Ticked Off [Boku No Hero Academia]

HOLIDAY SPECIAL: WARMTH

She had no idea how long he'd been sitting there, choosing to spend his free time studying like some kind of insane person, but he'd definitely been there longer than her. There was no way he was still that interested in a boring textbook unless he was secretly a robot.

Actually, that would explain a lot, to be honest. Mina didn't think it was possible for someone to be super strong and really kind – but, like, not the usual sort of kindness that was merely polite: the sort of kindness that was unrelentingly earnest and totally heart-warming – and then she met Midori.

At least he wasn't unbelievably cute – she'd be a lot madder if he was the whole package. Todoroki definitely had Midori beat in the looks department, and he had that cool mysterious thing going on which made him even more intriguing.

Not that he really spared her a glance unless they were paired up in class. Really, the only person who seemed to unlock the human side of Todoroki was Midori himself, despite them seemingly having nothing in common aside from really powerful Quirks.

So maybe there was more to him than she realised...

She tilted her head, squinting at the boy who remained unmoving until he calmly turned a page with a scarred hand. Kaminari slapped down another card and she instantly reacted with barely a glance at her hand.

Mina considered herself very good at keeping herself up-to-date on all the latest classroom gossip, so of course she'd heard about the precious few glimpses into Midori's wild side that only seemed to emerge in battle. Tsu had told her about his fearless confidence at the USJ, painting him like a fully-fledged Pro Hero rather than a inexperienced kid. The Sports Festival was the only time Mina had seen for herself what he could be like, with fierce eyes and crazy power and unfaltering determination, even when his own Quirk destroyed his body so badly. It was kind of hard to look at the small figure sitting quietly on the sofa and link him with the person who could destroy an arena with a flick of his fingers.

Then there was the I-Island Expo event. Whilst she'd been inside playing card games with the other girls, he'd chased down villains, grinned brightly even when in danger of being crushed, and worked alongside All Might to completely thwart another big bad guy. Apparently Midori was really intimidating at the training camp, too, and she was annoyed that she had, again, missed the whole thing since she was stuck in remedial studies.

It was super irritating that she'd missed out on so many badass moments – she wanted to see how cool he was for herself!

Although, there was no denying that sometimes that rumoured confidence would seep into his everyday life. She'd seen it in the way he unflinchingly scolded their scary teacher and happily sought out interactions with him that surely would've ended badly for anyone else, and yet somehow remained really nice for him.

Maybe that could be written off as sheer dumb obliviousness to how frightening Aizawa was...

There were also the times when the class would playfully spar, and suddenly his body language would shift from awkward and clumsy to relaxed and confident – and with good reason! Midori was an absolute beast at fighting, even when he clearly tried to tone it down from time to time to give others a chance. He was truly in his element when fighting, and she was kind of envious at how naturally he took to everything new introduced to them.

Mina placed down another card and grinned smugly at her opponent, who looked like he was about to break down and cry. She turned her head back to spare a final glance at Midori, letting her gaze skim over his lazy posture, stardust freckles, and finally linger on his breathtakingly emerald eyes.

Everything about him was soft and gentle and perfectly average.

She would do anything to get a glimpse at his mythical hot side.