"Todoroki~", you skipped to the man who sat quietly,"you wanna pair up?Kiri ditched me and arcades are no fun by yourself."
Being dragged into hang outs in which their real purpose were cover-up dates for Midoriya and Uraraka was a lot more fun than expected; you couldn't understand why Todoroki chose to opt out of participating at games if he was the one who agreed to come.
Todoroki turned to you. You noticed he wasn't as stiff as he usually was when regarding others,"I'm here for support. I've never been to a place like this so I wasn't planning on actually joining."
"You realize how dumb that is, right?If you've never played been to an arcade it's more of a reason for you to try it. Pretty please? If not for yourself, then for the sake of helping out a future friend?", you giggled.
Todoroki stood up after a bit of debating, though you were unsure what. You grinned.
"Awesome!You won't regret this. I promise you you'll love this place. Let's see...", you hummed in thought as you scanned all the options before you,"what's the best way to warm you up?"
Todoroki took the initiative,"Ball toss."
You looked up at him in surprise. The question was more for yourself but apparently getting him interested in one of the games was a lot easier than you thought. You tilted you head,"You wanna do the ball toss?"
Todoroki nodded,"Everyone else started with it. It looks entertaining."
Aw. He wants to play it after watching everyone else do it.
"Ball toss it is. Follow me", there was no point in saying that when you latched onto the sleeve of his shirt and dragged him behind you, though it wasn't as much 'dragging' as trying to stay ahead of him. His legs were much longer than yours after all. You swiped your card on the game to make the targets start moving and began to give it your best.
You were on fire. Your heightened instincts had taken over immediately. Ball after ball, you knocked over every target but the top three. You furrowed at the realization that they wouldn't budge no matter how accurate your hits were.
"What the hell?", you groaned. There were only fifteen seconds left to the game and you were starting to lose hope. The weight of the ball on your hand left you and you looked over.
The ball flew past you at an amazing speed. You barely registered a cracking sound at the end of the game, gasping when you saw the middle top target broken in pieces, yet the bottom part staying intact and glued to its spot.
"Oh my god, Todoroki, you broke it", you shook his arm in disbelief as you stared at the shattered target. Todoroki looked down at you.
"It was rigged. They can't blame me, I was playing the game. I wanted to see whether I could get one you couldn't."
"Yes but-", you paused and looked up at him with a lighthearted glare,"Is this about the whole you seeing me as a threat thing?"
"It's not", Todoroki shook his head,"I was being competitive. That's what people do here, isn't it?Why it's better to play in pairs?"
"Oh", you were surprised. Despite how indifferent he looked to going along with your request, he was actually committing. He wasn't half-assing anything. You smiled,"Yup!You're a quick learner!Come on, we should try another game before anyone notices what you did."
You dragged the clueless boy everywhere as you tried to locate the next game, perking up at one specifically,"Ooh~Todoroki, have you ever played whack-a-mole?"
He stared at you in silence and you flinched in embarrassment,"Right, you haven't done this before. It's really easy", you explained as you grabbed onto the cushioned hammer,"Little plastic moles are gonna pop out for a brief second and you have to hit them before they go away. The trick is you never know which hole they'll come out of. Wanna try it first?"
Todoroki wordlessly took the hammer out of your hands. He got into a stance that was way too serious for the game and you laughed, forcing your face back to normal when he looked at you questioningly and busying yourself with activating the game.
The figurines popped out slowly. Todoroki had no issues with keeping up at first but his lack of experience showed and his movements became more hesitant, costing him most of his chances to hit the moles after they sped up. You tried cheering him on for moral support but he had a laser-focus on the game. You felt the air chill.
Todoroki put his hand on the machine and the moles out to hit froze completely; he hit them after that, melting the machine after and repeating the process. You stared in bewilderment.
"Todoroki", you had to put a hand on your mouth to keep from laughing. He looked too serious,"You can't do that!!You're not allowed to use your quirk in places like these!!"
"How else can I hit them? I think this may also be rigged."
"It takes raw skill", you giggled,"I should've probably explained that. Don't worry about it. Let's just go to another game before anyone notices us."
After multiples rounds of being frozen and melted, the machine was a weird color and molded to the touch. You were sure the managers wouldn't be happy about it getting cooked by heroes so you dragged him yet again to another game. Something that wasn't as demanding and he probably wouldn't damage. You hoped.
"This is a fighting game. I get a stick and a couple buttons, you get a stick and a couple buttons, and those control our little avatars right there", you pointed to your characters on the screen,"It's kind of like what we do. We fight each other until one knocks out."
The man looked at you with genuine confusion,"Which one's the villain?"
"Huh?"
"If they're like us, and they're fighting, which one's the villain?"
"Uh...", you rubbed the side of your head,"Neither?Consider these two friends who like to fight."
He raised his eyebrow,"That doesn't make sense."
"Let's just play, Todoroki", you laughed. He still had a long way to go when it came to loosening up with having fun but he was trying. You went easy on him the first few rounds to let him learn the controls but found yourself flustered within minutes.
Todoroki learnt the controls very fast.
After a few rounds of you letting him get close to winning and then executing a comeback just to let him learn, he started beating you with ease. Part of it was because of how flustered you were. Thankfully, that had an easy solution, and your winning streak returned after a few minutes.
Todoroki felt a pleasant aroma reach him and stopped moving. You guiltily looked away.
"You said quirks weren't allowed."
"They're not...", you agreed.
"Is cheating common in arcade games?"
You thought about it. Technically it was--even the managers cheated with their rigged up games.
"I mean, yeah. If you can get away with it. You can't necessarily stop me from using my quirk, can you?", you grinned cheekily. It was unfair but you promised him the experience of arcade games and you were delivering just that.
Todoroki nodded,"I get it."
He caught you off guard when he gripped onto your controller and you squealed, gripping your hand on top of his to prevent him from controlling your character. To your surprise, he wasn't trying to move your stick. He was doing the opposite.
You hastily grabbed your controller when he let go and found yourself unable to move it at all. You gasped.
"Did you...freeze my controller?"
"You couldn't stop me from using my quirk so it was fair."
By your stated logic, he wasn't wrong. But now he was giving you a challenge. You grinned playfully,"Well, I guess that'll make two of us."
Vines sprouted up from the carpeted floor and wrapped themselves around Todoroki's controller, forcing him to get his hands off of it right before he finished draining your character's HP. You shook your head in fake dissapointment,"So sad. Now neither of us can wi- Wait, what are you doing?"
You gasped as he carelessly burned through your vines to press one more button--punching your character one more time and watched as a big, blue, and bold 'PLAYER 2 WINS' appeared on the screen.
"There's no way."
Todoroki shrugged, an almost playful gesture and which you were immediately about to point out before he pointed at the damage you two had done to the controllers,"I think we should leave this area too."
"Pfft. You are learning", you barely held back your laughter but did exactly as he said, this time letting him follow you without grabbing him. You led him to a photobooth,"What do you think?"
"I don't know what that is."
"Right."
You pushed him inside and rearranged the small curtain to cover both of you well. Photos of two heroes in the photobooth was the last thing you wanted going around. You scrolled through the filter options that the booth had, stopping at one in particular. You laughed when you noticed the other hero's face.
"Todoroki, I like your mustache."
He was examining the screen with furrowed eyebrows, "I don't."
"Too bad", you sat back into your seat while posing to yourself, showing off the glasses the screen showed on you. The timer started and in the first photo, you held up a peace sign while Todoroki looked straight at the camera with a blank expression. Seeing him come out like that in the photo with a mustache made you burst out into laughter.
He stayed exactly the same in the second photo.
And the third one.
Was he planning to stay like that for all ten? You hit his shoulder playfully,"Todoroki, don't you want to pose too?Even changing your angle is good enough!!", you encouraged him as you gave him an eample. He looked down at your dumb pose for a moment before breaking out a question that completely shattered your playful mood.
"Is this a second attempt to win my feelings?"
Your eyes widened and you froze, lips parted in shock. His bi-colored eyes stared patiently while you stayed like that for what felt like the longest time. His assumption caught you off guard. If anything, you were a little offended.
"Oh, dude, no. I promise it's not. I told you I just want to be friends", you raised both your hands as a show of peace, or rather, honesty, and Todoroki shook his head.
"I wasn't trying to offend you. I'm just not interested in breaking anyone's heart so if you were trying it again, I thought it would better to stop your feelings before it went too far."
As unexpected as his assumption had been, he was really only watching out for you in case he'd been right. You couldn't be mad at that but it'd be better if he understood your actual intentions,"And I appreciate the thought but I promise you that's not what this is. I just want to shove the past behind us and have a genuine friendship. Is that okay?"
You looked up at him with a mix of honesty and reassurace. It was enough for Todoroki.
Turthfully, that had been his suspicion from the moment you first suggested a friendship. It was the reason he didn't immediately give into your request; he wasn't seeking anything romantic with anyone but you looked honest about your intentions and he respected you enough. He nodded, his voice coming out quieter but still easy to hear.
"That's okay. We can be friends."
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Chapter Details:
Written 12/23/2022
Published 12/24/2022