As requested by Dragontitan, I'm trying my hand at a Jirou x Izuku fic. This is very new territory for me, so hopefully I'll do it justice. This will probably be based more around establishing a friendship, rather than anything romantic. If there's enough demand, however, it could go beyond a one-shot and be continued into a mini-series. Again though, only if there's enough demand.

With that said, on with the… show? No, that's not right… whatever, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia

"Alright, settle down." Aizawa called out as he entered the classroom of the famous, or infamous depending on who you asked, 1-A, immediately commanding everyone's attention to be on him. The tired looking man watched his pupils for a second before continuing, "You have a project to do for this Friday on the history of Quirks before the rise of the title of 'hero', but you will be working in pairs."

At the announcement of this, everyone's eyes suddenly turned towards the person that they wanted to be paired with. Uraraka glanced over towards Midoriya, Kirishima towards Bakugou, Jirou towards Yaoyorozu and Ojiro towards Hagakure.

"However," Aizawa continued, picking up a remote of some sort, "The pairs will be randomised using this system."

Internally smiling about how everyone's expressions dropped at this revelation, the Erasure hero pressed the button on the remote, causing everyone's names to show up on the board. Pressing it again, the names began to be shuffled around, keeping everyone in suspense.

Who would be paired with who?

Suddenly, the names came to a stop, listing the pairs that the classmates would be working in.

Aoyama and Iida.

"Intéressant!" The sparkling hero piped up, with Iida nodding in response.

Kirishima and Shoji.

Shoji merely nodded, whilst Kirishima barely even reacted.

Koda and Sato.

"Let's do it, man!" Sato shouted, patting Koda on the back. In response, he turned to face him, offering a thumbs-up.

Sero and Todoroki.

"Just don't freeze me like last time!" Sero joked, causing Todoroki to drop his head, muttering an apology.

Yaoyorozu and Ashido.

"Yes!" Ashido cried out in joy, "I won't let you down, Yaomomo!"

Mineta and Tokoyami.

"I won't put up with any foolishness, got it?" Tokoyami turned to his desk neighbour, who nodded with a disinterested look on his face.

Ojiro and Hagakure.

Ojiro smiled happily in response as Hagakure waved happily towards him, offering a small wave of his own.

Asui and Uraraka.

"Let's do our best, Tsu-chan!" Uraraka cheered.

Kaminari and Bakugo.

"You better work your fucking ass off, Drooly!" Bakugo yelled, with Kaminari offering a scared nod in response.

Midoriya and Jirou.

"L-let's do our best!" Midoriya piped up, Jirou offering a disinterested nod in response.

"Why did I get paired up with him?" Jirou asked herself quietly. It wasn't that she disliked the green haired pile of nerves, she had just… never properly interacted with him. Like, at all. Neither of them felt the necessity to strike up a conversation, so her prior experience with the would-be hero was next to nothing.

"I expect your projects to be submitted by Friday morning. Dismissed." Aizawa explained before walking out of the classroom, allowing it to descend into chaos.

"Ahhhhh…." Kaminari groaned, "I wanted to be paired with Jirou, not Bakugo…"

"What?! You think I'm too fuckin dumb, huh?" Bakugo yelled loudly, little explosions going off in his hand to emphasise his anger.

"N-not at all!" Kaminari backpedalled, "I just wanted to work with Jirou, that's all."

"Speak for yourself." Jirou responded coldly, prompting Kaminari to shoot her a playful glare. "At least you're partnered with someone you know."

"Jirou, that was cold." Yaoyorozu joined the conversation, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. "What's so bad about being paired with Midoriya?"

The Hearing Hero turned to look at her project partner, who was standing next to Iida's desk with Uraraka and Asui. She could hear that they were discussing their partners, with Uraraka being cheerful at being partnered with the Rainy Season Hero, whilst Iida could be heard saying that he had no clue how to work with the sparkling young man that he was partnered with, prompting laughter from his friends around his desk.

"At least I'm not the only one that holds him in contempt." Bakugo smirked.

"I don't dislike him, unlike you." Jirou said pointedly, wiping the smirk off of the Explosion Hero's face, "I've just… never really spoken to him."

"This could be a good chance then!" Yaoyorozu spoke up.

"What do you mean?" Jirou asked, a dusting of blush on her cheeks. Hearing her exclaim as such had caused a certain thought to speak up in the back of her mind which she desperately tried to ignore.

"Well, you said you've barely spoken to him, right? It could be a chance to get along with your classmate a little better!"

Sighing quietly in relief, Jirou met her gaze before nodding confidently. "Yeah, this could work."

"You sure you don't wanna swap?" Kaminari spoke up, hopefully.

"No, because Aizawa would never allow it." She joked, "Besides, at least Midoriya will probably know what he's talking about… unlike you."

"Hey, that's harsh!"

"Kind of surprising, isn't it, Deku?"

"Huh?" Izuku looked up at Ochako from his lunch, confused as to what she could be referring to.

"Who we were partnered up with!" She explained, "I mean, I'm very happy to be working with Tsu-chan, but Iida got paired with the unreadable one and you got paired with someone you've never spoken to before!"

"Y-yeah." He replied, smiling slightly. Sure, he hadn't spoken to her yet, but that was clearly about to change.

"At least you got someone fairly normal." Iida piped up, "I've been watching Aoyama all morning and I still have no idea on how to interact with him."

"He's always been a bit of a loose cannon, that one." Shouto spoke up from beside Iida, "Meanwhile, I'm paired with Sero… I don't know what I'm going to do."

Silently, everyone sympathised with the son of Endeavour. Being paired with someone you effectively managed to one-shot in a tournament was bound to be awkward.

"It'll be fine, Todoroki." Izuku spoke up, "He was joking about it when you got paired up, after all!"

"He was?" Shouto asked, confused, "I thought he was holding it against me…" He finished, looking down.

"Nah, definitely a joke." Ochako dismissed, a few grains of rice stuck to her face, prompting a smile from Todoroki. "What about you, Deku? How are you gonna deal with Jirou?"

"I-I dunno…" He mumbled, "I guess I could j-just try to focus on the t-task at hand or something?"

"An excellent idea! Why didn't I think of that!" Iida piped up, "I could use the same idea on Aoyama!"

"That will probably work with him," the Zero Gravity quirk user laughed, "But I dunno if it'll go over too well with Jirou. I mean, she'll definitely want to focus on the work, but I doubt she'd want to just ignore formalities purely to do some work."

"Hmm…" Izuku thought aloud, "Perhaps I could look into some topics that Jirou's interested in, such as music. But wouldn't that come across as kind of stalker-ish? But I don't want her to think that I'm only going to be talking to her for the duration for the topic, as I'd like to get to know her better along with everyone in the class…"

The loud sound of a clap from Izuku's right snapped him out of his thoughts as he looked over to Ochako with her hands together, indicating that she had been the one to make the noise.

"You were mumbling again, Deku."

"A-ah, my bad." He felt his face flush with embarrassment before finishing his food.

He still had no clue how he would get along with Jirou, but he would try his best.

"Midoriya."

"Y-yes?"

"When are we going to meet up to do this project?" Jirou asked, twirling one of her earphone jacks around her index finger, an action which Izuku couldn't help but find cute.

"W-well, we c-could meet in the c-common room in the dorms a-and discuss s-some ideas?"

"Cool, I'll see you there." Jirou answered, exiting the classroom with a lazy wave.

Sighing, Izuku stood up from his desk, placing his textbooks in his bag as he prepared to head towards the dorms.

"Damn, Midoriya, you've already struck out with her in a single conversation?" Mineta spoke up from his seat behind his classmate, a smug look on his face, "Though I can't say I'm too surprised, she's obviously head over heels for me."

Rolling his eyes, Izuku picked up his backpack and exited the classroom, muttering quietly to himself about what he would need to do for the project.

And for Jirou, as well.

"Ah, Jirou!" Midoriya called out, waving to his project partner from one of the tables that could be found between the kitchen and the lounge area of the common room. Even after having lived in the dorms for a few weeks now, it still surprised him how far the staff had gone in providing the pupils with their living accommodation.

"Yo." Jirou replied calmly, sitting down across from him. "So, what do we need to do? Like, what kind of outcome are we expecting from this?"

"U-um, well, we know that Quirks were first brought into the light of the world with the announcement of the "luminescent baby", right?" Izuku asked, receiving a nod in response, prompting him to continue, "Well, everyone who came forward with Quirks of their own were known as the First Generation, and the designation of 'hero' didn't really come into its own until just before the Second Generation of Quirks were introduced into the world. So, what I thought would be a good idea would be to put together a report or a presentation of some kind documenting the world between the arrival of the First Generation and the implementation of heroes, including any vigilantes which may have been present during this timeframe."

Upon finishing his explanation, he looked towards Jirou, who had a stunned look on her face, her eyes wide and her eyebrows raised in shock.

"J-Jirou? You alright?"

"I'm impressed, Midoriya." She responded, surprise still plastered all over her face, "You managed to put together a very good idea in such a short timeframe. Not gonna lie, I thought you were gonna be more awkward working with me."

Feeling his face heat up as he flushed, his face suddenly became a beet red colour, "O-oh, w-well, t-thank y-y-you."

Smiling in amusement, Jirou continued, "Yeah, more like that." Prompting a small laugh from her. "I can see why you're such good friends with Ochako."

Perking up at this statement, Izuku made eye contact with her again, embarrassment gone from his face as he sincerely said, "But we're friends too, aren't we?"

Again, a look of surprise donned her face as she processed his statement.

"You consider me a friend? We barely know each other!"

"W-well, y-yeah, but I want to g-get along with everyone in our c-class... and t-that includes… you…" Izuku replied, his voice becoming quieter as he continued his sentence, his face once again going as red as Kirishima's hair in the process.

Disbelief never left her face as she realised what he had said, a light blush donning her cheeks. 'This boy never ceases to amaze, does he?' She thought to herself.

"Alright, friend, let's get to work!" She said, a look of determination in her face along with a soft smile.

Smiling, Izuku nodded, "Yeah!"

Not gonna lie, this was one of the harder fics for me to write. I have next to no prior experience with this ship, so I wasn't really sure on how to have them interact or anything, so you'll have to forgive the anticlimactic ending. Hopefully I've done the request justice though.

In other news, I have a tumblr now! I go by the same name on there as I do on here, and I'm yet to really do anything with it, but you can feel free to follow it if you so desire.

Once again, requests are still OPEN, so feel free to drop a request to me and I'll do my best to fulfil it.