Work For Your Affection (BakuTodo)

invitation

"Look at this one."

Todoroki and I are sitting on the floor of the common room. Well, I'm sitting on the floor. Todoroki's sitting in my lap. I cup my chin over his shoulder as he turns his phone screen toward me to show me another funny cat video.

He erupts into cute little giggles as the video plays. The video is funny, to be fair, but after watching eight of them in a row, the effect wears off. Still, Todoroki's laugh is music to my ears, so I won't mind if he wants to watch twenty more of these.

A little over a month has passed since the first night of our deal took place. In that time, Todoroki and I have only grown closer. We're damn near inseparable at this point. Quite literally, in fact. It seems whenever we're together, which is almost always, we need to be touching each other in some form. It's usually cuddling, seeing as we now have regular sleepovers.

Todoroki's phone pings. "Oh," he says. "The photographer just sent me the photos from my latest shoot."

"Yeah?" I pull him closer, as if he weren't close enough already. "Lemme see."

The photoshoot appears to have taken place in some fancy mansion. It's not Todoroki's house, from what I can tell. A couple weeks ago, he invited me over to have dinner with him and his family. Deku went too, which wasn't ideal, but at least I got to see an overwhelming amount of baby pictures of Todoroki, courtesy of his sister. With her permission, I pocketed the one of a two year old Todoroki hugging his favorite stuffed teddy.

A smile forms on my face as Todoroki scrolls through the images. Of course, he looks breathtaking in all of them. Someone as beautiful as Todoroki is incapable of taking a bad photo.

He glances over at me and flutters his eyelashes. "Which one do you like the best?"

I take his phone out of his hands, my calloused fingers brushing against his delicate ones. After observing each photo in depth, I find one that stands out among the others.

"This one," I say, turning his phone back toward him.

He frowns. "My face looks fat in that picture."

My smile stretches wider. "That's why I like it."

Todoroki narrows his brows at me. "I don't know why you're so obsessed with my cheeks."

"Because they're so chubby," I giggle. I take both of them in my hands and squeeze them to prove it. "And soft."

He tries to fight back a smile, but fails miserably. To remain in character, he rolls his eyes.

I hug him around his waist again. "Hey, just because I like the picture doesn't mean you have to. My opinion isn't important."

"Of course it's important."

"Why?"

Todoroki chews at his bottom lip. "It just is," he mutters.

I slide my fingers through his hair. "Well then, in my opinion, you're easily the best looking guy at this damn school, so any picture you take will be a good one." With a soft smile, I tuck a few loose hairs behind his ear. "Actually, can you stop being so pretty? You're making me jealous."

He blushes and hides his face in my neck while wrapping his arms around my midsection. "Bakugou," he whines. "You can't say things like that."

I chuckle as I continue playing with his hair. "Just being honest."

In the last few weeks, I've made it a personal goal to flirt with Todoroki once a day. The more often I do it, the easier it gets. It also doesn't hurt that so far, he hasn't rejected my advances. It's good practice for me. I don't think I'm at a point where I'm ready to confess my feelings, but little by little these exchanges are helping my confidence regarding our situation.