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It was an average day in the cafe, the smell of coffee in the air, and an all-encompassing calming atmosphere.
They had a shortage of customers, not that Redeye minded, he preferred it this way. The fewer people here the less that would see Tomura. Speaking of Tomura, he needed to speak to that boy.
He had a surprise for the boy, nothing special, just a plain black hoodie he had picked up for the boy when he was shopping.
Making his way behind the counter he felt the gaze of the twelve-year-old look up at him. "Tomura, we need to talk."
He felt the kid squirm under his piercing gaze, a side effect of using his quirk on the kid, but what was he supposed to do? The kid was holding a coffee mug with all five fingers. Tomura spoke up. "Y-yes, Sensai, what is it?"
"Stop panicking." The boy stopped his nervous shaking. "You're not in trouble." He could see the relief roll off of him in waves.
Putting the random plastic bag from some random store down, he began to pull out the few things he had gotten, just some coffee mugs to replace some old ones. Then he pulled out the last object, the hoodie mentioned earlier. "Here, I got you this."
The kid grabbed the simple piece of clothing and examined it. Redeye watched as the kid slowly grinned, tears slowly starting to fall from his eyes it was a hoodie, found in the discount bin, he wasn't expecting this much of a reaction from it.
And he wasn't expecting the kid to charge him or wrap his arms around him in a hug."Th-thank you so much Dad!" And he definitely wasn't expecting to be called Dad, but it did bring a soft smile to his face that he had to hide in his capture weapon. The kid pulled away from him, in a panic. "I didn't mean to call you that! J-just forget it."
"Sure, I'll forget it." That was a lie, he never did forget it. And, on the days when he had doubts about whether or not he made the right choice, leaving behind his hero life, leaving behind him, this is the memory that keeps him going.
~~===~~===~~
It was after Hizashi had found him. After he had spent years of his life searching for him. After he had never given up on him.
Hizashi had asked him on a date, they had been on plenty of dates since he found him, but he could tell something was different about this one. Hizashi had a nervous energy, Aizawa could tell from the way he was slightly messing up his radio persona, from the slight stutter in his step, the fear in his eyes hidden by shades. The small things about Hizashi that most people would miss. But it was Hizashi and Aizawa was all to focus on the big and small things about him, everything that made him, him.
They went to a small classy restaurant out of the public eye, Hizashi knew how he was with crowds, he knew him too well.
Dinner was a lovely event. Hizashi insisted on getting the finest wines, even though Aizawa was fine with the lower shelf. After dinner, they went on a walk through the moonlit city.
Hizashi stopped in front of a fountain at the local park. "Hey, Shota." Aizawa stopped and turned to face him. Hizashi was nervous, he had dropped his persona, his radio, hero, and day to day one, all of them, he was practically shaking and he was fidgeting with something in his pocket. "I spent my whole life looking for you, searching every nook and cranny, and everything in between." Hizashi walked forward, dropping down to one knee and everything that was happening became clear to him.
"Shota."
He pulled a simple black box out of his pocket.
"I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
He popped open the box and inside was a simple silver ring, nothing fancy just like he liked it.
"Will you marry me?"
He had no choice but to say yes to the man he loved.
He already knew he was going to spend the rest of his life with this idiot, the wedding, the marriage all of it was all just confirmation of what he knew. He didn't need it, but, he still loved every moment of it.
~~===~~===~~
Eri was sitting at a table drawing. Crayons laid about the table all surrounding a stick figure group.
It was peaceful, Redeye was practically dozing off in his seat.
When he heard someone throw something at a table and Eri cry, he could tell from how it sounded, He hated he heard her cry enough to recognize it.
He sprung into action, years of hero training and instincts he gained from raising Tomura told him to act now and fast.
The time it took for him to cross the cafè to get to her was less than three seconds.
He looked down at her and the table and as far as he could tell nothing was wrong. "Eri, what's wrong?"
"D-Daddy, I can't find my purple crayon." He was so relieved that it was just a normal kid problem that he nearly missed her calling him dad, nearly. "I need it to finish my drawing."
He softly smiled, he knew from experience that appearances mattered more than anything when working with kids. "Well why don't we calm down and we can look for it" he picked her up. "Together."
She nodded, the tears no longer falling but still sniffling. "Okay."
And so they spent the next three minutes looking for the crayon she had accidentally kicked under the seat. When he finally found it he handed it back to her and got a 'thanks, dad.' In return
He went back to his seat, his perch where he watches over his cafè.
A few minutes later, after Hizashi had entered the Cafè, who was on an important business phone call and not checking out his husband, Redeye heard a familiar pitter-patter of small feet. Eri's.
"Daddy! Daddy!" Aizawa felt a tug on his shirt and looked down, Eri was standing there holding a picture. "Look at what I did!" She offered up the paper like it was an important sacrifice to a great god.
Aizawa examined the paper in his hand, it was a simple crayon drawing. A quarter of the way up was a semi-straight green line, and a yellow ball in the top left corner. On Top of the green line were five stick figures, one with short blue hair, Tomura, Shota's mind told him. Followed by a one with wild purple hair, Shinso, next one had way too long yellow hair, and sunglasses, Hizashi. And last was a shorter one with grey hair holding the hand of the tallest one with long black hair, Eri and her new dad, him.
Each stick figure eyes were dotted with red, a red-eyed family.
He smiled down at her. "This is wonderful, kid, why don't we go hang it up on the fridge?"
Her eyes widened. "Really?"
Picking her up, being careful to not wrinkle the drawing, he made his way towards the fridge. "Of course."
He hung up the drawing on the fridge, which anyone who came in could see. And, he was fine with it being displayed. It may not be great but she was proud of it and so was he, he wasn't going to hide it.
~~===~~===~~
Later that night
"Shota!" Present mic kicked down his door "Where do you find adoption papers? I need them."
"Why do you need them?"
"Eri was just so adorable earlier today, we should adopt her."
"We already did."
"Well, I want to do it again!"
"That's not how it works."
"But Shota." He pouted
"We have this conversation whenever she does something 'cute'. It's getting old."
~~===~~===~~
Shinso had been coming in to do homework daily. Aizawa, of course, took notice, he took notice of all changes with his kids apprentices. The simple bumpage from three to five days had Aizawa worried, surely the kid wasn't falling behind in his studies because of what happened, right?
But, then again
If his memory served him right it was around finals time U.A.
It was probably just an increase in work. Even still, he would do anything he could help in any small way.
He brought him a coffee, the one thing that managed to get Shota through UA all those years ago. He put the mug down in front of him, and, without looking up at him the teen murmurs "Thanks, dad." Before getting back to work.
Aizawa smirked under his weapon, no need to bring it up and embarrass the kid.
Unfortunately, Present Mic, bless his heart, doesn't have that much tact. "Little listener." Mic jumped into the seat across from the kid. "Do my ears deceive me or did I just hear you call grumpy pants here dad?" Aizawa mentally cringed at the lack of grace.
Shinso cheeks were dusted with a slight red. "Umm…" his voice was quiet. "No, I didn't."
Mic nodded his head, smirking. "Sure you didn't."
The teen glared at him and if looks could kill Aizawa was sure this place would be a crime scene by now. "So what if I did? What does it matter to you."
"Nothing, nothing." Aizawa recognized that look on Mic, the smugness, the laid-backness, the know it all smirk, he was about to say some smartass thing. Aizawa prays he doesn't regret it. "I just think it's cute."
The teen flushed, bright red. "'M not cute."
"You totes are."
~~===~~===~~
"Everyone into the car!" Present mic yelled. "I have a surprise for all of you."
The teens with much reluctance, both Shinso and Tomura got into the car
Eri with the curiosity, only someone her age could have, slipped into the car, and Shota looked at his husband with an inquisitive look. "What is this about?"
"Now if I told you that would ruin the surprise, silly." Aizawa sighed, no way he was getting answers from him. He resigned himself to being 'surprised' and laid back in his seat.
It wasn't a long drive, they probably could've just walked, however that's in the past. It was a simple photography studio
Realization dawned on him just as Mic opened his lips. "I think it's time we get a family photo."
"Why?" Shinso asked the question on most of their minds. "We aren't family."
Present mic pointed at him. "Yet you still called him dad, Eri calls him dad and we all know you think he's your dad mister grumpy." He pointed at Tomura. "Besides it'll be fun."
Tomura scowled. "Fine, let's get this over with it." No denial about the earlier claim? Aizawa figures it must really be true then, a thought that makes him smile.
At first the photo was going great, they were posing in front of some type of house backdrop. It was going great until Shinso opened his lips to make a joke. "If we want to have a good photo why do we have chapped lips here?"
As the photographer took the photo many things happened. Tomura grabbed Shinso by the shirt collar, Redeye turned to turn off his quirk, Hizashi was panicking and Eri had gotten to close to the camera covering half the photo.
By no means was it a lovely photo, and they probably should've gotten it redone
But
Shota thought it was perfect
As it perfectly depicted Redeye's Red-eyed family.
And he loved it
And he loved his family.