Wonderland - 3

Eraserhead x Els

_


"What?"

"Is Mr. Aizawa okay?"

"What the hell happened?!"

The students crowding the sidelines were chattering away. 

Midnight gestured to the blond-haired man standing nearby with a smirk on his face. "Crowd control there, Mic."

"Sure, yeah." He chuckled under his breath. "Geez, the guy I never thought would fall for any woman, anyone, really - boom! Gone in a day." He raised his voice and waved to get the kids' attention. "We're going back to the assembly room! Let's go, go, go!"

Elly groaned dismally. "What a mess." She hid her face in her hands. "My first day, and this - this never happened before with anyone else. The drug is supposed to make him open to suggestion, and I asked what he was afraid of!"

"You don't know this asshole." Midnight watched the other male teachers carry him to the bleachers and sit him down. "He's - well, he's not in touch with any feelings. I've only ever seen him angry, I think." She pursed her lips, tapping a neatly-manicured nail against them in thought. "I must admit I'm surprised, though. I didn't know the scruffy guy had that in him!"

"Y - yeah." Elly's ears quivered. She could still feel his lips pressing so urgently to hers. His breath was warm and she could smell coffee as he panted, which she had tasted the next moment when his tongue had slipped easily past her lips. He had gone straight for the most intimate kiss since his repressed desires had lashed out. But although it had to have been a shock for him as well, he had been so gentle. Her face burned so hot with embarrassment she took off a glove and pressed it to one cheek.

Cementoss motioned to them and they sidled over. "I hate to tell you, but Jiro heard." He paused, since Elly didn't know their names yet. "The one with the ear jacks. Pale girl, red teardrop makeup."

"Oh, shit." She clapped a hand over her face. "She heard me?"

"Yes. Oh, and he's coming around." Aizawa groaned. Elly whipped around so she wouldn't have to be the first thing he saw.

"Quickly, then," Midnight said firmly. "Mic has them back in the other room. We'll nip this in the bud."

Elly forcibly controlled her emotions, acutely aware of the irony at her doing so as she walked as fast as she could back to the previous room. She was in front of the kids before all of them had piled in and saw every one of 1-A's shocked faces - Aizawa was their homeroom teacher, after all. It was difficult to wait until the entire group was settled, but when Snipe arrived with the news that their teacher was fine and would be with them shortly they calmed down a bit. Cementoss had been left behind to bring him back inside.

The cat woman cleared her throat. "Okay, then. Let's start off simple. My quirk is invisibility - " she smiled faintly when the invisible girl she'd noticed before cheered and got loudly shushed by her friends. "And although it's rare, mine is different than most invisible quirks. I control by touch what I want to be invisible. Myself, my clothes, other items or people."

The door opened and she jumped, her tail shooting straight up behind her and her ears flicking wildly. It was only the blocky cement hero, who nodded at her questioning look. He was awake, and would be joining them shortly. Elly bit her lip, her pale features seeming to turn whiter in contrast to the blush she was sporting. Yet she pulled her chin up and continued on. "It's not enough to turn invisible if you want to catch villains, though. I have a degree in psychology, enough to suggest certain things while engaging people." 

She held up a hand, flexing the paw pads on her glove. "These have claws, just like a real cat." Several sharp, thin metal pieces slid out. "They're coated in a hallucinogenic drug. Nothing poisonous, just enough to keep someone tractable. Also easily suggestible to anything I may have said earlier."

One of the students raised their hand and she nodded. "But you asked Mr. Aizawa if he was afraid of anything."

"Yes." Knowing her audience and their ages, she knew what they would be focused on, so she continued before the inevitable follow-up question was asked. "People are complicated. They have many different fears." There was a weary sigh then, and the click of a door shutting. Aizawa was back, looking more tired than usual. Mineta hooted raucously and he snapped his head to the side, hair rising and eyes flashing red. The small young man whimpered and sank down in his chair. 

"I think," Aizawa said in his usual deadpan voice, "I need to say a few things." He walked over to Elly and exhaled once more, pinching the bridge of his nose in his forefinger and thumb. "I acted in a very irrational manner. I apologize for the liberty I took."

"It's not your fault," she said more calmly than she felt. "You actually helped me, you know. I've never encountered that reaction before, but it might happen again. Now I can be ready for it."

He didn't look convinced that she forgave him but he nodded and turned his dead eyes back to the students. "This is exactly like we tried to prepare you about different quirks. You can't fight back if you don't know how the effect is going to be on..."

The kids groaned. Things had been so juicy before, and he had, of course, turned it into a boring teachable moment. Elly stepped back slightly, letting him drone on. Eventually the kids and teachers went their separate ways as the final bell rang. Elly thanked every religious icon she could under her breath that the assembly had been the last event of the day. She washed her face in the nearest bathroom and mentally prepared herself for facing any curious teachers or students she might face on her way out. It was no use waiting until everyone had left since someone was always hanging around. She slunk into lounge to get her things and froze when she saw Aizawa sitting in a chair facing the door. He was not drinking a coffee or doing anything at all. He simply sat, and her first thought was he had been waiting for her. 

He held up a hand. "Wait - I am sorry. I would like a chance to explain myself properly."

"I know you didn't mean it." She grabbed her bag from a locker nearby. "It's just..."

"No."

Her ears perked. "Wh - what?"

"I meant it," Aizawa said firmly. "The kiss." He grimaced, forcing himself to go on. "I'm ... attracted to you."

"Wow." She sat heavily in the chair facing him. Her striped tail swished madly about, slapping the floor in a restless beat. "Um. Eraser..."

"You don't have to answer that," he cut her off so fast she blinked. Typical behavior of someone who thought they knew what the other was about to say. A defense mechanism so he wouldn't get hurt. Her ears perked forward intently, the blush returning. He didn't have facial hair so much as he stayed unshaven for what looked like days at a time. His gray, tired eyes were speckled with flecks of blood, he was pale, and there was an ugly scar underneath one of them. His hair was unkempt, simply falling down over his shoulders, and it always looked just a little greasy. If he was as unattractive as this all seemed to suggest, then why was her heart pounding?

"Eraser."

"Please do not interrupt me." He sounded strained and she reached out and touched his hands, neatly-folded before him on the table. He glanced up, startled. 

"Aizawa," she said quietly, using his last name to get through to him. It was more relaxed than his professional name, but still appropriate to do in Japan for a colleague. "I think you're cute."

Her lips twitched at his mortified expression. "Cute?!" He choked. "Is that - are you..."

"I have it on very good authority that you don't lose your composure often, you know." She smiled shyly. "And yet, I've done it to you how many times now? I get it. And I'm just as interested."

He swore under his breath. "You won't get the better of me all the time," he promised. 

"Of course not. That would hardly be any fun."

He frowned slightly, then cleared his throat. "Do you want to go get coffee?"

"Now?"

"Later. I don't like to wear my costume in public if I have to." He plucked at the front of the black jumpsuit. "They have dates in America, right?"

Her ears flicked straight up. "Yes!" She giggled faintly at his sarcastic tone, then nodded. "To both. Wait -" She grabbed her things and rummaged around in her bag. "Here's my number." He entered her information and gave her his. "I'm at the local hotel right around the corner. Room 15b."

"6 o'clock."