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Iida flipped another page of his book as he sat reading in the empty classroom. It was around 7:45 AM—still 40 minutes before class started for the day, but due to some class rep responsibilities, he’d had to arrive significantly earlier than usual. As such, now that he’d finished his duties, there was little to do. He figured the best use of his time would probably be skimming his homework for tomorrow, so Iida decided to do just that until the others showed up.
Halfway through reading a blurb on world history though, Iida found his mind wandering. He slumped slowly forward until his chin was resting on the surface of his desk, both arms jutting out with the book at maximum distance. His eyelids waned.
I want to see her…
Of course, Hatsume. She was all he could think about these days—the first person that would pop into his mind every time he wasn’t busy. That made sense, given their relationship was still relatively fresh, and she had a knack for chasing away his boredom; so his mind wandering to her wasn’t that much of a surprise. Longing for her this early in the day though? That was a little more new.
He'd had a dream last night. They were bundled together under a thick blanket with a sea of stars above their heads. He didn’t remember much of what they’d talked about—it’d mostly been pointless fluff anyway. They’d kissed plenty, though, and as such when he’d woken up to his alarm, Iida’s entire body had felt as hot as fire.
Thick sweat and a palpitating heart—crooked blankets, and a feeling strong enough to almost make him sick… though oddly, a pleasant type of sick? He hadn’t known that love could ever feel so dense that it could take away a person’s appetite, but here he was. He’d skipped breakfast for the first time in ages because he knew if he ate so much as a bowl of white rice, his giddy stomach wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Are some days just gonna be… like this? Iida wondered silently, no longer reading his book at this point, Where I’ll just wake up wanting to see her so bad that it makes me nauseous?
He thudded his forehead three times against the table.
Why do I both hate and love that?
Indeed, what a strange, strange phenomenon.
As the clock in the room ticked on for a few minutes longer though, Iida’s ears eventually picked up the sharp sound of the door latch opening. He didn’t move immediately, but listened as footsteps and quiet humming entered the room—only to eventually be replaced by a sudden: “Oh! Well hello there!”
Iida’s eyes widened in confused recognition, and then he looked up at that moment to realize that of all people, Hatsume had just entered the classroom.
He blinked in bewilderment, his annoying heart spiking up into his throat for a moment when they made eye contact. “Mei!”
Hatsume grinned, sending him an odd little two-fingered salute, “Yo!”
It took a moment for Iida to gather his bearings—longer than he would’ve liked. The dragon that currently was his nerves though started to ease as he sucked in and let out a deep breath. When his image of her was cleared from his mind, he finally spoke.
“(This is a surprise,)” he muttered, then shook his head—one hand shakily adjusting his glasses, “What, erm, are you doing in class 1-A?”
“Oh! Yeah I guess you’d ask that,” she paused for a second, clasping both hands behind her back as she started to wander the rows of desks, “I came to school super early to finish a project only to find out that the due date was moved up, haha. Now I’ve got extra time on my hands, so I thought I’d come and look at your cute classroom,” she flashed him a quick grin, “I’ve never been in here, after all! It feels kinda scandalous for me to be here, doesn’t it?”
“I can’t imagine why,” Iida huffed in return, and then as if he were indifferent that she’d come to visit, he reopened his book and started reading again, “There’s nothing particularly interesting in here. It’s just an ordinary classroom, after all.”
“But it’s empty!” she went on, and bent over slightly so she could peek into someone’s desk. If he remembered right, that one was Sero’s, “Well, almost. You weren’t really supposed to be here, but I don’t really mind all that much.”
Iida flipped a page without reading it.
“You shouldn’t look through people’s stuff.”
“I’m not touching any of it.”
“Did I say you were?”
She hummed something non-committal there, eyes squinting for only a moment longer, and then straightened back up with an irritated pout on her face. “Fiiine.”
Inwardly, Iida let out a shaky sigh.
Mei’s here, he thought to himself, his right hand tensing on his book, Right as I was complaining about wanting to see her too. That’s… impeccable timing.
He felt his heart and stomach squirm as she continued to wander around the empty classroom; tossing open the door to the supply closet, and then moving to peek inside the teacher’s podium.
I’m not like myself this morning, Iida continued, an expression of both concern and longing mixing in his eyes the longer she stuck around, Because of that dream I had, I have this unrelenting desire to just… be with her, right now. Ugh… where did this spike in wanting affection come from? Why won’t it leave? I’m never like this—is something wrong with me today? Or…
The longer he thought about it, staring blankly at his book, the sooner a certain memory popped into mind. Hatsume had been like him before—he could recall it quite distinctly. Days where she’d greeted him on-sight with a squeeze from behind, or random instances where she’d suddenly buried her face in his chest. Heck, the very status of their relationship had gotten leaked within two days of getting together because she’d tackled him on the front porch of his dorm building. On other days though, the “normal” days, he’d stop by her studio after school, and she’d give him a quick hug or a kiss on the cheek, and then that was it.
This unexplainable surge of desire in his heart… could it explain why Hatsume was sometimes like that?
It’s almost like a… cat.
The comparison was admittedly strange, but explained a lot. Sometimes cats were distant, other times they couldn’t get enough of being petted or shown attention.
This was just Iida’s first-ever experience having his emotional pendulum swing so far to the left.
“Oye,” Hatsume suddenly said, and Iida jumped in his seat. She gave him a weird look for it, but seeming to notice how hard he was trying to smother his anxiousness, Hatsume decided not to tease him. “what’s that you’re reading? Come to think of it, why are you even here so early, Tenya?”
Iida shrugged bashfully, and tried his best not to acknowledge any of his obtrusive thoughts as he flipped another page, “I had to take care of something as the student representative. The talk with Aizawa-sensei lasted shorter than expected, so I’ve just been sitting here waiting for class to start.”
“Oh. Huh, at that rate, I would’ve walked back home to take a nap or something.”
Iida stiffened, his eyebrow twitching. I’m not really excited about falling asleep in this state though.
“I really chose to date quite the nerd, huh?” she sighed to herself, finally moving away from the podium so she could hover by his desk instead. The moment she was in his peripheral, he detected the presence of her usual mischievous grin.
Iida swallowed. His heart was still pounding, and by now it felt like his own body was trying to taunt him.
Sheesh…
“So, what book is that?” Hatsume went on, sliding into the seat in front of him so she could prop her elbows on Iida’s desk, “‘World History’. Bleh…” she scrunched up her face.
“It’s for class,” Iida dismissed. Goodness that face was adorable… but he couldn’t allow himself to give in, so he turned away from her, “It’s not exactly my favorite subject either, but it’s imperative that I stay ahead on my assignments. So if you don’t mind…”
“Eeeh?” she cocked her head at him, and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from sneaking a glance at her, “But you could do that any time, though… I’m here right now.”
Iida flipped another page.
“If you’re trying to bait me into giving you attention, that’s not going to work. I’m busy.”
Hatsume pointed a scrutinizing finger at him, “You didn’t read a single word on that page.”
Iida stiffened. She was technically right.
“I’m a fast reader…”
“Yeah I bet.” she shrugged, inching closer to him—enough that her hair tickled his forearm as she looked at the page he was on, “…Which is why I wonder why you’ve been reading that title page for more than like three seconds.”
Iida clicked his tongue, then flipped to the next page disgruntledly. A hot blush was starting to creep up his cheeks already at the feeling of her sitting so close to him. He could smell that familiar metallic musk she always wore whenever she’d been using her soldering iron…
“Please stop distracting me,” he ended up clipping on accident, after too much pressure had mounted. He felt like a soda can about to burst just having her here—if she so much as nudged him, he might just lose his composure. “I-I’m almost done, so just leave me be until then.”
Somewhat surprised to hear such an edge to his voice, Hatsume straightened confusedly, then let out a bothered huff. “Gosh, you’re jumpy today. Fine, if it’s so captivating, then I’ll quit.”
Iida immediately regretted saying what he’d said the moment she stood up, though. She put one hand stubbornly under her elbow and used the other to tug at a strand of her hair—a subtle sign that she was annoyed at him. She then meandered past him to continue glancing idly at the desks, but did so with less interest than before. Whoops…
Now I’ve done it, he silently chastised himself, I know she came up here just for the fun of it, but I’m sure she was expecting something a lot more pleasant when she saw I was here. As usual, I’ve gone and killed the fun. Haaah… he grimaced though, realizing his heart was still purring like an engine, But there’s not much I can do with my emotions like this. Giving into those feelings—especially here—would be incredibly self-indulgent and inappropriate of me.
For the first time though, contrary to his thought process, Iida peeked over the top rim of his book.
But…
Hatsume was making a show of ignoring him, now. She had an intentionally exaggerated scowl in her eyes as she pouted at the back wall of the room, and had moved to perch stubbornly on top of Todoroki’s desk. It was a fact that Hatsume had only come here to look at Iida’s classroom, but as he watched her, Iida started to realize that her objective had changed the moment she’d locked eyes with him at his desk.
She got excited when she saw me, he realized, a saddened expression replacing what he had before, I mean, we’re friends after all—and dating friends, at that. Something would have to be wrong if she weren’t at least somewhat happy to run into me. By ignoring her right now, I’m somewhat neglecting my duties as her companion…
His heart still yearned, however.
But if I go to her in this state, I don’t know what I’ll end up doing.
Iida’s hand gripped his book hard enough to wrinkle the page. He once again glanced back and forth between it and Hatsume, still uncertain about the churning he felt deep inside; but after long enough, he started to warily step out of his chair.
“Meeei,” he dragged out hesitantly, practically shuffling over to where she was sitting.
She crossed her arms at him, giving him an obvious side-eye.
His eyebrow twitched.
“You… shouldn’t sit on other people’s desks.”
“Oh my gooosh. Will you come off it…?” she grumbled back, and Iida mentally kicked himself. Those frustrating hall monitor instincts of his…
Still though, believing he could salvage this somehow, Iida came up with a ploy to play things off. He wasn’t great when it came to charming people, but if it was her, well… sometimes he was able to get creative.
He felt his stomach leap as he got closer.
Easy, Tenya…
Stepping up so he could kneel into Tokoyami’s seat, Iida tried again.
“Sorry, I’m not trying to ignore you. Can you please stop… pouting?”
She rolled her eyes, but then out of nowhere, Hatsume ducked backwards so that she could look at him upside-down. In return, he had to jolt away for a moment to keep them from bonking heads, but when he blinked, she was glaring up at him from beneath his nose. His breath hitched a bit unintentionally.
“As soon as you stop patronizing me,” she quipped back, though he noticed a trace of red starting to creep into her cheeks. Apparently this move of hers had been too bold even for her, but she was clearly still trying to sell it by keeping an annoyed purse about her lips.
Iida felt his hands turn clammy at that moment, The nerve of her…
Still, Iida chose to break the tension with an audible, apologetic sigh. He rubbed one hand over his eyes, putting his glasses askew as he murmured a disgruntled: “Look… Mei, I’m sorry. I really mean it. I wasn’t trying to make you mad, I’m just a bit… irritable this morning, for some reason. I took it out on you, I shouldn’t have done that.”
She squinted up at him, “Go on.”
He paused there, “With what part?”
“Why are you grumpy?”
“Oh.”
He tossed around in his head for a moment on whether or not he should explain himself, but after one glance at her face, he realized he didn’t have any other choice but to be forthright. Obviously his heart didn’t like that very much, but he also knew that Hatsume could be rather forceful when it came to stuff like this. She was onto him now—that meant it was too late to turn back.
“I was feeling a bit off, when you came in,” Iida grunted, not looking at her, “I don’t really get what’s up with me, but I just have these…” he cut himself off there, unable to complete the word: “urges” due to the intense amount of red that’d crawled into his cheeks.
She raised an eyebrow at him, “These… what? Do you… not want to see me today?”
“No,” he affirmed quickly though, making her eyes actually widen a bit, “i-it’s the opposite. I um…” he shrugged, then finished quietly: “(really, really wanted to see you.)”
It took her a moment to understand, but the moment he saw a slow grin enter her face, he realized the gears had clicked into place on their own.
“Oooh. Are you being bad, Iida?”
Iida clicked his tongue sharply at her, but on the inside he was absolutely screaming.
“It’s okay to be bashful you know,” she went on, still smirking up at him, “Heheh, you know I was wondering if you were ever gonna have a day like this. Is it really that hard to look at me right now?”
“I’d appreciate it if you… not do that, right now,” he breathed back, still looking anywhere but down. How in the world was she keeping her head there so long? Any normal person would be lightheaded by now.
“Aww, fine,” she grinned, then sighed gently. Her breath tickled the underside of his chin, “But hey, you know it’s okay to be the one wanting affection every once in a while. You should know by now that you don’t need to be shy with me.”
Thankfully, a somber mood interrupted the previous charge that’d been in the air, so Iida was finally able to catch his breath enough to reply.
“I get that. But this is just new to me…” he glared annoyedly off to the side, “I feel a bit pathetic.”
“Embrace it,” she grinned, flicking his cheek teasingly, “look, there’re gonna be days where we trade off being the affectionate one. That’s just how relationships work. Finding the right balance is the key.”
He paused for a moment there as he processed her words. Technically, he understood she was right, but he was just hesitant to accept it. After all, even between all of their dates, when he really thought back, every single time they’d kissed, she’d usually been the one to initiate it. He wanted to be careful, after all—didn’t want to overstep, or make her uncomfortable. He was the type who only acted once he had absolute permission first.
“That sounds like a pain,” he complained instead, to which she just rolled her eyes again.
“That’s just how it is, Tenya,” she moved a tiny bit closer to tease him with another toothy grin, “You always have my permission, though. I’m not scared of you.”
That reply was… dangerous.
For the heart in his chest, but shockingly, also for the brain in his head. Logically? She’d just given him a green light. Emotionally?
She’s so close. I can’t…
Iida sucked in a few short breaths first before rather abruptly shifting his position. Both palms were moved to the desk so that her craned head was now starkly positioned below his. Her eyes widened big—enough to almost daunt him, but the way their gazes locked into place told him that there would be no going back now. Oh, he wanted this, and he realized he was not leaving here until he had it.
“(Even if I do this…?)” he whispered, and she replied back with an almost silent:
“(Try me.)”
At that moment, he caved.
Temptation wrapped its gnarly fingers around Iida’s neck with the force of an iron chain, and dragged his lips until they were on top of hers. He kissed her, and a firework of satisfaction roared behind his ribs. He’d missed those lips, he realized. He’d craved them despite the fact that they at least kissed a couple of times every week. This wasn’t anything new, but yet it was so, so powerful in this moment. It had that same intensity and passion as their first kiss, but without any of the awkwardness or timidity. They’d been trying each other out that first time, but this? This kiss came with the experience of the past ones before it. If their first kiss was a six, then Iida already knew this one was going to be a ten.
Kissing while upside-down… wow. It shouldn’t have made any difference, but oh what a difference it made. Unafraid, Iida held—practically clutched—the top of her forehead as he traced down every ridge of her lips. He kissed her again, again, again—enough that he could hardly breathe, and yet wouldn’t stop. Hatsume got into it too, of course; though surprisingly it took her longer to adjust to his pace than she usually did. He wasn’t the type to set the rhythm, after all—rarely ever did he lead when it came to this, but…
Gosh, I’ve just been craving this too much to hold back, he concluded, and continued to kiss her.
He leaned back a tiny amount, and then with both eyes shut, Iida let his tongue find her this time. He was almost startled to the point of losing his remaining breath when he found that her mouth had already opened without any prompting on his end. He didn’t flinch though—instead following through by letting his tongue slide across hers.
So… sharp.
He tasted more—took in every detail and every scent that greeted him. He let his mind imagine up a storm; unchained and explosive with passion that never before had he experienced in his life. He found her bare shoulder and wandered until he located the strap of her tank top. He almost slipped a finger underneath it, but stopped himself—a smidge of sobriety hitting him in that moment. He shouldn’t take things too far. Remember the importance of balance…
“Mmph—” Iida suddenly heard, and for the first time, squinted open his eyes and pulled back his tongue so she could speak, “Tenya.”
He breathed for a moment, wiping sweat off of his forehead. D*mn it was hot…
“Wh… what?” he managed back.
“I’m getting lightheaded…”
He took a stupidly long amount of time to realize that it was because she’d been craning her head back all this time. Once he realized though, he let out an embarrassed and slightly disappointed: “Ah…” as he gave her room to right herself.
“Thanks,” she sighed, readjusting her bangs for a moment while Iida slid out of the seat behind her. As she fussed with her hair though, Iida came back around front, placing both hands in the pockets of his slacks until she was refreshed again.
“Okay… that’s a little better, haha. I was practically going dark there.”
Iida winced, “My apologies.”
“Oh, no, no…” she shook her head at him, then grinned deviously, “I liked it.”
In return, feeling that fervor in his gut already coming back, Iida withdrew his hands from his pockets again and offered a subtly-eager: “Then…?”
She nodded firmly, “Hell yeah.”
He didn’t even hesitate to rush back in, picking up straight where they’d left off. Even despite the height of the desk, Iida still towered over her at this angle. He decided to borrow that good luck as he slid his hands over her knuckles on the desktop; entrapping her body between his broad shoulders. She hummed a bit at that—the vibration passing from her lips to his. He refused to hold back, though. Just for now, just for this moment, Iida wanted her to be his. And so far, she seemed to be okay with that.
“You—mmh, meant it when you said you were…! Feeling irritable,” she got out between kisses, then pulled back a bit to stare into his eyes, “I don’t think you’ve ever kissed me this hard, Tenya-kun. ~”
He sighed at that, letting the tension take a short break as he touched his forehead to hers.
“I don’t get it myself,” he shrugged, “I’ve just got this… itch, I-I guess. I’ve never felt anything like this before.”
Hatsume laughed vocally at that, “Ha! I’ve noticed. I feel like I need to start calling you something like ‘engine lips’, after this.”
He pulled away from her with a shockingly straight expression when she said that, just to reply with a firm: “Don’t.”
They both stared at each other, and then Hatsume burst into sudden laughter at the look on his face. Admittedly, he grinned too.
“Wooow, that’s a veto if I’ve ever seen one!” she chortled, then leaned back in again to respond: “There’s no replacing ‘engine boy’ then, I take it.”
He let out a soft breath of a chuckle, then tilted his head down to plant a soft kiss on her neck for the first time.
She exhaled deeply.
“Oh. D… definitely not.”
When he released her that time, he made sure to make eye contact first before kissing her any more. A silent, inquisitive: “Was that too much?” to which she just grinned and pulled him back in to continue as they were.
Time passed with them like that—longer than they’d ever dared go before. Neither seemed to mind much though, apparently both having forgotten that they were currently smooching on top of Todoroki’s desk in Iida’s classroom of all places. If Hatsume’s mere presence here had been scandalous before, it was surely obscene by now. Still, their concept of time had been completely dismantled by this point—given how obviously busy they were keeping up with each other.
At some point, things got heated enough that Iida shrugged off his jacket. He didn’t even mind when it dropped to the floor—instead rolling up his sleeves, and moving his hand so he could fiddle with the strap of the binoculars on Hatsume’s head. She actually flicked his hand for trying that though, huffing distastefully: “The goggles stay on,” so he reached instead for her ponytail; which she allowed. He wandered his hand between the tangled locks of her hair until he found the top, and slid her hair tie down until he had it in the palm of his hand. Her hair flopped down like a cascading waterfall as a result. What a peculiar feeling that was…
It felt like the heat between them was about to worsen before Iida finally started to get a grasp of sensibility again. His hand had reached for the strap of her tank top again unknowingly, and he’d almost looped a finger underneath it before stopping himself. He stared at her shoulder, freezing even when she kissed him twice. She seemed to notice thankfully though, and pulled her arms away from his neck.
“Something wrong?”
Iida inhaled deeply, then let out a long sigh and gave her shoulder a gentle pat instead.
“I think we should stop here before things get any more heated…”
She blinked, paused to notice his disheveled hair and the blazer on the floor, and then let out an awkward chuckle, “Ooooh. Ehehe… yeah, you might be right about that. Good call. And, um… sorry for going a bit crazy.”
He scoffed, finally taking a step back so he could give her space to hop down, “Um, I think I’m hardly better.”
Just as he’d placed his hands on her waist to help her off of the table though, Iida happened to glance up at the clock overhead. He squinted, blinking half-lucidly as he figured out the position of the clock hands, and then felt his heart plunge.
Wait… It’s 8:05!? Shoot—class starts in twenty minutes!
Under any other circumstance, Iida would not have been worried. The average student would only walk in at most about ten minutes early. But he knew for a fact that Yaoyorozu and Todoroki often came early together for extra long study halls in the mornings.
And they’d just been making out on his desk.
“Mei, you need to get going—” Iida started to say, panic rising in his throat as he spoke, “My classmates are going to be entering any second—”
Footsteps. Just outside the room, he heard a pair of footsteps.
OH NO, OH NO, OH NO!
Frantic and unable to think straight yet, Iida grabbed Hatsume by the shoulders again—this time prompting a tiny shriek and a blush out of her.
“T-Tenya!? What—” she started to say, but was cut off by him spinning her around and forcibly shoving her in the only plausible location he could think of at that moment.
“I’m sorry for this—!” he cringed as he opened up the doors to the cleaning closet.
“Tenya, don’t you dare!” she snipped back, but he pushed her inside and slammed the doors shut before she could say anything else.
The next second, the door to the classroom came open.
Iida was breathing heavily as he spun around to see who had come in. Sure enough, it was Todoroki and Yaoyorozu—the two of them walking shoulder to shoulder and looking like they’d been mid-conversation until they’d noticed him. When they made eye contact with each other, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu physically stopped where they were—for whatever reason giving him an obvious once-over.
Do I really look that unkempt…? he immediately wondered, and then almost let out a shriek when he realized that yes, he did in fact look very out of sorts.
“Um… hi, Iida,” Yaoyorozu said, trying her best to sound casual, but it hardly did much to help once Todoroki gave his response.
“What happened to you?”
Iida jolted, a flare of red entering his cheeks as Yaoyorozu turned to scold him. “Todoroki! I wasn’t going to say anything!”
“But his jacket’s on the floor…”
Indeed it was. And upon further examination of himself, his hair had gotten ruffled, and the collar of his dress shirt had gotten half-popped up in the back. And wait—when had the top three buttons been undone!? Had she done that!?
That sneaky little—! he hissed to himself through his teeth, hurriedly redoing the buttons and tidying up his crooked tie, When did she learn to do that!? though when leaned down and picked up his blazer, he remembered with embarrassment that he had her hair tie in his pocket still, and realized that he probably wasn’t much better. You know what, nevermind. I guess you just pick up little tricks as you go…
“S… sorry,” Iida mumbled as he started to awkwardly comb his fingers through his hair, “That was… u-um…” he couldn’t come up with an excuse, “…don’t worry about it.”
Yaoyorozu and Todoroki came closer though—obviously because their desks were where he was standing—and Iida suddenly realized that he would have to go to his seat. He tried not to send a worried glance at the cleaning closet behind him.
What do I do!? I just shoved her in there without thinking! If Todoroki and Yaoyorozu don’t leave, then Mei will be stuck here for—he paused to think, and then his face went pale, until… until LUNCH!
“Um, excuse us…” Yaoyorozu mumbled as she passed Iida on his left, and he gave her a sheepish nod as he slowly lumbered back to his own seat.
As Iida resumed fretting where he was, visible sweat now forming under his bangs, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu exchanged a perplexed glance at each other.
“(Iida’s sure acting weird,)” Todoroki commented, to which Yaoyorozu nodded.
“(Strange that he was all the way over here instead of at his desk…)”
In the silence that followed though, Yaoyorozu continued to watch Iida from afar—slowly attempting to put together all of the clues she’d picked up. A crooked tie, disheveled hair, and his blazer discarded on the classroom floor…
There was a gentle thump from inside of the cleaning closet, and the sound made Iida visibly stiffen. Todoroki and Yaoyorozu both turned backwards to glance at it, but neither got out of their seats to investigate.
How… peculiar. Yaoyorozu thought.
Only, once she turned back around to face the front of the classroom, something clicked into place, and she accidentally let out an inadvertent: “Oh my gosh!”
She clasped a hand over her mouth immediately, though not quick enough to avoid drawing Iida’s terrified gaze.
They made eye contact, stared at each other, and then Iida turned, folded his hands together, and sat stock still from that point onward.
“(What?)” Todoroki whispered unexpectedly, and Yaoyorozu jumped—her face suddenly breaking out into a violent shade of scarlet.
“(I-I think we walked in at a bad time!)” she hissed, cupping a hand over one side of her mouth.
Todoroki raised an eyebrow at her, unfortunately. Poor boy was ever the clueless one… “(What makes you say that?)”
“(Think about it!)” she whispered again, “(He was practically half-dressed when we came in! A-and he keeps glancing at the cleaning closet!)”
Todoroki just squinted confusedly at her though, so she had to roll her eyes.
“(Didn’t you pick up on the—the ‘intimate’ atmosphere in the air, when we walked in?)”
“(Is that what it was…?)” he put a hand under his chin thoughtfully, “(But that can’t be right, Iida was the only one in—)” he paused suddenly, both eyes widening with realization, “(…here.)”
Silence veiled them for a moment.
Then Todoroki lifted a finger, directing it at the closet, “(Don’t tell me Hatsume’s in there.)”
Yaoyorozu nodded vigorously—her face beet red.
“(Oh.)”
To her mild shock, he actually blushed a bit too—though if anything, he mostly just looked weirded out. It was then though, when he made the strange decision to stand up and look down at his desk. He put his hands on the edges, scooted it slightly to the left, sat back down, and then placed a palm on the table. He flinched unexpectedly when he did that, and very slowly took his hand back with a rather disturbed look now on his face.
“(What was that about?)” Yaoyorozu asked, to which he turned to grimace at her.
“(My desk was crooked…)” he grumbled awkwardly, paused, then added: “(And… the top of it is warm.)”
Yaoyorozu blinked at him.
“(I think they… made out on my desk.)”
Neither of them said a single word after that for a very long time. Instead, with shared expressions of mortification, they both stood back up out of their seats, sent Iida a fake smile, and then started to leave.
“We’ll, um, come back in a few minutes,” Yaoyorozu said to him with a cringe as she reached for the door, and Iida responded by plopping his face shamefully into his hands and grunting.
Well, at least it was just them. They already know about my relationship, so this thankfully isn’t too big of a deal…
It seemed like a crisis had been averted, so despite the unpleasant atmosphere that now loomed over Iida’s shoulders, he was relieved when he heard the sound of the door latch opening once again. However, unexpectedly, Yaoyorozu shrieked a bit at the sound. Why would she do that if she’d been the one to open the door…?
Iida looked up.
“Huh?” someone said.
That gravelly but dumbfounded voice was not one that belonged to anyone in this room. No, unfortunately, it belonged to their classmate Bakugo; who had only just walked in to sit down.
“B-Bakugo!” Yaoyorozu squeaked, “Well! Um, good morning!”
Iida put his head back into his hands.
IT GOT WOOOOORSE!!!
Unlike Todoroki and Yaoyorozu’s reaction, Bakugo actually stopped in the doorway when he realized something was off. He didn’t greet Yaoyorozu of course, but he eyed all three of them with careful scrutiny. He raised an eyebrow.
“The hell’s—” he started to say, but just before he could get the words out, he too was unfortunately cut off.
“Oye, Baku-bro! You were supposed to slow down and wait for me at some point!”
Clicking his tongue irately and turning, Bakugo responded angrily to Kirishima’s voice down the hall, “You should’ve run faster then! Don’t blame me for something stupid like that!”
When he turned back around, the temporary look of contemplation that he’d started out with was completely gone. Instead, he uttered a bothered: “Move it,” and pushed past Todoroki and Yaoyorozu so he could storm over to his seat. Shortly afterward, Kirishima stowed in, and the trio realized just how big of a predicament this was about to become.
Todoroki and Yaoyorozu glanced at each other, glanced at Iida, and then returned awkwardly to their seats.
This is bad. This is SO bad… Iida thought furiously.
Minute by minute, as the classroom continued to fill with people, Iida became less and less sure of what he should do. He should’ve just let Hatsume out the moment he realized people were coming in. A brief, embarrassing encounter with his some of his fellow students would’ve been nothing in comparison to the absolute shame he’d feel opening the closet in front of everyone now.
I can’t just leave her in there though, Iida cringed, biting anxiously down on his knuckle as the time crept closer and closer to 8:25, Making her sit in that small enclosure for four hours would be nothing short of torture!
Despite his best wishes however, Iida’s classmates one by one filled each of the desks in the classroom until the intercom at last jingled for classes to finally start. His role as class representative meant it was time for him to signal the class to stand.
It’s over… he mourned internally, the flat expression on his face barely twitching as he recited the usual words, If I open that closet, our reputation is dead. There’s nothing I can do but wait.
However, right as Aizawa came up to the front and directed everyone to sit down, there was a jostling sound in the back of the classroom. Iida’s ears prickled with nerves as he realized it must’ve been from Hatsume, but he didn’t even have time to question it before something completely unexpected unfolded.
“Alright class, so for this morning we’re going to review—”
An ear-ringing: “BOOM!” rang out from the hallway.
With shared expressions of complete bewilderment, each of the students moved to rise out of their seats before getting stopped by a sharp: “Nobody get up!” from their teacher. In place of any of them, Aizawa left the side of his podium and threw open the door—a look of alert focus overtaking his expression.
Smoke flooded the room, followed by an incessant, metallic banging noise.
Aizawa paused for several long seconds, coughing and blowing away the smoke as he processed what exactly was on the floor in front of him, before eventually letting out an ear-grating yell of frustration.
“What the—is that a noise-maker!?” he roared, and then gripped angrily at the scarf around his neck so he could lasso it. Unfortunately though, it seemed to pick up on this, and started scurrying speedily down the hallway to disrupt the other classes.
“Oh absolutely not. I am NOT dealing with this at 8 o’clock in the morning!” he barked furiously, but then turned back to his students with outrage on his face, “To whoever of you who did this, if I find you—” there was a shriek of terror down the hallway though, so Aizawa had no choice but to cut himself off. “I will be right back.”
The second their teacher sprinted after the tiny scuttling robot, each of the students immediately got up to peer down the hallway. Some of them started confusedly looking at each other, trying to figure out who might’ve been responsible for this, but all of their gazes were surprisingly clueless.
“Kaminari, this wasn’t you?” someone said, to which he retorted back: “Why do you guys ALWAYS blame me!?”
Under normal circumstances, Iida would probably be at the head of the group already, corralling everyone back to their seats. However, because of the well-timed distraction, he instead picked up that this must’ve been a gift from a certain someone still trapped in the cleaning closet. As such, he brought himself to an inconspicuous stand, and hurried discretely to the back of the classroom where she was waiting.
Yaoyorozu was actually already standing there with her hand over the open door. When Iida arrived in front of them, Hatsume’s head was peeking out, and she had a remote control in her hands. His eye actually twitched when he saw the blatant evidence—he was a bit torn about her having something like that conveniently on her possession, but given their small shred of time available, Iida decided it would be better for him not to question it.
“(Hurry out!)” Yaoyorozu hissed, “(That distraction was yours, right? Aizawa-sensei probably won’t pin you as the culprit if you leave before he gets back.)”
“(Yeah, that’s the goal!)” Hatsume nodded, and then she turned back to Iida with a guilty grimace on her face, “(I’m so sorry Tenya, I know how much you hate breaking the rules—)”
To her surprise though, he cut her off and started pushing her shoulders to the second sliding door in the back of the room. With all their classmates either clogging the first door or in the hallway, they were luckily able to make it there without anyone seeming to notice. Once there, Yaoyorozu and Iida were able to mask the sound of the door opening under the murmur of their friends, and Hatsume slipped out without further trouble.
Before leaving though, she made sure to turn around and flash him a guilty smile.
“(Sorry again! That was fun though, Tenya. Thanks for putting up with my nonsense this morning.)”
He grunted at that, his gaze worriedly scanning the end of the hall before coming up with a reply. Aizawa was still down there somewhere, thankfully, “(It’s fine. We just did what we had to,)” he sighed, then awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, “(I’m… happy you came to visit despite that, though. Even if things are ending abruptly, it,)” he blushed, “(it made my morning having you come by.)”
She grinned at that, her cheeks flushing, “(Aww~ I’d say the same, Tenya! You’re being so adorable today. I’ll have to visit you later too; if anything so we can finish what we started, heh.)”
Iida stiffened, and he glanced awkwardly over his shoulder at that moment to notice Yaoyorozu looking mildly embarrassed for overhearing. She must’ve certainly figured out what they’d been doing, then… how shameful. He ought to straighten things out with her later, if the opportunity arose.
“(Alright, you need to get going now, or you’ll get both of us caught,)” Iida replied, turning back to face her, “(Thank you again for visiting.)”
“(Fine, fine,)” she grinned, and then quickly planted a kiss on his cheek, “(I’ll see you later then, engine boy. Don’t tattle on us, okay?)”
Iida let out an annoyed “tsk”, “(I’m not sure I have a choice.)”
At that, Hatsume patted his cheek, and then hurried off down the opposite direction of the hallway. He watched her warily until she disappeared around a corner, and then turned back to the classroom to make sure no one had seen them. Luckily, with Yaoyorozu obstructing view of the hall from here, no one had.
For that, Iida sighed deeply with relief.
“It’s over… oh thank goodness.”
He was about to simply walk back to his desk after that, but Yaoyorozu stopped him first to offer a quick word. He turned to her with confusion on his face, but when he processed her disturbed expression, he realized immediately and embarrassedly what she was cornering him about.
“(Um, Iida?)” she began, and he grimaced at the way her voice cracked, “(Just to let you know, I won’t t-talk about this to anyone, but…)” she lowered her voice even further, face entirely red now from humiliation, “(Nest time, can you not do that on my partner’s desk?)”
Iida screamed a bit internally, but was able to suppress the feeling, and give her a mere nod.
“(This won’t happen again, I a-assure you. Thanks for the assist…)”
Thankfully this was enough to satisfy her, so Yaoyorozu went back to her seat right after their conversation ended. In turn, Iida returned to his desk as well, and another five or so minutes later, Aizawa eventually burst back in through the door with a crushed robot in his hands. The students collectively grimaced at his expression.
“Okay.” he spat, his mere tone in and of itself somehow managing to be a threat, “So, it is now first period. Wonderful.”
Everyone shrank in their seats, Iida included.
“Whomever is responsible for this,” he held up the robot, glaring murderously, “A month of detention. And rest assured, I will find you.”
Iida had never wanted to shrivel up and cry so badly in his life.
Thankfully, class proceeded on relatively normally from that point onward. In fact, if anything, everyone was more obedient and attentive than ever before in an effort to not seem guilty. Iida was no different, though he reckoned if his reputation were even just a little less spotless, he’d be under the list of suspects by now. He certainly didn’t have a good poker face when it came to this sort of thing.
However, once lunchtime finally rolled around and Hatsume wasn’t in the cafeteria, Iida got a text from Hatsume declaring that she was in detention with Power Loader for the afternoon. Apparently Aizawa had deposited the noisemaker at his desk, and her teacher had pinned the design as one of her creations. Thankfully neither of them had deduced she’d been in the classroom when the chaos went down, but at the very least, Iida was able to have piece of mind knowing that they wouldn’t have to hide her involvement in the little scandal. She wasn’t entirely happy about him getting off scot-free for it, though.
Mei: It’s annoying but to be honest I’d rather be the one getting in trouble than you
Mei: Stuff like this happens to me all the time lol, iy would be really bad for you if you got wrapped up in this too.
Mei: *it
Tenya Iida: But it’s my fault… a part of me really wants to take accountability for it too.
Mei: Don’t worry about iiiiiit
Mei: I’ll get my revenge later ;)
Tenya Iida: Why do I have a bad feeling about that?
Mei: 😏
He decided not to respond to her last text, but he smiled to himself as he put his phone away. Whatever she had in mind for him after school, he hoped it would live up to expectation. And for today, his heart was expecting a lot more than usual.
Iida wasn’t able to hide his bashful smile as he finished the rest of his lunch.