Connections

"How is your internship?" Shoto Todoroki asked into the phone. He wiped the sweat from his face, before throwing the workout towel into the bin. Crouching down, he shifted the phone so it was being held between his ear and his shoulder as he started pulling off his shoes.

"It has been very rewarding! Ryukyu has a quirk that utilizes her whole body, which is why I accepted the application. I have been able to cut down my creation time for larger objects that require more skin surface area, and I am working on being able to create two objects at once!" The elegant voice gushed on the other line.

"I see why she is in the top ten heroes, that is impressive progress, Momo." Shoto complimented, opening his costume case.

"Thank you, Shoto." She hesitated, before asking, "How is your internship going? Has everything been alright?"

Shoto picked up on the worry in her voice, even though she was trying to hide it. "Stop biting your lip, love."

His lip twitched into a smile as she made a surprised noise, confirming that she had indeed been biting her lip again. Looking over his shoulder at his father taking his uniform out of a locker, Shoto hesitated in his answer.

"It has been... informative. We have teamed up with the hero Bakugo and Olivia are interning under."

He knew it wasn't the answer she was looking for, but she seemed to have interpreted his pause the way he had hoped she would, and didn't push it. "You have been with Star? I am so envious, I miss everybody."

"Mineta would be happy to hear that." Shoto said lightly, pushing down his disgust at the name to distract from the topic of Olivia, not wanting to remember the day before.

She gasped at his words. "Shoto!"

He could hear her faint laugh over the phone, despite her hand probably covering her mouth.

A smile played on his lips, before turning to a frown at the sight of his old man in his hero costume. They exchanged a look, before the Pro Hero turned and left the locker room. Pulling his own hero costume out of the case, he apologized to Momo and explained he had to go. After agreeing to say hi to Olivia for her, they hung up, and Shoto quickly changed.

Walking to the same spot that they had met last time, Shoto saw that his old man was already talking with Hawks, Bakugo, and Olivia. As he got closer, it was quickly apparent that talking may not have been the right word.

His father and Hawks were going at it again. Or rather, Hawks was laughing as he held a one-sided conversation, while Endeavor was slowly getting angrier and angrier.

Olivia looked away from the argument she had been gleefully watching and greeted him with a cheery smile, sipping on a 'brain power' smoothie with her hero costume and headphones on.

Bakugo was also in his costume, with windswept hair and his forearms twitching occasionally as he massaged them. They both looked tired, like they had been training all day. Shoto admitted he probably did not look any better, and used his ice side to cool his core temperature down after all of his flame use.

"Come on, Tough Guy! We have to eat before we start patrolling! Think of the kiddies! We need to teach them that every Pro Hero needs to fuel up before fighting crime!" Hawks clapped Endeavor on the back merrily.

"We're around the same age, asshole…" Bakugo grumbled under his breath, giving the Pro Hero a glare. Olivia nudged him, offering some of her smoothie. Bakugo hesitated, before taking a long sip.

Hawks ignored Bakugo, winking at Olivia in thanks for shutting him up, and turned back to his one-sided conversation with Endeavor. "And none of your traditional food either. A Pro Hero needs protein! I know this great chicken place a few blocks down…"

Shoto took offense to Hawks's aversion to traditional food, and opened his mouth, but was interrupted by Olivia.

"What do you mean that was just 'one sip'?! You drank all of it!" She whined, staring sadly at her drink before looking up to glare at Bakugo. Bakugo just shrugged and smirked tauntingly instead, seeming to get less tired the more red she got.

"Traditional food is healthier!" Endeavor growled at Hawks, finally responding in order to defend his favorite meals.

As the bickering between the two pairs continued, Shoto sighed, tilting his head to move his hair out of his face.

"Don't be such a princess, you were already almost done with it before I took a sip."

"We literally just got it before we walked in!"

"You can order chicken to go, making it the ideal meal for an on the move hero, Endeavie!"

"A hero should not be distracted on the job by eating, and stop calling me that-"

*Click*

Endeavor stopped mid sentence and Bakugo's mouth hung open as he stopped his reply to Olivia short. All the heroes turned to Shoto in surprise, falling silent.

Shoto's neutral expression didn't change as he looked down at his phone, forwarding the picture to Momo. "Let's get noodles instead."

He pressed send and slipped the phone in his pocket, walking through the door and out into the city, leaving the four heroes stunned heroes behind him.

~~~~~~

Shoto Todoroki dug into his cold soba noodles victoriously, reading the reply Momo had sent in response to the picture he sent her of his food. He wasn't quite sure what the point of sending the photo was, but if it made her happy, he didn't mind.

That reminded him. "Oh, Olivia."

She looked over from her argument with Bakugo about how she was holding her chopsticks incorrectly, and tilted her head.

"Momo asked me to tell you that she says hello." Shoto informed her, showing her the text. Bakugo called over a waiter, asking them something.

A brilliant smile lit her face as she put down the chopsticks to pull out her own phone. "I'll text her now!"

As she quickly sent out a reply, the waiter handed Bakugo something before walking off. "Oh, I don't think I have your number, Todoroki! If we're going to patrol I should probably get that, I don't want to have to tag our entire class if we split up."

Todoroki nodded, handing her his phone. While Olivia put in her contact information and texted herself, Shoto watched as Bakugo sneakily replaced her chopsticks with the fork he had likely just received from the waiter. She handed Shoto his phone back, and Bakugo finished the switch just in time before she turned to him.

"You too, Katsuki! I'll make a group chat and we can have our locations shared. That way I'll be able to meet up with you guys after I get my quirk tested."

Bakugo let out a 'tch', avoiding her eyes as he pulled out his phone. As he handed it over, their hands brushed and her eyes went wide.

"Give me back the chopsticks!" She demanded, now completely distracted from the task.

"No chance in hell. How you hold them is a disgrace to everyone in Japan." Bakugo replied, face scrunched up.

She handed Shoto the phone in her hand, and lunged for Bakugo's pair of chopsticks on the table. As he fended her off, Shoto shrugged, adding Bakugo's number to the group chat. Turning the location on, he put the phone back on the table between the disruptive pair, and turned his own location on as well.

It seemed that Olivia didn't have Bakugo's quick reflexes, as she ended up pouting while using the fork.

Bakugo snatched his phone off the table, smirking at her expression. Giving up, Olivia pulled her own phone out with one hand, using the other to finish her dish. Turning on her location, she renamed the group 'Bait Protection Squad'.

"I told you, you're not going to be bait, Starling"

Olivia jumped, almost headbutting Hawks as he looked over her shoulder. He chuckled at her reaction, straightening up as he stood at their table, Endeavor in tow.

"Sure feels like it, since you won't come with me to the quirk specialist." She huffed, crossing her arms. Bakugo continued shoving his spicy noodles into his mouth, now utilizing two pairs of chopsticks somehow. Shoto finished his noodles, turning in his seat to join the conversation.

"I can accompany you." He offered, putting his napkin on the table.

"In your dreams, Icyhot." Bakugo growled, a noodle hanging from his mouth. Hawks reached over and smacked him upside the head, knocking the noodle free. "Ack! What the hell!"

"We're going flying, Pilot. You need to learn how to keep up on my patrols. Speaking of, because I'm so fast and amazing, Endeavor here has agreed that Pilot and I can handle the patrols, and he'll accompany you to the specialist!"

"I did no such thing." Endeavor glowered, arms crossed.

Hawks gave him a lazy grin, winking. "Oh, that's right, I tricked him into it. Either way, he'll go with you. You have my number, right little Star?"

"Why the hell does she have your number?!" Bakugo yelled, dodging the smack this time.

Olivia rolled her eyes, standing up. "Yes, I do."

Shoto got up as well, standing next to her as he slipped his phone into his pocket.

Hawks yanked up a moody Bakugo, tugging him away.

"I can walk by myself you stuffed parrot!" Bakugo growled, smacking the hero's hand away as they walked off.

Hawks ignored that and glanced over his shoulder, waving. "Alrighty then, we'll see you birds later!"

"Moron…" Endeavor growled under his breath.

The past few days had been a surreal experience to Shoto, seeing someone talk to his old man like that. He decided he rather enjoyed having the number three Pro Hero around. At the very least, the man kept his father's focus away from him. Now that the hero had walked off though, it was just him, his father, and Olivia.

Chuckling nervously, Olivia looked between the two men staring heatidly at each other, and fiddled with her hair. "Sooooooo, um… anyone fancy a drink?"