After all, was said and done, Eri, that scared little child was safe. The villain Chisaki, his twisted ideals, and his gang were all defeated. And, he had earned Sir Nighteyes approval. Yet, it all felt rather hollow. Their losses weren't great, but he could feel them, a hole longing to be filled much like the hole All Might left.
A victory that cost them dearly.
But there was hope, there always was. Eri, the time traveler, should be able to undo what her younger self caused. It was such an obvious thought, he couldn't believe it didn't come to him until he was on his way to go see Mirio.
"So you can't restore my quirk?" He could hear the heartbreak in Mirio's voice as he approached the door. He paused in the middle of the hospital doorway, the door left just open enough that he could see Mirio sitting in the bed, looking more like a statue than his usual animated self. Something close to anger flashed across his eyes and he glared forward. "Or you won't?"
"You're making it sound like I don't want to restore your quirk." Eri's adult voice pierced the silence that followed, her chuckle more out of awkwardness than any humor. He couldn't see her without entering the room but she sounded older again. And tired. "Believe me I want to. If I could I would give you your quirk back right now, if for no other reason than to see you smile."
"You still haven't answered if you could or not."
"You're right," Eri stepped forward finally coming into his narrow view. She was older, about the same age as he first met her, her red sweater was tied around her waist revealing the plain white shirt she had one that hugged her slender frame and womanly curves. A set of necklaces sparkled around her neck. Then there was that ring on her finger. A wedding ring. It was different than the one she had worn when they first met.
"I can fix you right now. I can give you your quirk back. It would be so easy to do." Her hand fell onto his as she sat on the bed next to him. "And it pains me to say this, but right now I can't."
Mirio sighed, his whole body groaning with frustration, he took a deep breath to let out a single word. "Why?"
"I've tried it before, I've even tried you not ever losing your quirk you know. But, it doesn't work out. There are lessons that you must learn, challenges to overcome, and foes that must be defeated without your quirk." Eri tossed her hair back, looking at the door, and their eyes met for far too long before she looked at Mirio once more. "There are battles that need to be fought by others. Without your quirk, you'll grow in new and exciting ways so that when you do get it back you'll be all the better for it. So please, just bear with it for now."
"But, what am I supposed to do until then? How long will I have to wait?" Mirio's gusto returned with every word, building up to his head held high and his eyes locked forward. There was no way someone like him could ever give up, which just made him wonder why he wasn't chosen for One for All. Mirio already had all the greatness that All Might had, while he had to earn it.
Eri smiled folding her hands over her legs and kicking her long legs that were clad in black stockings. "Oh, I don't know, but there's this little girl that's going to need her big brother and role model to help her smile again."
"I suppose I could pay you back for being such a great big sister," Mirio sighed, his shoulders slumping. "I get that you don't want to restore my quirk, but I'm just confused as to why. Why does it matter if I learn-"
"Power," Eri responded simply. "You said it yourself there's a difference between knowing something and knowing how to use something, I think you actually stole that from dad though. But, I'd like for you to picture it this way. Do you remember how you were back in your first year? Clumsy, barely able to use your quirk? Then Sir Nighteye did something useful for once and took you under his wing, from there you went from the joke of your class to the one closest to becoming the next number one hero. I want you to imagine that leap, but for everybody, with you at the center."
Eri leaned then vaulted forward, landing on her feet and turning back to smile at Mirio. "Your dream was to save one million people Mirio, and you gave that up to save me. And that dream became mine, so I need you to trust me and help me save ten million people. Maybe more, without them ever knowing."
"Are you ever going to tell us what happens?"
The question hung in the air like a fruit ready to be picked.
Eri turned away from it, her eyes locked onto his, a small smile on her face as she took a long drawn out breath, ring finger over her heart and her ring sparkling in the dull hospital light. "No, we're already on the path that stops it from happening, and I'd rather be the only one to know about it, as nothing but a nightmare."
"Alright," Mirio nodded arms folded over his chest, he nodded several times his smile growing with each motion. "I understand, I will bear this burden for now, and I promise to one day make you smile."
"Thank you Mirio, I'll see you well, I mean I'll see you in the future, but you'll see me again in my past because which is your future and I really just made this whole goodbye a lot more confusing than it needs to be." She groaned scratching the back of her head. "I am so looking forward to being completely done with this. Now, I just need to talk to my future Husband and I can go back and guilt-trip him into giving me a foot massage or something."
"Good luck with that he seemed more than a little worried about you being six years old." Mirio shrugged. He was way too accepting over that!
"Oh," Eri hummed her footsteps sounding like thunder in the eerie silence of the hospital. "Don't worry about him, he might be surprisingly stubborn at times, but I know how he works, probably better than he does at this point." She winked right at him, both hands behind her back as she took large awkward steps towards the door winking at him. "Good luck Mirio!"
She opened the door, looking every bit like a tall graceful woman in the prime of her life, the kind that anybody would find beautiful, intimidating and graceful all at once. Just the slightest bit of make-up graced her face, a bit of shine on her lips, an ounce of shadow around her eyes, and the necklaces all highlighted her overwhelming natural beauty.
"You know ease dropping is rude, right Izuku?" She had one hand on her hip, a sparkle in her eyes and a smirk on her face.
His throat felt dry and his mind wasn't quite processing things correctly. This was Eri, the six-year-old little girl he had saved days ago. She was Six. She was ten years younger than him. She had a ring on her finger and mentioned future husband when talking about him. He married someone ten years younger than him. But she also said that they would be in a relationship in two years?
"You- I - Umm." His mind finally decided on saying something. "You, left the door open on purpose didn't you?"
She laughed - a sweet sounding noise that made his spine turn to goo - and grabbed his wrist, pulling him down the hallway and up the stairs. "Be careful you don't give me to much credit, but yes, that time it was intentional, half of what I told him was for you too. Especially about the future, and why I do half of what I do, which kind of sucks because it feels like I've told you guys a thousand times to trust me. It's not like I'm thirteen anymore."
She burst through the doors to the roof where she finally let go of his wrist. With no fear of heights, she walked over to the ledge, staring down at it with a smile on her face. "This should be private enough. To have a really awkward talk, don't you think?"
"Uhh, yea." He walked towards her, his feet feeling heavier by the second. "I mean, you tell me you're my girlfriend in the future, and we eventually get married, but you're six, you're ten years younger than me and-"
"I was six Izuku," She turned to him, lording over him with those few extra inches of height that had on him, a delicate hand rested on his shoulder, ring sparkling in the afternoon light like the bright future she was trying to build more than anybody. "But, right here, right now how old do you think I am?"
She grabbed his other hand entwining their fingers, her hair blowing up in the light gust that was just cold enough to fight away the early fall heat and the last dregs of summer. "Because I was born six years ago, so if we go by my birthday, I'm six, right here right now. But what if I go to before I'm born? How old would I be then? Or do you judge by the number of days lived? Cause I'll be honest, I don't even know my own age, I've spent so much of my life traveling from time to time, changing the timeline, rarely ever seeing the tomorrow of a day I landed on."
Soft music began to play, coming from a small speaker he hadn't even noticed, it was a song that he never heard, the beats low but full of energy, a weird fusion of rock, funk, and jazz. She pulled him away from the ledge, twirling as his hand fell to her hip. They were dancing. He was dancing. Or rather she was dancing, he was leaning from side to side.
"If we go by experiences and memories, I have more of both than someone twice my age, I've gone through puberty at least four times by now, watched you become a hero just as many times and maybe more." Her smile didn't fade, but the light in her red eyes grew all the more. "Did you know that you have a quirk? One of your own that isn't tied to One for All?"
"I do?" His heart was pounding in his chest, both from her touch, her scent, and her words.
"Yep, it's probably a quirk more powerful than One for All, but one that only I can see, and even then I'm not sure it even exists." She guided him into a twirl, bending so that she could go under his arm before grabbing his hand again. "I'm not quite sure what to call it, but you have the unique ability to change the world, even better than mine, and I'm a time traveler."
"What? How?" How could he change the world? Even with One for All, it felt impossible to change the world more than someone that could time travel so easily. Then there was everything else her quirk could do. He felt like a level one character matched against a max level pro.
"In so many wonderful ways," Eri leaned forward her head resting against his as a slow part of the song started to play. "Even when I made sure that Mirio got One for All and he became the number one pro hero that upheld the mantle of peace for years to come, it was you that made that peace last. Without your quirk you enrolled into the support course, there you met Mei Hatsume and together you redefined what support items meant and you two revolutionized so much, the future of that world is a bright and shining one where you two and your children are credited with making up for the stagnation quirks caused."
"Children? With Mei? Mei Hatsume? The crazy inventor girl?" The one with pink hair, that didn't know what personal space was and had the big-
Eri pinched his cheek. "Hey, hey, no thinking about her when you're with me," She pouted for a moment before her smirk returned. "But that was just one possible timeline, there was also one where you end up with Emi, you know Ms. Joke, which is actually my fault because I turn her into a kid, and another where you end up with Nejire, At least two where you end up with a female Todoroki, but this time," She brushed her ring finger against his cheek. "This time, you're mine."
The song ended and her hands fell between them, connected with a loose grip at the finger tips. "Do you know why I showed up to your classroom before we ever met? Do you know why I almost kissed you?"
"To steal my first kiss?" He swallowed, feeling a lump in his throat pulsating with every quickening heartbeat.
"Well that was part of it, most of it, was because I didn't six-year-old me to be what you thought of me as. I kind of want you to think of us as two different people" She pressed a finger to his lip, holding whatever awkward word was going to be coming out. "Oh, and by the way, I did steal your first kiss, you just haven't realized it yet."
She was right, in a way. "But, what does that mean about little you? What do people think when they see us? What about two years from now? You're six, what does my mom think when she meets you? What-"
"Really Izuku?" She rolled her eyes and pushing his hands away to place both hands on her hips. "Are you the same person you were a year ago? Before you got One for All before you became a hero? What about six months ago when you had no sense of self-preservation and broke your arms every single fight? What about a week ago? Are you the same person as before?"
"Well no, but I used to be."
"Everybody used to be a kid Izuku," She grabbed one of his hands with both of hers and held it up. "You, All Might, Mirio, Dad, my mother in law, even All for One, they were all kids, but you don't treat them like kids or worry about them being kids? So why do you worry about me being a kid in my past."
"Because," He swallowed, finding it really hard to think properly with such a beautiful woman glaring at him. "They're not a kid right now."
She sighed, rolling her eyes and placing his hand onto her chest, and pressing it deep against her breast. His mind stopped, through the thin fabric of her shirt he could feel her softness and her heartbeat. "Six-year-olds don't have fully grown breasts," her smile grew when he pulled his hand away. "And if you like that just wait until you see them naked."
"I, I, I, I," He stared at his hand, then at her chest, then at her smile. "But, I mean, What if I mess something up with little Eri?"
"Just treat her like she's a different person, you're already to starting to think that aren't you? If it helps you can pretend she's my little sister." She sighed, scratching her head. "Look, sorry about the boob thing, that might have been a bit much, but you're stubborn and a boob man so that was probably the best way to make you realize I'm not six years old. I actually don't know how old I am, but I am an adult. Or at least right now I am, but most of the time you'll be dealing with me as a teenager, not a six-year-old. Well I mean you do deal with her a lot and I do get a crush on you by the time I'm like 8, but I'm rambling now and not helping my case at all."
She grabbed his hands again, running her thumb over the scars he got from his fight against Todoroki. "So, what do you think?"
"I don't know, but, I think, that I can understand what you're talking about. So, I'll try to treat you like you're a different person than little Eri." Apparently, boobs were all it took to convince him. Still, there was one thing that was bothering him. "Umm, how old are you when we enter a relationship?"
"Uhh, like seventeen? Maybe eighteen?" She shrugged, turning away from him so that her long silver hair lashed against him when the wind blew. "Like, I said, it's easy to lose track of time when you have like five different Mondays in a row."
Well, that's good to know, it was still weird, mostly because time travel was weird, but, the idea of dating the Eri from the future no longer felt like it should be off, rather instead he found himself looking forward to it. "Thank you Eri, I think I understand now,"
"If that's true then you should totally learn how to give a really good foot massage or just massages in general," She gave a small nod and blew him a kiss, "you know as a way to thank your super awesome time-traveling wife that goes out of her way to stop you from doing something stupid like not dating her or something."
Ozone filled the air, and then just like that she was gone.
Now to find out how to give a massage.
There was a flash, and Eri appeared again, her hair was wet and she had a towel wrapped around her body. "Sorry, forgot the speaker you got me," She brushed past him to pick up the object. Her face was red, "And umm, yeah, I'll uh, pretend you didn't see this." Again, she was gone.
AN: Ooh, long chapter! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'm out of cannon, so I'll probably end up focusing just more on them getting to the relationship in the coming chapters, and I hope you all look forward to that and a few larger time skips.
Please, leave a review. And after that go read my new story "Butterfly" It's a Joker (Persona 5) x Lucina (Fire Emblem) fic that totally wasn't inspired by smash and fanart.
