Chapter Text
The world of heroes was built upon suffering. In the spring of your first year of middle school, you would learn this horrible lesson. But, before then, certain things were set in motion. The day that fate became inevitable, the February wind blew bitterly.
“It’s okay, it’s okay!”
The mother cat kept her ears pinned back. The trembling numbness of your hands made it hard to unscrew your water bottle. The door of the tiny shed clacked loudly as the fierce breeze battered it open and shut. That made the mewling of the kittens barely audible. In the faint light, the plastic still caught between the teeth of the mother cat glinted.
If you had known this was why she snatched your snack from you, you wouldn’t have chased her.
The cold stung your eyes so as to bring up tears on your shiny, wind-whipped cheeks. But, you smiled all the same as you finally succeeded in pouring water into a shallow pot.
A laugh bubbled in your throat as you reached down for your discarded gloves. “See? It’s okay… Here. Let me open it for you, Little Mama.”
Warmth seeped into the shed just as it darkened. The unexpected voice made you flinch, but the boy glared down at you evenly with his ocean-colored eyes.
“You’re on private property.” His enunciation was clear and crisp, hinting towards formal.
The fumbling speed with which you stood to address the smaller child made the mother cat hiss and hunker further into her makeshift nest.
As you wiggled deeper into your plush jacket, you couldn’t help but be in awe of the sight of him. He was doll-like, somehow, and it struck you that perhaps he was too young to be on this hill alone. There hadn’t been a house nearby, from what you could tell. You had actually assumed this area was some sort of park.
“Sorry,” you apologized weakly. “I—” You licked your chapped lips. “—I came after the cat.”
His eyes flicked from you to the cat in the corner. His scowl quickly refixed itself to his face. “Well, take her home.”
Stunned by the tyke’s commanding air, you shook your head. “She’s not mine! She just took something from me, and I followed, and, so…”
The boy stood there, content to let you flounder as the wind howled and the kittens cried. Your justification never manifested and your sight eventually dropped to his pristine sneakers.
How could he take going out in this weather in such breathable shoes? You hadn’t stopped wearing your boots outside since the weather dropped below fifty.
He was blocking the door, so it wasn’t as if you could just rush by him to escape this uncomfortable situation. You drummed your gloved fingers against your belly as you tried once again to explain yourself to the other child.
“It’s cold. The mama’s very skinny.”
When he huffed, the air was filled with more steam than you felt someone ought to produce in the cold. His eyes rolled as he relented.
“Whatever.”
The world was all blue-gray with the last hints of sunset orange when you returned from the store. The boy decided not to tell on you for being on Sekoto Peak; in fact, he made a grumbling acceptance of your inquiry to care for the little family of felines. Thus, your sweaty return.
He barely spared you a look as you reached the top of the path. To your bewilderment, he had ditched his jacket. A t-shirt was wholly too little for this weather, but the look in his eye never allowed much room for questioning and you had already pressed your luck enough.
The white-and-red-haired boy stood in the midst of a sandy arc. Behind him, there was a loose collection of scorched, wooden… things on poles. They reminded you of scarecrows, really. He wandered away from them as you headed for the shed.
The unseasonal warmth radiated in the little space as he lingered in the doorway. You put various cans and bottles on the shelf under his silent scrutiny. He only stepped further into the shed once you set about preparing a hearty helping of wet food.
“That’s a lot of crap.”
The memory of your overstuffed tote’s strap digging into your shoulder seared at his words. “You’re telling me.”
He openly looked you up in down. The little nose wrinkle and furrowing of his brows along with a certain doubtful narrowing of his bright eyes made it clear that he wasn’t impressed. “You carried all that?”
The warmth the smaller child apparently threw off made it difficult to stay too mad at him. Your pride was wounded all the same.
Before you could answer, a shiver worked through you.
He huffed. “You’re gonna give yourself a cold, idiot.” The blue-eyed boy marched out and grabbed two pieces of old wood. When he held a burning hand to them, they caught fire easily.
That answered the question of his quirk, at least. You hurried out after, happy to let the fire warm your sweat-chilled body. Mama Cat’s meal could also stand to get toasted by the flame, too. You set the dish near the fire enough that it could warm but not soo close that you would feel anxious about fetching it out in a moment.
“I had some help,” you explained as you crouched by the fire.
You spread your fingers, letting flames coax your blood vessels back open as you considered how much your new acquaintance needed to know. Your allowance didn’t cover what you needed and you were not as stealthy with your quirk as you hoped to be. A hero on patrol caught you quickly, but he was enormously sympathetic. A short lecture and an apology to the staff was your only punishment. He even paid for your items, promising to keep the incident a secret between the two of you as he escorted you all the way to the foot of Sekoto Peak.
Thanks to that man, you only had to carry the heavy tote that far by yourself.
“You know B-Till?” A smile crossed your lips at even the mention of him.
The blue-eyed boy shoved his fists in his pockets as he thought. “Yeah. He has a small office in Musutafu.”
Was that a jab? To point out that B-Till wasn’t a big-name hero? Best to ignore it, you decided.
“He helped me out, so I’m very grateful.”
“The food’s starting to bubble,” the boy dryly stated.
With a little gasp, you roughly tugged your gloves back on. You rushed into the shed, pouring a little water into the mash to cool it. The mother cat’s large eyes watched you cautiously as you set it down before her. It was only as you backed away, about to exit the shed, that she cautiously crept toward the bowl.
An exhausted sigh swept from your lips. “I think they’ll be okay until tomorrow.”
“You’re coming again tomorrow?”
“Are you going to look after them?”
Suspicion as plain to see as ever, he clicked his tongue before walking to the arc of strange figures. “No. I’m busy.”
Summoning your guts, you spoke up once again. “Then, it’ll be okay if I look after them?”
“Just don’t get in my way.”
You smiled. “Okay! Thanks, um…?”
He didn’t turn around. “... You can call me Touya.”
With how cold he was, the offer of his personal name was a little surprising. Then again, did you really want him to know your family name, either?
“Alright! I’m [Name].”
He didn’t respond and by now you didn’t expect him to. You braced yourself in your jacket and took off down the street lamp-lit sidewalks for your sister’s house.
Touya made a habit of lighting the bonfire for your benefit. As the two weeks you had known one another were full of bitterly cold days, you appreciated it. You sat on a stool with homework in hand as he lingered behind you. Though he was unexpectedly stealthy (He was training for something, you had deduced. Martial arts, maybe.) the heat rolling off his body often gave him away.
“It’s science,” you offered as you looked up at his eternal scowl.
“Duh,” he snapped.
Right! Judging by the uniform you sometimes saw him in, he wasn’t a kindergartener. He knew what science was. Tending to the cat food would make a good distraction from that embarrassing exchange, you decided.
In spite of the quiet, the sting of Touya’s fiery glare burned all along your form. You refused to meet his gaze. You dug through your bag for your gloves.
“I think it’s ready,” you said mostly to fill the void.
He snatched the bowl barehanded. “You’re gonna burn yourself.”
With sure strides, he walked into the shed. You heard Mama Cat greet him with all of her usual venom. He rejoined you at the fire, standing with his fists in his pockets.
Finally gathering the nerve to look at him, you forced a smile despite the shame heating your cheeks. “How are the kittens?”
When your eyes met, he looked off. “They’re fine,” he gruffed before stomping off to his sandy arc of training dummies.
February bled into March. On one of those turbulent days, the mother cat died. Touya came late that day, discovering you as a teary mess as you struggled to pierce the hard-packed earth with a gardening spade.
He called your name three times before you finally looked up at him. In a voice softer than his norm, he continued. “Give me that.”
“I’ve gotta bury her,” you argued.
His face twisted in fury and he lunged forward. For a moment, you thought he would hit you, but he just grabbed the spade. His expression was schooled into a thin line and it felt like that first day all over again.
“Go feed the kittens.” His tone scarcely left room for argument.
“But, the body—”
“I’ll handle it!” he snapped. “Just go feed the kittens!”
Too upset to argue and half afraid he really would banish you from the property this time, you made your way into the shed. On the way, you passed her cool body. A sob caught in your throat. It trickled from your lips as you saw the kittens all piled together for warmth.
They were a few weeks old, now, and you had been giving them formula-and-wet food blends for some time. At least they wouldn’t starve without their mother. But, would they be warm enough? Your mind raced with worries as you prepared their mash.
Touya was nowhere to be seen when you went out to place their bowl by the fire to heat up. You decided to return to the shed, cuddling and petting the sweet things in the meat time.
The door opened. Touya stepped in, the food bowl in hand. The aroma enticed the kittens and they ate greedily when he set it down. He wordlessly settled beside you in the shed.
In the dim room, you studied his face. A stray twig was in his hair, but he looked no more exhausted than usual. You refrained from asking what he had done with the body. As long as it wouldn’t attract a predator to the ones left behind, you supposed you could just pray for Mama Cat to forgive you.
“What?” he growled.
You turned your eye towards the toes of your boots. “Thank you for handling that.”
He scoffed. One of the kittens, now with a full belly, climbed into his lap. He allowed it with nothing more than an acknowledging flick of his eye. “You weren’t going to do it.”
Resting your head against the wall, you sighed. “Still… I’m your senior, you know? I shouldn’t rely too much on you.”
“You’re just a girl.” He mimicked your posture, relaxing. “How old are you, anyways?”
Touya often said things like that. Though, you had gathered his disparaging opinions towards women only extended to civilians. When the topic of Lady Nagant came up, he had much praise to offer. So, the fight about his misogyny could wait, like every other fight about his shit attitude.
In a tired voice, you answered him: “I’m twelve.”
“You’re only three years older than me. That’s nothing.”
You sat up so quickly a the kitten in his lap startled and ran off to join its siblings. A second and third glance over him didn’t make you feel any less shocked. “I… I thought you were like seven.”
“Get real!” he snapped. “You’re only a little bit taller than me! I’ll outgrow you soon enough!”
It surprised you that Touya came on a rainy day. You had noticed, over time, that he was less likely to appear on those occasions. He was already in the shed, squatting with the door barely open. The sight of the kittens clinging to him, basking in his radiant warmth, caught you off guard.
He sourly pursed his lips at the sight of your smile. “You’re soaked.”
“I ran,” you admitted. Your umbrella could only fight off the rain from above; your own splashing feet were responsible for the hem of your knee-length skirt.
He grumbled, gesturing for you to sit by him in the cramped storage space. Pleased by his atypically kind offer and very eager to warm up yourself, you sat down beside him. A soft, contented sigh hummed in your throat as you resisted the urge to rest your cheek against the side of his head.
“You’re like a kotatsu,” you praised.
“Don’t say weird stuff like that.”
Happy to oblige him, you set about preparing the kitten’s daily meal. Some of them were becoming quite skinny, which worried you, but that just meant you needed to increase what they had available to eat, right? It would be properly spring, soon, so they would even be able to go out and play.
As you kept shooing the hungry kittens from where you mixed meat and milk powder, Touya lazily watched. He rested his elbow on a shelf and propped his head up.
“How come you’re always here?”
“Ah,” you fumbled. “Well… I don’t want to trouble my sister.”
The answer did not satisfy Touya if the way his bright eyes continued to bore into you in the dreary shade of the shed said anything.
“Last year, my mother had to… go overseas for work. She left me with my sister, but she’s living with her boyfriend, you know? I… feel like…”
Your mind drifted to the awkwardness of you camping out in their tiny apartment. It was really meant for one person; a couple could make it work, but a whole family was untenable. They never mistreated you; you had three meals a day, necessities, and your sister made time on Sundays to at least go with you window shopping nearby. It wasn’t bad!
But, you felt like a burden all the same. Neither of them had asked to be your parents and you couldn’t go back there and be in the way. In a sense, the kittens were a salvation. You could come home every evening, do your homework, and tell her you had spent the day helping a friend take care of their pets. A little bit of a lie, sure, but your sister was happy for you.
It made you feel like less of a leech than your loan-dodging mother.
“You feel like you don’t belong there,” Touya added after you trailed off.
A small hum told him he’d hit the nail on the head.
When you put the dish of food down, the kittens abandoned both of you to devour their feast.
A soft smile was offered the boy’s way. “What about you, Touya? You’re here very often, but I’ve never seen a house.”
“That’s cause my house isn’t on this property.” He shrugged, rubbing one of the ever-present marks on his arm. “My family owns most of Sekoto Peak. My dad trained here when he was a kid, so I am, now.”
“Is he strong, too?” you asked. In the time you had gotten to know him, you had determined that Touya was more involved in both physical fitness and martial arts than the average elementary student. Perhaps this was why? You imagined his father as a taller, perhaps more broad version of him; a white-haired, beautiful martial arts master.
He couldn’t contain his reaction as much as he clearly tried. Touya looked off with an uncharacteristic air of shyness cloaking him as he proudly spoke of his father. “He’s the strongest.” He breathed in deeply. “And, I’m gonna be even stronger.”
The cold spring rain tapped on the roof of the shed. The kittens noisily ate. You relaxed in his warmth, in the rare sight of your friend (Was Touya your friend?) smiling.
Then, you reached over and gave his shoulder a little squeeze. “I bet! You’re already stronger than me!”
He scoffed, shrugging your hand off and turning stubbornly away. “That’s not hard to do!”
It was finally warm enough that you didn’t have to wear your heavy winter jacket. Your collection of kittens had dwindled down to three, but you and Touya had now taken to going back and forth on who would stop by in the mornings to feed and water them. The afternoons were still spent, on occasion, together.
“I met B-Till again,” you gushed as the two of you did your homework.
Touya barely looked up. “Uh-huh.”
“I’ve been seeing him sometimes at the store where I get the cat food… He found out I’m using my allowance to buy it and, oh, Touya, you won’t believe it!”
His frown shifted from even to lopsided. The subtle tilt of his chin encouraged you to go on.
“He’s going to start meeting me there on Mondays to buy what the kittens need!” You giggled, squirming on the log.
He scoffed, rolled his eyes, and picked up the eraser you dropped.
You accepted it back with a little word of gratitude before twirling one of your braids. “He’s such a nice guy… I think I’ll ask my sister for some of his merch as a graduation gift. You don’t think he’d think I’m creepy for it, would you? Do you think he’d sign it? I think he’s my new favorite hero…”
The boy slammed his thin homework notebook shut with a huff. “Are you gonna act like this when I become a hero?”
“... Huh?”
“When I become a hero,” he repeated. “Are you going to act like this?”
“Oh! Well, sure!” You smiled fondly at him. “I’m happy to support you, Touya! We’re friends, aren’t we?”
Assessing your expression through narrowed eyes, the boy with red-flecked hair only grumbled out a response once his eyes cut away. “Yeah. We’re friends.”
He didn’t respond much when you bumped shoulders with him, so you went back to doing your homework.
Sekoto Peak had become green again. Finals had you weary, but the school year was almost over. It was easier to relax. You had studied as much as you could.
The final survivor of your and Touya’s efforts, a little boy dubbed Leo, lay across your lap as you carefully threaded tender, early grasses with the first flowers of the season. The boy was training, focused on calisthenics. Or, so he insisted when you asked what he was doing.
When he came over to get a sip of water, you finally caught a glimpse of his tank top choice of the day. The distinct flame mask on it caught your eye.
“Oh! That’s Endeavor, right?” you asked aloud as you scratched under Leo’s chin.
Touya wiped away sweat while greedily guzzling water. His ever-piercing gaze weighed down on you, but you had become used to it with time. You patiently allowed him to do all of his ever-suspicious internal calculating at his leisure.
He wiped his mouth on the back of his bandaged arm before answering. “Yeah.”
Satisfied, you nodded. “It makes sense you’d be a fan. Your quirks are basically the same, right?”
“... Yeah.”
“Oh! He must be your inspiration, huh?” You went back to weaving the flower crown, pleased with this new knowledge of your friend. “I’m sure he’ll pick you for a sidekick once you’re a hero.”
You only realized Touya had walked over when the crunch of his sneakers entered your sight. You looked up, seeing a more pensive expression on his face than you had spotted in some months. He wordlessly plopped beside you on the grassy patch, drawing his knees up to his chin as he sometimes did.
“You think he would?”
Leo jumped out of your lap as you shifted. Touya jerked away, one eye shut in a wince as you dropped the flower crown on his head. One of the blossoms came loose with your shoddy work, but you felt happy that it even stayed in place at all.
“He would,” you promised. “You’re the strongest guy I know.”
Nothing could have made you anticipate the ferocity with which Touya hugged you. It knocked you onto your back, reminding you of how much training the little guy did. You felt him shudder against you and warm tears hit your neck. But, boys generally didn’t like it when you pointed out that they were crying.
He was so very warm to hug.
An Alder Junior High uniform adorned your body and an insect mask charm dangled from your backpack as you raced up the path. Touya looked up from where he was letting Leo rabbit-kick his hand.
“Touya, you won’t believe it!” you gasped, stopping to put your hands on your knees.
“You saw B-Till today?” he teased.
“No. Er, wait, yes, but that’s not it!” You grabbed his hand, pulling him up to dance around with you.
Leo scrambled off into the shed, avoiding the commotion.
Touya indulged you, allowing you to yank him around for a moment. “Well, what is it?”
You squealed, letting go of his hand to spin around again. “He invited me to go view the cherry blossoms!” A girlish giggle bubbled in your throat and your cheeks felt as if they were on fire. “It’ll be quick and he’s supposed to be on working, so I can’t go bragging about it… But, you can keep a secret, can’t you, Touya?”
Touya stood stock still, brows knit together. He didn’t even bother trying to hide his frown. “... I didn’t know you liked looking at flowers.”
“You’ll get it when you’re older,” you dismissed.
He made a face, but you were too caught up in the delight of B-Till’s invitation. You span once again before allowing yourself to plop down on the ground. The sky above was so clear and you couldn’t help but look up into it hopefully.
The snowy head of your friend popped into view, still looking as sour as before.
“Will you go look at the cherry blossoms with me when I go to junior high?”
“Of course, Touya!” you insisted. “Whatever you want!”
With a little huff, he seemed satisfied with that for now. “Well, start your homework. I’ll get a fire going so Leo can eat.”
“He’s getting to be a big boy,” you noted. “What is he? Four months now? Maybe he’s ready for dry food…”
April turned to May. Summer break came and went. By the time Touya learned you had become a missing persons case, Leo had already left to follow his budding adult instincts.
His training on Sekoto Peak returned to the solitude he had endured before your arrival.