In His Element(s) || avatar / bnha

Drama but also New Friends

"I'm ok," Izuku said quietly.

Saying that out loud didn't exactly make that feeling spring forth into existence, but it was the best he could do on such short notice. Kamino had left its mark. He could see it in the dark circles under Todoroki's and Kirishima's eyes, the way Sero and Mina tended to hug Bakugou more than usual, Bakugou's new propensity to flinch when someone startled him, and in all the times he'd woken up gasping and sweat-stained, hands desperately outstretched but he was too late-

Izuku breathed out slowly, deliberately unclenching his fingers from the unconscious fists they'd curled.

"Deku?"

He forced himself to grin and meet a concerned Uraraka's gaze.

"Oh, hi, Uraraka. How was your morning?

"It was alright." She was giving him a look that probably meant he wasn't controlling his expression as well as he thought. Behind her, Bakugou lunged across three desks to haul a snickering Kaminari up by his lapels; probably for something the electric blond had said. "I was up pretty late in the common room because I had to finish Mr. Aizawa's essay last minute, though. How did yours turn out?"

"It was ok," Izuku said absentmindedly. In the background, Kirishima was doing his best to not let his friend commit murder so early on in the day by bodily lifting him off Kaminari. The usual classroom shenanigans, honestly. "I went a few pages over the paper limit, but I really had a lot more I could have written. The Silver Age comparatively may have had less technology than we do now, not to mention far less regulations when it came to being a pro in the first place..."

It was nice having friends like this, Izuku decided, as Uraraka let him ramble about the finer points of his essay with a pleased and indulgent grin. Uraraka, Todoroki, Iida, Tsuyu, even Shinsou, having finally moved to the hero course with the rest of them. It was... good. A far cry from middle school.

Speaking of his friends, Iida was involving himself in the scuffle in his usual timely matter.

"-inflicting bodily harm on your classmates is unbecoming of U.A students!"

"CAN IT, FOUR-EYES-"

"Sit down and be quiet."

It was ironic that Bakugou was a good alarm system for whenever Mr. Aizawa was nearby, Izuku mused as said student's explosions abruptly died out. Kacchan, a signal for when to start good behavior? He'd hate that.

Everyone scrambled for their desks.

Aizawa started the day off like he normally did, taking roll while looking as exhausted as physically possible. In fact, it was such a mundane start to a school day that it took their teacher calling an extra, unfamiliar name at the end of the usual sequence for anyone to realize something was different.

"Aang."

"Present!"

There was a beat of silence and then, practically in unison, the entire class whipped around to stare at the boy sitting in the back row; that somehow none of them had noticed until now . An unfamiliar teenager wearing a U.A uniform cheerily waved back at all of them, seemingly unbothered by the variety of confused and/or violently concerned expressions now facing him.

Up front, Aizawa clicked his tongue in disappointment, checking his phone.

"One minute and forty-seven seconds. Frankly, that's pitiful. You're all doing extra situational awareness training later this week."

"Sensei?" That was Yaoyorozu, tentatively raising her hand. "Who is this? Or umm, who are you, may I ask?" she addressed the new kid with her second question, looking torn between deferring to the teacher for help and instinctively being polite.