Very Berry Christmas

They thought the time was right. It was nearly Christmas and everyone was in the holiday spirit! There were decorations and music and good food to make and enjoy. And of course there were gifts to give.

Class 1-A had maneuvered their homeroom teacher and the school counselor together, in his classroom, to try and give them something this year, too. The plans had been laid and target achieved. Now Mina, the resident shipper, was to spring the trap.

The perky pink girl was grinning enthusiastically at them and pointing.

Aizawa sighed the sigh of a long-suffering man, his bloodshot eyes tiredly following his student's finger up. Elly also glanced, quickly, wondering what on earth the teenager thought was important enough to interrupt the cranky homeroom teacher. Both adults saw and reacted at the same time, Eraserhead clutching the edge of his desk tightly in both hands while she reeled backwards.

A thin line of red ribbon connected to the ceiling and running down above them ended in a white berry and shiny green leaf bouquet.

Mistletoe.

To say their teacher was furious would not have done his mood justice. His gray eyes burned away into blazing red as his hair swept upright and he slammed his palms down with a sharp crack! that made the counselor wince.

"If you've got enough time to waste on foolish pranks like this, you can spend the rest of class tending to your gear."

They all groaned and he used his capture weapon to snap at the ribbon, breaking it and causing the bundle to fall. Elly reached out and caught it swiftly.

"You don't want this making a mess," she murmured. "I'll take it with me." And with that she turned and walked to the door.

"My apologies for my class' childish antics," he grunted sourly.

"Childish," she murmured with a little shake of her head. "You know, their hearts were in the right place. Don't be so hard on them, Aizawa."

He blinked at her in confusion as she closed the door firmly shut behind her.

The hell was that about?

When he sat in his chair and looked up at his class, he saw most of them frowning in disapproval. Mina was near tears so Ochako was the first to speak; she raised her hand and falteringly said, "That wasn't really nice, Mr. Aizawa."

He rubbed at his eyes and stared blankly back. "It was unacceptable, is what it was. I want no more of this out of any of you." His gaze swept over all of them. "In the ... spirit of the holidays I'm going to let it slide one final time. But listen up."

Aizawa stood, hands flat on his desk once more and his jaw set so hard they could see the ripples of muscle clenching. A vein throbbed in his forehead and he spoke so deadly quiet they all turned white.

"Any more romantic 'suggestions' per myself and the counselor and I'll find out who is responsible and get them expelled. This is unheroic behavior unfitting of our school."

"But -"

"We only wanted to -"

"I told you assholes not to pull that mushy crap!"

"Kacchan!"

"We're sorry, Mr. Aizawa, " Tsuyu said with a low ribbit. "We didn't know it upset you that much." She tilted her head at him, blinking her large eyes sadly.

He snorted. "It doesn't affect me," he said curtly. "I'm more concerned about your behavior and reckless regard of Ms. Cheshire's professional status. Now get back to cleaning."

"Yes, sir," they all sighed in unison.

Their next class was English with Present Mic, and they were all irritated and talking amongst themselves about Aizawa and the mistletoe before the bell rang.

The Voice Hero heard and he waved at them to get their attention. "You guys don't learn, huh? Aizawa is a hardass. He's never gonna crack, 'specially if you push him." He paused. "But - you know... you really do need to quit."

"But Mr. Mic, they like each other!"

"Yeah, we know they do. It's soooo obvious."

"And disgusting," Bakugo sneered.

"I know yer only tryin' to help." Mic shook his head and lowered his voice. "But you made her cry, yo," he told them sadly. "I walked by Ches' office before I came here and she was holding a clump of mistletoe and bawlin' her eyes out."

Ochako's hands flew to cover her mouth in horror. "Oh, no!"

"Shit."

"Yeah, well. Bell's rung, get yer books out. But you all better think about how you might apologize to them both, later."

And they really wanted to.

All of class 1-A showed up at Elly's office right before lunch. They had even dragged Bakugo along with them and he stood there grumbling as she opened the door.

Mina was in the front as she was the biggest pusher for the two teachers getting together. She bent her head and apologized.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Cheshire. We went too far this time."

"Mic says you were crying," Bakugo snorted from the back. A solid sounding thump caused him to yelp in pain, then swear.

"What? Oh, no! I'm fine." Elly smiled warmly at them. "I was far more concerned about you all. You'd better not tease him like that again, you know - he hasn't got the tolerance for it."

"We won't."

"Yeah, we promise," the brown-haired girl said quietly. "I'm sorry. We're all sorry."

"It's okay, really." She flicked her furry ears at the sound of the bell. "All right, then, it's lunchtime. Go ahead, I've got to run, I'm starving!"

They watched her cautiously as she walked down the hall.

"The cafeteria's the other way," Midoriya pointed out to no one in particular.

Elly walked at a normal pace until she was certain the kids were out of range, then darted into the closest ladies room. She had to regroup and recover before going back to her office. There was no way in hell she was eating anything when her insides felt like they had been twisted into knots. But they didn't need to know that; nobody did. Especially Aizawa.

The Erasure Hero was on his way to grab a coffee when his friend grabbed his arm and dragged him into an empty classroom. He didn't waste time either.

"You're always an insensitive bastard, but this time you went too far! You made Ches cry, you idiot!"

"She what?"

"Shhh, keep it down!" Mic slapped the side of his head in one palm, dragging it down. "You asshole, you really hurt her feelings!"

"You're mistaken, Mic," he shook his head. "The kids upset her, not me. Why the hell would she be upset by me putting a stop to that nonsense?"

"Because she likes you! She's got emotions other'n pissed, ya know, unlike you."

Aizawa stared the taller man down and then inexplicably stomped off without a further word, his scruffy features set in a harder scowl than usual. As he made his way through the thinning crowd of students, his hands thrust deeply into his pockets and head lowered in his capture thread, he couldn't get the image of her crying out of his mind.

He hated seeing others in pain.

Most heroes did in general, but he was forced to admit that he had a heightened level of empathy about the Insanity Hero. When she hurt, he did. His head disappeared a little more into the scarves around his neck as he berated himself for being more of a fool than his students.

Maybe he should check on her. If anything, he could apologize for their actions again and reassure her that she would never be embarrassed like that ever again.

He coughed dry, bitter laughter.

After all, who the hell would like being lumped together with his ugly ass?

He tapped on her door and was mildly surprised that it opened, as he thought she was in the teacher's lounge eating like usual. Maybe Mic had been right.

Elly smoothed her ears back and forced a smile when she saw who it was. "Hey, Aizawa. What's up."

"I wanted to check in on you. Someone," he was deliberately vague, although she would probably easily guess, "told me you were upset by this morning's disruption."

She took a deep breath. "I'll tell you the same thing I told your kids. I'm perfectly fi -" Her glorious purple eyes widened and her mouth worked as he reached out to place a hand on her shoulder.

It was a somewhat hesitant gesture, meant to get past the moment in as comradely a fashion as he could muster. What it really told her was that he was taking this very seriously: he never bothered to console his peers like this. It broke her already-strained facade and she started to shake.

"Please don't," she husked in a voice near tears. "You don't have to act like you care so much. It hurts. It hurts more than when the kids think you're actually interested in me!"

His bloodshot eyes popped open, startled, and she took his moment of confusion to flicker into invisibility and rush past him out the door.

What was worse was she avoided him all day after that. He tried to see her but after several incidents gave up to wait for when she left work. Since the staff lived on campus, it was impossible to hide. She went home directly after she finished up for the day and hoped that was it.

Unfortunately her doorbell rang moments after she walked into her home, and she knew he was not going to let it drop.

Wincing, she opened it to find Aizawa was still dressed in his hero costume. He must have followed her as quickly as possible.

"I'm sorry if I upset you earlier." He rubbed at the back of his neck, his ears burning. "I did not intend to cause you further distress."

She sighed. "Thank you. Don't worry about it." He stuck his foot in the door as she started to close it and she looked up, frowning. "What..?"

"Look," he forced out in a strangled voice, "that's not the whole apology, okay?"

"It isn't?" He motioned at her, and she let him in. "Now what?"

He reached into his neck gear and pulled out a small, thin box. It was festively wrapped in gold, red and green and shone under the light from the foyer.

"I, uh... is this from the gift exchange? I didn't -"

"No." He cast his eyes aside and she saw he was actually blushing - the burn flooded not only his ears and cheeks but had run down his neck as well. "Please open it."

Her fingers were numb but she managed to tear the shiny wrapping away and opened the box. Inside was a small handwritten piece of index card in his handwriting that read, "Look up."

A whirling flurry of gray fabric crossed in patterns hovered above them both like an archway. And dangling in the middle was a sprig of mistletoe. It was so fresh and bright it was clear he had purchased a new bunch. Then she felt warm, strong arms circle around her waist and gasped, her eyes lowering until they met his, so close their noses were almost touching.

"They're right, you know," he murmured. "I'm more than interested."

His lips were dry when he pressed them to hers, a little rough, but very gentle.

Just like him.