#she's checking out the distant sky festival in the background

[shoobysims]

[infallibleimperfection]

Todomomo Yokai AU

Just some random head canons I came up with and you HAVE to check our @verdandys-art for an accompanying piece of art she did for this! She’s literally the best and the art is soooooo good, I could literally cry

Momo is a nine-tailed kitsune and Shouto is a hybrid yokai (his father being a karura and mum being a tsurara onna) and they both attend the same high school in the yokai world.

When Shouto sees Momo for the first time, he’s instantly enthralled because he’s never seen a kitsune before (they aren’t an abundant race) and he grew up listening to stories of them that his mother told him. But the kitsunes he knew of had shimmering white tails, but this girl had tails that were a gleaming ebony colour and she had nine of them - a sign of her incredible intelligence.

Momo befriends Shouto soon enough seeing as they’re classmates and she finds him quite interesting - even more so after learning his heritage (her eyes literally shine because she has only heard stories of the karura race, with only a few left in existance and a karura marrying a tsurara onna at that!)

They get on quite well very quickly and Shouto finds that there’s more to her than just her beauty and he finds out that she’s smart and kind too (which doesn’t help with his quickly developing crush on her.)

Momo often asks him to study with her in the library where she can freely ask him questions about his heritage seeing as her knowledge on the karura and tsurara onna races is very limited.

“Todoroki-san, I hope you don’t find this rude but I found some books with intriguing facts on the races that your parents belong too and I would like to discuss them with you. If that’s okay, that is.” Shouto likes that about her - the way she’s so clearly interested in attaining more knowledge but would never push him if he refused either, not that she had to worry anyway, seeing as he could never say no to her. “Of course.”

And so they often meet at the library after school, to study or for Momo to expand her ever-growing knowledge and Shouto is simply content with watching her ramble, the afternoon sun making the gold in her eyes glow beautifully. As he admires her, a thought he’s been repeatedly thinking ever since he’s met her slips out, “Beautiful.” Her monologue is cut off as a flush overtakes her face and when she hides herself behind her tails bashfully, he smiles, his heart swelling at the sight of her blush and how his point is proven once more.

They continue to meet normally except now Momo finds herself feeling things whenever she’s around him or even thinks about him. And so, to find out the cause, she hits the books like she’s used to and soon finds herself in the romance section. Grabbing a random book, she starts to flip through it when she hears a voice behind her, “Yaoyorozu?” Making a noise of surprise, she quickly hides the book to face him and she doesn’t know why but his face is so close and he’s looking at her so intensely that she feels her legs wobbling, “Are you okay? You look warm.” And when he moves closer to inspect her temperature, her legs finally give out and she falls to the floor, her tails cushioning her fall and gathering around her to hide her immensely warm skin.

On Shouto’s side, he’s utterly confused and has no idea that perhaps, she’s growing to feel the same way about him that he does about her.

One day, when Shouto reaches the library, he finds her sleeping at their usual table beside a stack of books. He calls out her name quietly but she simply hums, her fox ears twitching at the noise so he shakes her gently to wake her when one of her tails swipes at his hand and he freezes, marvelling at its softness.

She does wake up soon after this, blinking sleepily at Shouto and he bites his lip to prevent a smile from appearing. When she recognises him, she shoots up. “O-oh, Todoroki-san! I’m sorry-,” she’s cut short when Shouto suddenly moves closer, unhooking a strand of hair that’s stuck to her lip - his fingers barely touch her skin but she can feel the warm brush of them all the same and she fears he’ll hear the quickening of her heart beat.

“Your tails are soft, do you have to maintain them?” he asks, softly and randomly, all the while never moving away from her and she stares at him, his mismatched eyes trapping her in some sort of spell (she would have to look that up later to see if it was due to his heritage.) “I-I wash and brush them regularly,” she stammers out, feeling the urge to use the tails they’re speaking of to hide her face but then he smiles (and it’s beautiful) before moving away, “I see.”

One day, Momo decides to talk to Kyouka about her new feelings. “Have you ever considered that maybe you like him?” “Like? Well, of course I like Todoroki-san!” “Eurgh, please spare me the cliche response. I mean romantically.” It was then, when it dawned upon Momo that maybe she no longer saw Shouto as just a friend.

The annual yokai festival rolls round and so Shouto manages to ask Momo to go with him. She turns up in the most stunning deep red yutaka, adorned with golden flowers and her hair delicately pinned up with a hair ornament. It takes him a moment to drink in her appearance and to snap out of the trance she has clearly put him in, “You look beautiful,” he whispers and she blushes, smiling shyly as she thanks him.

The two walk around the festival, Momo laughing when she finds Oni masks which greatly resemble Bakugou and Shouto smiling more than usual as he watches her buzz with childlike excitement. When the night begins to befall on them, the two retreat to a quieter spot - hidden from the bustle of the festival and other yokai - to watch the fireworks.

“Thank you, Todoroki-san.” “For what?” “For asking me to accompany you to the festival. Due to my reserved upbringing, I never really had a chance to attend and it’s been so truly beautiful!” Her voice is bright and full of genuine glee and the excitement in her eyes grow when the first firework is set off, the colours sparkling vividly in the sky but Shouto finds himself still watching her. He admires the life in her eyes, the slope of her nose, the slow swaying of her tails and the smile tugging at her lips.

“Yaoyorozu,” he says, his voice almost lost in the sea of explosions, but she hears him, turning to face his serious expression. He moves closer then, surprising Momo into shutting her eyes tightly, her fists balling the material of her yutaka as she trembles in both nervousness and anticipation.

Shouto catches her nervous mannerisms and he smiles, his own heart thudding loudly as he leans in, placing a hand gently atop of her tight fist as he closes his eyes. His lips meet hers soon after and they move tentatively at first, giving her the time to either pull away or respond.

Momo knows that she could never pull away even if she wanted to so she kisses him back gingerly, turning over her fist and relaxing it to clasp his hand.

Even with the sound of the fireworks in the background and the distant chatter of the festival, the two are immersed with each other as Momo’s tails slowly move to surround them, encasing them in their own bubble.

Shouto now knows that the stories of the kitsune that his mother told him don’t live up in the slightest to the one he holds in his arms right now.

[tiang0u]

you are warm because you are alive

And then, during the sports festival— 

 They were trembling again, even with those shoulders so painfully, forcefully squared.  

(Izuku’s second impression—Todoroki-kun looks sad.

He understood then why it mattered, when Todoroki’s left hand had trembled that first time.)

bnha; tododeku, crossposted on ao3

Survival training is usually uneventful for the first twenty or so minutes, until Kacchan manages to catch unwitting and unwilling adversaries by surprise.

It is still quiet when Todoroki slows to a stop beneath a towering pine, pressing his palm to the rough bark.

He says to Izuku, "Here."

Their familiarity has manifested from the ways they have almost died together—and the ways that they will live with this, so without speaking, they split up to scout the area for any suspicious activity. The place is a crag clustered with trees, so remote that the chance of being attacked is little to none, but it's always better to be safe than sorry.

By the time Izuku returns, Todoroki has settled at the base of the tree, between the thick roots, against its formidable girth, and his eyes drift shut in the sunlight just as Izuku approaches. His arms are crossed over his chest, and though his body is closed off, his brow is smooth. Izuku can tell—he's as relaxed as he allows himself to be.

"Are you tired, Todoroki-kun?" Izuku asks softly.

He settles down a few feet away, cross-legged, not quite daring to disturb. Elbows braced against his knees, head bowed in vigilance, he listens for the telltale signs of Kacchan maybe blowing some people up. The only thing that can be heard for miles is the susurrus of the trees.

"It's peaceful," Todoroki answers. His voice is faraway.

This is the first time they've been paired up in training. It may also be the first time Izuku could pass all five hours peacefully, without fists and fighting, and that ironically is even more exhilarating.

Characteristically, others will soon get restless waiting, especially to the sound of explosions and Kacchan yelling, and then the battles will begin. But when the teams were announced, the silent look Todoroki exchanged with him betrayed a wish for rest, and Izuku shared the sentiment deep in the marrow of his bones.

(We should find a place to wait, Todoroki suggesed, leaning briefly into Izuku's space.

For stake-out purposes, Izuku agreed, jokingly, giving them plausible deniability, and Todoroki gave a soft sigh.)

"It is," Izuku says.

The wind breezes past like a caress. When Izuku turns toward the open view, beneath is the expanse of forest canopy beyond the precipice that runs out underneath them. Away from urban towers that mount the heavens onto a distant pedestal, the wide vantage of this world curls the sky like a concave cloudscape, fitting it to the earth. And where they are, above the forest, below a great tree, they watch like guardians over a vast land. Together.

He lets himself bask in this brief moment, Todoroki with him, and when he turns back, Todoroki has dozed off.

Izuku isn't surprised.

But he is surprised when he takes notice that two birds have appeared, one perched faithfully on Todoroki's shoulder, the other nestled in Todoroki's hair.

In the space under his lungs, a solid ache congeals.

/

Before he came to know Todoroki, before Todoroki approached him in the waiting room that day, Izuku's first impression of him was that he must really like animals.

In the first week of school alone, Todoroki was with at least three stray cats, but in particular—

The sidewalk one block down from the school gates is lined with high-boughed trees. In the chilly spring breeze of a late afternoon, as Izuku made his way to the train station, he saw something.

Todoroki—he extended a hand to touch a bundle of tabby fur, tilting his head, the line of his shoulders softening as he knelt in the grass.

The orange sunlight splintered into shards through the tree's moving leaves, and when the fragments danced against the back of Todoroki's hand, Izuku wondered if it was his imagination that Todoroki's fingers were shaking.

And days after that, during the sports festival—

They were trembling again, even though his shoulders were so painfully, forcefully squared.

(Izuku's second impression—Todoroki-kun is sad.

And then he understood why it mattered, when Todoroki's left hand had trembled that first time.)

/

Or maybe it's less that Todoroki likes animals and more that animals really like Todoroki.

/

Midnight once invited a colleague as a guest speaker for the class. There were some pretty diverse reactions, because to Midnight, Serpenta is many things. A pro hero, an old friend and classmate, and—to the curiosity of genuinely no one—a past, passionate fling.

Anyway, Serpenta's quirk is the ability to work with snakes. Work, she insisted during her talk, because there is a mutual agreement, no manipulation in the slightest. The sheer potential reconnaissance and intel in both the human and natural world dazed Izuku then and dazes Izuku now, and that day, she brought her most trustworthy aide, a two meter albino rat snake with a name only those fluent in hissing can speak.

Ashido bravely asked if they could touch. When Serpenta gave the go-ahead, the entire class save a few crowded to the front to run finger pads along the river of pebbled skin. The snake's muscles constricted powerfully against Izuku's palm, and when Todoroki's hand brushed somewhere close to its neck, the snake slowed to a stop.

And then angled towards him.

A forked tongue flicked out twice, and everyone stilled.

The entire class watched in rapture as the snake slowly passed over Todoroki's pulse, then slithering around his sleeve, curling up his arm, up and up until most of its body hung around his shoulders, its head resting against the long column of his neck, hiding in the cove of heat under his red locks.

If anything, it looked like a poorly wrapped scarf.

Remarkably composed (as always), Todoroki readjusted the lengthy line of its lithe form, and it was so pliant that it obeyed, following where the warmth of his palm guided.

When Kaminari reached out to touch a second time though, the snake peeked out and hissed.

/

And it always comes back to cats.

Izuku still wonders to this day how that cat had made its way onto the premises, especially with campus security so tight nowadays. But there was an even more shocking display—Todoroki was napping out in the open.

The likely chain of events:

He probably took a breather after running a few miles around campus, settling down in the soft grass behind the dorms. Then he must have fallen asleep, curling up on his side—and then the cat, some time after that, sidled over and curled up beside him.

When Izuku found them, it was almost dinner time, and he didn't want Todoroki to sleep through (though reluctant to disturb the peaceful scene). So he bent down in the grass and made to wake Todoroki, reaching for his shoulder, but the cat shifted and—

—clawed him a good one, a raw stripe right down the back of his hand, immediately breaking skin.

Izuku's eyes stung with tears; he bit his cheek to muffle the yelp of pain, yanking his hand back. Pain pinged across the severed skin, but maybe this was because the cat thought he had designs...? So he paused and reached for the cat instead, to reassure it that his touch meant no harm—but was promptly rewarded a second stripe for his efforts.

With involuntary tears positively threatening to overflow, he fell back onto his rear with a soft thud, cupping his wounds from the war, trying in vain to stem the bleeding. The cat jerked its head haughtily away.

Animals, Izuku thought, eyeing the cat resignedly, really don't like me that much. But it was pretty fitting that they liked Todoroki.

"Midoriya," a sleepy voice rasped, breaking his daze. "Time?"

Todoroki slowly sat up without disturbing the cat, rubbing his eyes, and when Izuku didn't think to back away, the proximity of their faces catapulted his heart into his throat.

"It's almost time for dinner, Todoroki-kun," Izuku greeted casually, betraying nothing. His heartbeat punctuated the pauses between his words. There was something else he wanted to say, but then the cat snuggled closer to Todoroki's leg, and Todoroki looked down and scratched its head, and those words died a swift death in the space between his tongue and palate, so he quickly scrambled to his feet and said a little too loudly, practically yelling, "Take your time!" and ran.

/

An explosion rings distantly in the background. That'll be Kacchan then. About time.

Izuku doesn't hear the flurry of beating wings, but he does hear a cluster of alarmed chirps followed by a grunt. His head whips toward Todoroki, who is solemnly blinking the somnolence from his gaze. The creatures have smartly fled, but the one that was in Todoroki's hair left it mussed where it was tidy before.

"...Birds?" Todoroki murmurs, more to himself than anyone else.

"Two," Izuku replies lightly.

Todoroki checks himself for any abandoned feathers and other...residuals, patting down his body, running a cursory hand through his hair. Within arm's length, Izuku thinks about reaching forward to brush away the tuft Todoroki has missed. He thinks about letting his palm linger briefly by Todoroki's jaw to catch the warmth. He thinks that he probably—shouldn't.

Izuku gestures to his own head instead, and Todoroki blinks in understanding, at last combing out the pale blue afterfeather caught in the red strands. 

"Animals really like you, Todoroki-kun," Izuku says without thinking. 

There is a long silence where Todoroki's gaze travels ground-up along the length of Izuku's arm, starting from his crooked fingers, ending at his face.

"Because my left side is a source of heat," Todoroki supplies, realistic. "Not because of anything else."

His face is wan, and his voice doesn't imply anything other than weariness, but something about the way he sits and the way he looks at Izuku is guarded. Like he has steeled himself for so long (for ten years) that he has already hardened to stone.

Those words are straightforward. Todoroki has offered him a simple, scientific explanation. Animals are attracted to warmth. His left side is warm. Animals are attracted to his left side. Quod erat demonstratum.

What those words mean is complicated. Todoroki did start using his flames after the sports festival—he used his fire against Stain and saved them—but considering that Todoroki's self concept up until now—considering that he has never—considering what he thinks of his left—

Izuku holds his gaze firmly. "I don't believe that, Todoroki-kun." He's going to follow up with just exactly why, but he doesn't add that, after all, Endeavor radiates heat too; he's a walking blowtorch and even without his flames, animals would rightfully flee at the sight of him. For their lives.

That wouldn't be a good follow-up, except, apparently, he added it, because Todoroki blinks at him and then snorts.

"Sorry," Izuku says quickly, ears pink, but he never takes back what he means, and it does make his point—Todoroki's fire has nothing to do with Endeavor.

"No," Todoroki says back. "It's fine."

But it isn't. Not quite.

There has to be something that Todoroki isn't acknowledging, or maybe he doesn't know—or maybe he doesn't think it of himself—but Izuku, compulsively, needs to let him understand.

So he does. "The way you treat animals," he blurts, bungling the delivery. "I think that you're—kind. It's what you do. And who you are." He gestures vaguely at Todoroki's left hand. Then he grimaces. Did what he just said...make sense? "Heat does attract animals, but it's not just that, Todoroki-kun. Aside from having heat, you're very good with—to them. The distinction might not seem very important, but they stay because of..."

Todoroki has quieted, to the point that his breathing is inaudible. His eyes are dark with unreadable emotion—and maybe, at this point, Izuku has overstepped.

"Because they know," Izuku finishes. It would be too presumptuous to say out loud—and though it usually wouldn't stop him, Todoroki's expression halts him instead. So he wills Todoroki to understand from his meaningful gaze—when a person is kind. That it's not just superficial warmth. You're kind. (You're really nothing like him.)

It takes the entirety of the pause for Izuku to realize that Todoroki looked like he wasn't breathing because he actually wasn't. Now, the rise and fall of his chest resumes to the flutter of his breath. 

The hard line of his shoulders falls, and he inclines his head in acknowledgment. Izuku...said something right in the midst of that babbling after all.

"Okay," Todoroki says.

"Sorry," Izuku coughs.

Another explosion—louder this time. Closer too.

"But animals," Todoroki begins suddenly. "Towards you."

Izuku tilts his head in confusion.

"You were scratched by that cat," Todoroki explains. "Your conjecture is faulty."

Izuku grimaces in remembrance. He can even feel the stinging pain in his memory, shuddering briefly, but he decidedly does not read into why Todoroki remembered, and says casually instead, "Animals can also have preferences."

"But you like them."

Izuku tries to give them his humble love and they reject, Todoroki probably means. And he means—he means something else too, he's implying something about Izuku, something that Izuku didn't expect him to think, and—and now their roles have reversed.

Winded, Izuku soldiers on, "I do, but it can't be helped...that they don't like me very much."

Todoroki leans forward, placing his hands in his lap. He smooths a thumb over his knuckles thoughtfully before he looks up to Izuku again and confesses, bluntly, "I don't see why."

"W-Why—"

"You're kind. Kinder," Todoroki continues. The than me is implied.

Oh, Izuku thinks faintly, feeling even fainter.

It would be a good time to respond, right about now, he realizes while still staring at Todoroki. The explosions have become a repeating arpeggio above a cacophony of shouting; listening closely enough, he could probably pinpoint Kacchan's voice in the midst of it all. It would be a really good time to respond, because something like this, the situation Todoroki has just created (but Izuku's at fault too) can't be left unaddressed.

He can't let Todoroki get the wrong impression about his reaction, because Todoroki looks away first and that's definitely Not Good.

Izuku opens his mouth hurriedly. A high-pitched noise comes out, resembling a squawk. Or a croak. Before he can try again, the earth abruptly crumbles and:

"So this is where you cowards were hiding, huh? Deku! Half-and-Half!"

/

There really can be no doubt, no excuses to be made, when he turns up after dinner and after the nurse's office at Todoroki's door. With the fact that he followed Todoroki up, when his room actually is a few floors below, Todoroki seems to know this too. His entire body is stiff as he allows Izuku to follow, and then when his hand finally closes around the knob to his door, he turns around to face Izuku.

Izuku wipes his hands nervously on his shirt.

"About earlier," he begins. "I wanted to...say something."

"I embarrassed you," Todoroki notes.

"No—I mean—yes—but in a nice way!" Izuku counters quickly. "And I didn't respond at the time, and I thought that I should, because I think I gave you the wrong impression about what I was actually thinking. I don't want to make you think I was weirded out or that I was just—arrogantly acknowledging it—so, um, it was actually really f-flattering and—thank you. For thinking that. Of me."

Izuku pauses. Of all the things he just said, not a single one conveyed what he actually wanted to impart.

"This isn't..." he sighs. "This isn't what I wanted to say. Todoroki-kun, what you said was—to me—"

"Midoriya," Todoroki says. It's clear, from his eyes, that he doesn't expect kindness. It takes a seasoned eye for Izuku to see that he's subtly roiling in chaos from his painful swallow. "I can't follow what you're—please say it clearly."

Todoroki's door is right there. He could just walk inside and ask Izuku to tell him tomorrow. But he hasn't moved. And there are numerous ways in which Izuku could make the situation very uncomfortable for the both of them. Pity where it's unwanted, overstepping where it's unwanted, assuming where it's unwanted—any sort of thing that is not wanted. Izuku himself can't even understand why, or what, he wants to say in return, just that he needs to respond. The fact that Todoroki looked a little blankly at him during dinner clued him in that he definitely should have then, and that he definitely should now. And he has so many questions that he wants to ask too, like you really think that? Why do you think that? How can you be sure? Do you...like that? Do you want...

"I want to be kind to you," Izuku says. And he really shouldn't, he could leave it at that, but he can't stop saying, "And I can't really explain why... And I can't say specifically in what ways I want to be kind, but I—you think I'm kind a-and, well, I want Todoroki-kun especially to expect k-kindness from m-me. At any time. Every time. A-All the time. And you can—you can expect other things too, Todoroki-kun! You can...you can relax around me more. I hope that you can feel calm around me too. And at peace."

He concludes his spiel with a mental funeral and farewell to his dignity, at last looking down at his feet, waiting for Todoroki's reaction, lacking the fortitude to look.

But he does peek a little through his eyelashes, and Todoroki is trying, in various ways, to school his expression—pressing his lips together, then furrowing his brow, smoothing his brow, scrunching his nose, taking a long inhale—and then he stops fighting it, eyes tracing Izuku's humbled form, and a brief, small smile dawns.

Izuku doesn't know why his breath catches. Maybe because he shouldn't have looked, so he redirects his gaze to the floor and tries in vain to will away the warmth that has diffused across his cheeks. Todoroki's quirk might be contagious, he wonders, a little ludicrous, or he's just getting all messed up by himself. He can feel his ears getting hot too, his palms, his nape.

"Midoriya," Todoroki says, soft, and Izuku finally raises his head, hoping his face isn't red. "I already... I already knew that. Thanks."

Izuku waves his hand. "You don't need to thank me," he says lamely.

Todoroki opens the door to his room. "Then. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Izuku replies, straightening up.

"And, Midoriya," Todoroki says again, turning back to him. "I accept."

So Todoroki is accepting his kindness. And accepting...to relax around Izuku more, maybe? That must be what he means. So Izuku wasn't too impudent and presumptuous. What he wanted to say didn't come across wrong. He lets out a soft breath in relief.

"But please think carefully about what you said," Todoroki finishes, and Izuku, albeit confused, promises earnestly that he will, and Todoroki, lips quirking up once more, closes his door.

/

He promised to think about it.

He does.

And the more he thinks about it, the more he sinks into turmoil—burying his face into his pillow, his heartbeat surpassing its speed limit, face awash in the colors of mortification, because 'please think carefully about what you said'—well, he realizes now that what he said sounded awfully close to a confession and he wasn't even thinking, just so relieved that Todoroki received the feelings that he tried to put in words that he didn't even consider what those feelings actually were and—

In the name of All Might. He just confessed to Todoroki. 

And—with fire blooming violently in the garden of his ribs, spreading like wildfire to set his entire body aflame—Todoroki accepted. The first time anyone's ever, really, with what Izuku was, with what he still is, and even an accidental confession at that—

It's excruciatingly warm, Izuku thinks. And he doesn't take back what he means. But he's so embarrassed he could die.

(But maybe he could live to see Todoroki smile like that again.)