Chapter 13

Tonight is one of those nights where she decides to take some overtime. A little extra time outside means a little extra number of Villains apprehended. But a little extra number of Villains apprehended also means a little extra tired.

When she arrived at UA, the sun already dipped behind the horizon. She was already dragging her feet, and getting into the bath was already a daunting task. Initially, she doesn't want to go back down to the common area, too tired to do so, but she feels like she might miss a lot of stuff if she doesn't do so. And besides, dinner together is a must no matter how exhausted one is.

So, after getting into comfortable clothes (not his, sadly), she returns back to the elevator and gets down to the lower floor, where the common area is at.

As soon as the elevator doors slide open, there is already a commotion, quite a loud one at it. Entering the common area, it is messy. There are flours all about, numbers of bowls here and there and every student is wearing an apron. And she has yet to look at the kitchen area.

"What are you all doing?" she finally speaks. A few of the students turn towards her while the rest are busy with whatever they are currently doing, other than making a mess.

"Baking!" Ashido answers, partly covered in flour while wearing a toque and grinning widely. Well, that explained the flour.

"Why is it so messy?" she asks, making one more sweep around the common area. The low table near the couches are covered in flour and metallic bowls.

Eraser will not be happy about this.

"We tried baking!" Yaoyorozu rectifies while smiling sheepishly, also covered in flour but not as copious as Ashido. She frowns at the answer.

"I thought one of you lot knows how to bake?" she says out loud, remembering hearing that fact from somewhere before recently. One of the students raises his hand guiltily. It's one of the taller students. She thinks his name is Satou.

"I tried my best to teach them but… it's not easy when-"

"DEKU!"

She jumps at the sudden shout coming from the kitchen. The moment she looks over there, immediately she feels her eyes twitch in disbelief.

"TODOROKI! TOO MUCH FIRE!"

"Oh. Hold on."

"WAIT NO TODOROKI IT'S TOO COLD NOW!"

"If I put it to 3000 degrees, it'll be baked in 5 seconds…"

"WHY ARE YOU PUTTING IN BBQ SAUCE?!"

"You're not supposed to?!"

"NO!"

If the common area is messy then the whole kitchen area is a fucking shipwreck that describing it will be pointless.

"Yeah…" Satou awkwardly scratches the back of his head.

"Does Eraser know about this?"

Every noise grinds to a halt, even coming from the chaotic kitchen. She sees everyone freeze with eyes wide as dinner plates.

That's enough of an answer.

Then, much to everyone's horror, she hears the ding of the elevator, signaling the teacher's arrival. She witnesses first hand as every single one of the students gulp in fear. Then, the doors slide open and enter their teacher, all in his black garb.

She expects to see his Quirk flared and every single one of his kids are bound by his scarf, questioning them over the state of the dorm.

Surprisingly, none of those had happened. He is silent all the way through, but his eyes are burning and not in the usual dryness sense. It makes her wonder about this unusual behavior of him.

But the answer to his out of character behavior comes in the form of the little girl clinging to his leg.

"ERI!" All of the students shout, fear completely gone and replaced. The white haired girl steps out and away from Eraser.

"Hello," she greets everyone with a polite bow before giving them an intrigued look, even tilting her head to the side. "What is everyone doing?" the little lady asks curiously. She must've seen the flour.

Well, it's not hard to miss.

"We tried baking," Midoriya, covered in flour, eggs and hopefully tomato sauce, answers while crouching down to Eri's height. Eri tilts her head even more.

"Baking what?"

"Baking cupcakes!" Midoriya replies while grinning. "But as you can see, it's not going well. And I am sure that Mr. Aizawa is not too happy at how… messy it is," he adds, his smile turning sheepish. At the mention of the state of the common area, she sees every student shift uncomfortably. They probably now realize they might get a scolding later, or whatever Eraser's version of scolding; she has yet to witness it first hand.

"Cupcakes…" she hears Eri murmurs quietly. Then, the little lady turns around and gives Eraser a pleading look.

When Eraser releases a defeated sigh, she tries not to snort in amusement.

"Clean up everything first, then we will start over."

"YAY!" Everyone cheers, including Eri.

"Will Rumi join too?!" The little lady asks her, eyes already sparkling in excitement. She feels a fond smile playing on her lips.

She can't say no to Aizawa's will-definitely-be-adopted daughter.

.

"Have you tried baking before, Miruko?" Tsu asks as she pours a cup of flour into a bowl.

"Nope, never gotten into cooking," she answers honestly. She only goes out and buys food. The last time she tried her hands on cooking she burned water (don't ask her how). Then, she turns to the man standing right next to her. "Have you, Eraser?"

"No," he answers as he stares down at the screen on his phone. He's squinting really hard and it makes her wonder if he wears glasses.

Eraser with glasses…

"Wh-What uh… What are you looking at?" she stutters, reeling her mind back from fantasyland to reality.

"Recipes."

"On how to make cupcakes?"

"Hm."

"Guess there is a first time for everything, huh?" she asks rhetorically. She quickly realizes that Eraser has been staring at the same page and he is squinting even harder. "Do you need some help?"

Finally, Eraser releases a sigh of defeat. Then, he holds out his phone towards her.

"Read it for me. I forgot my glasses," he answers with a grumble.

Eraser with glasses…

"S-Su… ahh… Sure," she stutters, willing the thoughts away. She grabs his phone from his hand and looks down at the screen, reading the recipes shown.

She's already getting a headache reading all the words.

"Well, this is going to go great," she mumbles to herself.

.

It… wasn't as bad as she thought it was. In fact, it was loads of fun making cupcakes.

Granted, it was a little chaotic making some delicacies around twenty odd children that are hyperactive, loud and partially dumb (someone tried to pour a whole can of tuna into the batter, again). Nevertheless, she enjoyed her time while at it.

One of the best highlights was watching Eri. The little lady was focusing so hard on following the instructions, assisted by the students around her. She even had a familiar frown on her face as she did her task.

It was so cute when Eri cracked an egg into a bowl with an Eraser-esque concentrated frown on her little face.

And speaking about Eraser, he wasn't far away from the little lady, always keeping her within his line of sight. He checked on Eri once in a while as he made his own batch of cupcakes.

But personally, the best part about this whole baking thing is that Eraser never left her side. He was always here, stirring his own bowl as she stirred hers. He would constantly ask her what to do next because she had the recipe with her.

They occasionally bumped elbows but never moved away from each other. She would spill the content of her bowl onto him from aggressive stirring but he brushed her concern away. In fact, he would spill his onto hers a few times.

If she didn't know any better, she would've thought he was taking revenge on her.

Right now, all the cupcakes are in the oven, baking slowly, and-

"Are they done now?"

"No."

Someone is-

"How about now?"

"No."

-is a little-

"Now?"

"No."

-a little im-

"Are they done now?"

"NO!"

-Impatient.

*DING!*

"They're done!"

Almost immediately, the students rush into the kitchen after restlessly waiting for them to bake in the oven at the common area.

"Don't be too hasty; they're still hot," she hears Eraser say as they both follow the students. Everyone gathers around the oven, looking through the window excitedly. Eri is kept a safe distance but she can see the little lady trying her best to peek through the crowd.

Eraser takes an oven mitt and heads over to the oven, making the students part to make way for him to let through. A large waff of delicious aroma quickly fills the room when he opens the oven and she can hear many students hum in joy. He takes out the pans one at the time and sets them on the island. She watches as the students marvel at their work.

"They're not done yet!" she hears Ashido shouts. "Now we're getting to the fun part!"

And that is where the frosting comes out. Along with it is a whole other bunch of mess. Eri is getting assistance from the other students, giving her ideas on what to do with it.

The little lady starts trying to draw everyone onto the cupcake, cramping as much as she can.

The other students go quite creative with their own design. Some go with sprinkles, some with copious amounts of cream. A few of the cupcakes are already eaten. She herself doesn't really want to think too deeply about this. Just a little squirt of cream on top and it's good enough.

But it's Eraser's frosting that makes her freeze on the spot.

He has a white spiraling cream on the top with light chocolate sprinkles all about, but it's the golden yellow crescent moon candy right on top of it that catches her attention.

Is that… what she thinks it is…?

"Here." He hands the cupcake to her, out of sudden. She looks up at him, eyes wide with surprise.

"Aren't you going to eat it?"

"I'm not into sweets," he admits with a light shrug. She looks back down at the cupcake again, mainly at the frosting. She gingerly takes it from his hand.

"Is this…?" she trails off, meaning to ask about the frosting he made.

"I couldn't think of anything else," she hears him start. "So I did what first came to mind." She looks back up at him. He doesn't look like he is fazed by the words he just uttered.

He seems to be staring at her, like really staring at her. Despite all the chaos that is caused by his kids around him, he looks nowhere else but her.

"And the first thing that came to your mind is…"

…her?

The buzzing of her phone startled her that she almost dropped the cupcake.

"E-Excuse me for a bit," she stutters, walking away quickly. She doesn't look back for his response, too timid to do so. She heads to the quieter part of the room and takes out her still buzzing phone to look down at the screen.

A private caller ID.

She picks it up nonetheless.

"Miruko."

"Good evening, Miruko. This is a representative of the Hero Public Safety Commission."

Of course it's them.

"Yeah what's up?"

"We had paid for the compensation for the collateral damages and prepared for the reconstruction of your home. Right now, all we need is your approval."

Oh.

She's finally getting her home back.

That…

She's not… thrilled at the idea.

Because if she gets back to her new home…

…She'll be leaving this place.

Then, she realizes that she has something in her other hand. Looking down at it, she sees it's the cupcake Eraser had made.

She finds her lips curl up into a soft smile.

"Thanks but no thanks," she replies. "I'm pretty good where I am right now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yep!"

There is no way she's leaving this place. It has the warmth that is missing from her home.

And she gets to be with Eraser too.

"Just to confirm: we will stop the reconstruction of your home and the lot to be left empty."

"Confirm."

"Alright, that is all for now. Thank you."

"Alright."

The line cuts off as soon as she finishes her sentence.

Not once she looks away from the cupcake at hand.

Designing frosting just like her…

She doesn't know what is going on in that man's mind.

"DEKU!"

"Kacchan! It wasn't me, I swear!"

"How did you make it so bitter?!"

"Why is your cupcake spicy?!"

She releases a sigh but the smile stays on her lips.

She turns around and rejoins Eraser and his kids.

Well, she's going to stay here for a bit longer.