"So… now what?"

Mr. Aizawa had left pretty quickly after he was done explaining how the exchange program was going to work. They only had five hours before the students landed, and since the program officially started tomorrow, they needed to prepare. They just didn't know how, which had prompted Kaminari to ask the question.

Izuku could tell from the others' facial expressions that they weren't ready for this kind of thing, especially after looking over the topics.

"Woah, look at these. There's no way I could teach this kind of stuff!" Mina wailed.

Izuku scanned the topics himself. There was everything from knowing the limits of a Quirk to using a Quirk in rescue situations to hero law. His face twitched at that last one. Of course Mr. Aizawa would put that on there…

"Pretty much everything on here is Quirk-specific," Todoroki pointed out. "Like Mr. Aizawa said, I don't think these students have had any basic Quirk training at all."

"Shoot, this is gonna be harder than I thought if that's the case," Kirishima sighed.

Yaoyorozu, now the acting Class Rep, knew she needed to take charge of this, "Everyone. Can I have everyone's attention, please? Guys?" Her voice was drowned out by the sounds of Mina, Kaminari, Kirishima, and Jiro complaining on one half of the room and Izuku mumbling to Ochaco about the list's lecture topics on the other.

Thankfully, there was someone who wasn't too absorbed with what they were doing to have not heard her. "Hey! Everyone shut up and listen." Todoroki's cold voice cut through the chatter.

Yaoyorozu nodded a silent thanks to him. "Now, I know this might seem like a rather difficult task for some of you, but no one's going to be teaching alone. There are eight of us and four of them. We could have all of us up front teaching or four up here and four sitting with the others to help with questions."

Mina raised her hand.

"Yes, Ashido?"

"Could we split into pairs and teach them like that? Like, each pair is assigned one of the students?"

Yaoyorozu put her hand to her chin. "Hmmm… My first instinct is to say no, just because I think there should be some standardization. I don't think it's wise to have Jiro over here teaching a conservative version of hero law and morals to one of the students and then have Midoriya over there telling his student that it's okay to disobey orders if it means having a chance to save a childhood friend."

As soon as the words left her mouth, she knew she had struck a nerve. Izuku's expression was something between a mad that she brought it up and timid because she was right.

"That wasn't very fair," Ochaco defended. "You aren't exactly innoce—"

Izuku held up his hand to stop her. "It's alright, Uraraka," he said, looking to his left where she stood, "Yaoyorozu's absolutely right. I'm probably not the best choice for teaching hero law."

"Thank you for understanding, Midoriya. I didn't make the comment to attack you. I don't really have the right—as Uraraka said, I'm just as much at fault for what happened a few days ago as you. Perhaps even more, but that's kind of my point. Half of us went on that rescue mission, so we probably have some substantially differing views from what's normal or accepted as right or wrong." There were some nods around the room.

"That aside, each pair could teach some of these things more easily if we did split up," she said and gestured to the list, "especially since each of the students will have a different Quirk. Anyone else have an opinion on what would be best?"

They all thought about it silently. Almost a minute passed before anyone spoke.

"I like both ideas, so why don't we mix them together?" Jiro suggested. "Like, we can have a pair up front being the 'teachers' for a specific topic and the rest can be support or can answer questions and stuff."

"Yeah, that's not bad," Kaminari agreed, a hand on his chin, "plus, each of us can teach what we're good at instead of all of us being up there at once. That'd be a mess."

Yaoyorozu thought it over. "Ok. All in favor of Jiro's suggestion?" Everyone raised their hand.

Jiro was surprised. "Wow, really?"

"Dude, it's better than anything I've got," Kirishima admitted.

"It's awesome! Makes me feel less stressed about the whole thing," Mina pat Jiro on the back.

"Perfect," Yaoyorozu agreed. "As for planning who will be teaching what and when, we'll have to wait for the students to arrive, as we don't know what their Quirks are."

"These are I-Island students that have shown a good deal of interest in the hero course," Todoroki began, "it's likely that they all have fairly strong operative-type Quirks. Composite Quirks are pretty rare, which is lucky since Kirishima is the only one here with a Quirk like that. I'm pretty sure the mutants would've gone to the Quirk research thing they're doing."

There were a few nods of agreement. "Speaking of that… Mina," Izuku began, turning toward the girl, "why aren't you going to the research thing?"

Mina looked… something, but her expression quickly shifted to confusion. "I thought I already explained—"

"He wasn't here for that, remember?" Kaminari reminded her. "He had more important things to do. You know, things that involved a certain brunette classmate…"

There was a twofold groan from Izuku and Ochaco. Not this again…

That made Mina perk back up, but before she could start grilling them again, Izuku asked again, "So why aren't you going to I-Island?"

"I, uh, forgot about it," she had that look again; the one Izuku couldn't place. "There was a deadline for the application I had to send in to be qualified, and I missed it. So, here I am."

Before he could ask, the other mutant there guessed Izuku's follow-up question. "My mom didn't want me to miss school, so she put her own application in, since we have pretty much the same Quirk," Jiro explained. "I think the research thing is completely separate from the exchange program we're doing with the island's students."

"That's an interesting coincidence," Yaoyorozu noted. "What about you, Uraraka?"

"Oh, yeah. I guess I'm technically a mutant because of my fingers," she said, looking down at them, "which I didn't even consider at the time I would've filled out an application; I didn't think I qualified." She dropped her hand to her side and shrugged, "Oh well, I guess."

"Well, we're glad to have you three still with us," Yaoyorozu said. "I don't think we'd have done very well with only five."

"Four," Jiro corrected, jerking a thumb at Kaminari. "This dunce doesn't count."

"Oh, come on, Jiro!" Kaminari said, "I'm not that dumb."

Jiro rolled her eyes, "mmhmm."

xxxxx

There wasn't much to do except wait around for the exchange students to get to Heights Alliance, which would be in about a couple hours. While the others were doing their own things in their rooms, Yaoyorozu had taken it upon herself to begin reorganizing the common area tables into a classroom-like setting (Mr. Aizawa had said since the students would be living in the dorms, teaching them in the dorms would just be easier). The only thing they were missing was a chalkboard, so she made a mental note to get one from the school later.

Gosh, there's so much I'm not ready for! I wish Mr. Aizawa had given us a little more than just a list of suggestions—there's not really anything on there about combat. We don't even know who these people are, let alone their Quirks. We'll basically be going in blind! Why was this agreed upon?

Someone cleared their throat, causing Yaoyorozu to nearly jump out of her skin. It was Todoroki, which threw her off. Normally, Mina was the one who couldn't stay in her room for very long.

"Is there… something you need?" She tried not to sound rude. Whether she succeeded or failed she didn't know, as his unchanging face gave nothing away.

"You shouldn't have to be doing this alone," he said, grabbing two of the set-aside chairs and sliding them under a table. "Nor should you feel like you have to do this alone."

He was right. "I… just didn't want to be a bother, and this isn't a difficult task. I figured everyone would want some time to relax before the students got here."

Todoroki nodded, and went back to grabbing chairs. The duo worked in silence for a couple minutes, Yaoyorozu rearranging the front few tables into a more suitable pattern. She tapped her chin and mumbled, "now all we need is the chalkboard…"

Kirishima wandered into the common room, stopping when he saw the academic layout of the tables. "Hey, this looks pretty nice! It's kinda getting me pumped for this exchange thing!"

"Good," Todoroki said, sliding the last two chairs under a table, "Yaoyorozu says we're still missing a chalkboard. Do you think you could head over to the school and wheel one over here?"

Yaoyorozu looked sheepish. I didn't think I said it that loudly. Thankfully, however, Kirishima was undeterred, "you're the boss, acting Class Rep." He mock saluted her and started heading for the door.

"Kirishima, wait." Yaoyorozu stopped him. "Take… take Ashido with you."

"Uhhh… I'm pretty sure I can handle it on my own—"

"No, that's not why. I'm thinking that, since we'll be teaching in pairs mostly, it'd be a good idea to start splitting into them now. I was going to put her with Kaminari based on their personalities, but they goof off too much. She needs a more stable personality to function well with, and I think you've got what it takes."

Kirishima knew his personality was compatible with Mina because he had molded it that way since middle school. She was, in a way, a goal he was trying to reach in terms of bravery and taking action. Of course, Yaoyorozu didn't know any of that, but teaching and working with Mina would be a great opportunity to learn more from her, and maybe show her how much he's grown.

He flashed Yaoyorozu a thumbs-up and headed upstairs to get Mina.

"So, you've got this whole thing planned out?" Todoroki asked.

Yaoyorozu adjusted one of the front tables. "Not really. I've mostly just been thinking of compatibility among all of us. Pairing Kirishima with Mina was pretty on-the-fly just then."

Todoroki hummed, "I'm surprised you didn't put me with him," he paused briefly before adding, "unless, because of the rescue, you thought we'd be too… seditious."

Yaoyorozu almost snorted at that, "No… I hadn't thought of that, actually. Of pairing you two, I mean," her face fell slightly, "perhaps I've made a mistake already."

"You'll figure it out," Todoroki said, idly tilting a chair back, "I'm just curious what made you decide that."

"Well… she told me about him once," Yaoyorozu explained somewhat hesitantly, tapping her fingers together. "They went to the same junior high, you see."

"That so?"

Yaoyorozu nodded, "She didn't tell me much outside of that, but I've watched her since then. She does seem to stay on track around him more than..."

"More than around Hagakure," he guessed.

"Yes."

Todoroki hummed again, "Well, that's not saying much." He paused to wipe some dust off a table, "I agree with your decision. It might be best to give Ashido someone who'll keep her focused."

For some reason, his approval instantly eased her worries. It was the same feeling she had gotten during the final exam when he'd agreed with her plan to beat Mr. Aizawa. "Thank you, Todoroki. I do think it would be wise to keep the pairs to friends wherever possible, at least for the sake of good communication. I'm honestly just relieved that we have a good spread of personalities."

"True," Todoroki agreed, "I don't think people like Koda or Mineta or Bakugo would be very good at this." He looked over at the clock on the far wall. "The students will be here in two hours. You should think about taking some time to relax. If you think of something else you need done, the rest of us can take care of it. In fact…" He walked over to the kitchen area, pulling a piece of paper and pen out of one of the drawers. He tore a strip off the paper, wrote something down on it, and then made his way to Yaoyorozu, holding out the scrap for her. "Like you said, good communication. Being class rep doesn't mean you should do everything alone."

As soon as she took the paper from him, he turned and walked down the boys' side hallway and up the stairs. Now that she thought about it, Todoroki was the one Yaoyorozu had the most difficulty in pairing with someone. The only two that made sense were Kirishima, like he said, and Midoriya, but since she had already grouped Kirishima with Mina, that left only Midoriya. Uraraka would probably work fine with anyone, but she did markedly better with Midoriya, so splitting them up wouldn't make much sense. Who do I put him with? Nobody makes sense. Maybe he'd be better alone? Hmmm… that would leave someone else by themselves, or in a group of three. What do I do? What should I do?

"YAOMOMO!"

"Aaaaggghhh!" Yaoyorozu jumped. "Who…? Oh, it's you, Ashido."

Mina skipped over to the door and Kirishima followed. "Whatcha got there?" the acid user asked.

Yaoyorozu looked down at the piece of paper Todoroki had given her. She had completely forgotten about it and wondered how she ever kept a hold on it when Mina scared her. "Oh, it's a piece of paper."

"A piece of paper." Mina repeated, voice flat.

Yaoyorozu got the hint. She looked down at the paper. On it was a string of numbers in no particular order, which she thought was odd.

"It's just a bunch of random numbers…" she mumbled. She then remembered that Todoroki had given this to her and said that communication was important.

It was a phone number, presumably his.

Based on what she knew about him, this almost made less sense than Todoroki giving her a random line of numbers. He was a loner. An independent. A Bakugo, but minus all the anger and plus all the angst. Surely the number was strictly for professional communication between instructors. He was thinking ahead was all.

"Yeah, just a scrap I found lying around." She lied, trying to appease Mina's curiosity. She shoved the paper into her pocket. After the teasing Izuku and Ochaco got a couple hours ago, Yaoyorozu wasn't about to give Mina any more ammunition. That girl would ship a cactus and a balloon given the chance.

Mina squinted at her, as if trying to decide whether or not to believe that. Kirishima, on the other hand, didn't seem to care. "Ashido, let's go. We still gotta get that chalkboard before the students get here."

"Oh, yeah, that's right." Mina said, turning to walk out the door. "Let's go get us a chalkboard!"

As soon as they had gone, Yaoyorozu pulled out the strip of paper again. This meant something. Exactly what that something was she didn't know. Maybe this was his way of opening up a little. He'd already said more to her in casual conversation in the last twenty minutes than he had the last twenty days. He'd even come down to help her set up.

Whatever the case may be, she thought, putting the paper back into her pocket, I think I know who I'll pair him up with now.

xxxxx

After the unanimous decision to carry out Jiro's suggestion of splitting up into pairs of teachers, Ochaco had gone to her room to look over the schedule Mr. Aizawa had made for them. There wasn't a ton on there—it looked like each suggested lecture topic was supposed to be a single lecture. Since each lecture was supposed to run for 90 minutes, she was immediately grateful that she wouldn't be teaching alone. With how little she knew, she didn't think she could keep a class involved for that long.

On top of that, she didn't know these students, their Quirks, what lessons she'd be teaching, who she'd be paired up with, or generally if she was good enough to even do something like this. She needed to destress. Preferably by figuring some of the unknowns out.

She knew exactly where to go to do that.

Before she knew it, she was knocking on Izuku's door. It was a simple solution, really: she had this kind of connection with him. She wasn't sure why that was. It could be because they were pretty similar in terms of personality, or because she called him by his nickname and he liked it (or at least didn't mind), or because they had saved each other's lives in the entrance exam.

Or maybe it was because of this new feeling she got whenever she was around him. Like she was… like they were…

The door opened in front of her, making her jump backwards. She needed to refocus… Why am I here again?

"You doing ok, Uraraka? Your face is kinda red…"

"Yeah, I'm doing great!" she said forcefully.

A couple seconds passed, neither of them making a move. Izuku had no clue why she was there: she had literally just shown up, said she was fine, and that was it. Am I missing something here? Why is she just standing there? Are the students here already?

He decided to voice that last question, which seemed to shake Ochaco out of her silence.

"Huh…? No, they won't get here for another hour or so," Ochaco answered, puzzled. He should know that. It says on the schedule. It then dawned on her that she didn't tell him why she was even there to begin with. She had been standing there like an idiot the entire time.

"Oh! I didn't say why I'm here," Ochaco laughed at herself. "I was a little confused about how the schedule works. I know we've decided to split up into pairs to teach, but I don't know what I'm teaching or who I'll be with or anything like that."

"So, you're wondering if I know something you don't?" Izuku guessed.

When he phrased it like that, what she was asking was dumb. There was no reason to assume he somehow knew more; they were all in the same boat.

She tried to restate her question without sounding so presumptuous. "Well… I was wondering if maybe you had any ideas about who's teaching what? Or what the pairs would be? Wow, that still sounds stupid…"

Izuku shook his head. "No, you're fine. I don't know what Yaoyorozu's plans are, but I actually do have some ideas of my own." He opened the door wider to allow her in.

Once she had stepped through, Ochaco suddenly felt isolated. Vulnerable. More out of place than she thought she would. She had heard about the doorway effect before, but she didn't think that was anything like what she was feeling now. Maybe it was because it was Izuku's room. No… his bedroom.

Just two seconds of thinking about that made her cheeks burn again. She was just in here last night during the best room competition; why was she reacting now?

Because now it's just us…

Izuku didn't notice and he waved at her to follow him to his desk. She took a look around his room while she walked. So much All Might. How does Deku do it? It's like they're all… watching me. Once she made it to the desk, she could see the schedule on it, and on the schedule were a bunch of lines scribbled in the margins, each pointing to a paragraph or bullet point of the original text.

"Keep in mind that these notes are just speculation, though they might come in handy if Yaoyorozu doesn't have a plan," he gestured to the sheet. Ochaco's eyes were naturally drawn to the largest (and therefore most legible) scribbles, the heading of a bulleted list. It read 'Cavalry Battles,' and under it, 'Ground Beta.'

Izuku saw where she was looking and nodded, "I needed a basis to try and calculate what the best pairings are in terms of compatibility and previous team experience. I think pulling from the Sports Festival's cavalry battle and our class combat training would help the most, especially considering the combat ideas we prepare for the exchange students might be similar!"

Izuku's enthusiasm and preparedness all but eliminated Ochaco's stress. He's right. We're all a team. I won't be paired with someone I don't know well.

Izuku's excitement turned into concern, "Uraraka? Are you sure you're alright? You haven't said a thing…"

She turned toward him, a big smile on her face. "I couldn't be better. Thanks."

Izuku didn't know why Ochaco seemed so relieved after hearing that. He hadn't even said what the pairs were or what the lessons would be, only that he had a plan. Regardless, if what he'd said alleviated some unspoken fear of hers, that counted for something.

Ochaco cleared her throat, breaking the moment. "So, what have you got for pairs? I can't wait to see!"

"Oh, right." He slid the paper over to his left, close enough to Ochaco so she could see and still close enough to him so he could point to his notes on it. She leaned in to get a better look and her shoulder brushed Izuku's shirt sleeve. So close! Need to focus. Gotta stay calm.

"Ok. So, I have the cavalry battles listed first because I think they're going to have a bigger contribution to the overall decision of pairing comparative to the battle simulation, due to the simulation being random and it being our first team-up battle," Izuku explained. "Looking first at the cavalry battle, Kirishima and Ashido were on one team, you and I were on another, and Kaminari, Yaoyorozu, and Todoroki were on another. As you see on the sheet, I've grouped us all accordingly and put stars by those groups."

Ochaco nodded. "Ahh, I see. And Jiro doesn't get a star because she was with three others that aren't here right now."

"Correct. If she were on a team with one of them," he pointed to the trio group of Kaminari, Yaoyorozu, and Todoroki, "the pairings would've been rather straightforward. But since that isn't the case…"

"You brought in the ground beta groups!" Ochaco finished his thought. "Wow, Deku! You've really put some thought into this!"

He blushed and looked away. "Thanks, but this isn't much, really. We've got such a great class, I think it's kinda fun analyzing everyone's abilities and figuring out who would work best together." He turned his focus back to the paper. "Anyway, seeing as the cavalry battle didn't tell us anything about Jiro, the battle simulation did. Not only was she paired with Kaminari, their team also fought against Yaoyorozu." He pointed to the bullet point with their names, a plus sign to the left of it. "Unfortunately, Ashido and Kirishima weren't on a team with any of us, nor did they battle against any of us, so we've got no new information on them. However, we were on the same team then, too. I think it's a pretty safe bet to say we'll be paired up."

Ochaco pumped her fist. "All right! Team A for the win!" She held out her hand and Izuku high-fived it.

"That's pretty much all I've got. Based on the cavalry battle, I would say Ashido and Kirishima would get paired, but I'm not sure. That leaves Jiro, Todoroki, Kaminari, and Yaoyorozu as unknowns, and I don't really know any of them well enough to come to a conclusion. After all, Kirishima and Todoroki could be a group, though that's more based on the rescue mission than anything else. That would leave Jiro and Yaoyorozu as a pair, based on their group during the USJ attack, and Kaminari with Ashido, based on their personalities. They were a pair during last semester's final exam, too. So were Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, so that's another possibility." Izuku adjusted the paper, reading over his bullet points and pairings. "I suppose it's up to Yaoyorozu to make the call."

Ochaco tilted her head to one side, admiring how much work Izuku had put into this. "It doesn't have to be her decision."

"What do you mean?"

"She's just the vice rep, not the leader of the exchange program. After all, the only reason you've done these pairings is because Jiro suggested we be paired off in the first place, not Yaoyorozu. Besides," she pointed a finger at him, "you used to be the class rep anyway. I'm sure if you went to Yaoyorozu with these ideas, she'd definitely agree with them."

None of that had occurred to Izuku at all. "Huh… I guess you're right. I can give it a shot."

"That's the spirit, Deku!"

A/N: Hello all. As you probably know already, I'm a new writer here. I figured I'd try my hand at the quill driver's art so here I am. This story has been in the works for a bit now and has seen some heavy revisions (the Chapter 1 y'all got is nothing like its first iteration).

Apologies in advance if the pacing is odd or if there are too many storylines or some other third thing that irks you. My not being a professional means there'll probably be a bit of all three of those things that finds its way into the work at some point. It also means I'm plenty busy outside of trying to write, so I'm not making any promises on regular updates or anything like that.

Anyway, thank you all for spending time reading my creation!