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The winter breeze had made the dorms absolutely freezing, the concrete walls not very forgiving. The class had relied upon warm drinks, coats, and sitting as close to Todoroki’s left side as they could without him noticing.
He noticed.
Todoroki was aware that his left side seemed to be quite warm. He also noticed a game of rock paper scissors taking place as he walked down the stairs into the common area for dinner. He saw the excitement on Mina’s face when she won, and he certainly remembered her scooting her chair unusually close to his left side.
Shouto made sure to sit at the end of the table for the next few days with his warm side turned towards his classmates. He pretended he didn’t know about the whole competition.
Now, you could say Shouto was a kind classmate, very hero-like. But, one thing to remember is that Shouto is at heart a menace.
It was a short trip to the convenience store, but given the recent attacks and the attention that Shouto tended to encounter in public, he would need a teacher to give him permission to leave campus. More specifically, he would need Aizawa-sensei’s permission.
“Why do you want to leave campus? What could you possibly need that can’t go on the communal request form?” Aizawa sounded tired, but Todoroki was not going to give this up.
He explained his plot to Aizawa, who, though would deny it, was almost grinning by the end of his plot. “Fine. You have my permission.” The man handed over a permission slip. Shouto took it quickly, thanking the teacher and making his way to the convenience store.
He swiped his dad’s credit card (the man is rich enough) grabbed his bag and snuck back into the dormitories.
“Shouto?” Midoriya. “You went to the store? Is that-” He couldn’t let the boy ruin his plans, but he already knew.
Some help wouldn’t hurt. He grabbed Midoriya by the arm pulling him to the elevator, pressing the button for his floor.
The boy stumbled behind him, muttering to himself theories of what Shouto could be intending.
Once in the room and sure no one would discover his plot, Shouto got to work.
Bakugo was very clear that dinner would be at 5:30 every night, anyone more than 10 minutes late would be forced to make their own food. With this in mind Todoroki made sure he was exactly 9 minutes late, as to ensure he was the last one there.
He sat in his usual spot. Today Denki had won the opportunity to sit on his left. Though when Shouto sat down the entire table went quiet. “Wait. Wait. I won though? This is where we’ve sat every day! What the hell. How did I end up with his cold side!” Denki tried (and failed) to quietly yell towards Mina, Kirishima, Sero, and anyone else at the table.
“Clearly that’s the wrong side Denki! I mean, it’s not like Todoroki could just switch sides…” Mina laughed, “could he?” she said quieter towards Midoriya who sat 2 seats down from her over Tenya.
“Surely he could not just switch sides.” Tenya stated loudly. Todoroki pretended that this was what brought his attention to their conversation, pretending he hadn’t been listening to the entire thing.
“Switch sides? Is there a hero committing villainous acts?” Todoroki feigned cluelessness. If they expected him to miss these nuances he may as well use it to his advantage.
“Uh… no. There's nothing to worry about Todoroki.” Mina said seriously, using the opportunity to study Shouto’s face and hair and try to determine if her sanity was intact.
Across the table Midoriya looked as though he were going to explode from laughter, trying and almost failing every few seconds to keep in his amusement. The green haired hero in training had his hands hidden under the table, still dyed with hair dye from the pair’s hair swap attempt. To be fair, they did pretty well for what a time crunch it was.
Soon enough the entire class was whispering quietly, none wanting to be the one to ask their classmate if his hair had somehow switched. It’d be admitting to lacking attention to details, or knowing Todoroki.
An hour passed, much longer than the group usually stayed at the table for dinner. By this point phones had been pulled out, everyone looking for pictures with Todoroki.
“I knew it!” Mina shouted, holding a photo of Shouto and showing the whole table. “We’re not crazy! His fire is on his left!”
“It’s on my right, Mina.” Todoroki said, straight face.
Midoriya almost died on the spot.
Mina quickly fell back into her seat spewing apologies for having something so basic to Shouto incorrect. The whole group explained their confusion, overlapping each other.
It lasted about 10 seconds before Midoriya couldn’t take it anymore, using his hands to cover his face as he cried laughing. Kirishima’s eyes drifted over to him for a second, passing him and looking further, until his eyes got caught on the sight of red dye. Something he was very familiar with.
Kiri grabbed Midoriya’s hand inspecting it, “He has red hair dye on his hand!” He screamed. The whole group went silent, all staring at Izuku who’s chair tilted backwards so far it flipped. The boy almost rolled laughing, leading to Todoroki letting out a small laugh.
“He helped me dye my hair this afternoon to mess with you.” Shouto cleared up, as Midoriya was clearly out of commission flooding the floor with his tears of laughter.
The whole group erupted, a chorus of “I knew it!”, “Shouto played a prank?”, and laughter.
Aizawa stood in the doorway curious of the commotion, figuring out the sight Infront of him rather quickly. The chaos was a happy sight for the homeroom teacher. The teens getting to actually be teens for once, Aizawa would let the noise complaints go, just this once.
And if anyone saw him smiling at his kids, no they didn’t.