The Couples of Class 1-A

LCO | Ch. 14: Setting the Stage

By the time Todoroki had locked himself away in his room, he was exhausted. Physically, mentally, socially, romantically... his social battery had died a long time ago—even before the party, right around when Kaminari had burst in on him and Yaoyorozu sharing a... moment.

Amongst all the chaos, he'd almost forgotten about that.

Todoroki's back hit gently against his door, and he let himself slide down onto the tatami.

I was so, so close to kissing her today.

He shut his eyes, feeling heat seep into his cheeks and the tips of his ears. He must've been redder than a strawberry, but for once, he let himself stay that way.

As he eventually crawled onto his futon, he let his mind indulge freely for a moment. He was unashamed now to admit it—he loved her. Which kind of love, he wasn't precisely sure, because he'd read a Wikipedia article on the way up to his room to distract himself, and found out there were about a hundred different kinds. Platonic and romantic love, yes, but also attraction, infatuation, twitterpation, obsession, lust—

All of them. he decided tiredly, realizing he was overthinking again.

And then back to thinking about her he went. There they were, in the classroom; playing with the broom for no purpose other than dodging chores, and then he was on strewn on top of her again—staring into her dark, shimmering eyes. He could smell the apple blossom shampoo she'd mentioned. Earlier while studying, he'd only been left with a faint whiff on his fingertips, but it was a nice and pleasant smell. To be so close though, surrounded by waves of her dark, black locks—shaped roughly in the form of a spiraling rose against the floor...

Frankly, his first instinct, aside from kissing her, was to sneeze. Because the scent of apple blossom was a little too strong for his taste.

But after that, yes—it allured his senses and made him fall for her even harder.

When the image of her blinked away, Todoroki found himself smiling. It was the sort of grin that you couldn't force off of your face—one that pulled at the corners of your mouth, until it pushed up into your cheeks and squinted your eyes. For some reason, he felt self-conscious of it though, and had to roll over and flop his face into his pillow to keep from humiliating himself further.

I'm not used to this yet... he realized, unsure if he was bothered or happy by that sentiment.

Sadly though, the charm eventually wore off. It was starting to creep into the later hours of the evening, and he had yet to complete a single page of his homework. There was no time for YouTube and gameplay videos tonight.

There was time for soba, though. Because there's always time for soba.

Eventually, as the clock creaked on, Todoroki wrapped up his homework, threw away his empty soba container, and prepared himself for bed. As he entered the bathroom and pulled out a string of floss, he was able to ignore the background noises of Kirishima singing off-key in the shower, and remember with some reluctance that tomorrow was not going to be a fun day.

Oh right. he huffed, almost snapping his string as he tugged it out of his molar, I have to deal with Uraraka. This mess is far from over.

He sighed gloomily.

By the time Todoroki made it to his bed at 10 o'clock, he was able to conk out surprisingly fast for once.

*     *     *

A golden-tinted light peered through Todoroki's closed eyelids, and almost immediately, he shot his head off of the ground. He blinked once, bringing into focus the familiar landscape, before exclaiming with unbridled relief: