Work Text:
“Tosh? Please just tell me… WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?”
Toshinori blinks twice, his big, gangly hands full of the gooey, sticky substance covering the two strands of blond hair with it with a little effort, he frowns trying to find the problem, the open jar of hair gel in the bathroom sink. bathroom had a faint honey smell maybe Dave doesn't like the smell?
"Fixing my hair?" Finally he says something, raising an eyebrow when Dave gasps pulling his own hair in frustration. "Something wrong with that?"
It's funny to see the ever so self-assured David Shield turn various shades of scarlet red, it was kind of cute if it didn't look like his dorm mate just really wanted to jump on him and strangle him to death.
“What exactly are you supposed to be doing right now? You remember, Tosh I told you to change to go to Brooklyn, BECAUSE IT'S A HEROIC EMERGENCY" Dave yells smacking the taller blonde on the shoulder trying to get him to come to the sense he should have
Toshinori winces from the blow not because of the force because honestly he barely felt anything but a tickle but because his hands slip making the two locks that were his bangs rise dangerously upwards defying the concept of gravity in a way that would make Newton roll over in his grave.
“I was trying to do just that before you came in Dave, I figured out a way no one would find out who I am” Yagi smiles loud and bright at this, he points to the two locks on his head excited about the fact that no one should ever see him. recognize right now if he didn't wear a mask
Nobody would think that Yagi Toshinori, the nerdy, shy boy who always had his hair thrown in front of his face, who walked hunched over and who isolated himself from everyone else and was currently studying abroad in the US and was formerly part of the general studies class, would be nothing less than nothing more than the new great hero All Might
The contrast in muscle, hair, smile, and even the extreme personality change made it almost impossible for anyone to think that for some divine reason they were the same person.
“YOU-?!... YOU ARE SUCH A STUPID YOU KNOW?”
Dave takes a deep breath pinching the bridge of his nose and praying to some unknown God to give him patience, because his best friend could be so stupid sometimes “Anyone can recognize you like that, do you really think people are that stupid bro? It's just your hair but you're still the same, Tosh"
Yagi smiles even more his eyes shine even more like two suns in full rise as he takes off his shirt and pants hurriedly putting on his hero costume, people saw what they wanted to see and he knew it all along
Nobody saw an orphaned young man without individuality and clearly starving in the street, it was almost like being invisible
Now a hero who smiles all the time with an extremely powerful quirk and crazy hair, this was totally different no one would ever suspect him of being anything more than what he appears to be.
A perfect hero
“Bet how much no one will notice?” Tosh chuckles at the unamused snort of his brown-haired friend who had his back to him to give him the illusion of privacy.
“You'll have to do my homework for a month if anyone notices, I swear and no more stupid plans like that” David narrows his eyes this time but he doesn't miss how his friend looks more relieved now “The things you do we pass”
Toshinori smiles, genuinely this time when they take a discreet elevator that leads to Shield's laboratory, he jumps into the car already feeling the adrenaline running through his veins with the challenge when they leave the garage
“Okay but if I win you will have to do my homework while I patrol”
And All Might laughs loud and true when David protests with a clearly fake groan of pain, sounds like a good morning
.
.
.
He knew he should expect victims when he was dealing with situations like this, a villain with the ability to cause small explosions based on cooking gas.
that was dangerous
Yet he wasn't ready for this.
“II… Do I know you?”
All Might freezes for a millisecond, his hands getting a little tense holding the student in his arms, he knew him, they studied at the same college they shared an algebra class
And everything literally everything that prevented him from finding out who Toshinori was, was hair gel, a hero costume and a smile too big not to be fake right now, because even he couldn't smile when he could still hear the screams of a woman being dragged to bed. inside an ambulance right now, a woman who lost her daughter in the explosion, the air smelled of smoke and blood and he felt like throwing up at the thought of the dark smear of limbs and bones that once was a nine-year-old.
If he had arrived a few minutes earlier maybe he-
No, he couldn't think about that, his quirk wasn't time control and sometimes he had to admit... Even he couldn't save everyone.
Sometimes he hated himself for it too
“No, I think not young-? Excuse me, what's your name again, sir?”
All Might smiles playfully as he jumps from building to building trying to distract him enough to stay awake, the young man his age was losing a lot of blood, the stump that was once his arm staining his hero costume, Dave would ask when he got back to home and it was obvious
It didn't matter much now anyway, he didn't care about the suit he just wanted the person in his arms to survive.
“It's Hitsuke, sorry… II thought I knew… sorry” Hitsuke closes his eyes as they are only a few meters away from the nearest hospital, All Might shudders and forces his body to move faster
“Hitsuke? Hitsuke stay with me ok? We're almost there, just a little bit more, HEY HERE, HELP” He yells, he knows he shouldn't let his emotions get out of control but he can't keep the desperation out of his voice.
There's a student dying in your arms
He puts him on the stretcher wanting to follow him into the hospital but knowing he can't, vigilantes still weren't very cool in the US and he couldn't push his luck.
So All Might just looks on, suit grisly stained with the blood of the person he's supposed to -it would have been saved by him, if only he arrived a few minutes earlier
He's a failure, he knows it
All Might smiles as he returns to the crime scene, smiling reassuringly at the woman who was the mother of the young man who was hugging the small child who couldn't even beat his own knees when standing up.
All Might smiles at everyone, at the reporters who seemed so surprised by the presence of a hero when there were no more villains to be seen, someone genuinely helping people search for their belongings, taking care of the disaster that was collateral damage, smiling and joking with the victims in the hope that one day they can smile again
All Might smiles even when Yagi Toshinori wants to cry, he's crying and screaming inside
He smile even when Toshinori doesn't want to do anything but never smile again because he doesn't deserve it.
He failed
And failure within that profession, he was learning fast that… failure costs lives.
Yagi Toshinori cry more
.
.
.
Toshinori never imagined that the next time he was going to be nearly recognized it would be in line at a hot dog stand, the black lady with large prescription glasses and a gentle smile preparing a clear American Hot Dog was such a common sight that he began to get used to seeing each time his time in the United States was prolonged
Americans like hot dogs was a fact
"Sorry what?"
Yagi blinks halfway from handing the cash to the saleswoman, the dollars resting innocently against his very wide hand.
“I asked if I've seen you before… sorry, it's just that you look familiar” She frowns thoughtfully humming softly and fixing her falling glasses with a nimble finger
Toshinori swallows scared shrugging to try to make himself look smaller
“Ehh, it happens a lot, I have an ordinary face you know” And the worst part was that it was true, in Japan he might even be rare with his bright blue eyes and equally exotic naturally blonde hair but here… his appearance described half of the population, he was just an extra
And Tosh found he was happy about it, it was nice to allow himself to be comfortable and just be himself, not worrying about being a hero or training or how much he needed to get to pass his advanced geometry test.
“Maybe… AH, I REMEMBER” she jumps up euphoric at finally remembering who her mind seemed so gripped by the memory “You remind me of a super tall and muscular guy like you, he saved my life man I never said thank you”
He freezes, hoping very much that nothing showed on her face, yes he could remember her, she almost got run over because she lost her glasses in the middle of the light
He found them and got her across the street to safety, he remembers jumping high and chasing a getaway car near the area shortly after, barely having time to exchange more than a few words with her.
"Only he looked so much sillier than you, hair was weird too, he needs a comb but you had to see it was so… adorable" she smiles genuinely her eyes seeming to wander back to the day she met him
“HEY THIS IS GOING TO TAKE FOREVER IS IT?!”
Toshinori shudders at the scream blushing as he looks back and sees a truly huge queue waiting for his order, he shudders again this time in sympathy
“Sorry I'm rambling here your order” She hands her and Dave's food and he hands her the money, she looks tired but… happy
He feels proud to be the one who put that smile on your face.
It's only when he's crossing the street ready to get back in David's car and continue patrolling the city that he realizes what she's just said.
“SILLY?”
.
.
.
“I already told you Tosh, stop being dramatic you're not that silly” Dave sighs letting himself sink onto the sofa in his dorm, it would be nice just to be home without a thousand things to do… if it wasn't for the damn phone ringing for the thousandth time “Dude if you don't pick up that phone I will personally make sure that any future outfits you ever own are as cool as possible. sores off the face of the earth”
Yagi freezes at the very serious threat his blue eyes turning to the phone call he's been ignoring since he woke up
He knew exactly who he was and about what era
“He's going to kill me Dave I don't-…I can't” he takes a deep breath burying his face in his hands wanting to disappear and let the ground swallow him
“He can't kill you if I kill you first” Dave rolls his eyes at all this having gotten tired of the drama he just gets up quickly picking up a pillow thrown from the sofa and throwing it in the embarrassed blonde's face “Just stop being an idiot and talk soon to your dad, Tosh he's just worried and it's obvious."
Toshinori can't breathe for a few seconds, his friend leaves the room right after and he still can't move
Dad
He never had one, never had anyone who cared about him to the point of spending a whole day calling him from the other side of the world.
But as much as he wanted it to be true, Gran Torino wasn't his father... it was his Master and teacher
And he would kill him
“I swear, just give me a minute to explain” He lets it out as soon as he answers the phone and soon he can hear the huge growl on the other end, things seem to break and he closes his eyes feeling every furious crack of that voice that he no longer has. listened for a while
“BOY, WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU THINK FOR A MOMENT THAT GOING OUT WITH A RIDICULOUS NEW HAIR STYLE AND A BAD OUTFIT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA?!”
So he recognized him at last, Toshinori bites his lip cursing himself when he realizes he said it out loud
“BOY WHAT DO YOU MEAN?...Of course I recognized you myself and I bet everyone who ever laid eyes on you did too” The voice is muffled for a moment as if the person on the other end of the line has put the phone away for a moment. time
Yagi shudders with the scream and the set of curses in Japanese, surely his teacher could only be exaggerating, right? So far no one seems to have made the connection and he hoped it would stay that way.
“Gran Torino sir-” He barely has time to say anything before a sigh is heard on the other end of the line.
All Might was sure that if his teacher was here he would have already beaten him.
“TOSHINORI… what were you thinking, boy? I thought I sent you there to be subtle, subtlety you know what that means?”
All Might gets tired, he wasn't a kid anymore he knew what he was doing, he was a Pro hero alone for months
Toshinori needed Gran Torino to see this
"Has no one noticed, how would anyone connect the dots, it's just too improbable... from a quirkless boy who passed General Studies with a Hero who's making it big in America?" He barely breathes the words escaping him before he manages to stop himself.
It was just impossible, no one would think of it people would always choose what they wanted to see if they didn't want to see something if it wasn't exactly as perfect as they thought it was
So it didn't exist it was invisible
Yagi Toshinori has been invisible for a long time, he knows how he is and he knows even better that no one would think the hero of warm smiles and perfect quirks could be anything else.
Be someone like he
“What if you're wrong, boy? All for One is still out there sure this is a good idea, anyone who researches deep enough will know” It's a flimsy argument, Toshinori knows he's won before he even finishes his sentence
He also knows the risks knows that no one will look deep enough
But it's like he told Dave a long time ago...
"People are-"
.
.
.
“Dumb”
All Might blinks, not entirely sure he heard those words come from the lips of his heroic partner, his best American friend.
“Dave?” The blonde asks gently nudging the brunette who hasn't taken his face off the phone for hours
“You heard me Tosh, people are stupid, idiots, blind, seriously after this I give up I retire early, YOU WIN” Toshinori feels deeply confused as the smaller man with brown hair pulls out part of his own hair and starts to pick up the Yagi's homework doing it with enviable speed
“David?” He doesn't understand any of this.
He doesn't understand anything until he picks up the newspaper headline thrown haphazardly on top of the sofa.
The phrase in very large capital letters at the top of the newspaper
“ALL MIGHT MYSTERIOUS HERO STILL REMAINS WITH UNKNOWN IDENTITY, A LIST OF POSSIBLE INTENDED HEROES IS AVAILABLE BELOW”
Yagi Toshinori laughed
Yes... people could be so dumb