Balanced Out // TodoDeku (On Hold Until My Writer's Block Swallows a Toaster)

Nikuman (Midoriya's POV)

Todoroki is in my house, sitting on my couch. Why does it feel weird though? He's in here as my friend. We're just two friends hanging out. We're just friends.

"A-are you hungry? Mom let me borrow the house for the day which means the kitchen's empty, so do...you want to help me make something?" I ask, pulling the ingredients I bought for meat buns out of the bags.

"Yeah, sure, what are we making?" he replies, standing up. He walks up to me and looks over my shoulder at the flour I have in my hands.

"I was thinking about nikuman? Is that okay with you?" I answer, showing him the recipe.

"Yeah, nikuman sounds good."

I smile and hand it to him.

He skims it over and then reads it meticulously.

"This is gonna take a bit," he remarks.

"Yeah, but the end result will make all the waiting worth it," I say, coating the cutting board with flour.

"I'm not that great at cooking though."

"That's perfectly fine. I'm not either. This is...really my first time making anything without my mom's help."

"Okay, well, what do we do first?"

"I think I left the pancake mix over in that bag on top of the table, can you go get it for me?"

"Sure thing."

He heads over to the bag and picks it up, digging through it. He pulls the box out of the bag and hands it to me.

I take it, smiling uncontrollably.

Todoroki smiles back at me and fills a measuring cup 90mL of the way with water.

I grab a bowl and a salt shaker and mix the water, salt, and pancake mix together.

"Just knead that for a few minutes while I handle the filling, okay?" I tell him, putting an apron. "It'll be easier to do and take less time if we're both doing something."

"Fair enough," he replies, taking my place in front of the dough mixture. He puts on the gloves that I give him and begins to thoroughly work through the dough to get it to the proper texture.

I smile and thinly slice shiitake mushrooms and spring onion. I chop the baby corn into small pieces and mix the vegetables together in a separate bowl. I mince some chicken and put it in with the vegetables.

While I pour in the proper amount of chicken soup stock, Todoroki asks me for the recipe again to see what he has to do next.

I place it on the counter in between us so we can both read it when we need to.

I return to making the fillings and add sesame oil and soy sauce to them.

"Can you pass me the salt?" I ask.

He doesn't look at me, but he nods and reaches for it. He grabs the salt shaker and hands it to me, not taking his eyes off the dough as he rolls it into six little dough balls on the flour-coated counter.

I take it and add a pinch of salt to the filling. I mix it and place parchment paper on my workspace, careful not to interfere with his dough-handling.

As I'm pouring the filling onto the paper, Todoroki speaks my name and I jump a little, which causes some of the filling to fling onto my apron.

He chuckles and wipes the filling off with his finger before popping it into his mouth.

"S-sorry...what's up?" I say, a little embarrassed.

"No need to apologize, I...didn't mean to startle you, but I've finished and would like to know what to work on next," he responds with a small smile.

"Here...flatten the dough like this while I divide the filling into six and you can place the fillings in each one," I respond, demonstrating how he should go about the dough.

"Are you sure you've never done this before?" he asks, doing as I have shown him.

"Haha, yeah...I mean, I've watched my mom make nikuman before, but I've never done it myself," I answer, grabbing a knife.

"You do all of this so flawlessly though," he protests.

"Not flawless...just...trying to imitate my mom's methods."

"Methods?"

"Yeah, she cooks things with her own special strategies so that it's always bound to turn out right, which is what I've typed out for the procedure. She's the best cook that I know."

"Oh. Well, she seems...like she...means a lot to you."

"She does, of course. She's my mom. She's been here my whole life and she's...well, the entire reason I'm alive so...what's not to like?"

Todoroki silences himself, but his eyes say a lot. He wants to ask me something else.

"Y'know...you can talk to me about anything, okay? I'm here if you need to get something out."

He smiles weakly and tilts his head down a little.

"Yeah...thanks, Midoriya, I was just...wondering..."

"What's up?"

"Why don't...you ever talk about your father?"

I flinch and almost mess up while separating the filling into six pieces.

"Well...I just...don't really know him...I've never spoken to him, and...I don't even really know what he looks like. Mom says he just works abroad, so...it's always just been me and my mom against the world."

"That explains why your so close with her...I apologize if I've made you uncomfortable or anything..."

"No, it's fine...I just...don't know too much about my dad is all...my mom never talks about him and won't give me a straight answer if I ask, so...yeah..."

"Alright, well...I'm finished."

"Yeah, me too...here..."

I move out of the way, so he can get through.

He scoops up a pile of filling and places it neatly onto a dough circle. He does the same with the rest as I watch him silently.

"M-may I...?" I mumble.

He steps aside and nods.

I pinch the edges together to close them and form a ruffle-like pattern at the top of the nikuman.

Once we're officially ready to steam them, we put them in the steamer and set a timer for about 15 minutes.

"Do you mind if I look around?" Todoroki asks, glancing behind him.

"Uh...yeah, sure, but do go into my mom's room. She doesn't like when people poke around in her things," I say, smiling at him.

"Alright, thanks," he mumbles, walking into the living room.