Paladin

A "Mother's" Cooking

Chiron introduces Maijima to Greek cooking.

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Another bout of loud rumbling made Chiron glance up from the papers he was grading. With the Sports Festival only a few days away, the other Teachers had started to set up and work on the various tasks for the event. Between Yamada looking over the entire roster of students, Kayama resting her voice, and a number of their colleagues working on the Scavenger Hunt cards, everyone was a flurry of activity.

Of course, that meant that Ishiyama and Powerloader were working as well and Nezu wanted someone to oversee the Support Lab teacher's work on one of the obstacles for the obstacles course. Nezu trusted Powerloader, of course, but with the amount of earth that needed to be moved, the Mammalian principal did want someone watching over him to make sure he didn't go overboard. And with everyone else working, Chiron offered to oversee him in the meantime.

He and Powerloader weren't that close, since Chiron mostly interacted with Yamada, Aizawa, Kayama, Thirteen, and Nezu, but they were at least friendly with one another. Snipe was still wary, but his pride was mostly hurt, Chiron suspected, while Ishiyama, Inui, Ectoplasm, and Kan were all on friendly terms with him as well. Obviously he and Yagi talked quite often and were friends and Chiyo seemed more than happy with him now that the said blonde was, apparently, in her office less.

Chiron shook his head as a plume of dust in the canyon followed by Powerloader's cackling broke him from his thoughts.

At least he seemed to be having fun

He chuckled softly as he reached into his bag again for another one of his student's papers. After the exercise that was him exploiting their weaknesses, he had them each write an essay that further expanded on their ideas to overcome their weaknesses. Some of them were very insightful, others left much to be desired. Tokoyami's, Shouji's and Uraraka's, for example, all held very detailed reasons why and how their quirks hindered them— Dark Shadow's weakness to light, Shouji's limit to six limbs and the time that it took for him to create them, and a speculated reason why Uraraka's Zero Gravity made her nauseous. They were detailed and jotted notes of possible ways they could strengthen their weaknesses.

Of course, there were still other students. Some had essays like those three and there were others similar to Midoriya's where the student recognized what their weakness was and how it happened, but was unsure what they could do aside from 'adjust it'.

Then there were the ones whose arrogance showed even after Chiron had sent them to the ground within seconds. Indeed, Bakugou Katsuki's arrogance and belief that he was "the best" was a bit concerning.

Chiron tapped his pen against his chin as his tail flicked, scribbling a note in the margin before he glanced up, hearing someone approach.

"Finished for today?" He asked Powerloader as the younger man flopped down on the grass near him.

"Eh, not quite," the blue-eyed man said, waving his hand lazily. "All my equipment and shit is still down there, so I ain't done yet. Just hungry. I'm gonna head up to bother Lunch Rush soon."

Chiron blinked before he smiled, reaching into his bag and pulled out a carefully wrapped container.

"It's not warm anymore, but here," he said, pulling the cloth off of it and opening the container for the other. Inside was what appeared to be chicken on skewers.

"Uh, chicken?" Powerloader asked, blinking from under his helmet and Chiron tilted his head.

"Oh, you're not vegetarian, are you?" He asked, pulling the arm that had been offering the container's contents back slowly. The Excavation Hero shook his head.

"Nah, that ain't it," he told him, snagging a skewer before the container was out of reach. "Just confirming. It is, right? Looks seasoned."

Chiron nodded, humming. "It's Souvlaki with chicken, and the usual additive— oh, you're already eating," he said, smiling as the orange-haired man tore into the skewer, reaching for a second one.

"Soluvawhatsit?" he asked around the mouthful of chicken. "Eh, I don't care. It's really good, Hooves. Where'd you buy this?"

"Oh, I made it," he told him before startling as the man started coughing. He reached over, lightly hitting him on the back before he calmed down, swallowing.

"You made this?" Powerloader asked him, biting into another cube of chicken and tearing it off. Chiron nodded.

"Mhm," he said, "I never really got the hang of making Japanese food, I'm just not that good at it, but I can make most European foods. Souvlaki is a pretty popular Greek food on street-side restaurants. I'll have to bring you some with other meats instead of just chicken," He added, laughing softly as the Hero tore into the other skewers.

"'s all the same to me, this is good," he managed between bites.

"Don't eat so fast. You'll choke," he scolded in return before he reached into his bag again, pulling another container out. Powerloader stopped, looking over as he chewed.

"Wha'sat?"

"Loukoumades," he told him and the blue-eyed Hero just blinked.

"Bless you."

Chiron rolled his eyes, handing him one of the balls of fried dough. "Eat."

"Thanks," he responded before popping it into his mouth. His eyes widened.

"'s sweet! Ludakomaids, you said?" he asked and Chiron just chuckled again.

"Loukoumades," He corrected with a soft laugh. Powerloader hummed as he chewed, gazing out at the sky.

The Archer smiled a bit, watching him. "I can bring you some other things we eat in Greece tomorrow, if you like," he offered.

Powerloader nodded. "Mm. Yeah. If it ain't a problem, Chiron."

"It's hardly one, Powerloader," he said with a chuckle and the blue-eyed man hummed.

"Maijima."

"Hm?" "Ya can call me Maijima from now on," he told him and Chiron smiled.

"Alright, then, Maijima," he said and the other man grinned. He stood after a bit, stretching.

"Alright! Let's get goin'!" he declared before he lumbered back down to the canyon. Chiron had to smile again before he reached into his bag, pulling a notebook out.

Knowing Maijima, he was going to talk to the others too— Might as well start planning for more lunch-time guests.

(x)

Chiron had ended up being right about Maijima talking to the others when both Ectoplasm and Yamada joined them the next day.

Thirteen and Kayama followed the next and slowly but surely the entire staff was having lunch on the schoolyard as soon as Maijima would come back up from digging.

Astolfo had joined them one day, snickering on how it looked like a "mama-taur looking after her babies" before he stole some food and ran off.

Later on in the year, Thirteen would be the first one to call Chiron 'Father' and Maijima would follow quickly by calling him 'ma'.

Yamada almost died after he called him 'Gramps'.

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The one after this will be a slight sequel to this one in that it connects to some of the events here.