TRIGGER WARNING: none
THEMES: extreme fluff, 1A simping for Shoto
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"Are we ready?!"
"No."
"No."
"No."
"No."
"No."
"No."
"Yes!"
Everyone turned to look at Mineta, surprised he had managed to stay hidden for so long, before Shoto instantly froze him and Deku flung him into the elevator; Sero used his tape to tap the highest floor and they watched as Mineta- still stunned and frozen- disappeared from view.
"What are we even doing?! It sounds stupid!" Bakugou shouted, annoyed that he had to sit here when it was getting so close to his bedtime.
"Bakubro I know you will love it!" Kaminari assured with a grin.
"Yeah Bakubabe! It's the best game ever!"
"Kill me now!"
"Just let Mina explain." said Kirishima, patting his bro on the back only to get swatted away like a fly.
"Okay! So it's called the Pocky challenge! It will help us become closer as a class but as friends too!"
"If it will strengthen out ties as classmates that I support this game Mina has offered to share with us." Iida exclaimed making a chop of approval with his arm.
"Thanks Iida! So, let me explain. There will be 2 people per round and each person has to put one side of the pocky stick in their mouth. Then they eat the pocky and whoever pulls away first loses. Easy!"
"Sounds like a waste of time!" Bakugou complained.
"And close." Shoto mumbled to himself, internally freaking out at the idea of being directly in someone's personal space.
"I'll go first if it makes anyone feel better." Mina said before grabbing a pocky stick and turning to face Sero next to her. "Let's show them how it's done babe."
Sero grinned before taking the other end of the stick in his mouth; they both slowly nibbled towards the centre. Then with a centimetre between them Mina covered the distance and took the last bit of pocky.
"I win!" she cheered, not bothered about the fact that she had just kissed Sero.
"Who's going first?" Sero asked, looking at his classmates who all suddenly found their dorms very interesting to look at.
"Let's pull names out of a hat!" Mina cheered before reaching behind her and grabbing a beanie already full of strips of paper; she had already pre-planned this game weeks ago. "First name is... ah! Todoroki!"
"No. Absolutely not." Shoto refused.
"Come on Todoroki! There are so many people in this room who want to kiss you!" Mina encouraged.
"What?" the male asked quietly, looking very confused and flustered.
"It's fine Todobro, just choose one of your friends."
"... Fine... Iida."
Iida seemed uncharacteristically enthusiastic, and joined Todoroki on the sofa whilst grabbing the boxes of pocky. Todoroki chose the strawberry one and pulled one out of the packet, hesitatingly holding it in front of Iida's mouth.
"This will deepen out friendship!" Iida announced before biting one end, Shoto slowly biting the other.
"This is not a good idea." Shoto doubted, but Iida slightly shook his head and moved forwards. He hadn't taken two bites before the heterochromatic moved backwards. "Nope, I'm out."
"Iida wins!" Denki cheered.
"You okay?" Deku asked Shoto when Iida went back to his spot.
"I'm just not comfortable being so close to someone like that. I'm not used to it."
"Oh, because of your..." trailing off, Deku made a pointed look to which Shoto nodded.
"Mhm."
But a few nearby classmates heard the conversation and asked what they were alluding too. At the start, Todoroki was hesitant but knew he would struggle to get out of the game otherwise.
"During my childhood, my father isolated me from my siblings and wider society. Therefore I'm not used to positive physical contact. I'm not used to being so close to others."
"God dude, your dad's an asshole." Kiri grimaced.
"Fiery bastard."
"Mhm."
"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable Todoroki, I'm sorry!" Mina apologised. "You don't have to continue if you don't want to, but we all appreciate you being here with us now!"
"I'll just watch for now. That sounds weird." he added to himself, making the nearby classmates laugh whilst everyone agreed with Mina's words.
"Alright, next up is... Momo!"
"I will ask Jiro to do it with me, please."
Jiro looked over and nodded with a smile before sitting in front of Momo and picking up a chocolate pocky. Then, she put it in her teeth and waited for the ravenette to grab the other end; when Momo tried to bite it she flicked it up. She continued this until Momo laughed and had to grab the pocky so she could bite it, then they began to inch closer.
They ate the pocky until their noses touched and Jiro jumped back with surprise. Momo cheered as she won, and Mina once again pulled out a name from the beanie.
"Next one to go is... Uraraka!"
"Okay!" Ochako cheered. "I choose... Kirishima!"
"Let's do this Uraraka!" Kiri cheered.
Everyone was surprised that she had chosen Kirishima but cheered when they managed to bite down to a centimetre sized piece without kissing; it was even better with Kirishima's sharp teeth. Soon all of the classmates were taking turns in the game, and some low-key flirting was occurring between them all. It was a fun evening and everyone was having a great time.
Todoroki had just returned from the kitchen when Mina pulled his name out again. She was quick to say he didn't have to do it, but he said he would have another go. So he looked around and decided who he thought he would be comfortable with but who would also give him a challenge.
"Bakugou." he chose with a subtle smirk, one that increased when the blond grinned back.
"You're on."
Bakugou chose a strawberry pocky and put it in his mouth whilst Shoto sat in front of him and took the other end. Then ever so painfully slowly they each bit into the pocky, not removing their eyes from each other.
At last it was down to a half-inch size piece and neither had gone any further. Bakugou dared to take a bit more but then they froze, eyeing each other to see who would dare to either go closer or pull away. It was taking a lot of willpower from Shoto to not pull away and scream but he clenched his fists and leaned in further, taking another bite and surprising the class.
"Getting bold, huh Icyhot?"
"What, you chicken?"
Bakugou responded by taking another bite, leaving their noses almost touching. The class watched with bated breaths but they soon realised it had turned into a staring contest and so decided to start another game with Kaminari and Shinsou whilst the two males were busy.
"Shall we pull away on 3?" Todoroki asked.
"Deal. 1."
"2."
"3."
As expected, neither of them pulled away, and this made Bakugou chuckle whilst Shoto's lips turned upwards.
"I kinda figured that would happen." Bakugou said.
"Mhm. Not gonna lie, I really just want more pocky."
"Really? That's what this is about?"
"Mostly, I also don't wanna back down from you. You'd get all cocky over it."
"Hell yeah I would. But," the blond mused in a teasing tone, "there just happens to be more pocky in my mouth right now. You're gonna have to get closer if you want it Icy-"
Lips on his made Bakugou stop talking, and soon Todoroki had pulled away and was eating the rest of the pocky with a hand covering his mouth. Deku had seen what happened and quietly screamed whilst rapidly tapping Iida's shoulder.
"I win." Todoroki announced, getting everyone's attention; their eyes widened when they saw a stunned looking and particularly silent Bakugou.
"What did you do?" Kirishima asked.
"Damn Icyhot. I didn't know you had it in you." Bakugou stated when he recovered.
"It tasted good."
"Shut up!"
Todoroki looked down whist quietly laughing, making some of his classmates give him warm smiles. It was nice seeing him like this, more confident and relaxed. The game continued and Todoroki ended up going against Kirishima and Shinsou, sometimes making contact for a few seconds longer than necessary; everyone soon learnt that losing wasn't an option for him. They also learnt that everyone fell weak when they made eye-contact with him, either from how intense it was or how truly incredible his eyes were to look at.
When Todoroki went up against Shinsou, the insomniac decided to take the initiative and make contact, his lips touching Todoroki's as he took another bite. But Todoroki wasn't backing down and kissed back, even tilting his head a little to reach the small piece between Shinsou's lips. After a long moment of kissing they pulled apart, Todoroki holding the smallest piece of pocky in his mouth to possibly ever exist.
"I win." he stated before tilting his head back and swallowing the pocky in his mouth, reaching over to grab his drink.
"That was so short! You're really good at this."
"I just want more pocky. It tastes sweet." Todoroki shrugged before resuming his position on the sofa.
"You have a sweet tooth?" Mina questioned, and Momo nodded before the heterochromatic male could answer.
"I was denied anything that was neither nutritional nor substantial back at the house. The only sweet things, or savoury things, or most things actually, that I had were when I visited Momo's family."
"Dude! So you've never had like candy and stuff like that?!"
"Not really."
"Bro we totally need to bulk up on our next sweet order!"
"I wouldn't. He gets sugar rush." Momo whispered to Bakugou, who was now divided between telling his idiots to not overload Todoroki or sit back and watch hyper Shoto, a very interesting idea.
"Hm." was all he could say.
The night continued and everyone had finished playing the pocky game, some students struggling to find one classmate they hadn't played with. They had no idea how Mina had gotten her hand on so many boxes of pocky, but even when they had finished their were four boxes left over. Todoroki decided it was time to go to bed, so he grabbed one more pocky stick and held it in his mouth whilst grabbing his water and waving goodnight to the class.
"We should play again!" Mina called out to him.
As the elevator doors shut, Todoroki gave her a shrug and bit down on the pocky, holding it in his hand whilst using the other to check his phone. Upon seeing five goddamn messages from his father he rolled his eyes whilst putting the pocky back in his mouth, holding it there whilst he pressed the call button; making eye-contact with his classmates before the doors shut.
And when they did, hell broke loose.
"Damn he has nice lips." Shinsou sighed, helping himself to another pocky.
"You can say that again! And when my teeth accidently grazed them he just stared at me, I think I lost it then."
"So you think he got over his whole personal space thing?" Mina asked.
"Maybe, maybe not."
"It was much better the second time we tried the challenge." Iida commented. "And I think his favourite one was strawberry."
"Ya think?" Bakugou questioned sarcastically.
From that day on it wasn't uncommon to find boxes of pocky in the cupboard, and often you could find Todoroki walking round with an entire box in his hands, just eating the strawberry-coated breadsticks whilst doing his daily tasks. And whenever the class saw him with it, they thought back to that night and the small yet sparky moments they had with him.