UA's Immortal Teacher

Part 40

Kirishima flinched as his teacher gave them all the sad puppy eyes. He was pretty sure his teacher wasn't doing it on purpose, but it still pulled those strings of guilt in Kirishima.

"Right now, many of you are at the point where you feel uncomfortable judging yourself and your classmates in an objective light. Our goal by the end of your time here at UA is to make it so you do feel comfortable in your analysis. You're still viewing things in the light that if you make a single mistake, then nothing matters because you failed. And maybe some of the time this is true." Izuku-sensei looked lost in thought when he said, "But many times, your mistakes aren't what end things. You need to be able to pick yourself back up, realize what you did wrong, and find a way to fix it."

Another silence fell upon the room, but Kirishima didn't think it was like the one before. Instead of being awkward, it was more... heavy, like someone was pressing a sponge down on the mood of the room. It was a lot more serious than Kirishima was expecting today to be.

The bell rang, signifying the end of class, and everyone nearly jumped out of their seats in their haste to get out of the room and to lunch. Kaminari looped his arm around Sero's shoulder, and the two walked side-by-side to the lunchroom, with Mina trailing behind them with Uraraka. The two had apparently bonded in their pursuit of... well, Kirishima wasn't exactly sure, they wouldn't tell him, but he was sure it was really manly!

"Heyyyy, Bakubro, do you want to-"

"Shut up, Shitty Hair! I've got my own things I need to do, so get the hell out of my way," Bakugo snapped at him, glaring with those blood-red eyes of his. Kirishima hesitated, but something in the boy's expression made him listen. It was angry... but it was also a little desperate. He couldn't help Bakugo until he found out what was going on with him, and he couldn't do that until Bakugo let him find out. And it wasn't looking like that would happen anytime soon.

Even though it killed him to walk away, he left Bakugo alone and did his best to catch up to the rest of his class. Kaminari, Sero, and Mina were at their usual table, right next to where Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki, and Shinso sat.

"Bro! Where did Bakugo go?"

"He said... that there was something he had to take care of," Kirishima hesitantly offered.

"He cursed at you and told you to get away from him, didn't he?" Ah, dang. Mina was too well-versed in the speech of Bakugo for polite deceptions. She must've noticed his concerned expression, because she immediately slung an arm around his shoulder comfortingly. "Hey, don't worry about it! This is Bakugo we're talking about. He'll be fine."

"Right." Kirishima might not fully believe that right now, but he doesn't think this is the time or place for that conversation. Plus, Kaminari accidentally knocked over Sero and they were both tangled together in the black-haired boy's tape. Again.

Here we go again...

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Shinso groaned as his alarm went off, the obnoxious beeping driving him from the cool abyss that was sleep. At least now that he lived at UA he got a few extra minutes, but the downside was that his insomnia was witnessed by someone other than his parents. He ended up running into Tokoyami at two in the morning, and there was some extended awkward eye contact before they edged away from each other.

Maybe it wouldn't have been as awkward if Tokoyami hadn't been holding a cloth that Shinso suspected was filled with ceremonial items, and if Shinso hadn't been holding a cat plushie with a replica of Eraserhead's scarf on it. He assumed they wouldn't ever speak of the interaction, for both their sakes.

He tiredly dragged himself to his feet, blearily stumbling through getting dressed. He was glad they had uniforms and he didn't have to make the conscious decision of what to wear. That was just too much effort to make too early in the morning.