Work Text:
Aizawa quickly saw a pattern with Kaminari’s attendance. At least twice a month he would come in late, or skip class after lunch. When he asked his friends if they knew where he was, they would always brush it off to him skipping. While Kaminari certainly was always at the bottom of their class in terms of grades, he did always put effort into what he was doing.
It seemed out of character for him to skip so often. The absences were becoming more frequent too. The boy seemed more and more exhausted the past months, he continued to fall asleep in class, completely missing lectures.
OOO
Aizawa was shocked to say the least when he went to get a coffee after his patrol, at twelve am, and the person at the counter was Kaminari.
“Welcome to the Purrfect Brew, how can I help you tod–Mr. Aizawa, what are you doing here?” Kaminari exclaimed.
“I would ask the same of you, do you know what time it is?” Aizawa scolded, looking at the blonde in full barista uniform.
“I work here.” Kaminari shrugged as if it was completely reasonable for a teenager to work into the early morning on a school night.
“You have a job?”
“Two actually.” Kaminari mumbled
“Why on earth would you need two jobs, Kaminari?” Aizawa asked.
“You know. Nice to have a little spending money.”
Aizawa wasn’t buying it, but it was clear Kaminari wasn’t going to budge on his explanation. He ordered a cappuccino, and when he wasn’t looking slipped twenty dollars into the jar labeled tips.
OOO
It was then that Aizawa started to keep a closer eye on his electric student. If Kaminari wanted extra spending money, why did he buy the cheapest meal at lunch rush everyday. If Kaminari wanted extra spending money, why did he wear the same pair of sneakers everyday, that were falling apart so bad the soles were falling off. If Kaminari wanted extra spending money why did he have to have two jobs and not one.
He began to notice other things about Kaminari too. How he always went straight home, never talking to his friends after school, despite being so social. How when the class visited the hospital for a school trip, everyone there knew who Kaminari was.
When parent-teacher conferences were happening, Aizawa was eager to speak with Kaminari’s parents to discuss his falling grades. But to his disappointment Kaminari’s family never signed up to meet. It wasn’t unusual per se, but Aizawa thought it was strange considering he had sent them a request specifically to meet.
He realized after that, he had never actually seen Kaminari’s parents. Maybe he hadn’t spoken to everyone in the class’s parents, but he had at least seen them in passing. Aizawa hadn’t seen Kaminari’s parents ever, not after the USJ incident, not after the sports festival, it was like they didn’t exist.
OOO
One day Kaminari had fallen asleep in class, except his friends decided against waking him up as usual. They thought he needed the sleep, seeming extremely tired that day. Aizawa didn’t realize he was still in there until he came back in during lunch, to find the blonde boy hunched over his desk.
“Kaminari.” Aizawa gently tapped his shoulder, immediately waking him up.
“OhmygodIamsosorry.” Kaminari said loudly. “I just was so tired I didn’t realize I fell asleep, it won’t happen again I promise.”
“Kaminari it’s okay I just wanted to wake you up because you’re missing lunch.” Aizawa explained. “Is everything alright?”
“Everythings good.” Kaminari choked, eyes clearly glossy.
“Hey, hey, what’s wrong.” Aizawa said softly.
“I just–” Kaminari breathed in loudly, “I have to get some money by the end of the week. So I picked up more hours, and I’ll get it, it’ll all be okay.”
“Okay.”
“I’m just. I’m just really really tired.” Kaminari began to cry again.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to bring you to recovery girl. You’re going to take a nap, and we are going to talk about this later, ok.” Kaminari nodded.
“Let’s go.” Aizawa said, swinging Kaminari’s backpack onto his shoulder.
OOO
Then Kamino happened. Aizawa really meant to talk with Kaminari about what had happened, but to be completely honest it slipped his mind. That was until the dorm system was put in place. All of Aizawa’s questions about Kaminari’s home life came rushing back to him. He immediately volunteered to visit the blonde’s house, telling All Might they lived really close.
The opposite was in fact true. Aizawa learned that it took a nearly fifty minute train ride to get to the electric boy’s tiny apartment. When he knocked on the door, it immediately opened to Kaminari in an apron, clutching a spatula.
“Mr. Aizawa, what are you doing here?” Kaminari asked, shocked. “I mean come in, come in, it’s a little bit of a mess sorry about that. Do you want some mac’n’cheese?”
“I’m okay, thank you Kaminari. I’m here to speak with your parents.” Aizawa explained.
“Oh, um. You can talk to my grandmother.” Kaminari said, leading the way.
Saying the apartment was dirty would be wrong. But it was probably the most cluttered apartment Aizawa had ever been in. There were photographs everywhere, furniture filling up every corner, and crossword puzzles were strewn about the home.
“Obaasan, my teacher is here to talk to you.” Kaminari said, to an extremely wrinkly and tiny woman sitting at their dining room table.
“Denki is Hiroko here?” the elderly woman croaked.
“My teacher here is Obaasan, Ai-za-wa Sen-sei.” Kaminari repeated louder.
Kaminari’s grandmother was hooked up to an oxygen tank except the nose piece was resting around her neck. Kaminari quickly fixed this, bringing the loop around her head. She sat in a very old squishy chair, with her walker right next to her, which had a bowl of mac’n’cheese on top with a spoon. Her eyes were a pale gray, probably cataracts, and her hair was pulled up into a tiny ponytail with a bow.
“Ms. Kaminari, I assume you are Denki’s primary guardian? Are you Sumiko Kaminari?” Aizawa asked loudly to the old woman.
“Hello young man.” she said, nodding her head up and down.
“Sorry I think I have to get her hearing aids checked out.” Kaminari laughed uncomfortably.
“Listen, Kaminari, maybe you can relay this to your grandmother later. We’re instating a dorm system. We’re requiring all hero course students to stay there. I have the paperwork here and I can answer any questions. Everyone will move in, in two weeks.”
“Oh. Okay thank you.” Kaminari gave a blank smile.
“Kaminari, you never mentioned you lived with your grandmother. Do your parents usually leave you home alone with her a lot?” Aizawa asked.
“Ah, it's just me and her. My mom is, um, incarcerated.” Kaminari said trailing off.
“Ah shit kid, I’m sorry.”
“No, it's all good. I mean my Obaasan’s great. Anyways I’ll ask if she has any questions, you probably have lots of other people to visit besides me” Kaminari said guiding Aizawa to the door.
“Oh yeah probably. Listen kid if you need anything, anything at all. Here’s my personal phone number.” Aizawa said, handing Kaminari a post-it note.
“Thanks sensei.”
Aizawa left the apartment, a “bye Hiroko” coming from behind him. How long had the sunshine resident of class 1A been so independent. Sumiko Kaminari didn’t seem well enough to take care of herself, let alone a child. All the puzzle pieces came together in Aizawa’s mind. He just needed Kaminari to ask for help.
OOO
The two weeks leading up to move-in day, Kaminari became increasingly more nervous. It was clear to any outsider viewer that something was wrong. Everyday Kaminari would approach Aizawa’s desk at the end of class, but then step back and not say whatever he was planning to say. Eventually enough was enough.
“Kaminari see me after class.” Aizawa announced.
Kaminari approached his teacher's desk, hands shaking, head looking down.
“Kaminari, is there something you want to tell me?” Aizawa asked softly.
“I’m sorry sensei I–” Kaminari hesitated. “I’m, I’m quitting. I’m dropping out of U.A.. My landlord raised our rent, and I just can’t make my schedule work with school. The dorms won’t work for me anyway, because I have to take my grandmother to get bloodwork three times a week. And she just can’t live alone, she has dementia, she doesn’t understand what’s going on half the time. And I can’t just put her in a nursing home, because I can’t afford it, and she would hate me for it. And if she went into a nursing home, they’d put me in foster care. She’s my only living relative. If I go into foster care I probably won’t be able to stay at U.A. anyway. And I’ve already been in foster care–I can’t do that again. And I’m already almost going to fail, I should stop wasting everyone’s time, and my money, cause it’s just not working. I’m not cut out for this.”
Kaminari crouched down, curling down into a ball, and started to sob. It was so embarrassing. How many times had he cried in front of Aizawa? He couldn’t stop the tears from pouring down his face, his breathing just got faster and faster, but it felt like no oxygen was entering his lungs.
“-aminari! Kaminari, you need to take a breath.” Aizawa was crouched down onto the floor in front of him. “In for three, hold for four, out for five.”
“Sorry sensei. Thank you for being my teacher.” Kaminari pasted a smile onto his soaked face.
“No Kaminari. I should be sorry. I didn’t realize the stress you were under was so great.” Aizawa sighed. “Kid, can I give you a hug?”
Kaminari nodded. He couldn’t remember the last time an adult gave him a hug. Kaminari felt his face get hot again.
“Kaminari, you will not be quitting U.A..” Aizawa stated.
“Sensei I can’t affor–”
“We have financial aid I assumed you haven’t applied for. With the new dorms system U.A. can take partial custody of you. I can take the other partial custody.”
“What–”
“Let me finish. There are government programs where you can get money to send your grandmother to a nursing care facility. I know of a couple good ones, I can recommend you to. You can visit her whenever you want. And lastly Denki, you absolutely are cut out for this. If you really want to quit we can talk about it, but I want to help you. The fact you’ve been juggling all this by yourself is enough proof you are more than cut out to be a hero.”
“Thank you Sensei.”
“Of course Kaminari. Everything’s going to be okay.”