-Shouta's POV-

Throughout the entirety of speaking with the police, I held Shinobu's passed out form in my arms. I explained to them the situation with the villain's quirk and requested that they try and get him to give them an antidote and to contact me if they managed to.

"Alright, Eraserhead. We'll do our best, but this particular villain has been on the Most Wanted list in this city for quite some time. We really can't negotiate with him or offer him any leniency in order to bribe him for it," the officer informed with a sad glance in Shinobu's direction. My grip on her tightened before I relaxed and nodded to the officer in understanding.

"She wouldn't want you to negotiate with him. Just… keep me updated if you learn anything new," I replied, keeping my voice even and professional despite how stressed I was feeling.

An ambulance showed up as we finished talking and took Shinobu over there. After speaking with the EMT and doctor that was present in the ambulance, I gave her to them and walked over to the villains and tried to use my Erasure on them, especially on the one that injured Shinobu.

"That won't work on me, Eraserhead. My quirk only activated when I created the poison. You can try using it on your cute little sidekick too, but it won't work," the villain taunted to which I just ignored him and went back to Shinobu as the villains were loaded into the cop cars. I activated my quirk at Shinobu as well, and the pained expression on her face remained unchanged.

"We managed to patch her wound up with some stitches, but the poison is already circulating her blood stream and seems to be resistance to any treatment we know of. We've seen it a couple of times with victims of this villain. It honestly is all up to her strength of mind as to if she survives this normally or ends up in the mental hospital. All you can do now is take her to her home and make sure she at least tries to keep something on her stomach so she has strength to fight against the poison," the doctor informed me with a somber expression as he looked at Shinobu in pity.

I nodded and thanked him before taking the silver-haired heroine back into my arms and taking her to my apartment. It was already 4am, and I really didn't want to take her back to Hizashi and have him freak out about her current condition. Plus, his yelling would not help her be comfortable. As I carried her home, I also contacted Nezu and let him know the current situation, and fortunately, he was very understanding.

"Thank you for letting me know, Aizawa-kun. You and Muffle should take the day off today since you both don't have any classes today. I will inform Amajiki Tamaki that his training with Muffle is cancelled for today. Take some rest and send my regards to Muffle," Nezu had instructed which earned a thank you from me as he hung up and I reached my apartment.

Once inside, I gently placed Shinobu on my couch and placed her head in my lap. Shit. I can't believe I was so harsh on her. Why did she push me out of the way? Someone who had selfish motivations wouldn't have done that. Maybe I was too harsh on her earlier. After all, are our motivations really different? I mean I worked harder at becoming a hero after was what happened to Oboro… Dang it, Shouta, do not go there right now. You have to make this right. With that thought, I began gently running my fingers through her long silver hair.

A concerned meow snapped me out of the trance I was in, and I looked up to see Shiro looking at Shinobu with concern before jumping onto the couch and curling into her side. I sighed to myself as I looked at the beautiful heroine in my lap. Her porcelain freckled skin had a sort of sickly pallour to it and was covered with a light sheen of sweat as a pain expression twisted her normally delicate features. The sight of her in such a state made my stomach twist in guilt. Maybe if I hadn't upset her right before we went into that fight, she would have been able to avoid the knife, or if I had been more focused, we could have taken the villains out without them noticing us.

"I'm sorry, Shinobu… The noise I made alerted them and then I didn't pay attention and you got hurt protecting me," I apologized, my voice soft and vulnerable as I admitted my feelings about the situation to her unconscious form. Or at least I thought she was unconscious until a soft hand cupped my cheek causing my eyes to widen slightly as my gaze drifted down to meet now open chartreuse green eyes.

"I-it's not your fault, Shouta," she comforted but the pained smile on her face gave away the next lie as she sat up and dropped her hand from my cheek, "I'm fine."

"Don't lie to me, Shinobu," I murmured as I took her face into my hands, using my thumbs to wipe away tears that were now falling from her eyes as another obvious wave of pain wracked her body. She was trembling as she met my eyes. Her attempts at hiding her pain now gone as she let out a whimper.

"Shouta… I'm scared… I-it hurts so bad. I don't want to lose my mind, but the pain is so bad that I want to scream," she admitted, her face scrunching up in pain as a series of whimpers and small cries of pain wracked her already trembling form. Not being able to see her like this anymore and not knowing what else to do, I wrapped my arms gently around her shaking form and pulled her into my lap. I held her tightly as she gripped onto my shirt and continued to whimper, but her shaking decreased ever so slightly.

"I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I misunderstood," I apologized, trying to hide the stress and pain in my voice from seeing her in this state, "I can't make the pain go away, but I can make sure you don't have to suffer alone." She tugged at my heart as she feebly nuzzled into me and spoke softly, pain still evident in her voice.

"It's okay, Shouta. You were right that my motivations for becoming a hero were not as sound as they should have been, but I never said that it was why I'm still a hero. I only told Tamaki why I became a hero, not why I continued to be one after I realized that that motivation wasn't enough," her voice sent stabs through my conscience as I realized how irrational I had been.

Not only had I jumped to conclusions, I had jumped to conclusions without trying to even talk to her or pay attention to her wording when in reality, her story wasn't much different than mine in that regard. A pair of soft lips pressed lightly against my jaw snapped me out of my self-scolding as I looked down to see Shinobu with a soft and sweet smile on her pale lips causing my face to flush and let out an involuntary chuckle. She really was too understanding.

I placed a soft, warm kiss to her forehead earning a small giggle from the silver-haired heroine, and I was thankful to see that at least she had a slight reprieve from the intense pain she was dealing with earlier.

"Shouta?"

"Hm?"

"W-will you stay by my side tonight?" she asked timidly, causing me to give her a small smile and decide to tease her a bit as I looked at the time.

"Well, it's 5AM, but if you're asking me to sleep beside you, then you should know I am fine with that if you're comfortable with it. If not, I can sleep on the floor. I have my sleeping bag," I answered, feeling a bit entertained when her eyes shot open at the mention of the time.

"Shit! We have to be at the school in 3 hours! And I have to find a way to train Tamaki today. Why didn't you tell me?" she panicked and began to try and get out of my lap but I didn't budge as I pulled her closer to me as I pressed a kiss to the side of her head right above her ear.

"Shhh. Relax. I already talked to Nezu and explained the situation. He told us to take the day off and that he would tell Amajiki that training was cancelled for today. You need to focus on fighting this poison off," I soothed as I began stroking her hair as I felt the trembling beginning again, something I was starting to recognize as an indication that another wave of excruciating pain was about to hit the kind woman in my arms.

"O-okay," she whispered, her voice coming out slightly strained, "So you'll stay with me?" I nodded and held her close.

"Of course. But we should move to the bed. It's much more comfortable than this couch," I responded bluntly as I stood up holding her in my arms bridal style in the process, earning a squeak of surprise from her.

I quickly carried her to my room and gently laid her on my bed and went to my dresser and grabbed her some sweats and a tshirt so that she didn't have to sleep in her hero costume and grabbed some sweats and a shirt for me as well before going to the restroom to change. It's not that I minded changing in front of her, but since I was aware of her lack of experience with any kind of relationship, I decided not to tease her today at least.

After brushing my teeth and changing my clothes quickly, I returned to my room to see that Shinobu had already changed as I got into bed under the covers, giving her a fair bit of space, not wanting to make her uncomfortable.

"Shouta?" she called out nervously. Honestly, when you call my name like that, you could ask me just about anything and the answer would be yes.

"Hm?" was all that came out of my mouth despite the less than pure and very emotional thoughts running through my head after such a stressful night.

"Will you hold me?... If it's not too much to ask…" Shinobu requested, her tense voice shaking in both nervousness and pain from the poison. Her shyness about this was adorable, and I would have smiled if I hadn't noticed the pained expression on her face. She let out an especially loud cry of pain, and I immediately scooted over to her and pulled her to my chest protectively, wishing I could take this pain from her.

Her whimpering cries began to get louder as she gripped onto my shirt till her knuckles turned white. Not knowing what else to do, I began to soothingly rub small circles on her back, and I felt her relax slightly under my touch in spite of the pain.

"Thank you, Shouta," she whispered, her voice breaking from pain before going limp, passing out in my arms from the pain. I pulled her head to my chest and continued stroking her hair, hoping to provide her some sort of comfort even in her unconscious state.

"Irrational woman. I should be thanking you," I murmured before placing a kiss on the crown of her head.

This woman… She is stronger than even I realized. The silence that was her strength was becoming deafening after her actions tonight, and I found myself thinking as she snuggled into my chest in her sleep that I'd be happy if her deafening silence was all I could hear from now on…

Song: Silent Scream by Anna Blue

A/N:

So I know Aizawa is acting a bit out of character, but he doesn't exactly come across as the most romantic individual in the anime or manga, so I had to take some creative license with him. That being said, this story is based very loosely off the anime at this point in the story. Also, thank you for all the support on this story. I'm going to try and update regularly but tomorrow is my daughter's first birthday and we have to move apartments by the end of the month. So it's a lot. So please be patient with me. Again, thank you all and stay safe. 3 Taeha :)