Gosling

||Chapter 4||

"I dunno, why not what she wants to be when she grows up?"

"Fine," Kaminari turned to look at Yaoyorozu again and smiled. "Momo-chan what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I'm going to be oniisan's wife."

Shouto choked on his noodles.

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In the span of one breath, Midoriya's face had turned a red so bright he matched Shouto's hair. Kaminari and Jirou looked like they had both been petrified, struck mid-action from Yaoyorozu's answer.

Shouto coughed and turned to stare at her in disbelief. Yaoyorozu's answer had been innocent. What any three year old would say, but hearing it from her made his stomach knot and his heart palpitate. This must be how a heart attack felt like...

Kyouka recovered first. "Momo-chan we don't usually say those kinds of things to people."

Yaoyorozu looked around the table and blinked. "Why?" she asked innocently.

"Well..." Kyouka sputtered. "You usually only say them to the person you love."

"I love oniisan," Yaoyorozu said without hesitation, turning to look up at Shouto. His heart stalled. "Oniisan do you not love me?" she asked, with all the tact of a three year old.

Shouto hesitated. He could feel his ears heating up. He was burning, like dry ice had lodged itself in his throat. Freezing and burning him at the same time. What did one say at times like these? If he said he did, would the others misinterpret his response? But she was only a child. It shouldn't matter, should it? Shouto realized he was taking too long to respond as Yaoyorozu's face scrunched and water began to accumulate at the edge of her eyes.

"Don't cry Yao - Momo-chan," Midoriya jumped in, saving Shouto from the situation even though he was the one blushing more fiercely than anyone at the table. "It's...It's just usually you answer that kind of question with what kind of career you want... like to be a hero or a teacher or -" he trailed off.

Momo sniffed, the tears still threatening to fall. Shouto's stomach twisted. He didn't know if he could handle her tears again. What did it say about him if he made her cry twice in less than twenty-four hours? What kind of hero would he be? What kind of friend?

In a split second decision, he held up his hand. Ice began to form in his palm, chilling the air around him.

Todoroki's eyes narrowed as he concentrated on the shape he had practiced a million times.

His ice quirk was destructive; powerful. And for the longest time, Shouto had thought that was enough. That he had nothing else to learn until last year when he almost lost a match due to his inability to refine his power.

He had learned that day that sometimes delicacy was just as necessary to winning as power.

He had since begun the grueling process of honing his quirk. Enlisting Yaoyorozu's help as she understood the complexity of creating details for her own quirk. She had made him practice forming small ice sculptures. It was hard work. His quirk not naturally inclined to the intricate details he needed to perfect. Then, after six months of difficult practice, he finally made his first tangible object.

He thought of that now. As his eyes darkened in focus. The ice forming in his hand slowly twisted and chipped. Tiny particles falling like snow onto the table until a single rose emerged.

It wasn't perfect. The petals weren't detailed and it took incredible effort on his part, leaving him out of breath, but it would do.

Yaoyorozu's eyes widened at the sight and he was reminded of the first time she had seen him get it right. Her face had glowed and her lips had parted in wonder in the same exact way they did now.