Notes: Kuzuhina Week, Day 1: Fluff Day!

This is an AU that, to be honest, was pretty inevitable, seeing as I'm now teaching elementary school in Japan... Thus, here we are. This also got quite long, since it was supposed to be a one-shot, but now I've had to split it into three chapters instead, oops...

Also it's not terribly fluffy (yet?)! So far it's mostly a lot of establishing setting.

Other miscellaneous notes: relative ages are completely screwed up in this AU. I chose about ten Danganronpa characters to be school faculty, but any other DR characters will appear as literal children. Don't think too hard about it!

And the title comes from a BUMP OF CHICKEN song because of course it does. (The song this time is "Firefly.")

I think that's about it! Hope you enjoy!

Desires Like Fireflies

Chapter 1

"Sorry you bring you in at such an inconvenient time," the vice principal said as she led Hinata from the entrance hall, her silvery hair flowing behind her as they wove between students. "Everyone's trying to regain their bearings after Golden Week, so it's a bit hectic."

"Oh, no, it's fine," Hinata assured her, stumbling half a step when a small child brushed past his hip. "Honestly, I'm thrilled! I much prefer this over my desk job at the BOE."

Kyoko Kirigiri shot him a small smile over her shoulder, then stopped in front of a door labeled "principal's office." "In any case, you should greet the principal first. He should be in here—"

"HEY! No running in the halls!"

Kirigiri's hand paused mere millimeters away from knocking on the door, and she sighed, turning towards the direction the voice had echoed from. "...Or not. He must be this way, then."

She started walking again and Hinata followed her around a corner, towards a rather intense-looking man standing at the base of the stairwell and attempting to shout orders at the throng of children.

"Principal," Kirigiri said as they approached, her voice clear and authoritative over the din. "Have you taken a look at the fax about next year's curriculum that I left on your desk?"

Upon noticing his vice-principal, the hard lines of the man's sizeable brow abruptly weakened. "Ah... Kirigiri-sensei, I... haven't quite gotten to that yet..."

"And I couldn't help but notice that the shrubs lining the parking lot still haven't been trimmed."

At that, the man visibly deflated, looking a bit like a scolded puppy. "I... but the children..."

"Will be fine." As if to illustrate her point, Kirigiri placed a gloved hand upon the shoulder of a student sprinting past them, startling the child into looking up and then slowing to a more respectable pace. "You don't have time to be patrolling the hallways, Principal. You need to tend to the upkeep of the school. Leave the disciplining to me."

"Very well..." The man let his gaze slip away from Kirigiri as he finally noticed Hinata past her shoulder, his crimson eyes brightening. "Oh! You must be the one from the Board of Education!"

"Ah, yes!" Hinata bowed as best as he could while surrounded by children. "My name is Hajime Hinata, it's nice to meet you!"

The man laughed heartily, then waded past the students to clap Hinata on the shoulder. "Yes, yes, likewise! My name is Kiyotaka Ishimaru, and I'm the principal here. Welcome to Hope's First Elementary!"

"Thanks," Hinata said, grinning nervously.

"Have you met the rest of the faculty yet? Or your students?"

"Not— uh, no. No to both," Hinata stammered, still not quite used to the idea that he was going to have students. He was going to be in charge of a class.

The position had come up quite abruptly—from what he understood, the previous fourth grade teacher had been four months pregnant when her husband was very suddenly assigned to an overseas job transfer. Rather than staying in the country by herself to finish up the term, it had been decided that it would be better for her health to accompany her husband immediately.

Hinata hadn't hesitated to accept the job when he was offered, but it had happened so suddenly that he still found it hard to believe he was finally going to actually teach.

"I'm about to bring him to the staff room now to introduce himself," Kirigiri followed up. "Would you like to come with us, Principal?"

Ishimaru seemed to be considering simply staying in the hallway to continue his attempts at bringing order, but a sharp look from Kirigiri changed his mind. "Y—yes, I'll come with you, then! Let's make haste, we do want to get him settled in before homeroom is over..."

Hinata hung back just enough to let the two of them take the lead before following them back down the hallway, where he was escorted through a sliding door into a large room with rows of desks covered with haphazard stacks of papers. Even if it weren't for the adults shuffling through lesson plans at their desks, it was clear at a glance that this was the staff room.

"Well, this isn't quite everyone," Kirigiri muttered as she looked over the room, "but it's close enough. Now, let's—"

"ATTENTION EVERYONE!"

At Ishimaru's holler, all the teachers stopped what they were doing and looked up in alarm, save Kirigiri, whose expression was rather one of exasperation.

"...Thank you, Principal," she sighed, before addressing the room as a whole. "I'm sorry to interrupt when you're so busy, but the new fourth grade teacher has arrived. Please give him a moment of your time so he can introduce himself." And with a nod, she handed the floor to Hinata.

Right. This, at least, he knew he could do. "Hello, it's nice to meet you all," he said, bowing to the room. "My name is Hajime Hinata. I earned my elementary school teaching license a little over a year ago, but I've been working as an administrative assistant at the Board of Education until now, so I'm very happy to be here at Hope's First Elementary School as your new fourth grade teacher. Please offer me your guidance as we work together this year."

The room was filled with polite applause, and after awkwardly nodding his thanks, the other teachers resumed their work.

"They'll have to introduce themselves on their own time," Kirigiri commented, smiling apologetically, "and Kuzuryu-sensei should be by soon to introduce you to your class. In the meantime, your desk is the one on the corner there, next to Amami-sensei—the man with the wavy hair, he teaches fifth grade. Do you think you can handle things on your own from here?"

"Ah— yes, I'll be fine!" Hinata assured her, though only half convinced himself. "I'm sure you're busy with your own work, so please don't worry about me."

Kirigiri smiled gratefully, then turned back to Ishimaru. "And you, Principal, need to go tend to those shrubs, please..."

Hinata chuckled to himself as he maneuvered around old swivel chairs to his own desk. He sat down, a loud creak from the rusted chair joints welcoming him to his new home away from home.

He had just started peeking into the desk drawers, finding them mostly cleared out save for a few dirty pens, half-used pads of sticky notes, and a pallet of broken crayons, when a small voice from behind him drew his attention.

"Um, excuse me…"

He turned around in his squeaky chair to see a woman with long, dark hair sitting at the neighboring row of desks, who flinched as soon as he faced her.

"I— I'm sorry, am I bothering you?"

"Huh? No, no, not at all!" He waved his hands in front of himself placatingly. "If anything, I was worried about bothering you, or else I would have introduced myself directly."

The woman giggled—a bit nervously, but she seemed pleased. "Oh, no, I'm the school nurse, so I don't have a homeroom class to prepare for. I— ah, I'm sorry!" Her face flooded with panic again. "I forgot to give you my name! I'm Mikan Tsumiki, it's a pleasure to meet you, Hinata-sensei!"

"I, um, likewise," Hinata returned, nodding respectfully in her direction—he wasn't sure what would be the best way to get her to ease up, but going along with her introduction seemed to be the best option in the short term. "So, uh… actually, could I ask for your help with something?"

Tsumiki's eyes widened. "Ah— yes! I mean, if it's something that I can help with, though I'm not really much use for anything more than first aid, so—"

"No, no, it's fine," Hinata assured her, lowering his voice to a whisper. "I just don't really want to bother the other homeroom teachers when they're busy, but I'd like to at least know their names if I can. I know Amami-sensei next to me teaches fifth grade, but would you mind pointing the others out to me?"

Tsumiki's mouth formed into an 'o' shape. "Oh— yes! Yes, I can do that!" Her eyes seemed to shine at the prospect of being given a task she was confident in. "On the other side of Amami-sensei is Nidai-sensei," she pointed towards a large, bulky man in a tracksuit, "and he teaches sixth grade. I think you'll mostly be working with Kuzuryu-sensei, who's not in the room right now, but he teaches—"

"Good morning!" came a voice accompanying the clatter of the staff room door opening, and they both reflexively turned to see a small boy with tanned skin at the entrance. "I'm Yuta Asahina, grade 3, and I'm looking for Tsumiki-sensei!"

"Ah, yes!" Completely forgetting the conversation, Tsumiki jumped up and approached him in a flustered rush. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"I was running outside and I fell," Yuta said matter-of-factly, offering a view of his scraped-up hands, palm-up. "But it doesn't hurt."

"Ahh, oh dear!" Tsumiki fretted, taking his wrists in her hands to have a better look. "This is— ahh, your knees are bleeding, too! Come on, let's get you cleaned up in the infirmary… Ah, Hinata-sensei!"

Hinata's head shot up, not expecting to be addressed by her again so soon. "Yes?"

"I— I'm sorry I couldn't— ah, feel free to help yourself to some coffee over here until Kuzuryu-sensei arrives! I'm so sorry!" And with those final words, she disappeared into the hall with the third-grader.

Hinata chuckled lowly as he stood up. "Don't apologize for doing your job," he muttered, making his way to the coffee pot to take her up on the offer.

With nothing else to do as he waited for the elusive "Kuzuryu-sensei" to appear, Hinata poured himself a cup of coffee and made himself comfortable next to the door. Not even two sips into his drink, however, a small figure stepped briskly through the doorway, nodding just minutely as he crossed the threshold.

"Whoa, hold on!" Hinata shot out his unoccupied hand and placed it against the boy's chest, effectively stopping him in his tracks. "You're supposed to announce your name and class when you enter! Aren't you old enough to know that by now?"

The boy glared up at him, golden eyes like angry, searing brands. "The fuck did you just say to me?!"

Hinata's survival instincts were screaming at him to back off, but his role of a teacher overrode that; he couldn't let a student immediately intimidate him, and he certainly couldn't let a student get away with cursing at him, so—

His thoughts ground to a halt as he fully took in the boy's appearance. He was small and round-faced, his blond hair cropped in a youthful buzz cut, that much was true. But upon glancing down, Hinata could see that the boy was wearing battered tennis shoes, not the regulation student slippers, and he now noticed that underneath his hand, trapped against the boy's chest, was the plastic of a faculty nametag.

Swallowing nervously, Hinata pulled his hand away to let the nametag hang freely from its lanyard.

Third-Grade Homeroom Teacher—Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu

Well shit.

As Hinata mentally scrambled to find a way to remedy the situation, a hand clapped onto his shoulder from behind. "Hey, don't sweat it, seriously," said the laid-back looking man Hinata recognized as Amami. "We've all made that mistake once or twice."

"It's just instinct, you know?" piped up a red-headed woman, one of the teachers that Tsumiki hadn't named—but judging from the simple reading level of the lesson materials she was sorting, Hinata guessed she taught first grade. "You can't help but want to scold someone of that size."

"Whaddya mean, 'that size'? Shit." Kuzuryu ducked past Hinata and Amami and sidled over to the desk directly in front of Hinata's, covered in neat piles of drill books and paperwork. Immediately finding what he was looking for, he grabbed a file and returned to the doorway, glaring up at Hinata. "You're the new fourth grade teacher, right?" When Hinata nodded his assent, Kuzuryu grunted and stepped back out into the hallway. "C'mon, I've got your kids."

Fumbling to set down his cup of coffee next to the sink, Hinata hurriedly followed after the third grade teacher, heading towards the stairwell. "You've 'got my kids'... the way you say that makes you almost sound like some kind of mob boss demanding ransom," he joked, trying to lighten the mood after his earlier slip-up.

Kuzuryu snorted an aborted laugh. "Shit, any mob boss with half a brain would be paying you to take them back."

Hinata's face fell, trepidation pooling in the pit of his stomach. "Is my class that bad?"

The shorter man paused, his feet stilling at the top of the landing as he considered his answer. "Just... count your lucky stars you're not the one stuck with Kokichi Oma," he finally settled on.

That wasn't a name that meant anything to Hinata, but he could only assume that it would in time, so he said nothing and let Kuzuryu lead him out of the stairwell and into the second-floor hallway.

"The first- and second-grade classes are that way," Kuzuryu said, pointing down the hall to the left, "as well as the home ec classroom and teaching resource room. I'll show you around the rest of the school later, but for now our classes are this way…" He jerked his head to the right, motioning for Hinata to follow him to the end of the hall, past a room labeled "3-1" to classroom "4-1."

Kuzuryu raised his hand to slide the door open, before pausing to glance up at Hinata. "Do you need time to prepare yourself, or do you wanna do this like pulling off a band-aid?"

Hinata had to admit that it was a bit intimidating to know that his (badly behaved?) class of fourth-graders was clamoring to meet him on the other side of the door, but he took a deep breath and tried to look as confident as possible. "Band-aid, please."

The grin that Kuzuryu responded with was dazzling enough to momentarily throw off Hinata's resolve. "You know, I think I'm gonna like you." Without another word, he threw the door open with enough force that Hinata thought it might fall of its track and all but stormed into the room. "All right, brats, I brought your new homeroom teacher, so shut up and look sharp!"

The students didn't quite "shut up," but Kuzuryu's entrance had at least commanded enough authority to quiet their chattering to a whispered buzz, and Hinata felt twelve pairs of eyes following him with interest as he walked into the room.

Kuzuryu swept past the lectern to the teacher's desk in the corner, leaning back upon it for a moment before raising an eyebrow at Hinata.

"Ah, right!" Flustered, Hinata walked to the lectern and located a small box of chalk, taking a piece out before turning to write his name on the board—first in kanji, then in hiragana. He finished up and brushed the dust off his hands, satisfied, before turning to the class with a smile. "Hello, everyone! My name is Hajime Hinata, and I'm your new homeroom teacher. It's nice to meet you all!"

The students chorused a rather uncoordinated "nice to meet you too," save for one girl who instead jumped onto her chair and shouted out, "Don't you have your own class, Kuzuryu-sensei?!"

"Sure do," Kuzuryu countered easily, "and if you don't shut up and let Hinata-sensei finish they'll come barging in for me in just a few minutes. So sit down and be quiet, Ibuki."

The girl complied, her long hair fanning out as she plopped herself back into her seat, and Hinata turned his attention back to how he should continue his introduction. He doubted that a bunch of nine-year-olds would be terribly interested in the office work he had done at the BOE, so he decided to keep it simple. "While it's a shame that your previous teacher had to leave, I'm very excited to be able to teach you all and get to know you better. Let's all have fun and get along this year," he finished up, smiling. "And if you have any questions for me, I—"

Apparently those were the magic words to open up the floodgates.

"Hinata-sensei, what's your favorite color?"

"Are you married?"

"What's your favorite food?"

"What's your favorite color?"

"Do you have kids?"

"What's your favorite color?"

"How old are you?"

"Where do you live?"

"What's your favorite color?!"

"Hey!" Kuzuryu shouted, slamming a hand against the blackboard, but it did little to quell the questioning. "One at a time! Raise your hands!"

Head reeling from the noise, Hinata did his best to sort himself out. "Uhh, well, I'm single, no kids, my favorite food is kusamochi..."

"Don't answer them when they're being brats!"

"Hinata-sensei! Favorite color!"

"Uh, gold," he said automatically, then paused as the students quieted into a more subdued ooh, gold! He honestly... wasn't sure why that had been his answer; he wasn't typically asked for his favorite color in the adult world, but normally he supposed it would be green. He was just sort of in a gold mood just then, probably.

Well, gold was good, too.

The bell then rang to signal the end of the homeroom period, and with the class taking that as their cue to start chatting amongst each other again, Kuzuryu pushed off of the desk and walked back to Hinata. "Be prepared to get tons of golden glitter bombs for the rest of the year," he muttered. "Well-meaning glitter bombs, but still. Your fault for not choosing a color that's not in their box of crayons."

"Oh," Hinata said dumbly. Maybe gold wasn't so good after all.

Before he could think of anything more eloquent to say in response, a rattling of the door drew their attention, and Kuzuryu's eyes instantly narrowed.

The door slowly slid open to reveal a rather mischievous smile waiting on the other side. "Oh, Kuzuryu-sensei," sing-songed a small boy with dark hair that curled up at the ends. "Aren'tcha gonna come back for first period? We really miss you, and Gonta's crying!"

"Gonta is not!" argued another boy in the hallway, with long, matted hair and glasses covering eyes that were notably devoid of tears.

Kuzuryu sighed. "Didn't I tell you brats to stay in the room and behave?"

The first boy pulled an absolutely angelic look. "What sort of person would I be if I ignored poor Gonta's tears? And besides, it was Komaru's idea."

"What! Nuh-uh!" Hianta just barely made out the faint voice before it was followed up by approaching footfalls, and a girl with her hair cut in a bob appeared in the doorway as well. "Sensei, he's lying! I stayed in the room like you told us until just now! Oh, hi, Oniichan!"

Kuzuryu massaged his temples as a brown-haired boy in Hinata's class waved at the girl. "Forget it, I have a pretty good idea of what's going on. Kokichi, Komaru, go back to the classroom—you too, Touko, don't think I don't see you there. And Gonta, where are your slippers?"

The bespectacled boy looked down at his bare feet as if he had never realized that his bottom half even existed. "...Dunno," he said finally, blinking owlishly.

"Then go back to the classroom and find them." He strode to the doorway and shooed the children away, but before leaving himself, he turned back to Hinata. "Hey, have you made up your own lesson plans for this class?"

Hinata blinked, taken aback by the sudden question. "Uh... well, as best as I could, yeah. I'll have to play a lot of it by ear at first, but…"

Kuzuryu nodded in understanding, then pushed the file he had been holding into Hinata's arms. "Take this, then."

Hinata fumbled with the file, but managed to open it up and saw lesson outlines for the fourth-grade curriculum, with neatly printed notes jotted on the margins detailing changes and suggestions.

It took a moment for Hinata to realize the deeper implications of what he was looking at. "Wait a minute, don't tell me you actually spent your holidays making this—"

"Hell no. Well, not really," Kuzuryu countered, waving a hand dismissively. "Those are just my lesson plans from this time last year when I had fourth grade. I made a few notes taking into account this class' personalities and progress, but that's it, really. Not a big deal. Figured it just might help you supplement your own plans."

Hinata felt a sort of warmth bubbling up behind his breastbone, and he couldn't fight the grin that crept onto his face. "Kuzuryu-sensei… seriously, thanks. This'll be a huge help."

Kuzuryu gave another dismissive wave, though his cheeks seemed to have a bit of a pinkish hue to them. "Don't make this into a bigger deal than it is, that's just weird. Anyway, I'm going back to my own class now. Your tour of the place will have to wait until after school, just ask the kids for directions if you need anything before then."

With one final wave, Kuzuryu was out the door, sliding the door shut behind him. A new source of encouragement in hand, Hinata turned back to his class.

"Now, let's get started, everyone."

Notes: Next chapter will be either tomorrow (Angst Day - totally ignoring the theme haha) or Wednesday (AU Day)!