Eli arrived early the next morning at U.A. After a stop at the Development Studio to tinker with some little things, she sat in the empty classroom of 1A. She yawned a bit as she adjusted herself in her chair and took a sip of her tea, pulling a blanket that Shouta kept in the classroom and put it over her legs as she sat with a freshly printed stack of the course syllabus. That along with some Need-to-Know pink sheets.
She contemplated just changing into her workshop clothes, which was just a large dark blue jumpsuit she wore when she was working in the shop. Come to think of it, Eli wore it pretty often before she was a teacher's assistant.
She sighed as she forced herself to stand up and place the stack on the podium at the front of the room. As she was doing that, the sliding door opened. Looking over, she saw none of other than Shoto Todoroki.
Eli smiled at the boy, and the boy couldn't help the small smile that crept upon his face as he approached her especially when he noticed they were the only two here.
"Morning, Nee-chan," he told her, a soft look in his eye as he smiled at her.
"Morning Shoto! Oh, here's your syllabus," she said handing him, a kind smile still playing on her lips.
"Are you tired?" he asked. She laughed sheepishly as she nodded.
It was rather obvious that she was tired, I mean her hair wasn't even in its normal afro that covered most of her face. Instead, it was split down the middle and went beside her face instead of covering it. It wasn't that she looked bad, but anyone who knew her knew that that was her normal style.
"Ugh yeah, I got home really late," she said with a chuckle. He frowned a bit.
"Would you like some of the tea my sister gave me during her visit? She said that it is supposed to help you feel more replenished when you wake up," Shoto offered her hopefully.
"Are you sure it's alright Sho? I don't want to take something your sister gave you," Eli said shaking her head. He simply nodded, a determined glint in his eye as he looked at her.
"Well alright! How about this, I can drive you home and you can give it to me then?" she offered. He nodded since he knew that was about the time his father was out on patrol.
"What about your... brothers?" he asked, obviously unsure of how to word it.
"Oh, they'll be walking home today, I have something after, so it'll just be you and me. If you want, we can stop by that place you like and get some soba," she offered again.
He beamed (which meant his already small smile got slightly bigger and his eyes widened a little) and told her that he'd liked that. Soon the class began to fill, with each student that walked in greeting Eli before a small crowd formed around her.
Mina leaned against her shoulder as she hugged Eli's arm talking her ear off about all her likes and dislikes while Kirishima and Ojiro talked about their workout routines. Asui stood beside Ururaka next to Mina, in front of Eli, all of them joining on the different conversations Mina was bringing to the table.
As Eli checked the time, the door opened revealing her brothers.
"Alright, everyone head to your seats," she called out. The talking soon ceased as everyone immediately went to their seats.
"Pass them back for me please," she said as she passed a certain number of the syllabus and the Need-to-Know papers to those of them in the front rows.
"Class is starting in roughly 5 minutes or so, so I ask that you fill out the pink Need-to-Know forms for me please. Take your time with them, this can go into your homeroom period," she told them as she stood behind the podium. A hand was then put out.
"Yes, Yaoyorozu?" she asked.
"Can you tell us the importance behind this?" she asked.
"The Need-to-Know form is a form I made so that you'd fill me in on things that you believe I need to know. It goes over preferred pronouns and when to use them, names you'd like me to call you like a nickname or something that makes you feel more comfortable, or anything that would help me know how to help you be more comfortable in this space," she explained with a kind smile on her face.
Another hand was up.
"Yes, Iida?" she asked.
"Is it... alright to get so comfortable in an academic environment?" he asked, a small bit of uncertainty in his voice.
"Of course, I want you to be comfortable! This is a safe space for any and every anxiety that you may or may not have. You can't be a hero without a support system, and U.A is that support system. So, feel free to tell me of anything I can do or changes I can to help you feel more comfortable!" she said with a smile. Taking in her words, there were no other questions.
"Feel free to talk as you do it, just don't get too loud, please. Oh, and if you need anything I'll be over here," she said kindly before she went over and sat at the desk on the side of the room.
She looked through the material that Hizashi had laid out for his English class. She went over the papers and made notes of what copies she needed on her phone. A couple of minutes went by and the door slid open to reveal Shouta who didn't say anything as he saw the Pink sheets that she and he had talked about last week. So he sat beside her with a cup of coffee in his hands, reading through whatever it was that he had.
One by one, the students went up to the girl and turned in their sheets. She smiled at each of them before she stacked them into a neat pile. Taking a nearby folder, she put it inside of it as Shouta began talking to the class.
As their classes droned on, Eli sat at her desk going over design sheets or course schedules and when lunch came by, a man had come to deliver the printer requests she sent and brought them to Eli. She put them in their designated area according to the course schedule and subject and using this time, Eli pulled the pink sheet folder out and slid it into her bag to go over at home before she heard the door slide open, and in came an irritated Katsuki, a smiling Izuku, Hitoshi looked like he needed another cup of coffee and Shoto who stood calmly with his lunch in hand.
Not to mention the array of brightly colored students that stood with them.
"Oi Bell, you can't just sit here and work without lunch!" Katsuki yelled at her.
She chuckled at him as she stood up and walked over, taking the bento he held in his hands from him.
"Of course I can't, I don't have to because you'll bring me my lunch if I forget," she told him with a smile. This was a lie, she was fully prepared not to each because she wholeheartedly forgot.
"I see you guys made some friends! Come on in," she said.
She had them move their desks to make a weird circle. And by them, she means Kirishima, Ashido, Kaminari, Sero, Katsuki, Hitoshi, Izuku, Uraraka, Iida, Tokoyami, Asui, and Shoto. That's just over half the class by the way.
Still, she sat in between Shoto and Hitoshi, eating her lunch peacefully, reminding herself to thank Katsuki for making it. The only reason she knew he was the one who made was because of how spicy it was, not that she minded since she got used to the spiciness.
Even if tastes like the meat had been marinated in hell.
"So, how long have you been a Pro Eli-sensei?" asked Sero.
"Yea, you seem rather young Sensei," Kirishima continued.
"I became a pro at 18, so almost 6 years now," Eli answered, as she bit into her onigiri, not being able to help how her eyes sparkled at the taste.
"Wow, have you always wanted to be a hero?" Ururaka asked excitedly.
"Well, kind of. I just wanted to do some good, that's it," she said with a small smile on her face at the small thought of her brothers.
Plus, even if she didn't raise Shoto, she knew he'd wanted to be a hero since he was a kid, so even if being a hero was the only option that ensured she and her brothers' survival, she knew what she was doing was noble, even if it was her very last choice.
Izuku grimaced a bit at that, feeling the small lie. 4 of them knew why she became a hero, and it was not because she wanted to. Hitoshi although didn't react to it, instead choosing to believe that despite it, she was still happy with her life with them.
Hitoshi was very correct.
"That is a very noble cause Eli-sensei, I truly hope to become an amazing hero, such as yourself," Iida praised.
"Well if anything I'm the one that would be excited. This is quite an interesting class I have to say, I'm excited for what you guys are gonna do," Eli complimented them.
The students seem to beam at the praise.
"Have you been a teacher's assistant for long Eli-sensei?" Kaminari pondered.
"Ah, this is my 2nd year as one. The last time I was a teacher's assistant was my last year attending U.A., but that was 5 years ago," she explained.
"Really? Well, you could've fooled me, you seem really good at it," Asui added to the convo.
"Ah, how do you mean Asui-chan?" asked Eli.
"It's because you're mothering the entire class," Katsuki grumbled as he ate his food.
He felt a little weird. Of the 3 brothers, Katsuki was obviously the most social, but even his own social interaction was limited because of how he did it. He wasn't really used to so many people around him, especially those who took a liking to his sister.
Plus, honestly, when they were out, people tended to gravitate away from her upon the realization that she usually had at least 1-3 kids with her.
"Ah, don't call it that Kacchan!" Izuku said quickly. She couldn't help but flush at Katsuki's statement after that, though not having to worry about anything since you couldn't notice it because of how dark her skin was.
"Is that what it is?" Izuku heard Shoto mutter to himself under her breath. He covered his mouth to hide his laughter.
"Caring about my students' wellbeing isn't mothering. I'm just doing my job," Eli said rolling her eyes a bit.
As lunch would by, eventually the tables were moved back to where they were originally, and the kids once more stood or sat around the desk Eli sat at listening to their talking. As she listened, the classroom began to fill up with students once again as lunch came to a close.
She noticed Yaoyorozu walking over, smiling at her as she sparked up a conversation with the older girl.
"Eli-sensei, may I speak with you please," she asked calmly.
Eli smiled and nodded before she and the taller girl exited the classroom.
"What is it Yaoyorozu-chan?" she asked.
"It's about my hero costume," the girl said. She tried to remain calm, but she couldn't help the small anxiety she felt.
"Okay, what about it?" Eli asked.
"I needed it to show a lot of skin to get the most of my quirk, so that is how it was designed of course, but-" the girl cut herself off, feeling the words crack in her throat.
"Yea, you told me about your Quirk, and I've seen your hero costume design. I understand why it's designed like that, but if you know and I both know that then..." Eli's said, gesturing for her to continue.
"One of the students was making... comments about me earlier, so I was wondering-" but Yaoyorozu was cut off.
"Which student, I'll take care of them," Eli said firmly.
"Eli-sensei I would not want to cause so much trouble, so maybe I could alter my costume," Yaoyorozu offered.
"Yaoyorozu-chan, if that's what you want to do, then I'll give you the necessary forms and I'll even work on it myself if you'll let me. But not only would it be no trouble at all, but by no means is sexual harassment to be tolerated not only within the walls of U.A. or within my presence so don't think you're causing trouble by speaking up when I specifically told you that you could talk to me about anything that was troubling you," Eli told her sincerely.
The younger girl's breath hitched as she stared down at the young TA who looked ready to start WWIII for the sake of the student's comfort.
"If you feel comfortable telling me the name of the student doing this, please call me or text me, or even find me in the halls," Eli said as she handed the girl her phone number.
"If not, you can always come to find me if it happens again and you feel uncomfortable and need to get away. If you're unsure where I am, look for Present Mic or Eraserhead. And if you are ever in a situation where you're not sure where any of us are, find any of my brothers, and tell them that I told you to go to them if you ever feel uncomfortable in any way. They'll look out for you until you find me okay," Eli listed off the simple list of instructions.
Yaoyorozu held it tightly in her hands before clutching it to her chest with a shaky fist. Her shoulders shook a bit as she looked at Eli with a small but noticeably wobbly bottom lip.
"Oh honey, it's okay," Eli told her before pulling the younger girl into a hug. A pang hit Eli's chest.
"It's okay, don't worry, I'll make sure to look out for you," she told her earnestly.
This seemed to make the girl calm down a bit, her once shaking shoulders slumping a bit as she melted into the hug. A minute or 2 went past before Eli pulled away from the hug and gave the girl a small smile.
Surprisingly she smiled back, hastily wiping the small tears that had gathered in her eyes before she held the contact information even tighter.
"T-thank you Eli-sensei," Yaoyorozu thanked her. Eli shook her head and smiled.
"Don't worry about, now c'mon. Class is about to start, and I don't think any of you want to miss this one," she said honestly.
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"I AM... coming through the door like a normal person," All Might in all his glory bursts through the doors of Class 1A.
"I teach Hero Basic Training, and this..." he trailed off, allowing for Eli to pop up beside him with a smile on her face.
"Is my lovely TA Kinetic!" he said in his loud, but somehow generically heroic voice.
"Hey!" she said with a smile.
The students beamed at the no. 1 hero and their new favorite TA standing in front of them.
"Hero Basic Training is a subject where you train in different ways to learn the basics of being a hero. You'll take the most units of this subject!" All Might said with a smile.
"Let's get right into it! This'll what we do today--" All Might said, flexing his muscles as he did so as Eli walked in front of him with her hands on her hip and a smile.
"Combat training," she announced, to which All MIght pointed at her with a smile and a heroic laugh.
"Combat!" Katsuki screamed in joy, even if it didn't look like it. Truth be told it looked like he was just happy to beat the shit out of his classmates.
Which he kind of was.
"And to go with that are these!" All Might said as he aggressively pointed towards the wall that held their hero costumes.
"Costumes made based on your Quirk registrations and requests you sent in before school started," All Might said, and Eli couldn't help but smile as the class cheered.
"After you change, gather in Ground Beta," All Might announced, and with that, the students one by one got up to retrieve their cases with their costumes inside.
Eli went with All Might to the training grounds, where she then brought up something she'd been meaning to.
"Toshinori-kun," she called out.
The man paused at the use of his name rather than his hero name, turning his full attention to Eli who stared up at him with a worried look in her eye.
"Yes, young Eli?" he asked.
"I was wondering about One for All," she started. He stiffened a bit, preparing himself for any hard questions.
"Izu has been Quirkless most of his life so he never had the opportunity to go to Quirk Counseling or anything like that. He told me last night that every time he used it he broke his bones, and he asked for help about what to do about it. I'm not an actual teacher, so I don't think I'd be able to help too much unless support items are involved. So... I was wondering if it would be alright to share the secret with Aizawa since he is Izu's homeroom teacher," she told him, a kind of nervousness undertoning her voice.
Regardless of what he said, she was going to tell Aizawa about the fact that Izuku got his quirk this year with or without the mention of One for All because she absolutely refused to watch her little brother destroy his own body as she did.
That and she knew that Izuku would never go him, too many bad experiences with his last teacher.
"Ah-" he started.
"It's just that my Quirk can be self-destructive too, so I know how he feels. And he's always been a bit more anxious, especially around adults. I just-" she tried but he cut her off.
"It seems as though I am less adept at teaching than I thought originally, you see young Eli, I was also Quirkless," he told her. Her eyes widened a bit at the revelation before she nodded at him to continue.
Toshinori didn't like thinking about his time before One for All, even if he knew that one day it'd come to pass and completely settle itself inside young Midoriya. It was a trying time, to say the least, but he was familiar with the treatment Quirkless individuals received for simply being.
He'd faced the ugly side of society, and he too had been ridiculed and bullied relentlessly in school since he didn't have a Quirk, even if it was much less extreme in his time.
Unfortunately, though, he didn't have an Eli to look after him as Izuku did, and that made him smile a bit.
He liked to think that after all these years he'd gotten over it, but he knew deep down it was just another repressed set of memories or emotions that he'd locked away because of how scared he was of his life before having One for All.
Nothing lasts forever though.
Not One for All, and not the raging hero complex he'd created for himself.
"I guess forgot what it was like... so yes. You've already proven how devoted you are to keeping such a secret, but this devotion is nothing compared to the devotion I see you have to your brothers. All 3 of us can speak with Aizawa together, and with his help, I'm sure we can find a proper solution to this issue," All Might told her sincerely.
She smiled at that.
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The end of the day came to past, and now Eli sat at a table waiting for Shoto to bring her the tea he told her. Her back ached at the coldness of the home, the energy it brought basically forcing Eli to feel how desolate it seemed.
No one was here from what Shoto had told her, with his brother Natsuo at college and his sister Fuyumi having moved out as soon as she graduated. She couldn't help but frown at that, wondering how Shoto dealt with being in such a big house by himself. Just like she didn't understand why he was completely by himself, as in absolutely no one here.
It was simple really.
Natsuo hated his dad and Fuyumi was done trying to pretend that their family could still be normal.
"Nee-chan?" Shoto asked, making Eli snap out of it.
"Oh, Shoto! Thank you," she told him with a smile.
He quirked an eyebrow at her before he nodded and sat beside her and handed her the tea.
"It's no problem," he told her.
"Shoto..." she began.
"Yes?" he asked,
She was nervous to ask, knowing how sensitive the topic could be. Her mind hammered her to not say anything, but she had to say something. Do something. She didn't know what was going on in this house, and that was a red flag in itself given that she'd known the boy for almost 8 years, and the name he called her.
"Do you want to come to my house for a while? I imagine it gets pretty lonely here," she offered him. She saw the light spark in his eyes, a light that she snatched at that moment and didn't let die as she reached forward to hold his hands.
"How bout it Shoto? My brothers should be home now, and I'll make dinner huh? I'm sure that soba didn't fill you up," she offered. The boy looked at her nervously his eyes glancing at the clock as he did so.
He desperately wanted to leave.
His dad's patrols were unpredictable really. Sometimes, he didn't come home until the next day, and this typically happened at least once a week. Any other day he'd come home either on time or 2-3 hours late. Then they'd 'train' which was just a 2-hour beating before he went off to bed.
Shoto found himself praying that today was one of the days he didn't come home.
And so Shoto changed and he picked up his backpack again before he'd exited the cold home for the 2nd time today. There was a 15-minute drive to her home, and when they arrived it was nothing like his own. It was a pretty big house, and the front yard was filled with unevenly cut green-grass and fluffy hedges in the front.
Like Eli, he heard yelling before they opened the door, and he flinched a bit at the loudness, but he made sure that Eli didn't notice. Or so he thought. Opening the door, 3 boys sat sprawled out on the couch with Izuku and Katsuki yelling at each other about broken bones and Hitoshi sitting there chuckling loudly indicating that he probably started it.
Though, upon their entry, all 3 heads turned to them. They'd went to greet Eli before they saw Shoto standing beside her rather awkwardly.
"Hey guys, Shoto will be hanging out here for a while. Make him feel welcome will ya?" she asked them. It was then they all noticed pleading in her eyes and the timidness of Shoto.
"I have to go change out of this, but Shoto is staying for dinner so you guys talk about what you want," she told them.
She felt a little bad for pushing awkward little Shoto into their chaotic little group, but she desperately needed to get out of her hero clothes and into some normal one. So she quickly took off her hero costume and threw it to the side before she'd changed into a loose-fit grey long sleeve shirt along with a pair of black sweats.
Plus, she could hope they got along well with each other because it wasn't like she could force something like this. When she finished changing, she quickly made her way back downstairs and with each step, she couldn't help but hope that in the 3 minutes she'd been gone, that they were getting along.
Imagine her surprise when she reached the bottom to see Shoto holding a frozen cup in his hand while sporting a small blush on his cheeks as Izuku stood dangerously close to him as he scribbled and mumbled furiously in one of his notebooks, Katsuki laughing widely at the entire interaction, and Hitoshi mumbling about no longer minding having another color-coded sibling.
Eli smirked.
Oh yea, they'd get along just fine.
4170 words.