Izuku was surprised at how easily he slept with Shouta in the same bed. He'd thought how hard he'd slept the night after Bakugou had come into his apartment had been because of the stress of the evening. Given that he slept equally deeply this second night with Shouta, it seemed like maybe the other man was just a soothing presence for him at night.

He was also a little surprised at how clingy Shouta was when he was sleeping. When Izuku woke up, Shouta was curled around him, an arm tossed over him and keeping him close. He hadn't noticed the first night, since Shouta had woken up before him. Today however, Izuku woke up first and just enjoyed the warmth and closeness for a while before trying to slide out of the bed without waking Shouta up.

He failed at that, of course, and Shouta groaned a little and tightened his arms around Izuku. "Where are you going?" He asked groggily, looking grumpy when Izuku turned over to look at him.

"I have to get up to get ready for work," Izuku responded quietly, feeling affection pool in his chest as he looked at Shouta's grumpy expression and messy hair as the man pulled him even closer.

"I don't suppose I could get you to consider taking the night off?" Shouta asked quietly.

Izuku sighed faintly. "No, unfortunately. Since I had an expected night off last night, I'll need to head in tonight." He paused. "I'll also need to let Hideo know about the break in. He might be able to see if Nite-Lite accessed my records."

"That's a good idea." Shouta looked a little bit more enthusiastic about Izuku going into work at that point. "Let me know if he's able to confirm one way or the other on that."

"I will." Izuku stretched and yawned, smiling into Shouta's chest when the man tightened his grip briefly before letting go. "I'll try to text you and let you know if Hideo is able to find anything, but if I forget I'll let you know once I get back." He let himself have another peaceful moment in bed with Shouta before shoving himself up. "I'm going to take a shower, if that's ok?"

Shouta grunted, turning over. "I want you to consider this your home, you don't have to ask me to do anything." He promptly buried his face in his pillow and went back to sleep, leaving Izuku muffling a laugh.

He took his shower as quickly as possible, enjoying the far better water pressure, and then made his way to the kitchen. Shouta had roused himself enough to slump at the kitchen table with his hands wrapped around a cup of coffee, and Izuku smiled at the sight.

"Do you eat breakfast?" He asked curiously.

"No," Shouta yawned. "Do you?"

"I don't," Izuku answered cheerfully. "I like to sleep as long as possible, so I keep some things that are easy to grab and take those into work so I'll have something when I get hungry."

"I don't think I have anything like that," Shouta said, a little more awake now as his brow furrowed in concern.

"Not a problem!" Izuku smiled at him. "I keep a few things in my desk at work too. If you don't mind me taking up some space in your fridge and pantry, I'll grab a few things after work tonight."

Shouta gave him a flat look. "I think we already had the discussion about considering this your home, didn't we?"

Holding up his hands in surrender, Izuku laughed. "I'm just double checking."

Shouta eyed him for another moment before huffing. "Text me when you're off, if I'm off I'll go to the store with you," he offered. "If I'm still not off patrol I should be able to cover Hitoshi's patrol route enough that he could swing by and at least walk you there and back."

Izuku couldn't help his grimace. "I appreciate the fact that you and Hitoshi are so willing to maneuver to make sure Bakugou can't get to me, but the fact that it's necessary is really pissing me off," he admitted.

"I get it," Shouta murmured. "Hopefully things will calm down soon. I don't want you to feel like I'm being...overbearing or controlling."

"You're trying to keep me safe, I understand that." Izuku shrugged as he added, "It doesn't stop me from being irritated, but I won't take that out on you." He smirked briefly. "I might just take it out on Nite-Lite though."

Shouta snorted. "You absolutely should."

Izuku hesitated briefly before pressing a warm kiss to Shouta's cheek. "I'll see you later," he murmured, darting out the door before Shouta could say anything in return. Between last night and this morning, the sheer comfortable domesticity was throwing him off his game. It wasn't something he was used to-he liked it, which was the most surprising part for him. He had never thought he'd enjoy the domestic parts of dating, so finding out he did was a pleasant surprise.

Or maybe he just liked Shouta..

He walked to work quickly, enjoying the very short walk as he texted Hitoshi a quick update as to what had happened the previous night.

Izuku: So, someone broke into my apartment last night. Hitoshi: For fucks sake, Bakugou did it again?

Izuku: Well, Shouta pointed out that it could be Nite-Lite instead, which is a whole new level of 'are you kidding me'.

Hitoshi: Wait, so they broke in when you were gone? That's new.

Izuku: Oh yeah, kicked in my door and trashed my place. I've moved in with Shouta for the time being.

Hitoshi: For the time being. Right.

Hitoshi: I can't believe this. I'm going to kick someone's ass over this entire situation.

Izuku: Get in line. Nothing missing, so it's either Bakugou or Nite-Lite being pissed over everything and punishing me for it.

Hitoshi: We really need to make some time to meet up, I need a play by play of this entire situation now.

Izuku: Let me know when and I'll be there!

Izuku: Just got to work, I'll talk to you later.

The one unfortunate thing about Shouta living so much closer to the Agency was the lack of time to text and talk on the way there. He'd take the easy walk over the additional time to talk on his way there though. He walked to his desk and dropped his bag, before heading to Hideo's door and knocking.

Opening the door, Hideo deadpanned, "This is the most we've spoken since I hired you. I don't like this trend. Make it stop."

"Trust me, I wish," Izuku replied drily, stepping to the office when Hideo stepped aside in invitation.

"What happened this time?" Hideo asked with a heavy sigh.

Izuku dropped into the chair in front of his desk with a soft, irritated noise. "Someone broke into my apartment last night. Kicked the door in and completely trashed the place."

Hideo completely froze for several seconds before purposefully forcing himself to relax. "I'm going to check your records here at the Agency and see if Nite-Lite accessed them." The man's face was stone cold. "If she did this, I'm not going to stop at just firing her. I'm going to report her to the HPSC and make damn sure she's thrown into Tartarus. This is going beyond workplace harassment."

"Check the records first," Izuku murmured. He almost hoped it was Nite-Lite-if she'd accessed his records then he could be done with her and take one problem off of his plate. He appreciated how he didn't even have to ask, that Hideo had already seen what was needed and made the decision to take action.

"Wait here," Hideo ordered. "I'm going to go check right now." He stalked out of his office, and for the brief moment the door was open Izuku could hear the sudden, resounding silence on the floor. Hideo didn't get this angry often, but when he did it was concerning, to say the least.

Izuku stood and started pacing nervously, chewing on his bottom lip. He spun around when the door opened, and his heart dropped when Nite-Lite slipped into the room and shut the door behind her. "What are you doing in here?" Izuku asked sharply, digging his nails into the palms of his hands.

"I saw you came in here immediately after you got into work today, I wanted to check on you and make sure you were OK," Nite-Lite said, her voice soft and sweet and entirely opposite to how she'd been for the past few weeks. More like the woman he'd met when he'd first started here, instead of the bitter and angry person that had taken her place. He knew all too well what rejection could do to people, but seeing it in his own life had been startling. .

"I-," Izuku hesitated, taking a step back. He was incredibly relieved when she stayed in the same spot instead of advancing on him.

Hideo slammed the door open, immediately zeroing in on Nite-Lite and assessing the situation quickly. "Out," he ordered curtly. She quickly obeyed, slipping out the door with the same silence she'd entered.

Izuku met his eyes and sighed at the frustration evident. "No evidence she accessed my records, I'm assuming?" He asked quietly.

"None," Hideo agreed grimly.

Izuku dropped back down into the chair, disappointed and already exhausted. "So either the records were accessed and it didn't register, which is a problem all its own, Bakugou managed to find out where I live on his own, or one or both of them followed me home without me noticing."

"That's about the gist of it," Hideo agreed with a scowl, leaning a hip against his desk. "Nite-Lite coming in here like that doesn't look good for her, but I can't exactly bar her from interacting with you. You're our only analyst right now."

"I know," Izuku reassured him. "I understand that. She was being weirdly nice to me, which was kind of concerning, but maybe she's coming around and understanding that I'm not interested in her."

"Hopeful thinking," Hideo said drily. "I know you're an optimist, but this is a whole new level."

"Maybe," he agreed with a snort. "But dealing with two people deciding to go psycho at the same time, maybe I need a little unrealistic optimism."

"Well," Hideo said after a moment, "First and foremost I'm going to lock down everyone's records tight so we don't have this risk again. I know it's too little too late for you, and I'm sorry about that."

Izuku slumped down further into the chair, but waived a dismissive hand. "I don't think any of us were expecting the risk to come from inside the Agency. I get it, and it's a good idea to lock everything down so this won't even be a consideration for anyone else."

Hideo watched Izuku stare at his door with dread building on his face, and resented the hell out of the fact that this situation was making the best analyst he'd had in years dread going to work. "I'll tell you what," he said abruptly. "For tonight, I'm going to tell Nite-Lite to bring all issues that may require any sort of analysis to me, and if there's anything that I can't handle I'll bring it to you personally." He was satisfied when he saw Izuku's shoulder's relax.

"Thank you," Izuku murmured, the building dread dissipating a little bit. He smiled faintly then. "As a fair warning, if everyone keeps whispering about me I'm going to set my boyfriend on them."

Hideo snorted then. "They'd deserve it." He took a few steps forward to pat Izuku on the shoulder.

"They really do." Izuku shoved himself up out of the chair once Hideo had stepped back. "I'd better get back to work." He paused. "Or rather, actually start my work for the day," he joked, laughing a little.

Hideo rolled his eyes a little to avoid smiling at him, and shooed him off as he said, "Send Nite-

Lite in if you see her. I'll explain how things are gonna go tonight." Once Izuku was out the door, he sat behind his desk with all amusement falling from his face. It was time for him to start looking into matters seriously. He was not going to lose the best analyst he'd had in years because of this bullshit.

Izuku counted himself lucky that Nite-Lite wasn't hovering around his desk as she was wont to do when he came out of Hideo's office. He caught X-Ray and asked him to pass on the message if he saw her as well, and then he settled in his desk to start the pile of work he had. Towards the end of his shift, he got a text from Shouta.

Shouta: Hizashi called a little after you left and asked me to take the night off so we could talk.

Izuku paused, frowning down at his phone. That was the most non-committal text he'd ever received from Shouta, which wasn't promising.

Izuku: How did it go?

Shouta: He apologized to me and explained what's going on.

Shouta: He'd like a chance to do the same with you. Would you be ok with him walking you to and from the store tonight?

Izuku: That would be fine. It looks like I'll be off on time tonight. Shouta: Thank you.

Izuku smiled softly, shaking his head. How could he do anything else?

He was, in fact, off on time-luckily with no further interaction with Nite-Lite, and when he walked out the door he caught sight of Hizashi. "I have to admit," he murmured as he came up to the blonde, "Seeing you with your hair down is super weird."

Hizashi snorted. "I bet. Makes it hard for most people to recognize me though. And luckily most people who do recognize me don't tend to come up to me when I'm dressed down."

"Do you know where the closest store is to Shouta's apartment? My normal store is probably ten minutes past my apartment in the opposite direction, which is a bit of a walk this late," Izuku laughed.

"Yeah, I'll get us there." They started walking as he was speaking, and Hizashi paused before sighing. "I owe you an apology. I'm sorry for the way I reacted when Shouta told me you two were dating. I..." He flinched slightly and flushed, and Izuku frowned.

"Hey." He paused and placed a gentle hand on Hizashi's arm to stop him as well and turn him to face Izuku before dropping the hand. "You don't have to say anything more than that. I appreciate the apology, and as long as the behavior changes to match, you and I are going to be just fine."

Hizashi sighed, shifting around Izuku to lean against the wall. Izuku copied him, grateful that at this time of night there wasn't anyone around.

"You're incredibly kind to say that," Hizashi said after a long moment of silence. "And I appreciate it. This just isn't something I've told anyone except Shouta earlier today, but I owe you this explanation."

Izuku's frown deepened. "You don't owe me anything. I'll listen if you want to talk about it, but

if you're not comfortable telling me, you shouldn't."

Laughing softly, Hizashi shook his head. "Shouta told me you were sweet, but I think he actually

understated how kind you actually are." He sighed again. "I want to tell you." Izuku settled himself more firmly against the wall. "Then I'm willing to listen."

"I had just graduated from UA," Hizashi began slowly. "I didn't go the traditional route of becoming a Junior Hero at an Agency-I was starting my radio show so I needed more flexibility than was traditionally offered."

Izuku nodded slowly. "I can understand that. Did you do an apprenticeship after UA instead?"

"Yeah." Hizashi smiled faintly, although it quickly faded. "It wasn't under a well known Hero, but I was able to start getting my name out there from a mixture of my radio show and running patrols with Nemuri and Tensei."

Izuku stayed quiet this time, a sick feeling building in the pit of his stomach. He was pretty sure he could see where this was going, and suddenly the reaction Hizashi had was starting to make a lot of sense.

"Long story short, the Hero I was apprenticing under and I started a relationship during that time." Hizashi grimaced faintly. "Well, that's what we called it. But he was taking advantage of the trust I had in him to coerce me into things that I wasn't comfortable with, and it was unhealthy at best even at the beginning. It became outright abusive towards the end." He shoved his hands into his pockets. "I was projecting what had happened to me onto you, even though it was an entirely different situation and I'm so sorry for how I acted towards you and Shouta."

Sliding over slightly, Izuku gently bumped his shoulder against Hizashi's. "Your apology is accepted," he said quietly. "And I'm so sorry that happened to you."

"I know Shouta's not like that. Just...not talking about it for so long, and then having my best friend show up in a relationship that looked similar on the surface..." He trailed off, shaking his head.

"I get it," Izuku told him, hesitating before adding, "Just do us, and yourself, a favor, and work on that?"

Hizashi smiled at him. "Yeah, I already asked Sho' for a recommendation for a therapist." He pushed himself off of the wall, and Izuku did the same.

"That's good." Izuku paused and decided that quid pro quo was the name of the game tonight. "I'm Quirkless, so I have a lot of issues from growing up Quirkless that I'm working through with a therapist. It helps me a lot to have an outside perspective on what happened."

"Since we're trauma sharing, does that mean we're best friends now?" Hizashi asked playfully, bumping his hip into Izuku's as they walked.

"Absolutely," Izuku laughed as they entered the store.

They quickly gathered up the few items Izuku needed for the remainder of his work week, and checked out.

"Out of curiosity," Hizashi began once they had started the walk back to Shouta's, "Why was Sho' so insistent that you be walked to and from the store?" He smiled briefly. "I'm sure you're tired of

hearing it, but while he can absolutely be possessive of his partners, he's never been this sort of 'I'm not going to let you go anywhere by yourself' possessive.

Izuku snorted. "I've definitely heard it a lot since we've started dating," he agreed. Considering the situation for a moment, Izuku made his decision. He'd been keeping quiet out of fear and a sense of shame, and all that was doing was helping Bakugou and Nite-Lite terrorize him. "Bakugou decided that I should be dating him instead, and he's been forceful enough about it-and is able to find me easily enough when I'm alone-that Shouta and I don't really feel comfortable with me being by myself. Especially walking at night. Not to mention one of the Heroes I work with decided to start shit at the same time."

Hizashi let out a sympathetic noise. "That sucks. Especially having two people starting shit at the same time. That's the way it goes though, they see you going through a rough time and decide that it'll be a good time for them to try something too, since you're distracted."

"Yeah, and I was definitely distracted," Izuku admitted with a shrug. "I had a lot going on, and she was definitely not helping."

"She?" Hizashi was surprised. "Aren't you, as you told Nem, very gay?" He asked, laughing at Izuku's exasperated nod.

"I am, and I've made it very clear that I'm not interested." Izuku sighed. "It's irritating, but I still have hope that she'll get the message."

Hizashi laughed. "Fingers crossed." They stopped at the door to Shouta's apartment. "Do you need any help with the bags?"

"I've got it, thank you though!" Izuku offered a cheery wave as Hizashi started off, and then went into the apartment.

Shouta appeared in the entry way as Izuku was slipping off his shoes while keeping a precarious hold on the few bags he had.

"Wouldn't it be easier to put the bags down to take off your shoes?" Shouta asked in amusement as he stepped forward to take them out of Izuku's hands.

"Easier yes, but it would be letting the bags win," Izuku said cheerfully, laughing at Shouta's incredulous expression. "It's like how you have to bring all the groceries in at one time, otherwise you've failed," he tried to explain, before breaking down into laughter at the deepening incredulity on Shouta's face.

"That makes absolutely no sense," he said flatly, taking the couple of bags into the kitchen.

Izuku followed, grinning. "Look, I'm just saying that taking more than one trip to bring groceries in is not an option, that's all."

Shouta shook his head, hiding his smile in the pantry as he put away the few groceries Izuku had gotten. "You could have gotten a few more things if you needed, there's plenty of space."

"I saw that," Izuku said drily. And he had. The pantry was practically bare, and the fridge wasn't much better. "You weren't kidding about not cooking much, huh?"

"I really wasn't," Shouta replied, shutting the pantry door.

Izuku leaned against the counter, watching Shouta. Barefoot and in jeans and a t-shirt, his hair

loose, the man looked edible and Izuku had to remind himself that this wasn't really the time to jump the man and drag him to bed.

"Would you be opposed to me cooking a few nights a week for the both of us?" He asked cautiously.

Shouta paused, looking over at him. "I wouldn't be," he answered slowly. "But I don't want you to feel like this is something you have to do. I wasn't kidding when I said that you should consider this your home, you don't have to do any sort of repayment for you staying here if that's what this is."

Izuku shook his head, smiling. "It's not," he promised. "But I'm not able to subsist on jelly pouches and takeout like you and Toshi can." He smiled wryly. "There was a point I had to for a bit, and I was not a pleasant person to be around," he admitted.

"Then I'd be more than happy for you to cook a few days a week," Shouta told him. "I'll wash up after. It wouldn't be fair for you to be doing all the work."

Izuku smiled at him then, helpless to resist the urge. "I appreciate that," was all he said.

"What did Hideo find?" Shouta asked, leaning back against the closed pantry door.

Izuku grimaced. "Nothing, unfortunately."

"I don't like any of the options that leaves us with," Shouta said after a moment of consideration.

"Me neither," Izuku said drily. "But it is what it is. I don't know what else to do if it was Nite- Lite, she's just not getting the hint that I'm not interested." Izuku wasn't even hinting at this point, he was straight up telling her he wasn't interested and she still wasn't backing off.

Shouta moved quickly towards Izuku after he said that, his eyes dark. He pressed a quick kiss to his lips before grasping the backs of his thighs and lifting him onto the counter he'd been leaning against.

"Maybe she'll get the fucking hint this time," he muttered against Izuku's lips before trailing down to his neck, and dedicating himself to making a very obvious mark.

Izuku let out a strangled noise and buried his hands in Shouta's long hair. Even if she didn't, Izuku certainly didn't mind the attempt.