94. Ok

                                    

                                          
"Hypothetically-"
                          
It was Monday evening. They'd walked Hitoshi back yesterday evening well in time for the new curfew but they'd still been stopped by an officer who gave them a friendly warning about it just in case they weren't aware.
                          
"-and I know this would be a really big thing, and you don't have to do it-"
                          
"Silver," Aizawa interrupted because she'd been talking like this for a good minute now, even repeating things she'd already said, and he'd never admit it but it was freaking him out a little, "spit it out."
                          
"I was wondering if-" She closed her eyes and forced herself to take a breath, giving herself a chance to iron out her knotted thoughts into decent sentences. "You know how I'm worried about where Hitoshi would go next if he came forward?"
                          
He nodded slowly.
                          
She didn't want to have to ask this of him. She wished she could be just two years older so she could be the one to take Hitoshi in and care for him because she knew she could do it. Money wouldn't be an issue, she had a lot saved up and a whole lot of favours she could cash in at anytime and she could go back to her job or get a safer one if she needed to. She knew how to survive on as little as possible. She knew how to take care of a human being. She'd be what he deserved. But laws existed which meant Hitoshi needed an adult who was officially acting as his guardian, and Silver didn't count. "Let me finish before you say anything."
                          
He nodded again, straightening up so he was no longer leaning back against the fence bars around the edge of the fire escape.
                          
"I was wondering if you'd be willing to consider putting your name down as his legal guardian."
                          
...Oh.
                          
"But hear me out," she rushed to add because she knew this was so impossibly much to ask of a person, taking on a child was massive, and he already had one... and a half... kind of, "it would only be on paper. He can spend all of the school term in the dorms, and then when the holidays come, he can stay with me in my apartment, you don't have to worry about him. I can pay any school fees he has. I only need you because legally he has to have an adult in charge of him so, I'm just asking if you would consider it."
                          
Aizawa blinked at the sudden onslaught, letting it all sink in. He thought about how long Silver had been thinking about all of this and how much time she'd spent scouring the laws for a work around. He thought about whether she could actually do what she said. UA's school fees were no small thing and she was saying she could handle a year's worth of them and there wasn't an ounce of doubt in her tone at all. She made an undeniable point with Hitoshi being able to stay in the dorms if he wanted to all school term and the apartment Silver shared with AG could almost certainly house an extra person if it needed to. She was responsible enough to make sure he had everything he needed, and she'd never hurt him. Just that was a lot more than any of Hitoshi's previous homes had done. "Silver, Shinsou shouldn't be your responsibility."
                          
Hitoshi was still a child, yes. Hitoshi needed people who would take care of him, yes. But so was Silver. So did Silver. 
                          
Aizawa and Hizashi wanted to look after her. That didn't include forcing her away from any chance of ever experiencing something akin to a childhood by giving her the same responsibilities as a parent at sixteen.
                          
"He's got to be someone's," she said, it was meant to be his foster parents, but they clearly weren't taking it seriously and she would, "and I can do it, I swear."
                          
"I believe you." He did. He really did, because Silver wouldn't have come to him with this if she wasn't certain she could put all of the work on her own shoulders. "And I'll talk to Hizashi about it, but this isn't just about Shinsou, we have to think about what's best for you too. Do you understand?"