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Shouta had one elbow hooked around the window sill, his foot propped on a chair, and was attempting to leverage himself up and out of the building when a throat cleared behind him. It wasn't usual that he missed someone sneaking up behind him, and he was a bit dizzy still so he wasn't sure he managed to soldier his surprised face into the apathetic mask he preferred when he made eye contact with the nurse.
"Leaving so soon, Aizawa san?" The man said and Shouta's eyes darted to the name tag, noting the name, 'Izuku,' with a pink heart pinned above it before returning to the extremely unimpressed eyes that practically glowed in the artificial lights, turning them a dangerously toxic green. The same lighting had a similar effect on the man's dark hair, bringing out green highlights and accentuating a pink headband and cute barrettes– presumably to keep his unruly curls under control– and the purple lollipop earrings he was wearing. He was holding a to-go cup from the coffee joint Shouta knew was nearby and his nails were short and neat, but painted solid shimmering black.
Before he could answer, a tiny movement caught his eye and he looked down. Next to the nurse's legs, and slightly behind as if she was hiding, was a little girl with long silvery white hair and bright red eyes carrying a sippy cup and staring at Shouta with the same unimpressed look the nurse had. In sync, the pair raised their respective cups and took a drink.
It was terribly endearing.
"Uh..." He said, glancing at the window he'd been attempting to escape through. "It's a nice view," He offered awkwardly.
The nurse rolled his eyes. "I read your file, Aizawa san. I'd prefer you not lie to me."
The little girl nodded sagely. "He can always tell," she said quietly. Izuku glanced down at her with a sweet smile that softened his entire countenance for a second before snapping his eyes back up at Shouta.
"Technically," Shouta said, still clinging to the window and increasingly uncertain he had the strength to stand back up at all. Curse the jelly bones quirk his latest arrest caught him with as he handed the woman over to the police. It was taking forever to wear off. "Not a lie."
Izuku raised an eyebrow and looked out the window where the 'view' was the yellowish-beige concrete wall of another building of the hospital, though it was painted in the dark blue shadows of a late moonless evening. "Right," he drawled, "just getting a closer look then?" It was obvious he wasn't fooled in the slightest.
Shouta nodded jerkily, quickly tiring limbs starting to tremble from the effort of holding himself up. There was no way the pretty nurse could prove it was a lie anyway. For all he knew, Shouta liked that color.
Izuku hummed and walked further into the room, picking up Shouta's chart and sitting in the chair in the opposite corner. The little girl shadowed him until he sat, then hopped up into his lap in a move that was clearly practiced since the man caught her around the middle easily and bounced her into place with his knees. "Don't let me stop you from enjoying the scenery then, Aizawa san," he said calmly, starting to flip through the pages.
Shouta swallowed and grit his teeth. Usually a nurse would have berated him and shoved him back into his hospital bed by now, but instead he was left stranded unable to complete his escape and unable to plot a return course, slowly dwindling in strength. This nurse had an aura of sinister calm that made him a little nervous despite being gorgeous with an obviously adoring child, and it was clear there was no intention of letting Shouta off with a few chiding words. If he didn't say something soon, he was going to fall on his ass and still require assistance on top of his humiliation.
He was going to have to... Eugh... Ask for help...
"I could..." He grunted and Izuku's attention was immediately zeroed in on him. "I could use a hand," he murmured grudgingly.
The nurse grinned, and wow, even in the stupid hospital lighting it was stunning. Shouta hoped no one noticed his heart rate increasing with every step closer Izuku took.
"I'm happy to assist, Aizawa san," Izuku chirped, his whole personality appearing to do a one eighty as he scooped Shouta up and into the hospital bed with surprising ease. "I'm glad that some heroes know when to ask for help."
Shouta choked down a frustrated huff that felt strangely like a strangled whine and simply nodded.
Izuku smiled cheekily, then leaned down to swing the little girl up onto his bed with him. "This is Eri, she's six," he said proudly and Eri stuck a little hand out.
Shouta, unable to resist the precocious display, shook it politely. "Nice to meet you," he murmured.
Izuku watched with quiet delight before crouching to get on Eri's level, looking her in the eyes. "Eri-berry, this is Aizawa san. He's a hero and he needs careful watching over, like we talked about remember?" Eri nodded eagerly. "Good girl," Izuku told her, ruffling her hair gently before standing. He turned to Shouta. "Eri's going to look after you while I do the rest of my rounds, Aizawa san. I'll check in every hour, but just know that if you try to escape, she's been instructed to scream at the top of her lungs, and she has got very very healthy lungs."
Shouta couldn't help it, his jaw dropped open in incredulity. "Excuse me!? You're leaving your child alone in a hospital?" What a stupid, irresponsible–!
Izuku was laughing at him. "She's not alone, she's got a very capable hero right here with her. But gosh, if you left, who knows where she might wander off to," he said with the most smug, impudent, audacious smirk Shouta had ever seen in his life. "So I believe it's in your best interest to stay put for several reasons. Eri, keep him in line, Aizawa san, be good," he added and waved cheerfully as he left the room, not even giving Shouta a chance to contest the decision.
Eri waved back without concern then settled herself comfortably against the wall by Shouta's hip. She turned and started rustling around and Shouta realized she had a little bag hanging off one shoulder. After a few seconds she pulled out a thin book and pack of crayons before shoving her sippy cup into the bag. Shuffling up onto her knees she scooted closer to Shouta's head and flopped down next to his shoulder, opening the book across his chest and balancing the crayons on his ribs.
"Here," she said, "you can color with me." Her tone made it seem like both a great honor and a forgone conclusion in the way only children and idiots were capable of and honestly, it was one of the most adorable things Shouta had ever experienced in his life. "This one's a unicorn surfing on a rainbow, I think, so we'll have to be stra- stragenic about it, but Papa trusts you, so I think you'll do alright."
Shouta nodded seriously– because how could anyone deny this child a single thing– and took the crayon he was offered. When he rolled it in his fingers it was labeled 'radical red.' "I'll do my best," he said, "what's our strategy?"
For a second Eri frowned, mouthing the word strategy a few times before murmuring "strag-stra tee gic," then nodded, smiling to herself. "Sometimes new words make old words easier," she told him. "And our strag-stra ta gy, is the same one I always em... Uh, empoy, employ? Employ. The same one I always em ploy for coloring." She grinned and it held the same genuine spark as Izuku's had, even if it was smaller and a little crooked, showing off a canine that was a bit twisted and pushed out, creating an endearing lopsided smile. "What way," she giggled, "is gonna be the most fun!"
Shouta blinked and honestly surprised himself with the way his mouth stretched unbidden into a wide reactive smile. "Holy sh-cow kid, did you come up with that strategy yourself?" He chuckled, "that's the most awesome thing I've ever heard."
Eri shook her head. "Papa taught me. He says it's one of the most impornant things to conspid- con sid er, in life." She grabbed a crayon of her own and considered the monochrome image in the book. "When was the last time you got to color, Aizawa san?"
Shouta hummed and tapped the crayon against his bottom lip and seriously considered the question. He was pretty sure it wasn't his go-to activity even as a child himself, more interested in cats and crawling into small spaces, so he was probably very very young.
"I think, at least thirty-one years ago, when I was your age," he said with a shrug.
Then as he watched, Eri began counting on her fingers, going through one hand twice for every finger on the other. She ended up with her second hand fully open and one finger up on the first.
"Wow," she said wide-eyed, "that's more than five times my whole life ."
Which was awfully impressive considering Shouta was pretty sure she was too young for multiplication in a normal public school.
"Well, that just means you'll have to make up lost time," she chirped and then stroked her chin in an exaggerated fashion. "So we have to have a whole lot of fun, enough for thirty-one years." She hummed, "that's a bit tough, but we can at least start."
Shouta hysterically thought that this tiny six year old child was more capable of critical thinking than his entire fourteen years worth of first year hero students.
Eri carefully turned the coloring book upside down and laid back to hold it over their heads. "Okay," she said, "for this part, you have to squint your eyes until you can't see what the picture is supposed to be anymore, and then decide what the blobby shape looks like instead. You go first."
As nonsensical as the idea was, Shouta obeyed immediately. The lines blurred into blobs and he was kind of reminded of cloud watching. A small pang stretched his heart thin from the reminder of lazy school lunches laying on the roof, Oboro's clouds drifting over them as they called out increasingly complicated shapes for him to try and emulate.
He quickly swallowed and pushed down the ghostly feeling and instead pointed at part of the blob in his vision. "I think it's a dancing pig in a top hat," he told Eri, tracing the alleged hat in question.
The girl gasped and quickly flipped over, using the black crayon to make sloppy lines indicating the new shape Shouta chose. "You're pretty good at this, Aizawa san," she said.
Shouta couldn't even pretend his heart didn't feel like it was expanding in his chest. There was something so vindicating and pure about the approval of a child.
"Alright, next you have to pick your favorite color, and then I'll pick my favorite color, and we have to use both to color with." Eri instructed, putting their first two crayons away and holding out the whole pack towards Shouta.
Shouta stared at them for a while with a considering hum, unwilling to tell the kid he'd never bothered to think about having a favorite color. If he had to choose something for real, he thought he'd probably pick something boring like black or grey, but he low-key wanted to keep the kid's approval so he went for something a little more interesting. A certain color had managed to catch his eye recently after all. He plucked his decision from the package and inspected it.
"Tropical rain forest," he read with some amusement. He wondered who named the colors.
"That's a good color," Eri nodded and pulled out a bright pink for herself. It was already partially worn. "My favorite is cotton candy!"
Shouta chuckled, "the color or the food?"
Eri shrugged, "every form of cotton candy is a good form of cotton candy," she said with all the seriousness of a child.
"Very reasonable," Shouta replied with a small smile, "and an excellent pig color."
Eri didn't seem enthused by that and frowned between her crayon and the paper. "Yeah," she said, drawing out the word skeptically. "Almost too excen- ex cell ent."
Shouta hummed and lifted his own crayon. "Maybe it could be a cotton candy pig with tropical rain forest spots?" He suggested.
Eri's eyes went wide and she grinned, patting the blanket excitedly. "Yes! It's perfect! And he can have purple feet!" She giggled.
"And a... an orange hat?" Shouta shrugged.
Eri's face went serious and stern. "Make it happen,” she said in what Shouta assumed was supposed to be a demanding and intimidating tone, but came out adorably growly instead.
Shouta laughed and picked through the crayons until he decided on violet and mango tango, the latter of which matched the name of his favorite flavor of nutritional supplement juice.
Together they colored in their wonky imagined pig over the top of the upside down surfing unicorn. And when they were finished, Eri held it up with a satisfied sigh.
"It's a masterpiece," she whispered. "This is a fridge picture for sure!" Then she shoved it back toward Shouta. "You have to sign it!"
With a soft snort, Shouta did as he was told and carefully signed his name at the bottom of the page. "You should sign your hero name too," she urged, and because Shouta was a sucker for this kid apparently, he did. Eri then took it back and signed her own name next to his and smiled. "Now it's perfect," she said softly. Then she looked up at him and kicked her feet happily. "You wanna do another?"
Shouta couldn't even pretend he was stretching the truth when he said, "I'd love to."
—
It was three drawings later when Izuku walked back into the room.
Eri had just gotten to the middle of a fantastical story she was making up about their three drawings that had become characters and were best friends on an adventure, but as soon as she heard Izuku she jumped up with a happy squeal.
"Papa!" She cried, and went sprinting across the hospital bed, throwing herself off and through the air into her dad's arms. Izuku caught her with a soft grunt and a laugh, twirling her around and setting her down.
"How did our patient behave, nurse Eri-Berry," Izuku asked.
Eri straightened slightly, chest puffing out with pride. "He had lots of fun!" She reported. "I made sure he smiled lots and laughed, and he was very good at sharing my crayons," she ran over and held her hands out to Shouta, "could you hand me the coloring book please?" She asked politely and Shouta handed it over right away. She ran back to her dad and opened the book to their first drawing, showing it off proudly. "Look! We did three, masser- masterpieces and I'm gonna write a book about them!"
Shouta watched Izuku scrutinize the three drawings he and Eri had made together and tried not to feel embarrassed. There was nothing for him to be ashamed of, but it was nerve-wracking nonetheless.
"You know Eri, I think these are the best ones yet," Izuku said seriously before breaking into a grin. "You and Aizawa san make a great team, huh?"
Shouta released a relieved breath he hadn't consciously realized he was holding.
Eri nodded eagerly. "Yeah, we worked together on all of them, see? We signed them and everything!"
Izuku was nodding when he did a double take. "Holy crow, Eri," he rasped. "You… got a real autograph from Eraserhead!"
Shouta froze. He hadn't even thought of that. As an underground hero he'd never wanted to do the whole fans and autographs thing, so he'd refused to sign anything for fans ever.
"Is that a bad thing?" Eri asked hesitantly, “You love hero autographs, so I wanted to get one for you.”
Izuku was quick to shake his head. "Oh, no. Not at all, you did everything wonderfully, sweetheart. But Eraserhead doesn't give autographs, and that's his decision to make, so I just want to make sure he's okay with it, alright? It might be a boundary you didn't know about, so we're going to ask."
Eri nodded solemnly and Izuku patted her on the head and stood. He bowed to Shouta with one hand on Eri's head and she followed his lead.
"Aizawa san, if you felt obligated in any way to sign your autograph for Eri, we will respect your wishes if you'd like us to scribble that part out. I know you're a very private man." Izuku said, quiet and sincere.
Shouta scratched his beard awkwardly. "To be honest, I signed without hesitation. I didn't even think about it," he admitted and laid both hands in his lap, looking down at them. "But I'd be honored if you kept them," he added and gave Eri a small smile. "I think it's pretty decent compensation for making up thirty-one years of fun, don't you think?"
Eri lit up and bounced excitedly, tugging Izuku's scrubs. Izuku grinned just as brightly down at her. "This might be the coolest thing that's ever happened to me, Eri-berry," he told her, "we'll have to get these framed, they'll be family heirlooms!"
Eri laughed, throwing her hands up and hopping in wordless joy.
"And what do we say to Aizawa san?" Izuku guided Eri kindly.
"Oh!" Eri gasped, running over to Shouta. "Thank you Aizawa san, for coloring with me and giving me your autograph! I had a lot of fun!" She recited eagerly.
Shouta nodded, helpless to the small smile he gave her. "You're welcome, Eri. Thank you for sharing your crayons with me."
Eri grinned and bounced back over to her dad who handed over her coloring book. "Mirio kun is waiting outside for you, why don't you go say hi?" He suggested and immediately Eri whooped and dashed out the door. He chuckled looking after her and scratching the back of his head for a moment. Then he turned to Shouta. "Are you absolutely sure? I mean, I promise I'm not going to go out and sell those to the highest bidder or anything, but you've been a hero for almost twenty years and never signed anything."
Shouta squinted at him. "It is a little weird that you know that," he hummed and the face Izuku made was sheepish, but not guilty so Shouta didn't worry about it too much. "But honestly, she's a really sweet kid, and I was having so much fun I didn't even question it. If anything she deserves it for tricking it out of me so effectively," he shrugged. "Gotta admire that." Then he frowned. "But it was still irresponsible to leave a child alone with a man you've never met, hero or no."
Izuku chuckled, reaching down under the hospital bed and then bringing his hand up to show off a small black piece of plastic. "I bugged you, actually," he shrugged, unashamed of the legally questionable method of observation while pocketing the device, "and her actual babysitter was outside the room the whole time in case of any emergencies."
Shouta stared blankly for a long moment, unsure whether he was impressed, embarrassed, or something else entirely. "That was awfully manipulative of you," he said, but it came out far more approving than he meant it to and Izuku practically preened.
"It's one of my best strategies as a nurse who specializes in working with delinquent hero patients. Especially repeat offenders like yourself."
Okay... Okay, Shouta was in love and he couldn't even be mad about any of it. He'd been played, completely and thoroughly by a terrifyingly intelligent and objectively gorgeous nurse and his adorable sneaky daughter and he was now about three seconds away from proposing. "Please tell me you're single," he murmured a bit breathlessly.
Izuku rapidly turned red and his eyes grew extremely wide.
Shouta had a realization and scrambled to backtrack. "Oh god, I'm sorry, you have a kid, you're probably married. Ignore me, I'm a disaster," he pressed both palms to his forehead in mortification.
"O-oh, um," Izuku squeaked, then cleared his throat. "I could do that. O-or I could also not ignore you, if that's still on the table. Uh, no pressure."
The nurse fidgeted and didn't quite make eye contact, but to Shouta that sounded like it might have been a positive reaction to his initial remark.
He slowly lowered his hands. "Was... Was that a yes?" He asked, baffled, almost unable to believe the possibility of his luck being that good.
Izuku gave a hesitantly teasing smile, "was that an offer?"
Shouta nodded slowly. "If it's not unwelcome..." He swallowed, forcing himself to breathe normally. Thank god they hadn't reattached him to the heart monitor or he'd be so embarrassed.
"Then yes," Izuku giggled, "I'm very single." He clasped his hands in front of him and rocked back on his heels, biting his lower lip bashfully.
Barely able to hear past his thundering heart, Shouta almost choked on his nerves forcing out the words, "I'd really like to change that."
Maybe it was too soon, they'd just met after all, but watching Izuku's pretty face light up into a beatific smile with his cheeks flushed a delicate pink that emphasized his freckles adorably just for Shouta felt like the most euphoric thing he'd experienced in his life, and he really hoped he'd be seeing it again and again for long long time to come.