Roller Baby (Tododeku)

Crowd Pleaser

Shoto's p.o.v

It wasn't long before he was starting to get the hang of things. "Yeah, exactly like that! Perfect!" I was standing outside of the rink while he skated around in circles and lines. Once he felt confidence on the floor, I left him go out there alone. If he could stay up without someone there to catch him, he was ready to move on. He slipped up twice, once right at the start because I wasn't there and the second one because he took a strange turn. He had yet to do swirls yet. "Okay! So, the next thing you'll need to do is learn to turn, jump, and spin." He cane skating over to me and leaned on the railing from the inside, inches away from my face. "We're going to do a skating routine together so you'll need to learn everything. It's Sunday now, you'll need to be ready by Saturday. We start the turns, spins, and jumps tomorrow. On Tuesday, we'll start getting you to skate with me. On Wednesday, we start the routine and song. Any music requests?" He thought for a second, tongue sticking out of his mouth ever so slightly. "Oh! Have you ever heard of 'Deviltown'? It's a great song, kinda faster pace with a nice beat to it!" I thought about the routine for a second. I usually chose a song and made a routine to go around the song. "Send it to me and I'll see if it's a 'skater song'." I said, grabbing his hand and dragging him out of the rink. "You did good today. Change to your sneakers, we're gonna go get breakfast." I said, changing out of my skates and pulling on my Vans. "It's four p.m." he replied confused, checking his phone and sending a text to someone. "We're gonna go get lunch."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   "Have you ever been here before?" I asked, unlocking the car doors with the press of a button. He got out, leaving his backpack in the car floor board and grabbing his phone and wallet. "No, but it looks pretty good." He smiled up at the sign; 'Country Side Dine'. It wasn't exactly 'country' I would say since it was near downtown with the shopping centers not but half a mile away. Their food was the 'mom made' style. You know, not deep fried or fast food but griddle pancakes and baked potatoes and such. I called it the 'pancake joint' because it has the best chocolate chip pancakes I've ever eaten. "I brought you here because they have some amazing pancakes. I personally like their breakfast food more than anything else they serve." I said, opening the door and sitting down at a booth near the entrance. A waiter came over and passed us two menus, asking what we wanted to drink, wrote it down on her little note pad and brought them back a moment later.

"So, why did you even pick me in the first place? If you know I'm not the greatest when you could've picked others." He said, swirling his straw in the strawberry milk he ordered. "My shows have been gaining less and less of a following. They all seem so bored with the same routine over and over again. I'm now wowing the crowd like I want to. I say you out there and instantly knew that you would be my savior. I get to hang out with a super cute boy and I get to spice up the performances. I told the skating rink to announce my return with a special guest. At least, that's how they worded it. At least a thousand people RSVP'd to go to the rink that night! We can do performances together and it will be perfect. As for the 'not being good part', I just wanted an excuse to hang out with you all week. What's better than that?" I was a flirt, sure, but I could tell he didn't mind. He stood in thought for a second. He nodded slowly at first, his face going to one of confusion. "I'm surprised that many people care to see me." He mumbled. "One thousand people, that's a lot. And they're all coming because of me?"

"Don't stress too much about it. They're going to love you I already know it." The waiter cane back over to us and asked for our orders. I got the chocolate chip pancakes, (per usual) and he got a small stack of pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries on top. We talked about skating and music for a while before we were interrupted. "Well, if it isn't half and half." I heard a gruff voice from behind me. I turned to see the hot headed blonde staring us down. "Oh, and with that dumb Deku too. I didn't know you could get anymore pathetic." I turned around, unamused and looked up at them. "Wait- Kacchan?" Izuku's voice piped up from behind me. "Wait you know this jerk?" I asked confused. "Unfortunately he does. And stop it with that dumb name, loser." I noticed he was carrying his pair of black skates with little orange spikes coming from the sides in one hand. "Still skating after that knife incident huh?" I mocked. "That wasn't even me, that was Pinky and she felt threatened by you. I'm not sure how, you're so scrawny." He tried to put on that strong act like he had when we were thirteen but it didn't have the same affect for years later. I stood up from the booth and stood above him by about two inches. "I wouldn't call me scrawny but go off I guess." We were moments away from punching each other before Izuku came in. "Shouldn't we all just stay in one piece so you can skate on Saturday?" He asked, breaking the tension. I sat back down while he stood at the head of the table.

"Oh yeah, that dumb performance y'all are doing on Saturday. You best believe I'll be there to compete against you." He smiled in satisfaction. "I thought you were banned from the place?" Izuku asked aloud. "I can pull some strings you idiot. And I'll be preforming the same night." He leaned on the table near Izuku and held his face by his chin, smiling at him. "Whoever gets the most out of the crowd gets to keep him." He said, lightly kissing Izuku's cheek. Rage filled up inside me but I didn't say anything. "I'm not something you can just keep. I'm a person!" He defended. "That you are, but I need another person. After Red Riot left on his own to a new rink, he cast me aside. Didn't need me anymore. I need this to work out for me. And you're the perfect bait. With you skating by my side we would be unstoppable." He paused for a second, turning to the both of us.

"You sure know how to draw a crowd baby."

Baku skates :)