Katsuki knew he was smart. Well, intelligent. He didn't pride himself on being wise or having great amounts of common sense, not that he would ever tell anyone that.

As Deku put it, he would have had great common sense if not for his anger blinding him and causing him to act without rationality. It happened too often for Katsuki to brush it off as a one time thing. That frustrated him exponentially. It hindered him from being the best. But, then again, he would claim he already is the best even if his stupid nerd likes to correct his every move.

One case of this was when Katsuki was busying himself by taking a practice test. He told stupid Deku to shut up and be quiet so he could focus for the test. And as Katsuki went through each section, Math, Japanese, English, and Science he found that the knowledge obviously came easy to him. He was a genius after all!

However, once he reached the History section things started to go awry. History wasn't his favorite subject, he preferred Math because everything had an explanation. There was rarely anything that couldn't be explained, and Katsuki liked that. He liked having an explanation for things, it made him feel safe. Emotions are fragile, and Math isn't subject to that. Japanese and English were similar, but kinda boring for Katsuki. He didn't see the point of writing things perfectly like a puzzle, and makings sure every piece fit in nicely. Then again, he was pretty good at both so he didn't complain much. In another life, Katsuki would most likely love Science, and he occasionally enjoyed it, but other times it reminded him too much of his quirk and the nitroglycerin which he sweat.

History, on the other hand, was the opposite of Math. Most of it was caused by fragile emotions, vengeance, and hate. All things Katsuki was guilty of. He was an example of the reason why bad history exists. And while Katsuki is aware of it, he hates it. He doesn't always pay attention to History lessons. It's as if, he doesn't know about it, it didn't happen. Which was laughable at best. It clearly happened and Katsuki knew he was being a dumb ass, but he still didn't like History class.

Leading to his problem during the practice test. He had no clue about half this stuff. He'd usually have some nerd *cough* Deku *cough* do his History homework for him, because he never liked it. No one really had an explanation for History.

Katsuki tried his best but felt a bit stumped. That is, until Deku stepped in.

"Kacchan! Kacchan!" Deku whispered as if he was about to be caught.

"I'm busy nerd" Katsuki sighed, but he relented "What?"

"I know you don't like cheating, but you're having such a hard time and I thought I could help because History is a subject I'm really good at. You probably already know that, you don't call me a nerd for nothing, but still, I-"

"Oi! Nerd, spit it out!"

"THE ANSWER TO NUMBER 12 IS THE MEIJI PERIOD!" Deku whisper shouted.

"NERD! I don't want you giving me the answers!"

"But-"

"No buts"

"Hear me out! You're not good at History, there I said it! I can help you and this is only a practice test!" Deku's true feeling came out. Katsuki knew what he was saying was right, but he still wasn't a cheater. Even though no one could see Deku didn't mean he could take advantage of him to cheat. He had to be the best naturally, not because of some stupid nerd giving him the answers.

"No"

"C'mon Kacchan let me help you!"

Ever since the accident Deku realized that Katsuki would never do anything to him, and the cowering was replaced by confidence. Katsuki didn't mind it, after all he deserved to be himself and not who he though Katsuki would want. And with that, Katsuki knew Deku as his stubborn self, and that he wouldn't budge on helpng him with the test.

"Look, nerd, I'll compromise. You can't help me during the test, however I"ll allow you to tutor me in History." Katsuki sighed as he leane dback in his chair.

"THANK YOU! Keep doing the test, and then I'll see how much help you need!" Deku jumped up in excitement.

Katsuki, after filling in 'Meiji Period' for Number 12 and sticking his tongue out at Deku, found that he was dreadful at History. He just needed help when it came to remembering dates and the lengths for the periods. He remembered almost all of the wars, his violent personality finally helping him for something. Wars were interesting, but the causes for them were beyond Katsuki sometimes. Other times they hit a little too close to home.

And that wasn't the only time Deku corrected Katsuki. Which he was always half grateful for and half annoyed about. The nerd was smart, he'll give him that, but he could also be annoying as hell.

With Deku's tutoring, Katsuki felt like he would crush all his competition. But then again, most of the extras in General Studies were just rejects for the Heroic Course, so it's not like there was any competition to speak of.

Still, to Katsuki's chagrin there was a full auditorium of losers. Who all probably had the most useless quirks and their only hope to go to U.A was through General Studies, dumb asses.

"That's rude Kacchan!" Deku exclaimed, to which Katsuki just snorted as he found his seat with a frowning Deku trailing behind him.

After a few minutes, a certain pro hero stepped out onto the stage and greeted the extras, and Katsuki.

"HELLO LISTENERS!" Present Mic yelled out enthusiastically "CAN EVERYBODY SAY HEY!"

"HEY!" Deku was the only voice shouting out, but to everyone else it was silent.

As Present Mic started his spiel about the written test and how everyone was split up into different rooms to take it and such, Katsuki had to deal with Deku's mumbling about the pro hero. And while it was more interesting than whatever Present Mic had to say, if Katsuki told him to shut up everyone would look at him weirdly. Instead, Katsuki sent Deku a glare. That's where it all went wrong. The student next to Katsuki looked at him angrily, assuming the glare was for them, and Deku kept talking almost unaffected.

"Shut up nerd" Katsuki hissed at Deku.

"EXCUSE ME?" the student said, clearly not getting the memo that the message was meant for Deku, who had finally quieted down.

"I'm trying to focus here"

"He's just an asshole, leave him alone. He's not worth it" another student nudged the one next to Katsuki and sent him a little glare.

Katsuki just flipped them off, which made them both huff in frustration.

"Kacchan!" Deku crossed his arms.

"They deserved it, okay. Jeez." Katsuki murmured as quietly as he could to not raise suspicion.

.

After Present Mic finished his explanation Katsuki was led to the room he would start his testing in. As he walked towards the room, the tenseness from the auditorium seemed to follow him down the hallways like how Deku always did. Speaking of which, Deku was admiring the halls and the architecture of the one and only U.A High School, to him being there was a dream come true. Even Katsuki had to smile at how excited Deku was.

As they drew closer to the door in which the test was to take place Katsuki could feel himself grow nervous. Although to most he seemed to be a ball of pure anger and violence he actually had emotions and weaknesses and not even Deku's reassuring smile could quell Katsuki's anxiousness, even though he knew he was the best out of all the lousy extras applying.

When they got to the door, Katsuki instructed Deku to wait outside of the door, receiving odd looks. And even a few whispers. Usually Katsuki could play it off as his quirk, but unfortunately he couldn't because the Staff at U.A already knew his quirk, and it had nothing to do with speaking to himself, as most saw it, so that excuse would be thrown down the drain and made Katsuki look even more of a fool.

"Stop staring, idiots. I'm leaving all my nerves at the door, it's a weird family tradition, now fuck off" Katsuki sneered at the other students who were taking their exam in the same room as him, and the facilitator. The students rolled their eyes and the facilitator shrugged, but Katsuki felt fucking proud of his excuse. It was not the weirdest one he had to come up with, but it made enough sense that people would leave him alone.

Deku gave Katsuki a thumbs up and as the rest of the students shuffled into the classroom, Katsuki discreetly flipped off his best friend.

While the facilitator listed extra shitty, in Katsuki's opinion, guidelines and checked each student's quirk to make sure no one was harboring a quirk which could help them cheat, Katsuki went through everything Deku had told him to. The nerd, being a bitchy loser, was an intelligent bitchy loser, one Katsuki knew to listen to, at least occasionally. And so, with that he took deep breaths and when the facilitator gave the instructions to start he began the Entrance Exam for U.A's General Studies.

Katsuki felt that for most of the questions he breezed through them, but others made him think a little harder. The Math section was not a problem for Katsuki, and neither was the English section because a lot of it was really basic things. Not everyone had English practice at their Junior High Schools, although they should've. The Japanese section was okay. Seeing as everyone taking the test knows Japanese they upped up the difficulty a little bit, but it wasn't anything Katsuki couldn't handle. Science was different. He remembered some of the basic things fine, but some formulas were completely lost in his mind and he ended up randomly guessing on those, although Deku probably wouldn't approve of that it was his best bet.

History, it seemed, went pretty good. A few dates are probably wrong, and while Katsuki would love a perfect score what matters is being all the other extras who probably aren't even trying, and with that he is confident of a secured win.

The test lasted a few hours, and afterwards Katsuki and Deku made it back to the entrance of U.A High School. Katsuki had heard whispers of speculation on the Hero Course Entrance Exam, but he couldn't find it in himself to really care all that much.

As the pair walked with the school behind them, Deku finally spoke.

"I'm proud of you, Kacchan!"

Katsuki offered a little smile towards the nerd as he put his hands in his pockets and they walked side by side in silence.

That is, until...

"Hey, Kacchan wouldn't it be a good idea to find a way to communicate non-verbally?" Deku questioned. And whilst Katsuki wasn't going to devalue the good question, the timing was questionable.

"STUPID NERD! We were having a moment!"

"Screw the bonding moment!" Deku exclaimed "We have those all the time, and we need a way so that you don't look like you're an insane person. Excuses won't last forever. People will figure out you're lying, and the quirk excuse won't work when you get into U.A"

'When you get into U.A,' the nerd had said. As though Katsuki was guaranteed a spot, which he obviously was, but Deku's confidence in him made him feel at least a speck of proudness. It felt good knowing Deku believed in him, even when he didn't.

"It's a good point." Katsuki grumbled "I'll look into it."

The smile on Deku's face was worth the compromise.