In every scene where Yagi and Naohana talk, I write out the other party's thoughts in an accompanying note so I can keep careful track of their mental state during every interaction. This story is almost entirely character-driven, with very little outside conflict to propel the narrative forward. It's important I maintain a constant grip on what each character is thinking. When the narration shifts to one person's POV, I make sure to keep track of how the other person is feeling and reacting. What they don't say is as important as what they say aloud!

In the moment where Yagi reacts to Naohana observing he learned not to call her by her hated nickname, he thinks she's realized he's also All Might. He tenses, thinking Naohana (smart as she's proven herself to be) has already discovered his true identity. His mind starts going a mile a minute as he tries to figure out how she discovered the truth, preparing for her to have another breakdown all the while, wondering what he can possibly do or say to salvage the situation...only to realize a moment later that she hasn't figured him out, after all. He can continue this charade, after all.

Shocking nobody, I attribute reading "Cyrano de Bergerac" one too may times as a kid as inspiration for Beyond the Fracture, and this story more than earns the "inspired by Cyrano de Bergerac" tag I included on Ao3. In this work, Yagi is playing the role of Cyrano even as he plays the role of Christian when in the form of All Might. Naohana is our unaware Roxanne. Obviously this story doesn't parallel the actual plot of the play beyond Yagi (Cyrano) speaking on behalf of All Might (Christian) to win Naohana's (Roxanne's) favor, and the ending and plot have absolutely nothing in common with the French play in question (ABO certainly didn't exist in 19th century France!), but the parallels are nonetheless present and accounted for.

A chief difference between my work and the French play lies in Cyrano and Christian being different people, but Yagi and All Might are one and the same. In order to realistically pull off the parallel in the world of my fic, I engineered a few key details to mask certain "giveaways" that could tip Naohana off about their shared identity. Since this is an ABO fic, scent plays a big role in the story, and I worried early on that she'd be able to tell by scent that Yagi and AM are the same person. I leveraged Naohana's omega awakening to place a physical barrier between them to prevent any scent from getting through, and thus that glass wall between them took care of that (as will certain details that I've alluded to but will make even more apparent in the next chapter). I also wondered if the blond hair/blue eyes combo would tip her off, so I decided to make AM wear a helmet whenever he performs villainous deeds. To Naohana, AM and Yagi have nothing in common whatsoever, so their separate identities will remain plausible quite naturally.

I was having a conversation in the comments of the story recently that was really interesting. Someone mentioned that she might just assume AM and Yagi are related (brothers?) if their hair/eyes were the same color; Yagi and AM are built so differently, it's a big leap to think they're the same person even if they have a few traits in common. I agree, naturally, and the thought did occur to me while planning the story. The added element of "Yagi and AM are brothers, maybe!?" would be an unnecessary complication in an already complicated work, so I wanted to avoid that by removing any mention of AM's hair/eyes. It seems to have worked in the end, distancing Naohana emotionally from AM even further, and that opens the door for an agonizing romance with Yagi to bloom.