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Having your nails painted anything other than a nude color had been against the dress code for years. Long before Aizawa or even All Might had been students. Somewhere in between All Might’s years and Aizawa’s did they stop enforcing it. None of the teachers cared, and the students rarely read the dress code at all.
Yet here he was, his patients thoroughly stretched.
At first, it started normally. A few different kids who liked to have a splash of color with their outfit or just like the way it looked. This year the main offenders were Mina, Kaminari, and Tokoyami. Mina loved fun colors, usually bright ones like hot pink to match her skin, or blue or purple or any other bright color she could get her hands on. Kaminari was more basic, typically sticking to yellow or black, which Aizawa had figured out were his favorite colors. Tokoyami always stuck to black. Aizawa assumed it was because it matched the aesthetic he had going.
Aizawa could never bring himself to care, not even a little bit. They were kids, and he let them have their fun. He didn’t care when the girls had nail painting parties every once in a while in the common room, a couple of the boys typically joining in. It didn’t affect their education in the slightest, nor their hero training, so what was the point of caring. He had more important things to worry about.
That was until one day, where Ashido and Uraraka came to class with their bags a little too full. When he got bored ten minutes into class and decided to take one of his famous naps, they acted. They all assumed he was asleep and went to work rearranging the classroom. Half the kids were pushing desks into closer rows while Shouji was standing in the middle of the room, awkwardly moving chairs to each side of the rows, his quirk being extremely helpful. Uraraka and Mina were very delicately taking huge bags out of their backpacks. With the help of a couple of other kids, they unloaded at least thirty different nail polish bottles, along with a bunch of supplies like glitters and nail polish remover.
By the time they were done, multiple different nail stations were set up, with mainly the girls sitting on one side and the boys rotating across from them. When Tokoyami also sat on the girl’s side, Aizawa realized that side was made up of the kids who could paint nails well. Denki had been pushed to the other side because he had slightly unsteady hands, though.
After watching them for so long, Aizawa could predict their moves with ease, the only surprises being Shouji, who was getting his nails painted by Tokoyami, and Iida, whose nails were being painted by Uraraka after slight convincing. He only agreed to it once it was pointed out that colored nails were only in the girl’s dress code and not the boys, so he wasn’t breaking any rules. The boys who weren’t getting their nails painted were doing homework like they were supposed to in the front of the room, almost completely ignoring both each other and the nail painting behind them.
Aizawa was in for another surprise when Uraraka finished Iida’s nails and made grabby hands, calling out for Bakugou. She had already grabbed a color, a red shade that was close to blood, and was just waiting for him to grumble and plop down across from her, only throwing a few insults in different directions. Once Uraraka had started painting, Kirishima leaned over from his spot next to him and told him how manly it was, which was received with a string of half-hearted insults.
Next went Ojiro, who got his nails done by Jirou when she was done with Kaminari, who had gotten his typical yellow. Ojiro picked out a lilac purple color, and Jirou got to work. Then went one of the biggest surprises, Kouda, the boy who notoriously avoided contact. He went over to Yaoyurozu and asked for green to match the grass. Satou got up without a word once Aoyama’s nails were done and took his place across Hagakure, asking for a pretty pale pink. Tokoyami ended up painting Mineta’s nails after a creepy comment about Mina. His were just plain purple.
The last person to go was Todoroki, who seemed dead set on completely ignoring what was going on. Only after a whispered conversation between him and Midoriya did he finally get up and sit across Asui, who Aizawa knew he was starting to become friends with. He couldn’t decide on the color, so Midoriya and Uraraka made the executive decision to do red on his left and white on his right to match his hair.
Once all the nails were painted and dried, they quickly moved everything back and went to their homework as if nothing happened. Aizawa waited twenty more minutes to “wake up” again. By then, most of them were done with their homework. The only sign of their rule-breaking being the colors on everyone’s hands and the faint smell of nail polish that still lingered in the air. He decided not to say anything since they all worked together to pull everything off, including working together on the assignment. Even Bakugou helped them in his own way. Teamwork was something they still struggled with sometimes, so to Aizawa, it did more good than harm.
That didn’t stop him from complaining to Present Mic and Midnight in the break room during lunch. He would never pass up an opportunity to complain about his twenty problems, and his friends loved to laugh at his problems.
He had completely shoved the incident to the back of his mind within a month. The only reminder was the colored nails and the secret nail painting parties they continued to have.
That was until one day during lunch when they all decided that they hated him and wanted to make his life harder. In the middle of the cafeteria, taking over multiple tables, they created an impromptu nail salon for the entire school.
When Vlad King himself walked into the teacher’s lounge with his gloves off and his nails blue, Aizawa knew something was up and that it was definitely his class’s fault. Everything was their fault; they were walking hazards. That said, it was still shocking to find the different courses and years all gathered in one area, either getting their nails painted or talking to each other.
There were a few oddballs that really stuck out to Aizawa. Tamaki was getting his nails painted black by Kirishima, who talked animatedly about something he couldn’t hear. What surprised him the most was Monoma getting his nails painted by Bakugou of all people. He also saw Shinsou, the class 1-C student who was training to join their class, getting his nails done by Todoroki of all people, both of them sitting in silence. Todoroki had an aggressively focused look on his face, while Shinsou had his usual deadpan look.
Kids from different classes and different years were all gathered around, talking and interacting. Hero students were talking to gen-ed students like they didn’t have some weird hatred of one another. Leave it to his problems to somehow bring the different classes together, like during the school festival, which was the only time they got along or even interacted.
What Aizawa hated the most was the teachers scattered around. There were the ones he had expected, Midnight and Present Mic, but there were also odd ones like Snipe and All Might. Then he saw it. Principal Nezu, sitting across from Uraraka, getting his claws painted bright orange.
Once Nezu spotted him lurking in the doorway to the cafeteria, he lifted up his other paw, revealing that it was already painted, and motioned for him to come over. Aizawa would never admit it, but at that moment, he was slightly terrified. He didn’t know if he was being beckoned over to be reprimanded or for just a conversation.
The closer he got, the more dread started to fill him. Technically his kids weren’t even allowed to paint their nails, let alone start an entire make-shift salon during lunch hour. He finally reached Nezu, standing behind Uraraka while Nezu looked up, acting completely innocent. He then explained proper teacher behavior and how he needed to keep a better eye on his students. Still, He covered it up with tea references so no one around them could tell he was actually getting lectured. Aizawa was ready to quit his job on sight if he heard one more tea reference that was actually an insult.
Then, because his students hated him and wished death upon him, Nezu’s claws were done, and his entire class was trying to convince him to let Uraraka paint his nails. At first, he flat out refused, not wanting to take any part in this, but they wore him down.
Finally, he plopped down in Nezu’s vacated seat, and Uraraka set to work. He wasn’t allowed to chose to color, Uraraka claiming it to be a surprise. He was not happy with the pastel yellow nail polish that stayed on his fingers for the next two weeks. Every day during those two weeks, he silently cursed out his students. It took everything in him not to admit he liked it.