A/N
Thank you all for 30K reads, and for your continued support!

I wanted to ask you all of you: would you like to get Todoroki a present for your one month anniversary, and if so, what?

If you agree with one of the comments, please, make sure to say so! I thought it might be exciting to let you guys decide, so all ideas are more than welcome :))

---

You hugged your pillow, as you brought your mobile phone closer to your ear. You buried yourself in a den of pillows and your duvet in your dark room before you gave your childhood friend a call.

Chiharu's sniffles over the line reminded you of the many times you had helped her pick up the broken pieces of her when Aoi had let her down. "I... (y/n), maybe, I should let him explain himself? He's literally been so good to me recently."

Those shattered dreams of love made your heart sink. "So, you're telling me you want to forgive him, Chi?"

"If... if I hadn't forgiven you, we wouldn't be friends now," she said, her tone softening with sorrow as she got to the end of her sentence.

You tightened your grip on your pillow, aiming to repress those distressing memories. They reminded you of why the children at your primary school had always avoided you, and why Chiharu had been your only friend before you started at U.A. "I-I didn't want to hurt you at that time."

"I know, I know. Sorry, (y/n). I shouldn't have mentioned it. There's literally no point thinking about that now."

"Yeah, there's no going back. I'm so sorry, Chi. I really am." I need to be strong for her. But you could almost feel your hand wiping her tears off her gullible face, as tears welled in your own eyes. What happened that day would always be a part of you.

Someone knocked on your door. Hearing Ochaco's sweet voice as she bumped your door open startled you. You rubbed your eyes roughly, so you could tell her that you wouldn't be having dinner today.

You cleared your throat as you pushed the door, leaving a small gap so she could hear you. You didn't want Ochaco to see you in this state. "I'm not hungry today. Thanks for coming to get me, though."

"Sure, sure!" Ochaco beamed, putting her hands behind her back. For the faintest of moments, she wondered if she heard your voice break, but she brushed it off. "No problem. I'll let Mr Aizawa know."

---

Using your school blazer as a blanket, you lied on the school's rooftop's floor, looking up to the midday sky. The clouds looked as if they were made out of cotton, and brought you a sense of safety, unlike you had ever experienced in the past few months.

A smile broke on your lips as Todoroki leaned in from his seated position. Though his face was upside down, he furrowed his eyebrows. This let you know that he wasn't happy with having his long bangs tied up with your hair tie at the top of his forehead. Yet, if he had seen himself in the mirror, or even in a picture, you wondered if it would have made him laugh, too.

"You know, you shouldn't frown like that. It doesn't look good on you." You reached out to him, touching his nose before quickly retracting your hand.

Todoroki staggered backwards. "What are you doing, (y/n)?" He tilted his head to the side, still looking down at you.

You shrugged your shoulders, feeling some embarrassment set into you. "Boop?"

"I think I may know what you mean," he said, as he took off his blazer and placed it on the floor so he could lie next to you.

Your back stiffened as you heard him shuffling closer to you. From the top of the building, you could see students playing with a ball in the field, making you doubt whether anyone could see you now. You hadn't been caught at the school's rooftop yet, even though you often went up there with Todoroki after lunch.

Feeling Todoroki's warmth by your side, you spotted a cloud which seemed to have rabbit ears. "Hey, Sho. Doesn't that cloud there look like a bunny?"

He pressed his lips together, shaking his head. "I believe... it looks like All Might."

Your laughter made him look to his side, calmness washing over him as he admired you. Catching on to Todoroki's silence, you looked at him with care. Your (e/c) eyes sparkled with such life that it made him wonder: why when you were this close, he felt like getting even closer?

"Also, I can take my hair tie out of your hair now if you want. I'm not sure how I managed to convince you in the first place."

Todoroki brought his hand to his forehead. "Well, I guess you were quite persuasive."

"Not enough to let me take a picture of you, though."

"But (y/n), that would've meant that you would need to leave, and I... didn't want that. Even now..." Tentatively, Todoroki reached out to you and booped your nose. "I don't want you to go to see Recovery Girl. Isn't that selfish of me?"

How does he manage to be so cute, even with such a stern expression? You felt your cheeks heat up, still incredulous as you touched your nose to confirm if this was happening. "I'm sorry to disappoint, but I really gotta go. I know it's just some check-ups, but I'd like to know for sure that my quirk is good to go. Recovery Girl insisted on it as well, because of the Provisional License exam coming up and all."

Todoroki sat up, crossing his legs as you mimicked his actions.

You straightened your school skirt before leaning forwards. You didn't notice that you were giving him the wrong signal, as he closed his eyes, waiting for you.

However, instead of feeling your lips pressed against his, he felt your hands removing the hair tie from his fragrant, luscious hair.

As you stood up, Todoroki averted his gaze from you. "You okay, Sho?"

"Yeah," he mumbled, crestfallen. "I'm not very experienced, so sometimes I'm not sure whether I'm doing this right."

You pointed at yourself at then at him, referring to your current relationship. Saturday's events had established a different note, removing some barriers between the two of you. That didn't take away the fact that you still wanted to understand him better.

"No," Todoroki beckoned to you before pulling you closer together by the wrist. Your eyes widened at his sudden advances, as you stumbled forward. When your face was at a hand's length from his, he whispered, "I meant this."

He pulled you in again, his warm breath fanning over your lips, making your knees give in. Todoroki closed his eyes once again, nearly missing you. His frustration with himself almost overtook him, but he could hear the crinkling of your smile as you inclined your face towards his. Even though you knew you would be late if you didn't leave now, you allowed Todoroki to cup your face with his left hand, your stomach twisting in a knot.

You flinched a little when his hand heated up. Did he... activate his quirk? Of course, he wouldn't accidentally set anything on fire. Breathing deeply, he remained sitting as if he still had a world of things to learn, not from you, but with you. With all the teasing he managed to pull off, you wanted to tease him back so badly. Yet, after you broke the kiss, you found yourself gasping, caught between a myriad of emotions. You battled with yourself whether you should leave now that you were in his snug arms.

"I'm sorry, Sho. I'll see you later, yeah?" Pushing yourself off the ground, you waved him goodbye.

Only when he put his hand against his forehead to steady himself, he noticed how warm he had let it become. The heat that raised to his face almost made him thankful that you had just left, as he shook his head sideways. "You should've said something, (y/n)," Todoroki mused.

---

You dashed down the stairs until you crossed paths with the explosive ash-blond boy. Though you got along slightly better these days, it surprised you to see that his usual scowl had gone missing in action. Instead, he shoved his hands in his pockets, concern showing out of the corner of his eye.

When he was about to saunter away from you, he heard you give a few more steps down until you got to the hallway. He was already mad with the fact that you appeared from where he assumed you disappeared with Todoroki most lunchtimes. But what drove him over the edge was remembering how you had skipped dinner the same day you had been out with Todoroki. "Hey, cheater," Bakugo said in his husky voice.

Because of everything that had only just gone down a few days ago with Chiharu, getting called a 'cheater' did not sit well with you. "Don't call me that."

Bakugo turned to face you, the autumn sunlight seeping through the tall windows. "What now? Did you fuckin' catch Icy-Hot's depression?"

You rolled your eyes. "Bakugo, don't say anything bad about him. It's really none of your business."

Turning on your heel, you braced yourself for the usual stream of swearing that accompanied his every word. Nevertheless, what he said next rattled you, "And here I was thinking we had some shared business. Look, if he's fuckin' upsetting you again--"

You looked at him over your shoulder. "Are you serious? What did you expect? For me to talk badly behind Shoto's back because we got paired up for today's training exercise?"

That was enough to set Bakugo off. His footsteps resounded in the hallway as he approached you. He grabbed your shirt, lifting you off the ground. "Don't fuckin' taunt me. You've never even fuckin' seen shit. Even when your lovely fuckin' Todoroki gave you the cold shoulder, you're always fuckin' looking out for him."

Seeing the veins popping from his face as he strained his voice to yell at you yet again, you snapped. Something inside you just snapped, tired of being relentlessly pushed by him. You gritted your teeth. "Put me down, Bakugo."

"You don't even know about half the bullcrap I've done for you. No. You're too fuckin' blind to notice--"

"I said, put me down!" With your blood boiling, you directed some of your life energy to your arms. You shoved him to set yourself free of his firm grip. In the blink of an eye, he crashed on the ground, sliding back until his back hit the lockers.

Your hands tightened into fists as you became aware of Todoroki's familiar presence behind you. Todoroki's eyes strayed from you to Bakugo, who rubbed the back of his head with his hand. A few books landed on him from the now wrecked locker.

"I'm sorry," you muttered. You looked down at your trembling hands, as they glowed with such a breath-taking light. Just like the day you let your childhood friend down the most, you feared that you had damaged your relationship with the half-and-half boy. All with one swift act of violence.

As you extended your hand to help Bakugo up, you couldn't help but feel Todoroki's attentive, hardened gaze burning a hole through your back. The last thing you wanted to let Todoroki see was that you could react like this, given that someone pushed the right button.

Bakugo glared at your hand in contempt before he stood up from the floor. Again, in trying to help you, he had hurt you. Though he wished to break out of that hot-headed habit, he shoved his hands in his pockets and stormed off.

Even as Todoroki placed his hand on your shoulder, you couldn't stop shaking, those echoes of the past threatening to come back after all these years. How Chiharu's small body lied lifeless on the floor, her strawberry blonde hair hiding her vacant coral eyes. How proud you had been of your quirk only a week before that happened. Although you willed those harrowing memories back into a remote corner of your mind, deep inside, you knew you couldn't ever forget them.

You put your hand on top of Todoroki's, reassuring him that you were okay, and perhaps, that you would let him know more about what really happened that grim day in time.