A/N: Hello! Thank you so much for reviewing! I'll be honest, I hadnt really thought too much into her degrees, but now I think I might have made it into a plotpoint later on. So yeah. Also I tried to make more spaces for the other commenter. :D Please keep commenting it really does motivate me to write more! And just makes me really happy.
Rachel's P.O.V.
I did go back and taught the rest of the day before leaving knowing I would need to help out around the house today as well. I sighed knowing I had a long day ahead of me. I wondered how my older sister and brother had managed all of these years. Suddenly an arm was swung around me and I looked to see Yamada, Nemuri, Toshinori and Aisawa walking besides me. Nemuri having her arm around my shoulders. Her and Yamada were wearing big grins on their faces.
"We're going out to celebrate the first day of school being over. Wanna come?" Yamada said and I smiled at the offer, I guess I should.
I could go out for a short while and still have everything done. Besides, it was Miu who wanted a damn kid, she could take care of things. I still sometimes was stuck inbetween two nails like these. On one hand I felt responsible for my siblings, but I also wondered;
if my older sister got to run away with her stupid boyfriend.
My mom got to run away and get high.
My dad got to go off and drink all day.
Well, why was I still not allowed to live my own life?
I could probably buy my own apartment if I saved my salary a few months.
But I knew that that would never happen.
No matter how much I tried to escape it, I was stuck. Stuck in a tiny shitty house. With a family that would always be getting me in trouble. Besides, knowing my own tendency to screw things up, I should not blow my pay checks on my own place. I would probably be fired for doing something stupid and end up back at the house and at a minimum wage job in a few months anyway.
But I decided, maybe hanging out with my new co-workers would be less terrible than having to deal with the chaos and noise that awaited me at home. I sighed and they all looked at me weirdly, and I realised that I had zoned out.
"As long as it's quiet." I said plainly and Yamada and Nemuri laughed and we continued walking towards town.
"No place is ever quiet when I'm around!" Yamada said and I rolled my eyes slightly but continued to go with them.
A little hoping to get some peace with them. Besides maybe hanging out with heroes would be good for me.
We got there, it was a small bar, clearly intimate, and we found a booth to sit in. I purposely sat beside Aisawa, mostly because I hoped he would give me some peace. Besides I decided to spy on his class a little as payback for spying on me. I liked his teaching style. It was brutal but honest at least. It was how I had met Toshinori, he was spying as well. Yamada and Nemuri chatted away happily clearly used to the two others being quiet, which calmed me down a little. I was here to get some peace and quiet not the opposite. The waitress came over and I sighed knowing this was a little bit of a bad idea.
"Water." I said as the others orders beers and Nemuri a cocktail, I got a weird look but just shrugged not wanting to explain myself.
The truth was not exactly perfect and pretty, and even though I knew there were probably more to them than that, I was among heroes right now. Heroes did not understand what it was like to have normal problems, and I knew they would look down on me if they knew everything I had done in my life. Their lives were all polished and pretty mine was dirty.
"So, tell us about yourself Rach. What do you like? Dislike? You're a UA teacher now. We wanna get to know you." Nemuri said kindly and I just shrugged kind of not liking them all looking at me like that. All interested, it was a little frustrating and intimidating.
"Thanks. I don't know. I'm really not that interesting. Why don't we just talk about you guys?" I asked wanting the attention off of me, luckily the conversation did shift and I could do what I was most comfortable with, which was listen.
They told story after story, I even started relaxing a little and enjoying myself. It was nice, they were funny and apparently respected my boundaries enough to just engage me enough in the conversation to make me feel welcome. I looked at my watch as they discussed getting dinner and I sighed gathering up my things.
"This has been really fun, but I gotta head out. My house get's chaotic." I said limiting my words.
Even after hearing all about their adventures and misadventures, a little part of me still felt less than them. Maybe it was this old feeling I would never be able to shake. Maybe I just belonged in the chaos and grime that was my life. It was not all bad. I sometimes felt like I lived a different life, my highs were very high, but our lows were the lowest.
"I'll walk with you, I'm heading to work anyway." Aisawa said pulling me out of my thought, I had been ignoring the others protesting telling me I should stay. I understood, I had had friends like these before. They would get bored of me eventually.
I smiled and nodded at Aisawa as we left the small bar.
"You're a night hero?" I asked trying to make conversation, he just nodded but didn't offer any more information.
"You don't drink?" He asked after a while and I just shrugged.
"You don't really either?" I answered a little trying to deflect the question, but so far he had been nice to talk to. Something about Aisawa made me open up, maybe we were just similar, or maybe it was that there was someone who seemed even less interested in the stupid social norms we had made up for each other than I did.
"I can't really focus on defeating bad guys after I've been drinking." He said plainly and I could feel him studying me, like he was trying to figure me out. He did not seem like the type to give up on getting information, but I figured I could let him stew in it for a few more seconds.
"Why don't you drink? In my experience they start young where you're from." He said and I shrugged, he was not wrong.
I had my first beer when I was what? 9? 10ish? It was not exactly healthy, but the water was shut off, I was thirsty and it was all we had in the fridge. Plus my dad probably gave us something to put us to sleep when we were little, I would not put that past him. I sighed figuring I should say something.
"I have seen what drinking does to people. Hell I've done some shit as well. So I try to avoid it." I said plainly, trying not to think about all of the things I had done over the years.
The highs were very high, but the lows were very low too. He shrugged accepting that answer as we walked towards the train station.
"I'm actually on watch in your part of town tonight. Well, most nights, I imagine you understand. I figured I should tell you to avoid any awkwardness if I run into you. It's nothing personal, it's just where I'm assigned." He said and I found this a little weird, why would it be awkward if he saw me there? B
ut I compartmentalised that thought for later as we got on the train, it was old and bumpy but it led me home, almost straight there actually, not a lot of people loved the sound of the train running by all day and night, so the apartments and houses there were cheap.
"Cool. Why do you work at night and day? Isn't that exhausting?" I asked curiously, I was genuinely interested since I had been barely sleeping for at least the last 5 years with studying, working and the house. Aisawa just shrugged with a small smile.
"Well, yeah. There is a reason I keep a sleeping bag at school. But I've always wanted to be a night hero, keeps me sharp, and I don't wanna give up teaching." He said and I nodded with a small smile, that made sense.
"I'm still wondering why you're teaching there?" He said like he was seeing through me, probably was from hero work. But so what? It was non of his business, and even if it was all he had to do was google my name and he would find out exactly why I was in this position. But I hesistated. I had this feeling in my gut, like I wanted him to like me. I wanted to smile and be nice, but I did not really know how to do that. Plus the truth, like most things in my life, was not exactly pretty. So I just crossed my arms and looked at him narrowing my eyes.
"Why would you say that?" I asked opting for confronting his observations about me instead of just telling him the truth. It seemed, weird. He smirked a little at my slightly offensive stance, looking a little smug, probably thinking he had hit a nerve, hopefully reevaluating his assumptions about me.
"Well, to be honest, you don't seem like the caring or even approachable type. And you clearly love science and engineering dearly, so I wonder why you don't just work in a fancy lab or a support item factory." He said with a straight face, I just shrugged and got off the train as it stopped at the west side, he followed me still.
"Yeah. I do love science. And I would probably be great at those jobs, but." I hesitated for a moment wondering if I should just tell him the truth. Instead I opted for putting my hands in my pockets to avoid the cold and shrugging lightly.
"Let's just say, life got in the way." I said shortly, not wanting to start airing all of my dirty laundry to a guy I barely knew on my first day at the job. He nodded, seeming like he understood.
"Fair enough." He said and continued to walk with me as I walked towards my house. I looked at him confused and he just looked back at me bored.
"We both know what part of town this is. I'm walking you home." He said simply and I looked at him a little offended.
Like I would not be able to defend myself here? This was my neighbourhood, I had this part of town in my blood from the top to the bottom. Hell I would probably have a better chance of getting assaulted bringing in an outsider. I turned and he raised his eyebrows at the tiny house. And maybe also looking at how it looked like it was on the brink of collapsing, with trash and stupid stuff lying all around the steps to the door. It was not much, hell it barely had working plumbing for over 3 years, but it was home. I looked at him daring him to say something but he just put his hands up hearing the talking noise from inside as I neared the door. I was at the front door and he stayed behind clearly not wanting to intrude too much on my personal life.
"Thanks for tonight. And if you're like bleeding out, or something on the job, you can come here." I said wanting to be polite, he was pretty nice to me, and I did honestly not want him bleeding out in the gutters, I had already seen too many people do that. He smiled very slightly and nodded.
"Thank you. Also, come to school at 7 am sharp tomorrow, meet me at the sportsfield. I believe you know where it is, it is where you and Toshinori spied on my class today. Wear workout clothes." He said in his usual monotone voice, and I turned back looking at him confused.
"Why-" I started but he cut me off.
"You may be able to defend yourself here, but when push comes to shove I need to know that those students are safe with you as well as everyone else if something were to happen." He said seriously, and I nodded slightly understanding his logic. I was not looking forward to this.
"7 am. Don't be late." He said and I rolled my eyes at him, but as I looked back where he had been standing he was gone, probably off into the night.
I shook my head but figured I better do as I was told. Tomorrow was definitely going to be interesting. I sighed as I unlocked the door to the house wondering how much of a mess and chaos awaited me inside.