A Life Worth Living (Aizawa x OC)

63 - Hypocrisy

Struggling to not drop the several folders and notebooks she had pressed to her chest, Himari tentatively used her elbow to open the door to the teachers' lounge and pushed it open with her knee. It was only a matter of time until something would slip out of her already gradually loosening grasp and cause a chain reaction of clumsiness, and that was definitely something she wanted to avoid at all costs.

Silently praying that the lounge was still empty to spare her from potentially embarrassing herself in front of her colleagues – for the umpteenth time, she immediately dashed towards her desk the moment the door was open, traversing the room in record-breaking time, where she let go with a sigh of relief. With a loud clunk, most of her stuff plummeted on her fortunately empty workspace, and she used her quirk just in time to pull up a stray notebook that had decided to topple over the edge of the desk.

Himari planted her ass on her chair and put everything into order again, deeply regretting her decision to procrastinate filing in the now jumbled pile of papers that she'd parked loosely in one of her folders. Finally done, she pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a groan of annoyance that almost put Aizawa's to shame.

"Stressful day?"

Startled by the voice with a worried undertone resonating in it, Himari turned to her left where she spotted Hizashi sitting at his desk with a book in his hands, curiously looking at her with a raised eyebrow. Had he been there all the time? Well, not that it mattered right now. Now that she thought of it, it was quite convenient. "You bet. The kids are still pumped from the Sports Festival. To cite a wise woman – it's like trying to tame a babbling, bumbling band of baboons. Quite a fruitless endeavour."

"Oh, just wait until they come back from their first internship week", Hizashi added with a knowing glance, pushing his sunglasses up his nose.

She quickly scanned the room to make sure that she hadn't overlooked someone else while trying to get her chaos under control before she focused on the blond again, "Actually, I'm glad to run across you."

"I should hope so!", he said, wearing one of his trademark bright grins on his face. "Any other reaction would sadden me."

"I mean, there's something I wanted to ask you", she stopped for a moment, grimacing at the thought that she was about to be a burden again. "How should I put it? You know, after the Sports Festival...I thought...I'm not sure..." Himari caught herself tripping over her own tongue. Why was it still so difficult to ask others for help? It was like every fibre of her body refused to follow her commands. It was utterly stupid, considering how open and supportive her friends were. He wouldn't judge her for it; yet, she couldn't get herself to do it.

Hizashi waited a bit. When he was certain that nothing else would follow, he spoke up, already having a vague idea where this conversation was heading, "You're not sure if you can continue to teach in class 1C?"

She really was easy to see through – or rather, her friends had learned to read her quite well by now. Himari weakly nodded, still not able to formulate a response.

The facial gymnastics she currently went through made it painfully obvious that she felt extremely uncomfortable talking about this, so Hizashi proceeded, "I can take over that class again. That goes without saying."

A wave of relief rushed through her body. Hizashi had just lifted the enormous block of cement from her chest that had been weighing her down the last few days. Still, instead of bursting from elatedness, she couldn't help but hesitate, "In exchange, I could take over one of your other classes if that's fine by you?"

"Hima, I don't expect anything in return. If you weren't here, I'd be teaching all of them anyway."

"But..."