(Reader's POV)

'Ugh...my head.' I thought as I started to wake up, 'What happened last night?'

I made the mistake of opening my eyes and the room began to spin. I hadn't felt a hangover this bad since I was in college. I thought I had a better grip on my alcohol tolerance, but clearly, this was an indication that I didn't.

"Fuck." I groaned, as I sheilded my eyes with my arm.

Every part of my senses were uncomfortably intensified. My head pounded, my limbs felt like noodles, my sight was hyperfocused, my hearing -

"Yes, I know." I heard from outside the room, though it felt like I was right next to the sound with how loud everything seemed. I focused on the sound for a bit, "Honestly, how else would you expect me to react?"

It was Aizawa. And he sounded pissed.

"And I don't recall it being professional or part of procedure by getting inebriated on the clock with a subject under our protection and care, either...Midnight...Yes, she did. I'm surprised she didn't accidentally put her in a coma in our world as well, if that's even possible. She emptied an entire bottle for crying out loud!"

Yeah. Really pissed. There was a long pause.

"Wait, what?!" I heard him yell, making me flinch, "You can't be serious..." I heard another long and drawn out pause, and I took it as a moment to check on him, slowly getting out of his bed. I squinted as I looked towards the ground to watch my step as I cumsily made my way to the door. The floor didn't spin nearly as much as everything else did.

I opened the door as quietly as possible, though it sounded like trumpets from my ears, and peered out. I couldn't see him so I slowly tip toed along the wall of the hallway until I could.

A moment later he came into view, his back facing me as he was on the phone. He let out a heavy sigh.

"Yes, sir. I understand." he said, dejectedly, "I will. Thank you." he said before hanging up.

He turned around and saw me leaning against the wall in the hallway.

"Everything okay?" I asked quietly, worried about what the phone call was about.

He ran his hand through his wavy, black hair and sighed as he walked towards me.

"Not particularly, but I'll manage." he said as he fixed my hair out of my face. "How about you? Are you feeling alright?"

His touch and gentle voice was a welcoming feeling despite how shitty I felt.

"Not particularly, but I'll manage." I said with a chuckle, "My head hurts and everything is still kinda spinning."

He smirked and gently led me towards the couch.

"I'll make you some green tea. It should help with your hangover." he said gently as I sat down.

"I'm more of a 'over the counter pain killer and greasy food' kind of person, but whatever you say." I joked as he walked towards the kitchen to make tea.

"Mind telling me what happened last night?" he asked as he began to fill a kettle and boil the water.

"Funny, I was about to ask you the same thing." I said as I rubbed my temples. It only just now dawned on me that I didn't know what happened after he left, "Unless I already asked you last night in a drunken stupor." I joked.

I looked over to him, and he was leaning against the counter near the stove. I noticed his hands gripping the surface rather hard as his head hung low before speaking.

"You hadn't." he said, his voice, while relatively calm, had a bit of edge to it. Almost like he was trying to control himself. He turned around, "I got confirmation that he was watching you, and found out that he had alerted his clients about you in the process, possibly with a photograph. I wasn't able to find out who exactly his clients were but...Doe?"

He stopped when he noticed my face had gone pale, and my eyes wide with fear.

Shigaraki knows.

The League of Villains know.

"Doe?" asked Aizawa, with more concern as he walked up next to me on the couch, "You look like you've just seen a ghost." He squatted in front of me and raised my face to his with his hands.

"His clients know I'm here and what I look like?" I somehow managed to say faintly, as my stomach sank, "This is bad."

His fingers gently held mine.

"Do you know who his clients are?" he asked me, waiting patiently.

I didn't know if I could tell him what I knew. If I did, it would potentially fuck up the timeline beyond repair. Granted, the League knowing I existed also put a small fracture in the timeline that I knew, but maybe it could be remedied if I laid low, or got out of here. Even though I wanted to stay with Aizawa, being here put everything and everyone at risk. It only just hit me now how bad things could get for everyone else, and not just myself, if I stayed. For the first time, I felt genuinely torn.

'Christ, what do I do?' I thought in a panic.

Aizawa raised his hand to my cheek. The touch brought me back to reality.

"Doe?" he said softly, "Do you know who his clients are?" he asked again.

"No." I lied, "That's why I'm scared. I don't know what happens now, or who to watch out for."

I felt like a fucking asshole lying to him like this, but if it protected him and his students, so be it. I already made enough of a mess just being here. I didn't want to ruin anything else by telling him exactly what I knew.

Aizawa analyzed my features for a moment. My only guess was he was seeing if I was hiding something.

'Here's hoping I can bullshit my way out of this.' I thought.

He looked back down to my hands as he caressed them.

"Whoever they are, they're not coming anywhere near you." he said, squeezing my hands, "We will figure this out, even if we're going in blind. We'll be keeping tabs on Okuta for awhile. Should he get sloppy, we'll find potential leads as to who we're dealing with." he tilted my face up to look at his, "I won't let anyone hurt you. Anyone who wants to get to you, will have to come through me first."

I let out a sigh as he kissed my forehead. The tea kettle started to whistle and he got up and resumed to making the tea.

'That's just what I'm afraid of, Shota.' I thought, as my heart clenched at the idea of him getting hurt because of me.

"By the way," he said, causing me to jump a little, "You still didn't tell me what happened last night." he said as he poured me a glass.

A small smile crept up on my lips. Even though I was filled with dread, I didn't mind him changing the subject. If anything, I appreciated it.

"You sure you wanna know? It's not that exciting." I said with a half-hearted chuckle.

He turned to me.

"Fine by me. I don't really need anymore 'excitement' in my life right now." he said with a smirk.

*** Time skip ***

Evening had rolled around, and by that point I had moderately recovered, thought my body still felt off. Because I couldn't go to UA without being seen, we had to do the rest of the DLW tests at Aizawa's apartment. Thankfully, that only required giving and sending back samples, as awkward and odd as I thought that was. Either way, it was convenient and safe.

Aizawa was on the couch, laptop on the counter as he typed up plans for next week. I laid next to him, with Cloud curled up in a ball in my lap.

"Are you sure you wouldn't like my help?" I offered, as I pet the cat, who purred away as he kneaded his little paws on my stomach.

"I appreciate your willingness to help, but these students are under my guidance. If I can't come up with things to aid them in their growth on my own, then I'm not qualified to teach them." he said, as he leaned back into the couch, taking a break.

"Still, a suggestion wouldn't be a bad thing. If you needed one, that is." I said.

He looked at me and then to his computer, and sat there for a moment, stewing over what I said. He had been working on this for hours, I figured offering my two cents would maybe speed things along. Or, at the very least, move him off in the right direction.

"What is it that you're stuck on planning?" I asked.

He paused, but then finally gave in.

"I need to start planning their final. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, and we'd follow the usual protocol of the students training with the same villain bots from their entrance exam and the sports festival. Thing is, we're not facing normal circumstances anymore. My students have had to handle extremely dangerous situations right out the gate. To go the traditional route doesn't seem logical." he said, folding his arms as he kept looking at the computer.

I grinned, knowing exactly what, or rather - who the students would eventually have to face during their final. Oh, how epic those were when I first saw them. Aizawa didn't know it now, but maybe I could give him a gentle nudge in the right direction without just flat out saying it. He technically got there without me before on paper and on TV in my world. Now I just needed him to think he got there on his own with a little suggestion.

"You're right. Robots wouldn't exactly test their strength or strategy. They already had a taste of what villains lie and wait outside in the real world." I said, continuing to pet Cloud, "But since they were able to out wit low leveled villains, maybe give them a chance to have them work against smarter opponents."

I stopped there, thinking that was more than enough of a hint to get the wheels in his head turning. I could've just outright said that he should have them face the teachers, but what fun would that be?

He sat there for a moment, rubbing his fingers against his chin as he thought before I saw his eyes narrow, and a small grin appear on his face.

The proverbial lightbulb just went off in his head.

He then sat back up and began typing away.

"I have an idea, but I'll have to go over it with Nezu and the other faculty members. If I can gain their approval, this might be better than what we've done in previous years." he said. He then looked at me, smiled and then went back to typing.

'You're welcome.' I thought in amusement.

Just then, his phone started going off. His eyebrow raised in confusion as he looked to see who was calling before he answered it.

"Aizawa speaking," he responded before his eyes widened in what I could only think was terror, "What? When?" He then typed away on a search engine and brought up an article, along with live footage, "Which hero's are stationed there?...Good. If there are anymore attacks in our vicinity, keep me informed."

"Shota, what's going on?" I asked, becoming concerned. I sat up straight, leaving Cloud to jump off in response.

He looked at me.

"Hosu's been attacked." he answered.

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Author's note: Sorry I've been away. I needed to take time for myself and take care of things at home. Thank you for being patient! Also, hello to the new reader's out there! I'm shocked this many people are reading this and are enjoying this story. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't extremely nervous to see this many people reading, voting, and adding this to their reading list. But I'm happy to have you along for this ride! Again, thank you for being patient! More to come later.