the roommate contract - todomomo

ten \\ "you also said you were hard"

"Shit, I forgot." 

"What?" Momo asked into the moment of silence that followed his words. The blond rubbed his eyes as if he was just remembering something important, but Momo couldn't understand what it was. Whatever it was that made Shouto left had obviously been triggered by whatever she was saying because he had been perfectly fine beforehand, and Momo hated the idea that she upset him. She looked between Denki and Izuku, but both of them were just looking at each other, debating how much to tell her. 

"His brother was diagnosed with lung cancer years ago on Christmas and he's been hospitalized for a while. It was just really really bad luck becuase Natsuo was really healthy before that," Izuku said on a sigh as he broke the tense silence between the three. Momo's mind was suddenly wracked with guilt. If she had known about his brother she wouldn't have even talked about her dad. She knew very well how triggering talking about death could be. It was obvious he hated Christmas and she should've been more careful about it. "He's been in the hospital for three Christmas's in a row now, I think. And Shouto's really sensitive about it. I sometimes forget becuase he never talks about it but..."

Momo stood up suddenly, drawing both of their attention away from their own guilt about the situation and to her instead as she slipped on her shoes and removed her coat from its hook. "I'm going to go talk to him," She announced barely audibly as she adjusted her hat over her head before slipping out the door and into the hallway. She didn't give them a chance to answer before she closed the door on them, becuase she knew they would probably say something about it being their fault, but it wasn't. She didn't have to tell them about her dad.

She imagined that Shouto probably went to the roof. that was where she would go to be along becuase no one ever went on the roof. It was barren in colorless and at the moment it was probably covered in snow which was just another reason that Momo felt bad. He hadn't bothered with shoes or even a coat when he stepped out the door, so he must've been freezing. Of course, he could always be inside the building, but she decided to try the roof first. 

She made her way to the staircase that would lead her to the roof, pushing her way through its faded blue metal into the fluorescent lighting of the concrete hallway. Ascending the steps carefully, she spared quick glances out the small windows at each landing, thinking about how easy it was to turn something so beautiful as snow into something so sad with just the knowledge of a single memory she didn't even share with Shouto. 

When Momo arrived on the roof, she found him standing there, as predicted, in his gym shorts and t-shirt, one hand shoved in his pocket while the other held his phone. He stared at a picture on the screen that Momo couldn't make out from the distance she was standing at, ignoring the icy wind that tossed his hair from side-to-side wildly. She didn't understand how he could show not even the slightest hint of discomfort in twenty-degree weather when he was standing out there in shorts, but she didn't question it becuase it didn't seem like the time. Instead, she just strode up to him so that she was standing beside him and said,

"So, what're you looking at?" 

"Jesus, what the fuck?!" His phone was off in an instant as he startled from her presence next to him. She released a charming giggle at his scare, considering he never seemed like someone who would startle easy, but she thought it was adorable. She thought he was adorable with his nose and cheeks flushed from the cold, a look of pure terror crossing his handsome features for less than a millisecond, but she kept that to herself for the moment, instead choosing to fold her hands behind her back and smile at him. "Nothing," He responded to her original question, fixing his expression to a glare. 

"It doesn't look like nothing to me," She rocked back and forth on her heels, staring out at the starry sky that flooded itself with delicate snowflakes. She knew he would be glaring at her which is why she chose to keep her eyes to the sky. He had every right to be angry with her, and she didn't want him to think she was trying to make light of whatever he was feeling. 

"Well, it is nothing to you so..." 

"So, why do you hate Christmas?" She asked, changing the subject becuase he obviously didn't want to discuss the picture he was looking at. She could understand that. She never kept pictures of her dad around anymore because they made her cry to look at. She would always remember him, but pictures weren't the way she chose to remember. 

"That's also nothing to you," He said, stubborn in his coldness. She could sense that he didn't want to talk to her, and on some level it stung a bit, but she remembered people trying to ask her about what happened when her dad died. It was like they were taunting her with their pity and asking her to relive the whole depressing thing all over again. She hated getting asked what happened, so she respected his decision to tell her no. 

"Okay. You don't have to tell me why, but you always can," She bumped his shoulder with hers and, to her surprise, he didn't shy away from her and instead just let a sly smirk paint his admittedly handsome features. She made eye-contact with him for a brief moment as he turned to look at her, and she noticed for the first time, how bright his left eye was. It was almost like ice, or like a crystal. Beautiful in its chilliness. 

"You know you can't flirt the information out of me, right?" He said, a wry smile appearing on his face. Momo stared at him in mock offense and also slightly not mock offense because she really didn't understand where he was picking up those signals. Sure, she was wearing mascara and lipstick becuase she was at Jirou's office's Christmas party before she got home (it was boring as shit in case you were wondering). But it wasn't like the makeup was for him. And it wasn't like she was flirting with him anyway. She wasn't saying anything even remotely flirtatious.

"And where did you get that idea from?" 

"You're wearing makeup and you're...touching me," He shrugged, bumping her shoulder in the way she had done to him before as they stared over the ledge of the roof to the ever awake city below them. Cars still bustled around in the snow and most of the lights in apartments were still shining like bright stars against the looming darkness, keeping it at bay. 

"Well, for one thing, I was wearing makeup since I walked through the door becuase I came from my best friend's Christmas party," She said, bumping his shoulder back and spurring the ghost of laughter that one could only hear if they listened closely. He just smirked at her playfully as he said, 

"So we're not your best friends then? Ouch, what a way to find out." He faked hurt, placing a hand over his heart and releasing a genuine laugh as Momo shoved him lightly and rolled her eyes, despite not being able to suppress the smile that overtook her full lips. She was supposed to be cheering her up, but he was the one making her smile. Weird. 

"Anyway, I'm touching you becuase I'm trying to comfort you like a normal human being. I would even give you cuddles if you weren't so uptight," She stressed, leaning against him as she looked at him through the corner of her eye, her midnight hues traveling the length of his face and settling on his heterochromatic eyes that locked with hers. He just shook his head, clearly trying his best not to smile at her words as he said,

"I told you before, I'm not a cuddly guy." 

"Well, you also said you were hard so..." She promptly burst into a fit of giggles as she watched him try to hide the red blush of embarrassment that tinted his high cheekbones by scrubbing a calloused hand over his features. Even so, he was still smiling like a bashful idiot at having told his roommate he was "hard." For a guy who was so smooth when it came to women, he was awfully not smooth when it came to his female roommate. 

"You're taking that completely out of context," He responded, rolling his eyes at her as she returned to a normal standing position a few feet away from him. 

"Yeah, maybe I am, but you still said it," She smiled before she suddenly laced her fingers with his. He jumped slightly but forced his body to remain as relaxed as possible so as not to reveal the definite effect she was having on him. She didn't see the bright red blush on his features becuase hse had turned back to the skyline, and he was forever grateful for that because he couldn't really go about breaking his own rule, now could he. "Anyway," SHe said, turning to him and forcing him to quickly swallow the lump in his throat. "We should get you inside, you'll get frost bite." 

"God, you're like the mom friend."

"I don't see an inherent problem with that." 

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