A/N - This chapter does have a slight gore trigger. As with the previous chapter, the beginning and ending of the passage are marked with -TW start- and -TW end-. If you are a very visual reader and sensitive to blood/gore, please practice self care and skip that section.
Also, after this chapter the timeline will start moving away from canon a little bit.
I hope you enjoy reading this chapter as much as I did writing it!
Chapter 12 – Beside You
Sunlight streamed through the window hitting Aine's closed eyes, pulling her from her dreams. As she raised her hands to rub her eyes, she felt them tangle slightly in the blanket that had been placed over her. Stretching and allowing the blanket to fall into her lap, she allowed her brain a moment to fully wake. Glancing around the room, she noticed that she was alone. Well, almost alone. A black and white cat was curled up in the small square of light from the window, its tail lazily flipping back and forth.
Eri's bed was empty.
Aine could hear the sounds of life from beyond the closed bedroom door. Standing up and folding the blanket, she noticed not only her monitor but her phone sitting on the chair. She grabbed both of them and put them in her pockets before opening the door.
The sounds of a cartoon show drifted down the hallway mingled with the smell of fresh coffee. As she softly padded down the hallway in her socks, she saw Eri sitting on the floor with a bowl of cereal in front of her watching the television in a dark blue dress over a white long-sleeved blouse. There was another bowl sitting on the coffee table.
"Good morning, Eri." Aine spoke from the hallway as she stepped into the living room.
The little girl looked at her with a bright smile, jumping up from where she was sitting. Grabbing Aine's hand she led Aine the rest of the way into the living room. "You really stayed! Mr. Aizawa said we should let you sleep, I made you breakfast but I didn't put milk in it. I hope that's okay Miss…"
"You can call me Aine, Eri." she smiled down at the child.
"Miss Aine." Eri beamed back at her.
As Aine followed her lead to the couch and sat, Eri grabbed the bowl and disappeared into the kitchen returning a short time later. Happily she set the bowl of cereal, now with milk, in front of Aine, then Eri grabbed her bowl off of the floor. As the little girl settled on the couch, Shouta emerged from the kitchen with a mug of coffee in his hand. He silently watched as Eri and Aine ate and chatted while watching the cartoon show. If anyone claimed to see the smile he hid behind the mug, he would call them a liar to their face.
When they had finished their cereal, Aine gathered the bowls and turned towards the kitchen. Shouta's eyes caught her's and he took the bowls from her depositing them in the sink.
"Mr. Aizawa?" Eri came around the corner as well, standing with her hands behind her back, "Do you think Miss Aine could come with us to the park today?"
The adults exchanged a glance as the terms of Aine remaining at UA sprung to mind. Shouta started to answer but was interrupted by Aine.
"That's very sweet of you, Eri, but I really need to get back to my apartment." she smiled at the small child, "I have a lot to get finished this weekend. Maybe I can go another time?"
"Oh. Ok." disappointment was evident on her face, but she didn't press any further.
"Speaking of, thank you for breakfast but I really do need to get home." she smiled to both Shouta and Eri and made her way to the door.
The weight of a small body crashed into her waist. When Aine looked down she saw Eri with her arms wrapped around Aine's hips hugging her tight before letting go and stepping back. Smiling, Aine knelt down to Eri's level gently ruffling the top of her hair, "We will hang out again soon, as long as that is ok with Mr. Aizawa."
Eri smiled at her, "You promise?"
"Absolutely!"
Standing, she gave another smile to Eri and a wave to Shouta before leaving the apartment. The broken shards of her heart from the day before dulled and forgotten.
A few mornings later, Aine searched through her first aid kit, but she knew it was in vain. The burn cream was empty, and she had forgotten to put it on her shopping list. Sighing, she replaced the kit and put a sticky note on the counter to remind her to order more to be brought back the next time they had a shopping day. Surely there is some in the extra kit downstairs, she grabbed her keys and headed towards the downstairs kitchen.
She found what she was looking for pretty quickly and set the first aid kit on the counter as she dug through it.
"None here either." she grumbled in frustration.
"That kit gets depleted pretty quickly."
Aine spun around and was greeted by Shouta with his hand in the pockets of his hero costume leaning his back against the doorframe. His eyes were closed, and the rest of his face was hidden by his capture scarf. You would almost think he was asleep if he hadn't spoken.
"Just getting back from patrol?"
He nodded, "What are you looking for anyways?"
She held her hands up showing the angry red burns on her palms. "Burn cream."
He let out an exasperated sigh as he stepped away from the door frame, "I have some in my apartment." Shouta waved for her to follow him. Aine put the kit back together and placed it in its spot before jogging to catch up.
The walk to his apartment was silent. As soon as he opened the door, he gestured to the couch. "Sit there, I'll be right back." He hung his capture weapon by the door and disappeared around the corner into the kitchen.
She sat down and was almost immediately greeted by a grey and black tabby jumping right beside her sniffing her arm. Shouta came around the corner with a first aid box in his hand.
"Don't let him fool you, he's an asshole." as if on cue, the cat hissed and stalked out of the room. He set the box on the coffee table and dug out burn cream, disinfectant, and a few gauze bandages. "Let me see."
Aine protested "I can put it on myse-"
"I didn't ask that." He sat on the couch beside her and held out a hand. Rolling her eyes, she held her hands out with the palms facing upwards. He took one in his own and began applying the medications.
She looked around the apartment, "Is Eri not up yet?"
"She usually stays at Hizashi or Nemuri's when I have patrol. She'll be home after school today." he put antibiotic cream on one minor blister that had already broken open.
"That makes sense."
"How did you manage to injure yourself this time?" his eyes never left his work as he bandaged her hand.
Her eyes dropped, "I dropped the kettle this morning while making my tea, I didn't think I just grabbed it. Didn't even notice the burns until -." her voice trailed off as she watched his hands moving over hers.
He finished bandaging her other hand, and as he turned her hand over to secure it, she noticed he hesitated. With a frown, he ran his thumb along the scar on the back of her hand.
They sat in silence for a moment as he took both of her hands in his, turning them over and inspecting both the bandages and her scars.
He sighed. "Why?"
Aine looked up at his face, but his eyes were still studying the identical scars on her wrists. "Why?"
"Why did you leave?" she felt a slight bit of pressure as his hands lightly squeezed on hers.
She felt her shoulders sag as she took a breath, Not exactly how I wanted to have this conversation but here we are.
"Do you remember the day you found me in that abandoned factory?"
He looked up at her and nodded.
-TW START-
Shouta's instincts were rarely wrong. Something about this abandoned factory in the still dark early hours of the morning was making the hairs on the back of his neck stand at attention. Not in a way that said imminent danger was about to rain down but more of an eerie chill.
After surveying the perimeter, he found a backdoor that was standing wide open. From inside, he could hear a high-pitched yet muffled mechanical chirping. Moving slowly so as to not draw attention to his entrance, he made his way in through the doorway.
The darkness inside the building made it difficult to see through his visor, so he pulled it up and away from his eyes. As his eyes adjusted, a wave of putrid air hit him, and he swallowed hard to fight the bile that began to rise. Moving into the next room he saw viscera and blood splattered along the walls. As he picked his way further into the room, he saw various pieces of severely decaying human bodies strewn around the floor.
Covering his mouth and nose with his capture weapon, he pulled out his phone and called the police.
"It's Eraserhead, there's been some kind of attack. Multiple casualties. I'm at the abandoned factory in Musutafu."
After he gives his coordinates, he hangs up and continues moving towards the chirping sound while carefully moving around the body parts strewn around the floor.
The sound is originating from the other side of the room where he sees what appears to be a singular intact body crumpled a short way separated from the carnage.
Then the body moved.
He sprinted the final distance amazed that someone was alive as a messy mop of brown curls was illuminated by the moonlight streaming in through the window.
Shouta stopped short as empty hazel eyes slowly looked up towards him.
"Blink?"
The fire that had always flashed behind those eyes in previous encounters was gone. She regarded him for only a moment before turning away.
"Go ahead and take me in, Eraser. I won't resist."
The complete and total defeat in the once brash and defiant voice was startling.
"Blink" he stepped closer cautiously, like approaching a growling stray dog "I'm not going to do anything to you but…I have to ask…did you do this?"
She shrugged, "It's because of me so I might as well have."
The persistent chirping in the background continued through the silence as she shakily stood to her feet and held her hands out as if waiting for quirk-suppressing cuffs to be locked over them. On a closer look, he could see how pale she was. Her hands were blood soaked and shaking. Over to the side just beyond where she stood, was a bag of food that had been dropped but otherwise untouched.
"Blink, how long have you been here?"
"What does it matter. Just arrest me already." her eyes were fixed on the floor.
Shouta looked at the broken young woman in front of him as he heard the approach of sirens.
Blink looked up and started to take a wobbly step towards the open door. In the next split second, her eyes rolled back, and she was falling to the ground. Shouta caught her before her body could hit the concrete.
"Shit!" he hissed as he scooped her up more securely in his arms. The sirens were only a matter of blocks away by now. He debated what to do. Instinct told him she wasn't the person to kill these people, or at least not intentionally. She needed medical attention but if he gave her to the authorities, all the evidence and her own words would have her stuck in a jail cell as soon as she was stable.
"Nem and Zashi are going to kill me for this."
-END TW-
She broke eye contact and looked down where their hands were still joined, "Before it happened, I was given a warning. Someone who had known me back when I was still 'Blink' slipped me a message that All for One and the doctor had found where my group and I were staying." Aine grimaced at the cold chill that still ran down her spine, "He told me that if I were to come back willingly that 'all would be forgiven' and I would be welcomed back."
She chuckled ruefully, "I knew that was, at best, a lie, at worst, a trap. All they wanted was my quirk. I refused to go back."
Shouta's thumbs absentmindedly traced soft circles over her hands, "They came by the factory to force me to go back but it was a night that I wasn't there. So instead – "
"They killed them all." his voice was just above a whisper.
Aine nodded, "All for One was more interested in sending a message to me apparently. That I wasn't the only one in danger for my 'disobedience'. After you, Hizashi and Nemuri took me in, I heard rumors that All Might had finally taken All for One down. I thought we were safe, that I could breathe" her shoulders sagged, "For 2 years, I thought everything was safe again. Then, I ran into the man who warned me the first time – his name was Yuji. He warned me that I was being tracked by the same two lackeys who found and were responsible for what happened at the factory."
"Did you not trust that three pro-heroes would protect you?"
Her vision started to blur as the repeated nightmare of the factory blending into the apartment they had shared covered in blood and her friends' bodies crept into her mind.
"Exactly the opposite, I knew that you would all protect me, and All for One's message still rang loud and clear. He would have slaughtered anyone connected to me." a tear slipped out and down her face, she wiped it away with the heel of her hand, "So I did what I thought I could to protect you, I ran and left a trail for them to follow. To make them think you all meant nothing to me, and I was only trying to save my own skin."
"Explains why none of us could ever track you down, you gave just enough to lead them away from us but not enough to lead anyone to you."
She nodded, "It hurt. Staying no contact with you all. When I saw the news report about All Might defeating All for One, only one thing went through my mind. I could come home." Her eyes slowly lifted to meet Shouta's, "Then, I woke up in a cage with a quirk-cancelling collar on almost as soon as I set foot back in Japan."
He released her remaining hand and stood, turning away from her "I should have been there. Either at the rescue or at the hospital or the first day you came to UA."
Aine shook her head, "I can't even imagine what must have gone through your mind when you saw that video." He turned his head slightly to look at her over his shoulder. She stood, almost taking a step towards him before second guessing and staying where she was.
"Stop, Shou." At the familiar nickname leaving her lips, he turned around and locked eyes with her. "I know you are overthinking this. What matters is I'm home and, as I said after the Commission's ambush, I'm not going anywhere."
Shouta was still and silent as if he had turned to stone. A nervous tightening started in her chest when he stepped towards her, instinct telling her to run but her feet staying planted in their place. His eyes held her own like a magnet as he closed the distance between them.
His hand reached up to touch the side of her face, softly as though she might dissipate into the air with a heavier hand. Aine's eyes widened at the intimate touch and her entire body froze, her eyes searching his. Shouta's thumb traced the faint tear track from earlier as he closed the final breath of distance between them, capturing her lips with his own.
As warmth filled her chest, she pressed herself desperately into the kiss snaking her arms around his neck as the hand on her cheek slid to the back of her neck pulling her even closer. When the need to breathe overrode the pull between them, Shouta and Aine broke apart, leaning forward to touch their foreheads together.
"I've missed you so much, Shou."
Shouta placed his hands on either side of her face and kissed her forehead, "I was waiting for you to say that back." He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in tightly to his chest. Aine wrapped her arms around him.
Happy tears spilled from Aine's eyes as she listened to the steady beating of his heart. It was almost as if she could feel the final broken pieces of her life slide into place.