Todoroki can heat his own water. Hell, he can make his own water. So Katsuki gets that this is a sort of asking-without-asking.
That's fine.
Yeah. Send me your location.
He assumes wherever Toge had been staying with his cat? Either way, once he knows he's bringing a kettle. And some of the good tea leaves he recently bought.
Todoroki has been here for him through a lot and he deserves to have the favor returned. Whether Katsuki knows how to help or not, he owes it to try.
Shoto sends the location and luckily enough, Bakugo doesn't have much of a walk. It's his own room for now. He came home after feeding Thornprick and it's a good idea that Katsuki said he could bring him... because the cat's there, taking up the lion's share of Shoto's bed. Normally he would've been finding some mischief to get into, but he seems to be taking mercy on Shoto for the moment.
Todoroki opens his door anyway, cat or no. "Come in." He offers Katsuki, moving out of the doorway. He doesn't look, or sound thrilled even if it's a realization that he already had. That Toge and himself don't come from the same place and never likely will have more than here. "Thank you for bringing it."
Katsuki steps in with a tray in hand. Tea kettle, already full of hot water. Two mugs. Tea leaves. Honey and sugar if Todoroki wants it. He sets it all down and starts preparing two mugs of tea.
"Wasn't doing anything important today." Not strictly true. Katsuki is the type to stay busy when he can. He makes plans even when they're just resting for a day.
Bakugo came to... came to make this tea and was ready to do it for him. He had to know it was the only way Todoroki felt like being able to say 'yes' to his offer. Thankfully neither of them have to say things sometimes.
The likelihood that Bakugo wasn't busy is low. Shoto knows it, too. Especially with the revelation about him and Izuku. He knows that pull. He sits down, as told, next to Thornprick who has come to see what the fuss is that the bedside has to be disturbed. Shoto appreciates the cat being good about it all, too and pets just behind his neck down his back. "Uh..." He looks at the little display on the tray and shrugs his shoulder. "Just some milk this time." Maybe a different way another time, but the fact he didn't have to use his quirk, it's nice. It just is.
"It smells nice." So he segues into the only thing he can think of, "How are things with you and Midoriya?" Someone else's relationship will take his mind off his own and his friends are always a high priority in his mind.
Katsuki focuses on making the tea. He doesn't know the first thing of comforting a friend. Especially over something like this. What does he know about that kind of loss? Nothing.
He's given the push of what Todoroki seems to think will help. Or so he assumes by the shift.
How are things with him and Izuku...
"Doesn't feel like much has changed."
Well.
"I mean obviously some shit has changed."
He can kiss him now which isn't a thing he's saying. And he wants to hold his hand all the time. Like. Every time he sees him he wants to take his hand and he thinks maybe he should think that's gross but he doesn't??
"Been trying to decide where to take him on a date. Obviously it's gotta be the best."
Shoto huffs a small amused noise, listening to Bakugo speak. Yeah. It shouldn't feel like anything's changed. Just 'some shit'. That should change. He knows that well and nods his head. He's not the best company, but he's around.
"If I can give you a bit of advice on that," Shoto offers, taking the tea. He looks up at Bakaugo with a serious look on his face. "Take him anywhere. Walk with him, let him be excited about the things he sees. Let him smile and just be happy. I promise you there will not be one single spot or activity that does that for him without you." He takes the tea to his mouth, not worried about the heat of it, considering his quirk. "This is good tea."
He clicks his tongue at the advice as he sits down with his tea.
"It's Izuku we're talkin' about. Of course he'll enjoy anything we do."
He can't help but remember being kids and how Izuku would follow him and do anything he wanted and smile at him the whole time. Just happy to be with him. How is it Katsuki let that get twisted in his mind for so long?
"You're overthinking it." Shoto says lightly, "But I can understand why. You want to show him that he's not just someone else, he's your someone else..." He nods his head, drinking his tea gain. "I'm sure you'll find the best thing for him, but I'd consider the best thing for him is time with you if he's chosen you."
Take that from the guy who has to reflect on losing that specific thing. He's glad they figured it out together, though, that it isn't where they go it's if it was with one another.
He takes a sip of the tea in his hands as he chooses his words. He didn't come here thinking he'd be talking about Izuku. If anything he thought Todoroki wouldn't want to hear that kind of thing.
"He's always been there even at my worst. I couldn't tell you why... but if I'm doing this, he's getting me at my best. That's all there is to it."
Shoto nods his head, agreeing with Katsuki about Izuku being there at people's worst. He always is. "I feel the same way about him." Starts the hero, setting his tea down and pets his majestythecat when he comes into arm's reach. "Not romantically, but he's been there for me even at my lowest and deserves my best." Shoto's mismatched eyes turn up to Bakugo, "But he also doesn't deserve us flailing to figure out what that is. I think..."
He sighs, his eyes stray as he thinks for the right words. If anything they've always both been very direct and realistic people, and that includes with one another. "I think that we're both the same kind of person, you and I, Bakugo." That's not the whole statement but he starts with it. "For different reasons we were both vicious to the world around us and the world around us deserved better. Midoriya changed that. He's never been afraid to correct us before, and I think you're too hard on yourself because of your past. Toge and I promised that if we messed up, did something wrong, or made the wrong choices we would talk to each other about it."
Yes. It does hurt to talk about him, but he can't ignore that it happened, or that it didn't change him for the better. "Maybe something verbal like that would put you at ease. You seem tense about it."
The old Katsuki Bakugou would have snapped that they were nothing alike. But he's listening with a mildly annoyed expression on his features as he keeps his eyes on the top of his tea.
It's Toge's name that gets his eyes flickering up. He definitely didn't come over here to upset Todoroki more and he's studying him to see if this topic needs to change to ensure he doesn't.
Does he seem tense?
Is he tense?
Maybe.
"Didn't come looking for reassurances, Todoroki. There's nothing to reassure. I'm not gonna be that guy to him anymore."
He doesn't talk in possibilities. It's absolutes for him. When his mind is made up, it's made up.
He won't try to be a better person. He will be one.
"I'm not saying it needs to be extravagant. Just... should at least be thoughtful. Firsts are important to him in ways they aren't to me."
Like a first kiss. Which Katsuki kind of ruined for him. And is aware he ruined.
Todoroki only gleans between the line that at least it may have been reassuring. He knows why Bakugo came there and he's not sure about what to do about it. "You aren't, or he wouldn't have chosen you." Be reassured if he likes it or not.
Shoto again is nodding his head, agreeing that he understands it needs to be thoughtful and firsts are important. "I'm sure if anyone, you'll figure it out." He has confidence in him. "I was very happy to hear it, too. I've always wanted you both to be happy with someone after learning it myself, and now it's each other. That solves my worries at once."
"No." Shoto says, looking down toward the floor because he's up in his head, too. "If he hurt you, I'd be upset. I just don't think he will, or if he did I'd be terribly surprised... You and Midoriya are a good match, but I'd not play sides if he did something upsetting to you."
"I don't need you fighting my battles." He sits the tea down. He can tell Todoroki is getting up in his head and nope. "Anyway, tell me about this furball you brought home."
He reaches a hand out towards the cat he's been ignoring this whole time. Offering it for a sniff and waiting to see if he's deemed worthy of a pet.
"It's not fighting them, it's caring about you." If Toge weren't a factor, there may be some very different dynamics around here. However, the cat is brought up, and Bakugo has been deemed worthy. "Thornprick." He explains, "That's his name. He's a very nice cat." He's a gremlin just like Toge. "He likes to be pet on his back." He informs Bakugo, looking a little sadly at the animal. "He misses Toge, too, so having more friends might help him."
Katsuki distinctly does not think about the times they kissed. Nope. A can of worms he keeps shut. Plain and simple. Whatever examining of that he might have done got locked away the moment Todoroki mentioned being interested in Toge.
Instead he's petting a cat. He would say he's not an animal person. But secretly he kind of likes cats?
"Shouldn't be a problem if he stays here. Just gotta keep him away from Pino." And maybe he's also fond of Rody's bird. He bothered to remember her name anyway.
Something that Shoto would talk about if the topic came up. He's not ashamed of it, nor would he ever be. He still has to deal with those feelings for Bakugo every now and again. It doesn't negate how he feels for Toge but he knows something was there.
His eyes are focused on Bakugo's hand smoothing over fur. "I won't let Pino get hurt, that's a given." He also likes Pino and will kill for her, wage wars in her name. "He can stay here with me and if it becomes an issue, I can stay at Toge's place." Todoroki pauses in thought, "Am I supposed to say it's his still? All his stuff is there."
A good question he supposes. One that will probably linger on Todoroki's mind for... who knows how long.
"It's not like it stops being his just because he's not here."
And he feels like exactly the wrong guy to be here. He's not the one who knows how to handle emotions. He utterly failed to help Rody with, presumably, a lot less intense emotions?
He's not Izuku. He doesn't know how to navigate. But Todoroki reached out to him and now he's here so...
"...You're right." It's still his, so he will, as he said, go to Toge's if the cat becomes a problem where Pino is concerned. "I'll keep watch on it for him, keep it clean. Or dust it I guess."
Shoto isn't any better, but having Katsuki there? That helps. It helps a lot. Just him existing so that it doesn't feel so quiet. For having a partner who can't talk for the majority of their communications, it never felt quiet. "Are you sure you want to hear what I have to say? I don't know that it's pleasant... It doesn't feel pleasant."
"Wasn't expecting it to be." He admits, moving from his spot in the chair to come sit on the bed on the other side of Thornprick. Tea is set aside and his eyes are on Todoroki.
Shoto's eyes barely look toward Katsuki when he sets his tea aside. Shoto does not, he takes another small drink of it.
"I have a great many regrets, Bakugo... Foolish ones. Because he would've known how I felt and yet I never could bring the words "I love you" from my mouth." Shoto looks frustrated by that, eyebrows tight together and a frown on his face. "I know he knows. But I didn't say it. Just as much as if I said I loved you, would you know that? That I feel strongly for you? Have I ever given you the indication you're not a precious person in my life? How many people don't know how I feel about them because I was too scared to say it?"
He understands what Todoroki is saying. The regrets he's having. Words left unsaid that maybe never get said now.
How do you help with something like that? It's nowhere near Katsuki's wheel house. He's out of his depths. But as he drops his head back to look up at the ceiling, he already has his reply.
"You're talking about a guy who couldn't use his words to say that kinda shit. If anyone would know without you saying it, it'd be him."
Shoto hadn't realized that he was holding his breath, that there was something he needed to hear and if anyone- the harshest, but most honest of his friends, Bakugo would tell him. Not to hurt him, but not to sugar coat it either. This isn't even something he'd really ask Izuku, maybe say to him, but he wouldn't expect any harsh reality from him if it was there to give.
When that harsh reality is only that Toge would've known, given the fact he didn't use conventional words anyway... The shuddered breath leaves his body and another one drags itself in. Shoto looks like he's pushing his hair out of his face, but the heel of his hand hits at eye-level on the right side. "He's very smart. I've wanted to protect people all my life." Essentially. "And I don't think I've even scratched the surface of how he's done it. I've heard of curse words, but never cursed words, not until him. It's still sometimes difficult to understand entirely, but it wasn't too difficult. He made a whole language to protect people, and so that he could speak to them, too."
Duh. Synopsis king, but he's being sincere at least. "I think he would've been very welcomed at UA."
Katsuki doesn't look. He gives him privacy and dignity in those feelings and he keeps his eyes on the ceiling.
"He would've been a pain in the ass in training. He tossed my ass all over the place when we fought." Which is Katsuki talk for... he was impressed and agrees with Todoroki's assessment.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
That's fine.
Yeah.
Send me your location.
He assumes wherever Toge had been staying with his cat? Either way, once he knows he's bringing a kettle. And some of the good tea leaves he recently bought.
Todoroki has been here for him through a lot and he deserves to have the favor returned. Whether Katsuki knows how to help or not, he owes it to try.
no subject
Todoroki opens his door anyway, cat or no. "Come in." He offers Katsuki, moving out of the doorway. He doesn't look, or sound thrilled even if it's a realization that he already had. That Toge and himself don't come from the same place and never likely will have more than here. "Thank you for bringing it."
no subject
"Wasn't doing anything important today." Not strictly true. Katsuki is the type to stay busy when he can. He makes plans even when they're just resting for a day.
But this was more important.
"Sit down. How do you like your tea?"
no subject
The likelihood that Bakugo wasn't busy is low. Shoto knows it, too. Especially with the revelation about him and Izuku. He knows that pull. He sits down, as told, next to Thornprick who has come to see what the fuss is that the bedside has to be disturbed. Shoto appreciates the cat being good about it all, too and pets just behind his neck down his back. "Uh..." He looks at the little display on the tray and shrugs his shoulder. "Just some milk this time." Maybe a different way another time, but the fact he didn't have to use his quirk, it's nice. It just is.
"It smells nice." So he segues into the only thing he can think of, "How are things with you and Midoriya?" Someone else's relationship will take his mind off his own and his friends are always a high priority in his mind.
no subject
He's given the push of what Todoroki seems to think will help. Or so he assumes by the shift.
How are things with him and Izuku...
"Doesn't feel like much has changed."
Well.
"I mean obviously some shit has changed."
He can kiss him now which isn't a thing he's saying. And he wants to hold his hand all the time. Like. Every time he sees him he wants to take his hand and he thinks maybe he should think that's gross but he doesn't??
"Been trying to decide where to take him on a date. Obviously it's gotta be the best."
He turns and holds out the tea.
no subject
"If I can give you a bit of advice on that," Shoto offers, taking the tea. He looks up at Bakaugo with a serious look on his face. "Take him anywhere. Walk with him, let him be excited about the things he sees. Let him smile and just be happy. I promise you there will not be one single spot or activity that does that for him without you." He takes the tea to his mouth, not worried about the heat of it, considering his quirk. "This is good tea."
no subject
"It's Izuku we're talkin' about. Of course he'll enjoy anything we do."
He can't help but remember being kids and how Izuku would follow him and do anything he wanted and smile at him the whole time. Just happy to be with him. How is it Katsuki let that get twisted in his mind for so long?
"But that's no excuse for me to slack off."
no subject
Take that from the guy who has to reflect on losing that specific thing. He's glad they figured it out together, though, that it isn't where they go it's if it was with one another.
no subject
"Yeah."
He takes a sip of the tea in his hands as he chooses his words. He didn't come here thinking he'd be talking about Izuku. If anything he thought Todoroki wouldn't want to hear that kind of thing.
"He's always been there even at my worst. I couldn't tell you why... but if I'm doing this, he's getting me at my best. That's all there is to it."
no subject
He sighs, his eyes stray as he thinks for the right words. If anything they've always both been very direct and realistic people, and that includes with one another. "I think that we're both the same kind of person, you and I, Bakugo." That's not the whole statement but he starts with it. "For different reasons we were both vicious to the world around us and the world around us deserved better. Midoriya changed that. He's never been afraid to correct us before, and I think you're too hard on yourself because of your past. Toge and I promised that if we messed up, did something wrong, or made the wrong choices we would talk to each other about it."
Yes. It does hurt to talk about him, but he can't ignore that it happened, or that it didn't change him for the better. "Maybe something verbal like that would put you at ease. You seem tense about it."
no subject
It's Toge's name that gets his eyes flickering up. He definitely didn't come over here to upset Todoroki more and he's studying him to see if this topic needs to change to ensure he doesn't.
Does he seem tense?
Is he tense?
Maybe.
"Didn't come looking for reassurances, Todoroki. There's nothing to reassure. I'm not gonna be that guy to him anymore."
He doesn't talk in possibilities. It's absolutes for him. When his mind is made up, it's made up.
He won't try to be a better person. He will be one.
"I'm not saying it needs to be extravagant. Just... should at least be thoughtful. Firsts are important to him in ways they aren't to me."
Like a first kiss. Which Katsuki kind of ruined for him. And is aware he ruined.
no subject
Shoto again is nodding his head, agreeing that he understands it needs to be thoughtful and firsts are important. "I'm sure if anyone, you'll figure it out." He has confidence in him. "I was very happy to hear it, too. I've always wanted you both to be happy with someone after learning it myself, and now it's each other. That solves my worries at once."
no subject
Lately he's had to wonder exactly when Izuku chose him too.
But he's done with that particular topic.
"Yeah? All done trying to threaten both of us on the other's behalf then?" He snorts, reminded of that whole situation. Honestly...
no subject
no subject
He reaches a hand out towards the cat he's been ignoring this whole time. Offering it for a sniff and waiting to see if he's deemed worthy of a pet.
no subject
no subject
Instead he's petting a cat. He would say he's not an animal person. But secretly he kind of likes cats?
"Shouldn't be a problem if he stays here. Just gotta keep him away from Pino." And maybe he's also fond of Rody's bird. He bothered to remember her name anyway.
no subject
His eyes are focused on Bakugo's hand smoothing over fur. "I won't let Pino get hurt, that's a given." He also likes Pino and will kill for her, wage wars in her name. "He can stay here with me and if it becomes an issue, I can stay at Toge's place." Todoroki pauses in thought, "Am I supposed to say it's his still? All his stuff is there."
no subject
A good question he supposes. One that will probably linger on Todoroki's mind for... who knows how long.
"It's not like it stops being his just because he's not here."
And he feels like exactly the wrong guy to be here. He's not the one who knows how to handle emotions. He utterly failed to help Rody with, presumably, a lot less intense emotions?
He's not Izuku. He doesn't know how to navigate. But Todoroki reached out to him and now he's here so...
"Do you need to talk about it?"
no subject
Shoto isn't any better, but having Katsuki there? That helps. It helps a lot. Just him existing so that it doesn't feel so quiet. For having a partner who can't talk for the majority of their communications, it never felt quiet. "Are you sure you want to hear what I have to say? I don't know that it's pleasant... It doesn't feel pleasant."
no subject
"I'm listenin'."
no subject
"I have a great many regrets, Bakugo... Foolish ones. Because he would've known how I felt and yet I never could bring the words "I love you" from my mouth." Shoto looks frustrated by that, eyebrows tight together and a frown on his face. "I know he knows. But I didn't say it. Just as much as if I said I loved you, would you know that? That I feel strongly for you? Have I ever given you the indication you're not a precious person in my life? How many people don't know how I feel about them because I was too scared to say it?"
no subject
How do you help with something like that? It's nowhere near Katsuki's wheel house. He's out of his depths. But as he drops his head back to look up at the ceiling, he already has his reply.
"You're talking about a guy who couldn't use his words to say that kinda shit. If anyone would know without you saying it, it'd be him."
no subject
When that harsh reality is only that Toge would've known, given the fact he didn't use conventional words anyway... The shuddered breath leaves his body and another one drags itself in. Shoto looks like he's pushing his hair out of his face, but the heel of his hand hits at eye-level on the right side. "He's very smart. I've wanted to protect people all my life." Essentially. "And I don't think I've even scratched the surface of how he's done it. I've heard of curse words, but never cursed words, not until him. It's still sometimes difficult to understand entirely, but it wasn't too difficult. He made a whole language to protect people, and so that he could speak to them, too."
Duh. Synopsis king, but he's being sincere at least. "I think he would've been very welcomed at UA."
no subject
"He would've been a pain in the ass in training. He tossed my ass all over the place when we fought." Which is Katsuki talk for... he was impressed and agrees with Todoroki's assessment.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)