𝘓𝘖𝘝𝘌 𝘛𝘈𝘚𝘛𝘌 // 𝘚.𝘏 +𝘛.𝘚

𝘐𝘐𝘐

Todoroki would call himself a rather emotionless person. He has his father to blame for that, yes, but even now with the help of his friends, he still struggles with his feelings and identifying them. He knew that the sound of a tea kettle, sudden touches (especially on his wrists or neck), and the smell of something burning made him feel fearful and anxious - Midoriya says it has to do with his PTSD, but Todoroki doesn't know what that is, either. He knows that watching his friends get hurt, seeing his family suffer, and the movie 'Bambi' all made him sad. He knew that his father, being compared to his father, and being doubted all make him angry.

He didn't know what he felt for Sero, though.

His heart always skipped a beat when he stared at the boy, and he felt his lungs loose all of the air in them when the two got physically close, whether it be a hug or walking shoulder-to-shoulder in the hallway. When the boys all change in the locker room, his eyes always wander to Sero's athletic body, going from his shoulders and arms to his legs. He feels himself grow hot whenever he does, and has to double check to make sure he's not subconsciously using his left side.

He tried looking it up, but all that came up were pornographic videos that he immediately stayed away from. He definitely wasn't feeling that towards him, but he was certainly feeling some kind of way towards the boy. He wanted to be held by Sero, wanted to kiss him and see his smile. He wanted to hold his hands and have more intimate moments with him. The thoughts themselves weren't concerning Todoroki, but it was the fact that the reason he was having those thoughts was unknown to him that was bothering him.

He decided to go to Uraraka. The two grew closer with time, and he normally would've went to Midoriya, but the boy isn't in the dorms at the moment. He heads to the girl's room and knocks, and Asui opens the door. She looks up at him, a bit surprised at his presence. "Oh, Todoroki, hello." He looks past the shorter girl, and he can't seem to find who he's looking for. "Is Uraraka here?" he asks, and she nods. "She's looking for something in her closet. How can we help you?" "Oh, Todoroki! Hi!" Uraraka appears besides her girlfriend, smiling widely. She holds Asui's hand and squeezes it gently. "What's up?" "I think something's wrong with me." Her eyes go wide, and she slowly goes to grab his wrist, giving him enough time to be aware of what she's doing.

She (carefully) drags him in and shuts the door behind them. He sits on her floor, with Asui and Uraraka sitting in front of him. Asui looks as normal as ever, while Uraraka looks a bit pained. Why does she look like that? "Todoroki, are you ok? What's wrong?" Uraraka asks, her words laced heavily with concern. He shifts on his feet and looks down. "I feel a certain way towards Sero, but I don't know what it is." Uraraka lifts an eyebrow. "Care to further explain?" Asui asks, and he does.

"Whenever we hang out, my heart squeezes. Tightly. And we read manga in his room occasionally, and we've definitely gotten closer as friends, but I don't feel this way towards you two, or towards Midoriya or Iida. Whenever he smiles, I feel myself get hot, but it's not my fire, I swear. And I tend to look at his body when we're all changing, and makes my stomach feel weird. A good weird, but weird, nonetheless." He looks up at them, his face a mixture of sadness and confusion. "Is there something wrong with me?"

Uraraka looks taken aback, as does Asui, but the older girl gives a soft smile. She scoots closer, gently grabbing Todoroki's hand and rubbing a thumb over the back of it. "Todoroki," she says quietly, "do you seriously not know what's going on?" He shakes his head and looks down again, missing the way Asui and Uraraka look at each other. "Todoroki," Asui states, "you have a crush on Sero. You like like Sero. Maybe even going as far as to say that you love him, who knows."

That makes him look up, his eyes wide and this time, not of happiness or concern, but of pure fear. "What?" he whispers, and he sounds hurt, broken. Uraraka frowns, and tries her best to explain Asui's response. "Well, Todoroki, what you just described is what people would label a crush. You have a crush on Sero." He shakes his head, his breathing beginning to pick up and his chest feeling compressed. "No," he whispers, and he repeats the word. Both girls are confused, but they do their best to calm Todoroki.

Carefully, Asui removes Todoroki's arms from his chest, and Uraraka grabs his hand and presses it over where her heart is, performing breathing exercises with her. She takes a deep breath in and he does as well, and she counts to five before telling him to release it, and they both do it at the same. Asui opts to not touch him any more than she already has, letting her girlfriend work her magic and calm the boy down. She watches as Todoroki begins to be visibly less tense, and he sighs, his shoulders relaxing as he finally calms down.

"Uh," Uraraka says, looking at Todoroki softly, "Todoroki? What was that about?" His gaze shifted downwards, feeling ashamed to look at the two girls. He opened his mouth, and then shut it, thinking about how to phrase his words. "Um." He shifted to the left, then to the right, and then to left again. "So, you guys know that my parents were in a quirk marriage. But uh, my mom was in love with my dad and shit. She wasn't forced into it, but Endeavor's obsession with heroism and quirks consumed him." "So you were afraid that if you and Sero ended up in a relationship, it would end up like that?" Asui asked, a hand on her chin, and Todoroki nodded. She hummed. "I see. Well, you are nothing like Endeavor, and even now, you don't care much about power. I can assure you that you will never end up like him." "Yea!" Uraraka encouraged, continuing from her girlfriend words. "Endeavor has always been focused on rank. You've always been focused on the true act of being a hero. You guys are polar opposites!" A small smile worked its way onto Todoroki's face, and he smiled at the two girls. "Thank you. For your reassuring words, that is." Uraraka waved him off.

"But, Todoroki, you don't have to rush into a relationship just because you like him," Asui said, and Todoroki lifted an eyebrow at her. "I liked Ochaco and Mina for a while before I began dating them. Not only because I was unaware of their feelings, but I wanted to ease into things. Sort of like the saying 'everything fell into place.' Understand?" Todoroki, truthfully, didn't, but gave a curt nod as his answer. "Good, good. Was that all you had to ask?" He nodded once more. "Oh, ok." He stood up, brushing his pants off and gave a small bow. "Thank you for helping me." "It was no big deal!" Uraraka replied, giving him a big smile. Asui nodded, agreeing with her girlfriend. And with that, he left, making his way back to his own bedroom.

As Todoroki returned to his room, he checked the time on his phone. 11:38 AM. Dinner wasn't until around 6, so he would still have some time left to think. Thoughts ran through his mind quickly, thinking about his so called "crush" on Sero, and how Asui said that he might even love Sero. These feelings, and feelings in general, were all relatively new to him, as are relationships. But Todoroki had one thought, one question that stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Does Sero reciprocate my feelings?"