Just a small little gift that I had the itch for, and decided to get out while I was feeling it. Not super long, and liable to more editing and revision down the line, but still was super fun to write. Hope you enjoy, and sorry if there is any grammar that throws people off, I only proof read it twice :}

Anyway, hope y'all enjoy! And tell me how I did with Rumi! She's by far one of the hardest characters I've written thus far.

In Love,

Erebus

Izuku had nightmares sometimes.

It wasn't something that Rumi ever commented on to anyone else. Wasn't something she thought was anyone else's business but the green haired hero's and - due to the fact that she shared a bed with him often enough - her own. So it stayed between them. When one would come and Izuku would thrash awake, crying out incoherently, she'd wake up too; they'd hold each other until he was fine, and then go back to sleep, always a little closer and more entangled than before.

It pained the pro that she couldn't do anything about them. She didn't dream at all, much less have nightmares, so she couldn't relate much to her other halfs experience; but from how he'd described it to her, she knew she'd hate it.

"I'm always powerless. Unable to move." Izuku's gaze darkened, and he glared into his coffee. "I can never move. And then he shows up." The young hero spat the word with such venom that Rumi couldn't help but shudder.

Izuku was kind, strong, sure, and willing to kick serious ass if it came down to it, but he was always so kind. Hatred wasn't something she often saw in his eyes, wasn't something in his nature, so whenever the white haired woman did see it, it always shook her a little. There were, as of now, only two people who'd earned the young man's scorn in such a way as to illicit such a concentrated emotion that the cinnamon roll oozed bloodlust; Chisaki Kai, and All for One.

And considering Izuku had beaten Chisaki with his own hands, that left so the second as his sole tormenter during the night.

"Sometimes, he kills me… Most of the time he kills me, but only after tormenting me. Speaking down to me in that stupid, infuriating way he does; like I'm a child who doesn't really know anything that's going on, or he's already playing with all the pieces and I'm just too dumb to know it." Izuku carefully set down his coffee mug, so as to not accidentally crush it during his re-imagining of the previous night, and continued as Rumi moved up against him, rubbing his back and pressing into the young hero's side in an obvious invitation.

Lean on me. You're not alone. Share this burden with me. Please.

He visibly relaxed, if only so much so that Rumi was no longer fearing for the safety of their kitchen island, which had been creaking under his grip. He smiled down at her lovingly, before closing his eyes and resting his forehead against hers.

She felt him shudder.

"Sometimes it's mom… Or, or you, or my classmates, or even someone I don't know. Sometimes it's all of the above. But it's always the same. He kills them, slowly, taunting me as I'm forced to watch, and I can't do anything about it." A shake, and Rumi caught him as he began collapsing into her; she slowly lowered them to the ground as he sobbed. "I can't move, forced to, to watch. And then he's done, and gives me this smug," there was a roar in Izuku's throat as he growled out that word, "stupid look, and kills me. Then I wake up."

He'd sobbed quietly in her arms - whether from rage or sadness or the fear that all of that might come true one day, she didn't know - and all Rumi could do was hold him.

She hated it.

If there was one thing she was, it was strong. If there was one thing she was supposed to be able to do, it was fight the evil, and the villains, and give everyone peace of mind.

But she couldn't fight these nightmares, and she hated that.

She remembered that first conversation so clearly, because as much as Izuku had been sobbing in frustration, she - for the first time ever - had wanted to join him. Came really damn close to letting her own long unused tear ducts run wild as she bit down the bitter feeling that bubbled in her heart, as the slimy little voice in her head that she'd long since thought she'd killed and buried, whispered sweet words into her ear.

Not so strong now are you Rumi? You said once that when you were a hero you'd be able to protect people, and here we are now. He needs you, and what can you do? Nothing. Still as useless as the day your parents walked out on you. Nothing's changed.

Not one to let stupid voices in her head get the better of her, Rumi - who was a woman of action - had taken action.

Without a word, Rumi gently took Izuku's chin, brought it upwards from where it had been hanging, and kissed him. The boy was surprised, to say the least.

Kisses didn't happen often, at least, not full on ones. Sure, foreheads and cheeks and hands - when Izuku was feeling particularly flirty - were all common enough, along with the pairs go-to forehead to forehead thing they did, but the duo was surprisingly light on real kissing.

"Wha… Rumi-"

"No, let me speak." Her voice commanded he listen to what she had to say, so the greenette shut his trap.

"I love you. I really, really do. And, I know I've never told you that, but it's true. And I hate that I can't just fight this, this thing out of your head for you. It's the only thing I'm good for and I can't… I feel like I'm useless, sometimes, because I don't know what to do." She smiled at him with that smile Izuku knew she reserved for him specifically; all gentle and thin, and packed with all of everything Rumi was, from her strength to her weakness, and apparently, her love. "Except I do know what to do, at least, just this once."

She pressed her forehead against his, a small flurry of tears dripping down her face as she smiled as deep into the young man's eyes as she could, willing him to understand her heart.

"I love you, Izuku Midoriya, and I promise that I will be here to keep being your pillar, and your rock, and help you carry your burden for as long as it takes for you to finally put that fucker in the ground." Izuku was smiling back, and they were both crying, and somehow beyond her words there was something else passing between them. An unspoken - like most things with them - something that was transmitted between their hearts, leaving a little peace of one another deep inside of their other half as they held each other and cried on that kitchen floor, smiles plastering their faces that would have given All Might a run for his money.

"I love you too, Rumi."

And so it wasn't something they talked about after that. They dealt with the problem as it came up, whether that be pulling one another just a little closer when Izuku woke up choking back a scream, or Rumi answering a facetime call at 3:00 in the morning just so her stressed brocoli boy of a nerd could see her face with his own eyes, and make sure she really was ok, and it really had been a dream.

The nightmares seemed to get better over time, and though they were typically present no matter where Dekiru was sleeping - whether it be at the dorms or their agency - they tended to be much less extreme when the two were sharing a bed. He'd even gotten to the point where he wouldn't wake her when the masked face of All for One tormented him away from peaceful rest, and would simply pull her close and return to sleep.

And well… Though she felt it was a little selfish of her, Rumi herself had been sleeping much easier since that first and only conversation. After all, whatever demons - as small as they sometimes felt in comparison to Izuku's own - she herself was fighting were always chased off by the memory of her other half's voice, and that piece of him that she knew was treasured away inside of her heart.

"I love you too, Rumi."