A Wallflower's Thorns

17

Paper sprawls over the kitchen table, placed strategically around the cups of ice water so nothing gets wet. The clouds outside are thick as honey, and what few rays break through paint what they hit golden. One beam in particular slinks in through the window, hitting the blue plastic of their cups at just the right angle to sprawl patterns on the table’s surface. Izuku zones in on those patterns, trying to ignore how close Todoroki is sitting next to him. 

“What’d you get for number 17?” He tries for nonchalant, but it comes out too nervous. 

Todoroki looks up from his own worksheet and motions for Izuku to give him the paper. “Let me see.” Suddenly, Izuku wishes he had better handwriting. Todoroki looks carefully at his work and the haphazard steps he tried to write out as he did the problem. “Here.” He holds the eraser side of his pencil to a spot early on in Izuku’s work. “You put the decimal in the wrong place.” 

Izuku takes back his paper and sees exactly where he went wrong. “Oh.” scritch scritch scritch. Izuku dusts away the little bits of eraser and re-does the entire problem. “Is this right?” He was expecting Todoroki to take the paper from him again, not lean over and decidedly into Izuku’s personal bubble. Close. Way too close. Izuku focuses on Han, who he is now face-to-face with. The cat blinks, gently papping a paw onto Izuku's cheek. Appreciated, Han, but not what he’s looking for

Izuku manages to avoid self-imploding long enough for Todoroki to lean back into his own seat. “It’s right. You wouldn’t make simple mistakes like that if you went slower.”

Izuku taps his pencil on the paper. “I-I know that, in theory. It’s hard to put into practice.” 

Todoroki cocks his head, pressing Han further into his shoulder. He says, “I suppose.” and they both get back to work on their respective problems. Izuku has to take a few deep breaths to cool his heated face. 

He ends up finishing the homework a little while after Todoroki, through no fault of his own. He was distracted...by looking at Todoroki. Happy isn’t the word, but Todoroki looks content, sitting here with Izuku while Han sprawls over him. At school he always looks shut-off. Not quite cold, but definitely not open. Now that he's here, Izuku can see something softer in him. Warm, almost. 

Han’s tail curls over Todoroki’s collarbone, he reaches up to fiddle with it as he scratches the cat’s only ear. Izuku feels something tighten in his chest at the sight, unpleasant and burning hot. Todoroki doesn’t look up from what he’s doing when he asks, “Uraraka said that you chose a hero name. What is it?”

Ah, Izuku didn’t realize he hadn’t told Todoroki. Then again, he wasn’t very vocal about it. Uraraka only knows because he used her as a sounding board. Biting his lip, Izuku is careful not to trip up his words, “Lodestarr. With an extra ‘r’.” Now that he’s going it’s hard to stop, “I actually wanted to change my hero costume, too. Make it match my name, you know?” He spent a lot of time thinking about his name, he might as well make his costume match. Maybe he’s being vain, but the sweater-biker jacket hybrid from before doesn’t exactly scream “Lodestarr”. 

Todoroki nods, still not looking at Izuku. “Makes sense. But why the extra ‘r’?”

Izuku swallows. “It stands for ‘rogue’. A villain at the USJ called me that.” He can still remember how it felt to have red, red eyes scraping away at his skin. Looking for something Izuku can’t even begin to guess. “I wanted to remind myself.”