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It’s almost the end of the school year, 1A’s decided that this would be the perfect time to throw a party with The Big Three and Eri! They got the idea when Mirio Togata came over, talking about how much fun Eri had at 3A’s, and 1A knew they couldn’t let themselves be outdone.
They’d convinced Shinsou to be the person to message Aizawa-Sensei, since Aizawa seemed especially attached to that particular problem child (“ Look at all of the evidence, Midoriya! Shinsou is Mr. Aizawa’a secret love child!” “Todoroki, you can’t just say things like that! First me and All Might, now Aizawa and Shinsou? When does it end?”). Aizawa gave the go-ahead, so they split up into teams to prepare for the party.
Since Aoyama and Ashido had the best style, they worked with Kirishima, Bakugo, and Shoji to arrange the common room for the party. This entailed moving all of the couches, vacuuming, adjusting the TV and living room bookshelves (Which were practically empty.) They ended up with a layout similar to a campfire circle, with a big cauldron in the middle. Ashido suggested it, in case they needed to secretly vote on anything or put candy in it!
Yaoyorozu, Ururaka, Jiro, Hagakure, Ojiro, and Asui all worked on decorations to place everywhere. They made banners to hang up in the common room that said, ‘ Class 1A house party!’, as well as signs that not only let you know where things like the bathroom and kitchen were, but the signs also had small animals like cats, dogs, and birds on them! In addition to those, they’d made paper snowflakes in various colors to hang from the ceiling.
Yaoyorozu and Jiro made a few signs and snowflakes each and then hung them up as they were completed. This turned out to be for the best because Yaoyorozu could just make the tape, and Jiro could reach up high to stick the snowflakes to the ceiling.
Iida, Sero, Todoroki, Sato, and Kaminari all worked on food for the party, making a list to clear with the class after they had enough food suggestions on there. Iida was mostly just vetoing Kaminari’s crazier suggestions. ( “What do you mean we can’t have frozen onions and Skittles as out only food options, Iida?” )
In the final group was Shinsou, Midoriya, Tokoyami, and Koda. There wasn’t much else for them to do, so they helped clean where they could, and occasionally helped reign in Bakugo (or anyone else) when Iida wasn’t around to be the class dad.
So come Saturday night, UA’s Big Three walked into 1A’s dorms with Eri in tow, and Aizawa following closely behind her. Mirio, Hado, Amajiki, and Aizawa looked reasonably impressed, but Eri’s was the reaction everyone was waiting for, and she did not disappoint! Eri looked at each of the snowflakes in wonder, raising her fingers as if to touch them before giggling and rushing to the next one. All of 1A nearly exploded at how adorable she was, and that was when she saw Midoriya.
“Deku!” Eri squealed, and she rushed up to him, prompting Midoriya to pick her up in a warm hug and ruffle her hair.
“Hey there, Eri. Are you ready to part-tayyyy?” Midoriya said in a clear imitation of Present Mic, causing Eri to mimic him as well with her response, “ Yeah!”
------
After everyone had had their fill of the various snacks, they all gathered around the cauldron in the living room. Tokoyami had Dark Shadow turn off the lights, so the only light source was from the lamp Ashido had placed in the middle of the cauldron.
“So, who wants to play a game?” Ashido asked in her usual bouncy tone.
Class 1A all started calling out various games they could play.
“Never have I ever?”
“Truth or dare?”
“Mafia?”
“How’s yours?”
“Most lik-”
All of the voices were cut off by Iida exclaiming, “That’s more than enough suggestions, I think! Why don’t you all write down your favorite suggestion and throw it into the pot so we can pick one to play?” Everyone but Bakugo nodded at this, so they all started writing suggestions down.
Eri had been sitting on Midoriya this whole time, so it fell to him to write down both of their answers, which coincidentally, were the same.
When everyone had voted, Iida sorted through the answer cards, and the majority voted for ‘Truth or Dare,’ and the group collectively decided that Mina would start the game off.
She immediately asked Kiriskima, “Truth or dare, Kiri?”
“Dare, obviously! That's the manliest option there is!” Kirishima exclaimed, jumping up into his signature Red Riot pose.
“If you insist…” Mina grinned evilly. “I dare you to eat one of Bakubro’s chili peppers.” Kirishima instantly went pale at the thought of touching the Pomeranians spicy peppers, and Bakugo in the background yelling, “You extra’s better not touch my food!” was not helping. The other members of the Bakusquad were trying to convince Bakugo to let Kirishima try, and he finally gave in.
No backing out now, Kirishima thought. The instant the chili pepper touched his tongue, he regretted every action leading up to this moment. He rushed to the fridge to grab the milk carton, but he saw Midoryia blocking his way.
“Come on Midoribro! It’s so unmanly to deny me what I need; the milk!” Kirishima insisted, trying to get past the greenette, but the shorter boy held his ground.
“Trust me Kirishima, water would be better. I used to have the same problem, and milk just makes it hurt more. Everyone in the common room besides Bakugo was shocked that Izuku ate Bakugo’s Ultimate Spicy Chili Peppers enough to get used to the searing heat they brought on.
Once Kirishima was back, it was his turn to question someone, so he turned and asked Todoroki, “Truth or dare, Todoroki?”
Todoroki hesitantly declared, “Dare?” And Kirishima grinned with his sharky teeth.
“I dare you to kiss the ~ cutest~ person in this room!” Todoroki’s hair caught on fire as soon as the sentence was uttered, and Aizawa canceled his quirk with a bemused smirk.
“Is it too late to choose truth, Kiri?” Kirishima made a gesture of ‘ go on, do the dare!’ and Shouto steeled his nerves, walked over to where Midoriya was sitting and kissed him on the cheek before running back to his spot on the couch and curling into himself.
“You go, Midoriya!”
“Woo, Todoroki!”
“Looks like all~ the men love you, Izuku!”
Everyone started catcalling Midoriya, who was looking embarrassed, and the greenette was very grateful when Iida shut everyone down with a chop of his hands and a “Let's stop teasing Shouto and Izuku and continue the game, fellow classmates!” Everyone groaned at this but complied.
“Truth or dare, Izuku?” Todoroki asked Midoriya quietly, and he thought for a moment before his reply.
“Dare!” He replied with confidence in his tone but shrunk back slightly after answering as if he regretted his choice.
“Hmm…” Todoroki muttered, before perking up as he got an excellent idea. “Show us the most embarrassing picture of yourself you have!” The class seemed to have a lot of opinions on this, as voiced by their sudden uproar.
“The damn nerd’s too busy writing in those damn notebooks of his to do anything embarrassing, Dunce Face!” Bakugo.
“You shouldn’t make him show something embarrassing, Todoroki.” Amajiki.
“Shouto! That’s disrespectful to our classmates!” Iida.
“Do it! Do it! Do it!” The rest of the class was chanting with varying levels of intensity.
“Alright, alright. Okay, guys! I’ll show you the picture!” Midoriya interjected loudly if only to get everyone to shut up. He scrolled through his phone for a second, before turning and displaying the screen to everyone. (He’d placed the photo in its own album so no one could snoop.)
Mina grabbed the phone excitedly, before laughing and confusedly asking, “Why were you crying on that one trash beach?”
“I’m sure that’s not the image!” Iida interjected, only to be proven wrong when the photo came around his way.
As the phone was passed around, everyone made various noises of confusion, ranging from the insulting, ( Just like Deku to be crying, the damn nerd!) to the weird, ( Those tears are almost as sparkly as my hair!) to the logical ( Problem Child, why are you crying on that beach?).
“Guys, guys, give me a moment to explain, jeez!” Izuku had to shout once again, which made him wince a bit at his tone. When everyone had quieted, and his phone was returned to him, he continued, “That was the day I’d started training for UA! Before that, I had, like, no strength, but once I finished cleaning the beach, I’d gained a bunch of muscle!” And with that last statement, Izuku flashed everyone a picture of him standing on top of the last remaining trash pile at Dagobah beach.
Everyone was shocked at that statement, but the first one to gain any coherent words was Jiro, who could only stutter out a shocked, “H- How?”
Izuku beamed and cheerfully said, “It took me ten whole months to finish it, but it was worth it in the end! I made it to UA!”
“Dude. Just, wow!” Kirishima exclaimed. “You didn’t even use your quirk probably, because it breaks your bones, which means that you essentially cleaned the beach quirkless! ” Izuku grimaced when he pointed that fact out, but a natural smile quickly came out as everyone gushed about how much hard work it must’ve been, and how selfless he was to not take the credit.
“Guys, guys, it’s not a big deal-”
Midoriya tried to get the game back on track, but this just caused everyone to shout, “Not a big deal???”
Eventually, Midoriya gave up and just let the class do what they wanted.
------
After another 10 minutes of everyone except for Bakugo and Aizawa (The former seething inside, because how dare that damn nerd hide this from me? and the latter contemplating just how insane is this problem child? ) they finally turned their attention back to the games. Sero suggested a game switch, and everyone agreed readily enough, so they switched to playing ‘Never have I ever,’ which was sure to be interesting.
Since they were all minors, they agreed to just take a sip of their water when necessary.
It started with Kaminari. “Never have I ever made my own meme!” The entire Bakusquad (minus Bakugo, of course,) chugged their water, along with Tsu, Ochako, and Shoji, who shocked everyone with that fact.
Since Shoji’s one was the most surprising, he got to declare next. He chose, “Never have I ever petted a stranger's cat.” Nearly the entire class, including Aizawa, drank, though he was shaking his head in mock shame at his- the kids talking to strangers.
They chose Mirio to go next, and he decided to do what should’ve been a simple one. “Never have I ever broken a bone before!” The entire room, (sans Eri and the Big Three, of course,) just glared at Izuku, who shrank back before meekly taking a sip of his water. Mina, Sato, and Todoroki all took a sip too, but everyone was wayyyy too focused on 1A’s resident bone-breaker.
“I don’t do it anymore, guys!”
The upperclassmen got a feeling they were missing something, but when they asked for clarification, the class burst into laughter, and Aizawa sighed and tiredly asked, “Did you even watch this year's sports festival?”
They all shook their heads and made a mental note to watch the first year's sports festival later.
The class continued on for a while, with an occasional break for the restroom or more snacks. In the middle of the game, Eri and the Big Three left, saying, “Eri’s got school tomorrow, so we should get her home, right Aizawa-Sensei?” The man let out a grunt of permission, so they all headed back to their dorms, and Bakugo used this as an opportunity to escape to his room.
Class 1A learned that Shinsou’s secret passion was Macarena dancing, Shouto was a die-hard conspiracy theorist, Yaoyorozu was obsessed with Russian nesting dolls, and Sero used his tape like a piece of wax tape on his legs.
There weren’t any crazy questions until Kaminari decided to declare, “Never have I ever gotten suspended from school.” Kaminari, Sato, Ashido, and Midoriya all drank.
The rest of the class was concerned. Mina, Denki, and Rikkido had all talked about how they’d gotten suspended before, (Breakdancing in the middle of class, causing a schoolwide electrical shortage, and accidentally rampaging after eating too much sugar,) but Izuku had never even mentioned getting suspended before. (Aizawa hadn’t known either, since he refuses to read a student's file so that he can make his judgments about his students. Now, he reflects, that might’ve been a mistake. )
“You, Midoriya?” The class kept talking over itself, exploding in a cacophony of voices until Izuku had shrunken into the couch as much as possible. Tenya sounded especially disappointed in his friend, and Shouto and Ochako were concerned for the green bean.
“Yeah,” He mumbled.
“Well, Problem Child?” Aizawa asked gruffly, curious as to why someone would suspend Midoriya, of all people. He was nice, respectful in class, and was the exact opposite of a disruption.
“Umm…” He hesitated, “None of the other kids at school really liked me, and neither did my teachers, so when they were destructive the teachers blamed it on me…” He trailed off towards the last words, looking around the room as if searching for escape exits.
The self-proclaimed ‘Dekusquad” let out a gasp of shock at this. “Why wouldn’t anyone like you Deku-Kun? You’re so nice!”
He chuckled darkly at this, before muttering, “My quirk came in really late. Like, daybeforetheentranceexam late. So the kids were really mean.” He looked up and saw everyone's horror-struck faces and quickly waved his hands around in an attempt to backtrack. “But honestly guys, it’s not a big deal! I’m totally fine!”
“That doesn’t excuse their behavior, Problem Child.” Aizawa looked the same as ever, but inside he was seething with rage, and he swore to release Nezu on Midoriya’s middle school the first chance he got. He was also scolding himself internally for not suspecting anything about his students' bone-breaking quirk.
“That’s so unmanly, bro!” The rest of the class voiced their opinions in agreement with Kirishima, but Ochako, Shouto, and Tenya were especially concerned. Then, Mina voiced her latest realization out loud.
“Midoriya, didn’t Bakugo go to your middle school?” She hoped she was wrong, but wailed internally when Izuku nodded confirmation. “Then where was he in all of this? You said everyone was mean, but on the first day of school you guys said you were childhood friends, right?” Everyone looked horrified at the thought of Bakugo hurting Izuku, Aizawa most of all.
Izuku resumed his search for an escape with renewed vigor, trying to make an excuse to leave when Aizawa’s capture scarf ensnared him.
“Answer the question, Midoriya. And I’ll know if you lie,” he added on as an afterthought.
With a hint of regret in his tone, Midoriya stated, “Kacchan - Bakugo used to bully me too... He usually just burned me with his explosions, which wasn’t a big deal.” The rest of the class scoffed at that statement but didn’t interrupt.
“He mostly had his lackeys go after me. The worst he did was one day when he burned one of my notebooks, threw it out the window, and then told me, ‘You know if you want to be a hero that badly, there's actually another way. Just pray that you'll be born with a quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof of the building.’” Midoriya gasped in shock at the statement he'd just made, along with the rest of the room, and covered his mouth with his hand that had been yanked out of the slowly loosening capture weapon, but he couldn’t take back those words.
“That bastard! ” Shinsou exclaimed, rage at Bakugo clear on his face. He’d joined the ‘Dekusquad’ almost as soon as he’d entered 1A, (after the training camps,) and he knew he wouldn’t be able to forgive Bakugo. Not after Shinsou's own childhood.
“How could you, Bakugo?” Denki and Mina knew Bakugo wouldn’t hear them, but they couldn’t hold in their tears at Bakugou’s betrayal. They’d both experienced quirk discrimination, and to know Bakugo took part in that? It stung.
“That’s bullshit! How’d Bakugo even get into the hero course, if he’s done things like that?” Hagakure voiced what several others were thinking, and soon the room became a jumbled mess of everyone shouting their opinions out over each other.
“Alright class, the party’s over. Everyone but Midoriya go back to their rooms.” Aizawa declared gruffly, trying to keep a hold of his own feelings lest he be arrested for murdering one of his students. Internally though, he was panicking about the fact that he completely misread Midoriya and Bakugo’s situation as a healthy rivalry, not bullying !
This made Izuku panic. What if he expells me now that he knows I wasn’t even strong enough to stop my own bullies. What if he confronts Bakugo about it? What if-
“Midoriya, you’re not in trouble,” Aizawa said, jolting Izuku out of his thoughts. “But I do need to get your statement on all of this so we can punish Bakugo appropriately.”
Izuku gasped, “No sensei, it isn’t his fault! Please, don’t expel him! He’s been getting way better recently! Please!” Aizawa struggled to suppress his sigh at this. Of course, the problem child would defend his bully. Admittedly, Bakugo is getting better, but that doesn’t excuse the past.
“Bakugo’s actions speak for themselves, Midoriya. Bakugo will face any punishment deemed necessary.” Aizawa tried to speak gently, for the sake of his problem child.
-----
Aizawa didn’t sleep at all that night, drafting up the necessary paperwork to both sue Aldera Middle, as well as give Bakugo several months of a probationary period and force him into anger management.
The rest of the class also had a hard time falling asleep that night.
Midoriya, because he kept thinking about what he’d confessed.
Bakugo wasn’t sure what was keeping him up so late, but the ever-growing pit of dread in his stomach left him fearing what would happen come morning.
Nearly everyone in the ‘Bakusquad’ had faced bullying in some form before, and they knew it’d take them a long time to trust their friend again. Kirishima especially was berating himself for never noticing the extent of how Bakugo treated Midoriya.
The ‘Dekusquad,’ minus Izuku, were gathered in Shouto’s room since he had heating mats in the floorboards. Shinsou, Shouto, Ochako, and Tenya stayed up until 3 AM, Tenya not even arguing for once, talking about how to cheer up Class 1A’s resident cinnamon roll the next morning.
The rest of the class couldn’t fall asleep either, feeling a mix of guilt for not noticing how unhealthy their relationship was, anger at Bakugo for hurting Midoriya all of these years, and sympathy for Midoriya’s lonely childhood.
No one got a good night’s rest that evening, and in the morning, the storm clouds truly rolled in.