Even with summer break underway, Kirishima refused to let himself slack off. If anything, he’d doubled down. His alarm blared at 4:30 a.m., and within minutes he was outside in the morning cold, sneakers striking against wet pavement. The rain had stopped sometime after midnight, leaving the streets slick and reflective, puddles shining beneath the streetlights. His breath came out in faint white bursts, swallowed by the heavy stillness that hung before dawn.

  He moved through the quiet neighborhood with an easy rhythm, water splashing under each step, never caring that his shoes were soaked. Only the hum of streetlights keeping him company. He wasn’t quite used to being out before sunrise, his body was awake, but the rest of the world wasn’t, and there was something strange and satisfying about that.

  It just made sense to him.

  He grinned to himself, it was just so...

  "Manly!" he called out into the empty street, voice echoing faintly off the rows of houses.

  Turning a corner, he found himself beside the park. The track curved around the small field, bordered by trees whose leaves still dripped from the earlier rain. He slowed down, jogging along the fence, memories surfacing, Robinn used to run here. Always at dawn, alone, and focused. His grin faltered a little. He hadn’t seen her since summer break began. She’d turned down every outing, even Uraraka’s invites.

  He missed seeing her.

  Not in a heavy or sentimental way, just the sight of her running, that sharp determination she carried with her. It always pushed him to try harder. He realized, with a small sigh, that he’d been unconsciously looping the park the whole time, caught up in thought.

  "Maybe I’ll ask Tetsutetsu to hang out," he muttered to himself, veering off onto a side street to break the loop. The streets narrowed there, smaller homes lined up shoulder to shoulder. He kept running, exploring the residential area, admiring the different architecture, traditional wooden porches beside modern concrete fronts, laundry lines drooping under the gray sky.

  By the time he stopped, the horizon had begun to glow with the first streaks of gold. His muscles were burning in a pleasant way. He sat on a nearby bench in front of an apartment complex, his breath coming steady and warm in the cool air.

  Out of the corner of his eye, a flash of orange caught his attention. He turned sharply... only to find a fat orange cat climbing a tree, its tail twitching lazily. He chuckled to himself, shaking his head. For a second, he’d thought it was Robinn.

  "Kirishima? What are you doing here?"

  He jerked his head around... and there she was. Robinn, standing a few paces behind him, her expression calm and unreadable as always. She was definitely mid-run too, sweat darkened her shirt, and strands of hair clung to her forehead.

  He jumped up from the bench, energy rising back to his face. "Robinn! How are you doing? Feels like ages since I’ve seen you."

  "I’m good. You?" she replied, voice brief but polite, her gaze flicking more than once toward the apartment building behind her.

  He noticed, but didn’t think much of it. "I’m good thanks! Looks like you’ve been on a hell of a run."

  She gave him a quick glance up and down. "Likewise." A short pause. "So what are you doing here?"

  He hesitated, scratching his neck. "Uh, just exploring the city while on my morning run."

  Her brow lifted slightly. "And you just happened to stop right outside my house?"

  It took him a second to process. "Your hou- wait you live here?!"

  "So you really didn’t already know?" she said, folding her arms.

  "I swear I didn’t!"

  She shrugged, already turning toward the building. "No worries. I believe you."

  Kirishima followed without realizing, still curious. When she noticed him at the gate, she turned, head tilting slightly. "What’s up?"

  "I just wanted to talk to you," he said quickly.

  A silence stretched between them. The morning air was crisp and quiet, just birds beginning to stir.

  "Did you change your running route or something? I haven’t seen you at the park lately."

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  "Yeah. I wanted a change. So I found a new route I liked."

  He nodded, though his smile slipped a little. "Is that all?" she asked.

  He shook his head, but before he could speak, she gestured toward the gate. "Okay then... If you want to keep talking, let’s head inside. It’s weird talking at the gate."

  He blinked, surprised, then nodded quickly. She unlocked the gate, holding it open with an easy motion, and they climbed the stairs together, three flights, their footsteps echoing faintly.

  The hallway smelled faintly of detergent and rain. Robinn stopped at one of the identical doors and unlocked it. The nameplate read Yagi.

  He froze for half a second, eyes lingering on it. She looked back. "You coming?"

  He stepped in.

  The apartment was dim and plain, neat, clean, almost sterile. No decorations, no clutter, not even a framed photo. The only sound was the faint ticking of a clock somewhere in the kitchen.

  Robinn turned on the light. "Hey, do you mind waiting here a while? I’d like to shower."

  "Yeah, go ahead, it’s your place after all."

  She nodded, pulling out her ponytail as she left the room. Her hair fell loose around her shoulders, he hadn't actually seen her with her hair down before, it somewhat stunned him. Then she disappeared down the hall.

  It was definitely a weird situation for him, sitting in Robinn’s apartment silently just after seeing her for the first time in a while.

  He sat stiffly on the edge of the couch, eyes wandering over the plain walls. The only sound came from the shower running somewhere down the hall, a soft, steady rhythm that made the stillness feel even louder.

  He was weirdly nervous, bobbing his foot up and down for reasons he couldn’t pin down. It wasn’t like he was scared or anything, it just felt wrong to move too much in a place this quiet. His eyes drifted toward the door, and the nameplate came back to his mind. "Yagi…" he whispered under his breath.

  It seemed like Robinn lived alone, but she’d mentioned her dad before, so she did have family somewhere. And she’d mentioned family in Germany too. That left a lot of possibilities, a stepfather, maybe? Adoption? Or just someone she stayed with? The thoughts tangled around in his head, going nowhere, and the longer he sat there, the stranger it all felt.

  Before he could untangle the thought, the shower stopped.

  She returned a minute later, towel around her hair, skin flushed from the heat. She’d changed into clean gym clothes again. He smiled faintly... so that was her casual wear.

  "So what’s up, you wanted to ask me stuff?" she said, walking back toward the living room.

  He nodded, gathering his thoughts before speaking. "Yeah, I guess I just noticed you’ve been isolating yourself, and I wanted to see if everything was okay."

  She raised an eyebrow, pausing mid-step. The silence stretched for a few seconds. Finally, she replied, "I’m fine, thanks for asking. I’ve just been focusing on myself and training recently, that’s all."

  He wasn’t really surprised by her answer, it was what he expected from her. Still, it was good to hear it confirmed, to know she wasn’t spiraling like Kaminari had half-joked she might be. The idea of her being a recluse didn’t sit right with him anyway. She looked fine. Maybe quieter than usual, but fine.

  "That’s good to hear then," he said, voice calmer now, almost relieved.

  Silence lingered uncomfortably after, though Robinn seemed perfectly at ease in it, her gaze drifting to the kitchen before returning to Kirishima.

  "You’re probably thirsty because of the run, do you want anything to drink?" she asked, already walking over to the kitchen.

  He stood up slowly and followed her. The light in the kitchen was softer than the one in the living room, faint morning sun slipping through the curtains and brushing against the tiled counter.

  "Yes please, water is fine."

  She poured a glass of water and handed it to him without looking up, then grabbed her thermos and started filling it too. The steady rush of the faucet filled the silence between them.

  "So what have you been doing?" she asked with her back to him.

  "Well training obviously, but not as hard as you apparently," he said with a rueful smile. "But I’ve been hanging out with our classmates every now and then, especially Bakugo. And I’ve actually become pretty good friends with Tetsutetsu and Kendo from class 1-B."

  As it finished filling, she took a sip from her thermos and finally turned to him. "Oh. Nice."

  "So is that all you wanted to talk about?" she asked after a moment.

  He nodded unsurely. Part of him wanted to hang around longer, but in hindsight, he was probably interrupting her training just by being there. "Yeah, that was all," he said, glancing toward the door. "Sorry for taking up your time by the way, I guess I was just worried."

  He started heading toward the door, stopping at the shoe cubby before turning to her. "Hey Robinn, you should really try to talk to the class more when you aren’t at school. Or at least give a good excuse to not go to things."

  She looked at him for a good five seconds, her plain expression giving him no hint of what she was thinking. "I’ll consider it," she finally said, a small smile breaking the monotony of her face.

  Kirishima nodded and slipped on his shoes, opening the door and stepping out. He turned back toward her with that same easy grin. "We’ll see you later then, thanks for the water!"

  "Bye."

  She said it simply, closing the door behind him.

  He stood there for a moment, staring at the blank surface of the door before heading toward the stairs. His mind buzzed quietly, Robinn seemed different. Less guarded, maybe, but also a lot less vibrant than usual. It was like something had dulled her edges.

  His thoughts were interrupted when he almost bumped into someone on the way down. "Oh sorry, I didn’t see you," he said with a small bow before looking up.

  The man was tall and thin, almost skeletal, with blond hair and a startled look on his face.

  "Young K… man… Don’t worry about it," the man said with a forced smile.

  Kirishima grinned and nodded, walking past him and out of the building. The air outside was brighter now, the streets alive with early morning light. He stretched his arms once, thought about how long of a run home it’d be, but somehow, the thought made him smile again.