Chapter Text
“Why do you need a physical CD when you can just buy the album digitally?” Hizashi’s mom asked as she drove.
“Mom. Its not the sammmee.” Hizashi Yamada whined. “Beside, I need it for my collection.”
“Uh huh. I don’t think you can fit any more CDs on your shelves hon.” His mom teased.
“It doesn’t matter!!! Its Night & Suns LAST album. I NEED ITTttTttt!!!” He sang the last word dramatically. His mom just shook her head.
“Ok ok. You sure you’re ok waiting while I do my visit? Then we can stop at the music store.”
“Yea!”
“The family has a little porch with a bench you can wait on.” His mom said as she turned down a street and parked in front of a narrow brown brick house. “Im just helping them finalize some plans so I should be in and out pretty fast.”
“I’ll be ok! I’ll just play on my phone.” Hizashi smiled. He certainly wasn’t going to complain about waiting. If his mother hadn’t let him come with her he would have had to take the train and he wasn’t all that comfortable doing that since he accidentally shattered some windows a couple weeks ago. Man that was EMBARASSING, he thought as he cringed from the memory. Plus he liked spending time with his mom and he thought he might be able to convince her to go to that takoyaki place that was too far from the train stop to go to without a car after the music store.
That thought made his mouth water a little as he got out of the car. It was a nice day, too warm to wait in the car, but pleasant outside. He felt a little out of place next to his mom who was dressed in a nice dark gray pantsuit. He had on jeans with rips in the knees, yellow converse sneakers, and a red tshirt with the words “Meow’s it going?” printed over a little cartoon of a cat in sunglasses.
“Ok you wait there and I’ll hurry ok?” His mom pointed to a bench. He smiled, nodded, and trotted over to the bench. He slipped a big pair of black headphones from around his neck up over his ears, smashing down the soft tufts of blonde hair that sprouted out off his head. He pushed his glasses up his nose and keyed up some tunes on his phone as his mom knocked on the door.
“Hello Mrs. Aizawa, how are you today?” He heard his mom say as she was welcomed into the home. He let his mind drift off as he listened to an assortment of rock, pop, and hip hop and mindlessly tapped his way around a balloon popping game when the front door opening and closing made him look up. Instead of his mother, a boy was standing in front of the door…staring at HIM.
The boy was barefoot and wearing dark khaki cargo shorts with a plain black t shirt. His black hair fell in soft waves down to the boys jawline but was tucked behind an ear on one side revealing dark tired eyes and a confused expression.
The boy mouthed something and Hizashi realized he was still wearing his headphones. He pushed them back down around his neck.
“What?” Hizashi asked.
“Who are you?” The boy repeated.
“Oh uh…My mom is the social worker who went inside.” He faltered a moment before smiling brightly. “I’m Yamada Hizashi!” Hizashi gestured to himself with his thumb. “Who are you?”
“Aizawa Shouta.” The kid said flatly.
“Oh! I didn’t know a kid lived here!”
“I don’t live here. This is my grandma’s house.” The kid stood still and eyed Hizashi up and down.
“Oh.” Hizashi said a little sadly. He knew his mom was here to help an old lady get moved to a care facility. “Uh…hey! How old are you?” He asked, recovering quickly.
“14.”
“HEY!” Hizashi said, a twinge of his quirk making the boy wince. “I’m 14 too!!!”
The boy just stared.
“So uh…where do you live?” Hizashi asked.
Aizawa frowned and looked at his feet. He should have grabbed his shoes so he could go for a walk, but he didn’t want to be inside while his mom and that social worker lady talked about his grandma…that made him…uncomfortable. That meant that he was going to have to talk to this kid. He sighed and went to sit on the end of the bench furthest from the blonde kid.
Aizawa told him the name of his neighborhood.
“Oh cool. That’s only like 20 minutes from me! You must be just outside my school district.” Hizashi said brightly.
“I guess.” Aizawa shrugged. They sat in awkward silence for a few moments.
“Do you always come with your mom to these things?” Aizawa asked suddenly.
“Nah. I just needed a ride to the music store. Night & Suns new album came out and I want to buy a cd.” Hizashi explained. Shouta thought that maybe the name sounded familiar. He didn’t really talk to his classmates but he often listened to their conversations. Maybe one of them had talked about this band.
“My mom’s really good though.” Hizashi continued. “She always makes sure all the grandpas and grandmas go somewhere where they can be healthy and happy. So don’t worry about your grandma!”
Shouta wanted to tell the kid he wasn’t worried. But he was. His grandma was the only person that made him feel loved and safe. Not that his mom didn’t love him, she just wasn’t around enough or too drunk to really show it.
“My other mom and me go visit some of the care homes sometimes. We do art and music with all the old people. It’s fun. Last time I-“
“You can visit?” Shouta cut the blonde off.
“Course you can. It’s not old people prison.” Hizashi smiled.
“My mom didn’t tell me that.” Shouta mumbled. “Do you need a grownup?”
“I don’t think so. Not if you’re visiting your own grandma for sure! Do you know where she’s going?” Hizashi asked.
“Uh..” Shouta furrowed his brows trying to remember. “Willow Springs?”
“Oh! Willow Springs is AMAZING!” Hizashi trilled, bringing his hands up to his cheeks in excitement. “Thats my favorite one to visit! It’s near my house. They have this courtyard with a cool pond and there are like seven cats that live there!”
Despite his rambling, Hizashi definitely noticed the boy perk up at the mention of cats.
“That’s good.” Shouta mumbled.
Hizashi then launched into a rambling mess of stories about the cats and the weird old people he met. Shouta found himself grinning into his hands as the blonde described an old man who looked like an elephant. The story wasn’t all that funny but Hizashi was laughing so hard he nearly fell off the bench, and the pure joy that radiated off the blonde was…soothing in a weird way to Aizawa. He liked listening to this random kid talk, and he REALLY didn’t like listening to anyone talk. But maybe that was because people generally expected him to talk back, Yamada seemed content to talk enough for the both of them.
Aizawa listened comfortably as Yamada began telling him even more random stories. From elephants to peanuts to peanut butter until eventually he suddenly stopped talking.
“Oops! Im sorry. I can’t stop talking sometimes.” Hizashi said, covering his mouth as an embarrassed pink tinted his cheeks.
“It’s ok. I like listening.” Aizawa said quietly.
“Wait till you see my quirk, then you’ll change your mind. Everyone does.” Hizashi said, suddenly said, remembering the shattered train window and the grownups yelling at him…telling him to control himself.
“What’s your quirk?”
Hizashi described his quirk and even showed Shouta a little hum that vibrated the bench.
“Thats really cool.” Aizawa said.
“Do you have a quirk?” Hizashi asked. Shouta nodded.
“Here, do your hum thing again.” He instructed the blonde boy. Hizashi raised an eyebrow but started humming with a tiny bit of his quirk. All of a sudden Aizawas eyes turned red and his hair started floating away from his face. It was such an impressive sight that it took Hizashi a moment to realize his quirk wasn’t working.
“Woah.” He said with wide eyes as Aizawas appearance returned to normal.
“Its called erasure.” Aizawa explained.
“Its cool as shit.” Hizashi said. Aizawa smiled at that.
They talked about quirks for a little bit and when Hizashi discovered Shouta was also applying to UA and wanted to be a hero he nearly exploded, instead jumping up to stand.
“Ok we HAVE to be friends now Aizawa!!!” He shoved his phone into Shoutas hands. “Its DESTINY. You HAVE to put your number in my phone.”
Years later when Shouta caught himself thinking about the day he met his husband, he still didn’t know WHY he had decided to put his number in Hizashi’s phone. He normally would have said no, made some excuse but even just a brief exposure to Hizashi was magnetic and he had typed out his own phone number into the others contact list before he had even realized what he was doing.
It would turn out to be one of the best decisions in his life.