Work Text:
“Erasure Head!”
You yelled out of your window as you saw the hero landing on the building just in front of you. The man was startled by your voice, but he quickly regained his posture. You took a glance at the hero, his hair was messy, styled in an unusual bun today, and if it weren’t for his scarf, you wouldn’t have even noticed him, as his black clothing made him blend into the night like a black cat in a shady alley.
The hero looked at you annoyed, he didn’t really want to have to deal with a fan right now, especially since he was on patrol, looking for a very notorious villain he had been searching for for a while now. He was about to lecture you to not bother or scare people while they were working, but before he could, a small object flew in his direction.
“Catch!” you said as you accurately threw the item in his direction.
Aizawa caught it with no problem, but before he could ask any questions, you had already closed the window with one final ‘Have a nice shift!’ yelled as a closing statement. The older man was stunned, but he didn’t know what to make of the interaction, so he decided to let it go. Still, he did take a look at the item that was supposedly meant for him. Eye drops? He looked back at the window, the lights were now off, and he didn’t have time to thank you, so he opted to thank you in his mind and hope you had somehow received it. Honestly, it was a more pleasant surprise than he had thought it would be, especially since just minutes ago he cursed himself for forgetting to buy some after his stash ran out. For once the man actually started his shift with a smile on his face.
That was the first time the two of you interacted, but unexpectedly for the pro-hero, that wouldn’t be the last time he would be met with such a strange encounter, in fact, he didn’t realize this would soon turn into a regular thing he could look forward to.
-
You were a college student. Caffeinated and your hand shoved deep in your hair, you looked at your textbook almost in tears as you tried to frustratingly rack your brain around the difficult subject matter. Frankly, during the daytime, you were too busy to study, so your sessions ended up always being around midnight, which wasn’t good for your learning skills or for the fact that you were losing sleep. It was a dangerous cycle, really, but it was a routine you were used to by now. Around the same time every night, you took a break and got some fresh air, looking out of the window into the night sky, cooling your scattered brain down from all the stuff you were supposed to learn by heart.
It was one of those nights when you accidentally saw Erasure Head appear in front of you. If you were honest, at first you had thought the man was a villain, ready to wreak some havoc, but as time went by and the more you had seen the guy around, you decided to dig in a little, and only then did you find out he was working as a pro-hero, a lesser-known one, but a pro indeed. You giggled at the man. He was probably in the same boat as you, having to mess up his sleep for the endless pursuit of a career.
After finding this out, you read more and more about the hero, fascinated and feeling somehow connected to him, so when you walked down to the nearest 7/11 for some snacks, your eyes couldn’t help but drift towards the section with some eye drops. You recalled the man's quirk was straining on his eyes, and in the videos you had found of him, he would always use some eye lubricant after particular fights. Without even thinking, you grabbed a couple and headed home.
That night, you waited for the man to show up in his usual spot, and lo and behold, he did. You didn’t want to take up too much of his precious time, so you opted to make it quick. Before he could really acknowledge you, you had thrown the eyedrops at him and closed your window. It was thrilling, really, and your heart was beating super fast. You were a pretty introverted individual, but you chalked your actions up to just showing gratitude for a hero protecting the streets, and you tried to ignore the little voice that was teasing you for having a little crush on the slightly older hero.
Before the awkwardness grew further, you turned off your lights and went to bed. God, although it was embarrassing, you actually felt content with yourself. You did a good deed today, even if you were sure the man had plenty of supplies. The thought that he had to buy one less was just enough for it to bring a smile to your face.
-
Aizawa landed on the same rooftop again. Out of curiosity, he looked towards the window he was ambushed by the day before only to find the student opening it up. You gave the man a lopsided smile and reached for your desk. The hero was intrigued by what you would do next, but when he saw the same little box flying towards him again, he himself couldn’t help but smile. He had expected you to dip again, but you stayed as you wished him a happy shift once more. Aizawa nodded and properly thanked the student before jumping off.
Maybe it was the fact that there was a civilian caring enough about him, or maybe he was somewhat glad he had garnered somewhat of a fan, but that day Aizawa found his work had been a little bit more enjoyable than the previous weeks. He had been caught up in a particularly straining fight for him, but somehow, feeling the little box in his pocket made the capture slightly more bearable. It was small, sweet, and something he would not expect to hit him like a brick many weeks later.
-
Your routine had changed slightly from what it used to be. Not in a bad way at all, it just happened that every other night, your break for fresh air had been filled with a little bit of small talk as well. The process was as usual, you handed the man his eye drops, and the two of you would talk for fiveish minutes before Aizawa, a name you had learned and garnered the permission to use, had to jump off to his shift. You had learned quite a bit about the man, for example, the fact that he was your neighbor a building or so over, and you also found out a bit of his usual schedule. He also learned quite a lot about you, for example, the fact that you were in your final year of college and that you were around 5 or so years younger than him. Somehow that was endearing to him, maybe because it was nostalgic for him to think about the time he was in your place, studying to become a teacher, or maybe it was the fact that in the dim light of your room, your hair seemed to shine in a particularly eye-catching way. He secretly hoped it was the latter.
After two weeks, your gifts changed a little. You were still supplying the man with eye drops, but you also added some variety from gum, snacks, bandages, and other small trinkets you thought the man would enjoy. In exchange, the man also started bringing you little gifts. Nothing too major, but he couldn’t let his, well his, his fan spoil him without something in return, whether it was the instant coffee powder you liked or the chips you raved about a couple of days back. It warmed your heart.
Well, it warmed both of your hearts, and the two couldn’t deny that there was a bond building between them, but neither of you wanted to address it and that was ok. The relationship the two of you had was good enough, even with unspoken feelings. Unfortunately for the two of you, I am a very chaotic author that likes things a bit more spicy, so thus you will suffer sweetly.
The colder autumn air and the darker nights approached slowly, and you were finding yourself having a harder time with your aim. Of course Aizawa had no problem catching the chocolate bar he occasionally mentioned he was interested in, but you, on the other hand, when it was your turn to catch the little cat charm the man had brought you, you couldn’t really see it too well, and before you knew it, you had leaned a bit too far out, slipping clean out of the window and plummeting to your death.
Shota’s eyes widened. Did he accidentally defenestrate you? Quick into action, the man sent his scarf around you and pulled you up faster than you could blink, making you feel sick by the sudden movements. He caught you in his arms as you landed on the building he was on, and only when you felt his arms around your back and legs did you allow yourself to breathe. Man, what a rollercoaster. You opened your eyes, and suddenly met deep, dark ones that were staring startled back at you. You couldn’t help but think they were beautiful. Your gaze lowered down to his stubble, and something inside you told you to reach out and touch it, but before you did, you were suddenly aware of your situation. How the hell was this man so strong?
You knew Aizawa was trained and had experience working on the field every day, but his baggy suit definitely was hiding the muscles you were feeling around you. Blushing, you politely asked if he could let you down. There was a moment of hesitation, but Aizawa softly let you slide out of his arms onto the floor.
“Well, that was certainly unexpected…” he trailed off, not looking at you. You were afraid you might have offended him in any way, but one glance at his pink cheeks as he looked away, hand over his face, led you to believe maybe you hadn’t. “That surely was dangerous, maybe we need to find a better way for our gift exchange.”
Now facing you fully, despite his still slightly rosy cheeks, you nodded and looked back at the open window when an idea popped into your head. “Do you maybe want to come in?” you said, looking anywhere but the pro-hero’s face. Man, you were embarrassing. He surely had better things to do than hop in your room for a quick talk. “I think that’s not a bad idea.” You slowly looked up to see the man smile at you, and you gulped. “But first let’s get you back in, hold on tight.” He said, wrapping an arm around you and using his scarf to swing into your room. Once safely in, he let go of you and patted you down before checking his clock.
“Crap, I need to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He waved and jumped the same way he came in. Your inner fangirl couldn’t help it, and it wasn’t long before you jumped in your room in excitement and hugged yourself, trying to recreate the feeling of the guy you had a huge crush on by now having his arms around you, but sadly nothing could compare to the real deal.
Aizawa couldn’t help but smile, he hadn’t expected to have you in his arms today, but hey, a win is a win. He did feel a bit bad for his somewhat subpar throw, he normally would have aimed better, but the increased darkness was messing with his trajectory. Regardless, he knew that not a lot of things could happen as he was literally trained for such situations, still he didn't mean to scare you like that. But Aizawa smiled regardless, remembering your body in his arms, and cringed a little when he remembered hesitating to let you go. You were just so perfect and fitting in his arms that it just felt so wrong to be anywhere else, and he knew that that was something he needed to unpack sooner or later.
But what really made Shota Aizawa grin from ear to ear was the little stash of stuff labeled with his name on your desk. Things he had gotten for you, but also a supply of stuff he needed, neatly placed for you to grab and throw over. It was such a genuine gesture he couldn’t help but feel giddy about it even the next day.
“Hey man, you seem in a good mood today!” Hizashi exclaimed and patted his friend on the back firmly, garnering a groan from the moody hero. “Did something exciting happen? Does it have something to do with you-know-who?” The blond man raised his eyebrows quickly, watching his childhood friend's every move. Aizawa pushed the man out of his personal space, not entertaining his questioning. He sort of regretted telling him about you, he should have known the blond would try and tease him about it. Having enough of an answer, Hizashi rambled on about how cute it was that he had a crush, finally after so many years, and was talking about how the two of you would be so great together, getting married, having children, heck he couldn’t wait to be an uncle. Aizawa let him be. He knew that no matter what he said, no one was able to shut up the talkative hero.
-
It was the next day. You had left the window open for the hero to come in, and it wasn’t long until he did. Barging in, but you had expected him to do so, so it wasn’t that shocking. You were glad you had managed to clean your room in time and that there wasn’t a mountain of clothing next to your bed as there was last night. It was a little embarrassing for you to have the hero look at your messy room, but you hoped in the brief second he was there he hadn't paid that close attention to what everything looked like.
The man landed softly, and you greeted him properly. The two of you exchanged your little gifts and had your little small talk, and he soon was out the window once again as you happily wished him a nice shift. It felt wrong not to say it, you two had been doing this for so long, even if the environment changed slightly. It was less awkward than you had thought it would be, also considering he was in your safe space, but that just went to show how comfortable you were with him.
Aizawa thought your room fitted you very well. The style you went for was so unapologetically you that he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. The two of you would definitely have a hard time coming up with a theme when you moved in… Oh god. Aizawa’s face dropped. He shook his head violently before focusing back on the villains in a random alleyway he had found. This was surely Hizashi’s fault, was what he had told himself. All the talk about marriage and children had put him in a state of mind he wasn’t ready for. As the villains were captured, he soon remembered the little poster of him plastered over your bed and what had seemed to be a plushy of him sitting cutely on one of your pillows, and he was once again smiling. The policeman gave Aizawa a weird look but didn’t mention it further.
-
Everything fell back into a new routine for the both of you. The window was open most of the time for the man to just slip in whenever he needed to. You had even made some arrangements around the room to fit a small table next to the window wall with two chairs for you two. Well, it wasn’t as comfortable as you wanted it to be considering your apartment was basically the bedroom and a kitchen, well, also the bath, which all fit quite cramped, but you made it work.
The days went on, and the weather only got colder until one day, Aizawa, looking forward to your meeting, noticed that your window seemed to be unusually closed. He pondered the thought that you might have forgotten or that you were not home, but you seemed so excited the day before to have him over that he just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. It surely wasn’t creepy to peer into the room he was so familiar with, right? With his capture weapon, he hoisted himself upside down on your roof and looked inside. It was very dark, and the room looked a little bit messier than it usually did. He tried looking in further and leaning against the window, startled when said window suddenly opened with a light push.
He took a moment to debate if he was allowed to be in there or not, and ultimately he figured that if you weren’t home and you had forgotten to lock your window, he would just slip the little chocolate he got you onto your desk and dip. He entered the room quietly and took a good look at your moonlit desk. It was unusually crammed with half-written essays and upside-down textbooks, placed that way acting as makeshift bookmarks. Gracing his fingers across your chewed-up pen, he snickered as he remembered countless nights he had been going through the same thing. He really hoped that you would still enjoy your last year, since the workforce was much more brutal than this but also much more rewarding.
One foot on the window sill, he was about to leap off when he heard a particularly bad cough coming from the left side of your bed. He froze as he had not noticed your presence before. He had assumed you had gone out on this Friday night and didn’t care to search for you in your own house, heck he wasn’t even supposed to enter like this in the first place. Quickly he closed the window and moved to assess the damage. He turned on the dim lamp on your desk and came close, watching as you shifted in your sleep. Face red, he gently placed his calloused hand on your forehead and grimaced as he realized you had a pretty bad fever. Stepping closer, he kicked away countless tissues from the ground and moved to brush the wet hair that was sticking to your face.
He couldn’t help but blame himself a little. He was the reason you kept your windows open, maybe this was how you had caught this cold, and he didn’t have the time to take care of you properly. His heart swelled up imagining himself caring for you, staying by your side until you were better, making you soup, and all the things a concerned partner would for their sick loved one, but he had to work, and for once he genuinely hated it.
Slowly he pulled away from you, moving along but promising himself he would come by to check on you after his shift, but before he could move away fully, he froze in shock. Your hand had slipped into his. Soft hands that had only been worn down by pens and pencils. Warm hands that he wasn’t really sure were naturally this warm or were due to your fever. Your connection tingled, and he took a look back at you. With half-closed eyes, you watched him and offered him a weak smile, and he couldn’t help but notice how they seemed a little glossy. He wanted to kiss you.
“Take some eye drops with you on your way out,” you stammered, your voice raspier and more stuffy than the soothing tone he was used to. Damn it, he really wanted to kiss you right now.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, clearly not knowing what to say, but also not wanting to let the conversation end. He stepped closer to you, noticing how your eye bags were clinging under your eyelashes, waiting for a good night's rest they most likely wouldn’t be experiencing.
“Better now that you're here…”
It wasn’t meant to be flirty, it was just a genuine sentiment you felt. He was making your world so much brighter in the moments you were spending together. You were so happy to have him around, and his visits were the highlight of your mundane days. You offered him a sincere smile, and it broke the dam of his self-control. Without thinking a word, he leaned down to you, analyzing your face for any discomfort with him invading your personal space, and when he was sure there was none there, he lowered his lips onto yours. It was a gentle kiss, one that left tingles behind when it got broken. You froze. Without thinking, your hands were pushing at his chest, creating an unwanted distance for the both of you.
Aizawa’s heart burned. Damn, had he read the situation wrong? Did you really not like it? He straightened his back and rubbed the back of his head, his mind wondering how he could explain himself or if he should just apologize. Your face burned brighter, fever aside, as you looked away.
“You are going to get s-sick and it would be my fault if my favorite hero can’t do his hero duties…”
His limbs locked in, he looked at your shy expression, shocked.
“So… you liked it?”
Embarrassed, you put your hands over your face, holding them there for a little while before you nodded. “More than anything,” you whispered, and if he wasn’t standing on his own two feet, he sure would have melted into a puddle. His face was slowly turning hotter, but he leaned back down to her face once again. With just one hand, he brushed off your own until it finally rested on your cheeks, and then, with one more kiss on your pretty lips, this time more confident than the first, he told you to sleep well and that he would check on you again in the morning. Then, he reluctantly left.
It didn’t take you long to fall asleep, and you couldn’t help but wonder if this all was just a dream. What a wonderful dream, one that you have desired to dream about in such a long time. By the morning when you woke up, you begrudgingly left your cozy bed and wandered into the bathroom. Man, you looked terrible. You felt bad to have missed your meeting with the hero, but you couldn’t help but smile at the silly dream you had last night. Him kissing you? As if… But hey, a lonely college student can only hope.
Walking back in your room, there was a plastic bag set neatly on your desk. That’s weird, you don’t remember putting anything like that there. You opened the bag and peered inside to find a couple of pills and a cough syrup alongside a note. The handwriting was a little bit rough but readable.
‘I got you some medicine, and there is some soup in your fridge. Take care of yourself.’
Your heart burst, and you held the note tight to your chest. Damn it, you were so fucking in love with him this wasn’t even funny anymore. You needed to seriously calm down. He probably didn’t even see you as more than a fan, he probably didn’t even mean it like that, but the way he cared for you was messing with your brains.
-
That evening Aizawa was off work, but that still didn’t stop him from knocking at your window, once again suspended using his capture scarf. He heard a startle and a crash before he saw you running at the window. He smiled at you as you were struggling to open it.
“Aizawa… I… What are you doing here? Aren’t you off work today?”
He was glad to see you doing better, your cheeks still looked red, but you weren’t as pale as before. Granted the light wasn’t that bright last night to come to any accurate conclusion, but the vibe you gave off made him think that the medicine helped.
“I came in to check on you, you were pretty sick when I got here last night,” he explained, slipping in properly. You had cleaned up a bit, that was nice. It meant you were at least feeling well enough to do that. He looked at you, and then he looked at your lips. He wanted to taste them again, cold be damned. He even prepared himself that day, preemptively taking a cold pill before coming here, just so he could smooch you the whole time he would be spending here.
You looked at him, then at his lips, before you shyly looked away and invited him over to your little table, offering him some warm tea you had boiled for yourself not too long ago. He gladly accepted. The two of you sat across from each other, but you felt really awkward, avoiding his gaze whenever you could. How were you even supposed to address this? Hey, I had a dream last night where we were kissing, and I can’t help but imagine it again every time I see your face. He would leave and never come back, you were sure of it.
It wasn’t like Aizawa didn’t notice it, but he wanted to give you time. Maybe you were regretting it. You were half asleep after all, and even if you had confessed to him that you liked his kiss, it wouldn’t mean that you still felt the same way. But when he finished his tea and you still didn’t look at him properly, he grabbed your hand, softly, making sure you would be able to pull away any time you wanted. You flinched but didn’t let go, and finally you graced his eyes with yours for the first time this evening.
“Do you regret it?” he asked, observing you closely.
“Regret?” you inquired, confused. What could you possibly regret? There was nothing to regret when he was with you; heck, regret was so far off your radar. ‘Try yearning, Aizawa.’
Aizawa stood up, pulling you with him. His hand traced down your arm, taking your other hand in his. He waited for you to pull away, but you never did. Never with him. He brought one of the hands to his lips and gave it a kiss, watching your every move. His little stubble scratched gently over your hands. Your face flushed, and your breath grew uneven. What the heck was happening? He had hoped that the kiss would remind you again, but it had only seemed to confuse you more.
“Did you not like my kisses?”
He pulled you in closer, captivating your attention to him fully. Your brows furrow, and before you could hold yourself, you blurted out, “Wait, that wasn’t a dream?” The man chuckled and embraced you tighter. He shook his head and leaned down, but he didn’t touch you yet. “I need words, honey. Did you like them or not?” You gulped and panicky buried your head into his chest. He held you wonderfully tight, and without looking at him, you murmured a shy ‘yes.’
As the words flew out of your mouth, you were pulled back, and suddenly lips crashed onto yours. It was intoxicating just how satisfying his lips were on yours, and you swore you had lost the sense of where and when you were. You must have because when the man pulled away, you suddenly found yourself sitting on his lap on your bed. Then you remembered. Not wanting to let go, you hid your face in his neck.
“Aiza…”
“Call me Shota.”
“S-Shota, you’ll get a cold.”
The man chuckled and pulled you back in for another breathtaking kiss.
“Don’t worry, I came prepared…”
And oh boy, prepared he did come. Wink wonk.