Behind Closed Doors | All Might X Reader

Chapter 2

The walk home seemed lonelier than ever. Your head rushed with emotions. Shake it off, you told yourself silently. You helped a hero. You wanted a show, a spectacle, but not once did they question how the car caught on fire. Instead, you helped All Might himself catch a 'bad guy.' Disgusted didn't even come close to describing how you felt about yourself.

Something else surprised you though. Something you couldn't even describe: being held. Even though it was brief, and although it was by a man you despised the most, it turned you upside down. You'd never felt an embrace of another person before. It was terrifying and comforting, your worst fear yet everything you didn't know you needed. 

It took everything in your small, fragile body to not break down. Your head spun with unfamiliar feelings. You were bogged down by the disturbing longing of another embrace. Someone. Anyone. Your hard exterior shell cracked by a simple act, only to be further split open by the sudden feelings of disloyaly to villainy.

There was only one place you could go to try and make sense of everything; you had to see your only friend. Besides your parents, he was the only person you ever knew anything about. You kept your identity from him as you did with everyone else, but he could still point you out in a crowd easily.

You detoured to where you saw him last, under an overpass outside the city. He was homeless. You tried giving him money to help him out of poverty but he refused everytime. Like you, he was raised by villians. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have a nearly as high success rate as you when it came to his stunts. Three arrests and lots of public shame forced him out of society entirely.

"Kaito!" You called casually as you descended the hill to an overgrown hideaway below the bridge. You didn't have much energy left. With the day bringing a slew of firsts, you ditched disguise and continued on as yourself. You justified showing your true self to him for the first time by assuming he would never know otherwise.

"I knew it," your friend's voice called back from beyond an enormous shrub.

"Knew what?" Instead of a formal greeting, you picked up the nearest pebble and with expert precision chucked it into the bush. Judging by the shuffle of branches, you assumed you hit your mark.

"That you were pretty." Kaito stood up from his hiding spot to reveal his scruffy face. He wasn't much older than you but his long hair and unkempt beard showed signs of premature greying. He was tall and very skinny. Kaito wasn't your type, but something about his charm always made you question if you'd end up together one day.

"I'm not falling for it," you replied. Every time you visited he said something similar, hoping that you'd react when you were your true self. It was usually something along the lines of "wow, you're actually a frog", but this time felt different. It was as if he actually knew it was you.

"Good, 'cause I think this one is ugly," he said haphazardly, motioning at your face.

"I said I'm not falling for it." You slapped his arm as you invited yourself into his makeshift humble abode.

"Honestly, I'm surprised it took you this long. We've been friends for almost 5 years," he joshed, following behind. You weren't sure if he knew it was actually your body or if he was dragging out the questioning. 

Nestled between a stack of dishes and warped books was his "couch." It was made up of old wooden palettes and folded blankets. You sat down carefully; it was one forceful sit away from breaking in half. 

"Kaito, I don't know how to tell you this but I had an encounter with someone that I can't understand." You got right to the point. You needed to make sense of how you were feeling.

Kaito got right to preparing a snack for you. Even though his home was literally constructed from trash and second hand items, he always made it feel inviting.