Chapter 02
Mina Ashido

He heard her before he could even see her. At first, he panics thinking something had happened to his student and his heart beats very hard. He rushes to the common room, one hand already on his capture weapon looking around for threats.

He found none. What he did find is his pink student sitting in a clutter of opened note books, textbooks and crumpled papers. She has her face buried in her palms, sobbing profusely.

He relaxes his stance but his heart is still thumping, still concerned that his student is crying. He approaches her, making sure his steps are noisy enough to detect by her. She did. She stops crying for a second and looks up at him with wide teary eyes.

Damn it, his heart is breaking at seeing those teary eyes. Beads of tears are still trailing down her pink cheeks that are flusher than before.

"Mr.… Aizawa…" Ashido furiously trying to wipe away the tears but it is proven effortless as they keep spilling. Her sobs have reduced down to hiccups though.

Moving his attention to the opened books scatter around her, he crouches down to take a closer look. He picks one notebook up, squinting at the written words. He couldn't even hold back the cringe at how disorganized her notes are. There are at least three completely unrelated subjects written on the same line.

"My grades are getting worse and worse," he hears Ashido speaks. He lowers the notebook to gaze at her. She's sniffling, and her tears aren't as big as before but they still spill. "I'm falling behind classes further and further." Judging from how hoarse her voice is, she must be crying for so long.

It pains him more than it should.

He is getting soft.

"I couldn't understand a topic so I took some time to study it. But I still don't understand it so I took more time to study it. Then I have other subjects I have to study to so I took more time to study them. But I couldn't understand them and I am running out of time to study them. I'm cramming them all together because I couldn't understand them. And there is a test soon and I have to study for that but I have other subjects to study too but the test is important. But I couldn't just concentrate on one subject so I-"

"Ashido." Her mouth clamps up, eyes wide and body tense. Then, her lips tremble before they curl downwards. Her sobs break through as tears streak down her face once more.

"I tried asking others," she continues between sobs. "They tried really hard to explain but I just couldn't understand what they said. And they couldn't spend all their time helping me because they have to study as well and they have their own problems they have to deal with and their own lives to live with and family and and-"

"Ashido." The same thing happened like before, except she continues to sobs, already given up on wiping her tears.

She has taken this work rather hard. He has to admit that he slightly proud of her to manage to withstand the pressure this long. He began to believe that she will not break despite maintaining very low grades.

He just didn't expect she would finally crumble so soon, and so hard.

At first, he hesitates. Then, he reaches out and gently lays his hand on her head, between her horns. She didn't react as he expected when someone feels something foreign lands on their person. Instead, her sobs has tone down to sniffles, and he could've sworn she leans into his hand a bit. She didn't even flinched when he placed his hand on her head.

He refuses to let his hand tremble at the thought of how much these students put their trust in him, that he will never hurt them.

And they're right. He will never hurt them. He will be dead and he still won't hurt them.

"Go to sleep," he commands with gentle voice. He delicately ruffles her hair, watching as her tears slowly stops. "Tomorrow morning, come find me in my room. We will work on this together."

She shifts under his hand, lifting her head up to gaze at him with tearful but hopeful eyes.

"Really?" Her voice is hesitant but mirrors her eyes. His hand trembles slightly at the amount of trust in her eyes before he suppresses it.

Damn these kids.

"Yes," he answers back, nodding his head. He continues to ruffles her hair, his thumb strays closer to her forehead. She closes her eyes. Now he fully believes she leans into his touch. "Now get some rest, you had been staying up far too long."

"Yes, Mr. Aizawa," she replies tiredly, her exhaustion finally kicks in as she finally yawns. Thankfully, tomorrow is day off. He removes his hand as she gets up. "Goodnight, Mr. Aizawa."

He merely hums in reply. She wobbly makes her way to her dorm. He watches her until she gets out from his line of sight. He sighs as his shoulders sag. He looks at the mess on the floor, taking note on the topics and the way she takes notes (He cringes again at that). Ashido forgot to clean herself up.

He supposes he can do that for her.

He is definitely getting soft.

.

When he hears the knock on his door, he thinks to himself that she had come to his room much earlier than he expected. She looked so tired last night he would've thought she would sleep much longer.

"Come in," he calls out. She enters hesitantly, wearing a black tank top and brown shorts. He beckons her over to sit on the carpet floor by the coffee table (His own table is already filled with his computer and a tab that there is almost no space for her to work on).

"You're disorganized," he points out, didn't waste a time. When she flinches, he almost feels bad.

Almost.

"You need to clearly organize everything in order; topic by topic, subject by subject. If you cram everything in one page, you will only confuse yourself." To show his point, he takes out one of her notebook and randomly opens to a page. "I cannot tell if these are from two topics or two subjects."

"I'm sorry," she quickly interjects. "I just can't seem to catch up what the teachers had said so I had to jot down everything I can. I'm also easily distracted."

At least she is aware of that. It is good.

"It is a giant mess," he scolds but his tone is less harsh. Nonetheless, she still flinches. "The first thing you need to do is to clean this all up and organize your work. You wrote this whole thing down so you have general ideas which subjects and which topics are written in one line."

She gives him a hesitant look. He sighs. He continues on anyway.

"Start it all with a mind map. You know how to use it, right?" She nods. He hands her one of her notebooks, the one with the least amount of notes in it. He leans back to his bed and lets her get to her work. Thankfully, he already had made coffee for himself. He takes a few sips as he watches her around his mug. Then he squints.

"Ashido," he calls out with a warning tone. She immediately freezes and looks up at him, looking confused and scared at the same time. "You are doing it wrong." He leans back forward, placing a finger on one bubble that is already filled a quarter of the page, containing useless and unnecessary words. "You're only supposed to gather the important info only, not the entire thing."

Her fear melts away, but the confusion stays. Then she looks down at her notes. Now, she looks lost. He frowns.

"Ashido?"

"I… don't know which points are important and which are not," she confesses meekly. He didn't say a word for quite a while, and he could see her tensing up as the silence stretches. Then he takes a deep breath and puts down his mug.

"I'll guide you," he says as he takes out a hair tie and pulls his head into a bun. Ashido gives him a relieved but guilty look. He ignores it as he scoots closer to her. "Just tell me which do you think are important."

.

To say that Ashido is bad is an understatement. She is borderline horrible. How she manages to get this far really surprises him, especially with how bad she is at taking notes.

It frustrated him but he could see it frustrated Ashido more. She was gritting her teeth and pulling her hair the whole time. Every wrong answer she got, she was getting more frustrated, more desperate. She was borderline crying but the tears didn't spill.

So he was being very patient with her. He guided her very slowly, pointing out which to look for when gathering the necessary info. He could see the realization struck on her face, on how easy it is and how much simpler the notes are now.

When one mind map is finish, he dons his reading glasses and checks it over. Ashido is looking at him expectantly, nervously wringing her hands over the coffee table.

"For once, it is not quite half bad," he says as he puts down the notebook. Ashido is beaming at him. She knows that he is saying that she had done very well. She throws her arms up with joy. "Now do the rest."

He ignores her cries as he takes another sip of his coffee only to realize it is now empty. He sighs and gets up from his spot, wincing as his bones pops along the way.

"I'm grabbing another coffee; don't snoop around while I'm gone," he warns her as he makes his way to the door.

"Okay," she whines out sadly as she works on the next mind map. He leaves her behind as he closes the door behind her and makes his way to the kitchen downstairs.

It is definitely not an excuse so he could grab her favorite orange juice from the fridge. It's definitely not because he saw how dry her lips were, or how she kept swallowing the entire time. It is definitely because now is the best time to grab his coffee even though he doesn't it right now.

It is definitely not.

.

Someone knocks on his door. He doesn't think twice to call them to come in. He did turn off his computer so no other eyes can see the content he had written.

"Hey, Mr. Aizawa!" Ashido greets as she enters and closes the door behind her. He hums in reply.

"I hope you took the nap I told you to," he says, reaching over to grab his half-empty mug.

"I did!" she replies instantly, smiling brightly at him. "I feel much better now, especially after lunch!"

He could tell. Her mood has improved drastically. No longer was she looking down and near hopeless like the first time she entered his room earlier that day. People usually underestimate the power of a nap, even if it just thirty minutes.

As Ashido sits at the coffee table he places down his mug and opens a drawer of his table. He takes out a small box and makes his way to the opposite side of the coffee table. He hands it to her after he sits down, ignoring the creaking of his bones. She looks at it in confusion before looking at him for silent permission. When he nods she opens the box and then looks even more confused.

"Cards?" she says, still confused, as she looks at the content that is filled with white blank cards.

"You can use this as a learning tool," he starts as he takes out a piece. "It is small, maneuverable and efficient. You can use it anywhere and on the go, better than carrying an entire book with you."

He opens her notebook that had been waiting for them on the coffee table to the pages on her mind maps. There he starts teaching her on how the mind maps can be related with the cards. He could already see the gears in her head turning as she forms ideas on how to use the cards to her advantage.

"You can color them to make things more organize," he states as he leans back to his bed. "Group a bunch together and punch a hole and tie with a ribbon to be used as one topic, or do whatever you want."

"Is it effective?" Ashido asks, looking slightly hesitant at how useful the usage of the card is.

"I still use it. That is saying much," he answers nonchalantly. Then, he sees a smile blossoms on her face.

"You don't mind I use some of them?" He waves a hand dismissively.

"Use as much as you want, you clearly need it more than me." Her smile doubles.

"Thank you, Mr. Aizawa!" He hums in reply. She's already taken out her pen and wrote down before he could finish his hum.

"Mr. Aizawa, do you have any color pens or pencils?"

"I'll grab them."

He watches as she colors the card to her own need, watches as she admires her work and finds joy in learning.

No, it's the coffee that is warming up his chest.

Even though the mug is on his table and nowhere near him.

.

He clearly didn't expect her to fall asleep on his table. It wasn't his intention to exhaust her to sleep.

He didn't. She just naturally fell asleep, somewhat feeling in his presence. She did just finish dinner; maybe that is a factor somewhere in the reason for her to fall.

She isn't supposed to be in his room anymore. He doesn't have anything else to help her with. Everything had taken care of just before dinner. And it is too soon to quiz her. So he was rightfully surprise when she entered his room and sat down at the coffee table nonchalantly.

"I have a test coming up, so I need to study up."

"And why here?"

She gave him a warm smile at his question.

"I like it here."

She didn't offer any more explanation than that. And he didn't bother to kick her out. So they went with their own business. She was facing away from his computer, so she can't see its content. He kept his ears close to her, always listening, always aware of her.

So when he didn't hear her humming for quite a while, he turns around to take a glance.

And that is where he found her, half sprawling on the table with her arms cushioning her head. He could see her shoulders go up and down as she breathes. Quietly, he gets off his chair and walks over to her. He crouches down beside her to take a closer look.

She looks very peaceful despite the uncomfortable position. He sighs quietly before gently places his hand on her shoulder. He freezes before he could do anything further.

He was going to wake her up, to clean up and get back downstairs to sleep in her own room. But she looks so peaceful, so safe, that she knows that she is in the safest place on the planet. And his mind recalls back to what she had said earlier.

He looks at his bed, barely used and well kept.

Then he looks back at her.

Then he sighs.

Gently, he pulls Ashido off from the table and onto him. He scoops her into his arms before slowly standing up, her head resting on his shoulder. He feels her shifts but only to get comfortable and didn't wake up. He carefully makes his way to his bed, pulls back the cover and lies her down. He makes sure her head is lying on the pillow before pulling the cover over her.

She sighs, shifting once more before snuggling into the pillow. He stays in his position a little bit longer, gazing down at his pink student before delicately brushing her hair from her forehead. Finally, he stands up.

He looks at the organized mess on his table, once left barren and completely untouched since the day he lived here, is now completely scattered with books and cards and pencils and pens.

It looks lively, like it should be. It is also a mess.

He uses that as an excuse to tidy up the table, because it is a mess. Not because he cares. It is just a mess.

.

"MR. AIZAWA!"

He jolts in his seat as the door to the teacher's office slams open. Before he could react a body is thrown at him as a pair of arms wrap around his neck tightly, sending him further into his seat.

"I PASSED! I PASSED! I PASSED!"

"Ashido?"

The said person merely squeals as she hugs him tighter. He places a hand on her back as he tries not to let both of them fall. Finally she releases and pulls away from him.

He would've been worried when he sees those tears streaming down her face, but she has the widest smile on her face. Her entire body is beaming with jittering happiness as she jumps slightly on the spot.

"MR. AIZAWA! LOOK! LOOK! LOOK!" She thrusts a paper right into his face, causing him to pull back his head a bit. He squints at it, taking note on the mark. "I PASSED THE TEST. I GOT ABOVE PASSING GRADE! I PASSED THE TEST, MR. AIZAWA!" She squeals again before throwing her arms at him once more. This time, he is ready. "THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU SO MUCH, MR. AIZAWA!"

Who knew she has a warm hug? Or so he says. It is definitely the hug that caused the warmth in his chest; nothing else.

"Mina!?" He hears one of his students shouts. Then, Hagakure and Kaminari appear at the door, looking confused and mildly concerned (mainly on Kaminari, he couldn't see Hagakure anyway). Ashido finally pulls away to look at them.

"Hey, guys!" She bounds over to them, light on her feet. He shifts in seat now that the extra weight is off of him. He tentatively listens to him at the same time.

"Where did you run off to?"

"I just want to tell Mr. Aizawa that I passed!"

"You passed!?"

"Wow, Mina! Congratulations!"

"You could've told us that you passed before you ran off."

"Sorry! I just got excited and wanted to tell Mr. Aizawa about it!"

Now he cannot deny the warmth in his chest; that is not just from Ashido's hugs.

Just from their words, he concludes that Ashido had run away from her friends and straight to him to break the news. It warms his heart that he is the first person she seek to share her happiness.

"Mr. Aizawa!" he looks up when he hears his name called. Ashido is at the door, beaming at him. "Thank you!" Then, she runs off.

He should've scolded her for barging into the office unannounced.

But seeing the smile on her face, the happiness in her eyes… He feels… happy, for her. He didn't have the heart to scold her, to remove her happiness. So he lets her go.

Damn it, he is getting too soft.

And damn it, he is slowly getting used to it.

And damn it even further for not minding it a single bit.