A Silent Kind of Strength

Chapter 78

After they had been left on their own to absorb the events of the night before, and with the knowledge that the entire League had been captured, they had shifted from sitting upright on the edge of the bed to reclining against the raised head of the bed. Izuku cuddled snuggly under his best friend's arm.

There were too many thoughts running through the freckled boy's mind. So many things had happened in too short a time and his brain was jumbled with the sheer amount of things he needed to compartmentalize. So, as he often did, he found himself rambling to himself. And, as he often did, Hitoshi sat back and relaxed as he idly listened in.

They stayed like that for about 15 minutes or so, before Izuku said something that had his pillow tensing causing his words to stumble to a stop. And then Hitoshi was twisting them around to face each other. A slightly desperate look on his face.

"Izuku." He said seriously, his voice cracking and strained from disuse and accumulated stress. "Please. Please don't say you would've rather you died than me. When Toga tried to stab you I felt my heart stop. I- i honestly thought I was going to lose you! And even though I was only a foot away there was nothing I could do about it! I had just spent the entire time I was captured regretting not telling you I'm in love with you sooner and then I almost lost every chance to say anything afterwards! And it would have been my fault because you only stepped in to save me!"

Tears were streaming down his pale cheeks by the time he finished, huffing in deep breaths after his outburst. But Izuku was too busy staring at him in shock, his brain forced to a halt. Everything in him screaming a repeat of one single word out of his friend's whole speech. Suddenly a lot of things had been made clear to him. His devastation, desperation, and single minded determination over the last few days being thrown into the revealing gaze of a floodlight, nothing left to confuse him. He didn't have a crush on Hitoshi. He took a shaky breath, meeting a distressed purple gaze. "L-love?"

That sent the taller teen into a hard reboot. He seemed to stop breathing completely for a moment, a bit of panic flickering into his eyes as he realized just how he had confessed to his feelings. After his systems came back online he seemed to deflate a bit, tips of his ears turning an endearing pink in shy embarrassment. "I- uh- yeah. You don't have to feel the same way. But I would have regretted never saying anything."

Izuku fiddled with his hearing aids nervously, looking down and away. "I th-thought you had a thi-thing for Denki. Or uh- To-Todoroki?"

That drew a snort from the purple themed teen. "I mean yeah. But uh- I've been thinking about that whole polyamory thing a lot. And I uh- well- while I have a bit of a crush on both of them… right now the only one I can for sure say I l-love is uh- well it's you Izuku."

The smaller boy flushed bright red at the full confession, freckles standing out stark against the color before he hid his face in his hands. He mumbled something incoherent into his palms. "What was that Izu?"

The greenette took a deep breath before pulling his hands away, though he still couldn't quite meet the others eyes again. "I f-feel the same w-w-way. About a-all of it."

And suddenly Hitoshi felt like he was soaring, butterflies swooping in his gut at the reciprocated confession. "Can I- Izuku can I kiss you?"