Safe Space

Free

She's crying into his shoulder and he squeezes his pencil so hard that it splinters in his hand.

"K-Katsuki..."

He shakes his head, voice cracked to hell as he struggles to keep his own composure.

"It's not like I'm dying. Everything will just go back to the way it used to be, you know.  So it's fine if we pretend it never changed, right?"

"It's NOT! How could you even say that?!" The way she screams in his ear makes his chest feel tight. He hurt her. He doesn't understand how but he can tell, even as she tightens her embrace.

"It feels like you're dying, telling me that you're just going to go back to harboring all of that hurt and pain within youtself---to go back to being miserable and giving up all of the things that make you happy! It's not fine, it could never be fine!"

But Katsuki doesn't want to make people worry and lose sleep over him anymore. He has to let it all go. He has to do it for his friends. So he can go back to being a great hero and not someone that villains take advantage of.

"I...don't know how else to save you." He croaks out, voice like gravel. Ochako releases him only to grab him by the shoulder in turn him around so she can look him in the eye.

He's trembling, lip between his teeth as tears threaten his waterline.

"How else am I suppose to protect you guys? How else am I supposed to keep my friends safe? I---"

I don't want to suffer anymore.

She shushes, wiping tears from his face even though she can barely stop her own.

"This---it sounds so selfish when I say it out loud but we needed you more than you needed us, you know?"

He looks so confused, shaking his head. How could that be when all he's done is hold everyone back? Slowed them down? Made himself a target and forced them to work twice as hard?

"You are always so strong, always saving us and looking after us even though you'd never admit that that's what you were up to. But when you finally showed that part of yourself to us, it...God, Kat, it felt so good to be trusted by you. To be needed by you. The feeling we get from knowing that you rely on us is something else. We become so selfless---become better people through you. You brought us together more than any villain attack could."

She pauses to wipe at her face.

"I don't ever want that feeling to stop. And we love you, Katsuki, we don't ever want you to give up your joy! Not...not when you were finally happy! You are not a liability! You're human! So please! Please just let us continue to take care of you for once!"

Katsuki chokes out a sob.

"I-I'm so scared..."

"You don't ever have to be afraid to be happy as long as we're here."

Both of them snap there gazes to the doorway where Izuku and Tenya are standing. They both look so heartbroken, and Katsuki wonders just how long they've been standing there. He can bring himself to find the energy to be angry about it.

"Nerds. How much of that did you hear?" He says flatly, turning his head away and wiping his face.

"Enough to tell you that Ochako is right. And that...that you don't have to do this, Kacchan." Izuku says, kneeling at Ochako's side so that he's looking right into Katsuki's core so that he knows he's sincere.

"We wouldn't ever want you to feel sorry for that and heaven knows we wouldn't ever want you to think we were looking down on you. You're U.A's strongest. You've worked harder than any of us. We acknowledge you, Katsuki. We don't want you to feel guilt placed in your heart because we failed to do what we were meant to as caretakers. We literally asked for that job, don't you remember?" Tenya adds.

Sniffling, Katsuki nods.

"Yeah. You twits always have been a glutton for punishment."

Tenya breaths out a chuckle, smiling fondly at him.

"I cannot argue that. Would you give us another chance to redeem ourselves? Is there any way---anything we could do to gain your forgiveness?"

Katsuki ponders it.

"You...you really mean all this shit?"

A chorus of affirmation rings out and Tenya even grabs his hands in his. Blushing, Katsuki turns away again.

"O-okay. Just don't make me regret this."

Izuku's eyes a sparkling.

"K-Kacchan! Of course! We wouldn't ever think of it!"

Katsuki rolls his eyes.

"You don't think about anything at all."

"Don't confuse me for Eijirou."

"I'm gonna tell him you said that."

"Go ahead, it'll only make him horny."

Katsuki chokes out a laugh as his face scrunches up in that cute way that makes Ochako want to pinch his cheeks. Iida seems to think it's adorable, too.

"M-May I hug you, please?"

"Go for it, Glasses."

And the mammoth of a man is on him before he can even get the words out. Soon, before he even knows what to do with himself, he's been dog piled to the floor of his bedroom.

#

"...whaddya know. Worked itself out."

Shouto smiles from where he's leaning against the wall outside of Katsuki's dorm room door. He and Eijirou had come with the intentions of talking to Katsuki about why he'd been packing all of his things when they'd seen that Ochako had already been there. The plan had been to wait until she left to try and coax some answers out of him, but it would seem that she's had the situation covered all along.

"Guess it did."

Eijirou eyes him with a concerned glance.

"And what about you? Are you okay?"

It's not about him, he wants to say. But he knows how Eijirou can get when he starts talking like he's got no self-worth and he doesn't exactly feel like taking a rock hard fist between the eyes today.

"If I'm honest...I've been a bit distant with him. Not avoiding him but...not able to express to him how much I feel as of I've failed because I knew he'd feel like he failed as well. I don't want that. And I don't ever want him to give up things that make him happy. It's as Ochako said. I'm selfish. I need my baby boy. So I'll do whatever it takes---work double. Work triple. Just to make sure I'm doing it right."

He looks up at Eijirou with a determined glint in his eyes.

"I'll be just fine."

Eijirou understands him better than most people do. He claps him on the shoulder with a proud grin of his own.

"I knew you would."