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It had started with a fresh loaf of milk bread one morning.
“Wow, Satou, this smells amazing!” Ashido compliments, admiring the baked good.
“Yeah, it does, but it isn’t mine,” the avid baker says, a bit puzzled.
“It’s not?” Sero asks, wandering over.
Satou shakes his head. “The last thing I made was those muffins a couple days ago.”
“Hm, wonder who made it,” Mina ponders out loud. “Koda? Ojirou?”
They throw names back and forth for a bit before the rest of the Bakusquad roll in for breakfast.
“Hey, extras,” Bakugo mutters as a greeting before grabbing the milk bread. “Let’s eat breakfast.”
“Woah, wait, Bakugo, we don’t know who’s bread that is yet! Shouldn’t we wait and ask permission?” Kirishima chimes in.
He simply grunts as he slices the loaf with a bread knife. “It’s just been sitting on the communal table. Probably needs to get eaten, otherwise there’d be a name on it.”
While Bakugo’s logic is sound, the rest are still on the fence about just eating some unlabeled bread.
“C’mon, losers, it’s gonna get cold,” Bakugo says. “If whoever made it pitches a fit, I’ll take the blame.”
At that point, Kaminari’s stomach decides to growl, and they all cave to share the loaf amongst them and their classmates.
-----
Next it is a loaf of focaccia bread, begging to be dipped in some olive oil. But unlike last time, this one is marked with a simple “Eat me”, and a couple slices missing. Again, it sits on the table in the dorm’s communal dining area for eating.
Midoriya strolls into the kitchen to get something to eat, when he sees the tempting loaf. “Woah, who baked the bread? Satou?”
The classmate in question, lounging on the couch reading, shakes his head. “No, I’m actually not that fond of focaccia. I prefer a sourdough.”
“Huh...Who else would make this? Lunch Rush?” Midoriya wonders.
“I don’t think Lunch Rush has access to the dorms,” Todoroki says, sitting at one of the tables, eating breakfast.
“Maybe Shouji? I think I might have seen him with a cookbook,” Satou comments.
Midoriya just hums thoughtfully before listening to his pleading stomach and grabbing one slice to eat. The herbs plus the crunch made it very satisfying to eat.
-----
The next loaf that shows up is a sourdough. A bit lacking, Satou comments, but still good. It’s marked again with another simple “Eat me” on a sticky note, and is still a bit warm to touch when Hagakure first finds it in the morning.
“It tastes kind of sweet. I wonder if whoever made it accidentally got the salt and sugar mixed up,” Satou murmurs as he keeps munching on his slice.
“Who do you guys think it is?” Sero asks. The topic of the mysterious loaves of bread had popped up in conversation over the last couple of weeks, and it had seemed like everyone had decided it hadn’t been any of the students in class 1-A.
“Maybe someone in 1-B?” Ojirou suggests.
“Do you think this is a manliness contest that Tetsutetsu has started?!” Kirishima declares suddenly, jumping up.
“No, you idiot,” Ashido chimes in, lightly punching the red head in the gut.
“Maybe one of our teachers?”
“It can’t be Aizawa. Present Mic?”
“What about Cementoss?”
“Do you think All Might bakes?” Several spit out a laugh at that question. The conversation eventually turns into what secret skills each pro hero could have, while the rest of the sourdough is shared between them.
-----
The clock on his laptop reads just before 4am when Aizawa finally tears his eyes away from his students’ papers. He stretches his neck and back, cursing his posture.
The dorm is quiet, thankfully. Well, it’s always been quiet. It had just been that one scuffle between Bakugo and Midoriya that got him in some very warm water with Nedzu. But the principal had just given him a bit of a talking to about the incident, mostly about what they could do to help the both of them. Aizawa had bitten back a comment on Yagi’s less than stellar teaching, and instead tried to brainstorm some solutions.
Thankfully, nothing had changed in the teachers watching over the students at night. But on this night, Aizawa had come back from some hero work to a mountain of papers desperately needing grades. He hadn’t wanted to disturb Hizashi, so he had opted on grading in the common area of the 1-A dorm.
Who would have guessed he would have had a companion so late in the night?
To the weary teacher’s surprise, a phone light illuminates a student’s way as they quietly make their way over to the kitchen. They obviously stop when they spot Aizawa.
There’s a moment of silent tension. Aizawa debates whether or not to reprimand the student, and the student obviously is debating whether or not to leave or continue what they’ve come to do.
But after the tension starts to dissipate, Aizawa decides to just let it go and continue grading. He still has a good chunk of papers and assignments left.
Slowly, the student makes their way towards the kitchen and turns on the oven light. Glancing over every so often, they get out flour, yeast, salt, butter, and a few other ingredients.
Aizawa continues to grade papers as the silence gets interrupted every so often with gentle clinking of the whisk hitting the sides of the glass mixing bowl. Then there’s a long pause before the student kneads the dough for a good ten minutes. From what he can tell, the dough is being kneaded very thoroughly, silence occasionally peppered with a few grunts.
Then, after ten minutes, and a couple of papers graded, the kneading and grunting stops, and by the time Aizawa finishes giving another grade, the student shuffles over to the couch as the dough is left to rise.
There’s a brief moment of silence, before Aizawa decides to break it. “Can I ask why you’re out of bed?”
Bakugo is silent for a while. Aizawa’s not sure if his student is just deciding to not answer, or if he hadn’t heard his question.
Another minute of silence passes, and Aizawa just accepts that Bakugo doesn’t want to answer, until he gets a quiet answer.
“...couldn’t sleep…”
I guess it’s only natural. Heaven knows he’s had too many sleepless nights as a student.
“I figured you for an early riser,” Aizawa simply says as he finishes grading another paper.
About an hour ticks by, and thankfully Aizawa finishes his grading. By then, Bakugo has gone back to the kitchen, knocked back the dough, and has the dough divided in strands.
Aizawa gets up to stretch his back when he hears low cursing and a small pop from Bakugo’s sweat. He wanders over to see an attempt to plait the dough, and his student pointedly staring at the dough to avoid acknowledging him.
“...An eight-strand plait is hard,” Aizawa simply comments.
Bakugo doesn’t say anything, still refusing to acknowledge him. Instead he undoes his attempt at the braid, obviously frustrated.
This is quite the project for a student who couldn’t sleep.
Bakugo goes to start again, and Aizawa hops in this time. “Here, make sure this strand goes under that one.”
He notices Bakugo’s flinch when he chimes in to help, but after a moment, Bakugo caves and takes his teacher’s suggestion.
Aizawa lets a small smile get by his defenses as he continues to help his student plait the loaf. Having a spouse and child with long hair helps in more than one way, it seems.
When they’re finally done, the dough looks a bit handled, but good enough to bake. They let it sit to prove, and Aizawa goes back to his papers to tidy things up. After tidying the kitchen up a bit, Bakugo strolls back to the couch and sets a timer before resting his eyes.
Aizawa had heard his students mention some mysterious bread popping up in the dorms in passing. He hadn’t thought of it too much; as long as his kids weren’t getting into trouble, they could do whatever they pleased. But it seems like he had solved a mystery tonight.
Getting up, he does a couple more stretches before walking over to take a seat in an armchair by the sofa Bakugo is sitting on. His eyes are closed, but he can see that Bakugo is still awake.
“...It’s a nice hobby,” Aizawa comments, deciding to break the silence.
Bakugo takes it in stride, and simply grunts, not opening his eyes.
“Are you planning to tell your classmates that it’s you? I think it’ll drive them nuts if they keep accepting free gifts, especially Midoriya.”
His student snorts at that. “They should just take the damn food without needing to smother someone in thanks. Especially that Deku.”
Aizawa holds back a chuckle. Even Bakugo at 5am is still Bakugo.
“...Why couldn’t you sleep, Bakugo?” he asks gently after glancing at the sun slowly painting the sky lighter outside.
A few beats of silence pass, and Aizawa almost accepts that his student won’t answer, when he mumbles something.
“...Come again?” He hadn’t quite heard him, and he didn’t want to assume anything.
“...couldn’t sleep because of All Might.”
All Might. Aizawa bites back something between a curse and a groan. He knew the man has been trying to be a good teacher, he really does, but more often than not, he found his teaching to do more harm than good. Aizawa once had to take almost 45 minutes out of his day to explain what Kaminari’s ADHD diagnosis meant for future lessons. Of course, he had been fine with informing fellow teachers on techniques to help students learn, but he had thought Yagi would have been a little more prepared than this.
“It’s just...I know he intervened with me and Deku that night, and it’s fine, but...sometimes I just...I remember Kamino, and can’t shake it,” Bakugo continues, filling the silence. “And I obviously can’t go blow off steam at the gym, so...so I come here…”
Made sense to him. Baking and kneading dough requires strength and patience, and would give anyone with a hot head time to cool down while focusing on making sure the loaf is made and bakes correctly.
“Where did you learn how to bake?” Aizawa asks, shifting the conversation a bit. He didn’t want his student to be too upset right now.
“Oh, uh...I think I remember some old show my mom put on when I was a kid...I only actually started trying recently. Found some videos online,” Bakugo mutters.
Aizawa simply nods.
“...Thanks,” Bakugo grumbles, looking away.
When Aizawa gives him a puzzled look, he continues. “Y’know...for the...for helping with the braiding. It was...yeah.”
He shrugs. “It’s hard to get the hang of. Practice helps, Eri likes having her hair braided.”
Bakugo lets a small smile slip at the mention of the girl. Aizawa notes to maybe bring her around when she’s more comfortable with larger crowds.
“...Are you usually up?” Bakugo asks. He looks like he wants to ask something else.
“Sometimes. I had a longer shift tonight, so I was late getting back.”
“...Shift?”
Aizawa nods. “I’m still a pro-hero at the end of the day.”
Bakugo pauses, taking in the information. Aizawa doesn’t think it had occurred to him that he still regularly patrols as a pro-hero while also teaching. Or if the thought had occurred to him, this conversation had been a reminder.
“But if you do need...help with plaiting, or bread in general, I’m usually up. You can just shoot me a text,” Aizawa continues. He had wanted to say, if Bakugo had wanted to talk, but he didn’t think his student would react well to that wording.
Cheeks a little redder, Bakugo looks away for a moment, before nodding and spitting out a quick “thanks” before his timer goes off. Turning it off, Bakugo goes to stick the loaf into the oven, and sets a new timer.
Aizawa had wanted to crash as soon as he put the final grade on his last paper, but he decides to push his tired body a little longer and stay up with Bakugo to see the final product.
Birds are chirping by the time Bakugo’s timer goes off, and the two of them go to pull out the finished loaf. It’s not perfect, but still beautifully delicious to both of them.
Smiling, Aizawa ruffles Bakugo’s hair. “Good job.”
He jerks his head away at the blatant show of affection. But he says under his breath, “Yeah...team effort and all…”
Aizawa watches as Bakugo transfers the loaf onto a cutting board and puts a sticky note saying “Eat me”. Rubbing some sleep out of his eyes, he returns to the kitchen to help Aizawa clean up.
When the kitchen is restored to its usual cleanliness, Aizawa nods and says, “Alright, kid, I’m going to get some shut eye. You should take a nap too, since it’s Saturday.”
Bakugo just nods, biting back an obvious yawn. He turns to go back to his room, and gives a simple wave. Aizawa just smiles, then heads off to his own room, hoping to get to share his bed with Hizashi for at least an hour or two.