It was only a week before Izuku found himself stuck again. During hero training, they had been practicing stealth - hide from another person until they pass the time limit. For Deku who had been hiding from Bakugou for most of his childhood, it was simple.

They were in Ground Beta, the fake city, and he was already itching to run, to hidehidehide. His fingers tapped against his side, occasionally pulling at the fabric of his suit. He could feel the others eyeing him and struggled to bury his energy, his fingers still tapping, tapping, tapping.

At the head of the group, Mr. Aizawa addressed the class.

"As you know, today we will be covering stealth training. Whilst I know some of you believe it is better to attack than to hide," he pointedly ignored Bakugou's derisive snort, "It is, nevertheless, a skill many of you - if not all - will need. Some skill sets are more efficient for Underground work, but even public heroes can face a scenario in which they may be waiting for back up or collecting Intel, and need to avoid detection.

"For this exercise, you work alone," he smiled at their gasps. "One person hides, three try to find them."

Mineta groaned, "But that makes it really hard!"

"Exactly."

Izuku grinned to himself as the names were called out, and all but ran over to Mineta, Ojiro and Jiro.

"You're certainly excited, Midoriya," Ojiro laughed. "I ho-"

"Aren't either of you worried about going up against a living sound detector?!" Mineta interrupted, wailing, "This is gonna be super hard!"

Jiro rolled her eyes, "All of us are going to struggle in this, it's not just you."

"I know, right?" Ojiro rubbed the back of his head, "I mean, I think I can be stealthy, but I can't exactly hide all that easily."

Izuku stared at the blond's tail, eyes wide, before breaking into an excited mumble, "In the standard way, you'd probably struggle - but if you could support your body weight with it, you could hide somewhere high up or use the hairs to muffle your sound! Kind of like how Mineta could use his sticky balls to stick outside a building - a-as long as he didn't leave a trail of them behind, that is, or his size means he could hide somewhere where most people wouldn't look! Of course, Jiro may have an advantage in finding us, but we just have to work harder that way, right?"

The others gazed blankly at him for a moment before nodding. Ojiro smiled, "Nice pep talk, man!"

Technically, it was advice that both of you completely blanked on, but okay, Izuku nodded.

"Any words for me?" Jiro asked.

"Um..." Izuku faltered, feeling guilty for excluding her, "Y-You looked like you knew what you were doing..."

"Fair enough," Jiro accepted the answer, so Izuku held back on telling her how her Quirk meant she'd always know where they were, so if she kept moving she'd be fine, and that how she could technically keep far away from villains and still get the information necessary.

She already had a huge advantage and, pep talks aside, he wanted to win.

So, as they began to watch the other groups, Izuku reminded himself of what Ojiro's clothes rustling sounded like, the clanking of Mineta's costume, and Jiro's boots as they tapped the ground.

It was one vs. three, technically, but he already could tell that bonus points would be given to those who found their opponents.

Finding Mineta was easy, he'd taken Izuku's words to heart and forgotten that they were opponents. He was a quivering wreck hanging off the side of an apartment building. (Later, he would admit his fear of heights to Izuku, and he had to wonder if Kouta had anything to do with it. He really hoped so.)

Ojiro had learnt from where Mineta had fallen short, and firmly avoided following Izuku's advice. However, being found lying down in a bathtub probably wasn't the most glamorous discovery, either. Izuku almost pitied him, since he'd predicted that the other would ignore his advice, so barely looked skywards during the exercise. Really, it was such a shame...

Jiro had been the biggest challenge, since she could anticipate where they were coming from. In the end, Izuku had just gotten all three of them to scream at the top of their lungs, which resulted in three sore throats and a grouchy Jiro.

But now it was his turn, and Izuku was determined to not be found.

He ran through the streets and thought. Basements were out, since Jiro had an advantage there - so were high up places, since it gave Ojiro increased maneuverability.

Smiling, he diverted his path into an office building.

They only had access to one block of buildings, in order to limit chances of the hiding student winning. At the same time, it also meant a second and third game could happen side by side, to limit the time needed for the exercise.

So he got as close as he could to the next group and picked a place to hide, hoping to throw off Jiro with Bakugou's explosive volume.

Bakugou...

Memories of hiding in corners and getting shoved into small spaces threatened to overwhelm him, but he shook his head and forced himself onwards.

Being one of the smallest in the class had its perks, he decided, as he squished himself into a cupboard of what looked like an office kitchen. He wriggled in, his feet touching the ceiling of the chubby hole and his spine curling against wooden panels. With a free hand, he nudged the cupboard door shut, and ignored the fact that his other hand was firmly wedged by his side, elbow digging into his ribs.

Inside the control room, Kaminari whistled lowly, "How can the guy even fit in there? That cupboard's, like, the size of a microwave!"

"Oui, mon ami," Aoyama grinned, "Midoriya is good at fitting into petit places, mais he is not so good at getting out of them!"

"You think he's stuck?"

"Mon ami, I know he is."

Whilst his team had run out of time before finding him, they did find him. Mostly because he'd started shouting, but they did find him.

He was wedged, of course, in a cupboard as big as a cardboard box, limbs sprawling like a deer on ice. His knees touched his chin and he was flat on his back. Most likely, it was the grips on his shoes preventing his escape, as he would complain later to his mother.

Mineta had spent five minutes laughing at him as the others struggled to pull him out, but they all agreed that Izuku's plan had been the best.

Silently, Midoriya decided he had the last laugh anyway, since he was the only one in their group to succeed in the exercise.

A final tug pulled him free, and he stretched with a cat-like grin on his face, "Th-that was pretty fun, right?"

Jiro jabbed him with an earphone jack, grumbling as she rubbed her head.