"Are you alright, Toshinori?"

Toshinori sat up in the passenger seat of his best -and only- friend's small car. Really, did no one make cars with tall people in mind? He had to crouch to avoid hitting his head on the roof, which made his neck and back ache more than they already did. "Why wouldn't I be?" he knew Naomasa hated when he answered in question, but it was a genuine response.

"You keep rubbing at your chest. Are you having a hard time breathing?"

He was really too observant for his own good. Or, maybe for Toshinori's good. With a soft -and hopefully casual- chuckle, Toshinori brushed off the concern with a hand wave. He really didn't feel up to joking around, not after interacting with All For One.

Naomasa was right in a way. He had been having trouble breathing, but it only started after...what exactly had happened, anyway? He had been talking to All For One when the lights flickered and the guns to the side of the villain started beeping. It only lasted a few seconds, but Toshinori knew he had managed to use some kind of quirk. Likely his teleportation quirk, as a desperate choice in escape, but he could always chew on it later.

The burning returned to his heart in a new wave and he rubbed at it subconsciously. He could hear Naomasa sigh beside him. "Seriously, Toshinori. I know you hate it, but if your chest is really bothering you, you should get it checked out. At least go to Recovery Girl."

Recovery Girl was likely the last person he would want to tell about this, knowing how mad she'd get that he'd pushed it off. "Yeah, I can do that." Both of them knew full well he wouldn't.

Once outside the UA gates, Toshinori climbed out of the car and gave his friend a small wave before fleeing. He didn't want to answer anymore questions, especially from him. He just needed a chance to recharge. The new dorm system for the teachers and students wouldn't allow him the kind of rest he needed, but then again, he wasn't sure he could get that much rest without going into a coma. It wasn't funny, but Toshinori chuckled to himself anyway.

The students were already back from their license exam, lounging in the dorm like a pack of sleepy cats. Aizawa would like that metaphor. Actually, he'd probably hate it, simply because Toshinori was the one who thought of it. Figures.

"Hey, All Might!" Young Izuku called, which gathered everyone else's attention.

Young Sero jumped off of his place on the couch, holding an ice pack to both his elbows. It made Toshinori bother proud and concerned. "Hey, All Might. Why are you wearing your hero suit?"

"Yeah." Added Young Kaminari. "Didn't you retire? It's pretty big."

Now, Toshinori knew his students were simply trying to show their concern, or maybe their curiosity. There was no shame in asking, and really, Toshinori was almost glad they felt comfortable enough to ask. It beat the awkward silence the other teachers gave him, but he still couldn't help feeling irritated. "So you've noticed." He tried not to wince at the sarcasm and hoped to everything good that neither student caught on it.

Thankfully, they didn't. Or they ignored it. "You want some cupcakes? Sato made some to celebrate us getting our licenses. Well, everyone but Todoroki and Bakugou."

A loud yell came from somewhere else on the couch. "SHUT UP! I'LL KILL YOU!"

"Dude, how are you not too tired to yell?" Young Kirishima responded in the most tired tone Toshinori had ever heard the energetic boy use.

"DIE!" He yelled back, and Toshinori left before he had to start babysitting. He really wasn't in the mood. He didn't miss Izuku's concerned look before he let the elevator door shut the world away from him.

Finally, finally, Toshinori made it to his room. He threw off his boots as soon as the door clicked shut and the suit followed soon after. He changed into a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. He should've felt happy, relieved to be comfortable and alone, but he only felt more irritated. It wasn't necessarily from being around his students, but everything that dared to exist around him. His unmade bed annoyed him, the suit he had just changed out of mocked him, his too small couch laughed in his face and his messy kitchen made him want to scream. Everything was in his way. Everything felt wrong and he couldn't do anything to fix it but take a deep breath and try to sleep the anger away. This is what he gets for trying to socialize after dealing with All For One.

At Toshinori slowly made his way to his bedside, his little toe connected with his nightstand and he nearly screamed every curse word he knew in both English and Japanese. He had to kneel to keep the pain at bay. It wasn't the worst pain he'd experienced, but it was almost too much for his weak body. He could feel his leg cramp under the strain of keeping his body above the ground, his chest squeezing again at the sudden spike of adrenaline.

He let a single cuss slip as he stood up and slowly crawled into bed. His blanket tangled around his ankles and he nearly ripped the stupid thing before it laid out nicely. He curled up, knees tucked to his chest and took long, deep breathes. Thankfully, he had taken a stronger medicine for his coughing before visiting Tartarus, otherwise he would be suffering from a huge coughing fit. He really didn't keep a coughing fit right now.

As sleep started to take over, he felt that irritation slip away with his consciousness. He could apologize to Young Sero and Kaminari later. For now, he was too tired and selfish to really care.

Toshinori woke up exactly one hour later, just as annoyed as before, but this time, he had to deal with loud teenagers as well. It was past 10:00 but the screaming and yelling obviously belonged to Young Bakugou. Toshinori was about ready to kill someone.

He stood up too fast and had to fall back onto his bed to keep from collapsing. He waited there, listening to the yelling -he could feel his head throb with each word- until the white spots disappeared enough for him to stand up again. Once up, he trudged out of his bedroom and into the hall. The elevator opened before he could get to it, a nervous looking Aoyama standing there.

"All Might-sensei! Pardonne-moi, but Bakugou-"

Toshinori didn't care enough to acknowledge him, stepping into the elevator and tractically punching the ground floor button, which made his student flinch. The ride up was dead silent. A part of him felt bad for scaring the poor boy, but he was really too tired to deal with this. Maybe, if he had stayed in his room, Aizawa would've been the one getting woken up to defuse a stupid situation.

Once the door opened, Toshinori marched out and saw exactly what he expected. Young Bakugou was screaming at the top of his -young and very healthy- lungs, Kirishima trying to pull him back and Young Iida swiping the air with his arms, adding to the ruckus. Ashido was laughing on the floor and seemed to be the one who caused the entire affair.

"What the he-" He stopped himself before he said something he'd regret. "What's going on? You do realize how late it is, right?" He was almost proud of how everyone stopped to look at him. He could still command a crawl.

Everyone started talking at once, which made the throbbing worse. He turned to Aoyama, who still stood next to him, and asked again. "What happened?"

"Ashido put sugar in the salt shaker." He squealed out. Toshinori let out a long sigh and ran his hand down his face. He was really getting too old.

"Alright." He started, gathering everyone's attention again. "Bakugou, Ashido," he pointed to each individual. "You two are coming with me. Iida, make sure everyone else goes to bed quietly."

He pulled Aoyama with him as a third opinion, the other two following behind. To his relief, Mina had stopped finding the situation funny and Bakugou didn't seem seconds away from letting off more explosions either. He led the three students into the furthest corner of the room, taking a quick glance back to confirm Iida had followed his instructions. Now, he just had to dish out a bit of discipline and go back to bed. Not too hard, right? "First, I want to know why it was a good idea to switch the sugar and salt." he glanced at Young Ashido, who seemed to cower beneath him. Was he subconsciously glaring again? Izuku mentioned that he did that often in his true form.

"I...I wanted to prank Sero…" She whispered.

"Did we not make it clear that pranks were heavily discouraged for this reason specifically?"

"Yes...Sensei."

"And on top of that, you wasted a lot of salt and sugar for this little prank, not to mention whoever's food that ended up on."

"I'm sorry, Sensei." He could barely hear her by that point.

He knew he was being too harsh. Her prank really was innocent enough. He was just tired, so he let it go for the time being. "Go clean out the salt shaker and whatever mess you made, then go straight to bed."

She practically flew away from the situation, slight tears pooling at the corner of her eyes. Toshinori shifted his gaze to Bakugou before the boy could start yelling again. "Why were you yelling?" It really was obvious, but he wanted to hear it from Bakugou.

"She ruined my food! I made a full pot of rice curry and she ruined it!"

Toshinori wasn't sure what to do now. He could send Bakugou off like he did Mina, but it wouldn't have the same effect. Punishing him wouldn't do any good either, he knew. So, he chose the middle ground. "When do you typically go to bed, Bakugou?" He purposely avoided the 'Young' prefix to emphasize his point.

"8:30."

"You're almost two hours past your usual bedtime-"

"Don't say it like that! I'm not a toddler!"

He decided to ignore that outburst. "Are you tired?"

The teen took a while to respond. "Yeah."

"Then go to bed. I don't care if someone ruined your dinner and sometimes, heroes have to pick their battles. Is this really worth your time screaming about sugar, just to perform worse tomorrow morning?" When Bakugou didn't respond, he leaned back and crossed his arms. "Get some sleep, Young Bakugou. You won't be getting any extra help if you fall asleep in class."

Thankfully, the boy left without saying anything. Toshinori thanked Aoyama for getting him, even though he really wasn't. After Iida and reported that everyone was at least in their rooms, Toshinori waved the boy off and went back to the elevator. He really needed his sleep.

For a moment, Toshinori wondered if this was how Aizawa felt all the time. Irritated, tired and so, so done. It would make sense why he hated All Might so much. He was kind of loud, at least for someone with a headache.

Once Toshinori made it back to his bed, he tried to get back to sleep, but it never came. He didn't have any more sleeping pills, so he was stuck tossing and turning until the sun went up. He was in no mood to get up and teach, but this was all he had let. If he didn't do his one job, then how could he help the next generation of heroes? A small, dark voice inside his mind told him to not care. They wouldn't make it anyway.

Toshinori stood up and began getting ready for the day, but that one thought scared him. It would haunt him for days.

Author's notes: Half way through writing this, I noticed that I was using Mina's first name instead of her last name, so if I missed her name anywhere, either tell me or ignore it. Other than that, enjoy this wonderful story that I will definitely be excited to continue!