Insomnia [Shota Aizawa x Reader] (Rewritten Version)

Chapter 16

"Mx. [L/N]?"

Familiar voices jolted Shota out of his thoughts. When he recognized the voices, he inwardly groaned. Why were students here?

"How come you're here?" Uraraka asked. She was with Midoriya and Yaoyorozu, talking to you across the counter. They must have not noticed him because of his appearance, thankfully. He wasn't in his hero outfit and his hair was up. Him being out of his bandages also may have also been a factor.

"Fancy meeting you guys here," you said, smiling at them. "This is where I work. What about you guys?"

"I heard from an upperclassman that we'll be having our end of term test after our internships," Yaoyorozu answered. "I figured I'd find a good place to study early and they came along."

"What good students you guys are." You ruffled their heads playfully. "The exam isn't for a long while." You paused, looking at the three of them. "Where's Iida? Isn't he with you two usually?"

Midoriya frowned. "We tried asking him to hang out with us but he said he's busy."

"I wonder if he's okay. I heard the news about his brother."

"You know about it, huh?" Midoriya and the others all had a worried look on their faces. "Iida must be devastated because he looked up to him so much. His brother lived, but with major injuries that will affect his hero work." The boy got a look in his eyes that Shota could tell meant that he was going to ramble. "Since his hero work depended so much on his quirk, and his quirk depended so much on his legs, now that he's paralyzed he will have to retire, but maybe they'll be able to make mechanical replacements, I don't know, I really hope he'll be able to get back in hero mode healthy and safe, but I also don't want him hurt again, but then again that's what heroes are always expecting, but...."

You smiled gently, resting your arms on the counter. Shota could see you deep in thought. "Midoriya, have you seen Todoroki around?" You interrupted him, jolting him out of his mumbles. "I saw that you and he became friends at the sports festival."

Midoriya looked up, a bit more cheerful. "He went to the hospital today. He's been visiting his mother, I'm pretty sure."

"Good for him!" You were smiling again, having a conversation with the students.

Shota watched you and them carefully, taking note of how you interacted with them. Sometimes appearances could be deceiving, especially villains, but he had a feeling that you were different. You weren't one, after all.

<•>

It was the next day, and both you and Eraser were tired as you both walked in for class. You still supervised the class like Eraser did for homeroom, and only split off for training the other classes. You had gotten assigned classes other than hero courses because of the massive amounts of students who applied for those courses.

Because of the cluttered schedule and your insomnia, you had requested Nezu for a more organized and easily manageable schedule.

Today, though, 1A was going to be focusing on choosing their hero names this morning, and their internship information was revealed.

After brief moments of surprise at Eraser's new appearance after the bandages were removed, the announcement that the students were going to do a naming activity, and the nominations for internships, there was a 15 minute activity for the students to work on the names.

Eraser slept in the corner as you and Midnight waited for them to brainstorm. Meanwhile, you looked around to see what was going on in their heads. Especially with Iida, you were watching him this morning and despite what happened to his brother, he seemed cheerful.

However, you could tell it was an act to stop others from worrying. You did this as well, so you could tell. He was hesitant on choosing his hero name even if it was technically a placeholder for now.

"You know," you heard Midnight say. She was talking to Kirishima. "Since you'll be carrying the name of someone you look up to, you're going to be hit with the corresponding amount of pressure.

"Don't worry, I'm prepared for it!"

You listened to the other conversations the students had as they discussed and thought about their names. Kirishima sounded the most confident, apart from Aoyama who you couldn't help but think he was joking with his name.

"I wonder how villains choose their names," you mumbled to yourself, walking up next to Midnight to wait again.

"Same way we are now, is what I assume." Midnight's glasses were propped up on her head as she smiled proudly at how hard the students were working.

"Why bother getting it out, though?" You thought about it. "The names are funny, too. Like Stain."

"There are a bunch of reasons, but I never quite understood all of them."

Her expression changed and she continued quieter. "Iida seems to be different since his brother's incident. I'm worried about him."

"Me too." Hopefully revenge won't get into his head. He's a good student.

You straightened up a bit, feeling someone watch you. You glanced at Eraser, and you could've swore you saw his eyes open for a bit, looking at you. But he had bags under his eyes, and you knew he didn't get much sleep. He had to have fallen asleep the moment he zipped up the sleeping bag.

"What's today's lesson for them, [L/N]?" Midnight asked, snapping you out of your thoughts. "More practice combat?"

"I was thinking of something else actually." You smiled, excited. "I asked Nezu for permission to bring a guest here. I wanted to do a sort of hide and seek game for the students. It'll be good for search and rescue type missions and it'll hone their tracking and infiltration skills."

"Sounds like fun! I haven't played that game in years. Who's the guest?"

"A friend of mine, Ethan. I asked Nezu about this exercise and he offered a pay. Ethan took him up on that since he needed some funds right now too."

"Does he specialize in, ah, hide and seek?"

"He's great at hiding because of his quirk. He turns invisible when he holds his breath. He also has this lack of a presence that kinda freaks me out since he jumps me a lot. I doubt any of the students, or heroes, would find him, within a time limit."

Midnight looked carefully at your confident face, then back at the students with a smirk. "Bet."

"Oh?" You grinned at her. "You sure? You haven't even met him."

"Look," Midnight started, a bit of a pout going on on her face. "There hasn't been anything exciting recently since the festival. You seem to have confidence in your friend, and I have confidence in these young ones!" Midnight gushed. "If no one finds him I'll buy you dinner or something. Just for funsies, ya know."

You laughed. "Sure, sure, dinner. You're lucky I like cheap takeout."