Sero waited, sipping tea as he idly glanced at the clock. "A few more minutes until go time …" The week had been stressful. At times they weren't able to keep Iruma away, so they had to improvise. Easiest excuse was Mineta's birthday … which they didn't forget. It just slipped their minds.
Of course, the innocent wild child of 1-A had a nose like a bloodhound when it came to food, so they had to keep him out of the dorms as much as possible after classes. That's where it paid off for Iruma to have friends in 1-B, because Shiozaki was more than happy to keep him occupied at the school garden, much to Hagakure and Uraraka's dismay.
They kept the food itself within Lunch Rush's kitchen, who was more than happy to use a security system even Suzuki himself couldn't bypass. So now it came time for them to wait it out and … there she was! "Eri!" Iruma greeted her with a bright smile.
"Wolfman!" You'd have a hard time believing this little girl wasn't Iruma's blood sister. "Sleepy-sensei said we'd get to spend the whole day together!"
"I should really bring Satsuki and Samidare here sometime." Asui idly stated. "Just get her some kids her own age … physically that is."
"Makes me wish those bastard Suzuki's had baby Iruma-kun photos laying around their house." Hagakure grunted. He shouldn't be surprised she checked for that. He really shouldn't. "Ugh, arrest warrants shouldn't be this difficult to get. At least after today, Iruma-kun and I never, ever have to think about them again."
"Think about what now?" Iruma asked them.
"We were thinking it's about time you head to the store if you want to reach the sale on time." Uraraka handed the boy a checklist and a couple of coupons. "These should be in Eri's size, and you should have just enough to get you and her a special treat if you feel like it."
"Shinso will make sure you don't get lost on your way." Asui reminded them. "And no, this isn't negotiable. It's either that, or we actually get that bell."
"So zombieman is coming too?" The little girl tilted her head, resulting in restrained giggles from Uraraka.
"Yep, Mr Zombieman is gonna join you guys." She spoke, keeping a hand on her mouth. "Make sure … to have lots of fun." She turned away to laugh into her hand, like most of the class.
"And…don't worry about running late…." He stifled his chuckles. "Take all the time you need. No hurry."
"Don't worry, I'll be sure to come back before dinner." Iruma nodded.
"And I'll make sure to buy a baseball bat for you bastards." Shinso grunted. "Come on Suzuki, let's head before it gets late."
They watched them all leave. "Well, he definitely sounds like somebody that was trained by Aizawa." Sero said. "So, are there any other theories to that aside from love child?"
"He does want to be in the hero course." Iida recalled. "Perhaps Aizawa-sensei is training him to be prepared for next year's Sports Festival."
"You mean there's a chance we can finally get rid of Mineta?" Ashido wondered. "Well I'm sold on that."
"Hey!" The boy shouted. "What makes you think it's me? I got mid grade in the midterms and I passed the practical. If anything Sero is more at risk than me." Oh shit, he was.
"It's sad when Dodger's able to keep a better grade average than you." Bakugo cruelly reminded him. "Well it was nice knowing you, Tape arms, except not really." Well that was gonna be one thing he wouldn't miss.
==
"So then, remind me what this sale is about again?" Shinso asked as they walked into the mall.
"Oh, well Eri doesn't have a lot of stuff because Overbird was using her for stuff." Suzuki whispered so that the girl in question couldn't hear. "So I'd thought I'd use some of the money from the work study to help her out. I mean, it's how I met her, and she's the ONLY good thing that came out of it."
"I thought you learned combat experience?" Shinso asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I did, but Nighteye was a huge jerk about it and made me realize I hate heroes." That made him feel even more confused.
"You hate heroes….and you're in the hero course…" Shinso tried to paint a clear picture.
"I mean I put in all the effort at this point and it would be a waste just to drop out … plus UA is the only place I have friends." Well that fucking sucked.
"I can oddly relate. I didn't have friends before UA." Shinso yawned. "Everyone either was too scared of my quirk or wanted me to use it to cause trouble. After the Sports Festival though, everyone's been nicer."
"I don't see why you'd be scared of a quirk. You're a good person Shinso." The boy gave him an innocent smile that made his insides feel funny. If he was gonna knock someone off the hero course he hoped it wasn't him. "Why do you want to be a hero anyway?"
"It's just something I've always wanted, I guess." He thought back. "Maybe at one point I told myself it was to prove a 'villainous' quirk could do something good, but really, being a hero just sounded like a cool thing to be."
"Zombieman will be a really good hero, like me." Eri smiled at him, somehow even brighter than Suzuki. "If you can make someone happy, you're a hero!"
"Try telling that to Aizawa." He was half certain the man did everything in his power to never show a smile unless a student was being tortured.
"Aizawa-sensei is a very nice person." Bullshit, you've just been lied to. "Oh, is that …" Curious, Shinso followed his gaze to a green headed boy with freckles looking straight at them, before smiling and running their way. "Are you…?"
"Hey there, Iruma-kins." The boy spoke like he knew them all his life. Weird, Suzuki never mentioned them before.
"Oh, hey Toga." … Oh come the fuck on! "Sorry, I thought you were someone that Bakugo talked about a while back. He has a LOT of issues with that guy." Considering how he acted around normal people, that sounded horrifying. "Where did you get his blood from?"
"Actually one of my friends … associates gave me this blood." She frowned. "Said they wanted to picture despair on the boy's face." What the fuck? "Don't get me wrong, it tasted amazing, but coming from Amy just leaves it with a bitter aftertaste."
"The blue haired guy with a horn right? Yeah, he seemed really mean." You were being way too casual with this!
"Toga …" Eri looked confused. Shit, they had a child with them.
"Vampire lady, remember?" The girl in a boy's body smiled gently. "I drink blood and change to others."
"Vampire lady…" Eri's eye's sparked before she reached out to hug the disguised girl's leg. "You kept your promise. I'm free, I'm free, thank you…" She squeezed the villain tight. "Thank you for making me happy. You're one of my heroes."
"I'm a hero." The 'boy' blushed, before kneeling and patting her head. "No problem, no one should deal with bad parents. Right Iruma-kins?" There was a look in the eye, some sort of hidden meaning.
"Tell me about it." And it completely went over Suzuki's head. "Hey, we're trying to get Eri a few things for herself. Want to come along and help?" What? No! Don't invite the crazy super villain to shop!!
"Of course, anything for my little unicorn princess." Oh god, he hated the fact he was a teenager, he was too young to drink! This kid really was a villain magnet.
==
"Lights?"
"Aimed and primed to go."
"Banner?"
"In position and visually appealing."
"Glass wall for the cake?"
"Probably wouldn't do much to keep him away, but all we need to say is that he'll get glass on the cake if he smashes it."
"Music system?"
"Ready to rock."
"Presents?"
"About twelve hidden in every room."
"Congratulations everyone, we're three quarters done!" Ashido heard Iida praise the class, and she couldn't agree more. This had to be the party to end all parties. If that went well, it meant they were all set to create the best Christmas ever in a couple of months! God they were going to be swarmed and busy weren't they? "Any Chaperones appearing?"
"Miriko and All Might are swinging by later with our gift collaboration." Toru laughed. "I guarantee it's going to be the best one." Oh she'd fight that. She herself got Iruma a very important gift of something every boy needs … fashionable clothing instead of plain t-shirts.
"Hey, I don't want to bring down the mood or anything." Shoji pipped in. "But it's been a while…and Iruma is out on his own."
"Nonsense, he had Eri and Shinso accompanying him." Iida reminded them.
"Yeah, a gen-ed kid that doesn't have a license and a girl with an unstable quirk, next to a boy that the world seems eager to kill in every horrible way."
"... Uraraka, would you give him a call as a check in?" Iida asked the girl.
"On it." She dialed, placing it on speaker as they waited … and waited … and answered. "Hey, Iruma, how are you? You're okay right?"
"Yep." That was a relief. "Toga's been a great help picking out clothes and toys for Eri."
"T-t-TOGA!!?!?" Toru yelled out.
"Yeah, oh wait no…she said she'd like for us to call her Himiko now, or Himi-chan if we're comfortable with it."
"... Is Shinso there?" Iida asked with the tone of a disappointed parent.
"You said he attracted them but you never said anything about how casual it is!" He whisper-shouted.
"We warned you that he'd either fight or talk!" Mineta yelled. "Be lucky this is the less violent route!"
"So anyway we're hanging out with everyone. Gonna be back a bit later, but I'll make sure to get there in time for dinner." The boy hung up.
"So…are we just going to let Iruma hang out with one of the villains that kidnapped him?" Ashido asked the room in general. She noticed Shiozaki looked like she was five seconds off from strangling something.
"Given his dumb luck, he'll probably get out of this scratch free." Bakugo rolled his eyes. "I finally got my license, and I STILL miss my chance to murder the bitch!"
==
It was the strangest feeling being in 'Deku-kun's' skin. Yes, there was no denying that the greenette had an resemblance to Iruma-kins, and she could stare at this face for hours, but she didn't know who Deku-kun was outside of how Kiriwo described him: A sad, desperate boy barely holding it together trying to keep himself happy.
Whether or not that was who 'deku-kun' was, resemblance or not, he sounded like the opposite of her Iruma-kins, especially with his current behavior. Loved by all and smiling as he always looks at the bright side, even when there was none. Hell, he never even brought up the fact she was a villain, almost like such a label didn't exist.
"Thanks for helping me out, Toga. I really needed it." It didn't matter whose skin she was wearing, Iruma-kun saw her and only her. "Never had many toys growing up, any I had I needed to burn for warmth."
She knew, by devi (damn it, Amy, you have her saying it!) she knew all too well. "Not a problem, Iruma-kins, I just have really special insight! I remember when I played with my first plastic knife. I imagined cutting pretty wounds into people."
Eri shook in place. "Cut … people?" She asked, rubbing her arms. Shit, she forgot she was in front of a traumatized child.
"Yeah, that doesn't sound particularly fun at all." The eyebag boy Iruma-kins looked skeptical.
"It's just me … it started with birds I guess." She dropped the disguise, the goop getting everywhere. "I found a bird with a broken wing in my backyard, I found it adorable and suckled on its blood. When my parents saw me they punched me a few times for being a freak of nature before they put me into a closet."
"They hurt you…?" Iruma-kin looked at her with a fierce protective gaze.
"Yep, said if I did something creepy and unnatural with a monster quirk they'd toss me out. So I bottled it up until I was in middle school. There was this boy and I found him … adorable. I couldn't resist, so I stabbed him with a straw and suckled … from there everyone called me a monster." She could see the bag-eyed kid look with horror and a glint of … understanding?
"A monster…but quirks don't make people monsters." Iruma-kins said, trying to understand her story. "Even when Overbird used his quirk to make him giant, that didn't make him a monster. What made him a monster was what he did."
"That's what you think Iruma-kins … the world thinks differently …" She cupped his face and smiled into his bright blue eyes. "That's why we want to destroy it, so people like us aren't monsters, freaks, curses."
"I'm not a curse." The beautiful girl said, looking like she agreed.
"Isn't that going too far though?" Bag eyes questioned. "Destroy the world so that only people left are the ones that think like you?"
"And how has the world treated you until you got famous on tv?" Bag eyes flinched. "Unless you have flash, unless you present yourself as 'heroic', who you are, what you are doesn't matter to anyone."
"It matters to me." Iruma-kins spoke up. "Everyone around since I've met Bunny-sensei keeps saying what they think is right, what they think is wrong, what being a hero is, what being a villain is. I just want to be a good person, and even then I..It gets really hard to care at times." Iruma-kins face looked beyond stressed.
Of course Iruma-kins would've felt this way! He's spent so much time around those shitty excuses for humans he was forced to call his parents, who used him like a slave and treated him like a dog! She'd be frustrated if someone tried to tell her what to do after years of living like that.
Eri looked concerned at the sentence, holding him tighter. "I care …" She reached for his arms. "I care about you so much, Wolf man."
"I care about you so much, Eri, much more than you know." Iruma-kins hugged her with warmth and kindness. "You, Shinso, Himiko, all my friends make it easier for me to smile."
Toga took it as a sign to embrace the boy in her own hug. "You make it easier for me to smile too." She motioned for eyebags to join in, who only rolled his eyes. His loss. "Just know Iruma-kins, if you're having trouble being happy, you don't have to pretend. The last thing anyone should do is mask how they truly feel."
All those years, pretending to be happy with being 'normal'. All those years, repressing everything she was until she was able to break apart the facade. "I've always thought being happy would help everything be better."
"Well, you do have a cute smile, that's something you should never lose." She giggled. "But there's right times to be happy, and right times to be angry, to be sad. It's all natural, and it doesn't change who you are." She got up, stretching her limbs. "We'll it's time for me to be off. Are you sure you don't wanna join us for change, Iruma-kins?"
"I'd like for us to hang out more. It would be nice to see Tomura again." Iruma-kins nodded. "But another friend said something to me I'm still trying to figure out fully. I have problems with heroes, but a lot of good has come from the training." He pointed to Eri. "I'll stay where I am for now."
"Well I tried." She shrugged. "Goodbye Iruma-kins, Unicorn Princess, and bag eyes."
"Goodbye vampire lady." So adorable! It was like being around the league with her and Iruma-kins, but somewhat better.
==
"Thanks for the help Shinso. You knew the place like the back of your hand." Iruma thanked his fellow student.
"No problem." The boy shrugged. "Are you going to be okay? About everything Toga said?"
"Yeah, I guess." He responded. "I know that there's things she's doing wrong, but it sounds like she's just had a really bad hand in life." He squeezed the sleepy Eri's hand ever so slightly. "If she can be a hero to Eri, then she can't be a bad person."
"Yeah, can't say I disagreed with some of what she said." Shinso nodded. "In my opinion she's just going overkill for the retaliation she deserves, but is hurting too many people in their path."
"Yeah, her path hurts a lot of people." He thought about what Ibara said to him. Iruma's own path wasn't that clear, but the one thing he knew for sure was that he wouldn't kill anyone, no matter how much they hurt him…except for All Forty One, that bastard needed to rot in a grave. "But I'll try to stop her as non violently as possible … like Gen-I mean some people I found in the Yakuza raid."
"You're definitely an optimist." Shinso let out a small laugh. "I think the world can use more of that in their heroes."
"Glad you think so." A lot of people kept saying he was stupid for being like that. It was nice to hear something different.
"Oh, and one more thing." The boy flushed a bit, pulling out a small box. "I don't like big crowds, so i'm giving you this here before you go in." Curious, Iruma opened it to reveal … a USB port? "You can store lots of pictures on there that can't just fit in your phone, for sentimental purposes."
"Thank you Shi-... Hitoshi, it means a lot." He smiled at the flushed student. "But why put it in a gift box?"
"Oh … you'll see why in a minute." The boy walked away. Weird, he sounded as ominous as Aizawa. Shrugging it off he walked into the surprisingly dark dorm room as he looked around, finding it all shaped weird in the night. Before his eyes could adjust the lights became blinding.
"SURPRISE!" Eri screamed, waking up from her nap, as he readied a battle stance. "Happy Birthday, Iruma-kun!" Once his eyes readjusted, and noticed the buzz wasn't going off, he was greeted to the sight of his entire class wearing clothes similar in style to his first ghost dream, as well as the entire room looking like the inside of a castle.
"Umm …" This was confusing. Did he pass out on the way here? "Eri, pinch me."
"Why would I do that? Wouldn't that hurt you?"
"It's a way to check if i'm dreaming, this feels way too much like a dream." He answered.
"You're not dreaming, it was Toru's idea for a theme." Shoto, looking like a prince, spoke up.
"Theme for…"
"Your Birthday party!" Toru, in a thief garb, wrapped him in one of her great hugs. "We celebrated Iida's not too long ago, and it's something everyone needs to experience! So you're going to be the king of your very own party!" He was going to be king?
"Your majesty, we humbly bestow upon you great offerings of our appreciation." Iida, in a knight costume, bowed before a stack of gift-wrapped boxes…that were all for him…
"So let's celebrate with some fun, and dancing, and party till the sun shines!" Denki, in a musketeer costume, raised his hands high … party and fun …
"Not to mention a proper banquet, a feast fit for a king." Ibara gestured to the kitchen, piles and piles of food all stacked together…it was the most beautiful sight he's ever seen…
"So come on!" Ochako, wearing a mage costume, grabbed his hand. "Let's start celebrating and get your crown on your pretty head." She placed it on his head, it looked really nice. "To king Iruma!"
"To our friend, King Iruma!" Everyone proclaimed, except Bakugo who just rolled his eyes. Everyone here…everyone here was his friend…
"T-thank you…" He could hold it back any longer. His tears fell from his eyes as he tried to stop himself from falling to the ground. First he had to put Eri down, and smiled at her. "You want to stay and have fun too?" The girl nodded with sparkly eyes. "Well you heard her, let's start having fun!"