Chapter Text
Walking home that afternoon from the art supply store should have been 20 minutes tops, even if she took the time to absorb her busy surroundings. Hordes of busy people were speed walking along the sidewalk or risked dodging cars in the street. Some barely looked up from their phones. It almost made the woman sad to see humanity so unaware of the real world and what wonderful things it had to offer. Letting out a disappointed sigh, she turned around and began the long trek back to her apartment. Briefly, she glanced at her wristwatch to catch the time and the corners of her chapped lips curled downwards into a minuscule frown.
'Shit, I'm going to be late.' she frantically thought. The now tardy woman picked up her pace a bit from her leisure stroll to a borderline mom-walk. She breezed by several storefronts with loud neon welcome signs and mouth-watering food and wished she had more time to spare. She passed the large crowds of tourists and locals and took a deep breath of relief once she made her way out of the packed area. As the woman made her way past an average alleyway, she heard a small whimper followed by a sniffle coming from it. A worried expression crossed her face and without hesitation, she entered the mouth of the alley to investigate. Of course, she remained cautious and on guard with her pepper spray at the ready, but she could still hear something crying.
'Someone could need serious help.' the woman logically thought to herself and continued forward. Her feet moved her farther down the alley and past pieces of random trash and broken bottles, till she finally reached the source of the small noise. It was coming from behind a large empty cardboard box that probably once held a dishwasher or something of the like based on the size. Her hand shakily moved forward and slowly pulled the box out of the way. What she saw next was alarming and entirely unexpected.
A crying toddler was crouched on the ground, covered with small scratches and streaks of dirt on his face and hands. The poor boy couldn't have been older than 3 years, the woman observed sadly and full of concern. When he noticed the strange and unfamiliar woman, his cries escalated to full-on sobs before he hid his face within his arms and curled himself into a ball. It was like he was instinctively trying to hide and curl his body to protect it from further injury. The woman observed this in him and concluded either the child was very bright or he was being abused. But, that wasn't important right now. She needs to get him back to his guardians or possibly call the police to report a lost child if she can't find them soon.
The woman began to softly hum a small lullaby to calm the frightened boy and to gain a small portion of his trust. Well as must trust a child can have in a stranger. The toddler's cries slowly stopped after a couple of minutes of listening to her soothing hums and his teary heterochromatic eyes peeked through an opening in his arms full of curiosity.
Seeing that she now had his full attention, the woman gave him a small smile and said in her calmest tone, "Hi sweetie, do you know where your parents are?" The boy sniffled at her questions and slightly shook his small head. "That's ok, we'll find them together. Is that ok with you?" the woman inquired. After a minute of hard thinking, the three-year-old finally nodded his head reluctantly and looked at her with clear distrust written all over his face. But he seemed to realize that he needed assistance badly, even if it came from someone he doesn't know at all.
A warm smile crossed the woman's face and she held out a hand towards him to grab. The boy slowly took her hand and shakily stood up even with her help. They carefully walked out of the alley avoiding the broken glass and into the street together. His small hand was tucked into hers firmly so he doesn't get lost and so he feels reassured.
"Ok sweetie, just tug on my hand if you see your parents anywhere ok?" she gently said to the boy. After 30 minutes of them walking around the area looking for his lost family, the woman got her cell phone from her jeans back pocket and called the police.
"119 what's your emergency?" She still held the toddler's hand as she gave a brief summary of the situation and provided their current location. "Ok expect two officers on the scene in under 10 minutes." The woman thanked the person on the other end before she hung up.
Before she could even put her phone back in her pocket, the boy tugged lightly on her hand. Immediately, the woman crouched down to be eye level with him, "What is it, sweetie? Do you see your parents?!" He pointed his tiny finger and she followed the path to a nearby ice cream stand.
She let out a little laugh and said, "Alright, let's get you some ice cream for being so brave today." His mismatched eyes lit up immediately and he excitedly began to pull her arm in that direction. She was admittedly happy the boy finally wasn't silently crying anymore and thought his determination to have a sweet cold treat was adorable. As they waited in line, she examined his face again before pulling out a small wipe from her purse.
The woman knelt down and said, "Turn towards me please." He looked confused but conceded to her request. She held his face up slightly and gently wiped the dirt off of his face and hands, being mindful of the scratches. The small boy just stared at her silently as she continued her task but didn't try to stop her.
"There we are. Can you tell me your name sweetie?" the woman kindly asked. He made no reaction to her question and just continued to stare at her smiling face with a blank expression. "Not ready to tell me? That's ok. My name is Aylee." Before she could say anymore, it was their turn in line.
She picked up the small boy into her arms so he could see the flavors clearly now. "Pick whichever one you want sweetie." Encouraged by her words, the boy's face became very concentrated as he critically looked over all of the displayed ice cream flavours. Aylee struggled to hold in a laugh at his cute little scrunched up face. The ice cream teller looked at the two, amused with the boy's antics. After a moment of deliberation, his little finger pointed at the dark pink ice cream. Aylee answered his silent debate.
"We'll take one raspberry scoop please."
The boy sat down next to Aylee on a bench and was happily licking his pink ice cream. Aylee was keeping an eye on their surroundings when two uniformed police officers approached the pair. A small whimper escaped from his mouth at the intimidating sight of them and he scooted his body closer to the woman he was more familiar with. She heard the distressed sound and wrapped her arm around his trembling shoulders and lightly kissed his head to comfort him. "It's alright sweetie, they're here to help." she quietly whispered to him.
"Hello miss, we were called about a lost child." one of the officers spoke up.
Aylee rubbed the toddler's shoulder to help keep him calm. "Yes, I found this boy in an alleyway hiding behind a cardboard box scared and alone." she bluntly started. The officer that spoke nodded for her to continue. "We looked around for his parents for about 30 minutes before I placed the call. Unfortunately, he has not told me his name, but I didn't want to leave him by himself."
The two officers glanced at the shaking and fearful child glued next to her. "Thank you miss, for your assistance, but we'll take it from here." The second officer, who was silent for the whole interaction, stepped forward to take a hold of the child. The boy immediately burst into tears and crawled onto the woman's lap. His ice cream was dropped and now a forgotten puddle on the sidewalk. Aylee tried everything to soothe him, but he just buried his head into her shoulder and refused to let go of her.
The young woman sheepishly looked at the two officers while petting the boy's red and white hair. "Sweetie I know it's scary but you have to go with them. They're here to help you." her voice barely heard above his gut-wrenching wails. He immediately shook his head at her words and finally said his first words to the strangers.
"Want Ay-wlee." the boy brokenly choked out. The two officers glanced at each other in exasperation after hearing the toddler's unreasonable protests. He's not the first uncooperative child they've had, but he's the most difficult to date.
He continued to cry into her now tear-soaked shoulder. She couldn't let this go on any longer. Aylee sighed, "What if I take him for now until you can locate his parents. I do have past experiences of being a full-time nanny."
The officers pondered at her words for a minute before glancing at the teary boy again. Not wanting a sobbing child on their hands, they agreed to assess her living arrangements before making a final decision.
Aylee looked down at the distraught shaking child in her lap. "Did you hear that sweetie? You might be staying with me." He slowly stopped crying long enough to open his eyes and look up at her smiling face with a sniffle.
The toddler willingly got into the police car with Aylee as they headed to her apartment. He stayed calm the entire time as he sat on the young woman's lap for the drive.
One awkward elevator ride later, and the police officers were looking around Aylee's apartment and asking her several necessary, but invasive, questions.
"Do you currently live with anyone?"
"No, I live alone."
"How many bedrooms are in this apartment?"
"Three, but I use one as my studio and the other as a guest bedroom."
"Who have you worked for in the past?"
"I used to be a nanny for several local pro heroes' children. Here's a list of my references."
"Ok, we will be sending an officer every 6 hours to check up on the kid."
"That's fine. Could you give me the names beforehand so I can make sure they're not an imposter?"
"Yes, we will even give you the badge numbers."
"Ok and here's my cell number."
"Good. You'll notify us if the boy tells you anything?"
"Absolutely. I just hope his family is found soon."
The two officers made their way out of her apartment and the door finally shut. Shoto looked up from the toy pile he occupied while the officers looked around and was startled by the absence of noise now. Aylee let a relieved sigh pass from her lips before smiling at the playing toddler.
"Alright my little peppermint, let's get you bathed and changed before we get something to eat." The boy did not look exactly thrilled by her statement of a bath but didn't resist when she helped him into the bathroom.
Time skip to after dinner time.
"Well I don't know about you but I'm stuffed." Aylee dramatically said while patting her stomach jokingly.
The three-year-old didn't answer her playful banter but looked over at the toy section with a longing look in his mismatched eyes.
Noticing his stare Aylee said, "why don't you go play for a bit?"
He slid off the couch and plops onto the carpet to play with the several colorful and eye-catching toys.
She shook her head fondly with a tired smile before turning on the tv to the news channel.
The news anchor had a strained smile on her face but began to speak in a serious tone of voice. "And now an important message from the pro hero Eraserhead."
The screen's image shifted to a man with dark purple bags under his reddened eyes and looked like he could fall over in exhaustion at any minute. Aylee also took note of his messy hair and torn clothes. The hero is either stressed from his line of work or things are about to get a lot worse.
"I am here to inform the public that one of our hero course students is currently missing. The staff of UA is asking that you keep a lookout for anyone that fits this description. He's a third-year male with a fire/ice quirk and very distinguishable red and white hair. His name is Shoto Todoroki. Anyone who has valuable information about his whereabouts please call the number on the screen. A reward for any information available can be negotiated. We will be displaying his picture for 15 minutes. It is of the utmost importance we find him quickly. Thank you for listening."
An image comes on the tv showing a UA student ID photo. The teenager wasn't smiling but that's not what grabbed the woman's attention. The unique split red and white hair is what her eyes were drawn to.
"Gosh, he looks very similar too.."
A sharp gasp broke the comfortable silence in the apartment. Aylee's gaze immediately landed on the toddler playing in the corner of her living room, stuck in his own world. The woman's eyes flicked back to the picture being displayed on the tv screen again to get another look.
"There's no way," she mumbled quietly to herself in disbelief. But, there's only one logical way to know for sure if her suspicions were true.
"Shoto." she said clearly.
The boy immediately looked up to her at the sound of his name.
"Oh my god!" she exclaimed in shock. Aylee immediately jumped up from the couch and started looking for her cell phone frantically.
She finally spotted it lying face down on the table by the front door.
Aylee lunged for it and clumsily tripped on the edge of the carpet, crashing to the floor with a loud thud.
Shoto just continued to stare at her questioningly. He struggled to get up and walked over to her slowly as if confronting a trapped wild animal.
His small hand lightly tapped on her cheek. The woman blearily opened her eyes and sat up with a pained groan.
"Why didn't you tell me your name Shoto?" He looked down at the floor with a little sad and somewhat fearful look on his face.
"That's ok if you didn't want to tell me. But, it would have saved you from my embarrassing nicknames." The boy looked back up and locked his intense mismatched gaze onto her before climbing into her lap. Her lips quirked into a small smile and she wrapped an arm around his body while petting his two-toned hair. They both sat on the floor for a while hugging each other.
"Aylee 'm tired," his small voice filtered out into the quiet apartment and broke up the moment.
"Ok Shoto, let's get ready for bed then."
The boy let out a small grunt and frowned at her. She spotted the weak glare he shot at her and said, "What's wrong? I thought you were tired?" Shoto didn't answer but kept staring at her with an unhappy look on his face. "Oh, I see now." Aylee laughed a little when she realized what was wrong. "Do you want me to keep calling you peppermint?"
Shoto gave a small nod at her question but continued to pout. Aylee let out a small giggle at his cute grumpy face before saying, "Ok little peppermint, time for bed."
They both got up off the floor and headed to the bathroom again. After they brushed his teeth and changed into pajamas, she guided him into her spare bedroom. "Ok, you can stay here for tonight. My room is right across from you so if you need anything just open the door."
Aylee pulled up the blankets and comforter around the boy and made sure he was comfortable. After that, she leaned down and gave Shoto a hug and kiss on the forehead. "Good night my little peppermint. Sweet dreams." she softly said to the sleepy boy.
Aylee quietly shut his bedroom door before walking back to her living room and picked up her phone. "Shit, it's dead." The brunette huffed in annoyance and immediately plugged it in the wall to charge.
"I'll have to call in the morning."
Aylee headed to bed and before she could even pull up her blankets completely she was out like a light.
She was the only one able to go to sleep right away in the apartment though. Two mismatched eyes stared at the ceiling for half an hour before he decided to get up.
Shoto softly opened the other bedroom door and peeked his head around the wooden door to look inside the dark room. He saw the woman who's currently caring for him asleep on her bed, dead to the world around her. He shuffled his feet a little and contemplated going back to his room before he walked to the edge of her bed. He managed to crawl onto the side of the bed she faced and curled into her body. Without waking up, Aylee shifted her arms around the boy loosely and pulled him even closer to her. Shoto laid still in shock for a moment before he relaxed in her arms and closed his eyes. He quickly fell into numerous dreams and realities once his eyes drift closed.