Secrets [Todoroki]

*Chapter Forty-Nine*

Todoroki had got Miri back to her home in safe condition.

He stood, leaned up against the front door of her house, watching her pace around the main room in varying degrees of emotions. He could hear her mumbling, but couldn't make anything of it.

His mind flooded to their interaction at the hospital. He wanted to push it out and away, but it was so hard. A sad pit was growing in his stomach. Why did she pull away from him? He didn't have any other answer for that other than she just didn't feel the same as him.

A weird feeling slipped through his chest. These emotions...they felt strange to him. He didn't understand much about them other than he just had the overwhelming urge to kiss her and protect her whenever he saw her. He's never felt like that towards anyone before, so to feel them now...it's terrifying, especially given the circumstances.

He couldn't just get over them, even if Miri didn't feel the same way.

'Maybe...if I tell her how I feel and she rejects me, I'll get over her?' He thought to himself, still watching her pace.

His mouth opened to say something, but it closed almost immediately.

'If I tell her now, with everything going on, I might stress her out. Knowing her, she probably wouldn't want to hurt my feelings and would try to think of a way of letting me down easy. I can't put her through that. Not right now with everything else that's happening.' He pushed himself off the door. 'For now, I'll just support her and wait for it all to blow over. I can wait for her.'

Nearing Miri, he could hear her mutterings.

"...with all these people watching my every move, I must be extra cautious with what I do and say." He watched as her fingers aggressively yanked on her black strands of hair, something he noticed she did when experiencing intense emotions. "They'll search endlessly for ways of incriminating me or everyone around me. It's not even just me I have to worry about. If I act out, then it reflects badly on my mother. Hell, even the school. I can't just-"

"Hey." He grabbed her arm, causing her to almost jump out of her skin. "Just stop and take a deep breath."

"I know..." She sighed and sat on the couch. "I've tried preparing myself for this moment. I even knew it would happen soon. It's just...now that it's here...it feels so out of control."

He was silent for a moment. He sat beside her on the couch, elbows resting on his knees. He set his head in his hand, thinking.

"Instead of worrying about the right way to act, just be you." He finally stated.

"That's very dangerous of you to say. Do you know who I am?" She looked at him from the corner of her eye.

"Aside from not knowing about your mom, I'd like to think I do." He looked over at her. "Believe it or not, your secret about your mom didn't really have much to do with whom you are." He made a strange face. "Okay, well, it kind of did, but you're still the same Miri you've always been. Smart. Witty. Reckless." His eyes narrowed at the last one. "Now, people just know where you came from."

"I don't really feel like myself anymore." She stared down at her hands. "I don't think the old me worried this much about what other people thought of her or whether she was doing the right thing."

"I think worrying about that stuff makes us human." He sat up, leaning against the back of the couch. "At the beginning of the school year, you could hardly get a sentence out without pausing over your words."

"I didn't want to say the wrong thing. I wanted...I wanted people to like me, even if I had this big secret. I wanted my attendance at U.A. to be more than just what my mother wanted of me."