Work Text:
Tenya’s been looking forward to Friday the entire week.
By Tuesday, he’s already gotten Bakugou to cover the dorm watch, ignoring the million complaints he was giving, and for the first time in months, he has plans. He has never been more excited about eating at a chain restaurant (and a subpar one at that).
He’s there fifteen minutes early, sat towards the back of the restaurant, phone set face-down on the table as he waits for Midoriya to arrive. He doesn’t want to be distracted, but he also needs it accessible if Midoriya runs late, or if something happens back at the dorm, or if there’s an emergency nearby that needs heroes, or any of the other million things that could happen.
But they’re not going to happen, because Tenya’s been looking forward to today the entire week, and if something ruins it he might actually snap and quit both of his jobs to go live in the middle of the woods.
He tries to let some of the tension out of his body when he sees Midoriya walk in the door, but the wave of relief doesn’t honestly help much.
He takes a minute to get the host to calm down, signing a spare piece of paper grabbed from under their desk before he can finally make his way over to the table.
“Sorry I’m late,” Midoriya says, smiling. “Paperwork.”
“You aren’t late,” Tenya says, lifting his phone to glance at the time for good measure – he’s five minutes early, actually. “No worries. I was here… a bit excessively early, maybe. It’s been a very long time since I’ve had a night off.”
“Yeah, I bet. It feels like I haven’t seen you at all since the school year started.”
“It’s been more time-consuming than I expected. The dorms…” Tenya shivers, for dramatic effect, mainly, but partially because he doesn’t think he can put the nightmare that is the dorms into words.
Midoriya laughs, despite Tenya’s obvious misery, though he knows better than to think it’s malicious. “They can’t be any worse than we were.”
“That is exactly the problem . We were nightmares, Midoriya, and they’re just as bad. ”
“I’m pretty sure that’s impossible.”
“I was sure of that too! They managed to get a student stuck to the ceiling, Midoriya, the ceiling! ”
“Hmm. Sero did that to Kaminari once.”
“And I do not understand how Aizawa didn’t kill all of us for it!”
Tenya stops himself for a moment, takes one long, deep breath, and then downs his entire cup of orange juice in one go.
“At least the other Agency members are able to handle themselves.”
“You’re still running the Agency on top of teaching?”
“It’s my family’s Agency. It’s part of my duty as a hero.”
“Iida. I say this as your friend, and will try to say it as nicely as possible.” Midoriya reaches across the table, resting his hands on Tenya’s shoulders.
The casual nature of the gesture is immediately destroyed as Midoriya grips onto his shoulders and starts shaking them. “You need a healthier work-life balance, and no heroic duties are more important than that!”
“Midoriya–”
“Sorry, sorry,” he says, sighing as he stops, dropping his hands back to his table. “You know, you’d think the Number One would have worse work-life habits.”
“If you did, All Might would probably rise from the grave to break you out of it.”
Midoriya laughs. “What’s Tensei’s excuse for not breaking you out of it?”
“...I haven’t seen him since the school year started?”
“ Iida. ”
“I’ve been occupied with–”
“–your argument is that it’s a family agency–”
“–I’ll be seeing him over the summer holiday!”
“That’s in two months!”
“That’s only two months!”
“ Iida! ”
“I’ll call him tomorrow!” Tenya tries.
Midoriya still just glares, then pulls out his phone, holding it up threateningly. “I’m going to call Aizawa. And he’s going to call Tensei. And I’m also going to call Todoroki, Uraraka, and Tsuyu-chan.”
Tenya stares. “You wouldn’t.”
As he watches, Midoriya gives the most terrifying grin he’s ever seen, and dials Aizawa’s number.
(It takes at least an hour for the impromptu over-the-phone intervention to end. Tenya is so very glad he’s able to tip the waitstaff as much as he is.)