Chapter Text
Someone finally brought it up months after Eri officially joined the Aizawa-Yamada household. It happened on a night were she was staying over for dinner in the 2-A dorms while Hitoshi, Shota, and Hizashi all ate in their family apartment. It’s Hitoshi who finally brought up the conversation.
“I think Eri likes Midoriya more than she likes us.” He whispered over his dinner as he pushed the food around on his plate, not really eating any of it. His eyes flickered up to his parents who have both stopped eating and he felt the familiar bubble of nerves hit his stomach. Immediately, he opened his mouth to backtrack, to somehow take away his comment, to tell them to ignore it, but before the words are able to come out, he sees Hizashi’s shoulders slump forward as if he’d been defeated by a great enemy.
“I thought I was the only one that noticed.” Hizashi told the group, and with that it’s like the tension had lifted and Hitoshi and Hizashi started exchanging stories about times they’ve been with Eri and she’s seen Midoriya and took off towards him, asked if he could join them, or even just asked if she could go see him without anyone else. It isn’t until multiple stories in that Shota spoke for the first time, clearing his throat to draw their attention to him.
“Problem Child was the first person Eri met that she could trust. She is still healing and that healing means being around people she trusts. It’s fine.” There was a certain edge to Shota’s voice that told Hitoshi and Hizashi both that the situation certainly wasn't fine and that he was just as upset as they were.
“But, Mirio was there too and she doesn’t act like this with him! She likes Mirio, but not like she likes Midoriya. I’d say Mirio is on our level, and none of us are close to Midoriya’s level.” Hizashi whined to Shota, defending all their hurt feelings.
“Maybe she has a crush on Midoriya.” Hitoshi said jokingly. His laugh only lasted for a second before both adults were staring wide-eyed at him and he realize that they found that to be a realistic possibility. “Guys, that’s not it, she’s only 8.” Hizashi’s eyes instantly started to water.
“What if she sees him as a FATHER FIGURE?” He exclaimed, accidently activating his quirk as he began crying.
“Why don’t we just ask her?” Shota said, clearly upset. His chopsticks were thrown on the plate before scooting his chair closer to Hizashi as the loud blonde man latched onto him like a koala.
With that, the conversation was placed on hold until they were able to do just as Shota suggested and ask Eri about the thing that was clearly bothering all of them.
It wasn’t until three nights later that they got a chance. Eri was sitting next to Hitoshi at the table, smiling and laughing as she told the other three about her day with Midoriya and his friends at the park. The other three occupants at the table were hanging on every word she said. All their lives and feelings wrapped tightly around the young girl's fingers without her even knowing it. When she had a lull in her stories, Shota glanced to Hizashi and Hitoshi seeing their encouraging nod before continuing.
“Eri, do you like it here?” He asked her lightly. Her smile started to fall and her head tilted to the side, showing her confusion.
“What do you mean?” She questioned him.
“I mean, the three of us love you very much, but we wanted to know if you wanted to be here with us or if there was another place you’d rather be.” Everyone slightly sat back, all in anticipation of her answer. Her giggle filled the room.
“Of course, there is nowhere else I’d rather be! You’re my family and I love you.” She told them as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. The group all let out a relieved sigh before smiling back at Eri. Hitoshi was the first to recover, remembering the original point of their conversation with her.
“How come you want to hang out with Midoriya more than us?” Eri immediately looked down at her food, her brows bunch together like she’s trying to find the right words to answer Hitoshi’s question.
“’Zuzu-” She began slowly before stopping, as if she knew they all needed a moment to recover their broken hearts at the cute nickname. “-‘Zuzu gets it. He makes it easier to not think about the bad things and to be happy. Like, how daddy needs naps, or papa like to be quiet sometimes, or how you want to be alone sometimes. I want to be around Zuzu.”
The trio was silent after Eri finished. They all completely understood what she was talking about. That need to recharge. It reminded them of how much she had gone through, and how she understood things that no normal 8 year old should ever have to understand. They all nodded to her, letting her know that they got it while they to recover enough to be able to form words.
“Is there something that he does that we can do, so that you can depend on us for that recharge feeling too?” Hizashi asked her, seemingly hopeful that there might be something they can do for her. She shook her head, not needing time to think about answer.
“We’re the same. It has to be him.” The words left her mouth with no hesitation, as if she was speaking a universal truth that all humans know upon birth. The confidence of her statement was almost enough to make the group accept it as a valid reason.
Almost.
“What do you mean, you’re the same?” Shota had a panicked look his eyes that Hizashi was mirroring. Hitoshi took a second longer before he understood their fear. Eri’s life pre-Midoriya had been a traumatic nightmare. Just the thought of his classmate having an understanding of what Eri went through made a feeling of ice jolt through Hitoshi’s veins.
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” Eri whispered out, pushing her plate away.
“Eri, we just want to understand. How are you and problem child the same?” Shota asked again, pushing the issue. Eri’s face contorted into an angry scowl that was reminiscent of Shota’s own scowl. Had it not been directed at him, a part of him would have been proud that she’d gained one of his expressions.
“I said no!” She screamed at them, pushing away from the table before running into her room. Everyone sat stunned and in silence. They’d never seen Eri get so upset. They’d never even seen Eri get mad before.
“What do we do now?” Hitoshi finally asked his parents. Shota still sat staring at Eri’s pushed back chair, not speaking.
“I think we give her time to cool down.” Hizashi finally answered. They continued to push their food around until finally accepting dinner was over. Shota snapped out of his trance and the three wordlessly cleaned up the table and dishes before putting the leftovers away.
They were almost done when Hitoshi’s phone started ringing. The contact's name showed Midoriya and his parents made a motion for him to answer it.
“Hello?” Hitoshi answered.
“Hey Shinsou! You wouldn’t happen to be with Aizawa-Sensei and Yamada-Sensei right now, would you?” Midoriya’s cheery voice came through the phone and Hitoshi nodded before flushing in embarrassment when he realized the green haired boy couldn’t see him. He quickly put the phone on speaker.
“Uh, you’re on speaker, they’re both here.” He said nervously, his hand rubbing against the back of his neck as he held the phone out.
“Wonderful! Thank you! Aizawa-Sensei, Yamada-Sensei, I just wanted to let you know that I have Eri. She was pretty upset when she ran into the dorms and said that she crawled out of her window and climbed down the fire escape. She’s eating dinner in my room right now. Do you want me to bring her home, someone come to get her, or do you want me to keep her for the night?” Hizashi gasped loudly, covering his mouth with his hands to stop anymore sound. Shock was only one of the emotions that was filling the groups hearts as Midoriya talked. He didn’t seem upset in the slightest of her being there.
“She what!?” Shota seethed, his tone a mixture of anger and terror.
“She got here about 15 minutes ago. She said she left at the beginning of dinner so I got her some curry, made sure she was safe and unhurt, and then called you.” Midoriya’s happy tone was beginning to dip into something different before he seemed to correct it. “She’s okay. I’ll talk to her if you want.” He offered and that seemed to set Shota off in some way.
“I don’t need you to talk to her. She’s OUR daughter.” He said, gritting his teeth, and emphasizing as if he were sticking some sort of claim to the girl. Hizashi patted his arm, holding his tears back, trying to comfort his husband who he recognized was in pain.
Silence filled the other end of the phone and for long enough that Hitoshi tapped his phone screen, wondering if the call had been disconnected, but Midoriya’s contact name was still there and the call still showed in progress. The tension in Shota’s shoulders was slowly fading with the elongated silence.
“Do you have a problem with Eri coming to me?” Midoriya asked, finally responded. His voice had a slight edge to it, but still came through as somewhat light and friendly. Hizashi and Shota answered at the same time.
“No, of cou-“ Hizashi started, but was quickly cut off by Shota.
“Yes. We do. We’re her family, not you. She needs to know that she can rely on us but we can’t show her that when she’s constantly going to you.” Hitoshi and Hizashi both winced, hearing Shota say the concerns that the three of them shared aloud made them feel guilty. Even Shota uncrossed his arms and opened his mouth, wanting to pull the words he said back.
“I understand. I’ll have her back in 10 minutes.” Midoriya’s tone was more flat and harsh than any of them have ever heard before. It didn’t match the sunshine student that they’d all come to know. He hung up before anyone could say anything else.
Hizashi and Hitoshi both stared at Shota, waiting for him to say something, but he only lowed his eyes to the floor, glaring as if it had offended him personally. The air in the apartment felt heavier that it ever had before.
“Do you think we made a mistake?” Hizashi questioned, breaking the silence, and chewing nervously on his lower lip.
“It’s better that we do this now than wait until he graduates and then just walks out of her life.” Shota concluded.
“How are we going to figure out what Eri meant when she said they were the same?” Hitoshi whispered to his parents, trying to control the urge to cry at the whole situation. Hizashi’s and Shota’s panicked eyes snapped to meet his.
“I didn’t think about that.” Hizashi admitted. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly and Shota leaned against the counter defeated.
“I’ll talk to Midoriya and ask him about it. I’ll do it after class tomorrow, just give everyone the night for things to settle." They all nodded their heads in agreement and slowly made their way to the living room to finish waiting on Eri.
Only a few minutes later, Eri burst in through the front door. She was sobbing into a stuffed elephant that Hitoshi recognized as Midoriya’s from the few times he’d been in the latter’s room. Hizashi ran over to Eri, opening his arms to offer her a hug. She started sobbing louder and took a step back away from him. Hizashi felt the rejection fill his heart with a clenching pain. Eri took in his hurt expression and looked down at the elephant in her arms before taking a deep breath and stepping forward again into Hizashi’s arms. Shota and Hitoshi joined the two quickly.
“Eri, how could you run away like that? You could have been hurt.” Shota scolded lightly. He reached over and brushed her hair out of her face. “You can’t do that again.”
“What’s got you so upset honey? You can talk to us. We can help you.” Hizashi rubbed her back as he spoke trying to calm her tears down. Eri shook her head, not answering.
“Let’s watch a movie, that always makes you feel better.” Hitoshi offered. Their parents both nodded to her.
“Yeah, let’s watch a Disney movie.” Hizashi picked Eri up, bringing her to the couch.
A Disney princess movie was played as Eri held onto the stuffed elephant and continued to cry. The three men were silent, all watching Eri out of the corner of their eye. Around halfway through the movie she slumped against the back of the couch, having cried herself to sleep and the trio looked to her with broken hearts before sending glances to each other. They all hoped that everything would be better in the morning, but the heaviness that remained in the apartment made them all know that it wouldn’t happen.
The next day, the family returned to the apartment all together. Eri was still holding onto the stuffed elephant and the three men all looked a differently level of upset.
“I’ll start dinner, Eri honey, why don’t you go do your homework, I’ll call you when it’s ready.” Eri nodded her head and silently went to her room. The second she was out of earshot, Shota threw his capture weapon at the wall in anger.
“Problem child won’t talk to me.” He announced. His body falling into one of the kitchen chairs. “I called him after class and he gave me the bare minimum answer to everything. Didn’t even smile a single time. He barely even looked at me today.”
“He acted normal in English, but he didn’t come around me in halls either. He just kept his head down anytime he saw me. I tried to say hello, but he was gone before I could.” Hizashi sat down in another chair, easing into it much lighter than Shota had. Both looked to Hitoshi for his interactions with the student that day.
Midoriya and Hitoshi had been sort of friends since Hitoshi had transferred into the class the year prior. They weren’t especially close, as Hitoshi liked to be alone more than in a group and Midoriya tended to be surrounded by people at all times, but they talked and occasionally hung out when Midoriya wore him down enough.
“We only really got to talk at lunch. He asked if Eri was okay and then I asked what happened to make her so upset, he said it’s because he told her he had to keep his distance from her for a while. Then he apologized for always bothering me and trying to force his friendship on me and said he wasn’t going to anymore. Then he just, walked away. I didn’t even say anything. I didn’t know WHAT to say.” Hitoshi used his hoodie sleeve to wipe away the few tears falling from his eyes. “I feel like he gave up on me. Like we took Eri away and he is just punishing us.”
“If he wants to act so selfishly, then let him. If he decides to not be your friend anymore because of this then he wasn’t your friend in the first place. I never took him as someone who would do this, but frankly I’m disappointed. I’m not going to waste my energy being upset over someone who if actively trying to hurt my family.” Shota told them, hitting the table with his fist. His eyes glowed red and his hair levitated, his quirk activating with his anger.
“I don’t think that’s what’s happening. We don’t know any of this from Midoriya’s point of view. I think we really hurt his feelings yesterday.” Hizashi told them, trying to reason with his angry husband.
“If that were the case, then why ignore us and why stop being friends with Hitoshi? Why not just tell us how he feels?” Hizashi looked down at the table and away from Shota’s angry red eyes.
“He didn’t say he didn’t want to be your friend, he said he was going to stop forcing it. When I became friends with Shota, I felt like I was forcing my friendship on him for a long time. Like, he didn’t actually want me to be his friend and I thought about giving up once or twice. It wasn’t because I didn’t WANT to be his friend, but I just wanted to stop doing something he didn’t like. Maybe Midoriya feels the same way.” Hitoshi sat down at the table finally, sniffling occasionally into his hoodie. Shota’s quirk deactivated, but his glare continued. “And talking about your feelings to someone is hard. He’s still a kid too.” A pointed look was sent to Shota.
“Then what do I do?” Hitoshi asked.
“You have to let him know that you also want to be his friend.” Hitoshi gave a nod, showing that he heard Hizashi, but didn’t verbally respond. The thought of having to tell the green haired hero in training he wanted to be his friend left an acidic taste in his mouth. It reminded him of too many times he’d tried to be friends with kids growing up only to be made fun of for his villainous quirk.
“None of this solves that he hurt both Eri and Hitoshi and is actively ignoring the both of us. If something was on his mind, then he needs to come talk to us about it. Honestly, if he thinks he’s going to be a lime light hero with this attitude then he’s wrong.” With that, Shota stood up and walked away from the pair. Hizashi’s brows furrowed as if there were more things he wanted to say, but decided against it. Hitoshi soon went to his own room, needing to be alone from the world for a little while.
Dinner was quiet that night, as was the next night, and the night after that. Eri was there every night for dinner, not asking to go to the 2-A dorm a single time. She didn’t ask for Midoriya to join any outing or to go to the park with him either. They all came home and made pointless small talk. After about 5 days, the tension finally seemed to lessen and conversations began happening again.
After a week, Shota was semi used to Midoriya’s short responses and not talking to him unless spoken to first. Hizashi stopped expecting Midoriya to greet him or even come around in at all. Hitoshi hadn’t worked up the nerve to tell Midoriya that he wanted to be friends. The pair talked about school when necessary, and Hitoshi still ended up sitting at the lunch table with Midoriya and their friends, but Midoriya didn’t go out of his way to greet him, invite him to do things, or speak to him any more than necessary. He was nice anytime they did speak, but there was nothing extra.
Eri seemed to get back to her usual self with them, but they began noticing that her smiles seemed to be getting smaller.
By the second week, she began yawning more at breakfast. Under her eyes started looking the slightest bit dark. She smiled less frequently and snapped at Shota once before apologizing and going to her room. The elephant that they’d suspected Midoriya gave to her was often found in her arms.
Shota had broken down at the beginning of the second week and asked All Might if he could talk to Midoriya about ignoring Hizashi and himself, noticing how much of a toll it was talking on Hizashi and how sad he’d look anytime he was ignored in the hall by the student. All Might said he would, but by the end of the week the avoidance only seemed to get worse. Midoriya stopped raising his hand in English all together and claimed to not know the answer anytime he was actively called upon. Hitoshi had expressed that he felt like too much time had passed for him to tell the other student that he wanted to be his friend and began to sit in a different spot at lunch because seeing Midoriya made him feel upset. Shota’s anger was still boiling at the end of the week, though he couldn’t decide where the blame should go anymore. He was angry that Midoriya was treating them like strangers, but the student wasn’t required to treat them like anything else. He knew he had a closer relationship to his current class than he’d had with any other class, due to the multitude of villain attacks that had occurred over the prior two years, and in each of those attacks Midoriya had been in the middle of it with him. He was hurt that the student was able to shut him out so easily, and that made him angrier. At the same time, he recognized that if he’d never said anything when Midoriya called, none of this would have probably happened or it at least wouldn’t be so bad.
Week three was difficult. They’d tried to recreate the things that Midoriya did with Eri to help her recharge, but it all seemed to fail. They went to the park, but Eri didn’t want to play with them at all. They went to ice cream, but she didn’t want anything sweet. They tried movies, but she’d get bored and go to her room. Her face fell into an expression reminiscent of when they’d first rescued her and Midoriya and Mirio were teaching her what a smile was. The three men were all feeling rough. Each attempt to cheer her up that failed left them all feeling worse. Hitoshi started spending more time in his room, Hizashi’s silence began to feel louder than his quirk, and Shota’s anger finally started to fizzle out and left him with just guilt. He felt like he ruined his family just because he was jealous of Eri liking Midoriya more than them. Eri’s angry outbursts because a daily occurrence. She’d often apologize right after and then would go to her room before anyone could say anything. Any time they’d ask her about how she was feeling, her not sleeping, her outbursts, she’d clam up, and refuse to speak until they let it go. They tried telling her a thousand times it was okay and that they were there for her. That they would listen, they’d help make it better, they’d do whatever she needed, but she would only shake her hear in response.
Shota made her an appointment with Hound Dog during the fourth week. Somehow, that seemed to make it even worse. She refused to talk to him during the session and refused to speak to Shota at all for the rest of the day. After breaking down himself to his husband at the end of the fourth week, he finally caved.
“Eri, do you want to go see Midoriya?” He asked her after dinner at the end of the fourth week. Her eyes instantly lit up more than any of them had seen in the past month before it quickly dropped away again.
“Am I allowed?” She asked quietly. Shota nodded his head. Her shoulders seemed to relax and a relieved smile slipped onto her face. Shota told her to go get ready and she sprinted to her room.
“We can’t keep doing this. I can’t do this anymore. We’re all clearly miserable. I’ll apologize. I’ll tell him to stop ignoring us and to be Hitoshi’s friend again. I’ll let him see Eri. I’m sorry.” Shota told his husband and son. They both quickly hugged him.
“I’ll go with you.” Hizashi said before looking at Hitoshi. “We’ll go with you.” He corrected.