Chapter Text
Hizashi was starting to believe that truth or dare should be banned from their monthly staff get together. Sure, the night started off fine and he was having a great time, but eventually someone would always get interested in their college’s love life. Last time they played was at All Might’s welcome party a few months ago. Someone asked Shouta if he had a crush.
Shouta as in Aizawa “feelings are illogical” Shouta. His best friend. His crush. The love of his life.
Hizashi almost huffed out a laugh at how ridiculous that question was. Of course Shouta didn’t have a crush. He never had, else Hizashi would already know. Of course his answer was going to be-
“Yes”
And that was how Yamada Hizashi died.
Not literally, no. But it did feel like he was dead. Shouta looked unbothered, but the way he subtly scratched the back of his neck told him otherwise.
Everyone was surprised. Hell, Hizashi was surprised. Kayama was screeching and All Might coughed out blood. He wished he could just cough out his heart and die at that moment too.
He knew he was being dramatic, but he had been pining after his best friend for over a decade. He had the right to be as dramatic as he wanted. Maybe not too much, or Shouta would find out about his feelings and the friendship would end along with his unrequited love but he could at least tragically drown himself with his own tears inside his imagination.
Back to the present. It was truth or dare again. He tried to suggest some other games, but apparently everyone wants to play this game because it had been a while and Kayama clearly planned something.
Hizashi made it his mission to distract everyone from the romantic route. It was a do or die mission.
“Let’s start with something mild.” He said, grinning towards Kayama. Of course no one asked him to begin, but no one was forbidding him either. “Midnight, truth or dare”
She raised her brow, clearly not expecting him to start with such confidence, but then she grinned back with no less smug, “Dare.”
“I dare you to talk like you are a t.v. show host until the end of the night.”
Her eyes lit up with a dangerous spark. It might be a bad idea to turn against Kayama, but anything that would distract her from Shouta is good enough for him.
“Present Mic has started the game, and oh did he pick the wrong person to war with.” she said into her glass of beer like it was a microphone, “Now let’s see what your favorite heroine will do in this situation.”
She glanced around the circle, only to stop at All Might. Hizashi instantly felt sorry for him, whatever his beloved senpai was going to ask.
“Mister Former Number One, Japan has been wondering: truth or dare?” She held her glass forward to the hero, who spent a few seconds pondering over the choices before he picked.
“Truth”
“Did you hear that, Japan?” Although his goal was to distinguish any romantic comment before it could burn him alive, Hizashi was starting to enjoy the dare he made. The way she exaggerated her pronunciation in an almost comical way was hilarious. “Unfortunate for those of you who wished he’d pick a dare, but fortunate for us who had a question in mind. On our previous show, we’d concluded via Eraserhead’s question for All Might that his favorite student was, indeed, Midoriya Izuku. For today, another question has arised: do you see him as your own son?”
“Young Midoriya is not my son!” The poor man had blood sputtering out of his mouth with every syllable.
“Not biologically, no. But do you see him as such, emotionally?”
“If I’m honest… then yes. In fact, as a teacher, I believe all of our students should be considered as our own so that we could wholeheartedly guide them well.”
“Aren’t you just making up excuses now?” Vlad said, and if All Might hadn’t already been beet red from embarrassment, he would be now.
The game continued peacefully after that. The Symbol of Peace turned to Thirteen. The dare was actually quite cute, he asked Thirteen to allow everyone to paint on their hero suit and keep it on for a week. Not somewhere that would block their vision, though. It could be dangerous and everyone knew.
After a few minutes, the whole space suit was covered in little scrabbles of this and that. Cat ears on top of the helmet where they won’t get into peripheral view. Cat tail. He didn’t even have to guess who drew that. There was also a weird looking cat doodle on the back of the right shoulder. Hizashi wished Shouta would draw something on his hero suit too. His was black leather so anything drawn on top would probably just be invisible, but he won’t mind a white permanent marker or something along the line. Shouta could dip his jacket in a bucket of hideous green paint, the same color as that ganriki neko sweater he bought for Eri, and Hizashi would still say thank you and mean it. One, because they say love makes you blind, and two, because he knew Shouta wouldn’t intentionally do that unless he honestly thought it was a good idea for whatever reason.
Hizashi drew a few music notes and a microphone, a big ‘YEAHHH’ and a pair of sunglasses. while they were passing the suit around for everyone to draw something on, the game continued. There were a few interesting things happening here and there. Like Ectoplasm admitting that he had skipped class once and sent his clone in his place to the lessons, back in his UA days. Shouta dared Hound Dog to act like a cat until his next turn, which is interesting but not too surprising.
It was not in his expectation that the one bringing up the love lives of the faculty would be Cementos.
“Mic, truth or dare?” He asked. It sounded innocent enough, but he did not believe any of his friends in this game of war. Not even thirteen. Not after they dared him to shave off his mustache a year ago.
“Hmm… I’m going for a dare!” He answered excitedly, still oblivious of what to come.
“Alright. I dare you to confess to anyone here as if they’re the love of your life.”
Damn brick head.
“Ohhhh. Cementoss had shot a fire. Who will our favorite radio host pick?” Kayama was still acting on that dare. It was less funny now that she was commenting on him having a crisis.
Who will he pick? It didn’t have to be real. Anyone should be fine. It didn’t have to be Shouta, but it was his chance to confess and pretend like it’s not real. It was his chance to take a peek of how it would feel, because of course he’d never really confess. It was his chance to see his best friend’s reaction, even if it’s not really a real reaction because he’d think it’s just a stupid dare.
He glanced at Shouta, his lips were so dried and so was his throat. The nerves were getting to him although it’s fake. Everything’s fake.
But Shouta wasn’t even looking at him. He was sipping on his drink, clearly a bit tipsy. The indifference on his face was proof of how hopeless Hizashi really was. There’s no chance for him.
He chickened out at the last second, right before the call “Shouta!” could leave his mouth. “Sh… Sure, listeners! I know that everyone’s dying to have me pick them, so how about the first one to raise their hand?”
No one raised their hand. Which is reasonable, but ouch.
“Senpai, how about if you ask for a request?” Thirteen asked, and Vlad suggested without hearing his opposition.
“Do Aizawa! Give that man an experience of being confessed to.”
Shouta glared at the blood hero, “I was confessed to more than once and I’d rather not have to go through that ever again. Thank you.”
Surprised gasps erupted from the group. It was an understandable reaction, even Hizashi, his literal best friend for over a decade never heard of that.
“Oh?” He could never confess to Shouta, not in a million years, but he could joke. “And here I am, about to confess my undying love to you!”
“Then don’t.”
“You can’t tell me what to do! Unless we get married, then you can tell me to sleep on the couch when you’re mad.” It’s just a joke. A joke. Yep. Not even a tiny piece of his hope and dream. Definitely. He can do this.
Shouta ignored him and reached for another can of beer. The alcohol was starting to make his face go red. “Shouta, You’re the love of my life! I can’t live without you and you know it! Please go out with me or I will wither and die here right in front of you!” He made sure to exaggerate every sentence so that no one could interpret them into anything but a joke they were supposed to be.
“Then die.” Shouta mumbles, voice soft and unclear, like he wasn’t sure what he should say. Did he catch on to the hidden feeling Hizashi had? Did he show it too much in his words? He wished he really could just disappear and not remember any of this in the morning, or maybe he could take his best friend’s advice and just die. Shouta probably wouldn’t remember a thing when he woke up, though.
Hizashi licked his lips. It was his turn to ask. He knew he should distract the group from Shouta, but he also wanted to know what happened in those confessions. He knew All Might would pick a dare because he always changes his pick in a pattern, and he could dare the Symbol of Peace to tell Todoroki he was Midoriya’s father and that would surely get everyone's attention. People would forget about what Shouta said about his love life.
Hizashi took a deep breath, “Truth or dare… Shouta.”
“Dare.” He picked absentmindedly, which was weird. He almost always pick truth, saying that most dares their colleagues pick were dumb and illogical.
“I dare you to tell us what happens during those confessions,” he could hear his own heart beating in his chest, almost forgetting to add, “and why.”
“Isn’t that more like a truth?”
“It’s not really a question.”
“There’s the word ‘why’ in there.”
“Alright. I dare you to gather your class, sing them a love song and tell them that you meant every word. I can pick the song if you don’t know what to sing.”
He rolled his eyes, “Fine. I’ll tell you the story. There’s nothing anyway.” He took a big gulp of his drink, “One was in UA, One a few months after graduation, and one’s when I went on a mission in Osaka. There’s also Ms. Joke and you, but obviously those don’t count. I turned them down because I don’t have feelings for them and I don’t think I ever will. That’s it.”
“Didn’t you say in the last game that you like someone?” Thanks Ectoplasm for reminding everyone. Hizashi didn't have to curse him because Shouta already did with his glare, although he was looking more at a lamp beside him than at the man.
“Whatever. Midnight, truth or dare?”
“The sexiest lady of the night chose truth, baby.” she winked, clearly more than a bit tipsy, “What’s the thing you like about this crush of yours?”
“Aren’t I supposed to be the one asking?” Shouta furrowed his brow in confusion, his lack of annoyance stating that he was too drunk to recall every bit and piece of the rules. Hizashi can’t be sure if that was a good thing.
“Who cares?!” Hizashi cared. He didn’t want to know who the love of his life loved. What would he do with that information? Maybe he could hire a hitman if he wasn’t a hero, or even take them out himself. But then Shouta would be sad and he can’t do that to him, but he can’t cheer him on either. The best case scenario is that he never knew of this and just pretended that he had a chance.
“It was just my turn?”
“Come one, Midnight. That’s unfair! We have rules, yo!” He said, maybe a bit too loud for inside voice but no one seemed to mind. Except a slight grimace Shouta gave and Hound Dog who visibly winced, bless his dog ears and dog hearing.
“Fine!” She pouted, “Ask whatever.”
“Why do you care so much about my love life?”
“I care about everybody’s love life.” She huffed, “And that’s because it’s interesting. You could say I’m a nosy bitch who just loves good gossip. But in your case, I just want you to be happy. And you are basically a beginner in romance while I’m a fluent speaker, so of course I’d help.”
“Is this what you call helping?”
“I’m not answering that.” She put her index finger over her mouth before she continued, “So, Eraser, truth or dare.”
“Let other people play too, geez!” Hizashi tried to intervene, only for it to fall on deaf ears. He’s doomed. Everyone’s too invested in Shouta’s love life now. Should he just leave? Would that be too obvious? He didn’t want to listen.
“He’s right, you know?” The erasure hero rolled his eyes, but of course no one cared. These teachers feed on gossip like hyenas. “Dare. And this is the last one.”
“I dare you,” Kayama slowly said, “to con-”
“You know what? I changed my mind. Truth.” Shouta very abruptly said. Hizashi was not so sure if his face was red because of the alcohol or something else. He was dying to know who was this person that could make his best friend blush like that. Dying as in ‘extremely curious’ and also ‘he’d drop dead the moment he knows because he couldn’t take it’.
Midnight gave a mischievous grin. She planned this. She definitely planned this. He wondered if it would be unheroic to just pretend there was a bug, scream really loud it knocks everyone out, and just apologize in the morning. He’d save Shouta from a question he clearly didn’t want to answer, so surely it couldn’t be too bad?
“Alright. So, about this person you like,”
“Before you ask the question. I would like to remind you that, as an underground hero, I know things you’d wish I never knew. And I’m not above petty revenge.”
“Don’t worry, dear, I know. I won’t be too cruel.” She took a shot. “Tell us about this one you like. I want to know their personality, and their appearance.”
“That’s two questions.”
“You can choose one and explain in detail, or do both but vaguely.”
Shouta groaned. While he was looking away from Kayama, his dark eyes locked on Hizashi’s, before he looked away and furiously blushed in embarrassment. Shouta was a private person, it was not that out of character that he didn’t talk about this crush to Hizashi. Even if they were best friends. It hurt a little that Shouta didn’t tell him, but it was understandable, and it probably hurt less than actually knowing.
“Isn’t that question a little too, I dunno, private?”
“You didn’t say that when Thirteen asked me if I had a tail!” Hound Dog barked.
“How is that private?!”
“They’re asking me about what’s in my pants!”
“I’m sorry!” Thirteen looked ashamed, although their questions and dares are almost always the kindest. Almost.
“Enough. I’ll just answer and go to bed. I’d better not hear any of you mention this ever again.”
“Can’t promise that.” Vlad mumbled
“You will never have an ear to listen nor a mouth to say a word ever again.” He gave out the most intimidating glare Hizashi had seen in months. It was less intimidating when He was glaring in between Vlad and Ectoplasm instead of directly at someone.
“Well, Japan, here’s the highlight of tonight’s truth or dare. You’d better stay quiet and in your seats, or else you might miss this biggest reveal of the year.” Hizashi regretted saying that dare to Midnight. He should’ve dared her to just stay quiet.
All eyes were on Shouta. He was looking sheepish, like he converted back to that shy boy in high school once again. He ran his hand through his black hair, eyes glancing away. It locked on something, or someone, next to Hizashi, and Shouta blushed.
“...” The erasure hero mumbled something too quiet and too fast for anybody else to hear. Well, anybody except for Hizashi. He’d always hear what his best friend said, no matter how soft or seemingly unimportant. Every word and every syllable. Like his ears were so attuned to Shouta’s voice he couldn’t choose to ignore the words, although he knew it would break his heart into a million pieces.
“He’s a loud blond. That’s it.” He shot up on his feet and bolted out of the room, leaving everyone confused. Even Hizashi was a bit taken aback.
Oh my God.
Hizashi looked at the person right next to him in horror. The one who Shouta was looking at when he averted his eyes and blushed, right before answering the question. The Symbol of peace sat there with a perplexed expression, clearly had no idea what the erasure hero just said.
Shouta was in love with All Might!