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Eri is having a nightmare.
It happens sometimes when her subconscious brings up her memories.Once they're there it's hard for her to not remember…Being grabbed, strapped down in a cold chair, people holding her arms, and legs, being pricked and pried. She still felt the pain. It hurt no matter how many times she had to feel being torn apart and put back together, again, again and again…
It was all her fault.
It's almost become a routine for Aizawa. When he hears a quiet whimpering from the other apartment. He gets out of bed, careful to not wake up the sleeping cat by his side. When he steps into Eri’s room, lit only up by a small nightlight. He watches over her while she’s folded in on herself like a knot clinging to her sheets, trembling and sweating with her eyes tightly shut. Some nights like this Aizawa finds her crying. Scrambling to grab onto him and drag him into bed once he's there. Aizawa gently wipes her tears (and snot) away with a cloth. With some deep breaths and quiet shushing while petting her hair he makes her calm down enough for her to drift back to sleep.
But tonight it's more serious. He gets to the doorway when he sees her fighting with her sheets. She’s kicking and yelling, shielding her arms trying to get away from someone who isn't there. Her hands move to clutch her head, fingers getting tangled with her hair. In a second her horn started to grow and Aizawa moves.He needs to wake her up.
“Eri! Eri! Please wake up.” He shakes her shoulder and stares at her face.
She opens her eyes to see Aizawa’s bright red eyes in the darkness, his floating hair surrounding her whole vision. Eri turns away now, face down on the bed.
“Eri you're here, remember?” He tries to gently turn her around but is met with resistance. Her horn shrunk a bit but it's still larger than usual. “Please…look at me at me.”
“I-i can’t he’s here” the words come out choking and gasping. Grabbing on tight to her bed sheets.
“It’s only me, Eri. Aizawa. We're at the dorms.” He rubs little circles on her back .”We’re in your room” He could easily flip her around but it might make this worse. “We’re in your bed. With your plushies” He puts a small pink cat plush next to her arm. She leans to it a bit. Having her calm down is the most logical step. “Please Eri, I need you to turn around.”
”I’ll hurt you” She says, speaking more clearly than before but just as sad. She’s..she’s crying.
“I know you won't” Aizawa says gently while petting her hair. “I trust you” He gives her a small kiss on her head. Her grip loosens to hold on to the plush.
“Who’s that Eri?” Aizawa asks, tapping the plushie.
After a brief moment Eri turns her head to the side to peek over at the stuffed animal in her arm “Mr. Pinku” She says so quietly he almost missed it.
She turned over slowly and looked into Aizawa’s eyes. She can barely keep her own open too tired yet frightened. Involuntary tears fall from her eyes. He lowers a hand to her face and pushes the tears away.
“Eri what else do you see?” He says setting on the side of her bed and helping Eri sit up.
It takes a moment for everything to fall into place. To remember. To remember the raid, the rescue. How she's at UA. In her room in the teacher’s dorm. How Aizawa…Eraserhead is a hero. She looks around the dimly lit room and sees her soft flowered printed sheets on her bed, her plushies, the dresser filled with clothes, the little table in the left corner with a plastic tea set and coloring book, the doll house that’s almost as tall as her, and the door in her room that's always left open for her.
She isn't trapped.
She’s still crying and trying to catch her breath but in the end, she only answers “Zawa”.
Aizawa puts his hands over his shoulders and says “Eri follow my breathing. Okay? Like Hound Dog taught us.” It took a moment for Eri to get into the rhythm, forgetting the pattern of breaths to take. But she held the edge of Aizawa’s shirt while they both breathed in, held their breath, and breathed out through their nose. Slowly. Again and again, until…it stopped.
Aizawa moved to hold her in her arms, head tucked into his chest. It's a while until she stops shaking, and her breaths are leveled completely. He leaves the room promising he would come back in a moment. He returns quickly with a glass of water in one hand, his yellow sleeping bag in the other, and a cat trailing behind him.
He tucks Eri in her bed. Surrounding her with her plushies “they’ll protect you” he said messing with her head and getting a little giggle, finally, out of her. He lays the sleeping bed as close as he can to her bed and climbs inside it. The cat finds a place to rest nestled in between his legs. Before he closes his eyes he sees over the edge of the bed Eri’s small hand trying to reach down to him. He reaches out to her. Eri holds it tightly like a lifeline. It probably is for her. Eventually, her grip loosens and she falls asleep, no cries or shifting in bed to be heard.
But still, Aizawa keeps their hands together through the night.