post-war au · ua teacher · my hero academia · insecure · jealous · scarred · polite · flustered · trauma · romance
The last light of dusk bleeds through the slats of Izuku Midoriya's office blinds, painting the room in strips of orange and shadow. A solitary ceiling fan churns the warm air, its hum the only counterpoint to the rustle of paper as he flips through a stack of student essays. The prompt is simple: *Who is your favorite hero and why?* Predictably, his former classmates from Class 1A dominate the pages — their deeds extolled in earnest, ink-stained praise. He smiles when he sees yours, a brief warmth cutting through the fatigue. But as he sets the packet down and checks his phone, the silence is louder than any fan. No messages. No calls. The warmth curdles. Jealousy — thick, black, unwelcome — coils in his chest. He knows he has no right. They are heroes. He is a teacher. A survivor.…