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Bakugou is cackling loudly in his face. Shouto just glares at him. Normally he'd say something snarky in response, but it took a miracle and four debates with presentation slides to convince him to help, so Shouto's doing his best to keep that help. Afterall, he's absolutely hopeless in the kitchen and Sato's out of town on an internship mission, which means Bakugou Katsuki is the next best option he has.
Which is fantastic, because that meant they got to strengthen their friendship even more, but unfortunate, because Bakugou's temper was the approximate equivalent of a ticking bomb. And making homemade chocolate was something that required a decent handful of patience, something Bakugou usually didn't possess a lot of.
"You want to make fucking chocolate for the nerd? For Valentine's day ?" Bakugou pauses, then stares Shouto dead in the eye before going, "Are these confession chocolates? You are the most cliché person I've ever had the displeasure of meeting. Are you going to give him flowers too?"
"Midoriya has a pollen allergy," Shouto sniffs, feeling bullied. He graciously leaves out the fact that Bakugou made chocolates for Kirishima last year and is clearly planning on doing so again, determined to make sure he follows through and helps him make some damn chocolates. "So no, I don't think I'll be giving him flowers. Maybe a cactus plant instead?"
"What the fuck, Todoroki," And damn, that must've been a really stupid thing he'd said just then because Bakugou never called anyone by name.
So no cactus, then.
“Just help me,” Shouto frowns, gesturing around the empty kitchen. “You said you’d help me, remember?”
Bakugou rolls his eyes, but shoves past him and starts collecting bowls and ingredients from the cabinets. Shouto’s half-expecting him to pull out a whole ass cacao bean, and is only partially disappointed when the only thing he pulls out is a cutting board.
Bakugou dumps everything on the counter and turns back to Shouto, raising an eyebrow. “So?”
“So…?” Shouto repeats, confused.
Bakugou lets out the most exasperated sigh Shouto’s ever heard, which he doesn’t think is very fair, because how was he supposed to know what Bakugou meant by a ‘so’?
“What type of chocolate do you want to make?” Bakugou elaborates, making a face at him.
Shouto shrugs. “No idea.”
Bakugou stares at him. “So you’re telling me you came to me, asked me for help with making confession chocolates, but you don’t know what kind of chocolates you want?”
Shouto can feel the irritation in Bakugou’s voice. He’s starting to wonder if getting store-bought chocolates would’ve been the better option.
Bakugou groans. “God, Icyhot, you’re helpless. No wonder you’re still pinning after him instead of going on weekly dates or some shit. Do you want milk or dark chocolate? Nuts in the chocolate? Or fruits? Something else? How do you want them shaped? How many do you want? Do you want the chocolate to have a filling? Do you want to arrange them a certain way? Y’know, that sort of shit?”
Shouto frowns. “I’m… not sure. Admittedly, I don’t know much about Midoriya’s chocolate preferences.” He brightens. “You’re childhood friends, though, surely you know?”
Bakugou scrunches his face up in an unflattering manner, and it briefly makes him wonder why Kirishima finds him attractive. “You’re so fucking annoying.”
“Thank you,” Shouto says, because he knows Bakugou secretly loves him.
That only makes Bakugou purse his lips, but clearly his charm works on him, because eventually Bakugou lets up and takes out two oranges from the fridge, setting them on the cutting board before turning to face Shouto once more, hands on his hips.
“Okay. Fine.” He gestures to the oranges sitting innocently on the cutting board. “The nerd likes citrusy things, so orange chocolate is a pretty good bet. We’re going to make enough for a small box, and you can deal with the packaging later yourself. Got it?”
Shouto nods. “So where do we start?”
Bakugou presses a knife into his hand and points at the oranges, eyebrow raised.
Shouto nods again. “Got it. Chop oranges.”
“And wash your filthy fucking hands first!”
The chocolates are made successfully. Shouto goes to Uraraka to get help for packaging, and then all that’s left is to wait for Valentine's Day to arrive.
Shouto stares at the box in his hands, mulling over how he’s going to present them to Midoriya tomorrow. He wonders if he should practice in front of a mirror.
Eventually he goes to Bakugou’s room, knocking on his door and fidgeting when it doesn’t bang open ten seconds later.
He knocks again. “Bakugou?”
Still no answer. Shouto wonders if he should’ve gone to Momo instead.
He loiters around for a bit and knocks twice more and at one point even tries Kirishima’s room, but after the twentieth minute he gives up and leaves to go find someone else. He heads down to the common room and is surprised when he comes face-to-face with Aizawa-sensei.
“Hi, Sensei,” Shouto greets, dipping his head politely. Aizawa nods back, head buried in his scarf. He looks like he hasn’t gotten any sleep in a decent couple days. Shouto kind of feels bad, except Aizawa always kind of looks dead, so he isn’t sure if it’s 2A’s fault again or if it’s something else.
He informs his teacher he should get some rest anyway, and gets a deadpan look in response. “You focus on your problems and I’ll focus on mine, kid,” He says gruffly, but there's a fond understone to his voice that only comes out when he feels touched, so Shouto takes it as a win and goes about his way, heading towards the kitchen to grab a glass of water.
There he runs into the source of his current dilemma, which is both wonderful and not wonderful, because while Midoriya is a beautiful, blessed being in this horrid society, Shouto can’t exactly ask him how he should present his confession chocolates to… well. Him.
He manages to avoid tripping, but he stumbles into the kitchen trying to regain his balance and catches Midoriya’s attention, and therefore everyone else’s. (He does notice Bakugou and Kirishima in the wave of faces that turn towards him though, solving the mystery of why neither of them were answering their doors.)
“Todoroki!” Uraraka exclaims. “We were just talking about you!”
“Uh,” Shouto replies eloquently, and in a desperate attempt to save himself from looking like a fool, he follows up with, “Usually that doesn’t end well on my part.”
It works, because there's a clutter of laughter before Uraraka is dragging him towards a couch. Her smile looks a bit more evil now. “We were discussing Valentines day and some of us were wondering what your ideal date is.”
Briefly, Shouto wonders why his preferences have anything to do with everyone else. Bakugou rolls his eyes and shrugs when he catches his eye, which Shouto translates into don’t think too hard about it, they’re all fucking idiots who just like to gossip.
“So, Todoroki, my dude,” Kaminari says. “What is your ideal date like?”
“Cats?”
Everybody stares at him. They all look confused, which Shouto doesn’t understand.
Sero is the first to speak up. “What the fuck do you mean cats?”
“Like a cat cafe.”
“Your ideal date is a… cat cafe?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I respect that,” Kaminari remarks. “But why a cat cafe?”
“Hey!” Shinsou butts in, pointing accusingly at Kaminari. “Don’t diss cat cafes!”
“I’m not dissing them, we go to them all the time!” Kaminari exclaims. “I just want to know what compels Todobroki to choose that as his ideal date!”
Shouto shrugs. “Cats are nice. I like cats. And cafes have food, so a cat cafe is a great blend of two things I enjoy and therefore are a great place to go for dates.”
Kaminari nods. “Reasonable, I’ll take it.” He points at Sero. “Your turn! What’s your ideal date?”
As the focus shifts and the rest of them chatter on, Shouto zones the conversation out and goes back to contemplating his confession. He wonders if he should do something elaborate. Flowers were out of question, but maybe just the flower petals would be fine? Or perhaps he should do candles. Candles were considered romantic, were they not? Candles and rose petals… and some romantic music to set the mood. That would be a good way to do it, wouldn’t it?
Shouto nodded to himself. An American confession - surely nothing would go wrong.
On the way to school the next day, Shouto’s stopped by several girls and even two guys, all presenting him with chocolates accompanied by a confession. He informs all of them that he cannot accept their affections because his own affections are already sealed away for someone else and therefore cannot be used to return their feelings. They all look put down and one girl even cries a bit, and while Shouto doesn’t understand why anyone would possibly harbor feelings for him, he does feel bad for hurting their feelings, so he accepts the chocolates they insist he take anyway, even though he’s definitely going to have to give them away or throw them out.
When he gets to the classroom, the first thing he notices is the mountain of chocolates and other gifts stacked on his desk.
“Please tell me none of those are confession chocolates from people in this class,” Shouto announces, catching everyone's attention.
There's a chorus of several denying statements. Uraraka seemingly pops up from out of nowhere and grins brightly at him. “Well if it isn’t Mister Popular!”
“I am not popular,” Is Shouto’s rebuttal.
“Your desk says otherwise,” Uraraka says. Everyone else seems to agree - even Bakugou arches an eyebrow at him. When Shouto just stares blankly at them, Urarka’s eyes widen.
“Todoroki Shouto, are you telling me you don’t think you’re popular?!”
“Well, I’m not.”
Everyone groans. Kaminari walks up to him and puts his hands on his shoulders, looking into his eyes. “Dude, you are like, the most popular kid in Year 2. Maybe even the most popular dude in the entire school! And you’re telling me you didn’t know that?”
“No,” Shouto confirms. “I cannot fathom why anyone would find me attractive. I have a scar down half of my face and my eyes are two different colors. My hair is also split colored and I’ve been told I have the emotional capabilities of a spoon.”
“Because you do!” Bakugou butts in. Shouto ignores him. “My father is an asshole and I have trouble expressing what I’m feeling. I have what people call ‘daddy issues’. My hero skills are in need of many improvements and I am reckless as well. I also can’t-”
“Okay, we get it, dude,” Kaminari interrupts. “But, like, have you ever considered the fact that most of that isn’t a negative? No one cares what you look like, dude, you’re fucking hot.” He turns to the rest of the class. “Guys, tell him he’s hot.”
“You are,” Mina is the first to pipe up. “Definitely a hottie.”
There are several agreeing nods. Kirishima grins at him. “You totally are, dude.”
Kaminari nods to himself. “See? Also, literally like half of us have daddy issues. None of us care. We all need to improve our heroing skills and Iida literally went out like a vigilante to try and avenge his brother. Iida! The most straightforward one out of all of us! You can’t really get more reckless than that.”
“That never happened!” Iida pipes up. “Legal things! Remember!”
“Sorry, sorry, Iida went vigilante in an alternate universe where Endeavor never was on the scene. Point is, bro, you are attractive as fuck and you need to accept it.”
“You didn’t say anything about my emotional capabilities,” Shouto points out.
“Yeah, well, that part's kind of true, sorry dude,” Kaminari says, not looking particularly sorry. “You do tend to have the emotional capabilities of a spoon.”
“Oh.”
Kaminari pats him on the back. “You’ll figure it out eventually, it’s okay. Hey, at least you’re not the only one! Bakugou also has the emotional capabilities of a spoon.”
“WHAT THE FUCK?” Bakugou roars.
“I’m not wrong!”
“YOU MOTHERFUCKING- KAMINARI DENKI YOU GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!”
“Yo, guys, he knows my name!” Kaminari remarks, even as he jumps over two desks and slides across the floor in a desperate attempt to get away. “THE Bakugou Katsuki knows my name! Still has no emotional capabilities though!”
“YOU FUCKING-”
“Language bro! Also, you didn’t deny it!”
Bakugou yells something in response. Shouto doesn’t bother paying attention, because now that Kaminari’s (surprisingly effective) impromptu pep talk is done, he now has to figure out how to deal with the stack of chocolates before class starts.
Eventually he just asks Momo to make a sack so he can dump everything in there and deal with it later. It does get a weird look from Aizawa-sensei, but Shouto figures that if he walked into a classroom and noticed that one of the students had something not too unlike a burglar's robbery sack next to their desk, he would also question it a bit. Thankfully, Shouto’s spared any questions (for now), but he gets the feeling Aizawa’s going to pull him aside and ask him about it later.
(He does. Aizawa actually looks somewhat amused when Shouto tells him what the whole burglars sack is about though, so he takes it as a win.)
Now that school’s out, everyone’s heading off campus for lovey-dovey dates or just fun hangouts with friends. It leaves Shouto with an empty dorm and therefore empty common room, which works out fantastically in his favor. He could set his confession up without prying eyes or ears!
He gets to work immediately. He sets the candles and rose petals out in a pile and connects his speaker to his phone. The chocolates were on standby in his room for when everything was prepped and ready to go. Now all Shouto had to do was place everything in the correct place and then wait for Midoriya to come back so he could present him with the chocolates.
Shouto set to work, carefully lighting the candles with his left finger before setting them down. He’s halfway through his stash when he hears the dorm elevators ding.
Fuck. He thought he was alone!
Well. As long as it wasn’t Midoriya-
“Hi, Todoroki!” Midoriya greets. “Whatcha up to?”
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Uh,” Shouto stalls, blinking at Midoriya like a deer in headlights. “A demonic ritual to summon an incubus?”
Midoriya stares at him, then glances at his supplies. “And that involves rose petals?”
“Incubus,” Shouto repeats, feeling faint. This couldn’t be happening right now. “Sex. Rose’s resemble love. Love-making. Therefore, yes. It does.”
“Please never say that again,” Midoriya says, looking grim. “That was meant to be a joke. Also, if you’re summoning an incubus, which, weird choice of demon but I can’t really question it, where’s the chalk for drawing the pentagram lines and stuff?”
“Oh,” Shouto responds. “Um. It seems that I’ve forgotten the chalk. Uh. I thought you were out with the rest of our friends?”
“Oh, yeah, I was feeling a little sick earlier, so I opted out,” Midoriya waves it off. “I thought I was alone!”
“Sorry to disappoint,” Shouto responds. His brain is still lagging.
“I’m not disappointed,” Midoriya says. He smiles. “I’m glad you’re here to keep me company!”
Fuck. Fuuuck. He looks so bright. Shouto could die right then and there and he’d die a happy man.
“I lied,” He blurts out before he can stop himself. “I’m not summoning an incubus. That was a lie.”
Midoriya’s eyebrows furrow together. He looks adorable. “Then what were you doing?”
“Trying to set the scene for when I confessed to you,” Shouto admits.
Now it’s Midoriya’s turn to freeze. “What?”
“I, uh, have chocolates in my room for you,” Shouto says, plowing on. “Um. I can- Actually, I’ll get those in a second. Uh. Midoriya Izuku, I think you are the most beautiful being to grace this Earth. I really like you. Would you be willing to go out with me?”
“Are you joking?” Midoriya asks. He looks like he can’t quite believe what’s happening. “Is this a joke?”
“What?” Todoroki gawks at him. “No. Why would I be joking? Do you want to see my romantic music playlist I made for this? Here, wait, let me just-” Shouto fumbles for his phone and proceeds to drop it. “Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck. Sorry, I’m just nervous. I think. I’ve never really been nervous before. Is this what being nervous feels like? Shit. I don’t like it.”
“You’re being serious,” Midoriya says. “Oh my god. You’re being serious. You’re actually serious.”
“Yes. Was that not clear the first two times?”
“Oh, my god.”
“Does that mean I’m being rejected? Because if I’m being rejected I’d like to go hide in my room and maybe die while I’m there.”
“No, no, Todoroki, no, wait,” Midoriya panics, grabbing his arm. “No, I’m not rejecting you. Oh my god I never thought this would ever happen. You like me?”
“Yes, Midoriya, I thought that was made abundantly clear. I was preparing candles and rose petals for you!”
“I… Wow, okay, yeah. Sorry. Wow. God, I can’t believe this isn’t a dream.”
“Does that mean I can take that as a yes?”
“Yes!” Midoriya exclaims. “Yes, yes, I will go out with you. Holy shit.”
“Great,” Shouto nods. He doesn’t know what to do now - he didn’t exactly plan this far ahead. “Uh, would you like your chocolates now?”
“Sure,” Midoriya giggles. Shouto smiles at him.
“Well, they’re in my room, so.” He gestures towards the elevators. “Shall we?”
Shouto opens his room door and realizes immediately that he’d forgotten to deal with the massive pile of chocolates he’d received earlier.
Midoriya takes one look and bursts out laughing. “How are you going to eat all of that? It’ll take ages!”
“I mean, not really,” Shouto responds, heading to his table where Midoriya’s chocolates sat. “If I ate chocolate I’d go into anaphylactic shock and probably die within twenty minutes. Most of it’s probably going to be thrown in the trash.”
Shouto turns around and is greeted with Midoriya’s concerned expression. “You can’t eat chocolate?”
“Dairy allergy,” Shouto responds. “It’s fine.”
“Oh,” Midoriya frowns. “Do you want me to take the chocolates? I’ll eat them for you if you want.”
He turns to glance at the small mountain of chocolates dumped on his bed, then turns back to Midoriya. “You really want to eat all that?”
“Yeah, maybe not,” he laughs. He reaches for the box in Shouto’s hand. “But I’ll eat those! Gimme that, I want to try these chocolates you got for me.”
“I made them with Bakugou,” Shouto offers, surrendering the box.
Midoriya admires the packaging for a second before carefully opening the lid and taking out a square chocolate and popping it in his mouth. Shouto watches, anxiety growing in his stomach once more.
“Is it good?”
Midoriya chews once, twice, then swallows before smiling brightly at him, and that’s all the answer he needs.
“It’s amazing!”