It was a risk, he knew, to tempt his heart like this. Hoping that the dangerous topic would be avoided now, Shouto let his gaze wander out to the couple again.

With an agreeing grunt in reply, Kirishima glanced back out at the dancers again. 'Yeah, they are, um.' Shouto paused to clear his throat and chase the feelings away in a steadying breath. Not incredible, mind-numbing attraction at all. Maybe he could play it off as harmless curiosity at the school's newest and most unexpected couple. Those two are glued to each other all the time now.' 'It looked like you were looking at Bakugou and Midoriya.' Shouto's heart practically stopped beating and it continued to short-circuit as Kirishima went on. Setting his elbow against the table, he jerked a thumb in the direction of the dance floor. The disbelief in his voice was all too obvious. Great idea, Shouto, you look perfectly normal right now. Kirishima cast him a suspicious look and he realized how ridiculous he must've looked: mismatched eyes wide and sticking his arm out like he could physically stop Kirishima from looking for what was bothering him. 'What're you looking at anyway?'Ī bolt of panic made Shouto sit up straight in his chair. 'I mean, you keep zoning out and staring at something out there.' Kirishima straightened up, squinting over people's heads as best as he could. 'What do you mean?' But Shouto could feel a warning lighting up in the back of his head. Kirishima's head was cocked now, the annoyance in his face fading away to confusion. There was nothing out there for him but heartbreak anyway.

Shit, was he talking? 'S-sorry,' he stammered, tearing his gaze away from the happy couples. 'EARTH TO TODOROKI,' Kirishima droned suddenly, and Shouto jerked, nearly knocking over someone's glass. His chest tightened and he forced himself to look away again. Shouto leaned up in his seat to see better and glimpsed the flash of a bright smile. Near the back of the dancers was a flicker of ash-blonde and fair skin. There was someone Shouto wanted to dance with. It was another to come alone because there was no one you wanted to dance with. It was one thing to come to a dance alone by choice. Shouto huffed and toed at the floor absently. How she'd managed to get him out there with her, no one would know. Right now, Ochako was laughing as she tossed her hair out of her face, dancing with a blushing Iida. Impressive speakers at the back pumped out a stream of music, none of which Shouto had hated yet, surprisingly. The little golden bulbs winked over the milling students in their dresses and slacks. The staff had done a great job with the place, stringing arcs of lights across the ceiling. Overhead lighting threw tiny glitters across clothing and styled hair. There were couples out on the floor now, bouncing in hilarious dance moves with each other or swaying to the pulse of the bass. Well, not entirely alone, Kirishima was there, but he didn't count. But here he was, sitting at a little table off to the side of the makeshift dance floor in the gymnasium. Talking about a school dance and how you were thinking about going was very different from actually going. He knew Kirishima was only trying to confide in him because it was something important and he was acting like a jerk for ignoring him. 'I'm sorry,' Shouto replied glumly, and he really was sorry. Shouto grimaced and gave an apologetic shrug. 'You weren't even listening to me?' Kirishima asked, red eyes wide with disbelief. He leaned forward, elbow resting on the table between them. Kirishima was giving him this expectant look that told him he'd missed a very important conversation. Shouto snapped out of his daze, blinking at Kirishima sitting across from him.

I met you in the dark