Chapter Text
Even after spending half his life as the Symbol of Peace, Shouta still hated crowds.
“Watch it,” he snapped, cutting off some third-year who would have stepped on Eri otherwise. The poor kid looked horrified, realizing he had just pissed off Apex but Shouta wasn’t in the mood for some freak-out apology.
“Just be careful and watch where you’re going.” He tried to say it softer but loud enough to be heard over the crowd.
He ducked away from the attention and hurried after Mirio. They had moved to the side, and Mirio was softly chatting with Eri, who seemed alright if a bit spooked. She looked hopeful when Shouta walked up, a different name on her lips, but deflated a bit when she saw it was just him.
“Eri.” He tried to keep a smooth tone as he crouched to be closer to seeing eye to eye. “Kuro isn’t going to be coming until after the concert. Remember? I promise he’ll be here though.”
“She,” Mirio corrected.
“That’s what I said.”
“No, you said ‘he’,” Eri said, her brow furrowing in a way that vastly contrasted the timidness she usually executed. “You need to call her a girl or you’re being wrong.”
Shouta bit back a sigh, wanting to be defensive but not enough to argue. “I understand, Eri. I did mean to say ‘she’ but I could have slipped up. I will do what I can to avoid that in the future.”
The little girl narrowed her startlingly red eyes at him for a long moment before relaxing. “Kuro-san said all she wants is for people to try.”
“Good.” Shouta pulled himself up off of his knees, ignoring the creaking sounds his back made with the motion.
No longer needing to be in the corner, Mirio hoisted Eri up onto his hip for her to look around for some sort of food to start with. There were plenty of stands, and even a maid cafe done by class 3-F, of which was immediately vetoed as an option by Shouta.
They started towards a simple taiyaki stand, hoping to get something that wouldn’t upset Eri’s stomach and could be shared so that she didn’t have to try and finish it herself.
A puff of lavender hair across the crowd caught his attention. Immediately, he thought it might be Shinsou despite the fact that he should be with his class by this point. Even after he gestured for Mirio to keep walking without him (as much as it made his stomach tense) and made his way in the same direction that the person had been walking, it was clear that he had lost them.
By the time that he got back to the same spot, Mirio and Eri had moved on, and were eying the cotton candy. Eri had never had some before and it didn’t bother him a bit to buy her a small bit of candy just to try. Things seemed to relax at this point, as Eri was content and no one was willing to brave Aizawa’s glare to try and come up for autographs or whatever.
But the next problem came when one of Mirio’s classmates came running up, babbling about how someone had brought breakfast for their class but something must have gone bad and it had given almost half-their class food poisoning. The kid begged Mirio to come help what was left of the standing class maintain their small group of carnival games.
Mirio tried to back out but Eri, bless her bleeding heart, insisted that he didn't need to worry about her and that she’d be fine with ‘Shouta-san’ for the time being. Both ‘Mr. Might’ and ‘Hiichan’ were supposed to come by as soon as they could and that would have to be good enough for now as she wouldn’t take no for an answer.
So that just left the emotionally stunted Shouta to take care of a PTSD and anxiety-ridden child.
Oh boy.
It took a bit to convince her to try the cotton candy after Mirio had left. She had obviously retreated into her shell significantly and wasn’t doing great.
The sweets seemed to help though, as her eyes lit up when the first taste of sugar hit her tongue and dissolved. She was absolutely floored by the strange food, even more so when she was encouraged to try the blue patch that had somehow made it into the pink bag.
It at least gave him enough time to shoot Toshinori a simple, “ Currently taking care of Eri on my own. Help. I don’t understand children .” message.
It was enough to get Toshinori there as soon as he could safely leave his class on their own. Even if Eri only slightly perked up at the sight of him, it was better than Shouta alone. Teenagers were one thing, an eight-year-old was on a whole nother level.
“Hello Eri-chan,” Toshinori said smoothly with a soft smile.
Never in a million years would he admit it, but that smile made Shouta melt a little on the inside, already feeling calmer too.
“Hi Mr. Might Is Hiichan coming too?”
Both adults deflated a bit, not wanting to respond in the negative but also, not being able to pull Shinsou away from his work.
“I’m sorry but he’s going to be busy until after the concert. I promise he’ll be here as soon as he can after that. How about, for now, we go look for something to do. I can carry you on my shoulders!”
Eri visibly paled and clung close to Shouta’s leg, shaking her head ‘no’ vigorously.
“Oh, that’s alright. I was just offering,” Toshinori said, trying not to be disheartened by his usual trick not working. Most kids would be thrilled to be able to ride on the shoulders of a seven-foot-tall man. It’s like a carnival ride to them.
Now staying close to Shouta, possibly because of his similarities to Kurohime, Eri didn’t seem to be interested.
At the very least he was grateful that she wasn’t afraid of him compared to her opinion on the average person thanks to his part in her rescue, similar to how she was okay with Kirishima, Uraraka, Tsu, Tamaki, and Nejire. He might not be her first choice even if it’s just escorting her around the cultural festival but he was at least sure that she’d run to him instead of away in an emergency.
Shouta just got a pass because Kuro and Shinsou said so and both shared a pretty striking resemblance to him as per their family line. It didn’t help Toshinori’s wounded pride that Eri, when asked about her legal name, had requested that her family name be Aizawa.
Toshinori didn’t consider himself to be a jealous man but that one hurt a bit. He didn’t even take care of her much more often than the other teachers but he still had the urge to shield her from the world.
So distracted by his own thoughts, Toshinori didn’t notice they were being followed until an ambush.
“Apex, sir!”
Shouta practically leapt out of his skin, whirling around in anger at the lone reporter running to catch up, a cameraman right behind them.
“What-”
“Kubo Hibiki. Channel 7 News. Do you have a moment to talk about the most recent effects of your retirement and how it has affected Endeavor as a-”
“No,” Shouta snapped, cutting them off. “I have already told multiple people today. I am not the center of this festival. If you want a story, pay attention to the kids who have been working their butts off for today. If you want me, contact my PR department.”
“But-”
They stepped forward a smidge too fast. And so, faster than anyone could see, Shouta had habitually pulled his scarf (this one woolen) free from his neck and froze in a defensive position, staring down the reporter like a villain.
Almost immediately, he realized his mistake but didn’t drop the stance until the reporter backed up a bit.
“I asked you to leave me alone, Kubo-san. This isn’t the time or the place to be so pushy . Are we done here or do I need to escort you to the exit?”
There was a solid moment where he thought that he might have to make good on his promise but Kubo seemed to deflate a bit.
In an act of what might have been pettiness, they turned and grabbed the cameraman, pulling him away without one more word to Shouta. It might have been meant as a slight but for Shouta, it just let him off the hook that much sooner.
“Aizawa!”
Shouta looked back to see Toshinori’s horrified expression as he frantically looked around.
“Eri ran off. I think she thought you were about to get into a fight. I didn’t see where she went and the crowd is too dense.”
“Shit,” Shouta practically spit the word, uncaring who heard him. “Go grab that reporter and see if the camera picked up where she went. I’ll alert the rest of the staff so no one can leave until we find her. We just-”
“Apex, All Might!”
It was only Toshinori’s hand on his arm that prevented Shouta from turning around and legit hissing at whoever was shouting for him for the millionth time that day.
The student who was calling them at least didn’t seem like they wanted something, rather they seemed alarmed and were gesturing wildly at the entrance to class 1-C’s haunted house.
Shouta slipped through the crowd up to them, hoping his hunch was right.
“You’re looking for that little girl, right?” The student gestured at the general studies student standing at the entrance, fidgeting like they had committed a murder. “Hina-chan couldn’t stop her without scaring her because of how heavy her costume makeup is, so we sent a call down the line to not scare her. But we’re all wearing gorey costumes and I don’t know if anyone is approachable enough to grab her without freaking her out more.”
Toshinori groaned a bit as he glanced at the haunted house, knowing full-well how bad jump-scares were on his psyche. Thankfully, he didn’t have to convince himself to go in because Shouta grabbed his arm and was already dragging him in before the student was done explaining.
“Why is that the first place she decides to run,” Shouta growled mostly to himself.
Knowing it was a rhetorical question, Toshinori didn’t point out the fact that Eri had never seen a haunted house before for one, and two, she had seen worse than movie makeup as a captive of Overhaul.
They hustled through the first couple rooms, acknowledging the scare actors who had thankfully ducked away as to not scare Eri as she ran through. Most pointed them to the next room allowing them to quickly slip through the “abandoned insane asylum” or whatever the theme was.
They barely made it through a bloodied “nurse’s ward” when something jumped out of the shadows and yowled like a tortured cat.
Toshinori lept backward, shrieking like a child as he stumbled to find his footing.
It was worse for Aizawa though. He, instead of moving away, froze in place. The adrenaline boost was enough to force the surface level characteristics of his quirk out. The room was instantly illuminated by bright red.
And sitting at Aizawa’s feet was an actual cat.
The crimson light flickered off, leaving them in the dim studio lights of some empty hallway.
Aizawa was a moment away from actually yelling at a cat for once in his life but was cut off by a movement out of the corner of his eye.
Eri, looking like she belonged in the haunted house with her white hair and red eyes, stepped out of one of the doorways, giggling.
“Eri-” Shouta’s voice was rough, probably because being scared wasn’t so great for his respiratory or cardiovascular health.
“I’m sorry Apex, sir.”
Both men looked down at the tabby who was just staring back as if it was normal for cats to talk.
“What’s going on,” Toshi finally decided to ask.
Eri ran/stumbled up to them a light sparkling in her eyes that wasn’t there before.
“Mr. Kegwa was telling me about his haunted house and asked if I’d like to watch him scare the next person who came through.”
Still unsure of the talking cat, Shouta shot him a subtle glare.
In a human-like motion, Kegwa raised his paws pleadingly. “All I knew is that she wasn’t supposed to be in here and that someone would be through here in a bit to come get her. I thought I’d teach her about scare acting to keep her away from the gorey stuff.”
“You couldn’t have led her out and just waited for us?” Shouta drawled, looking more done than he had in months.
“I can’t wear human accessories when I’m transformed so I don’t have an earpiece. From my perspective, suddenly I couldn’t find anyone but her. For all I knew, if I tried to lead her out, there’d be more actors going to jump out at her.”
Before Shouta could snap anything back, warranted or not, Toshinori gently touched his shoulder, bringing him out of his argument When he had Shouta’s attention, he made sure to lock eyes with him to send a silent message of “hold it” before turning back to the feline student.
“Thank you for watching out for her. It was our fault she got away from us in the first place.”
He said that last part directed at Shouta before the other man could even think of trying to continue his quarrel with a cat.
“Sure thing. I might not have been able to get into the hero course but that doesn’t mean I can’t do nice things for others. If you ever need a talking cat for something, I think everybody in Japan owes Apex a few favors.”
After finally lowering his blood pressure and getting another stern look from Toshinori, Shouta spoke civilly.
“Thank you. Do you mind showing us the way out? I think we need to get out of here before I get anymore creeped out.”
Kegwa nodded wordlessly, turning tail and trotting towards the end of the hall.
Eri thankfully, helped Shouta calm down more by grabbing onto his pant leg for comfort as the three of them followed Kegwa out. It was off-putting to see how unaffected this eight-year-old was by the blood, broken windows, flickering lights, etc.
“Eri?” Toshinori asked. “Has Kurohime taken you to a haunted house before?”
Eri glanced back at him and shook her head.
“No, she didn’t want me to accidentally activate my quirk. But she told me about them and how it’s okay to scare people because that’s why they came into the haunted house. It’s like a prank but scary. Was that okay?”
Which would explain why Eri would think it was funny that they got scared. Right.
“It’s fine, Eri. Mr. Kegwa did a good job of scaring us. Just no more running off okay, if things get intense or dangerous, stick with one of us unless we tell you to run. You scared us more by disappearing than anything here.”
A look Toshinori couldn’t quite understand crossed Eri’s face as she processed this.
“I’m sorry I scared you in a bad way. Kuro tells me to run and hide if someone attacks and she’s defending us so I don’t get hurt or become a target.”
“Eri,” Shouta said, barely letting the worry slip into his voice. “Now that we’re here to protect you, there will always be someone to run to for help. We need to be able to find you in an emergency.”
She stared up at him like the concept of having people she could trust was new and strange rather than commonplace.
“I’m sorry Mr. Aizawa.”
“It’s okay kid. I’m not mad, just worried.”
If you asked him twenty minutes before the show started, Toshinori would have said whole-heartedly that he had full confidence in his student’s ability to pull this concert off. Between working with Eri and Kuro and wrangling some decent counselors who knew what to do with traumatized heroes, he honestly hadn’t been paying too much attention to their preparations. Not that he was worried but this particular group had a knack for getting into some serious trouble.
This was probably why Shouta had been trying to hide how frantic he was as he texted someone, becoming more and more agitated as the day went on.
Thankfully a call from Hound Dog killed most of that tension but it was still unnerving to watch and keep an eye on Eri at the same time.
So anyway.
When the beginning of the concert started off with a literal explosion, Toshinori physically felt a couple of hairs turning grey. Eri flinched against Shouta and Toshinori instinctively pulled them both plus Mirio close as the hot air rushed by their faces.
The beginning chords of the song at least let him know it was semi-intentional. His heart still hammered against his ribs as he relaxed his hold on Shouta’s shoulders. His mind raced as he tried to process the lyrics over the sound of his own heartbeat in his ears.
He almost convinced himself that he’d have a word with them about ‘school appropriate special effects’ before he was entranced by the sight of Midoriya, no longer twitchy and awkward as he danced, smiling brightly as he followed the rest of the dancers.
Aoyama’s hero uniform did throw him off a bit. Even as everyone else stayed intensely in sync, he did tend to stick out a bit. But not much more than Iida who inexplicably started doing his own version of ‘the robot’ off to the side.
Thankfully, Aoyama’s attire made sense when he and Shinsou charged together, purple lightning highlighting them both as Hitoshi tossed him into the air. Flashes of light, not unlike a disco ball, flashed across the audience as Aoyama spun mid-air.
Toshinori couldn’t see who caught him but considering the kid was back up and running off stage almost immediately, it must have been someone.
“Hiichan!”
Toshinori barely processed Eri’s shout before she was practically scaling Mirio to get up on his shoulders for a better view.
He didn’t dare make even an internal comment of ‘what could possibly happen next’ but was still startled by black-smoke angel wings appearing against the bright lights of the backdrop. Their plan barely registered in Toshinori’s head before a dark blur rushed up to Shinsou, snatching him off stage and launching him into the air, Kuro quickly following after him.
This, along with a high note, must have been a cue because the entire room chilled as Todoroki froze two-feet thick bridges of ice across the ceiling, of which the dancers were soon running across. Kouta’s flocks of doves mixing with the confetti of Yaoyorosu’s own making.
Shinsou reappeared, landing safely on the ice bridge before catching and running with the line attached to Disco-Aoyama as he swayed through the air, continuing the flashes of light.
Toshinori had a total of one moment to enjoy the atmosphere before someone grabbed onto his sleeve, throwing him slightly off balance. Undeterred, Eri, with Toshinori’s uncoordinated help, pulled herself up to sit on his shoulder, following Shinsou and Kuro’s shadowy figure with wide eyes.
“Onii-san!”
With her pale skin against her dark wings, you could almost see Kuro wave before swooping away, mixing the confetti into swirls of color, the flock of doves following.
At this point, Toshinori felt like he was buzzing out of his skin. Between the overwhelming sensory input and his own racing mind, he was grateful to be trained to keep calm in any situation. He must have looked as overwhelmed as he felt because Shouta touched his arm and said something to him, muddled by the crowd and his own low tone.
Instead of repeating himself, Shouta grabbed his wrist before trailing his hand down to intertwine his fingers with Toshinori’s. They couldn’t press too close together in public but Shouta might have been feeling the adrenaline of the concert as he leaned in just enough for them.
As the bombardment of surprises died down and the concert continued, Toshinori got the chance to look up at Eri who was smiling as if she had never stopped, watching the shining students pull off amazing stunts one after the other.
The students still danced among the rafters, Kuro at one point grabbing Midoriya before they performed a well-practiced acrobatic spin mid-air. It almost felt like she was showing off but the visible grin on her face made it worth it.
He got to see two young girls truly smile for the first time that day.
As quickly as it started, it was over.
It was hard to believe months of hard work were over in what felt like a heartbeat, even as the music still thudded through their veins.
The accompanying adrenaline rush had been the closest thing Shouta had felt to a battle in months and he tried to pretend it wasn’t boosting his mood even if just a bit. He might have even asked for music recommendations from Jiro (much to Mic’s dismay) for something else to look forward to.
But for now, he had a kid he needed to terrify.
“Where the fuck have you been?”
Shinsou had gone pale when Shouta pulled him away from the rest of the group, barely concealing red-hot rage.
“It was supposed to be a supply run-”
“And you decided to fight a villain on the way back,” Shouta hissed, the remnants of his quirk rising up in his irises.
“I-”
Thankfully for Shinsou, Kuro managed to nudge her way in between them.
“It’s partially my fault. Addin’ me into the concert was pretty last minute and we needed a new rope for Aoyama’s part. I can’t leave campus and we decided Shinsou would be the fastest.”
Even from his brotherly standpoint, Shinsou could see the cute factor of how Kuro was batting her eyelashes and clasping her hands behind her back. Even being in her goofy yellow costume added to the imagery of a little kid asking her dad not to be mad at her big brother rather than this teenager getting her friend out of trouble.
Before Shouta could retaliate, angry or subdued, Shinsou butted in.
“Okay, I messed up and I’ll take my punishment but can we not do this right now?” He aggressively gestured to where Eri was animatedly telling Mirio all about the concert and how much she loved it.
Shouta stared them both down for a moment before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. It was a long enough pause to make Shinsou start to sweat but when Shouta opened his eyes, he was marginally calmer.
“Make sure she finishes the day happy. Then tomorrow? All three of us are doing quirk training that will make the summer training look like a walk in the park.”
Whatever snarky comeback Shinsou had to that was interrupted by Kurohime’s quick, “Thanks!” and her dragging him over to Eri just in time to be tackled by an excited little girl.
Shouta was halfway to cracking a tooth from just gritting his teeth before a gentle hand resting on his shoulder distracted him.
“It won't do any of us any good if you have an aneurysm today. Am I going to have to include you in Bakugou’s anger management classes?”
Toshinori didn’t even flinch when Shouta leveled him with an unamused glare.
“I swear these kids are going to be the death of me.”
Toshinori startled him with a rough laugh. “Maybe that was All for One’s plan all along. To create the most stressful children to look after and put them in your path. He knew you couldn’t resist children in need and hoped you’d croak by the time they turned 20.”
Shouta tried to appear annoyed but the rolling of his eyes was accompanied by a small smile.
“If they weren’t stressful, then they wouldn’t be our kids, now would they?”
Toshinori’s responding smile couldn’t be outshone by a million of Shouta’s tense attempts.
Out of view of the kids now gushing over a candied apple, Shouta reached back and slipped his hand into Toshinori’s hold, making the other man go red in the face.
“What?” Aizawa chuckled deeply. “Not interested in premarital hand-holding? You were happy enough with it back at the concert.”
“That’s not it,” Toshinori hid a whine. “I’m just not used to you being so openly affectionate.”
“Is that a bad thing,” Shouta asked softly, his grip on Toshinori’s hand loosening.
Toshinori stumbled to keep hold. “No no no, I didn’t mean it like that I meant-”
“Ah-hem.”
They both stopped to look up at Kuro who was watching them with a knowing look. The other kids behind her looking confused and some (Shinsou) looked a bit mortified.
“Well,” Kuro said, her emphasized accent making it sound like she was saying ‘whale’. “I was just going to ask if Eri can come with us while we clean up. Mirio promised to watch her so she doesn’t get hurt. But I’m going to be up in the rafters pullin’ chunks of ice down, so…”
As much as the idea of Eri being around a combination of falling chunks of ice and Kuro’s imperfect flying, Shouta realized he could respect her honesty.
“Fine but Eri does not go in the air or under any of the ice at any point. Got it?”
Kuro grinned and nodded before crouching so Eri could scramble onto her back. Mirio followed them happily, not even noticing the dark look Shouta was sending Shinsou before he too ran off to catch up.
Shouta watched them disappear behind a half taken down taiyaki stall and felt his heart settle for the first time in what felt like years.
“Y’know…”
Shouta looked up to see Toshinori with a sly smile on his face.
“What do I know?”
“Eri and Kuro might be wards of UA but they still need primary caregivers. I was asked because I semi-raised Izuku but Eri doesn’t quite like me yet as anything more than a jungle gym. If only there was another teacher that she really liked who would also be willing to move in with me?”
Shouta couldn’t help but scoff at the teasing tone Toshinori was taking, even with a serious conversation. Anything to make his boyfriend’s life a little less stressful.
“Even if there was an apartment on campus big enough, Kuro would go out of her mind living like that. She doesn’t do very well with the typical household template.”
“She doesn’t have to. Power Loader said she’s been asking about testing into the support department with all of the stuff she’d built for her mom. She’d probably be happy enough in the support class dorms. Extra fire-proofing and everythin’.”
“But she’d have a place to go during the breaks and such when everyone else is visiting family outside campus,” Aizawa concluded for him, a questioning look on his face.
“Yep.”
“Toshi…” Aizawa drawled, as something clicked in his head.”Are you asking me to move in with you? So soon?”
Undeterred by Shouta’s teasing, Toshinori stooped to grab his hand to hold it tight between his fingers.
“I couldn’t think of a better reason than the happiness and safety of these children who need us.”
Aizawa’s mood dropped visibly.
“I’m not exactly going to be much help keeping them safe.”
Undeterred, Toshinori quickly checked for anyone around before pulling Shouta close and burying his face in his boyfriend’s hair. He reached over Shouta’s shoulders to lace his fingers together behind his back.
Shouta hesitated for a long moment before tentatively wrapping his own arms around Toshinori’s torso, muffling his face against his chest.
“Shouta. You do understand that you don’t need to change the weather with one punch to keep them safe, right? Kuro has proven her physical capabilities but they both need someone to fall back on when their demons get too strong. Who better to do that than a man who can control his demons better than he can control his students?”
In retaliation, Shouta ‘lightly’ thumped his fist against Toshinori’s back and growled, only causing Toshi to laugh at his childish antics.
“If you don’t mind me asking,” Toshi said, a little lower and softer. “I never got the chance to ask you about the time you saved the day without using your quirk. The villain that could throw your quirk back at you?”
Shouta stiffened under his boyfriend’s touch but thankfully didn’t pull away.
“Is this some kind of ploy to make me feel better about being quirkless?”
“Absolutely. Is it working?”
Shouta huffed and playfully pushed Toshinori’s face away from his. He squirmed out of his hold all together, leaving Toshi standing alone, pouting like a kicked puppy.
Thankfully, Shouta wasn’t that mean.
“Come on, I’ll text Kayama, ‘zashi, and Oboro to meet us at my dorm room after lights out for the kids.”
“Wh-” Toshinori stumbled to catch up to Shouta who was unbothered as usual. “What does that have to do with this?”
“If I tell you that story, it’ll be ten minutes of me whining about how Oboro could have died and how I’m a failure of a hero because of it. The three stooges will at least be more honest about it and can counteract each other’s exaggerations.”
Dodging a third-year carrying a set of studio lights, Toshinori managed to catch up. He lightly touched Shouta’s shoulder as a gentle ‘slow down’ gesture.
“You don’t actually have to tell me about that if you aren’t comfortable with it.”
Shouta scoffed. “If I didn’t want to tell you, I wouldn’t have offered. I’ve got a million other stories I could share but I think you’d appreciate that one the most.”
Toshinori gently brushed his fingers across Shouta’s, out of view of everyone else.
“Well, we’ve got all the time in the world. I’d love to hear them all.”