LCO | Ch. 8: Soba-Scented Conditioner

                                    

                                          
As the day began, Todoroki and the rest of class 1-A endured their usual list of classes, until lunch time once again came. Moving quickly to avoid losing time, Todoroki crammed his hero suit somewhat haphazardly into his costume case, and hurried out the locker room door. Lunch hadn't started yet, but he didn't want to risk losing any time he could be spending with Yaoyorozu.
Once he'd stepped into the hallway, Todoroki glanced around.
I don't see her yet. Maybe she's still changing?
For a minute or so, he stood around awkwardly—praying no one would exit the men's room and question him. Pretty soon, however, he heard the girls' voices coming closer to the door. Acting quickly, he straightened up and leaned against the wall, attempting to look as natural as possible by whipping his phone out of his pocket.
When his ears heard the creak of the door, his thumb twitched—currently scrolling through the "Settings" app, since he didn't have any sort of social media. Glancing over the top of his phone, he spotted Asui, Jiro, and Uraraka making their way out as a group. As they passed him, they caught eye contact with him, and shot him a knowing sort of look that Todoroki had no clue how to interpret.
Ignoring them, he cast his eyes back down to his phone, until at last, Yaoyorozu entered his peripheral.
Now's my opportunity. he thought quickly, sliding his phone back into his pocket.
As she was beginning to exit, however, he heard a faint voice shouting from depths of the locker room. Immediately, he recognized it as Ashido's, and judging by her tone, she was going to ask to sit with Yaoyorozu at lunch again.
No! Not again!
Yaoyorozu began to turn around.
"Did you call for me Mina—oh!"
Somehow, by moving at what must've been record speed, Todoroki sidestepped in-between Yaoyorozu and the locker room door before she could turn to face Ashido. For a moment, she stared prolongedly at him with a confused expression on her face—wondering how on earth he'd appeared behind her so quickly. It wasn't until Ashido's voice came again from behind when Todoroki finally made an effort to speak.
"Yaomomo, can we hang ou—"
"Are you free right now?" Todoroki interrupted, voice raised marginally louder than normal to mask Ashido's voice.
She hesitated slightly, somewhat intimidated by both his proximity, and the intense insistence in his expression.
"W-well, I'm not particularly busy," she admitted, "Today I was just going to eat lunch and study for a bit."
Realizing she was wary of him, Todoroki relaxed his face somewhat before speaking again.
"Studying?" he repeated, "So you'll be going to the library then."
She nodded, "That was part of the plan."
"Oh, okay." he paused, pretending to consider his next words when he already had a planned response, "In that case, mind if I tag along?"
She raised her eyebrows in surprise, but didn't seem opposed to his offer. "I guess if you'd like to come, I wouldn't mind."
"Okay." he glanced to the side for a moment, realizing that Ashido must've disappeared back around the locker room's partition, "In that case, let's go on ahead." Todoroki made a slight movement with his head, quietly gesturing for her to start walking away; to which she obliged without complaint.
As they both disappeared down the hall, Ashido and Hagakure exchanged a rather gossipy look to one another.
"He's sure been dominating her free time these days." Ashido commented.