Written for the BakuTodo Week event on Tumblr. Prompt: First Impressions.

Ever since he'd learned there was something other than darkness, Todoroki had seeked answers.

Most people liked the idea of gaining their sight because it meant they'd been touched by their soulmate. Todoroki, however, was moved by simple curiosity, a childish wonder born from the idea of a completely different world he wished to understand.

"Mom, what are colors like?" he'd asked his mom once. He'd been very young and naive, not yet capable of understanding the nature of his parents' relationship; later, he would think that it was foolish to have expected her answer to be any different.

"I don't know, Shouto."

He'd never asked his father - that, at least, he knew better than to do. He'd settled for the broken whispers of adults and the stunned exclamations of classmates who'd been lucky enough to find their soulmate so early, trying to make sense of concepts that were alien to him with nothing but scraps of information.

It wasn't until his first year of high school, when the number of those around him who could see had increased considerably yet he still remained in the dark, that he met Bakugou.

Now, when he thinks about their first encounter, Todoroki feels like laughing - he remembers his first thought being that he'd never heard someone with such a foul mouth, and Bakugou's seemingly constant need to scream at people hurt his ears. They hadn't touched then, not yet; that'd come later, after months of a rivalry Todoroki had never expected as they competed for the spot of best student in class. Bakugou had been angry that day - back then, he was always angry at something or someone, and that someone at the time happened to be Todoroki - and his fist had closed on Todoroki's shirt, his knuckles brushing the bare skin of his neck.

It'd been so sudden and unexpected that they'd both frozen, eyes blinking rapidly against the onslaught of colors as the world took shape in front of them. It had taken Todoroki a few moments to understand what had happened, and then he'd thought,

Oh. So this is what it's like.

He'd been brought out of his reverie by Bakugou's voice, his eyes widening as he looked at him for the first time, wondering if his expression was the same as the one on the other's face, something he could only guess was a mix of both wonder and fear. Bakugou had backed away before Todoroki could say anything, the word fuck falling repeatedly from his lips as he turned and ran, leaving behind the guy who was his classmate, his rival - and apparently, his soulmate.

Todoroki often teases Bakugou about that moment, if only to see him pretend to be angry even as the tell-tale blush spreads across his cheeks. It usually ends with them laughing together about those following years of high school, when they'd tried to act like getting their sight meant nothing, still bickering even as they grew closer, until their farse slowly crumbled away.

Now, years later, after they've gotten past the idiocy of their teenage years, have gotten used to the world and its colors and each other, Todoroki will often ask, "Katsuki, let me look at you."

There's a randomness to his requests that is almost predictable to Bakugou by now - he waits until they're alone, sometimes late at night when they're curled up in bed, when they're about to leave for work in the morning, or when they're just sitting in the living room, Todoroki with a book in his hands and Bakugou's head resting on his lap. Most days there's no noticeable reason for it - it doesn't seem to matter if he's happy, or sad, or angry. But whenever they come back from visiting his mom at the hospital, they are barely through the door to their apartment when Todoroki extends his hands towards Bakugou's face, beckoning him closer, and Bakugou always complies without asking.

Todoroki maps him with both his eyes and fingers, his touch light as if he's afraid Bakugou will suddenly disappear like a mirage. Sometimes, he closes his eyes for a few moments, focusing on the roughness of Bakugou's calloused hands, the contrasting softness of his lips, the constant sound of his breathing; and then he opens them, looking at Bakugou as if he's started seeing for the first time again, feeling his breath catch in his throat as he takes in the color of his eyes, the curve of his jaw, the blush that darkens his skin.

Todoroki wonders if the world would seem so beautiful had someone else been his soulmate. He doesn't think so. Bakugou stands out in a sharp, stark way that is reflected in everything he sees, but there's also this subtle softness to every color, to every surface, which Todoroki can now notice without effort, for he has grown to know over the years all the sides Bakugou had kept hidden.

He's finally found them, the answers he'd been looking for since he was a kid, the ones that no one could explain to him.

And Oh, Todoroki thinks, watching Bakugou smile at him moments before their lips meet in a kiss. They're so much better than I could've ever imagined.