"honesty and grace" (Mezo Shoji X Reader)

Chapter 22

"I don't know what you want me to do about it, Aizawa." Nedzu says, looking over paper after paper. "I can't just grant her a spot here at UA. We have no idea how powerful her quirk is, or what she's capable of doing."

Aizawa sits with his arms crossed, hair up, and his legs stiff on the floor in front of him. There was so much he wanted to say, but didn't know how to get it out. His tired eyes, happening to be much worse than normal, shifted around the room as his jaw tightened. He had stayed awake all night doing research on you and your family, trying to see if your name came up any other time in the news. What he was searching for, not even he knew. "There has to be something we can do for her. She is still a child, I don't understand why she's allowed to just live on her own like that." The grown man rested an elbow against the arm of the chair.

Nedzu nodded, looking up from some of the paperwork on the desk before him. "Is that why you granted her permission to come in and out of the dorm buildings at her leisure?" The animal asked, his face emotionless.

With a nod, Aizawa turns his head a little to look at a calendar on the wall. "The class seems to be so fond of her now, she's practically a student already. I'm not sure anyone suspects that she has a quirk, or if she's told them otherwise." He paused, looking down at his hand as he opened his palm. It quickly flexes and forms a fist.

It was rather painful to feel so useless in a situation like this. Sure, he had wanted to do something, but what was there to do? The authorities had already dealt with a lot of the legalities, and you were nothing but cooperative. Something just didn't sit right with letting you stay in an apartment building all by your lonesome. However, when he thought about it, he was pleasantly surprised by your persistence and bravery.

"You're going to get wrinkles, Aizawa, you have to relax a little bit." Nedzu says, his voice high and comical.

He sighed and rubbed his temples. "I can't relax. It's not in the job description." His figure rises, standing as he crosses his arms. "Anyways, I have to grade the class' essays that they turned in this morning." With that, he turns for the door and bows his head slightly before leaving the principal's office. A sigh passes through him as he looks up and down the school hallways. It was calm after hours; no one was threatening to kill each other, the halls were no longer filled with speaking and screaming, nor was his class there. Silent and peaceful, he thought to himself.

There was so much that Aizawa needed to know about you, but he knew that he had no reason to pry. It was such a foreign feeling to him, especially with someone that wasn't even a student of his. He thought about all of it while walking out of the school and towards the dorm buildings. There, he would grade papers and talk to the students about what will be happening in class tomorrow. Not very often would he have relaxed afternoons such as this. Even then, this evening would still be filled with headaches and countless pots of the familiar bitter brew. He thought for sure that you would've filled out the quirk evaluation sheet and given it to him by now. The fact that almost a week had passed made him assume you weren't going to bother with it.

Soon enough, Aizawa found himself pushing the doors to the dorm building open with a huff, thinking about how strict to be with the essays. Upon entering, the smell of baked goods filled the man's lungs, taking him by surprise. He glanced over to a clock on the wall, seeing it was past eight o'clock. "Was I really in Nedzu's office for an hour?" He asks himself quietly, hearing a small commotion from the kitchen. His curiosity was piqued now, causing him to make his way to the kitchen quickly.

Inside of the small space, Tsu, Sato, Shoji, Mina, and Ojiro were all doing numerous things, all of which were baking related; Shoji was using his six hands to decorate cookies and cut a pan of brownies. Mina and Sato both took a batch of cookies out of the oven and used a spatula to place the warm snacks onto a thin sheet of wax paper. Tsu then collected the dirty utensils while Ojiro started on the dishes.