Shouta fell in love while sitting in his dark apartment where he was expecting exactly no one.
He was quick to get attached, as Hizashi and Nemuri were happy to point out with twenty-one children as evidence, but slow to admit the fact.
He was bleeding when he admitted his love (to himself), though not profusely. He was also quietly cursing as he tried to wrap a long bandage around his ribs.
Shouta started slightly as long fingers took the bandage from his hands and slid over his skin with delicate but firm movements. He met green eyes in the bathroom mirror and tried to figure out when he'd gotten so comfortable in Harry's presence as to not notice him approach or flinch at his sudden touch.
Shouta figured it was probably around the time he'd given the other man permission to use Shouta's apartment as a landing spot for apparition. When Shouta had made the offer, Harry had looked up with wide, startled eyes that understood exactly what he'd been given.
This apartment might not be Shouta's home, exactly, not with all the time and happiness the UA dorm had accrued over the years, but it was his. And it was safe. Being allowed to pop into the apartment at Harry's own will was weightier then being given a key, but also more valuable to a hero who'd been living out of hotels or a studio rental.
Also to a hero that had shared that in emergencies he didn't so much consciously teleport as pop back to the nearest sense of safety, which never included hotels for various obvious reasons.
Harry's hug that night had made the offer more than worth it, even if that hug had been particularly sharp and had lasted for a rather long time.
Though, honestly, the number of times that Harry had almost said 'apparate' in that conversation was it's own reward, particularly when paired with the I-am-not-panicking-beacuse-I-am-a- trained-professional-face as he very deliberately didn't lie about magic.
Shouta might have been more annoyed at Harry not picking up on the many insinuations that Shouta knew about magic (as an underground hero he'd seen some things), except Harry's shit explanations for disguising said magic as an energy manipulation quirk were hilarious. Shouta was keeping a ranked list of terrible excuses to hold over the man when he finally spilled (or, as seemed much more likely, messed up the whole secret thing in a truly spectacular and probably very vibrant fashion).
Regardless, Shouta normally sensed when Harry arrived, even if he didn't hear the pop of apparition. Shouta hadn't felt anything tonight, but decided not to worry about it too much as he leaned back into Harry's hold and let the other man wrap his injuries with magic and material.
"No Recovery Girl for this one?" Harry whispered into Shouta's ear.
Shouta hummed, shivering again as salted oceans lapped at his skin and Harry's magic began to dissipate. He didn't reply until Harry tugged at Shouta's hair, lightly, before finishing up the bandaging and placing the first aid box back under the counter.
"No. It's not that bad. And I wasn't supposed to be working."
Harry blinked in acknowledgement, quite aware that Shouta had been supposedly benched after taking a tumble off a roof last week. Shouta had saved the idiot civilian taking idiot pictures, but Recovery Girl hadn't been pleased with his concussion (nor had Ashido and Kirishima; they'd looked so sad).
Harry guided Shouta to sit on the closed toilet so Harry could more easily reach his hair. With gentle hands he untangled the mess strand by strand.
He'd almost finished when Shouta caved, a slow brush of a calloused thumb over the scar under Shouta's eye the finishing blow. Shouta leant forward, forcing Harry to stop as Shouta pressed his forehead to Harry's stomach.
"It was bad. They needed hands. Mostly clean-up. Child trafficking." He had more he could say, more words he could spill into the cotton of Harry's shirt. An explanation, perhaps, of how Shouta just needed a little more time before he could handle going back to the school, before he could stop seeing his students, his kids, in the faces of the dead, carelessly tossed aside.
He didn't though. He didn't say anything more because he didn't need to.
Harry gently, with staggeringly soft motions, grasped Shouta's wrist and led him to the bed. In short order, Shouta was tucked under the covers with his face once again pressed into Harry's stomach as Harry sat with his back against the wall and continued to brush scarred, light fingers through Shouta's hair.
Harry talked, slipping into his endless stories about fantastic adventures and magnificent beasts that Shouta generally tried to listen very closely to, since he was certain they were, at the very least, laced with truth.
Shouta didn't listen this time, slipping right into sleep with a smooth voice wrapping his bones in something that felt like safety.
(Shouta woke four separate times to the rivers of that voice, screams caught in his throat and the lack of shame or embarrassment an aching, relieving absence in his chest.)
Harry walked down the hall towards Nezu's office trying to draft a mirror call in head. This was not the kind of thing he did, to Ron's great amusement and Draco's great frustration.
Harry was much better at actual plans than he used to be, and not nearly as inclined to fly by the seat of his pants now that he had training and people who depended on and would miss him (also people who would lecture him for literal hours), but that didn't really mean he was less impulsive.
Calls to Mione and Ron, in particular, were not something he planned. They were things that happened when random thoughts appeared in his head, when a spell blew up in his face and he needed Hermione to tell hime why, or when a trainee did something phenomenally stupid and he wanted to make Ron laugh.
Even bad news didn't delay him or make him write scripts in his mind; the sooner he called them, the sooner they could help him out of whatever mess he'd landed in that particular day.
He'd never had to tell them he didn't want to come back, though.
Harry loved his friends, his family. He loved the Agency they'd built. He loved helping people on his terms and with his abilities.
He loved Shouta, too. He loved Shouta with his quiet support and Eri with her reaching hands. He loved Yagi with his cheerful gestures and Nezu with his gleeful chaos. He loved his baby interns with their cool competency and Shouta's students with their energetic heroism.
He loved not being expected by anyone to just fix things by merit of being Harry Potter. He loved teaching both the special seminars at existing agencies and the baby heroes at UA. He loved being more than just a hero to more than his friends.
His original contracts were almost up and Harry didn't want to leave. He also didn't know how to stay. If that was even allowed.
With a sigh, Harry straightened his posture. He had two weeks left till the end of the UA semester. Two more weeks to enjoy his classes and plan the extra credit Exam from Hell with Nezu.
He knocked on Nezu's door three times in quick succession, the metal ringing clear. "Come in!"
Harry stepped forward, more than ready to launch into why he thought they should go with glitter bombs over flashbangs, when he registered who was sitting opposite the Principal, calmly drinking tea.
"Draco? What are you doing here? Did I miss a meeting?" Harry asked.
Draco set down his tea cup down with a click. "Do you really think I'd travel halfway across the world because you missed a meeting?"
Harry tilted his head, but accepted his own teacup from a positively manic Nezu. "Yes, absolutely."
Draco considered. "Fair enough."
Harry sat down, turning to include the Principal but facing Draco as the more active threat. "So.
You're here. Why?"
Draco pulled out a pile of paperwork from his briefcase and placed in on the table in front of Harry, leaning forward slightly. "I'm here to solve all your problems, Scarhead, as usual. Do keep up."
Harry exited the office and let out a deep breath. "Merlin, Potter, it's not that big of a deal."
Harry stared flatly at Draco. "Draco, it's literally a significant change in profession, location, and support."
Draco waved a hand, signet ring sparking in the fluorescent light. "You'll still be a hero. Just a hero that teaches more than most. Which has always been true, in some way or another."
"I would be upending my entire life to move across the ocean and away from almost my entire family."
"That's what magic is for, Harry. And you've been hit in the head one too many times if you don't think every single member of that family isn't going to be following you here for extended visits. It was my plan and I still had to fight Weasley for the right to come and present it."
The last was just slightly bitter, which Harry hummed at before linking their arms to pull his friend and cousin down the hall.
"It's a good plan."
Draco snorted in a way he definitely wouldn't have before being corrupted by the rest of them. "Of course it is. And I already have a schedule for staffing the satellite office; don't say yes to anyone who asks you. You get no input. Luna and Neville are first because Luna hasn't pissed me off this week and Neville actually has contacts for weird but useful plants."
"Of course."
Draco used their linked arms to force Harry to a stop. "So what's the problem? It's a good plan, like all of my plans, but you're being unusually hesitant." His hand flexed to keep Harry in place when he would have let go and fled down the hall.
Harry sighed. "I need to talk to Shouta first. I know, I know we're good, but we've never talked timelines. Not once. And I don't want to force myself onto him or his life."
Draco stared at him, the small scar that pulled across his eyebrow flexing in that way it did when he thought someone was being particularly obtuse. He opened his mouth, but closed it with a click when someone coughed in a very unsubtle manner from a handful of paces away.
"Merlin!" Draco jumped slightly, but not enough to actually let go of Harry. "Oh, good work Hagakure. That's the closest you've gotten yet!"
"Thanks Harry-sensei." Her voice sounded oddly flat, but Harry didn't have time to ask since the rest of her class came pouring around the corner, Shouta stuck in the middle and trying to direct the chaos. They were all still in their hero gear, so had clearly just come from a heroics class.
One that Eri had been watching, if her position by Yagi was saying anything. She and Harry waved at each other, right before she threw herself across the hallway. Draco released Harry's arm and stepped back.
"Introduce me to the masses, Potter."
"Huh?" Harry looked up from the little girl now attached to his waist. "Oh, sure. Everyone, this is Malfoy Draco. He's, well, he's not my second in command, that's Hermione, but he handles all of the information networks we use with terrifying efficiency."
"Merlin, Potter, way to miss the part that would save me from being eviscerated."
"What? Don't be mean to my students."
Draco gave Harry a Look. "Tell them not to eat me and I'll think about it."
"Calm down." Shouta spoke with an amused tone, putting his hand on a slightly sparky Midoriya's shoulder.
"Thank you, Aizawa. At least your intelligence is better than your taste." Draco scowled at Harry's bafflement before turning and narrowing in on a bristling Hitoshi who'd been staring at the arm that had been locked with Harry's. "I'm this idiot's cousin."
Shouta smirked. "I recognize you from the pictures. This is the Hell Class."
There seemed to be a collective "ohhhhh," and a rapid shifting of body language. "Wait, did you just admit to being family? Out loud and in front of witnesses? Draco!" Draco dodged Harry's octopus arms with an ease born of significant practice.
"Welcome to UA! Are you here for a particular reason?" Draco blinked at the sunshine smile Midoriya threw his way, distracted long enough by the hidden bite that Harry was able to latch on to Draco's shoulders.
"Yes." He shoved Harry off him hard enough that Harry stumbled. "A reason Harry would be happy to explain."
"Wait, what?" Harry whipped his head back to Draco. "No! I'm not ready. Draco!"
Shouta blinked and the rest of the class shifted. Harry noted with absent pride that they shifted to block his exits, the little baby monsters.
"Oh doesn't this look exciting!" There were several exclamations and swears as Nezu popped up from behind a resigned looking Midoriya, the Principal's red tie standing out as he smoothly stepped forward. "Don't mind me. Just a few Agency Establishment forms that our guest forgot in my office."
Draco accepted the forms with a stiff expression, since he was a complicit little bastard but was also deeply affronted by the idea that he forgotten any type of paperwork, ever.
Then Nezu walked back to Midoriya and climbed onto his shoulders instead of leaving, because Nezu was a devious little bastard who had also never forgotten paperwork, ever, except when it suited him.
They were both fully deserving of Harry's glare, the voyeuristic little shits.
"Agency Establishment forms?" Shouta asked, because he was smart and clever and merciless.
Harry sighed, running his hand through his hair and tugging on the ends. "Yes." He gave another tug, then turned to face Shouta and ignore the entire audience he hadn't planned on existing. "Right. Okay."
Shouta raised an eyebrow, and Harry caved like he always did to that face.
"Draco proposed a Marauders Satellite Agency here in Japan, with the purpose of continued information exchange, primarily with Marauder-style teamwork practices on our end. We'd staff it will a couple of people from back in England and look at hiring some young heroes we could train to our standards, which would include patrols and other regular agency things.
"Nezu's helping legally and socially in exchange for one staff allocation for two classes per year at UA. And, well, that person doesn't have to be me, I'm not, I wouldn't try to force myself into anything or put pressure on you, but it could be me, and um, I'd like it to be? Maybe. If you're okay. With that."
"Merlin. What the fuck. I've literally seen you sass psychopaths and talk down governments. And yet. So bloody painful." Draco was not quiet, and got shushed by at least five students as well as Yagi.
"Problem Child." Shouta said, without taking his eyes off Harry's. Harry figured wiping his hands on his pants would ruin the moment. If this was a moment.
"On it!" Izuku crowed and jumped forward to cover a grinning Eri's eyes. "Wait!" Harry blurted out.
Shouta waited with hands gently cupping Harry's face because he was Shouta and Harry loved him very much.
"There's, there's something else you should know." Even if Harry wasn't exactly sure how to talk about it front of the bloody audience.
Shouta's expression flickered, before settling into exasperation. "You idiot."
Harry didn't flinch, because that was the fond tone Shouta used when Harry was fretting about a lesson for his baby interns and Shouta had to remind him that his ducklings liked him lots already.
Shouta's hands twitched. "I've been aware of your particular Magic tricks for months now. Almost from the start."
Harry blinked at Shouta. Because yeah, he deserved to be called an idiot if that was the case. "Besides," Shouta let a slow smirk curl over his lips, "Your son and Fawkes were not subtle." Harry opened his mouth but closed it again without saying anything.
"Any other concerns?"
"None whatsoever."
Shouta closed the remaining distance, shifting one hand to drape over the largest scar on Harry's throat and the other to slide back to bury itself in Harry's hair, even as the kids gave a cheer.
Shouta's kiss was warm and soft and solid. Harry was going to fucking keep this.