[ENG]Shoto Todoroki : Modern-day Terrorist

Chapter 144

Clumsily, his lips barely brushed Ochaco's.

He flexed his forearms and straightened up, frightened at what he'd had the audacity to do.

He felt himself blush violently, and the shame of blushing made him blush even more.

Ochaco slowly opened her eyes again, fluttering her eyelashes.

He was waiting.

She didn't push him away.

Then slowly, gently, his clenched fists scraping the floor on either side of her, Katsuki bent down again and kissed her shyly.

He felt as if he were dying and in ecstasy.

Supporting the full weight of his body with his left arm and right knee, he raised a tense, nervous hand, hesitating whether to take her by the waist or pull her to him by the neck.

Breathless, he stood up, his hand returning to its position on the cold gym floor.

Ochaco opened her eyes again, looking haggard.

Katsuki smiled shyly at her.

Then she burst into tears.

Mortified, Katsuki jumped to his feet and moved away from her, his hands raised in a soothing gesture.

- I didn't mean to- I just slipped-

Ochaco sat back down, shoulders twitching, wiping her face with the back of her sleeve even though the tears hadn't dried.

- It wasn't on purpose, he said. I swear I didn't mean to...

The more he talked, the more she cried and the more he panicked.

- I won't do it again, he said. I thought - you looked -

All the speeches his mother had given him about never touching a girl without her consent suddenly came back to him.

His palms became sweaty.

He wiped them on his tracksuit, hesitating whether to approach Ochaco to comfort her or to step back so as not to frighten her any more.

Suddenly, Ochaco lifted her head from his hands and shook it.

- No, no, it's not you

She hiccupped, then sniffed.

- Do you have a handkerchief ?

Katsuki rummaged in his pockets and found a towel that he must have taken from the cafeteria at lunchtime.

- Here you go

Ochaco blew her nose loudly.

Katsuki waited for her to finish and when he saw that she didn't get up, he decided to sit down next to her, keeping a good distance between them.

- You okay ?

Her chin moved shyly up and down.

Shoulders hunched, eyes downcast, Katsuki admired her profile. Remnants of tears beaded the ends of her eyelashes.

She wiped them away with her fingertips, then met Katsuki's gaze and gave him a dazzling smile.

His heart started to beat faster.

- I must look silly, she said. Sorry.

- No, no, don't apologise.

Her smile faded, but it looked more sincere than the first.

- I've just got all these problems at the moment and, I don't know, you were so nice that suddenly everything I'd been holding back came flooding back and... and I just wanted to cry...

- Don't justify yourself, he said. You don't owe me anything.

He meant it.

- I shouldn't have done what I did

He felt the tips of his ears heating up and chose to look away, towards the climbing wall, so she wouldn't see him.

He sat cross-legged, the soles of his feet flat against each other, nervously squeezing his shoes until his little toe cramped.

- No, said Ochaco. It was, uh, fine.

Katsuki looked at her in shock.

Now it was her turn to look at her shoes.

- Really?, he muttered

She shrugged as if she didn't know what to say without even really looking at him.

Katsuki looked around, a little lost, excited because she hadn't pushed him away and nervous because she hadn't pushed him away.

The silence dragged on as Katsuki racked his brain trying to think of what to say.

Finally, he cleared his throat and said in a tone he would have liked to have been casual:

- I'm hungry and there's, uh, a sushi bar down Yuei's street that's pretty cool...

Ochaco nodded slowly.

- Would you like to join me? (He added hastily) Considering the canteen's closed and all...

She opened her mouth, closed it and opened it again.

Katsuki already felt ready to pretend that he didn't care about the coming rejection.

- I, well, I used all of my allowance so...

Ochaco blushed, scratched her neck and looked down.

- I'm the one who offers, I'm the one who pays, he said.

Another lesson from the Bakugo matriarch : a man always pays for his woman. Al-ways.

He jumped to his feet in what he hoped was not too much of a hurry.

Katsuki reached out for Ochaco, as he would have done with anyone else, to help her up, before he froze, hand outstretched in the void, realising what he'd just done.

But Ochaco smiled and slipped his hand into hers, and Katsuki felt his throat go dry and his stomach do a somersault.

- Let's go then

*
Dabi wasn't the superstitious type, but he had a pretty good idea of how he was going to die.

He knew that one day, sooner or later, Shoto would find a way to kill him without it coming back to bite him in the ass.

There would certainly be a lot of physical suffering, but for someone who had spent years mutilating himself to use his Quirk, that was no big deal.

On the other hand, Dabi was determined to ruin the teen's life as much as possible.