Heartbreaker | BNHA x Reader

[42] Caught In Between

Even though you knew Shouto was incredibly strong, for a while, it kind of looked like Iida had the upper hand.

Iida sprung to action without even sparing a breath. He was fast enough to evade Shouto's preemptive strike, and after knocking him to the ground with a forceful kick, he grabbed hold of Shouto by the back of his shirt and started running to throw him out of bounds.

To be honest, you were actually convinced that Shouto might lose. It seemed like he'd finally met his match.

But then Iida's muffler jammed, chunks of ice sticking out of it, and in that single fateful moment, Shouto froze the rest of Iida's body and secured his victory.

Their battle didn't last long, mainly because Iida had been rushing to finish it before his engine completely stalled, but even so, Shouto hadn't made a single attempt to use his flames. He'd relied only on his right side, the whole time.

I guess it's still too early for him to use his left side comfortably. It'll probably take some time for him to get used to it.

You could see Shouto standing in the middle of the arena as he stared down at his left hand with a conflicted expression. He probably wanted to use it, but instinctively, he was still holding back.

But that was fine. You couldn't rush these kinds of things. His trauma ran deep, and he needed to process it slowly, at his own pace.

You would be right there to support him, no matter how long it took.

Shouto soon returned to the spectator stands, and although you felt a bit bad for Iida, it seemed like he was taking his loss in stride and already facing forward.

Besides, Shouto was staring at you with his eyes all wide and hopeful, like a cute little puppy, so it was hard not to root for him.

"I won," Shouto said simply.

You bit down on your lip to keep from giggling. "I saw, Shouto. You did a great job. Iida's crazy fast, but you were still able to react in time. It was awesome."

Shouto's cheeks reddened a bit.

STATUS UPDATE:

[Todoroki Shouto is happy you were here to watch him win.]

[+10 love points.]

[Current progress: 40/400]

He sat down next to you. "Thanks. But you probably noticed I didn't use my left side during that fight. I hesitated again. I could've easily lost because of it. I guess it still just feels weird. I need to sort out my feelings as soon as possible."

"You don't need to force yourself," you reassured. "Just the fact that you've acknowledged that you want to do this is already good enough. You'll get there, slowly but surely. I don't want you to get overwhelmed. I'd rather you take your time."

"I appreciate you worrying about me." Shouto paused, and you could tell he was mustering up a small smile. "You're really nice, [Name]. I was pretty harsh to you earlier today. I said a lot of things I didn't mean, but you still didn't get upset with me."

"Of course. I could never be upset with you," you beamed.

From a little distance away, Uraraka noisily cleared her throat, then proceeded to flash you an impish grin.

She's really pushing for this ship to sail, huh?

As always, you rolled your eyes. You already knew for a fact that Shouto didn't have those kinds of feelings for you, because if he did, the system would have already told you by now. That was your ultimate goal, after all. To win the affections of those the system had deemed as your love interests. You still didn't know why, and you wondered if you were ever going to find out.