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Izuku sat in a cafe, his leg jittering under the table and his eyes wildly looking all over the place.
The place was cozy, with comfortable chairs and a warm atmosphere. It was also out of the way, with very few people around and far away from anywhere the press might be (he's pretty sure that's why Kacchan had chosen this place to meet up, actually.)
Izuku was dying with nerves. He'd been surprised when Kacchan had reached out to him after a whole decade of radio silence and asked to meet him. He hadn't expanded on what he wanted to talk about, and it was really hard to try to keep his thoughts from straying to some of the worst conclusions.
Usually, Izuku wouldn't leave the house without Shouto. Ever since he'd realized he couldn't be a hero because he's quirkless, he'd simply floated through life with no solid purpose. Heroics had been the only goal since he could remember, the only thing he'd ever seen himself doing. Without it, he'd simply felt... empty. Like an integral part of himself had been taken straight from his soul and torn to pieces.
It was a stroke of luck that he'd met Shouto and that they kept in contact and eventually started dating. When Izuku moved in with him, he'd felt like a burden; he couldn't get a job, what with him being quirkless, so he just leeched off of Shouto's money.
The feeling of worthlessness and of being a burden and waste of money kept growing and growing until he tried to kill himself so Shouto wouldn't have to deal with him.
(Izuku would never forget the pain and pure fear on Shouto's face as he called the ambulance, as he tried to stop the bleeding from the wounds Izuku had inflicted on himself.)
So, here he was, a jobless and quirkless 24-year-old who leeched off their hero boyfriend, waiting for his childhood friend bully to show up in some random cafe he'd never been to.
And just as he thought that the bell rang, signaling someone coming into the cafe. Izuku's eyes immediately darted over to check and- yeah. There he was, in the flesh.
Kacchan.
And- Izuku froze. He made eye contact, and then they both just stared. Izuku didn't know what was going through the other's mind, but all Izuku could think was why did you come here, run, he's going to hurt you again, leave-
And then Kacchan was walking over, 2 coffees in his grasp that he'd probably ordered while Izuku was freaking out. His movements were awkward and stilted as he sat opposite Izuku at the table and sat the drinks down. And then they just. Stared. At each other.
Oh god, he was here. Kacchan was here and he'd said he wanted to talk, and Izuku hadn't seen him face to face in a decade but he still instinctively tensed, still felt himself get ready to run because oh god he was making eye contact with Kacchan, Kacchan was HERE-
Kacchan looked away first, awkwardly shifting as emotions flashed through his face one after another.
And then, he apologized.
It was stilted and littered with curses and awkward pauses, and Kacchan was apologizing .
Kacchan. Was apologizing. To him .
To Izuku. To Izuku, who barely left his house because what was the point? To Izuku, who'd attempted to take his life multiple times because he knew his life had no value as a Quirkless person, that he was just a burden to everyone else.
Kacchan, who had been his main bully for 10 years, who had shoved and punched and kicked and burned Izuku, who had said words that he could still hear on especially hard nights (take a swan dive off the rooftop and pray for a quirk in your next life-) and had beat into him exactly how useless he was over and over again, was apologizing to him.
Izuku had daydreamed of this happening many times over the years and had talked about it with his therapist (Shouto had forced him to go to one, after his attempt. Izuku hadn't had the energy to argue that he didn't want to waste someone's time) even more.
But, truthfully, Izuku had never expected it to actually happen. He'd never thought that Kacchan would apologize to him in some random cafe in a part of town he didn't go to, because Kacchan had always thought he was right, and now that he was a hero ( like Izuku always knew he'd be ) he could just brush this whole thing under the rug and never have to worry about it again.
Izuku had never decided on how he'd react if Kacchan were to apologize. He knew that if he was 15, he would insist Kacchan had done nothing wrong, that it was his own fault. If he was 21, when he'd first tried to kill himself, he would scream and cry and rage at Kacchan for everything he'd done.
But now, Izuku was 24, and he felt deathly calm. His face betrayed no emotion as he sat rigidly at the table, just staring at Kacchan, who was hunched over himself and looking down at the table with that regretful and sorry face he'd been wearing the whole time.
Izuku's mouth opened before he could think, and the words came out without his input; "So. You're apologizing."
Kacchan nodded once, tense, briefly flicking his eyes up to look at him before going back to staring at the table like it held all the secrets to the universe.
Izuku picked up one of the long-forgotten coffees Kacchan had bought, fingers tightening around it as he brought it up over his head and-
And then Izuku poured the cold coffee over Kacchan, and before his actions could even register in his mind, he was speaking again. "I don't forgive you."
Kacchan was looking at him with a shocked face, the coffee dripping down his face and his clothes as he just sat there, no comprehension of what the hell was happening in those eyes.
Izuku's actions finally caught up with him, and he really didn't want to find out how Kacchan would retaliate (he had apologized and seemed genuinely regretful, but Izuku couldn't be sure he was being honest) so he quickly shot up and ran out of the cafe.
(Holy shit he just poured coffee over Kacchan-)
He kept going for a few streets before finally collapsing in a sparsely populated area, hyperventilating with tears streaming down his cheeks (he'd always been a crybaby.)
Eventually, when his sobs and breathing finally calmed down enough, he dug out his phone to call Shouto so he could pick him up.
(Izuku had no idea where he was.)
Now, the only thing to do was wait for his boyfriend.
(He would have to talk about this with his therapist.)