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Sleep never came easily anymore, always plagued with memories and visions of the past. Aizawa tried to fight it, tried to reason with himself that he was fine now, but it never stopped the nightmares... It never stopped the fact that his mind replayed that day, those moments, over and over again on repeat. He can still hear his bones crack and shatter, can still feel the weight of that creature on his back, can still sense the fear when he barely saved one of his students from death at the hands of the blue haired man he later learned was called Shigaraki Tomura.
A part of him ached every time he saw Tsuyu now, wondered what could have happened if he was a weaker man and had passed out from the pain, what damage would the death have taken on his students. He was ashamed of himself for failing to protect her, even if he knew that the young girl didn't blame him in the slightest. She was strong in that respect, all of his students were. They had taken on those villains without even batting an eye, had been ready to fight extremely dangerous individuals in order to save themselves and their peers. He never could have done something like that when he was their age, too unsure, too doubtful of his abilities, too self-reliant to accept help from those around him.
So now, when the raven woke up screaming himself hoarse, or cried out in his sleep, and Hizashi was there, he thanked the gods he'd gotten over himself and let himself fall in love. The voice hero was his beacon in the storm, and sometimes sat with him for hours as he came out of his panicked state, despite needing sleep himself from his multiple jobs. The blond would hold him against his chest as he cries, planting kisses on his hair or forehead or face. Anywhere he could reach really, all to calm Aizawa down and rid his mind of nightmares.
But they never really went away. The visions were always there, in the back of his mind. Aizawa had no quiet moments anymore, the few he used to get taken from him by thoughts of “what if, what if, what if...” that drove him mad. It was in those moments that the erasure hero wondered if Hizashi had some kind of sixth sense when it came to him, always appearing right on cue and pulling the raven out of those thoughts with his usual loud behavior.
At least with the voice hero by his side, Aizawa never had to worry about his fear and anxiety devouring him from the inside out...