AN: Imma make everyone brawl their eyes out with this chapter.

So this is a shoutout to CallmeCrazylol. I swear it's not a mean one. So, yep. Nakamura's husband was a transman, I just didn't know how to write it in. They now have 2 adopted kids and one biological. Hahah... Oops?

Chapter Five - Illness comes slow and quick

Harry let out a huge sigh out through his nose. He had barely finished a call to back home at the Burrow. Mrs Weasley wanted him to come back, at least for a little bit. He kind of wanted to visit, but he was so busy, and he was getting more worried about Nakamura than ever. Hermione had to announce something and it made Harry wonder if it was a kid to add to the small delightful but whiny gaggle they were slowly amassing, or a marriage. He was willing to bet on both. A shotgun wedding seems like it would fit the usual thought process of their trio, if Harry had to be very honest with himself.

Nakamura had had expressed his wish to see his family just the month before, and Harry shouldered the task of calling them. It had been quite an awkward affair, presenting himself to the family of the mentor and friend who had helped him so much since he had been so set on settling in Japan. He had no idea what he could say. "Hey I'm the guy who now takes care of the family shop so sorry about your legacy but also I'm a little jealous of your familial ties with Nakamura-san since he's now one of my few parental figures" seemed to be too personal and possessive. So he settled on something plain and straight to the point. In the end, he did get the answers he had been waiting for.

Nakamura would have insisted to be the one to call them all, but he had started taking heavy pain medications because he had been in constant pain for the last few days, and it wore down on him greatly. Harry had to try everything in his arsenal of begging to get Nakamura to actually consider them. He could not bear watching the old man struggle so much with everyday tasks that used to take him mere moments.

Nakamura had been diagnosed with not prostate cancer, like they had thought, but bladder cancer and it was developing at an alarming pace. Harry had paid cold hard cash to get the tests along faster, and he could not have been more worried. Harry had almost pleaded with him to go see a healer, because magic could help him, although it would have been an invasive procedure and he would be bedridden for weeks, but he would be able to live as long as he kept to a strict regime and heavy medications. Almost.

The first week, he was alright, just as tired as usual. The second week was worse. His health started deteriorating. The stress they were both put under did not help at all. The third week, he was slowing down even more. The fourth was one huge disaster. Nakamura collapsed while tending to his plants

Harry had heard him the first time. Nakamura was tired, more so than anybody else Harry had met. He had lessened his amount of time he spent time speaking with his leafy friends. He ate less. He slept less. He was losing weight at an alarming rate. Harry was out of his mind with worry. He had essentially moved in with the other man to keep an eye in case he needed anything. Nakamura did know about having his health carefully monitored, but he did not know that Harry had set up a magical alarm that would be triggered as soon as his vitals would drop. It was an amazingly complex ritual to perform to pull off but Harry had the patience and resources to make it til the end. The runic circle he had specially ordered from an artisan located in one of the smaller magical alleys held all the magic in place, and he had asked the alchemist to please use a locket or something similar so that it could be worn.

For the most part, everything was in order. Harry had rounded up the last of Nakamura's relatives and the old friends that the old man wanted to see the most. They would be arriving in the evening, first with his three children and their own kids. Harry had in no way any wish to witness the meeting, but Nakamura had asked him to stay and he could not deny anything to the old man.

For now, he had already closed down the shop - after herding the kid who had just started working there back home; he was such a nice and helpful boy, Midoriya Izuku, and so sweet and a bit shy, but his confidence had grown exponentially since he started to work at the counter instead of at the back of the store - and dinner was all done and waiting to be served. He only hoped that Nakamura would be willing to eat enough for today. It could spare him from worrying more, if only for a few precious moments and enjoy some time with Nakamura. He climbed up the stairs, going first to the kitchen to retrieve the meal he had set out to warm gently in the oven and a bottle of sweetened tea from the kitchen counter, then directly to the old man's room. Politely waiting after knocking, he was given access soon enough and let himself in. The state in which he found Nakamura broke his heart a little bit more.

Nakamura was awake, propped up on his bed with a literal mountain of soft pillows - Harry had made sure to check that they would be comfortable and accommodating. He was pale and sickly, so unlike the lively and short-tempered man Harry had met only about a year ago. The constant fatigue had morphed into aches and drowsiness, and wore him down even more.

"Good evening, Nakamura-san," Harry tried. Nakamura was on a prescription of strong painkillers to help him through, and they could make him rather loopy. Last time, he had told Harry all about his love ventures with his late husband. Harry had patiently listened to him, internally cringing a bit at the more saucy parts, but those were thankfully rare and brief. Nakamura's husband seemed to have been an old sweetheart, with a temperament wholly different from Nakamura. They had decided to each keep their own names while legally married, while their kids took on their pop's surname. Harry would have liked to meet mister Aoyama, the "old coot with half a head and twice as much room in his heart than anybody else".

"You think you'd like to eat some more today? I know you must be hungry; you didn't eat all that much of your lunch," Harry asked him. He had been the one to retrieve Nakamura's plate when the old man fell asleep after a few bites of his simple sandwiches, regretfully scraping the rest of the meager dish into the bin and wrapping the rest for later. Unfortunately, Harry hadn't had enough time to prepare a more consistent meal during the day, and he hoped to make it up during dinner.

"It's rice porridge and century eggs for dinner today," he announced with a grand flourish, earning himself a smile full of mirth from the bedridden man. "With pickled sweet ginger on the side and a dish of carrot and celery strips, all freshly cut."

Nakamura seemed to light up at the mention of the eggs. He did love them, no matter at which meal they would be served with. Harry liked them as well - he could not not like them after eating them so often with Nakamura. At first, they had a weird and foreign taste, but he learnt how to eat them easily enough. He preferred them with no sides and slightly runny. He also discovered that it was a mistake to try to drink any kind of fizzy drinks after eating them.

He deposited gently the tray of food onto the lap of the old man and squirreled away as Nakamura ate. He still had chores to do, and his own dinner to eat. He was so harried and overworked recently he had forgone to eat sometimes, truly out of forgetfulness. Luna made kept true to her promises and flew over to Japan, all the way from Rio to give him a dressing down and oh boy she was angry. She did not yell at him, she'd never. Instead, she had that disappointed stare and a serious talking to for him that would forever be engraved in his mind. She went back to her expedition after a few hours of mom talk with him and a good freshly prepared dinner with Harry and Nakamura. Those two hit up and ended up extremely friendly. Luna also transmitted her disapproving stare (but since Nakamura himself was a father, it might just have been deactivated for a while) and now Harry missed no meal if he wanted to keep his mind safe.

He chewed as quickly as he could on his dinner, the same as Nakamura's. He had to sweep the floor of the living room and the kitchen, do the dishes and take care of the flowers. The firsts could be done easily and rapidly. The flowers were a bit more of a delicate business. Some of them could wilt at anytime now, since Nakamura was not using his Quirk to help them along the way to proper maturity, and Harry still was having trouble regulating all the factors for their development. Magic could only help for so long until nature decided to kill every each of those plants Nakamura and Harry had taken months to grow and took care of properly. All of it before the guests would start coming in to check on the old man.

Harry let out a sigh. He had a lot of work left for today.

The first knock sounded at around eight o'clock. Harry had just barely finished cleaning up the flower shop, and hurried to take off his apron and threw it on its hanger to get the backdoor. He opened it wide and let the people come in. There were three adults, two of them with bright blonde hair - which made Harry think of Yagi out of the blue - and about half a dozen of kids. They were actually quite the colourful entourage.

He welcomed them in - although he guessed it was kind of more their home than his - and guided them, quite unhelpfully if he could say so himself, to the living room upstairs. It was as spotless as he could have gotten it, although there was some piles of paperwork scattered all over the place since he had not find yet the time to sort through them.

They sat down in the various seats available, some of the kids even going to sit on the carpeted floor. Harry felt strangely out of place while he busied himself with making some tea for all of them. They seemed to be sorting out the order of who would go in first. They settled for one just as Harry came back with a tray on which rested a piping hot teapot, and a bottle of iced tea, and several cups for tea to be served. He settled it on the coffee table and started to pour out the tea to the guests. As soon as everyone get their fill, they seemed to move along with a coordination that spoke of years spent together.

The adults presented themselves, seemingly in order of age. The youngest was the tallest one, and the most sunny blonde of them all. Also he had the least amount of kid, only having one. His wife accompanied him, a French woman who was lovely and incredibly kind, and who seemed to also love being the center of attention. Their son was adorable and quite... shiny. Not in a bad way, but the boy clearly knew how to draw attention to himself. He reminded Harry a little bit of Tonks as he found out when the teen introduced himself in all the flamboyance he could muster. He offered a soft smile to the young Yuga.

Then the introduction was a bit of a blur for Harry. He was barely able to greet all of them properly, before he found himself in Nakamura's bedroom, sitting uncomfortably in the corner of the room on the sofa while the old man's family poured in one by one.

He sat for more than two hours in awkward silence, tittering between flipping out his phone to pass the time and hurriedly stuffing it back into his pocket when he felt the stare of one of the guests, until Yuga came and took a seat in the bean bag next to him, looking tired and a bit resigned. It was not a good face for someone as young as Yuga was. It immediately made Harry think of his friends and himself, before he had settled in Japan, after everything that had happened and they were teens who had barely survived one hell of a bloodbath.

"Grandpapa is quite content, you know?" The sudden question startled Harry, making him jerk his head to stare straight at the teen. His thoughts had started to turn sour before Yuga had started to talk to him. He was thankful, but also curious and he still possessed the ever famous Gryffindor courage and bluntness.

He hesitated, a question on the tip of his tongue. Finally, his impulse seemed to be too strong in the face of his reason, and he asked anyways. "And what makes you think of that, Yuga-kun?"

The teen chuckled, no true malice behind it. "You seen, grandpapa has been very... Let's say that he was very sad when grandpère passed away. But now, he's been taken care of and his flowers are as resplendent as me. It's been years since the rose bush had been this heavy laden with those delightfully scented roses. According to uncle Hinata, the last time Rosy was this full was when grandpère was pregnant with my papa. And, Harry-san, look at him now. He's happy. Even if grandpapa is sick, he's happy. I know it's heartwrenching to face the truth, but here it is. I'm sorry."

Harry blinked in surprise. Oh, what a wise and eloquent young man. "Thank you, Yuga-kun. I did not want you to see my sadness, but I guess I didn't quite hide it well. I'm quite sorry about this," he said with a small chuckle. The teen's eyebrows furrowed at his words, but he chose not to say anything.

"If you are concerned, I'll do everything in my power to help your grandpapa through this illness. Be sure of that Yuga-kun. I love your grandfather very much and I would like nothing more than see him get better," he told Yuga truthfully.

Truthfully, the illness looming above Nakamura's head was suffocating. Harry wondered every day how he could possibly bear its presence. It gnawed and crunched at Nakamura's life force, one small section at a time. Harry wished with all his might that he could be able to take a hold of this vicious illness and crush it with his bare hands. But he could not. He would not. Nakamura had asked him not to. However, soon enough nothing would be left and Harry would have to deal with the aftermath of the toll of death, yet again. Harry did not know how he would deal. He had not even barely started processing his grief from the lives lost in the Great Hogwarts War. This time around though, Nakamura's family would be in a state of mourn and grief, with him besides them.

It would just be another battle lost...

No no no, that would not do. Harry had to shake these thoughts out of his head. His therapist had talked about it. If he was about to be swallowed by his thoughts, he had to find something to cope. He guessed it was time to whip up some snacks for the guests. Of course, he had planned a platter full of pastries, but the kids happened. And hungry adults. Plus he already had some cookies from that afternoon and even if the guests would not stay for long after, he would still feel much better if all of them had a small bag of goodies before they left. At most, it would take him fifteen minutes to get the cookies cooked properly. And none of them knew of his Quirk - or rather lack of - and he could speed up their cooking time to about five minutes.

He motioned at Yuga to let him know that he would not take too long, and went to Nakamura to tell him that he was about to go to the kitchen. The old man acknowledged him, then sank deeper into his pillows. He had just finished talking to his eldest daughter and his son-in-law so Harry figured he had to be pretty knackered. He would probably love to sleep right now. Harry recognised the signs of tiredness. The tight knitting of his forehead and the sleepy grumbles were the give away.

Harry turned back to his young conversation partner, inviting him to help him around in the kitchen. The teen agreed with raised eyebrows and a small smile tugging on his lips. Silently, they moved to leave the room. Yuga was already in the corridor as Harry slowed down to dim the lights of Nakamura's room. He got a last peek at Nakamura's slowly relaxing face as he closed the door.

"Good night..."

AN : I gotta admit, this one is a bit shorter. But I couldn't really get myself back in the groove, so forgive me.