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Eri grumbled as she stared at the blank sheet of paper on her yellow pad.
“Useless! Empty! Brain!” She muttered, smacking the pad against her forehead.
“Muse running low?” Someone chuckled.
Eri looked up and nodded her head at her father. “If it was low I could at least come up with something! My brain is completely empty!”
“Is this a Time Bomb song or something just for you?” He asked, referencing the punk band Eri had started a few weeks earlier.
“It’s for mommy. Her birthday is coming up and I wanted to do a song for her birthday.”
Her father put his hand to his chin as he thought, his scarred palm and fingers rubbing against green fuzz, after a moment his face broke out into a small smirk. “I’m not sure what you should write sweetie, but I’m almost certain you’re going to make her very happy no matter what you do.”
Eri groaned. “Dad, could you please not do the Deku thing right now? I could really use a hand!”
Her father chuckled. “I’m not doing the Deku thing sweetie. I, Izuku Midoriya, am quite certain that your mother, Nejire Midoriya, will love whatever you get her.”
Eri let out another groan. She knew her dad was right, but it was still annoying. She wanted to do something nice for her mom! Was that so hard! Nejire and Izuku weren’t just her parents, they were her heroes. Not just in the way that most kids looked up to their parents, but in that they literally saved her life. She’d been in the care of a horrible man who routinely violated and mutilated her day in and day out until her father and her uncle had found her and then they and their friends all came together to rescue her. Every Mother’s Day, every Father’s Day, and every time one of them had a birthday it was important to her because it let them know that she treasured them with every part of her soul.
And that felt a little more important now that she was a teenager. Yeah, she was being more uppity, more mouthy, and getting into more rebellious things like the pre quirk era punk rock CDs her Auntie Kyoka had given her, but she still really loved and respected her parents, and she really hoped they still knew that.
Izuku let out a soft sigh and ruffled his daughter’s silver hair. “Just do whatever you think is right.”
Eri smiled up at her father. Somehow he always knew how to get her head on straight.
She put down the yellow pad and pulled out his cellphone. Maybe an original song was the wrong approach. This was her mother’s day, well not her Mother’s Day, that was a long, long, loooong way’s away and the one to make her a mom hadn’t shown up just yet. Much to her actual mom’s relief she was sure. Either way, the point was, this wasn’t about her and her skills as a songwriter. This was about doing something nice for her mother. So why not do a song she knew her mother loved?
Well speaking of moms, she knew her mom was always pretty close with her own mother. Maybe a song about moms? Sure it was her mom’s birthday not Mother’s Day, but… No no, that was just it. It was her birthday, not Mother’s Day.
“Dammit! I need something!” She yelled, tossing her phone across the living room.
Izuku shook his head and picked up the phone. “Cracked.”
Eri cringed. “Sorry dad!”
Her father sighed. “Obviously this isn’t organic material, so before we can go to paradise, I’ll take it out to a repair man in the city.”
“You’ll be back right?”
“Soon you’ll see,” Izuku replied, winking at his daughter before walking out.
“He remembers he belongs to us,” Eri chuckled, shaking her head as she went into her room to grab her laptop. She still needed to find something to play for her mother’s birthday party at the beach. The young woman suddenly perked up as she ran through her father’s words when something snagged in her brain. “‘Before we can go to paradise, I’ll take it out to a repair man in the city.’ OH MY GOD THAT’S IT!” She screamed out in relief as she pulled up the tabs for Paradise City by Guns N Roses.
It was the perfect song! A song about just being happy to be home and taking pleasure in seeing some green grass and pretty girls. Yep. That was her mom.
Chorus: G. C. C. F. C. G. F. C. G.
First Verse: Power Chord G. Power Chord F. Power Chord C. Minor Power Chord B. Repeat.
“And the lyrics… Oh,” Eri murmured, actually reading the lyrics. Yeah, no. This wasn’t gonna cut it. “What was it pre-quirk rock songs with bright happy choruses and weird messed up choruses?”
“Hey don’t stop now!” Hollered her mom, her gleeful voice ringing out from the hallway.
Eri chuckled. Her mom was always an encouraging queen.
“Light bulb!” She yelped, pulling up the chords for a new song. She knew this song well enough, no weird or messed up lyrics on Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now. “Let’s see the intro goes like…” Eri murmured as she scanned the chords.
F. A Minor. D Minor. G Minor. C. F. F7. B Sharp. G Minor 7. D7. G Minor. F. C. G Minor. G Minor again. F. C. G Minor. F Over G. G Minor 7. C. D Minor 7 Over C. C7.
“And so on and so forth,” she hummed, strumming to each chord. It sounded good but it also didn’t sound very Nejire. Her mother loved hearing her play guitar, but nothing ever made her smile as much as her playing…
“The uke,” Eri smirked, putting away her guitar and picking up the ukulele she kept in her closet. “Hopefully I still remember how to do this,” she mused, switching to a new tab on her phone. “Okay so…” Eri paused and looked back at the first set of chords.
F. A Minor. D Minor. G Minor. C. F. F7. B Sharp. G Minor 7. D7. G Minor. F. C. G Minor. G Minor again. F. C. G Minor. F Over G. G Minor 7. C. D Minor 7 Over C. C7.
“Literally the same chords either way. Why did I even bother?” Eri snorted and shook her head. “If only I could use my dang quirk to get back the five minutes I wasted pulling up different tabs,” she muttered, knocking her first against her horn, but alas, her horn couldn’t be used for time travel. “Though it is pretty useful when we accidentally leave fruit out for too long or that one time when dad got busy and forgot he wanted to try making pizza with french bread and let his baguette get all moldy,” the young woman mused, letting out a small chuckle as she strummed her uke. Having pro heroes as parents sure made life interesting.
Nejire had a wide grin as her husband directed her, one hand holding hers, the other on her shoulder. She was blindfolded but knowing how corny her man was, judging by the sand she felt between her toes, and the fact that the drive from home wasn’t very long. She was pretty sure she knew exactly where they were.
“Izuku, did you take me to Takoba Beach for my birthday?” The blue haired woman teased.
Izuku chuckled and he knew his wife could see his guilty smile even with her blindfold. “You said you weren’t going to ask me any questions.”
“I assumed you weren’t going to make it so obvious,” Nejire countered, a shit eating grin plastered over her face as her husband undid her blindfold.
“You know Deku, he’s as predictable as he is sweet,” giggled a familiar voice.
Nejire’s eyes went wide with glee as she laid eyes on the voice’s owner.
“URARAKA!” She screamed joyously, giving her fellow former intern a big hug.
“Hey Hado! Happy birthday honey!” Ochako grinned.
“Thank you so much! Who else is here?”
“Everyone is!”
Nejire scanned the beach. Sure enough, in addition to herself, her family, Ochako, and the other half of UA’s Big Four, there were a handful of pros, some of whom were still pros when she and her then boyfriend first met Eri, and some of whom were her and Izuku’s fellow students.
“Hello again my dear!” Greeted the regal as ever Ryuko Tatsuma.
“Oh my gosh! Ryukyu! You look as beautiful as the day I last saw you!” Nejire greeted, looking almost awestruck.
“I could say the same for you my darling, happy birthday,” the older pro countered, giving her former protege a hug as well.
“Hey Hado!” Greeted Mirio, popping out of the ground until he was fully visible from his belly button up, with his bottom half still submerged in the sand with his quirk.
“Hey Togata! Where’s Amajiki?”
“Right here,” murmured Tamaki, holding his head down as he dropped a towel down right in front of his husband. “There you go… Babe.”
“Thanks honey!” Mirio grinned, sinking back into the ground then jumping all the way out while grabbing the towel with his now solid hand.
Nejire, Izuku, and Ochako nodded along, used to this kind of display from their number one hero. Ryukyu glanced back at the timid hungry hero.
“He likes to do the jump out thing,” Nejire explained while Tamaki shyed away from his colleague’s inquiring expression.
Mirio landed with his right knee, his right hand, and left foot touching the ground, while his left was clutching the beach towel for dear life.
“SUPER HERO LANDING!” Cheered Eri, clapping her hands.
“You know, that’s really hard on your knees,” teased a new voice.
“FAT!” Squealed Nejire, giving the BMI hero a great big hug.
“Hey there Hado! How’s life been kiddo?” Greeted Fatgum, wrapping her colleague in a great big bear hug.
Nejire giggled against her old friend’s squishy body as she hugged him back. “I’m great! How about you, Fat? Are you, Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, Amajiki, and Yaomomo still working together? Have any of your sidekicks broken away to do their own thing? Have you seen any more Yakuza jerks we need to beat the crap out of?”
Mirio let out a small laugh. “Him and Amajiki are still tied to the hip, but the others are all off on their own and I couldn’t be prouder. I have seen some Yakuza guys but I haven’t seen those guys since we took out You-Know-Who.”
Eri chuckled. “You can say his name Uncle LeMillion, he’s gone and he can’t hurt me again. And even if he could,” she snorted. “Good luck getting past number 4 and number 7.”
“Let alone number 1,” Mirio winked.
“Especially not numero uno!”
Fatgum smiled proudly. “Attagirl.”
“My favorite girl in the whole world,” Nejire grinned, reaching out for Eri.
Eri eagerly wrapped her arm around her sweet mother’s waist. No place warmer or safer than her mother and father’s loving arms.
“Speaking of girls…” Added a familiar chipper voice.
Eri and Nejire turned to see two of Nejire’s former classmates, the aforementioned Kirishima and his pretty little wifey, Mina Ashido.
Nejire’s eyes traveled to Mina’s uncharacteristically large belly.
“WHAT’S THIS?! WHAT’S THIS?!” The curious hero yelped out excitedly.
Mina giggled. “We couldn’t find any horrifically traumatized cuties to adopt, so Eji and I decided on having kids the old fashioned way.”
Eri laughed for a moment then her eyes went wide in horror.
“‘What’s this?’” She repeated quietly. “Shit!”
She ran back to the car and grabbed her phone and her ukulele.
“So obvious! It’s her favorite song from her favorite movie! Halloween is right around the corner! Stupid stupid!” the teen muttered.
Izuku let out a heavy sigh. “I think you got that from me.”
Eri looked up. “How could I have inherited anything from you? We’re not biologically related?”
“Nature vs nurture. You’ve seen me constantly agonizing over every decision I make outside of heroics and then yelling at myself when I think I made the wrong choice.”
“Yeah yeah, okay, sure. Thanks dad. Anyway, what do you like better? ‘What’s This?’ from The Nightmare Before Christmas or the Queen song?”
Izuku snorted and lightly shook his head. “I’m sure your mom will love either one.”
Eri rolled her eyes. “Well yes, but which one do you think she’ll like best?”
Izuku opened his mouth to reply to his daughter’s smart mouth but was cut off before he could speak by the sound of an old friend’s voice.
“What’s going on here? You taking good care of my little rock star, Deku?” Teased Kyoka.
Izuku chuckled. “We’re all doing great, Earphone Jack.”
“Quick! Auntie! What song should play for my mom tonight-”
“Mama I’m Coming Home by Ozzy.”
Eri’s eye twitched. That was a great suggestion.
Izuku shook his head. Kyoka’s face fell.
“I’ve just made this situation worse, haven’t I?” The punk rock hero asked, looking concerned.
“Not your fault, just leave her be,” Izuku reassured, pulling his friend aside. “You’re gonna do great sweetie, just make the decision you think is best.”
Eri looked up the tabs for both songs then paused as a thought came to her. Auntie Kyoka was by herself. “I wonder where Uncle Denki is.”
“I’m right here.”
Eri looked up, sure enough her uncle was sitting in the passenger side front seat. Eri yelped. “Why are you in my dad’s car?!”
“I thought this was my car, but then you came in and were freaking out so I didn’t want to startle you.”
“... Uh huh.”
“Also, if you want something peppy and energetic like your mom, you should probably try ‘i’ by Kendrick.”
“Does that song even have any guitar or ukulele tabs?”
Denki shrugged. “It’s worth looking into.”
“... Dammit,” the teen muttered, pulling up the lyrics. Her eyes went wide. “Okay I see why you think she’d like it, but this is waaaaay too political for a song for someone’s birthday.”
“Uh, try Don’t Stop Believin’?”
Eri banged her head against the driver’s seat. That was actually a good suggestion.
“Denki! Are you making our niece's life more difficult?” Called out Kyoka.
“See ya kiddo! Good luck!” Denki yelped before running out of the car.
Eri groaned. “Maybe a medley? With all four?”
Goddammit why was she doubting herself so much? Why couldn’t she just pick one?!
“Hey sweetie.”
Eri looked up. Standing over her was her beautiful statuesque mother, beautiful periwinkle hair and royal blue eyes that were always full of joy and curiosity. Sometimes Eri wondered what she did in a past life to deserve her being her mom, but that also opened the question to what she did to deserve the life she had before she met her parents.
“Sweetie, you’re crying,” Nejire said softly, taking a seat next to her daughter in the car. “What’s wrong?”
Eri ran a hand over her face. Oh shit, she was crying. “Nothing, nothing, it’s just…”
“Just what?”
Eri couldn’t contain it anymore.
“I just wanted to give you a nice gift!” Eri whimpered, burying her face in her mother’s swim suit cover up.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay sweetie, it’s okay, I’m sure whatever you got me was lovely,” Nejire reassured, stroking her daughter's own beautiful hair.
“I wanted to play you a song, I practiced it a million times but then I started second guessing myself and decided to try a different song, then I started wondering whether or not that was the right one. Then I tried to learn some other songs and now I don’t know what to do!”
Nejire gently held onto her daughter.
“I don’t need you to play me a song,” she reassured. “In fact, I don’t need you to give me anything.”
Eri sniffled. “You don’t?”
“I don’t. And do you know why?”
Eri shook her head.
“Because I already got the perfect birthday gift eight years ago. You know what it was?”
“No, what?”
Nejire smiled widely, tears welling up in her own eyes. “It was you.”
“What?”
“My 18th birthday was the day your dad, me, and all our friends rescued you. And the minute I saw you, I knew I wanted to take care of you, to get to know you, to help you become the person you wanted to be, to tuck you in at night, to share every single birthday I had after that with. You were such a sweet, beautiful, and special young lady, and you still are.”
Eri sniffled again. “I love you mommy.”
“I love you too sweetie,” Nejire said softly, wrapping her baby girl in a big hug.
“I still want to play a song for you.”
“And I’d love to hear you play a song sweetie. Whatever you like.”
Eri nodded and picked up her ukulele. She strummed it for a moment then adjusted the tuning, then strummed it again. It sounded just right. She took a deep breath then exhaled.
“Tonight, I'm gonna have myself a real good time. I feel ali-i-i-iiiiive! And the world, I'll turn it inside out, yeah! I'm floatin' around in ecstasy so don't stop me now, don't stop me, 'cause I'm havin' a good time! Havin' a good time!”
Nejire grinned widely as she watched her daughter perform the song. She never listened to very much pre-quirk era music before high school but then she got to know Izuku and Jiro and found that there was so much to love, especially in the late 20th century before digital media became a thing. There was nothing wrong with music since the digital age, she just found that she really liked a lot of the sound of these arena rock bands from the era before it.
Eri grinned back at her mother as she kept playing. Her smile was exactly the reaction she was hoping for.
“I'm a shootin' star, leapin' through the sky like a tiger, defyin' the laws of gravity! I'm a racin' car, passin' by like Lady Godiva! I'm gonna go, go, go, there's no stoppin' me!”
Nejire picked up her daughter's phone and started reading the lyrics herself. “I'm burnin' through the sky, yeah! Two hundred degrees, that's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit! I'm travelling at the speed of light! I wanna make a supersonic man outta youuuu!”
Eri’s smile brightened. “Don't stop me now!”
Her mother followed suit. “I'm havin' such a good time, I'm havin' a ball!”
“Don't stop me now!”
“If you wanna have a good time, just give me a call!”
“Don't stop me now!”
“'Cause I'm havin' a good time.”
“Don't stop me now.”
“Yes, I'm havin' a good time.”
Altogether now. “I don't wanna stop at allllll, yeah!”
“What’s going on here?” Izuku chuckled, coming back to the van along with the rest of their visitors.
“Hey sweetie! Come sing with us!” Nejire grinned, gesturing for her husband to sit with her and their daughter.
Izuku chuckled and took a seat in the back of the car with the two women he loved most. Poor Eri was starting to feel a little cramped against the window of the back seat now that her mother and father were sitting with her, but she hadn’t a single complaint in the world in this moment. She was with the two people she loved most in the world.
The number four hero took the phone from his wife and began reading the lyrics with her and their daughter.
“I'm a rocket ship on my way to Mars on a collision course. I am a satellite, I'm out of control, I'm a sex machine, ready to reload like an atom bomb! About to oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, explode!”
Eri stuck her tongue like she was gagging while her mother and father nuzzled each other, deliberately trying to make their little girl uncomfortable just to tease her.
Even so, it was a wonderful moment for the three of them. Nejire herself would say this was the second best birthday she’d ever had, but for as chaotic, scary, and violent as it was, the day they rescued Eri was still number one in her books. There really was just no contest besides today.