The tired homeroom teacher looked behind him at his nervously tittering class. His students were precocious as hell this year, and certainly interested in their scruffy teacher. Aizawa had saved their lives more than once, and taught them so much.
The least they could do was pry their way into his personal life, right?
He stared blankly at them. "Not that it's any of your business, but who says I <i>don't</i> have a girlfriend?"
"Wait - you do?" Izuku blinked at the man, shocked. He flipped a few pages and stared down at his notepad, frowning, as if his extensive notes would reveal the secret.
"Who <i>cares</i>," Bakugo snarled, rubbing at his hair. "I don't need to be thinking about that kind of shit."
"Who is she?!" Several others chimed in all at once. Mineta had perked up at the possibility of seeing a photo, but Aizawa shook his head.
"You don't need to know."
"Awwww," the purple-haired teenager pouted, sinking into his chair. "I bet you don't really have one."
"Where does she work? Where'd you meet? What -"
The dark-haired man sighed and shuffled around to stand in front of his desk. "If I answer one question, will you be quiet about it?"
"Two," Mina blurted out, haggling shrewdly. "And we won't say anything to anyone for the rest of the day."
He squinted at her, realizing this was probably his best option. "All right," he gave in with a low groan.
"Where does she work? We've never seen you with anyone other than the teachers here at U.A."
He folded his arms. "She works at National Hero Academy."
They all groaned.
"I could've come up with a better one than <i>that</i>," Kaminari said, rolling his eyes as he fiddled with the soft puff on the end of Mashirao's tail.
"Yeah, that sounds fake."
"Too far!"
"It's the classic long distance girlfriend joke."
"What's her job?" Mina asked shrewdly.
Aizawa stared hard at her for a solid minute, but the pink girl didn't flinch. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with two fingers. "You'll look her up if I tell you," he sighed roughly. "That's enough. I don't care if you believe me. Now back to work."
He immediately shut down any discussion after that, but, as Mina later hinted, he hadn't fulfilled his side of the bargain so the topic was fair game. They set to work on the teacher of their next class, who, as it so happened, was Aizawa's best friend.
"Mr. Mic! Mr. Mic! We heard Mr. Aizawa has a girlfriend!"
"Please tell us about her, Mr. Yamada!"
"I still don't give a shit."
The tall blond man choked loudly. "Aizawa?! Ya want <i>me</i> to rat on him? What're ya, nuts?" He tapped the English book on his desk. "He'd freaking kill me if I let slip anything about the counselor from America."
Mina covered her mouth to hide her laughter. Mic strut back and forth in front of the wide-eyed teens, gesturing wildly as he used the mention of America to segue into his lesson.
That was okay. They knew two crucial parts of the puzzle now, so they were sure they'd figure it out. After school hours the class gathered around in the common area of their dormitory to discuss this amazing news.
Izuku had been the first to think of looking up teachers at the Western school.
"So, he said National, right? We can narrow it down now since Mr. Mic told us she was the counselor."
"Looks like ..." He frowned, searching on his phone. "Emilie Sato is the counselor."
"Got any pictures?"
"Yeah, but - wait. There's something else. It says that Ms. Sato was only hired recently because there was some sort of scandal with the old counselor."
"Oooh!" Mina leaned in over his shoulder, wiggling with excitement. "Look it up! Go down the rabbit hole, Izuku!"
"What an odd phrase," a dry voice spoke suddenly from behind them. The kids all jumped, some guiltily and others in sheer terror when they recognized their teacher's sardonic tone. "An <i>Alice in Wonderland</i> term, isn't it?"
Izuku gulped. "Uh, sir, yes sir. It means -"
Aizawa held up a hand. His face looked even more tired than usual as he replied, "I'm aware of what it means."
"We're sorry," Mina blurted out all at once. "We just want to find out who on earth could capture <i>your</i> heart, Mr. Aizawa! You're not exactly ...um."
"All right." He chuckled, the sound devoid of humor. "You know, Mic shouldn't have teased you like that. Just be patient."
Several days later a small group were walking back from training to campus. They decided to cut through an unused area with a lot of trees, normally only seen by joggers in the early morning and evenings.
"Wait - over by the end of the trail... is that Mr. Aizawa?"
The Erasure Hero was standing close to a shorter woman with a purple-striped catsuit, complete with paw gloves and boots. She wore a small mask with a smiling cat's grin on it, and she pulled it down to reveal a huge smile as well. As the kids watched the couple embraced, Aizawa possesively clutching her waist so the fabric of her suit bunched lightly under his hands. As she ran her hands through his hair he bent and kissed her, a long, deep, desperate kind of kiss that suggested the two had been parted for some time. Her tail fluffed out and curled around his legs, causing Aizawa's hair to shoot straight up like he did when he was using his quirk.
Mina couldn't help it; she <i>squealed</i> with glee at the sight of the taciturn homeroom teacher in such a passionate embrace.
The woman's cat ears shot up and the two heroes suddenly flickered out of sight.
Izuku frowned, scratching his head as he ticked off a few things mentally.
Striped, grinning cat ...invisibility quirk.
"Ohhhh. <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>," Izuku blurted out loudly. "I get it."
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