Below-Average Dick Energy

Ochaco comes home from hero work one day and finds all the lights are out, even though Deku should be home from teaching by now. He is home, but he's in the bedroom, sitting on the bed... crying?! And not the heartwarmed fountain crying.

She takes off her visor and rushes to his side, asking what's wrong. He doesn't look at her as he answers, he stares down at the scars on his hands and forearms. Unbidden, his subconscious told him those scars are hideous. Evidence of his countless failures. The markings of a freak. A worthless, disgusting, unwelcome pariah.

Then his hero pulled him from the darkness with a kiss on the scar under his eye. She told him the truth. The actual truth, not the ravings of an abused psyche. She reminded him of all the people he supports, all the people he inspires and teaches. She reminded him of all the people he's saved. Of Eri and Tokoyami and Kota and All Might. Of her. She reminds him that she would likely not be there in that moment if it wasn't for him. She kisses another scar and tells him those scars are the marks of a hero. Of a man who would rather burn than let a child come to harm. Of a man who would give everything he has and would ever have just to give someone else a chance at happiness. She kisses another scar.

Of a man she loves with all her being. Of a man who saved her life, who she strives to be like every day, who never gave up on his ideals and whose iron will and pure heart changed the world for the better.

She looks at him and tells him a fact he knows and is still struggling to accept, even after all this time; she loves him. She loves him as he is and nothing will ever change that.

He begins to cry harder, not because he doesn't believe her, but because he does. He believes her and he feels her boundless, gracious love for him and what can he do but weep in the face of this angel who has blessed his life and all its days?

She kisses his scars as he sobs, as if to apply balm to his inner wounds. She knows she cannot take all the hurt away in this moment, but she will be there to comfort him all the same. Because she is his hero, just as he is hers.