change of plans || todoroki shouto x reader

chapter forty-four

"how was your vacation, [name]-chan?"

the question interrupts the girl's train of thought, as she blankly stared and poked at her food.

it was lunch time and she was sitting with her friends, midoriya, iida, uraraka, tsuyu, and shouto. though she hadn't been actively participating in the conversation.

"you seem tense. what's on your mind?" shouto, who was sitting in front of her, asks.

"ah, nothing important."

it was nothing important. but there was this lingering feeling in [name]'s subconscious that kept her on edge. the feeling that, maybe everything's going a little too well. it's only been several weeks since the training camp incident, and it feels like something's always bound to go wrong.

but there was no need to put her friends through the same anxiety.

"sorry, ochaco-chan, what were you saying?" she asks politely.

"we were just talking about how we spent the vacation! deku apparently spent his training, while iida took care of his brother. tsuyu-chan went on a family trip, and i helped out with my parents' company!" uraraka answers.

as her friend spoke, [name] mind flashes back to what she did do during the break. the countless hours she spent distracting herself from her emotional instability, desperate to keep her mind off the fact that one of her best friends turned to villainy, and she did almost nothing to stop him.

"a-ah, i guess.. i was training the whole time too," she says, "my brother was recovering from an incident as well, but i didn't really do that much helping out in taking care of him since he's pretty stubborn."

"oh! your brother was the one that subbed for all might during hero basics earlier this year, right?" [name] nods as a response.

midoriya, iida, and uraraka shared a look. he was definitely pretty hard to forget after that day.

"what about you, todoroki-kun, kero?" tsuyu asks, turning to the boy who was sitting beside her.

"hm, i was pretty much just training too."

"man~ i wish things hadn't been so complicated after the training camp," uraraka says, "we could've gone to the fireworks festival together last month!"

"i've.. never actually been to a fireworks festival before," [name] comments.

"eeeh?! [name]-chan that makes me so sad for you!"

"let's plan ahead, then!" iida announces, "next year, no matter what, we'll take [name]-san to her first fireworks festival and go together!"

the group cheers in agreement.

[name] didn't know what she was so worried about. she and her friends had gone through a lot in a span of several months, but here they still are, planning for something a year from now. she's been too pessimistic about the future. her brother did used to say that she tends to sabotage her own happiness, but she always brushed that off as psychological baloney.

it doesn't matter if something does go wrong sometime in the future. because her friends will be there to make things okay.

"yeah, let's all go together, next year."

---

the bell was due to ring in a couple of minutes and everyone was pretty much settled down in their seats, though there was still light chatter around. [name] tidied up her desk as next period was hero basics and they were most likely to head to a field to train.