The students at U.A. had just finished a huge ice cream party. It had been a special event for them, hosted by a local place that was known for having many different flavors of the cold stuff.
After the kids had departed, the teachers came in to clean up the rest. The owners were a wonderful couple and they made sure to restock flavors they ran out of when the staff arrived in their casual clothing. Introductions were made, not a few autographs given, and then they settled down to chat and eat.
Elly's tail was flicking lazily back and forth with pleasure as she munched on a small bowl of the one flavor no one had touched: vanilla with lobster chunks. She also had a scoop of bubblegum beside her and a cup to deposit the gum chunks in as she ate.
Aizawa sat on one side of her with a bowl of sea salt and Hizashi on the other. The monstrous mound of scoops in the Voice Hero's dish was nothing short of amazing, and she glanced over and laughed.
"Huh?" He looked at what she was eating and covered his mouth with one hand. "Oh, shit Ches. Barf."
"Honestly, Hizashi..." She sighed, although she was grinning. "You're going to make fun of my choice? How many do you have in there? All at once?"
"Uh." He stared down at his bowl. "Seven? Eight. It's eight."
"He has a notorious sweet tooth," Midnight commented from across the table. She dug in to her bowl of cherry with relish. "Probably doesn't even care what flavor he's eating, as long as he gets his sugar rush."
Hizashi stuffed his spoon in and dug out a huge bite covered in marshmallow. "I want you to know I have a refined palate, okay? I won't eat ... that." He glanced aside at Elly's choice once more.
Aizawa snickered. "That's only because lobsters look like bugs."
Hizashi cringed, his forehead drawing up tight. "Ewww, c'mon, I'm tryna eat!" He paused, then, seeing she had finished hers. "Hey, you wanna try some of mine? I bet it's way yummier."
She narrowed her eyes at him, and then the mountain in his dish. "Only if you'll try some I pick."
"Aww... damn it. Okay, go get 'em."
Aizawa snorted, and Midnight raised an eyebrow but said nothing as Elly jumped up to go get a bunch more. Yagi had just arrived, much to the shop owners' delight. They had been posing for pictures with the weakened form of All Might as the rest of the teachers smiled tolerantly. The tall blond man smiled at her as he walked past to get a seat and she chuckled at his choice of plain vanilla.
The counselor returned, triumphant and beaming, a few minutes later with eight scoops to match Hizashi's. They were much smaller, however.
"All right."
He pointed at a glob of tan colored confection on the side. "Start with that."
She tasted it, wrinkling her nose in thought. "Butterscotch?"
"And little chunks of Butterfingers in it." He sighed happily.
"I don't know how to tell you this, Zashi, so I'm just going to come right out and say it..."
His green-gold eyes behind the glasses blinked innocently at her. Midnight's eyebrows raised even higher at the little nickname she let drop. It was one thing to call the man by his given name, another to make that even more personal.
Elly held her breath. "I don't really like chocolate."
His mouth fell open. "Whaaat?!" The red-rimmed glasses he wore slid down his nose and he stared incredulously at her from over them.
She shrugged, her ears twitching shyly. "I just don't. Look, try this one. It's called Blue Heaven."
Hizashi took a tentative bite. "Are all of yours gonna have fruit?" She whacked him lightly on the arm and he cringed playfully. "Ouch! Okay okay! S'not bad."
"Isn't that a flavor from... um." Thirteen tapped a spoon against her helmet. Elly wondered vaguely how she was eating, as she always did when the Space Hero joined them. "Australia! That's it, right?"
"I think so. I do know that it's blue raspberry and vanilla, though. Really tasty."
"Your turn!" He chose more carefully, picking one without chocolate in it, and scooped a little on his spoon. "Open up!"
She dutifully complied, purring when she tasted this one. "Oh, hey. Birthday cake?"
"You like that one?"
"Yeah! Okay, now try this one. It's strawberry cheesecake..." Taking her cue from him, she lifted her spoon to his lips and he chomped down on it.
"Ohmigod," he said dreamily around the spoon in his mouth. "Thas' sooo good."
"Um, you got a little on your mustache." Elly's fingers gently stroked the points clean while he swallowed, his face burning and not breaking eye contact.
"Oh my god, just fuck already!" Midnight slammed her bowl down with an impatient snort.
"Kayama!"
"Holy shit!"
Elly and Hizashi blinked back at her with identical wide-eyed stares. He still had the end of her spoon in his mouth and her fingers rested on his upper lip.
"Well?" Midnight crossed her arms, her cheeks puffed out in a pout. "You two need a room, not ice cream."
The spoon in his mouth clattered to the floor as Hizashi's face turned several shades of red in his embarrassment. He choked awkwardly. "Kayama-a-a!"
Elly covered her face even as it vanished from sight with her hands. "I have to go," she announced hastily, jumping up and dashing out the door.
Ectoplasm, Snipe, Hound Dog and the others stared hard at Midnight from the end of the table but said nothing. They watched the distraught counselor rush out into the hall, her face invisible as she used her quirk to effectively hide.
Yagi sighed deeply. "Look what you did to that poor woman," he chided the 18+ Hero gently. "Yamada, why don't you go after her and see if she's okay? We'll take care of the cleanup."
"I, uh... d'ya think?" Hizashi pointed somewhat stupidly at the door. He seemed dazed and uncertain.
"Kayama might be a bit brash about it, but she means well."
She crossed her arms again. "I mean for them to get some. Do you all want to keep gagging every time they start flirting with each other?"
Aizawa shuddered at the thought and pushed the rest of his to the side. "Please," he muttered painfully.
"She likes you," Thirteen told Hizashi gently. "Go."
He got up abruptly and awkwardly rushed after her, his ears burning.
Hizashi wasn't sure if he could find her, especially if she chose to use her power fully. He was a little surprised to see she had collapsed on the floor right outside, her now-visible head between her knees.
"Hey," he murmured quietly. "Ches? You okay?"
"No," she groaned.
He slid down the wall next to her, stretching his long legs out in front. "Yeah, I kinda understand that. Me, too. That was pretty mean." She sniffed softly, and he frowned. "Uh! Are you cryin'? I'm - I'm really... I'm gonna show her some freakin' scream!" He grit his teeth at the rage he felt boil up inside.
Elly jerked upright, grasping his arm when she felt him start to move. "No! Zashi, don't take it out on her. She's right... I was being stupid."
"Huh?"
"I was flirting with you. I thought, I don't know. I know, it's highly unprofessional and bad for morale, too, and I really should know better because I'm a therapist -"
"Ches."
"And you probably won't want to even hang out with me anymore, or -"
"Ches!" Hizashi touched her shoulder, jerking his hand back guiltily when she froze. "It's, uh, okay." He pressed his two pointer fingers together and fidgeted, poking them at each other while the redness of his ears matched what had begun creeping out of the collar of his shirt. "Um. I was flirting, too."
Her ears slowly unfurled to perk in his direction. "You were?"
"Yeah." He coughed, his entire face now flaming. "I really like you."
Elly gasped. "Zashi?!"
"M'serious."
She reached out and lightly grasped his twitchy hands. He curled his palm around hers and they stared at their entwined hands for a long, drawn out minute.
"I like you, too." She swallowed, her throat making an audible clicking sound. "I wouldn't mind seeing more of you."
He giggled suddenly. "Not like Kayama suggested, though, right?"
The pause was so long that he looked up to see what was keeping her from answering. Elly's face was as red as his, her eyes downcast with a small, secretive smile barely curving her lips.
"No way," he whispered.
"Yes, way," she responded shyly.
The door cracked open and Aizawa stuck his head out, glanced down and spotted them. "Hey, you two. She's doubling down in there. You may want to hide before she starts trying to bash your heads together."
They nodded and stood up, still holding hands.
"My place?" He suggested.
"All right. It's closer." She rested against his warm side as they strolled casually away in the direction ofvthe teachers complex.
The scruffy man stared after them and nodded, then slipped back inside. Everyone watched him breathlessly as he slouched back to his place and picked up his spoon. He ate quietly for several minutes before the silence was broken.
Surprisingly, it was Yagi. "Aizawa? What happened?" He asked in a tense voice.
He shrugged. "I think Kayama is wrong. They're going to be worse after they have sex."
Midnight threw her hands up in the air. "Eraserhead, you ass! That's not what he asked!"
Aizawa's dry glare pierced them all as they hovered around him, some grinning and others clearly emotionally invested. Blood King was the only one who wasn't paying attention to the drama and had gotten up to get more cherry syrup on his ice cream instead.
"Fine," he sighed, defeated as he realized they wouldn't leave him alone. "They were headed to his place, holding hands."
He grimaced at the raucous laughter, cheers and applause this statement set off in the hall. He knew his original statement had been correct.
Those two were a pain in the ass even when they weren't here.
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