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‘Why wouldn’t she tell me?’ All Might thinks while jumping to his assignment: publicity for an amusement park. ‘This entire week has been awful but now Griz's keeping secrets,’ his brow furrow. ‘Really sucks. And I’d hope to bring her here. She might like it,’ he thinks as he lands in the amusement park which has a bear mascot. Teddy bears, bear balloons, and costume characters all around.
He walks around looking for the manager when one of the bear characters catches his attention. Several of them are handing out balloons but a grey like one catches his eye. His head tilts as he watches the bear; something about it. The way it moves? Maybe the actor’s dedication to not looking at him like everyone else is when people began saying his name. ‘That bear feels familiar,’ he thinks before the manager finds him.
He is shown through the park and told how the show is planned. A different bear character is assigned to be with him throughout the day to hand out balloons, greet the crowd, and walk the areas. All of it felt pretty standard; except for that bear.
Every so often he slips away. Never for too long. He always found the grey bear from before. He peeks out from behind a wall, ‘Why this bear? There are so many..’ He watches the bear cheer up a child and make them laugh before handing them a balloon. He grins and without realizing wiggles in place, ‘But I really want a balloon from them too! Maybe because its grey kinda like my Grizzy bear.’
Finally his event starts. It goes fine, till the closing. That is when he hears a villain attacking. He jumps to the area where people are rising up into the air. The villain barely realizes All Might is there before he is knocked out. Only a few more people begin to float.
Among the sea of people there are varying degrees of how quickly they rise. Some people are trying to catch people and hold each other down. He notices something moving up and down; the grey bear! It is rising up catching people and then sinking like it weighed a ton! Each person it caught held onto another.
All Might smiles before zipping off, picking up an outdoor tent and using it like a scoop to catch most of the people. Park employees quickly held it down. All Might felt as though he is dancing working with the bear to finish catching people. He lands. He notices the bear doesn’t but still helps the last scared kid.
He goes to talk to and help grey bear but the crowd stop him and then the park manager. The grey bear is ushered away to his disappointment. He does a bit to reassure the crowd, though. He checks with the police; who tell him the quirk was called mimic and was used to copy the effects of balloons onto people. ‘That’s why the floating,’ he thought. The police continued their work.
Finally he declares, “I’m going to check on the bear.”
The manager steps in front of him. “That bear is fine. And wants to keep their identity a secret,” he whispers.
All Might smiled, “I’m good at keeping secrets. She knows that.” The manager let him by.
He stops at the door. His palms feel sweaty, ‘She kept it secret.’ After a deep breath he knocks. “I’m coming in,” he states while opening the door. No bear in sight. He scans the room. The bear is floating, like a balloon on the ceiling. ‘Of course,’ he thinks as takes his cape and belt off. He tries not to chuckle as he ask, “You ok?” A little surprised noise but nodes. He notices the movements remind him of when Grizel gets embarrassed. “Griz?” the head snaps around. “It is you!” his faces lights up again.
“Crap,” she whispers as she moves.
That is visual confirmation, that caused him erupt with laughter. “It is!” he cheers like a school boy. The bear moves again causing him to laugh more. He jumps up and catches the bear.
Grizel feels her face go red, ‘Forgot he does that!’
He’s holding the bear down by its feet, very delicately barely any pressure on the feet. The bear almost bouncing off him. “Grizzy?” asking for final confirmation. It covers its face and nods. Grizel hears a squeal. He pushes her down enough to sweep his arm under her legs and the other around the waist, and smashing his face into chest; all while laughing, almost jumping in place, and squeezing the suit so hard the arms puffed out. He laughs and cheers like he just won the grand prize.
Eventually his grip eases up a little bit as he stops squealing. “I knew it! I knew something was up with this bear! I knew it!” he chants as his hand came off the butt to from a ring with his other hand. He nuzzles into the chest, “Why didn’t you tell me?” He hears a slight muttering. “Oh right. Can’t really talk in this. But look at you!” He looks so jovial and oddly proud. “You’re so big and puffy!” he squeezes her again. He looks over the inflated chest his face is happily smashed in. “You’re the only bear I really wanted a balloon from all day..” he whispers with a little red on his cheeks. “But I guess now I got one! The best one,” he ends on a mutter before burying his face.
Grizel’s head tilts. She catches the change in his mood; his voice and pressure in his touch.
“Oh!” He let her bounce more loosely. “It must be different for you to float like this, without having to use your quirk.”
Grizel did feel different floating. Even with her quirk this felt nicer; more like floating on water than swimming below the surface. She did kind of want to do some more before the quirk wore off. In fact, she kicks her feet with her quirk fast enough to pull his boots back. “Griz!’ He loses his footing causing him to fall on top of her; float on top of her more preciously. “Griz?” he wonders as the pair begin returning to the ceiling. A pressure from under the suit ushers him up over one shoulder as her bear arm covers his head. When the suit head bounces off the ceiling he felt her hair, like a back massaging chair under the suit, move a little to even his weight out allowing them to lay level. He scans the situation, “Floating together for a while?” The bear nods again and pats his head.
He smiles and kisses the nose. All Might lays his head down. It certainly is a different idea, very unique for her, but in no way unwelcoming. His hand and feet hanging off the puffy bear suit made it feel like a cloud. The small rocking melts away any apprehension he had as his eyes drift shut. It was the first nap he took in what felt like ages.
The little snore gives Grizel a smile. ‘This does feel nice,’ she thinks as the suit bobs around on the breeze from the vent.
The manager peeked in, caught sight of All Might’s boots hanging out from the floating bear’s legs, hears an odd noise coming from them, and softly closed the door. He hung a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the handle.
The quirk finally did begin to wear off. All Might touches down first. “Have some fun,” he encourages before taking a seat. He watches her float for a while longer, imagining what she must look like inside the suit. Dreaming that it would have been cute to see her face. He walks up next to her as she lowers, lightly touches the suit, plays with the tail, and teases her about looking up to her his ‘angel bear’. He walks with her a little. Towards the end she sits on his shoulder. When he feels her weight return he knew it is over. He sighs. “I know this is weird thing to ask but can I have a few minutes before you take the suit off?”
Grizel hops down in front of him. He looks upset. Worse than he has been all week. He is upset, solemn this entire week, but now he looks ready to burst. She holds her arms out. He collapses on to her shoulder squeezing her tight again. Even with the suit puffed out she knows what is happening. After a few minutes he pulls her into his lap as he collapses onto the floor. The tension eases up her arms, now she hugs him. “Best bear.”
After a little while he turns her around and rests his head between the ears. He finally has a bear big enough to hold. It is almost like hugging a beach ball for him but every so often he remembers it is her. He lightly hugs her. She put her arms on top causing him to smile.
“I guess we should get you out of there.”
She looks at him.
“It would be nice to take my partner home,” he had a half hearted smile.
She stood up and went to the locker. “Do you need a hand?” he wonders up behind her. She tries to push him away. “Honey, I can watch it deflate. There’s a better gift inside,” he tries to encourage. Her arms cross. He ushers her. She pats his head. Something about it felt different, he blushes at the sensation. “Thank you. Now lets get you out.”
He finds the value. The air rushes out letting the suit collapse down to a husked form. Next he undid the zipper which unleashes a tidal wave of silver hair. She bends forward, using her hair to help move the suit. Grizel stands up as the suit fell to her hips. “Hot! It is so hot in there! How do people usually do this?” she begins wiping herself off with the towel in the locker.
He blushes at her sleeveless outfit. “How did you do it?” She shows her suit’s cooler. “Sneaky lady,” he smirks. “Glad to see you again.”
She smirks and finishes taking the suit off. She looks at the face. “I didn’t get to hear you before. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming here? We could have come together and even spent the day together,” he wonders as his hands slip around her.
“Yeah.” Her thumb plays on the suit, “But it was supposed to be a surprise.”
“Surprise?”
“Yes. The suit. You had been so disheartened lately.. I thought if I could get you to laugh maybe it would help,” she begins. “But I meant to do it at home! Without a time limit and maybe less embarrassment,” she complains. “The manager was letting me try this to see if it would work or not..” she hangs up the suit.
“You did this ..for me,” All Might whispers. Grizel turns to see him ready to burst with tears. She is about to say something as her hand came up. “Gizzy!!” He squeals diving on her, squishing her into his chest, tucking under his chin and just being wrap entirely in him. “Your the best partner ever!” he declares before kissing her head and squeezing her again.
This time she closes her eyes and hugs him back. He is slightly surprise at the touch but smiles. The tight almost tension he had before, as though he needed to grab ahold of her, changes into a warm close embrace.
After a few minutes they separate so she can finish getting ready to leave. That is when the manager returns to see All Might putting his cape back on. They all went to the door where he explains that have two different ways from them to leave so that no one knows Iron Maiden was there. All Might watches her cover her hair. “Hey, I’ll see you soon,” he says with a warm smile.
Grizel smirks. Her hair springs her hood up in to bear shaped ears. All Might snorts. “Bye Bunny!” she disappears down the hallway.
All Might smiles. The manager’s eyes went between them. All Might glances at him, catches him removing the do not disturb sign, and turns red.
“I didn’t see anything.”
Anniversary edition!