Work Text:
Touya had seen many strange things on the streets in his tenure as a villain, but one thing even he was not accustomed to were little children wandering alone.
He first noticed her when he spotted a flash of white hair. His attention had immediately been drawn on the off chance it was one of his siblings, but he saw that it was only a little girl with bright white hair. He was relieved—though he had revealed himself to his mother and his youngest brother, the other two siblings would be a force to be reckoned with, and they scared him just a little bit.
He would have turned his attention away from the girl, had he not noticed that there seemed to be no accompanying adult. From his vantage point in the alley across the street and behind her, she could see her head turning this way and that, as if looking for someone, a parent. Her pale hair shifted with her movement, revealing a tiny nub on her forehead.
His initial thought was to ignore her. She could be an illusion, a product of someone’s Quirk to lure unsuspecting people into getting robbed. However, this section of Musutafu was sparsely populated by criminals; U.A. was nearby. The block and the ones around it were purely industrial, and there were few if any pedestrians, especially in the evening.
Against his learned instincts, Touya started trailing her. It wasn’t hard; he kept to the shadows, and her gaze was completely focused on the buildings around her.
When he heard the faint strains of crying, he knew he could stay hidden no longer. The girl had stopped walking, her body trembling, and old instincts unearthed themselves, replacing the learned ones.
Melding out of the shadows, he approached her, purposefully making noise so as not to sneak up on her. When she heard him, she whirled, red eyes wide with terror fixing upon him.
“Hey kid.” Touya stopped a reasonable distance away, hoping his scarred countenance wasn’t the cause of her fear. “You lost?”
After a long pause, the girl nodded. She clutched the strap of the little red bag around her shoulder like a lifeline. Now that he was closer, he could see the little nub on the right side of her forehead was actually a horn.
She reminded him of Fuyumi.
“You got a name?” He kept his voice as gentle as possible. “Mine’s…mine’s Touya.”
The response was so quiet and small he almost missed it. “…Eri.”
He waited for a last name but never received one. “Where are your parents?”
Her face didn’t change when she answered, “I don’t have any parents.”
Touya squinted. Someone had to be taking care of her, judging by her well-made clothes and her hair brushed free of tangles. “Who were you with before you got lost?”
“The class!” She brightened a little as she spoke of people who were clearly good to her. “They were going shopping and I got to come along.”
“Where were you?”
Her face fell into a frown. “I don’t know. I’ve never been there before. There were lots of people, and I went to look at a pretty dress, but when I turned around I couldn’t see Deku-kun was gone and I couldn’t see anyone else and…” The more she spoke, the more fearful she looked, shrinking into herself as she stared at him carefully.
Touya knew that look. She feared reproach, perhaps physical, each word becoming softer and softer as her face grew more fearful, trying to make herself smaller.
He had seen the same in his own siblings.
“Hey, it’s okay.” He crouched down, trying to make himself as non-threatening as possible. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m not mad at you.”
Her body relaxed visibly, looking a little less terrified.
“Who do you live with?” He idly wondered if he would torch a child-abuser tonight.
“Aizawa-san,” she said.
The name stirred some memory in the back of his mind. “Does he treat you well?”
Eri nodded, a small smile breaking working its way onto her face. “Yes! He acts a little grumpy but he’s really nice. He braids my hair and reads me stories and lets me play with the class and the other teachers and--”
Teachers. Aizawa. Eraserhead.
“You live at U.A.?” he asked, gently interrupting her descriptions. It was evident by her enthusiasm that she was treated well; the trauma must be a shadow of the past.
“Yeah! It’s really nice!”
Relief surged through him. His job just got a whole lot easier.
“I can help you get back to your friends.” He was going soft for sure.
Eri eyed him warily. “Aizawa-san said not to go anywhere with strangers.”
Touya sighed. “That’s good advice, but without me you’ll stay lost.”
Her frown deepened, clearly torn.
“I know I’m not the nicest looking guy, but I want to help you.” Something occurred to him. “Do you know Todoroki Shouto?”
Her eyes widened. “Yes! He’s kinda quiet, but he’s nice. How do you know him?”
“I’m…a friend of his.” Touya pulled the burner phone from his coat pocket. “I’m going to call him.”
A cool breeze blew through the street and Eri shivered visibly, the temperature dropping with the onset of night.
“Do you want my jacket?” Touya asked.
Eri opened her mouth, closed it again, and nodded quickly. With an amused huff, Touya shrugged his jacket off and closed the distance between them. Her eyes widened slightly at his approach, but when he held out the jacket, she reached out hesitantly and took it.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“Don’t mention it.” He bit back a smile as she put the jacket on, completely dwarfed by the black material. The tattered end dragged on the ground, and her fingers didn’t reach the end of the sleeves. It made him realize just how tiny she was, tinier than Shouto had ever been at a similar age.
“It’s warm.” She hugged the jacket tightly to her.
“Because of my Quirk,” Touya said. “I can make fire, so I’m always pretty hot.”
Eri looked up at him, her apprehension gone. “Is that where your scars came from?”
Touya blinked, surprised by her sudden boldness. “Yeah. I know they’re not pretty.”
“It’s okay. I have scars too.” She tilted her head, studying him with a curious look. “But scars are okay, because it means you survived what happened.”
For a moment he was at a loss for words. When he spoke, all he could say was, “You’re a good kid, Eri.”
“Can…can I hold your hand?” She glanced around at the darkening street. “I don’t like the dark.”
“Sure.” He offered her a hand and she took it easily, latching on with surprising strength despite her size. “I’m going to call Shouto so we can get you home, okay?”
Eri looked at him hopefully. “Okay.”
Class 1-A knew their death was imminent.
When Midoriya realized Eri was gone, he looked all over, retraced their steps, everything he could think of, but he couldn’t find her much to his mounting panic. Then he got the rest of the class involved, and they became just as panicked as he was.
Ten minutes of frantic searching later, they all regrouped in the mall courtyard, an air of dread hanging over them.
Losing Eri and not knowing what happened to her outweighed the dread of telling Aizawa, but only just. Her guardian, try as he might to hide it, was fiercely protective, and admitting their mistake would surely bring his wrath on their heads.
“We should call him,” Asui said, breaking the fearful silence.
“Are you crazy?” Kirishima hissed. “He’ll kill us all!”
“But Eri might be unsafe,” she countered calmly. “A Pro Hero probably knows what to do better than us.”
“Who’s going to call him?” Mina asked, her voice tiny.
“I will.” Everyone turned to look at Midoriya fishing his phone from his pocket. “She was with me specifically, so I take responsibility.”
“But she was with all of us!” Uraraka protested. “You can’t take sole responsibility!”
Midoriya sighed. “Fine. I’ll put it on speaker.”
The class waited with bated breath as the phone rang, tension heightening when the line was picked up.
“Midoriya?” Aizawa’s growl crackled through the phone.
“We lost Eri!” he blurted. “I turned around and she was gone! We looked around the mall but we can’t find her!”
“What?” Aizawa’s voice was low and terrible. “How long has she been missing for?”
“Uh…twenty minutes.”
“You waited twenty minutes to call me?” The steel edge in his voice sent shivers down every student’s spine.
“We were hoping we could find her and you wouldn’t kill us, Sensei,” Mina squeaked.
“It’s my fault!” Midoriya burst out. “I was supposed to be watching her!”
“I don’t care about that.” They all heard him growl in frustration. “I’ll be there in ten minutes. In the meantime, spread out and start searching around the mall. She couldn’t have gotten far.”
“Yes, Sensei!”
They all split up in various directions to search.
Though Shouto remained unperturbed on the outside, inwardly he felt just as anxious as everyone else. He didn’t talk to her much, but he felt a kinship with Eri. Both of them had suffered in childhood, and he knew at least somewhat the struggles she faced. This familiarity culminated in a fondness, barely betrayed by him for lack of knowing how to convey it, but there all the same. He didn’t want anything to happen to her, didn’t want a criminal snatching her off the street.
Igniting a flame in his palm, he started down a dark street adjacent to the mall, the noise fading away. He had barely made it to the end of the block when his phone buzzed in his pocket.
In such a dire situation, he felt compelled to let it ring, until he realized it wasn’t his main phone. He pulled the burner phone out of his pocket, eyeing the unknown number before flipping it open.
“Now’s not a good time, Touya,” he muttered, keeping his eyes peeled for a flash of white hair.
“Lost something?” The sarcastic glee was evident in Touya’s drawl.
Shouto scowled, jointly annoyed and curious. “How do you know that?”
There was a scuffling sound as the phone shifted. “Say hi, Eri.”
“Hi, Todoroki-san!” Eri’s voice, hushed but enthusiastic, came through the receiver.
“Hi, Eri.” He was unable to keep the relief from his voice. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
Touya’s voice came through again. “So I take it she’s with you and your class of brats?”
Shouto narrowed his eyes. “Did you kidnap her?”
“Come on, I’m not completely heartless. She kidnapped me, isn’t that right?” Eri spoke unintelligibly in the background before he spoke again. “I was hoping to run into you, but I found her instead. She was lost.”
“I’ll come get her. There will be more heroes here soon, and it won’t be safe for you.”
“Thanks,” Touya said, and he meant it.
Eri looked up at her savior as they walked along the darkened sidewalk. His scars had scared her at first, though she had swiftly moved past her fear once she saw his kindness. Now she found herself fascinated with his eyes; they flickered like azure candles, casting a faint light.
“Your eyes are really pretty,” she blurted.
His eyes were an attribute he was not fond of, a reflection of his father that only served as a reminder of his cruelty. At her compliment, a smile crept onto his face, surprised that someone liked them.
“Thanks, kid.” He smiled at her and she relaxed when she realized he had not been angered by her words. “Yours are too.”
“Mine don’t glow though,” Eri replied matter-of-factly, shifting her free hand to reposition the oversized jacket.
“That’s not that important.”
“But you’re like a…like a…” She floundered for the right word. “Like a dragon!”
Touya genuinely laughed. He couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed freely. “I’ve never thought about it like that, but my fire comes from my hands mainly.”
“My power comes from my horn.” Her fingertips peek beyond the overlong sleeve as she reaches up to touch the tiny nub.
“What is it?” He immediately regretted asking when her face fell.
“I don’t know,” she admitted focusing her gaze on her feet as she tried not to trip over the jacket. “It hurts people, makes them disappear, and sometimes it hurts me too.”
A strong power incompatible with the body it manifested in. Touya felt a surge of sorrow, knowing exactly what she felt.
“My fire has hurt me too.” He looked down at his arms, fully bare from the lack of his jacket, the purpled skin running from shoulder to palm. “But I’ve learned to control it so it doesn’t hurt me as much anymore.”
“Aizawa-san said the same thing. He said one day I’ll be able to control it.”
“That’s good.” He glanced at her, the resemblance to his sister jumping out at him again. She reminded him of Fuyumi from when they were younger, and it wasn’t just because of her hair. She was fearful but determined to make things better, just as Fuyumi once was.
Hopefully she still was.
A nagging voice in the back of his mind told him it was unfair to hide from Fuyumi and Natsuo when Shouto and his mother already knew. He would have to face his fear of rejection sooner rather than later.
“Touya-san, are you a hero?”
He almost laughed again, but kept a straight face for her sake. “No, I’m not. Why do you ask?”
“You’re really nice like heroes are,” she said. “I think I want to be a hero when I grow up. They saved me.”
The irony was hilarious, but Touya forced himself to ignore it. “Saved you from what?”
A shadow passed over her face. “From…from Overhaul.”
The pieces fell into place. Toga and Twice’s reports of the drug manifested from the body of Chisaki’s “daughter” had disgusted him, but back then there was nothing they could do about it. When the Shie Hassaikai was raided, the girl dropped off the map, and Touya tried not to wonder what her fate had been, watching with grim satisfaction as Shigaraki and Compress took Overhaul’s arms. He now understood Eri’s fearfulness, the haunted look in her eyes, her mention of scars. The girl had survived, taken under the wing of heroes, and she now walked hand in hand with him.
Thinking of Overhaul made him angry all over again. His high-and-mighty attitude was bad enough, coupled with the skirmish he had not been present for, but the mistreatment of the girl in his care made him all the more egregious in Touya’s eyes. He knew the horrors of a traumatic childhood, and abuse was one of the few things he could not abide. To have her body harvested for drugs, reducing her worth to less than even an animal’s, was even worse than he had suffered at Endeavor’s hands. At least his father had seen him as a human if not much else, but Overhaul had reached a new low, one that made him almost subhuman himself.
“Touya-san?” Eri’s small voice broke through his angry thoughts. “You’re…smoking?”
She was right. His anger had caused his fire to rise, sending tendrils of smoke curling from his skin. He swiftly tamped it down, feeling the heat subside.
“Sorry,” he murmured. “I just…really don’t like that Overhaul guy.”
Eri nodded, her concern subsiding as the smoke dissipated. “I don’t either. Aizawa-san told me I don’t have to worry, because he’ll be locked up forever.”
“He deserves it.”
“He’s my dad but I don’t want him to be,” Eri continued, more to herself than to him.
“He’s not your dad,” Touya said stiffly. “Dads don’t hurt their children. You know that, don’t you?”
She met his glowing gaze, her brow scrunched. “I…I guess so.”
“My father hurt me,” Touya admitted before he could stop himself. “I may be his biological son, but I don’t count him as my dad. In the same way, Overhaul isn’t your dad, understand?”
“I think so.”
“That Aizawa guy seems to care about you. Think about him, not Overhaul.”
“Okay.” A moment of silence passed between them. “Thank you, Touya-san. I’m glad you found me.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled, masking his fondness.
They turned a corner, finally arriving at their designated meeting spot. A flash of red and white betrayed Shouto’s presence in the dark.
“Todoroki-san!” Eri broke away from Touya, running the short distance to him.
Shouto almost smiled when he saw her wearing Touya’s jacket, barely avoiding tripping over the dragging hem. “Hi, Eri.”
She hugged him with all her might. “I’m sorry I got lost! I didn’t mean to!”
He hugged her back awkwardly. “It’s alright.”
Touya stopped just short of the pair. Coupled with the dark and the scars and staples, it was hard to tell, but Shouto figured he was smirking.
“Hey,” Touya offered simply.
“Thank you for finding her,” Shouto said, inwardly pleased to see his brother again. “You said you were hoping to find me?”
“Yeah. I was thinking about going to see…them.”
Shouto blinked. He had not expected Touya to reveal himself to the rest of the family so soon, but he was glad of it. “You should do it.”
Touya’s eyes flashed with a burst of warmth as he looked at Eri, who clung to Shouto’s hand. “She reminded me of her, and I figured I shouldn’t wait much longer.”
“Who?” Eri asked curiously.
“Someone very important to me,” Touya said gently.
“I’ll text you the address later,” Shouto said.
“Your friend is really nice, Todoroki-san.” Eri smiled at Touya. “He’s so cool!”
Shouto gave Touya a pointed look, which he ignored. “Thanks, kid. Would you mind giving me my jacket back?” He would have let her keep it had it not been something so easily tied to him.
“Oh.” She shrugged the jacket off and brought it over to him. He crouched down, accepting the jacket and patting her head.
“Try not to worry too much. You’re in good hands.”
“Thank you for helping me.” She hugged him fiercely, and he returned it gently, pretending he didn’t see Shouto’s smile.
She had helped him too, he realized. Her presence had served as a reminder of his two siblings that remained unaware he was alive, pressing him into revealing himself despite his worry.
“You’re welcome,” he murmured.
Eri pulled away. “I hope I see you again.”
“Maybe so.” He stood, donning his jacket. He gave Shouto a look. “See you around.”
Eri turned to go back to Shouto, and when she looked back, he was gone, vanished like a passing shadow.
When Aizawa’s phone rang, he whipped it out so fast he didn’t see the caller I.D. “What?”
Todoroki’s monotone spoke back. “I found her.”
Aizawa sagged with relief. “Is she hurt?”
“No.”
“Where are you?”
“A few blocks away from the mall.”
“Stay where you are. I’ll be there soon.”
Todoroki and Eri heard them before they saw them. Class 1-A’s relieved chattering carried, echoing from the buildings. Aizawa was at the head of the crowd, deaf to his students’ neverending stream of questions, mainly about Eri.
“Aizawa-san!” Eri darted forward as she sighted the familiar black-clad figure.
All else fell away when Eri ran towards him. He crouched down, catching her in his arms and hugging her tightly as he let out a tremulous sigh of relief.
“I’m sorry,” Eri murmured into his shoulder. “I turned around and Deku-kun was gone—”
“It’s alright,” he told her. “I’m just happy you’re safe.”
“Todoroki-san’s friend Touya-san found me,” Eri offered. “He was nice and gave me his jacket.”
Aizawa shot Todoroki a questioning look. He hadn’t imagined the reserved boy had any friends beyond his few at U.A.
“He happened to be in the area and found her,” Todoroki said, unperturbed. “He contacted me and we met up.”
More questions sprang to Aizawa’s mind, but he hadn’t the energy to ask them. The past half hour had been a blur of panicked worry, and now that he had Eri in his arms, the adrenaline was wearing off quickly. His students swarmed around him, relieved to see her unharmed, and he reluctantly let her down to interact with them.
She was happy to see the rest of the class again. Midoriya looked to be on the verge of tears, and even Bakugou gave her a head pat.
She never forgot Touya, the scarred man full of fire. He seemed to her almost unreal, a fleeting phantom that was her savior, but every time she looked at Todoroki she knew he was real. There was a strange familiarity between the two of them that she could not place, but she knew that Todoroki was aware of it too. What it meant, she could not say, but she did not ask.
She hoped that one day she would see him again.
The next day, as Aizawa was braiding her hair, something occurred to her.
“Aizawa-san?”
“Hm?”
“Can…can you be my dad?”
Aizawa’s hands stilled mid-braid. He said nothing for so long that she turned to look up at him. His face bore an expression she had never seen, revealing a softness rarely betrayed.
“Of course, Eri,” he said at last, his voice choked. “Of course I can.”
Three days later, Todoroki Touya revealed himself to his two siblings and chose a new path.
Dabi died and Touya truly lived again.
All it took was a little reminder found in a lost girl, and he never forgot her.