Cuddly Midori

Dr. Izuku Diagnoses Shigaraki's Problems: Says 'He Only Needs Hugs'

Izuku was walking back to UA after his internship for the day, relatively tired, when an arm slides across his shoulders. He doesn't jump or lash out like a normal person would, instead, he leans into the touch, much to the surprise of the person the arm belongs to, if the sudden tension is any clue.

Izuku doesn't say anything, just continues walking, pulling the person along with him. The silence lasts about a minute, until the arm tightens and presses him snugly against the man's chest. "I was not expecting this reaction."

Izuku hummed, "well, you seem like you need a hug, a lot of hugs, really. But I figured you wouldn't take it well if I approached you, so I had to wait."

They fell silent again, still stopped in the middle of the mostly deserted sidewalk, as the man processed that. "You're not...afraid?"

Izuku hummed again, smiling widely as he patted the man's arm, "if you wanted to kill me, Shigaraki, you would have done it already."

"I could change my mind."

"I suppose you can," Izuku agreed before disappearing in a flash of bright green and reappearing right behind the man, arm around his waist. "But I can move faster than you can twitch, so I'm not all that bothered."

There was a moment of quiet before he let out a raspy chuckle and wrapped his arm back around the boy's shoulders. "Interesting, Izu-tan. You're a very interesting playable character."

Izuku smiled up at him, "thanks, but I'm a player, not a character, Tomu-kun."

He chuckled and let go of the boy, who let go in turn, and walked into a nearby alley with a simple wave over his shoulder, "we'll be seeing each other soon."

Izuku watched as he disappeared into a warp gate before smiling and heading back to UA, no one had to know about this, no one at all.

If, a day later, Izuku got a text from an unknown number with a meme only hard-core gamers would get, well, no one had to know he had one more contact than before. And if they sent memes and recommendations back and forth in the middle of the night, no one had to know. And if, it suddenly takes an hour longer to get from his internships to UA most days, well, no one had to know he spent that hour cuddling a man people would generously call psycho.