"Aizawa-sensei! Aizawa-sensei, look!"
Shouta looked up from his book at the call, and saw a few of his students running toward him. It was Asui, Uraraka, and Ashido, the last of whom was holding something apart in her fingers.
"Look, look! Do you see sensei? Isn't it cool!" She exclaimed excitedly, holding up what was in her hands once she and the others had stopped in front of the couch Shouta was occupying. Upon further inspection, Shouta could see the string in and around his student's fingers, bent and twisted in such a way the pattern resembled a star.
"My parents bought me a book on different patterns you can make in Cat's Cradle before we moved into the dorms, and I've been practicing! So, what do ya think?"
Shouta hummed, and then checked his watch. He didn't wear one often, but on days off it was useful. "Isn't it almost time for lights out?" he said, instead of commenting on his student's splayed hands. He looked up at the three, eyebrow raised, "Shouldn't you all be getting ready for bed?"
Ashido sputtered, hands lowering.
"We're sorry, sensei, but we really wanted to show you!" Uraraka stepped forward, as if trying to will him to understand why they were about to go past curfew. "Mina-kun has been practicing a lot, and we really want your opinion on how it looks!"
Asui nodded in agreement, pointing a finger at the pink skinned girl's hands. "All of us have been practicing, but Mina-kun is the best so far. Me and Uraraka-kun can only do a few without messing up. The patterns are more complicated than they look."
His brunette student looked to her frog-like friend and smiled, nodding,"They're so fun though! I really like the ones you can do with a friend! The designs you can make are so cool!"
Ashido made a sound of agreement, grin growing ever bigger. "It's so awesome seeing the strings come together in a pattern, like one of those 'Satisfying' videos you see on the web!"
As the girls in front for him continued to chatter about their new hobby, Shouta glanced down at his watch when it beeped quietly, signifying a new hour and, consequently, curfew. He sighed and closed his book, noting the page he was on while straightening from his slouch. Seeing as the girls in front of him had yet to stop talking, Shouta reached out and plucked the string from Ashido's fingers.
"Wha-Aizawa-sensei! No, wait! That one took me awhile to get!" Ashido whined in dismay, her attention and that of his other two students now firmly back on Stouta. He ignored them and the unhappy sounds that now replaced the excited chatter of before, instead focusing on the string currently in his hands. It was a simple yarn string, easily obtained from several places in the dorms and tied into a loop.
The agitated movements of Ashido soon stopped and the distressed faces of Asui and Uraraka quickly turned into awe and shock as they all saw him smoothly and confidently slide the string onto his fingers. As soon as it was in position, Shouta began twisting and pulling the line in seemingly random ways. The awe and shock only grew on his charges faces as they saw patterns and shapes they had likely only seen in the much harder part of the book Ashido's parents had bought her materialize in between his hands, fingers hardly pausing in between one combination and the next. Finally, Shouta slowed his digits and eventually settled on a shape the three in front of him had apparently never seen used before in the string game, but he wasn't worried. It was obvious as to what it was.
A bed.
"It is past lights out. Go to your rooms and go to sleep," Shouta said, again looking at his students. He held up his hands for emphasis. "Now."
None of them moved, now gaping and wide eyed as they continued to stare at his hands. Finally, Uraraka broke the spell around them, bringing up one of her hands to point at his and stutter, "H-how did y-you..."
This time, Shouta didn't even look down at his fingers as he moved them. Whatever Uraraka was going to say died on her tongue as she and her friends gazed at the final pattern his digits settled on. It wasn't a complex pattern, or a shape, or even a picture. It was a word.
'Now.'
Shouta didn't wait for his students to move or recover before he stood up, letting the string unravel from his fingers as he popped his back. Sighing, he scratched the back of his head as he walked around the still frozen statues of the three and began to head back to his own room, intent on grading some of the assignments he had left. He paused near the hallway, however, when he still hadn't heard any sign of movement. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the only move they'd made was to twist to continue staring at him. He sighed.
"I expect you to be in your rooms soon, which means you should be moving towards them."
This, at least, seemed to finally jolt them out of their shock, so Shouta continued on his way to the teachers' wing, his students' hasty agreements in his ears. On the way though, he stopped and glanced down at the string still in his hands. After a moment, he allowed himself a small smirk.
Really, they should have figured. His work depended on him knowing how to use string.
What did they think his capture weapon was, essentially?
So this is my first ever fanfiction. I didn't do too badly I hope. The idea for this came to me when I was looking at some fanart of Aizawa hanging upside down with his capture weapon in this crazy mess that allowed him to do that and then bam I thought 'he must be really good at cat's cradle' and then this was born.
I really hope you like it!
Also, HUGE shout out to my amazing beta, Night Foliage! This fic would not have come out half as good without her amazing help! A million thanks, Night, I will be forever grateful! I learned so much from you!