.
.
.
When Eli woke up she was wrapped up in a cocoon of her own wings and was squished between Eri and Hitoshi. She groaned from the discomfort in her wings, as they were on the floor of her room laying on bundles of blankets Hitoshi had dragged in after stating that they needed to get to know Eri better.
It didn't work out at all, and the three of them were asleep within 20 minutes.
Eli had to twist and turn to get away from them eventually huffing and yanking herself back once more only to stumble back, the winds catching her from the tiny crack in the window.
"Phew, okay..." she muttered.
Adorned in a hoodie and a pair of sweats, she quickly slid out of the room to the hallway before heading to the kitchen finding Papa drinking a cup of tea as the news played in the living room.
Dad was in the living room in one of his sleeping bag... jumpsuit type thing drinking coffee.
"Dad?" Eli called as she walked inside, calling attention to both of them, Hizashi instantly got up to join his husband on the couch as they both looked at her with those concerned parent eyes they had the day before when they couldn't find them.
"Can I tell you what Eri said before I forget?" she asked.
Her memories had always been fleeting, some things she could remember so easily and vividly, like reciting the plot lines and motivations of her stories and characters, remembering stories Hitoshi and Louis used to tell her about small funny moments that they probably wished she'd forgotten.
But Eri was a scared little girl, and Eli didn't want to block out such memory of Eri's fear, and since her parents were Heroes, she figured that telling them seemed the smartest.
"Of course kid," Shouta said, patting the side of him, Hizashi whipping the blanket off the back of the couch to flare over her, reminding himself to turn the heat up after this.
"She kept saying that someone was gonna find her, but I don't think it was that Stain guy you guys were talking 'bout," Eli spoke with a shake of her head, having no problem shoving her legs up to her chest and pulling the blanket closer to her body.
"It was scary actually... she was so scared..." Eli trailed off as she remembered the fear on the girl's face.
As much as Eli tried, the picture burned into the back of her mind. She couldn't help but think that the image of such horror on such a young face allowed her to move as quickly as she did.
Thinking back a little closer, she also wondered if this very same principle allowed her to act so quickly when she saw the terror on Hitoshi's face, that very same fear that Eli had.
The fear of being abandoned and yet the simultaneous fear of being found.
"I think somebody hurt her... but not like us," Eli said finally having the heart to look up at both of them as she referred to her and Hitoshi.
She saw them listening intently, with nothing but concern and open ears. They didn't try to speak knowing now that Eli's words could be sudden and sporadic, and they didn't want to cut her off accidentally.
"Like really hurt her, federal level," she said seriously, but her word choice honestly made Shouta want to laugh.
"Well honey we have already decided to look into it, we're taking the dress she was wearing to the police station today, and we are expecting them to launch a quiet investigation," Hizashi told her, hoping she would understand why the investigation had to stay that way.
She, although, breathed a sigh of relief as she nodded, the worry they'd seen on her face.
"Until we can come up with anything, for now at least, you guys can be the 'Trauma Trio' like Toshi said huh?" Shouta said, internally wincing.
They were very playful, that both parents knew, but it didn't stop them from feeling an incredible amount of grief at what all of these children had been through. Although, Hizashi and Shouta saw how they interacted with one another.
Hizashi saw the way Hitoshi and Eli held hands in stressful situations and how they whispered and giggled to themselves in the backseat of the car amongst his avid yelling and singing.
But, Hizashi couldn't help but wish that they'd all met under normal circumstances. Maybe school or somewhere else nice, that didn't involve possible life-long issues.
He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead before hugging her tightly, fighting silent tears. Eli laughed lightly as she couldn't help but lean into his small hold.
Suddenly she gasped and reeled back against the couch.
"Is it okay if I miss class today? I need time to set up the room Nezu gave me," Eli asked, looking at Shouta more directly.
He nodded and a small smile crept up his face as he realized that he, well, they, didn't know much about this 'comfort' room that Eli was supposed to be creating.
"Have you decided how you're doing to design it?" Hizashi perked up, having already discreetly wiped away his tears.
"Well, the budget that Prin-- erm, Uncle Nezu gave me was huge, even for Japanese currency," Eli started out, Shouta chuckling at her correction.
"So I was thinking of some sofas and a fuzzy rug, maybe some bean bags. To save on the budget, I asked Nezu if the school had a basement to see if I could salvage anything. I found an old sofa, a square table, and a big round table, so once I clean those up I was thinking of having a couple of tables for anybody who wants to get any work done. I was thinking of having a TV you know then they could listen to music or watch something on their breaks."
"We'll need curtains and I was thinking of adding some stuff like in the teachers' lounge. A coffee machine, a kettle, and some snacks. OH! And I found an old mini fridge down there too, so Hound Dog told me that I could take it to Power Loader and he could probably fix it up. Then, once the semester is up, all the food could be given to the students that need it, that's what my school's Black Resource Center did," Eli nodded to herself.
At this point, both Hizashi and Shouta could tell that she was no longer talking to them, but to herself. Although Hizashi still spoke up.
"Well, go on and get ready. We'll have breakfast ready by then,"
There was a small crack in his voice that only his husband noticed, and on that note, Shouta stood up and set his mug on the coffee table before ruffling Eli's already messy bed hair before he stretched and unzipped his sleeping bag and stepped out.
"I better get Eri then right? She'll have to join us today," Shouta said, already having sent Nezu an email informing him of the situation rather than asking something as useless as permission.
Eli smiled and nodded, getting up with the blankets and walking back to her room.
"Oh! By the way honey, Himari wanted to know if you wanted to go shopping. She invited Nemuri as well," Hizashi told her.
He'd leave out the part where she invited Nemuri to make Eli feel more comfortable.
Although Himari had been slowly working her way into Eli's little space.
Despite the coolness of her eyes and the looseness in her limbs, Himari saw how Eli kept most things and people close to her. Despite her fae instincts that told her to groom Eli's wings, oil her scalp, to sharpen her horns and nails as any fae mother, Himari didn't want to overstep the boundaries that Eli had put in place.
Granted, Eli allowed the grooming, and Himari was so happy that the girl even appeared to like it, but that didn't mean she didn't want to grow even closer to the girl.
"Oh, alright," Eli said with a small smile.
She figured she'd window shop, she didn't need anything else.
Standing in front of his husband, Shouta watched as the happy smile melted almost as soon as Eli was gone. His mind was racked with thoughts, grief, and sadness. He didn't know what it was that was making him feel like this, but what he did know is that it came from the very idea of what had happened to each and every one of them.
If it was Eli speaking up about, he didn't know, her telling and explaining something only she and Hitoshi would truly recognize, maybe it was that. But regardless, that didn't stop the burning in his chest, nor did it stop his husband from hugging him tightly and rubbing his back.
"I know, I know," he said.
Hizashi gulped and his arms tensed around Shouta.
"We have to do something, us, as heroes Sho, we can't just--" Hizashi began, but Shouta knew the best way to shut him up, and that was by kissing him so he did.
He held them firmly and rubbed his thumb against the back of his neck, almost massaging the side of his face. The kiss did in fact silence him, and a couple of seconds after, Hizashi was staring at him with those big green eyes and flustered cheeks that made Shouta fall for him in the first place.
"I'm already handling it,"
...
Staring in the mirror of the bathroom was frustrating.
Eli's hair was growing faster and it was honestly pissing her off. She felt the puffy undercut with her fingers and saw how her hair had grown maybe an inch since she'd grown such wings.
Her wings, to their credit, Eli was slowly growing to appreciate. The things that once threw her off balance when she walked and tripped her as they hung to the ground had now been moving as the extra limbs that Eli forced herself to think of them as.
They moved without her having to think about it and even reacted as the rest of her body did.
But, they got so dirty...
With the wings, the hair, the horns, and the nails, Eli couldn't help but be frustrated.
She shook her dry hands out as she tried to give them something else to do.
There were a pair of scissors that Eli had used to cut some of the rest of her shirts sitting on the counter and Eli's hands itched to grab them.
A gasp came from her mouth at the realization.
"That's right, when we go shopping I should probably invest in a sewing kit," she muttered, snapping back to her former thoughts with an irritated roll of her eyes.
'Maybe I should write that down before I forget,' she thought against her will.
Her fingers flew across her keyboard in her notes app, jotting down the random thought before doing what snapping back to it... again.
"Okay Eli, think critically for a second," she told herself.
She could hear the laughs of the winds whistling in her ear as she spoke to herself.
"Hey, you don't have a body so you don't get to laugh at me for having issues with mine," Eli spoke aloud, but they only chuckled some more as they blew through her hair, almost like an apology.
Eli huffed and suddenly her shoulders drooped before she rubbed her face in further frustration.
"Thank you... but I'm over this shit," Eli told them before her hand reached out to the scissors.
Hair began to cover the bathroom sink, counter, and the baggy shirt Eli had on at the time. It wouldn't be the first time she'd decided to cut her hair suddenly.
The first time she was maybe in 5th grade. The feeling of the hair on her shoulders made her really upset for some reason, so she remembered going home and chopping it off. She remembered getting yelled at, and it wasn't long before she re-homed. The last time was in her junior year of high school when she decided to cut it so she wouldn't have to worry about it when Ren was still teaching her his style of combat.
The door to her right opened and there Hitoshi came in from his own room. He stopped when he saw her and his eyes widened.
There Eli stood with a pair of scissors to her scalp, half of her hair already cut off, maybe 2 inches of her scalp.
"Can you at least say something before you have a Britney Spears moment," Hitoshi joked.
"Hey! You didn't even know who Britney Spears was until a week ago, so don't give me that shit," Eli jabbed as she continued cutting.
She was making it a bit longer than her undercut and she figured that if anything, she could always just cut more off later.
Her mom always told her that hair was just that, hair. Sure, yes in many cultures hair is important, sacred even, but Eli knew that she could still think of her hair as her crown as her mother taught her.
"Do you have a style in mind or are you just raw-dogging it?" Hitoshi asked.
"I mean..." Eli trailed off with a goofy smile on her face before shrugging with a weird look.
"Hey, Mom's making breakfast so who wants to become my favorite by helping with Eri's hair-- oh?" Shouta said.
Looking out the open bathroom door that led to her room, Shouta stood with wide eyes Eri on his hip.
"If you think it'll look bad there's still time," Eli said.
"Time for what?! You're half bald already," Hitoshi spoke up, not hesitating to grip the side of her head and shake it around.
Eli batted him away and sighed as she cut off another chunk.
"Can-Can you just let me be delusional, 5 minutes, that's all I'm asking," she spat out with a small scowl as she continued on.
Eri giggled quietly but the sound reminded them that she was there.
'She's so tiny, sometimes I forget she's even there' Eli thought with a small laugh.
"Any notes, what do we think Eri?" Hitoshi asked playfully as he gestured to her hair.
The young girl blushed as the spotlight turned to her in an instant.
"And don't worry, you can be mean," Hitoshi said, in an instigating tone that made Eli bump him with her hip before she glared at him again.
"W-well, uhm," she stuttered a little.
Shouta shook his head and waved his head in front of her. Eli took the hint and backed off, huffing as she stared at the scissors in her hand for a brief moment. She pushed away any intrusive thoughts and sighed.
"Well, honestly, I love it," Shouta finally spoke up, walking a bit closer to her to stand with her in the mirror. Eri's cheeks burned red as she nodded, albeit a bit shy.
"You don't have to lie, I know I look crazy right now," Eli sighed with a shake of her head.
"You're right, you do," Hitoshi said in between brushing his teeth.
"Keep playing and you gon wake up to your own little Britney Spears moment," Eli threatened with her scissors.
"Who- never mind," Shouta sighed as he rubbed his nose bridge and stepped closer to them.
"I'm sure your hair will look great alright? But you don't have to resort to chopping your hair off in the bathroom. We could've taken you somewhere," he told her.
It didn't matter to him either way honestly, but he thought he should at least let her know.
"Thank you, but I really like doing my hair myself. It's like that one Scott Pilgrim scene," she said, chuckling as she remembered the scene.
"Dammit, we haven't watched that one yet," Hitoshi muttered, but Eli heard him.
"HA!" she mocked before cutting off the last clump of hair and dropping it.
Shouta rolled his eyes with an easy smile on his face as he rubbed both their heads. He stood there rather awkwardly for a couple of seconds too long, but then he lifted Eri just a bit with pursed lips.
"My offer still stands by the way,"
.
.
When Hizashi saw Eri and Eli's hair, he had rather similar reactions.
"Oh how cute!" they said when they saw Eri.
Eli had taken the mantle of helping with her hair. She figured the only other person capable of doing it would MAYBE be Hizashi, but even if his hair was super long, that didn't mean that he was regularly doing his hair.
He had those weird hair genes that mean they could wake up and they would automatically have a 30-inch frontal with body waves. Although Eli had spent much time admiring his hair, she and the rest of them didn't seem to share that.
Eri, had wavy-ish hair, that was probably damaged and in need of a trimming, but Eli couldn't worry about that, so she took one of her combs and parted the very front before separating it from the rest.
"Remember that you cannot freestyle with her as you do with yourself," Hitoshi called out.
"Stop worrying about us and worry about the rat nest on your own head," Eli shot back, and Shouta sat crisscrossed on the floor beside her covering up his own laugh.
He was watching Eli so that he wouldn't have to rely on her and do it himself. He'd have to tell his husband to take a picture of Eri sometime today so that he could have a reference. (He also just thought it'd be nice to have a picture of her)
Eli rolled her eyes and continued. She tied two pigtails on the sides of her head and used the tiniest bit of gel on the front pieces to brush down and behind her ears and tied them with two bands and a bobby pin each.
She brushed out the rest of her hair and made sure it wasn't knotted but given that she couldn't be older than 6, that'd probably change in the next couple of hours.
Even so, she took some of her lightest hair oil and massaged her scalp before clapping her hands in completion.
When Eli did her own hair, she did the same method she usually did, and her hair curled close to her face with a satisfying final look. It framed her face nicely, and she thought to add this to her catalog of things to look up later, 'What hairstyles frame your face better depending on your face shape?'
She would probably forget the question and have the same idea the following day.
Despite this, she cut bits and pieces as she went, eventually deciding to cut the rest to match the undercut she had. So now, her hair was maybe an inch or two long. She didn't do much to her actual hair after that, but she took the remaining gel she had and slicked her edges into seemingly neverending swirls and the back of her hair coiled in delight at the extra care it got.
Looking in the mirror, Eli decided that she actually did like it, especially how short of a time it took her to do it while working through her horns.
Speaking of her horns...
"You know, Himari said something about polishing or... maybe buffing them? I don't know, they're cool and all but I don't really see the point in them. I mean, but that don't mean for now I can't dress em up... I mean it's not like it's against any rule... I wonder if they sell bonnets for people with horns? I gotta ask Mina-" she muttered to herself in the end.
"Are you talking to yourself?"
"Holy SHIT!" Eli cursed, surprised by Hizashi, whose cheeks were red from his attempt to not laugh at her flustered nature.
She also didn't seem to realize that she wasn't on the ground anymore.
"Sho told me that you cut your hair, I didn't think you'd cut so much of it though," Hizashi said with a warm smile, walking toward her to inspect her.
"What, you don't like it?" Eli asked, an inkling of the familiar fear crawling up her back as she stared at him with wide eyes.
Hizashi pressed his lips together as his body began to shake. His eyes widened and glossed over and he seemed to crouch as his hand went to his back pocket to grab whatever. Eli's body stilled in unknown fear.
His hand raised and there his phone was, with a picture of a cartoon on it... a familiar cartoon.
"You look like a little Bratz doll," Hizashi basically sobbed, and suddenly his arms had been thrown around her, him sobbing in precious delight at his daughter.
She looks adorable, which is basically what they were trying to say.
Eli made a face before a grin came to her face.
"Pfft, why are you crying then Ma?" Eli asked.
"Cause Eri and you and Hitoshi, and you look great, look at you all, and the horns and wings and your little sweater, and-" Hizashi grip on her tightened, a loving smile on his face through his puffy and tear-stained cheeks.
"Sorry, sweetheart, he's having a moment," Shouta appeared in the doorway, Hitoshi a bit behind him with the same look on his face as Eli.
Hizashi, despite Hitoshi not changing a thing about him, received something similar in the kitchen. Hitoshi was frozen against the couple, mid-coffee sip when the next thing he knew, Papa was crying with a plate of onigiri in his hands and Hitoshi was diving head first to the ground to catch it before it fell.
He'd be damned if he was hungry this morning.
Hizashi was overwhelmed. It felt as if Eli had just got here, and not to mention, they'd only officially adopted Hitoshi a couple of months ago. The sudden arrival of Eri, who not only was adorable but's name was pronounced the same as Eli, literally threw him over the edge.
Not to mention, he was still feeling a lot about what they'd gone to. A picture of Hitoshi sobbing as he tried to pry the muzzle put on him with bloody fingers rang in his head and the background check on Eli haunted him.
Christ, Eri still had bandages wrapped around her arms, hidden beneath the long sleeve shirt he and his husband rushed to buy this morning so that she could have at least one outfit for the day.
Such precious children, his precious children.
Now, outside of the school doors, the three were now being subject to a public group hug, while Shouta sighed in the background. He pats his husband's back in comfort, hoping that he wouldn't have to drag the man to his classes.
"Do you know what's happening?" Eli whispered to Hitoshi.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Hitoshi whispered back.
"Uhm, am I too heavy Eli-san?" Eri whispered.
"Uhm no actually, it's like holding a couple of grapes," she whispered back.
"Pfft,"
Hizashi's chest rumbled in delight. He could care less that the other students could see them, or other staff and faculty. He was so happy to know that somehow someway, all of them had made it to him. He was so happy to know that they'd been so brave until this point because if they didn't want to, he made sure they knew they didn't have to be brave anymore.
If they wanted, they could just be.
Yes, that would be enough for Hizashi to feel okay.
But of course, he'd have to scream in the ear of whoever had done such a thing to a sweet child-like Eri.
Yeah, then he'd feel okay.
"Papa, you're squeezing a bit too hard, I've lost feeling in my right arm," Hitoshi whispered.
"I actually think Eri might be drowning in your jacket,"
"OH MY GOODNESS-"
.
.
.
4008 words
sorry for the wait guys !!
for this story in particular, I've been experiencing a little writer's block.
like with mirio. he's supposed be a love interest right, but that's a little boring so we're going to introduce eli to all of them and see how we feel okay ? okay :)
and plus, i said he's A love interest, not THEE love interest. (if i did in fact say that, no i didnt💃🏽)
in other news, im working on the next chapter as we speak so the wait will more than likely not be as long as it was for this one.
love you guys, and make sure yall taking care of yourselves <3