Shoto Todoroki
"So...you want to take part, but only if you're in a group with Kaminari, Mina, Kirishima, and...Bakugo?"
"Yes sir."
"...may I ask why you want to be with those four in particular?"
"They're the only people in the room I know, and since it's three teams of seven I wondered if that would be ok...?"
"...yeah, that's absolutely fine. I'll add Sero and...yeah, Shinso to that group, he works well with Kaminari"
"Thank you sir, it helps a lot"
"No problem. Now sit down, and I'll announce the groups to everyone. When they start moving around, you can move to sit next to Bakugo over there, see the empty seat?"
"Yes, will do sir"
"Good"
Hell yeah, the operation is in effect! It's time to see whether Bakugo truly is a nice guy, or whether it's just for me. To be honest, the selfish part of me wanted it to be the latter, but I wouldn't be too fazed by either outcome, both resulting in me having a chance with him. He seemed pretty closed off around his friends at the very least, so perhaps there are certain people he opens up to more? Am I one of those people in that case?
God, he was infecting my thought process. I barely payed attention until I saw a flurry of movement in the room, and dashed over a little too eagerly to claim the seat next to Bakugo. He seemed like he'd expected me, and gave me a split-second smile before his scowl reappeared, shouting something at the others. He pulled out his notepad and wrote "we need to make a PowerPoint presentation on why the Russians lost the Russo-Japanese war"
"Ok. I'm quite happy to do whatever, just let me know what and I'll do it"
"Ok...how about you...write up some concise paragraphs that can be split into slides and then we can just copy them up when we make the actual PowerPoint"
"Ok. Who's actually typing it up then?"
"I'll be doing that. These idiots are on extra research duty, so I'll take all their notes once they've finished today, and if you could come over to my dorm around...6, then us two and Shit Hair can finish it off"
"Sounds perfect, I'll be there. Oh, and which one is Shit Hair?"
"Oh! That's Kirishima"
"Got it, Shit Hair = Kirishima"
"Not bad, now let's focus, we haven't got long"
Phase Two, complete.
Phase three? There isn't one! Just go for it!
The rest of the period was pretty simple, just me writing smaller version of the notes we already had. Bakugo gave them a quick look over at the end, and nodded approval. He stood right next to me as he did, and I could smell his gorgeous cologne, a punchy yet sweet scent that almost had me swooning. I had the urge to just lean into his shoulder as I stood there, but by the time I was about to, he had moved away and gone for lunch, something I was now on the way to do as well.
Picking up my usual meal, I headed towards my table with Momo, seeing her there alone today. She wasn't in my history class, but her classes ended about an hour before mine every day, so she usually stuck around for lunch. She waved to me as I approached, and signed "so, how was it~?"
"..we're on a group together, I'm going to his dorm around 6 to work on it"
"Oh my god!!! No funny business though!"
"Momo, Kirishima will be there as well. Suit yourself, but I'm not up for a threesome"
"Somehow, this shocks me"
"Fuck off!"
"But anyway, well done!! You seriously could have a chance with him!"
"...he has a nice cologne on today"
"Wait, cologne? I don't think Bakugo's ever worn cologne before, he doesn't really care about what people think"
"...does that mean he put it on for a special occasion?"
"...Shoto, I think he seriously likes you!"
"...Momo, I think I seriously like him too"
She did a little laugh, before grabbing her notes page again. She titled this page "operation boyfriend", writing a few simple things to remember on it, my disapproving glances not affecting her. She passed over the notes and I scanned over them, out of curiosity more than need for them.
Don't kiss him yet
Don't cry
Don't touch him
Don't fuck
Don't be weird
Tell him he smells good.
"...only two of these make sense"
"What?! They are all key elements of handling a crush!"
"You expect me to try and sleep with him already?!"
"No, but the 'already' means you want to"
"Of course I do, he's pretty as fuck"
"You always say pretty, never hot"
"He is hot, he's just prettier than he is hot"
"Whatever princess. Kyoka is coming over when you leave"
"Aww, so we've both got dates!"
"So you admit meeting Bakugo is a date~?"
"Yeah, and so do you with Kyoka!"
"Yeah...I think I might ask her tonight"
"Really? On a Monday?"
"You've been gay panicking all day, and it's Monday"
"Shut up, I have a reason for it!"
"Which is?"
"Pretty! Boy!" I signed, heavily accentuating each word. Momo broke out into giggles, and I couldn't help myself either, leaving us both chuckling at our stupidity on the couch. I reached a hand out to her and felt her laughter through vibration, my own parched sounds drowned out by my ears.
Momo had told me in the past that I had a beautiful laugh, but it saddened me that I would never know what a laugh sounded like. Given that the vibrations were quite strong with laughter, I'd always assumed it was quite a loud noise, and my lack of perception of noise meant I couldn't suppress any noise I made, with no scale of quiet to loud in which to manage.
It was a quiet world, and I was the only person who lived in it. Nobody could ever talk to me. Yes, signing is talking, but at the same time it just isn't. Even I felt awkward doing it, hating the fact that I was always forced to not be holding something to communicate. By far the worst thing was trying to communicate with someone who didn't understand I was deaf. A few confrontations had led to people stepping in to defend me, explaining to angry people that I couldn't understand them because they were speaking louder.
God, people are so dumb
——————————————
Wrote a history essay this afternoon, fucking dreadful experience. 2000 words, about 50% makes sense 😅
I'll let you know tomorrow what mark I get 🥴
Fact of the Day: Momo has some pretty decent advice to be fair...