#1 In My Heart

Park

(A/N: sorry for the late update. If you're a manga reader like me; I'm so sorry 😭)

(Todoroki POV)

I sigh to myself. "Will we ever not get attention when we leave our place?" They both laugh at me as we eat our ice cream surrounded by flashes from cameras and people asking questions. "Eh, it's the price we pay for being gay pro heroes, I guess" Kats says in a jokey way. "Yeah, yeah. Maybe we should just hire professional ice cream makers to come to the apartment. That way when we want ice cream we can just have it whenever we want without having to leave." They both laugh at me again. "Professional ice cream makers??" Ei says with a chuckle. "You're so cute." They're both awfully giggly right now despite our... situation... Especially after what happened in the car. "Ah. I get it. You're both trying to make sure I'm not freaked out or anything, huh?" I question them both as they look at each other. "We have no idea what you're talking about babe. We're just enjoying ice cream with our amazing boyfriend" Ei says. "Uh huh. So all your weirdness has nothing to do with what happened in the car on the way here? Or the situation we're in?" I raise an eyebrow as I question them. "Mmm nope" Kats says quickly as he eats a bite of ice cream. "We're just enjoying our date before things become a little bit of a mess" Ei says back. "Uh huh..." I say still not convinced. "Annnnddddd there might be one other thing..." Kats looks at Ei before finishing his sentence. "We might've called in some back up..." I look at both of them. "I told you. I wanted to handle this before getting anyone else involved." I sigh. "Yeah, well, we are just trying to protect you. It's clear whoever this is, has taking a liking to you I guess since they haven't talked to anyone else. So Ei and I thought it would be best that from here on out, you will be sidelined and everyone else will take over to figure it out. We just don't want you getting hurt." Kats says worried. I know they both genuinely care about me. And I know things have happened to me in the past. But I deserve to be in this. "No" I say back. "It's non negotiable babe" Ei says grabbing my hand. "No. You need me to get to this person if I'm the only one they're communicating with. I get it. You both don't want to see me get hurt. But in order to figure out who it is, you need me whether you like it or not." I say firmly. I can see the look of worry in their eyes. "I have a compromise. I won't fight whoever it is. I'll leave that to you and whoever you called. I will bait whoever it is out, though." They both still look worried. "Fine." Kats says first. "But you leave the minute things get ugly and they will." I sigh, knowing there's no way of getting out of this. "Fine." I say back. "Good. Now that we got that out of the way, we need to think of a plan." Ei says. "Who did you guys call?" I question. "Uhm. Well. Kind of everyone?" Ei nervously chuckles. "Who's everyone?" I question again. "Oh you know, all the other pro heroes..." Ei says again. "All of them? Why did you bother everyone with this?" I'm visibly irritated. "We needed help." Kats says also annoyed. "Now stop asking so many questions. You should be appreciative of the fact that we all love you and care about you and don't want to see you get hurt again" he crosses his arms. "Guys. Stop. We'll never figure this out if you two keep bickering." Ei says to the both of us. "I'm sorry. I really am. But I can't sit here and accept that he always wants to do things on his own. Especially when he's the most vulnerable of all of us." Kats says to Ei. "He continues to put himself in dangerous situations, despite having a whole bunch of people who are willing to be by his side and help. Nothings changed with him." Kats looks at me. "You act like you have something to prove all the time. You don't. Accept the fact that you can't do everything on your own all the time. Accept the help you're offered and given. Because if you keep trying to do it your way and on your own, you'll get seriously hurt. You already were once." I roll my eyes. "Oh you're one to talk. You always do things on your own. Are we just going to ignore how awful you are to everyone? Especially when they offer help? I say back. "I'm going for a walk." Kats says as he gets up and leaves. Ei looks at me. "You two need to make up. Now is not the time for us to be fighting." "I just don't understand" Ei cuts me off. "You don't understand because you don't try to. He and I are always willing to help you whenever you need it. But you don't come to us. He's right in the fact that you do everything on your own all the time." "Yeah but" Ei cuts me off again. "I get it. He's like that too. But whenever he has a problem he always comes to me and you. You don't even do that. I'm not condoning how awful he is to everyone else. That's a problem for a different day that he is already actively working on daily. We both understand that you want to show everyone you can do these things. But we all already know you can do them. Honestly, the way you go about it, comes off as you having a death wish or something. And we both don't want to see you die before you've even had a chance to really live." Ei grabs my hand. "We both love you more than anyone or anything in this whole world. Please. Just let us help. From here on out, come to us whenever there's a problem. No one will think of you any less for needing help. All of us need help usually. I mean, you help Midoriya whenever he asks. Anytime anyone comes to you with a problem, you're always the first to set aside whatever you're doing to help. Let us do that with you. You can't carry this by yourself. So please don't try." He looks at me with sadness in his eyes. But I guess he's right. I think about his words for a minute. "All these years of therapy and I guess I still haven't learned to ask for help, huh..." I finally say. "It's hard. I get it. But you need it. Especially now." Ei kisses my hand. "Alright. You're right. Now if only Kats could express his feelings the same way you can. The three of us might actually have a healthy relationship." I say with a half smile. "I told you. He's actively working on it. He doesn't like the way he acts towards us. Or anyone else for that matter. I guess in a way, you're making him have a change of heart." Ei gets up. "Now let's go find him." "Fine, fine" I say as I eat the last of my already melted ice cream. "We still haven't come up with a plan." I say as we leave the ice cream shop. "We have a meeting with everyone tomorrow. We'll figure it out then. For now, we need to find Kats so you two can make up." "How is it that you're somehow the wisest and most level headed of the three of us?" I ask Ei. He wraps his arm around me. "You know. I'm not entirely sure. Because I thought you would've been that way." We both laugh as we walk around looking for a blonde spiky haired boy. We walk up to a park. "Do you think he went in there?" I say stopped in front of it. "Wouldn't hurt to check." Ei says guiding us in. The laughter of children on the playground fills the air. We continue to walk around the paths until I see a familiar jacket. "Found him" I say out loud as we walk up to the bench he's sitting on. "You really shouldn't run off like that. We were worried" I say sitting next to him. Ei sits on the other side. "I'm fine." Kats says to us. I lay my head on his shoulder. "We didn't ask you how you were. We said you worried us." I say again. "You know. I'm gonna leave you two to talk. I'll go grab some coffee or something" Ei says getting up. "I'll be back." He says again walking away.

"I'm sorry" we both say at the same time. "No. You're right. I need to accept help. And I need to learn how to ask for it" I say first. "I guess I just wanted people to see I'm fine on my own..." I say again. "Babe... No one's fine on their own. Not in our line of work anyway" he says. "Yeah. You're right. I guess the only solution is to start asking for help. And to thank the two boys who knocked sense into me" I say looking at him. "Ei says I made you have a change of heart. What did he mean by that?" I question. "He just meant that I no longer like the way I treated everyone. So I've been working on being nicer. Especially to people like Midoriya." He says. "Oh?" I question. "And how do you do that?" I smirk. "We may have gotten coffee... and sometimes lunch... I guess he's not that bad..." "Thats cute that you're becoming friends with one of my best friends. I like that" I say to him. My eyes gaze over to a dad helping push his child on the swings. "So why'd you come to a park?" I question. "I dunno. It's just where I stopped I guess." He says. "Interesting." I say back. "You know, I wouldn't mind doing that. I actually think about it quite a lot." "Doing what?" I question not realizing what he's talking about. "Kids. Being a dad. All that stuff." He looks at me. "Mm I think Ei should be here for that conversation. Also we can definitely move up our plans after we defeat whoever this next villain is." I say confidently. "What plans?" I hear Ei's voice behind us. "Mm Kats wants kids. Or at least a kid." I say back with a giggle. "Damn. I leave you two for a five minutes to make up and now you're discussing kids again??" "Hey. Kats brought it up!" I laugh. "Can we go home please?" Kats questions. "We have a lot of stuff to do tomorrow." "Fine fine" I say as we both get up and follow them to the car.

"Everything's gonna be okay guys. I promise" I say to both of them.