Destined To Be: Izuku x Ochako: Quirkless AU

Chapter 42: Changes

The city that never sleeps. Eri found herself doom scrolling through a page all about New York nightlife, her monitor having timed out hours ago, with the small phone screen lighting up her face, and the streetlights and full moon barely illuminating the rest of her room.

The differential of light made it hard for her not to get absorbed into her phone, like a moth drawn to a flame, her eyes were fixated on the hundreds of posts and videos she kept scrolling through.

Seconds passed for her, yet the clock on her phone told her otherwise, as she sighed, rubbing her eyes, and setting her phone down.

Getting changed into new clothes in the dark was already an ordeal, but trying to fish through her clothes in an unlit wardrobe was even more of a pain.

Picking out a t-shirt, some leggings and one of Izuku's old hoodies, she went downstairs, careful not to creak the floorboards. Ochako's door was closed, with no light seeping out from under it.

As she got to the bottom step, Eri almost slipped off it, keeling forward in pain.

"Ugh... still have the cramps... just great."

She didn't turn any of the lights on. After all, she'd been making this journey for a while now, though never this early at night.

Every sound jumped out at her. The wind caused the curtains to gently billow. The owls hoot from the distance. The tap leaked a single drop of water into the sink.

None of those sounds were anything compared to the auditory attack, hearing someone run up the stairs, their feet arrhythmically and rapidly slamming into the concrete, before she could even turn around, her back facing the dark, sordid hallway, it swung open.

"Eri?!" Izuku called out, panic rife in his voice, using his words rather than his eyes, as she sighed and turned around.

"You caught me, Batman." She joked.

"If I were Batman I'd probably swing through the balcony." Izuku replied, breathing heavily as he closed the door.

"You're tired from running up the stairs? Either you need to work on your cardio or Yaoyorozu already gave you a workout~" She teased.

"I'm not tired from either of those things, and she didn't give me a workout." Izuku said, his chest rising and falling, as he actually struggled to catch his breath.

"You sure don't look like it." Eri retorted, walking up to her brother, who just stood in the hallway, leaning against the wall. Turning the light on, she saw a glimpse of fear in his eyes, before it vanished and he put on his usual beaming smile.

"Did seeing me in the dark scare you that much? That's not very Batman of you now is it?" Eri asked jokingly, a flash of concern on her face.

"You think being in the dark scares me? You merely adopted the dark, I was born in it, moulded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already-" Izuku began, trying to deepen his voice for the quote, but was cut off.

"Okay, if you're gonna quote Bane, at least be as big as him." Eri said, taking another step closer, "Seriously, you okay?"

He took a second before responding. It wasn't like he could tell her the truth, not now, not this late at night when they should be asleep. A thousand images playing out like a slow-motion movie came to his mind, all of which ended in the same image of the moonlight from his room.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just shaken up from coming back so late, and seeing a hooded figure in my home." He said.

"Our home" Eri corrected.