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A thump announced someone leaning against Izuku’s bed. He stayed rolled towards the wall for almost a minute before it became clear that the person wasn’t going to go away, and continuing to ignore them was just going to make things more awkward. He rolled over and saw Kirishima, cross-legged on the ground, leaning against the bed, facing away from him. Well, that explained the resonance of the thunk.
“Who did this?”
Kirishima didn’t turn around to ask the question. Izuku didn’t answer. He just stared at the spiky back of Kirishima’s head.
“Just so you know, answering me is pretty much the best-case scenario. I tried to explain to them that having a bunch of cis people around getting all worked up would only make things worse, but, well, there’s only so long that’s gonna last. You know Bakugo.”
Izuku smiled just a little bit and tried valiantly not to follow it up with a sniffle.
“If you talk to me, there’s, like, at least a chance that I’ll tell Mr. Aizawa before I tell our guys, whereas if Todoroki and Ochako start shaking people down and get answers I’m pretty sure there’s nothing anyone’ll be able to do to stop Tenya from trying that murderous revenge thing again. And y’know how well that worked out last time, so.”
Izuku snorted, and definitely also sniffled, but maybe that was muffled under the snort.
“Too soon?”
“Just maybe don’t say that one around Iida.”
When Izuku spoke Kirishima turned his head around partway so he could see his face, and grinned at him.
“Hey, there you go, words! Knew you could do it. Now if I can just get you mumbling, we’ll have all the words we could ever need.”
“I’m not telling you.”
Kirishima sighed. “Look, it - we know it’s gotta be someone who can get on the UA campus, and who you wouldn’t want to say anything about, so it’s not a villain who sneaked in, which means… which means there’s somebody who shouldn’t be doing any heroing at least for a nice long while.”
Izuku closed his eyes.
“Not to shove on your hero guilt complex, but. You’re not the only trans person on campus, you know. And - “ Kirishima shifted against the bed with a rocky scrape. “And I’d rather that not happen to me. Cos if it’s someone who could do that to you, they could definitely get me too.”
Izuku made a half-voiced sound of distress and lurched forward to wrap an arm down around Kirishima’s chest as though the threat was in the room and he could protect him. Kirishima reached one of his arms up at an awkward angle over his shoulder to almost-hug Izuku, and Izuku buried his face in gel-stiff hair.
“It’s super manly to cry, y’know.”
Izuku shook his head jerkily, scratching his nose against Kirishima’s hair.
“It totally is. You know how I know? Cause you cry, and you’re one of the manliest people I know. It’s pretty much you, Crimson Riot, Bakugo, and me. Heck, I’m crying right now just thinking about how manly you are.”
Izuku laughed wetly, and wrapped his other arm down across Kirishima’s chest. He let tears slip past his eyelids into Kirishima’s hair, and hoped he wouldn’t mind having to re-gel it.
“I’ll tell Mr. Aizawa.”
Kirishima reached for Izuku’s hand against his chest and held it tightly.
“Thanks, bro.”