Work Text:
Shouta had been just about to doze off when a small alert sounded from his phone, followed by an automated voice declaring that “your students have broken curfew, please retrieve them.”
Why an automated voice when he could just read the damn text himself, he doesn’t have a clue. But that isn’t really the point. With a sigh and a wonder on just which students it is this time, he slips on a hoodie, his shoes, then heads outside.
The first thing he notices is that it's snowing. The ground is covered in the stuff, and it goes up to his ankles when he steps off the porch.
The second thing he notices are the whoops and shouts coming from not too far away.
“Midoriya, guard yourself!”
“Release!”
“HEY THAT’S NOT FAIR!!”
“Counterrrr!”
“THIS IS FOR JIROU!”
“Batter up, suckas!”
“DIE YOU IDIOTS!”
“Ha, missed me!”
“Let’s get that bread, gamers.”
“TODOROKI THAT’S A LITERAL BLOCK OF ICE DO NOT THROW THAT—!”
The little message hadn’t been for one student, or two students, but every student in Class 1-A . They’re standing just a little ways off, barely visible in the darkness, and they’re pelting each other in snowballs.
They seem to have divided themselves into two equal groups of ten, and each group has taken a different side. Of the students he sees now that his eyes have adjusted, Midoriya, Iida, Uraraka, Kaminari, Sero, Yaoyorozu, Jirou, Satou, Aoyama, and Shouji are all on one team, which means the rest of the students are on the opposing team.
Iida is kneeling behind a sizeable mound of snow, fashioning perfect snowballs for Uraraka to lift with her Quirk and pelt over the opposite side. Bakugou keeps incinerating the snowballs before they leave his palm, and Kirishima keeps having to restrain him when he tries crossing borders to attack them head-on. Midoriya nails Todoroki right in the face and laughs right up until Todoroki constructs what is probably the biggest snowball Shouta has ever seen and comes at him.
“Jirou, cover me!” says Yaoyorozu, ducking behind a mound of snow. Jirou takes charge, grabbing a handful of snowballs and hurling them at the opposing side. Moments later, Yaoyorozu has constructed what looks like a bazooka, but for snowballs. Jirou loads it and the other team is pelted.
“SCREW THIS I’M GONNA KILL THEM,” Bakugou roars, and the snowballs go flying. Kirishima doesn’t try to stop him. Their competitive spirits have been ignited and onwards and forwards they go. Midoriya takes a hit so hard that it actually knocks him flat on his butt, and Uraraka leaps in to “avenge” him, bringing an entire freaking mound of snow over the head of Bakugou, who’d thrown it. Bakugou roars, but is cut off when one of Yaoyorozu’s bazooka-snowballs nail him right in the jaw. Kirishima hollers with laughter and Bakugou turns on him, firing snowballs at blank-range.
Shouta watches from the shadows, and even now, not a single student has noticed him. Not that he really wants them to. They’re breaking curfew, sure, and he should reprimand them, but honestly? With all they’ve been through this year, with all the hardships they’ve endured, they’ve earned this.
It’s hard to remember sometimes. This class is probably the strongest one Shouta has seen in all his years at U.A. But regardless of what they’ve been through and how strong they are, they’re still just kids. And if they can’t enjoy the first snow of the year as kids would, then U.A. definitely needs to back off.
There’s something refreshing about watching them all goof off like this. Even Iida and Yaoyorozu, easily the least likely to engage in something so trivial as a snowball fight, are getting way too into it. Iida barks strategies and keeps supplying the team with perfectly round snowballs while Jirou loads up Yaoyorozu’s bazooka for firing. With a few exceptions, they aren’t even using their Quirks. Just enjoying the satisfaction of smashing a snowball into their opponent's face all on their own.
Shouta really can’t help the warmth that spreads through his chest and the smile that follows. This year has been taxing for everyone, but these students specifically have suffered muchly. Seeing them goofing off like this and just being kids is. Well.
There’s something very heartening about it.
He’s turning back to head into the dorm once again when a snowball connects with the back of his head.
He doesn’t actually know it’s a snowball at first, because it’s so densely packed and that it’s basically a glorified ice cube. Behind him, hall previous whoops and laughter stop, and he can feel the students’ horror like it’s a tangible thing.
Slowly, Shouta turns around. All twenty students stare back at him, as wide-eyed as though he’d just slain a man. It’s bad enough that they were caught outside after curfew; add that to the accidental assault on Shouta, and they’re as good as dead.
Before Shouta can even get a word out, all arms swing around to point accusing fingers at Kaminari.
“I’M SORRY!” Kaminari shrieks, and for a second Shouta thinks he might actually drop to his knees. “I’msorryI’msorryI’msorry I wasn’t aiming for you I swear!! It’s just I was trying to hit Sero but then he dodged out of the way and you were there and I just—!”
That’s all he has the chance to say before Shouta pelts him in the face with a snowball. Shouta is a bit surprised it doesn’t immediately K.O. him, because it throws him back and slams him into the snow below. The rest of the students give a gasp of absolute horror and gather a little closer, more out of shock than of concern.
As one unit, they turn their eyes to Shouta. He’s now tossing a snowball in one hand tauntingly.
“Well? As you were.”
He aims for Sero next, who is too stunned to dodge out of the way in time. And just like that, the moment the students have realized they aren’t in trouble, it’s like a trance is broken. Suddenly Shouta is no longer their superior, but an equal, and he’s pelted with as many snowballs as he himself throws.
Somehow it gets turned into a lesson on strategy and teamwork, and the students take to it like a fish to water, following Shouta’s instructions as he flies between groups and the snowballs fly alongside (and at) him.
He’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy it. Even if it did come at the cost of more than a few snowballs to the face. He’d walk through hell and back for these kids, and seeing all of them laugh so freely is worth the sleepless nights and endless amounts of paperwork. It’s worth all of that and more.