uno - todomomo

x 22 ~ i missed you || todoroki

It was one in the morning by the time Todoroki made it back to his dorm that night. He sighed as he pushed his way into the unforgiving darkness of his room, silently missing the warmth of being with her. Maybe it was the way she had chosen to decorate her room with the warm fairy lights and the pictures of her friends that she cherished so much, or maybe it was her that made the room feel warm, welcoming. His room wasn't like that.

The only things that actually made it look like anyone lived there was the perpetually messed of sheets of Izuku's bed on the other side of the room (he never made his bed. Not that Todoroki ever did) and the pictures of Ochako and his mom that sat lovingly on his bedside. Izuku's desk was also a mess and a lot of times it eased the dual-haired boy's anxieties to know that his roommate had been there. But Todoroki's bedside table was empty other than the picture of his mom. And on late nights when the broccoli-headed boy was sleeping at his girlfriend's, the room was cold and dark, even with the lights on.

He didn't turn the lights on this time though, becuase his initial plan was to just fall into bed, exhausted. However, his plan was dashed by the piercing ringing of his phone that made him curse in surprise as it cut the silence straight in half. Despite this, though, he removed the phone from his pocket, the icy blue light flooding into the small room and stinging his eyes.

His heart stopped, dropping to the floor as he read the caller ID. Why was Doctor Jaden calling him? Why? He had to grit his teeth to keep the rising panic in his chest from spilling over the edge and drowning him as he gingerly clicked the green button, his hands trembling ever so slightly.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Shouto," Nora Jaden had been the Todoroki's go-to doctor for many years, even when they were kids, despite the fact that Doctor Jaden wasn't even close to a pediatrition (the main reason for this was because Enji thought that pediatritions would baby his children and not teach them how to deal with shots and anxiety). Todoroki's body shook at her tone and he forced himself to sit on his bed, lightheadedness overcoming him.

"Is this about-" He almost physically choked, unable to even say the words that were at the edge of his mind. He knew that he wouldn't be able to say the words through his trembling lips and labored breath. He could barely hear Doctor Jaden over the beating of his heart.

"Shouto..." She paused as though she were searching for the right words to say, as if she were scared he might crack if she phrased what she was going to tell him wrong. "I called to let you know that we're going to have to keep your mother in the hospital for a few more months. Her condition has worsened and we don't want to risk something happening where we can't react immediately," She said.

Time slowed like molasses around him, thick and sticky, but not sweet. It was bitter and cold and he felt like his lungs were collapsing in his chest as his vision blurred. When he was a child, the possibility of losing his mother felt distant becuase she had always been so full of life. She still read him stories before bed and made him breakfast, she was just a little more tired and sometimes she had to go to Doctor Jaden for a checkup. But now it felt like he was inching closer and closer to the edge of a cliff and he was powerless to stop himself.

His throat felt like sandpaper as he asked the burning question he never wanted to have to know the answer to, "Is she going to be okay?" He could hear the tears burning his throat, making his voice hoarse, but he couldn't do anything about it. He was sure she heard it too.

There was silence on the end for a minute. For a terrifying sixty seconds, she didn't answer, she didn't say anything. There was no noise except for the static silence on the other end that pained him. And it only got worse when her voice crackled back to life and told him somberly,

"Shouto, I don't know."

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Todoroki didn't know how long he had been sitting on his bed, staring at the shimmering black screen of his phone, his head between his knees as he tried his best to breathe. But it felt like forever. It felt like he had spent an eternity without oxygen as he turned on his phone once again. He stared at the contact he had pulled up, his thumb hovering over the green call button that taunted him. After a long moment, he tapped it ever so lightly with the pad of his finger. Maybe he was being selfish, but he just needed to...

"Hey, Princess," He rubbed his eyes as if that would make the tears pushing behind them go away while he leaned against his headboard, head bowed. He made sure to keep his voice as light and cocky as ever, though, despite the aching in his ribcage. He couldn't have Momo thinking he was upset now, could he? It would be too easy for her to comfort him and then he would start crying, and Shouto Todoroki didn't cry, so that couldn't happen.

He felt the slightest bit guilty about calling her so late, but he couldn't take the cold silence that surrounded him, threatening to crush him or push him to a place he didn't want to visit again. And though he knew that Kaminari and Kirishima would probably still be up (probably playing Mario Kart), there was no way in hell he wanted to talk to them right now. And she brought him back. She brought back the air that he'd been missing and for a minute he, just a minute, he could breathe.

"Oh god, that's my contact name, isn't it. Why are you calling me at three a.m?" Her sleepy voice groaned at him through the phone and it brought a smile to his face that the first thing she thought of was what he'd decided to make her contact name. But he kept that to himself. His sad smile didn't match the sly tone of his voice as he drew in a breath and asked her,

"Am I bothering you?"

"I mean I was sleeping so..." He could imagine the look on her face, a mixture of sarcasm and the inherent grumpiness that being woken up in the middle of the night brought. He couldn't blame her, though, because he was waking her up at three in the morning becuase he... He was actually being quite rude if he was stopping to think about it rationally at all. But he wasn't thinking about it rationally becuase if he had been, he wouldn't have called her. He would've let her sleep and just dealt with his emotions like he always did: ignore them.

"Then hang up," He said, his strangled heartbeat evening returning to normal just by talking to her. She just had that effect on him. Calming. Soothing. And he closed his eyes in the moment of silence that followed while he waited for her to hang up on him. But she didn't. Instead, he just heard her sigh deeply through the phone, forcing a genuine smile onto his features. "That's what I thought."

"So, why are you calling me? You saw me two hours ago," She sighed at him, the sleepiness being shaken from her voice as he could hear her shifting in her bed, probably to a position more conducive to holding a phone.

He paused for a moment on what to say, unable to think of a good excuse other than 'you're the only person I can talk to who can help me right now because my mom might die while I'm halfway across the country and I feel like I can't breathe.' She didn't know about his mom. And he didn't think he could manage the words to tell her.

When he replied, it was uncharacteristically soft.

"I missed you." I needed you.

‧̍̊·̊‧̥°̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥‧̥·̊‧̍̊ ♡ °̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥ ·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙·̩̩̥͙*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ °̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥ ♡ ‧̍̊·̊‧̥°̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥‧̥·̊‧̍̊

a/n ~ thanks for reading!

word count: 1400