tell me you love me - todomomo

Chapter Two: Knight In Shining Armor

"Okay, stand next to your partner so we can get this moving." Aizawa stared boredly at the class of children who shuffled around into their pairs as quickly as they could. Momo observed the final pairings . Some were obvious, others surprised Momo, even after three years with this class, there were still some friendships that made her wonder how they had originated. 

The final partners:

Momo + Todoroki

Jirou + Kaminari

Aoyama + Izuku

Ochako + Koda

Bakugou + Iida

Mina + Kirishima

Tsuyu + Turo

Shoji + Tokoyami

Ojiro + Sero

And poor Sato ended up drawing the short straw with Mineta...

She had expected some, such as Mina who had obviously gone straight for Kirishima. She had basically claimed him in all aspects of life. 

Some were less obvious, like Bakugou choosing Iida. The only time she could remember them pairing up before was at the beginning of their first year. 

It seems like most people went for the approach of choosing their friends. It makes sense seeing as we're on training ground Beta, which probably means we aren't going to be one on one sparring against our partners. For that we'd probably go to the training grounds out back of the school instead. 

She was snapped from her thoughts by Aizawa's voice informing them of their challenge. "For you're hero training today we will be doing an exam in the from of one of my favorites, a hero versus villain simulation." Half the class perked up at the mention of such an activity, while the other half groaned in frustration. Momo, however, did not feel particularly strongly other way about the matter. What mattered to her is how much of their grade this would count for. 

"In a minute each team will randomly draw a color. You'll then find the team with the color sitting opposite yours on the color wheel. That team will is the one you will be fighting against. Warm colors are heroes, cool colors are villains." He explained, no frills. "There is only one way for the villains to win: capture a hero and hold that hero hostage until the time runs out. However, there are two ways fro the heroes to win: capture and defeat both villains, or, if the enemy team manages to capture your comrade, retrieve your teammate."

Ochako's hand immediately shot up. "Doesn't that give an advantage to the villains, sir?" She questioned. Momo had the same thought. It starts out on level playing field, but, if the villains manage to capture a hero, it then forces their teammate into a two on one situation. And even if they don't manage to capture a hero right away, they still have an equal fight. 

"For the short answer, yes. For the long answer, that's the kind of odds you students are going to face sooner then you can comprehend. But, this exercise is meant to teach you how to handle yourself when he odds are stacked against you." He gives them one last look. "Oh, and by the way, this counts for fifty percent of your grade and will determine if you get to compete the UA Sports Festival this year. I'll be assessing you the entire time, which means that even if you win, you aren't guaranteed to go. This is for me to asses if you're ready to be heroes in the real world. Those of you who don't make the cut will be taking extra training for the next few months during which time the sports festival will be going on. It might seem unfair, but I assure you, you'll be thanking me later. I was going to save the exam for this afternoon, but this works out so you'll get time to train."

Momo's eyes almost popped out of her head. Holy heck there's a chance she won't get to participate in the Sports Festival! Plus, even if she aced the written exam (which she would) she would still only get a barely passing grade, and that's assuming she did perfectly! 

Her heart rate suddenly increased dramatically under the pressure. Even in all her years at UA, she had never gotten less than a once hundred on exams like these. True they only had them very rarely, but it was still enough to make her shiver at the thought. 

Oh no, it's happening again.

Momo hadn't a definitely-not-a-panic-attack in a little over year. They used to happen very frequently in her first year, the first time being in the final exams before Todoroki had snapped her out of it. In her second year they had become more sparse, really only plaguing her when they had a big exam. And now they rarely ever happened. She had been doing so much better as of late with her confidence issues and this was a major set back. 

What if I don't make it? What if I lose and have to go home to my parents with that? They would be so disappointed. Dad would start yelling...and then mom would yell at him for being so mad....God I can hear the screaming already! I can't do this!

She jumped to attention as a comforting hand was placed on her arm. Her eyes snapped to the person it belonged to. A familiar, handsome face with dual colored hair stared at her with a serious expression. His heterochromatic eye met with hers and her heart rate began steading, her breathing evening out from it's previously jagged state. 

"Momo." His smooth voice and all his attention was directed solely to her, causing her to forget her panic.  He had the uncanny ability to make her feel so safe and yet get her adrenaline pumping at the same time, and the contact of his calloused hand against her smooth skin sent jolts of electricity running through her, making her nervous once again...just for a different reason. She could feel herself blush but didn't shy away from his touch.

"You'll be okay." He smiled slightly. Even in their third year, smiles were a rare occurrence on the face of Shouto Todoroki, even though it was well suited for them. Really anything was well suited for him. At least, that's how Momo saw it. "You're amazing, after all." 

Momo almost malfunctioned on the spot at his compliment. Of all the times to get blush-y and flustered, why now? She choked on pure air, causing Todoroki to once again wear a worried expression. 

After recovering from her coughing fit, she quickly thanked him with a bow and a smile before her face could get any more red or her heart any more jittery. 

After a moment, she watched as Todoroki quickly scanned the crowd and saw Jirou and Kaminari holding a green ball. Seeing as they were red, he naturally assumed they were their opponents. He nudged Yaoyorozu and pointed at the two. She just nodded before he explained his line of thinking.

"So I think our best chance is to trying fight them two on two. Their quirks are highly compatible which means that they'll probably be hard to fight two on one. Which also means that we might have to play defense for the first part." Momo nodded but also laughed. "What's so funny?"

She shook her head. "Even if one of us does get captured, it'll probably be me. You're really strong Roki." She sighed as she referred to him by the fond nickname she had given him a few months ago. "Plus, I'm good at playing the damsel in distress..." Her mind flicked over all the times she had forced one of her teammates to save her in a training exercise or even a real battle and she frowned.

"Momo Yaoyorozu," She looked at him in surprise. He rarely even called her by her first name. "You are the opposite of a damsel in distress. You're like the knight in shining armor." He smiled. 

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A/N - I know it's going really slow but I promise it'll pick up soon. 

Word count: 1324