With a wave of his hand, Izuku creates an illusion of a perfect-looking apple next to the real apple core on the table. "There, that should help you visualize what you're aiming for."

Eri still looks unsure. "T-thanks Mido but…"

Izuku bends down to her level to look the little girl in the eye. "We're here to help Eri, but remember, no one's forcing you here. We'll only do this if you want to."

Early in the morning before his second day at UA, found Izuku in Aizawa's apartment on campus. He had gotten a text from the man last night saying Eri was willing to try and use her quirk again but only if he was there. Izuku happily agreed.

"I-I know…" Eri says while wringing her hands. "But what if I m-mess up again…"

Izuku smiles and stands up. "Watch this." He holds his hand out to Eri, palm forward, and concentrates. She watches curiously as his hands glow faintly. For a few seconds, nothing happens. Another few seconds and nothing. A whole minute and still, nothing.

The green-haired boy finally drops his hand and leans on the table for support while panting. Eri makes to hug him but stops, looking unsure what to do with her hands. "Mido, are you okay?!"

He wipes a bit of sweat from his brow and gets his breathing under control before responding. "Yeah, I-yeah Eri, I'm fine. Do you know what I just tried to do?" The little girl shakes her head. "I tried to turn you invisible."

"Oh." She looks down at herself, examining her arms. Izuku, as always, tries not to let her scars get to him. "But you didn't."

Forcing a smile back on his face, he says, "that's right, I didn't. Are you mad at me that I couldn't?"

Izuku barely stops himself from chuckling at the offended look she gives him. "No! Why would I be?!"

"And do you think I could do it with enough practice?"

"Yes!!"

He got her. "So don't you think we feel the same way about you?"

Eri opens her mouth to respond but stops. She studies him before turning to look at Aizawa, who's been watching them both silently with his sleeping bag rolled up in his arm. And finally, she turns to look at Recovery Girl, who would've preferred this done in her office but Eri's comfortability came first.

So instead, the doctor gave her a soft smile. Eri, seemingly satisfied, looks back at him. Taking a deep breath, she nods. "Ok, I'm ready."

Izuku takes a step back and Eri reaches forward, putting her hand on top of the apple core and looking intently at the illusion Izuku had created.

The horn on Eri's head begins to spark before the energy pours out in full force. Slowly, the apple core rewinds itself to an uneaten apple. Eri screws up her eyes in concentration trying to stop her quirk but it's no use. The apple rewinds itself further.

"No!" Eri cries, tears streaming down her face. Aizawa is quick to erase her quirk and she's just as quick to wrap her arms around Izuku, blubbering apologies while he gives her reassurances.

"I think that's it for today," Aizawa tells Recovery Girl who marks the results on her clipboard.

"I agree," she replies curtly. "We'll talk more later." And with that, she takes her leave.

Izuku lets Eri cry all she wants for however long she needs. It doesn't matter, she needs it and he can fix any wet spots on his clothes with his powers later. After five minutes, she's mostly quiet, though still clinging to him.

"And you promise you're not mad?" It's barely a whisper.

"Never." Izuku leaves no room for doubt in his voice. "I'll be here for you no matter how long it takes. I can't abandon the Princess of Mischief now can I?"

As he hoped, she giggles. She always did when he called her that. "No, you can't. It's the law now."

Izuku can't stop his snickering. "A law huh?"

Eri looks up at him, her tears were mostly gone and a small smile had found its way on her face. "Yes. A law. Also, the princess is allowed all the candy apples she wants."

Izuku separates and bows dramatically. "If she demands, then I shall-"

"No, you won't," Aizawa so rudely cuts in, albeit with half his face covered by his scarf. "Candy apples are a sometimes treat."

"Traitor to the empire!"

Aizawa ignores him, looking down at Eri. "Feeling better?"

The little unicorn shuffles her feet a bit. "I am…and you're not mad either?"

"No. And if I was, I'd just take it out on Midoriya."

"So everything you've put me through has been you being nice?!"

Eri finally laughs and smiles. "Okay."

"Stop ignoring me!" Izuku looks down at himself, touching several body parts. "I didn't make myself invisible by accident again, did I?"

Aizawa nods. "Good. Now class starts soon and I believe you had a new drawing you wanted to show Midoriya before he left?"

Eri looks confused for a moment before a realization dawns on her. "Oh, right!"She turns to him, giving him some of the most pleading eyes he's ever seen. "Please don't leave yet, Mido! I really want to show you something!"

Can he ever say no to her? "Okay." Eri nods with excitement and runs out of the room to presumably her bedroom.

Aizawa stretches, creating a few popping noises before settling down on one of the chairs beside the table. "Since it appears we have a few minutes, why don't you and I have a conversation."

Izuku groans, plopping unceremoniously onto his own chair. "Look, if this is about yesterday…"

His teacher shakes his head. "It was amusing Problem Child, but don't expect to have too many days like that. I've already warned All Might about you for your class today."

Izuku can't stop his smirk. "Is that a challenge, Eraserhead?"

Aizawa gives him a smile back that would send many pro heroes running. "It's a promise."

The two continue their staring contest until Izuku can't hold anymore and he has to blink. What was he thinking, the man makes a career out of not blinking, of course he'd never win that.

The older hero snorts before reaching into his sleeping bag. One day, Izuku will figure out what magical properties it contains. From it, Aizawa pulls out two files. "No Midoriya, I wanted to talk to you about Bakugo."

Izuku is quick to school his expression to a neutral one. Most would've never noticed his flinch but unfortunately, Eraser isn't most.

"What is there to tell?" Izuku says conversationally. He leans back trying to keep his posture casual. "We've known each other since we were babies and w-we're r-rivals." Dangit, even his body knows that's a lie.

"Rivals," Aizawa parrots. He couldn't make it clearer he doesn't believe him. "The sad part is, I think I might have actually believed that, if I didn't know you."

Izuku stands abruptly, his chair screeching against the floor. "Thank you for inviting me over Aizawa-sensei, but I should be getting to class."

"You've got plenty of time," the man replies, his tone too light for Izuku's liking. Aizawa raises his voice. "Besides, you wouldn't leave until Eri got to show you her new picture, would you?"

"Wait Mido, please!" Eri's voice carries from somewhere down the hallway. "I'm still looking but I'll find it soon! Please don't leave!"

Izuku's glare does nothing to Aizawa's victory smirk. "No, I'm not going anywhere, Eri."

"Yay!"

Throwing himself back into his seat and crossing his arms, Izuku says, "so, you pulled our files?"

Aizawa hums, opening one. "After the, let's call it an altercation, between you two yesterday, I felt I should. Do you want to know what I found?"

Izuku shrugs, trying to feign disinterest in the files.

The older hero clears his throat. "A joy to have in class. Always willing to help others. A model student. Well behaved. Compliments, one after another. Now, I know I've only had Bakugo in my class for one day, but that doesn't really sound like him, does it?"

"Like you said," Izuku responds, keeping his voice as even as possible. "It's only been a day. He could've been stressed or worried and that's why he was off."

"Hm," is all Aizawa offers before opening the other file. "Maybe. But then I read this. Poor student. Doesn't pay attention in class. Constantly starting fights. Picks on other students. A constant disruption to the class. Now, I won't lie, I somewhat believe that last one." Izuku can't contain his snort. "But I've known you for what, a year now, and I can safely say the others aren't true."

Izuku tries to hide how uncomfortable he is with a single sigh. "Is there a point to this?"

Aizawa copies Izuku's posture, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. "The first point is obvious. The administration at your middle school are fucking morons."

He hates the smile that's tugging on his lips. "And the next point?"

"For some reason, you're willing to lie alongside them about Bakugo so he can have his place here at UA. You do realize that hero candidates don't usually attack each other unprovoked, don't you?"

Shrugging seems like the only thing he can do for this conversation. "It wasn't exactly unprovoked. I kept messing up his scores in a test where expulsion was threatened."

"Yes," Aizawa agrees, "but instead of speaking to me about it as any rational person would, his first choice was to cause you physical harm. In front of an adult no less. Almost as if it was normal."

What does Eraser expect him to do here? Just start crying about everything Bakugo did to him? Give him some stupid sob story and tell him things like, the reason he only wears long sleeves is so no one sees the burn scars on his arms. No, he's not that selfish.

Doing his best to retain eye contact, Izuku actually says, "It's fine, sensei. Sure, Kacchan and I have…disagreed in the past. But he's still gonna be an amazing hero who can save countless lives. They deserve that."

"Maybe so." Eraserhead bores his gaze into him. "But what about what you deserve?"

Pfff. He's already gotten into UA and his classmates don't seem to openly hate him so frankly, he has enough. If he can just keep making people laugh, he'll be content. Probably not the best thing to actually say though. But before Izuku could think of a proper response, a phone alarm goes off.

Aizawa exhales and checks his phone. Izuku sees the time, only fifteen minutes until class. "This is not the end of our conversation, Midoriya. Eri! You can come back now."

The called little girl walks back into the room, notably empty-handed, but her presence does cause the mood to lighten.

Izuku tilts his head in confusion. "Hey, did you not find your picture?"

Oh, he is not liking the smile she's giving him. "There is no picture."

"What? What do you me-" Izuku stops. A horrifying understanding begins to take hold.

Despite her sweet tone of voice, Eri is anything but innocent when she says, "you told me I had to practice my manipulation on other people besides 'Zawa…"

"You know I didn't mean me!" Izuku yells, indignant. What has he created?

His blood turns cold at what she says next. "Well, Mido…you never said I couldn't practice on you."

Izuku slumps back into his chair. "So that's what that feels like." He was under the belief that whenever Aizawa smiled at something that truly made him happy, a puppy died. And looking at the man's face now, he can't help but mourn for the thousands that were lost today.

After making sure they were all in their correct seats this time, which involved most of the people on Izuku's side moving back a seat, their first official day of classes began. And to be honest, he could see some people finding it dull, but Izuku was having a blast!

C'mon, pro teachers stuck in classes with them, prime picking for questions and autographs, who wouldn't love it?! Sure, he and Yaoyorozu were stuck answering most of the questions in English, and Cementoss can kind of drone on but he wouldn't trade it for the world!

He even got to meet the hero Lunch Rush during, well, lunch! Funny thing was that was the second craziest thing to happen during their eating period. The first being Iida and Uraraka actually wanting to sit with him!

He's embarrassed to admit how long it took her to get his attention because he just sort of assumed she was calling out to someone else? But she wasn't! This place is weird but he doesn't mind.

After leaving the twilight zone-he means the lunchroom, Izuku finds himself with the rest of his classmates waiting impatiently for their Hero Basic Training instructor to arrive.

While his classmates debated on who it could be, Izuku decided to switch to a more productive use of his time. Annoying Kacchan. See, while he was still feeling out the others to see how far he could push them, he was pretty aware of Kacchan's limits.

So flicking some of the blue marbles he kept in his pocket dimension into the back of his head wasn't out of the question. By his calculations, All Might should show up before he explodes.

But man, if watching his shoulders rise with every flick wasn't entertaining.

Before the second coming of the Big Bang could occur, the door swung open. "I am…" Phew, All Might was cutting it close. "Coming through the door like a normal person!"

"It's him!"

"So he really is a teacher?!"

"Is that his silver age costume?"

"It's so retro!"

"Welcome to Hero Basic Training!" All Might announces once he's at the podium. Was Izuku secretly using his magic to make All Might's cape billow despite there being no wind? Yes. Was it worth the concentration? Also yes.

"This is the subject where you'll learn all the different ways to be a hero! Or in other words, your most important subject! So let's hit the ground running!" All Might dramatically reveals a card to them with the word 'battle' printed on it. "Your first lesson, Battle Training!"

The malicious aura coming from Kacchan could be cut with one of his daggers. But he won't lie, it'd be fun to fight something for once that wasn't a robot. Or a god he had no chance of beating.

"But first, you'll need these!" At the hero's gesture, numbered suitcases slid out of the wall beside him on some sort of mechanized system.

Their hero costumes. Well, his class' costumes. His was more of a special case and didn't need to be carried around. His dad was adamant he didn't wear anything that wasn't the 'finest Asgardian leather.' He didn't mind, it was actually pretty comfortable.

"Now, go get changed and meet me at Ground Beta!"

"Yes, sir!"

Letting his class clamor all over themselves for their suitcases, Izuku waited until everyone had left before getting up himself. Before he could leave, All Might got his attention. "Young Midoriya, if I could trouble you for a small favor?…"

"They say clothes make the hero, ladies, and gentlemen! So from today on, you are all heroes!" Toshinori says to most of his class gathered in front of him. "You all look great!"

And they did! Was it presumptuous of him to have a good feeling about the kids in front of him? Maybe. It might possibly also have something to do with him teaching for the first time. Imparting his years of knowledge on the next generation. Why was Torino-sensei grumpy all the time?

"Sir!" Ah, that must be Iida under that armor raising his hand, he'd recognize Ingenium's brand anywhere. "How will we be conducting our combat training?!"

"An excellent question, Young Iida! If you would just give me a moment-"

"All Might!" Toshinori did not jump when Young Midoriya appeared in front of him out of nowhere in a flash of green light. Thank you very much. The boy, still in his uniform, lowers his voice. "I got what you asked for." He holds out his script so the hero can discreetly take it.

He had been such a fool to forget it in the teacher's lounge. Thankfully, Young Midoriya could be discreet when he wanted to be.

"Thank you, my boy," Toshinori whispers as quietly as he can. "Now, I've spoken to Aizawa. There's not gonna be any funny business today, is there?"

Midoriya smiles and whispers back, "no, sir. I will complete the exercise and not do anything you say I can't do."

Well, that was easier than he thought. He has no idea what Aizawa was worried about.

Toshinori returns to his booming voice. "Now, go and be with your classmates!"

"Ok!" Midoriya gives him a thumbs up before walking back to the rest of the kids.

"Young Midoriya, aren't you forgetting something?"

The greenette turns back. "What are you…" he looks down at his uniform. "Oh!" He chuckles nervously. "Sorry about that!"

All Might flips through his script as fast as he could, letting Izuku face his classmates again and start his walk over to them. He looks down, trying to hide the smile on his face while the familiar yellow lines envelop his body. He could make the transition almost instantly if he wanted to, but style was a big part of his dad's curriculum, so he'll slow it down and show off a bit.

The lines glow brighter and finally, Izuku is wearing his hero costume. On his upper body, Izuku wears dark green, almost black padded Asgardian leather with diagonal lines running down the front. On his shoulders, though unseen as they are covered by a cloak, he wears royal blue armor pads.

His arms are covered by green long sleeves, with extra armor running down his upper arms down to his elbows. Izuku's forearms also have extra protection provided by light yellow armored gauntlets with a strap that loops around each of his thumbs.

On his lower body, he wears dark green pants with plenty of hidden pockets to take the place of the utility belt he originally wanted to use. Black armor runs down each of his legs from the knee down. And over his feet, modded red high-top shoes that yes, also had hidden compartments for knives.

And finally, to complete the look as mentioned before, a long dark green cloak covered his shoulders and went down his back with a hood that was currently covering his head.

Even with his protests, did his dad make him a horned helmet? Yes. Was he going to wear it? No. Even he had his limits.

"No wonder we haven't seen you in the locker rooms!" A red-haired boy with sharp teeth runs up to him. Why is he so bad with names? "You can use your quirk to change! That's manly as hell dude!" Not…exactly the word he'd use but in this context he thinks it's a compliment so he thanks him.

"I'm happy to see someone else likes green as much as I do, ribbit." Oh, frog girl! He did hear her croak!

"Yeah, I guess it's always been my color…n-not that it can't be both our colors!" Izuku scratches his cheek bashfully.

She gives him a blank look. "You're kind of socially awkward, aren't you?" Well ok then. 'I mean, it's true but still!'

"It gratifies me to find another who shares an affinity for the robes of our ancestors." Oh! That's Tokoyami! The bird head is kinda hard to forget. As to what he said…

Izuku's confusion must've shown on his face because what appeared to be a bird made of shadow made its way out of the boy, giving Izuku a thumbs up. "He means he likes your cloak!" It says in a distorted voice.

"That is what I said, Dark Shadow!"

Izuku laughs, a bit more relaxed, and returns the thumbs up. "Thanks! Your cloak is awesome too! And thank you for the help Dark Shadow."

As Izuku walked away, he heard the creature whisper in awe, "he acknowledged me as an individual…" note to self, make sure to keep doing that.

Changing into his hero costume in front of everyone seemed like fun at first, but with everyone staring at him, Izuku makes his way as quickly as possible, without making it obvious, to the back of the group, thanking and returning compliments to a few more people as he did.

"So you're a rogue."

It's not a question. Izuku looks and sees the boy with off-blue hair staring at him. He'll remember names eventually he swears! The boy wears a black trench coat over a navy blue shirt, dark pants, and hey! The same red shoes as him, what are the odds? But like his own, he could tell they were modified but wasn't sure how.

On the boy's hands are mechanical gloves that only cover a few fingers, if he had to guess, it was those gloves that can retract if you flex.

He also wore a black utility belt around his waist that even though he couldn't see most of it because of the trench coat, he could make out a mini grappling hook, first-aid, and he's pretty sure explosives.

"Hud," the boy says. Izuku sees his right eye light up a bit with different colors. Was he wearing contacts that gave him a heads up display?! WHERE can he get those?! "You carry a lot of knives," he comments.

Izuku's head dips to the side. "Don't most rogues?"

His red eyes narrow. Now, Izuku was used to having red eyes on him. Whether it was Eri's innocent ones or Kacchan's many anger-derived emotions in his. But this was different. His eyes were none of that, but also very familiar at the same time.

He was analyzing him. Like Izuku had done to so many others. "So if you're a rogue, then how do you know polymorph?"

Why could he turn into animals? Izuku thinks, how to answer this? Judging by the way he talks then…"I multiclassed," Izuku answers. "I took a lot of levels in sorcerer."

The boy keeps his eyes on him for a few more seconds before very visibly relaxing. "FINALLY. Someone here who speaks plain Japanese."

Before Izuku could figure out what that meant, All Might was ready to start. "Alright you zygotes, listen up!" All Might's voice distracted him from seeing the boy's flinch.

The premise of their combat training was simple. Two versus two battles. Heroes versus villains. The villains would protect a bomb and could win by capturing the heroes or waiting the time out. The heroes won by capturing the villains or touching the bomb. All Might then took them into a monitoring room to show them where they'd all be watching the matches.

Afterward, they each went up and took a ball with a letter on it to decide their teams by lottery. 'Team D huh? So who-'

"Oh, Deku! Looks like we're teammates!"

Oh, thank god. At least his partner was someone he knew. "Hey, Uraraka! I guess we-"

Wow, the ceiling of this room was really interesting, don't you think?

That's right, just keep looking up and do not look at Uraraka's costume. Was it always so warm in here? He hopes so. You know what, he could probably do this exercise without looking at his partner.

"Your costumes looks so cool, Deku!" She laughs a little. "I should've been more specific about what I wanted. I was going for the astronaut look, you know like Thirteen? But they made it skintight instead…"

Was she trying to kill him?! He was well aware it was skintight! Was it possible to die from-wait, did she say Thirteen?

"You like Thirteen, the rescue hero?" Izuku asks, getting more excited while using all of his demigod willpower to keep his eyes on her face.

"Well, yeah!" She says getting excited with him, her eyes sparkling. He found he liked it when they did that. "I've been a fan of theirs for years! Ever since I was little, and on tv they were showing this disaster relief, this building started to collapse-"

"Oh, OH! You're talking about the Rilyth disaster! When-"

"Yes! They had that evacuation site but the building next to it became unstable and started to collapse! And-"

"And it would've landed on the site killing everyone! But then Thirteen showed up! And they-"

"They used their quirk and sucked the whole building up! Saving everyone!" Uraraka finally finishes.

"I've watched that video so many times on HeroTube…" Izuku recalls fondly.

"I bet not as many times as me!" Uraraka challenges.

Izuku puts his hands up in defeat. "Well, you made your costume after them so I'll admit defeat on this one…" Unfortunately, bringing up her costume made his eyes drift downward aaaand oh look at that, he's back to looking at the ceiling.

"Hey, are you ok?" Uraraka asks. "You're looking kinda red."

"Yup!" Izuku says in a voice that is a few octaves too high. He tries again. "Yup. Just a bit hot in here…so very, very hot."

All Might, being the hero he is, comes to Izuku's rescue. "Let's start with our first matchup of the day! Team A will be the heroes! Versus Team D, the villains! So we have Young Bakugo and Kirishima versus Young Midoriya and Uraraka!"

Well, positives first. He figured out the red-haired kid's name is Kirishima. Negatives, Bakugo looked so hungry he was worried he might actually try to eat him. It was a valid concern, he was drooling.

"Teams, follow me!"

He and Uraraka were led to the third story of a five-story building where a paper mache bomb was kept and given maps of the building. "You'll have five minutes to prepare once I leave this room. You both still have your capture tape, correct? Good. Now, any questions?"

"I got one," Izuku answers, trying to keep the eagerness out of his voice. "You said when explaining the exercise we could use any resources we wanted to. What are the limits?"

All Might's smile widens. "Great question, young man. You may use your quirks to the fullest extent you can, provided you're not destroying the building. Get into the mindset of a villain. A good one wouldn't want to destroy his base."

"So as long as we're not destroying the building, we can do whatever we want?"

"Yes, as long as you are not causing excessive harm to your opponents. I will stop the exercise if any of you go too far, are we clear?"

"Yes, sir." He and Uraraka say at the same time. Anything he wants huh? Apparently, All Might wasn't paying close enough attention to Aizawa.

Their Hero teacher nods and leaves the room, starting their timer. "So your quirk makes stuff weightless, right?" Izuku asks, looking anywhere that's not his partner.

"Yes! If I put all five of my fingers on an object, I can remove its weight, my limit is currently three tons."

'Holy crap! Wait, if she removed the weight off Mjöllnir, could she lift it? Stop! Getting off track.'

"Can you use it on yourself?" Asking quirk questions surprisingly makes him more comfortable with looking at her.

Uraraka makes a queasy face. "I can, but it makes me nauseous fast. I do have some pressure point hitters built into my costume to relieve that though."

Izuku nods. "That's smart." He looks at the bomb in thought for a second.

"T-thanks, Deku."

Squinting his eyes, Izuku snaps his fingers. "Ok, I think I have an idea with the bomb." He explains what it is to her.

"Alright! They'll never see that coming!" She says enthusiastically.

After Izuku is done doing what he wanted to do with the bomb, he sees Uraraka moving more furniture and whatever else she can find into the room.

"I can make this stuff weightless and throw them around when we fight to keep the other team on their toes. Darn, If we had more time, I could move more furniture in here…"

"Oh, that won't be a problem." Izuku gestures to the room. "After the exercise starts, I can give you a little more time to get more ammo."

"You sure?" Uraraka questions.

Izuku smiles. "Positive." 'He's having a full-on conversation! Oh no, it's starting to end…do something!' "After we blow this city up and somehow not die too, you wanna go rob some banks?"

To his immense relief, she laughs. "You're taking what All Might said about becoming a villain pretty seriously, aren't you? Ok, I'm in. But we have to give some of what we steal to the poor."

Izuku laughs too. "So we'd become the Robin Hood types? Fine with me, and with your quirk, we can steal so much!"

"Yeah!" She's really getting into this. "And with your quirk, you can make it seem like they were never robbed in the first place!"

"W-wow, yeah!" People were usually too confused about his powers to think about what he can do. It's a bit surprising she figured that out.

After letting them both calm down a bit, Izuku put his hand to his chin before continuing, "so once the exercise starts, I can go down and delay them and after, I'll lead Kacchan, s-sorry, I mean Bakugo, I can lead him away and distract him the whole time. And I know you can take Kirishima. One touch and he's done. That should be enough to win…"

He was surprised to see Uraraka giving him a confused look. "What's wrong?"

"Sorry, I'm just confused?" She definitely looked it. "Aren't we supposed to be fighting them together?"

"W-well I mean…" Izuku so articulately puts together. "Kacchan is gonna come after me as soon as he can so…"

She walks up to him, crossing her arms. "So what part of that means you have to fight him alone?"

He…does not have a good answer to that. Rubbing the back of his head, Izuku says, "I guess I'm just…used to it being that way?"

Uraraka beams brightly at him. "Well, you better get unused to it! Because whether it's robbing a bank or launching those guys into space, you got a partner in crime now! And partners don't leave each other out to dry!"

She holds her hand out, pinky tucked in. "And partners, especially friends like us, don't let the other do dummy things on their own. So what do you say?"

'Friends?'

Their comms crackle to life. "Alright Heroes and Villains! Ready or not, we're about to begin!"

Izuku won't lie, this is way out of his comfort zone right now. Most of the things he knows how to do, he was taught how to do alone. Now that he thinks about it, he doesn't think his dad ever really taught him how to work with a team. That was always more of Uncle Thor's thing.

"5!"

He guesses in retrospect, that makes sense. One of his biggest lessons was how to hide and be independent. Literally how not to work with people. Any lessons he got about other people were how to trick them into doing what he wanted without them knowing.

"4!"

But heroes work with others all the time? And he wanted to be the best hero he could be. But that would also mean trusting another person. Something his dad was vehemently against.

"3!"

That's right. The lessons were always how to get people to trust him, not the other way around. His dad told him all those years ago he'd have to be alone, but looking at Uraraka now and realizing someone actually wanted to be his friend…

"2!"

Well, he wanted that too! He takes her hand, thankfully he was so caught up in the moment that the blushing storm that would hit him for doing such a thing wouldn't come until later in the night.

Izuku returns her smile. "Yeah, you're right. Let's do this, partner."

"1!"

They shake hands.

"Go!"

AN: Thanks again for giving my story a read :) Happy Holidays!