Joke Dump

Aizawa Shota <i>hated</i> it when Ms. Joke arrived on campus - or, really, came anywhere near him -- for any reason. She clung to him, made insinuating comments and he had caught her staring at inappropriate areas of his body more than once. He constantly had to cancel out her quirk, since she was determined to see him laugh, and it was extra tiring to be around the woman.

Today was not a good day.

Aizawa, Joke, and Present Mic were standing on a training field near the main school grounds waiting. Cheshire was involved in this exercise but hadn't arrived yet and the students also had yet to show. This was possibly why Joke decided to suddenly tackle her crush in a massive hug, knocking him to the ground in an impressive display of sheer effort which was mostly due to his utter astonishment at her growing audacity.

Mic watched warily, knowing better than to get involved. He glanced back towards the campus and saw a figure standing still a fair distance away.

Elly stood on the field, frozen in place and staring as the scene unfolded before her. She walked over the hill just after Aizawa got pinned, and all she could see were his dark-sleeved arms around the garish orange and teal outfit Joke wore. Mic turned at the sound of her gasping, and he caught a brief glimpse of anguish on her face before she vanished.

The sound of footfalls faded into the distance as she ran.

"Uh, Ches left," Mic murmured as Aizawa finally managed to shove his unwelcome, giggling leech off.

"She what?" He frowned hard at his friend. "We told her to meet us here. The kids will be here any minute now."

"And there they are!" Joke waved cheerfully at the group as they walked in a vibrant, chatty group towards them.

Aizawa grit his teeth and they went through the lesson without her. After the students were groaning, trudging back to the dormitory much slower than they had arrived, he huffed in irritation.

"Ches should have been here," he said angrily. "I'm going to ask her what the hell she thinks she's doing."

"Uh, that might not be such a good idea - oh! He's gone." Mic scratched the back of his head, making a face. "Welp, guess he's gonna learn something."

Ms. Joke waved a hand airily about. "Don't know what you're talking about," she said in an exaggerated, dreamy voice. "Mmm. N'don't care, either."

-

Class 1-A's homeroom teacher was unbelievably pissed.

Cheshire was not one to shirk her duties, and to hear she had arrived but left the area before the kids got there was baffling to him. He kept going over multiple scenarios in his head, and, of course, because he was Aizawa Shota, he never once thought of the right one.

Aizawa roughly pushed the door to the counselor's office open without knocking. "Hey. You were supposed to be at the field at eleven. You can't just go running off -"

"Shit!" Elly was hunched over in her chair, purple hair drooping over her face. She jerked upright and before he could make sense of the wetness on her cheeks she turned invisible.

His eyes burned red, his own hair shooting up as he raised his voice. "What the hell, Cheshire! You're acting worse than a bratty student! Stop hiding from your responsibilities and ...and. Ches?" He broke off, hair slowly floating down and the fire in his eyes dying. When she had become visible he had locked eyes with her, and the pain in them caused him to falter to a stop.

She sat stiffly, smiling at him rather woodenly through the tears running down her face. "Yes," she said quietly. "Yes. I shouldn't hide, should I? What's the point?"

"What are you doing?" He frowned, confused. "What happened? Are the other kids okay?"

"Everything is fine," Elly told him firmly, though her voice cracked a little as she spoke. She cleared her throat and stood. "I won't bother you about your ...relationship with Joke. But please, try to keep it professional at work. At least when I'm around."

"My what?" Now Aizawa was absolutely perplexed. His brow knit further, causing him to appear more brooding and even angrier. "What are you talking about? She's the one that constantly assaults me." A new thought crossed his mind as he said this, and he looked up, eyebrows raising. "Did you see her knock me over earlier?"

"I don't need to talk about it!" She pushed him out the door, shaking with an onslaught of emotions. "Just go! I apologized for earlier. Just... <i>go</i>, okay?"

Aizawa blinked at the door as it was shut securely in his face.


-


"He's comin' back," Mic muttered nervously, tugging on his fingerless gloves.

"Oh, shit." Joke giggled, obviously unrepentant. "On a scale of one to ten, how pissed is he?"

The Voice Hero glanced out over the campus' neatly manicured lawn where he could see a dark speck rapidly closing the distance between them. "Uh, I'd say around seven. Hundred."

To say he was furious would not do him justice. When he got closer they could see his grim features twisted into a snarl of rage. He went straight for Ms. Joke, pointing an accusing finger at her.

"You ignore my attempts to tell you I'm not interested, fine. You badger me un-fucking-mercilessly for years. But you've done it this time. <i>You made her cry.</i>."

"I, uh... who's that now?" She scratched her head, leaning over with her face scrunched up in confusion.

"Cheshire!" His voice rose as his hair did, his eyes burning red and hot with fury - and his quirk -- as he inadvertently activated it. "That woman has gone through hell and fucking back and I've <i>never</i> seen her get emotional. I work with her at school and on the Pro Hero circuit, damn it, and I've helplessly watched as she got shot up with spines, stabbed, thrown like a rag doll into a third story building..."

"Oh! Don't forget the time she got hit by that one quirk ...o-o-o-kay, I'm leavin', sorry." Mic held up his hands and scooted away to safety as his friend's ire was directed at him mid-sentence.

Ms. Joke frowned for once. "Wait, does this mean you like her?"

"Of course I do! She's one of my colleagues."

"So am I, technically." She leaned back on the balls of her feet, lips pursed.

"One that doesn't bother the shit out of me constantly!" Aizawa snapped. "If she does feel more than friendship for me she keeps it to herself, even if I might want -" He snapped his mouth quickly shut as that last part blurted out.

"You do, then. Huh. Heh." A forced chuckle fell flatly out of her mouth, then a bigger one, and finally she was laughing like her usual self, bent over and wiping at her eyes. "You - you've fallen in love and <i>you don't even know it!</i> Oh god, that's so - so... <i>you</i>!"

Aizawa looked like he'd swallowed an entire lemon tree, let alone a single fruit. He raised his hand, finger up, to make some logical argument, and then slowly, very slowly dropped it as he realized she was right. His dark tresses sank down around his shoulders and the fire died in his eyes, leaving them charcoal gray again and stunned.

"That's fine," she wheezed. "Really! The look on your face is priceless. Ohmigod. You really didn't know. Even after chasing me down to scream at me because she - she got upset earlier."

He shook his head. "She's still upset."

"W - wait, what? And you think she doesn't like you?! Shit. It's a good thing you're so hot. You're not the brightest when it comes to relationships."

"Enough!" He spun on his heel and headed back the way he had come, muttering under his breath.

"Good luck confessing!" She waved cheerfully at him and got a shoulder twitch for her trouble.


-


Aizawa had to find her.

And, of course, this time she wasn't in her office. He swore as he realized he was now playing hide-and-seek with a person with an invisibility quirk. He kept at it, scouring the halls when he had free time. He didn't give up, and eventually later on in the day he came across the tired woman in a barely-used back room. She was leaning against the front desk, her tail drooping as she wept.

"Hey," he called out awkwardly, stepping quickly over and touching her shoulder in support. She staggered against him and he grunted and swung her easily into his arms before she sagged and fell. "<i>Hey</i>, it's me. You really still crying?"

Elly buried her head in his upper chest, burrowing under his scarves to hide.

"Oh, no you don't." He pulled a chair up and sat, placing her on his lap sideways.

"Don't want you to see me this way," she husked.

"Look, just... stop, please. Okay?" He wiped wetness from her cheeks with careful fingers. "Please? For me? I - I hate seeing you upset."

She swallowed back her cries, catching them before they could escape. Unfortunately, this made her shake harder as she struggled to hold the emotions in.

Aizawa caught her gaze and drew in a sharp breath. Those dark purple eyes were huge, shining with unshed tears. The pain in them showed it was difficult for her to do what he requested, but she was trying.

"I'm sorry. You don't have to stop. I shouldn't have told you to." He cleared his throat and held her tighter, rocking back in the chair without a second thought. "You never cry, and we all need to sometimes. Especially if what's inside has been there so <i>very</i> long." His voice dropped and he husked this next in as sexy a tone as he could manage. "Ches? Has it been bottled up in your heart for a long time? These ...feelings?"

She bit her lip harder, her dark eyes huge and her cat's ears laying back.

"Cute," he sighed, reaching up to rub them and earning a soft mew for his efforts. "You're blushing, kitten. Does that mean yes? Does that mean these feelings are for <i>me</i>?"

A pause. She trembled in his arms, her tail puffing up the slightest bit. Aizawa knew cats; he knew what her body language meant.

"Don't be afraid," he whispered softly. "I have them, too. For you."

"Ai - Aizawa?"

His lips twitched in a slow, rare smile. "If you like, you can call me Shota."

"But -"

"Yes, it means we're close." He chuckled at her confusion as she squirmed around in his lap. "But we are, aren't we? And I mean to get a whole lot closer. With your consent, of course."

-

From that point on, Emi Fukukado's focus dropped from chasing after Aizawa to trying to catch the new couple in any act of a romantic nature.

"I thought she was worse when she was after me," he groaned. Elly wiped sweat off his brow as the two of them hid in a utility closet.

"I have to admit, I kind of like this better," she admitted blandly.