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Chapter Text

Tamaki felt it.

He felt it the same way he had when Mirio had been so sick he had ended up in the hospital or when Mirio’s mother had abandoned the blonde and his father in the middle of the night. The feeling tugged at him, pulling him from unconsciousness, and immediately he knew something truly awful had happened to his best frien- no, boyfriend. He corrected himself silently as he moved to get off of the gritty floor, and nearly passed out again from the wave of agony that followed. The left side of his face hurt the worst, everything in his vision was tilting and fuzzy around the edges but still he gritted his teeth through the pain and with unbearable slowness hauled himself to his feet. He needed to find Mirio. He KNEW something had happened to him, something bad and Tamaki wasn’t going to sit here and let Mirio face it alone.

The fear alone should have been crushing but even as adrenaline began to flow again and he broke into a run down the hallway he felt that awful feeling pulling at him, hurting more then any injury or fear could ever hope to. He didn’t slow down as he curved his way through the twisted maze of hallways. He knew where Mirio was just like he did all the times before and he wasn’t going bother questioning it now.

Tamaki was finally getting close when he stumbled making the world spin and nearly emptied the contents of his stomach, something he couldn’t have if he was to be of any help when he found his boyfriend. The barest of smiles tugged at his face at the word boyfriend in the context of Togata Mirio, something new that was equal parts terrifying and joyous for him and gave him the strength to make the last two turns.

Then his blood ran cold. Sitting slumped against the wall of the hallway, a growing blood stain on their lower waist, right leg lying at a sickening angle was Mirio. Then Tamaki felt his blood burn and he ran to Mirio’s side. With fingers shaking so bad you might have thought he was having a seizure he fumbled for a pulse. Of course it was impossible with the shaking but he was close enough to see the slight rise and fall of the blonde’s chest and hear the faint sound of air leaving and entering Mirio’s lungs. With that knowledge Tamaki let out a desperate breath of his own and slowly his violent shaking ceased as he dug into his own costume for his medical supplies since he knew Mirio didn’t have one on him (It wouldn’t have been able to phase with him after all). But before he he went to wrap the profusely bleeding wound he caressed the other’s much too pale face gently. Tamaki couldn’t withhold a small wince when there was no response at all to the comforting action.

“Mirio? It’s Tamaki... I need to stop the bleeding at least before we try to get out of here and I know it might hurt but just I want you to know that I’m here.” He whispered to the still unconscious blonde hero before sucking in another deep breath and began wrapping the wound as tight as he was sure was safe. When he was finished he inspected his work and was pleased to see that bandages were doing their job successfully. He would have liked to set Mirio’s leg too but he didn’t have anything to make splint with and they needed to get out of here as fast as they could since he had no idea how many more of Overhaul’s lackeys were wandering around. He would just have to carry Mirio from the opposite side to prevent it from being jostled more then was unavoidable in the situation.

“Okay Mirio, let’s get out of here...” Tamaki said as he slid himself under Mirio’s left arm and gripped him under his right armpit and heaved to his feet and almost fell back down when Mirio’s eyes flew open with a gasp of shock or pain, Tamaki wasn’t sure which. “Welcome back Mirio.” He greeted him with a genuine warm smile as he tighten his grip and began to move them slowly forward toward what he hoped was out of the Yakuza hideout. “I bandaged your side injury enough to stop the bleeding but you leg-“

“It’s gone Tamaki, it’s gone and Eri, she went back... and Sir...” Mirio rasped out looking so lost, so unlike the Mirio that Tamaki was use to and he felt his heart sink. What was gone? Did he even want to know? And that poor little girl... but Mirio was the one who needed him right now so he chose to say nothing and instead he simply adjust his grip so that he could take even more of Mirio’s weight. God, his head hurt and his thoughts were getting harder to organize...

Tamaki felt the darkness at the edges of his vision grow and nearly swallow him but with every scrap of energy he had to spare pushed it back and only stumbled slightly instead of crashing both of them to ground.

“Tamaki? Are you hurt?” Mirio asked at the misstep and the dark haired hero almost laughed at the question. He very sure that half his face looked like it had gotten thrown against a bunch of rocks (which was pretty much what had happened). But Mirio looked so genuinely confused and slightly worried that he didn’t.

“Yes... but it’s not too bad. I might have concussion and deep cut on my forehead but I’m sure it’ll heal up fast. I’m more worried about you...” He responded seriously, glancing at the bandages he had applied earlier that were slowly, but steadily gaining a red spot on them and the clearly very broken leg. At that, for some reason, Mirio suddenly looked almost angry and moved to escape Tamaki’s support but promptly passed out because of it. Tamaki only caught him just in time to stop his face from meeting the floor.

-x-

Several more minutes of walking down the seemingly endless maze of hallways and nearly falling over several times from Mirio’s unconscious weight passed before he heard any kind of noise that wasn’t coming from above ground. Never before had Tamaki been so grateful to see a large group of people, all police officers in this case. Kindly, they offered to carry Mirio but Tamaki couldn’t find it in him to part with him just yet. They weren’t safe just yet, he reasoned, just a little longer and then he would hand him over to be properly cared for by medics and doctors. As he spoke he wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince, the officers or himself...

As he and the large group of officers made their way through the maze of halls they found and rescued Eraserhead, the swordfish FatGum had given him came in handy after all, and were shown the rest of the way out of the building by the sweet, frog-like girl whom he recalled with interning with Nejirou.

But the minute Tamaki was standing out in the sun again he and Mirio were surrounded by medical responders and he was quick to direct their attentions to his boyfriend. He was very worried, much more then usual, about Mirio who had now remained unconscious for an unsettling amount of time. His leg looked a bit swollen and the bandages he had applied were now soaked red he noted as he placed him down onto a stretcher.

He withdrew when he was sure that Mirio was in good hands even though he could feel his heart crying at the loss of contact. He didn’t want to take the medic’s focus from Mirio who had had something strange happen to him in conjunction to his more obviously serious injures. He paused to looked around and realized numbly that the battle really was over. Another sweep of his head and he spotted Nejire lying on the ground but he could hear her cheery but insistent questioning even with the physical distance between them so she must have just been too tired from using her quirk to bother getting up. A bit farther to the left he spotted a slightly beaten up, very slim looking FatGum handing over a heavily bandaged Kirishima. The younger boy looked badly injured and normally Tamaki’s mind would spiral with the worst kinds of thoughts but he couldn’t seem to form any kind of thoughts. Everything just felt fuzzy and distant as he almost unconsciously he made his way over to his pro hero mentor.

“Oh Kid! Look at yer poor face! How bad are-?” About halfway through FatGum’s crying and talking his words started to sound jumbled and began to slide together. Tamaki tried to move forward to comfort the older Hero, “I’m fine” He wanted to say. “I’m more worried my Boyfriend” Oh, he hadn’t told FatGum about that yet. He would be so happy... But he couldn’t get the words out and everything began to tilt like it had back in the tunnels and Tamaki swore he saw FatGum’s now rather blurry face shift from worried to very scared. He wasn’t sure the last time he’d seen the Pro Hero make an expression like that.

He really hoped Mirio was alright...

Chapter Text

Mirio’s everything hurt. Well, mostly his side and leg but the pain was manageable if he was being honest. With a groan of effort he opened his eyes to an off white ceiling and low lighting. Oh I’m in a hospital... He noted absently and then everything came back to him in a rush. The raid, Eri, Sir, and Tamaki. Sir was dead... he remembered the pain of watching the man who had taught and encouraged him so much die and suddenly felt like crying again but he held back. He was done crying he told himself silently. But his shifting and stifled sob must have been louder then he thought because Hadou Nejire, who had apparently been sleeping beside his bed, abruptly jolted upright. Her blue, usually very inquisitive, eyes narrowed to focus on him quickly before welling up with tears. The poor girl then proceeded to become completely inconsolable, sobbing and babbling apologizes and a number of other things that Mirio couldn’t sift out.

“Nejire-chan please don’t cry! I’m sure there is no reason to apologize! I’m so glad to see you!” He declared as confidently as he could muster through the jagged wound in his heart that seemed impossibly large. But his words seemed to cause the girl to cry harder. Mirio was at a loss as to what to do now and was forced to simply wait until her sobs had subsided to soft whimpers.

“Oh Toogata... I don’t know how to say this... i-it’s Amajiki, he...” Mirio felt cold. He felt so cold he was sure almost nothing in existence could make him feel warm again.

“Hadou, please no...” He choked out, the fear and internal agony threatening to swallow him whole. Had his immediate worry over Sir Nighteye cause Tamaki to die alone? If Tamaki was dead too Mirio wasn’t so sure he could find it in himself to ever smile again.

“No, no! He’s not dead!” And for a brief second he felt a flame of hope, only for it to be quickly doused when Nejire finished her explanation. “He’s... well he’s in a coma and they’re not sure if he’ll wake up...” She whispered the words, refused to look Mirio in the eye and said nothing else several minutes. The actions was so un-Nejire-like it was frightening. Eventually Mirio gathered the courage to ask,

“What happened to him? I remember him trying to carry me out of the hideout by himself but after that, nothing.... He was hurt but he brushed it off as usual and was fretting over me instead.” Just thinking of how the other boy had dismissed his own wounds in favor of Mirio’s made him feel frustrated all over again. Not much about Tamaki could make Mirio mad but not caring for himself at all made him furious, and sad. Nejire took a deep breath and clenched her hands together in her lap before speaking again.

“He got you out and to the medics but of course he insisted his injures weren’t serious and that they should worry about you. He must have slipped away at some point and headed towards FatGum, he’s injured but not seriously, and seemed heavily disoriented before he literally collapsed into FatGum and he-he wasn’t breath-He wasn’t breathing Togata...” She stammered, clearly holding back tears. Mirio just continued listened numbly. “I-I wasn’t far away and managed to sit up in time to see FatGum calling for help and him just lying there i-in his a-arms...” She couldn’t stop the tears after all and collapsed again into heaving sobs. Mirio almost wished he could cry with her but the tears didn’t seem to come. The pain felt beyond tears at this point.

“Can I see him?” He whispered and somehow Nejire heard it over her sobbing and collected herself enough to give him an answer.

“I’ll go ask.” And with a loud sniff she got up and left the room to fetch one of the nurses that was on duty, leaving Mirio alone with his thoughts.

Was Tamaki hurting? Was he alone? Was he sacred? His mind wondered unhelpfully in the few minutes before Nejire returned with a nurse and wheelchair in tow.

“It’s good to see you awake again Toogata. Now, I hear their is someone you want to visit?” The nurse asked cheerily when she reached his bed with the said wheelchair.

“Yes please, ma’am. Amajiki Tamaki?” He practically begged. Her face went soft with a look of sympathy.

“As believe your friend Hadou here has told you, Amajiki is in a coma so only family are allowed visitation. But seeing as how his guardian can’t be reached at the moment we are making some exceptions for close friends. You will have to be on your best behavior Togata but if you can promise me that I will gladly take you to him.”

“I promise. Please take me to him.” He couldn’t stand another minute of knowing Tamaki was hurt and alone. He needed to see him...

“Alright let get going then.” She responded, patting the seat of the wheelchair with a bright smile.

After a few minutes of getting situated in the wheelchair and a few more in a elevator and down some hallways they reached a room with the nameplate that read Amajiki Tamaki. Hadou opened the door for him and the nurse but didn’t follow them in.

“It’s past visiting hours for non-patients...You go see him without me this time, I’ll visit him with you tomorrow.“ She told him with a pained smile before she turned and walked back towards the elevator. Mirio could only suck in a deep breath as the nurse rolled him closer to Tamaki’s side. Oh god he wanted to throw up...

The whole left side of his boyfriend’s beautiful face was swathed in bandages, dark red smudges staining them in places. Around the part of his chest that was visible from under the blankets was more bandages that thankfully didn’t have any of the red smudges. But the worst part was the tube that protruded from his throat and breathed noisily for him.

He raised a shaky hand to gently grab Tamaki’s limp, much too pale hand and felt something deep in him break when it didn’t cling back. Tamaki always grabbed back, even when he was asleep, always.

“Tamaki, I’m suppose to be the dumb one... You have to wake up, please don’t leave me...” He whispered as lifted the limp hand to his cheek and kissed it with all of the gentle love that words couldn’t describe.

“I’ll let you stay with him for a bit longer, but I’ll be back for you in about an hour.” The nurse he had almost forgotten about said softly as she close the door quietly behind her. And then it was just him and Tamaki.

He just talked to Tamaki until his eyes grew heavy with sleep and let his head rest on Tamaki’s bed, their hands still loosely intertwined.

“I’m here Tamaki. I’m here and I love you. Please wake up soon.”

-x-

The warmth of the morning sun crept across his face. And Mirio groaned when he felt a hand shake him gentle.

“Five more minutes...” He moaned childishly. The other person let out a small laugh that sounded like a gentle breeze on a hot summer day.

“Are you sure Mirio?” He knew that voice!

“Tamaki!!” He shouted excitedly, tossing his covers away as fast as was possible. Wait. Covers? He paused and took in what was clearly his bedroom about four or five years ago. Everything down to the All Might posters and other hero paraphernalia that covered every open space, his desk overtaken by the mess of his middle school books and assignments, even the cloths in his closet were from around that time. And there, sitting quietly on the end of his bed, was Tamaki.

His boyfriend was wearing his favorite bright, very fuzzy sweater that was easily two sizes too big for him, the hem and ends of the sleeves were worn and frayed from his constant nervous plucking and tugging. His face was free of injury and was as warm and smooth as Mirio remembered under the glittering morning sunlight. The barest hint of a smile just as beautiful.

“You can sleep longer if you like Mirio, I was just kidding. Mirio? What’s wron-” But the blonde didn’t let him finish and instead pulling Tamaki close. As he clutched tightly to him he felt tears slip from his own eyes when the other clutched back.

“I don’t care if this is a dream. Just being able to hold you and hear you...Tamaki, I almost thought I never would get that again...” he sobbed, practically wailing into Tamaki’s thick, dark hair. He knew this was all dream, but it was a welcome kind of torture.

“Mirio...” The other whispered gently as he rubbed small circles on Mirio’s back like he always did for Tamaki when he can to him for comfort. “I’m so sorry... I never meant to leave you...” That made him stop crying and jerk away to meet Tamaki’s eyes in surprise.

“What? Of course you didn’t! You just have to wake up!” He assured him with his brightest smile but faltered when he saw boyfriend face go from confused to pained.

“I’m dead Mirio, I mean I must b-because they are here...”

“They as in... your...” He hesitated to say it because of all the the times Tamaki had violently avoided the topic in the past.

“My parents. Mirio, they’re as wonderful as Aunt Orihime said... and I don’t feel so afraid, I don’t hurt, I feel wonderful here...” He admitted hesitantly, pulling guiltily at his sweater’s sleeves. Mirio wanted so badly to grab Tamaki and shake him and scream ‘Aren’t I enough of a reason to wake up?’ But he didn’t. Tamaki was happy here. Here his dead parents could love and care for him, here he was free of his usually crippling level of anxiety, free of pain so who was Mirio to make him leave just for him... “But, you’re not going to stay here are you?” It wasn’t hard to hear the sadness in Tamki’s voice.

Mirio couldn’t seem to find the words to answer that so he simply shook his head.

“Okay, I guess we should get going then...you’re going to have to lead the way though...” Mirio’s head snapped up so fast he might have given himself whiplash. Tamaki met his eyes evenly with his own. He had a smile that was almost sad but the determination in his eyes was obviously winning.

“But, your parents and, and-“ He stuttered in confusion but Tamaki stepped in shakily to cut him off.

“I-I know... and I’m not saying It’s not a bit hard, but anywhere without you Mirio isn’t a place I want to stay. You mean more to me then I explain... And every manner of anxiety, pain or danger is worth facing if it mean I get to be with you.” Mirio could already feel the tears flowing again. God, what had he ever done to deserve this boy? It must have been something truly spectacular.

“Thank you, Tamaki! Thank you!” Both of them were sobbing now, but this time they were tears of joy. So with the most genuine smile Mirio had made in the last few days he pulled Tamaki to his feet and pulled them out of his bed room. They both raced down the hall, through the living room and towards the front door only to have their way blocked by two adults who looked very similar to Tamaki. The adults looked down at them gently with that same small smile that Tamaki always made when Mirio did something sweet or funny.

“You love him very much don’t you?” The lady of the two said eyeing Mirio with an soft but sad expression. Tamaki got his coloring and pointed ears from his mother he realized.

“Yes Amajiki-san! He means the world to me!” He declared boldly, proudly holding Tamaki closer. The other blushed but didn’t pull away, instead leaning into the hold almost unconsciously.

“That is very comforting to hear. Please take good care of him.” The man said quietly with the same careful and thought out way that Tamaki did.

“I promise!” For a minute there was silence as the parents came to some kind of wordless decision before they stepped to the side. Mirio didn’t hesitate to head for the door but Tamaki hesitated and looked back at his parents.

“Mom... Dad... I’m sorry I have to go...” He whispered. But they just shook their heads and smiled at him warmly.

“Go be with the boy you love. Be happy and know that we are so proud of you. We will always love you Tamaki.”

“Thank you.” Then Mirio yanked the door open and they were swallowed the blinding light of a morning sun.

-x-

Slowly Mirio felt the aches and pain of his injuries and when he tried to sit up he felt terrible crick in his neck from lying on it awkwardly for an extended period of time too. With a tired moan he moved upward only for something keep him from sitting up fully. The hand he had been holding loosely before was now closed tightly around his his. Almost fearfully he moved his eyes upward and was, to his utter joy, met warmly by a single un-bandaged eye. A beautiful eye the color of dark violets that said everything that Mirio needed to hear.

I’m here now. I love you Mirio.

Mirio felt his face break into a wide smile. And then proceeded to cry openly when Tamaki, who couldn’t speak because of the tube still in his throat, rubbed his thumb in small circles over the hand that was clasped tight in his in response.

“No matter where you go I’ll always find you Tamaki. And that’s a promise. I will love you to forever and back.”