"I'm pretty excited that the enemies are going to be robots!" Mina exclaimed, jumping up and down. "It'll give us a chance to finally be able to control our quirks."

"We'll have to be able to control our quirks no matter what, slip-and-slide," Bakugo snarled, another remark flying out of his mouth. "Regardless of whether our opponents are human or robotic, we have to fight both sooner or later."

__

I sighed, putting down the weights, breathing labored by how much I was working. I touched the scar on my shoulder, realizing that it wasn't as bad as I had thought. At least it wasn't sore anymore, so I could push my limits a bit.

"I should probably call up someone. See if they want to study after I shower," I thought, taking out my phone. "But who should I call? Momo's busy with the others, and Izuku, Uraraka, and Iida are all busy studying by themselves." I groaned, scrolling through the numbers as I passed a contact, quickly scrolling back up to see it properly.

"When did I get Todoroki's number?" I mumbled, looking at the contact. I remembered him not saying anything about studying, so I presumed he was busy himself, but I couldn't shake off our talk at the hospital. I pressed the contact and waited for someone to pick up.

"Hello?" I didn't believe it.

"Todoroki-san?"

"Yes."

"Oh, I was wondering if I could come and study with you, if that's not too much of a bother."

"Who is this, Shoto?" I heard muffled voices and a sharp edge replaced my friend's usually calm and collected voice.

"Alright, you can come over." The colder, more dark range of tone left me a bit scared, yet confused.

"Okay... I'll see you in an hour. Send me your address and I'll be there in a jiffy." The line went dead before I could say goodbye. I held my phone back and looked at the screen, lips pressed together and eyebrows furrowed.

What had just went down on the other side?

__

I arrived at the extremely large estate, wondering outside the gate as the mansion towered over my figure. I felt the urge to whimper at the size of the house compared to the one I lived in. Oh dear, this isn't going to end well, I fear.

The voicebox at the front entrance boomed, making my ears perk up and hands to fly over them at the sheer volume of the sound.

"Who is this?" I coughed a bit before answering, obviously surprised, and a bit embarrassed.

"It's (L/N) (Y/N), sir." I guessed the voice belonged to a male, since it was very deep and quite demanding. "I called about an hour ago, requesting to tread on your property and visit Todoroki Shoto." The voice grunted and the gates slowly swung open.

"Come in, and be quick about it." I gulped, starting on the long meandering path to the front door.

__

Knocking twice on the detailed, intricately engraved, polished oak door, I stood there patiently with my bag and a waterbottle, waiting for someone to open the unnecessarily large piece of wood.

The front swung open, revealing the large figure, Endeavor. He looked at me with this grimace and stared into my eyes, with the same ones that Shoto possessed. At least one of them.

"(L/N)?" It seemed more like a demand than a question, his figure perched, chin high and small wrinkles here and there from the pride that he wore daily. Now I was beginning to see what Shoto meant.

"Yes. I am (L/N) (Y/N). May I ask where Todoroki-san is?" Even if I disliked him or not, I still had to be polite. Endeavor grunted, moving out of the way.

"I'll guide you there. He's in his study." I kept on a poker face, wanting to vomit right then and there at the audacity that this man had. I stepped in, slipping off my shoes and following Endeavor to where Todoroki was. I hoped he wasn't suffering too much, like I said before.

"Shoto. Your classmate's here to see you." I struggled to keep a blank stare at the pro hero, but somehow managed. I nodded towards him and tried to discreetly dismiss him out of the room with that gesture. But like an idiot, Endeavor still stood there, looking at the both of us in awkward silence.

Todoroki stood up and grabbed a few things from his desk, then my arm.

"Let's go to another room." I could feel the tension literally burning in between these two as Shoto walked out of the room, glaring at his father from the side. Even a monkey could tell that they had some beef in between them, and I wasn't about to get caught up in all that stuff. Once we made it safely to one of the many rooms in the estate, Shoto sat down and started to look at me.

"Are you going to sit or not?" I panicked and threw my stuff in a corner, quickly moving to sit down with him. I finally threw down my poker face and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sorry that you had to go through that. My old man doesn't give a damn about anyone." I nodded and crossed my legs so they were spread out like butterfly wings.

"It's fine, it's fine. By the way you described him before, I could kind of feel it was going to be like this." I brought my ankles closer to myself and started to stretch.

"So what do you want to work on? The physical test or the written assessment?" Todoroki thought for a second, mouth creating a slight pout.

"Let's do preparation for the physical test. I've already studied enough and I need a breather." I nodded, satisfied with the answer, but still mentally groaning at the fact that I would need to take another shower. The written tests, I was pretty prepared with, so I just needed to train.

"Alright, should we move to another room, or just stay in this one?" Shoto started to stretch, bending over and touching the ground, holding it for a couple of seconds.

"We can move to another room. This is the dropoff area for your supplies. Grab your water too, while you're at it." I started to sweat at his straightforwardness and the size of the room. It was bigger than my kitchen and room combined, but this was only a waiting room.

Oh god.

__

I moved around the space, on the pads of my feet, Shoto rushing forwards. I flipped in the air and slammed my foot down on his arms, which he held above his head in a defensive shield. I grunted at the impact and landed back, breaths turning into pants. We both held a game face, ears bearing into one another.

"Fighting patterns, fighting styles..." I racked my brain to think, searching for any possible clues to which I could observe. "The best trained guy in the class pitted against me has no clear weaknesses, this is really bad."

Todoroki lunged at me, knocking me down and holding my shoulders, right before I could kick his stomach, he dodged, flipping up into a handstand, going over, feet touching the ground in a back bend, picking me up using his core and arm muscles to shift his weight to his feet, standing upright for the tiniest margin of time, and then slamming me face-first into the ground, all the wind getting knocked out of my lungs. I coughed, smiling through the pain, picking up the move from him.

I saw a hand move in front of my face, reaching out to me. I groaned, getting up and massaging my arms. Shoto stood, clasping my hand and helping to haul me up.

"That was a good spar, Todoroki-san," I commented, pounding a few times on my chest. "You really knocked the wind out of me. I'll be sure to pick up on that move next time I pin someone down." He nodded, a slight smile gracing his features for a second, before immediately growing tense and looking towards the door.

"Get out." Shivers ran up my spine at how cold the student sounded all of a sudden. He probably didn't want me here, but I don't know why?

"If you want me to leave, I can-" Todoroki stopped me by my shoulder and shook his head, pointing a finger towards the closed door.

"Not you. Him." The shoji slid open, revealing the despised number two hero that no one wanted to see, Endeavor. The father and son didn't say anything to each other, just blank stares that held deeper meaning.

"You know what? It's getting late, I should probably go-"

"No, let's go to a food shop. I can escort you back home." Todoroki cut me off, averting his gaze to me.

"But-"

"No. We're going. Just tell your parents you'll be back late."

__

"Two servings of Tanuki Soba, please. Both cold." Our waiter nodded, smiled, grabbed our menus, then took off. I drank my water out of a straw, looking at Shoto. He swirled his ice cubes around in his cup and played with his chopstick, spinning it around and catching it, again and again.

"So," I started, catching his attention. "How's everything going at school?" Todoroki looked up, eyes softening a bit, beginning to talk more and more with every passing minute, the aura around us becoming more relaxing just as our food arrived. We spent the rest of the happy hour eating cold soba noodles and having a good time.