"Why did it have to be Kacchan…" Izuku said under his breath as he waited for the team exercise to start. He'd been paired up with Mina, which was bad enough for him, and now Bakugo and Kirishima were going to fight them. Kirishima wasn't really a problem, he had no qualms with Izuku at all. Bakugo however… Things could get messy. His entire body was shaking, he was visibly sweating, even through his mask, he was resenting being put into the same class as him. As he was thinking of their complicated past and how it all led to this, someone tapped his shoulder.

"Hey, Midori, you alright?" Mina asked, worry in her eyes as the boy was visibly shaken by his position. "You look really nervous… What's up with that? Somethin' bothering you?" Mina was someone he barely knew to begin with, having only met her a few days ago, but she felt like an old friend already, her friendly attitude and demeanor alongside her bright smile made her a very welcoming person.

Izuku took a deep breath then exhaled, he really shouldn't be telling someone he'd just met this, but something compelled him to, perhaps it was her clear worry for him, or the fact she was one of the first friends he'd made since Bakugo and him had fallen out. "Kacchan is… well, we used to be friends. We've known each other since childhood, but… he's difficult to deal with. We haven't been on good terms for a while now."

Mina's worried look only deepened, but Izuku's nervousness seemed to be subdued for now, something about opening up to someone like this was relaxing, "I was a late bloomer, meaning I only got my quirk late into my life... Really late, and he always thought that I was quirkless… so when he saw that I did have a quirk, he got mad. You saw it during the apprehension test, right?"

"Yeah, if Aizawa hadn't stopped him, he might have attacked you, huh." Mina looked down to the ground, thinking back to the reaction the blond had and looked back up at Izuku. "Jeez, sorry that happened to you Midoriya, but I'm sure we'll do fine! Just wondering how we'll work this out…" Mina stretched her arms as she got ready for the test, when Izuku spoke up.

"Throwing aside his personality, everything about him is incredible, his quirk, strength, skill, they're all amazing in their own rights… Which is why I don't plan on losing, just follow my lead Ashido." Izuku looked determined now and putting on his mouth guard, pushing aside his past experiences with Bakugo and his feelings towards his quirk, focusing instead on winning this fight without using his full power, this would most likely be a battle of endurance if anything.

"So, Bakugo, what are we going to do-" Kirishima attempted to converse with his less than happy teammate before he was cut off by him snapping at him.

"I don't fucking care what you and that pink bitch do here, I'm going to get some answers out of Deku, even if it means I have to kick his ass into the ground!" Bakugo stomped out of their room as soon as the test started, anything Kirishima tried to tell him falling on deaf ears.

"Jeez… Just what is up with him and Midoriya…" Kirishima thought about it as he shuffled around the room, the objects in it slightly obscuring his path. "I'll have to ask him later, preferably when we're not opponents."

Mina and Izuku ran into the building, Mina following Izuku close behind as per his request, she wasn't sure what he'd planned to do with their match up, but something told her it was going to be painful for one of them. "Stay alert, Kacchan could appear at any moment… And he won't go easy on either of us." As they turned a corner, his suspicions were confirmed as Bakugou attempted to blow both of them up, only barely missing due to Izuku tackling Mina to the ground.

Izuku got up, barely noticing the compromising position he'd been in just a moment ago, which Mina found strange, considering that from what little she knew, that little interaction would have made him glow red in an instant. "Ashido, you'll need to run and find the bomb now! Kacchan doesn't want anything to do with you, he's looking for me!" Izuku got into a battle stance as Bakugo grinned, looking at the boy with the intent to "get answers" from him.

"Someone's manned the fuck up, huh. Fine, let's see how you keep up with me! Show me that flashy quirk of yours, Deku!" Bakugo readied his palms and began to run towards Izuku. Mina was already gone from the scene, doing as Izuku had told her, but she couldn't help but worry for the boy.

"I don't know what's going on with you and Bakugo, Midoriya, and honestly I'm not sure how I feel about me leaving you with him, but I trust you!" Mina reached the floor the bomb was located in, and opened the door, Kirishima stood there guarding the bomb.

"Alright… Just do as he told you and we'll be alright!" Mina told herself as she entered the room, ready to confront the red head.

"So, Midoriya sent you? Pretty smart I guess, blunt force wouldn't have done much to me! Let's see if you can win again-" before he could finish, a loud and powerful explosion was heard, the whole building shaking because of it's power.

Mina quickly hid behind a pillar and tried to talk to Izuku through her head piece. "Midoriya, is everything okay?! That loud explosion wasn't aimed towards you, was it?!"

"Just… Agh, do as we planned Ashido! He's in the right position now, so be quick." Izuku said into his earpiece, then looked at Bakugo. Mina was worried for the boy, from his voice it seemed that the explosion had at least hit him somewhat, even if minimally.

He knew what Bakugo wanted to do, he wanted to force him to use his quirk, but he couldn't do that with the setup they had, so all he could do was take it. Izuku ran towards him and distracted him for a few seconds before getting hit with an explosion directly to his arm, burning away his sleeve and charring his skin.

He winced in pain and tried to keep Bakugo in place, or at least as still as he could, but he was being relentless. "Use your damn quirk Deku! Use it!" At that moment, he really was considering using it, if it meant that Bakugo would stop attacking him so much.

Before long though, they heard a crack and a part of the roof that was on top of them fell, making Kirishima fall to and break the concrete as he fell through the floor. "Alright! Secure the bomb now Ashido!" Izuku then realized what had gone wrong with his plan, "Wait, Ashido was supposed to melt the floor and make Kirishima fall on Kacchan… This is bad!" All this had done was attract Bakugo's attention to their plan, which was less than ideal for them.

As soon as Bakugo heard this, he was furious. "Like hell you will!" He readied his palms to fly up there with his explosions and attack Ashido with them, intending fully to win their fight, even if he had to take his attention off of Izuku momentarily.

"Wait, no!" Izuku began to gauge his options. "I have to slow him down somehow, and I can't do it with my quirk, unless…" The blond boy's decision to pay attention to Mina instead proved to be beneficial to him, and since he had no other options, Izuku ran towards him and…

A loud crack was heard as Izuku punched Bakugo's face, staggering him and making him move a few feet backwards. Kirishima just looked at the two, mouth open at Izuku's courage to just rush into Bakugo so readily, Sadly Bakugo himself didn't appreciate this, slowly getting back on his feet, rage boiling inside of him now. "How fucking dare you! First, you don't use your quirk to try and fight me, and now you don't even use it to fucking hit me! You're dead!"

Before he could act on this, the buzzer rang and All-Might's voice came through the intercom, "The bomb has been secured, Hero Team wins!" Bakugo stood there, seething with rage, but no words fell out of his mouth. His breathing was heavy and ragged as the reality set in.

Izuku beat him. And he didn't even use his quirk.

After Izuku got his bandages from Recovery Girl and classes were done, most people had left, save for Izuku, Kirishima, Mina and Bakugo, the three were still chatting about the test's results, while the latter was looking blankly at the table, before slowly getting up and walking out of the classroom, strangely… calm. His face was just blank, no expression on it. This unnerved Izuku, usually he could at least tell what Bakugo was thinking, but now? He couldn't even do that, the explosive boy was completely unreadable.

"Kacchan?" He said softly, trying to get his attention. The boy didn't even stagger his walk. "Kacch-"

"Fuck off." There was no bite, no poison to his remark. It was less a threat and more a… statement. It was extremely unlike him, usually taking the first chance to snap at Izuku. This left the boy shaken, confused. He stood at the edge of the classroom door, his eyes wide, shoulders tense. He slowly relaxed and went back to his table to grab his backpack and left the classroom, dragging his feet as he did so. Before he could make it far however, a hand tapped his shoulder.

"Midoriya?" Kirishima and Mina stood behind him, both concerned. "Are… you okay? You seem upset about something." Kirishima spoke, the worry was clear in their tone, after what had just happened, plus the fight which had left most of the damage on him, it was only natural that they'd be bothered.

"It's… nothing really. I'm just worried about Kacchan." Izuku's look was that of both fear and distress, he looked towards the hallway Bakugo had just walked out of.

"Huh? Why?" Mina spoke up, "I know you two knew each other since childhood, but he's a huge jerk to you, so why?"

"He's never like this… sure, sometimes he can be calm and actually rational, but this is different…" Izuku's tone slowly became shakier. "H-he's… he's never had an empty expression, he's always been a very… emotional person." He clenched his fists, looking down towards the floor. "So I can't help but… think I had a hand in it, especially after today."

Before Mina could speak up, Kirishima put a hand on Izuku's shoulder and began speaking, "Midoriya, it's not your fault. You did what you had to do, win, if he's upset about that… Well, I don't know what you could do, but that's his problem!" He patted his friend's shoulder quickly and continued, "So don't worry about it! I'm sure he'll be back to that abrasive and aggressive guy we all know in no time at all!" He gave the boy a thumbs up, sporting a sharp grin.

Izuku looked up at him, wiping the tears that were forming from his eyes, "Thanks, Kirishima, I needed that. I should get going now though, I'll miss the train at this rate."

Mina finally spoke up, "Woah woah! Calm down there, I know you're that nerd type of guy, but after today and what you said, I think you need to take it easy for a bit." Mina had barely met the boy a few days ago, but he seemed nice, and his dedication and kindness served to impress her, enough that she wanted to know more about him, so she decided to take this opportunity.

"You seemed really tense because of Bakugo. Why don't we go grab a bite somewhere and take a breather, I know a place!" Mina smiled at the two boys, happy at her own suggestion, considering it was one of her favorite places.

Izuku was left confused and taken aback by this, "A-are you sure? I don't want to be a bother…"

"A bother? Please Midori, you won't be! C'mon, there's this place with some really good burgers! You coming along Kirishima?" Mina looked at Kirishima expectantly.

He let out a reluctant sigh, "I guess I'll go, I wanted to go the gym today, but I won't pass up an opportunity to hang out and eat! Ain't that right Midoriya?"

Izuku laughed and scratched the back of his head, this was a new thing for him, he'd never really gone out much with… well anyone really, the last time he'd hung out with a friend was when he and Bakugo were kids, and how much of friends they were at that time was still questionable. "I guess I'll go too, nobody's ever invited me to anything, but… I'll take the offer!" Izuku said with enthusiasm, a bright smile spread across his face.

Mina jumped up and down in excitement, "Yay! Come on, I'll lead the way!" The pink girl gestured to the two to follow her as she ran down the stairs and outside.

After around 15 minutes of walking, with the three chatting along the way, "I don't get what the deal with Bakugo is, but you don't need to worry about him right now dude! Let's just take it easy for a bit and eat something!" Kirishima said while lightly nudging Izuku's arm. "Besides, what could you do about it? You tried to talk to him, didn't you?"

"Yeah... " Izuku replied sheepishly, his voice lower than normal.

"And he didn't even let you do that, did he? That's why I'm saying man, don't worry about it. Ain't that right Ashido?" Kirishima asked their pink haired friend, who was leading the way to the diner. She turned around and smiled at them.

"Yeah! Just take it easy dude! Just a few days ago you broke your finger to pass a test!" Izuku blushed in embarrassment at her comment, it really wasn't his best moment, despite him being able to use his quirk more efficiently. "Just the fact you didn't have to do it again is a win in my book!"

The trio went on their way to the diner Mina had talked about. It was a small diner owned by a small family of 4. Because of how frequently the girl went to the establishment, she was already well known and a regular. As they walked in they were greeted by a small woman, her hair red in coloration, she wore a small apron over her uniform. "Oh, hello miss Ashido! It's been a while, hasn't it?" The woman smiled at her, then peeked over the pink student's shoulder, "I assume those are your friends?"

Mina beamed at her warmly then replied, "Yeap! They're coming here for the first time too! So, table for three!" She held up three fingers as she spoke, excited to show her two friends the place.

The three followed the woman and sat at a booth, Izuku ending up sitting next to Kirishima. Due to the booths size, their shoulders were almost touching, because he wasn't accustomed to being in such close proximity to anyone, he a small hintt of red on his face.

The three ordered their food then waited. As they waited, Kirishima spoke up. "So, Midoriya, what's the deal with you and-" He caught a glare from Mina as soon as he tried to finish that thought, correcting himself, " a-and your notebooks? You kinda write in them a lot."

Izuku became flustered, someone had noticed his habit and was now pointing it out in the open, "I-it's nothing really… I mostly just use them for writing notes on interesting quirks I see…"

"Well sure, but you're writing on them all the time! Do you really find quirks that interesting so often?" Kirishima commented curiously. His habit was unusual to him, especially his dedication to it.

"It's just stu-studies for the future you know? It helps when I'm trying to come up with a strategy." Izuku continued, averting their gaze, "If I write everything down, I can usually rationalize better you know? Guess I'm just used to doing it for most quirks now, so it might end up looking a bit weird…"

Mina chimed in, rising from her seat slightly, "Are you kidding? That's really cool!" She sat back down and laid back on her seat, "I mean, yeah it looks a bit weird at first, and maybe even creepy…" Izuku sunk into his seat upon hearing that, is that really how he looked when he was writing? "But when I got to know you, I kinda figured you probably didn't have any bad intentions."

Izuku smiled a bit as he heard this, he wasn't sure what impression he'd had on his new found friends until now, but this assured him that it was at the very least a good one. "B-by the way, Kirishima?" The red haired boy perked up at the mention of his name and looked at Izuku. "What's up with your hair, if I can remember correctly… wasn't it-"

He was cut off by a hand obscuring his mouth, Kirishima shook his head as he did do. "Let's… not mention that." He took his hand off Izuku's mouth, who had gone from a surprised look to an empathetic one. Mina simply looked on in confusion at the two's exchange.

He nodded then continued, "Alright… But on the topic of quirks, how does yours work?" He took out of his pocket what seemed to be a smaller notebook with a pen in it, making both of his friends giggle. "What?" He asked, laughing slightly as well, not sure why they were laughing.

Kirishima wiped a tear from his eye, "It's pretty simple actually! I can harden my skin up, which lets me take a lot of hits!" He glimpsed over at Mina, then looked back at Izuku, "As you probably realized by now. But it does let me punch things better as well! Since, y'know, harder fists?"

Izuku was writing things down on his notebook as Kirishima continued, his mumbling slowly getting more audible. "Midori?" Mina tried to catch his attention, seemingly to no avail. "Midori!" She said, louder this time, making the boy finally snap out of it and jump slightly in his seat. "You were doing it again."

"S-sorry…"

"It's fine dude! Just messing around." As she said this, their food arrived, a few snacks alongside a plate of fries. Kirishima began to dig in at the plate while Izuku simply looked at it. "Well, what'cha waiting for? Eat up!" Izuku jumped at the comment, then let out a sigh.

"Sorry, just been on a diet for a while now, I didn't want to ruin it."

"Oh, I get it. Then think of this as your cheat day! One day won't hurt, right?" Izuku smiled softly, then began eating, he really didn't mind if it was one day, right? "There you go, cmon lemme get a piece of that too."

The day went on, and the three ate and talked. By the end of it, Kirishima and Mina achieved what they wanted, for Izuku to loosen up and distract himself from whatever was bugging him. There was laughter and jokes through the whole day, until they exited the diner. As they did so, Kirishima let out a sigh. "Phew… That was fun, you feeling better Midoriya?"

"Yeah… Thanks, really." He took out his phone and glanced at the time, "O-oh, I've gotta get going, otherwise I'll miss the train! See you around Kirishima!" He waved Kirishima goodbye, Mina following close behind.

"Sorry, gotta go too! We take the same train!" She quickly went after Izuku, only glancing back to wave at Kirishima himself.

"Alright, see you two around!"

On the train, Izuku and Mina sat beside each other, making small talk along the way. "You know Midori, today was really fun! We should do this more often!" Mina said while smiling brightly at him, then put a finger on her chin as if to think. "Although I'm not sure Kirishima would be able to come all the time, same goes for you I guess."

Izuku gained a hint of red onto his face, then glanced to the side."If, if that's what you'd want, then sure, Ashido! It really was fun, I haven't hung out with anyone like this in a while…" Izuku's own words saddened him, it really had been quite some time since he'd gone out with people he could call friends.

"Also, Midori?" Izuku perked up at the mention of his name and turned to look at Mina. "I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but if you need someone to talk to about whatever's going on between you and Bakugo, I'm here, alright?"

Izuku smiled genuinely and spoke, "Thanks Ashido, it… means a lot, actually." He looked up and saw a station come into view. "That's your stop, isn't it?"

"Yeah! See you around Midori!" Mina waved him goodbye as she walked off the train, Izuku let out a sigh of relief as she did so. It had been a long day, even if he'd gotten to hang out with his newly-found friends, it was still hard not to think about that morning. Fuck off. No bark, no malice behind it, just thinking about it made Izuku worry. He'd confront Bakugo about it some other time though, as Kirishima said, there's nothing he could do, for now anyway.