Here was the thing about Toshinori Yagi: He was literally one of the most genuinely good people you had met. You weren't sure how he did it all the time. He was always a gentlemen, always looking out for other people, always being good.

You could tell because that's how your quirk worked: Your quirk was a sort of empathy quirk. You could feel others' emotions and get a general sense of them. Further down the line as you matured, you learned that your quirk could also manipulate different emotions to an extent. While you had never wanted to be a Hero, your quirk did help you with helping the Pro Heroes with any therapy or helping them cope with any particularly horrific incidents. So after some training and obtaining a hero license, you had your own therapist gig going with some of the heroes in the city. You were honestly surprised at how many Heroes had jumped at the chance while you had worked with Recovery Girl for a short while. It had started out with just you helping your friends, but then turned into a whole operation.

Which takes you back to Toshinori Yagi.

Feeling people's emotions could sometimes backfire. You could usually tell if people were lying. There was something to be said when you could see people's faces and feel their emotions exuding the exact opposite when they lied.

And Toshinori Yagi, your boyfriend, lied to you a lot. It had taken a while for you to notice, though. Usually when he had to cancel on your plans, he had called you over the phone, promising another attempt at a date later. You had known he was a teacher at the infamous hero school as the go-between for All Might; meaning he was usually busy so it wasn't a problem. Usually. Until you noticed the lies when he'd make some impromptu excuse and dart off…

"Do you wanna cook dinner, or should I?" you asked, juggling the bags of groceries in your arms.

Toshinori held his own bags in his arms and walked beside you with a small smile. "You can, it always tastes better when you cook it."

"Mm hmm," you hum, side-eyeing him. "I think you just don't want to cook, Toshinori."

He chuckled and shook his head. "I'll set the table and do the clean-up. Promise." Thanks to your quirk, you could feel the general happiness practically radiate off the man as he walked beside you. You weren't going to lie, you loved it. And loved him, but neither of you had said it yet. You could feel it from him, and you knew what you felt, so you hadn't pushed the issue at all. Words were pretty useless to you anyway.

Later on, you were mostly through with cooking, only finishing up the last touches. Toshinori had started to help, but had gotten a phone call while he set the table. You felt his happiness slowly seep into apprehension before he told you he had to get back to the school for something quickly and that he'd be back.

He hadn't come back, and the plates had gotten cold with dinner before you gave up waiting. You had wrapped his plate and put it in the fridge. In the end, you had gone to bed, alone and a bit frustrated. When you had woken up, you were still alone but the kitchen was cleaned up and Toshinori was nowhere in the house. He did leave you a little note on the fridge in apology, and explaining classes were beginning earlier today so he would be gone before you woke. There was a little cheesy over exaggerated smile drawn hastily in the bottom corner that seemed to melt the aggravation away, replaced with a fondness for the humongous dork you called boyfriend.

However, the fondness soon reverted to aggravation when this happened at least four times a week. Every time you asked, Toshinori exclaimed that the kids were at it again, or he got caught up in traffic, or some other coincidental thing that happened to prevent him staying home or spending time with you.

You sighed as you put down your phone, having just gotten a quick text from him, saying he couldn't be by to pick you up on your way home.

"Figures," you mutter under your breath, twiddling the phone in your hand. At this point, you weren't even surprised.

"Let's go see a movie tonight!" you told Toshinori, excited over the new comedy romance flick that had come out. Normally men would scoff at films like that, but Toshinori had agreed with a smile. That was back in the early stages of your relationship. You had soon found out that he was a totally hopeless romantic at heart. Another fact that you had adored about him.

When the time came for the movie, you had been waiting outside the theater for about twenty minutes before you had given up and taken a cab home. Back to an empty house. Alone. He hadn't even texted that time or called.

Several instances like that, little in singularity but they added to a long and annoying list of occurrences.

While sitting at your desk, you could hear the distant rumbling of some villain attack a few blocks over. Suddenly, the foundation of your building began trembling from the aftershocks of an explosion. Shrieks from some of your coworkers could be heard as everything on your desk was knocked off. There were also plenty of screams from outside in the panic of people trying to run away from the danger.

"Everyone out, quickly! We'll be alright, just watch your step and get outside!" you shout, running outside your office. Panic and fear were nearly choking you, but it wasn't just yours. Thankfully, your building was only two stories, so everyone made it out quickly and safely, just one person falling on the way out over some kick-knacks that had fallen. You used your quirk to help her from becoming unresponsive in her panic, getting her outside without further incident.

"Are you alright?" a cop asked, running over to you. There were several others that were herding people away from the couple of buildings that had collapsed.

"Yes, please get them somewhere safe," you told the man before the ground shook once more. The building directly across the street collapsed after a small explosion, causing you and the cop to block your faces from the dust and debris that got sent flying. Stepping over some debris came a villain, laughing at the destruction.

"Run, go!" you tell the police officer. He hesitated only for a moment before taking the few others in your office away.

"Lookie, another Hero!" the villain clapped slowly. The villain was an older man, probably around his thirties or forties.

"What do you want?" you asked, trying to stall for time. He wasn't close enough for you to use your quirk on him to calm him down and subdue him. You really hoped he didn't have some crazy ass quirk that you had no hope for fighting against.

"Nice try, little Hero," the man grinned before running at you, small knives in his hands. He didn't seem to have any extra strengths from his quirk, neither speed nor strength, but he was still dangerous as he ran at you.

You make a mental note to thank the Pro Hero Gunhead for the lessons in self-defense over the years since he began seeing you. You made quick work of the villain, but before you could completely incapacitate him, another person grabbed you from behind and tossed you backwards.

Great, now there's two of them, you think. He must've had a duplication quirk of some kind.

Facing two enemies was a bit more difficult, especially since you hadn't had to truly fight someone in a long time. Sure, you were a Hero, but not at combat. You didn't go leaping into danger unless you absolutely had to, knowing there were far more capable heroes out there that could fight.

Both of them came at you, wielding a blade a piece, the first one having shared with the second. You spend most of your time dodging the knife attacks, only getting cut a few times minorly. Twisting and pivoting, you keep it up for about two minutes. Eventually, you trip the two into each other, pushing your quirk to completely overtake their emotions to put them in a trance-like state. Not quite unconscious but definitely unresponsive.

You were definitely sending Gunhead a gift basket full of goodies.

"NEVER FEAR FOR I AM…Here?" All Might's voice boomed and nearly echoed through the empty street as he leapt in and slid to where you were. His voice ended in a question when he saw you had taken the two villains down. You feel a strong rush of protectiveness and pride from the number one hero as he looked at you with his giant smile. "Well done! You've subdued the villain!"

"For now, but they'll wake up soon," you told him, feeling their muddied feelings through your quirk. "Is everyone else alright?"

"Everyone is safe and sound!" he proclaimed, giving you a big thumbs up. You feel a sudden rush of love from his emotions as he grins at you.

Love?

What?

Before you have time to think about it, the dull connection with the villain breaks as their bodies disintegrate into nothing, leaving clothes and a pile of ashes in their wake. It was while you took a step closer that you heard the beeping.

"Shit!" you gasp, turning on your heel and running towards All Might with a shout to run. Faster than you can register what happened, you realize you were in All Might's arms and flying through the air while smoke trailed behind the two of you.

"Are you alright?!" All Might asked sharply, setting you down and looking over you. Slightly shaky, you nod. Your breathing was quicker, and your stomach felt nauseous from flying so suddenly but you were alive and in one piece thanks to the hero. It wasn't until you tried to take a step back to get some air that you noticed one of your legs were burned from the calf down fairly bad, adrenaline and shock preventing you from feeling it.

All Might caught you before you fell, keeping you upright and steady as you found your balance on one good leg. You felt a sharp pang of regret and anguish from All Might as he kept one hand on your back. "I'm alright," you tell him. "It's just a burn." It could have been way worse if not for him, anyway. Fumbling in your pocket, you pull out your phone to see the last text message Toshinori had sent you.

Toshinori!

"Pick up, pick up! You better be alright," you mutter as you try to keep your balance on one leg. You feel a quick flash of surprise as All Might flinches slightly, but you didn't have time to worry about it. "Toshinori Yagi, I swear we are going to have words when I see you next," you grumble before trying one last time to call him. "Dammit."

"Don't worry," All Might smiled, although it didn't seem as bright as it was earlier. "No one was seriously hurt in the attacks. Just minor bruises and burns like yours."

You purse your lips. "I hope he's alright, he's supposed to be at the school. He's already going to panic when he sees my leg. Hey," you look up at him, squinting in the light. "Is there any way you can get me to Recovery Girl really fast? Maybe she can heal it and it won't look so bad, so he doesn't freak out."

A dull sadness shot through All Might's overall relief and emotions that still felt suspiciously like love. You weren't sure they were meant for you, so you tried to ignore his feelings. Maybe he was thinking about someone in his life… and you were keeping him from them even longer than necessary… Not to mention most people thought that your quirk was an invasion of privacy, even if sometimes you could just sense emotions without meaning too.

"Absolutely!" he agreed, smile a little brighter than before. "Hang on tight!"

Soon after, you were still being carried through the halls of U.A. despite telling the pro hero that you could walk perfectly fine, albeit not very fast. When All Might flung the door open to the nurse's office, Recovery Girl turned quickly in surprise, most likely expecting an emergency. Instead, you gave a pitiful wave to your old friend and pointed to your burned leg.

"What happened?" she asked you, shooing All Might out of the way of the bed he set you down carefully on.

"Explosion from a bomb," you tell her, wincing at the burnt skin. "It would've killed me had All Might not grabbed me. Thank you for that, by the way," you tell All Might with a smile. He still smiled at you, though somehow he seemed sad.

"We'll have to get rid of the dead skin first, then I should be able to heal you good as new. It was good you got to her so quickly," Recovery Girl told the number one hero.

"Not fast enough," All Might muttered under his breath so no could hear him.

Recovery Girl gave you another pat on the knee before leaving the room to get the necessary supplies and things she needed. "All Might, can I talk with you for a second? In the hall?"

"Oh, of course! It was nice to meet you," All Might said to you, before following Recovery Girl out into the hall. You smile as he sent you a little wave as he shut the door. Then you laughed outright when he opened the door again almost immediately after. "I am sorry about your leg!" Recovery Girl's hand shot out and pulled him away from the door before you could respond, so you got situated on the bed and waited for your friend to come back.

I have this posted on ao3 as well, but thought I should put this on here too in case anyone wanted to read it here.

Reviews are appreciated! ^_^