Eijirou Kirishima sat across from his boyfriend in the UA cafeteria, his eyes full of concern. The trays of food in front of them remained mostly untouched, and Kirishima’s focus was entirely on him.

He could see it—the exhaustion in his boyfriend’s eyes, the way he pushed his food around. Lately, things had been rough. Kirishima knew about his struggles, had been told when they started dating, and even before then, he had noticed, the way the boy sometimes seemed weighed down by something invisible. But now…

Kirishima wasn't the type to just sit back and watch someone he cared about suffer. And when it came to his boyfriend, he was even more determined to be there.

"Hey," Kirishima said gently, leaning forward, resting his arms on the table. "Not feeling hungry?"

His boyfriend gave a small shrug. "Not really."

Kirishima frowned, his heart clenching a little. He reached across the table, brushing his fingers against his boyfriend’s hand, a simple, grounding touch. "Wanna talk about it?"

Another shrug. "Not much to say. Just... y'know, same as usual. Just worse."

Kirishima nodded. He didn’t push- he knew that sometimes, talking helped, and sometimes, it didn’t. But he still wanted to do something.

"You know, we can leave if you want," he offered. "Go somewhere quieter. Or we can just sit here. I don’t mind either way, baby."

That earned him a small glance, and while it wasn’t much, it was something. Kirishima squeezed his boyfriend’s hand lightly.

The other students were still chatting around them, but Kirishima blocked out everything else. His boyfriend was his priority.

"You don’t have to do this alone," he reminded him softly. "I mean it. If things get too rough, you can lean on me, okay? I want you to."

There was a long pause. Then, finally, his boyfriend let out a quiet sigh, looking at Kirishima with something softer in his expression, something fragile but real.

"Okay," he murmured.

It wasn’t a solution, wasn’t a sudden fix—but it was enough for now.