I stared at the little green haired boy as he looked at me with pleading eyes. What exactly does he want me to tell me about how I know all the All Might and All For One-One For All debacle?
"Well, I can't really explain how All Might was as a mentor. All I can say is that he was like a father figure for me while I worked with him. A lot of my older interviews actually asked me how it was working under him and I explained it better then." I moved my hair behind my ear as I averted my eyes from his.
"But I was wondering if you had extra information about his quirk that others might not know." He clenched his fists harder.
"I only know as much as you do, Midoriya. Well, actually no. Did All Might mention that I can't use his quirk?" I looked at the student, noticing he looked clueless about the whole thing. I sighed, "I guess not. Well, now you know. So if you need me to train you or give you tips on how to use One For All that Toshinori isn't telling you, I can't be the person for it."
"Why can't your quirk work on him?" His eyebrows furrowed.
"I don't know. I assume it's because how it can only be transferred through DNA and consent. I would be taking it solely through touching and without Toshinori wanting me too." Should I tell him about the time I met Toshinori? Nah, I'll let Toshinori tell that story. "But it doesn't really matter since my quirk works like his anyway." I shrugged.
"Could you maybe help me find a way to not injure myself when I use One For All? Especially with the Sports Festival coming up." His face was written in worry.
"Doesn't Toshinori tell you how much of your quirk you should be using?" He nodded yes, "Do you listen to him?" He nodded no. "Well, maybe start with that. And maybe if that doesn't work while you prepare for the festival, come find me and I'll train with you." I gave him a warm smile and put a hand on his shoulder. "Toshinori chose you for a reason, I have to trust that. Plus, Aizawa and I have talked about how much potential you hold. So, I don't mind helping you."
The boy's face brightened with glee and he hugged me, "Thank you so much, Ms. Montoya."
I chuckled, "I'm happy to help. Please don't push yourself too hard. Just because you're the new holder on One For All doesn't mean you have to stress yourself out too much. Now get back to class before Ms. Midnight gets worried." The boy quickly nodded and bowed and rushed back to class. I'm glad I didn't have to go into my whole backstory with All Might to him, that could wait until it becomes important.
I made my way back to the lounge to finish my work as Aizawa limped out. I gave him a quick wave and told him to be careful as he grunted and nodded back. Love how he can be a teddy bear when we're alone in the hospital or when we're at his apartment but when at work he's back to being a rude butthead. As I got into my desk I noticed Snipe was already gone, and Iris was waiting patiently for me with her lunch.
Her and I exchanged smiles, "Oh so now it's time to get you to myself?"
"What? I've been busy teaching young heroes, you know?" She held her hands up in defense, "To be fair, though, these kids aren't taking World Hero History that serious." She pouted. " I finally got to catch up with Aizawa for a little bit before he left. Should I be worried that he's working instead of resting?"
I groaned, "Don't get me started. I was telling Hound Dog that we argued nonstop about it. Clearly, I lost the argument." I sat down next to her and grabbed a gyoza from her plate, "He's so stubborn. Remember when he wasn't? Like if I showed some concern, he used to actually consider it."
"He's not a lovesick sixteen-year-old anymore, that's why." She looked at me, amused, "But I can tell that he still takes your input into consideration about other things."
"Like what? The students? He kind of has to." I gave a whole hearted laugh. "And I know that he's not like how he was at sixteen. We all kind of changed since then. He just grew worse since then."
She picked at her lunch, "I don't think so. You guys just have to be patient with each other. Especially right now since he's probably all grumpy about his injuries." She gave me a small smile, "You guys are both stubborn and independent. It's hard to adjust to having people look after you."
I huffed, "Here I am, the counselor being counseled."
She let out a chuckle, "Well, even therapists have their own therapists."
"I just wished it wasn't awkward or uncomfortable to be working with him. But I guess it's what we get for having unresolved issues."
"Over time, I'm sure you both will be okay. Like I said, be patient."
"Patience. Not either of our virtues." I finished typing and emailed it to the copying department. "Done. Now, on to a quick lunch and then stop by the class to talk about the Sports Festival." I proudly smiled.
"I really like your class. Lily's aren't as interesting. Except for Monoma." Iris took a sip of her water and handed me my bag with my lunch in it.
"Oh yeah, she and Vlad told me about him. Both had very different ways to word out their opinions though." I laughed, "Lily was telling me if he was going to become a villain that his origin story would be not being able to beat Class 1-A at being better students and future heroes."
"And Vlad?"
"He said that Monoma was a very determined student, but that he needed to find a different way to motivate himself." I smirked.
Iris scrunched her nose up before laughing, "Of course that's what he said."
I stuffed my chicken caesar salad in my face, "So far, all the other teachers pretty much said that he's likeable when he doesn't open his mouth. I kind of feel bad that he got stuck with Lily and vice versa."
"Same here. Have you gotten any update on your license?" Iris asked.
"No, not really. So far, information from the case hasn't broken out either. The U.S really only focused on the allegations and how my side of the case lost. Aside from that, the court, the agency, even Gemini, have all kept their mouths shut about the case." I let out a small sigh, "I'm actually pretty relieved about that."
"I don't get why it matters, you already have your license suspended."
"I just don't want the American people to turn on me because of the evidence used against my testimony. If that happens, then there's no chance I'll get my suspension lifted." I looked down. I wasn't ashamed of the events, I just didn't want it all to be twisted in front of citizens, in front of my students. It was already hard enough to be shamed in court. I didn't need a whole country to do it.
I felt a hand on my knee. Iris looked at me with her ocean eyes, "I don't think the news would try and twist it around and make that man look like a victim. The American press loves you. And so do the American people. You and your coworkers were speaking out. They would see that if anything came out."
I gave her a solemn look, "I forget you read minds."
"It's because my quirk is record-keeping for the most part. It makes people forget how I can get my information." She gave my knee a little squeeze. "Does anyone else know about the details of the case?"
"The staff just know the general information. But I kept it mostly vague, anyone who knows details about it is just Lily mainly. Nezu and All Might know of course. Aizawa also knows, but that's because I told him one of the times my agency had to work with his years ago." I brushed through the information.
"Why did you tell him if you guys weren't talking during that time?" She scrunched her eyebrows.
"It's complicated. Things happened during the mission that I had to explain what happened. It was the mission after Captain Celebrity got his license back and Marga, Aaron, and Gemini had to assist him with a case he was on." I said taking another bite.
"The same mission where you had to deal with not only the mafia in Japan but their allies back in the U.S.?" I nodded a yes in response. "Ohhhhh, yeah, I remember you telling me how that mission was. Now it makes sense why it might've came up between you two."
"Why are you letting someone lower than you talk down to you?" His hair grew longer and flew in the wind as we were standing by the ocean. He was still wearing his hero suit but without his capture weapon. Personally, to me, the moonlight cascaded on his features beautifully, as if the moon wanted him to look like an angel. It was pissing me off.
"Why do you care?" I snapped, "You haven't spoken to me in seven years. I've tried texting, email, even calling when I knew it was a reasonable time in Japan. But you never answered. Never replied. After a while, a girl gets a hint that her friend doesn't care about her anymore." I folded my arm hugging the white cardigan I changed into closer to my body as the breeze blew colder air.
"I did... I do care. It was just a hard time for me to talk to you during the first year you were gone." He averted his grey eyes away from my brown ones. There was a tint of blush on his cheeks. And his eyes were filled with regret. "I wasn't really in the right state of mind, I didn't want that to be a burden."
I glared at him, "Burden? When have you ever been a burden for me? Did you think I was perfectly okay during that year? Why else would I have tried to stay in contact with you?" I stood taller, feeling tears brim my eyes, "I needed a little piece of home while I was away, whether it be you venting to me about your problems or talking about cats. When I needed you, you weren't there, and now you're judging me for the way I act with my colleagues when you don't even know why."
There was a pause. He looked back at me and searched my face. His eyes were red, but it wasn't from his dry eye. Tears were threatening to fall from both of our eyes. We just stood there in silence for what felt like an eternity until Aizawa's venomous tone pierced through it. "What did that bastard do to you?"
I blinked a little coming back into my thoughts, "Yeah, so he knows. But when I told him I told him to not bother trying to patch things up between us because he felt bad. If we were meant to be friends again, I wanted it to be organic, not out of pity and regret. Which is why we barely talked afterwards and was a little awkward between us." I grinned, "But we're getting there as you said."
Iris just hummed and nodded in response. "That would explain why he thinks more highly of you." She commented as she gathered up her mess and threw it away in the trash. I just looked at her confused mainly. I'm not surprised if Aizawa thought highly of me, just surprised that he would so freely voice it out. Maybe it was because it was Iris. We were all very open to her since high school. She smiled back at me, "I have to get going, I have to teach Class 1-B now that they're done with Mic's class. I'm happy to see you and Aizawa managed to start patching things up, it looks like you both needed it."