It was a few hours later that Izuku and Shouta left Nedzu's office. It had been a good visit. Izuku had missed just talking with Nedzu and bouncing ideas off of him. He'd asked for space after graduating, had wanted to see what he could do without Nedzu after three years of the principal living in his back pocket-and occasionally on his very fluffy hair.

The space had been needed, but Izuku had missed the steady companionship of someone who truly, deeply understood him. And the chaos. He'd definitely missed hearing Nedzu cackle-especially over the most recent person startled by his sudden appearance out of the vents. Apparently Hizashi had shattered three different windows in one day due to Nedzu popping up unexpectedly.

Still snickering, Shouta draped an arm over Izuku's shoulder as they walked through the halls. "After the second time, he really should have expected it," Shouta said, his amusement obvious in his voice.

"Rude," Hizashi huffed from behind them, catching up quickly since Shouta was walking slowly in deference to Izuku's shorter legs. "Like anyone except the two of you would ever expect Nedzu to pop up where he does."

Shouta sighed, leaning more heavily onto Izuku. A quick glance at his face showed Izuku that he was honestly irritated by the interruption, which surprised him for a moment. Until he registered the way Shouta tugged him closer and the way the other man's eyes searched his face for a long moment. He was still irritated over what Hizashi had said when he'd met them, Izuku realized, and wanted to see if Izuku was upset with the man.

He offered Shouta a small smile before leaning out a bit to look at Hizashi who was on Shouta's other side. "He's right though, after the second time you should have just been prepared," Izuku laughed, wrapping his arm around Shouta's waist for a brief, reassuring squeeze before dropping his arm again. "After you gave him such a good reaction the first two times you had to know he'd try three for three."

"It's the kind of shit Sho' would do," Hizashi grumbled. "So yeah, I probably should have known. He and Nedzu are two peas in a pod."

"I feel like that was supposed to be an insult, but I think that's the most complimentary thing you've said to me in a long time," Shouta said drily, making Izuku muffle a laugh.

"Whatever," Hizashi huffed. "We're doing dinner, do you two want to come so you can eat at a normal time for once?"

"That depends." Shouta turned narrowed eyes on his friend. "Are you going to complain about the

age difference and the fact he's the same age as Hitoshi again?"

Rolling his eyes, Hizashi sighed. "No Shouta, I'll keep my very legitimate concerns to myself this

time."

"Sorry," Izuku offered an apologetic look as he interrupted them. "I actually have plans tonight, so I wouldn't be able to get dinner with you."

Shouta's mouth tightened, but he told Hizashi, "I'm going to walk Izuku home, so that's a no for me as well."

Hizashi frowned, looking a little disappointed. "Alright, let me know if that changes. We'd be happy to have either or both of you!" Hizashi split off, bouncing slightly as he walked.

They made their way out the gate, and Shouta's arm dropped off of Izuku's shoulders, much to his disappointment. "You have plans tonight?" Shouta asked quietly, no real expression evident on his face.

"No," Izuku admitted sheepishly, surprised when the carefully calm lines of Shouta's face relaxed into something more natural. "It didn't seem like you wanted to get something to eat with them, and I didn't really want to either. I knew you'd offer to walk me home so I, uh, lied?" He winced slightly, because it sounded malicious when he put it that way. "Sorry."

Shouta snorted faintly. "Don't be, you weren't wrong. I did not want to spend time with them tonight. I'm actually still a little irritated with Hizashi at the moment."

"Yeah, that's what I figured," Izuku murmured. "I wouldn't be too pleased myself if our positions were switched."

"I understand that Hizashi has concerns, and they're mostly reasonable even, but he made it so confrontational that I'm just not willing to listen to him right now," Shouta admitted with a grimace.

"I get that," Izuku said. "The fact that he immediately started shouting...kind of threw me off balance," he added with a small frown.

Shouta huffed slightly. "Yeah, I can see why." He shrugged, visibly shaking off his irritation. "So, there's something I'd like to talk to you about, actually."

Izuku tipped his head curiously. "What about?" He asked curiously. "Let's wait until we get into your apartment," Shouta requested.

Izuku shrugged and agreed easily. "Sure thing." They were only a few minutes away from his apartments by that point, so some light chatter about the day got them to his door.

His door that had been kicked in.

Izuku froze, just staring at the door and the cracked door frame.

"Fuck," Shouta hissed, pulling Izuku to his side protectively.

"I can't believe this," Izuku muttered as his brain restarted, anger starting to pool in his stomach. He rolled his shoulders and said, "I need to call the police."

"I need to call Nedzu," Shouta said in agreement. They both made their respective phone calls,

Shouta getting Nedzu's voicemail, and then settled in to wait for the police to arrive.

Shouta got a call back from Nedzu just as the police pulled up, and he walked around the corner to speak more privately as the police walked up. It was quite possibly the shortest police walk through in history-they took Izuku's statement, made vaguely affirmative noises when he mentioned that he'd been having issues with Pro-Hero Dynamite that he'd already reported, and walked through and confirmed no one was in there.

After they told him to make a list if anything was missing and provided an email to send it to, they left. They weren't the officers he'd reported Bakugou to after the other man had come into his apartment, but they were obviously just as useless. Walking into his apartment and looking at the mess left behind, Izuku wanted to cry. This apartment had been his safe space, and now his skin was crawling just standing in his own living room.

"The police are already gone?" Shouta asked as he walked in, sounding surprised.

"Yes," Izuku answered curtly, before wincing. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't take this out on you."

Shouta blinked before smiling wryly. "I think that if there's any occasion for you to be a little abrupt, this is it. Don't worry about it. Let's walk through and see if anything is missing."

They did so, and to Izuku's disgust there wasn't anything missing that he could tell. "I wish something was missing," he finally said in frustration. "At least then I could think that maybe this was a regular break-in-but this is obviously just punishment ," he spat out, so furious he could hardly breathe.

"I agree," Shouta murmured. "This is punishment or revenge-and, unfortunately, it could come from either Nite-Lite or Bakugou."

Izuku closed his eyes. "Shit. I was thinking it was Bakugou, but you're right. If Bakugou could find out my address, she certainly could as well. Probably easier than he did, in all honesty." After all, they worked together. It would be quick work for her to slide into the HR records for his home address. It was something kept for security purposes, so they'd know if there was an issue around any of their homes and be able to have a warning.

After this, he was going to go to Hideo and work with him for some security protocols to make sure none of the Heroes could access that information. No one had even considered that they might use the personal information of someone else working there for nefarious purposes. Izuku could see now that that had been incredibly short sighted. There was never any guarantee that the Hero working beside you was actually a decent person under the costume-Bakugou was proof enough of that.

Sliding his arms around Izuku, Shouta pulled the unresisting man into his chest for a hug. Unable to handle it any longer, Izuku burst into tears, doing his best to muffle the noise into Shouta's chest as he clutched the mans shirt in his fists.

"Shhh," the other man soothed, rubbing a hand up and down Izuku's back gently. "Feel at least a little better?" He asked once Izuku's sobbing had subsided into soft hiccups.

"No," Izuku grumped against his chest, but then he sighed as he pulled back as far as Shouta would let him. "Yeah, a little bit." He grimaced, looking around his destroyed apartment. "I-it was bad enough staying here after he burst in on me like he did, but now?" Now it was going to be a literal nightmare-he wasn't expecting to get any sleep for a while after this.

"Well," Shouta murmured. "This wasn't quite how I planned to ask, but it is what it is I suppose."

"What?" Izuku was confused and had the beginnings of a headache forming behind his eyes. He had less than zero patience for Shouta being cryptic at the moment.

Smiling briefly at his expression, Shouta explained, "I wanted to ask you to move in with me temporarily while we're dealing with Bakugou. And especially now, since we know that someone doesn't have an issue getting in even with the door locked, I would like you to seriously consider it."

Izuku got the impression that even if he refused, he would somehow end up at Shouta's place often enough that he might as well say yes. Besides that, the opportunity to spend more time with Shouta would always be a plus. "OK," he agreed with a small smile. Getting away from this apartment for a while would be good anyway. "It'll give me a chance to look around and find an apartment in a slightly better area too."

They way that Shouta hummed without saying anything made Izuku side-eye him for a moment, but he was distracted by Shouta saying, "Then we should probably pack up what you need."

"Yeah. I'm glad I brought my work bag with me today, I'd be ticked off if I had to replace everything in it." It not only had some scribbled partial analyses he'd been working on-coded, of course, just in case-but a change of clothes, a portable charger, caffeine pills, basically everything he'd need to live at the Agency for a full twenty four to forty eight hours like Hideo had suggested when he started. It wasn't something that happened often, the man had said, but it was best to be prepared for when it did.

They packed quickly-Izuku only really needed clothes and personal items. He didn't keep much of sentimental value in his apartment, and the furniture was of course unneeded. So after packing a few bags, Izuku texted his landlord and let him know the situation and that it had already been reported to the police. It probably said something about where he was living that his landlord was so used to things like that that he'd just texted back a thumbs up emoji.

Izuku was amused to realize that Shouta actually lived quite close to the Agency, a five minute walk in the opposite direction he'd normally walk back to his apartment. Shouta hesitated for a moment, after they'd entered the apartment and he and Izuku had dropped the bags in an out of the way spot. "I can sleep on the couch, if you would prefer. I know staying with me for an extended period is different than what happened the other night."

"I'm not going to kick you out of your own bed," Izuku said flatly. "And I stand by what I said the other night. You and I are adults. We can control ourselves in the same bed."

Watching him carefully, Shouta eventually nodded. "If you're sure."

"I am," Izuku said. "And if that changes, I'll let you know, ok?"

His shoulders relaxed. "That makes me feel better, thank you," Shouta said quietly.

Izuku smiled at him. "The same goes for you, of course. If you're uncomfortable for any reason just let me know." His smile turned wry. "I'm not used to sleeping with anyone, so it'll be an adjustment for me."

Shouta pulled him in close for a brief hug, laying his cheek on top of Izuku's hair briefly, admitting, "I like knowing that."

Shaking his head, Izuku offered him an amused smile as he pulled back. "I'm sure."

Shouta released him and stepped back. "Do you want something to eat?" At Izuku's agreement, he went into the kitchen and pulled together a quick meal. By silent, mutual agreement they tabled any serious discussion until after eating, so they spoke of lighter subjects-Izuku enjoyed sharing tales of some of the things he and Nedzu had gotten up to during his school year, and Shouta did the same.

Smiling at Shouta as they finished the dinner he'd pulled together, he gathered their dishes and started the water to start washing them. Unlike Izuku, Shouta kept his dish soap on the counter by his sink. "You don't have to do the dishes," Shouta protested immediately. Izuku turned and arched an amused eyebrow at him, and they both laughed at the role reversal from the dinner at Izuku's apartment. "Fine," he lifted his hands in surrender. "But I'll dry."

The banter between them flowed easily, and Izuku bumped his hip against Shouta's as he said, "Thank you for dinner, it was fantastic." Shouta frowned at him, but Izuku said, very mildly, "Accept my gratitude." They both dissolved into laughter again.

"I like seeing you in my kitchen," Shouta said after a few minutes of comfortable silence. The easy domesticity and affection had him thinking about rings. He knew it was too soon, but watching the sweet smile bloom across Izuku's face made him start planning.

"I like being in your kitchen," Izuku returned as he smiled at him. After the dishes were finished, they both migrated to the couch, Izuku curling up in the corner and tucking his bare feet under Shouta's thigh. "So, let's talk about your conversation with Nite-Lite," he suggested. He didn't want to start out talking about the break in.

Shouta grimaced. "Must we?" But he sighed before telling him, "She asked me if I was jealous, and I told her that you were mine, and you'd be mine until you decided otherwise. I made it clear that the only person who would change your place in my life-or mine in yours-was you, and that she needed to back off." He paused. "I also said you thought she was dumb, and that I thought you were far smarter than her because you'd be smart enough to back off if I told you I was dating someone, but she hasn't and that's unacceptable to me."

Izuku rested his head against the back of the couch, watching him. "OK," he said simply. "OK?" Shouta repeated, frowning.

"Yeah." Izuku shrugged. "I appreciate the caveat you gave that I'm the only person who can decide if I'm yours or not, and you were right. I am yours."

Shouta groaned, reaching out to gently manhandle him into his lap. "You can't just say things like that," he muttered before slotting their mouths together, hands clenching at Izuku's hips.

Izuku laughed against his mouth. "You said it first," he managed breathlessly after the kiss broke.

Shouta huffed, hiding his smile by capturing Izuku's mouth again. Izuku slid his hands into Shouta's hair, scraping his nails gently against his scalp. Shouta hummed into the kiss, his grip on Izuku's hips tightening slightly. "Are you ready to talk about what happened tonight?" Shouta murmured against Izuku's lips after they separated to breathe.

Izuku sighed, pulling away and shifting himself off of Shouta's lap. "Not really," he admitted. "Honestly, I feel...violated. It was bad enough when Bakugou came in without my permission, but not knowing who was in my apartment, but knowing that they touched my things, that someone who's willing to do that much destruction knows where I live?" He shuddered, unable to say anything more.

Shouta leaned into him. "I'm sorry this happened," he said quietly. "Nedzu is working on getting access to any security cameras in the area to see if they caught anything."

"I...don't think he'll find anything," Izuku admitted dryly. "I don't live in the best area, most of the time any security cameras in the area are broken." He saw Shouta's expression and smiled briefly. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to find a better area for my new apartment. I have the funds for a good deposit now."

"We'll take it as it comes," Shouta said, noncommittal.

Izuku eyed him for a moment before he shrugged and decided to ignore that. "You'll have to let me know how you want to split chores and utilities."

Shouta shrugged back at him. "Clean up after yourself and let me know if you use the last of something," he said flatly. "You're here because someone literally broke in and trashed your place. I'm not going to make you pay utilities when you still have to either pay your rent or pay to break your lease."

"Ok," Izuku murmured, curling into Shouta's side. "I'll leave that for now. Just let me know if anything changes on that front?"

"Of course," Shouta said, running his fingers through Izuku's hair. "Are you planning on making an appointment with Abe-San?"

"Oh absolutely," was Izuku's immediate reply. "I know better than to try and handle this myself." He snorted suddenly. "I'm pretty sure I'm going to be putting Abe-San's daughter through school at this rate," he joked.

The laugh that came out of Shouta was short and sharp as he shook his head. "You're something else," he told Izuku affectionately.

"I'm pretty great," Izuku agreed teasingly, enjoying the second burst of laughter that came from Shouta. "I'm going to have to tell Hitoshi," he mentioned after a few minutes. "He's going to lose his mind."

"I can't say I blame him, I think anyone would lose their minds at this happening to their friend," Shotua pointed out.

"True," Izuku agreed. "If the situations were reversed I would probably lose my shit too."

After another few minutes, Shouta hummed and smiled slightly mischievously, making Izuku look at him with wary amusement. "So, my being willing to share my sleeping bag with you is true love?" He asked playfully, making the decision to change the subject to something more pleasing.

Izuku groaned, equally playful as he leaned back against the arm of the couch, draping an arm over his face dramatically. "It was a slip of the tongue," he protested.

Shouta grinned then. "But that means you were already thinking it," he said, catching Izuku's ankle and tugging so he was sprawled out on the couch, Shouta kneeling above him.

"I haven't had my freakout over this yet," Izuku laughed as he dropped his arm from his face.

Shouta's smile shaded towards triumphant now. "What's there to freak out about?" He asked. "You love me." He leaned down and placed a soft kiss on Izuku's lips. "I love you." He kissed him again. "No need to freak out or panic over it."

Izuku huffed up at him. "I've never been in love before," he said flatly. "There's definitely a need to freak out over it." But he leaned up and kissed Shouta, smiling at him as he dropped back down.

"Well, we can always pretend we didn't have this conversation so you can freak out and then bring it up yourself once that's over," Shouta said thoughtfully, making Izuku groan as he nudged Shouta's hip with his knee.

"We're not doing that, that's dumb," he rolled his eyes playfully. "But thank you for offering."

Shouta hummed, dropping down to his elbow so he was fully pressed against Izuku. He might be playing it off like a joke, but Shouta could clearly see that Izuku was, in fact, panicking slightly over this. That wouldn't do at all. "I love you," he repeated plainly, watching how Izuku's face softened, the quiet panic in his eyes fading. "It might be too soon, but ignoring what I feel is illogical."

Izuku sighed, something tense relaxing inside of him. "I love you too," he murmured. "Too soon or not, it's the truth." He smiled then. "You're right, it would be illogical to ignore it just because it may be considered too soon."

Shouta smiled back at him, sliding a hand to cup the back of Izuku's head. "I'm glad you agree." His smile shifted into a smirk then. "I can't say I would have taken you not agreeing with any sort of grace," he admitted, "But I would have done my best."

Izuku laughed then. "Well, luckily we don't have to worry about it," he said in amusement. "I have to admit to some curiosity about what you 'not taking it with grace' would mean though." If it was anything like how Hitoshi had apparently 'given in gracefully' after Izuku had badgered him into getting a therapist, it would have been a downright siege on his emotions.

"I would have absolutely smothered you in affection," he admitted shamelessly. "Until you had fallen as far and as hard as I had." He paused. "I would have also made sure that we spent as much time together as possible, to make sure you knew that I was making room for you in my life as soon as you were ready."

"That is very manipulative," Izuku managed, breathless with laughter. "You were definitely Nedzu's student." He shook his head with a grin. He couldn't lie to himself. He deeply appreciated knowing that even if Izuku hadn't quite been willing to admit he was in love, Shouta would have invested himself in making sure he got there.

Shouta shrugged. "I want you," he said easily. "I want you to be as deep in this as I am."

Izuku frowned up at him. "Stop being so attractive," he ordered, before tugging on Shouta's hair to pull him down far enough he could catch his mouth.