"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?"
She frowned back, a glare directed at the floor. "I'm not the one who's in danger every time I come home."
He felt that like a punch to the gut, but he stayed focused and fought through the awful feeling. "We'll talk about it, I promise." He was trying to do a lot of maths very quickly in his head. Hitoshi was a good kid, he wouldn't cause any trouble, Eri had practically told the boy she'd 'officially adopted him' as her big brother and Hitoshi was the same as everyone in 2-A in that he would never let anything bad happen to Eri, so that was no issue. Paying for him wasn't a problem for them, they could handle a third child. They were already planning to move into a bigger apartment and the new place was one bedroom too big for the family they'd been planning on— they didn't need a guest bedroom, they'd lived well over a year without one now and it was only an issue at this point because Silver didn't have a room. They could do it. But Hizashi still needed to weigh in on a decision like this and they'd want to check with Eri and then they'd actually need to make sure it was something Hitoshi wanted.
But yeah, hypothetically, they could do it.
A weak smile crossed her lips as she nodded. "Thank you, and I'm sorry, I know this is really big and I don't mean to pressure you into it. I'll understand if you can't." She'd find another way if he couldn't, she'd sworn that to herself long before she'd started this conversation. Keenan was still an option even if the likelihood he'd ever be accepted as a suitable guardian was less than nil and, like she said before, she had favours she could call in if she had to, a lot of them with people who wouldn't be quite so morally and legally correct, especially if they knew the circumstances Hitoshi was leaving behind.
No matter what, she'd find a way to keep him safe.
***
2-A were a lot more forgiving than Silver had imagined they'd be. In truth, that probably shouldn't have been a surprise, but she still expected a lot more anger from them for all the lies she told them over the last few months.
She'd tried bringing it up with some of them. Midoriya seemed to have let the whole situation slide off him already, he told her it was all on Aizawa, that the sheer number of his 'logical ruses' they'd suffered through over the last two years made them a lot less likely to hold grudges for something like this. But Silver wouldn't take Midoriya's word as representative of the whole class when he was the best case scenario on the worst days. Midoriya was too kind for his own good.
Asking Bakugou about it had been interesting. He'd stared at her for a while, red eyes boring into her grey and then he'd scoffed, called her an idiot, and walked away. She wasn't sure if she should take that as he actually was angry at her, or that she was stupid to think anyone would be. So she ended that conversation— if it could really be called that— with more questions than she'd started with.
Talking to Jirou had been the most enlightening, even if Silver was having some trouble understanding the concept. She'd knocked on the girl's door one evening and Jirou had immediately invited her in.
Silver had been blunt with it, she wasn't one for beating around the bush and she didn't want to waste any of Jirou's evening.
"Are you angry at me?"
Jirou blinked, taking a moment to catch up with herself. "For what? For what happened at the girls' night?" she asked, a frown creasing her brow. "You already apologised for that, and I mean-" She tugged gently at the jacks hanging low from her ears- "you can be pretty intimidating sometimes, but it wasn't like you would actually hurt me."
A smile tugged at Silver's lips but she fought to keep it down. "That's not what I mean. I've been lying to all of you for weeks, months even, but none of you seem mad at me." She couldn't say for sure that she wasn't reading things wrong or wishfully, but she thought she was good at reading people, at picking up on what they were thinking. This was personal though, she had something to gain from one reaction and so much to lose from another, it was the kind of thing she liked to have a second opinion on. A second, objective opinion.
The question in Silver's words went unsaid. "Honestly, I think we're just relieved. A lot of us, especially the ones who went to Mr Aizawa, even some who didn't, we were really worried about you."
People worried about Silver. She was never going to get used to that.
"We're glad you're ok."
And that was why, after two or three days of the class being a little wary of her— or wary was what it felt like at least, some of them avoided her, one or two were too ashamed to even look at her, others were just gentle— things went back to normal. A few of her classmates who weren't normally so big on physical contact were unusually huggy (while some of those who had always been huggy got even more so) but normal.
She squirmed, trying to pull herself out of Uraraka's embrace without offending her. She trusted her classmates, and she cared about them, and she knew they cared about her, but she wasn't quite ready for them to be so physically affectionate with her. Hitoshi she could handle, she'd realised he was more than a little touch-starved but he would never say it, which meant she'd been able to start slowly and acclimatise to the contact, until it was comfortable to both of them. The others weren't like that, and she wasn't sure she'd ever get the chance to get used to them always being so close.
"So some of us were going to go to this new American diner, and we were hoping you could come?"
Silver glanced over to Aizawa at the front, straightening a pile of pop quiz sheets. She supposed she should tell him if she wanted to do something like this, him or Hizashi, just so they knew where she was and why she wasn't with them and that she was safe. Hizashi was a big worrier.
"It would just be for an hour or two," Midoriya spoke up, more than a few of their classmates around them but scattered enough to leave Silver a clear path to the exit any moment she wanted it. "It's really close. The diner, I mean. Just if you want to."
She smiled, nodding. "I'd like that."
She heard Mina squeal and the next she looked, Aizawa was already gone.
She could always text Aizawa and Hizashi later.
It was a whirlwind, one minute they were all at school, then there was a bright sun setting in the distance fighting to be felt over the cold air, and the next moment seven of them were sat along a cushioned bench, seven in chairs on the opposite side, all of them surrounded by neon colours and the sounds of the fifties.
It was nice, nicer than she'd expected it to be, but it had been a while since she'd really been able to hang out with her classmates, and she'd forgotten how much it hurt her cheeks when she smiled for so long. There was so much laughter, it rippled up and down the table as people jumped in and out of conversations, it was all so happy and so bright, even as night fell.
They all ordered the unhealthiest food they could find, knowing full well they'd burn it all off tomorrow, such was the way in hero training. They needed all the energy they could get if they wanted to survive Mr Aizawa's PE lessons from hell, also known as death by conditioning. It was ridiculously tasty, greasy, but tasty. Silver got one of the most delicious hot chocolates she'd ever had, whipped cream, marshmallows and all.
And through all this time, her phone was on silent.
Here she was, having a whale of a time, enjoying being with her classmates beyond the classroom and being the closest to a normal teenager she would ever be, and five minutes down the road two men were trying very hard not to be worried because Silver was a sixteen-year-old who was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.
But at the same time, the only time she'd disappeared without warning (and without being kidnapped) was when she'd run away for a few days after her amnesia, and it was months before she forgave Aizawa. Sat on the sofa with their surprisingly sleepy daughter, they were both deep in their minds, searching for something they could've done wrong.
Aizawa had sent her a few texts, just checking in with her and asking her to respond so Hizashi could stop worrying about her. Hizashi had sent a fair amount more than a few. Most of them were calm. A good seventy-five percent of them. Maybe fifty percent. Ok, they started calm and he tried to stay that way, but he panicked because she always warned them when she wasn't going to be with them. Usually days in advance, weeks or months sometimes. She never just didn't appear like today.
It was fine if she'd decided not to come today, it was fine if she was with her friends at the club, it was fine if she was staying late with Keenan, it was fine if she was angry with them, they just wanted to know she was ok.
Hizashi ended up calling her a few times too.
It wasn't until Eri had fallen asleep against her papa that an idea sparked in Aizawa's mind. Snipe, aside from grouching about the bet, had mentioned something about a request for a large number of 2-A to go out from the dorms together to a nearby place for food. It was meant to be close by, but Snipe had wanted his opinion on whether or not a teacher should go with them on the off chance something happened, so Snipe had reluctantly agreed to go with them while Vlad King covered for him by keeping an eye on both his class and the few members of 2-A left at the dorms.
Aizawa shared the thought with his husband and shot a text to Snipe, hoping he was right and Silver simply hadn't noticed the messages because she was busy being a kid. That would make their worrying worth it.
Less than two minutes later, Aizawa got a text back.
'She's here. Why?'
Hizashi deflated, tension he hadn't noticed building flooding out of him in a single burst and leaving him almost as sleepy as Eri.
'Tell her to check her phone when she has time.'
And when all was said and done, they put their daughter to bed, and awaited Silver's return, relaxed against each other on the sofa.
***
A blanket was draped over them when they woke up the next morning to gentle prodding and a quiet voice keeping her distance. She knew better than to wake them up while hovering over them or anything similarly idiotic since it would probably end in getting attacked on reflex and Silver was having none of that today. She was in a good mood, and she wanted to keep it that way.
She'd taken photos of Aizawa and Hizashi entangled with one another on the sofa and sent it straight to 'Auntie Nemuri' (the woman had stolen Silver's phone and somehow made it so the contact details couldn't be edited and when Silver asked Lucy about changing it, the girl emailed her a load of laughing gifs so Silver was stuck with it) for her blackmail collection, she'd managed to sleep through the night without having a bad dream, and three of the abuse cases she'd delivered into the capable hands of the nearby precinct's domestic violence department had got their convictions. Today was a good day.
"You guys may be adults, but you still have to go to school because you idiots decided to be teachers, now get out of bed."
She chuckled when Aizawa hissed at her, still half in a dreamworld where he was living the high life as a cat. Hizashi meanwhile, was much easier to coax off the sofa, though he was met with some resistance from the arms wrapped around his middle.
Her job as alarm clock done, Silver headed for the kitchen to get things ready for breakfast. She didn't stop for a moment at the suspicious thump and following groan.
"When did you get in?" Hizashi asked, rolling his shoulders in the kitchen threshold and trying to snap himself awake.
Silver shrugged. "Maybe seven, you guys were out cold though so I figured I'd leave you since you didn't have anything important last night."
The blonde nodded, a grin gently growing on his face as he gave Silver a hand setting up. He was still in his (now crumpled) clothes from yesterday evening and in desperate need of a shower but Silver never cared about that stuff. "Where did you sleep?"
"I took the floor in your room." She knew they wouldn't mind, especially since they made her spot between the sofa and coffee table too risky a choice. Suddenly getting landed on by a fully-grown male while she was fast asleep was not a fun experience, and she could say that with absolute certainty— though Keenan was probably heavier than either of the hero couple. "Sorry I didn't tell you where I was last night," she told him, pausing in her work to look at him properly. "It slipped my mind."
"Don't worry about it," he said, sparing a moment to run a hand through her short hair and sparking up the silent jealousy he'd had for a while as it fell right back into place, "just try not to do it again. We were pretty worried about you, we both called you a few times."
She was well aware. Checking her phone for the first time all evening as she walked herself home to find twenty-two missed calls and fifty-seven texts demanding her attention had been a wakeup call to say the least.
"I didn't call her," came a groggy voice from the other room.
Hizashi rolled his eyes at his husband, the smile on his face fond. "Right, of course, you just pestered me into calling from my phone so she couldn't accuse you of caring," he explained loud enough that his voice would carry.
All they got in response was a quiet grumble that would neither confirm nor deny such baseless allegations.
Hizashi watched her as she hopped up onto the counter in one fluid movement, balancing on the edge with one foot while she rummaged in an overhead cupboard for the pack of sugar they used to refill a smaller pot by their coffee machine. His instincts made him anxious of her precarious pose, especially when she started doing ankle raises with her heel over the counter edge, but she hopped down safely with the same ease she'd leapt up with, sugar pack in one hand and a smile tugging at her lips. She didn't even seem to notice his stares as she passed him with a pep to her step that suited her.
"Did something happen while you were with your friends yesterday?" he asked. There wasn't anything wrong with her being so happy, on the contrary Hizashi was thrilled to see Silver exuding so much positivity, it was only that he wasn't sure he'd ever seen her like this before, and he was curious if something in particular had brought this on. Maybe something he could repeat, so this would be more common.
She frowned at him, a half-filled sugar pot left to wait behind her as her gentle smile fell to concern. "Not that I'm aware of, why?"
"I was just wondering," he rushed to say, realising her mind had jumped straight to the worst case scenario and hoping his assurances might be enough to bring her smile back. "You just seem really chirpy today, like someone's playing all your favourite tunes or something."
She relaxed, leaning her back against the counter, and a relieved smile grew across her face before reverting back to something more natural. "I slept well," she said with a dismissive half-shrug. She went back to refilling the pot, snapping a clip over the open corner of the bag when she was done. "And I guess yesterday was fun."
"Yeah?"
She crossed the kitchen again, repeating her earlier exploits to put the sugar packet back. "Dinner was great, I mean. School was boring as usual, especially English."
He raised his eyebrows as she hopped down, a sly smirk now stretched across her lips. "Oh really now?"
She nodded firmly, fighting to push down the smile on her face only to have her cheeks twitch. "It's our teacher. He just drones on and on," she complained, tipping her head back exaggeratively. "It's such a shame, he doesn't have any passion for the language, not a bit."
He chuckled just as the coffee machine gave the unholy groan that said it had finished, and like a demon-summoning, Aizawa was immediately beside it with a mug he'd procured from his sleeping bag, bleary and blood-shot eyes still half-closed.
"I bet I could teach you better," Hizashi offered, playing along with her.
"It's not a very high bar to beat."
Hizashi winced. "Damn, he must be pretty awful."
She shrugged, her expression entirely mischievous. Seeing her so happy, so openly happy, he felt his heart soar, and his vision blurred before he blinked back the overjoyed tears rising unbidden to his eyes. "As a teacher he's terrible," she agreed, "but you know, as a person, he's a pretty cool dude, so it's not like I can hate him."
"What's so cool about him?"
The pots and pans were already laid out, so it was an easy thing for her to crack a few eggs straight onto the heat. "Well," she started, "he's got a good taste in music, and clothes— when he's not wearing skintight leather." She shivered at the mere thought of his hero costume, nothing on this planet could ever compel her to wear something even remotely similar. "And I'm fairly certain he's decided he can use his hair as a deadly weapon because I can't think of another good reason for him to waste that much hair gel everyday."
He stopped what he was doing with his own pan to pout at her, but she didn't pause for a second.
"But he's a really lovely person and he has a daughter who is the most wonderful child in the universe so he's got mad dad skills, even if his taste in men is questionable." She raised an eyebrow in Aizawa's direction, watching as he chugged his second cup of coffee of the morning and reached out to get a third.
She rolled her eyes, telling herself that she'd stage an intervention if he went for a fourth cup. She turned back to Hizashi to find a man wiping under his eyes before his tears could fall too far.
She didn't like seeing people cry.
"Did I-" She didn't know what to say. Calming a child was so easy, they were too young to know how to react without watching how those around them reacted and she knew exactly how to put on the perfect smile for them. She didn't have any practice when it came to adults, they knew what they were doing, she didn't know how to make it stop- "Did I do something?"
She'd been joking around, he'd been smiling, she didn't mean to make him cry, she didn't want to upset him, she never wanted to upset him. She'd done something wrong, and now he was crying and it was her fault.
He shook his head, lips pulling into a smile even as tears left streaks on his cheeks and there was nothing she could do. He had to stop crying. They'd take him if he didn't stop crying.
"Ellie, I'm fine, see." Just little kids, locked in a cell, trying to live another day, another hour, another minute, and they'd be fine, just fine, if Silver could only stop the little one from crying, but nothing she was doing was working and she was so weak and tired and the tears were already flowing. The only thing she could do was wrap her shaking arms around the little one and dream that she'd be able to save her.
"No, no, of course not."
Hizashi's voice brought her back into the moment, eleven years since the memory, in a place where she was safe, where the adults weren't her enemy, where tears didn't end in a child being ripped from her arms.
"Do you mind if I hug you?"
She stood there, staring, hearing the words but not understanding them. Then the pounding of her heart finally slowed, and the words became meanings that she could understand. "Sure," she managed to say, fighting to bring a smile to her face.
She didn't know when it changed. When a hug went from something that made her feel mildly nervous to something comforting, but it had happened, at least when it came to them. At some point, she'd stopped feeling trapped when Hizashi or Aizawa hugged her, and it was good, she wasn't complaining. Every time they held her, she felt the warmth in her chest double, she felt comfortable, wanted, things she wasn't used to, didn't recognise, and it made the cold churning in her stomach double too.
"We were really worried when you disappeared last night," Hizashi confessed quietly. It was so easy to assume the worst case scenario, she could've been anywhere, taken again, hurt, dead, or just too angry to speak to them. Instead, not only was she here when they woke up, but she was teasing and smiling like everything in the world was perfect.
She felt a gentle touch on her head, mussing her hair up or trying. "If you can go more than a week without giving Hizashi a heart attack, that'd be nice," Aizawa spoke from behind her.
She drove an elbow into his chest for good measure. "It's not like I wanted to forget," she muttered. "But I'll try not to do it again."
She'd made a mistake by forgetting. She'd hurt her classmates by lying to them.
But they were all just relieved she was ok.
Some fluff, some sprinkles of angst. A cutesy little chapter for you all. I hope you enjoyed!
Nervous about commenting? The sun or the moon?