Chapter 11
The following Monday, the internships had come to an end and the students returned to UA. The homeroom was bustling with excitement as Kaiya walked in, noticing Kirishima and Sero laughing at Bakugou's hair.
"Shut up! My hair got used to what Best Jeanist did to me. It won't go back the same way." Bakugou seethed as Kaiya brushed past him.
"You look adorable, pretty boy." Kaiya teased as she walked to her seat.
"What did you say?!" Bakugou barked, his hair popping back into shape. Laughing at the explosion boy's temper, Kaiya ventured to her desk to see that Kaminari, Iida and Midoriya were all gathered around Todoroki and Kaiya's desk.
"I can't believe you all were involved in the Hero Killer incident. Lucky that Endeavor saved you guys." Sato commented as Kaiya tensed, waiting for Todoroki's reaction.
"Yeah. We were lucky." Was all he managed to say as Kaiya shared a look with him .
"Did you guys see Stain's video though? He's so tenacious! It's kinda hard not to think the guy is cool." Kaminari said before being glared at by Iida and Midoriya. "Oh god, Iida! I'm so sorry dude."
"It's okay. I can see why people would think he is cool. Unfortunately, his tenacity turned murderous. He made me realize that I want to be the perfect hero to stop him!" Iida announced proudly.
"He's back." Kaiya smirked, amused by the determination in their class rep's tone. Aizawa entered and had everyone find their seats.
"Welcome back from your internships. I am excited to see what new skills you have found in the past week." He began, his eyes ghosting over Kaiya. Her stomach flustered nervously as she knew her teacher would be focusing more on her now after their slip up in Hosu. "Summer break is coming up too, but don't get too excited. You will be training while camping in the woods." Aizawa informed them, earning cheers from select students.
"Camping? Not really my thing." Kaiya mumbled, seeing Todoroki react neutrally to the news.
"However, we do have the final exam also to be done soon. So with that said, we will be conducting a hero assessment today to showcase some new skills you have picked up. Get changed and meet me at Ground Beta." Aizawa dismissed the class.
The students gathered in their hero costumes and waited near the giant screen to be sectioned off to their teams. Kaiya was stretching when Momo and Jirou found her with knowing smiles on their faces. "Yes?" She asked them before Momo began giggling.
"We heard you chose Endeavors agency for your internships." Jirou told her, seeing Kaiya roll her eyes at them. "So did Todoroki...surprisingly."
"You have no idea." Kaiya mumbled before bending her knees to stretch.
"Any particular reason why you chose that agency? I heard he asked for you specifically." Momo asked her.
"There's a lot of gossiping going around these days huh?" Kaiya dodged the question, trying to buy some time. "I chose it because Endeavor knows fire. I needed help. That's all."
"But Todoroki?" Jirou poked before Kaiya interrupted her.
"I didn't even know he chose his fathers' agency, like he didn't know I chose it. We were both surprised." She told the girls who were still smirking at her. "Look. I know that you want me to say I'm madly in love with Todoroki, but I will disappoint you. Now can we please pay attention to our classmates?" She asked, pointing at the current race standings. To her relief, both Momo and Jirou nodded their surrender and turned to the screen, allowing Kaiya to sigh with relief.
"What was all that about?" A monotone voice sounded behind her, startling her. Todoroki stood with his arms crossed over his chest with a slight curiosity on his face.
"Girl talk. Crushes. Boring stuff." Kaiya told him honestly, knowing he could see her deceit normally. "Do you see how Midoriya is moving? Those moves look familiar." She tried to distract him from the crush conversation. Thankfully it worked as Todoroki's attention became glued to the green haired boy on the screen.
"Those look like…Bakugou's moves." Todoroki noticed while Kaiya glanced over to an irate Bakugou. "He noticed too." He added when he saw what Kaiya was looking at.
"Hey Bakugou! Looks like you have a fan…copying your moves. Weird how he does them better." Misa taunted him.
"Shut it kitty cat before I blast you!" He roared back at her.
"You won't be able to catch me." She retorted back. "It's so much fun to rile him up." She smiled, looking at the seething Bakugou.
"You're very good at it." Kaiya laughed. "This will be fun." She groaned, seeing that the race had ended. "We're up."
Todoroki, Kaiya, Bakugou and Kaminari all lined up ready to go. "I'll blow you all to ash." Bakugou promised, sparking his gauntlets already.
"You forget that you have two fire powers over here. Plus Kaminari could electrocute you in a second." Kaiya pointed out carefully, seeing Kaminari shrink back in fear of being blasted. The horn blasted to signal the start of the race and the boys took off running. There was more of an intense fire behind Bakugou as he tore through the buildings with more velocity in his blasts. "Someone is mad." Kaiya grumbled to herself while propelling herself off wind bursts.
Todoroki tore ahead of her gliding on his ice, easily maneuvering through the obstacles, occasionally checking behind him to ensure Kaiya was keeping up. "She's faster." He thought to himself, hearing Bakugou's blasts ahead of him. They all crossed the finish line relatively close to each other while Kaminari dumbly crossed over a moment behind them. Kaiya giggled at the drooling mess of the teen as sparks shot off of him slightly.
Kaiya analyzed herself once the critiques began. Her palms were throbbing less than they normally did and her energy level had barely been impacted. "You're smiling too much." A gruff voice sounded from behind her. Bakugou's normal glare met Kaiya's pleased look.
"I feel...strong." She told him excitedly. A ghost of a smirk appeared on the teenager's face as he scoffed at her. "Maybe I'll be able to beat you one of these days." She challenged him, eliciting a loud laugh from Bakugou.
"We'll see Green Eyes."
Later that night while studying, a small knock sounded outside of the dojo while Kaiya was reading her homework. "I wonder who that is." Kaiya slid open the door to see Fuyumi standing there with a bright smile on her face. "Umm...hi Fuyumi. Is everything okay?"
"Yes! I brought you food. I hope you don't mind my dropping by uninvited." She answered, her eyes darting between Kaiya and the room behind the girl.
"Of course not! Please, come in." Kaiya stuttered out, opening the door to Fuyimi. The older girl took in the space quietly as her eyes found Kaiya's sleeping arrangement with scattered books on the floor. "It's not much, but it works." Fuyumi turned to her and handed her the pot of food. "You really didn't have to do this."
"May I speak freely with you Kaiya?" She asked as Kaiya nodded and placed the food on a nearby table. "Let's eat first though. I'm sure you're hungry." Before Kaiya could refuse, her stomach growled and blew her cover. As Kaiya served Fuyumi and herself the noodles, Fuyumi's bright eyes kept darting to the burn on Kaiya's arm.
"Thank you for this. I don't eat much at night." Kaiya cleared her throat to get Fuyumi's attention away from the discoloration. The food smelled heavenly as Kaiya slurped on the noodles, her stomach constricting happily at the sustenance.
"Shoto talks about you at home." Fuyumi blurted out, causing Kaiya to almost choke on the food. "I know he isn't much of a talker, unlike my other brother. But I know when something is different about him." She tried to edit her outburst. "Every first day of school for years, I'd ask him how his day was. Same answer every year. 'Fine'. This year he took a few moments to ponder his response."
"What was his response?" Kaiya asked, trying to remember their first few interactions from months prior. They were a mixture of tense and normal to say the least until they worked on the hero assessment test. "We didn't really interact until we were paired together a few days later."
"He noticed you when you all were showcasing your Quirks." Fuyumi smiled. "There was something about you that got his attention. He said that someone was unique."
"Unique?" Kaiya repeated as Fuyumi nodded her head.
"Every few days or so I'd check on him and I'd see him pondering things in his head and was always texting. Normal teenage stuff right? Not Shoto. He was texting you. So I asked him about it, expecting him to brush me off."
"What happened instead?" Kaiya asked, trying to remember the timeline in her head.
"The second day of school I think, he said a girl yelled at him at school and it piqued his interest. Your burn I think was part of his interest." Fuyumi explained, her eyes glancing over to Kaiya's forearm. "Eventually it got to the point where I didn't have to ask about you. He'd just...bring you up. Then the sports festival happened and I saw what you could do then I understood his affliction."
"Because of my fire?" Kaiya asked tentatively but Fuyumi shook her head.
"That is my fathers affliction with you. Shoto's is simple in comparison. You are powerful, kind, and patient. A combination that is foreign to him. It helps that you are pretty too." Kaiya blushed at the compliments and pulled the bowl closer to her face to cover the embarrassment.
"I'm just me." Kaiya whispered, causing Fuyumi to giggle.
"That is why I like you so much. You aren't doing anything on purpose. You are genuinely kind with him and patient. You brought out a side to him that has been so deeply buried I thought it was lost a long time ago. And I do not mean just his fireside."
A few moments passed in silence as the girls regarded each other for a beat. "Todoroki told me about your mother. I'm sorry that it happened to you too." Kaiya said, placing her bowl down on the table. "I couldn't imagine going through all of that."
"You've been through your own trauma. You found a way to heal." Fuyumi pointed out her eyes ghosting over Kaiya's forearm again. Kaiya cradled the arm slightly and nodded her agreement. "We are not what our past dictates. We write our own story. You helped Shoto find a more positive path; for that I am grateful."
"That's why you're here? To say thank you?" Kaiya asked.
"Well that, and I wanted to make sure you're fed. Shoto may have let slip your situation here. You need all the strength you can get when wielding all that power that I've seen."
"Thank you Fuyumi. I learned a long time ago to be skeptical of people's help because they normally use it against you." Kaiya admitted, but let a smile form on her lips when Fuyumi looked concerned. "But you are good people. Shoto helped me realize it is okay to accept help."
"Which is so ironic…" Fuyumi mumbled, causing Kaiya to laugh.
For the next few hours, Fuyumi and Kaiya talked and giggled like old friends until the sun was long gone and Kaiya began yawning. "I should go before my father burns the house down." Fuyumi said, pulling Kaiya in for a hug. "Take care of yourself. I'll drop by again soon."
"Thank you for everything! Be safe." Kaiya smiled, waving to the elder Todoroki. Seeing Fuyumi depart down the hill to her awaiting car, Kaiya giggled with realization when she thought about telling Todoroki about his sisters' visit. The stoic boy may actually show emotion at that.
As she predicted, Todoroki was not thrilled the next day during lunch when Kaiya told him about Fuyumi's dinner visit. "She did what?!" Todoroki groaned as Kaiya spluttered her tea out in laughter. "I'm going to kill her." He said, rubbing his face roughly.
"It's fine Todoroki. It was nice to have a hot dinner with company for once. We talked a lot actually." Kaiya told him, rubbing his arm to soothe his annoyance.
"Talk about what?" He asked carefully, not letting his eyes find Kaiya. Kaiya bit her tongue to stop the giggling bubbling in her chest but when Todoroki's eyes bore more into the lunch table, she let out a fit of laughter. "I'm going to kill her." He swore, reaching for his cellphone.
"Wait!" Kaiya breathed, grasping for the phone in his hand. "She just said you talk about me at home for which I am flattered. That is all. She didn't read into it if that is your concern." Kaiya relented, catching her breath. "Is there something that you want to tell me?" She asked, wondering why he was so concerned about what the girls talked about.
"Well no, I just don't want you thinking...nevermind." He mumbled. Both teens blushed profusely as an awkward silence dragged on.
"I'm nervous for the final exam." Kaiya admitted finally, eager to break the tension.
"You're third in our class academically. You'll be fine." Todoroki told her, remembering that he was below her by two placements.
"The written exam is not my concern. There's a practical portion too. I don't like that idea; I can't study for practical skills." She told him, scribbling more in her notebook. "You think pretty quickly on your feet. Me? Not so much."
"You'll pass. Now Kaminari and Ashido...I'm not so sure from what they were saying earlier about their study habits." Kaiya groaned but chose not to argue with Todoroki. Maybe he was correct and she was just freaking herself out; or he could be wrong too. "You think quicker on your feet than you realize."
"I just need to trust myself." Kaiya mumbled, picking at the ends of her hair.
