When the time came for the students to move into the dorms, Momo and Mei arranged to arrive together. Mei had worried that she was bringing too much along with her to the dorms, but once she saw the massive moving truck arrive with her friend, she felt immediately better about her extra few boxes of clothes and books.
Mei's grandparents took a bit of convincing to allow for the girl to move out. She figured the idea of having their granddaughter out of their sight and therefore, out of their control, was not in their best interest. They were likely wondering what dangers she would put others in by living amongst them.
When All Might and Mr. Aizawa arrived to explain their reasoning behind the decision to move the students into dorms, Mei was biting her nails with preemptive embarrassment over what would surely be a tumultuous encounter.
"So you claim you can offer my granddaughter better protection from these degenerates than we can here, even when your incompetence resulted in her kidnapping?" Mei's grandmother maintained her impossibly straight posture and air of superiority as she set across from the teachers, who had been served a spread of tea and finger foods upon their arrival.
Mei's grandfather placed a hand on his wife's leg, as if attempting to calm her anger.
Mei sat amongst them, nervously tapping her leg, unsure what to say to appease her grandparents without earning a scolding.
"Grandmother, I believe Mr. Aizawa was trying to say that, because of unfortunate events in the past, the school has been working hard to implement better solutions, and this was the best possible one." The girl explained, with a calm tone.
All Might shot the girl a quizzical look, as if surprised by her behaviour.
"This does not concern you, child." Kaede held up her hand, silencing her granddaughter.
"Actually, Mrs. and Mr. Shinomori, respectfully, we do hope to involve the children in this decision." All Might rebutted. "It is their lives we are asking them to trust us with. We only hope we can offer the best hero education they can possibly hope for in return."
Kaede looked ready to tell him to leave, when Daichi spoke up instead:
"I believe that, if we are provided with the full security plan so that my company's specialists can have a look themselves, we can allow Mei to move into these... dorms."
"I can ensure you are given every detail we can provide, within the school's privacy and security regulations, that is." Aizawa nodded curtly.
"It is decided, then." Mei's grandfather stood up, while her grandmother scowled and crossed her arms.
Mei's sigh of relief might have been less subtle than she intended, but she earned a small smile from All Might in response.
—————
"Did you bring your entire house?" Mei asked, helping Momo with her boxes.
"Yeah, I think I may have overestimated the space we would have..." Yaoyorozu admitted.
"What, did you think we were getting individual apartments?" Mei raised her eyebrow and smirked, earning an embarrassed chuckle in response.
The girls had arrived a few hours ago, and when Mei finished setting up her room, she went to check on her friend and found that she had barely made a dent.
Their rooms were only a few doors away, which made them both very excited.
"This will be like a giant sleepover!" Momo squealed, excitedly.
Mei couldn't help but smile back. She was happy to be living so close to Momo, but she wouldn't lie and say that living with all her classmates didn't make her nervous. The closer the proximity, the harder it would be to hide her secret.
It would also be one hundred times harder to avoid a certain someone. She couldn't sleep the night before the move worrying about all the ways in which it would be mortifying to be around him almost 24/7.
"This way I can keep you on top of your homework!" Momo tapped her elbow against Mei's side, and the girl rolled her eyes in response.
"Yeah, this will be fun." Mei said sarcastically.
————-
When night began to creep in, the students gathered for dinner in the cafeteria.
"How was move day guys?" Uraraka asked, bringing her tray to sit with Momo, Mei and Jirou. Asui and Mina came with her.
"Not bad, I like how my room is coming along." Jirou said, sipping her ramen bowl.
"Oh, we should go around and see each other's rooms after dinner!" Uraraka suggested.
"We should get the boys in on it, so we can see theirs as well." Mina snickered.
Mei was mindlessly eating her noodles, not paying attention to the conversation.
She snapped out of her thoughts when Uraraka said her name:
"You're in too, right, Shinomori?"
"Huh? Yeah, sure, whatever." Mei had no idea what she was saying yes to.
Momo looked at her, concerned.
When the girls got up to put away their trays, she stayed back with Mei.
"Everything okay, Mei?"
"What? Yeah, of course." Mei waved her hand in a dismissive motion. "I'm fine Mo. You don't have to worry about me all the time. You'll go grey early."
Yaoyorozu shook her head and joined her friend as they walked back to the dorms.
————-
The room tours took what felt like forever. Mei was not particularly interested in what anyone's room looked like.
When they got to Todoroki's room, she was not entirely surprised to see that his room looked exactly like his home. She did, however, have to look away to hide the obvious embarrassment on her face when she remembered what had happened last time she was there.
"You did all of this in one day?" Sero asked, dumbfounded.
"I worked hard." Todoroki shrugged.
Momo's room was stuffed to the brim with furniture and objects. She had tried to replicate her room at home, which was undoubtably unreasonable considering she lived in a mansion.
"Wow, you really went all out, huh?" Kaminari asked, making her blush.
"Okay, next one!" Ashido jumped around excited.
There wasn't much commotion for Mei's room, since it was simple and relatively plain.
She had put twinkly lights and hanged a moon and star on her ceiling; she wanted to take advantage of the skylight that her room had, hoping to create a mood of star-filled sky to match. She loved how small and insignificant it made her feel, like all the bad things she had done would not matter as much. It was a small delusion she allowed herself from time to time.
Her books were scattered everywhere already, and Mei noticed a small smile on Shoto's lips when he saw the pile on her floor. She remembered then what it was like to fall asleep to him reading to her.
"Alright everyone, next!" Ashido guided everyone out again.
——————-
After the tours, the 1-A students were sitting around on the common room couches, experiencing their first night living together.
Some students had headed to bed already, leaving Mei, Momo, Jirou, Midoriya, Iida, Todoroki, Sero, Tokoyami, Ashido, Aoyama, Kaminari and Mineta to talking.
"I think we should play charades." Ashido stood up enthusiastically. "Teams of two, whatever teams win can be free of clean up duty for a month!"
"Uh, I think I'm going to head to sleep, actually." Midoriya rubbed the back of his head.
"Me too." Todoroki agreed.
"No! Don't be lame, you guys." Ashido insisted. "This is important bonding for us!"
"I- um..." Midoriya chuckled awkwardly.
"Why don't we girls go to your room, Ashido, and chat until later." Momo suggested. "Let the boys go to sleep."
"Yeah, let's do that!" Uraraka agreed.
The girls made their way to Ashido's room, and Momo kept a tight grip on Mei's arm to keep her from sneaking away.
Once there, they all sat on the floor and raided Mina's snack cabinet, which was packed full of chocolates, chips and colourful treats.
"I heard we're starting prep for our hero licenses soon." Uraraka mentioned while digging into a bag of chips.
"I'm so nervous." admitted Momo. "All the top students in the city will compete. It won't be easy."
"We'll be fine." Asui insisted. "U.A. students are the top of the top!"
"There's some students we know will for sure get it." Mina added. "I mean, Todoroki, Bakugo and Shinomori finished at the top of the class for the festival."
"Don't underestimate my ability to screw things up, Ashido." Mei chomped on her chocolate bar.
The girls all laughed at her comment, which made her raise an eyebrow, because she had not been joking.
When the conversation started to be about boys, Mei mentally checked-out. She wasn't even allowed to be interested in such things.
She vaguely remembered hearing the girls tease Uraraka for her very obvious crush on Midoriya. She also heard Todoroki's name come up, followed by excited giggles, but she didn't want to know what it was about.
"I think I'll go get everyone a pitcher of water." Asui said, beginning to stand up.
"Actually, Asui, I can go." Mei stopped her. This was her opportunity to get out of there.
"Oh sure, thanks Shinomori." the girl nodded back.
Mei quickly escaped through the door, jumping out into the hall.
She puffed out some air in relief, until she saw someone coming down the hallway.
Knowing her luck, it could only be one person.
"Sorry, were you sneaking around?" asked Todoroki, who seemed genuinely sorry to be catching her.
"I was avoiding—I mean, I'm tired, I was trying to go to sleep." Mei attempted to explain herself.
"Oh, I see." he nodded slightly. "Sorry to interrupt."
She began walking away when he turned to grab her wrist.
"I just want you to know that you don't have to worry about me." he said, as her back continued turned to him. "I won't bother you."
Mei's throat bobbed. All she could bring herself to do was nod.
"I gotta go before anyone comes looking." she pulled her arm away and started to leave when the sound of Ashido's door opening behind them made her jump.
She immediately ran and hid behind the wall of the adjacent hallway, leaving behind a boy with a slightly surprised expression.
"Todoroki, have you seen Shinomori?" Asui asked, walking over to where he was standing. "She went to get some water for everyone and never came back."
"Oh..." he looked over at where Mei was hiding and quickly looked back. "Yeah I ran into her a bit ago and she told me she wasn't feeling great so she went to bed. She asked me to go let you guys know."
"Really? Well, I hope she feels better." Asui shrugged. "I'll go get the water myself, then." she then waddled away towards the kitchen.
Mei stepped out from behind the wall and looked to around to ensure no one else was coming.
"Thanks, you didn't have to do that." She told Shoto.
"It's no problem." he stated, simply.
They looked at each other for a few moments, trapped in silence.
"I'll head to bed, then." Mei cleared her throat, turning to head down the hallway to her room.
"My room is that way as well." he added, falling into step beside her.
Mei was trying to not look like the silent walk beside him was making her physically ill.
A silent humming voice then sounded, moving closer and closer, from behind them.
"Asui's coming back already?" Mei whispered, exasperated.
Shoto acted quickly as he opened the storage room a few steps away from where they stood and pulled Mei inside with him.
Once the door closed behind them, they found themselves alone in a dark room with their backs pressed against the door.
Mei was breathing quickly, and it wasn't almost being caught by Asui that was making her nervous.
They stood in the darkness, the sound of each other's breaths being the only thing they could hear.
With her hands stretched out as she touched the door behind her, Mei accidentally brushed against Todoroki's fingers.
"Sorry..." she whispered.
"Don't apologize." he whispered back.
Silence again. Mei's breath was caught in her throat.
"I think she's gone." Shoto said, turning to open the door.
"Thanks. Again." Mei couldn't look him in the face when they stepped back into the light. He was so good to her. Why? She didn't deserve it.
They kept walking to their rooms until they reached Mei's door.
"Sleep well, Shinomori." Todoroki nodded.
"You too, Todoroki."
Mei closed the door behind her, and allowed herself to slide down to the floor.
She was silent for a few moments, her breathing erratic and shallow. Her throat felt raw and sore with the sobs that she knew were coming.
"I can't do this." she whispered to the dark room before her. "I can't live like this." she allowed herself to admit to the shadows that kept her company.
Mei loved that boy. She loved the way he looked at her and seemed to see nothing of the monster that she was - seemed to see only the promise of who she would have been if she had been given the chance.
She loved how he seemed to know her and she seemed to know him, like they were always meant to find each other.
She loved the way his hair was soft and his eyes sharp. The way he always watched, always knew everything. The way he also stayed away and knew very little. The ice and the fire. The calm and the storm. The love of her life and her biggest heartache.
She would have damned the world to hell to have his love back. But she wouldn't damn him.
So Mei cried alone instead, wondering how to long stone hearts took to break apart.