Chapter Text
With a little bit of a push and shove from Hitomi-and the fact that fixing up your destroyed electrical units was expensive- you finally emailed Principal Nezu, agreeing to act as a supply teacher for UA and sent him a signed contract after a bit more pushes, shoves, threats and slaps upside your head. He sent back an enthusiastic but vague email. You had expected there to be something for you to do immediately but there wasn’t anything until a few weeks later when you had almost forgotten about the job. You had just finished visiting Yuto in the hospital when you received a call from Nezu, he didn’t tell you much about what happened in the USJ incident but it was pretty bad and he needed you to assist in class 1-A’s training. Why they still made the students train? You had no idea, shouldn’t they have been dismissed from school for a week or so? Despite your questions about the school's decisions, here you were, in front of the staff room holding a small gift bag and a bright pink Sailor Moon bento that you got Hitomi a few months ago as a joke. It was a spur of the moment thing when you decided to get Aizawa a gift, you were -well Hitomi was- going to bake him a cake but he didn’t seem like a sweets person. Then you remembered Nezu said he had been in the hospital for a while and you knew that hospital food sucks, which led to the bright pink bento box, despite the design, it was large and easy to carry, very practical, everyone loved practicality did they not?
You knocked, then opened the door of the staff room, your sneakers squeaked slightly as you walked in and took a look around the room. It was so damn weird to be back here, teachers sipping drinks and munching on snacks as they typed away on their keyboard.
“Hey, don’t think I’ve ever seen you here.” A sultry voice sang out, it belonged to a woman with long black-blue hair and pretty red eyes…REALLY pretty red eyes.
You gulped and smiled “Oh I’m here as a substitute, or assistant…” You weren’t really sure, Nezu gave a very vague job description. Calling yourself an assistant left a sour taste in your tongue. You’d never been an assistant, not when you were working multiple jobs as a UA student and certainly not now that you’re a business owner, but beggars can’t be choosers, you did need the money. So you took a deep breath, relaxed your shoulders and smiled “I’m just here to help train his class.” You gestured to Aizawa sitting stiffly with a bandaged arm and eye…he looked like absolute shit, those villains really got him. The loud slam of Present Mics hands against the tabled directed your gaze away from Aizawa to him
“That’s the lady that came to give class 1-A the welcome speech Nem,”
Nem, was that her name?
“Ah, the one that told the children to put a fake finger in Aizawa’s drink.” A man with a gruff voice and spiked white hair added, you noticed how his bottom canines poked out of his mouth. He seemed very tall even when sitting at his desk, you noticed his muscular build through the tight red hero suit he wore.
You raised a hand in surrender “I didn’t TELL them to do it, they came to me for suggestions and I compiled.”
He and Nem hummed clearly not believe you
“Sailor Moon?” Nem asked cocking her head towards the tupperware in your hands
“Oh, yeah, what kind of help would I be if I didn’t bring a get well present.” You held the bright pink up, under your chin and gave a cheesy grin
“A get well present in a Sailor Moon bento?”
You shrugged awkwardly “To brighten his spirits. Moon prism power makeup on that bitch.”
Nem laughed, throwing her head back then turning to Present Mic “She’s kinda weird, it’s cute.”
“I told you.” Present Mic grinned, turning a very sour looking Aizawa, he hadn’t acknowledged your presence in the slightest, maybe you shouldn’t have brought a gift if he was going to blatantly ignore you. You walked up to his desk mentally repeating to yourself not to trip and fall on your face. You stretched your hand out presenting the bento, then you paused, your mouth forming an O shape, realizing a grave error in your ‘charitable’ actions. His hands, save for his fingers, were in casts, how the hell was he supposed to carry a bento box. You mentally facepalm. You set the bento down on his desk, pushing it right under his nose
“What’s this?” He slowly turned his head to peer up at you,
the sarcastic response slipped out of your lips before you could stop yourself “My my, I wonder what could ever be in a bento box,”
He stared up at you, unamused. Damn, not even a response?
“Relax, I’m not pranking you like your students did, it’s actual real, organic, poison free food.” You mockingly crossed your hand over your heart before setting the gift bag on the desk not brother to announce it,it only contained three items, a face mask- even though you didn’t know if he used that, he certainly didn’t look like he did- a numbing cream and a get well soon card with cats in funny poses on the cover.
“Aw,” Present Mic cooed “that’s so nice, I didn’t expect you to be so nice.”
You rolled your eyes, you couldn’t tell if he was throwing shade or being irritably honest. “Yeah, I’m so nice I didn’t even get paid for this, maybe I should’ve.” You grinned as you looked down at Aizawa who side-eyed you with his good eye. Was he always this stoic or was he still pissed at you because you ‘encouraged’ his students to play a prank on him. How would this dynamic even work if he never said more than three words to you? It was already looking like it would be a long day.
***
It was decided that the 1-A students would practice out in the field though you didn’t agree with it, you took comfort in the fact that their training was light, working on physical combat without use of their quirks. You stood next to Aizawa on the field though a respectable distance away, observing the students, your hands behind your back and his weakly squeezing a red stress ball with his freed fingers, the small squeak being the only sound between him and you, you were grateful for the noise the students made and the slight whistles of the wind.
“So,” You broke the silence that had cemented itself between the two of you “what exactly happened at USJ?”
“Nothing you need to know.” He said curtly, you had half expected that answer, you weren’t sure why you tried.
“Alright then, at least the students seem to be recovering well.” You shrugged looking at Bakugo who yelled incoherently at a tired looking Denki. Aizawa nodded, a ghost of a smile on his lip. Huh? That’s the warmest reaction you’ve gotten out of him, it seemed he had a soft spot for his students.
“They’re strong, they have a lot of potential.” He sighed
“I can tell. What about you? How are you recovering?”
He paused before replying “Not as fast as I’d like to.”
Your lips dipped downwards in a frown, in the few times you’d seen him he already looked overworked, he shouldn’t be overworking himself now that he could barely even pick up a spoon. “Cut yourself some slack, you got some pretty bad injuries, I’m surprised you’re not still on bedrest. Just follow your doctor's order and learn how to relax a bit, at least you’re still alive.” You knew some people that would be grateful to still be alive and you hoped Aizawa cherished that even though he was in a less than ideal state and didn’t give you the warmest welcome.. You gently punched his shoulder to try and lighten the mood causing the stress ball to slip out of his fingers.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” You quickly bent down to pick it up, you placed your hand under his stopping yourself before you could pull your hand away from his cold one “your hands are freezing, you should wear gloves or something.”
“I hadn’t realized.” He murmured as you inspected his hands, rubbing your index finger on the back of his palm
“I could make you some hand warmers, if you wanted.” You placed the stress ball in his hands and placed your hands behind you once more. Publicity, if people saw Eraserhead who, according to the information you heard was a well-respected underground hero, wearing a piece of gear with your company’s logo on it no doubt would that get you some customers, or at the very least give your website some more traffic..
“It’s fine I can just buy some normal gloves.”
You gasped dramatically and placed a hand on your chest “Do you not trust my glove making skills?”
“No, that wasn’t what I meant I just..”He paused looking down at his hands “you already had to leave your place of work because of me, I don’t want to bother you too much.”
“It’s not a bother, that’s what I’m supposed to do as a substitute teacher.” You smiled and he looked at you quizzically, clearly this was new information for him “oh I thought you knew, a few weeks ago when I came to give that welcome speech, Nezu gave me a contract.”
“Are you not busy?”
“Do you not want me here?”
“You keep taking what I’m saying out of context.”
“Just reading between the lines.”
“Well stop because you’re horrible at it.”
You threw your head back as you laughed, your shoulders shaking. He didn’t agree to not wanting you here, huh…
“Well yeah I am busy and there’s really no other reason why I took the job apart from money.” You shamelessly admitted, you expected to receive another judging side-eye but he simply nodded. You were about to say something when you saw Jirou attempt to flip Yaoyorozu, she tripped on her shoelaces and ended up sending both of them onto the ground. Embarrassinggggg. You jogged up to them, extending both your arms to them as you helped them up
“What exactly are you girls trying to do?”
They rubbed the back of their necks sheepishly, Jirou spoke first “I was practicing a move I saw on Yao-momo.”
“I told her she could.” Yaoyorozu added with a raise of her hand, you looked between the two students and smiled
“Well if you’re going to do that you might want to tie your shoelaces, or just take off your shoes.” They both nodded, Yaoyoruzu tightened her well knotted laces while Jirou kicked off her shoes. You nodded satisfied with both outcomes and continued.” When you first start doing stunts like these it’s better to practice on a mat or trampoline instead of the grass.” You pulled out a notebook and a pen from your back pocket and drew a foam mat, you pulled it out of the notebook and set the enlarged green and blue mat on the ground. You shoved the stationery back into your pockets
“Your quirk is really cool, it’s almost like Yao-momo’s.” Jirou pointed her thumb at Yaoyoruzu who smiled bashfully.
“Really?”You placed a hand on your cocked hips. “What’s your quirk?”
“It’s also a creation quirk, I can use the molecular structure of the lipase in my body to create objects-
“But you need to know the molecular structure of said objects right?”
She gawked a bit before nodding “How did you know?”
“As Jirou said, our quirks are similar.”
“Do you always have to carry a notebook and pencil with you then?”
“Not all the time, I could draw on any surface, but the quicker I do it the worse the quality of the object or thing.” You explained as the two girls nodded
“You can create living things too?” Jirou asked, you tensed at the question then quickly masked it with a smile.
“Yes but it's also an extremely complicated process and I don’t like playing god often.” You clapped your hands together and changed the subject “anyways, how bout those flips huh?”
You spent most of the period teaching the two girls how to flip someone over their shoulder and biting your cheek to stop a smile from forming on your face when you saw how red their faces got when they had to be in close, awkward positions. You rolled up the mat when the period was over, they thanked you for your help and you smiled softly
“It’s what I’m here for.” You shrugged nonchalantly “wanna keep the mat so you can practice when you two are alone together?”
If it was possible for their face to turn an even darker shade of red it did, your lips curled into a grin, finding the perfect opportunity to tease them some more. You always loved a sprinkle of gay panic in your day. “Or would you rather do something else when you’re alone together.”
***
Around your store, the lights had been fixed, the electricity was working, the plumbing was done…well, you hoped the plumbing was done. Nevertheless,your store was completed, actually completed, this had been more expensive and taken way longer than you expected, half of the time was used securing permits. But now you had it Reverie Tech was officially a completed building.
It was a two story building. From the outside it was a full glass building with a barrel roof, the glass was black so the interior couldn’t be seen from the outside. In the small lobby there was a large tree in the middle encircled with a white bench and purple couches on opposite sides of the room. You had gone to multiple thrift stores, sketchy online vendors and scoured rich neighborhoods for yard sales to find good couches that you and Hitomi cleaned thoroughly and dyed dark purple. There was also a white curved desk for a receptionist on the left side of the lobby, you were yet to hire a receptionist but you desperately needed one, you sucked at replying to emails.
Past the lobby was the spiral staircase that led upstairs where the hero costumes were made and stored in large glass tubes. The rest of the building was the workshop, walls carrying several sized tools, wide white and purple tables where the orders you were yet to finish or package laid. You laid the bag of suits on them as You walked past the indoor workspace to the outdoor workspace where Hitomi was working on that same sword again
“Yeah, don’t want you to overheat and melt our client's product, like last time.”
She groaned and threw her head back “Oh my goodness will you ever let that go.”
“No, no I will not.” You glanced down at your watch, it was almost time for the interviews “we should get changed.” You looked down at your outfit, black sweatpants and a navy blue sweater with a toothpaste stain on it that never seemed to come out, you wore flip-flops with bright pink Hello Kitty socks. Hitomi still had her welding helmet resting atop her forehead, a tank top and cargo pants on that had a few burn marks on them, you made a mental note to make her some fire resistant clothing. Safe to say both your looks were not the ideal idea of professionalism.
“I need to shower, I smell burnt.” Hitomi murmured taking a sniff of her shirt before scrunching up her nose
“You’re the sexiest burnt human I’ve ever seen.” You winked, smacking her ass lightly as she walked past you.
She yelped, her hands flying to cover her butt “I’m the only burnt person you know!” She yelled back as she walked into the building, her voice fading away. A faint smile stayed on your face even after she left, your alarm went off signaling you had fifteen minutes to get ready. You shut it off and got changed into a simple white, silk long-sleeve button up, black slacks and loafers. You picked up your schedule going over the list of interviews you had. It was a surprise how many applications you received but that also meant a whole lot more nodding, smiling, asking the same question over and over again and doing paperwork.
The indoor workspace is where the interviews were going to take place, and of course you had forgotten to clear it out. You grabbed several large pieces of paper drawing up cardboard boxes where you neatly placed your unfinished items in, by the time you were done with that you barely had five minutes left. Hitomi rushed down the stairs in a pencil skirt and a pink button up.
“I just got a call, the first interviewee is outside.” She said holding up her phone
You pushed the last box into a corner and huffed “Okay, you can go bring them in.”
“Well…the workspace looks pretty empty don’t you think?”
You looked around then looked back at her with a raised eyebrow “No, it looks normal.”
“So I guess we’re just going to sit criss-cross applesauce on the floor and play tic-tac-toe with the interviewees?”
You were about to retort saying she was making no sense and wasting time when it suddenly clicked and your mouth formed an O shape “We don’t have a desk...oh shit we don’t have a desk!”
Hitomi hummed in response as you picked up a marker and paper, you removed the marker cover with your teeth and drew a desk, quickly coming up with an image of what you wanted in your head and channeling that into your drawing. You pulled the desk out of the paper and set it down, it was smaller than you wanted but that doesn’t matter, you quickly pulled some chairs from around the room and set them up around the desk; two behind it and one in front of it. You set up your laptops, placing them side by side and taking a seat just as Hitomi walked in with an eager looking person trailing behind her, they looked around the room in awe and a warm feeling settled in your chest knowing that someone admired you and Hitomi’s ideas.
Hitomi gestured for the interviewee to sit on the chair as she took a seat beside you.
“Hi, how are you doing today?” You smiled putting on your corporate voice