Izuku stared at his phone for a long moment, long enough that Shouta put his mug of tea down with a soft click . "Izuku? Is something wrong?" The expression on his face wasn't something Shouta had seen before.
"Toshi knows how Bakugou is getting information on me, apparently." Izuku looked up at Shouta, handing him his phone to show the text messages. "Is it ok if I have him come over? I don't think we want to have this conversation by text." Izuku was actually quite certain about that.
His brow furrowing as he thumbed through the text messages, Shouta nodded. "Of course." He tapped out of the conversation automatically, and trying to get back into it he accidentally tapped the message thread between Izuku and Tensei and he paused. It was...extensive. He handed Izuku back his phone after another moment, and glanced towards the kitchen.
Izuku snorted. "Yeah, go make coffee. We'll all need it, I'm sure."
Izuku: Come over to Shouta's. We'll talk.
Hitoshi sent a thumbs up emoji, and Izuku smiled slightly at it. HIs smile faded quickly as he considered how Hitoshi would know how Bakugou was getting information. Hitoshi would rather stab himself than talk to Bakugou, so Izuku knew it wasn't him just telling the information-but that left him confused and deeply concerned, because he couldn't think of any other way for Bakugou to be getting information.
Having come back into the room silently after putting coffee on, Shouta tugged Izuku into a loose hug. "At least we'll have some answers now," he murmured.
"Yeah," Izuku agreed softly. "But I don't know that I'm going to like the answers I'm about to get."
Shouta didn't have anything to say to that. He wasn't sure he was going to like the answers either. So he just held Izuku silently until the sharp knock at the door jolted them apart. "I'll grab Hitoshi," Shouta told Izuku. "Drink some of your tea." He had wanted to demand answers from Hitoshi immediately, but the young man's pale, drawn face convinced him otherwise.
Izuku looked up from his tea and frowned immediately. "Toshi, you look terrible. Sit down and breathe for a moment," Izuku ordered, setting his tea down again without drinking any of it.
Hitoshi looked at him and smirked faintly, a ghost of his normal expression. "I see Sensei decided
to make a point," he said, looking pointedly at the very dark mark on Izuku's neck.
"He decided to see if visual aids help understanding," Izuku said primly, before pointing to the couch. "Seriously, sit down. You look like you're about ready to fall over, and the last thing we need is you passing out on us tonight."
"You're going to be pissed," Hitoshi muttered as he finally did what he was told, dropping onto the couch without any semblance of his normal grace. "Hell, I'm pissed and I'm not the one dealing with any of this."
Izuku sighed, going and perching on the arm of the couch, rubbing Hitoshi's back soothingly. "I probably will be pissed," he agreed. "But I'm not going to take it out on you."
"You probably should." Hitoshi scrubbed his hands through his hair roughly. "You asked me to not tell anyone about your issues with Bakugou, and I didn't. But when Sensei offered to fake date you, I thought it was hilarious." His lips twitched as he looked up at Izuku. "So I told Shouto-not that you were fake dating, but that Sensei had asked you out."
Izuku breathed out slowly. "And he told Bakugou?" Hitoshi nodded slightly, and Izuku closed his eyes for a moment. It explained why, after such a long period of silence, Bakugou had suddenly started harassing him again. He had been told that there was competition , and he'd never cared for that.
Shouta dropped down on Hitoshi's other side, handing out mugs of coffee before patting his shoulder gently. "And I made it very clear that I was going out to dinner that night, so he could have heard that from literally anyone."
"Shouto mentioned your apartment building when we were walking by one night," Hitoshi continued quietly. "He's been wanting to move out of his father's house, but I said I had a friend who lived there and the security was shitty." He smiled wryly. "I should have been more careful, Shouto knows you're my only friend."
Izuku continued rubbing his back gently. "It is what it is," he murmured. He could be angry, but what good would it do? Hitoshi was obviously tearing himself up over this, Izuku doing so as well would be unnecessary. And he hadn't given out any information Izuku would have been angry about, if Bakugou hadn't taken advantage of Todoroki. "Have you mentioned anything to him about when I'd be home?" That is what would make Izuku angry.
"No," Hitoshi said firmly. "I've never mentioned your work schedule, or when you've said you're going to be off early or late, nothing like that." He paused and winced. "It's probably obvious you have a similar schedule to mine though, given that we tend to be free around the same times."
"True, but Bakugou has had an uncanny ability to catch me at home-and alone." Hitoshi not telling Shouto relieved Izuku, but at the same time left him with a sense of dread. How had Bakugou known Izuku was home if he wasn't told?
Shouta tipped his head curiously. "You wouldn't have told Todoroki where I live, or that Izuku was living with me, would you?" The warning was clear. Hitoshi better not have .
Luckily, Hitoshi was far smarter than that. "No, I didn't tell him that either." He smiled bitterly. "But it's how I found out he was telling Bakugou shit. He'd borrowed my phone, and when I got it back my text thread with Izu was pulled up. I never leave it pulled up-I normally delete the texts too, but I've gotten lax about it over the past few weeks. I asked him about it, and he just...he looked at me like I was saying something strange. He said of course he told Bakugou information
when he asked, there was no reason not to."
Izuku groaned. He had wanted to keep his issues with Bakugou quiet. He had been embarrassed about their history-about how he had been bullied as a child-and about the harassment now. "By having you keep my issues with him quiet, he managed to manipulate Todoroki into spying for him," Izuku realized.
"I don't know if too much manipulation was going on," Hitoshi muttered. "He deliberately pulled up those text messages Izu, it's not like he was just passing on what he thought was gossip."
Smiling wryly, Izuku suggested, "Talk to him-ask him why he was passing on information." Izuku remembered Todoroki vaguely from school, and knew him far better now from Hitoshi talking about him. "I'd bet anything Bakugou is making it seem like he's worried about me, for whatever reason. He can be surprisingly good at manipulating people, when he wants to be."
Hitoshi lifted his head from his hands and paused. "He...did ask me how I could support this," he said slowly, consideringly. "I was too furious to ask him what he meant." He had been hurt, too, that Todoroki had been using him for information about Izuku.
"Ask him," Izuku said. "We need to figure out what sort of narrative Bakugou is spreading, and find out if we need to deny what he's saying or not."
"Yeah." Hitoshi pulled out his phone and grimaced at it.
Izuku rolled his eyes. "Go back to your apartment and talk to him face to face, Toshi."
"I don't want to leave you alone," was the automatic protest, before Hitoshi blinked and looked at Shouta. "Oh. You won't be," he realized. He smiled then. "Yeah, I think I'll go talk to him. Hey, Izu?"
"Hm?" Izuku looked over at him curiously.
Hitoshi tugged him down into a hug, making Izuku squeak and flail as he was tugged into Hitoshi's lap. "Thank you for being so understanding," he said into Izuku's ear. "I know I wouldn't have been."
Izuku finally managed to get himself straightened out. "You didn't say anything you shouldn't have." He shrugged slightly. "Could you have been a little more circumspect? Sure, I guess, but who would have expected this," he gestured expansively to encompass the entire situation, "To happen?"
Shouta reached over and tugged Izuku from Hitoshi's lap to his own before adding, "You were speaking to someone you thought would hold your confidence, not gossiping. It happens to the best of us Hitoshi, the only thing to do is learn from it."
Hitoshi made his way out of the apartment, and Izuku leaned back against Shouta's chest for a long moment. "Well, we can be reasonably sure that Bakugou is the one who called the police on me for being here."
"I want to know how he knows where I live," Shouta muttered, scowling deeply. He didn't like the thought that Bakugou knew where he lived-he hadn't provided anyone except Hitoshi his address for a reason.
Izuku paused. "Doesn't UA keep a record of your address?" He asked slowly, feeling Shouta stiffen beneath him.
"It does, but Nedzu keeps the addresses under some of his best encryption." Still, he was going to double check tomorrow. Just to be safe.
"True. And in all reality, if Bakugou knew I was staying with you all he had to do was see what apartment I went into," Izuku mused. And he hadn't been paying close attention when he'd walked back from the store with Hizashi. Someone could have followed him. "This situation is going to make me paranoid as fuck," he muttered under his breath.
Shouta snorted. "It hasn't already?" He asked drily.
"Not yet, but I'm certainly getting there." He was about ready to start mimicking Hideo and taking varying routes to and from the Agency every day at this point.
"I'm an Underground Hero," Shouta said blandly. "I'm already paranoid. This situation is making it three times worse. I'm about to the point of locking you in the apartment until I can make Bakugou and Nite-Lite disappear." Izuku twisted to face him, and he and Izuku stared at each other for a long moment before they both burst into laughter.
"I needed that," Izuku wheezed after he'd managed to control his laughter, slipping off of Shouta's lap to instead sit sideways on the couch and face him. Shouta smirked a bit, but it faded as he thought about the message thread he'd seen. Izuku arched an eyebrow at his expression. "What is it? You've been acting a bit weird ever since I handed you my phone earlier."
Shouta grimaced. "It's nothing you need to worry about. I'm being ridiculous, and you have far more important things on your mind," he deflected.
Izuku's eyebrow raised higher. "I do have a lot of things on my mind," he agreed. "Right now the main one is what's up with you." He shrugged at Shouta's slightly incredulous look. "Look, Bakugou and Nite-Lite will both hold-I've already been arrested tonight, if either of them try anything else today you and Nedzu are going to be visiting me in prison."
Shouta snorted. "You've been texting Tensei a lot," he murmured after a few moments of Izuku staring expectantly.
"Yeah," he agreed, tipping his head curiously at the seeming non-sequitur. "We've been talking a lot about analysis and other options he may have to still help at his Agency without stepping on toes-and without feeling like he's..." Izuku waved a hand. "Without feeling like he's taking advantage or not pulling his weight, you know?"
"That makes sense-it's good you're helping him," Shouta said quietly, something a little bit embarrassed flickering over his face for a bare moment before he tucked it away.
Izuku's eyes narrowed as he caught it. "Shouta, seriously. What's wrong?"
He sighed heavily. "I closed out of your conversation with Hitoshi when you handed me the phone, and I saw your conversation with Tensei. I just...hadn't expected the two of you to talk so much."
Izuku squinted slightly, confused. "Ok," he drawled slowly. "Fair enough I guess, you and I have been busy and I haven't exactly been keeping you updated on what Tensei and I have been talking about." He considered Shouta. "I'm still confused," he admitted. "Did I do something to upset you?"
Shouta's eyes widened at the hint of hurt in Izuku's voice. "No," he said firmly. "Absolutely not." He stopped for a moment, and sighed again. "Ok, do not laugh at me for this," he warned,
waiting for Izuku's nod before he continued. "I saw how often you were speaking with Tensei and got a little bit jealous."
Izuku blinked at him, lips parted slightly in shock. "I-what?" He asked. Izuku absolutely could not make sense of that.
"I told you it was stupid," Shouta reminded him. "I know it is, and I know neither you or Tensei would do anything to hurt me. It's a 'me' problem, and I didn't want to bother you with it."
"It is a 'you' problem," Izuku agreed after a moment. "But it's good to know what you're thinking." He smiled at Shouta. "I appreciate knowing that you know we wouldn't hurt you, and I also like knowing that you're not upset with me."
Shouta winced a little at that. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I didn't realize you'd think I was upset with you. I was irritated with myself for being stupid about it, but you haven't done anything wrong."
Izuku shifted closer and curled into his side, relaxing when Shouta automatically draped an arm over him and pulled him closer. "I guess the fact that I didn't say anything about how much we were talking-and it sounds like Tensei didn't either-probably didn't help the knee jerk reaction when you first saw it, huh?" He asked wryly.
"It did not," Shouta agreed. "But that was also me being stupid. Neither of you have to run your conversations by me."
Humming, Izuku leaned into him a little bit more. "True, but it's hard to control our immediate reactions sometimes." He lifted up slightly to press a soft kiss onto Shouta's cheek. "I think you deserve a lot of credit for immediately realizing you were being unreasonable and doing your best to not make that my problem."
Shouta huffed at him. "I would have done better at making sure it wasn't your problem if you hadn't insisted on me telling you," he pointed out.
"True," Izuku agreed easily, "But I always feel like I've done something wrong, especially when someone is upset around me. It's the anxiety," He deadpanned, giving dramatic jazz hands. "Seriously though, I really do always prefer for you to let me know what you're thinking. If you're upset, I can't do anything to help unless I know what's going on."
"It's not your responsibility to help me, especially when I'm being unreasonable about something," Shouta said firmly. "It's on me to help myself when it comes to that."
"Sure, but you can't tell me that getting it out in the open didn't help." Izuku shot him an amused look, but got distracted when his phone vibrated. "Oh, Toshi is texting me."
Shouta sat up a little bit. "Did he manage to talk to Todoroki?" He hoped the boy had a good excuse for providing Bakugou the information he had, because Shouta was incredibly disappointed in him-not to mention how upset Hitoshi had been.
Hitoshi: So, you were right. As usual. Bakugou was feeding Shouto a load of lies. Izuku: Do I even want to know?
Hitoshi: Honestly? Probably not.
Izuku: Promising. Tell me anyway.
Waiting for Hitoshi to text back, he finally answered Shouta. "Yeah, he did. Apparently he's been spouting some nonsense. Toshi is going to let me know what he's been saying." He grimaced. "I'm hoping he's just been lying to Todoroki, because if he's been spreading any rumors it's going to be a pain in the ass to squash them."
Shouta grimaced and slumped back down. "That is exactly the reason why I never bothered trying to dismiss any of the rumors about me," he grumbled. "The amount of time and effort it would take..." He trailed off with a look of utter frustration.
Izuku snorted, but Hitoshi was done writing his mini book.
Hitoshi: Ok. So. Apparently you and Bakugou were dating, but you were keeping it quiet. He proposed and you got scared of the commitment and said you wanted to take a break. Sensei is apparently taking advantage of the fact you were scared of commitment to lure you into a relationship with him and now he's possessive and won't let you leave him. Complete with moving you in super fast and not letting you go anywhere by yourself. Needless to say, Shouto found it #relatable and thought giving him information to get to you and talk to you was reasonable.
Izuku: Ok, that's a lot to unpack but. Why didn't he just ask you?
Hitoshi: He didn't want to ruin my impression of Sensei.
"Ugh." Izuku wrinkled his nose in disgust. "I can practically see the moon eyes from here," he muttered with a scowl.
"What?" Shouta asked, unreasonably amused by the look on his face.
"Hitoshi finds the fact that Todoroki didn't want to 'ruin his impression of you' terribly romantic, I can tell," Izuku said. "It's horrible. I can't stand him getting all gooey and sweet over Todoroki-I stopped thinking it was cute after the fifth time they broke up." He tossed Shouta his phone, not willing to verbalize everything Hitoshi had sent him.
Shouta was furious . "I can excuse a lot of things," he said, voice lethally calm. "But I cannot, and will not, excuse Bakugou spreading rumors that I'm fucking abusive , and that is the only way someone could interpret what he told Todoroki."
"Yeah." Izuku reached out and took his phone back when Shouta offered it. "That's...what I was getting from it too, but I wanted to see what you thought. This isn't something that we can just ignore if he's been telling it to anyone other than Todoroki."
Izuku: Find out if he knows if Bakugou has been talking like that to anyone but him.
Izuku: Also, explain to him what's actually been going on.
Hitoshi sent another thumbs up emoji, and Izuku dropped his phone on the coffee table in front of the couch. "He's going to ask Todoroki. He's also going to explain the situation." Izuku rubbed his hands over his face tiredly. "This is going to give me another migraine," he mumbled.
"I forbid it," Shouta said, a bit dryly. "That scared the shit out of me, and I'm not eager to see you laid up like that again. You're always moving," he added, reaching out to catch Izuku's fidgeting hands and tug him closer.
Izuku laughed quietly, allowing Shouta to pull him close. He willingly curled into Shouta's side again, enjoying the warmth. He thought about everything that had happened over the evening.
"At least we know how Bakugou is getting most of his information. We can probably use that," he
mused. "Now all we have to do is figure out how in the hell he knew when I was going to be home-and more importantly how he knew when you left-when he broke in and confronted me, and how Nite-Lite is finding information."
"And who broke into your apartment the second time," Shouta added.
"That too," Izuku agreed. It wasn't as important, because it was pretty much guaranteed to be one of those two, but it would be good to know who to blame for it. "My money is on Nite-Lite," he commented. "I don't think Bakugou has the control to avoid exploding my shit, and everything was torn up but there were no scorch marks."
Shouta hummed consideringly. "I don't know, Bakugou showed a surprising amount of self control in some of the simulations we ran when he was in UA. He didn't in day-to-day life, but if he acted like it was a mission he would have been able to avoid his explosions going off."
Izuku twisted slightly to look at him. "I want you to know that the fact Bakugou can actually control himself if he wants to in no way makes me feel better about this situation," he said blandly.
Shouta met his eyes. "That's fair," he decided. "It wouldn't make me feel any better if I were in your shoes either. But it's probably important that you know that."
It probably was, but it made Izuku nervous in a way that he didn't quite know how to articulate to Shouta. A wild, unpredictable Bakugou was, in his own way, predictable for Izuku. He could expect the violence and anger, the physical aggression. There was almost a formula to it, a rhythm. But the sort of calm, methodical Bakugou that Shouta was describing? That wasn't something Izuku had any experience with, and that made Bakugou truly unpredictable in a way that Izuku hadn't understood he could be.
A Bakugou that Izuku didn't have experience with and couldn't predict was dangerous in a way he had never considered before, and that left him with the sinking feeling that he may have severely miscalculated.