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Chapter Text

All Might’s powers were waning and he was only capable of three - maybe four - hours in his large form before he couldn’t hold it any longer. Because of this he did two patrols a night: the first one starting once the skies began getting dark and the second ending when they were starting to lighten up.

His third hour was kept for emergencies only. For the daytime problems that required the sheer power only the vigilante All Might could dish out.

He was probably the only vigilante who ever risked being seen in the public eye to such an extent, but it was necessary. If a supervillain capable of threatening the entire city was taking out the official heroes left and right he had to step in. All he had to do was make sure the villain was completely down and jump away before anyone could react.

Sometimes… sometimes he had to fight the heroes in order to escape. But All Might pulled his punches, misdirected, jumped high and far and escaped with every ounce of skill and speed he could manage. He refused to hurt the professionals only doing their jobs.

It wasn’t their fault he was on the wrong side of the law. It was something none of them could help. There were too many factors beyond anyone’s control at this point.

As Yagi Toshinori he was just an average citizen, sickly but ordinary. Nobody knew he was anyone else. The perfect disguise, if not for the fact that his contacts in law enforcement told him the heroes had figured out All Might very likely had a transformative quirk.

After all who could hide such a distinctive figure from the public? All vigilantes had a private life, the same as heroes, but anyone as large as All Might would surely be easily identifiable. The logical conclusion - and frighteningly correct - was that his unknown quirk had a transformative property. Fortunately it was only one of the many leading theories based around him and his quirk, but it meant he still wasn’t safe.

So when Yagi moved cities he stayed at his small apartment, he didn’t go out unless necessary, and he did his patrols at dark hours to keep under the radar until he was absolutely needed. But he had pro heroes as neighbors and they were constantly coming and going always at the same times he needed to.

And he tried so hard but Yamada was friendly and Aizawa so intimidating and, well, over time the couple grew on him. He tried to keep his distance still but Yamada had this idea that he couldn’t take care of himself, constantly trying to feed and mother him. And Aizawa was just blunt and intelligent enough to be able to tell Yamada was right.

Over time the couple had more than grown on him, no matter how much he tried to not let them. Even when he occasionally met Present Mic while fighting a supervillain or ran from Eraserhead’s familiar silhouette on the night skyline. Toshinori couldn’t help himself from wanting what they were offering. What Yamada’s not so subtle flirting and Aizawa’s quiet companionship implied.

But he couldn’t. Because they were heroes, and he was secretly Japan’s most wanted and popular vigilante, and he had the world’s oldest, most deadly supervillain gunning for him.

But he couldn’t help himself from feeling the way he did about them. So he smiled and bit his lip and pretended he was oblivious to the flirting and the close touches. He continued his patrols and told his nosy neighbors that he was so sickly looking muggers targeted him, that was why he came home with scrapes and injuries on a regular basis.

He ignored their suspicious, concerned looks and pretended everything was fine.

 He was too late. Too late to stop Yamada from being hurt.

It was dark and his patrol was halfway over, he’d stopped several small time criminals, and he was shocked to see the familiar outline of Present Mic fighting a villain at this time of night. He didn’t do nighttime patrols normally. But here he was, backup nowhere in sight.

All Might felt a sharp pain stabbing him in the chest as he saw the villain in the alley below holding his arm up, metal snapping and screeching as his quirk crushed the voice modulator around Present Mic’s neck. Hizashi made sharp, strangled noises like he was trying to use his quirk as his feet lifted up off the ground.

There was an irrational surge of anger and All Might forced himself to stop and think before acting, or he could risk hurting the hero.

He took a deep breath and launched himself off the roof at high speed.

“I!”

His feet hit the concrete with the sound shattering of pavement.

“AM!”

He swung his arm, barely putting any force into it, the villain having no time to react with his normal reflexes. A meaty thud of fist meeting flesh.

“HERE!”

The moment his punch was followed through he moved inhumanly fast to grab Present Mic in his arms before he could drop. First aid flashed through his mind.

Neck injury, strangulation, severe enough that it was highly probable there was damage to his spine.

All Might cradled his head in one hand, keeping his neck straight, other arm wrapped around his chest to support his body.

“Ha ha…” Yagi’s first instinct, to continue his endless smile and reassure the victim, was useless. “Oh dear…”

Up close the damage was even more horrifying.

Yamada- Present Mic was red in the face, turning darker every second. His eyes were glazed and unfocused and blood dripped down his chin with every gargled attempt at breathing. His quirk modulator wasn’t even recognizable, shrunk to a third of its size where it was wrapped tightly around his neck.

God, All Might hoped his neck wasn’t broken.

The modulator’s remains were obviously constricting his breathing but he wasn’t sure he could get it off without hurting Present Mic even worse. Spinal injuries were not something to risk harming further. Even if he could get it off, it was possible his throat was too obstructed to breathe.

Before he could come up with a plan of action Present Mic’s backup showed up.

“All Might!”

That voice was familiar. That voice was so, so familiar and oh god he didn’t want this he didn’t want that face looking at him like an enemy.

“...Eraserhead.” He acknowledged, looking up to see the underground hero staring at him with no emotion. He saw the hero’s hair start to stir and in a split second he realized several things.

One: Aizawa- Eraserhead couldn’t see Present Mic from the angle he was at, since All Might was crouched and hunched over him.

Two: Eraserhead could erase One For All and thus revert his transformation, revealing his identity to the one of the few people who would actually recognize him.

Three: His true form was weak, so weak, and if Aizawa erased his quirk he wouldn’t be able to even summon up a fraction of strength to hold the limp body in his arms properly. Even if his weak arms could hold Present Mic up, the jolt of transformation could make him fumble. The danger of dropping someone with a possible spinal injury was-

He hated to do this. Hated to use Yamada against him. But All Might shifted sideways, making sure to keep supporting Present Mic’s head.

“Put your hands wh- Hizashi?!” Thank god Eraserhead’s hair flopped back down before his quirk activated, shock from seeing his husband saving All Might for now.

“Eraserhead, please!” All Might bit out, forced smile falling into a pained grimace. “Do not erase my quirk, please! If you do-” And even then, even knowing his entire life’s purpose could be overridden by a single slip of his identity… even then All Might’s priorities were never about himself. “I fear I won’t have the strength to support Present Mic’s head..!” Even now he found very little fear in his heart for himself. Only for the man he was holding in his arms, his blood starting to drip onto All Might’s chest.

Present Mic’s gurgling was disturbing, but the slow decline in the strangled noises was worse.

“He has a neck injury, PLEASE!” All Might begged. He didn’t want to drop him. He knew in his heart that he would never let him fall, he’d hold him forever if he had to, but he just couldn’t trust himself in his weak form.

Eraserhead was visibly conflicted, goggles pointed at him with no indicator of what he was thinking outside the firmly pressed frown of his mouth. He’d never seen Aizawa wearing his goggles before but he officially decided he hated them. You knew what Aizawa was thinking based on his eyes.

But Eraserhead’s raised capture weapon slowly fell down around him, tears falling from the bottom of his goggles.  

“He’s still alive.” He said. A shaky statement, trying to avoid being a question. As much as All Might loved the man in his arms, it was exponentially worse for the one who’d been married to him for years.

“He is. He’s still able to breathe somewhat, but not enough.” All Might ignored the relief and the screaming in the back of his head and forced himself to be the aged professional he was. “The villain had a metal manipulation quirk and crushed his voice modulator.” Eraserhead looked stricken. “Call an ambulance. Now. I don’t know how long he’s going to last. I need- I know first aid, but he’s going to suffocate.”

I don’t know how to save him without hurting him even worse.

Eraserhead’s phone was out in a flash, speed dial already going by the time the phone was raised to his head.

“Eraserhead requesting immediate medical attention for hero Present Mic.” His voice was raspy and there were still tears dripping slowly down his face. “A villain with a metal manipulation quirk crushed his quirk modulator around his throat. He’s still-” His voice faltered and he took a step closer, goggles training themselves on Hizashi’s hand holding All Might’s shirt weakly. “-still conscious, but barely. Suffocating.”

He looked up at All Might’s eyes and they stared at each other. Goggles to sunglasses. Hero to Vigilante.

“...Vigilante All Might is on scene.” Eraserhead said slowly. All Might wasn’t even surprised. “Bring backup.” They both knew he’d be long gone before backup arrived. “Understood. Thank you.”

Eraserhead hung up the phone. All Might twitched, knowing his superiors had likely just told him to stay on the line.

“...Staymancy is on the way.” He said quietly, taking several steps closer.

All Might sighed in relief. The Support hero's suspended animation field would freeze Hizashi in a stable state until he could reach proper medical attention. He looked down at Present Mic, seeing his glazed eyes finally slipping closed.

“She's a fast flyer, I'd best be on my way.” All Might said. Eraserhead grunted and he moved his eyes back up to the erasure hero. “...if we move slowly, I can transfer him from me over to you without jostling him too badly.”

“I should force you to hold onto him.” Eraserhead's voice cracked. “You're a vigilante, but you refuse to allow heroes to be harmed in the field if you can prevent it. I should take advantage of your morals and have you hold onto him until backup arrives to cancel your quirk and arrest you.”

“You should.”

There was another brief stare off before Eraserhead took a deep breath and finished walking all the way up to him, not having to crouch much next to his mountainous self. All Might didn't even have to instruct him to take Mic's head first and just used his strength to guide him into Eraserhead's arms as smoothly as possible. It involved getting uncomfortably close up with Eraserhead until he could finally - gently - let go of Hizashi and pull away.

All Might sighed and stood up, watching the way Eraserhead sunk to the ground slowly and holding onto his husband for dear life.

“...I'm sorry I didn't arrive sooner.” He said eventually.

“Me too.” Eraserhead’s face was bowed, hair hanging down to hide everything.

All Might wasn't sure what else to say and turned around, grief and anger and loss soaking his chest.

“You know him.” He froze at the emotional croak. “Your morals are strong, but not enough to have such a strong reaction.” Aizawa's head bent over his husband's body further. “Over the years even in the worst of tragedies, your bullshit smiling mask has never broken. You know him.” Aizawa was shaking.

“... I'm sorry, Eraserhead,” All Might said, turning his back to them and preparing to jump onto the rooftop. “I have to-”

“No. I'm sorry.”

He heard the words only faintly, more occupied with his immediate drop in strength and the steam flying from him with sharp whistling noises. All Might stumbled; his boots didn't fit, his clothes didn't fit, his armor plates were too heavy and awkward. His balance was completely ruined.

“Shi-!” He couldn't even get out a reaction, bending over and shoving his fist in his mouth as he began to cough. The shift between forms always aggravated his lung, crap-!

“No…” He had to fight the reflex to turn around at the faint recognition and horror in Eraserhead's voice. “That's… you…”

He didn't turn around. He didn't respond. He just staggered away, coughing roughly and struggling to breathe.

He hoped Aiza- Eraserhead hadn’t recognized him, he was facing the other way. All he could see was the way All Might’s costume and armor hung off him loosely. All he could see was the loss of muscle. There was no way Eraserhead could recognize him as Toshinori Yagi.

...on the other hand, Aizawa Shouta was an incredibly intelligent man. And he’d had no bones with telling Yagi that he knew there were things he wasn’t telling him.

Once he was out of Eraserhead’s sight he pushed his energy outwards, feeling his costume bunching and twisting uncomfortably as it tried to resettle over his larger form. He needed to hurry.

All Might launched himself and ran as quickly as possible to his hideaway nearest his apartment, ducking inside the back of a small tea shop. The owners were supporters of his vigilante activities who, for one reason or another, had made friends with him as All Might. They allowed him to duck into their back room in order to change in and out of his costume. Due to legal and moral issues they never saw him when he did and there were no cameras in that entire alleyway. They had plausible deniability towards any connection with All Might. After all, if they never saw him, they couldn’t say they had any knowledge that the vigilante was using their shop as a temporary hideout.

He changed out of his costume and shrank back to his smaller form, shoving the bits and pieces of armor into a backpack and running outside. He had to get to his apartment before Eraserhead could inform anyone of his identity. There was a possibility he hadn’t recognized him, but Yagi didn’t want to risk it. Not with Aizawa’s brain on the table.

If Aizawa told someone, he did it in the time All Might had already left. That meant Yagi at the least had time to get to his apartment before anyone was able to reach it and intercept him. He had to grab essentials and leave. It hurt him so badly deep inside for so many reasons but he had to leave.

While he ran through the sidestreets, forcing his damaged lung to hold in his coughs and push on, Yagi thought and planned.

If - and it was a major if - Aizawa didn’t recognize him or put the clues together in any way, Yagi just mysteriously up and leaving with no warning would be highly suspicious. It could possibly be the linchpin in Aizawa actually finding out. What could he do to justify Yagi Toshinori disappearing without any lengthy moving process? An injury? A hospital visit?

They knew he was sickly and some details of his injuries, needing to leave for a sudden hospital visit wouldn’t be out of the question. He could figure something out later for why he never returned. Or maybe it would be better to just leave them in the dark? He knew he was asking too much when he let them get so close.

God, he was beating himself up for letting this happen. He knew better. He knew what happened when he got close to people, when he let his guard down. Eventually he always had to leave and he’d hurt them. Before now they’d never known who he was though. Aizawa knew enough about Yagi Toshinori to make it impossible to hide his civilian form in Japan any longer.

He didn’t want to return to being completely undercover again. He'd spent years hiding from All For One's influence, years where he couldn't so much as show his face. With All For One's defeat and his injury he was able to finally have a life outside his vigilante work. He’d just wanted to help people as long as possible until his injuries finally made him kick the bucket. He just…

He just got attached, and now that attachment had possibly outed his identity to the world.

Yagi ran into the apartment building and up the stairs, pushing himself far more than he should, pulling One For All’s energy into his legs to go faster. It was so late at night none of the building’s other occupants were up. Nobody was in the way, nobody was waiting for him. Thank god.

By the time he made it all the way up to his apartment, Yagi couldn’t hold it in anymore. He barreled into the door and barely managed to fumble the lock open before he began coughing. He was going to regret that run, later, but later. He hacked and choked over his own blood while stumbling around his apartment and gathering up essentials. He didn’t even care that it was getting all over the house and carpeting. It could only add to the story.

Anything incriminating first: notebooks with contacts and safehouses and notes on his vigilante encounters written in his own personal shorthand, a few fake IDs from years past that he hadn’t used in ages, and his old backup costume that he kept in a safe under his bed.

Next were the essentials: some clothes, water bottles, a wad of cash, backup bottles of medicine, and a first aid kit.

He didn’t waste time on anything else, knowing his window of time was probably already shrinking dangerously fast. Toshinori grabbed one of his notebooks and barely spared it a glance before scribbling out a frantic note and dropping it on his ratty couch. He wheezed roughly and ignored the pain shooting through his chest as he opened the door and ran out.

There was more than just physical pain, an emotional wound that opened the moment he saw Hizashi in that alley ripping open even further the second he stepped through his door. But Yagi was already stapling it together and pretending it didn’t exist. He didn’t have time to feel bad for himself. He had to hurry because of this very reason.

Yagi was already experienced in cutting ties for his and others’ safety. He didn’t even acknowledge the tears in his eyes, not slowing down in the slightest as he left his apartment and closed the door behind him.

Chapter Text

He remembered the small, moth-like hero Staymancy flying into the alley faster than one would think possible, shaking her wings, and sending sparkling dust flying off to scatter over Hizashi’s body and Hizashi. just.

Stopped.

Moving.

It was hard to realize how much slight motion and sense of life basic bodily functions caused until they stopped completely.

It was terrifying, honestly, seeing her quirk in action. Even if it hadn’t been on his critically injured husband he probably would have thought it incredibly unnerving. Aizawa knew that her quirk was putting him in suspended animation for the sole purpose of keeping him alive and stable long enough to get him into special care, but it didn’t matter.

The moment the dust settled over Shouta’s husband he looked like he was dead.

She’d talked to him quietly, said he did a good job holding Hizashi’s head and chest still, had lisped her way calmly and easily through what he was only just recognizing as the basic shock protocol every hero learned. It was odd to be on the other end of it.

Aizawa was incredibly thankful to her for so many reasons. Her immediately telling the paramedics to let him in the ambulance with his husband when it arrived was just one of them.

Staymancy had stayed with him up until he’d been separated from Hizashi at the hospital, doctors swarming the cart he was on and pushing him through the hallways to an operation room. Staymancy had flashed a badge and fluttered after them, too short for them to hear her lecture on her quirk without her flying near their heads. Shouta had certainly protested being held back but they were adamant and even distressed as he was, he wasn’t illogical enough to force his way into a surgical ward.

And he sat down and started forcing himself through breathing exercises, trying to calm down, trying to tell himself that Hizashi was his first priority right now and Hizashi would be fine.

The moth hero came back out a short while after Hizashi had disappeared through doors, raising a pair of hands in denial when he started to stand up.

“I’m thorry, I was jutht in there to tell them how to get my dutht off and when.” She seemed rather sad about it, antennae drooping and waving lower. “I don’t know how he ith right now. I thtayed long enough to thee that they had the damaged brace- thupport devithe? I’m thorry, I don’t know what it’th called - they got it off and were athething the damage.” Staymancy clasped one pair of hands in front of her tightly, the other pair poking together shyly. “If it’th any contholation, before I left they confirmed hith thpinal cord ithn’t broken. There might be thome damage to it, but the primary conthern ith currently on hith ethophoguth and trachea.”

Something both tightened and loosened in his chest. It was hard to understand her - her proboscis really got in the way of her speech - but the confirmation that Mic wasn’t going to be paralyzed, that it wasn’t just wishful thinking…

“Thank you.” Aizawa rasped, still terrified. Hizashi paralyzed was one thing. Hizashi mute, if his quirk was affected… they were equally terrible, if only because of what it would mean for him.

It was hard to read her, like with many inhuman heteromorphs, but he thought he could see her expression soften.

“Yeah I know. Thtill not what you want to hear, huh?” She walked over to the other side of the waiting room and grabbed an open backed chair, wings too large to sit in the seat next to him. She dragged the stool over and sat down, crawling up it like a child. “My name’th Isla. I know it’th Japanethe cuthtom to give thurnameht firth, but- well it’th alwayth been weird to be called Browning.” She blushed and scratched the side of her head. “I know it’th probably hard to underthtand me- do you know Japanethe thign language?”

“A little. Not perfectly fluent, but well enough.” Aizawa signed clumsily. Hizashi- … Hizashi knew it, was partially deaf in fact, and Aizawa had just picked up a lot over time. He understood it better than he could sign it himself.

“Oh good!” She fluttered happily. “If I use a sign you’re not familiar with it’s probably four handed variant- sorry!” He shrugged. Isla grew a little more serious. “I know the news hasn’t been what you wanted to hear, and I’m sorry about that. Are you okay?”

Aizawa blinked at her disbelievingly once. Twice.

“I’m not stupid, dummy, I know you’re not like, OKAY. But are you okay? Were you hurt anywhere?”

He blinked a third time and reassessed his opinion on the cheerful hero.

“I wasn’t hurt.”

“Ah, okay. The blood is his?”

Aizawa jolted and looked down where one hand was pointed, seeing splatters of blood across his neck and chest. “...oh. Yes, it’s…”

Isla fluttered off her stool, flying over to a passing nurse with a kind murmur. The nurse nodded and smiled, running off. Aizawa absently wondered how she flew without knocking her dust off her wings. She fluttered back.

“I just asked for some stuff to clean you up, make sure it’s not gonna smear everywhere and all.” She grinned wryly around her proboscis. “And to help get it off so you don’t overthink as badly.”

“You’re good at this.”

“The whole comforting the guy in shock without being condescendingly over-sympathetic thing?”

He snorted. “Yeah.”

“Well you don’t become a Medical Support hero just like that yanno, there’s more than three times as much time and work we have to put in before we’re allowed to take the field. I was a paramedic for years before I became a hero and honestly, nobody much cares about the person left behind in the waiting room.” Isla turned her head away, lips puckering around her proboscis like she was sucking on it thoughtfully. “I just got used to checking on them if I could. And now as a hero I have more time to do that.” She looked up at the clock on the wall. “Well, I’ll have to get back to my agency soon, but there’s no real rush as long as there’s not another call in.”

“Do many people enjoy your bluntness too?” Aizawa was actually… glad to have her here. He could stop thinking about Hizashi if he was talking to someone.

He could stop thinking about Toshinori.

“Nah, I’m actually usually more delicate about this stuff myself, heroes just usually prefer getting it like it is. Especially underground ones.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Oh I don’t recognize you, but I recognize the look! And male heroes only get plain costumes when they’re specifically trying to avoid attention. It makes people who know what to look for pay MORE attention.” She smiled sideways.

And Aizawa had frowned, and thought on that, and asked her what she meant.

She’d served as a very good distraction. Chattering on and on about the hero costume industry and the sexism involved. (To be fair, trying to put a child sized moth in a sexy nurse outfit was a bad call of epic proportions, Aizawa had no sympathy for her previous designer.)  Talking and signing and debating and comparing information and opinions on hero costumes and work.

It took up a decent portion of time until whoever was on the other end of Staymancy’s earpiece started yelling at her so loud Aizawa could hear it. Another call in, on another side of Musutafu that she had to leave for immediately.

Isla scribbled her number down on an antiseptic pad wrapper and bolted, barely getting out her reason for leaving and telling him to give her a call and let her know how Present Mic was doing. And himself. 

In an attempt to distract himself further after Staymancy was gone, Aizawa opened his phone.

Oh what a mistake that had been.

He was immediately pulled into not one preliminary report, but two, one with his hero agency and the other with an investigatory agency that was in charge of All Might sightings in Musutafu. He didn’t usually even give preliminary reports. Much less over video conference with evident tear tracks and even redder eyes than usual in a disturbingly abandoned waiting room.

Thankfully, both reports were kept brief and to the minimum. His contract with his agency was specifically hands off because of his need for privacy and his underground work. They got the bare minimum from him and told him to come in to the station to give a proper debrief whenever he was next available.

The investigator was more demanding, but seemed rather eager to leave him to his personal business after he’d rather bluntly stated that yes, All Might had been there, yes All Might was responsible for stopping the villain responsible for his husband being in critical care right this very moment, sir.

He was going to have to go in to give a probably terribly invasive and in detail report about the encounter later. Japan’s most popular vigilante had a lot of serious detectives out for his head after all.

But god, he wish he hadn’t had to relive that experience. Because now he was thinking about it again.

Remembering Hizashi just hanging there limply. All Might cradling his body like it was a precious thing.

All Might turning around and deflating like a popped balloon.

The hauntingly familiar sound of an English curse devolving into a weak, wet cough.

There was no way.

But Aizawa was too logical to discount a theory based on personal, biased disbelief. And he had nothing else to do than think of Hizashi being operated on and the panic on his face before he’d passed out, the slight creasing of his face in discomfort and pain even unconscious.

So instead Aizawa chose the slightly less painful option, and considered his working theory:

All Might = Yagi Toshinori.

It was hard to comprehend. But the more he deliberated, the more it made sense. The more things started to line up. No matter how hard he tried to rationalize it.

The sheer fact that Yagi Toshinori would be a perfect cover for All Might. Who ever would suspect such an emaciated, frightening looking man to be a vigilante so charming he’d gotten half the country into an uproar over illegal merchandising?

Yagi’s illnesses didn’t factor in. They were real, Aizawa had seen the effects too often to think otherwise, not to mention the faint edges of a horrifying scar from the edges of his loose shirts. But they connected somehow. Surely.

Always wearing clothes the wrong size. Like they were for a man multiple times his width. He brushed it off as simply not liking being restricted. Aizawa shrugged and Hizashi fussed but let it be.

The fact that Yagi and All Might were, surprisingly, generally the same height. It stood to reason that whatever transformative quirk he had could create musculature, but couldn’t change his basic bone structures like many such quirks. And Yagi hunched over all the time. It was hard to tell how tall he actually was but it was definitely in the All Might range.

The hair color. Blond hair wasn’t out of the ordinary, but it still wasn’t terribly common in Japan. It was just a blip in the theory but still relative.

His eyes. Yagi’s eyes had always been a source of fascination for Shouta and Hizashi. He brushed off their flirty compliments saying it was a useless mutation, but they’d agreed in private that his eyes were something to pay attention to at the least. All Might wore sunglasses at all times. Presumably either to protect sensitive eyes from the light, the sunglasses served a more technical hidden aspect of his costume rather than just being decoration, or because his eyes were distinctive enough to recognize if he left them uncovered.

Coming to and from his apartment at strange times. He said he worked at a convenience store during the graveyard shift so that he had to deal with fewer people. Perfectly logical. But possibly a cover up. Aizawa had never asked which convenience store so he didn't know where to ask about his shift times. Yagi had never told Hizashi, who certainly had asked multiple times.

And more disturbingly, the fact that Yagi was often ‘mugged’ or roughed up and had random injuries that he patched up at home instead of going to the hospital. He told them it was because he was so sickly he made an easy target and that he had truly rotten luck in choosing routes home. That the store he worked in was also in a bad neighborhood. Aizawa was inclined to say it was an incredibly possible statement, but also… if he looked up All Might sightings and known altercations, if he could remember every injury Yagi came home with…

What would he find?

It was possible he was incorrect. Yagi was a private man, likely due to his constant illness and seeming lack of any friends or family. It was highly likely that many of the matching factors were completely coincidental and Shouta was making sure to keep that firmly in mind. There were as many things to disprove the theory as prove it.

Shouta wasn’t religious, but he prayed that when he went home - whenever that was - he saw Yagi-san at his apartment and looking tired and washed out as usual. Maybe scuffed up a bit and laughing off his worry. Perfectly ordinary and not suspicious at all.

Because if Aizawa’s theory was right he was breaking multiple laws by not calling up that investigator and telling him that instant.

Because if Aizawa’s theory was correct, he didn’t know what he’d do with the information.

And that scared him. Shouta had no problem following the law normally. Especially in regards to vigilante activity. He’d hated All Might and the concept of the man, running around causing would-be heroes and vigilantes to pop up by the dozens.

He would report All Might in a second to the authorities, given the chance.

But he didn’t know if he’d report Yagi Toshinori. 

“Sir?”

A nurse nudged him and he broke out of the stupor he’d been in, realizing he’d been staring at his timed out phone screen for… god knows how long.

“Is he-?” Aizawa’s dry, bloodshot eyes flew open and stared the poor nurse down.

“H-he’s stabilized, sir,” The man’s eyes were wide and frightened. “Th-the um, Doctor would like to speak to you? You are Yamada Hizashi’s immediate family, yes?”

“I’m his husband.” Shouta snarled.

“Y-yes sir!” The nurse backed away slowly. “Of course sir, just follow me and I’ll bring you to the doctor-”

The speed in which Aizawa was out of his nearly fetal position to standing and waiting terrified the poor nurse even further. He couldn’t even find it in himself to laugh at his nervousness.

He answered some questions. Provided his ID, and his hero ID, and listened numbly to the list of injuries and surgeries. He didn’t hear a word of it. Finally, finally, the doctor he didn’t hear or care about the name of got the message and just had him escorted to Hizashi’s room.

He was laying down, bed propped up, with a mass of braces, tubes, and machines going in and out of his throat. Aizawa sat down shakily in a chair next to his bed, finding a hand that wasn’t hooked up to an IV or monitor.

He sighed deeply and bowed his head. Felt the pulse in Hizashi’s wrist and watched the monitors. Reminded himself that Hizashi was alive. That he was okay. He was going to be fine. 

Aizawa woke up in an instant when a hand moved in his. He didn’t remember falling asleep. But then again, it had been a long night. Day? It was daytime outside, late afternoon maybe?

He moved his chair closer, leaning over to watch as Hizashi’s face twitched and scrunched up, eyebrows furrowing together. His eyelids fluttered and finally opened.

“Hey.” Aizawa breathed.

Hizashi’s frown deepened, face spasming under the tubes and mask. A familiar expression for Shouta.

“You- you’ve got a quirk suppressor on,” Shouta muttered, rubbing his eyes. They always itched horribly when he was crying. “To keep you from messing up the-” Fuck, the words completely flew from his mind. “-the thing. That’s helping you breathe.”

Hizashi still looked confused, but his hands twisted up to sign and then he paused and stared blankly at the hand connected to an IV.

“Sorry, sign might- might be hard.” Shouta tried to hide his faint sniffling but even high on pain meds Hizashi narrowed in on it like a hawk and eyed him worriedly. “Shut- shut up, idiot. I was worried about you.”

“Didn’t even say anything yet.” His hands were slow and clumsy, nowhere near as animated as they should be while signing, but Aizawa didn’t even care.

“I said shut up.” Aizawa bowed his head and collected himself behind his bangs for a moment. “Do you remember what happened?”

Zashi frowned thoughtfully. Shouta waited patiently, taking his hand back and holding onto it.

“We were out patrolling? You went ahead to do something. There was a thug-” He jerked his hand up to his throat wincing and Aizawa grimaced. “I just remember my neck feeling like it was breaking and then suffocating…”

Aizawa was silent for a minute.

“Backup arrived and the villain was dealt with.” He said eventually. “He had a metal manipulation quirk and-” Shouta grit his teeth. “I’ve always said it was a risk to have that ridiculous thing around your neck like that.”

“Hey man I agree. How many tubes are in my neck right now?”

Aizawa actually had to stop and look closer. “It looks like one straight through the middle of your throat and then… three? Down your mouth? It’s hard to tell with the mask.”

A long string of drowsy cursing in sign language followed, making Aizawa snort hysterically and grab his hand. He brought it up to his mouth and kissed it before pulling it up to rest on his cheek tiredly.

“Yeah. It looks worse than it feels, probably, or the other way around. It looks bad either way.”

It took Hizashi a bit to respond in any way, probably because of the medication.

“You need to shave, you’re making my hand feel fuzzy.”

Ah. Definitely the medication.

“Your head is fuzzy, moron.”

“Love you too Sho.”

“I love you too.”

Chapter Text

Hizashi had to stay in the hospital for two days for the doctors to keep an eye on his neck.

Several doctors with healing quirks were able to help get his esophagus and trachea healed enough that he could get the tubes taken out of his neck after the first day, but they could only heal it in small bursts at a time. The neck was a delicate area to mess with and everyone would rather take their time to avoid any accidents.

His spine was okay. The muscles and ligaments were damaged, and the doctors were going to make him wear a neck brace to immobilize them, but by some miracle his spine was just minorly strained. No damage to his nervous system.

Thank god.

Aizawa stayed at his side whenever possible, only leaving to run by their apartment and pick up clothes and phone chargers. He didn’t pause to stare at the apartment door next to theirs and just focused on doing what he could now. And that was 1: making sure he didn’t look and smell like a trash bin and 2: making sure Hizashi didn’t go stir crazy from no contact or entertainment while stuck in the hospital.

Some of Present Mic’s coworkers came in while he was recovering, either some fellow teachers from Yuuei or a few people from his radio station. Aizawa sat and glared at them the whole time. Kayama in particular was sure to make fun of his guard dog attitude.

After those two days Hizashi was reluctantly released with a neck brace and instructions to rest, avoid solid foods, and take it easy; then come back every day for checkups and more healing sessions.

The minute they were sat down in Hizashi’s stupid neon colored car he spoke up raspily.

“So. What really happened that you haven’t been able to tell me with people watching?”

If Aizawa had been driving he probably would’ve slammed on the brakes. Thankfully, he hadn’t gotten that far yet. As it was he sputtered in shock. A testament to how off guard this whole scenario had him. He never would’ve shown a reaction otherwise.

“I know something’s up,” Zashi rasped, awkwardly sipping iced water through a straw. He couldn’t move his head or neck at all so he was just facing the front of the car awkwardly. “You’re not as subtle as you think you are, babe. And I know you’ve been beating yourself up over something.”

He sighed and pressed his forehead to the steering wheel. Sometimes his husband was just too fucking smart and perceptive for his own good.

Then again, that could be useful.

So Shouta sat up straight and began driving them home. He told Hizashi the truth along the way. He’d been missing some pieces anyways since he was semi-conscious when All Might had shown up.

By the time they got home they’d been sitting in awkward, tense silence for a long while.

“Well I knew creepy ol’ Yagi had some stuff going on, but secret vigilante? Not on my list of theories.” Hizashi muttered. “Since you haven’t told the police this I’m assuming you’re still not entirely convinced?” Shouta snorted in amusement and bit his lip. Of course Zashi hadn’t been as oblivious to Yagi’s inconsistencies as he’d thought. He really did underestimate him too much.

“There’s too many variables. I don’t want to jump to conclusions.” He bit out. Zashi snorted next to him and then winced.

“Yeah, it’s prooobably not best to get international focus on him in case it turns out to not be true.” Hizashi needed a little help getting out of the car without bumping his head on the door. Aizawa walked around to his side to help while he continued talking. “So we’re going snooping now? Ow.” He reflexively went to rub his neck and scratched the brace unhappily. “Ugh, talking hurts.” Zashi signed.

“Miracle of all miracles, I won’t hear much of your voice for days. How ever could I be this lucky?” Hizashi flipped him the bird as they walked in the elevator. “But yes. We’re going to be investigating. Starting with seeing if Yagi is home.” 

There was no response from the apartment when they knocked.

“Hm. Guess he’s not home.” Zashi mused, tapping his chin idly. “What are you doing-”

Aizawa gave up on knocking and grabbed the doorknob.

It wasn’t locked.

They traded looks and he slowly opened the door.

“Well shit.” Hizashi said hoarsely.

The place was a mess. Specifically? There were dried blood spots all over the living room.

They entered slowly, Aizawa on the lookout for any threats.

“It doesn’t look like there was a fight…” Hizashi wheezed out. “The blood isn’t splashed enough, and it’s messy in here but not really messed up…” Aizawa slunk throughout the rest of the apartment and gathered evidence in his mind.

“The bedroom is worse.” He grunted. Zashi followed curiously. “Looks like he left in a hurry.” He stopped by a larger pool of blood. “It’s probably several days old.”

“Like as in two days?” Hizashi coughed weakly and Aizawa frowned.

“Stop talking so much. Your trachea was collapsed a day ago, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

Hizashi rolled his eyes but continued on in sign. “ANYWAYS. Not good news, though it matches the theory if he fled once he realized you knew.”

“We don’t know for sure he realized it to begin with. I only ever did see his back. It was his coughing, and his voice, that really tipped me off.” Shouta crouched down by the blood. “His blood is really thin…”

Hizashi noticed something and tapped him on the shoulder. “There’s something on the couch.”

They both walked over to find a torn notebook page.

“I’m very sorry! Had to leave, medical emergency. Don’t know when I’ll be back. Don’t worry about me! -Yagi” There was something scribbled in far smaller text on the back that they couldn’t decipher.

“Don’t worry? Does he even understand the meaning of ‘worry’?” Zashi griped as he rolled his eyes.

“It fits the scene,” Aizawa admitted. “If he was coughing up blood.” That would explain the odd blood spatters. There really was a concerning amount of blood around, though he was aware that sometimes even a small amount of blood could end up spread around more than one would expect.

Hizashi sighed and pointedly clapped so Aizawa would turn to look at him.

“Sho, what are we doing if it turns out Yagi is All Might?”

He didn’t respond, jaw twisting unhappily.

“Oh man, you really don’t know.”

“If this were-” He ran a hand through his hair. “If I knew All Might’s secret identity? I would report it immediately.” He closed his eyes and grimaced. “But Yagi?”

“Yeah. Sort of unexpected there.” Zashi hummed and tapped his chin. “Yagi-san’s weird, and a loner, but he’s a good guy underneath it all. You can tell just by having a single conversation with him!”

“Good or bad doesn’t matter if he’s doing vigilante work,” Shouta growled. “Because it’s illegal.”

“Well you know…” Mic sighed and slumped a little bit. “Let’s hold off on the arresting at least, alright?”

“Why?”

“Because honestly? I wanna make sure the guy’s just OKAY first.” Hizashi fidgeted. “Like… he risked his identity just to help me? And like I said, he’s a good guy. Plus… ugh. It’s just a difficult situation in general, Sho. I mean… haven’t you ever wondered why All Might isn’t a legal hero? He could be. With his popularity and how many supervillains he’s stopped? Honestly, even if we arrested him, I think he’d be booted out of jail and instated as an official hero within weeks.”

God Aizawa hated it when Hizashi actually showed his intelligence.

“God you’re fucking sexy when you actually use that brain of yours.”

Hizashi grinned. “You’re just mad I’m convincing you to not report him immediately.”

Aizawa refused to respond to that. Because then he could choose to ignore the fact that he was withholding vital information on a vigilante.

A half hour of searching later, they had no more information. Plenty of small clues or hints that could mean something else entirely. Nothing of real significance.  

While examining the note closer Aizawa realized that there was a name written in strange, looping text on the back of the note, along with an odd circle. He had no idea what it meant and neither did Hizashi.

They still had no leads.

“Hi! I’m Isla!”

“Hizashi!” Mic signed back gleefully.

Aizawa was already regretting telling him about the helpful support hero.

“I’m really glad you’re feeling better!” Her wings fluttered happily and she examined his neck brace curiously. “I wish I could help some more, but my quirk’s useless once you’re out of danger.” She chuckled.

“Not a problem! Thank YOU for watching after my dumb husband.” Hizashi sat down at a chair nearby and Isla finally sat down from where she’d been standing on her stool. “And I should have it off by tomorrow!”

“Oh that’s good to hear! And it was my pleasure really, Aizawa-kun and I had an interesting conversation.” She smiled.

“Come on, Aizawa, sit down!”

Aizawa sighed and chose a seat at the cafe table, immediately leaning over on the table top and preparing for a nap.

“Ah- ith he okay?”

“Pbsbshh,” Hizashi wheezed. “He’s fine! We’ve been having a crazy week-” Hizashi coughed a little and must have shifted into sign, because Aizawa didn’t hear what happened next. That was fine by him. He was going to sleep.

They’d been up for the past five days scouring the city trying to find any inkling of Yagi or All Might.

Hizashi had a busy schedule normally, but he was off hero duty for the time being until the doctors allowed him back. His talk shows were kind of… beyond his capabilities at the moment, since he still had trouble breathing, but one of the station’s interns were thrilled for the opportunity to take over. That left Hizashi’s only job being his teaching position at Yuuei. That filled up a good portion of his daytime hours, though the principal was apparently urging him to take it easy and rest at home.

Aizawa had night patrols, but his agency had not so subtly suggested that his patrols could be covered by another hero if needed. Apparently his hospital conversation with them was so frightening they were trying to get him to take some time off.

As if. Aizawa just kept on doing his patrols.

When Hizashi was working he slept and when Aizawa was patrolling Hizashi slept. In between? They were travelling across the city and looking for any fucking trace of Yagi or All Might.

So far there was nothing. It was starting to wear on his nerves. Hizashi on the other hand was nervous and really beginning to panic over Yagi’s health. He hadn’t been back in his apartment since the alleyway incident and the evidence was really mounting towards the Yagi Toshinori=All Might theory.

Aizawa was shaken awake from his nap, hearing Mic’s excited babbling. It took him a moment to figure out what on earth was going on and he grabbed Hizashi’s arm roughly.

“Stop.” He sat up, rubbing his eyes. “What?”

“She knows what the thing is!” His eyes drifted over to Hizashi’s hand, where Yagi’s bloodstained note was held in his hands. “She recognized it!”

“What?” Aizawa blinked and frowned.

“It’s cursive English,” Isla signed sheepishly. “And it’s hard for even most native speakers to read, so I don’t blame either of you for not recognizing it.”

“I THOUGHT it looked English, but I couldn’t read it!” Mic signed, bouncing excitedly in his seat.

“It says ‘gazelle’, which is-” She sucked on her proboscis thoughtfully. “Odd? I dunno why this guy has Gisèle’s nickname written down, but it’s definitely her writing-”

“You know who this is referring to?” Aizawa said harshly, eyes widening.

“Oh! Um, yes! I dunno why she uses it, but I’ve seen my friend Gisèle writing it down sometimes on contact cards. I guess as a nickname? And this little circle is a doodle she uses a lot too. She’s a costume designer for heroes, I mentioned her the other day when we were talking, remember?” Isla propped her head on one of her hands, seemingly not noticing the rising tension. “She’s famous for not taking any sort of shit from heroes who want flashy costumes over functional. She’s not the greatest at making you look good, but she sure as heck can make you a costume that works.” Isla smiled. “She made my costume, for that matter.”

“Can you give us her contact information?” Aizawa said seriously. “Or her address?”

Finally Isla seemed to realize what the two heroes in front of her were prying for more than just social reasons. “Oh no. The’th not in trouble, ith the?” She mumbled and signed at the same time. It was hard to tell, but it looked like she was worried.

Aizawa and Hizashi looked at each other.

Mic shrugged. “We don’t know yet,” He said quietly. “But it’s important.”

“Whatever you can give us will be very useful.” Aizawa added, then paused. “But it’s not official in any manner. Currently it’s… personal.”

“Our neighbor went missing and this is all we have from him.” Hizashi waved the note around. “If your friend might know anything, we wanna have a talk with her!”

Isla frowned at the two of them. Aizawa remembered that she was an experienced hero as well, despite her youthful exterior. She sighed deeply and looked kind of sad.

“If the’th in theriouth trouble, pleathe at leatht let me know?” Isla mumbled, pulling out a pen and piece of paper. “I can give you her phone number and her office address.”

“You don’t seem very surprised.” Aizawa noted. “Do you expect her to be in trouble?”

“She’s always getting in trouble for her attitude towards most heroes,” Isla signed wryly. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s gotten into deeper kinds of trouble. I just never said anything to her because she’s such a good friend.”

“Have you known her for very long?” Mic asked.

“Only a few yearth.” Isla scribbled down the information and handed it to him. “I met her when I first entered the hero field and needed a costume. We’ve been best friends ever since.”

Mic handed the note off to Aizawa without looking at it. “Woah, you’ve only been in the hero business a few years?”

“I was a paramedic first!” She laughed. “So yeah. Joining the hero industry is a recent thing.”

“Do you know if Gisèle is at her office at the moment?” Aizawa muttered, looking up the address on his phone.

“The thould be.” Isla smiled sadly. “If you two are going to go talk to her, go ahead! We can hang out thome other time.” She stood up on top of her stool and they both stood up. “It was really nice meeting you, Present Mic! We should talk soon. Aizawa-san has my number, text me!”

“Can do!” Mic beamed as he shook her hand. He shoved a coffee cup in Aizawa's hands as they walked away. Apparently Mic had ordered him something while he was asleep.

Hopefully they could find a lead.

Chapter Text

The office building was unassuming. Just four stories high and on a slightly lower end part of town. There wasn't any sort of architecture or even designs to make it stand out from the identical office buildings around it. “Theor-Ethics Hero Support Department Offices” was listed plainly across the front. Hizashi spent a minute snickering slightly wondering who'd come up with it until Aizawa punched him on the shoulder and dragged him inside.

Aizawa anticipated there being security once they'd entered but instead they walked in unhindered. He even asked the front desk for directions to Ando Gisèle’s office and was given it without hesitation.

“It's a smaller support department than either of the ones we go to,” Hizashi signed back when he mentioned his observations as they went up the stairs. The place didn't have an elevator. “Our support departments usually cater to higher rated heroes. Lower end agencies don't really need the same kind of security.”

“Or can't afford it.” Aizawa eyed the dim lighting of the stairwell disapprovingly.

“That too.” Hizashi frowned lightly. “ It could also be because I'm pretty sure they only do costuming, not support devices.”

“I'm not judging them on it,” Aizawa rolled his eyes, knowing the gist of Hizashi's thoughts. “It's just illogical that they don't have much security to protect the identities and information of the heroes they're outfitting.” Mic looked exasperated (and might be shaking his head, if he weren't on a neck brace) but didn't comment.

The office they were looking for was open, what sounded like… French rap music playing through the door? Aizawa knocked on the doorframe and the music went down a few notches.

“Can I help you?” A woman with dark, oddly shiny skin - covered in marker scribbles? - sat at a messy desk with large papers spread out in front of her. She had a pencil in hand and looked a little annoyed at being interrupted.

“Ando Gisèle, right?” Hizashi piped up, taking the lead as the more… personable of them. Aizawa stood behind him and took a look around the office.

It was obviously a costume designer's workshop. Or a clothing workshop of some sort, anyways. Various standing mannequins in states of dress were scattered around, desks and drawers filled and spilling things Aizawa didn't recognize. He really knew almost nothing about sewing beyond fixing his own jumpsuit's rips when he didn't feel like doing the paperwork to get a replacement. The only things he recognized were the two sewing machines and bolts and scraps of cloth everywhere.

Ando herself had bits of lint and pieces of thread stuck all over, long hair pulled back into a ponytail. To Aizawa's minor discomfort, she had the exact same punk aesthetic Present Mic loved. He hoped Hizashi didn't try to make friends with her. But really, that was a lost cause to hope for. He just hoped Hizashi didn't get too distracted by it.

“That's me, huns.” She leaned back in her chair and reached for a sucker. “What can I do for you gorgeous fellas?” Aizawa raised an eyebrow, unimpressed as she popped it in her mouth.

“Aww thanks,” Hizashi beamed. He strolled into the office and stuck his hand out. “I'm Yamada Hizashi! This is my handsome husband Aizawa Shouta.” Aizawa trailed behind him and rolled his eyes.

Ando took a visible moment to collect that and then nodded firmly to herself, shaking his hand and smirking slightly back. “Nice to meet you, Yamada-san, Aizawa-san. It really is all the good looking ones that're taken, huh?.” They snickered together and Aizawa huffed impatiently.

“Yeah yeah,” Hizashi waved at him and pulled the note out of his sweater. “Sorry to drop in unannounced Ando-san, but we’re trying to get in touch with a friend. Do you happen to know a Yagi Toshinori?”

Ando sucked on her lip piercings thoughtfully. “Not that I know of?” She lifted her arms up and looked over the notes written there, then turned to flipping through a filebox at her side.

Hizashi was mildly fascinated and distracted by the smooth, whiteboard texture of her skin. Was that her quirk? She had whiteboard markers laying around all over the place. And the notes across her arms were everywhere too. He thought she'd gotten paint on her face or something, but looking closer it was probably marker doodles across her cheeks.

“Is he a hero? I don't do bigtime heroes here, obviously, but I do enough work-”

“No no! He's not a hero,” Hizashi waved his hands. “In fact, ah… hm…” He switched to sign idly. “We probably should've discussed how we were gonna ask this in the car.”

“Ando-san.” Aizawa said bluntly. Hizashi began to brace himself, recognizing that tone of voice. It usually came before Shouta throwing down some painful cold hard facts in someone’s face. “Can you explain why your name was found in connection to a vigilante?” Hizashi didn't say a word. Ando had frozen and looked almost like she was about to run. “Our information is tangential and we don't have concrete proof, but your reaction to the insinuation that we had proof says it all.”

Ando slouched into her chair and sighed heavily, rubbing her forehead. “Are you two heroes or detectives?” She asked, looking resigned and not overly bothered.

“Kind of both right now!” Hizashi piped up cheerfully.

“Since I'm not in handcuffs yet, I'm gonna assume it's more complicated than just that.” Ando stood and and began straightening the sketch papers off her desk. “Mind closing the door, dear? Go ahead and have a seat, this is gonna be a heavy conversation, I can tell.”

Aizawa closed the door as they both settled into some of the other chairs scattered around the workshop, choosing to stand and wander around examining everything.

“So! You have connections to vigilantes?” Hizashi asked cheerfully, clasping his hands together. No need to be rude about this.

“How much do you know?”

He handed her Yagi's note.

“This was left behind at the apartment of a suspected vigilante. He disappeared over a week ago and we're looking for him.” Aizawa said.

“Damn.” Ando stared at the note blankly. “You two have nothing on me. I just fucked myself over nothin.”

“Kind of.” Hizashi nodded.

“Technically, we still don't.” Aizawa muttered.

He didn't like sitting here talking to someone aiding and abetting in illegal activities. He didn't like that he was probably doing the same.

“Well,” She laughed. “I didn't expect to get this far anyways. I don't plan on hiding anything from you two. You can decide what to do with me from there and I won't object.” She laid the note out flat on a side table, side with her signature face up. “This is a nickname - Gazelle - that I use when working with vigilantes. I make basic armor and costumes when I can for whichever vigilantes manage to get in contact with me.”

Ando scowled. “Now don't get me wrong. I don't support vigilantism. I hate it, I think it's stupid, and I think the whole hero/villain/vigilante system is stupid.” She paused. “To put it lightly.” There was no doubt her feelings on the matter were a lot stronger than “stupid” let on.

“Then why are you working with them?” Hizashi asked curiously.

Aizawa gave him a weird look, but it was probably the lack of any accusation in his tone. Mic didn't really mind vigilantes as a general concept. There were some things the heroes either couldn't do or just weren't there to do. He'd still do his job and arrest a vigilante, if he needed to, but he alllllso would probably be more likely to let some of them “get away” if he could.

“Because my job, Yamada-san, is to make sure heroes are outfitted and protected.” Ando crossed her arms and looked at some of the half made costumes around them. “Vigilantes… they don't have the support systems professional heroes do. How many vigilantes do you hear on the news died because they were unequipped to deal with villains? Villains won't hesitate or hold back. Unprepared heroes? Get hurt. Vigilantes die. If I can just… help them stay alive, just by putting them in something that can keep them from losing an organ, it's the least I can do.”

“That's their own problem. They're breaking the law. If they were fighting villains legitimately, they would be given appropriate protection.” Aizawa bit out.

“You're right.” Ando nodded firmly. He drew back at the conviction in her voice. “And it's stupid of ME to join in breaking the law. But I…” She closed her eyes and sighed. “I just can't leave them. They're stupid, and they're illegal, but they're human. And most of them are just trying to help other humans out.”

She really, truly agreed that what she did was wrong. But she did it anyways. To Aizawa that was… baffling. And struck far too close to home right now.

“If they get caught, I don't care.” Ando said. “I applaud the heroes and I pretend I had nothin to do with the armor that kept them alive to be arrested instead of dying in an alley.” She scowled. “I don't just do it for anyone either. They gotta prove they're good folks instead of assholes who were too shitty to make it through legit channels. I've had some shitty ass people try to talk me up who might as well have been villains.”

“Well… alright then.” Hizashi blinked. “I think it's good that you're just trying to help. But like… don't get me wrong, making costumes for vigilantes? Insanely illegal.” He leaned back in the chair, biting his lip. “But if it helps…” He didn't want to outright tell her he wouldn't snitch, not in front of Aizawa. Hizashi knew how he felt about vigilantes.

“This isn't official.” Aizawa said tonelessly. “We currently have information on a vigilante unofficially and are going to be tracking him down unofficially. Currently, you're not under threat of being outed to the authorities.”

“Cause you two aren't really doing this legally either.” Ando surmised, watching them with thoughtful eyes. “Alright. If you do end up telling someone, let me know, ‘kay?” She smiled wryly. “I don't wanna leave ten different projects halfway done when I'm fired. Or in jail. I'd like to wrap them up first.”

“We'll deliver the news personally.” Aizawa deadpanned.

“Perfect.” She snorted. “So. What vigilante exactly are you looking into? I'll tell you what I know.”

Hizashi and Aizawa both stared at her and then traded brief looks.

“I told you. I don't care if they're arrested.” She huffed. “In fact, hell yeah! Arrest them! I'd tell heroes all the information on vigilantes I know if I could without getting in trouble for knowing it in the first place.”

“That's… good to know.” Aizawa said slowly, tabling several trains of thought that brought about for later. “Not the issue…”

“-but! We uh. Want to know whatever you know about All Might!” Mic finished.

Ando gaped, closed her mouth, and then opened it again. “Well shit.”

“Yeah, that was basically our reaction!” Hizashi laughed loudly. His voice had been doing better the past few days  but it was getting hoarse again.

“Shush. You've been talking too much.” Aizawa walked up behind him and nudged his shoulder. Mic pouted ridiculously. “So. Get talking.” He looked at Ando.

She blinked and shook her head in disbelief. “Of all the vigilantes, you're looking into All Might. Nice.” She nodded and lounged back into her chair more comfortably. “Well, I can say that he's not the most paranoid vigilante I've worked with, but he's certainly up there. Rarely ever interacted with me in person. Usually talked to me through printed notes in drop off spots.”

Aizawa's eyebrows raised. Yagi? Not just logically wary, but outright paranoid? That made a startling amount of sense. All Might had been appearing in and out of the vigilante scene for nearly three decades. He was bound to be an expert in undercover work and espionage.

...which honestly, now that he was thinking about that, Aizawa was a little baffled at the idea that Yagi was that old. He didn't exactly look young but some of his first major battles took place when Aizawa was still in middle school . The age difference was shocking to think about.

“You said he's been missing for over a week?” Ando asked. He nodded. “Two days ago I got a message from All Might asking to talk about a costume redesign.” She laced her hands together and propped her chin up. “I'm not sure why, but he did ask that I rush it ASAP. He offered to pay me a lot for rushing my work.”

“Paying?” Hizashi said. Aizawa smacked his arm. “Oh my GOD I'm fine! Stop that! It was a legitimate question!”

“I can't really just fund expensive materials all by myself.” Ando shrugged. “I have to do a lot of workarounds buying them to keep it from being suspicious too. I ask that my less than legal clients pay me the materials’ worth at the least. And most of them are thankful enough to give me extra as pay when they can.”

“Oh that's nice of them!” Hizashi smiled.

“Funny though, some vigilantes pay more in what's essentially a tip than most heroes are willing to cough up.” She paused and tilted her head. “Sorry, my JSL isn't that good.” Ando signed back clumsily.

Hizashi pointed at Aizawa with a wry grin as if to say ‘him too’. She snickered.

“Can we get back on track?” Aizawa grunted.

“Yeah yeah.”

“You're just jealous we're ~bonding~, Sho~”

“When are you meeting with him next?” Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Actually, sometime tomorrow night.” Ando drawled with a grin. “I've got to see him at least once in person to take his measurements properly to keep them up to date. And it's easier and less chance of trouble to talk designs face to face.”

“I'm sure you're aware of my next question.”

“You two can tag along, but I doubt he'll stick around very long once he realizes you're there.” She shrugged. “He's perceptive. I don't think it'll be easy to trick him.”

That was the problem. Aizawa was starting to think the same. “We'll have to see.”

“We've only got one shot, Sho,” Hizashi bit his lip. “It's a miracle he's even still in the city. If we mess this up, he'll be in another country before we can blink.”

“Then we won't mess up.”

Chapter Text

Aizawa laid in bed and stared at the ceiling. Insomnia was horrible. Insomnia caused by his own thoughts was even worse.

He picked up his phone and stared at it. Two in the morning. He had to get up for work in several hours.

He couldn't sleep.

Hizashi was laid out carefully on the bed beside him, passed out but too restless for Aizawa to get up and go do something. Hizashi usually clung to him like a koala when he slept but he'd had a hard time sleeping on his side lately because of his neck. He kept waking up in the middle of the night aching because he'd moved around too much in his sleep. Aizawa didn't want to wake him up by getting out of bed. It was already hard keeping himself from tossing and turning.

There wasn't anything to do but lay there and think.

That was the problem. He didn't want to think. He hated confronting his emotions. He didn't understand them most of the time and he had a hard time putting them into concrete thoughts. And right now he just… he had too many conflicting feelings.

His mind didn't make sense. But there was nothing else to do but think, and he'd have to confront his emotions eventually. Either right now or tomorrow night (tonight? It was morning already) when he faced All Might in person.

There was still a possibility All Might wasn't Yagi. Faintly, but possible. It would all hinge on what they found tonight. Either Yagi wasn't All Might and they were going up against the most powerful vigilante in the country with no backup for no reason, or he was All Might.

It said a lot that there was a very large part of Aizawa that preferred the option that might end in them being sent to the hospital. But to be fair, All Might had a history of being careful with heroes unless absolutely necessary.

Shouta took a deep breath and let it out. That wasn't a constructive line of thought right now. Either he faced this personal conflict now or later. And if he dealt with it right now, he'd be more logical and composed during their mission.

Okay. He took another breath. Analyze emotions.

What were the emotions he started with, with Yagi?

Concern and worry, anger that his neighbor didn't take care of himself. An unrelenting fondness that grew the longer he interacted with him. A slight warmth in the pit of his stomach that made him want to act on illogical impulses he'd only felt for Hizashi before.

Hizashi, used to helping Shouta puzzle out his feelings, had wriggled out all those emotions and laid them out bare for them to analyze.

Turns out they both really liked their neighbor. Aizawa didn't mind that so much, though he was embarrassed for acting like a teenager with a crush, and when he was already with someone no less. There had been a very long, exhausting conversation about what they were, and what they wanted, and what relationships could be.

Once that was over with Hizashi was thrilled to come up with a plan to flirt with him and ask him out, but Yagi had seemed so oblivious.

Maybe he wasn't and was just pretending he was?

Aizawa took another deep breath and forced whatever negative feeling he had at the thought out. That deep feeling of betrayal and upset wasn't constructive right now.

So he had liked Yagi. Quite a bit, actually. In several ways. It had built over time until he looked forward to their quiet conversations in front of their apartments at odd hours of the day and night.

Now, though, he needed to discern what his current feelings for Yagi were.

Aizawa struggled to admit it, even to himself, but…

Knowing the current situation, he still liked Yagi. Even if- even if he actually turned out to be All Might. Even with all the negative thoughts and feelings that concept gave Aizawa. He still felt a stupid flutter in his chest at the thought of Yagi's small smile.

And he didn't like it.

It was illogical. It was wrong. If he was a vigilante, by law Aizawa should arrest him. It would be logical to just… stop having feelings for Yagi and continue on.

But unfortunately emotions weren't logical. This was something he'd had trouble with his whole life. Hizashi helped him puzzle things out, helped him get his thoughts and emotions laid out in a way he could analyze and deal with. But he didn't like relying on Hizashi's grasp on this sort of thing.

Not to mention Aizawa wasn't sure what he thought about Yagi being All Might. Hizashi had been as unpredictable as ever. He didn't seem overly bothered by the concept of Ando-san's illegal assistance in vigilante activities, but he'd not once protested their search for Yagi or done anything out of the ordinary.

He had requested they ‘held off’ on arresting him, but that was completely normal. Aizawa was so used to Hizashi playing devil's advocate to their constant debates and arguments that he couldn't tell if his current lackadaisical manner towards the issue was genuine or not.

Besides, as open as Hizashi could be about himself, he could also be incredibly tight lipped. And Aizawa was bad at discerning his own feelings much less other people's.

Aizawa picked up his phone again and stared at it. There was one person whose experiences had hit too close to home. Someone who didn't approve of the situation but didn't condemn it either. He pulled up the contact number Ando had given them.

“how did you ignore your morals and-” He backspaced.

“do you regret breaking the law-”

“how the fuck-”

“how do you do it”

He stared at the text for what felt like an hour before clicking send. Aizawa looked up at the ceiling and ignored the buzzing in his ears.

Surprisingly, his phone vibrated with a message a minute later. His lips quirked as he wondered why on earth she was awake. In retrospect, she'd looked rather tired during their meeting anyways.

Ando: do what? who is this

Aizawa: this is aizawa

Aizawa: how do you just. do it. even though you know its wrong.

Ando: ah ok

There was a distinctive pause between texts.

Ando: it's hard to explain

Ando: i'm an honest, straightforward, logical woman

Ando: so it's something that took a long time to learn and come to terms with, personally

Ando: but sometimes what's logical isn't what's right

Ando: and sometimes what's “right” is wrong

Aizawa stared at that, puzzled. Despite how ridiculous it sounded it still… made sense, somehow. He laid there and stared at the words trying to make sense of them for several more minutes before an addition buzzed his phone.

Ando: but really we're all just here on this bitch of an earth to live and die, so sometimes we just gotta throw logic out the window and do what we FEEL is right, because deep down every human being knows what Right is and it's our job to make that shit real

Ando: sorry if that made no sense I've pulled too many allnighters this week

Aizawa snorted and looked over at Hizashi. He watched him breathing for a few minutes, letting the sensation of calm contentment move over him and wash away everything else.

Aizawa: no it made sense, I think

Ando: cool

Aizawa: i'm the last person to say this, but why on earth are you awake right now

Ando: trying to get all my current projects out of the way before taking on a bigger one that'll take up a lot of personal time

Ah. Understandable, if she still ended up doing All Might's costume after their interaction. 

Aizawa: fair. make sure to drink water with ur coffee or you'll regret it later. have a nice night ando-san.

Ando: I told you to call me gisèle

Ando: but thanks

Aizawa: thank you as well.

He set his phone down and rolled over, settling his head on Hizashi's chest. His phone buzzed again, probably with a response, but he ignored it.

Unfortunately Hizashi stirred and woke up halfway, humming drowsily.

“Sho? Why're you up?”

“...couldn't sleep.”

Hizashi hummed again and moved his hand around blindly, unable to tilt his head down. He finally found Aizawa's head and began running his fingers through his hair. Shouta closed his eyes and breathed slowly.

“You alright babe?” Hizashi murmured.

He buried his face into his chest, ignoring Hizashi's muted snort from his facial hair tickling his skin. He grunted and just… stopped. Told his mind to shut up and just enjoyed Zashi's scent and presence. He focused on how it made him feel and what he wanted.

And there was still a part of him that thought the only thing that could possibly make this moment better was if Yagi was there.

“Sho?” Zashi sounded concerned.

“Feelings suck.” He said, muffled.

“They do,” The hand petting his hair dug in to scratch at his scalp and he sighed. “Any particular feelings you're having a problem with?”

Aizawa preferred to be straightforward with his husband about these things.

“We're still going to be flirting with Yagi after we find him, right?” The hand stopped. Fuck, that may have been too straightforward. There was a long moment of silence. “Do you not want to?” If Hizashi didn't want to be with Yagi as well, screw his feelings. They'd be arresting him on sight.

“Do I-” Hizashi tensed up and Aizawa moved as he struggled to sit up. “Do I not want to?!”

Aizawa sat up and tried to help him. “Don't hurt yourself-”

“I'm FINE,” Hizashi hissed, swatting at him. “What's important is that you're- not wanting? To arrest Yagi??”

Aizawa blinked slowly. “...I did,” He admitted slowly. “But… turns out feelings suck?” Being emotional made his words make less sense, ugh.

Hizashi blinked back. They stared at each other for a minute in silence. Hizashi started to chuckle. Then he started laughing. Aizawa watched, puzzled, as he leaned back against the headboard and cackled.

Once his laughing slowed he reached a hand up and rubbed his face tiredly.

“You still manage to surprise me, babe.”

“I'm not sure whether that's a good thing?” Aizawa squinted at him oddly. Was he feeling okay?

Hizashi gently pulled him close until they were cuddled together.

“It's a great thing.” Finally he started to run his fingers through Aizawa's hair again and Aizawa grumbled. “No seriously, you just… majorly caught me off guard. I know you always want to do the legal thing and what you're supposed to and all.”

Aizawa huffed. “We're heroes. We're supposed to help enforce the law. Not assist in breaking it.”

“Well yeahhhhh but… sometimes the law's not really the right thing? And I didn't think you'd ever agree with that perspective.”

“Apparently I can.” He muttered. “Have I mentioned feelings suck? That's a large portion of my headache right now.”

“It's alright hun, I know it's hard for you to think with your sucky feelings and not your noggin.” Hizashi chuckled and patted his head. “So… if you're really on board, yeah, I absolutely wanna keep flirting with Yagi once we find him. Even if he is Japan's most wanted vigilante.”

Aizawa growled and pressed his face into Hizashi's chest. “Yes, I am. Can we stop talking about this now?” He said bluntly. He wanted to move on now that he'd made his decision. And right now he just wanted his husband.

“Wha- uh, wow.” Hizashi's voice climbed a couple of pitches excitedly. “I can totally tell what you're thinking with now and whoo boy you sure? I still can't like move my neck much hun, uh??”

“Then I'll just have to be careful with you.” Aizawa's voice dropped deeply and Mic squeaked. “I know you've been horny as hell the past week.”

Zashi giggled sharply and then Shouta got to work making him squirm.

Chapter Text

It was dark outside. Three to four o'clock in the morning was a good time to do things when you were trying to stay under the radar. Nobody was up. The night owls were just going to sleep, the early birds weren't up yet.

All Might stepped carefully into the room, seeing Gazelle leaned back in a rolling chair and writing in one of her notebook. He looked around the high ceilings and bare walls for anything out of place.

Their current meetup location was a simple office building that just so happened to be conveniently out of the way and overlooked. He'd snapped the lock to the back door earlier the previous day. His contact who worked in the building was watching them on the security cameras, ready to respond if anything happened. If he saw something fishy happening he'd pull the fire alarm and All Might would be gone. Still somewhat risky, but Gazelle's work was some of the best out there, The best available to vigilantes. It was worth more than a little risk.

He tapped his foot pointedly to announce his entrance and Gazelle looked up, swirly eyes narrowing in on him.

“It's hard to tell, I'd have to check my previous measurements, but if I'm seeing right you've lost weight.” She said in her usual deadpan as she stood up and slowly walked closer. Her eyes swirled and spun around as they flickered around him.

“That would be why I need a new costume! Can't have my armor slipping off me because I've lost a few dozen pounds!” He said cheerfully, a lie, keeping up his grin despite feeling so, so tired. Losing weight in his work form was not something to brush off so casually. Not in the slightest. He was tired, he was nauseous, he was cold.

He wanted to go home.

Gazelle didn't react to his posturing, still scribbling something.

Something was off. Decades of instincts pinged in the back of his head and observations flashed through his mind.

Gazelle didn't bother with respecting personal space. She normally walked straight up to him, raised his arms, shoved his legs, circled him like a predator, and poked him into positions where she could see his dimensions better.

But right now she was a couple yards away and wasn't passive aggressively throwing sardonic comments at him.

The fire alarm hadn't gone off.

Yet.

This and more flashed through his head in the split second before he realized it was a trap.

“Yooou sure bout that, big guy?” A voice familiar, oh god no rang out from behind him. “Maybe it's because you're planning on skipping town and wanna get a reboot before you have to leave?”

All Might turned around very carefully and saw Yamada standing in the doorway, in civilian clothes, looking a mixture of confident and nervous.

Neither of them moved.

“Do I know you?” He said, keeping his plastic smile stuck to his face. Logically not many people knew Present Mic outside his hero getup. He had a script to stick to here.

All Might was not Yagi, he didn't know who Yamada Hizashi was or that he was the pro hero he'd rescued a week ago. And even when caught All Might did not falter.

“Of course you do!” Yamada Present Mic said cheerfully, and his heart skipped a beat. Did he know? Did Aizawa realize? Did Aizawa tell him? “You did save my life after all.” Mic tapped the underside of his chin where scars and bruising and red skin were on display.

“Present Mic!” All Might raised his hands and spread them out, beaming even wider in relief he's okay he's alright surprise. “I'm very glad to see you're doing okay after that nasty incident!” He propped his fists on his hips his hands were shaking stop shaking and tilted his head to the side, chuckling. “Unfortunately I can't quite stay to chat! I cannot say I'm surprised Gazelle-san gave me away to the heroes, but-”

“Oh no, don't worry, she didn't!” Yamada Present Mic he's not Yamada All Might doesn't know Yamada assured, waving his hands around and smiling weakly. “Just THIS hero! I'm not here to arrest you!” Yamada-san no what's going on your own husband would arrest you if he finds out what are you doing

All Might laughed heartily and shook his head. “Present Mic-sama, we both know that’s a foolish thing to say.” He says it more seriously than he wants to, shaking his head. Idiot what are you doing calling him that honorific that's suspicious

His part was played, he'd done his act, it was time to leave. He could have left at any time but he didn't want to bust out through the walls, didn't want to draw attention to the building. Wanted to make sure Hizashi was okay.

All Might moved.

He was in front of Present Mic, grabbing him by the shoulders, be careful be careful picking him up and spinning in a smooth motion to set him down gently. His throat was still too damaged to be using his quirk, not unless Present Mic wanted to put himself back in the hospital. All Might could interact with him without worrying about being yelled through a wall.

And if he was willing to do it anyways, well, All Might wouldn't feel as bad about literally breaking out if the hero started it.

He set the startled hero he's so small in his hands he's so fragile be careful down on the opposite side Present Mic started on.

All Might moved again down the hallway to the back exit-

Steam. Strength leaving him.

NO.

He couldn't breathe because his lung always hiccuped when he transformed. His reflexes were slower in his smaller form and he was too startled by the shock of losing his grip on One For All to think logically. There was a black shape right next to him.

An object in motion will not stop unless acted upon by an external force. He was still moving at All Might speeds towards a turn in the hallway at high speed and he stumbled, nearly tripped, tried to catch himself, and slammed into the wall.

Crack.

He yelled a little in shock and felt his eyes tear up. He practically bounced off the wall and sprawled across the tiled floor.

The first of the pain hit.

His nose was absolutely broken, there was an immediate stabbing pain and blood was already starting to drip down his lips. His right arm was numb and starting to feel a little warm.

There was shouting somewhere. He pushed himself to his feet with his left arm, clumsy with his costume and armor pooling around him. He was acting on instinct and instinct said move. Don't stop. You're not safe.

He dodged the hand that tried to grab his left arm - his right arm was tucked in close to his chest, he didn't know what was wrong with it but his thoughts had stopped registering and he was working off of years of survival instincts now and all he knew was he couldn't use it.

He dodged the second attempt to grab him and began to run. The exit was right there. He had to get out. Once he was out of the confined space he had options.

He got several steps before bindings wrapped around his middle and he hacked, blood coming up and splattering across the floor. They wrapped around his left arm and then looped around his chest and tightened -

His right arm got pressed up against his chest and exploded in pain.

He yelled, choking over his own blood, and his vision went starry until the bindings let go of his chest and they wrapped around his legs instead.

When his vision faded back in he was on the floor curled into a fetal position. When he reached deep inside he couldn't grasp One For All, it refused to respond.

“Dude! What the fuck took you so long?!” A frantic, too-loud-too-hoarse voice yelled above him.

“His friend watching the security cameras took longer to knock out than I expected.”

“Oh wow that's blood and that's. Really Yagi. Wow. Um.”

No. No no no no no-

“Yagi.” Eraserhead- Aizawa's voice. “We need to talk.”

There was silence and he refused to look up, staring at the floor and feeling his entire world shatter. There was a snort. Then hysterical giggling.

“Really Sho?! That's what you open with?!” Yamada sounded like a dying car.

“Hizashi? Shut the hell up.” The giggling barely contained itself. “Yagi, look at us.”

It was Aizawa. He found his head moving to look up before his mind agreed to it. The couple stared back.

“You guys aight in there?” Ando poked her head through the door into the hallway, hair swaying loosely. Hizashi let out another vaguely crazed giggle. “Huh. Well, you look like shit man.” She said plainly, frowning slightly as she stared at Yagi’s true form. “I'll let you guys… talk this out, I guess. I'll go keep unconscious security guy company.” 

They ended up pulling Yagi up against a wall and letting him sit up against it, though Aizawa didn't let his capture weapon or his quirk release. Instead Shouta kept his quirk activated and his eyes trained on Yagi at all times.

Hizashi was going to protest this - the guy had a fucking broken arm!! - but then Aizawa blinked and his hair fell and holy shit there was steam and Yagi started to swell up-

It was only the capture weapon strapped around his legs that kept him from flat out getting away. Even with it he lunged sideways and his good arm flexed, about to tear the strip holding his left arm down. With a broken arm, broken nose, and legs tied together, he still nearly got out with only a few seconds reaction time.

Shouta's hair rose back up in record time and large muscles collapsed back into the skeletal limbs they recognized.

“Don't! Do! That!” Hizashi waved his hands around and whined. “You're going to hurt yourself!!”

“We just want to talk.” Shouta said seriously. “Don't hurt yourself, idiot.”

Yagi gave them a look that said he doubted their sanity, even past his obvious pain and panic.

And oh boy, he looked gnarly. Blood was pouring down his mouth from his nose. It was totally broken, a little out of shape and red as hell. The redness was starting to spread across his face. Given time Hizashi would bet his nose was going to swell up like a balloon and he'd have a black eye.

His arm- Hizashi couldn't see his arm, not really, but he was cradling it up against his chest and it looked a little wonky. Aizawa wouldn't leave a limb unbound for no reason either. Not when he's apparently predicted Yagi's ability to weasel out of being caught.

But he looked horrible. Yagi's cheeks looked even more sunken in than usual. His shades - All Might's sunglasses- weren't even scuffed by his face meeting the wall, which said a lot about what they were made of. Hizashi suspected that underneath them Yagi's eyes were even more dead tired than usual too. They hadn't been getting any sleep trying to find him. He doubted Yagi got much sleep while being on the lamb.

The rest of him was hidden by dark blue cloth and subtly colored armor pieces, practically swamping him in this smaller form. Or well, his real form? His Yagi form, not his All Might form. Oh man Hizashi wanted to ask so many questions.

“What do you want?” Yagi said and yikes. Hizashi hadn't heard venom from Yagi before. It's not just venom, it's exhaustion, pain, resignation, and panic all rolled up into one dysfunctional burrito, but if he could go the rest of his life never hearing Yagi speak with that much bite again, Hizashi would die happy.

Because holy shit. Even Aizawa looked like he wasn't sure what to do with it.

“You.” Aizawa finally responded, completely straight faced.

Hizashi turned around to splutter and try to control his laughter. Goddamnit, Shouta, there's being straightforward and there's being absolutely way too obvious and scaring the skittish guy off. When he turned around again Yagi was red in the face and NOT because his nose was broken.

He also looked lost. All the humor of the situation fled Hizashi's mind.

“We were worried about you.” Hizashi said quietly, crouching down to sit on the floor in front of him. “I mean, we got home and you were gone and blood was splattered around like a crime scene.”

Yagi didn't respond and he was starting to really not like those sunglasses. They were as bad as Sho's goggles at hiding what their wearer was actually thinking.

“We're not going to arrest you.” Shouta said.

“Are you sure we're same interaction here, right now?” Yagi wheezed.

“I'm making sure you don't get away before we have our talk, not arresting you.” Shouta blinks but it's obvious the steam that poofs off Yagi for a single second and then drifts away is mostly a token effort.

“Seriously! I know it's hard to believe, Sho being Sho and all, but we're not going to arrest you!” Hizashi tried to raise the mood with some goofy hand motions. It didn't really work.

“That is incredibly illegal.” Yagi said. “Considering you're pro heroes and I am literally Japan's Most Wanted vigilante, along with several other countries.”

Aizawa twitched visibly. Yagi gave Hizashi a look like he was going ‘See?’

“Forreal, Yagi-san.” Hizashi smiled weakly. “There's a lot of reasons why, and Sho's not good at saying things like this, but we care about you. Enough that we're not going to arrest you for doing your own thing. Unless there's other heroes present we're probably not even gonna put up a token effort at it.”

“You should arrest me.” Yagi looked like he was completely mentally clocked out now. “You can't- you shouldn't risk your jobs, your life-”

“Stop. We're not going to be arresting you, against my better judgement.” Shouta snarled deeply. “Nobody knows we're here. Nobody knows how we got here, what we know, how we know it. I don't like it. I don't agree with what you do, even if I know why you do it. But I'm not taking you in because guess what! I give a shit about you, moron, and apparently I give enough of a shit that I'm going to shove aside all logical thought and my principles and break the fucking law. You know, the thing I'm supposed to fucking enforce. All because I give a shit. About you.”

Hizashi put a hand on Aizawa's shoulder worriedly. His decision or not, Sho was obviously still twisted up over this. It wasn't an easy spot for him to be in.

Yagi stared, face emotionless, breathing shakily.

“Sho..?” Shouta took a deep breath. Hizashi squeezed his shoulder. “Babe, it's alright.”

“We're not going to let you go.” Aizawa said dully. “We came after you to let you know you don't have to run. Because we're not telling anyone. Even if you do end up running anyways.”

Aizawa blinked. Less than a second of time. A single second that his quirk stopped working before it reactivated.

Steam billowed out again and next thing Hizashi knew there was a crunch and Shouta sprawled backwards. Yagi- All Might was standing up, ripping off the capture weapon and then just- gone in a burst of moving air that had Hizashi falling on his back.

God, he was so fucking fast. They were fucking lucky enough that they'd gotten him the first time.

He leaned over his husband and took in how Shouta was holding his face and cursing loudly.

“Did he just break your nose by punching you with his broken arm?”

Aizawa cursed some more.

“What the fuck, Yagi.” Hizashi muttered, patting Sho on the shoulder. “That's… badass as fuck. And scary.”

After a minute his husband sat up, still cupping his face and a few tears starting to trickle down his face. “My capture weapon?”

“Shredded.” He pursed his lips. “Tore through it like a newspaper! Looked like it at least cost him some effort though.”

“Good thing I've got a replacement coming in.” Aizawa muttered.

Thank god for their brand new friend who knew how often heroes were supposed to get costume and gear replacements; and had raised a fuss once she heard he'd had the same capture weapon for years.

“You doing alright, hun?”

“It's only a broken nose.”

“That's not what I meant, babe.” Hizashi scooted over next to him and leaned his head up against him. “You got pretty intense there.”

“...feelings suck.” Aizawa closed his eyes. Hizashi moved from leaning against him to hug him tightly. “At least it probably helped convince him we were telling the truth.”

“Yeah, hopefully we'll see him soon.” Hizashi perked up. “Oh! I'll make some sandwiches he can eat, he looked like he'd hardly eaten lately! If he stops by we can make sure he's at least eating alright.”

They hadn't exactly expected to hold onto All Might. Decades of experience fighting and evading heroes? No way in hell did they stand a chance.

Instead they'd planned for exactly that. They intended for him to get away, because they couldn't exactly sit on him until he accepted their friendship anyways. All they could do was hold him for a short while and hopefully manage to tell him their intentions before he booked it.

By making sure he knew they were on his side they'd put the ball in Yagi's court. It was up to him what he did with it. They couldn't make that decision for him.

All they could do was wait and see what he would do.

Chapter Text

After the disaster of a meetup, Yagi anxiously ran out of the building, jumped half the city away, and spent an hour running around to hopefully lose any tail. Then he ducked into a safehouse, checked himself thoroughly for bugs of any kind, and then left that building for a different secure location.

It was hours until he felt himself safe enough to slip into his natural state and duck through side streets to a safe spot.

Setting, splinting, and putting a homemade cast on his own arm was a pain, both from the difficulty of it being his dominant arm he was splinting and the actual pain, and it took far too long because of it. At least setting his nose was easier.

Toshinori took his pain medication for the first time in a while. He actually took a double dose before he moved to his cot and sank down on it shaking. Finally he let his muscles untense, let the pain pass through the mental block he'd been shoving most of it behind.

He cried silently. The pain shooting through his arm, face, and side was hardly the worst he'd felt, but he was just…

Tired.

Tired of running. Tired of getting hurt. Tired of not being able to trust people. Tired of being tired.

Yagi let himself cry for a good ten minutes before getting himself together. He could mope later.

Toshinori pulled his blankets around himself and shuddered. It was starting to get cold out which meant all of his hideouts were cold. This one (Basement of an apartment building that quite a number of… characters lived in. Technically, the basement didn't exist, which was why it certainly wasn't heated.) didn't even have a space heater to help out. He hadn't had time to grab one.

Cold weather meant his side and every other possible injury he'd gotten over the years would act up. He actually took his pain meds, during the winter.

He thought. About… many things.

Maybe he could…

Maybe…

Maybe. 

The first day after the trap passed by mostly full of anxiety. Both of them doubted he'd be knocking on their door immediately after being tied up and forcefully talked to. The days after that were just full of nervousness. Would Yagi show up? When? What if he showed up while they were away?

Aizawa was dealing with his nerves by continuing on as normal, with maybe more jello pouch consumption than normal. Hizashi was just… a mess. He was allowed to go back to his radio show on promise of being on good behavior and not straining his voice.

He almost didn't take the opportunity to go back to work in hopes of catching Yagi until Aizawa pointed out it was better that he not display such uncharacteristic behavior. Hizashi not wanting to go back to his own radio station was a big red flag that something was wrong.

Aizawa doubted it would be traced back to “trying to date a vigilante” but better to not do anything suspicious.

This meant that when a small, tentative knock happened on their door Mic was at work, only Aizawa was home to hear it, and he was asleep. It took the doorbell ringing before he woke up.

Aizawa's eyes stretched open and he glared at the ceiling. Why now? Why when Hizashi was gone?

He stood up and took his blanket with him to the door. When he opened it, Yagi was turned away and walking down the hallway. He froze and looked over his shoulder with wide eyes.

Pretty eyes. Aizawa shook his head and rubbed his eyes while he leaned against the doorframe. He was annoyed at Yagi right now, thinking he was pretty was not allowed.

“Yes, I'm here, I was sleeping, but I'm here.”

Ugh. Ignoring his attraction to Yagi was easier and harder than expected. Yagi turned around slowly and his face was a mess. His nose was red, swollen, and had an ugly scabbed scrape across the top of it. His eyes were even more tired than usual and Aizawa saw purple bruising under the edge of his shadowed eyes, mostly around his right eye.

“You look terrible.” He said without preamble. “Did you go to a hospital?” His eyes drifted down to Yagi's right arm, covered up with a loose hoodie sleeve.

“I-” Yagi shuffled anxiously and touched his broken arm gently. “...no. I don't go to-” He cut the sharp, slightly panicked response back and took a wheezy breath. “...unless it's life threatening, I have the experience to take care of it myself. Even broken bones.”

Aizawa's mouth pinched together. That was… understandable, if not frustrating.

“Get in here.” He took a step back and opened the door wider. “I'm checking that arm until I'm satisfied with it.”

Yagi swallowed visibly and followed him in.

If it weren't for Aizawa's own broken, aching nose and the vivid memory of Yagi puffing in and out of his muscular form, he would never believe this shy man was All Might.

“Is Yagi your act? Or All Might?” Aizawa asked tonelessly while he lead Yagi towards the couch.

Yagi blinked and frowned. “Ah- I suppose All Might is, though, there's never been… much time or opportunity to be Yagi.” He waved Yagi to sit on the couch and move his jacket. “So… there may be an act in Yagi as well.” He unzipped his baggy sweater (Aizawa was remembering why he might wear them, now) and pulled his right arm out cautiously.

“Is it your real name?” Aizawa narrowed in on the dark cast. It was made out of darker plaster than he'd expected, probably because white stood out too much.

At least it looked like it was sturdy enough. He grabbed it and turned it around to look at, hearing Yagi grunt slightly in pain. He frowned. Casts weren't supposed to be slightly pliable.

“Yagi Toshinori is my real name,” Yagi winced. “It's not… always my name, but it's my real name, along with being my current name.” Aizawa grunted.

“This is too tight. And too thin.” He looked up at Yagi. Yagi blushed slightly and looked away.

“It is difficult to cast your own arm, especially with your non dominant arm.” He mumbled.

Aizawa stared at him for a minute before sighing deeply. “If I get the appropriate materials, will you let me redo it for you?”

Yagi drooped and didn't respond for a few minutes before nodding.

Aizawa hummed affirmatively before reaching up and grabbing his chin, to Yagi's surprise.

“Your nose looks like it was set right, at least.” He said, tilting Yagi's gaunt face back and forth.

“...I'm sorry, about your nose.” Yagi murmured.

“Did you harm your arm further?” Aizawa raised an eyebrow dully.

“What?”

“Punching my face with your broken arm, did you hurt your arm more than it already was?”

“I- ...no? It- it was a controlled jab, specifically to hit only your nose, broken noses are incredibly painful and distracting so-” Yagi turned red and cut himself off again. “So I didn't hurt my hand any, and… my arm was hurt more by transforming directly after, to be honest.”

Transforming.

“Your skeletal structure isn't changed by transforming, is it?” Aizawa eyed the arm again.

“No, just the muscle mass.” He looked down at the cast and flexed the fingers poking out the end.

“If I ask about the transformation, will you answer?”

“Probably not.”

“Alright.”

“It's-” Yagi scratched the back of his neck as he scrambled to restate that. “It's complicated. If you- I guess, ask what you're wondering? I can… tell you whether or not I'll answer?”

Aizawa and Yagi had a brief staring contest while he debated whether or not to ask anything. Probably better to let Hizashi do all his questions.

“Fair enough.” Aizawa stood up. “I'll need to find plaster wrap. Are you going with me to the store or are you staying here?”

Yagi paused and shrugged his sweater back on. “I think I'll go to my apartment and… clean up a bit.” He looked suddenly… shaky. He was trembling slightly.

Aizawa eyed him. “What's wrong?”

Yagi chuckled nervously. “I trust you, you know that?” Aizawa blinked. “But there's-” He breathed harshly and pressed his hand into his eyes.

“I'll know where you are and I'm leaving the vicinity, giving me the opportunity to call in backup.” Aizawa said quietly. Yagi smiled bitterly.

“Precisely.” He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “I suppose I'll see soon enough.”

“The nearest drugstore is only a five minute walk away, if it helps.” Aizawa said. “I'll try to hurry. Zashi's been making you sandwiches all week- they're in the fridge. If you don't eat at least one, I'm going to shove it in your mouth myself.” 

It was surprisingly hard to find actual plaster tape. Wrappings. Whatever.

Aizawa ended up having to go back to Yagi's apartment, let him know he'd be taking longer, and leaving to find a store that actually sold it. Apparently it was a huge medical no no to make your own arm casts. He had to find a fucking craft store open at 8 o'clock at night and he ran in at the last second, right before it closed. The employees were pissed at him.

Whatever. Aizawa got the fucking plaster wrap. Several packages just to be safe.

At that point Hizashi was off work and he just texted him to come pick him up so he didn't have to walk home.

“Do you even know how to wrap an arm cast?” Hizashi fretted. “I mean, we always go to the hospital if there's actual broken bones involved-”

“Do you want to try getting Yagi to a hospital?” Aizawa asked sarcastically, typing away on his phone.

“...fair point, but-”

“Yagi already knows how to do it, he just had difficulty doing it with his non dominant arm. If we're working as his hands it'll be fine. Besides.” He flashed his phone screen at him, since the car was at a red light. “There's a WikiHow.”

“...oh my god why are there WikiHow articles for literally everything.”

When Hizashi knocked on the door of Yagi's apartment, there were a few clattering and banging noises before he eventually opened it red faced. Yagi stared at Hizashi and took a scratchy breath in, out.

“I'm glad you're okay.” He said quietly, eyes trained on his neck. It was mostly healed but still had a reddish, patchy look to it and a slight scar from the tracheostomy.

“I'm glad you're alive! And here!” Hizashi blurted, grinning. Yagi winced slightly.

“Come on, let's get his arm put away properly already.” Aizawa drawled, pushing past him into the apartment.

“A-ah, right.” Yagi mumbled. He brought them to the kitchen table. “Getting the cast off is probably going to be hard.”

And it was. Yagi had a tool meant to do it - it was supposedly specifically for cutting plaster, but it just looked like a box cutter - and it still took both of them nearly twenty minutes to slowly cut through it from his elbow to wrist. Yagi had his face carefully blank and slightly distant the whole time. Aizawa and Hizashi traded looks and tried to make it as painless as possible but the plaster was stubborn and they didn't want to cut him.

“How the fuck do you do this on your own?” Hizashi grumbled after he nearly sliced into his finger.

“I usually wait until it's healed fully and then just-” He made a small explosion motion with his left hand, still looking distant. “Poof, it's broken off.”

“Poof?” Hizashi said, holding back a giggle. Yagi blinked at him placidly. “Well I- I guess it is a ‘poof’-” He snickered loudly.

When they got the cast off it looked gross. His skin was red and had scattered blisters where it wasn't bruised green and purple.

“You gave yourself a rash, damnit.” Aizawa grunted. “This is literally why you go to the doctor for broken bones.”

“I've done this plenty of times and never fucked up a cast before, sue me. At least that explains the itching and the heat.” Yagi said blandly.

“You alright there, champ?” Hizashi waved a hand in front of his face, watching his eyes follow it lazily.

“Just- trying to pretend it doesn't feel like my arm is falling off.” Yagi muttered, ducking his head.

“Mmhmm, well let's uh- is it okay to put a new cast on with it… like this?” Hizashi’s fingers hovered over it anxiously.

“I'd rather he gets sores over his skin than the bone healing wrong because it wasn't kept immobile enough.” Aizawa pored through Google results on his phone trying to find some information that would help. “Damnit, Google, I know a tight cast causes rashes, tell me what to do if there's already a rash.”

“Ah- there should be some benadryl in the medicine cabinet.” Yagi pointed with his good hand. “I've been avoiding taking it, I don't like having to take too many pills at once and I'm already taking all my pain killers, but might as well.” He looked down and made a face. “I didn't realize it was this bad.”

“How the hell not?” Hizashi checked the cabinet and yeah, no way in hell he could tell which one was ‘benadryl’. He looked back at Yagi. “Which is the-”

“Pink bottle, tiny pink pills.”

“Ah, gotcha.”

“And I guess it's hard to notice anything in specific when your whole body hurts.” Yagi said haltingly. Aizawa looked up from his phone and Hizashi whined.

“Are my hearing aids off or did I hear that right?”

“It's winter and I'm middle-aged, that's enough of an issue.” Yagi snorted quietly. “Plus I-” His fingers twitched on his right side but he didn't move his arm, thankfully. “...I'm sure you two have noticed I'm not exactly a picture of health.”

Both of them snorted at that.

Hizashi handed him a pill after squinting at the bottle and reading the dose. “No shit sherlock!” Then he poured him a cup of water from the sink. “So you're old and achey. You didn't tell us before that winter was bad for you. And we've lived next to you for like, two years now!”

“I don't like people knowing many things about me. If that weren't obvious.”

“Okay. So.” Aizawa squinted at his phone in annoyance. “Either we take you to a hospital where a doctor can look at it or we shove you in a bed and you don't move your arm at all until the blisters heal.” He growled. “Apparently even doctors can't agree on how to treat it but they do agree moving broken or fractured bones is the one thing you should not do at all costs.” He scrolled a little more. “Also, fuck Google.”

“I'd rather avoid the hospital at all costs.” Yagi said as he shook his head. “But also, I don't know if I can do laying down for that long.” The way his shoulders were tensed up made it obvious: he didn't know if he could trust them to look after him for that long.

Aizawa sighed and closed his phone, leaning closer to Yagi.

“Why don't you trust us? Besides the decades of hiding illegal activities.” Aizawa hummed. “Though to be fair, that's a good reason to not trust two professional heroes...”

“No, I think you're on the right track, Sho.” Hizashi settled on the couch on Yagi's other side, the two of them pinning him in. He grew very, very still. “There's something else. I mean, we're not stupid, Yagi, you obviously knew we were flirting with you.” He sniffed.

“Wait he did?” Aizawa made a face.

“Correction: only Aizawa is people stupid, I knew you knew we were flirting with you and were just pretending that you didn't know.” He rambled off the confusing sentence while Aizawa leveled a glare at him. “So is it you don't trust us to look after you because we're heroes, because we've flirted with you and made you uncomfortable, or is it something else?”

“I don't- I didn't- I just-” Yagi started breathing a little too much, too fast and they both backed off a bit worriedly. “I've never been with- you two were just-”

“Hey if you're uncomfortable it's alright, man.” Hizashi said quietly. “We'll back off on the flirting and stuff. Just- tell us if we've gotta chance, okay?”

“I don't know.” Yagi wheezed. “I don't- I don't know.” He never thought he'd have the opportunity. He never thought he'd be able to act on the thoughts and feelings he had for these two amazing men.

“That's fine.” Aizawa didn't bat an eye. “We'll be here for an answer whenever you have one. It's alright to not have one now. In the meantime, that has no bearing on the fact that you need help, and we're going to be here to help you regardless.”

Yagi slowed his breathing down, struggling, and not for the first time they both wondered what state his lungs were in and why. So many things could be wrong. So many opportunities for him to be hurt over the years.

“I don't know what to say.” Yagi croaked eventually.

“Yooou could sayyyy ‘Thank you Hizashi and Shouta I'll totally let you wait on me hand and foot while these nasty blisters heal!’ and we can work on getting you in bed and turning the heater on, because Jesus man it is cold in here.” Hizashi pointed finger guns at him.

Yagi burst into wet, sobbing laughter and covered his face with his good hand. “Y-yeah, sure, l- let's go with that one, s-sure.”

“My husband is an idiot, sorry for him.” Aizawa said blithely. Yagi just kept laughing.

This could work out. He hoped it did. God, he hoped it did.

Chapter Text

Yagi didn't immediately move back into living in his apartment again.

His relationship with Aizawa and Hizashi was… tumultuous. It was them trying, very hard, and Yagi fighting them the whole way. Honestly he didn't think he deserved them loving him. Regardless of just the trust issues and dangers associated with knowing him, they put up with a lot trying to get him to let them in.

And he tried, really. He did. It was why he always caved in the end. It was why when they were just worried he still called them or dropped by the apartment to let them know he was okay. Even if it was dangerous to give himself away. Even if-

Even if.

Yagi tried.

Sometimes it wasn't enough but they tried together.

And eventually years passed and Yagi only left his apartment when he needed to make an emergency trip. Always let them know when he would be gone - not where, usually, it was dangerous, but they always saw All Might on the news after the fact, when he was safe and at home and cuddled into the couch with them. Always made sure to let them take care of his wounds, let them drag him to a hospital with support and helping him to doctors about why he had a three foot gash in his side.

Always made sure to hug them close and assure them he was okay, it was alright, he was coming back. All three of them lived dangerous lives.

The three of them started to live out of both apartments, moving next door for one thing or another, back and forth as they felt they needed to. As his paranoid habits became more ingrained into them they let him ask for codes- the plant in the hallway had a broken leaf on that side, Aizawa was home in Yagi's apartment, the other side meant both were awake and up in the shared apartment - so many things they memorized and helped him plan and disguise.

Yagi didn't stop being All Might. He couldn't, he just- he might as well ask Aizawa or Hizashi to stop being heroes.

It was a long argument. They quickly dropped trying to make him stop, but instead they switched to: go in, give yourself up, become an official hero and he broke.

For the first time in months Yagi ran and slept at a hideout, curled into a ball and shaking. He didn't respond to their texts for days. He didn't let them know he was alive for a week until he dropped off a note.

Eventually he came back, red eyed and shaking. They didn't demand answers, they saw pain and loss and heartbreak in his eyes, and he spoke.

“I'm sorry there's things I can't say there's things so dangerous- they killed my teacher, they destroyed me, he tore this hole inside me literally and metaphorically and I- I can't, it's dangerous, I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry, being heroes didn't save her, it won't save you, I'm sorry-”

He spoke about his childhood. About the teacher - the mother - he almost had. A quirk given to him last minute. He hadn't realized, not at first, why exactly she'd died. It had taken months before he knew. Leaks. Holes that shouldn't be there. Loopholes and broken laws and things that should never be there. His mentor had died, she'd been killed, because of fingers twisting wires he could hardly even see much less manipulate back. He tried doing the right thing. He tried. He tried.

He tried for so long, he sobbed and held them close because he didn't choose this, he was never given the opportunity to come out of the shadows where he'd been thrown as a lost child.

There was no point in coming out now, no point in breaking secrecy he'd held for decades, when there was nothing but leftovers of All For One's legacy out there and clinging to life. He just wanted to live his life as quiet as he could now that his life's job was done, doing what he loved and helping people.

He hadn't expected to live much longer.

“You damn well will be living a lot fucking longer if we have anything to say about it.”

That was the last time they'd ever asked him to give himself in. And from then on they were far more careful with him, with them. There were still remnants of that empire and manipulation out in the world.

But Yagi could deal with it. And he- maybe it was time he gave in, and let himself rest. So long by himself, fighting to survive and never getting the chance to live. Maybe he could be selfish, just this once. When he had two amazing, wonderful people wanting to be his partners despite everything. Two intelligent, careful people who understood the stakes.

Who understood why he acted- off. Why he jolted awake when doors opened, why he wrote everything and anything down in messily scrawled shorthand, why he buried and hid important notebooks and papers in between receipts and junk mail, why he didn't always have a phone and constantly got new numbers.

Hizashi and Aizawa dealt with him and all his odd habits and learned paranoia. Yagi was so, so grateful to get the chance to learn their oddities and ticks in return.

At one point Aizawa gave in to Hizashi's bugging and became a teacher at the high school he taught at. That was around the time the two husbands gave into their friends’ pestering and introduced them to their ‘incredibly shy’ third partner Yagi.

He liked knowing Hizashi and Aizawa's friends. As much as there was always a part of him still screaming it was a liability - he couldn't be attached, couldn't allow such a weakness, couldn't let them even know who he was - he was trying, and so were Aizawa and Hizashi, and he liked being able to reach out and know that their friends approved of him. Even if he was given said by Kayama asking him if he ‘bottomed’ and Iida's - he insisted Yagi call him Tensei -  constant pestering about hanging out with them more often.

At least Aizawa was quick to try and stop their shenanigans. Yagi appreciated the attempt.

And Yagi found himself growing comfortable even with his paranoia and nerves. He was… glad to be with them. Glad he took the risk to trust.

Trust in partners and trust in friends. Staymancy and Giséle hung around too.

The moth hero never did quite hear what issue they had with Giséle but she was thrilled to see her friend out of trouble and “making friends”. And Giséle was all too glad to cooperate with Aizawa and slowly get vigilantes - the ones who were ‘massive dicks and more a paycheck than a charity case’ - tripped up and caught without implicating her. (She did, eventually, help him update his All Might costume- along with redesigning Aizawa's jumpsuit with better materials than the “canvas shit” it was made with before. Present Mic refused to let her touch his leather.)

All Might continued being a vigilante, continued dodging the law, continued avoiding heroes, continued helping people.

Yagi continued on with the new pattern he'd gotten used to. Life was still difficult, but it was also secure, content.