the roommate contract - todomomo

eight \\ "fuck, she took birth control"

Momo was having a decidedly bad day. Seven days before winter break and she was laying on the couch crying as snow fell softly outside, pattering against the window sill as if it were trying to soothe her tears. But it was all to no avail because Momo was inconsolable. She didn't even know why she was crying- well, she knew why. And she knew what had sparked the waterfall of tears, but she didn't know why she was still crying.

Crazy Rich Asians wasn't even a sad movie and yet, as she watched Rachel flee from the scene of Araminta and Collin's wedding with tears in her eyes, her Cinderella-esque dress flowing behind her as she ran, Momo couldn't stop crying over it. Because why did Rachel deserve to be treated like that? And she was so pretty. And if Momo was there she would tell off that mean old grandmother. And even though the raven-haired girl had seen the movie a thousand times and could probably recite the ending from memory, she was still mourning for Nick and Rachel's relationship at the moment.

She was sitting alone in the apartment, a fuzzy blanket wrapped around her body with tears running from her midnight eyes when Shouto entered the apartment at half-past ten, and to say the least, he hadn't been expecting the sight in front of him.

His bag dropped to the ground as he closed to door as softly as humanly possible and cursed himself for not staying at the library longer. It wasn't that he didn't want Momo to be happy, but Shouto Todoroki didn't know how to deal with sad people and hell if he knew why she was crying or how to make it better. That was Izuku's specialty, but he was out with his not-quite-a-girlfriend-just-yet Ochako and Denki went to some club with Sero hours ago. So, it was just him and the crying girl on the couch who was balling over Crazy Rich Asians.

"Uh...Momo, are you...um, okay?" He managed the courage to ask after what felt like an eternity of him just standing there watching her sob. His lack of skill when it came to comforting people or making people feel love or really just anything in general that involved emotion, in general, had never really bothered him all that much, but there were always times, time like these when he wished he had some semblance of a good way to express compassion.

"The kids at Peik Lin's house are so chubby," She sobbed, wiping her eyes with the blanket draped around her shoulders despite the fact that it was doing little to no good as she just kept bawling. Shouto swallowed, this was a bad situation for him to be in and he knew it. If he was wise and didn't care in the slightest about his roommate, he would just turn around and go back to the library, but despite what everyone thought, he wasn't actually soulless. He was very good at acting the part, but a tiny parted him didn't like seeing his normally cheerful and quick-witted roommate so...sad. "My utereus feels like someone stabbed me with a butter knife," She sobbed again. It was an angry sob, but she was still crying and Shouto furrowed his eyebrows and bit his lips as he tried to figure out what to do. Fuck, how was he supposed to do this?

"C'mon Shouto," He mumbled to himself almost silently as he brushed a hand through his dual-colored hair and attempted to think of a way to calm her down at least a little bit. "You have a sister, surely there's some really really repressed memory- fuck, she took birth control. Okay, new plan," He breathed out nearly inaudibly as he drew in a stressed breath. "Hey, uh, Momo, is there anything I can get you?" Even he was surprised at how tender his voice was, and it must have caught her attention to because she suddenly turned to him, looking him dead in the eyes.

His breath cuaght in his throat slightly becuase there was something so cute about the way she looked with her cheeks flushed from crying and the outside cold and her naturally long eyelashes completely drenched as tears rolled down her face. There was something innocent about her as the tears pooled on her already glossy, full lips, strands of her hair falling over her features perfectly.

He blinked again and shook his head because rule number three was his own rule and it was an important one. He had seen plenty of roommate relationships go bad, and plus, it wasn't like he had feelings for Momo Yaoyorozu. It wasn't a possiblity. She was the reason they that stupid contract in the first place. How could he ever like someone who was so fucking organized?

"Can you give me snuggles?" She requested in a way the mirrored a child, her voice both high and innocent as well as rough with the memory of tears. The TV still continued to talk at them incessantly but it was drowned out by the thumping of Shouto's heart in his ribcage for some reason that he sorely mislabeled as anxiety over genuine human contact and was in reality- Actually, I'll save that for a later chapter.

"You want...snuggles?" He swallowed roughly, his eyebrows furrowing. Shouto was not a snuggler or a cuddler or whatever the fuck those people were called. He was a hit-it-and-quit-it kinda guy, a one-night-stand kinda guy, a whatever-the-fuck-you-call-guys-who-like-no-strings-attached-sex kinda guy. Not whatever she wanted him to be. The last time he ever cuddled with someone was never. The closest he ever got to even his family members was a brief hug. That's just how he was. "Uh...I don't really do, um, snuggling...I'm not a good pillow or anything- I mean I'm kind of hard- no, fuck, that's not what I meant, that sounded really sexual- I mean like in the sense that I...have muscles..but I'm not really a cuddles type of-"

"P-Please? I feel sa-sad," Her breathing was staggered from the tears still falling down her rosy cheeks as she interrupted him and he knew that he stood no chance against those shimmering midnight orbs that were giving him something akin to puppy dog eyes. It wasn't that Momo was special or anything, she was just really good at getting him to do what she wanted. Some people were like that, Shouto figured. Not any that he had met before, but for sure they were out there. Momo just happened to be one of them. No big deal. He sighed deeply was he ran his hands through his hair.

"Fine. Okay, but not a word of this to Izuku or blond-bitch," Shouto warned sternly as he kicked off his shoes and made his way over to her. She nodded vigorously as he sat down awkwardly a healthy distance away from her. It was very obvious to Momo that he had never done anything like this before becuase the whole idea to cuddling was to be close to the person you intended to cuddle with, not a respectable three feet apart. "So...how do you wanna-"

She silenced him by suddenly scooching over to him, her blanket still wrapped around her shoulders as she leaned against his body, her head resting in the crook of his neck. He was surprised at how warm she was when she leaned into him. He was surprised at how soft her hair was as it tickled his jawline. He was surprised as how comfortably she fit against his side like she was made to be there. He was surprised by a lot of things. And when they transitioned to laying down, which was actually much more comfortable for both of them, he was surprised at how strangely calming it was to have her in his arms. In a completely platonic way of course. Rule number three, naturally.

Eventually, though, she ended up falling asleep half-way through Annabelle: Creation after periodic bursts of sobbing becuase "Janice didn't deserve what happened to her" and "Shouto your skin is so soft." She fell asleep with her face buried in the crook of his neck and her lips against his collar bone, softly whispering small nothings that probably meant everything to her against him. It was quite a sweet moment in Shouto's life. Maybe not a bad one as he had originally feared it might be. But even after such a soft experience with his undoubtedly very attractive roommate, he would still retain that he was no a snuggling kind of guy. It's just how he was.

»—————————–✄ ~à suivre