Chapter Text
The box was sitting on his desk, wrapped with a simple piece of twine. There was no note, and no one standing around giggling.
It definitely wasn’t Hizashi’s doing then. His spouse had no concept of subtlety.
Aizawa picked up the box gingerly. He didn’t have great dexterity with his arms in casts, but luckily the box was light and tied with just a slipknot.
Inside the box, under the piles of crumpled paper, there was a handmade mug. It was simple, painted a smoky grey with black specks. His name was carved in the side. Underneath, in small brushstrokes, it said “World’s Best Teacher”. There was no note claiming responsibility.
Without a second thought, Aizawa put the mug away in his drawer. He was too considerate to chuck it in the trash outright—obviously a student had put some time into making it for him. But he also had a personal policy not to collect sentimental keepsakes.
“World’s Best Teacher, huh.” Aizawa scoffed. “Real original.”
---
Aizawa’s head was splitting. His arms were broken in multiple places. His elbow was slowly decaying where Shigaraki had touched him.
He had erased this bio-engineered Nomu’s quirk, but he was still unbelievably strong and fast. He had no chance. Had he bought them enough time? Were the other teachers coming to their aid? Did all the kids get away?
No. There were three kids in the water over there. They had to get away before someone noticed them.
“Oh, before we leave, let’s make sure the symbol of peace is broken. Let’s wreck his pride. Let’s make this hurt.”
Shigaraki lunged at Asui, his hand outstretched—his hand that had turned Aizawa’s elbow to blood and dust.
He needed to stop him. Nomu was crushing his arms and gripping the back of his head. He had to force his eyes up, he had to erase Shigaraki’s quirk, he had to save his student.
Aizawa looked up just as Shigaraki’s long bony fingers disintegrated Asui out of existence.
---
“I can’t sleep.”
“When was the last time you got a full night’s rest?”
“Not since before the USJ incident.”
Aizawa cleared his throat uncomfortably and stared out the window. He had been to a lot of Hero Psychologists over the years, and this one was by far the best. She didn’t sugarcoat things. She had a sense of humour. But best of all, she had a cat. Aizawa could feel Takeneko purring deeply in his lap. He was sad he couldn’t scratch her behind the ears or play with her toe beans because he had both arms in casts.
“And how many days did you take after the incident before you went back to work?”
“One.” Aizawa glared at his psychologist. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“Oh really? I thought that was my job.”
“You think I’m not taking care of myself. That I need to rest and heal before I go back in to work and get re-traumatized because it happened at school, with my class. You think it’ll get better if I talk about it instead of letting it rot in my brain.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because that’s what Hizashi said.” Aizawa took a deep breath and stared intently at the cute black cat sleeping happily on his legs. Hizashi was so angry at him. They hadn’t made any physical contact for three days. For such a touchy-feely partner, that was a lot.
“Are they right?”
Aizawa huffed in frustration. “You know they always fucking are.”
“So why are you being so resistant to the facts?”
“Because...” Aizawa searched for the right words but couldn’t find them, so he just said whatever he could get out. “Who else is going to do it? It’s my responsibility as a teacher to be there for my students, especially after a traumatizing event. If I don’t go into class every day and put on a good face, what are the kids gonna think?”
“You call that a good face?”
Aizawa smirked. “It’s the only fucking face I’ve got.”
“Tragic.” The psychologist shook her head wryly. “So, let’s think it through. Are you the only adult in these kids’ lives that can offer them support and guidance through these times?”
“No. Some of them have support from their families. And there are other teachers at UA available and probably more qualified to be doing counselling work. And I reminded them of that the first day back in class after the incident.”
“Can you prevent them from experiencing trauma, knowing that they are going into a career that is rife with it?”
“No. They will get hurt in this line of work, and in life in general. I can just try to prepare them for it by being honest and open about mental health conversations. It’s more important that they understand how to deal with it, rather than try to shield them from the truth.”
“Was the villain attack, or your students’ injuries, or their psychological trauma—was any of it your fault?”
Aizawa paused. He took a shuddering breath. “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know how I could have prevented the attack. But there’s a nagging feeling that I missed something, that I didn’t do enough.” Aizawa felt a prickling at the back of his eyes, but he was too dry for any tears to come out. “And now my eyes are even more fucked up, and I can’t use my quirk as much, and what if the next time my students are in danger I can’t—”
“Aizawa, let’s slow things down. That’s some big future talk. Let’s get back to what we can deal with right now.”
They did some grounding exercises together, and Aizawa fed the chunky black therapy cat some treats, and they got back on track.
Aizawa repeated the plan back to the psychologist. “I’m going to take a long weekend. I can get someone to cover my class for a couple days. I need to concentrate on healing, talking to Hizashi and getting some decent fucking sleep.”
“Good. It sounds like your class is well-resourced. They’ll be fine without you for a few days.”
Aizawa snorted. “You don’t know those demon children.”
---
Asui made the mug for Aizawa-sensei. She had spent the entire day after the USJ incident at her pottery wheel, just letting her fingers melt into the clay while she replayed the events over and over in her head.
Aizawa-sensei didn’t hesitate jumping in to fight dozens of villains by himself. He had assured them that he was just doing his job as a pro hero and as their teacher. But some part of Asui felt like it was more than that. And another part of her was scared that if she hadn’t been in danger, if she had been stronger, then he wouldn’t have gotten so badly hurt.
So she made him a mug. Well, she made several mugs. She ended up going with the more plain and simple style, which seemed to be fitting for her plain and simple teacher.
She noticed with a twinge of disappointment that Aizawa-sensei didn’t use the mug. But then she saw him try to open a cupboard. With both his arms in casts. Of course it would be hard for him to hold cups. In fact, it might be tricky even working the buttons on the coffee machine.
While their teacher was away for a few days, Asui did some research and came up with a solution. She brought the specifications to Yaoyorozu, and then Jirou offered to help with the technology bits, and then they asked Ashido for coffee advice, and pretty soon they had come up with a master plan. They spent all weekend putting it together.
Yaoyorozu looked over their handiwork and shook her head. “Do you think it’s too much?”
“Oh yeah definitely.” Jirou said.
“And it’s perfect!” Ashido pumped her fist in the air.
---
It was a week before the Sports Festival, so Class 1A was extra excitable, but also more focused and committed to their training. Aizawa was finally sleeping again, and he had made up with Hizashi. Things were looking up.
“Sir, may we speak to you?”
Aizawa wasn’t surprised at the group of girls surrounding his desk in the teacher’s lounge. He had seen it coming.
“If this is about Mineta, I understand your concerns and have given him an official warning. His comments in class have been utterly inappropriate and harmful. Every student deserves to feel safe and respected here.”
“Oh no, this isn’t about that!” Ashido waved it off. “But that is good to know, that guy is a creep.”
“It is true that I feel uncomfortable around him.” Yaoyorozu added.
“Alright.” Aizawa made a note to weave in some education about boundaries and consent into his next class on Hero Law. “If his behaviour doesn’t change, he will be expelled. And if any of you wish to speak to a counsellor about Mineta’s behaviour, Hound Dog is always available and Midnight has also offered, in case you’d prefer to talk to a woman.”
Asui thought about Mineta groping her at the USJ. She toed the ground nervously. Maybe she could tell her teacher about it, when she was ready.
Asui nodded. “But that’s really not what we came here to talk about, ribbit.”
“We made you something!” Ashido blurted out eagerly. “Well Yaoyorozu made the parts and Jirou put them together and Asui had the idea. But I picked out the coffee.”
With all the elegance of a lifetime of fancy tea parties, Yaoyorozu whipped a tray from behind her back. On the tray were a pour over coffee maker, an electric kettle, a small coffee grinder, a container of good quality dark roast beans, and a strange looking utensil.
Aizawa frowned. He didn't understand why they had gone to all this trouble.
“See, it’s a set up so you can make your own coffee!” Ashido said. “Yaoyorozu, explain the rocket science!”
“Well, it’s quite intelligible actually.” Yaoyorozu laid the tray down on Aizawa’s desk and picked up a small button-sized gizmo. “This is a magnet that you can attach to your cast, so that you can hold the wand.” Yaoyorozu picked up the long utensil. “The wand has motion sensors and remote control capacity to operate all of the technology.”
“The adaptive designs come from some rad open-sourced disabled inventors. Everything is automatic and user friendly.” Jirou added. “So you can use it without messing with your hands.”
“And the coffee is super delish! And fair trade and locally roasted and all that jazz.” Ashido beamed proudly, hugging the bag of coffee to her face.
“I made the pour over filter so that it fits over the mug I gave you, but I can also make a new one if you’d prefer, ribbit.” Asui blushed slightly. She wrung her hands and her eyes darted around the room. “I just thought that you seemed really tired lately, and I noticed you couldn’t hold things easily. I thought this might help, but, um, you don't have to use it.”
Aizawa blinked. If he hadn’t just had major eye surgery, he’d probably be crying. Fumbling with the bottom drawer, Aizawa pulled out his ‘World’s Best Teacher’ mug. “Can you show me how it works?”
His students were thrilled to teach him the whole process. It was surprisingly easy to use. Aizawa ended up with a mug of rich dark coffee.
“Oh, and I made a magnet for the mug too.” Yaoyorozu affixed a small gizmo to the side of the mug so Aizawa could hold it with the magnet on his cast.
“How does it taste?”
Aizawa looked up at his four students, their faces shining brightly. “It’s great. Thank you.”
“I’m so glad, oh my gosh, the suspense was killing me!” Ashido grasped at her heart dramatically.
“Please inform me if it needs any adjustments!”
“Alright, I will. Now, you should all get to the cafeteria before lunch is over.”
“Yes sir!”
The four girls headed out of the teacher’s lounge. Asui turned back at the last moment to add, “I know it’s cheesy, but you are the world’s best teacher. In my opinion, ribbit.”
Aizawa sat at his desk and sipped at his coffee, wondering how he was going to survive an entire year with these kids.