Chapter Text
It was already fall. Cold as hell, but all the colors around were all warm. You were strolling around the streets of Musutafu, burrowing deeper in your scarf and cursing that you had forgotten to buy groceries a few days ago. Now, you were forced to travel in the icy weather. Although it was just autumn, you felt the creeping chill of winter, reminding you that it was near the end of the year. You were not ready yet, there was too much you had not yet accomplished—too much that you needed to take care of.
Especially… him.
You needed to tell him, to be with him, for him to acknowledge what you felt. With the year ending so soon, you realized that you had accomplished absolutely nothing, and if you didn’t do anything, your relationship was going to stay that way. Perhaps… Forever.
Ugh.
In your peripheral vision, you saw the red leaves of the trees slowly float your way. They traveled in a pack, but one drifted to you ever so slightly. You quickly dodge it, but with its trickiness, one got around your defenses and fell flat on your face. You groaned in annoyance. Great. How lucky were you that Mother Nature decided to basically clobber you with a leaf.
A leaf.
To your right, you hear the click of a camera, and after, a low and familiar laughter.
Ripping the leaf off of your face as violently as possible, you turn to the person, ready to beat them to a pulp, to take revenge, and to teach the guy a lesson or two. Instead, the sight made you soften your eyes.
“That was amazing, ___,”
Shinsou Hitoshi.
“Man, you looked so dumb,” He was practically doubling over.
The number one boy of your dreams.
“It’s a good thing I took a picture!”
On his face was a shit-eating grin that you could never get tired of.
He had no time to waste as he showed you the picture, and he was right. It was you, off guard, looking surprised as a single piece of a leaf slapped you on the face. You certainly looked dumb, and you had to admit, you currently had no picture as dumb as the one he possessed. He developed a thing for picturing you when you were caught doing something dumb. And it was fate that he’d see you doing this. He had his arm around you as he showed you the picture, his hand holding out the phone as his other hand hung from your shoulder. His scent filled your nose with his usual cologne and you could practically feel him smiling. When he pulled away, he still had that goofy look.
You smiled back, and you knew that your day was already better. The penetrating frost of the weather disappeared as he appeared.
“What are you doing here?” You ask him. Although you could ask nothing better but to be with him the whole day, you were kind of curious as to what brought him here.
“Well, I got your message,” You had almost forgotten that you did send him your location before you left. But you could not remember, as it had been almost like second nature to you. You fingers moved on their own, always texting him whenever and wherever. “And I had nothing to do, so I went here,”
“I’m just going to buy groceries, is that alright with you?” You showed him your list and he nodded.
“Sure sure, let’s go, it’s too cold out here,” He wrapped his arm around your shoulders again, keeping you close. Almost immediately, you felt the warmth emanating from him, heating you up from the cold. He led the way, as you merely followed him, as if he was the one with the errand. On the way, he kept on cracking little jokes, making you both laugh. He repeated inside jokes that you both had, chuckling as he told them.
Your heart skipped a beat, even though you both had done this so many times. But your feelings never changed. It was as strong as they were, the first time you had realized it.
How unfortunate it was that to any other person, you both looked like a couple enjoying their time. With you as close and comfortable to him as possible, it really did look like it. But no matter how much you presented that way, you knew that there was no way you’d really be one. In all honesty, all that they were witnessing were two best friends, spending time together.
But how you wished that you were really a couple.
With Hitoshi, this was really all you were going to get. He was smart, reliable, and an asshole. But he was oblivious, enough so that he had never noticed your advances towards him through the years. In first grade, when you met him, you gave him a kiss on the cheek, and instead of kissing you back, he thanked you for your service(saluting as well). During third grade, you told him you had a crush on him, and he seriously thought you were joking(he even cracked a knock knock joke as his response). In the fifth grade, you always gave him gifts and letters; in return, he replaced them and gave you money, almost like a man giving his child allowance(he even put it in an envelope as he handed you the week’s expense, after researching on how much everything you gave him was). In middle school, you were a bit more obvious, actually telling him your feelings. But for some reason, every time you did, something else that was bigger would happen, resulting in him getting distracted(this happened specifically when during his birthday, you gave him a big present and had a whole speech prepared for him to confess, but the school decided to hold a fire drill that day, so your spotlight was stolen by the whole school administration. You still hold grudges against Principal Harake.)
It seemed like he would never get the hint, and you’d stay single forever, chasing a man that was too dumb to realize anything. You wondered why you even liked him in the first place. You often forget, due to him being clueless about anything.
“Oh, I got you that scarf a few years ago…”
He pointed at the red and green tacky Christmas scarf he got you as a joke. It did kind of grow on you, and you wore it proudly, knowing that Hitoshi gave it to you.
“Yeah, I still use it from time to time,” A light hue of red appeared on your cheeks, and you could not believe that he caught you off guard there!
“You’ve really taken good care of it, considering…”
“Of course! Seems like a waste if I just store it away, y’know,”
“It looks good on you.”
But ah, sometimes, a few words slip out that reminded you exactly why you liked him. He was a knucklehead, sure, but he was loveable. A loveable knucklehead.
“Here we are,” Behold, the bright lights of Lawson. There was a Family Mart right next to it, but this one was bigger. It had more of what you needed. Hitoshi took a shopping bag and took your list. “C’mon, catch up,”
“Why’re you such in a hurry?” You trailed after him, glancing around the aisles. You spotted milk and added that to the bag.
“I wanna hangout later at your house,”
You almost stopped dead in your tracks. He was as monotone and bored-looking as he could ever be, but those words… It was just a normal thing for him to say.
After gathering what was on your shopping list(which was quick because most of what you wrote were snacks) and paying for them, you headed straight to your apartment.
“Hey if you crack an egg on Todoroki’s left side, would it cook?” You wondered out loud.
“A better question would be if his armpit hair was different colors on different sides,” You knew he was joking, but for some weird reason, you felt like he was weirdly genuine about it.
“Like his body hair would be different on each arm or if it was just white or red?”
He looked at you with a scary expression. His eye bags seemed heavier and his under circles seemed darker. His hair even looked spikier than normal. He was… serious about it. “Yes.”
“You can’t really ask him that, Hitoshi,” You tried to laugh it off. “That’s way too personal!”
But the eerie feeling would not disappear. In the corner of your eye, you saw him reaching for his phone. He really can’t be doing this!
You tried to keep your silence as he opened his messaging app. Maybe he was going to talk to someone else! Maybe about a project or something… He wasn’t that much of a dumbass to actually ask him, right?
His thumb hovered over the contact name, ‘Todoroki Shouto’.
“Hitoshi, no!” You tried to grab and take the phone away from him.
This boy… He was faster than you, and his nimble fingers had already written and sent his question.
“Now all we have to do is wait-“
He did not even finish his sentence as you heard a notification bell answer him. You admit, you were curious as well, so as soon as you heard that faint ‘ding!’ you ravenously grabbed his phone from him. You used your fingerprint to open his phone and saw an answer that truly disappointed you.
Me: hey todoroki, this is an unusual question and I know its out of the blue, but is your body hair also divided like your normal hair is?
Todoroki Shouto: I’m blocking you.
You can no longer reply to this conversation.
“You can have it back,” His phone was returned to him. “Don’t bother—he blocked you,”
He stayed silent for a moment, before reaching inside your pocket and taking your phone away from you. “Shinsou Hitoshi, what are you doing?!”
“Don’t try to stop me, ___, this is for the sake of science,” You saw your lock screen open and immediately transfer to your messaging app. He was doing it again.
After a while, he returned your phone, looking downcast. He got rejected again, huh? That means… you got blocked by Todoroki. You checked the recent messages, surprised at the outcome.
Me: hey todoroki, I was just wondering about a little something hehe
Todoroki Shouto: …
Me: its just a quick question don’t worry
Todoroki Shouto: Did Shinsou put you up to this?
Me: uhh. yeah absolutely
Todoroki Shouto: If you must know… Like my eyebrows and eyelashes, my body hair is just black. Although since my body temperature is high, it retains the color red… in certain areas.
Me: like your pubes?
Todoroki Shouto: ……. I don’t know if that is a question I’m comfortable enough to answer.
You glared at Hitoshi, who had that shit eating grin he had a while ago again. You could not believe what you were reading! Worst of all was that Todoroki thought you were the one he was talking to!
Me: I’m sorry Todoroki!!! Hitoshi stole my phone away from me!!!!!! I’m sorry for those questions!
Todoroki Shouto: Ah… It was him, huh.
When Hitoshi saw that you were trying to explain things to Todoroki, you knew that he was going to do something worse. And you were right, as he grabbed your phone again from you. He had a maniac smile as he typed furiously, a scary aura emanating from him. It seemed like you would lose a friend named Todoroki today. As soon as he handed the phone to you, you read the series of passages that he sent.
Me: im just asking for your pubes dude
Todoroki Shouto: I’m sorry? Is this Shinsou again?
Me: no. its ___ babey. im just saying, ive had a crush on you for a long time now ;) so im ready for you hehe
Todoroki Shouto: I’m afraid I’m not following, ___. And I’m sorry, but I don’t feel the same way.
Me: bro I don’t care if you don’t like me. Im just saying this cat be ready.
“Oh my god!” You typed as quickly as you can, apologizing for Hitoshi’s texts. “Hitoshi did you just make me confess to Todoroki? I don’t even know him that much!”
He laughed at your reaction. “I’m going to be using your phone as long as he has me blocked,”
Me: I’m sorry, Todoroki… Hitoshi is saying that he won’t stop using my phone to message you until you unblock him. :((
Todoroki Shouto: Fine. It is weird to have your name send these… vulgar messages.
“There, Hitoshi, Todoroki unblocked you, now leave my precious phone alone!” As soon as he heard that, he pulled out his phone. From tiptoeing and holding on to his shoulder until you saw his phone, you saw that he typed only one thing.
You can now reply to this conversation.
Me: bitch.
-
Finally, you had arrived at your apartment. Hitoshi had spent the entire time walking tormenting Todoroki and Kaminari(who was only involved because Todoroki went offline to study, and Kaminari had sent a chain message to Hitoshi, which put him in his radar). It was full of laughs and it strangely felt cathartic as you messed with someone else.
But Hitoshi turned to you, face suddenly hardening.
“Are you ready for… that?”
You looked at him, your happy expression fading away. “You don’t mean…”
Curse the gods. “Yes, I mean… that,”
As you walked up the stairs, body heavy and glum, you felt the stare of Hitoshi. Of course, he would propose that while you were having fun. You narrowed your eyes. There was absolutely no way you were going to lose this time. With your jingling keys in hand and the lock of the door opening, you slam the door open and quickly take off your shoes. Your groceries, forgotten as they dropped on the floor. Everything went flying at once. Both you and Hitoshi ran for the living room, the long corridor of the apartment squishing you as you forced to fit with him in tow. The light was there, it was blinding, you were so close, closer than Hitoshi…!
“I win!” You shout victoriously as Hitoshi lay on his back, breathing heavily. “26 wins and 25 losses, take that!”
“Whatever, I only let you win,” He stuck out a tongue at you. “I’m just going to get a glass of water real quick,”
He headed to you kitchen, familiar as always. It seemed like he had always lived here, blending in and knowing where everything was.
Looking like a couple, huh… Scratch that, you both even acted like a real one! It was as if you were living together… His home was yours and yours was his. You were a couple, but with no romantic feelings. You had never kissed, nor had you both even gone on an ‘official’ date. He had never told you what he felt about you, nor has he even called himself your boyfriend! It was only ever just ‘friend’ and the like.
But that was not a rejection, you knew that. Hitoshi was just plain dumb.
“Hey, Hitoshi, do you like someone?”
Fuck, why were you asking that?
The shuffling that you heard from the other room abruptly stopped.
“…Hmm, no one comes to mind, really,” His voice was muffled as he was in the kitchen. He did not even consider you. “Why’re you asking?”
He emerged, sitting next to you. He stretched his arms and one fell on your shoulder. How many times was he going to do this? “I was just wondering…”
You stayed quiet.
“Well, what about you?”
You looked at him, and he was waiting for your answer. It was only fair to answer him when you had just asked him that… And by how much he was close to you, you could not think of an acceptable lie to tell him. You felt your cheeks getting warmer and warmer.
“There is someone…”
Hitoshi’s ears became more attentive. He nodded for you to continue.
“He’s kind, sweet, and treats me like I’m his girlfriend,”
You remembered all the times Hitoshi bought you the things you wanted for your birthday because you had to save up for something else. You remembered when he took care of you when you got sick, and when he caught your cold as well because he wouldn’t leave your side(you were both reprimanded by Aizawa-sensei because you missed a week of lessons). And you remembered when he comforted you when your grandmother passed away, hugging you so tight it felt like you couldn’t breathe and holding you while you both slept that night.
He did all these things when you were just friends. You could not imagine what he’d do once you finally told him how you really felt.
“Oh, are you two together? You don’t really tell me any—“
You cleared your throat. “But we’re just close. I’ve tried to tell him that I liked him but he doesn’t realize what I’m saying,”
“Sounds like he’s an idiot,” He pulled you close to him, putting your head on his chest as he laid on the couch. “He’d be really lucky to have someone like you,”
You hoped that he knew that he was making fun of himself. He had you in an embrace, and you relaxed. You heard his heartbeat, and it was in a slow and steady pace. You wondered if both of your hearts were in sync.
“I love you,”
You closed your eyes, easing in the comfortable position. His heart’s steady pace… went quicker…
…. Silence.
“Like that, ___. I’m sure he’ll understand in no time,”
Hitoshi… you dumbass.
“Yeah, I hope so, too.”