The Party

Untitled Part 1

Shimura Tenko wasn't an easy man to work with, live with or even simply being around him, and his life was a testament to that fact, but if he had something to state that he was good at? He would have to say that it was his anxiety. He got anxious over so many things, things that didn't really matter and yet he obsessed with it, he just couldn't leave things be and just get over it, he just over thought it all and it was so close to overtaking his life if he wasn't careful.

It didn't help the fact that his quirk was decay, so he couldn't touch people properly, at least not without special gloves, or in his case being completely aware of what he was holding and how he was holding it. He'd been able to do that for years... after the death of his father by his own hands. His therapist connected the dots, the death of a loved one due to his quirk coming on would be the reason for his anxiety. It wasn't simply that he was an anxious person, but that his anxiety was brought on by his quirk, which meant that he needed to have some kind of control in his life, and without that control he was a – in his own words - a mess.

He knew that, although he still took his meds and visited the therapist, the anxiety was still there, he just needed to figure out how to deal with it better than he was right now. Because he was certain scratching his neck was not the best way to do things or bite his lips. Although Grand Torino had a habit of hitting him with his walking stick every time he bites his lip, though he never noticed when Tenko scratched his neck, the man was sly about that.

Yet here he was, at a small gathering in UA for All Might, the Symbol of Peace and his unofficial guardian, he was able to come in to this hall filled with pro hero's, teachers and everything that made him feel so nervous that he just wanted to leave and never return.

He didn't.

Tenko would never disrespect the man who helped him so much, the man who indirectly saved him from being fostered out to an uncaring family – he'd heard horror stories of children who were fostered and had unusual quirks that couldn't be handled easily and how they were simply cash-cows.

Regardless of trying to fit in, he wasn't a social butterfly, so he tended to stay by the walls, watching people chat, earwigging in and just hoping that soon he would be able to leave without everyone being able to tell that he just wanted to run away.

"That's how I feel about all this. Although I suppose you have a different reason to me." A tired male voice spoke to him and he jumped, turning to face an unkept and scruffy, dark hair man with a long scarf around his neck.

"I... um..." he shook his head, trying to calm his racing heart before he replied to the man. "I just don't like large social gatherings. I'm... fine that people want to praise All Might, I get it..."

"But you wish you didn't have to be here." He finished the words that likely would have never left Tenko's lips.

"That's not..." he trailed off, he realized who he was talking to though, this wasn't just a teacher, this was Eraserhead. "Yea, yea that's it. I don't do well around other's."

"How's that?"

And that was when Tenko Shimura found himself opening up about his past to a man that he knew so little about, apart from his quirk, the clue when he was using it and being a teacher at UA. He spoke about his childhood, he never held back really and Eraserhead barely interrupted him, just asking relevant questions when it was appropriate and just listened to him.

There were no questions about his feelings or asking him to return to that moment and think of what he would do now, it was just acceptance of what he was hearing. He noticed the man tensed up, when he spoke about the death of his father due to his quirk, being found by Grand Torino and how All Might had managed to get the older hero to foster him. Then there was how his anxiety became worse as time went on and he got older, because Grand Torino didn't know how to deal with that kind of stuff, instead he had him go to the doctor, who sent him to the therapist, who sent him to another therapist until they found one that fitted his needs and that he himself could trust. He spoke about everything that scared him, as well as the time that All Might had even approached him to the subject of him possibly being a hero one day when he was barely a teenager, which caused him to laugh at the large hero. Even now, he found that topic in relation to him rather hilarious.

"I heard it often from my own classmates when they learn what my quirk is, always after asking why I held things in an odd way. Then when they learned my quirk is decay, they called me a villain." He smiled bitterly not looking at the man, but instead focusing his gaze onto the floor. "Besides with all the I have anxiety, I wouldn't be able to be a hero anyway, too much mental damage to be effective on the battle scenes."

"You think so?" Was the first question the other man had asked throughout it all, it had simply been Tenko talking, for a lot longer than he had ever really spoke before, at least to a total stranger.

"Of course. You need to have a clear head, and mine never remains clear, always thinking about what ifs."

Eraserhead remained silent once more as he continued to talk, watching quietly as he started to cry about his own inability to even keep a basic civilian job and then suddenly he just stopped, looking at this stranger and backing away from him slowly, rubbing the palms of his hands on his eyes.

"Sorry, you don't need this... I think... I think I have been here long enough. It's... it was nice to meet you." He bowed awkwardly before running off, quickly speaking to All Might, who smiled at him and nodded before he left the hall without another glance behind him, leaving Eraserhead alone with his own thoughts.

Red shoes. Like that kid I teach, Midoriya. He thought with a frown, thinking how his student was also a nervous creature and yet, he had something more in him to give, it was clearly a product of how you were brought up, given what the pastel blue haired man had told him, his childhood had been rough. So, what could he do for him? He had opened up to him and let everything out, would he just ignore him and pretend it never happened? Or should he... Only live once after all. He moved towards the old hero who was sitting down next to the head teacher, who had left him alone as the other hero came up to them.

"Gran Torino." He nodded at the old man who smiled up at him.

"Ah Eraserhead. I see that you were keeping Tenko company for a while, he doesn't tend to stick around other people for too long,"

"He's an interesting man, but he left a bit too quickly for me to get his number." He stated blandly, as if he did this all the time.

He didn't. It was irregular and unusual, but the man troubled wasn't going to leave his mind any time soon, and he wanted to know more about him. He spotted the sly look on Torino's face, the old man was fully aware that his intentions weren't exactly pure, but that wasn't a problem, he respected the older hero, a hell of a lot more than the man of the hour All Might.

Yet Tenko respected both of them. Because they both saved him, even though it had caused him great difficulty because he wasn't able to deal with everything that had happened in the past. Could Aizawa deal with that? The man wasn't broken, but he was in pieces, could he have anything salvageable about him? Would he be able to deal with someone who was so broken that his life felt like a shipwreck?

"You know, what Tenko really needs is someone to be his friend." The older hero said softly, much to his surprise. "He opened up to you pretty easily there, not even his therapists managed that. At least from what he had told me. If you want to be a rock for him, be prepared, what he's told you isn't even the start of it all."

"Meaning?"

"That's the basic spiel. But there is more to it than that. His childhood before myself and All Might, his life afterwards. He's a lot of hard work, you should know that, but he's trying. If you think you can handle him and be a good friend to him, then send him a message. If not... stay away from him."

The warning was firm, he felt it. Gran Torino was smaller than him, yet the threat was there, and it was real. Aizawa couldn't fuck this up, and if he did, he'd have a retired hero on his ass.

"Understood."