Era

23

Era stood before the blocky apartment complex, taking a moment to glance down at the address on her phone before tucking it away in her pocket. She took a breath and felt it sit sturdy in her lungs, chasing away uncertainty with practiced ease. This was necessary, this was sensible, this was good.

The fact of the matter was that Era could not continue with her studies in such disarray, especially if she was supposed to be gunning for the Hero Course. And with Step Four: Run Eraserhead Into the Ground off the table ever since the USJ revealed the twisting consequences of that course of action, since she had felt swirling relief at her failure tugging at her stomach with a confused sort of nausea, Era found herself with a lot more free time. Fortuitous, then, that Midoriya had sent her a text asking her yet again if she'd like to study with them. It was difficult to tell over text, but Era suspected that he'd been surprised when she actually said yes.

Era had murdered crime bosses, had infiltrated high security organizations, had both laid down covering fire and been in desperate, bloody need of it. So why, hovering at the threshold of this quiet apartment unit, was she hesitating at the sight of a single door? Not even a metal one, with locks or bars or reinforced hinges; no, by the look of the simple handle and the white paint that chipped and flecked off around the edges, she was sure that she could get this thing open without so much as a hangnail.

It wasn't the door, though, was it. It was never just the door. What lay behind, that was where the true terror lurked.

Rapping against the plain wood with her knuckles, Era fought to ignore the twisting feeling that weaved in serpentine coils through her ribcage, squeezing ever so slightly when she heard the soft patter of footsteps from within the apartment.

I shouldn't be here—

The door flew open, and Era bit down a yelp of surprise when she was greeted by a mop of green hair and a blinding smile.

"Hey Era! Thanks for coming, I know you're probably really busy but I'm glad you could—"

"Thanks for inviting me." Era stepped around him and into the apartment, slipping off her shoes and sliding into a couple of guest slippers, ignoring how her steps felt clumsy and weighed down by the slightly oversized fabric. "Sorry I'm late."

"Oh, that's no problem! Not that you're late, really, I mean we haven't even started yet. Not that we were waiting on you or anything, it wasn't an issue! Oh, but not that we wouldn't wait, or that it would be an issue if we had to—"

Era felt the beginnings of a headache press against her temples. "Is everyone here, then?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, sorry, I guess I..." Midoriya ran a sheepish hand through his hair, further tangling the mess of green curls. "I have a bad habit of rambling, sorry I know it's a little..."

"It's fine. You don't have to apologize." Era tried to imagine what her life might have been like if she'd grown up with such a habit, then quickly dismissed it. Her teachers would never have allowed such a potential for weakness, not to mention the possibility of it being seen as disrespectful... do not speak unless spoken to. It would've been beaten out of her with vicious immediacy.

"Anyway," Midoriya soldiered on with a smile as he led her through the apartment. "Everyone's in the living room, I think we're probably going to start on math and then maybe go into history, if that's okay. Oh, also I invited a couple other people! I hope you don't mind..."

"It's your house." This time Era couldn't conceal the bemusement in her voice. "Whoever you invite is fine."

"Okay! I'm just making sure 'cause I know you don't know a lot of people in the Hero Course and you haven't really been coming to lunch, not that you have to! But maybe you do know him anyway? He kind of just joined so he wasn't around when you were around. He's really nice, I promise, but I feel like sometimes it can take a while to get to know him? It's just that he's kind of new, you know? And I feel like if he's going to be in our class it would be nice to help him get to know some people and get settled and all that stuff."