Fear Quirk (Shota)

Els/Shota

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The PA system chimed. "Eraserhead, please come to the nurse's office immediately."

Aizawa glanced over at the speaker in annoyance. His class murmured softly to each other, confused looks on their faces. It was close to the bell anyway, so he shrugged and got up.

"Behave yourselves." He left the classroom wondering what could possibly be important enough to call him in. Eri had been doing well lately, but other than the little girl there wasn't any logical reason to need him at the nurse's office. He turned the corner and almost ran into Present Mic, who looked agitated. Aizawa blinked. Cheshire had been out with him on a routine field exercise.

"She got hit by a fear quirk," Mic stated nervously, hopping about from foot to foot. "I tried to cover her, but she took it full on to protect the kids."

His eyes went impossibly wide. Not that. Not his girl.

There were, of course, different types of fear quirks. Most, however, relied on your own brain. The toxins chemically changed your own thoughts, isolating what you were most afraid of and showing it to you mercilessly. Powerful quirks of this type had landed people in mental institutions for extensive rehabilitation. He pushed past his friend and into the nurse's office. Elly was laying on the first cot in a fetal position, her skin chalky white. She was rocking herself a little but wasn't crying out. Healing Girl stood at her side, talking soothingly. She sighed when Aizawa knelt by his lover.

"Can you help her?"

"We have to know what she's seeing before we can put her under to get past it." She motioned to a needle nearby. "If we don't find out her fear, she's going to face the remembrance of it when she wakes. You know what that can do."

He nodded. "Hey," he said softly. "What's happening? Are you okay?" Foolish question, of course she wasn't, but he had to start somewhere.

She whimpered.

"That's the most come out of her yet. Keep talking."

"Whatever you're seeing is not real." He stroked her hand. "Can you hear me, Ches?"

"Shota!" She suddenly stiffened and flung her hands up to cover her face. "Oh, please..." Her voice broke as she sobbed wildly.

"It's you," the nurse sighed. He didn't bother to speak; his expression turned bleaker than usual. "She didn't react until you came in. Now she's yelling your name. Put two and two together." Healing Girl placed a cool hand on Elly's brow.

"I'd never hurt her and she knows that."

"I didn't say you would, but... " She waved to the writhing cat woman on the cot. "It's something to do with you, obviously."

"Yes," he grunted flatly. He held her hand, still absently petting it in comfort. His mind was racing, trying to come up with the most plausible fears his girl would face. He knew of the bad relationship she had with the men in her family and it suddenly became very clear. He was the latest man in her life. Still, he had to make sure.

"Ches, it's me." He wiped a tear from her cheek and leaned close. "It's Sho. Tell me what's wrong."

"Please love me," came the tiny, pathetic whisper from the cot. "Out of everyone - please be the one to love me."

"Give her the shot," He sighed dejectedly. "I know what it is. Please help her."

The nurse nodded and squirted a drop out, then plunged the needle into Elly's arm. She acted like she didn't even feel it, but her pleas slowly faded into whispers and then she was blissfully, mercifully, asleep. Aizawa covered her with a blanket and sank back down with his arms resting over her on the cot. "Shit."

"What was it, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Afraid I don't love her."

"Oh, my." She paused in the act of cleaning up. "Good thing, I suppose, in a way."

"Eh?"

"It means she really loves you, idiot," came a new voice from the doorway. Mic stood there with his arms crossed. "I came back to see if you needed any work covered."

Aizawa raised an eyebrow at the nurse, who nodded. "You should be by her side when she wakes. We can have one of the staff cars drive you home for the rest of the day."

"I'll arrange for someone to sub your class tomorrow if you need it." The blond man ran a hand over his giant plume of hair. "We can manage."

"Thank you." He clasped his friend's arm roughly in gratitude.

He thought about it during the short trip to the staff apartments. He could have carried her, but it would have attracted attention and he hated being in the spotlight.

Had he ever told her how he felt?

He thought he had. But why would she be scared he did not love her if he had declared it? He frowned, thinking hard back to their first dates. He would have had to said it before they began living together, surely. But for all the important moments he recalled, he seemed to have skipped the most obvious of all. Aizawa groaned as he picked her up to carry her inside.

What an idiotic thing.

Elly woke in a cold sweat, her heart feeling like it had shriveled up in her chest. She immediately wailed in pain and flopped on her side to clutch the pillow she lay on. Everyone she loved. It happened with every man she loved! Her dad, stepfather, grandfather - each one should have loved her unconditionally, yet they hadn't. Dating had been worse. And then she had come to Japan and fallen harder than ever before. If Shota wasn't in love with her, she would give up. She wanted no one else. Her cries grew louder but her anguish was too great for her to notice. She cried out his name again and again.

"Shit!" Elly didn't feel the bed move as he leaped onto it or hear him swear. Aizawa had to grasp her by the arm and roll her over to face him before she noticed him.

"Sho?" Her eyes were blurry with tears but it smelled like him.

"Ches! It's okay. I'm here." The normally laconic man flung himself on her in a tight hug, speaking rapidly. "You got hit with a fear quirk. It wasn't real. I'm here. I love you."

She clung to him, snuggling hard on an effort to convince herself he was really there. He stroked her hair and rubbed her velvety ears to calm her down.

"Didn't hear me, did you."

"Wasn't real..?"

"Nope. The fear quirk made you experience the thing that scared you the most."

She sniffled, pulling away just enough to look into his eyes. He swallowed very hard at the raw emotion he saw. It still hurt; she might not have heard or worse, not believed him. "I'm sorry," she husked sadly, ears drooping.

He took a deep breath and very firmly pulled himself together. His hands gently raised her face until she was within an inch of his. "I'm sorry," he told her somewhat awkwardly. "I - I never told you how I feel."

"I should know. I mean, we're living together."

"No." He placed a gentle hand under her chin and set his forehead to hers to stare even deeper into her eyes. "You need that verbal connection, every day. I was at fault. But not anymore. Shit, Ches, you make me smile more than any other person just by being here. I'm sleeping better at night and have never felt anything close to what it's like when we have sex." He blushed as he admitted this, then added firmly, "I love you."

Her eyes filled again. "Oh, Shota."

"No more crying," he murmured, kissing her lightly on the lips. "I won't be lax in any of my duties as your man anymore. I promise."

"I love you, too."