"I Love You."

"I-Is he alive?"

I don't do this usually, but please read with caution.

Midoriya's POV

Even though I was tired, I stayed awake.

Shouto was snuggled against my shoulder, his arms around me as he slept peacefully. We were both shirtless while under my All Might blanket, still a little sweaty from our late night activities.

I ran my fingers through Shouto's hair, my hands shaking slightly for unknown reasons. They tended to do that a lot, recently, and Recovery Girl told me it was just from my lack of sleep, nothing more, nothing less.

But lately, I've had this strange, awful feeling in my stomach and chest, a feeling that makes me want to puke and sleep, because everything has become so hazy, and it's hard.

And I don't know when it's going to stop being so hard.

No, I haven't been sleeping, because I've been thinking. I've been doing a lot of that recently, as well.

I've been thinking back in time, to the sunset that fuelled my worst nightmares, transporting me back to that man's harsh grasp. In my dream, whenever I struggled the pain would grow until it was almost unbearable, and then his sickened deep voice would whisper in my ear.

"Relax and calm down, you slut. If you do that, it won't hurt you as bad."

But it did.

It stung and burned, and he kept going even when I started bleeding –

I sat up quickly, my breathing laboured as I tried to shake the man's voice from my head.

Is this how Shouto felt; how Kacchan felt? I thought, staring up at my ceiling, still running my fingers through Shouto's silky hair. Is this why they did what they did? Is this how they felt from all the pressure, and did cutting really help them release their stress?

Well, I guess there was only one way to find out.

I was in the downstairs bathroom now, Shouto still sleeping soundly upstairs in my room, oblivious to the conflicting emotions I was feeling.

Oblivious to the blade that was resting above my wrist, just barely touching my skin.

Yeah, it's been hard.

There's no other way to put it.

And now, I know how Shouto and Kacchan felt. And I feel so, so irresponsible. I tried to help them, I supported them, loved them, and held them close when they needed it, even if they didn't ask.

In a way, I wanted to save them. Because I'm a hero, and heroes have to be able to lift others and help teach them how to fly. But, even heroes have their limits, and with all the extra pressure, all that extra weight from helping others, they begin to fall, unable to fly.

And that's where I was now, falling.

The blade and the bathroom floor was stained red, my fingers twitching as they numbed. My eyes didn't blink, so they just stared at my hand, my left cheek pressed hard against the bloodied floor.

I smiled, because yes, this does help.

My emotions have been building up since Middle School, ever since Kacchan stopped me from jumping that one day, and I couldn't help but feel relief as I felt the pressure that was squeezing my lungs release.

And with that extra weight off my shoulders, I closed my eyes.

~Time skip to the morning~

Bakugou's POV