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Shouta slouched in his chair with a poorly hidden sigh of relief. He’d barely gotten back from patrol in time to make it to the teachers’ office before school hours began, so he was running on little food and less sleep, but he’d certainly made it through worse days before.
“Man, what a morning!” Hizashi complained, dropping into his seat next to Shouta. “You’ll never guess what happened to me.”
He grunted, which his friend took as the cue to continue the conversation.
“So, I’m running late, right? Leave my breakfast on the counter, figure I’ll just grab something on the way in, no big deal. Except I get out to my car with the food, and find out I did pick up my breakfast, I just set it on the floorboard instead of the seat.”
He grunted again, folding his arms as he glared at today’s schedule, only half listening to Hizashi’s story. Were there any movies he could show the class today? There had to be an old documentary or something he could dig up, make them write a report on it later. That would give him at least an hour to nap in his sleeping bag, as long as none of the kids started something.
A paper-wrapped breakfast sandwich and a cup of coffee were placed on his desk, directly between his glare and the schedule.
“As I was saying,” Hizashi said pointedly. “I had an extra breakfast today, so I’m sharing. Don’t give me that look, Shouta, I can tell you haven’t eaten anything today.”
He reached for the sandwich begrudgingly. “I ate this morning,” Shouta protested.
“I keep telling you, you don’t have to eat whatever your cats bring you.”
Shouta snorted, elbowing his friend as he took a bite of the sandwich. At least Hizashi had good taste in sandwiches…even if his coffee sucked.
He drank it anyway. Who was he to turn down free coffee?
…
Shouta kept meaning to restrict his patrol hours, but he never seemed to make it home before sunrise. Now that the dorms were in place, he was expected to spend at least part of the night on campus.
But nothing ever seemed to work out that way, and he found himself slinking onto campus in the early hours of the morning once again. Patrol had gone on way too long, and he’d been chasing down a lead on some runaway kids (he suspected at least one of them was being abused, and if that was the case none of them were going back home until he was sure they’d be safe).
He’d managed to eat this time, but showering was out of the question. Besides, he always wore black. No one would see the soot on his knees from staking out that warehouse for three full hours in hopes of seeing one of those kids.
(He’d left some supplies for them anyway, just in case. Even if they weren’t hiding out there and someone else got to the bag, he was sure the crackers, juice, and blankets would be appreciated.)
Shouta was walking with his head down, eyes squinted nearly closed against the approaching sunrise, when he turned the corner to head toward the main building and ran into someone.
Someone who was carrying a surprising amount of orange juice in unsecured containers.
“Whoa! Watch where you’re going, Shouta!”
Hands caught his arms to steady him, and he glared up into Hizashi’s familiar, smiling face. “What the hell, Hizashi?” he snarled.
“Hey, you ran into me!” Hizashi protested.
He was drenched now. Shouta glowered down at his soaked clothes. A stain wouldn’t show through the black, but the scent of orange juice was strong, and it would only be a few minutes before the drying juice became tacky. “Why were you carrying four cups of orange juice?” he demanded.
“Because you were sorely in need of vitamin C,” Hizashi teased. “Hey, come on. The faculty locker room is empty. Why don’t you wash yourself off while I swing by your apartment for a change of clothes.”
Shouta grunted. He hated being sticky. “There’s a spare set in my locker in the office.”
“Perfect! I’ll even bring you some coffee as an apology.” Hizashi turned him and pushed him toward the locker room. “Go clean yourself up, I’ll bring you the clothes in a second.”
“Make sure it’s good coffee,” Shouta called over his shoulder. “Not the stuff you usually drink.”
It wasn’t good coffee. It was the stuff Hizashi usually drank.
Shouta drank it anyway. Free coffee was free coffee.
…
“Shouta!” Hizashi whined, slinging an arm across Shouta’s shoulders. “You can’t make me do this on my own!”
He was busy. He was too damned busy to cater to his friend’s needs. Shouta ignored Hizashi’s theatrics and kept his gaze focused on the papers he was grading.
“Shou-ta!”
Yaoyorozu’s was practically perfect. She just needed to assert herself more.
“Hey, come on!”
Midoriya’s was well-researched, but he still went off on too many tangents.
“Please?”
Todoroki’s was good, but very dry. He tended to draw point-to-point conclusions, when Shouta was trying to teach them how to express their own interpretations of facts.
A hand appeared in front of his face, waving back and forth. He rolled his eyes and smacked it away, only for someone to grab the arm of his chair and spin him away from the desk.
“Yamada.”
“Ooh, last names now, how scary.”
He crossed his arms and glared at his friend. “I’m busy.”
“But Shouta!” Hizashi whined. “I really need your help!”
Shouta sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You cannot be serious.”
“Come on, you know what a sucker I am,” his friend pleaded. “Last time I got my oil changed, they talked me into a bunch of extra stuff! I even paid for headlight fluid!”
He snorted. Hizashi loved his car, but he was hopeless as far as maintenance was concerned. The last time he’d gone for an oil change on his own, Shouta had had to go back three days later to protest several items on the bill.
“It’ll only take an hour,” Hizashi wheedled. “I brought coffee!”
Shouta was almost getting used to Hizashi’s coffee.
He let out a sigh of defeat and scooped up the rest of the essays. He could read over them in the waiting room at the mechanic shop, at least. Get through some of his work while making sure Hizashi wasn’t getting taken advantage of again.
“I even bought you a thermos.” Hizashi held out a sleek black travel mug. It was a smooth, matte black with a powdered finish, with a ring of embossed cat pawprints around the top.
The coffee was the same stuff Hizashi always made. But like he’d said, he was almost used to it…even if it wasn’t nearly as strong as what he usually brewed.
…
He just couldn’t stay awake.
Shouta had parked himself on one of the couches in the 1-A Heights Alliance common room, muffling yawns behind his hand as he watched the kids bicker over movie options. Someone had decided the kids would be more likely to behave if there was a responsible adult in the room.
Hizashi had volunteered to stay up with the kids. Which was why Shouta was here, too.
“Ooh, I hope they pick the one about the unicorn,” Hizashi commented as he settled himself on the couch next to Shouta, passing over a cup of coffee.
“You’re a sadist, Hizashi,” Shouta muttered, taking a long sip. Hizashi’s coffee was still awful, but who was he to complain? If his friend wanted to bring him free coffee, he was going to drink it.
“Hey, wanna place bets on who cries first?”
“They’re not watching the unicorn movie. Or the dinosaur one. Kirishima said he found some ancient version of The Hobbit; you know they’ve all been obsessed with that lately.”
All Might was to blame for that. He’d somehow gotten the kids hooked on Tolkien, and now they all called Endeavor a balrog, whatever that was.
(He had a vague recollection of a fire monster that got killed by an old man with a stick. Ever since then he’d wondered who would win in a fight between Endeavor and Gran Torino.)
“Drink your coffee, Shouta. The movie’s about to start.”
Shouta took another sip of coffee. “Your coffee’s too weak,” he complained, muffling another yawn. “No matter how much I drink, it doesn’t do anything.”
“Huh.”
“The stuff Power Loader makes can keep you going for days.”
“Really.”
“This does nothing for me.”
He took another drink, then stared down at the cup. A suspicion was beginning to build in his mind. “Hizashi?”
“Hang on…hey, don’t turn all the lights off, you’ll ruin your eyes!” Hizashi half-stood from the couch to wave Kaminari away from the switches before settling back down next to Shouta. “Did you need something?”
“Have you been giving me decaf this whole time?”
Hizashi grinned at him.
“You traitor.”
“Don’t be like that, Shouta,” Hizashi wheedled. “Besides, you’ve been sleeping better, haven’t you?”
He sighed heavily and slumped down on the couch. Hizashi snickered and flung an arm across the back of the couch, leaning in against Shouta. “Just relax, okay? A little rest would do you good.”
His eyelids were already getting heavier. The darkness in the room, the warmth of Hizashi’s body heat, the knowledge that all his kids were here and safe for at least the next ninety minutes….
“You can close your eyes, Shouta. I’ve got everything under control.”
He really shouldn’t. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on the kids here.
(Hizashi’s coffee was so terrible he hadn’t even noticed it was decaf.)
The last thing Shouta remembered was someone pulling the coffee cup out of his hands.
He was fast asleep before the unexpected party.