A Life Worth Living (Aizawa x OC)

12 - Acclimatisation

During the rest of her first week of actively participating in whatever was happening at the U.A., Himari established a daily routine to give some structure to her new life.

The woman consistently forced herself up at an ungodly time, actively fighting the drowsiness that threatened to overpower her, and went for a morning run, including a short stop at the cemetery to visit Kai's grave, though the short stops always turned into long ones since she ended up sitting in front of his grave, chatting about this and that, telling him about everything that was going on at the U.A.

Himari tended to lose the track of time whenever she was there, causing her to run home to regularly turn into a sprint, requiring her to speed up as much as possible to make it to school in time.

The mornings she usually spent at the school library or the teachers' lounge, where she tried to wrap her head around the teaching thing with the help of the books and notes Hizashi had provided her with. Realizing that it's been a while that she'd put effort into learning something new, the brunette reluctantly worked herself through one book after another, trying to absorb as much information as possible.

It was exhausting because apparently, teaching was a lot more work than people always assumed, at least if it was done with the intention to actually teach the kids something.

The only piece of knowledge that blessed her with some peace of mind was that it wasn't necessary for her to catch up on the contents of the subject she'd be teaching, a circumstance that allowed her to spend more time trying to understand how she'd approach that job.

In addition to her theory-loaded book sessions, she made use of Present Mic's generous offer and attended some of his lessons to gather some first-hand experience and jot down some notes.

The woman sat in the back, trying not to attract any attention from the students, and scribbled down as much as possible about his methods, behaviour, and how her colleague dealt with different situations regarding the students.

These lessons were a welcome diversion from her otherwise rather boring and theory-heavy afternoons and provided her with, at least in her opinion, way more useful knowledge and experience than the books.

On top of that, it was interesting to observe Present Mic while he was teaching. It was obvious that he genuinely enjoyed what he was doing, trying to make his lessons as interesting as possible for the students, even if the topics were extremely dull.

Sometimes, his obvious efforts to push his students even reminded her of Kaito, bringing back some pleasant memories that caused her to dwell in nostalgia.

Yet, there was something the widow didn't notice. Her attendance in Hizashi's lessons completely distracted him, making it incredibly difficult for him to focus on his job.

No matter what he was doing, his eyes always unconsciously wandered to the visitor in the back of his classroom and the fact that she sent him a stunning smile each time she noticed didn't exactly contribute to his attempt to remain concentrated.

Naturally, bright as they were, the students instantly took notice of what was going on, curiously observing the whole situation, enjoying the free entertainment they'd received while coming up with wild theories about the new teacher and her possible connection to Present Mic.

Bets were placed, money was spent.

Himari usually used her lunch breaks to get some alone time at school, well, almost alone time.

Most of the time, she shared the peace and quiet of the teachers' lounge with Aizawa, who seemed to live in symbiosis with his sleeping back and the couch, trying to catch up on sleep during the lunch break.