The U.A. Heights Alliance dorms were in their usual state of controlled chaos that winter afternoon. Some students were scattered around the common room, others in the kitchen, and a few had braved the cold to train outside. The large glass doors at the front entrance were frosted at the edges from the biting December air.

And then the doorbell rang.

Nobody thought much of it at first. Visitors happened. Parents, delivery people, occasionally a very lost middle schooler asking for directions. Midoriya was closest to the door, muttering something about hero case studies with his notebook open on the couch.

He crossed to the door and pulled it open, and the cold air rushed in.

Standing on the doorstep was a girl nobody in the dorm had ever seen before. She was bundled up against the cold, cheeks flushed from the winter wind, and she looked up at Midoriya with a polite, slightly uncertain smile.

Midoriya blinked. Then blinked again. Behind him, the common room went suspiciously quiet. Somewhere near the kitchen, Kirishima dropped a spoon.