Chapter Text
A loud slap echoed the room and broke the silence that the harsh, yet whispered banters established earlier. There was a sudden stop to the two boys’ movements— each calculating the other’s state. Laboured breathing, reddened cheeks, glaring eyes, clenched fist, and an unusual distance.
How did they arrive in this situation? Izuku wonders.
Was it the subtle bickering they have been going on about the past few days? Was it the distance they unconsciously imposed on one another? Was it perhaps their dismissive touches? What exactly was it that froze the flames to a huge glacier separating them? In all honesty, they can no longer point it out.
“Izuku…” Shoto slowly approached Izuku. But each of his steps forward was also Izuku’s slow retreat. “Izuku, stop. I’m sorry.”
Shoto raised his arm up, an attempt to reach Izuku’s cheek, but the latter only flinched.
It has been months. Months ever since all of these started. While they can no longer pinpoint the exact reason for their fight, they somehow knew that this is their fallout. It has been months since Izuku no longer tried fixing their daily fights. It has been months since Shoto started pointing out every single flaw both in their relationship and Izuku. It has been months since they fought over the littlest things. It has been months since Izuku no longer tried to understand Shoto’s outburst. It has been months since Shoto started having severe outbursts— leading to him shouting painful words that Izuku never thought to hear from him.
It has been months and somehow, Izuku knew that tonight marks the end of those months.
“You just slapped me…” The moon’s shine reflected over his glossy eyes, illuminating the freckles that are now showered by the ocean tears. The darkness of their room contrasted his eyes.
“Izuku you are not — fuck — why aren’t you listening to me? I was… that was a mistake. I didn’t mean that. I will never…” Rambling through his words, he looks at Izuku looking back at him. Not one bit of empathy shown. “Don’t fucking look at me like that, Zuku.”
He wants to explain, defend, himself but Izuku just looks so done. He looks at Shoto as if no matter what he says, he would no longer listen.
“Don’t look at me like I’m my father.”
It hurt Izuku to his very core, because in that painful moment, in this whole goddamn situation, Izuku sees Shoto like his father. He can see anger fueled in his boyfriend’s eyes, as if the mere thought being likened to his dad was enough for him to go feral. Izuku instinctively clutched his phone and wallet. Then with all the strength he could muster, with every piece of his heart that that slap had shattered, and with every emotion running through his body, he told Shoto.
“You are his son.”
Afraid of what his boyfriend’s reaction could be, he dashed outside of their dorm room.
“Hey, Bakugou. Aren’t you going to sleep yet? It’s literally 2:30. It has been,” he pauses for a while and uses his fingers to count. Trying to get the blonde angrier. “Six hours since your bedtime? Don’t you like, I don’t know, stay up only when you’re studying?”
From his bed, Bakugou gives Sero the side eye and shifted his position. He kicked off the blanket and tried to adjust his pillows, one-too-many times now. A soft yet frustrated sigh escaped his lips before answering.
“I don’t even fucking know why. I just feel really shitty right now. And as much as I just wanna fucking go sleep and go bond with the stupid dream people in a motherfucking dreamland, I just can’t.” A laugh made its way to Sero’s lips as he turned to his readings and started highlighting.
Before Sero could even respond with a snarky remark, three loud knocks interrupted him. He looked at Bakugou who was just as confused as he was. For God’s sake, it was almost three in the morning, there shouldn’t be any people outside their dorm rooms. As Sero was the closest to the door, he shuffled on his seat and tried to compose himself before opening the door.
If he was exhausted because of sleep-deprivation and org work, he tried to conceal it behind his usual business and friendly smile.
“Yes, what can I do—”
His smile immediately dropped after opening the door. It was an unsightly scene to be honest. There, Izuku welcomed him, full of snot and eyes brimming with tears. Alert levels constantly on the high as he checked his surroundings religiously. The muttering was back and although unclear, his voice was shaking. Izuku’s face screamed exhaustion— not to mention how there was a bruise forming on his cheeks.
“Dude what the fuck happened to you?” Sero said before opening the door further, letting Izuku in.
Bakugou automatically sat up. Taking and processing in Izuku’s state while the greenhead picks up his pace and walks faster towards Bakugou. An agonizing pain strangles Izuku’s throat as he hiccups the sob away.
Bakugou is yet to notice the tremble in Izuku’s lips or the shaking of his hand. Bakugou is yet to notice the bruising on his left cheek. Bakugou has only noticed the tears on the smaller boy’s eyes but it’s enough to make him angry. Explosively angry.
“Izuku, who’s the fucking bastard that made you fucking cry?”
Like a trigger pulled, his eyes started watering faster and a painful sob escaped his lips. Izuku tried his hardest to explain what happened to Bakugou, who is currently shushing both of them: one to tone down the other’s crying and to suppress his anger. He listens with a heavy heart as his best friend tries to explain what happened, but frankly he doesn’t understand anything that his friend is saying. Izuku was slurring out his words, breathing through his mouth accompanied by uncontrollable sobs. Sometimes there were sniffles when he paused to take a deep breath. Sometimes he would try to wipe out his tears but they both know that it doesn’t work because he just can’t stop crying. This makes him cry even more.
These are the problems that Bakugou has always faced when comforting a crying Izuku. For one, he often gets so mad to understand anything that the other is saying— said anger usually stems from the fact that his best friend of 15 years is fucking crying in front of him and he can’t kill whoever made Izuku cry. And also, Izuku’s crying absolutely cannot be stopped, making it harder for the boy to breathe.
“—we were just really throwing harsh words at one another and he suddenly brought up my” A sob. “ Fuck. He brought up that maybe my father left us because my mom never listened to him during fights because that was exactly what I was doing now and—” Another sob. “It’s just so insensitive for him to say that! I wanted to speak but somehow raised my voice and the next thing I knew, his palm was already on my fucking cheek.”
Perhaps Izuku was telling him how Shoto’s palm hit his cheek or how the hell he was able to come to his shared room with Sero, but all of those words fell into deaf ears. Any other words can no longer be processed by Bakugou. All he could understand is how that fucking Todoroki physically hurt his best friend as if the months of hurtful words were not enough.
Oh right. This was another problem that Bakugou dealt with (or at least tried to, because he has no idea how to) when Izuku cries. When he finally gets Izuku to tell him what happened, albeit half-decently, he loses all rationality. No thoughts, head empty. Just violence against the one that made Izuku cry.
Maybe he was planning how to avenge Izuku without dragging the boy with him, or whatever. He was lost in his thoughts when he was snapped back to reality with a cold touch.
There on his shoulder sat a cold compress that his roommate, oh yeah he has a roommate , put. He looked at Sero who just shot him a smile and a quick glance in Izuku's direction before going back to his swivel chair and continued his readings. Sero puts on his headphones and pretended that Izuku wasn’t there, whatever the greenhead’s problem was is not his business; he was just giving them the privacy they needed.
Bakugou looks at his best friend’s state, which to be honest, is not far from how he looked when Sero first opened the door earlier. Probably worse. Yeah, so much worse.
He scanned Izuku’s face and only then did the bruising and free scratches were noticed. He took a sharp breath before patting the freckled cheek with the cold compress his roommate had given him. He has no idea if Izuku was still crying or venting or what, but he spoke.
“Did you break up?”
Izuku was surprised by his best friend’s bluntness. “Uh… I guess?”
“So, you haven’t officially broken up yet.” Izuku averted his gaze, embarrassed that he wasn’t able to end a relationship that he knew should have ended long ago. “We should get back to our own rooms then.”
From the corner of the eyes of Bakugou, he could see Sero stiffen while Izuku looked at him with wide eyes.
“W-what do you…”
“Let’s switch back to our original room assignment now.” He shifted his gaze from emerald orbs towards onyx. “Will that be a problem, Sero?”
There was a long and awkward silence that surrounded them. Sero chewed on his bottom lip before shaking his head. “Uh… If Midoriya doesn’t have a problem with that then, I guess it will be okay. Besides, we were supposed to be roommates originally, right?”