Sitting half collapsed and taking very deep breaths on a random bench, Eijiro had to consider that his mom might be right about him pushing himself too much too fast.

He hadn't been a runner before and taking a miles long and cross prefecture trail was probably way too hard for a beginner.

Especially if feeling how his heart was thumping so hard in his chest was anything to go by.

Eijiro didn't know you could hear your heartbeat but that was kind of cool.

He'd need to better pace himself next time for sure though, and maybe pick a shorter trail.

Jeeze he was more out of shape than he thought he was.

Well Eijiro knew that...

He completely crashed after his sprint after Haku-Sempai and Eijiro knew that he would have to work on his stamina for his future hero work.

Hence his half-thought plans to start running this trail.

At least Eijiro had brought enough water and snacks to not feel completely dead on his feet.

Speaking of which, Eijiro moved and searched around in his backpack to get one of his water bottles, and upon seeing his last bottle half full decided he'd need to make a pitstop to get more.

There would be no way for him to make it home from the neighboring prefecture without another three bottles of water.

So, after another five minutes of sitting and recovering what energy he could Eijiro took his phone and searched up local small shops or a local gas station where he could get more supplies.

Picking the closest one Eijiro forced himself to his feet and headed over to the little corner shop and was also blown over by the air conditioner inside.

Oh, that felt so good after working up a sweat, so Eijiro basked for a moment before heading over to the section of the shop that had the big fridges and started to look for some good sized water bottles.

They couldn't be too big otherwise they would weigh him down.

Finding what he needed Eijiro started heading towards the checkout, and after a brief conversation with the cashier Eijiro walked back out of the shop.

Eijiro feeling just a touch better Eijiro began stretching again.

He was absolutely feeling sore but he also a little proud of himself for even making it out this far on his own.

He had always wanted to be a hero, but recent events had added fuel to the flame when he was at his lowest.

After he just froze up when he should have acted, he felt really, really down on himself and couldn't believe that he ever thought that he could be a hero.

Then by chance he saw the news about someone his age being held hostage by a slime quirked person, and watched on with awe as another boy his age rushed in and defused the whole situation.

The boy rushing in without fear and so admittedly defending the slime quirked boy from the heroes on scene.

Eijiro couldn't help wanting to be like the greenette boy and knowing that he was just an ordinary person like him re-lit his desire afterwards.

And seeing Haku-Sempai's speech at the festival again brought even more of his desire back.

Watching a festival of the students do it all without their quirk's made him feel even more hopeful.

A hope that drove him to chase after Haku-Sempai when his only change he'd to ask her if she thought he could be a hero came.

And it was Haku-Sempai's words of encouragement that really helped him with his resolve.

Having her take two of his biggest concerns and doubts and just toss them out the window so casually along with Haku-Sempai's calm certainty that she would be seeing him around U.A. grounds made him feel so much more confident.

Probably too confident if Eijiro was being honest, but that was better than not being confident.

Finishing his stretches Eijiro was ready to start running back home when he heard something that made him pause.

"Come on buddy, it won't be that hard." Someone snide said in a way that just screamed wrong in Eijiro's ears.

Looking around Eijiro wondered if he actually heard that, and his eyes landed on a small group of three people to the right of him.

But the longer he looked the more familiar and gut twisting Eijiro suddenly felt.

Because it wasn't three people hanging out, it was two brunette guys cornering a third purple-haired guy, they actually had the third guy all but pinned against the wall with said person pressing himself against the wall to avoid touching them.

"I am not doing that." The purple-haired guy hissed back, clearly uncomfortable.

"But buddy all you have to do is-" one of the two, the one with horns, began clearly trying to persuade the third but before he could finish Eijiro shouted out without really thinking "Dude!"

Startling the three of them and when they looked over at him, where Eijiro's mind promptly blanked on him.

He'd never done something like this before and he wished he had even half of a plan of what he should do next to get himself and the cornered guy out of this situation.

Gosh how did Mina do this?

Then his eyes lit up as he got an idea and he rushed forward, lightly pushing one of the guys away in the process.

"I'm sorry about being late," Eijiro said with a laugh, he hugged the purple-haired guy and whispered into his ear as quietly as he could "Just play along."

The guy was stiff but clearly preferred Eijiro over the other two as he half-heartedly hugged Eijiro back "It's fine." The guy replied, not fighting when Eijiro proceeded to wrap an arm around his waist.

"It's so not, it's been so long since I've seen you in person dude and when I finally get the chance I'm late, so not manly of me." Eijiro responded as he quickly walked away from the other two guys with the purple-haired guy in tow.

Thankfully the two brunette guys seemed so surprised by him swooping in to do anything before Eijiro and his 'friend' got away from them.

"Thanks for waiting for me dude, now come on and tell me what's been going on with you, has your math teacher been just as much of a-" Eijiro said trying to keep up the ruse as the two of them power walked away from the store.

Once they walked a few blocks and couldn't see either of the two guys following them Eijiro stopped talking and took his arm off of the guy.

"Okay, I think we're all clear. Sorry about getting in your personal space dude, but you looked super uncomfortable back there." Eijiro said, rubbing his neck as he apologized.

The guy frowned but shrugged "It's fine... thanks though." He replied.

And then the two of them were kind of just standing together, not really sure what to do next.

Which was kind of awkward.

Eijiro bit his lip and looked around, spotting a vending machine.

"Hey, do you want a soda? I've got some cash." Eijiro offered pointing towards the vending machine.

Purple blinked staring at him, a bit surprised "You don't have to do that." Purple told him but Eijiro waved the guy off.

"It's no problem dude, I need to get something myself, what do you want?" Eijiro asked taking out his wallet.

Purple hesitated before pointing the strawberry milk drink, Eijiro nodded putting the money in and getting himself one two.

"Here, and I'm Kirishima, what's your name?" Eijiro said introducing himself as he offered the first of the strawberry milks.

Purple took the bottle and quietly offered his name "Shinsou."

"Nice to meet you, I'm not from around here so do you know any good places to eat around here?" Eijiro inquired.

He knew he was probably overstepping but he got the feeling that what he just interrupted wasn't just a one-off thing for Shinsou, and the idea of just leaving him to deal with it didn't feel right either.

Shinsou hadn't answered right away and Eijiro couldn't exactly blame him since he was being way more friendly than he normally would with a random stranger.

"There's a cat café down the street, it has decent coffee." Shinsou eventually muttered back.

Eijiro grinned back "That sounds great, do you know if they have any big ones, the Maine coons? My mom used to have one and she loved to have pictures of them." Eijiro inquired a bit excited.

Shinsou fingers tapped his bottle, and he looked away from Eijiro.

"Uh, yeah they do. An old stray they adopted a couple years ago, he's got a chunk missing from one of his ears." Shinsou answered.

"Dude, that sounds just like Mom's old cat, Trigger. Oh, I have to go see him, can you introduce me to him?" Eijiro asked even more excited.

Shinsou again seemed surprised "I guess, I was going to head there anyways." Shinsou told him and Eijiro mentally first pumped.

"Great, let's go." Eijiro said following Shinsou down the street, texting his parents that he was going to be out longer than he thought, promising to send them some pictures of the café he was going to visit.

The Maine coon at the café was adorable and he didn't have the same colors as Trigger was but his mom loved the pictures regardless.

*God this hell run isn't getting any better.* Eijiro thought as he staggered his way to the cat café like he had every time he ran the long trail to the neighboring prefecture.

All of his limbs protesting moving at all.

Though he supposed that was really all on him for coming back so soon, he'd been visiting nearly every other day.

However, as he stumbled in the cat café and saw Shinsou sitting in the playpen corner a good chunk of his aching felt worth it.

Eijiro made sure to order something before he headed over to the corner and softly called out "Hey, Shinsou how are you doing?"

Shinsou didn't look up and just hummed back, busy playing with the white Himalayan's paws to answer properly.

Which was fine, in the last month he'd been hanging out with Shinsou he'd come to realize that Shinsou was a quiet guy and didn't even speak some days.

Eijiro didn't mind carrying the conversation those days or just quietly playing with the cats alongside Shinsou those days.

Upon flopping on the ground near Shinsou, the old Maine coon of the café, Captain, matched on over to him and made his home on Eijiro's back, openly purring as loudly as he could.

"Hey Captain, missed you too." Eijiro said chuckling as he felt even better with the vibrations of the purring running through his body.

Captain meowed back and started making biscuits on his back and Eijiro pushed his phone over to Shinsou.

Shinsou rolled his eyes but obliged to Eijiro's silent question taking a video for his mom to see.

The two of them spending another silent hour together before Eijiro began to pack up his stuff to start his run home.

Waving to Shinsou as he left, and Eijiro getting a wave back in return.

Come the weekend Eijiro planned to take a break from the running and then he took the train to the next prefecture with the hope of hanging out with Shinsou for the day.

Shinsou always seemed to be at the cat café and today was no different.

"Hey Shinsou, great minds think alike huh?" Eijiro said as he settled down in the corner with his friend.

Captain abandoning Shinsou's lap to lay in Eijiro's, causing Shinsou to scowl at the betrayal.

"Sorry." Eijiro apologized, scooting closer so Shinsou could still keep petting Captain.

Shinsou seemed to be having another quiet day since he didn't speak today even after a couple hours of sitting around and loving on the cats that would come up to them.

After the third hour though Shinsou surprisingly spoke up.

"I'm pretty sure there are cat cafés in Chiba." Shinsou pointed out.

Eijiro took a moment to recalibrate his brain since he hadn't expected Shinsou to say anything.

"Yeah we do, there's actually one really close to where I live and my mom goes there everyday after work, they got a new litter of kittens recently. I think I have pictures actually." Eijiro replied digging in his pocket for his phone to show Shinsou.

"But you come all the way over here to pet cats." Shinsou said sarcastically, raised eyebrow and all.

Eijiro huffed.

"Of course not, I come to hang out with you, the cats are just a bonus." Eijiro playful corrected him.

Shinsou though frowned.

"I don't even talk to you half the time." Shinsou told him.

Eijiro blinked "Um, yeah but you don't have to? Just chilling with you here is nice, and when we do talk it always pretty cool, like about that documentary you showed me on your phone was so good." Eijiro replied grinning as he thought of the old dinosaur documentary binge they went on.

"Friends don't have to talk all of the time." Eijiro pointed out.

Shinsou scoffed at him "You barely know anything about me." Shinsou spat back.

Eijiro's smile dimmed some, but he brushed Shinsou's jab off.

"Yeah, but friendships have to start somewhere, and I don't mind you telling me about yourself in your own time." Eijiro responded good-heartedly.

Shinsou looked back at him exasperated.

"My quirk is brainwashing, people respond to me and then I can control them." Shinsou flatly told him.

Eijiro blinked his mouth falling open.

"Oh, dude that's cool!" Eijiro exclaimed "There's so much you could do, you could stop so many hostage situations or bank robberies. God your quirk would make you such a good hero." Eijiro excitedly said practically beaming at his friend.

Shinsou though sat there wide eyed and his mouth slightly open.

"Me… a hero?" Shinsou asked, completely in disbelief.

"Totally! Well mostly, you definitely need to build up some muscle first because heroes need to do a lot of ground work. Your quirk will be so much more useful for a hero than my hardening quirk as a hero." Eijiro answered causally waving at Shinsou's lanky form compared to his own.

Shinsou just kept staring at him.

"Wait dude do you want to be a hero too? Bro!" Eijiro happily asked and hugged Shinsou, who sputtered back not expecting the hug.

"We should totally try out for U.A together! We can train together for it and everything!" Eijiro proclaimed as he pulled away, holding Shinsou by the shoulders with a massive grin just thinking about.

"I... " Shinsou hesitated.

Eijiro tilted his head, waiting for Shinsou to finish his sentence.

"You think I could make it into U.A's hero course?" Shinsou asked, his voice sounding delicate.

Eijiro grinned back at his friend.

"Of course, we both will! You're so smart you'll definitely pass the written exam, we just need to make sure that you'll pass the physical part and I'll help do that Shinsou!" Eijiro promised taking Shinsou's hands in his.

"So, what do you say? Do you want to try and be heroes together?" Eijiro asked perhaps being a touch too eager.

Shinsou just stared at him like someone had knocked the wind out of him.

Then Shinsou's hands squeezed his back.

"Yeah, let's be heroes... Together." Shinsou agreed.

I am sure that all of you know the golden retriever trope for a happy-friendly character like Eijiro.

But let me offer you an alternative concept.

The black lab that is trying his best to be a golden retriever.

Because of this thought and the fact these two characters live in neighboring prefectures, I give this chapter where puppy dog boi Kirishima befriends stand-offish alley cat Shinsou