Infectious

ch. 3

Chapter Three;;- Lazy Day

[name] sighed, dropping her pencil to her desk and massaging her temples with her fingertips as she leaned back in her chair. Her eyes flitted to the clock hanging on the wall but immediately looked away, feeling disheartened by how much longer it would be until it was acceptable for her to leave. 

She picked up her mechanical pencil again, twirling it on her finger to entertain herself. She never had been a good student, so it seemed like high expectations for someone to think she would stay even longer after school than she had as a student. 

Currently, Class 1-A was off in the Foundational Hero Studies with All Might doing a battle trial. She and Aizawa had set up their costumes earlier that day before any of the students arrived. She was actually kind of blown away at how creative some of these kids were, but some of them definitely had some things to improve on. She knew her own first costume definitely had flaws, at least these kids got a trial run with theirs.

[name] was sitting at her desk in the teacher's office, alternating between checking the time religiously and sometimes working on transferring the notes Nedzu had given her from their crumpled, messy papers into a less messy, but still a little bit disorganized notebook. It was mainly written in English, except for their names. She removed their pictures and stapled them into the notebook. It was tedious work, but she had always been a firm believer in the method of studying that involved copying things down. It was to remember things when you wrote them down. 

The teacher's office was almost deserted other than her. Many other teachers had classes this hour of the day, and some of the teachers traveled to and from their hero offices and the school whenever they got the chance. 

Unable to stay still for much longer, [name] stood, yawning widely and made her way to the back of the room. The back wall was mostly lined with bookcases filled with resources and files, but there was a small stretch of counter with a coffee machine. It looked old and faulty, but coffee was coffee. 

She had brought her empty mug from her desk-- a black one that had a dark red gas mask on it; a fan had given it to her a year or two ago and she actually liked it a lot-- and picked up the pot. In the middle of pouring it, [name] noticed movement. "Do you want a cup too?" She asked, setting the pot back down and turning around. [name] leaned on the counter, sipping from her now full mug. 

Aizawa sat up from underneath his desk, looking groggy from the facehole in his bright yellow sleeping bag. His arm snaked out and unzipped it a little so that he could rub his eyes. He stretched a little, probably the best he could from under the desk, before seeming to register the question [name] had asked him. "Yeah," He finally answered. 

[name] turned and poured Aizawa a cup as well (in the mug she hoped was his-- he didn't mention it if it wasn't). When she faced him again, he had just finished extracting himself from his sleeping bag. She handed him the mug, then sat back at her desk. He sat down at his desk too, the one right next to hers. 

He didn't seem to mind that she never asked if he wanted cream or sugar. It didn't come to mind since [name] always drank hers black anyway, but it seemed like either he was way too tired to care or he drank his black, too.

"They really don't mind that you sleep for most of the day?" [name] asked, setting her mug down on the desk with a gentle clink. 

Aizawa glanced over, his eyes still looking tired despite the rest he had. She wondered vaguely if this was a normal thing for him. "Yuuei's known for it's freedom. It goes for teachers, too," He replied over the lip of his mug.

[name] nodded. "That sounds nice." The topic of sleep made her yawn. She looked back to Aizawa, who looked exhausted again. "You sure you don't have some sort of sleeping disorder? Hypersomnia, maybe?" 

He shrugged passively. "I stay up late." 

"Yeah, so do I, but that doesn't mean it's healthy." [name] gave him a skeptical look.

Aizawa put his cup down on his desk. "We both patrol at night, Pathog-- [surname]. You'll start feeling tired too after working here for a little while longer." 

"Joke's on you, I'm already tired," She murmured, not really meaning for him to hear it, but not hiding it either. 

They fell into silence after that, Aizawa eventually gathering up his all his willpower to start doing some actual work. Seeing that Aizawa was back to doing his work, [name] picked up her pencil again, beginning again on her notes. About half an hour passed like that before the door slid open. 

By now, [name]'s coffee was cold and her hand was getting tired from the continuous writing, so she was ready to welcome the distraction. She looked up, surprised to see All Might in his true form. 

[name] actually hadn't known about All Might's true form until she started working at Yuuei. They told her in her first staff meeting, since apparently it was something most of the staff knew about.

Honestly, she wasn't surprised. That man couldn't go anywhere without being recognized, but he was never found in some random grocery store buying milk or out for dinner. Heroes were the new celebrities, so how would the number one hero manage to never get a weird paparazzi photo of him doing something completely mundane? 

The answer, apparently: He had a great disguise. 

"How'd the first class go?" [name] asked, marking her page in her notebook with her pencil and leaning back in her chair. 

All Might looked a little sullen. "Young Midoriya injured himself again." He seemed like he was expecting one of them to be surprised by that, but when neither [name] nor Aizawa expressed any amount of shock at that, he moved on. "No other serious injuries aside from that." 

[name] shrugged, frowning. "That kid'll have to get that under control." She grimaced at the memory of his finger from her first day. That wasn't just a normal break. It looked painful. "But it's good there was no other injuries." 

He began to trudge to his desk. "He and that Bakugou seem to have some personal issues. They had quite the quarrel." Plopping himself into his seat, he sighed and held his head in his hands. 

"Any idea what that's about?" [name] glanced over. He looked genuinely upset about the boys' fight. While it concerned her that he would probably stress himself to death if he worried about every little fight his students got into, she also felt an overwhelming amount of awe that he cared so much. 

All Might shook his head. "Only what I heard from their transmitters. I went to see Midoriya in Recovery Girl's clinic earlier, but he wasn't up yet. I think I'm going to try and catch them after school."

[name] wondered vaguely if she would ever worry this intensely about these kids, too. It seemed exhausting.

a/n:  not a whole lot going on this chapter. i want to build bonds with the other characters as well, not just aizawa. i really want the reader to genuinely have a very good relationship with the students especially, mostly because of some reasons that haven't been revealed in the plot yet.

let me know what you guys think so far! i'm always interested in hearing your guys' thoughts and opinions on the reader and how i'm portraying characters. if you think there's something i can do better, please let me know. thank u so much i love u all