A/N: This is far later than I had planned to post this, but university has really been kicking my butt. 12-hour class days and four submissions per week will do that to you. I'll try to get the next one sooner, but no promises.

Thank you very much to those who reviewed! You guys keep me motivated, so this one is for you. Enjoy!

When someone pushes her shoulder in the morning, Katie has to take a moment not to yell at Matt for waking her up. Because as the memories rush back, she remembers it can't have been Matt to wake her up, because Matt's not here, and she's pretending to be Matt, and-

Shiro.

"You slept through your alarm," he's saying as he shakes harder. "Inspection will be here soon."

"Fuck," she yells as she stumbles and falls, tangled in sheets. "Fuck!"

It's entirely her fault for taking so long to fall asleep - and she feels the effects of it entirely too well in the dizziness of her body and the sleepiness and salt that crusts her eyes half-shut. It's not a new thing, this happening, but she imagines she must have been more stressed and emotionally exhausted than she had thought.

"Language," her roommate chastises with a light tone, and to be honest Katie had forgotten he was even there. "If you want I can start waking you up as well?"

"That would be fucking super," Katie says as she rolls on the floor, trying to get rid of the sheets that appear to be trying to eat her. And though she really doesn't want to be getting all chummy with Matt's roommate because she'll be leaving soon enough, she can't help but send him a helpless look after the top of her head meets the bedframe a little too forcefully. "A little help here?"

Shiro huffs out a laugh. Then, his hands reach down - and really, it should be illegal to look this good from all angles she's seen him in so far - and picks her up. Sheets and all. Katie the Sheet Burrito blinks at him as he gently lays her back on her feet.

"Um," she says, still trying to figure out how to get her mouth to work. "Thanks."

He sends her an amused smile. "You've got five minutes before inspection. Make them count."

And Katie is back to cursing, wiggling in place as she untangles herself from the sheets that must surely be cursed. She's off to the bathroom with uniform in hand, binder well hidden beneath the pile of clothing, and by the time she comes back her bed is made.

She blinks at it.

A warm hand ruffles her hair, the same hair she has just spent way too much time trying to tame. "Don't get used to it."

Katie raises a hand to smooth her hair back, watching as Shiro goes to stand in position near the door, broad shoulders relaxed and hands behind his back. She has trouble reminding herself that she's not here to make friends.

Katie makes it her business to avoid Shiro like she avoids Mom after stealing too many peanut butter cookies from the baking tray.

It's not that she doesn't like him. In fact, he strikes her as the type she'd get along splendidly with, because as far as she's seen he's not too pushy and doesn't mind long silences as long as they're comfortable - and that is why she absconds to the nearest bathroom on the way to class, waiting for him to pass by before she dares make her way to the classroom herself and not get stuck on a seat near him.

Friendly people are the worst. Friendly people are exactly the kind that would ruin this for Matt by getting close to her and discovering everything. It's already bad enough that he's her roommate.

Katie will make sure he doesn't get any closer. If she keeps quiet, if she doesn't draw attention to herself, if she surrounds herself with friendly acquaintances - not friends, never friends, not before Matt takes back his place - then surely, surely this plan will go well.

Of course, that plan is shot to hell soon enough.

She's rolling her eyes at something obviously wrong that one of the other kids says - he might be on the same group as the guy that had been pestering her the day before, but she can't be sure - when attention gets drawn to her instead.

"Care to explain what was wrong with Mr Falk's answers, Mr Holt?" asks the teacher, a middle aged woman who looks like she can take on Commander Iverson with a hand tied behind her back. "Since you clearly seem to know better."

And shit, this definitely hadn't been in the plan. She rises hesitantly in her seat, unwilling but forced to participate and draw attention to her less-than-nice reaction to the other boy's half-joking ignorance, and folds her hands behind her back.

"It was... Inaccurate." Katie hesitates. "Due to the vacuum present in outer space, there isn't really a possibility to have fire in space unless an oxidizer is involved. And since sound doesn't propagate-"

A few snickers sound out from those who know what's coming.

"-you can't really make things go 'boom'."

A few cackles sound out, and the ears of the boy in question - Falk, the teacher had said - turn a bright pink.

"Succinctly put, Mr Holt. You can sit back down."

Katie lowers herself back into the seat, her own ears burning. She hates, hates, hates being put on the spot like that. And, if the glares being directed at her from the seats around the Falk boy are any indicators, she certainly wasn't going to make a lot of friends with this.

Katie only hopes she hasn't ruined things for Matt too much.

She knows that those hopes are dashed to hell when she gets paired up with one of those boys for combat class. Technically, it's 'self-defense' class, but they all know what they're here for. The Garrison is military, and anyone expecting less than that is in for a hard awakening.

"Name's Harrison," the boy spits out. "And I'm gonna wreck your shit."

Katie takes a combat stance, but she knows she's going to lose. Not because she can't take on the boy with her skill level, not because she can't stand to hit someone, but because of who she's pretending to be. Because right now, she's Matt - Matt, who hates fighting. Matt, who avoids physical activity like the plague. Matt, who she's been able to out-wrestle for years now.

That, and she has a little too much chest padding and a distinct lack of junk between her legs that Harrison might notice if he gets too close.

She fakes being in a lot more pain that she is when Harrison foregoes the rules and their instructor's indications and goes straight for the face.

Maybe, if she keeps her head low, she can avoid bringing Matt more trouble than she already has. Maybe, if she keeps trying, she'll actually start believing it.

Shiro sends her a concerned when she plops between him and Keith at dinner. She has had it with unpleasant Garrison boys and dealing with them in general, so she figures that she should stick with the pleasant-ish ones for now, even against her better judgement. At least while she doesn't come up with a plan to deal with... everything, really.

First day of actual classes and she's already made her brother a handful of enemies.

Just peachy.

Her roommate must have found her scary, ask-no-questions face a bit dampened by the purple swelling, because what comes next out of his mouth is, indeed, precisely one of the very questions she had been hoping to avoid. "Is that a black eye on your face?"

"No," Katie snarks as she waves a bread roll in the air. "It's a hickey. On my eye."

Keith snorts, but Shiro only frowns harder. "How did that even happen?"

Katie chomps down viciously on her roll. "Combat class. Bit of a mishap."

He opens his mouth again.

Katie shots him a glare. "Don't. Ask."

She imagines Harrison's head in place of the roll the next time she goes to take a bite. Both Shiro and Keith must have decided that they value their lives too much to ask, because dinner is silent after that.

Katie tries not to be thankful, and pretends she doesn't notice when there's bruise ointment amidst her belongings the next morning.