Notes: And I make my debut into the EraserMic fandom with my own little story about these two learning to grow together.

This was written based off of my own emotions and listening to the song "My R" by Hikaru Station. It's a peppy song about dark topics.

-x- perspective change

"Don't forget.

Always, somewhere,

Someone is fighting for you.

As long as you remember [them,]

You are not alone."

-Madoka Magika

Shouta Aizawa was always written off as lazy.

Everyone told him that he was good for nothing and tired and could never amount to anything more than someone with a useless, unwanted quirk.

Oh, how many times he had been picked on when he was younger for "causing the other kids to fail their tests due to the fact that he negated their quirks."

So he had learned to control his powers better.

But that hadn't helped anything.

Every day he would come home with a new cut or a new bruise. But his parents never asked why.

They had never wanted to know. Had never cared enough.

And then they died in an accident where a hero hadn't been there in time to save them.

Aizawa knew in his gut that that should make him start hating heroes. Maybe he could be a villain. Maybe he could wipe out all heroes.

But he had never amounted to anything he wanted to be so what was the point of trying?

The bullying never stopped, though.

His world turned grey at the age of eight.

Eventually the tears stopped at the age of nine.

By the time he was ten, the only color he could really see was the deep crimson of his own blood as he made it flower and bloom forth from his arms as a memory to his family and as a vengeance for himself for not being stronger to fight back.

He could never fight back.

The most amusing part was how no one noticed.

At least, Aizawa found it amusing.

He had turned into a living void. A creature of nothingness and pain. And oxymoron of living dead.

He had nothing left to live for.

No reason.

No purpose.

.

.

He made it to the age of Eleven.

.

-x-

-Four Years Later-

Hizashi Yamada was flashy. He was loud. He liked music and dancing and making a show of himself. He loved listening to the radio and aspired to be his own host one day.

That's what anyone who took one glance at him would tell you.

If you looked at him, you would assume he had a dozen friends.

He had made it into the hero course no problem at UA and he was ecstatic!

He hadn't initially wanted to be a hero but after he had tried to save someone… No… after he had failed to save someone, he had vowed never to have that happen again and he had refined his skills so that he was able to save anyone on a whim.

Anyone.

Just…

Just not himself.

Hizashi made it through the first several months of school no problem. He fought his way through the sports festival and the training, working harder and harder to become a good hero. He didn't have the physical strength many of the other students had but he felt as though his quirk was meant more for long distance anyway and in a fight, he could make tech that would help him stay far away.

Instead of improving one ability, he focused on finding new abilities.

He learned how to throw his voice to disorient enemies.

He learned how to whistle at frequencies no human could hear.

He worked on splitting someone's eardrum.

He worked on talking so quietly that no one would ever hear him.

He was disappointed he hadn't won the sports festival but he had suspected as much. Amazingly, most of his class hadn't made it all that far, especially after one particular kid with dark hair had managed to make it to the top without incident or real fight.

Hizashi was amazed that that kid could make it so high.

He supposed that someone would be joining their class.

-x-

-One week later-

That day, Aizawa had woken up feeling strange.

He had made it.

He had done what that one stupid kid had asked him to do.

If you manage to save even one person, then your life is worth living!

He was trying. He was trying to be a hero and save lives. He had given it his all every waking moment and effort was spent towards succeeding and making it into the UA's hero course. And now, he had finally arrived.

Now was normally the time when Aizawa would sit and question What next? But thanks to the hero course, he didn't have to worry about that. He knew that he would continue on the path to become a hero, even if it killed him.

He got up sluggishly and walked into class on his first day in class 1-A. He went up politely to the teacher and greeted her. She told him calmly that since he was arriving later in the year, he would be in the back next to Hizashi Yamada.

Aizawa nodded and turned to the back to see…

To see him.

-x-

Hizashi hadn't been paying attention— listening to music as he tended to do before school. It was a nice way to calm his nerves with some smooth jazz that he could focus on.

No one else in the back row ever wanted to talk to him, claiming that he was too loud and obnoxious, so he certainly hadn't expected anyone to walk up to him and great him with their name.

Hizashi looked up to see the new kid with the tangly black hair who had won the Sports festival.

But… more than that, he looked up to see him.

His reason for being a hero.

His biggest failure— or so he thought— staring him in the eye.

Hizashi fumbled to knock his headphones off of his head and stood up to hastily, the chair behind him crashing over and clattering to the ground.

"You're here…!" Hizashi said frantically, amazed that he was seeing this kid again.

"Um… yeah…" the kid told him, scratching at the back of his head nervously. "I'm Shouto Aizawa…."

"Hizashi Yamada. Um… you can call me Hizashi. I'm blown away that I get to talk to you again!" Hizashi looked away from Aizawa— That was his name!- and looked down at his desk. "You… you listened."

Aizawa nodded slightly, almost imperceptibly and slowly moved to the seat next to Hizashi.

Hizashi had so much he wanted to say. So much that he couldn't say. There weren't enough words in the world for him to articulate what this moment meant to him.

Dazed, he took his seat but couldn't stop staring at Aizawa.

After a minute of silence which felt like an eternity of busy questions is Hizashi's mind, their— their!- teacher started class by announcing that a new student was joining them but even then, Hizashi couldn't make his mind quiet down. It felt like a roller coaster that would never end with a trillion questions he could never ask.

But, just as their teacher turned to the blackboard to begin writing out the beginning of their lesson, Aizawa turned to him, looking more at the headphones in Hizashi's lap than at his eyes and muttered a quiet, "Thank you, Hizashi… I… I appreciate… everything."