Work Text:
'Why the hell are you staring at me.'
It wouldn't be the first time that someone's thoughts accidentally crossed into your mind. Sort of what comes with having a quirk that can't fully be turned off without you being dead asleep and even then other people's dreams might slip into yours.
The person in particular whose thoughts you were listening to was a pro-hero, apparently, and a scraggly looking one at that. He was already on the train by the time you had gotten on and had been sitting down and about to fall asleep at any second. The only thing that had really woken up was seeing a young mother with her child who was getting much needed sleep. You had watched as the man stood up with a silent sigh and offered his seat to the mother, stopping her before she could start apologizing for the inconvenience and sat down while the man was already leaning against one of the poles.
That was a modern day hero and he would have been elevated to god status if the child had been crying instead. Him being a pro didn't wear out its luster,but it did make you come up with a little idea about who the guy was. He definitely didn't look like a hero. What kind of hero wore a plain ol' black jumpsuit and some weird kind of scarf wrapped around their neck;with an expression that screams 'i would rather be in my grave'? That drew you to the conclusion that maybe he wasn't a very publicly known hero but more underground.
Underground heros were far more common than most would think and the guy fit the bill perfectly. You couldn't put a name to the face but he looked familiar. Your shoulders sagged a bit. This will be a mystery to solve for another day.
Now that that's out of the way, you have another semi-common problem: The maybe pro-hero was addressing you personally.
It sort of sucked having a quirk that allows you to know other people's thoughts as long as they were a meter away from you. Even worse given it was on all the time, but that can be ignored by being distracted by listening to music or a really good fanfiction online. Only today, you were in a rush. You had forgotten your phone so you could get to work to not be late ,and now you were stuck listening to everyones half strung thoughts. With nothing to distract yourself.
'Allow me to repeat myself. Why the hell are you staring at me.' Shit he knows.
You shot him a sheepish grin and forced yourself to look somewhere else, but now there was some old guys back pressed right against your nose and he smelled like baby powder. You grimaced,taking a step back only to now be shoulder to shoulder with the maybe pro-hero. You could hear him sigh by the sudden closeness,but other than that he didn't complain.
'Just stay here before you attract any unwanted attention.' You nodded. Man, did he sound annoyed. Your eyebrows furrowed. It wasn't like you wanted to be right next to him,but between the guy who smelled like baby powder,and some creep on the train;you would rather be next to the hero of the day.
There was a long, drawn out sigh from him. 'Learn to close your thoughts the next time you get on a public transit. It's annoying.' Is he dissing you via telepathy?
That was the other fallout from your quirk. If you concentrate too much on one person,then they can hear your own thoughts. You aren't sure how your voice translates but from friends who have mentioned it to you, you're 'voice' echos and sounds a bit distorted. Maybe a hint of what your voice would be is there but other than that- just strange but intelligible garble and that suits you just fine.
Still though, that was kind of mean no matter how true it was. It wasn't your fault that it was hard to shut off your thoughts when there was so much to think about when standing next to someone like him. Attractive, out of your league straggly men are just your type.
Another unimpressed snort. 'How flattering. Your 'type' will get you on the news with a search party.' Now that made you laugh. You covered your mouth, leaning back against what you thought was the pole but turned out to be a very sturdy and well built arm. Oh.
He shifted from besides you and made you be next to the pole instead of having half your weight resting on him. A bit unfortunate. Just a tiny bit. What other muscles does he have hiding under that jumpsuit? You waited a second to see if he would talk, think I guess, something to you so you took a quick peek at him only to see that his hair was,, Floating? Suspended in air? His eyes were red too and seemingly all at once it hit you to who he was.
No wonder he didn't respond to what you had thought! He had gotten tired of your bullshit thoughts about lusting after his muscles and he was using his quirk on you! He was erasing your quirk! Oh shit! That's actually really cool and now you can think about him in fun ways so long as his hair was up! God, that must be a horrible tell to have during battles.
Eraserhead looked confused for a split second as he looked down at you. You must have looked like a kid in a candy store and struck fear into the cool guy. Or maybe that's the kind of reaction you get when you use your quirk on a stranger and they aren't scared. Maybe he's intrigued.. ? Okay, enough hopeful daydreaming before he blinks and he can hear what you're thinking.
The man finally closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose and letting out a very tired sigh. His hair was back to resting on his shoulders and he rubbed at his eyes in a small huff. It was only then that you noticed the crescent scar underneath his right eye and you wondered for a brief second what must have happened. You noticed that his shoulders tensed up and you flashed him an apologetic smile. Must be a sensitive topic so you dropped it and he seemed a little grateful.
Great. If the train moves any slower then you might be late for work. You slumped against the pole and regretted not remembering to bring your phone even more now. You were pretty sure you were going to get an earful about tardiness again if you ever made it out of here.
'Very professional of you.' For someone who complained about you not keeping your thoughts to yourself he sure was adamant on keeping this mental conversation going. You cracked a smirk. Kind of cute honestly.
He grunted. He makes a lot of sounds, you noted. From everything you've known about Eraserhead, which isn't much given how he stays out of the limelight, he seems to keep to himself and comes off as impersonal. He's doesn't seem like one to actively go out of his way to start conversations (you thought this part extra loud to tease him), no public outlet has gotten a good interview with him so you figured he just hated the media, he was a teacher at UA but that wasn't much to go off on other than he may be enjoyed them enough to not quit (you swear you heard him rumble laugh at this bit), and you now knew that he was pretty well built (now THAT made him cough).
'You're in your head too much. Find a hobby other than over-analyzing people on the train.' You snickered. Yeah, tell the mute person to stop talking in their head when they have no other means to communicate other than texting. You made direct eye contact with him. Come on man, just have a normal conversation.
Another tired sigh. He should get some more sleep. This got you an actual chuckle and wow did it make you blush the tiniest bit. 'The life of a pro doesn't allow me the luxury of sleep.' Edgy but understandably edgy. The internal war to not worry about him ended in a heart beat.
Why wouldn't he sleep during the day? 'I teach.' ,,, Have shortened hours? 'Not fair to students or my fellow co-workers to push my work onto them just because I want a nap.' Now that's a semi-lie. You know this for a fact because of past interviews with former students of his have said that he takes regular short naps during class in an ugly yellow sleeping bag. You scrunched up your nose at him as you waited for a reply. His bored eyes stared right back at you and he turned away. 'I can neither confirm nor deny those allegations.'
You were never one to cause a scene without reason, especially in a public place like the train, so it was a huge shock to you and frankly everyone in proximity to you when you doubled over laughing. Or as close to laughing as you could get with a heavily damaged trachea. This meant forcing other people to listen to your wheezing and having to cover your mouth before you started hacking up a storm. You held onto the pole so you wouldn't fucking fall over and Eraserhead was suddenly closer towards you than before.
"Oh dear, are you alright?" Asked a probably older woman. You nodded your head in her direction, lifting your head to see her and her grandmotherly concerned face.
"They'll be alright. Must be allergies." OH. YOU KNOW THAT VOICE.
Eraserhead stepped in to alleviate the minor situation you caused as he rested his hand on your shoulder and practically forced you to use him instead of the pole. Poorly worded but that's the best you can do to describe whatever this is. The woman nodded and smiled knowingly at the two of you. You already know what's about to happen.
"What a loving and doting boyfriend you have!" You were fucking wheezing.
Hell, anyone in your situation would be howling with laughter and it was made even better when you could hear Eraserhead mentally scream in your direction while not showing it on the outside. You snorted. What a cool dude.
You nodded again at the lady, smiling at her and you cleared your throat. You raised your hands to sign only to falter and look up at Eraserhead, eyeing him to have him thank the woman on your behalf. The pro-hero then bowed at her, saying his thanks for the two of you and endured more of her relationship advice and compliments towards him.
She winked at you. Oh boy here it comes. Just give me a prettily packaged sex toy with some lube, grandmother, you're ready for it. "This one is a keeper! He has such a kind and caring soul. It's so hard to find someone like that nowadays and you were both so adorable with the way you were looking at each other earlier. I wish you both the best and a ring on your finger if I ever see you again."
It took so much effort to not bust out in tears half way through her sweet praises. Eraserhead spared no time in grabbing your arm and nudging his way to get off the train. "That's very nice of you ma'am but I'm afraid that this is our stop. Thank you again."
She waved her goodbyes and you waved back, covering your mouth to muffle your wheezes as he dragged you off the train until you were outside. There wasn't many people out walking around which was very surprising considering how sunny it was out today. You blocked the sun away from your eyes as you looked up at the sky. Seeing all the fluffy clouds made you smile absently. You should start biking to work or something to enjoy the nice weather. That would probably get you to work on time for once and not accidentaly ruin a pro-hero's day.
Oh right! Stuff happened! You turned to see Eraserhead with his arms crossed over his chest and a very stern yet still bored expression. You smiled brightly at him, a few laughs stuck in your throat that would bubble up into silent giggles.
He didn’t seem to be easing up any time soon so you forced yourself to calm down, biting at the inside of your cheek as you stuffed your hands into your jacket pockets. They two of you had a stare off and you made a point to not think too loudly or else he’d hear it.
You saw his right eye twitch in irritation and you grinned at him. Bingo. He was trying to see if you were going to say anything to him! Eraserhead sighed deeply. “You’re a child.” He said bluntly.
What a good insult. That made him groan in response and you took a few steps back from him, giving him a little wave before turning to leave. Now you had to figure out the issue of how the hell are you going to get to your cool but slightly annoying.
”Wait a second,” There’s that rugged and not so echoy voice. “I’ll call you a taxi or something to get to your workplace. It’s the least I can do for dragging you off the train.”
So gentlemanly. He glared at you, phone in hand and you saw his thumb hover the call button. “Need I remind you that it was you who started the entire incident.”
You gasped, huffing as you raked through your memories to see who really started it. Ah shit. The corner of his lip upturned into a smirk. Okay well!! It almost wasn’t even your fault! He was the goober who said something funny in such a deadpan way which made you start choking on your own spit.
”I only said that supposedly hilarious line because you were asking me questions.” He reminded, gesturing for you to follow him as he began walking out of the train station, to which you obliged much like a lovesick puppy.
This had the both of your scrunching up your noses. “Why that word to describe it.” You opened your mouth as if to explain yourself, your fingers fumbled in the air. A defeated breathy sigh left you and you shrugged.
You glanced his way for a split second before making a double take at his phone. Your hand roughly smacked at your forehead.
Why didn’t you just ask him in the beginning to text your boss! You’re so dumb!! This is dumb!!!
”For once you’re right. If you know the number then go ahead.” You stuck your tongue out at him and thought up a brief thank you when he handed you the device. The first thing you notice is what he has set up as his background. A cute lil kitty cat showing off their adorable toe beans to the camera.
Another gasp. You held up his phone and you could visibly see how taken back he is at your excitement for the cat so you forced your thoughts to calm the fuck down. You rapidly tapped at the cat. You need a name. You need to know the breed. You need to know if it was a fat cat who loved to chase sticks or likes to jump into trash cans then gets stuck in them.
”That’s Tubbs” He gently took the phone from you to what you assume was his photos and your grin doubled the size when you saw that he had an entire album dedicated to this ugly named kitty.
”It’s not an ugly name.” He snapped, holding the device away from your and you whined, getting on your tip toes when he pulled his phone further away from you so you couldn’t see the goods. “His name is Tubbs and he likes to eat. He’s on a diet right now because he’s so fucking fat.” At that, you could see Eraserhead crack a small smile as he finally let you swipe through the pictures.
Tubbs! Like that one fat kitty in Neko Atsume! That seems very on brand for him. He seems like the kind of guy to foster stray cats when he’s not on hero duty. You cooed internally at the idea of him holding an umbrella over stray cats he’s found in some ally with them covering his body. Maybe he has some other pictures of cats other than his own on his phone he could let you see.
The two of you had started walking again which left him to watch over you and guide your body out of the way from oncoming traffic since you were far too busy looking at the feline. You assumed that Tubbs was a maine coon who was spoiled by his owner. Adorable.
”Please text your boss instead of flirting with me.” Now that made your brain fry.
This!! This wasn’t flirting! Your thoughts were going a thousand miles an hour and you only stopped when you saw that Eraserhead’s hair was floating again. You could only assume that you had overwhelmed him again so you shot him a sheepish smile, your face still flushed red as you looked intently at the screen and frantically typed away your excuse. Thankfully, you knew that she wouldn’t be too upset given how you had been doing more overtime over the past few months to help out more.
You handed Eraserhead his phone back, not daring to look at him in fear of thinking something dumb. “Aizawa is fine.” Oh hey we’re looking back at him again cool.
It surprised you to see that he had hidden half of his face beneath his scarf though you could see that the tips of his ears were a little red. O-Oh!
You nodded, fiddling with your jacket sleeves and began walking again. Aizawa walked besides you and the two of you went down the busy street in relative silence. From the corner of your eye you saw that he had checked his phone again. ’Your boss said that it’s fine and that you don’t have to go into work due to you helping out so much. I didn't strike you to be a diliget worker.’
Ah, inside voices again. Before you could even celebrate having a day off it dawned on you that you now had to walk right back to catch the next train back home. Unless...
Before you could even think about the possibility of hanging out with Aizawa for the day, he had already let out a long drawn out groan. Great. There goes the opportunity to hanging out with an actually pretty chill guy.
’I didn’t say no.’ OH. COOL.
He rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged. 'It’s only logical for me to.. Accompany you when I’m to blame for you not being on the train anymore.'
Now that was actually surprising. Surely he had to go out on patrol today or go teach. ’It’s a student holiday today. For their mental health.’ Okay yeah that makes sense. Poor kids had to deal with so much recently and couldn’t even do things like normal teenagers.
”Where do you want to go?” His voice startled you for a second. You looked at him and found his eyes looking back at you and ho boy was it hot out here or is it just you?
You couldn’t think of any good places off the top of your head so you guess that Aizawa would have to pick. Another sheepish grin. He sighed. “There’s a little cafe not too far away from here. The food is cheap and good with not too many people around this time.”
You nodded excitedly. God, food sounds really good right about now. The hero started walking in what you assume was the direction to the cafe only to falter slightly and turned his head towards you. “You’re not allergic to cats right?”
Oh yeah. You’re gonna stick by this guy for the long run.