Chapter Text
“What’s up, Yaomomo?”
Kyoka was someone that Momo had grown to appreciate as a friend, especially with the more unique questions Momo had to ask the other girl that most teenagers would’ve known beforehand.
Momo sighed, rubbing her arms - wishing that she had an outfit that actually covered her and worked with her quirk - and stopped herself from biting her lip, “I, uh, just have doubts about this exam, I guess,” she pushed a strand of loose hair behind her ear, “You’ve noticed Midoriya’s change, haven’t you?”
Kyoka shrugged, “Can’t say that I haven’t. He’s more confident since internships,” she paused, “Why? Is that why you’re nervous?”
Momo hesitated, thinking about it. No. She wasn’t nervous to be working with Midoriya during their exam. He’d been an interesting conversationalist the past couple of weeks, and she’d found herself enjoying the various topics that she and he conversed about.
No, it was more to do with her lack of ability to anything right when she needed to the most.
“No,” Momo said eventually, frowning thoughtfully to herself, “I just… don’t think I’ll be able to keep up with him.”
There were a few beats where Kyoka didn’t speak, and Momo was about to ask if she was alright, but the short-haired girl burst out into giggles, “No offence, Yaomomo, but I don’t think anyone else could keep up with him.”
Momo blinked, “Pardon?”
“Look, you can barely keep up with him in your conversations, right?” Momo nodded, and Kyoka gave her a smile as the taller girl wondered how her friend had known that, “And, anyone can see that Midoriya is holding back in our Heroics classes. He’ll go to do a move then stop himself which usually gives one of us a chance to take the win.”
“Oh.”
“If anything you’re probably the best person to keep up with Midoriya,” Kyoka carried on easily, “At least you can glimpse his thought process, the rest of us are just in the dark the whole time. We have no idea what he’s thinking. You at least can gather information and make possible scenarios from there.”
“You really think that?” Momo asked her closest friend, unable to stop the disbelief from showing on her face.
Kyoka snorted, “Of course.”
Momo smiled, but couldn’t quite bring herself to believe her friend’s words as she watched Midoriya and Kaminari enter the viewing room, however she could let the knowledge that her friend believed in her, spark a little hope in her chest.
-*-
“Ready to go?” Midoriya asked her, checking his pockets for somethings that Momo didn’t quite know.
Momo tried to hide the light wavier in her voice, “Ready,” she smiled hesitantly, nerves already sending adrenaline through her veins, making her hands shake as she tried to hide them from her green-haired partner.
Green eyes finally looked up, and he gave her a smile, “You’ll do fine, Yaoyorozu-san, you’ve got nothing to worry about. It’s not as if we’re going up against all the teachers.”
The joke made Momo laugh, but the way Midoriya said it almost made her think that he’d actually gone up against all of the teachers before. Or that he was prepared to do so currently.
Momo blinked, and within a moment, Midoriya was holding something out to her, and she opened her hands reflexively for the item to drop into her hand. It was a metal cylinder-like pole about twenty centimetres long with only three buttons showing on the outside, a logo placed on each of three buttons of a bush.
“What’s this?” Momo asked, lifting it up to get a better look at the metal item.
Midoriya had gone back to fiddling with something in his pockets - why and how did he have so many? - but was paying attention to her, if the quick movement of his eyes flickering to her for a moment meant anything, “Just something I commissioned from a support company a while ago,” he said simply, “Press the bottom button and it should lengthen in size, the middle button is for powering it up, the third button is for releasing the power it generates, much like how Denki’s quirk works when he’s actually using it correctly-”
“Using his quirk correctly?” Momo echoed, and the green-haired male glanced up at her.
“He’s literally a human taser,” Midoriya deadpanned, sighing as he shook his head, “Whoever the fuck registered his Quirk is an idiot. ‘Look, it looks just like his mothers! But he seems to have the same abilities as his father, it must mean that his quirk is just like his fathers!’ nevermind the fact that Zip-Zap was basically a human generator, and her husband was able to shoot lighting out of his fingers after he charged up from outside sources.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, ‘oh’,” Midoriya rolled his eyes, but Momo could tell that his irritation wasn’t directed at her, “Stupid moronic idiots. Can’t even bother to figure a simple quirk.”
If Kaminari’s quirk was Midoriya’s version of “simple”, Momo wasn’t sure if she wanted to find out what Midoriya’s version of a “hard” quirk to solve was.
The buzzer went off, letting them know that they were free to enter the city-like training field. But neither of them moved.
“Eraserhead will be more mobile in this sort of landscape,” Midoriya piped up, making Momo jump slightly, “His capture scarf was designed with this sort of area in mind, and it uses nanobots combines with Eraser’s DNA that makes it more difficult for an EMP to shut down the power and control of the scarf-”
“How do you know this?” Momo asked, almost too hesitant and scared to find out.
Midoriya gave her a look that pretty much said “Do you really want to know?” and Momo winced, “Nevermind,” she murmured.
“Uh-huh,” Midoriya muttered in an, “I thought so” king of way.
“Right,” Momo tried to put a confident smile on her face, “We’ll need a plan? Any ideas?”
Midoriya stilled for a moment, then sighed, “You know that there’s more than one aspect to these tests, right?” he asked her. Completely serious as he looked her in the eyes.
Momo hesitantly nodded.
“What do you think the whole purpose of the teachers teaming you up with me is? Against Eraserhead ?”
Well, Midoriya had a point.
Momo had assumed that it was because of her reliance on her quirk that she’d been made to go against Aizawa-sensei, but why had she been put with Midoriya? Or had Midoriya been placed with her for some reason?
So many questions and not enough answers.
"Purpose…" Momo mused thoughtfully, looking out at the fake city in front of them, just waiting for both her and Midoriya to enter and find Aizawa-sensei.
Could their teacher have realised Momo's doubts? Her lack of confidence in her ability to lead others? Surely not. If he had, wouldn't Aizawa-sensei have brought it up to her?
She hummed and was appreciative of Midoriya's patience. If she had been partnered up with Todoroki or Bakugou, or even the majority of their classmates, any of them would've just rushed ahead without consulting with her.
"Aizawa-sensei wants me to work on my confidence?" Momo tried hesitantly.
Midoriya snorted, "Are you asking me, or telling me?" He had a cheeky grin on his face as he watched her carefully with those vibrant eyes of his.
Momo chuckled, "Telling, I guess."
Midoriya clapped his hands together, "Alright! So, what's the plan, Yaoyorozu-san?"
Momo breathed out nervously, looking across the fake city once more before turning to her partner for this exam, "Alright, so…"