Mha101 - Yes, I'm sure that if you - after living a generally traumatizing live with little to not psychological help - were thrown into literal warzone, you'd immediately manage to mentally and physically match-up to veterans for whom mass-murder is a daily occurence. Totally makes sense.

(***)

Tsuyu didn't show up in his bedroom that evening. The frog girl was probably planning to face her fears. Izuku prepared to face his own. Unfortunately, he failed.

He woke up suddenly in the middle of the night, with something resembling a half-choked scream leaving his lungs as his upper body darted upward.

A second later, he heard the sound of several things falling down. Including his hero uniform and…

"Ribbit." Tsuyu complains loudly while standing from the ground.

It's dark in the room. As always, they don't use any lighting at night, and the windows are boarded. Eyes get used to it to a degree, but… Izuku mostly extrapolated that it was Tsuyu from the rather familiar sound.

"W… what happened?" Izuku asks. His heart is still raging in his chest. The nightmare was… worse than he expected last evening.

"I had a bad dream, ribbit." Tsuyu replies. "Wanted to go to you. You ignored my knocking, and I heard you trash around. Something falling. So I walked inside to check on you. You must have been using your quirk in your sleep."

Wait, she fell, right?

"Oh my god, Tsuyu, are you alright?!" Izuku says quickly. "I didn't…"

"I'm alright, ribbit." She replies. "But I heard something falling to the ground and shattering before I entered."

Izuku has an idea of what it was. He quickly checks it out and… yep. The bed lamp on his nightstand didn't survive it. Oh, great. At least he wasn't actually using it and they have some spares at the abandoned flats.

Then he remembers about the procedures. They have those now. There are people out there who want them dead, or worse. You can never know who is out there.

He pulls out his phone, then he enters the Network's internal chat.

Defiant: Made some noise. Bad dream, used my quirk accidentally and broke my night lamp.

Defiant: I'll probably go downstairs to drink some tea to calm down.

Eclipse: Aye aye, we were about to go investigate.

Eclipse: thx for the heads up

Eclipse: If you need something, call us!

It's Eclipse and Pinky's shift as night guards. Long, and kind of lonely time, spent in darkness on the building's top floor. It was abandoned, but its windows weren't boarded. This allowed them to see at least the streets surrounding the headquarters. And they had two pairs of night vision goggles, courtesy of Mei.

Plus a handful of microphones placed throughout the building. Some were in the corridors, some were on the outside of the entrance. Just to detect intruders. The feed was all going real-time to the guard post.

There were reasons for Izuku not assigning two people in a relationship to this job. If Kirishima was there with Mina, or Jirou with Mieko, they would have something completely different in mind than actually keeping watch. Talking is significantly less distracting than… well, the alternative.

They were all young and healthy and, in most cases, in relationships. They also suffered from a severe lack of options for hobbies. Going to school and doing homework actually gives them something to occupy their free time with. And if you put a lot of teenagers/young adults in one building with too much free time… well.

"I…" Izuku says once that is done. "... I think I need to wash my face. And then drink some tea in the common room. Do you want to come with me?" He really doesn't want to be alone right now.

"Ribbit." She says. He doesn't see her face, but he knows that she just agreed with him. He was really starting to figure her out.

(***)

It's odd. The common room is covered in darkness, and the building around them is quiet. The welcome party for Yoarashi and Todoroki ended many hours ago.

That they both agreed to move in was actually surprising. At least considering how scarce their new quarters were when compared to their standard habitation (especially true for Todoroki). It was a surprise, but a welcome one.

Izuku uses his phone to light their way. He starts boiling the water for the tea. The room is… well, not chilly, but certainly not warm.

When he turns his head, the light from his phone illuminates Tsuyu. She is sitting on the couch, hugging her knees to the chest. And she is, because of course she is, naked again. Ugh.

She probably didn't expect that he would be up. Otherwise, knowing her, she would come wearing her onesie. Oh, well. He mostly got used to that.

He sits by her. She immediately pulls out a blanket that someone left on the couch. Izuku realizes what she wants, so he promptly helps her cover them both. It's quite cozy.

"So…" Tsuyu says once they get comfortable. "...what was your nightmare about, ribbit?"

He can barely see her face, despite them being so close to each other. There is only some minuscule, flickering light from the gas stove a few meters away from them.

Why is she asking? Knowing her, she probably believes that sharing your pain makes it weaker. She might not be entirely wrong. Izuku is ready to try finding out if it means that the rest of his night won't be like the first half of it. He had enough of nightmares for a while.

"Normally, it's about the day when I saved Rewind." Izuku replies. "I slam Overhaul into the wall like I did, except… he doesn't fix himself. His underling is screaming, Rewind is fleeing away from me, Mei shouts at me that I'm a murderer and then she hangs up on me. Sometimes I go home to see my mom phoning the police to come and throw me into a prison and…"

Tsuyu has enough. The blanket almost falls down when she moves slightly to give him a hug. Izuku hugs her back and corrects the cover with his quirk. It's surprisingly handy thing to have in moments like this.

He also realizes that darkness doesn't matter much. He would have problems seeing her in full light, too. There is some serious leak in his eyes, and he should probably be happy about the tea, since he'll need some rehydration after this.

"And…" Tsuyu says after he seems to have calmed down a bit. "... what was tonight's nightmare?"

She caught the implication of the 'normally' word being used where it was, huh. For someone with so little human contact for her entire life, she was socially perceptive when she really wanted to. To a surprising degree.

"Dabi." Izuku replies quietly. "Except, when I turned back, I…"

He fails to finish. But she knows what it was about. Somehow, she snuggles even closer to him. There is now one large bundle of human misery sitting on the couch, and it somehow hurts less than it used to when they were alone.

"A… and you?" Izuku manages to finally ask. It's enough about him. It's not enough about her.

There is a long silence. He can feel her breath on his skin. It's quick. Quicker than Izuku is comfortable with.

"Tsuyu, it's alright." He says. "If it's too hard, you don't have to…"

"I wake up." She says, interrupting him. Izuku wasn't sure if she heard him talking. "In the basement. I walk up the stairs. Like every morning." She pauses for a second and Izuku realizes she is crying. "But the building is empty. Y…you aren't… you aren't there. You… never were. It was all j… just a dream."

What can you do when faced with words like those? Izuku doesn't have enough hands to hug Tsuyu as much as she deserved. He doesn't have the way with words to soothe her pain with them.

All that he can really do is to be there. Let her sob into him for as much as she wants, while embracing her with all his might. To make her know, not just in mind but also in her emotions, that she isn't alone.

That she will never again be as alone as she was for most of her life.

She saw Dabi, even if from a distance. She knew that she almost died when he unleashed his attack. Yet her worst nightmare was still being left alone once more. That… says a lot, really. Much more than it should.

"It's alright, Tsuyu." Izuku whispers into her ear. "We're not going anywhere without you."

She withdraws a bit. She is still crying. Her face is close enough that despite how dark it was, he could see her eyes.

"Y… you p… promise?" She says, her voice weak.

"Yes." He replies. And he truly means it. Unless they all die, he isn't leaving Tsuyu alone. She had enough solitude to last for a lifetime.

He extended his hand. He wanted to caress her cheek a bit, but she practically pushed her head into it, like a cat demanding to be petted. Except a lot sadder.

Izuku wants to pet her. He wants to hug her. He wants to stay cuddled like that. He wants to kiss her. He wants to…

He tenses in realization for a split second, before forcing himself to relax a bit. He doesn't want to startle Tsuyu.

He is in love with the girl that's currently sobbing into him. It's not the same type of love that he has towards Mei. Oh, it's a romantic love in both cases, alright. But that's where the similarities between them end.

What he has with Mei is crazy, unpredictable and a lot spontaneous (mostly because of Mei being crazy, unpredictable and spontaneous), but also about achieving their goals together. Izuku wants to be a superhero and save people. Mei wants to become famous and perfect her inventions. Their goals meet, and working together and throwing ideas back and forth is the closest they get to flirting.

Well, at least until she suddenly decides to be spontaneous and begins to lose her clothes rapidly.

Tsuyu was different. Tsuyu was someone he wanted to spend his evenings cuddling with while ignoring the world around them. Someone he wanted to cherish and protect. Someone he wanted to show the world to instead of changing it together.

She was emotions and stability to Mei's intelligence and chaos. However unexpected a combination those two were. Then again, Izuku wants less emotional chaos, not more. He had way more than enough of it already.

Izuku freaked out. On the inside. For as much as she was oddly competent in reading people occasionally, she didn't seem to notice.

The water chooses that very moment to boil. He used his quirk to pour it over and then levitate the cups closer to the human cuddle pile. This… this gave him a while to focus on something else other than her.

He really isn't sure what would happen if it didn't happen right when it did. His sudden introspection has already made him painfully aware of her existence next to him. And of the fact that she was completely naked, with her breasts resting on his body.

Then again, she was crying. And he has just stopped crying himself. This really isn't the time for that. This is the time to drink the tea, calm themselves and probably come back up to sleep together. In a distinctly non-romantic way. Let's leave thinking about serious stuff for tomorrow.

(***)

Izuku sighs. It's a long and painful sigh, completely unbefitting of the person who's commonly believed by anyone in the Network to be a Ray of Sunshine Incarnate (unless he is in his hero mode).

"Why?" He says, while looking at the ceiling of his bedroom. "Why did it happen? What is wrong with me?"

"Ribbit." Tsuyu, still lying next to him and treating him like a body-pillow (while mostly under the quilt, for maximum comfort and warmth), replies. "I was about to leave the bed. You wanted to cuddle a bit more. Then things happened."

'Things happened' is an excellent summary. He just had sex with a girl that wasn't his girlfriend (or perhaps she was now?). Sure, Mei has explicitly told him she is absolutely alright with that, but HE TOLD THAT HE DOESN'T WANT THAT! AND THEN THIS HAPPENED!

It makes him feel like a hypocrite! He doesn't like that. Hypocrisy does not befit a superhero. Hypocrisy does not befit a decent human being.

Why is he so absolutely weak when stuff like that happens? Oh, wait. Counselor Inui mentioned something about him deriving too much of his self-worth from the surrounding people. He wanted to make Tsuyu happy. To make her suffer from her past less. When his dumb teenager (okay, young adult, but it's almost the same thing really) brain decided that the best way is love, he…

Ugh. He really has to ask Mei (and, well, Tsuyu? probably?) to tell him a straight NO about other relationships. That will keep him in check, because he certainly won't hurt any of them.

Brilliant planning Izuku! Should have thought about earlier, you idiot.

"Nothing's wrong with you, ribbit." Tsuyu announces, while giving him a quizzical stare, still mostly buried under his quilt. "I wanted it."

Well, that much was rather obvious. Izuku doesn't believe himself to be a charming smooth-talker. But when it happened, she played along. Looking happy about it (for as much as she could display emotions, really). He still doesn't know why, though.

Also, why does neither of his girlfriends (is Tsuyu his girlfriend?!) have a lot of common sense? Is it a necessity to think that Izuku is good boyfriend material? Is it a necessity for being alright with sharing your romantic interest with someone else?

"Really?" Izuku asks with slight disbelief in his voice. Probably because of his internal self-doubt. "Why?"

"I asked myself what person I'd like to spend my life with, ribbit." Tsuyu replies. "Each time I thought about that, your face came to my mind."

Oh. Well, that's surprisingly… uhm… heartwarming? Confidence-boosting? Hard to say. Then again, he was probably the first boy that has ever spoken to Tsuyu without hurling expletives or rocks at her. And that's… well, much less nice.

Time to get used to that. He is certainly not leaving her, not after what just happened. Tsuyu deserves better. Much better.

No. Izuku does not know how to even try explaining to his mom that he has TWO girlfriends now. Despite him missing her sooo much, he is almost happy that he is now living away. Explaining the recent developments in his life would be a bit…

He could use Eclipse's warpgate to visit her in secret, but… without having someone at the target location beforehand, you can never be sure that you aren't opening your warpgate in front of someone uninitiated. Like his mom. And that would be really hard to explain.

Alright, time to get used to the sudden changes to his life.

Oh god, Uraraka has a crush on him, yes? How is she going to react to coming back from the hospital to see THIS development?! This is going to transcend the conventional meaning of the word 'awkward'. Tsuyu is her friend, pretty much the closest one too!

"So, uhm…" Izuku changes the subject a bit. "... how was it?"

She gives him a quizzical look. Izuku was almost certain that if her hands weren't busy hugging him, she would put a finger to her lips.

"Warm." She replies after a few seconds of thinking. "Soft. Nice."

True. It was… well; it was pretty much snuggling with extra steps, to be honest. Very unlike what he had with Mei.

"I have a feeling that you aren't very interested in sex." Izuku comments on it. She used the same words to describe going to sleep while cuddled up with him. With zero sex involved.

"Ribbit." Tsuyu agrees with him. "It's nice, but so is getting a hug. Or cuddling together." She has a point. She felt very cuddly in general, once she got to know you better. Or, especially, with Izuku. And, to a slightly lesser degree, with Ochaco.

Izuku closes his eyes and relaxes. It shouldn't be that bad to manage, then.

"Of course, there is also the mating season, ribbit." Tsuyu says. Izuku's eyes shot open in an instant.

"The WHAT?"

(***)

"Well, damn." Shinsou announces an hour later. "We have a murder case on the premises. Himiko, call the police."

"Aye aye!" She salutes him. "What should I tell them?"

"The victim is an eighteen-year-old superhero." Shinsou replies with a slightly nasty grin. "Green hair. The cause of death seems to be emotional trauma."

Izuku groans painfully while raising his head from the table. Where it was resting comfortably for the last few minutes. The only other person in the common room is Eclipse, who is wearing some comfy looking black pajamas while preparing food. For both herself and the still absent Earworm.

Hitoshi has only just woken up, but he is already a pain in the ass.

"Oh, shut up." Izuku mumbles back. "You didn't go through what I did." He has another recruitment meeting scheduled for today. And then, Uraraka is coming back. That's it. That's the plan for today.

"Then what did you go through?" Hitoshi sits next to him. Himiko decides that preparing food is more important. Whether she simply enjoys doing that or whether she considers preparing breakfast for him a form of… no, Izuku won't even think about it. It would make things too weird. Not everything comes down to sex.

"Due to a combination of some very weird things that are a bit of a doozy to explain, I slept with Tsuyu." Izuku decides he can as well go through it.

Mieko almost ends up getting burned by the stove. Himiko handles knives good enough to not get cut, but it's clear that someone less skilled might have ended up… well, maybe not disarmed. But probably dis-fingered.

"Oh." Shinsou blinks a few times. That's clearly not what he expected. "What's the Alchemist's opinion on that?" It's kind of nice for him to ask about it, really. Looks like Izuku's plan of making Hitoshi into a decent human being is working. The progress is small, but visible.

"They are having a video call right now." Izuku replies. "Comparing experiences and setting up the weekly schedule."

"Well…" Shinsou really looks like he just got thrown out of his comfort zone. "... congratulations?"

Mieko snorts in the background. Izuku decides he doesn't want to know, and so he doesn't ask. Himiko, in the meantime, seems to be in a very good mood suddenly. Or at least that's what Izuku thinks. Her mask is sort of concealing that from him.

"Why is my life like this?" Izuku says, about as exasperated as he could. "My mom didn't raise her son to do stuff like that. I'm a disgrace upon the good name of my ancestors." Not like he knows any, to be honest. Even his own father is still a faceless and nameless enigma.

"Japan is clearly coming down the drain." Eclipse announces suddenly. "And you are already preparing to play the role of a post apocalyptic warlord ruling the wasteland with a trusty harem of deadly beauties at his side." She gives him a thumbs-up gesture, without stopping her process of preparing food for a second. "Nice thinking, chief!"

Izuku actually chuckles at that. Looks like his funny bone is still there.

"What does that make me, then?" Shinsou asks. Eclipse gives him an appraising stare.

"Evil chancellor, with his own pet assassin, constantly scheming behind the warlord's back in order to usurp his position?" She finally says, clearly asking for his opinion on that. "You should get Himiko some stripperific outfit with skull motifs, though."

"Cool." Shinsou says, with a wide grin that only further exacerbates his eyebags. "I'm in." Himiko appears to agree with him on that.

Izuku groans. That's when Kyoka enters the room, wearing her house clothes. So, a T-shirt (with a logo of some punk rock band), short skirt, kneehigh socks and a pair of comfy-looking slippers.

She is one of the few of the Network members that actually had a backing in their families. And got to take their clothes with them when joining. It shows.

"Oh, there you are." She shoots her girlfriend a questioning look. "... wait, what are you doing?"

"Preparing you a delicious and nutritious breakfast, my love!" Eclipse replies with a grin. "I've really put my back into it! Back AND my outstanding cooking skills, you kn…"

"Mieko." Kyoka says, her voice suddenly sounding exhausted. "That's just cereals. And I think you kept the milk on fire for too long, because it's boiling over right now." At least she didn't add the cereals to the milk before boiling it. Thanks to Shinsou telling her it's not a good idea.

"Oh, shit!" Mieko promptly throws herself into desperate attempts to salvage whatever's still salvageable. Kyoka sighs and heads towards the couch while playing with her earphone jacks.

Shinsou and Himiko are laughing openly. Okay, the former might have chuckled briefly, but for him that's an open laughter.

Is there someone normal left in this building? Should Izuku try to find out? Alright, you can only die once. Unless reincarnation is a thing.

"How did you two even get together?" Izuku asks. They were apparently a thing before they ran into Hitoshi and Himiko, so he was curious about that. Even if you exclude the whole 'is there someone normal left' bit. He never asked and… well, getting some knowledge on that field might be useful.

"Oh, that's a super romantic story, actually!" Mieko says loudly, still fighting with the milk. She actually used her quirk to block it from spilling any further. It seems to be working. "We…"

"She asked for a good music playlist for gaming on one of the discord servers I was on." Kyoka cuts in. "Things escalated."

"Kyoooo!" Mieko shouts back, clearly dejected by her wonderful (and completely made-up story) being canceled before it had the time to spread its wings. Shinsou chuckled again. It must be his life record of chuckles per day already. And the day has barely started.

"Also, why do you look worse than Hitoshi?" Kyoka shoots Izuku a questioning look. "Something happened?" Shinsou decides not to comment on her first sentence.

"I was this year old when I discovered that frogs have a mating season during the spring." Izuku announces. On his face, utter tiredness mixed with a desire to crawl under a piece of furniture and stay there until his body decomposes. "And we better teach Tsuyu to wear clothes properly by then or things are going to get awkward."

At least that's early summer still. They have a lot of time left. They narrowly missed the worst-case scenario.

"... I shouldn't have asked." Kyoka replies after a few seconds of shocked silence in the room. "Aaanyways, so how do…"

Todoroki rolls into the room. For someone from such a distinguished family, his looks and attire are all but distinguished. His father would probably get a brain aneurysm after seeing him in the present company, especially when he was wearing sweatpants and a rather messy shirt. Plus a pair of slippers.

"Todoroki." Shinsou immediately restarts yesterday's game. "Your father."

"I have considered getting custom-made slippers in his image in order to step on something resembling him regularly." Todoroki immediately replies. "But the temptation to slam my feet into furniture pieces would have ruined my toes quickly."

Then they both fucking dab at each other. Izuku is so done with them.

The game is called 'make a new creative insult each time your father is mentioned'. Shinsou enjoys seeing him play it the same way a craftsman enjoys looking at a master of his craft at work. He, too, hates his old man with a passion.

Naturally, the two of them hit it off immediately after meeting.

There are laughs throughout the room. The mood is pleasant. They are about to depart for school (well, in an hour), at least except for Kirishima, who is probably preparing his new hero uniform for a shift in Tartarus. And Jirou, who is going to be the one sitting out today.

They need to have someone at the base at all times. Just in case. Besides, she'll attend today's lessons, just not in person. E-learning is a thing.

"I have a question." Todoroki suddenly freezes his march towards the counter and looks towards Izuku. "... can we get something from McDonald's for dinner today?" Talk about the unexpected things happening.

"Huh, why?" Izuku asks.

"Well, it was always just the traditional Japanese food in my house." He replies, his gaze almost unsettling. "I love cold soba. But I want to see how a McBurger tastes."

"That's a bit… costly." Izuku replies. "At least if we all go for that." They'll send someone to buy it, and then have Eclipse pick them up from some quiet alleyway near the McDonald's.

"My father told me to take whatever I want from our home with me." Todoroki replies. Izuku is practically bracing himself for something hilarious. "So I took one of his credit cards."

As a maniacal grin takes over Todoroki's face, Izuku realizes that their new recruit is going to be the death of him.

(***)

Izuku really needed that relationship upgrade to function. Tsuyu is going to act as his sanity anchor for quite a while. He is, after all, a kid - a kid thrown into a war zone. A kid with rather traumatic past. It shows, even if he does his genuine best. I also took the occasion to show a bit of an... inside life in the Network. And I regret absolutely nothing about my portrayal of Shoto Todoroki. Sue me about it.

The next chapter is another recruit, then one more and... well, then the plot picks up again.

Also I'm like 99% sure that Kyoka is like "Mieko *death stare*" in public but "Michan!" in private. You can't change my mind.

Also2, we aren't running on hentai logic. Tsuyu's definition of mating season is probably being physically able to get pregnant and being about as lustful as an average boy of her age. She isn't turning into Mineta or anything, get your heads out of the gutter folks.