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Fuyumi jerked awake and immediately came to full alertness. A consequence of being the teenage eldest daughter of the Todoroki household – she’d learned to get by without much sleep, and get ready for a crisis in an instant no matter how tired she was.
She relaxed slightly as she realized what had woken her up – a tapping at her bedroom window. At least there was no danger tonight. She rubbed her eyes and tiptoed over to the window to see a familiar face peeking through – her closest friend; her crush; Kaina Tsutsumi. Her face broke into a huge smile as she slid the window open and Kaina slipped in to land effortlessly, and silently, in front of Fuyumi.
Kaina’s feet had barely touched the ground before Fuyumi wrapped her in a huge hug. “Kaina!” she whispered, “Why haven’t you been at school?”
“Um… home stuff,” Kaina said, squeezing Fuyumi tight. Her voice was carefully neutral. She looked just as exhausted as Fuyumi felt and her two-tone hair was strangely ragged, almost as if she’d been pulling it out.
Fuyumi buried her face in Kaina’s neck and breathed in her best friend’s comforting smell. “I really missed you,” she sniffled.
“I missed you too,” Kaina said, kissing Fuyumi on the top of the head. “I had to sneak out to come see you.”
“Are you gonna get in trouble?” Fuyumi asked.
Kaina shrugged and laughed. “I’m always in trouble.”
Fuyumi couldn’t keep a tremor out of her voice as she asked, “When are you coming back to school?”
“I-I don’t know. I have a lot of extra classes and my parents might want to send me to… home schooling,” Kaina said, her eyes sliding away evasively.
Fuyumi’s lower lip trembled. She hated this. She was tired and sad all the time from having to take care of her younger brothers, keep the peace between them, and try her best to keep her mom and dad as calm as possible so nobody would get hurt.
Everyone, even the teachers treated her differently at school because she was Endeavour’s daughter – like that made her special. Like her family must be so great. But everyone was so disappointed that she wasn’t top of the class, the best all the time, and she had to pretend like Endeavour was a great dad. She had to keep her family’s secrets.
Kaina was the only one she could confide in.
She was another outsider, and Fuyumi had been drawn to her from the first time they met. She was trans, so of course she got bullied for that, which Fuyumi hated and put a stop to whenever she could. One of the perks of being a Todoroki that she actually enjoyed.
Kaina’s quirk wasn’t very ‘cool’ - all she could do with it, as far as Fuyumi knew, was twist her hair together to make a hard epoxy or resin or something. A decent utility quirk with a lot of home applications, but that was enough to get her picked on, too.
On top of that, she didn’t know what Kaina’s home situation was, but she felt like it must be pretty crappy. She missed a lot of school and although she tried to act normal, Fuyumi could see she was sad and worried all the time. Like her.
Which was why it hurt that Kaina wouldn’t confide in Fuyumi the way Fuyumi had confided in her.
Nothing felt like the right thing to say. “I hope you don’t have to go,” Fuyumi sighed, clinging on tighter while she still could.
Kaina stroked her hair for awhile, seemingly content just to be held, although she did keep glancing towards the door.
Fuyumi took Kaina’s hand and towed her to the window. “Let’s go hang out someplace else!”
“Where?”
“Anywhere! Look, I learned how to do something new with my quirk. I can float us down!”
They both leaned out of the window and Fuyumi created a pillar of swirling, sparkling mist. She stepped into it, wobbling and trying to catch her balance. It was hard to stand on it and keep it surging upwards, not so slow she’d fall, but not so fast she’d shoot into the air. She held her hands out to Kaina and made a ‘come here’ gesture.
Kaina looked warily at the pillar of ice, balanced herself on the windowsill and took Fuyumi’s hands. Then she very, very carefully stepped onto the pillar of mist.
“Eep!” she squeaked as Fuyumi wobbled – increasing the flow of mist smoothly to compensate for Kaina’s added weight made it even harder to balance, but pride rushed through her as she made it work! The mist slowed their fall enough just enough that they could hit the ground safely, although they both staggered and Fuyumi had to grab Kaina to keep her from falling over.
Kaina turned to Fuyumi with wide, enthusiastic eyes. “Th-that was awes-s-some!” She said through chattering teeth.
“It still needs work,” Fuyumi said, brushing a few icy crystals off Kaina where they’d settled on her shoulders, the tips of her hair, and her eyelashes.
“Amazing!” Kaina reiterated, and Fuyumi blushed.
They ended up in a nearby park, eating convenience store snacks and sitting shoulder to shoulder on the grass with their backs up against a tree. When they were done stuffing themselves, Fuyumi put her head in Kaina’s lap, and Kaina ran her hands through Fuyumi’s hair, playing with the strands, gently stroking her scalp.
The simple, gentle touch, something so deeply missing from Fuyumi’s life, made her want to cry.
“Am I being too rough?” Kaina asked, her hands stilling.
“No,” Fuyumi whispered, tears at last falling from the corners of her eyes, sideways to run over the bridge of her nose and drip off the side of her face. “It feels really nice.”
Kaina kept stroking Fuyumi’s hair, and she was just feeling calmer and happier when she felt fingertips walk their way down her arm and to her side.
“Don’t you dare...” She warned, glaring up at Kaina, who grinned back down at her.
“Iiii caaaaan’t… help myself!” Kaina started tickling Fuyumi’s sides and laughing.
Soon Fuyumi was rolling around on the grass, howling with laughter and trying to fend Kaina off. “Y-you! S-s-s-stop! Kyaaaaahahahahah!”
Kaina snatched Fuyumi’s glasses off, dumped her unceremoniously on the grass and sprinted off. “Gotchyer glasses!”
“Hey! C’mon!” Fuyumi scrambled to her feet and raced after Kaina. She might not have looked like it, but she was very fast, and Kaina was too busy taunting Fuyumi to really put up a good race. She tackled Kaina to the ground and tried to grab her glasses, but Kaina was taller with longer arms and Fuyumi couldn’t quite get to them.
“Grrr!” She mock growled, pinned Kaina down and finally managed to lunge and grab her glasses back. “And for your punishment...” she rolled Kaina onto her back and blew an icy cold gust of air down the back of her t-shirt.
“GACK! C-cold!” Kaina giggled, rolling around to try and throw Fuyumi off.
“You deserve it! You tickling, glasses-stealing bully!” Fuyumi laughed.
Soon they were both lying in the grass, panting and giggling, completely bushed and lying half on top of each other. Their sweat from play fighting was starting to chill in the cool breeze off the surface of the lake.
“We should get back,” Fuyumi sighed, already dreading the return to her normal life.
“Yeah.” Kaina sounded just as miserable about it as she was. Still, she dragged herself to her feet and held out her hands. Fuyumi took them and allowed Kaina to pull her up. After staying up all night and playing, though, she was a little wobbly, and staggered as she got to her feet.
Kaina grabbed her waist to steady her, and she clung to Kaina’s shoulders as she steadied herself. They stared at each other, both still flushed and a little out of breath – from playing just now, yes, but at least in Fuyumi’s case, for another reason.
Fuyumi thought Kaina was the most beautiful girl in the world, inside and out. And she was in her arms. Close enough to kiss her. And the way Kaina was looking at her, with heavy lidded eyes; her pupils dilated; so intense. Like, if Fuyumi could work herself up to it, she might kiss her back.
But the sky was growing lighter; it was now an iron predawn grey. As if by mutual agreement, they stepped back from each other.
“I’ll walk you back,” Kaina said, took Fuyumi’s hand, and together they trudged out of the park.
It was nearly dawn by the time they got back to Fuyumi’s house, and she felt a leaden weight of dread settle in her stomach at the thought of going back in there. To that house. To that family.
“I better get going,” Kaina said, although she made no move to leave. Washed out in the predawn light, framed by the impenetrable shadows of the back street behind her.
Fuyumi stared up into Kaina’s face, feeling a dreadful foreboding – like this was going to be the last time they ever saw each other. “I don’t want you to leave!” She said in a rush.
Kaina blushed furiously and looked down at her feet. “I-I don’t want to either...”
Kiss her, a voice inside Fuyumi’s head told her, Kiss her. This might be your last chance.
She took a step forward, reached out -
The sun rose, setting Kaina’s hair alight with vibrant color. Illuminating a familiar, hulking shape lurking in the alley behind her. The shape of her father.
Endeavour – Enji Todoroki – her father – stepped out of the alley, his hair and beard bursting into flame as he grabbed Kaina by the hair and lifted her off the ground like she weighed nothing more than a doll. She yelped in pain and fear, kicking her feet and clawing at the massive hand in her hair.
“You,” his voice boomed, “What do you think you’re doing coming back at dawn?”
“W-we were just… I-I mean, we were just hanging out...” Fuyumi stuttered, on the verge of tears as she looked back and forth between her father and Kaina.
“It was my fault, I made her come with me!” Kaina whimpered, pawing uselessly at Endeavour’s fist.
“Shut up!” Endeavour growled, giving Kaina a shake like she was an unruly kitten. Kaina went still, teeth gritted and tears leaking from her eyes. “I mostly don’t care what you do, Fuyumi, but you are living under my roof, and I will not have you sneaking around at night with some boy!”
For the first time in her life, Fuyumi raised her voice to her father. “She’s not a boy, she’s a girl!” She shouted, launched herself at her dad and started pounding her fists uselessly against his chest, sending out impotent puffs of crystallized, icy air. “Let her go!”
He froze for a moment in shock – then his face contorted into a grimace of rage. “Don’t you dare talk back to me!” he roared.
He raised his other fist.
A deafening sound filled the air, like a cannon had gone off next to Fuyumi’s ear, with a shockwave that made her reel to the side. A thin line of blood tore across her father’s cheek; his head snapped back like he’d been punched; a hole opened up in the wall next to his head the size of a tennis ball – a hole that went all the way through the house. Fuyumi could see sky on the other side.
Her dad dropped Kaina, who was suddenly on the other side of the street, and Fuyumi hopped in between them even as she tried to process what she’d just seen. She spared a glance back at Kaina, who arm was shifting – changing – a blur – a normal arm. What the fuck had just happened? She could’ve sworn Kaina’s arm had been a gun for a second! But it was back to normal now. Had she imagined it?
“D-don’t hurt her,” Kaina said in a reedy, barely audible voice. She looked absolutely petrified.
“The Tsutsumi kid. I’ve heard about you,” her dad said, setting his hands alight and pushing past Fuyumi so hard she fell over. “I’d burn you to a crisp right now if you weren’t so useful to the Hero Commission – and therefore useful to me. But this is your first and final warning. If I ever see you near my daughter again...”
Kaina shot a look at Fuyumi, a look full of regret and guilt. And then she was gone.
Fuyumi staggered to her feet and stood there with both fists clenched at her sides, her whole body vibrating with rage, staring down the alley Kaina had disappeared into. In her peripheral vision she saw the rest of the Todorokis, and some of the other neighbors, had come out to investigate the noise.
“Everything’s fine. Go back inside,” her dad said. He turned and walked past Fuyumi without even looking at her.
“I hate you,” Fuyumi said through gritted teeth.
He stopped in his tracks.
“I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!” She repeated, her voice growing louder each time until she was screaming it at him for all the world to hear. “I HATE YOU!”
A gust of icy wind blasted out at him, but he might as well not have felt it. All it did was ruffle his hair.
He just walked away, back into the house. Taking the rest of her family with him – leaving her alone in the street.
*
Fuyumi awoke to a tap at her bedroom window. She slowly swung her legs over the side of her bed, yawned hugely and rubbed her eyes.
Another tap drew her eyes to the window – and through it, a familiar face. Fifteen years older, scarred, . But still, as far as Fuyumi was concerned, the face of the most beautiful woman in the world.
She went over and opened it, letting in a chill gust of winter air.
“You could just use the front door,” Fuyumi said, resting her elbows on the windowsill. “He doesn’t even live here.”
“Old habits die hard,” Kaina said, floating closer. “And besides, I didn’t want to wake up the rest of your family.”
Fuyumi looked down. Kaina seemed to be floating in midair, completely steady, with no visible effort. “So that’s Air Walk, huh? I haven’t actually seen you use it before.” She sat on the windowsill, swung her legs over the edge and jumped, sending a gust of cold air behind her that propelled her straight at Kaina.
“Woah!” Kaina gasped, surging forward and catching Fuyumi with one arm under her knees and the other around her shoulders. “What the hell?!”
Their momentum spun them around for a few dizzying moments before they both wobbled to a halt.
“I knew you’d catch me,” Fuyumi said giddily, throwing her arms around Kaina’s shoulders and clinging on tight. She giggled somewhat hysterically before leaning in for a kiss.
They held each other tighter, and Kaina only wobbled a little bit in midair. Thrills raced through Fuyumi’s body and her head spun as Kaina’s lips moved against hers – as they softly, gently kissed.
They broke off, both a little breathless. “Where do you want to go?” Kaina asked.
Fuyumi ran her hands through Kaina’s magnificent pink and blue mane and smiled. “Anywhere.”