Chapter Text
Shota sat defeated on the coffee table while his two best friends gaped at him from the couch opposite the table.
You may be wondering how he found himself in this situation. Shota was too.
He had woken up around midday. That in itself, was not common in the post-destruction world. However, it was normal when he was still operational as both an underground hero and a high school teacher.
Still, that time had long passed. No point being a hero when there was no one to save. No point being a high school teacher when there wasn’t anyone to teach.
His kid was there, of course, but the kind of lessons required were ones that Shota could not teach. Survival was learned together.
So that’s when Shota found out, with both of his eyes, two actual legs, his (operational) phone, and the apartment that had previously been destroyed, that he had gone back in time. He was two whole years in the past.
Without his kid.
But he digresses. After all, if he was pulled through that strange machine, Izuku might have been too. It was only logical. He would have liked to investigate his new circumstance, and get some certainty on the matter of time travel, and whether or not he was… alone… when an incredibly infuriating knock, coupled with the most infuriating voices, that he’d missed with all of his being, sounded at his front door.
He hadn’t allowed himself to consider the implications of time travel. Not when the pain had only festered for two, difficult years for one. One and a half even harder years, for the other.
With the grace of an elephant, Shota ripped his front door open, and greeted his friends with something they’d never received from him before. A hug.
He could practically feel the bewildered looks they were shooting over his head.
“Sho, what’s-”
Hizashi was cut off as Shota pulled both him and Nemuri inside. The two were dragged into his minimalistic space and knocked onto the couch. While they recovered from the shove, Shota had gracefully plopped down on his coffee table, and waited for the inevitable flurry of overlapping questions.
Like clockwork, his two friends began to speak.
“Shota what-”
“-Hugging us out of nowhere!”
“-shoved us on the couch.”
“Just wanted ramen with you but now I’m worried-”
Eventually their brain cells synced, and they asked the question that all their concerns boiled down to.
“Are you okay Shota?”
Ah. There it was. The question of the century.
Shota hesitated. The situation was so incredibly complicated he didn’t know where to begin. But, well. He’d missed Hizashi and Nemuri. A lot. Seeing them now…
~~~~~~
His friends were immediately flummoxed at the look on his face. Shota had given them one of the biggest, happiest and most relieved smiles they’d ever seen on him. Hell, they’d known him since his second year of high school and they could accurately count the amount of times they’d seen him smile at all. They shared a worried look. What had changed so much in a single day to warrant that kind of relief- and joy- at their presence?
Nemuri leaned forward to place a hand on his knee. He turned to face her directly, and met her eyes.
“What’s going on, Sho?”
He let out a world weary sigh and instead caught both their eyes as he broke the direct eye contact from Nemuri. He leaned forward and rested his chin on his hands. Not one to beat around the bush, he came straight out with it.
“I time travelled.”
Cue the gaping.
~~~~~~
By the end of his story Nemuri and Hizashi were crying. If Shota didn’t have permanent dry-eye, he would have been crying too.
Nemuri recovered first.
“Shota, I don’t even know where to begin- I- you lost all of us.”
“Yes.”
“It was just you and Midoriya for a year and a half?”
“Yes.”
“And the league- Shirakumo-”
“Yes.”
At the mention of their old friend Hizashi finally broke out of his stupor.
“I’m gonna DJ Punch the living daylights out of whoever did that to Shirakumo.”
Shota nodded sagely.
Hizashi took a breath and released his fists. He looked back to Aizawa.
“But, really, Shota. Are you actually okay?”
Shota rested his palms upwards on his knees and looked to the roof.
“Things were… different… hard. Between Nemuri,” he nodded in her direction, “and Shirakumo, at the beginning of the war, there was a lot of grief. All our co-workers, and then my students were also… that’s not something I’d wish on anyone. By the time Hizashi went, the only option was to move forward. With the kid, things were okay.”
A gentle look appeared in his eyes.
“We made a place for us. We were okay.”
“Coming back, though… seeing you two again.” As if waiting for permission, a tear suddenly fell from his shadowed face.
Nemuri and Hizashi felt their hearts break.
“Seeing you two again has meant the world to me.”
They could do nothing but step off the couch and engulf Shota in the second group hug that day.
~~~~~~
Some time later, after the small group of friends had time to decompress, Hizashi had a thought.
“I suppose you don’t know exactly what’s happened lately then, do you Sho?”
Shota stopped for a second, and grimaced.
“...not really no.”
Hizashi smiled fondly.
“All good, Sho. Your class finished their first internships about a week ago. They’ve started preparing for their midterms now.”
Ah. That meant that Stain had gone viral and the League of Villains would be acquiring their new members. Well, that was a problem for future Shota… near future Shota. He sighed.
Bluntly, Shota shared, “We’ve got work to do.”
Hizashi and Nemuri groaned dramatically.
“Shotaaa it’s the weekend.” Nemuri grumbled.
Hizashi enthusiastically nodded. “What she said. No work talk!”
Shota frowned, thoughts of the past two years (for him) floating around his head.
His friends sobered.
“Shota,” Hizashi started, “we know you’ve returned from a kind of hell neither of us could possibly fathom. When was the last time you had a real break? Let loose, had some fun?”
Shota actually had an answer.
“Izuku and I-”
Nemuri squealed.
“Izuku?! Aww Shota that’s cute.”
The tired man hid his face.
“Shooo did you adopt the little listener? Of course you did, you’re secretly a huuuge softie after all.”
Shota considered grabbing his capture gear so that he could strangle his friends.
“Oh my god are we aunties and uncles now?!”
Yes, they absolutely deserved to be strangled. Tomorrow, things could go back down to business. He’d have to speak to Nezu, and find out if his kid was here as well or not. But that was for later.
Right now, he’s still being ribbed by his two traitorous best friends who he absolutely did not miss at all. He’s not smiling. Really, he’s not.