Chapter Text
Hitoshi grimaced as he fell on his ass for the second time since training had started. He barely managed to contain the pained yell that his throat wanted to produce and jumped on his feet to stop the unwanted meeting of his ass versus the ground.
His sport trousers didn’t shield his tenderized skin half as much as it deserved. Hitoshi should have come to training in armor instead, except it would have made Aizawa-Sensei suspicious and this was the last thing Hitoshi wanted right now.
It was bad enough that his mentor noticed almost everything. Hitoshi was counting on the semi-darkness under the trees to hide his expression whenever he fell. It was just his luck that training tonight required a lot of falling.
“Try again,” said the always calm, always bored voice that Hitoshi had come to associate with some of the best moments in his life.
He still had a hard time believing that Aizawa had taken a personal interest in him, and was training him so Hitoshi had a chance to join the hero course.
Right now, though, Hitoshi wasn’t exactly having a great time. For the umpteenth time, he cursed himself for getting in trouble with his homeroom teacher during the last class of the day. After the man had been done with him and his ass, and Hitoshi had calmed down enough to be granted permission to leave, he barely had the time to stop by the bathroom and clean his face as best he could before his meeting with Aizawa.
Hitoshi focused on the task at hand, namely jumping on a tree, and tried again. He threw his scarf around a low branch and launched himself towards the trunk. His feet hit the bark. For a second he thought that he was going to fall like the two previous times, but then he felt the opening and pulled on the scarf to redirect the momentum of the jump. A few seconds later, he was landing on the branch.
The impact of the cold, hard wood on his tender ass knocked the air out of his lungs. He had to bite his lip to avoid screaming. And he had thought that the ground was bad. Never again. The earth was heavenly soft compared to this, this abomination of a tree.
“You’re starting to get the hang of it,” Aizawa commented from his observation place a few feet below.
Hitoshi would have felt prouder if he hadn’t been so busy managing his pain. Aizawa rarely complimented him.
“Thank you, sir,” he still managed to say.
There was a pause, during which Hitoshi transferred most of his weight on his hands and jumped so he could crouch on the branch instead of sitting on it. He let out a silent sigh of relief as the pain faded.
“Is something wrong?” Aizawa slowly asked.
“Not at all, sir,” Hitoshi immediately answered. There was no way he wanted to tell his mentor why he was having a hard time tonight. First, it was humiliating to admit that an adult had felt necessary to take him over his knee, and second, Hitoshi didn’t want Aizawa to think he wasn’t able to follow his training, or even worse, that he wasn’t worthy of being trained. There was no way he would risk his new situation, not when achieving his lifetime dream had never seemed so possible.
The lie passed his lips easily. His quirk required the ability, and he had lots of training.
Hitoshi still didn’t look at Aizawa as he used the scarf to slide down. Only when both his feet were on the ground where keeping his focus on them would have looked suspicious did he raise his head to meet Aizawa’s stare.
Well, as he was fixing a point near Aizawa’s head rather than his teacher’s eyes, it might not have been the best terminology, but hopefully it was close enough so Aizawa wouldn’t say anything.
There was another pause, too long for Hitoshi’s liking, before Aizawa turned and pointed at another tree, whose lowest branches were slightly higher than the one Hitoshi had just climbed on.
“Then try again, on this tree.”
Hitoshi nodded and walked towards the tree. He dreaded a repeat of his previous success, for ass-preservation reasons, and maybe that was why his next three attempts failed.
At this point, Hitoshi was trying to avoid any kind of contact between his ass and anything else, which led to him falling more and more awkwardly.
“Shinsou, stop.” Aizawa’s voice sounded as calm as ever. “You’re going to sprain your ankle if you keep falling like this.”
“Sorry.” Hitoshi briefly bowed to emphasize the apology.
Aizawa stared him down, arms crossed. “Are you sure there is nothing you need to tell me?”
Hitoshi swallowed hard. “No, sir.”
“Don’t lie to me, kid,” Aizawa warned. “It won’t end well for you.”
“I’m not lying.” Hitoshi tried to look offended.
Aizawa seemed to buy it. “Then focus. Knowing how to fall without hurting yourself is as important as succeeding in your jumps.”
Hitoshi nodded and grabbed his scarf tighter, determined not to let the perspective of more pain get in his way.
He reconsidered this choice barely thirty seconds later, as he fell right on the center of his ass. This time, he couldn’t help the pained yelp that escaped his lips.
“Shinsou?”
Aizawa came closer to him, and something in Hitoshi’s chest constricted painfully. Rationally, he knew that he was done for, but he wasn’t going down without a fight.
“There was a stone,” he lied. “I was surprised, that’s all.”
“Really?” Aizawa crouched next to him. “I thought I had cleaned the whole area. Let me see.”
“It’s a small stone.” Hitoshi knew he was digging his own grave, but he couldn’t stop. Telling the truth to Aizawa now meant owning up to his lies, and he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t let Aizawa know how disrespectful he had just behaved. He had never been in trouble with his mentor yet, but no teacher accepted being lied to and Aizawa had even warned him just a minute before.
Aizawa stood up and offered his arm to Hitoshi to help him up. Hitoshi looked at the man’s hand for two whole seconds before taking it. He was half expecting his whole life to flash before his eyes.
“I don’t see any stone,” Aizawa stated after a thorough examination of the ground.
Hitoshi couldn’t answer. He couldn’t move either as his teacher turned to face him, even though running away sounded like a nice plan right now.
“Shinsou. Tell me what’s going on, now.”
Hitoshi was cornered and he knew it. He crossed his arms against his chest in an attempt to shield himself from the upcoming disappointment of the person he looked up to the most.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his gaze fixed on the earth below. “I didn’t want you to know.”
“Know what?”
“I…” Hitoshi swallowed hard. “I was in trouble with my homeroom teacher earlier.” There was an awkward pause as he wondered how to elaborate.
Aizawa spared him the trouble. “You mean that he spanked you?”
Hitoshi grimaced at hearing the word said out loud. “Yes.”
His mentor let out a long-suffering sigh. “And you didn’t think I needed to know so I could make sure you weren’t at risk of hurting yourself?”
“I apologize, sir.” It wouldn’t be enough, but Hitoshi had nothing better to say.
“Answer the question, Shinsou. Were you, or were you not, aware that you should have shared this information with me from the start?”
“I…” Hitoshi tried to find comfort in the fact that Aizawa wasn’t yelling at him and failed. “Yes, I was.”
“But you didn’t.” Aizawa was relentless. “Instead, you proceeded to lie to me when I asked you if something was wrong. Several times.”
“I’m really sorry,” Hitoshi repeated.
“Sorry doesn’t cut it.” Aizawa huffed. “How bad is it?”
Hitoshi knew he had messed up, and he was waiting with dread for the moment where Aizawa would tell him that he didn’t want to train him anymore. That was why he didn’t immediately understand what Aizawa was asking.
“What? Sir,” Hitoshi quickly added.
“How bad are you hurting right now?” Aizawa expanded.
“It’s… manageable,” Hitoshi said, careful not to lie this time.
“Do you allow me to see by myself, or do you prefer going straight to Recovery Girl’s office?”
Hitoshi felt his cheeks burn. “Sir, that won’t be necessary,” he protested. “I… I’ll be fine.”
His ass was in fire, but surely this could be solved with ice and a good night of sleep. Although he wasn’t expecting to sleep well after having wasted his only chance at becoming a hero.
“Recovery Girl it is, then.” Aizawa sighed. “Come on, kid.”
Hitoshi had no desire to go to the infirmary and disturb the school’s physician over this. The mere thought of explaining the situation to the elderly lady made him want to dig a hole into the ground and hide.
“No, I… I’m sure it’s fine,” he said. “If you must, you can check.”
“Alright. Let me see.”
Hitoshi checked that nobody else was in sight before turning around to face a tree and pulling down his trousers and boxers to his knees. He hissed as the cloth rubbed against his skin. It was definitely worse than it had been when he had left his homeroom teacher’s office. It might even be worse than the humiliation he felt at being bare-assed in front of this teacher.
Aizawa was silent for a few seconds. When he finally talked, his voice almost sounded strained.
“Shinsou, you can’t stay like this. It’s bruising. You’ll be hurting for days if we let it heal naturally.”
Hitoshi bit his lip. It was this bad?
“To the infirmary,” Aizawa said. “Now, kid.”
The biggest advantage of lying on your stomach on an infirmary bed was that you could hide your face in a fluffy pillow, and Hitoshi didn’t hesitate to do just that as Recovery Girl examined him. Putting his clothes back on, then pulling them down once more in the infirmary had contributed to drive home the fact that he had managed to injure himself. He tried not to think about the fact that Recovery Girl was about to kiss his ass. Literally.
He also tried not to think about what Aizawa was going to say to him after she would be done. His mentor was waiting outside to give them some privacy, which Hitoshi was grateful for.
Recovery Girl didn’t lose any time, and barely one minute later, the pain was fading as exhaustion spread through his body.
“Here, young man,” she said. “We’re done.”
“Thank you,” Hitoshi said. “I’m sorry for the trouble.”
She patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. Just do your best so it doesn’t happen again. I have no need for more regular patients here.”
“I will,” Hitoshi promised.
She pulled his clothes and the blanket up before going to the door and opening it.
“He’s all yours,” she said.
Hitoshi glanced at her just in time to see her give Aizawa a pointed look.
“Please remember that my quirk tires the receiver’s body. Play nice.”
“I remember,” Aizawa said. “Thank you, Recovery Girl.”
Dread filled Hitoshi’s stomach as he heard the elderly woman’s footsteps leaving the room while another set of heavier footsteps came closer to him.
“How are you feeling, Shinsou?” Aizawa asked.
“’m tired,” Hitoshi mumbled. His head was turned away from Aizawa, so he had to rely on the man’s voice to guess his feelings. Not that it would have been that much easier while looking at him. Aizawa’s face was barely expressive on the best of days.
“Do you want to talk now or do you prefer waiting for tomorrow?”
The thought of having to wait an entire night without knowing his fate jolted Hitoshi awake. “Now, please.”
“Alright.” Aizawa sat down on a chair next to Hitoshi’s bed. “Do you mind explaining to me what you were thinking?”
He hadn’t asked for Hitoshi to look at him, so Hitoshi decided he was allowed to keep staring at the opposite wall.
“I thought…” He stopped. His mouth was dry and his chest heavy. He couldn’t bring himself to say the words.
“What did you think?” Aizawa prodded. “Just tell me, Shinsou. I promise it’s not going to kill you.”
Hitoshi shook his head. It might very well kill him, or at least his dreams.
“You brought this on yourself, kid,” Aizawa added, his voice gentler. “Now it’s time to take responsibility for your behavior. I know you can do it.”
Hitoshi had never felt more vulnerable in front of his mentor, not even when he had shown the man his bare ass. He grabbed the pillow and shut his eyes desperately. Maybe if he pretended that Aizawa wasn’t here and listening, maybe then he could say it.
“I didn’t want you to know because I thought that you wouldn’t want to train me today. Or - or any other day.”
There. He had said it, and indeed, he wasn’t dead. Or was he? The emptiness in his chess was confusing.
“What, because you get in trouble once in a while?” Aizawa snorted. “If that was all it took, I would have stopped teaching my class months ago.”
Hitoshi bit his lip. Then it was even worse. He had made the wrong decision, he had lied to his teacher, and surely that would do it.
As if on cue, Aizawa hardened his tone. “You made your situation worse by lying to me. Without even mentioning the fact that you were warned, and that I gave you multiple opportunities to come clean, your actions resulted in you being hurt.”
Each word was a knife in Hitoshi’s heart. He would have apologized again, but he wasn’t trusting his voice right now. The last thing he wanted was to burst into tears in front of his teacher. Well, former teacher.
“We’ll deal with that tomorrow,” Aizawa went on. “I don’t want you to keep hiding essential information from me when we train.”
Hitoshi frowned. This last sentence didn’t make sense, and still… Aizawa had no reason to lie to him.
Hope was a fickle thing in his heart when he found his voice. “You mean… You’re still going to train me?”
“Yes,” Aizawa said, his tone softer. “Don’t make me regret it, kid.”
“I won’t!” Hitoshi grabbed his pillow tighter. “I won’t, I promise, Sensei, I…” He yawned. Exhaustion was crashing down on him, and his efforts to stay awake only worsened it.
Aizawa stood up. “Good night, Shinsou. Sleep well, or Recovery Girl will be displeased with me, and nobody wants that.”
“Good night,” Hitoshi mumbled, his eyelids already closing.
Something was nagging at him, but he couldn’t pinpoint it. What else had Aizawa said? Ah, yes.
Sleep claimed Hitoshi before he had time to ask for clarification about the ‘dealing with it tomorrow’ part.