Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It wasn’t like Shouto was an absolute asshole.

Well, at least not consciously most of the time. He may curse or be blunt but he always makes an effort to be apologetic.

And constant therapy had helped reveal things he suspected about himself, one of those being: Shouto has a very severe case of PTSD, extending all the way to his childhood—and surviving a war and then watching your brother almost die in front of you hadn’t exactly helped his traumas.

After that is when, he thinks, he really started hating public appearances; not that he enjoyed them much in the first place. The mere concept of everybody knowing his business—whether it was brought up in front of him or not— and being recognized outside became a huge trigger for a certain period of time after the war.

It was certainly not ideal for a Pro-Hero in training to have such debilitating social anxiety, but thinking about that fact just made him more anxious. All in all, he was between a sword and a hard place.

He would spend hours in his room, he started skipping meals and, in the end, he would only really come out his dorm to go visit his brother in the hospital. His brother, his conscience barely there, would not recognize him most of the time and would straight up tell him to leave in times that he kind of did. The hurt was bad but, in some weird twisted way, he felt like he deserved it. In his brother’s eyes, him being born ruined his entire life, so he was able to concede him some grace.

He wasn’t a spiritual person, his prayers and pleading in his childhood having gone unanswered was the cause of that, but he had started to meditate, even pray, for his brother to make it out okay in the end; the suffering would have been worth it in that case.

He hasn’t really spoken to his father a lot since then, but he made an effort to see his mom as often as he could. Until he couldn’t, until his mom being near his dad became too painful, too much of a trigger for him. He’s quite sure that’s when he started slipping into the hardest year of his life— his grades were slipping, which was not ideal in a final year and he just looked awful (or at least, he assumed as much, from the apologetic reactions of all of his classmates whenever they saw him)

He still kept contact with all of them, saw them in classes everyday, but he was well aware that he was starting to seclude himself just like he used to in his first year. When he hated his father badly. But right now it was maybe even worse. And there was nothing he could think to do, except continuing on.

Izuku and Uraraka were his closest friends, they still are, and they were soft and calm when it came to interacting with him in those moments, but he could see hints of guilt on their faces. It looked way too similar to pity, and gods did he hate being pitied. It was well intentioned, of that he was sure, but it hurt him. He didn’t like that feeling, so he tried to make their conversations shorter and shorter.

On a particular night he was feeling— and looking, probably— extremely awful, he remembered Iida Tenya knocking on his door and bringing him some dinner, saying he was here to offer to help him with his studies while carrying a big smile in his face and a takeout bag in his hands.

Shouto decided he might as well let him in, knowing that if he said no, Tenya would surely just stand outside his door until he gave in. His insistence was annoying but he didn’t mind it all that much all things considered. They had gotten close lately, not that used to be unfriendly with each other, but they had realized they were more similar than they were different to each other. In some way. 

Once he let him inside of his dorm room, Shouto could feel all too well the need he must’ve had to ask about his situation, how he’s felt, why he looked the way he did; the undying questions probably prickling his tongue. But the taller boy just resigned to sit down on his floor with him so they could enjoy a meal together, not letting Shouto refuse him and making sure he ate every last bite.

Even feeding him himself to make sure the food was actually making its way to his mouth. Being babied in this way was not ideal, but he didn’t seem to mind given his horrible circumstances.

It felt nice, and not just because he had been starving. He knew that Tenya, compared to some of his other classmates, must have less questions in general to make, he was there when it happened after all. But not being questioned or looked at with pity helped alleviate his anxiety. He could see confusion, and maybe even worry in his eyes, but he never really felt like Tenya saw him as less than him. Even when he had his reasons to.

And worry was not pity, he had to remind himself. And for that reason, he let Iida stay.

“Thanks for the dinner”, Shouto broke the silence, his voice hoarse from having cried all night (his usual routine back then, it worked wonders) “you really didn’t have to, though”

“Nonsense!” He exclaimed, a bit loud as always, but Shouto didn’t feel a hint of anger behind his voice. He sounded playful even. It was surprisingly relaxing. “We are friends, Todor- Shouto.” He corrected himself quite quickly, earning a little snort out of Shouto. “Shouto, we are friends now!”

He nodded in agreement with the statement. Him and Iida were friends, he appreciated it. Appreciated him. “Yeah. We are”

“I noticed your grades are falling a little, which is normal all things considered! It has happened to a lot of other students here!” He held his hands up defensively, to let him know he wasn’t accusing or judging. “But you know, since I was voted class president, again…” there was a sense of pride in his voice that made Shouto give him a small smile. “I am always quite aware of my other classmates, and that includes you, Shouto. I can help you!”

Shouto looked around as if he was thinking about it, the truth is he really wasn’t. If Tenya wanted to help him, then it was a done deal, it wasn’t a matter of whether he wanted to accept help or not. He was very good at being persuasive, under the guise of 'helping Shouto learn how to accept help.’ His plan was working wonders.

Before he could open his mouth to mumble a well, whatever you want, he heard Tenya whisper in a very small voice, not usual for such a big guy: “One sec. You have something in your mouth” and took one of the napkins inside the takeout bag out to press them against his mouth.

His lips, to be more precise. Brushing against them softly.

Shouto froze, and to this day he still believes it to be out of nervousness but it’s hard to tell. Tenya seemed too busy in cleaning him up however, taking another clean napkin when he was done with his mouth and lips to continue his mission and wipe around his face and around his swollen tear ducts. It was gentle.

And it both surprised and shook something inside of Shouto’s brain. It wasn’t like his friend was a brute, but having a big frame and a pair of big hands delivering such a soft touch was a new kind of experience to him, all things considered. It was serene, it was… intimate?

The thought alone made him look the other way, feeling the heat rise to his face, but the other guy seemed way too focused to even notice the internal turmoil caused by such a simple act of kindness.

His hands were warm against his skin, and the brushing of one of his bare thumbs along his cheek alone was enough to send shivers down his spine. He hadn’t known he was so touch-starved until that very moment.

The scene continued in silence, until Tenya whispered a little “All done!” and removed his hands from his face. The confusion showed in his face and then it transformed into panic, his face reddening, his arms flailing around in his newfound embarrassment. “Oh, sorry, Shouto! I shouldn’t have done that without asking!”

Shouto wondered how flustered he must’ve looked to earn that kind of reaction from Tenya. “It’s okay, just…. You surprised me. Thanks” He did his best effort at a little, but genuine-looking smile.

He was a few seconds away from combusting something into flames or freezing his friend by accident just by the surprise and the embarrassment of the moment, but Iida didn’t need to know that.

Tenya smiled back. “Understood. Well then…” he got rid of the napkins in a trash bin and searched around the room to easily find Shouto’s school bag—because of course he knew where it was—, he looked at the bicolored eyes in front of him. “Shall we start with this then?”

Shouto tilted his head, and almost like guessing the question Iida replied “Start with the homework, i mean”

”Oh.” He felt still a little out of it, Iida and his acts of service be damned. “Yeah, i would appreciate that”

That night Tenya “helped” with his homework. Help in big quotation marks because he did most of the exercises, just spending some time to properly explain them to him in a calm manner. And from then on, they felt into some kind of routine the next few months.

But the part he would secretly enjoy and miss the most, was when they would share hugs out of a sudden. Tenya was a very respectful person so it didn’t start instantly, but it became an habit as soon as he got confirmation that Shouto didn’t mind. They would link arms, throw arms around the others neck and just enjoy each others presence often.

And then, when Shouto got the call that his brother died at the hospital, he had locked himself in his room all day only to find Tenya, of all people, sleeping outside his door when he tried to sneak to find a midnight snack. He missed classes for the very first time since he knew him that day, and stayed with Shouto. Shouto doesn’t know how long he cried for that day, but the taller boy held him and hugged him tightly, like he would shatter if his grip loosened a little.

He made sure Shouto ate something, and then offered to stay with him that night. And that was the first time he had experienced cuddling someone to sleep.

For the next couple of months until graduation, Tenya would show up at his room or Shouto would meet him at his and they would enjoy a meal and do their assignments. Sometimes they would go outside and train their quirks together.

He felt lighter, surprisingly, like a pressure he didn’t know was slowly being lifted. He seemed happier, his classmates would tell him. And he didn’t exactly feel that way, but connecting with his classmates made the mourning process lighter on him.

It kept him from becoming a total recluse, kept him sane and tethered to existence itself. Tenya became his best friend, and his classmates became his lifeline. When they graduated, knowing he and Tenya would both move to different cities for their hero activities, they shared a big hug and decided to stay in contact still.

They did, as much as they could after all, and Iida texted him semi-regularly to share pictures of himself or ask about his day. Shouto got into the habit too, after a while, of sending him cute pictures back.

It has been years now. He’s grown taller, stronger, and he’s gotten better at handling one on one conversations. He signs the occasional autograph to a kid, waves when an old man says hi, helps old ladies cross the street… and even if it takes a lot out of his social battery as the introvert he still is, it’s gotten easier. Familiar.

He enjoyed going outside a little bit more, taking his time to enjoy the views, sending his friends pictures of things he would see on his daily walk. The routine keeps him safe.

So he considers himself to be a very centered man nowadays, especially in the latest years with all the counseling he was receiving; it was not his fault that press conferences and interviews were, to this day, his weak point.

When it came to cameras flashing on his face and being surrounded by multitudes, his brain stopped working and got clouded. He wasn’t quite sure anymore if being awkward is adorable and pleasing to audiences now that he was an adult and not a child hero.

He never had to quite deal with anything like this at UA, even if he was known outside the school as a top student and recognized quite often. This new experience brought with it a lot of uncomfortable conversations that he’d rather not have with people he didn’t know.

At first, he made the conscious decision to avoid talking to reporters and anyone with a mic asking questions of any kind. But the main issue was: He may be good at putting up an expressionless face—it was his default expression most of the time, after all—, but he does not really have that same control over his mouth. Not as much as he wishes.

After videos of him having ignored his fair share of reporters and “being rude to fans” who were looking to ask about his family instead of him as a person started spreading around, he has found himself falling down the rankings— unsurprisingly, so.

But they have made it a part of his persona at that point, the people who liked Shoto had no problem with his “temperament”, and even those who disliked it found it to be endearing on him, saying it made him cool and mysterious and unachievable. But well, pretty privilege and a lot of fangirls who loved a Rude Bad-Boy Shoto can only get him so far when the general public doesn’t think he’s that friendly.

He reached a breaking point this week, when a group of paparazzi after a Hero Gala—which he usually never attends, like at all, since he has better things to do with his time— had circled around him. It was to be expected that people would be excited to get words from him but the crowd was as overwhelming as it was loud.

The anxiety rose up in him, looking at his surroundings for a way to escape. The questions kept coming, and the cameras kept flashing. He heard someone mention his father’s name, usual. “Let’s not talk about that, shall we? Now if you’ll excuse me…” he tried to make space to get away, unsuccessfully.

The crowd kept pushing, both with the questions and physically. He was now to the point where his anxiety showed up as irritation on his face, and the suit he was wearing was started to feel tight against his neck.

The situation was bad already, and then in a matter of seconds it became worse, a disaster.

He heard someone mention his name, ask about his “villain brother”, whose death and funeral they tried very hard to keep out of public eye. But whose existence still found ways to hurt, to haunt him in a weird twisted way.

Everything was fine until he heard his name again after so many years.

Touya Todoroki. Dabi. His brother.

It started in pleas of “Please give me some space, im leaving”, and then he found himself having to scream for them to give him space, which culminated in him freezing some equipment and burning other in his emotional outburst until they started to back away from him. That allowed him the chance to then run away and experience perhaps the biggest anxiety attack he’s had since he was a teenager.

It was unexpected, it wasn’t like he hasn’t heard his brothers name in all those years or even thought about him. Lord knows he does. A lot, every waking moment. But the anxiety of the situation just made him collapse. Being confronted about him just made him feel all over again like he was guilty for his brother’s demise. Like he was guilty of the sin of existing and ruining his brother’s life.

He felt like a little kid again, scared and alone; he had to remind himself that he was now as old as his brother ever got the chance of being. He has been crying more in the last couple of days, mourning the childhood Dabi could’ve had. The adolescence he wasted in villainy and revenge, and the adulthood that expired too soon on his hands.

The articles surrounding the incident came rather quickly, and they were mostly neutral; people seemed to empathize and feel pity for him and blame the reporters, but the news spread around too much and having any kind of big attention made him feel sick somehow. He hated feeling pitied, still.

Something must be done, he figures. He can’t just hide from reporters his entire life. Even if the idea of doing that is so satisfying… How did other people handle this?

He feels himself an interview away from pulling a Dynamight and cursing at them, but he’s unsure how that could help his current sinking reputation.

So here he was in present moment, having invited his closest friends to dinner to discuss just that.

“This is a waste of time” he sighs, adjusting his hat to cover his face a little more to go unnoticed. His hair always gave him away, so hats have become an unofficial part of his civilian uniform. His frame was bigger than during childhood, but not so exaggerated he couldn’t pass as a normal civilian most days (if he wore an eyepatch to also cover his scar)

“Shoto, listen to us. Nobody is asking you to be friendly,” Ochako sighs, putting her hands together to then point at him. “But people need to know they can trust you on the personal level, it makes your job easier to at least seem nice”

He had managed to get a hold of both Uraraka and Izuku who came in regular casual clothes, both busy but taking a time out of their classes and quirk counseling. He thought about calling Bakugo but, even if he has softened a little and they’re closer lately, the thought of getting advice from him in this topic made him chuckle. And finally, he managed to get a hold of Tenya, whom he considered to have a good head on his shoulders. He was, according to his confirmation text, always happy to make time for Shouto.

Cute.

“Agreed”, he hears Iida’s voice, strong and sure on his left side. “Having a smile on your face is good, but the public likes to also hear that a person who’s saving them is well… a kind person in their day to day life”

Shoto sighs, and keeps looking at the window. He has developed a fear of another ambush like that one at the Gala, it left him feeling uneasy day after day.

They had earned a few stares on the way in, being known heroes and all, but the restaurant did not have enough people for anyone to bother them, Shoto made sure to reserve some of the tables to give them —well, to give himself— some privacy.

“I am kind“ he says, but hearing no response from his friends, he adds almost offended: “Do y’all think I’m not nice…?”

“Well… it’s not that you’re like.. a straight up demon blowing people up or something, “ Speaks Izuku from the other side of the table, Shoto snorts at the memory of Bakugo’s raging compilations. “But you are quite intimidating in appareance and expression, being a softer speaker might be favorable…”

And then Izuku starts mumbling a plan under his breath, his hand under his chin while in deep thought.

“That’s the face i was born with, there’s nothing i can do about that!” Shouto tilts his head, still hiding himself in his big clothes. “And i speak soft enough…?”

Tenya clears his throat next to him and Shoto knew instantly that he is about to explain whatever Izuku meant by his previous statement. It was something he was accustomed to in a way, it happens each time the four of them hung out. Coming from any other acquaintance he might have found this behavior infantilizing or annoying, but he quite appreciated the taller man looking out for him, trying to explain what he might not entirely get. Even if he was no longer the class president and him a student of the same class, it kept things familiar between them.

“I think it’s not about your tone of voice, Todoroki-kun. But rather, erm… the things you say when you do speak? You’re blunt and direct, which is not bad, but not doing you any favors in this area…”

Tenya has started talking to him in a formal way again? He feels the need to complain but he just nods. It’s been a while since they had an actual conversation and Tenya was a respectful guy, now a respectful man, after all.

They might message each other from time to time since graduation, Tenya sending him cute pictures to cheer him up or just “memes” that he then had to explain –because child neglect doesn’t exactly give you general cultural knowledge– but their dynamic has become a little distant. Not bad distant, just not as close. They are not hugging-and-cuddling for no reason kind of close anymore. He didn’t like to think about it much.

It’s kinda fair to not see each other as often after we survived a war together , Todoroki thinks to himself.

“And not to mention how you ignore the press most of the time…” adds Ochako, enjoying and sipping her drink a little too loudly. “Not cool, you know they hate it”

“But the questions they ask…” he drops his head low and he can feel the stares of his friends. He also feels a hand patting on his back. “I just wish, really, that they would stop asking about my family, is that too much to ask…? Specially about him…”

He feels his eyes water a little, his appetite and composure almost gone. And yet he doesn’t need to look up to know those warm hands, who were now drawing little circles on his back, belonged to Iida. “Hey, believe me, I know better than anyone the uncomfortable questions that come with being a Legacy Hero.”

“It must be hard, to feel like you’re filling in somebody’s shoes,” Ochako commented, “I can’t imagine adding up having a complicated relationship with that person in the first place”

“It’s going to be okay…” Now it was Iida’s turn to bring his face down slightly, forcing Shoto to look at him face to face. His eyes always seemed honest, and it gave Shoto shivers each and every time. “You don’t have to do it all alone, you know that, right?”

His words were comforting, as always, just the same way they used to be back in UA. He missed having the taller man give him reassurance.

And then, Izuku –who had spent quite some time lost in thought— widens his eyes in sudden realization and speaks loudly, breaking Shouto’s train of thought: “That’s it! What a wonderful idea!” He exclaimed, earning the confused stares of his friends.

He flushes a little and clears his throat, “Iida, you always know what to say when it comes to comforting. Your calmness reminded me of the fact that you have lots of experience dealing with being interviewed”, Izuku played with his fingers, speaking rapidly. “Maybe you should teach Shouto, because you are located the closest to him to see him often, that would be such great help!”

“Great idea!” Ochako claps her hands a little, opening her mouth in an O shape, “Oh, even better, since you guys live close enough. Maybe you can… accompany him to events sometimes? He’s always calm with you”

There’s something about her suggestion and tone of voice that Shouto felt nervous about, like she knew something he didn’t. It was true that Iida’s entire sometimes frantic and sometimes serious demeanor did somehow ended up calming him in situations. The entire proposition makes him feel that way honestly. He tries to let the feeling go away. 

“That sounds… like a good idea, Midoriya, Ochako-Chan.” Tenya conceded, fixing up his glasses. “I can use some of my free time to give some lessons, or just straight up go with you so this event doesn’t repeat itself! It would be an honor”

“So you want me to treat you like… a bodyguard?” Shoto grimaces but, upon seeing how Iida shrugged and then nodded his head with excitement, he starts fidgeting with his fingers. “I don’t know… wouldn’t that be too much of a bother?”

It’s not like it would be his first time being taken care of and watched by someone else, but that had been when he was a child. As a grown man, he had to admit that the idea of having —of needing— his friend as a Bodyguard/Babysitter was kind of humiliating.

The entire table gasped, “Todoroki-kun, of course it’s not a bother! I repeat myself, you really need to learn to accept help! We’ve talked about this!” Both Ochako and Midoriya nodded to the sentiment the man with glasses shared.

Iida turns lightly in his seat, to make his body face Shouto’s now and takes his hands into his own. His hands made Shoto’s look small and frail—he had grown quite a bit but he seemed small in comparison to Iida still—, and yet he didn’t have it in him to really care oe feel insecure about it. The gesture is nice , he thinks.

“I’ve made up my mind. We can start tomorrow early morning!” He moved his arms around while talking, as if his speech was propelled by his arm movements. “I’ll start going with you to places, anywhere really, until you feel prepared enough to deal with this on your own! Deal?”

“But… What if I never do?” asks the bicolored man under his breath, almost to himself, ashamed by the idea.

Tenya chuckled lightly, like the question itself was funny. Or maybe he did really find some humor in Shouto’s monotone but sad voice. “Then I guess you will just have to deal with me, for the rest of our lives!”

The fuck…? That was definitely not the kind of response he was expecting. And his voice was so soft, disgustingly caring while saying that, in a way he could tell that Tenya meant it. He can still feel the man’s hands on his own, his fingers gripping her slimmer ones, while his intense eyes carried eye contact for longer than it was necessary or comfortable to. As usual.

Shouto felt himself both burning up and freezing in place, unable to really look him in the eye. Who says stuff like that? Is this a wedding proposal? Only Tenya… He tried opening up his mouth to answer, only to close it again. He hopes he doesn’t look as embarrassed as he feels.

Todoroki finds himself wanting very badly to say no, but he thinks about it. He can’t risk another public meltdown like that, and he has to admit that yeah, maybe there is something about Iida himself that he found and still finds comforting. Even if he were to be sorrounded like that again, he is sure that having IIda in that situation would make it much less stressful. Manageable, even. Maybe Iida could take him out of those situations, running away with him while holding him in his arms…?

He shakes the thought out of his head.

He sighs, thinking on the back of his head a little guess there’s no other choice, and softly spoke as he answered: “Deal.”

Iida starts talking, thanking him profusely for accepting his help while shaking Shoto’s hand in an awkward attempt at a handshake.

“Im so glad you accepted my offer. I will not let you down, Todoroki-kun! I am an expert in this, I can assure you!”

“Please… just call me Shouto” he makes an awkward attempt at eye contact, this felt oddly like a business deal. “We are close enough after all, and i don’t go by any other name lately. If we’re going to be seeing each other often, then… you know”

“My apologies!” Iida adjusts his glasses. “I will take good care of you then, Shoto!”

The following smile that appeared on the taller man’s face was big enough to make him feel a little dizzy. All teeth, just full of sincerity. Shoto wasn’t quite sure if he was used to being on the receiving end of affection like that.

And also, it’s been long since he called him by his actual name out loud. They don’t do calls as often; he missed the sound of Tenya’s voice. His face was hot, but it started to feel a little like burning now.

“Thanks, Ingenium. Tenya.” He corrects himself quickly, flustered. “Thanks, Tenya”

Both Deku and Ochako giggle a bit, for some reason he has yet to understand. He side eyes them, trying to understand if the situation was one of those were he was supposed to laugh but he was missing the joke completely. Do they know something? Was this a good plan?

And what the hell had he just gotten himself into?

Chapter Text

When Iida said he would see him the very next morning, Shouto should’ve known —should’ve expected it, really— that he would keep his word.

It still took him by surprise to wake up to a few knocks on his door. He was still in his pijamas, since his alarm normally rang a few moments later in the morning. It was too early for anyone who he knew or was close to him to knock on his door, he sighed.

And when he got up to go and open the door, there was Iida. Awake, full of energy, all dressed up already and holding two coffees in his hand. His smile bright as sun.

“Good morning, Shouto! Ready for a good day?” He paused, then took a second to look him up and down, taking in the appearance of the other man, his bed head and his pijamas. He suddenly seemed sheepish, looking the other way. “Oh! Uhm… too early? I can come back later!”

Shouto forced a small smile, the drowsiness still evident in his eyes. He was always a bit grumpy in the mornings, but Iida was not at fault for not knowing. He felt a little less grumpy than usual seeing him at his door than anyone else, all things considered. “Good morning, Iida…” He pointed at the cups on the other man’s hands, “Is that for me?”

Tenya nodded. “Yes! I wasn’t entirely sure if you were a morning person so… I figured this might wake you up?” His cheeks were still a bit flushed as he spoke. “I bought one for you, and ordered something else with a different opposing taste. I don’t have the knowledge of which kind of coffee you drink so you can have whichever one you like!”

Shouto looked up at him, moving away from the door slightly. “Thank you, Iida.” His smile this time was a bit more genuine, the sleep leaving his body a little. “Come on in”

The truth is he wasn’t much of a coffee drinker, he preferred the usual cup of tea in the evenings to calm him down. But he took one of the cups and took a small sip, while Iida removed his shoes and stepped inside his house.

It was some okay coffee, he thought to himself. If he enjoyed the taste a bit more perhaps he could finish the whole cup, but oh well…

“This one tastes good. Thanks. You can have the other one” Iida nodded at him as he took a sip of the other cup and made a small face of disgust. Shouto arched a brow at him.

“Sorry. I don’t usually drink coffee…” His expression of disgust transformed into something akin to regret, looking down at the wooden flooring. Shouto smiled, whispering a little it’s okay, me neither, as he sat down on his couch.

They both placed their coffees on the living room table, fully conscious that they would remain there—unfinished. He didn’t need it truly, Tenya’s energy had woken him up like a coffee normally would. And, hey, at least he had attempted something new! Perhaps he would give it a try some other time with a more adventurous friend….

“Haven’t been in your house since you bought it, woah” The taller man looked around the place, touching lightly on the leaves of a house plant. “It actually looks nice, now that there’s furniture. It’s lovely”

“Thanks. Not really good at interior design, but this will have to do, I guess”

“It’s quite alright for the house of a single male, don’t you even worry about it” he spoke as he sat next to Shouto on his sofa.

Shouto raised an eyebrow as if asking, and what do you mean by that? Iida jumped up a little in his seat, ashamed. “I mean! Normally young men who live alone don’t take decor into consideration, that’s all! And you still manage have a nice house. Sorry if i worded it wrong…? Did I assume your relationship status?”

Shouto uttered a small woah, like it made sense to him now.

“No, it’s accurate, now that you explain it. And I am single, if that’s what you were wondering...?”

Tenya raised his hands in defense, now more flustered than he was already. “Thanks! I mean, no thanks! To your information, I was not wondering, like at all, by the way. Because that’s, you know, your business completely, my friend. I was just…“ Shouto had a playful glint in his eye as he talked and dug a deeper hole for himself, so he paused to sigh deeply.

“I was just playing with you” Shouto clarified, rubbing on one of his eyes. A smirk in his face.

“Oh!” The bigger man sank himself into the sofa a little, his gaze directed at the suddenly too interesting other part of the house. “Sorry, it’s been a while since I last met you face to face and everything. You’re usually not this playful in text”

Well… That was a new reaction out of Iida, he normally didn’t get this flustered by his teasing. He had to concede though, it’s true that it had been a long time since the last time they were together hanging out.

“It’s alright.” He shrugged, figuring not to think much about it for once. He stood up. “Give me a second, I’ll go take a shower and we can go”

“Sure!” The change in topic of conversation brought the regular Iida back, his flush looking now like a product of excitement. “I already did my morning run, sorry again if I should’ve dropped later on in the day. Should’ve texted you to know your schedule”

“It’s no big deal…” Shouto stretched his arms a bit. “I do need to wake up earlier than I do, anyways.” 

Iida beamed at him, excitedly. “I could come wake you so can come run with me, maybe?”

Shouto wondered for a second why lately almost all suggestions of time alone together coming from Iida sounded like proposals to his ears. Maybe he had seen too many dramas…

Iida continued, unaware of the thought process of the other man. “And if you don’t like running, we could just go to the gym or train outdoors together! Physical activity early in the morning is important!”

Shouto thought about it a while. He nodded, “Sure, that would be nice.”

Perhaps he could learn more than he thought from spending his time with Iida. So, he asked himself, why not join him?

Shouto never considered Tenya easy to dislike until this very moment.

Okay, maybe dislike was a strong word. He was well aware already since their school years of just how stubborn his friend could be. He liked schedules and having his belongings in order, and he liked doing things by the book—none of those things Shouto disagreed with.

But he hadn’t thought about just how different their lives were, living out of the confines of the dorms, and how trying to match their schedules would hurt like hell the first few days. He was fine with getting up early in the morning, he had agreed to it after all, but Iida was up before the sun itself was showing. Obnoxiously early, exaggeratedly energetic.

And he made it his new mission to go with Shouto to his early morning exercises, under the pretense of spending more time watching over him. Shouto had said yes without giving much thought, but waking up at 5 am? The things he did for Iida…

Still, he found himself enjoying their walks and runs together. They didn’t talk a lot while running most of the days, Iida had offered to make convo but Shouto would be too out of breath for it. So instead they would just listen to music on their earphones while they ran.

He liked it way more than going to the actual gym with Iida. Having Iida spot him while he was exercising just made him end up with a sore body.

“You can do it! Just a few reps more and we’re done for the day, alright?” He would say, his hands helping Shouto support the weights.

To be completely honest, he was already done a few reps ago— he was carrying a little more weight than he normally did. Iida looked at him, and his words kept motivating him into exercising until failure.

At first, Iida had made an effort to find smaller weights, for his friend’s smaller torso and arms. Once Shouto had told him that it was okay, and that he actually carried weights like all the time—which could not have been more of a lie— he then proceeded to cheer on his strength, pushing him because he trusted he could handle it.

“You’re more strong than I expected you to be, but like, in a good way” His glasses were crooked but he held onto the bar to help him with both hands instead of fixing them. “You’re a good gym buddy, Shouto!”

And he could handle it, every time. Especially if Iida was basically being a  cheerleader for him the whole time. His words making him push himself, to his own disadvantage.

But then they would switch turns and he would help Iida, who was admittedly much better at weight lifting than he was—his help barely needed. And he would just notice how his arms were so big, and strong and defined for someone whose strong point were his legs. And speaking of his legs… What would Tenya’s legs look like if he was wearing an actual cheerleading uniform….?

He would roll his eyes, trying to regain focus each and every time. His face flushed, but he figured out he could just blame it on the exercise. It was not polite to stare so much, he had learned, even if Iida himself was not aware at all of his gaze most times he did. Or maybe he was, but he didn’t care as much to call Shouto out on it. Still, Iida was a friend and it was not fair to him to perv on his body in this way, or in any way really, but he found his own mind was betraying him slowly. 

A quick “Do i have something on my face? Or on my shirt?” was the only questioning that his intense staring provoked. 

He answered at once, his tongue way more impulsive than his brain. “Nah, your body just looks good”

“Oh!” Tenya would answer, getting a little flustered. He smiled as he kept exercising, “Thank you, I work hard for it, you know?”

And it took a while to adjust to the routine, but he seems to actually get a hang of it now.

Tenya would sometimes come unannounced to his house to give him tips on how to go through the hassle of public relations, as he had promised.

“Okay, so if someone asks something and you don’t feel like answering…” Iida was sitting on the couch of his house, looking at him expectingly. “What do you do? Or rather, what would you say?”

He thinks about it. “Is leaving the scene an option?” Iida does an exaggerated face of surprise, shaking his head no. Shouto snorts. “Okay, do I let them know the question is dumb, then?”

Iida shook his head no, the bicolored man puts his hand under his chin as if he was deep in thought. “Uhm…. How about I burn them for asking nonsense?”

“I have the slight feeling you’re not taking this seriously….” Iida pouted, a childish behavior for such a big man. Yet he didn’t seem sad about the whole ordeal, his voice still playful. “This is important… Come on…”

Shouto rolled his eyes, the vestiges of a little smile evident in his face. Fuck him. Tenya always did this pouty expression and baby voice to convince him to say yes to things that he was not willing to entertain or spend time into.

Iida would convince him to go outside when he wasn’t feeling like it, to get some food with him at lunch, to train with him…. And lately, as established, to go run at fucking 5 in the morning…. It should be easy for him to get him to think about his tone and answers when talking to people. But lords, it was tedious.

“Okay. I’ll take it seriously” he says, looking away from the little victorious and playful smile creeping on Iida’s face at his quick surrender.

His stiff and no-nonsense friend had softened a little as years went by. Sure, in public he would still be formal and polite as always. But when he was with close friends, he was slowly getting himself used to joking around like Shouto knew he was capable of. He was a funny guy after all, even if most times he made a comedic comment it would be unconsciously and only Shouto would think it’s hilarious.

Shouto looked at him. “I have to find a polite way to say that I’m not up to talk about it, right?” That sounds way too easy for how hard it actually was.

“Exactly, sometimes you can even give them a non-answer just to get them off your case.” Iida played with a little pen, holding a notebook in which he made some notes. If this was an actual class, he was not sure if he could actually pass. “Even if you don’t want to be there, it’s useful to pretend like you’re semi-okay with it”

“Isn’t that whole thing kinda… fake?”

“Yup. Welcome to public relations.” He sighed a little, his tone playful, Shouto sighed too. “All things considered, I don’t consider you to be rude! Mostly too quiet, and that can be interpreted as rudeness, maybe. It’s not your fault though”

Tenya then faced him, playing and messing up his hair playfully. Shouto let him get away with it. “You’ll get the hang of it, I’m sure! But first…” he took the bag he came with and pulled a tape out of it. “Wanna see some recordings of interviews I’ve done?”

“Yeah…” and so they did.

He did not care much for whatever topics Iida was talking about at all in the tape, but the way he spoke and controlled an audience was admirable. He was a very good public speaker. He looked prepared, wandering a thin line between having trained for it or just being born with the ability to capture people’s attention.

A few days have passed since he accepted to this deal.

Most of his time he spent it alone, which he appreciated, meeting with Iida at the end of the day to assure that he was okay and that he was just on a regular patrol! Nothing interesting and no reporters!

He would sometimes go to places with Tenya for no reason, the other man just seemed to feel more at ease confirming by himself that Shoto was safe, so he decided to give him the satisfaction. They would go eat dinners, sometimes go to movies or other public spaces where people might intercept Shoto.

He has noticed that yeah, they have hung out this past few weeks more than they have in months prior. And it was nice. Hanging out with Iida, even if it’s under the condition of being protected, made him feel nice and well, safe.

He would have been a lot more uncomfortable and weirded out with the idea if Iida himself wasn’t so eager to spend time with him, even during his “bodyguard after-hours” just so they can watch a movie at Shoto’s place.

It feels like he’s back in the high school dorms. But they’re both men in their mid 20s, so not exactly.

But today, to his own dismay, he had an actual meeting. A big, important meeting. Other heroes will be there, and sure, he can just decide not to go. Which was his plan, but when he wakes up that morning and opens up his door, he finds him.

Early in the morning, way too fucking early for anyone to be this excited, Shoto finds Iida in front of the door of his house. He himself had barely woken up a few moments earlier, just stepping out of the shower. The blue haired man appeared to have been running, judging by the slight sweat building over his brow, but showed not much sign of being exhausted. He probably did his morning run alone earlier on, Shouto ponders.

“Good morning, Shouto!” Shoto can’t help but give him a little smile and a small positive hum in response. Iida does not force an actual reply out of him, just smiles brighter at the acknowledgment, looking him up and down until he notices his exposed torso and his eyes visibly widen. He clears his throat, regaining composure easily. “There’s a big event today, and you shouldn’t go on your own…”

He lets him inside his house as usual, while he continues drying his hair with a towel, nodding along.

“I was actually planning on not going at all in the first place…” He confesses, Iida gasps dramatic and loudly. Just like everything he does. Shoto has come around to find it endearing.

“Shouto, I know you’re an introvert, but you cannot just avoid every single social situation!” He chopped the air with his arms while speaking. “You have missed quite a few of these events in the past, I’m well aware. But this is what I signed up for, to help you in social settings”

“I know, I know…” he sighed, leaning his body onto Iida. His damp hair onto his shirt. Iida went still for a second and then squeezed him closer, one hand on his shoulder, not complaining about it. “But I really don’t want to…”

Iida steps away from him a little to look him in the eye. And there it was again. Puppy eyes. Pouting in an exaggerated manner, the hint of a smile in his rigid mouth. 

And Shouto felt his cheeks getting hotter. The urge to just give in to whatever the other man suggested suddenly too big as always— it would actually make him angry if he didn’t also enjoy the smile it would put on the man’s face whenever his bribery worked.

As Shouto looked at him he had a little sliver of a thought, if only just for a second, of how badly he should kiss his mouth just to remove his pout from his face. That would show him.

He froze. What the hell was he even thinking? When he got back to himself, gathering his thoughts, Iida was now smiling, beaming at him, his strong arms wrapped around his torso. That familiar expression that occurred when he managed to make Shouto say yes to something in his face, he sighed at the realization that in his love daze he had just accepted.

He was way more screwed than he initially thought if Iida had him around his finger like this. 

Chapter Text

Some days were harder on Shouto than others, but he was proud of the man he had become, for the most part.

Sometimes he would look at himself on the mirror after taking a long shower, seeing how his face and body had changed without him being that aware of the changes. While he was busy healing and trying to be at peace with his life, the years had taken place on his features. Growing up used to be a scary concept for him, but since he lives independently as an adult he’s found it rather nostalgic. To have been given the chance to grow older, in a life like his and in his line of work… it was hard not to see it as blessing.

The baby fat on his face was gone, he noticed while looking at some school pictures to compare. He was taller than he used to, less frail, but still small in comparison to someone as Iida or even Kirishima when it came to the muscle department; and Ochako and Izuku always made the point to remind him that he’s looking happier than he’s ever been since they met him. Which prompted him to think, just how unhappy did he used to be? The chill new life he’s found has settled as his new normal, so it’s hard to remember how miserable he used to feel.

The closest to that feeling of uneasiness and lack of control over his own life was —as he recently found out—, public interviews. Iida has said he’s getting better each day, that he seems more confident in his answers, and he wants to believe him but it’s hard to believe his opinion was unbiased.

Shouto would get dressed up, shrugging any anxiety off, overthinking has only added so much additional stress to his life. He would make his best effort to learn how to ensure his peace, in the same ways he dreamed of bringing that peace to others. And that would be his morning routine most days.

And now here he was, early in the morning, making a big choice while naked in a towel because his best friend had pleaded a little. Breaking his peaceful morning, his calm routine, with such a big stressful situation such as actually attending.

The worst part is he wasn’t as mad as he should be at the new disruption made to his lifestyle, all things considered he actually welcomed the unexpected chaos as best as he could.   

He sighs. “Do I really have to go?”

Iida chuckles, as if his questioning didn’t make sense to him. Shouto had really spoiled him by never saying no to anything. “Well. You did promise…..” he says, simply. Like it was just common knowledge to him that Shouto of all people would not break a promise, specially not one made to him.

His arms reach out to grab the towel on Shouto’s shoulders.

Shouto moves his head from the other’s chest, where he had left a wet spot with his wet hair to look at him. And Tenya starts drying his hair off, caressing his head and hair softly, and not fully aware of his actions, Shouto even leans into it, his eyes closing a little bit.

And while his eyes were closed, Tenya takes a look at him, at his face. He has looked so peaceful and serene in the last years, sure, but in that exact moment he looked so content with himself. Tenya sighed happily and then looked him up and down again. He notices, for the second time that morning, that Shouto is very much not dressed. That the situation he got himself into was a little indecent, and he is—if anything— a decent and respectful man.

He freezes for a while. A flush starts rushing to his face and he almost lets the towel fall because of the erratic way he starts moving his arms and fidgeting around with his hands, defending himself. “Oh! I’m... very, very sorry!”

Shouto raises an eyebrow at him, not aware of the fact that the domesticity of it all had sent his taller friend into a semi panic attack all on his own. “You didn’t do anything wrong, though…?”

Iida clears his throat, his eyes glued to the ceiling now for some reason and his face still very much red. “You should, y’know, put some clothes on” is all he says, as he hands the towel back to Shouto.

Shouto shrugs it off. 

(But makes a mental note somewhere in his brain of how Tenya’s hands felt when they pampered him and how red he gets when he’s shy. Which is not a usual occurrence.)

He had accepted to go to a couple of big conferences and events starting tonight for the first time in a few years, and sure, he had said yes because of what he could only define as bribery— and the urge to have Tenya feeling happy, but nonetheless.

He asks for a second to dress himself up and dry his hair completely. He felt nervous about the whole ordeal, naturally, but Iida seemed excited enough to have one more familiar face in the crowd of guests that he considered maybe attending more galas and events in the future.

He stepped out after a while, showing off his outfit. “So… Am I dressed enough in something like this?”

Tenya, sitting on the couch now, redirected his gaze at him. “Well, it’s a little bit too casual for a gala”

He stood up, walking circles around Shouto, examining him, “but you could wear it at a party or meeting, for sure!”

Shouto felt small, and very shy suddenly about the whole being examined ordeal. “Last time I went to a gala, a normal one, like before the event… “ he recalled sadly, trying to get his mind of the whole crowd paparazzi ordeal. “I had some designers contact me always, they wanted me to try out their pieces and stuff. I said yes”

“They did a great job, I think. There’s not many paparazzi pictures of you around, and yet you always look stylish in the few I’ve found” Iida played with the collar of Shouto’s shirt while standing beside him, Shouto did his best to ignore how his breathing and the warmth of his body felt so close to his scalp and back.

“Well. Yeah, that’s because they made the choices for me... I am not that stylish, I’m afraid” he spoke simply, Tenya hummed softly. “Does my hair look okay?”

He had cut his own hair a little recently, after letting it grow long for quite some time. It was easier this way, more comfortable and less time consuming. He feels Iida’s nails suddenly scrape against the nape of his neck and his knees almost give out under him.

He feels Tenya moving a little behind him, so close to him that his movements were perceptible. He hums, “It always looks good”

Shouto feels his ears and neck get red so he just nods, Tenya’s fingers tangling himself in the double colored hair in front of him to then let go of it.

“I think you’re fashionable enough, Shouto” he continues as he takes a small step back and Shouto finally takes a breath in, his shoulders releasing tension. “The magazines love your casual looks well enough. But the standard for dressing outside and in these events are different, most people wouldn’t know what to wear.”

Shouto looked at him, his eyes inquisitive, maybe Iida had more experience than him. “What do you think I should wear? All my formal attire doesn’t fit me, at all”

And it wasn’t even a lie. His usual suits and vests had been too tight on him for a while, curse that damn growth spurt he had a little before turning 20 and the weight gain he had as a result of actually being allowed to chill for the first time in his life. All in all, they were either too short or just constricting his body in an uncomfortable way.

Tenya thought about it for a moment, his hand under his chin. “Well, it’s true that it’s been years since you’ve worn a proper suit…” His eyes widened a little, getting a new idea. “How about we find something for you? The event is tonight, we should have enough time to go around and find something!”

And Shouto? He had accepted, unsurprisingly easy. I should really establish some boundaries, he thinks for a moment. But the idea of it is vanished from his mind the second Iida smiles.

So Tenya had taken him to a shopping mall.

It’s not like it was the first time he’s gone outside, or to a mall since his incident. He’s gone a couple of times to grocery stores for the occasional house necessity or to stack his fridge, and Iida and him had gone out multiple times to similar big venues. So the idea of it wasn’t that much anxiety riddled as it used to be.

This should be fine, he tries to convince himself, as he hides himself into his hoodie. He was wearing some kind of baseball hat, as usual, yet still insisted in covering his hair and face even more as he pulled on the hoodie.

Iida had convinced him to drop the eyepatch he would usually wear to cover his scar, promising the mall would’ve been way too crowded anyway. And, always true to his word, crowded it was.

“See? You didn’t need to cover the scar…” Tenya says, his eyes traveling across his face to try and peak a look at him underneath the hood. “I’m sure there’s tons of people with random scars here, you’re safe”

Next to him, Tenya was wearing something more casual. He had made the effort to put on something that could hide him a bit as well to bring as little attention possible to himself, to comply with Shouto’s requests when it came to being outside. It was doing an okay job, he was hiding himself in his clothes, as well as you can hide when you’re an overly energetic and loud speaking man with mufflers in his calves.

“You know, it’s actually kind of entertaining doing this! I feel like I am doing a spy mission of some kind…” Iida talks as he walks next to him, close and protective. “Sorry it’s not as fun to you, i normally don’t hide. It must be nerve wracking to feel like you have to…”

And Tenya kept narrating about some of his spy missions, Shouto was doing his best at keeping attention but he wasn’t as much of a talker as the other man was, resigning himself to the occasional nod and looking at him to ensure him he had his attention. He didn’t seem to mind it that much though, and Shouto enjoyed the absence of silence if it was Iida who was talking.

He replied after a while, “It’s stressful, but I’m glad it’s not bad for you too, actually.” He plays with the sleeves of his hoodie. “I would feel bad forcing you to hide yourself from the public constantly, they love you quite a bit”

Tenya chuckles lightly, quietly, as if his laugh could give him away as Ingenium with how packed the mall was today. Shouto appreciated the attempt at subtlety from his loud friend. “They love you too, by the way, it’s just most people get weird when it comes to showing it…”

He locks arms with Shouto, leaning into him a bit as he walked him to a big store. It wasn’t an unusual gesture, with all the recent events taken into consideration. Tenya was a touchy dude once he got comfortable, which implied that whenever they went out to watch a movie or eat dinner after a patrol, he would not only invade his personal space but also make sure to hold onto him as he did it, unaware of the fact he was doing it most of the time.

He pointed with his other free hand. “Let’s start looking for a suit here, okay?” The store he was pointing at looked expensive from the outside, but maybe an expense was worth this occasion. “If you don’t like anything, we will just hit another store!”

“Seems like a good idea…” was all Shouto could force out of his mouth, his voice small as he kept his focus on their bodies being so close to each other’s.

There was not that many people in the store, which Shouto internally was grateful for. Just because he was getting better at his crowd anxiety didn’t mean he had gotten it under control. He allowed himself to pull his hoodie down, maintaining only his hat on his head.

Tenya passed him a suit, an elegant and soft navy blue, and pushed him with quickness into one of the changing rooms. His excitement about the situation barely contained, somehow too enamored by the idea of playing dolls with the younger Todoroki’s body.

But still Shouto had to admit, as he put the garment on, that the man had good taste when it came to things like this. His casual clothes were hit or miss sometimes, but the Iida in him really shone through when it came to formal settings.

“So, how do i look?” He says after a few minutes and walks outside the room, his stance a little tense and shy.

“Oh!” A combination of exclamation and gasp, he removed Shouto’s mismatched hat from his head. He allowed him, with not that many people around anyways. “Looks good! Blue is really your color… Come on, do a lil twirl! Show the suit off.”

Shouto, his face now a bit flushed at the praise, proceeds to twirl and pose a little to the best of his ability for the other man.

Tenya whistles, like a stereotype of manly approval: “Damn, you do look good in suits”

Shouto doesn’t think he’s ever felt so embarrassed that he considered death a more appropriate way to avoid the situation.

“Thank you…” he whispers, scratching the back of his head lightly, his gaze on the floor.

Tenya analizes him in quiet for a while and then adds: “Hey! Oh my god, I just noticed something crazy” he moves a few steps closer, his face now dangerously close to Shouto’s. One of his hands go up to rub his cheek, his touch gentle and soft.

His face is so close now that he can feel his breathing against his skin, his breath against his breath. He tenses. Is he going to kiss me? For real? Here, right now? While there’s still people in the store? He tries to take a step back but his knees don’t feel strong enough, tensed in a way he might just fall back if he does try. He lets the event pass as he looks at Iida, unsure. 

Tenya laughs softly and whispers, his voice a fun tone he doesn’t usually hear on him. “You only really blush on one of your cheeks. Must be your quirk’s doing… adorable”

Is he fucking playing with me? 

And just like he got close— all of a sudden and without any announcement—, he steps back and goes to search for another suit he could try.

Shouto gets inside the changing room and exhales for what felt like the first time that afternoon, his entire body felt like it was burning. He puts his hands on his face, and actually uses his cold hand to try and alleviate the heat on his face. It’s no use.

Who in his sane head thinks of talking about quirks when you’re so close to someone’s lips? The memory of him in his first year of high school dealing with Midoriya going on quirk rants haunts him. Why were all of Izuku’s friends like this, he asks himself, as if he’s not one of them.

Tenya was going to kiss him, or at least he thought he was going to, he assumed the other man was capable of doing so. And instead of freaking out or saying anything or simply stepping back, he had quietly let it unfold.

He was no kid, not anymore, so he didn’t really needed an explanation for what happens to him when they are together. It was clear to anyone really, and now he questions if Ochako and Izuku were aware of it. They probably are….

Still, he thought himself to be rational enough and it surprised him how unable and unwilling he was to stop it.

Okay, maybe he did have a little bit of a crush on his best friend.

And maybe he’s had it since third year of high school, and he’s suppressed it but also internalized it for so long that it became his new normal. That thinking about Iida first thing in the morning seemed natural to him, that it doesn’t ring any alarms for him anymore. Having feelings towards him was one thing, but the mere thought of being corresponded in those feelings was just too overwhelming.

He starts removing the suit with carefulness, his emotions feeling too rattled to trust himself enough to not burn or freeze the fabric if he was careless. He hears Iida calling his name outside and then leaving another suit on the changing room’s door. He sighs.

He tries his best to calm his breathing, he cannot allow himself to have a breakdown in a changing room just because he got gay panicked. He was an adult, and this was fine, and this wasn’t the end of the world.

He takes in his hands the new suit, this one white with red jewels and sparkles going across the sleeves. Pretty….

“Hurry and try this one too” he hears his eager voice speaking from the other side. Shouto gave a small hum in response, starting to dress himself in the new suit.

Tenya gave a small, playful knock on the door and added: “I’m, like, dying to see how it looks on you” and his voice did sound the same as before, excited and fun, but this time it was soft like a whisper and almost sounded anxious, a little desperate. Like he was confessing to something he wished Shouto would not hear, and then….

A small chuckle. And now Shouto was left to wonder whether his mind was playing tricks on him or his friend was actively working to court him, like the gentleman he was.

He took a deep inhale and lets the air out, before shrugging it off. It’s going to be a long afternoon.

After they’re done, and they both picked a good suit for Shouto, Tenya calls his driver to come pick them up. The entire ride home is not as uncomfortable as he expected, but it was more quiet than usual. Good quiet.

“I’ll pick you up in a few hours, so get yourself ready, alright?” is the last thing he says as he leaves Shouto in his house.

Shouto tries to ignore the embarrassment at the idea of how much that seems like something a boyfriend might say to a girl he likes before a date together. He promises to be ready on time and they part ways for the afternoon.

He was way too grown to be feeling this way over a crush, all things considered, and he was very well aware of it. He’s had crushes before, and he has attempted —although unsuccessfully— to date a good amount of people. It hadn’t been his choice to crush on his best friend, but he’s sure he would’ve picked Iida a hundred times over if given the choice.

He takes his time, takes a calm and long bath to try and reconcile with his thoughts, and then does his best effort to make his hair look good. He slicks back a little bit of it, decides he doesn’t really like it, and then just settles for styling it as he regularly did.

He looks at himself in the mirror, the suit did look good on him. He had chosen the white and red suit as he figured it was his safest bet. He used to hate the color red in his younger years, but he’s come around to including it into his life and outfits if only to match his birth given color scheme.

He feels like a teenager again as he ponders upon his reflection, he questions himself: Do I look okay? Am i doing too much? Am i doing enough? Before he can fret over it any longer, his doorbell rings. He feels his heart stop for a beat, to then start beating really fast.

He looks himself in the bathroom mirror for one last time, his hands gripping the sides of the sink as he whispers to himself: “Iida Tenya, you’re going to be the death of me…”

But he’s going to be okay, he promises almost like a prayer. The hardest and biggest and most difficult part was over, if he was aware of how he felt then finally he could at least not be surprised by his own actions. He just needed to remember that no matter what, Iida had been there for him and even if he found out about his silly crush on him, he doubted it would be enough to make the other man part ways with him. He felt himself relaxing a little for the first time that day as he sighs, takes his keys and opens up the door.

He looks at Tenya in front of him, and once his gaze fixates on his suit he is now sure that he is staring hard, but he’s way over the point of actually caring.

The taller man had let his hair grow a bit, keeping the sides and underneath relatively clean and buzzed. His hair was now styled, slicked back, with a few strands falling forward and adorning his face —as if it needed any more decoration— and then his suit, fucking hell…

He was wearing a navy blue suit; and if Shouto’s old suits were tight, then this was a complete crime. His buttons on his undershirt were visible as his jacket was open, and they looked like they would go flying if he took a long exhale. His pecs all compressed under the fancy shirt, his strong arms that looked like they were fighting to be let out.

He figures he must have actually cursed out loud upon seeing the other man, because Iida laughs as he whispers a little “Shouto, language….”

He has to actually clear his own throat to regain composure. “Huh, my apologies…”

Iida then fixes his glasses and looks at him, amused, and gasps as if it was the first time he’s seen it in the suit. So dramatic, Shouto thinks, but then he’s the one who has to grip the doorknob as to not jump onto his arms right now, so maybe he’s also quite dramatic himself. “You look amazing! Did you do your hair differently?”

“I… I tried to.” He looks away from Iida a bit, overstimulated by his appearance. “But I just cut it a little recently, and then styled it as usual”

Iida nods, an appreciate hum escaping him. “It looks good.”

“You look good” Shouto corrects him, responding faster than his brain can register what his mouth is saying, and his tone had to have sound unusual or desperate because Iida visually blushes in front of him. He doesn’t take it back, though, it’s the truth after all. And what exactly does he gain from lying? “Your hair is pretty and you look great in that suit”

If he had known Tenya less, he would’ve thought he was uncomfortable. But his face and demeanor just showed shyness, his behavior meek as he shrinks unto himself. “Well, thank you, Shouto. Nobody’s ever used pretty as a descriptor for me, though, that’s kind of you”

“Hm. You’re welcome”, and a sarcastic comment about how he’s actually not that nice, just whipped, crosses Shouto’s mind. He keeps it to himself while admiring the rising flush in the other man.

Ughh, now Tenya looked like a girl on a date right after getting a compliment. He was well aware of how much of a loser or a pervert he probably was to associate that with such a big guy and feminize him in such way, but he couldn’t help that he found Tenya so adorable for no other explicable reason that he liked him. 

He looks at Tenya’s flushed face and he fidgets a little, unsure of what to do next as he examined how the other man played with his fingers too.

He liked Tenya. And he was going to have to make a move himself since the man kept—knowingly or not— teasing him, the mixed signals too much for his brain. Shouto sighed deeply, stretching a hand out for him. 

“Shall we go?”

Iida looks him in the eyes, and smiles a little. “Yeah,” he takes his hand, as if it was second nature, “let’s go”

Shouto silently intertwines their fingers as they walk away.

The conference —which was some kind of interview— lasted for about two hours, the attention less on Shouto than he thought it would be on the first place and more onto other new upcoming heroes, to his own satisfaction.

Still, whenever he got a question of any kind, Iida, who was sitting next to him, would squeeze his hand from under the table. And his hand remained there, holding Shouto’s until it was all over. Smiling lightly in approval whenever Shouto gave his best effort at a cordial and polite answer. 

He had been greeted by a couple of his old friends and other heroes, all of them making mention of how it’s been a while since seeing him. He didn’t have it in him to admit he barely remembered most of the faces he saw that night, too focused on calming his anxiety to try to go down memory lane. And then to focused on not sweating too much or setting flame to Tenya’s hand. 

As they finish the conference, the next event was a little party with an open bar for them to enjoy some drinks together, and —as some other hero who was hosting had said— cool themselves off after working hard. Shouto doesn’t drink a lot, but he figures he might make an exception for this situation. And with all the events that had transpired recently, he really needed something to get the edge off. 

He feels Tenya put a hand on his shoulder as he’s taking a sip of his drink. “You did well back there, congrats, Shouto!”

Shouto smiles truthfully at him, a little wider than he’s used to smiling. “Thanks, it’s all because of you. You’re very calming”

Iida flushes a little, embarrassed to be the receiver of his smile and he coughs, clearing his throat while he looks around. “Well, you’re welcome, I suppose”

Tenya fixes his glasses a little, “And how do you feel now? You don’t have to force yourself to be here, y’know? I can take you home…”

Shouto snorts, “I’m okay, people seem to be minding their own business right now.” He offers a glass to Tenya, arching an eyebrow. “Now… Would you join me for a drink, pretty boy?”

Oh wow, Tenya thought, arching his eyebrow too, as if he hadn’t actually listened to what Shouto just said to him unprovoked. 

Now it was Iida’s turn to doubt a little, making the hypothesis that he must be very drunk based on how smiley Shouto was. And the pet name… He was calling him pretty, again? Nothing was making any sense, he thought, as he felt his cheeks flushing violently. Maybe he was the drunk one, and he was hallucinating that Shouto acted this way all of a sudden.

And sure, he and Shouto had shared a few glasses before together and it had been okay, they’d laughed and told stories and had a great time, but he’s pretty damn sure he’s never really seen him drunk.

”I would love to, my friend” he takes a pause after the friend part of his sentence, then adds: “but you should really stop drinking”, he then takes the glass that he was offered, and takes a light sip. “I’m pretty sure you must be drunk…”

Shouto looked at him, his face full of confusion with an amount of clarity that only a sober man could have. “I am not drunk… yet.” he sipped a little as he added. “My resistance is very good, but I promise you if I were to be drunk, you would know it…”

Tenya looked as confused as he did, examining his face as if to find an inkling of a lie in his features. “Really…? You aren’t acting like yourself, so I was just worried you might have had a couple glasses already.” 

“How am I acting like?” he asked, confused but still amused at the conversation and the reaction Iida had towards his good mood right now.

”Just… well, you know…” his cheeks were red as he looked away, his finger fixing his already set in place glasses. “Different, I guess, usually I’m the one giving this much praise and compliments…”

“Do you like it when I act like this, though?”

Iida fidgets, his fingers playing with the edge of his glass as he stared down at his drink. “It’s not like I hate it, per se, it’s just… unusual. You’re one of my most quiet friends, so it’s always a surprise when you’re outspoken like this.” 

He then looks at Shouto and takes a small sip, as he sighs. “I guess I’m not used to a friend who compliments me like we are dating or something…” 

He chuckles a bit too loudly, like he had told someone a joke; like the idea of it must seem as ridiculous, and crazy and absurd to Shouto as it probably sounded to him. And truthfully, a couple weeks ago, maybe even a couple of days, the idea of it may have shook him enough inside to actually make a mental note to not give him compliments as often. But one thing Shouto has prided himself in lately, surprisingly, was his adaptability to new and uncomfortable situations.

And he had gotten extra comfortable with the idea of liking Tenya lately. With the idea of teasing Tenya like he was teasing him. 

“Well, we are friends, so… I get how it could be strange.” he concedes and then he clicks his tongue, getting an idea.

He looks at Iida, his eye contact strong, just brave enough by the slight hint of booze in his system to add:

“But if you were my boyfriend, I’d compliment you each and every day” 

Tenya opened up his mouth as if to give a contradiction, but not any sound came out. He gulped, the unusual confidence making him blush up to his ears and neck, and after a few seconds settles on taking another long sip, downing his drink quickly.

He grimaces, the strong taste of liquor in his mouth as he forces out a small ”I-I need to go to the bathroom, be back in a second…”, his face flushed as he quickly shuffles out of there, as quickly as he could without activating his engines and literally dashing his way out of the situation.

Shouto almost gasps out loud, left standing alone by himself. The anxiety of being alone in a crowd dissipating as he analyzed the situation he had created, and the reaction he had gotten. The image of a blushing Tenya, red up to his ears, sealed somewhere in the back of his mind. Huh… had he unintentionally managed to leave Iida of all people speechless? 

A small smirk adorns his face. Oh, teasing is fun. This is very, very fun. 

Chapter Text

One thing about Tenya: he prided himself on always knowing what to say. 

He might be known back in high school for his tendency to act in ways that make people uncomfortable or for misunderstanding what a certain social cue was when it came to interaction, earning other people’s annoyance. But talking? It was his thing, it’s always been; he’s trained hard at it and he feels at a space where he’s almost mastered the craft of a good response.

So it must be pretty easy to imagine just how hard it is for him when he finds himself put into a situation where he, for the very first time in a long while, truly feels like he has no appropriate response to give. No idea of how to actually react.

Getting flirted at is one of the very few things that Iida —despite his experience in other areas of knowledge— was completely unaware on how to respond. There was no guide, no written instructions on how to deal with the concept of someone liking him. And there was no instructive form to help him deal with the over exaggerated beating of his heart.

He feels his breathing ragged as he quickly excuses himself out of the conversation with Shouto. He darts off as quickly as he can, trying to appear normal and not activate his quirk accidentally in the process, and then traps and locks himself into the nearest bathroom, his anxiety spiking up way more than it was considered normal.

Well, okay. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been involved in any romantic situation of any kind— he had been in attempts of relationships in the past and had sometimes managed to gain the attention of other people before, even if the process of getting someone’s attention romantically made him very, very anxious. He treated it like a game, in a way, and, since he knew what people liked to hear, it was easy to just tell them that and reap the benefits of it. It was safer, somehow. Less vulnerable.

But he was, and always is, the one who makes the first step, the first move, the one who pursues the other person in all his romantic endeavors.

It’s all pretty nerve-wracking; and understandably he finds himself in distress when he figures out that he’s being openly and unabashedly flirted at by none other than Shouto. 

His friend. 

The discovery makes him rack his brain to try and remember if the other man had flirted with him before, even jokingly, and maybe he’s just missed it. But he’s pretty sure that, at least verbally, Shouto had never shown any interest in him before this night. Sure, he cannot deny the possible non-verbal signs of attraction that Shouto must have displayed and he had probably missed entirely, but what had prompted this event?

All in all, what he found more difficult in this situation is the enormous potential that Shouto being interested in him had to make things harder not only between them, but in general. It makes their bond confusing, and his mission and assigned job harder if there is undiscussed feelings on the way. It has the potential to make their friendship get awkward….

Iida’s biggest weakness when it came to awkward conversation was that, despite being a good communicator and speaker, he absolutely avoided a confrontation. A natural de-escalator, having all the practice from being a class president in middle school and then again in high school.

So that’s why when it came to actually dealing something upfront, conversation-wise at least, he had noticed it was way easier to switch topics and make everyone feel comfortable. He liked that better, so it was his usual solution.

But in this situation? They needed to talk about whatever Shouto said, it felt like his duty. To know what he actually felt. And if he had meant it. That was the only way he could rid himself of the anxiety that he felt running through his body.

Was Shouto actually, in his own way, trying to get his attention romantically all this time and he wasn’t aware? Or had him, and his overly touchy manner, been the ones to send him romantic signals? Because if the latter was true, he feared it was quite easy for him —or for anyone, really— to look back and determine that some of their past interactions seemed a little too intense to be platonic. And it had been his fault, mostly.

Him and his darned touchiness as a love language. Not that he loved Shouto or anything… He groaned at his own thoughts. 

This was not conflict, per se. It was not confrontational either like discussions he’s accustomed to solving, unless you count how his cardiac system was going against him to be a battle (and in which case, the man in front of him had won that fight already by simply throwing a small spark into an already well-made bonfire).

But it was all having him border on —what he assumes can only be—an anxiety attack, and being collected had been thrown out the window as soon as the proposition had hit his ears. And to be honest, he surprised even himself with this reaction.

He wasn’t expecting himself to run away and hide, but he just felt too overwhelmed all of a sudden; Shouto’s low, and frankly seductive, voice as he spoke to him about being his boyfriend, his piercing gaze that remained fixed upon him, the pet name, the overall intimacy of it all…

Tenya splashed water into his face, again and again to no avail. His face still remained flushed as he replayed the scene in his head repetitively. He sighs as he grips the sink in the little bathroom he trapped himself in, being internally grateful that he was all alone and there was nobody on the stalls either to be witness to his own spiraling into madness.

Not only was Shouto his friend, but lately he felt that they’ve been as close as ever. He never thought it could be possible but they had accomplished to regain the same type of closeness they had shared after the war, when they both really needed someone to rely on. And Tenya was more than happy to be there for someone like Shouto, he would do it a thousand times over if needed—he will be there to guard him, and hold him and help him in his pain and grief.

But there’s things he definitely hadn’t been one hundred percent honest with himself about, and he’s aware of that; some hidden place in his mind he hadn’t dared to explore, convinced that some thoughts are just too out there to even realistically pursue.

Even if he was aware he had been playing with matches above a stove, in a way, it was still not expected that the fire would follow or even start heating at all. Or that it would burn and prickle in his skin so intensely that it would terrify him. And so he thought, in his self induced delusion and ignorance, that perhaps these ideas would sound as crazy to Shouto’s ears than it did to his. 

The fact that Shouto was so serious about the whole ordeal, not finding humor in the matter when he’s usually the only one to laugh at a joke from Iida just made him be more sure that this was really happening to him somehow, for the lords know what reason.

He has never seen the idea of pursuing someone like Shouto, someone who remains sweet and well mannered even when he had been so deeply betrayed by the ones he trusted the most, as something that could be fruitful or helpful to their situations—both currently and in the past. After all, some day back in their second to third year, he had promised to be a friend, and he of all people should not betray him in any way. Shouto didn’t deserve having someone fail him again.

So he forbid himself from it, that idea became the unmentionable and the unspeakable, and he tried to find solace in any other contact to calm his crazy and beating heart as a teenager.

To hold him, to be his shoulder to cry on if he needed one, to protect him; being useful as a friend to him was the only objective in his mind, in the beginning at least. It was easy, after some while, to delude himself into believing the way he felt his heart bouncing and dancing out of his chest to be just a sign of a really strong platonic, friendly bond.

If he was a machine, he would understand the logical thing to do was to tell his heart to still itself and forget about it. And if he was a machine, that might’ve worked. But Iida was, despite all appearances, just a regular man underneath it all. A regular person who felt emotions like all others. And people—they fail, they go against the own beliefs of their brains, the logical solutions, to follow the callings of their hearts. So it wasn’t like the concept of being romantically involved with his very close friend was a new concept in his mind. Specially when your very close friend is someone not only as talented and powerful, but as attractive as Shouto is.

The acknowledgment that it was only natural to feel strongly about him didn’t stop the shame that followed once he hit the realization a few years back.

Because the Shouto he had gotten close to, the one who opened the door of his heart to him all of those years ago, didn’t need a boy crush or romantic partner right now. Didn’t need the only person who he allows in his space during a time of grief to blurt out sudden love confessions or handwritten letters, it would only end up adding more stress to an already broken young man.

Shouto only needed a friend, so he promised and swore that he wouldn’t allow himself —even if for a second— to think of him in any other way.

And he had convinced himself that, no matter what, things would stay that way. Forever. That he could, maybe in his last days on earth, give a deathbed confession on how he always loved his best friend and how he couldn’t make it work because he cared too much or something like that. Leaving his future children or inheritors with the knowledge that his heart always belonged to someone else before parting, the secret only between them and not dying in his grave. He’s made a plan out of it, as twisted as it may sound.

Until tonight came along and rattled a very forbidden chamber in his mind, and everything was new. And he is now painfully aware of how the line between friendship and something else had been blurred beyond repair.

He looks at his blurry reflection in the mirror, as he had taken off his glasses in his distress, and he can still notice how his pupils look wide and his hair was a mess and his blush kept going down all the way to his body. He did not want anybody to look at him being such a wreck.

“What’s wrong with you?” he whispers at himself, and he feels how his voice catches inside his throat a little.

He puts his glasses back on, sighing. Shouto must be so uncomfortable all alone, and i’m here acting like this, he thinks as he gives himself a non painful slap in the face, as if to wake himself up.

He tries his best to not think much about the situation, to bring his mind to how things used to be before. But then again, how even were things before, if it all resulted in this way….? He sighs. If he does not have to acknowledge the possibility of Shouto liking him back, then maybe they could stay forever in the weird uncertainty that was familiar to him, too scared of how change could affect what they had. And what they had was precious to him.

But even then, he couldn’t help himself from wondering: why would Shouto say that? He feels the subsiding blush turn on all over again and surely all his blood must be going to his face now. He covers his face, rubbing one eye under his glasses in an attempt to refocus.

Shouto was a handsome guy and even if he was visually impaired, he was not blind enough to pretend that he wasn’t one of the most gorgeous men he’s gazed upon. It was okay to admit that, he convinced himself, it does not necessarily mean he has some sort of attraction or anything... He’s always looked good, and as time goes on he just keeps aging better and better; a fact he’s painfully and awkwardly aware of. His frame was bulkier now that he was getting a good enough nutrition and rest to actually build a good amount of muscle, and his face was calm and serene, and his eyes looked less sad each passing day and he’s giving the occasional smile that could bring almost anyone to their knees.

But Shouto was Shouto. And he was himself, and he’s already resigned to the idea of there not being any possibility of anything between them for as long as they both live. If anything was prone to happen between them, it would’ve happened already, right? They’ve known each other for years. There was just no way for Shouto to just wake up one day and decide he wanted this, wanted him, all of a sudden?

Or was he misunderstanding it all, was this one of those situations where he would go back out into the party and Shouto would smile at him —something he did a lot lately, bringing chills to his spine in a good way— and tell him ‘hey, it was all a joke’ and he would have to pretend to be fine with that?

No. Shouto was smart, he liked a good and well crafted joke—when he understood them, his general culture being sparse— and laughed under his breath a lot when something was humorous. But this is not what Iida would describe as a joke or playful, specially with how well he knew the other man and the actual jokes and pranks he pulled off.

This was flirting. He was being flirted at. He groans and, before he can spend a couple more minutes talking himself out of the delusion of them together, he hears a knock on the door bringing him down to earth.

Oh, right. He is in a public bathroom. And there was other people outside. Oops.

He slips outside and gives his apologies to the line that had formed while he despaired over his lack of confidence, and goes to find Shouto. It was easy, he finds, because he can see him actually talking with other people at the party, exchanging some words with other heroes.

As he sees him from the distance, actually smiling and looking serene at the act of conversation for the first time in probably a few months, he feels his heart swell with pride.

He allows himself to loses his attention in his smile for a couple of moments, until he felt calmed enough to approach him again.

As he approaches him, he scratches the back of his neck, looking apologetic. “Hey… I’m back! Sorry i took too long!”

Shouto was in the middle of a drink, he probably took another glass for himself, he assumes, and looks slightly happier at the sound of his voice alone.

Shouto redirects his eyes at him, his conversations with other people over now, as he nodded slowly at Iida to show his understanding. “It’s okay. I actually talked to some other people on here while waiting for you…”

“You did?” He tries his best to pretend that the news shocked him, even when he had been looking at him while conversing for a while. He was proud all the same anyways, so he adds: “Shouto, I’m so proud of you!”

Shouto, of all reactions he could’ve expected from him, giggled in response.

Loud, unusual, probably caused by the bit of alcohol currently traveling through his system. One primordial thing he’s learned about Shouto: He was not a giggler, he would laugh quietly, giving little ‘hahaha’s when a situation earned it. Or giving a small smile or smirk when something funny happened. Recently, there had been hints of a giggle. But actual giggling laughter, of such an adorable and sweet style, was unexpected.

And yet he was giggling, his face not showing any big sign of being actually that drunk at all. And he looked way too beautiful. Iida tries to look away, feeling like he shouldn’t be seeing him like this. It’s too intimate, he thinks, to watch a man who doesn’t laugh much while he’s laughing in this way. And he also can’t stand the way his heart shakes at the sight of him happy. Darn it. 

Once his giggling subsides, he notices how Shouto leans closer so he can hear him speak over the music.

“Thank you…” is all he says into his ear, his voice soft as another giggle escapes his mouth, his mouth so close to Iida’s ears that he feels the melodies of his laughter dance in his eardrum.

He looks at Shouto up and down instead of focusing on his laugh, strong and adorable and heartwarming. He looks amazing always, so it wasn’t a surprise he looked good now.

Wearing the white suit he had picked for him, his hair freshly cut and well styled and the smallest hint of his sweet cologne which was now perceptible to his nose was a combination so devastatingly attractive that he felt himself a bit dizzy and overwhelmed all over again. 

As Tenya feels his heart skip a beat, or maybe several of them, he tries to loosen his collar a bit while asking: “Are you… drunk, Shouto?”

“I already told you I’m not….” He frowns a bit, but then relaxes his features to release a sigh. “But, well, I don’t usually drink so who knows? I may be tipsy. Just a tiny bit.”

“Oh” Tenya feels his heart sink, the entire night making sense now. “Yeah, I figured” he smiles at him a bit, forcing a genuineness that was easily getting crumbled by the feeling of dejection that overtook him.

Because of course Shouto was drunk, that would easily explain away his behavior the entire night. There was no other explanation he could think of, this was it. He should feel relaxed really, at peace with the consolation that all this time he had been freaking out over something the other man had said while not being fully aware or conscious. But it only made the hurt worse.

Had anything he’s said tonight been truthful at all? He’s not aware of Shouto’s tendencies when drunk, so it’s easier for his brain to take the realistic —although kinda pessimistic— approach. He did not like him. He was making a big deal out of nothing and tomorrow it will all go back to being how it used to be.

He blinks rather strongly, fighting the prickling in his eyes that threaten to make him embarrass himself further. As if him being under the impression that Shouto could love him wasn’t humiliating enough, now he felt defeated in front of the man he’s supposed to guard.

He then feels somebody putting a hand on his shoulder, just before he can spiral any further. Then the hand moves up to cradle the side of his face. 

He snaps back to reality, and it’s Shouto in front of him, his eyes a little worried and questioning. Whatever he saw in his face seems to have sobered him up now. His thumb brushed against Tenya’s face gently. 

“You okay? You did anything to your face while in the bathroom…? It’s wet. Or are you just sweating?” He kept going on and on with questions, worry barely hidden. His palm touches his forehead to check for a fever and he had to fight the instinct to shudder and shake under his touch. 

There were lots of people here, but Shouto’s attention was solely on him. For someone with such big social anxiety to be so uncaring towards their surroundings was a big step for sure, but he couldn’t help but feel shy because this situation was not a part of his plan. 

“No, I’m okay!” Tenya interrupted his line of questioning, his face getting flushed all over again. He sighs, taking a moment to catch his breath under the other man’s worried gaze. He doesn’t dare himself to look at his eyes, knowing all too well they were already fixated on him was enough for him to shudder. “I promise! It’s just water on my face. Not sweat. Never that. I’m not even hot right now!”

As Tenya lets out a nervous chuckle, Shoto nods. Whether he believed him or not was unclear, but he added almost in a whisper:

“You’re always hot, though”

They both freeze and stare at each other, bewildered and a little confused, as if a third person in the room had said that and not the shorter man in front of him. After a few seconds, Shouto laughs softly, realizing Tenya actually heard what he just said and, probably, finding some comedy in it. Iida chuckles too, although nervously, but then looks down at him.

“You… really mean that?” He asks carefully, and tries his best to pretend nonchalance. If he acted like any answer he could give wouldn’t hurt him everything should be easier, right? “Or is the alcohol taking control? Speaking of, I should really take you home, you’ll regret this tomorrow probably”

“I mean it, truly. Hey, you know you can ask me anything and I’ll say the truth. I’m quite honest, aren’t I?” Shouto shrugged, but his cheeks looked too red for how casual he intended to play things out. Well, Iida did notice how one cheek blushes more than the other—it’s a new addition to the mental list he’s made on things about Shouto that were endearing to him. 

It was so cute… He had to shake his head slightly to regain focus on Shouto, who continued to add: 

“Im not that drunk, at all,” he continues, and Iida somehow believes him, “but also I don’t need alcohol to tell you that you’re hot, in the first place. Just didn’t expect to confess it like that, and out loud, i guess…”

Tenya blushes a bit, clearing his throat. So had his attractiveness—hotness, more specifically—been a frequent enough thought festering on Shouto’s mind? How is somebody expected to function normally while being aware of that?

“Okay, let’s say I believe you… “ he ignores the way Shouto’s piercing eyes looked at him as he talked, just like they’ve been doing all night, “If so… Then, did you also mean… What you said earlier tonight…?”

Shouto arched a brow, like he was trying to think of what exactly he said before Tenya escaped to the bathroom.

“Oh,” he gasps while remembering and then smiles way too casually, “What, about us dating?”

He was unaware if his voice was a bit loud or not, but Tenya was quick to shush him as if it was while his face grew red. Shouto smirks at his reaction, finding it adorable. As if anybody who didn’t have super hearing could properly listen to their conversation right now, with the music and outside convos as loud as they were. 

Tenya nodded, after taking a few seconds to recompose himself. “Yeah, about us dating…“ He whispered the last word like it was a curse word or something forbidden, Shouto had to stifle a laugh. 

“Just wanted to clear things up, so…” he played with his tie as he continued talking, his gaze averted. “Did you mean that? It’s okay if you didn’t, if it’s a joke i mean, but it just took me by surprise” he fidgeted more, his fingers unquestionably twitching and looking the other way as he spoke.

“Oh, sorry if I scared or surprised you.” Shouto’s eyes on him remained sincere. 

“But, no” he adds simply, a small smile on his face. “It’s not a joke, I promise that. But anyway, I didn’t intend to pressure you into anything by saying that I would be a good boyfriend or anything…” Shouto shrugs. “So I apologize. It’s okay, you can take it as a joke if you please”

And then, if Tenya’s eyes weren’t deceiving him, Shouto winked at him.

He was throwing the ball at Iida’s court now, that was how Shouto saw it. And if Iida wanted it to be a joke, so it was. But if he didn’t, just in case, he actually means anything he says one hundred percent.

And a part of Tenya, subconsciously, was all too aware of it. If he believed it to be truth, which he did, then Shouto had revealed he has interest —of the romantic type— in him. And whatever step they took next relied on him alone. 

He was letting him make the first step, which in any other situation would be ideal since it’s what he’s used to. But the idea of trying to make a conscious and bold move on Shouto, his Shouto—with whom all contact of a romantic sense had been things he did unconsciously—, was absolutely mortifying. 
 

But before Tenya can actually formulate a smart enough response to that, Shouto taps his shoulder, yawning a bit. 

“It’s late, yeah? How about you take me home like you promised earlier?” 

His entire demeanor was casual, and Iida couldn’t comprehend if it was due to his usual personality, him being tired or the alcohol. It was almost as if he hadn’t just irreparably shifted Iida’s entire worldview. He truly was a wonder of a man.

Tenya nods a timid yes, and complies to take the younger man to his place so he can rest. And so his mind can take a few moments to relax and get used to this new revelation.

Tenya looked at the ceiling in his room, as he struggled to take some deep breaths to calm himself enough to sleep soundly.

How was he supposed to sleep now? He looks over to his side, to his bedside clock. It was later than the time he usually went to sleep at, and yet he still did not have the slightest of sleep present in his body.

He takes his glasses from his bedside table and puts them on, to then check his phone for a moment. Maybe it would tire him out enough for him to sleep a bit. He scrolls on his phone, looking at the news and other stuff, until his eyes stop at a semi-recent notification. He clicks on it to find out it’s a couple new messages from Shouto, from a couple hours ago now.

The first message included a picture of Shouto, a selfie of him looking calm but with the hint of a smile in the corners of his mouth and a part of Iida’s face and body in the corner of the photo, looking some other way. Probably took it while Iida wasn’t paying attention.

And then below that picture was another one, this time Shouto was in his own house laying on what seemed to be his bed. The suit had been replaced by what seemed to be a very big, cozier shirt. His hair was messy and he held a piece sign up for the selfie, his eyes looked tired and he was smiling. The sleepiness was so visible in his face.

“Aww” Tenya found himself saying out loud. He then looked at his surroundings, suddenly ashamed at seeing the innocent picture like it was something of a more mature tone.

And after the pictures, there was a follow up text reading: “Had fun tonight. Thanks to you. Sleep well, Iida”

Iida has to actively frown to try and force out the smile that was creeping into his face, his cheeks getting pink at the idea of Shouto texting him goodnight like partners did. Actual romantic partners and not just heroic partners. And truthfully that simple is something they used to do regularly whenever they would hang out together, to confirm if the other one had fun and promise to see each other again before saying their good nights, but knowing that the other man was attracted to him made anything that seemed platonic to him a couple days ago suddenly look romantic and cute. 

And he is not handling it as well as he wishes.

He starts typing a reply, very cordially: “Glad you had fun! Very proud of your progress today!! And you’re welcome, hope you have a good night’s sleep too” but he feels that it’s all too formal and robotic. 

A voice inside his head whispers to him that being formal in this way would just send Shouto the idea that he wanted their relationship to remain platonic or professional. Which would be ideal, sure, but he can’t lie to himself. A part of him is too intrigued by the idea of dating his friend and he cannot really fight against his own brains’ inner desires. Not anymore, at least.

He gathers all the bravado he can force out of himself and adds as a follow up: “If you’re dreaming about me, hope the dreams are good!” with a heart-shaped emoji. He then throws his phone on the bed far away from him and cover his blushing face with his hands almost immediately after hitting send. 

He feels embarrassed, kind of, that something so plain as their usual routine seems couple-like now, but he can’t help but attempt to flirt back now that things had gotten to this point. He feels like he’s experiencing puppy love, like a high school or middle school kid texting their crush for the very first time. But he’s grown now, so he does not find it as adorable or acceptable. His stomach twists as he blushes more. But not in a disagreeing or disgusting way.

Do I have butterflies in my stomach?

He sighs tiredly and picks up his phone again and, before going against his best judgment, makes a call to someone else on his contact list. He hears the phone ring once, then twice, before it’s picked up.

“Hello? Tenya?” He hears the soft but slightly groggy voice of Ochako. She must’ve been asleep a few seconds before, he’s even surprised she picked up such an unannoced and ill timed call. “Is something wrong? You are never awake this late..”

Tenya takes a deep breath and after a few seconds of silence on his end, finally gathers his thoughts enough to blurt out:

“I think Shouto is in love with me”

He hears shuffling on the other side, and he’s unsure whether Ochako is just fixing herself upright or if she’s actually fallen off her bed.

She stumbles over her words a little, speechless but then laughs softly. “Iida, do i have your permission to add someone else to this call?”

Iida arches a brow, confused by the question but makes a little positive noise to indicate his approval.

“Tenya? Ochako? What’s the occasion?” The brunette had called Izuku who, just like her before, sounds sleepy and a bit tired.

Ochako tries her best at keeping a normal and calm tone while saying: “Tenya, I want you to say what you just said to me again”

Tenya, feeling a little too shy now about the whole ordeal since he had more of an audience, sighs to himself and then repeats himself. 

“I think Shouto is in love with me…”

Before he can add any other explanation, he hears Izuku cough his lungs out on the other side for a few moments to then immediately start laughing, Ochako then joined him in the laughter. Tenya frowns a little, did they have an inside joke he was not aware of?

“Guys. I don’t really find the humor in this…”

“I’m so, so sorry” he hears Ochako say, her laugh subsiding a little but she was still fighting giggles as she spoke. “It’s just we never thought either of you would get to this point”

Izuku laughs at that, and Iida shushes him a little, still not finding the humor in his stress.

“To this point…? You guys thought i would never notice or be aware of it?” He hears a positive hum on the other side which prompts him to add, in surprise. “Wait, does this mean you guys knew?!”

“I mean…” Ochako sighs on the other end of the line, “You’re, like, the very last person to find out, dude”

“That doesn’t even make any sense…” Tenya rubs on his nose bridge, suddenly exasperated. “It wasn’t even noticeable”

“It’s pretty obvious, Iida….” Izuku adds.

“Is it?! Since when?” Iida doesn’t think he’s ever been as confused. “I really can’t believe that I could’ve miss that many signs… This has taken me by surprise tonight”

“Tonight…?” Ochako sounded way less drowsy now, her curiosity awakening her.

“What happened tonight?” Asked Izuku, almost as noisy and curious as the brunette.

Tenya took a deep breath and he narrated the events of that night to the best of his ability, his speech stuttering and his face flushing. How Shouto had been so upfront with him, how it had prompted him to hide in a bathroom, the way Shouto looked at him, the pet names, how his voice sounded tonight…..

“Woah, that’s… that’s bold, yeah” was all Ochako said once he was done narrating the recollection of the events.

“Do you think he likes me or am I just… overreacting?”

Izuku hums. “Well, maybe…? But to be honest, I think it’s unimportant. You really should just ask yourself if you like him too”

Ochako made a little approving sound before adding: “We’ve always thought you liked him, after all. So the fact he took the first step is a little surprising to us too!”

“I see” Tenya sighs and then as he hears giggles, he reacts to defend himself, “and I do not like him, by the way! I see what you’re implying, alright? It’s not how you think it is”

“Sure….” Ochako teases him, but then continues, “but let’s pretend that you do. He’s throwing the ball at your court, waiting for you to initiate things if you want to. Are you going to take that step?”

Tenya groans, sliding his hand across his face and resting it on his hair in a sign of exasperation and tiredness. “I… I don’t know really. Is it even okay, for me to do something like that?”

“Well, he’s pretty much given you permission to do it in his own way… if you do something odd, you already know Shouto will call you out on it.” Izuku says, his voice sounding like he was thinking too hard into it just like him. “But there’s no way for us to know what he’s thinking, so I feel it’s a matter of whether you like him”

Ochako hums in approval, her voice cheerful as always. “Yeah! It’s usually hard, but if you’re this worked up about it…. then maybe you’re the one who’s, you know…”

Tenya fixes his mouth to try and reply defensively, or convince both of them that that’s not the case but he stumbles over his own words and is unable to utter anything that makes sense. He resorts to staying silent.

“Do you like him, Iida?” Izuku asks, his voice soft like he was trying not to scare him, as he breaks the silence. “We may joke around! But we won’t judge you if you do…”

Ochako makes an approving noise at that and Iida breaks. He’s bursting into tears before he’s even able to stop himself from doing it. And he’s ashamed at how relieved those words make him. He somehow feels like a pile of bricks just got picked up from above his back, and it was overwhelming in a now positive way. 

“I think I do…” he whispers, his voice too weak that it could barely be heard. He feels his eyes tearing up.

He expects a laugh, or some mocking and friendly teasing but his friends probably pick up on his mood and just hum. Ochako says in an almost whisper-like voice: “It’s okay, you’re allowed to like him”

“Yeah, you are both two grown adults! There’s no shame in that… And no laws prohibiting that, last I’ve checked!” Izuku jokes around as he tries to soften the tension. 

“I think I’ve liked him since high school, but I just… couldn’t afford to even think about it too much, and then the war happened and it was not the best time and…” He feels his cheeks getting wetter and he clears his throat, as one hand wipes alway his own tears from his face. He tries his best to collect himself and his thoughts. “Were you guys… aware? That I’ve liked him all this time?”

He hears silence on the other side and feels it become a little uncomfortable before Izuku sighs and confesses: “Yes, but it’s not our place to tell you, or to tell him”

“These are some of the things you got to figure out yourself” Ochako adds, “and since it’s been a few years we thought you’d probably outgrow it with time…”

”Rookie mistake, really!”

Tenya chuckles dryly, finding a bit of humor in his situation for probably the first time this evening. “It’s alright, it’d probably would’ve been worse if I knew you guys were aware of it back then…” he sighs, “Thank you, guys. I’m sorry i called you this late for something like this…”

“It’s okay, really” he hears Izuku’s voice, genuine and cheery.

“Yeah, it’s no biggie! I just figured you couldn’t sleep or something, and it’s good to hear from you every once in a while.”

“Thanks to the both of you.” He says sincerely, but then remembers what time is it. “You guys should really go to bed, but… I appreciated talking. I’ll let you know if anything happens”

“You better!” Ochako says, as she laughs. “And be happy, alright? Being in love should bring you joy”

“No crying!” adds Izuku with a voice just as cheery. 

Tenya chuckles a bit under his breath, and cleans his face as well as he can as he hums positively. “Hm. I’ll try… Thanks. Have a nice night, guys!”

And as Tenya hangs up the line to clean his face from tears and try to get some sleep finally. Ochako and Izuku remain in the line and they both laugh.

“See? I told you that plan would lead to this!” She giggles, Izuku laughs under his breath.

“I had no idea this would be the result when I suggested it! It’s not like it’s all my fault, it would eventually happen anyway!” he sighs, “Goodnight, Ochako…”

“Good night, Izuku! Your plans are the best!” She giggles as Izuku groans tiredly and hangs up on her.

Meanwhile Tenya feels relief wash over him, his shoulders releasing tension he didn’t know they were holding as he finally feels drowsiness overcome him as he succumbs to a peaceful rest. 

The only evidence of his crazed flirty text, and the breakdown it ensued, was a reply next morning from Shouto:

”Good morning, Iida.”

”Hope you slept well.”

”I did”

”Because I’m always dreaming about you”

Tenya thought, as he read it first thing in the morning, how easily he could get used to that. 

Shouto wakes up early in the morning. He puts on some clothes, enough to disguise his appearance a bit. He knows what day it is; and just a few years before at this time of the year, he would’ve been eyeing his calendar for the entire month just dreading the moment that day would come back around. But now he’s oddly calm about it. Used to it, really. So he goes to the closest store and picks up some flowers. 

It was Touya’s death anniversary.

He had made it an habit to pick the same flowers, the only ones he knew his brother didn’t dislike, at least openly. He’d bring any other kind and Touya would look at him in anger, almost complaining in silence. But the one time he had brought this type of flower, he’d stay quiet and look at him. There wouldn’t be anger in his eyes if just for a second, his eyes too focused on the delicate plant the boy had brought him instead of his existence. His indifference was better than his hateful gaze, so he would regularly make sure to always bring him this same kind of flower to see the frown on his face disappear even if just for a moment.

And when he died and the first anniversary date for it came around, it was maybe one of the hardest days of his life. Other than the day he died, probably. He was too scared to even step foot into the cemetery, he felt his presence there would be unwanted, that it would disturb him in his death even further than his existence had pained him when he was alive. 

It was Iida’s suggestion back at the time that made him design a plan he was semi-okay with: he would pick up some flowers along with Iida, he would talk and pray at his tomb and then Iida would pray too.

“Please, Touya” he would say each and every time, still in a pose of reverence and his voice loud enough for Shouto to hear him too. “Forgive Shouto and accept his present and good wishes. Thank you”

And yeah, although it was silly that they still did it to this day, he’s come around to find solace in it. To believe that Iida’s blessing was necessary for his to go through and reach his brother. It delighted him, and back in the day, when he felt so much guilt that it debilitated him, those words had made him feel better about the entire situation he was thrust upon. 

And no matter how many years go on, the pain is still strong. The guilt of it all remains, but he decided that if nobody was going to honor him in any sort of way then he will continue this little tradition. 

So every time the calendar gets to that certain date, he finds himself here, usually with Tenya accompanying him. Talking about his life to his brother’s tombstone, which he knows is in some way a waste of time. But talking to him while he alive also was, and yet he did it. So he’s unable to stop his own stubborn heart for doing this one thing for him. His brother hated him and even if the feelings were able to subside before he was gone completely Touya still disliked him, of that he was aware, and given his brother’s circumstances he’s sure he would hate himself too.  

But nobody else would do it if he didn’t take the step; Natsuo had accompanied him some times and he and even Fuyumi had even come to visit the gravestone on their own time, but his siblings both had families of their own now to focus on. So the only one keeping the tradition to come on the exact date alive was him. Because Touya was his family, after all. And family has hurt them both, in a way; Touya was family that he had hurt himself by the mere fact of being alive.

But he’s at a point in his life where he’s made amends with himself. His brother made his choices, he should make his decisions too. And he chooses to celebrate his life, his existence by remembering his death, taking into his own hands the effort to clean his gravestone and take care of it. 

And even then, there was a bittersweet feeling that remained in the simple fact that he would grow older and older, and then come talk to Touya’s grave about the things his brother missed. So sometimes, he would just state random facts about himself. He would say his favorite food, favorite color, talk about his most liked series; it was healing in some weird way to allow himself to let his older brother get to know him even if he wasn’t aware of it. 

Shouto puts the flowers down and crouches in front of the tomb, he closes his eyes and for a second imagines how life could be like for them together—if they were allowed to be normal kids, and Shouto were to be allowed to let people into his heart in the most vulnerable years of his development. He smiles even as he feels the tears prickling his eyes. 

“Hey. I’m here alone this year”, he says aloud to himself, but talking to his brother. He wipes a tear but another one follows after so he takes a deep breath. “I hope you’re someplace where you can finally be happy, Touya… I think you deserve it more than anyone. I am very, very sorry”

He feels the urge to start crying in front of the grave, but he’s made a promise to never cry about his guilt in front of him while he was alive. Even when he was insulted or told to leave, or when his brother could no longer speak so he’d give him stares full of disdain. So he’d definitely avoid engaging in self pitying when in front of his grave, too. 

He stands up to leave, and then feels a hand on his shoulder. He jolts back as he looks behind him, quickly getting into a defensive stance. 

“Hey, calm down… It’s just me” is what he hears as he fixes his gaze, his eyes still fighting tears that made his vision cloudy to stare at Tenya standing in front of him. 

“I brought him flowers too” says Tenya plainly, his demeanor shy but still giving off the calming presence that he knew Shouto needed. 

“You actually came…”, and Shouto smiled at him, his eyes looking relieved in an instant.

“Of course I did, I always do.” His voice sounds a little confused, like he’s not sure why Shouto is surprised by his presence or even asking the question. He puts down his flowers, “I made a promise to you, didn’t I?” 

He crouched down lightly, and recited a quiet prayer before adding out loud, in a calm but strong enough voice for him to listen: 

“Touya, please take Shouto’s blessings and wishes too, as you would mine. Forgive any inconvenience. Thank you” he smiled politely. 

As he goes to stand up on his feet again, he finds himself almost losing his balance; he’s suddenly ambushed, Shouto jumping into his arms and hugging him tight. He freezes for a bit. 

Shouto holds him, his feet lightly off the ground as tears of both relief and joy keep falling freely from his eyes and then onto Iida’s shirt. He didn’t really mind, all things considered. Once the shock of Shouto holding him wears off, he does his best effort to calm his shaking hands enough and reciprocate, wrapping his arms around him. 

“Thank you.” Spoke Shouto through the tears. “I thought you wouldn’t be here this time, thought you must be uncomfortable around me… I’m so sorry”

Tenya feels his heart sink at the words, and does his best effort to hold Shouto closer to him. He did not do well when receiving hugs, and Shouto was not someone who’d give them often. So the situation was unusual, but many things were lately so…

“Don’t apologize, I could never be uncomfortable around you.” He says immediately as he plays with Shouto’s hair, keeping him close. “It’s okay, I am here for you”

Shouto smiles a little and hums positively against him. They remain there for a couple of moments, Tenya refuses to let himself be the first one to pull away from any hug when it came to Shouto. Specially when he needed them, in times similar to whenever this date came around. He feels the shorter man relax against him and then after a while, Shouto pulls away a little as he releases from the hug. 

“Thank you” and before pulling away entirely, Shouto leaves a little quick, bold kiss on Tenya’s cheek. Tenya freezes all over again, his body stiff. 

He feels his face heat up and his skin prickle under the place where his mouth just pressed upon, his nerves building up again. 

And Tenya looks down at Shouto’s face, his appearance was disheveled and his eyes remained honest, engulfed in tears but so happy to see him, so glad that he is simply there. He is not sure if anyone has ever directed such a pair of eyes on him, not to this level. Shouto gave him a big smile, and Iida found himself lost into his eyes and his smile, his heart beating out of his chest. 

He never wanted to see Shouto cry, that was something he had learned very early on. Shouto didn’t allow himself to cry in this way in front of anyone, but when he did Iida had to fight back tears sometimes to not join him in his mourning. He doesn’t think the day where he says he hates anything about Shouto’s face will ever come, but he hates seeing him sad. He hates the way his heart twists just by staring at his eyes when he’s sad, how the sound of his sobbing —seared into his mind at this point— made him feel so upset and inadequate at protecting him, at keeping him happy… 

He wanted to make sure Shouto would remain just the way he looked now, his eyes loving and his smile big as he held onto him. He wants to stare at that smile forever, if Shouto would allow him to stare at it. If Shouto would bless him with the privilege of having it be directed at him? Even better. He wants and wishes, above it all, to stay by his side whenever Shouto felt like he was about to crumble, just to pick him up all over again. He would do it a hundred times over if necessary, gladly.

He wants him. He wants Shouto Todoroki. 

He likes him, he’s aware; he wouldn’t be his friend otherwise. But he not only likes Shouto. He finds himself reaching the climax of the revelation he had forbid himself from so many years ago: He is in love. He loves Shouto. Oh…
 

Tenya knew it, in some subconscious way, but he was certain now of it: he has loved and will continue to love Shouto and there was nothing he could do to convince his mind of not doing it. 

He sighs somewhat happily in response to the kiss, and Shouto arches a brow at him, confused but still somewhat shy. He stands beside Shouto and crawls an arm across his shoulders, looking down at him slightly. 

”Hey. Lemme take you home, yeah?”

Shouto eyes—that gazed at him somewhat anxious, waiting for his reaction— lit up in an instant as the bicolor haired man looked up at him and nodded. 

“I would love to…” he says calmly, his face flushed in that adorable way that Tenya had yet to grow accustomed to. He leans in into his arm that’s wrapped around him, his head into Tenya’s chest. 

And then Shouto gives him that smile again and he has to fight the urge to buckle over his own weight and fall to his knees, he walks awkwardly to his car with Shouto by his side. 

He could get used to it. To this, the intimacy of it all. Given enough time and practice he could learn to control his nerves enough to enjoy peace and quiet and loving moments like these with him as often as they wanted.

And Shouto, well, he was happy to comply in giving him both: all the time he needed and all the affection he could ever want. 

Chapter Text

The ride to Shouto’s house after that was quiet. 

Like a funeral.

Heh. Shouto would’ve actually made that joke out loud if not for the fact that he’s unsure if it would be in good taste considering the situation they had just walked away from… even if he knew Tenya would most likely fake annoyance at his lack of carefulness while stifling a laugh. 

It was a good kind of quiet, though. As they both sat down one in front of the other inside the ride Tenya had called for them, a part of Shouto wondered about the other man’s intentions. It was silly perhaps, but he couldn’t shake the doubt out of his mind, the never ending question on whether the other man felt the same way about him or if he was just… doing his due diligence, keeping up with their routines and habits normally while keeping things platonic between them.

It would be fine if he wanted to be platonic, Shouto tried to convince himself. They are good at being friends, and they would figure out a way to get over the initial embarrassment of Shouto having the biggest crush on him. But would Shouto himself get over his feelings anytime soon? He stares at Tenya across from him, the man smiles wide at him.

Screw it. Being friends? Unlikely… 

To be completely honest, he is lying to himself. He does not want to be his friend, not anymore, not exclusively his friend at the very least. After having taken a single moment tasting the idea of Tenya returning his feelings in the back of his mind, he had acquired quite a taste for it. And he allowed himself the opportunity of being a bit delusional in an effort to keep himself sane, because there was a small, wishful sliver of hope that dreamed of the idea that maybe Tenya was just taking his time processing it all. Thinking of a perfect answer, or a perfect rejection, like he always did. 

The thought of being in Tenya’s brain while he scrambled for a response and making him as nervous as he’s been lately around him, with Tenya usually being such a collected man, was actually embarrassingly sweet to him.

“So…” Shouto spoke, breaking the silence between them. “How are things going, like, at work?”

“Hm?” Tenya turned his head to him to give him his attention. He sounded surprised to see Shouto was the one trying to initiate the conversation himself, he nodded. “Well, I am glad that you asked, let me tell you…” 

After a few moments of pondering, Tenya made his effort to fill in the silence with a response and allowed himself to talk about how he has opened the doors for his new hero agency. It was a relatively new thing, and he still had time to spend with Shouto in his time off, but he was pretty proud of it and Shouto could sense it in the way he rambled about it. 

And Lords, did he love hearing him ramble. Almost as much as Tenya himself loved the act. Tenya didn’t really mind if Shouto didn’t reply audibly, being the quiet man he was, as long as he had his undisturbed attention —which he did, dual colored eyes always fixated on him—, he would talk and joke to himself while Shouto would stare at him, doing small positive noises and nodding in response. 

Shouto could stare at him all day long, and he could listen to him for way longer so even if he seemed not too into the conversation from an outsiders’ point of view, he was usually having the time of his life. He grants Tenya small laughs whenever he would joke with him, and the other man would smile wider and try and find a better joke to incite more laughter. Shouto, for who knew what reason, loved his jokes. Maybe it’s because he isn’t exactly a funny guy or extremely knowledgeable in comedy, with his reserved upbringing and all, but Tenya’s “corny” was hilarious to him. 

Hell, he found himself laughing at ‘dad jokes’ in the regular. Sometimes because he had never heard of them (it’s not like his dad was much of a jokester…) or because he just found it so incredibly sweet, even if not funny. 

He can remember hanging out in a group and how Ochako’s and Izuku’s voices would keep asking him whether the joke was /really/ that funny, for him who barely laughs out loud to find so much humor. He found an odd sense of pride whenever there would be confused faces around after Tenya makes a corny joke and he’s snorting and covering his mouth. He felt like he was part of an inner joke that only the two of them knew, intimate and sweet. 

The way Tenya would smile at him, bashful and shy, and even sometimes even ask: “Was my joke really that good?”

“Yeah,” is all he would say each and every time. Tenya thanked him for the morale booster, but he could feel the man didn’t one hundred percent believe him or understand why he found him so humorous.

Looking back upon it, Tenya supposes now that he should’ve taken that as a clue into Shouto’s inner feelings about him but it’s all in the past now… 

“It’s very exhausting work, but I’m finding it quite enjoyable! It’s nice meeting new faces…” he heard Tenya still rambling about the agency, and he’s pretty sure he only gathered half of what he said due to his daydreaming.

It didn’t matter if he’s heard Tenya talk about his agency ever since he’s thought of opening it, he always has the urgency to listen to his voice more and more. 

And yet, it felt almost sinful how whenever he rambled in this way, even if he did love to hear him speak about anything and everything, all Shouto could think about was kissing and shutting his lips. How easy it must be.

But alas, he must remain civil. 

“You’ve got a beautiful thing going on there at your agency, by the way” said Shouto in response after a while, as the driver pulled up closer to his house. 

Tenya smiled at him. “Well, thank you! I certainly do try.” He was fidgeting with his fingers a little, Shouto was well aware it was not necessarily nervousness. It was just something he usually did. Only reason it gained his attention was the intensity of the fidgeting. “We got a lot of new recruits in such a short time, it’s exciting!”

Last time he had visited Tenya, his position at his family’s agency was merely a building concept, an empty office in which he was moving furniture inside to make it ‘roomy for future heroes’.

But now it was an actual thing, a building office full of people who responded to Tenya as his leader. And taking Iida’s experience with leadership into consideration, it was hard to be surprised at his idea of mentoring future heroes and working alongside them when he had first shared the idea with some of the classmates. 

“You must be very proud of it” he answered plainly, but noticing how his monotone voice probably made his statement look sarcastic he added: “I would be proud if i were you, I mean.”

“Oh, yeah, don’t worry. I am very much content with the progress! Even if it adds much paperwork.” A small laugh escaped him. “Got lot of young heroes sending their letters lately seeking mentorship. It’s wild considering I’ve only opened doors last year!”

Shouto makes a little approving noise. “Well, that sounds about right… Young heroes want someone like you, someone who’s strong, and smart but also kindhearted...” Shouto listed off with his fingers, trying to knock out of his head his school days when he mentored in his father’s agency. “You know, someone they can rely on if things turn out to be hard for them” 

While talking, Shouto took a quick second to look out the window and admire the views. 

“I think you’re not only a safe choice, but a good and rational one. A perfect one, i might say.” He could feel himself running his mouth in flattery, but he was unable to stop himself. “Both as a hero and in general, as person i think you’re the best help anyone could get. I mean i would choose you, too, in a heartbeat” 

Next thing he knew he heard a small shrieking, almost like a little yelp that would escape from a small frightened animal, somewhat loud and kinda broken and he averted his gaze quickly to find the source of the noise. Afraid that, in his mindless observing of the landscape, someone had sneaked into the car to hurt him. To hurt Tenya, to hurt them.

He quickly dropped his defensive stance, his shoulders dropping and his frown disappearing, as the source of the shrieking became clear: he looked at the man sitting in front of him, his face red up to his ears, who was desperately trying to blow open the closed car door with his mind. 

Oops…? Did that sound come from him?

He hadn’t meant for that last part to sound that way, to sound over complimentary or flirty at all; he was merely being factual. He does believe in everything he says, otherwise he wouldn’t say it. It was embarrassing when he flirted without even meaning to, and because of that a small voice in his head kept repeating that this tendency of him will surely get him into trouble one day. Not today, though, because Tenya didn’t exactly seem mad.

Tenya’s bigger frame—with his strong, masculine presence— being also able to produce such a meek and embarrassed sound brought a little smirk onto Shouto’s face, amused by the sudden discovery. The sound back then replaying in his head over and over to delight himself. Sure, Tenya was full of wonderful little —but somehow, loud— sounds whenever he got too excited or overwhelmed or bashful, but he had truly outdone himself…

The man with glasses chopped the air as his arms moved around, like he was trying to cut the tension away for enough time so he could formulate a response, stumbling over his words. His eyes wandered to the driver in front of the car, to outside while staring at the window then back to Shouto. 

“W-Well! Thank you, Shouto-kun! I am most grateful! That’s such a big compliment coming from someone of the likes of you” and his face was as red as the hair on Shouto’s scalp. He looked at him, an eyebrow arched at the reaction. Why so formal…?

He got reminded of the fact that Tenya sometimes goes overly formal in situations where he’s nervous. Had he scared him out that much? Does he not regularly compliment his friends enough or something? To be fair, he did say openly that he had a crush on Tenya just a few days ago.

And he knew Tenya didn’t do well with changes or getting used to new things. But it seems to him that Tenya is going to need to get comfortable really quickly, because he is not letting go or backing out at this point.

Had his confession of feelings made Tenya afraid of their regular interactions? Or was it because they weren’t exactly alone? He looks at the way Tenya’s eyes travel to his face to the driver’s cabin and Shouto shrugs, before his mind can spiral any further. 

“Anyway… You’re one of the best choices out there, always have been. It’s just the truth” he decides to add. 

They sat in the big vehicle, one in front of the other while their knees crashed a bit into the other’s knees and Shouto, in his amusement, kicks his feet a little to play with Tenya’s legs in front of him. He feels the other man shiver lightly against his touch as he run his foot on the outer edge of his calves playfully; even then, with his face reddening by the second and his lower lip being bitten so hard it would leave a mark, he doesn’t move his legs away; he wonders if he accidentally found Tenya’s weak spot. Another one of them, at least. 

But he notices how Tenya avoids staring at him in his shyness and something about it, for reasons he cannot explain without a mental health professional in the room, made him a little… Possessive almost, but mostly curious.

“Are you okay? Did i do something wrong?” His voice is merely a whisper. He looks into Tenya’s eyes the entire time, because why not, and the other man attempts to returns his gaze in the most bashful way imaginable. “Are you shy because he is here right now? I don’t think he minds at all, so are you okay with it?”

The it in question was left up in the air but the meaning was clear enough between them, it was way more forward than Shouto simply asking him if he’s okay with his touch or general public displays of attention, it carried a question about whether Tenya had sensed the tension or not and if he minded being a part of it with him. If he was okay with things getting a little over the platonic line they’ve been treading on so far every once in a while. If Tenya would allow him to be a little bit shameless when it came to him.

His eyes are big and pleading and out of context they almost look like they’re silently about to beg for Shouto to stop his teasing, but his teeth gnaw on his lower lip like he is trying to find a reply or stop one from coming out. Is he going to say yes, that he doesn’t mind when things got over the limit? Or is he going to reject his advances, but he’s fighting his logical mind and the impulses of his own body? His body who’s being so receptive to Shouto’s attention and touch and words?

Either way he’s denying himself the right to make a sound or actually tell Shouto to get his legs off of him. For a second Shouto almost feels bad as he stares at his face, was this bullying…? No, it couldn’t be. He just liked getting straightforward answers, and it was hard to get them lately from the man in front of him…

He looks away from his eyes to give Tenya some space to breathe and the tension is broken, since his face looked too flushed and his behavior seemed shy. But like, in a new way; in a way that was new to his eyes and that made him a little nervous at the moment. Staring at him while teasing him was also just cruel, after all.

He then cleared his throat lightly before saying in a still quiet but softer voice, only for both of them to hear: “I’m proud of you; and of what you’ve done, Tenya”

Tenya audibly gasps, mouth agape, and he’s unsure if he’s gasping because he let go off his lip in that same moment and he’s only now reacting to the contact and the way their knees clash… or if it’s the fact that Shouto just used his first name so casually.

Shouto was aware he was playing with fire right now, but it will not be his first or last time. He had talked about being his boyfriend just a couple days ago which, sure, prompted the other man to run away from him, but he just found himself praising him every single time without fail in the way he knew Iida couldn’t handle without getting shy.

Shouto spoke in a soft and quiet voice almost every time, but there was a certain softness that —unbeknownst to him— he would only use with Tenya. Iida was apparently more aware of this than him, because he stumbles over his words before speaking in almost whispers. 

“Shouto, just… Stop it, please, you’re making me blush” and coming out of any other face it would come across as a playful comment, but his cheeks were legitimately red and his voice a little shaky, robotic almost. Like he’s struggling to get a word out at all. 

“Well. That’s okay, you handle blushing pretty well.” Shouto says casually, still not looking his way. His own cheeks burning a bit at the concept of getting him so flustered. “It suits you” 

Tenya choked on his own spit for a bit, he coughs loudly as if to fill in the silence with anything other than a reply. He opens the door fast as the car came to a stop, and ushered him outside. “C-Come on, let’s go to your house. Let’s get outside… Okay?”

Shouto stepped outside the car first, Iida followed behind him and stood next to him.

They always made an effort to park a little far away from his actual residence, to help Shouto’s paranoia and give him some privacy in case his nightmare of someone following him home to hurt him came to light someday. Not like Tenya would allow that to happen under his watch. 

He placed one of his big hands on the shorter man’s shoulder the second they got out of the car, his blush subsiding a little bit now. The fresh air finally reaching his lungs and a sensation of relief trumping over his body.

That relief was short lived.

Shouto heard some commotion from the left side of him, and turning to look he could see a little crowd starting to form and make their way to him in fast steps. 

“Shoto!! A word, please! Hey! Ingenium, hi!” They talked over each other, the younger man flinched uncomfortably due to the commotion made by all of them trying to talk at the same time. “Can we get a photo? What’s the occasion today for this casual wear? Ingenium, what brings you over here? Shoto, may we know your opinion on…?” 

He heard his name called out over and over, and he could feel the dedicated training to handle crowds draining out of his body as he, a bit surprisingly, froze in place like a deer in headlights. Just when he thought he had made some progress, now he’s beating himself up mentally— fighting back the shivers down his body and the trembling of his upper lip.

The voices chattered one over the other, loudly and disorderly; he felt himself drowning in them and going into the background of his head: so overwhelmed by the whole ordeal he could barely hear what he was actually being asked in such rapid succession. There was no way that, even on a good, normalday, he could answer with the amount of stimulus entering his brain all at the same time.

He was underdressed, his face was still puffy from crying and his voice a little hoarse, his hair was a mess and he really, really just wanted to get home. He didn’t want to talk with reporters. Not on a day like this. His appearance alone told a story, but what if they ask if something is wrong with him and he just breaks down? He already feels the tears welling up. What if they ask about him?

He was actually trembling now, his vision blurry and his breath getting ragged and heavy; and he felt pathetic. To be surrounded in this way in such a vulnerable day for him was his nightmare in real life, he fumbled with his words and opened and closed his mouth trying to say something, anything, to force some words out, to no avail.

He was so lost in his head now that the only thing that brought him down to earth was the feeling of Tenya’s hand on his shoulder, now tightening his grip just when he started to feel the start of prickly tears on his eyes. He then blocked the crowd’s vision by standing in front of him, trying his best to cover his body with his frame by standing between Shouto and the cameras. Shouto held onto him and hid his face behind his body, trying to calm himself down. 

Tenya cleared his throat loudly. 

“Excuse me” Tenya’s voice had always been loud, and even if he was particularly upset when a loud noise startled him he found a sense of peace hearing his specific tone. Commanding, determined, attention grabbing…

He didn’t even have to scream, the crowd’s attention was now focused on him. And his tone wasn’t exactly friendly. Not angry, but traveling on this weird thin line between sassy and passive aggressive that a normal passerby wouldn’t be able to catch on or associate with him, but Shouto was well aware of it. He had never used that tone near him before.

Having the crowd’s attention, he forced a half smile to the cameras. No teeth, his lips bunched together, his eyebrows furrowed. He may be smiling, but he was anything but happy. Just a diplomatic, rehearsed smile. 

“We…,” he spoke loudly, and Shouto wasn’t even mad that he was speaking for the both of them. It was kind of romantic, in a twisted way. Possessive also. “would prefer not to answer to any question asked, especially taking into consideration that we’re off patrol today.” He made a little gesture that Shouto interpreted as him telling the reporters to cut their cameras, some of them obeyed instantly. “This is deeply unprofessional, by the way.” 

Mumble between the crowd could be heard for a while, their voices low now like a kid who had just been reprimanded by their mother. Or like a teacher who is very disappointed by his class’ behavior. Tenya shook his head in disapproval and adjusted his glasses before continuing: 

“Don’t follow anyone on their day off, heroes or not. That’s shameful and nasty reporting, and I know you guys are all much better than that. Right?” People looked at each other and some looked down at the ground in… shame?The snark was fully palpable on his voice now, yet hidden behind such a thin wall of feigned respect for their craft that he simply could not get in trouble for what he says. 

A few exclamations of “sorry” directed to Shouto could be heard the second he stopped talking, and he didn’t have the time to admire Tenya’s crowd pleasing proficiency because next thing he knows, he turns around to face him and his feet feel themselves being removed from off the ground in a quick swoop. He is disconcerted for a while but soon enough the realization dawns on him once he appreciates how close Tenya’s face is from his: 

He was being bridal carried. In front of people, and he honestly couldn’t bring himself to care. Especially if Tenya himself didn't care. 

“Think of what you’ve done… Have a nice day, or whichever day you deserve. We’re going,” He then lowered his head a little to Shouto’s ear, whispering now so only he could hear:

“Hold on tight, yeah?”

Shouto nodded and as soon as his arms wrapped around Tenya’s frame to support himself, he took off with him in his arms.

He had to close his eyes and keep his head closer to his chest as the speed of the other man kicked. He made his grip tighter onto him to avoid the possibility of falling off his arms. But Tenya hasn’t ever let him fall off his arms, and today wouldn’t be the first time. 

He opens his eyes slowly when he feels the speed of their movements slow down, and he looks around to see that they’re considerably far away from his house. He sees bushes and flowers, and feels a shadow over them so he assumes Iida must have brought them under some tree. Good.

He rests his head on Tenya’s chest and takes a deep breath to center himself for a moment. The warm breeze enters his lungs and he tells himself that he’s okay now, but his body still breaks out into little sobs because of the panic he felt earlier. 

He gives himself the time to cry in silence on his chest, to let out the tears he had been holding back then in his pursuit of not crying in front of cameras or reporters. Iida allows him to do so without any complaint, he doesn’t say a word about it, he just tightens his grip and pulls him closer to him. 

Unsure what to do without letting him go, Tenya presses his forehead against Shouto’s. He opens up his eyes to find Tenya staring at him, a mix of worry and awe and his face dangerously close. He was still in his arms…?

“Shouto, hey… Are you okay…?” The voice of the other man comes off so sweet and worried that it would, in all honesty, bring him down to his knees. If he were standing, that is. 

Shouto doesn’t need a mirror to know that he’s blushing, and he’s probably been blushing since the moment he was taken off the ground. 

“I… Y-Yeah, never been better” is all he replies, his voice catching in his throat a little due to how distracting the warmth of the other man’s body was against him.

He wasn’t going to lie, he was almost in a very uncomfortable situation back there. But now? The trees in the background, the song of birds decorating the scene, the subtle breeze ruffling Tenya’s hair that makes him look, oh, so marvelous, as he holds him in his arms so tenderly, yet so firm; it all just made him feel safe. 

Tenya nods at his response and smiles softly at him and fuck, fuck, fuck, screw this. It’s not alright to have to witness his smile from this distance if he wasn’t going to close the distance and kiss him all romantically. Like the movies. This delinquent with glasses keeps stealing his breath away and he’s too whipped to even beat his ass over it…

“I’m glad that you’re okay. I’m very sorry about what happened, back there…”

“Don’t. Just don’t… Say you’re sorry, i mean” he clarified, dusting some dirt off his clothes. “You don’t have to apologize, it’s not your fault. On the contrary, i have to thank you for what you did back there”

Iida made a little gesture of dismissal with his free hand, shaking his head. “No, no. It’s alright. This is what i signed up to do, isn’t it?”

“Well, yeah but… You didn’t need to carry me though, that’s not really a part of the job description.” He let out a soft laugh.

Tenya froze a bit, he lets go of him, a little too delicately, and Shouto had to fight the instinct to whine or pout at the sudden lack of contact, he steadied himself on the ground anyway with the help of Tenya.

Once Shouto’s steady on his feet, he begins raising his arms in front of him defensively. “Oh my Lords, Shouto… I’m so, so sorry to have carried you like that out of nowhere. And in front of cameras! I should have asked, I shouldn’t have done that without your consent, but i…” 

“Hey, hey” he interrupted the other man’s ramblings by holding his face in his hands. “Look at me, Tenya, I’m okay.” His voice was soft as he cradled his face, his thumbs rubbing his cheeks. “I didn’t mind. And most importantly, I’m safe. You’re the best at this… I’m so glad you were there by my side to protect me.”

The sincere words paired with the soft caresses on his face makes it so Tenya has to look up to fight the urge to tear up, Shouto snorts at this. “I can’t believe it, you’re like a baby.” there isn’t venom in his voice, but a softness into his words. He looks at Iida with sweetness and lets go off his face.

Tenya rolls his eyes a bit, “Lord forbid a guy be sensitive around you!”

”Hey, you know I love you…” He actively feels Tenya flinch at the word, he smirks. “Even if you’re a big baby…”

Iida punches his shoulder. Shouto laughs under his breath and feels Tenya puts his hand on his back. “But really, thank you. I wouldn’t wish to be in a situation like that with anyone else really. It could’ve been so much worse…”

“It’s no big deal”, he concedes as he finally accepts his compliments, a bit bashful. He frowns. “But that stuff back there? Imagine if I wasn’t there! That’s so disrespectful and inhumane, it’s such a stressful situation they almost put you through and…”

He heard the snarky voice from before return, and if Shouto wasn’t being fooled by his ears he actually sounded… a little bit pissed off? 

Normally he feels what Shouto would describe as second hand anxiety—he gets anxious over the thought of Shouto possibly being distressed and would get upset whenever he would hear stories of how bad his situations with crowds have gotten in the past. He supposes it’s getting a bit more under his skin now since he was actually there to see all of it, or maybe he just got overprotective since he knows this was a difficult day for him. Either way, his frown is not abandoning his face.

“Like even if they are not aware that today is a sensitive today for you, that doesn’t make it any better! This should never happen!” He raises his hands up in the air in annoyance. “You looked so… distraught, and they wouldn’t even back off! What if you weren’t feeling alright? What if your psyche was all messed up and they stopped you to ask about the… the… the mother effin rankings?!”

Oh, Tenya was recurring to saying censored curse words… It was getting way too serious all of a sudden.

“Hey,” he tried his best at calming him down a bit, a bit unsure on how to proceed since Iida being mad still is kind of a novelty to him. He placed a hand on his shoulder, nonetheless. “We made it out, that’s what’s important. I am okay. We are both safe and okay now. Right?”

Tenya looked at him for a second and then nodded, taking a deep breath as if to try and cool off his thoughts full of rising anger. 

“Fuck, it’s so annoying…” was all he understood as Tenya mumbled curses under his breath, still bubbling in rage.

It’s not like Tenya doesn’t know curse words, he just rarely uses them and finds them a bit distasteful—he thinks there are better ways to express discomfort or anger. So it really took him by surprise to hear him actually cursing, even to himself. How long has it been since he’s said something like this…? Shouto struggles to remember.

Shouto swears, like a sailor too. And Tenya would reprimand him almost each time. Had his habits rubbed off on the other man? Did he corrupt his morally correct friend? 

He thought his ears were fooling him for a minute but then Tenya looked at him, his flush caused in anger now expanding as he gets a little bashful, “E-Excuse my language…”

”No, it’s alright...” He was a little bit shocked, but he appreciated that the other man was this sincere and open with what he was feeling. “I don’t mind. If anybody asks, you can just tell them I'm a bad influence on you”

Tenya actually snorts a bit at the idea of that.

“Let’s… let’s just go eat something, yeah?” He takes a deep sigh. “My treat, i need to get this off my mind for the moment. Then, I’ll drop you off at your house myself. No drivers or anything like that. I’ll carry you there fast enough to ensure nobody can follows us.” He furrows his brows. “Got it?”

He wouldn’t mind being brought to his house everyday in his arms, but he’d take any chance he can get really. Shouto was about to give a half nod, too lost in his awe of seeing Tenya actually being pissed about something and demonstrating it in front of him but then, Shouto became way too aware of something else entirely.

Tenya’s hand on his back started trailing lower, slowly but surely— his fingers getting under his hoodie, until he stopped to rest his hand on his lower back and caress under the exposed skin with the tips of his fingers. For what reason? It seemed as if to calm himself down with skin to skin contact.

The sensation was anything but calming to Shouto; it left his skin feeling like it had begun to burn underneath the other man’s touch. He just prayed he didn’t literally start flaming the other man’s hand as he walked next to him and nodded in affirmation to his invite at having something to eat with him. 

“Hey, and by the way…” his voice drops a little, and he gets closer and lowers himself to Shouto’s ear to speak directly in it. “I had no problem with that, back at the car but… How about you don’t play like that in front of my driver again…?” Shouto shivered under the warmth of his breath next to his ear combined with his touch on his skin.

“Does that sound alright? Do you understand?”

His tone of voice sounded playful, but there was a ghost of a threat hidden in his voice. The type of voice you’d pull with an acquaintance to let them know passive aggressively that they fucked up. 

Shouto should feel afraid, should… but he really, really doesn’t feel the amount of fear that would be appropriate response to this scenario. His knees feel like they’re about to buckle, sure, but he’s never been less afraid. 

Especially taking into consideration this uncommon nature of Tenya, this possessive and —somehow— sassy and angry side of him that he hasn’t really witnessed since… who knows, maybe Stain? Or some other villain that got under their skins in the past?

Tenya rarely talks to him in this lower tone of voice, if at all, so he doesn’t feel as afraid as much as he’s extremely taken aback; and it’s not just because Tenya isn’t one of the most intimidating guys he knows –which he is– but because deep down, he just figured out that he can’t be afraid of something he kinda likes: and he likes it when Iida borders on violent. Just a little bit, the regular amount.

Curse a man for having niche tastes!

Iida wasn’t exactly an aggressive guy, not openly or often. He was a little twisted sometimes, his crudeness to certain situations he’s unfamiliar with and his popularly known murder attempt and all…, but the sass or threats were never directed at Shouto before.

Shouto hates himself for a bit because of the fact that it sends a very specific type of thrill through his body and now he just wants to, kind of, have something piss him off again. To see if there was any bite underneath the threat. To see his frown, and hear him curse under his breath.

Is this an attempt from Tenya to joke with him or is he really mad? And if so, is he going to beat him up? Insult him? Perhaps, simply punish him? And why does that sound enticing…?

His hand now did little circles in his lower back, and Shouto found himself having to fight the sudden shiver running down his spine, a feeling of relief in the fact that his poker face could perhaps save him from showing the entirety of his now ever rising embarrassment. (Even if he felt the heat traveling up to his face, which he had no control over)

He had to know was he was doing, right? But in the corner of his eye, the other man seemed relatively calm and relaxed about the whole ordeal, as if it was second nature for them to share this much skinship. And maybe it kinda was, when they were younger. But it’s been a while since then.

He forced out in a little whisper, his cheeks heating up: “Sure, I promise I won’t do that again. L-Let’s just go eat something, yeah…?”

Tenya smiles at him, dropping the act instantly and Shouto is now seriously considering suggesting therapy to him because there is just no possible way he was not aware of the reaction he caused on him. Or is he just pretending like he isn’t aware?

He wondered for a second if having nobody around them emboldened Iida enough to act so casual, to cross over the line in ways that he would never expect Tenya to initiate or agree to. He wondered if it was safe to assume he protected him in such a way because theres some level of reciprocity, if he wants him; must importantly, he wonders what must he do to get a chance to witness an overprotective, and maybe angry, Tenya again without having to go through world shattering anxiety.

He makes a mental note to save into the secret, locked folders of his mind how cute he looks when he’s pissed over his safety. Right next to where he makes a mental portrait of his frown and his breathy curses… 

For no reason at all, really!

Once they’re back at his house, Shouto rests on his sofa, the weight and stress of the day finally crashing down on him. He watches how Iida sits down next to him, his eyes considerably less worried than before but still locked onto him.

“Are you okay? Did I make you dizzy by running too fast to your house?” He gets up quickly.” Is there anything I can bring you? Maybe some water… Anything?” 

Shouto smirked a bit at him, he always got overprotective during this time of the year. He would make sure Shouto drank enough water and ate well, because he knew he would cry or focus too much on mourning to remember to get a good meal. And to be honest he had gotten better at keeping up with his health, but Tenya worried about it nonetheless. 

“Im not dizzy, i’m okay, really but…” He nods slowly. “A glass of water would be nice right now.”

Tenya, as if Shouto’s house was his own, guided himself to the kitchen to pour him a glass of water and then bring it in front of him. It was cute to see him go around his house comfortably.

“Thank you…”

“Don’t even mention it!” Iida says as he leaves the mug on the younger man’s hands and returns to his earlier place, sitting down next to him.

“Hey, do you remember the first time you came over to my house?” Shouto reminisces as he takes a sip, a bit dehydrated still from the crying he did before.

Iida nods and blushes a bit at the memory, looking away. “You were so stiff! Sooo proper that you asked if you could get permission to open the fridge right after I told you to get a drink if you wanted.” Shouto rolls his eyes, playfully. “I was like no, take a drink with the fridge closed”

Shouto snorts, ”You thought i was being serious and stared at me like i lost my mind for even suggesting that…” 

Tenya hides his face behind his palms, flushed as he avoids his gaze. “I was nervous, okay?”

”My house is your house, Iida. Why would you be so nervous? It’s not like I was going to eat you…”

Eat him? The word choice makes Tenya squirm in his seat a little bit, he clears his throat.

As he blushes harder, he takes one hand off his face to scratch his arm. ”You know I take things very literal, i didn’t get it was sarcasm… Don’t laugh at my attempts of being polite, okay?” He pouts a bit. “It’s so embarrassing…”

Shouto stares at his pouting face and clicks his tongue, shaking his head no. “Now, don’t say that. Nothing about that was embarrassing to me. I thought it was actually very endearing…” he whispers as he finishes drinking from the cup Iida had brought him, “and your face was quite adorable in that moment, it’s a cute memory”

“Adorable…?” The blush is starting to come full force again so Tenya decides to refocus and takes the empty glass off of his hands to leave it on the table. “You have such a twisted sense of what’s cute and what isn’t…” 

”Hey, we don’t know” Shouto shrugs, casually. “Maybe that’s the side effect trauma has on my brain…”

“That’s… That’s really not funny, Shouto…” and his expression seemed to be trying to come across as uncomfortable but it remained playful, like he was faking a serious expression at him while he was really trying his best to not laugh in case Shouto would find it inappropriate for him to laugh at his expense.

Shouto actually bursts out laughing and kicks his leg lightly at that. He looked so cute when he was acting all uptight and serious in this way. “Shut up, laugh a bit sometime… Look at you, you want to laugh! Admit I’m funny!”

Iida rolls his eyes as he allows himself to chuckle softly alongside him, the sight of Shouto laughing out loud so nice that it was distracting. He liked seeing him laugh in this way, even if he morally did not agree on the jokes being at his own expense. “You’re not funny… I laugh at things that are funny!”

“So I’m a thing now? Iida, wow…” he gasps and covers his mouth, feigning offense. Iida goes on to defend himself, chopping the air in front of him and talking quickly.

“That’s…! That’s not what i meant and you know it!” Shouto tries his best to keep a serious face but he smirks unbeknownst to himself. “You’re laughing at me! I see you smiling!”

“Me?” He feigns ingenuity, but he really didn’t notice he was breaking character. Damn it. “How could i ever laugh at you?” He lies, his tone now overly playful and exaggerated as he leans into it.

“Ugh. Stop it!” 

His blush was deep now, but even as he fought with him, he never showed what could be discomfort or anger. The tone of his voice was too playful to be passed off as fury.

Shouto, even if he was regularly a little flushed while talking to Tenya, still remained calm.

Mostly... Tenya, on the contrary, could not handle being teased or made fun of jokingly without going crimson red and it was one of his most endearing traits. 

“I’m saying the truth! Why would i lie? I never lie!”

Tenya rolls his eyes. “Says the liar…”

Shouto gasps out loud, Iida forgets that he’s mad for a second and actually laughs in his face. Shouto breaks character too, his expression of surprise now looking awfully calm and serene as he stares at Tenya’s face.

He examined the way Iida’s chest bounced when he laughed, his voice, how loud the laughs he could get out of him ended up being. He found a sick type of pleasure on how ever since high school he was one of the only people able to make him laugh so hard he’d start tearing up and forget about rigidness, and rules and schedules.

He only notices that he’s been staring for way longer than it was socially acceptable platonic behavior when he hears Iida’s voice bringing him out of his daydream.

“Shouto…” he says weakly as he tries to catch his breath, his laughter still seeping through his speech. “You really, really make me laugh”

Shouto feels his blush rising at the sudden compliment and the softness in his voice, he nods. “It’s my pleasure… You’re, like, really funny too.”

“Really? Well! I’m just glad that you’re not laughing at my jokes out of pity, i guess”

“Of course I’m not!”

“Really? Are you sure you’re not just laughing because I’m deadly attractive…?” Shouto blushes but raises his fist up as if to motion and punch his arm. Iida raises his hands up, defensively. “Okay, okay! Don’t punch me. I believe you, big boy.”

Shouto freezes a bit at the pet name and then rolls his eyes. “Big boy…? Don’t patronize me”

“Huh? I’m! I’m not…!” Iida winds himself up to defend himself, raising his hands up until he sees a hint of a smirk on Shouto’s face instead of annoyance. Teasing again? Alright, two can play that game.

“What? You don’t like it when I’m the one giving the pet names?”

Shouto looks visibly shocked at the way that Tenya reacts, instead of fumbling his words in his embarrassment, so he looks away in a bit of shyness. “No, it’s okay. I just think they’re a better fit on you, feels weird to get one of those”

“Oh, that’s the issue? I mean, i can brainstorm a couple different ones until you find one you like…” he puts a hand under his chin, taking a moment to give it actual thought and forgetting about the teasing. “You like honey? No, thats a bit too antique. Like an old couple. Darling is also like that. How about baby boy? Oh, do you like being called baby in general? Thoughts on babe? Is that better…?”

Shouto chokes on his own spit and puts his hands over Iida’s mouth to quickly interrupt his ramblings. “Please,”  one of his cheeks burning more than the other, he looked straight into his eyes, “please, let’s not.”

Iida realizes that Shouto’s blush was as red as he’s ever seen him and nods slowly in realization, flushing a bit too. “Sorry, i got a bit too into it! I never gave this such a big amount of thought before, so I was trying to be considerate…”

So he has given it some amount of thought before? Shouto asks himself but he feels shy even further at the idea of Tenya spending the next few days brainstorming pet names for him on a random night with pen and paper and full seriousness, like he did almost all his other assignments. 

“It’s okay. It’s just too…” he sighs before confessing, “too embarrassing!”

“Well, how’s it feel?” smiles at him “I’d love for me to not be the only one embarrassed around here for a change!”

Shouto rolls his eyes, his expression now a little playful but his ears still getting redder and redder. “But it’s so much funnier when it’s you! Isn’t it, pretty boy?” 

Tenya is not sure how much longer his heart can handle that specific pet name. It doesn’t matter if it’s the first, or the third time he’s heard it out of Shouto’s mouth.

Tenya flushes too and points his finger at him, as if it was a threat. “Don’t…! Don’t say that anymore! I’m not even a boy, I’m a man!”

“What? You don’t like being called pretty boy?” He gasps. “It’s a shame, because you’re so pretty….” He extends the “y” for longer.

Iida tries on to fight against him but ends up rolling his eyes and sighing in defeat, his ears red. “Whatever you say…” Shouto laughs triumphantly and rests his head on Iida’s shoulder.  

“Also…” Shouto adds after a while, his face having calmed down a bit, “You of all people shouldn’t be judging what i find cute and what i don’t anyway… It’s working in your favor, isn’t it?”

Iida clicks his tongue against the upper side of his mouth, his face red and speechless for a moment before deciding to just shrug. “I guess…?”

Iida inched his body closer to his and slowly, like he was afraid of being called out for the act, put an arm around his shoulders. Shouto decided he didn’t need to bring it up, he just accepted it and cuddled up into him.

Tenya was all too familiar with how Shouto would act in the past whenever this specific day came around, he would seclude himself and cry and be so vulnerable that he’d let him know each and every time that he needed him near. Which —if you know anything about Shouto Todoroki— was not a usual occurrence. And as years went by, he had gotten quite better at handling it but still. Iida was taking zero chances, so he did as usual and kept his body close to the other man while they enjoyed the quiet together.

Shouto rested his head on his shoulder, and within minutes he was laying still with his body weight slumping over Tenya’s chest. He made an effort to hold his head up slightly, but then let Shouto lay his head on his chest to put his neck stay in a more comfortable position. He could still feel Shouto squirm a bit uncomfortably against him because of the position.

Tenya sighed, his eyes fixated on his sleepy face and his voice sweet and soft. “The things you make me do, Shouto…”

He stood up for a bit, the other man whined a little at the loss of contact which made his heart simultaneously do summersaults and twist at the sound. “Hey, it’s okay…” he whispers.

He takes a hold of his body and takes him into his arms, Shouto snuggles against his warmth. He thinks for a second. Should he lay him down on the sofa, even if it’s a bit cramped, and lay there with him? It’s what they used to do back then, but the sofa hasn’t grown since then and they had, so it’s actually better to take him to rest down in his bed.

But he cannot possibly lay down on Shouto’s bed without his explicit consent! What is he, a pervert? They’ve laid together before, but they were young and naive and there were a lot less implications between them about what cuddling to sleep could entail for their relationship. 

As he keeps thinking over which choice to make, the younger man moves in his arms rather uncomfortably, a light frown on his face and Tenya decides he better not risk him waking up when he knows from experience how tired he must be and how badly he must need to rest. 

He moves softly but determined, and goes into Shouto’s room. He kicks the door open with his foot and goes to lay him down on the middle of the bed. Shouto gets comfier once he’s placed down on the comfier bed and a blanket is covering his body, but seems uneasy as he struggles to find the warmth he had just gotten used to in his sleep. He pouts so sadly and Tenya gives in almost immediately.

As he takes a deep breath, he sends his previous attempt at decency to hell and crawls underneath the blanket next to him. “Hey, hey… I’m not going anywhere” he says softly into his ear, hoping not to wake him up.

Shouto sighs happily and wraps his arms around him. He snuggles against his body, his head resting on his chest to finally sleep without any outside disturbances. Iida is frozen in place for a bit before relaxing as much as he can against him, the situation unexpected for him.

Tenya’s heart beat was erratic and he worried that it would wake Shouto from his slumber to hear it since he was laid on top of his chest. The entire domesticity of the situation was too much for him, and he wishes internally for them to remain this way for as long as possible. He quite likes it, Shouto snuggling into his arms and his body pressed up against him as the scent of his hair and his warmth kept him calm.

He feels a bit drowsy too after a while, he’s unsure why. But he must assume they’ve had a stressful day, so it probably must be taking its toll right now.

Perhaps because of his lack of energy, he doesn’t think much about it and he leaves a quick kiss in Shouto’s forehead. 

Whether Shouto had been sleeping or not while he did that or not was still unclear to him, but he let himself be absorbed into the realms of sleep while laying next to him. He falls asleep quicker than he would’ve ever guessed, his arms wrapping around his body too in reciprocity. 

A big smile crept onto Shouto’s lips.

Chapter Text

When Shouto begins to stir into wakefulness the following morning, he is surprised by how warm his body feels. 

It weirds him out.

He is used to the cold of the morning, the icy unoccupied other half of the bed all his to enjoy in the morning while he stretches. 

When his nightmares would get bad, he’d be awoken full of literal cold sweat on his temple and face and his room completely covered in stalactites and ice on the floor. He would’ve have to either wait til it thaws, hugging himself miserably to try and warm his body while still covered in tears or try to use his other hand to heat his room (provoking more damage, because most of his nightmares tend to be related to the man who gave him the ability to heat stuff in the first place) 

His nightmares of this kind hadn’t exactly disappeared, but the frequency of which they would happen is a lot lesser as he grows older. And the control over his quirk, even during sleep, continued to grow too; even then, it was not unusual for him to wake up in the morning after his brother’s death anniversary feeling the room cold and inhospitable, shivering himself awake and his teeth chattering. 

It made him feel weak, disgusting, it made him feel awful. He would close his eyes and hug his legs close to his chest, his body doing its best attempt at taking the least amount of space possible in the gelid room and as his body freezes over in panic and terror, his thoughts would be full of Touya.

Sometimes he closes his eyes and he’s right back there, on that same fated day. Him trying to freeze over his body and burns in a last attempt to keep him alive, his brother’s face, how not even doing that earned him the love of his brother that was so rudely taken away from him as a child. 

He would sometimes call Natsuo when things got that bad and cry on the phone with him for hours, his brother intently listening but feeling lost when it comes to how he should console his younger brother’s deep seated trauma. 

The nightmares becoming scary was actually the wake up call for him, years im the past, to start getting counseling to try and get his stuff together. If he was alive, if he was given the chance when so many people couldn’t, then he’d make the most out of it anyway he can. Icy days and all.

And yet today, of all days, he was calm and pleasantly warm.

Suspiciously so, even. And he couldn’t feel the other side of his bed as empty as it usually would, instead he feels what he could only assume is a strong frame pressed against him, and toned legs tangling up with his own legs down below. 

He opens his eyes lazily, still in a state of dizziness. He feels the need to pinch himself to confirm he’s not still dreaming.

When he feels all senses returning and the sleep subside, he realizes quickly the warmth he felt was his head laying on top of Tenya’s chest. 

Tenya was in his bed…

His engine legs were warm against his own, serving as a natural heating to dissolve what has been the coldest night of his life, annually, since the death of Touya.

Sleeping like this, with Tenya keeping Shouto warm in fears he might freeze to death in his sleep, was something they hadn’t done since… high school, he thinks.

He liked it, so much so that he couldn’t fight the tears traveling down his face as he stares at the other man’s sleeping face. 

His face looked calm, and he seemed to be deep asleep despite the fact that Shouto was well aware he was not someone who sleeps as profoundly. He, from the comfort of the broad chest which he laid upon, took this moment to delight himself while staring at his features. Because who knew when else he would get another chance like this…?

Iida’s small eyes, usually hidden behind his glasses, and his curly eyelashes… The intense arch of his eyebrows and the cute curvature of his nose. 

His lips…

He shook the thought out of his head and sighed deeply, trying not to even stare at them but unable to help the quick glances to the lips of the other man, his lips looked so relaxed and pink-ish and soft.

Oh, I really am a pervert… Is all he thinks as he feels shame for being so improper to Tenya, but the satisfaction he experiences while taking in this magnificent view into his mind is enough to dissuade his guilt for staring. He looked way too beautiful to be real and he was laying here, next to him of all places he could choose to be…

He sniffles, emotion overwhelming him suddenly as his heart beats against his chest.

He lifts up his fingers to lightly touch, as if swiping, along his strong and square-ish jaw. He feels Iida stir a little against the touch and he quickly debates whether he should remove his hand; if Tenya was still sleeping in–with how early up he usually woke up– then he probably needed the sleep so he wouldn’t want to wake him up. 

Before he could remove his hand, Tenya leaned against the warmth of his left hand and nuzzles himself against it. He feels thankful, for one of the few times in his life, for his father having inherited him a built-in heater in his left hand.

He has to fight the sudden urge to release a horribly undignified sound –sound akin to suddenly seeing something cute like a baby kitten– while seeing Iida smile into the touch of his hand, he refrains for the goal of preserving the other man’s sleep.

He looks at Tenya in quiet devotion, a voice in his head repeating how it’s actually really fucking creepy to stare at people while they sleep but he couldn’t really care much about that. Having Iida wake up next to him in the morning was some kind of weird wishful fulfillment for him. He couldn’t stop staring or touching his face, almost in fear he could realize this was a dream all along; confirming he was really there made his heart sing and jump in his chest.

“Im so lucky…” he mumbles to himself.

He sighs, swooning before muttering softly little praises and flattery directed to the other man, barely able to control his affection for him at the moment. “You look just so gorgeous, so pretty…”

Tenya decides to open up his eyes in that moment of all moments and raises an eyebrow. 

“Uh… Good morning. Were you staring at me while I sleep?” He teases, albeit he still sounds and looks sleepy.

Shouto startles badly, jumping in surprise. “Tenya!” he frowns a bit, his anger being actually embarrassment at being caught and being shocked out of the spell he was in. “How long have you been awake? That’s not cool!”

Tenya snorts, his eyes still half-lidded and his ears pinkish now. He rubs on one of his eyes lightly. “Just a little while, but you seemed pretty happy. Wouldn’t want to ruin the moment for you”

Shouto is so embarrassed he can’t think clearly for a response so he takes the easier route for him: “Asshole”

Tenya snorts, too sleepy still to even tell him off for his language. “I was lying, I just woke up. Relax…” Shouto rolls his eyes but cant fight the smile that adorns his face right after. “I did stare at you while you slept though, so I guess we’re even”

“You did?” He raises an eyebrow, the blush rising on his cheeks instantly betraying his attempt at acting aloof about this sudden confession. “Weirdo…”

“Hey! You did the same, didn’t you?!” He punched the younger Todoroki’s side, smiling before rubbing on his eyes. Shouto rolls his eyes as if saying ‘yeah, big deal’

“You liked the view, though?” asked Shouto all casual and diplomatically, as if asking him if he enjoyed his dinner today or if he liked the color of the wallpaper.

Shouto sleeping was an image he didn’t want to even describe. There was something so cathartic about seeing Shouto tiredness disappear and be replaced with calm and rest. It was oddly cathartic.

And that’s only without mentioning how ridiculously attractive he looked without even trying, his ruffled and messy hair, his beautiful eyelashes, his delicate features that have filled in nicely over the years. A beautiful boy turning into a beautiful man, and there was nothing he could do except reflecting on how deep in love he felt and feels for him.

His pink lips, parted open slightly. Inviting and soft-looking. Not even the occasional drool falling out of his mouth and all over Tenya’s shirt could make him think that this wasn’t a delightful experience. 

The words stuck on Iida’s throat but he looked the other way and nodded, sheepishly. “Hm. It was okay”

“Just okay?” He raises a hand to his chest, gasping. He could tell Tenya was lying just by his reaction, it was sweet. “How dare you…”

Tenya rolls his eyes and tries to look for his glasses in the nightstand next to him, “Oh, let me help you with that” says Shouto as he slides his arm over his body to get him his glasses, their bodies touching in the middle.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” is all he says as he puts them on, his cheeks flaming at the quick but real image of Shouto almost straddling him to reach them.

“Did what?” He clicks his tongue, his blush intense and his eyes looking any other way. “I’m not doing anything…”

“Yeah, yeah…” he stares at Shouto’s face now that his vision was better and jumps a bit in place now that he sees him. “Shouto…”

He looked a bit broken, and maybe even waking up not lonely couldn’t help that part about him. His eyes were a bit teary eyed and red still and his breathing ragged. 

Shouto stares at his eyes in silence and shakes his head, “I’m okay now, don’t worry”

“Really easy for you to say that, you know I’m a worrier!” He frowns a bit and takes his finger to clean the remnants of tears on his cheeks, he sighs before carefully asking: “Do you… want to talk about it?”

Shouto shakes his head but what comes out of his mouth instead is a tiny “Maybe.” Then, he sighs tiredly. “I don’t know, I don’t even know why I’m acting this way. This is embarrassing”

“Don't!” He raises a finger, accusing. “Don’t say that. Nothing is embarrassing about this, I get it. I truly do.” His hands are soft and caress the sides of Shouto’s face, he whimpers a bit at the touch and is too sad to feel ashamed at how touch starved that made him seem. “I know the morning after this day is sometimes harder for you than the exact date.”

Shouto nods. “When the day ends it’s when it starts to feel… too real, it makes me feel like i just got that call back then and im waking up without knowing how to move on.” He clenched his fist, tears flowed down his face unforgivably. Tenya wasted no time in trying to wipe them with his finger. “It’s like a reminder that time is moving on but only I get to know what it looks like, isn’t that depressing?”

Shouto laughs to himself, Tenya doesn’t necessarily find the humor in such a sad statement but he understands. And he gets how laughing a bit has helped Shouto overcome it all at the end of the day, so who can blame it for using humor as coping mechanism in this case…

“It is sad, im very sorry.” He conceded, then cradled his face. “You don’t deserve it, nobody does really. I wish I could take all this pain away from you if that would make it easier for you.”

Shouto smiles at that, although a bit more broken than he had hoped. “You already take enough of it away, it’s been a while since I woke up feeling this warm and safe.”

“Really?”

Shouto nods. “I actually cried because it was good to see you here. It’s nice to cry about other things other than his death, for a change. Thank you, Tenya.”

Tenya smiles and his entire stomach feels like a new year’s parade, the usual butterflies transforming into fireworks. Oh, he sighs to avoid tearing up over how much he loves this man. He wraps his arms around him and, almost unaware of the action itself, kisses him on the cheek.

Shouto gasps in response, “I-Im sorry…” begins to say Tenya but Shouto shakes his head, just closes his eyes and lets himself be embraced, his ears pink and a smirk on his face. He doesn’t say a word but Tenya figures he isn’t mad at him for his boldness, so he stays quiet for now.

They stay laid there until Shouto falls asleep again and Tenya decides to, discretely, leave the bed to make some breakfast and leave them in the microwave for both of them to find later on in the day. If he was given the chance to lay until late morning in the arms of Shouto, why would he be insane enough to deny it? 

Once that was done, he went right back to laying down at his side and the other man, as if he had been searching for his warmth as soon as he stood up, embraces him; cold arms around him as quick as possible.

And if Tenya had to work that morning, as he usually does, and was urgently late, as he normally hates being, then Shouto would remain none the wiser. He tangles a hand on the red and white strands of hair and feels there’s no other place he’d rather be. He could always take a day off from work.

He could not take a day off from him.

It’s been a couple of days, and they have been busy. 

Extremely so. 

Going to interviews, visiting different places and going to events and openings for several other things had left both of them very, very exhausted. 

Tenya, despite his busier schedule, always made time to see Shouto. And if it wasn’t possible, he’d started to rely on inviting him to come over to his agency for a bit. He’d done it three times and Shouto thanked him but rejected the offer; after a fourth time, he finally gave in.

It was a little daunting, at first, the idea of meeting him there and also having to interact with so many other heroes (old and young) who wandered the halls of the agency. But he didn’t come here for any of them, he came to see Tenya. 

So he took his offer. As he walked to the lobby, he tried to fight the feeling of shyness while he kept being recognized by lots of other heroes. He’d even tried to look casual and undercover, hiding most of his frame and face in a hoodie. Maybe he was just an easily recognizable face… He sheepishly waved at them, but his eyes were still set on finding the other man.

“Hey!!” He heard the big and recognizable voice call out and his ears almost perked up a little, he looked behind him. 

Tenya smiled wider at actually seeing his face, although obscured by the shape of the hood.

Once Tenya noticed him from the other side of the room, he quickly put a pause on his conversation with some students to catch up to him and greet him in, perhaps, the most ridiculous way: Hugging him so strongly thats his feet are lifted off the ground, twirling with him in his arms without a single care for matters such as his dignity.

Shouto being lifted off the ground came as a surprise to the crowd of young heroes, a little gasp being heard as Tenya greeted him like that and they seemed to look at one another waiting for a reaction from the other man; to surprise them even more Shoto just smirked, albeit a bit shy, and decidedly let it happen. His newly-strong and tall frame being lifted off by a lot stronger, and bit taller one. 

“Shouto”, Tenya spoke in the middle of the hug, “I’m so glad you could make it! It’s so good to see you!”

“It’s good to see you, too” he responded almost in a whisper, to only let Tenya’s ears hear him. “Have a few seconds to spare?”

“Oh, of course. Just… Give me a few seconds, okay? I still have some things to attend to” He gestured over where the crowd of young heroes that stared at them from afar and shyly waved at Shoto. “But hey. Last time you came over I couldn’t show you the whole place, will you wait so I can finish giving you that tour?”

“That sounds lovely”, was all Shoto said, smiling softly at him while mindlessly returning the wave from the students, earning some little gasps as a reaction. His eyes still focused on Tenya over anybody else.

His smile, even now, is so distracting that Iida feels himself have to actually knock himself back into his regular self. “Okay. Good! Well. Wait for me in the lobby. And anything you want, just ask and I’ll make sure somebody brings it to you, okay?”

God… All of these special treatment was having him blush, he felt like the wife of a company ceo.

Which he isn’t. Because they’re not married—and he’s not a wife. And yet the butterflies in his stomach didn’t really mind those specific details all that much.

“It’s alright, thank you.” He nodded slowly, “I’ll wait for you here, go… do your thing”. He then looked at the students while raising his fist and awkwardly trying to encourage them: “Good luck! Have fun together! You guys will do just fine”

Tenya laughed, the color raising to his cheeks. The students seemed equally as flushed, reactions ranging from shyness to regular admiration and surprise.

So adorable…

He feels his own hand raising to try and hold Shouto’s face, if only for a moment, in what he believes to be an attack of cuteness aggression. He has to actively restrain himself from doing it, repeating to himself over and over ‘We are in public, we are in public…’

He cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses and, before any of them could ask about the pinkish tint adorning his face, he started walking in another direction while gesturing for them to follow. Walking in front of them for a while, so they can’t see his face while he tries to still his beating heart.

When Iida was finished he didnt really have to look long to find Shouto, sitting in a bench just deep in thought about… anything, really. He was just about to sneak at him from behind and surprise him, to ask what he was thinking when Shouto sensed his footsteps and turned around to see him.

“Were you trying to scare me?”

“Come on, you ruined it!” He pouted, then plopped down on the bench next to the other man. Shouto rolled his eyes, a smile on his face.

“Sorry,” was all he said, holding back a giggle. “You’re not exactly sneaky…”

“Oh well. At least i tried”, he lets his shoulders fall, feigning sadness. Shouto snorts a bit. “What were you thinking about, though?”

He had his hands behind his back, he put them in front revealing a bag he’d brought with him. “I brought something for you…” he opened up the bag and pulled out a lunchbox it had inside, his shaky hands almost letting it fall to the ground. “I brought some lunch, since it’s kinda late and I know you haven’t eaten anything. Maybe we could… eat together? If you’re not busy, of course…”

Shouto tries his hardest to smile or at least remain aloof and calm while he asks, but his cheeks turn very obviously red. He tries to calm the shaking of his hands so he fidgets anxiously, his fingers playing with the lunchbox handle.

Tenya smiled at him, his cheeks flushing too. He was swooning, was Shouto actually that anxious about asking him to have lunch together? How could he refuse?

Having him actually show up at his work was sweet and, somehow, romantic for no absolute reason other than… Iida’s had dreams of it before, the cheesy man he was.

But bringing him lunch? This was something his parents did, so it isn’t exactly strange or unheard of, but difference is his parents have been married… for years, decades even. 

And him and Shouto? Well, they’re not married. Not yet. He ponders about it, /yet?/. Would Shouto even like the idea of marriage in the first place having such a twisted first introduction to it? They’ve never had an in-depth conversation about it, at least not recently. He was well aware teen Shouto found the idea of marriage a little too fairytale-esque to be excited about it.

Would present Shouto go the opposite way and fantasize about the perfect union instead of hating marriage as an institution? Was that in his bucket list at all? Would Shouto marry someday, and if so, who would be lucky enough? 

Would Shouto want to marry him if he asked? 

What the hell is he even thinking about? He finally figures out that if he keeps thinking about it, he will drive himself insane.

He takes a deep breath before he responds. “I would love to have lunch with you”

Shouto nods, releasing a breath he didn’t know he was holding and says no other word. Tenya gets closer next to him, his shoulders touching against each other, earning him a violent flush in Shouto’s cheeks.

They eat in complete, but comfortable, silence.

Tenya is known, at least between the both of them, for being a morning person. He has adapted Shouto’s lifestyle enough for him to join him into early morning activities and exercise, but he’s well aware there’s a limit to how much he can ask anybody to wake up before sunrise until he’s sent to bother somebody else. 

(He is not aware of the fact Shouto would actually never complain about it, though)

So it’s easy to imagine just how surprised he felt today when he gets woken up, several minutes before his alarm clock even began ringing, to a series of knocks on his door. He’s well aware none of his friends wake up earlier than he does, so he’s a bit taken aback.

He goes to open up the door and finds no one other than Shouto. 

“Tenya!” he says excitedly yet softly, like hes trying to supress a scream to not displease Tenya’s neighbors early in the morning. He’s silently grateful for the consideration and manners in display.

He goes to open up his mouth and ask him a casual ’What’s the occasion? Why are you up so early?' before Shouto throws his entire body into Tenya’s arms without announcing, as soon as the door opens completely. His arms around his neck and his legs trying to hold onto him by surrounding his frame.

Tenya catches him with ease, his arms firm but doubtfully holding him by the hips; his stare of confusion remains all the same.

“Woah. Is something going on? I could’ve dropped you if you just jump into my arms like that…” he chuckled, it was a lie though. Picking Shouto up was fairly easy for him, and even if it weren’t he’d probably just work out harder to achieve it. And it’s not like he’d ever let him fall off either…

“Sorry, it’s just…” He looked like he had only just realized he jumped into the other man’s arms. His voice was fast, and his eyes seemed open wide in excitement, it was a sight he hadn’t seen in the adult man in a long while, his heart soaring at the view. “Have you checked out my name on the Hero rankings?”

Tenya raised an eyebrow before shaking his head no. Shouto dropped down from his arms in a swift movement, before showing him the screen of his phone. Names, after names, and he couldn’t hide the surprise when his eyes didn’t have to travel far below at all to find Shoto. He was rising, Shouto placing above even some semi-established heroes.

He audibly gasped. “Shouto, you’re so high up! That’s incredible!”

Shouto snorted at that, his delight evident in a way it normally isn’t. “Yeah! Isn’t it?!”

He holds both sides of Shouto’s face on his hands, before gloating, “I’m close to one of the most famous heroes in the country, who else is luckier?”

Shouto rolls his eyes, giggling a bit. He was beginning to feel shy about it, if his tinted cheeks were anything to go by. “Don’t make such a big deal out of it, yeah?”

“Are you kidding? How can I not?” He holds his face still and, in the excitement, kisses the top of his head, softly. “I’m soooo proud of you!” 

The kiss on his forehead almost made his knees give out from under him. Shouto smiles at him, his cheeks heating under his palms before talking in muttered speech. “It’s all thanks to you, really”

Tenya shakes his head, crossing his arms. “Now, you know that’s a lie. Don’t sell yourself short, you’re good and powerful, and now people surely know you are someone reliable and easy to talk to, too. I barely added a few sprinkles here and there. It’s all you!” 

It was now time for him to pick Shouto off the ground, twirling around with him in his arms in the excitement, “Let me down, come on!” Shouto chuckled a bit and fake punched him in the shoulder to be let down again. Tenya did not concede.

“But anyway, did something happen recently? What prompted the jump in rankings?”

“Well, I’m not really sure actually. Maybe it could be…” Shouto thought about it for a while and then gasped. “That one video…”

“Video? Which one?”

Shouto tried to get off from his arms, to no avail. He sighed then took his phone from his pocket and typed on it for a few seconds, before turning the screen over to Tenya to show him what he was referring to. 

It was a video of one of Shouto’s patrols, but judging by the looks of it the video was from a few weeks or even a few months ago. He sees how he saves a little girl from a fire by cooling down the building enough to get her out, her small body trapped under some rubble. 

The kid sustained some serious burns from the accident and the clip seems to show an interview with her and her family, a few weeks before her hospitalization where his injuries had clearly healed but left noticeable marks across her body and face. 

“I’m not so sad about it”, she says when asked about her scars while holding a little smile, Tenya calculated her to be around 8 years old. “He saved me and my mom, and my dad. And he had scars too! Even one in his face, just like me! 

The interviewer made a noise of approval. “So you don’t mind the scars because they remind you of him?”

The little girl nodded. “Yeah! He was pretty with them, maybe I can be beautiful too!”

The girl giggled innocently and the interviewers joined her in her laughter and joy; the moment was entirely too wholesome as the clip came to an ending segment praising the youngest Todoroki for his acts of heroism and kindness.

The video then cuts to a more recent clip, now showing a more recent interview from the girl who has opened up her own Shouto fan club in her elementary school, with her as a president, and gloating about how the number of members kept rising. People seemed to share the video a lot because of the adorable nature of it all. 

“She thought my scar was beautiful, it’s kinda funny” Shouto laughed softly to himself as the video came to an end, “kids really say anything…”

Well, I like your scar too, said a voice inside Iida’s head to himself. But then he wondered if it really was okay to say that thought out loud, specially knowing how Shouto got it in the first place. They have never really talked a lot about it, but he always assumed a scar of such traumatic origin might not be the best thing to compliment him on. 

One time when they were younger, barely after having passed the UA entrance exam, he remembers saying something among the lines of “Hey! Pretty cool marking on your face, a battle scar?” to the younger Todoroki. 

Shouto didnt take it as positively as he thought, he just stared at Tenya. Boxy in shape, firm in posture but seemingly relaxed as he talked. Completely unaware of the fact that his attempt at a compliment had caused so much turmoil.

Shouto may have actually been rude to him, but he could sense the other guy was, at the end of the day, kind and just trying to make some conversation. He muttered a little “Thanks” and turned around to leave him talking to himself.

But he did like his scar, he still did. He found it to be a part of Shouto that he cannot imagine him without, and he even went from finding it amusing and curious to the point of finding it adorable. Like a puppy who had little spots on his face, the markings made him who he was just as much as they didn’t define him. Whether it was the previous scars from childhood or the ones he gained on the war, it was just a part of him, as much as his nose or his eyes or anything else, really.

On a normal day he might have kept that comment to himself, enjoying the thought on his own like he usually did with most things that he liked about Shouto but were a little bit too personal for him to bring up out loud. But this was not a normal day, and he blames it on Shouto waking him up from his slumber and jumping in his arms while looking like a dream, so he might as well indulge himself a bit.

“I think everything about you is beautiful.” 

He notices he says it a little too casually and way louder than he intended, so he blushed while seeing Shouto’s eyes turn to look at him in both amusement and confusion.

He raises an eyebrow, like he is definitely not aware of what Tenya could be referring to or what on earth prompted him to say something like that, while his cheeks heat up.

“Huh?”

Tenya stammers and stumbles over his words for a moment before clearing his throat and trying to get back to his point. He lets Shouto back down on the floor, his hands fidgeting almost robotically.

“I… I think everything about you is beautiful,” he repeats, “And i mean, your scar is included. It’s a part of you, so even if it’s a hurtful memory it still makes you who you are. And i quite like who you are, Shouto. I think I love everything about you”

Shouto keeps quiet, his expression unfamiliar to Tenya yet his eyes bright and shining. His mouth agape as if surprised. 

Tenya shrugged, and turned his eyes to the floor now in embarrassment–his arms chopping at nothing in a frantic attempt to dissuade whatever tension he had created– before adding:

“But, yeah, that’s just what i think…! You know, maybe she thought something like that too!” He chuckled, awkwardly. “Children, am i right?”

Shouto could not care less about the rambling he was embarking himself on, something else about the statement had piqued his interest; his heart did somersaults as he timidly, and incredulously, asked:

“You love everything about me…?”

It instantly dawns on him the use of the word love on his previous statement might be the reason why all of the sudden the air in the room feels different, when there were so many other words he could’ve used. The accustomed desire to over explain himself and say he doesn’t necessarily mean loving in /that way/ almost takes over, before he calms a bit and realizes that —embarrassment and shyness aside— he’s somehow fine with it.

And he is quite sure that he did mean loving in that way, too, as shameful as it would be to admit it so loudly and casually out of nowhere.

He didn’t really care as much anymore about the concept of Shouto knowing he had feelings for him, especially when the other man had given him such explicit hints at reciprocity before. His nerves had been a bit better since then. But telling Shouto he loves him out of nowhere? Where was his decency? 

His heart was beating like a drum on his chest all the same, even if he felt himself less anxious about the whole feelings ordeal, he was still characteristically very nervous.

“Well, you know” He feels his blush darkening. “I love lots of things, so…” is all he elaborates, he shrugs –although his shoulders are too tense for it to come across as casual– and he doesn’t deny Shouto’s interpretation; he felt like the statement didn’t need to be explained, his feelings were pretty clear.

It didn’t. 

When he looks up from the ground, Shouto is smiling at him so sweetly that he’s almost sent to his knees, clutching his chest. Almost, but he just takes a deep breath as he remembers he needed to control himself in front of him. 

He had a calm, and collected guy facade to keep up after all. 

Even then, he really, really wishes he would have upgraded his glasses for that model that lets people photograph things while looking at them. Maybe then he’d take pictures of his smile and engrave it into his own corneas to stare at him forever. 

Shouto puts a hand on Tenya’s nape and he freezes, feeling how the other man’s fingers–strong and agile, yet delicate– busied themselves by playing with his hair and brushing it away from his face, fixing his bed head.

Shouto looks up at him then at his lips then at his eyes again, in a way that is anything but discrete, and both of their bodies are way too close for him to remain normal or pretend the tension was just in his head. He closes his eyes, expecting… something. For the tension to break, for it to intensify, for Shouto to pinch him, for Shouto to kiss him passionately… He was up for anything just so things could feel less awkward and his hands could stop sweating.

He’s pretty sure Shouto must be unaware of the effect it had on him, or how he’s been holding his breath since the moment he felt his touch on his scalp. But when Shouto breaks the silence between them, it’s with perhaps the sweetest, most sincere voice he’s heard on the other man:

“Thank you, Tenya ” his voice drops a little before adding in whisper, in a new tone he’s also never heard before on him. “You’re just so, so good to me…”

Fuck. If there was ever a time to curse like a sailor, it was now.

He was so distracted by how his first name sounded coming out of Shouto’s lips that when the entire statement registered on his head it hit him hard, like a truck. It kicked the wind out of his lungs. That was the most beautiful, cute but sexy and seductive tone that had ever hit his ears. He cursed in his head so loudly, and then reprimanded himself for his language, just to curse all over again because holy hell, what in the fantasy was going on?

It was more than just a compliment, the effect it had on him was strong. Shouto told him he was good, which he knew. Partly. It was still nice to hear, no matter the context. He tries his best at anything he put his mind into–whether it be at his job, his past school assignments, their relationship…

He has never felt the sudden urge to be good for no explicable reason like he does right now. This was just something that came to him, almost naturally. Sometimes he made mistakes, as anybody would, but he remained a –as acquaintances refer to him– good guy with a good head on his shoulders.

He’s pretty doubtful of that right now. All of his thoughts are pretty much clouded, the only thing in mind being a voice in his head urging him to keep doing what’s he’s done, to be good to Shouto in any way possible. To service him, if possible, just so another thing of this nature could occur.

Especially if it meant Shouto used his name more often in this very particular way, the memory of his voice in this new exciting tone replaying over and over in his head.

It’s not often that Shouto spoke casually to him, referring to him as Tenya, at least not in recent years –since they grew apart a little after graduation and it didn’t feel natural anymore to be that casual. So each and every time he would actually use his name, it sounded better than the last time. 

His voice was now more low and mature, raspy even, when compared to how his voice used to sound back in high school; it’s quite difficult to act normal when your formerly lanky adorable best friend, who’s suddenly turned into an attractive man, says your name so lovingly and in a such a sickly addicting way.

And Tenya’s brain would store those memories in a little folder in a room, which contains other thousand folders of his voice saying his name. This one occurrence though? It deserves its own room, hall of fame, a completely new storage method or something of the sort to honor its importance.

It was even competing with little “Tenya’s” that Shouto would whisper between giggles when he was laughing too hard and punching at his shoulder to get him to shut up. And therefore this would definitely, without a doubt, be part of his future fantasies. 

He’s only human, and Shouto always looked like he came out from a dream so it’s not hard to fantasize about him. But having him also sounding so dreamy and soft-spoken with him was, is and will continue to be his dream. He cannot confirm or deny details of how PG his dreams were, or about to be.

Shouto noticed his lack of a response, paired with how his face went beet red quickly and arches an eyebrow in curiosity. 

“Is something wrong now?”

How dare he question the effects of his own hotness on the human brain? Is he insane?

“Is it because I called you by your name?”

Well, at least he’s receptive that that’s part of the reason… Tenya feels the blush go to his ears fast and he stumbles over his words as he tries to find an adequate response. He just nods meanwhile his brain tries to not short circuit.

“I just thought it would be nice to be casual, since you always call me by my name too and...” Shouto looked him in the eyes for a bit, the smallest hint of regret present in his features. “Did… Did I do something wrong?”

He quickly raises his arms in defense, “No, no! It’s not that at all!”

“Would you rather I call you Iida? I mean, you have a very good family name, and it’s something to be proud of, I wouldn’t mind using it if I was you! So that’s why I always opt for calling you Iida…” He grimaces, his face twisting in regret and discomfort. “Sorry if I overstepped…?”

“Shouto! That’s not…”

He feels that Shouto is about to keep over explaining himself so he holds the others man’s hands in his own. Cold and hot hands meeting his own in a surprisingly warm embrace.

Shouto bites gently on his own lower lip but stays silent, his eyes focused now on their hands connecting.

Tenya sighs, “I like it when you say my name. I usually speak to you informally and don’t use your last name because, you know…” he gestures vaguely and clears his throat, leaving the subject in the air. Shouto understands. “And well, since your first name is the only one you actively use, I figured it was alright.”

Shouto nods. “Are you okay with me calling you Tenya, though…?”

He feels himself melt at the mention of his name coming from his mouth. Was he okay? No, certainly not okay. He was delighted at levels that were abnormal, he loved the sound of his name more each time Shouto spoke it.

He nods embarrassingly quickly. “Yeah. I do not mind. I… I like it a lot, actually!” he looks away, flushed before adding, “It’s just… Ugh. Why are you…?” He whispers under his breath.

“Hm? Why am I…?”

“You know…” his ears started turning pink. “Saying my name with /that/ voice is just a tad inappropriate, I fear…” he covers his face as he speaks. “It’s too embarrassing…”

He frowns for a bit, trying to understand what was inappropriate about the way he spoke or the way his voice sounded. He considered his voice to be too monotone most of the time, so it was strange to hear his tone had been drastically different enough to affect Iida in such a way. Then…

Did Tenya get embarrassed because he said his name weirdly?

“Oh”, Shouto, finally getting it, audibly gasps. “I’m so sorry. What kind of voice? I thought I was speaking regularly…?”

“You most certainly were not...”

“My apologies…?”

And before Tenya can shrug and tell him ‘it’s no big deal’ and ask for them to switch topics, Shouto takes a few steps closer to him, closing the space between them.

He whispers against his ears, “I’m terribly sorry, Tenya…” Tenya shivers, his breath against his ear. The same tone from before.

Tenya, before his brain can even think too deeply about it or his mouth could formulate any response, punches his shoulder reflexively due to the nerves. 

He punches way, way too hard.

He’s still apologizing about it the day later, and then the day after that while Shouto laughs at the memory and tells him it’s no big deal. 

(His arm does hurt for a while, though)

Everything was going well, until it wasn’t.

“May we know a little bit about your relationship with Ingenium?” He hears one of the reporters ask.

Next to him, he sees Iida widen his eyes, clearly not expecting to be asked that. He was suited up for the occasion, same as Shouto. If he knew this was the things they would be asking them, he wouldn’t have even left the house. But he did it for Tenya… and now Tenya has been left speechless, forcing him to take the lead.

This wasn’t anything he hadn’t trained for. Crowds asking extremely personal questions was something he seemed to get used to, unfortunately. But the questions usually seemed to be about his family, or his father…

He clears his throat, “Well, what about our relationship? We used to be classmates…”

Iida looked at him approvingly and Shouto still felt kind of dizzy, thinking of a right answer while nervous was so nerve wracking. But he’s getting better, which must amount to something at least.

“You hang out a lot with him!” Says another reporter, “Way more than other UA students, is there a reason? Are you both considering forming a Joint Agency?

It was Tenya’s turn to reply, he chuckled formally at the question before replying, “Not at this moment, no. We appreciate the enthusiasm, though” 

“Are you guys dating?” The whole room went silent, and Shouto wasn’t sure if his fire side could handle this because he felt so cold out of a sudden. And then, he felt hot. In his face, his ears, his entire face.

Questions about his dating life was something he only heard jokingly from weird aunts who asked him about crushes when he was a teenager, as an adult he must admit that it had a bit of a different implication. And he’s not sure how to reply for a few moments.

Iida opened up his mouth, as if to say anything and closed it right back a few times, the flush rising in his face way more evident than the one on Shouto’s. Shouto would get mad at his lack of help in the interview if he wasn’t so cute when he was embarrassed, and if he wasn’t so desperately in love with him. Anyway…

Mumbling could be heard as a response to their reactions, or the lack of it to be clear, as well as some other reporters rapidly started shushing the one who had dared to ask the question in the first place. Shouto was good at a poker-face, but he fears his cheeks would betray him this time. He gulps and hopes he would, at the very least, not stutter to gain back some confidence in this whole situation. 

“To answer your question, we do not have any kind of… romantic connection.” His ears were definitely burning up, but he went on, “We are… Just close colleagues, I think that’s all that matters, really” he looked at Iida, as if asking for confirmation. 

“Correct!” Tenya intervenes at last, accidentally slamming his hands against the table excitedly.

“Shouto is a close friend of mine, so I’d be grateful if everybody could be respectful of our bond! It’s not good etiquette to pry into people’s lives like that!” He raised and lowered his arm, robotically chopping the air. His voice still seemed a bit shaky, the surprise evident on his face. 

“Agreed,” was all Shouto said, finding it difficult to think of what else he could say or add to the already uncomfortable moment. “We are in good terms, thank you for any other concerns” Tenya side eyes him and smirks a little at his collected response, aware of the nerves he’s probably feeling under wraps.

As the interview continues and comes to a close, their hands find their way to each other’s and they hold them underneath the table to ground themselves into calmness once again. Once the flustered expression washes away from Shouto’s face, shocked at the sudden skin contact, he squeezes his hand until the end.

Tenya, his media training be damned, finds himself unable to fight back the smile he wears for the rest of the press conference.

That was uncomfortable but at least the worse part of it was over now. Shouto could enjoy peace for a while knowing that he has successfully attended another stressful, difficult and boring event and nothing had gone wrong!

He threw himself on his bed as soon as he got inside the comfort of his house, the stress making his body feel as tired as if he had gone for his usual villain patrolling or something of the sorts. He reached for his phone.

Shouto
Hey, thanks for the help back there.
Again, it was almost a mess. It was good I wasn’t alone.

Tenya
Are you kidding? You handled that amazingly, Shoto!!!! 
Even the more uncomfortable questions

Shouto
Yeah…

Tenya
About that… you should be proud!
I was speechless for a second, the question caught me off guard! 
But you responded very professionally, it impressed me. 

Shouto finds himself smirking a bit at that, who knew all he needed to make Tenya’s heart flutter was to answer questions for him and be upfront about things? He would’ve done that way earlier…

Shouto
Well, what can I say?
I had a good teacher :)

Tenya has liked your message.

Tenya
You’re a good “student” LOL

Lol… Laughing out loud. Todoroki remembered. He felt his phone ring again.

Tenya
Have a good night today! 
It was a very exhausting day, unfortunately

Shouto
It was okay, you did your best! 
But I am really tired anyway…
I should sleep, so good night, Iida

Tenya
Good night, Shoto!! Have sweet dreams!!!!

He added an emoji of a man running and a couple of spark emojis, earning the other man a laugh.

Waking up the next morning, he turned off his alarm to find notifications going on in his phone. He decided to check if there was some attack nearby or a weather event he should be prepared for, or perhaps someone was texting him?

He shook his head, who would be texting him this early in the morning? Had Iida and him upgraded their relationship to the point where he could expect Good Morning texts? He found that he didn’t feel remotely mad at the prospect of that, but he proceeded to shake his head to get that thought off his mind right now. 

He looked at the weather, villain alarms and then he felt his blood freeze, when he clicked on trending news articles. His eyes widened, and he felt all the initial sleepiness and grogginess abandoning his body.

Publications from recent hours with titles such as:

‘Rumors arise! Is there really nothing between them?’ or ‘Pro-Hero Ingenium and Shoto, colleagues or budding romance?’ were going up rapidly in the trending news section. His heart drops.

The articles included videos of today’s interview, unsurprisingly, and the sappy smiles they wore and their nervous faces at the dating question and… oh fucks sake, photos of them being seen hanging out together in their regular civilian clothing. How was this not an invasion of privacy? 

He could see an array of different unseen texts and messages, a few missed calls too from some of his friends and other colleagues. A missed call from Tenya… His hands shook as the severity of the situation finally hits him. They knew.

Whether other people close to him believed the rumors or not –and there was enough evidence for them to be doubtful over–, if they were texting in the first place it was probably to talk to him about the situation. How he was feeling, if it was real, how would he cope, etc. And not only that, Tenya would probably want to talk about what this means for their image too or how they could fix this.

What if Tenya tells him to do a press conference denying all the feelings that even the press were able to know Shouto had for him? What if this was the end of them bordering on this line of being something, yet nothing at all? How could he look into Tenya’s eyes and then deny to anyone that he loved him? Would they even believe him, same way he would not believe his own words?

His breath starts to get faster and more ragged, until he finds himself having to gasp for it. It’s been long, but not long enough for him to not recognize an anxiety attack when he feels it. He could not do this, he could not do this… His hands started damaging the phone he was holding, simultaneously burning and icing it. 

Shoto felt himself about to faint, and before he knew it, that’s exactly what he did.

Chapter Text

When he comes back to his senses, the first thing he sees is Tenya’s face staring at him in clear worry.

“Shouto…? Hey, are you alright?”

He had woken up hours later, and Iida’s arms were wrapped around his torso as he kneeled beside him; he had stepped inside the apartment to talk to him and found Shouto covered in cold sweat, his body laying on the floor in an uncomfortable and unnatural position. 

Shouto saw the pair of well meaning but concerned eyes staring at him and the guilt for making him so worried about his well-being almost made him anxious all over again.

“You’re sweating. Did something happen to you?” 

Tenya puts a hand against his neck, then his forehead to check for his temperature, his body felt tremendously… cold. Side effects of his quirk, he supposed. He looks for an actual thermometer tool instead. 

“I am alright…” he lied, Tenya frowned at him but simply sighed, deciding to let it go and focus on making sure he’s healthy after having fainted out of nowhere. He’s checking his vitals and everything, using a little first aid kit he must have found himself somewhere around his house.

“Don’t worry about anything else for the moment, okay?” Tenya doesn’t look at him, eyes focused on checking his body and his hands swiping off cold sweat with a handkerchief. “We can talk later, you know that, right?”

“Alright”, is all he says as the knot in his stomach grows tighter.

Tenya only thought about bringing up the actual topic after Shouto seemed more stable, calm and enjoying a glass of water while comfortably sitting on the couch of his own home.

He could see he really didn’t want to talk about it, specially if his suspicions were true and this situation was what caused this reaction in Shouto in the first place.

Tenya paced around the room, hands on his waist as he pondered on the situation silently.

Inside the confines of Shouto’s place, wearing a vest and a formal shirt he’d probably forgot to remove as he clocked out from his agency work, he looked even more attractive. Distractingly so.

He looked concerned and distressed but remained silent, he could wait until Shouto deemed it appropriate to bring this up. If he didn’t want to talk about this ever, he would also be very well in his right to do so. Still, as he walked circles around the living room, he thought about any possible way he could bring this up casually and without being disrespectful. 

As if reading his mind, Shouto breaks the silence in perhaps the only way he knows how to: very straightforwardly.

“People think we are dating”

Tenya eyes widen a bit because he was the one out of both of them who decided to bring it up, but nods in agreement.

“Yes. I’m aware of it, read some of the headlines already…” he says, sighing as he presses his fingers on his nose bridge. “I had time, you could say.”

He goes to sit down next to Shouto in the couch. “Are you aware of what they’re actually saying? Should we be worried?”

“Well, I haven’t! But, I don’t think there’s anything on there we should be worried about…”

Shouto sighs, he really needed a distraction from the uneasy feeling on his chest.

He motions for Tenya to move his face closer to him and when he concedes, he takes his glasses to give them a good cleaning with a microfiber cloth. The action was surprisingly calming his nerves about the whole thing.

Tenya looks fondly at him, although he’s squinting to get the unadulterated vision of Shouto’s gentle hands meticulously remove the dust that was barely on his glasses like his life depended on it. 

It shouldn’t have been romantic at all, but he’s developed strangely niche tastes when it came to his own affection for him. And also, he liked the combination of the focused look on Shouto’s face– his frown pronounced slightly– and the view of his beautiful and skilled hands.

“Do you mind if I read them…?” Says Shouto after a while, placing his glasses softly atop the bridge of his nose. The action was so disgustingly sweet to Tenya that he squeaked a bit and then bit the inside of his cheek to shut himself up. 

If Shouto found it weird, he didn’t make any mention of it. In fact, he even smirked a bit in his direction and then returned to his initial and neutral expression.

Iida clears his throat, but he cannot quiet down how much he’s feeling like exploding. “Do you think that’s a good idea? I mean, we can always ask a third party to read it for us. Don’t force yourself…”

The other man shrugs, entirely too casual for the reaction he had just gotten out of his taller friend by the simple act of cleaning his glasses. “I would like to see their points. I think”

Tenya nods, and Shouto began reading with his agreement.

“Okay. Number one: They –Ingenium and Shoto– are very close, in ways most other classmates of their same year are not, except those who are openly dating.”

Tenya rolls his eyes. “Of course we are close, we’ve known each other for years!”

“I mean, we’ve known all our classmates for years too.” He clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth, lost in thought. “They are pretty much in the right when they say we are closer between us than some of them” 

“Well, I suppose…” 

He sighs, lifting his arm to wrap it around Shouto’s neck. Slowly.

Like a quick movement would scare Shouto away and cause him to retreat away from him. Yet Shouto snuggles against him, like it is no big deal.

“Okay, now this one“ he raises a finger,  amused at the article, “They always look for reassurance in each other with their eyes after answering a question…”

“Well, yes.I do. But that’s mainly because you’re training with me, so I need to check up on you. So it’s not a big conspiracy or anything”

“But it’s not entirely false either, I think” Shouto thinks about it for a second, then shrugs. “It is true that I look at you, too, when I want to feel safer… Also, how would they know about our training?”

“Hm. I guess you’re right… It must seem a little…” he thinks of an appropriate word, “a little too odd to anyone who’s not aware” Iida sighs, but his cheeks darkened a bit.

Shouto looked at him to feel safer…? He tried to ignore the warm feeling in his belly and prodded him to continue with his reading instead. 

“Is there anything else noteworthy?”

“This one’s funny, it has a lot of exclamation points. It just says: Guys. Shouto smiles with him.” Shouto smirks. “Am I that much of a stone face usually?” 

“Well, you don’t exactly giggle with other people…” mumbles Tenya under his breath. 

“Excuse me?” 

Iida almost tensed, but there was truly no venom in Shouto’s line of questioning, just straight up confusion. Asking for him to repeat himself. 

“You’ve never laughed that much in public.” He clarifies, flushed. “You do when I’m with you, and it’s something you’ve also been starting to do a lot when we are outside too… It wouldn’t exactly take a detective to notice that you look… happier.” 

“Oh”

Shouto blushes at the acknowledgment. It isn’t exactly a secret how his affection for Tenya, his care from his friends, and all of the love he’s received has softened him into the person he was today. Melted his icy heart, as Uraraka jokingly claims. It was still embarrassing that his affection for him was so obvious, so he had to fight the cringe from reading stuff around the lines of ‘Shouto is smiling, when does he ever do that? He’s head over heels for Ingenium. Checkmate!’

“Well. Yeah, I guess I do feel happier. Looking happier too is only appropriate” He ponders on it for a moment. “Although it’s your fault, then”

Tenya blushes, removing his arm from his neck to raise his arms half defensively. He shakes his head. “I didn’t do anything…?!”

“It’s your fault… for being such a cutie”

The red goes up to his ears but he sighs deeply, adjusting his glasses as part of a nervous tick he’s never fully grown over.

“Shouto, this is a serious topic. No flirting with me until it’s over”

He pouts a bit. “Aw, come on. But that’s the most important part of my day”

“Stop…” he tries to say it sternly, but he cannot hide the smile that creeps over his lips. “Okay. Let’s say that article is true then; is it proof enough to make rumors like that? Why also include those creepy pictures of us just living our lives?”

He throws his arms in the air, a frown on his face. “This is so wrong. I don’t like it one bit.”

Shouto nods in agreement. Even if the photos of Ingenium in all of the articles looked incredible, there were a few of them that left him wondering when or how they were taken. “It is quite stalker-ish, I agree. It’s also a bit scary actually”

“Don’t worry, there’s nothing they can do to you! I’ll also make sure there’s never any rumors surrounding you!” He held Shouto’s hands into his own. “This must be very stressful for you, so I am really sorry”

“Hey.” A little smile forced its way onto his lips, “No need to apologize. It’s not your fault.”

It’s my fault, really, he hears a little voice recite sadly im the back of his brain. The guilt is starting to get into his system all over again, he didn’t want Tenya to get in trouble just because of the fact that it was obvious to anyone with eyes that he had a crush. Iida didn’t deserve that, so he was glad that most papers were speculating Shouto’s crush to be one-sided; Tenya could get out of this scot free if he wished.

But knowing him, he’d rather take the whole boat down with the both of them im it than paddle quickly to safety if given the chance. His self sacrificial attitude and stubbornness would be annoying him, if he wasn’t incredibly attracted to it and admired his determination so greatly.

“We can just… say it’s a lot of bullshit”, Tenya eyes him severely for his language, but lets him go on, “Or tell them you’re just like my best friend, or something. It wouldn’t be exactly false”

“Good idea!” Iida raises a finger in the air, excitedly then quickly puts it down, his face twisting a bit. “Do you think that’s enough to quiet down the rumors, though?”

He sighs. “No, at least not entirely or as quick as we would like. We do have a chance to say it’s all one sided, maybe? That you don’t see me that way and that…”

Tenya interrupts his thought, the feeling of indignation clear on his face as he held a hand over his lips to stop his mouth from offending him any further. “And let you take the entire fall? Shouto, that’s not only ridiculously mean, but would be horrible to your mental health. Really inconsiderate. Lords. I’m not an…”

He opens and closes his fists, trying to calm down at the idea but a bit of anger still remains. That’s why he says, “I am not an asshole, Shouto”

Shouto feels a bit shaken at the language paired with the reassuring words, and tries to pretend he isn’t really into the way curses sound coming out of his mouth or how cute and proper he seemed even if he was–as Tenya said often– spewing profanity when it was not needed. Or how attractive it was to see him get protective, borderline angry over him, or… 

He nods quickly, to try shaking away his daydreams. “I know you wouldn’t. I’m just saying it’s a possibility we should consider in order to make this easier for…”

“Easier for who? For me…? Don’t worry about me right now, yeah? It’s not a big deal to me, it’s actually just a bit unexpected”

“If you say so..” he scratches the back of his head. Tenya nods, he relaxes his previously tense shoulders and slumps his body against Shouto’s as he speaks again.

“I will do my best to get rid of these articles if you want, okay? With enough time, nobody will be talking about us anymore.” he tries to comfort him, grabbing and starting to caress his still-cold hands. “It’ll be old news, and we’ll go back to our regular lives quicker than you imagine. Nobody will care after a few weeks”

The other man looks down at the ground, hums a little positive sound in response and then stays silent. Tenya’s eyes go up to  look at him now, arching an eyebrow. 

“Hey… What’s wrong, Shouto?” His eyes are big and concerned. “Did I say something bad? Talk to me, please”

“It’s nothing, really.” He tries to shut the topic down, forcing a casual smirk on his face. “We should make some calls, yeah, make sure it’s out of the papers by tomorrow”

Tenya doesn’t show any signs of being in agreement with the new idea, he just gazed at him knowingly. The vibe was off, somehow. “There’s something you are not telling me… I can feel it.”

“Not sure I know what you’re talking about”

“Shouto,” he pleads, squeezing his hand with one hand while the other fixed a strand of hair behind his ear. “Please…?”

The touch is firm but gentle, and he leans his face against Tenya’s palm. Tenya holds it there, careful and lovingly, and it felt like it always belonged there. His previously stern and worried face had softened a bit, now looking at Shouto like he was holding the entire world in his big hand. 

How could he lie to eyes so sincere? He felt so taken care of, so safe, he closed his eyes against his touch and coughed back a sob. He could not keep it in anymore.

He spoke shyly, almost in a whisper. 

“Are you uncomfortable with the idea of dating me?”

Sad little eyes looked at Tenya, a tear involuntarily rolling down his face. Shame, guilt in his eyes… He hated this kind of view, he’s reminded of it time and time again. 

He really, really would love to kick or punch anyone that brought that sadness into Shouto’s eyes. He made a personal mission of sorts to do that, so right now? 

He really wanted to slap himself. 

He loved looking at his heterochtomatic eyes but not this instance, it broke him; it looked and felt unusual after being so accustomed to Shouto being happy, feeling confident and content lately. Had he done such a bad job at expressing himself to make Shouto doubt himself this badly?

It felt like he regressed to the boy Iida used to cuddle to sleep at night so he wouldn’t have nightmares. The guy who wouldn’t say out loud he needed the hugs, the physical intimacy of it all but who would stand with his arms outstretched when he saw Iida. Knowing Iida would hug him, the trust in him immense.

Tenya looked at him, eyes serious as they’ve ever been and he wrapped his arms around the others man’s body, Shouto almost melted into it and he had to bite back a chuckle at his adorable reaction.

“I am not uncomfortable, I could never be uncomfortable when the topic is about you, okay?” He feels the other man’s body release some tension against his embrace.

He continued, one hand caressing the back of his bicolored nape. “I just dislike it, being scrutinized like this. And having you get mixed in the middle? Unacceptable, I can’t stand it”

“Everybody must know about it by know…” Shouto shivered lightly against him. “I am used to the scrutiny, to being judged, but I don’t want them to include you too”

“I don’t care if they do!” He exclaims, a little bit louder than he intended to. Intense eyes stare at him as he pulls away a little. He clears his throat. “All that I care about right now is you, none of that matters. Nothing else.”

He takes a deep gulp of breath before asking: “Do you think they’ll hate me? Hate you?”

“Shouto, you are not the first hero to be in a relationship. No matter…” he gestures vaguely, “the kind of relationship. Heroes date and fall for each other all the time, it would be weirder if they never did.” Shouto was glad that every word that came out of his mouth seemed so rational all the time, “I’m sure they wouldn’t resent you for it, especially since the public kind of loves you right now”

“I just…” his body keeps shivering against him, even though the temperature in the house is warm. His old efforts to calm him down useless by now. His voices trembles too, and as he speaks in a whisper, a tinge of fear is evident in his voice.

“Would… my dad be okay with it?”

Tenya feels the top of his head grow hot. He has to take a deep breath to calm down the anger that a simple mention of that man brought over him, it did help a bit but he’s still very much pissed deep down. He must’ve guessed this was a part of the fear Shouto felt.

How much had this man seared his presence into his life that, as a grown man, Shouto still felt that tinge of fear when making his own decisions, fear just by the act of him being brought up? What did he even think his dad was capable of doing, especially in the state that man was currently in? 

“Shouto, forgive me for I do not mean to pry into your familiar affairs, but your father cannot control you anymore…”

His frown is pronounced with slight anger, yet his gaze over Shouto remains soft even now. He is not mad at him, he thinks and a tiny part inside Shouto feels giddy about being able to meet that person who could be angry but would still not direct to feelings at him. The reason why? Easy to guess, but maybe he should tell his therapist about it. Maybe…

”He has no power over you unless you give it to him. I mean, it’s just a matter of looking at the facts. He’s old news, the press doesn’t even mention him as much, he’s all washed up, he’s a total… Has Been. Irrelevant for nobody’s fault but his own, such a shame”

He thinks it’s too rude, his dislike for the man getting in the way of what was supposed to be a casual observation, and almost apologizes for his insults towards the hero until he hears the broken, yet sweet giggle Shouto releases in response.

Shouto liked listening to how different he would talk when something got under his skin, the sound of Tenya diplomatically insulting someone was always a treat to him. 

He continues, “Who cares what your father would think? I don’t care about him, I want to know about you… What do you think?”

Shouto feels his heart beating like a drum against his chest. Someone who wanted to know him as he was, as his own singular person is still not something he’s used to. It’s taken him a while to develop his own sense of self, to figure out by himself who he was, what things he actually liked and disliked, what activities he enjoyed… Learning to be his own person outside of his father’s shadow had been a journey, and sometimes he can forget that other people can see under the steps of that man and look directly at him.

The thought itself was flattering enough to make him blush.

He looks the other way, feeling like the intense red eyes staring at him might just melt him any second now. “I understand… Do you think we should go on a press conference and deny everything?”

Tenya frowns. “Well, I don’t think that’s really necessary. Why? Do you want to?”

“I mean, I could do it for you”

Tenya tries to find his words but stumbles over them miserably, “I don’t really want you to.”

Shouto breaks away from his embrace and looks at him, frowning. “But I thought…?”

“Well, I suggested it to make you feel less anxious about this whole ordeal” He caresses the skin around his scar, unashamed. “Trust me, I wouldn’t ever, ever dream to deny you”

The younger man blushes and nods at the reassurance, standing uncomfortably in place as his brain tries to process that statement and how close it feels to an actual declaration of love. “That’s…. That’s good to know, thanks”

He nods, sighing. “This kind of situation does not help with your fear of the media, so I’m deeply sorry to have failed to keep you safe”

“It’s not your fault, Tenya.” He adjusts the other man’s glasses. “You couldn’t have guessed this was going to happen”

“I know, but… You’re doing so much progress with your crowd fright, you don’t deserve this kind of behavior right now” he squeezes Shouto’s body against him again, harder this time. Not exactly possessive but moreso trying to ground himself as his easing exasperation quickly turns into sadness. “I promised to protect you, I am so sorry I brought you uneasiness instead”

Shouto released from his grasp a little, just enough to look at him directly while still in his arms. He brought a hand to Iida’s face and dried a tear that he himself was unaware of.

When had he started crying in front of Shouto? Why did he allow himself to do that? 

However, the other man didn’t seem to mind as much. So he let it happen. It was kind of intimate once he pushed his embarrassment for crying in front of other people aside.

He tries to look the other way, but Shouto brings his hand to the side of his face and forces him to stare directly at him. He smiles, trying his best to be comforting to the taller man. 

Shouto has never exactly been the best when it comes to how he should act when people are actually crying in front of him.

Tenya does appreciate the effort. 

“I am not mad or angry at you, so please don’t apologize.” says Shouto after a while, holding Tenya’s face in his hands. “This kind of things happen, we’ll figure it out”

“But I failed, I-“

“Shh,” he interrupts him, his hands still cleaning his tears and caressing his face. “It’s okay, it’s fine… I’m okay, you did okay, we will be okay”

Iida closed his eyes and let himself be comforted by Shouto. It was new, in a way. He had bad days as a teen too and Shouto did his best to make him a gift or show up to him, but he was not familiar with how gentle he could be when it came to this kind of comfort. He felt safe, ridiculously so.

He felt so safe that even if Shouto’s safety was maybe in danger right now because of all those rumors, he didn’t care. Shouto himself seemed preoccupied with other things, so why spiral over it? 

He focused on the touch of his fingertips on his face, one hand warm while the other was colder as they drew little circles on his cheeks affectionately to calm him down.

Funny enough, the gentleness was enough to spur him on to keep crying instead of the opposite. It was cathartic release for him, he had been feeling like a meltdown was rising inside him for the last couple hours. Crying in Shouto’s arms was very much ideal to get him grounded quickly. 

“Shouto…” he spoke through tears, eyes still closed. “I am not uncomfortable with them thinking I’m dating you, by the way. I would never want you to think that could be the case” he felt brave enough to only say that, his knees about to buckle under his own weight at the praise and care of Shouto. 

He could hear the other man do a little positive hum in response. His eyes remained closed, partly in embarrassment and part because he immersed himself into the touch.

“I just… wouldn’t wish this on you ever”

“I get it. But it’s alright, you did your best” Shouto sighs, then adds: “At least the rumor it’s with someone i actually like this time”

Shouto wasn’t exactly new to the idea of having dating rumors or questions of this kind with other heroes, most of them female heroes whom he had shared maybe one or two words and a few glances. But never had there been this much scrutiny or actual proof attached to something of this nature.

Tenya opens up his eyes to look at him, his body jumping a bit as the statement sinks in, and then freezing in place. And not because of the hands’ touch, either. If anything, that was heating him up. He feels himself start to tear up again for some illogical reason he can’t explain, and maybe that’s why he asks:

“You like me? Like, for real?”

Shouto arched an eyebrow and looked at him in quiet confusion. Searching for any kind of sarcasm or double meaning he was unaware of in his face. Anything he missed in their actual conversation that would lead Tenya to asking something like that. Something so stupidly obvious and clear.

He stayed quiet for a little and then, to Tenya’s surprise, Shouto Todoroki laughed at him in his very face.

And laughed. Loud, unabashed. Uncontrollably. His hands quickly went to hold his belly and he kept covering his mouth as he tried to lower his own volume. Giggling in a way Iida was sure had never heard or seen him before.

Shouto kept laughing until his eyes teared up too, he cleans one of his eyes with a finger as he tries to contain his laugh enough to talk.

“You still have to ask?!”

“Well…”

“Tenya, I told you I think you’re hot multiple times!” He tries to catch his breath but little chuckles keep slipping out of him because of the pure absurdity of being confronted over his very obvious, not secret, publicly shown crush. “Lords, I had no idea I could be sending mixed signals”

He likes it more when he’s laughing and teasing him rather than crying, that’s for sure, yet his heart jumps rapidly in his chest at the sound of his unashamed laughter nonetheless. 

Now it was his time to blush, his tears still present on his face. He fidgeted, moving his arms defensively.

“W-Well! Your signals were pretty clear, actually. I just had to be sure, you know.” He starts feeling shy about asking it in the first place. “There’s a very, very big difference between physical attraction and actually liking somebody that way! I thought you were just, I don’t know…”

“What? Sexualizing you?” Shouto snorts, but Tenya doesn’t find it as funny once the heat in his cheeks gets more intense.

“No!! Of course not. I would never take you for that kind of guy. You would never do that!” 

Shouto makes a little noise and gestures vaguely with his hands. “Well, I don’t know about all that…”

Tenya decides, for his sanity, to ignore whatever he was about to say or trying to imply. He interrupts him, the red in his cheeks darkening. “There was a possibility that, I don’t know, maybe you wouldn’t want people to know or…”

“Or…? I really hope you didn’t think I was joking, were you…?” Tenya lowers his gaze in embarrassment and Shouto giggles out loud at him, at the situation, and puts his hands back on the sides of his face. “Tenya, my jokes fucking suck. They suck so bad”

“Language”, he whispers, his voice weak but smiles a little as Shouto goes back to caressing his face and cleaning his tears. “And I didn’t know, okay?! You have put me in new situations very suddenly, I don’t exactly know how to feel or how to act or-“

“Woah, don’t you phrase it like i was the one who started it” Shouto raised an eyebrow, playful. “After all, you’re the one who’s always bringing me close to him to protect me even in public? What am I, your girlfriend…?”

Tenya gasped a little, blushing.

“You are not a girl” is all he responds, not even denying it but trying to remain some dignity.

“Wow. Brilliant observation” 

“Don’t laugh at me, alright?”

“I’m not! I am laughing at the things you say! You are really adorable when you are confused…” he says in a tone Tenya would’ve found infantilizing in almost anyone else, but he could feel it was genuine still. Shouto pinches his cheek then and Tenya bats his hand away, flushed.

The other man smiled at the reaction, his eyes unable to hide his amusement and happiness before continuing: 

“I just figured maybe you needed a little push, that’s why I started being pushy with you. And honestly, when you got all nervous on me, I was really scared you didn’t like me that way at all…” Shouto looked at him, serious this time. “But even with no answer, I kept insisting. Because there was a chance, even if minimal, and I really, really like you”

The words twirled around in his brain. I like you, i like you… with Shouto’s sweet and somehow raspy and soft voice paired with them. He felt so smitten that he was a bit out of it. Tenya found himself at a loss for words when it came to an actual response, so he simply decided to subdue a doubt he’s had for a while. 

“How… how long have you liked me for?”

Shouto releases a sigh, like he had been dreading the question, before starting to do some counting with his fingers for a moment. He counts one, then two, then three, then four, then…

Iida shrieks, holding his hands to put them down in embarrassment. “Stop. Are you counting months or years?” Shouto looks the other way, a bit embarrassed and remains silent. He took that as an answer, but fuck.

“It’s been longer than a single year?!”

“Oh… well, yeah!” He says casually, but his face is now flushed too. “I just put the pieces together very recently, though. But I am pretty sure it’s been a while for me with these feelings, just, you know, being unaware of them”

“That’s…” And Tenya, as it was usual occurrence with Shouto lately, felt himself speechless. 

Tenya, of all people, the man who would talk the ears off of anyone you placed beside him -human or animal alike- was absolutely at a loss of words. So Shouto decided to do the talking for the both of them in the meantime.

“I would never lie about this, Tenya. You know that, right?”

Yes. He was well aware of it by now. That’s why it was so scary…

Tenya looked down at him, blinking slowly like he’s having a hard time processing it, before bending his knees a bit and pressing his face entirely into the shorter man’s shoulder due to his bashfulness. He hid himself in the little crook where his shoulder met his arm and stayed there.

Shouto gasped for a moment before simply putting his hands on his hair, caressing it softly as the taller man hid in the corner of his neck. His hot breath against his skin making his hairs stand up still and giving him goosebumps, his body flushed in the part where they connected skin to skin. 

He smelled like strong cologne, and leaves and lavender and shampoo. If there was also a bit of sweat mixed in there, his nose either didn’t perceive it or didn't find it unappealing.

“Yes. I know that. I trust you to always be honest, it’s what you do best” he says softly as he hides his face, earning a positive 'hum’ sound and a caress in response. 

“Adorable…” he says, matter of fact yet sweetly: “You are adorable. Cute, cute Tenya”

It was all a little too much for Iida, it was overwhelming. In a good way, but still he couldn’t fight how his body ticked and shook against him happily. So much affection and love that he could barely keep it inside, or keep his body still. 

Tenya’s head being so close to his throat made the vibrations of his voice tingle against his skin, his voice sincere and sweet. He could also feel the other man’s pulse, his rapid heart pounding and making him very aware of the fact that Shouto must be feeling as overjoyed as he is. He shivered as he held him closer, almost pathetically. “Oh god, I’m about to start crying again, please stop saying things like that”

Shouto laughs, caressing Iida’s hair as he squeezed him tighter. He made an attempt at a serious tone. “But it’s how I really feel…” he feels Tenya shiver against him as his voice hits his ear due to their closeness. “What’s all the crying for? You about to reject me and can’t figure out how or something?”

“What? No!” He spoke a little too rapidly as he picked his head up to look at him, the reaction made Shouto smirk. He blushes all the way to his ears. “Just… Hey, stop. Don’t look at me like that…”

“Like… how?” He asked, his tone plain and feigning ignorance. But there was a playful tinge in his voice, knowingly teasing him. “Don’t you like my eyes, Tenya…?”

“Stop” he whimpered, embarrassed and then took a deep sigh, trying to steady himself. “I’m crying because I fully convinced myself that this could not happen for a very long time, and now I’m very happy. Therefore, very overwhelmed too. Please don’t bully me, just…” he heaved a sigh. “Give me a moment to breathe”

Shouto hummed, like he was thinking about it but then conceded quite easily. He removed Tenya’s glasses off of his face and rubbed the inflamed corners of his eyes, around his tear ducts while humming a soft song he was unfamiliar with. It was soothing in ways he couldn’t entirely explain or comprehend. Iida blushes and remains in place as he leans closer. 

“Thanks. You are very gentle with me”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” He sounds almost offended by the prospect, Tenya chuckles a bit. And they remain silent for a while, their breaths being the only sound, as they held each other.

Then, he adds: “I have manners, Ten”

“I know that we are having a cute moment, Tenya, but I fear I’m going to need an actual answer to my confession, okay? Whenever you’re ready” Shouto says after a while, feeling the previously tense body calming and slumping against him in serenity. 

But preferably now is the message between the lines, and Tenya is fast enough picking up on it. He knows it’s true, Shouto is the most patient person he knows but he’s also already waited for so long, dancing around Tenya since the dinner party waiting for him to react to his feelings. To give an actual response, because the younger man valued and trusted his words more than his actions at the end of the day.

He’s so pushy…

Tenya would think of complaining if the entire situation didn’t make his head go kind of dizzy with how attractive it was to him for Shouto to force him to be as straightforward with everything as he was. To keep him honest.

Iida feels his heart in his throat, and he tries to find the most stable voice he can force out of his throat to… confess, maybe. Like he should’ve done the very first day he felt this way, years ago, before he even had a name for it. Like he would’ve done if he didn’t feel like the confession would have happened at a very uncomfortable time of Shouto’s life. Like he could’ve done that day at the party and gotten over with it quicker, like he could’ve done today earlier in the garden.

In all the years he’d known him, he always felt like there was never a chance. Never an opportunity or an open door to bring the conversation up without the fear of either looking insane or being extremely inconsiderate, without fear of being the only one who felt things that weren’t there.

Even when Shouto was doing better, and he felt himself repeating over and over how he should come to terms with his affection towards the other man being more than platonic, he would pospone it. Because Shouto is happy, he thought, and I do not dare bring him any additional stress. 

He looked at Shouto right now, stuck in the middle of a scandal that he figured would make him crumble due to anxiety and uncertainty; but there he was, smiling at him, laughing even, big and wide and even his teeth showing. So beautiful that it almost seemed fake, and yet the touch of the other man reassured him of how real he was, how real this was, that this entire thing was really, really happening. 

The world could be crumbling, he was very sure it was crumbling right now outside of the confines of these four walls, but Shouto’s previously anxiety ridden eyes stared only at him.

His task as he promised to protect him back then? It had always been to keep Shouto safe. But his priority is and has always been this. 

For Shouto to be happy.

Would him loving Shouto make him happy? The last few months had made him evaluate this a lot. He just hopes he is up to that task.

He takes a deep breath.

“Shouto…” he feels himself about to start sobbing embarrassingly, but he’s too overwhelmed and too in love to care. He wraps his arms against Shouto tightly, his arms around his neck as he feels his knees kind of giving in, while his eyes look up at him “I like you. I do. So, so much…”

Shouto tears up a little too, and in a normal situation Tenya would be immediately checking if he was okay. The smile that followed promptly erased any worries, as the other man cried with him.

“You’re so cute” he says, absentmindedly. Not paying any attention to the tears rolling down his own cheeks as he cleaned Iida’s only. Focused on him and only him, nobody else in the world mattered, not ever, especially not in that moment. “So cute, so pretty, so handsome, so incredibly beautiful…”

Iida feels himself blush, closing his eyes as he’s unable to deal with the overwhelming feeling and the overstimulation otherwise. He was not used to any of those words, he was not used to this. But Lords, did he want to be a part of this, so he would soldier on. “Hum… You are literally gorgeous, Shouto”

Shouto laughs quietly and then pouts. “Huh. Really, though? Because you are not even looking at me…” he says in a pretend-sad little tone, a smile he was fighting still able to be heard in his voice as he spoke.

Tenya opened his eyes, slowly, like a kid who just got reprimanded and was scared of what he would see. 

He looks at Shouto’s face and his eyes were intense, deep and unrelenting and not giving way even through his obvious nervousness as his face was flushed. He liked him so much he had to say it again. He liked the way the words sounded on his tongue, the taste of honesty was divine.

“I like you, Shouto” His face full of tears and his smile looking small, but so soft and dreamy. “You’re beautiful, you really are…”

Shouto hummed happily, trembling in place with excitement and –in his excitement– grabbed onto Iida’s collar as he pulled him close, but slowly as to not frighten him. Giving him time to get used to the sudden, and extreme closeness.

Iida looked at him, a hand going to rest over Shouto’s own hand on his shirt collar while the other cleaned a happy tear on the shorter man’s face. They enjoyed the closeness for a moment, delighted by the warmth of their bodies against each other before Tenya decided he should do something he had wished to do for a very long time.

It was time.

He had gone through the biggest, scariest emotional rollercaoster, but now it was his time to feel a bit too brave. As he leans in closer, so close that he can feel how Shouto’s breath hitches in response, he manages to whisper, only for his ears to hear:

“May I kiss you? I really, really want to kiss you”

Shouto blushes more, as if being consumed by flames and still being alive was possible somehow. Knowing him and how his anatomy worked, it wouldn’t be all that surprising. 

His eyes are wide and he is taken aback. “I was going to ask you the sa-” He interrupts himself and simply nods fast, and hard. Like a puppet who might make its own head fall from its neck at any moment. 

“Y-Yeah.” He stutters after finding his own voice, almost pathetically. “Sure. Totally, if you really want to. I’d love to kiss you, I mean. But you don’t have to if you don’t wa-“

He rambled a little and before he could get further down a hole of shyness, Iida moves slightly and interrupts him, closing the gap between them to do what he has only ever dared to dream of doing since he was a teenager.

He allows himself the pleasure, the joy of kissing Shouto Todoroki.

The other man gasps a little against his mouth, and then cedes into it. Not even mad at his rambling being interrupted. This was real, and Shouto doesn’t fight the tears that threaten to spill over the intensity of finally getting to taste Iida’s lips. What use would it have?

Soft, yet firm and sweet… His lips were better and more surrealistically addicting that he had ever dreamed or fantasized about in his entire life, it was all Tenya could ever ask for and more.

The gentle, lingering touch of the others’ lips remained on their minds as they pulled away slowly. Tenya’s legs felt like jelly and he felt himself about to fall over just from this light touch on his lips, Shouto puts his hands in the small of his back, holding him upright as he giggles softly against his mouth.

“I almost let you fall. You okay?”

“I just got too excited” he confesses, embarrassed. 

Shouto’s hands against his skin felt hot, yet not enough to actually burn him. He felt like he was in a fairytale, kissing a prince and being held from falling ever so gently. He places his hands on his shoulders, trying to keep himself steady. He feels the agile and slender hands placing themselves on his waist to help him, earning a little gasp of surprise from the taller man at his forwardness.

His reaction at a simple touch on his waist earns him a little laugh from Shouto before his face turned a bit more serious. 

“Tenya, I think you are shivering”

He says it not trying to accuse him or tease him, just observational. Tenya nods. “Yeah, I do that sometimes… It’s almost like my body is revving up. Is it weird?”

“Are you joking? Don’t let Izuku know about this, he’ll go insane. That’s the cutest thing I’ve heard.” His tendency to go towards cuteness aggression was actually sweet. 

“Is it?”

“Yeah. Do you know what causes it?” He bumps his chest against Tenya’s, holding him impossibly closer just to feel the slight tremble starting up in his chest. It felt like the movement of a car engine while it’s being turned on. “Oh gods, your chest really is purring. Are you a cat?”

“No, I am not a cat. I’m pretty sure it’s cause of my engine anatomy and not anything else,” he blushed, he knows damn well how Shouto likes cats so it doesn’t surprise him that he actually looks disillusioned at the fact that he’s not part-cat. “This doesn’t happen often, haven’t had it happen since… maybe early high school?”

”What causes it?”

He blushes. “Well, it’s a bit embarrassing to say out loud…”

Shouto smirks at him, nodding. He tries to calm his curiosity when it comes to the parts of Tenya’s anatomy he was unaware of. He would have time to ask about them later on. But he must ask one more question, “Am I the one causing it?”

“Well. Do you want to find out?”

Their eyes connect again and, as if sending a command telepathically to each other, they reunite lips again, this time more determined and less shyly.

A lot less shyly.

Shouto takes one of his hands and holds onto his face, hard, like he was afraid he might pull away any second and Tenya holds his body close to ensure him that, despite his former doubts, he would not go anywhere. He kisses him mad, crazily. And Shouto, as serene as he may seem to the regular untrained eye, responded even more in need than him. Hungry for a chance like this, a starvation he had been pushed into without even knowing.

Shouto had waited for so long, and Iida had denied himself so much that this felt fair, and it felt surreal. They held onto each other, holding like breaking apart might make them wake up from the best dream they’ve ever had. They kiss, and they bite each other’s lips, and they whisper little apologies into each other’s mouths before kissing again.

Their lips bruising a bit and feeling sore under the pressure but they remain way too focused on each other rather than any other thing, living or otherwise. Starving for the one physical kind of thing they never believed they could share. He feels that distinct purring, the starting of an engine start again softly in his chest.

And Shouto puts his hands in his chest, then his face, then his hair, like he cannot get enough of him. Like he needs to make sure Tenya is actually there with him. He is not sure where to touch, yet he lets his hands wonder to keep reminding himself that this is really happening to him. 

He touches like he doesn’t feel as close as he can get to the other man, who just gasps pathetically but lovingly against his lips and gladly lets himself be manhandled a little bit into the rough, yet loving kiss.

He fixes his hands on Shouto’s waist before sliding them under his shirt and having his fingertips wander up and down his back, feeling him shiver against his touch and whisper positive hums in his mouth to spur him on to do whatever, anything that he wanted just as long as He. Kept. Kissing. Him. 

By the time they pulled away, none of them both were keeping count of how many times their lips had broke apart and then connected again, feeling a little dizzy. Trying to catch their breaths and regain their composure while looking at their surroundings, confused at how they had gotten to the other side of the room while their bodies were in that love daze. 

They look at the other, disconcerted, as each of them examined the other’s face. Teary eyed, their faces still wet, the usually meticulously styled hair on Tenya now messy and wild, and Shouto’s hair looking like he had wrestled someone; their lips red and tear-ducts inflamed as they blushed like children on a sunny day. 

It was Shouto’s turn to break the silence:

“You look so messed up right now”

His voice sounded too whipped and hungry and loving for it to have been a complaint or an insult, his eyes still intense as always. He liked how the other man looked like that, completely disheveled. 

Tenya laughed at that, rolling his eyes as he kissed the tip of his nose, Shouto hummed happily.

”You look even more disheveled, just so you know” he says, but he doesn’t actually know if it’s true. He doesn’t have his glasses on. Tenya sighs contently, vision impaired and all. “God, I’ve wanted to do that for so long.”

It was Shouto’s turn now to be curious, he arched a brow slightly. “How long are we talking about?”

Tenya blushes even more, his gaze looking the other way. “Well…”

“Come on, it’s not like you’ve liked me for longer than I’ve liked you! I’ve had a crush since our third year, maybe since graduation”

He looks down at the ground, remaining quiet for a while before talking in a quiet voice. 

“Second”

“Hm?”

He fidgets, playing with his fingers before continuing. “Shouto Todoroki, I’ve had a crush on you since approximately our second year of high school.”

The look on Shouto’s face is hard to describe, but the amusement and excitement at the revelation is evident. 

Shouto laughs. “You’re lying…. Before the war?” He nods. “You’ve liked me all this time?”

Seeing as Tenya immediately goes up to try and adjust his glasses, which were no longer in his face in the first place, he takes that nervousness as confirmation for the fact that Tenya indeed has liked him for… 

Almost a decade. The concept in and of itself sounds so unreal and foreign to his ears.

“I’m sorry I never noticed! It must have been stressful, right…?”

“Well, a tiny bit. Most of the time it was… quite lovely.” he admits, kind of sheepishly. “It’s fun liking you”

Shouto smiles at him, “Lords, you should have spoken sooner. We could’ve been a thing, Tenya… High school sweethearts!”

Tenya snorts, and says playfully but still a bit shy: “My apologies. I just didn’t know for sure if you had a space for crushes in the middle of your teenage angst”

He gasps, “Oh, is that how you refer to the most traumatic years of my life? Despicable, despicable man…” he tries to fake being mad at his words but his face betrays him and he smiles. “God, why do I like you so much”

He goes on his tippy toes and leaves a little kiss on his lips, Tenya laughs into the kiss. “I could ask you the same question…”

“But, you know, I guess after the war was maybe not the best time for confessing” he concedes, shrugging. 

“You tell me… It was hard to pretend I didn’t like you for all that time!” 

He steals another kiss from Shouto and he feels his body vibrating and straight up levitating from the earth as the other man laughs against his lips. Shouto goes in to kiss him again but stops, “What are we going to do with the press, though?”

“Hm. Let’s not think about it.” He says, and Shouto couldn’t exactly hide his surprise at how uncharacteristic it was of him. Tenya seemed way too entranced by staring at his eyes, his hands on Shouto’s face. “We could think of what to say later, I want to enjoy you”

He blushes, cold cheek turning more pink than his hot side. He nods, giving in. “I suppose we could do that later, alright”

“I’ve been dreaming of this for so long…” he whispers, swooning. 

His fingers doing circles on Shouto’s cheeks and connecting the moles on his skin like little constellations. It was oddly intimate. They traced gently along the skin of his eye, over his scar.

He continues, “I don’t want anything to distract me from this right now.”

“Aw. Really…? You’ve been dreaming about it?” Shouto whispered, playfully as he wrapped his arms around his neck. “Can you describe it without leaving any detail? And did it happen every night? What was I doing in those dreams? Tell me, baby. Come on, I won’t judge…”

“Stop. Did you just call me bab-“ he interrupted himself, before laughing loud and happily. “God, you’re so annoying, I hate you…” and as Shouto began to laugh again, he bites on his lips softly and figures this was the best way to shut him up ever and kisses him all over again.

Hands all over each other, a kiss turning into a bite then into a kiss again, their knees both feeling like giving up so they rest on the sofa and continue kissing.

And they kiss again and again and again, until the sun hides from them.

The second he opens his eyes again and remembers the prior night, he starts vibrating with joy. Shouto looks at the other man, his arms wrapped around his torso and his head on his chest.

The most beautiful and tiniest ray of sunshine slipped between the curtains of his bedroom, and the air warmth of the other man’s body made him feel extremely happy.

He tries to play with his hair, the blueish locks that never seemed out of place before but seemed entirely messy now, but as lightly as he could; he knew how easy it was to wake Tenya up. 

“What hour is it?”

He startles a bit, but smiles at him when Tenya looks down at him. “Uh, around seven”

“It’s been a while since I slept this much” he sighs as he fixes the bed head on the other man, to no avail, the hair shifted back to the place it was before. 

“It’s been a while since I slept so well…”

Tenya chuckles at that, a red tint on his cheeks. He shifts under the covers so he can look at him, laying on his side. “You’re welcome…?”

His fingers begin to dance across Tenya’s chest, but he kept staring into his eyes. “I should just marry you so I sleep this good every night, don't you think?”

Tenya eyes shine, a flush going now up to his ears. “Do you really mean that?”

“Yeah, sure” Shouto thinks about it for a second and then his eyes widen, catching what he had just blurted out. “Not now, I mean! I’m not asking it right now. I don’t even have a ring, Ten!”

“I get it, don’t worry” he laughs adorably, nuzzling his face against Shouto’s pale and naked torso. The nickname was also adorable, so hiding his face helped hide the flush rising in his face. “But someday, yeah?”

Shouto nods. “Definitely, someday. Although I would marry you right now if you wanted, I swear, but you know…”

Tenya’s chest vibrates again. Happiness. He started to understand what emotions caused the purring now, especially after all the vibrating Tenya did last night against his chest as they made out on his bed. 

When he asked about it before going to bed, to test his theory, Iida only blushed and kicked his legs under the covers in embarrassment. 

“Don’t ask about it. It’s getting late, we should sleep…”

But he could still feel the remnants of the little earthquake that his chest was a few seconds ago. “It happens because you like me, doesn’t it?”

”Shouto…” was all he said, his voice trying its best to sound mad and assertive but failing due to how obviously filled with affection it was. “No more questions”

Shouto was aware of how he didn’t deny it, so he smiled and conceded him the calmness he wanted. He snuggled up against him and they fell asleep. 

Now that they were here, in the tranquility of his bedroom, Iida looking so happy yet so bashful, he couldn’t begin to understand how on earth had he gotten so lucky. Did the gods he pissed off when he was born, the ones who gave him so much pain, finally gotten over it? If so, then he will remain grateful every single day.

“Marriage…” Tenya says, breaking the silence and snapping him out of his train of thought. He played with the hair at the back of his bicolored nape and smiled sweetly. His eyes looked at him full of joy and light. “It can wait”

For Shouto, who spent most of his early life wondering if there would be a future he could dream of and make his own, he found himself oddly relieved for once at the thought of his eventual life if it included Tenya in it. Maybe he had been wrong.

”Yes.” He agreed, Tenya pulled him into a little kiss and he smiled against his lips. Soft, so fucking soft. “I suppose it can wait”

Maybe tomorrow was worth waiting for.