"Mom!" 

The shout was instant as soon as the door of Hanta's apartment was pushed open. Izuku wasn't sure what Sero girl had started it, but soon all of them were crying and hugging in the hero's living room, while the villain stayed on the outskirts, waiting for the right time to slip away. 

He held a hand out to Blaze, but the wolf refused to look at him. "Come on, don't be stubborn now. You got to see your girl, time to go back," Izuku said with a tired sigh. It would be easier to sneak off if he didn't have a giant flaming wolf lumbering after him. 

Blaze whined and shifted an inch further from his outstretched hand. 

"Can't you just listen for once?" Izuku hissed under his breath. 

"Wait, mom, don't!" 

The shout from Hanta caught Izuku's attention. He turned back to the group just in time to get slapped across the face by Aya Sero. It was a good hit, causing his head to turn to the side. 

"That's for snapping my baby's neck," she huffed, standing up to her full height. 

Izuku wiped the side of his mouth with a thumb as he turned back to face her. "I could have let her bleed out slowly, if you would prefer," he snapped before he could stop himself. He knew the hit was deserved, but it was Izuku. He didn't take getting batted around well. 

"Iz," Hanta hissed in warning. 

Izuku pinched the bridge of his nose, officially done with family time. "Whatever, I did my job, got them back, try not to lose them again," he muttered while turning to the door. 

"You're leaving?" 

Izuku had expected Hanta to be the one to ask, but in a shocking turn of events it was Hina. 

"I have shit to do, remember?" he said without turning back around. He was a sucker for puppy dog eyes and if Hina remembered that about him, he was screwed. 

"Stop swearing!" 

He shook his head, a small smile teasing the corners of his mouth. "I'll work on it, okay?" 

"Iz-" Hanta started, but whatever he was planning to say died on his tongue as Blaze stepped between the two men and growled low. 

"Cute," Izuku mumbled sarcastically, holding his hand out again. "Come on, Blaze." 

In a snap, the fire was gone and the air turned still. 

Izuku heard the shuffling and mumbles from the girls as they went down the hall and disappeared into one of the bedrooms. It left him alone with Hanta, the exact situation he was trying to avoid by slipping away. 

"You got them back and now you're leaving," the pro said, taking a step closer to Izuku's turned back. 

Izuku shook his head, finally turning around to face him head on. "I said I would get them all out. Eri's still there, so I'll be around for a little while longer." 

Hanta's relief was instant, all tension and apprehension leaving him. "A little longer, then." 

"Yeah." 

Hanta ran a hand through his hair, suddenly feeling awkward and out of place in his own living room. "You... you don't have to leave, you know? You can stay. I want you to stay." 

"You know I can't." 

Hanta's frown deepened as he looked over Izuku like he was a puzzle he couldn't quite figure out. "Bakugou showed up in my office a few days ago," he admitted, watching the villain closely for any kind of reaction he might have. 

"Of course he did," Izuku sighed, letting his back hit the door and support a majority of his weight. "So what? You hate me for threatening his parents, now? Or is because of the yippy blond?" 

"I don't fucking hate you, Izuku!" he snapped, but the anger was gone as quickly as it appeared. "I love you, okay?" There, he finally said it out loud. 

Izuku blinked owlishly, completely caught off guard. After what happened with Emiko, he'd abandoned the idea of ever hearing those three words from Hanta's lips again. 

"I loved you when we were fifteen and running around the city in the dead of night. I loved you when I broke into the compound over and over just to make sure you were okay. I loved you when you pushed me off that roof, when you broke my ribs at the summer camp, when you broke out of prison. I loved you for seven years and god damn I still love you. If you have to leave, then fine, go, but don't sit there and try to tell me that I hate you, because I don't," he broke off with a mirthless laugh, sliding his palm down his face. "I tried to hate you, seven years is a long time to be in love with a ghost, but... I just can't. So please, for the love of god, stop thinking I do, okay?" Hanta stopped his rant, looking at Izuku to say something. 

What could he say? That he loved him since the game of tag? That he's been so madly in love with him for his entire life that he physically couldn't stay away from Musutafu for more than two months without needing to come back just to see him? That over the years, he's decided that he's been in love with Hanta Sero since he figured out the definition of the word? That's he's loved him longer than he's known him? 

"Okay," he said instead, his voice cracking with the singular word. 

He loved Hanta, more than anything, and that was exactly why he couldn't tell him. 

"You're still leaving." It wasn't a question, because Hanta already knew the answer. "That didn't change anything." 

"I'm not something you can fix, Hanta," Izuku said, a pleading tone slipping into his voice. He needed the hero to understand this. Izuku could never be what he needed him to be. "If I stick around, it's only a matter of time before your family gets caught in the cross fire again, or you, or Himiko, or Kacchan, or... just about anyone I've ever remotely liked. I'm a walking disaster that destroys everything I come in contact with. I can never get away from that, I can never settle down and have a normal life." 

Hanta shook his head, reaching a hand out to him. "You don't know that-" 

Izuku took a step back, out of reach once again. "Yes, I do!" he shouted louder than he had meant to. "Look at my parents, Hanta. My dad fell in love with my mom and tried to have a normal family. All he succeeded in doing was getting them both killed and making me a monster. This white picket bullshit was never meant for me and I know that. I'm okay with that." 

"And what exactly is your plan when you leave, huh? Gonna go become a criminal master mind in some other country? Or are you going to find some place off the beaten trail and live your entire life alone?" Hanta pressed, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. He was almost tempted to throw a punch at the shorter man, just to knock some sense into him. 

"Why does it matter?" 

"Take me with you." 

Izuku reeled back as if Hanta had actually thrown that punch. "What?" 

"Wherever you're going, whatever you're gonna do, let me come with," Hanta said again, walking right up to Izuku and trapping him between his body and the door. "I lived without you for seven years, lightning bug. I don't think I'll survive the rest of my life." 

Izuku shook his head, unable to look away from the dark eyes that bore into his soul. "Hanta... I can't- You can't-" 

"Then stay," Hanta pleaded, one hand coming up to rest against Izuku's cheek, tracing lines under his eye, across the scar that laid there. "We'll figure it out, just like back in high school. I promise this can work, Izuku. All you have to do is stay, please lightning bug. Just stay." 

Izuku let his head drop forward, hitting Hanta's chest with a dull thud. "What if-" 

"No, no what-ifs," Hanta said sternly. "There's always going to be a what-if. Me and my family aren't in anymore danger with or without you. If it wasn't Shigaraki after you, it would have been someone else after me." 

Izuku sighed as he let his body fall further into the hero's. The man really knew how to make a killer argument. "If something happens to you because of me, I don't think I could live with myself," he admitted in a quiet voice, fragile and child like. He hadn't felt that vulnerable since he was a toddler running to his mother after a nightmare. God, what is Hanta doing to me? 

"As if you'd let something happen to me," Hanta teased, trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere that had settled around them. 

"I'm not a god, Hanta." 

"I don't believe that for a second." 

A short and sweet chapter that has to be the last one for the day. If I don't stop writing now I'll be up til at least four and I work tomorrow, sorry besties.