"Okay… just a few more feet…"

"Why do you sound like you're dying when we have this thing, now?" Katsuki asked as he continued to pull the cart along. "Besides- I'm the one dragging it."

"…I'm dragging it in spirit," Daisuke answered as he walked along beside Katsuki. "Emotionally. With all my heart."

"…starting to like you less and less," Katsuki grumbled. "Really hope there isn't too much more left to move…"

"Honenuki and Kan got the TV, and that's the other big thing," Daisuke reassured. "The rest should be simple. I think I saw a lamp in a few parts, a box or two… and then I've got a few things…"

"Yeah, well we probably beat the girls up here, considering we ran into… uh…"

"Yaoyorozu?" Daisuke asked. "Yeah, she helped us out quite a bit. Hopefully the other two are fine in the opposite stairwell."

"Guess we'll see," Katsuki considered. "What room was she?"

"Uh… 704," Daisuke answered. "What's her name again?"

"Who?" Katsuki asked as he made eye contact with the other boy, seemingly oblivious.

"…the frog girl," Daisuke replied. "What's her name?"

"It's…" Katsuki paused, earnestly trying to recall. "…Tsu. She told us to call her Tsu, right?"

"She did, yeah," Daisuke said with a nod. "Just checkin'. I've noticed you're not great with names."

"Yeah, well, not everyone's great with everything," Katsuki shrugged. "What is this, a goddamned quiz show?"

"What's my name?"

"Asshole."

"…you're not wrong," Daisuke replied with a grin as they rounded the corner at the end of the hall. "Bathrooms are both here, it seems. Makes sense, between the two hallways with two dorms each and straight across from the dorm in this hall."

"Almost like this building was designed by people who make buildings for a living," Katsuki snapped. "What's your point?"

"Just pointing it out. Relax, man. We're gonna be here every day. You nervous?"

"Nervous about what?"

"I dunno," Daisuke shrugged as they rounded another corner at the end of the shorter hall. "You just seem to be on ed-"

"Hey, man!" a loud and familiar voice called from down the hall. "You made it!"

Katsuki bristled, well aware that his roommate would be grinning behind him and likely waving. The mental image was enough to fill him with frustration, and so, he didn't bother to look as he continued walking backwards.

"Yeah, well where the hell else would I be?" Katsuki asked aggressively. "It's move-in day. I plan on doing my job, unlike some people."

"Uh… okay?" Eijiro said with a blink as he moved to the side to allow Katsuki to pass with the fridge. Suddenly confused, he looked up at Daisuke and gave his fellow redhead a nod. "Hi! Everything alright?"

"Seems to be," Daisuke answered with a shrug as he waved Eijiro to come with them. "How's it going for you?"

"Oh, I got the TV set up in our room," Eijiro boasted as he walked beside Daisuke, his eyes upon Katsuki. "I set the one up in Tsu's room for her, too."

"They beat us here?" Katsuki asked in disbelief. "Seriously?"

"Does that actually matter?" Daisuke deadpanned.

Katsuki didn't answer as he pulled the fridge up to the door marked 704 and knocked with one hand.

"If you mean Kan and Honenuki, yeah, they're already inside," Eijiro explained. "Everybody else is already here, too. I think they're setting up inside their dorms, and Iida went down to the lobby to help with some logistical thing."

The door opened to reveal Tsuyu, who seemed a little pale. Behind her were Amaya and Juzo standing in a sparsely decorated room that looked very much like it hadn't ever been opened before Tsuyu got to it. The TV was indeed set up atop a small stand and plugged into the wall with a local news station playing. Footage of a familiar museum was on the screen, along with the headline Another Villain Attack? beneath it inside of a red banner. Katsuki immediately looked away and kept his attention on the bare walls of the sizeable dorm.

Despite being quite undecorated other than the TV and furniture provided by U.A., the living quarters were quite spacious. The room was comparable in size to a standard classroom, with a kitchenette set up along the left wall featuring several appliances, a stove, and spacious cabinets that wrapped around the corner toward the TV. Behind the flat screen was a wall of one-way mirrors that afforded a view out toward the campus with rolling shutters that could be brought down at the touch of a button. Desks were at the foot of each queen-sized bed, with the mattresses up against the wall on either side of the door. A simple black leather couch occupied the space between them, sitting a few feet beyond the desks and somewhat close to the TV.

"Hey guys," Tsuyu said with a halfhearted wave. "Come on in."

"Why the hell's the door closed to begin with?" Katsuki asked as he wheeled in the fridge.

"Villain attack," Amaya said from the couch as she kept her eyes on the television. "We didn't want to bring the mood down for everyone else. It looks bad."

"They found…a lot of bodies," Juzo added, his voice slightly distorted through his mask. "It's looking like the Shibuya Central Museum might close down for good. No suspects, and no one seems to know anything. People turned to stone and partially shattered were found in hidden rooms…"

"No one knows anything. Typical," Daisuke muttered as he leapt over the back of the couch and landed next to Amaya, causing the girl to bounce slightly on the cushion. "It's getting worse and worse out there…"

"That's why we're here, isn't it?" Amaya asked as she gave the boy an unreadable look. "To put a stop to this shit."

"Couldn't have said it better myself."

"No, that's fine, I'll just set this up by myself," Katsuki grumbled as he wheeled the fridge over into the kitchenette. "All this shit and they couldn't give us an actual fridge?"

"It actually does make a bit of sense," Eijiro considered. "The staff would have to unplug, defrost, and maintain them when the dorms aren't occupied… and we've got over a hundred dorms. Too much hassle…"

"I honestly might get another one and put it on top of that one," Tsuyu said. "It looks odd in a full-sized kitchen… but I promise I'll have someone else set it up and wait until the elevator is working again."

"You'd better," Katsuki threatened as he unlocked the fridge and began pulling the boxes out. "What the hell is in these, anyway? They weigh a ton."

"Oh, those are my books," Tsuyu answered with a grimace. "I thought putting them in there would make moving everything easier, but I guess not…"

"They made moving everything nearly impossible," Katsuki explained. "Whatever. It's done now. What else do we have?"

"Not too much more," Tsuyu reassured. "But for now… let's just take a break before making another tip. I just ordered a few pizzas while Kirishima was setting up the TV."

"Sweet!" Eijiro said enthusiastically as he pumped a fist into the air. "Thanks, Tsu!"

"You did?" Juzo asked, his eyes wide. "I… don't know how much longer I can stay. I'm supposed to meet up with family, soon…"

Juzo immediately pulled out his phone and busied himself with the screen as those around him gave him an assortment of odd looks. Amaya was the first to speak, leaning her head back over the upper part of the couch to stare at the boy while upside-down.

"…really? What was your plan for moving your stuff in, then?"

"They… were going to help me afterward…" Juzo said slowly, though the statement didn't sound entirely convincing. "I don't have all that much to move, anyway. I'll be fine."

"Well, we can help whenever you get back," Daisuke offered. "It seems like we're all going to end up involved in each others' room setups at this point."

"We can," Tsuyu confirmed as she raised a brow. "Are you sure you can't stay…?"

"…yeah," Juzo answered, refusing to look at her. "They just pulled up to campus. Sorry. Next time."

"Hope so, man," Kirishima offered as he gave Juzo a soft punch to the shoulder. "We've all gotta start hanging out. We're one big team, after all."

"Anyway," Katsuki said as he finished setting up the fridge, "I'm just gonna head back down to the car and get the rest of the shit we need up here. You all can hang out."

Eijiro opened his mouth to say something, but Amaya beat him to the punch as she locked eyes with Katsuki.

"Or you could stop acting like being around us is some huge burden and we could all get it done together later."

Katsuki said nothing as an uncomfortable silence followed Amaya's words. Juzo slowly made his way to the door and gave a halfhearted wave before giving the group a quick murmur of "I'll be back". Afterward, he disappeared into the hallway and Amaya stood up off the couch, stretching her wings and letting the rings pierced into their membranes jingle softly.

"Am I wrong? Because that's how it comes off- like you don't want to be here at all."

"Kan…" Daisuke warned as he, too, stood up.

"No, don't try to stop me," the winged girl said as she raised an open hand in Daisuke's direction. Despite her words, her voice remained calm and insistent, as though she was trying to talk Katsuki through a logic puzzle in slow, simple steps. "Let's clear the air now. What's the deal, Bakugo? You're talented, you're here to become a hero, you jump at the chance to lead, you go out of your way to help other people and you can clearly hold a conversation with people who need a shoulder… but then trying to just talk to you or get you to stick around for a bit is like pulling teeth. I want to know why. Is it us?"

For the first time in a long time, Katsuki's mind was entirely blank. Usually, when someone called him out, he would have something to say back immediately even if it was boilerplate and arguably immature just to get them to shut up. Something about the sincerity and lack of accusatory tone that Amaya used threw him for a loop, and Katsuki found that he had absolutely no idea how to begin his answer. After several seconds of scrambling for some sort of launching point, he settled for saying the only thing that came to the forefront of his mind.

"It's… not you," Katsuki said slowly. "It's not about any of you right now. Don't ask what it is, because I don't know, and I don't want to talk about it."

"Then if you can tolerate us, why not hang with us?" Amaya asked simply. "What have you got to lose?"

"…you hung out with Mina and Jiro and I on the beach," Eijiro reminded. "That wasn't so bad, right?"

"That was awful," Katsuki deadpanned, the response coming to him automatically. He wasn't sure whether it was true, or just the easiest thing to say to stop the conversation short. "You all ended up drunk and babbling about nonsense."

"…yeah, I guess we kinda did," Eijiro admitted. "But it was still fun! We talked about… stuff…"

"I mean, that's really all we're asking," Daisuke tried. "I think we'd all be interested in getting to know you more. Talking about stuff. Not everyone's a people person- I'm not always going to be willing to hang out, either- but every once in a while? What could it hurt? Everyone here seems to have some interest in you, especially after you led us with the Zero-Point Villain."

"He's right," Tsuyu added. "You don't have to suddenly change your personality for us. We all like you, Bakugo, for different reasons. Some of them have already been said. Just be yourself around us, even if that means saying things that might get under some peoples' skin. We'll roll with it, as long as it's not too extreme. I want to know where you stand on things so we can work together better in the future."

"Alright, enough," Katsuki insisted as he held his hands up to his shoulders in a gesture of surrender. "Just… stop getting all mushy and stupid about it. I don't like people, alright? I'd rather be alone."

"Amen to that," Amaya replied as she stretched her wings. "People suck ass… except for a few."

"I can't honestly say any of you have really pissed me off," Katsuki continued. "Which is… a nice change, I guess. I'll stay if you stop asking questions. This time."

"Deal," Amaya said simply. "I'm not trying to psychoanalyze you and turn this into an intervention. I just want to keep things honest between all of us."

"…keeping things honest would be nice," Tsuyu agreed. "I'll go and check the other three dorms on our level and see if anyone else is around. Be back soon."

Katsuki drew in a breath through his nose as he took another look at Amaya. She was staring at him curiously, as though anticipating his next move.

"…I'll come with you," Katsuki said suddenly. "Let's make this quick."

Author's Note:

The beginning of Bakugo getting called out… and only the beginning.

-RD