Living A Lie

Chapter 8

Shouto does not, in fact, go to Midoriya after leaving Bakugou's room. Instead, the boy chooses to head to his room to process everything that Raven had said. There's just too much going on in his head making him overwhelmed to the point of just wanting to be alone. The boy especially struggles with accepting the part where Raven had basically said that Midoriya was in love with him. Midoriya is his best friend. The other boy is just excitable and likes spending time with him. Sure, Midoriya likes to get Shouto alone sometimes to train, just the two of them, but he does that with the rest of the class too, just Shouto more often than the others, and, sometimes, he would find his green haired friend leaning on him when they would watch movies and documentaries together, but he does the same with Bakugou who he says he only sees as a brother. There's nothing special about the way that Midoriya treats him. Is there? But, also, why would Raven lie to him? Raven has been there for most of his life, has, as the man said, raised him alongside Fuyumi. He can't think of any reason that Raven would lie to him except that hadn't Raven technically been lying to him this whole time, not telling him that he was actually a human? Or were the times that he had shown his human self to Shouto been his way of telling the boy just that? Raven never his his human forms from Shouto, he just only ever showed him that part of him at night, when he felt the need to chastise the boy. It wasn't Raven's fault that Shouto was dense.

As Shouto sorts his way through his thoughts and emotions on everything he learned, he hears a knock at his door. He honestly just wants to ignore whoever is on the other side of the door, pretend that he isn't in there, but he can't risk the person on the other side of the door being Midoriya. He desperately needs to find out if what Raven had said is true, even if he can't exactly tell why he needs to know.

The moment he opens the door, he's both happy and terrified to find that it is, in fact, Midoriya on the other side of the door. If it's anything to credit what raven had said, Midoriya looks just as nervous to be there as Shouto feels about him being there.

"I-I'm sorry for just running off earlier," Midoriya starts the conversation after the pair have gotten comfortable sitting on Shouto's bed. "I was shocked and a little upset. Even though y-you explained what he's like, I didn't expect Endeavor to actually do something like that. But, I don't understand why."

Shouto looks down at his lap. He can't answer that. Sure, Midoriya knows about Bakugou, but he can't tell him about the reason that his father is forcing him to marry Hawks. The fact that he was a failed experiment like all three of his other siblings, but instead of forcing Fuyumi to marry the number two hero, Endeavor decided to make him in attempt to mix the duality of his quirk with the winged hero's quirk in order to create a super child that could outshine All Might just by being born.

"It just doesn't make any sense to me because you're a boy and Hawks is male, so I don't see any reason for Endeavor to make a move like that. It can't be for popularity because obviously, if someone were to catch wind that it's a betrothal and not by your choice, his rankings would lower as quirk marriages have been illegal for decades, but I don't see how this could even be a quirk marriage because, like I said before, you're both boys and..."

Midoriya continues to mumble in the adorable way that he always does, and like every other time Midoriya gets started on his mumble rants of analysis, Shouto has the strong urge to kiss the other boy. Unlike every other time that he's had that urge, though, this time, he decides to follow through with exactly what he wants to do. Somewhat shakily, Shouto leans closer to his friend and presses his lips to Midoriya's, effectively shutting the boy up.

Midoriya kisses back letting Shouto revel in his first kiss, and leading the dual haired boy to realize exactly why he's wanted to kiss Midoriya so badly, why he was so hurt when he had left after Shouto mentioned the betrothal. The feelings may be new to him, but he had heard about what love was supposed to feel like, and those descriptions could never have been more accurate in comparison to what he feels now.

Izuku can barely contain his excitement that Todoroki is kissing him. It's what he's wanted for a little while now, but he knows it can't happen. Todoroki is betrothed to the number two hero, and no matter how much he wants the boy to want to be with him, he also knows that he doesn't have a choice as Endeavor chose that life for him. Knowing these things, Izuku pulls away from the kiss and backs a little further away from Todoroki.

"This isn't right," Midoriya says, making Shouto's face fall. "You're betrothed to Hawks. I can't... We can't..."

"We can, actually," Shouto tells him calmly. "Neither Hawks, nor I actually want it, but we cannot fight my father or the commission. He put some stipulations on his willingness to agree to the engagement, but he's treating it more like an adoption than an actual marriage. Hawks told me to be a teenager, fall in love, date whoever I want. I didn't exactly understand it last night when he said it, but I think I do now. A little, anyway." Shouto rubs at the back of his neck nervously. "I'll understand if you say no, but, Midoriya, would you like to be my boyfriend?"

A million different protests immediately fly to the tip of Izuku's tongue, but he knows that Todoroki is not the type to lie to him like that. "I want to talk to Hawks first, then I'll give you an answer." He'd also have to talk to his dads as well. The relationship between Hawks and Todoroki is bound to be public knowledge soon enough. He'll need advice from his dads on how to keep the public from finding out that the spouse of their favorite hero is dating another person as well. It would not look good for any of them as heroes, especially for himself and Todoroki as heroes in training, if the public were to find out, and it would likely spell certain disaster for Todoroki if Endeavor were to find out.

Shouto nods, "That's fair. I can call him or ask him to come to us, whichever you'd prefer."

"Ask him to meet us tomorrow after classes are done for the day. I need to talk to my dad about something first." Izuku watches as Todoroki sends out a text for the winged hero. He still doesn't understand why Endeavor would choose to make his son marry Hawks. The only thing that he can think of, the only thing that makes sense to Izuku, is if the other boy were like his dad and Kacchan. "Todoroki, I still don't get it. Why would your father make you marry Hawks?"

Shouto still isn't sure that he wants to tell Midoriya, but if he does decide to say yes after talking to Hawks, he'd find out eventually, right? He knows that Midoriya knows about Bakugou and that he accepts Bakugou for who he is, but a part of him still fears that Midoriya will reject him if he knows. After considering it for a little bit, Shouto gives in to the part of him that thinks he should tell Midoriya and tugs at the collar of his shirt to reveal the strap of his binder.

A/N

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