Chapter Text
1. Wednesday
The dorms held a bunch of insomniacs. That was to be expected; there were many reasons for the 1-A students to sleep poorly, from all-nighters to do homework to nightmares about all the stuff they’d been through.
Usually, sleeping problems came from overthinking or fear – Momo knew that all too well. So when she found out that she wasn’t the only one who’d miss entire nights of sleep, she used her power as second-in-command class rep to allow her classmates to come to the common room at night.
Company usually didn’t help anyone fall asleep, but at least it made them feel safe at night. Momo spent most of her nights on the couch in the common room, just because it was an environment that helped keep her overthinking mind calm. Tokoyami often joined her quietly somewhere along the night. The presence of other people and the soft lighting in the common room helped keep Dark Shadow at bay in his sleep.
Tonight, it was a very hot night. Most students were probably dying of the heat in their own rooms, but some had just given up on trying to sleep and had come downstairs. Momo and Tokoyami were there, and so were Jirou and Tsuyu. Jirou often had trouble falling asleep because of her over-sensitive hearing, and the heat only made it worse, so she’d given up.
Tsuyu was just quietly doing homework in the corner. She tended to get an overload of energy whenever it was hot, just like frogs did. She was listening to music, and enthusiastically bobbing along.
The other two girls, on the other hand, were trying to move as little as they could. They were sprawled out over the couches in an attempt to cool their bodies down. Tokoyami was sitting on the floor in his pajama shorts, trying to absorb as much coolness as he could. He seemed to be meditating.
Jirou groaned. She had one of her earjacks plugged into her phone. Her music was loud enough that Momo could hear it. “Ugh,” she muttered. “My music’s too loud.”
“Turn it down, then,” Momo suggested. Her tone was soft, but her voice was loud, so that Jirou could hear it.
Jirou shook her head. “No,” she said. “If I did that, I’d hear every fan on the second floor from here. That noise is absolutely infuriating. At least I have my music to drown it out.” She sighed. “Regardless: goodbye, sleep.”
Momo reached out to pat Jirou on the shoulder. “You'll survive."
“Thanks. Great advice, Yao-momo.” Jirou gave another groan as she sat up. Momo could hear her skin unsticking from the couch. “Well,” Jirou said, “if I’m not going to sleep, anyway, I’m going to get some water. Anyone else want some?”
Both Momo and Tsuyu gave affirmative noises. Tokoyami did not. Momo observed him as Jirou left to the kitchen. She wondered if his strategy to escape the heat was working. The floor did look quite cool compared to the couch, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to get up and expose her gross sweaty back to the air…
It didn’t matter whether she wanted to get up or not. The door to the hallway gave a near-deafening slam, startling her. She bolted upright, and tried to make out who was standing there, in the half-darkness.
“Hey,” she said, assuming it to be one of her classmates, “please be quiet. We’re going to be sent away if we’re too loud. And--”
Her voice trailed off with a gasp when the person in the hallway started forward and came into the light. “Oh,” she said, one hand in front of her mouth in shock. “Aizawa-sensei!”
She had never seen him look this awful. He was clutching his side with one hand and propping himself up against the wall with the other. He was bent over deeply, his hair obscuring pretty much all of his face. Momo could hear him breathing heavily from where she sat, meters away.
As Momo watched, Aizawa regained some of his balance – just enough to let go of the wall and use that hand to sweep some of his hair out of his face. He smiled at her. “Don’t worry.” His voice shook. “I’ll be okay.”
And then he collapsed.
Momo immediately dashed forward to help. The thud of his falling body had finally alerted Tsuyu and Tokoyami. Tsuyu got closer to Momo. Tokoyami got closer to the nearest lamp, looking troubled. Dark Shadow tended to get out of control easily when he was panicked – and he clearly didn’t want that to happen right now. Staying in the light, where Dark Shadow would be less aggressive should he appear, was a good decision on his part.
Momo and Tsuyu kneeled next to Aizawa. He wasn’t unconscious – his breathing was way too controlled for that – but he wasn’t really responsive, either. He was still clutching his side, his eyes squeezed shut and a grimace twisting his features.
Momo and Tsuyu shared a look. Tsuyu seemed to be way calmer than Momo, so she let her make the decisions. Momo couldn’t imagine that her own decisions would be any good right now. She was still incredibly shocked.
“Sensei?” Tsuyu asked. “We’re going to carry you over to the couch, okay?”
Aizawa opened his eyes. They were very tired – and it was a different tiredness than Momo was used to seeing. They had a certain fogginess to them. “Don’t,” he said, holding one arm in between him and Tsuyu to keep her at a distance. His hand was wet with blood. “It’s fine. I can do it myself.”
He clearly could not. He got himself up to a sitting position against the wall, but did not move any further than that.
“It’s okay,” Momo said quickly, before he pushed himself too far in his pride.
Aizawa hardly looked at her. He took a few seconds to finally steady his breathing, his head leaned against the wall behind him. “Sorry for startling you,” he then said. “Blood loss is a… nasty inconvenience.”
“Did you fight villains on patrol?” Tsuyu asked.
Aizawa nodded. His eyes were closed again. His face, too, seemed beat up, although the exact extent of injury was still hard to estimate.
“Tokoyami?” Momo asked, turning around. “Could you turn on the ceiling light, please?”
Tokoyami seemed more than happy to do so. Momo needed all of her concentration not to gasp when she turned back to Aizawa’s face. It had looked beat up before, but it was way worse in full light. His mouth and nostrils were stained red, evidence of hits that had landed there. Part of his face was covered in blood as well, coming from a gash somewhere on his head. All of that had previously been hidden in the shadow of his hair, but was now painfully clear.
Tsuyu seemed a bit taken aback by it, as well. “That looks bad,” she said. “We can get Recovery Girl, if you need us to.”
Aizawa shook his head. “You don’t have to. I’d rather let her sleep, and then come by in the morning.” He lifted one hand to rub at his bloodshot eyes. “As soon as I can get up, I’m going to bed. I’ll be fine. You shouldn’t worry about me.”
Momo couldn’t escape the irony of that statement. Most of the students in the common room were there because they were often too worried to sleep. And Momo was worried. Sure, as someone who stayed in the common room a lot, she was no stranger to Aizawa or other teachers coming back from patrol battered and beaten, but she’d never seen anyone collapse from blood loss before…
She knew that she shouldn’t argue with him. Aizawa got annoyed quickly. She should just let him go rest. But the worry in her gut was undeniable, and she knew that it wouldn’t go away easily. “Are you sure we shouldn’t go and get Recovery Girl?”
“Yes.” There it was. He was getting impatient.
“Okay, well…” Momo was stammering, trying to search a compromise. “Please, at least stay here. We don’t want you--” Falling down the stairs. Fainting and having to wait for someone to find you. Getting hurt more. Momo was involved in this situation, now. She felt responsible. It helped that both Tsuyu and Tokoyami nodded along with her.
Aizawa sighed. “No,” he said. “You need to sleep, and so do I.” Momo winced a little. She could never get used to being shut down so harshly.
Aizawa was already getting up, slowly. When he turned his back on them to leave the room, Momo couldn’t help but flinch, her hands darting towards her mouth.
The back of Aizawa’s shirt was held together by nearly nothing. It was torn to the point of falling apart. And underneath those tears…
“Aizawa-sensei.” Momo needed to focus to keep her voice from trembling. “Are you aware that your back is bleeding?”
That was a bit of an understatement, but Momo just didn’t want to startle him too much. Three large cuts, not unlike clawmarks, ran from Aizawa’s shoulders down his back. It dawned on Momo that the cut on his side that he was holding, was only the very tail of one of those clawmarks. She swallowed difficultly as she waited for a reaction.
“Yes,” Aizawa eventually replied. His words could’ve sounded cold or impatient, but there was a certain softness to his tone, as if he just wanted to reassure her. “I’m aware.”
Then, to Momo’s shock, he froze, and asked lowly: “Wait. Did you say I was bleeding?”
Thick drops of blood leaked from the cuts, and stuck the fabric of his clothes to the wounds. Momo could hardly tear her anxious eyes away from it. “Y-Yes.”
Aizawa felt carefully at his back, and froze when he touched the new blood. He swore under his breath, barely loud enough for Momo to hear. “Fuck.” His voice was trembling. “I was sure I’d stopped the bleeding.”
He must’ve ripped the cuts open again when he got up from the floor.
The atmosphere in the room changed from bad to worse. They all knew what was happening. Aizawa had already lost a large amount of blood, and now he was bleeding even more. He seemed a bit more startled than annoyed when he spoke next. “Maybe this is the time to get Recovery Girl.”
Tsuyu was already on her feet. “I know where to find her. I’ll be back.”
“I’m coming with you,” Tokoyami said. What stayed unspoken, but what Momo knew well, was that he was still scared of Dark Shadow. He didn’t want to panic, so staying away from the source of panic seemed like the best choice for him.
Tsuyu didn’t seem opposed to his decision. They left the dorm building quickly.
That left Momo alone with Aizawa. Now that the initial panic had worn off, he was back to looking tired and exasperated with the situation. He gave half a shrug and shuffled towards the couch, dragging his feet. He sat down on the arm of the couch, sideways, with his least injured side leaned against the couch cushions.
Momo grew fidgety in the uncomfortable silence. She truly wanted to help, but this was hard.
“I’m getting the first aid kit,” was the decision she eventually settled on.
“Why?” Aizawa replied in a grumble. “Asui and Tokoyami are getting Recovery Girl.”
“Well… yes, but…” Momo struggled to explain. “She’s at the other side of campus. It- It might be a while before they’re back. It might be smart to make an effort to stop the bleeding now. It’ll make the healing easier.”
Aizawa positively scoffed at that. “We’re teaching you to be way too careful,” he muttered under his breath. He didn’t argue, though.
Momo took that as permission to proceed. As soon as she started to walk towards the kitchen, though, she nearly bumped into Jirou. She was holding three cups of water, and almost dropped all three of them.
“Whoops. Sorry,” Jirou said, unplugging her earjack from her phone.
Before Momo could say anything, Jirou actually dropped a cup of water. “Holy shit,” she said shakily. “That’s a lot of blood, sensei.” Momo realized that she’d basically been deaf until right now, because of her music. She’d been completely oblivious to the situation.
At Aizawa’s glare, Jirou quickly added: “I’m… really sorry for swearing, just… That looks awful.”
Instead of replying, Aizawa just let out a really long sigh. “Are you going to clean that up?”
“Oh.” Jirou looked at the small puddle of water at her feet, and the plastic cup that lay beside it. “Uh. Yeah.”
She went to the kitchen to get a dishrag to absorb the water. Inspired by the idea, Momo got some towels from the bathroom, to try to staunch Aizawa’s bleeding. He was absolutely insisting on doing that himself, so now he was sat on the edge of the couch, pressing a towel against his back in a position that couldn’t be comfortable.
Momo was helping Jirou mop up the water on the floor. She looked up at the other girl, eyebrows raised. “You stayed in the kitchen for a long time,” she said. “Was something wrong?”
Jirou looked away awkwardly. Momo suddenly remembered that she was a bit infamous for raiding the fridge late at night, but that she probably didn’t want to admit that right in front of Aizawa. She might get punished for that.
“You know what, it’s alright,” Momo quickly said. Jirou seemed thankful.
Momo left for a moment, to dispose of the wet dishrags. When she got back to the common room, Jirou had joined Aizawa on the couch, and they were talking.
“What happened, exactly?” Jirou was asking. Momo sat down next to her, silently.
“I was on patrol,” Aizawa replied. “And got injured.”
“I… Yeah. I gathered that much.”
“I got in a fight with a villain, an hour ago or so. He kind of beat me up, but nothing too bad. I wasn’t paying enough attention to my surroundings, though. I didn’t realize one of his buddies was sneaking up on me. So, well… big claws and attacks from behind aren’t exactly a good combination.” He clicked his tongue. “I won the fight, though.” Was that pride in his voice?
“How’d you get back here?” Jirou asked.
“Cab,” Aizawa replied simply. “The walk across campus to get to the dorms was the hardest.”
“I can imagine,” Jirou said. She was interrupted by the click of the front door – Tsuyu and Tokoyami were back, with Recovery Girl.
Before the three reached the common room, Aizawa balled the bloody towel up in his hands. He looked at both of the girls. His voice was soft when he spoke. “You did a good job. Both of you.”
Momo struggled to find a way to accept the compliment, and said nothing in the end. Jirou just shrugged, and that was it.
Recovery Girl healed Aizawa quickly, scolding him the entire time for not coming to her earlier. Aizawa just underwent it until the cuts on his back were reduced to scars and his eyes were even more heavy-lidded with sleepiness.
He stayed with his students for the rest of the night. The insomniacs slept soundly, for they were tired and finally at ease.