Assassins Can Be Heroes Too || Todoroki Shoto

|94| Progress, I Suppose

To say that it was awkward would be a bit of an understatement.

Rie and Iida would normally sit together - before tensions were high between her and Class 1-A - with Todoroki, Midoriya, Tsuyu and Uraraka. Kirishima and Bakugo would normally sit together on the other side of the cafeteria ("I don't want to sit near Half 'n' Half and Deku") with Ashido, Kaminari and Sero; occasionally, Jiro and Ojiro would join them.

To see the four of them sitting together, meanwhile, was an... interesting sight for 1-A to witness.

Kaminari paused in line, staring with his jaw agape at the four students sitting - the female looking rather out of place and if she would rather be in her dorm than in the dining room (she did, not that he would know) and the males looking equally awkward. Bakugo leaned his elbow on the table, supporting his chin with his hand, a scowl visible on his face.

"So?" he narrowed his eyes.

"So..." the assassin drew out, "how were your holidays?"

"Could've been better, I suppose," Kirishima admitted, "especially since... uh... well... we... Rie..."

His voice trailed off, the female raising a brow in confusion.

"What he's trying to say," Iida shot him a side-glance, "is that we were worried about you, Rie."

"You were..."

She did a terrible job at masking her shock.

"Tch, quit acting so shocked," scowled Bakugo, glaring at her out of the corner of his sharp, red eyes, "so what are you doing now?"

"Huh?" she shot Bakugo a puzzled side-glance, "what do you mean?"

"Since you haven't been appearing in our classes," pointed out Bakugo, "and Aizawa hasn't been mentioning you that much-"

"I don't want to be popular," she muttered under her breath.

He chose to ignore her statement.

"So you gotta be doing something, right?"

"What he's trying to ask is-" Kirishima awkwardly cut in, "is what do you even do in the third-year class? Like, is it the same as the first-year stuff?"

"Why are you even in the third-year class, anyway?" cut in Iida.

"Well... I was recommended into the third-year class since I 'have experience in the Hero world already, so there's no need to go through the beginner stuff again'," she quoted Nezu, "but... I'm still going to have to do the Provisional License Exam or something... whatever that's called..."

"Oh, that," Iida hummed, "Aizawa said we'd start training for that in two weeks."

"Which is after the project ends... conveniently..." muttered the female, sighing as the boys shared a perplexed gaze.

"Project?" echoed the males.

"Oh... we're doing a research project on a Villain individual or Villain group in groups of 3-5."

Iida and Bakugo deadpanned, instantly understanding who she was researching.

Kirishima, on the other hand:

"Who does your group have?" Kirishima blanked, both Bakugo and Rie shooting him pointed glares.

"Who do you think, Shitty Hair?"

"Uhh..." he pondered for a while, understanding eventually.

"Come on, it's not that hard," the female encouraged awkwardly.

"Uhh... Villains..." he thought harder, "is it a group or individual?"

"Individual."

"So it's not the League... have we met them?"

She deadpanned, Iida and Bakugo groaning into their hands.

"Ohh! Aw, man, that's gotta suck..."

"We got there eventually," she sighed, sweat-dropping as Bakugo growled under his breath, "so how are the first-year classes?"

"Annoying as fuck."

"They're alright," Iida shot Bakugo a pointed glare, "we're not doing much at the moment, I think Aizawa says he'll wait until after you come back or something."

They ate the rest of their lunch in silence, inserting a few random comments here and there.

"Well... see you around, I guess," the assassin stood, sliding her tray off the table, waiting for the rest of the teenagers to stand and empty their trays. As they made their way out in silence, Iida turned back to face the assassin.

"Hm?"

"Take care," he muttered, "I know you may not want to... talk to any of us at the moment... but our doors are open if you-"

"Oh, Rie!"

The female turned, recognising the extroverted blonde making his way towards the group. Iida nodded, the female mirroring his action.

"See you around, Rie," the boys farewelled, the girl agreeing as she turned to the third-year.

"We gonna work on the project tonight?"

"Why tonight?" she furrowed her brows.

"Better get it over and done with," he suggested.

"Sure," sighed the female, crossing her arms, "where are we..."

He glanced not-so-discreetly behind him at the other two third-years.

"My dorm!"

Her shoulders heaved as she exhaled.

"Sure, see you then."

She watched as he bounced back to Nejire and Amajiki, announcing the news.

Well... it was progress, she supposed.

And it would progress even further that night.