Infectious

ch. 16

Chapter Sixteen;;- Good Job

"They really went off and got caught up with the Hero Killer, huh?" [name] murmured, tapping on a news article on her phone. She stayed away from the news when she didn't have to know what was going on, but the whispers that floated around the class made [name] curious enough to look into it. "Iida, Todoroki, and Midoriya..." She scanned the article quickly, rolling her eyes when they finished with a sappy line about Endeavor's bravery saving the three students' lives.

Aizawa nodded from his spot at his desk, flipping a paper over and scribbling something in the corner. "Reckless idiots..," he muttered, but his tone didn't seem angry at them. Concerned, maybe? Or, if it was possible, an affectionate sort of angry.

[name] locked her phone and dropped it on the table. "Endeavor wasn't the one who beat Stain, was he?"

His pen paused and he glanced up at her, raising an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

"Oh come on, Aizawa." She frowned, unimpressed. "We know these kids and we know the laws. They caught Stain and weren't allowed to take the credit."

A moment of silence passed before Aizawa nodded. "I think so too." He twirled the pen in his hand, then set it back to the page, resuming his writing.

"I wish I could said something to them..," [name] said quietly, shrugging. "Just a good job or something. Encouragement means a lot to kids."

"Then do it," Aizawa answered without a beat of hesitation. "I'm sure they'll understand what you mean."

[name] paused, thinking it over. She could easily pretend to be congratulating them on their hard work on a test or something... That could actually be something she could do. "Yeah, okay," she finally responded, nodding to herself.

A couple more minutes passed in silence, each of them immersing themselves in their work as the class period wore on.

Finally, the bell chimed throughout the school, causing [name] to stand up and gather her materials. She was covering for a teacher who was injured during the week off and didn't recover in time to be back in school. Most of the time it just constituted of watching students and making sure they did their work, but since [name] was one of the only teachers in the building with any college experience, she could teach some stuff if need be.

Even though she said she had college experience, she never did get a degree. She dropped out the second semester of her second year, when she was nineteen. [name] had just never been good at school, and she learned that she needed to accept that because forcing herself would not help her get on with her life any faster. So it had been a little while since she had been to school, but she still had more formal education than most heroes, since there was no such thing as hero colleges.

With all of her stuff in her arms, [name] started towards the door. Before she could get there, she heard Aizawa call her name. She stopped just short of the door and glanced back at him.

He kept his gaze aimed at the paper in front of him. "If you're going to tell them good job... Is it possible you could pass the same on from me too?"

[name] smiled. "Yeah, I'll tell them you said good job too."

. . .

The period went well-- the kids behaved themselves and [name] only had to explain a thing or two. It passed without incident, and then it was back to the staff room for [name] to wait out the rest of the day.

She was on her way back when she caught sight of Midoriya emerging from the bathroom. He was probably taking the break to use the restroom and would now be heading back to his class, but [name] thought that a teacher stopping him would be a good enough excuse for him to be a moment late. She could accompany him to class and apologize to the teacher if need be.

"Hey, Midoriya, wait," she called out, speeding up her pace so that she could catch up to him quickly.

Midoriya jumped in his tracks, freezing. He turned slowly, almost as if he were afraid of being in trouble, although [name] didn't understand why-- it seemed like the boy could never do anything wrong. "[s]-[surname]-sensei!"

[name] smiled, hoping to ease his obvious nervous. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." She gave him a quick once over, nodding happily when she noticed that he wasn't wearing any new bandages. "I wanted to say something about your internship-- Stain, more specifically."

"O-Oh?" He looked nervously, eyes darting away from hers.

She patted his shoulder gently, internalizing her amusement at how nervous he was. "Yeah. I just wanted to tell you 'good job.' Aizawa asked me to pass it on from him, too." She grinned as she watched Midoriya's cheeks flush from the praise. "I probably won't be seeing Todoroki or Iida either, so if you could tell them for me..?"

He nodded eagerly. "Thank you, [surname]-sensei! I'll let them know!" Midoriya's hands bunched up into fists with a determined grin on his face.

"Awesome." Seeing Midoriya look proud of himself, determined to succeed, made [name]'s heart feel full. "I'll walk you to class so that your next teacher doesn't get you in trouble for being late."

Midoriya looked at the clock, face blanching. "Oops... thanks, [surname]-sensei."

[name] shook her head and waved her hand dismissively, starting towards the classroom. "Gosh, I'm starting to think thanks might be my actual surname." Midoriya rushed to walk beside her, his cheeks flushing at her comment as he opened his mouth to apologize, probably. "You're fine, Midoriya, I'm just teasing." His cheeks grew a shade darker.

"Y-You're... a whole lot nicer than the media makes you look..," He murmured softly, fiddling with his fingers. He didn't look up when [name] looked over at him, instead staring down at his shoes.

"You think so?" [name] asked. "Since I started out not wanting anyone to know who I am, it's been a tough habit to break. Plus, I'm not all that good at talking to people if they're even a little bit important."

Midoriya glanced up, a look in his eyes that made it seem like he was committing that piece of information to memory. "If I'm allowed to ask.. Why didn't you want people to know who you were?"

[name] hummed, running a hand through her hair. Her finger caught on a tangle. "How does your family feel about you being a hero, Midoriya? Are they supportive?"

"Um... Yeah."

She tugged on the snarl roughly until it came free. "You're lucky. My family didn't really like the idea of anyone in our family being a hero. I kept my identity a secret so that I didn't... worry them." A couple strands of hair clung to her fingers as she pulled it away from her hair. [name] shook them off.

Midoriya didn't know what to say to that, so instead he just nodded thoughtfully. He was definitely going to write that down in his notebook as soon as he could.

[name] popped her head in and apologized to the teacher in the class at the moment, thanking them for letting them speak to Midoriya. She watched him sit down, running her eyes over the other students, smiling softly when she caught their eyes. Finally, she backed out again and closed the door.

These kids really were something else... She couldn't remember the last time she had mentioned her family.

a/n: ok... i think i'm almost at the point where i can reveal the reader's backstory.. right now in the story we're just before finals+training camp, so i was originally going to reveal it all then, but now it might be after? i'm not sure, we'll have to seee