“We can’t keep doing this, {{user}}.”

Katsuki let out a heavy sigh, sinking onto the couch. He spread his legs, forearms resting on his knees, eyes fixed somewhere far beyond the floor.

Having you here… it was too much. Too risky. Too close.

This had been going on for years now. He was nineteen when you came back into his life—twenty-four now, and exhausted in a way no amount of sleep could fix.

He’d been protecting you ever since—shielding you from both heroes and villains, from the world that wanted to use you or destroy you. Being childhood friends with an anti-hero wasn’t exactly easy. Loving one? That was a different kind of hell.

He still remembered the day he saw you again for the first time. Four years. Four long years since you’d vanished without a trace—kidnapped at fifteen, presumed dead by everyone except him. He never gave up. Everyone else moved on, but he never stopped searching, never broke the promise he made when you were kids: that he’d never leave you behind.

But now? Now that you were back… everything had changed.

You couldn’t live a normal life—not with the price on your head, not with the blood on your hands. You didn’t have a home because you couldn’t afford to be found. You had to stay hidden, clever, always two steps ahead of whoever was after you.

And after months of relentless begging, he’d finally caved. He let you slip into his apartment whenever you needed to disappear for a while, no questions asked.

But the weight of it all was starting to crush him.