An Eye for an Eye (Eraserdust)

Chapter 8: Keeping It Hidden

   Shota pulled into the employee parking lot of UA, just to the right of the building. He shut off his car, resting his head on the steering wheel. He rubbed his eyes, groaning and sighing. The lack of sleep had caught up with him. This was going to be a long day. Shota made his way to the teacher's lounge to grab another cup of coffee.

   "'Morning, Shouta!", Hizashi greeted excitedly. Shota rolled his eyes. 

   "Morning", was all he could muster.

   "Can't stay awake?", he asked, his infamous cheeky grin plastered on his face. Hizashi looked him up and down, noticing his eyes were baggier than usual. He may have smiled, but his eyes casted a worrying glance to his longtime friend and coworker. Shouta grunted.

   "No", he simply replied. He wasn't much of a talker, especially in the morning when he hadn't had enough caffeine in his system. Hizashi always had to pull answers out of him. He didn't mind, though. That was just how he was, and getting to talk to him was enough to better his day. They had obviously known each other a long time and during that time, Hizashi had begun developing feelings for Shouta, which had gone unnoticed by the other, and unfortunately Shouta didn't reciprocate. 

   "Are the meds not working?", Shouta often didn't mind all the questions, but with all the pressure of keeping a villain under his house for personal reasons a secret and the lack of sleep as a result, he began to feel quite irritated. He had anger issues which he definitely took out on others. 

   "No, they've been fine", he responded through gritted teeth, "Just...had night terrors again", Hizashi frowned.

   "Well, shit. I'm sorry, man. It's been a bit since you had those, too"

   "Yeah", Shouta mumbled as he left the teacher's lounge and made his way to his homeroom class. Hizashi looked behind him to see Toshinori's reaction, who had stood there with a cup of coffee witnessing the conversation the whole time. Hizashi cast a confused, worried glance and Toshinori shrugged.

   "Leave him be", Toshinori suggested, "He has rough nights, anyways, with his condition and all"

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   "Hello,  Mr. Aizawa", Midoriya, his most chipper and enthusiastic-to-learn student exclaimed once Shouta walked into the classroom. 

   "'Morning, class", Shouta mumbled, sitting at his desk and setting his folders down in front of him. He momentarily reorganized his desk and readjusted so he could be comfortable, then said, "Ok, I'm going to call attendance". He proceeded to list out each of the students from Class 1-A's names in alphabetical order, to which each student would respond with "Here!", or if it was Tenya Iida, the class president, would respond with "Present". Shouta flipped his long black hair out of his face. 

   "Since the weather's nice, why don't we continue our training?"

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   Homeroom and first period consisted of the students training to be heroes, such as practicing with their quirks and learning their fighting styles, how to perform arrests, learning hero laws, and any other basic knowledge crucial to have to become a hero. His classes always served as a great distraction because Shouta almost forgot what, or rather who, he was dealing with at home. Now he was one on one with his son, who he had for training lessons. Shouta had given him a tutorial as to how to use a binding cloth, as Shinso finally had one of his own. Shouta tried to hide his excitement that he had for his own child. However, Shinso grew frustrated, his self degrading thoughts immediately arising, as he became tangled in its hold. Shinso grunted in annoyance. 

   "How the hell do you even master this sort of thing?!", he yelled, "It took you six years and I can't even do a single thing with it! Am I really suited for this?", Shinso looked down, eyebrows furrowing. Shouta had been leaning against a tree, his hair swaying in the gentle breeze. His arms were crossed as he stared his son down, partially out of annoyance he was getting frustrated so easily and the other reason being he wished Shinso believed in himself more. 

   "It took me a long time to practice", Shouta grumbled, "You're considered lucky because I had no one to help me. People like us have to look out for ourselves. If we don't, we're as good as dead. Now, keep on practicing. Remember, I'm not the type to waste my time on hopeless cases" 

   Shinso glared at him for the scolding but quickly realized he was right. He glanced at him in confusion, trying to decode the last thing he said. "So, if you're taking your time with me, that means..."

   Shouta sighed. "Just keep practicing what I showed you, problem child"

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   While the school had their lunch in Lunch Rush's Cafeteria, Shouta spent his lunch time eating udon out of his bento box in the teacher's lounge. He sat on the far end of the green couch, while Hizashi and Toshinori sat beside him. Nezu, Nemuri, Ken and Anan sat across from them. The room was awkwardly quiet aside from the calming meditation music Nezu always put on. He claimed it was to "add ambience to the environment", but Shouta couldn't care less. He munched on the noodles, looking down at the floor in deep thought. How was he going to break the news to Emi? To Shino, or Tomoko, or Ryuko? To his friends or coworkers? Or even to his own children? He wanted to make it look like he was doing his job as he also worked as an investigator of the Musutafu Police Force, but he felt wrong, like that wasn't the only thing he was doing. No, it had to be deeper than that, because he knew deep inside he wanted to keep him. He didn't want to turn him in. That was the part he struggled to be honest about. Hizashi nudged Shouta out of his daze.

   "I see you're doing a lot better than this morning. You don't look as miserable", Hizashi pointed out with a chuckle. Shouta rolled his eyes, as he found himself commonly doing around his obnoxious friend. He swore that one day his eyes would roll into the back of his head and stay there if he had to hear one more ridiculous comment out of that annoying blockhead's mouth-

   "Uh...yeah", he muttered through a mouthful of udon. He swallowed, "Just have a lot going on"

   "You always do, Shouta", Nemuri said sympathetically. "I'm sorry for whatever happened" Shouta shrugged.

   "Just more night terrors. The usual. Didn't really sleep thanks to that", he continued to lie. 

   "You sure you're doing all right, though? You know you have people to talk to here when you need it", Toshinori said. Shouta took another bite of his food and chewed. Shouta nodded.

   "I know", and he continued eating like what they were talking about wasn't that big of a deal. The other teachers cast each other a worried glance. Anan, who had her mask off to eat, showing her bright gray eyes and short shiny purple hair, shrugged. Ken shook his head. Shouta wasn't the type to talk about his feelings and they knew that. Despite that, they still tried to get him to crack, usually to no avail. No, Shouta didn't want to show weakness, not even to his partners. The bell rang, signifying the end of lunch and beginning of fifth period. Shouta finished his food, putting his bento box in his large beige satchel. He looked to his coworkers and bid them farewell. 

   "He's quiet", Nemuri pointed out as soon as he left, "but not this quiet"

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