a/n: hi friends - d here! finally got around to finishing this chapter while sitting in the airport waiting to board my plane home from my trip! sorry it wasn't ready on Saturday as usual, but I was on vacation mode. 36 will be up as scheduled, and thank you all for being so patient with Hemza and I. You rock. 3

"Hey," Shinso whispered, entering her room without a word of invitation from Emiko. He shut the door tightly behind him and sat down beside her, close enough to offer the comfort of proximity while also maintaining enough of a distance so she didn't feel he was invading her personal space.

"Heard you were moving in today, figured I'd stop by and see the new digs," he droned, taking a moment to stretch before he made himself comfortable again. His left shoulder pressed against hers comfortingly, a reminder that he was not a ghost living in her mind. "I guess without you doing the actual moving, they went the safe route and just recreated your room from your aunt's place."

Shinso paused and his blank stare swept over her, assessing her body language with a keen eye. He knew her better than anyone and could no doubt see just how tense she was, with her spine ramrod straight and her eyes darting manically around the space.

"You fucking hate it," he deadpanned, gazing out at the room that so closely resembled her space at home. The space they'd lay in more nights than she could count, reminiscing on childhoods spent separated, on the times they'd shared since meeting each other. He'd spent hours on hours sprawled across her bedroom floor, listening to her talk about her friends in 1A, and from those hours he'd learned more about the students she spent her days with than he'd ever expected. So much so, in fact, that he'd even recognized a few of their faces as he entered the dorms.

Emiko felt a bashful heat rise up in her cheeks, though she couldn't deny he was right. She did hate it - she hated how small the room made her feel. How it left her trembling and ruminating in all of her past failures. How in the corners of the room, she swore she saw a cape swirling in the shadows. This space, so cluttered with all of her old things made her feel small and weak and afraid, and even if she'd never admit it to anyone but herself, it was the truth.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Shins," Emiko replied, her voice coming out barely above a whisper. She'd barely spoken since she'd gotten out of the hospital and her throat was raw. That denial to SHinso was the first thing she'd said all day, the first words to slip past her lips.

"Cut the shit, Emiko, you don't have to put on an act with me, you should know that," Shinso snapped, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a handheld game system. He powered it on and jumped into whatever game he'd been playing before. He reached over subtly, turning the volume up to let the sound effects of his game drown out the silence. The noises of cartoony combat emanated around her and m,ade her feel slightly less afraid than she had earlier, and she felt eternally grateful for Shinso barging into her room.

Even though it'd been many weeks since the pair had last seen one another, he still understood what she needed better than anyone. She'd missed this aspect of their friendship - the easy way in which Shinso could see right through her.

For a while, the pair just sat in silence. She kept her knees pulled up to her chest, her forehead pressing against the bony surface. She was content to not be alone, to have someone occupying the space beside her, even for a moment. Shinso's game and his soft breathing was enough to fight away the rising tide of panic she was constantly afraid of taking over. She let it wash away some of her fears, let it assuage the loneliness she'd felt since she'd been rescued.

"D'you wanna talk about it?" Shinso mumbled, dropping his game into his lap, while exhaling quickly. A puff of breath burst through his lips, and she watched as he fidgeted with the torn skin around his cuticles. "What happened, I mean?"

Emiko pondered for a moment, before shaking her head slowly.

"That's okay, Emiko. I get it." He reassured her, pushing himself off of the hardwood floor. He paused, taking in the anxious look that crossed her face, no doubt realizing she was afraid of him leaving. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm just gonna move some stuff around, is that ok?"

Again, Emiko just nodded. She didn't trust her words, didn't trust the barrage of terrible thoughts and feelings that threatened to pour out of her at any minute. She watched as he moved around the room, shuffling some of her more breakable items into boxes or wrapping them up in the plethora of throw blankets that lay on her bed.

"Need you to move, please." He grumbled, before pushing his weight into her bed. She moved as if in a trance, scooting her butt across the polished floor and shifting her back to the wall opposite where she was sitting. The heavy piece of furniture began to shift, until the headboard rested on the same wall her back had just occupied. He moved her desk, too, so that her back was no longer facing the door. On either side of the giant glass doors he pushed her bookshelves, before carefully rearranging the books and decor he'd wrapped up earlier.

Finally, he shifted her desk so that it was sitting at the foot of her bed, close enough that at the end of a long night studying, she could simply turn out of her chair and throw herself into the bed. It was a much less functional way of laying things out, and made the space feel slightly smaller than it actually was, but she had to admit that seeing things laid out in a different way did make her feel a little bit better.

"You gotta set up your game system now, since I don't know how." Shinso smiled down at her, reaching a hand down towards her. She reached out, clasped his fingers with her own and allowed herself to be tugged up slowly. She began plugging in the cords to her tv, fiddling with them to make them lay just right on her desk. It didn't have to be such an involved process, but she found the monotony peaceful. Just puttering around her room like this made it easier to pretend that nothing was wrong.

She could pretend, just for a minute, that she hadn't been kidnapped and tortured for days. She could pretend that she'd never heard what her mother had to say, as she moved around the new space she called home. In the silence the pair allowed themselves, Emiko felt tears well in her eyes. For once though, they were not tears of sadness. In fact, Emiko found herself quite glad.

Glad to have met Shinso that day - to have stumbled upon him at her most vulnerable, to have let him see the terribly sad and lonely and angry parts of herself. She was glad for him, especially now in times where it felt like her world was crumbling around the edges.

"Hey, Emiko?" Shinso's voice broke through the silence and she turned to face him. His gaze was turned down to the floor, a book cradled gently in his hands.

"You know if you'd died, I would've brought you back to life just to kill you again, right?"

He posed the question as if it was a joke he was trying to tell, but even in her frayed state she could feel the emotion behind it.

"I was so fucking worried about you-" he mumbled, setting the book on her shelf before looking up at her. His normally sullen purple gaze was clouded with tears, and Emiko felt her heart splinter. "I thought I was never gonna see you again.

As his voice broke, she moved towards him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders as both of their knees buckled, and they fell to a heap on the floor of her bedroom. Each of them were crying now, for the loss of innocence they'd both faced.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to do this-" Shinso began to apologize, his tears wetting the shoulder of Emiko's t-shirt.

"Don't." She interrupted, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Shins."

The tears flowed more freely now, forming a salty river that poured down her cheeks. She'd worried everyone, and that wasn't something she could easily forgive herself for. After Stain she'd promised to be stronger, to work harder to save herself and keep those she loved safe.

She'd failed.

It was as simple as that. She'd failed in keeping herself safe, in keeping those she held close to her heart free from pain at her expense. She'd tried to tell Aizawa that this would happen, that she would only bring pain and cause harm to those she loved, but he hadn't listened.

He didn't listen, and now her best friend was a sobbing heap on her bedroom floor and it took all of her strength to not fall to pieces at the thought.

"Why are you apologizing?" Shinso whispered through his heaving sobs, "You didn't do anything wrong."

"I made you worry," She answered back, matter of factly. "I made everyone worry, and that's on me."

He tried to argue, but Emiko didn't let him speak. She just rubbed her palms up and down his back, waiting for his tears to subside.

"I'm sorry, Shins. I'm sorry you had to worry-"

"Stop it, Emiko." He snapped, "What happened isn't your fault. Do you not get that?"

She tried to answer but the words died in her throat as she took in the fire that blazed in his eyes.

"You hero course students are so fucking delusional, Emiko. You got KIDNAPPED and TORTURED for days, and you're convinced it's your fault." He scoffed, "You're still a kid, quirk or no. You can't go around blaming yourself every time some sick fuck gets it in their head to hurt a child."

He pulled in a deep, heaving breath before continuing on his tangent.

"You are not responsible for the actions of the entire world. You cannot control humanity and you cannot expect them to act in a rational way. That's unfortunately how it is. All we can do, as hero wannabes, is control how we react to it."

The words were said with love, but tinged with anger. It was a simple concept, though harder to put into practice. Shinso had always felt this way, and they'd gotten into a few debates on the topic before. This though, this was the most she'd heard him speak on the subject. On any subject, really. Shinso wasn't known for being overly outspoken, despite his behavior the days leading up to the sports festival.

"You are 16. You cannot control the world, and you are not to blame for every terrible thing that happens to you. Do you not understand that?" He was standing now, pacing the room with his hands moving about wildly. "I worry about you because you're my friend and I care about you. Not because I think you're weak or because you did something wrong. You and I both know that in a no quirk contest, you'd kick my ass."

Emiko let out a choked laugh, which elicited a small grin to cross Shinso's face.

"You are important to me, and so I worry. Okay? It's as simple as that. There's no deeper meaning to it. I'm allowed to care about you and I'm allowed to worry, because that's what friends do. Do you understand me?"

She only nodded, watching as he turned to shoot a glare at her.

"Good, because I meant what I said. If you die, I'm going to bring you back to life just to kill you myself." He rolled his eyes as he said it, "Now, get some sleep. My phone is on if you need me, okay?"

Slowly, he stepped towards her, before extending a hand down to her. He tugged her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her shoulder, holding her almost painfully tight before letting her go.

"Night, Emiko" He whispered, stepping towards her bedroom door. She listened to it shut, before allowing herself to collapse into a fully clothed heap on her bed. Sleep came easily to her that night, as it hadn't in weeks. Perhaps it was seeing her friend or the changes in her space, but either way… Emiko didn't mind. For the first time in a long time, she slept peacefully. No nightmares plagued her, no ghosts hid themselves in the corner of her bedroom waiting to strike. She just slept, allowed the darkness to consume her mind and erase all of the bad that she'd seen.