Work Text:
It was a cool night in early autumn like any other. Toshinori had been cooped up inside his apartment for hours now, working on submitting grades for his students before the weekend was up. He could really use some exercise and fresh air. Deciding that he would be safe, he grabbed his jacket and slipped on his shoes, leaving his apartment behind with a quick click of a lock. As he walked, he took in the smells and sights of Musutafu at night. It was so peaceful, though crime was increasing again now that he had been forced to retire as the Symbol of Peace.
Shaking his head, he drove away the thoughts. He would contemplate the state of society later.
After a few blocks, he picked up the very slight sound of footsteps. At first, he thought they were his own, echoing off the brick walls around himself. But as he stopped and strained his ears, he realized the footsteps continued even after he stopped.
Don’t be silly, Toshi, it’s probably someone out taking a walk just like you are. Not everyone out and about is a criminal.
As his walk continued for another block, however, he realized the other set of steps was not only continuing but getting closer. He decided to duck into a brick alley to see if the person was truly following him, or if they just happened to be heading in the same direction he was.
This turned out to be a bad idea.
As he ducked into the alley, he realized that the person that had been following him was also hiding, back by a stack of crumpled cardboard boxes. The hairs on the back of Toshinori’s neck rose. By the smell, he was an Alpha. A powerful one.
Toshinori turned on his heel, but the Alpha must have had some sort of speed quirk because before he could make his escape, he found himself being pinned against the wall, wrists held in a firm grip against the bricks. The Alpha chuckled, the sound sending a chill up Toshinori’s spine.
“What have we here? A helpless Omega out on their own? What a bad idea. Don’t you know someone could have bad intentions against you?”
Toshinori grimaced, trying to fight against the Alpha, but his wrists were held too tightly. He could smell the arousal rolling off the other man in waves.
“Guess I’ll just have to teach you a lesson, won’t I?”
The Alpha reached for Toshinori’s pants, and Toshinori froze up. He heard the rasp of a zipper, felt the cold air against his lower half as they and his boxers were pulled down to his ankles. The disgusting Alpha buried his nose into his scent gland.
“God, you smell so good.”
Toshinori wriggled harder, coming back to himself, trying to bite, kick, claw his way out of the situation, but there was no way for him to break free. He was held fast against the wall, wrists bruising in the Alphan grip.
He closes his eyes and tries to think of being anywhere else as the Alpha slides inside of him.
The unpleasant pull and tug of a cock inside his dry walls becomes somewhat easy to ignore, but what he can’t ignore is the way his body instinctively starts to produce moisture to help the Alpha slide into him more easily, the minute, betraying sparks of pleasure his body sent out as he was debauched, fucked thoroughly against the brick.
He felt the Alpha nose at his bonding gland, and he began to try to fight again, forgetting his training which said it was just best to let it happen to minimize injury. Before he could do anything further, however, the Alpha was biting down on his gland. He went immobile, body truly going boneless as the Alpha kept his fangs in, pinning him there until he finished inside a few moments later.
The Alpha pulled free, and with a laugh he watched Toshinori crumple to the ground, bleeding and leaking cum.
“Let that be a lesson to you not to walk alone at night, Omega.”
Toshinori pulled into himself, curling into a ball of hurt and betrayal, unable to propel his body home. He tries not to think of the last time this had happened, tries not to remember how he was a homeless, quirkless Omega then, and that he was now as powerless now as he was then. It hurt too much to realize that he had been entirely at the mercy of an Alpha for the first time in over 40 years.
Eventually, he gathers himself, making his way home. He ignores the pain, ignores the stinging of his bond gland as he makes his way up the stairs, into his apartment and finally into a shower. Once he was clean, he collapsed into bed. His sleep was plagued with nightmares.
~~~
The next morning as he dresses, he secures a worn old leather collar around his neck, trying not to think of the irony of the bite hidden beneath it, the very thing the collar is meant to prevent. He feeds Texas, ignores the gnawing hunger in his own belly, and makes his way to UA.
By the time lunchtime rolled around, he decided that he could use a break from the collar. He had forgotten how irritating they could be, how much he sweated and itched under the damn thing. He headed down to the cafeteria, picked up his specially made lunch from Lunch Rush, and made his way quickly back to the staff room. Without thinking, he removes the collar, setting it aside to let his neck breathe while he ate.
He heard a soft growl behind and to the left of him.
Looking up, he sees his younger coworker, Aizawa Shouta, staring at him. Staring directly at the bruising wound, which he could feel had started to ooze again, blood seeping through the bandage taped over the mark. His cheeks blotched in embarrassment.
“What the hell happened to you?” Shouta asked, voice cold. Toshinori wasn’t stupid. Any Alpha worth their salt knew what a bond bite looked like.
“Hmm? Oh this? It’s nothing,” he said. He popped a bite of rice in his mouth, turning back to his lunch, trying and failing to ignore the continuing stare from his coworker. “It will fade soon, don’t worry about it.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.” Toshinori could sense the anger behind Shouta’s words still. “Did you get the examination?”
Toshinori sighed. Couldn’t Shouta see this wasn’t a big deal? This was just the price one paid for being an Omega in a world as cruel as theirs. And wasn’t that ironic? That the one Omega who had been the number one hero, the most prominent societal Omega who had changed the world and made it safer for Omegas to just be, could no longer protect himself from an Alpha’s advances?
He heard Shouta sigh behind him.
“Aren’t you scared you’ll end up…you know?”
Toshinori let out a short bark of laughter. Shouta was so unintentionally funny sometimes.
“You can say the word pregnant, Shouta. I don’t mind. And in case you forgot, I’m 57 years old. The only thing I need to worry about is infection and pain.”
“I can see from here how bad that wound looks, Yagi. I can’t even imagine the state of the rest of you. If you won’t go to the police, which you should, won’t you at least go to Recovery Girl?”
“Heh, what, you think this is the first time something bad like this has happened to me?”
“But—”
“I’m friends with a cop, Aizawa. I know that despite their best intentions, rape kits almost never catch anyone. I know you mean well, but I can take care of myself.”
With that, Toshi grabbed his lunch and his afternoon medicine and decided to head to a different, much more private room to finish his food. The last thing he needed was Shou—Aizawa—trying to guilt trip him into taking care of himself. He was 57 years old. He had this handled. The last thing he needed was to have a young buck of an Alpha fussing around him and treating him like spun glass.
As he ate in the private conference room, he finds himself regretting telling Aizawa about what happened to him. The only solution would be to keep his distance until the young Alpha treated him as before.
~~~
Shouta let out a frustrated breath through his nose. Couldn’t Toshi—Yagi—see that he needed to go to a doctor? To take care of himself better? He wasn’t the Symbol of Peace anymore, he didn’t have One for All anymore, which meant he was as vulnerable as any other Omega on the streets.
He opened his bento box, stared down at his cat shaped rice ball, and stabbed it viciously with a chopstick.
He could feel the rest of his coworkers making a calculated effort to look anywhere else.
~~~~
Toshinori goes out late at night a week later. This time, nothing happened. He decided to make these late night strolls a daily thing. One, he could use the fresh air. Two, something inside of himself said he deserved what had happened to him, that the universe was punishing him for rising above the status meant for an Omega. That he never should have been as high up in society as he was.
One more week passes until he hears footsteps and feels the skull-shattering pain of a baseball bat against the back of his skull.
~~~
Shouta jumped from one rooftop to another, trying to put Yagi out of his mind as he patrolled. The stubborn Omega kept coming back to his thoughts repeatedly, despite every effort he made to make the thoughts stop. He let out a huff of frustration. As he looped his capture weapon around the next lamppost, however, he picked up the scent of Omega in distress. He changed directions.
In the next alley over, in the pale moonlight, he sees a horrendous sight. His coworker Yagi, laying on the ground, brutalized and bleeding from his skull. He slid his eyes downward, regretting it instantly as he took in the puffy, bleeding pussy leaking copious Alpha cum. He moved his eyes back to the man’s face. He was still. Too still.
He walked over cautiously. His omega—the omega—nearly looked dead. His alphan instincts raged inside of him. Who could have done this?
His first aid training kicked in, and he carefully checked over Yagi to at least see if he had a pulse. Once he had verified the man was breathing, was mercifully alive, he bundled him into his arms to bring him to the nearest hospital. He ignored the way his heart ached, vacillating between rage and heartbreak, finally settling on vengeance when he dropped Yagi off at the emergency room and watched doctors swarm around the blond’s gurney.
He still had the scent of the rapist in his nose, and he called Tsukauchi as he tracked it through the night.
“Detective Tsukauchi, Musutafu Central PD.”
“I’m bringing you a rapist in less than an hour. Be ready.”
“Wait, Aizawa—”
Shouta hung up the phone, cutting the detective off. He didn’t have time to argue about this. Not when there was a criminal to catch.
And catch him he did. He found the man squatting in a block of abandoned apartment buildings. His mind went black.
It was only later, when he was dropping off the battered Alpha at the police department directly to Tsukauchi, that he came back to himself. He didn’t bother staying for any sort of questioning.
He managed to make it home to his pack before having a complete breakdown. Nemuri and Hizashi found him on the roof of their building, chain smoking despite having quit for Yagi’s health, shaking.
“Sho, what the hell happened, man?” Hizashi asked. Shouta looked up at him, eyes rimmed with red from crying. A moment later, he felt the embrace of both his packmates. He broke in their arms.
~~~~
Consciousness comes back slowly to Toshinori. The first thing he notices is the feeling of a bed, not his own, underneath him. The second, that his head and lower body are screaming at him. And finally, he heard the soft sound of a heart monitor beeping away next to him.
Ahh, the hospital. Wait, how did he get there again?
Cracking open his eyes very, very slowly, he feels his head pulse, feels like he’s going to be sick. Despite the light being low in the room, his head throbs. He moves his eyes infinitesimally slowly over to the side of the bed. He sees Tsukauchi, clearly having not slept, eaten or shaved, perched in a hard plastic chair next to the bed. His nose kicks in last of all, picking up the faded scent of Shouta.
~~~
Tsukauchi held his head as he waited next to the bed for his friend to wake up. Technically speaking, he should be working up a case for vigilantism and excessive use of violence against Shouta. It was clear that Shouta had gone on a journey of vengeance, not heroism, when he tracked down the Alpha rapist last night.
And yet, he couldn’t bring himself to do so. Not when he saw how Toshi looked in the hospital bed, battered, bruised, barely clinging to life. Not when he saw Shouta’s unwashed clothes, bruised knuckles, puffy eyes, and smelled the reek of smoke on him. Not when he knows far more than he wants to about how many stitches Toshi needed in his vagina because he was torn so badly.
Next to him, he finally hears the pained moan of Toshinori waking up. He meets Toshinori’s blue eyes, filled with confusion. It makes all the mixed-up emotions within him swoop and rise.
His voice shakes as he manages to ask, “How do you feel?”
Toshinori answered a moment later, voice broken and rough, likely from the clear strangulation marks around his neck.
“Like shit.”
“Is there anything I can do for you?” Tsukauchi asked. If Toshinori told him to burn Musutafu to the ground, he would do so.
“Some water would be nice.”
Tsukauchi takes one of Toshinori’s large, slender hands in his own. He doesn’t miss the way that Toshinori flinches despite Tsukauchi’s Beta status. He doesn’t miss the way that his eyes glaze over, either.
“Be right back,” he assured him.
He left the room and walked to the nurse’s station, where a male nurse looked up at him in question. He asked the man to bring some ice water to room 622.
After that task was done, he headed for the stairs.
He leapt up them, two and three at a time, until he reached the hospital roof. When he finally did, he sank down on the edge of the hospital roof and pulled out his pack of cigarettes. He had been so, so close to quitting, but fuck it. If there was any time he could use a smoke, it would be now. Shakily, he pulled out the pack, lit one, and inhaled. A tear rolled down his cheek as he did so.
As he glanced up through teary eyes, he noticed that Aizawa was there too. He nodded at him, once, as the two smoked in silence.
Tsukauchi knew Toshinori was used to being sexually abused. The man rarely hid anything from his friend, after all. He knew about All for One, about Toshinori’s deadly, desperate fight against him, about Sir Nighteye’s oncoming death prediction.
Compared to those things, Toshinori didn’t seem to view his past with much secrecy. While he never gave the crude details to Tsukauchi, the implication was clear enough. Toshinori had been a quirkless orphan in a lawless world, on top of being an Omega. Even an idiot could do the math.
But Aizawa, well, before then he didn’t know at all. Tsukauchi assumes, therefore, that the shock is worse for the underground hero. It would only be compounded by his Alpha status and his clear feelings for his friend.
~~~
After his second cigarette, lit off the butt of the first, Shouta finally feels up to speaking.
“Those are gonna kill you someday, you know,” he snarked lightly at Tsukauchi.
He noted the sidelong glance from the man. “Are you somehow immune to the effects of them?”
“Touché.”
Shouta cleared his throat a moment later. “Are you going to arrest me, officer?”
Tsukauchi let out a deep breath, coughed, and then caught his breath again. He lit another cigarette.
“No. You…yeah you broke the law, but I won’t be pressing charges. If it weren’t for you, Toshinori would have died in that alley.”
Shouta is surprised, but mostly he is relieved and grateful. He stomped out the second cigarette and walked over to Tsukauchi.
“How is he?”
“He says he’s fine. Which, as you know, means nothing.”
Shouta hummed. His thoughts moved to darker places. To blame.
He shouldn’t have been walking alone at nighttime.
Both men think it, this horrible thought. But no matter how ugly the thought is, there’s some truth behind it. Toshinori is the most famous Omega in the world. He’ll be targeted, and something like this—or worse—will happen again.
Cage the Omega in his instincts raged at him.
Shouta scoffed. After everything, was that really the solution? They were so powerless compared to what All Might could do.
Wasn’t it ironic, really, that Toshinori is the only Omega in the end who never got to feel safe, feel protected by the Symbol of Peace?
Despite the ugly turn his thoughts had taken, Shouta just wanted to protect Yagi. To be by his side for the rest of his life and protect him.
But he also knew that this solution would be just a mockery to someone like Yagi.
Offering a strong Alpha who loves him to solve his problems? Please. Yagi would be beyond insulted.
“How do you do it?” Shouta says after another moment.
“Do what?”
“Be his friend. Not smother him. Not…my inner Alpha is howling. Howling, Tsuka. It tells me I need to keep him safe, to protect him, to prevent anything bad from happening to him again. But he would hate me. Think I see him as weak. And I want to deny it, but…” Shouta pauses, thinks, bites his lip. “Isn’t he? He isn’t the Symbol of Peace anymore, he’s just a vulnerable Omega. He shouldn’t be—”
“I know.”
Shouta covers his face.
~~~
Toshinori, meanwhile, feels the pressure of tears behind his eyes. He refuses to cry.
The nurse comes and brings him some water, checks his vitals, asks about his pain levels. He lies, says it’s a two. He doesn’t deserve pain medication.
Toshi sent the nurse away as quickly as he could and sipped on his water. It felt good on his parched and raw throat. He tells himself he should get up and shower. He feels disgusting.
He pushed back the tray table, moved aside the blankets and sheet. He winced slightly at the pull of the IV in his arm.
He sat on the side of the bed, long enough to get his feet under him, and then stood.
He stumbles and almost falls immediately. But if he can’t walk on his own, well, what good is he to anyone?
He limped, dragging his IV cart beside him, to the in-suite shower. Thanks to the IV, he finds he can’t get his hospital gown off entirely. He considered just ripping the IV out before remembering the damn thing would beep and alert the nurses. Groaning in frustration, he flipped the gown off himself and onto the pole. Good enough.
He refused to look at himself as he started the shower water.
After he was showered and dressed, Toshinori heard footsteps and knew it was neither Tsukauchi nor Aizawa. No, he could smell this man. So familiar yet so foreign.
“Toshinori.”
“Mirai.”
Toshinori got back into bed, adjusted the blankets over himself, studiously ignored Nighteye as he took his seat by the bedside.
~~~
When Shouta and Tsukauchi returned from their smoke break, they heard voices. Both rushed in, in a panic over what could be going on.
Tsukauchi let out a sigh of relief, but Shouta could see the man’s complexion instantly turn uncomfortable. Shouta, on the other hand, barely suppressed his own growl. He may know Sir Nighteye, trust him in a professional capacity, but the man was and remained an Alpha. It took great self-control not to antagonize another Alpa so close to the Omega.
“What are you doing here?”
Well, he couldn’t suppress all his instincts, apparently. He recognized what sounded everything like intent to pounce in his voice.
Sir stands, looking at them both.
“I’m here to take Toshinori home.”
“What? No.” Shouta glanced over, saw it was Tsukauchi who reacted first. His voice is incredulous, betraying his usual calm character.
Shouta offers himself as an option.
“I can escort him back to UA. After all, I am his coworker.”
Shouta tried to stay neutral. He knew Toshinori and Nighteye had parted ways long ago, and that Toshinori is not in a comfortable relationship with him. He may not know what Nighteye did, but he sensed it was something bad.
Shouta glanced at Toshinori, who was watching their interactions silently, expression closed off.
~~~
Toshinori can feel it, the unbearable pressure and tension between the other men in the room. He closed his eyes. Somehow, the shower had made his head feel worse. Or perhaps it was the argument he could feel building between the three.
“I can take myself home, you know,” he said, voice dull but firm.
“Absolutely not!” Mirai protested. Tsukauchi gave him a look which told him to stop, but he bulldozed ahead. “You were raped and claimed, twice, in a short amount of time. It’s clear to me you can’t take care of yourself anymore.”
Toshinori feels his blood start a low simmer. Mirai had never known when to back off.
“I think it’s up to Toshinori to decide who takes him home,” Tsukauchi tried to argue sensibly.
Toshinori glanced briefly at Shouta. He could see the anger in his eyes, the disdain for Nighteye’s antics. Calmly, he pressed the nurse call button.
As the other three argued amongst themselves, the nurse appeared. The two Alphas and the Beta backed off, at least having the sense to behave in front of the staff here.
He requested the forms to sign himself out. He knew it would be AMA. He didn’t care.
He wanted his own bed and his own clothes and his nest, his cat and the multitude of locks keeping everyone out, even his so-called friends.
He doesn’t give a fuck about curfews or bodyguard offers. He is a grown man and can make his own decisions.
He dresses and leaves, leaving everyone behind.
~~~
It happens again a week later, the following and the rape attempt. But this time, Toshinori is prepared. He was waiting for it. It may have been more than 40 years since he had done this, but the pipe fit his hand like an old friend.
He was gasping for air, side heaving, but he was content when he looked down at his would-be rapist, bloody and twitching. He tossed away the metal pipe in his hand. He smiled.
“Are you going to perch up there all night, Aizawa-kun?” he said, with a tired yet satisfied tone to the shadow of the building above his head.
He knows the young alpha is conflicted, watching an Omega defend himself. It must be going against all his protective Alphan instincts to do so. But Toshinori knows Aizawa is trying to be respectful of him, despite his confusion. It’s almost endearing, really, that he cares this much for an Omega he’s not even attached to and that isn’t even part of his pack.
“Are you hurt?”
Toshinori chuckled at that. Of course, that would be the first thing Aizawa said to him after coming down.
“Ah! My hands are a bit sore. But I’m alright. Sorry about the mess.” He pauses. “It’s an ugly sight, isn’t it?”
~~~
Yagi was always the kindest, gentlest person Shouta had ever known, smelling of sweet citrus and bright sunshine.
Looking at Yagi now, he felt like a lost child.
He’s so used to this. Why?
This wasn’t hero work. This was violence. Survival. And Yagi—he seemed so used to this. As if “kill or be killed” was something which came naturally to him.
And it hurts to see him like this. It hurts so damn much to see someone so good and innocent having to turn to this.
This was the world before All Might. And Yagi was still living in that nightmare past.
Shouta felt his heart ache at the sight. He didn’t care that the rapist was beaten, not really. Awful to admit, but there the thought was, ugly and raw.
No, the thing he cared most about was seeing the goodness and light that made up Yagi transform into something ugly, prickly, animalistic. The man was clearly running on pure adrenaline, instinct, PTSD at all times.
“Why…” he paused, unsure what to say. “Toshinori, you can’t just hunt people.”
Shouta observed as Toshinori’s eyes darkened, and he let out a short bark of laughter.
“Can’t I? Does anyone really miss a potential rapist?”
Shouta shivered at the coldness in Toshinori’s voice. It was clear something in Toshinori had died that night. Or maybe come back to life.
Toshinori waved cheerfully to Shouta. “See you at school.”
He walked off, whistling, dragging his pipe against the walls of the buildings.
~~~
Despite everyone else’s misgivings, Toshinori felt alive, vital, vibrant and needed for the first time in ages.
Aizawa-kun had always told him to be himself. To be Yagi Toshinori, not All Might.
It had been so long since he had just been himself. Before All Might, before the pillar of society, the Symbol of Peace.
Yagi Toshinori.
He felt like a young boy again. He used to do this a lot. He defended himself, sure, but most of the time he sought out Omegas, children, anyone in danger. And oh, it happened a lot in those days—on almost every corner of the street, really! He sought out and beat the assholes attacking, raping, and mugging those people to a pulp.
Of course, being quirkless and all, he didn’t win every time. He suffered the price of defeat. But he couldn’t stop. His dream was to be a hero, and that was the hero he could manage to be at the time.
It’s not like his hero license was nullified or anything. He wasn’t All Might, but he still had the right to fight villains.
At least that’s different from back then.
~~~
Shouta watched helplessly as Toshinori walked away from him, realizing there was nothing he could do. Despite his helplessness, however, he couldn’t stop himself from following Toshinori and seeing what he did. Yes, he is aware the older Omega can track him easily. He doesn’t care.
And though he does witness a few more beatdowns that night, he also sees that the goodness is still inside Toshinori somewhere. He watches him comfort rape victims. Escort Omegas home. Buy bags upon bags of food for the homeless.
If only he could convince Toshi to extend that kindness to himself.
~~~
“You need to stop.”
One day, Toshinori finds himself in an empty room, cornered and sternly being asked to just stop.
Toshinori nursed his bandaged hand and looked coldly down at the Alpha.
“It’s not hindering my teaching. Why should I?”
“Because you’re hurting yourself!”
Aizawa gestured at his bandaged hand, the bruises from his scuffles. It’s nothing serious, really, just something inevitable in the process of beating someone up. He would have intervened if it was more than that.
Toshinori looked at Aizawa, sensing that the Alpha somehow knew that this was Toshinori’s own way of hurting himself, of committing self-harm. Small scratches and bruises really, but still that was what it was.
~~~
Shouta tries to calm himself, but now that he has set the worries free, he can’t stop himself.
“Yagi. Toshinori. Please. You’re going to kill yourself.”
“I wouldn’t be the first hero to die in the line of duty. I won’t be the last.”
“But—”
“It’s fine, Shouta,” Toshinori said, meeting his eyes. “Don’t worry about me. I’m not worth it.”
Shouta couldn’t believe his ears, and Toshinori strode away, he had had enough. He wasn’t as fast as the blond, but he had a capture weapon that could get him there.
He catches the man in his binding cloth. Surprisingly, Toshinori lets him.
Shouta lets his feelings and the tears flow. “I can’t let you keep doing this. I can’t live without you.”
“…you’re not even my Alpha,” Toshinori said, sagging against the wall in the coils of the capture weapon.
Aizawa gritted his teeth, because the man was right. He’s not his Alpha.
“…I’ll be alright.”
“Bullshit. You won’t last the week without me watching over you.”
Shouta’s patrols were now dedicated to following around Toshinori, making sure the criminals’ and villains’ quirks weren’t too strong, using Eraser to even the grounds for the Omega.
Toshinori smiled at that.
“I’ve survived years without you, or a quirk, and I was a child.”
It almost physically ached for him to hear that. Shouta couldn’t imagine what kind of living hell Toshinori had had to survive in. But he couldn’t let Toshinori walk into that hell again just because he thought he deserved it somehow.
“Please.”
It was so unlike Aizawa Shouta to beg.
“Don’t just survive. Live with me.”
“You’re not—”
“I’ll be your anything.”
And he meant it.
“Your Alpha, your friend, anything. If you would decide to live. Here, in this world, with me.”
“…Why?”
Toshinori’s voice was timid, soft, and weak when he asked.
Gentle and kind, just like how Shouta was used to.
Shouta knew what that question meant: Why love someone like him? An old, broken Omega who pretended to be fine all the time, but in truth was so fucked up in the head? Why take on the responsibility of sharing that baggage?
Shouta’s hands trembled as he held the capture weapon secure, as if Toshinori would slip away the second he loosened it. He knew it was wrong. Could traumatize the Omega more. Make him feel on edge. But he walked forward that tiny distance, and he gently cupped Toshinori’s cheek.
“Because the world needs you. I need you. And you don’t deserve to hurt anymore.”
~~~
Toshinori felt those words hit him like a bolt of lightning. Could it be that after all these years on edge, he could finally lay his burden down?
“Just please,” Shouta said, and Toshinori could hear the strain in it, “I can’t watch you slowly kill yourself anymore.”
Toshinori felt the tears well in his eyes, and they fall on Shouta’s hands which are still cupping his face.
“But I’m not. I’m not. I…”
He closes his eyes, and he crumples.
He feels Shouta’s hands move to catch him in his arms. The Omega sobbed silently against the younger man; his face buried in his shoulder.
“It’s not—me—”
“Shh, Toshinori.”
“Shouta, I…I can’t be your anything.”
~~~
Shouta’s heart plummeted into the pit of his stomach. But he still held the man. Steadying him, letting out soothing croons and carefully rubbing his back.
“…I don’t have much time left in me,” he heard from the circle of his arms.
“What do you mean?” Shouta asked gently as he could, keeping up the soothing touches.
“Remember how I told you all about my injury? All for One, all of that. Nighteye, he—he saw my death. It’s coming any time now.”
Shouta felt a surge of protective instinct fill him. He stepped back a half step, took Toshinori’s gaunt, haunted face in his grasp.
“Fuck him.”
“But—”
“No. You twisted fate once, you can do it again. You can live. But you won’t if you keep doing this. I don’t…I don’t care what you want to be to me. I just know that I need you. To share tea with you. To grade next to you. To make sure you eat and sleep.”
Shouta hears Toshinori let out a half-choked laugh.
“You’ve been watching too many romance movies. That sounded an awful lot like some strange proposal.”
Shouta blushed despite himself. “Would that really be so bad?”
Toshinori smiled at him, softer this time. And it nearly broke the pieces of his heart that were left.
“You say that now. But you’ll take it back. You’ll regret it. Even if…even if I defy the prophecy. With my health we would have five, ten years at the most.”
“Then give me those ten years.”
“I will…” Toshinori said, and Shouta noted the tears of happiness rolling down his face. His voice wavered, he is overwhelmed, but he can’t let go, not now. “…if you kiss me.”
Shouta kissed him. It was soft yet fervent, desperate. As if it was the last kiss of his life. The Alpha realizes he is crying too. Toshinori gasped and whimpered, his citrus scent strong, and Shouta felt dizzy. Toshinori’s lips were warm, dry, and soft. Alive. So alive.
Their kisses only ceased when Toshinori’s legs gave out from under him, and Shouta helped ease him to the ground, so he didn’t fall.
Toshinori took Shouta in his arms. He nuzzled against him, words not doing what touch and closeness could.
Shouta let him. They would stay here as long as they both needed.
~~~
After neither knew how long, Toshinori agreed to be led home. Not escorted, but walking as equal partners in a world which wasn’t nearly as sour as the one he had grown up in. He was grateful that Shouta had helped him see it.
~~~
As Toshinori turned to Shouta at his door, he smiled softly. That smile that Shouta would burn the world for.
“See you tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
Shouta watched Toshinori head inside, heard him greet his cat, start the kettle. He listened a little longer before vaulting into the night. No matter what challenges came next, he knew they would face them. Together.