The beginnings of a life (an Erasermic family/Shinkami story)

Chapter Ten

A week into his new foster placement with Aizawa and Hizashi still hasn't made him feel completely comfortable. It's gotten a bit better though, he doesn't need a chair against the door anymore.

Hizashi and Aizawa, even Eri, always knock. However, Eri does knock as she enters. She also does it at the most inconvenient times like when he's changing.

She's seen his scars more times than he'd like her to have. His bruises have long healed, but the scars he's accumulated over the years haven't.

The scars tell stories he isn't ready for anyone to know yet. So, yeah, the first time Eri barged in while he was changing he snapped at her.

The look on her face installed immediate guilt, but the look on Aizawa's installed immediate fear. The confusing thing was that Aizawa wasn't mad, he was worried.

Hitoshi thought that that night would be his last in Aizawa's home, but he was never told to pack his stuff. Aizawa hadn't brought up what had happened earlier that day, but Hizashi had come and asked him about it.

Hizashi wasn't mad either, but Hitoshi was starting to learn that he rarely was. Honestly, the only time Hitoshi had seen him mad was on that night with the Nakamura's.

Speaking of the Nakamura's, the last thing Hitoshi heard about them was that their bail was high. Hizashi told him they'd be gone for a long time and that they'd never have another kid in their custody ever again.

Thinking about the Nakamura's makes him feel sick sometimes. So, he distracts himself the best he can by being useful. It doesn't matter who he's being useful for, sometimes it's for Eri and others it's for the Bakusquad or Izuku. Just as long as he can help.

"You like helping out, huh kid?" Hizashi asks as Hitoshi dries the dishes Hizashi passes him. "I guess," Hitoshi says quietly. His response is an understatement.

Hizashi laughs and passes him another. "You'll make a wonderful hero, kid," he tells him, scrubbing a plate clean. Hizashi calls him "kid" a lot now.

There was no warning that he'd start calling him that, it just happened. The first time it happened, Hitoshi flinched so hard he banged into the wall.

His father used to call him that before he died. Hitoshi would get overexcited and his father would laugh, saying something like, "We've got all the time in the world, kid."

The thing was that they didn't. Hitoshi knows that his father never meant to lie to him, but it still felt like a betrayal. It still feels like a betrayal.

He knows that his father's death was an accident, he knows his father didn't want to die, and he knows he loved him more than anything in the world.

But, he's still angry. If he hadn't died, his mother's health wouldn't have gotten so bad. If he hadn't died, his mother wouldn't have taken her life. If he hadn't died, Hitoshi wouldn't have ever gotten hurt by all those foster parents.

He knows it's wrong to be angry with him. He knows his father isn't to blame. But, being angry at his father for dying is better than accepting that one day he just died.

Blaming him is better than accepting that nobody is to blame for everything that happened after. It's better than admitting that some things just...happen for no reason at all.

Hitoshi looks back at Hizashi. "Really?" he asks quietly, his voice staying neutral. "You're going to be one of the best, Shinsou," he says with a warm gentle smile. Hitoshi ducks his head.

"And, you're hiding now," Hizashi laughs, handing him another dish. "No, I'm not," Hitoshi denies, placing the plate in the cupboard.

"Bad liar," Hizashi notes with a slight laugh. "That's what Kaminari keeps saying," Hitoshi says, before falling shut. Is he allowed to tell him that? He had a foster mother who hated when he made conversation with her.