Work Text:
There was a light coming from the dorm common room. Denki paused, trying to scope out the situation. He wasn’t interested in a lecture on curfew, especially when the others were waiting on him to bring back snacks. He squinted, trying to see past the dim flickering of the tv to whoever it was on the couch. His eyes adjusted after a moment, but it took him a few more to really process the sight. Aizawa was there, curled up in a blanket, sound asleep. Denki grinned. This was officially better than snacks. What was he doing, watching a movie at 2 am? Even more carefully than before, he snuck back to Sero’s room.
“Where’s the food, Pikachu?” Bakugou growled the second Denki closed the door behind him.
“What gives, did you get caught?” Mina pouted at him from the hammock.
“Mina, why?? That was my spot!” Denki complained.
“I was going to give it back once you brought us snacks!”
“Fuck your spot! Where’s the food?”
“Whoa, Bakubro. Wanna chill and let him explain?” Denki shot Kirishima a grateful look. If it wasn’t for him, Denki would probably be a pile of ash by now.
“…Denki? You do have an excuse, right?” Sero prompted.
Excuse? Food! Aizawa! “Right! Listen, I was gonna, but Aizawa’s asleep in the common room.”
“Too afraid to sneak past him?” Mina teased.
“What?? No!! Maybe!! Not the point!” Denki managed, cheeks flushing pink. “He was watching something in there. Don’t you wanna know what? Get some tea on the teach?”
Bakugou chucked a pillow at him in response. “Who fucking cares??”
“Dunno, Aizawa sensei is so private, it might be interesting to learn something about him.” Sero caught the pillow with some tape and pulled it back to his bed.
“Yeah, and you can use it as a chance to practice your stealth, man!” Kirishima grinned, even as Bakugou started shouting at him about his stealth skills.
“Shut up, you’ll wake him up before we even get to see!” Mina hissed, already on her feet and heading towards the door. Denki, Kirishima, Sero, and an extremely reluctant Bakugou followed her.
The halls were completely dark, apart from the dim, flickering light of the TV. Denki’s heart was in his throat, and he had to stifle a nervous giggle as they got closer to their teacher. That earned him a thwap on the back of the head from Bakugou. Still, underneath his classmate’s usual scowl was a glint of curiosity. “What do you think he’s watching?” Mina whispered. “My money is on an old fashioned romance movie.”
“Nah, Sensei seems a lot more like a nature documentary guy.” Sero retorted, equally quiet.
“Does it really fucking matter?” Bakugou hissed. “I’m fucking hungry!”
Kirishima just elbowed him and pointed at the table by the tv. It took Denki a moment to recognize the black boxy thing that sat there. It was an old vhs player. Jirou had brought it over a while back so she could show them old movies ‘the way they were meant to be seen.’ It looked like Aizawa had set it up again, for whatever it was he’d been watching.
Approaching the couch was the most perilous part of their journey. Their teacher slept a lot, but he also had a sixth sense for when his students were up to shit. Whatever he and Present Mic had been called away for that afternoon must have wiped him out, because he didn’t so much as twitch when the squad rounded behind the couch and studied the screen.
The film was grainy, and looked like a home video instead of a professional movie. The boy on the screen was unfamiliar, with blue hair and a bandage over the bridge of his nose. He looked like he could be their age, and wore an older version of the UA class uniform. All of Denki’s earlier jokes and curiosity faded away as he watched the boy laugh at the camera. There wasn’t any sound with the tape, but he was clearly joking with someone out of the frame. This didn’t feel funny anymore. It felt…personal. Like Denki and the others were watching something deeply private. Still, none of them looked away, watching as the scene changed, showing the boy posing like All Might out on the UA field. The video continued to unfold in various short clips. The boy walking and laughing, sitting against a wall and flicking a pencil at the camera, kissing a cat, dancing in what looked just like Mic’s sunglasses and Aizawa’s scarf. Finally, the camera flipped around to reveal a young Present Mic, pulling the blue haired boy and a young Aizawa into the frame. The boy and Mic were both grinning widely at the camera, and Aizawa had his face tucked into his scarf just like he did as an adult. But his lips were turned up in the smallest smirk. Suddenly the video cut out, the three boys replaced with a silent static.
Denki and the others stood there silently, processing what they’d seen. Finally, after what could have been a minute, or five, or an hour, Mina spoke. “…who was that?” Her voice was barely a whisper, but it felt like one of Bakugou’s war cries in the stillness left behind by the video.
“Shirakumo Oboro.”
All five students startled at Aizawa’s voice.
“Sensei!”
“Eep!”
“Sorry!”
“Our bad!”
“Fuck!”
Their teacher had, apparently, woken up. He sat up on the couch, expression impossible to see, backlit by the tv snow. “…what are you doing up past curfew?” His voice was hoarse.
“We were hungry?” Denki tried for an appeasing smile. “But suddenly I’m tired so I’ll just be off to bed now—“
“Sensei?” Mina spoke up, cutting him off. “Who’s Shirakumo Oboro?”
There was a stretch of silence as Aizawa just stared at them, but before any of them could break the stalemate and bolt for their rooms, he sighed and turned on the lamp by the couch. The teacher’s face didn’t explicitly promise violence, but his eyes were more bloodshot than normal. They didn’t help him look less intimidating. Or less like a hobo.
“Shirakumo, Mic, and I were classmates back at UA.” That seemed like an understatement, after what they’d seen on the video. But Aizawa didn’t elaborate as he stood, stretched, and went to turn off the vcr.
Denki started to edge towards the hallway, hoping the others would follow. But Bakugou just grabbed him by the shirt and said, “Where’s he now, then? I don’t recognize him from the hero registry.”
“What, and you know all the heroes, Bakugou?” Sero teased.
“Shut up! You try growing up around shitty Deku and not knowing all of his stupid hero shit!”
Their arguing wasn’t quite enough to distract the others, even Denki, from how Aizawa’s shoulders tensed at Bakugo’s question. He straightened, holding the old vhs tape as carefully as someone would hold a priceless heirloom.
“He’s…” Aizawa trailed off, taking a deep breath before continuing. “He’s dead. Got killed in an accident in our second year work studies.”
Another long silence. Bakugou even stopped threatening Sero. They’d dealt with a lot in their first year of UA, but no one in their class had actually died. Yet.
Mina chewed her lip, and before Denki could kick her or something to get her to shut up, she spoke. “Sensei—“
“It’s late.” Aizawa said, not looking at any of them. “Get your food and go to bed.” Without waiting for a reply, he turned and walked out to his dorm apartment.
“Soooo, how dead are we?” Sero asked once their teacher was out of sight.
“Don’t fuckin’ know, don’t fuckin’ care. I’m going to bed.” Bakugou stalked off without a backwards glance.
“Yeah, I’m gonna go to bed too.” Mina mumbled, shoulders slumped as she left.
“We should get some rest,” Kirishima agreed.
“We’ll do snacks another time.” Sero patted Denki on the shoulder as he left.
Denki stood there for a little while longer, watching the blank tv screen, lost in thought. Finally, his mind registered how late it was, and where he was. Shutting off the lamp, he returned to his dorm and pretended to sleep.