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As long as Izuku can remember he and group projects have not gotten along and the group projects in his memories are nothing but a long procession of hellish collaborations.
There was the time in his freshman year of high school of course when he’d been so happy someone actually wanted to work with him that he’d been overly eager to please and had wound up doing all the work himself.
Which would have been fine if it netted him a friendship. But his classmate had gone right back to ignoring him as soon as the project was over and Izuku had been left feeling… gross.
There’d been embarrassment over how he’d acted of course, coupled with an anxious tension that perhaps he somehow hadn’t done enough .
But most of all Izuku had felt used .
He can still vividly remember the very last time he tried to pair up with someone for a project.
It was his last year of high school and Izuku had reached the point of no return. He was going to pick his own partner, someone he could trust to split the workload and not use him. Someone who hung out on the edges of the class just like he did. Someone quiet and nice who would appreciate that Izuku was offering his help on a project that was worth so much of their total grade.
And she had been grateful to be approached, had even looked pleased about it.
But then.
Lunch.
Izuku still can’t think of that moment in the lunchroom without his hands trembling.
Gripping his tray tightly as Yukimura had loudly proclaimed to the room at large that she’d made a mistake, forgotten that she’d already agreed to be someone else’s partner. And she’d stood there and said nothing as everyone had laughed and laughed and someone had shouted “who would even want to work with you ?!”
Izuku doesn’t do group projects anymore.
There’s a point deduction for doing them by yourself of course but it’s fine.
Izuku gets perfect scores. Even with a five or ten point loss he’s still getting A’s.
So he’s not top of the class anymore, so what.
The trade off is more than worth it.
Izuku doesn’t do group projects.
And then he enters his second year of college.
***
Hitoshi Shinsou isn’t here to make friends.
That’s really the beauty of college, isn’t it? Hitoshi can attend his classes and leave—no mandatory social time, no forced ‘get-to-know-each-other’ events. That’s how he prefers it. He’s here for an education, not a social life.
High school had been hell in that sense. Forced together-time and collaboration had done nothing but ostracize him more until he learned to harden his heart against the inevitable rejection. Now, he simply chooses not to care what other people think of him—doesn’t even give them the choice to decide.
It’s better this way.
And then he enters his second year of college.
It’s the first day of Hitoshi’s sociology class, a course focused on social problems in Japan. He’s majoring in psychology, not sociology, but the course description piqued his interest. He figures the class will make for an easy A while fulfilling an elective requirement with actually interesting content, so here he finds himself, seated in the back row at eleven in the morning while the tired looking professor reviews the syllabus.
“This class will not have a final exam,” the professor begins to say to excited hollering from the rest of the students, “however, you will be required to turn in a project proposing your solution to one of the social problems we cover in the class at the end of the course. I don’t care about the format.”
‘That’s not terrible, ’ Hitoshi thinks. A project due at the end of the course, with months of time to work on it? This should be easy.
“I know you kids hate talking to each other, so partners will be assigned.”
Shit.
Hitoshi hates group projects. Didn’t he leave those behind in high school? Why is he being subjected to them again now?
Group projects have always and will always consist of Hitoshi being politely ghosted. Texts go unanswered for hours before he finally receives responses along the lines of ‘you’re so good at this kind of thing, you should just do it!’ and other bullshit. They’re not entirely wrong— Hitoshi would do a better job by himself than with whatever partner he’s been shoved onto—but it still manages to make his blood boil.
Class goes on to quiet, worried mumbling from his classmates all the while Hitoshi stews, eyeing each person in the room. Which of them will he be chained to for the rest of this long, long course? There are a few students who—like the blond guy on the other side of the room with resting bitch face and explosive looking eyes—would make him drop the course altogether if they were shackled to each other.
Finally, five minutes before the end of the lecture, the professor decides their fate via taking attendance.
“Midoriya Izuku?” The professor calls.
A green-haired boy shyly raises a hand. Hitoshi can’t see his face from the back row, but he can hear the way his voice wobbles nervously as he says “here!”
The professor nods. “Midoriya, you’ll be with,” he looks down the list, nodding thoughtfully, “...Shinsou Hitoshi.”
***
Izuku regrets all of his life decisions.
Every. Single. One.
Like, sure, the syllabus for the sociology class is great, and it will give him the credits he needs, and it’s in a time slot that works for him, but at what cost?
Maybe… Maybe he can appeal this somehow. Say he’d rather do it alone, maybe there can be an exception somehow?
But even as he thinks so, Izuku looks around the room and sees that he can’t be the only one to have that idea. As a matter of fact, half a dozen people are already gathered around the professor’s desk, and he’s looking less and less impressed, and more like he might be starting to consider actual penalties for not going with his request.
(It’s a very specific face. Izuku’s learned to recognize it over the years, and it never bodes well.)
So, sighing and trying not to feel like his stomach will rebel if he thinks about the words partner and group project for too long, Izuku steps toward Shinsou.
“H-Hi,” he says.
Shinsou Hitoshi looks… tired. That’s Izuku’s first impression. He’s got huge bags under his eyes, the color of which isn’t helped by the dark purple his hair is dyed into, and for half a second, Izuku feels submerged by a very strong feeling of kinship.
But well, it’s college. Everyone’s always tired, and if his project partner already looks this tired this early into the course, it’s probably not a great sign in terms of potential teamwork.
Not that Izuku has great hopes there, but he’d settle for…
Well, Izuku hopes he won’t have to do the project on his own, but if it comes to that, he can probably manage it somehow.
“I’m M-Midoriya Izuku,” Izuku says out loud, wishing his voice didn’t shake so much, wishing he could make himself meet Shinsou’s eyes, wishing he hadn’t just remembered that the professor had said his name so of course Shinsou would know it already—
“Mh,” Shinsou says, cutting through Izuku’s mental spiralling.
Well, that's it for a good first impression, Izuku supposes.
"I know it's still a good few months until we have to submit the project," he says, trying not to shrivel up at the unimpressed look Shinsou is giving him. "But is there a good time for you soon to talk through what we're going to do?"
And hopefully establish a baseline for how much of the assignment Izuku would be forced to do, on a scale of 80 to 100 percent.
Shinsou looks up at him, face briefly shocked before his eyes narrow slightly. Suspicion? Annoyance? Izuku can’t tell.
"What, you don't want to just exchange numbers?" He asks.
How does Izuku put this in a nice way... It's harder to ghost me if I'm physically right next to you isn't exactly the height of politeness.
Shinsou snorts, helpfully letting Izuku know that he said that out loud.
"That's fair," the other student shrugs, looking a little more peaceful now. "I'm going to spend an hour or two at the library after lunch if you wanna talk then."
“Yeah, that works for me,” Izuku says without thinking, happy to have someone who at least seems willing to meet with him. Then his brain catches up to what Shinsou actually says and he has to scramble to catch up to the boy’s already receding back.
“Wait wait wait, when are you eating lunch? And which library?” Shinsou looks at him like Izuku has just grown a second head but Izuku is determined, if he is going to get ghosted he is at least getting one in-person meeting first so that he can say he tried.
“Oh, I guess I forgot not everyone keeps my same schedule, uh, I normally eat around one-ish, so I guess I’ll see you in the Northwind Library around two,” Shinsou says. Izuku gives him a sharp nod, then lets him go. As far as first impressions go it’s not the worst one he’s ever made, but it probably could have gone better all things considered.
Still, he has a time and a place to meet his new group partner, and that’s not nothing. Now Izuku just has to make sure he doesn’t set his expectations too high.
***
Hitoshi should have known better. Really, he was a fool for not having anticipated this.
Of course Midoriya isn’t going to show up to discuss their group project, of course he is going to ghost Hitoshi despite him being the one who insisted they meet up. Of course.
Hitoshi is furious despite knowing he should have expected this.
Four more minutes, that’s all Hitoshi is giving that kid and then he’s leaving. He’s not even gonna give him the typical five minutes. Four minutes and then he’s gone.
There is one minute left in Hitoshi’s personal four minute deadline when he sees Midoriya practically fly past, backtrack, then rush into his cubicle.
“Do you know, how many, cubicles, are in this library?” Midoriya pants as he leans heavily against the table. His face is flushed and there is sweat beading on his forehead as he pulls off his bag and begins pulling out supplies.
“Oops,” Hitoshi says, flushing as he realizes that Midoriya must have run around each floor of the library looking for his specific cubicle, and Hitoshi likes being up on the higher floors because it means less people, so with him being on the fifth floor, Midoriya must have been running around for at least thirty minutes. Hitosohi feels like an ass.
“Let’s just, get started,” Midoriya says as he finishes pulling out the syllabus for the course and the textbook before plopping down into an empty chair.
“Alright yeah, let’s get to work.” And for the first time in a group project for a long time, Hitoshi is feeling a glimmer of hope.
***
“You know, I’m really happy we got partnered together Shinsou,” Izuku says as they put the finishing touches on their presentation.
“I’m just happy you didn’t ghost me the first chance you got,” Shinsou says from where he is lying on the floor of their library cubicle.
“And I’m glad I didn’t give up looking for you after ten minutes,” Izuku laughs, “it wouldn’t have been the first time someone gave me the wrong location just to try and convince me afterwards that I was the one who had it wrong. But I didn’t get that feeling from you so I’m glad I kept looking.”
Shinsou groans. “I still feel like an ass about that but for what it’s worth I’m glad too.”
It’s only once they’ve finished packing up that Izuku gets the courage to pass Shinsou a slip of paper. “My number,” he says. “I think you’ve earned it. If you ever want to chat or commiserate or whatever.”
“Thanks,” Shinsou smirks, “I’ll try not to ghost you but no promises.”
“As long as you don’t make me put in all the work,” Izuku jokes back.
Izuku and group projects don’t get along.
But it seems he’s finally found the exception.