000

THERE'S SUNSHINE IN YOUR SMILE

All Might rescues a rather prickly Doctor with a dark past and finds his life taking a most unexpected change. For someone so small, there's a lot of personality there, and he can't help but be drawn to that, like a moth to a flame. Slash, Toshinori/Harry.

I think it's safe to say that BNHA has crowbarred me out of the KHR fandom. Probably for the best, it was... becoming unpleasant there tbh.

000

CHAPTER THREE

Harry would never complain about Toshinori kissing him, but that last kiss... it felt almost like a goodbye, or an apology wrapped into one. He was concerned. The only emotion he was picking up from the blond right now was a grim resolve, fearful anxiousness, and a kind of... quiet resignation. It made his palms sweaty and his grip tighten on the man's hand as he peered worriedly up at his face.

After returning their skates, they made their way back to Harry's flat, stopping just the once to order food from a street-vendor before going the rest of the way in silence. Hedwig was out hunting, and the flat was cold when they walked in due to her window being open. He probably didn't think Harry noticed, but given how nervous he had been making the Doctor, his anxiousness sky-rocketed when he saw the way the blond hesitated before removing his shoes. As if he planned to be leaving shortly, and was debating the merit of taking them off at all.

"Toshi, what's going on?" Harry asked quietly, his heart sinking. Had he found out? Was this... Was this the 'I don't want to see you anymore' conversation he had been told about?

The blond grimaced when he saw the look on Harry's face and shook his head, "I think... You'll need to sit down for this one," he suggested, taking the younger man's hands and pulling him towards the sofas. This was not helping his nerves in the slightest.

"Toshinori – " Harry began, but the blond shut him up with a swift kiss, squeezing both of his hands before pulling back and nudging him down to sit, kneeling in-front of him. "What's this about? Are you..." he trailed off, "Have I done something wrong?" he asked instead. Surely he must have, somehow. Things seemed to have been going so well, but like with all things in his life, when they start going well it usually meant he'd missed something, and he was about to get a punch in the head from Murphy himself. Wearing a gauntlet.

Blue eyes blinked and the blond jerked back a little, "What, shit, no! No, Harry I swear, you've – it isn't you, it's me," he explained.

Harry felt cold all of a sudden.

"I haven't... exactly been entirely honest with you. You know I'm a Pro-hero, yes?" he continued, oblivious to the clawed hand lodged in Harry's chest, slowly squeezing him from within.

"Yes," he breathed, somehow managing to keep his voice steady, distantly feeling Toshinori's hands stroking his knuckles as he stared down at their hands.

"I never told you who that was. And... You're the best thing that's happened to me in decades, Harry," he explained earnestly, reaching up and stroking the Doctor's cheek, "The best, and most amazing thing. I don't think I have the words to describe what you mean to me, how much I want you in my life. How much I trust you with my life. And, you deserve to know. Of all people, you're the one I would trust the most. I don't think I've ever felt this way about anyone before," he admitted cupping the Doctor's face with both hands, those lovely green eyes staring up at him in confused disbelief, something fragile and uncertain in his expression. Something vulnerable that made him want to bundle him up in his arms and never let go.

Affection, longing, that same grim determination and fearful anxiousness buzzed across his senses and Harry wanted to vibrate along with them as Toshinori got to his feet, letting his hands slip free.

He paused then, and grimaced, "Please don't scream," he begged.

Harry opened his mouth in sheer bewilderment to ask what he meant by that, only to throw himself backwards on the sofa when his body seemed to explode outwards. Wiry muscle ballooning out into almost cartoonish proportions before settling into -

All Might was stood in his living room.

Wearing the expression of a kicked puppy waiting to be told off and Harry could only just -

A laugh blurted from between his lips. He couldn't – he thought Toshi was breaking up with him, but instead he was – oh god, he was such an idiot. Harry laughed, and put his face in his hands, hunching over as he felt his eyes begin to prickle with sheer relief.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry – I'm not laughing at you, I just – oh," he giggled helplessly, feeling the sting of confusion and bemusement mixing with faint frustration and wariness coming from the blond. He wiped his eyes and smiled up at him, "I thought you were going to say we couldn't see each other anymore," he admitted.

All Might knelt down in front of him and gathered up his hands again, "What on earth gave you that idea?" he asked, and wow, it was subtle, but Harry could definitely hear a change in his voice. His body temperature was higher, his voice was deeper, even the skin of his palms felt a little rougher.

Harry smiled and shook his head, "I'm an idiot. That's why. This though... I could never have imagined, though it certainly explains a lot of things I never thought to ask," he admitted twisting a hand free and comparing the size of their palms with a snort of disbelief at how child-like he seemed by comparison. "This explains the burst damage to your lungs, and why conventional medicine never seemed to be able to heal it before it burst open again. Your Quirk causes a secondary level of gigantism, and the still healing tissues tear open when they expand," he muttered to himself (Ah, that answered his curiosity about whether or not his medical team had been sharing any information with him – they hadn't) before frowning up at him. "How is your chest? No shortness of breath, no rattling in your lungs?" he asked sharply frowning at him.

The Pro-hero huffed a crooked smile, even like this, even like this, he still asked. Still worried. He kissed him, crowding the Doctor back against his sofa as he practically lifted the smaller man into his lap to get closer as he wrapped his arms around the Hero's neck and arched into him.

000

Harry stared up at the ceiling, gently running his fingers through Toshi's hair as they listened to the TV, some baking programme about making perfect curry bread. After revealing his Hero identity, Toshi hadn't wasted any time in sticking his tongue as far down Harry's throat as he could manage, running his hands across every inch of his body, and generally getting the dark haired man more hot under the collar than either of them were ready for just yet. In one way, the Doctor could understand the sudden change in behaviour. Stepping into his more public and powerful form must have been a massive confidence boost, both mentally and sexually – it was hard to miss the sheer number of men and women that lusted loudly and publicly over All Might whenever he made a scheduled appearance (there had been a massive public backlash a few years back when a gang of teenage girls would show up and strip at every appearance, one of those girls was barely eleven).

He was much more timid and reserved when 'out of uniform', so to speak. He probably felt undesirable by comparison due to the general treatment he used to receive before Harry got him the help he needed, back when he looked like a famine victim that hadn't slept for thirty years. It was still a little jarring for Harry to suddenly be the one feeling out of his depth and going far too fast, practically drowning under the other man's emotions until he managed to grab the reigns of his own self-control and cool things off between them. He did not want the first time they had sex to be like this. He loved Toshinori long before he even knew about All Might, he wanted there to be absolutely no misunderstandings or doubts between them, nothing that would ever give the blond the creeping sour voice in the back of his head that said Harry only wanted him because of his alter-ego.

He should... be honest as well... about his past. It was only fair. And... It might help prevent any of those doubts in the future... It was only fair. Especially when Toshi had revealed his own secret identity, of his own volition (he would never know how much that meant to Harry, that he made the choice off his own back, that Harry hadn't had to find out himself. It meant more than he could describe).

Toshinori deserved that much too.

"I used to be a Vigilante," Harry blurted out, and immediately wanted to punch himself in the head. Smooth. Very – fucking damnit, learn to tact Potter!

"Pardon?" he heard the blond ask, and felt his body twist against him, turning so he was lying on his front, sprawled out on top of him, chin digging into Harry's sternum. He flushed in embarrassment because he'd really dropped himself in it now. There were ways of explaining things, but of course he had to completely go and fuck it up, ruining what should have been a good night.

He rubbed his face, and sighed, "I used to be a Vigilante," he repeated, staring up at the ceiling. "I didn't lie when I said I was recruited for Auror when I was a teenager. What I didn't say was that they didn't have a choice in the matter. Hogwarts is a registered Hero Academy, but the Headmaster... he ran a 'Hero Club' for 'exceptional' students. It was exclusive, you had to be invited. I ended up being pulled in almost as soon as I started school there at eleven. My parents had been members as well, back when they attended. So it wasn't like I had a choice.

"The problem was that 'Hero Club' was secretly an off-the-books training programme to create a private army for the Headmaster," he explained flatly, feeling Toshinori's hand creep into his own, tangling their fingers together, his thumb gently stroking the back of his hand as he stared up at the ceiling, unable to look down and see... he didn't even know what he would see, but his stomach turned sour with fear at the thought of it. "I don't know how much you're aware of how England handles its Pro-Heroes but... The Ministry is the only overarching Hero authority in the country. It has it's own divisions and departments that handle everything from marketing, research and development, front-line crime fighting, quirk registration, everything. And it was completely corrupt and infiltrated right through to the highest level by a villain organisation that called themselves the Death Eaters.

"The leader of the Death Eaters had been a favoured student of the Headmaster, hell, all the Death Eaters had attended Hogwarts back in the day. But those two had... a history. Enough of one that the Headmaster created his own vigilante organisation, the Order of the Phoenix, to tackle the issue of the Death Eaters that had already taken control of the Ministry. When I say they took control, I really do mean it. Minister Fudge was taking bi-monthly bribes for years from Lucius Malfoy before he was forced to step down amidst calls of No Confidence, his successor was outright murdered when he refused to bend, and the man after him was weak willed and Malfoy immediately mind-controlled him with his Quirk. God knows why he never bothered with Fudge, the man was as spineless as it got."

Harry sighed, rolling his head away from the ceiling to glare at the back of the sofa on his right, "It's all really complicated," he complained, "My parents were fully licensed Heroes, they fought the Death Eaters for years before retiring when my mother got pregnant with me. That's when the Death Eaters got wind of – an interview. Between the Headmaster and a prospective new teacher, a woman with Prophesy. She had a full on vision in the middle of her interview, saying that the one to defeat the Basilisk approaches, born as the seventh month dies, to Heroes who have thrice defied him... That was the only part they heard. The Death Eater that had been spying on them was caught and thrown out at that point, he missed the rest of the Prophesy, but there were really only two candidates for who it could be. Me or my godbrother, Neville. The Death Eaters had a spy in the Order, and they waited for whichever one of us presented a Quirk first. My bad luck. Even worse was when it came out as the same fucking one as the Headmaster. They attacked on Halloween, just after my first birthday. Mum and Dad were killed, and, my Quirk backlashed when the Basilisk used his. Blew the house up. Injured him so badly he had to go into hiding for the next ten years to recover. That's why he and his followers hated me so much, why I ended up being target number one despite having never heard of them until I was eleven and finding out that my parents weren't drunk drivers who got themselves killed on the motorway."

Toshinori's grip tightened, and Harry glanced down involuntarily. The blond's expression was complicated, but Harry could feel him, even though he tried hard not to, tried to focus entirely on his own emotions so he wouldn't... fall apart. Sympathy, pity, if he felt those then he wasn't sure what he would do. Probably either cry or rage. All he could feel was a strange sense of realisation, deep simmering righteous anger, a rising tide of protectiveness, and something else, a kind of need to... Toshinori leaned up and kissed him, answering what kind of emotion that was as Harry felt one of his hands slide through his hair to cradle the back of his head against the arm of the sofa. It was slow and sweet, cool lips, saliva, and the faint taste of the coffee they drank before getting to the out-door ice rink.

Toshi kissed his lips, his cheek, forehead, and the side of his head, nuzzling into his hair as he shifted himself on the sofa so he wouldn't be crushing Harry. "You don't have to tell me this if you don't want to, it must be painful," he murmured into his ear, brushing the tip of his nose against his scalp.

Harry's chest felt heavy, and thick with sadness all of a sudden.

"I have to," he said, turning to press his forehead against Toshi's, "Someone should know it the way I did. The way we did."

000

I killed a man when I was eleven.

I killed a boy when I was twelve.

I freed an escaped criminal about to be executed when I was thirteen.

I watched a classmate die when I was fourteen.

I turned against the Government when I was fifteen.

I was tortured, and tortured someone else, when I was fifteen.

I watched my mentor be betrayed and murdered by my teacher when I was sixteen.

I became a vigilante, a terrorist, a scapegoat, a threat, at seventeen.

I became a murderer at seventeen.

I became a Hero at eighteen.

I became a refugee seeking asylum at nineteen.

I became a Doctor at twenty four.

I met you at twenty eight.

000

"I'm still hunted," Harry admitted, his voice rough and croaking from talking, explaining the civil war that had been covered up to the rest of the world as little more than Villain Disturbances. Explaining that he had been manipulated since the age of eleven into being a child soldier, a vigilante, marching to the demands of a dictator chess-master moving pieces behind the scenes, believing himself above authority and all reproach save his own. "With my Quirk, I either had to work for the Ministry, trade my loyalty from Dumbledore to them, become their attack dog, or become their enemy. The next Basilisk. I chose neither and left. As far as I'm aware, they never took me off their Most Wanted list."

Toshinori shook his head, blood burning in his veins, "Why though? You fought their war, you left, you're no threat to them, why would they – it makes no sense," he growled furiously.

The former vigilante laughed shortly, pressing a kiss to the side of his head. "Because my Quirk is far too valuable for them to lose control of. Worse still to go to any country but their own."

Blue eyes snapped to green, narrowing intently. "You've been very cagey about your Quirk," he admitted.

"Like you're one to talk," Harry retorted with a smirk. Toshinori had to give him that one. He grimaced, prompting another laugh as Harry kissed his chin and wriggled out from under him. "Scooch over. It's been a while since I went onto a High-Burn, I'll probably set a few things on fire if I'm not careful," he explained as he took a few steps into the middle of the room, pulling his favourite knitted sweater off and tossing it to the side.

The temperature in the room ramped up immediately.

Harry had his eyes squeezed shut, his face screwed up with effort as heat began to pour off him. The air around him wavered with heat, tongues of flame rippling faintly up his arms and shoulders.

His hair slowly began to lighten. It was so subtle that it took a moment for Toshinori to realise that it was no longer short and black, but getting steadily longer, bleeding from a deep burnished ebony colour to burgundy, then dark wine red, the tips glimmering like hot embers, livid scarlet and gold, hanging down his back where it scorched and burnt his shirt to ash.

He breathed out slowly, embers fluttering from between his lips as he opened eyes the colour of molten gold.

"Ta'dah?" he offered, voice resonating through the room as he awkwardly lifted his arms in a clunky showman's pose.The ashes of his shirt flaking from his body to flutter onto the carpet.

Toshinori's mouth dropped open, "You're... You're the Phoenix," he blurted in recognition.He'd seen those wanted posters, a boy listed as seventeen but looked far closer to fifteen at the time. He remembered thinking it was such a crying shame that someone so young had been pulled down the path of darkness, even entertained the idea of a short trip to England to try and drag Phoenix back onto the straight and narrow. Looking back now, knowing Harry as he did now, he wondered how well that would have gone. If he would have completely unsuspectingly ensured the Doctor's enslavement or death, or found himself allying against the British Ministry. It was hard to tell. He had been young and full of vim back then, it would have really depended on how Harry or his people handled him.

Harry grimaced and nodded, "Yeah. The second one anyway. Dumbledore was the first," he explained, his voice lilting and just filling the room even though it reasonably couldn't in that particular way. It was so strange. Beautiful. Toshinori didn't think he'd ever heard anything so beautiful before in his life. But it was still strange.

He got to his feet and made his way over. Harry leaned back when he tried to reach out, "Careful. I'm a bit hot to the touch right now. I might burn you," he warned in concern, pupil-less golden eyes watching him carefully.

Between one breath and the next, he stepped forward and into All Might's skin, reaching out to gently gather up his beautiful red hair without hesitation. His skin stung with the heat but he couldn't stop himself from watching the way the dark red strands glimmered in his hands as he ran it through his fingers. How Harry's eyes glowed with inner light. How even his skin was more luminous now, as if there were a sun trapped beneath his flesh.

"Beautiful," he mused, and stole a kiss from those burning lips.

000

Revealing the truth to each other at once changed everything, and nothing, between them.

The next day they climbed out of bed, ate breakfast together, dressed for their respective jobs, and left the flat. Harry slipped his spare door key into the blond's hand as he kissed him goodbye at the train station, and the two parted ways. Toshinori saved people with a gleeful abandon and energy that even the media noticed enough to comment on, the only thing All Might had to say was that seeing couples in love was truly wonderful, was it not? Harry went to the hospital and served in two unexpected emergency surgeries before using his Quirk to provide the hospital with another litre of Healing tears, the very 'miracle panacea' that they had been using in Toshinori's reconstructive surgeries, and even his inhaler cartridges.

Texts were exchanged, dinner plans debated, All Might was needed to deal with a street riot in Hiroshima, Harry put his plate in the oven to stay warm and didn't wait up. He would wake up somewhen around two in the morning when the blond slipped into the bed behind him and cuddled up close, smelling faintly of stale alcohol and bodywash. Someone had thrown their drink over him in the fight.

Harry's pager going off woke them both up at half-past four, and the Doctor had to peel himself out from under the covers and into the shower before rushing back to the hospital for a severe emergency. A bus crash seeing twenty seven children coming home from a cross-country sporting event in various states of injury, five of whom were critical, one DOA.

Nothing changed between them.

But at the same time, Harry now laughed when he caught sight of All Might on TV being harassed by reporters, seemingly taking a degree of unholy amusement in it that confused his colleagues until he explained that his partner worked for All Might, so Harry had met him personally outside of his Hero work. It was funny watching him really ham it up now that he knew what he was really like – and then held that information over his colleagues with malicious glee when they all clamoured to know the truth, what All Might was really like. Not that Harry was ever going to tell them anything.

Toshinori would find himself having to bite his tongue when people flirted at him in his All Might form, fighting not to apologise and inform them he was already taken and quite happily so at that. He forced himself to play dumb, or flattered but embarrassed whenever he couldn't fake it, when in truth he wanted to shout from the heavens that he really didn't appreciate their behaviour. Actions that before had been only background noise, mildly ego stroking, or just distantly distasteful were now outright aggravating, if not revolting. He couldn't help but have to fight back a grimace with every vulgar display of interest people threw at him. It was almost as if he were surrounded by animals instead of men and women, many of whom he was sure were perfectly respectable and polite. It was impossible not to have that little voice in the back of his head snidely commenting on how Harry had never behaved like that, ever, even when confronted with All Might. How the Doctor had more dignity and grace in his little finger than many of these people had in their entire bodies.

The growing dissatisfaction of his adoring fans often drove him to spending every moment that he wasn't rushing off after criminals hiding in Harry's flat, even when the doctor wasn't there. He kept Hedwig company, puttered around cleaning up (Harry hated doing the dishes and was notorious for leaving it as long as possible), and even taking a moment to chat to the people laid out in his shrine. Names now finally having faces with Harry's explanation ringing in his ears as he introduced himself to the Doctor's parents, to Teddy, to Tonks and Remus, Sirius, Fred, Colin, Lavender, Moody, Cedric, and Dobby (the Malfoys' first son, born Quirkless, and then turned into the family slave), to the faces of all the children (god they were children, he stared down at the photograph feeling as though his heart were in a clawed vice, they were children) lost within the Battle of Hogwarts.

Harry caught him talking to them once. He had come home a little earlier than expected and Toshi had been so busy telling Teddy about the villain Harry took down during the huge city fire and how amazing he'd been, that he hadn't heard the Doctor come in. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the man sat down next to him and leaned against his arm without a word.

Christmas came and went, they spent it together in Harry's flat. It wasn't a big Holiday in Japan, and Harry was already morose and homesick remembering the Weasleys and the friends he had to leave behind to keep his freedom. Toshi held him in his lap when he made his customary call on the simple pay as you go cell he planned to throw away as soon as he was finished. Listened with a grin to all the voices that shouted greetings, the quick fire bursts of news, Hermione was pregnant, Luna discovered three new species of animal, Neville was now teaching at Hogwarts, Ron was being considered for head Auror – he was going to make it so Harry could come home, he swore. Molly cried as she told him she'd made him another sweater, but she didn't know his size so it was probably going to be too big again.

"That's fine. I can give it to Toshinori, he's huge," the Doctor said with a wobbly grin leaning his head back against the blond's chest and grinning up at him as voices exploded off the phone, all of them clamouring to know who this Toshinori was and whether he was good enough for their wayward clan member. And that was how Toshinori ended up being introduced to the only family Harry had left, listening to the threats with a grin, the teasing of Harry's first girlfriend, Ginny, conspiratorially telling him that the Doctor was very ticklish, especially on the feet. Ron explaining in detail how to deal with Harry post nightmare when he was in punch first question later mode. Hermione trying to get her words in edgewise about his emotional tells and how 'I'm fine' could mean anything from actually being fine to 'I lost a limb and am bleeding out just don't want you to worry' depending on his tone of voice and you had to know so you could respond quickly enough.

All the while, Toshi could feel Harry trying not to laugh against his chest.

He hung up not long later, and destroyed the phone immediately.

The two sat in the ringing silence afterwards, Harry slowly rubbing soft melted plastic from his fingers into the empty glass that held the warped, ruined remains of the now untracable phone.

"I knew they'd like you," the Doctor told him after a while, flicking the last bits of plastic into the glass.

The blond chuckled, pressing a kiss to his forehead, "I'm surprised they could even come to that decision. I don't think I even managed to say a full sentence," he teased, and felt Harry laugh a little.

"I love you. So that means they do too, because you make me happy," he declared firmly, and no, Toshi's heart did not skip a beat, no matter what the shit eating grin on his boyfriend's face had to say on the matter. He leaned down to kiss the aggravating younger man before he could say anything.

000

There was no particular occasion that marked their taking things a bit further in their relationship. No special day or anything. It was midway through the week between Christmas and New Years, they had both been in the shower when... Harry hugged him from behind, kissing his back, and asking if it was okay to touch him, even as his fingers lightly circled his bellybutton, making all the air on his arms and legs stand straight in anticipation.

It was unfair how easily Harry could turn him into a blushing mess, or just a mess in general, when not even hordes of screaming fans or even the most forward of suitors could prompt more than a discomforted grin. He supposed that was just part of being in a relationship.

(Harry had left a small cluster of bitemarks on his back, and... he doubted his clothing would get shredded in the course of his duties, but just in case, he wore the suit with the cape.)

New Years had been a bit of a strange one. Hedwig had not liked all the fireworks going off. And while Harry had the evening off, Toshinori hadn't. He ended up receiving a few pictures of Harry bundled up in bed, Hedwig peeking out from inside his shirt, and the caption 'Wish you were here', and 'missing you' to accompany them. When he came back early that morning, he found that Harry really had gone to sleep, sat upright, with the lovely lady Hedwig still bundled into his shirt, now looking much calmer that the fireworks had stopped. He helped free her, but instead of going anywhere she hopped onto the headboard, and fluffed herself up. She spent the entire time he changed glaring at the windows as if waiting for someone to try and come in. Toshi got the distinct impression she was now trying to protect her owner and had to stifle a little laughter. Like owner, like pet indeed.

Harry was cold as ice, and it took a while to rub even a cursory amount of warmth back into him, enough so that he no longer looked so much like a corpse, and was capable of even twisting in his sleep to burrow for warmth. A good sign that he was no longer in danger of hypothermia or something similar. That had happened once. Harry had fallen asleep while waiting up for him on the sofa, and physically turned blue by the time he came back from an incident in Musutafu. Toshi nearly had a heart attack when he saw that, and dunked Harry into the bathtub, cold water to avoid killing any cells, and slowly warmed him back up. After that incident, they two tried to be a lot better. Harry told him, in detail, about the danger zones of his quirk, and why it was dangerous for him – he had been forced to develop it faster than his body could keep up, so now it was too strong for him, and as he had physically stopped growing he couldn't catch up. That was why there were no Adult Learning programmes for Pro-Heroes. Quirk development was only safe when the body could develop along with it.

April saw a quiet vigil for Teddy on his Birthday. Harry refrained from his usual bad habits of picking fights that weekend, somehow. He didn't think Toshi would have appreciated it.

May though. Goddamn May. The Battle of Hogwarts.

He took those two weeks off, the one leading up, and the one coming down, but gods... When Toshi had to go out and save people, the silence of that flat, the roar of fire and screaming in his memories, how he couldn't even close his eyes without seeing Fred's slackened face staring up at him, dusted with stone fragments, his skull misshapen, one eye bulging just a little out of its socket as he smiled up at them unseeingly. At Lavender, her body physically rotting and oozing after she went head to head against Fenrir and his Disease Quirk to defend a group of fleeing eleven year olds, her softened flesh, paperthin skin, torn open by the syringes on his fingertips. Colin, blackened and withered, his tiny form twisted into a husk of blackened charcoal in the darkened corner of the Entrance Hall where he shielded a cleaning cupboard with a twelve year old girl inside from Crabbe Snr's Fiendfyre Quirk.

He went out. And he got drunk. And he got into a fight.

Fire in his blood, lightning up his spine, he just needed to... to move, to do something! To drown it out!

The look on Toshinori's face when he returned, bruised and bloody, just made him feel even lower. The emotions that accompanied it were worse, more still when in order to try and prevent All Might from going and ploughing into the bar he had been drinking out of he had to explain what he'd even been doing... The disappointment cut particularly deeply. Getting scolded for fighting, even without using his Quirk, like an errant school child put his back up and he tried, so hard to keep his temper but...

That was their first big fight.

They were both stubborn people, so when Toshinori refused to leave his flat, Harry left instead. The blond tried to follow him but, he was too angry, too hurt, too raw, to let him and broke his self-imposed rule of teleporting. He flamed out of the corridor, and into his office at the Hospital where he dragged his sleeping bag out from under the sofa, tended to his bloody knuckles and bruises in the tiny disabled toilets just down the corridor, and went to sleep on the couch.

It was cowardly of him, and not fair on Toshi, but Harry refused to go home for three days. The second of May passed with him sat on a park bench watching children playing at the climbing frames on the far side of the duck pond, watching animals continuing their day to day lives without incident or drama, ignorant to the lives that were lost eleven years ago that day. Eleven years. Teddy would have been in his First Year at Hogwarts today.

The hell was he even doing with himself?

Harry stayed on that bench well into the night, knees drawn up to his chest, watching the sun set, the stars rise. He watched a fox slip out of the city and drink from the pond before startling as some teenagers shouted and wooped, rushing into the playpark, and fled.

He watched the sun rise, and didn't even flinch when red boots slammed into the path next to him. He heard a shaky breath release, and a faint wash of warm displaced air a second before Toshinori swept him into a tight hug, kneeling on dew wet grass in order to bury his face into the side of Harry's neck.

He was too cold to feel any of the blond's emotions, and wasn't sure if he wanted to either as his skin burned with heat against his own.

"You're freezing cold," the blond moaned in worry as he drew back, cupping Harry's cheeks in order to look him in the eye. He probably looked an absolute fright. He hadn't slept well in his office, nightmares seized him easily, he had been prowling around the city since he left, and not slept either. He hadn't stopped to eat either, he drank from water-fountains but other than that, he had thought about going into one of the many various bars, but the remembrance of Toshinori's disappointment crawling across his skin always had him turning in the opposite direction, and biting his lip hard enough to bleed.

"I didn't want to – feel anyone else," he admitted quietly, his voice barely a whisper as he closed his eyes and gripped Toshi's arm even as he felt the blond lean forward and kiss his forehead. "Sorry I worried you."

"Yes you did," the Pro agreed sternly, pressing their foreheads together, "But I'm glad you're alright. There's been a lot of villain activity and I – I feared the worst when you wouldn't answer your phone," he admitted.

"I left it at home," Harry said flatly. He didn't need to say that he hadn't been back, Toshi knew it quite well. All of his senses were enhanced when he stepped into All Might's skin, not just his sight and hearing.

"Are you ready to talk to me, instead of running off like a child?" the blond asked, his voice just a little sharp indicating that he was still very upset with him. It was probably a good thing Harry was so cold, he didn't have the mental strength not to be pulled under or influenced by the other man's emotions right now, if Toshinori was angry, then Harry would just get angry right back at him, and things would fall apart even further.

He nodded slowly.

"Can you teleport?"

He shook his head, "Too cold." He carefully pushed away the large palms that tried to rub some warmth back into him with a short shake of his head, "Need to stay cold. I can't... I can't keep myself separate right now. I'll be influenced by any emotions near-by and echo them." He looked up at Toshinori and gently brushed the long strands of blond hair behind his ear with icy fingertips, "You're angry. I'll get angry too."

He nodded slowly, "I am angry," he agreed, "I'm also upset, terrified, hurt, frightened, disappointed, and so relieved that you're alright, for a given definition of the word." They both damn well knew he wasn't. While Toshinori had needed a lot of help with his physical health, Harry was the opposite and needed help with his mental health. The problem there being that because of the way he was brought up, he didn't understand that fact, he was fine. He was fine. Getting it through his head that he wasn't fine, and that it was okay, that he didn't have to handle it alone and he could ask for help and lean on Toshinori when he needed to was the hard part. Because Toshinori was a Pro-hero, and he was already responsible for so many people, Harry didn't want to add to his workload. Never mind that protecting and helping people was what he lived and breathed, that he wanted to help Harry in any way he could, support and protect him as the Doctor had done for him. Goddamn, Harry had given him back his life and his career. The time he could spend as All Might had been a scant seven hours before the Doctor barged into his life and ripped that restaurant table out from between them. Now he could remain in his Hero skin indefinitely, he no longer coughed blood, he was able to keep food down, he had put weight back on!

He scooped the dark haired man up and slid smoothly into All Might's skin before turning on heel and leaping to the nearest roof, feeling the doctor's icy fingers dig in and grip the spandex of his supersuit.

Slipping in through Hedwig's window, All Might deposited his precious cargo on his feet, watching solemnly as he padded quietly away to hang his coat up and take his shoes off. Crisp white bandages around his wrists and knuckles, a plaster on his cheek. He remembered how the man looked when he came home last time. His skin was too pale, his eyes far too bright, his lips scarlet with blood, his body far too thin even for his slender frame, his hair mussed and wild, sharp and broken edges designed to cut and rend, fire in his blood. He looked like a creature of wrath and ruin, and for all of a heartbeat, Toshinori mistook him for a villain.

Now though, he looked small. Small, and tired, and fractured. Those sharp edges no longer looked dangerous, but tragic.

He stepped forward, releasing One for All with a soft breath, and caught the Doctor as he came back, gently cradling the back of his head in one hand as he dipped forward and kissed him. Gently teasing open cold lips to kiss him deeply.

No matter how hurt or angry he was, he still loved him. And he wanted Harry to know that.

He scooped the young man up, gathering him up in his cape and took them both into the bedroom where Harry couldn't escape, bundling them both up in blankets.

They talked.

Harry was forgiven, but assured it wouldn't be forgotten. Toshinori promised to be back in the evenings more when he learned that someone sleeping next to him could prevent flashbacks or nightmares, his empathy would latch on when he warmed up in the course of a nightmare and his brain would put him back to sleep by feeding off the person next to him. Harry promised to talk to him instead of go out drinking. Toshinori told him it wasn't the drinking that bothered him, but the fighting, and made him change that promise to not going out looking for a fight. If he needed to work off a little steam, then ask. He was a Pro-Hero, enhanced strength or not, All Might could handle anything Harry threw at him, and to be honest, it would probably be a lot of fun to spar together.

They kissed. Hands skimming chilled skin peeling back clothing – Toshinori's All Might pager went off, summoning him back out.

He had been a hair from turning it off when Harry kissed him softly and told him to go, he would still be here when he came back. He would clean up a bit, and then call Hermione back in England. He had a burn phone left, and she would still be awake around now.

He left, and dealt with the incident as quickly as possible before rushing back home. The smell of burnt plastic was in the air, and Harry was damp and hot to the touch when Toshinori hugged him from behind, smelling faintly of bodywash as he mixed cake batter, the radio playing in the background.

By the time summer rolled around, Toshinori gave up any pretence of living in his old flat. He packed his belongings, found homes for it in Harry's flat, and turned his keys over to his landlord. It was a longer commute to Might Tower, but so worth it. Harry paid for a little renovation to make things easier for him, he no longer had to duck under the doors, the bath was made a bit bigger, the mirror was replaced with something a lot longer, just little things that made things less frustrating. They replaced Harry's small double bed with Toshi's queen, having to do a little furniture rearrangement in order to make it fit in the narrow room, they also replaced Harry's small TV with Toshinori's huge flatscreen and surround sound system. The two of them toasted to moving in together, and might have gotten a little drunk, falling into bed and each other with sloppy drunken glee. Harry was sore the next day, but Toshinori was the one suffering the most with a truly terrible hangover. He had forgotten that one of his medications wasn't to be mixed with alcohol, or at least, as much alcohol as he ended up drinking that night. He was a lightweight in all honesty, and had foolishly attempted to keep up with Harry in some kind of unspoken challenge. One he lost. Embarrassingly so, his boyfriend told him cheerfully as he gently massaged the worst of his headache away.

All Might's visit to the childrens' ward went down like house on fire, the children adored him, the parents loved him. And barely a week later both he and Harry had managed to schedule in a surprise visit, no media presence, specifically so All Might could meet the terminal children without them feeling as though they were anything akin to a publicity gimmick. It was heart breaking, and Toshi honestly couldn't understand how Harry could handle working with them knowing that some of them only barely had weeks left to live, some only had days, all of those amazing vivacious little lives just... waiting to be snuffed out, fighting to hang on just a little longer. It broke his heart.

The more public visit before hand saw a handful of reporters, and Might Tower's official PR manager accompanying him, was both rewarding and frustrating. Toshi was able to pass on a few words of encouragement to the next generation of little Heroes, brighten up a lot of children's days, he got to meet Harry's multiple teams of nurses, and a few of the long-term patients who were in and out. The only downside was that even though they had been so careful not to allow any hint of any relationship beyond professional respect to leak out, one of the reporters had run a gossipy column on 'All Might's Heartache' for the 'cold hearted doctor'. Harry ended up with a few hate-mail letters, and even a few people recognised him in the ER and told him off while he was working. Might Tower had to release an official statement naming Harry as the partner of All Might's personal secretary, and a good friend of the Hero in question, the comments made by the tabloid paper Ohaiyo Fuji are fictitious and inflammatory. Legal action will be pursued. The column was removed and an official apology made to Harry within a week.

Harry thought it was hilarious and had the entire thing cut out and framed, 'for posterity' he declared with a toothy grin that looked more than a little menacing. Recalling what he said about prior encounters with the press, Toshi made no comment, and just kissed him instead.

They both had their off days.

Days when Toshinori was seized with insecurities, when he was literally punched with the reminder of his last confrontation with Nighteye – and what he had been told. It was times when Harry was asleep before him, curled up with him on the sofa, or in bed in his arms as he watched the sunrise across his face, and wondered if he was being unspeakably cruel and selfish to do this. To create something like this, to live with Harry like this, knowing there was a timer. That his days were numbered. How many, he didn't know, but to know that there was going to be a sudden painful stop in the future. That he wouldn't be able to grow old with the – with – with the man he loved. And that he hadn't told him. Couldn't tell him. Guilt ate him alive when he thought about it, and he couldn't bare to look Harry in the eye, didn't feel worthy of even being in his presence. Those days would see him fleeing to Might Tower and working himself to a numb, empty exhaustion where he would stagger home, and fall asleep either with his face buried in his boyfriend's stomach, or into his empty bed, hugging his pillow to his chest until the real thing could slither in and take its place.

Days when Harry would come home after a bad surgery and just want to be left alone, days when something was said, or a memory prompted, and he was a hair short of starting a fight. When he felt pent up, and aggressive, and angry but with no means of dealing with it. Nights when he would wake up alone, cobwebs of nightmares and terrors still clinging to his mind as he staggered to the living room and stayed up until Toshinori came home and it was safe to even attempt sleeping again. Days when he just... couldn't. When getting out of bed felt like trying to climb a mountain, when everything was grey and dull, and sound was strangely muffled or far away. Those days were the worst for Toshi because he didn't know what to do. The aggressive ones were easy, they had gotten good at sneaking out of the city to practice their more destructive abilities far, far away from everyone else. Harry actually hit almost as hard as All Might when cutting loose completely. Of course, they didn't exactly see the end of those fights, they got a little too interested in making out about halfway through, and the only reason they didn't go all the way those times was the simple lack of lubricant. At seven feet tall, in proportion to himself, versus Harry's scant five foot and three inches, they had both agreed that there would be no sex without lubricant and a lot of preparation, for safety reasons.

For Harry's birthday in late July Toshinori may have gone a little all out in getting him gifts. He already donated half of his pay-cheque to the various charities that All Might patronaged, but that still left him with more money than he knew what to do with. What better way to spend it than on spoiling the most important person in his life?

He gave thought to taking Harry away to another country, and stealthily paying for his friends and family back in England to join them, but he didn't have any of their contact information, and had no way of getting hold of it without tipping Harry off. Plus, it might have over-stepped some kind of invisible boundary he didn't know about. Harry was very protective of his family.

Instead, he went for a mixture of things. He got Harry entirely new baking supplies, as he was something of a stress baker (something he shared with Molly, he admitted a little sheepishly as he presented Toshi with a warm blueberry muffin), a few new fiction books as he knew the young man had a particular weakness for fantasy adventure novels. His last gift he knew would be a bit... well, he was a little worried about that one. He'd had to go hunting through old internet articles, newspaper clipping in the library, and even through a few of the old Hero records to find the right pictures. As soon as Ron achieved his position as head of the Aurors, he planned to exonerate Harry and remove him from their wanted list. That meant, if he wanted, he could go back to Hero work. Officially now. So, Toshinori had... been a little proactive. He had hunted down old pictures of Harry's Hero Uniform, and quietly forwarded it to the head of his support team and swore him to secrecy, telling him it was for an old friend who got on the wrong side of a corrupt official and hopefully, within the next few months, would be cleared of all Charges and permitted to take up Hero work. As a congratulations, All Might wanted to present him with a new uniform, whether he went through with getting his licence again was his choice, but he wanted that choice to be there to begin with. Thankfully Satoshi was more than happy to do him this personal little favour, listening to the details of his quirk and how he used it in combat to modify and improve Harry's old uniform. He even gave it a bit more of a modern flare.

But for the night in question, he took the day off, cleaned the flat from top to bottom, bought flowers, fresh food, and had one of the girls from the Secretarial office help him cook a small romantic feast. She left him with strict instructions on times and dishing up, and he followed them to the letter.

Everything was laid out on the table, and the candles lit when Harry walked through the front door, just as Toshi was lighting the rest of the candles in the flat.

The look on Harry's face was well worth the effort, and embarrassment he knew he would suffer tomorrow from the girls. But he knew he would be well rewarded so. He could handle a little goodnatured teasing in exchange for a good evening, and a happy Harry.

The look on his face when he opened the box with his modified Hero uniform was hard to describe.

Toshinori rubbed the back of his neck, "When you said Ron was working on getting your criminal status revoked, I thought you might like the option of becoming a Pro-Hero legitimately. I dug up some old records and found your old outfit, and had it modified to fit your abilities a little better. It's entirely your choice, Harry, I just... wanted you to know that you had that choice, if you wanted it," he explained sheepishly.

He had learned a long time ago that choice was one of those things that Harry valued most.

Judging by the kiss he received, he had made the right one.

0000

And bam. Chapter finished. Bit of a struggle. And the part where Harry will have his name cleared was very much unexpected, I didn't even see that one coming, or Harry still being in contact with people back in England. I originally planned for a complete cut off, but apparently Harry was having none of it. XDDD;;;