Some Young Erasermic Because I Love Them With All My Dumb Heart
During their third year at U.A., Mic, Aizawa, and Kayama once passed an afternoon taking dumb personality quizzes. The results were predictable and obvious: Aizawa was logical, Kayama was ruthless, but Hizashi’s answer was a surprise - he was a romantic. The question that pushed him over the edge was “what kind of gift would you like best?” And Hizashi had chosen “something homemade! It really shows you care!”
Shouta had never considered that. He’d picked “C - whatever I need most” so the idea that the effort to create the gift could count for more than its overall value was a revelation to him. This explained why Hizashi hadn’t looked too excited at Shouta’s gift of an umbrella on his previous birthday. But! July was coming, and with it Hizashi’s 18th birthday. It was a month away, Shouta still had plenty of time to make… something.
The obvious solution was a mix CD. Hizashi loved music, it was the perfect choice. Except… the only songs Shouta knew were from the CDs Hizashi had given him. He tried combining his favorites into one CD, but they just didn’t sound right, Hizashi must have put them in a better order or something - this wasn’t good enough at all. Besides, Shouta thought, Hizashi knew all those songs anyway. That wouldn’t be a good gift. He should make Hizashi a cake!
But… baking was so illogical. If you turn the heat up higher, the food should bake faster! It doesn’t make sense that it doesn’t! It doesn’t make sense to put salt in a cake!! Cakes are not salty!! And if you put Hizashi’s favorite candy in the batter, the cake should end up being that flavor!! Not some weird, lumpy mix of plain and over-sweetened.
Anyway, after the third fire, Shouta was banned from the kitchen. He had to think of something else.
Other failed gift experiments: a knitted scarf (he kept snapping the needles), a drawing of Hizashi as a pro hero (according to Kayama, it looked like “goth jeanist who stuck his finger in a light socket”) and a photo album (turned out Hizashi was the one who took all the group photos.) Finally, it was the night before Hizashi’s birthday and Shouta had nothing - not only that, but he’d spent almost all his money on the other attempts. As a last ditch effort, he started listening to old episodes of Hizashi’s podcast, hoping it would give him SOME idea, ANY idea of something Hizashi might want.
Shouta listened to podcasts for five hours before he accepted that Hizashi never talked about anything he might like for a gift. He talked about everything else: music, the local hero scene, new All Might movies - even the cats at the cafe they frequented. But as hard as he tried, Shouta couldn’t think of anything that would make Hizashi happier than he was when he described the cafe’s new kitten stealing Shouta’s scone to the few dozen people that subscribed to his podcast.
At that thought, Shouta stopped banging his head on the desk long enough to blink. That was it - the perfect idea. He didn’t have any more money, but he didn’t need any, the supplies for it were already in his room. It would be a long night, but Shouta had spent longer nights on less important things. He got to work.
He and Hizashi met up for lunch the next day - Shouta had offered to take him someplace better than the cat cafe, but now he was glad Hizashi had said no, since cake and a bubble tea were about all he could afford at the moment. After they ate their food, Shouta shoved a clumsily-wrapped package across the table. “Here,” he said, already blushing. His mind worked furiously as Hizashi excitedly undid the wrapping. This was a bad idea. Why had he ever thought he could make anything? Hizashi was going to hate it, and worse yet he was going to be polite about hating it. If Shouta moved now, he could be out the door and halfway down the block before Hizashi knew what happened. There was still time to get out of this.
But Shouta didn’t. He just sat quietly and waited for Hizashi’s judgement.
“REALLY?????” Hizashi screamed when he saw the gift. His jaw dropped, but he was still smiling, like Shouta had given him something perfect and valuable, instead of just one of his t-shirts with some yellow paint on it. He held the shirt up to his chest - it would fit, and you couldn’t tell it had been worn, Shouta thought. The black was a little faded, but that was fashionable, right? Wincing, Shouta wished he’d done a better job with the paint. The letters were wobbly; Put Your Hands Up!! was legible, but with Present Mic took a little puzzling out.
“IT’S MY PODCAST!!” Hizashi shrieked, his grin even wider somehow. “THIS IS AWESOME!!”
Realizing that - just maybe - Hizashi wasn’t only being polite, Shouta decided it was time to move on to part two of the gift. Smiling a little awkwardly, he undid the zipper on his hoodie, revealing his own shirt - the twin of Hizashi’s. The writing on his was even messier, he’d given Hizashi the better attempt, but Shouta figured this was the true test of whether or not it was really the thought that counts.
“OH MY GOD!!” Hizashi pressed his hands against his face, overcome. “This is the best day of my life!!!! Can we get a selfie??? I NEED A SELFIE OF US!! SHOUTA PLEASE!!!”
“It’s your birthday,” Shouta shrugged, blushing even harder. “Do what you want.”
It’s illogical to carry photos - why would you, when they can be stored digitally and accessed from anywhere? But to this day, Aizawa keeps a copy of this one in his wallet, just the same.
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