Iida instantly felt bad for leaving Midoriya alone with Bakugou.

He wasn't exactly sure what else he could have done in that situation, but he was sure that there was something. Every problem had a solution. How many times had Tensei drilled that into his head. Every problem has a solution, Tenya, his brother would say, generally when he had Iida stuck in some kind of embarrassing situation. Use that big brain of yours and figure it out.

Although Iida was a firm believer in the fact that his brother could do anything, he wondered what his brother would have said in the face of Midoriya Izuku. Iida knew himself well enough to know that he was stubborn, but he didn't think he would ever meet someone who had a worse case of thick headedness than himself.

Midoriya Izuku, though, put him to shame.

No matter what he said, Iida knew that Midoriya wasn't going to listen to him. It didn't matter that Iida had seen firsthand the danger that came with being a pro hero. However Midoriya had been accepted to Yuuei, he had been set on following this path and nothing a relative stranger said was going to change his mind. It didn't matter that Iida was right.

He couldn't let distract him now though. Midoriya wanted to distract Bakugou? Iida would have to leave him to try. He had tried his best to reason with his partner, but there was nothing else he could do in this situation short of physically dragging Midoriya away with him. He had considered that option, but Midoriya definitely would have fought him on it, and they had a test they were supposed to be focusing on. Iida refused to fail because of the luck of the draw. He would just have to get as far as he could and hope for the best.

It took Iida seconds to reach the top of the stairs and exit onto the open floor. Like the bottom floor, the lights were out, and Iida could barely see anything beyond the light from the stairwell. This floor had no visible windows, just a long branching hallway with doors that opened into empty offices. The door slamming when Bakugou entered the stairwell had sounded like it had come from here though, so Uraraka and the missile had to be there somewhere.

Slowly, Iida stepped into the hallway, dragging the door closed behind him. He could do nothing about the sound it made as the metal slid home though, and he winced at the way the small sound seemed loud in the emptiness. If Uraraka was up here, she knew that Iida had arrived.

It was fine though. Iida could do this, partner or no partner. He was still faster than both Uraraka and Bakugou, and he could get the missile before the timer ran out. Midoriya wasn't his problem right now.

Taking a deep breath, Iida crept along the hallway as quietly as he could, glancing into each room as he passed. They were all empty for the most part. A few prop computers and desks sat covered in tarps in some, but there was no sign of Uraraka or the missile. There was no sign that anyone had been here at all. Maybe he had been wrong. The top floor had been a good guess, but it was also an obvious guess. Cursing at the precious time he had wasted, Iida decided to rush through checking the last couple of rooms and head down another floor.

A burst of speed to check in each room and he could be on his way. Iida realized he had made a mistake the moment he entered the final room and the light flicked on. Iida saw the missile sitting on the side of the room a second before a hand touched him gently on the shoulder.

Somehow, Izuku had forgotten how much Bakugou's explosions could sting. His expression had done the trick, after all. Bakugou had paid no attention to the fact that Iida was nowhere to be seen and had gone after Izuku the second he had finished that taunting bow. Bakugou had apparently changed, but his impulsiveness was clearly there to stay. That worked fine for Izuku. The longer he could lead Bakugou on the better. Izuku might not exactly have faith in Iida's skill, but at least he held a higher opinion of his partner's abilities than Iida did of Izuku's own.

Izuku, at least, had his role in this test covered. At the moment that was all that he could worry about. Bakugou hadn't been there to see any of Izuku's new gifts from Mei, and Izuku was looking forward to the opportunity to test them out. Playing around in Mei's lab or with Aizawa wasn't quite the same as launching an explosive right back at Bakugou's obnoxious face. Even if the impact wasn't quite at the same level as his classmate's quirk. Yet. He and Mei were building up a pretty good argument for an adjustment, and if he played his cards right, Izuku could add this whole exercise as an example of why it was necessary.

First though, Izuku needed to find a place to make his stand. He couldn't run away from Bakugou forever. The setup of the building wouldn't allow that, and if Izuku didn't fight back soon, Bakugou was going to figure out that something was up. Only problem was that the building didn't leave him a lot of options. The hallway was a little too enclosed for his tastes, but the rooms were either stacked full of random objects or empty. There was no happy middle ground.

Another explosion blasted from behind him, much closer than the last one. Izuku slid to a stop, turning to face Bakugou as he reached into his belt. The moment Bakugou saw that Izuku wasn't running, he stopped as well, eyeing him carefully. A standoff again. This time Izuku wasn't going to run though. The time for goading had passed.

"Izuku," Bakugou growled, and although he didn't immediately charge him, Izuku could tell that he wanted to. Bakugou's hands clenched, the smell of smoke filling the air around them.

"Well, after all these years, I'm glad that you finally learned my name, Katsuki," Izuku said easily, unable to resist, and tossed a yellow ball in Bakugou's direction.

Bakugou rightly guessed that it was a weapon and raised a hand to block his face. He wrongly guessed that an explosion would be just the thing to deal with the new problem. Izuku turned, covering his face right as the ball exploded in a flash of blinding white light. Bakugou must have been looking right at it, because he hissed.

When Izuku turned back to see what he was doing, Bakugou had one hand covering his eyes while the other was groping blindly at the walls. Izuku knew the feeling. He had set one off on purpose just to see what the effects were like. Aizawa had been pissed, but Izuku argued that he needed to know exactly how the victims would be reacting so that he wouldn't underestimate them. That comment had gotten him a week's grounding from his mother and a ban on all his gadgets for the same period of time, but Izuku still thought it was worth it. The effects weren't damaging, but they were effective.

Quickly, with Bakugou still trying to find his footing again, Izuku brought the two eskrima rods end to end, fitting them together the way that Mei had shown him. A twist and he could hear the hum that signaled that the charges at each end were live.

"What the hell was that?" Bakugou asked. He had removed the hand covering his eyes, but he still blinked owlishly at the empty hallway. Izuku wished he could have turned the lights on. It would have made the whole thing more effective.

"A gift from a friend," Izuku said, twirling the now connected rods between his fingers. Another press of a button and the rods extended, so that now Izuku held something roughly the size of a staff. Bakugou stumbled again, blinking rapidly as if he could clear them after the blast. His hands sparked, and Izuku knew that he had to move quickly. Even if Bakugou couldn't see yet, his quirk had a far reach. He could set it off in Izuku's general direction and still manage to catch him in the blast.

Bakugou seemed to get the same idea. He stumbled once more, then lunged. Izuku jumped back, batting Bakugou's hand away with his staff. The explosion went off towards the wall instead of Izuku, covering them in dust and drywall. The cloud put them on a more even playing field for a moment, not that Bakugou could tell yet. He cursed, and Izuku let out an uneasy laugh.

"This is just a test, Katsuki. Don't bring the whole building down on us."

Bakugou wiped a hand across his face again. "I'm not an idiot." Izuku wanted to argue the point, just for the sake of it, but Bakugou shifted again, his movements much more confident. Izuku couldn't be sure if the flash was wearing off, or if Bakugou was just getting used to the feeling, but he wasn't going to wait to find out.

He aimed the end of the rod for Bakugou's foot. The charge might not be strong enough to do any lasting damage, but he would still feel it through the fabric of his sweatpants. The second the staff met his ankle, Bakugou yelp, a strangled sound that Izuku had never heard his classmate make before. He jerked his foot up and back, away from the source that he still couldn't see. That was went Izuku struck again, swiping at Bakugou's other leg with the staff and knocking him flat to the ground.

The trick wouldn't have worked if Bakugou had been able to see the staff coming, but then that had been the whole point. He would be more wary now, and the flash had to be wearing off. Izuku needed to regroup.

"Well, this certainly is a change of pace, isn't it?"

How much time had passed now? Surely enough for Iida to reach the top floor. Izuku wished that he could be up there, figuring out what was going on. He had known that it would probably end up like this though, as soon as All Might put him against Bakugou. Things might have run smoother if his partner had been anyone other than Iida, but it wouldn't have changed the fact that it would come down to him and Bakugou distracting each other while their partners fought over the missile.

Bakugou pushed himself to his feet, wobbling for a second before standing straight. "That's new."

Izuku shrugged. "I make do."

Yes, Iida had miscalculated. In hindsight, his speed might not have been the best match for Uraraka's quirk. It was too late for him to stop when she touched his shoulder and activated her quirk. Iida, weightless but still moving, crashing into the opposite wall. For a second he couldn't breathe, the air knocked from his lungs. He barely had a second to register the feeling though.

Uraraka must have released her quirk because Iida crashed face first into the ground. He gasped at the impact, dragging in a long, shaking breath. What did a concussion feel like? Iida had never experienced one before, but it seemed like knowledge he should have had on hand. Did concussion make you feel like you were going to throw up?

Iida didn't have time to consider it now. Bakugou hadn't arrived yet, which meant that Midoriya was still somehow keeping their classmate occupied. Iida needed to do his part. He needed to get the missile.

Uraraka looked worried as he forced himself to his feet. Not for the missile, Iida didn't think, but for him. It wasn't until he tasted blood that he realized he hadn't gotten away with falling flat on his face unscathed. He would feel the pain eventually, but at the moment all he could focus on was how he was going to get that missile away from Uraraka.

She stood in front of it protectively, a hand reached out to touch the smooth casing. Even with his quirk, Iida wouldn't be able to reach her before she activated her quirk. He had to try though.

"Fuck, Dek-Shit. Izuku. Stop running!"

Aizawa would give him the flattest of disappointed looks if he knew, but Izuku was actually having fun annoying Bakugou like this. He would claim it was Mei's influence, but he couldn't pass that lie off even to himself. A little harmless fun at Bakugou's expense was called for, in his very humble opinion. And it was harmless. All for the purpose of the test.

Another explosion from behind him, although Izuku thought it was more out of frustration than Bakugou actually trying to hit him. That was another change from the Bakugou Izuku had been expecting. In the past, Bakugou hadn't shied away from hitting Izuku with the full force of his quirk. When they were kids' it hadn't been as bad. Bakugou was still trying to figure out his ability for himself, and there were more misfires than there were purposeful explosions.

That had changed as they grew closer to middle school though, and the blasts that had been more terrifying than painful began to leave lasting marks. Nothing permanent, of course, but they were marks that Izuku had hid from his mother so that she wouldn't worry more than she already did. Bakugou hadn't been concerned about hurting Izuku. Or anyone finding out that he had hurt Izuku for that matter.

Now though, the closest Bakugou had gotten to actually hurting him was a passing blow that singed the end of his sleeve and left a faint red line running up his arm. He wasn't pulling any punches. As a matter of fact, his quirk seemed stronger than the last time Izuku had seen it up close. He had to have been training since the incident at the warehouse. It made Izuku all the more curious about what had happened to cause such a change, to make Bakugou shift his attacks from trying to blow Izuku's face off to trying to knock him off balance.

Izuku slid to a stop again as they came to a dead end, considering his options. An office door stood open to his left, but Izuku ignored it. A twist and the staff compressed, coming apart in Izuku's hand. The buzz of the charge vanished as the two parts separated, and Izuku flipped the rods in his hands to readjust his grip.

"Nowhere to run now," Izuku said, shifting his stance. Bakugou had him cornered now, but the timer had to be running down. What was Iida doing?

Bakugou grinned, both of his hands sparking. Izuku lifted both his rods in response. He had redirected Bakugou's blasts before. He could do it again. If he could get around him, get the empty hallway behind him-Izuku didn't have time to get a plan fully formed. Bakugou was moving again, raising his hands in Izuku's direction. Izuku smiled to match him, breathing in the smell of smoke and nitroglycerin.

The sound of a buzzer interrupted them, both of them freezing at the sound. A count down boomed through the building as the stood looking at each other, eyes wide. The countdown hit zero and the buzzer sounded again. It felt like an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. A test that Izuku had desperately wanted to pass coming down to a blaring alarm announcing his failure.

Bakugou looked annoyed at the interruption, but the building explosion in his hands fizzled out. He pointed a finger in Izuku's direction, shoulders hunched as he said, "This didn't count."

The comment threw Izuku. His arms dropped, but his grip on the rods didn't loosen.

Bakugou rolled his eyes. "Did my quirk rattle your brain?" He asked. "I know what you were doing. Glasses wouldn't have lasted five seconds against me, and we both know it." He pointed at Izuku again, frowning. "Next time, none of this fake mission bullshit. No partners. I'll beat you fair and square, so this one doesn't count."

He looked so serious that Izuku had to fight back a laugh. "Awww, Katsuki. I didn't know that you care."

"Shut it, asshole," Bakugou responded, turning his back to him. "Idiot."

He and Bakugou weren't good yet, and Izuku doubted they would ever really be friends. That was the most positive interaction they had ever had though, and Izuku saw it as progress. They didn't need to be friends to work together or be classmates. So long as they weren't constantly trying to kill each other, Izuku would count it as a win. He needed one of those today.

When he met Iida outside, his partner had crooked glasses and a broken nose. Blood still covered his face, making the serious look on his face even more grave.

"I still think that you are making a mistake," Iida said, "but I owe you an apology. You fulfilled your role in this test, and I was the one who failed mine."

"It was a team effort," Izuku said. "We both failed. At least this time it wasn't for a grade. Next time though, if we do get partnered together again, I hope that you'll listen to what I have to say. I'm not here on a whim, Iida-kun. I worked hard to get accepted to Yuuei, and I won't have my classmates lack of faith in me be the reason I'm anything less than successful here."

Iida nodded, but didn't say anything else as they rejoined their classmates. He could see them giving Izuku's burnt sleeve and Iida's bloody face with appraising looks.

"And another round complete!" All Might said. In this form, he didn't need a megaphone to project his voice over the field. "I'm sure that will be an interesting watch!" His hand hovered over the box of names. "And with that, we have two out of three of our recommendation students down! Shall we try for a third?"

All Might may have been horrible at noticing social cues, but even he didn't miss the silence that fell as his words resonated with the assembled students.

"What?" He asked, looked around at them confused. "What did I say?"

"Recommendation student?" Someone asked. "Other than Todoroki?"

"It's not Bakugou," Kirishima said. "He and Uraraka were kind of memorable."

"Iida?"

"No, he was there too, remember? He spoke out when Aizawa was giving instructions."

"Holy shit," Kaminari said. "Midoriya?!"

And just like that all eyes were on him, as Izuku met All Might's horrified expression with one of his own.

AN: Well. I said I wasn't going to be able to update, and here we are. Procrastination is great motivation. Thanks for all the comments last chapter!