Work Text:
—
you’ve heard a thousand love stories told a thousand different ways, with teary eyed confessions on a battlefield or explosive professions of adoration under a moonlit sky, but this story, however, is not that story at all.
this is a story of an extended hand, a knowing smile, a spot saved on the couch. it’s bumping shoulders in the hall, eye contact in a dark room, whispers over the phone. it’s one boy who never quite learned how to love, and one who has an abundance of love to share.
it’s learning how to be gentle, how to accept gentleness. it’s falling slowly, smoothly, oblivious.
it’s doing something completely mundane, like reading manga at one in the morning on a school night. it’s hearing a muffled bit of laughter, it’s catching the light in their eyes, it’s seeing a special smile they’ve reserved only for you, and realizing: oh shit.
there is no particular starting point, but it goes a little bit like this:
—
“poor little shoto todoroki. how tragic.”
heat and hate and rage washes over him, suffocating, crushing, inescapable. hands clasp as his ankles, his elbows, his throat. the pressure is unbearable, his skin is roasting, it’s falling apart, he’s crumbling at the seams, he’s—
“there’s nowhere to run.”
it’s too hot too hot too hot—
todoroki jolts up, sweat gluing his shirt to his spine, blanket trapping his legs to the bed. it’s too much, too hot. there’s no air—
he tosses the blanket back and jumps out of bed, tearing the shirt over his head, throwing it as far away as possible as his chest heaves.
“what’ll your friends think when—“
“shut up, shut up,” todoroki hisses, doubling forward until he’s on his knees, hands tearing through red and white hair. “you’re fine. you’re fine .”
it’s hard to breathe.
help, call for help, don't just sit here, don't just—
scrambling, todoroki crawls across the floor, tossing blankets and pillows out of the way. he finds his phone and unlocks it, ignoring the shake in his hands, the way his fingers can’t seem to hit the right buttons, and opens his contacts.
“fine, fine, fine,” he mutters. the clock says 2:37 am. shit. he takes the deepest breath his lungs will allow and hits call on the only name he’s sure might be awake.
one ring. doubles over again. two rings. presses his forehead into the floorboards. three rings. his throat catches.
“ todoroki, holy shit, dude, whats— “
“sero, oh—“ another deep breath. “sero. i know it’s late, i’m sorry, i just—“
“ woah, woah, slow down. todoroki, what’s wrong? ”
“nightmare,” todoroki hisses, leaning back up and clutching the phone with both hands. “wasn't fast enough. sorry—“
“hey,” sero interrupts him, sounding more and more awake by the second. “don't apologize, okay? you’re gonna be alright. listen, you need to get your breathing under control. i’ll help you.”
sero’s voice alone, anyone’s voice at all , makes todoroki feel grounded to the earth. sero is calm and cool as he helps todoroki with his breathing, counting and humming. when he’s finally able to see straight, todoroki sits cross legged on his bed, still gripping the phone tight.
“sorry for waking you up,” todoroki mumbles, relishing in the clearness of his lungs. every nerve still shakes. “um—didn’t know what else to do.”
what he doesn’t say is: for some reason, you always know exactly what to say to help people feel better, in any situation at all.
sero is quiet for a brief moment. todoroki can almost hear him smile. “ like i said, man, you don’t need to apologize. ” a pause. “ you sure you’re alright? ”
“yeah.” todoroki runs a cool hand down his face. his lights are on now. he sits back on his bed, shoulder blades meeting the wall. on the other side, sero sits in a similar position. “i’m okay now.”
“ if you need anything else, ” sero murmurs, voice gentle, “ anything at all, you can—you can come to me. doesn’t matter what it is. or what time it is. ”
something about sero’s tone, his word choice, something about the late hour, about the nerves still dancing just beneath todoroki’s skin… he smiles, in spite of himself.
—
they never really talk about it after they hang up. not off the phone, and certainly not in broad daylight. talking about it meant admitting it out loud and—well, todoroki has a hard time thinking about any nightmares at all after he finally catches his breath. it’s something he’d rather ignore. sero understands.
“ did you have another nightmare?”
“please just—talk to me. about anything else.”
shortly after that, classes got harder, tests more difficult, and sero turned to todoroki for aid. smoothly, nonchalantly , of course, because sero didn’t need anyone to know that if he didn’t get extra studying in he might just drown. he had briefly considered asking to join kirishima on his study sessions with bakugo before he saw how the blonde would take to literally beating the knowledge into kirishima’s poor head.
sort of unrelated, sero had stumbled in on them in the kitchen blushing under those buzzing fluorescent lights, practically nose to nose.
bakugo was furious, furious enough to deny sero extra help with his homework, that’s for sure. then there was kirishima, who couldn’t look sero in the eye for the remainder of that day.
sero’s still not sure why both of them had looked so embarrassed. it’s not like he hasn’t noticed they’d been fooling around, stealing glances across the common room and holding hands under the cafeteria table for weeks on end now. did they honestly think they were being sneaky?
not only that, but sero’s pretty sure bakugo’ll never let anyone else into his room aside from kirishima. not to study, and certainly not to peek at his limited edition all might posters. sero’s positive he wasn’t supposed to know about the posters, but kirishima kinda has a loud mouth.
and anyway, todoroki is much more patient.
“have you gotten number twelve yet?”
“hm? oh, uh, no. i’m kinda confused on this part right here, but—“
“i’ll walk you through it.”
most of the time, the studying took place downstairs in the common area. however, there were times when downstairs was just too loud . so naturally...
todoroki’s room is quiet. peaceful. also super fuckin’ fancy. needless to say, work is easier to accomplish in the peace of his space.
except for when it’s not.
“sero, focus on your work.”
“wh-huh? i’m focusing! just—“
“you were trying to balance that pencil on your nose.”
“still counts as focusing, roki.”
turns out todoroki makes a great tutor when sero actually pays attention.
—
sero takes it upon himself to start sharing his favorite manga after catching todoroki in the courtyard curled up with a familiar cover peeking through his fingers.
they liked to read a lot of the same things, they’d learned, but sero always had something new to show todoroki, and todoroki always had a classic to introduce to sero. it was a good back and forth, an excuse to escape their loud classmates and sit in companionable silence and read until they felt they’d go cross eyed.
todoroki sits on sero’s multicolored rug, hugging his knees to his chest. his chin rests on one knee, idly flipping the page of some romance manga sero claims is the best. his eyes find the spidery boy twisting around in his hammock, sticking his legs in the air and shifting until his head is upside down.
it’s an odd position, and todoroki has no idea why he refuses to sit still, but sero dips his head even further until his hair meets the floor, until dark eyes find blue and gray.
then he smiles, and time seems to slow.
“gettin’ to the good part yet?” sero asks, kicking his legs back and forth above him. his face starts to turn a little red. todoroki’s never really seen his forehead before.
todoroki blinks. time returns to normal. he goes back to his page. “all the blood’s rushing to your head.”
sero doesn’t seem to notice todoroki’s brief pause. if he does, he doesn’t spend too much time thinking about it. he smiles until todoroki considers asking if his cheeks hurt.
“you're deflecting. that’s deflecting, right? it’s gotta be. you’re totally deflecting, roki.”
maybe being upside down is affecting sero’s eyesight, but are todoroki’s cheeks a little pink?
it’s an excuse for them both to disconnect from the world, to indulge in something unreal, to explore another world with all its wonders and secrets and forbidden loves.
—
sero is in the middle of popping ungodly amounts of popcorn when todoroki makes his way into the common area. his classmates are either chasing each other around the couches, already trying to decide on a movie, or on the phone convincing the rest of them upstairs to come down and join them.
sero grins to himself when he thinks he hears mineta’s sly voice followed by a series of warning sparks from their friendly neighborhood bakugo. iida and kirishima’s voices follow soon after.
“do you need help in here?” a voice asks, startling sero out of his half daze.
“jesus, dude!” he chokes, clutching his chest. “you scared the hell out of me!”
todoroki is unphased, sidling up to sero and taking off the plastic covers of the remaining three bags of popcorn he still needs to pop. “guess i should’ve knocked?” he says, lip quirked just a bit.
after sero catches his breath (there’s an unholy screech from the living room that could only come from kaminari), he jostles todoroki with his shoulder.
“i saved us a spot,” sero says.
by saved, he means he stretched two long pieces of tape across one of the smaller couches in a big X shape. it was todoroki’s favorite couch, and sero was tired of seeing him show up last and have to sit on the floor. kaminari had been more than offended when sero told him the spot was already reserved.
sero didn’t see bakugo eyeball him suspiciously.
“i didn't know any of these heathens actually honored saved seats,” todoroki replied, working side by side with sero.
sero grins again, eyes bright. it’s warm, radiant. it’s lethal. todoroki bites his cheek to keep from grinning back.
“they’ll honor it if they don’t wanna get taped to the ceiling in their sleep, don’t you think?”
todoroki laughs at that. together, they exit the kitchen with their arms full of their own snacks. todoroki’s eyes find a giant X made out of tape on his favorite couch , and dips his head a little to smile to himself.
mina and kaminari sprint up to sero, who grins easily at them, too. kaminari has sparks in his eyes, but that might just be excess energy from whatever twisted game of tag they’d been playing before todoroki and sero exited the kitchen.
“are those for me ?” kaminari gasps. “oh, hanta , you’re too kind!”
sero turns his arms away, rolling his eyes lightly. mina has already snuck behind him and is trying to tease a can of pop out of his grasp. he attempts to twist, tries to back away before they get their grubby little hands on his hard earned snacks, when he backs into kirishima instead. the redhead is already smirking mischievously before he joins the other two offenders on their quest to rob sero blind.
bakugo blows right past them, naturally. “you’re in my way, damn kids !”
todoroki smiles at that, too. damn kids. there’s a lot to smile about tonight. he takes away the tape X and sits cross legged on his saved spot. momo has the remote to the tv, and jirou is whispering movie titles in her ear.
“this seat taken?” sero asks, but he plops down next to the multicolored boy anyway. he managed to make it to his spot with nearly all his snacks. mina got a hold of the popcorn. todoroki notices, and offers to share with him.
it takes them awhile, but eventually the whole class makes their way into the common area, strewn across seats and the floor, snacks and drinks everywhere. they decide on some ridiculous romantic comedy movie. on their way in, midoriya and uraraka both ruffle todoroki’s hair as they walk past, and kirishima plants a kiss at the top of sero’s head.
sero and todoroki spend the entire night whispering their predictions for the end of the movie, making fun of terrible monologuing, brushing knees and shoving shoulders. it’s comfortable, easy. it’s fun.
“stupid icyhot,” bakugo grumbles to kirishima later on that night, in the quiet of kirishima’s room. “stupid soy sauce.”
“hm?”
“they’re both fuckin’ stupid .”
“oh yeah?” sometimes it takes bakugo a minute to figure out what exactly he’s trying to say. kirishima waits for him, always.
“fucking—dumbasses don’t even realize .”
kirishima feels his lips threaten to split in a grin, sitting at the edge of his bed. he watches bakugo pace. “you noticed, too?”
bakugo turns to him, eyes ablaze as they always were. he’s just within arms length. “of course i realized. only an idiot wouldn’t notice that . and they’re fuckin’ stupid! it’s gonna be a pain in the ass to watch them—watch them just—“
“dance around it?” kirishima suggests.
“fuckin’ stupid ,” bakugo hisses again.
then when he throws his hands up, kirishima wraps his arms around bakugo’s thighs and pulls him close. it’s instinct at this point, to pull him closer, pull him out of his head.
they both used to be the idiots in question, dancing around the truth, around what they really wanted.
“give them time,” kirishima mumbles, cheek pressed to bakugo’s stomach. the blond’s hands rest on his shoulders. “they'll figure it out if and when they need to.”
kirishima tilts his head back, observing bakugo’s frown.
“if i have to watch those two losers pine —“ bakugo pretends to gag, sticking out his tongue.
laughing gently and taking bakugo’s collar, kirishima pulls him down until their lips meet. he kisses him like he means it, to remind him that they were both pining losers at one point.
in his own bed down the hall, sero sleeps soundly, curled around todoroki’s favorite manga. he’s read it three times now, but it never seems to get old. just next door, todoroki sleeps with his back pressed to the wall separating their rooms. he doesn’t dream, not this time.
—
before the war.
todoroki goes several weeks without any dreams at all. it’s strange, but you’ll never catch him complaining.
this night, however, is different. todoroki knew it had been too good to be true when he reached nearly two months without a nightmare. except, this wasn’t exactly a nightmare. his head was dark, no visions or anything, only voices and pressure on his chest.
the voices sound a lot like his siblings when they were much younger. fuyumi is whispering and telling them to be quiet, natsuo is whimpering about just wanting to get some sleep. even touya is there, mumbling something about them being too young to be so tired. todoroki doesn’t really know if it’s a dream or a memory.
it shifts, and endeavor’s voice crowds in, abrupt and loud enough to make a barely asleep todoroki flinch. that’s when the weight settles on his chest.
“it wasn’t enough. it’ll never be enough! we’ll all die before—“
dread floods through him, and todoroki forces himself awake before that dream/memory thing gets the chance to evolve into something worse. he pushes his knuckles into his sternum, trying to chase away the anxiety.
his room is dark. moonlight shines in through the cracks in his slightly open curtains, and the night is calm. it’s so quiet, there’s a ringing in his ears. all he can hear is his own heartbeat.
todoroki reaches for his phone to check the time, frowning when he sees it’s not even midnight yet. there’s a text from iida in the class groupchat telling them all to get to bed, sent just after nine. there’s also a series of responses but todoroki’s eyes can’t adjust enough to see them clearly.
why had i dreamt of my family? was it a dream, or was it a memory? why can i remember touya’s voice so clearly?
a thud from next door snaps him out of his thoughts. a thud coming from sero’s room meant that he was still awake and dropped something, or asleep and had fallen out of bed.
seeing as it wasn’t even midnight, todoroki had a sneaking suspicion that the boy next door was definitely awake.
todoroki decides to call him.
two rings later, sero answers.
“ you’re awake? ” he says, instead of hello. he sounds a little disheveled. maybe he had fallen out of bed.
“can’t sleep,” todoroki responds honestly. “why are you still up?”
sero huffs, half a laugh. “ was startin’ to pass out and rolled out of bed .”
“i was wondering what that sound was.”
“ did you—did you have another nightmare? ”
todoroki hums, turns toward the wall separating them. “not really. it was a memory, i think. of my siblings. but then—then uh, my dad's voice came in and this huge weight settled on my chest,” todoroki whispers, planting his palm on the cool wall. “can’t seem to shake the feeling of—well, of something bad coming, i guess.”
sero seems to consider this, because it takes him a moment to respond. todoroki hears him shift and wonders if he’s looking at the wall, too.
“ with what’s been going on our entire school year, bad just feels inevitable ,” he huffs again, and todoroki can tell he’s a little bothered. “ it shouldn’t surprise us at this point, but… ”
“ but .” todoroki echoes. another pause. todoroki’s hand drops. even quieter than before, he says, “sero?”
“ todoroki .”
“i wanted to say, um, thank you.”
there. there it is.
“ wh—for what? ” sero stumbles.
for what? todoroki hadn't thought this far ahead. he hadn’t expected to say thank you to begin with, though it was long past due.
“for everything. the… this . the calls. sharing your manga with me. studying. the saved seats, you know. all of it.”
what he doesn’t say is: i’ve started looking for you in every room i enter. i think of your voice when i wake up in a panic. i keep finding myself wishing you were closer. even now, as i stare as this stupid wall. i don't know when this started, this wanting. is that how you’d define it? wanting? i don't know if i ever want it to stop. i don't know what to do about it.
sero seems to pull the phone away from himself, and todoroki catches a—a sniffle? maybe? maybe he shouldn’t have said anything at all. it’s late, maybe he’s just saying things to fill the air—
“ dammit, roki, ” sero hisses, voice sounding a little far away. “ you’re gonna make me cry .”
todoroki sits up a little straight. “oh, please don’t cry,” he rushes to say. “that’s not what i intended, i’m—“
“ no, no, ” sero replies urgently. “ no. it’s—it’s a good cry. ” another sniffle. “ just—maybe i got a little dust in my eye or something. you never know. ”
“a good cry?” todoroki tilts his head a little. “i didn't think such a thing existed.”
sero laughs, and todoroki can breathe again.
they stay like that, leaning into the wall and whispering until their throats burn and they can’t keep their eyes open. todoroki talks about every small thing that comes to mind, because he doesn’t want to hang up. he doesn’t want to stop listening to sero’s voice.
the weight and—and importance of that small thing nearly crushes him.
—
after the war.
another nightmare—no, memory , rages through todoroki’s head. he’s drowning in blue flames, bakugo is bleeding out on the ground, midoriya is lost in the sky. there’s unspeakable pain all around him, inside him, and there’s no way out.
he sees bakugo fall from the sky, hears the sickening thud of him hitting the ground.
he sees midoriya erupt in black and green lightning, running out of energy, running out of time.
he sees his brother’s horrible smile, the old scars and fresh burns pulling at his skin.
this is a nightmare. this isn’t real. it’s over, so you can wake up. just wake up. wake up!
todoroki bolts upright with a massive gasp. he’s completely still for half a second before he plants his face in his hands. his eyes sting and he wills the tears away, wills the fear away, wills himself to calm down. it doesn’t work.
it’s over. it’s over. it’s over.
you’re safe now.
it’s over. it’s okay.
sero.
without hesitating and without checking the time, todoroki yanks his phone off the charger and calls the first contact in his favorites list.
inhale.
one ring.
exhale.
two rings.
inhale— it’s too warm—
three rings.
exhale— too cold—
four—
“ i’m up—oh, todoroki, hey— “
“nightmare,” todoroki sucks in another breath, voice weak and hitched. “i know it’s late, it was—it was horrible. i had to watch them fall—had to—“
“ hey, hey, shh, ” sero cuts him off. “ you don’t have to relive it. you're okay now. ”
todoroki bites his lip hard enough to draw blood, shuts his eyes tight. he refuses to cry. not now. “there were—“ another crack in his voice; he tries again. “there were so many things i could have done differently."
he doesn’t need to spell it out for sero to know exactly what he’s talking about.
the war. it’s still not over. they've all been dealing with the effects, the aftershocks, in their own ways. the dorms are quieter, classes still haven’t resumed, even after sending a number of students home for a short amount of time. everything is wrong.
todoroki had stayed here, then, when the majority of his classmates had gone.
“ hey, ” sero starts, drawing it out, like he’s thinking something over. “ todoroki? ”
todoroki peeks one eye open. “sero.”
“ why don’t you… come over? ” sero murmurs. “ might be better than laying there all on your own, after a nightmare like that. ”
todoroki wipes a stray tear from his cheek with the back of his free hand. it takes him a moment to process sero’s offer, and no time at all to make up his mind.
“you’re—you're sure?”
“of course,” sero says immediately. “to be honest with you, i couldn't really sleep either. i can at least keep you company, you know?”
“yeah, okay.”
“ i’ll leave the door unlocked. ”
the line beeps, and todoroki heaves a heavy sigh. he slips out of bed, fixes his twisted t-shirt. leaving his phone on the pillow, todoroki exits his dorm as quietly as he can. as expected, the hall is silent and empty. light bleeds out from underneath sero’s door.
todoroki tiptoes in with no preamble, not allowing himself time to second guess his actions. sero is in the middle of kicking something under his bed when todoroki crosses the room and sits right next to him.
purple fairy lights are strung up around the ceiling. the light cascades around them like they’d entered another realm. sero’s room is, by far, the homiest, coziest room on this floor, including todoroki’s own. his curtains were pulled open, window cracked just a bit. a breeze blows in and sero’s hair blows with it.
sero peers carefully at todoroki, hardly able to process the way their thighs are pressed together, the way todoroki smells like the air after a heavy rain, the way his heart pounds in his rib cage.
todoroki is clad in gray and blue, pajama pants and a slightly too big t-shirt, wrinkled and soft. his hair isn’t smooth like usual, but frizzy in the back where he likely had it pressed into his pillow, sticking up on the red side in odd places. sero’s never seen todoroki so pulled apart, so raw, except for on a battlefield.
this was different.
this was… intimate.
sero may be sitting by his right side, but todoroki radiates a lulling kind of warmth.
and despite all that, the shorter boy looks like he might dash for the door at any moment, still strung up from his nightmare. even in this dim light. sero can see the dark, almost bruise-like colors under todoroki’s eyes.
sero reaches for him without thinking, fingers ghosting over the small of todoroki’s back. “how long has it been since you’ve had a proper night's sleep?”
how many nightmares have you had and haven’t told me about?
“i—ah, can’t remember,” todoroki replies. he leans into the touch, just barely. it’s instinct at this point, to fall into sero’s orbit, to turn toward his light. already, he feels closer to earth than he had in the silence of his own dorm.
prior to attending ua, todoroki hadn’t known what closeness could feel like, but with sero, there was no other option besides closeness. he never wanted anything else, anything less . closeness with sero was different from closeness with anyone else. and now that todoroki’s gotten a taste of true connection, true closeness, it’s like he can’t—doesn’t want to—live without it. sero’s touch makes his skin prickle through the fabric of his shirt.
despite his nightmare, despite being shaken, terrified, todoroki considers curling up next to sero like a cat. he just wants— what do you want? —to be held . that’s it. it must be.
sero takes his hand away.
“why don’t we, uh—do you think you could sleep better here?” sero whispers hurriedly, tensing like he might stand or make a run for the window. “in my bed? i can take the—“
then he really does stand, gesturing vaguely to the hammock todoroki has seen him fall asleep a number of times in. todoroki reaches for him, this time, cool hand taking sero’s wrist.
“stay here,” todoroki blurts out. “stay by me.”
sero turns to meet his eye, deep brown on dull gray and blue. his brows pinch together helplessly. todoroki doesn’t look away, giving sero a solid, sure look.
sero feels infinitely heavier and, somehow, lighter , than he had just moments ago.
it takes some time, some adjusting, but eventually they’re both settled side by side on top of the covers on sero’s bed. cool night air flows over them. the fairy lights have been unplugged, leaving only the moon to brighten the high planes of each other’s faces. glow in the dark stars dot the ceiling. their sides are touching, and sero tries to soak up some of todoroki’s radiating heat to fight off the goosebumps.
sero talks into the open air, he’s not sure how long, trying to keep quiet. he mentions the betrayed look on iida’s face when he’d walked in and found sero and a few others with their feet on the couches or chairs they were sat in. he mentions something bakugo had said, something particularly bakugo-esque , trying to mimic the blonde’s rock salt voice. that makes todoroki chuckle, and sero’s chest blooms with warmth. he talks todoroki through the complexities of his younger self’s favorite anime.
then, sero turns on his side, hands flat between them. todoroki’s eyes are closed.
“are you asleep?” sero asks, not entirely expecting a response.
“not yet,” todoroki replies. with his eyes still closed, todoroki shifts until he’s on his side, too, hands tucked under his cheek. red hair falls, splays across his forehead.
and sero—clueless, hopeless sero—in a moment of quiet awe, silent confidence, lifts a hand to brush that hair back, revealing todoroki’s forehead.
the wave of pure adoration hits sero so hard he nearly leans forward to plant a kiss in the center of the other boy's forehead.
todoroki’s eyes blink open. they shine in the moonlight, brighter than they’ve been in weeks. they shine with exhaustion, with contentment, with something else close to… daring, maybe.
unthinking, sero sighs and says, “you look really pretty.”
it’s true. it’s always been true. sero has thought so since the first day of school. but somewhere along the line, it became a new kind of pretty. a kind of pretty that almost felt like it was reserved solely for sero. todoroki had opened up a lot since starting here, sure, but there’s a certain look to him whenever they’re alone that always leaves sero breathless, wondering if todoroki smiles at everyone else in private like that, too.
sero hadn’t ever wondered something like that about anyone else before.
todoroki flips onto his back and shifts until his head is over the edge of his bed, just like sero had been all those weeks ago in his hammock.
sero tilts his chin up, already grinning. then todoroki smiles, upside down and pure, and time seems to slow.
it’s a look sero’s never seen before, a look he’ll likely never forget.
of course, sero’s never been shy of telling his friends how much he appreciated them, loved them. he’s never shied away from consuming them in his arms, hoping to share his gentleness and kindness. he never wants anyone to forget just how important they are to him.
but this— this was starting to feel different.
sero has no idea when it started.
not even the shadows of the room can hide the way todoroki flushes, all the way down his neck. his eyes widen, just a tiny bit. then his mouth opens, and sero turns away before todoroki can say anything at all.
he slaps his hands over his face, groaning half to himself. “i'm sorry, wow , i really—i’m really tired and i guess i just—“
that same cool hand takes sero’s wrist again, featherlight as it drifts down his forearm. then todoroki pulls, pulls sero’s hand away from his face, pulls it closer to him .
“don't apologize,” todoroki hums.
sero blinks. then blinks again. he turns his head, and suddenly the distance between them is no distance at all and too much, all at once. heat crawls up the back of sero’s neck.
todoroki had shifted, bringing his legs up until one knee is pressed into sero’s thigh. both hands wrap around sero’s forearm, gently, almost like he’s coddling it.
sero can hardly catch his breath before todoroki pulls again, lifting sero’s hand up to his lips, ghosting a kiss over his knuckles. sero watches, in a trance, as two toned eyelashes flutter shut, as lips graze over his skin. he’s burning.
his only coherent thought is: holy shit.
“is this okay?” he does it again, kissing those knuckles a little more firmly.
holy shit.
“yeah,” sero responds, trying to keep his voice from shaking. “ yes. ”
the smaller boy cracks a small smile, a pure one, a tired one, and does it again.
maybe sero’s dreaming. that’s got to be the only explanation, right?
not long after, todoroki falls asleep, just like that; he holds sero’s arm close, dragging cool fingertips over his skin. his cheeks are still tinged a light pink.
sero shifts, just a little, just enough to hook his ankle over todoroki’s. they fit together, somehow. it just… works. like it was always meant to be that way.
he breathes a goodnight into the air and is out like a light.
—
bright light and a chilly breeze washes over sero—and todoroki—the very next morning. the sun has just barely crested the horizon; the sky is freckled with puffy clouds, painted pink and orange.
the raven haired boy wakes first, which is a first in and of itself, squinting away the sunspots in his eyes. he’s very warm on one side, and his neck hurts a bit. as he starts to lean forward and stretch his arms over his head, he realizes.
shoto todoroki is curled into his side, lips parted, sound asleep.
his cheek is pressed into sero’s ribs, legs stretched over sero’s own, a hand tossed over his stomach. his hair is a mess and sero’s pretty sure he might be drooling a little bit, but this warm toned light makes todoroki look more alive than he’s looked in weeks. his forehead is free of worry lines, and there are red lines from his position etched into his chin.
it’s… endearing.
and overwhelming.
“you look really pretty.”
sero inhales sharply at the memory. fuck. exhales jaggedly at the memory of todoroki’s lips pressed into his knuckles, of his fingers exploring the skin of sero’s hand. fuck.
he takes another look at the two toned boy practically attached at his hip and tries to smother the butterflies in his belly, the electricity soaring through his veins.
shoto todoroki is asleep in my bed.
shoto todoroki is asleep on me, in my bed, in my room.
shoto todoroki kissed my knuckles.
oh, how desperately sero wishes he’d kissed him back now, indulged in the feelings he hadn’t acknowledged until only last night.
i do not have a crush on shoto todoroki .
the boy in question takes a deep breath, muscled shoulders rising as he starts to shift. his head pops up, a mess of pink cheeks and disastrous, disgustingly endearing messy hair, and he squints at the light pouring in from the window.
all the air is knocked from sero’s lungs.
“mornin’, sero,” todoroki mutters, unable to even keep his eyes open. “‘s too early. ‘m goin’ back to sleep.”
then he drops his head back down and squeezes impossibly closer to sero.
shit.
sero leans back, careful to not disturb the other boy, and plants his palms on his cheeks. nothing in the world is strong enough to smother the stupid grin growing on his face. nothing in the world is strong enough to settle sero’s pounding heart.
i have a crush on shoto todoroki.
—
they'd never slept so good in their lives.