Perhaps a Better Place [A Dadzawa Story]

Coated: Chapter 40

     It's around midnight when we eventually decide it's time to settle down with a movie. Yamada had went to bed a little over an hour prior, and Aizawa has been doing paperwork at the breakfast bar.

     As Tokoyami and Shouji try to decide what movie to watch, Aizawa gets up and brings over a small stack of papers. He's somehow managed to poke his hand out of his cast.

     "Do you guys want your test scores early?"

     I reach up from where I'm still laid in Jirou's lap. "Hand over the goods, Mummyzawa."

     "Don't call me that," he mumbles as he hands me my test. I look at the big red number at the top.

     Ninety-nine.

     I look through the packet as he gives the rest their tests, trying to find which one I got wrong.

     I frown. "Man. So close, too. I can never be a hero now. I'll have to be a teacher or something."

     "Shut up," Aizawa says, flicking my forehead. I let my head fall back onto Jirou's thigh.

     "Damn. Y'all are mean tonight."

     "Y'all," Jirou deadpans.

     "Y'all," Tokoyami repeats, and I throw a pillow at his head again.

     Aizawa walks away, and I barely hear him say "Y'all," and then all of us are laughing again.

***

     I fall asleep before anyone else, head still in Jirou's lap with Tokoyami's lap holding my legs. We started watching Coraline, but I only reached the part where she meets Miss Spink and Forcible- Jirou was explaining how it was confirmed by the author that the ladies were, in fact, a couple- before I fell asleep.

     And it's quiet, for a long time, until I faintly feel my body being moved and I jerk awake. I reach out and grab the arm of whatever's holding me, only to look up and see Aizawa.

     I let out a heavy breath. "Jesus. Y'scared me."

     "Sorry, kid," he mumbles, and I put my head against his chest and close my eyes. "I'm putting you in your own bed so you're comfortable. Jirou's gonna be in there with you and the boys are sleeping out here."

     I hum to let him know I'm listening. "Mm... G'night, guys."

     Shouji and Tokoyami say good night at the same time.

     Jirou exchanged quiet good nights with them as Aizawa walks, his chest rumbling with what I assume to be a yawn.

     "Wait, Aizawa-Sensei," Tokoyami speaks up, but Aizawa tells him that 'just Aizawa is fine here.'

     "Uh... Right. Is it alright if I keep one of the small lamps on so Dark Shadow isn't a nuisance?"

     "Of course."

     Aizawa eventually sets me in my own bed with Kyoka, who is still awake and on her phone, though she looks half asleep when I open my eyes.

     He pats my head once with a quiet, "Night, girls."

     We say our good nights to him before he leaves, and then settle into our respective pillows.

     "I've been looking through the news for a few hours. They keep mentioning something about an unnamed student from 1-A getting seriously injured. Think it's you?"

     "Who else got injured?" I ask, forcing my eyes to stay open long enough for a short conversation.

     "Midoriya, of course, but it wasn't anything Recovery Girl couldn't handle. Kaminari too, but it was just his quirk that fried his brain."