NeonHorizon: Featuring "dad voice" Aizawa.

Nozomi sat on the couch, arms wrapped around herself and trembling. As if memories of her nightmare were not bad enough, she had to also deal with the anxiety of spending the day with a complete stranger and then being flown home by Hawks. It was certainly a day to test to her.

She scratched at her wrist, teeth gritted as she tried to keep herself calm. "You left me alone…with a stranger," she mumbled. "You know how much I…hate it…when you…" The words faded and she frowned, chewing at the inside of her cheek. That sounds familiar. Why? Where have I heard that before?

Hawks was in the middle of changing clothes, his back to her and his door completely open. "Did you say something?" he called over his shoulder.

Slouching a little more, she shook her head and reached a trembling hand toward her tails. Something compelled her to lift it, bringing the stinger close until she found herself chewing on it. The stinger itself was tough in comparison to the rest of her tails so there was no pain as her teeth gnawed at the dark, curved appendage.

I've heard someone say it before. Where? Wait…no…Her eyes started to sting and she closed them. The chewing grew a little more frantic as she realized something horrifying. It had not occurred to her before, but the way she spoke sometimes, the way she scratched at her neck when she got anxious, the threats she snarled at Hawks. All of it reminded her of Shigaraki.

No…no, no, no! Why though?! Why am I like this? What am I…doing? She heard a crunch, felt it beneath her teeth, and drew away from her stinger with wide, watery amber eyes. It was cracked ever so slightly. She dropped her left tail and lifted a hand, feeling a wetness around her mouth. Wiping at her lips made her hand come away smeared with a dark, shining substance she knew to be her venom.

"Whoa! How'd you manage to do that?" Hawks clicked his tongue right behind her, peering down at the cracked stinger from over her shoulder. He leaned down, reaching with one hand to gently lift her left tail. "Stay here. Don't touch it."

Staring down at her tail, she licked her lips and tasted a bitterness. Her vision started to blur, the color fading from the world around her as she blinked. She licked again, shivering at the bitter flavor of the venom. It was like black coffee, but somehow smoother.

A level one dose of venom, depending on the potency, altered vision. Removed color, distorted depth perception and clarity. Sometimes caused blindness. A level two dose could remove the victim's hearing. A level three dose was fatal. Of course, her body had some level of resistance to it since her body produced the venom.

Her thoughts quickly shifted from the way her world had turned gray. She watched Hawks approach the couch with a roll of bandage in hand, as well as a wet cloth for her to wipe her mouth. As she wiped away the excess venom from her lips, she observed the way he wrapped her stinger with bandage. He was humming, working as if this was no big deal. As if he was not handling the most dangerous part of her body.

"There we go." He leaned back, half-grinning at his own handiwork. "At least it didn't bleed, right?"

She snapped out of her thoughts and turned her head to stare at the hero. Locks of tangled golden hair fell over her face, windblown back to its normal disarray after Hawks flew her home. Nozomi tilted her head, her tails swishing out of his reach and thumping against the couch cushion.

"That hero said "it's interesting that Hawks is dating a mangaka". He said that to me after you left," she growled, recalling the incident.

"Oh." He rubbed the back of his head, frowning as he leaned back. "Seriously? Why'd he have to say that?" This last part was muttered under his breath, but it was clear that Nozomi still heard him.

"Maybe if you hadn't introduced me as your Nozomi he wouldn't have made that assumption." She poured plenty of venom into her tone as she glared at him from the corner of her eye.

"I mean, it could be that…or it could be that I told him you were my girlfriend." Hawks raised both eyebrows when he saw her face him with a glare. "What?"

"Why would you do that? What's the point? Even if you can't tell anyone about my past, we're still just roommates, right?"

"Yeah, but it's just easier this way. It's not actually like that."

Nozomi pushed up her glasses and smirked. "Yeah. I'm not really into blond birdbrains," she remarked, feeling a little cheered up since she had an opportunity to be sarcastic.

"Ouch. That stings," he pretended to pout. Hawks was about to say more when his phone started to ring. He released a frustrated sigh before he even looked at the screen. As if he was expecting it to be someone that had been bothering him a lot lately.

He tilted his head and quirked an eyebrow. Clearly, whoever he was expecting, this was not them. "Hello?" Immediately, his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes narrowed. "Oh. Yeah. She's here." Hawks stared at Nozomi now, unblinking for a long moment. "…sure…"

Shift P.O.V

The lengths that he was going through to try to get Nozomi to come back were getting a little ridiculous. For one, the fact that Hawks refused to answer when he called meant that he had to have Mirio call for him and ask for Nozomi. Aizawa stood by as Mirio dialed the number and put it on speaker mode when the teacher instructed him to do so.

When Hawks finally answered, Mirio beamed. "Hello! Is Nozomi there? I'm a big fan and I want to talk to her!"

A big fan? Aizawa's frown deepened, wishing Mirio could have forgone the odd improvised line. "Tell him to give her the phone," he whispered.

"…Nozomi…?" Eri stared at the phone with wide eyes.

Apparently hearing the little girl ask for Nozomi was what it really took to persuade Hawks. He seemed to have given the phone to the ex-villain. She greeted Eri and Aizawa could imagine her smiling as she spoke. Hearing her voice made him miss her that much more.

He waited, listening to her talk to Eri and Mirio. The teenager had never met Nozomi so he had no idea that he was actually speaking to a former member of the League of Villains. Aizawa held out his hand for the phone after a few minutes and it was given to him without objection.

"Nozomi," he started, taking the call off speaker mode. "Where are you?"

There was a brief pause, in which he could imagine her smirking. "Shouta~ If you want something, just come out and say it."

As much as he hated being teased, hearing her talk this way made him feel relieved. She sounded like her old self. Like the person that had taken care of him after his injuries in the USJ incident. Like the person that had actually saved his life that day. He walked away from Mirio and Eri, making his way toward his room for privacy. "Fine. I want you."

Now she would probably be blushing. Her tails would be wrapping around each other like they did when she got flustered. She was probably pushing up her glasses, maybe biting the inside of her cheek. "Heh. You're so forward."

"Don't use my phone to talk dirty," Hawks said in the background.

"So where are you?" Aizawa knew he had to be quick, before Hawks took the phone back. As soon as he thought this, however, something came to mind. This felt like a hostage situation.

"I'm at home. I guess…his apartment. Is everything okay?" She sounded worried now, but not like she was in a hurry to get back to him. Nozomi made no offer or suggestion that she wanted to return to the dorms.

He frowned and looked down at the hairless cat now rubbing against the side of his leg. "I want to see you." His heart beat a bit faster at this confession.

There was a moment of silence. A soft rustling sound for a few seconds. "Shouta, I…don't know what to say." Nozomi's voice was quiet, but her joy could still be felt through her tone. Her joy as well as her trepidation. "I want to see you, too. I do…I really do want to see you, Shouta. I just…I can't. Not yet-"

A growl of frustration escaped him, startling the cat. "Why not?"

"I don't like being afraid of you. I don't like not being able to be touched. Just give me some time to get over it and-!"

"Come here. Now. Or I'll go there. Don't make me go there," he said through gritted teeth. How does she expect to heal if she doesn't even try? Avoiding the issue isn't going to do anything. Even if Hawks says that he's trying to help her get over this, this isn't something he can do.

There was a brief sound of a struggle for the phone before Hawks spoke. "Nozomi-chan can't come right now. We're working on her manga tonight. Maybe next week or something."

"I said now," Aizawa stated, using his firmest tone.

"Yeah, but, like I said! We're pretty busy right now, right, Nozomi-chan?" There was a weird tone to his voice. Like he was in a hurry. Like there was a sense of urgency. "Now's not great anyway. It's a busy night; there are people everywhere. Someone might see her and then-!"

"Bring her here now."

"Look, Eraserhead, I'd love to. It's just really not a good time though so-!" Hawks interrupted his own sentence with a noise that made Aizawa move the phone away from his ear. It was a low, heated groan that instantly made the other hero question what the relationship really was between Hawks and Nozomi.

"What the hell…?" Aizawa heard another groan and panting, followed by a strangled sort of growl. What the hell are they doing?

"Ngh! N-Nozomi-chan, not so hard! Ah!"

"Put her on the phone right now or I'm coming there," he finally growled.

Seconds later, Nozomi greeted him. "I…really want to see you. Just don't try to push me, okay? I want to get better…but I need to set my own pace. And this fool already pushed me out of my comfort zone twice today."

Aizawa blinked slowly, still frowning despite this good news. "What'd you do to him? What was that sound about?"

Shift P.O.V

Nozomi grimaced, toying with a bright crimson feather with her free hand. "When he's a bad bird…he gets plucked," she replied, glancing toward Hawks. She had not expected that sort of reaction from the winged hero. The last time she plucked out a bunch of his feathers, it seemed to hurt him. Given, she had been in the middle of a fit in which she had scratched open her own neck so she had not given much thought to how forceful she was being.

This time was different. She was unsure of why, but this seemed to be less about pain and more about pleasure almost. He was still panting a little, his cheeks a warm shade of pink as he averted his gaze in defeat. Nozomi tilted her head, tails wrapping around each other tighter. "We'll be there soon. Right, Hawks?"

"F-fine." He ruffled his hair, wings twitching slightly behind him. Once his phone was returned to him, he tucked it into his pocket and frowned. "You're probably staying the night there, huh?"

She looked toward the window, out at the setting sun on the horizon. "Yeah."

Hawks did not look pleased about taking her to the dorms, but seemed to understand that if he refused, she might pluck out all of his feathers while he slept. He trudged into his room and soon returned, tossing some clothes to her. "Wear these. You'll draw less attention to yourself."

Nozomi stared at the clothes he had given her. She knew they were his. She knew he was right about wearing the clothes; they would fit loosely and make any casual onlooker just think she was a guy. However, something in her gut told her that he had some ulterior motive. At the same time, his clothes were pretty comfortable so she decided to just go with it.

When she emerged from the bathroom, wearing his t-shirt and pants, she found him sitting on the couch with a sort of pouting expression. "What? Are you going to miss me tonight?" she taunted, expecting some kind of sassy comeback.

"Yeah."

The answer left her taken aback and she frowned, fidgeting with the red feather she was still holding. "Yeah? Why's that? I mean, you lived without me until just about a month ago, right? And it's not like this is how it will always be. Eventually, I'll have to go my own way. I'm grateful that you're helping me, but you know that's how it has to be, right?"

Hawks looked as crestfallen as a child that had found a kitten and was told that they had to return it to its real owner. He ran a hand through his hair and put on a grin, but it did not reach his eyes. "Yeah, I know. I just got used to having you here all the time. I'll see you again tomorrow morning though. It's not a big deal."

She nodded, now twirling the feather between her fingers. The girl saw him staring at it and smirked. "Here. I know how to cheer you up." Nozomi began braiding a strand of golden hair that hung beside her face and held up the feather. It was a shorter feather so it was easy enough for her to weave it into the braid. "See? Now I'll have part you with me tonight."

He displayed a real grin now. "Awww! I didn't think you'd miss me, too."