Chapter Fifty-Seven: Teamups

Aisla was sitting by the pool the following day, but this time she was surrounded by girls rather than one explosive blond boy. All the girls from class 2-A were gathered around the pool area, sharing conversation as they drank iced tea, smoothies, and—in Aisla's case—iced coffee which was her guilty pleasure she didn't get often enough at school.

They were decked out in bikinis that would normally get them at least a detention if not suspension had they worn them back at school. Aisla knew hers was a little more revealing than was probably appropriate in this setting, but she didn't care. Although…she could still feel Katsuki's dark, hungry gaze devouring every inch of bare skin the bathing suit allowed.

Something in his expression the day before had brought her back to those times when they'd been lost to their desires. The time when he pushed her against the wall and ravaged her mouth with his tongue. That moment in the clearing when she'd first felt his excitement for her and she'd wanted to explore further. And she remembered their kiss in the rain when she'd first started to fall in love with him.

Kiss me again, she'd silently begged when she felt Katsuki's fingers gently kneading the skin on her bare sides in the pool, inviting both new and old sensations into her body that begged for more of him, despite their breakup.

Of course, sense had flooded back into her before she'd allowed anything regrettable to pass. So, she'd done the only thing she could think up on the spot: She turned their casual swim into a competition.

Now that she was hanging out with the girls, she felt ashamed for her actions the day before. She was being just as bad as Katsuki with her mixed signals. Her feelings were a jumbled, distorted mess right now, confusing her brain and her body, which both seemed to be at war with one another all the time. Her body begged for Katsuki's touch, but her brain couldn't allow her to accept anything he offered.

"Hello! Earth to Aisla!"

Aisla blinked, then winced at sudden pain in her eyes. She didn't even realize she'd been staring into space. She had thankfully remembered her sunglasses, but the sun still burned her eyes similarly to when she used her quirk for too long.

"Aisla!" Mina called again. She looked over at the pink girl in the dark blue bikini to her right. "Where were you, girl?"

Aisla flushed and tried to come up with an answer that wasn't, I was daydreaming about kissing my ex-boyfriend.

"I…fell asleep," she said lamely.

Mina gave her a sympathetic look. "Aw, poor baby! Did you not sleep well?"

"Do you need to go back to your room?" Ochaco offered, peering around Mina to look at her.

Aisla shook her head. "No, no! I'm fine now! I just dozed a little bit. The sun feels nice."

"What a cute little kitty napping in the sun!" Mina cooed. "But now that you've had your cat nap, do you want to go swim with us? It's getting kind of hot, and your girl doesn't want to burn!"

Aisla checked the time on her phone and frowned at the numbers displayed there. "It's late. We should probably start getting ready for the first training event."

Mina made a dismissive sound. "Forget about that, Aisla! Let's get in the water and have some fun first! Please?!" She batted her eyes wildly.

Aisla rolled hers, but Mina couldn't see it behind her sunglasses. "Fine, but just for a little while. Mr. Aizawa will be really mad if we're late."

"Not at you!" Ochaco disagreed with a giggle. "Aren't you his favorite student?"

"And his biggest fangirl!" Mina piped up. "Just like Midoriya with All Might. Those two think they're so sneaky, but they're just as obvious as you and Eraser Head. Sorry, sweetie, but we know all your dirty little secrets." Mina winked conspiratorially.

Aisla groaned and buried her face in her palms. "Mina," she whined. "Please stop. It's not like that. He's just been mentoring me and Shinso with our quirks. It's nothing weird."

Mina and Ochaco's eyes widened. "Shinso?!" they exclaimed in unison.

"I didn't know you were friends with Shinso," Kyoka said thoughtfully.

Aisla shrugged. "I mean…yeah?" Did she really have to explain her weird friendship with Hitoshi? It wasn't like the two of them hung out all the time, but she still enjoyed being around him. Plus, it was always more fun when he joined them for training. And they had their Eraser Head worship in common, which made them kindred spirits as far as she was concerned.

"Um, are we swimming, or what?" Mina complained, tapping her bare foot expectantly on the ground.

Aisla forced a smile. "Yeah. Let's do it."

The girls spent the next hour swimming and laughing, and making the most out of the free time they were allowed before training began. Since they'd spent more time in the pool than Aisla would have preferred, she didn't have time to shower, so she had to show up to her first training day with dripping pool hair.

Shoto smirked when he saw her hurry into the hotel lobby with minutes to spare. She skidded to a halt in front of him and gasped for air. Mr. Aizawa stood across the room, leaning against the wall with an expression she read as, "Calling it a bit close, aren't you?"

"I wondered if you were going to make it," Shoto teased. "Couldn't get your hair right?" He gave the messy locks an amused look.

Aisla pouted. "Don't make fun of my pool hair, Roki!" she scolded. "I didn't have time to shower, and now I smell like chlorine." She pulled on a strand of hair and grimaced. "And it feels like straw!" she cried.

Shoto laughed. "Silly Ru, no one is looking at your hair." He reached out and ruffled the top of her head.

Aisla swatted him away. "Hey! Don't touch my hair! I told you I hate that!"

He chuckled. "You're right, I apologize. But, I really don't think anyone is going to care what your hair looks like for one day. Besides, you're about to get sweaty in training. Were you really going to shower and curl your hair for that?"

"No," Aisla answered with an indignant huff. "I would have straightened it for that!"

"Everyone quiet down!" Mr. Aizawa suddenly stepped forward with his hands buried in black pants pockets.

Aisla and Shoto turned to him, though she could still feel his amusement radiating off of him as they listened to their teacher's instructions.

"You'll be working in pairs for today's exercise," Mr. Aizawa continued. "Since we have an odd number of students, one of you will be working with me. Before you get any ideas about pairing up with your friends, I've already decided who you'll all be working with."

"I'll team up with you, Mr. Aizawa!" Mina called out proudly from the front of the group, ignoring what he'd just said about the decision being final. Aisla could almost swear her teacher shuddered in response, but his recovery was too quick for her to really be sure.

"I'll keep that in mind," he deadpanned. "As I was saying, you'll all be paired up, but you won't be fighting each other this time. You will work together to fight against another group of my choosing. You will not go off on your own or purposely go after another classmate you have a grudge against." He sent a pointed look at Katsuki who stood not too far on Aisla's left. She saw him bristle at the look but amazingly didn't respond to the insinuation. "This isn't a competition to see who can annihilate the other team first," he added. "The purpose of this exercise is to teach you all how to work together to accomplish a common goal."

"What are we doing, Mr. Aizawa?" Kirishima asked. He stood next to Katsuki with an elbow resting on one of the blond's shoulders.

"I was getting to that," Mr. Aizawa chastised. "Follow me to the training grounds and I'll finish explaining."

He led them all outside and around the back of the building. They followed him down a dirt path that led to a large warehouse-type of structure about the size of Ground Beta. The inside consisted of towering hills made of packed dirt and a massive arena taking up the majority of the center. Surrounding everything was an obstacle course that looked straight out of a movie, with varying challenges they were sure to compete in at some point during their stay.

"This building is used entirely for hero course students visiting the resort," Mr. Aizawa explained once they were all inside. "This is where you will be doing most of your training with me and Vlad. Today, only class A will be using this facility, but tomorrow you'll be working with class B, so you'd better pay attention to what we're doing. Like I said earlier, I've already assigned pairs, but I'll be switching you out as I see fit."

"What are we going to be doing?" Mina piped in, echoing Kirishima's earlier inquiry.

He scowled over at her. "Don't interrupt me." She shrank in on herself as he continued. "The staff at UA thought it would be beneficial for you all to put more time into Teamups."

Midoriya squealed as his hand shot right up in the air and waved excitedly. "Oh, we've done that before!" he exclaimed. "That's what you call it when two heroes combine their quirks into one ultimate attack, right?"

"That's correct, Midoriya," he affirmed. "That's what you'll be working on today. You'll all have fifteen minutes to come up with a strategy for your team that you think will help you succeed. Again, this isn't a competition. We're aiming for success, not annihilation. There will be no reward for taking out the other team first. Your goal is to figure out a way that you can cooperate with one another so that if you're ever faced with a difficult villain, you'll have a higher likelihood of capturing them. I want you to come up with a move using your joint quirks, and show the usefulness of that move on the field."

Aisla thought that sounded pretty cool, but she wasn't sure who, if anyone, she'd be most compatible with. Her quirk wasn't very useful when it came to combat, so anyone she was paired with would probably be at a disadvantage.

"I wonder who we'll be teamed up with," Shoto mused, echoing her thoughts. "It will be difficult to come up with a decent strategy in that time frame, but fortunately we're all familiar with each other's quirks. Tomorrow's class will be a lot harder since we don't know as much about Class B, and their quirks might have evolved since the last time we trained with them."

Aisla hadn't thought of that, but it made sense. Class A worked together every day, but they knew little about class B except for what they'd learned during their first training match with them, and what they could remember from the sports festival. Aisla hadn't been present for the latter, but she remembered most of what class B could do from the training they'd done together. Even so, they hadn't spent much time working with them and couldn't be confident in what they'd seen. They could easily have ultimate moves they hadn't been able to show off yet.

"But Mr. Aizawa," Mineta suddenly lisped. "I don't think it's fair that someone gets to be your partner because the rest of the class will be at a disadvantage."

His eyes blazed red. "Are you questioning me?" Mineta paled and Mr. Aizawa deactivated his quirk. "If you can't fight against me, then how do you expect to face a villain?"

They all grew thoughtful at this as Mr. Aizawa dug in his pockets. "I'll read off the list of pairs now," he announced as he held up a sheet of paper. "As I said before, there will be no complaining. You need to be able to cooperate with anyone you might be working with outside of school, which is why we want you to train this way. However, there will be quirks that yours are more compatible with so we'll also keep that in mind as you train today."

He proceeded to read off the names. Aisla was paired up with Kaminari, which came as a surprise at first since she'd never spent any time training with him. Once she stopped to think about it, the pairing made more sense. Aisla's quirk wouldn't compliment many of her classmates, especially in a Teamup. If Aisla had been in Mr. Aizawa's shoes, she probably would have paired herself with someone like Shoto or Katsuki because of their long-range attacks. She could easily mirror an ice attack or an explosion, giving them the advantage if they wanted to surprise their opponents. She supposed this could also work with Kaminari, though she wasn't as confident in her knowledge of his quirk, so it would be harder to come up with a good plan.

"Yo, Aisla!" Kaminari waved an enthusiastic hand in the air as he strode toward her, grinning widely. "Are you pumped to work together or what?!" He held out a fist toward her, and after a moment she bumped her own against it with a small smile.

"Yeah!" she enthused. "I'm excited to see what we can do together!"

"TRADE PARTNERS WITH ME, DAMMIT!"

Aisla and Kaminari both turned in surprise at the sudden roar from across the room. Katsuki stood next to Kirishima, hand clenched in his collar as he shook the other boy roughly and yelled in his face. "YOU TRADE WITH ME RIGHT NOW!"

"H-hey, man!" Kirishima complained as he tried to pry Katsuki's fingers from his shirt. "I totally would…if Aizawa wasn't looking at us with that scary glare."

Katsuki's face drained of color as he slowly turned toward their teacher, whose hair stood perfectly erect and eyes gleamed a demonic red. He dropped the collar and sulked off in the opposite direction. Aisla could see his lips moving but couldn't make out the mumbled words.

Kaminari shook his head. "Poor Bakugo. Looks like he's stuck with Midoriya again. No wonder he's so pissed off."

Aisla felt a twinge of sympathy for him as she watched him angrily gesturing at Midoriya. She knew, even if Katsuki didn't, that a part of him was envious of the other boy, which made him feel insecure and angry. He didn't hate Midoriya as much as he always claimed, Aisla could tell that much at least. Katsuki was very good at hiding his emotions, but sometimes they were displayed so clearly she felt like he was transmitting them straight into her mind. Right now, she could tell that Katsuki was reaching his breaking point, and if that happened, Midoriya would be the one to pay for it.

"Hey, where are you going?" Kaminari called after Aisla as she made her way toward a fuming Katsuki. Her feet moved without her permission, taking her past groups of classmates chatting animatedly with one another, or huddled in pairs discussing strategy. She ignored the few classmates who tried to get her attention as she made her way across the room.

"…And you better not do that again or I'll—!" Katsuki stopped mid-rant as Aisla rested a hand on his arm. He froze for a beat, then his gaze slowly shifted down to her hand, then over to her face. She hoped her expression conveyed the encouragement she wanted it to. All at once, he deflated, letting out a long exhale before working his jaw into something less stiff and angry.

Aisla smiled up at him. "Hello, Katsuki," she murmured.

His eyes wouldn't leave hers. "Aisla," he whispered. His eyes shone with some unspoken meaning she thought might be something like hope.

"Are you busy later?" she asked sweetly.

He blinked several times as if trying to comprehend her words. "I, uh…no. I'm not busy."

Her smile grew. "Will you do something with me, Katsuki?"

He nodded vigorously but offered nothing in return.

"I'll come find you after dinner," she told him, then turned back to the room in search of her partner.

Kaminari stood there, slack-jawed, as if he couldn't believe what just happened. "Wow, Aisla. I've never seen Bakugo deflate so fast. What did you say to him?"

Aisla flushed and tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. "Oh, I just said… 'hello?'"

His eyes widened further. "Wow. You must be a miracle worker or something. Teach me your ways, Senpai!"

Aisla giggled. "Honestly, it was a gamble. He doesn't usually calm down so easily."

"He has been on extra good behavior lately," Kaminari mused. "Is that your doing, too?"

Aisla twisted a strand of hair between her fingers in embarrassment. "I didn't do anything," she replied.

"Alright, enough talking!" Mr. Aizawa barked as he came to stand in the middle of the room. "Pair up and I'll direct you to your assigned locations. Kaminari, Miss Haru?" He called over to them. "Jiro, Tokoyami, all of you follow me outside. We have a…special arena outside." His devious tone made hairs rise on Aisla's arms, but she dutifully followed along with her other three classmates as her teacher led them out the back side of the building.

A gasp slipped from her lips at the sudden change in scenery. Trees sprawled out in every direction, as tall as redwoods and wide as oaks, with thick branches and leaves that hung low like a willow. A solid mile into the forest, sat a wide river with a wooden bridge offering the only way across. Beyond this, stood a towering wall of concrete too tall to see over the top.

Aisla gaped up at it, wondering what lay beyond the concrete wall. There was an opening directly in front of the bridge, but from where they stood it was impossible to see inside. Dark storm clouds had made their way across the sky during the short time they'd been inside, reminding her of their recent exams. She wondered if this storm was just another trick someone had come up with as a way to torment the students of class 2-A. Aisla felt as if there was always something they were doing to try and make things more difficult for them.

"Wow," was all she could manage to say as she stared up at the impressive wall. Mr. Aizawa had led them across the arena to this point, and now stood across the bridge from it.

"What the heck is that?!" Kaminari asked with wide, incredulous eyes.

Mr. Aizawa stood there with an unreadable expression. "That's a maze," he told them, jabbing a thumb behind him in the direction of the wall. "It's one of the resort's most talked about attractions. Tourists from all over the world come to test out the maze, but only a handful of people actually manage to make it out without assistance from hotel staff or certain types of quirks. It gets its inspiration from the Minotaur's Labyrinth. That's for any of you who actually pay attention in world cultures lessons."

"Is that where we'll be fighting?" Jiro asked with a frown.

"You can discuss that with your teammate," Mr. Aizawa said. "For now, Miss Haru, Kaminari, I want you both to stay here. This will be your starting point. Jiro, Tokoyami, you're going to follow me to another part of the grounds. All of you are welcome to use any part of this area you see fit, so long as you don't go beyond the boundaries of the arena."

"How will we know if we've reached the boundary?" Aisla asked curiously as she peered around them. She couldn't see anything beyond the great wall and the towering trees.

"There's an invisible border wall," he explained. "It hides this area from outsiders, and stops anyone inside from accidentally wandering out. Don't worry, it doesn't hurt that bad. Now, Kaminari and Miss Haru, you two can decide where you want to start but don't move until my signal." He gestured for Tokoyami and Jiro to follow him, then led them across the bridge and into the maze.

Aisla peered through the opening in hopes of getting an idea of how the inside was laid out, but all she could see was another tall wall before the group disappeared around a corner. She sighed and turned back to her partner.

"Well, I guess we better come up with a game plan," she mused thoughtfully. A small frown creased her brows as she considered their options. She didn't want to venture into the maze just yet, but she wasn't confident with their chances in the surrounding forest either.

"I'm not very good at coming up with plans," Kaminari admitted sheepishly. "I usually just do whatever Bakugo says."

Aisla turned an encouraging smile his way. "Sure, you are, Kaminari! You came up with that plan against Shishikura, didn't you? I think you're a lot more clever than you give yourself credit for."

His eyes sparkled. "Wow, you really are an angel, Aisla!" he dramatized.

"Do you have any ideas of how our quirks will work well together?" she asked, ignoring the comment.

"Well, the thing is, Aisla…" He sighed. "I don't really know anything about your quirk." He slumped in embarrassment. "I mean, I know it's a mirror thing but any time you talk about it, it's all too complicated and I space out."

"Oh, that's okay!" she assured him. "I'm sure there's a lot to your quirk that I'm not aware of. That's why we're doing this, right? To learn more about one another?"

"You're so right!" he agreed, suddenly enthusiastic again. "Tell me all about your reflection!"

"It's called 'Mirror,'" she corrected gently. "It works similar to its name: Any quirk thrown at me can be mirrored back to the person who's used it, or I can direct it toward someone else." She tugged the light blue goggles onto her eyes. "These help hide my line of sight so that when I'm using my quirk, no one knows where I'm going to direct it."

His eyes were wide with amazement. "That's so cool," he said, making Aisla grin in appreciation. She didn't think there was much worth to her quirk, but when her classmates saw something in it that Aisla couldn't, it always made her feel a little better about it. "So you and Mr. Aizawa really are a lot alike, aren't you?"

Aisla flushed at the comparison. "Oh, uh…you think?"

He thinks I'm like my favorite hero! she silently squealed with delight.

"Oh, yeah!" he affirmed. "You both have to focus your eyes on someone, right? That's why you wear matching goggles?"

Aisla's blush deepend as she gingerly touched the side of the slitted eye-wear. "Oh, I don't think they're that similar. Anyway! What about you?"

He gave her a brief rundown of his quirk, all of which she already knew pretty well but was still grateful for the recap. It helped her to formulate a plan in her mind that she thought might just earn them a win.

"This is not a competition," Mr. Aizawa had told them all.

Maybe not, she agreed, but that won't stop everyone from trying to beat each other to the finish line.

She turned to Kaminari with a wicked grin that had his yellow eyes widening in either fear or surprise. "I have a plan," she told him. "And you're going to be the one to earn us a win."

A/N: Okay, if anyone noticed some chapters that had the wrong number, that's because I cut one chapter in half and made it into two separate ones, so when I went to post them I forgot to change the number that had already been on the document. I think I fixed all the errors now, but if not shoot me a PM with the chapter number and I'll go fix it.

ANYWHO! Does anyone remember that kitten I found in a bush a while back? It was exactly a year ago on Tuesday that I found her! It's so crazy to me because it doesn't feel like it's been a whole year already. It was such a struggle in the beginning. She couldn't move, barely ate, and almost died. But she slowly got healthy, and she got the help she needed with a vet, and overcame many struggles (and I do mean MANY). Finally, she's a happy, healthy baby! Just thought I'd throw that in there for those of you who've been with this story all the way!

WAIT. Do you know what that means for DDM? It means that I've been posting this for OVER A YEAR. Like...that's crazy to think about. Every single week for over a year now I have been posting chapters of this fic for you guys. I don't know how many of you have stuck with me all of this time, but I want to send a huge THANK YOU to everyone for getting this far! I wouldn't be where I am now without the support of all of you. Thank you so much for reading, and for keeping up with this long journey. It was my intention in the beginning to flesh out Katsuki and Aisla's story, but I NEVER expected it to go this far. My goal was 30-40 chapter. Now, I'm posting chapter 57! And I'm currently working on chapter 91. This is BY FAR the biggest fic I have ever written. I am SO GRATEFUL to everyone who has kept up with this story. Seriously, it means so much to me. I love you all, even the silent ones! Thank you for your support!

Funfact: I actually don't like the "Teamups" title. Or the word at all. I think it's lame. And I wish they'd come up with something way cooler, like "unison raid." Come on, that's way better.

Reviews:

kibaschick: Thank you so much! I agree, they are in a much more emotionally stable place, not just with each other but with themselves as well. They are learning to care about themselves, too, which is just as important! And they're learning to see things from different perspectives, which has helped them to overcome some of their more stubborn obstacles.

Guest: I agree, I need them so "ugh" too! And that is exactly how I feel writing for them, btw. UGGGGHHHHH. These two are stubborn, but they're finally figuring their shit out!

Blastyrant: (Chapter 44) I wish I was artistic, too. But I'm not. So I cannot draw cutie pie Shinsou either. (Chapter 45) I don't remember what happens in this chapter, tbh hahahaha. But good for him being sweet! Whatever it is he did. Was it the paperclip chapter? Lol.

Beta: yellowchikadee