Chapter Text
Shouta had always pushed himself way too hard during school. The rest of the students could never understand how difficult it was for him to be there. The second he messed up, lost his scholarship, he had to go home where his life would be absolutely terrible. He had to live in a house with his father - Shouta'd never be able to escape. All his work, for nothing. He had to put in twice as much effort as the other students with physical, flashy quirks to get recognition. That’s why Shouta has been up for a day and a half, studying relentlessly for his finals.
He had been let into class 2A when the new semester had started, and he had ceremoniously been adopted by the most annoying friend group he had ever known. Well. The only friend group he had ever known. Aizawa hadn’t been one to get along with his classmates. They held him back, taking up his time in ways he couldn’t afford. It simply wasn’t logical. But damn, these kids were persistent. Even he, as stubborn as Shouta was, had no chance telling them to go away as often as they asked to hang out.
“You look awful Zawa! Well, worse than usual” Nemuri pouted, sitting on top of his desk. “Have you slept at all?”
“Yeah, Shouta!” Hizashi was always so loud in the morning. Aizawa would despise him if it weren’t so endearing. “Have you been studying!” Aizawa deepened his scowl. Of course, he’d been studying. What else was there to do?
“Studying so much isn’t good for you Shouta!” Tensei scolds him. “You’re going to do worse on the exam if you’re not sleeping.”
“Mm” Aizawa blesses them with his short hum. They don’t push it, knowing that when he was particularly grumpy, he was not one for long answers. Thankfully, class starts. Aizawa finds it pretty difficult to stay up, but he still managed to take solid notes before the final bell rang.
“You ask him!” He hears Hizashi whisper.
“You’re his favorite! You ask!” Nemuri hisses back. Hizashi gets pushed towards Aizawa, landing next to him.
“Uhhh” Hizashi says, intelligently. He tries to fix his tie, pretending that the conversation Shouta obviously heard hadn't happened.
“You are” Aizawa grumbles out. It’s probably because he’s so tired. He’s stayed up longer before, but working so hard for so long was draining. He was exhausted in a mental kind of way. The type that makes you so restless, you wouldn't be able to fall asleep if you tried.
“What?” Hizashi provides. He gives Aizawa a blank stare.
“My favorite. You're my favorite. For the record” Aizawa pushes up from his desk. “What do you want?” Hizashi stares at him before spurting out a choked response, bright red. Aizawa doesn’t really hear it. “Do you need something Hizashi or are you going to stare at me?”
“Do you wanna sleep over? My dad said it was okay and Nemuri and Tensei will be there! We’ll be studying!” He blurts out. “Promise! No distractions!” Hizashi salutes him, grabbing at his hair sheepishly. Maybe it’s because it’s Zashi asking and maybe it’s because he wants to spend more time with other people while studying, but Aizawa shrugs.
“I don’t see why that’d be a bad idea” he mutters under his breath.
“Oh really? Perfect! We can meet up at 6 in front of the school! You don’t have to bring any sleeping stuff besides pajamas! I have a ton of extra blankets and stuff” Hizashi tells him, walking together through the halls.
“Ok” Aizawa agrees. “But I have a lot of studying to do Zashi”
“I know!” He gives him a blinding smile, and Shouta has to keep his own smile hidden. “I’m so excited! We can have popcorn!”
---
True to his word, Aizawa meets the three of them outside U.A. at 6pm. He has on black sweatpants and a sweatshirt, which really isn’t different than what any of them had expected. “Shouta!” Nemuri giggles. “Ready for our sleepover party!”
“Study session!” Tensei corrects. “Our finals are in a week, Nemuri”
“Yeah, but I’ve been studying wayyy too much! I wanna relax with my friends!” Nemuri grins as they walk towards Hizashi’s home, only a block or two away from U.A. She’s got on a low-cut t-shirt and yoga pants. Shouta wants to remind her that she has to sleep like that, but he thinks better of it. Everyone had the right to sleep in whatever they wanted. Aizawa fully supported that initiative, who was he to judge. Besides, Nemuri stopped flirting with Shouta (which inevitably meant trying to show off her body to him) early on in their friendship when he had snapped at her that he was ‘very gay’ and moved on to trying to set him up with every man she could find.
“Shouta? Are you listening?” Tensei urges him. He seemed to have been saying something important.
“Oh. No, sorry. Was thinking” he supplies. “What’d you say?”
“I asked you if you had anything you needed to focus on tonight,” Tensei says as Hizashi opens up the door for them. Hizashi's house was pretty average in a comforting way. He had a cozy-looking living room with lots of art on the walls and soft carpet.
“Hm,” Aizawa frowns. “I was hoping we would go over the English material” He puts down his backpack, pulling out his notebook. “Hizashi, do you have any tips on the Shakespeare stuff?”
“Yeah! I could totally help with that!” He smiles. Aizawa could tell he already set up where they were supposed to hang out for the night, with popcorn and pillows and blankets. Shouta holds in a yawn.
“And can we thank your parents properly for their hospitality?” Tensei asks. “They are so kind as to offer their home!”
“My parents were so excited! It’s no trouble at all” Hizashi assures them. “Well! We better get started! That way, we can try and go to bed early!”
“Zashi” Shouta growls. “You promised-”
“I know, I know. Never fear, Shouta Aizawa! I will save you from having to be a regular person and sleep!” Hizashi teases, grinning. He snatches Aizawa’s notebook. “Let’s see what you got!”
---
Several hours into their session, Aizawa and Hizashi were the only ones left awake. Nemuri and Tensei were passed out on the couch together, drooling on each other. “Hey, Zawa?” Hizashi murmurs. “Can we take a little break?”
Aizawa forces himself awake. “Hm? Yeah of course” He agrees. He had been dozing off, almost caught himself falling asleep. Hizashi yawned for the third time in the last half hour. “You should go to bed if you’re tired”
“No, we gotta study! I promised!” Hizashi stretches. “If you go to bed, I’ll go to bed!”
“No, Zashi” Aizawa murmurs. “Can’t. Got too much work to do”
“Shoutaaaa” Hizashi grabs his arm. “I know you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself. You gotta sleep or else you’re gonna destroy yourself.”
Aizawa considers it. Hizashi is right; if he doesn’t let himself sleep now, the chances of him doing well on his physical exams were low. He could feel his muscles aching from lack of night time rest, and he honestly felt like garbage. But his body felt like it was vibrating, every part of him urged him to stay up. To not let down his guard. “I don’t think I could if I wanted to” Aizawa tells Hizashi honestly. “I mean...I’m just…”
“Wound up?” Hizashi asks softly. “Well, we could at least try-!”
“He said yes!” Nemuri jumps up from her spot.
“Were you fake sleeping ” Shouta hisses. “Did you know about this?” He turns to Hizashi, betrayed.
“No idea! Promise Shouta!” He stares at the two offenders in horror. Tensei was watching too. He normally didn't grin, but he had a shit-eating smile plastered on his face. “You were watching us !”
“I can’t hear you!” Nemuri cackles, releasing a pink mist into the air. Shouta coughed and sputtered. "You're too busy sleeping!"
“I’m going to kill you -” Aizawa chokes out before falling victim to her attack. Shouta falls to the floor, landing comfortably on the layout they had been sitting on. Hizashi shot out an affirmative, agreeing that Nemuri and Tensei were dead tomorrow morning before collapsing on top of the pillow pile they had already made. And if Shouta and Hizashi woke up cuddling, then that’s nobody else’s business.