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What laid before him wasn’t a man riddled with nightmares, or the ever tightening grip of his past that strangled every soft laugh and every genuine smile from his lips. It wasn’t a man broken, torn to shreds by his own self doubt, pulled apart and put together so many times over it was hard to keep track.
No, what laid before him was a man finally getting his rest long over due.
“You’ve never looked more at peace, sunflower” Shouta regarded gently, trailing a thumb across his somehow colder lips- it would be the last he’d ever get to speak to Toshinori, to touch him, before he was put away to forever continue to rest. He needed it- after all he’s done in one lifetime.
Aizawas breath hitched as he moved away, he felt as though he was leaving apart of him behind as he stepped down the church’s steps towards the pews, where he took a heavy seat down- and in a way he was.
Toshinori had become apart of him.
He’d become his smile.
His happiness.
His joy over the few years they’d managed to spend somewhat together.
And as he looked about at the far from empty hall, he realised that he wasn’t the only one loosing apart of himself today.
For a man seemingly so lonely, he meant so much to so many people.
To Midoriya, Todoroki and Bakugou, and the rest of class 1A.
To himself, Mic, and of course the rest of the teachers at UA.
To David and Tsukauchi.
To Endeavour- to Torino, to Fatgum, and all the other hero’s who’d come to pay their respects- wether they’d truly known Toshi or not, they’d all interacted with him on some level, and each had been impacted by his words or even by his presence.
He hoped in their missing pieces they could find solace in one another and hope to once again become whole in their memories of Toshinori.
Because, as Shouta had said during the eulogy;
“Let us not remember him as All Might, saviour of millions, but instead as the one we were so lucky to get to know. Toshinori, saviour of those he held closest.”