The last time he saw her, it was in an alley. She was accompanied by a member of the League of Villains and she was jabbing one of her stingers into his shoulder to inject her venom into him. As he remembered this, he rubbed at his shoulder and frowned.

Before that encounter, his last time to see her had been at the summer training camp. Just hours before the League of Villains reclaimed her as theirs. Aizawa remembered how she had helped with coaching the students as they trained, how happy she had seemed, how confident she was.

This person that he was now looking at was different from that person. Not just because of the hair color, either. Her movements were a little off. She seemed jumpy each time he came close and there was a particular sadness in her eyes sometimes when she looked at Eri. As if she was remembering something horrible. Something painful, devastating.

"So why manga?" he finally asked, settling on the couch beside her.

Nozomi jumped when he sat next to her and started to nervously pick at the skin around her nails. "I mean, why not? Everyone likes manga. Why not make something that everyone will like?"

Is that really what she thinks? It was still hard for Aizawa to imagine her making that huge of a career change. He looked around her to Eri, who was sitting on her other side with a notepad and pen that Nozomi had given her. "What are you drawing?"

The child held up the paper. "I…drew you and Nozomi-chan."

It was at this moment that a certain realization set in. The way they were sitting together, the fact that Eri was now adding herself to the drawing; this was like a weird little family. Aizawa grimaced and slouched forward, letting his hair fall over his face.

There was no way that he would tell her that thought popped into his head. Not that it was any of her business anyway. Honestly, he was unsure of what to do or say. He had been searching for her for weeks and now that she was sitting beside him, Aizawa was at a loss for words.

It had taken a decent amount of intimidation and persuasion to make the winged hero leave Nozomi behind. It was pretty clear that he had become attached to the ex-villain. He had pouted and argued, but Aizawa's stubbornness paid off. Though he would be back early the next day to collect her.

Eri held up her drawing and smiled when Nozomi complimented it. The ex-villain ran her fingers through her hair and frowned. "Nozomi-chan?"

"Your hair's kind of tangled. Here, do you have a brush? Do you want me to braid it for you?"

"Go get your brush," Aizawa told her, giving the child a nod. He watched her go off to her room to get it and turned his attention back to Nozomi. "So why blonde?"

She smirked and tossed her hair over her shoulder, nearly making her glasses fly off her face. "You don't love it, Shouta~? You mean I didn't make your heart skip a beat when you saw these gorgeous golden-?" She jolted away, her smirk crumbling to a fearful frown when he reached toward her. "N-no. Please don't. Please. No…no, no…"

Hearing her speak in this almost whimpering fashion made his frown deepen. "Hiyori-" He saw her shake her head vehemently, blonde hair swaying side to side as she did this. Her fingers sank into her hair and her shoulders began to tremble. "Hiyori."

"Heh…heheh…" Lifting her gaze, it became apparent that her eyes were filling with tears. The young woman's amber eyes shone wetly as she stared up at him, a shaky and fearful smile plastered on her face. "Shouta. You shouldn't talk about your ex."

"Nozomi-chan?" Eri was entering the room again and saw the ex-villain wiping at her eyes. The little girl's eyes filled with tears as well as she approached. "Nozomi-chan, are you…okay…?"

"I'm fine, Eri-chan. Okay, so, braids, right?"

Aizawa could see that she was still trembling and it pained him to see this. Clearly, something horrible had happened to her to make her react this way to him getting close. I don't even want to think about what happened, but this isn't right. I've never seen her look this afraid.

Knowing that trying to drag the details from her would only cause her more pain, he determined not to push her. He would just be cautious and try not to do anything that would upset the ex-villain. Which just caused him more pain because what he really wanted to do was hold her.

Shift P.O.V

Nozomi tried not to let Eri notice how unsettled she was. After all, she was happy to see the little girl. Nothing could compare to the joy she felt when she saw that Eri was being taken care of and that the girl was content.

However, seeing Eri also brought back some absolutely horrific memories from her time with Overhaul. It took all of her self-control to not break down in front of the child and Aizawa. Her admiration for the hero had been rekindled when she saw him taking care of Eri so that it made it all the more upsetting to realize that he was unable to get near her without reminding her of Overhaul.

Her hands shook as she braided Eri's long, pale hair and she kept a smile on her face, trying to seem stronger than she felt. I'm safe, she told herself. I'm alright. Overhaul…can't even touch me anymore. I'm alright. I'm…

"Nozomi-chan…are you…really okay…?"

She sniffed as tears rolled down her cheeks. "No, I'm…I'm not okay," she mumbled, lifting a hand to rub at her eyes behind her glasses. "I'm sorry, Eri-chan. Heh. I'm an adult; I shouldn't be acting like this, huh? It's pretty funny, right? I'm crying like a baby!"

Eri stared up at her and then reached out with the hem of her sleeve to wipe at the woman's eyes. "It's okay…to not be okay." She glanced toward Aizawa and then threw her arms around the ex-villain.

Nozomi's eyes widened and she gently patted the child on the back. "…thanks, Eri-chan…you know, you're awesome."

"I'm…awesome?"

"Yeah!" She leaned back and grinned. "It means you're the coolest!" Seeing the child's eyes seem to sparkle with amazement, she felt a little better. "You're even cooler than Shouta and he's pretty cool." Nozomi caught the way his eyes widened slightly before he turned away and rubbed the back of his neck.

I forgot how cute he looks when he's flustered. It was almost enough to make her blush. Almost, but not quite. "Okay! What do you want to do now, Eri-chan? We can do whatever you want. We could play a game or we could draw or we could name the three cats that I never got around to naming."

Shift P.O.V

"You look pissed off."

Hawks raised his eyebrows, head cocked to the side. "What?" He had spaced off a little while Dabi was talking. His mind had wandered from the League of Villains' activities to what his roommate might be doing.

The villain smirked and leaned down toward him. "You're distracted."

He tugged at the collar of his jacket, pulling it up and hiding the lower half of his face. Hiding his frown. "I don't know you're talking about."

"Huh." Dabi leaned back again and pushed his hands into his pockets. He acted like it was uninteresting, but there was a spark of curiosity in his eyes. "So any news about Grayscale?"

"Grayscale? Oh! Nope, nothing." Hawks felt himself tense up after hearing that name, but tried to hide it. He was usually pretty good at hiding it if he was unnerved by something, but now he was struggling a little. It's just because she's not at home, he told himself. I'd be fine if she was just waiting at home for me. Why did Eraserhead want her to stay so badly? What am I going to do if he won't give her back? There goes my fun.

Watching the winged hero kick at a pebble, a forlorn sort of look to his eyes, Dabi seemed to come to a conclusion on his own. He decided to press further to see if he could get any more information. "You'd think they'd at least find a corpse or something. I bet she's in Tartarus. Someone probably caught her and they just didn't announce it."

The word "corpse" of course forced him to imagine his roommate lying dead in an alley and he frowned. Hawks ruffled his wind-blown golden locks. He imagined her lying lifeless, blood running from her mouth and speckled on her glasses. Her dyed blonde hair falling across her face as her fair skin grew paler, colder.

"You really think someone like her would die or get caught? She's a scorpion," Hawks protested. "Have you ever eaten a scorpion? They're pretty tough."

"The leader's getting desperate to find her."

He felt a slight increase in his pulse when he heard this and he smiled, head tilting to the other side. "Yeah? Well, if you find her, let me know. I want to see her again."

"I thought you didn't care."

"What? She's cute. Besides…" Hawks licked his lips and met Dabi's gaze. "I wanna see if she tastes like a real scorpion." He had absolutely no romantic feelings toward her, of course. Nozomi was just a source of companionship and entertainment. He just disliked the idea of her getting taken away from him.

Shift P.O.V

Panda struggled, trying to get free from Aizawa as the creature was lifted off of Eri's bed. It was late and the little girl was trying to sleep, but the cat desperately wanted to sleep on her pillow. Aizawa had to more or less put the cat over his shoulder before starting for the door.

He paused in the doorway, still holding the chubby black and white cat. Nozomi had dozed off while telling Eri a story, slumped over beside the little girl with her head bowed and blonde hair hanging over her face. He stared for a long moment, contemplating what he should do.

A part of him wanted to wake her up and bring her to his room to sleep. That same part of him wanted to try to rebuild the relationship he had once had with her. The dominant, logical part of him knew that he should leave her alone. After the way she reacted when he sat next to her, he knew that sleeping beside her was out of the question. The last thing he wanted was to see her revert back to that trembling, mumbling person he saw earlier.

Aizawa set the cat down outside of the room and pulled the door closed. Lingering there, he frowned and closed his eyes. He had seen the bandages on Nozomi's neck, darkened in some spots with blood. A feeling in his gut told him that whatever wounds were beneath the bandages were self-inflicted.

He sighed in frustration and began walking away from Eri's door. He wanted to do something for Nozomi, but there was little he could do for her. It seemed as though her winged rehabilitator had done everything for her to help her restart her life. All without any help from Aizawa.

Panda followed him as he strode down the hallway, meowing after him and soon being joined by a few more cats. He normally would have crouched down to pet them. Usually they could bring him comfort and help him clear his head, but not now.

He was nearing his door when he heard Eri's door open. The hero paused and tensed when running footsteps approached him. Aizawa felt a sudden weight against his back accompanied by arms wrapping around his waist and a pair of tails coiling loosely around his right leg. "Nozomi?"

"Don't…touch. Please. Just…just let me…work through this, okay?" She pressed her face into his back, tails tightening a little. "I…missed you…Shouta." Her hands pressed against his chest, her body trembling. "I'm so happy to see you…I don't even know what to say…and it hurts because I can't…I can't let you touch me. It took me a while to even trust Hawks. Just…be patient. Please."

He looked at the scarred, pale hands that were pressed to his chest and felt a pain in his heart. She sounded distressed when she begged for him to be patient with her and it made him realize that she had every intention of rekindling what they had before. It might be a slow process, but she wanted what he wanted.

Nozomi's right hand lowered from his chest and she laced her fingers with his. Her breathing hitched at her own actions and the stingers on her tails felt almost as if they vibrated in anticipation. "I'm sorry that I'm like this." The ex-villain's voice was normally hoarse and quiet, but now it sounded strained. As if she was struggling not to cry.

He wanted to turn around and embrace her, but he stopped himself. As much as he hated to hold back. As much as he wanted to show her how much he had missed her. How pleased he was that she was alive and well. Instead, he held very still and let her fidget with his fingers. "If you need something-"

"Shouta. I know." There was a pause as she hugged him. "Thank you."

I have to do whatever I can. I have to help her heal. Determining to help her regain her courage and strength, he found comfort in the way her fingers slipped between his. It was a good start.