Awkward Conversation Topics

Practical Exam Area

'This, is admittedly awkward,' thought Clay as he and Uraraka quietly made their way through the exam area. This particular area was modeled to look like a dome facility of sorts, with plenty of twists and turns with one big track running down the center. Clay figured it was fitting, given that their opponent was the astronaut-themed rescue hero, Thirteen. But another problem that neither he nor Uraraka had considered was now becoming very apparent. They had never had an actual conversation before without their other friends being present.

It wasn't to say that they weren't able to talk to each other. They'd managed a rather lengthy conversation about tactics to employ against their opponent, with both of them sharing a number of ideas on how to best compliment their quirks, with Izuku and Slade's input of course. Eventually they'd decided on a strategy that would keep them at a safe distance from Thirteen while still allowing them to fight if they did happen to run into the rescue hero. If they were lucky, they wouldn't have to employ most of it so long as they moved quickly, quietly and avoided getting anywhere near their opponent. But Clay could tell that his partner apparently had something on her mind.

"Alright," Clay finally said as he held up his hand and produced a cloud similar in size to the ones he'd usually ride on, "I'm sending out the first decoy." With a quick bit of reshaping, the cloud appeared as if it had the silhouettes of two people riding on it as Clay sent it out ahead of them near one of the many turns in the area. "If Thirteen's lurking around, hopefully they'll suck up the decoy first and give us time to evade them."

"Given the way the other matches have gone up to this point," said Uraraka, "We're probably gonna run into Thirteen sooner or later."

"Just remember the plan if we get caught up in black hole," said Clay while he readied a few other clouds which he shaped to look like bandages wrapped around his hands and feet.

"Uh right," replied Uraraka with a bit of hesitation, "Pull away with everything we've got because, uh, Thirteen's quirk has less of a pull at a farther distance." Clay sighed at the fact that she only recited part of the plan as he peered around one of the corners they were about to pass.

"Is something on your mind?" Questioned Clay as they continued onward, trying their best to avoid walking out onto the central track, "I know we don't talk one on one very often and this is making things, admittedly, a little awkward, but that can't be the only reason."

"Well," said Uraraka as they stopped for a moment, with the gravity girl fidgeting a little, "I'm worried about Deku. It's bad enough that he's going up against All Might to begin with, but he's also doing it with the most incompatible person they could've picked."

"Well it wasn't meant to be a fair situation," replied Clay, "But as my Uncle said at the beginning of the year, it's a hero's job to combat unfair situations like those. My only real concern is that Midoriya won't do the smart thing and hightail it the moment Bakugou stupidly tries to take All Might head on."

"Well that wouldn't really be the most heroic thing to do," Uraraka pointed out, "Just running off and leaving your partner to fend for himself."

"Ordinarily yes," said Clay, "but Bakugou arrogantly believes he can actually beat All Might in a straight up fight, unlike Midoriya who's been studying him for years and knows better. What's more, Bakugou refuses to even acknowledge him as a partner, so it might sound a bit harsh but the best thing Midoriya could probably do for the both of them, in my very personal opinion, is let bomb brain take the ## whooping he's practically begging for while he makes it to the gate and passes the exam for the both of them."

"But would Deku really do something like that," asked Uraraka as they stopped at another alley to peer down it as Clay sent out another cloud decoy ahead of them.

"If I know Midoriya like I think I do, not in a million years," replied Clay, "He's always held Bakugou in high regard, but even if it wasn't Bakugou out there with him, he'd still try to get them both out of there. He's been that way as long as I've known him, even before he got his quirk, so if he's presented with making a decision to help someone, even if it's not exactly necessary, believe me he'll do it." Uraraka smiled at his response for a moment.

"I often forget," said Uraraka as they kept walking, "You and Slade knew Midoriya before U.A. too." It was then that another thought struck the gravity girl. "You, uh, wouldn't happen to know if he dated anyone back then, would you." Clay turned around with a quirked eyebrow at that question.

"You have met Izuku Midoriya right?" Clay asked, "Until recently, the concept of even talking to a girl was foreign to him. In fact, after your call to him at the hospital the other day, he was excitedly texting me about how he actually spoke to a girl on the phone."

"Really?" Said Uraraka, not quite believing him, "Not a single girl ever talked to him in middle school."

"He was looked down upon as a quirkless nerd then," explained Clay, "between that and Bakugou tormenting him, no one hardly wanted to be his friend before me and Slade came along. Heck, we met when Slade and I kicked the $#$ out of some of the school bullies that were picking on 'em."

"I can't imagine why anyone would want to pick on him though," said Uraraka, "He's one of the nicest, smartest, most determined and selfless people I know. Sure he's still a nerd and he does mumble uncontrollably, but those are small things compared to the good I see in him."

"Don't you mean the good in him?" Questioned Clay as they stopped at another alleyway, "Come to think of it, why are we discussing Midoriya's lack of a love life right now? You gonna confess your true feelings to him after this exam or something?" Uraraka didn't answer as her face turned beet red at Clay's line of questions before she put her hands to her face, turned around and ran down the alley.

"No, it's nothing like that, I was just curious, why would you even suggest something like that?!" Uraraka stated frantically, not seeming to pay attention to where she was going due to her embarrassment. 'Jeez, I was only joking,' thought Clay, 'I know she might like him so why is she-wait a minute.' Clay noticed that the cloud decoy he'd sent into the alley suddenly got sucked away, the same alley that Uraraka was running down.

"Uraraka, hold up!" Clay shouted as he shot out the cloud bandages on his arms, one towards Uraraka and another towards some railing further down from the alley. His teammate stopped and turned her head just as their opponent walked around the corner.

"There you two are?" Said Thirteen as they raised up their finger to use black hole. Time slowed to a crawl then as Uraraka turned her gaze back on their teacher, her eyes widening in surprise as Clay's cloud cloth wrapped around her waist before yanking her backward towards Clay. The pointer finger on Thirteen's finger flipped open as a massive suction began. Clay grabbed his teammate around the waist then as she came back to her senses and used her zero gravity on both of them.

Even despite the distance, they couldn't help being pulled off of their feet as Clay shortened the length on his other cloth as quickly as possible. 'If this keeps up I'm gonna lose an arm,' thought Clay through gritted teeth as they reached the edge of the wall. Uraraka did her best to help out as she grabbed the edge of the wall with both arms. With one last Herculean effort, they managed to pull themselves out of the alley, and reeled themselves several feet away for good measure before Clay finally released the cloth around the guard rail.

"Come on," said Uraraka as she was on her feet in an instant and pulling Clay up as well, "We need to run!"

"No kidding," said Clay as he fired off a cloud high into the air before forming another beneath his and Uraraka's feet. The gravity girl grabbed him around his waist as she used her quirk to make him lighter, allowing them to fly much faster towards the gate. "All subtlety's out the window now, our only option is speed if we're gonna win this thing."

"I'm sorry," said Uraraka, "This is all my fault for overreacting and I nearly got us caught."

"We're not caught yet," said Clay as he went down an alley and emerged near the gate, "Thirteen's quirk might be hard to get around, but it's nothing like a real black hole so as long as we stay out of range of the suction we still have a chance to win this."

"You'd like to think so wouldn't you," said Thirteen as the teacher suddenly landed right behind them and opened their finger panel, "But I can also use my quirk to pull myself towards larger objects with the use of special jets in my suit. I rarely have to use this, so consider yourselves lucky that you get to see it." Despite their teacher's statement, Clay and Uraraka didn't feel the least bit lucky as the power of black hole threatened to suck them in once again. With quick use of his quirk, Clay tethered the both of them to some more railing that had fortunately been placed close to the gate.

But now they were stuck as Thirteen began walking towards them, the pull of their quirk getting stronger with each step forward. "Combat isn't my forte," Thirteen said, "But I do a good job when it comes to capturing people." 'This is bad,' thought Clay as he glanced up and began directing the cloud he'd launched into the air, 'only one thing to do now.'

"Clay," said Uraraka suddenly, "I know we're going with the backup plan, but I got something I want to try."

"It ain't too crazy I hope," Clay had to practically yell over the sound of Thirteen's quirk.

"It's a bit of a gamble," said Uraraka, "I want you to let me go. If I'm right, it'll at least present you with an opening." Clay thought about it for a moment, not really liking the idea. But taking a look at it objectively, they would both be sucked up if they didn't do something.

"May as well try it," said Clay as he released the clouds holding Uraraka, which of course sent her flying straight towards their opponent. 'Best do this fast,' thought Clay as he brought down his own cloud from the air as fast as he could move it. The sight of a person suddenly flying towards Thirteen caused the rescue hero to quickly close the opening on the costume, shutting off their quirk. This gave Clay the opening he needed to wrap his cloud around their opponent's arm to keep it from being opened again.

This also allowed Uraraka to grab a hold of the hero's other arm and use a takedown maneuver that she'd learned from Gun Head. With both of Thirteen's arms restrained, Uraraka had no trouble clamping the cuffs around the hero's wrist. 'Thank you Gun Head martial arts!' she thought enthusiastically as the horn sounded, signaling their win.

"Whew," said Clay as he dissolved his clouds and removed his mask. 'Don't say it,' he thought to himself, 'don't say it.' "That really 'sucked' didn't it?" 'And you said it.' Expectedly, Uraraka's reaction was a simple look that said 'seriously.'

Practical Exam Monitoring Room

"Alright!" exclaimed Midoriya, "Uraraka's judgement was right on the mark and Clay's response with his clouds kept Thirteen from continuing to use black hole!"

"I'm still just curious why Uraraka suddenly went running off," said Tsuyu, who'd come into the room while the match was going on with Iida, Momo and Slade, "I know Clay's not the most sensitive person but I've never known him to purposely upset someone."

"Do you know what Clay might've said?" Questioned Momo as she turned towards Slade.

"Ah you got me," said Slade with a shrug, "Those two have never had a straight up conversation between just the two of them as far as I know. Maybe Clay just mentioned something that he didn't realize was personal."

"Well we can ask them when they get here," said Iida, "Whose match is supposed to be next?"

"That would be Ashido and Kaminari," replied Momo, "They're going up against principal Nedzu."

"We'd best watch this match carefully," said Midoriya, "It's not often we get to see someone like him fight." Everyone else silently agreed as the match began, and became one-sided within the first few minutes. As it turned out, Nedzu was operating a crane with a wrecking ball, which made it kind of difficult for Mina or Kaminari to do much more than run as he created one chain reaction of collapse after another. What was more, the principal was laughing his head off like an evil genius while he was doing so.

"His understanding of physics and trigonometry is amazing," observed Slade, "Every swing of that wrecking ball is perfectly calculated to create an exact domino effect of falling debris."

"What's more," added Momo, "He's sealing off all direct routes to the exit while keeping Mina and Kaminari on the run."

"I'm just surprised at how sadistic he seems to be," said Tsuyu, "Is he always like this when he fights?"

"He was the subject of many horrible experiments by humans a long time ago," explained Recovery Girl, "So during moments like these he gets a little bit of revenge." Everyone else paled at this little factoid as they continued to watch the one-sided match play out. No matter where they ran, Mina and Kaminari couldn't escape the chain of falling debris and in the end they ran out of time.

"So that's it then," said Midoriya as the horn sounded, signaling an end to the match.

"They never even saw him the whole match," said Iida as the door to the monitor room opened to admit Clay and Uraraka.

"Oh no," said Uraraka as she hurried into the room with Clay walking in behind, "Mina's team lost? They must be crushed right now."

"Figuratively and almost literally by the looks of it," Said Clay, "I wish I could say I was surprised but I always heard that mouse was a sadistic genius."

"Well he had the perfect strategy against the two of them," said Momo.

"But at least you two managed to pass your exam," said Iida, "I'd say congratulations are in order."

"Thanks, and congratulations to you too Iida," said Uraraka with a bit more happiness in her voice.

"Hey Ochako," said Tsuyu, "What were you and Clay talking about right before you ran into Thirteen?"

"Oh that," said Clay, "Uraraka was just asking me a bunch of questions about-."

"NOTHING!" Exclaimed the gravity girl as she suddenly leapt up and put Clay in a headlock, "We were just making small talk about the school year and discussing battle stuff, then Clay made a couple of crude jokes is all!" The whole time she was frantically saying this she was using her gravity quirk to drag Clay out of the room with her.

"What in the world got into her," questioned Iida, voicing the thoughts of everyone else in the room.

Out in the hallway, Clay was wondering something similar as he waited for Uraraka to settle down a bit. After a few deep breaths, his classmate finally looked like she was ready to talk normally. "Alright, care to explain why you drug me out here right before the next match. Momo kind of expects me to be there to help cheer Jirou on with everyone else." His classmate took a deep breath before answering.

"Okay Clay, it's like this," said Uraraka, "I know you were just kidding about the whole confessing to Midoriya comment, but it still caught me off guard and it was really embarrassing."

"Why would it be embarrassing?" questioned Clay, "It was a joke, our friends will understand that."

"Or they might take it the wrong way," said Uraraka, "Especially Midoriya. He already gets nervous enough about social situations as it is, so as a favor to me and to insure your friend can continue to have normal interactions with me present, could you just not mention what we talked about." Clay sighed, figuring it shouldn't be this big of a deal. But, since she was pleading with him on it.

"Well I can't really say that I get it," said Clay, "and I think you might be making a slightly bigger deal out of it than it actually is. But since you drug me out here just to ask for a favor I guess I can't say no."

"Thank you Clay," said Uraraka with a bow, "I know you won't think of it this way, but I owe you one." Clay simply shrugged as they walked back into the monitoring room to see how Jirou and Koda's match was progressing. The answer, not good so far. As it turned out, Present Mike had a massive range with his quirk, allowing him to basically attack from the gate without ever having to move from it. Not only that, his sound was loud enough to cancel out both of their quirks.

"They're holding on," Iida said as he caught the two of them up on what was happening so far, "But Present Mike keeps bombarding them from a distance with his quirk. At this rate, Jirou and Koda's progress won't be fast enough to reach the gate before time runs out."

"I see," said Clay as he crossed his arms, mostly trying to hide his clenched fists. Slade still noticed regardless as they watched their classmates get swamped by another wave of sound.

"You a bit worried about her?" Questioned Slade, whispering so that no one else heard.

"It's only natural to worry about a classmate," replied Clay as he watched Jirou bust a rock to reveal a bunch of insects, "Especially given all that we've been through."

"True," said Slade, "But you and Jirou have got a bit of a different thing going on. Kinda like me and Momo have been interacting differently since the internship."

"Also true," said Clay, "But you misunderstand my frustration. I am worried about her, but I'm also frustrated because she's clearly got a winning idea with those bugs and it's going to waste because her partner won't grow a pair and talk to some $ #ing bugs! The guy doesn't even need to touch them he just has to open his mouth and $ #ing speak to them!" The cloud user stopped speaking when he realized that his voice had steadily rose in intensity, which in turn drew everyone else's attention.

Clay glanced at Slade who was wearing a small but smug grin on his face, clearly proud of the reaction he'd managed to get out of his friend. "Sorry," said Clay, speaking to everyone now as he rubbed the back of his head, "most bugs have never really scared me, so I always have trouble understanding people that are afraid of them."

"I don't think that'll be a problem much longer," said Tsuyu, who hadn't taken her eyes off the match, "Koda may be scared of bugs, but he's got a big heart, so have a little faith in 'em." Almost as if Koda had heard, he began practically yelling at the bugs on the ground, giving them one simple instruction. Get the man who was making all the noise. The spectacle that followed was impressive, and also made everyone else's skin crawl as a mass of bugs broke out from underneath the ground next to Present Mike and swarmed up his leg.

It was at that moment that Clay learned something new about their English teacher. The great hero Present Mike was also afraid of mass swarms of bugs. 'Wow, insect phobia is a bit more common than I realized,' he thought with a smirk as he watched Koda carry Jirou through the escape gate, declaring them the winners of the match. The cloud user then turned to head out the door.

"Uh Clay," said a surprised Midoriya, "Shoji and Hagakure are up against Snipe next, aren't you gonna watch that?"

"Snipe's probably gonna pin 'em down within the first couple minutes of the match," replied Clay as the door opened for him, "So I think I can miss the opening part to go congratulate the latest winners of our class."

"Just try to stay out of my way while I look at their ears," Said Recovery Girl as she brushed past Clay, who followed her out the door. Everyone else turned back to the screen as Slade was the next one to speak.

"He really does remind me of his Uncle sometimes," said Slade as he put his arms behind his head, "Can't just straight up say he was worried about someone."

"He probably likes her," said Tsuyu, "Or maybe he just doesn't wanna be one-upped by you, Slade. You did look kind of heroic carrying Momo back. Come to think of it, you guys have been acting a bit differently since you got back from your internships as well, did you all go on a double date or something?" This comment only served to make both Slade and Momo red as tomatoes as they both threw out a string of denials.

'I guess even Clay and Slade can be awkward sometimes,' thought Midoriya, 'which just brings up another question for me. If Bakugou doesn't listen to reason, what am I gonna do?' The green-haired boy looked at his hand as he clenched his fist, thinking over some advice Clay had given him earlier, and made up his mind.

Both Clay and Slade have passed their exams, leaving only a few remaining, one of which is Midoriya. But how will he fair when his partner hates his guts on the best of days. But the biggest question I got right now, does anyone know what the heck Thirteen is supposed to be? The website says unknown on gender, so now I'm wondering if there's even a body in that space suit and how I'm supposed to refer to Thirteen when I'm writing! But I'm getting off topic here, I hope everyone enjoyed the latest chapter even if it wound up shorter than I expected, and as always feel free to comment or review on what you liked/disliked or if you got any neat ideas you think will make the story better. Bonus news my story, The Adventures of Team WA Vol. 2, shall be resuming now that vol. 6 of RWBY is rolling, so keep an eye out for new chapters on that story as well. Be sure to stop in next time as the practical exams come to an end and class 1A prepares for its next challenge. 'Til next time.