Shouto Todoroki fell in love with Izuku Midoriya one late spring afternoon in April.

They were stupid high schoolers, sixteen year old best friends. They were dumb teenagers who sat on their dorm roof with a shared plate of strawberries between them, laughing and conjuring up images from the clouds that decorated the skies.

“You know, you look like a strawberry,” Shouto commented with a tiny smile.

Izuku blinked. “Why?”

“The seeds are like your freckles.”

“But I’m not red...?”

“Not usually, no. But when you get flustered you look like strawberry.”

Izuku had stared at him for a solid ten seconds with his mouth slightly agape before his face flushed red and he burst out laughing, a melodic sound that filled Shouto’s entire interior with warmth.

Shouto realized he was in love with Izuku up on that school roof on April 25th watching Izuku laugh and indeed turn into an adorable strawberry, thinking, ‘yeah, I never want to lose this.’

Shouto spent a long time pining for Izuku after that.

He spent days admiring Izuku from afar, dreaming about one day being able to run his fingers through Izuku’s wild curls that sprouted up in every direction, making him look absolutely adorable.

He spent hours being flustered after Izuku changed in the locker rooms and he caught glimpses of the freckles on his back, scattered out like the stars in the galaxy.

He spent hours fantasizing about a future with Izuku; he imagined them moving in together after graduation, giggling between stolen kisses in the kitchen as the eggs burned on the stove, and falling more and more in love with each other day after day

He pined and pined until they were sitting up on that dorm roof stargazing and Izuku silently intertwined their fingers, leaving Shouto flushed like a tomato.

“Izuku?” he rasped out, internally dying, “what are you doing?”

“Is this okay?” Izuku murmured in return, emerald eyes turning to meet marble grey and turquoise blue eyes with the moon above them.

“Yes. More than okay.”

There was no ‘I like you’ or any ‘I love you’ said but there was a mutual understanding between them that something had shifted between them; this was far more than platonic. It was romantic, and it was new and fragile, but it didn’t fail to make Shouto’s heart soar.

They graduated Yuuei one year later holding hands while Izuku pressed a kiss to Shouto’s forehead, not caring whether Shouto accidentally burned him or not with his quirk.

They were technically adults now, eighteen with plans to move in together into a nice little apartment in the heart of the city near a hero agency.

Izuku was already in line to become one of the top heroes and Shouto couldn’t be more proud. He thought-

Izuku deserved it more than anyone else, so he gave in easily and let Izuku lead him to an apartment next to an agency where they both worked at.

Shouto would follow Izuku anywhere, even if it meant leaving everything he ever knew.

“Do you want to keep your socks on the left or right side of the drawer?” Izuku asked from their bedroom the first night in their new apartment.

“Uh, the left...? Does it really matter?”

“It’s very important, Shouto. It’s the fate of our socks that we’re talking-

about here.”

Shouto let out a small snort. “The right side then. I know you like the left side more.”

“Aw, how thoughtful of you!” Izuku teased with a laugh. “Say, do you think we’ll get through a year with this agency?”

“If you keep your property damage rate low we just might.”

“Shouto! You’re so mean!”

Shouto only laughed when Izuku chucked him a wadded up sock, laughing harder when Izuku tackled him and kissed him all over his face with a dopey smile on his face.

It was fine for the first year.

He and Izuku quickly became some of Japan’s favorite heroes, most notably for being caught making out in alleyways and saving the day twenty minutes later.

“The perfect couple,” the media called them.

Shouto had to disagree.

They weren’t a perfect couple; they argued sometimes, though it never got too out of hand, and they had their off days like any other couple.

They weren’t the perfect couple, but Izuku himself was perfect. At least in Shouto’s eyes, anyways.

Izuku was perfect.

He made Shouto breakfast in the mornings even if their shifts were completely different, burning it sometimes when they made out on the kitchen table.

He squeezed Shouto’s hand three times ‘I love you’ in crowded rooms, a gesture Shouto always returned.

He folded Shouto’s laundry and made fun of him for accidentally turning all his whites pink, always earning himself a sock to the head.

He held Shouto at night when he had nightmares and whispered, ‘it’s okay, I’m here,’ while Shouto wept like a child.

He whispered promises into Shouto’s ear after stressful days, tucking his strands of hair behind his ear while repeating over and over, ‘It’s okay, Shouto. I’m never leaving your side.’

Izuku was beautiful, charming, and perfect.

Too perfect.

When Izuku started spending longer hours at the agency and picking up extra shifts, he left Shouto alone at home in a bed that felt too big for just him.

When Izuku started making excuses to not go on date nights it left Shouto to shamefully cancel reservation after reservation, tone full of defeat.

When Izuku stopped calling him ‘darling’ and ‘love’ his fears started to rise.

/He won’t leave me. He loves me. He’s perfect, he’s perfect. He loves me./

When Izuku started going to parties after rising to be one of the top five heroes in Japan he stopped squeezing Shouto’s hand three times in crowded rooms.

/It’s okay. He still loves me./

Izuku was perfect. He was ‘Mr. Here to Stay,’ making promises to stay by Shouto’s side forever.

He was Mr. Perfect until he was Mr. Change of Heart, sitting Shouto at the table with a pained look in those emerald eyes of his that Shouto always got lost in.

“Shouto...we need to talk.”

“Please don’t,” Shouto whispered, his whole body trembling. “Don’t do this, Izuku.”

He didn’t even need to hear any ‘let’s break up’ to know that Izuku was sitting in front of him to break it off.

“I’m sorry,” Izuku replied, clenching his hands tightly, “but I just...I don’t think we fit together anymore. Sorry.”

One half-assed apology that didn’t even explain why he was breaking up with Shouto was all he said before leaving with a suitcase full of clothes.

Shouto’s world fell apart that day while Izuku walked away perfectly fine, head held high and smiling in his interview the next morning as if he hadn’t just left Shouto a crying mess the night before.

Shouto was left to pick up the he broken fragments of his heart and try to patch them back together while Izuku continued to rise up in the charts, smiling like an idiot the whole time.

/He didn’t even give me an explanation why./

Izuku was spotted with someone else a couple of months after breaking it off with Shouto, and with a snarl Shouto chucked his remote at the TV, screaming obscenities.

“I hope you don’t leave her without a proper goodbye either,” he hissed.

They asked Izuku about Shouto and a weird look would always flicker across his face before he was back to laughing, saying, “I haven’t spoken to him in a while, but I hope he’s doing okay.”

Shouto was anything /but/ okay; he was a crumpled piece of paper laying on-

the ground, trampled on by Izuku’s stupid freckles and stupid smile.

“Shouto,” he gasped one day in surprise when they went to the same party. “You’re...”

“I don’t want to listen to you,” Shouto spat coldly, eyes steel. “I don’t even want to look at you.”

It was one year after their breakup but seeing Izuku brought back all those horrible feelings of emptiness and heartache that never quite left.

“Shouto–"

“How does it feel like to be on top of the world, Midoriya? Does it feel fine? Does it make you feel perfect?”

He scoffed. “Have fun being number one, /Hero Deku./“

Shouto walked away that night and stumbled home to his cat and wept while cursing Izuku’s name, and Izuku did the same, still a coward and unable to explain to Shouto why he left him one year ago.