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Dadzawa: Different training today, come to the staff dorm
Shinsou did a 180 on the path to the gym and began heading towards the teacher dorms, wondering what kind of “different training” his father had planned for him. It might’ve been something Class 1-A had done before, and he was simply playing catch up.
He walked up to the dorm’s front lawn, only to see the rest of the staff leaving the building and head towards the school.
“Hey ‘Toshi, Shouta’s waiting for you inside,” Midnight said when she saw him approach.
“Do you know what ‘special training’ he has planned?” he asked. Right as he did, Present Mic walked by and burst out laughing. “That’s what he’s calling it?” Mic chuckled as he ruffled Shinsou’s hair and walked away with Midnight.
Now both confused and slightly afraid at his other dad’s cryptic words, he walked into the teacher’s dorm, where he saw Aizawa waiting for him.
“Perfect timing. You’ll won’t be doing any physical training today,” Aizawa said.
“What will I be doing exactly?” Shinsou asked hesitantly, trying to look for some sort of boobytrap that was going to attack him.
“You’ll be practicing being around a victim of a traumatic experience.” Aizawa turned around and lifting up something from behind him. It was then that Shinsou realized he was unaware of the white haired girl hiding behind Aizawa the whole time. Red eyes met purple ones as Aizawa lifted her up from under her arms and held her out towards Shinsou.
“You know of each other already, but now you two can finally talk and bond or whatever while I go to the staff meeting.”
Shinsou looked from Eri’s nervous expression to his dad’s blank one. “Are you putting me on babysitting duty?”
“No, I just said that you’ll be practicing being around a victim of a traumatic experience. Keep up, Hitoshi.”
With that, he placed the girl in Shinsou’s arms and walked out the door, leaving behind two very confused kids and an empty dorm.
Silence followed as Shinsou held Eri uncomfortably, not really knowing what to do. He eventually put her down and took a step back, not wanting to invade her personal space.
He knew who Eri was, all of Class 1-A did, but in the month that she had been staying at UA, he had never had a conversation with her. Some people like Midoriya and Ashido would always spend time with her, while others like Bakugou and Tokoyami had no clue how to act around her. Shinsou unfortunately fell into the latter.
“Uh, hi,” Shinsou finally said, breaking the awkward silence. “I’m Shinsou.”
“I know,” Eri said quietly, looking down at the ground. “Shouta and Hizashi talk about you.”
“Well I hope it’s all good things, haha.” His fake laugh quickly died as Eri’s nervous expression has yet to change. He scratched the back of his head and crouched down to her level. “Is there anything you want to do right now?”
Eri looks around the room, avoiding his eye and shrugs. “You don’t have to watch if you don’t want to, I can just stay in my room until Shouta and Hizashi comes back.”
Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Shinsou was ready to both kill and die for her.
“I want to watch you,” he reassured her, “but do you want me to watch you?”
Eri looked torn over the question, instead choosing to look over at where the couches and TV were. “We can just sit and watch TV. Hizashi showed me a show about a princess with a sword.”
“Then we can do that.” The next hour was spent with Eri sitting on the floor and Shinsou sitting on the couch as they watched Eri’s show, an almost unbearable silence hung in the air as they avoiding commenting on any parts of the show as it meant that they had to speak to one another.
Shinsou could’ve sworn he heard a sigh of relief come from Eri when they heard the teachers enter the dorm. As the teachers went to speak with Eri, Shinsou zeroed in on his parents and dragged them into the kitchen.
“Why?” he squeaked out.
“Do you not like Eri?” Mic asked worriedly.
“Opposite actually, but it’s so awkward between us and I don’t know what to do,” Shinsou hissed. “There’s a reason why I’ve never spoken to her before.”
“Better learn how to make a friend since you’re watching her again tomorrow,” Aizawa said, deciding the fridge was a more interesting view then Shinsou’s panicked face.
“I don’t know how to make a friend at all, much less with a six year old.”
“What about Kaminari? He acts like one sometimes,” Hizashi asked.
“Kaminari approached me first, Eri wants nothing to do with me,” Shinsou replied.
“I hardly think that’s the case,” Aizawa said, “but I guess you’ll find out tomorrow.”
Shinsou watched as Aizawa handed one jelly packet to Mic before opening up one for himself, finish it in one go, and throw it out, all without breaking eye contact with Shinsou.
“I’m showing the class the video Uncle Tensei recorded of you two and Aunt Nemuri all drunk crying in an empty bathtub, you traitors!” he called out to them as they left the kitchen.
This time, Shinsou was going in with a plan. He thought it through the night before: Eri is cute, Eri likes cute things, cats are cute. Therefore, he’s getting a cat involved. If she doesn’t like it, then he would probably jump out of a window or do something equally overdramatic.
He came back from his parent’s room with Pike held in one arm, a cat nail clipper in the other hand, and a fire in his eyes. Instead of sitting on the couch, he took a seat on the ground about five feet away from her, making sure she sees him, and began clipping the cat’s nails.
The moment he saw her shift in his peripheral vision, he knew he had her. He looked up and made eye contact with Eri. She looked away quickly, and Shinsou quietly chuckled. “Do you want to try?”
Eri looked back at him surprised. “Ar-are you sure?”
“Pike is the only one who won’t fidget, so it’ll work best for you.” Shinsou watched Eri crawl up next to him and take the clippers he handed to her. He pushed down on the cat’s paw and shifted it towards Eri. “Just make sure you don’t clip too far down or it’ll hurt her.”
Eri nodded, and with the concentration of a surgeon he didn’t know she had in her, she carefully clipped one of Pike’s claws, smiling at herself when she saw it worked.
“Can I do another one?” she asked, smiling at Shinsou for the first time ever.
“You can do the rest of the paw.” Shinsou kept the paw still as Eri worked her way through each claw with absolute delicacy, not wanting to hurt Pike at all. Finally, she finished up, and Shinsou traded the clipper in Eri’s hand for the cat, who was now happily purring in Eri’s lap.
Shinsou got up to put away the clippers, but was interrupted by a small voice.
“Shinsou?”
He turned around to look at Eri’s blushing face.
“Thank you,” she whispered, hiding her smile behind a mound of fur.
“It’s not a problem at all,” Shinsou softy smiled back at her.
There was apparently another staff meeting going on, which wouldn’t be weird except for the fact that it was the third day in a row, so Shinsou’s money was on Nedzu finally taking over Japan, just like Todoroki suspected. At least Eri was finally warming up to him, so not all was lost.
Cats seemed to be the common ground between the two, so the first half hour was spent with Eri on the couch watching Shinsou get in a fight with both Vex and Jester and lose. He finally managed to clip their claws after chasing them around the dorms for 15 minutes, and although he hated how uncooperative they were being, at least he managed to hear Eri accidentally let out a small giggle.
He collapsed on the couch next to her and let out a heavy sigh. “After all these years and they’re still so difficult.”
“Years?” Eri asked.
Shinsou pulled out his phone and opened up an old photo from his library, turning it to Eri. He was about 13 in that photo, sitting next to Aizawa and holding Jester tightly while wearing a bright smile.
“We got her first, then Vex a year later, and Pike two months ago,” he explain, finding different photos to show her.
Eri stared at the photos, concentrating far more than was probably necessary. She had a hazy look in her eyes as she looked up at Shinsou. “You lived with Shouta and Hizashi for a long time?”
Not the response he was expected, but he nodded. “I was actually adopted when I was around your age. I was way more of a handful though since I didn’t have time to recover in a hospital. You’re an angel compared to me.”
Eri solemnly nodded, deep in thought over Shinsou’s words. Surprisingly, she didn’t speak, instead choosing to slide off the couch and grabbing the remote, not looking back at Shinsou.
Shinsou reached out a hand to tap her shoulder but quickly withdrew it. If he fucked up, then she doesn’t want to speak or even look at him right now. He remained seated on the couch, the TV becoming white noise to him as he looked sadly at Eri’s hunched figure. His heart dropped when he recognized the familiar tension in the air he tried so hard to get rid of.
“Why did they adopt you?”
It was his fourth evening with Eri when she finally spoke to him again after spending the first ten minutes hiding in her room. She sat on the couch again and tapped his leg, looking up at him curiously.
“Uh, that’s a pretty serious story. I don’t know if you want to hear it,” Shinsou said hesitantly.
“I really do,” Eri told him.
“You really might not want to hear it,” Shinsou stressed. “Some people… hurt me when I was a kid.”
“Shinsou,” Eri said, using the most serious tone he’s ever heard. “This is important.”
He caved, more out of shock a her words then actually being persuaded. He placed Vex in her lap, realizing she may need a source of comfort, and began his story.
“Shouta and Hizashi adopted me from a foster home.” Eri tilted her head in confusion. “A foster home is a place where a group of kids live. Either they don’t have parents, they’re not allowed to stay with them, or… their parents don’t want them.” His voice trailed off at the end.
“No one liked me because of my quirk. The other kids weren’t allowed to talk to me and the mother would pretend not to see her husband-” he cut himself off and sighed. “That’s not important right now. Shouta was investigating something and the foster parents were involved, which led to him finding the foster home. I was a big fan of him, so seeing him was a dream come true. My hero finally rescuing me and all that. He saw what they did to me, talked to Hizashi, and decided to adopt me instead of putting me in a different home where that could happen again.”
“So they rescued you from the bad home?” Eri asked.
“Yeah, I guess you can say it like that,” Shinsou nodded. “I was around your age at the time, and didn’t talk verbally for the first month, I would always refuse to be in photos until I was eight, and I would cry a lot. Really just a handful in general.”
Shinsou was so lost in thought over the memories that he almost missed the quiet sniffle coming from Eri. He got off the couch and crouched in front of her, worrying out of his mind.
“Eri? I’m sorry for mentioning the bad foster dad I-“
“No,” she whispered. “Not that. I was just thinking.”
“About?”
“If Shouta and Hizashi had a tough time with you, then they wouldn’t adopt me, right?”
The realization came crashing down on Shinsou as he recalled every interaction with her. Her hesitancy to speak with him, falling into silence when he talked about how his dads struggled with him, her insistence on learning the ugly truth of his past. She saw too much of herself in him, and all he ever did was talk about the negatives about his life.
“Eri, I can assure you that once they get permission, you’ll be an Aizawa-Yamada in no time,” Shinsou reassured her.
“You said it was hard to raise you, so it’ll be even worse with me,” she told him, wiping away her tears. “Shouta stays with me just in case of my quirk going wrong.”
“Then why does Hizashi stay with you?” Shinsou asked. He was met with silence from the girl as he continued on. “If Shouta is only with you to keep your quirk under control, then why does he take time out of his day to play with you? I’m sure those two wouldn’t bake cookies at night for just anyone.”
He sat back up on the couch and brought Eri into a tight embrace, relief washing over him when she reciprocated. “You are not an obligation or an inconvenience, okay? I want you to remember that any time that you doubt yourself.”
“I will. Thank you, Shinsou,” Eri said.
“I just told you things no one in the class knows about me, I think you should call me ‘Hitoshi’ now.”
Eri pulled away from the hug and looked into Shinsou’s eyes. “Okay, Hitoshi!”
The two hugged one more time and refused to let go, and Shinsou fell asleep wondering if he could legally adopt someone as a sister.
The next evening, Shinsou was in for a surprise when he walked into the teacher dorms only to see that the teachers were actually in there.
“What are you doing here?” Shinsou asked suspiciously.
“We live here? What are you doing here?” Midnight countered.
“You can’t even use that on me when my family lives in here.”
Midnight gave him a hardened stare before giving up on the fight and pointing to the kitchen. “They’re in there.”
He stormed into the kitchen, startling Mic and nearly dropping his water, and slammed his hands down on the counter.
“What are you doing here?” Aizawa asked, unfazed by his protege.
“You ask me to babysit Eri for four days claiming that there were meetings, and now everyone is acting like nothing happened,” Shinsou ranted. “Why didn’t you get Midoriya or Togata to babysit, and why lie about having meetings for four days?”
Aizawa and Mic shared a look before turning back to Shinsou. “First of all, I would be worried if you didn’t realize I was telling such an obvious lie, so good job on that. Second, we only lied about the meeting three times. There actually was one on the first day. We just hid in the staff room for the other days,” Aizawa began.
“Before we explain, we also want to let you know that we were really happy to see you and Eri napping together yesterday,” Mic said, grinning like a mad man.
“But why?” Shinsou asked.
“For the same reason we made you spend time with Eri for four days,” Aizawa said. “We wanted you two to get along, especially considering you two are going to be seeing each other a lot more in the future.”
The cogs in Shinsou’s brain picked up the pace as he registered what Aizawa was implying.
“You mean-”
“YOU’RE GETTING A LITTLE SISTER!” Mic screamed, followed by Aizawa quickly silencing him with his quirk.
Aizawa turned back to face Shinsou. “We didn’t want to spring this on you but considering her circumstances we wanted to-”
“Don’t even bother explaining, I’m so on board for this,” Shinsou had a such a giddy look on his face he was almost unrecognizable. “Did you tell Eri?”
“Not yet,” Mic said.
“Can I go tell her?”
“Sure, she’s in her room right n-” Shinsou was out the door before Aizawa could even finish the sentence.
Despite his sprint upstairs, he slowed down once he reached her room and calmly knocked on the door before peeking his head in. Eri was seated on her bed and playing a game on her tablet, but she quickly shut it off to enjoy Shinsou’s surprise presence.
“Hitoshi? What are you doing here?” she asked,
“Everyone’s seems to be asking me that today, but right now I’m here to see you,” He sat next to her on her bed and swung an arm around her shoulder. “I have a question. Do you have a last name?”
“I don’t,” Eri replied.
“False!” Shinsou said. “You do have one.”
Eri looked up at him in bewilderment. “But I don’t have parents.”
“Yes you do. You even have a cool older brother too.”
“Hitoshi what are you- oh.” Her eyes widened when she realized just what Shinsou was hinting at.
“They-”
“Yes!”
“And I’m-”
“Yep!”
“And you-”
“Oh fuck yeah! Wait, don’t repeat that word.”
“I’m telling on you to our dads!”
“You called them ‘our dads!’”
He stood up and scooped her up into his arms, spinning around and basking in the sound of her laughter.
She leaned back and smiled at him with tears in her eyes. “The three of you had three cats, so does this mean we get another cat since I’m here now?”
Shinsou burst into laughter at the girl’s logic and planted a kiss on her forehead. “Eri, we can get as many cats as you want.”