2am Knows All Secrets [Kiribaku]

things go bump in the night

A/N: As of 1/3/2023, this story has been revised and completed! I did these revisions to reflect my growth as an author. There are about 20k words of new content throughout, while still being the same story that my readers fell in love with.

And if you like the original, do not fear! For nostalgia's sake, there's a link in my bio that will take you to a Google Drive file that has the original story posted in its entirety, split into the original 15 chapters for easy reading. Maybe it'll be fun to compare and contrast!

Cover was created by the wonderful @/lexandraws on twitter!

I hope you enjoy, new readers and old readers alike! Be sure to let me know what you think!

☆

The first incident happened the Sunday Class 1-A moved into their new dormitory.

It had been a busy day of getting settled in and saying goodbye to family, and after their barbecue dinner, most everyone stayed up far too late chatting in the common room. The atmosphere was stuffy in the beginning, still tense from the whole Bakugou getting kidnapped ordeal. But Asui's tearful apology had been a much-needed sigh of relief, and finally, they could loosen up and turn their attention to more pressing matters. There were house rules to make, pet peeves to air out, not to mention a super exciting dorm room competition to wrap up!

By the time Yaoyorozu pointed out the time, it was almost midnight. With Iida's final reminder of the next morning's training, everyone said their goodnights and trickled away to the seclusion of their rooms.

That had been earlier. Currently, it was something like two in the morning, and Eijirou had been stuck for several hours just staring at his ceiling. His eyes had long adjusted to the dim moonlight creeping in through the window, but the unfamiliar shapes and shadows of his new room still made his brain buzz. Just one more thing keeping him up.

He was a heavy sleeper, sure, but being a heavy sleeper didn't mean shit if he couldn't actually fall asleep in the first place. And ever since... well. Ever since the training camp, sleep hadn't come the easiest.

Yawning, Eijirou curled in on himself, kicking at his blankets and scooting about, hoping to find a more comfortable position. Nothing felt right, though. It was awfully hot. He could open the window, but the late-August air wasn't gonna be much better, ohhh man, he should've brought his fan, and jeez, the mattress sure was softer than the one back home, too soft, how the hell was he supposed to sleep like this—?

Eijirou groaned, because now his brain was cranking out thought after thought and it needed to stop.

With a sigh, he flopped over onto his back and slung an arm over his eyes. Breathing exercises, those would help, right? He breathed eight counts in, then eight counts out. Again. Then again, letting his mind clear, drift away, maybe even dream of something nice, anything, please, god—

There was a loud bang, followed by a yelp.

Eijirou bolted upright, gasping. In an instant, his arms braced in front of him, quirk activated and ready to defend. His heartbeat thundered in his ears and his eyes darted this way and that around his room, urgently searching for the source of the sound, because what the hell was that?

None of the unfamiliar shapes moved. None of the shadows grabbed at him.

Just an overreaction. He was fine. He wasn't in danger, of course he wasn't, so calm down.

He took a few deep breaths, easing the nausea in his stomach and the wild beating of his heart. When his chest finally stopped heaving, he deactivated his quirk and lowered his hands to his lap, studying them for a moment, stunned. Seemed as though being the target of villain attack after villain attack had accumulated into some pretty unfortunate reflexes.