Disclaimer: I do not own Noragami nor do I profit from these stories. Noragami belongs to Adachi Toka.

"Yes mom, I'm on my way back to my room now." Hiyori spoke into the receiver of her phone which was currently being held between her cheek and shoulder. She was making her way through the brightly lit halls of the school, precariously balancing a paper plate stuffed high with a mixture of left over foods she had Daikoku and Kofuku pile on.

"Are you alone?" Her mother's voice rang through her ear. It was just like her too be so worried...

"No mom, I have Kofuku with me." She lied, Kofuku was back at the hall with Daikoku, probably still singing along drunkenly to karaoke. "We live in the same dorm and she knows the school well since her fiancé has come here for a few years, so don't worry I'm fine."

Hiyori carefully pressed the automatic door opener with her foot, fighting off a shiver from the chilly breeze as she stepped outside into the dim gardens leading to her dorm.

"How are the people there? How's your roommate?"

"The people here are great. Very welcoming and friendly." Hiyori smiled as Daikoku and Kofuku sprang to the front of her mind.

"My roommate..." Hiyori's grin faded into a scowl. The raven haired man coming into clear picture in her mind, his stupid grin giving her a headache just from the very thought of it.

She just couldn't escape him as hard as she tried, could she?

"...She's okay. I haven't really gotten to know... her yet. She had work so I didn't get to spend a lot of time with her." She fought to remember to use the female pronouns. She already knew her mother would be flying down the highway to the school, making record time if she knew the truth.

"Well, at least she seems hardworking if she's working today! I'm sure the two of you will get along just fine, sweetheart." Her mother chimed in, whether she was genuinely proud of the "girl" or just trying to lift Hiyori's spirits was a mystery.

Either way, it did help to lift her opinion of Yato, even if just marginally.

She hadn't even considered that the man even had a shred of work ethic. Her first impression of him was cold and uncaring. Who walks away from a girl you just knocked over without seeing if she was okay, anyways?

When she had time alone with him he seemed too distracted by his stupid flip phone to make conversation. Then he had the gall to act as if they were buddies, asking for her to bring him food (which she did anyways). Kofuku's and Daikoku didn't help in her opinion of him either, although it did give her a shred of sympathy towards him.

"Alright mom, I'm going to have to let you go now. I'm at the dorm and I don't want to disturb anyone who may be sleeping."

"Okay honey. Just so you know I'm getting your father to wire over some money for groceries and supplies. Make sure you get it before you start classes the day after tomorrow."

"Thanks mom, I will. I love you."

Hiyori carefully grabbed hold of her phone, ending the call just as she entered the dorm. The lights in the hallways and lobby were still on, though it was still eerily quiet. The harsh white light reminded her of a bad horror flick and she found herself power walking to the basement door.

The basement wasn't any better. The single lightbulb barely lit the small lobby of the subterranean lobby. The elongated shadows and numerous pitch black corners coupled with the slowly swinging, flickering light was anything but pleasant.

She had never felt more relieved to be alone however. After nearly wiping out on the stairs in her hurry to get to the safety of her own room she could only imagine Kofuku's laughter or Yato's sneers watching her in her panic.

The light to her room flickered to life hesitantly, buzzing in protest of having to be used again after untold years of slumber. Tossing her plate of left overs in the mini fridge she jumped into her bed, burying her face in the soft fabric. It still smelled like home.

Yet, try as she might, Hiyori still couldn't relax.

She knew nothing about her new roommate expect what has been told to her by her new friends. His past was sketchy at best, and she knew he had run in's with the law. What if he was involved in something illegal?

Shuffling to a sitting position on her bed she eyed the chalk line down the middle of the room, her eyes following it to the closet on the opposite side of the room.

She swallowed hard as the thought pricked at her brain. Did she dare? She wasn't sure when Yato would be back, though she was certain she would hear him creak down the stairs offering her more than enough time to scramble back to her side...

On impulse she found herself slowly moving off her bed, her feet making contact with the hard wooden floor and carrying her to the white line.

She looked around, eyeing the window and the door. She knew she was being paranoid, but she had to still her concerns.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped over the line, single handedly breaking the rule she herself had made. Having crossed over she made a dash for the closet, throwing it open with a loud squeak. She winced at the noise but quickly set to work.

Before her was his single bag tossed lazily on the floor. A sweater and a pair of pants hung neatly on wire hangers. She patted down the articles, checking for anything that may be left inside the pockets only to come up with nothing.

She continued her search in his bag, checking the empty side pockets. She was beginning to get frustrated. How could he own quite literally nothing?

She eyed the main pocket zipper, her final destination. She froze, straining to listen for any movement coming down the stairs. Once she was satisfied the man in question wasn't about to pop in through the door, she reached out, gripping the worn out plastic zipper.

She gave it one sure tug, closing her eyes in reflex. She didn't know what she was expecting, but she always wasn't sure if what she would see was somehow infringing on his privacy.

She slowly opened her eyes, venturing to gaze upon the contents. Hot pink came into view and she found in increasingly hard to stifle her laugh.

Packed neatly inside the bag was one or two pairs of clean-pressed socks, white t-shirts and numerous pairs of identical hot pink capyperland boxers.

She looked over the contents stupefied. She did not need to see that.

Closing everything up as it was before her little escapade, she stalked back to her bed, plopping herself down carelessly, giggling softly into her blankets. What have I been so paranoid about.

"Hey man, thanks so much for showing up on such short notice!" The store owner said gratefully, "I know you weren't supposed to start until tomorrow, but I promise you, keep this up and you'll be moving up in no time!"

"No worries!" Yato responded enthusiastically to his new boss, "please, don't hesitate to call me in, any time."

On the inside, he was dying. He hated having to work meager jobs for meager pay; but the alternative was even worse.

Yato had already had a taste of homelessness, having to fend for scraps and face the stigma that came with begging. Even with work, he found it hard to support himself, causing him to move in and out of the streets for over three years.

Hell, it was only by sheer luck that he had managed to win his scholarship to Takegamahara university. He would have never been able to afford it without it. They even offered him a room to stay, free of charge. They even helped him find this job.

Just some ways away from the university was a small town. Yato guessed the most fascinating attractions to be found were the new stop sign and one streetlight, because other than that it was completely run down and boring.

The town had most likely not seen maintenance in many years. Shingles were missing from roofs, windows were broken and boarded up with frayed plywood, roads that were actually paved were crumbling and cracked. There was a single grocery store, a restaurant, motel and convenience store, all of which had seen better days.

Despite how boring the town seemed to look at first glance, there were still many apartments and houses, it was the perfect area for freelance work. He was bound to get a few calls if he advertised.

His life was finally starting to take a turn in the right direction. After years of sleeping on benches, he finally had a bed, he could finally afford a phone (mind you, it was a pay-as-you-go flip phone, but it was still a phone regardless).

When Hiyori was gone, he had shamelessly spent his time reveling in it all. He opened and closed the closet doors until he was almost certain they would break off the hinges, he had jumped on his bed, he even hugged the mini fridge.

It's amazing how much the small things that people often taken for granted mean after they are lost. He'd be damned if he let any of it go to waste. He wasn't going to pass up a single opportunity.

Hiyori, however., was another issue entirely. He had never been much of a people person; he could admit that he made more enemies than friends throughout his life. How he had ended up in the women's dorm, much less in a basement room with a female roommate was beyond him. He had always been a magnet for disaster, but he knew in his heart of hearts he wasn't a bad person, he had always just been dealt a bad hand in life. This was one of those hands.

What seemed to trouble him the most of the whole situation was how he couldn't figure out why she had seemed so put off by him. He hadn't said or done anything wrong, in fact, he never even had the chance to.

That's how it always was for him. People were quick to detest him, quick to forget about him. He had grown used to it.

Hours had passed as Yato dove deeper and deeper into his thoughts, before he realized it, the majority of his shift had gone by in his melancholy.

As he had assumed from being in such a small town, very few customers had come in throughout the late hours. Maybe a traveler who decided to stay the night in the motel or two, but the majority of the time went by quietly.

It wasn't until near the end of his shift that a young boy walked in as Yato was counting the till. He put forth an energetic greeting, letting him know that he was there if he needed help finding anything.

The boy ignored Yato, giving him a cold glance over his shoulder as he disappeared behind a shelf.

'Little brat', Yato thought, brushing off the twinge of annoyance as he set back to counting. It wasn't long after the boy entered that another man walked into the store wearing the same uniform as Yato.

He quickly finished counting, keeping an eye on the digital clock at the top of the cash register screen. It was only three minutes until 3 a.m, the end of his first ever shift. One of many he would have throughout his time at school.

He closed the till carefully just as the other employee came out from the back room. Yato rushed passed his coworker, not offering any greeting as he ran into the break room.

His stomach rumbled as he fumbled with his punch card. He didn't have any lunch on him today, so he had spent the entire eight hours hungry. He was just eager to get back, to plop down on his bed and stuff his face with whatever his roommate was kind enough to smuggle over.

From the corner of his eye he could see the numerous screens illuminating the main office. The till, the fridge and the foods sections were all in clear black and white through the cracked window.

Just as he returned his punch card to its rightful spot and signed out the amount left in the till as he closed, movement from the screens caught his attention.

The boy from earlier was pacing up and down the aisle, slowing down as he passed the rack with candy bars. Yato watched as the kid finally stopped pacing, looked side to side, and pocketed a few of them before swiftly walking away.

Sighing, he left the break room. Ignoring the farewell from his coworker, he watched as the kid left the store without paying. Damn brat.

Yato rushed out of the store. A streetlight flickered sporadically somewhere off in the distance, illuminating the streets in an eerie torch-like glow. The run down town took on a whole different atmosphere at night. Yato felt the hairs on his neck stand on end, as if he was being watched. He looked around in all directions half-heartedly searching for the young thief, but he was already long gone.

Yato cursed lightly under his breath. He didn't care much that the brat had stolen a candy bar worth less than a dollar, but if he was going to actually keep this job he would have to find a way to cover his ass if word every got out that it was taken under his watch. Maybe he could just pin it on the late hour or how he was still a rookie? He considered for just a moment searching to find the little criminal...

His stomach protested loudly. Hunger pangs were beginning to set in. Whatever became of the kid was none of his concern, he reassured himself as he stalked away through the night.

By the time Yato made it back to the dorm he was nearly crawling from exhaustion. The lights of the dorm had been turned off for the night, leaving him to stumble around recklessly down the narrow stairs, nearly wiping out in the process.

After fumbling around in the dark, having perfected a bang-on mummy walk in the process, he silently clicked the door behind him. Hiyori was to his left, her phone's dim blue light illuminating the room slightly.

"Hiyori?" Yato whispered, careful not to be too loud in case she was asleep. Her face was buried in her blankets which moved slightly in time with her shallow breathing. She was out.

He approached the sleeping girl, taking in how the blue light illuminated her cheeks and made her eyelashes look impossibly long. Her mouth was open in a small "o" shape as she whistled slightly in her sleep. He grabbed her phone to see she had been watching a livestream of some wrestling event.

Weird. She doesn't seem the type. He pressed the power button and laid it back down carefully by where she had left it.

His stomach rumbled suddenly, causing him to wince at the sudden noise that seemed to echo in the mostly empty room. He instinctively brought his finger to his lips in a "shh" motion, holding his stomach with his free hand in an attempt to silence his normal bodily function.

The mini-fridge called to him with a sirens song; he only hoped and prayed that there was, indeed some food in it's cool interior. The cool breeze that blew in his face when he opened it, bringing with it the sweet scent of a cornucopia of chilly foods made his eyes sparkle and his mouth water.

He greedily grabbed the paper plate, praising Hiyori as a goddess as he left the room to ravage the morsels before he went to bed.

Hiyori awoke to the rhythmic sound of soft snores and light little murmurs.

It was an ungodly time in the morning. The first of the sun's rays that could make their way through the grim on the small window shone in straight beams through the room. The early morning song birds had just started their chants, as if they were coaxing the world to wake up.

Hiyori was not one of those early birds, not by a long shot. Especially not after she had stayed up so late after coming back from the banquet last night. She knew she shouldn't have stayed up watching the latest Tono match...

She threw her arm over her eyes to block the light that had invaded the area, trying to let the soft songs of the birds outside coax her back to sleep.

The snores suddenly escalated causing her eyes to shoot wide open. She groaned just audibly as she decided falling back asleep was most likely not going to happen.

This was her final day off, her last day to settle in before classes started - and she was going to spend it grumpy and tired. She tossed in her bed roughly as she searched for her phone. No one was going to be awake at this hour, and most stores would be close, so at least she could kill some time on social media before she got up.

The snoring continued, getting louder as time progressed. Her roommates mumbling became from audible – growing from a murmur to a whisper to slurred speech. Hiyori threw her arms down in frustration, a headache perking in at the corner of her forehead.

"L- Ladies… Pleeeassee…. There'ss enoughh of mee to goo around~…"

That was the final straw. Hiyori shot out of bed, gripping a pillow tightly in her hand and flinging it across the room as hard as she could.

The fluffy weapon struck its mark with a small poof. Yato jolted up immediately hugging his own pillow tightly around his chest. His eyes weren't fully open and Hiyori could see the glisten of left over drool on his chin.

"Shut up you pervert!" Hiyori huffed, throwing her fists down for added effect.

"I am not a pervert!" He retaliated, fully awake now.

"L-ladies, please," Hiyori teased from her bed, bringing her hands up to make a groping motion and pursing her lips in mock imitation, "there's enough of me to go around! What the hell are you dreaming about?!"

Yato stared at her, seemingly oblivious that he was being mocked. "What are you doing?"

"I'm mocking you, idiot!"

"That's not very nice, Hiyori."

She fought the urge to scream. Never in her life had she met someone so infuriating.

And she was stuck living with him for the rest of the year.

Unable to stay in the same room as Yato, she threw off her covers and towards her own closet, withdrawing a small bag with toiletries.

"Where are you going?" Yato asked, his tone sincere.

"Out." Was all Hiyori responded with, stopping at the door to cut him a side glance before storming out the room.

Yato blinked after her, a flurry of confusion. The fuck did I do?

Hey! If you made it this far that means you're interested enough in this fic! Thank you! Reviews are food, criticism is always welcome and encouraged.