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It was a freezing cold winter’s day, a few days before christmas. It also had been snowing for a few days now, but today was the first time Rei Todoroki went on a walk with all her children. It was little Shoto’s first introduction to snow, but the little guy wasn’t that impressed, since he spent most of the time sleeping in his mother’s arms. Enji didn’t like the cold, since his strong fire quirk made his body weaker in temperatures like this, unlike the rest of his family. Their bodies were made to be resistant to the cold, so this was a perfect excuse to go out without him. Rei hadn’t said a thing, but Toya and Fuyumi knew their parent’s relationship wasn’t…healthy. The pressure their father put on Toya in training didn’t help either, but just like their mother, he didn’t lose a word about that. Not even to Fuyumi, even though they usually talked about everything.
“Mom, can we go play?”, Toya asked, already forming a snowball in his hands. Witha nod of approval from Rei, the boy took his sister’s hand and bolted. They used to play quite often in the park they were in, and even though they couldn’t come here as often as they would like, they still knew their way around. And so, Toya knew just the perfect place to throw snowballs at his sister. And as soon as their mother was out of view, he did just that, hitting her just on the back of her head.
“Ow! Touya!”, Fuyumi exclaimed, rubbing the spot where he hit her. Her brother just grinned at her, already forming the next one. “What? You can always fight back. Or can you?”
Oh, it was on. The smirk on her brother’s face fueled Fuyumi to fight back, and soon the snowballs were flying back and forth between the two siblings. Fuyumi had missed this, spending time with her brother like this, just having fun, not thinking about training or their father. She had missed seeing Touya laugh. Even if the reason for that was him chasing her with the biggest snowball she had ever seen, he was laughing, making her happy in the process. Well, as happy as she could be, as she was running for her dear life.
She was just waiting for the impact, until there was a noise. It sounded like snow hitting something and crumbling, but she was not the one getting hit. Turning around, Fuyumi saw the origin of the noise. Touya had dropped the giant weapon that was meant for her, as he had become a target himself. He rubbed the back of his head that was now white, fitting, as his red hair had begun to turn white in a few spots a while ago. But - wait. There was something else, a tiny speck of red, lifting from his head. Was it…A feather? It was, and it kept floating away, above both their heads. Fuyumi raised an eyebrow in confusion, as the way the feather floated looked rather weird. It wasn’t windy, so there was no way for it to do what it did, so there had to be another reason for this. Letting her gaze follow the tiny thing, she saw a flash of more red, disappearing behind some trees. Sure enough, there was the reason for the floating feather.
“What the hell?” The groan of her older brother ripped the girl out of her trance. How long had she been staring in the same direction? “Fuyumi! Did you throw that thing? It completely messed up my plan!” Fuyumi blinked slowly, still processing what just happened. So, instead of trying to be reasonable and explaining how it was impossible that she did it, she simply said: “That was the whole purpose of it.”
Uh-oh. As soon as she said that, the playful glint in his eyes returned, meaning it was on. So, before he could do anything, she fled. She didn’t even notice running in the same direction the feather flew in, the same direction in which the flash of red disappeared.
"Up here", she then heard and looked up. There was a boy, about her age, crouching on a thick branch in the tree above. His appearance was overall unique, from his messy blond hair and piercing yellow eyes to his big, red wings. The girl’s icy gray eyes grew wide as she realized: He was the owner of the independent feathers, he was the flash of red. Before she could say anything, she was already swept up by the feathers that just saved her a few moments ago. Carefully and gently, they brought her up to him.
“What was that just now?”, Fuyumi asked as soon as she could think straight again. The boy before her leaned lazily against the trunk, a little smile on his face. “I saved you from the biggest snowball the world has ever seen, you’re welcome.” Fuyumi scoffed, but nodded, feeling just a little bit grateful. “You know what I meant, the feathers.” His smile widened. Just like before, a couple separated from the tips of his wings and started to float around her. One landed on her shoulder, looking oh so inviting to touch. As she did so, she noticed him flinch ever so slightly. Could he still feel through them?
As if he could read minds, he answered the question she had just thought of: “Yes, it’s my quirk. I can’t only fly short heights and distances, I also can sever and control my feathers, as you could see. Pretty cool, right?” The girl nodded again, still overwhelmed by the whole situation.
“Are you alone here? Or are your parents with you?” The glint in his eyes dimmed a little. “Let’s say they’re busy, but my mother will come find me soon.” It was then that Fuyumi noticed the boy’s outfit, clearly unfit for the cold weather. He was merely wearing a thin looking sweater and not much warmer looking jeans, that didn’t even reach his ankles. No hat, no scarf, no mittens….wasn’t he freezing to death?
“Here.”
Without waiting for a response or anything else from him, she ripped her scarf from her neck and wrapped it around his. It was a new scarf, a birthday present from a couple of weeks ago. It wouldn’t be much against the cold, but it was all she could give. He was just about to say something, when they heard a sound from below. “I should go.”
In the next moment, his feathers grabbed her already and dropped her gently on the ground, right in front of her brother. “Where the heck were you?”, he asked, sounding just as surprised as she felt. She didn’t even have to look up to know he was already gone, just like he appeared. She shrugged. “I was right here.”
An annoyed eye roll was all he gave her, before dragging her away. “Come on, Mom’s waiting.”
*Several years later*
“Keigo?”, he heard his wife ask from the bedroom. “Yeah?”, he practically yelled back, not wanting to get up just yet. He knew he had to once he knew what Fuyumi wanted from him, but for now, he stayed like this. “Daddy! You need to come here”, their son, Genji, then yelled with all the force in his little lungs, and this was his cue to get up. So he did, making his way to the bedroom, the origin of his son and wife’s cries of despair. “What is it?” He leaned against the doorframe, watching his two favorite people in the whole world looking for something in the closet, several drawers open and the content spread on the floor.
Fuyumi looked up at her husband, relief in her gray eyes. “We can’t find Genji’s scarf. We looked everywhere, but couldn’t find it. Do you know where it could be?”
“It’s not in the cozy drawer”, the little guy exclaimed, earning a chuckle from his parents. ‘Please never change’, Keigo thought. He loved the words their son came up with, ‘cozy drawer’ being one of them. He obviously meant the drawer where they kept all things winter, like hats, scarfs and mittens. It was a genius word. Keigo gently ruffled his son’s golden hair, making him giggle. “Don’t worry buddy, we’ll find it. Can’t have you freezing out there, can we?”
And so he helped searching, looking through every single piece of warm clothing they owned. Again, no luck, the desired scarf really seemed to be gone from this earth. It also made the Pro hero wonder how many scarfs and mittens they owned, when…
“Oh my God, Keigo. You kept this one?” Keigo, still preoccupied with searching, looked up, a smile forming on his face as he recognized the scarf Fuyumi was holding. It was a light blue with gray snowflakes on it. It was a little worn out, the fringes not as neat as they used to be, which was a given, as it was quite a few years old now. “Of course I kept it. The most beautiful girl in the world gave it to me.” Their eyes met and he could see the tears glistening in the corners of hers. Keigo let out a light chuckle, before kissing her gently on the lips.
“Ewww get a room!”
Of course, that tender moment had to be interrupted by a five year-old. The boy could be glad his parents were lovey dovey like this, they were used to far worse from their parents. The two only chuckled at that, admittedly loving their son’s reaction to them, meaning they were doing at least something right. “That’s not mine”, the little boy muttered before dropping into his mother’s arms. He still was a clingy one and Fuyumi hoped that he would remain this way for as long as possible.
“No, it isn’t, but it’s indeed a special one. It used to be mine, when I was a kid. It was mine, until I gave it to your dad.” Genji’s gray eyes became big as saucers while looking between his mom and dad. “When was this? You always told me you got together when you were 25.”
Right, they never told him that they actually met way sooner than that, when they were little. After that one fateful encounter, they lost each other, before meeting again in their twenties. Keigo couldn’t believe they hadn’t told their son the story of how they got together in the first place, since it definitely was his most favorite story of all time.
“You’re right, we actually met before that, when we were around seven or eight. It was around Christmas, like right now.”
Fuyumi smiled as her son clutched even tighter to her, she knew he was dying to hear their story. “Tell me everything.” One glance at Keigo was enough to tell him what he had to do now. He cleared his throat and scooched a little closer to his family, before he began:
“It was a freezing cold winter’s day…”