No alarms went off.
No teachers yelling.
No rushed uniforms.
It was Saturday.
Which meant—
Nobody moved.
The fort had partially collapsed during the night. Blankets sagged. Glow sticks had dimmed. Someone (Denki) had rolled halfway out and was using a chip bag as a pillow.
Kirishima was snoring softly.
Mina had claimed three blankets.
Bakugou was awake but pretending not to be.
I blinked slowly at the ceiling.
For a second, I forgot.
Then I remembered.
The window.
The root beer.
The chips.
The Pulse was quiet.
Not tense.
Just… present.
I carefully untangled myself from the blanket pile and stood.
Kaito cracked one eye open. "You moving?"
"Yeah," I muttered. "Bathroom."
He didn't believe that, but he let it go.
I stepped around soda cans and sleeping friends and walked to the common room window.
The early morning light spilled across the floor.
I didn't rush.
Didn't brace.
Just looked.
The red plastic cup was still there.
Empty.
Every drop of root beer gone.
The bowl?
Crumbs.
Not even full chips left.
Just crumbs.
My heartbeat ticked up once.
The Pulse hummed softly in acknowledgment.
She'd taken it.
Slowly, I unlocked the window and slid it open.
Cool morning air drifted in.
I crouched and leaned out slightly.
The bowl was pushed neatly to the side.
The cup upright.
Not thrown.
Not crushed.
Placed.
And next to them—
A sticky note.
Folded once.
Bright pink.
Of course it was.
I stared at it for a second before picking it up.
My fingers felt warm.
Not scared.
Just… aware.
I unfolded it.
Messy handwriting.
Playful loops.
It read:
"Thank you for the snacks, Ren :)"
Underneath it—
A tiny doodle of a smiling face with sharp teeth.
And below that, smaller:
"Root beer suits you."
I exhaled slowly.
Behind me, a blanket shifted.
"You're kidding," Denki's sleepy voice croaked.
I didn't turn around.
"She drank it."
"What?" Mina shot upright instantly.
The room woke up in stages.
Kirishima sat up. "No way."
Bakugou was already standing by the time I turned back around.
I handed the note to Kaito first.
He read it.
His jaw tightened slightly.
"She was comfortable," he said quietly.
Midoriya leaned over his shoulder. "She felt safe enough to remain on-site long enough to consume everything."
Denki blinked. "She had a full snack break."
Mina slowly crawled over. "Okay but that's… kind of polite?"
Bakugou snapped, "It's calculated."
I looked back outside.
No shadow.
No movement.
Just morning.
"She didn't touch anything else," I said.
The Pulse wasn't flaring.
If anything—
It felt steadier.
Like it recognized something had shifted.
"She could've tried something," Kirishima said.
"But she didn't," I replied.
Kaito studied me carefully. "You're not scared."
I thought about it.
About the giggle.
About the way she stayed but didn't interfere.
About the fact that she'd written my name.
"No," I admitted.
And that was the part that unsettled Bakugou the most.
He clicked his tongue. "That's the problem."
Mina looked between us. "So what now?"
I folded the sticky note once.
Carefully.
"She wanted a reaction," I said.
"She got one," Denki replied.
I shook my head slightly.
"No. She got acknowledgment."
Outside, the empty cup caught the sunlight.
And for the first time since this started—
The Pulse didn't feel like a warning.
It felt like a line being drawn.
Not fear.
Not surrender.
Just…
Engagement.
Saturday had barely started.
And somehow—
It already felt like the beginning of something new.