Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Shouldn't have lost that last slice of pizza," grumbled Mineta Minoru as he made his way to the dormitory's kitchen. It was late at night, a little after ten o'clock. Everyone else was sound asleep and he would be too if not for the growling of his empty stomach disturbing his slumber. Earlier, he and Denki were arguing over who would get the last slice of pizza. So the two decided to settle it the only way they knew how: A round of Street Fighter 6. Spoiler alert: Mineta lost... badly. So here he was heading to the kitchen for a midnight snack. Eventually, Mineta made it to the kitchen and rummaged about in the refrigerator. He figured a peanut butter and jelly sandwich would be the perfect cure for his insomnia. But he didn't get far when a small voice called out from behind him. 

"Excuse me?" Mineta nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of the voice, clearly not expecting anyone else to be awake. He turned around to find none other than little Eri standing behind him, dressed in her pajamas and holding a stuffed unicorn doll and a blanket. "Eri?" he asked. 

"Did I scare you, mister, um...?" Eri asked.

"Mineta," he replied as he attempted to regain his composure, not wanting to further embarrass himself in front of a kid. "And no, you didn't scare me. I just didn't expect to see you up. Speaking of, what are you doing up so late?"

"I couldn't sleep," Eri timidly replied. 

"Bad dream?" Mineta asked, to which Eri merely nodded. Now this presented a rather awkward situation for Mineta, a real "rock-and-a-hard-place" scenario. For most in this situation, their solution would be to wake up one of the other students and let Eri sleep with them. Mineta's case, however, is... a bit different. Mineta has a rather poor reputation among the class for his perverted and lecherous behavior. So naturally, if any of them were to discover him alone with a little girl like Eri, their immediate reaction would be to assume the worst and think he was trying to take advantage of her. Never mind the fact that he'd never actually do something like that. Of course, he didn't do himself any favors after he put his foot in his mouth with a really tactless comment to her.

"I can't wait to see what you look like in ten years!"

If there was one moment in Mineta's life he wished he could take back, it was that moment. He didn't even realize what he had said, really. It was just a stupid comment he blurted out without even thinking about how bad it sounded. But the reaction was swift and immediate. Iida, Ochako, and Tsuyu shot him angry glares. Mirio and Izuku pulled him aside and explained to him about Eri's past with Overhaul. Aizawa, in no uncertain terms, threatened he would never see the inside of a hero school if he ever made a comment like that to Eri again. And the Class 1-A girls... well, they already had a pretty low opinion of him and this only further soured it. Even the Class 1-A boys, who normally ignored his antics, were upset with him, with his best friend Denki flat out telling him "You make it really hard to defend you, dude". It took weeks for him to get back in everyone's good graces again and he has since tried to dial back his more perverted tendencies (key word being try), but the damage had been done and his already poor reputation took another hit. They never left him alone with Eri after that. 

While Mineta is well aware it's his own damn fault, he'd be lying if he said it didn't hurt knowing his classmates didn't trust him to be alone around a kid.

"Well, what do you normally do when you can't sleep?" Mineta asked. 

"Um, Mister Aizawa or Lemillion would sometimes tell me a bedtime story," Eri replied. 

"Well, I don't know any good bedtime stories," Mineta replied. He then thought to himself, "And the stories I do have... aren't exactly child-friendly." Aizawa would have Mineta's hide if he caught Eri reading one of his eroge magazines or H-mangas, to say nothing of how the others would react. Even Denki and Izuku, the only two people who would put up with him, would likely tear him a second asshole. So, he can't turn to the others for help, but the same time, however, he couldn't in good conscience leave a little girl to stay up by herself. But letting her sleep in his room with him was definitely off the table. So how should he go about this?

He went silent for a moment as he tried to think of a solution. Then his face brightened as an idea formed in his mind. "Tell you what, why don't we watch some TV?" he asked. "TV always helps me fall asleep. But you have to be quiet so we don't wake everyone up, okay?"

Eri's face seemed to perk up at the suggestion, a small smile tugging at her lips. “Okay,” she replied. 

“Great!” Mineta said as the two made their way into the main room. Eri sat on the couch while Mineta sat next to her, grabbing the remote and turning the TV on. “So… what do you want to watch?” Mineta asked. 

Eri shrugged her shoulders in response. “I don't know,” she replied. 

”You don't have a favorite show?” Mineta asked. Eri shook her head. “I don't watch a lot of TV,” she replied. 

“Not gonna make this easy for me, huh?” Mineta muttered under his breath. He then began to flip through the channels. Surely there had to be something on for a little girl to watch. He didn't get too far into his channel surfing when the words “Sailor Moon” caught his eye. 

“Sailor Moon?” Mineta asked. “Didn't know that show was still playing.”

“Sailor Moon?” asked Eri, curiosity etched into every feature of her face. 

“Oh yeah. It's an old show.” Mineta replied. "Sailor Moon and the Sailor Guardians, heroes who fight for love and Justice!" 

"Heroes?" Eri asked. "Like Deku?" 

"Yeah... if you can get him in a sailor guardian dress,” Mineta snickered. Almost immediately, his hormone-addled mind conjured an image of the Class 1-A girls in Sailor Uniforms, though he quickly shook his head. Now wasn't the time for that. "Hey look, it's starting!" The two sat and watched as the opening title sequence began playing along with the theme song "Moonlight Legend". Eri watched with rapt attention, the expression on her face was a mixture of curiosity, fascination, and wonder.

“Well, she seems to like it,” Mineta thought. “Hopefully there's nothing too scary. I'm trying to help her get back to sleep.”  

The episode began playing in earnest. This seemed to be from Season 1. The two sat in silence as the episode played out. They watched as Usagi transformed into Sailor Moon and prepared to face the Villain of the Week alongside the other Sailor Guardians.

“I am the Pretty Guardian who fights for love and Justice!” Sailor Moon declared. “In the name of the moon, I will punish you!”

“Who are those other girls?” Eri asked. “Are they Sailor Moon’s friends?”

“Yep!” Mineta replied. “The Sailor Guardians!” He pointed to the girl in blue. “That's Ami Mizuno, Sailor Mercury, a super smart genius who fights with the power of water!” He then pointed to the one in green. “And that's Makoto Kino, Sailor Jupiter, a powerhouse who fights with the power of thunder." Next, he turned to the one in red. "That's Rei Hino, Sailor Mars, a priestess who uses the power of fire." Finally, he turned to the girl in yellow. "And last but not least, that's Minako Aino, Sailor Venus." 

"Do they all have Quirks?" Eri asked as she watched the Guardians use their powers to fight off the villain. 

"No, they use actual magic," Mineta replied.

"How do you know so much about this?" Eri asked. That caused Mineta to look away with a bit of a blush on his face. "I... used to watch Sailor Moon when I was a kid." Though he admits that he watched it mainly because he found the Sailor Guardians attractive, he did enjoy other aspects of the story. He was an otaku at heart. And hey, who said guys can't enjoy female-oriented stuff? The two continued to watch the fight play out when suddenly, a man dressed in a tuxedo with a cape, top hat, and mask joined the battle.

“Who's that?” Eri asked. 

“That's Tuxedo Mask!” Mineta exclaimed. “He's Sailor Moon’s crush. I'll admit, growing up, I was jealous of him. I always wanted to be like him: The cool, stylish hero who always gets the girl.” 

“He's so handsome…” Eri said. 

“Yeah, he is,” Mineta said. Eventually, the episode came to an end as Tuxedo Mask and the Sailor Guardians teamed up to defeat the villain. The credits began rolling soon after. 

“That was awesome!” Eri cheered. “The Sailor Guardians were so cool! I wish I had powers like them… instead of what I have.” Her face turned crestfallen at the last statement.

“Hey, your Quirk’s not bad.” Mineta tried to assure her only for Eri to shake her head. “My power's a curse,” she said. “All it does is hurt people.” 

“Is that was that Overhaul creep told you?” Mineta asked, a flash of anger briefly crossing his face. He had heard all about what Eri went through at Overhaul's hands, and honestly? Tartarus was too good for any sick fuck who could do that to a little girl. 

The mention of Overhaul caused Eri to hug her arms tightly as a shudder ran through her body. “Sometimes I dream that I’m back at his lab.” she began, voice shaking as tears welled in her eyes. “Or that Deku and Mirio got killed trying to save me. Or I end up making Deku disappear with my Quirk.”

“Good grief.” Mineta thought. “I'm trying to help her go back to sleep, but I ended up making her cry.” In hindsight, maybe he should've woken Izuku up. He’d be a lot better at this type of thing. Mineta looked at Eri with eyes full of sympathy before he hesitantly placed a hand on her shoulder. "Look, you shouldn't listen to what that jerk says," he began. "So what if your Quirk was used to hurt people in the past? Now you have a chance to use it to help people. Isn't that why you're training with Mr. Aizawa? And besides... your Quirk's a lot cooler than mine." 

That caused Eri to look up at him. "What's your Quirk?" she asked. Mineta reached up and pulled one of the sticky balls off of his head before presenting it to Eri, whose eyes widened at the sight. 

“Wow…” Eri said as she reached out for the ball, only for Mineta to withdraw his hand. “Careful, they're really sticky,” he said. 

“Your Quirk is really cool!” Eri said. That caused Mineta's eyes to widen and for a moment, he was at a loss for words. “I think you're the first person to ever say that to me,” he said with a look of sadness. But then his face brightened as an idea formed. “Well, if you think that's cool, then watch this!” 

Mineta jumped off the sofa and got in front of Eri. He then pulled a few more sticky balls from his head and began juggling them. Eri laughed and happily clapped at the sight. Mineta continued juggling the balls before tossing them up. He stood there for a few moments, expecting the balls to fall back down… only to find them sticking to the ceiling. 

“Uh… I meant to do that,” Mineta sheepishly said. “Please don't tell Mr. Aizawa.” 

Eri, for her part, was still laughing at the display. And Mineta couldn't help but smile. “Well, I got her to laugh again,” he thought. “Did that right, at least.” That's when he heard “Moonlight Legend” playing once again, signaling another Sailor Moon episode playing. 

“Looks like Sailor Moon’s still on,” Mineta said. “Wanna watch another episode?” 

“Yay!” Eri cheered. And with that, the two spent the next few hours watching back-to-back episodes of Sailor Moon. Mineta had to admit, it was kinda nice. Having grown up as an only child, Mineta never had a little brother or sister to hang out with, so it was nice to have this dynamic with Eri. Eventually, around one o'clock, Eri hit her limit and fell asleep right on the sofa. 

“Finally asleep,” Mineta said. “Now I can go back to my room.” With that, Mineta started to head back to his room but stopped dead in his tracks. “But what if she has another nightmare and can't go back to sleep?” He looked at Eri, who was sleeping peacefully. Mineta sighed as he realized his job wasn't done yet. Seeing as he couldn't leave Eri by herself, he laid down on the opposite end of the sofa. 

“Guess I’ll be sleeping here tonight,” he said as he finally fell asleep. 

The Next Morning…

“Mineta,” Tsuyu's voice called out to the currently sleeping Mineta, who was sprawled out on the sofa. "Mineta," Tsuyu called again, only louder this time and accompanied by a hand on his shoulder to nudge him awake. "Ladies, ladies, please. One at a time," he muttered dreamily, clearly having a dream of himself surrounded by a harem of beautiful girls. "There's plenty of me to go around." His dream was interrupted by Tsuyu's tongue striking him across the face, jolting him awake. "Okay, okay, I'm up! I'm up!" he shouted. Taking a few moments to calm himself down, he looked to see Ochako, Momo, Tsuyu, Mina, and Kyoka all standing in front of him. They were dressed in their pajamas and all had rather serious expressions on their faces.

"Um... am I still dreaming?" Mineta asked groggily. "Cause I usually don't have this many women coming to see me in real life."

"Mineta," Momo began in a stern tone. "Why were you alone with Eri?" 

"Wait, what?" Mineta asked. He looked to see Eri, still asleep on the sofa. It didn't take long for his brain to catch up and realize what they were implying. Almost immediately, he threw up his hands. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, girls, it is not what it looks like!" he protested. 

"Then what does it look like?" Mina asked. 

"Definitely not what you're thinking!" Mineta said.

"Then what were you doing alone with her?" Kyoka asked. Mineta facepalmed and let out an annoyed sigh. This was the exact scenario he was trying to avoid. "Look," he began. "I couldn't sleep last night, so I went to the kitchen to grab a snack. That's when I found Eri was still up. She had a bad dream and she couldn't sleep either. I couldn't leave her by herself and I didn't want to wake anyone else up, so I decided to stay up with her. We spent the night watching TV until she fell asleep. That's it." 

"And that's really all you did?" Tsuyu asked. 

"Of course it was!" Mineta shouted, his irritation growing at being interrogated like this. "Do you girls really think so little of me that you think I'd stoop that low?!" 

"Well let's see," Tsuyu began. "You grabbed my breasts that one time at the USJ incident."

"You tricked us into wearing cheerleader outfits," Momo added.

"You tried to spy on us in the girls locker room," Kyoka said.

"And in the hot spring at the Forest Camp," Ochako added. 

"And you made a really creepy comment to Eri one time." Mina asked. "So what are we supposed to believe?"

"NOW JUST A DAMN MINUTE!" Mineta shouted as he rose to his feet, sounding genuinely offended. "Look, I'm a skirt chaser and I got no problem admitting that. And maybe I go a bit too far sometimes. And what I said to Eri was really stupid and I genuinely regret that, but I'm not a fucking degenerate! And I sure as hell am not desperate enough to take advantage of a KID! Believe it or not, girls, I do have standards! All I did was help Eri go back to sleep. Is that really a fucking crime?!" The girls fell silent, taken aback by Mineta's outburst. 

"Everything okay?" Another voice asked. Everyone looked to see Izuku Midoriya walking towards them, his emerald eyes scanning the room. Seeing Mineta, Eri, and the girls altogether, he had a pretty good idea of what was happening. 

"Well, we found Mineta alone with Eri and we wanted to make sure nothing happened." Ochako said.

Yep, that's what he thought. Izuku went silent for a moment. “Well, if that's the case, maybe we should ask... her?” He pointed to Eri, who had just awoken from the commotion around her. “What's going on?” she asked. 

“Eri, you were with Mineta last night?” Izuku asked. 

“Uh… yeah,” Eri replied. “I couldn't sleep last night, so Mister Mineta stayed up with me and we watched TV together. Am I in trouble?”

"No no. No one’s in trouble,” Izuku assured her with a smile. “Now, did Mineta say or do anything that made you uncomfortable?” 

“Oh no,” Eri said. “He was really nice to me!” 

“Well, I think that settles it,” Izuku said. “Clearly, Eri trusts Mineta enough to be around him. And I think she would tell us if Mineta or anyone else was trying to take advantage of her.”

“Well, you can't just expect us to trust Mineta given his track record, right?” Mina asked. 

“Obviously not,” Izuku replied. “Look, Mineta's not a saint by any stretch, and even I get a little annoyed by the way he acts sometimes. And I certainly didn't like what he said to Eri that time. But I'd like to believe that as shameless as he can be sometimes, even he wouldn't cross a line like that. And I think it was nice that he was willing to stay up with Eri and help her get back to sleep. I understand that you all want to protect Eri. But I don't think being suspicious of everything Mineta does is the way to go about it. Of course, you should always call out Mineta's behavior when he goes too far. But at the same time, we want him to change and grow as a person, and that won't happen if you treat him like a villain even when he’s not actually doing something wrong. All that's going to do is give him an excuse to not change as he'll feel that nothing he does will make people trust him.” 

The girls fell silent as they listened to Izuku's words. From the expressions on their faces, there was still some lingering reluctance, but it seemed his words were starting to sink in. Eventually, Momo was the first to speak up. “Perhaps we did jump the gun a little,” she said. “I'm sorry, Mineta.” 

“I'm sorry too,” Ochako said. 

“Me too,” Tsuyu said.

“Same here,” Kyoka said. 

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Mina said. Mineta remained silent for a moment. He was still a bit angry at being accused like that, but he knew the girls meant well and were just looking out for Eri. Hell, in their position, he’d do the same thing. And deep down, he knows he brought his bad reputation on himself.

Didn't make it hurt any less, though.

“Yeah, I'm sorry I yelled at you guys,” he finally spoke. ”And I'm sorry about… all the other stuff. I know that doesn't make up for it, I know I can be a creep sometimes, and I know you all have no reason to trust me. But if you're willing to give me a chance, I can try to be better.” 

And that caught the girls completely off guard as they once again fell silent, clearly not expecting an apology from Mineta of all people. “Well, the fact that you're willing to own up to your mistakes and apologize means you're off to a good start,” Tsuyu said. With the matter resolved, the girls left the common room, leaving Mineta, Izuku, and Eri alone. 

"Uh, Midoriya...?" Mintea began, rubbing his arm. "Thanks." 

"No problem," Izuku replied. "But I hope now you see how your behavior comes off to some people and how easy you can make it for people to assume the worst of you. And I hope going forward you actually try to fix that." His expression then turned into a smile. "But I meant what I said earlier: I don't think you're a bad person. And I don't think you're irredeemable either. And I think you proved that by taking care of Eri. But next time, don't hesitate to wake me up if Eri has trouble sleeping." And with that, Izuku began to leave the common room. 

"I'm sorry." Eri said. Mineta looked behind him to see Eri twiddling her fingers with her eyes downcast. "I almost got you in trouble, didn't I?" 

"No no no, it's not your fault." Mineta quickly assured her. The last thing he wanted was Eri feeling guilty on his account. "It's... mine. I have a bad reputation with the class, and..." He lowered his head. "...I guess it came back to bite me." But that's when something unexpected happened. Eri walked up and hugged Mineta. His body went rigid at the sudden embrace. "Well, I don't think you're a bad person either." she said as she let go. "You stayed up with me when I couldn't sleep, and I really liked watching Sailor Moon with you. So thank you!" Mineta was at a loss for words, unsure of how to respond. 

"Eri, Mr. Aizawa's here." Izuku's voice called out. 

"I have to go. Bye, Mister Mineta!" Eri said with a wave as she ran off, leaving Mineta alone with his thoughts as he watched her leave. "I'm not popular with the ladies," he thought to himself. "Or anyone else for that matter. But if that little kid thinks I'm cool... I can't be all bad.”

The End!