Resurrection | Shota Aizawa

Chapter 21

AUDIBLE GAGGING WHY'D I MAKE HIM SUCH A SAPPY GAY WHYS HE DOWN BAD. IM LIKE COMMITTED TO THE BIT NOW AND CAN'T GO BACK??? HE'S JUST LIKE THIS???? STOP

Third person pov

The week passes and things are quiet, excluding the run in three of their students had with the Hero Killer, Stain. Shota had gotten the call in the later hours of the day, leaving to handle things whilst Hiroki anxiously paced the living room waiting for more news. He'd stayed with Hitoshi, who'd sat sleeplessly on the couch keeping his criminology teacher company whilst he stressed.

Hiroki had wanted more than anything to go along too. His heart had dropped practically into the pit of his stomach hearing the news. Three of their students were actively in the hospital. And his nephew is one of them.

It's because he's trying to open a case with Endeavor that he can't go. Any contact with Shoto outside of UA's walls is dicey, family or not. Hiroki is considered a more distant relative. Title of "uncle" aside, it doesn't change the fact that he's the cousin of Shoto's mother. Not a brother, or an uncle, or a half-sibling.

He's just a cousin. And that's enough, but with his ten year absence... Well, he refuses to ruin his own chances when they're already going to be so slim.

Hiroki knows Enji. He's the type of person who never changes, so he's willing to bet he's the exact same piece of shit he was the last time Hiroki had the utter displeasure of interacting with him. Without Rei in the house, it's likely he's even gotten worse. Downhill, but never up, because god forbid he look back and see how far he's fallen.

Rei's state was enraging. That she'd been driven to that point made his teeth grind and his eyes sting. If Hiroki was angry enough at his aunt and uncle for selling her off to begin with, he'd been absolutely livid to find the turn her life had taken.

Everything had started to fall apart in the year before Hiroki's death. Shoto's quirk had come in and it's like a new sort of beast awoke in Endeavor. Touya was shoved to the side like he suddenly wasn't worth it anymore, and Enji's treatment of Rei grew worse and worse. Hiroki was often there after school, whisking the kids along just to get them out of the house and away from their sorry excuse for a father.

Rei had always stayed behind. Beautiful and too strong for her own good, she'd stood up as tall as she could manage. Echoes of the hero she'd been slated to become before she was auctioned off like a prized piece of cattle rattled through her eyes in moments like that, something steely and fierce as she watched Hiroki herd her kids out the door.

There was nothing Rei loved more than her children. And without Hiroki, the only piece of family she could fully rely on to actually step in, there to help buffer... His death had broken her, and now Shoto has a scar and Rei was—

His phone gave a chime in his pocket, drawing Hiroki from his horrible spiral of thought. He scrambled to retrieve it, shoulders falling slightly when he saw it was indeed from Shota. That man was far too good to him.

It was unfamiliar, having someone in his corner for once in his life. Sometimes Hiroki finds himself feel wrongfooted by how casual Shota seems to take everything on. Every decision Hiroki makes, he takes on with a shrug and offers his support. 

He's let him move in and practically take over his apartment. He bends to his whims like flexible rubber. He eats his food and does not complain at the way Hiroki rags on him about his poor schedule, letting himself get pushed into more sleep, balanced meals, more fun. He supports him in Shoto, and now in Hitoshi too. 

He's... sort of the best friend Hiroki's had in a long time now. Hiroki is impossible proud of the man he's grown into.

"Is everything okay?" Shinso asked from the couch, sounding tentative, like he wasn't sure he was allowed to ask. Hiroki wanted to wrap him in a giant hug and coo, feeling giddy and light all of a sudden.