Work Text:
Izumi let out a small groan of annoyance as she blew another strand of long green hair out of her eyes, but she gritted her teeth as it simply fell back into her matching green eyes. She wanted to scream as she let her head fall against the notebook that she had currently been using for her homework for Present Mic’s class.
All Izumi wanted to do was head to bed and sleep, but she had waited until the last minute to finish her homework, and the only one she could blame for that problem was herself. Well, that wasn’t completely true. She could blame Denki for bribing her with her favorite snacks and drink so she would play video games with him while the others were busy. Not to mention he had added a new notebook in the mix for her to play with him, Mina, and Sero when the two had gotten done, which said notebook was currently in her room where she would be had she not fallen for his tricks.
This is what had her sitting on the floor of the common room, tired and annoyed in front of the coffee table with her school notebooks and textbooks scattered across the wood.
She wanted so badly to chop off her waist-length hair with the mechanical pencil she was using. It kept slipping into her eyes and getting stuck in her mouth, and it only seemed to get worse whenever she tried to tie it back or clip it down.
Every rubber band that she used snapped thanks to the fact that she had worn them all out and she couldn’t pin her hair to the side since bobby pins always seemed to get lost in her mess of hair. This is what had, Izumi giving up trying to hold it back and forced her just let it do its own thing, but at moments like right now Izumi wished at least something had worked.
Sometimes Izumi thought about actually getting it all cut off just to be rid of it, but in all honesty, she loved her long hair too much to ever really do such a thing. She thought it was pretty even if it was a lot of work, and more importantly, it made her feel pretty, which was something she had been trying to work on as of late, making herself pretty for no one but her.
“Please, just let me be done,” Izumi groaned once more, eyes closed as she kept her head pressed against the paper of her notebook. She knew it wouldn't work, but a small part of Izumi hoped that when she opened her eyes, her homework would somehow be magically finished having been done by itself.
“You still have, nine more to go,” A gruff voice from beside her said, causing Izumi to jump and sit up straight.
She could feel power crackle in the tips of her fingers as she snapped her head to the side in case of an attack. Izumi instantly felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her as she tilted her head up to see none other than her homeroom teacher and den father, Mr. Aizawa, standing next to her. His arms were crossed over his chest as he looked down at her, clearly unamused by the fact that she hadn’t been aware of her surroundings.
“Hi, Mr. Aizawa,” Izumi mumbled sheepishly as she lifted her hand to give him a brief wave, hoping that it got rid of the small bit of power that was still at her fingertips.
“Hello, Problem Child,” Aizawa respond, as he looked at her with his tired eyes clearly unhappy to see her down here this late. “What are you doing down here at this time of night?” He asked as if it was three in the morning when really it was only a quarter past eleven.
“Um… working on homework,” Izumi answered with a slightly confused look across her face since Aizawa had been the one to tell her how many problems she had left to finish.
“And why aren’t you doing that in your room?” Aizawa asked, moving to kneel down beside her so they were at least somewhat eye level. As he kneeled down, Izumi noted that he was wearing the pink sweatpants that she and her classmates had gotten him as a sort of gag gift a month back. She forced back a smile as a small bit of warmth lit up her heart at the idea of Mr. Aizawa enjoying the rather silly gift that they had given him.
She pushed that thought back as Mr. Aizawa was completely kneeled beside her his silver eyes somewhat meeting her green ones.
That was one of the things that Izumi liked about her class guardian, and that was the fact that he gave the same respect that he was given. Which often resulted in him trying to hold his students’ gazes when he spoke to them.
“Because if I got to my room, I’ll want to lay down and rest for a few minutes,” Izumi explained with a shrug as she blew another strand of hair out of her face with a slightly annoyed glare. “And if I do that, then I’m going to lie to myself every few minutes saying that I’m going to get up but instead I’ll just fall asleep,” She said as she pulled her gaze away from Aizawa’s gray eyes and let it land on her unfinished homework.
“Then if I fall asleep, I won’t be able to finish my homework and then I’ll have to skip breakfast just to finish it,” She sighed before reaching up to tuck the strands of green hair behind her ear but within seconds it slipped from behind her ear and back into her eyes causing her to let out an annoyed huff.
“All right, that’s a good enough answer for that question,” Aizawa said, making Izumi turn her head to look at him in confusion as she thought about her words. “Now my next question is, why do you keep looking at your hair like you want to kill it?” He asked which let Izumi hear the tiny bit of humor that was hidden in his voice as he reached up and moved her hair from her eyes in a quick, simple, and gentle motion. Izumi felt him move it behind her ear as she had done before and within seconds just like before it slipped away from where it was tucked and landed right back in Izumi’s face.
"Because it keeps doing that," Izumi sighed looking at her teacher with tired green eyes. "It keeps falling back into my face and sticking to my mouth," She groaned as she buried her face in her arms that she had crossed on top of the coffee table and over her homework. "And no matter what I do I can't seem to get it out of the way for longer than a few minutes," Izumi groaned clearly annoyed with her hair at the moment which made Aizawa smile which went unseen by the young heroine in training since she still had her face buried in her arms.
"Why not get it cut?" Aizawa asked as he cocked his head to the side much like a cat would do or in Aizawa's case some type of big cat breed.
"Because I like it long and it makes me feel pretty," Izumi admitted softly as she turned her head looking at her teacher with large sad eyes that were often on the young woman's face when she truly meant something. "I just wish it wasn't so hard to manage sometimes," She complained not noticing the sorrowful look that had crossed her class guardian's face as if something she had said pained him.
For a moment silence settled between the two and Izumi honestly thought that maybe her teacher had drifted off like he was sometimes known to do. That thought was pushed out of her mind only a few moments later when he spoke.
"Maybe there's something I can do to help," Aizawa mumbled softly, more to himself than to her which made Izumi blink at him curiously.
"Mr. Aizawa?" Izumi questioned, looking at her teacher as she tried to figure out what he meant.
"Wait here a moment," Aizawa ordered before pushing himself up off the ground and moving across the common room towards the stairs.
Izumi watched him quickly head up the steps leaving her alone in the common room once more causing her to sigh as she looked back at the nine questions before her that still needed to be finished.
By the time Aizawa came back from whatever he was doing Izumi had finished three of the problems meaning there were six more left to do. As Izumi looked at the six remaining problems she felt the need to scream in frustration and couldn't help but wonder if missing breakfast would really be all that bad. She quickly shoved that thought away knowing well that with a quirk like One For All, that if she didn't eat breakfast it would come back to bite her in the ass.
Once again lost in her own mind as she tried to figure out the answers to the questions before her she didn't notice Aizawa heading towards her, with a brush in one hand and a few floral hair ties in the other which weren't hard to come by at least, not in their dorms.
Thanks to Aizawa's stealth he was once again able to stand behind Izumi without her knowing which caused the green-haired young woman to jump as she felt his hand touch her shoulder.
"Again, it's just me, Problem Child," Aizawa said in a calm voice trying not to laugh at having scared her again since he knew that this was somewhat of a serious matter. "You need to pay more attention to the world around you," He scolded as he moved to sit down behind her placing the brush and the hair ties to the side.
"Sorry," Izumi mumbled out clearly not paying much attention to his words as she kept working on her homework.
Aizawa sighed and shook his head not even having the heart to be mad since he knew how hard all of his students worked. For a moment he just sat behind her looking over her slouched poster and listening to the soft nearly silent mutters that left her.
"Sit up straight, Problem Child," Aizawa ordered before reaching forward and gently gathering all of Izumi's hair in his hands to pull it back so it fell down her back.
"Mr. Aizawa?" Izumi spoke in a curious tone much like the tone she used in class when they were learning something new. "What are you doing?" She asked but didn't try to pull away as he felt his fingers run through her hair as he tried to get every loose strand. It didn't go unnoticed to Aizawa that there wasn't an ounce of discomfort or fear in the young woman's voice as she spoke to him.
"I'm letting you in on a little secret that only a very rare few know," Aizawa said as he reached down and picked up the brush before moving it forward to begin brushing Izumi's hair.
"A secret?" Izumi asked confusion in her voice but she didn't move as she felt the brush Aizawa had brought with him run through her hair letting it be known to her for the first time since Aizawa got back. "What secret?" She asked wincing slightly as the brush hit a small snag causing Aizawa to accidentally pull her hair a little. She ignored the tiny amount of pain in favor of waiting to hear what her teacher had to say so she could learn what his little secret was.
"Sorry," Aizawa said his voice soft as he kept running the brush through her hair being more mindful of knots and tangles this time. "And you're about to see the secret I'm talking about in a few moments," He explained loosening his grip on Izumi's hair as he felt her nod. "Finish your homework while I fix your hair," He ordered gently and watched as Izumi nodded her head once more and went back to her homework that she had nearly completed.
"Okay," Izumi said before picking her pencil back up and pressing it against the paper determined to get the last six questions done so she could go to bed.
A comfortable silence settled between the two as Aizawa continued to mess with Izumi's hair while Izumi worked on each of the remaining homework problems. Every now and then Izumi would wince from Aizawa accidentally pulling her hair which would result in the underground hero apologizing before getting back to work.
Izumi was on the third problem of the remaining six when she felt Aizawa tug at her ever so often but she didn't know what he was doing since she couldn't see. She could feel her hair being moved around as they sat quietly and she could feel the cold air against her neck as her hair was moved. She said nothing about this as she kept working completely trusting the man that had risked his life to save them time and time again.
"I'm almost done," Aizawa muttered to her when Izumi only had two more problems to go.
Before she could ask what he meant she felt the slight tug of a hair tie pulling her hair before Aizawa moved something over her shoulder where it rested as Izumi pulled herself away from her work to see what her teacher had done.
Izumi reached up, her hands to find what her teacher had thrown over her shoulder only to let out a soft gasp as her hands touched her own hair. Her hair was formed into a simple, messy, but beautiful braid that now hung over her shoulder loosely. She stayed silent as she ran her fingers over her teacher's creation noting how well done it was which was something she hadn't expected from the tough as nails, sarcastic underground hero who still sat behind her.
"Mr. Aizawa?" Izumi questioned as she turned to face him looking at him with wide eyes.
"I'm used to doing Midnight and Present Mic's hair not to mention my own," Aizawa explained as he watched his Problem Child run her fingers of the simple braid he had created clearly memorized by his work.
Izumi seemed to be amazed by the simple action that her teacher had performed clearly not expecting the fact that he could braid hair to be his secret.
"I'm sorry if I overstepped but I figured that maybe it would help at... " Aizawa started fearing that despite Izumi's amazed expression that he might have made her uncomfortable in some way. He let out a small huff as he was cut off by the green-haired young woman wrapping her arms around him in a happy hug.
"It's so pretty," Izumi said with a bright smile as she hugged Aizawa a little tighter, before long the man's arms wrapped around Izumi and hugged her close just like she was doing to him. "Thank you so much," She said happily as she continued to hug him not wanting to let go.
"You're very welcome, Problem Child," Aizawa spoke softly as he smiled down at her noting how it always warmed his heart to see his kids so happy over something that he did though he would never admit it.
The two just sat there for a few moments hugging one another before Izumi finally pulled back to look up at him with bright, overjoyed eyes, still clearly excited about the braid her teacher had done.
"Now finish your homework so you can head to bed," Aizawa ordered as they pulled apart from one another causing the hug to end.
"Yes, Sir," Izumi said happily as she moved to get back to work but before she did she stopped as she felt a gentle kiss being placed on her forehead.
Izumi looked up at Aizawa with a surprised look in her eyes before an even brighter smile spread across her face and she turned back to finish her work.
Aizawa pushed himself up from the ground having surprised himself with the little forehead kiss he had given his student without a second thought. Aizawa didn't regret it though a warmness in his chest as he told himself that it was important for a father to show affection towards his children to let them know that he cared. It didn't matter that that father wasn't blood as long as he cared for the kids in his care as a father should.
Aizawa stayed close as Izumi finished the last two questions of her homework before she packed everything away and headed to bed. Aizawa was slightly shocked when the young woman wrapped her arms around him in the form of a goodnight hug before finally heading upstairs to her room where her bed was waiting.
The underground hero soon followed after his student after checking on everything on the first floor a small smile never leaving his face as he did.
And if the next morning Izumi asked him to braid her hair again so she could wear it around the school, who was he to deny one of his daughters such a simple request for a simple braid.