Skater Boy

Invitations

•  •  •

"There will be a showcase next week, so class is canceled," Todoroki mentioned at the end of Saturday's class.

As usual, the adult session was a relaxing comparison to others, and he had quite enjoyed being around more mature individuals.

"Will you be in it, dear?" An older woman, probably in her sixties asked.

"Jan—" he began, hoping to avoid the subject of himself.

"Oh, wow, will you?" The sweetly inviting voice of Midoriya popped in, immediately giving him pause.

The group looked on, eagerly awaiting the answer, causing the tips of his ears to glow with  heat.

"If you all must know, yes, I am planning to participate." Rubbing the nape of his neck, Shouto tried his best to make eye contact as he spoke, though failed terribly.

"May we come see?"

"I... I'm not going to stop you, it's certainly your choice," He said, clunkily muddling through the sentence.

"I'll certainly be there!" Midoriya nearly shouted.

"I as well— don't worry though, we won't embarrass you," Jan chuckled, sweetly in the way that elderly women tease the youth.

"We'd better get off, the Zamboni's coming out," the instructor gestured towards the back of the rink, where a large Zamboni began the slow crawl from its garage to the ice.

Finally, the class dispersed, saying their goodbyes for the day and moving along home.

In the coaches room, Yaomomo practically pounced on him for the info.

"Sooooo, did you ask him?" She beamed as he untied his skates.

"Yes... no... I'm unsure?"

"How are you unsure?"

"It just happened naturally, if you'd put it that way, my whole adult class seems to want to go. So yes, he's going, but no, it wasn't by my incentive."

"You kind of did it! That's good enough!"

"I don't know," he toyed with a piece of ice, crushing it between his fingers. "I don't even know if he's..."

"...Gay?"

"Er, yes," crushing the ice, his ears burned
red— his sexuality wasn't his favorite conversation topic.

"He's still out there you know," she gazed out the small window with its perfect view of the lobby. "Oh, come here."

"This seems childish... and creepy."

"Just come look," reluctantly, he stood, giving half a glance out, feeling majorly creepy for it. But, sure enough, talking to the receptionist, the boy stood.

"What are you even looking at?"

"His bag, look at the pins."

"Yao-"

"Just do it," she huffed.

Again, Shouto let his gaze fall upon the boy, noting the pin-covered messenger bag at his side.

"I, I don't get it, what?"

"You're denser than a rock."

"Just tell me what it is." Averting his eyes Shouto blew a stray bang off his scarred eyelid, becoming slightly frustrated by his inattention to whatever detail she'd been trying to point out.

"There was a bi pride pin on his bag."

"Oh," his ears flared red once more. "That was easy."

"You're a handful," she let out a partial laugh, rolling her eyes as she returned to scrolling on her phone.

They chatted for a while afterward, avoiding the topic as much as possible. Their next— and last, class was one they co-managed, an easy half hour of watching over more experienced skaters with the comfort that generally, they could handle themselves.

Then, thankfully, the rest of the day was lent to a public skate session, their day was done when this class was.

And, when that time came, Todoroki hastily packed his things, and headed home.

The next few days were dull, he'd go to work, help out his mother, and run through the same daily chores required by life. But the one day that week, when he taught a special private, he embraced a true glimmer of joy, illuminating the inky black monotony.

Thursday evening, Yaoyorozu and her wife invited him out to dinner at a small ramen house. It was fun, the food was good, but mostly, it was an excuse to interrogate him about this new boy.

The two could be quite persistent but they didn't manage to get much out of Todoroki, who could smoothly change the subject, a little trick that evaded notice for at least a short while.

Still, he enjoyed the outing.

Friday however, was full of excitements...

Todoroki pushed through the dry cleaners door, slightly surprised by the small bell sounding upon his entry.

An elderly woman at the register offered a greeting, accepting his small receipt ticket and shuffling to the back of her shop to retrieve his item. He pulled out his wallet, while she looked, sticking a decent sum into the tip jar, despite having already paid.

Soon, she returned with a medium-sized garment bag, and removed a paper that matched his receipt, discarding it beneath the counter.

They exchanged thanks, and he turned to go, show costume in hand.

Just as he waved goodbye to the shopkeeper, a person appeared in front of him. So suddenly in fact, that they actually bumped into each other.

"Er- sorry," Shouto quickly apologized, surprised when he locked eyes with the person. "Midoriya?"

"Oh my gosh, hi!" a familiar freckled smile painted Midoriya's cheeks, pink with pleasant recognition.

"Hello... how, how are you?" Adjusting his bag's strap, Shouto tried at a smile.

"I'm good, I'm good, how're you?"

"Fine, picking up my costume, you?"

"Just my nice shirts," Izuku smiled, far better than Shouto was able. "By the way, I'm super excited for that show tomorrow! You're such a talented skater I really can't wait to see you preform."

"It's nothing big or fancy—"

"That doesn't matter, I just like to see you skate,"

Those words, they caught Todoroki off guard, his face flushing a deep shade of pink, one that he truly wasn't used too. Faltering for any further words, he was frozen in a kind of fluster completely unknown to him.

"Ha, I've gotta go, nice seeing you,"

"It was an pleasant coincidence," Shouto acknowledged, redder than ever, though, managing to maintain a cool expression.

They waved goodbye and parted ways. Certainly surprised by the chance encounter.

•  •  •
Ugh, I'm sorry I know it's been a month and this is so short