A Christmas Carol
Part 1: A Christmas Story Before Bed
He'd gotten up to refill his water glass, having been drained for several minutes now and his dry throat finally winning priority over his stack of paperwork. It may be the holidays but that didn't mean UA didn't assign just as much homework to its teachers as its students, and he wasn't one for pushing the grading of his class's assignments on anyone else unless he absolutely had to. It was going to be a late night but he was classified as a nocturnal hero, so he was used to those. The nights were the easy part. It was the mornings that took their toll.
As the faucet replenished his glass, Aizawa's baggy eyes were given the reprieve to wander and see the light that was on down at the end of the hall, leaking out from under the door. He had a fairly modest home and one not very large, so it hardly took much thought to figure out which room it was. And given only two lived here, not much to know who it was keeping it on, well past her bedtime.
"It's gotten pretty late. You should probably wrap things up for the night."
Mirio turned to see Aizawa in the doorframe from where he was seated on the floor. He was big and well-muscled, even for a third year, making the sight of him next to the tiny kid's table even more comical in comparison (which, honestly, was probably partly the intention if Aizawa had to guess, not that he would say anything). "Oh! Sorry, Mr. Aizawa. Guess we sort of lost track of time."
Seated adjacent to him, much more appropriately sized for a table like this, was Eri; the crayon in her hand having stopped in its attempts at writing further on the papers before her. "I'm sorry." She repeated Mirio's words, though with noticeably a touch more genuine guilt to them. Far more than was needed.
"No, it's fine." Aizawa made sure to assure her, taking an extra few seconds to read her body language to make sure she was okay with him entering before his lazy footsteps shuffled him on in. "Writing more letters?"
Mirio nodded happily. "Yep. She really wanted to thank everyone at your class's party for such a great time. We couldn't get the papers and crayons out fast enough!"
Eri gave a small smile at the memory from only a few hours ago. It wasn't as vibrant as Mirio's (would that even be possible?) but it was genuine nonetheless. Of all things the most prominent recollection was of the bird man who had shared sweets with her. He seemed scary at first but he was actually really nice and his black pet was really friendly. And he liked apples almost as much as she did.
With her relaxed enough, Aizawa moved closer to the two. He hadn't moved into this place with children ever in mind. This had just been a spare room he'd had in case he ever needed it, likely for guests. Eri was…likely going to something a bit more permanent than that, so the basic bed and bare walls wasn't going to cut it. Thankfully, the police, social workers, and even other UA staff had pitched in to help make these four walls more of a healthy environment for someone of her age. He remembered it seemed that only he and Mic hadn't been worried about whatever Midnight would contribute.
That said, while this certainly looked like the room of a little girl, it didn't quite…feel like the room of one. Yes, there were the toys and dolls and stuffed animals along the sides. Colorful posters for cartoons Aizawa had never even heard of because they were well after his time. A good number of cat images at any given spot you happened to be looking. A closet full of cute dresses she could start outgrowing any day now (minus the outfit Aizawa himself had bought for her, to which one of the nurses, politely as she could, asked if he was colorblind). But the room felt very…open. Too clean and well-kept for that of a child who should be completely against ever wanting to clean her room. Whatever toys were played with, they didn't stray far from where she'd brought them out and they were often quick to be put back. Actions of someone afraid that Aizawa or Mirio or whoever else might get mad at them for leaving a mess.
She was getting better, but Overhaul's shadow still lingered over her when it came to the smaller stuff.
"Your handwriting's gotten better. Good job." Aizawa complimented her chicken scratch as he looked down at the letters. It wasn't a lie. Barely legible was an improvement over completely illegible and progress was progress, especially in such short a time. He then turned to Mirio. "Thank you for coming over. But she really should be getting to bed."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right." Mirio rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Come on, Eri." He told her as he stood up.
"Okay." She followed his lead without issue.
Their path led them past the window, Eri looking out for a second into the night illuminated by the gently falling snow. It still amazed her how different everything looked with such a simple change. So much whiteness burying the familiar scenery until it completely changed the landscape.
She'd already changed into her pajamas when she'd gotten home, so within just a few moments and Mirio was already tucking her in.
"Ooh! Before I go, would you like me to read you a story?" He offered, spouting off the idea the second it came to his head, at which Eri's face immediately brightened up with anticipation and she gave several quick nods. He turned back to Aizawa. "Er...sorry. Is that alright?"
"It's fine." Aizawa said, a bit too late to say no now even if he were to have a problem with it. "Just don't make it anything too intense. The idea of a bedtime story is to help her sleep, after all."
"You got it, my man." Mirio gave a playful salute as he agreed without issue. He made his way over to the bookcase, having to kneel down considerably to look at the titles along its length as it, like the table, was built more for someone of Eri's size, not his.
Aizawa simply leaned back against the wall in wait. Storytelling was his typical go-to too whenever she had trouble sleeping. He had no problem with it, of course. It wasn't like she was staying up because she was trying to disobey him or anything. If she was awake because she was too full of energy to sleep or, on more serious nights, when worried thoughts and past trauma would not let her sleep, then he should give her something else to occupy her thoughts and relax her. It was simply rational.
"So, what are you in the mood for tonight, Eri?" Mirio called over to her as his fingers traced along the various spines, these children's books having such an inconsistent mix of lengths and sizes. "Hansel and Gretel? The Smartest Bear and His Brother Oliver? I know you love all their pictures of the yummy food!"
There was a long moment of silence, and when he still had received no answer Mirio turned back to her. "Eri?"
She was still in bed, the pillows allowing her to sit somewhat upright while still remaining under the covers. She had something she wanted to say but this was a girl not yet used to voicing her mind, or at least voicing it and having such words be listened to.
Finally, she worked up the nerve to ask for what she wanted.
"Could you…read me a story about Christmas?"
"Christmas?"
The request came as something of a surprise to them both but Aizawa supposed he honestly should have already been anticipating something like this. It hadn't been more than a week since Eri had first even heard about what Christmas was, as they'd passed by a bunch of decorations in the school halls on their way home one day, and that conversation had soon turned to the majority of other holidays as she asked question after question. Since she didn't exactly interact with many outside of himself and her doctors, the party had likely been her first real exposure to how celebratory the season typically was. It'd gone so well he hadn't yet figured out how to tell her she couldn't keep the sword she'd received in the white elephant gift exchange. In fairness to her, he wouldn't have trusted anyone in his class not to hurt themselves with the sword either. …Maybe Iida.
"Aw heck yeah!" Mirio exclaimed enthusiastically. "That's the best kind of story to tell around this time of year, after all. Although..." He scanned through the book he had available to him again. "I don't think we have anything here that's about Christmas. Hmm...OH!" He snapped his fingers, the lightbulb of an idea exploding once more over his head. "My dad used to read A Christmas Carol every year to me when I was a kid. I could probably tell you that story pretty well from memory!"
"That might be too intense for her." Aizawa cut in with that simple statement.
"Intense? Oh, right, because of the ghosts. Yeah, I guess that would be kind of scary for a little kid." Mirio acknowledged his point, having been too caught up in his enthusiasm for a moment there. "Sorry, Eri."
"It's okay." Eri said with understanding, as she didn't want to get scared either. "…What's a ghost?"
That was the perfect rebuttal to Aizawa's statement and she hadn't even meant it as such.
"Ghosts are…well..." Aizawa tried to think of the best way...or really any way...to explain. "They're those white things you made out of tissue paper that you gave to Yaoyorozu at the party."
"Oh! I like those!"
Aizawa and Mirio looked back and forth at each other. Not exactly an accurate image of the dead coming back to life from beyond the grave, but again they weren't trying to scare her, so...?
Aizawa closed his eyes, leaning back again against the wall as he waved Mirio along with his hand. "Alright. Go ahead." was the unspoken gesture.
"Alright then! A Christmas Carol it is!" Mirio walked over to the bed and sat down beside Eri, his weight causing the mattress to sink in far more than her small frame did. "Be patient with me, okay? Like I said, I'll be telling this story mostly from memory."
"Okay." Eri said quickly, her wide eyes lit with suspense as they stayed fixed on him. Such hopefulness only gave Mirio further motivation to make this story a good one.
He sat a bit straighter, getting comfortable while also making sure he wasn't leaning on Eri at all. "Alright. So then… Once upon a time… No, no, that's not how a Christmas story should begin. …Twas the night before Christmas…yeah, that'll work! Twas the night before Christmas, and in a snow coated town walked home an old man named Ebenezer Scrooge."
…Hours ago…
"ACHOOO!" The sneeze erupted from his face and became so solid a cloud in the cold air that his nose hurt. "Agh… Not enough to have just a seasonal flu. Have to have an every season flu, I guess." All Might joked to himself, fishing the handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe away the wetness above his lip.
Authors notes: I've been meaning to write a proper MHA fanfic for a while now and this particular idea is one I've had on the backburner for a long time. Somehow or another, I finally found the motivation to actually make it.
I don't know if A Christmas Carol is my favorite Christmas story but it is definitely one of my favorite story skeletons. I love seeing how various stories and series will put their own spin on Scrooge and the ghosts. Who and what gets assigned to what role and why. I think my introduction to A Christmas Carol, at least as far as I can remember, was "Bah Humduck" which was a Looney Tunes version of the story. That or "Scrooged", which I was definitely too young for at the time.
Then there are others like The Muppets, Doctor Who, I even had someone suggest that Re:Zero's arc 4 can kind of be viewed as a spin on the A Christmas Carol skeleton even though the story itself has nothing to do with Christmas, which I thought about all day afterwards. And in the case of the story that sparked the urge to write this fanfic, there's "Batman Noel". Basically Batman in the role of Scrooge. Sounds like it shouldn't make any sense but in the actual context it really worked and I loved the choices for who were the ghosts.
And if that could be done with Batman, well, why not give it a shot with my favorite character in MHA, All Might? What fun can I have thinking up who his ghosts are this Christmas?