Work Text:
“DAMNIT! WHY WONT YOU LET ME DO THIS FOR YOU, OBORO!?”
Aizawa snapped, his breath practically on fire, fuelled with spite but coming from a place none other than hurt and want to protect those closest. But he realised when he averted his eyes from their fixated and closed state of the floor, up to meet those of whom he’d been dating for almost 6 months now, he’d known the words he’d chosen and used so irrationally were definitely not those in which he should have.
The room went quiet, in fact- the entire world seemed to have stilled after Aizawa had raised his voice.
Midnight let out a soft gasp, and Mics glasses slid to the very tip of his nose where his mouth hung agape, even 13 had looked up from their computer- where they’d been happily working away, ignoring what seemed to be just a dispute between the couple.
Yagis breath hitched, and he said not a word for a moment.
Aizawa could tell hed fucked up.
They’d been arguing for over a week now. It began when Yagi had a new suit fitted to his well retired form- ‘just in case’- he’d said. But Aizawa had known better.
Then it’d been when Aizawa had discovered Yagi had been sneaking out to do nothing but ‘petty hero work, ‘it was just a few robbers Aizawa-kun, nothing I couldn’t handle.’
But what had really blown Aizawas fuse was when just today at work, when he’d noticed a new gash and a surrounding bruise on the reckless teachers arm. They’d been quietly going back and forth, slowly their tone picking up until Eraser had snapped, standing up so suddenly his chair had fallen with a deafening thud.
‘All I want to do is take care of you.’ Aizawa had whispered only seconds ago- ‘to prote-‘ but he hadn’t gotten even half way through his sentence when Yagi had already cut in, with a line so practiced and said with such ease, how could Aizawa do anything but break? Shatter?
‘I don’t need protecting, I’m All Might- I am here-‘
However, misplacing Yagis name for Oboros was not something he’d planned on doing.
In their months of dating, both Yagi and Aizawa had revealed to one another how they both reminded them of someone dear they had lost in childhood.
For Yagi? It was when Aizawas hair was tied up, how he resembles so much of his master, or as his Mother- as he sometimes referred to her as-, that at a quick glance he had on more than one occasion mixed the two up in a childish hope that she might have come back, even for just one day, even after near enough twenty years of her being gone.
And for Aizawa? It was Oboro. An ex of his from his days at UA. Many people knew the story of Oboro, how the young hero had died saving school children, tragically dying in the process. But what many people didn’t know is that Aizawa was there to witness the entire thing first hand, and that they were dating- that they were planning on spending every day together after UA, no matter what would be thrown at them.
It was the way Yagi saw the good in everything, protected everyone even at the cost of himself, had the kindness that he loved in Oboro, but had come to despise in Yagi.
Not because he didn’t love Yagi. But because he did.
And Aizawa would be damned if he lost someone else he loved to their own selflessness.
His intentions were in the right place, but- his words were not.
Yagis mouth opened, and then closed, and Aizawa raced to apologise.
But he wasn’t quick enough for All Might.
His lips tugged into a sad smile, then as steamed seemed to inflate his muscles he burst into hysterics.
Aizawa knew Yagi would only transform, even if only slightly, if he felt extremely uncomfortable.
When his laughter finally died with a sickening hack of blood, the smoke leaving his body as quickly as it had arrived, Yagi looked up to Aizawa, wiping a tear from his eye- “I am an old fool- arent i?”.
He let out one last, fake, chuckle, the kind manufactured for paparazzi, and stood from his desk, walking in long strides quickly to the door to leave as soon as possible.
“Toshi! Wait!” Aizawa growled, practically lunging forward for the slender mans hand. He missed just as Yagi quickly recoiled his arm.
“I’m- im not Oboro Shirakumo, Eraser” Yagi muttered, his words catching and his eyes welling with tears. Aizawa watched painfully as Yagis Adam’s Apple bobbed in a way that suppressed what must’ve been a cry.
“But- I-..should’ve seen that coming- this- this whole time-..you- you even said I reminded you of him- right?” Yagis jaw clenched and his hands tightened into firsts, “you see him in me- but that’s all- you just- you just want him- right?”
And Aizawa wanted to disagree. Wanted to yell at Yagi- to slap him then kiss him in front of everyone just to show how much he cared.
But as he opened his mouth to retaliate, to do those things he so desperately wanted to do, he is reminded of the recent visit to see Kurogiri, and he is reminded of how much he truly still cared for Oboro- in a way he shouldn’t when with someone else.
In a way he shouldn’t regardless, because Oboro was dead.
But his words still fell short, and his mouth fell shut, and he fell silent. Stuck staring up at Yagi as tears now spilled from his cheeks.
“H-hah! I-..I-“ he took in a shaky breath, be that from his lung working over time or simply due to his determination not to sob, and turned just as quickly from the room, making sure to close the door behind him.
Aizawa stood straight, staring at where Yagi once was in front of him. His hand still raised to catch the others falling to his side.
Mic was the first to speak after a minute or so-
“S-sho- you- you didn’t mean to you-“
“Don’t.”
Aizawa stopped his friend before he could say anything else.
He turned, most of his face now buried in his scarf, as he two now had a face lined with red tear streaks, and walked rationally back to his desk, picked up his chair, and went back to work.