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Chapter Text

Midoriya Izuku has been friends with Shimura Tenko for as long as he can remember. No, that’s not quite right; he remembers the day he met Tenko well, even though it was so long ago.

He was four years old, and had just learned that he was Quirkless. And this news made the bullying from Kacchan and his friends even worse. One day, Izuku ran away from the boys he considered his friends even though they picked at him, patting flames from his shirt and leaving a singed patch. He sobbed as he ran, trying to find somewhere to hide…

And that was when they met.

“Down here,” a boy said, and a hand stuck out in front of him, wearing a black glove that left two of his fingers free.

And because he was a naïve kid (who didn’t pay attention when they did the stranger danger speech at kindergarten), Izuku grabbed the hand and let the stranger drag him down an alleyway. It was dingy and tears blurred his vision, but Izuku saw the boy was taller than him and wore a black hoodie. The boy led him to a modest house, ducking past the side gate and into the back yard.

And then they finally stopped, Izuku desperately out of breath. The boy turned around, showing Izuku he had messy, bluish-white hair, very cracked lips and several scars on his face. He smiled awkwardly, rubbing his gloved hands together in a repetitive motion that reminded Izuku of his own stimming.

“Uh, sorry for, uh, dragging you all the way here,” the boy said, avoiding eye contact. “But I’ve seen those kids bullying you before and I didn’t want you to get hurt again.”

“No, it’s okay,” Izuku said, smiling and wiping the tears from his eyes. “Thanks. I… I’m Midoriya Izuku, by the way.”

The boy smiled more openly. “I’m Shimura Tenko.”

Izuku’s eyes widened, staring up at Tenko. “Sh-Shimura? Like… like Shimura Nana? The… the really awesome Hero?”

Tenko nodded. “Yeah, she’s my grandmother. Well, I guess she was my grandmother, you know.”

Izuku nodded, smiling sadly. He knew that Nana died ages ago, so long Tenko must never have met her. Worried that he managed to upset this kind stranger, Izuku said, “S-Sorry for bringing that up, Shimura, I…”

“It’s okay. I can’t really get sad about someone I never met. And you can call me Tenko.”

Izuku grinned, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Okay, Tenko.”

Tenko smiled slightly. “By the way, how old are you?”

“Four.”

“I’m six,” Tenko said. “Look, this’ll probably s-sound weird, but… wanna be friends?”

Izuku stared at him. In his short life, no one had ever asked him to be his friend; he always had to ask the other kids, and they usually said no.

He nodded so fast he made his vision blur. “Okay! Let’s be friends.”

Tenko smiled. “Yeah, let’s be friends.”

That was eleven years ago, and it still makes Izuku smile. He and Tenko have been best friends since then, even going to the same junior high school and spending lots of times around each other’s houses. Tenko met his mom, and Izuku met Kurogiri, a man with a strange Quirk who was Tenko’s guardian. They have always spent a lot of time together, and Izuku adores Tenko.

Tenko might seem weird, but he’s a really nice person. When Izuku told him about All Might, he was amazed, and tagged along with Izuku throughout his training on the beach to get strong enough to inherit One For All, and is genuinely so proud of him.

And right now, Izuku is starting at UA for the first time, a school he has always dreamed of going to – and the school where Tenko goes. Getting to see his friend at school is so much fun.

They don’t get much time to see each other on the hectic first day of the school year, only bumping into each other at lunchtime, but they walk back to Izuku’s home after school, talking about it all.

When Tenko sees Izuku’s bandaged fingers, he raises his eyebrows. “Did you hurt yourself with your Quirk again?”

“Don’t start, you sound like Recovery Girl,” Izuku says.

That makes Tenko laugh, and hearing his friend laugh makes his stomach flutter. Izuku’s face flushes and he flinches. What is going on? Why did hearing Tenko’s laugh make him blush?

In fact, as they walk away from UA, it occurs to Izuku that he has felt this way several times recently, mainly when Tenko laughs or smiles or they’re close enough he can feel his friend’s body heat…

Wait a minute!

Does… does he have a crush on Tenko?

He goes even redder and Izuku’s heart races. Does he have romantic feelings for his best friend?

He tries to imagine kissing Tenko, and he goes so red his ears feel like they are on fire.

Yeah… he’s got a crush on him.

“Izuku?” Tenko says. “Are you all right? You’ve gone red.”

“I’m fine,” he says. “Just a bit hot.”

Tenko looks around them, obviously thinking about how it is a pretty mild April afternoon, not a summer heat wave, and he frowns. “Izuku, are you sick?” And as he says it, his hand moves up to his neck, where his skin is covered in scars and scabs from scratching himself when stressed.

“No, I’m not sick!” Izuku says, reaching for Tenko’s hand before he can start scratching. “I just… there’s something on my mind. Can we talk when we get to my place?”

“Okay.” Tenko looks at him, but interlocks their figners, squeezing his hand. When Izuku doesn’t pull his hand away, Tenko smiles and adds, “Thanks.”

Izuku soon reaises what Tenko means: his Quirk is dangerous (that’s why he always wears his specially made gloves) and lots of people are scared of him. So for Tenko to have all five fingers on his hand without Izuku even flinching, he’s showing an incredibly strong level of trust.

Still, his heart races as he thinks about telling Tenko. But he has to… they’re so close he feels like he needs to tell him everything.

The walk back home is awkward, but Izuku insists on taking Tenko to his room as soon as possible, telling Mom they need a chat and can she not barge in with a tray of delicious snacks. He sits on the bed and Tenko sits on his swivel chair, twisting it from side to side as he stares at the floor.

“So what’s wrong?” Tenko asks.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Izuku says, rocking himself back and forth. “It’s good… I guess. Uh… T-Tenko, I think I’m bisexual. But I didn’t realise it until, like, really recently, when I fell for a guy for the first time. And that guy… Tenko, I’ve got a crush on you.”

Tenko looks up, his eyes wide. The action emphasises the scars around his eyes, making them look deeper. “Really?”

He nods, rocking faster. “Yeah… really. Is… is that okay?”

“I… I don’t know what to say,” Tenko says. “S-Someone saying they love me isn’t something that’s happened before, so… I don’t know what to say to you.” He spins faster on the seat, jerking it from side to side as he nibbles on his bottom lip. But then he smiles slightly. “I’ve known you for eleven years, Izuku. We’re best friends. And… I have to admit that when we sit together to play video games or I see you smile… I kind of want to kiss you. So, uh – fuck, this is hard. I think what I’m trying to say is…”

Tenko trails off, and his voice is tiny, too quiet, so unusually soft as he mumbles, “I think I l-like you too.”

His voice is so quiet Izuku can’t quite hear him. Did Tenko just say what he thought he did? “You… like me too?”

Tenko looks up at him. He smiles awkwardly, the same sort of nervous smile he used when they first met. “I guess I do.”

And Izuku starts laughing from sheer relief more than anything else, and he jumps to his feet and rushes across the room to hug Tenko…

He can’t ever remember being this happy.

Chapter Text

“Fuck it hurts!” Shigaraki groans for what feels like the millionth time, trying to shift in bed but finding himself stuck in place.

Midoriya stands on the other side of the room, hands clasped together. He doesn’t know what to say, and Shigaraki doesn’t blame him.

Two days ago, Shigaraki led an attack on the USJ, an attack that left him with a bullet wound in each limb and a defeated Nomu. And since then, he has been bedbound, high on painkillers but still in utter agony. So how is Midoriya supposed to make him feel better when his boyfriend is humiliated and injured and so bored he could cry?

“Tomura?” he says.

“Fuck off,” Shigaraki mutters, staring blankly at the ceiling. His arms and legs are wrapped in bandages and he can’t even sit up in bed without nearly throwing up from the pain.

Midoriya wasn’t there (Sensei didn’t let him come, instead getting Shigaraki and the others to leave him at the hideout), but he can imagine what being shot must feel like. Especially being shot by a pro hero whose Quirk means he can shoot with massive accuracy, hitting different parts of Shigaraki’s body with each shot fired. And he was there when Kurogiri warped Shigaraki back to the hideout, and nearly threw up at the sight of his blood pooling on the wooden floor. In fact, last night he dreamed about Shigaraki getting shot, and he isn’t embarrassed to admit he cried.

“Please, you can talk to me, Tomura,” Midoriya says.

“I just did. I told you to fuck off. I want to be alone.”

“But… you must be so bored,” he says, starting to wring his hands.

“I am. Just turn the TV on and get the fuck out, okay,” Shigaraki says, closing his eyes.

Midoriya sighs; Shigaraki has been like this since the moment he returned – in a foul mood and utterly miserable. Shigaraki is never abusive, but you still don’t want to wind him up when he’s in a bad mood. So Midoriya just switches on the TV and leaves, hoping Shigaraki will be in a better mood when he returns.

---

“Tomura?” Midoriya calls a few hours later, knocking on Shigaraki’s bedroom door. “Kurogiri said it’s my turn to change your dressings, so… can I come in?”

“Yeah, whatever,” Shigaraki says.

Midoriya slides open the door, and finds Shigaraki in the same position as before. Which of course he is, because he’s bedbound.

“I know you hate it, but I need to do this,” Midoriya says, holding up the stack of dressings and bandages in one hand, and the tube of antiseptic cream in another.

“Yeah, I know. Just get on with it.”

Midoriya resists the urge to roll his eyes, and sits on the edge of the bed. He feels more like a nurse right now than a seventeen year old villain. Especially when he usually stays in this room to play video games with Shigaraki or cuddle up with his nineteen year old boyfriend, literally sleeping together in the large double bed. And being a nurse for his seriously injured boyfriend is not normally on his list of plans.

But the League doesn’t have easy access to doctors (or people like the school nurse at UA who can heal you almost instantly), so they have no choice but to nurse Shigaraki themselves and wait for him to recover naturally. Unfortunately, he isn’t the nicest of patients.

Midoriya starts to unwrap the bandages, being as careful as he can with his clumsy hands, and exposes bloodstained dressings.

“Sorry, this is gonna hurt, Tomura,” he says.

“I know. It’s not like I’ve had this done ten times already,” Shigaraki mutters, but he grits his jaw in anticipation.

“Sorry sorry sorry,” Midoriya babbles, hating to know that he’s about to cause his boyfriend pain but knowing he has no choice, and he grips the edge of the dressing and peels it away from Shigaraki’s skin.

It is stuck to his skin with drying blood, and peeling it off pulls on his stitches (Kurogiri has done many stitches throughout his life, so was the obvious choice to stitch the wounds), and Shigaraki lets out a hissing gasp.

“Shit!”

“Sorry!”

“Stop saying sorry,” Shigaraki mumbles.

Midoriya’s eyes start to sting, but he cleans the dry blood from Shigaraki’s skin, dries it and then smears his skin with antiseptic cream. Shigaraki being so injured and miserable is really depressing, and Midoriya has never been very good at suppressing his emotions…

He has finished putting on new bandages when a tear trickles down his face. He moves to wipe it away with his sleeve, but Shigaraki has noticed.

“Izuku?” he says. “Why are you crying?”

He shrugs, sniffing. “I don’t know, really. I just… I feel so bad for you.”

Shigaraki raises an eyebrow. “Don’t patronise me, Izukun.”

But the rare use of a nickname makes Midoriya smile through the tears.

“Sorry. I just meant… it’s so hard for you like this, and I just want you to get better,” he says, more tears spilling down his face.

“Stop your fucking crying, you dork,” Shigaraki says. “Don’t you think I want that?” He sighs. “Look, Izuku, I’ll recover eventually. Just stop your crying. Villains don’t cry.”

Midoriya decides not to point out that Shigaraki cries whenever he has a meltdown, and nods. “Okay. Tomura, can I kiss you?”

As he wipes his eyes with his sleeve, Shigaraki smiles slightly. “Okay then.”

And Midoriya leans over him and carefully presses a kiss to his boyfriend’s cracked lips. While hovering over him, he brushes Shigaraki’s hair with his fingers and leans their foreheads together.

“Feel better soon, Tomura,” he says.

“I would if I could,” Shigaraki says, but he smiles the first real smile Midoriya has seen since the incident.

“I love you.”

Shigaraki rolls his eyes. “Love you too, you fucking sap.”

Midoriya laughs, and both of them are in a much better mood as he changes the other three dressings.

When Midoriya leaves the room and wanders back into the bar, Kurogiri says, “How is he, Midoriya Izuku?”

Midoriya smiles. “He’s doing okay. Sort of.”

Chapter Text

Tomura rolls over in bed, tucking his knees up to his chest. The gloves he wears in bed (he doesn’t want to disintegrate the sheets in his sleep) feel too tight and too heavy against his hands, and he wants to rip them off of his skin. So he does.

He pulls his gloves off and throws them across the room, and gets out of bed. He can’t sleep anyway, so what is the point of just lying there not sleeping?

He hates it when he can’t sleep, but it happens a lot. He could go out into the bar, steal some alcohol and get drunk, but Kurogiri gets so pissed if you mess up his bar. Still, getting drunk makes Tomura very groggy, making it more likely he will fall asleep.

Eh, why not?

Let’s get drunk, Tomura thinks, and he gets out of bed.

The floorboards cold against bare feet, Tomura wanders through the quiet and seemingly empty hallway of the hideout, knowing Dabi, Toga and Izuku are all asleep behind their closed doors. He pokes his head into the bar, finding it empty. Tomura smiles, not caring where Kurogiri might have gone, and ducks behind the bar.

He has a lot of sensory issues around the taste of alcohol, so there are only a few drinks he can consume without gagging and spitting them out. Most of them are spirits, so it’s obvious how Tomura manages to get himself pissed so quickly. Tomura smiles when he locates a bottle of whiskey that has come all the way from Europe, and breaks the seal on the bottle.

Sitting on a bar stool, Tomura taps his fingers against the bar and sips whiskey from a large glass, hoping he might fall asleep at some point.

---

Izuku hates waking at night, mainly because it is always so hard for him to fall back asleep again. So he groans and pulls the blankets right up over his head, trying to fall asleep again. The League are planning an important attack in a few days time, and he can’t afford to be sleep deprived.

But it’s no use. As he lies there, Izuku realises he can’t fall asleep again. He sighs, his eyes already aching. Not being able to sleep totally sucks.

So he gets up and goes wandering through the hideout. This place is so quiet and dark at night and it kind of freaks him out, not that Izuku would admit it. He wraps his arms around himself, and heads into the bar.

But when he opens the door, he freezes. Someone is already in here.

It’s Tomura.

His boyfriend is slumped on a stool at the bar, bottles covering the bar as he wobbles, clearly struggling to keep himself upright. His head hangs forwards, his straggly hair and the dim lighting in the room obscuring his face. Is… is he drunk?

“Tomura?” Izuku whispers, and Tomura jumps.

He spins around and stares at Izuku, lurches to the side and falls off of the stool. He hits the floor with a horrible thud, and Izuku grimaces. Tomura just lies there, body tense and eyes screwed up.

“Fuck…” Tomura mumbles, his voice quite slurred. Yeah, he’s totally drunk.

“Uh… Tomura?” Izuku says, crouching down beside him. “Are you okay?”

“Fucking i-idiot,” Tomura snarls, eyes still screwed up. “Scared the sh-shit out of me.”

“Oh, sorry about that. Uh, do you need a hand up?”

Tomura opens his eyes; Izuku doesn’t like eye contact, but a quick glance shows him Tomura’s eyes are glassy and even more bloodshot than usual. “No.”

And Izuku has no choice but to take a step back and just pray Tomura won’t fall as he hauls himself to his feet. Terribly unsteady, Tomura stumbles onto his bare feet, grabbing the bar for support, and eases himself back onto the bar stool.

Even though he can tell Tomura is in a bad mood (you know how people act in weird ways when they’re drunk? Well, Tomura is a person who gets ‘grumpy drunk’), Izuku doesn’t leave him to it. He slips onto the barstool beside his drunk boyfriend and looks at him, just studying how totally different he looks when utterly pissed.

“Tomura, is there a reason why you’re getting drunk in the middle of the night?”

“The same r-reason you’re up, genius,” Tomura mutters, picking up a glass with dark alcohol in it and draining it in one gulp.

“Oh, you mean you can’t sleep?” Izuku says.

Tomura nods. “Yeah. Now unless you f-fancy a whiskey, fuck off, I-Izuku.”

“But… I don’t want you to be here getting drunk all night, not when we’ve got the attack coming up and—”

“What are you, my fucking mother?” Tomura snarls, teeth gritted.

Izuku resists the urge to sigh. “No, I’m just worried about you—”

“Oh just fuck right off, Izuku!” Tomura snaps, and he tightens his grip on his glass, touching it with all five fingers…

The glass disintegrates, turning to dust in Tomura’s trembling hand. They both stare at it, not saying a word.

Izuku has a feeling he knows what is coming; he just hopes he’s wrong.

He isn’t.

Tomura’s hand goes up to his neck, jagged fingernails digging into his scarred skin and scratching hard.

“F-Fucking Quirk,” he mutters, screwing his eyes up as he scratches and scratches, gouging his skin until blood coats his fingernails.

“Tomura, stop it,” Izuku says, reaching for his arm to stop him self-harming.

But Tomura slaps his hand away. “Fuck off. Wh-When you accidentally destroy things w-with your fucking Quirk, you can come and tell me to stop doing the o-only thing that keeps me out of a meltdown. Oh, wait – you don’t have a Quirk!”

Izuku stares at Tomura, not knowing what to say. Tomura starts scratching his neck again, tearing his sore skin in a frantic and very self-destructive form of stimming.

That… that was a low blow.

Coming from ‘normal’ society, Izuku was ostracised for being Quirkless… but becoming a villain was different. To the villains, it doesn’t matter what your Quirk is or isn’t; all that is important to them is hating Heroes and wanting to change society. At least… that was what he thought until Tomura said that.

How is it possible for a single sentence to remind Izuku of the society he longs to destroy, and make him feel like utter shit?

“Fuck you,” is all Izuku can say, and he storms out of the room.

Tomura doesn’t come to see him, and Izuku eventually falls asleep despite the anger pulsing through his body.

---

At 9am that morning, Izuku is still asleep. At least, until he jerks awake at the sound of someone knocking on his bedroom door.

“Huh?” he mumbles, blinking rapidly. “C-Come in?”

The door opens and Tomura sticks his head into the room. He looks even worse than he did in the night, his face clammy and his movements sluggish. Tomura stumbles through the room and thumps down on the end of Izuku’s bed.

“Oh… hello, Tomura,” Izuku says, still thinking about what Tomura said to him.

“Hey,” Tomura says, voice weak. “Uh… about what… what I said to you in the night… th-there’s nothing wrong with being Quirkless. I was just being an asshole. I’m shit at apologies, but… I’m sorry.”

Izuku sits up slowly, staring at Tomura. He isn’t one to easily forgive people, but… Tomura isn’t one to apologise.

He smiles. “Just don’t say it again, dickhead.”

And as Tomura smiles, he gives him a kiss.

Chapter Text

Izuku and Tenko fidget a lot. With both of them being kind of nervous all of the time, part of their constant movement is born from this nervousness; they shift in their seats or pace around, just a bit too tense to sit still. But the main reason they fidget is because they’re both stimming.

Stimming is short for self-stimulatory behaviour, and they both do it a lot. This is because of their autism, and the sensory issues it causes means they end up stimming for their own comfort. So it’s perfectly normal to see Izuku rocking back and forth in his chair or Tenko fiddling with the controller for his games console, both of them strangely content by the repetitive motions.

So with their near-constant stimming, it is rather easy to tell if they’re feeling okay. Because if they’re upset, stressed or angry, there will be one of two reactions: their stims get faster and more erratic (a meltdown), or they stop moving completely (a shutdown). And both are unnerving to see. Especially when one happens to each of them at the same time.

---

“Fuck fuck fuck!” Tenko snaps, GAME OVER appearing on the screen in taunting red letters. “Fuck you, game!”

Kurogiri sticks his head into Tenko’s bedroom. “Are things not going to plan, Shimura Tenko?”

“How’d you guess?” Tenko says, switching off his PS4 and exhaling slowly. He turns around and looks up at his guardian. “What d’you want?”

“Midoriya Izuku is here to see you,” Kurogiri says.

As pissed off as he is about his video game, that brings a slight smile to Tenko’s face. He gets to his feet and wanders out into the hallway, and into the living room. He finds Izuku, his boyfriend, sat on the couch, and smiles.

“Hi, Izukun,” he says, using that nickname Izuku adores.

“Hey, Tenko,” Izuku says, standing up and dashing over. He stops an arm’s length away from Tenko, tilting his head slightly. “Uh, you want a hug?”

It’s always reassuring to know that Izuku actually understands how he isn’t always up for physical contact (Izuku is the same), and Tenko almost feels bad for shaking his head. But after the stress of playing that fucking video game, his skin tingles and he knows a hug will hurt.

“That’s okay,” Izuku says. “It’s not the law to have a hug. But are you feeling okay?”

“He has not been having much luck with his video games,” Kurogiri says.

Tenko rolls his bloodshot eyes. “Thanks.”

“Well, do you wanna go out somewhere?” Izuku says. “It’ll probably do you good to have a break from your games, and then you can try again later. What do you say?”

Even though he doesn’t really like going outside, Tenko shrugs his shoulders. “Eh, why not?”

Izuku grins. “Great.”

And he and Izuku head out for a walk. They don’t hold hands, but they walk close as they wander along the sidewalk, and the silent company is quite calming after the ridiculous stress of playing (and failing) his video game for hours. But just like everything else today, things don’t go to plan.

Tenko takes his gaze from the sidewalk when they turn a corner – and he freezes in place.

“Oh shit,” he whispers, clenching his hands into fists.

“What is it?” Izuku says. “Tenko?”

“We need to go. Turn around. Go. Now,” Tenko mumbles, eyes wide.

Izuku, frowning in confusion, looks where Tenko stares, and his own eyes widen. “Oh no.”

So Izuku has realised too. Those guys who stand outside the corner store… they’re the ones who beat Izuku and Tenko up last week. They didn’t give a shit they they’re both students from UA; instead, these guys called them retards and beat them up. Tenko still has bruises under his shirt.

“Come on, run,” Tenko says, wishing he wasn’t such a fucking coward. Those bullies aren’t scared of him even though he’s got an incredibly dangerous Quirk.

So even though he wants to beat those guys back for hurting him and Izuku, he… he’s too scared. Tenko grabs Izuku by the wrist, ignoring the pain that tingles through his gloved hand, and they head back to his place.

The moment he slams the front door behind him, Tenko drops to his knees. “Fucking pathetic. Fucking pathetic.”

“Tenko, it’s okay now,” Izuku says. “We’re safe.”

“You don’t get it,” Tenko says, gritting his teeth. He starts to rock himself back and forth, his hand going up to his neck. “I should stand up to them. Gotta powerful Quirk. I’m older than you. I’m s’posed to protect you. But they beat you up. And I ran away.” He screws his eyes up, heart drumming inside him. “Fucking hell!”

“What is happening in here?”Kurogiri says, the kitchen door sliding open. “Shimura Tenko, try to calm down.”

“Shut up!” Tenko moans, pain building up inside his head as panic thrums through his veins. He digs his fingernails of his uncovered fingers against his neck and starts to scratch, tearing at his heavily scarred skin in his most self-destructive stim. “Shut up!”

Izuku looks agonised and Kurogiri… well, Tenko can never tell what he’s thinking. But they both know what is about to happen. Tenko hates meltdowns, but when things get this bad it’s too late to stop it.

And then he loses track of what is going on, lost in his overwhelmed brain, racing thoughts and the pain that won’t stop tingling through his body. All he knows is that when it has finished, blood coats his fingernails and runs down his neck, and his face is covered in snot and tears.

Tenko groans and sits up slowly, screwing his eyes up. Fuck, his neck hurts.

Everything starts to come back to him, and he scrubs at his eyes, pissed off with himself. This was all because he wouldn’t stand up for himself and his boyfriend. He’s pathetic. He’s always been pathetic and he’s always been pathetic. How can the grandson of Shimura Nana, literally the greatest Hero until All Might came along, be so weak and pathetic?

“Are you feeling better?” Kurogiri says, sticking his head into the room.

Tenko pulls a face, groaning. But he doesn’t complain when Kurogiri crosses the room and passes Tenko a wad of gauze. He takes it and presses it against his bleeding neck, wincing.

“Sorry,” he mutters.

“You know apologies are unnecessary, Shimura Tenko. After all, the meltdowns you experience are involuntary.”

Tenko sniffs. “Thanks. Where’s I-Izukun?”

“He went into the bathroom. I believe he was crying.”

“Fuck,” Tenko mutters, getting to his feet. He wobbles, but manages to keep his balance despite his throbbing head. “I need to see him.”

“Shimura Tenko, Midoriya Izuku mentioned you both getting beaten last week. Would you like me to tell the UA staff or the police?”

“No, it’s fine.” He doesn’t say it, but he knows the harsh reality: the bullying only gets worse when your guardian steps in. And he can’t let those bastards hurt his Izuku again.

Holding the bloody gauze to his neck, Tenko stumbles through his home and approaches the bathroom door. He knocks, the action making his still sensitive skin tingle.

“Izukun?”

“T-Tenko?” Izuku whispers, his voice stilted.

“Can I come in?”

“Uh… yeah.”

So Tenko slides the door open. He finds Izuku hunched up on the bathroom floor, knees hugged to his chest and tears trickling down his face. It takes a second of studying Izuku’s dead-still posture and tense expression to know he is having a shutdown. Whilst Tenko tends to have violent meltdowns, his boyfriend just curls in on himself, barely moves and cries until his brain calms.

“Ten…Tenko,” Izuku says, having to force his words out. “B-Blood.”

So Izuku has noticed the blood all over his neck, collar and fingernails. “Yeah, I know. But… I’m okay now. Look, if you can’t talk, just don’t try. But… want me to stay?”

Izuku nods, the first time he’s moved anything other than his mouth. “Y-Yeah. Thanks.”

And that is how Tenko and Izuku end up sat on his bathroom floor, sitting in a surprisingly comfortable silence as his boyfriend sobs, both of them wishing life would go easy on them for once. But… it helps to have Izuku, it helps a lot.