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HOW TO SOLVE PROBLEMS.

All that any of them wanted to do that Monday was go home, so when the last class of the day ended they found themselves sagging in relief.

The day had been full of questioning and pitiful looks from strangers outside and in of UA, as per usual when their class got attacked— except this time it hadn't been their class. It had been just them, and so those looks also came from the very same people who hated receiving them. It was mentally draining, to say the least.

"Let's go, Elly. I want to hear every damn detail." Elly scoffed at Katsuki's demanding tone but she was too tired to argue. She would tell him everything and then she would go home and not talk to anyone else all night. And he didn't miss the way she only shrugged. "What's—"

"Collins, Erhart, Mills, and Midoriya," she immediately recognized the voice of their teacher, "stay behind. We have things to discuss."

A scowl made its way onto Bakugo's face, one that Kirishima luckily recognized. The redhead grabbed his blonde friend's shoulder and chuckled fondly. "C'mon, Bakubro. We can wait out in the courtyard!"

He stared down his childhood friend for a moment more, noting the gleam in her eyes, before finally turning and sulking away. Elly only felt grateful that he went quietly and so she did the same, silently walking up to the podium.

Grey seemed to exude nervousness for all of them (Izuku was twitching a bit, but he was nowhere as pale as her). Her hands gripped at the hem of her skirt and she seemingly leaned closer to Chayse, who tried to stand taller under their teacher's unreadable gaze.

"Listen, Mr. Aizawa--" the eldest of them (Chayse) tried to start but cut herself as he held up a slender finger. He only watched them blankly from under his scarf, the moments tense until a knock came from the hallway.

"Wrangled 'em up for ya, Shota!"

The girls couldn't help but grin at the sunny sight of their English teacher and the two boys he dragged behind him. Shinso scratched at his neck as if he didn't care while Mirio waved brightly. The only ones not present who had witnessed the fight was Inko, the poor woman probably already antsy to be away from her son, and Natsuo, the Todoroki boy who had surprisingly asked Erhart if she had Togata's number (she didn't).

Aizawa nodded them forward and stayed silent until he had their full attention (which took a moment, between Hitoshi greeting Grey with a pat to the head and Mirio clapping Elly on the back). He exhaled deeply once the room was swashed in silence.

"I would scold you all, but you didn't do anything wrong as far as I was informed." They all crumpled over themselves in relief. "You had professional supervision, didn't attack until it was absolutely necessary, and those who did resort to physical means have their provisional licenses. And you're okay, so that's all I could give a damn about at this point."

"Mr. Aizawa, thank you," Grey blurted with a short bow and blushed when her teacher only raised his eyebrow to egg her on. "I-- I just don't think I could have handled you being mad at us right now."

"Hmph." Present Mic could only stare in awe at the fond grin that spread over his best friend's cheeks. Shota had never looked at a student like that before, as far as he knew, at least not before this class.  Every year before this the stretched-thin man only looked forward to expelling his class and being done with it. "Seems like I haven't used enough tough love on you, Collins."

Grey sweatdropped. "You've done plenty, Mr. Aizawa, trust me."

"Remember when you let Pixie-Bob throw us off a cliff?" Elly offered.

"Sorry, what?" Hitoshi gulped.

"Yeah, still excited for next year?"

"Enough," Aizawa sighed. Midoriya let his tense shoulders relax (he had been terrified that their teacher would somehow feel offended by his friends' jests). "Speaking of Shinso, I've convinced Principal Nezu to speed up his transfer. If he's going to be causing trouble like one of my students then he should be one of my students. In the next month or so he'll be your classmate."

The world stood still for a minute. Like, yeah, they knew full well that Shinso would become a part of their class. He had been training super hard lately to master his capture weapon, and Grey definitely didn't mind the bit of muscle he had put on. It was just that they hadn't prepared for it to be so soon.

Their first year was barely halfway over so they had been ready to spend another five or six months without Shinso by their sides, hallways away and not learning anything that would aid him in combat. But now knowing that he would be here, in this very classroom, in only a matter of weeks-- it was a lot to take in, especially for the boy himself.

Shinso continued to stand stock-still with lavender eyes wide, even when his girlfriend finally snapped out of it and latched onto his shoulder with a gleeful laugh.

"That's awesome, Hitoshi!"

"We can finally train together!" Izuku added on, his fists clenched as they usually did when he felt an influx of any emotion ever.

Shinso finally smiled abashedly at the attention, glancing down to his blonde girlfriend with a content shimmer in his eyes. Finally. "Thanks, Mr. Aizawa. I, uh... I don't know what to say--"

He held up his hand. "Then don't. We have a few more things to go through." Grey couldn't hold back a chuckle as Hitoshi quickly closed his mouth. "Togata has agreed to be a bodyguard for the first year's until you all have sufficient training."

This garnered the same exact response as the news with Shinso, Mirio blushing wildly as the younger teens swarmed around him with wide eyes and endless praises.

"Enough," Aizawa grumbled once more. "Togata's putting off other official, higher-paying jobs for this. I expect the utmost respect and gratitude from all of you."

"Of course, Mr. Aizawa! You don't even have to ask!"

"And don't spread this around, even to your other classmates. Especially to loudmouths like Ashido and Kaminari." Elly's cheeks puffed with contained laughter. "We still have paperwork to attend to and schedules to rearrange before he can join us."

Midoriya and Erhart couldn't take their adoring eyes off of the upperclassman. While the former had a deeper connection with the Mirio than any of them realized, Chayse had felt a bit enamored by him since the first moment he showed his calming smile in her time of distress. As Grey watched her friend she could only hope that her cousin wouldn't be too super outward with any jealousy.

"Sick speech, Shota!" Hizashi cheered on, the glare he was met with not affecting him any.

"That's all. Get going before any of you miss your trains."

Eraserhead shut his eyes and listened to the giggles and excited chatter of his remaining students as they made their way down the hall. He would never admit it out loud but he enjoyed those sounds so much. Maybe not when he was attempting to sleep, that's beside the point though. Hearing the laughter of his kids let him know that they were alright and he hadn't failed them yet; it was a pure sound that he reveled in every day despite the seemingly annoyed grimace on his face.

And then it was silent. Not wanting to be alone with that darkness, he allowed his eyes to flutter open.

Aizawa nearly jumped at the sight of Elly standing deathly quiet before him. Realizing she had been staring, she looked away.

"Sorry, Mr. Aizawa. I just had something to ask but didn't wanna wake you up." She kicked at the floor and huffed as Katsuki often did. "I'm sure we kept you up last night."

He sighed as his heart rate settled. "What's wrong, Mills?"

She suddenly felt embarrassed. He hadn't asked 'What's up?' or 'What's your question?', no he'd asked 'What's wrong?' Of course he could read her so well. She needed to work on that, but for now she would just come straight out with it.

"We need to work on teamwork." She managed to stand her ground yet quickly added on nonetheless. "Nothing against your teaching or anything."

"Explain..."

Elly paused for a moment before she decided to do just that. "I argued with Izuku a little, right in the middle of that store with that gun only a few aisles away. We couldn't agree on what to do." Aizawa raised an eyebrow. "It's not even that. When me and Collins and Erhart worked together towards the end... it... it felt right. I think teamwork could bring out more in us. In the whole class."

Her teacher could tell she was genuine, not that he would've thought otherwise. "Your first year at UA is meant to focus on individual strengthening. To explore what your quirk can do and test the limits. While we do some teamwork exercises, we don't get deep into it until your second year. That way you can actually be of use to your teammates."

His response had meant to be a drawn-out 'no.' The determined glaze over Elly's eyes wouldn't allow that, he realized. "But, I guess you guys have never been a normal class. I'll see what I can do."

She beamed with victory. "Great! Thanks, Mr. Aizawa!"

She began to hop off to join Bakugo and Kirishima in the courtyard, pausing at the door as he called out to her. "Your arms hurt from overuse, correct?" A positive nod. "Has that ever happened outside of the summer camp?" A negative nod. "Hm."

"Like I said, it brings out the best in us. Also, Mr. Aizawa, don't worry. I have a ton of ideas for the whole class."

Elly didn't allow him to refuse the help as she walked off. Aizawa's finger twitched in thought, and he glanced to his sleeping bag where he kept the scribbles of his lesson plans.

Some things would need to be changed.

∞༺♛༻✧ A/N
ive realized that this story is like i plucked out a single arc from a full-fleshed out fic, said fic having like several au's so here are more 'headcanons' that explains the au and more history behind this

- ok so i already explained the 3's backstories or partially did & how they met so we can skip that

- i also already mentioned how the dorms arent a thing yet but that was more of a plot hole lol

- mirio doesn't loose his quirk and becomes a 'bodyguard' for not only class 1a but class 1b. he puts aside becoming a pro in an actual field for it, but he honestly doesn't care bc he believes he can help the kids and is determined not to let the league lay a finger on them

- shinso joins 1a so sos os sos osso much quicker. he's behind in hero training but he's determined to catch up and he has like the whole of the mad lads on his side

- inko and natsuo would become ua staff members!!!!!! after exposing themselves to villainy nezu decides it would best if they were looked after by pros considering the state of things, so inko works as a secretary (with hella good pay) and natsuo works under recovery girl as an assistant/glorified icepack lol (with hella good pay) bc of how he's in college for medical welfare

- nothing different rlly happens with present mic but he would prolly be included in the plot more

- yah the 3 girls are the main characters but they're not the MAIN characters so we would probably have our own side plot involving july and underrated characters

OK EPILOGUE NEXT LOL