Aizawa was feeling a lot better. He was able to roam around freely without Midnight or Mic nagging him to rest or stay in bed, not because they finally allowed it, of course, but because he sneaked out on his own.
He can't sit in bed forever after all. He has very important matters to attend to. And though he hated to admit it, he missed his students and wanted to go back to teaching.
But before that, he needed to check on the new problem kids. He wasn't too worried about Eri-chan, because Mirio was taking care of her instead of going to school. Under normal circumstances he would have punished him for missing so much, but he gotta admit that the sense of responsibility he had seen from the hero in training exceeds many of those half-baked public heros that he had met throughout his career.
The other problem child, however, was a different case. Aside from not waking up until now, a week later after the rescue mission, the doctors informed him of instability in vital signs.
Aizawa was not a doctor, and he knew that he couldn't be of any help, but he decided that it was his responsibility to bear. Maybe if he had found them a bit earlier....
No, these thoughts won't help anyone now, he's gotta focus on what's important for the time being.
The hero reached the intensive care unit before he knew, and found himself at the door of the kid's room. A nurse that was changing bandages greeted him before excusing herself out.
The bare, dismal room fell into silence, only the noise of the many hooked machines was left beside his racing thoughts. The beeping got distorted and blended with the sound of his beating heart, as he felt himself getting sucked to the shadows.
Aizawa could only stare at the still form of the boy that looked very small and pitiful in the pile of blankets. The previously unrecognisable hair colour was now a clean grass-green hue. He looked awfully vulnerable, as if a single faint breeze was enough to dissolve his pale skin and erase his very existence, not leaving any traces behind.
Aizawa sighed and closed his eyes, feeling very mentally drained. His thoughts drifted toward little Eri-chan, what should he tell her? Should he just let her see the boy like this? It didn't sound right for Aizawa, he realized how unhealthy attached she was to him, and he can't blame her now, can he? And with their bound? It would definitely be painful for her.
The sound of the ventilator, forcing the air in and out of the boy's lungs echoed through the whole room. The beeping of the heart monitor slightly irregular, making Aizawa itch in irritation, and giving him a tad of unexplainable fear.
He didn't know how much longer he would have to keep her waiting. She finally began to open up and trust them little by little, he can't break his promise.
Well, the sooner the better. Guess he gotta let her see him today.
So reading himself to leave, Aizawa took a last glimpse of the boy and stood up. But before he turned around, he realized a finger twitching.
It took him a second to process the movement, but he found a flower of hope starting to blossom inside his injured chest.
Maybe it was really the right day he chose to allow Eri to visit after all!
But soon enough, Aizawa's hope turned into dread. It was not only a finger, the boy's arms and legs were twitching, at first barely remarkable, but in the matter of seconds, it got very violent and uncontrollable.
Aizawa immediately pushed the alarm button that called over a stream of doctors.
By the time they came the monitor was beeping at a high pace. The kid was bleeding from his ears, nose and mouth, and he was sure he saw the boy open his eye to look at him pleadingly for a millisecond, as if pleading for help, or maybe..... for salvation.....
*****
Mirio sat very happily watching Eri-chan interacting with her new found friend. It hasn't been more than a week since they first met, but Eri-chan was already feeling comfortable around him. The little boy, Kiyoshi, was holding a book and reading for her. She sat surprisingly close to him and looked with wonder at the paintings.
"I...I want to do that too!" Eri exclaimed shyly. She looked up at the hazel colored warm eyes, a bit scared of rejection. She knew during those few days they spend together that he was different from the bad guys, he wouldn't get mad at her for wanting something, and he would consider her needs even if she didn't say anything. He felt more like...more like nii-chan.
Why can't she meet nii-chan? The kind hero-san saved her, he was a good guy, then.... then why is he keeping her away from her brother? Is he....is he playing a trick on her and trying to do something bad to nii-chan? Just like the bad guys?! Just like they...they-
"You want to read too?" That made her stop spacing out as she regained her focus, taking a moment to actually look at the letters she was mindlessly staring at.
She nodded quietly, being careful with what she does before fully trusting anyone.
"Sure! I can teach you how to read" he said extremely excited. He put the book in her lap, making her flinch ever so slightly, and ran to get a paper and a handful of different pencils. The room was not too big, but he came back to Eri panting. Maybe he was just so excited.
He dropped everything on the ground and sat beside her, handing her a red pencil while grabbing a black one himself.
"Hah...okay, let's start with...letter A!" He grinned innocently through his panting. The sight was very heartwarming for Mirio, and he couldn't help the smile from finding its way to his face.
While watching the two kids doodle something not even close to a letter, a man in his thirties came in. He stood at the door frame, scanning the room closely, before he spotted Eri and her friend, his eyes softening at the sight. He then saw the empty spot on Mirio's bench and proceeded to sit beside him.
"Good afternoon" the man greeted as Mirio made space on the bench so that both of them could sit comfortably.
"Hello" Mirio nodded, quietly wondering what the man was doing in the children ward. He wore a long white coat, so Mirio assumed he was just a doctor here.
The man that was silently watching the kids play realized Mirio's gaze on him and turned his head to face him. His eyes seemed pretty tired from underneath his thick glasses, he even had black eyebags, kinda reminding him of Aizawa-sensei.
The man smiled kindly at him, raising his hand for a hand shake.
"I'm doctor Tanaka, nice to meet you"
"Ah" Mirio took his hand. "I'm Mirio, hero in training, nice to meet you too"
"Oh, are you the companion of pro hero Eraserhead? I heard he was staying here"
"Yes, that's right. But we wish to keep things low to avoid any unnecessary attention from the press" Mirio said sheepishly scratching the back of his neck.
"Oh, of course, totally understandable" Tanaka-san smiled reassuringly.
They fell into a bit of awkward silence for a while.
"So um, Tanaka-sensei, you look tired. Are you feeling okay?" Mirio was one of few people who would boldly ask these kind of questions to a person they just met. Ah, extroverts. They just have no social barriers.
The exhausted doctor sighed, he took off his glasses with one hand and rubbed the bridge of his nose between his fingers.
"Yeah you're right. I'm just a little stressed at work..." He answered, Mirio felt that there was more to the story, but even he knew better than to press on the matter any further.
They exchanged some questions to have a light conversation, he got to know that dr. Tanaka used to work in the emergency department, and just recently changed to the *paediatric department, though he never mentioned why. Mirio in return told him about UA and his friends, without revealing anything about the recent mission.
*(The department for children)
"Your friend Tamaki seems ve-" the doctor cut himself midsentence as his eyes landed on Eri and an overjoyed Kiyoshi.
He excused himself in a hurry and stood up to walk to them.
When Eri realized the man coming closer, she cowered in terror and clutched the other boy's shirt. Mirio got alarmed by that and jumped immediately to help, but stopped when he realized that the doctor was simply just talking to the boy with a gentle smile.
The two held a short conversation that the hero in training couldn't hear, Kiyoshi nodded half-heartedly after answering the doctor and whispered something in Eri's ear. She looked up at him and nodded in return.
The boy then stood up and waved goodbye to Eri with a beaming wonderful smile.
"See you tomorrow!" He adorably said.
When dr. Tanaka passed beside Mirio, he looked quite troubled and uncomfortable, he nodded hurriedly in Mirio's direction, not even looking in his direction, and patted Kiyoshi's back lightly, leading him out of the room.
Mirio, being very confused and disturbed by the sudden action, decided to ignore it for the time being and prioritized Eri.
He walked to her and squatted down, brushing his hand through her hair.
"Hey, are you alright?"
And to his surprise, she wasn't as afraid as he thought she would be, she nodded instead and gave a huge smile! A bright, happy and precious smile Mirio didn't know he longed for until he saw it. She finally smiled, Mirio realized. She smiled for the first time!
Mirio couldn't help but be overwhelmed, he didn't realize he was hugging her until she was already in his warm embrace. His iconic smile in place.
"I'm happy you have a good friend your age" he whispered. Eri giggled faintly and clutched the back of Togata's shirt, returning the hug. She had done that before when she would be terrified out of her mind or simply just anxious, trying to find protection and safety in the hero in training she came to trust, but for it to be just a simple joyous cuddle?!
But to his dismay, the hug didn't last long before Eri pulled away, slightly flushed and uncomfortable that she had for once let her guard down.
Realising the bitterness on the young hero's face, she fiddled and shuffled hastily trying to do something to lighten the mood up again. She grabed the paper that sat on the ground and practically shoved it in the the hero's face.
"Umm.. I... Kiyoshi helped me write this" she said, too shy to admit that she wrote this by herself by just coping the letters in the story rather than from her friends unreadable instructions.
Mirio studied the shaky characters written widely across the paper, spelling the sentence 'I love sero'.
The future hero raised his brows, slightly unsure what his kohai* from 1-A have to do with the little girl.
That little shit, when and how did he make his precious little girl fall in love with him?! Wait until Aizawa-sensei finds out about that!
"It says that I love heros!" She beamed brightly, her uncertainty momentary forgotten.
Mirio gave out a breathy laugh at the (not) amusing coincidence that made him nearly want to strangle a kohai.
*(Kohai is the opposite of senpai, meaning junior or simply someone younger or less experienced in a specific field than you are)
Eri kept handing him other sheets with different random words, the most common things being the H's that got substituted with S's and the E's and B's being written backwards, making pretty funny new words that were almost tempting Mirio to add them to the dictionary.
After a good ten minutes of Mirio teaching Eri the right spelling of each word, he remembered Kiyoshi whispering something to his little girl.
"What did your friend say to you before leaving?" He asked casually, tring not to look so overprotective, but he wasn't doing a very great job at that.
"It's a secret!" She grinned and tilted her head to the side in a very cute manner.
For Mirio, she finally looked like a normal happy little girl, and you can't even begin to guess what he was willing to do to keep her that way.....