#breaking news shouto skull dense as a brick fic

[thatforgottenbasilisk]

breaking news: pro-hero shouto found to have a skull roughly as dense as a fucking brick

Words: 3017 (AO3)

Summary:

In which Todoroki Shouto may or may not be incredibly dumb of ass- how the hell he got to this position, co-owner of an entire agency without having any idea that his fellow co-owner has been confessing his love to him practically on the daily, nobody will ever know.

This is the story of how he finally figures it out. About the confessions, not how he didn't realize it before now.

For Whumptober 2023 Day 26, Prompt #3: "You look awful."

"You look awful," Shouto observes from the couch as Izuku stumbles through the door at exactly 4:49 in the morning, covered in scrapes and bruises, dressed in his rancid 'emergency sweatpants' from the bottom of his agency-issued locker and quite possibly the most wrinkled t-shirt that Shouto has ever laid eyes on.

"Thanks," Izuku snipes back, unlacing his boots- worn over the disgusting sweatpants- at the door.

Shouto gets up, setting aside his half-eaten family-sized bag of Doritos. He doesn't pause the TV, playing reruns of a show he's seen half a dozen times by now, just lets it play in the background as he limps over to Izuku, keeping weight off of his broken ankle. He stops short a few steps away from his best friend, raises a single eyebrow, and asks, "Do I want to know what happened to the clothes you were wearing when you went in?"

Izuku closes the gap by leaning his forehead against Shouto's chest, letting his arms dangle limply. "Fire," he says, as though that explains anything. Shouto can see the dust and grease in his hair, but he doesn't push him away.

"You burned them?" Shouto asks, figuring that he'll probably get an unhinged answer in response, either a 'yes' with a wild story behind it, or a denial without elaboration. Izuku always gets into the strangest situations, and Shouto is usually very entertained by the end result.

"No." Izuku says, and does not elaborate, because of course he doesn't. Shouto decides not to press further, because he'll probably get a decently long rant about it in the morning.

"Do you want a band-aid? Or... a few band-aids?" Shouto asks, and then corrects, as he observes more scrapes that have formed tenuously-healed scabs. He's pretty sure that they've got a pack of Uravity-themed ones in the bathroom cabinet, and he doesn't want Izuku to bleed all over his sheets and completely mess up the laundry schedule because of scabs ripping open in the night.

"Yeah, sure. Thanks." Izuku says, and lifts his head back up to look at Shouto's face, and then glance at the clock behind him. He makes a face at the time, but they've both got the day off tomorrow (Shouto's got the day off for most of next week until his appointment with someone with a bone-mending quirk), so it doesn't really matter.

They both walk over to the bathroom, where Izuku hops up on the counter and rolls up one of the legs of his sweatpants, while Shouto digs in the cabinet for the Uravity band-aids he's certain that they have. He doesn't find them, but he does find a Bomb Squad Agency Pack (Now With Extra Explosions)! so he uses them instead.

He wipes off Izuku's elbow with an antiseptic wipe, and sticks on a bandage that's supposedly Pinky-themed but is really a blatant rip-off of Splatoon branding. He's pretty sure that none of the Bakusquad- because nobody who was in their class calls them the Bomb Squad- actually reviews these designs, because he knows that nobody in the Lazy Name Agency- his and Izuku's agency, named initially as a joke because both of their Hero names are just things that people already called them, but neither of them had any better ideas- reviews any branded merchandise.

"I love you," Izuku says, and Shouto smiles. It's 5:00 in the morning, and Izuku says that he loves him, though of course not in the kind of way that Shouto secretly wants it to be. He knows that Izuku only loves him as a friend, because he says that kind of thing to all of his friends, and Izuku has always been a very affectionate kind of person. Plus, Shouto's seen Tinder on Izuku's phone, though that was a couple of years ago and Izuku said he only downloaded it to keep Mina from trying to set him up with one of her friends that nobody else from UA knows.

"Love you too, Izuku." Shouto responds in kind, because it may not be the same kind of love, he still loves Izuku in kind. He's head-over-heels in love with him, though of course he's not going to make that known, ever, because Izuku will probably never return it like that and it'll just make everything awkward forever.

"No, no, Shouto, I mean it. I love you." Izuku says intently, and Shouto just moves to start cleaning the scrape on his knee. It's late- or early, depending on who he asks- and he's pretty sure that Izuku hasn't slept since he woke up at 9:00 this morning- or yesterday morning, again depending on who he asks. Izuku must be sleep-deprived, that's all.

"You're all bandaged up, so if you shower quickly then you might be able to be in bed before sunrise." Shouto replies dryly, and Izuku groans. He gets off the counter, though, and waves Shouto out of the bathroom. He leaves, closes the door behind him, and goes back to the couch to turn the TV off and clip his Doritos closed.

He passes by the bathroom again on his way to his room, and since his footsteps are practically stomps with this cast of his, Izuku can hear him over the shower. He calls out through the door, "Do you want to go to the cat café with me tomorrow?"

"Sure," Shouto responds, and finishes heading to his own room. He's already in his pajamas, which consist of his usual long-sleeved black shirt and his only pair of non-denim shorts to compensate for the cast around his foot, which just so happen to be a pair of bright red booty shorts sporting the phrase, "Ceaseless Watcher, turn your gaze upon this wretched thing" printed on the ass. They were a gag gift from Ochako from a few birthdays ago, and he made sure to get her a "You are not immune to propaganda"/"Propaganda" shirt and shorts combo for her next birthday as recompense.

He gets into bed, leaving his foot out from under the covers, and falls asleep before his head hits the pillow.

-----

They're both at a party.

It's not a bad party, per se, because in terms of parties it's relatively tame- the paparazzi are all outside, and nobody's being too rowdy for fear of ruining their expensive clothes. By 'party,' Shouto means 'the annual charity Hero Gala,' but there's very little difference between the two in his eyes. When they did away with rankings after the war, the annual ranking announcement-slash-Gala was replaced with a Hero Gala-slash-charity auction, which isn't much better in terms of Pro Heroes coming in vogue and trying to one-up each other in every way possible, but at least the money's going to a good cause this time.

This year, he thinks the charity is for quirk-unrelated genetic disease research, a medical subfield that's slowly been dropping off the radar since the Dawn of Quirks when most genetic diseases had their frequency halved or just disappeared entirely, replaced by genetic problems related to quirk issues. Still, it's an important field to invest in, especially since a cure for something in one area may easily mean advancements in another. Shouto has his eye on a lovely set of earrings that he thinks Fuyumi would argue about being too much but she'd secretly love; he's already given up on the various swords, knowing full well that he'll be outbid by Bakugou on every one of them. That's probably why there are more swords than last year; he doesn't know why, nor does anybody else, but they seem to be Bakugou's equivalent to catnip, and he can and will outbid everyone else on them.

If he was going to buy anything for himself (or for Izuku, if he were brave enough to give him anything from this auction then it would definitely be a romantic thing), it would be the extremely durable-looking wristwatch that's a one-of-a-kind prototype designed by Hatsume Mei herself. Supposedly, it's been field-tested and is completely hero-grade, which would be an absolute godsend considering the number of wristwatches he and Izuku have both broken in the past year alone. Unfortunately, many other heroes are thinking the same thing, and he can already see Tenya and Ochako having a 'subtle' discussion to split the cost of it between the two of them.

He walks over to the two of them, and they abruptly stop their planning. Ochako smiles and waves at him, and Tenya does the same but using his entire arm to wave rather than Ochako's comparatively normal wiggle of fingers.

"Shouto! I love your suit this year, how did Deku finally convince you to ditch that old navy thing?" Ochako asks, referring to the same navy suit that he's worn to the Gala for the past three years in a row, in his own form of protest against the snobbery inherent in these events. This year, he's wearing a suit split perfectly in half, the left side red and the right white, matching his hair perfectly. He's also wearing a dark Deku-green tie as the one bit of color in his clothes that isn't already present in his hair.

"He wanted to match," Shouto responds, nodding over to where Izuku is excitedly talking to Bakugou while wearing a dark green suit and a tie that's split in red and white, and Ochako coos at the sight. Ochako herself is dressed in a floor-length lavender gown, sparkling white earrings, and no plus-one to be seen besides Tenya, who is currently caught up in conversation with Tsu.

"So how's it going with that guy from Hatsume's company?" Shouto asks conversationally, to which Ochako wrinkles her nose in disgust.

"I dumped him ages ago. Six months of dating and he never once bought me flowers! I paid for all the dates, I was the one who reached out all the time, and it just got tiring, you know? He wanted to be dating a Pro without ever actually putting any work in, that's what Mina says, but it's still an awful situation. One of these days I'll have a relationship last longer than it did with Deku, I swear." Ochako ends her little rant with that determined pronouncement, and then sighs and sips her champagne. As of now, Ochako's longest-lasting relationship was a year and a half of dating Izuku during most of third year and a little while after graduation, before they broke up because of reasons that Shouto still can't discern even several years later. Izuku still hasn't dated anybody else, and Ochako's been limited to relationships that last a few months at a time before falling apart at the seams.

"Maybe you could try another hero?" Shouto suggests weakly, but he's got nothing substantial to say to try and help. His own dating life is a mess, considering how long he's been hung up on his own hopeless crush, and his only other relationship before that was a very messy two weeks with Hanta that they both like to pretend never happened.

Ochako just sighs again, and says, "Maybe. I don't want things to get awkward, though."

Shouto shrugs. "The one time you dated another hero was also your longest relationship, so that might be a common denominator." Ochako laughs at that, and finishes her flute of champagne.

"We'll see. Thanks, Shouto! Good luck!" She smiles and waves at him, moving towards the hors d'oevres, and Shouto waves back, vaguely wondering why she's wishing him luck.

The auction starts about half an hour later, after various conversations that Shouto couldn't tell the difference between if he tried. As he predicted, all the swords go to Bakugou, and the wristwatch is claimed by Tenya- though half of that price is being paid by Ochako. Shouto does manage to win the earrings for Fuyumi, though he won't give them to her right away since her birthday is in a few months and she'll probably be more likely to accept them if there's an occasion for it.

After the auction and picking up the earrings, Shouto's more than ready to find Izuku and go home. They'd stuck together earlier in the night, but Izuku had been caught up by a bunch of people that he somehow knows, and Shouto had left him to it. He passes by Ochako making out with Bakugou, which he's quite surprised by and is sure he'll hear all about in the group chat in the morning, and finally sees Izuku in the corner with Tenya.

Tenya's passing him something in a box, and upon closer inspection, the box is fairly small and embellished with the HPSC logo- it's one of the standard boxes that things are put in for this auction. Tenya didn't buy anything else tonight, so it must be the wristwatch that everyone was clamoring to get ahold of. They look pretty secretive about the whole thing, and even though they're in a public space, it still looks like a private moment.

Shouto turns around and leaves on his own.

-----

The apartment is silent for a month.

It's not silent, not really, but they don't talk like they used to. Shouto doubts that Izuku knows what's wrong, but they've known each other for long enough that he knows when to give Shouto his space. Strangely enough, he's been around the same amount as usual, no sudden change in schedule, no planning dates or anything with Tenya.

Did he reject Tenya? Was it not a confession or romantic overture, and Shouto just misread it? He doesn't know, and he can't go back in time to find out.

Ochako, at least, seems to be doing well, if the tabloids and her online status are of any indication. Apparently, she and Bakugou are doing better than anyone around them would have predicted, to the point that Ochako might finally be in a relationship that'll last longer than her first one. Shouto's not hedging his bets on that yet, though, but they both seem happy.

It's their first day off in a while, because their schedules conflict in a way that they don't both get a day off unless every sidekick is there in their stead, and that doesn't tend to happen... ever. Shouto gets up and appreciates the fact that he doesn't have to go in today, and then goes to make himself breakfast.

Izuku is already in the kitchen, quietly making two servings' worth of miso. He startles at seeing Shouto walk in behind him, but he still fills two bowls and hands one over to Shouto. He thanks him, and they both move over to the table to eat.

"Sorry for being so quiet this past month," Shouto says to the table, and Izuku smiles across from him.

"It's fine. I know you need your space sometimes, I'm not mad about it." Izuku replies easily, and Shouto feels the need to explain himself. Maybe things will be awkward for a while, but maybe they won't. Maybe they can both just get over it, and they can both move on, like Izuku did with Ochako ages ago. It's fine, because if Ochako can take that risk, then he can too.

"I just... I thought I saw something at the Gala, and I got- " Shouto cuts himself off, and takes a fortifying breath. This is it, this is the moment where everything might go wrong, but he'll say it anyway. He's wanted to say it for ages, now, and things aren't going to get any worse than they are now. "I got jealous. I know you're free to pursue whoever you want and I don't have any real claim on you, but I... I want to. I wish I told you this sooner, but I... I love you. As a boyfriend. If you want." It's horribly awkward, but Shouto finally says what he's wanted to say since the two of them moved into this apartment together.

Izuku is speechless across from him. He's completely still, his jaw is slack and mouth open. Finally, he asks, "What did you see?"

He doesn't address the confession, which might be his way of pretending it didn't happen. That's... that's fine, because maybe if they don't acknowledge Shouto's feelings, then they'll go away and they'll get to be normal. Still, it's hard to talk around the slowly-forming lump in his throat, but he still says, "Tenya was giving you that watch. I figured that an expensive gift like that would be... "

Shouto trails off as Izuku bursts out laughing. He feels really, really stupid for a moment until Izuku waves his hands in front of him, and then says, "No, no, no! Oh my god, Shouto, that's not it at all, I promise! Tenya and Ochako have both known about my crush on you for forever, and they got me that watch because they wanted me to give you something and make sure you didn't mistake it for something platonic. Ochako was planning somewhere for me to take you and everything, but she got kind of sidetracked and it wasn't a good time anyway. I'm- I'm so sorry for making you think it was something else!" Izuku cries out earnestly, and Shouto takes a moment for his brain to reboot.

"You mean... you liked me back this whole time?" He asks dumbly, and Izuku nods violently.

"Shouto, I've told you I love you pretty much every single day we lived together! I didn't mean it platonically!" Izuku's almost yelling in exasperation, and Shouto can feel his face burning red in embarrassment. He hides his face in his hands, and Izuku pulls his hands towards him so they're holding hands across the table.

"I would love to be your boyfriend, Shouto." Izuku finally answers his stupid confession, and Shouto squeezes his hands in response.

"This is a nice first date we've got here. Breakfast and everything." Shouto comments dryly, and Izuku laughs so hard that he winds up with his face in his forearms, his hands still in the middle of the table holding Shouto's.