Her Shadows [1]

This Is Why I Don't Socialize

Makoto and I walked down the hallway, occasionally exchanging a few words, but mostly just taking everything in. When we decided we'd done enough exploring, we checked the time and saw that we still had 45 minutes until class started.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Makoto whined, putting his arms behind his head.

"We could always go bug the staff in the teachers' lounge," I suggested.

Makoto got this sly smile on his face as he nodded vigorously. So together we made our way to the teachers' lounge, where Dad and a bunch of the other teachers were sure to be. We arrived at the door to the lounge and I pushed it open. As soon as we walked in, we saw a lot of the teachers hanging out and chatting, All Might included. Also, yes, Makoto and I know about All Might, his injury, and how he can't stay in "hero form" for very long. We hang out around UA so often it would have been impossible for them to keep it a secret from us, so Principal Nezu just flat out told us what happened.

"Well, well, well," Midnight said with a smile. "Look at who got into the Hero Course!"

Makoto and I looked at each other and chuckled as we walked in. Midnight immediately stood up and came over to Mako and me.

"You two have gotten to be so much stronger since the last time I saw you," she said, patting our heads.

"Thanks, Midnight," Mako responded. "That means a lot, coming from you."

Midnight gave us a closed eye smile and walked back to her seat on the couch. Mako and I walked over to the counter that the coffee maker was on and began to make ourselves some coffee. Nobody stopped us because it wasn't uncommon for us to be here. When we were both homeschooled and UA was in session, we would spend the majority of our time in the teachers' lounge and socialize with the teachers that didn't have a class. Suffice to say, everyone was used to our presence at this point.

"What are you two doing here?"

Mako and I turned around to see Dad standing right in front of us, his eyes half-closed and his yellow sleeping bag hanging over his shoulder.

"We're making coffee," I responded. "What does it look like?"

Dad sighed dramatically before turning back around and walking to a corner in the room. He climbed into his sleeping bag and fell back asleep. Mako and I turned to each other and laughed as we waited for the coffee to finish brewing. Right as we were pouring our coffee, Present Mic came up to us with an attitude that was way too cheerful for this early in the morning.

"WHAT'S UP, MY DUDES?" He boomed. "YOU PUNKS READY TO DAB THIS DAY?!"

Internally Mako and I cringed. Mic always tried to be "hip" but the way he used slang was nothing short of cringey. I'm absolutely convinced the man gets all of his slang and memes off of Facebook.

"Yeah," Mako said. "I think we are."

"Well good job, both of you, for getting into UA," he said, talking much softer. "We're all very proud of you."

Mako and I looked around the room to see all of the teachers looking at us with varying degrees of pride in their eyes. I almost started crying, but managed to keep the tears from surfacing. Even All Might looked like he was proud of us and he'd only known us since the entrance exam ended. I bowed in thanks to everyone and saw Mako do the same out of the corner of my eye.

The two of us spent the rest of the time we had in the teachers' lounge talking to all of the teachers. We had a really nice conversation with All Might and it was a little surprising to hear how down to earth he was. After checking the time on the clock on the wall, I noticed we only had 10 minutes until class started. I nudged Mako and nodded my head toward the clock. He nodded in response upon seeing the time and we both stood up.