Torn Down The Middle Chapter 17: Chance Meeting

“Y-yes o-of course I’m faking!…as if I’d find you…attractive..” you stuttered, blinking furiously while looking away.

“You’re lying.” He said lowly as he inched closer to you.

You pulled back. “Well w-what about you? Are you attracted to me?” You asked softly, your heartbeat pulsating your vision, eyes still averted.

There was a lengthy pause as he thought about his reply. “…you’re not exactly ugly, Y/N…” he replied in possibly the sexiest voice you had ever heard him use.

You hesitantly looked at him. He was still holding his position over you.

“Awww, spanks.” You said with a lopsided smile.

“You’re an idiot.” He said with a smirk and pulled off you.

You breathed a sigh of relief. “Man THAT was intense?! Did he just pay me a compliment? A weirdly delivered compliment…but a compliment none the less!”

You smiled.

“Stay for dinner, yeah?” He said as he walked back to the wardrobe to close the door.

“Do you really want me to?” You asked.

“If I didn’t want you to I wouldn’t have brought you here in the first place.” He scoffed.

The rest of the night went well and you ended up chilling on the lounge watching tv together, a weirdly comfortable vibe flowing between you two. You had texted your mum to let her know where you were and she offered to come and pick you up later.

Things between you and Bakugou were shifting…were you catching feelings? Or was her? Or were you BOTH falling for each other??

…………

Your ankle was feeling much better over the next 3 weeks and eventually you were able to walk on it normally again.

“Child, we’re going to visit grandma in the hospital now!” Your mum called up the stairs one evening.

“Can’t go, sorry mum, I’m on a date!” You yelled back, pausing the anime you were watching on your laptop.

“What do you mean by, date?” She hollered back.

“With [insert favourite anime character]” You replied.

“Doesn’t count, get down here, now!”

You groaned. “Sorry [anime character’s name] I’ll be back. Don’t go anywhere,” you said, kissing the laptop screen.

It had been about 3 months now of fake dating Bakugou so that meant you had roughly 3 months left to go. You weren’t happy with what would happen to your grandma at the end of the next 3 months though and your stomach churned as you walked down the stairs and out the door to the car.

Your grandma had definitely gone downhill since the last time you saw her and you fought back tears as the reality of her situation hit you like a truck.

As usual, your parents did most of the talking and it was arranged that grandma would come and live with you guys in another 2 weeks.

She smiled feebly over at you. “I’m looking forward to seeing you and your boyfriend again.” She said with soft voice.

“Of course grandma.” You said, choking back tears.

The car ride home was really quiet and when you got to the driveway you hopped out of the car and walked down the driveway.

“Where you goin’ pee wee?” Your dad asked kindly.

“Just…need to go for a walk.” You replied. “I’ll be back.”

“Ok sweet.” He said gently, and let you go.

You pulled your hoodie up over your head and shoved your hands into your pockets as you walked. You didn’t really know where you were going but you just needed to walk.

Tears streamed down your face as you picked up the pace. Jogging slightly as you sobbed.

“This is a stupid idea to run and cry at the same time, I get breathless just cutting my toenails what made me think I had the lung capacity to run and cry at the same time?!”

You slowed and tried to control your breathing.

“Maybe I should get something to drink to calm down?” You thought as you approached a soba shop that you knew had a pretty good drink vending machine.

You had a few coins in your pocket and counted them as you entered the shop with your head down. Making a memorized bee-line for the vending machine.

You glanced up at the machine and wiped your tears away slightly so you could see the prices.

The drink you wanted was just a little more expensive than you had anticipated and you were a few coins short.

“Damn it.” You muttered, looking back down to see how much you had for maybe another drink.

Suddenly a hand reached from beside you and placed a decent amount of coins in the machine.

“Pick whatever you would like…” the velvety voice said.

“W-what?” You stuttered in surprise as you turned to see who it was.

Todoroki’s kindly face was looking sympathetically at you.

You looked away immediately. “Not now! My eyes are red and puffy and I look more like a potato than usual!”

“Y/N…” he said softly, “please get whatever you would like..”

You somewhat reluctantly pressed the number for the drink you originally wanted and picked it up out of the cache.

“Thank you, Todoroki.” You said softly.

“Would you like to walk with me, Y/N?” He asked gently. “I can see you are hurting, I’m here if you want to talk.”

You welled you with tears again and nodded. “Yeah actually.” You sniffed. “I haven’t spoken to anyone about this yet and I probably should talk about it.”

Todoroki nodded and led the way out of the shop, walking to a nearby park so you could sit on the bench and talk.

“So..uh, what a coincidence bumping into you.” You said, making small talk.

“That’s my favourite soba shop.” He said frankly. “I’m always there.”

“Good to know.” You laughed, cracking the drink bottle open and taking a sip.

“Ahhh.” You sighed. “That hit the spot. Wanna try some?” You said, offering some to Todoroki.

He reached out and took the bottle. Sipping a bit before handing it back.

“An indirect kiss!!!”

“That’s pretty good, Y/N.” He said with a small smile.

“My life has been fulfilled. He smiled.” You sighed dreamily.

“May I ask why you are sad?” Todoroki asked, point blank range. He wasn’t always the most tactful but he was straightforward and you appreciated it.

“Umm its kinda a long story.” You said with a sheepish laugh. “It’s got to do with why I’m fake dating Bakugou too..”

He looked at you. “Go on?”

“Well…my grandma is dying and she has 6 months left to live and she wanted me to have a boyfriend because it would make her happy and because the gods hate me I somehow ended up with Bakugou because of family connections and—,” You rambled on for another 10 minutes as Todoroki listened silently to you. 

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Torn Down The Middle Chapter 18: Unexpected >>>