All Might shut his distressed eyes, and massaged the center of his brow. Aizawa lazily looked over his direction and leaned against his seat in the observation booth of the stadium.

"You know, for a moment there..." he said, turning away from the computer CCTV screen just seated below the wide window facing the training field. "I thought she was about to engage in real physical combat."

"I can't help but think maybe we made a mistake in the match-ups," All Might exasperated, peering out over his computer screen and scanning his vision over the field. Shoto stepped off her and waved his flag tauntingly in the air. Kairi scrambled up and appeared a bright red – but from their placement, it was impossible to know if it was anger or embarrassment. "Was it too much all at once? Pairing her with someone who can rile her up like no one else in class can, while pitting her against the boy she has feelings for? I can't imagine what a powder keg of emotions that was for her."

"You were the one who suggested it, Toshi," Aizawa sighed, watching as Kairi angrily stepped out of the ring and slumped against the seats to observe the rest of the battles. Her front slumped over her legs and her sweat strung hair streaked over the front of her face, obscuring her expression. "Such a powerful combination might cause her to combust and break out some of her potential."

"I know," he groaned, pushing away from the white desk. He raised a hand to his mouth and coughed into it, low and gruff. "Isn't it possible we may have further caused her damage though? When Hoshino can find her Focus, that's when she can strategize how to best apply her emotions." Aizawa nodded, pressing against the button to backtrack on the footage. The images moved past before Kairi's flag was removed, just as Bakugo was about to launch an attack.

"Yes..." he grumbled. "When she's able to clear her mind, remove herself from what she's feeling, that's when she acts best can perform with strong competence. But a situation like this... you're right in a sense. It's possible it was a no-win situation and overloaded her. Except, she was doing decently up until..." Aizawa pushed the button again, reviewing further as the footage moved to just before Bakugo dropped Kairi into the opponent's side of the cliff. "She found it in her to move beyond her feelings for Bakugo and worked with him. I can't imagine that was easy, and whether she was able to keep her calm or Bakugo was, or both... They both showed a maturity that they have yet to show towards each other in class. They didn't let their anger cloud the other's judgment and worked together. Yes, it's possible Hoshino was just trying to keep a good grade, but her emotions normally would have shown through Bakugo in some way. Either he has learned how to defend his emotions against her or she has strengthened her overspill. If neither of them had, there is no doubt Bakugo would have exploded. Literally. He doesn't care about his assignment scores as much as Hoshino does and would have erupted." All Might twirled a pen between his fingers as he watched Aizawa continue to replay the footage.

"That's true. There was some growth there. She even quickly agreed to letting him carry her over and drop her," he nodded.

"I'm not too sure about the dropping her part..." Aizawa said, gesturing a finger over the invisible angles on the screen. "Look at this moment of panic on her face. She didn't know he would do that. But she trusted him enough to let him carry her, and he was the one who burned her elbow. For someone like Hoshino who gets nervous around people... and to allow someone she despises to do that... there has to be some trust building, even if it's minimal."

"Look at that, right there..." All Might said, using the pen to point at the ice slide that Shoto shot out of nowhere. "If Hoshino had no idea what the plan was... Bakugo's reckless, but he isn't the type to intentionally drop someone to great harm like that... Do you think he knew that Todoroki..."

"The kid's sharper than he seems, Toshi. He's noticed the two of them and knew he wasn't going to let her fall. It was his plan. If he had informed Hoshino about it, she may not have trusted him, may not have been convinced Todoroki would, and wouldn't have let Bakugo go along with it." Kairi launched from the edge of the ice and fell into a roll with Shoto. All Might smirked and looked over at Aizawa proudly.

"Look at you, admiring your students and your intellect," he teased, clapping him against his shoulder. "You really care, don't you?" Aizawa scoffed and brushed the hand away quickly.

"Whatever," he growled, and then pressed a button on the keyboard. "See that? That's about when things began to go wrong, when she landed against Todoroki like that. She panicked, overloaded her emotions and while it was enough to take out Mineta, she lost her Focus."

"Hmm... it was her feelings for Todoroki, wasn't it?"

"If she's starting to truly realize what's going on with herself, her mind may be more of a mess than it was before." He sped up the image and stopped it just before Bakugo tried to attack Shoto again.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, old friend. Teenagers and romance... it's an old story. She'll talk things out with her friends, and one way or another her feelings will become less of a mess."

"I'm worried about how this will affect things in the meantime. If they weren't in the same class that would be one thing but..." He pointed at the screen, just as Kairi jumped in front of the blast and tackled Shoto to the ground. "Look at how fast she reacted to that." All Might curled his hands under his chin, thinking indepthly.

"Remember how fast she moved when she saved Shoto? We attributed it to her panic and fear, and how that made her move so quickly. But other times, her emotions cause her freeze. Why is that, do you think? Most people have a fight, flight, or freeze response, and often they usually just have one. Hoshino, though... sometimes she freezes. Sometimes though, her emotions throw her into action and cause her to make the right moves. That's unusual." Aizawa's eyes widened, as he finished out the footage and watched them roll away with Shoto ripping the flag off her side.

"Because... it depends on if it's herself or someone else..." he mumbled, astonished by what he was seeing.

"What do you mean?"

"Hoshino freezes when she feels pressure is building on her. She freezes when she feels like she's the one being singled out and the fault is on her. It's a self-esteem and self-conscious issue. However, when she's angry and feels she isn't justified in how she contributed to the situation and firmly believes the fault is on the other party, she attacks, or tries to. And since her abilities aren't in fighting, she applies them to her words. That's why she's always on Bakugo, or Mineta. However... when someone she cares for is being attacked, when it isn't her, she doesn't hesitate in jumping in. Her emotions process so rapidly, she simply moves. And right now..." He tapped the screen again. "Aside from maybe her father, there may not be anyone she cares more for than Todoroki." All Might nodded, waving his hand to indicate the scene where Kairi just seemed to freeze as Shoto slowly reached for her flag.

"Do you think Todoroki knows about her feelings and was using that to his advantage right there?" Aizawa shook his head.

"No." All Might raised his eyebrows. "In fact, he told Nezu he didn't notice anything when it was clear to both of us she was processing her feelings for him. I didn't feel he was lying to save her from embarrassment or anything either. I truly think he doesn't know how she feels. However, I do think he could tell she was embarrassed even if he didn't know why. And he knows her well enough to know that embarrassment freezes her. That's what he took advantage of, to take her flag. That's the detail I am a bit unclear on, however. The closer of a relationship Hoshino has with someone affects them more emotionally than someone she hardly knows. So her feelings should affect Todoroki the most in class. So why doesn't it affect him? Why is he unaware?" At the moment he asked the questioned All Might gasped, clarity dawning on him with full brightness. Aizawa swiveled to look over him with questioning.

"Because he truly has no idea..." All Might said.

"Yes... that was the impression he gave. The question I am asking is how...?"

"Didn't you say it was clear that Todoroki has feelings for her too?"

"Yes. Not as obvious as Hoshino, of course but..."

"That's exactly it, Shota. He doesn't know because he thinks her feelings are his own feelings. He can't separate both her emotions and his emotions, because he feels them even when she's not in the room. He thinks it's all his own feelings." Aizawa blinked, and turned back to the screen where he pressed a button to put the video back in real time, to see Shoto and Bakugo in a dance of fire and ice. The teacher groaned and pulled a sleeping bag from under the desk of computers. He slunk his feet into it and began to pull at the zipper, trying to escape from the complications around them.

"I hate teaching teenagers when they're dealing with crushes..."

Many of the other fights had finished, while Shoto and Bakugo were flashing waves of explosions and torrents of ice with fire at each other. Shoto's busting flash struck Bakugo and sent him back. The blonde student ran at him with a nearby explosion that Shoto blocked with a surprise ice shelf. Bakugo burst through it and they continued on as the rest of the class watched from their seats. They were all covered in dust and had their fair share of scrapes and bruises on them. Only Izuku and Iida managed to get both flags from Uraraka and Tokoyami, while everyone else for the most part got only one or none. Continuing on, Shoto and Bakugo then engaged in a duel of fists. Shoto slammed his hand against the ground and perfectly aimed a blade of ice – it shot just against Bakugo's leg. Grazing him, it left the skin completely unharmed. However his pants... were split open along the edge and exposing him from shin to thigh. In this process, Shoto also claimed his flag and the match was called.

"Ugh..." Kairi grimaced, turning away at the image of Bakugo's exposed leg that allowed the whole class to know what color of boxers he wore. Feeling revolted just as Bakugo screamed what an unfair move that was and how it could be considered harassment. Shoto coolly walked away from the field, reminding him that if the flag had been a gun and Bakugo had been a villain, he wouldn't have cared if his underwear showed to the world if he kept him from doing violence.

All Might and Aizawa stepped out from their booth and met with the class. Bakugo sat at a distance, angrily embarrassed by his exposed boxers. He forced Kirishima to sit beside him to block any peering eyes, but the Red Riot turned the color of his namesake and struggled to keep his eyes away from Bakugo's exposed thigh.

"For the sake of Bakugo and... everyone," Aizawa slowly began. "We will discuss your results and scores in the classroom. Unless someone is terribly hurt and needs to be taken to the infirmary right away..." He waited for someone to stand up, but the students just shook their heads. They looked beaten and rough, but they were otherwise upright and looked undisturbed. Except for Kairi who continued to be a bright red and held her hand on the side of her face to avoid looking over at Shoto. "I want you all to hit the showers and then immediately head back to the classroom." With the dismissal, Bakugo was the first to be running ahead of the crowd. Kairi slowed down and kept her distance between her and Shoto. The boy kept turning his red and white tousled hair as he repeatedly looked over her direction – as if he worried – but she kept her eyes down.

She breathed deeply the moment the girls' locker room shut behind her. She needed air. She need to think. It was too much, this sudden compressing itch that needed to be there. Now that she understood what it all meant, it was choking her and it was only going to grow heavier.

The rush of steaming water slammed against her face, and she begged it to be so harsh, it would knock sense into her. Tears mingled with the streams flowing across her aching body. He must know how she felt, and used it against her. Why wouldn't he? That's exactly what a villain would do. That was why his hands lingered over her like that. He knew it would cause her to freeze so he could win. Her gut twisted, disheartened by his tactics. Why did he do that? Didn't he know better? No, no, it was about training. That's what it was. She was meant to be villain in that moment, so all bets were off. In real life, of course he would use whatever devices where necessary in order to win against a villain. Any hero would... right?

No, not always. They wouldn't sacrifice their morals. If someone was against torture, they wouldn't torture a villain just to get what they wanted. All Might never would have done that. He would knock someone out quickly at most. In that moment, that was what Shoto should have done, or locked her in ice to take her flag. But he didn't. So why did he touch her like that? Make her feel so vulnerable, make her feel those... things? Why did he have to hold her so close that she could taste his musk that had become second nature to her? Why did her skin have to buzz against the brush of his fingers and render her listless in that brief moment? That wasn't him. He wasn't the type to tease, to manipulate for a damn grade, even if it was a situation where they had to simulate attacking a villain.

Was it her feelings? They had been known to manipulate people in the past. Was this a piece of that? Was her emotional overspill giving him pause and maybe nicking at the small part of him that was willing to do whatever it takes? The part of him his father had tried to instill?

No... that wasn't Shoto. That wasn't her best friend. That wasn't...

Her fist slammed against the bathroom wall, shooting a searing pain through her fist and instantly making her regret the decision.

She preferred to be in 2-C. If she knew her feelings were going to become this complicated, if she knew she was going to completely lose all ability to use whatever skills she had because of something stupid as a boy and become a mess over a crush... she would have stayed with her old class. At least constant coldness and threats and angry whispers was easier to manage than this.

Among the last to do so, Kairi changed back into her grey UA issued uniform. Thanks to the lack of hair dryers in the showers, she ran a brush through her mocha toned locks and pulled a blue ribbon from the bag in her lockers. Inspecting the bruises against her arms and the cuts on her knees, she finished changing and joined the rest of the girls outside of the locker room. The throng of students gathered together, filing into classroom 2-A.

Shoto slowed his walk and made a noise to speak to Kairi – but she zoomed on past. Flying towards Momo, she grasped her elbow and dragged the protesting girl over to where Tsu was standing. The three of the girls gathered in front of Tsu's desk and when Aoyama entered the room, Kairi ran to pull him over as well.

"I'm freaking out. I'm panicking. I don't know what to do," Kairi began, just as Aizawa entered the classroom with All Might just behind him. She reddened, and her heart fell with disappointed annoyance that her news was just going to have to wait. "When school is done, I need to meet... no, we need to get off campus."

"Off campus?" Tsu asked, placing a finger to her lips. "Ribbit, what is so urgent? Is your dad okay?"

"It's fine... I mean, it isn't but nobody is physically hurt and it's nothing to do with my dad," Kairi whispered, feet burning to head to her seat. "But it's urgent and I'm a mess and don't know what to do and I just... I need to talk and figure out what to do. And I can't be where Shoto can easily interrupt me." As if he caught her name, his mismatched eyes moved her direction as he took his desk. Her heart thunked again and she took in a sharp breath.

"Do you want to go to a café or something?" Momo suggested. Kairi nodded.

"Ooh, there's a really cute one just off of...!" Aoyama began.

"Whatever, I don't care!" Kairi said, jogging backing to her seat. "After school!"

As the group split and rushed to their seats, Aoyama chuckled to himself, giving Shoto a wink. He furrowed his brow, confused.