"Akahana-sensei? Akahana-sensei!"
Akari's left eye twitched and she shook her head. Wait…what was I doing? Her vision focused on the rather terrified student across the desk from her. The woman was standing in front of this unfortunate boy's desk, her hands planted on the surface in front of her with her head bowed. The boy was trembling a little, his own head bowed as he tried to avert his gaze. "What…did I do?"
"You were standing in front of Tamaki's desk for ten minutes and kept mumbling something," Togata helpfully offered.
"Oh. Oh, wow! I'm sorry, Amajiki."
"I-it's okay, just…can you…step back?" he muttered, still not looking at her.
Akari slowly remembered what she had been doing. She was filling in for Yagi, giving a simple lecture, and when she gave them some worksheets to do, she felt herself starting to doze off. I must have walked over here and fixated on this kid. Oops. She started back toward the teacher's desk, frowning to herself. "Sorry about that, class."
"Are you okay, Akahana-sensei?"
She attempted a smile, but it was interrupted by a yawn. "I'm fine. Just a little sleepy. Any of you that are considering becoming nighttime heroes, rethink it. You'll never get back to a normal sleep pattern."
"Is that what happened to Aizawa-sensei?"
The woman blinked and felt a smirk curl her lips. "Yes."
When class ended, she intended to make a stop in the restroom before returning to the teachers' room, but never made it out of the room. Dozing off on the bathroom floor was not something she was proud of and it was made worse when she woke. There were a few female students crowded around her wearing looks of concern, but they soon dispersed when a familiar voice called for them to clear a path.
"Akari, baby, why are you sleeping on the floor? This is the worst place for this!" Yamada crouched down and slipped her arm across his shoulders to help her stand. Her knees almost gave way beneath her so he decided instead to just carry her bridal-style. "Seriously, babe! If you need someone to sleep next to-!"
"I'm fine," she muttered, looking away. Her face turned red as they left the bathroom, passing the female students. She heard a few of them make "ooh" and "aah" noises, but ignored it. Damn. I'm really…not doing well today.
Yamada carried her to Recovery Girl's room and she was set down on a bed. The healing hero scolded her, telling her that she needed to get more sleep, but her attention was on her blond friend. He looked truly concerned as he slid his sunglasses down, studying her tired features. "Are you going to be okay?"
"I'll be fine," the woman insisted. "I'm just…really sleepy. But I can't stay asleep at night." She turned onto her side, facing away from him, and felt that familiar burning in her cheeks again. I'll be fine, she told herself. Just need to sleep and I'll be fine.
Akari was unsure of when she dozed off, but she suddenly found herself waking as a warm body settled behind hers on the bed. An arm slid around her waist, pulling her back against a chest, and the hero felt someone sigh against the side of her neck. "…Hizashi…?" she murmured, still groggy.
"Are you serious?" Aizawa held her tighter, his voice a growl. "You know, you were hired as a backup in case he wears himself out and can't teach. What good does it do the school if you're just as tired as he is?"
"I'm sorry." She truly was. However, Akari was making an effort to try to make herself rest at night. It was difficult, though. The only time she seemed able to get ample sleep was when she slept beside someone. "Maybe I need a body pillow," she commented. "What time is it?"
"It's lunch break." The man pressed closer against her back, his breath warm against her neck as he buried his face in her hair to block out the light of the room. "I heard that you threatened to eat one of the third year students."
She tensed and frowned. Biting her lip, she searched her memory for that, but had trouble. "I think I was sleep-talking," Akari confessed. "Did I really-?"
"Another student said that you went up to his desk and stood there mumbling about eating him."
"Oh…no." The female hero tried to curl into a ball away from him, but felt a leg hook around one of hers to keep her in place. "Shouta?"
"Stop squirming. We'll get back to work when the break is over."
A sigh escaped her in a blend of frustration and relief. As much as she wanted to hide her embarrassment, she was also glad for this moment of affection. It was rare that he showed any kind of romantic feelings toward her while they were at the school. She had actually started to wonder if he was avoiding her.
Shift P.O.V
"A female hero with red hair and blue eyes? Red and black costume, right? With a red ribbon capture weapon? That'd be Heartstrings."
"Heartstrings?" He tilted his head ever so slightly. His knowledge concerning heroes was a bit limited. Of course, he knew about All Might and Endeavor. The top heroes were hard to not know about since they were always on the news. This was one reason why he had come to this hero merchandise shop though; to learn more.
"Oh yeah! Heartstrings! Dude, her quirk is crazy! She can redirect a person's blood flow using her own blood!" the second clerk chimed in. "Some people think she's too powerful, but she's got drawbacks. She has to get pretty close to use her quirk on someone and the longer she uses her quirk, the more stamina it burns up. She actually loses blood when she uses it and has to cut herself to activate it! It leaves her kind of vulnerable, you know?"
"She's pretty hot though. That red hair and blue eyes."
"Yeah, but that stuff got her in trouble! Remember that whole Endeavor incident thing? Man, that was wild!"
"Do you have Heartstrings merchandise?" He pushed his hands into his pockets, starting to feel anxious. Not just because his mask was off. It had taken some courage to come in and ask about her. He was terrified of drawing attention to himself and possibly upsetting her in some way.
"Right, right! Yeah, we have some, but not a lot. She lost popularity after the Endeavor thing. So we've got a photo from her debut; poster or card. And we've got some keychains." The clerk leaned across the counter, looking sheepish. "Hey, dude, if you're a diehard fan though, I've got a first edition Heartstrings phone charm I'd be willing to sell you. I'll even give you a good price. You seem pretty cool."
He was pleased with his purchases when he left the store. The phone charm was immediately put on his cellphone and the hero card was put into his wallet for safekeeping. As he began the walk back to his motel room, he frowned to himself. She's a hero. If she wasn't so busy, she'd have more time to talk to me. Why do I care if she has time to talk? A hand lifted, clutching the side of his head.
Shift P.O.V
I can't believe this. Akari flopped onto her couch, an arm going across her closed eyes as she tried not to scream in frustration. After the incident concerning the third year student, the principal determined that she needed some time away from her duties as a backup teacher to try to get her sleeping schedule under control.
"Babe, it's not that bad! You've got some time off now! You can try to get some sleep and we can hang out when I get off work," Yamada pointed out. He was in her kitchen, fixing two cups of tea. "Where's Shouta tonight?"
"Grading papers." She slumped forward, resting her elbows on her knees as she sighed. "Hizashi…I'm starting to think I'm not cut out for teaching."
"What?! No! Akari, babe, you're a great teacher! The students love you! So do the other teachers!"
"I tried to bite off your fingers and I threatened to eat a student."
"That's not a big deal," he argued, grinning. "Here we go! Some sleepy time tea for my cherry baby!"
She snorted and shook her head. "Thanks." The cushion beside hers was soon occupied by Yamada, but a look of discomfort cross his face upon feeling the hardness of the couch. "Sorry about that."
"You need a new couch." He bounced on the cushion for a moment before his expression brightened. "We're going couch hunting on Sunday!"
"What? No way! I have plans and-"
"I only have Sunday to do it, babe. It's decided." The blond put it into the calendar on his phone and beamed contentedly. "Alright! We'll go out bright and early! I'll buy us breakfast and we'll find you a couch that isn't made of cement! It's a date!"
"Hizashi, no. I really-"
"Hizashi, yes! I already put it into my calendar, babe! Nothing I can do about it now!" He sipped his tea, ignoring the befuddled expression she was now wearing.
Snickering, she shook her head. "I guess that's how it is then."
When he left, Akari went to her room and stripped off her hero costume. Replacing it with a loose tank top and sweatpants, she went back to the other room to look at her couch. The furniture had originally caught her eye because of the bright, cherry red upholstery. She had bought it without really caring about the functionality of the piece. Functionality. Maybe we should make Shouta go with us, she thought with a half-grin.
It was seconds after she was almost semi-comfortable on the couch that she heard a knock at her door. She pushed herself to stand, almost grateful for the interruption, and was even happier when she opened the door to find Aizawa. "Oh. Shouta. Did you need something or-?"
He pushed his way into the apartment, taking her wrist in one hand as he did so. The door was pushed closed behind him and locked before he began to make his way to her room. "I'm sleeping here."
"Oh…okay, cool. But you've got work tomorrow, right?"
"I have an alarm set on my phone." The dark-haired man turned to look at her over his shoulder with narrowed eyes, his gaze commanding. "Bed. Now."
A smirk tugged at her red lips and Akari ran her free hand through her hair. "I don't know. I had a pretty good nap earlier. I don't know if I can fall asleep now."
Aizawa tugged her toward him sharply. "You need me to tire you out?"
Heat rushed to her face instantly. The woman's eyes averted from his and she shrugged. "Well…that might help. You know, Hizashi made me some sleepy time tea so-" Her words were cut off as his mouth met hers, forcefully.
