Izuku woke up slowly. His head was pounding and his entire body ached, and the sheets beneath his body were unfamiliar. His eyelashes fluttered as he struggled to open his eyes, but when he finally did, he was assaulted with the bright light of the morning outside. He groaned, slamming his eyes shut once more, before he tentatively decided to brave the unfamiliar world around him.

This time, he made himself sit up to take in where he was. The room he was in was foreign to him; it was somewhat messy, with clothes strung out along the floor, light curtains that were pushed to the sides of the windows, and a general disarray of the room. Izuku tried to focus his mind on one thing, but it was surprisingly hard. His eyes naturally fixed on one thing on the ground, and while his mind slowly came back to him, he became increasingly aware of one thing in particular.

The sweater on the ground is his.

He quickly looked down at himself, where the black sheets had pooled around his waist when he'd sat up, only to find that his chest was indeed bare. Fear began to creep into his stomach, and despite every warning bell in his mind begging him not to do so, he gently lifted the sheets to check the state of his body underneath. Just as he'd suspected, he was completely naked there, too.

"What the hell?" he whispered to the empty room, jerking his head to try and find more clues as to where he might be. Now that his brain was back online, everything from the night before was slowly coming back to him. Ochako... Ochako and Shouto had dragged him to a frat party, telling him that he needed to take a break from schoolwork to just have a bit of fun for once. Izuku was a very serious student, and had been since they had first met him in high school. He'd worked his entire life to be able to make it to U.A. University, the best college in the entirety of Japan, and now that he was finally here, he wasn't about to waste his opportunity.

He was a psychology major, pursuing his dream of being able to help people one day. When he was young, he'd wanted nothing more than to be a superhero like his idol, a hero called All Might from his favourite comic book series. Of course, superheroes weren't real, and he didn't have super powers. Once he'd finally realized that, he'd switched his one-track mind into wanting to do something productive for the people around him.

He'd oscillated between becoming a police officer or a doctor for a long time before he'd finally settled on becoming a psychologist. It wasn't necessarily that being a police officer was something he would have hated doing, but rather that his mind was better suited to analyzing people's problems and giving them the best advice possible. He was a bit of a nerd, in the words of his childhood friend-turned-boyfriend, Bakugou Katsuki, and he was proud of it.

Oh god, his boyfriend .

The thought of Kacchan made another memory flash into his mind. The night before, Todoroki had decided to leave the party early to go spend the night with his boyfriend, Sero Hanta. Less than an hour later, Uraraka had told Izuku that she'd met a really nice, beautiful girl, and she was going to spend the night at her place. Izuku had waved her off and told her that he could get home by himself. Uraraka had made him promise to call her in the morning before she'd left with her hookup, a girl on the university swim team by the name of Asui Tsuyu. Izuku had decided to have

one more drink before he would leave to walk back to his dorm across campus, and then...

And then his memory was hazy from there. He remembered drinking, remembered feeling funny after the last of his drink was in his system. He remembered being led away from the hustle and bustle of the party, a sweaty hand holding tight to his own as the mystery person led him up the stairs. He remembered being pushed down onto the bed he was currently in, remembered his limbs being so heavy that he could hardly lift them...

Tears burned in his eyes as the realization hit him. He... he'd had sex with this mystery man. He shifted a bit in place, and the jolt of pain coming from his lower half only confirmed his suspicion. Izuku pressed his hand to his mouth as a sob escaped him, his chest beginning to fill with guilt and despair. He'd had sex with this guy, a guy whose face he couldn't even remember. He'd cheated on his boyfriend!

Bile began to rise in Izuku's throat, but he swallowed it back down. He ripped the sheets off of his body and forced himself out of bed, ignoring the pain rippling through his body in favour of going around the room, gathering his clothes. His boxers were right at the edge of the bed, still tangled up in the jeans he'd been wearing the night before. He shoved both on unceremoniously before he grabbed his sweater and yanked it over his head, ignoring the sweat and grime that he could practically feel itching at his skin.

By the time he stumbled out of the nearly vacant frat house, he was full-on crying. He shivered a bit against the November chill in the air, the coldness of it doing nothing to help with the mortified heat that had spread over his entire body. He could think of nothing except what he had done the night before.

How could he have done this? He'd cheated on Kacchan! Izuku loved his boyfriend more than he loved anything else, besides maybe his mother. Kacchan had been everything to him from the time they'd met when they were four years old, even during their roughest period in middle school, when Kacchan had been struggling with his sexuality and had taken it out on Izuku. They'd finally gotten together in the middle of their second year of high school, and had just passed their fifth anniversary the month before. He was happy with him, happier than he'd ever been!

And yet he'd betrayed him. Izuku had thrown five years of their relationship; no, seventeen years of everything down the drain at one stupid fucking party .

His phone buzzed in his back pocket, startling him out of his thoughts. He was nearly halfway to his dorm building by then, and he hadn't so much as thought of checking his phone that entire way. With his heart in his throat, he brought the device out of his back pocket and checked his notifications.

Kacchan 3 : Three missed calls.

Chako :P : Two missed calls, four unread messages. Shouto : Two missed calls, one unread message.

Izuku's heart skipped a beat at the sight of his lover's name, and he quickly passed over his messages in favour of clicking on Shouto's name. The stoic boy hadn't left him any voicemails, and his text message was just as short and concise as they always were.

Shouto: Did you make it home alright, Midoriya?

Despite the situation, Izuku couldn't help but crack a small smile. They had been friends for over six years, and yet Shouto still almost never called Izuku by his given name. It was only last year that Izuku had finally gotten him to drop the honorifics, thank god . It was just weird for him to call his best friend by his given name, but to not ever hear it back. After the humour of the message faded away, Izuku swallowed hard. His fingers were shaky as he typed out a returning message to his friend, deciding without really thinking about it to not mention anything just yet.

Izuku: I did. I hope you had a good night!

Now that he was dealt with, Izuku turned to Ochako's messages. She'd left him one voicemail, but he ignored it in favour of looking at her text messages. She was the type who almost never typed everything out into one message, but rather into multiple messages, as if to emphasize her excitement over whatever subject she was talking about. She was also absolutely awful at punctuation, and it always made him smile.

Chako :P : hey deku, did u get home alright? Chako :P : tsu-chan is AMAZING

Chako :P : she is so great with her tongue ;) Chako :P : text me when you wake up loser!!

Izuku shook his head fondly, already feeling a bit better. He quickly typed out a return message, teasing her about too much information, and congratulating her on having a good night. The messages had all been sent much earlier in the day, so he wasn't expecting a response anytime soon. With his two best friends answered, Izuku took a deep breath and resigned himself to face his boyfriend. His eyes began to burn with tears once more at just the thought of him, but he quickly brushed them away before he could get too emotional. Kacchan had only left him one voicemail,

after he hadn't answered the first two calls.

Izuku looked up as he entered his dorm building, trying to psych himself up to listen to the message. He knew that the moment he heard Kacchan's voice the waterworks would begin again, and he wanted to be safe within his dorm room when that happened.

Kacchan had asked Izuku if he wanted to live together at the beginning of the school year, but Izuku had gently declined, saying that he wanted to wait until they were both graduated from college to take that step. Kacchan had been fine with it, given that this was their last year before they would both graduate with their bachelor degrees. Kacchan had been taking an accelerated program for chemical engineering, and was already at the top of his class. Izuku was also at the top of his own class, and the boys had a bit of fun together when they compared each others' test scores to see who would come out on top, if they had the same major. Their relationship had always been competitive, both of them striving to be their best selves, and pushing the other one to do the same.

' Oh god, here come the tears,' Izuku thought to himself as he quickly unlocked his dorm room and rushed inside. He had snagged a single-person dorm near the end of the last year, before the applications had been all filled up, and was ecstatic when he received it. He'd had his fair share of strange roommates, from a perverted freshman named Mineta in his freshman year, an eccentric french exchange student in his sophomore year, and an occult-loving gothic boy in his junior year. Izuku had only really minded his first roommate, but despite getting along well with Aoyama-san and Tokoyami-san, he absolutely loved having a place all to himself this year. It was part of why he didn't want to move in with Kacchan, just so he could have a bit of time to himself for a while.

Izuku went to sit down on his bed, his heart pounding a staccato rhythm in his chest as he brought his phone to his ear to listen to his boyfriend's voicemail. Just as he'd predicted, the moment the man's gruff, deep voice rang in his ear, he began to cry, just thinking about the love of his life's reaction when Izuku had to admit that he'd broken the trust in their relationship. He had to press his hand to his mouth to stifle his sobs enough that he could actually listen to the voicemail.

" Hey nerd, it's me. I guess you're still at that party with Round Face and Half n Half, so just call me whenever you get this and let me know you're safe, or whatever. We should hang out tomorrow, so I can help you study for that shitty exam you have on Friday. I, uh... I fucking miss you, okay? Call me back. Bye."

Izuku closed his eyes, remembering the tone of his lover's voice long after the message had ended. He was so trusting of Izuku, so sure that he wouldn't do anything at the party. He had just assumed that Izuku was with his friends, having fun and not checking his phone. He would never guess that Izuku would betray him in such a horrible, despicable way.

Izuku pulled the phone away from his ear and wiped his eyes, clearing his throat to get rid of the nasally quality he always got when he'd been crying. He didn't give himself a moment to think before he pressed the call icon on Kacchan's contact information, putting the device back up to his ear to listen for the ringing. Kacchan answered on the fourth ring, grunting a greeting into the receiver.

" Hello?"

"K-Kacchan!" Izuku said, forcing cheer into his voice. "Hi! I just got your message."

" Oh, hey Deku," Kacchan said. There were muffled sounds on the other end, like Katsuki was shuffling around papers on his desk. " How was the party? Must have had fun, huh?"

Izuku winced, biting his lower lip to keep from whimpering into the phone. "Um... yeah, it- it was fun."

The other line was silent for a moment before Katsuki spoke. " Alright, what the fuck is wrong? You think I can't tell when you're covering something up?"

Izuku should have known better. He never could hide his feelings from Kacchan, not even when they were children. He swallowed hard, briefly wondering if he should just admit everything. After a moment of consideration, he shook the thought away. No, he needed to see his boyfriend face-to- face when he admitted what he'd done. It was the least he could do. "I'm just hungover, I guess. You don't need to worry about me."

" Who's worried, huh?" Kacchan snapped. Izuku suppressed a small smile. Just how he could never hide anything from Kacchan, Kacchan also couldn't hide from him. Izuku could see past his boyfriend's rough exterior, right down to his soft insides. He knew that the blond had likely been worrying about Izuku all night, wondering if he was having fun, if he was getting enough sleep, if he was hydrated...

Okay, Izuku was crying again. The guilt was nearly overwhelming, making his breath seize up in his chest. He forced himself to keep quiet so that Kacchan wouldn't hear him and demand to know what was wrong. Izuku just... he couldn't face him yet. Not now, when he himself hardly had time to process what had happened.

" Hello? Are you fucking listening, nerd?"

"Um, w-what?" Izuku stuttered, inhaling slowly to keep the teary quality out of his tone. Katsuki snorted, and there were more shuffling sounds. This time, it sounded like Kacchan had gotten out of his chair to lay down on his bed.

" I asked if you were free today to study, shithead. Didn't you listen to my voicemail?"

"Oh!" Izuku shook his head, even though Katsuki couldn't see him. "Actually, I have a lot to do

today, and I don't feel very well... can we take a rain check, maybe?"

" A rain check?" Katsuki echoed, seeming confused. " Are you fucking pushing yourself again? Goddamnit Deku, did you sleep at all last night? Are you feeling ill? Do I need to bring you fucking medicine? You better not be getting sick right before exams!"

"I'm not sick!" Izuku protested, the shame of his actions balling themselves up in the pit of his stomach. "It's just the hangover, I promise! I'm going to try and sleep it off... I'll call you tonight, okay?"

" ... Fine. But if I find out you're lying to me, you bet your ass I'm staying with you until you're all better."

"Okay Kacchan," Izuku said softly, his heart warming a bit despite the darkness in his heart. "Thank you."

" No need to thank me, I'd be a shitty boyfriend if I didn't. I'll talk to you later."

"Okay. Kacchan?" " What ?"

"I... I love you."

"Yeah, yeah. Same here or whatever. Bye."

The receiver clicked, leaving nothing but the dial tone behind. Izuku dropped his phone onto his comforter and flopped backwards on his bed, pushing the heels of his hands into his eye sockets to try and keep his emotions at bay.

He was a terrible, horrible person. He didn't deserve someone as amazing as Kacchan, not when he had done the worst possible thing imaginable.

He curled in on his side and let the tears fall once more.