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It’s Just Something In The Stars (That Makes Me Think Of You)
Why Professor Izuku Midoriya’s screensaver was the ‘Capricorn’ constellation was one of the (many) unanswered questions the students had about the University.
It went into the same category as to why Professor Todoroki always ate in the English Department, despite his office being in the Engineering building. It ranked above trying to figure out why Coach Kirishima always had on tank tops (not that anyone was really complaining given the view…), or why Dr. Asui always wore frog themed trivia, but not quite as high as figuring out who Dr. Bakugo kept seeing every Thursday night.
Switching from physical classes to online schooling solved some of these age old (or at least class old) questions near instantaneously. Other questions persisted.
Little snippets of their teacher’s private lives were puzzled out in screenshots and by staring at the wall while they prepped for classes. Instantaneous moments of interaction which were gleaned for information about their professors because there were only so many games of Rocket League or Fortnight that could be played before the intrinsic desire to have social interaction permeates even classes such as these.
Coach Kirishima’s tank tops made infrequent but regular appearances on Dr. Bakugo’s desk chair. His coffee mug did as well, and no one seems to know what to do with that knowledge when Dr. Bakugo challenges it with a “Is that a mother fucking problem?” and picks up Coach Kirishima’s mug and drinks deeply from it.
There was no further discussion about it.
Other questions are answered in like fashion with information teased out over the course of dozens of online classes. Professor Todoroki lived in or around Professor Yaoyorozu. The two appeared infrequently and non-intimately in each other’s streams, and it wasn’t uncommon for one to be heard in the other’s class as background noise.
The private group chat was ablaze with theories. Maybe they share an apartment, but that seems too intimate. Someone suggested that they are neighbors, sharing a balcony since Dr. Yaoyorozu’s class frequently starts on her apartment balcony, her camera displaying a flash of her face and the wrought-iron railing before she swaps it to a in-text display of their current novella.
She also had a cat.
This information was unsurprising and seemingly fitting with her mellow and pleasant attitude.
The dozens of questions and rumors that circulated around the UA’s roster of esteemed professors, doctors and teachers dwindled and faded as these answers were found out.
Professor Asui just liked frogs that much.
Dr. Kaminari did shock himself as much as he says he does, though no one could figure out if it’s just… him being unlucky or if he had an affinity for generating static electricity and jolting himself every few minutes.
Dr. Ashido’s leopard print obsession extended to and permeated the entirety of her apartment and given that her yoga classes had taken place in nearly every room of her house except her bedroom, the student body had confirmed this fact. She had pink shag carpet.
Shag.
Carpet.
Other questions appeared as well. Additional information showcased small tidbits of their private professor’s lives in such a way it can’t be helped but to want to know more. Dr. Kaminari swooned over Professor Jirou. He frequently struggled with trying to turn his chat away from dating advice and back to Circuits and electrical currents.
Some days he was more successful than others…
There was the added benefit that the students (because no one had decided it was their business to share it with poor Professor Kaminari) knew that Professor Jirou actually thought he was pretty cool. Instead, most students are quite happy to either give leading hints on what the other liked to do or join the betting pool when they’re going to ask each other out.
At the same time there are questions that persist.
One of these such questions was Dr. Midoriya’s screensaver.
It’s not such an anomaly in and of itself, given he is the Astrology professor, and he does do an assortment of other classes in the Physics department, but there is something to be said and questioned given it’s not HIS zodiac sign.
That minor detail was ferreted out when Professor Todoroki wished him a casual “Happy Birthday Izuku” mid-July.
This only added to the mystery.
Why did he have a constellation on his screensaver that wasn’t his? Who did it belong to? Did he have a girlfriend? A wife? Was it his moms?
Naturally he does not answer these in his lectures. In fact, he flatly ignored most attempts to ask personal questions, going so far as to mute the chat all together one day.
“If you cannot respect my boundaries as your professor, then you have no right to know about my life beyond it.” He said, sage wisdom ruined by the animated slide of an asteroid smashing into a cartoon moon.
‘Sorry Professor.’
‘Sorry Dr. Midoriya.’
‘We just want to make sure you have someone’
He huffed, swapping the PowerPoint to a face cam and giving them a look.
Professor Midoriya was striking in all the right ways. His eyes were brilliant, bright and sharp in the light, and his smile- when students got it- was breathtaking and light. He had a fan club (then again most of the insanely attractive UA professors did…) and they had a discord server dedicated to catching glimpses of his smile.
Naturally there was a separate tab to catch all his terrible outfits.
“I have someone.” He assured the class, and no further detail was given, nor did he elaborate upon it at the end of class. Instead he exited the PowerPoint and flicked his computer screen down, resulting in a view of his keyboard.
His chair scraped against the ground, and presumably he walked away. The video stream continued for a few minutes, before a harried number of footsteps thundered around the room.
“I’m late! I'm late! I can’t be late! She’s going to kill me! Ah shit.” And then the laptop snapped the rest of the way closed, ending the stream. The conversation carries on in the group chat.
‘So it’s a she’
‘Damn I was really hoping him and Professor Todoroki…’
‘I’m pretty sure Prof. Todo simps for Miss Yaoyorozu.’
‘Dude, she has like four doctorates. It’s Doc Yaoyo in the least. Plus I would simp for Dr. Yaoyorozu…”
‘STFU man, I’m just saying. My man Midoriya sounds like he’s got a hottie if he’s that eager to get out of the house.’
The next glimpse into Professor Midoriya’s life came in the form of his ‘Lab makeup’ a week before the Midterm exams, so everyone was nerve wrecked and frantically taking notes.
He’d opted to have it live, with the stream set up somewhere in a park near where he lived. His computer was set up on a table, and he had a link to a telescope so they could see which constellations he was looking at.
The exact moment they became aware of the second person was when Professor Midoriya paused in the middle of explaining something. The telescope jolted, and they got a close-up of his eyeball, fuzzy and out of focus, but all the same the chat lit up.
‘Are you getting mugged?’
‘Doctor Midoriya?’
‘What just happened?’
“S-S-Sorry!” He nearly yelled, and the telescope swiveled back to the stars. His voice quieted, and they could just barely hear him as he whispered. “You surprised me.”
There’s a feminine laugh, quiet and suppressed before this new addition answered, “I wanted to see you in your teacher mode.”
Teacher mode? The private chat lit up, dozens of people commenting and jumping into the chat. Suddenly the classroom was full.
“’Chaco…you scared me.”
Chaco?
That sounded like a name.
Students are already running searches on it, popping the name into social media browsers, student indexes, anything that their curious fingers can get a hold of. Chaco was not a full name, and while search results presented dozens of possible individuals related to the name “Chaco”, none of them are conclusive.
‘She sounds pretty’ Someone in the private chat said.
“Sorry, sorry! When will you be finished?” The woman asked.
The private chat spilled over into the classroom chat- people too eager or too excited to get a glimpse into Professor Midoriya’s life. His computer chimes a few dozen times, and he huffed. There’s a brief moment of pause as he reads through the comments.
‘Do you have a date?’
‘Is she pretty?’
‘Can we see her?’
‘What’s her name?’
‘Where did you meet?’
Dozens of questions littered the chat, and the last astronomy related question required a solid fifteen seconds of frantically scrolling up to be found. Professor Midoriya was naturally not impressed.
“Guys, stop. This is my personal life.” He protested calmly.
“Can I participate, Dr. Midoriya?” The female teased from behind him.
‘Should… should we leave?’
‘Look man. I got a C in this class; I NEED to be here.’
“I… I guess?” Their professor replied.
“Awesome!” And immediately the telescope jerked and swiveled, the mic filled with soft hums of thoughtful observation.
“Here we are!” The woman said, “My favorite constellation!”
It’s Cancer.
Easily recognized from the start of the semester and the dozens of hours mindlessly playing with the downloaded star system software.
‘Why?’ This question, in one form or another, appeared in the classroom chat.
“Because it’s my zodiac.” Dr. Midoriya answered, and if the sound of exasperation meant anything, it was that their favorite green haired professor was dredging his fingers through his hair and contemplating his life choices. “I don’t have any other constellations I was going to show you, so the lab is officially over, remember to read through your study guides and check sections 11.7 and 12.3. They will be on the exam. I’ll see you all tomorrow in class.”
“Izuku that’s kind of-“ and then the stream cut off, once again kicking the students out of the class and leaving them with questions that inevitably spill into their private group message.
‘So, it’s a girl.’
‘Are they dating? It sounds like they’re dating.’
‘Right now though? Everything’s on lockdown.’
‘Well, Professor Todoroki and Professor Yaoyorozu are always at each other’s apartment… And Bakugou and Kirishima too…”
‘I think they just live together… Todo and Yaoyo defo- are just neighbors.’
Naturally this results in the first question upon tomorrow morning’s class being: “Did you break quarantine Professor Midoriya?”
Their green-eyed professor stared at the screen and slowly scraped his eyelids down, then back up, and once more through the process. “What?”
His fork does not move from its position above his toast with a fried egg on top.
“You went out on a date with someone. So… you had to go out right?”
“That means you broke quarantine.”
He reached up, pinching the bridge of his nose and groaning softly. “I did… I did not break quarantine. And this is not up for discussion. Please I-“
“Everything alright hon?”
There’s a buzz in groupchat.
‘Is that her again?’
‘She stayed the night?’
‘Does she live there?’
‘Professor Midoriya doesn’t wear a ring… is he married?’
He turned, but the person he’s looked to is off screen. Nevertheless, it’s unmistakable.
He’s off the market.
The way his eyes lit up, tired orbs of forest green flash and glow in the morning light, and the way a smile curved effortlessly across his lips as he locked eyes that special someone’s gaze.
He was smitten.
“I’m alright. Just an unruly class.” His hand combed through his hair, slicking it back.
His guest (or perhaps roommate?) intruded on the camera screen, but with Professor Midoriya sitting down at the table and the screen tilted to his face, all they are treated to is a soft white button up shirt and the hemline of a black skirt. Two arms wrapped around his neck, and he leaned back into the owner of them.
“You students better be nice to him, ya hear?” The woman declared, leveling one finger at the camera.
“You’re adorable.” Their professor replied, taking her hand in his and kissing the back of it. “Now get going. I know you have a bit of leeway, but Kota can’t cook and help out front at the restaurant and if he only has Eri-chan running tables. They need their boss.”
‘She runs a restaurant?’
‘Or owns one.’
‘Is she a manager or the owner?’
‘Chaco’ laughed in response, and there is the barest fringe of brown hair, curtaining the face of its owner, as a kiss is dropped on top of Professor Midoriya’s head.
“Love you! I’ll see you later!”
The blush on Professor Midoriya’s face was priceless, and it elicited a jumbled response of ‘Awww’ and ‘Cutteeee!’ from the classroom chat as the mysterious courter of Dr. Midoriya disappears.
‘Sooooooo’ Someone brave enough to address the elephant in the room typed into the class chat.
“No.” And the camera flipped to a PowerPoint presentation and Professor Midoriya launched into his lecture without any further introduction.
Answers are harder to find than one expects for some reason, but that could partially be due to the many unknown search criteria needed to properly deduce someone’s identity when all that has been obtained is fragments of a name- first or last- and a possible pair of employees along with the knowledge of general workplace.
This successfully narrowed down the possible ‘Chaco’ variants from .41 million to roughly 678. The student body was ablaze with activity on it however, and the investigation on whom this mystery woman was carried over from the group chat to dozens of different classroom chats.
‘Do you know who Professor Midoriya is dating?’
“Why the fuck should I tell you?” Dr. Bakugo answered with a snarl, “you’re interrupting my lecture to ask me things about him and fucking Round Face? Why the hell did you think I’d answer a question like that?”
Investigations through Dr. Bakugo are quickly dropped, despite it being known that he and Professor Midoriya have known each other the longest, and work closely together on an assortment of projects in the Engineering department.
‘ Is Professor Midoriya married?’
Professor Todoroki blinked, staring at the message in the middle of his chat. He considered it for a time, one cool blue eye and one dull grey eye flicking from the chat box to the camera.
“No.” And he turned back to the whiteboard behind him, sketching out a thermodynamics problem and before listing out the different states of entropy they would need to solve it.
“Did they ask about the cats again?” Professor Yaoyorozu called from somewhere in the room- or possibly from the balcony next door.
“Midoriya.” Professor Todoroki’s response is monotone, but easily identifiable as irritated.
“They’re asking me too! Students are so nosy!” And then she laughed, and the students are treated to a rare shot of their stoic professor smiling, his eyes melting into a softer gaze as he looks offscreen and considers the woman producing the sound.
‘Do you and Professor Yaoyorozu live together?’
“Next question I see about me, Yaoyorozu, or Midoriya’s personal life will result in a zero-test grade for the class.” Was his calm and even-keeled threat.
The matter was dropped.
‘Do you know who Professor Midoriya is dating?’
“You guys realize we talk, right?” Coach Kirishima replied, cocking an eyebrow at the camera, “Like Bakugo just told me about you guys asking him, and now you’re asking me? Plus, what kind of man would that make me if I betrayed my bro Midoriya’s trust like that? Seriously, let the man have his privacy.”
There’s a pause, and then a slick smile appeared on Kirishima’s lips, “she really does make him happy tho.”
‘Who’s ‘Chaco’? Professor Midoriya has mentioned her.”
“Ochaco is a friend,” was Professor Asui’s clipped response.
‘Is Professor Midoriya good to her?’
The biology professor laughed, a smile on her lips before she deadpanned, “If he wasn’t you would need a new physics professor.”
No one knew how to deal with that. It occurred to them that out of all of their professors, Professor Asui would technically know the best way to get rid of a body.
She jumped back to her lesson without any further comments on the subject and no one in the chat had the courage to prod further.
But new information had been garnered.
Ochaco.
Not ‘Chaco’ but Ochaco.
A full name.
The list narrowed further.
And it finally boiled over and came to a head after a full semester’s worth of worrying and puzzling and investigating.
Quarantine lifted, and while restrictions still prevent full-scale celebrations, having school back in session was an enjoyable and soul soothing interaction. Friends walked together to and from classes, and even with the social distancing restriction, study groups cropped up in nearly all corners of campus once again.
With the return of semi-normal comes the natural return of certain anomalies and habits.
Professor Todoroki appeared in the English Department, but students no longer questioned it and instead wished him a ‘Good morning’ or a ‘Good afternoon’ as he passed by on his way to the faculty lounge there. More than once he is handed an essay with a “I’m running late to my next class, could you get this to Professor Yaoyorozu? I’m so sorry Dr. Todoroki!” Still, the essays appear graded back on desks by next class, notes and frowny faces on the bottom marking ‘You shouldn’t be bothering Dr. Todoroki like that!’ the recurring notice for such a transgression.
And Professor Midoriya’s screensaver remained the Capricorn constellation.
Search results for his mysterious partner ‘Ochaco’ have resulted in a dozen finds of small diners and businesses, ranging from a printing mill in Tokyo, to a space-themed diner famous for its UFO pancakes and the bubbly atmosphere that’s always there on the other side of the city.
Unfortunately, physical investigations are prohibited, not by law in this case, but by course load.
Finals had hit full swing, and the catch up required to match the assorted professor’s last few lessons, and prepping for the exams, have prevented even the most studious of individuals the necessary time or brain power necessary to indulge in their guilty pleasure.
The fear that this question will go eternally unanswered however, is needless, as it is answered and explained on the second to last day of class.
Professor Midoriya was wrapping up his review session, closing out the PowerPoint that contained the entirety of their coursework for the semester (673 slides of condensed formulas, theories and star charts) when it happened.
A casual mention in his slew of information.
“Be aware that I won’t be here for the final.” Dr. Midoriya added, unhooking his zip drive and shoving it in a pocket of his messenger bag. “Instead, Dr. Bakugo will be supervising the exam, and while he can clarify some questions he will not be able to answer them. After tomorrow I will not be available for consultation or office hours. I’ll be on vacation.”
“Vacation?” Someone in the back asked.
“Honeymoon.” The word slipped out of Dr. Midoriya’s mouth without a second’s pause or consideration.
And the class is silent in response.
A roar of quiet as the information is processed and digested.
But before the billions of new questions could be asked or voiced or even tossed out into the open air the lecture hall doors opened and the mystery of all semester walked in.
And she was everything they had all assumed Dr. Midoriya would love and nothing at all like they thought she would be.
Brown hair and dressed in a prim button up white shirt, a plain black skirt running down to her knees, she was the picture-perfect image of a manager. If one discounted the suspiciously crayon-looking line on her left sleeve, and the small name tag stating ‘Uraraka’ on her left breast- the brass tag accented with a small silver UFO appearing to hold it up with a green tractor beam. She looked fresh for work. Though the crayon skewed that to fresh off work.
“Ochaco?” Their professor halted in picking up his bag.
“Hey there handsome.” She smiled, and no one in the class had the courage to break the moment by speaking. “Came to pick you up.”
Professor Midoriya’s smile was dazzling, and while he smiles frequently and without restraint, there was something… special… about getting to witness the straightly intimate way he smiled at her.
And then something else clicked.
“You’re engaged?” Someone in the front row demands, nearly throwing themselves over the desk to examine this ‘Ochaco Uraraka’.
Ochaco helpfully hefts her proof up, displaying a simple but beautiful gold ring. The diamond on it was sizable, and it flashed even in the artificial fluorescent lights of the lecture hall. Naturally a roar of applause and wolf-whistles echoed through the room, and Dr. Midoriya laughed and rolled his eyes at their antics.
“I guess there’s no avoiding it anymore, here is my lovely bride-to-be, Ochaco Uraraka, soon to be Midoriya.” He presented her with all the grace and smoothness of a nobleman, taking her hand and bowing low, presenting her as the prize she no doubt was.
“Hello.” Ochaco smiled again, waving at the class. “Thank you for not giving my fiancé too much stress. He really was fretting about your grades and the effort you were putting in! He truly does care!”
They knew that.
Professor Midoriya, well, most of their professors really, cared deeply about making sure their students did well. Rarely would they turn away someone asking for help, unless it was under the premise of them not having done the work to even start or asking for a handout.
“Kiss!” Someone shouted from the back, and while Professor Midoriya was confident in teaching, it appears that confidence does not extend to this social aspect.
It also does not help that soon everyone in the class was chanting it, with social etiquette thrown out the window in exchange for seeing their favorite professor smooch his fiancé.
Ochaco took it all in stride, a smile on her lips as she stepped close to her fiancé and kissed his cheek. Something was whispered in his ear, and immediately the faint blush on his cheeks bloomed a deeper shade of red.
He sputters- flustered and caught off guard- before Ochaco leaned in and grabbed the lapels of his jacket, pulling him down just low enough to give him a kiss. It lasted only a second, perhaps more, but they pull away from each other, and the look they give each other is all they need to see.
They are in love.
Unquestionably and without restraint or qualms, their professor has fallen hopelessly in love with this restaurateur.
“Wait!” And the couple parted, startled out of the light trance their kiss had put them under. “What about your screensaver, Dr. Midoriya?”
“Screen-? Oh!” Ochaco laughed, covering her lips and trying to suppress her giggles as she looked to Midoriya for the answer.
The professor huffed, closing his eyes, and combing his hand through his hair before muttering, “Her birthday is in late December…”