lol some of you are getting so worried this isn't an Aizawa story anymore! 😂 It is! Had to make him jealous and plus I love Fatgum! He's so cute.

September is over and October has begun. Eri was doing better, but she wasn't allowed to have visitors except for Aizawa and Hibiki.

One free Sunday, Hibiki manages to get the hospital to let her take Eri out to get clothes. Taishiro was coming with them. He'll be fully recovered in a few days.

Hibiki greets Eri. "Hey."

"Echo!"

"Have the nice nurses told you what you get to do today?" she asks, moving up beside her.

"Mall?"

"Yes, but more specifically it's a hero mall. It's strictly for heroes and their families only. So everyone you see inside, except the workers, are heroes. The place is a safe haven for heroes, there's even a whole street just for restaurants too. The whole area is surrounded by a wall to keep out anyone else and the measures to get inside are strict. This is where we will be going because there won't be as many people as a normal area would. We don't think you're quite ready for such big crowds yet, so we'll start small. That sound good?"

She nods. "Yeah..."

"I also have someone here with me for you to meet. He'll be joining us on our little adventure today," Hibiki says, looking to the door. "You can come in, Tai."

He ducks into the room with a small wave. "Hey, Erichan. You likely won't remember me because you were asleep when we briefly met after your rescue. I'm Toyomitsu Taishiro, but my hero name is Fatgum! You can call me Toyo, if that's easier for you."

"Nice to meet you, Toyo-san," Eri says, lightly bowing her head.

"Well, let's get this show on the road!" Tai cheers, fist pumping the air and accidentally hitting the ceiling. "Oops... Come on! Let's hurry!" He rushes them out the room to the waiting car outside.

...

Eri requested to see Midoriya and Togata, and today's that day. Aizawa and Hibiki are the ones that brought the two students, leading them through the hospital to her room. The two students enter as the two teachers hang back in the doorway to supervise.

"We're sorry we couldn't come see you earlier," Izuku tells her.

Mirio lifts up a basket of fruits. "It's an assortment of fruits! If you like them, then eat them up! Do you have a favorite fruit? Can I guess? It's peaches, isn't it? You're kinda peachy after all!"

"It's apples," Eri says.

"Just like I thought!" Mirio exclaims.

Hibiki smiles, chuckling to herself.

The apple in the basket is sliced for Eri and put on a plate on the table beside the bed. They get some chairs for Mirio and Izuku to sit beside her bed.

"This whole time, even when I had a fever, I-I was thinking that, even while I was being s-saved... I didn't know your name," she tells Izuku. "I only knew Lemillion-san, and I wanted to know."

"It's Midoriya Izuku, and my hero name is Deku," Izuku proudly tells her. "Um... Deku is shorter, so it'll probably be easier to remember. Deku it is! My name is Deku!"

"Deku-san, Lemillion-san, Hibi-san, and that man wearing glasses... everyone... got really hurt, all because of me..." Eri mumbles. "I'm sorry you all had to experience such painful things all because of me."

Mirio gently places a hand atop her head. "Erichan. Nobody thinks you caused them painful things. Everyone's thinking something more like this: 'It's great that Erichan is safe'! It's no use apologizing to people that aren't there! Let's take it easy. Everyone fought because they wanted to see your smiling face!" Mirio reassures her with a smile.

Eri tries to smile, even going so far as to push her mouth up with her fingers. She sniffles. "I'm sorry... how do you smile again?"

It's silent for a bit before Izuku perks up. "Aizawa sensei, can't Erichan go out for even one single day?"

"It's probably not impossible, however... how should I put it? Where she'll be transferred to..."

"Then can Erichan come too, to the cultural festival?! Can Erichan come too?"

Mirio explains to her what that is, and she becomes totally interested at the part where he mentioned candied apples.

"Let's talk it over with the principal," Aizawa says, already typing on his phone.

"Well then, Erichan... what do you think?" Izuku asks.

"I-I've been thinking ever since I was being saved... About the people who saved me... and everyone else, I want to get to know them more!" Eri says.

"I'll tell you about us until you can't take it anymore!" Mirio exclaims. "Let's start working to get the go ahead from the principal! I'm currently on break from school, so I can be on a constantly supervised date with Erichan, right?!"

"Date?" Eri tilts her head confused.

"A honeymoon couple's outing!"

"Honeymoon couple's outing?" Eri questions again.

"Senpai, what are you saying?" Izuku asks exasperated.

Hibiki smiles, walking in between the two seated students. "I think it's a great idea. They'll be a bit of a bigger crowd from when we went out to buy you clothes. That okay with you?"

Eri nods her head. "Yeah. I-I think I'll be okay, Hibi-san."

Hibiki's face softens. "This means you'll get to wear one of your new outfits!"

Eri doesn't smile but her face seems to brighten at the thought.

...

Sunday, since it's the weekend, was the day that Cementoss was able to shift the first floor to fit the blueprints that Hibiki drew up for her and Aizawa's new 'apartment' with Eri.

Hibiki cloned out and moved their stuff out of the way so Cementoss could easily move the walls around and not squish anything. Aizawa, Hibiki, and the clones move everything back once he's gone.

"Guess I need to get Eri a bed and a few other things," Hibiki says, looking at the large space that was made for Eri and walking out to the living room behind Aizawa.

Aizawa doesn't say anything and heads off to the couch. He sits down and picks up some papers to look through and grade. "Looks like it."

Hibiki sighs, seeing it's just the two of them now. Maybe she can ask for some answers. "Hey, Aizawa?"

"Yeah?"

"You've... been distant lately. You've even added -san to my name... Did... I do some wrong? Did I make you mad? If you're mad about our new living arrangements, I can just ask and see if Nezu will let us have our own floor or something."

"I'm not upset about the new living arrangement."

"Then what's wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong."

"Then why did you add -san to my name when you've never done that before."

"I realized I've been unprofessional. I apologize for that," he responds, continuing to not look at her. "It's better this way."

"Oh... yeah, okay. I guess..." She sighs, heading into her room and closing the door behind her. She leans her head back against the door and whispers to herself. "Why are you lying?"

•••

It's Saturday, and the school decided to let the students off to their festival ideas. Hibiki, Aizawa, and Mirio went to pick up Eri from the hospital to bring her to U.A. Principal Nezu decided that Eri would likely be overwhelmed with all the people at the official festival and decided that she should come beforehand to get used to more people than she's used to.

"And here we are!" Mirio exclaims. "It's okay!! Everyone's nice here," Mirio says, looking at Eri's nervous but awed face. "Welcome to U.A!"

"Well, everyone but Bakugo, but don't take his words to heart he doesn't mean them... usually," Hibiki sighs.

They make their way towards the 1-A dorms where the dance team is practicing out front. Mirio pulls everyone to hide behind a bush.

"Doesn't seem like anyone's noticed yet..." Mirio mumbles.

"Why are we hiding?" Aizawa asks.

"Hmm... what sort of sudden entrance will get a laugh out of them...?" Mirio mumbles.

Izuku notices him peeking from around the bush. "Ah! Togata senpai!"

Mirio doesn't say anything, trying to figure out how to make everyone laugh still.

Hibiki walks out and Eri follows with her hand in Hibiki's. Ochaco, Tsu, and Izuku look at Eri in surprise.

Mirio finally decides and sticks his butt through the bush, but no one is paying attention to him at this point. "Nice full moon we're having!"

"Hi, Deku-san," Eri voices.

"What!!? Wait, wait, is that sensei's kid...!?" Sato shouts.

Ojiro sweatdrops. "She doesn't have any kids, Sato."

"Oh... then..." Sato looks over at Mirio. "Senpai?!"

"Wait, for real?!" Ojiro adds.

The two never even question Aizawa, guessing he would never have a kid.

Hibiki rolls her eyes with a little laugh, seeing Aizawa pout a bit. She pats Aizawa's back. "Seems that your students seem to know you a bit too well just in the wrong way."

"My students? They're yours too," he retorts.

"What a gweat wittle outfit," Tsu smiles.

"Sooo cuteee!" Ochaco cheers.

Mirio bends down in sadness as no one gives him attention, concerning Eri.

"We got permission from the principal," Aizawa speaks up. "Just to make sure she doesn't get shocked or panic, we're bringing her beforehand to get used to the place."

Eri slightly hides behind Hibiki at the sudden attention she's getting.

"Eri-chan... Oh, the child from the internship! I'm Iida! Nice to meet you!"

"I'm looking forward to meeting you again in ten years! I'm Mineta."

If Hibiki could slap a student. "That's a detention, Mineta."

"GAh!"

"She's on the shy side," Mirio says. "You're Tereya-san, right?"

"Tereya-san, you say?" Iida questions, looking to Eri now completely hiding behind Hibiki. "Shy?"

"In any case, we're planning on walking around U.A. with Erichan now. Midoriya-kun, how 'bout you come with!?" Mirio asks.

The front doors to the dorm are suddenly slammed open. "Heyyy, dance team! We want to talk about... Huh? Erichan!!?" Kirishima shouts, rushing up to Eri. "Hey, hey! Do you not know who I am?"

"Well then, let's take a break! Tea time!" Mina calls out to the dance group.

The two pros leave Eri in Mirio's care. Mirio, Izuku, and Eri head off along school grounds.

Hibiki watches the group of three go. "Think she'll be okay?"

"She'll be fine," Aizawa replies, shuffling off towards the school. "I got some paperwork to do."

"Oh, okay," Hibiki nods. "I should probably head to my office to see how everyone is doing."

•••

Hibiki walks into the teacher's office, planning to take a quick nap as she was up late last night on patrol. Mic groans in annoyance, gaining her attention. She looks over to find him and Nemuri sat close together, mumbling and whispering about something.

"Everything okay?" Hibiki asks, walking over to them. "I heard something about 'what do we do?'"

The two older adults sigh.

"Shota's birthday is coming up on November 8th, and he doesn't exactly like surprises or celebrating his birthday, so we're trying to figure out what to do," Nemuri admits.

"Oh?" Hibiki yawns. "Well, just bake him a cake and leave it on his desk or something with whatever gifts you wanna give him. I'm sure he'll appreciate it especially without you guys making a big deal out of it."

"Sounds good," Nemuri nods in approval.

"But that's so lame!" Mic huffs.

"I'm taking a nap," Hibiki yawns again, going to her desk and grabbing her blue sleeping bag from underneath it. She heads over to the couch, wrapping herself inside the sleeping bag and falling onto the couch. The blue caterpillar immediately falls asleep, thinking about what she's going to get Aizawa.

〰️〰️〰️

Hibiki is awoken by a weight sitting on the couch she's on. She blinks her eyes open to not find someone sitting but sleeping with her. Now she's fully awake, eyes adjusting on who or what is next to her. Yellow and black fills her vision, automatically knowing that the mystery thing is actually Aizawa. She feels her face heat up.

"Ai-Aizawa?" she quietly calls out, looking to his sleeping face. Why is he sleeping here? She tilts her head up to look around the room to realize she fell asleep onto his couch. He must've not realized. She doesn't hear any others in the room. She sighs and decides to make a clone of herself who easily stands in front of the couch and scoops up the original without disturbing Aizawa. The clone disappears, and Hibiki yawns, looking at the time as she uncaterpillars herself. "Well, guess I needed to get up anyway." She takes a breath to calm her racing heart before heading out to her next class.

•••

By the time Aizawa returned to the shared apartment from patrol, Hibiki was already asleep.

He remains as quiet as he can to not wake her up as he shuffles off his shoes and gets on his slippers. He gets to his room and changes into pajamas before heading to his bed. He stops seeing something on his bed and turns the light on to see it better.

Sitting on his bed were two cat plushies and a letter. He picks up the letter and reads it.

Dear Aizawa,
Happy Birthday! This past month has been rough between us for some reason. I still don't understand why you're putting space between us. I don't know what I did wrong for you to do this. I know you're lying about the whole keep it professional thing. Hopefully you'll tell me what the actual problem is eventually. Anyway, I still wanted to wish you a happy birthday. Hope you enjoy your gifts.
-Hibiki

He sighs, sadly placing the card down on his nightstand. It's not your fault it's mine... I'm scared of what I might do and mess up our relationship in a negative way... He sees Taro snuggled with one of the plushies. He slides under the covers, clutching the nontaken cat plush and snuggling with it.

He ends up cuddling the other one anyway. Mic got plenty of pictures.

...

It's been a month. The day of the festival has finally arrived. Aizawa and Mirio arrived with Eri for her first ever fun day in her life. Hopefully, it'll be fun for her, and she'll enjoy it.

Hibiki decided to invite Fatgum. Of course, he's not going as Fatgum just his small normal self. He still is wearing his hero suit, looking like a big fanboy of himself. She meets him at the gate. "Tai!"

"Hibi!" he grins, scooping her up and kissing her. "You look... wow! 😳"

She blushes. "It's an old shirt."

"Well it looks great on you. White fits you. Anywaysss! I'm so excited to see my interns and have fun!"

She chuckles as he sets her down. "Class 1-A's play begins at 10am. That's when you can see Kirishima. Though from what I've seen... you won't really see him all that much cause he's doing the special effects."

He takes her hand as they head through the entrance. On either side of the entrance is a Echo clone. All throughout the campus are her and Ectoplasm's clones, making sure that no villain is gonna attack. Each teacher is patrolling around as well. One can never have too much security.

"That sounds good," Tai grins, looking at the time. "Looks like we have just enough time to find food!"

Aizawa, Mirio, and Eri are wasting a bit of time at the food stalls when they bump into the couple.

Aizawa looks up at Tai. "Noizu-san, this is supposed to be a closed event. Only students and staff. No outsiders."

Hibiki scrunches her eyebrows. "I asked Nezu who said it was alright." She ignores him and bends down to Eri's height, kissing her on the head. "Hi, dear. You look cute as usual."

"H-Hi, Hibi-san."

Aizawa grumbles and walks off, keeping them in his sights.

"Having fun so far?"

"Yeah..."

10am is soon, so Hibiki, Tai, Mirio and Eri head inside the hall where class 1A's performance will be. Aizawa makes his way in a few people behind the group as he is watching over Eri, but he glares at the two pro heroes the whole time. Tai gets Eri up on his shoulders once they find a place to stand, so she can see.

Aizawa keeps himself in the back and leans against the wall, keeping his eye on them from there. Mic enters, easily finding his best friend.

"Hey hey, Shotaa!"

"Yo."

"You seem unhappier than usual."

"Hope they can pull this off," Aizawa says, thinking of the upcoming performance.

"Don't tell me you're nervous! I'm looking forward to this banger!" Mic grins.

"I don't care what you think. Besides, aren't you on patrol?"

"I'm only gonna watch like one jam!" he claims.

Aizawa gives him a slightly amused grin before looking to the stage. "Sure."

"Like you have room to pester me. What's going on between you and Hibichan?"

The curtains on the stage open to reveal Jiro then the rest of class 1A right as 10 rolls around.

"Noizu-san and–"

"San? Since when did you start adding -san to her name?" Mic cuts his friend off. "Now I really know something's wrong? Why are you avoiding her?"

Aizawa sighs. "Because she's dating Fatgum."

Mic blinks. "Yeah. So? Why's that—Oh... Oh!" His eyes widen as his mouth drops open. "Do you—Holy crap! You have a crush–"

Aizawa slaps a hand over Mic's mouth. "You don't need to shout it out to everyone here." He sighs. "Yes. I have a crush on her. Happy?"

Mic fist pumps. "Ha! Nemuri owes me ¥2000!"

"What?"

"Oh... uh... we-we bet on who would admit they had a crush first... Nemuri thought Hibichan would admit she likes you before you would..."

Aizawa's eye twitches as the lights go dark. Bakugo shouts then a big explosion follows and the song and dancing begins.

"We'll talk about this when this is over."

Mic gulps.

Tai ends up lifting Hibiki onto his shoulders too. Eri is on his left, and Hibiki is on his right. Aizawa's eyes moving to Hibiki, watching her smile and her eyes twinkle in happiness. He crosses his arms and seems to deflate. Mic watches, feeling for his best friend.

Hibiki watches Eri as well as the performance, making sure she's not overwhelmed or scared. She's glad to notice that little Eri seems more in awe of all the things going on around them. Eri watches as Midoriya exits the stage, turning back and giving her a thumbs up before he disappears.

"Where'd he go?" Eri asks.

"Just keep watching. I'm sure he'll show up again," Mirio tells her.

A few seconds later, ice paths spread over top of them, Momo shoots off confetti, Aoyama is a disco ball, and cold sparkles seem to rain down on everyone. Everyone in the crowd is dancing along with the dances, having a good time, and smiling like there's no care in the world. Then Tsuyu wraps her tongue around Uraraka and swings her out to the crowd, so they could float in the air. Sero uses his tape to let them move around.

Eri throws her arms out, getting the attention of the three with her. The biggest smile she can muster is spread across her face as she cheers. The two pros and third year tear up in joy. Her dark confinement was completely released.

Hibiki even releases a few happy sobs. "Eriiii... You're so cute!"

Then it's over, but Eri doesn't stop the grin on her face.

They meet up with the class after while they're cleaning up.

"Hey, good work buddy!" Mirio calls out to Midoriya as he runs inside.

"That was crazy!" Eri speaks with eyes shining, getting Midoriya's attention. "At first when there was a loud noise, it was scary, but then everyone was jumping with a dance and then there was a big flash and then Deku you went away for a bit..." Her voice trails off sadly before perking back up and speaking faster and faster. Mirio copies her excited movements, and Midoriya begins to tear up. "And the guy started flying in the air! That's when it started to get cold and I saw birds and there was this spinning light and a bunch of people said wow and you know what I said? Wow too!" Midoriya wipes his eyes to prevent himself from crying like he usually does. "It was so fun!"

"I'm glad you had such a good time, Eri," he smiles at her.

She gives him a big closed eyed smile back.

"You should be working!" Mineta then begins to scold Midoriya, seemingly in a rush.

The greenet quickly begins to help.

"Fatgum!"

Tai turns then gets a big smile. "Kirishima!"

"What're you doing here?" the red head asks, rushing up to his mentor and giving each other a quick hug.

Tai smiles down at Hibiki who returns it. "I'm on a date!"

Kirishima blinks, looking between his mentor and sensei then smiles. "No way! You two are dating?! That's so awesome! You're so manly Fat!"

Tai gets a sheepish smile. "Hah. Thanks..."

"WHAAAT?!" Mina shrieks, dropping whatever she was holding. "YOU TWO ARE DATING?!"

"Wait, really?" Uraraka asks.

"No time for questions! Converse later!" Mineta screams at everyone, rushing around.

Hibiki chuckles. "Well, I guess we should be leaving and getting out of the way." She looks up at Tai. "Let's go ahead and head on over to the beauty pageant. Amajiki should be there with Hado."

"We'll meet you there," Mirio tells them.

Hibiki nods as the two pros leave hand in hand.

Once they're out of sight, most everyone turns to Kirishima.

"Dude! They're dating?!" Mina yells.

"Seems like he asked her out like he wanted to," Kirishima grins. "I had to give him a little encouragement though..."

"What?!" Mina screeches, grabbing Kirishima by the shoulders and shaking him back and forth. "What happened to our plan to get Echo sensei and Aizawa sensei together?!"

Kirishima blinks then his eyes widen. "Ah crap! I forgot about that!"

"You just ruined our chances to have easier classes!" Kaminari shouts.

"Yeah, shame on you dude," Sero adds with crossed arms.

"I'm super unmanly!" Kirishima tears up, slumping to the ground. "How could I forget a promise I made? But... I want Fat to be happy... I'm con—uh, what's the word?"

"Conflicted, dumbass," Bakugo scoffs.

"Yeah, conflicted!"

"Shut up! We're going to be late to the pageant if you don't hurry up!" Mineta shouts.

〰️〰️〰️

The pageant was awesome. Tai got to say hello to Amajiki before the couple went off to each little event the school's classes were doing.

The haunted house was fun. Hibiki wouldn't get scared cause she could hear the scares coming, but Taishiro didn't. He ended up screaming quite often, making Hibiki giggle as he'd occasionally try to hide behind her.

The end of the festival eventually comes, and it's time for Eri to go back. Eri, Hibiki, Taishiro, Mirio, Izuku, and Aizawa stand at the gate to the front. Echo clones are still standing from afar by the gate, still on patrol for the festival.

Eri once again looks sad, having to say goodbye. Izuku cheers her up with a candy apple.

He pulls the apple from behind his back, presenting it in front of Eri. "Surprise!"

"A candy apple! Were they selling those?! I looked everywhere!" Mirio exclaims.

Izuku explains that he made them himself.

"Well, don't worry. You'll meet again soon enough," Aizawa says.

Eri takes a small bite of the apple and giggles. "It's even sweeter."

Hibiki and Tai give Eri a hug goodbye before Mirio, Aizawa, and Eri leave.

"Well, this is my cue to leave then," Tai says, turning to Hibiki. "I'd invite you back to mine, but you're still busy with security it seems." He looks at the two clones who wave at him. "I know you have a certain distance with them, and my place is surely too far a reach."

She smiles. "Yeah, next time?"

He smiles, giving her a peck. "Next time. I'm gonna head out on a random patrol." His body inflates to adjust to his hero suit and lightly pats her head. "Bye!" He rushes off down the road.

Hibiki shouts a goodbye before turning to her broccoli haired student who was awkwardly standing at the gate unsure of what to do. "Got any more of those candied apples? I could really go for one right now."

•••

It's the day after the festival, and Eri is officially moving in! Hibiki was so excited. All the papers were finalized and completed. Eri is legally Hibiki's daughter now!

The students that were on the rescue mission to save Eri were brought to see her again. The big three got there first, so they hung out with Eri as they all waited for the class 1A students.

"Eri's coming to live at UA," Aizawa announces to them once the four arrive.

"I thought it'd be forever before I saw her again!" Izuku shouts surprised.

Kirishima heads up to the couch she's on and kneels in front of her. "Hey!"

Uraraka is right beside him. "I'm so glad you're here."

Tsuyu comes from behind the couch, leaning over it. "Welcome home. You remind me of my little sister. You're cute like her!"

Eri turns in the frog girl's direction. "Gee, thank you so much."

"How is this even possible?" Izuku asks.

"We couldn't make her stay at the hospital forever," Aizawa says, pointing towards the door.

Hibiki leaves an exact clone with Hado and Eri as everyone else heads outside.

"From what we can tell, Eri was abandoned by her parents," Hibiki says. "We know the head of the Shie Hassaikai is her relative, but he's been in a coma for a long time."

"She has no where else to go," Aizawa adds.

"That's not all. Aizawa sensei may have mentioned this already. The docs figured out Eri's horn is where her quirk is released from," Mirio brings up.

"Yeah, he said it's gotten smaller so it should be fine," Kirishima says.

"True, it had, but it's slowly starting to get bigger again," Mirio says.

"Meaning in order to keep an eye on her power–" Uraraka gets cut off by Aizawa.

"Exactly. So that's why we're going to let her live here instead of putting her into the system," Aizawa says. "We've set up a room for her in the teacher's dorm. Hopefully, she'll be happy, and we can train her tremendous power."

"We're going to be using my clones," Hibiki says. "My clones are able to be injured as long as it's a light scratch or a big cut. No broken bones or anything. So as long as we can get her to heal the cuts, we should be able to get her quirk under wraps. Then maybe she can be Recovery Girl's assistant or something. That'd be so cute!"

"Sounds like it's going to be a lot of work for you," Tsuyu says.

Mirio throws his hand up and out. "That's where I come in! I'm on leave for school right now and since I'm super buddy buddy with our little Eri, so I'm helping out! I know you guys are majorly busy, but I'm hoping you'll stop by and say hi."

"Of course we will!" the four say.

"Also, I just wanted to let you all know that I adopted her," Hibiki informs.

"Ah! No way!" Uraraka cheers.

"Congrats, Echo sensei," Tsuyu says, smiling.

"Yeah! That's awesome!" Kirishima fist pumps.

"Yes, congrats!" Izuku says.

"Thank you. I hope I'll make her happy."

"From what we've heard about you from Ojiro, I think you have it handled," Izuku says.

"Yeah, Ojiro told us that you would babysit him a lot when he was Eri's age," Uraraka says. "And he loves you."

Hibiki chuckles. "Well, that's reassuring."

"Now, you four go back to the dorms. You have visitors," Aizawa tells them.

...~~~...
Remember
••• means time has passed like a day or a few
〰️〰️〰️ means later that same day

I apologize I haven't updated for over 3 months! My work has me wake up at 5am till 3pm or later, and it's killing me. Driving, lifting, moving, checking everything it's tiring af! I haven't had any energy and usually sleep on my days off or do shit that needs to be done around the house.
Gomen!