The Formula for Villainy

Guilt and Hot Beverages

"You don't mind if I stay with you tonight, do you?" Iida asks, his voice lost in the roaring of the bullet train shooting down the tracks. He's with Izuku, riding back into the city from the hospital. He feels like Izuku is acting strange - he's in shock, Iida knows. But still - he's often so calm and assertive in such situations. Maybe it's different however, because this is his boyfriend's brother, a personal connection rather than another random victim of a villain attack. 

"Huh?" Izuku looks up from his notebook, lost and dazed, like a deer in headlights. He gives  a small smile, it doesn't reach his eyes. "No, I don't, you can stay for as long as you want!" 

Iida watches Izuku's hand place atop his, squeezing it slightly in support. His eyes snap up to stare into Izuku's, scrutinising him intensely. What is off about him tonight? "Don't worry Tenya, I'll fix this," Izuku promises with a hollow stare, though his voice has the same passionate fire it always has, a determination unstoppable in the face of adversary. 

I must be being paranoid, Iida tells himself, shifting closer to Izuku and drawing him close with his arm, until the crazy green head rests on his shoulder. 

They return to Izuku's, Iida goes in for a shower. The warm water drips down his body, washing off the night's events with its calming heat. The scarlet remains of the night drain from Iida's body, dragged down the plughole by the water - Tensei's blood no longer on his hands. A hot shower fixes everything. The worry is pushed to the back of his mind and on the surface at least, he's relaxed when he walks outside with a towel wrapped firmly around his waist, another around his hair and pulled up. 

Izuku looks up from where he's sitting, one leg hanging off his bed. He sees Iida and chuckles, closing over his notebook and slipping it under his pillow, the special place he stores his secret analysis. "You need to show me how you do that," he giggles. 

"What?" 

"The towel thing on your head - I never learned how," Izuku explains. 

"Don't you live with just your mother?" 

Izuku nods in affirmation. "Yeah, but she uses a hair dryer, every time she washes her hair" 

A small, horrified gasps follow. "B-But that is so  bad for your hair! Where is she? I must tell her-!" 

Izuku grabs his hand and leads him over to the bed, where he's calm once again. He draws him into a hug, wrapping his arms around Iida's shoulders and kissing away a few stray water droplets from his nape. "Don't stress yourself. You must be exhausted," there's an unfamiliar tone to Izuku's voice, a silky one. 

"I am," he admits, remembering the deep bags under his eyes his reflection revealed. The bathroom mirror even in its fog exposing that lethargy that's finally caught up to him. It makes his shoulders slumps, his body ache. Izuku gently unwraps the towel from his mostly dry hair, its like a relaxing massage. 

"Sleep," a faint whisper in his ear, Iida's unsure if Izuku even said it. He closes his eyes, plummeting into a sleep deeper than he's ever had. 

Izuku smiles down at his boyfriend, blowing a few stray hairs away from his forehead. Carefully he places Iida's glasses on the bedside table, giving them a place of reverence in this bedroom. He opens his notebook once again, in the page written in thick black ink. The heading reads 'My Revenge: Plan A' underlined messily. Izuku has never been an incredibly neat person, that drives Iida insane. 

Iida. 

He looks down at the sleeping boy, guilt creeping in on him just a little. How disappointed Iida would be to know he was thinking of getting revenge, of being a violent villain committing such a heinous crime. And it is a heinous crime condemned heavily by society. He knowns the ramifications of what he plans to do, he knows exactly what it'll turn him into. Afraid? Izuku Midoriya cackles in the face of fear - no matter what, he will find a way to triumph. Guilt won't stop him and neither will fear. This is for Iida, he'd thank him if only he understood.