(A/N: Text messages conversations are in italics. They might lack proper capitalization or punctuation. This is on purpose. Thank you!)

There was never any question that all the Sakamakis and Mukamis would be accepted into the university, because after all, they had a very rich and influential father. Plus, Yui was a really good teacher. She was patient and good at understanding other people's learning styles, and she managed to train Subaru out of his chant-stuff-to-memorize-it technique. So everyone got accepted, and a few months before the start of the next year they were supposed to receive contact information for their roommates over email. (At first each of the brothers wanted single-person dorms, but Ayato warned them against it, claiming that choosing a single-person dorm was the worst mistake he had made in college. Somehow, they thought he must have had worse mistakes than that, but that's neither here nor there).

Shu received that email while he and Subaru were packing up old clothes. No one would be living at that house anymore, so they were putting all their old clothes and belongings into boxes and putting them in the basement. Subaru had wanted to just throw them away, but Shu refused to let him do that, and he was prepared to pack all of them away himself if he had to. Subaru was starting to get the impression that Shu was a very sentimental person.

Anyway, they were in the middle of going through Kanato's closet when Shu got that email. He paused to check it, and he couldn't help but laugh when he saw it, but it was a hollow and sort of sarcastic laugh. "What is it?" Subaru asked, somewhat annoyed that Shu had stopped working to check his phone.

"Did you find out who your roommate is yet?"

"Yeah, just some stranger…?" Subaru's voice picked up at the end, as if he were asking a question. He wasn't sure what that had to do with anything.

Shu showed Subaru the screen of his phone, currently displaying the email with Shu's roommate's contact information. Subaru squinted at it. The name of Shu's roommate was Yuma Mukami.

"Hah! I can't decide if you're extremely lucky or unlucky."

"Why did I have to get him of all people…? Or rather, I didn't even know he was applying…"

"Well," Subaru thought aloud. "Maybe it's a good thing. You don't have to get a read on some stranger's personality."

"I've already had to get a read on Yuma's personality two separate times…" Shu sighed. Subaru cocked his head, not understanding what he meant by that. "Ah, I knew Yuma before any of you met him. When we were kids."

"...Huh?! Really? Why didn't you say anything to us?"

Shu shrugged. "No reason to."

"Did he recognize you?"

"No, he lost his memory. He knows what happened now, though I don't think he actually got his memory back." Shu didn't look at Subaru. He clearly didn't want to go into detail.

"...Ah." Subaru still had a puzzled look on his face. "Living together with him might be rough, then…"

"Mm." Shu felt his phone buzz - Yuma must've decided to put the contact info he got to use. Well, he was going to have to confront him eventually...The text he received said: "you applied too?"

Shu responded very simply in the affirmative. "Yep"

"but youre a NEET!"

Shu didn't quite know how to respond to that, and he wasn't that comfortable with Yuma yet, so he decided to put his phone away and get back to work. Yuma wasn't going to let him out of the conversation that easily, though: a few minutes later, his phone buzzed again.

"well, this might be good. if it's you, I don't have to worry about setting ground rules."

Shu responded curtly, "You're welcome"

A brief moment passed, in which Shu guessed Yuma was trying to gauge the sarcasm level of that text. After Yuma presumably understood that it was sarcastic, he replied, "let's get along."

In retrospect, it was probably a normal thing to say to someone who was about to become your roommate. Yet Shu immediately started to overanalyze it: I irritated him, he wants to end the conversation, he really just means "Let's stay out of each other's ways"...Shu had sent a total of two messages, three words in total and he was already stressed out. Of course, he didn't want to reply, and any reply he could've given was embarrassing, so he put his phone back in his pocket and made up his mind to leave that conversation where it was.

But it was still weighing on his mind. Yuma really didn't seem like the type of guy to have any ulterior motives, especially with a message as stupidly simple as "let's get along", and it would make Shu look ridiculously bad if he couldn't even accept a peace treaty as small as that. Hours passed, Shu and Subaru finished packing up their stuff and loading it all in the basement. Laito, Kanato, and Yui had pitched in later on and helped them as well, so it went by pretty fast. The sun was going to rise soon, so everyone went off to bed - Shu slept in the living room rather than his bedroom, as per usual. He felt better there, like he could keep an eye on everyone. But today he was having trouble falling asleep, all because of this one stupid message. He was fully aware that he was being ridiculous, but he couldn't stop weighing the pros and cons of responding in his mind.

At this point, Yuma definitely wasn't expecting a response, since it had already been hours, but Shu was so frustrated with himself at this point that he decided to just do it. He pulled out his phone and typed out the message, reread it over and over again, and finally sent it.

"Yeah, let's get along"

Yuma didn't respond. He was probably asleep.

About a week before classes officially started, everyone moved into their dorms. All the Sakamakis seemed in pretty high spirits about it, since it meant a change of scenery. Subaru, on the other hand, looked sick to his stomach about the whole thing. Of course, it would have been much worse if he had stayed home, but the idea of going to an entirely new school and sharing a room with some stranger made him anxious. Yui sat next to him on the car ride there, and tapped his shoulder a few times to make sure he was okay.

Since it was super obvious that Subaru was nervous, Shu's brotherly instincts kicked in and he stayed with him after everyone else split up to head for their dorms. Subaru thought it was embarrassing, but he was secretly thankful for it. They grabbed a map while picking up their keys, and the two of them worked out where their dorms were and where their classes were. They didn't share any classes, since Shu was majoring in music and Subaru was undeclared with no musical talents to speak of. Subaru did have a literature class that happened to be in the music building, though, so the two of them would end up seeing each other quite a bit.

Shu offered to walk Subaru to his dorm too, but Subaru adamantly told him that he could go there on his own. Walking throughout campus on his own was exactly as nerve-wracking as he thought it would be, though. Everyone seemed to be used to the place except for him, and (though he knew he was just being paranoid) every time he heard someone laugh, he thought they were laughing at him. He did find his room without any problems, though, and he had gotten there before his roommate. He decided on his own to take the bed opposite the window rather than the one closest to it, since his roommate wasn't here to object.

His roommate showed up when Subaru was in the middle of unpacking. The door opened and Subaru froze, looking towards it. The boy who entered the room looked a bit older than Subaru, and a bit taller, but when he saw Subaru he immediately put on a huge smile. "Hey, you must be Subaru! I was looking forward to seeing you."

"A-Ah...Hello," he replied awkwardly.

The smile did not make Subaru feel any better. In fact, Subaru only felt more nervous since this guy seemed like such an extrovert. He enthusiastically shook Subaru's hand and, Subaru noticed, seemed to be inspecting him closely. He kept looking him up and down - it was making Subaru uncomfortable.

"To tell you the truth," the boy said, his voice lowering somewhat. "I already know who you are."

Subaru was sure he had never seen this guy in his life. "Um…?"

"I believe you were a friend of my little brother's, in high school."

Well, that was impossible. Subaru had exactly zero friends in high school. The only person that could even come close to being called his friend was Kou, and he would call him an acquaintance.

"He was a freshman, in your class. He told me all about you." His smile looked a little darker now. "You guys got in a fight, and you broke his arm."

Subaru tensed up. He did remember that. The boy in question had made a few comments about Subaru's mother, and that was a very touchy subject for Subaru, so they had gotten into a fight and Subaru left the kid with a bloody nose and broken arm. Well, this was not going anywhere good. He had to do something, anything, to defuse the situation or get out of there-

Before he could even finish that thought, the boy put his hands on Subaru's chest and shoved him against the wall. Subaru grunted and squeezed his eyes shut during the impact, and when he opened them he saw that the boy's face was frighteningly close to his, making it impossible for him to escape.

"I've been waiting to get my hands on you for a while, you piece of shit. I'm going to pay you back for my brother."

Subaru grit his teeth, bracing himself for pain. He did not have to wait for long; the boy punched Subaru in the stomach, making Subaru double over and groan. If Subaru had been feeling sick before, he was feeling twice as sick now. Adrenaline kicked in, and he was gripped with the desire to hit him back. Subaru attempted to restrain himself and not immediately resort to violence - the boy punched him in the face next, slicing the side of Subaru's lip on his fangs.

Now he couldn't hold himself back.

Subaru grabbed the boy's shirt collar and slammed him against the wall. He was yelling something at him, but Subaru was deafened by anger. He threw his fist at his face over and over, barely hearing the shouts to stop, till he felt blood dripping down his knuckles.

Then, he felt two hands grab his wrist.

He glanced behind him, almost unable to see straight due to anger. The blurry picture of Ayato was staring back at him, holding onto his arm to prevent him from beating the boy any further.

"Jeez, you're mad," Ayato pointed out, vastly underestimating the gravity of the situation. "What'd this guy do?"

Subaru was shaking, clinging to the boy's shirt collar with his right hand and keeping his dominant, blood-stained left hand in a tight fist. His mind was too fuzzy and loud to think of an answer, and he couldn't get any sounds past his lips anyway. He slowly moved his eyes from Ayato to the boy he had just been beating up, and noticed that his face was a bloody mess and he had clearly lost consciousness long ago. Subaru felt scared of himself.

He had done it now. Not even three minutes into college life and he had ruined it forever. His next roommate would surely find out about this and think he was a monster; same with the school and all of his teachers. He would be treated like a freak, because he was one. Hell, he would probably be arrested. He deserved it. If there was one thing he deserved, it was being locked up in a dark cell far away from everyone else, totally ostracized from society, because he was such a fucking monster he was a danger to everyone-

"Hey!" Ayato shook his arm, waking Subaru from his self-hating trance. "Don't go spacing out on me. What did this guy do to you?"

To him? Well, nothing. Nothing that Subaru could remember, anyway. So Subaru answered, his voice trembling: "Nothing."

"Don't mess with me. You're bleeding too."

Oh, yeah, that's right. Subaru felt the side of his mouth stinging, and blood dripping down his chin.

Ayato went on, still holding onto Subaru's wrist to prevent him from punching anything else. "That's why I asked you what he did. 'Cause you don't just go around picking fights for the hell of it. You're lucky I came by and saw your door was open. If he did something bad, I can help you finish the job-"

Subaru slowly released the boy's shirt, and his body slumped to the floor. "Ayato." He was still shaking badly, and it was hard for him to speak. "I think I want to go home."

"What? No, that's stupid."

"I already...m-messed up really bad. Everyone's gonna...know, and they're gonna hate me."

Ayato stared at him, unable to look him in the eyes since Subaru was hanging his head. It was just now occurring to him that Subaru probably grew his bangs out just to hide his face in situations like these.

"I have to...I have to go home. I'm no good for this-"

"Well then be my roommate from now on," Ayato said, as if he were making the decision for him.

"What…?"

"We'll take care of that guy and make sure he doesn't tell anyone. And I'll move in with you, and I can help clean up whatever messes you make from now on. And no one will screw with you because your cool big brother is around."

"Sh-Shut up…! That's never going to work!"

"Subaru," Ayato gripped Subaru's wrist even tighter. "Don't drop out."

Subaru went silent, unsure how to respond to such an earnest request. It was Yui's turn to poke her head through the open door, and she squeaked when she saw the scene that was currently playing out. "Oh my gosh! What's going on?!"

"Chichinashi, perfect timing! We might need some help getting rid of this guy."

Subaru spluttered, "Hold, hold on-"

"I guess it would be bad to just kill him, and I don't want to suck his blood either. Since I'm a married man, after all. I'm guessing you don't want it either, Subaru."

"Well, no, but that's not-"

"Then we just have to drop his body off somewhere. And if he comes back or complains to the school, we'll just pretend we never saw him in our lives! They'll think he's remembering it wrong 'cause he got hit in the face so many times. It's foolproof. I'm a genius."

Yui had tiptoed her way into the room, and she had gathered enough context clues to realize what had happened. "Oh, Subaru, it'll be okay," she said softly, clearly sensing how frightened Subaru was.

"Shut up! I don't need you to tell me that!"

"Chichinashi," Ayato perked up, grinning at her. "Subaru and I are going to be roommates from now on."

"Oh, that's great!"

"It's not great!" Subaru objected.

"It is!" Yui clasped her hands together. "Now Ayato won't be alone, and you'll both be able to stay close to your brother. I think you'll make a great pair!"

Subaru realized Ayato still had a hold on his wrist, and he shook him off. "Don't lump me together with him!"

Ayato and Yui ignored his protests, acting as if the matter was decided. "Then, Chichinashi, you go run to the store and get some bleach and maybe some extra towels. Subaru and Yours Truly will handle the dirty work."

"Roger!"

And that was that. Ayato and Subaru were roommates from then on.