Between Illusion and Erasure

A brand new start.

TW\\Drinking, Transphobia mention.
Beta reader and editor: slipsy (CallMeCase)
 

This was not supposed to go this wrong.

Your phone refused to charge during the night, you felt restless during most of it, slept through almost all your alarms, and the cherry on top, the coffee had run out. Because of course it had, it was an important day, believing it all would run smoothly was your first mistake.

An hour and a half, you could do it, right? While you left your phone charging, for real this time, you ran around your cramped apartment to find your bag with all the necessary documents, you quickly slipped into your hero suit and freshened up a little.

It was going to be alright, you told yourself. You could do this, you had done this before, and you were good at it — it had been months of job hunting, hero work, and side hustles; multiple job proposals, and rewrites, on top of rewrites of your resume until you got accepted into U.A.

After a bit of running, you had made it with thirty minutes to spare. You took a second to breathe in, the cold morning air gently caressed your face as the students started arriving. You could hear the gravel against their feet and the meaningless chit-chat, finally the shoe dropped — you had made it in alright, it was all okay, there was no more need to panic.

As you made your way towards the teacher's lounge, you could hear the lively chit-chat through the mostly still empty halls. It was time to give your best with presentations and first impressions, a thing you never felt you were quite able to get down to an exact science; however, it was going alright so far.

A thank you here, a pleasure to meet you there, it was all going smoothly — until you set your eyes into the dark-haired figure of Eraserhead, looking directly at you as you made your introduction:

"Pleasure to meet you—"

"Is this how you plan on teaching your classes?" His deep voice cut through any pre-planned answers you had.

"Ah, I..."

"You are one to talk," Midnight chimed in. "You sleep here, you don't get to be late. Don't be so rough on the newbie."

The tension had not been lifted, merely shifted towards Midnight and Eraserhead, a small chatter started back forth between them. You took a second to recompense, you couldn't believe that was all you were able to murmur back — all that build-up of confidence went through the window.

"Don't worry about him, he's always like that." Midnight made her way towards you, smiling wide, "I promise not all of us are that mean! C'mon, I'll show you around the office, just leave him there."

"I can still hear you," he made his way towards you both, extending his hand, "Shouta Aizawa, call me Eraserhead."

"I'm L\N Y\N, call me Will-o-Wisp." You grasped his hand firmly, "A bit long, but it does the job. A pleasure to meet you."

The three of you started making the way around the hallways, Midnight happily explained the school systems that you'd have to work with; she was incredibly friendly, you had honestly expected a bit more of a mean facade, it felt nice to feel like you could rely on someone new.

"I saw your previous work during the hiring process," Eraserhead commented. "You have a lot of experience with hero work, are you sure you can handle the heroics department? They can be a handful..."

"They are all very focused on their goal!" Midnight added, "And to be expected, they all have a long way to go... I'd say some are too focused."

"I'm fairly confident I can! Even if it takes some trial and error while dealing with the more anti-authoritarian students." You weren't very patient with the hot-headed types, but you had to try your best. "I have some experience with teenagers, however my work-line as mainly a side-kick might not be too interesting to them."