Sunflowers (All Might/Toshinori Yagi x Reader)

Keep His Secret

My parents hadn't seen Toshinori since before his fight with All For One, and he was nervous to show his weakened form to the in-laws for sure. He bounced his leg anxiously under the table, noticeably making the drinks jitter on the surface.

I leaned in and whispered, "I don't think you realize how strong you are even when not using your Quirk, sunflower."

He blushed and pressed his palm to his knee, giving my mom and dad an awkward, lopsided smile.

"So, Toshinori...how's the broken leg?" My father had been fed the same stretched-truth at the time.

"Uh...it's better. I can walk on it, as you saw." He had hardly touched his food, his appetite depleted from his injury. He coughed into his hand, a little blood coming out, and he gave me a positively frightened look.

"Oh goodness, are you alright?! Is that blood!?" My mom gasped.

"Do you need to go to a hospital?!" Dad rested his chopsticks down and stood up.

I looked up at him and then to my mother and father, and back. I gave my husband a sympathetic look. "We wanted to tell you something...regarding Toshinori's injury."

Toshinori was as stiff as a board. He was unbearably shaken by what they'd say when they saw his true form. I grabbed onto his clean hand, "It's okay, Toshi..." I rubbed my tired eyes, giving him a reassuring smile.

He sighed inwardly, "I'm sorry that we didn't make you aware of this...but my injury was far more than a broken leg."

"Is that why you're coughing up blood?"

"Yes...I've been in and out of the hospital for months. The fight I was in was nearly fatal...a blow to my side left the doctors no choice but to use extreme surgeries to remove my left lung and my entire stomach...I can only manage to eat extremely small amounts of food at a time."

I remembered the moment in the hospital when all of this was revealed to me. I closed my eyes and saw the image of him, reading in low oxygen levels and an intubation tube in his throat for a week as he restabilized after a difficult surgery.

"God, Toshinori, that's terrible...how do you still look so...so healthy?" My mom looked extremely concerned.

"I'm not...my Quirk is able to hide the fact I look like this. I can only look like this for about four hours a day... speaking of which, my time is almost up...I hope it won't alarm you." Toshinori stood up and took a napkin from under his almost full plate. He pressed it to his lips and let go of his strong hero form. The puff of steam dissipated, leaving my sunflower there in his true, skeletal form.

"Wh-?! Whoa, you...you look like a..." My father wrapped an arm around my mother, who looked like she could faint.

"Deadman?" Toshi chuckled bitterly, sitting back down as he wiped the crimson blood from his lips. "Yeah, I feel like one some days, too...But Y/n has been helping me more than she should have to... I feel bad for how much grief I've put her through." He pulled me into his side.

I nodded, brushing one of his bangs from his face, "He's perfect the way he is...but the stress of the last few months can't be seen by the rest of the world, so please, don't tell anyone."

"Why would we tell anyone? Your mother and I managed to keep the secret of your marriage for years! We can keep this one, too. We promise we won't let it slip, okay?" My father got up, patting my husband's back apologetically. "Your secret is safe with your family, Toshinori."