Chapter Text
His morning is brightened by the sound of his students greeting him in unison and despite their lack of harmony; it brings a small grin to his face nonetheless, he responds with a short bow and a greeting in return. He scans over his first grade class and uses the seating chart to take role, just because it’s a bit easier that way, and also because he wouldn’t have to spend ten minutes trying to get Makoto to make his appearance known. Before continuing on with the day’s lesson he spots some suspicious activity and narrows his eyes at a blond in the center table of the room, “N-Nagisa,” he says, “Would you like to share that with the rest of the class?” Nagisa’s head snaps upward and he quickly shakes his head, “Well, go put that in the cubby.” Ai jerks his head in the direction of said cubby holes.
The question he poses to his students is ‘What’s your favorite part about spring’ and they then would spend about half of the day making collages centered around their favorite things to do during spring.
“Mr. Nitori…” Makoto whispers and Ai watches in amusement as his cheeks begin to burn a reddish color,
“Yes, Makoto?” he says, leaning down
“I-I… I made a mistake… ca-can I have another paper?”
Ai giggles and pats the child on the back, “yes, just go up on the desk and take one.”
Makoto freezes in his seat and a smaller hand is pressed against Makoto’s shoulder, assuring. “It’s okay, I’ll get it.” Another student, Haruka Nanase, says coolly, Ai’s gaze softens and nods all the same. Makoto’s posture instantly eases up, and he doesn’t look so rigid anymore, to Ai's relief.
The rest of the day, Ai spends darting from table to table, answering questions and coaxing Makoto to turn in his paper in the front of the classroom while trying to stop Rin from gluing paper to Haruka’s hair. He’s almost relieved at the end of the day and his students are finally clearing out of the room for their final recess, then they would be sent home for the day. While Ai is cleaning up the dried glue and paper scraps from the table he’s interrupted by a soft tap on his door, in which he turns around to see a very tall and handsome man taking up his doorway.
His first thought is that it must be someone’s parent coming to pick their child up an hour or so early.
“a-ah, hello… I’m Aiichirou…” He says
“Ah, yeah, I know who you are; I’m Yamazaki, Sousuke… your new teacher’s assistant.”
He extends his hand and Ai just stares at it for a moment and marvels the size, it’s huge. After a while he scrambles to finally shake his hand, “Oh! That was today? My mistake, I must have forgotten…”
He rushes over toward his desk and scans through his folders, in search of the one labeled ‘T.A’ Now, don’t get Ai wrong, he was very insistent on being prepared for when his T/A finally arrived it’s just, he wasn’t expecting someone as attractive as the man that’s standing before him.
“I’ll assume you didn’t get my email, either…” Sousuke smiles, following closely behind Ai, silently observing the other’s messy work space and slightly grimacing.
“… You’re right, I haven’t had the time.” He huffs, flopping the folder against the other’s chest right as a student comes in with tears pricking the corners of his eyes. “Well—thank you anyways for this—” Sousuke begins,
“Oh gosh, Rin, what happened?” Ai says, kneeling to meet the kid at eye level, paying absolutely no mind to what Sousuke had been saying.
“I-…” He sniffs, “I fell…” Rin’s gaze skids away and across the room, Ai could tell that he was trying his best not to cry, and it made his heart almost burst.
“Ohhh wow, and you didn’t even cry?! I would be crying so much, huh, Sousuke?”
Ai feigns his admiration with a smile and Sousuke nods in agreement. Ai runs his fingers through Rin’s hair as he stands back at his normal height; he sees the way Rin’s cheeks blossom a pinkish hue and the small smile that cracks his tough exterior. Ai feels accomplished, especially when he sees a faint smile tugging at Sousuke’s lips.
Ai once again kneels to examine the wound on Rin’s knee, it was a bit bloody and bruised but fortunately for Rin, he would make it out with all limbs attached. He sprays some peroxide and anti-bacterial spray before applying a band aid decorated with sharks and other sea creatures, Rin smiles at the band aid and passes a meek glance to Sousuke, “Hey, It looks good.” He grunts, offering a small smile before Rin dashes back outside.
“I hope you’re a lot more alive when you meet the rest of the kids.” Ai sighs, folding his arms securely across his chest.