A Generic High School Teacher AU: Middle Aged Men Pining Edition

Chapter 1: That Righteous Bastard

If he was being honest, he wanted to punch the glasses right off the man's face, but he knew it wouldn't be the best way to start his new job. He liked working with kids, he always had; but the adults pissed him off.

He had been looking for the staffroom when this man had appeared out of nowhere and managed to lecture him for an entire two minutes on student conduct and staffroom timings. He had managed to find the staff room by himself after the man was called away, but he was already feeling murderous.

His opportunity for a clapback had come pretty soon though. The look on the man's face as the Principal introduced them was priceless. He wished he could have taken a picture. That righteous bastard.

The first half of the day was pretty uneventful; mostly introductions and getting familiar with the school itself. He was sitting by himself in the staffroom during lunch, making last minute changes to his plan for the rest of the week, when a man who could only have been a Mathematics teacher walked in.

"You're the new guy?"

"Yea."

"Nile Dok, Mathematics." So he was correct.

"Levi Ackerman, Home Economics."

He heard the all too familiar attempt to stifle a scoff when he told people the subject he taught. Apparently Mr. Grumpy Maths Guy still lived by 50's standards.

"Ackerman, why don't you join us at the break room for lunch? I'll show you to it."

"Sure, just give me a minute."

He sat with his planner at the table still working out his plan and familiarising himself with his new routine when a female voice yelling caught his attention.

"HEYY! NEW GUYYYY!"

He looked up to find a woman in a lab coat and safety glasses running towards him at full speed with test tubes in both hands, with a very worried looking young man following after her.

"Hi! I'm Zoe Hange! I teach-"

"Chemistry" he said dryly.

"Yeah! How'd you know?" she looked genuinely shocked.

"Oh, just a wild guess." the sarcasm seemed to completely go over her head.

The man following her finally caught up. "Ma'am put those tubes down they'll explode if you excite them too much!"

"I know!!" the woman seemed extremely excited at the prospect. Levi shifted away from the duo on the bench, hoping he was outside the blast radius of whatever was in those tubes.

Hange took his shifting as an invitation and sat down beside him. "Moblit, please take these back to the lab."

The young man quickly took the tubes away and walked off in the direction he came from. She took her safety glasses off and let them hang around her neck.

"Sorry about that, was just prepping stuff for my next lab class. The kids like explosions, and honestly, who can blame them? You're Home Economics, right? What's your name?"

"...Levi. Levi Ackerman."

"So, Levi... You get to know all the guys around here yet?"

"Not really. I've had consecutive classes."

"Great! Then I get to be your first friend here!"

What was this woman going on about? Friends? What were they? Children? "Sure..."

"Cool! You're on the first floor staffroom, right? Have you met Mr. Grumpy Maths Guy yet? He's sitting right there doing sudoku puzzles or something." She points to the man who led him here. He smiled to himself realising he wasn't wrong to nickname him as he did.