Chapter Text
It wasn’t technically a “prom”, no matter what some of the loudest students tried to argue otherwise. In the first place, it wasn’t even a celebration for the graduating students, but rather more of an exercise, really. Professional heroes have to attend all sorts of public events to keep a good image and of course, establish bonds amongst other people in the business. And UA, being the number one school for said heroes, had found a way to prepare its students for such events in the form of their annual spring dance.
Although it was supposedly an important opportunity for practicing things like social etiquette, interpersonal relationships between heroes, and public formality, over the years the students had taken upon themselves to make the most of it in the actually-having-fun department. Yeah, they might be heroes in training, on whose shoulders rested the safety of the future, but they were also children at the end of the day.
So it was no surprise the day Mr. Aizawa announced to class 1-A that they were to attend the school dance, he was instantly bombarded with questions about the event.
“Mr. Aizawa, are we expected to help with the preparations in any sort of way? Because, as class representative–”
“No, Iida. The third years are in charge of preparing everything as part of their own evaluation on hospitality. You only have to be there and be presentable.”
“What should we wear, sir?”
“Whatever you’d wear at a formal event for the press it’s just fine, Ashido.”
“Can we bring dates?”
“Only if they are from the school. This event is exclusive for the UA, so you can invite anyone here, regardless of their group. However, be mindful that only hero courses are obligated to assist. The rest of the student body can choose to forgo it if they want.”
“Sir, are we, um, going to be evaluated on this? You said it was a school event and–”
“Calm down, Midoriya. The evaluation is basically whether you manage to not cause a disaster or not. Yes, I’m looking at you, Kaminari. We aren’t expecting you to behave like heroes who’ve gone to this kind of event for years. That sort of thing comes with experience, which is the only reason this ridiculous event still takes place. I’m warning you right now, I’ll be chaperoning the event so I expect all of you to be on your best behavior that night. Remember that the only reason they’re allowing first years to the event this time, is because of the publicity your class has had over the last few months, so you should all take this as a learning opportunity for the future.
‘Any further questions you can ask Midnight since she’s the head of the planning committee. Now stay silent, so I can go on with the class.”
The group visibly deflated but complied nonetheless, sitting back as their teacher went on with the class schedule.
Despite Aizawa’s clear contempt for the whole thing, the students were actually excited at the prospect of the dance. It was a peculiar thing to have an activity in the school that they could enjoy while not having to deal with bruises and sore muscles the day afterward. Such an opportunity left the entire group buzzing with excitement. So much so, that their homeroom teacher had to threaten detention on all of them if they didn’t stay quiet until after the lesson so he could do his work in peace.
The kids were able to comply and contain their excitement (just barely) until the bell rang. As soon as they left the classroom, chatter broke among the hallways about the dance, small groups forming to talk about the event in a more private manner.
“Deku,” said Uraraka, as she walked alongside Midoriya and Iida after the end of the class. “Are you excited about the dance?”
“Uh, I guess.”
Truth be told, Midoriya had already known about the dance thanks to All Might, but the hero had assured him it was only supposed to be a fun thing for the kids to unwind. Now, after Aizawa’s explanation, it made more sense that the school would permit such an event if it was expected as a social experience for the future heroes.
Still, Midoriya, couldn’t help but feel nervous about it for some reason. It wasn’t like part of his training with All Might had to do with dancing and what-not, and the idea of making a fool of himself in front of their school scared him more than he cared to admit.
As if sensing his unease, Uraraka reached up to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder to calm him down.
“You don’t have to worry, Deku. You heard Mr. Aizawa, the only thing we need to do is not cause any trouble during the dance. That should be easy, right?”
“Actually, he did say we needed to be on our best behavior,” Iida interrupted. “After all, we should treat this as a formal hero outing.”
“But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun,” Uraraka countered. “Besides, I’m pretty sure he only said that so no one would try to spike the punch or something like that.”
Iida stopped dead in his tracks, looking at Uraraka with a scandalized expression as if she suggested someone might try to put a bomb in the middle of the dance floor.
“You think they’d do something like that?”
Midoriya was pretty sure that there were people in their class that might even try it if anything to prove they could trick their teachers, but he decided to keep this thought to himself as to not upset his friend any further.
“I mean if Mr. Aizawa is really chaperoning I doubt anyone would even get something past him anyway.”
“You’re probably right, Midoriya,” Iida conceded. “Regardless, this is an opportunity to prove ourselves in front of our teachers and I wish to make the most of it.”
Uraraka smiled and Midoriya couldn’t help the small grin that crept up his face.
“That’s the spirit,” Uraraka said. “And I’m glad to hear that because I actually wanted to know if both of you wanted to go together with me and Tsu as a group.”
“Huh? I figured you’d want to go alone with her since you guys are together now,” Midoriya said as he glanced at the other girl, who was talking with Yaoyorozu and Jirou, a few feet ahead of them. When she caught sight of their group, she waved and smiled at her girlfriend and Uraraka waved and smiled back.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem,” Uraraka said and turned back at them. “I mean, if you have someone in mind you want to go with, it’s ok. I just thought that maybe it’d be fun to hang out as friends. We were also planning on inviting Todoroki, but he left before we could properly ask him.”
“He mentioned he was leaving early to visit his mom,” Midoriya said. “But I’m sure if you ask him later at the dorms he’ll say yes.”
“I’m sure he will,” Iida agreed. “And for my part, I’d be honored to go with all of you. What do you say Midoriya?”
Midoriya sighed. He knew at this point Todoroki had most likely left the building but he still looked around the hallway for the sight of red and white hair before answering. He knew Todoroki wouldn’t have any objection to going to the dance in a group, just as he knew it was a lost cause to hope for a solo invitation from the other boy, but still…
“I… I’d love to go to the dance with you, guys.”
Iida and Uraraka smiled, but something on their faces told Midoriya they could see he was hoping to be invited by someone else. It’s not like it was a secret, anyway, but still, he couldn’t help but feel bad about it. He had outright told Uraraka a few months ago, and although he hadn’t mentioned his crush to Iida, yet, he suspected his friend was perceptive enough to notice it by this point.
“I mean it, guys. I’d really like to go together.”
“It’s ok, Deku. You know, if you want to invite someone else as a date, there’ll be no hard feelings,” Uraraka said cheerily as Iida nodded.
Midoriya knew this as well. However, if the possibilities of being invited by Todoroki were already on the ground, the possibilities of himself inviting the other boy were buried 30 feet beneath. It wasn’t like he thought Todoroki would be cruel about his unrequited feelings, but Midoriya would rather not risk the weeks of awkwardness that were sure to ensue if he dared to invite the other boy to the dance only to be rejected.
Todoroki was a good friend, one of his closest friends in fact, and Midoriya would rather swallow his feelings than risk losing what they had.
And so, maybe going to the dance as friends weren’t such a bad idea, he reasoned. At least this way he’d actually get to spend time with Todoroki and the rest of his friends. It was better than nothing, and definitely better getting rejected by his friend. So, Midoriya smiled and said in what he hoped was a cheerful enough manner:
“It’s ok, guys, really. The dance is going to be great, right?”
His friends smiled and nodded, although they still looked unsure about his previous words.
Eventually, they all went along their way, changing the topic to their English homework. In the back of his mind, Midoriya wondered if Todoroki even wanted to go to the dance. He knew Mr. Aizawa had said everyone was required to go and participate but somehow, Midoriya couldn’t picture the other boy just mingling on the dance floor over the loud music that Present Mic was sure to play, let alone full-on dancing. Even if they went in a group, he was most likely to stay on the sidelines the whole time.
Midoriya shook his head and decided it wasn’t worth pursuing this line of thought, as he kept on walking with Uraraka and Iida to their next class.
Over the next few days, chatter about the dance dominated the entirety of the school. Even the teachers had vastly different stuff to say about the affair. The consensus was that while the dance was definitely a way for the school to prepare them for social events in the future, they should try to at least have fun while they’re at it. Midnight in particular had been very vocal that the students should “seize their youth” (whatever that meant) and enjoy the celebration for what it was. Other teachers, such as Cementoss, Vlad King, and Sniper were more ambivalent about the whole thing and mostly found themselves relieved they would be on dorm patrol that night and wouldn’t have to chaperon the dance.
During his class, Present Mic had encouraged them to “party up” while the school allowed them to. No one had any particular comment about that.
All of this only fueled the emotion of the first-year students, who were already antsy about the whole thing. As Midoriya predicted, Todoroki was agreeable to go to the dance as a group, but not everyone was so lucky as to avoid the ordeal of finding someone to go to the dance with. The pressure was particularly more around the student’s couples, who were eager to either invite or be invited to the event.
It didn’t help that over the week, more and more couples were coming up about going to the dance together in the most ridiculously endearing ways possible. Jirou came to the classroom on Monday with her phone over her head, playing a song in English, as she invited Yaoyorozu to go to the dance together. Yaoyorozu said yes before Aizawa could tell them to turn the music off. Ojiro invites Hagakure with a bouquet of roses in his hands the next day, during lunch. The girl nearly topples him while yelling her affirmation.
The highlight of the week, however, was when Bakugo and Kirishima made a bet during one of their hero training classes, that whoever wins a wrestling match gets to invite the other to the dance. When asked later about it, Kirishima confesses he had actually asked the other boy to the dance the previous day already, but Bakugo being who he was, refused to let his boyfriend “beat him into asking him for the dance”. No one questioned this, just like they didn’t question the fact that Kirishima clearly lost the wrestling match on purpose before Bakugo even had the opportunity to throw any punches or explosions.
Mineta seemingly tried to ask every known single girl in the school and got rejected every single time, much to the amusement of every girl in class 1-A. Honestly, they didn’t know what the little creep expected when he started all his invitations with “so, are you gonna wear a lot of cleavage to the dance?”
Mineta truly was the worst.
All in all, everyone at AU, seemed to be in high spirits about the dance, and the students were sure the night would be the best of their year.
*
Aizawa Shouta knew the night of the dance would be the worst of the year.
Ok, maybe that was an exaggeration. But, in Aizawa’s defense, he’d been married to Yamada Hizashi for over six years now, and in his opinion, he had earned the right to be slightly overdramatic by proxy, now and then. Still, he had actual good reasons to believe the dance was still a waste of time.
For starters, there was the fact that he was an underground hero. His position didn’t exactly rely on whose party he had to attend to and who he had to sweet talk to advance in the hero ranks. And while he could see the value in building a reliable network for heroes (even Aizawa could appreciate a reliable backup as the difference between life and death in some cases), he doubted a school dance was the thing to define the future for the students’ interpersonal skills. And yes, Aizawa was talking from experience.
His own second-year dance had been nothing short of boring and a little sad and could’ve been easily avoided if only his homeroom teacher had let him blow it off as he requested. But he didn’t, and he had to spend the entire evening watching his then-crush, now-husband, dancing with every girl in their classroom. And then he had to deal with it in his third year… actually, the less he thought about it, the better.
The point stood that school dances had never been an enjoyment for Aizawa Shouta and the same feeling had seemingly transferred into his adulthood. He had better things to do than chaperoning a bunch of kids who thought they were smart for sneaking to the library in the middle of the night (they were not, and the only reason Aizawa hadn’t caught and subsequently expelled most of them was that he didn’t feel like giving his class the sex-ed talk that Nedzu was sure to want if he ever found out about these incidents).
Which led him to his situation today, only a day before the dance.
“I just don’t get it, Aizawa,” Toshinori said while they were all hanging in the teacher’s lounge after class. “I don’t mean to assume but you don’t strike me as someone particularly fun of these types of activities.”
“He isn’t,” Nemuri piped in while throwing an arm around Aizawa’s shoulders, much to his chagrin. “Eraser usually spends half the time there complaining and the rest either wrangling around students or eyeing Mic from the sidelines.”
Aizawa grunted but didn’t bother to correct her. Beside him, his husband was only grinning without saying anything. Aizawa could still tell the idiot was very pleased with himself.
For his part, Toshinori let out a booming laugh that almost sounded out of place in his slim body, after Nemuri’s statement, the ill-fitted, yellow suit that he insisted on wearing out of classes only remarking this contrast even more. The sound was enough to catch the attention of the rest of the staff around the room. At least Toshinori had the decency to look sheepish at this.
“Hey, are we talking about Aizawa and Mic?” Kan chimed in, suddenly invested in their conversation and turning to the former number one hero. “This is your first time chaperoning, right? Prepare yourself. These guys aren’t even subtle with their flirting. Just the sheer amount of love songs Mic puts every year while looking directly at Eraser. It’s a wonder the students haven’t caught up that they’re together yet.”
Aizawa grunted but didn’t give any other type of response, again. One of these days he’ll have to remember to make a training exercise specifically for the student’s observation skills. For the moment, however, he had more pressing matters to attend to, like defending his dignity in the face of his co-workers, apparently.
“We do not flirt. It’s not like we ever have the time to, anyway.”
“Ah, but you would do it if you had the time, right?” Nemuri asked, sending a wink to his direction. The glare Aizawa sent in return would be enough to scare anyone off, if they hadn’t known him for as much time as Nemuri did. “Maybe that’s the reason you dislike school dances so much. With all the students around you barely get time to do anything else.”
“That’s actually true,” Hizashi said while turning once more towards Toshinori. “That’s why you don’t get many chaperone volunteers on these things. You know how teens are. So emotional and full of energy all the time and when you put them all together and tell them to dance with each other…”
“It’s exhausting,” Kan concluded. “Last year I caught three separate attempts to fool around in the bathroom.”
“At least you caught them before they did anything,” Snipe said, joining in the conversation. “One time I had to go bring a mop because someone spilled punch all over the dance floor, and the janitor’s closet was occupied by some students. They even got mad I interrupted their time together. I swear they get more cynical over the years.”
“Aw, I think it’s cute,” Nemuri chipped in. “Reminds you of our own younger years, right Eraser?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Whatever.”
“Well, I don’t really know about the “myself” part,” Toshinori commented. “But I agree that pretty much sounds like normal teen behavior.”
“Yes, but it's different when you’re the one who has to… you know, tell them to stop.”
“Yamada, why are you complaining about?” Kan asked. “I haven’t seen you chaperone a single year since becoming a teacher.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault my talent is better suited for the stage.”
“I’m pretty sure Nedzu’s only let you stand in as DJ after you begged him in your first year because it’s cheaper than to hire another person.”
Hizashi stared at his husband, an expression of mock betrayal painting his face.
“I can’t believe this. Betrayed… by the love of my life!”
“Mic…”
“See what I mean,” Kan said. “The dance brings out the sappy in them.”
“I still don’t know why Aizawa volunteered to chaperone the dance. From what you tell me it’s not really a pleasant experience.”
“It isn’t,” Aizawa answered. “But Present Mic is in charge of the music every year and Midnight, being the only one who actually enjoys this kind of stuff, is the only one who willingly volunteers to chaperon. And I don’t trust they won’t accidentally goad the students into breaking the rules while they can.”
“Who says it would be accidental?” Nemuri smirks.
“See.”
Toshinori only looked between the teachers, as if asking a silent question. The pointed looks he got in return seemed to be the only answer he needed. The former hero gulped. Chaperoning was bad enough, but chaperoning with Midnight meant Aizawa and whoever else got stuck in that position, usually ended up doing all the work of looking after the students the whole evening.
“It’s not so bad,” Hizashi tried to calm Toshinori down after he clearly started to get the whole picture of what chaperoning a school dance at UA is like. “At least not worse than whatever you got up to in your own dance, anyway.”
“Maybe that’s why it’s so frustrating,” Snipe conceded. “Cosmic karma for whatever stuff you tried to pull as a teenager. Now you have to be the one telling the students off and you realize what a fool you were back then.”
Aizawa wasn’t so sure about that. For all the students he’d caught sneaking around during the different dances, he couldn’t say he’d had any similar experience in his own youth. He never tried to spike the punch either, nor did he try to hack into the school system to change the music (Hizashi had been particularly upset the time a student tried to pull that off). No, if there was any karmic retribution Aizawa was supposed to pay from his past with all his nights as a chaperone, it sure as hell wasn’t a thing to do with his own experience in the dance as a student.
Eventually, the conversation wore off and each teacher was left to tend their own responsibilities for the day. Hizashi left for his next class, along with Nemuri and Toshinori, not before agreeing with Aizawa to meet up later.
Soon enough, Aizawa was left alone in the room as he didn’t have any more classes at the moment, but he still had some papers to grade. He might as well try to do some job there, as working in the dorms was near impossible at the time, due to the constant chatter about the dance from the students.
He wasn’t sure how much time passed when he heard the door open, again.
“Geez, Shouta, are you still working?”
“Uh-huh.”
Hizashi raised an eyebrow at his husband. It wasn’t uncommon for Aizawa to get too wrapped up in his work but Hizashi knew him better than to think this was just one of his moods. Sure enough, he approached Aizawa and sat casually in front of him, and everything in his posture told Aizawa he was about to get psychoanalyzed by his own husband.
“Is this about the dance?”
“It’s not about the dance.”
“Ah, so you’re just holing up yourself in here just because.”
Aizawa shrugged noncommittally.
“C’mon, Shou. You know dances aren’t that bad,” Hizashi said, taking advantage of the fact that they were alone to call him the nickname appointed to him since their youth.
“Of course they’re not for you. You never had a teen lying to your face about the cans of beer they were clearly trying to sneak past you at the entrance.”
Hizashi laughed. Despite Aizawa’s words and deadpan enunciation, there wasn’t any real heat behind them, and after years together, Hizashi had become a pro at getting his husband's intent.
“You gotta admit, some of the ways the students go about this stuff is kind of funny. Remember the year someone tried to sneak vodka inside of a cake?”
“They didn’t even try to make an actual cake. They just covered a box with frosting and hoped we wouldn’t notice.”
Hizashi laughs again. The sound still makes something flutter inside Aizawa’s chest, even after all these years. He instinctively reaches for the ring that he wears in a chain beneath his capture weapon. Going to a thousand dances was worth it just to see Hizashi laugh afterward, as he recounted the most ridiculous things the students tried to pull off for the year.
“See, you’re smiling.”
“I’m not smiling for the dance, idiot,” Aizawa said, turning his gaze back at his papers and hoping his husband won’t mention the pink tint coloring his cheeks after been caught staring. “I still think the whole thing is illogical, not to mention a waste of time.”
“Don’t be so negative, Shou. Hey, maybe this year will be, you know, the year.”
Aizawa hummed, even though he wasn’t so sure about his husband’s statement. According to Hizashi every year might be the year, but so far, that just hadn’t happened. It officially started on their first year working together as teachers, although if you wanted to get technical, you could count much before that for Aizawa.
Every year Hizashi insisted they would have a dance together before the end of the night. He prepared the music, made sure everything was running smoothly so he could leave the DJ booth for a moment, asked Aizawa to the dance floor… and every year their plans went sideways at the end.
Sometimes it wasn’t even the students' fault. Sure, a lot of times their change of plans was due to the constant labor that was chaperoning in itself but they had also had their fair share of mishaps unrelated to the student body. In the beginning, the equipment for the DJ had been so old that it required Mic constantly behind it. Later down the line, there had been instances where something with the lights went wrong last minute and it was up to Aizawa to fix it, thus missing a big chunk of the event. On one horrible occasion, the service they contracted for the food ended up poisoning half the students by accident. That had required many trips to the infirmary and calls to concerned parents.
Over the years, they had tried to change it up a bit. Maybe instead of the end of the night, they could try dancing somewhere in the middle. But more often than not, that had only been a temporary solution, since sooner or later Aizawa had to leave, either to wrangle around some students or to fill a report on others misbehavior, or whatever. All in all, it usually ended with him and his husband unable to get enough free time to actually get a dance together.
It wasn’t a big deal, really. Aizawa was a grown man and it wasn’t like he was going to mop around like a teenager just because he couldn’t get a dance with his husband, at a school event of all things. Still, the way Hizashi talked about it… It never failed to sway Aizawa in giving the ridiculous plan a chance, only to get his hopes crushed when at the end of the night when he inevitably found himself filing some report on a student trying to spike the punch, while his husband was closing off the dance and saying goodbye to the students.
It was so stupid on how illogical it was. They were married for fuck’s sake. They could dance together whenever they wanted at home (not that they did that kind of stuff regularly but they could if they wanted to!). It shouldn’t matter whether they got to dance in a room packed full of people, with shitty lighting and music coming from an outdated sound system… except that it did… Kind of.
They never really got to dance together in their time as students and when they became teachers it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make up for the lost time. Except that they didn’t. And every year, they ended the night with the rest of the chaperons, cleaning everything up while Hizashi gently put his hand on Aizawa’s shoulder while saying ‘there’s always next year, right?’
There’s always next year. So it shouldn’t be a big deal.
But with Hizashi there, looking at Aizawa like they were discussing an ambush from the League of Villains instead of a high school dance, it definitely felt like a big deal and it made Aizawa feel very tired.
“I guess you’re right.”
“Of course I am,” Hizashi responded. “You’ll see. This year will be it. I can feel it.”
“I’m sure you do.”
“We’re gonna have fun!”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, at least we’ll try to have fun, right?”
“Sure.”
“Shou, come on, at least promise me you’ll try to enjoy yourself. The dances aren’t just for the students, you know?”
Aizawa bit back the response that yes, they literally were for the students. It was hard to not get invested in the whole thing when Hizashi so obviously enjoyed it. So Aizawa simply gave in.
He nodded sincerely and the simple action was enough to get his husband to beam and throw his arms around him as he leaned in for a kiss. Aizawa kissed back, only stopping for a second to make sure the door was closed.
Even though the students couldn’t enter the teacher’s lounge without permission and the whole staff already knew they were together anyway, Aizawa was still reluctant to show affection in their workplace. It wasn’t that he was embarrassed about his marriage, he honestly loved his husband so much it was almost ridiculous, and if Hizashi ever asked, Aizawa would be willing to shout their love from the rooftops. Not that he ever would, though, he respected his husband’s boundaries too much to request something like that.
Really, the only thing that prevented them from going public was the danger it could bring to their hero work. With Hizashi being constantly in the spotlight and Aizawa working as an underground hero, their public personas didn’t exactly match, not to mention the way villains could use either of them to hurt the other if their relationship ever got out. It was simply safer to have them both deal with hero stuff separately, even if at home they were anything but.
Then there was also the fact that Aizawa was a private person by nature. Although his co-workers knew about their relationship, he wasn’t particularly keen on the idea of sharing too much of their private life with them, specifically with Nemuri. God knew that woman already had too much fun teasing them as they were.
So, despite how good it felt to kiss his husband, Aizawa had to remind himself they were still at school and he still had an image to maintain among the staff.
They broke off the kiss with a silent promise to get back on it once they were alone, either at Aizawa’s room at the dorms or at their barely used apartment. Immediately, Hizashi smiled once more, as he took his husband’s hand and interlaced their finger. By this point, Aizawa’s work had been left completely forgotten on the table.
“Thank you, Shou. You’ll see. We’ll get our dance and it’ll be amazing.”
Aizawa nodded, eyes firmly locked in their intertwined hands, tracing the place where their rings would be once they got back home.
“And hey, even if we don’t, there will always be next year.”
“I guess.”
There will always be next year. But damn if Aizawa wished this year would be it, for once.