She does not understand him.
His name is Izuku - Midoriya Izuku - and he does not make sense.
Eri is four now. She knows that because she heard Mr. Kurono say it to Father. She knows lots of things.
She knows that her quirk is evil, because Father told her so. She knows that she is a bad girl, because Father told her so. She knows that she isn't really a person. She's just a tool to help erase quirks. Quirks are dirty. Father told her so. And everybody listens to Father.
But Midoriya doesn't say that. And now she doesn't know what to do. She knows how to clean, because she had to do that at Father's house. But she can't find any brooms, she can't find the spray that makes her hands itch and her chest burn. And she doesn't want to ask Midoriya, because she should know where the cleaning supplies are.
Useless. Evil, stupid, useless Eri.
-
Her name is Eri.
He knows because it's the only thing she's said to him in the two weeks they've lived together. She responds to yes and no questions with nods and shakes of her head, but other than that it's radio silence.
Their house - because it's theirs now, not just his - is set up above a little café that he runs. Mom and him used to run it together, but once he decided to rescue Eri, he convinced her to go live with Dad in America. He's 14 now, and they've been running the café for years. That combined with the money Dad still sends over is enough to convince her that yes, he'll be fine, Mom.
She took his argument with little resistance and kissed his forehead with a sad kind of relief.
Sighing, he sprawls out on the couch. He needs to talk to Eri.
He takes a minute to think out what he'll say, and lifts himself from the couch with a groan. Eri's room is one door down from his - okay, it used to be his room - but since Mom moved out, he transferred his things to the master bedroom.
He knocks on her door and waits. He's not going to open it, and he's never going to enter without her permission. He should ask if she wants a lock on it, in case it'd make her feel safer.
Eri, sweet baby Eri, opens the door looking like she just woke up. Her hair's a mess, and her shirt is… well, actually, it's his shirt and it pools on the ground, and her eyes are droopy with sleep. A rush of affection sweeps through him and he beams at her. She looks up at him and doesn't meet his eyes - he's noticed that she never meets his eyes - and he squats down so she doesn't have to crane her neck.
"Hey, Eri." His smile softens and his heart melts some more. "Good morning."
She nods and her tiny hands grip what is now her shirt tightly.
"I was wondering if we could talk. There's some stuff I haven't gotten around to explaining yet, and I want to make sure we're on the same page."
Her brow furrows a bit, but she nods again. Stepping out of her room, she falls in step a bit behind him, so he slows. He makes sure not to lose his smile, even if it droops a bit under his concern. He's not leading her around, they're going together. So he starts with that.
"Eri, do you remember my name?"
She nods.
"It's Midoriya Izuku, right? It's not Chisaki Kai." She flinches at the name, but he needs her to understand. "Eri, you're human, not a dog. You can walk next to me, not behind me. Nobody will get mad at you for that. I promise."
She hesitates for a second, and then nods again.
-
She doesn't understand. She hasn't been useful the entire time she's been here, and he's telling her that she can walk next to him? He's… he's wrong. She'll just get in the way.
"Eri, can I pick you up for a second? Is that okay?"
Eri nods, because it is okay, and his arms are warm, and even if it weren't okay, she'd still have to nod or else Father would hurt her-
Izuku's arms are warm. Warm and soft and nice and she really wants to cry. She's making him dirty, and he doesn't even know it. And she's not telling him, so that makes her evil. She's con-contan-contanimat-contaminating him.
(In the small place in the back of her head, she's wanted Izuku to pick her up again so much, but she knows not to ask for things. Greedy girls get punished.)
Izuku sets her on a chair. They're in the kitchen, now, and she's in the chair he calls hers. It's got a bunch of pillows on it, because she's too small to reach the table without them. He moves around to the stove and she watches him move. He's spinning around and tapping his feet and his arms are going all sorts of places, and it's very silly. She doesn't know what he's doing, but… she wants to do it, too.
"Eri," and she startles out of her thoughts as Izuku sets a plate of something that smells wonderful and a spoon in front of her, "I wanted to talk with you. Is right now an okay time?"
He's asking her? Mr. Kurono and Father didn't ask her things, they just did them even when they hurt really badly and she didn't like them-
Eri, do you remember my name?
That's right. This is Izuku. Not Mr. Kurono. Not Father.
She nods her head, and with every bit of confidence she doesn't have, she squeaks out a, "Yes."
And Izuku beams at her like she's taken all the bright out of the sun and given it to him.
"Wonderful! Okay, just let me get my plate and we can talk." Izuku hops over to the counter, serving himself while she hesitantly pokes what she thinks is a chunk of egg with her spoon. She hasn't tried these yet. Izuku makes her breakfast every morning, and it's always something different. First it was pancakes, then waffles, then french toast, then cereal, then soup, and now eggs. She scoops up a piece and brings it up to her mouth (and she can't see him, but Izuku is very focused on her reaction), popping it in.
She's… she's never had anything like this before. It's soft and warm and fluffy and cheesy and it's a bit spicy, but it's so yummy! She starts shoveling the eggs into her mouth with her spoon, making sure to eat quickly before she has to give her plate back. Of course, Izuku hasn't ever taken her plate if she's not done eating, but it's only a matter of time.
He's not Father.
She twists in her seat to face Izuku, and his smile erases the bad that bubbles in her stomach. Her lips curve up and she can't look him in the eyes yet, but she'll work on it. "Thank you," she mumbles.
"Of course, Eri. Anything for you, bug." He sits down with his plate, bringing the pan to the table and putting it down on a hot pad. He waits for her to push her plate to him before he loads it up with more eggs, and then he gives it back to her.
That's another strange thing he does. When she finishes with her food, he always makes sure to ask if she wants more. When he first did it, she almost cried. She thought it was a trick question. Of course she was still hungry. Was she going to risk getting punished over it? No, she was not. She was going to be hungry no matter what, so it didn't do her any favors to be hungry and hurt.
And then he had piled more food on her plate, set it down in front of her, and asked her to eat more.
She doesn't understand him, but she really, really likes him.
"So what I wanted to talk about was how we're going to work together."
Oh.
She looks down, and her heart breaks just a little bit. She's going to be put to work now, she knows. She got time to get used to a new place, but it seems the calm is over now. She should learn not to hope for good things.
Izuku keeps on talking, and she focuses on him instead of the ache in her chest.
"I've got a place downstairs where I work. It's a coffee house, and we live here because I own it. I have to be down there a lot, so I wanted you to know that if you want to go down there too, you can." Izuku stops to take a bite. "Now, there's some other stuff too. Eri, this is really important, okay, You gotta listen really carefully and remember this."
She doesn't look him in the eye, but she does look up. Now he's going to tell her to clean the house and give blood and even if she isn't going to be hungry, she still doesn't like being hurt. She'll be hungry if it means not being hurt, and she thought that Izuku wasn't like Mr. Kurono and Father! And he said that he isn't, but what if he's lying? What if he-
"You don't have to do anything you don't want to do."
Her breath leaves her.
What?
"You don't have to clean, you don't have to be hungry, you don't have to do anything you don't want. If that means you don't talk, then that's fine. If that means you don't look me in the eyes, that's fine. If that means we buy all your clothes online, that's fine. If that means you don't come down into the coffee house, that's fine. If that means you're in the coffee house all the time, that's fine. If you want to go on runs with me, that's fine. If you don't, that's fine too.
She doesn't get it. He looks at her and reads her mind or something, because his face goes from serious to sweet. His eyes are green and sad and his face is so heart-wrenchingly open that she wants to scream, because he's nice and she doesn't want him to stop being nice.
Please, she wants to say. Please don't trick me. My heart hurts a lot, please don't make it hurt more. I couldn't take it if you were bad like Father.
"Eri, bug," and his voice is so soft, "you're not here to work. You're not here to do anything for me. You're here to be happy and peaceful and not-hungry. I want you to feel safe here, and I want you to have fun. You don't have to justify yourself by being unhappy. You don't have to be useful for me to care about you, bug. I promise."
Oh no, she's going to cry. She's going to cry and he'll be disgusted because she'll get the table dirty and then all of his words will turn into ashes and he'll be mad like everyone else-
"I also promise that I'll never hit you, Eri. I'll never yell at you. I'll do my best to make sure that you're comfortable here. If you wanna live somewhere else, that's fine. If you want me to go away, for a little bit or forever, that's fine."
Why is he so nice to her? She wants to rage at him and scream until he gets mad and breaks his promises (because he will, she knows it, everyone breaks their promises), she wants to laugh and hug him and have him say more things that make her heart ache (because she won't have this for long), she wants to cry until her tears wash away the entire world and it's just her, all alone, safe in a bed that she doesn't deserve (a voice in the back of her head that sounds like Izuku says yes, you deserve the bed, Eri, bug, you deserve the world).
Her heart says, please stop, I don't know what to do. Don't leave me, don't leave me, please don't hate me, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I just don't understand, I don't think that you should be nice to me, I think I'm dirty, I don't know what to think-
"If you need anything, I'll get it for you. I promise I'll be better than Chisaki Kai-" she flinches at Father's name, "-or Kurono, or any of them. Okay?"
She nods, and then she bursts into tears.
"Thank you," she whispers, over and over again, sobbing into her hands. She hears Izuku getting up and then he kneels next to her.
"Eri, can I hug you?"
She nods harshly, wailing when he wraps her up in his arms. She threads her arms around his waist and focuses on the warm safety love that surrounds her as he lifts her from her chair and into his lap. She's never going to tell him to go. She's going to hang on to Izuku forever, and she hopes that he'll hang on to her forever, too.