Chapter Text
Aizawa watched Midoriya pull on the rope tied to the huge fridge behind him, panting heavily. Kokuki was nearby, encouraging the boy and helping him out. Honestly, he didn’t know what to think of the kid.
Fanboy, sassy teenager, moody weirdo, weirdly optimistic child, the kid was all sorts of things. Every time he looks at Midoriya, he sees several different personalities overlapping to form who the boy was. Sometimes, Aizawa wonders if the boy’s persona was his real one in the first place.
When he met Midoriya, the first thing he noticed was the fire in his eyes. After months of training with the boy, he notices something special about them. Once in a while, the fire in his eyes will fade, leaving only an ember.
On those days, he sports a few bruises which he brushes off and blanks out frequently.(Aizawa may or may not have asked Nedzu to look into the boy’s background and obliterate his school once Midoriya graduates.) On those days, Aizawa also notices that the moment Kokuki speaks to him, the ember bursts into flames and he answers back excitedly as though he could hardly believe his luck. When Aizawa gives him a well-deserved compliment, they seem to burn even brighter somehow. It was pretty clear this kid was practically starved for praise. Of course, Aizawa didn’t toss out half-hearted praises either.
Once, on the worst day Midoriya had apparently had, he saw Midoriya close up and brush off a compliment Aizawa actually meant. Like he didn’t deserve it and thinks Aizawa was just humoring him. That day was extremely awkward and was worse since Kokuki was not there at the moment. Fortunately, she soon appeared along with Dabi no less, dragging the fanboy out of the boy with questions for the poor fire user.
He wondered if Kokuki knew, although she probably did. She was always perspective when it came to things like this and made it her job of helping you. The shocking part was when she actually succeeded. The girl had a way of making you feel like maybe today wasn’t so bad and that your life actually has meaning. You would just sit down and relax with her or pour out your life story.(Yes, he did that.) Kokuki had done it with him, Dabi, more, and now Midoriya.
Actually, Midoriya was kinda similar in a different way. When you look at him sometimes, it was like the boy knew you hated yourself at the moment because so did he, and he knew how horrible it was. Aizawa had wondered about getting Midoriya therapy and also seriously considering breaking into his school to scream at the boy’s teachers. He decided against it as he didn’t want to scare off the boy and it seemed like Kokuki was doing a pretty good job at the moment. Aizawa smiled slightly and went over to Midoriya to give him some pointers.
Whether he liked it or not, Midoriya was now one of his problem children.
And no one touches his problem children.