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Eri silently stared at her arms scrutinizingly while scrunching her cute button nose.
It made for a very cute scene were it not for the visible scars and the solemn aura surrounding the small girl.
Eri knew she was ugly. Her scars weren’t pretty, so she wasn’t pretty.
Midoriya’s parental™ instincts went off when he was approaching Eri.
He tapped her shoulder, causing her to turn around with wide eyes.
Smiling at her kindly with slightly squinted eyes, “Hi, Eri. What’re you up to?”
She twirled her fingers anxiously and quietly asked, “Deku-kun, are my scars ugly?”
“Mm, no Eri, I don’t think your scars are ugly at all”
She expected him to say ‘yes’ but was taken aback by his answer. He hummed knowingly and lifted up his sleeves, showing a multitude of scar tissue.
“Are my scars ugly, Eri?”
Her face instantly morphed into an indignant expression, “No! Deku-kun isn’t ugly at all!”
He smiled, chuckling lightly while he ruffled her hair, “Thank you. And that means you’re not ugly either Eri. Those scars you have mean you’ve survived. And that makes you my little brave hero.”
Eri teared up and crashed into Deku, clinging onto him tightly. As if he’d disappear.
Deku wrapped his arms around her securely, protecting her from the cruel world around them.
“It’s okay, Eri. I’m here.” He whispered reassuringly into her ear, scratching her scalp soothingly.
There were a few times that Eri could say that she felt completely safe and right there and then in Deku’s arms, she knew for sure that no one could hurt her.
Not even the bad man.
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Aizawa was a trained professional underground hero and teacher. So he does, despite whatever Hizashi says, know how to deal with kids. Even though some people (*cough* Toshinori *cough*) obviously don’t know how to, he did. It’d be illogical if he wasn’t able to.
So he knows when Eri has delved too much into her mind, her mind which feeds her hazardous thoughts with a silver spoon.
He pulls her into his lap, causing her to let out a small surprised yelp and begins to tell her about his cats, class 1-A’s shenanigans, and Hizashi.
He tells her about Hizashi and his cat, Bimbo conspiring against him. Always stealing his clothes and hiding them away (“I swear, Eri, every time I look away my socks go missing and then I see Hizashi wearing them the next day”).
Or how his other cat, Princess plays with his capture weapon whenever he grades papers (“I can’t live in peace with those idiots…”) .
He tells her about some of the students in class 1-A almost setting the dorms on fire because they were holding a cooking competition and Bakugou was getting annoyed with his team, consisting of Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero (“They all had detention for a week. At this point I’m going to be the downfall of myself with the work I keep on piling on”) .
Eri slowly but surely becomes drowsy from Aizawa’s funny stories and his soothing, monotone voice. She reaches up and traces the scar under his eye tenderly. He leans into her touch a little, granting the girl permission to continue.
Eri hummed quietly, continuing to listen to Aizawa’s stories.
“He survived,” she thought to herself “and I did too.”
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Omake :
Todoroki stared back at the little girl, Eri supplied his head, with equal intensity.
He knew what she was looking at.
Eri felt a sort of kinship with the peppermint boy.
She walked up to him and held his hand, “You survived.”
His eyes softened and interlaced their fingers.
“You did too.”