Seven Bridges Road: An Erasermic Fanfic

Part 5: A father's mistakes, a son's truth.

14

"Man, graphics have gotten so good! This game is insane!" Oboro said.

"You should try playing it on the big screen in our apartment. You can really see the detail in the background." Shouta said. He and Oboro were sitting on the floor in his and Yamada's little apartment in the hospital building with their backs against the sofa, playing one of the newer video games. Yamada had brought their game consol from home to give Shouta something to do since he wasn't allowed to move very much and tired quickly when he did.

He had been released back to their little apartment prison the day before, following dialysis. The doctor was correct, the dialysis had made him feel better, but he was still extremely weak compared to his usual self. He was attached to oxygen and had a monitor on his wrist that was tracking his health metrics.

"I think it's cool that you and Yamada still play video games." Oboro said.

"I think it's cool I still beat him at video games." Shouta inclined his head. He was trying to pretend he didn't know why Oboro was here. Mic was having a meeting with Tsukauchi and several other heroes, as well as a representative from the Safety Commission. The Safety Commission's attempt to gain "custody" of Aizawa and the three minors had failed, in no small part thanks to Mic's intervention, and Mic made it clear to them that he had a failsafe already arranged, meaning if anything happened to him, the audio files that he had sent to multiple high profile connections across Japan would be released. After that, All Might became involved, and while the Safety Commission may have thought they had a chance of controlling Present Mic, they stood no chance of controlling All Might.

Oboro was here as his babysitter. Aizawa was not supposed to be alone, so Oboro was "hanging out" with him. It had never been expressly said to him, but it was happening none the less. Aizawa hated being handled like this.

But something else must have been going on too, because about three hours ago Mic had sent him a text asking him to make sure Oboro didn't watch any television. So, apparently Shouta wasn't the only one being handled.

"Is it still weirding you out that Yamada and I are together?" Shouta asked him.

"No," Oboro said, then thought about it and shrugged. "Well, yah, it does, but a LOT is weirding me out. You two being together isn't even cracking the top ten." He gestured with his controller. "I mean, this whole situation is just supremely weird. If anything, it's weirder how good you guys are together."

"What do you mean?" Shouta asked, sitting the controller down in his lap as the game loaded the next level.

"Well...you guys just work, I guess. You were right when you said you are different people than you were in school." He scrunched up his face, trying to come up with the right words. "But, your core is still the same. I mean, you're still Aizawa and Yamada, but it's like you guys have these added layers now and you just...I don't know...complete each other or something." He thought about it some more. "You can calm Yamada down when he's getting wound up and when you get locked in your head the way you do, he pulls you out of it and it's like effortless. And the way Yamada had your back when you went off after Dabi, it was like he had complete confidence in you, so much so that he bossed All Might! I mean, All Might of all people!" He sighed. "It's weird to me, yah, but so is everything else."

"So, if Yamada and I being a couple doesn't crack your top ten, what does?" Shouta asked.

"Kayama being a teacher is a big one." Oboro said. "I mean, how does 'I'm going to fight crime buck naked to change the world' Kayama land a teaching job!"

Shouta laughed, and then started coughing. He put both hands over his mouth, coughing hard, unable to stop. The coughing fit sent a shock wave through his body, and he felt a sharp jab of pain at both kidneys. His eyes started to water as his body panicked, unable to breath.