Everything had been going so well for Shouta Aizawa up until last week. He had the minimum social interaction required to sustain himself- and then some, but he was used to that- and he had handled an especially intriguing case that he was able to finish in a raid in the early hours of last Sunday. After a few hours' rest, he spent Saturday afternoon curled up in his living room surrounded by his cats listening to some relaxing piano pieces he had inherited from his mother. But as the days dragged on during the school break, the hot summer sun bore down on him during the day, no further activity happened in his patrol route, no new special cases cropped up, and the only two people who knew where he lived were busy, he had slowly begun to drag his feet in boredom. He had even caught himself up on sleep to the point he was almost antsy with energy. His cats kept him going for a few days, but after not speaking to another human being for several days now- and who would have ever guessed he would miss speaking to Hizashi? Certainly not him!- slow realization began to creep up on him that he was... god, he hated thinking this, but there was no other word for it... lonely. *shudder*
Sprawled nearly upside-down on his couch, left arm flung downward toward the ground to pet the little grey ball of fluff he called "Smoke," he sighed heavily and threw his right arm over his eyes. He could always start a little early tonight, but based on the amount of heated sunlight flowing through the blinds he would be start much more than just a "little early" if he left now. He decided that perhaps a small cat nap- orange "Creamsicle" sleeping curled up on his chest not intended to make the expression a pun- would benefit his perpetually dry eyes and get him a little closer to his patrol time. 'If only there was something, someone, to break up the monotony that is this week,' he thought as his breathing slowly evened out and his consciousness slowly lowered into the early stages of sleep.
Just as he was about to slip into a full-on sleep, he jerked awake violently. Creamsicle hissed and swiped a claw at him before tearing her way across his apartment to hide; Smoke jumped and shuddered, curling in on himself with his hackles raised. Listening intently, Shouta stealthily dropped to a crouch by his couch, grabbing his capture weapon and goggles from their resting place in the basket by his end table. There- he turned his head, eyes narrowed and flashing slightly red- on his balcony, a shuffling sound. He silently crept toward his balcony door- thankfully the blinds were closed- and half-hid behind a cabinet along the wall, preparing himself to ambush whoever opened it.
A moment later, the glass door began to slide open, a gloved hand poking its way around the edge of the door jamb and a dark head of hair shortly after. Shouta registered a millisecond to register a flash of dark, dark green before his quirk was activated and his capture weapon was flashing, wrapping itself around the intruder before lifting them in the air and dropping them down on their back, hard. Another millisecond- this time a flash of green like a shady meadow flashing in a pair wide eyes- and he was on the intruder, arm across their throat and growling out a quick warning not to move if they didn't want to die.
In the space of a single heartbeat, several things happened: the intruder muffled a surprised exclamation through the fabric of Shouta's capture weapon, Shouta's eyes widened in recognition and he jumped back to his feet, and Shouta's cell phone rang loud and shrill through the silence of the apartment. Shouta released his quirk's hold over the intruder and loosened the capture weapon, rushing to grab up his phone from his kitchen's bar counter. "Eraserhead here," he mumbled gruffly into the phone's speaker, listening for a moment before, "Yeah, i can do that. No, i've already got someone here I'm sure will be more than willing to help out. No, Midor- Deku. Yes, that Deku, do you know anyone else insane enough to use that as their Hero name? Fine, send me the details. We'll head out as soon as possible. Don't forget to get someone to take over my patrol area." Shoving his phone back in his pocket, he sighed and ruffled his hair, turning his head to look over his shoulder at his intruder, who was finally shoving the last of his capture weapon off himself. "What the hell were you doing on my balcony, Problem Child?"
"Oy, Sensei, I'm not a problem child anymore, you know?! And w-well... I was, um... I just... you see, I had some free time and well, I... I was near here and I realized I hadn't visited with Sensei in a long while so I was going to stop by but you didn't answer your door when Ochako stopped by last week so I thought I'd see if your balcony door was open and make sure you were still alive in-"
"Hey! Midoriya! Slow down," Shouta barked out, causing Midoriya to jump and stop in the middle of rushing through an explanation. Sighing heavily, Shouta threw his hair back into a quick bun with the hair piece around his wrist shuffled over to his couch, hands shoved in his baggy sweats. He flopped down on one side of his couch and eyed Midoriya expectantly. After a beat, Midoriya made a small noise in the back of his throat and practically threw himself onto the couch. 'Ever the people-pleaser,' Shouta thought disparagingly. After eyeing Midoriya for a moment as the boy grew pinker and pinker under his critical gaze, he huffed out a quick laugh and grabbed his laptop from his coffee table, a faint upturn to one side of his lips betraying a tiny bit of pride at still being able to make his ex-student cower. "I didn't answer the door for Uraraka last week because I was probably not home. I finished up an important job on Sunday and I wasn't home much during it. And speaking of important jobs, I just got a call for one that I've volunteered you to help me with," he explained as he opened the laptop and logged into his encrypted Hero Portal email to bring up details on the case.
Midoriya perked up at that, a large grin growing on his face, practically blinding in its intensity, "I get to do a mission with you, Sensei? That's so cool! I haven't gotten to do any joint missions with anyone in a while, just a bunch of rescues and quick apprehensions during patrols." He continued to mumble for about a half a minute before Shouta cleared his throat to get his attention. "Oh! Sorry, Sensei, still not able to curb that habit yet," he chuckled apprehensively, rubbing the back of his head.
Shouta rolled his eyes before responding, "First of all, drop the honorific. I'm not your Sensei anymore, I haven't been for a couple of years now. Call me Eraserhead or Aizawa. I know I've told all of you this before." He turned the laptop toward Midoriya, having skimmed through the message on the screen during Midoriya's mumble-rant, "Secondly, read through this while I go get prepped." With that, he stood and walked to one of the doors in the opposite wall, closing the door behind him.
By the time Midoriya had read through the email, Shouta was opening the door and stepping out in his Hero costume, hair down and eye drops newly-inserted. He wound his capture weapon back around his neck to settle on his shoulders and turned to Midoriya, who had closed the laptop and stood from the couch, practically vibrating with excitement. With a quick confirmation "Ready?" Shouta locked the balcony door and they left the apartment to get started.
Well, at least his wish for some excitement had been granted.