Chapter 34

Chapter Text

"Hello, Eri," Shota said quietly as the tiny girl finally opened her eyes. They'd moved her into the teachers' lounge at Izuku's urging, rather than let her wake in the sterile environment of a medical setting that she'd learned to fear.

"You're new," she said, sounding sleepy and not quite awake.

"My name is Eraserhead."

Eri watched him but didn't respond.

"Last night while you were asleep, we broke into Chisaki's compound and rescued you."

"Rezcood?"

"It means we took you away from him so that you can live somewhere else where you can be safe and happy."

"But Chisaki," she said, glancing around the room, suddenly very nervous, "he's…he's the only one who can stop my curse. He's… You need to get away from me." The cute little horn on her head was growing just as Izuku warned it would. "I'm very, very dangerous."

Shota engaged his own quirk, smiling when the girl looked at him in wonder instead of fear.

"You're not dangerous, Eri," he said, reaching over to brush the tears from her sweet little face. "You just need to be taught how to control your quirk. That's all."

"Are you an angel?" Eri whispered.

Shota laughed softly. He'd often been called the opposite thanks to the way his hair floated and his eyes glowed red when he used his quirk.

"I'm not an angel," he said, "but I can offer you a family, if you want. My husband and I have four sons"—yeah, they were keeping Shoto. Endeavour could twist himself in knots in the red-tape of the legal system if he didn't like it—"and two cats. We're even moving into a much larger apartment in the next couple days."

"Will Chisaki find me?" she asked, twisting her fingers together anxiously.

"No," Shota said confidently, "and do you want to know why?"

Eri nodded shyly.

"It's because we're at UA. It's a school that teaches students how to be heroes."

"But Chisaki can change the shape of anything. And he can hurt anyone." She sniffled, clearly trying to be brave. "Please, he's too dangerous. He's going to hurt you and everyone who gets in his way."

"No he's not," Shota said, almost laughing at himself for the hypocrisy of being grateful for Izuku's actions mere hours after lecturing him on how wrong the decision had been. "Chisaki is quirkless now. And locked up in Tartarus prison. He can't hurt you anymore."

"Quirkless?" Eri asked. "He was cured of his curse?"

"Quirks aren't a curse, Eri. They just quirks. They're not good or bad or evil. They're just a part of us."

"So they're not a disease?"

"Nope, just abilities that take time and practice to master. That's all."

She didn't look quite convinced, but thanks to the emergency foster care paperwork that had just been approved, they had time to help her understand.

"How old are your sons?" she finally asked.

"They're all fifteen and hero students at UA." Shota smiled. "And they're looking forward to meeting you. But there's no rush. They can wait till you're ready."

"I can have four big brothers?"

"You can," Shota said, glad to see the gleam of want in Eri's eyes. Izuku had described the hollowed out child of the previous timeline and Shota had been worried about how they were going to help. But in this timeline Eri had been rescued months earlier and Chisaki had barely finished his research and begun marketing the drug. They were fairly sure he'd used his quirk to disassemble and reassemble Eri when extracting her flesh, but Shota was immensely grateful that she hadn't suffered that experience daily for months on end. It would likely make her recovery a little easier, but it was still a horrifying start to a young life.

"You said 'husband'?" she asked curiously. "Does that mean I'd have two dads as well?"

"That's right."

"And you can turn my quirk off when I have an accident."

"Correct."

She gave him a shy little smile, ducking her head but watching him through her messy hair. "I think I'd like to be in your family, if that's okay."

"That's very okay," Shota said, glancing up to see Mic hovering in the doorway. "Would you like to meet my husband, Mic?"

"Is he a hero too?"

"He is," Shota said with an increasingly lighter heart. "He has a radio show. Have you ever heard of Present Mic?"

Eri shook her head slowly and Shota cursed himself for assuming she'd had access to a radio while in captivity.

"That's okay, kiddo," Mic said as he moved slowly closer. He'd already changed out of his hero gear so she probably wouldn't have recognized him even if she had known who he was. "Welcome to the family. You can call me Mic or Papa. Whatever makes you comfortable, okay?"

"Okay," Eri said, turning back to Shota. She gave him another of those adorable, shy smiles. "Thank you for rezcooing me. I want to stay forever."

"Forever is a good start," Mic said. "Now"—he lifted a giant shopping bag onto the lounge beside Eri—"what do you think about a change of clothes? I have a couple or so to choose from."

Judging by the size of the bag he'd bought out the entire store.

The ridiculous man.