Work Text:
Maybe it's just coincidence that wherever his kids go, troubles come with them. Maybe it's not. Or maybe they're just magnets for troubles like how Eraser always moaning about.
Because when she arrived on the scene, Eraser and a bunch of his kids are here. The kids are still in their uniforms, so it is either a last minute grocery run or an outdoor assignment supervised by Eraser. They're actually right next to the museum, so it has gotten to be related to that.
Eraser seems to be finishing his fight with a whole gang of villains at the open yard right next to the said museum, judging by the clutters of unconscious villains surrounding him, while his kids are herding the civilians away to safety. She's too late to jump in to help but…
What the fuck is that?
Something is looming above Eraser and the knocked out villains. It's not big but the small size is a noticeable thing. It's a black cloud, a stark contrast to the blue sky. Usually it wouldn't alarm her; a cloud is nothing new when one looks up, but it is hovering too close to the ground. In fact, if she jumps high enough she could touch it with her hands.
It's too suspicious to be an ordinary cloud.
Then, in an instant of a flash, a single lightning strike strikes down with a booming crack. The sudden flash blinds her for a moment but she quickly recovers and looks at where it had struck. She sees Eraser sprawling on the ground, not surrounded by soot marks like she expected, but his body is convulsing as white lightning surges over his form.
Suddenly, he stops moving. Then, he slowly moves, shakily gets up to his feet. His body is bent forward, his arms and head hanging limply. His face is hidden from view by his hair. His hand slowly rises up, fingers twitching, and reaches behind him where a knife is strapped. He wraps his fingers around the handle and pulls the knife out from its sheath.
And then suddenly, he dashes to where his kids are at.
Her body moves before she could fully process what she is doing. She manages to intercept before Eraser could reach his kids, blocking the fist with her forearm because he is swinging it when she appeared in front of him while grabbing onto the hand that has the knife by the wrist.
She sees it, how pinched his face is. He's gritting his teeth and his brow deeply furrowed. His eyes, once deep black, are now in bright shade of glowing green. She curses under her breath. She knew that lightning strike wasn't just merely a lightning strike. Eraser is under control by someone; that is enough to decipher. Judging by his pinched face he is trying to break free.
A sudden kick to her shin catches her by surprise before she gets kicked aside by a roundkick. As she stops herself from skidding away, she watches with horror as Eraser makes a beeline for his grouped kids once more.
Whoever is controlling Eraser, they are aiming for his kids. They can't be aiming for heroes in general, because they casted her aside, the number five Hero of all Japan. They could be aiming for the kids, taking them out before they could become Heroes.
Or maybe they personally know Eraser and know that using his body to harm his kids with be the greatest pain he will ever experience.
She curses under her breath once more before leaps forward, putting a lot more pumps in her legs. She slams into Eraser's back, causing both of them to tumble across the ground before he pushes her off and they both quickly get back to their feet. Thankfully, the force of her impact forced him to let go of the knife. In the blink of an eye he dashes forward with incredible speed that she only has a split second to block his incoming fist.
'Fast!' she thinks as she knocks him back but he instantly jumps back the second his foot touches the ground. 'But his attacks aren't strong!' She can stand his attacks but she has a hard time keeping up to his speed, trying to block and dodge his barrages of fists, kicks, scarf and anything that he could use to strike her. They're just keep coming and coming!
When a fist is coming down on her she crosses her arm to block it, but she did not expect when his other fist coming from below and breaks her defense open. He takes advantage of her momentary stun to finally land an elbow to the side of her face, snapping her head to the side from the impact. Before she could comprehend what had just happened, she is instantly wrapped by his scarf, completely immobilizing her from neck down.
'Fuck!'
This is not the turn of event she is expecting today. She wiggles on the ground, trying to break free as she watches Eraser makes his way to his kids once more, now grabbing the knife along the way. His kids, probably petrified beyond their minds, take a step back as he advances towards them. She wiggles even more vigorously, desperately trying to escape this wretched prison.
'Fuck!'
But before he could make another step, he suddenly gasps harshly and the knife in his other hand falls and clatters onto the ground.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" he suddenly screams, clutching his head as if he's in agony. Then, he's starting to thrash around on the spot, grunting and making strangling noises as his hair begins to rise up.
'He's starting to take over control,' she thinks. This is good because it's giving her enough time to break free. That is, if she can. Thankfully, one of his kids, the ponytail girl, rushes over to her and tries to set her free but due to their lack of experience and knowledge of the capture weapon it takes quite a time for them to set her free. They keep glancing at Eraser, who is thrashing around battling against himself, screaming at no one.
The scarf binding her is finally loosened, freeing her. She doesn't waste a single second, instantly bolts towards Eraser to slam him down to the ground. She quickly gathers his hands and puts them on his back before pinning them down on his back. Then she pins his legs down with her own. From this fight alone, she could tell that Eraser is flexible and he would be able to kick her off even when she's on his back so she's not taking any chances.
His head is turned, one eye glaring up at her as he violently thrashing beneath her. It's constantly changing from red, green and black; an internal battle for dominance between two people over one body.
"Sorry Eraser," she says. Then, with one swift swing, she knocks him out cold with a blow to the head. Finally, the thrashing stops. She releases a sigh as she hears multiple footsteps quickly approaching them. She looks up to see his kids rushing over to them, all looking worried.
"MR. AIZAWA!"
She hopes they can forgive her for knocking their teacher out.
"He'll be up anytime soon," Recovery Girl says as she steps away from the bed. "Thankfully he does not sustain any injuries beside the one on the head."
"That's my fault."
"No need to worry, Miruko. He's fine," RG reassures with a smile and a wave of a hand. "You'll be staying?"
"Yeah, he'll probably ask for answers when he wakes up."
RG nods her head before walking away from her and the bed to the table on the far side of the room. She turns back to the bed, or more accurately, the occupant on the said bed. It's only been thirty minutes since he last passed out. His kids had brought him back to UA, to RG, while she stayed to handle the situation and eventually found the culprit of the cloud. And as soon as that taken care of, she headed straight to UA.
Now here she is, in the infirmary room right next to Eraser.
"Where're his kids at?" she asks, loud enough for RG to hear.
"You had just missed them. They wouldn't leave his side until I knocked some sense into their head."
By looking at that cane of hers, she thinks RG did it literally.
"Did they say anything about me?"
"Don't worry, dearie. They don't blame you for rescuing their teacher."
"That's nice to hear," she mutters that one only for herself to hear. She's relief that they won't hold grudge against her, even if the thought it stupid. She looks back to Eraser.
Then her eyes glue onto his right hand, its palm facing the ceiling.
She tears her eyes away from the hand and silently scans around her. No one around is save for Recovery Girl, who is far away and has her back faces towards her.
She looks back at Eraser. His feature is saved from its eternal frowning that he always has on his face, meaning he really is down for the count. She looks at RG again, making sure she isn't turning around anytime soon. Then back at Eraser, making sure he is really unconscious.
Then, as quietly as she could, she takes off the glove over her right hand.
She holds her breath, her heart thumping hard in her chest as she slowly reaches down with the steady naked hand.
Very lightly, her fingertips brush over his exposed palm.
It is extremely calloused, a lot more than hers or anyone she knows. It's very rough, very rubbery, very leathery, very pronounced bumps and very pronounced wrinkles. Compared to her hand, it is quite unsightly, but it's a sign of his hard work, years of intensive labor of being an Underground Pro Hero.
He had held her hand before when he bandaged her hand not too long ago, but her hand was too injured for her to completely pay attention to his touch even though the feeling was lingering long after he was gone. It was not a direct feeling, not a direct touch like this one. It was not as… intimate as this one.
Feeling braver, she flips her hand over and brushes the back of her hand over his palm. She puts more pressure into it. It's different when their hands were stationary back then. She can really feel the roughness and bumpiness against her skin.
She wonders if he could feel with his palms anymore.
She feels a finger twitches.
Her heart stops.
She instantly pulls away her hand and quickly puts on her glove.
She hears him groans. Looking back up to his face, she sees his eyebrows twitching before his face scrunch into a grimace.
"You're finally up," she starts as casually as possible, ignoring her thumping heart.
'Did he find out? Did he feel it?'
His eyes slowly open, squinting at the light above him before they trail to her. His brows furrow into a frown.
"Miruko?" His voice sounds heavy with drowsiness but still gruff as ever.
"One and only."
"Where am I?"
"UA, at the infirmary. You remember what happened?" she asks. She sees him frowning again before his feature relaxes.
"Yeah, I remember," he answers with a sigh. He then reaches up to his head with one hand (the hand), pressing a spot on his scalp and winces. "That's one nasty hit."
"Thanks." It's not a compliment but she takes it as one. He removes his hand from his head places it back at his side without any other words.
It seems he doesn't know about what she had done to his hand earlier. She can relax now and her heart calms down.
"Thank you… for protecting my kids," he says quietly, the softness in his tone is barely there but she could detect it.
"Well hey, it's what Heroes do," she states as she crosses her arms over her chest. Eraser merely hums in reply. "And I know how much you care about your kids."
"Who was the villain?" he asks, completely ignoring her last comment. She huffs at his dismissal but she answers him nonetheless.
"Some guy with mind controlling Quirk in the form of a lightning strike. The thugs were a distraction because he needs time to summon the cloud."
"His motive?"
"He seems to know you. He wouldn't stop shouting red eyes and how dismantling the Heroes before they becoming Heroes would solve the problem. He decided to kill two birds with one stone by using you."
The villain was a little maniacal, shouting each word at the top of his lungs. She could even hear his voice from the enclosed police car. And almost every sentence contained a word about Eraser, who he referred as "red eyes". The villain must have had been referring to his eyes when his Quirk is activated.
"Miruko," Eraser suddenly calls out, halting her train of thought.
"Yeah?"
Eraser doesn't say anything for a few moments. He seems to mull over his words as he stares up at the ceiling. Then, he starts, words flowing out from his mouth very slowly, as if to emphasize every single word he says.
"If, one day, for whatever reason, for whatever possibility, I am attacking my kids…"
He turns his head to give her a hard look.
"Do. Not. Hesitate."
He turns away, back to the ceiling above. She takes in a deep breath. She knows what he meant. Her heart seizes up at the thought.
'Do not hesitate to take him out.'