My Hero Academia: Shōta Aizawa x Akemi Yuriemoto (Aizawa)

Chapter 72: Guilt is a burden we mustn't bare alone

Shota stared at the ground as he sat on the chair outside his own medical room after asking Recovery Girl to call Akemi.

He looked up the moment he heard his wife's frantic voice asking for his room number. Akemi appeared down the hall sliding slightly as she rounded the corner and she started cursing over the slick floors before she stared up and saw him. Her blood red eyes widened as tears instantly fell. She ran over and hugged him tightly.

"Ohhhh Shota!!!!"

She was sobbing over what happened to Sir Nighteye and he held her close to him as he closed his eyes tightly over the memories and the pain in his now throbbing shoulder. "Come on my room is right here I just...I just couldn't look at the medical bed the same way after what happened with Nighteye..."

Akemi followed him inside and the moment the door closed she kissed him, moaning desperately before parting over another sob as she bowed her head against his chest and cried out in grief.

"All I did was yell at him Shota! I didn't know him and yet the first, and last thing, I ever did was yell at him through the phone! I'm a hero! I shouldn't have been so brash and harsh towards him over my own emotions over little Eri and...and..."

Shota kissed her lips silencing her. He broke the kiss as the guilt overwhelmed him. "I couldn't do a thing Akemi! I was separated from them by some stupid time slowing quirk and I couldn't do a Goddam Thing! I wasn't there to prevent what happened to him! I was lucky enough to have made it in time to save Midoriya and Eri! I couldn't even save myself! It was thanks to Tamaki and the cops that I'm even standing here with you right now!"

He cradled her face and rested his forehead against hers. "I couldn't even stop the quirk of that one goon that made life hell for so many people," he rested his hands upon her shoulders and she heard the trembling tone in his voice reappearing as he spoke.

"Kirishima...Fat Gum...Rock Lock...Suneater...that stupid wall morphing bastard was making our lives hell, and I couldn't do anything about it...all because of the way my quirk works!"

He shouted at his own limitations. "I'm the Erasure Hero but what good is my stupid quirk if I can't even see him before half of our team is missing within that stupid compound! I'm to blame for their injuries and it's all because I couldn't do my Goddam job!"

Akemi's eyes widened she took his face within her hands and stared into his broken eyes.

"Sho...it's...Ohhhh darling you know it's not your fault. If Nighteye saw that he was going to die then there was nothing anyone could have done to stop it."

"You're wrong." He stared solemnly into her eyes. "Midoriya...He changed the fate of Eri's rescue to go in our favor...but not before he witnessed..." he turned away with a frown. "I regret ever getting those kids involved with this. The trauma alone could be what breaks them as hero's."

Akemi caressed his cheek underneath the scar and gently kissed the corner of his lips. He turned to her and she kissed him softly before speaking. "Then you have to be there for them Sho. Your their teacher they look up to you. Be there for them as I am for you." She kissed his lips and he held her closer to him before parting.

"Emiko and Hitoshi?"

"Are back at U.A. under Mic and Ectoplasm's supervision. I'm not going to let you go through this without me here to hold you."

Shota smiled softly and sighed into a chuckle as he rested his head against hers. "I love you darling."

"I love you too Sho..." she kissed him again and moaned speaking softly against his lips. "I love you so much!"

A few minutes later Recovery Girl entered to check up on them only to find them asleep on the medical bed. Akemi was curled up against his non injured side and Shota held his wife for comfort. The tear stains on both their faces were proof that they were grieving in the own way unseen by their students. She sighed softly and closed the door.