Home Sweet Home

The six friends were at Chris's house for the night. Chris's mom went out to go pay for multiple pizzas, with Momo pitching in some money. Normally, pizza with the six of them would be a party. This wasn't a normal gathering. They were still reeling from the series of events that they had been through. Shoto had been kidnapped, All Might lost all of his power, and Jason had nearly killed himself. Nobody could bring themselves to even pretend to be happy. Mina looked up at Jason. "...So… you have a cool quirk…" Jason said nothing. Momo forced a smile. "You saved All Might and stopped a very dangerous villain. You must be-" "All Might is gone because of me." Everyone looked up at Jason. He still stared at the ground. "I was inches away from saving Shoto. If I had used my quirk, I could've closed that gap easily. Hell, I probably could've taken out the league. But no. I had to be a selfish idiot who wanted to try and be a quirkless hero." Jason buried his face into his hands. "And that notion is so stupid. All Might was right. You can't be a hero without a quirk." Kirishima looked over at him. "What are you talking about? You were an amazing fighter even without the quirk." Jason looked up at him. "At the USJ attack, I couldn't stop that Nomu. In the forest, I couldn't stop Muscular. And then you all saw what happened with All for One." Jason stared at the ground. "...Even with my quirk… the only reason I beat All for One was because All Might and given him the biggest concussion of all time…" Shoto stood up and wrapped her arms around Jason. Nobody moved. Shoto whispered in his ear. "...No matter what… you're still my hero…"

Shoto was the most popular girl in school the day class 1A returned to school. Everyone, teachers included, wanted to ask her how scared she was or if she was ok. All of the sudden attention scared her more than the League of Villains ever did. Momo took her friend's hand and pulled her through the crowd to the 1A classroom. Shoto enjoyed a brief moment of silence before she was bombarded by questions from her classmates. Shoto looked around and saw Jason still in his seat, staring at his open textbook. Shoto sat in her seat and turned around to face him. "Hey. Are you doing ok?" Jason didn't respond as he went back to reading the lesson of the day. Jason hadn't smiled once since his battle with All for One. Shoto gave a worried glance to Chris, who just helplessly shrugged. There wasn't much they could do. Aizawa entered the classroom and everyone quieted down. He looked out at five particular students. "Christopher Harper, Mina Ashido, Momo Yaoyorozu, Eijiro Kirishima, and Jason Miller! If it were up to me, all five of you would be expelled for the little stunt you all pulled last week!" All five students looked down in shame. They knew the consequences of their actions: using their quirks to do what was basically vigilante work was illegal and they could be in jail for a long time. Aizawa took a deep breath and exhaled. "...But the teachers all want to give you another chance… Just remember this: the path to hell is paved by good intentions." The five students nodded. Aizawa dropped the subject and moved on to the topic of the day.

"You all have endured a lot during your first year here at UA. It's quite unfortunate that you've been attacked by Villains constantly. So the school has made the decision that will affect you for the rest of your time here at UA." The students all perked up as Aizawa continued. "You all will be moving into on campus dorms." Some of the students seemed happy about this development. Their teacher passed out sheets of paper. "These are consent forms. They need to be signed by you and they state that you will be living on campus. If you refuse to sign or don't want to live on campus, then you are basically quitting." A girl from the front, Tsuyu, raised her hand. "So if we don't move into the dorms, we get kicked out of UA?" "That's correct. You have an hour to decide." Nobody had to think too hard. In less than a minute, the documents were all signed and passed up.

In the second half of the day, Aizawa explained how the dorm arrangements would work. "Each class is getting their own building. For Class 1A's dorm, there will be five floors in total. The base floor will be a common area for you all, including a kitchen, living room, study area, and restrooms. Each of the remaining four floors will have rooms for five students. There will also be restrooms on each floor, but no showers." Mineta perked up. "So we all have to share the showers?" Aizawa glared down at him. "Two separate showers for the two genders. If I find out you're going into the girls' restroom, I'll have you expelled." Mineta quietly stared down at his desk. Aizawa went back to instructing the class. "No drugs or alcohol are allowed at all. Room inspections will be conducted monthly by Teachers. Momo, you're in charge of all the women's dorms as far as making sure there aren't any issues. Jason will be in charge of the men's dorms and for the building overall." Momo raised her hand. "Mr. Aizawa, wouldn't it make more sense for our Class Representative, Iida, to be in charge?" Aizawa shrugged. "Under normal circumstances, yes. However, Jason has been living in the dorms since the start of the year, so he has the most experience with the building." Jason glared up at Aizawa. That was clearly something he wanted to keep secret. Aizawa realized this and nodded to him apologetically. The class was dismissed early to go home and pack.

Chris stood in front of UA with Jason. Neither of them were talking. Chris saw that Jason wasn't his usual happy self. He hasn't been for a while. Or maybe this sad version of Jason was the real Jason and the smile was just a facade. Shoto walked up with her backpack and a couple suitcases. "I see you two are early as usual." Chris smiled and waved. He had only brought two bags of stuff. Mina wasn't too far behind, and Kirishima was right after her. Momo arrived in a limo and unloaded five giant bags before the limo drove away. Her friends just stared at her before deciding who would help her move which bag. Shoto looked at Jason. "I see you didn't bring your bags. Then again, you already live here." Jason didn't acknowledge her. Chris looked over at his best friend. "When were you going to tell us?" Jason shrugged. "Never." Kirishima was a little angry. "Are you serious? We're your friends for crying out loud." "Your right. Friends are supposed to help each other. Not carry all of the pain of the other." The redhead gave up. Chris was still confused. "So all of those days you would wait out here for us, you were just trying to pretend you didn't live here?" "Yep." "Why would you do that?" Mina tried to play devil's advocate. "I mean, it really isn't that bad. You live really far away or something?" "I've been homeless almost my entire life." The group froze up. Chris was the angry one now. "You mean, after all of these years, you never trusted me enough to tell me a single thing about you?!" Jason didn't face Chris, who continued ranting. "First you don't tell us about your quirk, and then you don't tell us you're fucking homeless?! What else do I not know about my own goddamn brother?!" Jason didn't answer him. Chris slowly began to calm down. "...I thought you trusted me… after all this time… I thought I would be the one you would go to if you needed help…" Jason tensed up, but didn't say anything.

Once the rest of 1A arrived, Jason led them to the dorm. It was a building completely reserved for the 20 students. '1A' was in bright blue letters above the door. Jason held the door open for the class as they all walked in. The place was spotless. It almost looked abandoned. Jason and Momo, as the two students in charge of the building, faced the class. Jason rubbed his eyes. "Alright, everyone. At 9pm all loud noises stop. You go to bed whenever you want. Loud noises can begin again at 7am. Aizawa said no drugs or alcohol. I don't care. Just make sure you don't get caught and hide it well." Jason yawned. "...Oh, and no pets heavier than 50lbs." Koda sighed in relief as he held his pet rabbit. The students had the rest of the day to move in and get comfortable with their surroundings, but would return to school the next day.

Jason sat in his room, staring up at the ceiling. He wanted to get to sleep earlier than usual, but he wasn't used to hearing all of the noise around him. He heard a knock on his door. Jason opened the door to see Shoto. "What're you doing on this floor?" "I came to see you." Jason turned around and sat down on the bed, leaving the door open. Shoto entered, closing the door on her way in. She sat on the edge of his bed. "You keep saying you're fine. You clearly aren't. If I were to guess, you haven't been fine in a very long time." Jason didn't say anything. Shoto gently put a hand on his cheek and made him face her. "Jason, you need to stop blaming yourself for what happened. I never once blamed you." Jason turned away again. Shoto forced him to look at her once more. "Take it from someone who knows: it's not good to keep all of this shit in. You need to vent. You need to let it all out before you completely collapse." Shoto started to tear up. "I've already watched one person I love go through a complete mental breakdown. I don't want to see it a second time." Jason's eyes began to water. "...But I'm supposed to be the strong one…" Shoto forced a small smile. "You are. You always will be. But I want to help. Chris has always wanted to help. We're here for you, Jason." The hero in training nodded. Then he slowly began to cry. He let all of the pain he was feeling out in those tears. The All for One fight, losing Shoto, and possibly a ton of other stuff: all in those tears. He wrapped his arms around Shoto. She held onto him. They were together all night. It was the best night's sleep the two had gotten in a long time.