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Aizawa revels in the peace and quiet of the teacher’s lounge. It is not usually like this, usually, there is loud chatter and gossip from his coworkers. But he has found himself all alone today. He would soon have to go back to his class. And as much as he didn’t hate them, they were loud.
He did not have time to mentally prepare himself when the doors burst open, revealing Iida Tenya, the one he had left in charge of the class.
“Is the class under attack?” One the first thing out of his mouth, remembering the USJ incident when they sent the speedster to get help.
“No. Sensei, you must hurry. Midoriya is yelling at Shinsou.”
Aizawa frowned, making his way to the classroom. Midoriya, reckless as he was, did not yell at other students. Not even Bakugou when the blonde antagonized him. To hear he was yelling at the new student that transferred to his class was concerning. He had thought the kid was trying to be friends with Shinsou. Not that Shinsou was encouraging this. Shinsou had been rather antagonistic to Midoriya when he attempted. But Aizawa had thought Midoriya would eventually crack him.
“How dare you.” Midoriya’s voice was loud, dripping with anger that Aizawa could hear it from outside the classroom. He pushed the door open. He was relieved to see that their argument seemed to be just verbal. Midoriya was staring Shinsou in the eyes with his fists clenched to his side. Their classmates were all seated, eyes flickering between them worriedly.
“You want to talk about privilege. You are privileged in your point of view. It’s all about quirks with you. What are you not going to help someone because they have their own ‘flashy’ quirk? Because you think they must have it good? Are you so foolish to think that kids with ‘heroic quirks’ are automatically exempt from abuse? They are children, vulnerable children who cannot defend themselves in the most common abusive situations. Do you think they’re exempt from bullying? There are many things for bullies to latch onto besides quirks. Do you think they’re exempt from mental illness? Depression? Anxiety? Suicide? Newsflash, quirk status doesn’t mean shit when it comes to the chemicals in your brain. Do you think they don’t feel pain?”
Aizawa had meant to step in but he felt Shinsou needed to hear this. He had been trying to get the kid to grow out of that attitude during their one-on-one training but it carried even into his transfer to the heroics class. Perhaps he should have pushed harder because Shinsou’s attitude was hindering his growth. He was also worried about the underlying meaning that he was sensing from Midoriya’s speech. The speech felt personal. Aizawa didn’t want to consider the possibility but he had to. Has Midoriya been abused? Bullied? Was he depressed? Suicidal?
He could admit, he has been very judgemental of the boy, especially at the beginning of the year. His lack of control with his quirk had been concerning and Aizawa had thought he was lazy. But he had never considered that there could be something going on in his life to hinder him. Perhaps he still had prejudices in his subconscious like Shinsou that he wasn’t aware of. He had thought similarly when he had first gotten into general education. He never voiced his thoughts and instead simmered in his bitterness. But gaining friends with strong quirks and seeing they had suffered in life too had changed his mind.
He should have known better than to judge Midoirya off his quirk. He had seen how hardworking the boy had been over his first year. How he never gave up and how he pushed through every bump in the road. Every obstacle that would have stopped most people. Was his lack of control because he had these difficult situations that he had to worry about instead of learning his quirk?
“I’m sure you’ve suffered Shinsou. But you can’t be so naive to think that you are the only one in this room that has. Half of our classmates show signs of childhood trauma and that was even before we were attacked by villains. Quirks aren’t everything Shinsou, last time I checked, you cannot read minds. Not everything is as it appears to be on the outside. You’re naive to think you can look at someone’s quirk and tell their life story. I wanted to be friends with you, but unless you get your head out of your ass, grow up and stop with your stupid fucking assumptions. I do not think that’s possible.”
And Shinsou looks wrecked. Like he has just been given the ability to see. Like he is realizing he has made mistakes. He doesn’t scoff at Midoriya’s words as he used to when the other boy would speak to him. His mouth is open but he seems to be struggling with words. “Midoriya–”
“I don’t want to hear it Shinsou. I cannot deal with you right now. You’ve managed to hit my breaking point. And anyone in this room will tell you that that is very hard to do.” Midoriya turns his gaze to Aizawa. “I’m sorry for causing a disruption in your classroom sensei. But I’m not sorry for what I said.”
“Go ahead and sit down, you two. Midoriya, see me after class. And Shinsou, we’ll talk instead of training today.” For the first time since he started teaching, Aizawa felt like he was a bad teacher. If what he was thinking was right, he should have noticed his student was not okay. Heroics was a tough course, the students needed to shape up and be tough to get through it. He had thought that being tough on his students was the best way to be sure they would not grow to be a liability or get themselves killed. But sometimes he forgot that they were still children. They were just kids, and they deserve better support than he had been giving them. But he couldn’t go backward so he would do better going forwards. He would start with Midoriya and Shinsou.