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ibelieveinahappilyeverafter · 5 years

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Villainous Heroics - Chapter 18

Hey, everyone! Sorry for such the long wait between upload times; I was getting To Land On Your Feet, another Erasermic story of mine, up and off the ground, so go ahead and check that one out! It has four chapters up and a new chapter uploaded every Tuesday and Friday!

As for this story, we have two chapters to go after this one with the final being an epilogue of sorts, so we're almost done, guys! It's been a wild ride, but I'll save all my goodbyes for the final chapter! This story should be finished by the end of the week and, as a heads up, I'll be uploading the last two chapters and then later going back and doing one final edit/upload. What's this mean?

I'll be taking out all my various author's comments (not including the one at the first chapter), editing the chapters for plot holes, inconsistencies, grammar, and everything else. This is the week where all those typos who escaped finally lose their lives.

That's for later, though, and for now enjoy our two boys finally getting some time alone after everything that's been going on!

Enjoy!

Click here to read the work on Archive Of Our Own.

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Summary: Eraserhead is an underground hero who is constantly busy and doesn’t have time to be dealing with new villains - even if they aren’t all that villainous and make the night interesting.

Present Mic is the latest up-and-coming villain in the world and he has a point to prove to everyone out there - as long as he doesn’t keep getting distracted by Eraserhead.

Aizawa Shota is someone who soon learns that there is more to someone than the mask they show to the world - especially when it comes to playing heroes and villains.

Yamada Hizashi learns that there is more to heroics and villainy than he could have ever thought - especially in a world where some heroes still care about those lost in the shadows.

(Inspired and dedicated to corndog-patrol’s Villain!Mic AU on Tumblr.)

<<First Chapter>> <<Previous Chapter>> <<Next Chapter>>

Chapter Eighteen

Hizashi didn’t have to open his eyes to know he was in a hospital. Even without his glasses or hearing aids it was all too easy to pick up the overly bright lights, the smell of bleach, antiseptic, and blood, and the feeling of an uncomfortable bed that was just on the side of too firm.

Considering he hadn’t been in a hospital since he was a teenager, it took him a few groggy seconds to try and figure out what he had done to end up there. Maybe the stove at his job had exploded and that meant he no longer had to deal with his villain of a boss. That would be worth the trip to the hospital.

Jeez, he hurt a lot worse than when his shoulder had been shot while doing his ‘hero’ work. His throat and neck, especially, hurt, which usually meant he had overused his quirk and…

Hizashi jerked up at realizing what must have happened, biting back a scream as he near tore his arm out of his socket, hazy vision focusing on where a silver pair of handcuffs - quirk suppressing handcuffs - was keeping him chained to the hospital bed by the arm that wasn’t hooked up to wires and medical equipment.

Right. Right, okay, Hizashi could think about this calmly. First, he didn’t see his glasses anywhere, but that could just be because he couldn’t really see to find them. The bright lights weren’t helping his headache, either, so Hizashi closed his eyes and tried to take a few deep breaths.

As it turned out, that was a very bad idea because his throat suddenly felt like it was on fire. It took everything he had to not fall into a coughing fit because that, he was certain, would just make things bad enough that he would start crying. Hizashi really didn’t want to start crying while in a hospital.

Getting control of himself, he noticed that his hearing aids were gone, too. Overall, he was unable to see, unable to hear, chained to a bed, and the pain from his throat felt like it was ready to tear him apart. Suffice to say, Hizashi mused, he must have had a very bad day.

It wasn’t until he was starting to calm himself down that Hizashi remembered what exactly had happened before he woke up in a hospital. The details were fuzzy, at that moment, but Hizashi remembered enough to know that all of Japan, and by extension the police, knew who he was and knew him as nothing more than a villain. How depressing.

At least he had survived the fight, he realized. There was also an almost forgotten memory of Aizawa coming to his rescue and, considering Hizashi was sure he hadn’t had brain damage at the time, that probably meant it was true. Good. That meant the kids must have been safe and those villains dealt with.

Attempting to crack his eyes open again, Hizashi took a glance around the room he was in. There were no windows, the door was firmly shut, the lights were annoyingly on, and his was the only bed in the room. A private room, then, without any windows. No doubt it was because his status as ‘villain.’

He couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was hooked up to or what it was showing about him, but he noticed he at least had a heart monitor and an IV drip of something. Hopefully it was pain medication because Hizashi felt like his body had been used as a chew toy by something really big with really sharp teeth.

Getting the urge to close his eyes again, Hizashi paused and squinted as he saw a blurry outline of a black rectangle. Careful of everything he was hooked up to, Hizashi carefully poked at the outline and felt smooth glass. It was a phone, he guessed, and, judging by the cracked screen, it was his phone.

Hizashi snatched it up in an instant, wincing at the extra light on his already battered eyes. He could at least squint enough to find out the time and date, nodding to himself as he saw it was three in the afternoon. That wasn’t too bad, but it was the date that showed tomorrow’s date that had him almost falling into another panic attack. Had he really been unconscious for over twenty-four hours?

He couldn’t even call it sleeping when he still felt so exhausted! Fuck, he was supposed to have been at work and he hadn’t even been able to call in. Wondering if he could still fix it, Hizashi squinted and worked his phone one-handed, wincing at the pressure it put on the IV needle. It wasn’t like he could use his other hand, though, seeing as he was handcuffed.

Right, okay, messages from his boss; ugh, multiple messages. That was never a good sign. A quick scan through showed that, if nothing else, he would have a lot of free time in the future. Being fired over the phone was a new low, though, even for that slimy little bastard- Oh. Right. His identity had been broadcasted over national television, hadn’t it?

Hizashi took a steady breath through his nose, trying to stay calm as he went over the facts. So far, he had been asleep for over a day, he was chained to a hospital bed, he had been outed as a villain, and he had just been fired from his job. His phone was also flashing a low battery symbol and about to die in his hand as his head pounded from all the light and the unnerving silence started getting to him.

He was just starting to think it couldn’t get any worse when he saw the door start to open. Hizashi dropped his phone and his arm, screwing his eyes shut and falling back to lean against the obscene number of pillows behind him and now almost grateful for his missing hearing aids. At least now he could put off whatever lecture was coming; whether it was from the police or the doctors or some weird mix of the two.

There was silence, as always, and Hizashi started bracing himself before… the lights were turned off? Cracking his eyes open, Hizashi saw nothing but blissful darkness and a vague, shadowy shape moving around the room. Maybe if he closed his eyes again, he could pretend to be asleep? It was better than anything else, seeing as now his eyes were burning.

That officially left no part of his body that wasn’t hurting and Hizashi was almost frustrated enough to start crying. Before he could give in to the urge, there was the feeling of soft, dim light filling the room and then the feeling of hands on his arm and Hizashi had to fight not to jerk away as he felt something cold and wet wiping around the needle.

It took a moment, but Hizashi realized that he must have caused some bleeding where he had his arm bent, earlier, and the doctor, or nurse, was wiping away the blood. At least they weren’t trying to ask him questions - or, if they were, Hizashi didn’t hear them.

His phone was taken next, Hizashi hoping that it was at least just set down again instead of taken away from him altogether. Starting to relax, Hizashi tensed back up as he felt something touching his ear and he really did not like that-

“-looking like I’m going to kill you. Oi, can you hear me? I don’t know how these things are supposed to work.” The low, sleepy drawl of Aizawa Shouta had Hizashi jerking back up, eyes wide before they were focusing on a pair of glasses being held in front of him. “Sorry I couldn’t find any of your sunglasses.”

“Aw, Eraser, that’s so sweet of you!” Hizashi tried to say - tried seeing as the second he started talking it felt like his throat was on fire, no noise escaping besides a broken, jagged whimper that his hearing aid picked up all too well.

“Hey, hey, easy.” Hizashi felt a warm, steady hand rubbing circles on his back and then the feeling of a plastic straw against his lips. Hizashi focused on the straw, first, sucking down water and, again, almost crying. It was almost worrying how strong and often the urge was getting, Hizashi mused to himself before taking a few moments to try and steady himself.

“I know this might be an impossible task for you, but don’t try to speak for a while.” Aizawa’s voice was a low, concerned mumble, soft and easy on his hearing as the man worked on hooking his other hearing aid around his ear. “These are some spare aids that the hospital had. The doctor said you should know how to adjust them yourself.”

Settling for giving a shaky thumbs-up, Hizashi took another sip of water before pushing the cup away. As Aizawa set it back on the nightstand, Hizashi took a moment to fiddle with his hearing aids one-by-one, softening the sounds and giving another thumbs-up when they were at the level they roughly should be.

“Right. Nod or shake your head, do you remember why you’re here?” Ah, straight to the point as always, his hero. Hizashi nodded, noting that Aizawa… hadn’t removed his hand from his back. He was still rubbing little circles against Hizashi’s spine, small and soft as if he didn’t even realize he was doing it.

Hizashi made absolutely sure he wasn’t going to cry at the soft touch before leaning into it, making a mental note to blame whatever was in the IV drip later. Remembering he had been asked a question, Hizashi nodded in answer, noticing a bit of tension leak out of the man.

“Good. That means you know what I’m talking about when I call you an absolute idiot.” Well, that was a little harsh. “As soon as you’re out of this hospital I’m going to give you an entire lecture I give to my students in the first week of class about how not to be a dumbass.” An entire lecture, huh? That sounded like it could be fun if Aizawa was the teacher…

Feeling a light pinch to his back, Hizashi gave the man an exaggerated pout, swearing he saw Aizawa blushing. It had to have been the pain meds. “You and Nemuri are too much alike, I swear.” Nemuri…? Oh, right, Midnight. “What hurts the most right now?”

Hizashi pointed to this throat without pause, a bit worried at Aizawa’s expression. It was a frown, as was the usual with him, but he also looked so worried. Hizashi resisted the urge to clear his throat or try to talk again, instead waiting for Aizawa to speak first. He was almost surprised he didn’t have to wait a century for that to happen.

“You overused your quirk, but you also… Do you remember the end of the fight? Right as me and Midnight got there?” Thinking about it and making a face, Hizashi waggled his hand to try and convey a ‘sort of.’ “They had you pinned.” Ah, they had, hadn’t they?

Let’s see… Hizashi remembered feeling a lot of pain, he remembered seeing Eraserhead and then the disappearance of that awful shield, and then… Hizashi touched his fingers to his throat for the first time, feeling thick bandages wrapped around his neck. Bandages like this wouldn’t be used just for bruising.

“They managed to directly attack your neck since they were trying to stop you from using your quirk. You were in surgery for a while last night and early this morning.” Stop him from using his quirk, huh? Depending on how they did that, it was quite possibly a miracle that Hizashi was still…

“You’re lucky you’re alive,” Aizawa mumbled, soft and quiet and hand on his back forming a fist that was clutching at Hizashi’s hospital gown. Since he was unable to speak, Hizashi settled for turning his head just enough to kiss at that scar under Aizawa’s eye, pulling back after a moment and biting his lip.

There was a second where Aizawa blinked, looking surprised and completely caught off guard before Hizashi felt lips pressing against his own, soft and sweet and so unlike the first and last kiss they had shared.

Hizashi wasn’t sure how long it lasted, whether it was a second or a lifetime, but when Aizawa pulled back, he looked a lot less stressed, rubbing at Hizashi’s back again. The two were both silent for a few moments before Aizawa finally straightened up, moving to pull a chair over and take a seat in it.

“The kids are all alright, by the way. All of them were accounted for and none of them have more than a scratch or two.” Aizawa was a mind reader and Hizashi had never been happier for that, it felt like; although he was a little bummed that Aizawa was no longer so close and rubbing at his back because that had been nice. “They also made you a card.”

Wait, what? Hizashi looked over to see that Aizawa was holding up a little cardboard card with a cartoon of a bird with a bright yellow crest on it. Aizawa then flipped it open and Hizashi saw that it was scribbled all over with kind words and addressed to ‘Mr. Hero.’ In the end, Hizashi figured he couldn’t be blamed for crying at that.

Taking a minute or two to wipe at his eyes, Hizashi startled and looked over when he saw Aizawa’s hands moving… Oh.

‘I know sign, by the way.’ Aizawa signed and then looked back to Hizashi with a smirk. Hizashi wasn’t sure if he wanted to punch him or drag him back over for another kiss. Oh, who was he kidding, he definitely wanted to drag him back over for another kiss. Sadly, though, it seemed that would have to wait.

Moving to finally ask the questions he had, Hizashi winced and dropped his shoulders when he felt the hand that was handcuffed draw up short. So much for signing. Maybe he could pout enough that Aizawa would feel pity and pick the lock like he was already doing. Wait.

“I don’t even know why they cuffed you,” Aizawa muttered, Hizashi’s heart speeding up at how close the man was as he leaned over him to get at the lock. Where did he even find lockpicking tools? Did he just carry those around- Shit, the device monitoring his heart rate was getting louder. “It’s not like you’re about to run for it.”

Okay, good, Aizawa didn’t seem to notice. At least, that was what Hizashi thought before the man was giving him a quick, nowhere near as soft kiss, smirking at him when Hizashi’s heart rate shot up again and this man was a horrible human being.

‘You’re awful.’ Hizashi signed as soon as he could, glaring at Aizawa as he sat back down and looked smug. ‘Are all of those kids really alright? What’s been happening while I’ve been out?’

“Ah, well…” Aizawa trailed off, scratching at the scruff on his cheek and not quite looking at him. Hizashi didn’t like that. He really didn’t like that. “The kids are safe, but… Japan seems to be heralding the rise of the newest hero Present Mic.” Japan what now? “Apparently Present Mic is one of the most promising new heroes on the scene in a while.”

Aizawa looked back to him, expression softening to a smile as he gave a quiet laugh, “The kids were interviewed, and they promised to start a fan club for you. Oh, yeah, your hero ranking right now is 46, by the way.”

This time it took a lot longer for Hizashi to stop crying, Aizawa only smiling at him and mentioning little pieces of information from time to time as he tried to calm down. It wasn’t anything as big as being the number forty-six in all of Japan among heroes, but it was nice, little things.

Aizawa’s homeroom class had wanted to throw some kind of slumber party with the kids from other classes and had managed to break every window on the first floor. Shinsou had invented his own move with the binding cloth that Aizawa used as Eraserhead and then used it on him. Aizawa let him know he was equally annoyed and proud. Midnight, too, came up, Aizawa mentioning that she had been blowing up his phone every few hours asking for updates.

Overall, the man just kept talking. He sounded bored and tired as always, but he never let there be too long a moment of silence. It was enough to make Hizashi cry for a few minutes longer than he probably should have.

Finally, he got control of himself enough to start finger-spelling out Eraser, startled when Aizawa shook his head before Hizashi felt his heart almost stop when he heard the words, “Just call me Shouta.”

Hizashi stared, unable to even try to say anything because… He would really give Hizashi a gift like that? They had been villain and hero for so long and yet he would give Hizashi the gift of using his given name? Just like that?

“Oh, right, here’s how you sign it.” As with most sign languages, names were made up of different signs to give them a personalized feel and help distinguish them. Hizashi had to cover his mouth and fight not to laugh, though, because the signs Shouta used for his name were the signs for cat and sleep.

“Oi, oi, stop laughing,” Ai- Shouta complained, looking more amused than upset. “A student gave it to me a few years ago and I was too lazy to ever bother changing it, is all.”

‘More like you liked that student too much to bother changing it.’ The silence was an answer all its own, Hizashi supposed. ‘Fine, but you have to call me by my own name.’ Fingerspelling his name, first, Hizashi followed it up with his own personalized signs; the ones for microphone and sun.

“Hizashi, hm?” Shouta was grinning in a way that made it seem as if he knew something Hizashi didn’t, yet, and… Yamada Hizashi. The civilian barista who Eraserhead had saved and then helped home. That meant he knew- “Oh, before you try to panic again, I knew it was you that night I helped you with your shoulder.”

‘I knew it! I knew you were too smug about something that night!’ Hizashi had been worrying himself to death over that night and so of course Shouta had already known everything! That meant he was fully aware of who Hizashi was when he told him he could be a hero. He… He had known the entire time.

“Yeah. I knew.” Shouta knew all too well what he had been saying and who he had been saying it to and he still had believed every word of it. “Looks like I was right, though.”

Hizashi covered his mouth for a moment, remembering those quiet words of, “I have a feeling that you would be an amazing hero, Yamada.”

Trying not to cry, because he really had done far too much of that already, Hizashi instead dropped his hands and gave a small smile and carefully signed, ‘My cat’s name is Snowball, in case you forgot.’

“Mine is Jelly,” Shouta laughed, a warm and fond smile on his face. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” Hizashi was so stupidly in love with this man. Half-ready to say as much, both paused when there was a knock on the door.

Hizashi swallowed as he saw it open to reveal an older man who was going gray and, after a second glance, showed he was no doubt the doctor for this ward. Hizashi was already bracing himself when he saw the man reach to the turn light on.

“Leave it off,” Shouta spoke up, startling the doctor and Hizashi both. “He has light sensitivity. What do you need?”

“Oh, Eraserhead, you’re still here. Good.” The doctor walked in and fluttered around the bed for a minute or two, checking on everything and jotting down notes in an annoyingly silent way until he was done. “Can I talk to you out in the hall for a moment?”

“Sure,” Shouta sighed, standing up with a little grumble, not moving away from Hizashi until the doctor was halfway back to the door. Hizashi appreciated it more than he could currently say, but he had a feeling Shouta already knew that.

“Oh, and he’s supposed to still be handcuffed, you know.” Oh, right. Shouta had taken off the handcuffs earlier, hadn’t he? Jeez, here he was beat up and could hardly move and they were still worried about him and his quirk. “He may not be a threat at the moment, but for safety’s sake-”

“He’ll be good,” Shouta interrupted, Hizashi trying to figure out what sort of joke he could make before he felt fingers skimming along his jaw, tilting his gaze up to where he could meet Shouta’s, the man giving him a look that had him shivering, words drawled out low and quiet. “Won’t you?”

In that moment, Hizashi realized there was very little he wouldn’t be willing to do when Shouta asked him like that. He was quick to nod, flushing as Shouta ducked in to press lips against his temple, soft words near a whisper against his skin that sounded out a soft, “Good boy.”

A second later and Shouta was walking to the door, perfectly composed in parallel to the strangled wheezing sound Hizashi was making as he patted his cheeks, staring down at his blankets as the door was left cracked open.

He tried to gather his thoughts together because while he certainly hadn’t known he was into something like that, he was definitely into something like that. Right, right. Okay. He needed to focus. Actually, he should probably try to listen to what the doctor was saying to Shouta.

It took a bit of fiddling with his hearing aids, but with the door cracked Hizashi was at least able to make out that they were talking about his quirk, the words getting a bit louder when one of them bumped into the door and it opened a bit more.

“-this point it’s safe to say that there’s little doubt that he’s lost the ability to use his quirk.” Oh, they must have been talking about someone else. One of the villains he had fought, maybe? Hizashi wondered what had happened.

Shouta’s voice was harder to hear where he was so quiet, but Hizashi still managed to catch all of it, “There’s still a chance, though?”

“Well, there’s always a chance, Eraserhead, but realistically…” Damn, Hizashi almost felt sorry for whoever this was. “There’s also the matter of recovering his normal voice, as well. There’s a very real chance he might never be able to effectively speak again.”

Hizashi swallowed, slowly lifting a hand to trace at the bandages around his throat. Someone else must have hurt their throat at the fight, too, then. Hizashi wouldn’t be surprised. It had been a chaotic end.

He remembered that he himself had been pinned down and he remembered the shield falling. One of the villains, though, had a spike quirk and Hizashi remembered, just vaguely, feeling like he was being strangled before there had been such a sharp sting coming from his neck. It had hurt.

Even with how exhausted and painful everything was, it was that sharp, stinging pain from his neck that had hurt so much. Strangely enough, after that, it felt like he had been drowning, and he couldn’t tell if it was memory or imagination that made him ‘remember’ hearing Shouta screaming his name.

He had been strangled, then a sharp sting, and then the feeling of drowning, and then Shouta screaming his name… Hizashi felt the bandages around his neck again. They really were too thick just to cover up some bruises. It made more sense if they were covering up some sort of cut. Shouta said he had been in surgery, too. If his neck had been cut deep enough, then whoever they were talking about in the hallway could have been him. It wasn’t, though. It couldn’t. He was fine. He was fine.

“Hizashi…” Jolting at the quiet, pained sound of his name, Hizashi shuddered as he felt Shouta’s hand cupping his cheek and wiping away tears. It seemed Hizashi had been crying again. “How much did you hear?”

Ah, and there it was. Hizashi could lie to himself for as long as he wanted, but he had never quite been able to lie to Eraserhead; and Shouta he could never lie to.

‘Who am I without my voice?’ He hated his voice and quirk more than anything in the world, some days, and he had spent so long running away from them, but it was who he was. He was the Voice Vi… Hero? The Voice… ‘Who am I without my quirk?’

His hands were shaking, but Hizashi couldn’t stop himself from trying to ask his questions. It wasn’t like he’d ever be able to speak his questions again, a fact that made everything hurt as he tried to take steady breaths through his tears. ‘Does that make me better, now, Shouta? Does it make it better now that I don’t have a quirk? That’s probably better, isn’t it? To be quirkless rather than to be a villain?’

It wasn’t fair, though. Hizashi hadn’t even gotten the chance to change before it was all over for him. ‘Maybe this is for the best, right? It’s probably better-’ Hizashi startled as his hands were grabbed and held softly, fingers linking with his before Hizashi felt lips nudge and press against his own, giving him a distraction that he didn’t hesitate to take.

This time Hizashi pressed back just as much Shouta, freeing his hands and wrapping them around Shouta’s shirt, tugging him closer, too scared to pull away and ask what this meant for them.

It was a lot longer before they pulled away this time, Hizashi still pathetically shaking and crying, breath hitching when he felt Shouta kiss at the tears still rolling down his cheeks. Hizashi didn’t even get to try and ask any other questions before Shouta was asking one himself, voice sounding as wrecked as Hizashi’s would if he could still speak.

“Go out with me?” Not even Hizashi could pretend Shouta meant that as anything than what it was. There was no way to confuse the fact that Shouta, even after all this, still wanted him.

Hizashi was near sobbing when he managed to bring his hands up to sign yes over and over until Shouta grabbed his hands and pulled him into a kiss that was harder than all the ones before it. It was rough, hard, utterly consuming, and impossible to think of anything else.

Hizashi couldn’t find it within him to do anything but press back, hands gripping at Shouta’s tight enough to no doubt leave bruises. That was okay, though. It was all okay. Hizashi didn’t need his hands or voice to speak to Shouta, after all.

He knew without a doubt, just like every other time before, Shouta heard him loud and clear.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #mha #my hero academia #erasermic #villainous heroics #villain!mic #corndog-patrol

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