a fateful encounter ;; tododeku

Chapter Thirty-Two: Capricious

oops i told a lot of you that today everything would be fixed between icyhot and small might but actually it's not yet since I rewrote the chapter today - the progression of healing my angst changed a bit :p !

also, this took me all day to do oh my god why am I so bad at staying focused??? i had this document open from like 10am to now which is nearly 8:30pm. so that's fun – remind me never to rewrite chapters last minute...(that also explains why the title of this chapter is really bad but who even reads those anyway!)

Todoroki //

Denki and I eventually made amends with each other. He was still relatively annoying to me, but I at least gave him things to do instead of watching me read fifteen books a day.

He's awful at chess. I don't think he really understands what he's doing, but I think he just plays to appease me. Even if the game isn't much of a challenge, it brings me back to the days I spent with my mother when I was still very young. We sat in this room, just the way Denki and I are now. She taught me how to play and she would sit with me patiently for hours each time I insisted we play again. Such simpler times...

"You know, we could play checkers instead," I suggest as I win our tenth game in a row.

"That's a better idea. I don't understand this stupid game."

I stand up to grab the game of checkers from the shelf across the room. "I don't think it's the game that's stupid..." I mumble as I walk away.

He raises his fist playfully. "Come back and say that to my face!" It's hard to take the threat seriously, if it even was one, when he's trying so hard not to laugh.

If he had been more serious and three thousand times angrier, he probably would've sounded exactly like Bakugou from the village. The thought of the ill-tempered blonde who I knew very briefly sent a chill up my spine on its own. I really thought that Ochako and Eijirou would be the cause of my brutal murder, but then I remind myself of Bakugou's existence. If Izuku tells him everything and convinces him that I'm a total asshole, then he'll probably hunt me down and rip me apart.

Well, maybe not.

He seems like the type to tear everything that pisses him off the shreds, but he doesn't seem like someone who would do it for Izuku. Or should I say, 'Deku'. Unless I somehow misunderstood his attitude.

Thinking of that sends my mind one million miles away from the castle. I had been so far gone on the path of my imagination – the thought of Izuku's friend's reactions to my misdemeanors is a troubling, yet captivating one – that I was barely tapped into reality. Somehow, my distracted steps had taken me back to my seat in front of Denki before I really processed it.

Sure, I was better than him at basically every game we've played, but with my mind everywhere but on the pieces in front of me, I'm not so sure I can pull another win off. If he wins, he'll never let me live that one down. Surely, I could live with that embarrassment.

Denki looks up at me with a concerned expression every so often as we continue to play the game. He knows somethings off since I've stopped trying to talk and all of my complaints have been silenced. My mind can only float back to the impossible thought of Izuku being inside this castle. Usually, I hated the mere thought of this place, but when I think of this grand palace with Izuku inside of it, it doesn't seem so bad. The warmth of his hand in mine would reassure me that there's still hope for this broken home...

"Do you think he'd ever consider seeing me again?" I ask suddenly, growing tired of sitting in silence and playing a game I'm barely paying attention to. Denki seems to perk up from his bored expression, staring at me like he can't quite understand what I said.