Like Friends Do

Chapter 5

"Alright," Aizawa droned as Class 1-A got up in arms about who they'd choose as their partners. A few students reached for the hat, but Aizawa held it out of their reach, walking directly up to a small Midoriya, who was in the process of shying away behind Todoroki from the chaos. "We'll have the Capture the Flag winner draw first."

Todoroki stepped back, as well as Iida and Ochaco, who had been lingering over Midoriya's shoulders. Midoriya peered into the hat, looking at the different sheets of folded paper; they were different colors, some red, some blue, some green. But there was one—

"Take the white one," Aizawa murmured quietly enough that Midoriya was certain he was the only one who heard. Midoriya looked up at his teacher, a bit confused, then back down. From what he could tell, only one slip of paper was white. "Hurry," Aizawa thrust the hat a bit closer to the boy.

Midoriya obliged, taking the lone white slip from the hat. "Who is it?" Iida asked from the other side of Aizawa, trying not to be obvious in the way he stood on his toes to see over Aizawa's shoulder. Midoriya unfurled it carefully.

"Todoroki," he said quietly. He looked back up to Aizawa, and maybe he saw a hint of a smile; but as soon as he'd announced whose name he drew Aizawa moved on, picking a name from the hat and asking them to come to the front.

"You drew my name?" Todoroki asked, hovering back to Midoriya's side to peer at the name on the slip as if he didn't believe it. Sure enough, scrolled on the paper was the name Todoroki Shouto.

"I-I..." Midoriya fumbled for words. Well, he fumbled for thoughts, really. What was Aizawa's plan here? And, more importantly, should he tell Todoroki that Aizawa set this up?

In the end, the match-ups all felt random – aside from Todoroki and Midoriya. One or two students protested, whining that they didn't want to be placed up against such a power duo; others claimed that it was rigged, but Aizawa countered by saying "You watched him draw the name out of the hat, didn't you?"

They began their trek toward Gym Four, located the furthest away from the Class 1-A dormitory. The path there was empty save for a few second- and third-years out for a morning jog. "On a field trip, ah?" Mirio called out as he passed by, stopping to nudge his fist into Midoriya's arm as a form of greeting.

"Weekend training," Kaminari replied, and Mirio laughed.

"You thought you'd catch a break?" And with that, he began his jog once more, calling over his shoulder a quick good luck before vanishing in the path lined by trees.

Once they arrived at the gym, Aizawa stopped the class at the door. "The gymnasium has been set up by Cementoss to resemble what you might consider a laser tag arena," he announced. "Use the walls between you to your advantage. As you split off into your pairs, I will tell you which team you are tracking. Remember – the team you are tracking is not tracking you. That means you'll have to be on both the offensive and defensive for this session."

Midoriya scanned over the class, imagining which groups would be the toughest to be targeted by. Of course, Bakugou and Hagakure would be tricky – not only because Bakugou was, well, Bakugou, but because Hagakure had been training especially hard in stealth and being unable to see his opponent would severely hinder Midoriya. Then, Sero and Ochaco would likely be a dynamic duo with their combined strategic smarts. Midoriya's eyes fell on Yaoyorozu and Mineta – a terribly unlucky draw on Yaoyorozu's end, honestly – and wondered if Mineta could stop harassing women long enough to successfully capture them, should Todoroki and he be their target.

"Quit worrying," Todoroki nudged Midoriya's shoulder gently. "We're the toughest team by far."

"Easy for you to say," Midoriya replied with his tongue out playfully. "Everyone's been training."