Chapter Text
All the other girls had told her that Bakugou wasn't scary. That he was actually like a big teddy bear who was really nice once you got to know him. She didn't think she could believe them, not at first. How could someone so loud and angry, someone who took up so much space in a room, be as nice as they said? It didn't make sense.
Maybe one day she would see what they saw in him.
That day came sooner than she thought it would. It also wasn't a day, it was a night.
She had woken up to the sounds of her own screams and an unfamiliar room. Blinking away the images of Chisaki and the phantom pains from his ‘experiments’, she took in her surroundings, carefully not to move in case someone saw that she was awake.
Blinking back what she realised were tears, the room came into focus. The plain walls of one of the spare rooms on the UA campus calmed her slightly.
Hopping out of bed, she wondered if anyone else would be awake. She could still see the moon out of the window so probably not. Carefully she made the trek out of her room and into the hallway, the emergency light at the end of the hall providing her with just enough light to see.
Glancing up and down the empty hallway, she decided to follow the glowing exit signs to get some fresh air.
Walking around the campus at night would seem scary to most, but Eri had spent her entire life locked inside. The fresh air and the open space was comforting. Pausing, she looked up at the stars, the glittering lights beautiful against the black sky.
Looking at what was around her, she recognised the entrance to the garden, and she became curious. During her tour of UA, they hadn’t gone inside the garden so she hadn’t gotten a chance to see what kinds of plants were there. But now it was the middle of the night and no-one would know she had gone in there if she didn’t tell anyone. Besides, Aizawa had told her to do whatever made her feel comfortable while she was here.
Following the natural paths, Eri marvelled at all the different plants. Flowers of all different colours were woven amongst the shrubs and bushes. Yellows, pinks, blues of all different shades sprung up from the ground. It was beautiful.
Crossing over a small bridge, she admired the small river. Tiny fish swimming underneath her wooden platform while fireflies flew between the reeds that grew along the edge of the pond. A loud croak startled her but turning around she found herself looking at a frog that was sitting on one of the lily pads.
"What are you doing out here so late, kid?"
Startling again, she twisted until she made eye contact with the person. Sitting under a tree with glowing lights strung between the branches was the loud blonde Deku was friends with. Hair messed up and bags under his eyes obvious despite the time.
She hadn't spoken to him before, but with no-one else outside, let alone awake, she tested the waters. Trying to see if he was a good guy, or a bad-good guy.
"Had a bad dream. "
He gave her a nod.
"Me too. Come here, this is an apple tree, we can have a snack."
Stepping off the bridge, she watched as he expertly lifted himself up amongst the branches. A few seconds later he emerged. Hanging upside-down he offered her an apple and a smirk.
She let out a giggle.
Twisting his body, he dropped out of the tree and moved to sit back down. Leaning against the tree he waved her over to sit down too. Silently he pulled out a pocket knife and cut up his apple, offering it to her as a trade for the full apple she was holding. Cutting that up too, they began to eat.
At some point she unconsciously shuffled closer to him. Then even more. And more again, until she had finished her apple and was pressed into his side. Letting her eyes drift closed as she absorbed the heat of his overly warm body, she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders and pull her closer.
Gently, he started to tell her stories. Not the usual bedtime stories like Mr Aizawa did. Instead these stories were about his classmates, people like Dunce Face, Bad Hair and Spiderman were mentioned a lot, as was Deku and his friends.
Sitting here with him, the arm around her to keep her grounded and stories about his class helping her drift off to sleep, suddenly it all made sense.
How he and the rabbit hero acted so similar, yet people cheered for them both even when they got loud.
How Uraraka and Momo had something bright in their eyes when the two of them had tried to introduce her to him on her first day.
How Ashido, Mina, Asui and Toru chatted about him in the common room with smiles and teased him during training sessions.
How Nejire talked about how good of a hero he was, how willing to learn he was.
How she heard the girl with the goggles from support rambled with him during lunch about complicated sounding inventions with little care for the small crackles popping from his hands whenever she got too close.
The fond tone the nurse had whenever she talked about her unofficial intern slash assistant .
The way some of the teachers gave him soft, sometimes sad smiles whenever they passed in the hallways. A few of them mentioned him while she was in the staff room.
Even the class B girls had spoken about him occasionally when the classes had a joint lesson.
None of them seemed scared of him at all.
All these adults, these heroes and people she called family loved him. Had they seen this side of him too? This gentle, calm side of him that cared about his friends and the people around him so much?
Yawning, she shifted slightly, tucking herself further under his arm, "Thank you, Firework."
"Get some sleep kid."
"No more bad dreams?"
"Not tonight kid, not tonight."
"Promise." Looking up at him, she sleepily raised her hand, pinky finger extended.
"I promise Sunshine. " Locking his own pinky with hers, the promise was sealed.
Her Firework drove away the bad dreams that night and she had slept soundly next to him under their apple tree until the sunrise woke them both.