Chapter Twenty One;;- Summer Break Training Camp
"They're noisy..," [name] murmured under her breath as she listened to the noise emanating from the classroom. From the words she could make out, she figured that the class was stressing about whether they passed and get to go to the training camp or not. Of course, she knew that they would all be going weather they passed or not, but [name] still felt a little bad for the people who thought they weren't going.
Aizawa came up next to her, coming to a stop right in front of the door. He had a stack of papers under one arm. He hummed in agreement, nodding. "Are you ready to tell them?"
[name] cocked her head in confusion. "Me? Why?"
He shrugged. "I think we've already cemented your role as the bearer of good news."
"Well... Okay then," She barely managed to mumble before the bell rang.
Aizawa slammed the door open, effectively shutting off all conversation between the students (and making [name] jump). "That's the bell. Be seated." They entered the room as the students who weren't in their seats scrambled to them.
"Morning," [name] greeted softly. "First thing's first, about your final exams. We had some failures, unfortunately..." She looked over the faces of the five who had failed (Kaminari, Sato, Ashido, Kirishima, and Sero), smiling sympathetically. "But you're all going to the summer training camp."
Aizawa set his papers down on the podium. "Everyone cleared the written tests. In the practical, five of you failed-- Kirishima, Kaminari, Ashido, Sato, and Sero." The class talked among themselves for a moment and he waited for them to quiet down before he continued. "As the villians in this test, we teachers came up with assignments perfectly suited to all of you. Ones that would give you chances to devise winning strategies. If we hadn't, none of you would've stood a chance.
Ojiro raised his hand. "So when you said you were really going to crush us..."
"That was to push you. We are talking about training camp after all." He glanced over the at the five who failed again, making sure to catch each of their individual gazes. "More than anyone else, those who failed are in dire need of this." He grinned. "This was another rational deception."
[name] smiled to herself as she listened to Iida ask something about their faith being shaken and Aizawa break the news about the supplementary lessons. It was amazing how much people could grow on you in the course of one semester.
She picked up the stack of papers, the packing list, and handed it to Iida, instructing him to make sure everyone got one. Once she was sure he had it handled, [name] and Aizawa left the room.
[name] couldn't help but pause by the door for a moment once she had closed it, listening to them chatter excitedly. She had been so unsure about taking the job when she first did. When did that feeling change? When did she feel so.. fulfilled when seeing and hearing them happy?
"Everything alright?" Aizawa asked when he noticed her lack of movement.
Swallowing thickly, [name] blinked herself out of her thoughts. "Umm... Yeah." She rubbed her eyes, travelling her hands upward to run her fingers through her hair.
He quirked an eyebrow, not quite believing her, but nodded anyway.
. . .
Because of the villain situation in the mall with Midoriya, there was a sudden change of plans. Which, of course, meant plenty of extra work for the teachers. All in all, it worked out okay and since nothing bad happened, school finished up without any more problems and transitioned into summer break.
To get to the training camp, which had to be kept a secret from everyone until they got there, they gathered in front of the school on the first day of spring break.
[name] stood with Aizawa and Vlad King (Class 1-B's homeroom teacher) as the students all arrived and checked in. She watched them, smiling pleasantly, as they interacted with one another.
"They don't get to see each other much, do they?" She asked, looking at Monoma as he taunted some of her class.
Vlad shrugged. "At lunch, maybe, if they choose to."
[name] restrained a laugh as Kendo smacked Monoma to get him to shut up. "In the States, we didn't have one collective class, since it's the students who change classrooms instead of the teachers. It made it a lot easier to know more people. Isn't this method a little bit more... antisocial?"
Aizawa hummed. "I don't think so," He said, but didn't elaborate anymore, since the last student had shown up and it was now time to board the bus.
It took a little while to get everyone on the bus and sitting down, but once they had, it was off they went. Everyone got to choose their seats and [name] and Aizawa took their own at the front of the bus, just behind the driver.
And they set off.
"We'll be stopping in about an hour. After that we'll--" Aizawa started, but was immediately cut off by the eruption of noise.
[name] laughed. "I don't think they're listening," She told him, then shrugged lightly. "This is really their only chance to have some last minute fun right? Let them be."
"I suppose," he sighed.
She raised an eyebrow. "Are you excited?"
Aizawa made an unimpressed face. "Excited?"
"Yeah," [name] nodded. "It should be just as much fun for us as it will be for them, if not more. I mean, we won't have to do all that hard training, but we still get to spend time with 'em."
He ran a hand through his hair. "You're excited to spend time with them? The students..?"
She looked down, now a little bit embarrassed to admit it. "Well... They've grown on me. It's sort of like... a family." [name] avoided eye contact, rubbing the nape of her neck abashedly. "It's a little bit embarrassing to say it out loud..."
There was more she could say. But she didn't. Not because it was embarrassing, even if it really was, but because she couldn't bring herself to admit it. There was no way she could come out and say that these kids were nicer and more important to her than her real family.
Aizawa flicked [name] on the side of her head, shaking her from her thoughts. When she finally looked up to meet his eyes, he said, "You look troubled."
"Am I really that easy to read?" She asked, smiling. "I'm fine, I promise." Her smile faltered as she yawned, covering her mouth with the palm of her hand.
He sighed. "If you say so."
[name] wiped at the tears that pricked her eyes from her yawn. She hadn't slept well the night before, since there was still a little bit of late preparations to take care of on top of her usual patrol. By the time she got home it was three a.m. and it was already four-thirty before she got to bed. There was something about car rides that always made her sleepy, too.
Giving in, [name] rest her head against the bus window. She didn't mind the vibration too much, considering how tired she was. It was an unusually short amount of time before she had managed to fall asleep.
Aizawa glanced over when he realized her breathing had evened out. Maybe it was weird for him to be the one to say it, but he was a little impressed with how easily she fell asleep in a loud bus, with her head against the window, probably turning her brain into a milkshake.
He shook his head, checking his watch. They still had about forty-five minutes until they would be stopping. It would be uncomfortable for her to sleep that way for so long-- he knew from experience.
Gently, he slid his hand underneath [name]'s head and pushed her softly to the other side until her head landed on his shoulder. She subconsciously shifted her position until she was comfortable, [name]'s cheek pressed flush to Aizawa's bicep. She was warm, he immediately noticed.
[name]'s face was a great deal more peaceful when she was sleeping. Really though, whose wasn't? Still, with the lines in her forehead smoothed out and her mouth slack, Aizawa noted that she had just a slight resting bitch face.
Her hands slid around his arm, holding it closer to her in her sleep.
Aizawa was glad none of the students could see them.
a/n: i should really stop staying up until four am when i got an eight am class in a couple hours but also like,, no
this chapter feels like kind of a big jump in their friend/relationship but im gonna pass it off as aizawa's basic human decency and also the reader being asleep. fr tho i'm excited af to get these two bonding during this arc
get ready babey