Work Text:
Shota Aizawa hates his class. Well, that’s what he tells his coworkers at least. How does the saying go? “Actions speaker louder than words.” He never said so, but he took those words to heart, and his students knew that with ever action he ever did for them.
Observation was one of the Pro-Hero's greatest strengths. He learned at a young age it would be efficient to form other strengths and support items, since his quirk wasn’t a “fighting quirk” like Allmight’s. He used observing in multiple different scenarios such as patrolling the streets, searching for information or evidence, or secretly checking in on how his students are doing.
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It had been a crazy week. Villain attacks. Training. Thursday was finally the one day that week class 1A actually had normal class. Although the Pro’s caught and detained the villain who attacked, every student was on the edge of their seats. Every hair stood straight up. Aizawa noticed, as usual. But one student stood out more than the rest.
Kyoko Jiro sat in her seat at the back of the classroom trying her best to focus on Aizawa’s teachings, but she just couldn’t. A small click was heard when she dropped her pencil on her desk. Her hands suddenly reached her ears to cover them. Aizawa noticed. He knew she became overstimulated easily due to her quirk, but she must have been more overwhelmed than usual due to the stress of the attacks.
Aizawa’s dark, tired eyes scanned the rest of his students’ faces to find most of them struggling to focus. Kirishima, Kaminari, Ojiro, and Yaoyorozu stared unflinching at the windows as if they were anticipating danger. Aizawa, who had been observing and simultaneously teaching, stopped speaking.
“Class,” he began, “I can tell that you all are worried if there will be another attack or if something is going to happen. So, instead of me teaching and you half-heartedly listening, I will let this class be a study hall for today.” His students’ faces lit up slightly. He continued, “You may work on homework or read or whatever to want to do.” He paused. “Oh, one more thing. You may listen to music if you like as long as it stays quiet in here. Do we have a deal?”
“Yes, sir.” All of class 1A exclaimed in unison.
“Good. Now, get to work.”
The next few moments were filled with the turning of pages, rustling in backpacks, and kids finding music on their phones. A steady beat of music was heard from Denki Kaminari’s desk. “Kaminari.” The boy’s head snapped toward his teacher. “Use headphones, please.”
“Oh, right. Sorry, sir.” Denki apologized.
Aizawa gave him a soft, calm look of understanding, then his gaze pointed to Jiro with her hands still over her ears and her eyes held tightly shut.
As soon as Shota guaranteed his students were distracted with something else, he stood and walked down one of the desk isles in order to reach a specific student. He didn’t want to draw too much attention to what he was doing, so his head swiveled around the classroom making absolute certain no funny business was about to occur. Once he finally reached his destination, Aizawa crouched down next to the girl’s desk.
The teacher’s hand stretched toward Jiro’s forearm to gently inform her that he was there. Her eyes snapped open to meet his. Her hands uncovered her ears to realize it was awfully quiet in the classroom. She scanned her classmates’ heads and saw they were working quietly. She met her teacher’s eyes again with a confused look on her face.
Shota explained just loud enough so only she could hear him, “Everyone is stressed over the attacks that have taken place, so I decided to let this be a study hall. You can do whatever you want, and you can listen to music if you like.”
“Really?” Kyoko asked.
Aizawa nodded, then he whispered, “I found an app you can download that has different nature sounds and music if you want to do that too.”
Silence for a moment. “Why are you doing this?” She didn’t intend to ask, but the words just slipped out. Her face immediately contorted into a mask of regret. Aizawa noticed.
He answered by relating her quirk to his own, "I understand what overstimulation can look like, especially in teenagers. When I was younger my quirk caused me to become overstimulated a lot more than my classmates, so I understand completely." He paused for a moment to see Kyoko's eyes sparkling with recognition. He continued, "I have been doing research on the best apps for being overstimulated, and I found one that I thought you would get some use out of."
Jiro opened her mouth to say something but closed it when she couldn't find the words. She hoped a look of gratefulness and gratitude would be enough. The corners of Aizawa's lips curved upward slightly as he nodded.
He stood up and looked around once again. He decided to leave the girl with one final phrase. "Just don't say I never did anything for you, okay?"
Jiro nodded and the teacher walked back toward his desk where he sat and scanned his class again. He saw the girl pull out her phone and plug one of her earphone jacks into her phone. She took a deep breath and finally looked calm.