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It’s a quiet day, a gentle day. The sunlight flutters through the windows and illuminates the living room in a soft glow, the low background music is lulling and soothing. It’s a calming morning, and Hizashi couldn’t be any more grateful.
He hums to the tune of the music and combs through pure white strands of hair. Yes, Hizashi truly enjoys these days.
Eri sits criss cross in front of him, and in front of her a page from her sketchbook. Her tongue pokes out of the corner of her mouth, and her eyebrows scrunch together as she stares down her half-finished drawing. Hizashi huffs out a laugh at the expression.
Not faltering in his combing, he asks, quietly as to not break the atmosphere of the room, “What has you so confused, dear?”
Eri sighs with a huff, “What color blue should I color the sky?” as to give example, she raises two blue crayons above her head and to Hizashi’s eye level. One color is a dark blue, nearly navy, and the other remains a blueish turquoise.
“Well which do you want to use?” Hizashi asks, placing down the comb and threading his fingers through the top parts of Eri’s hair.
Immediately, she pushes the turquoise blue up higher.
“Then use that one,” He responds, as if it’s the easiest answer in the world, but Eri hardly thinks that because she grunts.
“I want to,” she states, bringing both of her arms down with another huff. “But it’ll be the same color as Shouto’s eye,”
“I see,”
“And his eye isn’t the same color as the sky, I don’t care what Izuku says,”
Hizashi laughs, his fingers beginning the Dutch braid gently. “Do you have an orange? Purple?”
Eri nods (well, nods as much as she could with Hizashi’s fingers in her hair) and shows him the various of oranges and purples she has.
“Then make it a sunset instead,”
She pauses, almost comically, and then smiles gently. “Of course! Thank you, Hizashi!” she finally states after a few more moments of thinking and begins coloring the sky with an orange crayon.
“You’re welcome, princess,” he murmurs in response, his fingers easily threading through the long stands as he continues the Dutch braid.
It’s quiet for bit longer, the only other sound beside the music being Eri’s crayon gliding across the paper. However, Eri being Eri, only took a few more moments of silence before asking another question.
“Hizashi?”
She says, and it’s quiet. Quieter than her first question, as if she is threading carefully and unaware of how to proceed with asking.
“Yes?” Hizashi answers, louder, and reassuring.
Eri doesn’t respond right away, but she does stop coloring. Finally, she asks, “How did you and Aizawa meet?”
Hizashi pauses mid braid, because he sure was not prepared for that question today. He recovers quickly, despite himself, “How did Shouta and I meet?” he repeats, and Eri mumbles something quiet in confirmation.
“Well, we met in U.A. We were in the same class,” he says, tying the one braid together and moving to start another one at the top of her head.
“You met in high school?” Eri asks and returns to her coloring.
“Yes, we did,”
“You’ve known each other for a long time,” she giggles to herself, putting a crayon down and picking up another. “Did you have to fight in that…” she trails off, dropping her crayons. She sticks her tongue out again and scrunches her eyebrows together in confusion.
Hizashi laughs again at the expression, “The what?” he asks.
“That fight thing,”
Was all she replied with and Hizashi couldn’t help but smile. “The sports festival,” he supplies, and Eri snaps her fingers.
“Yes, that!” she says with one more snap of her fingers, “Did you fight in the sports festival?”
Hizashi ties that last braid, and slowly picks up a bobby pin. “Yes,” he states, “and before you ask, he beat me,”
At this, Eri giggles.
“You lost?!” she says through her giggles, and Hizashi lets out a fake, offended gasp.
“He’s strong! He took my quirk and flipped me over! It’s was terrible,” Hizashi half shouts, half whispers, and Eri’s giggles only grow stronger.
After a few more minutes of her mindless giggling, she breathes, then asks, “Can I ask you another question?” and Hizashi instantly responds with a yes.
“How did you know you loved Aizawa?”
The question is innocent, her confused face returning as she whirls her own question through her head.
“What do you know about love, Eri,” Hizashi questions, returning to the other braid to begin pinning it into a small bun at the bottom of her head.
Eri picks up the crayon again, mindlessly going into to color the sky, “I know you love Aizawa, and I know Shouto loves Izuku, and I know Hitoshi loves Ojirou even though he hasn’t told him yet,” she rattles off easily. “So how did you know?”
“I don’t know,” he answers, honestly. “I just…one day realized I loved him,”
Seemingly pleased with the answer, Eri hums with a soft nod. “Can I ask you another question?” she asks after a few longer moments of silence. Continuing only when Hizashi tells her she can continue, “When did you know you loved Shouto and Hitoshi?” she then adds quickly, “and not as students. As your children,”
“Oh, Eri,” Hizashi whispers, “My students are my children. But as soon as I put my signature on the adoption papers,”
“Huh,” is Eri’s simple statement, and she remains quiet.
Hizashi quickly finishes the other bun and wraps a red ribbon around each of them, tying a small bow at the top. “Any other questions?” he asks quietly.
With no more hands in her hair, Eri freely nods. “Yeah, one more,” she doesn’t twist around to look at Hizashi, keeping her eyes on her now much more colorful picture. “Do you love me?”
And Hizashi response in immediate, quick, without thought because the answer was obvious.
“Of course, I do,”
“How much?”
He presses a soft kiss to the top of her head, and she giggles. “To the moon and back,”
With that, Hizashi stands up and quickly turns off the music from the radio. Slowly, he turns around to see Eri quickly rising to her feet with the drawing gently in between her hands.
“Ready to go to the store, Eri?” Hizashi asks, walking towards Eri and putting his hand out for her to grab.
Eri nods, “Wait,” she whispers, “I have something for you,”
“What is it?”
She looks at the drawing one more time, before giving a noise of approval. Then, she places the paper into Hizashi’s still outstretched hand and looks up with a large, toothy smile.
Hizashi gently holds the paper between his fingers. The drawing is of the family; Shouto, Hitsohi, Aizawa, Eri, the two cats, and himself in front of a sunset. In the top right corner had the words ‘From: Eri. To: Hizashi,’ and scrolled on the top read, ‘I love you to the moon and back,’
The tears the bubbles in his eyes are expected as he looks down at the picture so craftily drawn, drawn just for him. Whipping the tears with the back of his hands, he whispers, “Well I guess we have to go get a frame now, don’t we?” He says with a choked laugh.
Eri nods excitedly, clapping her hand, “Yes, we do!”
As Eri scampers towards the door to get her shoes on, Hizashi takes one last look at the paper and smiles.
He loves his daughter,
To the moon and back.