Eri's Mother

"Eri, if you want, you can wait outside before we take you to school," Ochako Uraraka called from her room. Her and Izuku Midoriya's adopted daughter, Eri, was waiting outside their room all dressed with a red backpack on her back.

"OK!" Eri yelled in response before running down the stairs and to the front door, only stopping briefly to put on her shoes and eat some of the apple slices that had been left for her on the table. Eri opened the front door and walked to the porch of the UA dorm building before closing the door. While she was waiting, Eri held up her foot and put it on the first stair in front of the porch.

"I can't go here, but can be here," Eri mumbled to herself, as she brought her foot back to the porch, remembering Midoriya and Uraraka's rule about her not leaving the porch of the dorm building without one of them, or at least another student or adult. Eri repeated this mantra to herself, bringing her foot on and off of the first stair before she looked up and noticed a white-haired woman looking at her. Eri tried to look away from the woman, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw the woman continuing to stare at her.

"Eri…?" the woman asked as if she had seen a ghost. The woman ran to Eri, with her white dress flowing in the wind with how fast she was running. Before Eri could maneuver out of the way, the woman grabbed her and put her in a near-death grip of a hug. "Oh, Eri! I thought I would never see you again!" the woman said excitedly, kissing her on the cheek and forehead. And Eri, being a shy girl suddenly being hugged and kissed by a random woman while her adoptive parents were still inside the dorm building, naturally scared her and caused her to scream. Scream and cry loudly.

"AHHHHH! MAMA! PAPA! HELP ME! HELP!" Eri screamed as tears started pouring down her face. Not even a second after Eri started screaming, Midoriya and Uraraka practically broke down the front door, grabbed Eri, and pulled her out of the woman's hands. "Mama…," Eri mumbled, still crying and shaking.

"Sweetie…Mama's right here," the woman said in a soothing voice, attempting to calm Eri down, but Eri buried her face in Uraraka's legs.

"Don't worry Eri, it's alright we're here," Uraraka soothed, running her hand through Eri's long white hair, causing Eri's shaking to stop. Uraraka and Midoriya, once seeing that they had calmed Eri down, turned their attention to the woman, who was still staring at Eri. "Who are you, and what were you doing with Eri?" Uraraka asked, with her hands on her hips and a crossed look on her face.

"Well…I'm Eri's mother, Jia Nakarisha. I've been looking for her for the past couple of years, and…I'm sorry if I came across as rude, but I just haven't seen Eri in a long time and I just…missed her so much," Jia explained, still staring at Eri, who was trying her best not to look at the woman claiming to be her mother.

"OK…but how do we know you're actually her mother," Uraraka asked, with Eri still shaking behind her. Jia reached into her pocket, and brought out a wallet, containing several pictures.

"I have these pictures from when Eri was a toddler. See? This is her when we took her out to eat for the first time. And this one was when I found her sleeping on the couch. Oh, and this one was when we all went to the park to celebrate Eri's third birthday," Jia happily explained, pointing to various pictures inside her wallet, which did nothing to assuage Eri's fear.

"OK, so you're Eri's biological mother, but how do we know you're not here just to get Eri back for Overhaul?" Midoriya asked before she noticed that Jia's face contorted into a growl.

"That germaphobic ass! He's the one who wouldn't let me take Eri back!"

"Wait…what do you mean take Eri back?"

"Well…when Eri first got her quirk, she just caused her dad, my husband, to…disappear. And when I found out, I just…just got so…so…mad, that I took Eri, called her a curse and sent her to my Grandfather," Jia confessed. Midoriya and Uraraka looked at her with a glare while Eri continued to hide her face in the back of Uraraka's leg. Jia, noticing that the two adoptive parents were starting to get mad at her, and understandably so, decided to continue.

"I felt absolutely awful about it. In fact, the next week, I tried to get her back. But by that time, Overhaul had started doing these awful experiments on her and wouldn't give her back no matter how much I persisted. So…I gave up for a while until I heard that she had been rescued by all of you at UA, and I thank you for doing what I couldn't, but…I…want her to come back home with me," Jia continued, her voice practically shooting venom at the mention of the former Yakuza member. Midoriya and Uraraka looked at each other, unsure of what to make of Jia's confession. To them, Jia seemed sincere about what she said about Eri and their relationship, but Midoriya and Uraraka wanted Eri to stay with them.

"No," Eri's voice called out, muffled in Uraraka's leg, snapping Uraraka and Midoriya out of their thoughts, and causing Jia to smile at her.

"What did you say, honey?" Jia asked sweetly, seemingly unaware of what she had said.

"I said I don't want to go with you!" Eri yelled, waving her fists in the air while still hiding behind Uraraka. "I wanna stay here with Mama and Papa!"

"But sweetie…don't you want to come home with your Mommy?" Jia asked, trying to get closer to Eri before Eri pushed Jia away from her.

"No! You left me with the mean bird people! You called me names! You made me feel worthless! Mama and Papa love me, and I love them! I wanna stay here, and I don't want to stay with you!" Eri yelled, waving her arms up and down and jumping in place. Jia looked down at Eri in shock, suddenly realizing how much her words had hurt Eri more than her actions. Jia knew that she had hurt Eri, but she didn't think that it would be this bad.

"Sweetie…I'm so sorry! I never meant any of those things! I…I was in a state of shock! Please…please…just give me a chance," Jia practically begged with tears now flowing down her cheeks. Midoriya and Uraraka sighed before picking up a still angry Eri and walking away from Jia.

"Come on Eri, we need to get you to school," Uraraka said with seemingly no emotion coming out of her voice, leaving past Jia with Midoriya in tow. Jia looked behind her with her eyes still pouring out tears, falling to all fours looking at the disappearing forms of Eri, and her new pseudo parents.

"ERI! COME BACK! PLEASE! I'M SORRY FOR EVERYTHING!" Jia screamed out. Unfortunately for her, her pleas fell upon deaf ears as Eri and her adoptive parents continued their walk to Eri's elementary school, leaving Jia a crying and blithering mess. As the three continued their walk, Midoriya looked down at the conflicted look Eri had on her face.

"Eri honey, what's the matter? Are you thinking about what your Mom said?" Midoriya asked.

"Kind of…I just…am I being mean for yelling at my Mommy?" Eri asked. Midoriya and Uraraka shook her head and picked Eri up for a hug.

"Eri, nobody can make you do something that you don't want to do, especially if you're afraid of what's going to happen to you. You have every right not to trust your mother, Eri, and you don't have to feel bad about standing up for yourself," Uraraka explained, patting Eri on the head, whose face showed that she still had reservations about what she was thinking.

"But…," Eri started before Midoriya turned her around to face him.

"No buts Eri, you're a girl who can make her own choices, and sometimes they will hurt people's feelings. But if you want your life to be what you want it to be, you have to start listening to yourself and be confident in what you want," Midoriya continued, with a determined look on his face. Eri looked at Midoriya and Uraraka back and forth, before her eyes started to tear up.

"OK, I want to stay with you and Mama, because you make me feel safe and happy, and I love you," Eri responded with a small smile on her face despite the tears attempting to fall out of her eyes. Midoriya and Uraraka looked at Eri with tears of their own starting to form in their eyes before they picked her up and gave her another hug, this time accompanied by a kiss on the cheek delivered to Eri by both Uraraka and Midoriya. Midoriya and Uraraka put Eri down, held her hands, and walked the rest of the way to Eri's school in content silence. Though in the back of their minds, the three wondered if this was really the last they would ever see of Eri's mother.