NOTE: In chapter 6, I changed that Endeavor's event is now in 'three months' instead of 'two months' to work better with the timeline! Okay, that is all, supposedly xD

After almost two freaking months, I FINALLY GOT OVER THAT TRANSITION BLOCK! akjghrkjgnakjgnkajgn

Please enjoy!

"Shouto, where are we going?"

Yaoyorozu very nearly shrieks as he grabs her hand and starts dragging her away from the studio as soon as she steps out of the front doors. Thankfully, his father had not graced their practice that day, and after the realisation he had about his feelings he had been in an exceptionally good mood which he intends to ride out for as long as he's able.

He's been doing an awful lot of thinking the past few days, thinking that may or may not involve a certain green-eyed dancer that Shouto has decided to get closer to. He may not be acting on his feelings just yet, he may be very aware that Midoriya doesn't want to jump into a relationship, but he is not about to let him slip right between his fingers either.

Taking his phone out of his pocket, Shouto checks the time and curses under his breath. Their practice ran a little later than he wanted it to and they were cutting it close. He picks up the pace and Yaoyorozu gasps.

"Shouto, please slow down. My legs are killing me."

"No time."

"You know, the breath it took you to say that, you could have actually answered my previous question." She pants, her annoyance clear as she struggles to keep pace with him.

Hardly even hearing her, Shouto just keeps walking, mumbling an apology that he only half means as he's too busy glaring at the time to stop it from moving any further. By the time they actually make it to their destination, Yaoyorozu had figured it out on her own somewhere in between his mild panic when the traffic lights seemed to be working against him. He breathes out in relief when he spots Uraraka still at the bakery's register even though it should be closing fairly soon.

Shouto hates to be that costumer but he won't take that long. He's not really there for the cake anyway – even if that's a big bonus, should his growling stomach have any say in the matter. He already knows that Yaoyorozu is going to scold him not only for the fact that he could have technically just asked her for the girl's number but also for what he was about to ask her.

Granted, Shouto always thought that if he had any personal requests, he should ask for them face to face. Texts seem much too detached and like they would in no way manage to convey his intentions (or despair). He already struggles to make his feelings known when talking, let alone through cold text. No, it is better this way.

Finally letting go of Yaoyorozu, he approaches the counter, trying not to flinch at the way Uraraka rolls her eyes as soon as he steps through the door. Shouto can see the transition from a forced smile to a more genuine one when she notices them, feeling at least some sort of relief that she's happy to see it's not just some random inconsiderate customer coming in at the last moment. Even if he's technically just that…

"Uraraka…" He starts, his tone as apologetic as he hopes his expression reads.

"Todoroki! So nice to see you again so soon! What can I do for you?"

Shouto eyes the cakes for a moment. "If I could have some strawberry shortcake to go, that would be lovely. I-if it's not too much trouble." He wants to take some for himself, but better appease Yaoyorozu's rage instead by taking her favourite.

"Of course, will that be all?"

"Not really. I wanted to ask you something."

Uraraka looks at him curiously as she takes care of his order and Shouto shifts awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his neck. He feels Yaoyorozu's eyes burning holes into his back, already picturing the suspicious line of her lips that will soon be replaced by disbelief and quite possibly aggravation. Still, when Uraraka urges him to go on, he clears his throat and braces himself for the worst.

"It's about Midoriya." The raised eyebrow she shoots him sends a cold shiver down his spine and he's not sure if it's the interest glinting in her eye or the fact that she's in no way surprised. "I want… I want to have more in common with him and dance is obviously a big part of his life but I feel like my area of expertise is too different from his. Ballroom and… well everything you guys do are worlds apart."

As Uraraka finishes decorating the cake box with a neat little purple bow, she hums thoughtfully, turning to the register again to ring up the total.

"Do you have a point you mean to make with this?" Yaoyorozu pipes up from behind him, the beginnings of a reprimand already seeping into her voice.

Clearing his throat, Shouto goes on. "Would it be too much to ask if you could teach me one of Midoriya's preferred styles? Maybe just a short routine? I will compensate you for your time, of course."

Uraraka's face lights up at the mention of money, her lips twisting into a devious grin that gives Shouto pause. He's in too deep to back out now.

There's a hand on his elbow in an instant, Yaoyorozu turning him around to take the brunt of her disapproving glare head-on. Shouto feels the urge to shrink in on himself from both of the girl's stares, one ready to string him along while the other is about to smack him for being an idiot. The last one is very much deserved and he knows it, but he finds himself ignoring the intimidating effect in favour of Uraraka's enthusiasm.

"And when will you find time to even do that?" Yaoyorozu asks incredulously.

"I'll do it on my days off. If that works for you, Uraraka."

"Your days off are Sundays, right?" He nods and she grins even wider. "That works perfectly for me."

Shouto is once again pulled to look at Yaoyorozu's displeased expression. "Are you serious? You're going to run yourself ragged. Need I remind you we are practicing two routines right now? Two extremely strenuous routines, mind you? You need to rest your body."

He opens his mouth to protest, then closes it again, not having any valid arguments to counter hers. She is just looking out for him, he knows that, but at the same time…

"How about once every two weeks, you seem like the type who picks up steps quickly." Uraraka suggests with a deceptively sweet smile.

That piques Shouto's interest. Yaoyorozu's frown deepens as Uraraka's smirk grows.

"I could do that."

"No, you can't."

"I'll be fine, Momo."

"He'll be absolutely fine. I won't go hard on him. Scout's honour."

With a defeated sigh, Yaoyorozu takes the cake and glares at Shouto again. "If I have any hint that you're burning yourself out, I'm pulling the plug on this and you're not allowed to even look at Midoriya-san for at least three weeks."

She stomps away, leaving him to pay for the cake as Uraraka takes the money with a nervous chuckle.

"That bad, huh?" Shouto shrugs. "By the way," Uraraka opens the register, "I've never been a scout in my life."

Shouto is not fine. And not even because of the strain to his body. No, that's the least of his worries, he is actually feeling pretty good. Uraraka never lets him go on for too long and he is in fact pretty quick at picking up the steps but he just can't seem to get it right. Not the routine, not the cues, nothing technical; Uraraka has even gone as far as to say that his form is beyond perfect and, normally, that would be a good thing. But both he and her can see it in the mirror every time they do it again.

There's no emotion there. His movements are perfect but they don't flow nicely, he's too stiff, nothing like Midoriya, nothing like Uraraka, nothing like Bakugou or any of the others.

With an exasperated huff, Shouto lets himself fall to the polished floor, turning onto his back and catching his breath as he stares up at the ceiling, the music continuing past their last cue until Uraraka goes to her phone to finally turn it off. It's been a whole month already – which really only works out in two days of practice, but that is beside the point – and Shouto feels like he is no better at this than when he started. The routine is quite simple for his and Uraraka's standards, and he really got it down on pretty much the second try but there was just that… 'je ne sais quoi' missing, as Aoyama would have so eloquently put it.

There's shuffling by his side and Shouto turns to see Uraraka sitting cross-legged by his side, resting her chin on her hands as she smiles brightly at him. If he didn't know any better from their short time together, he'd say she looks cute, but there is a ruthless devil lurking beneath those pink cheeks and short stature. Not that she isn't nice, but she really can be devastating with her words.

"I'm sorry, Todoroki, but if that's what you're planning to use to win Deku-kun's heart, you're not getting far with him."

Case in point.

They had been talking a lot more, seeing as she had given him her number to make setting up their practices easier. It turned out she was quite easy to talk to and Shouto could see why both Midoriya and Yaoyorozu seemed to like her so much. Although, she had a thing for meddling, as it turned out, seeing as the first thing she managed to do was drag a confession out of him the moment they started talking. Embarrassing as it may have been, he'd be lying if he said it wasn't nice to have someone closer to Midoriya making it easier for them to meet and get to know each other better because she wanted to help them both. He enjoyed the short coffee dates – or whatever they really were – he managed to schedule with Midoriya because of her.

That being said, Shouto still hadn't made much progress in what he initially enlisted her help for.

He lets out another heavy sigh and continues to examine the fluorescent lights above him as she keeps going.

"But worry not, you're not yet a hopeless case. I think your problem is that you think too much about the steps and don't let yourself feel them. What do you do when you dance for competitions? I'm sure they judge you on more than just technique."

"While that may be true, if you're nothing short of perfect, there's not much the judges can take away in terms of points." He pants, rubbing his face with his hands before wiping the sweat off his brow on his shoulder.

Uraraka hums then continues. "Why do you dance, Todoroki?"

Immediately, every muscle in his body tenses, his jaw locks and his breath gets stuck in his throat, anger coiling in his gut before he squeezes his eyes shut and wills it to die into nothing more than small embers.

"That's unimportant." He settles for a vague reply.

"You see, that's the most important part, really. If you don't dance for the right reasons, it is never going to feel right."

Shouto considers her words for a moment then sits up, facing her. "Why do you dance, then?"

"That's easy, because I love it. I work hard, for far too many hours, because I have to pay my bills and help my parents with theirs too. I dance because, whenever I do, all those responsibilities don't seem to matter. Deku-kun showed me that. He showed me my reason to dance. Why do you dance?"

His gaze falls down to the floor and Shouto starts to draw loose patterns on his pants. Years and years of working himself to the bone flash before his eyes, practicing for the sole purpose of being perfect and appeasing his father to avoid any repercussions. He dances because he has to.

"If you can't tell me that, tell me at least why you want to dance." Uraraka breaks through his thoughts.

The words resonate within him and he blinks slowly, turning them over inside his head. The first night he met Midoriya comes to mind, the liberating feeling of copying his moves just because they seemed like fun. He thinks of the first video he watched of Midoriya dancing, of the raw emotion in every single movement, how that translated in every single video he watched after. It could be that the feelings weren't the same with every one, some more light-hearted than others, but they all made him feel something. And then the flash mob, how Midoriya was moved to tears by everything he felt while he danced, how choked up Shouto felt himself while watching it.

His mind continues to drift further back, to a time where he looked at videos of his mother on stage and how enamoured he was with it all. A pang of guilt shoots through him at how just recently he pretended not to even know of the show in her honour, of how painful it would have been to watch someone else dance her role and not do it justice. Suddenly Shouto is reminded of who he wanted to become such a long time ago, of who Midoriya made him want to be all over again with just a few smiles and heartfelt dance moves.

Hugging his knees to his chest, Shouto lets out another breath.

The thing he loved the most when watching his mother and that he loves when watching Midoriya is that their dancing transcends language. Anyone who watches can be immersed in the beauty of their movements, can be carried into a wholly different world by just letting themselves be lost in the motions. There is something about watching them, they make it look effortless even if they make mistakes, because everything flows from within. The routine doesn't have to be perfect, the steps don't have to be taken at just that angle, the dips don't have to go exactly that low. All that matters is that their story comes across in their dance.

They are free in the little world they create around them, the lights bounce off of them and come alive with every twist and every turn. Their bodies paint pictures with no brush, write an epic with no words, they make music with no notes.

That is what Shouto wanted to achieve with his dancing. That is what he wishes he could do even if all he is allowed to do is be perfect. He wants to find that perfect imperfection where there's a narrative someone else can get lost in with him.

"I want to tell stories…" He finally mumbles, more to himself than to Uraraka, but she seems to be happy with his response all the same.

"Who do you want to tell them to?"

Shouto blinks at her, thinking for a second before averting her gaze once more. "Anyone who wants to hear them…" Midoriya most of all.

There's a knowing glint in her warm brown eyes when she gets up and offers him her hand. "Then make sure you think about them when you dance. Come on, one last time."

After a moment, he takes it, standing up and dusting himself off. She starts walking to her phone before taking one look at him and stopping dead in her tracks, looking as if she just had some sort of epiphany. Immediately, Shouto feels a cold shiver run down his spine. He watches in uncomfortable silence as she paces back and around him, staring him up and down with a small frown.

"What is it?"

"I thought that talk would help loosen you up. But you still look just as stiff." She sighs, tapping her chin before crossing her arms over her chest. "This won't do."

Shouto thinks of actually apologising, though it seems a little silly when it's not really something he can control. Awkward might very well be his default state of being to be completely honest. Uraraka moves closer, stepping right into his space, which only serves to make him tense even more, taking an instinctive step back as he lifts his hands up defensively.

When she pokes his side, he jerks away with wide eyes, a small gasp escaping his lips at the tingly sensation the jab elicits.

"What are you—" She pokes him again. "Hey, stop th—" Another poke. "I said st—" She moves to do it one more time and he grabs her wrist to stop her.

That evil glint returns to her eye as soon as he does and she holds his wrist back before he can think to react, pulling him to her as her free hand travels to his waist and she twists him and trips him with one of her feet. Instead of falling flat on the floor, however, he falls into a dip that she holds surprisingly well despite their height and weight difference, smirking mischievously at him as he stares back with wide-eyed shock.

A breath marks the second that passes before she pulls him back to standing up straight, inadvertently bringing his hands to her shoulders to steady himself and she takes them to her hips before rolling them a little and stringing him along into a twirl. He tries to follow her lead, which feels a little strange considering he is usually the one doing the leading, into a loose pace that is somewhat reminiscent of the waltz. Except, every other step, she will poke a sensitive spot on his side and draw a small gasp out of him that throws him off of what should be an easy sequence for him to follow.

Shouto tries to recover after each one, focusing on his steps, only to be distracted by yet another poke.

"Stop thinking." She tells him, poking him again. "Start feeling."

"Wha—"

He trips and she catches him, making him twirl and rolling into his arms with her back to his chest before dropping down with a sensual curve of her body that Shouto follows with his own without realising.

"Just like that, see? Not so hard, is it?"

Uraraka giggles, moving back up and turning back to face him, bringing her arms up to his neck then wrapping one leg around his waist. As if having a mind of its own, Shouto's hand travels to the small of her back to hold her against him as he dips her back while he stretches sideways, her other leg stretching as well with the movement. She smiles up at him and he can't help the small tug at the corners of his mouth that follows, straightening back up and letting her find her footing before stepping back and giving him back his personal space.

"Think you can do that for the routine?"

Scratching his head sheepishly, Shouto gives her a noncommittal shrug. "I can try."

"That's all I ask."

He steps behind her while she taps her phone a couple of times, then imitating the soft piano notes in the air with a little giggle that draws a small laugh out of him as well. Standing next to each other, they get ready for the start of the routine as the music shifts to a jazzier beat. The singer's voice echoes and Shouto repeats the steps he's burned into his mind, practicing even in the quiet of his room as he silently hums the melody in a desperate attempt to just get that missing piece. A small slide, one step out, a wave of his arms followed by a simple pop of his shoulder, then turning back to the other side with a flourished move and back again with his arms wide open to lean down.

It's all the same as before, as he's done time and time again but it somehow feels different. The airy and playful mood from just moments ago carrying into his movements and stretching his lips into a relaxed smile. Their cues match perfectly, as they had done before, but Shouto sees her struggling to keep a straight face and fails himself. He falls into the awkward crouch with a laugh bubbling in his throat and pulls his legs together to then strut like a model for a couple of steps, letting his hips sway just that little bit that actually makes her laugh over the music.

His body rolls are still not as natural as hers, but he's giving it his all and Uraraka's amused grin when he grabs at his crotch on a whim makes him feel like maybe he's doing something right, continuing along with the moves they've practiced but with an added energy. And when they face each other with another pop of their shoulders, they're smiling at each other because they're having fun, and if Shouto's still just a little awkward with these techniques that aren't quite the ones he's used to, it doesn't really matter. He carries on until their last cue and Uraraka spins away with a laugh, leaving him to stand and shift in mild embarrassment as the music continues.

Then, out of seemingly nowhere, he hears a chuckle that isn't his but is much too low to be Uraraka's and snaps his head towards the door to the supposedly empty hall to meet bright green eyes shining with mirth. Shouto's stomach flips at the sight of Midoriya holding his hands in front of his mouth, stifling more of his little laughs with a faint flush dusted over his cheeks.

"S-sorry, am I interrupting something?"

He snorts and Shouto feels his face catch fire, blood pooling on it as he turns away to hide, only to realise that there's a giant mirror on the other side and meeting the gaze of Midoriya's reflection instead.

"I didn't mean to pry, but I happened to come by and I heard music so I decided to check it out. That was adorable by the way, why didn't you tell me Ocha was teaching you?"

"It was supposed to be a surprise, Deku-kun." Uraraka chimes as she turns off the music once more.

Shouto tries to resist the urge to crawl into a hole and die and resolves to slowly sit down and hide his face behind his knees. "I can't believe you saw me dance like that. If you can even call it that."

"Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad. You were actually pretty good in that last one. I'd say I'm a great teacher."

"Yeah," Shouto hears the squeak of Midoriya's shoes as he likely steps inside and he peeks at the mirror to see him approaching. "I though it was quite nice."

"You should see what I'm working on with Momo, then. That I'm good at." He blurts without thinking, immediately regretting it when the other two tilt their heads at him, Midoriya's gaze taking on that hopeful sheen that always seems to spell trouble for him.

"You mean I could watch one of your practices?"

In my old man's studio? As if.

"Yes."

Shouto snaps his jaw shut as soon as the word is out of his mouth and for a stupid half of a second, he actually hopes that the other didn't hear it. By the look of absolute excitement that suddenly takes over his features, all of his hopes shrivel up and die as quickly as they'd formed.

"That's awesome! Oh my gosh, I can't wait! This is amazing, are you sure?!"

No!

"Why wouldn't I be?"

A small squeal breaks out of Midoriya and if it weren't for the fact that Shouto is absolutely mortified at himself, he might have actually stopped to admire it and how criminally cute it sounds. Picking himself up off the floor, it takes an awful amount of willpower for Shouto not to double over and heave, suddenly feeling overwhelmingly nauseous. If he didn't know any better, he'd say there was a tiny hint of excitement flaring underneath the crushing sense of doom looming over his head.

Still, it's hard to focus on any of it when Midoriya's hair bounces along with the rest of him and he grabs him by the shoulders, beaming up at him like Shouto had just given him the greatest gift anyone could possibly give.

"Just name the day and time and I'll be there."

God damn it.

"How about tomorrow?"

NOTE: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Gosh, I can't believe... It took me this long! I am so sorry... Uni was killing me, then Uni was over and I was writing TodoDeku week (expect that starting on the 9th!) and iTHAT/i killed me... BUT I HAD AN EPIPHANY IN THE SHOWER THREE DAYS AGO, FINISHED TODODEKU WEEK AND WROTE ALL 4.1K WORDS OF THIS CHAPTER TODAY! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

Okay, freak out over. I don't wanna make any promises of regular updates cus I'm being hit with wip ideas left and right and I'm also working on two big bangs, organising another one and modding a zine! So yeah! Super duper busy! But I hope after defeating this road block things will run a little more smoothly! Oh and you can find the choreography in this chapter in my profile!