Worth Fighting For (Toshinori Yagi x Reader)

Chapter 21

Art Credit: catalcoyaki

The last week of the school year always held promise and profound joy over the short break teachers and students would get, as well as interest for the upcoming year.

April would bring on a whole new generation of first year heroes, as the ones transitioning to second year status would continue to grow. So on and so forth for the third years. (Y/N) always held a bittersweet opinion with this as a teacher, it being a healthy reminder that life isn't forever and that as humans they should make the most of each and everyday.

It brought her back to her own time in school, her graduation, then the experience of college, then going into hero work and becoming licensed. Each and every memory of those instances were lodged into her subconscious. Everyday new memories popped up as well, more personal rather than educational.

She found Toshinori, despite neither of them being as young as they once were, they indeed found each other. It was ironic how the two were essentially forced into sharing a home, eventually becoming lovers. Now (Y/N) had a reason to stay, she was sure it would be a funny thing to giggle about in the future.

The woman gained another pleasant memory just the other day, after the retired hero's first therapy appointment.

(Y/N) had long finished grading students art assignments for her class as final testing and grading was going into full swing. Having already gone ahead and completed most of her work for her classes, the woman had some down time to work on some sketches. She also didn't have much work for the Pro Heroes Association as most of her time was spent on school grounds. More popular heroes took opportunities to fight villains anyway, but at the very least heroes were still fighting for justice and keeping streets reasonably safe.

She held the pretty leather book in her hands, tracing the engraved image of sunflowers on the corner of its cover while she worked. Secretly, she was sketching a portrait of Toshinori and would show it to him when she had it all finished and shaded. The trick to sketching and drawing was to dance the writing utensil on the paper lightly. Never start your sketches with forceful pressing lines, as once you erase it the paper will be indented by those marks. If a person allows themselves to let their mind control their bodies and their imagination, they can create beautiful things. Of course above all, practice is perfect.

(Y/N) also knew how to create art digitally as well, but she always admired the different type of work it takes to have traditional media and use it. The artist had just finished working on sketching out the shapes of Toshinori's head and facial features then to his long neck and lean shoulders when she heard his soft mumbling by the mirror at the door.

She was at first a little worried to make this reasoning knowing that mirror was one of the things that gave him a lot of discomfort, but also was against taking it completely down to prevent him from seeing it. It would defeat the purpose of overcoming his self-deprecating behaviors if the mirrors were avoided.

Closing her sketch book with her pencil in the middle, she knew it wasn't good for the spine of the book but it was another pesky habit, (Y/N) gravitated toward the familiar baritone sound of her lover's voice. Inching her face out of the corner of the entryway where the living room, kitchen, and front door were connected by a corridor she saw Toshinori exactly where she thought he was.

But instead of seeing anything negative, she was trying to hold back her chuckles from the wholesome scene in front of her.

Standing in front of the mirror Toshinori stood in his regular casual clothes, his favorite military green colored cargo pants and one of his many oversized white t-shirts. Before, (Y/N) had asked him if he wanted to replace all his baggy clothes for new ones, but for some reason he couldn't seem to part with them. He got more fitted clothes as time progressed, but even the woman had to admit she liked using his baggy shirts as clothing around the house.