Chapter Text
Yuga already had mixed feelings about college. The only real reason he'd even decided to attend was because he wasn't fully confident in his heroic abilities. He'd worked with the worst villain in history, after all. He was completely certain that he needed to do this to become a proper hero.
Most of his former-now reinstated- classmates would be attending as well, that was nice. There was a surprising lack of former class B students, though.
One of the few class B students to attend was Yuga's own roommate, Neito Monoma.
Yuga had never really interacted with the ‘bane of US’. They passed each other in the hallway a few times, but that was the extent.
Yuga knew full well how much Monoma hated his class, and had heard from Mina that the kid sometimes still made comments about him, even though he'd left UA two years ago.
Yes, he did sometimes show up there. Mostly because Aizawa had become his legal guardian (which also caused him to befriend Shinso). But on none of those visits had he even seen Monoma. Was his resentment for class A really that deep-rooted?
Pushing all of that aside, Yuga would have been nervous no matter who ended up as his roommate. Even if it had been one of his friends.
When he first got to the dormitory, Monoma wasn't there. That was somewhat of a relief. He wouldn't have to face him immediately.
Unfortunately, he only had an hour on his own.
When Monoma walked into the dorm, he immediately locked eyes with Yuga. He said nothing, which was uncharacteristic of him. He pretty much just acted like Yuga wasn't there.
And then another hour had passed, and Monoma spoke. “I'm still surprised you enrolled.” Wow. He truly had such a way with words.
Yuga decided to hide his annoyance. Monoma was probably feeling just as awkward as he was. “I've wanted to be a hero since I was a child, and I failed my goals spectacularly. I figured it was at least worth trying to make up for my past actions.”
Monoma blinked. “Right.” It was so hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or not. Considering it was Monoma, Yuga decided to assume it was the former.
“Are you just holding the fact I was part of 1-a against me? I can honestly think of no other possible reason you are acting so. . . Off.” Yuga said suddenly, unable to handle the ridiculous silence. He'd been expecting so many things, an uncomfortable silence was not even on the list.
Monoma was still staring at him blankly. Yuga could have been convinced Monoma was killed and replaced with an imposter. Then, suddenly, as though a switch had been flipped, he started cackling maniacally. “Ha! Of course! Once a pest of class A, always a pest of class A! I cannot believe I have to put up with you! Absolute insanity!”
Yuga huffed and rolled his eyes. “I survived being under control of All For One for over a decade. I can handle an egocentric, manic, emotionally unstable crétin.” He'd become thoroughly fed up with Monoma in a matter of seconds.
He must have misremembered just how annoying Monoma was. He was hardly scathing. His insults were hardly complex, his attempts at creating conflict just made him seem pathetic. He clearly had no actual power or willingness to get into anything beyond a verbal altercation, or he would have done so already. He just wanted a reaction.
Yuga didn't care how unwise it would be to give him one. He had put up with disrespect his entire life, deserved and otherwise. And frankly, he was just tired of it. Especially considering how Monoma had initially been acting. How the hell did he expect Yuga to take him seriously when he was acting like a dazed fawn not even a minute ago?
Monoma seemed taken aback by his response. He said nothing, just turned and walked away.
Yuga sighed. This was going to be complicated, wasn't it?
***
Yuga decided to help his friends out after that. He wanted to take some time away from his most definitely in-need-of-therapy new roommate. Really all he'd gotten out of that interaction was stuff he could have figured out on his own.
He'd first helped Shinso and Toru with moving in, then Hatsume and Izuku (that pairing would probably have some chaos happening, given Hatsume and Izuku were both incredibly ‘nerdy’. Not that their respective partners-Platonically Iida with Hatsume and the opposite of that with Ururaka for Izuku-were all much better).
Now Yuga was helping out Mina and Yanagi. Yanagi smiled at Yuga, it was incredibly surprising.
Apparently, Mina had all but talked her ear off in their only four hours of living together, Yuga being one of the larger subjects. And Yanagi decided she liked Yuga exclusively off of that.
Mina was the one doing all the talking, as expected. Yuga didn't even actually get that many words in.
Then the topic of Yuga's roommate came up.
“I bet he's super pissed he got you.” Mina guessed.
Yuga shrugged. “I actually. . . Can't exactly tell.”
Yanagi looked up, tipping her head.
Mina was the one to speak, though. “What do you mean you can't tell?”
Yuga sighed. “He was behaving so strangely. . . He said nothing for the first hour, and what he did say was so random that it genuinely made me behave a little crassly. I can't even explain why I did that. But then he went back to his usual hating class A self. I told him off, and then he walked away.”
“. . . Neito. . . Being quiet?” Yanagi spoke up, looking exceptionally perplexed, considering her usual tightly controlled demeanor.
Mina turned to her. “You said you and Monoma have been friends since kindergarten, right? Surely you would know if something's up?”
Reiko's head tipped farther to the side. “After he discovered that Aoyama-” Yuga winced slightly upon hearing his former last name. He'd have to get used to that now, his classmates calling him Aoyama again. In the school where he'd finished his high-school years, he was Yuga Aizawa. Technically Aoyama wasn't incorrect. He'd hyphenated because it was his aunt's last name too, and he had a rather good relationship with her. It just. . . Brought rather unpleasant memories. “-was his roommate, he would not stop talking about it. Rambling, more accurately. It was truly peculiar, I could not tell if he was complaining or not.”
Yuga raised a brow. “Really?”
Yanagi nodded.
Mina's face contorted into a smirk. “So. . . Let me get this straight. . . Monoma found out that Yuga was his roommate. . . Then started rambling about it?”
“That is what I heard, yes.” Yanagi confirmed.
“Uh-huh. . . And Yuga, you got so frustrated by him doing nothing that you lost your cool?”
“More or less, I suppose.”
“Interesting. . . How odd that you're both acting out of character. . . Seemingly because of each other.” Oh, great. She was plotting something.
Yanagi stared at her. “I believe we might be drawing the same conclusion.” She stated.
Mina nodded. “Most definitely.”
Yuga felt incredibly confused.
***
When Yuga returned to his dorm, Monoma immediately walked over to him. Yuga tensed, not knowing what to expect.
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Monoma spoke a single word. It was the one word Yuga did not think was possible to be uttered by him, in the smallest voice imaginable. “. . .Sorry.”