-Shinobu's POV-

As soon as I had reached Shouta in classroom 1-A, I had given the raven haired man a tight hug. He had returned my hug after a couple of seconds, and I saw him sending a text on his phone, probably to Zashi-nii if I were to guess. It made me happy as I saw the tiny smile that tugged on the corners of his lips.

"Shinobu," he said in his typical tone as we finally separated from each other, "I want to talk to you later about what happened." I nodded in understanding before noticing the time.

"I have to go get Tamaki for training," I said softly, "See you later." And with that, I headed out the door, just barely catching Shouta's bored sounding response of "see ya" as I exited the doorway.

Looking down at my cell phone, going through my work email, I found the email that Nezu had sent me with Tamaki's class schedule. I smiled to myself as I realized he was currently in Nii-san's class, so as I walked to the doorway and knocked, I saw that Zashi-nii had changed from his earlier ragged appearance to his typical hero costume, giving me a sense of relief. I hadn't wanted him to mope anymore. It didn't suit the loud voice hero.

"Nobu-chan! How can I help you?" Nii-san greeted as he pulled me into a hug, successfully flustering me a bit as I felt the eyes of the entirety of Class 2-A on me. I quickly pulled away from Zashi to be able to sign, no longer feeling confident enough to speak.

'Nii-san, I need Amajiki Tamaki please for training,' I signed, earning a nod of understanding as he turned to the class.

"Amajiki-kun, please go with Muffle for now," Nii-san instructed, earning a nervous expression from the elf-eared student who looked like he might faint when all of his classmates' eyes landed on him. Noticing him starting to panic, I fought off my own nerves and spoke using my voice quirk ever so slightly to get the attention of the class who looked at Nii-san thinking he was responsible. He simply smirked and motioned to me.

"Excuse me. I just realized I have not introduced myself and rudely interrupted your class time. My name is Yamada Shinobu. I am also known as the Silent Hero, Muffle. I have recently started at UA as a teaching assistant. It's a pleasure to meet all of you," I finished with a polite bow, stealing my nerves for the sake of my student. As I returned to standing straight, Nii-san threw an arm around my shoulders, and I noted that Tamaki was almost done packing his stuff up and was starting to make his way away from his desk.

"Muffle here is also my younger cousin! She has two quirks: Sensory Cancellation and Voice. She can take away one or more of the five senses of any person she can see," Nii-san explained proudly, causing me to blush a bit as some of the students looked at me in awe and a few looked skeptical. My eyes darted to where Tamaki was and was relieved when I saw him standing outside the door.

"Well, it was nice to meet all of you, and I look forward to assisting you all with your studies as much as I can in the future," I said softly, my voice just barely carrying across the room as I did a small polite bow before heading to the door, "See ya later, Nii-san." The elated look on Zashi's face was worth the blush that colored my cheeks and the loud "awww"s that followed me as I exited the room and joined Tamaki out of sight of his peers.

"T-Thank you, Shinobu-Sensei," the indigo haired boy stuttered with some guilt in his tone. I gave him a soft smile and ruffled his hair, having to stand on my tippy toes to do so even with him hunched over.

"It's no problem, Tamaki-kun. What kind of sensei would I be if I couldn't help my student?" I assured him before adding, "Also, I understand the anxiety of having everyone's eyes on you." He looked at me in shock as we began walking.

"But you just talked with the whole class staring at you without even stuttering!" he protested, and I smiled as I noted that just now he hadn't stuttered talking to me that time.

"Yes, but I'm also ten years older than you. I was nervous too, but my instincts to protect you kicked in when you looked so scared," I told him truthfully, "I mess up a lot in less serious situations, but if I see someone that needs protecting or rescuing, my instincts kick in. That's what we are working towards with your training, and I would say it's working since you just spoke to me without stuttering once." Tamaki looked at me in awe, his eyes actually meeting mine, before looking down.

"You're right! Thank y-you, Sensei!" he said with a shy smile, and I returned it with a smile and nod. We eventually made it to our destination, and Tamaki looked at me in confusion.

"Why are we in the cafeteria?" he asked in confusion. I motioned for him to sit at one of the tables while I walked over and grabbed a tray that I had asked Lunch Rush to prepare ahead of time. The tray had a variety of foods from herbs and mushrooms to more obviously helpful foods like bamboo and some shellfish. I also had a cup of ginger tea in case the odd mix of foods caused him some digestion issues. I brought the tray over, and Tamaki seemed to understand the plan at that point.

"I know what your quirk is, but I haven't really seen you use it. Based on your file though, I had some ideas how you could use it for both combat and support," I explained, and Tamaki nodded in understanding, "And I brought ginger tea in case the weird combinations caused indigestion."

"You're very thoughtful, Shinobu-sensei, but I-I'm used to weird combinations due to training my quirk," Tamaki explained sheepishly, and I gave him a small proud smile.

"Then, this should be no problem," I encouraged as we began going through different combinations and such. This went on for almost thirty minutes as we discussed and tested the different combinations we came up with. Suddenly, a calloused hand landed on my shoulder, startling both me and Tamaki and causing me to accidentally cancel mine and Tamaki's hearing, but that lasted only a moment as a now familiar sensation of my quirk being erased brought my hearing back. I turned my head to see my tired boyfriend, gosh that's still so weird to think, and gave him a slight glare.

"Have you tried combining more than two foods at a time in a manifestation?" Shouta asked, clearly not phased by my glare as he directed his question at my now trembling student.

"Tamaki-kun, you've met Aizawa-sensei before, correct?" I asked trying to bring him back out of his shell. He barely met my eyes as Shouta took the seat next to me, silently interlocking our fingers under the table causing my face to heat up ever so slightly.

"I was his homeroom teacher last year," Shouta explained plainly, keeping his eyes on the shaking teen.

"Hey, Tamaki-kun. Did you know that I actually work as Aizawa-sensei's sidekick at his agency as well as being a teacher's aide here?" I informed him, causing him to look at me in surprise, "Yep. He's actually the one who has been teaching me hand-to-hand combat." At this, he looked over at Shouta, his eyes not quite meeting the scruffy teacher's.

After that, Tamaki relaxed ever so slightly, and we began to focus on Shouta's suggestion of combining three different foods for a manifestation. We found out that he could but it was difficult and often ended up not combining as seamlessly as he would like. When I dismissed him back to class, Tamaki looked very motivated to work on the triple combinations before our next training session, but he still looked very nervous around Shouta. After he left, I turned to Shouta.

"He's still nervous around you," I pointed out, and Shouta hummed in response before I asked, "Would you mind attending his training more often? I want him to get used to someone other than just me watching him." Shouta nods.

"Can I see his training schedule to see what you have planned?" he requested, and I looked at him confused, "You don't have a training schedule planned?" I shook my head no, my face heating up as I realized that that probably made me seem pretty inexperienced. As I was getting stuck in my own head, I heard Shouta sigh, and looked up when he ruffled my hair affectionately to see a small smirk on his face.

"Don't stress. You're new at this. I'm here to help you figure this stuff out," Shouta encouraged in his tired tone of voice. I couldn't help but smile at this, temporarily forgetting the discomfort that was in the back of my mind about the issue with Vlad from before.

After work, Shouta and I were cuddled up on his couch, relaxing after being around people all day. We were both introverts in every sense of the word, so silently cuddling after a day at work was a welcome change from the social expectations of the workplace. After a while, his baritone voice broke the peaceful silence.

"Shinobu," he called softly as he nuzzled his face into my hair, "I need to talk to you about the stuff with Vlad this morning."

I froze, not really wanting to think about it as my insecurities started to resurface, but while I was not experienced with romantic relationships, I had enough common sense to know that having this out in the open was important. I nodded as he pulled back, so he could see my face, his intense gaze causing me to hide behind my hair in nervousness. He chuckled at this, and I felt my face heat up even more as he gently tucked my hair behind my ear.

"Is it true?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper, my eyes focused on my hands in my lap, not really wanting him to see the insecurity and pain in my eyes. Even if it was true, I had no right to be upset about it. We didn't even know each other, and Shouta had never done anything to make me feel like I wasn't good enough… Well except for the whole misunderstanding for my reasoning for being a hero.

"Yes, it was," Shouta emphasized the past tense as he used one of his hands to comfortingly grip my hand and the other to gently tilt my chin up so that I was looking him in the eyes, "I have a past of avoiding relationships like the plague and being a one night stand only type of guy. But I haven't ever done that out of malice, and I was always up front with the women I did that with ahead of time. You are the only woman I have ever actually pursued, and I promise all of that is in my past." His eyes were almost desperate, begging me to understand.

"I figured it was true based on how Zashi-nii talked to me," I admitted sheepishly and gave him a small, sad smile, "And I don't hold it against you. It was before you even knew me, and you're an adult. You make your own decisions. It was more like I felt like I wouldn't be good enough for you since I… um… I have no experience in that area." I had said the last sentence in a rushed whisper, not meeting Shouta's eyes as I felt my face quickly turning the color of a tomato.

"Shinobu," he said, getting my attention as I just barely met his eyes, seeing a content small smirk on his face at my flustered expression. He pulled me into a heavy and passionate kiss that made my knees weak and my heart stop briefly before pulling away and whispering seductively in my ear.

"You don't have to worry about that, Shinobu. I think you'll find that I'm a great teacher."

A/N:

So this one is a little more flirty between Shouta and Shinobu, but they are not going to be getting hot and heavy anytime soon. So NO LEMON NEXT CHAPTER. Also, if I'm slow to post the next week or so, it's because I'm having to drive across the country with my husband and our young daughter to visit family that is fixing to have to leave the country (They live in another country). So yeah. I'm trying to do all this writing ahead, but we'll see.