Ethereal ◆ Shoto Todoroki x Reader

52 | A Single Bean

(thoughts on the title? lol)

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Your father frowns.

Shoto smiles.

King Todoroki sighs.

You and Hiro laugh, happy to be reunited once again.

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Hiro taps you on the shoulder, his lips drawn up in a smile. Since everyone's eating now, it's time for step two.

He picks up his fork, takes a big scoop of the food in front of him, and shovels it into his mouth. Everyone looks at him in surprise. 

You swear you see Bakugou hold back a laugh.

"Hmm," Hiro hums, his mouth full, "this is delicious!"

He glances at the mess on his revealing shirt, and shrugs. You can't hold back your laugh.

You see Momo giggling beside him, but she immediately stops when her mother widens her eyes at your brother.

"My compliments to the chef," you say, copying Hiro, making a mess and just enjoying the food. Shoto chuckles softly, taking a bite of his own food.

All of the kings and queens at the table look either confused or disgusted, but King Mizuki looks embarrassed and enraged.

You're confused yourself when King Todoroki shoots a glare at your father then takes a huge bite . . . and just keeps going.

"Gross," prince Tenya says, a hint of amusement in his voice, "your manners are despicable."

He then picks up his fork and shovels his food in, copying your despicable manners.

"Ridiculous," prince Katsuki mutters, but then glances at his mother and starts to eat like a pig.

She scolds him, but then looks around the room at King Todoroki, Shoto, Hiro, you and even Yaoyorozu has started forgetting her manners.

She joins right in, perhaps relieved to drop the manners and just eat.

Yaoyorozu's parents don't join in themselves, but they laugh along and don't say anything about it.

King Mizuki sits at the end of the table, the only one who eats with manners, internally fuming at his children.

You continue to eat, sparing a glance at Shoto. You find he's already looking at you, and, despite how repulsive you must look right now, you blush. 

"You have a bean on your face," he says, bringing a hand to your cheek. He wipes it off, then flicks it at you, grinning.

You playfully gasp, taking a bean yourself and flicking it at his face. 

Unfortunately, your aim is terrible, and the bean hits King Todoroki in the chest, slowly sliding down his shirt and into his lap.

You know you should probably apologize, but when Shoto starts laughing, you can't hold back, and at first you think the king is about to start yelling.

But instead, he takes a handful of beans off of his plate, and hurls them at you.

You dodge, leaning into Shoto, and they hit Hiro instead.

That was how it started.

Suddenly, beans are flying everywhere, along with whatever else was served for dinner that night. 

Momo and Tenya are engaged in a brutal noodle fight. Noodles are flying through the air as the two laugh. They're caught in Momo's hair and draped over Tenya's glasses.

Hiro has decided to take on the explosive prince Katsuki, who is pummeling your brother with some sort of vegetable. 

"Jokes on you!" Hiro shouts, throwing a piece of greens, "I love vegetables!"

Meanwhile, King Todoroki is just launching beans at everyone, and you and Shoto team up to take on the king. Beans, noodles, vegetables, everything on the plate.

"Everybody stop!"

King Mizuki is at the end of the table, face red and mouth in a scowl. He's breathing heavily and pointing at King Todoroki.

"You!" He says, "This is all your fault!"

The Flame King flicks a bean at your father, and somehow, his face gets redder, and you swear he's going to explode.

Instead of exploding, however, he storms out of the room.

Everyone is quiet for a few seconds.

But then, seeing each other's food covered faces and bean-stained clothes, the room erupts in laughter.

A single bean is all it took to break the tension in the room. 

A single bean to bring together the kingdoms.

A single bean and a really  big mess.

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As the maids take the plates away, marveling at the mess the royals have made, everyone chatters until King Todoroki clinks a fork on a glass.

"Everyone," he says, looking around at his food-covered guests, "Please, take your time changing and cleaning up. Then, please meet in the room next door. I have a few questions to address and some rules to lay down."

Everyone nods, filing out of the room and you look at the aftermath of the intense food war.

Noodles and who knows what else is tangled in Momo's hair, but she doesn't look to upset about it. Her parents shake their heads, but they're a mess too. The whole time they threw food at each other in love.

The Bakugous are pulling carrots out of Katsuki's hair, an evident consequence of taking on Hiro.

King Todoroki and Shoto pluck the beans off of each other, not talking but friendly all the same.

Tenya is attempting to wipe the noodle juice off of the lenses of his glasses, laughing with his parents.

You smile at Hiro. "The plan worked, it seems."

"Well, the food fight wasn't planned," he laughs, "but hey, you can't predict everything."

"Yeah," you agree. "But man, is it good to have you back."

"Likewise," Hiro says, hugging you. You hear some beans squish between you, but you hug him back.

You see Takahashi in the corner, and he walks up to you, wiping tears from his eyes.

"Oh my gosh," he laughs, "you have no idea how hard it was to hold in the laughter."

You glance behind him at all the other guards who are laughing too.

"If only you could've joined in," you joke.

Takahashi chuckles. "If I was included in that food fight, no one would be left standing."

"Oh?" You lift an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah. Just imagine it: the guards versus the royals."

"We'd win for sure," you nudge him playfully.

"I don't think so."

"Well," you argue, "royals have much more pent up anger and frustration. Unleash that on the battlefield? Enemy eliminated."

"I guess you do have a point, but we'd still have an advantage . . . "

Everyone goes to their rooms to change, hearts full of happiness and bodies covered in dinner.

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