I spent most of the following morning with my mom. I didn't tell her anything about Eijirou, but I don't think I even needed to. When I stumbled down the stairs with puffy eyes from crying myself to sleep, she took one look at me and started making pancakes. She put an episode of Friends on the tv and we ate breakfast on the couch. She tried her hardest to cheer me up, but I didn't even have the energy to fake it.

It didn't take long for her to get called into work. It was a regular occurrence on her days off, the place practically fell apart when she was away longer than twelve hours.

After she left, I stayed downstairs for a little while longer, cleaning up from breakfast, but eventually I ran out of tasks. I hung my head with a sigh and headed back to my room, where I'd spend the whole day waiting on any news about Eijirou.

I made it to my door, my palm resting on the handle when my breath hitched. The weight of every mistake I'd ever made finally settled in and crushed me beneath it. I hit my head harder than necessary against the piece of wood and screamed.

"Fuck," I smacked my head again. "Fuck," again, "fuck." I didn't have the energy to hold back the tears, not in my own empty hallway. They didn't start as a slow trickle, just hit full force and I was suddenly sobbing as I weakly repeated the word fuck over and over.

The handle in my grasp turned and the door suddenly gave way, causing me to stumble forward. I gasped as two strong arms wrapped around me. "Darlin'? Why're you crying?"

I just cried harder as I realized that Eijirou was here, in my room, holding onto me. I was quick to grab onto him and hold as tight as possible, afraid he'd disappear again. "You're back," I said in between shuddering breaths, my tears still freely falling. It was so embarrassing, but the dam had already broken and there was no stopping it.

"Of course I am, Iz," he shushed, brushing a hand through my hair. "Like I could stay away from you two," he joked.

I blinked away some of my tears, now letting go of the redhead for a second. I looked up at him with his beaming smile and a part of me calmed at the sight. I registered his words and looked over towards my window, where I found Katsuki leaning back against my wall with his hands in his pockets. I shot him a watery smile in greeting before turning back to Eijirou. "What happened?" I asked in earnest, needing to be able to understand how he was here.

He awkwardly shrugged in my hold. "Just had to spend the night at the station. Mitsuki picked up at like eight," he explained.

"But," I took a breath, and used my shoulder to try and dry my face a little more. "But what happens now?"

Eijirou shook his head and placed a soft kiss on my forehead. "Nothing, they let me off with a warning after Mitsuki spent the whole night in lawyer mode. Don't worry your pretty little head about it, okay?" His smile was honest and he was a terrible liar, so I had no doubt in my mind that it was true.

I let out a full breath and nearly melted into him from relief. I hadn't destroyed his life, it was just one shitty night and now everyone can move on from it. "That's amazing," I said as I let my  head rest on his chest.

"What's amazing is that some idiot really thought it'd be a good idea to try and snitch on Dabi," Katsuki said with a scoff.

I picked my head up in, what I hoped wasn't too obviously, fear. "Huh? What'd you mean?"

Katsuki sent me a look that seemed to ask if I was okay. "Because underage drinking is one of the least illegal activities that happen there. Dabi's got a few cops in his pocket already, so whoever it was just pissed him off, the club only got shut down for the night." He stated all of that as if it was common knowledge.

My heart dropped to my stomach. I had gotten Eijirou arrested for nothing, since the club was still up and running. He didn't have any major consequences, but I still got him arrested. The club was still open, meaning Shigaraki was going to be pissed. Oh, and now Dabi wants me dead on top of all that. Wonderful.

"Oh, well I guess that's good, right?" I asked, feigning a smile. "That means you guys still have somewhere to play."

"Yeah," Katsuki said sarcastically. "If my mom ever lets us out of her sight again."

I finally caved and just dragged Eijirou over to my bed. I still wasn't letting go because it felt too surreal, but I was tired of standing up. "I thought your mom was chill?" I asked, nodding for him to come join us.

He crawled into the bed, laying on his stomach while propped up on his elbows. "Yeah, she was. Until Eijirou got arrested."

Eijirou had repositioned us so he was leaning against my headboard and I was tucked under his arm. "How the hell was I supposed to know someone was going to call the cops?" He asked with a sigh. It seemed like they'd already had this argument.

Katsuki just rolled his eyes. "I told you not to drink."

"Because you knew there was going to be cops?" The redhead asked with a brow raised in question.

"No, I just knew it was a bad idea," Katsuki huffed, looking around my room instead of at our boyfriend. "This place is a mess, what happened in here?"

I followed his gaze, realizing that my room really was a disaster. There were clean and dirty clothes thrown around without reason, more empty styrofoam noodle cups than I cared to admit on my desk, notebooks and paper littered around the whole space, and a multitude of other bits and bobs out of place. I'd been so out of it recently I hadn't even noticed the mess, even though it looked like a mini tornado came through. "I've been stressed," I grumbled, sinking deeper into Eijirou's hold. "I haven't been bothered to clean."

"Iz," Eijirou said in his soft tone that I knew meant he wanted to have a heart to heart. "What's been going on with you?"

Deflect, was the one thought in my mind. "You just got arrested and you want to work through my problems?" I meant for it to be a joke, but it just came out a little sad.

Eijirou used his free hand to force me to look up at him. "Well, seeing as the only reason I was drinking last night was because I've been so god damn worried about you for a month that I couldn't take it anymore, I think it's safe to say that your problems are ours now."

I frowned up at him, feeling oddly like a child getting scolded in the moment. I had no idea how to get out of this. I was exhausted from being up all night, plus I wasn't entirely sure I was completely sober yet. I couldn't think of any plan, my mind was completely blank. "Good thing I don't have any problems then," was the only thing I could come up with.

"Deku," Katsuki spoke up and it felt like he'd said dumbass instead. "You just admitted to having problems."

I pushed myself to sit up, effectively putting some distance between me and them. "I don't have problems," I snapped. "I have Shigaraki, who is sending me death threats daily. Sorry if I don't want to talk about the fact there's literally nothing to do about it, or that I'm not cleaning my room, or that I'm not sleeping. I've been stressed." I finished my tangent with a huff, taking a second to just breath and study each boy for their reactions.

Katsuki was the perfect example of indifference, which I knew was just a reflex when things got heated, but Eijirou was frowning. "You're getting death threats?" His jaw clenched as soon as the question left his mouth.

To my surprise, it was Katsuki that grabbed Eijirou's wrist in an attempt to calm the redhead down. I eyed both of them warily as Eijirou took a few breaths and Katsuki watched him carefully. I knew Eijirou was overprotective, but I seemed to have entirely forgotten during my rant. 

"Why didn't you tell us?" Eijirou asked after a moment.

I rubbed at my arm, staring holes into my bed sheets. "Because it doesn't change anything. They're just stupid messages, they don't hold any weight," I mumbled, trying desperately to crawl my way out of this hole I'd dug.

"He found your mom's job," Katsuki pointed out in an obvious manner. He was careful to keep a hand on Eijirou as he spoke.

"So?" I asked like it didn't mean anything. "Any idiot with google can do that. He can send all the messages he wants, because he's holed up in a ditch somewhere hiding from the cops and can't get to me anyways. It doesn't matter," My teeth were gritted and my breathing was hard. I was starting to get irritated with how persistent they were being. Why couldn't they just leave it alone?

"He blew up a school, Izuku," Eijirou spoke up again, a bite to his voice that hadn't been there before. "Why would you brush this off? How can you care so little about your safety?" There was a hard set to his jaw and his eyes were steeled in a way I hadn't seen before. I'd never seen him mad like this before. This was more angry than I'd even known he was capable of feeling, it was foreign territory.

I wanted to scream that it was for them, it was their lives that made mine so easy to throw away. I was doing all this for them, for my mom, for our friends. I was trying to protect everyone.

Instead, I took a deep breath. "I'm not going to pass out every time a cyber bully says something mean to me. I don't know what else to tell you," I finished with a shrug. I pushed myself to stand and headed towards my  door. I mumbled something about needing a drink, but I really just sped off to the kitchen because I felt my phone buzz.

Unknown-

You're so stupid, ya know that? Did you really think underage drinking would get Dabi shut down?

It's cute how hard you tried though

Whose life should I have you mess with next?

this is so fun omg. also no shigi is not hitting on izuku, it's cute like watch a dog try really hard to solve a puzzle and just completely fail. it's a psychopathic cute, not a pick up line cute.