Work Text:
Mina has never been bad with children.
Of course she wasn't. She was bright pink and had cool eyes and horns that looked cool but weren't sharp enough to actually hurt anyone, and she had the excitable and curious personality to match, tempered by just enough care responsibility for kids to recognize her as an "adult". If not for her extremely dangerous quirk, she would have been perfectly suited to work as a babysitter or something.
Not that she wasn't perfectly suited for hero work, of course. Really, if you think about it, being a hero is kind of like being a babysitter for everyone! You take care of people and keep them happy and stop them from doing things that they shouldn't and put the ones that act out too much in....time out.....
(Maybe don't think about it too hard, but that's fine. She was perfectly suited for not thinking about things, too)
Hero work was a lot like babysitting, is the point, so she could do both no big deal. And she was trying really hard to believe that, as she watched the baby- baby? How old is a baby? IS she a baby?- her class had collectively adopted blink open her big red eyes and look around the eerily normal room they'd been stashed in.
"Wh....where am I?" Eri sniffed, eyes already watering. "I- Where's- Where's Deku? D-Dek-!" The girl yelled. Mina jolted forward and put a hand over the girl's mouth.
"Nonono, don't- don't do that." Mina reprimanded, as nicely as she could, shooting paranoid looks over her shoulder. "Don't freak out. I know it's scary, but we have to stay calm. And quiet. You- Deku would want you to be calm! Because we have to be calm to be safe right now, and Deku always wants you to be safe, right?" Mina stumbles over her words a bit, but it couldn't be helped. She wasn't sure how or why the two of them were there- or ever where there is- yet, but attention from their captors could not be a good thing.
"Mhm." Eri hummed. Her breath was still too fast for comfort, but it was quieter, which would have to be good enough. Mina took her hand off the girl's mouth and offered a smile. She's usually very good at smiling but, for the first time in a long time, she doesn't trust her smile not to wobble.
"Good, good. Um. You recognize me, right Eri-chan?" Mina asked, giving the girl a bit of space. When Mina had woken up, they'd both been dropped haphazardly on the cement floor, even though there was a perfectly good bed in the corner. She'd scrambled to remember Aizawa's first aid lessons as she checked the little girl over, before thankfully deciding that she was uninjured and laying her on the bed. It was a worn down and dirty old thing, so Mina wrapped Eri up in her school blazer- she hadn't been taken in her sleep, then, if she was wearing her uniform, why couldn't she remember?- and posted herself by the bed watching the only door in and out.
"Mhm." The girl nodded, eyes slowly scanning the room (calling it a cell might be a bit harsh, she figured). It was about half the size of her room at UA, and really did just look like someone's guest room. Plain sheets, off-white paint, some random landscape painting on the wall, a bed lamp for light, vaguely-beach smell. The illusion was only broken by the heavy metal door and eerie lack of windows. When Mina had woken up, she had poked around for stuff she could use to escape, but honestly there wasn't anything. Her quirk could probably melt through a wall, but without knowing anything about the building or the area the building was in, that was a last resort. They were trapped until someone came to get them.
With any luck, that someone will be a rescue team.
(There wasn't access to a bathroom of any sort, which would become a problem soon. Especially if that just meant their kidnappers didn't plan to keep them around long enough to need a bathroom. Mina was trying really hard not to think about that.)
For a few minutes, Mina is content to let the little girl process the situation. It's a strange situation after all- she couldn't be blamed for needing a few minutes. She isn't really keeping track of time- honestly, she's kind of zoning out on the door again, she's so tired, how long has it been?- but, eventually, she realizes that the strange new whistling noises in the room were Eri's increasingly rapid breathing.
"Oh no." Mina jolted, turning her attention back to the little girl. "Oh, you shouldn't be doing that." She said, more to herself then Eri, but the baby flinched anyway. Mina made a distressed noise in her throat, before firmly clinging to what her sleep deprived brain could remember about hero professionalism. "It's okay Eri-chan, I'm not mad. We're gonna be okay, yeah? I just need your help. Can you help me? Please?" She asked, sitting on the bed and scooting closer.
Eri's sobs were almost completely muffled, only indicated by airy gasps. She wasn't even shuddering with the force of them, but that had to be because her whole body was tensed up. Tears streamed from her eyes steadily, but not heavily. Mina was glad the girl didn't flinch again as she got closer, but she was honestly kind of creepy to look at. She cried like a statue. Mina had never seen anything quite like it, and it was only more disturbing from someone so young.
"...Help?" Eri finally gasped, in time with her quiet breathing, barely moving her lips. Honestly, if Mina wasn't paying such close attention, she probably would have missed it.
"Yeah, help. The two of us, we gotta stay calm and wait for rescue. So I'm gonna help you calm down, and then you're gonna help me stay calm, too. We gotta work together here." Mina said slowly, keeping her voice as chipper as she could without getting any louder. Eri didn't say anything else, but her eyes started to focus on Mina, and her head slowly bobbed. Mina's smile got a bit more genuine. "Awesome. can you give me your hand?"
"No!" Eri gasped immediately, flinching back hard enough she thuds against the back of the bed. "No don't, don't touch me I'm, I'll, I can't, I-" She mumbled, eyes fogging over again, and Mina bit her lip in frustration. How good of a hero could she be, if she was scaring a little girl this much?
"Okay, Okay, Okay," She tried, reassuring her companion, but she was mumbling to herself now, completely non-responsive, and Mina obviously wasn't going to touch her after that. "Eri-chan?" She switched tactics, and that got red eyes pointed back in her direction, even if they wouldn't really focus. She tried again, growing firmer. "Hey, Eri-chan. Look at me. I'm not going to touch you, you're totally safe. I just I need you too look at me, kiddo, we'll be alright. Eri-chan." She snapped her fingers for lack of anything else to do, and almost sagged in relief when it worked. "Here just- try to follow along, okay? We've got time, just try. Breathe in, 1, 2, 3-" Mina cycled through square breathing with Eri for a few minutes, voice steady in confident in a way she decidedly wasn't.
They weren't safe. She couldn't promise that they'd be alright, or that they had time for this, but- but freaking the girl out wasn't going to do them any good. She just had to hope for the best, and keep an ear on the door. She smiled at Eri when she managed to follow along with her breathing, calmly continued when she stumbled, and was a little annoyed that the breathing had calmed herself down as well. She shouldn't be panicking. She was a hero.
"Good job." She sighed, absolutely beaming at Eri once they could make it through four or five cycles without any stumbling. She had no idea how long that had taken. It felt a little like forever, and a little like she blinked and they were done. "I'm sorry I scared you so much earlier, but you did great calming down with me. Thank you!" She gushed.
"You're welcome." Eri mumbled sheepishly, breaking eye contact for the first time in however-long to look down at her lap. She still wasn't relaxed, but she wasn't painfully tensed up, so Mina would honestly take it. "It's...my turn to help?" She followed up, looking back up anxiously.
Mina wasn't even going to wonder what she was anxious about. It would probably just upset her.
"Yeah! We're gonna tell silly stories about my friends, okay? Then when they come to get us, we can be happy to see them instead of all scared and sad. Sound like a plan?"
Eri nodded, sitting up a little straighter. Mina already had her first story lined up, but Eri looked like she was thinking really hard, so she decided to wait it out. If Eri wanted to start, Mina was more then happy to let her. You're never too young and the situation is never too odd to discover the simple joy of gossiping.
"Well.....Is Katsuki-san one of your friends?" She asked, and Mina had hold her breathe to stop from squealing at the question. That was, possibly, the best way to start this conversation.
"Yes. Yes, he is. You call him Katsuki?" She couldn't help but ask.
"Uh-huh." She nodded, and did not elaborate. Mina firmly reminded herself not to push. "He took me shopping because Deku told him too, and we saw a kitty. He said I could pet it as long as I was careful, and I was, and it was cute. But when he tried to pet it, the kitty hissed at him and ran away. I think he wanted to say something mean to it, but he kept looking at me. Cause you guys are supposed to be nice around me? So he just stomped his feet the rest of the way to the store." Eri shared, whispering like it's all a secret. It's not the most compelling or embarrassing thing ever, and the delivery was too dry to be dramatic, but Mina gave a few snickers anyway.
"Wow, you sure are observant, huh?" Mina grinned, because that was more then a little impressive. "Okay, my turn. So, this one time, Todoroki-kun- the tall guy with the red and white hair, yeah?- gathered everyone but Mido- Deku in a room together, and presented this big theory he'd been working on....." Mina whispered like Eri had been.
It really did feel almost like a sleepover, as the girls sat across from each other on a bed and traded stories back and forth. Eri would whisper some mildly-entertaining sentances, and Mina would laugh and outline a whole protracted incident with all the attention to detail of a well practiced gossip-monger. The younger girl never laughed or smiled, but her too-serious expression occasionally wavered, and by Mina's third or forth story she relaxed almost completely.
By Mina's sixth story, the entire building shook, and all progress towards calming down was unceremoniously erased. Mina leaned forward to grab Eri, before remembering the previous outburst and stopping herself.
"Eri-chan, get under the bed." She ordered, already on her feet and between Eri and the door. Eri didn't say anything, but bed creaked with the sound of someone getting off of it, and Mina didn't hear any following footsteps. She doubted Eri would just be standing idly in place.
Where time has been so frustratingly out of her hands for the past however-long, right now she was keenly aware of every second passing. It had been two minutes since the initial shake. Three minutes. Four. Five. Six. Seven. The loud banging sound of fighting had gotten progressively closer. Eight. Nine. Ten. Ele-
The sound of fighting stopped. If Mina had relaxed at all while she waited, she snapped back to attention now. Footsteps outside the door. The faint buzzing of power, so oppressive she could almost taste it.
"Eri? Ashido?" A voice called from outside the door, and Mina's knees go weak with relief, but she stands her ground. It could be a villain trying to trick them or something, right? Eri scrambled out from under the bed, running to the door, but Mina gets in front of her.
"Eri, get back under the bed." She whispered with every ounce of authority she could muster.
"But-" The girl whispered, frozen in place, staring at the door, "But that-"
"I know. I'll go check, okay? But it might be a trick. So you need to get safe." Mina insisted. Eri's expression fell the closest to angry Mina had ever seen on the girl, but she nodded and got back under the bed.
"Eri?" The voice at the door asked, more insistently. Worried, it sounded like. "Ashi-"
Mina opened the door, free hand dripping with acid. Her stormy expression was dark enough to make Midoriya flinch back, but it was Midoriya. This time, Mina didn't bother stopping herself from collapsing with relief.
"Holy Sh--SHEESH am I glad to see your dorky mug." Mina groaned. Midoriya smiled, also relieved, but more focused on the room behind her.
"Eri-chan, come on out." She called, turning her head. Eri zoomed out from under the bed, faster then little legs like that should be able to move, and launched herself into Midoriya's arms.
"You came!" She gasped, as Midoriya catches her. Of course he does. "You, you saved us, you came for us, you did!" She enthused, louder then she'd said anything in the past however-long-and-12-minutes. Mina took a deep breath, and held it while Midoriya whispered adamant assurances to the little girl.
"What about you, Ashido? Are you okay?" Midoriya asked, shifting his hold on Eri so she was on his back. She looked more then comfortable there.
"Dead tired." She admitted, giving a long yawn, "But peachy keen besides that. We good to go?" She asked, a little desperately. Midoriya nodded, reaching out a hand to help her up. She didn't hesitate to take it, leaning on him just a little on the way out.
When she looked up to check on Eri, the girl was wearing a beaming smile as she stared down at Midoriya. She must have sensed Mina looking, because she turns her little head to meet Mina's eyes- and the smile doesn't go away. Mina sags a little heavier against Midoriya, but a smile of her own creeps onto her face. Her first completely real one in however-long-and-fifteen-minutes. They were going to be okay. She hadn't lied to Eri.
They were safe. They were alright. They were happy to see Deku. It was going to be okay.