Chapter Text
Morning was drawing near and the sun was making its first appearances. Shota willed himself to keep walking, the only thing stopping him from collapsing to the ground was the thought of his warm, soft bed at home. A lot had happened during his patrol that night, villain activity had been higher than usual and he was completely spent.
As he walked past an alley, he heard something moving. He stopped walking. The alley was dark and he couldn't see anything from where he was standing. He figured that it had to be an animal, and no matter how much he loved animals, he was way too tired to go look. He was just about to keep walking when he heard a sob coming from somewhere in the alley. There was no way that that was an animal.
Instinctively, he walked towards the sound. As soon as he could see the outline of whoever was there, he activated his quirk, one can never be too careful. When he got closer, the first thing he noticed was purple hair. A boy was sitting on the ground, his arms were defensively covering his face. He was shaking, and Shota wasn't sure if it was from the cold or the crying.
Shota deactivated his quirk and carefully walked closer to the child, lowering himself and trying to seem smaller and held his hands in front of him as one would when approaching a frightened animal.
"Hello, I'm Eraserhead," The child lowered his arms a little and his face was revealed. He didn't look to be more than ten years old and he had some nasty looking bruises. "I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm a hero."
"I know." He was still shaking, tears were still sunning down his cheeks, but he didn't seem quite as scared.
"What?"
"That you're a hero." He spoke quietly. Shota nodded, surprised that the kid knew who he was.
"What's your name?"
"Hitoshi." He had lowered his arms completely now, instead, he pushed his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs. Shota got a little closer to him, squatting a meter in front of him.
"What are you doing out here alone, Hitoshi?" Hitoshi wrapped his arms tighter around himself. "Are you lost?" He shook his head. "Do you want me to walk you home then? You shouldn't be out here in the cold, you'll freeze." He shook his head again.
"I can't go home." Shota almost couldn't hear what he said, but he did and when he processed it, his blood froze in his veins.
"Is it because of this?" He asked, pointing towards the bruises on Hitoshi's face. He nodded slightly.
"They said that I couldn't come back." Shota took a deep breath to calm himself down.
"You can't stay out here. Let me take you to the police station." Hitoshi nodded. Shota stuck out his hand to help him up and Hitoshi hesitantly took it. "Call me Aizawa or Shota, okay?" Another nod.
It wasn't a long walk to the police station, normally it would only take Shota a few minutes, but normally he didn't have a cold, scared, hurt ten-year-old with him.
"I'm here to see Detective Tsukauchi," Aizawa told the man at the reception. He made a quick call and pointed them to a room further in.
Tsukauchi was sitting at his desk when they entered and he greeted them with a wave and a smile.
"Good to see you, Eraserhead!" He looked down at Hitoshi. "And who might you be?" When Hitoshi didn't answer, Shota did in his place.
"This is Hitoshi, I found him in an alley a few blocks from here."
"I am Detective Tsukauchi," He introduced himself. "Would you mind telling me what you were doing there?" Tsukauchi spoke directly to Hitoshi, his voice soft and kind. Hitoshi shook his head and looked up at Shota.
"From what he told me, it seems that he was kicked out. See the bruises on his face?" Tsukauchi nodded. "I believe that happened at home."
"I see." He turned to the computer on his desk. "Could you please tell me your full name?" Hitoshi was quiet for a few seconds before he spoke.
"Shinsou Hitoshi." Tsukauchi started tapping on his keyboard.
"Ten years old, only child, quirk: Brainwashing, when someone answers one of his questions, it allows him to control them." Hitoshi wrapped his arms around himself protectively. Tsukauchi and Shota exchanged a look.
Shota slowly squatted in front of Hitoshi, careful not to make any sudden movements.
"We are not going to hurt you, we just want to help you. I understand if you don't want to answer any questions right now, that's okay, but it would really help us if we know what happened so that we can correctly punish whoever did this to you." Hitoshi looked down at the floor and nodded.
"I don't want to accidentally use my quirk on you," He whispered. Shota shook his head.
"Do you not have control over it?" Hitoshi shook his head.
"Sometimes it just happens."
"That's okay. It is completely normal for kids your age to not have full control yet. Don't worry about it." Hitoshi looked up, surprised. He looked like he was about to say something but quickly shut his mouth again.
"It's okay. What did you want to ask?" Hitoshi shook his head. Tsukauchi held out a notebook and a pen.
"Would you prefer to write instead?" Hitoshi nodded and took the notebook and pen from him and started writing.
'Did you mean it when you said its normal?'
"Yes." Shota nodded. "I would be very surprised if I met a ten-year-old who did have control of their quirk." What could be considered a small smile appeared on Hitoshi's face.
"Are you okay with answering some questions? You can write down your answers if you want to," Tsukauchi asked and this time, Hitoshi's nod seemed a lot more confident.
They kept the questions to a minimum, not wanting to overwhelm Hitoshi. They found out that - as Shota had guessed - his parents were abusive towards him. Hitoshi told them that it was because of his quirk, according to him, they were trying to teach him not to use it. The day before he had been kicked out after instinctively using his quirk on his mother in an attempt to protect himself.
"We need to find a new home for him, but until then he needs a place to live. Since you, Eraserhead, were the one who found him, it would be easiest if he could stay with you for the time being, if that is possible for you and if Hitoshi is okay with that, of course." Tsukauchi smiled at Hitoshi.
"That is completely up to you." Shota turned to look at the child. "If you choose not to, then we will make sure to find somewhere else, somewhere you feel comfortable."
"I want to come with you," Hitoshi said after a little while. Shota smiled.
"Okay then, let's go home."
Shota was happy that Hitoshi trusted him enough to choose to live with him, but he had been out on patrol all night and he was supposed to be at UA in just a few hours. He took out his phone to send a few texts.
First one was to Nemuri.
05.08
You:
'Something important came up during patrol, can you cover my classes today?'
Next, he texted Hizashi.
05.10
You:
'I found an abandoned child on patrol and committed to taking care of him for a while. We are on our way home right now.'
Hizashi had stayed the night at Shota's apartment, which wasn't exactly unusual as he practically lived there. Shota figured that he should get a heads up before he walked in with a child.
05.15
Hizashi:
'I'll have breakfast ready for you when you get home.'
He had completely forgotten about breakfast, with everything that happened, it hadn't seemed very important.
05.16
You:
'Thank you'
'I love you'
He wasn't one to just throw that phrase around, but when he figured that if his boyfriend, instead of asking a bunch of questions about this very sudden and complicated situation decided to get up early and make breakfast, that was the least he could do.
When they were almost home, his phone buzzed again.
05.27
Nemuri:
'Sure!'
'You better have a real good reason for it though.'
He contemplated not answering her.
05.28
You:
'Thanks'
'I do. Abandoned child'
He took out his key and unlocked his door.
"Go on in." Hitoshi hesitantly stepped inside. "You can hang your jacket on this hook and put your shoes over there.”
Hizashi came to meet them. Shota had warned Hitoshi that he'd be there but reassured him that he was very kind, although a bit loud sometimes. Shota gave him a stern look, reminding him to keep his voice low and not startle the child.
"Hello kid, I'm Hizashi, it's nice to meet you." Hizashi held out his hand and Hitoshi took it.
"I'm Hitoshi," He said. He was still very quiet, but Shota was happy that he spoke at all.
"I made breakfast for us, do you want to come eat?" Hitoshi nodded slightly and Hizashi lead him towards the kitchen. Before he disappeared around a corner, he gave Shota a look that said 'we'll talk about this later'.
~
Hitoshi slowly got more comfortable with Shota and Hizashi, and only a month after he started living with them, Hizashi moved in as well. Shota and Hizashi had been talking about it for a while, so it wasn't completely out of the blue but Hitoshi had definitely sped up the process.
As Hizashi had known from the moment that he read Shota's text, Hitoshi never left. It took a while to work through everything, but eventually, Hitoshi officially became Shota's son and took on the name Aizawa, leaving his old name behind, it only reminding him of his parents and what they had done to him.