Learning to Trust


"O what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!"
—Sir Walter Scott


Chapter 5: Tangled Web

"Really, Aizawa-san. This isn't necessary. I can walk. I told Recovery Girl as much already."

Aizawa Shota said nothing, continuing his rapid walk to the other side of campus where the faculty parking was located. He glanced down at his watch. He had just over an hour between his lunch and prep period, and his next class was taking a test anyway. He didn't really need much time to himself. As long as Yagi didn't live too far, this shouldn't be a big deal.

All Might's desk jockey seemed more bothered than him actually. Aizawa's black eyes shifted to study the clearly agitated man accompanying him.

"Aizawa-san. Truly, I know you're busy. This isn't necessary. Recovery Girl is just worrying too much."

"Recovery Girl never worries too much, Yagi-san," Aizawa stated flatly. "She also never calls me to drive patients home, which means you're hurt worse than you're letting on." His voice was matter-of-fact as he eyed the man's torn clothing and generally unhealthy appearance.

The lanky man ran his hand through his mop of blond hair, a sheen of sweat on his forehead even though the day was cool. "I'm not really hurt that bad," he muttered. "It's not that…"

"But it is something."

The man wouldn't make eye contact.

"I thought so. Does All Might only hire people as irrational as he is?"

Yagi looked as though he was about to reply, but at that moment they approached a black car, and Aizawa motioned the man to get it.

Yagi meekly complied, hunting for the seat adjuster to move the passenger seat back far enough to accommodate his long legs.

Aizawa got in and put his key into the ignition. He looked over at his passenger. "Seat belt."

A strange look flickered across the man's face as he glanced up at the strap. "I don't usually wear one that crosses my chest," he replied quietly.

"You're wearing it in my car. The last thing I need is you getting hurt."

"I-" The man paused. "I can sit in the back and use the lap belt."

What the hell? It's a seatbelt. I was wrong. This guy is worse than All Might. He glowered silently, but made no move to put the vehicle into motion.

Finally Yagi was forced to look at him. The man sighed. "I'm not opposed. It's just-" He paused, seemingly considering his words. "I was in an accident. I sustained a fairly bad injury here." He motioned to his left side where the seat belt would likely be pressing. "I'm lucky to be alive," he added quietly," but any pressure I put on it hurts. I'd appreciate skipping the seatbelt if you don't mind."

Aizawa's eyes narrowed. Then, without saying a word, he turned the key and shifted the car into drive. Normally he wouldn't back down on something like this in his car, but there was something about this Yagi-san that hadn't been sitting quite right with him. It was as though he kept secrets. This moment, however, had felt completely honest, and Aizawa couldn't bring himself to argue the point. Anyway, if it were true, then it was a reasonable request. "It better not have been a car accident," he muttered.

"It wasn't."

"Fine. Where do you live?" He began driving to the main exit.

Yagi quietly gave directions to his apartment. "Thank you," he finally said.

"Don't thank me," Aizawa grumbled. "This isn't a favor. I just know better than to argue with Recovery Girl. Anyway, you look like you lost a fight with a support item. The last thing we need is All Might's agency up in arms because the pencil pusher was accidentally killed by one of our students."

To Aizawa's surprise the tired looking man laughed at that-a harsh, barking sound. The severe expression on Yagi's face relaxed a bit and the man actually smiled. "Trust me, Aizawa-san. If I die, All Might won't say a word." He chuckled again, his eyes twinkling as though the very idea were somehow hilarious.

Weird guy. But honestly, more likeable than he'd expected. "Whatever you say. And just call me Aizawa. Or Eraserhead."

"Thank you."

"Whatever." He turned a corner to drive into an older section of the city. The buildings here looked old and sad and tired, as thought they'd fought a brave battle with time itself, but had lost. "You know, this is the worst part of Musutafu City, Yagi-san."

"Yagi is fine."

Aizawa continued as though the man hadn't spoken. "Doesn't All Might pay for your residence while you're here? You need to have a talk with that idiot. He can afford to place his employees better."

"I chose the apartment. It's close to UA and comfortable."

"This area has the highest crime rate in the city. And there have been recent villain attacks nearby that bring it from unsafe at night to unsafe in general."

"I know," Yagi replied, smiling again. "I grew up near here. Call it nostalgia-" He seemed like he was about to say more, but just as they pulled up to a crumbling old building bearing Yagi's temporary address, his injured passenger suddenly grabbed at his chest, clenching his jaw and wheezing harshly through clenched teeth in obvious pain.

"Yagi?"

The man didn't answer, but instead began coughing hard into his elbow. After two or three hard coughs, his shoulders finally relaxed and he stopped clutching his chest so tightly. He took a couple deep breaths, triggering more coughing before he finally seemed able to control his breathing enough to lower the arm he'd been hacking into.

That's when Aizawa saw the blood.

While Yagi patted himself down for something, Aizawa handed him some paper napkins from the console, so he could clean up. His face didn't betray his alarm at whatever that had been. "What exactly was that?" he growled. "Anything else should I know about the man I'm carting around? Because I'm starting to think I should have been driving you to a hospital instead of your apartment."

"It's nothing. I'm fine. It's normal…" Blue eyes flashed up to Aizawa's irritated expression, and he trailed off.

"You look like you just had a small heart attack," Aizawa replied in slow, metered tones. "Then you hacked up blood. Which part of that was supposed to be normal?"

"All of it." Yagi crumpled the napkins and stuffed them into his pocket. "I just need my medicine and I'll be fine, he replied mildly, opening the car door. "You might as well come up. I need at least twenty minutes."

Aizawa had wanted to just stay in his car and make sure no one tried to remove the tires, but he was starting to worry that this Yagi was going to die in the stairwell. He sighed. "Fine. Let's go."


Yagi's apartment was not what Aizawa expected. Perhaps it was due to the man's overlarge clothing and generally rumpled, exhausted appearance, but Aizawa had expected the place to be a cluttered mess.

Surprisingly, when Yagi had opened the door, the place had been spotless. It seemed almost sterile. Nothing was out of place-though really he seemed to have few personal items to get out of order in the first place. A humidifier was running in the living room-the fancy kind with an air purifier built in. The air smelled faintly of ozone, and Aizawa suspected there had been a UV light operating somewhere in the apartment as well.

A bottle of hand sanitizer sat on the small table near the door. Yagi quickly pumped some onto his hands and worked it into his skin. He motioned for Aizawa to do the same. It felt like he was in a hospital. He half expected Yagi to hand him a facemask next.

The other man smiled tiredly at what must have been a quizzical look on Aizawa's face, and offered by way of explanation, "I lost a few organs in the accident I was telling you about. My spleen was one of them, so I have an increased risk of infection. I try to keep my living space as clean as possible."

"Why did you invite me in, then?"

"It would have been rude to make you sit in your car."

Aizawa just shook his head, baffled by the walking contradiction he was currently saddled with.

"What is it?" the other man asked mildly, walking into the kitchen.

Aizawa followed him. "All Might's agency is one of the biggest in Japan. He employs nearly twice as many people as Endeavor."

Yagi grabbed several pill bottles, color coded with a green label, and popped the lids off, dropping pills onto the counter. Aizawa counted no fewer than ten different capsules. Yagi continued, asking, "What does that have to do with my hand sanitizer?" Opening a cupboard, he pulled down a glass. "Do you want some tea?" He'd already begun reaching for a garish Silver Age All Might mug.

"Sure." He made a face at the mug. "I'm just saying that your boss is an idiot."

"You've mentioned that before-more than once, I think." Yagi filled the glass with water and began consuming his pharmaceutical buffet.

"You've obviously got serious health issues. Why did he send you to a school? Of all the asinine things I've seen that man do, this has to be the least rational-"

"I offered," Yagi replied sharply, choking a bit on a particularly large pill and washing it down with the rest of his water.

"You're not much brighter than your boss, then."

Yagi began coughing again. He grabbed a towel and held it to his mouth, turning away, but Aizawa still saw the spreading crimson stain.

"This is what I mean. You have an entire medical textbook of health issues, and you come to a place populated by kids who need regular reminders not to lick things to claim them. Some of these students literally have quirks that cause illness in people who don't even have chronic health problems."

"Can't live in a bubble, can I?"

"It would be more rational."

The man just shrugged his thin shoulders. "I didn't survive my accident just to hide in a hospital. What kind of life is that?" He flashed a grin at Aizawa before tossing the soiled towel into the sink and washing his hands. Then he began heating the water. "Tea's in this tin. I need to use my nebulizer." He absently rubbed his chest, wincing. "Mind making it yourself?"

"Sure," Aizawa replied, distracted. That reckless grin had been jarringly familiar for a moment. He watched Yagi walk back into the living room and set up his treatment.

The tea didn't take long to make. When the water was ready, he grabbed another gaudy mug, this time a Golden Age monstrosity, and made a second cup for Yagi before heading out to the living room. He was beyond annoyed with this man who was clearly older than him and should know better, but honestly… who was he to question the guy's life choices? Didn't they teach kids every day how to put their lives on the line for things they believed in? Sure, this wasn't quite the same thing, but still… how could he fault a complete stranger who obviously wanted to go down fighting?

Yagi was looking out a large window, breathing slowly and deeply, when Aizawa approached.

"I made you a cup. Might help your cough."

Surprised blue eyes locked with his, and Yagi gave him a thumbs up. "I'll be about five more minutes." His voice was oddly distant and distorted sounding behind the plastic mask of his nebulizer. Again that oddly familiar feeling struck Aizawa, as though he'd met this man before. He'd worked with All Might occasionally, but not in an official capacity. Certainly not in any way that had ever put him into contact with anyone connected to his agency. He hadn't even met Nighteye until the #1 hero and his sidekick had parted ways. It didn't make sense.

He hated when things didn't make sense.

Aizawa set the cup down on the sill between them and distractedly looked out the window. His eyes scanned the horizon. It was actually a pretty good view. This was the top floor on one of the highest buildings in this part of town. You could see most of the neighborhood from up here. "Huh…"

At Yagi's puzzled expression, he commented, "This is a good view for a stakeout."

"I guess it is," the blond man replied slowly.

"The building itself is crap, but you can see further than I expected. This apartment has roof access, too, I noticed. So if you went up top, you could see just about everything. I'm surprised the Police Force hasn't claimed this with all of the recent villain activity in the area."

"Guess I must have gotten lucky."

Aizawa sipped his tea, staring out over the network of streets and alleyways. A distant siren filled the air and he could see police lights flashing in the distance.

Finally the machine clicked off and Yagi removed his mask, taking a few testing breaths before putting the device away. "Almost done," he said. "I can drink that tea on the way back if you want. I have travel cups. I don't want to take up any more of your time."

Aizawa just shrugged, still distracted by a nagging thought that had been playing in the back of his mind. "I've still got to finish mine. You're fine." He studied the scrawny man. "What kind of accident was it?" he asked suddenly.

Yagi had been in the middle of storing the device, but froze at these words. "What?" he asked in a suspiciously flat voice.

"What kind of accident? You have spleen, heart, and lung damage based on your symptoms and the medicines you have in the kitchen. Then there's the touch sensitivity to your left side, which makes me think you have some irreparable rib damage and maybe damaged muscle. Given your weight and the number of supplements you take, I'm guessing your stomach or intestines took a hit, too. Those are a lot of potentially fatal injuries for a pencil pusher. And they come with a lot of expensive treatments. Even with insurance, that seems out of your pay grade."

Than man's shadowed eyes were unreadable. "What are you saying Aizawa?"

"I'm saying that something about you doesn't add up. Nezu trusts you for one, which is odd enough on its own. He isn't fond of people with secrets. Neither am I, for that matter."

Yagi smiled tightly, but he didn't deny anything.

Aizawa studied him carefully. Tall. Painfully thin, but apparently not as weak as he looked given Recovery Girl's explanation for the man's injury. He glanced down at the man's hands. Heavy calluses and scarred knuckles. "I was wrong about you, wasn't I?" he finally asked quietly, realization dawning. "You're not All Might's desk jockey. You're a Pro. And you're looking for someone, aren't you?"


Author's Note: Thanks to lolo popoki for her excellent beta work! Also, thanks to you for reading (and reviewing) the story to date. Sorry if this chapter was a bit dry. Aizawa's voice is much more challenging to write than Toshiniori's. Thanks again!

Sincerely,
Sirius