Shouta went to the door to get Hitoshi and Todoroki, and Izuku took the time to sink onto the couch and close his eyes for just a moment before straightening up as Shouta led the other two into the living room. He didn't have time to be napping right now, he had plans to set into motion.

"First and foremost," Shouta began after a long moment of silence, "I'd like to know why you just...believed everything Bakugou told you without verifying any of it." He paused. "I'd also like to know why you thought I could ever act like that."

Todoroki winced slightly, shoulders slumping. "I-" He hesitated before taking a deep breath and straightening his back. "I know first hand that someone can appear one way and be someone completely different behind closed doors. But I did try to verify. You were seen around with Midoriya, and then suddenly Bakugou was coming around talking about how Midoriya kept brushing him off, how he was worried about him."

Letting a small, irritated noise Izuku pinched the bridge of his nose. "Of course he was saying that," he muttered bitterly.

Todoroki offered an apologetic look but continued. "And then Hitoshi let me borrow his phone and I found out that Midoriya had moved in with you so quickly, and I never saw him on his own anymore..." He sighed. "It was basically every warning sign you told us to look out for in flashing neon. Which should have told me that something was up, especially with Bakugou acting so oddly."

Izuku saw the struggle in Shouta's eyes and patted his arm gently. "Bakugou took advantage of the fact that you've been traumatized by your father to have you feed him information on me," Izuku said softly, forcing himself to ignore the full bodied flinch Todoroki gave when he mentioned his father. "I think part of you knew that you should just ask Toshi, because you went through his phone deliberately for our messages." He paused for a moment, to give his next words the most impact. "You're the reason this started, because you told him that Shouta and I started dating. Before you told him that, he had been leaving me alone."

Izuku wasn't trying to be cruel, but he needed to be clear about the impact that Todoroki's choices had on him. Whether or not the man agreed to help them, he needed to understand the consequences of him providing Bakugou the information he had.

"I'm so sorry," Todoroki murmured, eyes looking a little glossy.

Izuku bit back an alarmed noise. For someone who cried as often as he did, he was terrible at

consoling others. Also, he was actually a little irritated. Izuku was the one being stalked, and Todoroki was the one crying? "I can understand where you were coming from," Izuku said evenly, shoving his irritation to the back of his mind to be dealt with later. "But when someone is acting so out of the ordinary, and they're presenting you with something that fits all the pieces together a little too perfectly, maybe next time give it a second thought?"

"I will," Todoroki promised. "I've learned a lot from this."

Grimacing and rubbing Todoroki's back soothingly, Hitoshi added, "I'm going to be taking some tips from the two of you on communication, so hopefully he won't feel the need to hide something like this from me again. Even if he thinks it will hurt me." The side eye he offered Todoroki, and the almost pathetically guilty look the other man offered back had Izuku's lips twitching into a small half smile.

But now it was time to see if this part of his plan would work out, or if it was time to start polishing up his contingencies. "Have you talked to Bakugou since you found out he's a lying liar?" Izuku asked, leaning forward slightly.

"No," Todoroki answered slowly, one eyebrow raising at the sudden smile on Izuku's face. "That's terrifying," he decided. "You've been spending too much time with Aizawa-sensei. That looks exactly like the smile he gave us before making us wish he'd Erase us out of existence."

Shouta smirked slightly. "Well, I can't exactly spend less time with the man I'm literally living with," he pointed out.

Rolling his eyes slightly, amused despite himself, Izuku got the conversation back on track. "So you haven't reached out to him, or ignored any of his messages, right? No communication at all?"

Tipping his head to the side curiously, Todoroki shook his head. "No, no communication at all since the night Hitoshi told me you ended up arrested."

"That's excellent," Izuku murmured, triumph lacing his voice. "Todoroki, how do you feel about helping me throw Bakugou off my scent, so to speak?"

"I owe you," Todoroki said after a moment of consideration. "You're right, this entire situation started because Bakugou knew Hitoshi spent time with you and he'd regularly slip you into conversation. He was getting information from me even before you two started dating, so I owe you for not realizing what was going on." Todoroki looked Izuku in the eye for the first time since he'd entered the apartment. "What do you need me to do?"

Izuku smiled and explained. It was a deceptively simple plan, one that revolved around mixing fact and fiction in the information Izuku was going to have Todoroki provide Bakugou. They wanted to lead Bakugou around in circles, providing false information via Todoroki so he'd be completely taken by surprise when Izuku and Nedzu managed to get his Hero License stripped from him. But too much false information and he'd get suspicious, so there needed to be just enough legitimate information provided that he was thrown off his game.

"If you're not comfortable with my end game, now's the time to let me know," Izuku told him. Because he'd seen the shock and discomfort on Todoroki's face when he'd mentioned Bakugou's License getting revoked. It was understandable-Todoroki had worked long and hard for his Hero License, and a plan to get someone else's revoked could very well make it so he had to take a step back and say he couldn't do it. Izuku wouldn't even be mad about it-it was the reason he had so many contingency plans.

Shooting a quick, almost guilty glance at Shouta, Todoroki took a deep breath. "Bakugou isn't fit to be a Hero," he admitted lowly. "Hitoshi has told me about what he's done, and I'm ashamed that I fell for the lines he was feeding me. I'll help you."

Izuku felt his shoulders relax. "Great." He shot Todoroki a bright smile. "You can expect Principal Nedzu to come visit you as well-he has some concerns he'd like addressed regarding the situation, and he'll also provide you with some more details about the information we'd like passed on." Like when it should be passed on, and what to say if Bakugou started to have suspicions. He'd be lying if he said Todoroki's suddenly pale face didn't amuse him a little bit. Izuku was obviously holding a little bit of a grudge, but he didn't think anyone could blame him.

He could forgive Hitoshi for talking about him to Todoroki-they'd been dating, and Hitoshi had thought Todoroki would keep his silence regarding someone he knew was precious to Hitoshi. Also, Hitoshi was his best friend-he would forgive him for any and everything short of murder, and even that would probably depend on who he'd killed. Todoroki, on the other hand, had been speaking to someone that he barely even liked about Izuku-someone he barely knew beyond what Hitoshi told him. Izuku had found that understanding came easy, it was the forgiveness that was going to be a long time coming.

It helped that Todoroki had sincerely apologized and was willing to help Izuku put the situation to rights. It helped even more that he'd admitted Bakugou had no business being a Hero after the way he'd been treating Izuku. Forgiveness for starting this situation would be hard, but Izuku was willing to put in the work for it since Todoroki was as well-besides that, resenting his best friend's boyfriend would make things unpleasant for everyone involved. And given the unfortunate moon eyes Hitoshi was still making over Todoroki, it was obvious that a permanent break up wasn't coming any time soon.

Izuku started to drag a little, the adrenaline from Todoroki agreeing to help disappearing as quickly as it had come on. Shouta quickly and firmly ushered Todoroki and Hitoshi out the door. Sighing in quiet relief, Izuku stood up and groaned. "I'm going to grab a quick shower, and we'll see if I feel like making anything for dinner." He wrinkled his nose slightly. They'd been eating out a lot recently, but Izuku just hadn't felt like cooking much at all.

Leaning against the back of the couch, Shouta watched appreciatively as Izuku started to pull his shirt off on his way to the bathroom. "Don't worry about it, I'm pretty sure I can-" Shouta stopped, sheer rage catching his voice in his throat when he caught sight of Izuku's shoulder.

Izuku frowned when he stopped speaking and turned around, his shirt in his hands. "What's wrong?"

Shouta breathed out slowly, keeping control of his temper by the skin of his teeth as he asked, "What happened to your shoulder?"

"Oh." Izuku huffed slightly, rolling his shoulder and grimacing a little at the sting. "I'm sorry Shouta, today was such a terrible day and then with Todoroki coming over I completely forgot to tell you," he apologized.

Shoving off of the couch, Shouta strode over to him quickly and very gently touched the injury. "Don't move your shoulder like that when it's injured," he ordered. "And I'm not really interested in an apology right now. What happened ?"

Letting Shouta lead him back over to the couch, Izuku sat down obediently at his prodding and explained the entire situation that had happened at the Agency as he tossed his shirt over the arm of the couch. "I should have at least sent you a text message to let you know what had happened," he

admitted with a wince after he was done recounting the entire evening. "I honestly wasn't even thinking about it though. I was furious and doing my best to concentrate on working through it, and then after work when you'd mentioned that Todoroki was supposed to come over I was so irritated it didn't even cross my mind to mention it to you."

"I would have appreciated a heads up," Shouta said drily. "But you were pretty obviously exhausted by the end of your shift." Seeing the claw marks Nite-Lite had left on Izuku had left Shouta swallowing down fury like he'd never felt before. "Hideo let this happen?" He asked carefully.

Izuku paused, frowning as he thought back. He'd been focused on Nite-Lite, but he remembered seeing some movement around where Hideo had ended up. "I think he'd gotten there just before I saw him," Izuku answered thoughtfully. "I don't remember seeing him before Nite-Lite started in on me."

"And everyone else?" Shouta was furious that not a single person had stepped in.

Watching Shouta gather some supplies to clean and bandage his shoulder, Izuku asked, "Should we clean and bandage it before I shower?" He raised a hand at Shouta's flat look. "Fair enough. Anyway, I don't think they expected her to get physical like that-she's never deliberately tried to hurt me before-but I'm honestly pretty pissed off that apparently they only have the guts to intervene when X-Ray is there."

Shouta's lips were a thin line as he carefully cleaned Izuku's shoulder. Izuku tensed at the sting, but didn't let a noise pass his lips. Shouta was tense enough, no need to make it worse. Gently putting the bandage on his shoulder, Shouta muttered, "Hopefully this will be enough to get her fired."

Izuku wanted to lean forward and get a hug, but Shouta was tense enough that he didn't think it would be a good idea right now. "If I'd made official complaints about everything that had happened before, it absolutely would be. Given that she's already been formally reprimanded once, and I filed a formal complaint this time, it might be enough to fire her." Izuku hesitated, and Shouta frowned at him.

"What?" He asked.

"I think Hideo is trying to keep Nite-Lite as contained as he can," Izuku admitted. "Normally he's not so...lenient, I guess, when someone is causing problems. It seems like he's worried about what she might do if he fires her."

Something in Shouta seemed to relax at that, and he shifted himself onto the couch only to drag Izuku onto his lap, careful of his shoulder. "That makes sense," he murmured into Izuku's neck. "I've been wondering why he hasn't fired her yet when he clearly favors you, but wanting to keep an eye on her makes sense."

"It worried me too," Izuku admitted, leaning back against Shouta gratefully. "I was more worried that somehow, even though he'd seen her harass me, he didn't believe me about what was going on." He could feel Shouta's incredulous gaze on the top of his head, but he didn't bother to turn to face him. "I know it's dumb, but," he shrugged and offered sarcastic jazz hands, "It's the trauma!"

Shouta snorted, dropping his chin onto Izuku's uninjured shoulder. "He'll have a hell of a time justifying keeping her around after she physically assaulted you in front of what sounds like the entire damn Agency."

"It pretty much was," Izuku agreed with a small scowl. "Only a few people had already started their patrols, so nearly everyone was there to watch the show."

The slightly bitter tone made Shouta squeeze Izuku a little bit tighter. He understood the bitterness though-if it had been someone with a Quirk, would they have stepped in sooner? Shouta wanted to say no, but he couldn't be sure. Izuku couldn't be either, which is why he was just a little bit bitter about it. Shouta had dealt with enough similar situation, asking himself if it had happened to someone with a more socially acceptable Quirk would someone have stepped in to help him? He understood the bitterness all too well. "If something like this happens again," which it had better not , "Let me know please?"

"There wasn't anything you could do about it once it was already over," Izuku protested softly. "But yeah, I'll do my best to let you know if anything like this happens again."

Shouta huffed softly in his ear. "I would have left my patrol early and sat with you at the Agency," he said flatly.

Izuku wanted to protest, to say that it would have been completely unnecessary for Shouta to do that, but. But. Thinking about it, Izuku realized that it would have actually been really nice to have someone there to support him-Hideo was there, of course, but he had to actually run the Agency and couldn't sit around holding Izuku's hand all evening. "Well, if you'd been there they wouldn't have stared at me nearly as much," Izuku muttered.

Shouta grinned triumphantly. That was as good as an agreement. "No, I would have made sure they left you alone," Shouta said. And that would have included glaring down anyone who thought it would be a good idea to stare at Izuku. Including Sonic, who'd had no business trying to convince Izuku to not file his official complaint.

"I've got to admit, that sounds fantastic." Izuku sighed and stretched slightly. "This entire thing has me wanting to call off work again," he grumbled irritably. He'd never called off work-or been given so many days off-before this situation had started, and he was not a fan of it. Izuku had loved his work. And now, thinking about going in tomorrow and having to deal with Nite-Lite and everyone else who had just stood there and watched had him feeling a little sick to his stomach.

"Call off," Shouta encouraged. "Hideo will understand."

Izuku arched an eyebrow, because that sounded a little like 'Hideo will understand or else '. A small smile curved his lips, because he appreciated that. "I think I will," he said after a few moments of silence. "I don't think I'll be any good to anyone tomorrow." The mixture of anger and dread that burned deep in his chest didn't seem like it was going anywhere tonight, and going to work like that was just begging for Izuku to get his own reprimand for being unnecessarily unkind to his co-workers.

"Are you planning on calling off tonight or tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow, just in case a miracle happens overnight and I don't feel like I want to strangle everyone in that building," Izuku joked slightly.

"Somehow," Shouta began, his voice perfectly bland, "I don't see that happening." "It could," Izuku protested with a small laugh.

"Am I going to have to tie you to the bed to get you to take a day off after getting hurt?" Shouta asked, exasperated.

Pausing, Izuku let out a small hum and shifted around until his knees bracketed Shouta's waist. "Tie me to the bed?" A playful little smile curled his lips. "Are you trying to hint at something Shouta?"

The atmosphere had shifted to something a little lighter, and Shouta couldn't help the way he slid his hands from Izuku's hips to the back of his head, pulling him in for a slow kiss. "I think," he murmured, enjoying the dazed look on Izuku's face, "That you should let me get you into bed at least once before you start talking about me tying you up."

"You're the one who brought it up," Izuku pointed out, reaching down to drag Shouta's shirt over his head. Shouta willingly pulled his arms up to let Izuku pull it off, laughing when Izuku tossed it over his shoulder carelessly and cupping his hands against the back of Izuku's head again.

"I didn't mean it like that," Shouta said against his mouth before tipping his head to kiss him again.

Izuku laughed into the kiss, breaking it for breath. "You're still the one who said it," he teased, laughing again when Shouta groaned a little and kissed him a little harder.

"If you can still talk, I'm not doing this right," Shouta murmured when the kiss broke again. Satisfaction curled in his chest when he saw Izuku's flushed cheeks. "I like this," he told Izuku, pulling one hand from his head to trace one of his cheeks. "You should blush like this for me more often."

Catching his breath, Izuku smirked a little as he said, "You should kiss me like this more often."

"Fair enough." Shouta shrugged before pulling Izuku impossibly closer, wrapping one arm around his waist and leaving his other curled around the back of his head.

The soft, almost drugging kisses that Shouta was pressing against his lips now were worse than the hard, deep kisses from earlier, Izuku thought dazedly as he arched up against him. "Shouta," Izuku murmured against his lips, dragging his short nails down his back gently.

Groaning at the sensation, Shouta tangled his fingers in green hair and considered if he should try to make it to the bedroom or if he could get away with just tipping Izuku over to sprawl on the couch. He unwound his arm from Izuku's waist to drag his fingertips from his side to his stomach, and carefully unbuttoned Izuku's pants. Looking up to check that it was OK, he was caught by the way Izuku was watching him, eyes dark as he bit his lip. "Is this OK?" Shouta asked roughly, breath a little shaky when Izuku nodded at him with his gaze fixed firmly on him.

The sound of a key in the lock startled both of them, and Izuku tore his gaze from Shouta to look at the door. "You've got to be kidding me." Izuku couldn't help it. He dropped his head to Shouta's shoulder and started laughing, maybe a little hysterically. "I swear, we would get interrupted less if we had a nosy toddler than we have been recently."

"Um." Hizashi stood in the doorway, face flushing slowly. "I-are we interrupting?" He asked weakly, already well aware of the answer as he tore his eyes away from Izuku's bare chest.

"Ooh, are we ?" Nemuri barged past him with a grin, which only grew wider when she realized that yes, they actually were interrupting something. "Oh, you two don't have to stop for us," she purred.

Izuku sighed, lifting his face from Shouta's shoulder. "I think you and I already had this conversation," he said drily.

Tensei snorted a little bit from where he'd wheeled himself into the apartment as well, running

over Hizashi's foot shamelessly when the man wouldn't move. "Pretty sure you did," he agreed. "Sorry for intruding," he added as an afterthought.

"Are you though?" Shouta asked as he finally got his voice under control. Eyeing Izuku's undone pants mournfully, he huffed and redid the button.

Taking the hint, Izuku carefully slid off of his lap. "What brings you guys around?"

Noticing Shouta's curious look, Nemuri's wicked grin grew even further. "You must have some

skill Izuku, making Shouta forget that it's the last Friday of the month."

Shouta groaned loudly, making Izuku laugh in surprise as he turned to look at him. "The last Friday of the month is when they come and drag me out drinking and try to convince me to dance," he told a curious Izuku.

"And look at this," Tensei said, a small smirk crossing his face. "You've even been kind enough to bring us someone new for this particular outing."

Izuku blinked at them before laughing again. "Oh, I don't really go out like that," he told them with a smile.

Famous last words.