Hidden Messages

It was a normal Tuesday, the day the assignment that would change everything was assigned. Class 1A had gone to class expecting a normal day, many of them needing the normalcy after the dangerous Shie Hassaikai raid that had happened the week before. There was nothing unusual as the class slowly filled the room to start the day, cheerful but tired greetings rang out. 

The day differed from normal almost immediately, when after the daily announcements Aizawa didn’t take a nap like he normally would for the remainder of homeroom. Instead he stayed standing at the front of the class.

“Today during Foundational Heroics, besides paying attention to the lecture, you will also be completing another assignment. The lesson today is a continuation of the lessons on communication in battle. So far everything you have learned has been about verbal communication. Today will be all about nonverbal and more secretive forms of communication. Being able to communicate without letting everyone else in the room know what you are saying.”

Aizawa looked at each of his students as he spoke. Many of the students looked worried about the assignment, while others seemed excited. The students that looked most worried were some of the loudest in the class, the students who wouldn’t know subtlety if it hit them in the face. But to his surprise, Bakugou and Midoriya looked excited. From the very first day it had been obvious that Bakugou was loud and explosive. Midoriya however, was quiet at first but after getting more comfortable in class it was pretty well known that he was talkative, regularly muttering to himself without noticing. The fact that neither of them seemed at all worried about the assignment was strange. 

“This is the first iteration of an assignment that you will be doing multiple times. It is fairly simple, but that doesn’t mean that it is easy. At the beginning of class you will be handed a prompt, your goal is to communicate a message to your partner without anyone else knowing. I will be lecturing and there will be an open note quiz on my lecture at the end of class, so you still are expected to pay attention. I will be putting a stop to any obvious attempts that interrupt class, so please put some effort into this.”

Immediately multiple hands shot up. 

“Iida.”

“You mentioned that the lesson has to do with communicating without letting everyone else know, will we be penalized if other people figure out our message?”

Aizawa let a grin overtake his face, “Yes, points will be deducted for every person that is not your partner that figures out your message. Alternatively, you will gain points for every message you can figure out that is not your partner’s. As part of the quiz at the end of class you will need to write down your prompt, your message, the message from your partner, as well as any other messages you have figured out. Yaoyorozu.”

“What sort of messages will they be? Will it be random or about something relevant to the lecture? Also how long can we expect the messages to be?”

“You will be coming up with a message based on a prompt that I will give you. The prompt will require you to find information and then relay it to your partner. The only official requirement for the length of the message is that it needs to be enough to fulfill the prompt, but longer messages will get extra points. Shinsou.”

“Do we have to know the message word for word or is having the gist of it fine?

“Having a general idea of the message is fine as long as you have all the important information. The closer it is to the exact message the more points you will get. Midoriya.”

“Do we lose points if we write down someone else’s message, but we got it wrong?”

“You will not be penalized for writing down other people’s messages incorrectly as long as they are not your partner. I recommend that you write down whatever you think you can figure out, even if you aren’t sure because partial messages can get you points. Ashido.”

“Will you assign partners or can we choose them?” Ashido was practically bouncing in her seat at the prospect of working with a partner.

“You will get to choose your partner. I highly recommend that you choose strategically, but ultimately it is up to you.” Aizawa paused to allow any more hands to go up, but when none did he continued. “You have until the end of this period to choose a partner. Once you have decided, write your name and your partner's name on a piece of paper. Turn it in, face down, on the podium. Each person needs to turn in a paper to confirm that you are both on the same page. I highly recommend that you try to be subtle about who your partner is, but again, ultimately it is up to you.”

Aizawa hid a smile as he laid down for his usual morning nap. Every year he introduces this assignment and without fail the students don’t listen to his warnings. They make it obvious from the very beginning who their partner is, and it is almost never someone that they can efficiently communicate with. He watched one year as two students tried to communicate through facial expressions, which on its own wasn’t a bad idea, but they sat directly behind each other in class, meaning that one of them would have to turn around completely to be effective. That pair failed that time around but they used that idea with later partners in later iterations of the assignment to some success. 

He couldn’t deny that he was excited for lunch today. Like usual Vlad King and him had planned their first iteration of this assignment to be on the same day. This guarantees that lunch will be chaotic. Students will be trying to get away from their friends to subtly discuss plans while the teachers will all be on the lookout. Every year there is a betting pool between all of the teachers about which students will be the most successful. Just about every teacher that interacts with the first year hero students place bets on which class will do better overall as well as the highest scoring pair and the highest scoring student. All bets are placed during foundational heroics, with the respective homeroom teachers banned from participating. 

Aizawa never cared much for the betting part, he can’t participate anyway, but he always found all of the antics amusing. He was also curious about how this particular class would do. Unlike most years he actually had some students that had proven to be proficient in stealth assignments, especially since Shinsou had replaced Mineta. Also unlike previous classes this class understood just how important this type of communication could be. They have fought villains before, they knew to take this seriously. After the USJ it was proposed that they moved up the assignment because the students and Thirteen were called out by the villains for strategizing in front of them, but ultimately it was decided that they should have the lesson at the normal time. Aizawa didn’t want to think about whether this knowledge would have been useful at camp, but at least they were doing this assignment now.

While they knew to take the assignment seriously, Class 1A isn’t calm about anything. As soon as Aizawa let them loose to figure out their partners it was chaos. Some students quietly looked across the room, and with eye contact and a small nod, determined who they would partner with. They were the minority though, because most of the class immediately got up to go ask someone to partner with them, loudly. Izuku and Katsuki were not part of either group, but no one really noticed.

Izuku’s and Katsuki’s friendship was probably their best kept secret. Everyone knows that they were friends when they were children. That is common knowledge to just about everyone who meets them, after all, only a childhood friend would ever be allowed to call King Explosion Murder, Kacchan. However, it is also obvious to everyone that they are no longer friends. 

After Izuku had been diagnosed as quirkless, everything changed. Katsuki was disgusted by the idea of being friends with a useless, quirkless, Deku and began to bully him. He remained a bully all throughout elementary and middle school, only calming down slightly once they reached high school. Or, at least, that’s what everyone thinks. 

Katsuki was upset at first, his best friend wasn’t able to be a hero with him, but he never started to hate Izuku. However, everyone else did. Izuku was bullied endlessly, and Katsuki was getting in fights almost daily trying to defend him. After a while of fighting Katsuki was fed up and he turned on Izuku, just once, and all he did was yell, but to his surprise as soon as he started going off on him, everyone else left Izuku alone. 

That day they came up with their plan, the plan that they have followed ever since. It was pretty simple. Katsuki was already considered a promising future hero, so it wouldn’t be difficult to convince the extras in their class to follow his lead once he proves to be on their side. From there he will become Izuku’s main tormentor, staking his claim on him. After that, no one would dare to bother either of them. 

Their plan worked frighteningly well. Katsuki was king of the class and no one dared to bother Izuku without Katsuki leading them. However neither of them were happy. They knew that if they were caught being friendly to each other, life would go back to how it was before, but they were lonely. No one wanted to befriend the quirkless Deku, and if they did want to, they wouldn’t dare. And Katsuki didn’t want to be friends with any of the extras in his class that had pushed him into bullying his best friend. 

Their solution was genius. If they couldn’t openly be friends with each other, they would be friends secretly. This didn’t mean that they would only be friends outside of school, that wasn’t enough for them. They wanted to be able to talk freely at school without anyone knowing, so they created their own language. At first it was a sort of morse code, but after a while they were starting to get weird looks. So they added some sign language, but that also caught some people’s attention. Over time and with a lot of trial and error the language evolved, becoming more and more subtle. Each breath could have a meaning behind it, every tiny twitch a message. Their conversations blended into their normal mannerisms. Their ears were always listening for the nearly silent click that would cue them into the start of a message. 

Even with their hidden friendship, their conflict at the beginning of their high school careers was real. One for All drove a wedge between them. Izuku was sworn to secrecy about how he suddenly had a quirk, leaving Katsuki to draw the only plausible conclusion, that Izuku had been lying all along. 

For the first time in years there were no messages to be deciphered. It was as freeing as it was depressing. Their constant conversations had become second nature to them, but after this betrayal the conversations stopped. Both missed the other, but Izuku didn’t know how to fix what happened, and Katsuki was still angry. 

The fight after the provisional exam finally cleared the air between them. Their secret conversations started up again, but even though there was nothing stopping them from being real friends again, they still kept their friendship a secret. Partially because it was a habit, partially because they didn’t really know how to be friends openly, and partially because they were pretty sure that suddenly being friends would be too much for everyone to handle. 

Recently though, they were starting to think that it was about time that they allowed themselves to be actual friends, instead of hiding it. Acing this assignment together, could be the start of that. The second that Aizawa announced that they would get to choose their partners, they had already agreed to work together. 

As their classmates were frantically trying to find a partner, Izuku and Katsuki were calmly preparing for their classes that day. They also were continuing the conversation they had been having all morning about the new hero that debuted the day before, but they were the only ones that knew about that. 

Izuku was approached immediately by Todoroki, and then by Uraraka, and then Iida, but he calmly and quietly informed them that he already had a partner. Each of them looked at him suspiciously, but they had no choice but to move off to find another partner. Uraraka did try to question who his partner was, but Izuku didn’t answer and Uraraka realized that she didn’t have long to find her own partner so she hurried away. 

Kirishima came up to Katsuki immediately, assuming that they would work together. He was shocked to find that Katsuki had a partner already, but he didn’t have time to question him, people were pairing up fast.

Izuku made sure to turn in his paper after about half the class already had, while Katsuki waited to be one of the last. They had already told people that they had a partner, but they didn’t want to hint at who their partner was. 

The rest of the morning was chaotic. The easy part of the assignment was choosing a partner, now they had to figure out how to communicate with them. Most students gave up trying to pay attention in class, instead using that time to brainstorm. The teachers would normally be annoyed, but knowing what was going on, they were more amused than anything. Every year the same thing happens, so they had planned easy lessons.  

Finally, after an unusually large number of bathroom breaks, and a record number of notes passed, it was time for lunch. Kaminari didn’t care that the class would figure out who his partner was, he just dragged Aoyama away. Following his lead Sero and Kirishima went off to find some less populated area to talk. The rest of the class heeded Aizawa’s advice and tried to hide who their partner was with varying levels of success. They went off to lunch with their normal friend groups and tried to act like nothing was different.

Izuku sat with most of his usual lunch group to start with, Uraraka, Tsu, Iida, Shinsou and Todoroki. Occasionally the quiet group made up of Kouda, Tokoyami, and Shouji would join them, but none made an appearance today. Their conversations were more subdued than usual, the assignment obviously on their minds but they tried to go on as they normally would. To their confusion Izuku seemed unaffected by the looming assignment, he didn’t even go on a mumble rant once.

Throughout lunch people started to make excuses to leave. First was Iida, he said something about the bathroom before marching away, in the opposite direction of the bathroom. Exactly two minutes later Todoroki got up, said that he also needed to go to the bathroom, and then went the same direction that Iida had gone. The group let out a giggle at how obvious they were before continuing their conversations. Next up was Shinsou, he didn’t bother to give an excuse, just getting up and leaving with a mumbled, “See you later.”

Uraraka and Tsu hung around for a bit longer but they both left within a couple minutes of each other. With still over half of lunch left Izuku found himself sitting alone. He didn’t mind much, he knew that this would happen as soon as the assignment was explained. He busied himself with watching the rest of the students in the cafeteria. Looking around he noticed that Bakugou was left sitting alone, his friends probably all having done the same thing his own friends did.  Izuku giggled as he noticed that class 1B was acting just like class 1A, apparently they were doing the same assignment. 

After lunch there was only one class before Foundational Heroics. Some of the students looked more relaxed now that they had made a plan over lunch, other students looked even more worried than before. Even with there being more relaxed students, the tension was palpable from anticipation for the assignment. The class period went by slowly but finally it was time for the assignment to start. 

Just like he promised, the first thing Aizawa did when he walked into the room was hand each student a folded up piece of paper.

“Each of you has been given a prompt at random. You have until class ends to figure out what your message will be and to communicate it to your partner. I will hand out a quiz in the last ten minutes of class. You can continue to try and communicate your message during the quiz; however, all messages have to be written down and all questions on the quiz must be answered by the time class ends for them to count. Before we begin the lesson I want to make this clear, there is no such thing as cheating in this assignment. Anything goes, but I will stop you if I notice any disruptive behavior or anything that wouldn’t normally be allowed in class.

“Now for the lecture today. As I mentioned earlier this morning we will be talking about nonverbal and secretive communication. I am differentiating between the two because you can have nonverbal communication that is also not necessarily subtle, such as sign language…” Aizawa kept lecturing but the majority of the class wasn’t paying much attention. Instead there was a flurry of activity as each person was opening their prompt and attempting to figure out what their message would be. 

Two students however took notes as diligently as normal. Katsuki and Izuku had years of practice with note taking while conversing, it was almost second nature at this point. They knew that the hardest part of this assignment would be figuring out what their messages would be. 

‘I figured out my message, nerd.’ Katsuki communicated to Izuku not long after class started.

‘Cool! What is it?’

‘Jirou’s third line of notes says “Types of nonverbal communication include:” The next few lines say “sign language, morse code, signals, body cues, ect.”  She also wrote a little note by where she wrote sign language, “Ask Kouda or maybe Shinsou”.’ 

Izuku pulled out a spare notebook and wrote down Katsuki’s message so that he would remember it. To make sure that no one else could read it he wrote it in the same code that he had developed to write his quirk notes in.

‘Wait, what was your prompt?’ Izuku knew that everyone had different prompts, but that was really different from his.

‘What is the third line in the person to your left's notes? If you are the person farthest left then answer for the person to your right.’ 

Even though he didn’t need to, Izuku wrote down Katsuki’s prompt by his message. 

‘Oh ok, that’s just really different from my prompt.’

‘Oh, what’s your prompt?’

‘What is something that you can figure out about someone in the room just by observation?’

‘So let’s hear it nerd, this is what you are good at after all. What have you observed?’

Izuku looked around the room quickly, noting things he could say. ‘That’s the problem, I have too many choices. And what if I say something that the person would prefer Mr. Aizawa didn’t know. I don’t want to accidentally out someone or anything!’

‘So there are other closeted people in the class?’ Katsuki let out a sound that Izuku knew to be a chuckle, but to anyone else it just sounded like a small cough. His question was obviously a joke, but it flustered Izuku anyway.

‘No! Well yes but that’s not the point. Besides I know you have just as good of a gaydar as I do.’ 

They had come out to each other years ago, Izuku as pansexual and Katsuki as gay. After coming out to each other, they sometimes spent classes in middle school guessing their classmates' sexuality. They were usually right, but after someone was outed and it didn’t go well for them, speculating on their peers' sexuality just didn’t sit right with them anymore. They still couldn’t help but notice different things, but they just didn’t talk about it anymore, it wasn’t up to them to label anyone anyway.

‘Ok, ok, so put something that Mr. Aizawa for sure already knows.’

‘Yeah but what? How am I supposed to know what he does or doesn’t know?’

‘He knows stuff about himself so fucking observe him.’ 

Izuku almost hit himself, the answer seemed so obvious. ‘That’s a great idea Kacchan!’

‘Oh my god, did Ears seriously just fucking whisper her message to OctoArms, what part of nonverbal did she not get?’

‘What was her message?’ Izuku ignored his friends' strange nicknames for their classmates, he had never been good at remembering people’s names, even when they were really little. 

‘Why should I tell you?’

‘Come on, I’ll tell you any messages I figure out if you tell me all the ones you figure out. After all, I bet I could figure out more than you.’ It wasn’t the first time that Izuku got him to do things by goading him into competition, and it definitely wasn’t going to be the last.

‘You’re on, nerd. Jirou’s message was “Kirishima has a Crimson Riot pencil case that is covered in words like manly and chivalry.”’

Izuku wrote down Jirou’s message, in code, in his notebook. Looking over at Sero he figured out his message and wrote it down as well before telling Katsuki.

‘I think I know what Sero’s message is. He pointed at Jirou then wrote down “Line 1, Nonverbal/secretive communication is used a lot in underground heroics.”’

‘He could just be taking notes.’

‘No, he was very deliberate and purposefully wrote it near where Kirishima could read it.’

“Please refrain from looking at each other's papers during class, Kirishima.” Aizawa suddenly interrupted his lecture to call out Kirishima who was half out of his chair trying to see what Sero wrote.

‘Ok so maybe that was the message, but why did Shitty Hair need to practically get out of his fucking chair to read it.’

‘Sero wrote it in Spanish so that no one else would read it.’

‘Why would Tape Face write it in fucking Spanish? Shitty Hair doesn’t know Spanish.’

‘I think the plan was for him to try to sneakily use google translate.’

‘Wait, since when did you know Spanish?’

Izuku held back a grin. ‘I got bored in middle school and I thought languages were cool.’ 

‘I don’t know why that surprised me, you always were a weird fucking nerd’

‘Says the one who knows French and JSL. Plus we literally created this entirely silent language. You had a language phase too.’ 

‘That was out of necessity. My parents spend a shit ton of time in France and I am losing my fucking hearing. You didn’t need to know Spanish. Also, you learned both of those languages with me!’

Izuku moved his metal water bottle a bit, so that it was more toward the side of his desk. 

‘But it could be helpful! Speaking of languages, Kouda and Shinsou are using sign language to tell each other their messages. Shinsou’s is Yaoyorozu is using a black pen. Kouda’s is Asui is drinking water. ’

‘How can you even see that shit? They sit behind you!’

Izuku held back a giggle as he wrote down the new messages. ‘I have a very strategically placed reflective water bottle on my desk.’

‘Holy Shit! OctoArms just whispered his message back to Ears! I know that they have advanced hearing, but do they realize that the rest of us still have fucking ears?’

‘What was the message?’

‘“Ojiro has books, folders, a pencil case and some loose paper in his bag.”’

As Izuku was writing down the new message he looked up to see Kaminari pointing and gesturing. ‘I think I figured out Kaminari’s message, he keeps pointing to Sero while holding a pencil case and then doing the Spiderman thing. I think he is trying to describe Sero’s spiderman pencil case. That’s four to me and two to you, wow Kacchan, it looks like I might win this one.’

‘Not so fast Deku, Shitty Hair’s message is that Kouda has a yellow pencil. Frog’s message is that Glasses is drinking orange juice.’

As Izuku wrote he questioned Katsuki, ‘How did you figure those out anyway? And since when did you know Kouda’s name?’

‘Shitty Hair accidentally texted me instead of Tape Face. Frog keeps turning around to look at Glasses and then is miming drinking to Round Face.’

‘How did you know he is drinking orange juice though?’ Izuku knows that Iida only drinks orange juice and occasionally water, but he thought that only his friend group knew that.

‘It’s fucking common knowledge, Glasses drinks orange juice for his quirk.’

‘I didn’t think that was common knowledge but ok.’

“Kirishima put your phone away or I will have to take it, same to you Ashido.” Aizawa interrupted his lecture again to call out some of the people that were being way too obvious.

‘I’m gonna go get a tissue and see if I can figure out anymore.’

‘What?’ 

Izuku didn’t answer before he was fast walking to the front of the classroom. “Midoriya, what are you doing out of your seat?” Aizawa called out to him.

Instead of answering, Izuku grabbed a tissue from the teacher’s desk and sneezed into it, and then sneezed again, and again. After a fairly impressive number of sneezes Izuku finally spoke, “Sorry, I really needed a tissue.”

“Very well, back to what I was saying…” As Aizawa continued the lecture Izuku took his time observing his classmates before slowly making his way to the trash can by the door and then to his seat. As he was sneezing he had noticed Hagakure get up while no one else was looking and exchange notes on Ojiro’s desk. As Izuku walked to the trash he was able to look at the note on Ojiro’s desk, and on his way to his seat he managed to see the note on Hagakure’s desk.

As Izuku started to write what he just found out he shared with Katsuki, ‘Hagakure’s message is “Shouji has textbooks, a notebook, and a pen in his bag.” Ojiro’s message is “The seventh line in Aoyama’s notes is, “It seems that it is possible to shine too brightly while undercover.””’

‘What the fuck?’

‘I stopped questioning Aoyama a while ago.’

‘Fair enough, while you were causing a distraction I was able to partially figure out some other people’s messages. Round Face kept pointing at Sugar Crash then a notebook, then holding up ten fingers then shaking her head. I think she was saying that the fucker doesn’t have anything written on line ten of his notes. Birdhead’s message had something to do with wrists. He would point at his wrist and then at Glasses, Sugar Crash, OctoArms, Frog, and you.’

‘Huh, what do our wrists have in common?’

‘I don’t know nerd, I was hoping you would figure it out!’

Izuku looked down at his wrist searching for a clue, and then he looked at Asui’s wrist, and then Shouji’s.

‘We all wear watches! Iida, Satou, Shouji, Asui… uh I mean Tsu, and I all wear watches!’

“I shouldn’t have to remind you to not pass notes in class, Ashido, hand it over please.” Ashido sheepishly handed Aizawa the paper that had just been delivered to her by a little device that was obviously made by Yaoyorozu. Luckily for them Aizawa didn’t read the note aloud, but he did rip it up before throwing it out. 

Aizawa walked to the front of the room and pulled out a stack of paper. He spoke as he handed out the papers. “As I mentioned before you will have the final ten minutes of class to work on this quiz. It is an open note quiz but I will not accept anything written after the bell rings for the end of class. You may begin as soon as you get your paper.”

Izuku looked over the questions on the quiz and answered them quickly. As promised they were all about what Aizawa had been lecturing about. The bottom of the page contained instructions on how to format the back to turn in all their messages. First they would write their prompt, and then their message, followed by their partner's message, and then any other messages they figured out.  

‘Nerd! What’s your message? You never came up with one!’

‘Oh uh…’ Izuku looked around the room before his eyes landed on Aizawa’s hand which was reaching for something around his neck. ‘Mr. Aizawa is married, he wears his ring on a chain around his neck when he is in costume but the tan on his finger means he probably wears it when he is not in public. If I had to guess, I would say he is married to Present Mic. Mr. Aizawa always smiles a little when he walks in.’

‘Damn, I was not expecting that, but now that you point it out, it weirdly makes sense.’

Both boys started writing down the other messages after that. Because Izuku wrote down all of the messages all he had to do was translate them back to Japanese and copy them over. Katsuki didn’t have a reliable way to write them down, so instead he was relying on his memory. Izuku figured that Katsuki would do that, so he decided to just tell him all the messages again as he wrote them.

“Pens down!” Aizawa called out at the bell range to signal the end of class. Before Izuku handed in his paper he counted out how many messages they figured out. 

‘Kacchan, we tied! Kinda at least, I mean I guess you could say I won because you only figured out five fully and I helped with figuring out Tokoyami’s message plus I had six that I figured out, but you were the one who actually saw Tokoyami’s message… I just figured out what it meant, which is what gave us the points… I guess you could say that we each get half a point—’

‘—Nerd, we tied.’

Izuku started packing up his things. ‘But really I won though…’

‘What no! I’m the one that saw Birdhead’s message!’

‘But I translated it!’

‘So? You wouldn’t have figured out shit if I hadn’t told you what I saw!’

‘But Kacchaaaan!’

‘Fine fucker, you won. You won’t next time though.’ 

The conversation ended as they both finished packing up for the day and left class, splitting up into their separate friend groups. 

“Oh my god, that was so hard!” Mina yelled as Katuski walked up to the group.

“Tell me about it! I thought using google translate would be easy but no one told me Spanish had little thingies on top of the letter that make it harder to type.” Kirishima had his head in his hands.

“Sorry dude, I forgot to mention that when we came up with the plan.” Sero at least had the decency to sound apologetic.

“Fucking idiots, why would you try to use a language you both wouldn’t understand? Also Shitty Hair, do you not know how to fucking check who you are sending shit to?”

“What?” the rest of the group questioned as Kirishima rubbed his face.

“I got a fucking text in the middle of class with his message, this fucker didn’t check who he was texting and sent it to me instead of Tape Face.”

“Holy shit, you got caught texting but you got nothing out of it!” Kaminari busted out laughing.

“Hey Dunce Face, maybe you shouldn’t be the one laughing. You and Racoon Eyes were the two most obvious fuckers in the class, at least he didn’t point so aggressively that it caught everyone’s attention.” Bakugou didn’t personally figure out Kaminari’s message, but he hoped calling him out on it might inspire him to do better next time. 

“Well what about you Bakugou? Did you even try to work with your partner?” Kaminari deflected.

“Yeah, wait, who was your partner?” Kirishima spoke up. 

“Idiots, we are doing this assignments again, I’m not gonna tell you who my fucking partner is.” Katsuki was a little disappointed that his idiots didn’t recognize the advantage of keeping their partner a secret, but he was also a little happy that they were taking an interest anyway. He enjoyed having friends that could actually act like they liked having him around, even if he didn’t exactly return the sentiment. Although the only person that really knew what he really thought was across the hallway, he was pretty sure that the idiots he calls friends had some idea that he considers them as such. 

“Why does it matter? You know who all our partners are.” Kaminari said.

“If I fucking tell you, you might figure out what to look for.”

“Wait, so you did try on this assignment?” Mina questioned him.

“Of course I fucking tried on this assignment, it was probably the easiest assignment we have done all year.”

“Easy!?” All of his idiots chorused at once.

Down the hallway Izuku had to chuckle when he heard Katsuki’s group of friends yell. He had no doubt that Katuski had just mentioned what he thought about the assignment, and Katsuki’s friends did not agree with his assessment. While listening to Uraraka rant about the difficulties of sitting behind her partner, Izuku got Katsuki’s attention and confirmed his theory. He was tempted to continue their conversation, but his friends were walking too far from Katuski’s group, so he had to settle for sharing a small smile as they walked away instead.  

The class had gone about as well as Aizawa had expected to be honest. Only the most studious students seemed to have any idea what the lecture was about, the rest of the class was far too engrossed in their assignment. He thumbed through their papers quickly before heading to his desk in the teachers lounge, sighing at how most of the quizzes were left mostly blank. On his way to his desk he stopped to grab a cup of coffee, with classes all done for the day, he has all afternoon to grade. 

The first thing he did once he got settled in for grading was make a list about what he noticed. He had learned the hard way that if doesn’t keep track of what he figured out during the lesson before he grades, he will retroactively figure out messages and grade according to that. The first time he did the assignment just about every student failed, even if they shouldn’t have. Of course once he realized it he went back and regraded everyone, but even then their grades were probably a bit lower than they should have been, and it was a lot of extra work for him. 

Aizawa went through his class one by one and wrote everything that he saw. For some students he knew the message in its entirety, like Yaoyorozu, whose message he had intercepted from Ashido. For other students he figured out parts or the general idea of their messages.  Many of the students relied on gesturing, which was admittedly not a bad way to get their message across, but it was really obvious. 

He was disappointed in a few students who he thought should have done better. Shouji and Jirou didn’t even attempt any sort of nonverbal communication, they just whispered their messages to each other. While it made sense that they would use their advanced hearing, neither have the ability to whisper quiet enough that no one else heard them. Kouda and Shinsou were also a bit disappointing. They just used normal sign language. That might have worked if they were the only two people in the room that knew the language, but they aren’t. 

There were a few students that did really well. Todoroki and Iida used morse code to get their messages across.  Aizawa didn’t even notice until Iida was halfway through a message and he accidentally tapped on the desk a bit too hard. After the sound had clued him into listening he got the rest of the message and Todoroki’s, but for the first time doing this assignment it was impressive. 

Aizawa didn’t know what to think about Bakugou and Midoriya. The only thing they did that was different from how they normally act was when Midoriya got up to get a tissue, and he watched both of them like a hawk during that whole thing. Neither made any sort of move to communicate throughout the whole lesson. Either they somehow did the best in the class, or they did the worst. Honestly Aizawa was betting that it was the worst. This seemed like just the type of assignment that Bakugou would deem unworthy of his time. It was a bit strange that they had paired up, but it was most likely Bakugou’s idea, he figured Midoriya would be the easiest to bully into not doing the assignment. Midoriya probably agreed in an attempt to try and get along. Aizawa could only hope that they would choose better next time and fix their grade. He also made another mental note to look into Bakugou’s behavior. Aizawa had thought that his treatment of Midoriya was concerning from the beginning of the school year and he had made a mental note to look into it many times over the course of the school year, however other things kept distracting him. 

As soon as he was satisfied with his list of observations he got started on the quizzes. Nothing really stood out much as he was grading. Iida and Todoroki did well at understanding each other’s messages but they focused on class instead of trying to figure out other messages. Many students never got their message across to their partner fully, but they were able to figure out a few other students' messages, even if other students figured out their message. Overall it was pretty much exactly how he was expecting, until he got to Bakugou’s quiz. Aizawa had gone through the class in order by pairs, this left the Problem Duo last. He wasn’t surprised that not a single other student had figured out either of the duo’s messages, after all he was pretty sure that they hadn’t done the assignment at all. 

Bakugou got a perfect score on the front of the quiz, which wasn’t unexpected, but when he flipped the page over he was not expecting the sheer amount of information. Shocked, he grabbed Midoriya’s paper, the one he was going to grade next, and flipped it over. When he saw the nearly identical page he couldn’t stop his head from hitting the desk. 

With a groan he picked his head up and decided to put off the oncoming headache by grading the front of Midoriya’s quiz instead of the back. Once he could put it off no longer, he started reading. The more he read the more his head started to hurt. The back of Midoriya’s and Bakugou’s papers were identical, every word was the same. That is not even mentioning the message Midoriya came up with. His prompt to observe someone in the room and figure something out about them had somehow led to him figuring out a secret that they had been keeping for years. Not even all the teachers knew that he was married. 

Ignoring the content of the message for a minute, Aizawa tried to figure out how to grade them. Up until this point grading had been fairly simple. Getting all the questions on the quiz correct as well as getting writing down their partner's message and then writing down their message would be a perfect 100 points. From there up to five points would be taken away for each person that figured out their message including if Aizawa figured out the message. Every message that they figure out would add up to five points to their total. The exact number of points added or taken away would depend on how much information was figured out. Knowing the message word for word would earn 5 points, while knowing only a general idea would earn less. In addition to that each student was given up to 5 points extra based on how complicated their message was. The bare minimum message would not award them any extra points while a complicated message would earn 5 points. 

 So far the highest grades in the class were 100 and 101, Todoroki and Iida would have gotten a bit higher if Aizawa hadn’t noticed the morse code. Their score was already very high, the class average is usually in the low fifties. If he was to follow the same grading scheme Bakugou and Midoriya would each have 165 points. Usually people only start getting over a hundred after the third or fourth version of this assignment, and no one has ever gotten close to 165.  Unsure what to do, Aizawa turned to Vlad King, who was grading his class’ assignment at his desk across the room. 

“Vlad, if you had a couple outliers in your class, would you use the same grading scheme or would you change it?”

“I would keep it the same, it would be unfair to grade any students differently than others. Besides, we always set the negatives to zero before adding the difficulty score so they can’t be too low. I doubt that this is the first time you have a student get a zero the first time around. Make sure you keep all the scores in the average though, it would be nice for Class B to win.”

“Why would you assume that they did poorly?”

“It’s the first time we are doing this assignment, there is no way anyone did well enough for you to question how to grade them.” Vlad King turned back to his grading and Aizawa did the same. 

Deciding to just go with it, Aizawa marked 165 on both boys' papers and then moved on, leaving a note to himself to talk to them about Midoriya’s message; he didn’t want that information getting out. He also didn’t want to think about how wrong he had been. Instead of pondering about how they managed to do it, Aizawa finished entering numbers into his spreadsheet, finalizing the students' scores and figuring out the class average. Slowly the room started to fill with excited teachers. They knew that Vlad and Aizawa would be finishing up grading soon and once they were done it would be time to figure out who won the bets. All of the teachers except the two homeroom teachers were invested, even Nedzu, although know one dared to put money on a bet against him. 

As Aizawa finished he hid the bottom half of his face in his scarf so no one could see his proud smile. This was easily the highest class average he had ever seen on the first iteration of this assignment. Of course, the class average without Bakugou and Midoriya was closer to normal, but still respectable, however including them brought the average up quite a bit. It took a bit for Vlad King to finish as well, but once they were both done all the teachers gathered in the meeting room to hear the results. 

Nedzu immediately made his way on top of the table and began speaking, “Before we go over the results, why don’t we go over the bets again. For the highest overall average we have All Might, Present Mic, and I, all betting that Class A will do better. Everyone else is betting on Class B. For highest scoring pair: Midnight, Thirteen, and I bet that it would be Tokage and Kendo, Snipe bet that it would be Kuroiro and Tsuraba, Ectoplasm and Cementoss bet on Iida and Todoroki, Lunch Rush and Recovery Girl bet on Kouda and Shinsou, Present Mic bet on Shouji and Jirou, Powerloader bet on Kodai and Yanagi, and All Might bet on Bakugou and Midoriya—”

“—Wait, All Might you bet on the Problem Duo? You understood what the assignment was right?” Midnight interrupted.

“I will admit that I am not as familiar with the assignment as the rest of you but I believe I understand it well enough. They are childhood friends and recently I noticed that they are very aware of each other at all times. I think they probably did well.”

“But it requires them actually working together.” Snipe spoke up this time, even with his limited interactions with the class he knew that the Problem Duo were like oil and water. 

Nedzu cleared his throat and then continued, “For the highests scoring individual student: Midnight, Thirteen, and I voted on Tokage, Snipe and Ectoplasm bet on Kuroiro, Cementoss bet on Todoroki, Lunch Rush and Recovery Girl bet on Kouda, Present Mic bet on Jirou, Powerloader bet on Yanagi, and All Might bet on Midoriya.” Nedzu clapped his paws together, “Now let’s hear the results. Vlad King, Aizawa, what are the class averages?”

“Class B got a solid 55.2% this year!” Vlad King spoke with a smug smile on his face.

“That is pretty good, but that’s nothing compared to the 62.5% that my class got.” Aizawa couldn’t keep the smug smile off his face, nor the pride out of his voice. 

“What? But…” Vlad King sputtered as the other teachers looked around in shock. Only Present Mic, All Might, and Nedzu looked at all happy, after all they had won the first bet. 

“Yes, without the two outliers the class average would be 51.1% but you insisted that I leave them in.” Aizawa deadpanned.

“Two students brought your class average from 51.1% to 62.5%? Are you sure you did the math right?” Ectoplasm asked. 

“Yes, I’m sure. I was actually surprised that they didn’t bring up the average any more than that.”

“Well then, let's move on to the highest pair, Vlad King, what was the highest scoring pair in your class?”

“Why even bother? They obviously aren’t any higher than Aizawa’s outliers.” Vlad King sighed then continued, “The highest scoring pair in Class B was Tokage and Kendo with an average score of 101.”

“Aizawa”

“If it makes you feel better Vlad the second highest scoring pair in the class had an average of 100.5, so if it wasn’t for the outliers you would have had all the winners. But, the highest scoring pair in Class A was Bakugou and Midoriya, with a score of 165.”

The room exploded with noise as all the teachers exclaimed in surprise. 

“The Problem Duo! You’re kidding right?”

“165! There is no way anyone scored that high!”

“Aizawa, are you sure you graded them properly?”

“That’s their average score right, not their combined score?”

Like a true teacher Nedzu sat patiently and waited for everyone to calm down. Once they did, he spoke, “Before we have Aizawa explain how their score got that high, let's settle the last bet. Aizawa, who was the highest scorer?”

“Bakugou and Midoriya both got the same score of 165, they both turned in practically identical papers and they both had complicated messages.” 

“What do you mean by practically identical?” Nedzu was curious about this unexpected revelation.

Aizawa pulled out their quizzes and handed them to Nedzu, “I mean the only difference between them is that they had to write their message first and they had different prompts, otherwise they are word for word the same.”

“Oh?” Nedzu looks over the papers, “Oh? Did anyone figure out their messages?”

“No,” Aizawa groaned, “I couldn’t even tell that they were communicating at all. In my notes I even wrote that it was more likely that they decided to not do the assignment at all than that they were communicating.”

“Do you mind if I were to share this with everyone? I am hoping that we can go over the video feed and see how they were able to communicate this.”

Aizawa knew why the principal was asking. If he agreed for them all to go over the videos they might find out how they were communicating, but they definitely would find out Midoriya's message. Nedzu was asking if Aizawa was okay with all of the teachers knowing that he and Mic were married. 

Aizawa thought about it for a moment but he realized that he really didn’t mind any of the teachers knowing. He knew that Present Mic wouldn’t care that everyone knew, in fact he knew that Mic would prefer it if they told everyone. Either way though, he should confirm it with his husband first. 

Aizawa slid a paper over to Mic and pointed at Midoriya's message, “You ok with this getting out?”

Mic read it for a moment confused and then he looked up at Aizawa, “YES—” Aizawa had to use his quirk to quiet his overenthusiastic husband, “—sorry. Yes, I am ok with that, are you?”

“I want to figure out how the problem children managed to do so well… and I don’t mind everyone here knowing.” Aizawa spoke quietly trying to keep their conversation private, but he was well aware that they had an audience the entire time. Mic’s resulting smile was blinding, but Aizawa couldn’t help but smile in return.

“I don’t mind sharing it, let’s figure this out.” Aizawa said as he turned to Nedzu. 

With a grin Nedzu pulled up the video feed, as well as a photo of Midoriya’s quiz onto the giant screen on the wall. As he rewound the video to the time class was, the teachers read the paper. 

“You’re married?” Ectoplasm spoke up. 

“Yes, we have been married for seven years.” Aizawa answered.

“Midoriya managed to figure it out already, damn it don’t tell Tensei, I was betting none of them would figure it out until at least their second year if they figured it out at all.” Present Mic chuckled at Midnight’s addition.

Before any of the conversations could continue Nedzu cleared his throat to get their attention, he had gotten the video feed to show the lesson.

They watched in silence for a while until they saw Midoriya scribble something down in a separate notebook than what he had been using to take notes. Nedzu zoomed in on the writing, only to see a series of indecipherable symbols. 

“What language is that?” All Might asked.

“I don’t think it is one. I think it is some sort of code.” Nedzu answered as he zoomed back out. 

As the class continued the teachers watched as Jirou whispered her message, moments later Midoriya wrote something in his coded notebook. The class went on and they couldn’t see anything that would explain how they were communicating, but they did see Midoriya write something down in his notebook every few minutes, usually after a student had tried to tell their partner their message. However, he would not have been able to see some of the messages, but Bakugou could.

Finally they watched as Aizawa handed out the quizzes at the end of class. Bakugou and Midoriya sped through the front easily, only pausing finally when they reached the back and they needed to write Midoriya’s message. To the teachers’ surprise he looked around almost frantically before his eyes landed on Aizawa, who was reaching towards his neck. Suddenly at the exact same time both boys started writing. 

After both boys finished writing Midoriya’s message, Midoriya pulled his encoded notes in front of him. Occasionally glancing at his notes, Midoriya started writing out each message. Incredibly, Bakugou was writing the exact same thing at the same time. It was almost as if Midoriya was translating his notes and dictating them as he wrote so that Bakugou could copy them, except it was dead silent. The teachers didn’t look away even as class ended. 

Finally it was Nedzu that broke the silence, “All Might, did you know that they could do that?”

“I had no idea, I thought they could do well, not that they could read each other's minds.”

“Wait, are we sure that neither of them have a telepathy quirk?” Present Mic spoke up.

All Might froze for a second before Nedzu spoke, “That wouldn’t make any sense, Bakugou has Explosion and Midoriya has Superpower. If they had gotten this far into their time at UA without making something as useful as telepathy known it would be very concerning. I will admit that Midoriya’s quirk was very underdeveloped when he started here, and he might still be finding new facets of it, but telepathy seems very unlikely.”

“It would be concerning but it would make what we just watched make sense. Even so, I don’t think that is the case, both of them are too driven to be the best heroes, they wouldn’t hide something that would be so obviously useful.” Aizawa spoke with a sense of finality. 

“Well,” Nedzu clapped his hands, “I doubt we will gain anymore knowledge from this. Hopefully the next iteration of the assignment will lend us some insight into what is happening here.”

Class 1 A was tense as the bell rang to start the morning. They had left class the day before loudly complaining about the difficulties of the assignment they had been given. Throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening their complaints changed from moaning about the difficulty of the assignments to laments on how it will tank their grades. Only a few students were not worried about how badly their grades were about to drop. Katsuki and Izuku both being of that number, only joined by Iida and Todoroki. 

Izuku watched as his classmates sat anxiously while Aizawa made his way to the podium. Izuku smiled as he heard a familiar soft click indicating him to pay attention to what Katsuki was going to say.

‘How many of these idiots do you think failed?’

‘Kacchan! I’m not going to bet on our friends' grades! Besides, maybe they all passed.’

‘Oh come on, there’s no fucking way they all passed.’

“I will be giving back your grades from the assignment yesterday but first I want to explain something. I am sure that many of you are worried about your grade, but you will have a chance to make it up. Yesterday morning I mentioned that this was just the first iteration of the assignment. The next iteration will be next week.” Aizawa stood at the front of the class, looking at each student as he spoke.

‘Hear that? We get to do this again!’ Izuku could barely contain his excitement.

‘He better not make us switch fucking partners.’

 “That assignment will be nearly identical to this one. However instead of grading you separately for each assignment, your grade for both will be replaced by the higher of the two. In other words if you failed this time, you can learn from it and do better next week to save your grade.” Izuku noticed that Aizawa’s gaze stopped on certain classmates that had complained the most after the assignment.

Izuku heard Katsuki hold in a snort and then start talking. ‘Damn you can feel all these fuckers relax. Maybe if they had actually tried the first time they wouldn’t have been so fucking tense’

‘Kacchan they did try, they just don’t have the experience we do.’

“Just like yesterday’s assignment you will not be getting your prompts until the class period starts. Unlike yesterday though, you will have more time to prepare. You can decide whether you want to switch your partner or keep the same one but you have to turn in a paper with who your partner is by Friday afternoon.” 

‘Fuck yeah!’

‘So we are gonna be partners again?’

‘No fucking shit, nerd.’

“The assignment will take place sometime next week, the day will not be announced in advance. You have all weekend to prepare so that shouldn’t be an issue for you.” Aizawa kept talking but the class all started to shuffle as they got excited about the assignment again. A few students who had felt good about how they did were already making eye contact with their partners, planning to work together again.

“Now, a few more quick notes before I hand back the quizzes. Far too many of you did poorly on the actual quiz part of the assignment. This is an important lecture so I will be giving it again in Foundational Heroics today. If you got above a 75 on the quiz you will be given the option to either stay for the lecture or to attend a practical lesson with All Might. If you got lower than a 75 you do not have a choice, you will be attending the lecture.”

‘Fuck yeah! I’m not gonna stay and listen to that damn lecture.’

‘Kacchan we haven’t got our grades back, you don’t know if you did well enough on the quiz to avoid the lecture.’

‘That damn quiz was easy as fuck if you just paid attention, if I didn’t get a perfect score it’s fucking rigged.’

‘I guess you’re right, it was pretty easy.’

“I also want to point out that while it is ultimately your choice on whether to share your grade or not, giving your classmates too much information could potentially make it easier for them to figure out your message next time. With that being said, you have the rest of the class period to look over your score.”

Izuku and Katsuki didn’t let Aizawa handing out their quizzes stop their conversation.

‘I bet most of these idiots will immediately share their fucking score with anyone that will listen.’

‘I want to disagree but you are probably right. Even Iida and Todoroki let it slip yesterday that they were using morse code.’

Before Katsuki could answer, Izuku took a moment to look at his quiz. Only two things were written on it, his score and…

‘Come see me after school. Kacchan, does your quiz say that too?’

‘Yeah nerd, it's probably just about your damn message. You did decide to make a fucking message about his personal life.’

‘Right… yeah —Oh my god he probably hates me. I didn’t even think about how he would react to that. If I was right he probably didn’t want anyone to know and I just ruined that. If I was wrong… oh my god that’s so embarrassing I practically just told our teacher that I ship him with Present Mic. Kacchan, why would you let me do this!’

‘Nerd chill, we didn’t have a lot of time for you to think of anything else and I doubt he cares much anyway. He probably is just going to tell us to not spread any fucking rumors.’

‘Right… yeah that's it…’

As much as he tried to be, Izuku was not convinced. He spent the rest of the day worried about what Aizawa would want to see him about. He was so worried that he couldn’t bring himself to enjoy the practical ‘lesson’ that All Might had set up. It was pretty much a game of tag except they were allowed to use quirks. He could tell that Katsuki was getting worried about him, especially after he managed to get tagged the most, but he knew Katsuki wouldn’t understand. Katsuki has never been an anxious person, but Izuku has enough anxiety for both of them. 

Finally the day ended and Izuku practically ran to the teachers lounge. It took a bit for Katsuki to join him, but when he did, they both knocked. Aizawa opened the door and let them in, surprisingly there were no other teachers around. Aizawa led them both to his desk and gestured for them to sit at chairs next to each other, across from Aizawa. After a moment of silence that caused Izuku’s anxiety to skyrocket, Aizawa finally spoke.

“Do either of you have any idea why I asked you to meet with me?”

Katsuki stayed silent but Izuku couldn’t stop the rush of words coming out of his mouth, “Is it to do with my message? I’m sorry I wasn’t thinking when I said that. I just looked around and I saw you grab your ring and we were running out of time—” Izuku was cut off by a Katsuki elbowing him in the side, “—Sorry…”

“That was part of the reason, but first, do either of you have some sort of telepathy quirk that you did not disclose?”

Izuku startled, “What?”

“The fuck?” Katsuki looked had a hint of surprise in his ever present glare.

Rather than responding Aizawa simply raised his eyebrow.

“No, neither of us have a telepathy quirk, you know our quirks, you’ve seen us use our quirks.” Izuku was confused that anyone could think that either of them were telepathic this far into the year.

“If I had a telepathy quirk I wouldn’t hold myself back from using it until over halfway into my first year. I would use that shit as often as possible.”

“Good, that’s what I thought but I needed to get confirmation after you both got the highest score ever received on the assignment from yesterday.” Aizawa looked between the two of them, obviously expecting some sort of a reaction.

‘The highest score! Kacchan we got the highest score ever!’ Izuku expressed after making sure to click for Katsuki’s attention. He was so used to hiding it that he didn’t react in any way that anyone other than Katsuki would know.

‘I fucking heard him Deku, I don’t need you repeating it.’

Aizawa squinted at the two boys, obviously thrown off by their lack of reaction. “Now for the other reason I wanted to speak with you, it is about your message. You were correct, Present Mic and I have been married for 7 years. But I ask that you do not share that with anyone. Until yesterday not even all of the teachers were aware of our relationship and we would prefer it if as few people as possible would know. Later on we will have a lesson going in depth about how relationships as heroes can be dangerous, but for now just know that this information being public knowledge could put a target on either of our backs.”

Izuku barely let him finish before he started talking. “Of course we won’t tell anyone. I actually chose to observe you because I figured that it wouldn’t be as big of a breach of privacy if I told you something about you rather than something about my classmates. I didn’t even think about the fact that me knowing would be a breach of privacy, but really I had suspected for months that you were married to Present Mic so while I did observe you grab your ring which is what led me to that conclusion, it wasn’t exactly news, you grab the ring a lot especially when someone brings up the USJ or when Present Mic smiles at you, I didn’t really think about telling Kacchan being a breach of your privacy either because I know that if he ever thought more than two seconds about it he would come to the same conclusion, he is just as observant as me if he wants to be he just doesn’t take the time to really pay attention to other people that much, I mean we have really different philosophies on how to become a great hero, I believe in becoming a hero that is made from what I can learn from others influence while he believes in becoming his own hero without the influence of others, I really admire that thought but— ” Izuku stopped because of a hard elbow to his ribs. 

“We won’t tell anyone.” Katuski summarized to Aizawa who looked unimpressed by the mutter spiral Izuku went on.

‘Thank you.’ Izuku looked over at Katsuki sheepishly. He had asked him years ago to stop him when he gets on one of his mutter spirals. They play it off as if Katsuki gets annoyed but honestly Katsuki doesn’t actually mind much, really Izuku just doesn’t like it when he reveals more information than he means to. 

After that Aizawa wrapped up the meeting and sent them on their way, but before they left Katsuki and Izuku both made sure to turn in their papers indicating that they would be partners again. Although they left together, Izuku walked back alone, Katsuki had decided to get a quick workout in at the gym before the evening crowd started to arrive.

Izuku was expecting chaos similar to the day before when they had to choose partners, so he was surprised to find silence as he entered the dorm. As he walked to his room he didn’t see a single person, however as he passed people’s bedrooms he did hear conversations inside. It seems that everyone had found their partners and were already trying to figure out how to best complete this assignment. He was a little disappointed that he wouldn’t find anyone to hang out with this evening, and most likely for the rest of the week and weekend, but he was proud that his classmates were taking this assignment seriously. 

Over the next few days it seemed that their lives were revolving around the assignment. Izuku couldn’t go a half an hour without being reminded of the assignment in some way. He regularly found papers scattered throughout the common areas with morse code written on them, people were coughing weirdly all the time or making weird faces. It wasn’t uncommon to look across the room and see someone absolutely butchering sign language, but he couldn’t say for sure that wasn’t their intention, after all the language he created with Katsuki originally included butchered forms of sign language and morse code. Overall it was obvious that his class had taken the assignment and gone plus ultra and he couldn’t be more proud. From what he could see of Class B, they either weren’t given the second version of the assignment, or they didn’t feel the need to practice as much. 

By Friday Izuku was starting to feel a little lonely. He had sparred with Katsuki a few times through the week and they had a quirk practice session with All Might, but outside of that they didn’t really hang out. The rest of his friends were very preoccupied with the assignment, from what little they had all talked since the assignment he had found out that Tsu and Uraraka hadn’t done too well and while Iida and Todoroki did do pretty well, they thought that they “missed the essence of the assignment”. Based on who he saw them with it seems that Uraraka and Tsu switched partners, but either way they weren’t hanging out with him. 

Friday afternoon he found himself bored so he decided to say hi to his sister class. Unlike his class, who like to keep their plans as unpredictable as possible both because they prefer spontaneity and because they are attacked by villains a bit too often to be comfortable, Class B has a weekly picnic hangout. They weren’t hard to find, 20 teenagers being loud rarely is hard to find, but he still took his time heading over to them. He really did want to be friends with them, he thought the rivalry between the two classes was dumb, they are going to be coworkers in a few years so it makes more sense for them to get along. However he still was a bit scared about trying to make friends, so far being at UA was different, but he always had the fear in the back of his mind that he could go back to the loser he was at Aldera in the blink of an eye. He knew that he could never lose Katsuki as a friend, remaining friends even after the rocky past year they had proven that, but he wasn’t sure he could handle being the outcast again. 

Walking up to Class B he was nervous, and the wary stares from everyone there did not help. But, Izuku knew that if he ever wanted to be on good terms with this class he needed to start somewhere, so why not here.

“Hi!” Izuku waved. “I know our classes aren’t always the best of friends, but I was hoping we could get along better so I figured I might as well stop by and say hi!”

Izuku started regretting his decision as soon as the words left his mouth. Every single one of them just stared at him, expressionless. Right before he could tuck tail and run, a voice spoke up.

“What? Do you think that you are better than us? You have to come over here and try to make nice? You probably think you are so great, ‘Oh this class is having fun so I just have to come insert myself so they know that I am morally superior.’” Monoma rose from where he was sitting under a tree. 

“What no!” Izuku waved his hands in front of him frantically, “It's not like that. All of my classmates are busy preparing for the second iteration of the secretive communication assignment so I figured now was a good time to try and be friends with you. I thought you were all so cool and I hoped we could be friends at camp but uhhh… really it’s not like that at all.”

“So you only came over here because the ‘superior Class A’ was busy.” Monoma glared as he walked towards Izuku. “You were probably trying to humblebrag too. Going on about how the rest of your class needed to study but you didn’t. Trying to make you sound all great, not needing to study for an assignment that the rest of your class has to spend all their time preparing for. Well we aren’t studying either and most of us probably did better than you anyway, afterall your flashy quirk doesn’t help you with everything.” Kendo had her hand raised to karate chop Monoma in the neck when a different voice spoke up. 

“Nerd what the fuck are you doing with these losers?” Izuku wasn’t sure if Katsuki joining the conversation was a good thing, but at least it meant that he had backup if they decided to attack him. 

“Of course, here comes another ‘superior Class A’ student probably also wanting to show off that he is so smart, also not studying.” Monoma taunted but Katsuki's eyes didn’t leave Izuku, obviously prompting him for the answer, either out loud or silently.

“I was trying to make friends with Class B, but they think that I’m just trying to prove that I am better than them. I’m not and I am well aware of it but they are convinced. How could anyone think that I am arrogant, I literally had so little control of my quirk that I was breaking my bones for months. How…“ Izuku trailed off as he noticed the wide eyes surrounding him, apparently he was speaking out loud to everyone instead of silently just to Katsuki.

Katsuki scoffed. “This idiot does shit like that and you think that he is arrogant? What the fuck are you thinking? And Deku what do you think you are doing putting yourself down like that. We just got the highest fucking score ever on that damn assignment, have some fucking self confidence will you! Now let's go, I don’t want to deal with these extras.”  Katsuki turned and stomped away, but he didn’t make it far before realizing that Izuku wasn’t following him. Sighing, he turned around and grabbed Izuku’s arm, dragging the embarrassed boy along with him.

Vaguely Izuku could hear their exclamations as they marched away. 

“Did Bakugou just defend Midoriya?”

“Wait, he just said that they got the highest score ever!”

“They managed to work together?”

“I thought they hated each other?”

After they got away from Class B, Katsuki finally let go of Izuku and they walked side by side without talking. Finally Izuku couldn’t hold it in any longer, ‘Thanks Kacchan’

“What? You can speak out loud in front of all those extras but not when we are alone, Tch, shitty nerd, should have left you back there.”

“No! It’s just… I’m not used to actually speaking out loud to you.” 

They kept walking towards the less populated parts of campus as they talked, avoiding anyone that might overhear them.

“Nerd, we talk all the damn time.” 

“Not out loud!”

“We talk out loud every damn day, maybe not as often as we talk silently but we still talk often.” Katsuki kicked a rock in front of them on the path. 

“Well maybe, but not honestly!”

“What? You've been lying to me Deku?” Izuku immediately felt guilty at how disappointed Katsuki sounded behind his usual anger. Katsuki kicked the rock again, only for it to bounce off the path.

“No Kacchan, I mean, we don’t talk the same way out loud as we do silently. Out loud we are always fighting. We don’t ever hang out and we never have real conversations! We are enemies or rivals or whatever publicly, but silently we are best friends, or at least, I think we are.”

“We are hanging out right now, nerd! Is that not good enough!”

“This is hanging out? You kidnapped me from Class B and now we are fighting!”

“Ugh, fine. Do you want to hang out or would you like me to bring you back to the assholes you were with a second ago?” An evil grin stretched across Katsuki’s face, “I’m sure they would love to have you back now that they know that we got the highest scores ever on that damn assignment.” 

“Oh god, please don’t bring me back there… Wait, you actually want to hang out with me?” Izuku was a little embarrassed when Katsuki just stared at him incredulously for a moment.

“Of course I want to hang out with you, nerd. Why the fuck else would I drag you away from those losers and just start wandering. You said, yourself that we are best friends silently. Can we not be fucking friends out loud?”

“No, we can, I just didn’t think you wanted to be.” Izuku kept walking but he was pulled back to face Katsuki who had stopped.

“I don’t know how to get this into your dumbass brain of yours, but we have been friends all our lives and that isn’t fucking changing anytime soon. You have a quirk now so no one is going to give us any shit. We don’t have to hide our goddamn friendship anymore. I want to hang out with you. Talking in class and all is great, but we can actually be friends now.”

“But you have other friends now, Kirishima, Sero, Kaminari, Mina, you don’t need to be friends with me.”

“I don’t need to fucking be friends with anyone. I want to be friends with you and those other dumbasses!”

“Wow, Katsuki Bakugou actually admitted that he wants friends! I should have gotten that on camera!” Izuku joked wanting to end the conversation.

“Fuck off, shitty nerd!” Katsuki pushed Izuku lightly, trying to hide his laughter. 

“Kacchan that was mean!” Izuku pushed him back before running a few feet away.

“Deku! Get back here!” Katsuki chased him for a while until he finally caught up to him under a tree. As soon as he was in reach Izuku was shoved just hard enough that he fell over. As soon as he hit the ground Katsuki flopped onto the ground next to him. 

“What the fuck nerd?” Katsuki was breathing a little harder than usual.

“What? You wanted to hang out, so we are hanging out.” Izuku feigned ignorance while he was also slightly out of breath. Unable to help it, Izuku burst out laughing and a second later Katsuki joined him. 

Throughout the weekend Izuku and Katsuki hung out a lot, yet because their classmates were preoccupied, none of them noticed that it wasn't for the assignment. They had figured out that they were partners, the process of elimination made that easy, but they thought that they were hanging out just to work on that, that was the only reason anyone else was spending time with anyone after all. The only day that Izuku even saw anyone other than Katsuki was Saturday, when Katsuki and Todoroki went to their provisional license class. During that time Izuku hung out with Iida and they continued to hang out into the evening when Todoroki had gone to have dinner with his family. 

The class studied so much that by Monday morning they felt like they were ready. Throughout the school day it was possible to feel the tension in the air, but when they got to Foundational Heroics, they were greeted by All Might and told to head out to work on their super moves. 

Tuesday went similarly, and Wednesday, and Thursday. When Thursday passed without the assignment the class went into overdrive preparing, making dinner Thursday night very amusing. They had deemed it as a no stakes practice for Friday, but because it was no stakes, not everyone took it seriously. It was silent other than the chorus of clicks and taps some people were using, but before long the room was filled with the sounds of 20 teenagers trying very hard not to laugh.

Kaminari had decided that rather than communicate with his partner, he was going to communicate with everyone. This meant that he didn’t have any prearranged ways of communicating, so he decided to dramatically act out the event that had occurred earlier today that he wanted to tell the class about. His over the top reenactment of Kirishima managing to get his hand stuck in the dirt after tripping had everyone stifling laughter. 

As soon as Kaminari returned to his food, Sero took to the floor. He reenacted when Kaminari sneezed the day before, blowing up every lightbulb around. After Sero ran up to every lightbulb in the room and mimed an explosion, there was no hope of holding back the laughter. 

Once the laughter started, there was no stopping it. Person after person went up and reenacted something that someone in their class had done in the past week. Mina reenacted when Uraraka accidentally floated herself and the couch when she took a nap. Yoayorozu reenacted when Jiro got her jacks stuck in the wall. Iida even joined in once he realized that everyone was laughing at the dramatic reenactments, not necessarily the event, so no one was upset by it. He ended up acting out when Izuku casually lifted the couch over his head to vacuum underneath. The laughter tripled when Katsuki went up and reenacted when Sero got his elbows stuck together, no one expected him to ever join in. 

The original plan for the evening was forgotten, but they were having the most fun they had had since the assignment was first announced. They were all laughing together for the first time in over a week. Unfortunately it couldn’t last forever. Slowly they ran out of things to act out, and they all separated into their partners to practice one last time before they had the actual assignment.

Izuku went off to his room, expecting to spend his evening getting ahead on homework or watching movies. However, once he managed to get comfortable on his bed, someone knocked on his door. A smile spread across his face because it was a very distinctive knock, it was actually the first code he and Katsuki had ever come up with. It was a simple code that just meant ‘hello’ but it indicated that Katsuki was there. Izuku couldn’t get over how often Katsuki had been willing to hang out with him all week, and that Katuski was usually the one to initiate it, but he recognized that it was partially because neither of them had anyone else to hang out with. Izuku was starting to dread when the assignment was over and they were no longer always free, but for now he was overjoyed to spend any time with Katsuki.

“Nerd, are you gonna answer your damn door?” Katsuki knocked on the door again.

Izuku rushed to the door, “Sorry Kacchan, I had to untangle myself.” He gestured to the mess of blankets on the bed. It wasn’t entirely a lie, he had been tangled in blankets, but he would have gotten out of it a lot faster if he hadn’t been too busy thinking about how great spending time with Katsuki was. Izuku ushered him inside, he wasn’t sure what their classmates' reaction would be to them actually being friends, but he didn’t feel like finding out now. Katsuki sat on his bed while looking around the room.

“Hah, I should have known your room would be a goddamn shrine.” In the past week they hadn’t actually spent any time together in the dorm, so Katsuki had yet to see Izuku’s room.

“Don’t act like you don’t own just as much All Might memorabilia as I do Kacchan, I was with you when you got most of it.”

“Yeah, but I keep it under my bed like a normal person, not out staring at me. It’s fucking creepy.” 

“If you just came here to insult my decor you can leave.”

Katuski sighed, “No, I figured that if everyone else was studying with their partner we should too.”

“Kacchan we have been doing this for years, we spent yesterday reviewing morse code and different variations of sign languages to be able to figure out other people’s messages, what else could we possibly do to prepare?”

“Nothing, that’s why I figured we would study something else.”

“Fine, what are we studying?”

“The newest All Might movie?” Katsuki grinned as he gestured to the laptop and movie he had under his arm that Izuku had somehow failed to notice.

“What? But don’t you usually go to bed soon?”

“Yeah so we better start it right fucking now!”

“Ok, ok, move over.” 

The movie was good, Izuku had seen it before, but it didn’t really hold his attention this time around. He was too busy enjoying the fact that for the first time in years, they were really acting like friends. Unfortunately the movie didn’t last forever and Katsuki left as soon as it ended, while Izuku stayed up. He wasn’t doing anything, he was actually trying to sleep, but he kept going over all the time he had spent with Katsuki over the week. Finally, in the early hours of the morning, he fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Friday morning was chaotic to say the least. Everyone was well aware that the second iteration of the assignment was going to take place during Foundational Heroics that afternoon. They had found out first thing in the morning from Kirishima, who heard from Tetsutetsu last night, that Class B had their second iteration yesterday. The consensus was that they did better the second time around, but that it was more difficult. Apparently the prompts are harder and their teacher was going to let less go. Naturally, that sent the class into a panic. 

Izuku walked into the kitchen Friday morning planning to make himself his usual breakfast, but after witnessing the frenzy his classmates were in he decided that it wasn’t worth it. He turned around and walked right out of the kitchen, not wanting to deal with whatever the screaming that was happening was. 

After returning to his room to finish getting ready, he decided to head to class early. He walked past the kitchen without anyone paying much attention to him, but when he was almost out the door to leave the dorm, Katsuki yelled from the kitchen, “Where do you think you're going Deku?” All other noise stopped, waiting to see what this was all about.

Izuku turned around confused, “Class?” 

“Without breakfast? Tch, you know better than that.” 

Izuku pulled an apple out of his bag that he had put in the day before. “I have an apple.” He hadn’t been planning on eating it, but maybe it would convince Katsuki to let him go, he really didn’t feel like hanging around his panicked classmates right now. 

“An apple? Really? Get your ass over here.” 

Izuku begrudgingly headed over to the kitchen, only for Katsuki to shove a bowl of rice and egg at him and push him into a chair. “Eat” Katsuki grunted at Izuku as he grabbed a second bowl of the same thing. They sat in silence eating as all of their classmates stared at them.

‘What was that about Kacchan?’ Izuku couldn’t help but to ask silently as they ate.

‘If you plan to be the number two hero you can’t skip fucking breakfast.’ Katsuki answered without talking as well. They were both very aware that their classmates were staring at them.

‘Number two? Kacchan, I’m gonna be number one!’

‘You won’t be either if you skip breakfast idiot.’ They finished eating quickly after that and Izuku headed to the door to walk to class.

‘Oi, nerd, wait a second, I’ll walk with you.’ Katsuki said silently before sprinting up to his room to finish getting ready. 

Izuku started putting on his shoes in slow motion. He didn’t want to bring attention to the fact that he was waiting for Katsuki, all of their classmates were still watching, but he really did want to walk with Katsuki to class. Luckily Katsuki was fast, by the time Izuku was finished putting his shoes on, Katsuki had come back downstairs and already had one shoe on. A second later they were on their way to class, their classmates still staring at them as they left. 

Iida had just finished making his breakfast when Bakugou yelled across the room at Midoriya. Normally he would reprimand his explosive classmate for yelling, but he was curious how this would turn out. Unlike most interactions between the two, Bakugou didn’t actually sound mad. The rest of their interaction left everyone speechless. The uncontrollable chaos was silenced instantly by Bakugou forcing Midoriya to eat breakfast. Not just any breakfast either, a breakfast that Bakugou made, even though Bakugou never shares his food. Iida was dumbfounded, as was most of the class it seemed. 

To his surprise the strange morning didn’t end there, Midoriya moved in slow motion to put on his shoes, only for Bakugou to sprint down to leave with him. As class president Iida felt that it was his responsibility to make sure that his classmates keep the volume down, but he didn’t even try to silence the exclamations that rang out as soon as the door shut after the pair. 

“Did that actually just happen?”

“I’m awake right, this isn’t a dream?”

“What alternate universe did I wake up in?”

“Hey!” Iida finally spoke up, yelling above the noise to get everyone’s attention. “I know what just happened is highly unusual but it is not our business, we should be spending this time preparing for the assignment today rather than speculating.” 

Iida’s words had the desired effect, but the energy in the room did not go back to what it was before. Something about the whole interaction had calmed everyone, maybe seeing their most aggressive classmate get his rival to eat breakfast reminded them that today is just another day after all and it needed to be treated as such. More than likely though, they were just dwelling on the interaction silently. Either way, Iida was happy to finish his breakfast in silence. 

Iida got to class at his usual time. Normally he would be the first one there, so he was excited to have company for once, but to his surprise Bakugou and Midoriya weren’t there. Resigned to the fact that he will be spending the time before class alone, like he does most mornings, Iida took out his remade morse code sheet to study. He and Todoroki decided to use morse code again, except every letter shifted two. This meant that the code for A was actually the code for C in generally accepted morse code and so on. They both tried to memorize it, but they have cheat sheets just in case. Not wanting to waste any time, Iida started studying.

After leaving the dorm Katsuki and Izuku had started walking toward class, but it was a beautiful morning so they decided to take a detour around campus, they had more than enough time. As they walked Izuku asked, “I get that you wanted me to eat breakfast, but why did you make such a big deal about it? All of our classmates were watching.”

“That’s why I made a big deal about it. Those fuckers are all so stressed about this goddamn assignment. The charades thing worked as a distraction, why not distract them some more.” Katsuki looked at the ground the whole time he spoke. Izuku felt a strange feeling in his chest as he realized that Katsuki was just being caring in his own abrasive way. 

“You publicly forced me to eat breakfast to relieve our classmates' stress? Wow you really do care about all of us.” 

“No shit. If you tell anyone though I will not hesitate to blast your head off.” Katsuki pushed Izuku with his shoulder. 

“Yeah yeah yeah, don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone that you are secretly a softy.” Izuku joked. 

Katsuki just laughed and pushed Izuku harder than before. Izuku stumbled and fell onto the grass. He sat on the ground and dramatically pouted up at Katsuki. “That was mean.” 

“Yeah, cause I’m not a fucking softy.” Katsuki said even though he held out a hand to help Izuku up. 

Izuku grabbed Katsuki’s hand, but instead of using it to pull himself up, he pulled Katsuki to the ground. Izuku burst out laughing at the offended look on Katsuki’s face. Katsuki fought to keep an angry look on his face, but in the end laughter won out. Unable to help it they both laughed until they couldn’t breath, rolling on the floor next to each other. 

After a few minutes of laughing Izuku looked at his watch and realized how much time they had wasted. He quickly moved to get up as he spoke, “Oh no, we gotta go, class starts soon!”

“Oh shit!” Katsuki got up as well and then started running, “Race ya nerd!” Both of them took off on a full sprint to the classroom, arriving out of breath a few minutes later. They still had a couple minutes before class started, but they were too out of breath to talk to anyone. Instead they busied themselves with getting ready for the day, determined to ignore the stares they could feel on them from all of their classmates.

“Did you guys seriously leave the dorm early this morning to go fight?” Kaminari spoke up from where he was sitting on a desk.

Katsuki and Izuku just looked at each other confused. After a second of looking at each other they burst out in laughter. They had grass stains on their pants and leaves and grass in their hair. It looked like they had just been outside rolling on the grass, which was exactly what they had been doing. Except to any of their classmates the obvious answer was that they were fighting, after all, they hated each other and couldn’t possibly have been enjoying each other's company. 

They never managed to answer Kaminari, because as soon as they stopped laughing, class started for the day. Luckily, everyone stopped staring at them not long after class began, there were bigger things to worry about today anyway.

The rest of the day was tense, but otherwise it was pretty normal until lunch. As soon as lunch started everyone broke into their partners for some last minute studying. Izuku started walking to the cafeteria, expecting to spend lunch alone, when Katsuki walked up beside him. 

‘Kacchan?’

‘What?’

‘Are you walking to lunch with me?’

‘No I just happened to perfectly match my fucking pace to yours after catching up to you. Tch, obviously I’m walking to lunch with you.’

‘Right, right, uh… why?’

‘Why the fuck not?’ They reached the cafeteria and got in line to get food, the whole time staying next to each other but seemingly not interacting at all.

‘Ummm, cause everyone thinks we can barely stand each other. I mean we came back covered in grass this morning and their first thought was we were fighting. If it was literally anyone else they would have thought something very different had happened.’

‘Like what nerd?’

‘What?’

‘You said that if we were anyone else they would have thought we did something different. What would they have thought we had done?’

‘They would have thought…’ Izuku turned red, ‘that we were rolling on the ground, yep that’s it, that’s the only thing that it could be…’ Katsuki started chuckling, cluing Izuku in. ‘You were teasing me! Kacchaaaan that’s mean!’ Izuku pushed Katsuki with his shoulder, before remembering that they were surrounded by people. 

Izuku was too embarrassed to say anything else. They silently got their food and sat down at a table. After a while Katsuki started a silent conversation about the upcoming assignment. With both of them invested in the conversation, lunch ended quickly. 

The class before Foundational Heroics passed quickly and almost too soon it was time for the assignment. Aizawa walked into the class and immediately walked to the board and started writing. When he finished, he stepped back to allow the class to read it as he read it out loud. “What is something that you have observed about someone in this room? As all of you are probably aware, today we will be doing the second iteration of the assignment. Instead of everyone getting separate prompts, this is everyone’s prompt. For a few of you this prompt should sound familiar, it is similar to one of the possibilities from last time.” Aizawa looked at each student, “I want to make it clear that even though your prompt is all the same, your message cannot be the same as anyone else. If I think your message is too close to someone else’s in the class I will assume that one of you found out the other’s message and decided to use their message as your own. Neither of you will get any points for your message.” 

Many students looked around worried. “The best way to avoid that is to make sure that you choose a complicated enough message that someone else won’t also use it.” Aizawa continued talking, “Just like last time you have until the end of class to tell your partner your message. I will give a quiz at the end of class that will be filled out the same as the one from last week. Unlike last time I will be more strict. If I see or hear anything unusual I will call it out to the class. At that point it is up to you on whether or not you want to continue what you were doing, however you can be sure to have the attention of the room on you.”

Almost as soon as Aizawa finished talking Izuku heard an almost silent click. Without a thought, he started paying attention to whatever his friend was about to say.

‘Alright nerd, we on for the same competition as last time?’

Izuku grinned. ‘Of course, I have to defend my win from last time.’

‘Fat chance Deku, I’m winning this time around.’

Aizawa kept talking and both boys took notes, but they were also very focused on their classmates, both to think of their own message, and to figure out other people’s messages. It wasn’t long until Izuku started to hear tapping. He recognized it immediately as morse code, he wrote down what he was hearing as he figured out who was tapping. It wasn’t hard to see that it was Todoroki. Once Todoroki stopped tapping Izuku looked down at what he wrote, but it didn’t make any sense. Before he could decipher it he heard Iida start tapping. He wrote down what Iida was tapping as well, but someone else started tapping not long after Iida did. 

‘Hey, I’m trying to figure out Iida’s and Todoroki’s messages, but someone else is tapping too. Can you figure that out?’ Izuku struggled to pick out Iida’s message from the other tapper.

‘Yeah, Pinky left her cheat sheet in my room the other day. The fucking idiot probably didn’t even notice. I can figure out her and Frogface’s messages.’

Izuku finished writing down what he thought was Iida’s message, he knew that a few words were definitely distorted by the other tapper, but he hoped it would be close enough to what he actually said that they could figure out the message. Of course, that wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t decode the morse code. 

‘Ok, Pinky’s message was Midoriya never really had friends before, he always seems to question if he is being an ok friend.’ 

‘Wow, ok, I mean she’s not wrong but she didn’t have to say it.’ Izuku wrote down the message in code in a separate notebook just like he did last time, all while taking notes.

‘Yeah damn, she really called you out there. Frogface’s message is: Tokoyami struggles to concentrate sometimes because Dark Shadow gets bored.’

“Kaminari eyes up front please.” Aizawa called out. Kaminari had been turned around completely to look at Kirishima.

‘Awesome, I’m still figuring out Todoroki and Iida’s messages, have you figured out any more?’

‘Not yet, these idiots are all acting less idiotic than usual, it looks like charades was just for fun last night.’

The whole time they had been communicating, Izuku had also been trying to decode Todoroki’s message and pay attention to the lecture. He barely was able to stop himself from laughing when he finally decoded it. It was so on brand for Todoroki, their resident conspiracy theorist, that Izuku almost didn’t have to decode the entire message, he had heard the theory often enough.

‘Todoroki’s message is that Shinsou is the lovechild of Mr. Aizawa and Ms. Joke. He looks and acts like Mr. Aizawa but he has a quirk that controls someone almost like Ms. Joke can control people’s laughter.’ Decoding Todoroki’s message had given Izuku an idea for his own message, so he wrote down his own after he finished writing the message he decoded. He didn’t bother to tell Katsuki though, he figured he might as well wait until they had the quizzes.  

‘What the fuck?’ Katstuki chuckled.

‘Todoroki likes conspiracy theories.’ 

‘No shit, is Glasses’ message in the same code?’

‘I think so, give me a sec to decode it.’ Izuku tried to decode the whole message, but parts of it were distorted enough that he couldn’t figure out enough of the words, luckily they figured out enough. ‘I couldn’t figure it out word for word because of the other tapping, but I was able to figure out that the message is about us being better friends, we understand each other.’

‘Damn, one of your idiots figured it out. I wasn’t expecting that.’

‘Kacchan, I don’t say anything when you call your friends idiots because I know you don’t mean it, but my friends aren’t idiots.’ Izuku had debated calling Katsuki out on calling his friends idiots way back when he first started it, but he had decided not to once he realized how fondly he said it. He wasn’t naive enough to think that the fondness Katsuki had for his friends extended to Izuku’s friends as well. 

‘Would you rather I go back to calling everyone extra’s? You have your idiots and I have mine.’

‘Does it physically hurt you to say friends?’ 

‘You’re my friend’

‘Ok, so what? It takes 15 years to be considered friends?’ Izuku could tell that this conversation was making Katsuki uncomfortable, but he refused to just drop it.

‘No, it’s ugh, they’re my idiots, you’re my friend.’

‘You know most people differentiate by saying friends and best friend, not idiots and friend.’

‘What?

‘Iida, Todoroki and them, they’re my friends. You are my best friend.’ Although they have struggled recently figuring out what their out loud relationship was, Izuku meant it. While they have had their ups and downs and they usually act like they hate each other in public, Katsuki is the only person that knows just about everything about him. He trusts him with everything, tells him things that he wouldn’t dare tell his new friends. Most importantly though, he knows that he could never mess anything up with Katsuki. Everyday he worries that he will do something that would cause the rest of his friends to leave him, but he never has to worry about Katsuki leaving. Hearing Katsuki differentiate between his other friends and him made him think that maybe Katsuki actually feels the same way.

Unfortunately Katsuki didn’t get a chance to respond because Kaminari suddenly slammed his hands on the table and started coughing like crazy. While the whole class looked at him, Izuku took that chance to look around. He noticed that Sero and Kirishima used the distraction to swap notes.

‘I can’t see the notes, but Kirishima and Sero swapped papers when Kaminari started coughing.’

‘Damn—’

“Shinsou, is there a reason that your hands are moving like that?” Aizawa interrupted his lecture to call out the boy who was signing to Kouda. 

“No reason!” Shinsou responded cheerily, without stopping his motions. As the whole class watched, Kouda started moving his hands as well.

‘Wow, Kouda and Shinsou are using American sign language this time.’

‘You know ASL?’

‘Yeah…’ Izuku was confused about why Katsuki was surprised. They had already gone over  that Izuku had a language phase. 

‘What the fuck, first Spanish, now ASL, how many fucking languages do you know?’

‘Uhh… six; Japanese, English, Spanish, French, JSL, and ASL.’

‘What the fuck?’ Katsuki didn’t bother to hide that he was shaking his head. ‘What are their messages then?’

 ‘Shinsou’s message is: Kaminari brings attention to himself to hide that he is actually really frustrated with how his quirk affects his brain. When no one is watching he lets his frustration show. Kouda’s message is…uh… Sero actually really hates being called Tape Face because he is insecure that he is so plain. He makes a face whenever Bakugou calls him that but he doesn’t say anything because he is insecure about his position in their friend group.’

‘Damn, how the fuck do your idiots know my idiots more than me. What the fuck! How did I miss that?’ Izuku pretended not to notice how hurt Katsuki was by that.

‘Kacchan, they both hide it well, especially from you.’ 

‘What do you mean, especially from me? I’m usually really fucking observant—’

‘I know, they know that. They specifically are hiding this from you, not as much from the rest of the class.’

‘Wait, did you know?’

‘No, but now that I’m thinking about it, it makes sense.’ He hadn’t paid much attention to Katsuki’s friends. But looking back, Sero always did barely flinch when Katsuki called him Tape face. Izuku always thought that it might have had something to do with Katsuki’s loud volume, but thinking about it, the rest of his friends are just as loud and he never saw Sero flinch from them. Also looking at Kaminari from that point of view really did explain a lot. 

‘Damn, what the fuck!’

Before they could discuss anything else, Kirishima made a big show of picking up his pencil, ‘accidentally’ slamming his hardened head into his desk. Izuku looked around to see Aoyama and Kaminari swapping notes, however, Izuku was too far away to see what they said.

As that was happening, Dark Shadow shot out from Tokoyami over to Satou, before swapping a note and returning to Tokoyami. Their method of passing notes might have worked well, it was so quick, but Dark Shadow didn’t pay much attention to how she was holding the notes, accidentally holding them so that the writing was visible. Unfortunately it was so quick that Izuku couldn’t make out much.

‘Tokoyami’s message has something to do with Kirishima and darkness.’

‘Of fucking course it is, edgy as fuck as usual.’

‘Yeah, I saw Satou’s note too but I couldn’t really read it. His handwriting was a mess, but I think it said something about Uraraka and again.’

‘Fuck, well we can at least get partial credit from those.’

The lecture continued but there wasn’t much else happening. After a few minutes Izuku decided to take matters into his own hands.

‘Kacchan, I’m gonna do the same thing I did last time. Look around and see if you can read anyone’s notes.’

‘That’s gonna be suspicious as fuck. Besides, how will you sneezing help me see any better?’

‘No one has any idea how we get our messages to each other, so when I do the same thing as last time they will be watching our every move. I noticed it when Kirishima made a scene, everyone was so focused on watching him, they didn’t think to hide what was on their desk. If we don’t make it obvious we are looking, we could probably figure out a lot of people’s messages.’

‘That is assuming that they just leave their notes on their desk. I know I call them idiots, but they aren’t that stupid.’

‘I wouldn’t call it stupid, they need to keep the message on hand so that they can write it on the quiz once they get it. No one is going to waste their time memorizing the messages.’

Izuku didn’t wait for Katsuki’s response before getting up and making his way to the tissues. As he expected the entire class was watching him like a hawk. Aizawa had even stopped lecturing to watch him. As soon as he got to the tissues he started sneezing. About a minute after he started he finally stopped and took his time walking to the trash can. As he walked he was able to get a good view of Hagakure and Ojiro’s notes to each other, as well as a partial view of Kaminari’s note on Aoyama’s desk. Once he was back in his own seat he wrote the messages down before he could forget them.

‘Tape Fa— Sero’s note is: Midoriya is not stressed about the assignment at all. He hasn’t started muttering once. Shitty Hair’s is something about Ears having a song stuck in her head. Ears’ is about how Clothes fidgets a lot. Apparently nobody notices because she’s invisible but she is just loud enough for Ears to hear—’

‘Clothes?’

‘Yeah, the fucking invisible idiot. All you can see are her fucking clothes.’

‘Ok, I guess, is that everyone you figured out.’

‘No, Octo Arms' message has something to do with Pinky learning by talking. And Sparkle's message is about Tail being uncomfortable.’

‘Awesome, I figured out Hagakure and Ojiro’s messages, and part of Kaminari’s message—’

“There are ten minutes of class left, just like you did last time, fill out the quiz and write all the messages on the back.” Aizawa handed out the quizzes.

Just like last time both Izuku and Katsuki rushed to fill out the front and then moved to the back. 

‘Shit neither of us came up with messages!’

‘I have one, Mr. Aizawa is Shinsou’s adopted dad. Shinsou overdid his quirk this morning while training and has a headache, Aizawa is more worried about him than he would be about any of the rest of us. Shinsou has also mentioned that he is adopted and seems closer to Present Mic and Mr. Aizawa than a normal student would be.’

‘Are you sure that you want that to be your message after last time?’

‘Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s true and I think Shinsou and I are pretty good friends so I don’t think he would mind me knowing, besides, the only other things I can think of would out someone. Quick, what is your message?’ 

Katsuki looked around quickly. Almost immediately his eyes landed on Kirishima. 

‘The raid a few weeks ago made Kirishima homesick. He is constantly looking out the window while messing with the wristband his moms gave him. The girl that was rescued reminds him of his little sister.’

Izuku didn’t have time to react to that, but he couldn’t help but worry about Kirishima. That raid affected all of them but he didn’t realize that Kirishima was affected enough for Katsuki to mention it. Shaking his head, he brought himself back to focus and started writing.

After they both quickly wrote down both of their messages, Izuku went through the list he had written of all of their classmate’s messages. Just like he had done before, Izuku translated each message and told Katsuki the message so they could both write it down on the quiz. 

Izuku looked over the messages before he turned it in and he noticed a couple things. They had managed to figure out at least part of almost every person’s message in their class. Somehow they only didn’t get Uraraka and Yaoyorozu’s messages. He also noticed that he was actually in quite a few people’s observations, and he wasn’t sure what he thought about that. As he turned in he quickly counted how many he figured out. 

‘Kacchan, I won again!’ Izuku grinned.

‘No way shitty Deku!’ 

‘Yes I did, I figured out 9, you only figured out 7!’

‘Damn it!’

Aizawa wasn’t expecting to figure out exactly how Bakugou and Midoriya were communicating, but he had hoped to at least figure out something. As he sat to write down all his observations he again had nothing to write down for his problem duo. Although, surprisingly he didn’t have much to write down at all. In fact, he hadn’t managed to figure out a single full message. The closest he got to a full message was the notes he saw being passed between Hagakure and Ojiro, but while he had seen most of the note, he hadn’t seen the full thing. He also saw parts of Aoyama, Kaminari, Shouji and Jirou’s messages but it was even less than Hagakure and Ojiro.  Other than that he heard tapping from Ashido, Asui, Todoroki, and Iida, but he hadn’t figured out the messages. For a large chunk of the class, he didn’t have anything. He did see Shinsou and Kouda moving their hands, but he didn’t recognize what it meant at all. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but Aizawa was actually really proud of his students.

He wrote what little bit he had figured out down, and then went on to grading. As he made his way through the quizzes he became more and more concerned for his students, as well as annoyed at himself. This had little to do with the scores, a good chunk of the class had done pretty well. Majority of them improved their scores, probably not as much as they would have liked, but at least they improved. There were a few students that did worse this time around, but the majority of them had good scores to begin with so Aizawa didn’t worry about them. What concerned him was some of the messages, one of which related directly to the lowest score in the class. He had asked his students to observe each other and he wasn’t sure that he was happy with what they realized. It wasn’t that he thought his students didn’t do a good job, many of the observations were accurate and went beyond surface level, he was upset that he hadn’t made these same observations. 

Reading Uraraka’s message really put Satou’s low score in perspective. Her message was, “Satou had a bit too much sugar at lunch, he almost broke his pencil and hasn’t written much in his notes.” Aizawa hadn’t noticed it, but looking at Satou’s quiz, it was apparent that Uraraka was correct. He barely wrote anything, and what he did write was barely legible. Honestly, it was impressive that he managed to get any points in that state, but he did get the lowest score in the class this time around, a meager 10 points. Luckily he could go by his first score, which was a whole 34 points higher. This meant that he had the 6th lowest score instead of the actual lowest, but it was worrying. At this point in the school year Aizawa knew Satou well enough to know that he wouldn’t purposefully eat too much sugar before an important assignment, which means that it truly was an accident. If that’s the case, how often does this happen? Does Satou regularly struggle in afternoon classes because of his sugar intake at lunch? 

Aizawa pulled out another piece of paper and made a note on it to talk to Satou about it, and then he went through the rest of the assignments, looking more closely at their messages to see if he needed to speak to more students. Unfortunately Satou wasn’t the only one. Shouji noticed that Ashido learns by repeating everything. If that is the case then that is probably why she is always either whispering during class, or not paying attention. 

Jirou noticed that Hagakure fidgets a lot, which means that she could probably benefit from some sort of fidget device, although truthfully, so could most of the class. He hadn’t noticed Hagakure fidget at all, she obviously took advantage of her invisibility to hide it, but he had noticed many other students fidget quite a bit.

Shinsou figured out that Kaminari struggles with how his quirk affects his brain. It actually wasn’t surprising that Shinsou noticed that one, or that Kaminari’s quirk affected his brain. Aizawa had actually been meaning to talk to Kaminari about it for a while, but he hadn’t been able to yet, and Shinsou seemed to pay close attention to Kaminari. 

Yaoyorozu noticed that Dark Shadow acts out when Tokoyami is stressed, while Asui noticed that Dark Shadow acts out when she is bored. Aizawa was really upset that he didn’t notice that, if that was true then Tokoyami must spend a lot of his time in class just trying to get Dark Shadow to not act out. 

Aoyama’s message said that Ojiro’s tail doesn’t fit comfortably in his chair, which seems obvious in hindsight. The desks were made to be as inclusive as possible, but even then, there is no way to account for every quirk. 

Ojiro’s message about Aoyama was concerning, but he hoped that it wasn’t something major. He said that Aoyama was hiding something behind his smile and honestly, Aizawa saw it. For all that Aoyama sparkled, his eyes weren’t as bright. 

Hagakure brought up that Shouji hunched over a lot to allow the people behind him to see. It was probably the most obvious observation, and his biggest oversight. Every class was seated in order, without any regard for the students' heights. Shouji is the tallest in the class and he has extra limbs that make him bulkier than most people, but he is sitting in front of one of the shortest people in the class. 

Bakugou’s message about Kirishima being upset after the raid really worried Aizawa. He had been paying close attention to the students that were a part of the raid, he would be a negligent teacher if he didn’t, and he had noticed that Kirishima was still struggling a bit from the raid, all the students were. But he hadn’t noticed exactly why Kirishima was struggling. He had assumed it was because of his fight with Rappa and the general raid, he had no idea of any similarities to his family. 

He also noted to talk to the problem duo again. Midoriya’s message was concerning in an entirely different way. Yet again the boy had managed to figure out something about Aizawa’s own family. Knowing the impression Midoriya had made on his family, he doubted any of them would be upset with him for knowing, but Shinsou might mind that Bakugou knows. When Shinsou first joined the class he was hesitant to be friends with anyone, but Midoriya and Kaminari were determined. Aizawa didn’t know the details but Midoriya and Shinsou bonded and now Shinsou asked Midoriya to join their training regularly. Unsurprisingly, Shinsou has not warmed up to Bakugou the same way. Shinsou hates the way Bakugou treats Midoriya, and refuses to be civil towards him. Bakugou doesn’t seem to have anything against Shinsou, but he is abrasive and insulting toward everyone. 

Looking back over his long list of students to talk to, Aizawa sighed, it was going to be a long Monday afternoon. He thought back to the conversation with Bakugou and Midoriya after the last assignment and decided to cross them off his list. Instead he wrote a message on their quizzes, reminding them of their conversation about how dangerous information about heroes' families can be. Ideally he would have gotten confirmation from them that they would keep the information private, but he didn’t have the time. Besides, it seemed that they were better at keeping secrets than anyone would have thought.

As Aizawa finished his grading he looked back over the problem duo’s quizzes. The amount of writing on the back was honestly impressive. They had figured out less complete messages than last time, but they had some information from almost all of their classmates, and none of their classmates had any information from them. It was scary how identical their papers were. It really showed how exact their way of communicating was. Even the guesses and partial messages were phrased the same. There wasn’t a single word that was different on the page. 

He was going to look over the quizzes again, just to make sure that he had identified all of the worrying messages when he got a glimpse of the time. Instead of looking through the quizzes, he sighed and began to pack up. Every Friday afternoon/evening they had a teacher meeting. This meeting was usually really boring, every teacher in the school was required to attend and the majority of the meeting was just Nedzu explaining any changes that occurred in the past week that would affect everyone. It wasn’t anything like the lively meeting the week before that had been to discuss the assignment. The only people that were required to be at that meeting were Aizawa and Vlad King, everyone else was there because they wanted to be, meaning that the teachers that don’t interact with the hero course usually didn’t go. Everyone who teaches at UA was required to go to this meeting, so to not waste time they didn’t discuss anything that wasn’t relevant to all the courses. If there was something that was relevant to only a specific course they would have a separate meeting after this one. Fortunately, this week did not have an extra hero course meeting so Aizawa was looking forward to the extra time with his family tonight.

Aizawa made his way to the designated auditorium and snagged a chair beside his husband. Before long Nedzu was standing on stage at the front talking into the microphone. Aizawa tried to listen, but Nedzu had a tendency to ramble. Instead he found himself fighting sleep. He wanted to fall asleep on his husband’s shoulder, but the information about his family hadn’t made it beyond the hero course, and while he trusted all of the teachers at this school, it was a lot easier for them not to know. 

Aizawa continued to fight off sleep as Nedzu rambled until he heard Nedzu say something that caught his attention. “Now as we wrap up this meeting I would like to take a few minutes to start a new tradition. Although we are one school I find that we do not act like it. Each course is barely connected to each other. To remedy this, I will announce any accomplishments from each course from the past week so that we may celebrate together.”

Aizawa hid a smile in his capture weapon. As a hero whose main offense is a support item he always thought that there should be more connections made between the courses. This won’t fix that, but creating more comradery between the teachers will help.  

“To start…” Nedzu started listing off different accomplishments from each course but Aizawa was only vaguely listening, it had been a long week and he was ready to go home. His attention however was caught when Nedzu suddenly mentioned his name. “...Aizawa and Vlad King’s classes completed the second iteration of one of the most important assignments in the hero course. Two of Aizawa’s students beat the record for the highest score last week in the first iteration and I believe that they beat their previous score today, although I must admit, I do not actually know their score from today. Aizawa, would you enlighten us?” If Aizawa had been closer he would have seen the glint in Nedzu’s eye, but even from where he was, he knew it was there. 

“170” he grunted with his face still buried in his scarf. He didn’t bother to yell, he knew Nedzu had great hearing and he was going to repeat it anyway.

“170! Their score last week was 165, and the previous record that had been made after multiple iterations was only 134! Incredible, I wish I knew how they did it! Well, that is the end of our meeting today, have a great weekend!” Nedzu grinned as no one moved.

Aizawa groaned as whispers broke out among the teachers. By implying that even he was stumped by something, Nedzu had made sure that the whole room was intrigued. 

“What kind of assignment was it?” A teacher spoke up from the back. 

Nedzu’s grin widened, “It was a communication assignment. Each student had to get a message to their partner without anyone else figuring it out. They were graded on how well they received their partner's message and transmitted their message. They also gained points based on what messages they were able to intercept and lost points for people intercepting their message.”

“Psh, isn’t it a requirement to be a teacher to notice when your students are communicating right in front of you. What could two students possibly be doing that you can’t see? Aizawa is probably just playing favorites.” A teacher from the business course got up to speak and then started moving toward the exit. 

Some other teachers from the business course and the general course started to follow, but before any of them made it far Nedzu said something that stopped them in their tracks. “Playing favorites wouldn’t be rational so that is unlikely. Additionally I can confirm that they did deserve their scores from the first iteration. We watched a recording of the class last week, and I have seen it many times since, and I am flummoxed. Truthfully, I am rather excited to watch today’s class to see if I can come up with any more insight.”

Nedzu stood at the front silently, as if he was waiting for something for a long moment. The teachers that had started to leave sat down, but Nedzu continued to wait. Aizawa was pretty sure that he was waiting for so he pulled out Bakugou’s paper and turned to his husband. “Nedzu is going to want to pull up the footage now,” he pointed to where Midoriya’s message was written on the paper, “I can come up with an excuse if I need to.” He wasn’t worried about the majority of the message, when Shinsou had transferred to the hero course Aizawa had disclosed their connection to make sure that there would be no accusations of favoritism later. However the last part of the message implied his connection to Present Mic, which wasn’t public knowledge.

Present Mic looked over the message in question, “Why does the little listener have to be so dang observant?” He sighed and looked his husband in the eye, “Shou, you know that I would scream it from the rooftops if I could. I trust everyone here, I don’t mind if you don’t.” 

Aizawa smiled softly into his capture weapon as he turned his attention back to where Nedzu was still waiting on stage. Finally a general course teacher yelled out, “Just play the video already!”

“Well if you insist, Aizawa do you have any objections?” Nedzu was grinning way too much for this to have not been his plan all along. 

Aizawa just sighed and made his way up to the front with Bakugou’s paper. He knew that Nedzu would request it anyway. 

Nedzu pulled up the video and got the projector ready to pull up Bakugou’s quiz while speaking, “Before we begin I will explain the assignment and how it was graded a little bit more. Last week the students all chose partners. They were tasked today with transmitting a message to their partner without anyone else figuring it out. The message had to be based on their prompt, although… I don’t see a prompt written on this quiz like it was last time…” Nedzu looked at Aizawa.

“Everyone had the same prompt this time, they were told to observe something about someone in the room.” Aizawa grunted before making his way back to his seat. 

“Ah, interesting.” Nedzu said almost to himself although it was picked up by the microphone that he had been speaking into. “At the end of class each student has to fill out a quiz. The front is a pretty standard quiz about what had been covered during the lesson. The student is graded on this and can get up to 90 points for it. On the back they first write down their message and their partner's message. They are awarded up to 5 points based on how accurately the message they received matches what was transmitted and up to another five points according to how accurately their partner received the message they transmitted.

“Finally, they write down any other messages that they figured out, even partially. These are given point values similar to how the partner messages were, with an exact message being worth 5 points while less accurate messages would be worth less. Those point values are then added to that student's score, and subtracted from the score of the student who transmitted it.

“For extra points, each student’s message is evaluated for complexity and they can earn up to 5 points extra for having a complicated message.” 

Nedzu looked around the room for a moment before pulling up Bakugou’s quiz. “Now the students in question are Bakugou and Midoriya.” Nedzu zoomed in on the two of them in the not yet started video. 

“Wait, aren’t those the two students that fought in Ground Beta? The two that are infamous for hating each other?” A business course teacher yelled out as many teachers looked around and whispered in confusion, the duo’s fight was infamous for all the headaches it had caused.

“Yes, that is a part of the reason for our confusion.” Nedzu zoomed back out of the video. Having wasted enough time already, Nedzu hit play. 

Just like last time both boys looked as though they were paying full attention to the lecture. A few minutes into class however Midoriya pulled out his second notebook, the one that he writes in code. 

“What is he writing?” Someone asked, Aizawa didn’t bother to see who, he was more focused on watching the video.

“He did the same thing last time, we believe that he is writing his classmates’ messages in some kind of code.” Nedzu responded without looking away from the video. 

After Midoriya finished writing he studied what he had written. It looked almost as though he was trying to decipher his own writing. The heroes all understood why, they had heard Todoroki tapping and had attempted to decode the morse code just like Aizawa had attempted during class. They had all been required to learn standard morse code before they graduated. However it wasn’t standard morse code. They had changed it to make it less obvious.

As all the teachers watched Midoriya wrote another message, this one tapped out by Iida. He kept taking notes on the lecture, but he kept staring at the page. Suddenly he wrote out two more messages, but these two messages were written out quickly, not slowly like the ones before where he was having to translate it from morse code. He wrote the messages as though someone was telling them directly to him. Aizawa would have assumed that the two new messages were just the decoded messages from before, except he had also heard the other tapping, and Midoriya was still staring at Todoroki and Iida’s messages. 

It was also interesting to watch Midoriya’s face as he wrote one of the messages. For a split second, he looked almost offended. Aizawa glanced at the messages on the back of Bakugou’s quiz. Based on Midoriya’s reaction, he had probably just written down Ashido’s message. 

Not long after that, Midoriya was shaking. He was smiling as he wrote down the next message, obviously holding back laughter. On the opposite page in his notebook he quickly scribbled out another message before going back to the page where he had the rest of the messages. Midoriya kept a small smile on his face as Bakugou chuckled, and Aizawa smiled softly with them. Aizawa wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but he was awfully fond of this class and it was nice to see his problem duo getting along, even if it was just quietly laughing in class.

Barely a minute later, both of their faces fell. They went from being lighthearted to serious in an instant. Bakugou started looking a bit uncomfortable, but there still was no indication of how they were communicating, even though it was obvious that they were communicating in some way. 

As Kaminari made a ruckus and started coughing, Aizawa kept his eyes on the problem duo. But they didn’t do anything interesting. He did notice though that Midoriya had the same very reflective water bottle on his desk as he did during the assignment last week. When Shinsou was called out for his hand motions Midoriya didn’t take his eyes off of it, and then he wrote down what Aizawa assumed was Shinsou’s message. Aizawa kept his face buried in his capture weapon to hide his proud grin at his student’s ingenuity, using his water bottle as a mirror. 

“American sign language, really?” Aizawa heard his husband say under his breath. Aizawa was a little less impressed with his son, he had hoped that Shinsou and Kouda had made up their own version of sign language. However, it now made more sense that Midoriya knew it. He had no idea Midoriya knew ASL, but it made more sense then him knowing a language made up by his classmates. 

After Midoriya finished writing, Aizawa's attention was drawn to Bakugou. He looked annoyed, and surprisingly, hurt. Looking back at the quiz and at Kouda and Shinsou’s messages it made more sense. Their messages had been about his friends. 

The commotion caused by Kirishima and Dark Shadow’s quick trip across the room showed how more messages were exchanged, but there was still nothing that explained how the duo were communicating. At least, until Midoriya got up, walked to the front of the class, and sneezed, over and over again.

“The sneezes!” Nedzu rewinded the video to replay Midoriya’s sneezes. “It’s morse code!” Nedzu’s grin was terrifying, but it fell as Midoriya finished sneezing, “Nevermind.”

Nedzu mumbled under his breath just barely loud enough for the microphone to pick up,  “It was just sneeze.” 

“What?” A general education course teacher yelled.

Aizawa was barely holding back laughter, while many of the hero course teachers didn’t bother to hold back. Many teachers from other courses looked around bewildered at the hero course teachers laughing. The heroes all figured out what Midoriya had said, which was literally, “Sneeze.”

Nedzu explained what Midoriya had said to the other teachers, but Aizawa wasn’t listening, he was too busy watching the problem duo. After watching them as closely as he had been it was apparent that Midoriya didn’t cause a disruption to allow them to communicate, they had been doing that all along. Aizawa watched them to see what the reasoning was, and he was impressed when he found out. 

The distraction kept all eyes on them, so no one was paying attention to their own papers. Majority of them had their message and their partner’s message sitting on their desk. Midoriya and Bakugou used their distraction as a way to read them. Sure enough, when Midoriya sat back down he started writing furiously. 

Just as he finished writing, the last ten minutes hit. Both boys rushed through the front of the quiz easily, they had been taking diligent notes the whole time. When they reached the back though, they paused.  

After a moment they wrote down Midoriya’s message. Many teachers side-eyed Aizawa and Present Mic at that, but only for a moment. The whole room was intrigued by the synchronized writing. They were especially interested as they both paused so that Bakugou could look around frantically. Almost as soon as his eyes stopped on Kirishima, both boys started writing again. 

When they moved on to their classmates' messages Midoriya pulled his coded notebook toward himself, and they both wrote as if he was reading it aloud. Nedzu stopped the video when the papers were turned in. Most of the teachers turned their attention to the quiz, looking more at what was written. Aizawa was more interested in the paused video image. Both boys' faces were left on the screen. Midoriya had a large grin stretched across his face, but what really caught Aizawa’s attention was Bakugou’s face. To most of the teachers in the room it would look like he is annoyed, but Aizawa knew him well enough to see something different in his eyes. If he didn’t know any better, he would swear it was fondness. Whatever it was, it was unmistakably directed at Midoriya. 

“They’re telepathic, that’s the only explanation. I have been a teacher for longer than most of you have been alive and I have seen my fair share of students communicating during class. All kinds of different codes and passing notes, but I have never seen anything like that before.” An ancient looking business course teacher spoke up. His comment broke the silence, teachers all around the room started talking, adding in their own two cents about what was happening. Someone yelled out that both boys' quirks had been showcased in the sports festival, and had been seen many times since, there was no way that they were telepathic. 

As arguments broke out from teachers trying to theorize, Nedzu calmly ended the meeting and packed up, before heading towards Aizawa.

“I don’t think we will be gaining any insight from them.” Nedzu said as he approached.

“Then what was the point of this whole thing!” Aizawa was suddenly very annoyed. He was excited to spend some free time with his family tonight, but instead they stayed late to watch the video of class. If there wasn’t a reason for it then what was the point of sacrificing his evening.

“Extra eyes of course!” There was a mischievous glint in Nedzu’s eye. “Every teacher in the school will be watching them like a hawk. Either someone will figure out how they are doing it, or they will break under the pressure. Either way, we will figure it out.” 

Aizawa shook his head as the principal walked away. For some reason, he didn’t like the idea of his students breaking.

Katsuki left class after the assignment with a mission. After his conversation with Izuku during class, and after some of the messages, he realized that his idiots might actually think he thinks of them as idiots. Izuku was right, they are his friends, Katsuki has just been reluctant to think of them as that because he cares about them differently than he cares about Izuku. But apparently that distinction can be made as friends vs best friend rather than idiots vs friend. 

He had no clue how he was going to go about it, but his mission was to make sure his friends knew that he doesn’t actually think that they are idiots. Katsuki also decided that he was going to call them by their names. Nicknames had always been his thing. It started out because he is terrible about learning names, but it evolved from there. Once he respects someone he remembers their name, but that doesn’t mean that he uses it. It’s partially a habit, partially because he doesn’t want to admit that he respects them, but, he hates to admit it, it is mostly because he likes calling people by a name that only he uses. 

Katsuki got in the habit of saying the opposite of what he meant. He regularly called Izuku stupid when he is actually one of the smartest people he knows. He likes to call his friends idiots when that is far from the truth. He always assumed that people knew what he meant, but they had no reason to. He and Izuku had been friends for years and they have talked about it extensively, but somehow Katsuki assumed that everyone knew him as well as Izuku does. 

He likes having his nicknames for his friends, but if they don’t like them, or are insulted by them, he won’t use them. Katsuki was enough of a bully all through elementary and middle school, he doesn’t need to be a bully now. 

With that in mind Katsuki left class to find his friends.  Entering the dorm it wasn’t hard to locate his friends. They are often found in the common room, and they are far from quiet. As he entered the room, they didn’t hesitate before calling him over. 

“Hey Bakugou! Come sit with us!” Kirishima grinned and motioned to the seat next to him on the sofa. 

“Yeah, we were just talking about how much better that assignment went.” Sero said from where he lounged on the floor in front of the recliner with his head in Kaminari’s lap. Mina was lounging sideways in the recliner, with her head hanging over the armrest. 

Katsuki sat down in the seat that Kirishima offered, only to find his lap full of the other boy's legs a second later. He stopped himself from pushing Kirishima’s legs off of him, it was a reflex, but honestly he didn’t mind it much.

“You know, I feel like I did a lot better this time around, but I still don’t think I did good. Like I didn’t figure out many people’s messages, but I don’t think as many people figured out my message either. And like, I know I did better on the quiz, I mean I actually answered something this time, but I’ve never been good at quizzes to begin with.” Kaminari spoke as he played with Sero’s hair. 

“Ugh, I know what you mean. Like I know I did better, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t do good.” Ashido groaned. 

Kirishima and Sero both voiced their agreement as well and Katsuki found himself feeling bad for them. If class today had gone differently, Katsuki might have made a joke at their expense, thinking that they wouldn’t have been upset by it, but now he knew that it might actually hurt them. He had no idea how to be comforting, but his friends deserved that he would at least try.

“Improvement is really what they are looking for. I mean… fuck… they are having us do this assignment multiple times. We might not have the opportunity to replace our grade again but there is no way this will be the last attempt. They don’t expect anyone to do well. I would guess that they have set up grading so that it won’t hurt your overall grade too badly.”

“Easy for you to say, I heard from Tetsutetsu that you and Midoriya got the highest scores ever.” Kirishima said lightheartedly. 

“What!” Mina, Kaminari, and Sero all practically yelled at once. 

Katsuki sighed. “Yeah, but the only reason we were even fucking told about that is because they were checking to make sure that we didn’t have a fucking telepathy quirk or something.”

“Holy shit! They thought you two had a secret telepathy quirk? What the heck was your score?” Mina sat up and turned to look at him. 

“165, but that’s not the fucking point. Your scores were a lot more expected than mine. They’re asking us to do three things at once, and all of those three things could be a major fucking challenge all on its own. Deku and I did well partially because we have known each other since we were in fucking diapers.”

“But you hate him!” Mina almost smacked Kaminari with her aggressive arm motions.

“I know him, that doesn’t change no matter what I fucking feel about him.” Katsuki almost denied that he hated Izuku, but he couldn’t, not to them, not yet.

“Dude, it’s super manly that you are trying to make us feel better, but it’s really not working for you. There’s not much you can say after you got the highest score ever on your first attempt.”

“Yeah dude, why are you trying to make us feel better anyway? Usually you would just say ‘It's your own damn fault, you should have studied more.’ or made a joke mocking us or something. Are you ok?” 

Katsuki immediately felt guilty. He knew that’s what he would normally do, and he had come to the realization that he was being mean earlier, but hearing Kaminari say it like that really drove the point home. He sighed as he tried to find the words for what he wanted to say. 

“During the assignment today I… fuck… Deku and I figured out the majority of the messages in the class, or at least parts of them anyway. There were a few messages that, fuck, they made me realize how much of an asshole I was being.” Katsuki looked around at all his friends. Sero had sat up to look at him better once he realized how serious Katsuki was. Mina and Kaminari both were facing him the best they could. Kirishima even tried to pull his feet away so that he could sit up and really pay attention to what he was saying, but Katsuki didn’t let him. 

The weight of his friend's legs on his lap helped him focus himself so he could start talking. He sighed. “I say the opposite of what I mean all the fucking time and I thought you all understood that,” Katsuki could tell that they were all about to argue so he quickly continued, “you might all understand that, but you don’t deserve to be torn down all the time anyway. I call you my idiots all the time, but I don’t actually think that you are idiots. Yeah, you might not score very highly in academics, but you made it into the top hero school in the world and there is no way in hell I would be friends with anyone that isn’t a badass. So I guess this is an apology.” Katsuki looked each of his friends in the eye in turn. “Kirishima, Mina, Kaminari, Sero I’m sorry I’ve been an ass, I’ll try and be nicer or whatever, and,” Katsuki looked down and played with his hands, “I’ll drop the nicknames.” 

“Fuck no!” Mina yelled, causing all of the boys to turn to stare at her. “I mean I appreciate your apology and it was exactly what I needed to hear right now to make me feel better. But, you cannot get rid of the nicknames and you better not become super nice or anything. I don’t mind being called an idiot when I know you don’t mean it and Pinky is literally my hero name. Racoon Eyes is a little insulting which is why no one except you is allowed to say it but, I don’t know, it makes me feel kinda special to have a nickname from you.”

“Yeah, I mean I always thought of you calling me Shitty Hair as an inside joke cause you don’t think my hair is actually shitty… right?” Kirishima was smiling at Katsuki when he started talking, but as he asked for confirmation he averted his eyes to the floor and scratched at his neck. 

“No fucking shit, your hair is literally just like mine except red, obviously I don’t actually think its shitty.” Katsuki would have smacked Kirishima in the head like he had gotten in the habit of, but he was a bit out of arm's reach. He was going to smack his leg instead, but he realized that hitting his friends goes against what he was just saying. 

“I like the idea of having a nickname too, but I’m not a huge fan of Dunce Face…” Kaminari hunched into himself a bit. 

“Well then what do you want me to call you, Sparky, Sparkplug, Chargebolt, Pikachu…” As soon as Katsuki said Pikachu, Kaminari’s face lit up. 

“Pikachu? You would seriously call me Pikachu?” Kaminari looked at Katsuki with wide hopeful eyes.

“I fucking said it didn’t I?” Kaminari lit up in a way that Katsuki had never seen before. He couldn’t hold back his own grin, it felt good to make his friend happy.

“I also would like a nickname, not Tape Face though please.” Sero looked between Katsuki and Kaminari hopefully.

“Office Supplies, Scotch Tape, Elbows, Tapeman, Flex Tape, Daft Punk, Tape Punk, Cellophane” Katsuki threw his hand up, “Any of these sounding good?”

“Daft Punk…Tape Punk... What?” Sero looked so confused.

“Your hero costume helmet looks like Daft Punk, your quirk is tape. It’s not that fucking hard to understand.” Katsuki deadpanned, he really didn’t see what was confusing about it.

Sero looked up Daft Punk on his phone, “Holy shit, I never realized. My helmet does look like one of the guys in Daft Punk. Holy shit!” Sero grinned. “Tape Punk sounds awesome!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes at Sero’s enthusiasm but couldn’t hold back his grin. 

“Wait, you have nicknames for all of us so we should have a nickname for you! I vote Blasty!” Mina clapped her hands in excitement. 

“Blasty? Really?” Katsuki wasn’t sure how he felt about the nickname, but when he looked at all of his friends' faces, he saw them looking at him with wide hopeful eyes and expectant smiles, and he couldn’t help but to cave. “Fine, you can call me Blasty.” 

His friends all started cheering and he couldn’t help but smile along with them. 

“Okay, okay. Now that that’s all settled and you made us all feel better let’s go back to the important topic… How the heck did you and Midoriya get the highest scores ever?” Mina was a little louder than she probably needed to be, which was pretty normal for her. Except she managed to time it perfectly when Iuzku, Uraraka, and Iida walked into the room. 

“What! You got the highest score ever!” Uraraka shrieked while turning to face Izuku. 

Izuku looked around the room frantically before his eyes landed on Katsuki.

‘You told them!’

‘Hell no! The metal extra from the other class told Shitty Hair.’

‘Shoot, why didn’t we realize this would happen? I knew Kirishima is friends with Tetsutetsu.’

‘It doesn’t fucking matter anymore. I thought I got them to fuck off about it when I told them we’ve known each other since we were in diapers, but obviously fucking not.’

Izuku turned back to his friends, only to find all of them staring at him. He scratched the back of his neck, “Uhh… yeah, Kacchan and I have known each other since we were babies.” Izuku shrugged, “We had a bit of an advantage.” 

“A bit of an advantage, a bit! A bit of an advantage doesn’t explain getting a score of 165!” Mina fell back into the chair dramatically. 

“165! I thought my score of 101 was impressive. I must admit, I had a hunch that you and Bakugou are closer than any of us realized, but this is far beyond what I expected.” Iida looked between the two boys in question. 

Katsuki stood up so he could see everyone he was talking to. “Alright, listen up fuckers. Deku and I have known each other for fucking years. Regardless of how close we are or whatever, we fucking understand each other. Also that fucker is way too good with languages and none of you are exactly subtle about your damn messages.” 

“Hey! I thought I did good today!” Uraraka pouted.

“Congrats Pink Cheeks, you and Ponytail were the only two whose messages we didn’t know shit about today.” Katsuki deadpanned, he was done with emotions after the conversation he had just had with his friends. 

Kaminari waved his hands between Katsuki and Izuku. “Are we just ignoring that Blasty complimented Midoriya?” 

“Shut the fuck up Pikachu. Whatever. We have fucking training to do.” Katsuki stormed out of the room, dragging Izuku along with him. He wasn’t lying, they really did have plans to train together, but they usually tried not to advertise that to their classmates. 

Izuku was silent as Katsuki dragged him away. They separated in the hallway without a word, before meeting up again at the front door, dressed ready to workout. Izuku wanted to say something as they walked toward the gym that they like to use, but he didn’t know what to say. He was going to call Katsuki out on their abrupt departure, but he thought better of it. He didn’t know why, but something was obviously bothering Katsuki. 

Surprisingly it was Katsuki who broke the silence as they neared the gym, “Dammit!”

“What? Are you ok?” Izuku was concerned. 

“Fuck, I just got done telling my fucking friends that I’m gonna try and be fucking nicer or whatever and then I did that shit. What the fuck kind of friend am I?” Katsuki kicked at the dirt as they walked.

“Kacchan, do you think I’m a good friend?” Izuku looked at Katsuki out of the corner of his eye. 

“What the fuck kind of question is that? Of course you’re a good friend. Hell you put up with my shit for all these years and you’ve managed to befriend our whole damn class.”

“But I’ve lashed out like that before.” Izuku continued to look ahead instead of directly at Katsuki.

 Katsuki stopped walking and turned to stand in front of Izuku. “What?”

“I mean, it doesn’t happen often but it has happened. Kacchan, everyone has a breaking point, a point where their patience fails. Some people reach that point quickly, other people take a long time to get to that point. Reaching that point doesn’t make you a bad friend Kacchan,” Izuku reached out to put his hand on Katsuki’s shoulder, “it makes you human. What would make you a bad friend is if you didn’t feel bad about it. After we finish here, go and apologize, and try to avoid lashing out in the future. Your friend’s care about you, they’ll understand.”

Katsuki just stared at Izuku for a moment before pulling away and turning to continue walking to the gym. “Tch, let’s go. I wanna fucking punch something.”

“Ok, race ya!” Izuku took off before he finished what he was saying. He knew Katsuki always felt better after a little competition. 

Just like he expected, Katsuki chased after him. Not wanting to ruin Katsuki’s mood even more, Izuku slowed a bit so that Katsuki had a chance to catch up. To his surprise as soon as Katsuki caught up to him, he pushed him off balance. Izuku laughed and sped up to catch up to Katsuki. Once he did, he returned the push. The rest of the race continued similarly. They took turns pushing each other and racing ahead, laughing the whole time. 

By the time they reached the gym they were out of breath, both from running, and from laughing. They continued to goodnaturedly shove each other until they actually started their training with smiles on their faces.

Training went well for them. They started with a dynamic warmup before moving on to some weight training and then ended with quirkless sparring, their usual training routine. Occasionally they will get All Might to join them for the sparring so that they could use quirks, but he had a meeting every Friday that made it so he couldn’t come. 

They didn’t talk much on the way back to the dorm after showering and changing in the locker room. Izuku was lost in his thoughts about how his friends all knew how well he did on the assignment. It wasn’t that he wanted them to think he did badly or anything like that. He just didn’t want to answer their questions. They also aren’t big fans of Katsuki, and Izuku really didn’t want to hear any of their comments about it. 

When they finally made it into the dorm, Izuku headed up to his room. As he reached the stairs he saw Katsuki beeline towards his friends and he smiled sadly. He was really happy that Katsuki had friends that he was willing to be honest with, and try to be nice to. But Izuku was a little jealous. Katsuki and him were making progress in their relationship, but he doubted Katsuki would stop being mean to him. He knows that Katsuki doesn’t mean it, it was the plan they came up with together all those years ago and he thought that he was fine with it. But seeing Katsuki work so hard on his other friendships hurt a bit. 

Katsuki thought about what he was going to say to apologize for the entire walk back to the dorms. As soon as he got inside, he rushed over to where his friends were all hanging out around the tv. Catching their attention he started his apology, “I… fuck, I’m really sorry for earlier—”

“—Dude you have nothing to apologize for. I pushed too far, that’s on me. I’m the one who is sorry.” Kaminari barely let him start. 

“Yeah, and I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have brought up the conversation in the first place. You and Midoriya obviously wanted to keep your scores private but instead I announced it to everyone.” Mina spoke up immediately after Kaminari.

Katsuki looked at the two of them in confusion. He was expecting them to be upset at him, not for them to be apologizing to him.

“We were talking about it after you left. This being nicer thing is a two way street. It’s not manly for us to push past your boundaries like that.” Kirishima added.

“Yeah dude.” Sero paused for a second like he was expecting Katsuki to say something, but he must have seen how uncomfortable Katsuki had gotten with the whole conversation, because he changed the subject.  “We were about to start a smash tournament, you in?” Sero held out a switch controller. 

“Fuck yeah, you fuckers are going down.” Katsuki took the offered controller and sat down with his friends. 

Izuku wished that he could say that the assignment wasn’t brought up the rest of the weekend, but that seemed to be the only thing some of his friends would talk about. By Saturday morning the news had spread to everyone in the class about Katsuki and his scores on the first iteration. For the most part the rest of his classmates didn’t bother him about it, but the same couldn’t be said about his friends.

Some of his friends were calm about it, but others weren’t. Iida didn’t care much about his score after the initial conversation on Friday, he was more interested in how to improve. He wanted to know any tips that Izuku could give, seeing that Izuku had gotten such a high score and he had figured out Iida’s message. Meanwhile Todoroki took advantage of the fact that Izuku had figured out his message to talk to him about it while also asking for some tips similar to Iida. Izuku didn’t mind talking to them about it, they respected that he didn’t want to talk about certain things so they didn’t ask about them.

Tsu wasn’t the worst to talk to, but she didn’t shy away from questions he didn’t want to answer. Like usual, she was blunt, and would ask whatever questions that she came up with. She had no issues with him not answering, but Izuku felt a bit awkward anyway.

Uraraka was by far the worst. She constantly asked him how he and Katsuki communicated and what other people’s messages were. She also kept pestering him about how he could possibly work with Katsuki. He had no idea how to answer her, he was tired of hearing his best friend get insulted over and over again, and she was refusing to stop asking, so he just started avoiding her. 

Shinsou probably had his favorite reaction though, so he spent most of the weekend with him. When he first found out Shinsou asked Izuku for a few tips, but after that one short conversation he didn’t mention it again. Izuku could hangout with him and forget about the assignment, so that’s what he did for the entire weekend. The only time he spent with anyone else, was the class movie night, but he showed up right when the movie started, and left right when it ended as to not give anyone time to talk to him about it. 

All weekend he wished he was like Katsuki, who hadn’t been questioned at all after he lashed out during that initial conversation. He may have told Katsuki that he lashes out sometimes, but he does his absolute best to avoid it. Izuku always expects that his friends will leave him, that’s all he’s ever known, so he can’t lash out and give them a reason to go. 

Monday morning came and he knew that he couldn’t avoid it any more. He walked into class dreading the comments he was surely going to get after the quizzes were handed back.

“I have your grades back from the assignment on Friday. Majority of you did improve your score so this new score will replace the old one. If you did do worse this time around, don’t worry, you get to keep your old score. Just like last time I will be giving the same lecture again today during Foundational Heroics, if you got above a 75 on the quiz portion you have the option to attend a practical lesson with All Might instead.” Just like Izuku expected, Aizawa started out class talking about their scores on the assignment. 

“Before I hand these back I would like to talk about a few things. First, some of these messages touch on things that people may not want talked about or spread around. Part of being a hero is recognizing what information should remain private. Respect your classmates and do not bring up anything that they are not comfortable sharing. The second thing I would like to mention is that while there will not be another assignment just like this one to replace your scores, there will be similar assignments in the future. If you did not score well, continue to think about how you can improve, but don’t worry about it too much. There will be ample opportunities to bring your final grade up.” As soon as Aizawa finished speaking he handed the quizzes back. 

Upon seeing his paper, Izuku started a silent conversation with Katsuki, ‘170, Kacchan we got 170, we beat our other record!’

‘Of course we did, we fucking killed it.’

Izuku read the little note at the top of his paper but he didn’t bother to mention it to Katsuki; he probably had the same note anyway. It said to remember what they talked about surrounding privacy after the last assignment. With that reminder plus the reminder before he handed out the papers, it was obvious that Aizawa was worried about information being spread. 

After Aizawa finished handing out the papers he crawled into his sleeping bag for a nap. The class was used to that by now, they knew that as long as they weren’t too loud they could talk and hangout until the end of the class period. 

As soon as Aizawa was in his sleeping bag Uraraka was rushing across the room. As soon as she was close enough to Izuku, she grabbed his paper out of his hands. 

“170!” She announced, catching the attention of the entire room as she flipped to the back as if she was going to read the messages there, but before she could Izuku snatched it.

“Uraraka, were you not listening to Aizawa?”

“I just wanted to see how you got such a high score!” Uraraka tried to grab the paper back. “Besides, it’s not like your score was personal information.”

Izuku darted away to the other side of the classroom. The whole conversation had been loud enough that everyone was paying attention, so there was no point in trying to contain it. Izuku saw that Aizawa had even sat up to see what was going on, but for some reason he didn’t stop it.

“It says right at the top of the page that I shouldn’t tell anyone any of the messages or show anyone my paper, why would you try to read it after seeing that?” Izuku had to dodge as she got close to him again. “And my score is personal information actually.”

“I won’t tell anyone! I just want to see how many messages you figured out.” Uraraka floated herself to launch across the room after Izuku. 

“Kacchan told you on Friday, the only messages we didn’t figure out any part of was yours and Yaoyorozu’s.” Izuku had to activate 1% of One For All to roll out of the way to avoid her. He couldn’t use any higher percentage without risking damage to the classroom.

“But Deku I want to see it!” Unfortunately 1% is not fast enough to avoid Uraraka’s new moves. She got close enough and reached out to grab the paper, but right before her hand could close around it, she was wrapped in Aizawa’s capture weapon and pulled away. 

“Uraraka, detention. I recall saying that part of being a hero is knowing what information should remain private. You had multiple warnings that his quiz contains private information yet you continued to attempt to see it anyway. That is enough for a full week of detention. You then decided that it was acceptable to use your quirk in my classroom which will award you another week. I expected better out of someone who has already been exposed to confidential information.” 

Izuku sighed in relief and went back to his desk. Aizawa could give him a week or even a month of detention for using his quirk in class and he wouldn’t care. While he wasn’t able to keep his score private, he was able to keep his classmates' secrets safe, and that was enough to make it worth it. To his surprise, Aizawa just released Uraraka and went back to his sleeping bag.

“Deku used his quirk too!” Uraraka blurted out before Aizawa managed to zip himself inside. 

“He did what he could to protect his classmate’s private information.” Aizawa deadpanned before zipping himself inside the sleeping bag.

The class remained quiet for the rest of the class period. That whole thing had put all of them off talking about their scores. Izuku was grateful about it. He didn’t want to hear anything about his score and he didn’t want anyone else to question what messages were so private. He did, however, have no problem talking to Katsuki about it, after, of course, he put his quiz away so no one else could try and sneak a peek. 

‘I knew that people would question me about my score after Friday, but I didn’t expect that.’ Izuku sighed loudly, not caring that others could hear.

‘No one fucking expected that, she was fucking ruthless.’

‘I mean she spent all weekend questioning me whenever she could, but I thought that maybe hearing Aizawa say that some of this information should remain private would deter her.’

‘Deku, I’m pretty new to this whole friend thing, but she doesn’t seem like a very good one.’

‘What? No, she’s great, just really curious, that’s all.’ Izuku felt like he was lying as he said that, but he really did consider Uraraka a close friend.

‘If you fucking say so.’

After that they changed the subject to the hero fight that had been on TV that morning. That conversation continued through all their classes until lunch. 

Izuku went to follow his friends to lunch, when Shinsou suddenly grabbed him and pulled him away from the rest of the class. 

As soon as they were alone Shinsou started talking, “I hope you don’t mind, my dad told me what your message was,” Izuku was about to start apologizing, but Shinsou spoke faster to cut him off. “It’s ok, I was thinking about telling you and Kaminari anyway.—”

“—But you weren’t going to tell Kacchan, I’m so—”

“—I wasn’t going to tell him, but you trust him, and I know he is one of Kaminari’s friends.” Shinsou sighed, “He wasn’t my first choice of people to tell, but honestly he doesn’t seem to be the worst person to know. Actually, that’s why I pulled you aside. I wanted to thank you.”

“Huh?”

“For this morning. I don’t mind Bakugou knowing, but I don’t really want Uraraka to know. She’s nice and all but she likes to talk, and I don’t really want all the questions.”

Before this weekend Izuku would have defended her, but after the weekend he found himself agreeing.

“I have no idea what other information you might have been protecting, but thank you for keeping that information from getting out.”

“When I came up with my message, I figured that only Mr. Aizawa and Kacchan would ever know about it. I purposefully chose something that Mr. Aizawa already knew, just like I did last time. That information was never meant to reach anyone else, and it won’t reach anyone else if I can help it.” Izuku shrugged. 

“Thank you, you’re a good friend.” Shinsou turned back to go the way they came, “Now I don’t know about you but I’m hungry.”

They walked back to the cafeteria together to join the rest of their friends. Izuku was a little worried about being near Uraraka, and when they walked up the rest of the group was lecturing her about what she had done that morning. Izuku and Shinsou turned around, not wanting to be near for that.

Izuku followed Shinsou out of the cafeteria to a tree, where they sat down with Shouji, Kouda, and Tokoyami. Apparently this is where they sit if they want to get away from the noise inside. After they silently nodded at the two newcomers, the whole group sat there eating their lunch, enjoying the sunshine and each other’s company in silence. It was the most relaxing lunch Izuku had in ages.

Izuku thought that it was going to be another normal Tuesday. The assignment had been practically forgotten about, Uraraka had apologized, and everyone was still riding the high of the school festival that had happened a couple weeks prior. Izuku still felt a bit bad about the whole Gentle Criminal thing, but he couldn’t let the man ruin the day for Eri. Luckily their performance went off without a hitch and Eri had a great time. 

The day went pretty normally until after lunch. Izuku tried to get Katsuki’s attention during class, but he was unsuccessful. The last time that had happened had been while they were fighting, so Izuku was concerned. Their relationship had been going so well, Izuku had no idea why Katsuki would start ignoring him. 

Going into Foundational Heroics the day got even more abnormal, instead of just All Might leading the class, Aizawa was also there. There were a lot of whispers as the class put on their gym clothes and met back up in a gym they hadn’t been to before. 

“Today’s class will be slightly different than usual. It will be somewhat similar to the secretive communication assignment. Just like previous iterations you will be working with a partner. But instead of trying to get a message to your partner across a classroom, one of you will be directing the other.” Aizawa spoke as he led them to a railing. Over the railing they could see a series of rooms. There was a kitchen, a bathroom, a living room, and a bedroom. It looked as though someone had taken the roof off of a one story house and now they were looking down into it. 

“Five people will be inside the house looking for cards.” Aizawa held up a playing card. “Their partners will be up here trying to figure out riddles so that they can direct the person in the house to where the cards are. There will be a total of 20 cards hidden but the goal is to find four and then enter the code to leave the house through the front door. The code will also need to be figured out by a brain teaser done by the person up here. You can use any tactics that you would like, but fighting is not allowed.

“You will not be given any way to communicate with your partner. That is something you must figure out. You will have a half an hour to choose a partner and to discuss a plan, at that point you will split from your partner and be sent to complete the exercise, or to sit in a waiting room.” Aizawa led them back outside the gym. “Your prep time starts now.”

As soon as Aizawa finished directing them Izuku turned to Katsuki and asked him silently to be partners. But it seemed like the other boy was still ignoring him. Izuku was almost going to go to someone else, but he figured that he had the best chance of doing well with Katsuki, so he might as well try asking him out loud before giving up. “Hey Kacchan, do you want to be partners?” 

Katsuki just looked at him blankly for a moment. “Fuckin” Katsuki sighed, “Fine.” 

The rest of their class split into partners quickly, most people preferring to work with people they had worked with before. As soon as people paired up, they went off on their own, making sure that they were out of earshot of anyone else. 

Izuku followed Katsuki to the side of the building. Leaning on the wall, Izuku started to plan. ‘Ok Kacchan! How should we go about this? Do you want to be up here working on the riddles or down there finding the cards? I mean, I think I would do ok finding the cards, but I love riddles—’ 

‘—I’ll be down there finding the cards, you solve the riddles. We already can communicate just fine so there is no reason to strategize more than that.’

‘Ok but—’

‘Deku, shut up’ Katsuki pointedly turned away from Izuku. After a moment he moved to a completely different part of the wall, far away from Izuku. 

Izuku was hurt, he thought that Katsuki would never turn his back on him. After everything they had been through he thought they were solid, but this was really making him question that. 

The half an hour passed slowly, Izuku spent the whole time kicking at the dirt, stressing about what had happened with Katsuki. He was also worried about how this exercise would go. Normally they had no issues with communication, but Katsuki was ignoring him. As they stood apart from each other Izuku took the time to really look at Katsuki. He was expecting to see anger, or annoyance, something that would explain his actions but also reassure him that they could still do the exercise well. But Katsuki was just staring at the ground, not looking as though he was actually seeing it. 

Izuku had seen Katsuki like this only a couple times, once in middle school, after the sludge villain attack, and again after Kamino. Both times Izuku later learned that Katsuki had a lot on his mind. After the sludge villain Katsuki had realized that he wasn’t strong enough alone and he struggled with that. After Kamino he was struggling with guilt about All Might and having been kidnapped. 

This time there was no obvious stressor for this sudden shift, so Izuku was clueless about what was going on and how to help. There was nothing he could do except wait for Katsuki to tell him about what was going on, but Izuku worried that Katsuki would be preoccupied during this exercise. Katsuki could work past annoyance or anger to get through an exercise, it might not be pleasant like during the final exam, but he could. Izuku had seen that multiple times, but the only time that he had seen Katsuki attempt something while he was this distracted was the provisional licensing exam. He couldn’t say for certain that being distracted was the reason Katsuki failed, but it probably didn’t help.

After the half hour ended the class was called back to start the first round of the exercise. Aizawa called out which pairs would go first. Izuku and Katsuki were called to go in the second group, along with Iida and Todoroki, Mina and Tsu, Shouji and Kouda, and Satou and Tokoyami. 

Once they figured out who was going first, they were split up and taken to different rooms. Izuku found himself sitting in a room with Iida, Tsu, Kouda, and Tokoyami. Their partners were taken to a different room so they couldn’t strategize any more. It didn’t matter to Izuku anyway, it’s not like they strategized much to begin with.

The room they were taken to was pretty basic. It was a mostly empty white room. The only things in it were a few beige couches and a clock. The students lounged and waited, remaining silent except for an occasional whisper. Izuku didn’t pay much attention to his classmates, he instead found himself staring at the ceiling, thinking about what could have possibly caused Katsuki to be so lost in thought, but he was coming up blank. 

Izuku had thought that this would have been a short exercise, they just had to find enough flags to get out of the room, but apparently it was more difficult than that, because they were still waiting after an hour. Having long gotten bored of the ceiling Izuku had taken to passing time by counting the seconds as the clock ticked on. He wasn’t the only one, over half the people in the room were doing the same thing. 

As the clock reached exactly an hour and fifteen minutes after the first round started, the door opened. All Might led the group out to the railing that overlooked the house. 

All Might started handing out clipboards with some papers clipped to it and pencils as they watched their partners get led into the house below. “Each of you is getting a list of riddles, some scratch paper and a pencil. Feel free to write whatever you would like on the scratch paper, but please do not write on the paper with the riddles. Everyone is getting the same set of riddles however, each of you is getting a different brain teaser to figure out the code for the door. The code is the same for all of them though.” Once he finished handing out the supplies All Might faced all of them, “Remember, you don’t need to figure out every riddle, you just need to figure out enough for your partner to find four cards. Also remember, they don’t have to only listen to their partner, they can listen to anyone that is giving hints. They could also just look for cards on their own without getting any hints.”

Once Aizawa gave the all clear from inside the house All Might instructed them to turn over the papers on the clipboard and begin. 

Izuku looked over the list of riddles, searching for one that he could figure out quickly. He chuckled a bit to himself as he read the first one. What gets wet while drying? Izuku hadn’t been lying when he told Katsuki that he liked riddles. Over the years he had looked up a lot, including this one. Turning his attention to the rooms, Izuku looked for the object that was the answer to the riddle. 

Grinning once he found what he was looking for in the bathroom, Izuku tried to get Katsuki’s attention. He clicked like they always do, but Katsuki didn’t seem to have noticed. 

Izuku clicked a few more times before asking Katsuki, ‘Kacchan? Can you hear me?’ They had communicated from much further away before, so he knew that the other boy should be able to hear him, but it seemed like before, Katsuki was too stuck in his head. He didn’t answer.

Unwilling to give up, Izuku shouted, “Kacchan!” 

It worked, Katsuki turned to stare at him, but so did everyone else in the room. Izuku shrugged sheepishly at his classmates before starting to communicate with his partner. ‘Check the towels hanging up in the bathroom.’ 

Katsuki made his way to the bathroom while grumbling, ‘Was the fucking yelling necessary?’

‘Well if you were paying attention then I wouldn’t have had to!’ Izuku’s a very forgiving person, but he was getting pretty annoyed at his partner. It was one thing to be distracted enough that Izuku had to yell, but to then get mad at him for yelling, that was a completely different story.

Izuku turned back to the riddles angrily as Katsuki pulled a card off the wall from behind the towels. Unfortunately he didn’t remember the answers to any of the others so he actually had to think more about them. After a minute or so he realized the answer to another one. What can travel all around the world without leaving its corner? He didn’t see the object in question anywhere though. 

He clicked to get Katsuki’s attention and was glad to see that this time it actually worked. ‘Kacchan, have you seen any stamps or letters or anything like that?’

‘Why the fuck would I know? That’s your damn job!’

‘Kacchan, I can’t see everything from up here! And technically my job is to figure out the riddle, which I did!’

‘Fucking fine!’ Katsuki stomped over to the front door. Izuku couldn’t see what Katsuki was doing from the angle he was at, but he angrily held a card up as he walked away from the door. 

Izuku was distracted by a commotion at a different part of the house, Mina and Satou were racing to get to a clock in the living room, only for Todoroki to freeze it in a block of ice before either of them got to it. Mina and Satou stopped dead in their tracks as Todoroki calmly walked over to the frozen clock in front of them. He calmly grabbed it with his left hand and melted the ice. As soon as he was able, he pulled a card from inside of it. 

As far as Izuku could tell Katsuki and he were in the lead with two cards, followed by Todoroki and Iida with one. Unless they were really sneaky about it, no one else had found any yet. Izuku turned his attention back to the list in front of him as the commotion below died down. 

It got quiet as everyone regained their focus. The students that were tasked with figuring out riddles were staring at their paper, occasionally making notes. The students that were inside the house were searching on their own. Most of them were looking under things and behind things, hoping to stumble on a card by chance.

Izuku looked over the railing into the rooms on occasion, looking for objects that might be the answer. Occasionally Katsuki would be searching like everyone else down there, but usually he was just staring into space. Izuku was getting frustrated that he was expected to do all the work, but there wasn’t anything that he could do about it. 

By the time that Izuku figured out another riddle every pair had at least one card. Quite a few were found by chance, not from solving a riddle. A couple however did start a lot of commotion as other groups overheard someone telling their partner where to look. Iida and Todoroki were struggling after they realized that just about everyone could understand their version of morse code. Mina and Tsu were having the same issue. 

Kouda originally was just whispering to Shouji, but once it was realized, Izuku and a couple other people moved closer to Kouda so they could overhear, forcing them to rethink their strategy. Tokoyami and Satou’s approach wasn’t subtle in the slightest, but it was effective. Dark Shadow just led Satou to wherever the card was hidden. 

As Izuku watched Todoroki find another card, putting them in the lead with three, he got Katsuki’s attention, ‘Check behind the painting of the river in the hallway.’ 

Izuku wasn’t completely sure that was where a card would be, but he was pretty sure about the answer to: What runs, but never walks. Murmurs, but never talks. Has a bed, but never sleeps. And has a mouth, but never eats? The painting was the only thing that made any sense. Sure enough, Katsuki pulled a card out from behind the painting. 

Katsuki’s only comment was an angry, ‘Fucking finally!’ 

Izuku was feeling a little better now that they were tied for the lead, but he was still really frustrated, and that made it really hard to concentrate. He read the rest of the clues over and over again, but he hadn’t a clue what the answers were. He recognized that he wasn’t ever going to figure out a riddle if he looked at them all at once, so he instead chose one to focus on. What starts with a T, ends with a T, and has T in it? As Izuku read the riddle over and over again his frustration kept building. 

“T…T…” Izuku sighed, “I could really use a cup of tea right now…” Izuku’s head shot up. “That’s it!” He looked around the rooms until he spotted the teapot on the counter in the kitchen.

‘Kacchan, in the teapot!’ 

Katsuki made his way to the teapot and looked inside, and then under it. ‘There is fucking nothing here Deku!’

“Oh! I found that one already!” Mina spoke up from across the room as she held up a card so that Izuku and Katsuki could see it. 

Izuku groaned as Katsuki grumbled and wandered away, probably to stare at another wall. Izuku knew that there was a chance he would waste his time solving a riddle someone had already found the card for but it really didn’t help his frustration. He could feel his eyes starting to tear up but he held it back. This was not the time nor place for crying, no matter how frustrated and angry he was. 

He kept looking at the riddles and saw another that he might be able to solve. What has words, but never speaks? He recognized it from when he had searched for riddles before, but he couldn’t quite remember the answer. He searched the rooms for anything that could spark his memory. When his eyes landed on the bookshelf in the bedroom, he couldn’t help but grin.

‘Kacchan, look at the books on the bookshelf!’ 

As Katsuki made his way into the bedroom Izuku’s stomach dropped. He watched as Todoroki found his final card behind a calendar. He quickly turned the page on his clipboard to look at the brain teaser to figure out the code. Before he could read it though, he heard a click from Katsuki. 

‘Deku! There is nothing here!’ 

Izuku looked up to see Katsuki throwing books around. He flipped back to the riddles quickly and began to read them, but not before telling Katsuki, ‘Just start looking under everything in the bookshelf, I haven’t seen anyone check there and there isn’t much time!’

The next few moments seemed to take forever, but it was probably just a moment. Izuku read through the list before stopping on one. What has a head and a tail but no body?  The answer was on the tip of his tongue. Right before the answer could come to him, he looked up to see Katsuki finding a card under a jar full of coins. 

Izuku flipped the page back to the brain teaser for the code and began to read. 

The first and last digits are the same.

The sum of the last two digits is 8.

The sum of the middle two digits is 9.

The first three digits are in ascending order.

The sum of all the digits is 15.

At first looking at it he was overwhelmed. He had no idea where to start and he was still struggling to concentrate because of his frustration with Katsuki. Izuku looked around for Iida, only to find him writing furiously. Realizing he was running out of time, Izuku turned back to his brain teaser. 

As he worked through it, he struggled to keep himself from mumbling. It was a habit that he had worked to break for years but he still thought the best outloud. Luckily he had somewhat trained himself to transfer his mumbling to writing, so he took out a piece of scratch paper and went to work. 

The only thing anyone heard for a while was pencils scratching against paper. Iida and Izuku were working to figure out the code, while the rest of their classmates were trying to figure out the riddles and find cards. Both Todoroki and Katsuki were standing by the door waiting for their partner to tell them the code. Todoroki was looking at Iida, ready to find out the code as soon as Iida figured it out. Katsuki was staring at the ground, deep in thought again. 

Izuku narrowed the answer down to nine different codes, then to four, then finally to one. Without wasting a second he started clicking to get Katsuki’s attention. But Katsuki didn’t notice. 

“Kacchan” Izuku spoke aloud not wanting to bring too much attention to the fact that he had figured it out, but Katsuki still didn’t budge. “Kacchan!” Izuku spoke louder, but the other boy still wasn’t listening. Izuku heard tapping from nearby and Todoroki made his way to the keypad.

“Kacchan!” Izuku yelled as loud as he could, making everyone in the room jump. Katsuki swung around to glare at him, but it was too late. Todoroki had already made it out the door. 

Katsuki’s head swung around to look at Todoroki before turning back to Izuku furiously, “What the fuck Deku! Are you so damn useless that you couldn’t figure out the damn code before them! Why the fuck did I pair up with a useless fucking Deku!” 

In middle school an outburst like that would have been completely normal and Izuku would have just brushed it off. Recently an outburst like that would have really upset Izuku. But after having just struggled on this assignment, the outburst just turned Izuku’s frustration into anger. 

“How dare you blame me! I was trying to get your attention before Iida figured out the code, but you were too busy staring off into space. You didn’t do anything the whole time! In this exercise, you were the useless one!” Izuku glared down at Katsuki, who rather than yell back, which would have been totally expected, just stomped away, not caring that class hadn’t ended yet. 

While they were yelling their classmates that had been in the first round had been led back into the room, so their entire class was staring at Katsuki as he left, and then at Izuku. Still beyond angry, Izuku ignored them. He turned his attention to All Might and Aizawa. 

All Might coughed a couple times, bringing the attention to him before he started talking, “Well done today everyone! We will be going over the exercise in class tomorrow so take some time to think over where you could have improved before then. Other than that class is dismissed, have a good afternoon!”

Izuku barely let All Might finish talking before he left the room. He knew that his friends would want to make sure that he was ok after an argument like that, but he hadn’t calmed down enough to deal with people yet and he really didn’t expect to for the rest of the day. In all the years that he had known Katsuki, he had never been this angry at him.

Aizawa wasn’t sure what to make of the first round of the exercise. The students took a lot longer than he expected to finish, but other than that they did well. Every pair had at least two cards, which was better than any past year. There were some interceptions, but not nearly as many as expected. The winners weren’t at all surprising, Yaoyorozu and Jirou won, but they didn’t win by a landslide like he was expecting. The other pairs made sure to give them a run for their money. 

Going into the first round he had a lot of expectations, but he had even more for the second round. Iida and Todoroki would have had a good chance of doing well, but against Bakugou and Midoriya’s flawless communication, they didn’t have a chance. Iida and Midoriya were probably evenly matched trying to figure out the riddles, but Midoriya had the advantage of getting Bakugou’s input on everything. Iida could try and get Todoroki’s input, but they would have had to change their form of communication, or have other people able to listen in. Midoriya didn’t have to worry about that. The rest of the pairs that they were competing with also could potentially do well, but Aizawa figured that their success would be more due to luck. 

At first it seemed like he might be right. Within a minute of being given the list of riddles Midoriya was already grinning and searching the rooms. Aizawa watched carefully to see how they were communicating, and he heard for the first time, a click from Midoriya. He hid his grin in his capture weapon, excited that he was finally getting some insight into their communication. But almost immediately his grin fell, Midoriya had to yell to get Bakugou’s attention. 

Aizawa didn’t catch any more communication before Bakugou made his way to the bathroom and pulled out a card. Midoriya turned back to the riddles scowling. Aizawa was completely confused by what he was seeing. This was more similar to what he was expecting before the first assignment. It seemed like they were barely working together. 

As the exercise went on Aizawa remained confused. Midoriya hadn’t yelled again but his jaw was tense and he was glaring at the paper. Meanwhile Bakugou didn’t seem to be doing anything most of the time. Occasionally Bakugou would look around for a card, but he spent most of his time staring into space. It could be that Aizawa’s original theory about their strategy was correct, and Bakugou was just focused on answering the riddles, but Midoriya’s expression made him think that that wasn’t the case.

It was also strange that Bakugou seemed angry every time he was directed somewhere. He held up his card very aggressively when he found it in the basket of mail by the door and he stomped to the hallway when he got the card from behind the river painting. 

Aizawa tried to split his attention evenly amongst all the students, but his attention kept being drawn to the problem duo. Even when there was commotion among the other students, like when they intercepted another pair’s messages, as soon as the drama was over Aizawa found himself watching the duo. They weren’t doing anything interesting, Midoriya was hunched over the riddles and occasionally looking around, and Bakugou was mostly just staring. But Aizawa was trained to notice when things were different, and something was going on between the two.

Right in the last minute of the exam things really went wrong for the pair. Midoriya resorted to yelling again, and then things got really bad. Bakugou was obviously completely zoned out, and once he realized that he had lost, he let loose on Midoriya. As soon as Aizawa realized that the exercise was over he brought the other students back into the room. The first thing they heard when they got back was Katsuki yelling. 

Aizawa was immediately reminded of the note he had made to himself, the task he had repeatedly held off. It couldn’t wait any longer, he needed to figure out more about the problem duo’s past and specifically, Bakugou’s behavior. He was a little placated by the fact that for what seemed like the first time ever Midoriya yelled back, but that wasn’t enough. It was unacceptable to call another student useless, and Bakugou had been getting away with doing that for far too long. 

All Might ended the class while Aizawa was deep in thought. He figured that if either boy wanted to talk about what had just happened, they would talk to All Might, he didn’t know why but they were both especially close to the other teacher, especially Midoriya. With that in mind Aizawa rushed to Nedzu’s office. There were a lot of different ways he could start his investigation, but no matter what he did, everything went better when he brought his boss into the loop from the start. 

“Ah, Aizawa, what can I do for you today?” Nedzu started after he opened the door for Aizawa, right before the man knocked.

“I want to look into Midoriya and Bakugou’s past, specifically at Bakugou’s behavior.” Aizawa went straight to the point.

“Oh? Is there any reason that this is coming up now?” Nedzu asked as he started typing at his computer.

“I have been meaning to for a while, but Bakugou was acting strange in class today, and both boys ended the class yelling.”

“Huh, today they did another communication exercise, correct?” Nedzu didn’t look away from his computer.

“Yes, and they paired up again, but they didn’t do nearly as well as I would have expected. They were beaten by Iida and Todoroki.”

“Hmmm, how unusual…” Nedzu pressed a final key on his keyboard before turning back to Aizawa. “I emailed you footage from the security cameras at their middle school. It is all random footage from random days, a random sample to save you some time, but I can pull specific days if you would like. I haven’t watched it so I have absolutely no idea what you will find, but let me know if you need any more.” Nedzu’s gaze darkened, “And please let me know what you find.”

“Of course, you will know as soon as I find anything.” Aizawa nodded in thanks as Nedzu pressed a button to open the door behind him. 

“Have a nice afternoon!” Nedzu yelled at Aizawa’s retreating back. 

Izuku avoided people for the rest of the day. He had calmed down not long after class had ended but he was beyond tired. Being angry for as long as he was is exhausting. He also hadn’t forgotten his friends' reactions after the last assignment, and he knew that they would bother him with questions about what happened. Normally he would go to Shinsou to get away from questions, but Shinsou was planning on spending the afternoon with Eri so Izuku was left alone. 

The next morning Izuku put off leaving his room for as long as possible. He didn’t even go down for breakfast. He walked into class right before class started and sat down in his seat. For a moment he looked at the back of Katsuki’s head, but he turned away quickly. It wasn’t that he was angry anymore, but he was still hurt. 

Aizawa walked into the room and immediately Izuku, as well as the rest of the class, stiffened. They had only seen Aizawa really angry a few times, including right now. Their teacher didn’t seem to notice the stares, he only seemed to see one student. Aizawa marched over the Katsuki. “Let’s go.” He almost growled. 

Izuku watched the whole thing confused, he thought perhaps Katsuki had done something to get himself in trouble and that was why he was so out of it yesterday, but from the look on Katsuki’s face it didn’t seem like he knew what was going on either. 

A few minutes after Aizawa and Katsuki left the room, Present Mic walked in. Immediately he was bombarded with questions. 

“What’s going on?”

“Did Bakugou do something?”

“Are they going to be back before the end of class?”

“Alright, alright” Present Mic put his hands out trying to calm the class. “I can’t answer most of your questions, but I can say that Aizawa will probably be back by the end of class.”

“What about Bakugou?” Kirishima asked with a shaky voice. 

Present Mic sighed, “Something from Bakugou’s past came up…” Present Mic glanced at Izuku. 

When Present Mic made eye contact with him, Izuku’s stomach dropped. He vaguely heard his classmates whisper about what Present Mic could be talked about, but Izuku was too caught up in his own head. 

He remembered the day they decided to start this ruse like it was yesterday. This plan was the only thing they really fought about until Izuku got a quirk. Katsuki was against it the whole time, but Izuku insisted. And Izuku kept insisting that they keep it up everytime they talked about it. Every time that other students began to step in because they thought Katsuki wasn’t being mean enough Izuku would tell him to escalate. And everytime Katsuki would argue about it. He would always eventually give in, normally after Izuku explained how he would rather be bullied by someone he knew didn’t mean it instead of someone who did, even if Katsuki was saying the meaner things. 

It had come up a few times that Katsuki could get in trouble for it, but they both figured that was unlikely. Katsuki’s reservations were always about him not wanting to be mean to Izuku, not fear of getting caught. The adults at school never stopped Katsuki, if anything they encouraged it. Of course they knew that UA would never encourage bullying, but it was obvious to them that the adults at Aldera would never tell anyone and risk Katsuki’s future. He was their ticket to fame. 

Izuku felt like he had just been dunked in ice water. Somehow UA found out about what happened, and Katsuki’s future would be ruined because of it. As soon as his brain caught up with what was happening Izuku found himself standing, and while his entire class was staring at him, he ran out of the room.

He figured that there were two places they could be. Closest to him was the teacher’s lounge. Izuku barely noticed the shocked faces of the people he sprinted by as he made his way through the halls. He burst through the door of the teacher’s lounge… only to be disappointed to find it empty. 

There was one other place to check, the worst of the two, Nedzu’s office. Any hope that Izuku had that only Aizawa was involved went out the window. If Nedzu was involved, it was serious. 

Izuku left the teacher’s lounge in a sprint. He could feel the stares from the students inside the classrooms with their doors wide open that he was passing, but he didn’t care. Katsuki’s future at UA was in danger because of something that he pushed him to do.

Finally Izuku reached the office, and went to push open the door, but to his surprise the door opened right as he reached for it. He tumbled into the room and face planted on the floor drawing the attention of everyone inside. Nedzu, Aizawa, Katsuki, and both of Katsuki’s parents were staring at Izuku as he picked himself up off the floor. The video footage of Katsuki telling Izuku to take a swan dive played on a screen on Nedzu’s desk.

“You can’t expel Kacchan!” Aizawa and Nedzu both looked at Izuku in shock, while Katsuki’s parents looked on with confusion and residual anger. Katsuki just stared at the floor.

“Midoriya, I understand that you think of Bakugou as your friend, but how he treated you in middle school is unacceptable. We can’t allow someone who was so cruel to be a hero.” Aizawa said gently.

“No, you don’t understand—”

“—Midoriya—” Nedzu started but Izuku didn’t let him continue.

“—I told Kacchan to treat me like that!”

All the adults in the room stared at Izuku, but Katsuki’s eyes remained on the floor. It remained silent for a long moment before Izuku sighed. “I’m a late bloomer, if you watched the videoes then you know I didn’t have a quirk. All of our classmates… they turned on me immediately, and the teachers were fine with it, they even joined in. But Kacchan didn’t, he defended me. And he would have kept defending me if we hadn’t found a more effective way.”

“A more effective way to do what? He was the ringleader in those videos.” Aizawa ran his hand over his face.

“A more effective way to get people to leave me alone. When Kacchan was defending me everyone was against us. But he got mad one day, and everyone else started to leave me alone. We figured out that as long as he was the ringleader, everyone else backed off. They still weren’t nice to me, but they didn’t dare do anything once Kacchan staked his claim.” Izuku laughed sadly, “I was his personal punching bag that no one else was allowed to touch.”

“Bakugou, is this all true? Why wouldn’t you tell us about this before?” Aizawa turned to Katsuki who was still staring at the ground. 

“It’s true, but I still shouldn’t have done it.” Katsuki’s voice cracked. “He was my best friend…. He is my best friend, and I was a fucking asshole to him everyday.”

“Kacchan… I asked you to be an asshole to me. I convinced you to say what you said to me. And Kacchan, every time you said something you told me that you didn’t mean it at the same time. It seemed like you were being mean, but you weren’t.” Izuku moved closer to Katsuki, hoping the boy would look up, but his gaze stayed on the ground.

“Ok, ok but what about since you’ve been at UA? As far as I know there were no issues with bullying so why continue to act like that?” Aizawa asked Katsuki but he just shrugged. Aizawa turned to Izuku instead, still expecting an answer. 

Izuku sighed. “Until we got to UA, school was terrible for the both of us, all because I didn’t have a quirk. Suddenly we got to UA and I wasn’t quirkless anymore. I don’t know his exact thought process, but I don’t blame him for being angry, especially because I didn’t have much of an explanation for him.” He shrugged. 

Aizawa ran his hand down his face and opened his mouth to say something, but Katsuki’s mom beat him to it. “I hate to cut this short but is Katsuki still being expelled? From what it sounds like, the brat had a plan the whole time! If he is not being expelled, I need to get to work.”

Aizawa looked over at Nedzu questioningly.

“No, It would be foolish to expel him with all this new information. I’m sorry for wasting your time.” 

“Nonsense, I’m glad you called us here. I worried for years that this idiot had fucked up all his friendships, it’s good to know that he didn’t and is still close to Izuku all these years later.” Katsuki’s parents got up and left but Katsuki and Izuku stayed. It was obvious the conversation wasn’t over. 

While the conversation was paused Izuku used that opportunity to question Katsuki silently. He didn’t expect a response so he was pleasantly surprised when Katsuki seemed to notice his click. So relieved in fact, that he didn’t notice Aizawa also react to the click.

‘Kacchan are you ok?’

‘Deku, I bullied you for years. I knew better but I did it anyway.’

‘Kacchan I asked you to! You never said or did anything that I didn’t ask you to!’

Katsuki swung around to face Izuku, his eyes leaving the floor for the first time since Izuku entered the room. ‘Izuku, I told you to kill yourself!’

“Did you mean it?” Izuku spoke while staring Katsuki in the eye. He knew that it was stupid to speak out loud, but this felt too important to say silently. 

“No,” Katsuki shook his head, “Of course I didn’t mean it. I never meant any of it. You know that.”

‘Then what’s the issue?’ Izuku switched back to asking silently.

“The issue is I said it! I was terrible to you!” Katsuki yelled before switching to responding silently. ‘I always thought it was obvious that I didn’t mean it. I would laugh at how dumb those extras were for believing me. But those videos, I was so convincing, your reactions were so real. I don’t know what to think about it all anymore.’

‘Kacchan I never once thought that you meant what you said. I acted like I did, but Kacchan,’ Izuku looked his friend straight in the eye.  “I knew from the beginning to believe what you said silently, not what you said out loud.”

The two boys stared at each other before Nedzu cleared his throat, abruptly reminding them that they weren’t alone. They turned to look at their teacher and principal, eyes wide like a deer caught in the headlights. 

“Ummm…uhh…” Izuku started but he had no idea what to say.

Nedzu chuckled. “That is quite incredible to see in person. Did your ability to communicate like that stem from your ruse?”

“Yeah we couldn’t talk at school without people knowing that I didn’t hate the nerd, so we found another way to communicate.” Katsuki grumbled.

“So how does it work then? We heard the click at the beginning but after that we only could tell what you said out loud.” Aizawa leaned forward, ready to finally figure out the mystery.

“Oh! The click is just to get each other’s attention, it doesn't really mean anything. It’s more our body language, well, kinda. It’s hard to explain.” Izuku looked around trying to figure out how to explain.

“It’s little movements, shit we incorporated into our everyday actions. That’s why we have to click first.” Katsuki supplied.

“Yeah, if we don’t we would either try to decode normal movements and be constantly getting nonsense, or we would never notice that we are trying to talk to each other.”

“Hmmm, What kind of movements do you mean?” Nedzu was leaning forward, very interested in what was being said. 

“Like twitching an ear, or Kacchan’s explosions. You know stuff that’s second nature.” Izuku shrugged.

Aizawa and Nedzu looked at each other for a long moment before turning back to Katsuki and Izuku. Izuku couldn’t quite read the expressions on their faces, but they seemed almost confused. He wasn’t sure, but he wouldn’t be surprised if they were confused.  The two of them had never tried to explain their communication to anyone before, so they had never bothered to put how they were communicating into words. It was a lot harder than he would have expected it to be. 

Their communication was a lot more than their little movements like they described it. They couldn’t tell someone that moving their ear meant one thing while twitching their hand meant another, because that wouldn’t be true. Sometimes they meant different things, but other times they meant the same thing, and their meaning changed all the time. They couldn’t even explain it as the movements surrounding it could change the meaning, because that wasn’t true either. They had perfected their language to the point that they could do a series of motions and the other would understand what they were saying, but then do the same set of motions later for a different message and the other would still understand. It was impossible to describe. 

“How interesting!” Nedzu clapped after finally breaking the silence. “Now before I can send you back to class I have a few concerns that I would like to discuss. First off, I would like to talk about what we saw here just a bit ago.” Nedzu motioned to the screen that had long finished playing the video of the suicide bating and was now just playing a screen saver. 

“I’m sure you both remember the events of that day, even if we were distracted from the video earlier. Now, from your conversation earlier Bakugou, it sounded as though you were saying that you didn’t mean it. Is that correct?” Nedzu looked at Katsuki.

“Yeah, I never meant any of the shit I said.” Katsuki grumbled looking back at the ground.

“And Midoriya you understood this when he said it?” Nedzu turned his attention to Izuku.

“Yeah, I mean, I had to convince him to say it. He didn’t want to, so I practically made him a script.”

“You made a script for him to tell you to kill yourself?” Aizawa rubbed at his temple, beyond done with this whole thing. 

“Yeah,” Izuku looked away sheepishly, “if he didn’t escalate someone else would. With him saying it then at least I knew he didn’t mean it so it wouldn’t hurt as bad.” 

“But it still hurt?” Katsuki looked at Izuku.

Izuku looked at Katsuki and then at the two other people in the room. “A little, but really, this probably sounds really bad, but it also made me kinda happy.” Izuku shrugged at the incredulous stares he was getting before turning to face Katsuki. “It was kinda nice knowing that you didn’t want to be that mean to me, but you did it anyway because you knew it would end up better for me.” Izuku mumbled at the ground, “It was nice that you did that for me.”

There was silence for a moment before Nedzu spoke up again, “Ok so now that we have clarified that everyone is on the same page about this we need to talk about what will happen if this video gets out.” Katsuki’s and Izuku’s heads shot up to look at Nedzu. “Knowing the context is the only reason we are allowing you to continue here,” Nedzu looked at Katsuki, “but the media has been known to ignore context. No one here would release this video, and I can delete it from their servers, but if anyone at Aldera has backups and releases them there could be major consequences.”

“They won’t.” Katsuki and Izuku both said at the same time.

“Huh?”

“I was their fucking golden goose or whatever, their claim to fame. They were always going on about how once I was a pro they would be famous for turning out such a great hero. They would never jeopardize that.” Katsuki explained.

“Yeah, they wouldn’t risk losing favor with the public by having that video come out. I’m not sure how far back in the video you watched. But our teacher purposefully brought up that I wanted to go to UA so that they would all tear me down. Besides, all the teachers knew about everything, but they never did anything about it. Releasing that video would hurt their reputation just as much as Katsuki’s.” Izuku supplied. 

Nedzu scrutinized them for a moment. “Ok then. That is all I wanted to discuss with you. Aizawa, was there anything else you wanted to bring up?”

“What happened yesterday? You said that the beginning of the year was because of a lack of communication which I’m assuming you fixed, so what was all the yelling after yesterday’s exercise?”

“Umm… I’m not exactly sure. Kacchan was really distracted and we both got kinda frustrated.”

“I…” Katsuki looked over at Izuku for a long moment before looking away. Katsuki whispered under his breath, “Fuck” He looked at the floor and spoke a barely loud enough to hear,  “I had a lot on my mind…” 

The silence stretched on for a long time. The adults were waiting for an explanation that neither boy would give. Finally, after what seemed like an hour but was probably closer to a few minutes Nedzu looked at the clock. “Oh! Look at the time, you both need to get back to class!” 

The principal rushed the two boys out of the room. When the door closed behind them, they looked at each other before looking away to walk silently back to their classroom. Neither said anything the whole way there.

When they walked into the room there was an explosion of noise. Just about everyone was asking questions.

“What happened?”

“Where were they?”

“What Present Mic had meant about something from Bakugou’s past coming up?” 

Katsuki and Izuku ignored the questions for the most part. Izuku only answered, “There was a misunderstanding, everything is fine.” 

It took a moment for the excitement to die down, but once it did, the day continued as normal. 

Aizawa didn’t leave when the boys did. While he was glad that there wasn’t any actual bullying happening between the two, something seemed off and he could tell that Nedzu thought so too. 

“Well that was enlightening!” Nedzu said as soon as the door closed. 

“Was it though? I learned a lot about their relationship but I have more questions than before about how they communicate.” 

“Yes, they didn’t seem to tell the whole truth about how they communicate, or about what happened yesterday. But we did learn a lot about their middle school.” Nedzu grinned mischievously. “Oh how I love serving justice!”

Aizawa was a little put off by Nedzu’s grin, but he found himself agreeing. He hated that two of his top students had gone to such a terrible school. Destroying it could be fun.

The questions never stopped. Izuku hoped that people would move on like they did from the assignment, but they weren’t that lucky. Some people were more pushy than others, but everyone wanted to know what had happened after Bakugou left class, and why Izuku ran out to join him. It would have been manageable if Izuku still had friends he could trust that he could spend time with, but Katsuki had been ignoring him since they left Nedzu’s office, and Shinsou was spending most of his time with his family or Kaminari. After a week Izuku was struggling. 

Occasionally he would spend some time with Iida or Todoroki, but Todoroki was busy with his supplemental lessons and Iida spent most of his time studying. Tsu wasn’t bad to spend time with but she was always around Uraraka, and Izuku was avoiding her. Uraraka was being just as aggressive with her questions as she had been after the results came out for the second iteration, and Izuku was done with it. She was constantly asking what was going on between him and Katsuki and what happened after he ran out of class. No matter how many times Izuku asked her to stop, she never did. 

The whole situation was honestly kinda making him mad. He wanted to spend time with his friends like he always had, but he also didn’t want to be pestered about what happened. He could just tell them, but he and Katsuki had agreed to not tell anyone. He broke their agreement by telling Nedzu and Aizawa, but he wasn’t going to let Katsuki get expelled. Telling his friends was out of the question so instead the anger just built up. 

It didn’t help that a few days after Katsuki stopped talking to him he had a weird dream about the first holder of One for All and it had activated his quirk in his sleep. The first person he would want to talk to about that besides All Might would have been Katsuki, but with Katsuki not talking to him, he couldn’t mention it. After everything they went through, and how they always promised to be heroes together, Izuku was forced to struggle alone. Katsuki’s absence just added to his already building anger. 

It all came to head during Foundational Heroics, the class that was turning out to be the most drama inducing class. Today, they were doing a joint training exercise with class B. Vlad King, Aizawa, and All Might were there to supervise. Their class was split into five teams of four and so was the other class. A group from class A would then go against a group from class B, both teams trying to capture the entire other team. They have 20 minutes or until an entire team is captured. If neither team is captured in its entirety by the time 20 minutes runs out the win goes to the team that captured the most people. It was encouraged but not required to use their communications skills that they had been working on in past assignments. 

The exercise sounded like it would be fun, except the teams were determined by lots, and Izuku wasn’t known for his luck. His team consisted of him, Katsuki, Uraraka, and Shinsou. If the last week hadn’t happened this group would be incredible, but as it was he was doomed. Shinsou and him still got along without issue, but Uraraka and Katsuki both on the same team with him was a recipe for disaster. 

It didn’t help that the team that they were paired against from class B included Monoma, the most obnoxious person in class B. The rest of the team was composed of Yanagi, Kodai, and Shoda. Honestly Izuku didn’t know as much about their quirks as he would have liked. He had seen all of them before, during the sports festival, and after when he rewatched the whole thing. The training camp had also allowed him to see their quirks a bit, before it was interrupted. But he hadn’t had the chance to really see how their quirks worked in detail, and with the tension between the classes he probably never would. 

As soon as the teams were announced Uraraka ran over to him, clearly excited. “We are on a team together! It always works better to be on a team with your friends right? Too bad Bakugou is on the team too though, but I guess that we have to learn to work with people we don’t get along with.”

Shinsou calmly walked behind her, raising his eyebrows at her mention of Katsuki. Shinsou technically had just as much information as the rest of the class about the problem duo’s friendship. But he was more observant than most, and from their conversation after the second assignments results came out it was obvious that he knew at least that there was mutual trust in their relationship. 

“Yeah it’s great to work with friends.” Izuku responded only half paying attention. He was too busy looking for Katsuki. As soon as he caught sight of the other boy, he clicked, and to his surprise it seemed to have caught Katsuki’s attention. 

‘Hey, we are all over here so we can talk strategy.’

‘Tch, we are the last group to go, we can fucking figure that out later.’ As if to emphasize his point the teachers called the first group to go. Everyone’s attention was captured by the competing teams. 

Both classes watched as team after team competed. In between matches, and when there wasn’t much action Uraraka kept alternating between asking about the situation with Katsuki and what their plan should be for their turn. It was annoying to say the least. 

When it finally came to their turn Izuku was glad. Each class was tied with two wins, this match would determine the winner. Izuku felt the pressure a little but he was thinking about other things. Hopefully Uraraka would focus on the match instead of him so he could finally have some peace. As they walked into the city center where the match would take place they all grouped up.

“All right so we—” Izuku started to plan.

“—We capture them, what other fucking plan do we need?” Katsuki interrupted, looking annoyed. He looked at Uraraka and Shinsou with disdain before stomping off.

“Kacchan!” Izuku yelled at the retreating boy, causing him to turn around for a moment. Izuku pleaded silently, ‘Work with us, I don’t know what has been going on recently but our best chance is by working together.’ 

“Come on Midoriya, why are you trying to work with him anyway? What happened last week?” Uraraka grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away. Izuku angrily shook her off without taking his eyes off Katsuki.

‘Work with your friends. They are better for you anyway.’ Katsuki turned and walked away, just like he had been all week. 

That was the last straw. Uraraka’s persistent questions and Katsuki’s disregard for their lifelong friendship pushed him over the edge. Izuku’s vision went black as his anger exploded out of him.

Katsuki felt bad about how he was acting, but he couldn’t stop himself. Kirishima’s voice kept ringing in his head. “Just ask him out already before Uraraka does.” It was jarring to hear then, at the end of lunch the day of the riddle exercise, but now it was painful. 

At first he denied that he even liked Izuku, they were just friends, best friends, but just friends. But the more he thought about it the more he realized that that might not be the case. He always felt safest with Izuku. In Kamino he felt more safe when Izuku showed up then when All Might did, even though Kirishima was the one to offer his hand. Unlike the majority of people, Izuku was someone he actually really liked spending time with. After that first assignment they had spent so much time together, and Katsuki had never been so happy. He struggled loosening up and joking around with people, but with Izuku he found himself rolling around in the grass, repeatedly.

It was no secret that he thought of Izuku as his friend for years. He only had the one so the best friend title was unnecessary, he was his best friend by default. When he made friends with his idiots he knew that he didn’t feel the same for them as he felt about Izuku. Izuku explained this as them being friends and Izuku being his best friend. But the more he thought about it, the more he questioned where would that leave Kirishima. His friendship with Kirishima was different then his friendship with the rest of the group. He liked hanging out with all of them, and talking to them. But he felt like he could talk to Kirishima about more. There was a reason that Izuku had Kirishima hold his hand out.  

Katsuki was so distracted by thinking about how he felt towards Izuku, he let Izuku down. His default emotion is anger, it always has been, so that was the emotion he acted on during that riddle exercise. He yelled at Izuku because it was easier than yelling at himself. Rather than taking it like he had for years, Izuku yelled back and he was right. It hurt worse than when Katsuki thought Izuku was lying to him about his quirk for years. 

The next day proved how right Izuku was. Katsuki was facing consequences for the plan the Izuku came up with and honestly Katsuki couldn’t bring himself to fight it. He was useless. He never wanted to do what he did or say what he said to Izuku, but he couldn’t think of another plan and he couldn’t fight everyone off forever. Leaving that office Katsuki knew two things for certain, he was the useless one in their friendship and he absolutely liked Izuku as more than a friend. 

The second part of Kirishima’s comment entered his thoughts later that day. Uraraka was planning on asking Izuku out. Katsuki looked back on the interactions between the two, and his heart sank. It was apparent that Izuku might actually say yes. With the filter of the two of them liking each other, their actions made so much sense. Uraraka was so pushy because she wanted to get to know him better. And he forgave her so easily because he liked her back. That made so much more sense than anything else that he could come up with. It had confused Katsuki that Izuku would forgive her so easily, but if he likes her then it made perfect sense. Katsuki immediately realized that if that was really the case, then he needed to step back. Izuku deserved better than him, he was always angry and difficult and he had said so much he didn’t mean. Uraraka might not be perfect for Izuku either, but she is better for him than Katsuki is. 

Since then Katsuki has been avoiding Izuku. It was painful, and Katsuki had been miserable, but it would be better for the other boy in the long run, and that was what was important. 

He knew that it was dumb to not strategize, but working with Uraraka and Izuku, plus Izuku’s replacement best friend was too difficult for him. In the past week, since the riddle exercise, Izuku had apparently been spending a lot of time with Shinsou. Kaminari had been complaining about it all week to their friend group. Normally he wouldn’t have anything against Shinsou, but he just couldn’t deal with that right now.

Moments after Katsuki turned to walk away he was suddenly grabbed around the middle but long strands of something. He thought that Shinsou had used his capture weapon to grab him, but as he was lifted into the air he was able to trace the shadowy black strands that grabbed him to Izuku. 

Once Katsuki caught sight of Izuku, he couldn’t look away. His best friend was writhing in pain, shadowy tendrils flailing. His face was scrunched up, in pain or concentration, Katsuki couldn’t tell which. As the majority of the tendrils were whipping around frantically flinging Uraraka and Shinsou, the strand that was holding onto Katsuki brought him closer. It was gentle, unlike the rest of the strands that were haphazardly swinging around. 

Katsuki was tempted to blast away the shadowy tendrils with his quirk, but they were coming from Izuku, and he didn’t want to risk hurting him. He looked around frantically before his eyes landed on their two teammates huddling for cover just out of range. 

“Eye Bags, try to brainwash him!” The grip around Katsuki’s torso was getting tighter, it wasn’t quite painful but it was uncomfortable and he didn’t want to find out if it would get worse. 

“Midoriya!” Shinsou yelled but Izuku didn’t seem to hear him. “Midoriya! Can you hear me?” 

Izuku was unresponsive. The tendrils seemed to be growing, reaching out and grabbing bits of the building near them, destroying everything that was too close, except for Katsuki. There were massive trenches in the asphalt and holes in the buildings closest to them and Izuku looked like he was in more pain every second it continued. 

Katsuki found himself wishing that Aizawa would show up, or that Izuku would pass out. It hurt to see that much pain on his friend's face and the more rubble that was created the more dangerous the situation got. Katsuki had been forced to dodge a few pieces of concrete, but the flying pieces were getting larger, and he wouldn’t be able to dodge them forever. 

Suddenly a voice cut through the chaos, his voice. “Deku” Katsuki looked around but Izuku’s eyes shot open. “Can you hear me?”

“I always—” Izuku answered, looking right at Katsuki. Izuku was cut off as all the chaos suddenly stopped and his eyes went blank. The shadowy tendrils disappeared back into Izuku, who remained standing, unmoving. Katsuki fell to the ground from where he had been held up, a foot away from the concrete. It was silent for a moment as the three who were aware looked around to survey the damage.

“Should I release him?” Shinsou broke the silence.

Katsuki made eye contact with Shinsou and nodded, both of them preparing to move if it was necessary.

Katsuki could tell the moment Shinsou broke his control because Izuku immediately fell to his knees, breathing heavily. They all stood back for a moment, waiting to see if the tendrils would appear again. When nothing happened they all rushed over to him.

“Deku are you ok? What was that?” Uraraka pushed her way into Izuku’s space. Katsuki took a step back to not be in the way. To his surprise Izuku pushed Uraraka aside to instead look at Katsuki. As soon as Izuku saw Katuski he sighed and slumped forward.

‘It was something to do with One for All. I saw a previous holder just like my dream the other day.’

‘Wha—’ Katsuki had so many questions. But before he could ask them Izuku shook his head and pushed himself to his feet.

“—I’m ok, come on, we are in the middle of an exercise, we need to get moving.” 

Katsuki watched in concern as Izuku marched forward. After a few minutes the other two joined him. Katsuki debated going off alone again, but he wanted to be nearby in case anything like that happened again. Resigning himself to a miserable time working with Uraraka and Shinsou he followed too. 

Katsuki groaned in irritation. “So are we gonna come up with a fucking plan or are we just winging it?” Katsuki asked. 

Instead of being answered by one of his teammates a different voice rang out, a particularly obnoxious one. “Oh, Class A thinks they are so impressive that they don’t need to plan! How arrogant!” 

Monoma stalked out from behind a building. The four of them got in defensive stances as Shoda came out to join him. Monoma kept talking but Katsuki wasn’t paying attention anymore, he was instead focusing on the noises behind them. He heard soft footsteps and he felt something in the air change behind him. 

Going off instinct Katsuki ducked while grabbing his teammates and forcing them down with him. Just as they moved something flew over their heads. As he got up he looked around. The other two members of the other team had snuck up behind them and they had used their quirks to attack with giant cans, which were coming back at them. 

Katsuki braced himself to attack and then blasted himself into the air. He took aim at the cans and exploded them, one after another. He was careful with his aim, making sure that the shrapnel from the cans exploded away from his own team and toward the other team. As the other team ducked and dodged Katsuki turned towards his own team. 

“Let’s go!” 

Katsuki started to blast himself away hoping that his teammates would follow but before he could get away Uraraka quickly reached out, hitting Izuku and Shinsou and then grabbed onto Katsuki’s ankle. Katsuki blasted onto a roof pulling his entire weightless team with him. 

“We should have a couple minutes before any of them can get up here. We need to come up with a plan.” Shinsou started talking the second they all landed on their feet on the roof. 

Izuku looked deep in thought for a moment before he spoke, “Ok, this is what I am thinking…”

Izuku felt a lot better with his plan after Katsuki had made some changes to it. It still wasn’t perfect but it will probably work better than what he originally came up with.  After the whole situation with the new quirk, a quirk the previous holder called Blackwhip, appearing he found it hard to focus on the task at hand. When he had agreed to take on One for All he thought it would work like a strength quirk, just like it had for All Might. Finding that he got the strength aspect plus potentially six more quirks was hard to believe. He couldn’t wrap his head around it. 

It didn’t help that he was worried about losing control again. Blackwhip was painful and hard to control. He didn’t even activate his quirk consciously, it just reacted to how strongly he wanted Katsuki near him, and Uraraka away from him. Because of his worry about losing control his goal was to not use his quirk at all. It would be more difficult, but he couldn’t risk hurting anyone. 

The plan he came up with had them split up into pairs. Him and Shinsou together and Uraraka and Katsuki together. The only reason he chose those pairings was because he wanted to keep Shinsou near him. After getting more info on Blackwhip from its previous holder, he thought he might be able to control it, but just in case he wanted Shinsou near him to brainwash him out of it. 

That plan didn’t go very far though, Katsuki didn’t agree with it and he had a point. Shinsou had a great quirk, but it works best against opponents that don’t know what it is, and unfortunately everyone is aware of how it works. That leaves him fighting quirkless. He can hold his own, and so can Izuku, but two people fighting quirkless really lowers their odds. The better option was Katsuki and Izuku paired up and Uraraka and Shinsou together. 

Uraraka argued that she should pair up with Izuku, but they didn’t have time to discuss it further. They quickly hashed out the rest of their plan and then went on their way. They wanted to win this 4-0 so there wasn’t any time to waste. 

As Izuku and Katsuki got into position there was a weird tension surrounding them. It was the first time they were alone together since Izuku kept Katsuki from being expelled. There was a lot that Izuku wanted to say to Katsuki. He wanted to reassure him again that he wasn’t mad about how Katsuki treated him before UA, he wanted to yell at him for the past week, but mostly he just wanted to know why. But instead of saying any of those things, he remained silent, and so did Katsuki. Now was not the time nor place to worry about it. 

Instead they started putting their plan into motion. They were the last match and every round took place in the same setting, so they were familiar with the layout. There were two jails, each assigned to a specific team. Their team had been assigned to the jail that is in the industrial park. The other team’s jail was on a city block. 

Izuku’s and Katsuki’s role was to change the setting around their jail. They couldn’t completely move the jail out of the industrial park, away from the pipes and things, but they could move stuff around so that it wasn’t so predictable. This was another reason Izuku had originally teamed them up like he had. Katsuki could soften the metal in pipes with his quirk to reshape it or use his explosions to move stuff, and Uraraka could just take the gravity away from things to move it. Uraraka’s new role with Shinsou also worked with her quirk well, but quirkless, neither worked well for Izuku, or so he thought. 

Not wanting to stand around doing nothing, Izuku started trying to roll a large pipe that was about three feet in diameter, but he didn’t realize that it was attached to something. To his surprise the pipe didn’t start to roll, instead it bent. He stepped back to see what was going on and found that the pipe wasn’t free as he originally thought, but it also barely took any effort to bend. Curious, he took a deep breath, and then lifted the entire pipe. It looked heavy, but he was able to lift it pretty easily. 

He hadn’t really realized it now that he worked out in a gym instead of with everyday objects like he had on the beach, but he had gotten a lot stronger. Numbers on weights don’t mean much to him without something to compare it to. Apparently the weights he was using made these feel light as a feather. Excited with his new revelation he got busy moving things around, all while barely breaking a sweat. 

Occasionally Izuku would check in with Katsuki, who he found staring at him more than once. Izuku knew that they didn’t have time for him to question it, so he tried to just shrug it off. It made him a little angry that after a week of radio silence Katsuki was staring at him like that, but he couldn’t think about that now. He did notice that although he thought that Katsuki’s quirk would work well for this job, the other boy was not nearly as efficient as him, and he was struggling a bit to move stuff. Izuku knew that Katsuki would take it as an insult if he tried to help, so instead he focused on what he was doing. Soon enough they heard their cue to stop working and get ready for a fight. Luckily by then the area looked quite a bit different than it had when they started. 

In the distance there was yelling and rumbles that promised property damage, signs of a battle. Izuku was tempted to run in, but he knew that he couldn’t. Besides the fact that running in would ruin what they were trying to do, he also knew that running in without using his quirk wouldn’t work well. Class B is strong and Izuku is fairly well known for using his quirk when put in stressful situations, even if it is ill advised. 

Izuku thought about putting down the pipe he was holding, but he decided against it. If he wasn’t going to use his quirk then he should at least have a weapon. This steel pipe was a few feet long and six inches in diameter, so it worked well as a bat. It didn’t take long for the noises to reach them. Within a few moments the class B team made their way around the corner, chased there by a combination of Shinsou and Uraraka. The other team had been in the city, so Uraraka had found a wall that was as wide as the street they were running on and removed its gravity. With her chasing them forward Shinsou was able to use his voice changer to take control of Shoda. He then used Shoda’s voice to direct the rest of his team to run into this industrial site to get away from the wall. 

Izuku and Katsuki jumped into the fight as soon as class B got there. Izuku noticed that with the growing chaos Shinsou tried to direct Shoda into the jail, but a chunk of enlarged rubble controlled by Yanagi clipped him and broke the connection. 

The battlefield they were on quickly turned to chaos. With Kodai and Yanagi working together to use enlarged objects as weapons, and Uraraka making things weightless, there was debris flying everywhere. Monoma was also joining in on it, having copied both Kodai and Yanagi’s quirks. During all of that Shoda was using his quirk to make any hit his teammates got in had double the impact. 

To avoid all the rubble, Izuku was using his pipe as a bat, and apparently he was surprisingly good at baseball. He had mainly been swinging at small pieces of rubble, ones that wouldn’t do more than just bruise whoever he had hit, but he squared up to a large piece, one that could cause some damage, and took aim. The other team had grouped up so they could work together better and defend each other. Izuku knew that their best bet was to separate them, so he aimed right at them. His goal wasn’t to hit them, they were good enough heroes that they would move first, but he wanted to make sure that they would move in separate directions. 

With a loud crack the chunk of rubble hurtled toward the other team. Just like he wanted, they all dove in different directions to avoid the debris. Unfortunately the force of the hit broke his pipe so Izuku threw it aside as he took stock of the battle. 

As class B tried to regroup class A attacked. Shinsou took advantage of the confusion to catch Kodai. He got her to shrink the things she had enlarged back to their original size before trying to get her towards the jail.

Meanwhile Shoda ended up in a fight against Katsuki and Yanagi ended up fighting Uraraka. Izuku wasn’t worried about any of his teammates, they could more than hold their own. He was however worried about Monoma. After they all dove to avoid the debris Izuku had lost sight of him. He scanned the fights that were going on and caught a glimpse of dark fabric behind a large pipe. 

Cautiously, he moved towards the pipe but before he got there Monoma stepped out. Izuku was worried, he had no idea what quirks Monoma currently had. A bit ago he had his teammate’s quirks but they might have run out, and who knows who he could have touched on Izuku’s team. Almost as an answer to Izuku’s thoughts, Monoma stepped forward and grinned as his hands started popping. Izuku was quick to duck as Monoma set off an explosion right towards where Izuku’s face had been. 

Izuku held back a chuckle. Katsuki’s quirk could be devastating, that’s undeniable, but Izuku knows explosion. It was the first quirk he really analyzed, and he never stopped analyzing it. Sure Monoma probably wasn’t using it the same way Katsuki does, but the quirk is the same. Izuku had learned a long time ago how to listen to the small pops before an explosion and how to use those pops to predict how large the explosion is going to be. 

After Izuku dodged a few explosions Monoma seemed to get annoyed. He started going on and on about something, but Izuku didn’t listen, he was still focused on the pops coming from Monoma’s hands and the punches and kicks he was responding with. The rest of the battle faded to the background. He was back training with Katsuki a few weeks ago. He and Katsuki were the closest they had ever been and Izuku was able to relax in the burnt sugar smell. No one was bothering him with questions, and he had his best friend at his side, life was good. 

Izuku was brought back to reality when something smacked him, hard, in the back. He flew forwards into Monoma. Both of them slammed into a pole. It took a moment for them to detangle themselves from each other. As he stood up, Izuku felt some of the anger he had been feeling earlier flooding back into him. The contrast between where he thought he was and where he actually was reignited the anger from before. 

He glanced at his watch that had been counting down the time left in the exercise, and the anger grew. With less than a minute and a half left, only one person was in the jail. Shinsou had been successful in capturing Kodai, but he was struggling to help Uraraka, and Katsuki was still fighting. Honestly Izuku was shocked, Katsuki and Uraraka both excelled at fights like this, it made no sense that they were so unsuccessful. 

Izuku’s anger was close to boiling over, and he could almost feel the black tendrils of Blackwhip exploding out of him, but he held it in. As time was running out he knew that there wasn’t much chance of winning like they wanted to if nothing changed soon. He thought back to what the previous holder of Blackwhip had told him, and he made a decision. 

Focusing hard on his anger he called upon his quirk. It took a moment, but black tendrils exploded out of him again, this time though, they were more controlled. Scrunching his face in concentration Izuku willed the tendrils to grab onto his opponent, as well as the rest of the opposing team for good measure. He knew that he could grab people without hurting them from when he grabbed Katsuki earlier, but he wasn’t sure how long he could go without causing damage. So he willed the tendrils to move quickly towards the jail once he had the other team firmly in his grasp. It was a struggle but he forced himself to let go as soon as the other team was entirely in the cell. Katsuki was nearest so as Izuku was wrestling with his quirk to release the other team, he ran over to the cell. As soon as the tendrils were gone, Katsuki slammed the door shut. Izuku collapsed to his knees as the alarm rang. Time was up, the exercise was over. Somehow, they had won.

Izuku just wanted to talk to All Might about what had happened and then take a nap. Unfortunately first he needed to join the rest of the class to go over the fight. It was a slow walk back, Izuku was running low on energy, but his teammates refused to leave him behind. 

Uraraka talked his ear off, questioning everything that had happened while Shinsou helped hold him up as they walked. Katsuki stayed nearby as well. He trailed behind them silently. The team from class B walked nearby but they didn’t interact at all. They were quiet, probably mulling over their loss, and Izuku wished he could join them. He didn’t wish he had lost, if he had wanted to lose he wouldn’t have pulled his last move, but he yearned for quiet. Uraraka’s chatter was giving him a headache.

His headache only got worse when he joined the rest of the class. Everyone was freaking out and asking questions. He couldn’t even make sense of it all. Someone was saying something about his muscles, someone else was asking about Blackwhip, it was all just chaos. Luckily it was only for a short amount of time because Aizawa got everyone’s attention. 

However, Izuku’s relief was short-lived. As soon as Aizawa got everyone’s attention, he turned the class’s attention back to Izuku. “Midoriya, what was that?”

“Uhh…” Izuku wasn’t sure how to answer, so he decided to go with as close to the truth as possible. “I think it was a new aspect of my quirk. The first time I didn’t have much control over it, but Shinsou brainwashing me helped me figure out how to control it.” 

“You didn’t have control over it the first time you used it, so you decided to use it on the other team?” Aizawa deadpanned, looking done with his problem child. 

“We wanted to win?” Izuku shrugged sheepishly. 

“Ugh, problem child.” Aizawa shook his head as turned back to the whole class. Izuku felt a bit guilty, it was a reckless plan, but they won. 

Vlad King started the critique with his own class, “Monoma, Yanagi, Kodai, and Shoda, you had great teamwork but you need to pay more attention to your surroundings. You started out strong, but you allowed yourselves to fall right into their trap. Monoma don’t be so predictable. Anyone with eyes could see that Midoriya wasn’t really paying attention to your fight, he obviously knows how to avoid Bakugou’s quirk, if you had switched it up at all you could have had him—”

“—Hey Midoriya, how did you do that? You looked like you were on a different planet but you were able to predict his every move. It was so manly” Kirishima yelled out. 

Izuku hoped that Vlad King would ignore the interruption and move on, but it seemed that he too was curious to know the answer. Everyone’s eyes were on him again, including the teachers. “Oh… I uhh… got really used to hearing Kacchan’s quirk. I figured out that before every attack his hands pop with tiny explosions to prepare for it. If you listen closely, it sounds different depending on what attack he is going to use. Monoma’s attacks were a little different, but the popping was similar enough.” Izuku shrugged. 

He worried that Katsuki would be mad at him for revealing something like that to everyone. But when he looked over to the other boy, he found Katsuki just staring at his hands. Apparently, Katsuki hadn’t realized that he had a tell before.

“Hey man, I fight Bakugou all the time and I have never heard any pops before his explosions.” Kirishima looked at Izuku with confusion written all over his face.

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, it's really quiet. I only figured it out recently and I have been around Kacchan pretty much my whole life.”

“What the hell Deku? That’s how you suddenly improved fighting against me!” Katsuki finally looked away from his sparking hands to yell.

“Hey! You got better too!” Izuku defended. 

“Yeah, cause your quirk does the same damn thing. You can hear static sparking through whatever limb you send your quirk to.” Katsuki grumbled.

“Wait really?” Izuku had never thought about what his quirk sounded like to someone else, he was itching for his notebook to write it all down.

“That’s so manly, you both know each other’s quirks so well that you can hear the other use it!” Kirishima had a knowing sort of grin on his face. Izuku was confused about what that could possibly mean, but Katsuki seemed to understand, because he turned away from the conversation as soon as he saw Kirishima grin. 

Vlad King looked almost amused for a moment before going back to his critique. “Yanagi and Shoda, take advantage of when your opponents are distracted, don’t get distracted with them. Kodai be more aware of where your teammates are. Monoma wasn’t anywhere near enough to say something to you but you responded even knowing Shinsou’s quirk.” 

Vlad King sighed, “Overall, you did well. I’m not sure if there was anything you could have really done about Midoriya’s final move.” Class B looked pretty pleased. They had things to improve but overall their teacher thought they did well.

Izuku’s team were looking at Aizawa with dread. They knew that Aizawa was about to rip into them. 

“I honestly don’t even know where to begin. All of you at different points of the exercise stopped paying attention to what was going on around you. Midoriya even if you were just listening to Monoma using Bakugou’s quirk you can’t just zone out like that. You didn’t even notice the pipe flying at you until after it hit you. Bakugou and Uraraka, I’m not sure why you thought that Midoriya’s fight was so interesting but you should know better than to get distracted in the middle of a fight. Shinsou, you would have had Shoda at the beginning if you had stopped checking in on Midoriya.”

Izuku noticed that each of his teammates hung their heads in shame, and he would have as well, but he was confused why everyone on his team had been so distracted by him. From what it sounded like Shinsou kept checking to make sure that he was ok which was actually really thoughtful of him. But Uraraka and Katsuki were just watching him fight. He had no idea why they might have thought that to be interesting, both of them had seen him fight many times before. 

“Throughout the whole exercise you barely worked as a team. You did come up with a plan and follow it but it was like you were all fighting separately. None of you worked together after you managed to get the other team where you wanted them. Your plan seemed to rely on changing up the landscape of the area, which I can’t say with certainty did anything, but you also didn’t choose the best people to do it. Bakugou can explode things well and is fairly strong, but Uraraka could have moved things much easier. Also Midoriya you seemed surprised that you were strong enough to do anything even though you were moving those pipes like they were nothing. What was that about?”

“Oh…” Izuku shrunk under the questioning eyes of everyone there. “I really didn’t think I could do much at first. I knew that I am really strong when using my quirk, but I was hesitant after what had happened earlier. And I guess never really thought about the weight I use at the gym. It has always been just a number, not something real that I might have to move. I never thought about it, but I guess those pipes were less than 750kg.” Izuku shrugged. 

“750kg, no way!” Kaminari looked at Izuku like he was a god.

“That’s your PR! Dang dude, I need to work out with you.” Kirishima grinned at him.

“That’s not actually my PR.” Izuku said quietly.

“What!” Nearly everyone exclaimed at that.

“That's my rep weight, my PR is actually 1000kg I think. I don’t know, I don’t really care too much about maxing out, I’m just trying to get stronger.”

“If your quirk is so powerful why does it matter that you get stronger? Seems to me like you are just trying to show off.” Monoma’s voice rang out.

Izuku looked at Monoma like he had two heads. “My quirk literally destroys my bones every time I use it at 100 percent. Right now I only safely use about 20 percent. I have to get stronger so I can utilize my full power.” Izuku thought it would be obvious that to handle his quirk he needed to be stronger, after all everyone knew of his bone breaking habit. But apparently people hadn’t made that connection, because just about all of his classmates looked shocked at the new information. 

Aizawa looked like he wanted this class to end already. So far he didn’t seem impressed with the class, and especially not with Izuku. “How did any of you come to the conclusion that Midoriya and Bakugou would be the best options to move everything, why wasn’t Uraraka there?”

“That was Deku’s original idea, but Bakugou pointed out that leaving Shinsou and Deku to do the chasing might not have worked as well. Without Deku using his quirk he thought that they might be overpowered.” Uraraka spoke up.

“That… is actually not a bad reason to switch.” Aizawa dragged his hand down his face. “Whatever, congratulations, class A won the exercise. Class is dismissed. Midoriya, please stay behind to answer a couple more questions.” 

As the class filed out of the room Izuku got Katsuki’s attention with a click. 

‘Hey, stay behind, I think Aizawa should get the whole story, and you are a part of this too now.’ Katsuki didn’t respond but he did stay behind so Izuku took that as a success.

Izuku was going to ask All Might to stay as well, but the teacher seemed to have decided that on his own. Vlad King followed the students out and soon it was just Aizawa, All Might, Katsuki and Izuku left. 

“Bakugou I don’t recall asking you to stay behind.” Aizawa raised his eyebrow at the lingering boy.

“I asked him to—”

“He should be here as well—” All Might and Izuku spoke at the same time. Aizawa raised his eyebrow even higher.

“My boy, I think that it is about time that we tell Aizawa.” All Might turned to Izuku, ignoring the other teacher for a moment.

“I was thinking the same thing, he can probably help the most with this new development.” Izuku nodded before turning back to the confused hero.

“What is going on here?” Aizawa looked, completely lost, at the three other people.

“I told you a bit ago that I was quirkless for a long time right? Well I still technically am. Obviously I have a quirk now, but biologically I am quirkless.”

“What?” Aizawa looked even more lost. 

“I don’t ever tell anyone what my quirk is, but it’s called One for All. It’s a sacred torch to be passed down through generations. It was created by a stockpiling quirk combining with a quirk to pass down quirks. I got it from my master, and on the day of the entrance exam I passed it down to Young Midoriya.” All Might took up telling the story. 

“I’m sorry, back up. It was created by combining two quirks, one of which was a quirk to pass down quirks? What?” Aizawa looked at the former number one hero like he had grown a second head. 

All Might sighed. “At the dawn of quirks there were two brothers. One born with a powerful quirk, the quirk to steal other quirks—”

“All for One” Aizawa whispered under his breath. 

“— the other born quirkless. The quirkless brother was weak, but he spoke out against his brother’s greed. So All for One forced a stockpiling quirk on him. However the quirkless brother was never actually quirkless, he had a secret quirk, the ability to pass on his quirk. The two quirks merged to become the quirk that we now call One for All. The quirk has been passed down for generations with the sole purpose of defeating All for One. Unfortunately, All for One has killed every previous holder, until me. I passed on the quirk thinking All for One was dead.” All Might hung his head. “I was mistaken, but I used the last bit of One for All left in me to defeat him. Midoriya is now the current holder of the quirk, the ninth holder of One for All.”

Aizawa remained silent for a long time, looking between All Might and Izuku. After a while he noticed that Katsuki was still there. “Wait, what does Bakugou have to do with all of this.”

“He figured it all out after our fight at Ground Beta, that’s how we became friends again, we stopped keeping secrets from each other,” Izuku noticed that Katsuki flinched at the mention of secrets but he continued on, “he helps me train and joins in on my meetings with All Might. There are so few people that know it would be stupid to not take advantage of the extra insight. I wanted him here for this because I only found out about Blackwhip during that exercise, Kacchan and All Might don’t know about it yet either.”

“Blackwhip?” Aizawa and All Might asked.

“Yeah, it was the quirk of a previous holder.”

“What!” All Might looked at Izuku with wide eyes.

“I already told All Might about this but I should probably start at the beginning for the rest of you. Last week I had a dream where I saw the younger brother of All for One receive the stockpiling quirk to create One for All. I told All Might about it and apparently his master said something about how they will meet again in One for All, and I have seen the vestiges once before, when I fought Shinsou at the sports festival, but I didn’t really interact with them, they just sent One for All through my finger.” Izuku wasn’t sure he should add that last part but he figured being completely honest and thorough would be the most helpful. 

“I only ever saw the vestiges once, and I never had dreams about previous holders of the quirk. My master seemed to know a little about this, but I do not.” All Might added.

“Ok so that happened earlier this week, but what does that have to do with what happened today?” Izuku could tell Aizawa was losing patience with this long drawn out explanation. 

“At the beginning of the exercise I got really angry. There has been a lot going on this past week and it kinda boiled over. I wanted Kacchan to stop walking away, and Uraraka to go away so…” Izuku shrugged his shoulders, “Blackwhip made that happen. It kept Uraraka away from me and started pulling Kacchan closer. I had no idea how to control it or stop it or even what it was. I thought I was responding to Kacchan, but I guess it was Shinsou because he managed to brainwash me.” Izuku could see a slight proud smile on Aizawa’s face. It made him smile a bit as well.

“I’m not sure why, but when I’m under Shinsou’s brainwashing I can see the vestiges. This time I saw a bald man, he didn’t identify himself, but he told me about his quirk, Blackwhip, and about One for All in general. Apparently all six of the previous holders' quirk factors have been dormant inside One for All. As One for All has been strengthening, so have the other quirks in its core. Now that they are strong enough, I will be gaining access to them, starting with Blackwhip.”

“Wait, six quirks? Deku, I thought you were the ninth!” Katsuki said, focusing on the least confusing part of the whole thing.

“I am, the first holder's quirk was One for All and—” Izuku started.

“—and I was quirkless as well.” All Might spoke up.

Katsuki and Aizawa remained silent, still processing. After a moment, All Might took the opportunity to ask, “Did you find out anything about any more of the previous holders' quirks?”

“No, I only learned anything about Blackwhip. He said I was misusing it, and that I need to control my emotions when using it, especially anger. He also mentioned that it will be stronger than it was when he had it, and really that all the quirks will be stronger than when their previous holder had them.” 

Aizawa sighed, “So just to recap you didn’t suddenly manifest a quirk, you were given one that happens to also be ridiculously powerful and contains multiple quirks, majority of them we don’t know.” He looked tiredly between All Might and Izuku. 

“Yes, although we do know one other quirk.” Izuku confirmed.

“I know my master, Nana Shimera’s quirk. She called it Float. She was able to use it to fly above the ground.”

“So the problem child will fly, great.” Aizawa sounded like he either needed a nap or a drink, and no one could blame him. “Anything else? Any other revelations that will cause me to question everything I have ever known about quirks?” 

Everyone remained silent. Izuku felt a bit guilty that he dragged Aizawa into this, the teacher didn’t look at all happy to know all this new information, but he knew that in the long run Aizawa would want to know.

“No?” Aizawa looked around quickly, “Good, Keep it that way.” Aizawa sighed. “For now at least, keep it that way for now.” Aizawa looked between the three of them. “I need a couple days to process this. Are you all available to meet up again next Monday?”

As soon as they all confirmed that they were available and worked out a time, Aizawa left. After a moment All Might followed him out.

Izuku half expected Katsuki to follow them and keep ignoring him. For a moment it seemed like that was what was happening. Katsuki started walking out, but as he reached the door he turned back, “Are you coming or what?” 

Izuku wanted to be happy that apparently Katsuki wanted him to come along, but he was still so confused, and drained. Using Blackwhip had been physically and emotionally draining, and that conversation didn’t help. 

They walked in silence for a bit on the way back to the locker room. Finally Katsuki spoke up, “Sorry about this past week, I didn’t realize it would bother you so much.”

“Kacchan, why wouldn’t it bother me? You are my best friend but you just stopped talking to me with no explanation. I have no idea what I did wrong to make you hate me.” Thankfully Izuku didn’t notice that Katsuki flinched at the word friend. 

“What no, I don’t hate you, and you didn’t do anything fucking wrong either. I had some shit I had to work through.”

“Had some… Katsuki you know I don’t blame you for anything you said in middle school right. You can’t still blame yourself.”

“Yeah, I fucking know, you’ve told me enough, it was something else.” Kacchan spoke while looking at the ground.

Izuku looked at him carefully, searching for any trace of a lie. He couldn’t find one, but for some reason he still didn’t believe that Katsuki was telling the complete truth. He knew better than to question his friend anymore though, so he dropped it.

“Well, did you work through whatever you needed to, or can I expect the silent treatment to continue?” Izuku tried to make it sound like a joke, but he didn’t have the energy to sell it. 

Katsuki sighed. “Silent treatment is over nerd, you won’t be able to get rid of me.” Katsuki nudged Izuku’s shoulder lightly. 

At that Izuku finally let out a small chuckle. After spending a week mainly alone, having a friend back felt amazing. “I wouldn’t want to get rid of you Kacchan.”

“Good, you might want to tell Eye Bags then that I am reclaiming the role of best friend.”

“What do you mean reclaiming? You never lost that title. And why would I tell Shinsou that?” Izuku was confused, what did Shinsou have to do with their friendship?

“I heard from Pikachu that apparently Eye Bags has been spending a ton of time with you this past week.” Katsuki looked confused now too.

“What… Oh! He has been spending time with his family. He can’t exactly advertise that so I was probably just a cover.” Izuku laughed. Shinsou had talked about telling Kaminari about his family, but he has no idea if he ever actually told him. Either way though, Shinsou didn’t want it to get out to the rest of the class. Either Shinsou or Kaminari made up that excuse, and it wasn’t a bad one to be honest. No one could really verify who Izuku was spending time with because he wasn’t spending time with anyone. 

“Who have you been hanging out with the past week? I would think Pink Cheeks but you seemed pretty annoyed with her questions earlier.” Katsuki looked interested in his answer.

“No one really. Iida and Todoroki are alright, but they are busy a lot of the time, and they don’t like studying with people. I’ve been avoiding Uraraka and by association, Tsu. Back when Uraraka thought she knew all my secrets she was fine, but now that there are things that I won’t tell her she won’t leave me alone. She is either talking bad about you or asking questions. I just want her to stop.” Izuku started getting annoyed again thinking about it. As he walked he could feel his quirk boiling under his skin. Abruptly, he stopped walking to take a few deep breaths. Releasing Blackwhip now wouldn’t do any good. He had no idea what exactly Blackwhip would do without the object of his anger nearby, but he really didn’t want to find out.

“Hey, Deku, are you ok?” Katsuki suddenly appeared in front of Izuku. 

“Yeah, I’m just so… so fucking mad. I thought of Uraraka as a good friend, but she hasn’t been acting like one recently.” Izuku paused as the realization hit him. “Actually, no one has been acting like my friend recently.” Izuku groaned, “Ugh, I thought that here at UA would be different. I thought I would have friends here. But this past week the only person that wants to spend any time with me just wants to question me.” Izuku was practically yelling at this point but he didn’t care anymore. “Am I not allowed to have secrets? Is that it? I mean, you keep secrets from me, but the only reason that you agreed to be friends again is because I revealed all my secrets. I’m sure Uraraka has secrets, but she won’t stop questioning me about my secrets.” Izuku took a deep breath and tried to speak calmly, “So yeah, I’m pissed.”

Izuku pushed past Katsuki and walked away. He had wanted to be around Katsuki all week, but now that he actually had the chance to spend time with him, he was too angry. He thought that it would all be fine, that he could have a fun normal time with his best friend, but he can’t, not now. He knew that his anger was definitely influenced by his exhaustion, but it wasn’t unwarranted, and from Katsuki’s lack of reaction, it was obvious that Katsuki thought it was so as well.

Izuku struggled for the rest of the week. He was still avoiding Uraraka, especially because after the new quirk showed up she had even more questions. However, instead of Katsuki ignoring him, he was now ignoring Katsuki. The revelation he had during his outburst had yet to leave his mind. The double standard bothered him. Luckily though, Eri begged to spend time with him. Because he knew about their whole family situation, he would head over in the afternoons with Shinsou.

Over the weekend he was invited to join the family on an excursion to a park. UA doesn’t have any play structures for Eri to climb on, so they would take her to a park whenever possible. Izuku had never been invited to join them, but Eri begged for it, and he was more than happy to get out of the dorm. From what he understood the whole family usually went. The only one who might occasionally not show was Shinsou, and that was only if he had some school work that had to be done during that time. But, to his surprise, for this outing, Aizawa didn’t show. Shinsou also pointed out that it was strange, but the only reason that they were given was that Aizawa had something else he needed to work on.

Izuku felt guilty. He had no way of knowing what was keeping Aizawa from his family outing, but Izuku had just dumped more for him to worry about just a few days before. He wasn’t regretting his decision to tell Aizawa, in fact he probably should have told him sooner, but Aizawa is a very busy hero, and something like this could only make him busier. Aizawa could just ignore the new information and go into the meeting Monday to observe or ask more questions. But if Izuku had learned anything about his teacher over the past months, it was that Aizawa secretly does care for his students, and he will do anything in his power to see them succeed. 

As the group left campus Izuku could feel a weight being lifted from his shoulders. For the first time in weeks he knew that no one around him would question him incessantly. Sure, Shinsou was probably curious, but the other boy understood boundaries. Unlike every other friendship that Izuku had ever had, Shinsou didn’t hold Izuku to higher standards. He didn’t expect to know everything about him, and it was so refreshing.

Present Mic wasn’t likely to ask him questions either. He would probably ask Aizawa first, and Aizawa knew that anything regarding his quirk was confidential. Also, Present Mic understood boundaries, and Izuku had made it blatantly obvious that he didn’t want to answer questions. The whole reason he was annoyed by the questions in the first place was because people knew he didn’t want them to ask but they did anyway.

The only exception to this was Eri. Honestly, Izuku would be really happy if she asked him anything. They had been working with her a lot to feel more comfortable asking questions, apparently that was something that she couldn’t do much before she was rescued. In addition to the fact that she wasn’t too keen on asking questions, she also didn’t know too much about what was happening with Izuku. As far as she was aware, he was just Deku, the hero who saved her and he got along great with all of his classmates. 

Izuku had been expecting them to go to the closest park, but to his surprise they drove into a small neighborhood a while away. There was a really nice park there, but surprisingly for a Saturday, it was completely empty. Before Izuku could ask about it Shinsou was already answering.

“We go to a different park every time. Always one in a quiet neighborhood. Extra precautions because of everything.” Shinsou shrugged.

“Oh, right.” Izuku felt a little foolish that he hadn’t thought about it. In retrospect it was so obvious that they couldn’t go to the same busy park every weekend. After everything that Eri had gone through, a busy park could be a nightmare. There is also the chance that someone would recognize Present Mic and cause all kinds of problems. It wasn’t likely, Present Mic wasn’t dressed as his hero persona, but he had a bad habit of calling everyone listeners, in and out of his hero costume.

Almost as soon as they got out of the car, Eri ran to the playground, dragging Izuku along with her. The playground was designed to look like a pirate ship, so it was a no-brainer that Eri dragged all of them into playing pirates. 

Everything was going well for a while, the four of them divided into two separate crews and they battled it out for control of the ‘ship’. There was a lot of swapping out who was on a team with who but at some point Shinsou was forcing Izuku to walk the plank while Eri watched nearby and Present Mic had walked away for a phone call.

“Walk the plank and no one will get hurt!” Shinsou was laughing as he spoke but Eri froze. Suddenly she ran forward crying.

“No! Don’t hurt them!” Her horn, which had been growing ever since the raid, started glowing as she leaped forward into Izuku. He barely caught her as they both fell off the play structure. As he hit the ground he noticed the glowing and realized that he no longer had some of the scratches he had gained earlier in the week. Thinking quickly he activated his quirk to 100 percent. It was painful, but he knew from the raid that if he continuously broke his body he wouldn’t be rewound back to nothing. 

“Shinsou, try to brainwash her!” Izuku called out to his friend, with Aizawa not there and Eri still not knowing how to stop her quirk herself they didn’t have any other option for stopping her. 

Shinsou had been standing on the playground in shock, staring at the glows emanating from his friend and his sister. After Izuku called out to him he jumped into action. “Eri! Can you answer me? Can you hear me?” Shinsou kept asking anything he could think of, but nothing could reach her. She kept her face firmly in Izuku’s chest, leaving a wet spot from her tears.

“Eri can you hear me?” Izuku tried to get her to pull away from him a bit, but she didn’t seem to hear him. He could have pulled her away and set her down, making it so that he wouldn’t be in any danger, but that wouldn’t help her at all. It actually had a pretty high chance of traumatizing her more. 

Izuku turned to Present Mic, who had run over as soon as the commotion started but had yet to find anything that he could do to help. “Where is Aizawa? I need to get her to him!” 

Mic looked over the situation for a moment before nodding. Eri was still pressing her face into Izuku’s shirt seemingly completely unaware of what was happening. Shinsou was still talking, asking Eri anything that came to his mind. There were tears in his eyes but Izuku had no idea if it was from the situation, or the migraine he surely had from attempting to use his quirk so many times. “He’s at Aldera Middle School.”

“Wha—” Izuku shook his head pushing all the questions he wanted to ask aside, “At my full power I can get there in a few minutes, let him know we are on the way.” As Present Mic went to his phone, Izuku pushed off the ground and shot into the air, leaving a small crater where he was standing.

“Try not to cause too much property damage!” Mic yelled after him. Izuku didn’t bother to respond, he was already too far away. 

Izuku fumbled a little bit while jumping across the city. He knew that All Might could cross huge distances in one leap, but that had never been something he could do at the percentages that he was comfortable with. At 100 percent he could jump clear across the city in one leap, even further than All Might could. That meant that he overshot where he wanted to go by a lot. It took a couple tries to get where he wanted to, but he managed to get to Aldera Middle School right as Aizawa ran out the front doors, holding his phone to his ear as the principal and a few teachers ran behind him. 

As soon as Izuku landed he felt his quirk die out, and Eri’s. He stumbled to the wall and slid down it as he pulled a sleeping Eri closer into his chest. Aizawa ran over to join them. 

“Are you both ok?” Aizawa asked frantically as he squatted in front of Izuku.

“She’s asleep.” Izuku groaned. “And other than feeling like every bone in my body is shattered, I’m ok. I think she rewound all the actual damage, all that’s left is some of the pain.”

“What happened? All Hizashi said was that there was an incident that triggered her quirk.”

Izuku sighed, “I think it was something Shinsou said. We were playing pirates and he told me to walk the plank and no one would get hurt. Eri yelled ‘No! Don’t hurt them!’ and then she ran at me with her quirk activated. After that she was completely unresponsive, just crying into my shirt.” Izuku looked down at her, only to realize that what was his shirt was now just strips of fabric. Apparently his shirt was not strong enough to hold up against 100 percent One for All. Luckily, his shorts proved to be stronger than his shirt. They were ripped and tattered, but they were still on. 

As Izuku was realizing the state of his clothes, the faculty of Aldera that had come running out with Aizawa made their way over. 

“That looks to be a promising hero you got there… Wait, Midoriya?” The principal started talking before he made it all the way to them, but he paused when he saw who the student was, obviously shocked. 

“Yes, as I was telling you before, he is one of my most promising students. I will be back but please excuse me. I have a more pressing matter to attend to.” Aizawa looked at the principal with steel in his eyes. As the faculty backed up, Aizawa helped Izuku up off the ground and towards his car. 

“Oh, I can walk on my own, but can you take Eri? I am really sore.” Izuku tried to shrug off Aizawa’s help.

“I need my arms free to drive. I trust you with her.” Aizawa continued to help hold Izuku up. As they reached the car the teacher helped his student into the front seat, not bothering to separate Eri from him. He knew from experience that Eri wasn’t likely to let go, even in her sleep.

As they started to drive it was silent for a while. However, Izuku had to ask. “If you don’t mind me asking, why were you at Aldera? I can’t think of any reason that you would need to go there.”

“Midoriya, the way they treated you and Bakugou was unacceptable. I was there to talk to them about what happened on camera and get more of an idea of what might have happened away from cameras. Unfortunately now they know I am looking so they have time to come up with excuses.”

“Oh,” Izuku looked down at Eri, “Sorry to interrupt—”

Aizawa glanced over at Izuku, “Midoriya, when I adopted Eri I took on the responsibility of keeping her safe. You bounced around the city, hurting yourself, to help me do that” They reached a stop light and Aizawa turned to face Izuku for a moment while they waited for the green. “If you hadn’t already known that using your quirk at 100 percent would counteract her quirk, I would be reprimanding you for doing something so reckless. But,” Aizawa sighed,  “instead I’m thanking you. I don’t know many full-fledged pro heroes that would go through that pain to protect a child whose quirk was out of control, even if it was a child that they were close to, but you didn’t hesitate. Part of my job is to make sure you understand that you can’t save anyone if you’re dead. But another part of my job is teaching you that being a hero sometimes means taking on pain and injuries to protect others. I have never needed to teach you that lesson, but don’t apologize for being a hero to Eri.” Aizawa turned back to the road to continue driving. “Besides, I was going to get bad excuses anyway, this is just giving them more time to dig their own graves.”

It was silent most of the rest of the way back to campus. Izuku didn’t know what to say to that. First, Aizawa had called him one of his most promising students to the faculty at Aldera and now he was thanking him for being a hero to Eri. It was so unexpected and unlike him, but it also was exactly what he needed to hear. He also had no idea what to think about the fact that Aizawa was actually going after Aldera for how they had treated him and Katsuki. He always knew that it was wrong but he never thought that anyone would care enough to stop them. After all, no one ever had before. 

As they reached campus Izuku had no idea if he was going to his teachers apartment with Eri or if he was going back to his own dorm but he didn’t really care. Breaking every bone in his body just to be rewound to break all his bones over again didn’t leave any physical injuries, technically he was completely fine. But the memory of the pain stayed with him, and drained him. He was exhausted and he just wanted to lie down. Ideally he would be able to lie down in his bed, or on the couch in the living room of his teachers apartment. That couch was easily the most comfortable couch Izuku had ever sat on, it was more comfortable than most beds. 

Aizawa parked and helped Izuku out of the car. “Are you ok with holding Eri until she wakes up? She tends to cling in her sleep and I’m worried that she might panic if you aren’t there when she wakes up.”

“Oh, yeah that’s fine, I can’t promise that I will stay awake though.” Izuku tiredly laughed.

Aizawa chuckled. “No one expects you to.” 

It was a slow walk from the car to the apartment. Izuku’s feet were like lead and although he normally would barely feel her weight, Eri was dragging him down. Aizawa had to help him shuffle along. He wanted to pass off the dead weight in his arms, but when he tried to pull Eri away, even a small amount, she refused to budge. 

Walking into the apartment, Present Mic and Shinsou rushed over to them but Izuku barely stopped long enough to pull off his shoes. He knew it was impolite, but he was exhausted. Faintly he heard Present Mic and Shinsou asking questions and talking with Aizawa, but Izuku stumbled as fast as he could in his state to the couch. He plopped down, readjusted Eri in his arms to be more comfortable and quickly fell asleep. 

Izuku woke up to movement on his chest. As he was regaining consciousness he noticed that he could feel a breeze on his chest. At the realization that he was shirtless, he remembered everything that had happened before he fell asleep. He opened his eyes to see Eri starting to wake up on his chest. Looking around the room he noticed Aizawa and Present Mic sitting nearby watching tv. 

He cleared his throat to get their attention as Eri opened her eyes. Both teachers turned to him immediately. Before anyone could get a word out Eri started apologizing. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, I just didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”

“Hey, hey, it’s ok.” Pulled her closer and tried to console her. 

“Eri, no one blames you.” Present Mic spoke up. At his voice Eri pulled away from Izuku to reach towards Present Mic. Izuku was more than happy to pass her over. He really did enjoy spending time with her and he would console her, but the nap was not enough for him to fully recover. Present Mic was much more qualified to help her anyway. 

As Present Mic walked away with Eri, Aizawa tossed Izuku a shirt and moved to sit next to him on the couch. Izuku quickly put on the shirt, uncomfortable that he had been shirtless for so long. It was a bit tight, he recognized it as Shinsou’s shirt, and Izuku is a bit bulkier than the other boy. Even with it being tight though, it was still better than nothing. “Thanks” Izuku turned to his teacher.

Aizawa nodded in recognition. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m still pretty tired, but otherwise I’m alright. Is Shinsou ok? He was trying to use his quirk for a long time.”

“I’m ok.” Izuku jumped at the voice coming from behind him. He turned around quickly to see his friend coming out of his room, his hair messed up like he had been sleeping. “I had a migraine so after you got back I took a nap too. My head still hurts a bit, but meds and a nap helped a lot.”

As Shinsou rounded the couch to get around to where Izuku and Aizawa were seated he failed to hold back his laughter. “Maybe you should have tried someone else’s shirt. Mine looks a bit small on you.”

“Yeah, it's a bit tight.” Izuku looked down at his shirt and grimaced. “But it is better than nothing.” He shrugged.

“True” Shinsou snorted. 

Aizawa cleared his throat. “It’s going to get dark soon. Do both of you want to stay the night here or would you like to head back to your dorm? Either way we were going to order some food, but if you want to go back to the dorm then we should get food a bit sooner.”

“Oh, I have plans for tomorrow morning with Kaminari, I should probably go back to the dorm.” Shinsou spoke up. He had a room here and at the dorm but he usually tended to stay at the dorm, it was partially so he would get less questions, but mostly because he liked to be around his classmates. 

“I should probably head back to the dorm too. I should really find a shirt that fits me.” Izuku grinned and Shinsou laughed along with him. Aizawa just rolled his eyes at their antics and then walked away, probably to order food. 

Shinsou took the seat where Aizawa was sitting and turned to Izuku. “Hey, uh, thank you for what you did for Eri earlier. I uh…” Shinsou sighed. “I froze. I’m trying to be a hero and I froze. And then I couldn’t even get her to respond to me. I didn’t do anything, I couldn’t do anything. I—”

“—Hey,” Izuku cut him off. “I just did what I could. Besides, I froze the first time I was faced with a villain too. Granted I was the one being attacked. But the time after that I only moved because I made eye contact with Kacchan.—”

“—Wait, you had been in a villain attack before the USJ? Twice?”

“Oh uh yeah, did you see the incident about the sludge villain from almost a year ago?”

“Yeah, I saw some news articles about it, you were involved in that?” Shinsou looked confused.

Izuku sighed. “I was attacked by the sludge villain earlier that day. When I saw that the sludge villain was attacking another person I froze and all I could think about was that I was the reason that the villain was able to attack anyone. But then I made eye contact with Kacchan and I just ran in without a thought.” 

“Wait, I thought the news said that a quirkless kid ran in?” Shinsou looked even more confused.

Izuku froze, he hadn’t paid much attention to what the news had said about the whole incident, there was nothing he could learn about the whole situation, but he really should have known that they would mention his quirklessness. “Uh… yeah… I uh… didn’t have a quirk until the entrance exam.” Izuku knew that Shinsou would want to ask more questions but he wouldn’t. He could stop there and Shinsou would be fine with that. It was really refreshing to know that he didn’t have to explain himself, but he thought that Shinsou should get some sort of explanation, even if it wasn’t entirely truthful. “I guess I wasn’t strong enough to not blow my limbs off, so instead I just couldn’t activate my quirk until then. I don’t know exactly how or why it all worked like that, but the first time I used my quirk was punching a giant robot.” 

Shinsou stared at Izuku with wide eyes. “You… what? You mean… what?” Shinsou sunk back into the couch, staring at Izuku like he had never seen him before. 

Izuku sighed, “Yeah, I grew up quirkless.”

“Wait, so you probably had a pretty bad time in school then…” Shinsou shot out of his seat. “Wait, did Bakugou bully you? If he did—” 

“—he didn’t… or well… he didn’t want to.” Izuku was internally cursing himself, he and Katsuki had agreed to not tell anyone about middle school, but if he didn’t tell Shinsou, he would, like the teachers, assume that Katsuki was bullying him. 

“What does that mean?” Shinsou sat back down but remained turned to face Izuku. 

Izuku sighed again. “He did bully me, but only after I asked him to. Aldera was a mess, they treated him like he was already a hero and treated me like I was less than nothing. If he tried to protect me they were worse to me, if he bullied me and claimed me as his personal punching bag, no one else paid much attention to me. It is backwards and all kinds of messed up, but it kept me safe.”

“Do the teachers know about this? Have you told my dads how bad Aldera was? I’m sure that they will take down your school like they did mine.”

“Yeah, they watched some old tapes and tried to expel Kacchan. I told them the whole story. That’s apparently why Aizawa was at Aldera today. They took down your old school?”

“Oh uh yeah, no one really likes a villainous quirk so school was pretty bad for me. When I got adopted, they took the place down and moved me somewhere better.” Izuku wasn’t surprised that they would go that far to help Shinsou, after all they had adopted him, but it was still surprising to Izuku that they would do the same for him. 

“I’m sorry, that was probably really tough. You do know though that your quirk isn’t villainous right? It is so cool and so useful for being a hero!” Izuku grinned at him.

“So you’ve mentioned.” Shinsou deadpanned before breaking out into a grin. Izuku had mentioned it before, many times, it was actually the basis of how they started their friendship. 

Just then Aizawa walked back into the room with food, followed by Present Mic and Eri, stopping the conversation. They sat down and ate before Present Mic rushed the two boys out the door. It was getting late, and they weren’t supposed to be wandering the grounds in the dark.

Almost as soon as they started walking Shinsou started talking. “So Bakugou has been protecting you for years huh?” He nudged Izuku as he chuckled.

“Yeah…” Izuku looked at Shinsou, confused about why he was being asked that in such a teasing way.

“So he was like your knight in shining armor huh?” Shinsou nudged him again.

“Wha-what? No!” Izuku’s face burned. “It’s not like that, he was just being a good friend.” Izuku caught on to what Shinsou was hinting at.

“Oh really? That’s why he has been so moody recently huh? And that’s why he couldn’t stop staring at you during the joint exercise? When we watched the whole thing during class he couldn’t keep his eyes off you, and you couldn’t keep your eyes off of him. Now are you seriously telling me that there is nothing else going on there?”

“Uh… um… uh…” Izuku had no idea how to respond.

“Hey, I’m not gonna pry, but if you want to talk about it to someone I’ve always got an open ear.” Shinsou gave him a small smile and nudged him one last time as they reached the dorm.

“Thanks” Izuku returned the small smile with a nod before opening the door to get into the dorm. 

Izuku regretted the decision to stay the night at the dorm as soon as he walked in. Pretty much the whole class was seated on the couches, watching the tv which was playing the news. That was pretty normal, but it was just his luck that the news was covering a story from earlier today. He watched as he appeared on the screen, glowing bright green as he was jumping through the city using 100 percent of his quirk. Eri was pressed against his chest, which was steadily becoming more visible as his shirt ripped. 

Everyone stared at Shinsou and him as they walked into the room. Izuku almost made a run for it, but he knew it would be cruel to leave Shinsou alone for the interrogation. As the whole class stared at them Izuku caught a glimpse of Katsuki. Izuku remembered Shinsou’s words from only moments before as he noticed Katsuki staring at his chest. It was a quick reminder that he was still wearing Shinsou’s much too tight shirt. 

Izuku refocused as the questions started.

“Is Eri ok? Is she hurt?” Kirishima was the first to ask and he was almost frantic.

“Eri’s fine. I brought her to Aizawa and he was able to stop her quirk.” Izuku answered, which seemed to open the gate to more questions.

“What was going on?”

“Why was she glowing?”

“Why were you glowing so bright?”

“Have you always been able to jump so far?”

“Where were you guys?”

“Why is Shinsou with you?”

The questions were endless. A few of them confused Izuku at first, but once he remembered that the majority of the class didn’t know what happened with Overhaul. All they knew was that they rescued Eri and Eri was adopted by their homeroom teacher. They didn’t know her quirk or how the fight played out. So they were just as confused as the news anchor, who after expressing their confusion, had continued on to talk about the weather. 

He wasn’t sure how he should answer the questions, there was so much information there that he wasn’t sure whether he was allowed to share or not, but thankfully Shinsou decided to answer instead.

“I was there because Eri is my sister. I was adopted by Aizawa a few years back. We were at the park with Present Mic when Eri’s quirk started acting up. Midoriya had to get her to Aizawa because she doesn't know how to stop her quirk on her own yet and she wasn’t responding to me. To do that without being injured by Eri’s quirk he had to use his quirk at full power. We can’t tell you any more than that so please don’t ask.” Izuku felt a rush of gratitude for Shinsou. He would have never been able to answer the questions as succinctly as Shinsou had. He braced himself for more questions, after all the class wasn’t known for leaving things, but to his surprise only Uraraka seemed to want to push, but even she was silent as Izuku and Shinsou walked away. 

As soon as Izuku reached his room he started to change his shirt, but before he could put a new shirt on, there was a knock on his door. He groaned in annoyance, he just wanted to collapse into bed, maybe watch a movie or something. He definitely didn’t want to socialize, but he couldn’t be impolite, so even though he didn’t want to, he opened the door.

“Kacchan?”

Katsuki stood in the doorway unmoving. He seemed to be staring at something on Izuku’s chest, but Izuku didn’t have the energy to figure out what. Instead he just repeated himself louder. “Kacchan!”

That seemed to work to get the other boy's attention, but instead of answering, Katsuki just pushed past him into the room and sat down on his bed. Izuku groaned and shut the door behind him. “What?”

Katsuki looked taken back, “Damn, I know you’re still mad at me but I have never heard you so done with me.”

Izuku sighed and slumped onto the bed next to Katsuki. “No… I’m just… I’m just so tired. It’s been a long day.” Izuku fell back. 

“Right, I should go. We can talk about this later.” Katsuki looked away quickly when Izuku looked in his direction.

“Talk about what?”

“The fucking fact that you used your quirk at 100 today without breaking a single bone.” Katsuku looked up at the ceiling in exasperation. 

“Huh? I broke a ton of bones today, all of them actually.”

“What! How are you okay right now then!” Katsuki finally looked back at Izuku, only to turn away immediately to stare at the ceiling again once he saw that Izuku was looking at him.

Izuku sighed. “Eri’s quirk. It’s Rewind. My options were either to be rewound back to nothing, or continuously give her something to rewind, in other words, shatter every bone in my body repeatedly, it’s what I did in the fight against Overhaul.” 

“What the fuck!” Katsuki looked at Izuku in shock. “You shattered every bone in your fucking body! Repeatedly!”

“Yes, which is why I just want to relax in my bed.” Izuku could feel Katsuki’s eyes on him as he was laying there, staring at the ceiling. 

Katsuki suddenly cleared his throat and asked, “Are you planning on actually going to sleep, or are you just gonna watch a movie or something?”

“Probably watch a movie, I took a nap this afternoon so I will be up way too early if I go to sleep now.”

“Umm,” Katsuki seemed hesitant. “Did you want company? I know you are still probably pissed at me, and you have every right to be, but I really fucking miss spending time with you.”

Izuku sat up on his elbows to look at Katsuki, who after a moment of silence sighed and started to get up. “I’m not mad at you anymore.” Izuku started quietly. “I just don’t know how to continue being friends knowing that there is a double standard.”

Katsuki looked at Izuku and sighed. “If it makes any difference I don’t mind you keeping secrets. That was never why I was mad at you anyway. I was a jackass because I thought you lied to me. No one gets a quirk that late. So I figured that you had it before and had just lied to me for years. If I had just taken my head out of my ass and thought for one damn second I would have realised how stupid that was, but no, I was a damn idiot. I have never expected you to tell me everything, but I guess it might seem like I have.”

Izuku just looked at his friend for a long time thinking over what he had said. As he thought about it he realized that his quirk was the only thing Katsuki had ever really pushed to know. Other than that, Izuku had always told Katsuki everything all on his own, even to the point of annoying the other boy. Realizing that maybe Katsuki hadn’t been as bad as he thought, he sighed and flopped back onto the bed. “What movie should we watch?”   

“I don’t know, but maybe you should put a fucking shirt on first. Or are you planning on being like Shitty Hair, perpetually shirtless? The fucking extras might enjoy that.” Katsuki grumbled.

Izuku felt his face burn. He had forgotten that he was in the middle of changing when Katsuki had walked in. Luckily he hadn’t been changing his pants. He shot up from the bed faster than he thought possible in his exhausted state to put on a shirt. As he pulled a shirt over his head something that Shinsou had said popped into his head, and he turned crimson. Shinsou had mentioned that Katsuki didn’t take his eyes off of Izuku when they watched the video of the joint training. Izuku thought back to their conversation just now and realized that Katsuki kept looking away from him whenever Izuku caught him staring. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but maybe Shinsou had been onto something.

Monday evening proved that Izuku was right to include Aizawa in on the secret. In fact, it became obvious that he should have told him sooner. In just a couple hours not only was Izuku able to get a better handle on his quirk, he was also mostly uninjured because of Aizawa’s intervention. Every time that Izuku’s quirk proved to be more powerful than he could handle, Aizawa canceled it before he got hurt. The only injuries he ended up with were bruises from accidentally hitting walls. 

Aizawa also had a much better understanding of how quirks work in comparison to All Might. Because his quirk takes away other quirks, he had looked deeper into how quirks worked than most people did, so his insight was invaluable. He managed to help Izuku get to a point where he was able to access Blackwhip reliably, and control it pretty well. At the end of their training session they planned to meet again on Wednesday, and Izuku couldn’t wait. Mostly because of how much his quirk was improving, but also partially because of how nice it was to be entirely focused on his quirk, so focused, that he was able to ignore the thoughts that had been plaguing him since he walked back to the dorms with Shinsou.

After that conversation, and that night watching movies with Katsuki, Izuku started noticing that Katsuki was looking at him a lot, more than what could be considered normal. The more he realized it, the happier it made him. He wasn’t sure exactly why Katsuki stared at him so much, but Izuku had been watching Katsuki their whole lives, it was nice to know that the other boy was finally watching back. He hoped that Katsuki was looking at him for the same reason that Izuku looked at Katsuki, but he couldn’t know for sure. 

For as long as he could remember Izuku had been paying attention to Katsuki. At first it was just admiration. Katsuki is so cool and he is bound to be an incredible hero and Izuku wanted to be there to witness every step of it. But as they got older it morphed into something else. For a long time Izuku couldn’t put his finger on what was different about how he felt about Katsuki, but after seeing him almost die to the sludge villain he realized it. Katsuki had always been his best friend, but these new feelings were because he wanted him to be more than his friend. 

At the time he thought that it was impossible for Katsuki to ever feel the same way, he was lucky that Katsuki even thought of him as a friend, so he pushed the feelings down. With this new development though he was getting hopeful. His feelings were bubbling up again and he didn’t know how to handle it. He was getting distracted all the time, the only time that he was focused on anything else was when he was focused on his quirk. 

This became a huge problem for him during classes, especially heroics. Being distracted left him vulnerable often, which would lead to him being hurt. He almost always had bruises, and had broken a few bones. It didn’t take long for Katsuki to talk to him about it. 

After a particularly rough training session where Izuku had gotten a black eye from failing to block Katsuki’s signature punch, Katsuki dragged him out on a walk around campus. As soon as they were alone, Katsuki started questioning him.

“What is going on with you?”

“What are you talking about? I’m fine.”

“Deku, you have blocked that punch constantly since we were seven, you could dodge it in your sleep. Something is going on.” Katsuki deadpanned.

“Uhh…” Izuku struggled with what to say, he couldn’t exactly say that he was too distracted by a drop of sweat that was making its way down Katsuki’s neck towards his collarbone to dodge.  “I uh… I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

“Like what? You know you can talk to me right?” Katsuki nudged Izuku softly as they walked. 

“Yeah… I know… It’s just… I don’t really want to talk about it.” Izuku fought to hide his reddening face from Katsuki and sped up a bit.

“Ok, I’m not gonna push. You can have fucking secrets or whatever, but please,” Katsuki grabbed his arm, forcing Izuku to face him. “Stop getting yourself hurt.”

“Ok, yeah” Izuku turned back around to continue walking as soon as Katsuki let go of his arm. “I’ll try.” Izuku practically ran away from Katsuki to hide his blush, he didn’t notice how upset Katsuki was by it.

After that conversation Izuku worked really hard to keep himself from being distracted. With a lot of work, daydreaming about Katsuki went from being something that took up all his time, to a part of his routine. It also helped that he caught Katsuki staring at him a bit less. Thoughts about Katsuki were always in the back of his mind, but slowly he was able to focus on other things, like mending his friendships with others in the class. 

By the time that Aizawa announced that they would be doing week-long work studies with heroes, Izuku had gotten his feelings more under control and his friendships had been repaired. Or at least, he had figured out how to make it seem like his feelings were in control, and he was no longer avoiding anyone.

He thought about talking to Katsuki about it a few times, but ultimately decided against it. He still wasn’t completely sure that Katsuki thought of him as more than a friend, and he didn’t want to ruin what they had now. No matter what he was sure that they would remain friends, but if his feelings were unrequited, Katsuki would definitely push him away a bit, and they would never be this close again. No, it was better that he didn’t say anything. 

In that time he figured out his quirk a lot better as well. Aizawa had worked with him a lot, to the point that he had upped his limit to 25 percent and he had pretty great control of Blackwhip. He had also gained another quirk, Float, but he couldn’t help but blush every time he thought about how that had happened. 

Katsuki and him had been wandering campus celebrating Katsuki getting his provisional license, when they had started their usual game of shoving each other. At some point they had both fallen into the grass, something they had made a habit of. As Izuku laughed on the grass, he made eye contact with Katsuki. Suddenly he felt weightless. He thought it was just a side effect of being happy, but once he had to turn his head to maintain eye contact he realized that he was floating above the ground. Luckily Katsuki was able to grab a hold of him, because he couldn’t figure out how to land at first. 

In the week following that incident he found himself floating away a lot, usually when he was joking around with Katsuki. It got to the point that he had to wear a rope tied around him. Until he learned how to control it, it was a common sight to see Katsuki dragging Izuku through the air like a balloon. 

At the time of Aizawa’s announcement Izuku had control over Float and he could fly, but not with much precision. Because of his lack of precision, he was surprised at Aizawa’s offer during their next One for All meeting after the announcement.

Izuku had just finished using Float, Blackwhip, and One for All to run through an obstacle course when Aizawa pulled him aside.

“Have you given any thought into who you are going to do your work study with?” Aizawa looked at Izuku intently.

“Not really, I mean I can’t exactly go back to Sir Nighteye and I don’t really know many other heroes well enough to know they won’t hate me. I know that isn’t something I can control in the future but after the last work study, I really don’t want to work with someone that is hoping I would fail. I was actually going to ask you if you had any recommendations, I already ran through All Might’s connections.”

Aizawa’s eyes widened, “Sir Nighteye was hoping we would fail?”

Izuku waved his hands in front of him frantically, “No no, he was hoping I would fail at being All Might's successor and realize that I wasn’t worthy. He wanted the raid to succeed.”

Aizawa looked at him concerned, “You willingly did a work study under a hero that didn’t think you were worthy of your quirk? Did you know that when you agreed to do the work study?”

“Oh yeah, that was one of the first things he told me.” Izuku looked at Aizawa’s concerned expression and continued, “I wanted to prove him wrong.” Izuku shrugged, “And, my quirk is a secret, but Sir was one of the few people that knew all about it, so I figured that he might be able to help me get a handle on it.”

“Did he help you at all?” 

“Not really, but we rescued Eri so I can’t say I regret doing my work study with him.”

Aizawa ran his hand down his face and sighed. “Well, you do make one good point, there are very few people that can really help you with your quirk because it is such a secret. At this point I think you could do well with most heroes, but I think that you will learn the most with someone that knows your quirk—”

“—Gran Torino already said no before and—” Izuku started, but Aizawa raised his hand to stop him.

“I am already planning on taking Shinsou for his work study due to the lack of underground heroes available, but I am willing to take you as well. I think getting a taste of underground heroics would be good for you.”

“Really, you would take me?” Izuku was barely holding back from jumping with joy. 

“Think about it, if you decide that you want to do your work study with me, bring in the paperwork before class tomorrow so we can get it all signed.” Aizawa paused for a moment thoughtfully, “Before you make your decision, you should know that you will be expected to keep up with me without using One for All. Blackwhip and Float are fine, but you are a bit too bright when using One for All and we are going for stealth.”

“Yes sir, thank you!” Izuku practically skipped away to run the course again. 

The rest of training passed in a blur, literally. Izuku was so excited he sped through the course, faster than he had ever gone, multiple times. Taking Aizawa’s offer into account, he even ran the course a few times without using One for All, and he sped through that too. Even as they called the end of training Izuku ran rather than walked to the locker rooms. 

After peeling off his sweat drenched shirt he realized that he had forgotten his water bottle in the gym. Knowing that the teachers lock the gym after their training, Izuku rushed out of the locker room, hoping to get there before they leave. However as he opened the door he found himself running right into something. 

It all happened so quickly that he didn’t really realize he was falling until he was on the ground. The first thing he noticed was that the ground wasn’t as solid as he expected it to be, it was actually kinda soft. He had closed his eyes without really noticing while falling, and when he opened them again, he found himself face to face with Katsuki. They made eye contact, and Izuku got lost. It was far from the first time that Izuku had stared at Katsuki’s eyes, but this was the closest he had ever been. From a distance his eyes looked solid red, but up close there were specks of gold hidden in them as well. Izuku could spend hours staring into them and he would have, if Katsuki hadn’t gotten his attention by clearing his throat, repeatedly.

“Deku, get the fuck off of me!”

Izuku felt his cheeks turn bright red. He was too flustered as he fumbled his way to standing to realize that Katsuki’s cheeks were the same shade.

“Sorry… I uh… Sorry…I-I forgot my water bottle!” Izuku tried to push past Katsuki.

Katsuki stopped him. “Dumbass, I grabbed it for you.” He held up the water bottle in question. 

“Oh, uh thanks” Izuku stuttered out.

“Why the fuck are you in such a damn hurry anyway?” Katsuki questioned as they both made their way into the locker room.

Izuku continued getting changed as he answered, “I’m excited! Aizawa…” Izuku turned to look and was immediately distracted. Katsuki was digging through his locker for a new shirt, after he had already taken off the one he had been wearing. Izuku couldn’t stop himself from staring.

“Deku… Deku!” Izuku was abruptly drawn back to focus by Katsuki.

“What?” Izuku asked, completely forgetting that he had been saying something.

“Aizawa what?”

“Huh?”

“You were just explaining why you were so excited? Damn Deku, what has gotten into you today?”

“Oh right, uh sorry. Aizawa offered for me to do my work study under him with Shinsou!”

“Oh… that’s… great.” Izuku could tell that Katsuki was trying to sound happy for him, but it fell flat.

“What’s wrong?” Izuku was concerned.

“Nothing!” Katsuki grunted and stalked out of the locker room having finished changing.

Izuku quickly finished changing, he had stopped short of putting on his shoes during the conversation. As soon as he could he raced out the door to find Katsuki, but he was already gone. Izuku practically ran all the way back to the dorms, catching up to Katsuki right as the other boy opened the door. 

“Kacchan…” Izuku trailed off as he found the entire class in front of them. 

“Where have you been? You weren’t fighting again were you? It’s movie night!” Uraraka pushed her way to the front. She grabbed Izuku and dragged him to the couches. As he was dragged away he made eye contact with Shinsou and then Katsuki, willing them to help him escape, but neither did anything except follow the rest of the class to the couches. 

Before long the whole class was sprawled across the couches, and a movie was playing on the screen. Although Izuku was seated at one couch, surrounded by the friend group he had finally started spending time with again, and Katsuki was on a different couch, surrounded by his friend group, Izuku was determined to finish their conversation. He smiled when Katsuki responded to his click.

‘What was that about earlier?’

‘What are you talking about?’ 

‘Why weren’t you happy that I am going to do a work study with Aizawa? He has helped me with my quirk more than any other hero… Unless… are you worried that I will surpass you or something? You have been improving just as much as I have been.’

‘What the fuck? No! I know that you will surpass me someday, I’ve got no fucking chance against all your damn quirks’ Katsuki scowled. ‘I’m never gonna stop trying to beat you though so don’t get fucking cocky. No…’ Katsuki sighed. ‘I… I just actually have my provisional license for this round of work studies so I was hoping that we could work together but there is no way that Aizawa would ever offer a work study to me, my quirk isn’t subtle at all.’

‘Yeah, with your quirk you can do a lot, but underground heroism isn’t one of those things.’ Izuku thought for a moment. ‘I am supposed to bring in the paperwork tomorrow for Aizawa to sign, I can still say no—’

“Don’t you fucking dare!” Katsuki suddenly spoke aloud, staring straight as Izuku. Every head in the room turned to look between the two of them. 

Izuku debated how he would answer for a moment. He thought about responding silently, like most of their conversation had been, but he was feeling a bit mischievous and confusing his classmates seemed more fun. “Ok!” Izuku chirped and turned back to the movie, ignoring the stares and questioning looks. He knew that he was bound to get questions, but he also knew that the best part of the movie was coming up, and that would distract his classmates for a while.

Izuku perked up when he heard Katsuki click to get his attention. ‘We have the rest of our careers to work together, for now though, focus on getting your damn quirks under control. It was a bit disappointing that we won’t be working together now, but I’ll get over it when I get a work study with a top ten pro.’ 

Out of the corner of his eye, Izuku could see Katsuki grinning and he couldn’t help but to grin too. Working together for the rest of their careers sounded like a dream come true. 

Just like he was expecting, Izuku and Katsuki were questioned about their strange interaction during the movie, but they just brushed it off. Majority of the class believed them when they said it was an inside joke from their childhood, however Shinsou and Kirishima both seemed unconvinced. Luckily neither of them said anything, instead they just shared knowing smiles before everyone headed to bed. 

The next morning Izuku practically skipped all the way to class, the work study papers securely tucked into his backpack. He made sure to get there early, leaving plenty of time to get the papers all signed before the majority of his classmates arrived. Just like he expected, Iida was the only student in the room when he walked in, and Aizawa was asleep in his sleeping bag in the front of the room. 

Izuku pulled out his papers and walked to the front of the room, unsure about what to do. Aizawa was notorious for being angry with anyone that dared to wake him, but he had also instructed Izuku to come in to get his papers signed. Determined, Izuku only hesitated for a moment. He cleared his throat in an attempt to get Aizawa’s attention. When that wasn’t successful, he spoke. “Mr. Aizawa, I have that paperwork to get signed.”

Aizawa slowly stood. “You thought waking me up would be a good way to get this done?” He glared.

Izuku stood his ground and made eye contact with Aizawa. “I’m sorry for waking you, but you told me to get here before class to get my paperwork signed. I figured you would rather it be done sooner than later.” 

Aizawa stared Izuku down, still glaring. After what felt like forever but was probably just a few minutes with neither of them backing down, Aizawa grinned. “Good, hand them over.” 

Izuku passed all of the paperwork over, and within a minute it was all signed. Izuku is officially Eraserhead’s work study student. He couldn’t wait.

Time passed by quickly and before Izuku knew it, it was the last day of classes before the week of work studies. Izuku had been grateful to already have a placement the past few weeks as the majority of his class was struggling to find one. Some people like him and Shinsou didn’t have any issues. Kirishima was staying with Fat Gum and Uraraka and Tsu were staying with Ryuku. Tokoyami was continuing with Hawks, and Todoroki agreed to work with Endeavor, even though Izuku advised against it. 

Majority of the class had a much harder time. Katsuki had to talk to a lot of people before Todoroki finally got him in with Endeavor. Todoroki said something about it would be more bearable doing his work study with a friend, and then Katsuki almost blew him up for insinuating that they were friends. They are friends, but Katsuki is barely comfortable calling his close friends his friends, there was no way he would admit Todoroki was actually his friend. Besides, Todoroki seems to like that Katsuki won’t admit it. Izuku is pretty sure that Todoroki finds it amusing to get Katsuki to blow up, and that is a surefire way to do it. 

Yaoyorozu struggled more than most, but that was because she was so worried about how her internship went, and she didn’t want to go through that again. She had to make sure that she actually learned something more than how to pose in front of a camera. After a while of looking she came to Izuku for help. The whole class was well aware at this point that if you want to know anything about heroes Izuku is the one to ask. It was a little embarrassing at first, being known as the resident fanboy, but once he realized how much he could help people, he didn’t mind. 

She asked which hero would be best for him to work for and Izuku had an answer ready. He told her that she already seemed to have a handle on creating things, but she should look into the eating requirement of her quirk. Fat Gum would be a great mentor because of that, especially with Amajiki there. They might be able to help her figure out if different foods affect her quirk differently. She was grateful for his advice, and within a few days of their conversation, she had confirmed a work study with Fat Gum. 

Once everyone in the class had finalized where they would do their work studies, there was an energy that wouldn’t go away. All of them were anxious and excited. Worried about how it would go, while being excited for the opportunity to do hero work. That energy made it so that no students were really paying much attention in class, but the announcement Friday morning before the week of work studies got their attention quickly. 

Aizawa stood at the front of the class and started talking, and the anxiety level in the room skyrocketed. “I have noticed that all of you have been distracted during class this week because of your upcoming work studies. Rather than to waste everyone’s time with lessons no one is listening to, today all classes except Foundational Heroics are canceled. Instead your heroics lesson will span the entire day.” Excited whispers broke out but Aizawa ignored them and continued. “Today you will be doing another version of the communication assignment. However to make it more interesting, the lesson will be done jointly with Class B. We will be meeting up with them in a moment to discuss the details of the assignment, but first I would like to make it clear that this is not a competition between the classes. Unlike the joint training that we did a while back, no class will be announced as the winner. Do not refuse working with them because they are from a different class.” More whispers broke out. Everyone was trying to figure out what that meant for the assignment if they weren’t competing with Class B. 

Abruptly, Aizawa walked to the door. “Get changed into your hero costumes and meet at Gym Gamma.”

As the class rushed to grab their costume cases and make their way to Gym Gamma Izuku clicked to start a conversation with Katsuki.

‘What do you think the assignment is going to be?’

‘How the fuck would I know?’

‘I wasn’t expecting you to know, I was just asking for you to speculate.’

‘Well I’ve got no clue. I’m not looking forward to working with the extras in the other class though.’

‘Yeah, I’m not either, they don’t seem to like me much.’

‘They just don’t like you, they absolutely hate me.’

‘That’s your own fault Kacchan!’

‘I know, I know.’

‘Kacchan… if we can, do you want to work together?’

‘What the fuck? Was that not already a given? No shit, of course I’ll fucking work with you Deku.’ Katsuki walked away from Izuku as they entered the locker room to change, ending their conversation. 

Izuku changed into his costume with a smile on his face. Katsuki wanted to work with him. 

Izuku followed his classmates and the Class B students into Gym Gamma expecting to find it empty, but wasn’t. Aizawa, Vlad King, and All Might stood in front of a series of small rooms in the only open space in the gym. They all formed a large group in front of the teachers. After a few minutes Aizawa got the group’s attention.

“As you all know you will all be doing another variation of the communication assignment. We will get into what exactly that entails in a moment, after which you will have an hour to strategize, and then you will head toward Ground Beta, where the actual exercise will take place.” 

Vlad King stepped forward and held up a card with some writing on it. “Each of you will get a card with three things written on it. It will have the location of an object, something you have to find, and an action. The goal is to survive until the end with your top ally while getting a good score. Scoring is divided into multiple parts.”

All Might stepped forward. “First is the object. Every person has an object they need to find, and the location to someone else’s object. To get full points on the object part you must find your object. If you still have the object by the end, you receive an extra ten points. Each object has a number on it, if you find something that doesn’t have the number on it, it doesn’t count. It is recommended that you reach out to people or find some way to get the location of the object you are looking for. You could theoretically search for it with no information, however many of the objects are small, and Ground Beta is large. This section is scored out of 20 points with the potential to go up to 30.

You can also earn extra points by collecting objects that are not your own and holding them until the end. You will receive 5 extra points for every object that you have at the end of the assignment. If you are removed holding the object, you keep the object, however if someone takes it before the announcement of your removal is over, it is theirs.”

Vlad King continued, “The next part is the action. Some actions are things that require help from others. Other actions require turning against others. To get points on this section you must complete your action. You will also be graded on the quality of your action. For example if your action is to do a dance, you will be graded on how much effort you put in. Just swaying would earn you a lower grade then doing a full on choreographed number.  Before any of you start dancing, no that is not an actual action task. Some actions require objects, the number of each object needed is listed with the action. You can earn up to 40 points in this section.”

Aizawa spoke next. “Another part, and possibly the most complicated part is your allies. At the beginning you will be asked who your top ally is. This person is the one person that you trust completely and that you expect will help you and you will help them. If you and your top ally list each other, you will both get an extra ten points. At the end of the exercise you will also get extra points depending on when they are removed from the assignment. Anyone who lists the first person removed as their top ally gets 0 points, while anyone who lists someone that is never removed gets 10 points. 

It is at the end of the assignment that scoring for this gets complicated. After the assignment is over you will be asked to list who you gave help to as well as who you received help from. These people are considered your allies. Your top ally is already assumed to be in both these categories, so you do not need to list them again. You may list as many people as you would like but be careful, you can receive negative points depending on how they are listed and whether or not they list you. Also if someone helped you and you helped them, you may list them in both categories.

This is where the communication aspect of this assignment comes into play. I will not go over how it is scored in detail, you will be given a hand out with all the information we list here and a chart to go over the grading process for your allies. However I will say that you will gain points if your account agrees with your allies. If they disagree however, the scoring depends on how they disagree. 

The way to earn points in this section with disagreeing accounts is to get help from someone without them knowing, for example finding out their hint without them knowing, and leading someone to believe that you are their top ally when you are not. Being on the opposite ends of these situations will lose points. 

Be honest when listing your allies, however you do not need to list someone as having helped you if you believe that they had an overall negative effect.”

Izuku was getting more and more excited the more that was said about the new assignment. It sounded complicated, but also like it would be fun, or at least interesting. Looking around he could see that some people agreed with him, but the majority of the students around him looked overwhelmed. 

Not wasting any time, All Might continued, “The next part is your survival. You will be scored based on how long you survive. This will be scored similarly to your ally’s survival, except the top score will be 20 points. 

Finally, you will be scored on how many people you remove. To be removed from the game you will have been put in a situation where you would be dead if real weapons were being used. You will all have access to paintball guns, fake knives that leave a paint mark when enough pressure is applied to break skin, paint grenades and other fake weapons. Some actions require you to remove other people from the game, but otherwise you will get three points per person you remove. Also important note, to “strangle” someone you need to have a hold on their neck for five seconds, please do not actually strangle anyone. The teachers will have the final say on whether some is considered removed. Every removal will be announced so that everyone will hear who has been removed, and what number they were. ”

Aizawa spoke once more, “Points can be removed at any point by any teacher if they believe that you are not following the spirit of the assignment or if you are using excessive force. Not following the spirit of the assignments could be continuing to participate after being removed or if your list doesn’t reflect the allies you actually had during the assignment, whether that was because you didn’t list people you should have, or you listed people you shouldn’t have. That being said, you can still list someone you removed as an ally, however that might not be the wisest choice. 

The assignment ends when all students are removed except one, or potentially two students if their top ally is each other. If the exercise is going on too long, we might end it early, but for the sake of scoring let’s hope that doesn’t happen.”

Whispers broke out as the teachers finished their explanation. Izuku was about to start a silent conversation with Katsuki, when he heard a familiar click. 

‘We are going to be each other’s top ally.’ Katsuki didn’t ask, it was a statement.

‘Ok’ Izuku couldn’t hold back the grin. 

‘Who else—’ Katsuki started to ask something, but All Might began talking again.

“Are there any questions?” As All Might asked, Aizawa and Vlad King started handing out the papers with instructions on them.

“Can you expand on how two people might remain instead of just one?” Kendo from Class B spoke up.

All Might answered, “Yes. It was mentioned a moment ago that we can remove points if we feel like you are not following the spirit of the assignment. One thing we will remove points for is removing your top ally. Therefore, if the final two people are mutual top allies they will not be required to remove each other. If either of them didn’t list the other as their top ally, they will be expected to remove the other student.” 

Some students looked worried at that new information. It would be devastating to be one of the last two students remaining, thinking you were fine because you listed the other person as your top ally, only for them to remove you because they didn’t list you as their top ally. 

The room went silent for a moment as everyone looked over the assignment handout. After a few moments Iida spoke up. “To remove someone do we have to use one of the fake weapons? Many of us have quirks that could be used to seriously injure or kill someone, would we be able to use our quirks somehow? Also do we have to mimic killing someone or could someone be removed by arresting them?”

Aizawa grinned at the question. “I was hoping that someone would ask that question. All Might already went over how to remove people using weapons and strangulation but those aren’t the only ways. You can illustrate that you could have used your quirk to take them out. For example Iida, you could aim a high powered kick at someone’s head, but hit the wall instead at the last second to show that you could have taken them out. However if you choose this option, be careful, if you actually hurt anyone there will be consequences. In addition to that, someone can be removed by being captured for 15 minutes. Captured in this instance means that they cannot get free using their own power. This will be the equivalent of being arrested. Another option is being forced out of Ground Beta. Leaving the grounds counts as automatic removal. No matter what option is used, as All Might mentioned earlier, we the teachers have final say on whether someone is removed or not.”

A few more students asked questions, but they were all just having the teachers repeat something that had already been said, so Izuku turned his attention back to Katsuki. He had an idea of what he wanted to do, but he needed Katsuki to agree. 

First though, he wanted to know what Katsuki was about to say before they were distracted. He clicked and immediately started his message, knowing that Katsuki would listen. ‘What were you saying earlier?’

‘Oh, I was asking who else should we trust?’

‘Oh, actually that is something I wanted to talk to you about. What do you think about acting like we aren’t working together?’ 

‘What the fuck Deku, we just agreed to be each others top allies?’ 

‘I know, and we will be, but I kinda want to destroy the competition and the best way to do that would be to let other people think that we are working with them when we aren’t.’

‘Damn nerd, I’m listening.’

‘Ok so here’s what I’m thinking…’ Izuku filled Katsuki in on his plan, finishing explaining it as the teachers finished answering questions. 

“If you come up with any more questions during the time before the assignment officially starts feel free to ask. As we mentioned earlier you will have an hour to strategize. The first half of that time will be before you get your card with your tasks. We will make an announcement to meet back here to get your card but until then you have free reign of the gym. Cementoss was nice enough to create these structures so you can have conversations in more private settings.” Aizawa looked at the clock on the wall. “Your hour starts now.”

Almost immediately chaos broke out. Everyone was yelling over each other trying to make alliances, but that didn’t last long.

“What do you mean you don’t want to work with me!” Izuku yelled at Katsuki over the noise, while forcing tears out.

“Why the fuck would I want to work with you, Deku?” Katsuki yelled back, allowing small explosions to escape from his palms. The chaos around them started to quiet as people started to watch their fight. 

“But Kacchan, we worked together on the other assignments. I thought we were doing better… I thought we were friends again.” Izuku let his volume slowly lower as the sound around them quieted. 

“Tch, we were never friends. You were always just a damn Deku following me around. I couldn’t talk my way out of working with you before, but I’m not going to work with you now.”

“But-But Kacchan…”

“Just fucking leave me alone! You keep following me around, pretending we are fucking friends but we aren’t. You’re fucking annoying, so fucking whiny and you cry at nothing all the damn time! See you’re even crying now!” Sure enough Izuku had transitioned from forcing out a few tears, to full on crying. “I put up with your bullshit for years now but I am fucking done. You followed me all the way to fucking UA of all damn places but you are not about to follow me any more. Good luck doing well on this assignment without my help. I’m not gonna be telling you all the answers this time Deku. Now fuck off!” Katsuki stomped off, but not before clicking once. 

Izuku noticed Aizawa hide a small smile in his scarf once he noticed the click. He forced himself not to smile when he heard Katsuki’s message.

‘Don’t ever stop following me nerd, you got that?’

‘But Kacchan, I thought I was leading this time?’

‘Oh fuck off, does it matter who’s leading or who’s following? Just don’t fucking leave.’

‘Ok Kacchan, I’m not going anywhere.’

‘Good, now let’s destroy these assholes!’

After they set the students loose to strategize, Aizawa started walking to the side of the gym with Vlad King and All Might. They had cameras set up in every room to get an idea of who was working together, but no one had left the main section yet. So there was no point in going into the room the cameras fed to yet. Before they could get very far though, yelling caught their attention. 

Midoriya was yelling about Bakugou not wanting to work with him, and Bakugou was yelling back, denouncing their entire friendship. Aizawa was only slightly worried, Bakugou was harsh, but he had seen the tapes from middle school, he knew their story, this was most likely some elaborate plan that they had. And honestly, he would be lying if he said that he wasn’t excited to see how it would all play out. 

“Should we step in?” Vlad King turned to Aizawa, deferring to their homeroom teacher.

Aizawa took a moment to look between the two men he was standing with. Vlad King looked concerned, but All Might was who really caught his attention. He looked disturbed by the whole situation, completely heartbroken. Aizawa was abruptly reminded of the fact that while All Might has been a witness to their current friendship, he wasn’t there to hear their history. He only knew whatever Midoriya or Bakugou had decided to tell him, and from the looks of it, they hadn’t told him anything.

“They’re fine,” Aizawa said as soon as he heard Bakugou’s click. He had to hide his face in his scarf to hide his grin as he continued walking toward the monitoring room. 

All Might and Vlad King both hurried to follow him. “But how can you know that?” All Might asked as they reached the door.

Aizawa waited to answer until they were all inside the monitoring room, with the door closed behind them. “Bakugou and Midoriya have an… interesting history. They also have a secret language that only they can understand. After their argument Bakugou clicked. That is their indication for the other to look for their messages to each other. I am confident that this is all part of their plan.”

“But shouldn’t we at least make sure that Midoriya is ok? He looked so heartbroken, and Bakugou said some very nasty things.” All Might started to move back towards the door.

“No, Midoriya probably came up with the whole thing. He has come up with much worse for Bakugou to say before.” Aizawa brushed him off, turning towards the screens.

“Worse?” All Might whispered.

“Wait back up, you found out how they were communicating?” Vlad King interjected looking shocked.

Aizawa turned back towards the other teachers. “Nedzu and I were able to get them to tell us, however neither of us have been able to figure out a single message between them.”

“But I believe that I may be getting close!” Nedzu scared all of them when he popped down from the ceiling. “What, did you really expect me to miss out on watching this assignment? Nonsense.” Nedzu grinned, “Now, who are they teaming up with?”

Izuku continued to fake cry as Katsuki left the main area, followed by Kirishima and a few others. Just like he expected, as soon as they were gone Uraraka came running up to him. 

“Deku are you ok? What was that about?” Uraraka got right up in his personal space.

“I’m ok… I guess… I need to find other people to work with though.” Izuku smiled, but he made sure that it didn’t reach his eyes, still making sure to act upset.

“Look no further! I will be honored to work with you on this assignment, and I’m sure many others feel the same.” Iida announced.

“Yeah, we can all work together as a group!” Uraraka fist pumped and started leading them towards one of the rooms away from the rest of the students.

As they walked Izuku was hit with guilt about what he was doing but he remembered his reasoning and pushed it aside. He told Katsuki that he was trying to destroy the competition, which was absolutely true, but he didn’t tell him why. Although he had seemingly fixed things with his friends, it didn’t really feel like it. Uraraka had gotten extremely protective over him, and the rest of the group had followed her lead. After everything that he had done, all the villains that he had beaten, they recently have started to think that he couldn’t handle his own fights. They were constantly stepping in during training, claiming they didn’t want him breaking any more bones. Uraraka had more than once tried to get between him and Katsuki, going as far as attacking Katsuki for calling Izuku any sort of negative nickname, even though they were always nicer than anything he ever called anyone else. Izuku knew that his friends had good intentions, but as a hero student, it was a bit insulting. 

Izuku wanted to really show that he wasn’t as innocent or helpless as they seemed to think he was and what better way of doing that then by playing into what they thought of him and then destroying that notion. Shinsou was the only person in his group of friends that seemed to think that Izuku was capable of handling anything on his own, so he felt a bit guilty about tricking him as well. But he also knew that out of everyone, Shinsou is the most likely to understand and forgive him. 

Once they were away from the rest of the students Izuku looked to see who had joined their group. Joining him, Iida, and Uraraka were Tsu, Todoroki, and Shinsou. He knew it wouldn’t be enough to succeed, he needed at least to get information from someone in Class B.

They all looked at each other for a moment, obviously no one really knew where to start with their strategy. “Um…” Izuku finally broke the silence. “Why don’t we start with figuring out how we want to communicate? If we talk openly we might end up accidentally helping other people.”

“Right, that is a solid point.” Iida chopped through the air with his hands as he spoke. “Does anyone have any ideas?”

“Well let’s start by seeing if there are any less common languages that we all know. I know JSL, ASL, English, Spanish, and French. Most of those might all be a bit too common to be super effective, but we can base a code off of that or something.”

“Wow, when Bakugou said that you are good with languages, I didn’t think that he meant that you knew that many!” Iida looked impressed. “I unfortunately don’t know any other languages, unless you are counting morse code, I do know that.”

“Oh! If we are counting morse code then I know that too!” Izuku spoke up again. 

“I know morse code as well.” Todoroki piped up.

“I know a little morse code!” Uraraka said.

“I don’t know any other languages, Ribbit.”

“I know JSL, ASL, and morse code.” Shinsou spoke while looking at Izuku.

“Since the most common language between us is morse code, why don’t we make a different version of it to use?” Izuku took charge when no one else spoke. 

“We can use something similar to what Todoroki and I did for the second assignment.” Iida supplied.

“Perfect!” Izuku cheered. 

Iida and Todoroki started explaining morse code to the people that were unfamiliar with it, but Izuku stopped paying attention to them. Shinsou had been trying to get his attention while they were talking and now the other boy was signing using ASL.

‘You and Bakugou are still working together aren’t you?’ Shinsou got straight to the point. When Izuku didn’t respond he continued. ‘It’s cool if you are, I just want to be in on it.’

‘What do you mean?’ Izuku was confused about what Shinsou stood to gain from this.

‘I mean I want to be an actual ally to you. You obviously have some sort of plan otherwise you wouldn’t have done that whole act and I want to help. Instead of you and Bakugou against everyone, what about you, Bakugou, Denki, and I?’

Izuku’s eyebrows shot up, ‘Denki?’ 

‘Well yeah, I’m not stupid enough to think I would be either of your top allies, and Denki and I already agreed to work together.’

‘Since when were you two on a first name basis?’

Shinsou’s face reddened, ‘We have gotten pretty close recently.’

Izuku fought the urge to tease him. ‘I’ll run it past Kacchan, but an extra ally or two is not a bad idea.’ Izuku was actually relieved that Shinsou saw through their ruse, it meant that he didn’t have to lie to the one person in his friend group that hadn’t started treating Izuku like glass.  

Shinsou nodded and they both turned their attention back to the conversation everyone else was having. Apparently they had decided to use morse code, but shifted 5 letters. Izuku took no time at all figuring out how to translate that, he really was good with languages, but many other people were struggling. He pulled out a notebook that he always kept on him and quickly made some cheat sheets of normal morse code. As he passed them out he explained how to use them to translate.

“This is normal morse code. To translate to our version just look at five letters from the one you want.”

“Why couldn’t you just make us a cheat sheet of the translated version?” Uraraka looked at the paper in confusion.

“If I did that all someone would need to understand us is to get a hold of this paper, now they need this paper, and they need to know how many to shift. In the second exam Kacchan…” Izuku trailed off, trying to look upset at the memory before bringing himself back to focus. “Kacchan figured out Tsu and Mina’s messages because Mina left her cheat sheet in his room.”

“That’s how you guys figured it out!” Tsu threw her hands up, “Ribbit, I thought you had just guessed or somehow!” 

Izuku sheepishly spoke up, “I probably would have figured it out if I hadn’t been busy figuring out Iida and Todoroki’s messages. Him having the cheat sheet definitely made it easier though.”

Todoroki looked thoughtful for a moment before he spoke up, “Is that why he said that he wouldn’t be giving you the answers this time, he figured out other people’s messages and shared them with you?”

Izuku rubbed at the back of his neck, “Yeah, kinda—”

“—How did you manage to convince him to do that if he is so against working with you?” Iida interrupted.

“I figured out when we were little that if you ever want Kacchan to do something, make it a competition. We were competing to see who would figure out the most messages,” Izuku shrugged, “I never won, but I was able to get really good scores.” Izuku made himself look guilty. 

“Normally I would never condone that sort of behavior, however, after hearing what Bakugou said a few minutes ago, I can’t hold it against you.” Iida spoke while chopping his hands like usual.

“There is one thing that confuses me, Ribbit. Bakugou claims to hate you, and you claimed to have been using him, yet you managed to get the highest scores ever. Ribbit, something just isn’t adding up here.” Tsu rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

Izuku sighed. “We have a really long and complicated history. Our moms are best friends, so we met when we were just babies. We were best friends for a while, but…” Izuku let a tear fall. “When we were four, Kacchan got an incredible quirk, and I didn’t get one. He was so powerful and amazing, and I was weak. I…” Izuku sniffled. “I let him down, we couldn’t be the best heroes together when I was quirkless—”

“—But you have a quirk?” Multiple people questioned him at once.

“Yeah,” Izuku smiled weakly, “I was a late bloomer, I went years without a quirk. I was the quirkless weakling and Kacchan made sure that I knew it. He beat me down daily for it.” Izuku huffed, “I thought at UA, with a quirk, I could finally be Kacchan’s friend again, his equal. I wanted to work with him because we know each other. Even during the years of him hating me we still had to spend a lot of time together. We have always been classmates, and like I said, our moms are best friends. He agreed to work with me because of that, because we both could get such great scores. But I took him agreeing to be my partner as him wanting to be friends again… apparently I was wrong.” Izuku let tears fall faster now, on the verge of sobbing, “H-he was my first friend before UA, the-the only friend I had before UA. But-But he hates me!” Izuku broke down sobbing while looking at the ground, hugging his arms around himself.

  Izuku stole a glance at his friends and he realized that he was way too good of an actor. Many of his friends had tears in their eyes from his sob story. Those who didn’t looked like they were about to kill.  Izuku had spent years acting like this, so it was no surprise that he was convincing, but he was still impressed with himself.

“I’m gonna kill him! I’m gonna kill Bakugou! Thank god this is an exercise where we are supposed to kill people because I am going to kill Bakugou.” Uraraka was fired up.

“Wait,” Izuku sniffled a few times and stopped sobbing, still letting tears fall. “Please… I want to be the one that kills Kacchan.”

Uraraka paused to size him up, “Ok, if you’re sure about it… but Deku, are you gonna be able to do it? I mean, after everything, you still are calling him Kacchan.”

Izuku looked up at his friends’ hesitant expressions and sighed. “That is more of a habit than anything else. I’ve never called him anything else.” Izuku paused for a moment and clenched his fist. Finally letting his tears dry he looked up determined. “But you are right, I can’t hold onto our past forever, that is why I have to be the one to kill Bakugou!” 

The whole group cheered for a moment before bringing the attention back to the task at hand.

“Ok, so we know that Midoriya is going to remove Bakugou, what should our other goals be? We should probably try to work with at least one person in Class B right? Just so that if anyone in Class B has any of our hints we might be able to get some help.” Iida brought up.

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, do any of you know anyone in Class B?” Izuku asked.

After a moment of silence Izuku answered his own question, “No one? Huh, this is gonna be more difficult than I thought.” 

The rest of the group brainstormed different ways that they could get someone from Class B to work with them, but again, Izuku was distracted by Shinsou.

‘That was one hell of an act there. I was a bit skeptical when you said that you had your old school fooled, but I almost believed you and I know more about what your relationship is actually like.’

‘Thanks. I’ve had plenty of practice.’ They both laughed at that, and then frantically looked around to make sure that no one else had noticed. Luckily, the rest of the group was invested in their own conversation.

‘Hey, how do you think Bakugou will react to you not calling him Kacchan?’

Izku froze. ‘He can’t hear that. He can’t hear me call him by his last name.’ Izuku almost panicked at the thought of Katsuki hearing him. 

‘Ok… why?’ Shinsou looked confused.

‘When we were younger we said that if either of us called the other by their last name that meant our friendship was over. There is no coming back from that. He can’t hear me call him Bakugou.’

‘Ok, damn. How are you going to avoid that?’

‘I have no idea.’

‘Good, good, glad to see you have a plan.’ Shinsou teased.

Izuku was going to respond, but before he could Aizawa’s voice rang out. “It has been half an hour, everyone please report back to the entrance.”

Izuku led his group out to where the teachers were standing. Although he really wanted to sit near Katsuki, he forced himself to keep up the act and sit as far from him as possible. That didn’t stop him from starting a silent conversation with him though.

‘Hey Kacchan, how’s it going?’

‘Fuck Deku, did you have to cry so damn much? I had to spend half the damn time convincing my extras that I’m not a heartless monster.’

‘Sorry Kacchan, did they at least believe that we aren’t working together?’

‘Pinky and Tape Punk were convinced, but Pikachu kept making weird faces at me and Shitty Hair pulled me aside to ask to be let into the real plan.’

‘Oh yeah, Shinsou did the same. He and Kaminari are working together and they want to be included in our real plan too, that’s probably why he was making weird faces.’

Their conversation was interrupted for a moment as they each went up and got their notecard with their information on it. 

Izuku looked over his notecard quickly. He had to find the lightbulb, item number 24, and he had the clue for item number 21, the bracelet. He blanched when he saw his task. He knew that they were supposed to all kill each other, but it was still shocking to see that his task is to stab someone. 

‘What the fuck! My fucking task is to have a gun put to my head or a knife to my throat and survive. How the fuck do I do that?’ Katsuki was quick to start their conversation up again.

‘Wow, I wasn’t really happy with my task, but now that I heard yours I would much rather stab someone than have to somehow survive that.’

‘You have to fucking stab someone? Damn, they really aren’t messing around with this are they?’

‘Yeah…’ Izuku started to respond but he realized that they didn’t really have much time for conversation because they would have to separate again soon. ‘Quick, we don’t have much time, I need to find the lightbulb, which is item 24 and I have the clue for the bracelet, item 21. What about you?’

‘I need to find the ornament, item 33. I have the hint for the pendant, item 34.’

‘Ok!’ Izuku started to walk away with his group, but before he got far he remembered something else he needed to tell Katsuki. ‘Oh! I almost forgot! Be careful, I managed to convince the people I’m working with that I want to be the one to kill you, but they all are pretty pissed at you right now.’

‘What the fuck Deku!’

‘Sorry, I had to convince them that we aren’t working together so I used part of our cover from middle school.’ 

‘Shit ok.’

Izuku walked off with his group, but as he went he tried to see as many papers as he could. He saw a few, and he did his best to remember what was written, but he didn’t see anything that would help him or Katsuki. 

He saw Hagakure’s paper, but felt a little bad about it, being invisible really gave her limited options to hide things she was carrying. She had the clue for object 27, the person statue, and she was looking for object 19, the ring. Izuku made a note in his notebook of her clue, but he didn’t expect to need it. He wasn’t going to go after a statue, he didn’t know what the object looked like or how big it is, but statues are usually pretty heavy.

It took some maneuvering, but he managed to catch a glimpse of a few of Class B’s papers. He managed to see Komori's paper that said she needed to find object 38, the stickers, and she had the clue for object 16, the mask. He also managed to see Rin’s paper, and he struggled to hide his laughter. He needed to find object 27, and he had the clue for object 19, in other words, if Hagakure and Rin just traded information, they would be set. However, object 19, the ring, is tempting to go after, it is small enough that Izuku could realistically carry it around without issue. 

He made sure to make notes of all the information he figured out, even if he didn’t think it would be very helpful. As he wrote he could see a few people craning their necks trying to see his notes. Their expressions all changed to confusion and Izuku held back a grin. Like usual he wrote entirely in code, there was no way that anyone understood what was being written.  

As soon as Izuku was back with his group he got their attention, their time was limited, they couldn’t waste it. Using their adjusted morse code, Izuku asked, “What was written on your papers?”

“I need to find the flower and I have the hint for the orange.” Iida was slowly using morse code to tell everyone what was written on the card while showing it. He looked concerned when he noticed Izuku writing. “Why are you writing this down? I have the card here.”

“Oh! Sorry, I should have explained. We are going to need to get clues from other people in both classes to all find out objects. The best way to do that might be to trade clues. I was going to suggest that we all split up in a few minutes to try and get more information. I’m just taking notes so that I can keep track of who knows what. Don’t worry, I’m the only one that can read it!” Izuku grinned his most innocent grin. Iida seemed to take his word for it, as did everyone else except for Shinsou who just squinted at him. 

“Well, I don’t know how helpful that information will be for anyone else though, I’m looking for the orange.” Shinsou held up his own card to show that the object he was looking for was in fact object 30, the orange. “I have the clue for the blue flag if that helps anyone.” Shinsou offered.

Everyone was silent for a moment until Tsu spoke up, “I don’t need to find the blue flag, but I do have the clue for the green flag. I need to find the tiger figurine.” 

Izuku’s hand flew across the page as Tsu showed her card.

“I also have a clue for a flag, although my clue is for the purple flag. I need to find the umbrella.” Todoroki showed off his card next.

“I don’t have anything about flags, but I need to find the trophy and I have the clue for the green coin.” Uraraka pulled out her card to show the group. 

As soon as Izuku finished writing he looked up to find his friends now staring at him, obviously waiting for him to share his card. 

“Oh sorry, I uh… actually destroyed my card after I wrote down the information on it.” Izuku shrugged sheepishly while speaking normally, “You can’t be too careful right?” Izuku smiled nervously,  “I can still tell you the information that was on it though.” Izuku continued quickly switching to the adjusted morse code. “I am looking for object 24, the lightbulb, and I have the clue for the bracelet, object 21. It is located at the corner of Apple and 6th.” Izuku could feel the weight of the intact note in his pocket as he lied to them. His first task once he got away from them would be to actually destroy it, and make a note of the lie he told. 

“Why would you destroy it? Are you really that worried about someone else seeing it?” Todoroki tilted his head in confusion, not bothering to use morse code.

“Yeah, it is an easy way to figure things out without having to do too much work. That’s how Ka- Bakugou figured out some of the messages from previous assignments, people didn’t hide their papers on their desks and it was easy to look over and see the messages.” 

“You keep mentioning that Bakugou figured out messages, Ribbit, did you figure out any or was it just him?” Tsu looked at Izuku questioningly. 

Izuku scratched at the back of his neck, “Oh… well… I figured some out, like the morse code messages, but not much else. He really did most of the work.” Izuku shrugged. 

Izuku was a little hurt that no one seemed to question anything he said. Of course, it was nice that his friends trusted him so much, although that did make him feel a bit guilty. But the fact that even after knowing him for as long as they had, and after he had told them some of the contents of his analysis notebooks, they still believed that he barely helped at all in an assignment that was practically made for him.  After seeing him stand up and fight for his friends and the people around him, they really think that Katsuki would be able to just walk all over him. 

Izuku pushed that line of thinking to the back of his mind and focused on the task at hand. They really couldn’t do much else in their group, it was time for them to split up and see what information they could learn. 

The teachers were bored in the control room. They watched through the cameras as students began to create plans. The most interesting thing that happened was Bakugou trying to explain away what had just happened, but that was pretty boring as well, until they heard an interesting line of questioning in Midoriya’s group. 

 “Is that why he said that he wouldn’t be giving you the answers this time, he figured out other people’s messages and shared them with you?” Todoroki’s voice sounded slightly tinny through the speakers, but it caught their attention all the same. 

The teachers remained silent as the conversation continued, and Midoriya told his sob story. Only once their conversation drifted back to the assignment did anyone say something.

“I thought you said they were fine!” All Might again looked heartbroken. A tear had escaped as Midoriya was talking.

“They are!” Nedzu grinned, a mischievous glint in his eye.

“I must admit that I don’t know them that well, but that doesn’t sound fine to me.” Vlad King looked between Nedzu, Aizawa, and the screen.

“As I said they have a very complicated past, that was their cover story throughout middle school. Midoriya was the quirkless victim, while Bakugou was the powerful bully. From what we can gather, that isn’t actually the case, not even close to it. They just had to act like that to survive school.” 

All Might shot up from his chair yelling, “Survive!” He was obviously angered at what Aizawa had said. 

Aizawa just put his hand out to stop the former symbol of peace, and continued talking. “Don’t worry, I am already in the process of making a case against their old school, they will not get away with what happened.” 

All Might sat back down somewhat reluctantly and Nedzu clapped his hands. “Yes, yes, they have an interesting history, but that doesn’t tell us why he would bring up that false story now.” Nedzu grinned. “This should be an interesting exercise.” Nedzu jumped off the chair he was in and climbed into Aizawa’s scarf. “Now, I believe that the first half of their prep time is over, they should be getting their notecards about now.”

The teachers made their way out of the control room and called the students back over. They made quick work of handing out the notecards and then they quickly returned to the control room

As they watched the cameras to see the students leave the main room, they were a little disappointed that the majority of the students didn’t look up from their own notecards. They had handed them out in a group like that hoping that some students would look around and sneak peeks at other people’s clues, but it seemed like only Bakugou and Midoriya were doing that. 

Nedzu made a sort of gleeful snort when he noticed that Izuku was writing in his notebook in code, but he remained silent, not wanting to miss when the scheming would continue.

As expected, all of the groups immediately regrouped to share what their notecards said. The teachers quickly got bored again. The one group that they expected to be interesting was switching between normal talking and morse code so they weren’t that interesting to watch. But Nedzu must have caught something, because he just started cackling.

Izuku stood outside the gates of Ground Beta feeling pretty confident. After his group had broken apart to find out more information Izuku had been busy. He found a great spot to eavesdrop on a group of students from Class B, learning where not only where the lightbulb, the object he has to find, is, but also where objects number 35, the shoes, 13, the glass ball, 26, the elephant statue, and 38, the stickers are. Kaibara, Awase, Bondo, Shishida, and Fukidashi were all working together, and they weren’t very quiet about their hints. 

Once they moved on to strategy talk Izuku wandered a bit until he found Katsuki. His group seemed to have the same thought as Izuku’s because he was alone as well. They were able to share information and Katsuki told him what Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero, and Mina had written on their papers. Meaning that Izuku now had the locations of number 31, the banana, number 17, the camera, number 28, the tiger figurine, and number 33, the ornament. Just with that, Izuku knew the location of almost half of the objects, but that wasn’t the only information that Katsuki shared. He had also been wandering a while, and he had overheard Kendo telling her group what her clue was. She had the clue for object 22, the watch. Unfortunately Katsuki wasn’t able to hear the rest of the clues from that group, but even after that conversation Izuku still had enough time to figure out more. 

Like he had told his friends he would, Izuku traded some of the clues he knew to figure out other people’s clues. He talked to Jirou, Yaoyorozu, Aoyama, Yanagi, and Shoda. From this he figured out the locations of objects 9, the stuffed cat, 37, the umbrella, 8, the stuffed dog, 12, the bronze ball, and 7, the flower. 

Before they headed to Ground Beta they were each required to go up and write their top ally on a piece of paper. Izuku had made sure that no one saw his paper, but he managed to see a few of his friends. He felt a little bad when he saw that they wrote his name, but he was more surprised that not a single one of them thought to mistrust him or even just choose someone over him. 

On the way to Ground Beta he was able to meet up with his friends and share the new information they learned. So now, going into this exercise, Izuku knew the location of thirty of the forty objects. His friends were able to get the locations of object 5, the yellow star, 20, the necklace, 23, the music box, 40, the poison, and 32, the watermelon. They also shared their tasks.These tasks were further proof that this exercise was brutal. Uraraka has to assassinate someone without anyone knowing it was her, Tsu has to capture someone, and Shinsou has to poison someone. Iida and Todoroki’s  tasks were much tamer. Iida has to swap two people’s objects and Todoroki has to destroy the music box before it can play any music. 

As they all stood there waiting for the gates to open Vlad King stepped forward. “Before we officially start this exercise we do have a few announcements. First if you look right over here,” Vlad motioned to a locker that was beside the gate. “There are many of these throughout the city, inside is a collection of paintball guns, ammo, fake knives and other fake weapons that you can use. Take whatever you would like from them. 

“That being said, for the first fifteen minutes of the exercise you cannot remove anyone. This is to give everyone a chance to enter the training grounds and have a chance at finding their object.”

Izuku looked around and noticed that the majority of the students were no longer poised to run at the gate, instead they all looked ready to run to the locker. Izuku thought about joining them, but he had a better idea. As the gate opened and the students took off, Izuku activated Blackwhip. Before anyone else got close to the locker he had already opened it and grabbed a couple paint grenades, 2 fake knives, a paintball handgun, and some ammo. Once he had all that in his possession he ran into Ground Beta. 

He wanted to stay with his friends for the beginning portion of this exercise, but more than that he wanted to find his object, and rehide it. Due to his eavesdropping he knew where the lightbulb was, but so did other people. His best bet to make sure that no one else got the lightbulb before him was to get there first. However, unless it wasn’t a normal lightbulb, it is glass. Izuku knew that at some point during this exercise he would end up in a fight. If he had the lightbulb on him when that happened there was a good chance of it breaking, and that wouldn’t be good. Therefore his plan was to find it so that he could get the initial points, and then rehide it near where he and Katsuki had arranged to meet at the end of the exercise. 

Izuku used Float, One for All, and Blackwhip to get to 75 6th St. in just a few seconds. He tried the front door, but it was locked. He could have gone around back to see if there was another door or looked around for a key or an open window. But that would take time, and he needed to be fast so no one would see him rehide it. Using a small percentage of One for All, Izuku kicked in the door. He headed straight for the kitchen and threw open the cabinets under the sink. The cabinet was locked, and boarded up, but Izuku hadn’t deactivated One for All, so he didn’t even notice. Less than a minute into the exercise, Izuku had his object in his hand. It was a normal looking lightbulb, except it had the UA seal on it, as well as the number 24. 

Leaping into the air, Izuku used his quirks to get him a few streets over, to Peach Ct. The training ground is one of the ones that they have used often, so Izuku is very familiar with the layout. It is set up like the downtown area of a city, with a combination of houses, shops, highrises, apartments, and parks spread throughout a grid of streets. The streets going north to south were numbered, 1st through 15th, the streets going east to west were named after fruits and plants in alphabetical order. The exception to this were the four courts which were also named after fruits but not in any particular order. The largest of those courts, Peach Ct., was near the center of the training ground and it hosted a large City Hall Building and a few other buildings that were related to the government. 

Izuku and Katsuki hoped to orchestrate a final battle there, meaning that to leave the exam with the lightbulb the best spot to hide it would be around there. The main problem however is that the entrance to the training ground was at 10th street, which turned into Peach Ct. Most people hadn’t moved as quickly as Izuku had when they entered the grounds, so there were still a lot of people around the entrance and even into the court. 

As Izuku hid on a roof overlooking Peach Ct. he remembered what Aizawa had told him when he offered him a spot as his work study student. Working with Aizawa required stealth, and this was the perfect time to practice it. 

When he landed on the roof he had deactivated One for All, and now he was careful to keep it deactivated. Just like Aizawa said, glowing green wasn’t exactly subtle. Before he moved Izuku looked around to find the most protected spot. He thought about making it easy for himself and just hiding the lightbulb where he was, but he decided against it when he realized how easy it would be for anyone to get up there, even without a quirk that would let them fly. Through a combination of stairs and ladders it was a really easy climb. 

Izuku looked around for a moment before he finally saw it, the perfect spot. It was the highest point in this section of the grounds and it was completely inaccessible unless you could fly. And even then, there really wasn’t a reason to go up there. The roof of the City Hall had a giant dome of glass on it and at the very top, there was a statue of an unfamiliar hero. It was hard to tell who the hero was supposed to be, but Izuku’s best guess was a prequirk superhero, Superman. No matter who the hero was, for him to be visible from as far away as he is he needed to be huge, and that means hiding a small lightbulb on him shouldn’t be too hard, just as long as Izuku wasn’t seen hiding it. 

He moved quickly and quietly, always looking around to make sure that no one saw him. He flew from hiding place to hiding place using a combination of Blackwhip and Float to move along quickly. As he got up to City Hall he had to pass over a group of bronze statues of some kids kicking around a ball. He couldn’t tell why, but something about the ball looked weird to him. The metal didn’t match the metal of the rest of the statues, it almost looked less weathered. 

As he made his way to the roof he reached back with Blackwhip, and on an impulse, he grabbed the metal ball. Izuku didn’t get a chance to look at the ball until he got to the spot he wanted to hide the lightbulb. Once he did manage to look at it though, he couldn’t help but to grin. He was right, it was different from the rest of the statues, it was object number 12. Realizing that his friends were probably wondering where he was, Izuku quickly found a spot and hid both objects, and then flew off the roof. He thought about keeping object 12 with him, but a solid bronze ball is a bit heavier than he would like to carry around. 

As Izuku was flying around looking for his friends the announcement that the first fifteen minutes were over rang out through the training grounds. It was now possible to be removed. Izuku could easily start shooting and remove a few people, after all he was flying above many heads, but although he wanted to destroy the competition, he did want to give people a chance to succeed. 

He was flying by, minding his own business, when suddenly he heard a pop, and felt a whoosh of air as a paintball flew past him. He spun in the air, looking for where the bullet came from. As another bullet flew by him he found the shooter. Monoma was standing in a group of other Class B students holding a paintball gun up to shoot. That wasn’t too surprising, it was no secret that Monoma didn’t like Class A, but what was weird was that his classmates were tugging at his gun, trying to get him to put it down. Monoma wasn’t even looking at him anymore because of how persistent his classmates were being. 

Izuku pulled out his own gun and flew down closer. Tokage and Tsubaraba were both pulling at the gun while Tetsutetsu was talking. “Dude, leave him be. It is only early in the exercise, give him a chance.”

Izuku was glad to hear that he wasn’t the only one that thought it was too early to remove someone. He started to turn and fly away, but another shot rang out. It missed again, but as Izuku turned back he noticed that Monoma had pulled himself free of the two people that were holding him back. More shots rang out in quick succession, and Izuku knew that even though Monoma had terrible aim, if he was able to just keep shooting like that, at some point he would get lucky and hit the target. 

It took less than a second to aim and fire, and then Monoma had a splotch of red paint between his eyes. His cry of pain harshly reminded Izuku how painful paintballs could be, and he felt a hint of guilt, but he couldn’t dwell on that.

The announcement rang out in Nedzu’s voice, “Nieto Monoma has been shot in the head! He is the first student to be removed!” And then there was a flash of movement from the Class B students. Kamakiri had come out to join the other students from Class B, and all four of them were pulling out their guns. 

As Izuku flew away he tried to placate them, “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to remove him so early!”

No bullets were shot at him, so he figured that they either had decided his apology was sufficient, or, more likely, he had gotten out of range. He was fleeing so quickly, however, that he almost missed his friends. He barely caught a glimpse of Shinsou’s purple hair as he was speeding by. 

He tried to stop abruptly, but that sent him careening into a building. He grabbed a tree with Blackwhip to stop himself from slamming into the wall, but he still did hit the ground pretty hard. He wasn’t injured, but he was sure that he was going to get more than one bruise from that ordeal.

The noise had attracted the attention of his friends, and before he could even get up, they were beside him.

“Deku! Are you ok? Where were you?” Uraraka was quick to question him.

Izuku waved them away so he could stand. “I’m ok, I just went to find my object real quick.” 

Shinsou looked at him and shook his head. “You’ve already found your object?”

“Yeah, I don’t have it anymore though. I didn’t want to carry around glass.” Izuku looked back at the spot he crash landed. “It seems I made a good decision, that landing would have crushed it.” Izuku laughed. 

“Why were you going so fast anyway?” 

“Oh uh—”

“—Deku did you hear? Monoma has already been removed!” Uraraka ignored the conversation he was having.

“Yeah… I… Uh…” Izuku scratched at the back of his neck and sighed, “That was actually why I was going so fast. He tried to shoot me, so I had to uh… shoot back.”

Shinsou doubled over laughing. “So you shot him in the head?”

“I had to make sure that he would stop shooting me, I didn’t know if he had armor or anything in his costume so I couldn’t shoot him anywhere else and know for sure that he would be removed. And if I didn’t remove him he would have just kept shooting.” Izuku shrugged.

Shinsou shook his head and laughed but Izuku turned his attention to everyone else. “So are you guys looking for something specific here?”

Shinsou held up an orange that had a seal and the number 30 was stamped into it. “Yeah, I just got my object, we were trying to figure out where to go next.”

“Oh, where were you thinking?” 

“We were thinking of going after mine next,” Todoroki said before switching to morse code. “You said that object 37 is at the pool on Grape, correct? That is just over there.” Todoroki pointed at a gate about a block away from them. 

Izuku checked his notes for a long moment, “Yep! Unfortunately Yaoyorozu didn’t say where it was at the pool.” Izuku struggled a bit with all the translating, and the lying. He was having to go between his code, Japanese, and their adjusted morse code all while keeping track of who he told what. Luckily he had figured out a system to keep track of his lies, but it took some brainpower to sort through it.  

In actuality, Yaoyorozu had never said anything about a pool at all, nor had she mentioned Grape Street. Object 37, the umbrella Todoroki was looking for, is actually in a house a street away. This location was actually one he had overheard from Fukidashi, and he did mention where at the pool the object in question was hidden.

They started walking towards the pool, but they hadn’t even reached the next intersection when Izuku pulled them all back into an alley between two houses.

“Midoriya what is going on!” Iida demanded an explanation while everyone else seemed equally confused. 

“There is another group leaving the pool.” Izuku answered, almost truthfully. There is another group between them and the pool, but it didn’t look like they had actually gone to the pool, more likely they were just walking by. 

Luckily they didn’t linger, and after a few minutes Izuku released his friends to continue their walk to the pool. Knowing that other students were near, they moved quickly. However they came to a halt at the locked gate. Izuku almost laughed as his friends all searched for the key. Shinsou raised his eyebrow, also amused by their friends' decision. Sure, using the key would be the most law-abiding way to get in, but wasting their time searching for a key was pointless, any of them could easily find their way into the pool area without it. Iida and Izuku could just break the gate down with force. Todoroki could freeze the lock, making it brittle, or he could melt it. Or, like Tsu with her tongue, Shinsou with his capture weapon, Izuku with Blackwhip and Float, and Uraraka by making herself float, he could just go over the fence by lifting himself with ice. 

Izuku shook his head and then used Blackwhip to grab all of his friends. Activating Float, he dragged them up and over the fence before depositing them on the other side. 

Iida sputtered as Blackwhip pulled away from him. “It is illegal to enter a place that is locked—”

“—Iida we are in the middle of an exercise with a time limit, we can’t search all day and hope to find a key.” Izuku spoke as he already started to walk away. “We should all split up and spread out. The object in question is an umbrella with a number 37 on it. Is everyone good with meeting back here in 5 minutes?”

There was a chorus of agreements as they all split off to check different places. Shinsou quickened his pace to get to Izuku. As soon as they were out of sight of everyone else, Shinsou started signing. ‘What aren’t you saying about this clue? Every other clue was a lot more specific.’

‘Well, for starters, the umbrella is in a house on Huckleberry, we are here for object 38, the stickers.’

‘Holy shit, you didn’t even tell him the correct place!’

‘The only people that I plan on helping during this entire exercise are Kacchan, you, Kirishima, and Kaminari. Everyone else may think I am helping them, but all they are getting is lies.’

‘Why?’

‘Because the people I am helping are the only people that have ever taken me seriously. Uraraka and Tsu saw my fight against Overhaul, Todoroki and Iida fought with me against Stain, yet somehow they all seem to think I need protecting.—’

‘—You fought Stain!’

Izuku looked at Shinsou with his eyes wide, “Uhh…” Izuku stalled out for a moment before switching back to signing.  ‘Legally I did not say that.’ 

‘Right, yeah, ok… So you are really doing all this because they underestimate you?’

Izuku stopped in front of locker 35 and tried to open it. Noticing it was locked he activated One for All to a low percentage and ripped open the door. ‘Yeah kinda, I get why the rest of the class might underestimate me, they haven’t witnessed me going all out, but Uraraka, Iida, Tsu, Torodoki, they all have, yet they still think I am incapable.’ Izuku reached into the locker and pulled out a pad of stickers slightly smaller than the note cards they had gotten at the beginning of the assignment. After checking that it had the seal and the number 38 stamped on it, he slipped it into his pocket and turned to leave the locker room. 

‘I need to prove to them that I don’t need protecting. Also, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to cause a little chaos.’ Izuku grinned, but only for a moment. They were approaching everyone else.

“Was anyone successful?” Izuku looked around, already knowing the answer.

Everyone shook their heads. “Are you sure this is the location?” Iida squinted at Izuku.

“Yeah, this is where she said. It is possible someone already found it though, I did see that group leaving.”

“But the door was locked, Ribbit.” Tsu ribbed her chin thoughtfully.

“The door is still locked.” Shinsou deadpanned. “They probably found another way inside just like we did.”

“Right!” Iida chopped his hands. “Where should we go next?” 

The next hour or so was spent searching different locations for objects. The object that Asui had the clue for was located near the pool, so they made a quick pit stop to get the green flag. Izuku managed to convince his friends to let him fold it into a bag and carry it with him. They agreed easily because the color of the flag matched his costume so well, it looked like he didn’t even have it. They didn’t have to worry about someone trying to take it if no one could see it. 

They happened across the object Uraraka was looking for, object 15, the trophy, in the High School when they ducked inside to avoid a group that was passing by from Class B.  They had to get into a trophy case to get it though. Izuku would have just broken the glass, but they were insistent on not damaging anything. While they were struggling to get through without breaking it, Izuku snuck away. He sped over to the house that the umbrella was in and grabbed it, shoving it into his handy new bag. He got back without them noticing, just in time for them to finally manage to get the trophy. It was about 9 inches tall with a metallic plastic hero mounted to a marble base. It wasn’t too heavy, but it was awkward to carry, so Uraraka asked Izuku to carry it for her in his flag bag. Naturally, Izuku agreed. 

After that Izuku led his team around looking for objects. He found many, not that they would know about that. Just like at the pool he made sure to misdirect them. The only time they found the object was when they were the ones that found out the clue. They also just happened to find another object. A red flag was flying on a rooftop that they passed. They noticed that it looked identical to the green one, so Izuku flew up to check. It was object one, so he grabbed it and shoved it in his rapidly filling bag. 

They had a slight incident going after object 40, the poison. The clue said that it was in a cabinet at the ER. Unfortunately the ER was not a small building, and there were cabinets everywhere. Like they had at the pool, they all split up to search. It was going fine until they went to leave. Todoroki had found the poison and handed it off to Shinsou and the rest of the group had found each other, except for Tsu. She didn’t show up at the meeting point they decided on, so they went and searched for her. After half an hour they found her locked in one of the rooms. Apparently that particular room had a door that could only be opened from the outside, and it had closed behind her when she was checking the cabinets. It was an easy decision after that to split into pairs. 

Uraraka tried to convince Izuku to pair with her. She grabbed onto his arm the second the idea was proposed. Luckily, Izuku was saved by Shinsou. Somehow, he convinced Uraraka that she should pair up with Tsu and Shinsou and Izuku should partner together. Izuku had no idea how he managed to pull it off, but Izuku was partnered with the one person that actually knew his plan in the group. 

In the midst of all that there were a few announcements. One saying that Aoyama was shot, making him the second person removed. And another reminding everyone that they will be penalized if they try to continue helping anyone after they are removed, it counts as not following the spirit of the exam. Other than that, it remained calm, until it wasn’t. 

By the time the exercise really got interesting, Izuku was holding onto objects 38, 4, 37, 15, 1, 16, 31, 3, 2, and 5. Meaning that the green flag bag was full of the stickers, the umbrella, the trophy, the red flag, the mask, the banana, the purple flag, the blue flag, and the yellow star.They had also found object 40, the poison, but Shinsou held onto that. 

They were going after object 17 when Iida and Todoroki pointed out a strange rope hanging off the bell in the tower across the street from Kiwi Ct. where the camera, object 17, was supposed to be hanging off the light pole. They had no idea if the rope was an object, but they figured, if nothing else, the rope could be helpful. The two of them split off from the group to get it.

Everything was going well, until they ran into another group. Katsuki, Kirishima, and Kaminari were also heading straight for the camera. Izuku was the first person to notice, so as soon as he saw Katsuki, he clicked.

‘Kacchan!’

Katsuki looked up but it was too late for him to do anything, Uraraka and Tsu saw them. Both groups froze for a moment, and then they jumped into action. As Izuku joined Uraraka and Tsu in running towards the other group he took a second to make sure Katsuki and Shinsou knew what the plan was, unfortunately he didn’t have a reliable way to contact Kirishima and Kaminari.

‘Kacchan, remember Shinsou is on our side, Uraraka and Tsu aren’t. Also make sure you keep your eyes out for Iida and Todoroki. We are going to have to spar.’  Izuku used their secret language.

He then turned to Shinsou and signed, ‘Find a sparring partner, make it look real but don’t actually take any of them out.’ 

Shinsou just nodded as they reached Kirishima, Kaminari and Katsuki. Shinsou immediately pulled Kaminari into a fight and away from the rest of the group. Uraraka started to square up to Katsuki, but Izuku quickly took charge in their morse code. “I have Bakugou, Uraraka, you and Tsu take Kirishima!” 

Uraraka stopped completely to listen to him, but both she and Tsu looked confused.  Izuku groaned, what was the point of having the morse code if no one could understand it? “I have him!” Izuku motioned to Katsuki. “Uraraka and Tsu, you guys take Kirishima!”

Tsu leaped into action and started fighting Kirishima, but Uraraka remained unmoving watching as Izuku started fighting Katsuki.

Noticing this, Izuku was quick to start up a conversation with Katsuki. ‘Uraraka doesn’t think I can handle this fight on my own. She will step in and will not hesitate to remove you if given the opportunity.’ Izuku dodged a few punches and threw a few of his own as they danced around the blacktop. He made sure to let the explosions get close enough to him to make it look like a fair fight, but with how well they knew each other, Katsuki might as well have been telling him every move he was going to do. Izuku knew he was doing the same, so he wasn’t worried about their fight looking uneven.

‘Fucking great!’ Katsuki growled. 

‘In a second I am going to tackle you. Fight back for a moment and make it look like I overpowered you. I am going to put a knife to your throat but don’t worry I won’t press hard.’ Izuku blocked an explosion with his arms.

‘I don’t think that counts for my task idiot.’ Katsuki dodged a very telegraphed powered up kick. 

‘I’m not expecting it to. Kacchan, do you trust me?’ 

For the first time during the fight Katsuki looked Izuku dead in the eyes. ‘More than anyone.’

‘Good.’ Izuku dove forward, tackling Izuku to the ground. Just like he told him to, Katsuki put up a fight, but only for a moment. After a moment of grappling, Katsuki ended up on his back. Izuku was straddling him, holding a fake knife to his throat. 

They stayed in that position for a moment as Izuku heard Uraraka run over. From the corner of his eye Izuku watched as Uraraka held her gun to Katsuki’s head. She was standing slightly behind Izuku, and to the side. Just a few feet away. 

They all remained frozen for a moment. Izuku took that moment to fill Katsuki in on the next part of the plan. ‘When I remove the knife, move out of the way. I am going to try and disarm her first but in case I don’t make sure you don’t get shot.’

“Come on Deku, kill him! If you can’t do it, then move so I can.” Uraraka clicked off the safety of the gun she was holding.

“Uraraka, I can kill Ka- Ba-… I can kill him, put the gun down.” Izuku watched as Katsuki’s eyes widened as Izuku said the first part of his last name, and he couldn’t continue. He knew that he wasn’t convincing because of it, but his relationship with Katsuki was worth more than this exercise. 

Uraraka stepped closer, close enough that Izuku could touch her if he wanted to. “I knew you couldn’t do this. You can’t even call him Bakugou!” Uraraka’s finger twitched towards the trigger, and Izuku moved.

In one quick movement he pulled the knife away from Katsuki’s throat and stabbed it into Uraraka’s stomach. One shot rang out, but Katsuki had moved fast enough that only some paint splatter ended up in his hair. 

Izuku pulled the knife back and stabbed her again, making sure that his actions would remove her. “Sorry Uraraka, but you were right, I can’t kill Kacchan.”

In one quick movement he pulled the knife away from Katsuki’s throat and stabbed it into her stomach. One shot rang out, but Katsuki had moved fast enough that only a small amount of paint splatter ended up in his hair. 

Izuku pulled the knife back and stabbed her again, making sure that his actions would remove her. “Sorry Uraraka, but you were right, I can’t kill Kacchan.”

Izuku had stabbed her with a fake knife that folded in on itself and let out paint when enough force was used to penetrate someone’s skin, so Uraraka was technically unharmed. Yet she was so shocked she remained motionless. 

Izuku knew that Tsu could look over at any moment, so he focused on making it look like he hadn’t been the one to stab her. Realizing Izuku’s dilemma, Katsuki pulled out his own knife to make it look like he had been the one to stab her. Izuku wiped the paint from the knife and put it back where he had been carrying it in his belt.

“Uraraka has been stabbed in the stomach. She is the third person removed.” The announcement rang out over the training grounds. 

Tsu was next to him in an instant trying to figure out what happened as Uraraka was led away by a drone. Uraraka’s eyes remained wide as she was pulled away, her face pale with her mouth still open in shock. Izuku could hear Iida and Todoroki running in the distance, so they only had a moment to get their act together. Tsu looked between Izuku and Katsuki and right as Iida and Todoroki came into view she opened her mouth to say something. Before she could make a sound another pop rang out, and paint dripped down her face. 

“Tsuyu Asui has been shot in the head. She is the fourth person removed.” 

Everyone started looking around in shock as another drone came and collected Tsu. Izuku had no idea who shot her, and from the looks of it, no one else did either.

“Iida, Todoroki, did you see who shot her?” Shinsou called out.

“No—” Todoroki started as Iida also spoke.

“I didn’t—” 

Both went blank before they could finish what they were saying. Izuku ignored that and took out his gun. Waiting for any signs of a shooter. “Did anyone see who shot her?” The fighting was all over now, the only people that weren’t captured by Shinsou’s quirk were all the people that Izuku was working with. 

“Midoriya you can put the gun away, I shot her.” Shinsou called out, as he and Kaminari walked over to join them. Kirishima also walked over.

“What? Why?” Izuku whipped around to look at him, confusion all over his face.

“She could tell that you were the one that stabbed Uraraka. She was going to tell them.” Shinsou nodded to Iida and Todoroki who were still standing off to the side, motionless. 

“Now what?” Kirishima asks, taking in the scene around them. 

“Now we separate. You three go back to Sero and Mina, where are they by the way?” Izuku had almost forgotten that there were two more people in their little group that had yet to make an appearance, but he was glad they didn’t show up for the fight. Just dealing with the people Izuku was supposedly working with was hard enough.

“They split up to grab a different object, we should be meeting up with them again in a couple of minutes.” Kaminari supplied.

“Ok, so you three go back with them. Shinsou and I will convince Iida and Todoroki that you all got away after taking out Tsu and Uraraka. We will all meet back up at the end in the plaza.” Izuku started to move into action.

“That’s a great plan, but why? We could take them out right now and not have to worry about it.” Kirishima looked confused by the lengths he was going to trick his friends.

“We could, but I really want to go plus ultra, you know? This exercise is more than just about doing well for me. I am proving to them that I’m not fragile, weak, and innocent.”

“Wait wait wait, they think you are fragile, weak, and innocent? Really? You? Have they met you, or even ever seen you before?” Kaminari looked like Izuku had just tried to claim the sky was green. 

Izuku laughed. “Yeah that was my thought, but they have started making a habit of stepping in during training and defending me from literally everything. I’m sick of it.”

“I had noticed that they were being weird during training, but I figured that you were just injured or something and wanted to hide it from Aizawa.” Kirishima looked thoughtful. 

“Nope!” Izuku grimaced. “Now we don’t have much time, get going!”

“Wait!” Kaminari called out before Izuku could get away. “Do you happen to know where objects 8 or 16 are? I’m looking for 8, the stuffed dog, and Kiri is looking for 16, the mask. Blasty already got his ornament.”

“Oh, and do you know where object 5 is? I need it for my task.” Kirishima piped up.

Izuku dug around his flag bag for a second before pulling out his notebook, the mask, and object five, the yellow star. He handed the mask and the star to Kirishima before looking for the correct page in his notebook. “Object 8… Oh, this was one I was going to head to soon. It’s at 11 Banana St. Under the bed in the smallest bedroom!”

“Cool thanks! Any objects you need clues for?” Kaminari asked before he started whispering the location of his object under his breath, trying to memorize it. 

“Nope, we got ours, good luck!” Izuku and Shinsou walked away to join Iida and Todoroki who were both still caught in Shinsou’s quirk.

Izuku heard Katsuki click as he walked away so he stopped.

‘We are going to talk about what fucking pink cheeks said later, got it?’

‘Ok Kacchan’ Izuku continued walking away, joining Shinsou.

“Ok, how do we want to do this?” Shinsou asked.

“Umm… Well first off, you have to poison someone right? Does it say how long the poison takes to work on the bottle?” 

“Oh! I didn’t even think to check that.” Shinsou pulled out the bottle and read the label. “Huh, it takes 2 hours.”

“Perfect, choose one of them to poison now, and then they will be removed later. After you’ve done that, use your quirk and tell them to lie down on the ground. Then tell them to not remember that you used your quirk on them in the first place. Once they wake up we will tell them that they both got hit with an attack that knocked them out but we were able to defend them well enough to keep them from being removed. Unfortunately, Kacchan and the rest of them got away though.”

“Damn ok.” Shinsou had Iida drink the poison and then he did exactly what Izuku told him to. Moments later Iida and Todoroki were blinking in confusion on the ground.

It took a few minutes to get them up to date, but once they were all ready, Izuku started to lead them out of the court. 

“Didn’t you originally come over here for the camera?” Todoroki asked as he nodded at the camera still hanging on the light post. 

Izuku floated up to grab them before rejoining the group. “We got distracted. Did you end up getting that rope?” 

“Yes, it turned out to be object 36!” Iida untied the rope from where he had it around his waist. 

“Cool! Do you want me to carry it in my bag?” Izuku motioned to the bag he was wearing. 

“If you don’t mind. It wasn’t too big of a problem around my waist, but it could cause problems if I leave it there.”

“No problem!” Izuku grinned as he added the object to his bag along with the camera, grateful again that the dark color matched his costume well enough that his friends couldn’t tell how full it really was. 

After the students were let loose in the training grounds the teachers made their way to the viewing room to view the cameras throughout the grounds. There was a screen for each student with AI switching between the cameras to always keep an eye on that one student. There was also one large screen that showed whatever the most interesting action was. As more students were removed, the screens that were showing them would change to show different angles of wherever the action was. 

Aizawa is supposed to watch all the screens equally, but he knew as soon as they had done their whole act when the prep time started, that he is going to focus on Midoriya and Bakugou. They are planning something big, and he doesn’t want to miss it. 

Other teachers joined them once they were there. After the preparation time, Nedzu was intrigued enough that he decided to cancel classes for the rest of the day so that the other teachers could see the exercise. Apparently, he thought that something was going to happen and that it would be good for the teachers to see live. Aizawa couldn’t help but agree. The teachers that hadn’t been there for the preparation time were filled in on what happened, but they didn’t seem to believe that anything surprising was going to happen, however, they were always glad for a chance to watch hero exercises. 

Many of the teachers were a little surprised to see Midoriya move so easily through the streets right at the start. He didn’t get a chance to move like that during class much, so the only people that had really seen it were Aizawa and All Might. Aizawa did his best to hide his proud smile, but All Might was a lot less successful. Thankfully the other teachers were too busy trying to figure out what Midoriya was doing to pay attention to them. 

Aizawa was also unsure about what Midoriya was planning. It took him no time at all to find his object, but he didn’t go back to find his friends, instead, he was sneaking around Peach Ct. and the City Hall building. It got a bit more difficult to hide his proud smile as he realized that Midoriya was sneaking around on rooftops, quickly, without using One for All. It’s looking like the work studies might go pretty well.

“Did he just hide his object and the bronze ball on the top of City Hall? Why would he do that?” Present Mic looked baffled. 

“It makes sense to not want to carry around a lightbulb, but why hide it there? When he gets removed he won’t have it unless he goes back for it, but he can’t ensure that he will be anywhere near there at any point for the rest of the exercise.” Cementoss observed. 

“I believe he has a much more complicated plan than we are giving him credit for.” Nedzu spoke without looking away from the screens. 

Vlad King groaned as they continued watching and saw Monoma shooting at Midoriya, even as his teammates were trying to talk him out of it. He choked as Midoriya took out his gun, and only a second later shot Monoma between the eyes. As Nedzu announced that Monoma was removed, the heroes all stuttered out their surprise.

“Who taught him how to shoot? That was an incredible shot! And from that far away!” Snipe was amazed, looking between all the other teachers looking for an answer. 

No one had an answer for him, so after a moment Aizawa spoke up. “As far as I know…” He trailed off as something on a screen caught his eye. 

The other teachers all turned to watch as Midoriya barely stopped himself from running full speed into a building. After the chuckles stopped, Snipe turned back to Aizawa. “As far as you know what?”

“Sorry, as far as I know, no one at UA has helped him at all with shooting, although he has been practicing with his quirk to get better aim with Blackwhip and his air force attacks, and I imagine they require similar techniques.” Aizawa never turned from watching the screens, not wanting to miss a second of his students' chaos.

The teachers were distracted by the students' conversation, they had switched to a sort of morse code. The teachers that had been watching during the prep time knew immediately how to translate the code, but the rest of them didn’t.

“What are they saying? What kind of code are they using?” Present Mic hated hearing people communicate right in front of him and not being able to understand them. That is why he has made an effort to learn so many languages.

“It’s morse code, but shifted five letters.” Vlad King announced, but it was too late to be of use. 

Not waiting for someone to ask, Aizawa translated. “They are using the clue Yaoyorozu gave them to head to the pool for object 37…” Aizawa looked down at his paper that listed the clues and who had them and grinned. He thought about telling the other teachers what was going on, but he figured it would be more amusing if they were surprised.

Aizawa didn’t know what to think about them struggling to find a way to enter the pool area. There is a time and place for worrying about breaking and entering, but a timed school exercise in an on-campus training ground is not it. Luckily, Midoriya understood that and floated them over, earning them a chuckle from many of the teachers.

Aizawa noticed some action on other screens, and he felt bad about not paying much attention to it, but they would go over each student individually later for grading. During the exercise, they were focused on what the most interesting parts are, and Midoriya is on the center screen.

As Mirodiya and Shinsou started talking in ASL, Present Mic stepped up to translate, as he was the only person in the room that knows the language. He moved to get a better view of the screen and then started speaking. 

“Shinsou is noticing that this clue is less specific than any others they had. Which is true by the way, why isn’t this one more exact?” Present Mic was confused, but then his face changed to one of realization. “Oh! They are actually there for object 38, object 37 is at a house on Huckleberry!” Present Mic’s face was again one of confusion, “But why lie?” “Oh shit, he is only helping Bakugou, Kirishima, Kaminari, and Shinsou.” Present Mic just watched the conversation for a moment, his eyes getting wider. “He is only helping the people that take him seriously… He fought Stain!” Present Mic’s voice got dangerously loud, almost using his quirk. “What! Legally he didn’t say that! What the fuck!” Present Mic was quick to apologize for his outburst, “Sorry, sorry.” He lowered his voice to a normal volume, “Apparently his friends all think he is incapable so he is proving them wrong and causing chaos during this assignment.” Present Mic sat back down in a hurry.

The teachers whispered amongst themselves about everything that had just been said. It was strange to hear that one of the strongest students was seen as incapable by his closest friends, but thinking back to classes recently, it did seem like they thought that. No one mentioned the remark about Stain, probably because if he legally couldn’t talk about it, then it was better left unsaid. 

After that conversation, the exercise got a bit boring. Izuku led his classmates all around one side of the training grounds, misdirecting them the whole time. It was almost amusing to see his makeshift bag filled without his classmates' knowledge. Even more so when they asked him to carry their objects for them. 

At one point all the attention was turned to two groups that ran into each other. Aoyama was taken out almost instantly. There wasn’t even really a fight. Aoyama was shot by Shiozaki, and then his group ran. It seemed unusual, but they probably didn’t want to risk the fight, seeing none of them had completed their tasks or gotten their objects. 

Aoyama tried yelling out information to his teammates as they ran after he was removed. After he was informed that he would lose points for that he argued that was never explained, so Nedzu announced a reminder for everyone. 

A drone led Aoyama out of the training center to a building where all the removed students would spend the remainder of the exercise. They were first brought to a small room with a desk, where they would have to write down who they helped and who helped them. There were multiple rooms set up so that the removed students would not interact until after they filled out their paper. Once their paper was turned in they were brought to the lounge. There were couches and many screens throughout the room where they could relax and watch the exercise as it continued. 

After Aoyama was removed, the exercise got boring again. Aizawa alternated between watching all of his students, but he couldn’t deny that he found himself watching Midoriya the most. He always seemed so loyal, so to see him work behind his friend’s backs was strange. 

It was only because the screens were in order by class number that anyone noticed what was about to happen. Midoriya and Bakugou’s screens were right next to each other, and they were heading to the same place. There were whispers throughout the room for a few minutes as people pointed out what was happening. As soon as everyone was watching, the room went silent with anticipation. 

Midoriya seemed to notice the other group first, but he wasn’t able to stop them from meeting. He did however take charge of directing his classmates. 

“He is telling Shinsou to find a sparring partner and make it look real.” Present Mic supplied the translation of the ASL that Midoriya and Shinsou were using.

“Midoriya is saying something to Bakugou, but I still can’t make it out.” Nedzu sounded almost frustrated, and it sent a shiver down all of the teachers’ spines. 

“He has glanced at Uraraka a few times, I think he is unsure about her watching the fight.” Ectoplasm observed. But Aizawa recognized that gleam in his eyes. 

“Or he just came up with a plan that involves her.” Aizawa did his best to keep his voice even. He was excited to see how this would play out. 

It was silent for a moment as Midoriya tackled Bakugou, but once he held a knife to his throat, questions rang out.

“Would that count for his task? He has a knife to his throat, but they both put each other as their top ally, so he’s not actually in danger.”

“It counts for partial credit.” Nedzu chimed in. “Although this will count for full credit if he survives.”  Nedzu nodded to where Uraraka was now pointing a gun at Bakugou’s head. 

It was silent, everyone was unsure about how they would get out of it. Izuku moved, and the room was in chaos.

All Might spit up blood, Nedzu was cackling, and many teachers were looking around with wide eyes and pale faces. Aizawa was supporting his own proud smile. He knew that Midoriya was more than just what All Might was training him to be, and this is proving it. 

It took a moment for Nedzu to make the announcement, but Uraraka was removed, she had been stabbed in the stomach by her seemingly innocent classmate. 

The teachers were trying to refocus, but they weren’t very successful, because less than a minute later Nedzu was forced to make another announcement. Asui had been shot by Shinsou, but somehow, none of them knew that. 

Many teachers paled even more, shocked that another student had managed to turn against his friends like that, but again Aizawa was supporting a proud smile. He wondered briefly if they had somehow figured out that there were secret espionage and hero points, but he didn’t think that was the case. These kids were just going full-on scorched earth just for Midoriya to prove a point. 

He wondered briefly, while Midoriya and Shinsou came up with a plan to take out Iida if Midoriya had a plan about how to come back from this. There is no doubt that his friends won’t underestimate him after all of this, but will they still be his friends? Aizawa didn’t see how that would be possible, but Midoriya seemed to have a plan up until this point, so he wouldn’t be surprised if he has a plan for after as well. 

“Can Shinsou’s quirk modify memory like that?” Aizawa was pulled from his thoughts by a question from All Might.

He thought for a moment over everything that he knew about Shinsou’s quirk, and he realized that he didn’t know. “I’m not sure… I didn’t think he had ever tried it.” 

They watched as Iida and Todoroki bought the story that was told to them and Aizawa felt a hint of pride. Shinsou was more powerful than he had originally realized. The pride only lasted a moment before it was replaced with a chilling realization. Midoriya knew that it would work and Shinsou didn’t even think to question him. Either Shinsou had been working on his quirk with Midoriya and hadn’t told Aizawa, or Midoriya had been able to figure it out on his own and Shinsou just trusted him that much. Honestly, Aizawa had no idea which option scared him more.

Izuku led them out of the court in the opposite direction that he saw Katsuki lead his group. He did the same thing that he had been doing all day and misdirected Iida and Todoroki at every turn. He was able to grab object 21, the bracelet, and object 23, the music box. During that time a few more announcements rang out, announcing that Komori, Hagakure, Kuroiro, Ojiro, and Kaibara had been taken out. 

They started walking toward the other side of the training grounds when they came across another group. It was a relatively small group, made up of just Kouda, Tokoyami, and Shouji. At first, they just looked at each other, all expecting the other group to attack them. 

After a moment, it was Tokoyami that finally spoke up. “We just lost a couple of members of our group, we really aren’t looking for a fight right now.”

“Why don’t we call a truce then? We also lost a couple of people not long ago.” Iida spoke for the group, chopping his hands like usual. 

They all took a moment to look over each other before dropping their defenses. They grouped up but didn’t start walking, instead, they discussed what they wanted to go looking for. 

“I have my object, and Kouda has his, but do you have any idea where the camera, object 17, or the music box, object 23 is? I need the music box for my task.” Shouji started their conversation.

“We didn’t find the music box where the clue said it would be, but Midoriya just picked the camera up from a light post.” Iida motioned to Izuku’s bag. If his friends hadn’t seen him grab it he would have never told them that he had it, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He pulled out the camera and handed it to Tokoyami, who looked at him in surprise. 

“Well, if no one else has an object that they need to find, I am still looking for object 7, the flower. Does anyone know where that is?” Iida asked.

After they all shook their heads no, Izuku started to lead them away. “If we don’t have anything they’re looking for or any idea where anything is, we might as well head over to the other side of the training grounds.” Everyone shrugged and followed him. 

Izuku kept his eyes on them, expecting them to attack. He didn’t trust them, not completely. That was probably why he didn’t notice the group of Class B students until they were attacking them. 

Awase, Bondo, Fukidashi, and Shishida wasted no time in attacking. At first, it looked promising for the Class A students, it was seven against four, but then Shoda, Honenuki, Yanagi, and Shiozaki showed up. Suddenly it was seven against eight, and the Class A students had lost their advantage. 

As the battle went on more students showed up, drawn to the free for all of the battle. Almost the entirety of Class B was there, as well as everyone in Class A that hadn’t been removed yet. It was loosely Class A versus Class B, but some people had teamed up with people from the other class, so the lines were a bit blurred.

Izuku made sure that it always looked like he was fighting against people in Class B, but he would throw a paint grenade, or sneak out a shot at anyone whenever people weren’t looking. Almost immediately a few people were removed, taken out by a paint grenade that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It was actually Izuku that threw it, but no one could tell. Satou, Fukidashi, and Bondo were all taken out by it, making the people around them even more confused about who threw it. 

The battle waged on. Not long after the first people were removed, Shiozaki was removed, taken out by Mina’s bullet. Her success however was short-lived, as she was taken out moments later by a bullet shot by Yanagi. 

Izuku bounced around the fight, actively attacking people in Class B. He was in constant conversation with Katsuki, taking turns to warn each other of the upcoming danger. Izuku tried to warn Kirishima, Kaminari, and Shinsou of any attacks that he could see coming, but he didn’t have a secret language to effectively communicate with them. Even then, they always seemed to avoid the attacks, so he didn’t stop warning them, even though there was no plausible way for them to understand him. 

The fight remained chaotic, with Tokoyami being removed in an impressive combo move by Shoda right before Katsuki removed Shoda and Yanagi with his own very impressive combo move. He used his quirk as a flashbang and then exploded a paint grenade. It caught the attention of everyone, but unfortunately only took out the two people. 

Izuku used the distraction as an opportunity to take out Kouda. Todoroki took advantage of the distraction as well, finally able to freeze someone without worrying about freezing his allies. He took out Shishida by freezing his feet to the ground and then shooting him. 

Through the chaos, Izuku noticed that Yaoyorozu, Jirou, Kendo, and Kodai tried to slip away. They only got a few houses down from where the main fight was happening before Honenuki softened the ground, causing them to sink in. In a quick move, Yaoyorozu created a paintball gun from her arm and shot Honenuki in the head. They were gone before Izuku could even process how impressive it was. 

The fight started to come to an end quickly after that, Kaminari stunned Awase with his quirk and then shot him. Followed by Rin sneaking a few good shots at Shouji, taking him out. Tsunotori took Sero out with a sneaky paint grenade and then was immediately taken out by Kirishima. He knocked her out with one hardened punch. Kirishima should have been taken out by the same paint grenade that took out Sero, but he hardened right before it went off. There was no way that Kirishima saw the grenade, but the only other explanation was that he somehow understood Izuku’s warning, which was even less plausible. 

The fight continued, but with so few people left, it was obvious that it was about to be over. The only person that was there that wasn’t someone that Izuku was working with, or pretending to work with was Rin. Shinsou had picked a fake fight against Kirishima, and Kaminari and Bakugou were fighting Iida and Todoroki. Izuku was fighting Rin. 

The fight had been taking place in the middle of the street, but as attack after attack decimated the road, they moved closer to the buildings. Izuku didn’t mean to kick Rin as hard as he did, but he was distracted trying to figure out how to end the fight. Rin flew back, going straight through a few walls. It would have been fine, except that the walls were load-bearing. The building creaked and groaned for a moment, before collapsing, falling towards them. 

Izuku worried about Rin for a moment, but he caught a glimpse of a few drones protecting him, and he started worrying about him and his friends instead. Rin was probably badly bruised, but Izuku held back enough to make sure he wouldn’t be hurt too badly, he just happened to hit a weak point in the building.

 There was chaos for a moment with everyone running in different directions. Izuku had thought that Katsuki was nowhere near him, but when the building finally fell, he found himself stuck under the rubble, with Katsuki on top of him, their bodies pressed together. They were face to face, but they looked around their small space, not at each other. 

‘Kacchan, how did you get here?’

‘I had to fucking tackle you idiot, that damn building was about to kill you!’ Katsuki growled in annoyance and tried to get up, only to find that he couldn’t. ‘Fuck! We are stuck here.’

Izuku looked around and tried to see if he could move any of the rubble, but he was unsuccessful. ‘Dang it, I can’t get leverage on anything. We really are stuck.’

‘No shit, I already said that.’

Izuku could tell that Katsuki was getting angry. ‘Kacchan, I was just double checking, no reason to get angry.’

‘I have every damn reason to get angry, we are trapped under a damn building!’ It was obvious that Katsuki was trying to avoid exploding something. 

Izuku had thought that their relationship was good, but he couldn’t keep the insecurities away. ‘Sorry Kacchan, I know that you probably hate being stuck here with me.’

‘What?’ Katsuki looked Izuku in the eye for a moment before looking anywhere else. ‘No, that’s not it.’ Katsuki sighed. ‘If I had to be stuck here with anyone I’m glad it’s you, it’s just… I fucking hate small spaces.’ Katsuki looked down at Izuku’s chest. ‘I can’t use my quirk, it is too dangerous, I could kill us both’ 

Izuku wasn’t surprised at the revelation, but he was surprised that Katsuki actually said it out loud. He had an idea that Katsuki didn’t like small spaces, he had always avoided them, but Katsuki never opens up about stuff like that. 

‘You aren’t going to kill either of us, we are going to be fine.’ Izuku tried to reassure him.

“How can you know that huh? How can you possibly fucking know that?” Katsuki switched to talking out loud, obviously starting to freak out about their predicament.

Izuku tried to look Katsuki in the eye, but the explosive boy was looking around frantically, not looking at Izuku at all. “Kacchan… Kacchan look at me” Izuku tried to get his attention, but Katsuki didn’t seem to hear him. “Kacchan… Katsuki!”

Due to the surprise of hearing his name, Katsuki finally locked eyes with Izuku. “I know that we are going to be fine because I trust you. You have better control over your quirk than anyone I’ve ever met, and I know that you will do everything you can not to hurt me.”

Katsuki stared into Izuku’s eyes for a long moment before whispering, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Izuku struggled to bring his hand up, but he cupped Katsuki’s face anyway. “I know, Kacchan… I know.”

They stayed like that, unmoving, for a while, staring into each other’s eyes. They both leaned in, almost imperceptibly. Izuku could feel his heart racing as his breath mingled with Katsuki’s. He had been dreaming of being this close to Katsuki for years, and while this wasn’t exactly how he hoped this would happen, he wasn’t complaining. 

Their lips were almost touching when a noise caused them to both lean back. “Midoriya?” Iida was calling out. “Are you in there?”

“Yeah, I’m over here!” Izuku called back.

The air got colder as ice surrounded them. Izuku could hear rubble bursting apart. From what he could tell Todoroki had frozen the space around them to protect them, and now Iida was breaking apart the rubble to get to them. It wasn’t an ideal strategy, but it was the best they could do without any other help. 

‘When they break us out of here you need to disappear.’ Izuku told Katsuki as soon as he realized what was going on. 

‘What? You don’t think we can take them?’ Katsuki looked at him, almost in confusion. 

Izuku giggled. ‘Oh I know we can take them, I just think we can do better than a surprise attack after they save us. A big finale in front of City Hall sounds so much better!’ Izuku grinned at the explosive boy.

‘When the fuck did you get so damn dramatic Deku?’ Katsuki grinned back. 

‘What do you mean? I have always been like this.’

‘Yes you have nerd, yes you have.’ Katsuki laughed along with Izuku. 

It only took a few more minutes for Iida and Todoroki to get to them, and when they did, Katsuki blasted himself away. Their saviors looked at Izuku with confusion.

“You were trapped with Bakugou?” Iida questioned.

“Yeah, it wasn’t the best situation.” Izuku shrugged. 

“How did neither of you remove the other?” Todoroki narrowed his eyes in suspicion. 

“We were pinned down. I couldn’t really move, and neither could he. If either of us tried anything, we would have either taken ourselves out too, or we would have both ended up seriously injured.” Izuku explained. It wasn’t entirely a lie, they couldn’t have taken each other out without hurting themself too, but the thought had never even crossed their minds. Izuku looked around, realizing that they were missing the last person from their little group. “What happened to Shinsou?”

“We haven’t seen him since the building came down, we figured he went off on his own or something. Unless he ran towards the building, his fight was happening far enough away that he should be fine.” Iida explained as the group moved away from the rubble. 

“Oh, well, I guess we have to continue on without him then, maybe we will meet up with him later.” Izuku shrugged and moved on. Shinsou probably had just stayed with Kaminari and Kirishima then, after all Kaminari was his top ally. It wasn’t what Izuku had planned to happen, but it would probably be better that way. There wasn’t a ton of time left before the poison took out Iida. Izuku might have been able to lie to them successfully so far, but he knew that there was no way he could convince Todoroki that it wasn’t Shinsou that took out Iida. They all were there when the poison was found, and they all knew that Shinsou had been the one to hold onto it. 

The three of them continued on in the direction they had been heading in before the huge fight. Izuku wanted to go and retrieve a few more objects, but he doubted that he would be able to find any more. It was late into the exercise, so most objects were probably already found, and there weren’t many people left. From the announcements, he knew that there were only 15 people left. It was also already afternoon, and they had no idea how long the teachers would let this exercise go on. 

Izuku led Iida and Todoroki to a jewelry shop on the corner of Cherry and 10th. He didn’t bother to hide this one from them, he knew that at this point they weren’t going to let him out of their sight, and he really didn’t expect to find anything there. To his surprise, what he was looking for was right there, clearly visible in the window. He broke the window and was reaching for object 20, the necklace, when a paintball exploded by his hand. He grabbed the necklace and jumped back, searching for where the shot came from. 

It didn’t take long for him to find it. Tsubaraba came out from around a corner with his gun raised, flanked by Tokage, Kamakiri, and Tetsutetsu. All four of them had their guns out. Tsubaraba and Tetsutetsu were both aiming at Izuku, while Kamakiri was aiming at Todoroki, and Tokage at Iida. 

“Hand over the necklace!” Tsubaraba yelled out. 

“Or what?” Izuku yelled back. He ignored Iida's choked noise behind him. He knew that he wasn’t acting like his friends would expect him to, but that was kinda the point of everything he had been doing all day. 

“We’ll shoot you!” Tsubaraba called, almost confused why he had to explain that.

“Good luck!” Izuku called as he nudged Todoroki. 

Luckily Todoroki understood what he meant because a moment later paintballs were flying toward them. Just like Izuku had wanted him to, Todoroki put up an ice wall protecting them. 

Izuku didn’t waste a moment, turning to Todoroki and Iida to strategize in their adjusted morse code. “Keep their attention forward. Tsubaraba can make shields from the air, so we won’t have much luck attacking them head-on. I am going to sneak behind them and try to take them out with a surprise attack. Try to distract them as much as possible.”

Todoroki and Iida only had a chance to nod before the ice wall exploded, and Izuku snuck away. Ice flew everywhere and the other team was on Iida and Todoroki immediately. Tetsutetsu and Tsubaraba worked together to defend as Kamakiri and Tokage attacked. It was a good strategy, but they didn’t seem to notice that Izuku wasn’t in front of them even more. 

Iida ran at them constantly and Todoroki was coming at them with both fire and ice, effectively keeping them distracted. However, neither Todoroki nor Iida could land a hit on the students from Class B. Luckily, that wasn’t what they were trying to do.

Izuku was able to sneak around a lot easier than he expected to. The Class B students hadn’t noticed him, so he had his choice of people to take out first. He decided on Tsubaraba, he was doing the majority of the defending, so taking him out would change the whole fight. 

Out of the many weapon options that Izuku could use to take out Tsubaraba he went with a knife. All of the other options could be noisy and bring attention to him, and he hoped to sneak up on more than just one of them. He thought about trying to take them all out at once with a paint grenade, but it was unlikely that would work and if it failed they would notice him immediately. 

He grabbed the knife with a single strand of Blackwhip, and then extended that strand toward Tsubaraba. He never would have thought that he could use this quirk like this, but after working with Aizawa, he found that he could control it with more precision than Aizawa’s capture weapon. It was difficult, and it took a lot of focus, but it was useful. 

Moving quickly so as not to be noticed, he brought the knife to Tsubaraba’s throat and slashed it. Just like the knife that he used against Uraraka, it was fake, just leaving behind a line of red paint. 

“Kosei Tsubaraba has had his throat slashed, he is the 26th student to be removed.” The announcement rang out over the training grounds, causing Tsubaraba’s teammates to panic. 

Izuku did his best to catch Todoroki and Iida’s attention, trying to get them to attack more aggressively while the class B students were distracted. They managed to figure out what Izuku wanted, and all three of them attacked at once. Izuku went for Tokage, as Iida went for Tetsutetsu, and Todoroki went for Kamakiri. Todoroki and Izuku were able to take out their targets easily with them being distracted, both going for simple bullets. The announcements rang out for Kamakiri and Tokage, but not for Tetsutetsu, Iida was unsuccessful. The bullets he shot at Tetsutetsu hit him with a loud clang, but they weren’t enough to get through his quirk. 

Izuku tried running in at Tetsutetsu, knowing that they would only have a chance at taking him out by wearing out his quirk, meaning they had to force him to use it for a prolonged period of time. 

As Izuku got close he was surprised by Tetsutetsu doing nothing, except turning his body to steel, and looking Izuku right in the eyes as he spoke. “I know you aren’t really working with them.”

Shocked by his words, Izuku stopped. “W-what?” Izuku stared at the steel student.

“I’m working with Kirishima, I know who your real allies are. If you don’t take me out right here, I will help you.” 

Izuku narrowed his eyes before reaching out with Blackwhip, grabbing Tetsutetsu by his wrists and ankles. “I don’t know if you are telling the truth, but I doubt we will be able to do much damage as long as your quirk is active.” Izuku turned to Todoroki and Iida. They both were in a position to attack, but neither did after Izuku stopped. “We won’t be able to take him out as long as he has his quirk active, but I captured him, so in fifteen minutes he should be out anyway.”

He pulled Tetsutetsu over to the other two, but before they got close he whispered to the boy he was dragging along. “Play along or I will find a way to take you out, got it?” 

Tetsutetsu nodded his head slightly, and Izuku loosened the restraints slightly, enough that Tetsutetsu could get out if he wanted to, but he didn’t.

Iida and Todoroki looked unsure about the arrangement, but Tetsutetsu looked solidly restrained, so they didn’t question it. Once they were sure that Tetsutetsu wouldn’t cause any issues Iida and Todoroki continued walking in the direction they had been going, but Izuku wasn’t sure if that was the best plan anymore. Kamakiri had been announced to be the 28th person to be removed. Meaning that there were only 12 people left. He hadn’t heard announcements for any of his allies, so all of them plus the people that he was with right then would make 8 people. There were only four people left that Izuku had no connection to and he couldn’t make sure that they were all exactly where he wanted them to be. 

He had already planned with Katsuki to meet at the City Hall at the end, but with the training grounds as massive as they were, there was no way for him to ensure that he would find those remaining four people before the teacher’s called time. 

Making up his mind, Izuku hurried to Iida and Todoroki. “Hey, have you guys completed everything you need to do?” Izuku debated about using their morse code, but he decided against it. He wasn’t sure if he completely trusted Tetsutetsu, but he didn’t want to leave him completely out of the loop.

“What?” Iida looked confused by his question.

“Do either of you have something that you need to do still that you can do? Is there any reason we shouldn’t try to end the exercise?” They were all standing in the middle of the street, having stopped walking when Izuku had first asked the question. 

“We don’t know where my object is, and I did my task during that big fight, so there is nothing else I need to do.” Iida replied. “Although I’m not sure how you expect us to end the exercise when we don’t know where anyone else is.”

Izuku ignored Iida’s comment and turned to Todoroki. Noticing that he was waiting for his answer, Todoroki answered. “We were unable to find my object and the object I need to be able to do my task, so there is nothing else I can do.” Izuku felt a little bad when he realized that he had both the objects Todoroki was referring to in his bag, but he pushed that aside. 

“We could keep wandering the training grounds aimlessly until someone finds us or we find someone, or, we could set up a fight.” Izuku grinned. Iida and Todoroki both took a step away from him. Izuku hadn’t noticed but his grin wasn’t the innocent one that he usually put on around his friends. No, this grin was more similar to Katsuki’s; it was predatory. 

After Todoroki got over Izuku’s grin, he stepped forward again. “How would we do that?” 

“Well, first we need to get to a good spot for it. I’m thinking Peach Court, right in front of City Hall.” Izuku got right to planning. “At this point, everyone has probably found the objects that they had clues for, so they will most likely be looking for everyone else. If we make it obvious where we are, they will attack—”

“—But what if they don’t? They might still be looking for more objects, and they will definitely be expecting an ambush.” Iida seemed completely unconvinced.

“Then we just wait until they do. We could spend all afternoon running around the training grounds, but I doubt we will find anything else. We might as well try setting up a fight in our favor instead of waiting for someone else to.” Izuku explained. Honestly, he was getting kind of bored just running around the grounds, he was ready for this to be over. 

“We have no better options, so Midoriya, lead the way.” Iida chopped his arms definitively. 

Izuku grinned again and pulled Tetsutetsu along with him. He checked the time and did his best to stop his grin from widening. 

“Tenya Iida has been poisoned. He is the 29th student removed.”

“Tenya Iida has been poisoned. He is the 29th student removed.”

Izuku did his best to wipe the grin off his face. Luckily he was standing a bit in front of everyone, so no one could see him grinning at the fact that one of his supposed allies was poisoned. He took a deep breath and did his best to look surprised as he turned around. 

Todoroki was watching Iida with wide eyes as a drone led him away. Even Tetsutetsu looked confused. 

“Shinsou poisoned him…” Todoroki whispered, his eyes still wide. 

Tetsutetsu whipped around to look at Izuku, a question clearly in his eyes. Izuku just nodded slightly, acknowledging that he did know this was going to happen without alerting Todoroki. Tetsutetsu’s eyes widened even more. He may have known that Izuku was working with different people, but it was obvious that he didn’t know that Izuku was willing to betray his own friends. 

Izuku didn’t know what to say. He wanted to say something, but he was also worried about overacting. If he wanted this to work, he needs to get to City Hall, preferably not alone. He technically could show up alone, but if the first people to arrive after him weren’t Katsuki and the rest of his allies, he was screwed. He didn’t know for sure who was left, most of the announcements had happened during fights so he wasn’t able to really listen well, but he doesn’t think he heard Yaoyorozu’s name announced. If he had the element of surprise on his side he could have a chance against her, but she had taken out Honenuki so effortlessly that he wasn’t sure he could beat her, especially if she wasn’t alone.

Luckily, he didn’t end up having to say anything. Tetsutetsu spoke up instead. “Ok, so, are we gonna just wait here or are we gonna head to City Hall?” 

That was enough to get them moving again, toward Peach Court. They arrived not long after that and Izuku grinned, ready to set his plan into action. He felt a little guilty about the property damage he was about to do, but the teachers never mentioned anything about it not being allowed, and he already destroyed one building anyway, might as well make it two. 

“Todoroki, get ready for a fight, I’m going to alert everyone to our position.” Izuku started to float, dragging Tetsutetsu with him. 

“How?” Todoroki asked before he could get very far. 

“You’ll see.” Izuku grinned and took off. He still was using Blackwhip to hold onto Tetsutetsu, so he was dragged along with him. It had been over fifteen minutes since he had ‘captured’ him, so he would be considered out, but he could get free at any moment. Luckily Todoroki hadn’t noticed, he was too distracted by Iida being removed. 

Izuku shot straight to the roof of City Hall, first to grab the objects he had stashed there, and then to find a good spot on the dome. Before he started looking around the dome he took a moment to carefully wrap the lightbulb in one of the flags he had in his bag. He tried to make everything fit as securely as possible, not wanting anything to break during the final fight. Once he was sure the objects were secure he started looking at the dome. He searched for a bit, inspecting every inch of the glass dome. Finally, after a few minutes, he seemed to find what he was looking for. 

“Tetsutetsu, I think you are far enough away, but just in case, now would be a great time to harden.”

“What?”

Izuku didn’t answer, instead, he powered up One for All, upping the percentage in his legs to the maximum amount he could handle. He took a deep breath and pulled his leg back, only to kick it forward a moment later. His foot found its mark, the small crack in the joints, the dome’s weak spot. 

He probably could have kicked it anywhere with the same effect, but he wanted to be sure that this would work. With that one kick, the dome shattered. The force of his foot hitting the glass created a thunderous boom, followed by the loud sounds of shattering glass. A moment later, the statue that had been at the top of the dome hit the ground, causing another loud bang. There was no doubt about it, everyone knew where they were.

Izuku floated back to where Todoroki was standing, still dragging Tetsutetsu. As soon as they got close Todoroki yelled out to him. “Was that really necessary?”

“The teacher’s never said that we couldn’t cause property damage, and besides, everyone knows where we are now.” Izuku shrugged and looked around. Todoroki was looking towards the entrance to the court, down 10th street, but Izuku knew that there were many different directions people could come from. His friends were insistent on following rules, like not breaking and entering and following roads instead of taking shortcuts, but he knew that not everyone would be like that. If it was up to him their group wouldn’t have been like that either, but Iida would never have allowed that to happen. It was probably good he was poisoned before they got to this point, he would have had an aneurysm from Izuku causing that much property damage. 

They were waiting for a while before the first group appeared. They were coming from behind the City Hall, cutting through the grass and backyards separating them from the next nearest street. He had hoped that Katsuki and his group would show up first, but he wasn’t that lucky. He only caught a glimpse of them before they disappeared behind a building, but he was pretty sure that no one Katsuki was working with had a long dark ponytail. 

“Looks like we got company, they are behind City Hall, be ready when they come out.” Izuku spoke to both Todoroki and Tetsutetsu, loosening Tetsutetsu’s shackles even more. He was planning on releasing him once the fight got started, but until then he had to keep up the ruse. 

It turned out to be a good decision to keep Tetsutetsu captured because Yaoyorozu came out from behind the building guns blazing, flanked by Jirou, Kendo, and Kodai. Tooroki was able to create an ice shield to protect himself, while Izuku yanked Tetsutetsu in front of him, using him as a human shield. 

“What the hell man?” Tetsutetu yelled out as his back was stained red. 

“What? You are metal, you’re fine.” Izuku pulled out his own weapon to begin firing back. 

“Well yeah, but really? Using me as a human shield?” Tetsutetsu tried to pull away, but Izuku tightened the restraints. 

“You know, I could have taken you out earlier,” Izuku spoke but he wasn’t paying much attention to the metal human shield in front of him. He was more focused on shooting at the girls that were attacking. 

As Izuku aimed at Kodai, he could feel Tetsutetsu yanking at Blackwhip, disturbing his focus. “Stop moving!” He grunted at his metal shield. 

“I was just getting Kiri’s attention!” Tetsutetsu explained. 

Izuku whipped his head around to find Katsuki, Kirishima, Shinsou, and Kaminari all walking up. Everyone that was still in the exercise was here now, so it is about to get interesting. 

Izuku was going to say something to Katsuki, but the explosive boy was already talking. ‘Why the fuck are you using Metal Man as a shield?’

‘I captured him earlier and I needed a shield so why not?’ Izuku grinned as he shrugged.

“What the fuck?” Tetsutetsu was staring at Izuku like he was wild. To him, Izuku had just shrugged with a feral grin on his face for no reason. 

Katsuki shook his head also smiling. ‘So what’s the plan nerd? Are we finally working together or are we still gonna fake fight?’

‘Let’s not give up anything yet, but focus on taking out the girls first. Todoroki is going to go after everyone except me.’

‘Ok, let’s kick some ass!’ Izuku was sure that Katsuki turned to relay the message to the rest of the group as soon as he finished talking because a second later the fight got a lot more interesting. 

The newcomers launched themselves at the girls, paintballs flying wildly while electricity sparked and many different voices yelled out. Unfortunately, the first person to get hit was Shinsou. A stray bullet shot by Kendo hit him in the shoulder, and then another in the chest. He was announced removed moments later. 

Izuku could tell that Kaminari was upset at that, but he couldn’t focus on it. There was still a fight going on. With the girls distracted by more people joining the fight, they stopped firing on him, meaning that he didn’t need his shield anymore. He nodded at Tetsutetsu as he released him, and whispered, quietly so Todoroki wouldn’t hear, “Don’t you dare take me out after all this.”

Tetsutetsu nodded back and then ran to join the fight. Izuku took a moment to stretch and shake out his arms. He had trained a lot with Blackwhip to be able to hold it for longer periods of time, but it still made his arms feel a little numb. He knew that feeling would come back quickly, but he didn’t have time to wait. Luckily, he didn’t use his arms much to fight after all the damage from the beginning of the year. 

After a moment he rejoined the fight, just in time to see Tetsutetsu take out Kodai with a paint grenade. She didn’t even think to protect herself, convinced that Tetsutetsu wouldn’t turn on his classmates. Unfortunately for her, she was wrong. It was announced that she was removed moments later. 

Izuku let himself get pulled into a fight against Kendo. She was standing back and shooting, but her aim wasn’t great. Izuku thought about keeping it a gunfight, but she had better cover. The girls had entered the court from a side that ensured ample cover, meanwhile, Izuku had been in the middle of the street. He was using Todoroki’s ice walls that littered the street, but they were melting. In addition to Bakugou and Todoroki’s fire melting the ice, Yaoyorozu had created a flamethrower, specifically to counteract the ice. 

With his cover disappearing quickly Izuku made the decision to get close. Kendo has an extensive amount of combat training so fighting up close might not be the best idea, but if he stays away it is likely that he will be taken out by a bullet sooner rather than later, and that would really mess up his plans for how he wanted this to end.

Izuku could tell that moving forward was starting to unsettle Kendo. He activated One for All as well as Blackwhip and Float as he closed in on her, both for intimidation, and mobility. She was panicking, but she was not backing down, still trying to shoot him.

He aimed an air force blast at her, knocking the weapon out of her hands, and then it became a hand-to-hand fight. As they started exchanging blows, Izuku faintly recognized that Kaminari was announced as being removed from being shot, probably by Yaoyorozu, but he kept his focus on the fight. 

It was hard to dodge Kendo’s enlarged hands, but with Float and the speed enhancement that One for All gave him, he was able to for the most part. He did take a few hits, but they didn’t phase him too much. He could tell that Kendo was running out of steam, her hits got slower, and there was less force behind them, but she was refusing to give up. 

A loud explosion to his right caught his attention, and he turned in time to see Katsuki take Jirou out, having stunned her with an explosion before pulling out a gun to shoot her. Izuku did his best to hide a smile when he caught a glimpse of Katsuki’s face. His eyes were wild from the thrill of the fight, the pride at having taken out Jirou was evident in his feral smile. Izuku loved seeing this side of Katsuki, his symbol of victory. 

Izuku’s thoughts were cut off as he was batted away from the fight. Kendo had taken advantage of his distracted state and had hit him with as much force as she could muster. He took a second to get his bearings, and then he flew at her. 

He kicked and punched and attacked her with Blackwhip all in quick succession, forcing her back. He grabbed the knife that he had used to remove Uraraka and gripped it tight as he feinted with a kick. As she dodged he moved quickly, reaching out, and stabbing her with the knife. Her eyes widened in shock as she tried to bat him away with an enlarged hand, but it was too late. 

“Itsuka Kendo was stabbed. She is the 34th student to be removed!”

As soon as the announcement rang out Izuku turned his attention away from her, she was no longer a threat, but there was still a fight going on. He turned just in time to see Kirishima and Tetsutetsu teaming up against Yaoyorozu. They were hiding behind an ice wall made by Todoroki, resting their quirks for just a moment, but when they weren’t paying attention Todoroki snuck up on them. Izuku was about to yell a warning, but he was too late, Todoroki shot one in the head, then the other, too quick for either to activate their quirks. 

There were only four students left, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, Katsuki, and Izuku. Almost immediately after the last announcement rang out the air filled with smoke, making it so that it was impossible to see. There was no way of knowing which person had used a smoke bomb, three out of the four people that were left all had the ability to make smoke. Izuku was on edge, but not nearly as much as he knew the others were. Both Katsuki and Todoroki had listed him as their top ally, so neither would hurt him without risking their own grade, so the only one that he had to fear was Yaoyorozu. 

There was a sound to his right, so he activated his quirk, the smoke around him reflecting the green glow that he was letting off. He noticed a shift in the smoke, right about his head level, so he trusted his instincts and ducked, narrowly avoiding a bullet. He heard sounds of fighting nearby, and the popping of more bullets being fired, but the smoke near him remained unchanged. 

Not enjoying the lack of sight, Izuku took on a ready stance and then upped the percentage of One for All in his finger. He flicked, similarly to how he did in the Sports Festival, except now he was able to keep from breaking his finger. All at once, the smoke disappeared, displaced by the force of his blast. 

Izuku looked around carefully, just in time to see Katsuki land a shot on Yaoyorozu, the bullet hitting her in the chest. 

As the announcement rang out, announcing her as the 37th student removed, Todoroki pointed his gun at Katsuki’s head. Again Katsuki was staring down the barrel of a gun, once again pointed by one of Izuku’s friends.

“I could take you out right now.” Todoroki’s voice was low and cold. “But Midoriya has asked to be the one to do that.” Todoroki’s eyes flicked over to Izuku, who was pulling out his own gun. With Todoroki’s eyes on him, Izuku slowly leveled the gun at Katsuki and took a deep breath. Katsuki’s eyes widened slightly, even while trying his best to look confident. 

“I’m sorry,” Izuku started, still staring at Katsuki, “but I can’t remove my top ally.” Before anyone could react Izuku changed where he was pointing his gun and pulled the trigger. The red paint dripped down Todoroki’s face, between his wide eyes. 

“Shouto Todoroki has been shot in the head. He is the 38th student removed.” 

Todoroki stumbled backward, letting confusion show on his face.

“This exercise is now over. Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou are each other’s top ally, and the only two that remain.” 

Izuku turned away from Todoroki to look at Katsuki, to find him already looking at him with a large smile. They made eye contact, and then he was moving. Within moments he had tackled Katsuki, knocking him over. Izuku was laying on top of him, not unlike how they had been under the rubble. 

Izuku only took a moment to look at the explosive boy, before he leaned in, and pressed his lips to Katsuki’s. For a moment, neither of them moved, and Izuku thought that he had read the look on Katsuki’s face wrong. He started to pull away, but before he could, Katsuki grabbed the front of his hero costume, pulling him close. Slowly Izuku felt Katsuki’s lips moving against his own, and Izuku almost cried in relief. It wasn’t a great kiss by anyone’s definition, it was obvious that neither of them had any idea what they were doing. But to them, their first kiss was perfect. 

The teachers sat back and watched as the exercise went on. After the problem duo’s fight, their attention was drawn to the group consisting of Kuroiro, Tokoyami, Shouji, Kouda, and Komori. In the distance, Tokoyami noticed Yaoyorozu, Jirou, Hagakure, Ojiro, Kendo, and Kodai. He could have ignored them, but instead, he used them as a scapegoat to do his task. He used Dark Shadow as a distraction and then shot Komori, effectively betraying his ally. 

Aizawa took note of how impressive it was that Tokoyami was able to so convincingly make it look like it had been someone from Yaoyorozu’s team that took her out. The two teams’ fight was short, and during it, another group had a run-in. Rin, Tsunotori, and Satou happened upon Awase, Kaibara, Bondo, Fukidashi, and Shishida. Satou shot Kaibara, removing him, and then they disappeared. 

By the time both fights had ended, there were 31 students left. It was getting a bit concerning with how many students were still in the exercise, and how few had their objects. A large reason for many students not having their objects was Midoriya’s collection in his makeshift bag, but there were still quite a few objects hidden in the training grounds. 

Aizawa’s attention was again brought to Midoriya as his group came upon Tokoyami, Shouji, and Kouda. To his surprise, and to the surprise of many other people in the room with him, not only did Midoriya and his group not fight them, but Midoriya gave them an object from his bag. He didn’t look too happy about it, but the gift seemed to make the two groups trust each other more. 

Knowing that he couldn’t watch the one student the entire time, Aizawa let his eyes drift across the rest of the screens. A section of Class B screens caught his eye, and he leaned forward in interest, waiting at the edge of his seat for what would happen next.  A group of Class B students was almost to Midoriya’s group, and there were many other groups nearby that seemed to be heading toward them. It looked as though there was about to be a large fight. 

Sure enough, a battle began, and group after group arrived. From what Aizawa could see there was a hesitant unspoken alliance made within each of the two classes, with most students choosing to attack the other class rather than their own classmates. 

“Yes! It’s getting interesting again!” Present Mic was getting excited by the chaotic fight. Aizawa couldn’t blame him, this was easily the most interesting fight since the problem duo ran into each other.  

Many teachers jumped when Nedzu announced the first few people removed from this fight. 

“Where did that grenade even come from?” Snipe asked while many other teachers voiced their own confusion. Aizawa couldn’t tell either, even though he usually was very good at noticing things like that.

Instead of answering, Nedzu used a screen that was originally for one of the students that had been removed to rewind different cameras, looking for any indication of who had thrown the grenade.

Aizawa didn’t bother to hide his grin as Nedzu was finally successful. No one should have been surprised at this point, but there were still a few gasps when it was shown that Midoriya had been the one that threw the grenade. 

Their attention was brought back to the present fight as bullets flew everywhere, removing even more students. Even as other students were removed, Aizawa’s eyes were drawn to Midoriya, and he knew that he wasn’t the only one. It took a moment, but Aizawa finally figured out why. Every so often Midoriya would watch one of his allies' fights, and see an attack coming for them. His body language would become similar to what it was when he was speaking with Bakugou, and then his ally would avoid the attack. It was subtle, in fact, Aizawa only noticed it because he had been watching the boys so closely since that first assignment. It was possible that it was nothing, after all both boys acknowledged that their language took years to develop, meaning that no one would be able to learn it that fast, but it was still interesting. 

A choking sound from Vlad King brought Aizawa’s attention to the rest of the battle. He had missed the actual shot being fired, but Aizawa was proud of his student when he realized what had happened. Honenuki had paint dripping down his face as Yaoyorozu ran off with her group, carrying a paintball gun that was not one of the types that were laid out fir them. He would bet that she had created the paintball gun and shot it in almost one motion, that was the only thing that would explain his coworker's shock. 

The fight died down quickly after that as many students were removed. Aizawa was wondering how Midoriya would end the fight as the only student that was left that he was not allied with, or pretending to be allied with, was Rin. The Class B boy was not a bad fighter, but he was not able to hold up against Midoriya’s strength, as was apparent when he went flying into the air, taking down a building. 

A drone went after him quickly, making sure that he was alright, and then the building fell. The teachers all watched in shock as almost all the students got out from under the building, but not all of them. Aizawa struggled to keep his face neutral as Bakugou tackled Midoriya, barely avoiding a piece of rubble that would have crushed him.

Nedzu flipped through cameras frantically as many teachers, Aizawa included, got ready to head down to dig out the problem duo.

“Wait!” Nedzu stopped them at the door.

“My students are crushed under the rubble, they could be bleeding out!” Aizawa tried to argue, pushing his way past the other teachers to the door.

“They are fine!” Nedzu’s shrill voice rang out, catching Aizawa’s attention. He whipped his head around to look at the center screen. When he saw the image on it, he let out a sigh of relief, Bakugou and Midoriya were in a small cavity in the rubble, they didn’t have a lot of space, but neither looked injured. A wall had collapsed next to them, creating a small triangle of safety. 

“We still need to get them out,” Aizawa argued, even as no one else moved.

“It looks like Iida and Todoroki have already started to remove the rubble. Let’s give them a few minutes to see what they do, and then you can intervene.” Nedzu pointed at another screen, showing the two students in question, working together to carefully remove the rubble. Their strategy wasn’t ideal, Iida was kicking apart pieces after Todoroki stabilized the surrounding area, but it wasn’t terrible, especially with no other help. 

It hurt for Aizawa to watch one of his students obviously panic at being in such a small space, but he just had to watch and hope that Midoriya was able to calm his friend. He let out a breath that he barely was aware he was holding as he saw that Midoriya was successful and they were both calm again. 

Once he realized that the problem duo was fine, he turned his attention to the rescue efforts. Iida and Todoroki were making quick work of the rubble, and after a bit of digging, they found the two trapped students and got them out, only for Bakugou to use his quirk to leave as soon as he could. 

It didn’t take long for Bakugou to find his allies, and then the exercise got boring again. Each group remained separate from the others, still searching for their objects. Many were already found so there was little success. 

Midoriya’s group took center screen when he found an object, and then another group found them. Aizawa didn’t even try to hide his proud smile as Midoriya snuck around behind the class B students. It was not surprising that they didn’t notice him, Midoriya had learned a lot since Aizawa started helping with his training, and as long as he didn’t start glowing, he had gotten very good at not being seen. 

The other teachers apparently hadn’t noticed him sneaking around either, because when he slashed Tsubaraba’s throat, many gasps rang out.

“Where did he come from!” Present Mic struggled to keep his quirk from seeping into his voice. 

Nedzu cackled before he announced the removal, and then continued to cackle at the panic on the screen. Aizawa was again proud as his students took advantage of the other student’s panic to attack. All three Class A students shot at different Class B students, removing two of them. Tetsutetsu was the only one that remained, and it was only because he had turned to steel before the bullet hit. 

Everyone was on the edge of their seats as Midoriya ran in to attack, only for him to stop completely. The cameras were too far away to hear what they were saying so questions rang out as to why he decided to talk instead of fight, but Aizawa had an idea. Kirishima was one of the students Midoriya was working with, and it was no secret that he is close friends with Tetsutetsu, in fact, according to the papers that they turned in, they are each other’s top allies. If he was going to bet on it, he would bet that Tetsutetsu had just let him know that he was in on it, making him a more valuable ally than the two people that he was supposedly working with. 

When Midoriya used Blackwhip to capture Tetsutetsu, Nedzu went to start the clock, but Aizawa stopped him. “Look, he is not actually captured, he could escape if he wanted to.” Aizawa motioned to where Blackwhip only appeared to be tight, a closer look proved that the black stands were only loosely wrapped around Tetsutetsu. 

“Oh, how interesting!” Nedzu chirped with a grin. Aizawa was worried about how much Nedzu was learning about his student from this exercise, but there was nothing he could do about it. 

They all watched in interest as Midoriya planned with Todoroki and Iida, many teachers realizing that this had been his plan from the beginning, he was leading them back to City Hall, where he hid his object, and where he plans to end the exercise. 

At the beginning of the exercise if anyone had told Aizawa that Midoriya had a plan to end the exercise he would hesitate to think that it would work, but after watching everything that he had done, Aizawa knew better than to doubt him. Normally a hero would go in with a plan, only to end up winging it in the end, but that hasn’t happened yet. Midoriya had been following the same plan the whole time, and it was working for him. 

Nedzu cackled as the timer he had next to him went off, alerting them that the poison Shinsou had used finally worked. For the first time throughout the entire exercise, Midoriya’s acting failed. He was grinning as he heard the announcement, in a way that could not be explained away if he was to be questioned about it. Aizawa found himself tense, waiting to see if this was where his ruse was finally up, but somehow he changed his expression to one of surprise, even as he nodded to Tetsutetsu. 

It was hard to see why he was nodding, but Tetsutetsu must have understood. Aizawa could see Midoriya overthinking, but it was Tetsutetsu that surprisingly saved him, and brought their attention back to Midoriya’s plan. 

As they traveled Aizawa took that opportunity to look at the other screens. The rest of the students all seemed to be looking for each other, they must have figured at this point that they weren’t going to find any more objects, so instead, they wandered the grounds looking for people to fight. 

The teachers had discussed this scenario beforehand, deciding that if the exercise came to this they would try and lead them to the same place, or end the exercise early if that wasn’t possible. However, not one teacher suggested that they follow this predetermined plan, everyone was much too interested in seeing what Midoriya was planning. 

When Midoriya flew up to the roof of City Hall, the teachers all expected him to just grab the objects he stashed there. No one was expecting him to examine the glass dome, and then demolish it. 

There wasn’t a sound in the viewing room as they watched the dome shatter and the statue fall. The screens were filled with students turning towards the sound, but the teachers didn’t take their eyes off the shattered dome.

“Is that allowed?” All Might asked after being silent for the majority of the exercise. Aizawa could only imagine what was going through his head, watching his successor dominate this exercise in a way that no one would have ever expected.

Before anyone answered him, Midoriya answered a similar question that Todoroki had asked. “The teacher’s never said that we couldn’t cause property damage, and besides, everyone knows where we are now.”

“He’s right!” Nedzu cackled. “We never said they couldn’t destroy things!” Nedzu looked way too happy with this development, but Aizawa did his best to push that out of his mind. 

Midoriya’s plan worked, and the other groups started to head to him. Unfortunately, the closest group to him was Yaoyorozu, Jirou, Kendo, and Kodai, not Bakugou and the rest of his allies. Aizawa worried for a moment that Midoriya wouldn’t notice them arrive. He knew that he wasn’t supposed to be rooting for any student in particular, but every teacher in the room was hoping that Midoriya would succeed. He had proven to be more impressive than they had expected up until this point and they hoped that would continue. 

Aizawa was relieved when Midoriya noticed the students that arrived, although he and many of his coworkers had to hold back a laugh when he used Tetsutetsu as a shield. The steel student didn’t seem too happy with the arrangement, but it wasn’t the worst strategy on Midoriya’s part, and it seemed to be working well. 

Tetsutetsu started to wave his arms wildly, or rather, as wildly as he could while still restrained by Blackwhip. Midoriya looked frustrated for a moment and then confused, but the teachers all knew the reason. Kirishima had shown up, along with Bakugou, Shinsou, and Kaminari. 

A feral grin grew on Midoriya’s face, one that no one had ever seen before, yet seemed so fitting for him in this exercise. This was the finale he planned. Cheers spread throughout the room as the fight started, the teachers had been waiting for this all day.

Aizawa was disappointed as the first person to be taken out during this fight was Shinsou, but his son had done well. He was sure to score high after everything and he was bound to get some espionage and hero points as well. 

With the new people joining the fight, Midoriya finally set Tetsutetsu free. Aizawa felt a twinge of worry when Midoriya started stretching and shaking out his arms. He was getting better with his quirks but numb arms were a terrible thing to have in battle. Luckily it didn’t seem to be too big of a deal because he rushed into the fight not long after, just in time to see Tetsutetsu take out Kodai, cementing his alliance with Class A. 

Midoriya started fighting Kendo, leaving Bakugou to take on Jirou, and Tetsutetsu and Kirishima to take on Yaoyorozu. Todoroki was fighting Kaminari, at least until Yaoyorozu took him out, leaving Todoroki free to attack anyone. 

Bakugou was fighting well against Jirou, having figured out in the last battle that the most efficient way to remove someone was to stun them with his quirk and then shoot them. He used that strategy to take out Jirou. Many teachers muttered comments commending his strategy, but for the most part, the teachers were silent, sitting at the edge of their seats, invested in the ongoing fight. 

“That’s my boy!” All Might whispered, not meaning to say anything at all, while Midoriya fought back Kendo. It had been a worry at the back of Aizawa’s mind during the whole exercise that All Might would not approve of Midoriya’s actions. He was acting more like an underground or undercover hero, not like the limelight hero that All Might had been training him to be. It didn’t help that All Might had remained silent for the majority of the time. Hearing All Might whisper his pride at his successor’s hard pushback against Kendo, culminating in stabbing her, that worry seeped away. 

There was only one Class B student left in the final six, but he was taken out moments later, followed immediately by Kirishima. The final four students all were from Class A, filling Aizawa with pride. He knew he told his students that was not a competition between classes, but he has always been competitive, especially against Vlad. 

“Yes! Go girl!” Aizawa was shocked at Midnight’s yell, but he understood why she had yelled after only a moment. She had been working with Yaoyorozu on making gas come out of her skin using her quirk. From what he understood so far she had only figured out a harmless smoke, not unlike what smoke machines made, but she was using it now to obscure the view of her opponents. She also made herself some thermal vision glasses to have an idea of her classmates' locations even when they couldn’t see. 

Their vision on the screens was also obscured, but after a moment some of the screens switched to thermal vision. It was hard to tell exactly what was happening, but from the thermal vision, and the way the smoke was moving, it looked as though Yaoyorozu was just shooting at whichever of her classmates she saw. She shot at one of the students, only for him to start glowing a toxic green a second later. The green glow was painful to look at on the screens. The teachers all were able to look away to a different screen quickly, but from Yaoyorozu’s reaction, the glow had blinded her momentarily. She kept shooting even though she couldn’t see, but Bakugou was able to get in close. 

They all got to watch Bakugou take her out as Midoriya cleared the smoke with a flick. Aizawa grinned as he realized with Yaoyorozu out, Midoriya was sure to finish out the exercise without being removed, both the people left had listed him as their top ally. 

Todoroki didn’t know that though, and held a gun to Bakugou’s head, even as he was offering the final kill to Midoriya. The tension in the room grew as Midoriya pointed his gun at Bakugou. Aizawa was barely breathing as he waited for him to make his final move. 

“I’m sorry,” gasps rang out around the room as it looked like Midoriya apologized to Bakugou, “but I can’t remove my top ally.” The final gunshot wasn’t heard in the viewing room, the teachers were far too loud for that. All Might was cheering, not even being subtle about his favoritism for Midoriya, but then again, neither was anyone else. Aizawa had never seen so many teachers favor one student before, but even Vlad King seemed excited about what had occurred. 

Nedzu made the announcement ending the exercise, and Aizawa watched Midoriya tackle Bakugou. Aizawa worried for a moment that he was going to attack him for some reason, but when he saw them kiss, he pointedly turned away. His students had done well, Nedzu could deal with that.

Aoyama was probably one of the only people in the class that wasn’t looking forward to the newest assignment. He had gotten the lowest score out of everyone on the first two secretive communication assignments, and he hadn’t done much better after that. He knew that the rest of the class was passing him up, but there was nothing he could do about it. His quirk still hurt him, and he just wasn’t as good at being a hero as everyone else. 

The whole time he had been at UA he did his best to hide his insecurities. He used all the glitter and sparkles to hide the fact that he knew that he wouldn’t be a top hero like his classmates. He still tried as hard as he could to improve his quirk and keep up, but it wasn’t working out for him. 

He had felt a connection to Midoriya because of that. Midoriya was also hurt by his quirk, just like Aoyama, and he also seemed to think that he had to catch up to his classmates. But that wasn’t the case at all, and these secretive communication assignments were proving it. Midoriya and Bakugou got the best scores on the first two assignments, and then did well on the riddle assignment even though they were in the middle of an argument. Midoriya then got another aspect of his quirk and proved that he was incredibly strong even without his quirk in the joint training exercise. Then somehow after that, he started improving like crazy and developed yet another aspect of his quirk. 

For this assignment, Aoyama wasn’t expecting himself to do well, but Midoriya was most likely going to surpass everyone again. It was disheartening to see Midoriya so successful while he was not. That was why even though Aoyama considered Midoriya his closest friend, and really, his only friend, he didn’t try to be Midoriya’s close friend. He felt more of a connection with Midoriya than anyone else in the class, but that connection was fading fast.

Even though he wasn’t expecting to succeed, Aoyama still tried to do well, even if that didn’t really work out for him. He was taken out fairly quickly. His group of allies had run into another group early on, and before he even realized that he was being attacked, he was removed. He tried his best to tell his allies a clue that he had traded information with Midoriya to get but forgot to mention, but the drone stopped him, warning him that he would get points removed for not following the spirit of the exercise and continuing to speak after being removed. He argued that they weren’t clear enough on that, but he didn’t get to tell his allies the rest of the clue.

Filling out his allies sheet was easy and then he found himself in a room filled with couches and chairs, all facing the giant television screens that were everywhere. Monoma was already there, lounging in a chair watching one of the screens. Knowing how much the Class B boy hated Class A, Aoyama found a different spot to sit, on the other side of the room. 

He watched his classmates on the screen. The video feed that he was watching switched between where the most action was, so it was constantly changing between showing different people, especially cause nothing was really happening. The video just showed different people finding objects. Aoyama did find it interesting that the majority of the people it showed were from his class, but he didn’t think about it much. He did notice that Midoriya was taking up a large portion of the screen time, but Aoyama really wasn’t surprised. He knew this would happen.

He wasn’t however expecting the showdown between Midoriya and Bakugou and their allies to go as it did. He had never been sure what to think of their relationship. At first, he had been convinced that Bakugou was Midoriya’s bully, but he was getting more and more confused as time went on. They seemed to oscillate between being enemies to best friends. They got the highest score ever on the first two assignments, and then they argued during the riddle exercise and didn’t talk for a while. After the joint training they became friends again it seemed, and then at the beginning of this exercise, they had a loud and devastating fight.

Aoyama leaned forward as the two groups noticed each other. He was on the edge of his seat as Midoriya signed something to Shinsou, and then the fight was on. The fight between Midoriya and Bakugou took up the majority of the screentime, but the other fights that were going on appeared on occasion. 

As Midoriya pinned Bakugou, holding a knife to his throat, Aoyama couldn’t hold back a gasp. Midoriya had managed to pin one of the best fighters in the class, and so quickly too. He wasn’t sure what Midoriya was waiting for, but he found out only a moment later as Uraraka got close to him, her gun drawn, pointing at Bakugou’s head. 

Aoyama had thought a bit about who would be next to join him and Monoma in the lounge and how they would get there. He thought it would be one of the less combat-oriented students, or someone that wasn’t really taking the assignment seriously. Out of everyone in the two classes, he figured that some of the least likely people to be removed early were Midoriya’s allies. It was no secret that Midoriya would do anything to save his friends, so he figured that Midoriya would keep that up during this assignment. 

Midoriya stabbing Uraraka in the stomach was not something Aoyama had ever expected to see. He didn’t understand how that had just happened. One second it looked as though Midoriya was moments away from removing Bakugou, and the next second Uraraka was removed and Bakugou was released. 

Aoyama thought for sure Midoriya was going to come to his senses and remove Bakugou next, but the next person removed was Tsu, shot in the head by Shinsou of all people. Aoyama knew that his jaw was probably on the floor by this point, but he was so invested in what was happening that he didn’t care. He was shocked to see that all fighting stopped after that. Iida and Todoroki were caught in Shinsou’s quirk, and everyone else was just talking. As they discussed their next steps Aoyama was hit with the realization that these were the people Midoriya was working with, the only people he was working with. This exercise was more interesting than he thought it would be. 

Watching Shinsou using his quirk made Aoyama feel even more like he didn’t belong in the hero course. Shinsou was a late addition, replacing Mineta after the summer camp, but even he was closer to becoming a hero than Aoyama. His quirk was so useful, and he was able to use it in so many ways that would be incredibly useful for heroics. There was no doubt he could do more with his quirk than Aoyama could ever even dream of doing with Naval Laser. 

Aoyama wasn’t sure if he should say anything when Uraraka walked into the room, she still seemed upset, but he wasn’t sure if he could say anything to help her. Tsu followed her in a few minutes later and they immediately gravitated to each other, sitting together on a couch not far from Aoyama. 

He could hear their conversation, but he was trying to watch what was on the screen, so besides getting an idea of what they were talking about, he didn’t listen. They were discussing their last moments in the exercise, although neither of them was aware of who shot Tsu. 

Tearing his eyes away from where Tokoyami was pretending he hadn’t been the one to take out his ally, Aoyama turned to quickly explain what they had been missing to the two girls. 

“Tsu, Shinsou was the one that shot you. He knew you had figured out who had removed Uraraka and he wanted to make sure that you wouldn’t tell.” Aoyama would normally try and put more energy into what he was saying, make his words more sparkly, and slip into French, but he was much more focused on the exercise now, and he wanted to be succinct so he could get back to watching it. He had caught a glimpse of Kaibara being shot out of the corner of his eye, but he forced himself to not watch, he figured explaining was more important. 

“What! I don’t understand, we are his allies! I even put him down as my top ally!” Uraraka threw her hands up in confusion. 

“So did I, ribbit,” Tsu added. 

 “Look,” Aoyama motioned to the screen where Midoriya was grabbing an object, hiding it from Todoroki and Iida. As he put the object in his flag bag the camera caught a glimpse of all the objects that were already in there. “He found most of those before you were removed. I don’t think you were ever his allies.” Normally Aoyama would feel at least a little bad at being so blunt, but he really wanted to go back to watching everything that was happening. 

“But…” Uraraka started to argue, but she trailed off. The last object that Midoriya had grabbed was one Todoroki was looking for, but he didn’t offer it to him, or even let him know that he had it. They weren’t really allies, not to Midoriya, that was apparent. 

Aoyama didn’t look up as more people slowly entered the room. Ojiro and Hagakure came over to join their group on the couches, while Komori, Kuroiro, and Kaibara went and sat with Monoma. Uraraka and Tsu didn’t greet any of them either, all of them were watching the interaction that was being shown on the screens. 

Midoriya and his small group met up with Tokoyami, Shouji, and Kouda. They didn’t fight as they had expected, but instead worked together. Midoriya even handed over an object that he had hidden away in his bag. It was obvious to everyone that Midoriya was handing over the object reluctantly, but after brutally stabbing Uraraka, it was surprising he was handing it over at all. 

The screen briefly showed multiple other groups, and then the first group of Class B students arrived at Midoriya’s group. The battle grew quickly, with almost every student that was left taking part. 

This fight was easily the biggest so far, but secretly Aoyama thought the fight between Bakugou and Midoriya was much more interesting. That sentiment didn’t last long though, because very quickly a few people were removed by a grenade. The majority of the people in the room started yelling, trying to figure out who threw it, but the people that witnessed what Midoriya had already done so far in this exercise knew, and they didn’t let his green hair out of their sight. 

“Shut up and watch Midoriya if you want to know what is going on!” Monoma snapped, yelling loud enough to be heard over the exclamations of the people who had entered later. 

Aoyama was sad to see that one of the people taken out by the grenade was Satou, his top ally, but he wasn’t surprised at this point, Midoriya was really going all out. 

As the fight went on it was difficult to watch. The camera switched between people so quickly, showing people getting removed or where the largest attack at the moment was happening, but it would only stay at each scene for a moment before moving on to more interesting action. Announcements rang out often, culminating in there only being one person left that Midoriya wasn’t working with. 

Aoyama was actually pretty proud of Rin. He didn’t know the boy from Class B very well, but they were allies for this assignment and Aoyama hoped that they could remain friends. During the prep time, they had got to talking and Rin, Tsunotori, and they all bonded about being from other countries. They had only grouped together by chance, unable to find other allies, but Aoyama was glad for it. 

He was less happy about it however when Midoriya sent Rin through a wall. It was dead silent in the room, even as more people entered, as everyone watched Rin go through the building, and then the building began to collapse. 

A camera was quick to show that Rin was fine, but Midoriya had been right where the building fell. There were mixed reactions to a building falling on Midoriya. The whispers that slowly started up after the building fell all echoed the same sentiment. Everyone was both worried for Midoriya and thought that the building falling on him was karma for how he had been acting. As soon as the screen showed Midoriya fine, trapped in a triangle of space under Bakugou, the sentiment changed. Everyone was back to just thinking it was karma. 

It was almost sad, seeing Iida and Todoroki fight so hard to free Midoriya and Bakugou. After seeing Midoriya work so hard to keep secrets from everyone except Bakugou, Shinsou, Kirishima, and Kaminari, it was obvious to Aoyama that he was planning on betraying Todoroki, and Iida already was going to be removed very soon. 

No one in the room was surprised when Bakugou exploded himself away the second they were free, but it was obvious that Todoroki and Iida were not expecting him to be there at all. They looked confused, but it only took a few seconds of Midoriya explaining for them to be pacified. 

As the exercise got boring again, chatting started up. “Who is Midoriya working with? It was hard to tell during that fight.” Satou asked. He had been the first one to get back after the fight started, so he had witnessed most of it, but he hadn’t heard about everything Midoriya did before then.

“He said he was working with me, Tsu, Todoroki, Iida, and Shinsou. But after he stabbed me I have no idea.” Uraraka pouted, sitting back in her chair.

“Bakugou, Shinsou, Kaminari, and Kirishima,” Aoyama spoke without turning from the screen, not wanting to miss whatever happened next, even if for now the screen was just showing different people walking. 

“Wait, but I thought they had a huge fight, and Bakugou, Kirishima, and Kaminari were supposed to be working with us?” Mina looked confused, and a bit insulted that she was left out.

“They were working with you, but Midoriya seemed to trust them, so it seems like they are working with him as well,” Monoma spoke up, also not looking away from the screen. “The fight was fake, although I’m surprised any of you believed it in the first place. It is so obvious that they are friends, and they probably have been for ages. Although, I guess it isn’t surprising that Class A didn’t notice. You’re supposed to be the superior class, but you are really unobservant. ” Monoma sneered, but no one was paying attention to him anymore. As he was talking Midoriya found an object, and then a group of students from Class B found him. 

It didn’t look good for Midoriya, Iida, and Todoroki. Their defenses weren’t holding up, and none of their attacks were landing. Aoyama knew that wasn’t the case though, he kept his eyes on Midoriya, even if it was a struggle to follow his every move. Unlike the majority of the people in the room, he wasn’t surprised when Midoriya slit Tsubaraba’s throat, but he still let out a gasp anyway, impressed by Midoriya’s power and control to be able to do that. 

The panic on the screen was reflected on many students' faces in the room. It seemed as though people were just realizing how terrifying Midoriya could be. But the attack didn’t end with just a slit throat. Midoriya, Todoroki, and Iida all shot the remaining students. And then only Tetsutetsu remained. 

They all expected Tetsutetsu to fall quickly after that, even if only Midoriya was currently going against him, Todoroki and Iida would join in soon enough, but instead, without a fight, Tetsutetsu was captured by the black strands Midoriya had started to call Blackwhip. Murmurs of confusion were heard from around the room, but no one had any answers. 

The confusion turned to excitement as Midoriya talked about ending the exercise. The last fight was sure to be epic, and everyone was looking forward to watching it. Aoyama imagined what would have happened if he hadn’t been removed so early, but he couldn’t think of any way that he would have ended up in that final fight. Everyone that was left had done some impressive things. Aoyama knew that he could never be able to stand up in a fight against them, so he was a little relieved that he wasn’t there. 

Before they got far, an announcement rang out that had many people yelling. Aoyama had been expecting it, as had Monoma, but no one else had been in the room when Iida was poisoned. Even Uraraka and Tsu hadn’t arrived yet. The screen switched between two people. It showed the grin on Midoriya’s face for a moment, before switching to the grin on Shinsou’s face, mirrored on Bakugou, Kaminari, and Kirishima, before switching back to Midoriya and his group.

“Midoriya poisoned him!”

“When did he do that?”

“How could he have done that without anyone knowing?”

It was impossible to make out who was yelling what through the chaos, but finally, Monoma managed to silence everyone. “Shut Up!” The noise stopped abruptly. “Shinsou poisoned Iida earlier when he and Todoroki were under his quirk. Midoriya was not the one that poisoned him, but he was in on it.” Monoma explained as quickly as he could, but by the time they all turned back to see what was going on, the small group of Midoriya, Todoroki, and Tetsutetsu were on the move.

Aoyama found it a bit amusing how Tetsutetsu was being dragged along, Blackwhip attached to his wrists and ankles, but he didn’t say anything about it, not wanting to start a conversation that might bring attention away from what was happening. 

It didn’t take long for the group to reach City Hall, and the whole room was tense waiting to see what Midoriya’s plan was. No one was expecting him to fly up to the top of the building, and there were murmurs of confusion as Midoriya grabbed a few items, being careful to protect one of them before placing them in his bag. 

The murmurs got louder as Midoriya began to inspect the glass dome, but they were quieted immediately as they watched Midoriya kick it, causing the whole thing to break apart, and the statue that was on the top to fall. 

Once again they had been reminded of just how terrifying their small green-haired classmate was. He was smiling as he alerted everyone in the training grounds to their position. The screen changed to show the remaining students, all turning to head toward the noise. The exercise was about to be over, and secretly Aoyama was hoping that Midoriya would come out on top. 

The tension in the room rose the longer they waited for other students to get there, leaving everyone on the edge of their seats by the time the first group showed up. A few people chuckled, Aoyama included, when Midoriya pulled Tetsutetsu in front of him, using him as a shield to protect him from the rain of bullets that were being fired at them from the girls that had arrived. However, the majority of the people in the room remained tense, even more so as the last of the students arrived.

Just like it had during the other large fight, the screen changed often, going between all the different battles. It was hard to follow what was happening in each of the fights individually, but they were able to figure out a general idea. Shinsou was taken out, then Kodai. Midoriya fought Kendo, and Aoyama felt a little bad for her, Midoriya was a beast during this exercise and she had been doing so well. Bakugou was fighting Jirou. Kirishima and Tetsutetsu teamed up to fight Yaoyorozu, who took a moment to take out Kaminari before turning back to fight against them. Todoroki was going after everyone except Midoriya. 

It was chaos, but it was exciting. Each student was going at it with everything they had. Bakugou was able to take out Jirou using a move that he had used before, during the other huge fight, and then Midoriya took out Kendo, using a knife. From the way that he had used that knife so far during the exercise, it was obvious to Aoyama that Midoriya needs to add one to his costume, but he doubted that he would. Midoriya could be terrifying, but he seemed to want to be a more kid-friendly hero. 

Moments later Kirishima and Tetsutetsu were taken out by surprise by Todoroki, and then there were only four students remaining. Before anyone could really process that, the screen went blank as smoke filled the area. They could hear the pops from someone shooting a gun, but they couldn’t tell who was shooting, or if anyone was hit. 

After a moment they were able to tell where Midoriya was, the smoke around him reflected the green lightning that he gave off when he activated his quirk. Everyone was holding their breath, waiting to see what would happen, when suddenly the smoke cleared. Midoriya had his hand raised, having just cleared the smoke with his finger. The attention stayed on him only for a moment. They got to watch as Bakugou took Yaoyorozu out, and then there were only three students remaining. 

Aoyama was on the edge of his seat as Todoroki held a gun to Bakugou’s head. There were many people in the room that were cheering Todoroki on, telling him to shoot Bakugou, but he didn’t, instead, he gave Midoriya the chance. Aoyama thought he knew what would happen, so he gasped as Midoriya actually held his gun up to point at Katsuki, and apologized. 

When the shot rang out, hitting Todoroki between the eyes, the room exploded. Aoyama looked around the room to see how everyone was reacting, and most people did the same. There were a few people that seemed happy for Midoriya and Bakguou. Shinsou, Kaminari, Kirishima, and Tetsutetsu had only walked into the room moments before, but they were all happy for the two. Everyone else was upset. Uraraka, Tsu, and Iida were especially upset, they had been hoping that Todoroki would pull through. 

A strangled shriek had everyone turning to look at Uraraka. And then once they saw that she was staring at the screen, they all turned to look as well. Aoyama only managed to catch a glimpse of what she saw, but he immediately understood. Midoriya was on top of Bakugou, kissing him. 

Everyone knew about Uraraka’s crush on Midoriya, except for maybe Midoriya. Aoyama prided himself on being the first one to notice, and he called her out on it during their final. He had thought for a while that Midoriya liked her back, but recently it was obvious that wasn’t the case. He felt bad for her, but she wasn’t reacting well to it at all. She got jealous and possessive, and it drove Midoriya away even more. He knew that watching him kiss someone that she thought hated him must be difficult and confusing, but she was screaming and crying, making a big deal out of it. Iida and Tsu were doing their best to console her, but Aoyama wanted nothing to do with that, so he walked to a different part of the room.

Many other people were talking about the kiss. Most people seemed shocked, but there was a small group by the door that was laughing about them finally kissing, and Aoyama found himself gravitating toward them. He didn’t really want to hear about how no one was expecting it, about how shocking it was, because it wasn’t. Maybe at first, but if they really thought about it, it wasn’t shocking at all. There was always something more between the two of them, they had secrets, and a history that no one else could ever really understand. It just made sense that they would end up together. 

Aoyama didn’t join Shinsou, Kirishima, Kaminari, and Tetsutetsu in joking about how Bakugou and Midoriya were finally together, but he did just stand near them. He knew that they would be called out soon to meet with the teachers, so he didn’t really want to join any conversations. However, once Mina and Sero walked over to the group Aoyama was standing by, Shinsou walked away from them to stand off alone. Curious about Shinsou’s quirk use during the exercise, Aoyama decided to walk up to him and start a conversation. 

He had never talked to Shinsou before outside of class, always thinking he had nothing in common with him, but he was curious. 

“Bonjour! I saw that you shined very bright in that assignment!” No longer distracted Aoyama fell back into his usual way of speaking.

Shinsou looked surprised that someone was talking to him. “You think so?”

“Oui! Of course! You lasted longer than most, and your quirk use was impressive!” Aoyama complimented him, even though Shinsou was turning a little pink.

“That was all due to Midoriya. I was relying on his plans the whole time, and the quirk use was his idea too. Before I started working with him all I could do was control a couple of people, for short bursts of time. Just doing what I did during the Sports Festival was beyond what I could do normally.” Shinsou sighed and shook his head. “I thought that was my limit, I never expected to be able to do anything like I did today, but that’s Midoriya for you.” Shinsou huffed. “I’m sure he has about a million ways that people in our class could improve their quirks to the point that they are unrecognizable, but he only shares them with a few people.”

“Oh… do you think he would share any ideas he has about my quirk with me?” Aoyama kept a shining smile on his face, trying to hide how deep his insecurities were. “I didn’t last very long in this exercise, and I am behind most of the class when it comes to quirks. My Naval Laser is flashy as can be, but it is not versatile.”

Shinsou looked him over for a moment. “Midoriya accidentally flipped to the page he has on you once when we were training together. I didn’t see too many details, but it looked like he had a ton of ideas, I’m sure that he will be happy to tell you all about them.” Shinsou laughed. “When he is done with you, I don’t think anyone could say that your quirk isn’t versatile.” 

“Thank you, mon ami.” Aoyama’s grin grew a bit brighter. “And I saw more than most of the class. You made the decision to remove Tsu all on your own, without Midoriya even realizing. You may have been following his lead, but you shone brightly all on your own.” 

Aoyama caught a glimpse of a hint of a smile on Shinsou’s face, but their conversation ended there as all of the students were led out of the room to join the rest of their classmates and the teachers. Aoyama had walked into the room defeated, but he left with a new determination. He was going to talk to Midoriya, probably after the work studies, but he is going to talk to him and get help on improving his quirk. If Midoriya can go from breaking his bones to what he did today, and Shinsou went from struggling to control a few people to his performance today, then there is no reason that Aoyama can’t improve as well. He has always wanted to stand in the spotlight, so he should take the chance to learn from someone who has naturally been in the spotlight since starting at UA. 

Aoyama knew that he got one of the lowest scores on this assignment, but he didn’t care anymore because he had gained a new determination to do well. Being removed so early might have been the best thing to happen to him because it gave him the opportunity to watch his classmates, and get a new perspective on Midoriya.

When Izuku initially decided to betray his friends he intended to talk to them immediately after the exercise to explain and apologize. However, that plan went out the window when he kissed Katsuki. 

It hadn’t been a long kiss, in fact, they had been interrupted by a drone almost immediately, but it required a discussion. Izuku was impatient as they filled out their ally papers and heard some closing words from the teachers. He knew that many of their classmates were looking at Katsuki and him, but he didn’t care much. Talking to Katsuki is his priority, he can worry about his classmates later.

Katsuki seemed to agree with him because the explosive boy was pulling him away the second they were released. They changed out of their hero costumes quickly, and then Izuku was happy to let Katsuki lead him to a less populated place on campus. It wasn’t long before they found themselves sitting in the grass under a tree, facing each other.

They were sitting away from any buildings, somewhere few people wandered to, so they could have some privacy. They knew that if they had this conversation in the dorms there would be eavesdroppers, and they really would prefer to figure this out by themselves first.

It was silent for a while after they sat down, neither of them knowing what to say. There were a million thoughts going through Izuku’s head at once, so finally, when the silence had become so awkward that he couldn’t handle it, he just blurted out the first thing that he could think of.

“I’m sorry!” 

“What?” Katsuki had been waiting on Izuku to say something, but he was not waiting for an apology.

“I’m sorry for earlier. I mean… not for kissing you… but yeah for kissing you. I shouldn’t have done it then, and not in front of everyone, and… oh god, I didn’t even make sure that you were ok with it… I’m so sorry Kacchan it was really inappropriate I shouldn’t have done that.” Izuku only looked at Katsuki a couple of times as he talked before switching to keeping his eyes on a piece of grass that he was fidgeting with in his lap.

Izuku was expecting anger, but to his surprise, Katsuki started laughing. His head shot up so fast he almost gave himself whiplash as he looked up at Katsuki. The smile on Katsuki’s face was breathtaking. There wasn’t a trace of anger on his face, instead, he looked happy, happier than Izuku had ever seen him. 

“Damn it, nerd. Don’t fucking apologize. I’ve been wanting that for a while now, although in class was fucking unexpected.” Katsuki was still grinning, his eyes twinkling with humor. 

Izuku could feel his heart jump when Katsuki admitted to wanting that for a while, but he ignored it to focus on a different part of his statement. He groaned. “I really didn’t mean to do that in front of everyone.” Izuku could tell that his face was red, probably making him look similar to a strawberry. “I just got so excited! We managed to be the last two left in the exercise! I was just so happy!” Izuku gushed.

“No shit nerd. You really went all out on the damn thing.” Katsuki chuckled as he ruffled Izuku’s hair. 

“Well yeah, but so did you.” Izuku looked a bit confused by his wording.

“Nah, I went a normal amount of plus ultra, you blew everyone out of the water on this one Deku, even me.” 

“What?” Izuku looked at Katsuki with wide eyes. He didn’t think he went that hard, but apparently, Katsuki thought differently.

“I didn’t go out and betray all my damn friends or collect half the fucking objects in the damn exercise. I did well sure, but my performance didn’t hold a candle to yours.”

“Oh,” Izuku never expected to have done better than Katsuki. In every assignment so far they have been getting the same scores, usually turning in the same information. For this assignment that wasn’t really possible unless they were together the whole time, and even then they couldn’t share objects. But that does remind him, “I didn’t get half the objects! It was only like ten or something.” 

“Whatever nerd, you did well.” Katsuki was still smiling, but some uncertainty made its way onto his face. “But that’s not what I dragged you here to talk about.”

Izuku nodded. “Right, the kiss.” He took a deep breath. “You mentioned that you have been wanting that for a while now, but so have I… Kacchan, I really like you… as uh… more than a friend… I uh…” Izuku rubbed at the back of his neck. “I have for a long time… before UA even.”

Katsuki just looked at him for a long moment, not saying anything. He was still smiling, and he looked happy, but it was obvious that he didn’t know what to say. Izuku wanted to say something else to help him, but he also didn’t know what to say. 

Finally, Katsuki grabbed Izuku’s hands and came up with something to say. “I only realized it recently, but I think I’ve liked you for a lot longer than that.” He sighed and looked down, but didn’t let go of Izuku’s hands. “I didn’t realize it until the day of that shitty riddle assignment. Shitty Hair pulled me aside and told me to ask you out before Pink Cheeks does, and I obviously didn’t handle it well.”

Izuku couldn’t help but giggle at that. Katsuki saying he didn’t handle that well was a massive understatement, that day was a disaster. Once he got his giggles out he calmed down and asked the most important question. “What does that mean for us? What are we?”

“You’re my Deku and I’m your Kacchan.” Katsuki shrugged as Izuku raised his eyebrows at him. “What? I don’t fucking know! You know I’m not good at this shit!”

“Why don’t we just go with that for now, and then after the work studies we go on a date?” Izuku asked, with hope in his eyes, squeezing Katsuki’s hands.

“A date?” It was Katsuki’s turn to raise his eyebrows. 

“Yeah, we could go out for dinner or something, you know, a date.” Izuku kept his head down, starting to feel a little embarrassed to have asked at all.

Katsuki seemed to have picked up on his embarrassment because he squeezed Izuku’s hands back and then smiled. “If you want to go on a damn date then I will take you on the best fucking date ever!”

“But Kacchan I asked you so I will be taking you on a date!” Izuku couldn’t remember he smiled as large as this. 

“Hell no Deku! Let me fucking spoil you, you can take me on a date later.” Izuku's cheeks turned bright red as he got flustered, so he did the one thing that he could think of doing, he tackled Katsuki. They started rolling in the grass and laughing. Happier than either of them ever had been. 

The weekend passed by quickly. Most of their classmates were avoiding Izuku, they had all witnessed or heard about what he did during the last assignment and they weren’t sure what to think about it. Normally Izuku would be upset by that, but he was too busy spending time with Katsuki, enjoying the newfound freedom honesty gives. He did spend a little bit of time with Shinsou and the ‘Bakusquad’ as Mina calls them. Mina and Sero were the only two people in the class that wasn’t in on his plan during the assignment and weren’t avoiding Izuku. 

They were a bit annoyed at not being included in the alliance, but they were placated when they found that originally no one except Izuku and Katsuki was supposed to be in on it. Shinsou and Kirishima figured out that there was a secret plan and insisted on joining and Kaminari was pulled in by Shinsou. Unlike the rest of their classmates, they knew that the relationship between Izuku and Katsuki was very different from what it seemed until this point. 

On Monday morning the whole class was buzzing with excitement. Instead of going to class they were walking to the train station together to all head out for their week-long work studies. The whole class was leaving together, led by Aizawa, even though not everyone was going far. Shinsou and Izuku were staying with Aizawa and Jirou was going to do her work-study with Present Mic. All three of them are going to be staying in the dorms for the week while their classmates will be staying at the hero agencies they are working at. 

Izuku was excited about the work-study, he knew that he will be learning a lot, but he was going to miss Katsuki. He didn’t like the idea that only days after finally confessing their feelings they were going to be separated. Technically they weren’t far from each other with both of them staying in Musutafu, but they weren’t going to have a chance to see each other. 

He felt a bit bad about the situation that he left Katsuki in. It was one thing for the whole class to hate Izuku, he chose that and could handle it. But Todoroki had been one of the people that had heard their middle school cover story, and now they were working together at Endeavor’s agency. Katsuki had never been one to care about people liking him, but even for him, that situation must be awkward. Izuku tried to explain the whole story to Todoroki before they all left, but he wasn’t successful.

It made him feel worse about the situation when he realized that he was going to be working with someone that had no issues with what he had done during the assignment. Shinsou was easily his closest friend besides Katsuki at this point, and he understood the real story. The only person around that doesn’t is Jirou, and they are just living in the same building for the week, not really planning on interacting much. 

Their goodbyes at the train station were bittersweet and long. Aizawa had to stay at the station until everyone’s trains left, meaning the three students that were going back to UA with him had to hang out there as well. Most people were getting on trains not long after they arrived, but there were a couple of people that were going to farther, less popular places, that only had one or two trains heading there a day, meaning that their train didn’t leave for a bit. 

All of the people willing to talk to Izuku other than Shinsou had been on the early trains, so the two of them spent time signing to each other in ASL. There was no reason that they couldn’t speak normally, but they felt like practicing, and they figured that they might as well give their classmates a reason to stare, seeing they were already staring. 

That was one thing that Izuku was looking forward to this week, no classmates staring at him. None of them will talk to him, but they all have picked up the habit of watching him as if they were waiting for him to do something. 

Slowly the crowd around them thinned out, finally leaving just the people that were staying at UA. The walk back was silent, even as Shinsou and Izuku’s hands were moving rapidly, still carrying on a conversation in ASL. 

Present Mic met them as they entered the campus. After a quick conversation, Jirou and Present Mic left. Their internship was finally starting. Izuku didn’t know what he expected to happen, but he shouldn’t have been surprised when Aizawa dragged them to the gym. 

He brought them to the obstacle course that Izuku had been running to train his quirks, and he knew that Shinsou had also been running it during his training with Aizawa, so they both had a bunch of experience with it. 

“You will be running this course until you can both get through it in less than five minutes. Once you can do that, you will be able to join me on patrol. If you do not manage it today, you will keep going tomorrow and the next days until you can manage it. Midoriya, as I mentioned when I offered you this work study, you are not allowed to glow. If I see you light up green at all during a run, that run will not count.” Aizawa informed them.

It really wasn’t too crazy of an ask. Aizawa can run the course in two minutes, and Izuku’s best time is 7 minutes, so it makes sense that they need to speed up to be able to handle patrolling with Eraserhead. Their first run-through wasn’t bad, they each beat their previous records, but they were still at around 6 minutes. 

By the end of the day neither of them had been successful, so while Eraserhead went off on patrol that night, they slept. It was probably for the best, both of them were exhausted, even if they had managed to complete the obstacle course in time, they would have been too tired to keep up with Aizawa. 

The next morning they started over, and amazingly, both were able to complete it by lunchtime. Having a full night's rest helped a lot, as well as having a desire not to spend their entire work studies running an obstacle course. 

The afternoon was spent looking over maps and memorizing the patrol route they would be taking that night. The patrol route was made up entirely of places that they have been before, not too far from school, but the streets look different at night, making it more likely that they will get lost. Normally Eraserhead doesn’t map out an exact patrol route, he instead does his best to be unpredictable, taking different routes regularly, and changing his route on a whim. However, with two students joining him, that would be asking for them to get lost.  

Izuku and Shinsou were so excited to go out on patrol, only for it to not be very interesting. They ran across rooftops behind Eraserhead, but they only came across a couple of minor criminals. At the end of the night, they were still exhausted, but it didn’t feel like they had done much. 

Their work studies continued to be boring until Thursday night. It was late, or rather, it was early Friday morning, and Izuku was worried that they would go through their entire work studies without doing anything interesting. Throughout the week his classmates had done some incredible things. Some of them were on the news, others just described the cool things they did in the class group chat. It was kind of disappointing that the most exciting thing that he or Shinsou had done was help capture a couple of robbers. It was pretty basic, except one of the robbers had a quirk that let him make the ground slippery. He wasn’t hard to arrest, they barely even had to fight, but they did slip a lot and leave with a few bruises from falling. 

There was only the rest of Thursday’s patrol left, and then Friday night’s patrol before their work studies were over, and then everything went wrong. They were chasing a villain that had robbed a jewelry store in the middle of the night. They didn’t think the robber was going to be too difficult to catch, after all, he had seemed like he barely knew what he was doing. Somehow he managed to set off every alarm in the building, including ones on doors that he didn’t even need to go through. Even then he could have gotten away, no heroes were close by, but he didn’t bother to secure the jewelry that he stole, so he was dropping it behind him, like breadcrumbs, creating a trail straight for him.

If they had taken a second to think, they would have realized that this robber was too bad at being a robber, he was making too many mistakes for this to be an accident. But they were all bored after the last few nights, even Eraserhead, so they ran headfirst into trouble. 

Eraserhead was the first to be caught, a wall of the alley they were in practically reached out and grabbed him, encasing him into the brick like a cocoon. Eraserhead activated his quirk immediately, but he was already stuck, unable to move his head enough to look anywhere other than straight ahead, where his students were. He deactivated his quirk as soon as he realized what he had done, but it was too late. Izuku and Shinsou were overpowered quickly, neither of them able to use their quirks in the split second that they needed them.

Izuku and Shinsou both were very good at quirkless fighting, Aizawa insisted that they trained to fight without a quirk when they started training under him, but their first instinct was still to use their quirk. Aizawa didn’t try to train that instinct out of them, it wasn’t a bad instinct to have, but that instinct caused them to lose enough time to be trapped in the wall on the other side of the alley that they had run into, facing their teacher. 

The wall continued to move around them, controlled by some unseen villain. They seemed to know who they had captured too, because a part of the wall made its way around Eraserhead’s face, covering his eyes, while another strand, covered Shinsou’s mouth. The wall thickened around Izuku, obviously trying to account for his strength, but Izuku knew that they had underestimated him. 

He knew that he could break out of the wall easily, he could crush the whole thing with just a small percentage of One for All, but he wanted to know why he was trapped. As far as he could tell the alley was empty but they must have been trapped there for a reason. Even so, he activated One for All, it was barely at one percent, nowhere near what was needed to break apart the wall, but just enough to glow, shedding a bit more light into the alley. 

Katsuki claimed that his quirk has a sound to it, but at less than one percent it was inaudible. The silence was deafening, but he was doing his best to keep it silent. He was listening, waiting for something to alert him to why they were trapped in the walls of a random alley. He could faintly hear Shinsou’s breathing next to him, but while he was concerned about how frantically he was breathing, he couldn’t focus on it. He could see Eraserhead’s chest moving a bit faster than normal, probably also at least a little panicked at the situation, but he couldn’t focus on that either. 

As the only one of the three of them that was able to get out of the wall, and the only one that still had all his senses intact, it was up to him to do something about it. Finally, after they had been trapped for what seemed like hours, he heard footsteps. He thought about deactivating One for All, but he ultimately decided against it. The steady power bubbling under his skin was reassuring, reminding him that he did have a way to escape. 

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” A deep voice came from just beyond where Izuku’s glow reached. He couldn’t see the speaker, but the voice sent shivers up his spine. “I had been planning to catch Eraser like this for a while, but when I saw that he had two students with him I got excited; I had to push up my plans.” A figure stepped forward. It was impossible to make out much of their features, a dark cloak covered the majority of them, leaving only their glimmering sadistic smile visible. 

The villain stepped forward and reached for Aizawa’s face. It took a lot of control to not break out of the wall right then, but Izuku held back. He didn’t know if this villain was alone, he didn’t know what he wanted from them. He grabbed Eraserhead’s face and squeezed his cheeks, laughing that the hero couldn’t do anything about it. 

Izuku couldn’t take it anymore. “What do you want?” Izuku tried to keep from yelling, but he struggled to remain calm after watching the villain grabbing at Eraserhead. 

He had almost forgotten that Eraserhead couldn’t see them, but when his teacher heard his voice, his whole body tensed. The villain let go of Eraser’s face and turned towards Izuku. As the villain got closer he could make out more of the villain’s face. He had yellow eyes and a sinister smile. His face was sharp and bony, with almost no fat at all on him. The villain leered down at him, his height making Izuku feel small. 

“You know, I wasn’t sure if this wall would be enough to hold you.” The villain knocked on the wall near Izuku’s head. “But with all three of you captured, you can’t risk breaking your bones can you?” The villain laughed. “You see, Stain had the right idea, killing heroes. The thing is, I don’t believe there are any good heroes at all. You all deserve to die.” The villain grabbed Izuku’s face, squeezing it tight as he laughed. “Every last one of you.” 

Izuku could hear Shinsou struggling next to him, and behind the villain, he could faintly see Aizawa trying to get free. He knew that he needed to act soon to get them out of there, but he still didn’t know if there was anyone else helping the villain. He debated whether it would be better to break them out or wait longer as the villain moved on to stand in front of Shinsou. 

“I’m not sure who I should start with though. Should I force Eraserhead to watch as I murder his students in front of him, or should I force his students to watch him die? Hmmm…such a hard decision…” The villain walked over to stand in front of Eraserhead, and Izuku took that opportunity to try and get a message to Shinsou. There was absolutely no way he should be able to understand him, but he had no other option. 

He wasn’t using the language he had made with Katsuki, not exactly, but he was using something similar. He honestly had no idea why he was even trying, but he had to do something. 

‘When I break apart the wall I need you to try and use your quirk, the villain likes monologing so use my voice. I am going to free Aizawa, be prepared to run.’ Izuku repeated his message a few times. He hoped that Shinsou would figure it out, or at least follow his lead. 

Izuku took a deep breath and then upped the percentage that he was using. With the slightest move, the entire wall shattered. As Izuku’s voice rang out from beside him Izuku was moving. As he went to kick the wall that was holding Eraserhead the wall moved to meet him, capturing his foot. 

With his foot stuck in the wall, he was off balance, but he was still able to dodge an attack from the man that was coming at him from the shadows. He could faintly see the original villain standing still over by Shinsou, but he wasn’t at a great angle to tell what was happening over there. 

He upped his percentage just a bit and yanked his foot from the wall, shattering it in the process. Eraserhead was finally able to pull himself free and capture the second villain with his capture weapon in the same motion, effectively ending the fight. They both turned to the villain that Shinsou was dealing with, only to find him caught in Shinsou’s quirk. 

“You were right, he really does like to monologue.” Shinsou supplied as Eraserhead pulled out some cuffs and called it in. 

“Wait, when did Deku tell you that the villain likes to monologue?” Eraserhead looked up from his phone to ask. 

“Right before he broke out of the wall… did you not hear him?” Shinsou asked, looking between Eraserhead and Izuku.

Izuku froze, with confusion all over his face. “I didn’t say that out loud…” His eyes were wide as he made eye contact with Shinsou.

“What?” Eraserhead looked done with the whole situation.

“But I heard you say something! It wasn’t complete sentences or anything, just a few words, but I was able to figure out what you meant by them.”

“You… understood me?” Izuku was shocked but the arrival of the police kept them from discussing it anymore. 

They filled out reports and handed over the villains to the police. Before long they were sent back out on patrol, but Eraserhead did not have them continue their route. He led them straight back to UA. As they got to the gates Izuku and Shinsou both stopped.

“Why are we ending patrol so early?” Izuku asked.

“Come on.” Aizawa sighed. 

Within a few minutes, they found themselves sitting on the couch in their dorm common room. Aizawa sat on a couch facing Izuku and Shinsou, but he didn’t say anything for a while, no one did. 

Finally, Aizawa spoke, “I want to apologize, for that situation and for ending patrol early.” He sighed. “You both did well out there, but you shouldn’t have been in that situation to begin with. I should have noticed that it was a trap, and I should have done more to get us out of it.” Aizawa bowed his head. “I ended patrol early for two reasons, the first and most important reason was that I did not trust myself to keep you both safe for the rest of the patrol.” Shinsou dove across the space between them to hug his dad. Aizawa caught him and returned the hug, but tried to remain professional as he continued talking. “The other reason was because of what happened there, how you two communicated. We need to be sure that neither of you are under the influence of any sort of quirk.” Shinsou pulled away to look at Izuku in alarm, obviously not having thought about that. 

“I don’t think we are…” Izuku said slowly. While they were on their way back he had been thinking about it, and he remembered something about the assignment that might help make sense of what happened. 

“What?” Aizawa quickly turned away from his son to look at him. 

“Shinsou, during the assignment when we were all fighting in big groups, did you ever hear me tell you to watch out for something, or when to dodge?” Izuku turned away from Aizawa to look at Shinsou instead. 

“Yeah, Denki and I were talking about it after, we thought it was weird that during the fights you were able to warn us about stuff but no one ever changed their attacks.” Shinsou’s eyes widened. “Wait… you mean you didn’t say any of that out loud…?”

“No… I was using the language that Kacchan and I made up, I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to use it to warn you, even though there was no way you would understand it… except… apparently, you did.” Izuku was confused, but apparently so was everyone else. 

“So you are saying that this has happened before?” Aizawa was looking between the two of them. 

“Yes… I think so.” Izuku nodded.

“Ok,” Aizawa sighed. “We will keep talking about this tomorrow. As long as you both are fine, and neither of you are under the effects of a quirk, I am calling it a night, we all need some sleep after that.” 

Izuku was going to argue, wanting to keep talking about it, but he noticed that Aizawa was pulling Shinsou closer and fiddling with the ring on the chain around his neck. He wanted to be with his family now, and Izuku wasn’t going to interfere with that. 

“Goodnight” Izuku nodded at both of them before making his way to his room, exhaustion hitting him once the adrenaline was gone.

Izuku met up with Aizawa and Shinsou the next morning, expecting a day much like the days previous, but that wasn’t the case. Aizawa took them to the train station, just like at the beginning of their work studies, except this time they actually got on a train. Izuku and Shinsou both questioned where they were going, but Aizawa didn’t answer, even as they stood in front of Endeavor’s agency. 

Confused, the two students followed Aizawa into the building, not unlike baby ducklings following their mom. They had no idea where they were going, nor did they know why they were there, but they didn’t argue. Apparently, the agency was expecting them though, because they were immediately led up into a conference room without any question. 

After a few minutes, they were joined by Endeavor, Todoroki, and Katsuki. Izuku wanted to go over to Katsuki, but he still didn’t know why they were there, so he held back. 

“I still don’t understand why you need my work study student to test this but be quick about it, we are leaving on patrol in an hour.” Endeavor addressed Aizawa before turning to his work-study students, “You two stay here with Eraserhead, be ready to go in an hour.” As soon as he finished speaking Endeavor stormed out of the room. 

All four boys looked at Aizawa, waiting to hear why they were there. “After what happened last night I have done a lot of thinking about how that was possible. I have a few theories but we are here to test the most plausible one.” 

Shinsou and Izuku no longer looked confused, but Katsuki and Todoroki somehow looked even more confused. Izuku was going to text Katsuki to tell him about the previous night, but he hadn’t had a chance to yet, and neither Shinsou nor Izuku had mentioned anything in the group chat, or to Todoroki, for him to have any idea what was going on. 

Aizawa pulled out a piece of paper with a bunch of writing on it and handed it to Izuku, and then he pulled out blank pieces of paper and writing utensils and passed them out to the other three. “Midoriya, I want you to use your secret language to tell Bakugou the first line on the paper. Bakugou, I want you to write down exactly what he told you.”

Izuku did what he was told, reading the first line on the paper. After a moment, Aizawa looked over the paper that Bakugou had, verifying that he had written down the same thing. 

“Good, now Midoriya, tell Shinsou the next line using that same secret language.” Aizawa continued. 

“Hah!” Katsuki’s eyes were wide as he looked between Izuku and Shinsou. 

Izuku ignored Katsuki for a moment and did what he was told. Aizawa checked the paper that Shinsou was writing on a moment later. He showed Izuku that Shinsou had written parts of what Izuku had said. It wasn’t an exact word-for-word transcript like Katsuki had, but it was just the important words. Just enough to get the idea of what the line said. 

Katsuki looked on with wide eyes and Izuku was instructed to do the same with Todoroki. The results were similar, but it seemed that he understood a bit less than Shinsou did. 

“Ok now, Midoriya, tell Bakugou the next line on your paper. Bakugou, write it down just like before.”

Right before Izuku tried to relay the next line, Aizawa activated his quirk while looking at him. This time Katsuki was only able to write down general information, not unlike what Shinsou had written before. 

They went through the same test with Shinsou, and then Todoroki, both times with Aizawa using his quirk on Izuku. Neither of them was able to write anything on their papers this time. 

The silence grew heavy as they realized what that meant. Surprisingly it was Shinsou that broke the silence first, “You have another quirk!” He sounded annoyed, and Izuku couldn’t blame him. He is collecting quirks like broken bones and that was a problem in and of itself. 

“When the fuck did you get this one?” Katsuki asked, but Izuku knew what he was really asking. Izuku felt the disappointment too, the realization that their secret language was really just a quirk. Katsuki wasn’t really asking about when he got it, he was wondering if their secret language was really a language at all. 

“I… I don’t know…” Izuku looked at Aizawa, hoping that his teacher would have some answers.

“I would guess that you have had this quirk the longest, possibly for years, but you never knew because it is so subtle.” Both Katsuki and Izuku did their best to hide their disappointment, but they were unsuccessful, Aizawa noticed. “You two still have a secret language, Bakugou you still mostly understood him when my quirk was active, but I think that Midoriya’s quirk works by increasing understanding. Not by a lot, but just enough that someone who knows him well could understand what he is trying to get across. That is why Shinsou understands better than Todoroki.”

As they sat there, taking in what Aizawa had said, it hit Izuku that if he had the quirk for years, then he wasn’t actually quirkless, he never had been. His whole world crashed around him. He understood what Katsuki felt back when he first found out that Iuzku had a quirk; how he thought that everything that they had been through was unnecessary if someone just noticed. 

Their years-long ruse, the horrible things that Katsuki had said and done to Izuku, all the secrets, all the lying, it was all unnecessary. Izuku has never been quirkless. Katsuki was having a similar revelation across the room. Both of them were so caught up in their thoughts that they weren’t paying any attention to the people around them. Both had tears streaming down their faces, but neither noticed. 

Todoroki looked completely confused by the whole situation. He understood why Izuku was reacting the way he was, but he didn’t know enough of their backstory to understand why Katsuki was also upset by the revelation. Aizawa and Shinsou both knew enough to understand, and they both felt bad for the two. Shinsou didn’t know the full backstory of Izuku’s quirks, but he knew enough about what his quirklessness caused their middle school days to be like, and Aizawa knew it all. 

Time passed and Aizawa had to bring them both back to the present. Katsuki had to go on patrol soon. Aizawa was gracious enough to drag Todoroki and Shinsou out of the room to give the two boys a moment to process together. 

Once they were alone Izuku and Katsuki just looked at each other. A moment later Katsuki ran across the room to hold Izuku in his arms. They cried as they hugged, not sure what else to do. 

After a moment Katsuki pulled back slightly to press his lips to Izuku’s cheek before pulling him back in. “This doesn’t change anything Deku, you got that?” Katsuki tried to sound fierce, but his voice came out wet. “We fought through hell to get here, you having a fucking quirk doesn’t change that. Even knowing what we know now, I would do it all again as long as we end up here, with you in my arms.”

Izuku sobbed into Katsuki’s chest, but he nodded. “I would too Kacchan… I would too.” 

Katsuki ran his hand through Izuku’s hair, pressing Izuku against his chest. “Well then stop fucking crying, you damn nerd.” Katsuki tried to put some humor in his voice, but it fell flat.

Luckily Izuku giggled anyway. “But I’m a Midoriya, crying is what we do.” 

Both boys laughed at that before finally pulling away from each other. “I gotta go patrol now, but I expect you to tell me all about how you figured this shit out after ok?” Katsuki ruffled Izuku’s hair. 

“Of course Kacchan! I’ll tell you all about it.” Izuku smiled his brightest smile at his favorite person. Making it so that Katsuki couldn’t help but grin back.

They both left the room with red-rimmed eyes, and the remnants of tears streaked down their faces, but also with large smiles and their hands intertwined. They separated as they joined the rest of the group, and Todoroki and Katsuki left to go on patrol.

Aizawa led his work-study students out of the building, acknowledging his gratitude at Endeavor for allowing them to intrude on their schedule as they ran into the man before they left. Izuku assumed that they were heading to the train station to go back to campus, but to his surprise, they turned in the opposite direction. Izuku was going to ask why, but he didn’t bother, figuring that he wouldn’t get an answer anyway. 

They walked for a few blocks before stopping outside a cafe. Izuku read the sign and gasped. “A cat cafe?”

“I figured that you could use a bit of a break.” Aizawa hid his face in his capture weapon, trying to sound gruff but failing miserably. 

Izuku smiled and followed Shinsou inside. They went and got drinks before sitting down at a table. The cats crowded them moments later, not hesitating a second before curling up on Aizawa and Shinsou’s laps. It was obvious immediately that they had been there before, multiple times. 

The cats were more hesitant around Izuku, unsure of the new person, but it didn’t take them long to crowd around him too. It was relaxing, sitting there, drinking a hot drink, surrounded by cats. It was exactly what he needed after finding out about his quirk that morning. 

He knew that he would have to talk to All Might about it, and he will have to spend some time later figuring out more about his quirk, but for now, he could pet cats and forget about it. 

Izuku barely noticed time passing, enjoying his time with the cats, but all too soon the time they paid for ended. They all groaned at the prospect of leaving the cats behind, but they had no choice. Aizawa led them out of the cafe and back to the train station, heading back to UA.

After they had left the conference room Izuku hadn’t talked much. Aizawa and Shinsou had talked a bit at the cafe, but Izuku was focusing on the cats. He remained silent until Shinsou started up a conversation with him on the train. 

“So Midoriya, did you enjoy seeing Kacchan again?” Shinsou nudged Izuku and winked at him, obviously teasing him. 

Normally Izuku would turn red and stutter out an answer, but the morning had been emotionally exhausting, so he was sarcastic instead. “Ah yes, that was what I was thinking about it when we realized that I have had a quirk for years. I definitely wasn’t mourning the relationship we could have had if only someone had noticed that I had a quirk earlier.” 

Shinsou’s eyebrows disappeared into his hair, and so did Aizawa’s even though he was attempting to pretend he wasn’t listening. Shinsou’s mouth fell open as he tried to come up with a response.

Izuku sighed and leaned his head back into the chair, “Sorry, it’s been a long morning and I am emotionally exhausted. It was nice seeing Kacchan though.” 

Shinsou remained silent for a moment before he finally came up with a response. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you or anything…”

“It’s ok, you didn’t, I just get kinda sassy when I’m tired.” Izuku shrugged.

“No shit!” Shinsou laughed. “Well, I’ll let you rest then for the rest of the trip.” Shinsou moved a bit away from Izuku to give him more space to rest. 

“No, it’s ok, I won’t be able to rest on the train anyway.” Izuku waved his hands to stop Shinsou from moving away. “Besides, I have been meaning to ask, what is going on with you and Kaminari huh? Top allies in the assignment and calling each other by your first names?” Izuku raised his eyebrow.

Shinsou went pink. “Oh, uh…” 

Izuku laughed a bit at his friend’s pink face but waited for an answer. Shinsou glanced over at Aizawa, who was ‘sleeping’. Both boys knew that he wasn’t actually asleep, he rarely ever was around other people, but he liked to pretend to be so people would let down their guard around him. Izuku felt a little bad about asking about Shinsou’s obvious crush in front of his dad, but Shinsou started their conversation by teasing him about Katsuki. 

“We are uh… dating… I guess. I mean, he confessed after the assignment, he said something about how you inspired him to finally do something about his feelings. We are planning on going on a date this weekend.” Shinsou’s face darkened a few shades as he was talking, going from pink to bright red. 

Izuku was practically vibrating in his seat for his friend, but before he say anything Aizawa beat him to it. “Hitoshi, what was the one rule I gave you?”

Shinsou froze before slowly turning and looking at his dad. “No loud blonds,” Shinsou mumbled. “But at least I didn’t go for the explosive loud blond or the condescending one,” Shinsou argued his case. 

Izuku almost laughed before realizing who the explosive loud blond he was referring to is. “Hey! Leave Kacchan out of this!”

Aizawa groaned but as he ran his hand over his face the hint of a small smile was visible. “Invite him over for dinner sometime, I’m sure Hizashi would love that.”

It sounded like a genuine invitation to Izuku, but Shinsou’s face went pale and the small smile that Aizawa was hiding turned into his logical ruse grin. Izuku was suddenly very grateful that he was not Shinsou. 

He felt bad for his friend, so he decided to change the subject a bit. “Kacchan and I are supposed to be going on a date this weekend too!” Izuku grinned, looking forward to the weekend. 

“Do you have any idea of what you will be doing?” Shinsou asked, quick to take the offered segue away from the conversation that they had been having moments before. 

“No, I asked Kacchan out, but he is refusing to let me plan it, he says I can plan the next one?” Izuku pouted jokingly. He was a little upset that he couldn’t plan their first date, but he wasn’t nearly as upset as he was pretending to be. He trusts Katsuki, and he knows that he will have a great time, no matter what Katsuki decides. 

Shinsou laughed. “That sounds like Bakugou.”

They spent the rest of the trip talking about their weekend plans, thankfully without any more input from Aizawa. 

When they arrived back at UA, Izuku was expecting them to go over maps, or run through a training course or something like they had been the past few days, but Aizawa just sent them back to the dorms. He told them to rest until later tonight when they would meet up to go on patrol. 

Izuku was hesitant to waste an afternoon resting, but Aizawa was right in pointing out that he was exhausted. He hadn’t done anything physically tiring all day, but he could really use a nap. 

By the time they met up that night, Izuku was feeling better. He hadn’t really realized how dead he felt after their morning trip until he didn’t feel like that anymore. He had taken a nap and a shower, and he ate something, so he felt ready to go on patrol. 

They took off down a similar path as they had the night before, but they were all more cautious, not like it mattered anyway. The streets were quiet for a while, and then they weren’t.

First, they heard a loud cackling laugh. It was eerie, echoing through the previously quiet streets. Next, they heard the creaking, and then the screams. All three of them ran straight into the bar on the bottom floor of the building next to them, the origin of the sound. 

They froze in their tracks as they took in the scene around them. A man stood in the center of the room, holding down a button on a small device in his hand. Civilians were in groups around the perimeter, ducking away from the men who held guns pointing at them. In total, there were five villains involved. Four holding guns and controlling the civilians, and one holding a device which they could now see was a detonator. There were explosives strapped to the base of the pillar in the center of the room. That was concerning all on its own, but the state of the room made it even worse. There were bullet holes and damage on all the walls around them, and the building was already creaking.  From the number of explosives at the base of the pillar, it was obvious that their objective wasn’t to explode everyone in the room but to take down the pillar that was currently the only support for the upper floors with the walls as damaged as they were. They planned to crush everyone there. 

Eraserhead and his students stopped at the entrance, unsure of what the best move was. There were no indications of what the villains' motives were or what their quirks are, but they had about 20 hostages. 

Unfortunately, the villain holding the detonator noticed them before they could come up with a plan. “Good, our last guests have arrived. Heroes, why don’t you come in and join us.” The villain grinned, and Izuku grimaced as he realized that they had walked right into another trap. 

This time it looked like they weren’t trying to catch anyone in particular, they didn’t seem to recognize which heroes they were, or even that two of them were just students. They just saw their costumes and figured that they would work for whatever their plan was. 

“Now, I only think that it is fair that you know why you are dying.” The villain holding the detonator spoke looking around at the civilians and heroes that were trapped there. “See, the company that made this building made another of this same exact design. There was a bar on the bottom floor, just like this one, and apartments above. My sister lived in one of those apartments with her husband and son. They thought it was safe. The company that owned them told them it was. But they lied.” 

The villain’s eyes became feral the more they talked. “You see this pillar!” The villain waved his arm in the direction of the pillar that was set to explode. “It is the only thing keeping all the upper floors from crashing down. That isn’t the best idea, but it is completely legal as long as all the correct rules are followed and the correct materials are used.” The villain was starting to shake with anger. “This company thought that was too expensive though, they built the pillar using cheaper, weaker materials. A fight broke out in the bar beneath my sister’s apartment, a man with a strength enhancer threw someone through that pillar. The whole thing collapsed, months after it was opened. My sister and her family died because the company couldn’t pay a little bit more to make sure their building was safe. Of course, nothing was done about it though, it was newly opened so there weren’t a lot of people inside when it collapsed, and it wasn’t in the best part of town so no one cared.” The villain cackled manically. 

“I will make them listen this time though. This building is full, not a single apartment is up for rent. And now our final guests have arrived. The world will have to care once I kill so many civilians, and three heroes.” 

The first thing a hero is trained to do in a situation like this is to talk the villain down, but they never got the chance. The second the villain finished monologuing he released the trigger, setting off the timer to blow up the pillar. From where they were huddled Izuku could see a small screen saying 10 seconds. That wasn’t enough time to get everyone out, but it might be enough time to do something. 

‘Get the villains and then evacuate the civilians, I will make sure that the ceiling doesn’t crush everyone.’ Izuku used his and Katsuki’s secret language again. He needed to figure out another easier-to-understand language to use, but this would work for now. Eraser and Shinsou both jumped into action, both shooting him a quick look of concern before they started going after the villains. 

After the timer had been activated the villains started moving to the door, keeping the guns pointed at the civilians to make sure none of them escape. When Aizawa and Shinsou started going after them only one was able to see them, so they weren’t in too much danger of being shot. 

Izuku trusted that they would get the villains, so he moved into action doing his job. He punched out the window at the front of the bar to create another exit, one not blocked by villains and started waving civilians through. As the timer went down to 1 second he floated himself to the ceiling, bracing himself against the support beam that ran through the center, the one that the pillar was holding up. He took a deep breath and activated the highest percentage of One for All he could handle. The pillar exploded and fell apart, but the ceiling did not crash to the ground. Izuku slowly sunk to the ground, holding the building up. His bones creaked, as the entire weight of the building settled on him, but he stood strong. 

A few civilians gaped at him before they left, in obvious shock that someone so small was holding up the whole building. Izuku was trying to hold the ceiling as high as he could, but even then it was just at his head height, meaning that everyone was having to duck to get out. 

As the weight bore down on him he went through breathing exercises that Aizawa had taught him, trying to stay calm even in the face of getting crushed. He hoped that Eraser and Shinsou had been successful, and had moved on to evacuate the rest of the building, but no one was left in the bar to give him any idea of what was happening elsewhere. 

Every moment the strain of his muscles got worse, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to last too much longer. With no one near him and no clocks visible to him he had no way of knowing how long he had been there. Faintly he could hear sirens in the distance getting closer.

Izuku’s whole body was shaking when Aizawa reappeared in front of him. The relief he felt at hearing the gruff voice of his teacher was indescribable, even as the words he heard were all curses. 

“Shit Deku, more heroes are on the way, we are trying to clear out the building but it is going to take a while. How much longer can you last?” Aizawa looked Izuku over for injuries.

“Not long,” Izuku grunted out through clenched teeth. “Villains?”

“We caught them all. They are in custody.” Aizawa checked the area around them, making sure that there was no one else hidden or trapped there. 

Izuku could faintly hear yelling and explosions in the distance, and then someone came bursting through the door. Cold crept into the room behind Izuku, and even though he couldn’t see where it was coming from, it was familiar enough that he knew who had arrived. 

The temperature kept dropping as Izuku struggled to keep holding the weight up. He wouldn’t last long and everyone in the room knew it. Aizawa got closer to him, ready to catch him when he inevitably collapsed. “Deku, you can let go now, Shouto has built enough supports.” 

Izuku could barely hear Aizawa over the rush in his ears, but he listened. Carefully he dropped his arms down, resting the weight on the ice supports Todoroki had made. As soon as it was apparent that they would hold, Izuku fully let himself succumb to the darkness that had been crowding the edges of his vision for a while. He faintly registered gentle arms holding him as his vision went dark.

Izuku never managed to go on that date with Katsuki that weekend. He woke up on Saturday in the hospital with stress fractures in both arms and legs and quirk exhaustion. He pushed himself to the limit holding up the building, and now he was paying for it. The combination of healing quirks at the hospital was able to lessen the healing time from a few months to a few days, but they kept him until Sunday morning for observation, and he had strict orders to refrain from walking until Monday at the earliest and to refrain from any extensive physical activity for a week. 

It wasn’t great news, but no one died from the whole ordeal so Izuku counted it as a win. Aizawa, Shinsou, Todoroki, All Might, and Katsuki had all made appearances at the hospital on Saturday. Todoroki didn’t stay long, he only came by to make sure he was alright after he watched Izuku pass out, but the others spent most of the afternoon in his hospital room. 

From them, he learned more details about what happened. Aizawa and Shinsou had little trouble capturing the villains after they left Izuku. As soon as that was handled they called for backup. Unfortunately, the majority of the heroes that would have been helpful in that situation were either out of town or didn’t respond in time. 

All of the heroes in the city had been contacted, including Endeavor. With no other heroes responding that could help hold up the building Endeavor woke his work-study students. They were the first heroes on the scene aside from Aizawa, Shinsou, and him. Todoroki was sent in to use his ice to take the weight from Izuku while Endeavor and Katsuki were supposed to assist with the evacuation. 

Katsuki had fought to get to Izuku, that was what the yelling and explosions that Izuku faintly heard were from, but he was convinced instead to help get the civilians out so that Izuku could let go sooner. 

By the time Todoroki was able to brace the building enough for Izuku to let go the majority of the civilians were out. A few people were injured in the chaos, but by some miracle, no one was killed. Unofficially there is also an investigation looking into the company that built it, but that is being kept quiet for the time being to avoid the villains looking like they did something good.

All things considered, it was a successful rescue. Aizawa didn’t even tell him off for breaking bones, and neither did Recovery Girl when she visited. They both told him that he needed to work to up his limit, but they both understood that the only other option for him was to let hundreds of people die. All Might said that he was proud of him, both for holding up the building and for what he had done during the exercise the week before. 

Sunday morning he was released back to the dorm. He was the last person to get back from his work-study and the only one that had spent any time in the hospital. It was strange being back in the dorms. Many of his classmates seemed glad to see him well, but they were also still uncomfortable around him after the assignment the week before. Leaving the hospital he had planned to spend the afternoon on the couch in the common room, but the strange mood changed his mind. Instead, he spent the afternoon in his own room. Katsuki didn’t leave his side, and all the members of the ‘Bakusquad’ stopped by. Shinsou stopped by too, right before he left to go on his date with Kaminari. Izuku tried to tease him a bit, but it wasn’t very effective while he was cuddled in Katsuki’s arms. 

It wasn’t a bad day, but it wasn’t the date he was expecting so he was a bit disappointed. By the time Monday came around he was pretty excited to be able to get up. He had never been the type of person to sit around, so not being able to walk for a day had been difficult. He was also looking forward to their heroics class this afternoon, he wanted to find out what score he got on the assignment. 

Their morning classes were unremarkable. Lunch was a little interesting, but only because Shinsou and Izuku were still not really welcome in their friend group so they sat with  Katsuki, Kaminari, Kirishima, Mina, and Sero. The group he normally would sit with wasn’t quiet, but this friend group is on a whole other level. They were yelling and laughing the whole time. It was amusing to be around, to say the least. 

Finally, it was time to get their scores and Izuku was on the edge of his seat. He had heard from Katsuki as well as the rest of his allies that he took it further than any of them did, and his classmates all seemed to agree. But he still wasn’t sure how much further than everyone else he took it. 

“Last Friday that we were here you all took part in the last part of the secretive communication assignments. You are expected to continue to use the skills you learned from those assignments in the future, but you will no longer be given assignments related to them. That being said I will hand out your grades at the end of class. Class today will be spent going over the basics of creating a secret language, tomorrow you will all be tasked with working together to create a secret language or code to be able to communicate with each other if you ever find yourselves in a situation where you can’t speak out loud.” Aizawa looked at Shinsou and then Izuku.

“I have never assigned this to a class before, it had never been relevant, however, this class is not like any other class that I have taught. You have been in more villain attacks than any other first-year class and I am not naive enough to think that you won’t be in anymore. During this past week, there had been more than one situation where a secret language would have helped, and I will not let that happen again.” Aizawa explained before he started his lecture about creating secret languages and codes. 

Izuku was only half-listening the whole time, he had plenty of experience with languages and creating his own so he really didn’t need to pay attention. He thought about starting a conversation with Katsuki, but he didn’t really feel like talking either. Instead, he just doodled in his notebook, waiting for grades to be handed out. Finally, with only a few minutes left until the end of the day, Aizawa started talking about the assignment. 

“Before I hand these scores back I want to talk about a few things. First, before anything else I want to say, good job. Most of you did well, with nine of you getting over a hundred percent. Second, I want to talk about scoring. All of us teachers watched the video footage carefully, monitoring who helped who, as well as who lied to who. If we felt like the allies you wrote did not match what happened in the exercise we adjusted your ally list accordingly. For example, if you said that Midoriya helped you and you weren’t one of his secret allies, he didn’t and his name was removed from your list.” 

Izuku could feel many eyes on him as Aizawa talked. He almost wished that Aizawa didn’t say that, but he knew that they would find out anyway, that is if they didn’t already know. 

“I also want to mention that the removal scoring was modified a bit to account for two people not being removed. The scoring rubric was an oversight on our part, we knew it could happen but we failed to prepare for it accordingly.

“Before I talk too much about your grades I also want to talk about the two secret ways to get points for this assignment. Just like the entrance exam, there was the option for hero points. These could be earned by helping someone complete their task, saving someone, and giving someone else an object. The majority of you got at least a few hero points. The second type was less common to earn, but they were worth the same amount. We called these espionage points. They were earned by betraying someone, lying, and stealing someone else’s object. As I mentioned only a few people earned this type of points, but those who did all ended up with some of the highest scores.”

There were whispers throughout the class about these two different point types but Izuku wasn’t listening. The more Aizawa talked the more he realized just how plus ultra he had gone. He could think of numerous moments in which he probably earned extra points just off the top of his head, and there were probably more. 

“Now I do want to say a few things about your scores as a whole. Usually, the highest scorers are the ones that utilize secretive communication, this time that was only partially true. The two highest scores did use a form of secretive communication, but many of the others that were using a code were actively being worked against so their scores were not the best.”

Izuku could feel the glares directed toward him, but he kept his eyes focused on Aizawa. He didn’t want to see the hatred on his friends’ faces. 

“There was one student that had something to prove, and that completely skewed the scores. Normally the majority of the scores are mid-range and there is a much smaller spread, but this year the range of scores is massive. One student more than doubled the previous record score.”

Izuku could feel more eyes on him and he fought the urge to cower in his seat. It was becoming more apparent that he needs to at least explain his reasoning to his friends, even if they weren’t likely to forgive him for it. 

“I only have a few notes that I should mention. There were only six total points removed for going against the spirit of the exam, which is the least amount ever. You all did well following the rules. The one thing that I am slightly disappointed about is how you all found out others’ clues. Very few of you tried to be sneaky, instead, you all relied on just trading information. That is not a bad tactic, but you could have figured out more if you were trying to observe others. With all that said good job.” Aizawa finally finished talking and started handing out papers. When he got to Izuku he tried to fold the paper to hide the score, but everyone already knew that he was the highest scorer.

Izuku kept the paper folded on his desk long after Aizawa moved on. He had been excited to see his score all day, but now that he was faced with it he couldn’t bring himself to look at it. He knew that his score was the highest, there was no way it could be anyone elses, but that meant that he had more than doubled the previous highest score. He felt guilty about it, he had meant to go all out, but he didn’t mean to completely dominate as he did. 

Finally, he took a deep breath and unfolded the paper, and promptly choked on air. The score of 339 was written in a bright red pen at the top of his paper. Katsuki had been trying to get his attention for a while but Izuku didn’t acknowledge him until after he stopped choking. 

‘What the fuck nerd? What score did you get to have a reaction like that?’

‘Kacchan, I got 339.’ Izuku felt faint as he answered.

“Holy shit!” Katsuki yelled out, not caring that class was still technically in session.

Before Aizawa could reprimand him the bell rang signaling the end of class. Izuku started to get up but a voice from across the room stopped him in his tracks. 

“Why? Deku, why would you do this? Why did you work with Bakugou after everything you said he did to you in middle school? Why did you kiss him?” Uraraka was standing by her seat as she asked. Many people had started to leave the room, but after hearing the question they all stopped and turned to look at Izuku, waiting for his answer. 

Izuku sighed and looked around at his classmates. “It’s a long story,” immediately many of his classmates started to argue but Izuku kept talking, “I am not against telling you but it is going to take a while. Why don’t we head back to the dorms and I will explain everything?” Izuku felt Katsuki reach over and grab his hand. He held on tight as their classmates voiced their consent to his proposal and started to leave the room. 

If Katsuki wasn’t holding his hand he wasn’t sure if he would have made it to their dorms. Along the way Kendo went up to Yaoyorozu, asking if she had any idea why their scores had come out the way they had. Apparently, Class B had not done well.  Yaoyorozu had informed her that they were about to find out, and somehow that turned into Class B being invited to his impromptu explanation. 

During the walk to the dorms, he and Katsuki had a short conversation. They decided that Izuku was going to tell the full story, including what had happened in middle school. It was not an easy decision, and looking out over the two classes as they all got situated was overwhelming. He was beyond grateful for Katsuki who hadn’t let go of his hand since they left the classroom. Izuku took a shaky breath looking out at all the expectant faces and then he looked down at his lap and started talking. 

“When I was four I was diagnosed as quirkless. I don’t know if any of you know any quirkless people, but they aren’t usually treated very well, and I was no exception.” Izuku spoke quickly, getting out as much information as he could in the shortest time possible so that he could get through it.

“Kacchan did his best to defend me, we had known each other since we were babies and he wasn’t going to let something as minor as a quirk come between us, but no one liked that.” Memories flashed through his mind but he ignored them, pushing past the tears in his eyes to keep talking, even as he struggled to get words past the lump in his throat.  

“Life was really bad for us back then, we were both coming home in tears every day and Kacchan was constantly in trouble for getting into fights to protect me. One day, Kacchan got mad, he called me names and pushed me over, and everyone else backed off. That day we learned that if Kacchan was my top bully, no one else would bother me.” Izuku did his best to stop the tears from falling, he needed to get through this, but he wasn’t successful. He took a moment to use his free hand to wipe his face, trying to wipe away the tears that were still falling. 

“We started forming a secret language not long after that. We used it to talk at school so no one would know that we were friends, so he could bully me enough to keep the other students off my back. He was at the top of the social pyramid, while I was at the very bottom. If we let anyone know that he didn’t hate me, he would find himself dragged down to the bottom with me.” Izuku felt Katsuki squeeze his hand, and he had to pause for a moment, overcome by gratitude for the explosive boy next to him. 

Izuku kept talking, he told them about what he had Katsuki do to him, what he had him say. He explained that Katsuki never meant any of it, but he had to do it to keep them safe. He paused when he got to the part about his quirk, this is going to be the hardest to explain, just because he can’t be completely honest about this.

“I went into the Entrance Exam thinking I was quirkless, but when I went up against the Zero Pointer the first aspect of my quirk made itself known. My strength was enhanced and it shattered my bones. The theory is that if it had made itself known earlier all my limbs would have been blown off, it was only contained to shattering my bones because I had spent the ten months previous working on strength training.” 

Izuku looked up for a moment to gauge his classmates' reactions to him after he heard a few gasps. So many people looked shocked at what he was saying, but he didn’t keep looking up long enough to see anything more than that. 

“I made a mistake then, I didn’t warn Kacchan or explain what had happened.” Izuku took a deep breath and Katsuki squeezed his hand again. “After seeing me use my quirk for the first time at UA he assumed that I had been hiding it from him that entire time. He was angry all the way up until right after our provisional licensing exam when he finally allowed me to explain it all to him. At that point, however, all of your minds were made up. You knew our relationship to be more like what we claimed it to be in middle school. Something more similar to a bully and a victim or rivals than actual friends like we are. It didn’t help that we hadn’t been allowed to act like friends in public since we were four, we had forgotten how.”

Izuku took a few deep breaths, finally at the point where he needed to talk about what he had done during the exercise. 

“Since the first secretive communication assignment many of my friendships started to shift. I drifted away from people that I had previously been close to while becoming closer to people I had barely known before. With that, I noticed that people’s treatment of me changed. Everyone knows that I used to break my bones on the regular, but barring last Friday night, when I held up a building, I don’t do that much anymore. Yet people I thought were my closest friends started treating me like I did. People would step in to protect me during training, and step up to fight Kacchan when he would insult me, even if by Kacchan’s standards he was being nice. It felt like the people that I had made friends with before this term had created a version of me that wasn’t true, but that was all that they saw me as. People who saw me go full 100 percent and come out on top were treating me with kiddie gloves, and I couldn’t handle it.” 

A little bit of anger made its way into his voice so Izuku took another deep breath before taking another glance up over the class. He specifically looked for the people he was talking about, namely Uraraka, and when he found her he was surprised to find guilt on her face. 

“I went into this exercise with the sole intention of destroying that version of me that people had created. The one where I was fragile and incapable. I didn’t mean to go quite as plus ultra as I did though. So I sincerely apologize to anyone whose grade was affected.” 

Izuku took another deep breath before continuing on to this next part, he had been debating adding it at all but he felt like it was important for people to know because it did have an impact on their grades. 

“This past week, during my work study I found out that I also had an advantage during these assignments. Besides having created a secret language with Kacchan, I actually did have part of my quirk active when I was younger. I have not figured out exactly how it works, but it increases other people’s understanding of what I am trying to communicate. With my quirk erased Kacchan can only understand the general idea of what I am trying to say using our secret language, but with my quirk active he can understand me just as well as if I was speaking out loud. With my quirk, I have found that I can use the secret language that I have created with Kacchan to communicate with other people. They only understand the general idea of what I am saying, but the better they know me the more they understand.” Izuku gripped Katsuki’s hand tighter. 

“I am explaining this to all of you because it played an important part in why the grades ended up the way they did. I went into the assignment with the intention of only working with Kacchan, but after that staged fight that we had during prep time, a few people figured it out and insisted on joining us. With the extra help, I was able to really go plus ultra, which unfortunately is the reason that many other people’s scores dropped. I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean for so many people to be affected by my actions.” Izuku hung his head, finally done talking. 

To his surprise, the next person that said something was Kaibara, from Class B. “Don’t apologize for taking the exercise seriously. We all could have done that, but we played it safe, we took the instructions at face value instead of actually trying to go all out. I got a 23 on this assignment, and yeah I could have done better if someone hadn’t gotten my object before I did, but the rest of my score was my fault. Thanks for explaining everything though. The way that assignment ended was majorly confusing.”

“Yeah, I mean, none of us know you that well… not for your lack of trying…” Shoda looked guilty as he spoke. “But I think that we should probably be apologizing to you as well. You’ve tried to befriend all of us many times, but we always let Monoma scare you away. We were all surprised and blindsided during the assignment, but that was really our own fault.”

Izuku was shocked to see that numerous other people agreed with Kaibara and Shoda, most of them from Class B. From what he could gather, it seemed like Class B had been the ones worst affected by him. The objects he found were mostly the objects they needed, both for their tasks and objects. However, they all seemed to understand what he had done. 

Slowly people started to leave the room, satisfied with his explanation. Before the majority of the people left though, Tokage’s voice rang out again. “After hearing that whole explanation I have to know, what was your score? All we were told was that it more than doubled the previous record.”

Izuku froze at the front of the room as many of the people that were leaving stopped and turned to him, waiting for his answer. Katsuki squeezed his hand again and Izuku took a breath. “Three hundred and thirty-nine.” 

Many students’ jaws dropped and Izuku did his best not to shrink in on himself. He was proud of his score, but after hearing that Kaibara got a 23 he was also a bit embarrassed that he had done so well. After many people voiced their surprise they started leaving again, going about their afternoon. Izuku leaned into Katsuki, only to sit up as he was approached by Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki, and Tsu. He didn’t notice, but Shinsou, Kaminari, and Kirishima also joined them, standing off to the side behind Katsuki. 

They all were silent for a moment, Izuku had already said his piece so he was waiting for anyone else to say something. 

Finally, Todoroki spoke first, “I’m sorry.” Izuku looked at him in surprise, but Todoroki kept talking. “You fought so hard to save me from myself, but somewhere along the way, I forgot about that. I am new to having friends, but even I know that the way we were treating you was not acceptable.”

Before Izuku could think of a response to that Iida was talking. “I’m sorry as well, you saved my life in Hosu but I allowed myself to be convinced that you needed us to step in for you.”

Izuku was going to question what he meant by saying that he let himself be convinced, but Uraraka pushed her way to the front of the group to stand directly in front of Izuku.

“Stop!” Uraraka had tears streaming down her face. 

Izuku could feel Katsuki tense next to him, and he finally noticed Shinsou, Kaminari, and Kirishima were there as they all started moving forward ready to get between him and Uraraka if it came to that. No one knew what Uraraka was going to say, or why she was crying, but she didn’t leave them guessing for long.

“It was my fault, this is all my fault. I was such a terrible friend. I just… I don’t know… I… I got possessive? I mean, I know you were never mine, but I thought we had something, that we were more than just best friends, and instead of talking to you about it, I just got clingy, and protective and… I’m really sorry Deku, you deserved better than that. I don’t even know how to describe what was going through my head but I am so sorry. I should never have treated you any differently, and I definitely shouldn’t have convinced anyone that you needed protection.”

Izuku could feel his eyes widening and his jaw dropping the more Uraraka spoke. When he had made the decision to apologize to his friends he was expecting them to be hesitant to forgive him, not for them to apologize. 

“I want to apologize too, ribbit, I have made a big deal about all of us needing to act like heroes in the past, but there was nothing heroic about how we were acting. We convinced ourselves that we were protecting you, but we weren’t.” Tsu spoke up when no one else did.

Izuku took a deep breath before finally responding. “I really appreciate your apologies. Honestly, I was expecting to still be begging for your forgiveness.” Izuku laughed a bit, trying to get rid of some of the tension.

“Well, if you think about it, ribbit,” Tsu put her finger on her chin, “we should have expected this from you.” Izuku looked at her in confusion. “It’s been obvious since the very first day that you take plus ultra very seriously. Ribbit, if we had thought about it at all we would have realized that you weren’t acting like you usually would during exercises like that.”

Izuku smiled, happy that at least one of them was able to realize that, even if it was a little late.

Uraraka laughed, even as tears were still running down her face. “Yeah, looking back on it, I think the first moment that you really acted like you that I saw during the exercise was when you stabbed me in the stomach. Before that you just, I don’t know, you weren’t as plus ultra as you usually are you know?” 

Iida and Todoroki were also smiling as they agreed. 

“Yeah dude, you going plus ultra on an assignment is pretty normal for you.” Kirishima even agreed.

“Hear that Deku, you’re the embodiment of the school motto.” Katsuki laughed along with them. 

After a moment the laughter died out and Uraraka looked unsure of something. “Deku, I know we really messed up, and I understand if you want some space from us, but do you think we could be friends again? Real friends, not like we have been since these assignments started?” 

Izuku looked at each of his friends as they all awaited his answer with wide eyes. He sighed, “I don’t know, I hope so, but a lot has happened since then.” He smiled at them, hopeful that this would work out. 

After a moment of silence, before anyone could walk away, Shinsou cleared his throat and started speaking while looking down at his hands.  “I should apologize too… I didn’t go as far as Midoriya did, but I—”

“—I appreciate the apology, ribbit, but you were just going along with his plan, right? I think any of us would have done the same if given the opportunity.” It was obvious that he was mostly apologizing to Tsu and Iida, after all, they were the people that he personally removed, but she didn’t even let him finish. 

“I agree, I was rather surprised to find out that you poisoned me, and I would like to hear more about how you did that, but I can’t say that if I was given the opportunity to work with Midoriya I would turn it down, even if it meant going against my friends.” Iida realized what he said and promptly apologized to his friends, but didn’t take it back.

“How did you poison him?” Todoroki asked Shinsou.

“Oh, I —” Shinsou started to explain, but another voice cut him off.

“Bakugou, Midoriya, Nedzu wants to see you in his office,” Aizawa called to them from just inside the door.

Izuku and Katsuki made eye contact but didn’t argue. As they followed Aizawa out of the dorms Izuku could hear Shinsou continuing his explanation. He was glad that his friends all seemed to be getting along again, but he was more focused on what Nedzu could possibly want to talk to them about. 

It didn’t take long for them to reach the principal’s office, and luckily for them, Nedzu didn’t waste any time before getting straight to the point. As soon as Izuku and Katsuki sat down in the chairs across from his desk and Aizawa took his spot leaning against the wall, Nedzu started talking. 

“I will make this meeting quick so you can go back to whatever you were doing but I figured that you would rather hear this now before it hits the news tomorrow.” Izuku and Katsuki glanced at each other in confusion. “I’m not sure if you were aware but Mr. Aizawa and I have been investigating your middle school, the way that they treated both of you was completely unacceptable. They have been fighting every step of the way but this afternoon the paperwork finally went through. Tomorrow morning the school will temporarily be shut down and all of the administrators and the majority of the teachers will be arrested. We have more than enough evidence so we believe that all the charges will stick. There will be an investigation into the school district to decide whether the school needs to reopen. If it does reopen, you can rest assured that it will be held to a much higher standard than when you were there.”

“About damn time someone did something about that hellhole!” Katsuki grinned and grabbed Izuku’s hand, squeezing it in excitement. 

“They’re really going to jail?” Disbelief was all over Izuku’s face. He never would have expected anyone to have consequences for what happened at Aldera. 

“Yeah kid, they’re going to jail.” Aizawa hid his proud smile in his scarf as he answered. 

“Thank you!” Izuku had tears streaming down his face.

“It was our pleasure!” Nedzu grinned as his eyes sharpened. A shiver went down Izuku’s spine and he knew just from Nedzu’s face that it really was his pleasure to take down Aldera. From what little he could see of Aizawa’s face, it looked like it was his too. 

Before the silence went on for too long Nedzu spoke again. “That was the main thing that I wanted to discuss with you but since you are here I was also hoping to talk to you both about how you communicate. I heard from Mr. Aizawa that Midoriya, you have a quirk that helps with that?”

“Yes sir, we haven’t tested it much, but it seems to help people understand me,” Izuku answered.

“And it helps you understand other people, correct?” Nedzu asked, eyes gleaming.

“I… I don’t know, we haven’t tested that.” Izuku was curious but they really hadn’t tested it much.

“But your communication with Bakugou goes both ways, correct? If he understands you less with your quirk canceled wouldn’t it only make sense that it goes the other way as well?” Nedzu seemed to already know the answer, but Izuku’s mind was blown. “I recommend testing it at some point.” Nedzu clapped his hands. “Well that was all I wanted to talk to you about, but Midoriya, I think All Might was hoping to talk to you for a bit in his room. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon!”

Izuku and Katsuki left the principal’s office holding hands. They walked to the room where Izuku usually would meet All Might and then stopped outside the door. Izuku was conflicted, he knew that All Might would want to talk to him alone, but he didn’t want to let go of Katsuki’s hand.

“Tch,” Katsuki pulled his hand away when he realized Izuku wasn’t going to. “Go meet with him Deku, I’ll be right here waiting for you.” Katsuki sat down against the wall and got comfortable.

Izuku smiled, his eyes glistening with joy that Katsuki was willing to wait for him. After a moment he pushed open the door and walked into the room, taking a seat across from All Might. He knew that All Might was proud of everything Izuku had done the past few weeks, but because the hospital wasn’t the most secure place to be discussing secrets, All Might hadn’t been able to say much more than that and they hadn’t had a chance to talk since. 

It was silent for a while, but All Might finally spoke, “I have already told you this, but I am really proud of everything you have accomplished with this secretive language assignment. Every time I thought I finally had an idea of what you could accomplish, you would exceed all of my expectations and do something beyond what I would have thought possible. I am so proud of you my boy!”

“Really, you’re not mad at all? I lied a lot during that last assignment, and I was the reason that a lot of people failed it.” Izuku shrunk into himself slightly. 

“The only thing that you were responsible for was your own score. You may have lied, but everyone had the opportunity to do better if they had taken the exercise as seriously as you did.” All Might smiled kindly at him.

“Honestly, I was a bit taken aback by how you were acting at first. Hearing your fight with Bakugou and then your explanation followed by all the lying… I didn’t know what to think.” All Might shook his head. “I always imagined that you would follow in my footsteps, and become a limelight hero, but what you did was like undercover heroics, and then you spent that week with Eraser.”

“I still want to be a limelight hero.” Izuku chimed in before All Might could finish what he was saying.

“My boy, you have proven over the past few weeks that no matter what line of heroics you go into, I am sure that you will save many lives. I would be honored if you were to follow in my footsteps, but no matter what path you take, you are still my successor.” All Might smiled at him, and Izuku felt tears leak from his eyes.

“Thank you All Might, but while I think I can do a lot of good underground or undercover, I think I would be able to help the most in the limelight. I have always wanted to save people with a smile, just like you do. I want to make people feel safe just because I am there, and the best way for me to be able to do that is by letting people know who I am.” Izuku tried to explain his reasoning, that his mind was made up.

“All I’m saying my boy is that you don’t need to decide now, and I am proud of you and the hero you are becoming, no matter what you end up doing.” All Might had a gentle smile on his face. Izuku was hit with the abrupt thought that this was what having a present father must be like, but he pushed that thought aside as soon as it appeared. 

They talked a little bit longer about his new quirk, and how they could test it, and then Izuku left. As soon as he walked out of the room Katsuki was standing reaching out to grab his hand again. It was a little unexpected that Katsuki wanted to hold hands so much, but Izuku didn’t mind one bit.

They walked silently through the grounds. Normally at some point, one of them would start up a conversation, but Izuku was deep in thought. After ten minutes of just wandering, Katsuki seemed to get tired of the silence. 

“What’s on your mind nerd? You’re not usually this quiet.”

“Hm? Oh, I’m just thinking.” Izuku shrugged.

“About what?” Katsuki pulled Izuku to the ground so they were sitting with their backs leaning against a tree.

“Just about these assignments and everything I guess.” Izuku started fidgeting with Katsuki’s hand.

“Hm?” 

“It’s just… when the first assignment was announced we were just barely back to being friends with each other. So much has changed since then. We’re dating, I’m closer to Shinsou and not as close to the rest of my friends, and I have more quirks now, including one that I have apparently had for years. Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t change any of it for the world, but it’s kinda weird to think about how everything happened because of these assignments. It makes me wonder how different would our lives be if they had never been assigned.”

“I think we still would have ended up here, it just might have taken a bit longer.” Katsuki leaned over to kiss Izuku’s cheek.

“Really?” Izuku looked at Katsuki with wide, hopeful eyes. 

“Well yeah, those damn assignments didn’t make me fall in love with you, the feelings were already there, they just pushed us to do something about them sooner.” 

“You love me?” Izuku turned to face Katsuki, grabbing both of the explosive boy's hands.

Katsuki’s face turned pink, not realizing what he said. He smiled and pulled one of his hands out of Izuku’s grasp. Carefully, he reached up and cupped Izuku’s face, whispering to him as he got close. “How could I not?” 

Their lips were inches from each other as Izuku stared into Katsuki’s eyes. “I love you too Kacchan.” As soon as he finished uttering those words Katsuki’s lips were on his. They hadn’t kissed since the end of the exercise, but they both knew that this was the second kiss of many. All of their hidden messages had brought them together, and they weren’t going to let anything pull them apart.