Archive of Our Own ^beta

Yukimura Rei comes into his life when he is five years old.

Even as a child, Atsuhiro knew that she was undeniably pretty. With her long white hair and gentle gray eyes, it was difficult to not be enamored by her. She seemed quite small for her age, as her uniform was a little too big for her tiny frame. Even so, Atsuhiro found himself intrigued with this new girl.

Rei stands at the front of the class, smiling rather shyly at her new classmates. The teacher has a friendly hand clasped on her shoulder as he introduces her.

“Everyone, this is our new student, Yukimura Rei. Please welcome her!”

The class responds with a collective ‘hello! ’, and Rei visibly loosens up more. Her smile becomes a little less awkward, and all Atsuhiro can think about is how cute she is.

She quickly bows before her fellow students, politely declaring, “H-Hello! Please take good care of me!” 

Out of some stroke of luck - or perhaps it was just the fate of the universe - Rei is assigned to sit beside Atsuhiro. She quickly settles into her desk, pulling out her notebooks as she shyly avoids everyone’s curious gaze. 

The teacher resumes class as normal, yet Atsuhiro cannot pay attention to whatever today’s lesson is. He keeps peeking over at his new classmate, finding her incredibly intriguing. She focuses on their teacher - like he probably should be doing - but he’s more interested in the girl beside him. It’s just so hard to look away - especially when her long, white hair slips in front of her face as takes notes. She then tucks it behind her ear, revealing her bright gray eyes.

Suffice to say, Atsuhiro is entranced.

He casts a quick glance down at her notebook, noting her handwriting was neat and pretty. Fitting for her.

Atsuhiro doesn’t really know how long he continues to occasionally glance over at Rei, but she eventually notices. She looks over at him with a puzzled expression and polite smile, causing his heart to do a flip in his chest.

Atshuiro’s face flushes at being caught. He shoots her a friendly, goofy grin and awkwardly waves ‘hello’ at her. In response, Rei’s smile grows wider, and it becomes a little more warm. She waves back, beaming brightly all the while.

As the two then return their attention to their teacher, all Atsuhiro can think about is how he wants to get to know Yukimura Rei more.

During their lunch break, Rei and Atsuhiro sit together in the courtyard. They eat their food as they watch the clouds roll by. Fellow students run about, laughing and playfully shouting at each other.

Rei and Atsuhiro aimlessly chat about their family, and where they originally came from. Atsuhiro learns that Rei is an only child, and that she recently moved due to her father’s new job. In turn, Rei learns Atsuhiro has lived in this tiny town all his life.

During their conversation, Atsuhiro started to dig through his lunch box, looking for the little cup of ice cream he had packed earlier that day. When he pulls it out and opens it, however, he is immediately dismayed.

“Aw, it melted…,” he pouts, staring down at the now-liquid ice cream. 

Rei tilts her head to the side, “Did you put an ice pack in your lunch box?”

Atsuhiro sheepishly grins at her, sticking out his tongue in embarrassment, “I always forget to put it in…” He stares down at the melted dessert, slightly giggling to himself.

Rei thinks for a moment. She then places her hands over his, causing Atsuhiro’s face to blush a deep red. She appears oblivious to it, as she looks down at the ice cream with determination, “I might be able to fix this…”

“Eh?” Atsuhiro asks. Suddenly, his hands become very cold. He looks down, noticing a thin layer of frost developing over his hands and the ice cream. It quickly becomes too much, causing him to lurch away from Rei.

“Ah! Cold, cold!” He exclaims. Atsuhiro wildly waves his hands in the air, attempting to get some sort of heat back in them. The ice cream flies out of his hands, landing in the grass a few feet away.

Rei immediately becomes panicked, her face flushing with shame. Her hands hang limply in the air, unsure of what to do. “Ah - Sako, I’m so sorry! I thought I could control it-”

Atsuhiro quickly shakes his head at her reassuringly. He tucks his hands beneath his arms, trying to warm them back up. He glances over at Rei’s face, and he can tell tears are pricking at the corner of her eyes.

“Yukimura - it’s okay, I’m fine! I’m not mad at you! Please don’t cry!” Atsuhiro hurriedly says. Rei vigorously nods, wiping at her eyes.

Once she’s calmed down, Atsuhiro gives her a friendly grin, “That was your quirk, right? Is it frost?”

Rei gives him a tiny, affirmative nod. “It’s ice… It just developed a few months ago, so I’m still figuring out how to control it,” she then gives him that same, embarrassed smile from when she caught him staring at her hours prior, “I probably should’ve just asked for the ice cream container instead of trying to refreeze it over your hands… I’m sorry for nearly freezing you.”

Atsuhiro’s face flushes. She really has such a pretty smile. 

“N-No, it’s okay! You were just trying to help,” he quickly looks away, flustered. With Rei giving him this warm feeling, it was far easier to get his hands to return to normal temperature. 

Atsuhiro bends down to pick up the ice cream, and notices it’s been successfully refrozen. A wide grin spreads across his face. He excitedly shows Rei the ice cream, holding it out towards her, “And it worked! Look!”

Rei blinks down at it before her own smile erupts across her lips. “Wow, it looks like normal ice cream now!”

Atsuhiro grabs a spoon from his lunch box. He dips it into the ice cream and takes a bite, smiling at the taste, “Mmm, and it’s good. Thanks, Yukimura!” 

Out of the corner of his eye, Atsuhiro notices a dusting of pink spread across Rei’s cheeks. “I-It’s no problem.”

He continues to eat his ice cream as he babbles, “Your quirk is so cool! You can keep your ice cream cold all the time.”

Rei lightly giggles. “Thank you. I just wonder how strong it is… I don’t want to accidentally freeze people. I don’t think anyone would like me for that.”

Atsuhiro turns to her, his face suddenly serious. With brutal honesty only a child could muster, he firmly states, “Well, you just nearly froze my hands, and I still like you.”

Rei stares at him with wide eyes. She blinks once, twice, thrice - And then her face turns beet red in embarrassment. 

“H-Huh? I mean - That’s good to hear!” Rei quickly says, looking away from Atsuhiro’s gaze. Flustered, she hurriedly changes the subject, “Do you have a quirk, Sako?”

Sako pauses, staring down at his half-finished ice cream. After a beat, he admits, “I don’t know yet, actually. I’m five, but nothing has manifested. Maybe I’m quirkless…? Or just a late bloomer." He muses. It’s not like he particularly cares if he has a quirk or not, but he knows if he’s quirkless, he’ll be subjected to relentless teasing at the very least.

Rei hums in thought. She turns her head to look at him once more, and gives him a warm smile. “Well, quirkless or not, I still like you, Sako.” Her tone is nothing but sincere.

Atsuhiro blanches before his face flushes. He can feel the tip of his ears burning as he stumbles over his words, “Eh?! Y-You’re pulling that on m-me now?”

Rei laughs, and the sound is so musical and lovely that Atsuhiro only becomes more embarrassed. 

When they are summoned back to class, Atsuhiro knows that Yukimura Rei is most definitely a fascinating person.

"What kind of soda do you like to get?”

Rei merely hums, looking over the selection of drinks. She and Atsuhiro are standing in a tiny convenience store. They peer inside the see-through refrigerators, trying to decide what kind of beverages to get.

“I don’t really drink soda. I prefer juice,” Rei admits.

“Really? I like Ramune,” Atsuhiro replies, opening the door to grab said drink. He shows it to Rei as he explains, “The marble in it is so cute!” 

The girl giggles. “It is, but I always want to take it out. It’s hard to drink around…”

The two idly chat as Rei decides on a bottle of orange juice. They pay separately at the counter, with the yen their parents gave them. The cashier gives them a friendly smile, and the two children politely say their ‘thank you’s’ before leaving.

They step out of the store, walking towards Rei’s bicycle. They sip their respective drinks as Rei pulls her bicycle from the bike rack. It has a cute little basket attached at the front, where she places their beverages before they climb onto the bike.

Rei seats herself at the front, while Atsuhiro settles behind her. He barely has time to wrap his arms around her before she suddenly lurches forward, barreling down the street.

“To the playground!” She announces, laughing.

Atsuhiro yelps in surprise, tightly holding onto his friend. He squeezes his eyes shut and buries his face into her back, crying out, “Yukimuraaaaa! Don’t go so fast!”

“My bike, my rules!” Rei replies playfully, giggling over the wind blowing on their faces, “If you don’t like it, learn how to ride your own!”

“I’m still using my training wheels!” Atsuhiro whines, clutching onto his friend.

The two continue to ride to the playground, laughing all the while.

A few months later, Atsuhiro’s quirk manifests. ‘Compress’ is what his family calls it.

It happens over the weekend - When he’s reaching for the television remote to change channels. As soon as he grabs it, however, the remote compresses into a tiny marble right before his eyes.

He remembers staring at the small object in disbelief. Then what just happened finally registers in his brain, causing him to yelp in surprise and run off to his mother in confusion. It doesn’t take long for them to figure out it’s his quirk.

After many, many hours of trial and error - along with a few calls to various family members - Atsuhiro and his mother finally manage to get him to decompress the television remote.

The next day, Atsuhiro devotes himself into figuring out how to compress and decompress a bouquet of flowers. They’re nothing special, admittedly, as he had picked random autumn bellflowers in the meadow beside his house. Even so, they were pretty - much like the person he intended on gifting them to. She did mention these were her favorite flowers, after all.

Atsuhiro spends the entire day - practically from sunup to sundown - learning how to compress and decompress the flowers. He discovers that trying to marbleize multiple objects at once is beyond his current skills, so he settles on compressing one flower instead. He picks the prettiest, biggest one out of the batch. When it’s time for him to eat dinner, he’s successfully managed to entrap the flower in a marble. 

The next morning, as Atsuhiro walks to school, he stares down at the tiny sphere in his hands. He still has yet to discover how to decompress it, but he’s hoping he’ll figure that out soon. 

He arrives at the school courtyard, and notices Rei sitting outside on one of the benches. She’s reading a book, and her hair gently flows in the breeze. 

Atsuhiro swallows his nerves, silently begging to whatever deity above that he’s able to control his newly developed quirk just this once.

He strolls up to the girl, hiding the marble behind his back. As he approaches, Rei notices his presence. She glances up, offering her friend a warm smile.

“Good morning, Sako.” 

He beams back at her, though he feels as if his smile is wobbly, “Good morning, Yukimura. Something crazy happened over the weekend!”

Rei stares up at him, interested. She closes her book and places it in her lap, her expression quizzical, “Oh? What happened? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah! Everything’s okay!” Atsuhiro says reassuringly, “My, um, my quirk manifested! I can turn things into marbles!” 

The girl blinks. She then gasps excitedly, clasping her hands together in awe, “Really?! That’s so cool! Can you show me?” 

Atsuhiro, despite his anxiety over getting this wrong, manages to shoot Rei a sly smile. “Actually, I have something for you!”

He presents the special marble to her, grinning, “There’s a surprise in this marble! I just... have to release it…”

The boy then focuses his attention slowly on the sphere. He fumbles about with it in his hands, trying to get it to decompress. He can feel Rei watching him intently as he tries to get a hold of his newly formed quirk.

Despite his best efforts, the marble won’t budge from its current form. Atsuhiro desperately tries to will his quirk to work in his favor, but it’s no use. 

A few minutes pass, and he still hasn’t made any progress. He can feel tears of frustration brimming in his eyes, yet he still continues to attempt to get this marble to decompress. This sucks; he had really wanted to pleasantly surprise Rei, yet it seemed the universe was giving him the middle finger.

Suddenly, Rei’s hands gently clasp over his own. Atsuhiro lightly jolts in surprise, causing the negative thoughts swarming in his head to be silenced. Despite the inherent chilliness of Rei’s touch, she always left him feeling incredibly warm.

He turns his gaze towards her, eyes wide. Her expression looks so soft and bright, and she’s giving him a comforting smile. Still holding onto his hands, Rei reassures him, “Please don’t cry, Sako! It’s okay! Your quirk just came in, after all, it’s unrealistic for me to expect you to have it down already. I’m sorry to stress you out.”

Atsuhiro furiously shakes his head, “No - It’s not your fault! I just really wanted to surprise you…”

His face burns as he then declares, “I promise, Yukimura, I’ll learn to decompress this marble for you!”

Rei’s face gets a light pink tint at that. She giggles as she replies with, “I look forward to it. But even if you never can, I’m so happy you thought of me.” 

Atsuhiro flushes, avoiding her gaze out of embarrassment. “O-Oh, well, yeah…” He then quickly hands her the marble, his face still red, “Hang onto this for now, yeah? When I have enough practice with my quirk, I’ll decompress it for you.” 

Rei nods, carefully taking the marble into her hands. She smiles down at it, her face glowing. She then clutches it to her chest, as if it were an important treasure. “I’ll keep this forever.”

Atsuhiro shyly scratches the back of his head, flustered. From this day onwards, he vowed to himself that he would get a better handle on his quirk.

In order to get a grasp on his quirk, Atsuhiro relies on videos from the internet. This proves as a catalyst for him becoming interested in magic.

Watching people do ‘magic tricks’ with their quirks does wonders to his young mind. It’s fascinating to see individuals use their unique abilities for fun, especially when their society was so geared towards using quirks for combat.

And so, in order to better understand his quirk, Atsuhiro begins to practice his own magic stunts. He masters the typical tricks: quarter-behind-the-ear trick (albeit substituted with a marble), disappearing objects in his hands, and hiding things in a cartoonish top hat.

Rei is front and center while watching him practice. She claps encouragingly when he pulls off a magic trick, gasping in awe when a marble vanishes behind her ear. 

It’s fun - practicing and understanding his quirk like this, and Rei’s amazed reactions just only add to it all. Atsuhiro finds himself quite liking being a magician. 

Despite his ever-growing interest in the art of magic, the town’s tiny school system didn’t offer any sort of clubs pertaining to that sort of subject.

Atsuhiro’s brow furrows as he reads over the rather small list of available clubs. His class has to pick at least one for when they move onto middle school, so it was a big deal. Rei sits beside him, scanning over her own piece of paper.

“No magician’s club,” Atsuhiro sighs, scratching his head. There weren’t any other available clubs he was interested in, either. What was he going to do now?

Rei hums thoughtfully. She points to a section on the list, angling the paper in order to show Atsuhiro. “How about this?”

“Theatre club?” the boy reads aloud, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Rei nods affirmatively, “It’s not exactly the same thing as being a magician, but you’d still be able to perform, right?”

Atsuhiro thinks for a moment, grazing down at his own piece of paper. “Maybe, I’ll think about it.”

He then turns back to Rei, a curious grin on his face, “What about you? What are you thinking about doing?”

The girl shrugs, but there’s a small quirk of her lips that tells Atsuhiro she’s been thinking about this, “I was thinking maybe… a sport? Something that has to do with being on the ice. Like hockey.” 

“Woah! Really?!” Atsuhiro gasps excitedly, “You know how to ice skate?”

“Not yet,” Rei admits sheepishly, “But I want to start practicing soon. I think it could be fun, especially since I love the cold… It just feels natural to me.” 

Her friend nods in understanding, grinning all the while, “Well, if you do join the hockey team, I’ll go to all your games!”

Rei beams at him, grateful. Her cheeks have a light dust of pink on them. “And I’ll go to all your performances, whether they relate to theatre or magic,” she sincerely states.

Atsuhiro’s smile grows wider. He happily swings his legs, staring up at the clear sky above them, “I’m glad we’re going to the same middle school.”

“Well, there’s only one in this whole town,” Rei teases, giggling. Even so, she rests her head on the boy’s shoulder, sighing contentedly, “But I’m glad too.”

Atsuhiro’s face burns at the contact, but rests his head on Rei’s regardless.

Atsuhiro fumbles about the ice, his legs flailing in wild directions. He grips the side of the ice skating rink, trying to keep his balance. 

Rei, meanwhile, gracefully glides across the ice. She spins and twirls and jumps, as if she were born to ice skate. Her white hair flows about with her movements, elegant and sparkling, and all Atsuhiro can think is that she looks like some sort of ice princess.

His cheeks flush at the thought. Rei does another complicated-looking twirl, and her friend thinks how on Earth is she able to do that so easily?

She eventually skates over to him, grinning and lightly panting. “Sako, did you see me?!”

Atsuhiro, despite his legs wobbling, manages to smile right back at her. “Yeah, you’re incredible, Yukimura! You learned so quickly!”

Rei giggles, her face turning a light shade of pink. “I guess I am a natural, after all. But hey - Do want help?”

She holds a hand out to him questioningly. Atsuhiro looks between it and her, hesitating, “Are you sure? I don’t want to accidentally knock you over.”

His friend only continues to beam at him in response. “It’s fine if you do. You’re still new to this, after all. And... I really want to ice skate with you, Sako.”

Atsuhiro can feel his face burning at the girl’s declaration. He bites his bottom lip, avoiding Rei’s gaze out of embarrassment. “Okay… I-I really want to ice skate with you too, Yukimura.” 

He grasps her hand, cautiously and carefully pushing himself off the wall. Rei smiles gently at him, taking both of his hands as she gracefully guides him across the ice.

“How are you doing that backwards? That’s amazing!” Atsuhiro breathes, trying to focus on keeping his balance, “I can barely move forwards...”

Rei giggles, squeezing his hands reassuringly. “Move your feet like this.”

She carefully moves to skate by his side, still holding his hand. She glides her feet across the ice, slowly and with such precision. She continues the motion, looking at Atsuhiro expectantly. 

The boy watches her movements attentively. He tries to mimic her, but ends up stumbling on the ice. He falls, accidentally taking Rei down with him.

The two land on the ice, momentarily disoriented. Atsuhiro then realizes what he’s done, the horror washing over him.

“Yukimura, I’m so sorry! Are you-” he glances over to her worriedly, but is then cut off when Rei begins to warmly laugh. Her smile is wide and her giggling sounds like a songbird, and her eyes are squeezed shut from laughing so hard. 

And all Atsuhiro can think as he watches her in amazement is: She’s so pretty.

He then begins to laugh as well, scratching the back of his head sheepishly and sticking out his tongue. 

After a few moments of them just giggling, Rei then stands, brushing the ice off. She reaches a hand out towards Atsuhiro, brightly beaming at him, “Let’s try again.”

The boy blinks before grinning. He takes her hand, now full of determination, “Let’s. I’ll try not to fall this time.”

After their elementary school graduation, Atsuhiro and Rei celebrate by going to the local ice cream shop. They sit outside the store on a bench, happily eating away at their sweets. They watch birds fly about the beautiful blue sky, and occasionally point at clouds that look like funny shapes.

As Atsuhiro glances over at Rei - with her cheeks pink with happiness, her smile big and glowing, and her gray eyes sparkling with wonder - a thought suddenly hits him.

“Yukimura,” he says, getting her attention. She turns to him, raising an eyebrow at him curiously. The boy gulps before seriously declaring, “If you want, I want you to start calling me Atsuhiro.”

Rei blinks at him owlishly. Her face then turns a deep red, looking surprised, “Wah- Really?!”

“Yes,” the boy confirms, “We’ve been friends for a few years now, and I really like being your friend… So…” He trails off, flustered. His ears feel like they’re on fire.

“...A-Atsuhiro,” Rei says hesitantly, as if she were testing the name. Hearing Rei saying his name for the first time - it causes the boy’s ears to burn hotter, and the next thing Rei says only makes him feel more embarrassed, “I really like being your friend, too - So you better start calling me Rei from now on!”

Atsuhiro looks over at her, his eyes widening with awe. Though Rei has a serious frown on her face, her cheeks are a bright red. Her friend then quickly nods, “Okay, R-Rei!”

The two stare at each other intensely for a moment. Then, they begin to shyly giggle. They return to their ice creams, carefully avoiding each other’s gaze.

Atsuhiro glances up towards the sky, smiling. Without looking over at the girl, he inquires, “Hey, Rei?”

A curious hum. “Yes, Atsuhiro?” 

“Let’s spend the entire summer together.”

“... I’d like that a lot.”

Towards the end of the summer, Rei rediscovers an old treasure.

They’re sitting in her room, with Atsuhiro attempting to perfect a card trick. Rei watches him in wonder, while Atsuhiro sticks his tongue out in concentration. 

His hands then fumble, accidentally dropping the cards everywhere. 

“Aw, man!” the boy exclaims in exasperation, “This is so much harder than it looks.”

Rei places a finger on her chin in thought. “Maybe you can try to show me how to do it? It might help having a reference.”

“We can try that,” Atsuhiro nods, collecting the fallen cards from the floor, “Do you have any cards for you to use? If not, you can use some of mine.”

“Let me check my drawer. I might have some in there,” Rei replies, standing to walk over to the drawer beside her bed. Atsuhiro listens to her dig through it while picking up the cards. He suddenly hears her stop and gasp aloud. “Oh, wow.” she breathes.

Atsuhiro looks over his shoulder at her. Her eyes are wide as she stares into the drawer. “What is it?”

She blinks. She then slowly reaches into the drawer, pulling out a tiny marble and showing it to him.

Atsuhiro stares at it in bewilderment, unsure what’s so special about the object. Then it hits him. 

His face grows hot as he stutters, “I-Is that… The surprise I got you all those years ago?”

Rei bobs her head in confirmation. “Yes, from when your quirk manifested.”

The two stare at each other, equally shocked and flustered. Atsuhiro scratches the back of his head nervously, “Wow, I can’t believe I forgot about it…”

Rei offers him a small smile. “It’s okay, I did too. I guess we both got busy...”

“Yeah…”

The two gaze at each other quietly, both wondering the same thing.

“Do you want me to finally decompress it for you?” Atsuhiro asks, hopeful. The girl’s eyes widen, and she nods vigorously.

“Yes! I’m so curious now!” She hurries over to sit beside him on the floor, handing the marble to him. Rei watches him excitedly, her face glowing.

Atsuhiro chuckles at her reaction, taking the marble into his hands. He stares at it, his cheeks burning - because he remembers exactly what he put in it all those years ago.

“Hold out your hands,” Atsuhiro commands, and Rei does just that. His own hand hovers over hers, and with a quick snap of his fingers over the marble, it decompresses. A small autumn bellflower falls into Rei’s hands, and it still looks the same as it did all those years ago.

“Oh, wow! It didn’t wither,” Atsuhiro breathes, relieved.

Rei stares down at the plant, fascinated. A soft smile spreads across her lips. She gently clasps the flower in her hands, gazing down at it as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

“My favorite flower… I can’t believe you remembered all those years ago,” Rei quietly murmurs. Atsuhiro blushes, tearing his gaze away from her.

“O-Of course I did! And I still haven’t forgotten,” he quickly states, “I forgot I was only able to compress one flower, though. I’ll have to get you a whole bouquet next time.” 

The girl giggles at that, causing her friend to look back over at her. She’s still buzzing with happiness, carefully holding the flower against her chest. She meets Atsuhiro’s gaze, and her gray eyes shine as bright as the night stars. Her voice is still quiet and gentle when she says, “Thank you, Atsuhiro. I love it.”

The boy’s face grows hotter. He rubs the back of his head shyly, “Y-You’re welcome.”

Rei beams, looking back down at the flower. “I want to keep this forever, but it will wither…,” she gazes at her friend pleadingly, “Will you compress it back into a marble for me? I promise I won’t ever forget what’s inside it.”

“Y-Yes! That’s no problem,” Atsuhiro replies, his cheeks burning. He gently takes the flower from her, compressing it back into a marble. Upon handing it back to her, Rei gratefully clasps it in her hands and holds it to her chest.

“Thank you.”

Atsuhiro nods. “It’s no problem. If you ever want to look at the flower, you can just ask me to decompress it.”

The pink on Rei’s cheeks turns darker. “T-Thank you…”

Then, her face lights up with an idea. “Oh, wait! I can do something for you too.” 

The boy blinks, bewildered at her statement. “Huh?”

Rei holds the marble in one hand, and holds out the other so it’s in front of her face. She maintains a cofused, serious expression as frost starts to form on her fingers. Atsuhiro watches in amazement as ice grows across her skin, slowly forming into the shape of a tiny sphere.

The realization dawns on Atsuhiro. Oh, an ice marble!

She hands it to Atsuhiro, her cheeks glowing. The marble is so round and exact, yet so cold in his hands.

“There. Now we have something from each other,” Rei mumbles shyly. She then giggles, “But yours will melt…”

The boy stares down at the ice marble in wonder. He then tilts his head up to look at Rei, his brown eyes shining with delight, “R-Rei, thank you! I’ll keep this forever!”

Rei laughs once more. “You’re welcome, but how?”

Atsuhiro gives the girl a sly grin. He stands and quickly runs out of the room, “I’ll put it in your freezer, and then mine when I head home!”

Behind him, he can hear Rei’s musical laughter.

The teasing from their classmates begins not long after they start junior high. 

A love umbrella was drawn on the chalkboard, with Atsuhiro and Rei’s respective names beneath it. It had appeared during their lunch break, which the two had spent together in the school courtyard. They stand in front of it, eyes wide. Behind them, some of their classmates snicker.

“Sako and Yukimura sitting in a tree!” a classmate chimes.

“K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” the rest of the students finish, cackling widely as they point at the two.

Atsuhiro’s face burns, and he glances over at his friend. Rei’s hair has fallen in front of her eyes, and her fists are clenched at her sides. Before he can say anything, their teacher walks in. He notices the love umbrella drawn on the board, then Atsuhiro and Rei standing in front of it. 

“Okay, that’s enough everyone! Take your seats!” the teacher scolds, shooing Atsuhiro and Rei away. The two walk back to their desks, keeping their heads down to avoid their classmates’ teasing gazes.

The teacher hastily wipes the love umbrella off the board, moving on to resume class. Once seated, Atsuhiro casts another glance towards Rei, who is seated across from him. Her hair is still in front of her face, shielding her from view. She takes notes, ignoring everyone around her.

The entire time, Atsuhiro worries.

When school ends and everyone else has left, Atsuhiro and Rei walk home together in an awkward silence. Rei hasn’t said anything since the incident, so her friend continues to gaze over at her, concerned. They walk a few feet apart from each other, and Atsuhiro notices Rei is white-knuckling her school bag.

He still can’t see her face, as she’s still using her long hair to hide it.

A few minutes of silence pass, and Atsuhiro finally decides to say something.

“Rei,” he says, trying to get her attention. He sees her tilt her head towards him, yet her face is still hidden. The boy harshly swallows before asking, “Are you okay?”

The girl stops walking, staring down at the pavement beneath her shoes. Atsuhiro stops a few feet in front of her, casting her worried glance. 

When Rei finally speaks, her voice is so quiet that he hardly catches it, “Yes… It’s just embarrassing.”

Atsuhiro offers her a comforting smile, even though she can’t see him. “It is, I won’t argue with that… But it’s okay! Our classmates don’t know anything, they’re just trying to get a rise out of us. Don’t let it get to you.”

A beat. A car passes by, and neither of them move.

“It’s not that…,” Rei finally says, her fists clenched. Atsuhiro blinks, staring at her curiously. 

She finally lifts her head, bearing her face to the boy. A very deep blush is spread across her face, and he can see tears pricking at the corner of her eyes. 

“I-I like you, Atsuhiro!” she announces, her voice sounding wobbly as she hurriedly exclaims, “I’ve liked you for a while now, and I planned on telling you on Valentine's Day! But then our classmates did that… And I wanted to tell you how I feel before anyone else told you for me…” 

Another long beat.

Atsuhiro’s first reaction to Rei’s confession is to stare at her in disbelief. Then, his face becomes very, very hot. His eyes grow so wide, he feels as if they may bulge out of his head. He waves his hands about in the air widely, feeling oh so incredibly flustered.

“W-Wait, you like me?!” he says stupidly. He inwardly cringes after the words leave his mouth. Yeah, she just told you, dumbass!

Rei nods, looking as if she may cry any moment. She avoids his gaze, her eyes falling to the pavement with shame. “I do, and i-it’s fine if you don’t feel the same. I’m h-happy to just be your f-”

She’s interrupted when Atsuhiro rushes forward, suddenly taking her hands in his. He feels just as frantic as Rei when he declares, “I-I like you too! I’ve always liked you!”

The girl stares at him, pleasantly surprised. Her cheeks burn just as brightly as Atsuhiro’s. She gawks at him, as if struggling to find what words to say.

The two merely gaze at each other in shock, red in the face and their hands clasped together tightly. The tears that once threatened to fall from Rei’s eyes dissipate.

Atsuhiro doesn’t know how long the stunned silence stretches on before Rei begins to laugh. It starts off quiet at first, before quickly becoming louder and louder. Atsuhiro watches her, open-mouthed and in awe. Then, he begins to laugh as well. Together, they cackle over the ridiculousness of this whole situation.

He’s not certain how long they stand there laughing for, and he’s pretty sure every person who’s drove by has given the two weird looks, thinking they’ve lost their minds, but Atsuhiro doesn’t particularly care - because he’s with Rei.

Finally, their laughter ceases, and the two gaze at each other softly.

“You like me? I had no idea…,” Rei breathes, her face glowing.

Atsuhiro chuckles, gently brushing a finger over her knuckles. “Really? I thought I was being obvious all these years.” 

The girl’s face flushes. Embarrassed, she averts her eyes to their joined hands, staring at them in amazement. “I’m so happy…”

“I am too,” Atushiro murmurs, feeling breathless. He then shyly - and slightly hopefully - asks, “So, does this make us, like, boyfriend and girlfriend…?”

In reply, Rei gives him the softest of smiles.

“I’d like that a lot.”

Turns out, Atsuhiro really ends up liking theatre.

He’s still a magician at heart, of course - though he can’t ignore his wonder when it comes to the art of performance. He particularly enjoys acting; he’s in love with the flair and the, well, magic of it all. He gets a special feeling in his chest when he stands on that stage, pouring his heart and soul into the performance. 

And much like Rei being a natural at ice skating, he’s a natural at theatre.

He ends up getting a lead role in the school’s first play of his middle school career. He’s ecstatic, of course. He practices like hell, striving for the most perfect performance. Rei also occasionally practices with him in his room, reading back the opposing lines, along with providing him with bottled water and snacks.

And because he was an important part of the production, Atsuhiro had special privileges when it came to inviting people to the opening night.

The day of the play, he strolls up to his girlfriend (his girlfriend!) with a sly grin on his lips. He hides something behind his back. Rei looks up from her book, smiling as he approaches. 

“Hey. Ready for the play tonight?” she asks.

“You know it!” Atushiro winks, beaming. Rei giggles.

“I’m so excited to see you perform! I know you’ll do great.”

Atsuhiro’s sly smile grows wider. “Speaking of which…,” he then dramatically reveals the hand hidden behind his back, which holds a ticket. He gracefully hands it to the girl, grinning at the delighted look of surprise on her face, “You don’t have to worry about paying for a ticket now. Members of the theatre club are allowed to personally invite anyone they choose.”

Rei takes the ticket from her boyfriend’s hand, looking eternally grateful. Her cheeks are pink and her eyes sparkle with excitement. She happily smiles up at the boy as she says, “Oh, Atsuhiro, thank you! I promise I won’t miss your performance for the world.”

And she doesn’t.

Rei sits in the front row, never taking her eyes off of the stage. A bouquet of red roses sit in her lap, clearly a gift for him later. She looks so beautiful in the simple, blue dress she wears, and her hair is pulled up into a simple bun. It takes every ounce of control within Atsuhiro to focus on the performance, rather than admire his girlfriend the entire time (which he so desperately wants to do).

After the play ends and is met with thunderous applause, Atsuhiro emerges from backstage, now dressed in his regular clothes. He approaches his girlfriend, who had been waiting for him in the audience. She stands, excitedly handing him the roses and congratulating him on an excellent performance. 

They decide to get celebratory ice cream at the local ice cream shop. They walk there together, holding hands the entire time. The night sky is beautiful; clear and full of stars, with the moon shining brilliantly. 

Despite the gorgeous view, Atsuhiro can’t take his eyes off his girlfriend. Now that the play is over, he has all the time in the world to admire her beauty.

Their first kiss happens after Rei’s hockey team wins the national championship.

Rei had spent weeks practicing beforehand, throwing her all into being prepared. She was incredibly serious about the championship, wanting to do her best for her and her team.

Over the course of junior high, Rei had proved to be an excellent hockey player. She was able to glide across the ice with ease and exact precision, and although appearing petite, she wasn’t afraid to be aggressive when the game called for it. Therefore, her team relied on her quite a bit.

During the few weeks she focused on practicing, Atsuhiro did whatever he could to help. He made sure she was drinking enough water, cheered for her from the bleachers, and even made her a few bento boxes.

On the day of the championship game, watching from the bleachers, Atsuhiro was almost always on his feet. He cheered the loudest for Rei’s team, drawing a few weird looks from his fellow audience members. 

When his girlfriend scored the winning goal, Atsuhiro cheered so loud he lost his voice. The audience applauses, and Rei celebrates with her teammates, all of them hugging each other and laughing. The opposing team shakes their hands, thanking them for a good game.

Atsuhiro makes his way down from the bleachers while the two team’s exchange their goodbyes. The game had just ended, and the audience was still going fairly wild. He waits at the door to the ice rink, looking at Rei with pride in his eyes. 

After shaking hands with the opposing team, Rei glances around the arena to find her boyfriend. When she finally spots him off to the side, waiting for her, she hurriedly skates over to him.

He opens the door as she approaches. His girlfriend practically leaps at him, wrapping her arms around him happily. He holds her in his arms tightly, trying to congratulate her with words. Due to his excessive cheering throughout the game, however, his voice is hoarse and raspy.

Rei pulls away enough to look up at him, raising an eyebrow at him curiously. “Did you cheer too much?” she giggles.

Seeing her bright smile and sparkling eyes, her pure joy over winning the national championship - it’s so contagious that it causes Atsuhiro’s body to move of its own accord. 

He takes the helmet off of Rei’s head, earning him a curious look. He holds the helmet in one hand, and uses the other to gently cup his girlfriend’s face, capturing her lips in a passionate kiss. Rei is initially (pleasantly) surprised, but she just as quickly kisses him back.

In that moment, it’s as if the entire world was just the two of them. Every other sound was drowned out, and all Atsuhiro can focus on is Rei’s soft lips. They’re cold, yet the kiss has him feeling so incredibly warm.

They don’t kiss for long, as both were running on adrenaline and quickly ran out of breath. When they pull away, the world around them seems to resume. 

The two stare at each other in surprise before they begin to laugh, embracing once more.

Later, when they arrive back in their hometown, they get celebratory ice cream at the familiar ice cream shop they love so much.

“The final battle for the third year Sports Festival at U.A. will be taking place momentarily!” the announcer on the television declares, “It will be between Yagi Toshinori and Todoroki Enji, two upcoming heroes who many Pros have their eyes on! It’s sure to be a close and intense match, so don’t miss it!”

Atsuhiro stares up at the television with a bored expression, sipping on his Ramune. Rei sits across from him, nibbling at her fries and watching the TV with mild interest. 

They’re on a date at a restaurant, which was empty aside from them and the staff in the back. The television is airing the annual Sports Festival hosted by U.A. live, leaving Atsuhiro and Rei to silently watch as they eat their lunch.

Summer is drawing ever closer. Atsuhiro and Rei will both be starting high school soon. 

The broadcast then begins to play the upcoming fight. On the screen, Yagi and Todoroki step into the arena. Yagi appears to be friendly and upbeat, yet Todoroki’s expression is serious and dark.

The TV hosts commentate on the fight as it begins, the entire stadium erupting into oranges and reds due to Todoroki’s flames.

Despite the obviously flashy fight, Atsuhiro can’t help but roll his eyes. He’s definitely one for theatrics, but this is just… ridiculous.

“I never understood any of that,” he finds himself saying aloud.

Rei glances over at him, curiously raising an eyebrow. “Never understood any of what?”

“Heroes,” Atsuhiro shrugs, taking a bite of his fries, “Or just heroics in general. I mean, I feel like most heroes are only in it for fame and attention rather than actually helping people.”

He gestures to the television, where the fight between the two U.A. students is still raging on, “Isn’t it kind of weird that they air this sort of stuff to a national audience? It’s just two kids beating the shit out of each other.”

Rei chuckles. “I suppose so… Honestly, I never really paid attention to anything regarding heroes. It’s not something I ever cared much about.”

Her tone then becomes a little more teasing as she jokes, “I thought you would like them, though. They usually have such flashy costumes.” 

Atsuhiro dramatically places a hand on his chest, playfully acting offended, “How dare you compare tacky hero outfits to the art of stage costumes?! Oh, you wound me!”

Rei laughs, placing a hand over her mouth in an attempt to stifle the sound. Atsuhiro cracks a smile, erupting into his own fit of giggles.

Enraged yelling from the television interrupts the two, causing them to turn their attention back to the unfolding fight. Todoroki has been flown out of the arena, collapsing to the ground in defeat. The audience cheers as Yagi waves at the audience with a wide smile, having emerged victorious. Todoroki, however, begins to aggressively punch the ground in anger.

“Wow, he’s really mad…,” Rei notes, her eyes widening, “I mean, I’ve lost my fair share of hockey games, but no one on my team has ever acted like that…”

Flames begin to erupt from Todoroki’s body, causing Atsuhiro to cringe. “Why do heroes take something like this so seriously?”

Rei merely shrugs, finishing off her fries. The two leave the restaurant shortly afterwards, not bothering to stick around for U.A.’s televised celebration ceremony. 

(Little did Atsuhiro know then, that Todoroki Enji would quickly become much more than just some asshole he saw on TV.)

When they start high school and they’re both fifteen, Atsuhiro and Rei get jobs at the local ice cream shop.

Rei’s ice quirk allowed for her to keep things cold, and Atsuhiro’s quirk made storage a lot easier to navigate and organize. It’s a good enough first job for two teenagers - especially since they get free ice cream.

It’s early in the afternoon on a weekend. Atsuhiro and Rei will be finishing their shifts soon, so the two clean up and make sure things are properly stocked for the evening shift. There are no customers in the store, so it’s just the two of them.

As Atsuhiro refills an empty ice cream container, a memory resurfaces in his mind. He glances over at his girlfriend, playfully smirking, “Hey, do you remember the day we first met? When you tried to refreeze my ice cream, but you ended up freezing me instead?”

Rei, who had been using her quirk to frost over a tub of ice cream, meets Atsuhiro’s gaze and giggles. “I recall only freezing your hands a little bit. And I refroze your ice cream, for the record.”

Atsuhiro waves his hand dismissively. “Ah, same thing,” he jokes.

His girlfriend laughs, placing the tub of ice cream in the refrigerator. She then turns back to him, clasping her hands behind her back.

“But goodness… That was a long time ago. It’s been what, ten years now?” she muses thoughtfully.

“I believe so,” Atsuhiro thinks, “We’ve known each other for a long time now, haven’t we?”

“We have,” Rei breathes. She walks up to him, standing a few inches from his face with a flirtatious grin. She uses a hand to measure their distance in height, “You’ve gotten a lot taller since then, but you’re still so handsome.”

Her boyfriend reaches a hand out to softly run his fingers through her hair, which she cut a few months ago. She had wanted to try shorter hair, so it now barely reaches her neck. 

“And you cut your hair,” Atsuhiro softly murmurs, “Yet you still look so incredibly beautiful.” 

Rei places her hand over his, sighing contentedly. She then quirks an eyebrow at him and says in a teasing tone, “Maybe I should freeze your hand again, for old time’s sake?”

“You can do that, as long as you promise to hold it afterwards to warm up,” Atsuhiro teases back. His gaze falls to her mouth, and he places a thumb on her bottom lip.

“Hmm, but I naturally run cold,” Rei whispers. She meets him halfway, but only barely brushes against her boyfriend’s lips. She then pulls away, smirking at Atsuhiro’s disappointed expression, “Maybe I should freeze the ice cream instead. It’s gonna melt soon if you don’t finish putting it away.”

She points to his side, and Atsuhiro follows her gaze to the abandoned container of ice cream, which he had ignored to continue refilling in favor of teasing his girlfriend.

Atsuhiro’s face flushes in embarrassment. “R-Rei!”

The girl merely giggles, walking back to the storage area. “Be sure to wash your hands first!” she says cheerily.

Atsuhiro watches her leave, lightly chuckling to himself.

During their second year of high school, Atsuhiro and Rei’s science class takes a trip to an aquarium. It’s located next to the ocean, which was a rare sight for the students, as their tiny town was further inland.

Throughout the trip, Atsuhiro notices Rei is incredibly intrigued with marine life. While most of their classmates were interested in looking at the animals, Rei also made sure to read all the information posted about the sea creatures. She listened to their tour guide intently as well, looking absolutely enamored with everything.

Later, when their trip was drawing to a close, Atsuhiro and Rei decide to go to the whale watch area. It’s an outside balcony located on the second floor of the aquarium, facing the ocean. Like the name implies, it’s a good place to be in case any whales come by.

Rei and Atsuhiro stand beside each other, watching the waves. They rest their elbows on the railing, admiring the view.

“It’s so beautiful,” the girl murmurs, unable to take her eyes off of the sea. 

Atsuhiro hums in agreement. He glances at her out of the corner of his eye, noting she still has that fascinated look on her face. Her eyes shine with longing as she watches the waves gently crash onto the shore below. As he watches her, the boy can’t help but get a fluttery feeling in his stomach.

“You seemed really into learning about marine life today,” Atsuhiro comments, grinning, “I never knew you were so interested in it.” 

Rei giggles, smiling sheepishly, “To be honest, I didn’t either until today. But I’ve been thinking about the future lately…,” she then turns to face him, suddenly looking rather serious, “I mean, we’re sixteen now, so we’ll be graduating before we know it.

“I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. At first, I thought maybe I wanted to do something in the medical field, or maybe become a professional hockey player, but now I’m thinking I could be a marine biologist…,” Rei trails off, seemingly lost in thought.

Atsuhiro gives his girlfriend a confident smile. “I think you would be great no matter what you do.”

“Thank you,” Rei giggles, beaming. She then stares at him curiously as she inquires, “Do you know what you want to do yet, Atsuhiro?”

Atsuhiro blinks, slightly surprised at the question. He supposes he should’ve seen that coming, though.

“A little bit,” he then admits after a few seconds of pondering, “I was thinking maybe I could go to school for theatre, become a professional performer, or something… That way I can still do magic shows. Maybe I’ll also volunteer at some political establishments? I want to feel like I’m making a change in the world.”

“A professional performer… That sounds just like you,” his girlfriend says, her tone having a hint of teasing to it. She then sincerely states, “You would be incredible at it, though.” 

Atsuhiro grins appreciatively, “Thank you.”

Rei nods. Comfortable silence falls over them as they watch the ocean waves.

“Um,” the girl suddenly says, her face quickly turning red. She turns to Atsuhiro once more, her tone flustered, “I’m not entirely sure what I want to do yet, but I do know there’s one thing I want in the future.”

Atsuhiro looks over at her, raising an eyebrow. “Oh? What’s that?”

“That you’re there,” Rei simply says, managing a genuine smile despite her severe embarrassment.

Her boyfriend blinks, surprised. His own blush then breaks out across his face. 

He gently takes her hand in his, squeezing it reassuringly. He winks at her as he mumbles, “I’d like that a lot.”

Rei laughs, squeezing his hand back. “Hey! That’s my line!”

It seems like any other day when Atsuhiro’s life changes forever.

He and Rei walk to school, holding hands and aimlessly chatting about anything that comes to mind the entire way. The sky is cloudy, and there’s a slight chill in the air.

When they arrive and take their seats, just minutes before class was scheduled to start, their classmates suddenly work themselves into a frenzy.

“Haven’t you heard? The Number Two Hero Endeavor is in town! He just arrived this morning!” one of their classmates excitedly states, showing her phone to some fellow students. On the screen is a picture of Endeavor seemingly taken by a member of the paparazzi. He stands outside a store exclusive to their tiny town, talking to some locals.

“Woah! He’s here?!” another classmate exclaims in awe, “What’s he doing in our town? There’s no Hero Agency or anything here. We don’t have much crime, either.”

A separate classmate scoffs. “Who cares?! I just hope he’s still here after school today. I wanna get an autograph!”

Atsuhiro glances over at his girlfriend, quirking an eyebrow in both confusion and amusement. Rei merely shrugs her shoulders at him, equally bewildered.

The class then continues on as normal. Right before the lunch break, when their teacher is wrapping up the morning lecture, the intercom kicks on.

“Yukimura Rei, please report to the front office immediately.” 

All of the students look towards said classmate, surprised. It wasn’t like Rei to get into trouble, especially at school. Rei blinks, startled and confused. She then stands, politely excusing herself to the class before leaving the room.

Atsuhiro watches her leave, puzzled.

Rei never comes back to class. Once the school day had ended and most of his classmates have left early in hopes of meeting the Number Two Hero, Atsuhiro still hadn’t heard from his girlfriend. He whips out his phone, shooting her a quick text.

‘Hey. Is everything okay?’

He stares down at his phone for a moment, hoping she would reply.

She doesn’t.

He sighs, putting his phone in his pocket and standing to head home. He hopes to hear from her later that night. He’s worried, he won’t lie, but he doesn’t think anything horrible has happened.

Or at least, he hopes so.

Atsuhiro’s concern increases tenfold when she still hasn’t responded by the following morning. She hasn’t even read his message yet, as ‘delivered’ was still beside it.

When he arrives to class that morning, he hardly listens to his classmates complain that they didn’t get to see Endeavor the day prior. Some ask him ‘Where’s Yukimura?’, to which he admits he doesn’t know.

He checks his phone periodically throughout the school day. He doesn’t get any response from his girlfriend. The anxiety growing in his chest becomes increasingly worse, as he suddenly can’t shake the feeling that something has gone terribly wrong.

Later that night, right before dinner, Atsuhiro’s phone finally dings with a text message. He rushes over to it, staring down at it intensely. 

It’s a text from Rei.

‘Meet me at the playground we frequented when we were kids at 10pm tonight. Don’t tell anyone you’re coming, and come alone.’

Atsuhiro’s eyes widen at the text. Something inside him coils uncomfortably.

He hastily types back a reply.

‘Okay, but why? What’s going on?’

A minute passes. Beside his message, ‘delivered’ changes to ‘read’. He briefly sees the text bubble pop up, indicating Rei is typing back, but it abruptly disappears.

She never responds further.

It seems like an eternity before 10pm finally rolls around. It’s a chilly night, so Atsuhiro wraps himself in a jacket before leaving. The night sky is clear, with the stars twinkling brightly above. The moon is in a crescent shape, and it has a slight yellow tinge to it.

A chilly breeze blows through the town as Atsuhiro makes his way to the playground. It’s dark out, and there’s no one else around. When he arrives at his destination, he spots a hooded figure sitting on one of the benches beside the playset.

He slowly approaches, and the figure looks up. Despite the darkness, he can make out Rei’s features. She wears baggy sweatpants and a big hoodie, which she seems to be curling into. 

When he sits beside his girlfriend, Atsuhiro finally gets a good look at her face. She has a blank expression, and her eyes seem to lack the usual shine to them. She also looks… incredibly tired.

Atsuhiro’s chest fills with dismay. There’s definitely something wrong.

He’s about to say something, yet Rei beats him to the punch when she murmurs, “Hey.”

The boy blinks, slightly surprised. “Hey,” he quietly replies.

A long beat of silence passes. Rei turns away from him, staring at her hands. “You didn’t tell anyone you were coming, right?”

Atsuhiro nods. He feels both anxious and confused. “Yes, but why did you ask that of me?”

Rei quickly glances over their surroundings, as if making sure they were truly alone. After a moment, she mumbles, “I could get in big trouble just for being here right now.”

Atsuhiro’s eyes widen and his eyebrows knit together in worry. “What? Why? Is everything okay?” 

Rei shakes her head, frowning. She slowly looks at him. She draws in a deep breath before asking, “Do you remember yesterday? When the hero Endeavor came to this town?”

Her boyfriend blinks, puzzled. He gives her a slow nod. “Yes, but what does he have to do with anything?”

The girl suddenly looks very uncomfortable. She tears her gaze away from him again, instead choosing to stare at the ground. She fumbles with her hands as she explains, “Well… He came here for a reason. He was looking for someone… Particularly someone to marry.”

Atsuhiro frowns in confusion. A sinking feeling enters his stomach, and he isn’t sure if he likes where this is going.

“You see, Endeavor has been wanting to marry someone with a quirk that opposes his… Someone with an ice quirk to counter his fire quirk. He hopes he can reproduce with this person in order to create a powerful offspring,” Rei continues. She begins to shake, and her voice sounds wobbly.

The growing anxiety within Atsuhiro turns into full-blown horror when Rei quietly reveals, “And that someone is me.”

Atsuhiro is stunned. His mouth repeatedly opens and closes, failing on finding what words to say. This can’t be happening.

Rei finally turns to him, looking miserable, and Atsuhiro feels like he might be sick.

“W-Wait… So you’re getting married to the Number Two Hero?” the boy inquires in a shaky tone.

Rei seems to curl in on herself further. “That’s right,” she whispers.

Atsuhiro furiously shakes his head in disbelief. “What?! But - Aren’t Quirk Marriages illegal? And you’re only sixteen! Isn’t Endeavor, like, twenty?!” 

Despite it all, Rei manages to laugh, yet it’s so dry and hollow. “None of that matters. As long as Endeavor has permission from my parents, he can legally marry me. And he has enough money, power, and influence to do just that… All of the paperwork has already been said and done. I’m leaving for Musutafu with him tomorrow.”

Atsuhiro stares at the girl in horror. He feels so nauseated, and it takes everything in his power to not get sick right then and there. This couldn’t be real, this didn’t feel real, he didn’t want this to be real-

And yet it was.

Rei brings her legs to her chest, resting her head on her knees. She forces a tiny, tiny smile at Atsuhiro as she confesses, “The news will break of our marriage tomorrow morning, but I wanted you to find out from me rather than from someone else.”

Tears then well in the girl’s eyes. She silently cries as she mumbles, “I’m sorry, Atsuhiro, there’s nothing I can do…”

Her crying turns into full-blown sobbing, causing her to furiously rub at her eyes. Atsuhiro can only watch her, feeling terrified out of his goddamn mind. He doesn’t even notice he’s begun to cry as well, finding himself surprised at the wetness on his cheeks.

He feels.... Disgusted and angry on Rei’s behalf. Endeavor was practically abusing his power in order to force her into a marriage - and a quirk marriage, at that, which was typically seen as immoral. 

It seemed Endeavor didn’t care, however.

Rei continues to weep, harshly rubbing at her face in attempts to make the tears stop. Atsuhiro then snaps out of whatever trance he was in. Seeing her like this… It breaks his heart.

Atsuhiro reaches up his arms and holds out his hands, hesitating for a brief moment. He then engulfs her in a tight hug, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on her head. She frantically grabs onto his jacket, digging her fingers into his arms and sobbing into his chest. He simply holds her, trying to comfort her despite him crying as well. He gently rubs her back and strokes hair hair, softly shushing her.

Rei begins to hiccup, repeatedly mumbling ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry’ over and over again.

“Shh,” Atsuhiro soothes between the tears, “It’s okay, Rei, none of this is your fault… I’m so sorry this is happening to you… This isn’t fair...”

Rei sniffles, shaking her head. Atsuhiro hugs her tighter, feeling hopeless. He doesn’t know what he can do to help her…

Then, a crazy thought hits him.

Frantic and desperate, Atsuhiro pulls away from Rei. He places his hands on her shoulders, giving her a serious expression. “Run away with me.”

The girl gawks at him, shocked by such a suggestion. “W-What?”

“Run away with me,” Atsuhiro repeats, beginning to ramble, “W-We can change our names, and lay low for a while. I’ll get a job, and save up enough so you can go to school-”

“We can’t do that,” Rei firmly interrupts, shaking her head. She looks at him sadly, “He’d find us eventually, and you would get in so much trouble… I can’t let that happen to you…”

Atsuhiro’s face crumples. “But-”

“I’m sorry,” Rei softly murmurs. She removes his hands from her shoulders, grasping them tightly. Her tears have mostly ceased now, with only a few slipping down her face every now and again. Atsuhiro’s eyes, however, are still like waterfalls.

“Y-You don’t deserve this, Rei. You deserve to be happy,” he chokes out. He squeezes her hands, not wanting to let her go.

Rei only gives him a sad smile. She draws in a deep breath, and goes to stand. Her lips quiver as she quietly murmurs, “I love you, Atsuhiro, but this is goodbye.”

She bends down to plant a soft farewell kiss to his cheek. “Take care.”

The tears continue to spill down Atsuhiro’s face. He grasps her hands tightly, just one last time, as he cries out, “I love you too, Rei. Please take good care of yourself.”

Smiling sadly at him once more, Rei forces herself away from Atsuhiro. Their hands separate - and although Rei’s hand’s are naturally chilly, he feels so much colder without her touch.

The girl gives him one last, long look. She then turns, walking away. 

Atsuhiro stays seated on the bench, watching her leave with dismay. 

“W-Wait!” he suddenly stammers out. Rei freezes in her place, yet she doesn’t turn around.

The boy harshly swallows before he calls out to her, “I-I’ll visit you, after I graduate. I promise.”

A beat passes. Rei slowly looks over her shoulder, glancing at the boy. The moonlight shines on her face, and Atsuhiro can tell she’s started crying again.

“...I’d like that a lot,” she says so quietly that Atsuhiro almost doesn’t catch it. Turning around for the last time, Rei walks towards her doomed future, not looking back.

Atsuhiro silently watches her go, feeling so incredibly empty. He stays on that park bench long after she’s gone.

When Atsuhiro graduates from high school, he makes good on his promise to Rei. He is nineteen now, and it’s been two years since the wedding of Yukimura Rei and Todoroki Enji dominated the news. He hasn’t seen her ever since the day she said goodbye.

He’s nervous - of course he is - but surely there was no harm in visiting an old friend, right? She was married now, and no matter the circumstances of said marriage, he had to respect it for her sake. It wasn’t like Atsuhiro had to worry about Endeavor being there either, as he had chosen a time to visit Rei while her husband was away doing hero work.

And so, Atsuhiro does his best to squash his nerves as he takes the train to the city of Musutafu.

The Todoroki estate is not hard to find, but it is big to navigate. There’s a surprising lack of security, though Atsuhiro figures only fools would dare to mess with the house belonging to the Number Two Hero. 

Atsuhiro carefully walks through the front gate, gently closing it behind him. Glancing around the front courtyard, he can spot a koi pond among a few other traditional decoratives that clearly have a high price tag. Despite the flashy display, Sako can’t help but think the Todoroki Adobe is far from ‘homely’. As he slowly walks towards the front door, he can’t help but wonder if Rei feels the same way he does.

Climbing the steps to reach the front door, his anxiety suddenly spikes back up. How would Rei react upon seeing him again? Did she even want to see him? 

Atsuhiro shakes his head. Surely he was overreacting. There was nothing wrong with checking up on his childhood friend. He had promised, after all.

Reaching up a slightly shaky hand, he gives the door three firm knocks.

With every second that passes with no answer, Atsuhiro’s heartbeat increases with intensity. His palms quickly grow sweaty and clammy. For a brief moment, he even considers bolting.

Finally, the door is gently swung open, and Atsuhiro is greeted with the sight of his childhood friend. 

The most noticeable change is that Rei’s white hair has grown past her shoulders now, as well as the faint bags beneath her eyes. She also appears more like a young adult, rather than a sixteen year old girl.

When Rei looks at him, Atsuhiro is first met with her confusion. Then, it registers who is standing in front of her, and the shock quickly grows onto her face.

The two stare at each other, unable to say anything. Aside from the shock, Rei’s expression is unreadable. Atsuhiro swears he can see a conflict raging in her gray eyes - and that’s when he notices. Her eyes don’t shine as much as they used to.

The uncomfortable silence drags on, and Atsuhiro manages to push past his nerves to break it. 

“Hey,” he chokes out - his tone a little more high pitched than he would have liked. He gives Rei a wobbly smile.

Rei blinks at the sound of his voice, seemingly snapping out of whatever trance she was previously in. 

“Atsuhiro,” she breathes, still in a state of shock, “What are you doing here?”

The young man in question gives her a gentle look. “What, I can’t visit an old friend? I promised you that I would, didn’t I?”

Rei lets out another long breath. Her gaze falls to the pavement as she softly says, “You did.” Her tone is indecipherable. 

The worry begins to grow inside Atsuhiro. Rei looks detached from her old friend, and she seems to be afraid of something - or someone. He’s never seen her act like this before.

Something’s definitely wrong here, but Atsuhiro doesn’t know what.

“Mama!” a shrill voice suddenly causes the two to jump. Past Rei and into the Todoroki residence, a young boy who couldn’t be any older than two suddenly bounds around the corner. The kid’s bright, cheerful smile and round face instantly tells Atsuhiro that this is Rei’s son - but the turquoise eyes and red hair are a grim reminder of who the father is.

The young boy runs towards the front door, but falters once he sees Atsuhiro. He quickly hides behind Rei’s legs, clinging to her. He stares up at the man with curiosity only a child could have, “Mama, who’s that?”

Rei, who had been visibly tense ever since her childhood friend showed up, quickly softens for her son. She turns to place a gentle hand on the young boy’s head, and that’s when Atsuhiro notices the baby bump. 

Her son was no older than two, and she was already expecting another child. Not to mention Rei was only eighteen. 

Something inside Atsuhiro’s chest coils uncomfortably. 

His eyes tear away from her stomach when she turns back towards him. “Touya, this is mama’s friend Atsuhiro. Atsuhiro, this is my son Touya.”

Pushing away the bad feelings, Atsuhiro bends down at Touya’s eye-level, giving the young boy a friendly smile, “Nice to meet ya!” 

Touya shyly hides behind his mother a little more, but his eyes are full of child-like wonder as he stares at his mother’s friend, “Hi.”

He gives the child one last smile before standing back up to meet Rei’s gaze. The two merely stare at each other, with Touya looking between the two curiously. With some hesitance, Atsuhiro quietly states, “It’s very nice to see you again, Rei. I’ve really missed you.”

Rei gawks at him for a second, before the smallest of smiles graces her lips. The light from her youth reignites in her eyes - just for a split second - but it’s enough for Atsuhiro to fall head over heels in love with her again. 

Damn. I still have it bad, don’t I?

The tension in Rei’s body slowly begins to dissipate. Her voice is just as quiet as Atsuhiro’s when she replies with, “I’ve really missed you too.” 

Butterflies fill Atsuhiro’s stomach at her confession. It’s like he’s a schoolboy all over again. He smiles warmly and widely at her. Out of the corner of his eye, Atsuhiro can see faint surprise on Touya’s face.

Atsuhiro, slightly flustered, then begins to inquire, “If you want to, I was wondering if we could catch up…? You can even bring little Touya with you if y-”

A sudden phone ringing from within the Todoroki home cuts him off. Rei jumps, her head whipping toward the sound. Her tiny smile instantly falters as the phone continues to ring obnoxiously. Atsuhiro can detect a hint of dread seeping into her features.

Before he can say or do anything, however, Rei hastily scoops Touya into her arms. She gives Atsuhiro an apologetic look as she places a hand on the door.

“That’s probably E-... My husband. I’m sorry, but I really have to go,” she says hurriedly. 

Atsuhiro nods, understanding. He tries to hide his disappointment as he asks, “That’s okay. Um, maybe another time?”

Rei only gives him a forced, apologetic smile in response before she closes the door. 

Atsuhiro merely stands at the entrance. He stares at the door, as if Rei would suddenly appear in front of him if he stared long enough. 

She never does.

For the next few years of his life, Atsuhiro goes through the motions. 

He attends college for the theatrical arts, volunteers at a few political organizations, and does a performance every now and again. He does everything he told Rei he wanted to do.

Except she isn’t there to witness it.

He has a few more relationships, most of them being one-night stands. Only some resulted in a serious relationship, yet they never lasted more than a year. Despite trying to meet new people, Atsuhiro always found himself thinking about a girl with white hair and bright gray eyes.

She was his first love, after all.

He keeps up with the news every so often. He learns Todoroki Rei and Todoroki Enji had a third child, and then a fourth. Endeavor continues to stay at Number Two in the hero rankings, yet Atsuhiro always fails to find that particularly impressive. 

Whenever something new happens with the Todoroki family, it almost always involves Endeavor and his hero work. Atsuhiro never really learned much about Rei, as there wasn’t much public information about her. She never contacted Atsuhiro personally, either. He didn’t reach out to her himself, as he didn’t want to potentially get her in any trouble with her husband. 

All of it fucking sucks, really - He wishes there were more he could do for Rei. He knew her relationship with Endeavor wasn’t a happy one, and he could only imagine what horrors happened behind closed doors. He’s not so sure he wants to know in the first place. If he had the power and influence to take Rei out of the situation, he would in a heartbeat.

A few years after Endeavor’s fourth child was born, Todoroki Rei is finally featured on a headline. 

Atsuhiro’s heart drops in his stomach when he reads it.

‘WIFE OF NUMBER TWO HERO SENT TO A MENTAL FACILITY. DETAILS CURRENTLY UNDISCLOSED’. 

He nearly throws his phone out of rage. He knows he shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but he can’t help but get the feeling Endeavor is responsible for whatever happened to Rei. When photos emerge of Endeavor’s youngest son having a fresh burn scar across the left side of his face, the horrible feeling within Atsuhiro only grows.

More years pass. Atsuhiro graduates from college, participating in some local and national theatre performances. He does a few magic performances on the side as well. Though he loves theatre, being a magician was his pride and joy.

He has a few more hookups and some new romantic partners here and there, but the relationships never last.

Throughout the years, Atsuhiro’s criticism of the hero system and hero society as a whole has only deepened. Endeavor was a shining example of everything he hated about heroes. 

Atsuhiro becomes more involved in political groups - particularly those who advocate for the redistribution of wealth. He came from a household that held such beliefs, and he was the great-great-grandson of the thief Oji Harima, after all. Fighting for what he believed in was just in his blood. Corruption among heroes becomes a topic of genuine interest to him, and he does what he can to resist against such a destructive system.

Despite Atsuhiro involving himself in an array of activities, he would occasionally find himself thinking about a girl he knew long ago. There were some days where he wondered what a future with her would’ve been like. He knows there was no use in thinking about that sort of thing now, but the nostalgia and fond memories heavily weighed on him - even after all these years.

His life continues to be relatively normal, but Atsuhiro constantly found himself wanting to do something more. He wanted to make a difference. 

All it takes is his political circles whispering about a new organization called The League of Villains for his life to change forever. He’s immediately intrigued, already completely agreeing with their messages regarding hero society. It doesn’t take long before he becomes one of their members.

Now affiliated with the League of Villains, Atsuhiro decided it wise to keep his true identity and personal life under the radar. His villain costume makes him look like a mischievous magician (which is, honestly, what he was going for). He also typically wears a mask whenever he’s around the League, trying to conceal any unique features. He takes on the stage name (or technically, as Shigaraki called it, his villain name) ‘Mr. Compress’.

Though this new lifestyle took a bit of adjusting at first, Atsuhiro must admit the League of Villains is a compelling bunch. They’re all so interesting and unique in their own way, and he finds himself growing to genuinely care for this odd group as time passes.

There’s one member, however, that’s of peculiar interest to him.

Dabi.

Atsuhiro can’t quite explain it, but he feels like he’s seen Dabi somewhere before. He just seems so familiar; with his striking turquoise eyes and round face. It drives Atsuhiro nuts - he just can’t figure out why he recognizes Dabi from… Somewhere. It doesn’t help that Dabi is incredibly reserved and secretive, though Atsuhiro couldn’t really blame him for that.

The following year with the League of Villains is most certainly an interesting one for Atsuhiro: he’s a key ally in an attack against U.A. students at a forest training camp, he barely manages to escape heroes when the League’s hideout is raided, he lost his dear friend Magne, he loses an arm to the leader of the Shie Hassaikai but later steals one right back, he and the League fight with and eventually join forces with Meta Liberation Army, becoming the Paranormal Liberation Army--

Needless to say, a lot has happened to Atsuhiro and the League of Villains in just a year. During this period of his life, he hardly had any time to think about Todoroki Rei.

That is, until the heroes attacked the Paranormal Liberation Army base.

This causes a catalyst of sorts - all leading to Dabi pouring hair dye remover over him, revealing a full head of white hair, and the past comes running back to Sako Atsuhiro.

Days after the attack on the Paranormal Liberation Army, Atsuhiro finally has the strength to leave bed.

It’s been hard for everyone. They lost Twice, and that was something they were never going to truly heal from. Not to mention most of them were recovering from brutal injuries, both physical and emotional. Atsuhiro and Shigaraki had been the closest to biting the dust, though, barely managing to make it out alive with just the skin of their teeth. 

The only ones who remained were Shigaraki, Spinner, Toga, Dabi, and Atsuhiro. Everyone else was either arrested, killed, or had seemingly vanished into thin air.

Everyone was dealing with their own hardships, though Atsuhiro had to admit that Dabi’s was especially unique.

While revealing Endeavor’s abusive behavior towards his family with the world, Dabi had seemed incredibly manic and excited about it all. He clearly hadn’t been in the right state of mind throughout the entire attack on the Paranormal Liberation Army, and it seemed that him revealing his true identity as Todoroki Touya tipped him over the edge. 

Now, however, after the adrenaline and high of the battle has long since weared off, Dabi looks… incredibly empty. He seems to be bottling up a wide variety of emotions; ranging from sadness, to anger, to regret, and to vengeance. Atsuhiro is sure the loss of Twice is also weighing heavily on the younger man’s mind.

Atsuhiro has been wanting to talk with Dabi ever since the younger villain shared his grievances on a national scale. He couldn’t get the words Dabi said out of his head - about Endeavor being a horribly abusive husband and father, and how he forced his own wife to have children against her will. Dabi’s long speech about Endeavor only confirmed the worst fears Atsuhiro had regarding the current Number One Hero. When he remembers Rei was placed in a mental hospital nearly ten years ago, the disgusted feeling in Atsuhiro’s gut only twists deeper.

Dabi was unaware Atsuhiro had known Rei once upon a time, so there was truly much to talk about with the younger villain. Due to nearly dying in battle, however, Atsuhiro hasn’t had time to sit down and talk with Dabi privately.

But now, he does. He staggers into the main room of their current hideout, careful not to strain his body too much. There, he sees Dabi sitting at the lone table, his head in his hands. He has yet to dye his hair black again - if he even planned to - so the white stuck out to Atsuhiro like a sore thumb. New burn scars are spread across his body, and the older villain is sure they must still sting.

They’re the only two in the room, as everyone else was healing from their respective wounds in their own spaces.

Atsuhiro limps over to the chair beside Dabi, taking a seat. The other man doesn’t even bother to look up at him, much less greet him. 

A beat of silence passes between the two, but Atsuhiro quickly breaks it.

“Hey, Dabi,” the older villain says, wincing at how raspy his voice sounds. He clears his throat as he jokingly asks, “Or do you prefer to be called 'Touya' now?”

“Fuck off, old man,” Dabi snarls, still not looking at the other man.

Atsuhiro sighs, unbothered by Dabi’s harsh tone. A bit more seriously, he asks, “But honestly, Dabi, are you alright?”

The villain in question finally casts a dirty glance in Atsuhiro’s direction. “I’m not, but thanks for asking,” he growls sarcastically. 

Atsuhiro frowns. He thinks over his words for a moment before announcing, “Look, I need to talk to you about your mother. It doesn’t have to be right now, because I know this current moment is… A difficult time for you, but I would like to discuss her with you at some point.”

Dabi’s glare hardens. “My mother?”

Atsuhiro nods. “Yes. Rei.” The name feels so foreign on his tongue after all these years, yet it still slips out with ease. 

Dabi begins fuming. A protective, angry gleam enters his eyes as he stares daggers into Atsuhiro, “Don’t refer to her by name like you-”

“She was my childhood friend,” Atsuhiro interrupts, cutting Dabi off.

A tense silence settles between them. Dabi finally lifts his head from his hands, squinting at the older villain suspiciously. His eyes are sharp and accusatory as he carefully studies Atsuhiro.

“What…? Are you fucking with me? If you are, I swear I’ll-"

“I’m not. I may love the dramatics, but I’m not one to lie. Especially about something like this,” Atsuhiro sincerely states. He and Dabi stare each other down.

Dabi harshly glares at him. “How do I know I can believe you?”

“You want me to prove it? Fine,” Atsuhiro sighs. He recalls fond memories as he begins to ramble about his past lover, “She was born with the name Yukimura Rei. We grew up in the same small town together. She loves orange juice and hockey, and her favorite flower is the autumn bellflower. She won the national championship for hockey while in junior high. Her first job was at an ice cream shop, where I worked with her. She wanted to be a medic, professional hockey player, or a marine biologist before your father came along.” 

Dabi stares at the other villain, his eyes wide. His mouth drops open in surprise, and he seems so caught off-guard. He blinks once, twice, thrice, before-

“Oh,” Dabi mutters, “Shit.”

Atsuhiro lightly chuckles. “Yeah. Shit.

“I also met you once, before the League of Villains. You were just a toddler.”

The horror immediately grows on Dabi’s face. “You what?”

Atsuhiro gives the younger man a wicked grin.

“Oh, you don’t remember? Your mother introduced me as her friend Atsuhiro. Though I guess you were pretty tiny back then…,” his voice becomes teasing.

“Watch it, old man,” Dabi warns. He then sighs, averting his gaze to stare at his scarred hands, “But damn… You really were friends with my mom, huh?” 

“Well,” Atsuhiro hesitantly says, feeling very flustered all of the sudden, “We were… actually more than friends at one point.” 

Dabi gives him a hard stare, not saying anything for a moment. Then-

“God, are you serious?! What the fuck?! Gross! Are there any other crushing revelations you want to tell me about my mother?!” 

Atsuhiro holds his hands up in surrender, chuckling. It seemed that somewhere, deep down, little Touya was still in there.

“No. Not right now, at least,” the older villain replies.

“Ugh,” Dabi groans, burying his face in his hands. He sarcastically grumbles, “Great. That’s just great. I reveal my true identity to the whole damn world, and then I find out this old magician I work with fucked my mom-”

Atsuhiro frowns. “I never said that-”

“Why did you tell me all this, anyway?” Dabi interjects, glaring at the other man. “What was the point?”

Atsuhiro suddenly goes very quiet. He stares down at the ground as he softly murmurs, “I don’t know, actually. After you revealed you’re Todoroki Touya, I just felt like you deserved to know…” 

Silence.

Dabi lets out a long, drawn out sigh. He places his arms on the table, and rests his head on them.

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter anymore, anyway. My mother probably hates my guts now,” the younger villain broods. 

Atsuhiro blinks, startled over such a suggestion. “What? Why do you say that?”

“I mean… Look at me. Look at everything I’ve done,” Dabi sits up, vaguely gesturing to himself, “I caused her a lot of grief as a kid, too. Even after my hair started turning white, I still looked like my damn dad. I fucking reminded her of him, and at this point, I probably still do!”

Dabi shakes his head, frowning to himself. There’s a lot of hurt, anger, sadness, and regret swimming in his turquoise eyes. Atsuhiro can see this young man’s turmoil laid before him, and he knows he can’t just leave Dabi alone with these thoughts.

The older villain carefully considers his next choice of words. After a few moments of tense silence, he finally speaks.

“Touya,” he begins, surprising Dabi with the name choice. He looks towards Atsuhiro, eyes wide and attentive. Softly, the older man inquires, “Do you still love your mother?”

Dabi gawks at him, stunned at such a question. Then, just as quietly, he answers, “...Yeah.”

Atsuhiro offers him the kindest, most reassuring smile he can muster, “Then I know she still loves you. Hell, even if you hated her, I’m sure she would still love you. Do you know why?”

The younger villain shakes his head, silently asking Atsuhiro to explain.

And so, he does.

“Because you’re her son,” he simply states, “I’m aware you and I probably know two different versions of Rei; one of an imaginative youth, and one trapped in the clutches of a powerful public figure. But the Rei I knew - and the Rei I’m sure is still very much alive today - was a kind, loving, and forgiving person… Especially towards the people she cared for the most.”

A fond smile spreads across Atsuhiro’s lips as he recalls memories of his first love. Dabi gawks at him, seemingly in awe.

“And I know for a fact you’re one of the people Rei loves the most. When I saw you two all those years ago, she was so attentive towards you and seemed genuinely happy when you were around,” the older villain exclaims.

“Really…?” Dabi asks, almost in disbelief. He listens intently to every word Atsuhiro has to say. 

“Mhmm,” the other man confirms, “When I showed up at Endeavor’s front door, she seemed afraid and uncertain about my presence. Then you came running from around the corner, and it’s like… Everything bad she was feeling in that moment washed away.”

Dabi stares at the table, silently taking in Atsuhiro’s words. 

“Now I know that was a long time ago, and a lot probably happened since then… But somehow, I just know Rei still loves you very much. She’s just always been the kind of person to unconditionally love her children, even if she doesn’t love the man she created them with.”

Dabi merely shrugs. Though he doesn’t seem totally convinced, he seems a least… moved by everything Atsuhiro said.

“Maybe that checks out with my siblings, but me…? I’m not so sure. I’ve done… worse things than any of my siblings have probably done combined,” the younger villain mutters, still not meeting Atsuhiro’s gaze.

“But you’re absolutely not worse than Endeavor, I’ll tell you that... You are not your father, Touya,” Atsuhiro declares with nothing but brutal honesty. Dabi finally glances up at the older villain, genuinely surprised by his words.

“Villain or not, criminal or not... I’m certain your mother still cares for you,” Atsuhiro decidedly says. He then stands, feeling quite drained after such an emotional conversation. He turns to the younger villain, who stares up at him with an unreadable expression. He offers Dabi another reassuring smile.

“I don’t expect you to believe all that right now, but… At least think about it, okay kid?” Atsuhiro pleads. He briefly pats Dabi’s head in comfort, pleasantly surprised when the younger man doesn’t smack his hand away. 

The older villain limps off to his room to get some much needed rest, feeling Dabi’s eyes on him the entire time. 

That night, Atsuhiro dreams of a girl with gleaming white hair, sparkling gray eyes, and a musical laugh.

To say Dabi took Atsuhiro’s words to heart would be an understatement.

A few months after the attack on the Paranormal Liberation Army, the League has been managing to keep a low profile. Though still coping from the loss of Twice and recovering from fatal injuries, the group had managed to return to relative normalcy. Or - as ‘normal’ as the League of Villains could get.

So when Dabi disappeared for an entire day, it was alarming to everyone in the League. He wasn’t answering calls or texts, and he didn’t tell anyone where he had gone. 

Later that day, however, news broke that the wife of the Number One Hero had somehow escaped from the hospital-

-And all Atsuhiro can think is well, shit. Now that the entire League knew Dabi was Todoroki Touya, they all silently agreed he was likely involved with the whole ordeal.

So mere hours after the news regarding Rei dropped, it wasn’t a huge surprise when she showed up at the League’s hideout with Dabi. 

The mother and son duo looked disheveled and out of breath, likely due to having to hide from heroes and law enforcement over the past few hours. Even so, they both look visibly… happy. Dabi is noticeably less miserable than he was months before, and Rei looks as if she’s returned to the shining innocence from her youth.

The League’s reactions to this new member were rather… mixed. Shigaraki had held his head in his hands, visibly stressed and mumbling something about how ‘sick and tired he was of Dabi dragging his family business into the League’s shit, especially now of all times!’. Spinner stands off to the side, unsure of how to react to Rei’s presence, but clearly intrigued with her.

Toga had happily pranced up to Rei, cheerfully saying, “She’s pretty. Let’s keep her!” She then took Rei’s hands in hers, innocently asking, “Hey, Miss Dabi’s Mom, can I drink some of your blood?”

Rei blinks, caught off-guard. “Um-”

“No!” Dabi answers for her, shooing Toga away.

The young girl pouts, scampering off to stand beside Atsuhiro. She pushes the older man towards Rei, wickedly grinning, “Mr. Compress! Be a gentleman and say hi to the pretty lady!” 

Rei’s eyes finally land on Atsuhiro, and she shoots him a kind smile-

-And fuck! His stomach feels light and his face feels hot. He’s grateful he’s wearing his trademark mask right now.

It seems, even after all these years, Sako Atsuhiro was still head over heels in love with Todoroki Rei.

“Hello. Do you prefer to be called Mr. Compress?” Rei asks kindly. Her expression then becomes confused when Atsuhiro lightly chuckles.

“Rei, I think you already know what to call me,” the man says, reaching up towards his face to remove his mask. With his face now revealed, Rei’s demeanor completely changes, as she instantly recognized him.

Her smile falters, turning into a look of surprise, disbelief, nostalgia, and finally - joy. She brings her hands to her mouth, letting out a gasp. Tears brim in Rei’s eyes as she stares at Atsuhiro.

The room is dead silent. Everyone else can only watch the pair of old friends with curiosity and confusion. Despite having an audience, Atsuhiro feels as if he’s back in that hockey stadium from a lifetime ago; when the world consisted of only him and Rei.

Rei’s hands fall to her chest, and she quietly asks, “Atsuhiro…?”

The man in question smiles, attempting to hold back his own tears. “Hey,” he replies, not even caring at how choked up he sounds, “Long time, no see.”

Rei slowly takes a few steps towards him, and Atsuhiro meets her halfway. They embrace, hugging each other tightly. Rei buries her face into the man’s chest, and he can feel her grinning through his shirt. He rests his chin on her head, his smile wide and his cheeks flushed.

Atsuhiro doesn’t know how long they stand there like that - basking in the pure joy of finally being reunited after all this time - but if the world decided to implode in on itself right now, he certainly wouldn’t mind dying like this.

They eventually pull away, tearfully smiling at each other. Rei then raises a hand, measuring their distance in height.

“You somehow got taller,” she notes teasingly, before shyly saying, “...And you’re still so handsome.” A sly, happy smirk spreads across her face - and Atsuhiro immediately mirrors it.

“And your hair got longer,” he replies, softly twirling a finger through one of her white locks. Ever so softly, he follows up with, “Yet you’re still so incredibly beautiful.”

Rei laughs - and Atsuhiro’s heart melts because it’s still as musical and lovely as he remembers. She then wipes at her eyes, trying to stop the joyful tears that threatened to fall.

“Hey, Touya already made me cry plenty today! Don’t you start too!” she giggles playfully. Atsuhiro laughs in response, and it’s loud and warm.

At the mention of Dabi’s name, Atsuhiro finally takes in the reactions of his fellow League members, glancing around at them. 

Shigaraki is staring at them in pure disbelief, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head. Spinner looks slightly uncomfortable, choosing to suddenly be fascinated with the floorboards rather than continue to stare at this clearly charged interaction. 

Toga has her hands clasped together, her cat-like eyes wide with awe as she watches the two. A huge grin is on her face - and honestly, her entire look just reads as one big ‘how romantic!’.

As for Dabi, well, he looks like the typical embarrassed son; with his arms crossed and his eyes sharply glaring off to the side. 

Well - their varying reactions are of no matter to Atsuhiro. Rei is here now, and that’s all that matters.

He averts his gaze to look back down at Rei, shooting her a soft smile. She beams back up at him, clearly still in awe that she’s reunited not only with her estranged son today, but her high school sweetheart as well.

“Wait, hold up, hang on-,” Shigaraki suddenly says, breaking the silence. He points between Atsuhiro and Rei accusingly, looking positively confused, “So you two, like, know each other?”

It takes a few weeks for Rei to adjust to life with the League of Villains. And in all honesty, Atsuhiro’s pretty sure that if Dabi wasn’t here to help support her, she would have a much more difficult time.

Rei spends her first few days trying to become acquainted with the League. Toga is the easiest for Rei to get along with (excluding Dabi and Atsuhiro, obviously), though the young girl’s rather outlandish personality took some getting used to. It wasn’t long before Rei would braid Toga’s hair, or listen to the young villain babble about whatever came to her mind. It’s a sweet sight to Atsuhiro, honestly - Toga deserves a good mother figure.

Spinner is the next member for Rei to quickly make friends with. It took some warming up for both parties, but Spinner’s genuine aura paired with Rei’s kind personality was truly a sight to behold. The two chatted and joked with each other about a multitude of things, finding it surprisingly easily to talk with each other. 

Shigaraki, though initially hesitant to Rei’s inclusion with the League, came around to her over a short period of time. Rei acted incredibly kind and patient with the young man, and also provided whatever advice she could whenever he seemed frustrated about something. Now, when Shigaraki looks at Rei, Atsuhiro swears he can see a faint hint of nostalgia in his ruby red eyes. 

The person Rei undeniably spent the most time with, however, was her son. The two had a lot of catching up to do after being separated for so long, so they tried to spend some time away from the rest of the League. No one held it against the mother and son, as such matters seemed so personal.

Atsuhiro has noticed a significant change in the two since Rei’s arrival. Dabi interacts with his colleagues more, is less closed off, and seems to be a lot happier now with his mother at his side. Rei herself has hints of her youth return; she smiles more, has a playful personality with the League, and is a lot less tense about everything. She hasn’t completely gone back to the way she was as a high schooler (and honestly, Atsuhiro knows that’s completely unrealistic), but she is happy.

They’ve both undoubtedly changed over the years, but that’s fine. Atsuhiro still loves Rei, no matter what. As long as she’s happy - well, that’s all the villain can ask for.

Despite slowly becoming acquainted with the League, Rei had yet to have a one-on-one with Atsuhiro. And that’s fine - he knows this is a new period of her life she’s still adjusting to. Reconciling with her son is probably her top priority as well, and Atsuhiro can’t blame her one bit for that. 

(Atsuhiro is also pretty sure Dabi isn’t too keen on the idea of him being alone with Rei. The older villain has lost count of how many times Dabi has gestured a ‘watching you’   motion at him when his mother wasn’t looking. It’s obvious the younger villain is quite protective of Rei, and doesn’t want her to get hurt again. He didn’t have anything to worry about, though, as Atsuhiro had no intentions of ever doing such a thing to his past lover.)

Overall, Atsuhiro is patient and understanding when it comes to Rei. He knows she’ll reach out to him when she’s ready. Hell, he’d wait forever if she asked him too.

He doesn’t have to wait forever, however, as Rei shows up at his bedroom door late one night. She’s wearing an oversized shirt and baggy sweatpants for pajamas, looking quite adorable to Atsuhiro.

When he opens the door, he regards her with pleasant surprise. Rei, however, gazes up at him in shock - almost as if she weren’t expecting him to answer at such a late hour. 

The two stare at each other for a brief moment before Atsuhiro finally gives her a friendly smile. He inquires in a whispery tone, not wanting to accidentally wake anyone, “Hello, Rei. Is everything okay?”

As soon as the words leave his mouth, it seems the dam breaks behind Rei’s eyes.

She quickly bursts into tears, trying to keep her sobs as quiet as possible. Atsuhiro panics, reaching out towards her. Rei practically slams into him, clutching his chest as she silently cries.

“I-I’m sorry, Atsuhiro, I’m so s-sorry…,” she quietly chokes out.

“Woah, hey-!” the villain yelps, startled. He quickly glances up and down the hallway, checking to see if anyone woke up. Fortunately, it seems no one was disturbed by the two. 

Atsuhiro quickly turns his attention back to Rei, who continues to weep. He rubs her arms comfortingly as he pleads, “Rei, it’s okay, please don’t cry!”

She tries to listen to him, wiping at her eyes. Atsuhiro lets out a sigh of relief as he asks, “Um… Do you want to come in?” He tilts his head, gesturing to the room behind him. 

Rei merely nods, and she follows Atsuhiro into his room. He quietly closes the door behind them before leading her to the bed, where they take a seat beside each other.

“Now, Rei,” Atsuhiro gently begins, “What on Earth are you sorry for?”

“Everything,” she immediately replies. The man furrows his brows at her, feeling dismayed at such an answer. 

“For having to walk away all those years ago,” Rei continues, “And for turning you away when you came to visit me after you graduated. You were always so good to me, and I just… left you behind… so I’m really sorry...” 

She sniffles, wiping at her nose, “I don’t know how I could ever make it up to you.”

Atsuhiro shakes his head. He gives her a serious expression as he softly states, “Rei, nothing that happened was your fault. There was nothing neither you or I could have done against Endeavor back then.

“As for ‘turning me away’, I know Endeavor was… Less than good to you, to say the very least, so I don’t blame you one bit for exercising caution to protect you and your children,” Atsuhiro gives Rei a gentle, reassuring smile as he finishes with, “Though I wish Endeavor had never sought you out, please don’t think it was your fault or that you ‘left me behind’. You gave me nothing but precious memories and feelings I don’t ever want to forget.”

Rei gawks at him, and he can see a mixture of relief, awe, and joy swirl in her gray eyes. A moment of comfortable silence settles between them, before Rei lightly giggles, bringing back a wave of memories for Atsuhiro.

“Atsuhiro… Why are you so good to me?” she softly asks, her voice barely above a whisper. 

The man in question merely gives her a sincere beam. The answer is easy.

“Because I love you.”

Rei blinks, caught off-guard once more. Tears prick at the corner of her eyes as she murmurs, “You… still love me?”

Atsuhiro gives her an affirmative nod, his face turning red as he confesses, “It seems I never fell out of love with you, Rei.”

Rei softly gasps at his admission. She stares at him in surprise for a few moments before her own smile spreads across her face. Her cheeks have a pink tint to them as she mumbles, “I never fell out of love with you either.”

It was now Atsuhiro’s turn to be caught off-guard. “H-Huh?!”

Rei giggles as she explains, “Even after my marriage, I thought about you almost everyday. I always wondered what you were doing, and if you were maybe thinking of me… I… really missed you.”

“I thought of you nearly every day,” Atsuhiro easily replies, his entire body feeling hot with embarrassment, “I missed you so damn much. Often, I would wonder what my future with you could have looked like.”

Rei’s face flushes at that. After a brief moment of hesitation, she admits, “I don’t have many positive feelings towards the man that was supposed to be my husband, but… one thing I don’t regret is having my children. I can’t imagine my life without them… Even so, I did wonder what things would have been like if I never married Enji.”

Atsuhiro gives Rei a tiny, sad smile, “Well, I suppose there’s no use in thinking about such what-if’s now.”

Rei nods, staring down at her hands. “I suppose so.”

“But, after all these years, you’re here now,” Atsuhiro states, taking Rei’s hands in his. He gives them a squeeze, causing her to look up at him. When she meets his gaze, he gives her a soft, loving smile. His face flushes as he softly murmurs, “And I couldn’t be happier about that.”

Rei giggles, mirroring Atsuhiro’s soft smile. They gaze into each other’s eyes, finally feeling like they’ve been properly reunited after so long. 

In that moment, something within both of their hearts compels them to lean forward. They meet each other halfway, cautiously brushing their lips together. The shared hesitation quickly dissipates, however, as they simultaneously melt into this kiss. Atsuhiro gently cups Rei’s face with both hands, and she digs her own into his hair, pulling him closer.

Rei’s lips are just as soft and cold as he remembers, yet she still ignites such a blazing fire within his heart. They hold their gentle kiss for a few moments longer before pulling away, breathless. 

The two stare at each other in awe, lightly panting. Atsuhiro’s hands are still cupping Rei’s face, and Rei has her own tangled in his hair. A silence settles between them.

Then, Rei begins to laugh, albeit it’s quiet because they still don’t want to wake anyone up. Atsuhiro quickly joins in with his own giggles. He can’t help it - just feels so happy when he’s with her.

“It’s not too late, you know,” Atsuhiro states when their laughter ceases. Rei curiously raises an eyebrow at him as he elaborates, “We’re still young, and we have our whole lives ahead of us… Perhaps now we can try to spend them together?” His tone is hopeful as he gauges Rei’s reaction.

She smiles, and that familiar shine in her eyes returns as she answers with, “I’d like that a lot.”