Heroics and Other Things

Chapter 36: Unrestrained Summer Fun

Day Two of the summer training camp began at 5am, but only for Class A.

"Be sure not to wake anyone from Class B!" Iida stage whispered as he shook Izuku awake, with a little more volume to his words and a little more force to his shaking than was strictly necessary. "They're not supposed to be up until six!"

Izuku blinked his eyes open and looked around the room. Already Iida had awoken a few other students -- mostly the steadier ones like Kouda and Satou -- and these were busy nudging, jostling and in some cases prying the others out of sleep, carefully stepping over the Class B students as they did so. Izuku nodded to Iida and turned immediately to Shouto on his other side. Izuku, Shouto and Hitoshi had slept in a line, with Shouto in the middle and the other two cozy in the altered temperature from his quirk. Hitoshi, who was sweltering in the summer heat, had slept in the coolness of Shouto's right side, and Izuku, who was nearly always cold at night even in warm weather, had slept in the warmth of Shouto's left side.

As he'd drifted off to sleep last night he'd had the thought that this was a particularly ideal sleeping arrangement, but the idea made him blush in the early morning light.

Izuku placed a hand on Shouto's left shoulder, but before he could apply any sort of pressure Shouto's right hand shot out and grabbed Izuku's wrist. Biting hold enveloped his hand and arm, patchy frost creeping over his skin, and Izuku stifled a shriek. He looked back at Shouto to see his eyes wide and staring, but clearly not awake enough to register what was in front of him.

"Shouto, it's me!" Izuku said quietly, pulling gently against Shouto's icy grip. "You're fine! Nothing's happening!"

Shouto blinked a few times, eyes finally coming into focus, then widening still further when they recognized Izuku.

"Sorry," Shouto said, releasing him and sitting up on his pallet. "I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine," Izuku said, shaking his head at Shouto's distressed expression. "You're not used to getting woken up like that."

"A hero should always be ready," Shouto said bitterly, not looking at Izuku as he used his left hand to begin defrosting Izuku's forearm. "Even in sleep. It was part of training."

"That's bullshit," Izuku said firmly. "You deserve to sleep."

Shouto's lips twitched into a smile.

Hitoshi and the rest of the Class A boys woke with little fuss. For a moment Izuku thought he might have seen Monoma from Class B looking at him, but when he looked back the boy's eyes were closed. They dressed in their gym clothes, then joined up with the girls for a cold and silent breakfast, few of them awake enough to converse with each other. At half past five Aizawa beckoned them outside, where they gathered into a sleepy, rumpled knot and watched as he turned to address the students.

"Good morning, class," Aizawa said, startling Izuku with his volume after the hushed whispers they had used indoors. "Today we begin a training camp that will increase your strength. Our goal is to increased your skills exponentially so that each of you earns a provisional license. This will allow you to face the dangers that continue to fester in the darkness. Proceed carefully."

Aizawa pulled something out of his pocket, and Izuku was surprised to see that it was a softball, equipped with a sensor to measure how far it traveled when thrown.

"Look alive Satou," he said, throwing the ball so that the student he had called on was able to catch it with only minimal fumbling. "Try throwing that for me."

"Like in the fitness test!" Sero realized as Satou looked down at the ball in his hand like he wasn't entirely sure what it was for.

"That's right," Aizawa said, and Izuku definitely heard a note of deceptive politeness in his voice. "When we started school your record was 378.9 meters. Let's see if you've improved."