Hizashi sighed as he got up once again at an unholy time in the morning and stumbled out of his bedroom and towards the kitchen, he rubbed his eyes as he searched for his waffle-bars, letting his head hit the cupboard as he realized that Shouta was still annoyed at him and hiding his snacks.
Didn't Sho know he needed those waffle-bars as much as Sho needed his jelly pouches?
Before he could get too deep in the dumps about it though Sweet pea, the precious little fluffy kitty he's been taking care of for the past couple of years started rubbing against his legs getting his attention and he couldn't help cooing over the little sweetheart.
Well, Sho insisted she was a stray and technically he was right but Sweet pea always came home with him whenever he found her on the way home from the studio and she was perfectly house trained now so Hizashi was certain he managed to somewhat tame her.
After Sweet pea contently laid down on his shoulders Hizashi decided to be a bit petty today and went to the fridge, grabbing one of Sho's favorite flavor of jelly and went to town on it for breakfast knowing the miscount would drive Sho up the wall when he took inventory later in the week.
As he finished his breakfast Hizashi scrolled through his feed, liking a few comments from his little listeners before stumbling across one of many meme's made from the news footage of Midoriya and paused to stare at it as he got to thinking about his new co-worker.
Midoriya was young but certainly talented though more than anything Hizashi found himself boggled by the boy.
Despite his second chosen profession and sole degree being teaching Hizashi wasn't a very bright person and his grades always reflected that, he was certain none of his old teachers would've ever believed him to become an English teacher of all things given it was his worst subject.
Oh ten-year-old him would've thought spending anymore time than necessary in an English class of all places as nothing short of a waking nightmare, so he felt nothing short of pride from getting his certificate guaranteeing he was at a master level of the stupid language.
And his struggles with studying was oddly enough what drove him to becoming a teacher in the first place, well he always wanted to be one on the side but the years he spent earning the certificate was a good push to his most hated subject.
And that was what made polyglots like Midoriya so utterly baffling to him, he couldn't even comprehend how someone could learn more than three languages much less multiple while speed running college degrees, he didn't think that the rest of the staff were any closer to understanding the boy either.
Maybe Haruki-San but she hardly counted given she would be around for far longer than he was going to be and she already had been long enough to be Ito-San's teacher too, Nezu probably could with his intelligence quirk.
But Midoriya's smarts were just one thing he was curious about.
The boy was incredibly young and it made Hizashi wonder if he was really ever that small before, how could someone like that get as much respect as he did?
Well... Hizashi knew logically part of it since Sho had been complaining about for a while, and if what happened yesterday was anything to go by Midoriya wasn't just brains like Nezu was but had some dang muscle too.
Which was a bummer, he had really wanted to get a chance to talk with Midoriya one-on-one yesterday to get to know the kid a bit better, wasn't everyday he met someone that caught Nezu and Sho's eye and apologize for his screw up last Sunday.
Honestly looking back Midoriya was pretty nice about it considering how badly he insulted him, Hizashi hated it whenever people just assumed he was decent at English because he had a voice quirk and not acknowledge his years of work, and as someone quirkless in this day and age how bad would it feel to have people always put his hard work and intelligence down to a quirk he didn't have?
Yeah… Hizashi was lucky Midoriya tersely corrected him and not call him out on the basically quirkiest assumption that anyone smart had to be smart because of a quirk.
And it was probably the people pleaser in him but Hizashi didn't like the idea of leaving things on the wrong foot with Midoriya, so after he got out of the shower Hizashi spent the whole time he styled his hair coming up with plans on how to best approach the boy and start a conversation with him.
Plus if all went well, Hizashi might even be able to ask Midoriya where he got those goggles of his, he was sure that Nemuri would be down with joining him in wearing said goggles to see Sho's face when they did it.
Hizashi sighed as he walked into the teacher's office rolling his shoulders, an old injury was flaring up today and he had forgotten his compression shirt so he was going to just have to deal with it and the piercing pain in his shoulder.
He was hoping to find Higari and asking him if he could spare him an extra shirt but the man wasn't there, Midoriya was however so it wasn't all for not and walked right over to the boy with a big wave "Heya little listener!" Hizashi called.
Midoriya didn't startle and Hizashi thought for a second the boy hadn't heard him but once the boy finished writing something he turned in his chair to Hizashi "Yes Yamada-San?" the boy asked looking up at him and the notebook with a mash of scribbles across the cover tightly closed in his hands.
For a second Hizashi wanted to ask the boy about the notebook but mentally whacked himself on the head for the impulse.
Because asking about the book Midoriya clearly didn't want to talk about was a great way to apologize for insulting him the day before yesterday.
"Was hoping I could talk your ear off for a bit, get to know you better, was going to yesterday but after what happened with Togata-Kun... " Hizashi trailed off crossing his arms, Sho was incredibly pissed about the 'prank' the kids pulled, and honestly Hizashi had a hard time not being anything less than that himself.
Oh, but nothing was near the nuclear rage Midoriya had considering he successfully got all three students involved expelled and blacklisted from heroics, and just mentioning the event caused Midoriya's eye to narrow with a much colder look as he pursed his lips.
"Yes, the emergency staff meeting would've made that difficult, and of course my schedule doesn't have that much wiggle room." Midoriya conceited with a nod, then rubbed the back of his neck "Though I'm not sure what you could want to know about me, my life isn't as glamorous as you'd think it is." Midoriya said winding down a bit.
"Oh I don't believe that, can't have spent this long teaching and not have some stories." Hizashi replied leaning back against Midoriya's desk "Oof, my first year certainly had some hiccups and I can't imagine what it would be like in a less formal classroom." Hizashi joked.
Midoriya sighed pinching the bridge of his nose "Ugh, don't remind me. First day nearly ended in a shoot-out because the Russian Vipers and the Nightcrawlers got into a disagreement over who got to sit where." Midoriya commented.
Hizashi's eyes widened at that mouth opening to ask about it before he quickly closed it, Hizashi reminded himself that Midoriya's was teaching groups in the South Side and that shooting there might not be as uncommon to the boy.
"Oh, hope no one was hurt." Hizashi chose to say instead.
Midoriya huffed bemused "Nah, calmed them down before they could start anything like that. And I definitely learned my lesson about keeping an eye on my group's politics and planning my sessions with that in mind." Midoriya told him putting the book away "Probably don't have to now, they'd all know better than to try anything but it's better for morale to keep doing things like I am now." Midoriya mused with a shrug.
"Well I'm sure it wasn't all that bad, you probably did something fun with the little listeners at some point." Hizashi said hoping to redirect the boy's attention to a lighter subject.
Midoriya perked up a bit "Yeah, the kids really love going to the aquarium. Well, they love going anywhere with me but I think they like visiting aquariums the most but that first time was so embarrassing." Midoriya confirmed letting his head feel to the side looking slightly embarrassed.
Hizashi was about to ask more but someone else beat him to it as Nemuri wrapped an arm around his shoulder and leaned against him "Ooh~ Just what could be that embarrassing greenie hmm?" Nemuri questioned.
Midoriya bashfully ducked his head and lightly scratched his cheek and Hizashi wasn't sure if it was because of what they were talking about or Nemuri's aggressive sexuality, could be either if he was being honest… maybe Sho was right that she needed to turn it down in front of the kids.
"Well you see, Gang Orca was the one giving us a tour and, the um kids, well they started asking him the questions I had about his quirk and called him a Sea-Panda." Midoriya bashfully confessed.
Nemuri quietly gasped "You're why Orca changed his screen name to Sea-Panda!" she proclaimed pointing a finger at him making the boy jump and turn red.
"W-what? No! I mean, I told the kids my auntie called him a Sea-Panda b-but I didn't think he'd change it to that!" Midoriya sputtered "Oh my gosh did he really do that? Ugh, Katsuki's never going to let me live it down if he ever finds out." Midoriya whined burying his head in his hands.
Nemuri chuckled and proceeded to lean herself on Midoriya's chair "Ah, Orca was one of your favorites~ isn't that right?" Nemuri teased playing with one of Midoriya's curls.
Midoriya's sighed slightly annoyed and looking put out as he waved Nemuri's hand away "Yes, he's one of the heroes I still like, tied with the wild wild pussycat for my fourth favorite." Midoriya admitted rolling his eyes.
"Fourth huh? Well whose your top three then little listener?" Hizashi asked cutting off Nemuri before she could maybe any kind of joke about the rescue groups name, Nemuri huffed and stuck her tongue out at him from her place behind Midoriya but Hizashi didn't appreciate her butting in in the first place either.
"Oh, um." Midoriya quickly looked around the room before he answered "Well, Eraserhead is my favorite, he actually patrols inside Yaizu's red-light but I've always been a big fan of his since he was sort of the closest to a quirkless hero that I came across." Midoriya answered and Hizashi was kind of expecting that answer given the nice merch he was wearing.
"Hawks is my second favorite, and my third would have to be- ah, well my third is, um... " Midoriya continued only to suddenly turn very bashfully and trail off into muttering.
Nemuri got a devious grin "Oh, what was that last one? I don't think Zashi here could hear the last one." she prompted the boy and Midoriya didn't raise his his head.
"You're my third favorite hero Yamada-San." Midoriya said.
Hizashi's eyes widened "Eh? Me?" Hizashi replied pointing to himself surprised by the fact, he wasn't sure how he'd stick out enough for him to be one of the kid's favorites, he was certainly popular but he wasn't sure having a radio show would be enough to get such a high place.
Midoriya rubbed the back of his neck "Well yeah, I've been a big fan of Hands-Up radio for years and listened to you daily." Midoriya answered somewhat embarrassed.
Hizashi became a touch flustered himself, he's met a few fans before and Hizashi knew Sho and Nemuri regularly listened to his part in the programing, plus occasionally some of the other staff would listen in from time to time, but he still found himself ruffled that the people he knew were listening to him.
"Awe, how sweet. I'm sure Zashi here is pretty flattered, the meanies back in school always told him that he was too loud and annoying so he loves compliments from little listeners like you." Nemuri told the boy with a giggle and Hizashi pouted and crossed his arms.
He had quite a few problems growing up with a quirk like his and yes the bullying was a sticking point for him even after U.A. but he would very much appreciate it if she didn't go around blabbing about it all with Midoriya, it was one thing to sympathize with a listener on the air about how mean kids could be but in general he didn't like talking about it outside of his telepathy sessions.
"Well actually that's part of why I listened to Yamada-San so much." Midoriya confessed looking more nervous as he said it.
"Huh?" Hizashi said out-loud surprised and Nemuri looked equally taken aback.
Midoriya hesitated, his fingers going to his other hand's fingertips "As I'm sure you know, quirkless people aren't well received everywhere, not too mention that the leading cause of death for quirkless people here nowadays is suicide... " Midoriya stopped pulling his hands away from each other and firmly gripping his chair's arm rests and gave a huff shaking his head.
"Right, well, as you can imagine after years of being told I probably wouldn't live long enough to see my first day of high school leaves a certain... affect on a person, and though I wouldn't want to think much about it intrusive thoughts are quite persistent when I was alone." Midoriya added after a moment.
Hizashi's stomach flipped, it might be a gross mis-comparison because he never had ever considered doing something like that, but there were times before he and Sho were friends when he'd be in the bathroom and look at his razor and... consider what it would be like to be quiet for once, it wouldn't even be hard to-
Hizashi discretely bit his tongue to clear his head and took a deep breath.
There was a reason that neither he nor Sho ever kept a razor of any sort in the apartment, even now his skin crawled when he saw one, scissors and wax worked fine on any unwanted hair thank you very much.
God, Hizashi had no idea how anyone could stand having a trigger like that blatantly forced into their face, just having it done once was nightmarish but to deal with it daily... Hizashi knew he'd have done something stupid within a week if he didn't have a mental breakdown.
"But Yamada-San's voice is loud, and yes, can be... pronounced. It was perfect to drown all of those thoughts out, something that could keep me grounded in a way and help me focus without my mind spiraling. And the content was amazing to listen to, you brush on a lot of interesting topics during your talk proportions." Midoriya continued to say, somewhat rambling as his hands loosened.
"I mean, it wasn't much, not in the grand scheme of things... but knowing that I could just turn a knob or search for a podcast and drown out all those 'voices' in my head, it helped more than you could ever know Yamada-San. And that's why you're my third favorite hero." Midoriya finished off getting to his feet and throwing on his message bag.
"Midoriya-" Hizashi said but the boy politely brushed him off.
"Sorry Yamada-San, Midnight-San but I have to go meet Bullet-San." Midoriya quickly told them and all but rushed out of the room.
Hizashi stared at the door hand out-stretched, before he turned to Nemuri who looked similarly dismayed by the knowledge dropped on them.
Author: *finishes writing this chapter*
Author:...
Author: This is like, the third or forth blonde from cannon that I've traumatized now