I'm not on EITHER side

"No one will ever hurt you again. I promise."

Izuku's POV

I keep my eyes on the little girl sleeping against my chest, listening for the ambulance to stop. She seems so exhausted. Her arms and legs are wrapped in bandages, and she twitches every few seconds. I notice a small horn poking out of her hair near the front of her forehead. She starts twitching more and more, and she's murmuring in her sleep. I feel her grip on me get tighter. I just keep holding her and rubbing her back. She starts hyperventilating and I can tell what's going on. I decide that it's better to wake her up than let her ride it out. Her life has been more than a nightmare.

I shake her a little until she wakes up. She rubs her eyes before looking up at me. I smile gently and wait for her grip to loosen a little. "Are you alright, Eri?" She looks away and nods slowly, but I can already tell that she's lying. "You can talk to me, okay? You're safe. And I won't think anything you say is silly." She looks at me again. I can see her debating in her mind, and I stay quiet.

"...okay. I had a bad dream." I continue to look at her and nod. "You were in it. And Mr. Lemillion. You were trying to protect me. But something happened. You two got hurt. Then someone kept saying that it was all my fault." Her eyes start shining with tears.

"Well, it was just a dream. I'm okay. I'm right here. And Mirio is okay too. If you'd like, I can call him, and he can talk to you. He'll even tell you himself that he's okay. Would you like that?" She nods bashfully and looks away. I let out a chuckle and pull my phone out of my pocket. I unlock it and go into my contacts, tapping on the one labeled 'Mirio' and hitting the little phone icon. I put it up to my ear and wait for him to answer. After two or three rings, he picks up.

"Midoriya, are you alright? How's Eri? Are you at the hospital? I'll meet you there." I let him ramble on for a few moments before he stops.

"Mirio, we're perfectly fine. Eri fell asleep a little while ago, but she had a nightmare. She just wanted to know if you were alright. Can I put you on speaker phone so she can talk to you?"

"Of course!" I pull the phone away from my ear and tap the button to put it on speaker phone.

"Hello?" Eri stares at the phone expectantly, waiting for an answer.

"Hi Eri! How are you? Did you have a good nap?"

"I'm okay. The nap was okay. Are you okay?" She looks incredibly worried.

"I'm okay Eri. I'm with Mr. Aizawa, and we're driving to the hospital right behind you guys. You'll see us when you get there. Speaking of, we're almost there."

"Okay. Thank you Mr. Lemillion."

"You're welcome Eri." He hangs up and I put my phone away. Eri looks less worried and moves to sit down next to me. I look over and see her relax a little, but she's still super tense.

"Eri, you need to relax a little. I understand that you're scared, but you can trust us. We don't want to hurt you. It's gonna be okay. No one will ever hurt you again. I promise." She nods again and relaxes a bit. The ambulance stops right afterwards, and I see Eri look around confused. "We're at the hospital, Eri. There's no need to be scared. If it'll make you feel better, you can hold my hand." I offer my hand and she immediately grabs it, grasping it as hard as she can. The doors to the back of the ambulance open and we walk toward them. I get out first, then help Eri down and out.

A couple of nurses lead us to a room and try to get Eri separated from me. "No, no way. If you need to test her or anything, I'm going with. She's scared. If it makes her feel better, I'm going with." They give up just from the look on my face. They lead us to another room with a doctor in it. Eri slinks behind me and hides. "It's alright Eri. This is a doctor. He's a good guy. He's here to make sure that you're okay." She looks at me, trying to see if I'm lying. I wait patiently, letting her take as much time as she needs. She eventually steps out from behind me and walks over to the hospital bed. She hops up and I sit next to her. The doctor walks over and gives a warm smile to Eri before speaking.

"Hello, Eri. I'm a doctor. Like he said, I'm here to make sure that you're in tip top shape. I'll need to run a few tests, but you can always do them later if you feel uncomfortable. Is that okay?" She looks at me and I nod to her. She looks back at the doctor and nods to him. He smiles and grabs a few things. He tests her blood pressure and weighs her, he listens to her heartbeat and tests her vision. Then he pulls out something that makes her tense up and shake. A needle.

I hear her whimper and look up at the doctor. "She's scared of needles. And for good reason. Is there any way we can do this later?"

"I'm sorry, this is one of the things that needs to be done before she can leave." I think of what to do to convince her to let it happen.

"Here, how about this. Eri, I'll do it with you. They need to take some blood and give you some stuff to make sure you don't get sick. I know you're scared, but it'll be okay. Here, I'll do it first." I take off my sweatshirt and stick out my left arm. The doctor walks over and takes some blood. I don't give a reaction, so Eri knows that it won't hurt much. After the doctor is done, he goes to give me a bandage. I show her my arm and she seems less scared. She offers her left arm to the doctor and waits for him to take her blood. I unwrap her bandages and move to her right side. She grips my left hand as hard as she can.

I see her start to panic as he gets closer, so I tell her to look at me. "It hurts less when you don't look at it. It hurts even less when you don't think of it. So, I want you to do something for me. Think about your favorite food ever." She nods and closes her eyes. I nod to the doctor, and he walks over and gets ready. "What's your favorite food, Eri?"

"Apples!" As she says that, the doctor puts the needle in her arm and starts drawing blood. I see her wince, but she doesn't seem to notice herself.

"Is that right? Well, when we get out of here, I'll give you as many apples as you want. I could make you apple pie too."

"What's that?" As she focuses on me, the doctor takes the needle out and puts a bandage on the spot that he drew blood from. He goes and grabs the first vaccine of six and gets ready.

"It's a dessert that has a lot of apples in it. It's super sweet and tasty. You'd like it. Would you like me to make that for you." She vigorously nods at me while the doctor gives her the first shot. He goes and grabs the second, so I start talking again. "What other foods do you like?"

She closes her eyes and thinks again before opening her eyes again and speaking again. "Strawberries!" The doctor gives her the next shot while she says that.

"You really like fruit, don't you?" She nods and goes to look at her arm. I stop her and make her look at me again. "I can make you another type of treat with strawberries in it. It's called strawberry shortcake and it's really tasty. When we get out, we can go meet some of my friends and we'll have all the desserts you want. Does that sound good?" She nods again. I glance inquisitively at the doctor. He puts up 1 finger. I nod and look back at Eri. "Just one more, okay? You've been very good so far."

She winces and I notice that the doctor is pushing the plunger of the final shot. "That's all we need to do today. Would you like to pick the band-aids you get, Eri?" She looks at the doctor and nods. He walks over to a bunch of cabinets and pulls out a small container full of band-aids. He walks back over and shows them to Eri. "I'll tell you when you have enough." She grabs six random ones before he tells her to stop. He puts the container away while I take the first band-aid and put it on her arm. 

After I finish putting the last one on, we walk out to the waiting room. Mirio is sitting there next to Aizawa, his knee bouncing up and down. As soon as he sees us, he gets up and runs over. I let go of Eri's hand and she walks over to him. He lifts her up and hugs her. I walk over to Aizawa and sit down. "Midoriya, if you don't adopt that kid, it'll break her heart." I look over at him in pure shock. "The only thing you've done since we got her out of that place was act like her father. So do the right thing and just own up to it." I look over at Eri and think about what Aizawa just said.

He's got a point. I have acted like her father the whole time. I guess it would be a good idea to formally become her dad when I'm an adult. Before I say anything else, another thought pops into my mind. What will Ochaco say?

Word Count: 1685

That marks the end of this chapter! I hope it was alright. Next chapter we're gonna start getting back into the Izuocha stuff, with an added touch of Eri. Plus, some dadmight. I feel like I've neglected All Might for long enough, so I figured it's time to add him back into the mix. I genuinely hope that you've enjoyed this book so far. I've been having a lot of fun writing it. Thanks for the continued support. Any thoughts are welcome in the comments. Have a good day and remember to drink some water.