Chapter Text
It’s telling that Shigaraki isn’t that alarmed to hear the screams coming from the first floor. But he’s a bit caught off guard when he identifies it as Dabi’s voice.
He rushes down the stairwell, as the chaos grows louder.
“You’re blond?!” Twice screams sound from the entrance.
“What the fuck,” Dabi mutters, almost slamming into him as he storms past. Shigaraki narrows his eyes at him, then does a double take. Dabi’s tugging at his hair, his knuckles buried deep between white strands.
Shigaraki stands frozen in place, watching the rest of the league follow Dabi into the only bathroom on the first floor.
“That’s white, not blond,” Spinner points out.
“Lovely tone, Dabi,” Compress comments.
“What the fuck,” Dabi repeats. Shigaraki can only try to step into the already packed bathroom.
Dabi grips the sink with both hands, holding himself up as he peers with wide eyes into the busted mirror. He catches Shigaraki’s gaze on the glass and turns suddenly.
“Out,” he mutters. Surrounding Twice, Spinner and Toga with his arms and kicking at Compress’ back. “Get out.”
Shigaraki steps aside to let them pass, but before he can go far Dabi’s hand shoots out, grabbing his collar and dragging him in. The door slamming shut behind him.
He’s got him by the shoulder, shaking him slightly. “What did you say her quirk was?!”
“I-I,” shigaraki stammers, then shoves him off. “I don’t fucking know, I just got that it could erase quirks.”
“Clearly you missed something,” Dabi snaps back.
“Ask her, then,” Shigaraki huffs, opening the door again.
Eri’s sitting on the couch, bags of clothes around her feet, she fidgets with a clothing tag and seems to cheer up when she spots him. But she shrinks down on herself when she notices Dabi behind him. The rest of the league at their heels.
Dabi seems to notice. “I’m not angry at you.”
Eri doesn’t look inclined to believe him. “My quirk makes people angry.” She looks down. “It makes them sad.”
“Her quirk?” Spinner repeats.
“We’re surprised, that’s all,” Compress elaborates. “Can you tell us what your quirk is?”
“I don’t know…” Eri replies. “A curse?”
Fucking hell the kid is damaged.
“Welcome to the club, kiddo,” Twice helpfully offers before adding. “Don’t say that, it’s not true.”
“Does it have anything to do with… color?” Spinner tries.
Eri blinks then shakes her head. “Um.”
“Although she didn’t change it, did she?” Compress interjects. “That’s your natural hair.”
“You dye your hair?” Toga giggles.
Dabi sneers at him then nods slowly. “How did yo-”
“You need to take better care of your roots,” Compress suggests. He’s the only one tall enough to see the top of Dabi’s head
Shigaraki snorts. Dabi shoves him with his elbow.
“So she just… reverted it back?” Spinner guesses.
“Could be.” Shigaraki considers it. “To be able to get rid of someone else’s quirk... it could be that she reverts the person back to before it manifested.”
Silence stretches over them, everyone processing what that might mean. Shigaraki is sure they all must think the same question. How far back can she make someone go? But nobody voices the thought.
“But why now?” Twice asks, breaking the quiet. “Why Dabi’s lousy dye job?”
Shigaraki slaps Dabi’s arm, not wanting Twice to catch fire under his glare.
“You carried her to the car,” Toga says. “Did she touch your hair?”
“That can’t be, she’s had contact with all of us at some point,” Compress points out.
Dabi shakes his head. He looks at Eri for a minute. “You were scared.”
Eri looks at them with wide eyes.
“So, was it a panic response?” Spinner rests his chin on his fist over his crossed arms.
Shigaraki sits down next to her. “That’s happened to me, too.”
The league stares at him.
“The worse I feel the more powerful my quirk becomes,” he explains.
“Damn , that must suck.” Twice, sympathetic as always. “It sounds cool as hell.”
“Can you control it, Eri?” Compress asks.
Eri shakes her head.
“The only way you learn to control a quirk is by using it,” Twice says before the silence stretches for too long. “Nothing to be done about it.”
Shigaraki and Spinner exchange surprised looks in disbelief of Twice saying something that made sense.
“Yes, that’s an universal truth.” Compress rolls a marble between his fingers. “The best thing you can do is to get a feel of it first before trying to consciously use it.”
Eri looks at Shigaraki, the look on her face confused but almost eager. He nods at her in what he hopes is a reassuring gesture.
-
They get used to it.
That first time Dabi throws a private fit that only Shigaraki and Twice get to see, mostly because he’s out of his not-secret-anymore hair dye but before he can try to get more, his hair goes back to it’s usual state during the night.
This re-reversion eases them a little, it means that maybe with her limited control of it Eri’s effects aren’t that permanent. And when it happens again, no one’s that alarmed.
This time it’s Twice who gets hit by it, consequence of accidentally scaring Eri once when he was getting a midnight drink. A deep cut that he had gotten over a month ago reopened on his arm and he spent over an hour reassuring the kid that she had nothing to be sorry about.
This time it takes a bit longer than a night, but the cut is once again gone before the day ends.
They are careful, not to startle her. But it’s not just fear that triggers an unconscious use of her quirk. Toga once gets her too excited over a gift she brought her and Eri disappears the scrapes on her knees.
“I’m assigning you to watch her,” Shigaarki tells Dabi, the fifth time it happens.
“No, thank you,” Dabi says, faking politeness, immediately getting up and heading towards the exit.
“You’re the only one who could take the worst of it,” Shigaraki insists, catching him by the edge of his shirt.
“Still doesn’t make it my problem,” Dabi retorts.
“Dabi.” Shigaraki tries to catch his eye.
“Ban Spinner’s fucking awful music and I’ll do it.” He looks down at him, defiant.
Shigaraki rolls his eyes. “Fine.”
-
“Toga says I helped her,” Eri says, not looking away from the screen.
Shigaraki glances at her before refocusing back on his game. She appears to have gotten over her need to be alone and now spends some time in the common room, watching him play. She’s also speaking more without being prompted.
“You fixed her legs, right?” Shigaraki points out, unsure of what else to say.
“I fixed them?” Eri echoes.
Shigaraki hums.
“I didn’t know I could do that,” Eri whispers. “I want to help more.”
Not for the first time he wonders about what could happen when Eri grows up (if they’re still even alive by then). At her very core she’s got good intentions, and she might realize the league is an ill fit for them. The same way Twice is too hesitant and Spinner too much of an overthinker. Shigaraki scoffs at himself, it will be a miracle if they make it past next year.
“Keeping using it,” Shigaraki suggests. “The more you do the easier it is.”
“Think of how you feel,” Shigaraki continues. “And use that.”
“I’m not scared anymore,” Eri replies. Shigaraki guesses that’s her full knowledge of emotions, fear and the lack of it.
“Good,” Shigaraki states. “Then use that.”
-
Toga is the most helpful, since she’s driven by emotion and taking care of her own. She takes Eri on a weeks long search to find what makes her happiest, Dabi dragging his feet behind them.
She brings her sweets and toys, clothes, music. She’s teaching her joy and Shigaraki is only slightly annoyed by the amount of new stuff on the first floor.
It works, sorta.
Eri’s eating ice cream straight out of the bucket when Shigaraki feels the familiar sensation. The chills and the way his ears pop.
The kid startles, dropping her spoon. “I’m doing it!”
“Oh damn, uh,” Spinner panics. “Try to memorize this!”
“How the hell is she gonna do that?” Twice asks.
Dabi sits at her side, silently becoming a buffer of the effect before it can reach anyone else.
“Well?” Compress asks called by the commotion.
Dabi brings a hand up to the side of his head carefully. When he opens his palm three silver earrings clink together.
“Fuck,” he swears. “I paid for those.”
“You did?” Spinner asks incredulously.
“No,” Dabi admits. “But still.”
-
Shigaraki opens the bathroom door.
“Ah… No! I can’t do it!”
“Just push it through, Twice!”
“Why couldn’t you just ask Toga to do it!”
“Cause she would’ve taken my ear off, now put the fucking needle through.”
Shigaraki closes the bathroom door.
-
Shigaraki gets his turn, which was only a matter of time.
Weirdly he both does and doesn’t see it coming. Or even notice, at first.
Most days of the week Shigaraki turns on the tv around sun down and sits on the floor with his back against the couch, controller in hand, in hopes of crippling his spine by the time he’s twenty five. Not a lot later, he can hear mostly silent and careful footsteps, as Eri discreetly climbs onto the couch behind him to watch him play. She draws little attention to herself, which Shigaraki appreciates but also feels shitty about, old habits die hard, he supposes.
Spinner and Twice have tried to teach her to play, but like with most things she likes to observe. Shigaraki thinks she watches in hopes of learning.
He plays and tries to keep his swearing to the minimum (Kurogiri’s influence), Eri watches. It’s a pretty tolerable routine.
A few times Shigaraki plays well into the night and when he shuts off the tv he comes to find Eri’s asleep face down on the couch, still facing the screen. Fewer times still he’s been too lazy to get up, walk to the staircase and climb up four whole floors, so he just lies his head back on the cushions and passes out next to her.
It takes him a while to realize that those are the only times he has those dreams.
Every time Eri tosses and turns before startling awake from a nightmare Shigaraki wakes up in cold sweat. It’s hard to see it, because they don’t crash in the common room often and when they do it’s not every time Eri dreams.
It hits one of those nights, when they both snap awake at the same time. Eri on the verge of tears, Shigaraki choking out a name.
“Hana.”
-
It’s not hard to make the connection after that. Eri’s fear triggers her quirk in her sleep and Shigaraki’s there to get hit by it. It’s different, probably a weaker or more subtle way her quirk can manifest. Not reverting his body, but something else.
Shigaraki feels like he’s grasping at air. He dreams, and once awake Eri’s quirk wears off, he forgets. But he hangs onto that name.
The familiarity of it both confuses and puts him on edge. It’s familiar, and so is the feeling of forgetting it. It's incredibly frustrating.
But he knows there’s nothing he can do about it. Eri’s quirk is unstable, volatile, and could be even dangerous. He can’t ask anything of it. He won’t do that to her.
In the end, for better or for worse, he gets his answers.
Once again, it’s late at night, but Shigaraki isn’t playing. He’s half asleep on the couch, and the tv is playing quietly behind him. He can’t tell what’s on since he’s turned his back on it, but he doesn’t care enough about the noise to shut it off. Maybe he should’ve.
He doesn’t register her presence until it’s too late. He has nearly gone under, lulled by the monotone noise and the stillness of the base, when his ears pop he blinks awake, too slowly.
“Eri,” he calls, but his voice sounds distant. “Hey-”
“Tenko.” Shigaraki can’t see anything, he can’t move. He’s shivering from the chills Eri’s quirk sends down his spine, up his neck, he could tear his skin clean off. “You’ll just make it worse if you scratch it.”
“Eri,” he tries again, before the pain behind his eyes turns into blinding light and he can’t try again.
-----
“-like… pick him up?”
“And take him where?”
“At least off the floor!”
“I-I’m I- am so- sorry.”
“Kid, it’s okay.”
“He’s not even bleeding or anything, Eri. He’s gonna be just fine.”
“Maybe we should call Kurogiri...”
“How? He’s the only one wh-”
Shigaraki brings a hand to his head. Fuck, it hurts, badly. Slowly, very slowly, he registers two things. One, he’s lying face down on the floor. Two, he was woken up by voices that are no longer there.
He opens an eye, the light makes him wince. He presses his arm against the floor and turns onto his back carefully. Six curious sets of eyes look at him from above.
Two other things happen. Shigaraki opens his mouth to ask something, and Eri breaks down in tears.
“Oh, dear,” Compress sighs.
“Damn, will she-” Spinner steps back.
“Dabi,” Twice says.
“C’mon.” Dabi carefully places a hand on Eri’s arm. “He’s fine.” He turns to him. “Aren’t you?”
Shigaraki chooses not to mention the head splitting headache, or his newly discovered fifteen layers of trauma. “I am. Eri, look at me.”
Through tears, red eyes meet his, and after a few seconds, her breathing evens out. Her voice is small when she repeats. “I’m sorry.”
Shigaraki waves her off. It takes a ridiculous amount of effort to sit up. He leans back against the couch. Blinking at the ceiling, he can’t tell how long he was out.
“What… happened?” He has an idea, but he’s willing to listen to the league on what they might have seen.
“Eri practically barged into my room like twenty minutes ago, crying,” Twice starts.
“So Twice started crying, too.” Dabi sighs.
“His wailing woke me up,” Toga continues.
“And Toga banged on my door until I went to get Compress,” Spinner adds.
“And we found you on the floor,” Compress finishes.
“Twice?” Shigaraki asks tiredly.
“I panicked! And seeing her sad makes me sad!” Twice excuses.
“It’s pretty self explanatory from there,” Compress states. From out of somewhere in his sleeve he produces a slim hand mirror. Shigaraki rolls his eyes, he probably carries those around. “You finally got your turn, then?”
Shigaraki takes the mirror and blinks a few times. His mind stumbles, trying to catch the tell of Compress’ illusion trick, but there isn’t one. If anything, what stares back at him is the most honest version of himself.
“You, too?” Toga giggles. “Dabi dyes it and you bleach it?”
Dabi glares at her. Shigaraki ignores the question.
Looking away from the mirror, he catches Spinner’s eyes on him, he looks away too quickly.
Shigaraki stands up.
“I gotta talk to someone.”
-----
Dabi isn’t any fonder of babysitting than he was at the start, but he’s come to appreciate the excuse to laze around.
After whatever the hell happened last night, Eri has spent the majority of the day napping. But he’s stayed with her since she almost had a second attack when Shigaraki woke up. Damn, it’s like one of the requirements to join the league is to have an incredibly shitty quirk.
He steals one of Spinner's hidden beers out of the room that passes as a kitchen and sits down on the chair next to the couch, not bothering to turn on the tv. Eri stirs and turns next to him.
He’s nearly done with his drink when Shigaraki steps out of one of Kurogiri’s portals. Dabi has to do a double take, seeing him with dark hair is too disconcerting.
“Is she still sleeping?” He asks softly as a greeting.
“All day,” Dabi replies. “The hell did she do to you? None of us have passed out from her quirk before and she’s never been this exhausted after using it.”
Shigaraki gives him a look before walking over to the opposite seat. “Get the others and I’ll tell you.”
Dabi makes a face. “Get them yourself.”
After a few minutes of a very intense eye contact fistfight Dabi gets up and rounds up the rest. They leave Eri sleeping and gather in the kitchen. Shigaraki tells them.
“...Your dog?” Twice sobs after a beat.
“Seriously?! Is that what you took from all that?” Spinner snaps.
“I’m sorry but even if I wasn’t me I wouldn’t be able to process the rest of his sad ass story, let me mourn the fucking dog!” Twice exclaims as Compress hands him a handkerchief.
“I think I have a newfound respect from you,” Dabi says.
“Let’s just all choose to ignore that,” Compress instructs.
“So…” Spinner stutters. “Are- are you good?”
“I don’t think he’s ever been good?” Toga points out.
“Focus,” Shigaraki orders.
“On what aspect of this entire situation?” Compress asks.
“On the fact that Eri managed to revert someone’s mind while their body stayed intact,” Dabi replies. Shigaraki nods.
“But his hair…” Twice starts.
“Every time I think we’re closer to figuring out her quirk,” Spinner sighs.
“Do we have to figure it out?” Toga asks. The rest turn to her. “It’s hers.”
Twice gives Shigaraki an eager look, who in turn glances at Spinner, who looks questioningly at Compress who looks at Dabi who looks at Shigaraki resignedly . Shigaraki shrugs.
That about settles it.
---
Spinner finds him in the settling dust of his room. Shigaraki pauses and for a beat Spinner’s afraid he’ll tell him to fuck off, but he lets him in.
He tilts his head, prompting him to speak.
“So… are you okay?” Spinner asks slowly.
Shigaraki glances at him as if surprised, then he smiles. It’s almost imperceivable, the way the corner of his lip pulls up and his look softens. He exhales softly. Spinner feels the way his stomach drops to his feet and then all the way to the first floor.
“It doesn’t matter,” he finally replies. “What matters is that our goal has changed.”
Spinner shouldn't be as excited to hear him out as he is.
----
Shigaraki wants a bit more breathing room, but it would do more harm than good to shut everyone out after everything. Mostly, he doesn’t want Eri to keep thinking he’s avoiding her. It’s like they’re back at the start. She has exiled herself to her room and probably thinks everyone’s mad at her.
Shigaraki is aware of what happened the first time they tried to get her to go out, but he knows that just keeping her here won’t recover the progress they had made. In some way it’s to show her that she can actually leave, if she wants.
“But what if I accidentally do it again?” She asks from behind her shut door.
“That’s why Dabi’s coming,” Shigaraki replies. “You’d probably be doing him a favor.”
Shigaraki avoids the kick to the shins Dabi sends his way.
“C’mon, kid.” Dabi raps his knuckles against the wood, impatient. “We can get you some…” He looks at Shigaraki as if looking for suggestions.
“...Ice cream?” Shigaraki guesses blindly.
The door opens.
--
“You probably don’t even need that.” Dabi flicks at the front of his cap, slightly knocking it off. “Who would recognize you with those flowing locks.”
Shigaraki should’ve left him at the hideout. Hell, he should have left him face down on the floor back at Kamino.
“How much longer?” He asks instead.
“Hm, four more blocks.” He turns back, stopping and nearly making another pedestrian clash with them. “Are you tired?”
Eri shakes her head unconvincingly, and runs up to catch up with them. Shigaraki and Dabi exchange a look.
“There’s an ice cream shop two blocks ahead,” Dabi points out.
The shop is nearly empty, thankfully. Because Eri takes nearly seven minutes to order a simple vanilla cone.
“There’s just so many of them,” she excuses. Dabi’s eye might be twitching.
The ice cream vendor doesn’t seem to mind. Shigaraki pays with their counterfeit bills and they turn to leave before realizing Eri is still at the register. They both turn to her.
“Aren’t you gonna have some?” She asks them both.
Shigaraki gets mint chocolate and Dabi gets a coconut popsicle.
It’s past sundown when they finally arrive at their destination. The drug store is almost empty, and they slip in almost without being noticed. Dabi shrinks into himself, almost retreating into his skinny frame, enough so he isn’t noticed. Shigaraki waits a beat before walkin in behind him, casual, hidden, another person to be overlooked. Eri to his side, quiet and invisible, her posture shrinking in almost a copy of Dabi’s movements.
Once out of the cashiers line of sight she begins to look around curiously. He nods at Dabi’s direction. “We’ll be over there.”
Eri looks at him, then down the hallway. She gives him one last glance before turning the corner towards the perfume aisle.
He joins Dabi at the corner of the store, who tosses up a box that Shigaraki manages to catch in instinct, almost closing his hand around it. It’s lilac hair dye. He tosses it back onto the shelves with a huff.
He’s not sure what he’s actually looking for, and Dabi isn’t cooperating. He simply stands staring at the rows of hair products. Shigaraki sighs.
After longer than Shigaraki thought this would take, Dabi picks up three boxes, he then turns towards him and holds one of them up to his hair.
“Nah,” he mutters, placing it back.
“What are you doing?” Shigaraki demands.
“Your hair’s actually black, huh.” Dabi ignores him. “Not dark brown.” He frowns at the second box. “Maybe we’d need to bleach it twice.”
Shigaraki swats his hand away. “I don’t want it to fall off.”
“Well, then you can enjoy being blond.” He shrugs.
Shigaraki’s about to insult him, or hit him, he hasn’t decided, when Eri appears from the front of the store, her arms filled with stuff. He and Dabi exchange a look.
“What’s all that?” Shigaraki asks her.
She shows them. It’s mostly candy from the snacks section, but there’s a perfume bottle too, a set of hair ties and
“Earrings?” Dabi asks.
Eri nods. “For Toga. They’re pretty.”
“Why the perfume?” Shigaraki takes the bottle carefully. It smells like candylike.
“It smells nice,” Eri explains.
Dabi takes the armload of candy and starts selecting which stay. Eri hangs onto the earrings and looks behind Shigaraki. She seems to notice where they’re standing.
She grabs a box from the lower shelves. It’s deep blue temporary hair dye. She looks at Shigaraki, asking.
They end up running out of money.
---
Shigaraki comes to the decision that black hair isn’t that bad, actually. You can always learn from mistakes, especially if they’re someone else's.
After they got back and got busted from spending half their cash in hair bleach, hair dye, dye protecting shampoo, etc. Toga decided they might as well make a “dye party” out of it, and somehow snuck out and shoplifted more colors. Now half her head is the ink black of Dabi’s touched up roots, and the other is the indigo blue of Eri’s long hair. Twice got dragged, and simultaneously volunteered, to go as a redhead for a week.
Compress wouldn’t step a foot in the bathroom while all this was happening. But Spinner was curious (and stupid) enough to accept Toga’s (completly false) claim that she knew what she was doing, duh, I did this all the time in high school, it’s not like it’s a science. She said as she mixed all the chemicals together over the sink.
So now he’s gone from purple to pastel pink and unlike the blue and the red, that won’t wash off. So yeah, Shigaraki’s fine with the black hair.
“You could’ve stopped that,” Shigaraki says to Dabi, remembering his display of knowledge at the drugstore, as Spinner agonizes in front of the bathroom mirror.
“You couldn’t have paid me to,” Dabi replies, predictably.
His hair doesn’t go back to normal. And he even grows fond of the black.
--
Slowly, like pulling teeth slowly, Eri recovers.
They didn’t even notice she was making progress until after she makes it.
The first time she screams, in joy and excitement, the room stops still. She was so quiet, trying to draw the least attention to herself all the time. She argues back, asks for things directly, sometimes outright taking them. She gets mad, gets annoyed, throws tantrums. She’s difficult and frustrating and slams doors. She steals off snacks that aren’t hers, leaves her shoes everywhere, spills milk over the couch no matter how many times Compress tells her to not have cereal in the common room.
She runs around playing with Toga and Twice and Shigaraki and Dabi have to escape to the city for some goddamn fucking peace. She takes his games and leaves the controllers uncharged. She tries to dye her hair again herself and the bathroom floor is red for two weeks.
She’s such a kid and Shigaraki never asked for another sibling.
“Fuck, youngest kids are the worst,” Dabi declares, slamming the door behind him to keep the noise out. Shigaraki has given up on getting him to stay out of his room.
He frowns. “I was the youngest.”
Dabi pauses. “That explains so much.”
The first time she laughs, long and loud, Twice cries.
--
“Hey, boss!” Shigaraki feels every muscle in his body tense. They only ever call him boss for two reasons.
“What do you want or what did you do?” Shigaraki groans.
“What?! We’re just saying hi!” Twice protests, before adding, “I broke Dabi’s mug in the morning.”
Shigaraki raises an eyebrow.
“That’s irrelevant.” Toga waves him off. “We have a request.”
Shigaraki sighs. He hates being always right. “What is it?”
“Can we throw a party?” They ask simultaneously.
He blinks, that’s enough to make him pause his game.
“A birthday party!” Twice adds.
“Is it your birthday…?” Shigaraki asks, too taken aback to really question anything else.
“No, silly!” Toga exclaims. “For Eri!”
“How do you know her birthday?” Shigaraki keeps trying to process the conversation.
“We don’t, and neither does she.” Twice seems to flatten over that.
“So we’ll come up with it,” Toga explains. “It will be the most surprising surprise party ever, since she doesn’t even know what that is.”
“I’ll allow it.” Before the two say anything, Shigaraki puts his hands up. “If. I don’t have to get involved.”
They both swear on it.
-
Toga and Twice lied.
Shigaraki stands in the middle of the aisle, pretending not to notice the employee in the corner that has been following them since they arrived.
It’s been seven minutes and he’s not even close to deciding. Fuck Kurogiri for forcing him to do this. (“You have to get her a birthday present, Shigaraki Tomura. It’s required of a birthday party.”)
“Fuck’s sake, you’re still here?” Dabi asks once he reunites with him in the toy aisle.
Shigaraki does a double take. Dabi stands at the end of the hallway holding a stuffed bear almost as tall as himself. He takes a sip of the beer can he holds in his other hand. It still has the plastic ring from the six pack he tore it off from. He seems to finish it cause he places it on the nearest shelf before making his way over to him, dragging the bear behind.
“Excuse me, sir?” The employee starts. Dabi glares at him from the corner of his eye while Shigaraki tilts his head back at him. The man shuts his mouth, takes a step back, and scrambles.
“What the fuck is that?” Shigaraki motions at the bear.
“His name is Tomura,” Dabi replies. Shigaraki tries to grab his coat, he misses.
“Just get it over with, pick something,” Dabi groans.
“Like what?” Shigaraki growls back.
“I don’t fucking know, a toy, she’s a kid what else could she want?” Dabi agonizes.
“A toy…” Shigaraki considers.
They end up having to go to a different store. Dabi carries the bear the entire time.
--
“Okay, but we can’t freak her out, so no one yell or anything,” Spinner instructs.
“Awh, man! Then why the hell did I buy all these confetti canons for?” Twice whines.
“Shhhh,” Toga orders. “Her door is opening!”
Eri walks out into the hall and stops, staring at them.
“...What? Did I do something?” She asks nervously.
“We prepared something for you,” Compress explains.
“It’s in the living room,” Twice announces, practically bouncing. “Go, go!”
Eri arrives in the common room to find the floor carpeted with balloons. Shigaraki sits on the couch, defeated after they wrestled a party hat on him. Dabi stands by the makeshift table, lighting the candles of a cake as soon as he spots her.
“Can I go now?” He asks after it’s done. “Oh, happy birthday.”
“You’re the worst,” Spinner hisses.
“You leave, you don’t get cake,” Shigaraki declares from the couch.
“W-What?” Eri stammers.
“It’s your birthday!” Toga announces. She explains the whole concept of it as the candles drip wax over the frosting.
“Ah,” Eri says, overwhelmed.
“C’mon! Make a wish!” Spinner encourages.
Eri pauses before blowing out the candles.
Shigaraki joins them as Toga cuts the cake into neat slices. He frowns and looks over Dabi’s shoulder.
“The apple juice was for Eri,” he reminds him.
Dabi blinks. “This is whisky. Who has juice at a party?”
“At a kid’s birthday party?” Spinner asks, agonizing.
They pop the confetti cannons after a warning. Eri eats the majority of the cake. They only get her to stop by showing her the presents they all got for her. Compress wins ‘Most Boring Present’ after revealing a very nice coat that matches Eri’s eyes. Kurogiri overshadows them all after he pulls a bike through a portal. (“A bike?!” Toga exclaims. “What the fuck, I want a bike,” Twice pouts.) Spinner hands her a small box filled with colors and a Pokemon coloring book. Toga gifts her an instant camera, Twice complementing it with four rolls of film. Dabi gestures to the bigass bear, making a point to tell her it’s name.
Shigaraki gives her his first console. They spend the majority of the evening teaching her how to play.
Shigaraki didn’t ask for this, but he can recognize he’s content with it.