Marriage Overseas - Shoto Todoroki x Reader

Little Steps

Avoiding Shoto was a must. I spent time in his office like he asked but during my few hours of alone time I was hidden away in the library.

I had gone back to my room the next day to retrieve my journal. I knew I couldn't possibly leave it for a servant or maid to discover and bring it Shoto's attention. But I couldn't hide it in his room either.

Fortunately there was a locked drawer in the library desk. I asked Charlotte for the key and she let me have it, hiding my journal in that safe drawer. I felt at ease with it there.

Waking up next to Shoto was a shock every morning. He typically slept close to me despite the large bed. Our backs were always turned to each other.

Making eye contact with him was also an avoidable must. I knew he'd be looking at me with that amused look because he could catch me off guard every single time. He knew I was nervous, that much was obvious, and it infuriated me that he capitalized on it sometimes.

For example, he purposefully stood where I would run into him. He seemed to wait around the corners just as I walked down the hallway or right inside his room.

He also made a point of staring, another reason why I never made eye contact with him. He made it obvious but never said anything unless I did. In which case he'd say something so blunt that I didn't want to address it anymore.

Men suck. I thought bitterly. He sucks.

I was sitting quietly in the library. I had had a long Saturday with Iida because there had been some type of brawl between two companies in the town. A window had been smashed and that set off all kinds of things.

For a somewhat small city there was a lot to do. In the past month I started talking to the townsfolk instead of hiding behind the desk in my office. I was out with Iida meeting several families or businessmen and women.

I was finally starting to get a grip on business affairs. Iida was a wonderful source of information and he was often the one to explain something I didn't quite catch.

Of course I was nowhere near as good as him or Shoto, obviously, but I was getting there. I was almost nineteen and would have been doing this for only three months-ish.

I was proud of myself. I had been researching and getting experience on a topic I found boring. I hated numbers and I hated business talk. However, I pushed past that and was now actually starting to gain more confidence in it.

That confidence didn't shift from work life to personal life. No matter how hard I tried, Shoto always seemed to be the one with the upper hand and amused at my stuttering or tripping. I knew I was making a fool of myself and threw myself further into work, my only confident place.

Rei came home at the end of the week but I had been too busy with work to see her yet. It was late at night and I wanted nothing more than to curl up with my music in the library.

But like the devil, Shoto didn't leave me alone. I felt the vibrations in the floor and jumped at his dark figure by the door. He turned on one of the small lights by the unlit fireplace and made his way over to me.

I pulled out my headphones but kept my feet up on the windowsill, determined to keep him at a safe distance.

"You didn't come up," he explained. "I thought you might be here." He sat down on the windowsill by my feet, eyes glued to me of course.

"I can't really sleep right now. Full of energy a little," I said.

"What do you listen to?" He asked, glancing at the white headphones still draped over my knees.