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Rarely in his life had Tony been treated so unfairly.
Not the first time he went to Bobby’s Cellar and got dragged into a drinking contest with zero experience, only to lose and have the local mercenaries steal all his money.
Not when Grue or the old lady accused him of being unable to pay back what he owed.
And certainly not when Mad Dog accused him of making a fool out of him (it was true, but he still felt attacked!).
He stormed into the teachers' dormitory, ignoring the curious glances Midnight and Mic shot his way; Tony had a very specific destination in mind.
“Is he going to…?” Nemuri Kayama whispered to her longtime friend.
“Looks like it. Like a little hurricane he goes,” Hizashi Yamada replied in the same hushed tone. “Do you think Shota will open the door?”
“He’d open the door for any student, you know that, Yamada,” Midnight argued with a smile, feeling proud of having nudged Aizawa in that direction. “Especially for those who need an open door and someone to listen the most.”
Unaware of, and unconcerned by, the other teachers' whispers, Tony climbed the dormitory stairs to the second floor and headed straight for the second door on the right.
Naturally, Tony Redgrave didn’t even knock before opening the door. He found a room larger than his own in the student dorms, with a figure, swaddled in a yellow sleeping bag, sitting at a computer with their back to the door.
Shota Aizawa turned around to see Tony Redgrave wearing pajamas (red striped pants, because all he wanted was something red, and a gray t-shirt featuring cat silhouettes that Aizawa himself had bought months ago) and the red overcoat. He raised an eyebrow; it wasn't the first time the kid had stopped by to talk to him in the middle of the night, though he seemed more irritated than usual, then again, Tony could get annoyed by anything; he had a difficult personality.
“What happened?”
“You’ve got a bunch of thieves for students!” Tony stomped his foot, making the building shake slightly.
“Don’t wreck the building.” Aizawa stepped out of his yellow cocoon and grabbed the boy’s arm to guide him inside.
Tony didn't even wait for him to close the door before sitting down on the bed. “Seriously, where did you find these brats to be heroes? This is the second time I’ve been robbed!” Yes, he was still upset about what had happened at the training camp, and no, he wasn't going to forget it anytime soon.
Aizawa recalled that same incident the moment the words left Tony’s mouth and let out a weary grunt. “What did they do now?” He was already imagining the worst, that they’d messed with something critical, so he felt relieved to see the silver-and-red amulet still around the boy’s neck.
“One of your little brats stole my pizza slice from the fridge.” Tony crossed his arms, looking completely indignant.
Aizawa had to close his eyes and take a deep breath to keep from dragging Tony out of the room. “That’s it?”
Tony narrowed his eyes at the old man. “In a place that trains heroes, I thought theft would be treated more seriously.”
“A pizza you probably didn't even put your name on-”
“Yes, I did!” With a triumphant smile, Tony pulled something out from inside his trench coat: a small pizza box. “It says ‘TR’ right here, so don’t give me that bullshit.” He held the brown pizza box, stained with grease and bearing a very obvious "TR" in western-style lettering in black marker.
“What’s going to happen to the school’s reputation? Oh no,” Aizawa scoffed, shaking his head.
“Don’t mock me,” Tony said, tucking the pizza box back into an inside pocket of his coat. “If you aren’t going to take this seriously-”
“It’s just a pizza-” Aizawa at least tried to argue.
“It was my food,” Tony interrupted. “Food that someone stole, leaving me with nothing to eat tomorrow.” He hadn’t been looking at the old man when he finished the sentence; his eyes widened as he glanced at the teacher, who was regarding him with that odd expression he sometimes wore. “I know there’s other food in the fridge and that there’s breakfast tomorrow; I just meant that this one was mine.”
The explanation didn’t save him from the slip-up; in fact, it seemed to make things worse.
The honest truth was that Tony hadn’t spent much time in nice places with such an abundance of good food; the last time he’d had something like that was on Morris Island, and that was… that was a long time ago.
He hadn’t always had the money to buy what he needed, not even cheap pizzas or sundaes from Bobby. It wasn’t a huge deal, everyone goes through lean times and times of plenty, but even during the good times, he still struggled to switch off certain instincts.
Tony became extremely self-conscious about the whole situation and, in that instant, wanted to jump out the window to escape the teacher’s gaze. Those damn eyes of his worked incredibly well, even when he wasn’t using his quirk.
“Never mind. That was stupid.” He tugged at the collar of his coat as if it could hide something he hadn’t meant to reveal, and stood up to head for the door, only for a hand to reach out and grab his arm, stopping him from taking another step.
“As the homeroom teacher, I have access to the dorm’s security cameras; there are some covering the common areas for protection,” Aizawa said, letting go of Tony’s arm and placing a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Whoever stole your pizza probably got caught. Let’s take a look.”
Tony glanced around, unsure whether to agree to this or not. Then again, why not? Wasn't this exactly what he’d come for? “Old man-”
“It’ll be quick,” Aizawa said, practically dragging Tony over to his desk and starting to type something into the computer, something the mercenary didn't understand. “When did you put the pizza in the fridge?”
Tony scratched his head. “The day before yesterday, but I checked yesterday afternoon and it was still there.”
“What time in the afternoon?”
“Around… four o'clock? I think?” Tony was just as good with exact times and dates as he was with names, which is to say, not good at all.
Aizawa typed a few more things into the computer. “Let’s start from three o'clock, just to be absolutely even if the students were still in class.”
The monitor began to display footage and as expected nothing appeared at three o'clock since classes were still going on.
Classes ended at three-thirty, so at three-forty, the students started arriving at the dorm. Kaminari slumped onto the kitchen table, and Mineta sat next to him, chatting animatedly, though the blond wasn't listening (he was practically asleep on the table).
Iida started saying something and judging by his arm movements it was important, but no one seemed to be paying much attention, except for Uraraka, Yaoyorozu, and maybe Midoriya.
Bakugo appeared with Kirishima, or rather, Kirishima seemed to be pestering Bakugo who was probably groaning and opened the fridge. Tony narrowed his eyes; despite everything, he didn't suspect the chihuahua. He didn't give off the vibe of someone who’d steal food, though that could change at any moment.
Tony finally appeared in the footage, though not near the fridge; he walked straight past the students, hands in his overcoat pockets, the guitar case containing Rebellion strapped to his back and headed upstairs.
He didn't show up again for another two hours. "Four or five, it's all the same shit." Tony shrugged.
Aizawa didn't reply.
In the footage, the Tony on screen actually did go to the fridge while talking to Todoroki; he opened it, grabbed the pizza box, and gave a satisfied nod before putting it back inside and heading to the living room with Shoto.
Around six in the evening, the class gathered to make dinner; surprisingly (or perhaps not that much), Tony wasn't exactly present for that part.
Aizawa glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, and Tony looked away. "I don't know how to cook!"
"I didn't say anything."
"But you thought it, old man."
The video kept going, and when Kaminari got close to the fridge, Tony automatically leaned forward a bit (he and the weird purple-haired kid were the prime suspects, given their history) but Kaminari just grabbed a small carton of chocolate milk and stepped aside so Iida could get some eggs for what he was making.
At one point during the preparations, Mineta moved up behind Yaomomo; had Jirou not used the trash can (poetic, really) to restrain him and shove him into the corner, something awful would have happened.
"Why don't you just expel him already?" Tony took the opportunity to ask. "I'm pretty sure stuff like that is illegal, even for a teenager, and he's not even that strong. I mean, his quirk is..."
"Believe me, you're not the first person to point this out to me, and unfortunately... I don't have a good answer," Aizawa sighed as he watched his students sit down at the table to eat (Tony appeared on screen again). Even though he had the authority to expel students from the course, he ultimately didn't do so this year; he didn't know exactly why, but something made him believe that even someone like Mineta could improve.
And abandoning him wouldn't help.
However, he could understand Tony's feelings, especially considering his history with said student.
Dinner lasted about forty minutes, but Tony left the table much earlier than the other students; now what was surprising is that he put his dishes in the sink and even washed and dried them up before putting them back in the cupboard.
He opened the fridge and grabbed a strawberry milk before heading out again.
Some minutes after Iida declared that dinner was over, and a few other students (Koda, Aoyama, Tsuyu, and Mina) opened the fridge for various reasons, though none of them left with a slice of pizza.
After that, most of the students headed to their rooms, while Kirishima, Mina and Sato took care of the cleanup (it was their turn on the chore schedule).
By nine o'clock, there was practically no one left on the first floor of the dorms, but Aizawa didn't skip a second.
Midoriya appeared to grab some water before heading back up to his room. Uraraka did the same a few minutes later, and Yaoyorozu ran into her in the kitchen and made tea for her, Tsuyu, and Jirou (whom Uraraka had called over).
After the girls' little tea party, the lights were turned off at ten o'clock.
Perfect weather for a heinous crime to be committed. However, eleven o'clock, midnight, one, two, three passed and nothing happened until 3:36 in the morning.
Aizawa noticed a strange movement of the bushes in a window on the corner. Tony had seen it too and seemed not to care about it, however, he paled a little.
Damn, he had completely forgotten that he had left in the ungodly hours of the morning.
He looked for a moment at Aizawa, who was looking at him with narrowed eyes before stopping the video, "Do you have something to admit before continuing?"
"I don't think I need to know who stole my pizza," Tony began to stand up, "it's okay. It's just a pizza-" the old man put both hands on the boy's shoulders and forced him back into the chair.
"Let's finish."
Tony swallowed hard, who would have thought he would be responsible for his own misfortune. He should have dealt with it alone, as his instinct had told him! He knew how to interrogate people (most of the interrogations he'd ever done involved chains and a bucket of water, but of course he wouldn't do that. Maybe he'd only use the bucket a little, depending on the person).
Time passed and Mina appeared at 4:49 for a glass of water, but nothing more.
At 5:13 a figure in a red overcoat entered through the door with slow steps and looking around.
“What was this?” Aizawa wrinkled his nose, “explain.”
“I just… went out to try and find some demons, you know-?” Tony stopped because the image of himself from hours ago almost tripped over the coffee table.
Aizawa's eyes widened and he had a flashback of what happened on the day of the school festival. The albino wasn't looking at him, but at his hands on the table that were fidgeting restlessly.
In the footage, Tony almost tripped again, went to the refrigerator, opened it, and spent several long seconds staring inside before grabbing the pizza box and dragging himself to the kitchen table.
Oh
Ohhhhhh
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Tony had eaten the pizza.
Now he felt like clown, and to make matters worse this conversation was definitely not going to be good.
Aizawa didn't pause the video, but he certainly stopped paying attention to it; the worst part was that part of him was genuinely impressed. Who could get past UA's security system while drunk? Aizawa would have said nobody before, but Tony always seemed to be an exception to everything. "Are you going to explain yourself or not?"
"It's not as bad as it looks." Tony had an incurable nerve.
"You were so drunk you forgot you ate the pizza and you-" Aizawa stared at the screen dumbfounded, "you put the box back in the fridge? Tony…"
That explained everything, really, "I just went out to try and find some demons. I didn't lie."
“But you omitted it, from what I can literally see.”
“I didn’t find any demons,” Tony sighed, when he needed them demons simply evaporated, “and I got frustrated and on the way there was a-”
“You get frustrated and to deal with it you go out and drink?” Aizawa threw his hands up because now he was the one who was frustrated, “where?”
“I don’t remember.” And even if he did remember, he wouldn’t say, because the last time had already been embarrassing enough.
“Tony-”
“I really don’t remember!” Tony looked at Aizawa, but quickly looked away again.
Aizawa took a deep breath and turned his chair so that Tony couldn’t avoid eye contact, “this can’t keep happening.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.” Tony wasn’t a child.
“We had an agreement, Tony.” Aizawa reminded the boy, and they really did have one about going out to hunt demons, that the albino had to let him know when he was going out. However, Shota made a mistake, and he realized it now. When the first incident with alcohol happened, he talked to Tony and made some things clear. He didn't think it would solve the problem, obviously, this kind of thing needs much more than one or two conversations, but he thought it would at least prevent other incidents while he was around.
Aizawa was still around sure, but the truth was that he and Tony saw each other exponentially less than before when they didn't live in the dormitories. His teaching duties now that he lived at the school seemed to have doubled.
Maybe Nemuri was right; he wasn't very good at balancing things.
"I wasn't going to wake you up for something silly, and I didn't even think anything of it," Tony tried again to justify himself, "at least none of your students committed the crime. That's good."
“You can wake me up, I don’t care,” Shota did care, but not as much as he made it seem, “what I care about more is you doing these things. Do you know how dangerous this is? The things that could happen?”
Tony knew by heart everything that could happen, all the possibilities had already happened to him. “I didn’t drink much, I was conscious of not doing it so I could come back.” He ignored the teacher’s questions, who noticed this and felt a bad feeling about that prospect.
“You forgot you ate your pizza,” Aizawa pointed out.
“But I haven’t forgotten the security system’s weaknesses or the way back,” Tony countered, “I’m fine, really. Nothing happened.”
“It could have.”
“But it didn’t,” Tony stood up from his chair, “sorry for wasting your time.”
“You can waste my time. Please do that instead of going to places that won’t care if you get back safely after you leave,” Aizawa placed his hands on the boy’s shoulders.
That would be difficult for Tony to do since in Red Grave there were few places that weren’t like that.
He could lie, say he promised he wouldn’t do it again knowing exactly that he would do it for some reason that simply escaped him. Tony liked to drink. He liked it a lot. It helped his head on the shitty days, which were many even though he liked to pretend there weren’t so many.
“I don’t think I can do this, old man,” he was already lying about so much and he wasn’t a complete monster to give the old man false hope.
“Try it,” Aizawa shook him slightly, “if you want a drink, come here. We can talk or even go out. Or call me if you’re in the middle of something, just try other things.”
“I don’t know if I can do this,” Tony practically repeated.
“You can,” Aizawa seemed to have to remind the boy that he didn’t care about such things, “you can do it. I know you can.”
Even if Tony could and succeeded, nothing would matter because in a few weeks at most he would return home and nobody would do this type of thing for him, not even the old lady, and he was fine with that; he didn’t want the old lady to do something like that.
He needed to drink sometimes; it was necessary for him to be able to keep waking up the next day (not that he could stop waking up anyway).
“It’s no use-”
“As long as you’re here, it is.” Aizawa said, as if he could read the boy's mind, "You came in the middle of the night for a pizza, and you've already come here just to complain about having to share the bathroom, so it's obvious you can come for other things. You always can."
Tony came because he felt he had been the victim of an injustice (which he himself ultimately committed), but he couldn't argue against it. "I can try, but I'm not promising anything."
"It's a start," Aizawa nodded.
On the computer, a completely oblivious Tony, unaware of what would happen in his future, opened the refrigerator and took out a small pizza box.