"I look to you" - by Izukiout

Weightless. That’s how she feels, like a bird that’s only now spread out her wings and learned how to fly, only to find out that now, so high above the ground, she doesn’t have a place to go.

“And that’s everything! Are there any questions?” Principal Nezu is perched on his seat with his hands together. The look he’s giving her is one full of expectancy, but though Alanis racks her brain trying to think of something he hasn’t covered or something she hasn’t already asked, she can’t for the life of her think of anything.

“Uh,” she begins, clearing her throat and straightening her posture. Right, professionalism; that’s the goal here. She needs to get it together. “Not at the moment, no.”

If he’s disappointed or relieved at her answer, it doesn’t show. Although his face is open, his eyes seem distant.

“Great!” He leans back in his chair and grabs hold of the pieces of paper that have been lying, disregarded almost, right next to him throughout the interview. “Then, if you’ll please just sign these.”

“Alright. Thank you.” Once she does, he takes them back and starts carefully sliding each piece of paper inside an extravagant-looking folder, with intricate designs as decoration.

When he smiles at her this time, it looks kind. “You’re hired, my dear!”

The room feels a little bigger somehow, like the walls have leaned back and are no longer threatening to squish her to death. The laugh she lets out startles her a little, but it isn’t unwelcome.

“Great!” She echoes his earlier statement with her own enthusiasm, and they laugh, and she goes home later that day feeling as though she’s really just acquired a quirk that allowed her to fly.

“Do you really have to move to the dorms?” her friend asks over coffee one of the following days, and Alanis chuckles a little at the incredulous look on her face.

“I do.” When her friend's eyebrows remain raised in expectancy, she rolls her eyes and adds, “It’s really not that bad.”

“You say that now.” Yachi takes a sip from her coffee and when the silence stretches for too long, she clears her throat and says, “I can come help if you want?”

“Well…” Alanis pauses. Is it allowed? It should be allowed, right? But what if it isn’t? UA is still wary of outsiders after the incident with the league of villains as far as she knows. She doesn’t want to risk making a mistake now that she’s just getting started. Getting to teach in UA is a dream come true for most; it's Alanis' dream finally becoming something tangible, something she can hold onto instead of a distant wish to the stars.

Then again, it won’t do to just turn her friend down. “Thanks,” she tells her. “If I need help I’ll let you know.”

In hindsight, it seems her own words precisely will be her demise, because only a couple of days later she finds herself regretting this part of the conversation. The birds outside chirp away happily without a care in the world while she’s stuck moving box after box to her dorm room.

“This is ridiculous,” she mutters, then winces when a box slips out of her hands and lands on the floor with a resounding thud, echoing in the miserable-looking hallway. “What kind of person leaves other people to do this by themselves?”

After a long ten minutes of complaining, she puts her hands on her hips and takes a few deep breaths to calm herself. “I’m here to teach Home Economics, not Hero Training.”

“That, you are indeed.”

Alanis will later on deny her having jumped at the sound, along with the shriek of surprise that comes out of her as she turns around.

“Hey, hey! What’s up? Alanis, wasn’t it?”

Hizashi Yamada and Aizawa Shouta are standing before her, in the flesh. Yamada has his eyebrows raised and his eyes are sparkling with curiosity. Aizawa doesn’t even bother to look her in the eye.

In fact, to Alanis he looks as though he'd rather be anywhere else.

“Hello! Um, good morning!” she says, bowing to them both. Once they bow in return, she gestures to the boxes surrounding her feet. “I’m Alanis, the new Home Economics teacher. It’s very nice to meet both of you!”

Yamada hums and strokes his chin. “You look like you could use some help.”

“Don’t imply she needs help just because you’re bored and have nothing better to do.”

Alanis is surprised by the huff of breath she lets out at that. Aizawa looks at her for the first time, but he doesn’t comment on it.

Yamada, on the other hand, gasps and places a hand over his heart at the comment.

“Excuse me?! You are the reason for my suffering!”

“People aren’t obligated to amuse you when you need it.”

“Canceling our plans last minute has nothing to do with that!”

“If by planning you mean blurting out stupid ideas at lunchtime, I really will be taking my leave.”

“Why you—”

“Actually,” Alanis begins, relieved when they both turn to her immediately and stop bickering like some old married couple. “I could use the help if you have the time?”

Aizawa visibly pales, she thinks, and she does feel a little bad, wants to shrink into herself and scold her brain for suggesting this in the first place. She’s about to take it back by attempting to play it off as a joke, but Yamada beats her to the punch.

“Of course we’ll help!” He beams at her, wrapping an arm around Aizawa’s shoulders and leaning closer. “Right?”

Aizawa still looks like gloom has just made itself home in his heart, but he just sighs and says, “Sure.”

He sounds more resigned and tired than annoyed, which is something that Alanis considers a win.

“When do you start?” Yamada asks, having been trying to make conversation with her since they began moving her things inside.

Alanis wipes some sweat off her brow and says, trying not to let her voice shake, “Tomorrow.”

“Good luck!” Yamada gives her a thumbs up and Aizawa mirrors him from the other side of the room, and Alanis feels a little lighter, feels her lips stretch more easily into the next smile compared to the last one.

“Thanks. It means a lot,” she says. “Oh, please leave that there, I’ll take care of it.”

It takes around an hour for everything to be moved from downstairs, and all three are sweating buckets by the end of it. “Next time,” Yamada says, groaning from where he’s hunched over on the floor of the narrow corridor. “I’ll get one of our students. Uraraka’s quirk would have saved us a whole lot of trouble.”

Alanis perks up at the mention of a student.

“What’s her quirk like?”

Aizawa looks at her a little weirdly out of the corner of his eye.

“Haven’t you done your reading?” he asks.

Alanis is about to ask, what reading? Except, she realizes how ridiculous that sounds and keeps her mouth shut. She shakes her head. “No.”

“Really? How do you suppose you’ll be prepared to teach them all tomorrow then?”

This is the strongest emotion she’s ever seen on him and it’s a pity that it’s something akin to anger, and directed at her no less.

“Um, I don’t...” Her heart is ringing in her ears, and she wills for it to calm down. Her face feels hot. “I don’t know what ‘reading’ you’re referring to.”

“Relax, man, stop stressing her out.” She’s never heard Yamada sound frustrated either. “He means the material principal Nezu sent you after you signed the contract.”

In the silence that follows, it takes an embarrassingly long time for Alanis to realize they’re expecting her to break it.

“Oh, but he didn’t… I didn’t receive anything.”

“You didn’t get the printout?” Aizawa asks.

“The email, you mean?” Yamada raises his hands when Aizawa glares at him. “Right. Doesn’t matter.”

“What? What printout?”

“With the information about each student and their quirks and everything? New teachers get it just to have an idea of what their class will be like.”

“Maybe you’ll have it easy. Which class will you be teaching first?”

“Class 1-A I think?”

There’s a brief pause in which they both turn to each other and seem to be sending telepathic messages to convey their thoughts. It would have been almost amusing if it wasn’t for her curiosity.

“Oh, you’re kind of screwed,” Yamada laughs, but there’s a hint of pity to it. “Maybe he just forgot to send it?”

Aizawa just rubs a hand over his face and shakes his head. “No training wheels. Really? These kids are demons.”

“He loves them, don’t listen to him.”

Alanis doesn’t know what to think, but the moment she opens her mouth to answer, the sound of a ringtone startles her.

“Excuse me!” Yamada says, answering his phone. A few moments later, he’s standing up and running out of the room, shouting out something about him having forgotten something important.

“That idiot,” Aizawa says, but he sounds fonder than anything else.

Alanis gets up as well when he’s on his feet. “Would you like some tea? Thank you for helping out today and I’m sorry for taking up so much of your time.”

When she looks up from her bow, she finds him shaking his head. “Don’t mention it, Yamada did most of the work anyway. We’re not done here.”

Alanis finds herself at a loss for words for a second, but before she can do anything he’s already made himself comfortable on her couch. “Please tell me you've got a pen and some paper?”

Which is how Alanis finds herself seated next to Aizawa, of all people, listening to him ramble on about class 1-A. He’s trying to seem exasperated, describing the teenagers’ quirks and personalities as though it physically pains him to recall them, but Alanis isn’t blind nor is she stupid.

She can see it, the fondness with which he talks about them, the pride in his voice, the softness in his eyes. She can see all of it in the way he pauses deliberately sometimes, choosing what he deems acceptable to share with her, a mere stranger he’s only just met, about his dear students.

He tells her more than she could ever imagine. How he thinks Bakugou’s ambition might be even bigger than his anger issues. How Ashido’s friendliness will help her out more than she thinks in the long run. How Jirou’s only now started being in tune with the world around her, how he’s seen it happen and how ironic it is that it had nothing to do with her quirk after all. How Midoriya seems to always be carrying the world on his shoulders and yet always manages to miraculously come out on top.

She listens patiently in turn and doesn’t dare interrupt him. This is a side to him she didn’t even know existed. The hero she'd thought he was, always hiding in the shadows, is way different than the person she has next to her now.

He seems more human, she thinks, as he handles the topic of Todoroki's attitude towards his own quirk so delicately. Teaching brings out a side of Aizawa that could almost be called fatherly and it’s a quiet sort of revelation that makes her wonder.

He doesn’t reveal too much about the students, only enough to make her understand the gist of how to help each of them as much as she can.

He doesn’t shy away from giving her tips on teaching either.

“You seem sweet. Don’t let them step on you.”

Time goes by in a flash and soon the sun has long set. Their cups are empty now.

“Thanks for the tea,” he tells her, lingering in the doorway. Her heart fills with pride she doesn’t think she’s allowed to feel given she’s just met him, so she’s only able to bow deeply and say it back.

“Thank you for today. Really. You’ve helped much more than you could ever imagine.”

He looks at her and this time his eyes look different somehow; warmer, resembling the tranquility of the moment when rain stops pouring and everything quiets down.

“Good."

From then on, every time Alanis struggles at work or doubts herself and her teaching, she thinks of that special cup of tea she had and reminds herself that it will be okay.