Chapter Text
The whole thing started with Ashido. This isn’t that surprising; if you were to tell someone the middle and end bits and say “And which of Class 1-A started it?”, there’d be no point making a betting book because everyone would just assume Ashido was responsible.
It started on the way to lunch one day, the kids all groaning as they made their way to the cafeteria from the training field. Aizawa had put them through their paces all morning, and all of them were looking forward to lunch, and then their afternoon classes, and hopefully their teachers would be present and Mr. Aizawa would not feel the need to take over and torment them again.
“I can’t believe how tired I am,” Ashido said, sagging while she walked. “Where does Mr. Aizawa get off making us run drills without our quirks? That’s just not fair!”
Kaminari snickered. “With the way he’s been riding us lately? I’d say he hasn’t gotten off at all.”
He looked pleased with this joke, but Iida just smacked the back of his head. “He is our teacher ,” he scolded. “That is not appropriate talk. Besides, he has every right to put us through such rigorous training if he believes we need it. We are at the best hero school in the country, after all. We would not be here if we weren’t willing and capable of pushing ourselves to such degrees.”
“Anyway, it’s important to know how to fight without our powers,” Midoriya added. He was the only one not ready to collapse; his abilities might have gotten stronger since their internships, but he’d still spent fifteen years not relying on any quirk to function, and all semester using his quirk as a last resort option, and as a result Aizawa hadn’t even needed to deactivate Midoriya once the entire morning.
“Uuuuuunnnnnnnggggggggghhhhhhhhh.” Ashido sagged even more, and then immediately perked up. “Hey! Maybe Kaminari is onto something!”
“I am?”
“Yeah!” She pumped her fist. “Maybe he just needs to get laid!”
Iida smacked Kaminari again. “That is still inappropriate,” he said, and was ignored.
“If he gets laid, you think he’d lay off?” Kaminari looked pleased with this joke as well. “What have you got in mind?”
Ashido looked around conspiratorially. “Okay, so hear me out,” she said, lowering her voice. “He’s obviously super tense about something . I mean, he’s always been a hardass, but this is just way more than usual. What if he’s, you know, pent up ? You know? We’d be doing him a favor if we… helped him out.”
“Helped him out how?”
“By setting him up with someone!” She grinned, and added, “I vote All Might.”
“What?!” Midoriya sputtered in shock. “Ashido, those are our dads !”
There was sudden silence. As one, the whole group turned to look at Midoriya, waiting for him to catch up with himself. They knew when he did; he turned red and clamped both hands over his mouth.
“I MEAN TEACHERS!” he said, muffled behind his hands. “They’re our teachers .”
Kirishima snorted. “Midoriya’s daddy issues aside, he’s got a point. Should we really be meddling in our teachers’ love lives?”
“Meddling where you don’t technically have to is the essence of being a hero,” Todoroki said. He glanced at Midoriya. “Your words, I believe.”
“Well, yeah, that’s what All Might said to me after the sports festival…” He was still blushing. “But I think he was talking about helping people.”
“We will be helping them!” Ashido said. “We’ll be helping them relax!”
“Do we even know if they both like guys?” Ururaka, silent thus far, asked.
“Yes.” Kirishima this time. “Trust me on this one.”
“Okay!” Ashido pounded one fist into her palm. “That’s settled then.”
“Is it?!” Midoriya. “But- I thought-”
“Mr. Aizawa and All Might have both done a great deal for us over the semester,” Iida said thoughtfully. “I suppose if they were to find some kind of companionship, they would be happier… we could consider ourselves repaying their service to us.”
“You too, Iida?”
“I’m in.”
“Todoroki?!”
“In or out, Midoriya?” Ashido asked. “Come on, it’d be a big help to have All Might’s favorite working with us!”
Midoriya looked around to find all of his class- at least, those present- watching him expectantly. He sighed. “All right. I’ll do it. I guess…”
-/-
They spent the lunch period batting around ideas, until they finally landed on one that seemed doable. After they returned to class, Ashido got the rest of their class- those that hadn’t been present for the conversation- to agree to help, until eventually even Bakugo agreed to, if not outright help, not hinder them or alert their teachers.
“If you wanna waste your time on this bullshit, then don’t even think about involving me!” he shouted.
“Sounds like you need to get laid too.”
“You better not be volunteering!”
“Ew, no.”
“WHAT’S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!”
While Ashido explained her idea to the class, unbeknownst to them a tall, thin scarecrow of a man stood outside listening. He had a hand covering his mouth so they couldn’t hear him laughing, but if he didn’t do something soon he was going to give the game away. He decided to end things and powered up, throwing the door open and booming his presence to the class as a whole.
He was impressed. By the time the action lines had died down, they were all in their seats, watching him expectantly like a group of perfect little angels. If he hadn’t known already, he would never have guessed that only seconds ago they were all gossiping about how best to set their teachers up.
-/-
“Aizawa.”
All Might stood over the couch in the lounge and waited for the yellow cocoon to open its eyes, and then he sat down, prompting said cocoon to wiggle into a sitting position and unzip, expelling the upper half of Aizawa Shouta from its depths.
“I was having a nice dream,” Aizawa said wistfully. “I dreamed I was teaching a class full of nice, well-behaved children that never question my judgment or argue about whether I’m being fair or complain about the training I decide to give them.” He sighed. “Was it worth waking me up from that dream?”
“Sounds like a nice dream. And a far cry from reality, where your students have decided that you’re such a hardass you need to be set up with one of your colleagues.”
Aizawa groaned, and began zipping himself back into his sleeping bag. “Every year,” he said, flopping over onto his side and then over to face the back of the couch. “ Every year , some smart ass decides that ‘Mr. Aizawa needs to get laid’!” He huffed. “Why is it always me ? And who is their unlucky target this year? It better not be Midnight again.”
“It’s not.” All Might didn’t answer immediately, merely reached over to pick up the tea he’d left on the table. He took a long sip of it, then smirked over at his companion. “It’s me.”
-/-
Aizawa looked grumpier than usual when he came into homeroom the next morning. He glared around at the chattering students, silencing and sending them scurrying to their desks with nothing more than a look.
Once his back was turned, though, they all looked expectantly at Ashido, who took a deep breath to steel herself before pulling a magazine out of her book and throwing her hand in the air.
“Mr. Aizawa!” she called. His hand stilled, but he didn’t turn around; she decided that was as much of his attention as she was going to get. “Mr. Aizawa, can I ask you something? About hero stuff?”
“That is what class is for,” he said, finally turning around. He spotted the magazine in her hand, and a part of him thought, oh no .
He knew that magazine. It was called ‘Hero Insider’, but it- or at least that particular issue- might as well have been called ‘Aizawa’s Regrets’. He wondered how they’d gotten ahold of it, and decided Midoriya was probably to blame. He was the only one of the students to have actually known about the hero Eraserhead back on their first day. He probably already owned it.
“I was looking through old hero magazines when I found this one,” Ashido said, shamelessness and lies pouring from her like a waterfall. “An interview you did about seven, eight years back.”
She paused here, and he could see her resisting the urge to look around at the rest of her classmates for encouragement. He watched her expectantly, waiting for her to either continue or give up. She chose continue.
“So, anyway, in the interview you said that- that it was important for pros to- to-” Here she faltered, and Aizawa could understand why. No doubt in her head, and while they were planning, this had sounded easy . Just string the words together. Here, on her own, on stage as it were, it was a very different thing.
He was about to give her points for trying when she seemed to regain her resolve, and pressed on.
“You said it was important for pros to have a healthy sex life!” she said, almost shouted. He smirked. That had taken guts, and her skin was a much darker shade of pink now.
Well, all right, might as well get this over with. It was an important thing for them to learn, and the sooner they got it out of the way the better. And maybe he could embarrass them out of their silly plan to set him up with All Might while he was at it.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s talk about what I actually said in that interview, which the interviewer didn’t report properly because it wasn’t sordid and juicy. Yet another reason I hate the spotlight that gets shined on heroes, by the way. What I actually said, was that hero work can get very intense. This can potentially lead to, among other things, a heightened sex drive. I’ve known many heroes who come down from intense missions by having sex, and several who have made arrangements with one another for the convenience involved.”
He looked around at them all. Several were blushing, a few were staring down at their desks. A couple were paying rapt attention, and he made a mental note to get Midnight to have a talk with the class properly later- her openness about her own sexuality made it a little easier for her to advise her students about their budding sexual urges.
“What I said, the part that got misinterpreted, was that it was important for heroes to have a healthy understanding of their own sexuality- what they were into and what they were completely against. Riding a battle high in need of release is not the best time to find out you have a thing for bloodplay, for example. Or that you’re gay,” he added.
He looked around at the class again. Now why did I say that? he thought, and his eyes landed on Todoroki, who was staring resolutely at the floor. Ah, of course . Out loud, he said, “Look, this kind of thing isn’t really my forte. But it sounds like this is a lesson you all need to be taught so… I’ll arrange a class about it. With someone who is an expert, and can talk to you more frankly.”
He could almost feel the relief in the air, and hear the collected thoughts of “Oh good, Mr. Aizawa is going to stop talking about sex to us” coming from them.
-/-
If Aizawa had held out any hope that he’d embarrassed them out of their plans, this was dashed as he left the classroom later, and conversation began breaking out. Before he was out of earshot, he heard Kirishima say, “See? I told you he was gay!” He sighed. So much for that hope. It was up to All Might, now. Maybe he could dissuade them.
-/-
All Might found him at lunch, a bento clutched in one hand. They settled down at one of the tables in the teachers’ lounge, Aizawa filling All Might in on the morning’s class.
“Careful your students don’t see you eating together,” Midnight said, coming over to join them. “You’ll only encourage them.”
“They wouldn’t realize who I was eating with,” Aizawa said. He turned to Midnight, oblivious to the look of dawning realization spreading across All Might’s face at his words. “Can you run a lesson on sexuality for me sometime soon? It came up in class today and I think it would benefit all of them.”
“Sure, no problem. Always a good idea to get the kids on the right track early. Don’t want anyone else finding out they’re gay in the middle of a battle high.”
She gave Aizawa a pointed look, and he looked away, gaze landing on All Might for a distraction. He raised an eyebrow. “Are you okay?”
“I have a solution,” All Might said, a little hoarse. “It’s so… simple . You just have to go on a date with me.”
“I’m not giving in to the students’ plotting,” Aizawa said, ignoring the delight glittering in Midnight’s eyes. “It only ever encourages them.”
“No no, I don’t mean… I mean go on a date with me . Not All Might .”
There was a pause, while they both considered this. Midnight suddenly grinned, and punched Aizawa in the arm.
“That’s perfect! If you go on a date somewhere visible, one of the kids is bound to find out, and they’ll lay off of both of you!”
“This sounds like a bad idea,” Aizawa said, and looked between them. Midnight looked hopeful, in a way he didn’t want to analyze at all , but All Might was just smiling at him. He sighed. “All right, since it doesn’t look like we have any other options. And since just telling them we know and they should back off is apparently off the table.”
“It was never on the table,” Midnight said. “Have you met your students? Telling them not to meddle is exactly the opposite of what will work.”
“One date, Aizawa. We’ll make sure a couple students see us, and then it’s back to business as usual.”
It should have been that easy. If it was any other class, it probably would have been. Unfortunately, this class was something special, which, for better or worse, meant that nothing was ever going to be easy. And they weren’t going to give up. Ever.
It should have been that easy. It wasn’t.
-/-
As predicted, All Might’s attempt to head off the students’ discussion about dating among heroes by talking about how limited dating time was did nothing but make the kids even more determined to get him and Aizawa together- if their overheard post-class discussion was any indication, it was sad how All Might didn’t have time to find a date and it was their duty to help him out, now.
“Told you,” Midnight said. “They’re a tenacious bunch, they won’t let go of this so easily. So about this date of yours-”
“Who would be best to have see us?” Aizawa asked All Might, ignoring Midnight’s eager gaze.
“Ashido, definitely,” All Might said, ticking off on his fingers. “She’s the ringleader of this whole thing, if she bows out the rest will follow. How about Todoroki, too? He’s level. They’ll trust him.”
Aizawa nodded. “Yaoyorozu?”
“Definitely.”
“How do we make sure they see us? We’ll have to make sure we’re in the same place as them.”
“Leave that to me,” All Might said. “I’ll use my man on the inside to find out their plans.”
“You mean Midoriya.”
“Not necessarily!”
“We can’t make plans until we know where they’ll be,” Aizawa said. “Call me tonight, once Midoriya fills you in-”
“You don’t know that I mean Midoriya.”
“-and we’ll go from there.” They finally looked over at Midnight, who was watching them with rapt attention, chin planted on her hands and utter glee written on her face. “It’ll probably be best to plan without Midnight there, anyway.”
“Agreed. She’s getting kinda creepy.”
-/-
Mic was pouring himself a cup of coffee when Midnight appeared out of nowhere, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him, causing him to throw his coffee straight into the air, splashing it everywhere. He screamed when it landed on him, nearly shattering a nearby window and getting them a glare from Snipe, probably. It was hard to tell under the mask .
“What is wrong with you?!” Mic shouted, grabbing a wad of paper towels to clean himself up. Midnight ignored this, and gave him a gleeful look.
“It’s happening, Mic! The Erasermight train is finally leaving the station!”
“What?” Mic gave her a disbelieving look and paused wiping himself down. “You’re crazy, no way Shouta got his act together that quickly.”
She held up one hand. “On my honor, Hizashi. They were making plans for their date just ten minutes ago. I saw it. I was there . It’s happening .”
“It can’t be,” Mic insisted. “Just last week Shouta was complaining about how obnoxious All Might is. No way he’s warmed up enough to go on a date with him. He hasn’t even gotten to the point of accepting he’s got a big ol’ gigantic crush. Last time he was like this, it took me a year to talk him around.”
“Well…” Midnight pouted, and finally let go of her context. “They think it’s a fake date, of course…”
“Of course,” Snipe repeated, coming over to join them, his interest finally piqued. “That sounds like a mighty important detail, you know.”
“Why are they going on a fake date?”
“Because the students are trying to set them up.” Midnight waved a hand absently, brushing that away as unimportant. “They think if the kids see him with Small Might, they’ll lay off.”
“Not a bad plan,” Mic said, while Snipe added, “We really have to quit calling him that.”
“Anyway.” Midnight grinned. “ They think it’s a fake date, but if we play our cards right, I bet we can make it a real one.”
“Got a plan?”
“Yes, but we have to involve Midoriya. All Might will trust him more than Shouta trusts us.”
-/-
Midoriya was not expecting to get accosted by three of his teachers on his way home. He looked between Mic, Snipe, and Midnight, and then back to Snipe, because Midnight was scary and Mic was hard to take seriously.
“Um… If this is about my English test…”
-/-
All Might called Midoriya that night. Midoriya sighed when he saw the name flashing on his screen, and answered.
“Hello?”
“Midoriya!” A beat. “...you sound down. Everything okay?”
“Um, well, I did what you asked and arranged for Ashido, Todoroki, and Yaoyorozu to be in the same place Sunday, but…”
He trailed off. He wanted nothing more than to tell All Might that the other teachers were plotting now as well, but they’d sworn him to secrecy, or more accurately had threatened him into secrecy.
Midnight had made it pretty clear what would happen if he blabbed. He shuddered. No, he would just have to help them like he’d agreed.
“So what’s the problem?” All Might asked, concern lacing his voice.
“Well, it’s just… when I called Ashido asking her where she was going to be Sunday, she uh… kinda thought I was asking her out.”
“Whoah.”
“Yeah. And then I mentioned Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, and she seemed to think I was trying to set them up, too!”
He buried his face in his hand. Ashido had sounded… odd… when he’d asked about their other classmates. He didn’t want to think about what that might mean for him.
“Wait, so she agreed to go out with you? Ashido?”
“What? Oh, yeah, she seemed pretty eager once the conversation got going. Go figure.” Once he’d brought up the others, she’d been downright enthusiastic. “So we’re going on a double date Sunday. I don’t know how she arranged things with Yaoyorozu and Todoroki, but they’ll both be there.”
“So where’s ‘there’, then?”
“You know Simple Wok? We’ll be there at twelve.”
“That noodle place? Sure, I’ve been there a few times. No problem. I’ll arrange things with Aizawa, thanks for your help.”
“No problem, All Might.”
He hung up, and sighed. Maybe it would turn out okay. Maybe the others would have a terrible time and he wouldn’t be expected to follow through on anymore dates. Maybe All Might and Aizawa would just have a nice time and go about their lives like it’d never happened.
Or maybe … He shook his head. Sure, maybe it would turn out romantically for his teachers, but he couldn’t hope for it. It wasn’t his business, and unlike his classmates, he couldn’t see this as the kind of meddling All Might had meant when he talked about meddling as a hero.
-/-
About an hour earlier, Ashido and Yaoyorozu had a conversation that went something like this:
“I’m telling you, Momo! The Tododeku ship is leaving the harbor! Woo, wooo!”
“That’s trains. Ships honk. And are you sure Midoriya was after a date with Todoroki?”
“If he was after a date with me he isn’t nearly as observant as everyone keeps making out like he is. And why would he suddenly be okay with meddling in people’s love lives? You heard him when we were planning for Mr. Aizawa and All Might.”
“That’s true…”
“Look, he asked me what I was doing Sunday, and then when I asked if he was asking me out he suddenly brought up Todoroki, and then you, like it was an afterthought. Listen, Momo, it’s happening. So are you in, or not?”
“Do you think you can talk Todoroki around?”
“Oh, sure, no problem.”
“Okay. Then I’m in.”
“Great!”
Ashido hung up, and dialed Todoroki’s number. After a few moments, he picked up.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Todoroki! Come to Simple Wok with me Sunday, okay?”
There was a pause, during which Ashido wondered if this was going to work, but Todoroki responded, “Okay. What time?”
“One o’clock! Wear something nice. Bye!”
She hung up then, before he could answer, and pumped her fist in the air. Everything was coming together- and if being a hero fell through, it looked like she could always turn to matchmaking.
-/-
The week dragged by. The kids kept up their plans, starting class discussions that always pointed in the direction of dating and sex, and always seeming to suggest the idea that their other teacher must be kind of lonely, when it came up. It was annoying, but it seemed strange that this was what they were limiting themselves too. Aizawa had a bad feeling they were planning something bigger, and just using this as a chance to plant the idea firmly in their teachers’ heads beforehand.
“It doesn’t matter,” All MIght said, when he brought it up. “Come Sunday we’ll put a stop to this with no problem.”
“I hope so. Do you want to meet at the restaurant, or should one of us pick up the other?”
“Simple Wok is between our places, so it’d be best if we met up. My sources-”
“Midoriya.”
“-tell me that they’ll be arriving at twelve. Do you want to get there before them, and let them see us when they come in, or get there after, and let them see us when we come in?”
“Best before. If we get there after them they’ll expect us- well, me- to either acknowledge them or leave. If they get there after us, then they’ll see us and try to hide and spy on us. It’ll be less suspicious then.”
“So what are you boys going to wear?” Midnight asked. She was draped over the back of the couch watching them, though they’d largely been ignoring her till now. They both turned to her.
“Does it matter?” Aizawa asked.
She just sighed. “Of course it matters. You want to sell this, right? You have to make the kids believe you’re on a date. If you show up looking like you both do now, as far as the kids will know, you’re just having lunch with a friend.” She turned to where Snipe was pouring coffee. “Hey, Snipe, back me up on this. If you saw them out like this, would you assume they were on a date?”
He looked up- “Nope.” -and went back to making his coffee. Midnight gave them a look as if to say “ See ?”
“You have to actually look the part,” she said, moving over so she was leaning between them. “Wear something that fits, and actually brush your hair for a change. Something that makes the kids say ‘oh, Mr. Aizawa is making an effort , obviously he wants to impress this guy, it must be a date .’ You do own clothes that fit, right?” she added, looking at All Might.
“Midnight, the reason I wear baggy clothes is so that if something comes up I can transform without worrying about destroying my clothes and flashing everyone.”
“I don’t know, you could probably stop a few criminals in their tracks if they had All Might coming after them without any clothes on. Yes, all right, I know what you’re saying. But it’s only for a couple of hours, and you’re on Recovery Girl’s orders not to do any crime fighting unless it’s planned in advance so you don’t worsen your condition. It’ll be fine.”
“So why do I have to brush my hair?” Aizawa asked.
“Because even if you turned up in your pajamas, the fact that you bothered to brush your hair would tell your students that you were serious.”
“What are you trying to say?”
A sigh. “I’ll send Mic over to help you out before you leave. Meanwhile you and I-” She leaned over the couch more and looped an arm through All Might’s. “-are going clothes shopping. I’ll find you something that makes you look pretty.”
“You’ll have your work cut out for you,” All Might said, with a little self deprecating laugh. Both heroes gave him unreadable looks, and Midnight’s grip on his arm tightened.
“Don’t worry, after some of the miracles I’ve worked, you’ll be a piece of cake.”
-/-
Midoriya was looking frazzled. He had not told anyone of his plans for the weekend, and as far as he knew none of the others had, either. Therefore, absolutely everyone had heard, and he’d been the subject of murmurs.
“Why are you going out with Ashido?” Ururaka asked over lunch. Midoriya turned a brilliant shade of red and stared fixedly at his food.
“I didn’t intend to,” he said. “I wanted to hang out and- she got the wrong idea. Anyway, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu will be there too!”
She considered him for a minute, and then a lightbulb seemed to go off in her head and she said a quiet “Ooooh , I see,” and went back to eating.
That wasn’t the first conversation he’d had like that, either. Iida, Kirishima, and Tsuyu had already confronted him as well, and all had had the same reaction. He wondered if there was something he was missing, and decided to look into it later. Maybe he could ask Ashido, when he explained to her that he hadn’t meant to ask her out.
-/-
Sunday came. Early in the morning- far too early for Aizawa’s tastes- Present Mic appeared at his door, banging on it until it was opened to reveal a grumpy Aizawa, giving Mic his most unimpressed glare.
“Do you have to make so much noise?”
“You know it!” Mic beamed- it was far too early to be this awake- and pushed past Aizawa into the apartment. Aizawa didn’t bother objecting; there would be no point. Instead he turned his gaze to the case Mic was carrying in one hand, and glared at it.
“What are you planning?”
“Look, my man, you and I both know a brush alone isn’t going to do anything for that pile of tangles you call your hair. S’why I came early. Now come on, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“You do know this is a fake date, right?” Aizawa said, following Mic into the bathroom. “I’m sure I could sell the idea without going through half of this trouble.”
“It’s totally necessary! Anyway, you know I love any excuse to get you dolled up.” At Aizawa’s look, he added, “And I promise I won’t do anything extreme. We’re just going to give you a really good cleaning before we start brushing, that’s all. And then a nice updo.”
“I do brush my hair you know.” Aizawa pulled his shirt off, mussing up his hair even more than usual. “It just tangles so easily.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Mic plonked the case down and snapped it open, revealing far more hair products than any one person ought to own. Aizawa sighed. What had he gotten himself into?
-/-
All Might wasn’t much of a morning person, despite giving off the appearance of one- actually, no, that wasn’t quite accurate. He’d been a morning person once , and he still liked to be up and about early, but the amount of rest he now had to get to keep himself functioning meant he’d had to put “early” a little bit later.
So he was still asleep when Midnight arrived at his door Sunday morning, a garment bag thrown over her shoulder. She pushed him through the door on her way in, and dropped the garment bag over the back of the couch.
“I brought all of the things we bought the other day,” she said. “We’ll have you looking pretty in no time.”
“It doesn’t take me-” He glanced at the clock. “-four hours to get dressed, Midnight. Why are you here so early?”
“Because it’s going to take that long for everything else.”
She unzipped the garment bag and began laying out the clothes, humming to herself, while All Might looked on apprehensively. What had he gotten himself into?
-/-
There was a cafe across from Simple Wok. Ten minutes before All Might and Aizawa were due to meet, Midoriya ducked into it, and then nearly had a heart attack when a deep voice to his side said, “Mornin’, Midoriya.”
He looked over at the man who’d spoken. He was wearing street clothes, but Midoriya didn’t think there were that many people with dreadlocks and cowboy accents hanging around. He moved over to the table.
“Mr. Snipe?”
Snipe just touched his hat in greeting and gestured for Midoriya to take the other seat, which he did. “Come to watch, too?”
“Um, well.” His hands were folded in front of him, wringing nervously. “It’s just- I really hate this. Meddling, I mean. It’s not really our business.”
“Know what you mean. That’s why I volunteered to keep an eye on them, instead of Mic and Midnight. As long as they were gonna involve me, the least I could do is make a buffer. If anything happens between those two, it has to happen on its own.” He picked up the book he’d been reading before Midoriya arrived. There was a shirtless cowboy on the front. “Keep your head down once they get here. Remember, we’re not here to meddle.”
“Yes, sir.”
-/-
Aizawa arrived at Simple Wok first, and stood waiting around for All Might while feeling very self conscious. Mic had talked him into a shirt that showed off his collarbone and forced him practically at knife-point to leave behind his scarf. Between this and the bun Mic had tamed his hair into, he felt exposed , and he didn’t like it.
And then All Might arrived, and Aizawa’s world stopped .
Just before leaving, Midnight had sent him a text that just said ‘wait’ll you see him ;)’, and he hadn’t questioned this because it was just Midnight, but now he understood. She’d put him in pale blue t-shirt and jeans that fit , and it was amazing how much ‘clothes that actually fit’ did for his looks.
Aizawa reminded himself to breathe, and then reminded himself again when it didn’t work the first time. He gave All Might a strained smile.
“The kids’ll be here soon,” he said. “We should get our seats and get ready for them.”
“Sure,” All Might agreed softly. If Aizawa wasn’t so busy reminding himself not to stare, he’d probably have questioned the new layer in All Might’s tone, the soft look in his eyes; as it was, he refused to make a fool of himself, and shoved his hands into his pockets so he could slouch in and find them a seat that would be visible but not too visible.
-/-
Across the road, Midoriya had covered his mouth with both hands. “Did you see that?” he squeaked. Beside him, Snipe didn’t even look up from his book.
“Yup.”
“Did that actually just happen?”
“A-yup.”
“I don’t believe it… was everyone right about them?”
Snipe chuckled, and set his book down. “Your friend has a good eye for interpersonal relationships,” Snipe said. “At least this kind. There’s a reason she picked All Might for Aizawa, and it was no accident.” He grinned. “If I were you, I’d worry about what she’s planning for your date.”
Midoriya squeaked again. He had a very bad feeling about the rest of the day now.
-/-
Aizawa was getting antsy. The kids were supposed to be there almost an hour ago, according to All Might, and they hadn’t arrived yet. He and All Might had already gotten their food and were nearly done, quiet conversation drifting between them. It was extremely relaxed and comfortable, and there was absolutely no reason for Aizawa to be so agitated.
All Might, as it turned out, was excellent company. Aizawa already knew this, they’d become friendlier over the past couple months, but their interactions thus far had been limited to the school and school-related events, and the occasional drink with the other teachers after work, which Aizawa considered also a school-related event.
Okay, so they’d walked each other home a few times, but they’d spent the entirety of each walk discussing the students, which was also a school-related thing.
The point was: Aizawa had never spent time with All Might socially. And now that he was, he was realizing two things: All Might was charming company, and All Might was an attentive date. And Aizawa couldn’t help but think that if this were a real date, he would be well and truly courted at this point.
“Where are those damn kids?” he snapped, slamming the breaks on that train of thought before it could get anywhere.
All Might looked confused, and nodded toward the window. “Well Midoriya’s been across the road with Snipe since before we got here,” he said. “No idea about the rest of them. Don’t turn around,” he added, because Aizawa had been about to do just that. “Snipe is probably spying on us and I don’t want it to get back to Midnight and Mic that we know they’re meddling.”
Aizawa’s forehead came down to meet the table with a thump. “I should have known,” he said. “There was no way Midnight was only helping so we could get the kids off of us. I should have realized she had a plan.”
All Might laughed. “Don’t worry, we just have to make it to when the kids get here. And at this rate, we’ll be done eating and they just have to see us leaving together.” He wiggled his fingers at Aizawa. “I’ll hold your hand while we leave, that’ll leave no questions in their minds.”
“How are you so calm ?”
Another laugh. It was dawning on Aizawa that he could listen to that sound a lot more. “Isn’t it usually the other way around with us?” He shrugged. “It’s not so bad. I’m having a nice time. You’re good company.”
“Oh.” While Aizawa’s ears turned pink and he tried to come up with a response, he heard the bell above the door tinkle and turned to look. It was Ashido and Yaoyorozu; he turned quickly back to All Might before they could recognize him.
“I shouldn’t have put my back to the door,” he said. “What are they doing?”
“Whispering and giggling. They haven’t seen us yet- they’re probably waiting for the boys to get here to get seats. Okay, they’ve seen me, but they haven’t recognized you yet.” He put his hand over his mouth and laughed softly. “I think you have to let them see you from the front. From behind you’re unrecognizable like this.”
A disgruntled huff. “I never should have let Mic talk me into leaving my scarf at home. Hold on, I’ll go to the bathroom and let them see me when I come back.”
“Okay. The boys should be here by then. I’ll go pay our tab while the kids are getting here, and then we can leave. Midoriya will make sure they see us.”
Aizawa got up and headed toward the bathroom. At the same time, the door opened and Midoriya and Todoroki came in; All Might went to pay their tab, keeping one surreptitious eye on the kids while he waited for Aizawa to get back.
He was standing near enough that some of their conversation floated over to him- they were discussing seating arrangements, and Ashido was being very insistent that she sit across from Midoriya and beside Yaoyorozu, putting Midoriya and Todoroki beside each other. Midoriya and Todoroki seemed baffled about why she was insisting on such arrangements, but one quick glance at Ashido and something clicked in All Might's head. Ah . So that was why.
“Is that Mr. Aizawa ?!” Ashido whisper-shrieked. All Might turned his attention to the bathrooms and saw Aizawa coming back. Show time. Once he was close enough All Might held out a hand.
“Tab’s settled,” he said, as casually as he could. “Ready to go?”
“Yes.”
Without another word they left, hand in hand. All Might wished he could stay and watch their reactions, but he’d have to get the details from Midoriya later. And hopefully this would be enough to keep the kids off them.
-/-
They held hands all the way to the end of the street. All Might hoped Aizawa wouldn’t notice and pull away soon. He liked the way Aizawa’s hand felt in his.
As if he could hear All Might’s thoughts, Aizawa tugged his hand away and shoved it into his pocket. “I’m going home,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
And then he was gone. All Might watched him go, then leaned back against the wall, took a deep breath, and said, “ Shit .”
-/-