Chapter Text
Bakugo was in a situation he definitely did not want to be in. First of all, things had gotten so bad that he went to his band of idiots for advice. Now they were all arguing and babbling about how Bakugo should approach the situation. And it’s not like Bakugo could shut them out by going to his room; they were at Pinky’s house because Bakugo couldn’t stand being in his apartment.
Not when he couldn’t stay in the hallway of his apartment without thinking about Deku.
And normally he wouldn’t mind thinking about Deku, but when all he was allowed to do was rest after his hospital trip to recover, it wasn’t the best thing. He just sat there and rotted, similar to the messages that he sent Deku, trying to ask if he could visit or if they could at least talk.
But the omega was ignoring him. He had been for the past four days.
“Well why would you tell him to ‘fuck off’?” Pikachu unhelpfully asked.
“I TOLD YOU THOUGHT IT WAS A FUCKING DREAM AT FIRST I WAS ABOUT TO MOVE CLOSER AND REACH OVER TO TOUCH HIS ASS,” Bakugo growled out. He crumpled after, “And he was concerned or whatever and it caught me off guard….”
“Oh my gosh was our Blasty embarrassed because he was being all lovey dovey with his crush?” Pinky teased.
“Probably hurt his ego that Midoriya doesn’t wanna talk to him now, either. Did that technically count as a rejection?” Tape Face, the bastard, strolled in with a bowl of fruit in his hand. Pikachu easily snagged some, and Bakugo was going to use the distraction to veer the conversation away since these idiots weren’t being any sort of help.
“Where have you been?” Bakugo asked. Thank fuck Shitty Hair provided an actual distraction as he walked into the door. Though Bakugo noticed the bags in his hands that he plopped down on the way in.
“Patrol. Plus shopping. Ran into Todoroki, though.”
Ugh. Nevermind. Bakugo would rather keep dying of embarrassment in recalling what happened with Deku a couple days ago than talk about Half and Half.
“Oh? How’s he doing? I haven’t talked to him since he visited Momo and I last week,” Ears decided to pitch in at the worst time. Go figure. She didn’t bother to give any input about relationships when she’s in one, but decided to pitch in about IcyHot. With how loud they were, Bakugo was hoping the bat hybrid would hear his thoughts about how he didn’t wanna talk about him.
“He’s doin good,” Shitty Hair started off, settling down before he turned his attention to Bakugo. “He said something about this Deer Hybrid he met on patrol.”
Despite Bakugo’s thoughts, his wolf ears perked up immediately and his inner alpha started to stir awake. “Yeah?” Bakugo tried to play it off, only sounding semi-interested. To which Ears decided to kick him in the leg for.
“Come on, you were just crying to us about how bad you felt about messing up around him,” she rolled her eyes.
“Well excuse me if I’m trying to process Half and Half potentially stealing away the guy I’ve been trying to hit on,” Bakugo snarked back. That damn snow leopard always found a way to piss him off. Now even more so because of the way he managed to try and beat him at every aspect including a love life.
“Relax, dude. I didn’t even say anything about that,” Shitty Hair tried to resolve everything, like always.
“Yeah, Todoroki’s an omega anyway, so I don’t see the big deal,” Pikachu mentioned, obnoxiously chewing on an apple slice he plucked from the fruit bowl.
“Yeah but Deku’s cute as shit and Half and Half is gay as shit. The bastard already mentioned in high school that he doesn’t care about that stuff, and if his future mate is an omega, so be it. A beta? So be it. He doesn’t care. And Deku surely doesn’t seem interested in alphas if he saw all of us,” Bakugo made a point to gesture to himself, Kirishima, Ashido, and Sero, “And didn’t have any reaction, then he’s definitely into omegas. He didn’t even react to Pikachu being a beta!”
“So let me get this straight,” Pinky started, “You’re saying just because you don’t think he’s wooed by you because you’re a Prime alpha, that he just- doesn’t like alphas? That because he acts normally around all of us that he automatically likes omegas? Is your head really that far up your ass?”
Bakugo gave her a disgusted glare, “You know I’m not one of those fucking knothead alphas! I’m just sayin that for us being pros and decent-lookin, he hasn’t shown interest in any alpha or beta.”
“That’s not what she was saying,” Tape Face pointed out, “She’s saying that you’re too caught up in him being obsessed with you in order to notice that there are signs of him liking you. You just haven’t gotten out of your egotistical and also somehow self-deprecating bubble to notice.” When Bakugo didn’t open his mouth to talk again, Sero made a point to nod his head back to Kirishima. It was his way of telling Kirishima to finish his story.
“Oh…right. Todoroki met Mido and uh…he’s kinda helping him with his heat…?”
“WHAT THE HELL?!” There was barely any time between when Shitty Hair spoke to when explosions started sparking in Bakugo’s palms.
“Well thank you, really, but you don’t have to, Hero Shoto,” Midoriya tried to convince the pro. He has been trying for the past couple days, whenever the pro showed up at his doorstep, but the hero was very stubborn.
Midoriya had his heat hit unexpectedly a day after Kacchan stormed off. Now that he realized, that’s probably why he had been so fussy with his nest that day Kacchan arrived. But it was earlier than Midoriya anticipated.
He was out and about trying to do some grocery shopping. A villain had emerged on his way there, and of course Midoriya had to check it out. But he was partially grateful that he did, otherwise he wouldn’t have run into Hero Shoto. The man weaved his way through the crowd when he was trying to get away from the press, but when he passed by Midoriya, the omega couldn’t think but be sad that he missed his chance to get an autograph from someone he looked up to.
It came as a surprise when Hero Shoto backtracked and looked around till he spotted him. His leopard ears flickered on his head before he spoke, “Would you be able to come with me?”
Midoriya looked around, stunned, before he pointed to himself, “Me?” A nod was what he got in response, so confused, yet intrigued, Midoriya followed the hero. It wasn’t until they got away from the crowd and the earshot of everyone that Hero Shoto said something.
“You are aware it’s not safe to wander around alone when you smell like preheat, right?”
The question came out of nowhere and Midoriya stiffened in his spot. It took a moment before what was asked had fully processed in his brain. Hero Shoto stopped walking when he sensed Midoriya did, turning around to wait for an answer. “I- I wasn’t aware,” Midoriya stumbled, even more so when Hero Shoto was giving him a look that looked unconvinced. He continued to look down at the hero, “I- well- it’s kinda difficult to tell. I have an impairment- my nose doesn't work all that well so scents are hard for me.”
“Even your own?” Hero Shoto eased up on his cold, calculating look.
“Unfortunately,” Midoriya murmured. “But I’m- um- glad that you told me. I’ll be sure to be careful,” he thanked, trying to bow and leave as quickly as possible so as not to disturb the pro’s busy schedule. Right as he started walking, he turned just as quickly back, remembering that he would definitely beat himself up later if he left without getting an autograph to remember this interaction. “Ah- wait…”
Surprisingly, Hero Shoto was still standing there, and he was actually closer, like he was following behind. “I wasn’t going to allow you to leave in the state you’re in,” Hero Shoto mentioned as an explanation. Not a moment later did Hero Shoto click something on his earpiece, “Ingenium, Shoto here. Can you call in one of my sidekicks to takeover? I have a civilian in preheat I need to escort home….yes, thank you.”
Midoriya’s face went up in flames at the bluntness of Hero Shoto. He would’ve assumed that being an omega as well, Hero Shoto would’ve been a bit more vague when giving the reasoning. Though now Midoriya is realizing that that bluntness is not part of the Hero’s persona. Nor is the kind and caring personality he is shown to display when dealing with civilians.
“I do have to. You mentioned before that you have no friends or family to speak of to help with your situation, so I want to make sure you’re doing well,” Hero Shoto answered, like it was a reason for the hero to keep arriving everyday with bundles of groceries and bits of nesting supplies.
“Yes, but I can’t- you already gave me so much by going and getting my groceries for the next two weeks,” Midoriya begged the hero over and over for the past couple days he had been coming here that he didn’t need to do anything. That the Hero helped enough.
“Two weeks? That didn’t seem like much to suffice for barely a week,” Hero Shoto said, finalizing his statement by pushing the bags closer to Midoriya for him to take them.
And while he was right, Midoriya thought it would be embarrassing if he had to mention that he only had one, if less, than one meal a day to cut back on spending(and truthfully, his eating habits). Not to mention that the things Midoriya put on his grocery list this week were easy to put together, so as to have less strain on him to make it between heat waves. There were some actual meals in there since he didn’t anticipate his heat starting just yet, but even those were a bit lousy.
“Some of them make for more than one person, so I usually have leftovers to eat,” Midoriya gave a lousy explanation.
“Still, you need a steady supply of food during your heat,” Hero Shoto punctuated it by setting the bags by Midoriya’s feet. And for that, Midoriya was grateful for; the hero didn’t cross any boundaries and was really respectful when dealing with Midoriya’s space. “And I told you that just ‘Todoroki’ or ‘Shoto’ is fine.”
Right. Midoriya guessed they were now at a level further than civilian and hero. At least for Midoriya. Ever since yesterday when his heat fully kicked in and Hero- …Shoto.. was making his now-daily visit. The deer hybrid nearly collapsed into Shoto, but forced his weight onto the door.
Shoto then slipped into letting his omega take over and care for Midoriya in a way he hadn’t experienced in a while. Midoriya never felt his omega so calm and happy to be around someone, especially during heat. His inner omega chirped about having an omega companion. Shoto had asked what was fine for him to do, if it was okay for him to step inside, if it was okay for him to touch Midoriya, if it was fine for him to enter his nesting space. Shoto was just really respectful and helpful.
He even complied with scenting something for Midoriya when his inner omega complained about the nest being empty of any other scent beside his own.
When Midoriya finally got out of that heat headspace, he’d been embarrassed, even more so when he found that Shoto had taken the time to put away the groceries he brought.
“Okay. Thank you, again. If there’s any way I can repay you, please let me know,” Midoriya replied. He could be stubborn back and refuse the items, but ultimately he knew he couldn’t win. He tried before, and Shoto just left the bags at his door and left.
“Maybe when you’re better you can meet some of my friends,” Shoto hummed.
A few more snippets of conversation were exchanged before they tampered off into goodbyes. Seeing Shoto go down the hallway gave Midoriya a chill. He felt like he was being watched, and he knew it wasn’t Shoto, because the omega had his back to him.
Midoriya waved it off, but let his eyes leave Shoto and looked down a door down the hallway. The same door that had an All Might treat bowl sitting outside of it.
The chill went away shortly after, and Midoriya had to wonder if it was Kacchan that was peering through his peephole when hearing Shoto pass by.