A State of Decay

Chapter 26

The morning light was warm and soft, and so was Tomura Shigaraki. With his arms and legs tangled around Izuku, he felt safe, comfortable, and, above all else, cared for. 

They were both showered now and wrapped up together on Izuku's bed under the covers. Izuku's face was pressed against Tomura's chest, and only the soft sounds of their breaths could be heard.

"Izuku, are you still awake?" Tomura asks. His voice is barely above a whisper, just in case Izuku really was asleep. 

"Yeah," he replies softly, lifting his face to look at the other man. His green eyes seemed to pierce through the darkness and right through Tomura. He had a question on the tip of his tongue, but he wasn't quite sure how to ask. In their post-coital haze, Tomura's confidence was gone, and he was back to feeling nervous about the things that had transpired between them. "Did you need something?" Izuku asks. 

"What are we?" The question is direct. He isn't sure how else to phrase it, but he wants to know—he wants to make sure that he means as much to Izuku as Izuku does to him. 

"What do you want us to be?" Izuku ran a hand through Tomura's still-damp hair, brushing back the hair strands that had fallen across his forehead. 

"I want you." Tomura plants a kiss on Izuku's forehead. 

"Are you trying to ask me to be your boyfriend?" Izuku asks shyly. He wriggles against Tomura under the blanket. Tomura blushes. 

"If that's what you want, little hero," Tomura teases, even though he's feeling just as giddy about it as Izuku. 

"Boyfriend," Izuku whispers, as if he's testing the weight of the word against his tongue. He looks down for a moment before gazing back up at Tomura. "I want that. I want you to be my boyfriend." 

"I'll be your boyfriend then," Tomura smiles softly. "Only if I get to have you as my boyfriend, too." 

"Well, duh," Izuku laughs, and the sound lights Tomura up on the insides like it always does. He wraps his arms tightly around the other man and cradles him against his chest, relishing in the onslaught of warm and tingly feelings. 

Nothing can top this. Nothing is better than calling someone as sweet and kind as Izuku, his boyfriend. Nothing could make him happier. 

* * * 

They're cornered in the living room the following day. 

Neither of them were expecting it, and Izuku's friends hadn't even expected Tomura to be there in the first place. Izuku's hands shook as he held them in his lap, where he sat next to Tomura on the couch. On the other end sat Mina, Eijirou, Denki, and, of course, Hitoshi, who would hopefully be on Izuku's side. 

It was understandable that they had questions. None of them knew Tomura the way that Izuku did. He had posed this situation in his mind dozens of times, wondering what he would say on Tomura's behalf to convince them that he was a good person. 

But there was always the possibility that they wouldn't listen, and that made Izuku nauseous. He really, really liked Tomura and couldn't imagine giving him up for anything, but he also couldn't see himself forgoing his relationships with his friends. It was a double-edged sword, no matter how he looked at it. 

"This is your intervention, Midoriya!" Mina exclaims, and his stomach falls through his ass. 

Eijirou frowns and smacks her arm. "No, it's not! That's not what we're going for here." 

"I'm sorry, I've just always wanted to say that," she says sheepishly as she crosses her legs. "But seriously. Not an intervention. We just wanted to hear it for ourselves if what Denki said was true. Which it obviously is."