11 years later

Chapter 9: Shota Aizawa

The break before the start of the new school year was almost over, and Aizawa was already mourning the death of sleeping in and napping in the afternoon. He laid on his bed, the late day sun beating down on his bare back from the window. Afternoon naps were the best. For some reason they were always the most restful, had the least "nap hangover" of all naps, and tended to be dreamless so they felt so much longer than they really were. These were Aizawa's musings as a nap connoisseur. It was an area he felt he was a bit of an expert in. A small black cat jumped on his back and started to mew. It was time for her dinner it seemed. He appreciated her politeness as far as naps were concerned. She never woke him up. She was so patient and always waited for him to stir. Of course she was napping with him usually so it probably wasn't as considerate as it seemed to be.

He fed the small cat and before he could step away from the kitchen, his doorbell rang. Aizawa sighed. It was the last Saturday night before school started back up so he knew who was bothering him. He walked to his closet and pulled a black, long sleeve shirt off a hanger and dressed himself. As he exited his closet the doorbell was pressed again. "So impatient," he muttered. Aizawa opened the door and was met with bright, sky blue eyes, but he wasn't locked on them for long because the person brushed by him, barging into his apartment carrying two large plastic bags filled with who knew what.

"Time to celebrate our last weekend of freedom!" Nemuri Kayama called out as she walked towards his kitchen. Following Kayama was Hizashi Yamada who patted him on the shoulder twice very enthusiastically as he walked past him. "Hey Shota! We brought dinner!"

"Do come in, please make yourselves at home. Oh wait," Aizawa mumbled through the open doorway to the empty hallway before he closed his front door. Kayama and Yamada, known to the public as pro-heroes Midnight and Present Mic respectively, didn't stick to any formalities with their childhood friend Shota Aizawa. They had very little boundaries with him and at times this drove him up the wall.

At least they had brought dinner. "Yakitori, miso soup, and takoyaki from your favorite place!" Kayama said excitedly as she started to take the containers out of the plastic bags. One end of Aizawa's mouth turned up a bit. He joined his two friends in the kitchen and retrieved dinnerware and cups from the cabinets.

They sat at the four person table that was placed between the kitchen and the large wall of windows that ran one length of the apartment. Aizawa's living space consisted of a kitchen, dining area, living area, and study that were set in a large open floorplan. Although it was minimally furnished, it had a spectacular view of the city below. The trio talked about school, the hero course entrance exams that took place a couple of weeks before, and other gossip that Kayama and Yamada had picked up. Although the two of them would go in a couple of days the following week, before the students arrived the week after, Aizawa's schedule after Sunday would be quite busy even without the students return.

"I'm assuming you're gonna be up with Nezu this week working on administrative things, huh Vice Principal?" Yamada said, his volume increasing and his voice lilting on the 'Vice Principal' part.

"You assume correctly and there is no Vice Principal position at UA." Aizawa answered steadily.

"But if there was, you'd be it! Don't know how that happened. You've been there the least amount of time between the three of us." Kayama said.

"I think Nezu puts more stock in how one handles responsibility and less on who has seniority." Aizawa stated simply, trying not to smile.

"Well, keep that extra responsibility away from me please. I enjoy doing my radio show 3 nights a week! Any more school stuff I think I'd lose my mind," Yamada said dramatically as he leaned back in his chair.

Kayama stood up and started to clear the empty dishes from the table. "So! You guys ready to go out?"

"Yeaaaaaahhhhhh!" Yamada bellowed, leaning forward and bringing his fists down on the table.

Aizawa turned to him. "Stop. And No."

"Well, we're not taking "no" for an answer tonight!" Kayama said with a wink.

Luckily, Aizawa was able to keep them from dragging him to a club and they compromised on a bar nearby. They started with a round of beers. It was quite crowded in the rather small establishment and Aizawa already wanted to leave. Kayama saw a few friends and walked over to them to chat for a bit and Yamada seemed to be flirting heavily with a young woman with short blue hair on the other side of the bar by their continuous exchanging of smiles and glances.

"Oh, please Mic, not tonight. Wait until I'm not with you," Aizawa said dryly.

"Live a little Shota! Come on! The blue-haired chick has been looking over here the last several minutes. She has a friend with her, too. A curvy blonde. Look." Aizawa didn't even turn his head.

"I'll be right back!"

Aizawa sat at the table alone now. Yamada approached the two young women and started chatting with them. The blue-haired one was laughing at whatever he was saying with much gusto and kept touching his shoulder and leaning towards him. "Great," Aizawa thought to himself. He saw Yamada's forgotten beer, still mostly full, and grabbed it taking a big swig. If he was going to have to withstand this evening's entertainment, he could at least do it in the most painless way possible. When Aizawa drank heavily, he never remembered it the next day. Also, when his friends recounted his drunken events, he learned he also would confuse people for others. He wondered who he would be evoking tonight. Not that it mattered to him since he wouldn't remember in the morning. It would be Yamada and Kayama's problem.

Yamada was now walking towards their table with the two women in tow. "Ladies, this is my very good friend, Aizawa." Aizawa stared at Yamada and said nothing. "Aizawa, this is Fujioka and Kita." The young woman with the blue hair had it styled in a punkish pixie. She wore a purple leather jacket with silver studs on the shoulders. The other woman wore an off the shoulder black dress and had long blonde hair. Aizawa didn't know who was who and he didn't care.

"So Mic, sorry to hear about those test results you got back from your urologist earlier today. Think that ointment will work?"

The eyes of the girl with the dark blue pixie went wide. She nervously chuckled and grabbed her blonde friend by the arm and they walked away quickly.

Aizawa smirked as he brought the mug of beer to his lips.

"You suck, Shota. You really, really suck."

"I'll make it up to you. Another round on me."