Work Text:
There are lots of different curiosities in Nezu's possession. He won't admit it, but he is a collector at heart. Most people know about his extensive tea collection, some know of the antiques he has collected. Fewer know of his collection of documents that survived from before the dawn of quirks, or the documents that he had... confiscated from different research facilities.
However, his most prized possessions aren't anything the world would view as valuable. No, for Nezu, the most prized and important items in his possession are the few things given to him by his late friend. He had left them in the most secure room of the school (second only to the vault that held all of his prized documents), untouched ever since he got them 6 years ago. If Nezu had to choose the most prized of them all, it would be a simple black hardcover notebook. He had never been able to look at it for these past years, but perhaps, now is the right time.
He had never felt ready to face whatever she had left for him. The room he stored all of her items in used to be her office that was directly next to his. Nezu had the door to the hallway deconstructed and now, the only entrance was from the hidden door within the Principal's office. He also never allowed anyone entrance into it, nor had he told anyone about what happened to the room. It was the simplest way of making the room the most secure it could ever be. Besides that, it also isn't on any school maps.
He never had the heart to take anything out of it. Her entire office was still the same as it had always been. He had the notebook neatly placed on her desk. The entire office was cleaned, because he just couldn't not clean it every week. She was important to him, the first to trust him, and this was the least he could do to honour her.
Carefully, as if one wrong move would destroy something, he got to cleaning the room for the week. First were the bookshelves, filled with an abundance of books on different topics, like for example biology, physics, law, history, psychology, engineering, education and Oddiology (which is the study of quirks; Nezu doesn't know who came up with that, but it did come from the dawn of quirks. It's from the word oddity, probably because quirks were an oddity back then. Not that creative, but regardless, it was better and a bit more innovative than, say, quirk science). He made his way around, cleaning the side table that was equipped with a coffee machine, an electric kettle, some mugs and a small, empty coffee and tea organiser. It's used to be filled with different brews of coffee and blends of tea, but they would've gone bad if Nezu left them there. The tea of her small collection went to his, and the coffee to the local coffee addict of the school and her protege, Aizawa.
Then he went over to the corner by the windows. It used to be their space, where they'd just sit together, talking, playing a round of chess or just enjoying each other's company. They called it the cozy corner. It merely consists of a small coffee table and two bean bags, one white, the other black. A chess set is beneath the table, the one they'd always use to play together. It still hurt to think about all the things they did together. So for the sake of his own mind, he makes quick work of the cozy corner, as well as the rest of the room.
The last thing he cleans is her desk. As he wipes away the last bit of dust, he reaches out for the notebook, only to hesitate in the last moment. As much as he'd love to read what she had written in it, he just couldn't bring himself to do so.
Next time, he thinks to himself the same words as every week as he turns around and leaves the room, I will be ready.