#and she keeps clearing her throat and SWEARING up and down that its not COVID...like...okay so its not...WEAR A MASK ANYWAY BITCH

[joni-witchell]

ITS APPARENTLY

"MAKE SURE YOU OVERSTIMULATE JO TODAY BY DOING THINGS SPECIFICALLY TAILORED TO ANNOY THEM" DAY FOR MY BOSS CAUSE GODDAAAAAAAAMN!

[stormtodoroki]

Appreciation Much Needed

Word count: 3.2k

Pairing: Aizawa Shouta x Reader

Warnings: Mentions of Covid-19, Fluff, brief swearing here and there, slight mentions of partial nudity, soft boy Aizawa

~~~~~Tags and Authors Note below

Ever since the news of a virus outbreak had been let loose, the tensions had been high everywhere we looked. People were panic buying items resulting in outages,it only increased when the schools had all closed down and non-essential businesses were temporarily shut down. This meant that my loving husband Aizawa Shouta had been lounging around half dressed, the only times he was well kept and proper were during video calls with the other UA staff or with his students as he talked to them about their assignments and his expectations from them while they were at home. Not that I was complaining, in fact it was probably one of the best things to ever set my eyes upon every morning before work and every evening when I got home. Shouta had decided that since he’d be working from home that he would start doing more chores around the house, especially since no one was going outside some of the Pro Heroes got more time to relax and stay home.  No matter how many times I told Shouta not to worry about the chores and I could do them when I got home he’d flick my forehead and call me an idiot for thinking he was gonna let me do more work after being at work all day. Over the weeks he had me either on the couch and giving me massages or he would make me bubble baths to relax in while he finished the chores, insisting I leave it to him.

I stood in the doorway, my work uniform sticking to me as it had started to rain on my walk home from work so I had gotten a bit wet, but I was finally home and ready to relax with my hubby. A small smile  appeared on my face, I had just gotten home from work and heard Aizawa talking to someone, it sounded like one of his coworkers.

“I’m not telling you again Yamada, it needs to be something grand… I need it to show just how much she's appreciated…”

I heard him sigh deeply and could just see him pinch his nose in irritation, I had to stifle the laugh that had threatened to escape my lips.

“Hizashi...Stop… you’re giving me a headache. Look, she’s going to be home soon and I can't let her hear me talk about this… Just wait for my call tomorrow okay? Bye.”

I decided to walk in more and make my presence known, I cleared my throat and stepped into the living room. Shouta had frantically looked to me becoming a stuttering mess, which was even more adorable seeing as he had his hair up messily and wore a pair of sweatpants.

“H-ow long were you standing there, kitten? What did you hear?”

I gave him a shrug and tossed my bag on the couch and removed my wet sweater before placing a chaste kiss to his cheek.

“I literally just walked in and you were saying bye to someone. Was it Toshinori? I haven't had a chance to talk to him since this whole pandemic had started. I hope he is doing well, the poor dude has a lot on his plate already.”

Shouta seemed to buy my answer and nodded, he disappeared for a moment before returning with my robe and a towel, stopping in front of me he helped me remove my wet clothes before he slid my robe on. He then pulled me into his lap as he sat on the couch and dried my hair while placing tender kisses along my neck.

“How was work today Kitten, tell me all about it while I take care of you.”

I gave Shouta  a soft smile and closed my eyes for a moment before leaning back into his touch, a sigh escaped my lips.

“Well,as you know I’m in just about every room on an average day, and it's not really that different now, just the classes have so few kids we’ve been laying off more coworkers, we’ve closed a few more centers. So now we’re at a skeleton crew, which means it’s a bit harder to call in if you get sick, which hopefully no one does because we can't really afford to be short staffed.”

I let another sigh pass my lips and looked up to Shouta before letting out a yawn.

“I’ve been chasing kids who tried running away while outside on the playground, I've had to stop a one year old from hitting a five month old, the kid throws tantrums about it too, so if I upset this kid my hair gets pulled, or they hit me.”

I pause for a moment and shake my head.

“It's worth it though, I'd rather have me get hit by the one year old instead of the infant. But its been getting hard to get the kids to listen because now we have to wear masks, which I understand since we cant practice social distancing with kids since their dependent on us, but I’m basically yelling to be heard, it muffles my voice so much…”

Shouta nodded and began to massage my shoulders.

“You're very tense love, work has been straining you and giving you so much stress. You've been having trouble sleeping too, I'm worried working during this pandemic is going to cause you to burn out. I’m also worried that you're going to catch something, mask or not you're still putting yourself at risk.”

I peered up at his face and smiled softly.     “Well, we are taking everyone’s temperatures before they can enter the building, also cleaning every single touch surface every thirty to sixty minutes throughout the day, though it's more frequent during the pick up and drop off process. So at least you know the shits gonna be clean when you touch it, we also have like three or so containers of hand sanitizer at the entrance so you have clean hands when entering.”

Shouta stopped massaging me, stood up from the couch with me in his arms and placed me onto my stomach, he then began to massage my back and legs, urging me to continue about everything that's been happening.

“Well, as you know I occasionally use a ride-share to get to work, but since this started it takes longer to find a driver because there's no one. I've had to wait over twenty minutes for a car for a five minute drive. That's not even the worst part about that, since it's such a short drive and a low fare sometimes I'll get a close driver and they'll cancel on me and I'll have to wait even longer for them to find me a new driver. By the time I could have just walked in and been at work.”

I let out a sigh and felt my body relax quite a bit, whether it was from the massage Shouta was giving me or it was from telling Shouta my troubles it sure was helping.

“Though I am quite grateful I get to see their amazing faces, these kids are my life...apart from you of course. I wouldn't trade these kids for anything, I love them as if they were my own. The good outweighs the bad, always does, and these kids definitely have a lot of good moments. Plus they all have such understanding parents, the support from them is amazing, I'm always getting praise from them and it makes me feel amazing, it makes me want to do more.”

After a few moments of silence and Shouta giving me a massage he picked me up and carried me to the kitchen.

“Sho...you do know I can walk right? You don’t have to carry me around.”

He mumbled an ‘I know, but I want to’ and placed me onto the counter before he moved a lock of hair out of my face, placing a kiss where it used to be. He then turned away and opened the fridge and pulled out a vanilla cupcake with what looked like a galaxy frosting, but he wasn't done as he pulled out another vanilla cupcake which had a blackish grey colored frosting that had two red dots on it. 

“I know you hated having to celebrate your birthday at home, that it just felt like any other day and even though you and I had a great night It just wasn't exactly how one would want to celebrate their birthday, so I had a friend make these for us. Specialty cupcakes that represent us, they're both vanilla because I know you'd want to try mine and vanilla is your favorite flavour.”

I blinked in surprise, was it really that obvious? Yeah I spent my birthday stuck in doors and I wished that I could have gone out with friends to celebrate, but I didn't think Shouta would have noticed. I felt tears well up in my eyes and pulled Shouta in for a kiss after placing the cupcakes down,and cried silently in his embrace.

“Shouta...You didn't have to do that...I know it kinda sucked but I had your company which is all I will ever need to be happy. You truly are amazing and I don't deserve this from you…”

His laugh boomed in my ears and he cupped my face to look at me with his tired but loving eyes.

“Kitten, you deserve everything and more.You are doing so much for other front line workers during this pandemic...you're more than deserving and I want you to feel loved and appreciated throughout it all. You may not be a nurse, a doctor, or any kind of first responder, but you’re taking care of other essential workers' kids so they can keep everything running smoothly. Especially when some of these kids' parents are those first responders or hospital workers.”

The blush on my face grew and I hugged Shouta tightly, more tears were threatening to spill. He pried himself off me and excused himself for a moment, I watched him leave the kitchen and grabbed my cupcake before taking a bite, I practically screamed in delight. This cupcake is beyond amazing, it was so delicious that I couldn't form any words to describe it, it was the first time a dessert had ever had me at a loss for words. After a few minutes of being gone Shouta returned with a box and placed it on the counter, he mumbled a wait there before disappearing again, this time he came back faster and had only his laptop and a box of tissues.

“Shouta..what is all this? What are you doing?”

He sent me a small smile and turned on the computer, he turned it to face me and pushed the tissue box across the counter over to me.

“You're gonna need that, also no more questions. You're just going to have to wait and see. I promise you're going to love it.”

After making sure he had everything set up he walked over behind me and turned off the lights before pressing a file and full-screening it before pressing play.

Soon, the  black screen filled with color the UA logo appearing on the screen with soft music playing in the background, I looked at Shouta confused, you just pointed to the screen whispering to watch, I turned back to the screen and my eyes widened in surprise. I saw pictures from class 1A, thanking me for continuing my work, I could feel the tears already welling up soon a rather cute bubbly girl filled the screen.

“Hello Aizawa Sensei's wife, my name is Uraraka, Ochako, and we here at class 1A appreciate all you and Aizawa sensei do for us, so, in honor of teacher appreciation week, we have decided to make you guys something, I hope you like it it's really cute!” 

 Once again, the screen turned black pictures and videos from each class 1A student, some of them making multiples, had flashed on the screen, words of encouragement, praise, and adoration fell upon our ears. His students expressed gravely how much they appreciate Shouta for hounding them into shape to become future pro heroes. Also praised me for having to deal with him and also, even though they haven't had me as a teacher or some sort of mentor aspect in their lives, they still sent words of praise for me, due to working in childcare and helping these little kids grow up with good strong morals. 

"Sh-... Di-...I-i… Y-you…"

As hard as I tried, I just couldn't muster up any words to describe how I was feeling I couldn't even ask Shouta if he had planned this, I was a mess. With tears streaming down my face, I couldn't believe the class 1A had made such a beautiful posters and spoke such beautiful words about my Shouta, and then even included me in them, I felt so much love and appreciation coming from those students, I honestly couldn't think of any other way to spend the rest of my evening, then in Shouta's arms watching as his students showered at the both of us with praise. 

“Just enjoy the video before I turn it off...Idiot.”

He gave me a noogie and then kissed me again, before getting up and walking to the kitchen and grabbing two glasses, with his back turned blocking me I couldn't see what he was doing until he handed me one of the glasses, seeing the liquid I sent him a curious look.

“Is this what I think it is? Sho...did you make me one of the drinks I made last summer?”

He nodded and mumbled an ‘I tried too at least..’ before he closed the laptop which had finished playing the videos, he finished his drink and waited for me to finish mine before carrying me to our bed. With the lights all turned off and Shouta snuggling  me and playing with my hair I soon drifted off into a deep and peaceful slumber, a small smile stuck on my face.

I woke up to the sun shining onto my face through the blinds, the absence of Shouta’s warmth was immediately noticed, I sat up groggily and rubbed my eyes. Before I even had the chance to look around the door opened and a tray  of breakfast was placed onto my lap and the bed dipped next to me as Shouta began to comb through my hair.

“Good morning my beautiful kitten. How did you sleep? By the look on your face I assume it was good?”

I merely nodded and ate my breakfast,every so often closing my eyes just to enjoy Shouta's careful way of combing my hair, if I could have gone back to sleep I probably would have. I looked back up to Shouta after a few minutes of our blissful silence when there was a knock at the door, he told me to continue eating and he'd go check it out.

“Sho? You've been gone awhile… Is everything okay?”

I put the empty tray to the side and stretched a bit before hopping out of bed, deciding to put on something fresh. I quickly went into the closet and threw on a black tank with some ripped jean shorts. I carefully walked down the hall, cautious as to not make any sounds to alert anyone that I was coming. My pace quickened as I heard muffled talking, I couldn't place the voices as they were hushed and seemed to be coming from far within the house. As I got closer I could tell one was Shouta but the other one was still a bit too hard to make out, as I neared our study I stubbed my toe on the coffee table, I let out a whimper and fell to the floor clutching my toe. In my state of pain I didn’t notice the talking stop or the running into the room to see what had happened. Within seconds Shouta had me in his arms asking me what happened and Yamada stood a few feet away, a silly mask on his face, which was hiding his stupid grin he always made while trying to hold back laughter as I explained what happened.

“Well, I guess I can show you now instead of later… After all you did hurt yourself being worried about me.”

I looked between the two before Shouta helped me up and then blinded me with his scarf, he led the way to the study, he let small murmurs about how I'm going to love it but he doesn’t want me to cry like his student Izuku always does. I had to bite the inside of my lip to stop myself from laughing out loud and stayed silent as Shouta whispered over to Yamada, there was a bit of shuffling around the room before he finally removed the scarf.

“Happy Teacher Appreciation Week my love. I’m sorry I couldn’t do much more for you today but I know either way you’ll like this.”

I looked around the room and gasped. The room was adorned in pictures of me in my uniform taking care of different kids of the center, there were also pictures of my kids holding heart shaped cards and other pieces of paper. Some of them showing love and affection, also  few expressing how much they miss being at the center and seeing me. I was practically bawling and hugged Shouta tightly, spewing off a handful of thank yous and I love yous.

“That's only the beginning Kitty. Go look in the box on the table.”

I nodded and went over to the box, opening it I saw numerous gifts strewn about, I pulled a few out and read the tags before I squealed in delight, there were gifts from my kids and there were some from kids who were staying home and that I haven't seen since this all started.

“H-How..Shouta? How’d you pull this off?”

He simply smiled before walking over and hugging me close, he fixed my hair and placed a chaste kiss to my forehead.

“You left your laptop open one day when leaving for work, so I used it to email each parent from your classes and asked if they'd be willing to make something for you for Teacher Appreciation Week and either send it to our P.O. box, send photos  or videos, or they could meet me somewhere to give the gifts. They definitely loved the idea, a lot of these parents respect you and they love how you interact with their kids. They wished they could have given them to you in person but decided that this way is easier and more adorable.”

I couldn't stop the tears from streaming down my face after hearing his explanation, he continued to rub my back and whispered about how I was lucky he was able to deal with all my crying, otherwise he’d be agitated.

“This was the best Teacher Appreciation Week ever. Thank you Shouta, this means the world to me, I seriously can not thank you enough for this.”

~~~~~

Tags: @onyxiana-is-obsessed @sweetlikepeppermints @pocket-is-obsessed

A.N: Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all the teachers of Tumblr! To the Daycare/Childcare providers still working during this time you are appreciated and loved. Stay awesome, stay strong, keep healthy and we love you!