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When Shouto wakes up, he thinks he might have a fever. His entire body is hotter than usual, which is strange considering he had been training his left side more lately. His limbs feel numb, which is also strange considering he isn’t sleeping in an uncomfortable position (at least not to him). And his head is throbbing. There is so much stress and pain around the back of his neck, stretching all the way down to his upper back. When he sits up to try and ease the stress his vision goes blurry and the room seems like it’s shaking. Dizzy, he thinks.
He slowly stands up but that seems to make the pain worse. So he decides to jolt up at the last minute which increases the dizziness. Guess there’s no winning, huh? He thinks.
Shouto brings up his right hand and presses it to the back of his neck. He starts to rub it in an up and down motion against the back of his neck and head. The contact between the chill in Shouto’s hand and his tight neck causes his headache to spike up temporarily. He freezes for a moment before deciding he needs some painkillers. Yaoyorozu mentioned keeping some painkillers on some top shelf in the common room kitchen. He just needs to make sure he doesn’t make any noise. He’ll be quick anyways.
The halls of the dorm are eerily quiet. What was once bursting in laughter and chatter is now bursting in only silence. Shouto supposes it makes sense, considering everyone is most likely [hopefully] asleep at this point. Still, the lack of his classmates' liveliness makes him feel slightly uneasy even if it makes sense. Back at home, the lack of liveliness was normal. The halls were always dull, and any noise that was heard were usually the cries and screams of his mother. Or him. So it’s been quiet there for a long time. When Shouto first moved into the dorms he had expected the sudden change in noise to be a bother for him, considering he was used to the silence at home. But everything felt brighter. It was still a huge change he needed to get used to, but it was a good change at least.
Shouto approaches the kitchen of the common rooms and stops when he hears light mumbling. He edges closer to the end of the hall and notices the lights around the kitchen are on. And to his surprise he sees none other than Midoriya and Bakugou. Midoriya is seated on the counter across the stove, and Bakugou is standing in front of the counter next to the stove, he seems to be cutting something up. Shouto hears Midoriya lightly laughing at something while Bakugou turns around to yell at him. He stops when he notices Shouto edging closer.
“Icy hot?” Confusion stains Bakugou’s voice. “Didn’t peg you as the kinda guy who stays up late.”
Midoriya turns around. He smiles and gives Shouto a little wave. He looks exhausted, Shouto observes. Then again, it was Midoriya. He’d be surprised if he wasn’t, considering his excessive training and lack of sleep due to even more training.
“That’s because I wasn’t up late,” Shouto points to his head. “I had a headache.”
“Oh that’s okay,” Midoriya points to a small pill bottle next to Bakugou’s arm. “We took out the painkillers already ‘cause Kacchan got a headache.”
A small growl escapes Bakugou’s lips before he starts whisper-yelling at Midoriya, “Shaddup Deku! Stop spurring my personal business to the world.”
“Personal business? It was just a headache,” Deku answers back with much more sarcasm than Shouto’s used to hearing.
“A bad headache.”
Shouto raises his hand, “Uh, the painkillers?”
“Psh, what? You want me to feed them to you?” Bakugou takes the painkillers and tosses them over to Shouto. “There’s water in the fridge.”
Shouto catches them with ease and looks back up at Bakugou. “Wow Bakugou. You’re being surprisingly soft, is this because of the lack of sleep you’re getting?”
Bakugou’s shoulders hunch up and the knife he was using to cut whatever up slammed against the cutting board hard. He doesn’t refute and instead goes on to some quiet and angry mumbling.
Midoriya chuckles. “You’d think with the lack of sleep we’d be dealing with a cranky Kacchan, but instead he just ends up being slightly nicer.”
“Probably because his brain isn’t processing anything yet.” Shouto remarks as he takes the pills. Midoriya hands him a water bottle so the pills can go down more smoothly.
“Both of you shut up, I can literally hear you.”
Shouto chugs down the last bit of water. “What are you doing anyways?”
“Late night snack,” Bakugou moves out of the way to show the vegetables he was cutting up. He grabs a pot that was sitting on the counter next to him and starts filling it up with water. Shouto walks closer so he can watch. He relaxes his back against the counter Midoriya was sitting on. Bakugou places the pot on the stove and sets it on high heat. He opens up one of the top shelves and begins moving things around. He takes out a pack of soba noodles. He watches the water carefully until it begins boiling and then starts setting in the noodles. He stirs them around with chopsticks, making sure that none of them clump together.
As Shouto watches, he can’t help but get a strange fuzzy feeling. It’s not his quirk acting up, he’s sure of it. Maybe it was the boiling water. He’s been aware for a while that Bakugou was a good cook, so why was it so different now? He figures he never really thought about actually taking time to watch. To watch the step by step process of the noodles getting cooked. Seeing the steam flow out of the pot, watching them slowly soften. His headache has gotten softer as well. The tension in his muscles was slowly feeling alleviated. Shouto feels the heat from the pot seeping into his skin, soothing his head.
Maybe it was the banter from earlier. Shouto never really took time to build connections growing up. That is until Midoriya had shouted those faithful words at him. Right, Midoriya. His first friend. The guy seated next to him currently. He looks over at him. Midoriya had closed his eyes. His head was tilted down slightly, his back was hunched, and his hands were relaxed over his knees. Shouto supposes the heat must be getting to him as well. He looked nice and peaceful. Midoriya’s eyes open as if he had heard Shouto’s innermost thoughts and smiles at him, “Are you okay, Todoroki? Is that headache any better?”
“Yeah, kind of,” Shouto shrugs. Shouto pauses to think. “Midoriya, are you tired?”
“Huh? Why? Do I look tired?” Midoriya laughs nervously.
“Kind of, maybe it’s just the heat.”
“Ah, probably the heat then, I usually wake up around this time anyways,” Midoriya seems to relax his shoulders.
Shouto frowns. “You wake up at three am? I don’t think that’s healthy, Midoriya.”
Midoriya laughs. “Nah, I meant I usually wake up at four am. It’s three fifty seven, so I might as well be getting ready for a morning jog.”
“Like HELL you are fucking Deku,” Bakugou interupts. He turns the stove off and begins straining the noodles. “I made enough soba for the three of us so you’re gonna eat the fucking soba, and you’re gonna fucking ENJOY IT.”
“Aw, Kacchan. You actually care about my opinion?” Midoriya teases. Bakugou grumbles.
Shouto makes a note. Bakugou is nicer when he’s tired, Midoriya is more sarcastic when he’s tired. He begins to wonder how his other friends will act if they’re tired. Would they become nicer? Would they be more blunt? Maybe they would act like Mr Aizawa. The thought of sitting with his other friends in blissful silence at an hour like this begins bubbling up a strange feeling in Shouto. He shouldn’t look forward to seeing a friend sleep deprived. But the thought made him feel… calm? He’s not sure. He decides he just wants to get to know his friends better. His friends. He smiles at the thought.
“Wow Kacchan, your cooking is as good as ever!” Midoriya places the bowl down on the counter and wipes his mouth with the back part of his wrist. He had been the last to finish eating since he was busy rambling on about what he usually was doing. Bakugou started getting more annoyed and was yelling at him every two seconds about how he ‘wasn’t appreciating his cooking’ and that he ‘needed to eat the soba’ because he had put effort and he ‘wasn’t doing it again’. (Although Shouto knows that last part wasn’t true).
“Of course it’s good! I made it,” Bakugou yells, taking all the empty bowls.
“You must still be tired, Bakugou. You look like you’re blushing from the compliment,” Shouto deadpans.
“I ain’t blushing you stupid half ‘n half bastard!” Bakugou angrily shouts, as he walks over to the sink he continues grumbling.
Midoriya chuckles. “So what did you think about the soba, Shouto?”
Silence.
Shouto?
Midoriya seems to instantly pick up his mistake as he begins rambling at top speed, “I mean- I meant to say Todoroki! It’s just, y’know, I was so distracted by how good the soba was and everything just felt so nice and I guess maybe I’m a bit tired and stressed about everything and I didn’t mean to say that I’m so sorry-”
“Midoriya.”
“Yeah?” Midoriya squeaks out.
“It’s fine. I don’t mind that much, really.” Shouto ignores the excited flutter in his heart.
“Oh,” Midoriya takes a breath of relief. “Sorry anyways, it just got silent so I thought you got uncomfortable.”
“I wasn’t, I was just processing hearing someone other than my family say that name,” Shouto scratches the back of his neck.
Midoriya nods slowly, a small awkward smile spread on his face. “Well, anyway. I usually go for a jog in the mornings, you guys wanna join me?”
Shouto nods. Bakugou places the final dish on the dish rack, “I’m going. I’m going to BEAT YOU.”
“Yeah, sure, Kacchan.” Midoriya makes sure to stretch out the ‘sure’.
Bakugou starts to walk off to the bathroom. He stops and turns to face Shouto. “So? Was the soba good enough for ya?”
Shouto nods. “Yes, although I prefer cold soba.”
“What kind of an idiot likes COLD SOBA?” Bakugou yells at him. He sounds offended at every angle.
“Just a note for next time.” Shouto says determinedly.
“As if there’ll be a next time for your cold soba loving ass,” Bakugou shouts as he begins to walk away.
Midoriya starts walking towards the bathroom as well. Shouto watches. “Midoriya.”
Midoriya stops. “Yes?”
You can call me Shouto. You’re a precious friend. Thank you. Shouto runs through the different possibilities in his head. He’s not sure what sparked this sudden fire within his heart. He thinks back to how calm Bakugou looked when he started watching the water boil. He thinks back to how Midoriya had looked peaceful on the counter. He wonders how he had never realized how much he felt for his friends. For Midoriya. He wonders about it all. He thinks about how he wants to keep doing this, he wants to keep talking to his friends. He realizes he has been craving it. Oh yeah, he thinks, there is a word for it.
With shiny eyes, an uneven smile, and unbrushed hair, Shouto looks at Midoriya with all the passion he has stored inside him, “Thanks for those painkillers.”
Midoriya stares at him for a moment, confusion in his eyes. But he seems to realize that Shouto is going through some kind of revelation so he smiles despite it, “You’re welcome.”
It’s six in the morning when the trio finally decide to come back inside the dorms. Shouto immediately lies down on the couch and closes his eyes.
Bakugou looks down at him. “What-? Not even I passed out that fast and I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who actually goes to sleep at a decent time.”
“I guess that headache wore him down.” Midoriya daps a towel against the sweat running down his neck. “Speaking of headaches, how’s yours Kacchan?”
“It’s fine, I’m feeling better than ever!” Bakugou boasts.
“Right, that’s good.” Midoriya grins slyly. “Maybe you’re tired though because I thought you said you were gonna beat me.”
“Hah!? I did beat you, YOU NERD!” Bakugou punches the back of Midoriya’s head.
“OW! KACCHAN!” Midoriya rubs the back of his head.
Bakugou laughs maniacally. “That’s what that headache felt like.”
Midoriya grumbles, despite himself, and looks over to Shouto. Shouto had fallen asleep. He rested lying upwards, one of his legs draped over the couch, the other bent up against the back of the couch. His right arm draped across his forehead and the other rested on his stomach. His breathing was slow and soft. Midoriya knew in a couple of minutes their classmates would start heading out of their dorms, getting some breakfast (or none at all), getting ready for the day. Shouto had already put effort into joining him and Bakugou during training so it’d be better to let him sleep and warn their classmates as they head into the kitchen. He smiles, he’s glad that Shouto feels comfortable.
“Eugh, gross, stop smiling like that,” Bakugou grimaces.
Midoriya frowns. “Smiling like what?”
“That dumb smile you get whenever you’re ‘admiring your friends’, it pisses me off…”
Midoriya laughs. “Right, sorry Kacchan.”
They both walk towards the kitchen.
Shouto feels one more thing towards his friends. Humor. He supposes he still has to learn (since apparently he’s dense), but they make him smile so that must be what makes the majority laugh.
Shouto smiles. His muscles all feel soft and relaxed. He’s lightheaded but feeling better than he had two or three hours ago. He’s so happy he might cry. His headache is gone.