It Takes Time

11

Aizawa had expected a lot of things from all this but holding Y/N while she was crying wasn't one of those things. It would have been a pleasant surprise if she hadn't been crying, but the circumstances made this very much a sad occasion. Aizawa had expected her to be upset, of course. Anyone would have been upset. But he hadn't expected such an overwhelming reaction. It seemed that Y/N's husband really was a tyrant.

But at least he now had the chance to hear what she had been through. He hadn't been sure whether it was a good idea to ask her to tell him about what had been happening to her, but he had asked it plainly out of impulse. And maybe now she was ready to tell him. Maybe then they could work something out. That was what Aizawa was hoping for, anyway. There was no question about her staying with her husband. She'd have to get out of there eventually, and Aizawa was sure that she knew that.

"Then why don't you tell me what's been going on?"

That's what he had asked her. He hadn't really been expecting an answer and he didn't get one right away. Y/N stayed in his arms for a little while longer, before taking a deep breath and wiping the tears away from her eyes. She took a step back and Aizawa let go of her. His arms felt empty without her, but he knew that they were still at work and that there were some boundaries he shouldn't be overstepping.

This was a delicate situation and the fact that Y/N seemed to be willing to talk was a big step for her. She had always refused to tell anyone anything about her life at home, but she seemed to be psyching herself up for it right now. Aizawa knew that he shouldn't be pushing for anything, and he was trying his best not to get impatient or frustrated by the way she was still defending her husband, even if it wasn't easy.

"You really want to know what's been going on?" she asked him. Aizawa nodded. Of course, he wanted to know. If he didn't want to know, he wouldn't have asked. Aizawa wasn't the kind of person that made small talk just for the sake of it. Pretty much everyone knew that about him by now.

"Of course, I want to know. Just tell me what you're comfortable with. Maybe we can figure something out."

"Okay. This won't be pretty. And you can't tell anyone about any of this. Absolutely no one, okay? I don't want people to know all this about me. I don't want them to see me any differently. I'm embarrassed enough already."

"There is no reason to be embarrassed. But I won't tell anyone. I promise. This conversation stays between the two of us and no one else will hear about it." Aizawa told her. Of course, he wasn't going to tell anyone. That just seemed like common sense to him, but Y/N probably just wanted to cover her bases.

"Okay. I'm sorry, I'm going to need a moment. This isn't as easy as you might think it is." she told him.

"Take all the time you need. I never thought it would be easy. But I'm here and I won't tell a soul, alright? You can trust me on this, Y/N. But you need to tell someone about it at some point, don't you think?"

"Yes... Yes, I guess you're right. I've been carrying this around with me for way too long already. Still, I don't want you to see me any differently after I tell you everything, okay? Please tell me you won't."

"I'll do my best, okay?" Aizawa said with an encouraging smile. Y/N nodded and gave him a small smile back. Aizawa could feel his heart leaping in his chest, but he tried his best not to show anything.

"Okay. Well, you probably already figured it out, but Haruto... he just gets angry a lot. And he gets very jealous. It hasn't always been like that. At the beginning it was very sweet. He was very sweet. He wouldn't get as angry all the time. We'd have our arguments, of course, but he was always so incredibly sweet when he apologized later on. He never did anything awful while we were going out. Sure, he got jealous easily, but at the very beginning it seemed kind of flattering. You know, that he was so in love with me and so worried about me that he would get that jealous. I don't know, I think I just didn't really see him for what he was. But I was stupidly in love with him, and everything moved so fast."