lack of handholding with Bakugo. He'd been distracted in class and staying up late trying to think of a good way to get Bakugo to hold his hand again. A way to get him to hold on for longer.
After one such night staying up late trying to come up with a plan, he had forgot to set his alarm for the next morning and was awoken by loud knocking on his door.
"Todoroki? Are you coming, you're going to be late for class!" He heard Midoriya call through the door. He groaned and rolled over, hand reaching out to find his phone. He bolted upright when he saw he only had ten minutes before they had to leave for class. He let out another groan and quickly got out of bed.
He was exhausted from lack of sleep and now he wouldn’t have time to eat before class. And he still didn't have any idea on how to get Bakugo to hold his hand.
He got ready and made it downstairs just as everyone was preparing to leave.
"Are you ok Todoroki?" Midoriya asked coming to stand next to him. He only nodded in response and yawned, shuffling after the rest of the class. He was starting to regret staying up late, especially since he didn’t get any good ideas from it.
As he was walking down the stairs from the dorm building Bakugo bumped into him. "Hurry up Halfie. Geez you look like a Zombie." Bakugo muttered as he reached the bottom of the staircase.
"Don't be mean Bakugo, I'm tired." Shoto pouted at Bakugo, as he picked up his pace.
"Should have gone to bed early then, Princess." Bakugo mocked, not noticing the look of surprise on Midoriya's face at the nickname. He continued walking, not looking back at Shoto.
"Your fault" Shoto mumbled, whilst trying to keep up with Bakugo's speed whilst being half asleep.
"Hah? What are you muttering about?" Bakugo turned back to Shoto, having missed what he said due to the distance he had gained on Shoto.
"Wait for me." Shoto said grabbing for Bakugo's hand. It felt even softer than usual this morning, and so much more comforting to a half asleep Shoto.
"Tch. Why do you always grab my hand." Bakugo complained, although to Shoto's immense happiness and surprise, didn’t even try to shake him off this time. Instead, Bakugo adjusted his grip and proceeded to drag Shoto until he was standing next to him.
"You walk too fast." Shoto pouted, although it wasn’t a very good one, as inside he was so happy he got to hold Bakugo's hand. And with no arguing either, this was going better than he could have ever imagined.
They held hands the entire way to class, and Bakugo didn’t let go until they reached the classroom. Shoto was shocked at how easy that was. There was no elaborate plan to grab Bakugo's hand, he didn’t even have a good excuse, and yet Bakugo still let him. He spent the rest of the day with a soft smile on his face, having achieved what he wanted.
After that Shoto kept an eye out for any opportunity to grab Bakugo's hand. Since Bakugo didn’t seem to argue anywhere near as much now, it was a lot easier to get away with grabbing his hand.
Now that he knew that Bakugo wouldn’t fight him on it, it didn’t take too long before he got the chance to do it again. Each weekend a couple members of the class would go to the supermarket with a teacher to get groceries. This time it was Bakugo, Todoroki, Kirishima, and Midoriya who were scheduled to go.
Kirishima and Midoriya were ahead of Bakugo and Shoto, talking to Present Mic. This left Shoto walking side by side with Bakugo, hands just centimetres apart. Shoto looked over to Bakugo, trying to figure out if he had slowed down so that Shoto wouldn’t be by himself, or to avoid having to be a part of the conversation going on ahead of them.
"What?" Bakugo said, turning his head to look at Shoto, having noticed the staring.
"Nothing." Shoto responded, deciding he would pretend that Bakugo had slowed down for him. He didn’t want to risk asking and having Bakugo say he only did it to avoid Midoriya. He'd be a lot happier just pretending.
"Tch. Fine. Hurry up." Bakugo picked up his pace to try and keep up with the others, who were already walking into the grocery store. Shoto immediately reached out to grab Bakugo's hand, so they could keep in pace. Warmth enveloped his hand as Bakugo closed his fingers around Shoto's. Shoto blinked in surprise, he hadn't expected it to be this easy. There was no look back, no comment, this time, just immediate acceptance as they walked inside.
Shoto had grabbed Bakugo's hand on the way back as well, and Bakugo let him. No words and no complaints were said, just quiet support and comfort.
+ 1
They had just finished an intense class training session and were all walking back to the dorms together. Shoto had started to trail behind and couldn’t be bothered to catch up with the others. It had been a tiring day, and he just wanted to go take a nap.
He was so out of it that it takes him a moment to notice that Bakugo has slowed down to walk next to him. He turns to face Bakugo and sees him staring right back.
"C'mon, you're always so slow" Bakugo said to Shoto as he reaches out and grabs his hand, warmth instantly surrounding him.
Shoto looks down at their hands in shock. Bakugo had grabbed him. Bakugo had grabbed his hand. That meant that Bakugo must have wanted to hold his hand.
"You grabbed my hand." Shoto said softly, still shocked at Bakugo being the one to reach out.
"So what? You grab mine all the time. And it’s the only way to get you to keep up." He responded, whilst intentionally avoiding eye contact.
"I like it." Shoto responded smiling at him. Bakugo stared in shock at the full smile aimed at him. Even seeing a faint smile from Shoto was rare, so to see a real, proper smile on his face was proof that Bakugo had done the right thing in grabbing Shoto's hand.
"Of course you do, princess". Bakugo muttered, avoiding Shoto's gaze again. But that didn’t stop Shoto from seeing the faint blush on his cheeks.
"We should keep doing it." Shoto says, finally having what he wanted from the start, and feeling safe enough in Bakugo's hold to admit it.
"Sure, whatever you say, Halfie" Bakugo said placatingly, but Shoto knew he meant it. The smile remained on his face the entire way back to the dorms.
Meanwhile the rest of the class:
"Is anyone else seeing this? Am I going insane?" Kaminari asked trying (and failing) to subtly look at Bakugo and Todoroki holding hands.
"I see it too!" Sero said, sounding just as shocked as Kaminari.
"Oh my god, Bakugo is willingly holding hands with someone!" Mina squealed excitedly, and clapping her hands together.
"Maybe he's been possessed?" Shinsou tacked on, squinting at the uncharacteristic display from Bakugo.
"No. They have held hands before" Kirishima explained casually, too tired from training to properly notice the shock and excitement from the rest of the class.
A chorus of screeches and questions were thrown at Kirishima, wondering why he hadn't told them about this development before.