pov: cuddling with Tenya during a storm
genre: fluff
I bet your shoulders can hold more than just the straps of that tiny dress
That I'll help you slide aside
-Penny & Sparrow
One stormy February afternoon, you and Iida lie on his couch, your head on his chest, his fingers twined in your hair. The thin white sheet blankets over you and him, and you can feel his heart beating against his cheek.
"What's wrong?" You ask. You've gotten very good at sensing his moods. You tilt your head up to look at him.
"I. . . I am fine." He kisses your forehead.
You feel bad when he says it like that. The way he shouldered the responsibilities, the weight of a role that should have been breezy, a role that should have the same quandaries as a normal highschool class representative. He doesn't want to burden you. He doesn't want to unload the thoughts he fiercely guards by masking it with his serious, rule abiding personality.
"You're thinking about Bakugou's rescue operation, aren't you?"
His lips quirked a little. "I will never get anything past you."
You roll your eyes. "Only because I stare at you a lot." You hold his aegean eyes intently, giving weight to each word. "The consequences of liking you is that I can't help but want to know you, Tenya."
"Ah." His face turns into a lovely shade of red, and he clears his throat to regain his cool.
"So I know that face when you're thinking of something that makes you. . ." You squint your eyes to read his expression better, ". . . sad."
His lips part in a perfect 'O'. His eyes glinted as if it witnessed a world of perfect harmony and peace, simply, as if he witnessed the most wondrous thing in the world. This time, it was your turn to feel flustered.
"Permit to kiss you." He says. It made you more embarrassed. His face is utterly serious.
"Why would you ask that?" You cover your face, damn, your face feels hot.
"It is a perfectly reasonable question to ask. Just because I am your boyfriend doesn't mean I am exempted from asking your consent—"
You press your lips on his mouth to stop his rambling. Sheesh, if you let it, his discussion would go on for hours. He will even pull you in a debate and create an argument; he will do a presentation within half an hour and stage a very serious debate, on a freaking podium and all.
When you pull away, a lock of his raven hair has fallen over his forehead and you have the strongest urge to brush it back, to run your fingers through his hair.
"You have long standing permission to kiss me any time you want, Tenya." You brush his hair back.
He gives you a smile, all soft and melting. The sweet ache assaults your chest even more when he grabs the hand that brushed his hair, and kisses the tip of your fingers. Kami, you're gonna die of diabetes.
"Okay." He whispers.
"So— the rescue?" You prompted, trying to abate the good nerves bugging your very being. Butterflies in the stomach needs to chill. You have a mission to get Iida to talk about stuff that bothers him. You just want to cheer him up.
"I argued with Midoriya about it." He sighs. "And I think I was a bad friend."
You sit up on his stomach, your knees on his sides, and took his chin gently between your fingers. He can't meet your eyes. "Hey," you say. "Look at me."
Reluctantly, he lifts his gaze. "I was terrible."
"No, you weren't."
"I was a hypocrite."
The Hero Killer incident flashes across your mind. "You weren't."
He shrugs. "I did the same thing with Stain, ignored the rules recklessly. But with them? Their reason was better than what I had. I was selfish, it was all for my personal vendetta. Midoriya and the others did it to rescue Bakugou. A classmate— a friend." He laughs sadly. "And I thought I had changed— that I had grown courageous but I had not. I should have been with them."
"Tenya, arguing with Deku does not make you a bad friend. Discouraging Deku does not make you terrible even if they succeeded rescuing Bakugou. Honestly, you did the sensible thing to do. It could have gone real worse for them had their plan failed." You press your hand against his cheek. "They could have died. And their reason isn't better than yours. Both your reasons and theirs, shouldn't be a motivation to put yourselves at risk. Aizawa-sensei, All Might-sensei and the others, they are professional heroes for a reason, and if you really want to carry the label of being a 'bad person' for it, then no one is going to be called good, Tenya. So be kind to the rest of us, we still strive to be good." You kiss his forehead.
His hand is on the back of your neck, weaving through your hair as he pulls you down to his chest. You listen once more to his heart thudding. He says your name, you look up to him, he opens his mouth, his stomach somersaults. However, he changes his mind, his gears turning at the preparation of a PowerPoint and a plan. He needs to lay it to you carefully. He didn't want to overwhelm you, so he's going to do a timeline for you to ease up. Clips. Pictures. Dates. An excerpt from his journal that he has written about you, which is a whole (80 leaves) notebook and half by the way. Anything as to why his feelings have deepened. Not that it can explain everything, he could barely wrap the thought. It makes sense, but the realization is akin to pulling the rug under his feet.
I love you, his mind blurts out when he caught himself.
The realization is awe, awesome or aweful, depending how a person look at it; amazed at how three small words can alter his state of being.
A formal introduction to your parents, he noted to himself. That was his last thought as he fell asleep cuddling with you.
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AN: Haitani Ran pov when? Same. I ask myself when I'm ever gonna be done writing it.
