Midoriya opened his door, lost in thought as he reflected on the previous day. When he'd heard about how Iida had gotten everyone's attention and prevented a full-blown panic from happening inside the school, he'd decided to make him his assistant. It technically wasn't an official position, but there was no way he was going to replace Momo and it would go against his orders from One For All if he stepped down and let Tenya take his place.
"You were on the TV, I saw you!" Eri cheered when he came in. Midoriya smiled.
"What did you think? Was I cool?" he asked her, picking her up and spinning her around. Her eyes filled with wonder and she hugged him fiercely when he finished his circle and pulled her in, but he felt a pang in his heart when he noticed that she didn't smile. She'd never smiled, not that he'd seen. And those scars... Oh man, when he got a hold of Overhaul, he was going to rip him a new one.
"Yes!" she said. "You were awesome. I would be way too scared if there were that many people yelling at me, but you told super cool stories. I want to meet your friends!"
"My friends would be super excited to meet you, too!" he told her. "We just need to wait for a little bit, so you can get be around lots of people without getting scared."
"I'm sorry," she muttered. "I can't help it."
"Don't be sorry, you're the best little sister ever! Being scared is never something to be sorry about, it's just something to face so you can get stronger." She cuddled further into his chest, humming happily.
"I'm a good little sister?" she said. "I've never been a little sister before, so I don't know how."
"You do it just like you're doing it right now," he said. "You're just right."
She didn't respond other than to hug him tighter. He held back tears; Izuku was the emotional side of him, not Midoriya, but Eri was just too adorable. She wouldn't understand that they were happy tears, though, so he made sure to just keep smiling.
"How was your time with uncle Shigaraki?" he asked, a mischievous twinkle lighting in his eyes. He couldn't wait for the man to hear his new nick name. "I never got to ask you before."
"Uncle?" Eri asked, her head tilted to the side. "What's an uncle?"
"It's someone who is like a dad, but isn't actually your dad. Usually it has to be in your family, but since me and you don't have a real family, we can just use it for a grown-up that we really like. Do you like Shigaraki?"
"Yes! And Kurogiri. They are super nice!" Eri said. "Can I call Kurogiri my uncle too?"
"You sure can," Midoriya assured her. "What did you do with them before I woke up?"
"They told me about how awesome you are, and we played some games," she said. "I always won, but I think uncle Shigaraki was going easy on me."
"He's nice like that, isn't he?" Midoriya said. "How was your day today? Shigaraki and Kurogiri weren't here while I was gone, so I was worried about you."
"Oh," she said, looking down. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you."
"Oh, stop that," Midoriya said, tickling her. She squirmed and scrunched up her face adorably, but she didn't quite smile. He would have to work on that. "Big brothers always worry about their sisters, that's just how it is. It's not your fault."
"Really?" Eri asked, looking up at him with wide eyes.
"That's right. If I'm worried about you, that just because I love so you much and I don't want you to ever get hurt again."
Eri's bottom lip trembled, and tears welled up in her eyes. "I've never—I don't know how..." she said, but she stopped. She didn't know how to say what she wanted to say, but Midoriya understood.
"You have all the time you need," he said soothingly, combing one hand through her tangled white hair. "Someday, we'll have a real big family, how does that sound?"
"It sounds a little bit scary," she admitted softly. "But, I think... I think I'd like that."
"No matter what happens, though, make sure to remember I love you, okay?" he said. "If you ever need anything, don't be afraid to ask me. I'll always be there for you, got it?"
Eri's lips curved up, ever so slightly. It wasn't quite a real smile, but it was getting there. He felt elated.
"Now, what do you want to do? I could show you some of my favorite games, if you want."
* * *
Kaminari hummed absently to himself as he walked, a slight smile on his face. He certainly wasn't thinking about anyone in particular, or how happy she looked when he managed to make her laugh. He especially wasn't thinking about how attractive her blush was when she got attention she didn't want, or how much he admired the way she preferred to stay under the radar.
The way she constantly made fun of him he really could do without, but maybe it counted as flirting. Anyway, the point was that is not what was on his mind when he ran into Michi Hamasaki on the rare occurrence of him being early to school.
"Hey, Michi!" he said. "Man, you look really tired today. Are you okay?"
"I regret nothing," he muttered, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"Dude, were you up all night? You kind of look like it, if I'm being honest." Denki said, laughing at the look on his friend's face.
"I recently adopted a little sister—well, my family did, you know—and she is way too adorable. She was in a shitty situation before, so I can never say no to her when she asks to play. Also, she sleeps while I'm at school so she had plenty of energy..." Michi sighed. "Once she's not so scared about having too many people around, she really wants to meet you and my other U.A. friends."
"That sounds like a lot of fun, actually," Denki said, interested. He wondered what she had to go through to make her so afraid of people. "Tell her I'm excited to meet her, too!"
"Sure thing!" Michi said with a smile. His eyes got a faraway look to them, and his smile was honestly happier than Denki had ever seen. Usually his smiles were amused or sarcastic; it was really cool, seeing Michi so genuinely happy when he thought about his adoptive sister.
When they got to class, Denki was more than a little surprised when Michi went directly to Todoroki and started talking to him. He was even more surprised to see that Todoroki seemed to perk up as he did. Denki would admit—to himself, at least—that Todoroki was very intimidating, and his quiet nature didn't help encourage people to talk to him. As he saw they way he smiled subtly as he talked with Michi, though, he decided it would be a lot of fun to have Shoto as a friend. If he would let Denki call him by his first name, that is.
"Hey, Todoroki," Denki said, joining their conversation. "I'm Denki Kaminari. Wanna be friends?"
There were plenty of less blunt ways to ask that question, but honestly Todoroki seemed like the kind of person to appreciate bluntness. Todoroki looked up at him like he was considering the offer, which kind of just proved Denki's point earlier. Most people wouldn't just say 'no' to that question.
"Okay," he said after a minute. "What does that mean, exactly?"
Denki's smile froze on his face. "What?" he said, sure that he misheard.
Todoroki frowned a bit. "What exactly does it mean to be your friend, going forward?" he said. "I've never really done it before."
"In case you didn't realize, me and you are already friends," Michi offered, the hint of a smirk on his face. "We just haven't been friends for very long, so I guess the question hasn't come up."
Todoroki turned to Michi, which was lucky for Kaminari because he had no idea how to answer his question. "That doesn't answer my question," he said dryly.
Michi laughed. "Well, I guess it just means we enjoy spending time together so we do it a lot. Remember when I talked to you about doing things for fun outside of school? It's that sort of thing."
"I see," Todoroki said, nodding slowly. "That sounds like it could be... fun."
Denki was shocked at how alien the word sounded in his mouth. He felt a smile slowly growing on his face. "Man, if you don't know how to have fun, I'll be the perfect person to show you. Can I call you Shoto?"
Shoto's smile was small as he nodded, but it was there. Denki caught Michi looking at the other boy thoughtfully, and he waved his hand in front of his face to bring him back to earth. "Hey, everyone is arriving. You probably shouldn't be the only one not in their seat, since you're class rep and all."
"Oh—you're right," he responded with a laugh. He said a quick goodbye to Todoroki and hurried over to his seat. Denki decided to keep talking to Shoto; they were friends now, after all, and he didn't know very much about him.
"What kind of things do you like to talk about?" Denki asked him. "Any hobbies you really like, or anything?"
Shoto frowned. "Mostly I just train. My old man thinks being his successor is the only purpose of my life, so I don't... get out much."
Denki noticed that Yaororozu was leaning in slightly, like she wanted to know what Shoto had to say. He hid a grin, but he stopped himself from doing anything to embarrass her, thinking about how annoying it was when Michi messed with him and Jiro. Besides, she might just admire him and be interested in him, just like every single other person in this class.
"Well, that sucks," Denki said, making a face. "I can tell you train a lot, though. You're really good with your ice. The way you melted it, too; do you have fire abilities, like your dad?"
"I will never use my fire," Shoto said with terrifying conviction. Kaminari saw the anger and even hatred in Shoto's eyes, and he winced.
"Bro, Endeavor is a seriously shitty dad," Denki said. Shoto's eyes widened, and he looked up at Denki in surprise. That small, almost unnoticeable smile came back.
"Yeah, he is," he agreed.
"Alright, get in your seats everyone!" Michi called. "Class is about to start. If you're not in your seat before the bell rings, I'll set Iida on you."
Kaminari got to his seat.
* * *
Michi Hamasaki was nervous before Aizawa had told them that they were taking a field trip today. He'd planned on preparing himself for anything Shigaraki might be planning, but he lost track of time playing with Eri. Now, he was completely unprepared and completely exhausted, and his class was going off-campus. Just fucking great.
"Iida, you're in charge of keeping everyone organized," he said. "I'll make sure no one acts too out of line."
Tenya nodded sharply, still proud that the class had unanimously chosen him to help Michi and Momo lead the class, and he directed everyone into lines so they could get on the bus more easily. Unfortunately, he got quite embarrassed when the bus they got on didn't have rows, and the whole process turned out to be unnecessary.
Michi was too lost in thought to pay too much attention to what happened on the bus, but he did remember when Kaminari said to Bakugo's face that his attitude was "trash steeped in sewage". That was pretty hilarious.
They finally arrived. "Of course," he whispered. Shoto, as always, noticed him muttering to himself, and Michi winced. The USJ. A huge disaster area with plenty of space for whatever special secret that Tomura thought would finally kill All Might.
"Thirteen is so cool!" Ochako said, bouncing up and down with excitement. Michi twitched slightly in surprise; when did she get right next to him?
"Yeah, she's pretty awesome. Rescue heroes are the coolest," Michi agreed, trying to hide how distracted he was.
Still, he was only able to pay partial attention to Thirteen's speech about how quirks, even when they were dangerous and had the ability to kill, could always be used for good. Shoto noticed this too, damn him, and he finally approached to ask about it.
"Are you okay?" Shoto asked. "You've seemed really anxious and distracted all day."
"Yeah, it's just..." What could he say? "Instinct, I guess. I can't help but feel like something is going to go wrong."
Shoto nodded, a frown forming on his face. "I... I feel the same way. Especially since All Might isn't here, even though he's supposed to be."
Michi let out a breath, trying to focus on the present. "Yeah. I just hope nothing too serious—"
The lights flickered and went out. The fountain in the middle of the building started to sputter. Purple mist gathered out of nowhere right in front of the fountain, and Michi swallowed. He just had to say something, didn't he?
"Well, shit."