Jotunheim’s Sun

by prince_doomed

Summary:

Eri had never known anything besides cold white walls and numb fear. A girl who hurts everything she touches couldn’t be saved by heroes. But maybe she could be saved by someone else.

-

This wasn’t what Tomura Shigaraki had meant when he asked for Toga and Twice to steal Chisaki’s weapon. No this, this was far better.

Chapter 1: In Skrymir’s Mighty Hold

She’s running.

She doesn’t know where, or why, or how long, but there’s no time to fill her head with any of those questions. There is only the echoing of her running footsteps on the floor, the labored breaths she’s gasping, and his footsteps behind her.

He who doesn’t bother to run.

She can’t escape him.

Her footing falters at this, and her eyes focus for a moment on the plain white walls surrounding her. This speeds her up again, this thought that stopping means staying among them. She can’t, they’re too cold. But she doesn’t know how to get out either.

Something opens to her right, sending a gust of wind towards her and she turns, ducking under a hulking figure.

The sound of blood splattering on the wall comes from behind her.

She tries not to throw up, just gasping sharp and continuing to run. But he’s closer, he’s always closer.

She can see the sky, the light, or she thinks that’s what it is. The last embers of hope seem to think so.

Suddenly, the echo changes, and the air doesn’t feel so stale anymore. She’s outside.

Her pace finally quickens again, and she runs toward the brightest point in her tear blurred view. But then, a shadow blocks the way, and just as she’s about to reach the shadow who blocks the light, he reaches her.

“Eri,” his voice echoes in her ear.

“Don’t move. Or someone else gets hurt.” He says calmly, a firm hand gripping on her shoulder. It makes her want to puke again.

She’s frozen, staring wide eyed at the shadow who blocked the outside. There’s a look on his face she doesn’t remember, but it feels familiar and good. She moves a hand to reach out to him, before remembering the cold hand on her shoulder.

Her arm falls, and he walks away, fluffy hair and warm look disappearing out of her view. She wants to go to him. But she can’t let anyone get hurt because of her anymore.

“I see you’ve come to senses,” he whispers, or rather hisses in her ear. Always there, always right there. “Are you ready to go back now?”

She reaches up her free arm to wipe away the tears. This isn’t anything new, she shouldn’t be crying. But she was so close this time.

She nods.

“Good.”

The walk back through the cold white walls is silent, not that noise would make her feel much better. His grip is on her shoulder the whole way back, and she can’t quite jerk her head away fast enough from the red that’s stained the walls.

The door to her room is all too familiar, but at least he will not come inside. She lets herself be pushed through slightly, and thinks of the man who usually sees to her here. Eri sickens to realize that he’s probably going to be a red splatter soon too. She doesn’t like him, but it’s still her fault if he splatters. She doesn’t move until the door closes.

When she does, it’s a stumble, a crumbling as she makes her way to the bed that’s far too big and curls herself on top of it, burying her face in her knees.

There’s a feeling deep within her, a desperate churning feeling that wants to scream, cry, throw up, whatever it will take to just react, but it’s numb. Everything is numb. Just like the cold white walls, Eri can’t feel anything but a fake sense of calm.

She’s trapped.

And it’s finally starting to sink in.

***

For two days, everything is silent. He doesn’t come back, but neither does her caretaker either. She’s hungry. So hungry, and thirsty too. Her water only ran out a few hours ago though.

He was going easy on her. He knew leaving her alone was more of a relief to Eri than anything, so why did he do it? She didn’t like thinking about these sorts of things, instead just doodling on her walls to try to keep her mind and the walls from being cold and empty.

After those two days, it was a new face that came to see her.

He didn’t wear a mask, like most of the others, but his eyes were covered by his hair, blond with black lines. The smile on his face was sadistically fake, and it really just made her want to cry. Eri wasn’t listening to his introduction very much, she didn’t remember his name. The only thing she could focus on was his smile, the way it looked so warped on his face. The person outside hadn’t looked that way. His smile didn’t warp his face. But he wasn’t here. Instead Eri had this man, with his blond and black hair and his terrible grin.

He must’ve asked a question, because his posture changed when she didn’t say anything. “C’mon, I’m not that scary!” he drawled, slapping her cheek softly as if that were supposed to prove his point. It didn’t hurt, but that didn’t matter.

She just shrank back, and stared at him.

“You’re probably pretty hungry huh?” the blond man prompted, and she nodded slightly. Eri hoped that question meant he was going to get her food.

“Alright, I’ll get you something to eat and some water. Just wait here ok?”

Not like she had anywhere else to go. But it seemed like she was supposed to reply, so Eri nodded again.

He chuckled, and she didn’t see why he kept doing that. She was pretty sure you did that when something was funny, but she didn’t know what funny was. She was pretty sure this wasn’t it.

Bumblebee, she had decided to call him for lack of remembering his name, did actually come back with food. So he wasn’t the worst caretaker she’d ever had.

Eri ate her food in silence, staring at it for lack of anything else to look at. Bumblebee was sat cross legged on the floor across from her, having apparently noticed how much she recoiled when he tried to sit on her bed. She still didn’t want to look at him, he was trying but he was still fake, still just there because he was ordered to be.

There were always strings. They were always puppets.

The glass of water in Eri’s hands was big, and her hands with palms open didn’t quite fit all the way around. She stared at the water, the way it warped the world. Bumblebee hadn’t spoken in a while, and Eri glanced toward him, hoping that didn’t mean anything bad.

Unfortunately, she caught his eye, “hey little Eri! What are you into these days?”

What kind of a question was that? Eri scrunched up her nose, and looked back at the water again.

“Well, you like to draw right?” he prompted pointing at her walls, “these look pretty nice.”

She shrugged a little.

“I know I’m not very good at this but why don’t you try talking to me?”

Eri swallowed. She had to listen to him, she knew what they did otherwise. “Okay,” she muttered, pausing in the middle to take a shaky breath.

“Hey there you go!” Bumblebee cheered, leaning back onto his hands with a fake calm. It was different from what He used but it still unsettled her.

“Uhm,” she tried, and then stopped. She didn’t even know what to say, what if she messed up, what did he want her to say?

“Say anything!” Bumblebee offered.

That couldn’t be right, there was no way he’d just let her get away with anything. What was she meant to say? Eri felt herself start to shake as she tried to figure out the puzzle, the arbitrary rhyme.

“Alright, alright!” he said, moving far too fast, “don’t say anything, just calm down.”

How was she supposed to do that? She didn’t know how to force herself to be calm when she was crumbling, everything just broke and she broke with it and it couldn’t be stopped and why was he giving her such impossible tasks was this her punishment for running away why did she always fail and why was he so close so close so close don’t touch her please!

Eri let out a yelp and scrambled back on her bed, tears starting to bring her back to reality. Bumblebee had his hands up, and was stepping away, which meant she could breathe again.

“Well,” Bumblebee said, trying to fill the silence. This was new, different, she usually calmed down in silence but she had to calm down so she’d do it through the noise too. “Big boss is contacting some new people, trying to branch out. I don’t know about them but who are any of us to talk anyway, right? So I figure we give the guys a chance, see where it leads. Puts the heroes on our tails though and I’m not really sure I should be telling you any of this so just don’t mention it to anyone alright?”

Eri had managed to calm down through the noise. Bumblebee’s weird strategy worked. So she nodded, not saying anything was an easy order to follow, much easier than all of Bumblebee’s previous orders.

“Good. Well, I should probably go now, you want me to bring you more water?”

It was another weird half question but Eri nodded, hoping he really meant it as a question again. Apparently he did, because Bumblebee swiped the glass off her nightstand and wandered out of the room, coming back a few minutes later with a full glass before he wandered out again, empty handed this time.

She was alone again.

It had sunk and settled around her.

***

One week later, Eri woke up to shouts and pounding raining down from above her. She sat up with a gasp, wide eyes looking out to her door. There was no shadow under the door, so maybe they were just fighting, they did that sometimes.

Eri gripped her blanket tight around her, and listened to the shouts from above. They were angry demands, nothing she could make out, but accusatory, unfamiliar. The fights she usually heard didn’t go like this. This was something else.

She got up, bare feet touching the cold floor. Maybe it was heroes? She could find help, someone like the boy from outside. She stumbled, and as her knees hit the floor she sank. Heroes couldn’t save her, she could hardly even stand on her own.

He’d done a lot that day. Eri had been woken up early to the quickly routine sound of Bumblebee cheering as he flung open the door and brought her breakfast. Bumblebee was still scary, but he wasn’t like the rest of them, at least when they were alone. When they were alone, Bumblebee was talkative, held his fake grin proudly and she soon realized what she had thought was his type of fake calm was actually a real casual energy.

But then, a few minutes into her breakfast, Bumblebee’s face hardened after he checked his watch. He still held the grin when he looked at her, but his loose hands shoved into his pockets, and he was more rigid. She knew what that meant, and she got up quietly before he’d even said “it’s time to go.”

Bumblebee gripped her hand tight, too tight and led her out the door. Eri didn’t struggle, she just walked beside him along those familiar cold white walls. The door was another story. Her slight shudder dissolved into an all out spasm as Bumblebee, fake smile gone from his face and casual air replaced with a rigid slouch, talked to Him about how she’d been doing.

And then his hand left hers. This was the part that always tore Eri apart. Her now free arms gripped desperately around her stomach as she tore herself apart sobbing. Bumblebee was supposed to be her caretaker, he couldn’t do this, he couldn’t do this. Those thoughts only ever lasted a minute, before the feeling of His eyes piercing disapprovingly down at her bore into her mind and she wiped her eyes, and stared at the floor in silence.

Everything blurred after that, nothing heard besides the occasional singsong mumble of “Eri,” that He always said when he wanted her to do something. Everything else was blurred, numb, red.

Eri remembered where she was when she heaved a desperate sob, still kneeling on the floor with her head down. The noises above were still going, but no one was coming. No heroes could save her.

Then the door opened.

And the world shook again.

Notes:

12 chapters is an ambitious goal for me and a loose chapter number I have to admit, but I typed chapter one in a burst and at the very least I have a place to start now. Feel free to comment any feedback, opinions or reminders that I should be updating this! (Also, no one is beta reading this for me so I guess I’m going down swinging)

Chapter 2: The River Ifing

Tomura Shigaraki stared in amazement at Toga as she grinned brightly at him, holding up one of Compress’s marbles.

His amazement was only in that he hadn’t realized just how stupid she could be. “You what?!” he snapped.

“We got a little girl. His weapon,” Toga repeated slowly, drawing out the words in a way that made Tomura want to punch her.

“Yeah, I got that,” Tomura deadpanned.

“I really hated that guy, I wish you’d let me stab him,” Toga pouted, crossing her arms. “At least we got the girl away from him though, she’s cute.”

“Chisaki was awful,” Tomura growled in agreement, fingers twitching slightly as he resisted the urge to scratch at his neck. “But Toga, you still kidnapped a random little kid.”

“Didn’t we already do that before?” Twice asked, stretching, “It’s wrong!”

“We kidnapped a U.A. brat who was evidently capable of handling himself, that’s different,” he tried, earning a snort of air from the front of the van, where Spinner was desperately gripping the wheel. The van also jerked to the side slightly with his laugh, and Tomura questioned why they’d ever let a guy who learned how to drive playing Grand Theft Auto take the wheel.

“Save it,” Tomura snapped at him.

“I must ask, why the sudden strict moral code?” Compress piped up from his place gripping the roof of the van as though he could fly away at a moment’s notice. In all honesty, he probably could. How had none of them ever learned how to drive properly?

Compress’s comment made Tomura pause. Why did he care so much? He glanced back at the marble Toga still held in her hands. The little girl he could barely picture inside looked as though she’d been curled up and small long before she’d become a marble, and Tomura frowned at the feeling that stirred in his chest. “It’s not the morals that I care about,” he hissed, not even sure if it was true, “how exactly do you plan on taking care of this kid?”

Toga’s mouth made a small o shape at this, and she looked down at the marble as though it would have the answers. “I’ll be her best friend, don’t you worry Tomura!”

Tomura just shook his head, and finally let his hands reach up to itch at his neck. It was good revenge, but he could tell this couldn’t possibly end well.

***

They all sat at their makeshift base in complete silence. It was just another dusty abandoned building, but by now the League of Villains had gotten used to crumbling homes.

Tomura sighed, running one hand through his hair while itching his neck with the other. The mission had been a success, they’d gotten their vengeance, toppled Chisaki and made it back alive. But things still didn’t feel right.

The air was quiet, without Big Sis Magne’s commentary.

It had been a few hours, and yet none of them had spoke, not even Toga or Twice. Dabi had left shortly after they got back, going back to doing whatever it was he did. Toga sat listening to music, swinging her legs off the tall crate she sat on. Twice was kneeling, clutching at the bandanna Toga had wrapped around his head sometime during the fight. Spinner was sharpening his blades, Kurogiri was still gone and Compress-

Tomura halted, even the fingers at his neck frozen as he looked at the magician. “Compress,” he said, and the man’s head snapped up, “the girl.”

Nodding, Compress stepped forward, pulling the marble from his pocket and placing it on the floor. Judging by the absence of the dull metal sound that had been echoing around for awhile, Spinner was paying attention.

Tomura inhaled slowly, plucking the hand off of his face and placing it aside. As he exhaled, he nodded once sharply.

The small snap of Compress’ fingers echoed in his ears as the girl was released in a short flash of blue light.

She was tucked in a fetal position, off-white hair fallen protectively around her face as she shook and sobbed into her knees. After a moment, something alerted her to the fact that she wasn’t in the same place as before, and she looked up with wide eyes, still trembling all over.

Tomura took a step forward, and she began scrambling back, something akin to desperate confusion settling in her eyes.

He froze, the look far too familiar again, and lowered himself with slow and projected movements onto one knee. Tomura reached for a memory half murky in the back of his mind as he held out a hand to the shaking girl, and spoke.

“You’ve done nothing wrong, the world is just so unforgiving,” he muttered, and though he was talking, everything felt far quieter than before. “Don’t worry,” the next words were ones he loathe to say, but they’d been said to him once before, and they truly were comforting, “I am here for you.”

The little girl stopped in her scrambling, and Tomura just waited with his hand held out, unmoving. She was still shaking, but she moved closer and a look of confusion settled onto her face, as though there were a million things she was wondering but felt unable to ask.

“He’s gone. He can’t reach you,” Tomura said, trying to answer her unspoken questions, “my name is Tomura.”

“Eri,” she whispered, and shifted to be sitting cross legged instead of just fallen back.

“I like that name,” he said, nose wrinkling as he tried to think of anything heroes typically said to comfort kids, “my friends and I will take care of you now, would you like to meet them?”

Eri nodded, and Tomura relaxed a little, moving his hand slowly from where he’d held it out to her to gesturing for Toga.

She was over in an instant, grinning and rocking back and forth on her heels. “Hi there! I’m Toga, I’m one of the ones who found you, and we’re going to be best friends, I can tell already!” Eri flinched back at the last bit, and Tomura frowned.

“I’m Twice!” the man in question shouted from the corner of the room before hopping upon and coming over, apparently done with whatever crisis he’d been having. “You’re cute!” he said, tilting his head before adding “I actually agree with that for once.”

Eri had folded in on herself a little, and Tomura shooed the two away, “back off her a little,” he hissed.

“My my, protective already Shigaraki,” Compress chuckling, stepping around to give Eri a little wave with his mask off, “Presently I go by Mr. Compress.”

“Shut it,” Tomura growled, but softened again when he felt Eri glance at him, before she looked over at Spinner with wide eyes, undoubtedly able to figure out he was next in this introductory routine.

“Uhm, you can call me Shuichi.” Spinner mumbled, giving a brief nod.

Tomura watched Eri carefully, as the little girl examined her surroundings. He was impressed that the morons he worked with managed not to make any overly sudden moves, though it did make him wonder. They’d all been so broken, perhaps he wasn’t the only one who saw too much of themselves in the little girl trembling as she looked curiously around them.

He frowned at himself, furrowing his eyebrows as he remembered why they’d taken her. She was Chisaki’s weapon, and besides, she was like seven or something. He couldn’t get attached.

But as Eri pushed herself up off the floor and stumbled over to him, grabbing at his shirt and burying her face in his shoulder to pull him into some semblance of a hug, which Tomura hesitantly returned, he realized that not getting attached was going to be much harder than it seemed.

***

Another few hours passed without any particular incident, Eri wandering around the room, and Tomura keeping a close eye on her from his seat on the floor.

Toga quickly began to fuss over the girl, melting whenever she got close and insisting that Spinner buy her some new clothes when he went out for a supply run. Spinner had agreed to try, and had left with a long and detailed list of clothes to look for after he admitted he wasn’t sure what to get.

Compress had returned to sitting quietly, likely meditating on his far leveled head than the rest of them.

It was Twice who seemed to have the most trouble.

The man was still in his mask, but he muttered to himself, pacing and periodically crying out in annoyance. Several times, he took confident steps towards Eri before jerking back, clearly trying to keep away from her.

This had the expected side effect of making Eri extremely nervous, her continued shake worsening the louder his argument became. Eventually, it got so loud that Tomura couldn’t hear his own thoughts, and he glared at Toga, still cheerfully blabbering on to Eri about whatever.

“Toga,” he snapped, getting her attention.

“Yes Tomura,” she blinked innocently.

“Talk to Twice, calm him down,” he instructed, trying not to let his anger reach his tone.

“Oh, sorry!” Toga squeaked, and immediately skipped over to Twice, grabbing him by the shoulders and muttering to him.

Tomura sighed. Twice had it rough, rougher than most of them, but it still drove him up the wall sometimes. He liked quiet. In quiet, he could manage his thoughts, they wandered so fast already, he didn’t need to deal with someone else’s.

But there were a pair of eyes watching him.

Tomura flicked his head to the side, finding Eri’s big red eyes staring wide at him. He raised an eyebrow at her, conveying both an open question and allowing her to feel included in his thoughts.

She seemed to appreciate it, stepping closer to the crate he was sat on.

He flicked his gaze to the spot next to him and then back at her. Saying nothing.

She slowly stepped forward again, and then grabbed onto the crate, as though she planned to pull herself onto it. Tomura just bent down quietly and placed his hands under her shoulders, two fingers lifted, just in case. Eri flinched a little, but she didn’t move back, and so Tomura swiftly lifted her up and placed her to his left on the crate. She sat down, legs dangling off the edge to mirror his own.

She was so much like him, and there was no way to stop him from getting attached.

Tomura Shigaraki was doomed.

Notes:

This chapter is a bit shorter than the last one, but welcome to my favorite League of Villains Headcannon, protective older brother Shigaraki! (Edit: I forgot to name the chapter at first whoops)

Chapter 3: Of Winning Over Gerth

Everything was so different, when the world was more than just cold and quiet.

Tomura held himself with a casual air, but one that didn’t try to hide much. Eri liked that. They were all still so strange, so new, and she didn’t know what to make of them, but something about Tomura felt warm, familiar.

None of the others were afraid of him.

Eri had been sitting on the wooden crate all evening, simply swinging her legs and examining the space around her. It was small, and dusty, but she liked the dust. It meant the space wasn’t crystal clean. It was real. Even if it made her sneeze.

Toga kept trying to talk to Eri, and she always shrunk away. Toga’s smile was too wide, it was unsettling. All she could see was Bumblebee’s wide grin.

He was probably a red splatter by now.

Eri couldn’t stop it this time, and she lurched forward, spilling her guts onto the floor. Eyes were on her in an instant, and she just wanted to fade away. The sickening taste of bile and the emptying of her already hungry stomach kept her grounded. But she knew she was shaking as she stared at the floor.

It was her fault. Someone was hurt again, she knew it. Why hadn’t she thought about it? Just because she was gone didn’t mean she couldn’t still hurt them.

She had to go back. He’d come for Tomura, He wouldn’t care.

Eri tried to stop her shaking, gripping the crate until she settled, and then lifting herself off. She didn’t know how to get back, but maybe He’d find her if she just wandered, maybe He already knew where she was, it didn’t matter anyway, she just needed to get away from them so He didn’t find them, so they didn’t splatter. She could see the look that would be in his eyes, the distaste mixing with anger

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed, “please, I’m sorry!”

The voices bubbling outside her hearing had an unfamiliar edge to them, one that bore soft sounds and mingled with loud confusion. But they didn’t matter, they were just others, she had to get back to Him before He realized she’d gone. His hands and the stark white gloves were burned into the back of her eyes, she couldn’t let them touch anyone else, hurt anyone else.

Where was she, where was the way back? What that His voice, humming her name, she didn’t know but she was sorry, she would listen, why would she ever run away?

There was a crackling sound, and a scalding heat pulled her back into herself. Eri looked up slowly, and through bleary eyes could make out a bright blue flame shining in front of her. Behind it was a mass of dark hair obscuring confused eyes. Eri jerked back. Who was he?

“I tried not to burn her,” the unfamiliar voice said, “but fire catches attention.”

“Eri, He can’t reach you here remember,” the voice that spoke next she did know, and his figure joined the one of the black haired man.

“Tomura?” Eri tried, voice shaking and breath unsteady.

“Yes.”

She squinted against the flame now, tear tracks beginning to dry on her cheeks. The flame moved aside along with the hand that held it in front of her, and Eri got to see the two figures before her.

One was Tomura, eyes wide and watchful, and the other she definitely didn’t recognize. Taking deep breaths to stabilize herself, Eri tried not to flinch away from the man with black hair and a scarred face, even as he peered at her and seemed to pick her apart in a glare.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, hugging her arms.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Tomura said, shaking his head, and Eri looked at him in surprise. Usually she was punished for panicking, for falling into herself, for shattering. But, she didn’t have to be sorry? He wasn’t going to punish her? Why?

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

That...didn’t sound right. It didn’t make sense, she’d lost it, why didn’t he think she’d messed up. Eri furrowed her brow, and looked at the floor, only barely catching the way the dark haired man glared at Tomura and then jerked his head before the two left her alone.

It didn’t make any sense, and she didn’t want to think about it anymore. Not being punished was a good thing, so why did it matter the reasons they didn’t punish her?

Maybe it mattered the reasons He did.

There was the echoing sound of a door opening and closing, and Eri wrinkled her nose, putting that train of thought aside.

Tomura and the man with black hair were talking outside, she could hear the muffled words. They didn’t sound friendly.

Eri tried to listen. She didn’t know that it mattered, but she always tried to listen, because He never told her anything. She only caught a few of the words the black haired stranger said, like “dangerous”, “girl” and “why”. She didn’t hold it against him though. The stranger was right, she was dangerous.

From there, the argument had gone on without much she could hear, and Tomura and the stranger came back in a few minutes later.

The black haired man made his way over to her, and stuck out his hand with a sigh.

“I’m Dabi.”

***

A few hours later, the door swung open again, and Shuichi returned. He dropped the backpack that was slung over his shoulders and cringed when it landed with a thud. Eri watched him carefully, as he made a report to Tomura and then rummaged around in the backpack. Shuichi kept glancing at her, and then at Toga, who had been asleep since she’d talked to Twice. After few minutes, he seemed to make up his mind, wandering over to tap Toga on the shoulder.

“Is it morning already?” Toga grumbled. Shuichi shook his head, and Toga pouted. “Then why’d you wake me up?”

“Figured you’d want to be a part of this,” Shuichi said, holding up a bag.

Toga leapt up with a gasp, her overdramatics lost to a bright grin as she stood up alongside Shuichi.

Eri watched them with curious eyes, but she didn’t expect them to come over to her next.

“Got you some clothes,” Shuichi explained, nodding at the bag.

Eri blinked in surprise. She’d only ever worn the same white gown she still had now, He never thought anything else was needed. She didn’t really know what to do with clothes, maybe they’d tell her how to wear them. That was an order she was okay with.

“You’re going to look so cute!” Toga beamed, rocking back and forth on her heels.

“Uh, have fun?” Shuichi said before shoving the bag into Toga’s arms.

Toga giggled gleefully and started looking inside. Eri watched curiously, anticipation filling her. It was a new kind of anticipation though, not the kind that made her stomach swirl as she sat in the chair waiting for Him, but a kind that made her want to swing her legs, and was bubbly.

“Shuichi sure picked a lot of black,” Toga mused, pulling the first thing out of the bag. It was a pair of black pants that Toga joyfully called tights as she helped Eri into them. They went over her feet and were tight as the name suggested, but tight in a comfortable way, like the bandages that Eri had wrapped around her legs and arms. It was tight in a way that meant safety, calm. Eri liked them, and judging by the nod of approval, Toga did to.

Following the tights was, well, Eri wasn’t really sure what it was. It looked like a dress, but it wasn’t long enough. Her confusion showed, and Toga explained as she helped Eri put it on over the tights that it was called a skirt. Toga wore one that was almost the same, but blue instead of Eri’s black. It reminded her of the pretty girls on the toy boxes Bumblebee had bought for her, and that was good.

The next thing out of the bag was not black, instead it was a pale purple “sweater”. It just looked like a shirt to Eri, but she went with sweater after Toga called it that. It was too big, Eri felt like she could fall forever in it but Toga just tucked it into her skirt and then it fit alright. But none of that really mattered because Eri was focused on one thing only.

It was so soft.

Eri thought she knew soft. Soft was the way her sheets felt after she bled on them and they got washed, soft was the way the clouds looked when she drew them. But this, this was so far beyond soft. This was being within the clouds, enveloped by warmth and carried far away from harm.

This was incredible.

Eri buried her face into the neck of the sweater, wishing she never felt anything but soft, before she glanced back up at Toga with wide eyes.

“I like sweaters too,” Toga giggled, and showed her the last thing in the bag.

Shoes.

They were knee high, brown and apparently called boots but that didn’t really matter because Eri just wanted to wear them already. Where the sweater was something unexpected and incredible, shoes were something she knew, but had never worn. Shoes meant not scraping up her feet if she wanted to run, shoes meant no frozen toes from being out in the cold, shoes meant stability.

Shoes meant freedom.

And Eri loved them.

Notes:

Eri’s outfit was so much fun to plan, she’s such a soft child :))

Weekly updates are probably going to be my most common schedule, so keep an eye out for those. Thanks for all your support, it amazes me every time I see the kudos counter go up <333

Chapter 4: For A Human, Thialfi Can Run

Notes:

Yikes ok, sorry for the mini-hiatus there! I said I was going to try to be more consistent, but burnout hit me like a truck, and it was hard to get this chapter written. Which you might be able to tell, so I mostly used it for setup.

Tomura had watched quietly as Eri tried on the clothes Spinner bought her. The glint in her eyes gave them more depth than he’d yet seen in them, and he had to force down a infectious smile from spreading onto his face.

Dabi was watching him.

For a villain with a quirk of fire, he had sure acted cold as ice as he pulled Tomura into the hall and quietly hissed at him the question of what exactly he thought he was doing. Tomura had scoffed, he was alright with the League’s questions and input, but when it seemed so condescending, as if he were a worthless child who brought a pet to the door and begged to keep it...

It was rich, coming from the man who kept his own pet tucked away from the rest of them like a kid who wouldn’t share his toys.

Tomura had explained over and over why she was here, why they had kept her but Dabi wouldn’t listen, and Tomura was left scratching his own neck in place of strangling Dabi’s.

But as Eri kicked her now booted feet experimentally, and Toga’s giggles echoed through the small room, it was almost easy to forget - if not for Dabi’s eyes still fixed on him.

Tomura shifted, pushing off the crate he’d been leaning on and walking over to Spinner. Despite Tomura’s slouched and casual nature upon approaching, Spinner still seemed to flinch to attention, eyes flicking to catch all his movements. It was interesting, and made Tomura’s nose crinkle slightly out of curiosity. But he wasn’t about to ask. They never asked.

“She seems to like the clothes,” Tomura noted, inclining his head towards Eri.

“Uh, yeah,” Spinner stumbled over the words, clearly unsure what to say. So he was uncomfortable in casual social situations, that was good to know.

Tomura was the same way, but he tried to press forward to the point he’d been trying to make. “So, thanks.”

“Oh! Uhm, yeah, no problem.”

One hand absentmindedly raised to scratch his neck, and his brows furrowed in confusion. Why was this so awkward? Tomura just nodded, and sat down next to Spinner, opting to settle into silence instead.

***

In the middle of the night, Tomura was awoken to a scream.

He hadn’t been sleeping very deep, dreams riddled with hazy faces and his master’s words, but as he sat bolt upright from where he’d been leaning against the wall, Tomura was sure the scream he’d heard could’ve woken the dead.

His eyes snapped over to a light in his peripheral vision, which immediately blinded his night adjusted eyes. The shadows of the others were moving as well, quickly but dazedly. Tomura’s eyes only adjusted when he’d made his way over to the glow, and when they did, his mouth dropped open in shock.

Sitting on the floor, eyes wide and crying silently was Eri, with golden lightning shooting out of the horn on her forehead and completely enveloping her. Her hands were tensed tightly against the floor, and her head was frozen, tilted back slightly from when she had cried out in pain.

“What’s happening?” Tomura demanded, eyes flicking to the windows where people would undoubtedly soon be watching. They had to stop her, they had to hurry.

“No idea!” Twice shouted, “It’s her quirk!”

“Is it malfunctioning? How do we stop it?”

“Why do you expect me to know? It’s a power overload, she needs an output!” The masked man practically howled his contradictions.

“And how do we do that? We can’t even get close to her, who knows what‘ll happen,” Spinner pointed out in a rush, one hand running stressedly through his hair.

“I know what’ll happen,” Toga whined, “she’ll reverse us until we die!”

“I’m too young to die!” Twice screamed desperately.

“There’s no need to yell and panic,” Compress said evenly, “I can simply put her in a marble again.”

“That won’t stop an overloaded quirk.”

Tomura turned and narrowed his eyes at Dabi, who was still leaning against the wall on the other side of the room. “Then what do you suggest we do?” he hissed.

“Use Twice’s clones.”

It was...an infuriatingly good idea, and Tomura simply snapped at them to do it already as he focused his attention back on Eri.

Tomura noticed how between each clone that melted into a puddle practically the moment it touched Eri, she was trembling. It was a shudder, one which held her above everything as though she was about to shatter.

It was...strangely familiar, and it made Tomura bite the inside of his cheek as the newest clone got melted down.

Quirk malfunctions. He’d heard of the term plenty, and they were much more common than most people expected. A person’s body developed resistance to the effects of their quirk alongside the quirk itself. Master had told him about how it affected his use of new quirks. The resistance was there so that the quirk could be used without injuring its user, it was how Tomura never disintegrated himself. However, if more of the quirk was used than the body could handle, the quirk would malfunction. Tomura was fairly certain he’d seen an interview in which the voice hero Present Mic talked about how he’d gone deaf as a baby because his quirk came in before the resistors, and one good look at Dabi told him that an overload malfunction was probably what created the burns all across his body.

But this, this was somewhat different. It wasn’t unpreparedness, or being pushed to an overload. It was power without control. Eri had no understanding of her own quirk, and had likely never used it herself. It had simply been used.

Tomura ignored the blood that welled under his nails as he dug his fingers into his neck. Something within him was screaming in anger, and bubbling with a sadness he couldn’t quite reach, but Tomura still knew. He was still certain.

Power without control only ever brought pain.

And as the electric flickering of Eri’s quirk finally started to die down, and her shaking was only from her sobs, Tomura couldn’t shake that thought, standing dumbfounded and encased in shadow.

***

A short while after that had been filled with silence, but not the comfortable kind. Toga had wiped Eri’s face dry of tears and mud, and Twice had quietly demonstrated his quirk, explaining to her what had happened.

Dabi had continued his silent glances at Tomura, and he could practically feel the unspoken ‘I told you so’.

Spinner had left the room for his scheduled watch as if nothing was wrong, and Compress paced desperately back and forth in front of the windows.

The windows.

“Shit,” Tomura hissed, remembering the sidelong thought that he’d had earlier and catching everyone in the room’s attention. “We need to leave.”

“Now?” Toga almost whined.

“Yes, now,” he snapped. “Anyone could’ve seen that, we need to leave.”

Eri sniffled, and opened her mouth before closing it again with a choked sob, hugging her stomach.

But this time, she didn’t apologize.

Tomura nodded, and his eyes flicked over to Compress. “What was the old schedule?”

“Preferably that we make our exit and lower the curtain on this act as soon as possible, perhaps tomorrow.”

Tomura ignored the more dramatic parts of the sentence and continued ahead. “So get ready, we leave now.”

From there, he turned and stalked out of the room, delivering the same message to Spinner, who nodded silently and returned inside to pack up what little he had with the rest of them. Eri watched with wide and likely confused eyes as they pulled on coats and hid their villain attire, and Spinner and Toga neatly organized the two backpacks they had.

Within five minutes, they were ready to leave, and Tomura knelt down facing Eri again. “Ready?”

Eri tilted her head slightly, one hand fiddling with the hem of her skirt, but she eventually nodded, and carefully took Tomura’s hand when he offered it out to her, last two fingers folded back.

And so, as the early morning light crept its way over the horizon, The League of Villains was on the move.

——

Elsewhere, a young hero stood in the back of an interrogation room, watching as his mentor talked to a man with a mess of blond hair, streaked with black. He was the most receptive Shie Hassaikai member that they’d interrogated thus far, probably something to do with his distance from Chisaki, the young head.

“Why did the League attack the Shie Hassaikai?”

“I-I don’t know,” a swallow, “two members were brought in to work with us.”

“So they betrayed the Hassaikai?”

“I guess so.”

“Why?”

“How should I know? They’re fucking insane that’s why!”

“Did Chisaki have something they wanted?”

“I didn’t know Overhaul’s plans, wasn’t that close to the center,” that was mumbled, unsure, and the young hero stepped forward.

“Look, we really just want to help, so please, if you know what they were after you can tell us.”

That earned him an incredulous glance from the blond man, and a sharp look from Sir. “You shouldn’t be caught in this, kid.”

He chuckled, and smiled at the man kindly, “I chose to be here.”

“Not everyone gets a choice,” the man grumbled.

“What does that mean?” Sir prompted, adjusting his glasses slightly.

“The League took some bullets. That’s all,” he turned away to say this, and completely ignored Sir’s question.

“Just some bullets?” the young hero grumped jokingly, only to be silenced by Sir’s hand being raised in his direction.

“Not now Togata. What do the bullets do?”

Mirio blinked in surprise at Sir’s words, but quieted down, taking a step back. The man just looked down at the metal table in silence.

“Well, what do they do?” Sir repeated in an icy tone.

Mirio frowned, and moved forward to tap the man on the shoulder, giving him a pleading look when he glanced up in confusion. “If you tell us, and you weren’t involved, it will be much easier to help you.”

The man clicked his tongue in annoyance and tore away, glaring at the floor. “That’s the problem,” he growled.

“I thought you said you weren’t close to Chisaki?” Mirio said in surprise.

“Wasn’t. But I was still fucking involved,” he spat.

“I thought Chisaki only trusted those sorts of things to those closest to him?”

“Yeah but I had to take care of-“ the man cut himself off, face paleing before his squeezed his eyes shut tight, taking a moment before he spoke again. “I had to keep watch on the materials.”

“And what were those?” Sir asked, an eyebrow now raised.

The man looked up at Mirio again, eyes narrowing. “Seriously, can’t this fucking kid get out of here?”

“While Lemillion is here on a work study he is effectively a part of my agency, so he will not ‘get out of here’. Now. What are the materials?”

“Look, before I tell you, just know that I don’t know what happened to them after the League attacked alright? They were just gone. Just leave me alone after this, I don’t want to think about it.”

Mirio tried to mask the concern in his face, but he knew it was there clear as day. Even Sir, who was an expert at masking his expression as a concerned tilt to his eyebrows. But after a moment he nodded, promising to leave the man alone after this.

“The main material in Overhaul’s fucked up quirk erasure bullets...is the blood and quirk of the head’s granddaughter Eri.”

What?

The world was a bubble, and Mirio was drowning in it. The faint sounds of Sir’s shocked reaction faded behind the sound of blood rushing in his ears. When had he stumbled back and hit the wall? Blinking was stiff and forced, but when he did he was in a room that was too bright, sitting up frozen as the sobs of a green haired boy next to him tried to break his bubble. But it didn’t matter, nothing mattered, not even the emptiness of his own mind.

Because Chisaki had been torturing a young girl.

A girl in need of saving.

And they hadn’t even noticed her.

Chapter 5: The Marrow of Tanngrisnir

Notes:

Oh my goodness! I’m terribly sorry for being gone so long, especially after I said I was going to try and write consistently last chapter. I underestimated how hard writers block was coming for me, and it hit me dead in the face. I took a break and write some other stuff to get myself flowing again though, because I really wanted to give you guys my best work. And here we are, back again with the softness! Sorry it took so long, but thank you for waiting for me :))

Sunrise. It was a word Eri had only ever heard negatively before, grumbled complaints about it being too early. They were the only complaints she ever heard about Him. That He made them wake up at sunrise, and it was the worst.

So as she walked outside in the early hours of the morning, feeling the cool wind and the free and open air, Eri was surprised to find that sunrise was beautiful. The streaks of warm color, like the paint that she’d dragged across the too clean walls broke up the sky and melted across the ground. They pulled against her exposed skin, giving off the same warm feeling that she got from holding Tomura’s hand. She didn’t even know what it was at first, until Shuichi spoke up, complimenting the sunrise. He called it elegant, and Eri didn’t know what that meant, but it seemed right.

“We’re headed to that shithole of an anti-mutation church next,” Shigaraki muttered as they walked. Eri listened, even though she didn’t know what half those words meant. “Spinner, I give you full authority on what we do to them.”

To her left, Shuichi nodded, and Eri could sense the tense anger in his shoulders. She stepped closer to Tomura.

“Well I think we should take the scenic route!” Toga said cheerfully, her hands behind her back. “What do you think Eri?”

Eri blinked in surprise. She hardly even understood what they were talking about, and now she was being asked what she thought? What if she got it wrong?

“I believe our words may be too much to understand,” Mr. Compress said, and tilted his head toward her. “We are going to a different place, and Miss Toga wants to know if you would like to go the long way or the short way.”

That made a lot more sense, and Eri nodded to show she understood

“You’ll get to see more things the long way!” Twice piped up.

“Uhm,” Eri muttered, looking around to see if she could find the answer somehow.

“It’s alright,” Tomura muttered, “you won’t get it wrong.”

Eri swallowed, and looked at the sunrise again. It was so pretty, the warm colors that dragged through the sky. She wanted to see more pretty things. “Long way?”

“Toga, lead the way,” Tomura offered with a nod.

As they walked, Tomura squeezed her hand, but it wasn’t too tight, and it made her feel safe. Plus, it only lasted a second, and then it was loose again. It was comfort, and choices. Choices she’d never even known she could have before.

***

Eri was fairly certain there was no way that Tomura could actually be the leader.

What made her so sure was the fact that they had been standing in an alleyway next to a building for the past five minutes, with Toga and Twice challenging Tomura's order not to go inside.

"But Tomuraaaaa, I'm hungryyy," Toga whined. Eri was fairly sure anyone who spoke that way to Him would have been a splatter by now. So Tomura couldn't be in charge.

"I told you, we have food. If the entire league of villains walks into a bakery, people are going to ask some fucking questions," Tomura hissed, but he held his tense energy to himself, he held back. He couldn't be in charge.

"That food is gross! Its fine, let's keep moving," Twice said.

"I must agree, something tasteful and not prepackaged sounds excellent." Mr. Compress nodded.

Tomura was scratching at his neck, and had a deep scowl on his face. But none of them were afraid. So how could he be the leader?

"Look," Shuichi sighed, "We hardly have any money, but I'll go in with Eri and see what we can get. Shigaraki's right, the rest of you will raise too many questions."

"Like the guy with a lizard head isn't going to raise any questions," Dabi scoffed.

"I'm not a lizard," Shuichi snapped, but Eri could see the way he flinched back defensively. It was the way they always looked when they knew they'd disappointed Him. Did that mean Dabi was the leader? He was scary, unchallenged and distant. Eri shuddered, and stepped next to Shuichi. Of course he was the leader. And he'd been watching her this whole time, he must have been waiting for her to make a mistake.

"Alright fine, Spinner, Eri, go."

Eri nodded at Shigaraki's words, and stepped in close to Shuichi, following him out of the alleyway.

"Ok Eri, I'm your big brother, and we just need some food. Does that make sense?" Shuichi said as they walked towards the entrance.

It didn't make sense, but Eri knew Shuichi wasn't the leader, that he was scared too, so she shook her head. "Whats big brother?"

Spinner stopped, and knelt down in front of her. "A big brother is someone who protects you, someone who tries to make you smile no matter the trouble, and someone who will never leave your side. Thats me, ok? You can call me it if you want."

"Big brother Shuichi?" Eri tried, and Shuichi nodded, smiling slightly. He really did feel safe, and he felt like her. Scared and worried about when he would get something wrong, but there was something else too. Something that was built up around him to protect him, and he was using it to protect her. That must make him big brother.

"Ok!" she nodded, "big brother Shuichi."

"Let's go get some food." He said with a nod, and stood up, offering out a hand to Eri as he used the other to push open the building's door.

The inside of the building that Tomura called a bakery was another experience that Eri wished she'd had forever. It was soft, warm, and smelled incredible. The smell was the complete opposite of the too clean too fake smell of the place with white walls. It was full and soft, and floated from the back to fill the little room.

As Eri looked around at the soft pale colors of the room, someone walked up to them.

"Hello there and welcome to Persephone's!" They said cheerfully, catching Eri's attention. "How can I help you today?"

"Oh I dunno, we're really just looking," Shuichi said sheepishly.

Eri tugged at his sleeve, and Shuichi glanced down at her. "Big brother Shuichi, what's a Persephone?"

Shuichi opened his mouth to answer, but the person who greeted them spoke up first. "Persephone is a very beautiful lady from old stories who rules over spring, and the name of this bakery."

Eri nodded, even though she had no idea why this place was named after a beautiful lady of spring.

"Well, how about I let you guys try out whatever you want, and you take a dozen things with you?" They offered, looking back up at Shuichi.

"I don't think we can pay for that," Shuichi muttered.

"I didn't say anything about payment, did I?" They said, and smiled softly. "Really, its okay, hopefully a dozen treats is enough to keep you two going."

"How could you tell we needed help?" Shuichi asked as they walked further into the bakery.

"Maybe I'm psychic," they shrugged, and then stepped back. "I'll be behind the counter, just come tell me what you want."

"Ok Eri," Shuichi said, "you can go ahead and try whatever. I'll be here."

Eri's eyes widened with the presentation that she was allowed to touch anything and everything that smelled so delicious. Following the smells, she found the warmest things in the room, fluffy and round freshly baked buns, which were delicious soft and sweet. Right next to that was something she thought was burnt at first, but on further investigation learned it was something called a soft pretzel. It was salty and filled her from inside out with its flavor. She also tried these things called cupcakes, that had a sweet topping on it swirled in various designs. She liked the bunnies best.

The best thing though, the thing that made her eyes light up in amazement, was a caramel apple. It was hard and sticky on the outside, and it took her moment to tear through it with her teeth, but the inside was soft and juicy. It was sweet, but a different kind of sweet than before, like the crisp and bright smile that never left Toga's face. And it was delicious. Eri quickly looked for Shuichi in the store to tell him what she wanted.

"Big brother Shuichi," she said, tugging as his hoodie sleeve.

"Yeah?" he replied, and glanced over at her.

"I really like caramel apples."

Chapter 6: Mimir’s Well

Notes:

Hello again lads, guess who’s back after another ridiculously long hiatus! As my holiday gift to you all, I have three chapters prepared. I was actually going to wait until I had completed all three before I posted them, but I figured I may as well spread it out a little. Thank you again for all your continued support, I appreciate each and every one of you. Have a lovely day, and I’ll see you all in the next chapter.

It took three days of walking before they arrived at the old building, abandoned as soon as they chased out the assholes who owned the place. By the end of those three days, Tomura was sure of one thing.

He hated walking.

Well, that wasn’t exactly it, he didn’t mind the motion and didn’t get tired, he just hated wandering along streets full of civilians who didn’t care about anyone or anything. They looked at anything from a minor inconvenience to a major problem and shrugged, brushing it off with a line about how the heroes would solve it. How they’d solve everything. They were so complacent, and it made him uncomfortable. Something deep within him wanted to reach out, to yell and scream and get their attention, get them to stop turning a blind eye to the world around them. But he couldn’t do that. At least not in such a small way, not anymore.

It really made him miss Kurogiri.

Regardless, the now abandoned old building was kind of shabby, and though he was always satisfied to kick some shitheads in the face and get some catharsis for Spinner, he really wished there was a more fashionable group of people he could do it to. Dusty old buildings were starting to invade his very soul, and he wasn’t sure it was good for any of their health, particularly Eri’s.

Speaking of Eri, she had been wandering around the building for a good while, eyes wide in amazement as she fiddled with cobwebs and watched spiders crawl up the walls. Tomura wrinkled his nose. Spiders were creepy, but whatever. Toga stood next to her, giggling and explaining things to Eri whenever her wide eyes betrayed her confusion.

Tomura rolled his eyes away from that, fine to stop staring at the wall of spiders, and looked over at Twice, who was crouched down with his head hung and his mask in his hands. He was muttering to himself, and judging by the tense set in his shoulders it was clear he was struggling. Tomura frowned, his nose wrinkling. Twice was trying hard to work on his issues in any downtime they had, and Tomura wasn’t sure he was really equipped to help him. Maybe it was better to just leave him be.

Leaning against a wall next to him was Compress, who for the past hour had been sighing around and whining about how he wanted sushi. Tomura had tuned him about twenty minutes in. None of them were happy about the fact they were flat broke, but the nice bread Spinner and Eri had got from the bakery had gone to Compress’s head and he decided to complain about it. So yeah, Tomura was not about to deal with that shitshow.

Tomura was about to decide to just stand near Spinner, who'd been lounging against a wall playing with his ridiculously old handheld console when Spinner made that decision for him. He pushed up and off the wall, snapping the console shut, and started heading towards Tomura. One look at the hunch to his shoulders and the frown on his face and Tomura suddenly wasn't quite as excited about this interaction. Something within him shriveled up with a lurch, dreading the fire in eyes with the fear of a five year old who saw them far too often.

But he wasn't a kid anymore.

So instead of looking to the floor, or curling in on himself, Tomura just raised a hand to his neck, and glared right back at Spinner.

"Shigaraki!" Spinner demanded, and Tomura could hear the way he bit back a "sir", "We've been wandering around aimlessly for months, what are we even doing at this point?!"

"What do you mean? we've been carrying out the plan," Tomura fibbed, not even believing his own tone. But, it was the truth, he didn't know exactly what Master's plan was but Kurogiri had been moving them toward something before he got captured, Tomura was sure of it.

"Do you even know what that is? We can't keep following a leader who's not even here! Stain would-"

This is where Tomura snapped. He was so tired of Stain this, Stain that, over and over from every last one of them. Stain failed and they still worshipped him. It didn't make any sense. "Stain is not your leader. He's rotting away in Tartarus because he was weak. You work under me. You listen to me. I am your leader."

The thick bile to his calm tone made Tomura sick, and he dug his fingernails further into his neck. The sound of his own voice was so much like someone, someone he couldn't quite remember, but he made his mind spin. But even in the face of it, Spinner remained unchanged.

"If you're our leader, then act like it! Trust your fucking team members or don't work with us at all. We are your future now. Have some of your own fucking convictions for once, or work with us to make them. I'll ask you one more time. What. Is. The. Plan."

Tomura had begun to flinch back as Spinner's voice rose louder and louder. But it wasn't a scream, it was a howl. One of distress, confusion and emotion, rough and desperate as it searched for something within his soul. Tomura didn't know what Spinner was looking for, he didn't even know if there was anything to find. But looking into his desperately searching eyes, and feeling the rest of the league, of his team watching him, Tomura had to try.

"I-"

He hadn't even gotten a word out before an endless roar tore their world in two.

***

He was standing in the doctor’s lab. The doctor who’s face he’d never seen, who Master wouldn’t ever let him get close to. The man who’d created the Nomu Tomura once relied on, the man who kept Master from death over and over again, the man who understood Gigantomachia.

Tomura was standing in his lab, after being forbidden for so long, and he’d just run his mouth without even thinking. At this point, Tomura wasn’t entirely sure what he’d said, just flicked his eyes to the floor after he realized he’d been speaking, and started itching at his neck to ground himself. The doctor was saying something, Tomura couldn’t hear it. All he could hear were his own raggedy breaths scraping in and out of his lungs more rapidly by the second. He was going to have a panic attack. Or maybe he was already having one? He couldn’t think, everything was too loud and too empty. He was nothing, in the face of the doctor and Gigantomachia.

“Shigaraki?” someone was at his side, Tomura tried to stumble away from them. They couldn’t touch him, they’d dust.

“He’s breaking down,” someone else said, and Tomura was sure he knew the voice. Maybe. The same voice spoke up again. “He’ll be fine!”

The floor tiles were going out of focus beneath him. The floor tiles he wasn’t supposed to be on, what if Master found out he was here? No, he already knew. He always knew. He had to get out, now, before Master caught him.

He couldn’t find the exit, and his legs weren’t working right. But he needed out. He needed-

There was a soft hand on his leg, and Tomura flinched to attention, finding a small girl standing there, her white hair falling in front of concerned eyes. Eri. And she looked near tears.

With a shudder, Tomura began to drag back into his own body. Master was gone. He took a deep breath and held it for a few moments, sinking down towards the ground.

When he drew his hand away from his neck he could feel blood.

He pulled the hand in tight to hide it from Eri, and looked cautiously about the room. He tried not to do this in front of the League but the doctor’s face was as petrifying to him as Master’s.

Tomura figured they would hate him, be looking at him with disgust and confusion. But as he looked out across the faces of his team, he felt guilty for even expecting it to be so.

It was hard to judge Compress from behind the mask, but the soft tilt to his head looked sympathetic. Spinner looked worried, and Tomura gave him a small smile of reassurance. Toga was gripping tightly to Twice’s hand, who’s slumped shoulders looked as though he could relate all too much to Tomura’s panic. And Dabi…

Tomura wasn’t ready to face whatever expression Dabi might hold.

Instead, he swallowed his fear and looked back at the doctor from his place seated on the floor. He regretted it almost instantly, seeing the hungry and fascinated way his eyes bore into Tomura and Eri, as though they were some new project. Just a pair of experiments. He pushed himself up off the floor with a frown, and stuck his non bloody hand out to the doctor.

"So, do we have an agreement?"

The doctor grinned like a moray eel. "We do."

Chapter 7: The Battle Against Geirröd

Notes:

Me? Actually following through on my promise to put out multiple chapters? It’s a miracle congratulations lads

Eri didn't know what to think of the Giant. He was big, and loud, and they were always fighting him. But at least he was messy, and honest, and bold.

She still wanted Tomura to win.

They'd been outside for a few days now, with Tomura and the others fighting the Giant. Their shouts would echo across the forest, and when they came back to rest they’d be bloody and tired, bruised and scraped up and tired. Eri wanted them to be okay, to not be hurting, but it was something real. It wasn’t clean and white and either splattered or not, it was something new and rough, and they kept fighting. They weren’t afraid, even in the face of the Giant.

And she was never alone. Someone was always on break to wander the woods with her, and sometimes they would help her train. It was fun, to climb the rocks and feel the grass in her toes, even if Mr. Compress always told her to put her shoes back on before she lost them.

Just now, Eri was swinging her legs back and forth of an overhang while she watched the Giant knocking over the trees. Tomura was out there somewhere, Toga and Big Brother Shuichi too. She couldn't see them, but seeing the Giant's form amongst the green reminded her that they were there.

She stood up, and wandered over away from the rocks and back to the green patch. She had seen a little green creature here yesterday, and Big Brother Shuichi had told her it was called a frog. She liked the way it jumped, and wanted to find it again.

Eri knelt down in the grass, and blew her hair out of her face as it fell unceremoniously around her. Her hair was very annoying. She wondered if Toga could do the same with her hair as she always did with hers. Eri thought that looked nice, and like it wouldn't be very bothersome. Or maybe she could get rid of it, and she wouldn’t have to bother Toga at all, if her hair was short enough to never be in her way. That might be better.

Before she could think much more about what to do with her tangled white waves, the ground shook, and a little green shape leapt out from behind the grass. Eri gasped and followed after the frog. She jumped after the small creature, matching its hops and watched curiously as it wandered around.

Eventually, the frog seemed to settle, sinking into a small patch of grass under the bright sun. It was Eri's chance. Her hands hovered just out of reach of the small creature, poised to strike and grab it. It would be her best friend, and she would name it and…

She stopped, and looked at the way the little frog sat in the sun, basking in the freedom to hop wherever it pleased and escape from any who tried to hold it down. It could feel the wind and the sun and choose what to do and was never wrong. She couldn't take that from it, even if she wanted a friend. It wouldn’t like that, it would only want to escape.

It was like her.

Eri sniffled, and sat back on the grass, watching as the little frog hopped out of sight again, free from the grabbing hands and the danger of splattering.

She may have cried, were it not for the sound of Twice and Mr. Compress walking up behind her.

***

"What time is it, young Eri?" Mr. Compress asked, and Eri wrinkled her nose, looking up to the sky. Mr. Compress had been teaching her about time and how to count, saying that if she understood it, it would help her understand her curse.

Her quirk. She wasn't supposed to call it a curse, Tomura said. He said that all of them thought what they could do was a curse, and it wasn't good to think that way. So she tried not to call it a curse, even though that's what it was.

"Hour Fifteen," she said, and Mr. Compress nodded.

"Indeed it is, and quite a lovely afternoon at that."

“Yeah, the sun’s nice,” Twice said casually before an additional cry of “it's too bright!”

Eri still didn’t really understand Twice, why he always said more than he meant to say, but she liked him and he helped her, so she didn’t ask about it. Instead, she asked about Tomura.

“Ah, his next break won’t be for another day I believe,” Mr. Compress explained, and Ero nodded solemnly.

“Do you want to talk to him?” Twice asked, and Eri shook her head. Twice’s clay people were nice, but she just wanted to lean into Tomura’s warmth, make sure he was still there, still real, and tell him about frogs. It could wait.

“I want to learn something,” Eri muttered cautiously. She was trying to get used to expressing what she wanted and asking for it. They all seemed to like that, when she didn’t hold her thoughts back. It was strange, but she liked it too.

“Sure,” Mr. Compress nodded lightly, “anything in particular?”

Eri shook her head, and the two masked men seemed to exchange a glance, before Twice gave a nod. She liked that, that they could always figure out what the other wanted to say in only a glance. Before...Before it had only been fear.

Mr. Compress made a show of thinking very long and hard about what he was going to say, adjusting his hat and his coattails as he tapped his mask in thought, but after a moment, he nodded. “Perhaps we should play a game of statues?”

Eri nodded brightly. Statues, she had recently learned, were fake figures made as art. The game involving them was much more fun than the concept itself. In the game of statues, one would try to get from one point to another, freezing like a statue whenever they were looked at. Mr. Compress was very hard to beat, but Twice wasn’t very good at the game.

“Wonderful! Then we shall try to to that tree,” Mr. Compress said, pointing to a tree at the edge of the clearing. “And you may begin as our watcher.”

Eri nodded, hopping up off the rock she’d been sitting on and moving over to the tree, facing away from them. She decided to test her counting while she played, and held up her hand slowly lifting one, two, three fingers before she rapidly spun around.

Mr. Compress was posed in a sweeping bow and Twice had his hands on his hips. Both were perfectly frozen, and Eri made a show of looking them over before she turned away again, this time counting to five before she looked back.

Twice was balanced on one foot with his arms bent outward, trembling slightly as though he were about to fall at any moment. Mr. Compress was standing on one hand, the other holding his hat, all his weight balanced like a perfect tower of markers that looked like it shouldn’t stay upright, but did so with grace anyway.

Eri stood and watched them, opening and closing her hands while she stood and waited for Twice to topple. It took one, two, three, four seconds before the man in the grey suit was splayed out on the grass, flipping between cursing wildly and congratulating her tactics. Mr. Compress’s cape hadn’t even fluttered in the wind.

Eri turned around again, but hadn’t even counted to one before she snapped back. Mr. Compress was already back on her feet. Eri glared. She would beat him this time! She turned around again, and again and again, finding the man in increasingly more ridiculous and elegant poses each time as he inched ever closer to her. Twice was cheering her on from where he’d moved to sitting cross legged in the grass, and for a moment Eri didn’t think about Him or red splatters on white walls. The only thing she was thinking about were statues, and the ever closer figure in an orange suit and stylish top hat.

She caught him when the little frog leapt by, and Mr. Compress flinched back in surprise.

Notes:

By the way, I’m not entirely sure what I want to do with Eri’s hair, whether I should have Toga give her a sweet hairstyle, or just cut it short but our girl is looking for a change so I’m here for your input. Let me know opinions in the comments :))

Chapter 8: Even Thrym Was Once An Heir

Notes:

hello again lads, thank you all for the continued support and suggestions on what to do with Eri’s hair, that should come into play soon :))

Tomura had finally gotten a break from fighting Gigantomachia when Spinner got his attention.

It was a nice sunny day, though of course Tomura hadn’t gotten a chance to enjoy the nice warmth and slight breeze at all, given that he’d been getting beat to shreds for the past few days, and nothing ever seemed sunny under the shadow of Gigantomachia. It made him think of Master’s old training, but this time Tomura was fighting to prove himself. That didn’t stop his hands from shaking every time he tasted blood. But even after all that exhaustion, Spinner was still watching him expectantly.

Tomura sighed internally, much preferring to just get half an hour of sleep, but whatever Spinner wanted to talk to him about looked important, so he made his way over.

“I’m sorry,” Spinner said as soon as he reached him, holding out a bottle of water and an energy bar, but not meeting Tomura’s eyes. “I’m sorry for losing my cool.”

Tomura took a deep breath. It had hurt when Spinner snapped at him and yet he could see that Spinner was hurting too. “It’s alright. Those assholes aggravated you and you were lost. I made it hard for you, because I hadn’t even found my own conviction.”

Tomura saw Spinner jolt in surprise out of the corner of his eye, and his brows furrowed instinctively. Spinner was always so scared around him, treaded lightly around anyone who might have more power. It made his blood boil to think about what Spinner must’ve gone through to get that way.

They sat in silence for a few moments, and Tomura reached up a hand to itch his neck. Was that really all he had wanted to say? Normally, he would have already left, but Spinner seemed to be perched slightly, rigid as though he was going to speak, but there was a thick bubble in his throat. Tomura didn’t face him head on, knowing the feeling of eyes burning through one’s soul.

“Thank you,” Spinner mumbled, and Tomura’s fingers froze.

He closed his eyes, and went to respond, but his breath shuddered in his chest, and suddenly the sun felt like it was burning down on him.

“I mean, thank you for taking me-no us-in and showing us another direction, another way to live. I don’t know that this makes any sense and I’m probably messing it up but you gave me a life Shigaraki and it was something I hadn’t realized I’d lost, Stain gave me an idea sure, but you gave me a direction and I was such an idiot to ignore that for so long and I don't know why I ever doubted you I’m such-”

“Spinner.”

Spinner’s head snapped up in an instant, and his red eyes met Tomura’s in shock and desperation. Tomura almost laughed. They were both so horrible at socializing, and yet, why did that make him so happy? Why did his stomach churn in such a different way than anxiety when he looked at Spinner’s wild purple hair, fallen this way and that in tired confusion? Why did he just want to stare into his eyes, as though if he reached deep enough Spinner could redefine the color red? What was this, which felt so different from the rest of the League? Months ago, he could have mistaken it for hatred, hatred for Spinner’s stupid costume and his big ridiculous sword and his admiration for Stain, but Tomura had felt enough hate to know what it was not. But he didn’t know this feeling.

“You’re welcome.”

As Spinner began to melt, and Tomura watched his shaking hands seem to shudder as he took deep breaths again, Tomura found it in him to keep talking.

"The League has become against all odds, a sort of home for me. It is a place where I can truly be free and know that I am respected rather than feared. And so Spinner, to see that I have made it that place for you as well, it is the greatest honor I could ever ask for," Tomura's fingers dug into his neck and his face felt hot under the orange sunbeams, but he spoke anyway. "You aren't an idiot, and you haven't messed anything up, you can't, so just, thank you too."

As Tomura stopped speaking, he felt like he might just collapse in the dirt right then and there. He was exhausted, but not in the same way that he had been from fighting Gigantomachia. This tired feeling was something deeper, a rich bone ache as though he'd tied a rock to his ankle and let it drag him off the cliff upon which he sat and rested.

He didn't meet Spinner's eyes, staring into the dirt and rocks until he heard the quiet rustling sound of Spinner getting up and walking away.

Tomura swallowed, thick and shaking, and forced himself to choke down some water to stop the dry heaves in his breath. What had he said? What had he said that made him feel like he was shaking all over? What had Spinner said, to make Tomura so confused when he looked him in the eyes and saw something new shining there?

A sharp laugh rung out behind him, and he turned to find Toga laughing and applauding as Eri showed off the skills she'd been learning. They looked so happy, and Tomura let out a weary sigh as he watched. All of them were so messed up, even Eri, but he was glad Toga could be like an older sister to her.

Wait.

Toga.

Tomura started as images of Toga flashed behind his eyes, of the way she would watch the green haired brat with awe and concentration while he fought in the tournament on TV, or of the way she seemed hesitant and nervous when asking whether she'd gone about her interactions with the gravity girl the right way.

Tomura's eyes widened, and for a fleeting moment he wished Gigantomachia would crush him like a grape the next time they fought, just so he wouldn't have to think about these feelings anymore.

Because that's what they were.

Tomura Shigaraki was falling for Shuichi Iguchi and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

***

Somehow, finding out that Giran had been taken hostage by the Meta Liberation Army and they were going to go on a mission with near zero chance of success to save him was the best news that Tomura had gotten all week.

First and foremost, it was a chance to test out everything new that they'd learned about themselves and each other, as well as proving that their newfound conviction held weight.

But also, for Tomura, it was a distraction, a convenient reason to simply cause mass destruction instead of thinking about his feelings for Spinner or worrying about his responsibilities as a leader for a few minutes.

"Shigaraki I would think it would be in our best interest to keep the young Eri rather safe from this fight, how should we best go about that?"

Shit. Maybe he had one responsibility to worry about.

Tomura sighed, and brought two fingers up to rub at the bridge of his nose. If they took her with, she’d be a target for the MLA, but if they left her here she’d be alone and might get found by the heroes. It was a less than ideal arrangement no matter how they looked at it.

“You could just shrink her down again,” Toga offered cheerfully, gesturing to Compress.

The magician nodded, his head tilting slightly as he did so. “That I could, but I worry that placing her protection on me is a single point of failure.”

Tomura grumbled in annoyance, one hand unconsciously scratching at his neck, dry skin crumbling off in the effort. “Is there anywhere we can hide her?”

All of them fell silent, glancing around the clearing at the top of the cliff, and back into where the shadows of the forest mingled with Gigantomachia’s sleeping form. So far, he had left anyone who wasn’t Tomura alone, but there was no telling what he’d do to a little girl all alone by herself in the woods.

“I could take her,” Spinner offered quietly, shifting on his feet. Tomura looked over with a blink of surprise, and found Spinner running a hand through his hair in discomfort. “I mean, I’ve got the backpack so if Compress shrank her it’d probably be alright. I wouldn’t let any harm come to her, promise.”

Surprisingly, when Tomura met his eyes, he felt as though it was a promise he could truly trust Spinner to keep. He held a determination there, a sort of fire that looked as though it were desperate to never let anyone face the pain he’d been through.

Tomura had to tear his gaze away before he got lost in it again, and nodded sharply to bury the heat in his chest. “Okay. Then let’s get moving.”

Chapter 9: Eir In The Giant's Land

Notes:

*claws my way out of the depths* I. Will. Finish. This fic-

My goodness you guys I do this every time huh procrastination really is my Gigantomachia and you know it's bad because the anime has caught up with me now. I have plans for most of the rest of the chapters though, so we'll see what I can do

Thank you so much for sticking around

"Eri!" Toga's cheerful lilt caught the young girl's attention, and she blinked up at her, tilting her head in question. "I think it's time for another makeover!"

"Makeover?" Eri tested the word in her mouth, feeling its weight and push.

Toga grinned, nodding enthusiastically. "Yeah, we need to change how you look! What do you think of shorter hair?"

Eri reached a hand up to her thick white locks, which had been annoying her before. She did want to get rid of it. Over time it had grown knotted and dry. She didn't like washing it, because He had always made sure it was just as horribly clean as the rest of her. No one was to touch it, and even Eri's fingers hovered with pause when she tried.

As she thought about it though, a memory came to her, one she should have lost by now. Tight fingers caught her hair and tugged, back when she was too young to understand not to run away when she cried. The pulling of her scalp as she lost her chance at getting away still stung with ferocity.

She wanted it gone. "Okay."

With a clap, Toga sat down cross legged on the rocky ground and gestured for Eri to do the same. She did so, giggling as a cloud of dust kicked up around her.

"I'm going to use a knife to cut off your hair, okay?"

Eri froze, and furrowed her eyebrows as her stomach churned. She glanced back, and saw the knife Toga held up to show her. There was a warning, the blade was not His, and Eri wanted to.

"Okay. No more hair."

"No more hair," Toga repeated, but there was something soft and understanding to her words. Eri had been learning the different ways people say things, because they were all very loud in a wonderful way. It was nice to feel understood, and whatever other friendly melty feeling Toga was putting in her words. So nice, that Eri only noticed her hair had been cut when strands of her cloud white hair began to drift to the ground around her. The sky was falling and surrounding her with its freedom.

When Toga finally sat back and told Eri she was done, the young girl reached a hand up to her head, finding nothing but empty air all the way until she hit the back of her head, where what remained of her hair was short and pleasantly scratchy. It was a fluffy, spikey mess, and one that let her feel the wind as it passed her by without getting a mouthful of hair.

Flinging herself at Toga, Eri captured her in a warm and tight embrace, crying soft tears as she muttered a thanks. Toga sniffled and cried in kind, holding Eri tight in a way that didn't make her feel pressured or afraid, but instead protected and safe.

"Hey." Big Brother Shuichi's voice caught Eri's attention, and she slowly looked up from the hug without letting go of Toga. "Nice haircut Eri. Toga, we need to head out. You ready?"

Toga sighed, the sound vibrating through Eri's chest. "Yeah yeah, I know." Her hands pulled away slightly, moving Eri to a distance so she could meet her eyes. Eri looked back, curious of where they would be heading next. She didn't think they were done fighting the big monster man. "Eri, there are some bad people who hurt one of our friends, and we have to go save him okay? But it's very dangerous, so Tomura wants Mr Compress to keep you in a bubble again just in case."

There was something in Toga's eyes that Eri had never seen before. She'd seen Toga sad, when Twice would shake and scream and couldn't stop. She'd seen Toga angry, when Dabi left them because he wouldn't fight the monster man any longer. But never had Eri seen Toga scared.

Being scared was something Eri knew so well, she could see it in Toga's eyes even though she'd never seen it before. And with a slow look up, she could see it in Shuichi too. The tightness of his face and the way she tried to blank out her expression. They shouldn't be scared. No one should have to be scared like she was.

"I will. Not scared." She confirmed, nodding solemnly, even as her chest disagreed, pounding loud and quick.

"Thank you Eri." Shuichi smiled, and Eri knew it was wrong that her Big Brother should be the one saying thank you.

"Be okay. All of you be okay." Eri insisted, and when Toga and Big Brother Shuchi both blinked in surprise added a quieter "please."

"We'll be safe." Shuichi promised. "Big brother's do the protecting, remember?"

"Yeah!" Toga beamed, "We'll win for sure!"

There was still fear in their faces, but Eri hoped that if she believed it, they just might too.

***

It was dark and cool inside the marble bubble. Everything was coated in a pulsing blue, and the whole space around her felt like being underwater. For a moment, Eri nearly forgot she could breathe, but once she regained her focus the rise and fall of her chest followed that of the deep blue glow.

The world seemed to lull in the marble. Nothing felt quite so bad because nothing was really going on, and her worries drifted away in a wash of sleepy calm. She'd been sleeping better and better since Tomura saved her, but never on her own or through the full night. Usually she slept by Tomura, who hesitantly but safely curled an arm around her, shielding Eri from the world, but she never slept very deep, always waking up with an anxious pit when he tried to sneak away and return to his fight against the big monster.

Inside the marble though, rest came easy, and even before she fell asleep Eri felt deeply relaxed and knew deep dreams were coming on.

She first dreamed of those who saved her, and all the things about them that brought her warmth. A word Toga had said once in passing passed through her mind, but Eri didn't let it go. Love. She loved them, and something about that felt like Eri was for once the protector.

Later, she slid into dreams of things she didn't recognize, faces she must have seen once but didn't know. Of green hair and hope, of a sticky sweet food she'd never eaten. A different savior was in that dream, but one she couldn't pin down with how bright the world around her had become. It was something Eri would have loved to see in times before, when she didn't know what safety might look like, it was something she would imagine. Something perfect, and unreal.

But as a quick snap clicked her back into reality, and Eri awoke in Tomura's arms, she knew that what she had was what she needed. The cool pulse of the bubble drifted away, and she took in the change in Tomura’s features. He was smiling, finally fully smiling, bright and victorious as his eyes filled with the same safe gaze as before. His hair was whiter and longer now, and the lines in his face darker and more certain, but none of that mattered when Eri thought about what felt so warm about his hold.

Tomura was bleeding. All over he was bleeding, thick red oozing out of small cuts in his face but much more pooling into her side from a wound she couldn't see. Desperation gripped her, and Eri grabbed Tomura's arms, pinching her eyes shut as tears streamed down her face.

He couldn't be hurt. No, no he had to be okay. Go back, back to when he was okay and it was fine and he wasn't hurt and please take the wounds away Shuichi said they'd be okay so be okay Tomura be okay no more wounds please.

What time is he young Eri?

Hour Eight! Please he was okay at hour eight Tomura go back to hour eight and be okay!

Something stopped.

Eri opened her eyes. Tomura's mouth was wide open, and his hair was bluer like before. There was no more heat spreading along her side, and his face was only caked in dirt, not in dripping blood.

He was okay.

Eri had made him okay.

Chapter 10: Freyja’s Falcon Feathered Cloak

Notes:

Hey guys! Just found out I’m on the first page of kudos under the Spinner/Shigaraki tag! Thank you all so much, the support means the world

Also shoutout to my friend @FrackFrickFrolick for providing me with gecko facts for everyone’s favorite big bro, Spinner :DD

[cw for hand based trauma and horror]

Hands.

One familiar and dead, clamped over his mouth. He knew every crease and callous on the hands of his father, by the pressure points of his fingertips on Tomura’s face each day. But never had his father’s hand fully pressed against his mouth to silence him this way, where Tomura felt as though he couldn’t even breathe.

Two more hands, rough and old like leather that had been polished over and over again. The hands of his master closed over his eyes, leaving Tomura completely in the dark.

At his back, a gloved hand he never knew urged him forward.

Grabbing at his shirt was the scarred hand on his enemy, tugging him forward like a challenge.

One of his own hands scratched at his neck in fear and confusion.

The too large hands of the paragon hero pressed at his shoulders as though Tomura were some poor progidy he pitied.

Clawing at his ankles and pulling him off balance were the dangerous hands of the hero killer, who knew him weak and purposeless.

There were so many hands. Too many. Tomura didn’t want to be touched anymore, he wanted them gone and away and dust at his feet.

And then, out of the nothing something warm appeared. A small hand hesitantly grabbed at his fingers, and pulled.

Coming back to consciousness, it took a few moments for Tomura’s ears to stop ringing. Everything was a fuzzy blur, but as his limbs reawakened he knew that something was different. There should be a sting, and a gutting emptiness that tore through his middle. But there should be an airless too, a strength coursing through him that had been buried beneath the surface. Focusing, he thought he could still feel it buried there, thrumming deep within him.

Eyes focusing, Tomura found Eri sitting before him, supporting herself where he remembered holding her earlier.

“Eri?” Tomura’s voice cracked a little as he spoke.

“Went back. Okay now.” Eri mumbled, slowly slumping down with exhaustion.

Processing her words, Tomura’s jaw went slack with surprise. She had used her quirk perfectly, just to help him. Tears welled up and Tomura cracked a broken smile. “Thank you Eri. I’m okay now, and so is everyone else.”

“Did you save your friend?”

“Yeah,” Tomura said warmly. “Yeah we saved him too. Now why don’t you get some rest?”

As she moved from his lap and into the corner of the couch with a deep yawn, Tomura was reminded just how small Eri really was. They were doing the best they could to protect her, but knowing that they’d be working with the MLA now…it pulled at a guilt in Tomura’s gut, for having a young girl stuck in the middle of it all.

Eri fell asleep quick, and Tomura pushed himself quietly to his feet. Where he expected to feel a lacing sting of his stitches being strained, there was nothing. She really had turned back his body, even if his mind remained the same. Fingers brushing his hair as he reached up to itch at his neck, Tomura felt the wall that had returned in his mind, even though he knew what was on the other side now. It was so strange, to know what he could do but not how to do it. He’d locked the key inside.

Moving on instinct, Tomura found himself across the room, looking down at the one of his team who might understand better than the others.

Twice was still unconscious, but it looked to be a willing rest by now. Despite all of the bandages, stitches and wounds, he looked peaceful, almost smiling in his sleep, even without the mask. Tomura crouched down beside him, frowning slightly. “What am I supposed to do, if I don’t know how to maintain it?”

It was a rhetorical question, and Tomura wasn’t expecting an answer. But Twice chuckled, light and weak, and cracked his eyes open to meet Tomura’s.

“And you think I know? Man I am the most stubborn guy when it comes to facing my quirk and the trauma attached to it. Just because I overloaded and broke through doesn’t mean it’s all fixed Shigaraki, it’s going to take time.”

“I don’t have time.” Tomura grumbled, digging his nails into the side of his neck.

“So make time. I can already feel my muscles locking up when I think about making more of me, but for the moment, my head is clear, and I know that I can. This pain is real. This is me. I can learn the path to that breakthrough. I think so can you.”

Weaker, quieter, Tomura asked one final question. “Aren’t you scared?”

Twice beamed up at him, closing his eyes and dropping back into his rest with a final confidence.

“Terrified.”

***

There were a few days of healing, spent with quiet rest and contemplation, where Tomura thought about what to do with his quirk. Twice slowly got better, and his bouncy energy returned tenfold. The man could be found practically everywhere, using Compress’s cane to support his weight. Toga and Giran, both also wrapped in their bandages, always watched him from the sides with tired smiles on their faces.

Tomura most often found himself spending time with Spinner, as much as his conflicting feelings sputtered at the thought. And maybe it was strange, that he would always make sure Compress was around, just so he’d have someone to ignore Spinner in favor of, but Tomura was facing one internal conflict and didn’t want to deal with the other just yet. Or ever.

Eri slept for quite a while, but then could be found as she always had, wandering between them with a growing comfort. Her horn slowly began growing back again, and Tomura kept a close eye on it as it strengthened with building energy.

The MLA mostly left them all alone, but Tomura knew that eventually he’d have to face them, and that one day soon, they’d have to get back to work.

When that day came, it was because Dabi returned, and finally brought his little pet project in tow to meet them.

The League found themselves in a meeting room, part of the old office building they now called home base. Tomura sat at the head, with Spinner to his left and Toga to his right. Twice and Compress stood in the back, on guard while Giran and a Twice clone watched Eri in the small side room at the back.

Having the number two hero as a spy was nothing to be taken lightly, and Tomura was well aware how high the likelihood was that Hawks was double crossing them. Hell, Tomura could hardly even trust Dabi, and he was the middle man.

The door swung open, and with quite a bit of clearly intentional dramatic flair, Hawks strode in, Dabi at his side.

Tomura flicked his eyes to Dabi, and inclined his head toward the door. Dabi closed it with a click, and stood back. Whether that was to hold guard or maintain that this was his connection, Tomura didn’t particularly care to unpack.

“Hello Hawks. Have a seat,” Tomura gestured.

Hawks grinned, leaning back on his heels. “Nah, I prefer to stand.”

Tomura furrowed his brows slightly, but before he could say anything, a thunk echoed through the room. Glancing over, Tomura saw a fire in Spinner’s eyes, and his knife buried deep into the wood of the meeting table.

“Woah,” Hawks chuckled, with a chirp at the back of his throat “Chill out dragon man.”

Spinner let out his own clicking chirp, but there was a bubble of anger behind it rather than Hawks's nonchalant cheer. "Gecko," he growled.

Slowly, Tomura moved his hand toward Spinner. To Hawks, it might have looked like a threatening gesture, but Tomura hoped Spinner would catch the soft rise and fall imploring him to breathe. He didn’t like the hero either, but they needed him.

Spinner slumped back, grumbled softly to himself as his chest continued to vibrate with dangerous chitters.

“We don’t take insensitivity lightly here,” Tomura reprimanded the winged hero. “Now. Your work with Dabi has proven useful, and he says you wish to continue working with us.”

Hawks didn’t let him finish. “Oh yeah, I’m ready to cause some chaos.”

He needed Hawks to listen. To not take his leadership so lightly.

Something broke forward from that space behind the locked door, and pushed. As though adjusted by an old hand, Tomura leaned forward, hands moving away from his neck and coming to rest beneath his chin, fingers interlocked and elbows propping up his posture. “And is that what you want from us? A little chaos? A little fun?”

Hawks shifted slightly, shrugging and humming noncommittally. “I’ve got to fly the cage somehow.”

“Do you really have the conviction, the loyalty we need? The whole world is against us, heroes and their scapegoats alike.”

Hawks nodded enthusiastically, and lifted a black bag that he’d been carrying at his side. “I mean this. All in. I’ve got the evidence to prove it.”

Tomura raised an eyebrow, and glanced back at Compress. The magician nodded, and stepped forward, crossing the table to Hawks’s bag.

“Let us have a look then,” Compress said, unzipping the bag and looking inside.

It had been long enough that Tomura could recognize the expressions of even his most heavily masked allies. So when Compress straightened up slightly, Tomura knew he was surprised. And yet when he spoke, Compress still maintained his every present professionalism. “The body of Best Jeanist.”

Tomura frowned at the way Compress ended his words. Left open, questioning. Tomura trusted Compress to know an illusion when he saw one, and so filed that away for later. “Well, you have drive. But what about purpose? What are you doing here Hawks?”

“I-” Hawks was hesitant, and so it Tomura’s turn to cut him off.

“Toga, what are you here for?”

“So that I can free my loves from that which has blinded them,” Toga answered instantly.

“Spinner?”

“To dismantle quirk based oppression and the false hero standard.”

“Twice?”

“Everyone deserves a chance to be saved.”

“Compress?”

“I have found revolution is necessary to overturn history.”

“And Dabi?”

“Revenge.”

——

It was the middle of the night, when Shuichi was supposed to meet Shigaraki in his room. The meeting with Hawks had not gone on too much longer, but it sounded like they were seriously considering the number two hero’s offer. Shuichi hated Hawks, not only for his maintaining the corruption in hero society, but for a gut churning jealousy at how well he’d come out while having a mutation quirk just like Shuichi.

But all those thoughts fell away, because he was going to meet Shigaraki, in the middle of the night.

His heart was pounding, trying to break forth from his chest. There was no way it was about anything he was imaging and yet, the idea of going to Shigaraki's room in the middle of the night, alone?

It scared him in more ways than one.

Regardless though, he pressed forward, swallowing hard as he pushed open the door.

"Spinner," Shigaraki greeted, offering him a seat with a wave of his hand.

Shuichi didn't sit, his nerves were racing too much for that. "Why did you call me here?"

Shigaraki raised an eyebrow at him, but kept speaking. Faintly, Shuichi was reminded of his own reaction to Hawks refusing to sit earlier, and flushed, lowering himself slowly into a chair.

"How far would you go for me?"

Shuichi froze, his words catching in his throat. "To the ends of the world," he stuttered.

"You would do anything? Even if it meant crossing lines you've never crossed before, leaving behind what you know?" Shigaraki said with some surprise.

Stain's face rose in his mind as Shigaraki spoke. The Hero Killer had given him his drive, and his moral code, but it had only ever been a starting point. He couldn't always be an imitation of Stain's ideals. He needed to find his own motivation, and over the past few months he had found it in Shigaraki. So his answer was actually rather obvious.

"Of course. I wouldn't be leaving everything behind if I still had you."

Shigaraki blinked in surprise, seemingly dumbfounded by his words. In hindsight, that line was extremely embarrassing, and Shuichi's eyes widened as hot blush rushed over his face.

Shigaraki seemed to compose himself, and spoke again. "Do you think that the Meta Liberation Army would do the same?"

Oh. So that's what this was about. He tried not to let the disappointment show on his face, because he wasn't disappointed, really.

"No. They fear you rather than follow you."

"That's what I suspected. I believe they are looking for the right time to turn on us again. And they aren't the only ones, so I need you to do something for me."

"And what's that?" Shuichi asked hesitantly.

"I need you to tail Hawks when he heads back to the Hero Commission. Watch him, and make sure he isn't planning on double crossing us. Oh, and I need you to take Eri with you."

"Of course," Shuichi nodded, "but wouldn't Eri be safer here?"

Shigaraki shook his head. "I don't want her too close to the Meta Liberation Army."

"Oh, right." Shuichi nodded, and tried to keep himself from fiddling with his clothes. He needed to get out of there. "If that is all?"

"That’s all," Shigaraki nodded, and Shuichi turned to leave when he spoke again. "Oh and Spinner? Thank you."

Shuichi could hardly do more than nod as he rushed out of the room to the sound of his ever faster beating heart.

Chapter 11: Idunn’s Golden Apples

Notes:

hey guys, no particular notes today but I hope you’re all doing well, enjoy!

Eri wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel about the bird winged man. He walked everywhere with his head held high, announcing his presence with a strange grin and a constant drawl. He reminded her a little bit of Bumblebee, who didn’t hurt her head too much to think about, but this man was much less afraid.

Tomura didn’t like him. Tomura looked at him the way he looked at Dabi, except that Eri knew this man was not in charge. But still, Tomura had made her and Giran go somewhere else when they first met him, and tried to keep her out of his sight.

Eri worried about what that meant. She worried that it meant the bird winged man worked for Him and had come to collect her. One last game of pretend, one last doodle on her big empty walls. And then it would all be over and they would be scrubbed clean, so clean, back to pure white.

She hoped that wasn’t who this man was. Even if hope would do nothing.

A few days after the strange man’s arrival, Eri was playing jacks with Giran. It was a game she knew, from some old caretaker she didn’t remember, and the friendly clink of the jacks as they scattered across the ground was a welcome distraction to all of the new and strange sounds of the old building they lived in now.

“Oh shit!” Giran exclaimed jovially, as a jack fumbled through his fingers and hit the ground. Eri smiled, and caught the ball before it could roll away.

“I can go?” Eri asked hesitantly for permission.

Giran nodded, his glasses slipping. “It’s your turn.”

Eri liked the way Giran responded to her. He never asked questions or tried to push when she fell into old patterns, he just listened, and answered her in a way that made her realize it was okay.

She bounced the ball, and scooped up two jacks.

She bounced the ball, and picked up three jacks.

She bounced the ball, and missed the fourth jack.

“Oh, shit.” Eri said blankly, staring down at the jack she missed.

Giran was silent, and Eri slowly looked up as she held out the ball to him. His mouth was wide open, and he was staring at her with a complicated expression. “Your turn.”

Giran broke down into laughter, one hand to his forehead as he took the ball with the other. His shoulders were shaking, and the laughs were airy and quiet. “We really fu- messed you up, huh kid?”

Eri tilted her head. That didn’t seem right. They’d done right, they’d saved her. They’d helped her so much. And why was it something to laugh about? “No. Saved me.”

Pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, Giran nodded. “Right, right. Well I’m glad we got you out of there. Now where were we? My turn, right?”

Eri nodded, and even though she didn’t quite get it, Giran was grinning enough to show the friendly gap in his teeth, so it must be okay.

A few turns later, Eri was focused on the game, and didn’t even notice the second set of shoes that walked in alongside Dabi. He went right to the couch, crumpling down into it, and Eri was about to return to the game and grab her seven jacks, when someone crouched down beside her.

“Oh hey jacks, I love this game!”

Eri jumped, scrambling to her feet and ducking behind Giran, who squared his shoulders for her. Her heart pounded, and her shorter hair didn’t get in the way when she cracked her eyes open to investigate from safely behind Giran’s shoulder.

Crouching before her with a raise to his eyebrows and a far too loose smile on his face was the strange man, red wings folded around him. “Oh, didn’t mean to spook you. I’m Hawks, friend of Dabi’s.”

He held out his hand for her to shake but Eri didn’t respond, only burying her head deeper towards Giran’s shoulder.

Hawks shrugged, dropping his hand and turning his attention towards Giran, who’s chest Eri could feel thumping from her place at his shoulder blade, balancing out her own. “Didn’t know you had a kid, man! Congrats!”

“Well thank you, she’s quite a lovely kid to have.” Giran sounded off, and Eri wasn’t sure she was understanding the conversation.

“The resemblance is uncanny, but what’s she doing here anyway? Isn’t it kind of dangerous?”

“You got anywhere else?” Giran challenged, and Hawks seemed to frown, backing down slightly.

“Right, yeah, I guess not. Well, you guys mind if I join you for a game of jacks?”

***

Big Brother Shuichi was taking her on an adventure. They hadn’t been able to spend time together in a long time, Shuichi had to help Tomura with all the people he was supposed to lead now, but bright and early this morning, he’d woken her up and asked if she’d like to go find something cool.

She didn’t know what they were looking for, but Shuichi confided in her that he didn’t either, he just wanted to explore. Eri was allowed to be curious about anything, pointing out a shop here or a funny rock there. They could stop and stall and enjoy the sun, and she didn’t have to worry because Big Brother Shuichi was with her, and that meant protection.

They were walking along when Eri suddenly smelled something that forced her to stop and turn. It was sharp and sweet, sticking and smooth. It reminded her a little bit of Toga. Grabbing Shuichi’s sweatshirt sleeve, Eri pointed at the shop from which the enchanting smell emerged. “What’s there?”

“Sweets,” Shuichi answered cheerfully, “do you want to go inside?”

Eri nodded enthusiastically, and with a skip, rushed in after the smell.

The inside of the shop was possibly the most colorful place Eri had ever seen. More colorful than the sunrise, Eri couldn’t stop looking around. There was always something to see, some packages small and round, others long and square. Most were small, as though she could fill her hands with them forever. Once inside, there were so many more smells, but the one she’d gone in to investigate was a shelf labeled “caramel” with cases and cases of different golden brown sweets. Eri grabbed a small square one, wrapped in black packaging with a clear stripe to show the warm colored sweet underneath. It looked like Twice, and Eri closed it tight beneath her fingers, where it squished a bit with the pressure.

Turning her attention away, Eri followed her next most powerful sense, and found a shelf of rainbow color spots, each a round sweet stuck on the end of a stick. There was every color imaginable, some she didn’t even know existed, and Eri reached for one who’s package swirled red and purple. Holding it in her fist, she raced over to Shuichi, and showed off her findings to him.

Shuichi turned to her with an orange package in his own hand, and grinned. “Oo yum, want to get those?”

Eri nodded, and handed over the sweets that Shuichi took with care and headed off to the counter with. She followed him, bouncing back and forth on her heels as she waited to taste the fascinating new foods. He handed them back to her right away, and Eri looked them over, before settling on stuffing the caramel into her pocket and unwrapping the other sweet right now.

Underneath the packaging it was bright blue, like Tomura’s hair. Eri bit down on it and winced, finding it hard and difficult to break. So instead she just stuck it in her mouth to taste. It was so sweet it was almost sour, bursting in her mouth with an electric fruity flavor. In an instant, Eri’s eyes went wide, and she could feel the sugar running its energy spike through her. It was delicious, so much all at once.

She held a hand out to Shuichi, and kept the other on the stick of the sweet. He grabbed it, familiar scales squeezing her fingers tight once before loosening their grip, just to show her he was there.

They stepped out of the shop and into the sunlight.

Big Brother Shuichi’s hand was torn away.

Eri gasped as his scales slipped from her fingers, a blur of white entangling him and dragging him away. Someone was touching her. Someone with unfamiliar hands too tight and too forceful, that didn’t give her a chance to let go. They wrapped around her middle and lifted her into the air as she opened her mouth and tried to scream.

For a moment, it was all caught, His voice in her head telling her she shouldn’t struggle, that that would only make it worse.

She thought of Shuichi becoming a thick red splatter against the morning light, and screamed.

She screeched and kicked and lost control of what was going on but the hands around her were too tight and the green was all wrong and it wasn’t Big Brother Shuichi because he had been torn away. She couldn’t hear anything but her heartbeat in her throat pounding and pounding over and over and over and over again so wrong without someone else’s there to slow it down.

Shuichi was struggling, his mouth open as he screamed for her in a voice Eri couldn’t hear. She could see him, too slow and too fast as he slashed and squirmed against the grip of the strangers and their clean white bonds. So clean. Too clean. He’d come for her. He’d finally come to collect her for her little attempt at running away.

She couldn’t breathe. She knew she couldn’t breathe but she couldn’t figure out how to either, coughing and sputtering as she desperately tried to gasp for breath but the arms around her were too tight and they were choking her and she couldn’t breathe she’d be unmade and made again they would take her back to Him and it would be over. It would all be over.

It would all be over.

It would all be over.

Her mouth was empty of electric sweets, and her eyes buzzed as the colors began to fade.

It would all be over.

White emptiness came quick, so quick Eri wouldn’t even know she’d fallen unconscious if the last thing she saw hadn’t been a flash.

Of red.

Chapter 12: The Prophecy of The Gjallarhorn

Notes:

Merry Christmas wonderful readers! Thanks for sticking with me through another year! Every comment and kudos means the world.

Tomura had been advised to rest.

Even after Eri rewound him, the memories were fresh, and his muscles ached from the near endless fight against Gigantomachia. Every doctor Redestro had in his army advised that Tomura sleep, drink lots of water and eat well. Compress in particular agreed with the eating well advice, frequently sauntering into Tomura's room to offer him a plate of some delicacy or other because they just had it on hand now, they didn't have to be so malnourished anymore.

Tomura was not following that advice.

For the past twenty four hours he'd been sitting in one position on a rotting old couch, staring at a crackling TV and waiting. Hunger tugged at his stomach and thirst cracked at his throat, but Tomura would not move, could not move.

Because Spinner and Eri hadn’t returned.

The news channel he'd flipped to was currently in the middle of a happy story about an old man and his dog reuniting after an earthquake separated them when the dog was a puppy. Inspiring music swelled as he got down on shaky joints just to pet the big fluffy beast who still recognized him after all the years, and Tomura hardly saw it at all. It was nothing but static to his eyes as he waited.

Toga and Twice walked in, but Tomura didn't hear them. Toga began to pace, while Twice slowly moved to the couch to sit on the opposite side. They'd done this four times in the past twenty four hours.

Compress walked in twenty minutes later, when the news was running the next week's weather forecast. All sunny and perfect, with little chance of rain. Compress set a plate of sashimi on the end table, and leaned against the wall. Twice took one and ate it without pause. Toga stared at hers like it might attack her. Tomura didn't even hear the plate clink against the wood.

When the news was interviewing an actor about their upcoming lead role in a movie about some space revolution, the door opened for just a moment. Blue eyes stared into the darkness and the TV reflected back. The door closed in silence, and no one turned to see.

After ninety-seven minutes, Toga turned to leave. She set the eaten sashimi back on the plate and walked to the door with confidence. When she opened it, Giran was standing there, one hand on the doorknob and the other holding a crumpled newspaper. Toga stopped and stared. Giran shook his head and stepped inside, letting the newspaper fall from his fingers.

The front page headline fell to the floor, a picture of a laughing young boy lifted in the arms of Kamui Woods alongside the words: Child Raising Money For Brother's Malfunction Recovery Earns Support Of Number Seven Hero.

“We need to start looking for them,” Giran said without any preamble, the first to break the silence. “I’ll ask my contacts if anyone knows anything.”

Compress sighed and pushed himself off the wall. “I suggest we check on the Shie Hassaikai first. Even without Overhaul it was inevitable they’d want he-their most valuable asset back.”

Tomura’s mouth went dry, his senses dulled as he tried to process their words. His jaw felt clamped shut, and he slowly moved a hand to scratch at his neck.

No, that wasn't right. They'd dealt with Overhaul, he wouldn't be so bold as to take her from them. Not yet.

“What could have happened, all they did was go into town for supplies,” Twice muttered as though he were a detective trying to sort through the pieces.

Tomura stiffened, the previous evening’s conversation with Spinner coming to the forefront of his mind. That wasn’t true, that wasn’t true at all. None of them knew. None of them knew what he’d sent Spinner to do.

None of them knew this was all his fault.

***

Eventually, Tomura fell asleep. His body knew its limits and a month of nothing but fighting was bound to take a toll.

His dreams, however, were not so kind.

He was standing on nothing, amidst a storm cloud of dust that drenched his nostrils with the stench of blood. Everything was muted in tones of greys and blues, with the occasional spark of yellow light.

Tomura's gut was sinking in emptiness, as he hovered uselessly in the air.

And with a blink, he was jerked forward.

Tomura watched over the shoulder of his younger self, but felt in control of his childhood body. He was standing in a dark room, a room that made his head ache. The young Tomura moved to the door, but the fuzz in his limbs made the handle impossible to turn.

It opened through him, and a shadow walked in.

It was both Master and not, his face melting and morphing into some amalgamation of someone Tomura didn't recognize.

Master smiled, electric as an eel and Tomura knew he spoke without hearing the words.

"My boy. The wind whispers your secrets to the sky."

A distant confusion tugged at Tomura, but his younger self understood, and his mouth moved in silent response. "It is the birds."

Master reached down and placed a hand on his shoulder, fingers pressing through his flesh. "And you must let them hear of you. Until the earth shakes with your agony and the sky is swallowed whole. I know it is coming, I see the end and he will not rise from it."

Tomura looked up at him, and felt his young self's desire to be the vengeance his Master asked, as he reached out a hand, two fingers curled back.

Master's head fell off his shoulders, expression preserved in disgust and disapproval.

"Prisoner of the serpent." A new voice drew his attention, and Tomura in his own body turned, the image of his headless Master forgotten in haze as he left the child behind to face Spinner, alight in yellow glow. His right arm ended in torn flesh and exposed muscle, a fresh amputative wound.

There was nothing real in the room in which they now stood, TV in the corner flickering with an ongoing news broadcast, and one that was very very important. Tomura ached of it now, the knowledge that this is a dream. But it isn't waking him up.

"What happened to you?"

The sound of static filled his ears, and flowed with the rhythm of his blood cycling around them. But he still understood Spinner's words.

"To the teeth of the wolf I proved my conviction. Are the fangs of the snake where you want to prove yours?"

Tomura can feel the memory of something he has never experienced, tight discomfort against jagged stone, a slowly filling wooden bowl his only salvation from a quiet drip drip drip that echoed through the cave.

Spinner’s eyes pulled him deeper into the dream. "You cannot lose sight of the sunlight. Even in this darkness, you must not let her go."

Tomura could feel the wrongness in his body pulling tension as tight as a rope, ready to wake him up.

"Save her."

He awoke abruptly, to the news broadcast he'd been waiting for. Mugshots of Spinner, and a shaky recording of him being stuffed in a muzzle and heavy iron handcuffs with no struggle save for the calm glare in his eyes that burned into Tomura's mind as strong as those from the dream. They burned with revolution and protection, a warrior's voice that could not be stifled by the soundproofing of a Tartarus cell.

The dark haired UA teacher passed in front of the camera, and Tomura's heart dropped like a stone, a mix of guilt and relief falling through the dust. In his arms, Eraserhead gripped Eri, unconscious and innocent.

As soon as Spinner caught sight of her, all the calm leeched from his body, and he lunged out with hot rage, tears burning from his eyes as a piercing scream could be heard even through his clamped jaw.

An echo of dream Spinner's voice was still fresh in his head, and Tomura heard it in Spinner's desperate scream, as Hawks held his thrashing form back from Eraserhead and knocked out Eri.

"Save her. Save the sun."

Notes:

I almost left you guys totally in the dark about Spinner and Eri for another chapter, but I felt like I should give you some insight for the holidays :))

I’d also love to know how you interpreted Tomura’s dream, it was fun to finally weave in a few of the references I’ve been making with the titles all this time!

Chapter 13: The Host Aegir

Eri woke up alone.

She was in a nicer room than she'd ever been before, with soft rainbow painted walls and a wide window opening to a sweet morning sky, but she felt just as unsafe.

Just as unsafe as she'd ever felt with Him.

She pulled her knees close to her chest and dropped her head into them, for the first time missing her long hair and it’s protection. It used to hide her face from Him, so she didn’t have to look, didn’t have to see.

She’d wanted to see everything when she was with Tomura.

Eri cried soundlessly at the thought of him, but her gut was so hollow with dread the tears dried up quickly before they even rolled off her cheeks. Her heart was fighting for hope against her terror, trying to convince her that Tomura would save her while her mind flashed only images of red and needles and so much pain.

He always made it hurt, when He was mad at her.

There were footsteps down the hall, and Eri gasped, her breathing speeding up in an irregular and panicked rhythm. She forced her head up and looked around desperately. The bed was in the middle of the room, and she scrambled off it to press into one of the corners, using the walls to hold herself standing. She let her face fall to the floor as the door opened, and watched her knees shake as the caretaker entered the room.

The boots that crossed the floor to her were unfamiliar, but white always white. The caretaker crouched down in front of her, but Eri didn’t look at Bumblebee’s face, even when his blonde hair reached her peripheral. She just kept staring at his clean white boots, as he reached out a hand and spoke her name.

“Eri?”

He wasn’t Bumblebee.

Eri’s heart froze. Bumblebee was gone. Bumblebee was gone and splattered all over the white walls because she’d been taken from him, because he’d failed, because she’d left. Because He never let anyone get away.

Eri’s hands pressed flat against the wall behind her. She angled her eyes just past his white boots. Eri remembered she was supposed to breathe. Eri thought of Tomura.

Eri ran.

She pushed off against the wall and ducked around the caretaker, mind in a buzz as she raced for the door that he hadn’t thought to close. The hallways looked different when she got outside, but they were still just as clean and white as they always had been. They made Eri’s mind buzz, and she almost forgot to breathe again until she heard the yelping of the caretaker behind her, and quickened the echoes of her running footsteps against the tile floor. She could hear the caretaker running behind her, but traveling had made her faster, and her breaths were no longer so labored as she ducked around and tried to find a way out of the cold.

She didn’t get very far before a shadow blocked her vision and picked her up in its arms. She thrashed and kicked wildly until one of her wild glances was thrown upward, and she caught a glimpse of fluffy hair and warm expression that made her stop. It was familiar, but she didn’t know why. The shadow who picked her up had bright eyes full of enthusiasm like Toga which only made Eri’s chest tight in anger and hopelessness all over again.

“Hey. It’s okay. It’s okay.” Fluffy Hair said. “We aren’t going to hurt you. No one is ever going to hurt you anymore.” His voice was solid at the end, like cliff stones under her feet.

She didn’t understand. Why would He tell them to act like this?

Her stomach dropped, and Eri thought of an answer. He was going to ruin everything that was good. He was going to ruin them so she’d never try to get saved again.

He was going to ruin warm bread, and frogs and statues and jacks and new clothes and marbles and big brothers. He was going to make them all hurt, like he made shoes and crayons until she’d given them up on her own. All He wanted was hurt. Clean, white, hurt.

And she wasn’t going to give it to Him.

When she first met Giran, he was covered in red and wrapped in Big Brother and Mr. Compress' bandages. She had just rewound Timura, and she was tired, but Mr. Compress assured her there was someone she needed to meet.

"He's our friend," Big Brother had explained, "the one we were saving."

Eri looked at Tomura, asleep on the couch, and Toga and Twice lying next to each other on the floor. She hoped saving her hadn't looked like this.

When they walked into the next room, she saw a man with short grey hair, and too many bandages. He was like her.

When he looked up, his eyes were dark, the dark of cover and disguise. But as soon as he saw her a sparkle blinked through his expression, pulling the curtain of sorrow away. "Hey there kid, you must be Eri huh."

Eri nodded, hesitant but awed by their similarity.

"We saved her from Overhaul, almost a year ago now." Big brother explained. She shuddered a little at His name.

"That shithead? I can assume you took care of him."

"Rightly so, he's in Tartarus now."

"Damn straight, that hellhole is only good for him. Sorry to bring him up kid."

Eri was surprised by the apology, and stepped forward slightly. "Okay. Can't hurt me. Tomura promised."

"Tomura promised, did he? Well good. You hold onto that promise Eri, because he's right. Nobody can hurt you, not if you hold onto yourself, see?"

She saw.

Eri let herself get carried back to the room with the rainbow walls, and be set back down on the bed in the middle of the room. Fluffy Hair and White Boots grabbed chairs from the side of the room, and sat down across from her.

Fluffy Hair didn't forget to close the door.

“Hi there! Sorry about that, I’m sure it’s very weird to wake up in a new place,” White Boots tried to explain, and Eri watched the way his boots tapped habitually. “My name is Lemillion, and this is my friend Deku. Your name is Eri, right?”

She’d gotten used to questions, and almost forgotten tests. She nodded.

Lemillion leaned forward slightly, and Eri could see him smiling from the tops of her eyes. “We’re heroes, we’re going to help you okay? You’ll be safe, and grow up to be big and strong.”

Heroes?

Eri thought she knew heroes, a long time ago. She’d heard His men whisper about them, or shudder in fear, and she figured they were against Him and that they would save her. But they never came. And then there was Tomura. And Tomura always complained about heroes, talked about how they hid behind false faces, talked of taking them down. But Tomura too, always shuddered in fear at the thought of them.

She knew then, that heroes didn’t help anyone.

Heroes only made people afraid.

***

In the middle of the night, someone was at Eri’s window. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to sleep, but she was lying in the bed with her eyes closed, in case the heroes or someone else came to check on her.

That was why she noticed the flash of light glance across the window.

Eri’s eyes flicked to the window, but all she saw outside was darkness. She took in a deep breath, and sat up, pushing the sheets aside to get out of the bed. The mattress was so squishy, lying down had felt as though she were drowning in it.

It was familiar, her bare feet against a cool concrete floor. She didn’t like it, and quickly put her shoes back on before walking across to the window frame. Eri was only barely tall enough to look outside.

Outside was a night of few stars, and more easily seen were the lights from various buildings. Too many buildings, still awake in the middle of the night, and with strange sounds that didn’t make sense. She missed the forest and it’s rhythmic rumble.

The light that she’d seen flickered out again, and when she squinted Eri noticed someone standing by a tree, and holding something up to examine it. They were angling it back and forth until it sent glittering spots of light out in every direction. She wanted to know how.

The figure glanced her way and seemed to start, pushing off the tree and heading towards her window with a practiced subtlety.

When they got close, they waved with their empty hand. Eri could now make out a boy who looked as old as Toga, with blonde waves and intense purple eyes.

When he got up to the window, the boy held up his other hand, and Eri saw the object he’d been making sparkle.

It was a blue marble.

They had come for her. They had come to save her again.

The boy was fiddling with something now, and Eri tried to watch as his fingers moved in quick incomprehensible motions. One moment, he was fiddling, and the next, the window was open.

“Good evening ma petite étoile,” the boy greeted with a charismatic smile. “You are Eri, no?”

Eri nodded blankly, still trying to decode the first half of his sentence.

“I’m Yuga. Our friends are friends, as they say.” Yuga leaned against the window, arms folded neatly.

Something in his eyes was so honest, Eri couldn’t explain why she believed him. She just knew.

“Is Tomura?” Eri asked, trailing off in her hope he was there.

Emotions were easily expressed on Yuga’s face, and he frowned sadly, shaking his head. “Now that the heroes have you, he cannot be so obvious. I only wanted you to know that you are not alone, and we will not forget you.”

Eri sniffed heavily, her eyes almost full enough for tears again. “I want to go,” she muttered.

After a moment of shuffling, Yuga held out his hand, producing the blue marble and a small square of cheese. “I know étoile, but the heroes are not so bad. I and Toga would both speak highly of Midoriya. They may not have saved us as Tomura did but some of them do try.”

Eri swallowed, and took the marble and cheese from Yuga, cradling them softly in her palms. She looked at them as she spoke, feeling something swirling inside. It was as though she were staring off the cliff into the forest and waiting for Tomura to return from his fight, but he was never coming.

“Please.”

Yuga’s soft fingers in her hair should have made her flinch, but Eri only felt her chest spark with the newfound connection. “I promise. We will save you.”

When his hand pulled away, and the found of his footsteps crunched away into the night, he took with him some of the cold from Eri’s mind.

—

On the second day, Togata was sitting outside the hospital room, completely dejected. She hadn’t even talked to them, just given blank answers and looked away and glowered. She hated them. Hated the heroes who saved her.

The League of Villains had brainwashed an innocent girl.

Next to him, Deku was crying, his body shaking with sobs. Togata wanted to cry too. He wanted to cry and scream and take down the League himself. But he couldn’t do that, not yet anyway. He just had to keep smiling, even if it was forced, and try to convince Deku that there was some ounce of hope left.

“Maybe if we bring her lunch,” Togata tried to offer, reaching desperately for any possible reconciliation.

Deku heaved his breaths, and tried to rub the tears away from his eyes. “We don’t even know what she likes to eat,” he whispered, voice raw.

Togata pressed his lips together, looking away. Deku was right, but he had to try something. Had to try something to keep himself from falling apart. “That’s okay. I’ll just bring her my favorite.”

Togata took a deep breath, and got up with confidence, now motivated by his focus on the task at hand. The next twenty minutes he spent tuning out his own mind as he gathered together a bowl of the best ramen he knew.

It was only when he was standing in front of the door, that he started to doubt himself again. Togata looked back at Deku, who hadn’t moved from his spot in the chair, and was mumbling to himself with his head in his hands to muffle the sound. Only looking at him, Togata felt his heart swell with the realization Deku was the brother he never had, and he pulled the pieces of himself back together.

He would help this little girl. Not just for her or for himself, but for Deku, too.

When he walked into the room, Eri was just hopping back up onto the bed, and stuffing something into her pockets. Togata resolved not to bother the girl about what she did in her free time, and instead smiled cheerfully.

“Good afternoon Eri! I brought you lunch!”

Eri’s generally blank expression for a moment turned curious, and that alone was enough to renew Togata’s hope.

He set the warm bowl down on the table near the back of the room by the window, and then sat down in one of the chairs. As he waited, he noticed the window was open, and frowned slightly. He could’ve sworn it was closed the night before.

When he stood up to pull the window shut, there was a shuffling sound behind him, and Togata stopped in surprise when he found Eri sitting in the chair across from his, staring up at him.

Togata sat back down, his smile becoming more genuine now. “It’s ramen. Have you ever had ramen?”

Eri shook her head.

“Well it’s my favorite. Go ahead,” he indicated.

Eri looked down at the ramen and grabbed her chopsticks, carefully trying a bite.

Her eyes sparked with a supernova of glittering life.

“It’s good,” she said quietly.

Togata nodded in enthusiasm and let himself laugh. “I know!”

Eri ate faster after that, and Togata was content to let her enjoy the meal in silence. But after a while, he was surprised to find it was Eri who chose to break it.

“My favorite is caramel apples,” she said between bites, entirely out of the blue.

Togata blinked in wonder, and wondered further. “Really? Who gave you those?”

“Big Brother Shuichi,” Eri said flatly, as though it were obvious.

Togata’s mind went dead in a buzz. Shuichi? Shuichi Iguchi? The League of Villain’s very own Spinner, swordsman and Stain copycat? Eri’s big brother? The buzz grew to a storm of confusion, pulling him left and right in its waves, and Togata found himself asking the only question he could.

“Big Brother?”

Eri’s nod felt distant, as though Togata were seeing it through a telescope. “A big brother protects,” she explained, and the words were clear through the buzzing in his head. “Makes you smile, never leaves.”

It was like a mantra, the pounding hammer of words that sent spider webbing cracks through Togata’s very foundation, threatening it all to come tumbling down.

Someone who protects. Who makes you smile, no matter the cost. Someone who will never leave you behind.

Someone who he tried to be every day. Someone who he was for Deku without even meaning to be.

A hero. All the definitions of a hero, in a big brother.

And Eri had found a big brother, had found a hero, in the League of Villains.

It all came crumbling down.

Notes:

after posting this chapter I decided to read back all the comments you guys have left and I just had to come back and add a note about it because every single one only made me smile more you’re all lovely [and some of you are fucking hilarious too pfft]

thank you for being such wonderful readers

Chapter 14: Inevitable Ragnarok

Notes:

We’re in the final stretch my friends! I’ve spent the last few months finishing up these final chapters and I figured I’d drop them both at once as a sort of double feature so you don’t have to deal with any more of my procrastinators hiatus shenanigans. Thank you all so much for reading, I know I’ve said it way too often but I appreciate every single one of you. Now please enjoy these last two chapters, I hope they’re a satisfactory ending :))

Normality was something Tomura had never had. Maybe once in his childhood, before he could remember it. But once he turned four years old, normality was the first thing to turn to dust between his fingers.

Ignoring the news and the knowledge they were gone was impossible but with his long leather trench coat shaping an imposing silhouette on his shoulders and his blue hair finally shorn from its shaggy standard, Tomura thought he was doing a fairly good job at pretending all was normal. He was as any villain should be, as Master would have been, uncaring about the loss of the two people closest to him.

The rest of the League didn’t seem to believe it, but Tomura was doing a pretty good job at not caring about that either.

His lieutenants, as the MLA insisted he call them, sat on either side of him in the meeting room, as they discussed with the Meta Liberation Army the next wisest move in upturning the hero-plagued society.

Only Dabi and Compress ever attended these meetings with Tomura anymore.

The first few days had been a cacophony of grief and terror for all of them, Tomura included as the pit of agony sank into his gut each time he closed his eyes and pictured Spinner. Every time he dreamed, Spinner would plead with him and scream and ask him why, why don’t you save the sun? Tomura asked the Doctor for sleeping pills, and the nights became much darker after that.

Unfortunately, sleeping pills couldn’t keep him from the questions in the light, and each time Toga asked him when or how they would rescue Eri, and Twice patted his shoulder to comfort Tomura for something that was all his fault it only felt like a wasp sting piercing deep into his heart and spreading its venom outward.

So Tomura closed it all off.

He closed it all off and he hid beneath his leadership and he pretended not to care because if he cared if he gave into regret he would have to face the fact that maybe he was wrong. Maybe he was wrong to send them right into the arms of a system he’d fought against so long. Maybe he was wrong to give in to his own selfish fear.

But he couldn’t face that yet. So he ignored them.

Toga must have seen it, the way the emotions dropped off his face when he pulled up his cold confident walls. She’d spat a few spiteful words at him that he couldn’t remember, barbs about teamwork and family that he’d rather forget. And then she disappeared.

She wasn’t missing, Tomura knew that much, he had seen her once or twice walking through the halls, and Compress confirmed that she was alright, but she entirely retreated from the League, from their missions. Twice didn’t follow her, but he didn’t throw himself into the cause the way he had before, often hanging back and muttering excuses of self-improvement and practice with his newly expanded quirk.

Someone across the table asked him a question, and Tomura blinked back to awareness in time to give a direct answer that seemed to satisfy the inquiry he’d hardly even registered.

Dabi glanced over at him, raising an eyebrow before he spoke. “You know boss, if we really wanna aim for the heart or whatever in the next few weeks, I think I’ve got a target in mind.”

Tomura leaned his head downward to indicate he was listening.

“I think we should hit Tartarus.”

Tomura’s blood ran cold, what little color was in his grey face draining out through the cracks.

Compress spoke up on the other side, and Tomura knew he’d been outplayed. “I must agree, it would give us a good opportunity to knock them in the back of the knees, so to speak, before we deliver a blow such as plan Todoroki. Not to mention we’d recover some powerful allies.”

Tomura sighed, a rough scraping sound clawing its way up through his throat and pushing some of his buried terror out along with it. “Only a small team is going to get through that tight security, who exactly do you suggest we make it our priority to recover?”

“We only have three targets,” Dabi explained in dry monotone. “Shuichi Iguchi, Chizome Akaguro, and All for One.”

Master.

Something between attachment and dread was blooming inside Tomura’s mind, covering every inch of it in parasitic spores. But he couldn’t ignore everything any longer.

He’d never been normal anyway.

***

Tomura tugged at the brim of the security cap he wore on his head, as though he could pull it any lower. Tartarus was heavily protected, and it felt about as safe as jumping into the choppy waters that surrounded them as it did walking across the bridge into the prison, with only two of his allies at his sides.

On his left, Compress tightened his tie. The magician had been stiff through the whole mission, for once without the round mask to hide his visage. Tomura kept his eyes down, only barely catching the tight clench to Compress’s jaw out of his peripheral vision. On his right Dabi walked with his perpetual confident rage, scars covered in prosthetics and makeup.

To Tomura, they were the picture of men uncomfortable in their own skin, crawling with suspicious paranoia like termites. But a stern gaze and a matching ID badge was enough for the guards of Tartarus. They didn’t care who got in, just that no one got out.

The walls were grey, metal seams a yarn trail through the winding labyrinth of hallways. Tomura’s boots clicked softly against the cement flooring as he and Compress turned off at the first cell block, Dabi continuing swiftly on towards high security.

Tomura moved through the rows of cells with their small one way windows in, serial numbers painted on the front the only thing that distinguished them from each other.

S-119.

Tomura stopped. Behind him and two doors down he heard Compress stop as well, and begin picking the lock. Tomura looked at the scanner and began pulling off his glove before a spiking feeling in his gut he could only assume was paranoia pulled his eyes toward the security camera. The light was blue and blinking softly, Giran’s symbol that he was running interference.

Tomura sighed, taking a deep breath in and out before he tugged the leather glove off over his hand, and pressed all five fingers to the panel. The scanner crumbled to dust beneath his touch and the door cracked open with the hiss of releasing pressure.

Pulling the door open the rest of the way, Tomura’s gut was speared again with what couldn’t just be paranoia as he got a look at the prisoner. His friend.

Spinner curled up in the far corner of his padded cell, staring straight ahead at Tomura’s boots with a glassed over gaze. He looked small in his white jumpsuit, with his purple hair falling around his eyes. There were bits of molt scattered on the floor around him, but his nose was raw and rashed, evidence that Spinner had been picking at his skin rather than shedding naturally.

Tomura rushed toward him and Spinner chirped, high and sharp in his throat as his mouth opened to accommodate his rapid breathing.

Tomura stopped, heart pounding and guilt swirling in a thunderous storm of agony as he watched Spinner from a few feet away as the man who wasn’t afraid to stand up to him and put him in his place, the man he respected more than anyone else, the man he loved threw his hands over his mouth and shook his head to try and suppress his defensive aggression. Tomura watched as Spinner forced himself to try and submit.

Falling to his knees, Tomura tore the security cap off his head and clenched it tight in his fist, sure to hold it tight with all the pressure of his rage as before he lowered his pinky finger, and it disintegrated.

“Spinner,” Tomura whispered, voice crackling. “Time to go.”

“Shigaraki?” Spinner looked up, but the glassiness never left his eyes.

“Yeah, now come on, give me your hands so I can decay the handcuffs.”

“You aren’t real.” Spinner muttered bluntly, more to himself than Tomura.

“I am, give me your hands,” Tomura instructed, choking back his pity and pain.

Spinner’s voice was sad, lost as he responded without moving. “Am I a failure, like Stain?”

A heavy shadow fell over the air, dragging Tomura’s organs out from his chest. He shifted closer to Spinner as he responded, reaching for the cuffs that bound his wrists. “You could never be a failure. You did exactly as you said you would, going to the ends of the earth for my sake. It’s my fault you’re here Spinner, but you’ve always been able to stand up and fight on your own. Keep fighting Spinner, keep fighting please.”

As soon as his cracked fingertips curled around the cold metal of the cuffs, they rusted and fell away, dust staining white floor and the smell of metal a tang in the air. Spinner snapped to attention, gloss leaving his gaze and alertness returning as he woke from his hallucinatory meditation.

“You came.”

The sincere gratitude and trust with which Spinner said it, as though he hadn’t doubted for a second that eventually Tomura would save him was what finally snapped the taut string of guilt and stress and terror and love that Tomura had been holding back for so long. He hung his hand, gripping Spinner’s hands tight in his own, pinkies raised as he made his quiet confession.

“I almost didn’t.”

Spinner shuffled, and Tomura could hear the silent question: why?

“I was afraid. I’ve never- no one has ever respected me. Master told me I was volatile. The heroes fear me, the League thought I was weak. Until you. You saw my message and you told me your own.”

Tomura stopped. Spinner rubbed a thumb in the space between his thumb and forefinger. “That you came back means you must have realized. For there to be respect, there must be trust. Do you trust me?”

Tomura nodded, Spinner able to untangle the knot he hadn’t been able to describe. “I’m sorry. I trust you now.”

Spinner pulled one of his hands slowly from Tomura’s grip and moved it to his cheek, fingerpads smooth against his dry skin. Spinner tilted his head up, so that their red eyes met and after a moment leaned in, pressing his lips to Tomura’s own.

It was crumbling to dust like everything he held between his fingers. It was crumbling to dust and scattering amongst the stars he stared up at every night, wasting his hour of rest from the fight with Gigantomachia for the sake of brilliant constellations. Stars with the brightness of Eri’s eyes and the grace of her smile, stars with the warmth of standing close to Spinner and the strength of his will. It was being amongst the stars and becoming whole again, grounded and in control of his abilities, a leader not only of a revolution, but a leader of himself. Tomura kissed back, the sort of passion that so long had been called rage and anger used for uncontested good. Goodness finally, freedom from fear or accusation. Finally, the understanding that he was loved.

The sun was rising over Fimbulwinter, and the eternal cold of Tomura’s life was finally coming to a close.

They pulled apart in a matter of seconds and Tomura pulled himself into action, getting to his feet. Spinner pushed himself up with the help of the corner walls, stumbling slightly as they moved towards the door. Tomura offered an arm, and Spinner shook his head resolutely. “I can handle it.”

“I know.”

Spinner smiled, slinging an arm over Tomura’s shoulders gratefully as they stepped out of the room.

"Gentlemen," Compress greeted from across the hall, a knowing glint in his eye and The Hero Killer Stain hunched at his side.

"Oh fuck off," Tomura warned without any venom behind it.

Compress raised his hands in surrender, grinning cleverly. "Shall we off?"

"So damn dramatic," Stain growled as though he weren't the man who made an icon out of executing unworthy heroes. Compress bowed as Stain stalked past him.

Spinner huffed a laugh, and smiled. "Good to see you again, Compress."

Compress pulled up from his bow and opened his mouth to respond when a guttural scream tore through the air, ripping apart their victory at the seams.

It was a scream who's infliction Tomura had seen hundreds of times before. It was the scream so often heard when Master tore someone's quirk, someone's lifeblood, right off of their soul.

He dropped Spinner's arm, tearing off through the halls of Tartarus like the barefoot young boy he'd once been. He ran towards the scream with all that initial desperation for salvation but this time the desperation was empty, nothing but an echoed response to a call. Tomura wasn't searching for salvation anymore. He had become it.

Tomura skidded to a stop at the end of the high security hall in front of a wide open door, burned off its hinges. His polished, stolen boots shrieked along the cement as he stopped before the sight of his Master, with Dabi knelt in front of him, holding him by the forehead and pushing it back as Dabi's mouth unhinged itself with agonized screams. The last of the prosthetics were melting wax on the sides of his face, exposing the purplish skin beneath.

Dabi who always seemed to undermine Tomura's decisions and went behind his back to hire Hawks. Dabi who always had some harsh barb to say that cut right to the core. Dabi, who'd yelled at Tomura the first night Eri had come to stay in their warehouse. Dabi who told him she'd be better off with the heroes.

Dabi who was afraid. Dabi who was just like him.

"Master!" Tomura commanded over the screams, and the man who raised him and forged who he was looked at Tomura with such an uninterested, uncaring expression that it made him feel small again.

Spinner ran up beside him, slumping against the wall and panting to catch his breath. Compress arrived as well, standing just behind Tomura's shoulder. He could even hear Stain's footsteps approach, though Tomura assumed that was more out of a lack of options than any sort of loyalty.

Tomura took a step forward, entering the cell with Master and Dabi. "Let him go."

Master laughed, a low and weightless thing. "Oh young Tomura, why would I do that? His quirk causes him such pain, and it is our responsibility to end that."

"Did it end anyone's pain, to have that vile Doctor turn them into Nomu?" Tomura spat back, gut curling at the thought of the foul amalgamated creatures.

"Still so much to learn, young Tomura," Master chided, and it made him shrink in on himself, shoulders hunching.

"I may have much to learn, but you are the one who would have me lead. So let him go."

Master scoffed. "Poor boy. I only let you think you could lead so that you would not be so petulant. None of these people are here because of you."

Tomura's jaw clenched, but his allies remained. They all stood stock still, like statues in a field even without the threat of his eyes. "They don't belong to you anymore."

Master seemed both unimpressed and unsurprised. "Oh but they will. Patience is a virtue, my boy. And in time they will realize that you are a tool with so much potential and yet powerless to take advantage of it, because at your core you will always be nothing more than a weak little boy weeping in an alleyway for heroes that are never going to arrive."

Master released his hand and Dabi fell to the floor, shudders wracking his unconscious body. The sound of the thud echoed in Tomura’s ears and started the tempo of his heart. Whatever thread of obedience had been holding him back evaporated and Tomura leapt forward, hands outstretched, and clutched Master by the wrist.

Tendrils of noxious black began to spiderweb out from the place his grip connected, prisoner's jumpsuit flaking away like paper and sinking the lines of decomposition into Master's flesh like craters that were slowly shattering him apart. There were no more words, no more screaming, nothing but silence as the infestation of rot spread up and across his chest, towards a heart so long already vile and black with shadow. The plague of inky darkness sank deep into every inch of him, a knife slowly carving into a plank of wood and then in an instant Tomura’s unshakeable Master, an immovable object which reflected back every ounce of his self-hatred and fear, scattered like a dandelion met with the unstoppable force of the wind.

Sickly grey dust fell down all around them, staining everything it landed on and breathing up into their lungs. Tomura turned over his still clenched fist and opened it to stare blankly at the dust clutched inside. There was dust in his hair, his chest, his jacket. It might take ages before it all washed away.

Tomura tilted his hands, and a few grains of dust fell to the floor.

“Compress,” he said, turning to address the man who was running his fingers through his hair to clear the dust out with a casually distasteful frown. “Can you carry him?”

Compress wiped off his hands, and nodded, moving into the room to kneel at Dabi’s side. “Of course I can.” He snapped his fingers and a marble appeared between them and in a blink, Dabi was gone.

“You coulda done that this whole time?” Stain growled.

“Still could, if you’d like.”

“Don’t fuckin touch me.”

Tomura closed his eyes, taking a deep breath in and then out, wincing as his chest wheezed slightly. When he opened his eyes he looked at Spinner, and found him staring back, nothing but pride and admiration in his gaze.

Tomura coughed and his allies turned to look at him. They were all waiting, waiting for him to lead. Tomura smiled, and nodded back out toward the hall.

“It’s almost sunrise.”

Chapter 15: Daughter of Sol

Eri sat on the bed, legs crossed and back pressed up against the wall.

Sitting across from her was Lemillion, shoulders hunched forward slightly and a smile messily doodled on his face like it always was.

They were playing “cards,” a game Bumblebee had played with her once or twice on good days, but this time the rules weren’t at all the same.

“Got any fours?” Lemillion asked and Eri frowned, begrudgingly handing the card over. She didn’t want to give it to him, but Lemillion explained that she had to if he asked. The game was like following orders. Eri didn’t really get what was supposed to be fun about following orders.

“Two?” Eri inquired softly, and Lemillion shook his head.

“Go Fish!”

Eri looked at the stack of cards sitting between them and narrowed her eyes. Why were they fish? She took a card, and thought about fun games like Statues and Jacks.

It didn’t take much longer for Lemillion to win, even though Eri could tell he kept trying to give her hints. Eri set down her cards with a sigh, and fiddled with the blue marble in her pocket.

“Eri,” Lemillion spoke up after a few minutes of silence, getting her attention. He did this a lot, sat silently and then asked her a question about Tomura or the others. “A few weeks ago, you called Shuichi your ‘big brother.’ Was everyone in the League- were they your family?”

Eri didn’t know that word. “What’s family?”

Lemillion stopped smiling. It fell from his face only a moment before he put the doodle back there, but Eri wished he’d left it. In that moment, he’d stopped covering his eyes. She could see the sadness there. But his smile returned, and he answered her question.

“Family is people who make you smile, when no one else can.” Eri thought of Twice who never made space feel too empty or clean.

“People who understand you, who teach you new things.” Eri thought of Giran who needed saving and Mr. Compress who had answers before she asked.

“Family encourages you, and challenges you too.” Eri thought of the way Toga’s eyes lit up when she said ‘no more hair,’ and of how Dabi wasn’t the leader even though he acted like he was.

“Family protects you.” Eri thought of Big Brother Shuichi, and by the way Lemillion said it, Eri knew he thought of him too.

“They care for you and are there for you, but above all else, family is people you feel that way for too.”

Like Tomura.

Like all of them.

Family.

Cool tears were rolling down her cheeks, but Eri didn’t understand why. She wasn’t scared, or lost or confused for once so it didn’t make sense that she was crying. Because she understood. Finally, Family.

Eri nodded, and Lemillion cried too.

***

Night fell like a scattering of stars chasing the sun away across the sky.

Eri was left alone once again in her too quiet, too clean room in the “hospital.” Lemillion had made sure she was under her blankets and left a small glowing light on for her, but Eri hopped out of the bed and crossed the room to turn it off nearly as soon as he had left. She liked the soft glow of the moon much better than the fake green lamplight.

She pulled one of the blankets off the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders, moving to stand by the window. Yuga used to visit every night, but he hadn’t shown up in a few days. Eri still went to the window. He wouldn’t leave her. Tomura wouldn’t leave her.

There was a noise from outside the door.

Eri turned, a confidence she didn’t used to have alone in a white room like this settling over her. The shadows still pulled, the cleanliness still whispered unease, but Eri’s hair was short enough to see through it, and there were shoes softly hugging her feet now.

She stepped carefully over to the door, and reached up to pull it open, head bowed slightly.

There was a man standing there in a nurse’s uniform. Lemillion had told her she was in a hospital, but she hadn’t seen any doctors since she’d been here. His white coat made her shake involuntarily, spreading from her fingers clutched on the doorknob up into her chest.

The man at the door had a cap pulled over his blonde spikes of hair, and when he saw Eri shaking he only pulled it lower, obscuring his face under the grey hospital cap. “Hey it’s okay, it’s just me!” He comforted, and then after a pause added much more sardonically. “Don’t freak out, it took too long to get here.”

Eri stopped shaking abruptly as she recognized the voice. A wide grin spread across her face, and she felt a stinging redness at the corner of her eyes as though she were about to cry. But that was wrong. She didn’t have anything to cry about. Twice was here!

Eri let go of the door handle and launched herself at him, wrapping her small arms around his torso and burying her head in it, no longer scared of the horrible white coat he wore. Twice chuckled, and wrapped his arms around her too, tight pressure warm and comforting. In an instant she was up in the air and spinning, legs dangling below her as Twice twirled her through the air.

He set her back down, gentle as anything and took the cap off his head, tugging it over her short white hair instead. Eri looked up at him curiously and Twice just shrugged, sticking a hand in his hair and ruffling it up to try and cover the dark groove in his forehead.

Eri had never seen it before.

She looked at the line which carved Twice in half, and lifted a hand to the bone white horn protruding from her forehead, growing back slowly since she reversed Tomura, but grooved and full of crackling energy.

Twice looked over at her and shook his head, offering her a hand. “Some wounds are too old to turn back, and we just have to learn to live with them.”

This time, it wasn’t more than he meant to say. Eri took his hand, her small and smooth palm closed in his large and calloused one, and they set off down the hallway.

Her footsteps were quiet against the floor, this time walking her escape route rather than running it. Twice walked with his shoulders back, strides long and spread out amongst the tiles. The white hallway was long and empty, with doors along either side. It was quiet, in the middle of the night, and Eri’s fingers curled tightly around Twice’s hand, reminding herself that he was there, that she had help.

The last set of doors at the end of the hall were big and metal, and they squeaked against the floor as Twice used his shoulder to help push one open.

Eri held her breath, afraid someone might hear the sound.

They stepped into a dark room full of the shadowed shapes of tables and chairs.

There were two figures standing there in the dark, and Eri stiffened as they approached, and then beamed once again when she saw who it was.

Toga and Yuga stood there, Yuga running his hands through his hair as he looked around the sitting room, and Toga looking right at her, eyes wide and smile bright.

“Eri!” Toga greeted, voice pitched and expressive even when she was quiet.

Eri let go of Twice’s hand to launch herself at Toga now, clutching the soft fabric of her clothes. Toga’s arms held her under the shoulders, squeezing tight, and Eri could hear Toga speaking muffled words just above her head.

“Giran’s delayed, apparently the car’s about fifteen minutes out.” Eri didn’t understand most of those words, but she was glad to hear Giran’s name.

“Traffic at two in the morning?” Twice asked, in the tone Eri used when she wasn’t sure what question to ask.

Toga shifted slightly and Eri let go, returning to Twice’s side to hold his hand again.

“Well let us be out there before he arrives,” Yuga said, his usual verbal flair full of sharper air in the darkness of the room.

Toga nodded. “Lead the way.”

Yuga turned and moved to a smaller and less squeaky door that opened up into a narrower white hallway. Eri took a deep breath and let it shudder out of her before she stepped away from the darkness and into the exposing white light.

They all walked down the hallway with steps that tapped a little louder against the floor that she knew must be freezing cold, even though she couldn’t feel it through the soles of her boots.

Her heart starts to pound, a familiar and foreboding sensation. They turn down another hallway, one that should be empty, and a shadow blocks the way.

A familiar shadow, once just out of reach.

She freezes, stood half behind Twice, and the familiar feeling scatters away.

The hallway is brightly lit and it quickly becomes clear that it’s Deku standing there, fluffy green hair unmoving as he stares at them with wide eyes.

His vision flicked between her and the others, green sparks snapping and chattering across his skin. He finally spoke up, voice quiet and broken. “Aoyama?”

“You have to let her go Midoriya, heroes cannot help everyone,” Yuga’s voice was subdued, feet shuffling against the floor.

Deku shook his head intently, face scrunching. “No. No. How long have you- why-?”

“You’re the smart one, are you not?” Yuga’s voice sounded thick, like Eri’s was whenever He caught her running away.

The green lighting zapped out, but Deku’s fists still stayed clenched at his sides. “If heroes failed you, don’t you want to be their future? You can change, you can be who you needed!”

Eri looked at the floor, when the first drop of water fell from Yuga’s face onto the tiles. “No, it’s too late. All For One gave me a quirk, and I followed him for it. I’ve done horrible things and they eat me alive at night. I’ll never be a hero. But Midoriya, the League of Villains saved this girl. Maybe…maybe I can save people too.”

Deku seemed lost, looking between Yuga and Eri slowly. For a moment, his eyes lingered on the cap on her head, and then he looked up at Twice, ruffled hair barely covering his scar.

“Izuku,” Toga spoke up, and Deku’s eyes snapped to her in an instant, eyebrows furrowing. “We aren’t All For One. We fight for love.”

“But…but you hurt people.” Deku’s voice was very small.

“Everybody hurts people.” Twice said bluntly.

Deku’s fists stayed clenched, but he seemed to lift himself up by the shoulders, and slowly, stiffly, turned his head to look away.

Yuga sniffled, wiping at his eyes, and strode forward with hurried steps, followed quickly behind by Toga, Twice and Eri down the winding paths of bright white hallways, towards the final door.

When they stepped out into the evening light, Eri took a deep gulp of fresh air, slowly glancing up to look at a smattering of twinkling stars, scattered around the sky with less abundance than they had been on the mountainside.

Eri was still looking at the stars when a rumbling revving sound drew her attention, and she looked to see a sleek black vehicle driving up with no roof and many faces she recognized inside.

“You’re gonna have to squeeze in,” Giran shouted over the loud rumbling as the vehicle stopped beside them. “My car is not built for a family reunion!”

Eri didn’t even hear him, eyes welling up with poorly timed tears at the sight of Tomura, leaned against the far door with an arm around Big Brother Shuichi.

The rumbling sound went quiet and she launched forward, and Twice opened the door so she could clamber inside and rush over to Tomura, warm tears pouring down the sides of her face and nose stuffed as she wrapped her arms around Tomura and buried her face in his neck.

Tomura was stiff for only a moment underneath her before his breathing resumed, chest rising and falling steadily as he wrapped one arm around her torso and the other behind her head, fingers carefully raised.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’ve been hurting for a long time, I didn’t want that to be you.”

“Old wounds,” Eri sniffled, “living with them. Want to live with my family too.”

“Okay,” Tomura muttered, his heart thumping comfortably. “Okay.”

Eri smiled, and let go of him, still staying sat in his lap.

“Where the hell did you get a kid?” An unfamiliar voice said, and Eri looked up to see a bedraggled man with shaggy black hair and a torn white uniform that reminded her of her old gown sitting against the opposite end of the front bench.

“Same place as you,” she responded helpfully, and the guy stared at her with a gaping expression as Giran howled with laughter from his place sat right in front of her.

Twice was next to Giran, and Compress offered out his mask, sat between Twice and the stranger. Twice smiled gratefully, but stuffed it in his pocket. “Nah, I wanna feel the wind.”

“Welcome back, young Eri,” Compress greeted kindly. Eri smiled.

There was a hand in her hair, ruffling the short white fluff, and Eri looked over at Big Brother Shuichi, staring down at her with a soft gaze. He was red in places where he should be green, and he was slumped back against the bench in a way that wasn’t right.

Eri took his hand and thought about when he’d been torn away, when those grey bandages and red feathers had engulfed the air and ripped her and Big Brother apart.

Her horn crackled and then glowed with a soft current of gold electricity, swimming up and down through the grooves.

Big Brother Shuichi got a little greener, and her horn flickered out, too tired and too small to do very much. But still, Big Brother Shuichi sat a little straighter and looked a little more right.

“Thank you.”

Eri didn’t have a response, but she knew she didn’t need to.

The rumbling sound started up again and the vehicle lurched suddenly forward. Eri gasped, and held onto Tomura’s leg where she was perched, but the movement steadied after a few moments, and they were gliding along, beautiful open sky and buildings on either side just drifting through her vision as the wind rushed through her face and hair.

It was new air every second, never a chance for it to get stale, and it licked her cheeks with cool air and it filled her lungs with exhilaration and suddenly, for really no reason at all, Eri did something she’d never done before, and had never been able to understand.

She laughed.

At first it was a giggle, bubbled up from her throat by the wind, but when she heard it, it shocked her. She finally understood why people laughed even when things weren’t funny. People laughed because it felt good.

The laugh took over her chest and heaved at her lungs, thick and bright and high with peals of overt, unconditional joy. Her head threw itself back as the laugh escaped her, loud and strong and so very free. She wasn’t embarrassed of it, wasn’t afraid.

Because she was with her family. Finally, truly.

Eri’s fit of laughter died down, and she looked around the vehicle to find most everyone’s eyes on her but no one was mad or instructing her to quiet down.

On the opposite end of their row from Tomura, Yuga had stopped crying, a cracked smile on his face as the wind blew around his waves of golden hair. "You are my hope, petite étoile," He muttered to himself, possibly not intending for anyone to hear, considering Eri had no idea what he meant.

Toga was sitting between Big Brother Shuichi and Yuga, and she suddenly yelped, grabbing Eri off Tomura's lap and lifting her precariously into her own. "Oh. My. God."

Toga devolved into squeals, and Eri turned to look at what all her surprise was about to see Tomura and Big Brother Shuichi with their faces against each other. Eri had several questions, but she didn’t get to watch long enough to answer them before the stranger from the front seat covered her eyes with his hand.

“Oooooo,” Twice singsonged from the front seat, followed up by a short “gross.”

Eri only had to stare at the stranger’s palm for a few seconds before he removed it, and Tomura and Big Brother were back to normal again.

“Where’s Dabi?” Twice asked.

Mr. Compress dipped his head and held up a comforting blue marble between two fingers. “Our very own Shigaraki rescued him from death himself. Though not with his quirk intact, I’m afraid.”

“Yeah, All For One’s sure not intact either though,” Giran said, glancing back at them over the rims of his round glasses.

Yuga gasped softly, wary relief in his tone when he cautiously raised a question in a way Eri had done a few times before, back when she wasn’t sure if Tomura was different from Him yet.

“He’s dead?”

“Dead as dust,” Tomura said, voice brittle.

“Good riddance,” Toga replied, and for a moment, the whole vehicle was silent.

A ray of warmth fanned over her skin, and Eri looked out at the sky to see pinks and oranges spilling out against the base of the sky, like strokes of crayon on painted walls.

The small roundness of the sun was already shimmering with energy, and the new day began to rise in swathes of color that blended and intermingled with the inky darkness of the night sky, smattered by stars. One pastel and warm, one dark and cool, both cautious but steady as they moved in tandem, from seperate worlds, but for a moment, together.

“Look,” Eri pointed out, indicating the sunrise, and the vehicle filled with a wave of sound and energy once again, as everyone took notice and commented on the dawning of the morning sky.

Eri felt a feeling she’d never felt before, but one that she understood without having to ask any questions. It was like her heart was finally beating steady, like she could finally take a full breath in and let it out again.

There was no why to ask, not like before.

She didn’t have to run anymore.

Notes:

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