Potholes (Just Let Me)

Friday

If you asked Midoriya, it happened in the blink of an eye. If you asked Torodoki, that blink of an eye was a moment that stretched out to encompass years.

They had been out to the small shop down the street from the dorms with a list a mile long of snack requests from Class 1-A when it happened. It had been a surprisingly warm fall, as though summer was reaching its hand out, grasping onto the days to hold out just a little longer. The nice weather, unfortunately, couldn't change the exhaustion evident in 1-A's posture as they sat around the dorm on that particular Friday, doing school work and chatting quietly. It had been a long week, hell it had been a long month, and Midoriya, ever the caring friend, offered to buy everyone one snack, whatever they wanted, from the local store. When he finished taking requests and slipped a pair of shoes onto his feet, Todoroki appeared beside him, already wearing his runners and a light fall jacket. He didn't question it, just gave him a slight smile and held the door open for him as they walked out together.

Everything had been going smoothly, they'd found all the requested snacks, although it had taken 6 minutes, and several giggling fits on Midoriya's part, to find these obscure bean-related snacks Iida had asked for.

"God, I can't BREATHE", wheezed out Midoriya "BEAN SNACKS."

"Only Iida would request bean snacks when he could have any snack he wanted." Todoroki added sagely.

Midoriya just cackled, gasping for breath, tears in the corners of his eyes.

"STOP, fuck, I'm trying to breathe here!"

Todoroki gave him the biggest, shit-eating grin and responded in his most serious, deadpan voice "Beans."

You know how sometimes the most unfunny, mundane thing absolutely takes you out?

Two seconds after the word was out of Todoroki's mouth, Midoriya was on his knees, choking out laughter between gasps for air, tears streaming down his face. He was absolutely hysterical, just losing it, and it was suddenly too difficult for Todoroki to suppress his own laughter. His laughter seemed to feed into Midoriya's, and vice versa, the two of them keeled over in this shop, caught in a cycle of hysterics.

After probably 5 minutes of the 6 minutes they'd spent getting Iida's bean snack had passed with trying to calm down enough to catch their breath, they finally made their way to the register. There was a short teenage girl, probably just a highschool student working a part-time job, trying to save up for college, or a car, working the cash. She was carefully scanning items when the corner of her mouth quirked into a small grin. She held up the bean snacks she'd just scanned and said "I guess the bean snacks really did you guys in, huh?"

Any semblance of calm left them, as Todoroki and Midoriya expelled the laughter they'd been trying so desperately to contain and the girl started letting out some light giggles as well.

Just as the last snack had been added to their bag, a box of Oreos Momo and Jirou had planned to share, someone stepped into line behind them. They paid, grabbed their bags, and were about to walk out when they heard a voice, rough and ragged.

The voice came from a tall man dressed in clothes that seemed like they had once been nice, but had since gone through the dryer one too many times. His clothes seemed to reflect that aspect of him as well. He looked... worn out. That's not what stood out though. He had a tail, of sorts. It was flat and wide almost like a beaver's tail but covered in spikes.

"Open and empty the till into this bag or I swear you'll be on the floor with spikes through your chest faster than you can say help"

Todoroki and Midoriya, in sync, turned, set their bags down to the side, looked at each other with pure incredulity as if to say "what are the fucking chances?" before both clearly making the executive decision to kick this guy's ass.