After a long day of doing things at the mall, the students were burned out.

Momo was a lot more cheerful, but it didn't last any longer than it took her to remember her problems. Which was when it was time to head back to the bus.

"She looks so serious," Mina said to the other girls.

Jiro stomped her foot. "Here I thought we finally cheered her up."

"I can't understand what could be bothering her so much that a good shopping bender wouldn't help," Uraraka said.

"I think it's something with the Supervisors," Tsuyu said. "They stress her out. Trying to keep the peace."

"We haven't had a problem with them in weeks, though," Tohru spoke up, "I actually think we've finally gotten used to them, haven't we?"

The other girls didn't object, but Jiro and Tsuyu both did their best to give her a strange look. Not a very nice one either.

"What?" Tohru said.

"I will never get used to those freaks," Jiro said.

"I don't like their attitude towards heroes," Tsuyu said.

"I mean, other than that, they've been nice," Mina said, "I don't know if that's what's got Yao-Momo like this, you know? But the villain attack wasn't anything that crazy compared to the other ones, and she was never bothered by those... You don't think it could be something personal, do you?"

"She visited her parents yesterday, didn't she?" Uraraka said, "You think it could be that?"

"That's none of our business," Tsuyu chided them.

Actually Momo's visit to her parents had been very short. Her father had been busy, and her mother had wanted to hear about her grades and hero work. It had always been that way, but after so much time away from them, Momo found it a little odd to only talk about that. Though she didn't know what else she should talk about.

It seemed to her that they had both gotten used to her being away and changed their schedules accordingly... or had it always been that way and she'd just never noticed?

Thinking about it today, she felt blue. She couldn't ask her mother for advice about problems like she used to... She couldn't ask anyone...

                                                                                            ***

"So... where did Bakugo go?" Kaminari asked Kirishima, after he'd been gone for a very long time.

Kirishima looked sly. "Well, if I tell you, you gotta be cool man, okay?"

"Hey, I am the face of cool!" Kaminari said, "So what's the deal?"

"Yeah, what's he up to?" Sero leaned in also.

Kirishima grinned. "Well, I didn't tell you this, but he's with a girl."

"What? No way!" they cried. 

"Yes way. That girl from Shiketsu who wanted to be on a team with him and me," Kirishima said, "Camie Utsu--something."

"That hottie?!" Kaminari almost lost it.

"Shhh!" Kirishima and Sero shushed him.

"How did he get her?" Kaminari said.

"Well, according to him it was an accidental meeting, but he sure has been gone a while," Kirishima said smugly, "Geez, I almost feel proud of him, you know. Our little Bakugo is growing up."

"Ew, that makes us sound like his guardians," Sero said.

"Aren't we?" Kaminari said.

They all started snickering.

It was bad timing because they ran into Bakugo literally when they turned the corner.

They all skidded to a stop. 

"Uh... hi, Bakugo. Crazy meeting you here..." Kaminari never knew when to keep his mouth shut.

Bakugo scowled at him.

Camie was right behind him. "Stop walking so fast. You know, that arcade is not going anywhere. Oh, hi Pikachu."

The guys started dying of laughter at the look on Kaminari's face. "Pikachu?"

"The hair." Camie pointed to his lighting streak.

"Huh? Oh... that's not supposed to be pikachu..." Kaminari said embarrassed.

"Shut up, Pika," Bakugo said flatly.

"So... uh, Bakugo, you about ready to head back, or do you want more time to... you know, hang out with your special friend?" Sero said.

"I'll kill you, Office Supplies!" Bakugo said.

"Is that because of his elbows?" Camie said.

"Hey, I'm not just office supplies..." Sero said.

"So, ahem," Kirishima said, "You know, we're just going to regroup... I mean I guess we have 45 minutes, but Iida said we should all be back early to demonstrate class unity or something like that..."

"Ah, that's so too bad," Camie said, "That guy is so tightly wound... but I gotta catch up to Grandma anyway." She checked her phone. "She got all that...? Sheesh, and my dad says I shop too much."

"I bet she's still got nothing on Yao-momo," Kaminari said.

"Did Yao-momo buy three cat pillows just because they were 'so kuwaii!'" Camie said.

"Does she have a cat?" Kaminari asked.

"No," Camie said, "She has three. Oh, I see how it connects there..."

"She's a little spacey, isn't she?" Kaminari whispered to Sero.

"That might be better for Bakugo," Sero said, "Maybe she doesn't notice how rude he is."

"Why don't you beat it!" Bakugo said to Camie, now embarrassed, "Stop following me around and go take care of your old bag."

"I told you not to call her that, you jerk." Camie swatted Bakugo in the arm very lightly.

"Hey! You want to go!?" Bakugo said.

"Well, if you were going to ask me out, you could have done it hours ago. Isn't it a little late?" Camie didn't miss a beat.

Bakugo looked like he's swallowed a fish whole. "I-- shut up-- You--- Don't say s--- like that where people can hear you!"

"Oh, I'm just messing with you," Camie said carelessly. She winked at the other boys. "We were definitely not on a date, because it was just a coincidence and honestly, a date at the mall? Lame, right? But he's gonna get all mad if anyone thinks it was a date because heroes don't have time for crap like that. You guys got me?"

"Absolutely, Miss Camie," Sero said with a grin, "We 100% will not think it was a date, because you explained it so well."

"I did, huh?" Camie said with a wide eyed look, "That's lit!" Her phone buzzed. "Ach, gotta go. Lates." She hurried away.

"So... she goes to the mall with her grandma. That's sweet," Kirishima said.

"Her grandma bribed her," Bakugo said.

"That's even better. She's got a cool grandma," Kaminari said, "My grandma never bribes me to do anything with her."

"So how did she bribe you to hang out with her, then?" Sero asked slyly.

"It was an excuse to get away from you losers!" Bakugo snapped, "Before I died of pointless shopping."

"Hey, it wasn't all pointless. We got air-pods," Kirishima said defensively.

"I got a cool T-shirt," Kaminari said.

                                                                                           ***

The whole class was not back by 5:15 pm. Most of them were back by 5:30, to Iida's chagrin.

1-B was on time, because they didn't want to be outdone by 1-A. 

Wally arrived at 10 seconds to 6 pm and was surprised to see everyone else there already, as, in his experience in America, if you told some teens six, the last of them would still be arriving by 6:20, at the earliest.

Then when they told him most of them were there by 5:15, he was flabbergasted.

"Guys, you just stood here for 45 minutes wasting your time?" he said, "You could have done a whole bunch of other stuff, geez."

"We were trying to set a good example," Iida said.

"For what? Wasting time?" Wally couldn't imagine wasting 45 minutes on doing nothing. Ever.

Iida was surprised to be rebuked for this. "Well, our teachers always want us to be there early..."

"Maybe by a few minutes, like good kids, but... that's just silly," Wally said, "I mean, I literally waited till the last 10 seconds. I just wanted you guys to give yourself enough time to get back here, not a whole extra half hour..."

"I told you it wasn't necessary," Kaminari helped nothing by saying to Iida.

"Shut up," Jiro told him.

"Oh, well, I guess it's too late to change it now," Wally said, "But next time, guys, it's really not necessary. And it's not very hero like to stand around doing nothing, unless you're just too tired not to, but some of you look like you could have gone awhile."

They nodded.

"Well, at least we meant well," Ibara tried to help.

"Yeah..." Wally wasn't one to chew people out. "Let's go. Come on."

                                                                                            ***

Back at UA, Shine had had the dorms mainly to herself, since Mirio and Aizawa spent most of the time with Eri... and she had been really bored. The boys who'd stayed home hadn't helped entertain her much. They just holed up in their rooms.

Aizawa had dropped in to inform her some parents might visit UA in the next week or so to check on the kids, and she was "to have them on their best behavior."

The implicit meaning being that she would be held responsible if it didn't go well.

Shine thought the parents really might be better off getting a bad impression of the school, but she kept that thought to herself.

Other than that, she just spent the day amusing herself.

Finally everyone got back and trailed in.

"If you didn't eat while you were out, I have ramen in there... packaged, but it's not bad," Shine gestured to the kitchen.

"Aw, thanks Miss Likstar. You didn't have to do that," Kirishima said.

"It's not like it's a lot of work to put that on, and the other boys needed to eat too," Shine shrugged.

"I could whip up some dumplings too," Sato offered.

"Sato, you're so nice!" the girls cheered.

They all settled in to eat and talk about what they did.

Momo barely ate anything and went upstairs as soon as she got the chance.

Jiro noted that Tohru was right: most of the class wasn't tense around Likstar anymore. They told her about their day with surprising ease. When had that happened?

The 1-B students even stuck around to eat, since they didn't think their dorm mates would have any dinner ready for them.

"Hey, Likstar-san" Sero said, leaning in mischievously, "guess who went on a date today?"

"Was it you?" Shine asked.

"Even better-- it was Bakugo," Sero said.

"I don't see how that's better than getting to go on one yourself," Mineta grumbled.

"Mineta, until you can respect women for being people like you, you don't deserve to go on a date," Shine said.

Mineta glared at her.

"But I think someday, if you get over being an incel, you'll make some girl very happy," Shine added nicely, "You have some good qualities, after all. You just need to grow them."

Mineta was surprised to receive any praise at all-- and looked a little bit pleased by it.

"Ew, he'd never make any girl happy," Tsuyu said.

"Tsuyu, if you can't say something nice or helpful, perhaps you'd better just eat your ramen," Shine said warningly.

Tsuyu huffed but said nothing else. She didn't want to get into it with Shine.

"Anyway, Bakugo went on date with that girl from Shiketsu," Sero said.

Bakugo finally heard them. "The frick I did not!" he bellowed, "I'll kill you, Duct Tape."

"Duct tape? That's just offensive," Sero said.

"It's the most used tape, isn't it? I'd take it as a compliment," Shine said, "And, I'm sure he's just teasing you, Bakugo. You don't think I'm that gullible, do you? But why on earth would you fabricate this story, Sero?"

"It's true, Likstar-san. She was there. Back me up, guys," Sero said.

"I don't want Bakugo to kill me." Kaminari avoided eye contact.

"I mean, she was there." Kirishima was too honest to deny it. "But, you know, it wasn't a date. It was just a coincidence. Sero is just kidding."

"A nice surprise, running into a friend while you're out," Shine said. 

"Sure," Kaminari said, "and if it's a friend like Camie, it's a nicer surprise. Huh, Bakugo?"

Bakugo flipped him off.

"All right, leave him alone," Shine said, "What did you boys do?"

After a while, the kids filtered away to do homework.

Wally and Shine were still talking.

"I missed you," Shine complained, "I hate being alone."

"You could've joined us," Wally said.

"No, someone had to stay with the boys here. I couldn't shirk my duties," Shine said.

"Right... well, some other time, you can come. They have some cool stuff at that mall," Wally said, "but I wish I could do something a little more active... like an amusement park."

"I detest those in general, but Japan is supposed to have really cool ones," Shine said, "So I wouldn't mind checking it out. They've got a Disneyland too. I wonder if it's still around."

"The Universal Studios is," Wally said, "Someone told me that the USJ is abbreviated just like as a joke. So why not Disneyland? But there's gotta be cooler stuff than that."

"Disney was my childhood, Wally!" Shine said.

"Yeah, but it's kind of... you know, for kids," Wally said.

"Adult stuff is boring anyway," Shine said.

"Do you two always argue like that...?" Kaminari said. He was putting off doing homework.

"Over theme parks?" Wally said.

"I mean... over stupid stuff," Kaminari said.

"What business is it of yours?" Shine said.

"Sorry, I just... I don't know, I never hear you argue about anything big."

"We're not tacky enough to do that around you," Wally said lightly.

"And we hardly ever do," Shine said, "You learn to let a lot of stuff go on this job."

"Yeah, hey, you know, that's good. Maybe you could slide some of that wisdom our way." Kaminari nudged Todoroki who was also still sitting there.

"Did something happen?" Wally said.

"Todoroki is having lady troubles," Kaminari said, "Yao-Momo's not talking to him."

Shine and Wally exchanged a look. 

"Well, that's a woman's department. I don't know nothing about it." Wally held up his hands.

"Well, what you said before seemed to work, but since the villain attack, she's acting upset again," Todoroki said.

Shine leaned on the table. "That's not your fault, sweetie. I don't think it has anything to do with you. The experience itself was just stressful for her."

Jiro perked up her ears in the next room, curious.

"But she's not avoiding anyone else," Todoroki said.

"That's not true, she's avoiding me," Shine said, "And I was there, so you see, not personal."

Todoroki seemed a little relieved, but then he sighed. "But still..."

"Just give her a little more time to process," Wally suggested, "Sometimes my friends need a few weeks, even, after a really hard time.One disappeared for years..."

"Not the best example, babe," Shine said, "But I don't think Momo is that kind of dramatic. Knowing her, she's just feeling guilty for not being able to help."

"I couldn't help either." Todoroki rubbed his face. "In fact, I only made it worse. I'm the one who should feel bad."

"Hey, don't beat yourself up," Kaminari said.

"Yes, please stop," Shine said.

"It's not right, buddy," Wally said.

"But it is my fault," Todoroki said.

"Todoroki, listen to me," Shine said seriously, "thinking like that is only going to hurt your friends in the long run."

"What do you mean?" Todoroki said.

"Blaming yourself for everything is selfish," Shine said, shocking both boys. And Jiro. "It keeps the attention on you. It's a way to minimize what happened. You can always do better. It ignores what someone else may be going through and how they might feel about it. Then you can just argue over blame. This is why I told you not to do it. That is all you've been thinking about for the last few days. If you had let it go, you might have come to understand things better. Not every bad thing in the world can be your fault. Take it from me-- I used to be just like that. And I was very self absorbed."

"I don't intend to be selfish..." Todoroki said.

"No one said you did. The worst of being selfish is how often we don't realize it," Wally sighed, "I know I don't."

"You're one of the most unselfish people I know," Shine said to him fondly, "But yes, even Wally has his moments. And I try to watch myself, but I have my moments too. We all do. Look, Todoroki, it is less important that you have selfish moments, then that once you know you have them, you try to stop that particular thing. And in this case, not taking all the blame would be the nicest thing you could do. It will open you up to actually be helpful, as that is what you want, isn't it?"

Todoroki nodded. "I'm... sorry about before, by the way. I shouldn't have told you what to do."

Kaminari was puzzled by that.

Shine shrugged, "It's okay. That's not what I really care about."

"Always so serious with you guys," Wally said.

"That's just how Todoroki is," Kaminari said.

"I guess..." Todoroki said.

Shine laughed at the look on his face. "You're so cutely clueless..."

"What?" Todoroki said.

"Like a little kid," Wally said.

***

Much later that night, Jiro woke up because she heard crying. She stole out into the hallway. No doubt about it-- it was Momo again.

She slipped into Momo's room. Momo had a small light on. "Jiro?" she said.

"Uh... are you okay?" Jiro asked.

Momo shrugged. "I'm all right..."

"I thought I heard crying.... Was that you?" Jiro asked.

"Oh... um, I think I just had another nightmare. It's nothing serious," Momo said.

Nothing serious! It was two nights in a row!

"Must have been pretty bad," Jiro said, "Want me to stay in here a while?"

"You don't have to do that," Momo said, "I'm fine now. I'll go back to sleep..."

Jiro didn't believe her, but she didn't think she should made Momo let her stay. So she left.

But she couldn't go back to sleep, and it must have been hours later when she jumped because she heard a scream.

It was muffled, so no one else seemed to have heard it, but Jiro was certain it was Momo again.

She wasn't sure what to do. This was kind of scary...

Then she thought of something. She hated it, but... Momo was her first priority...

She went up to Shine's door and knocked on it lightly.

Shine was up in just 30 seconds, still struggling into a robe. But she was one of those people who slept in t-shirts, so it wasn't too awkward. "Jiro? Oh my, what is wrong?" She knew something pretty bad had to be going on. "Is someone sick?"

Jiro really hated swallowing her pride, but she looked down. "Momo is having nightmares... twice tonight, I think, and... if she doesn't sleep, you know, she won't be any good in school tomorrow, so... I don't know. She seems to talk to you about stuff. I thought. She won't tell me what's going on."

Shine nodded. "Okay... I'll be right there." She went back in room and grabbed a few things and came out. They went back to Momo's room. Shine just went right in.

"Momo? Are you okay?"

"Shine?" Momo sat up. "I... I'm okay."

"Jiro told me you had two nightmares tonight," Shine said, "I don't think you're okay."

Momo hugged her knees. "I keep thinking about what happened. It's foolish, I know, because nothing bad really happened. We all got away from it, but I keep dreaming."

"About the villain?" Shine asked.

Momo nodded. "Sometimes, it's that he got Todoroki... and... uh... I don't want to talk about that part. Other times, it's that it's me..." She pressed her throat. "Which is odd, because I wasn't attacked."

"That's not odd at all," Shine said.

"It's never you though..." Momo noted. 

"Perhaps you think I wasn't in danger there," Shine said, meaningfully.

Momo bit her lip.

"We don't need to talk about that yet," Shine said, "Better for a reasonable hour of the day.... Let's focus on the problem at hand first, all right?"

Momo nodded.

"Did you have more of these before?" Shine asked.

"They weren't as bad the first few nights," Momo said, "I didn't feel anything about it... but they got more intense."

"After we've had some time to calm down, that very often happens. PTSD usually shows up when we are out of danger, and we've had time to get out of survival mode," Shine said, "I had nightmares months after certain events played out, because it had sunk in by then, so I knew. But I almost never have them anymore, and I rarely feel afraid, even when bad things happen in my dreams. Often, even in the dream, I can stop it."

"You can... stop it?" Momo said.

She nodded. "Dreams are considered spiritual, even here, from what I've heard from other students." She meant Deku. "So it makes sense... I'm good with helping other people with them too, if you want."

"What... what would you do?" Momo didn't want to do anything weird.

"Nothing at all to you. I would just take authority over it," Shine said, "If it's how I think it is, that should help. I promise, it won't affect you personally."

Well... it couldn't hurt to try, could it?

"I suppose..." Momo said. She had to get to sleep, she thought.

All Shine did was say a short prayer-- it wasn't even 2 minutes long. Then she handed Momo her ipod. "I have a playlist for when I need to calm down. That usually does the trick too. It's hard to have nightmares if you go to sleep on peaceful songs."

She wasn't kidding about knowing how to handle this. Momo didn't even know you could have a strategy for nightmares.

"Thank you..."

"And if it helps," Shine said more gently, "it's normal to have those dreams... but they aren't reality. You don't need to save us. We're already safe. That's my job, after all. Not yours. Todoroki is okay. I'm going to keep a careful watch on him too."

Momo started crying, to her own embarrassment. "It was dreadful, though. Why does this keep happening? I mean, why when I am so useless?!"

Shine just patted her shoulder for a bit while she was crying.

"Momo... you know... I could tell you you weren't useless, but it would be a lie."

Momo had not expected that.

Jiro was still listening, and she wanted to punch Shine.

"What?" Momo said, stunned enough to stop crying.

Shine shrugged. "What does useful mean? That we could do something? In that case, no, you weren't useful. But, you know, that is not what matters. I think our lives are more important. And, if you were spared doing anything this time around, that's okay. God took care of it. It's okay to accept that. I have no doubt, if I or Todoroki needed you to do something, you would have done it. I wanted you to be prepared to act, but I didn't want you to have to, and I was glad you didn't do anything. It was smarter not to. As your supervisor, and friend, I was glad the villains didn't know you were there. It's safer that way. What I mean is, I didn't want you to have to be useful. I don't really care about that, and I can assure you, neither does Todoroki. It's enough that we're all safe after that happened. I think you are worth more than just being helpful in a crisis, one where being involved was not preferred at all. I hope that helps a little."

That actually helped a lot. Momo had not known she even needed to hear something like that until she heard it, but it made her cry all over again.

Shine gave her a light hug. "It's okay..."

Momo thought, amidst all this, about Dabi. Shine... no, Shine just couldn't be a villain. There had to be another explanation. This could not be fake. But what was it? Better not to ask right now, probably... She wasn't sure if Jiro was still awake and listening anyway (she was, of course).

"I..." Momo mumbled... "I'm sorry for the trouble..."

"It's nothing," Shine said, "I'm glad someone called me... When I was upset, you know, as a kid... I had to deal with it alone so much of the time, and I made a promise to myself: I'm never going to ignore people who need help because of that. I guess... my way of healing the past is partly to make sure it's not repeated around me. It helps me find peace. So, this is good for me too."

What a strange thought...

"You should try to go back to sleep now," Shine said, "But if you have any other dreams, come get me... and, hey, Jiro would be willing to stay with you too, I think... You know, you have a really good friend there."

Jiro almost choked.

"I know," Momo said, "I wish she liked you more though. It bothers me to upset her by... you know."

"You know, I get why she feels that way though," Shine said, "I might even feel the same way. At least she's not petty. That's what I can't stand. Hostile, that's... well, bearable. But... Momo, you don't have to choose. I'm not asking you to do that. You can be friends with both of us, it's fine. I won't take that personally."

"Oh, I didn't think you were," Momo said, "I... nevermind... It's too difficult to explain, I guess."

"Not at 1 am anyway," Shine yawned, "I'll stay in here a bit till you settle down, though."

"But..."

"Momo, please, let me. I'll feel better," Shine said.

Momo couldn't say no to that-- she was too soft. So she lay back down. Shine stayed there, humming some slow songs from time to time. Momo actually fell asleep before she knew she did. When she woke up it was morning. Shine was gone... and she'd had a dreamless sleep from that point onward.

Jiro didn't tell anyone she'd overhead that conversation. She was too embarrassed. And unsure what to think. Shine's laid-backness about that one issue annoyed her. But... she didn't dislike what she'd told Momo either.... Momo really needed to relax more.

What was hard to accept was that Momo didn't listen to her friends... not out of spite, just she didn't think they could understand, perhaps. But she listened to Shine. How did Shine do it?

Jiro dimly thought maybe it was something different in what she said. But the most obvious idea, that it was because Shine shared her own experiences, and didn't try to act like she never had problems, unlike every hero student at UA, did not occur to her. It really wasn't her fault though. It wouldn't have occurred to anyone in the class.

https://youtu.be/rzyouuhzOvA

"Tonight we're letting go, under the burning glow, we're too young to hold this load on our own...

She wants to be free, like a runaway. Trying to believe, we can find a way...

The road below our wheels, all that we fought to heal. We close our eyes and cry, dying for the right to feel. I hear it coming down, oh the sweetest sound. Of forgotten tears falling on the solid ground...

Singing how did we get this far? Riding on shooting star? It's like flying on the wings of God, she wants to be free, like a runaway."

[Author's note: The methods here have worked for me, which is why I included them. But I am not claiming all PTSD dreams are the same. My family has always found prayer to be the most effective way to stop them, but I am 100% for counseling and therapy if that's what people need. All these scenarios are just examples from personal experience, not me saying it's a fix-all for everyone's situation. I wanted to clarify because I know that sometimes people do get the idea that we are saying what worked for us will always work for others the same way.

I also didn't write out any specific prayer because it didn't seem necessary. If someone wanted to try that, there are no right words. I think what sounds natural to me wouldn't to someone else, so I avoid writing it out here.

But if anyone was curious about any of the stuff I mention here, I would certainly chat more them if they want to message me with any questions. I don't think that's really why people read fan fiction, but you never know.]