In Another Life

Chapter 1

The runaway child

It was a quiet night in Musutafu, citizens resting comfortably in the comfort of their beds, some cuddled up to their lover. The cool breeze danced through the city sending chills down the few people who were out. But who was really out at this ungodly time? A few pro heroes well, more specifically, Underground Pro Hero, Eraserhead. He just exited a small coffee shop, returning back to his patrol. Although he was an underground hero, he much preferred being in the comfort of his bed like any other citizen, cuddling his cats and husband. He rubbed his hands together walking down the dead street with only the moonlight to guide him. Soon, the tired hero heard a scream not too far from him, pulling down his goggles, he ran over to see what it was about. It didn't take long for him to see that it was just a punk robbing a young girl. Once he dealt with that and the police got the guy, he continued his patrol. That's just how his normal night was, on good days he didn't have any criminals to deal with. After a couple hours of roaming the city, Aizawa was now ready to head home. Walking down the now quiet street, he started making his way home. He passed an alley where he heard the sound of something moving. Putting his guard up, he went to check it out. He quietly searched for any person or animal, but he couldn't find anything. He was turning to leave, when he saw it. A young boy, no older than 10, with dirty white hair and what looked like, bruises? Or it could have been dirt, the older male couldn't tell. He crouched down slowly, and spoke. "Hey little guy, are you alright?" he asked, only to get greeted by the boy backing away. "Hey hey, I'm not going to hurt you, I'm a pro hero." he said attempting to calm the child down, which he failed. "Go away..I'm not going back!" the small child said firmly at the end. 'Going back? Back where?' the hero thought. "I'm not taking you back to wherever, but I can't leave you out here, there are bad people out here who could hurt you badly." He spoke offering his hand to the child. The bruised boy was going to deny him when rain started falling. "Oh look at that, it's raining..even more reason to get you to safety." Aizawa spoke again. The two stayed there in silence in the rain, until a huge boom was heard. 'A storm?' the hero thought. He was brought out of his thoughts by noticing the small child shaking. "Fine..i'll go with you" he said running up to the older male. "Huh?" The small child was shaking and his stomach was rumbling. 'Oh, he must be cold and hungry, he got up with the child in his hand. He covered him with his scarf and started back on his walk home. On the way there he felt the child going limp in his arms, he checked only to see the child asleep. It didn't take long before he reached his shared house. He fished out his keys from his back pocket and unlocked the door. Entering the house he took off his shoes and carried the sleeping child to the couch. He then made his way up to his shared room that he and his husband used. The tired hero would normally shower, change and go to bed, but this early morning, he woke up his lover. The blonde slowly rolled over facing the dark haired male. "Sho? You're back, you're coming to bed?" he questioned softly. "No, I have a child down stairs, could you help me?" the tired hero signed. This caused the blonde to sit up and put on his hearing aids. He looked confused, fixing himself on the bed. "A child? Do you mean another cat sho?" he questioned. It wasn't uncommon for Aizawa to bring stray cats home and call the babies or children. He wasn't expecting the words his husband soon said. "No, a literal child. I found him on my way back and he's refusing to go home. It started raining so he came with me." Aizawa said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. The taller male got up out of bed and made his way downstairs to see the child himself. Making his way down quietly he spotted a puff of white hair on their gray couch. Seeing this, he walked over and peeped at the sleeping child. "Aw he's cute" he muttered looking back to seeing his tired lover coming up behind him. "Did he eat?" He asked, "no, I believe he hasn't eaten in a few days or so." Hizashi didn;t like the response. He got moved from where he was standing to the kitchen to start making breakfast for the three of them, more so for the child on their couch. It didn't take long for him to start whipping up batter for some pancakes. Aizawa sat there as he watched his husband making breakfast, drifting to sleep every now and then. The scent of the fresh made pancakes danced around the house, tickling the nose of those in the household. This causes the young child to awake from his slumber. He slowly sat up taking in the environment he was in. He looked around in confusion until he saw the tired hero that took him off the streets. The small child moved off the couch unnoticed by the adults. He made his way over to the dark haired male. "Excuse me mister.." he called softly, gently tugging the hero's pants leg. Aizawa looked away from his husband to look down. "Yes?" he responded softly. The child looks down to the ground and fiddles with his dirty, torn jersey. "May I use the washroom?" he asked softly. "Of course" the adult got up from where he sat, leading the child to the bathroom. Hizashi saw the two exit the room and quickly got to setting up the table, putting the child's plate first. When they got to the washroom, Aizawa stood outside the door, waiting for the child. It wasn't long before Hizashi saw the two reappear in the room. "Hey little listener" he greeted softly, "I made breakfast" he said doing jazz hands showing the food on display. Hizashi was always the one good with kids so it wasn't surprising that he'd try making the kid laugh or smile or anything. It came as a surprise to the voice hero when the child looked unamused by it. 'That didn't go as planned' he thought. Aizawa followed the child to the dinner table and helped him up. "Take as much as you want." Hizashi said with a smile. The two heroes watched as the child hesitated before taking a single pancake. He placed his hands together. "Thank you for the food.." he said softly before eating the food. They knew that the child would be hungry, but they didn't expect to see how fast the child ate the food, he ate it as if that was his last meal. The look on the adults' faces were enough to tell the child that they were shocked and confused. "What..?" he asked softly. This snapped the heroes out of their thoughts. "Nothing, would you like more?" Hizashi asked to move over to take a bite for himself. "No thanks..father says I can't have too much." He responded, taking a sip of Aizawa's coffee on accident. "Well your father isn't here, eat as much as you want kid" Aizawa said, taking a pancake from his plate and giving it to the child, taking his coffee in the process. "If father finds out he'll be mad at me." the child whispered. "He's not going to find out, so eat up." Hizashi said with a smile to reassure the kid. With a little more confirmation from the two that it was alright, the child hesitated before nibbling on the second pancake. After breakfast Hizashi took the dishes to wash them and put them away. While he did this, Aizawa carried the child back over to the couch to start questioning him. "What's your name?" he asked, clicking down on the pen ready to start writing. Hizashi appeared behind him and sat with the two. " Touya" the kid said. Aizawa wrote that down. "Last name?" "Todoroki.." he muttered. Hizashi looked at him. "Oh you're Endeavor's son?" he asked. "Yea..unfortunately" he said. Aizawa would ask his other questions later. "Let's continue. How old are you?" "14" "14? I thought you were younger" Hizashi said. Touya just shook his head and looked over to a fluffy animal entering the room. He got up from where he sat to pet the animal. "What's its name?" Touya asked, petting the animal. "Oh that little guy is puddin" Hizashi said with a smile, looking over at aizawa. Aizawa watched Touya petting his cat. Puddin was a small fluffy black birman cat. He was rescued from the streets by Aizawa when he was out on his coffee break. I mean how could he just leave the cat? That poor baby, cold, hungry and lonely, he had no other choice. Getting back on track, Aizawa decided to let the child be. "Would you like us to call Endeavor to pick you up?" He asked, reaching for his phone. Touya jumped up and in a second he showed his quirk, blue fire bloomed from his fist as he got in a fighting stance. "Don't you fucking dare! You said you're not taking me back!" he yelled. His flames got put out as Aizawa used his quirk. 'We've dealt with all sorts of reduced children, lost, abandoned, disowned, but runaways, they're always a bigger case than people think.' Hizashi thought, looking over to his husband. "You're right, I did promise, so let's calm down. Now I think we should get you in the bath, take a nap then we'll come back to this, how's that sound?" Aizawa questioned, he was way too tired for this. He had his suspicions on the flame hero, but he was hoping it wasn't what he thought. He watched as Touya calmed down and nodded. They all got up, Aizawa sent the blonde male to get some of their clothes for the child. Now he went with Touya to set up the bath, showing him where everything was. When he finished he left him to have some time to himself to shower. Aizawa went back to his husband and crawled on the couch next to him. He laid his head on the male's lap dozing off. Hizashi smiled at his husband and petted his hair. Within half an hour, Hizashi heard the small sound of footsteps and saw the child coming back into the room with a big black jersey on. The jersey fell below his knees. Now he could clearly see that the boy had snowy white hair, pale skin with a few redy-purpley burns on his skin around his neck, arms and legs that were visible. Touya yawned before slowly making his way over to the two heroes, climbing up on the couch. He huddled up in the corner of the couch, hugging his knees and dozed off. With this, Hizashi was now left with his thoughts alone, how would things go? What happened so bad that made the kid run away? Are they keeping him? His thoughts ran far, he knew the only way he'd get answers was from Touya and the only way was to get him comfortable enough to talk. He put his thoughts aside watching two sleepy heads take a nap, and decided on taking one himself.