Izuku walked downstairs, and then out into the common room. It was deserted, and all the lights were off, leaving only the white snowlight from outside to stream in the windows. Confused, he headed outside and down the steps.

His boots crunched in the snow, looking around. He could only see white, turning in a circle. "Iida?" he called. "Are you out here? Did you need me for someth-"

"GOT YOU!"

"GAH!" Izuku fell over, as the white moved and tackled him to the ground. Snow was kicked up as they rolled, and he heard girlish laughter.

Suddenly, Iida and Uraraka appeared out from behind a tree, also laughing. Then, Mina and Kaminari appeared, coming around the corner. "Did you capture him?" Mina asked.

"It was easy!" said his tackler, who he now realized was Hagakure. She was wearing a white coat and white pants that blended in perfectly with the snow. Her head was, of course, invisible.

And she was on top of him.

Izuku blushed, and squirmed out from beneath her. "That was…c-certainly clever, Hagakure," he complimented.

She giggled again. "You looked right at me, but you must have been really focused on finding Iida! Or, perhaps you're thinking about something else?"

"Err, no. Iida said he needed me for something." Izuku looked toward his bespectacled friend. "Don't tell me you played along with this?"

"Ahem, well…" Iida coughed and averted his eyes. "I know you told me you needed time to think, but it had been a while, and I know you have a tendency to get too engrossed in a task, so…I'm sorry, Midoriya. It was Hagakure and Uraraka's idea, mostly."

"Hey!" Ashido complained. "Give me credit, too!"

Meanwhile, Uraraka and Hagakure had both whirled on Iida. "Oh, so you're just gonna blame us then, huh?"

Iida looked at them in alarm. "I mean, I…"

"Wanna take it back?"

"Hey, wait!"

Then, both girls were suddenly pelting him with snowballs. Iida screamed, and ran for it. The two of them gave chase, laughing maniacally. Izuku felt himself smile with glee, as he stood up…and was nearly knocked over again by Ashido as she went barrelling past. "HEY, WAIT FOR ME!" They took off running around the corner of the building.

"Come on, Midoriya!" Kaminari's voice. He ran up even with the boy, and then the two of them followed behind the others.

"Man…you're…so lucky…" Kaminari breathed as he ran. Even after two years, the electricity user still didn't have the greatest stamina.

"Lucky?" Izuku raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

They rounded the corner, and saw Iida and the girls ahead of them. Kaminari nodded forward. "To have girls want you around…and then tackle you like that…"

"Oh." Izuku flushed. "Well, it's just because Hagakure's invisible. Her Quirk was good for the ambush. If she was a boy, things would have played out the s-same way."

Kaminari shook his head, as if disappointed. "Midoriya, Midoriya…one day, you'll…learn."

Izuku frowned. "And maybe one day you'll learn to pace yourself properly."

"Hey…cut me some slack…we've been out here for like, an hour…" The other boy gasped.

Iida was running toward Kirishima and Sero now, who both turned to look in surprise. "Help!" Iida screamed, pointing back toward Mina, who had now pulled in front of Uraraka and Hagakure. "Isn't she your responsibility?!"

Kirishima and Sero exchanged a glance, and then both laughed. "Ha! We may be her friend, but you're our class rep! That means we're all YOUR responsibility!"

"AAAAAH!" Iida received a point-blank projectile snowball to the back of the neck, enough to knock him over into the snow.

Mina lowered her arm like an expert pitcher, a toothy grin across her face. "Target eliminated," she said, right as Uraraka and Hagakure caught up, and slid to a stop.

Yaoyorozu and Jiro were both watching from a nearby tree. Ojiro was sitting on the branch above them. All three of them laughed.

Izuku looked around at the scene and decided, Okay. Maybe I can stay out here and spend some time with my class for a little while.

"Oh, hey Midoriya," said Kirishima. "They managed to get you out here after all."

"H-ha, yeah…" Izuku realized everyone was looking at him, and felt uncomfortable. Are they still thinking about how I stormed out of the party? It was like those memes he'd seen of a whole family looking at the camera with a caption like, Look who finally decided to come out of their cave!

He had a clump of snow still attached to his coat, though…with one arm behind his back, he shaped it into a small, hard snowball…

Kirishima was still looking at him with a pleasant, friendly grin. Izuku raised his arm, and threw the snowball at his face.

"GAH!" The red-haired boy staggered. If everyone had been laughing hard before, they were laughing even harder now.

Kirishima wiped the snow off his face, said, "Oh, it's ON!"

And then the chaos began.

Ashido rushed to defend Izuku as Kirishima gave chase, pelting him with her quickly-made armada of snowballs, but then Sero was there, and Sero had one of the best natural throwing arms in the class. For a moment, it was a crazy four-way battle, Izuku caught in the middle of the chaos.

Then, Iida hit Ashido in the ear with one, and she turned on him, joining Hagakure in chasing him in a wide circle.

Kirishima and Sero continued to close in on Izuku, as he backed up, trying to defend himself by raising his arms, laughing the whole time.

"Psst! Deku, hey!"

Uraraka, his savior. Hiding behind a small snow wall she'd just made, and now popping out to attack Kirishima and Sero. Izuku jumped back and rolled behind it, then joined her in the trench warfare, just throwing his arm above their cover and taking blind shots.

Apparently, one of these blind shots hit Ojiro in the tree, and knocked him off. Izuku saw this out of the corner of his eye, and shrieked, "OH NO I'M SO SORRY…"

Kirishima tried to jump the wall, and Uraraka squealed, rolling beneath and behind him as he landed, and hitting him twice more in the back. Then, she ran into Sero, ducked under his swiping arm, and scurried away, giggling.

Ojiro was now throwing snowballs at Izuku, but one accidentally hit Sero, and the tape user rounded on him. Kaminari tried to join in and help, but suddenly Jiro jumped him from behind, and dunked a huge amount of snow into his hood. Kaminari screamed like a girl and fell to the ground.

Izuku looked around wildly, and saw that Yaoyorozu was now helping Iida fight back against Hagakure and Ashido's advances. The snowball melee began to compress, groups of fighters getting closer and closer as those with the advantage pushed the defenders into a circle. Izuku knocked into Jiro, apologized awkwardly, turned around…

…And saw at least a dozen more people running down toward their group from the hill. From the Class B dorm.

"GUYS!" he yelled, pointing. "INCOMING!"

All of Class A turned, and saw their enemies closing in.

Itsuka Kendo was leading the charge, a glint of unmistakable excitement in her teal eyes. Her arm was raised back over her head. "Look alive, Class A!" she shouted, and pelted Momo in the shoulder at a distance of 40 yards.

The raven-haired girl gasped and fell backward into the snow. All of Class A stopped and looked at each other, dumbly. Class B was closing the distance.

"Don't just stand there!" Kirishima roared. "We've gotta defend ourselves!"

Just like that, they were all allies again, reaching down and gathering up as much snow as they could.

Uraraka got behind Izuku. "Cover me quickly, Deku! I'm gonna make some more walls!"

Ojiro got two snowballs and jumped back up into the tree. Class A began to group up in a battle formation. Class B's snowballs came whistling in from above. Ashido dodged one; another hit Kaminari in the face.

Monoma streamed ahead of Kendo, cackling madly. "EAT SNOW, DIRTBAGS!" His voice was filled with glee…

...And he was promptly pelted with a dozen snowballs at once, from just as many different directions. He fell into the snow and rolled, Itsuka still behind him. "Great job being the bait!" she shouted. "You sucked up all their ammo!"

"Oh no," Momo gasped. "It was part of her strategy!"

The rest of Class B had arrived now, and were relentless in their assault. They'd come prepared with tons and tons. Awase drove back Sero, while Tetsutetsu targeted Kirishima. Pony Tsunotori and Setsuna Tokage closed in on Ashido and Hagakure.

Jiro and Momo ducked behind Uraraka's walls to make more ammo. Ojiro jumped down onto Kuroiro from above, hitting him with both snowballs in midair. The war began to devolve into chaos, individual clashes. Laughter and joyful screams split the cold air.

Izuku didn't really have anyone in Class B he wanted to target in particular, he thought as he gathered up some snowballs behind another barricade. Uraraka had been next to him a second ago, but now she was gone. Noise continued all around him. Maybe I should go after Tokage? Hmm.

A snowball hit him in the butt.

Izuku whirled, standing up as he did so, only to receive another snowball to the face, and then another, and then another. He spat, lifting one arm to retaliate and another to block, and ended up dropping a lot of his snowballs. He managed a weak throw, but the person was assaulting him relentlessly, and giggling a lot.

He dropped his defenses when he realized who it was. His eyes bugged out in shock. "Kodai?"

Her deep blue eyes were twinkling, and she was unmistakably grinning, as she continued to pelt him. Izuku laughed, suddenly blushing for some reason even as she was causing him pain. "Kodai…hold on a second…pffft!"

She ran out of snowballs.

They stared at each other for a long moment. Then, Izuku grinned evilly and gathered up some snow as quickly as he could.

Yui's eyebrows went up, and then she turned to run.

Izuku nailed her in the side, and then missed his second throw as she went low, ducking on the other side of the snow barricade. "Oh no!" she gasped, still laughing.

Izuku ran over. "You dare use my class's defenses against me?" He leaned over the barricade, and prepared to drop a ton of snow on her head, but then she kicked through the wall, dumping snow all over his feet and causing him to lose his footing.

Izuku windmilled his arms, trying to regain his balance. Kodai hopped to her feet, bopped him on the nose with a finger, and then danced lightly around him in a circle. He turned and tried to catch her, but she scraped by just out of reach.

"When did you get so agile?" She was running backwards away from him, still watching his every move. He gave chase, feigning a snowball hit…

And she ran into the tree.

Yui squealed, and stumbled. Izuku took his chance and leapt forward, the two of them rolling on the ground, laughing. They left imprints on the snow with their bodies, and rolled to a stop, gasping for breath…Yui on top of him.

Izuku looked up at her, still laughing, but also concerned. "Are you okay? You hit that tree pretty har…" He realized what position they were in. Her hands were pressed flat against the snow on either side of him, and she was practically sitting in his lap.

She rolled sideways off of him so they were both flat on their backs, next to each other, and then started giggling again. Izuku couldn't help it; he started giggling too. Even if he felt awkward, it was infectious. I'm…I'm really happy. I want to save people with a smile, but sometimes I have to put it on and pretend…around her, it's like I don't have to pretend at all.

Their laughter died down, and they realized it had gone quiet around them.

Izuku and Yui sat up. A bunch of people had stopped fighting, and were looking right at them.

Kendo, Uraraka, and Iida were all staring in surprise. Ashido and Tokage were grinning in excitement. Monoma and Kaminari had shocked looks on their faces, and everyone else just seemed kind of confused.

Izuku felt a pang of panic. He waved his arms around frantically. "It's not what it looks like! It's…" He turned to look at Yui.

She had returned to her usual blank, neutral expression. "Hm," she muttered, standing up. She had a snowball in her hand.

She threw it right at Itsuka's face.

Itsuka staggered, and then gasped, laughing. "Yui-chan's declared it! It's every person for themselves!"

The snowball fight roared up again. It was complete chaos again, and Izuku and Yui left the center of attention.

She turned around, still neutral, and helped him to his feet. "I am sorry about that," she said.

"D-don't worry, it wasn't your f-fault. You did a good job distracting them, h-huh?"

He scratched his neck, unsure of what to do. He knew he was smiling nervously again, and he felt her penetrating gaze on him.

"Wanna, uhh…f-form an alliance and go after some p-people?"

Her lips turned up a little. "Mmhmm!"

…

She watched as the two of them went around like perfect partners, like a perfect team. Like they'd known each other for years. It was unfathomable. It was ridiculous. It was…

Disgusting!

When had it happened? How could she, in all her observations, have missed this? How had it happened so quickly? That straight-faced, blue-eyed harlot…who knew that her Izuku had such tastes.

But he was making the girl smile. It would be hard to tell unless you were close up to them, but the watching girl was good at that sort of thing. She'd been observing her Izuku for a long time, oh yes.

And he was smiling too. She made him genuinely happy. How on Earth was the watching girl meant to compete? It was just…just so unfair. So annoying.

Grr…if Kodai thinks she can take him from right under my nose, she has another thing coming! I know I've waited too long, I KNOW I haven't been forward enough, I know, I know. But it's time to change that. Time to change that very soon! And then, Izuku will realize he's meant for ME!

A voice snapped the watching girl out of her reverie.

"Hagakure? Hagakure, are you alright?"

Toru Hagakure blinked. Uraraka was shaking her gently by the shoulders, looking at where her face was with concern.

"Uhh, yeah!" Toru chirped, feigning her usual bubbliness. "I'm fine!"

"Okay. You were just standing still for a while there. It's hard to tell what's going on with you some of the time, you know." Uraraka smiled, and then the two of them jumped back into the snowball fight together.

For a moment, Toru considered targeting Kodai and Izuku right now, but decided against it. I've been patient, I can be patient just a little while longer.

…

What a twist!

It's Yui's birthday, actually, on the day of this upload. Happy birthday Yui!

Since this fic takes place around this same time of year, I will address her birthday next chapter.