You’d expected the usual chaos. Kaminari and Sero arguing over the remote. Jiro judging everyone’s taste in horror movies. Bakugou already annoyed that he lost the vote for what to watch.

Instead, silence. The kind of silence that made your brain throw up a red flag before your eyes even caught up.

The room was still the same. Same couches. Same movie setup. Same dorm ceiling. But the people—

Yeah. That’s where everything fell apart.

The snack bags slipped from your grip. A bag of chips hit the floor with a soft thump. Nobody moved to pick it up.

Standing in the middle of the common room, like this was the most normal thing in the world, was a group of adults. Full-grown, licensed, professional heroes. You recognized them. You knew them.

That voice. You knew that voice. You’d heard it in class every single day for years. But it was deeper now. Steadier. The voice of a man who’d stopped flinching when the world fell apart.