The Baron

{[ Izuku Midoria ]}

The Baron went on his way thinking back to his old home that he was reminded of when he saw Aizawa's. The small apartment that was three stories up, always clean, kept as tidy as it could be with a child resident, old furniture that managed to make it through his childhood of playing hero, kitchen where his mother would make every meal and treat they had the ingredients for. But his mind stopped at the thought of his mother. Her kind soul, proud smile, polite laugh, patient demeanor, and those all knowing eyes that seemed to see through his lies. She saw straight through him to his pain, anger, sadness, but she also saw the real him. To this day she is one of the only two people that have seen the real him, the real Izuku Midoria.

This train of thought continued, as the memories of them playing, cooking, laughing, or just talking played through his head. By then he had already made it back to his office that he didn't remember getting to, but those warm memories slowly turned sour. He remembered when they cried, arguing however rare that was, when they started to struggle with money, and how their time with one another dwindled. But he also remembered when the sharks came. They didn't like how determined they were not to borrow money. So they tried to make an example, but that went horribly wrong.

He could vividly remember the sound of her skull cracking, her scream, her cry for help that wouldn't come, and the begging for a hero to help. The smell of iron from blood, the smell of alcohol that rolled off the sharks, and nicotine from the cigarette that one held. But what kept him up most nights was the sight of her body laying limply in his arms, watching the light leave her eyes, the blood pooling under her, and the color red covering his clothes and hands. The next thing that ran through was him braking, his light was smothered, his hope was dashed, his love was ripped away from him, his joy faded to nothing, as sadness washed over him letting rage take over. It overflowed igniting something within him. Something that he didn't have for most of his life. The next thing he knew he was at the center of a multi colored inferno watching as everything in the apartment turned to ash.

When it died down he was the only thing left in the apartment with rage still locked in his mind. But he put that aside choosing to look in the back rooms for anything that may have survived. Much to his relief he found some pictures, a couple of his valuable items, money, and some items of his mother's. Once he gathered up these items he left with a mission.

A knock brought him out of his thoughts, and the glow that he was emitting told him that his hair was a light. When he gave permission to enter and saw his Regent walk in.

"What is it?" Izuku did even bother with pleasantries, but the Regent answered anyway.

"A new group of villains are building up their ranks. We don't know where they are going to attack or where they will set up, but I'm working on that." He answered straight to the point.

"I see. Wait till they do something, but be prepared if they come to my turf. Other than that keep gathering information as you've been doing." Izuku ordered as the flames died down leaving only small flickerings here and there.

"Yes, Baron." Was all he said and walked back out of the room.

'Are these villains stupid, ignorant, or just out right ignoring territories? I don't know, but I guess we'll find out soon enough' Izuku thought to himself as he continued to sit at this desk before deciding to be productive.

After a few hours of working he finally left for home. When he walked in the door it was quiet, a little too quiet. He went on as if not noticing anything was a miss. After walking his normal route around his home he noticed the tail ends of white hair ducking back out of sight here and there. Seeing this he disappeared around a corner hiding and waiting. When he saw a little figure trying to sneak around he struck. He suddenly picked up the little figure spinning them around with a moch roar adding in some harmless sparks and flame to tickle their face.

A scream and laugh sounded through the home bringing some life to it.

"Aww. Hehe. I thought I had you this time." The happy little voice of this girl spoke while still laughing bringing a smile however small to Izuku's face.

"Not yet my little flurry. It was better than last time though. You are always improving and growing, and that makes me so proud of you, Eri." Izuku spoke with all the love that was slowly building back up, as he nuzzled the top of her head being careful of the horn that was slowly growing no the side of her forehead.

"Now, how about some dinner?" Izuku suddenly asked, as he moved Eri to his hip while walking to the kitchen.

"Yeah!" She excitedly agrees being careful not to move around too much, as she didn't want either of them to lose balance and risk falling.

"Alright, what are we feeling today then?" He asked while waiting patiently for her to make a decision. Once he got to the kitchen he set her down on a stool, as she made her thinking face bringing a chuckle from Izuku.

"Oh! I know! How about katsudon?" She suddenly asked excitedly still bringing love and joy to the forefront of Izuku's mind.

"Well alrighty then. Katsudon it is." He agreed as he began to cook for the two of them, while Eri helped here and there. The two talked about anything and everything that came to Eri's mind. Eventually they ended up sitting on the floor while playing a strategy game since that's what she wanted to do for dinner.

By the end of the game the two had finished their meal and Eri was pretty tired, so Izuku picked her up, brought her to her room, and settled her down to sleep. After word he cleaned up what was left of the mess, did the dishes, got some more work done, and finally got ready for bed himself. By then it had been a couple of hours and before he could completely fall asleep he felt a small weight shift on the bed, like a small figure was trying to climb up. So in response he moved his blanket, held out a hand to help who he knew to be Eri, and let her curl up against him before moving the blanket back.

"Was it the nightmares again?" He quietly asked while rubbing her back to help calm her. All she did was nod before trying to get closer to Izuku. In response he just wrapped his arm around her to act as a comfortable weight. After another few more minutes she fell back asleep with Izuku following soon after.