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Not for the first time, Shouta woke up completely confused. Everything was dark and cold, though he could see a pale shaft of light through a slit in the… bandages, he realised, that wrapped up the entirety of his face. Nothing around him made sense, and he felt disoriented, like his eyes has suddenly stopped working…
His head slammed into the ground, again and again, until the earth below him was almost crumbled into dust and his skull didn’t feel much better. The Nomu’s rough, huge hands grabbed one of his arms, and he desperately tried to retain consciousness while twisting his arm out of its grip… Pain rocketed through his already aching body as a loud snap came from his arm, and coloured spots began to blossom in his bloody vision as he bit on his tongue to stop the scream that threatened to come out. His arm thudded to the ground, useless, and the Nomu grabbed his other arm like a baby playing with its toys.. This time, he anticipated the pain, and braced himself, almost stopping the tears that gushed out of his eyes, leaving a stinging pain in their wake to accompany the excruciating throbbing of his arms.
Oh, right. He wasn’t wrong, then, in assuming that he’d ruined his eyes. He repeated it out loud in as flat a voice as he could manage, but it came out all wrong , in a hoarse, almost gasping, shaky whisper. He pursed his lips and screwed his eyes shut as far as he could, blatantly ignoring the fresh burst of pain that shot through his skull and the nausea that quickly followed. If he couldn’t use his eyes… then he supposed his quirk was gone forever. The thought alone hurt, and he pushed it away, storing it together with the other feelings he would deal with later . He took a deep breath to try and calm down, but that only had the opposite effect, the pain in his hopefully not broken ribs becoming more intense. His arms were… suspended in front of him, he realised, or rather, above him, the stiff casts wrapped around them doing nothing to quell the dull, yet still prominent pain. His entire body felt exhausted and drained, though that was nothing really new, but he was also simultaneously so restless that he could hardly lay still. He tried to swing his legs over the side of the bed, until his back and muscles screamed loudly in protest, before giving up and sinking back down into what he realised was a hospital bed, his eyes open yet not registering anything. He’d probably never felt so helpless in his life.
“Aizawa-sensei?” He barely had time to register the sound of a door sliding open as well as a hesitant voice before his vision exploded in neon, making his eyes water and sending an explosion of pain through his head. And suddenly, he was back in USJ again, and sounds and colours and the metallic taste of blood were all that he could comprehend, and oh god he needed to calm the fuck down , there was someone else in the room and goodness knows who it was… He could barely move his face - it seemed that the Nomu had split his right cheekbone, but he managed to speak, or at least rasp, as a pair of anxious footsteps came closer.
“Turn off the lights.”
A sharp inhale from somewhere beside him before the footsteps pattered away again, and the wild colours blurring his vision slowly dissipated. At the same time, through the throbbing in his head, he realised with a crushing sensation that the door was apparently in the entirely opposite direction from where he'd thought it was. He locked the following thoughts up, too, and secured them into the mental vault that he might care to open up someday and sort out… maybe.
For now, though, the voice he had heard was familiar, as was the hopping rhythm of the footsteps…
“Asui-san?” he mumbled as the footsteps came back again. There was a soft thunk, like a heavy something being set down gently on somewhere, before
“You can call me Tsuyu, sensei.” Okay, something was definitely wrong here, Shouta thought, his mind wide awake despite the fresh wave of pain that came with it. Tsuyu was one of the most level-headed students in class, but her voice was unusually soft and choked, like she was about to cry. What could have happened that would cause something like this? Creeping fingers of dread gripped his throat, constricting his already shallow breathing, and he forced himself to stay calm as he thought through the events at USJ, pushing his mind through frame by frame like a slow-motion horror movie. He’d lost sight of Tsuyu at the beginning, when he’d jumped down to fight and left the students with Thirteen, and only saw her again later when… right, the Nomu. And Tomura Shigaraki, seemingly the ringleader of the villains, the one with ghastly, sickly blue hair and hands all over his body, the one who had used his quirk to utterly ruin his elbow, before turning on.
Tsuyu. Shigaraki had turned on Tsuyu after she, Minoru and Izuku had accidentally given their location away, and he shuddered to think of what would have happened if his overwhelming instincts hadn’t taken over and he somehow used his quirk through eyes that could barely see, and in the right direction, too. No wonder Tsuyu was afraid, he only remembered being terrified, and he was the one supposed to be a Pro Hero.
He didn’t say any of this, though, only nodding to the best of his ability in what he thought was her direction. “Alright then, Tsuyu-san.”
A stiff silence fell, and Shouta cast around for some way to break it, and distract Tsuyu, change the topic somehow…
“Tsuyu-san, you’re here on your own?” he finally managed, internally cursing himself for how weak his voice sounded, and how weak the attempt to change the topic had been. Thankfully, Tsuyu latched onto the question.
“Oh, no, the whole class wanted to come, sensei,” she replied, and a slight smile had crept into her voice. “They’re all waiting downstairs because the hospital staff refused to let everyone in. Everyone has gifts for you, though, sensei. They asked me to come since I’m good at holding things with my tongue.”
That didn’t quite add up, Shouta thought. If 1-A wanted someone to carry something, surely they would have picked Mezou Shouji as the obvious choice, given his strength and abundance of arms. Nevertheless, it was still a relief to hear Tsuyu perking up, the tension leaving her voice. So, when the girl slightly tentatively offered to tell him about his students’ gifts, obviously knowing that he could currently neither see or move much, he allowed her to, listening to the lilt in her voice to distract him from any other sounds his brain decided to play.
Like typical sixteen-year-olds, his kids were weird in hilarious ways, and it showed in their gift choices. Izuku, ever the fanboy, had decided to give Shouta a figurine of himself, or at least himself as Eraser Head. Mina had chosen a figurine, too, but one of Hizashi , Tsuyu saying innocently that no one knew why. If it didn’t hurt so much, he would have smiled. For her abysmal grades, the acid-user was quite astute, and probably the first in her class to figure it out. Though, he considered that that was likely to stem from her keen interest in other people’s love lives as well.
“Ochaco-chan and Satou-kun made cupcakes,” Tsuyu was saying, before adding apologetically, “though you may not be able to eat them yet, sensei.” Ochaco and Rikidou, huh. They would make quite a good battling pair, their quirks and abilities quite balanced, and while Ochaco would be quite at a loss when it came to dealing with Rikidou after quirk overuse, she could be trusted to make a split-second decision that wasn’t life-threatening, at least.
“Momo-chan got you a few different kinds of tea,” Tsuyu paused for a while, before following up with, “and Todoroki-kun got… coffee, plus a note to sleep more.” Two directly contrasting messages, Shouta thought amusedly, his mood already lifted. Tsuyu seemed to be rifling around for something, before letting out a small groan.
“And we told him not to!” she said to herself in dismay. “Iida-kun brought you a fountain pen ,” she said helplessly. “He was ranting on about a family tradition of some sort, I don’t think he knows you broke your arms…”
“That’s okay,” he chuckled. “Arms can heal, don’t worry.” Tenya, rule-abiding, responsible and a courageous leader - he was wildly different from Shouta’s memories of his older brother Tensei, but a good student nonetheless, with a lot of potential and commitment. A good call to make him class representative instead of you, Izuku, he thought wryly. After all, Izuku inspired people whether he was in a leadership position or not, and being the class representative definitely seemed to be doing Tenya a lot of good.
“But -” Tsuyu seemed like she was going to say something, then thought better of it and stopped midway. “Kirishima-kun, Sero-kun, and Mineta-kun were with Bakugou-kun the whole day yesterday making onigiri,” she said instead, amusement back in her voice. “I couldn’t carry them all, they probably made enough to feed the entire class for a week.” Judging by the slight crinkle of plastic, she was picking the rice cakes up to look at them.
“I think Bakugou-kun made most of them himself,,” was her verdict, taking Shouta by slight surprise. He hadn’t expected the explosive, rude student to be good at something like cooking, but you learned something new every day. He reminded himself not to ever be surprised by anything his class came up with at this point. They may have well-developed and powerful quirks, but kids were kids, and they were still loud, annoying, rambunctious and adorable. This year’s 1-A had the distinction of remaining a full class still, and though some were improving at a much slower rate than their peers, he was still proud of them. All of them were furiously chasing down their goals, and steadily making progress, too. And with Tsuyu there, her clear, expressive voice making it as though the classmates she described were there with her, he found it hard to concentrate on pain, or loneliness, and instead found himself laughing along with his student inside his head. It was a nice feeling, almost like floating, calm and cheerful. Like all the problems in the world just faded away, and everything was just as vibrant as it would seem to a very young child.
Kyouka, Denki and Tokoyami had pooled their funds to buy a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, a surprisingly in-character yet considerate choice. He did wish, though, as much as he was touched by their gift, that they hadn’t picked out something so expensive. He didn’t really know how to tell them that without hurting their feelings, however, and had no choice but to let it slide this time. The headphones, according to Tsuyu, were black, but had a streak of yellow on the headband, and he couldn’t decide if the colour was simply Denki’s choice, or if this group, too, had come to the same conclusion as Mina.
“Aoyama-kun and Ojiro-kun made a blanket,” Tsuyu announced. “And no, it’s actually really not that sparkly,” she giggled. “In fact, sensei, Aoyama-kun was whining that it looked dull!” Yuga and Mashirao… another unconventional pair, though he suspected that their cooperation had something to do with neither having particularly close friends. Mashirao was a very quiet person, almost as introverted as Kouji, who almost never spoke outside of his quirk. Both had quirks with many weaknesses, but they would slowly learn how to work around them. That was what they were in UA for, and since their grasp on theory seemed to only be slightly shaky, it was practical skills that they needed to train. He could give them additional training besides the normal hero lessons, but that would have to wait until whatever damage the Nomu did to him had recovered. Maybe he could get someone to spar with them, but they would still need a teacher present, so he may as well ask Hizashi anyway, though that on top of three jobs would definitely be too much, and
“Aizawa-sensei?” Tsuyu’s voice broke him out of his overthinking, sounding concerned. “Is something wrong? I could -” He stopped her before her tone became too anxious, silently cuing her to go on with the previous topic when no sound came out of his mouth.
“Kouji wanted to bring a real cat, because you like them, but it wouldn’t be allowed in a hospital, so he compromised and got a cat-themed eye mask instead,” Tsuyu laughed a clear, bright laugh. “Now you can sleep without being disturbed by us, sensei!” she joked, and Shouta allowed himself a few chuckles together with her. It was true - with the noise of his eternally boisterous class muted and his eyes shielded from the bright fluorescent lights, he would definitely fall asleep much easier.
“And…” The hesitant quality had returned to Tsuyu’s voice, but this time it was also full of anticipation and barely suppressed nervousness. “Shouji-kun, Touru-chan and I made a sweater,” she said in a small voice. “We hope it will fit.”
“I should really go to the hospital more often,” he joked, since Tsuyu sounded like she was about to cry. “Thank you, Tsuyu-san. Thank the rest of the class for me, too,” he added warmly, albeit with a voice that sounded like fingernails scraping across a blackboard. “You really didn’t have to…” It was almost as though he was the kid now, and twenty inexperienced mother hens were all trying to show concern at once. He would never admit it to Nemuri or Yagi (maybe he would to Hizashi if he was in the mood), but he was definitely rather fond of this class.
“You shouldn’t be the one thanking us,” Tsuyu said lowly, her voice choked up. She was definitely crying now, and Shouta was slightly panicked. Was it because of something he said? Maybe the joke earlier was too insensitive, no, it definitely was, but how did one even deal with a crying child anyway -
“Aizawa-sensei, I know I wasn’t supposed to be there, but I watched your fight with Tomura Shigaraki,” Tsuyu admitted in a small voice, and he didn’t have the heart to tell her that he’d seen the three of them there from the start. “You were amazing, Aizawa-sensei. Before that, you so easily beat the other villains even though you were outnumbered, and even though you were getting beaten up by that - that -” The soft sounds of tears falling onto the ground could be heard from beside him, and he wished he could move so that he could at least try to comfort her, instead of having to just lie still, effectively paralysed.
“You saved me,” she whispered, guilt saturated in her tone. “Even though you were already so badly hurt. I will never be able to repay you, Aizawa-sensei -”
“Actually, you can,” he interjected, and her breath hitched. “Tsuyu-san, I have no regrets about saving you.” The pain in his throat was starting to build up again, but Tsuyu was more important. “It will be more than enough repayment for me if you work hard towards your dream. I know you’ll be a hero we can all be proud of, Tsuyu-san.”
It hurt to talk any further, but he had said what he wanted to say, and it seemed to have the intended impact, since Tsuyu’s sobs sounded less like guilt and regret and more like relieved happiness. He let her cry, until the only sound left in the room was her gulping breaths. Even Pro Heroes couldn’t save everyone, he knew. But like All Might said, he would aim to save everyone he could reach. Starting with class 1-A, he decided firmly. It would be tough for everyone involved, but they had gone through much more than first years ever should, and they deserved to have a chance to sort themselves out.
A few moments after Tsuyu left, her footsteps bouncier and lighter, the door opened again and Hizashi came in, his tense expression relaxing when he saw that Shouta was awake. Knowing better than to turn on the lights, he strode over to the bedside, a clear pout in his tone.
“Shou-chan, you made a girl cry!” he pretended to scold, both his wide grin and his relief evident in his tone. “ And you made me worry.”
“I would never make one of my kids cry,” Shouta replied instinctively and flatly, affronted both by the insinuation and the use of his nickname. Though, he supposed he did worry Hizashi, for however long he’d been unconscious.
What he didn’t expect was for Hizashi to laugh, his voice echoing around the room even without his quirk. “So you finally admitted it, Shou-chan! Your kids !” he repeated, dispelling the tension in the room and making it seem brighter.
He went along with Hizashi’s antics, moving his lips into an obligatory scowl, but -
“Hey, Zashi-chan,” he said suddenly, retaliating with Hizashi’s pet name. “I was just thinking…” He could feel Hizashi’s eyes on him, unusually thoughtful. But he had to say it now, so that he would remember it forever, and so he would never break this promise to himself. Hizashi wouldn’t like it, unfortunately, but after what had happened at USJ, he supposed it was understandable.
“If they’re my kids, then I’ll do anything and everything I can… to make sure that they never get hurt again.”