Answer your phone! He stared down at the screen, scrolling to the number to try again. He had lost track of how many times he had attempted to call, but he was becoming more panicked with each failed attempt.

Hawks was sitting in an apartment full of hastily packed bags with what few belongings Nozomi had and whatever he had been able to grab the night Dabi gave him the panda stuffed animal. This new apartment was more secure and he made one hundred percent sure that no one was following him when he moved. This time, Hawks took extra precautions to be sure that it was secure.

Hunting for a new apartment, he had a checklist. Extra thick window panes. Furnished. Double thick curtains over the windows and the windows did not open. Soundproof walls and door. The door itself could only be unlocked from either side with a key and he had the only copy of the key. That one had been difficult to get so it had taken a couple of days.

He slouched where he was sitting on the couch, running his fingers through his hair. Come on! Answer your phone! Please! Hawks could only imagine the worst. The flame-wielding villain approaching the dorm where Nozomi was, planning to burn it to the ground with all of the students inside. Stealing the mangaka away into the night and, most likely, murdering her in some horrible way.

The winged hero was becoming desperate. He wanted to keep his friend safe. He had saved her for a reason; he knew she was a good person, deep down, and he wanted to give her a better life. Now he was afraid of her being retaken by the villains and suffering a worse fate than before.

The last time he spoke to Dabi, he could tell that the scarred villain knew her whereabouts. It was glaringly obvious; from the panda plush to the way he spoke. He knew that Nozomi was alive, that Hawks had taken her somewhere, and he definitely wanted her back. So now Hawks had to figure out where to go from here.

He was supposed to be cooperating with Dabi so withdrawing was out of the question; it would look way too suspicious. He needed to continue to play dumb. Work with Dabi, talk to him as if everything was normal and calm. As if he did not have the venomous ex-villain in his possession. At the same time, he needed to keep her safe as well as other people.

Leaving her with Eraserhead was not an option. Not with so many kids in the dorm. Again, Hawks found himself imagining Dabi burning it to the ground and dragging Nozomi out of the burning building by her tails.

He needed to bring her to the new apartment and keep her there for a while. The walls were soundproof. The door could only be unlocked with the key that he had, from the inside or the outside. The windows could not be opened. All of these safety measures to make sure that no one could get to Nozomi. Now, as he thought about the various precautions, Hawks realized that it sounded more like he was keeping her prisoner.

Try as he might to make her feel comfortable and safe, he was basically holding the ex-villain captive. His captive mangaka. It made him feel uncomfortable to reach this realization, but there was nothing to be done for it. Things had to be this way if he wanted to keep her safe.

Calling again, being sent to voicemail once more, he knew what he had to say. "Since you won't answer, I'm coming there tonight. I need to bring Nozomi-chan back with me; it's not safe for her to be there." Hawks tucked the phone away and stood. This was his only option now; collect Nozomi, bring her back, and keep her hidden until he could think of some way to convincingly fake her death.

Shift P.O.V

"Any dinner requests?" Nozomi pulled her hair back into a ponytail, keeping her braid hanging freely beside her face. She saw Eri tilt her head and smiled. "Do you want to help me cook?"

The child's eyes widened. "I…can help?"

"Of course! You know…I used to help my mom cook when I was a kid. I was really bad at cooking though! Heh! I remember the first omelet I made; it was crispy and brown, but my mom still ate it and told me it was good. She should've told the truth." She offered a hand for Eri to hold and looked toward Aizawa, who was dozing off on the couch with a cat on his lap.

He's pretty out of it. Must've been a tough day at the school. Nozomi frowned briefly before catching sight of Eri's worried glance. She put on a smile again and began leading the way out of the room. I don't want her to be worried. She's a little kid; she should be having fun. Kids shouldn't have to worry about stuff like…Overhaul. Or villains or death.

Something that she, unfortunately, had in common with Eri was that she had accidentally killed a parent when she was around Eri's age. She had always suffered from night terrors and when she was a little kid, she often got into her mother's bed to seek comfort.

One night, her night terrors were particularly bad and her stingers dug into her mother's skin. A lethal dose of venom was injected as they both slept and Nozomi had woken to her mother's body gone cold and her mother's husband shaking her, screaming.

Nozomi had been acting as a mother figure to Eri for two days and she was doing the best she could. This was extremely different from when she had acted as Shigaraki's caretaker so it was taking some getting used to. Eri was afraid to ask for things and Shigaraki had always wanted one thing or another. It was actually pretty refreshing, but left a lot of guessing when it came to meals or activities. Nonetheless, she was happy. Happier than she had been in a long time.

Aizawa was trying to help her get used to trusting men again. That took a lot of work, though. He was doing his best to just ease her into trusting him, even if it was just enough to let him touch her shoulder. To her credit, she was trying her best to let her guard down. It would take a while before their relationship was anywhere close to what it had once been.

"Okay…let's see what we can make. You really don't have something in particular you want to eat?" Nozomi dragged a little step stool over to the counter for Eri to stand on, giving the girl a look of curiosity. Come on, Eri. You can be a little selfish. Kids are allowed to be a little bit selfish.

The pale-haired girl stared up at Nozomi for a long moment and she started to tilt her head. "C-cake…?"

A grin tugged at her lips and the ex-villain gave a nod. "You know what? Why not? Cake for dinner sounds good! I know a good pound cake recipe so we'll make some pound cake and we can top it with…" She checked the cupboards and beamed. "Oh yeah! Here we go, Eri-chan! Apricot preserves!"

Eri examined the jar as it was handed to her. "…apricot…?"

"It's good; trust me. I made a cake for Kurogiri once for his birthday and…huh? Wait. Kuro…giri? Wait. Heh. Okay let's just make this cake! We'll make it great!" Nozomi started gathering ingredients, but frowned to herself.

Kurogiri. I haven't thought about him in forever. Is he even still alive? Why do I care? I shouldn't care about any of them! I'm happier now! I'm in a better place so why…?! She felt her hands shaking and stared down at them, curling her fingers inward to form fists as her vision began to blur.

It was difficult for her to focus now. She kept thinking about the past. Memories and images kept popping into her head. Before she knew it, Nozomi found herself sitting on the floor in the corner with her fingers running through her hair over and over again. Teeth gritted. Tails smacking the floor anxiously as her stingers dripped inky venom.

Gone…gone, gone, gone. They're all gone and I'm here! What am I doing?! Where…are they? I don't know what to do! What can I do? I'm not…I'm not a hero! I'm not good enough to be a caretaker! I'm a villain! I've got so much blood on my hands! Blood?!

Her trembling hands left her hair as tears rolled down her cheeks and speckled her glasses. I'm…I can't…no…I can't do this! What was I thinking?! I hate this! I hate me! I feel like I'm…splitting apart! I hate this! End it! I want to! I want to end it and I want to bleed out! I want it to stop! I want to get away! I can't-!

A small hand gripped the base of her stinger, drawing Nozomi's attention and making her jolt. Eri stared down at her with watery red eyes. "Nozomi…no…"

Lowering her gaze to the stinger, her own eyes widened. She had been holding her own tail with one hand, about to dig her stinger into her opposite forearm. "I-I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Eri-chan, I'm sorry! I couldn't even…protect you…when you needed me, I just…I was so weak! I'm still so weak! I'm not…strong enough for this!" Nozomi curled into a ball and hid her face.

"What the hell are you doing on the floor?"

She knew that voice. One of the worst case scenarios was now coming true; a student had seen her tails. The worst possible student. Nozomi knew there was no getting out of this. The quirk "twin tail" was already pretty uncommon, but adding the stingers into the mix made her even rarer.

"…Nozomi…" Eri sniffled, lifting her hand and wiping at her tears.

Footsteps approached and finally halted in front of where Nozomi was curled up on the floor. "Hey! C'mon! You're supposed to be an adult! Why the hell are you crying on the floor?!"

She was silent, but glared up at him through her golden bangs. "Just go away…just take Eri-chan out of the room…I don't want-"

"I don't care what you want! You're supposed to be an assistant teacher, aren't you? So act like it!" Bakugou growled.

"I'm not-"

"I said I don't care!" He crouched down, glaring back at her. "Everybody else is too stupid to recognize you, but I remember you and you weren't such a damn weakling before. Get up and act right, Mori-sensei."

"Tch. You're…just a dumb kid, you know that? Baku-brat." She wiped at her eyes, nudging her glasses up to do so. Meeting his glare directly now, she smirked and ruffled the boy's hair before he could move. "Well, whatever. Fine. You want me to act like I used to? You want a juice box or something?" she taunted.

Nozomi pushed herself to stand and gave Eri an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. That…wasn't me, huh? I'm an adult; I'm supposed to be stronger than that. Okay, let's check on the cake." She offered her hand to Eri and the little girl took it, but still looked worried. "Do you want to go get Aizawa?"

"You're…okay?" Eri asked timidly.

"I'm fine. Go get Aizawa, okay? Tell him we have cake." Nozomi watched her trot out of the room with her favorite cat following closely. She sighed and ruffled her own hair, grimacing at the fact she had pulled most of it out of her ponytail. "Damn it. I thought I was doing better. I thought I was past all of that." A look over her shoulder made her realize the teenager was still in the kitchen. "What? You want a juice box or some ginger candy? I don't have any candy anymore, but-"

"Make me another omelet like the other day," he grumbled.

"Heh. Will do if you can forget that little meltdown. You were right; that wasn't very mature of me, huh? I'm supposed to be a role model for Eri-chan, but then I break down over something as stupid as a cake."

She started steaming rice for the omelet and jumped when she heard something smack into the window. Too loud to be a simple sparrow, but the wild flapping of wings indicated it was definitely some kind of bird. Nozomi cautiously stepped toward the window and stumbled backward when she saw Hawks press his face against the glass.

"Wh-what the hell are you doing?!" She went to open the window and grimaced. "Where've you been? You never showed up and Shouta said you didn't call! Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

He struggled in through the window and looked over his shoulder as he locked it again. Only when he was sure it was secure did he turn to her. "I did call! I've called like thirty times! He didn't tell you?!"

"What?" Nozomi was really glad that she was the only one in the kitchen at this moment. The hero looked exhausted and his wings twitched a bit anxiously. She was sure that if a student was there, they would probably be a little unsettled. "Hawks, what's going on?"

"We've got to go. Right now. What are you wearing?"

She glanced down at the clothes she had borrowed from a female student. "Um…I think this is Yaoyorozu's outfit? The clothes I borrowed from you needed washed; I spilled soy sauce on the shirt. Sorry-" She tensed as he gripped her shoulders and leaned down close. "Uh…Hawks? I can wash them and give them back, but I live here now. Shouta hired me to watch Eri-chan so-"

"You can't. Look, we seriously have to get out of here right now."

Goose bumps rose on her skin and she felt her heart sinking into her stomach. "Hawks. You're…just kidding, right? You're kidding. Heheh. This is a really bad joke, you know? I mean, why would you-?"

"Dabi gave me a panda plushie." He saw her eyes become watery, felt her trembling grow worse. "I moved all of our stuff, but we've got to get out of here now, okay? I'm serious. I wouldn't joke about something like this."

"What's going on?" Aizawa appeared in the doorway with Eri holding onto his sleeve, staring at the winged hero holding the ex-villain by the shoulders. "Is someone going to explain?"