Chapter Text
Midoriya Izuku puts his bags down on the floor, seeing the two beds in the room and hesitant to claim one. Todoroki Shouto follows suit, except for the fact that his suitcase makes a heftier ‘thunk’ as it hits the ground. There’s a small pause, and then Izuku coughs.
“Um,” he begins, shifting on his feet, soliciting a head turn from Todoroki, which certainly doesn’t make him blush as his physical form is suddenly noticed by another human being, “…which one do you want?”
Todoroki looks back at the beds in silence, and then back to Deku again. “I don’t mind. You can choose.”
Izuku bites the inside of his cheek, turning his attention to the decision at hand and his brow furrowing in concentration. “Uh, could I take that one?” he requests, pointing at the bed closest to the bathroom.
“Yes,” Todoroki replies, and wastes no time in taking his suitcase to the side of the bed he’s left with. He wipes his hands on his jeans and says to his new roommate, “I’ll go downstairs and get Uraraka to help me with my furniture. Is there anything you’re bringing up?”
“Oh, uh, yeah, I just have my desk and a bookshelf… Actually, I’ll just come with you. I need to get my sheets and stuff anyway.”
The two walk down in silence. Uraraka was puffing as they asked her for assistance; she’d wiped her brow of sweat and grinned. “No problem at all!” she’d said, even though it had seemed like quite a problem, considering everyone was using her as their moving van right now.
When they walk back up with their stuff, it was less quiet. Bakugou is screaming about something or other, furniture is banging against the walls, kids are yelling and shouting about whatever kids yell and shout about. Izuku gets distracted several times by the arguments of his classmates, which everyone finds very typical, so it takes him a while to get back to his new room.
By this time, Todoroki had already moved in his furniture on his side of the room. Deku laughs nervously at how Japanese it all is, entering just as Todoroki hangs up the phone.
“Oh,” the other boy says, as if just remembering he has a roommate. He blinks slowly. His version of panicking. “Sorry. I called some of my father’s contractors to change this room a little bit. I can cancel though, if you want.”
Izuku laughs again, bringing up an arm to rub at the back of his neck. “What, like… structurally?”
“Yeah,” Todoroki replies, and the room gets barely warmer. There’s a long pause before he realises he should probably explain himself. “My family’s house has tatami at home. I don’t feel comfortable with this flooring.”
“Hah, no problem!” Izuku grins and pushes his floating desk to his own side of the room, next to his bed, and follows this with his small bookshelf. They stay there for a while; Uraraka said she would drop everyone’s stuff at the same time to make it easier on herself. (This means that Todoroki’s things are also floating, of course.) Izuku flops down on his bed and lets out a huge sigh. He stares at the ceiling as they both feel the time pass by, like trudging through mud. Then he screws up his face and says,
“What are we going to do about decoration?”
Todoroki shrugs. “I don’t really decorate.” He looks at the couple of pot plants he’s brought in, the only aesthetic-type objects he brought from home.
“Oh,” Deku replies, sounding almost distressed. He picks at the hem of his t-shirt. “Uh, I brought… a lot, so, I’ll just keep it to my side of the room if you want.”
“I don’t mind,” Todoroki says again, and there’s a call from downstairs.
“TODOROKI THESE PEOPLE SAY THEY’RE HERE TO SEE YOU!”
“That would be the contractors,” the boy says, and hesitates as he heads to the door. “You should probably leave while they do this,” he says to his new roommate. “You could plan your decorations if you want.”
“Oh, sure!” Izuku replies, grinning, and glances over the room once more while biting his bottom lip. How much All Might merch would be acceptable in this situation?
Deku retreats to the first floor, where floating furniture is being clumsily huddled up staircases and into elevators, roommates gush about their living situations together (or fight, on Bakugou and Kirishima’s part), and the people who were finished play cards by themselves on the couches. Deku places himself hesitantly beside Tokoyami, who’s playing Go Fish with Shouji and is looking scarily concentrated on his hand.
“Hello, Midoriya,” Tokoyami greets, and Shouji nods in the other boy’s direction.
“Hey,” Izuku replies, pulling out his hero notebook, deciding it will do for his room planning.
“Are you finished already?” Shouji asks, and Izuku laughs and shakes his head.
“Todoroki is… ah, fixing up the room,” he replies sheepishly, and the others give him funny looks but leave him be. Deku sighs to himself and starts sketching out what he remembers of his new room.
The sun sets slowly, and the luxurious windows mean the whole common area is painted softly with gentle orange light. Izuku chews on the tip of his pencil, still not sure if this is too much, but too scared to ask for an opinion. The girls, minus Yaoyorozu, Kirishima, Tokoyami, Shouji, Ojiro, Kouda and Satou were all playing an energised game of Celebrity Heads. Each round lasted approximately 0.3 seconds. Izuku smiles fondly about everyone’s efforts to make the game last any longer than half a minute; I guess that’s what you get, he thinks, when you put a bunch of hero-wannabes in one place.
Midoriya’s mind had wandered enough that he actually jumps when he feels a tap on his shoulder.
He turns around to see Todoroki’s face outlined in setting sunlight. “Sorry,” the other boy says. “Our room is finished.”
“Oh!” Deku smiles at the other boy. “Great! I should get up there and, uh –” he quickly tries to swipe up his sketchbook, but Todoroki raises an eyebrow in a tell-tale ‘I definitely saw the stuff you drew on that.’
Deku blushes furiously and clutches his book to his chest. “Haha, anyway, see you later, T-todoroki-kun!” He smiles as if to dispel his own nervousness and rushes up the stairs (waiting for the elevator would be too slow) to their room on the 4th floor. When he swings the door open, he can’t help letting his jaw drop to the floor.
Todoroki wasn’t kidding about the changes he’d be making. The floor is tatami, and what had previously been a window is now a shouji screen. Deku swallows and rushes to his bags, unzipping them and biting his cheek as he looks into the sea of All Might figurines, posters, rugs, and everything else you could imagine. He glances at his sketchbook and sighs. He’d planned it, he’d do it.
He puts a few of his figurines on the desk next to his bed and uses some blu-tack he’d brought with him to put up a single poster with All Might’s image emblazoned onto it. He takes out his bedsheets and almost cringes as he slips them on the blanket provided by the school; All Might’s smiling face, and underneath it in block-lettered English, “PLUS ULTRA!”
It only takes him five or ten minutes to get finished, so he hurriedly rushes out to see what the rest of the class is doing.
He arrives in the common area to see Todoroki up against the wall with a piece of paper taped above his head. It says “Todoroki”, accompanied by a crude doodle of himself in the corner of the page.
“Okay,” Todoroki begins. Izuku rushes to the couch and seats himself between Aoyama and Shouji. “Am I male?”
“Yes,” comes the resounding answer from the class. Izuku blinks. Celebrity Heads again.
“Am I a pro hero?” Todoroki asks, and a few kids snicker; this question had quickly been abandoned in their previous games because of course you were. Lucky he asked now, though, because the few paying attention replied ‘No.’
Todoroki screws his eyebrows in concentration. “Am I famous?”
“No.”
“Would I actually know who this person is?” Scrutinous.
“Yes.” Giggling.
Todoroki seems to catch on. “Am I in this room?”
“Yes.”
“Am I tall?”
“Yes,” replies most of the class, but some wave their hands in the air in an “ehhhh” sort of motion.
“Am I one of the people who went to save Bakugou?”
A tense question, but no one wishes to dwell on it for long, so it only takes a few seconds of awkward silence before the answer comes. “Yes.”
“Is my skin pale?”
“Yes,” the class replies, and Deku can see Todoroki’s mind erasing the faces of Deku and Kirishima in his list of options.
“Is my hair black?”
“No.”
“It’s me.”
“Yep!”
Mina woops as she presses her thumb to her phone. “A minute and 32 seconds!” she yells, and the class cheers.
Todoroki turns to see the paper above his head, and then walks towards Izuku with a slightly puzzled expression. “Why is everyone cheering for that?” he asks as he gets close.
“Oh, well, everyone kept choosing pro heroes before, so it only took about 20 seconds for people to guess it,” Deku replies with a nervous laugh. “You’re the first one that’s gotten past a minute in trying to guess it.”
Todoroki nods. “I’m going to say that’s a good thing.”
“It is! I’m pretty sure,” Midoriya mutters.
“So how did you go with your decorations?” Deku blinks.
“Uh… oh! Yeah, good, um. I mean, I’m done. So. Yeah. Good.”
Todoroki nods again and looks back at the wall he’d been standing next to only a few moments before. The paper was gone, and the class was arguing about who should go next. Then all eyes landed on Midoriya.
He flushes red. “Um?”
“Deku-kun,” Uraraka begins, with a mischievous glint in her eyes, “you haven’t gone yet.”
“W-what? Haven’t I? I was down here for ages, surely someone made me go already –”
“Nope!” Uraraka interjects with a huge grin. “Come on, get up here!” Jirou, standing behind him, is suddenly pushing him towards the front of the room.
“W-w-what? Hey, I don’t have to, do I, I mean, Bakugou hasn’t gone yet, or Kaminari or Sero, or, um -”
“Stop being a baby and play!” Mina yells, baring her teeth at him. “Now stand right there and we’ll have your person in juuust a minute.”
“Uhm, okay,” Deku gives in, picking at the hem of his shirt again. There are so many eyes on him right now.
Mina shows her choice to the council (the other girls that are here), and they giggle and give her several thumbs up.
She sticks the paper above his head with little effort (they’re both basically the same height), and steps back to review her handiwork. Deku tries to read the room, but almost all of the boys that are here are completely stone-faced (or at least constantly wearing the same expression, in Aoyama’s case), and Kirishima looks just as vaguely pleased as the girls with the choice.
“Okay, um,” Izuku begins, his face a little hot, “am I a pro hero?”
“No,” replies the class in a sing-song tone.
“Am I in this room?” Midoriya asks, following Todoroki’s example. But the class’s resounding ‘No’ confuses him.
“Um,” he picks at his skin. “Am I… trying to be a hero?”
“Yes.”
“Am I in this class?”
“Yes.”
Deku thinks of the people who haven’t appeared in the common area yet. “Uh. Am I a boy?”
“Yes.”
“Am I… powerful?”
“Yes!”
“Um,” at this point, he’s a little ashamed of how many questions of his roommate’s he’s stealing, “am I taller than… uh… me? Wait.”
The class laughs and replies ‘yes’. Midoriya cringes, remembering that the only boy shorter than him is Tokoyami (who’s in the room, meaning he can’t be it).
“Do I have a quirk related to… uh. A specific part of my body?” He thinks of Kaminari.
“Yes,” replies the class. Oh.
“Is it something to do with my arms?”
“Yes.”
“Am I Sero?”
“No.”
Izuku blinks in surprise, and ‘hmm’s thoughtfully to himself. The class chuckles. His eyes widen like the lightbulb has just gone off in his head.
“Am I Kacchan?”
“Yes!”
The class cheers and Mina announces his time – a minute and 45 seconds. Izuku smiles as the class praises him and gravitates towards Todoroki again. “Phew,” he mutters, and he can feel sweat on his forehead. “My time was even longer than yours,” he says, smiling at his friend. Todoroki huffs in his own way of laughing, and looks back to the class, who are now having a very heated argument about who should go next (everyone in this room has gone already).
Then the elevator dings and Izuku cringes for whoever’s inside.
Sero and Kaminari are immediately hit by the stares of everyone in the room as the lift door opens.
“Uh,” Sero begins, and then everyone is yelling and pushing and rushing them both to the front of the room. Mina frantically scribbles on her new piece of paper and plasters it above both of the boy’s frames. It says, “Two of the Wild, Wild Pussycats”. People screw their noses up in confusion. Tsu takes it upon herself to take the pen from the pink-skinned girl and clarify on it, “Ragdoll and Pixie-Bob”.
“What?” Sero continues his previous thought, and everyone is fast to clear up their place in the game.
“Are we the wild, wild pussycats?” Kaminari asks immediately, and the excited mumbling turns into an uproar.
“So, the girls were all talking just now,” says Mina, and everyone’s interest peaks. “And we were thinking…
“Want to have a room presentation contest?”
A pause.
And then all the boys start screaming.
-
“Nothing out of the ordinary here,” says Iida as the door opens. On one side is a simple desk and a bed, and then what everyone assumes is Iida’s things take up about three quarters of the room. Bookshelves filled with alphabetised tomes and rows and rows of glasses, topped with a perfectly made bed. Ojiro laughs and rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah, Iida went all out. I didn’t really have anything interesting to bring from home.”
“So many glasses!” Uraraka squeals, spitting with laughter.
“Of course! I expect them all to be destroyed during hero training!”
-
“Okay guys, get ready…” Kaminari says, his hands splayed out like he’s giving a presentation. “We spent ages getting it to look good, so you better appreciate it.”
“Kaminari’s artistic taste was… difficult,” Sero says, smiling sheepishly.
The door swings open and no one knows whether to say “It’s terrible” or “It’s amazing.”
Stripes are present practically everywhere; Kaminari’s side of the room is messy and loud, which leaks a little into Sero’s almost organised decoration. The mix of bright neons and earthy colours aren’t particularly appealing, but it’s okay. No one can help wondering how good Sero’s room would be if it was just his.
“Wow, Sero,” Mina says, turning to said boy, “you really managed to make Kaminari’s taste look kind of good.”
“Hey! How do you know that’s not my doing!?”
-
Mina proudly swings open her door, and Hagakure says sweetly, “What do you think?”
“It’s so girly,” says Kaminari. There’s pinks and leopard prints everywhere, Hagakure’s bed covered in plushies and Mina’s covered in heart pillows.
“Yep!” says Mina proudly.
As they walk to Bakugou’s room, Kirishima rushes ahead and puts himself in front of the door. “Ah, Bakugou’s sleeping. He probably wouldn’t want you guys barging in on him right now…”
Everyone debates doing it anyway, but figure that not seeing the two boys’ room is better than being exploded to death.
“Onto the next floor!”
-
“Okay, next,” says Mina, putting a finger to her chin as they all stand in the crowded elevator, “would be Aoyama, right?”
“Oui,” says the boy in question, and as soon as the door opens, they’re all off and swinging open the door to his room.
“Sparkly!” Mina squeals, shielding her eyes.
“Pretty much what I expected” is the general gist of the class, to Aoyama’s dismay.
“Okay, now Tsu’s room,” Mina begins, but Jirou holds up a hand.
“Tsu said she wasn’t feeling well,” she says. “I don’t think she’s up for a room contest.”
“Aww, okay.”
-
“No.” Tokoyami stands between the girls and the door, casually perched with his arms crossed against the wall. The girls give each other a look, and then he’s being pushed to the side; eventually he gives in to the other’s strength, and stands fuming in his and Shouji’s room. “Get out,” he mutters.
“Woah! So dark and scary!!”
“Is there anything of Shouji in here?”
“I didn’t really have much to move in,” Shouji replies to the rhetorical question.
“A minimalist, huh?” says Todoroki, and they share a small moment before everyone moves on to the next floor.
-
Everyone gapes as the door opens. Deku laughs nervously. Between his All Might merch and Todoroki’s redesign of the place, they must look like quite the weird pair.
“Such a fanboy,” murmurs Uraraka with a laugh on her tongue.
“Is this even the same place!?” Kaminari asks himself doubtfully. “How the hell did you guys get all this done in one day!?”
“Hard work,” replies Todoroki and Midoriya laughs again and blushes under everyone’s gazes.
-
The jaws don’t come back up when they visit the last girls’ room, home to Uraraka and Yaoyorozu. About a quarter of the place has a small bed, desk, and a fan near the window, and the rest is filled with a gigantic bed that looks like it might belong to a queen. Everyone is quick to realise why Momo hadn’t finished until very late.
“I’m afraid I thought the rooms would be bigger,” says Yaoyorozu nervously. “This is about the size of my closet at home…”
Her roommate faints.
“Uraraka-kun!” Iida yells, gesturing wildly with his hands.
“Ah… she didn’t see my alterations yet…”
-
Kouda and Satou are humble when they swing open the door. It’s a simple, plain room, except for the fact that there’s a small white rabbit nibbling on some lettuce on the floor, and an oven that, from the smell of it, seems to be cooking something.
“Oh, crap!” Satou says, rushing towards the appliance and opening the door. “I forgot I started baking this…”
The cake is delicious, and the rabbit is adorable.
-
“Okay!” Mina announces, holding up the cardboard box they were all using for a votes container. “Remember, no one gets to vote for their own room! Now, for the results.”
There’s a tense pause, and then Mina explodes with the answer; “Kouda and Satou are the Room Kings!”
“What?” Satou blushes. So does Kouda.
Kaminari hisses at the two from his position on the couch. “You guys bribed everyone with your cute pets and good food, didn’t you!?”
“What? No! I didn’t think everyone would like it so much,” Satou laughs.