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Yagi Toshinori misses a certain curly green-haired student. It was never a secret that retired symbol of peace, All Might, and aspiring young heroics student, Midoriya Izuku or Deku, would sometimes eat lunch together at the teachers lounge. At first it was only to discuss One for All and the all that surrounds it, simply a discussion between a Predecessor and their Successor. But neither expected the lunches to grow from that, a simple lunch between a teacher and student to little bonding times between the two. From chatting about how to become a better hero to merely going on the day’s happenings.
The lunches continues as Izuku is in UA, sometimes it's even him that invites All Might to lunch, but no one ever said it would stop once the little green head would become pro.
When Izuku graduates and becomes pro, Yagi thinks that no curly green-haired student is going to have lunch with him anymore which makes the retired Hero kinda sad but also extremely proud to see what Midoriya has grown to become. He doesn't see the new young hero for a few months (he gets texts from him everyday though because what kind of succesor would he be if he just abandoned his emotionally adopted father hero predecessor)
Times are good but good times don't really stop the bad days, sometimes his injury acts up and it gets a little hard to go through the day with his usual cheerful smile. On these days, although he knows he has to, even lunch seems like a chore.
On a particularly bad pain day after a class of teaching heroics instead of going to the faculty room to get his bag that has his lunch and meds which he most definitely needs as of the moment, he goes straight to the teachers’ private lounge. He should get to the faculty room. He should eat his lunch. He should take his meds. All the things he should really be doing but won’t, because the pain is becoming a nightmare. Nightmarish pain means no cheerful All Might who greets his students and coworkers in the hallway. Yagi Toshinori not greeting people he passes by is not Yagi Toshinori. Which results to questions of “whats wrong”s and “are you okay”s to pop up. Question he’d like to avoid at the moment.
The only thing Yagi wants right now is the comfort of an empty teacher’s lounge where he can be in pain in peace. He’s in pain, he’s exhausted, and he’s close to collapsing. He’s knees give at the same moment that he slides open the door.
Except he never feels the cold hard floor. Instead, he’s caught by scarred strong arms.
“All Might, are you alright?” a familiar voice asks worriedly
He looks at him shocked and curious at why the certain curly green haired now pro-hero is here. Yagi straightens himself, his knees still feel weak but he can’t appear weak when his beloved student is right in front of him.
“Midoriya-shounen, what are you doing here?” Yagi dodges the question.
Instead of answering, Midoriya guides him to the couch making sure to support the All Might thoroughly. Midoriya isn’t a naive kid anymore so the dodged question didn’t go unnoticed but instead of pointing it out “I brought your bag from the faculty room, why don’t we have lunch together like old times?”
“You came here to have lunch? Aren’t you supposed to be busy with Hero work?”
“I came here because I wanted to have lunch with you, well it is busy but when I noticed my break lined with UA’s lunch time I thought why not drop by” Midoriya not meeting All Might’s eye scratches the back of his neck and admitted ”So I may have purposefully relocated my patrol near UA?” Midoriya awkwardly laughs.
Not saying a word just with one brow lifted up he looks at the current One for All successor
“WHAT?! I missed you okay, and…”
“And…?”
“I got a bit worried” the younger admits with his head down.
“Worry? About what? Did something happen?”
“You tell me” Midoriya says with his head down.
The blonde’s eyebrows merely scrunch in confusion.
Midoriya lets out a heavy sigh before he confesses. “It’s a bit irrational, but you never really responded to my last nights update this morning? I mean you did but only replied with a simple ‘good morning’ no emoji not even the usual bunny one you always add”
“You got worried over that??”
“Of course not, I mean it was weird but I thought maybe you were just busy and rushing or something, but then I noticed the weather getting colder this morning”
“The weather? whats the weather got to do with this”
Midoriya looked at Yagi like he forgot he was All might “Your Injury??” saying it as if it was an obvious answer.
Actually it was, every drastic seasonal change was a nightmare to Toshinori because it always caused to aggravate his injury, it was only at the start of the season and he’d adjust to it in quick time but it never stopped hurting like a bitch whenever he had to experience it. However, that information is something he has never admitted, so no one was supposed to know except of course Recovery Girl (obviously) and Nezu, the two people he can’t really hide anything from (they’ll know anyways even if he tried).
“You…How? Who told you?”
“Well… you.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Well not explicitly, but I see how you’d hold your side tighter around this time of year. How your smiles slip when you think no one’s looking but you put it back on when facing a student, how you won’t hold conversations for longer than necessary but will still greet each and everyone.”
“You…”
“Yeah, we noticed”
“Anyone who cares for you, All Might, can see it. And a lot of people care”
“I…” The former pro-hero just stares, a little dumbfounded at how well read he is now to his successor.
“I really didn’t want to say anything, but last year, I was still one of your student’s in UA so I can see you when you’re in pain and in need of anything and I can do something about it but now….”
“Look, it’s not that I think you can’t handle yourself but well you kinda just proved today how stubborn your ass is.” Yagi’s brow raises in a mix of “did you just call my ass—your own teacher— stubborn?” and “care to go in detail?”
“Oh please, we both know you that instead of getting your lunch and taking your meds you were just gonna silently pass out for God knows how long. I’d bet he or Recovery Girl doesn’t even know you’re in pain right now.”
“There was nothing to tell, it’s not like they can do much, she’d just tell me to rest and take a day off and I had to classess to teach so—“
“So they probably haven’t seen you all day, because you’ve been hiding to avoid getting scolded, right?”
“Now when did you get so sassy?”
“Since I graduated as a student of a stubborn man who lacks self- preservation”
“Hey! You of all people are not allowed to say that.” the blonde responds with wide eyes at the accusation.
“Yes I can, because I’m also Aizawa-sensei’s student so I get to call out bullshit when I see it, specially your bullshit AND for your information I haven’t broken a bone since I was in 2nd year and I haven’t had a major injury for the last 3 months since I became pro, which means I at least have more self-preservation than you.”
And Almight is again left in awe of how much his Midoriya-shounen has changed and grown. From the small nonstop mumbling fanboy to the pro-hero that he is today, how could he not beam with pride.
“Okay I give.” Hands raised in admittance of defeat. “You’re right I’m not at my best condition today, but you didn’t have to go all the way to UA to get me to eat. Guess your’re really no longer an All Might fanboy, huh”
“You’re wrong, I will always be your fanboy.” He says so feeling embarrassed at his admittance with a bit of red on his cheeks. “But I’m also your successor, your student, your s— the point is I care that my mentor is a hardheaded man who doesn’t know how to take care of himself and ask for help when he needs is so if I can meddle I will meddle” Midoriya argues while setting up the coffee table with their bentos. “And I wasn’t lying you know, when I saw that our breaks aligned I purposely did patrol around UA so I could have lunch with you, I really did miss just having lunch with my teacher… at some point I was glad your bad pain day gave me a reason to visit and check up on you.” He adds not really looking at his teacher who has this fond smile on his face.
Almight knows when’s been defeated (even with kindness) so with nothing else to add the former no.1 picks up his chopsticks. “I’ve missed this too, let’s eat and I promise to take my meds and get some rest if not for myself then for my boy so he doesn’t feel the need to meddle.”
“What he actually means to say is you should visit more often on your open schedules cause he gets lonely without his usual lunch buddy. I guess I’m not a very good replacement.” Neither of the two noticed that the door has opened to reveal a certain tired looking teacher in his all black hero uniform.
“Aizawa-sensei! Join us.” The former student exclaims with excitement.
“Good to see you uninjured, problem child” The underground hero comes in but goes straight to the freezer to fetch something before he sits down next the former no.1
“Now now Aizawa-kun, of course I love when you join me for lunch, I would never regard you as a replacement.” Yagi tries give excuses
“As long as you come home to me for dinner I don’t really mind who you have lunch with.” Aizawa responds with a smirk as he hands Yagi a cold compress that is receives gratefully and placed where his injury is located.
“Uhmm should I leave?” Midoriya butts in at his two former teachers flirting.
“Not at all, I’m grateful actually, that u caught him. Your stubborn mentor has been avoiding me the whole day even tried to derail me by sending some of his students my way so I couldn’t ambush him here before locks himself inside to pass out” Aizawa may be looking at his former student but every word was definitely for the older man beside him.
“I-I have no idea what you’re talking about, we should eat, the food looks good” Yagi deflects and starts to eat
As they eat, the newly graduate pro-hero tells his high school teachers the things he’s experienced — his missions, his patrols, and even how a particular street cat kept trying to come home with him during a stakeout. They talk about everything and anything from memories while Izuku was in high school, advice given to him for his missions, and even how easily well read Toshinori is to the other people in that room. They talk seeming endlessly but alas the lunch time ends and Deku has to go back.
“I wasn’t joking, you should visit sometimes whenever your schedule is free, you don’t even need to find reason to come. He-“
“We’d be happy to see you more often” Almight interjects his co-teacher. “don’t think I didn’t see that fond smile for your problem child, you missed him too” he adds as he faces Aizawa to which is answered with an eye roll and steps aside.
Yagi facing Izuku as he puts a hand on his shoulder.“You be careful always, Izuku-shounen. He’s right in that you don’t need to find an excuse to visit. No matter what happens nothing will ever change that you are my boy”
Something just never changes I guess. Yagi thinks as he sees Izuku get teary eyed. Still a crybaby
Deku blinks away the unshed tears and just as he turns and runs to leave he looks back to say. “I’ll visit more often, I’ve gotta make sure my stubborn mentor takes care of himself”