Chapter Text
1.
Hizashi knows how this is going to end from that very first afternoon in the staff room. He's known Shouta for years, understands how his friend thinks; he's built his life around his work, intentionally leaving no time for anything else - especially not something as distracting as relationships. But Yamada isn't blind, either. It's obvious as soon as the two of them make eye contact that there's something about the new psychologist that has caught Shouta's interest. He can't quite make sense of it; sure, she's cute, but in all these years Yamada has never known his friend to be swayed by a pretty face.
It's only when Kageyama explains their history together in highschool that the pieces fall into place. So that's what this is. Hizashi doesn't think he believes in something as abstract as fate, and he knows damn well that if he brought it up Aizawa would deny it to the ends of the earth, but still... it's one hell of a coincidence.
He remembers back when they were attending U.A as students instead of staff - even then, Shou had a talent for pushing people away. Yamada knows that, and he knows the reason for it. They never talk about his dad, but that absence is always there in the background. It's why Hizashi is so determined to stick around even when Aizawa is being, well, Aizawa. It's also why, when he realised his friend was acting his age for once, crushing on the second year that sat behind them at lunch, Yamada tried his hardest to encourage that sleep-deprived idiot to make a damn move, already.
It didn’t work.
Ten years later and he's almost forgotten all about his best friend's failed highschool infatuation, right up until Akane Kuramoto wanders back into U.A on a random Friday and he sees Eraserhead's ears go bright red when she smiles at him, the same as when they were all teenagers.
Second chances are a rare thing in life, and this time Hizashi is determined not to let Shouta screw up again even if it means taking matters into his own hands - that's just what best friends do.
They'll thank him one day.
2.
To Kageyama Kalri, it's obvious something is up after Eraserhead doesn't even protest when Kuro asks to sit in on one of the class's training sessions. The guy's an asshole, no question about it, but she's gotta admit that he takes the whole teacher thing seriously - Kal thought for sure she'd have to spend at least an hour trying to convince him and probably offer to grade the kids' math worksheets for the next month before he'd even consider letting a stranger observe his horde of gremlins in their natural habitat. Instead, he just nods once and wanders off to do whatever it is he does when he's not arresting innocent vigilantes as they're going about their day.
Weird.
Anyway, Kal has more important things to do than consider the implications of that - especially when she and Kuro have a whole decade to catch each other up on. It's not a surprise that her friend left the hero world behind after graduating, and it's even less of one that she's ended up in a career that allows her to exercise both her brains and her mother-hen instincts at the same time. She was the same way in highschool, always looking out for everyone else. It's how they became friends in the first place; turns out, having a quirk that lets her regenerate from any injury at a superhuman rate means that Kal's never thought twice before throwing herself headfirst into whatever potentially life-threatening danger is in her way. Kuro was the first person to suggest that hey, just because you can grow back your severed arm doesn’t mean that you should keep putting yourself in situations where that's even necessary. And that was while dealing with a troublesome quirk of her own.
All this to say, Kuro is too sweet for her own good - and she's definitely too good for Aizawa. Not that she seems to think so.
It takes a few weeks for Kal to realise just how far gone the two of them are for each other. What's worse is that neither of them seem to realise that the feelings go both ways. No matter what she, Hizashi, or the assortment of other staff and students now invested in this real-time soap opera come up with to push the two together, they seem pathologically incapable of taking the hint. It'd be irritating if it wasn't so hilarious to watch.
They'll figure it out eventually.
Kal just hopes it happens before Eraserhead learns that the bet she started with Mic has expanded to include the entire faculty.
3.
Class 1-A figure it out in bits and pieces.
'Did you see Aizawa-sensei talking to the new guidance counsellor yesterday?'
It starts off as idle gossip, something to pass the time between the grueling training and equally rigorous academic schedule required by U.A.
As new additions to the faculty go, Kuramoto's arrival is understandably overshadowed by that of the Number One Hero. But slowly, as more students find their way to her office to be greeted with a caring smile and a listening ear, their curiousity grows. And when Midoriya reveals that not only is Kuro-sensei herself a U.A Alumni, but a Hero Course graduate? Well, speculation is only natural.
"I heard that she and Kageyama were best friends! That means she was in school the same time as Eraserhead and Present Mic!"
"I wonder why she never became a Pro Hero? Did she say anything about her quirk?"
Then Bakugou returns from his mandatory counselling session, gloating that the shrink absolutely has the hots for Aizawa. It's difficult to believe at first; partly because Bakugou is hardly the most reliable source of information, and partly because the idea of their homeroom teacher being involved in anything resembling a normal human relationship feels absurd.
Not long after that, though, Kirishima raises the alarm from his desk by the window that they're walking to school together. Immediately, the whole room of teenagers is crowded around the vantage point, roundly ignoring Iida's objections that 'engaging in conjecture regarding the personal lives of U.A Faculty is highly inappropriate'.
The subjects of their spying aren't doing anything that could be considered scandalous, simply walking. But the mere fact that Aizawa is keeping pace with the woman beside him, listening intently to her animated chatter without a hint of annoyance on his face, is enough to ignite yet another wave of enthusiastic debate amongst the students.
"Do you think they're already dating?"
"No way - they weren't even holding hands or kissing or anything!"
"Eww, why would you make us imagine Aizawa-sensei kissing someone!?"
By the time their homeroom teacher arrives, all his students are sitting at their assigned desks and diligently reviewing their study notes from the previous lesson. They haven't been this attentive in weeks, so Aizawa tries to ignore it whenever he catches them sending odd looks his way. What he doesn't notice is how their eyes light up when he sets them an assignment on childhood quirk analysis, and the way several of them exchange glances in silent agreement.
They'll get to the bottom of it, one way or another.
4.
Detective Tsukauchi can tell there's something going on when Kuramoto walks into the interrogation room with her arm in a bandage and the first thing Aizawa does is fret over her like she's about to bleed out on the precinct floor, while the woman herself shrugs off getting a knife to the shoulder as she accuses the department of mishandling juvenile cases. From that point on, he knows that anything he tries to say regarding the Akiyama case is just white noise in whatever romantic drama is playing out between the two of them. When the interview finally concludes, Tsukauchi sinks into his chair and sighs.
Well, at least from now on they'll be the Hero Commission's problem instead of his.
5.
In hindsight, it's all a little embarrassing for Akane. Months of agonising over feelings she thought were unrequited, only to learn that not only were they very much mutual but that it was obvious to pretty much everyone except her? Kal will never let her live it down. Still, it's hard to stay mad when the result of all that meddling is so overwhelmingly positive. For the first time since she was a child, Kuro has a life she's truly happy in; a job she loves, friends who care for her, and - most miraculously - someone beside her that has seen her as she is and decided to stay. For that, she could forgive her friends and colleagues just about anything.
Aizawa tries to hold a grudge over it, he really does. The idea of people gossiping about his personal life is galling to say the least; even moreso when said gossip ends up being a more reliable assessment of the situation than his own. But maybe the experiences of the last few months have softened him, because even when faced with Kageyama's shit-eating grin or Hizashi's victorious hollering after Shouta finally admits the relationship, all he can muster is amused exasperation. He likes to think that he and Akane would have eventually figured it out without the intervention of their peers - but as it stands, he's nowhere near as angry as he thought he would be.
That is, until he finds out about the the office-wide wager on their relationship, which is ultimately claimed by Recovery Girl who bet that it would take at least four months and no less than two shared near-death experiences for them to finally make it official.
Who knew romantic turmoil could be so profitable?