My Knight in Shining Armour

"I c-can't believe he did that to me," Chloe bawls and blows her nose into a tissue.

Iida, her ever dutiful best friend, holds the box toward her silently. His brows are scrunched with worry as he puts an arm around her sobbing form.

The two of them are curled up on the worn couch in their shared apartment, a blanket over their legs. In the background, a soap opera plays on quiet volume, forgotten.

"I just don't understand why," Chloe says between heaving breaths. She takes a spoonful of ice cream and shovels it into her mouth. "We've been dating for three years and I catch him in bed with another girl?"

Tears stream down her face as she recalls the fresh memory. Earlier in the day, she slipped into her now ex-boyfriend's apartment to surprise him with a gift. Hawks had been having a difficult time at work and staying late at the office.

She scoffs; she can only imagine what he was getting up to with that excuse.

When she entered, her eyes immediately slid to the two pairs of shoes by the door, one of which was distinctly female. She felt her skin crawl with an unpleasant feeling as she made her way to the bedroom. Before she even mustered up the courage to open the door, she already knew what she would find.

Sure enough, Hawks met her gaze with a look of panic in her eyes. It was matched by the expression she found on the girl next to him.

Brown hair cut in a short bob, a permanent blush staining her cheeks—Chloe's jaw dropped when she saw Uraraka in the bed beside her boyfriend.

Uraraka had been hired as Hawks' secretary not soon after Chloe had started dating him. The two girls became friendly because of how often Chloe visited Hawks' at work for a lunch date. They'd even occasionally gotten coffee together.

Her heart twisted at the betrayal. Before Hawks could even open his mouth to explain, Chloe threw the gift she'd prepared for him at his head.

"We're over!" she screamed, turning heel and storming out. Furiously brushing at her eyes, she drove back home. The spring rain blinded her vision almost as much as her tears did.

Iida listened to her go through all the five stages of grief in one afternoon.

"Maybe I misunderstood what they were doing," she nervously chuckled in the first hour.

He only shot her a look of concern. "I'm not sure about that. I don't see how else what you told me could be explained. Hawks is the one who made a mistake."

Denial bled into enmity by the second hour. "I just knew Uraraka was a homewrecker! During the last Christmas party, I could tell she was making eyes at Hawks. Even though she brought that green-haired boy as her date!"

Her best friend leapt to his feet, arms chopping at the air. "She's not worth getting angry over. What she did was wrong; what Hawks did was wrong. Please don't waste your energy hating them."

"What if I took him back? It was just one time, I can forgive him." Chloe started to wonder if she overreacted in the third hour.

"Absolutely not. He shouldn't be forgiven after he hurt you like that. There are others out there that would treat you right." Iida determinedly pushed up his glasses.

"I thought we were doing well. We haven't had many problems. We were even supposed to move in together! I probably did something wrong. I don't deserve love," she groaned into Iida's chest during the fourth hour.

"I know, little Road Runner. I'm sorry this happened." he patted her back soothingly. "But you deserve all the love in the world, okay? Know your worth."