Chapter Text
Aizawa stood at the counter of the cafe and waited to the barista to finish his and Yagi’s orders. It was too early to be out in public on a Saturday, but he had promised to make today’s grading session.
Yagi needed the help with grading and the other staff at U.A had noticed. It had been a proverbial drawing of straws to decide who would coach him. It had been less of a lottery and more Aizawa’s coworkers ganging up on him and blackmailing him into the job.
---
Aizawa sat in the staff room of UA staring at his lesson plans for the upcoming week. The coffee he finished wasn’t doing much for him, unsurprisingly. This late in the day his exhaustion and caffeine immunity reached an apex.
He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his dry eyes. He wondered, not for the first time, if he should get reading glasses. His constant need of eye drops in tandem with the long hours he pulled didn’t jive for a hero who relied on his eyesight.
The door to the lounge banged open, and he stifled a groan. Nemuri and Hizashi walked in and appeared to be in the middle of a loud, animated conversation.
How did they have this much energy after a full day? Both had hero duties, along with teaching. However, Hizashi got up at 4am every morning to host his radio show before school. He must intake so much caffeine he vibrates into a higher plane of existence.
“Shouta!” The voice hero squealed. “Just the man we wanted to talk to.”
Nemuri’s mouth curled up into a grin that made him want to back up and flip out the window. There was no way he would want to hear whatever these two had to say.
“Just the two people I don’t want to see-”
“Shouta, don’t be like that. When have we given you a reason to be so sour?” Nemuri asked with a plaintive look.
“I could name a few.” He gathered up the stack of papers on the table. He could finish with them at home.
“Come on, man. We wanted to ask you something?” Hizashi dropped himself into a chair at the table and leaned his face into his hands. He was apparently expecting Aizawa to care enough to ask what that was.
“I’m sure you’ll make do without my opinion, or help, or whatever else it is you debauched idiots are up to.” He swiped the last of his papers into his bag and zipped it shut in one decisive motion.
Aizawa clung to the conviction he would get out without engaging in their ridiculousness. Then, Nemuri leaned across the table and grabbed his sleeve.
“Actually Shou-” He had a sinking feeling at her tone. Gone was the pouty tease and left was something more earnest and almost adult sounding. “Nedzu requested that we-”
“Dammit, both of you!” Aizawa said. “Whatever it is, you can do it on your own. I have enough to do between grading and planning for the sports festival.”
“About that,” Hizashi starts. He, too, looks less joking and more serious.
Aizawa stops packing up and looks at his two friends and coworkers. Under the playful and childish demeanor he notices the wear on their faces. He supposes he isn’t the only one tired and juggling too many responsibilities.
He sighs and knows he will regret asking. “What is it that Nedzu wants? I haven’t checked my email recently.”
“Oh, this won’t be in an email,” Hizashi replies.
“No, this was more of an informal request on his part.” Nemuri says and there’s the keen intelligence she keeps behind her usual lascivious nature. “Pertaining to our workload as a staff.”
“Well, what about it?” Aizawa was regretting showing interest.
“It’s about Yagi-san.” Hizashi says. “Nedzu’s afraid that he’s neglecting himself in favor his school workload and his hero duties.”
“It would be easier if he would fully retire and focus on his teaching duties.” Aizawa raked a hand through his messy hair. The older pro hero’s divided attention was wearing was having noticeable effects on his health and a backlog of grading assignment.
“Just so,” said Nemuri. “However, he’s floundering enough that Nedzu is noticing how much he’s lagging and requested that staff help him get up to pace so that planning for the festival and upcoming trainings goes more smoothly.”
“What does this have to do with me?” Aizawa asks, annoyed at where this is leading.
“Well,” Hizashi starts, “we were wondering if you could check in with his general class projects-”
“-And we would take some sports festival planning off your hands.” Nemuri finishes. They were almost splitting a brain between the two of them.
“I have enough to do with my own classes, besides making sure All Might keeps up with his own grading.” Aizawa says, grabbing his bag and deciding now is a good time to leave for the night.
“Come on, my man!” Hizashi whines. “We’ll cover your drinks next time we go out!”
“There’s a dangerous proposition if I ever heard one.” Aizawa snorts. A little humor on their tenacity creeps in.
“Just check in with him Shouta? Pleeease!” Nemuri says. “We’ll help out where we can. We can all go out together to give Yagi a more thorough staff welcome. You know Hizashi and I are busy with patrols at the moment....”
Aizawa was doing patrols, too. Even if they were more night ones than they pulled. Becoming a homeroom teacher had shifted his hero and teaching responsibilities. These days, he supposed he spent more of his energy teaching than hero work. He didn’t want to give himself time to contemplate that thought.
“Fine,” he said, on his way through the door. “But, I will take you up on that drink offer and I have every intention of making you regret it.”
“Thanks Shouta!” Nemuri and Hizashi chorused in unison.
---
“Black and Jasmine!”
Aizawa startles out of his thoughts and looks up at the barista.
“What?” He says, perplexed.
The barista looks unfazed and smiles. He expands on the order details. “Black coffee and Jasmine tea.”
“Right,” Aizawa says. “That’s mine. Too early, I guess.”
The barista smiles good-naturedly. His quirk manifests as blue frothy clouds, in place of hair, around the man’s head. “Jasmine’s one of my favorites.”
Aizawa grunts in acknowledgement. It is too early for this.
The barista goes on anyway. “I love how soft the flavor is. The scent is very subtle, too.” He smiles like he received an energetic agreement. Aizawa wants to sit down with his coffee. “The way it catches the light, there is something magical about it. It’s soft and fragrant. Worth relaxing over!”
The barista grins and his hair froths around his face like waves on a blustery summer’s day. The man plainly loved his job.
“Thanks, I guess so.” Aizawa says at he picks up the drinks and turns to find the table that a tall blonde waits at.
---
Yagi already has stacks of papers spread out on the table. He had picked a table toward the back of the room. It was still early enough that the soft sunlight that came through the window shown with a pale warm cast. Half of the table’s surface soaked in that morning light and halfway in sleepy shadow.
Aizawa held the two steaming mugs and looked for a place to set them. He sat in the empty seat across from Yagi. His abrupt appearance must have startled the lanky teacher because he nearly leapt from his seat.
Aizawa was glad he hadn’t set the drinks down yet. If he had he suspected they would be on the floor.
“I- um, ah,” Yagi gasped as he straightened papers and the folders he nearly sent flying.
Aizawa had the strangest need to suppress a grin. He plainly startled the man out of his concentration and he was trying to cover his fumble.
How can a man who moves with so much grace in his hero work be so awkward and jumpy in his present form?
“Sorry,” Aizawa said. “I’ll try to walk more loudly next time.”
He set the drinks down in the cleared space and took a seat opposite Yagi.
Yagi had a faint flush covering his face and neck. “I got caught up in going over papers while waiting and I- I guess I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Nope.” Aizawa agrees and sees that Yagi doesn’t seem to pick up on the subtle humor behind the wry agreement. He changes tactics and says, “It looks like you finally caught up on sleep.”
He nods to the other man, who despite nearly jumping out of his own skin, looked better for wear than the last time the other teacher saw him.
Yagi gratefully took the change in subject and nodded enthusiastically. “I took you up on your offer whole-heartedly!”
“So you really have been thinking about your health?” Aizawa asked, taking a sip of his coffee.
Yagi blushed again, how could a man spend so much of his time turning red? “I’ve been sleeping more, and I took into consideration our grading session we set up for this weekend. What kind of hero would I be if I didn’t take my health into consideration?”
Aizawa thought that was a little contradictory, but wasn’t about to say anything. What did one say to the number one hero who had taken up teaching as a soft form of easing into retirement?
“Good,” Aizawa replies. “You looked like you would barely make it into the next week- at the rate you were going.”
“You’re one to talk,” he quipped. He had the younger teacher there.
Yagi sipped a little of his jasmine tea. The liquid really caught the eye. The pale liquid filtered the light through Yagi’s glass mug and he gave a soft smile as he set it back down on the table.
Morning light streamed through the window and illuminated his side of the table. There was something about Yagi’s more vulnerable form that caught Aizawa off guard. His initial disdain for the media and publicity colored his view of the older hero for years. Now he worked alongside the man, he could see someone else peeking through that public persona.
This depth unsettled Aizawa in ways he couldn’t quite place. The only thing he could attribute to it was that he did not like finding that his initial assumptions were possibly wrong. For all his height and strength, Yagi Toshinori was a man that walked softly and had a quiet resolve. How strange...
“What made you offer to help me with my grading Aizawa-kun,” Yagi asked over his stack of papers.
“Huh?” Aizawa realized he had been staring and brought himself back to the subject at hand.
“I know I’m still getting the swing of teaching, but I appreciate your diligence in my workload. I’ve never been able to talk much to you outside of class... What was the sudden change in heart?” Yagi gave him a warm look, like he was glad to have a new friend on staff.
Aizawa froze at that smile. Despite the resistance he had put up with Nemuri and Hizashi he didn’t really mind helping out the older teacher. And instead of saying something to that effect he blurted, “You were falling behind in your grading and it wasn’t fair to the other staff if we took on your workload.”
From the way Yagi’s face fell he could tell he hit a raw spot. He felt like a jackass, but continued, “The sports festival is coming up and we all need to be available to help plan and make sure we’re available for the students.”
Yagi coughed slightly and rearranged the papers in front of him. “Well…” cough, cough. “ Quite so! I appreciate the help and I will do my best not to fall behind again.”
The other man’s discomfort made Aizawa feel like apologizing, though he wasn’t sure why. He said what he meant, but the delivery left him feeling like he could have said it better. Hizashi would have harped on him for his people skills and there was usually a reason for it.
Aizawa took a large gulp of his coffee and went to move on to the task at hand. “That would be for the best, now let’s get through this. We can probably get through these stacks by noon if we work through.”
The other man rubbed his neck and nodded. The initial silence strained, but they quickly fell into a rhythm. The two men worked through their stacks of grading as the morning sun worked its way up the horizon. They ordered more tea and coffee as the morning wore on.
Slowly, the grading shrunk as their empty cups grew. The sunlight had grown in the time's space they sat at their little table. Now, it wasn’t just Yagi sitting in the sunlight. The light had stretched and spread. Now Aizawa now sat with Yagi, bathed in its warmth.
Eventually, once his stacks of papers dwindled, he stretched. The blond bent low over his papers, it looked like he didn’t have that many left to finish. Aizawa pondered at his coworker and wonders at the strength he must use regularly.
Not the obvious kind he needed for his muscle form. No, he saw how exhausted the man was regularly. He wondered at how much it must take to run on so little. He, himself was frequently exhausted to the point that he didn’t bother hiding short naps during classes. He often structured his classes so that his students handled exercises on their own. He saved his energy for their strategy exercises and his hero work.
It surprised him at how relaxing this morning had been. Usually, he graded in the late night, before patrols and in the early mornings. He had saved the bulk of this weekend’s grading for his and Yagi-san’s grading session this morning. The peaceful energy he felt now made him glad to switch up his normally harried grading session.
Aizawa came back to the present when the other man snapped a folder closed and stretched his ridiculously long arms over his head. The yawn he exuded was tremendous.
“Well,” he said, rolling his neck. “I need to go make lunch.”
Aizawa grunted in response, “Probably a good idea.”
Yagi looked at him and looked a little bashful as he asked, “would you...”
Aizawa looked lovely at the blond, “Would I what?”
“Would you... would you be interested in doing another grading session?” He asked hopefully. “I mean this one was very productive, and it was good to work alongside you!”
Aizawa thought for a moment. He was glad for how much progress they had made that morning. Plus, he thought, I can make sure he’s keeping up with his workload. That seemed like a perfectly reasonable idea. He could meet Nedzu’s request and get more of his own grading done.
“Sure.” Aizawa said. Yagi visibly gulped and nodded enthusiastically. He looked like he would say something else- but thought better. Aizawa tried not to think about how peculiar it was that he rather looked forward to his next grading session with the other hero and teacher.
“Excellent!” Yagi said, packing up his papers and gathering their mugs. “Until next time, then.”
His smile did something to Aizawa that he didn’t want to think about too closely. “Until next time then.” He gave a lethargic wave as Yagi stood up to leave.
He looked down at their empty mugs. Well, n his case empty. Yagi had left a little of the soft jasmine tea in his glass mug. Aizawa squinted at it and thought about the barista’s earlier words.
It really did catch the eye, it was just a subtle thing and perhaps an acquired taste. Whatever the case with flowery teas and black coffee- he grabbed his finished papers and slides them into his folder for class work.
The next week looked like it would be an interesting one.