Karaoke Night (Shota)

Elly's phone let out a quiet mew; she grabbed it immediately. That specific tone meant it was a rare text from a member of the faculty at U.A. She glanced at her phone and raised her eyebrows.

Eraserhead: I will need to talk with you at some point about Eri's development. Are you available?

Cheshire: I'm at the karaoke place down the street from campus. Will be home soon, I can text you then.

She set the phone aside and whistled lowly. Looks like she would be getting some one-on-one time with Aizawa!

The homeroom teacher slipped his phone into his pocket. She was at the karaoke place and he was close by. Logically it would make sense to meet her there. They could walk back to school together.

Upon arriving, he pushed the door open and dipped behind the fabric curtain to speak with the owner of the establishment. Unfortunately, his unshaven face and the dark circles under his eyes caused him to be perceived once again as a threat instead of the Hero he actually was.

"I can't disclose information like that," the man told him firmly.

"We're colleagues," Aizawa explained dryly. "You know who she is, right? I work at the school as well." He showed his campus I.D and the man's attitude changed quickly.

"Ah, yes. My apologies... she did tell us that if someone came for her from the school it would be all right. In that case, Ms. Sketchit is in the room on the left, farthest from the door. It's number five."

"Thanks." He shuffled off down the hall, peering at the numbers in the dim lighting.

There's room five.

He cracked the door and entered into a music-filled room with a small booth on one side. She had her back to him and was in the middle of a song, completely oblivious to the world around her.

Aizawa was about to tap her on the shoulder to get her attention but froze upon hearing her voice. It rang out, rich, deep and throbbing with emotion as she sang. It was a Japanese song, so he understood the words, and his brows drew together in a thoughtful frown. It was a piece about loving a man so much that it hurt, and not only that, it involved much reflection on the man's eyes: how gorgeous they were and full of light.

He paused, his frown growing deeper.

Just a coincidence.

It had to be. But this was not a popular song, and it was an older one from many years ago. He remembered it only because he had been teased relentlessly by Hizashi when it had come out when they were teenagers. It was a deliberate choice, then, but what of that?

Was there the possibility that she was singing about him because they had just been texting?

Occam's Razor, he reminded himself. She picked it because...

The song ended and to his mortification she bent over and began to weep softly.

... because of me! It might be me!

Elly sighed brokenly, her fingers rubbing the bridge of her nose and her purple eyes filled with pain. She had come here to let everything out, all the bottled up emotions she was forced to keep to herself on campus. As a trained therapist, she knew stifling your feelings was a bad idea and her preferred method for letting go was singing. But this song had struck a nerve; she didn't feel better but worse, heartbroken and sappy.

She turned around and blinked away her tears in confusion. There he was. Amazed, she reached out, convinced this was a hallucination brought on by her not eating enough and her strongest desires.

Aizawa's gray eyes widened. Her hand lightly touched the stubble on his cheek and she flinched wildly back, her ears and tail shooting straight up in her shock. She ended up falling half over the booth, her feet in the air.

"Aizawa! What the hell!"

He shook his head and offered her his hand. "Sorry. I was trying not to startle you." He pulled her easily up when she grasped his forearm.

"Ugh. Wait, so why are you here? Did something happen?"

He coughed, embarrassed. "I apologize again. I ... wanted to hear you sing."

"What?!"

"Did you not hear me?" He rubbed at the back of his neck.

Elly leaned against the booth, running a hand over her face. She breathed deeply and turned back to look him right in the eyes. "Aizawa," she asked softly, "are you interested in me?"

Here was a no-nonsense question he could answer, and part of the reason she intrigued him so much. "Yes."

She swayed on her feet for a moment, eyes wide. "H - how interested?"

He pondered this a moment, watching her with warm, gray eyes. "I want to be with you," he said simply, shrugging. Then he reached out and took her hand in his, carefully and slowly placing it over his heart. "Do you want to be with me?"

"Yes." The word had never slipped out of her so quickly. The cotton of his shirt was thin, and the beating of his heart very strong and fast.

He smiled a very soft smile at her, and she wondered what she had done to secure what she had wanted most in all the world. In the end, she supposed, it didn't really matter. The only thing that did was how he was looking at her, and that she could finally look back the same way.