Much to your disapproval, Touya was reluctant to do almost any of your basic workouts: crunches, planks, side-straddle hops. Despite the cool weather on the mountain side, you'd been working up a sweat, but your friend looked just as uninterested as ever. You couldn't even give him points for trying. For each exercise, he put in minimum effort. There was no interest; no hint of that trademark fiery passion you'd known him for back in the day. You were growing bored. How were you supposed to get any real training done if he was just going to act like a lazy bum? Stiller always did your workouts with you, and he was an old man. You placed your hand on your hip, and gave Touya a look of disapproval.

"C'mon, Touya. You gotta give me something." You complained. Touya leaned his weight onto a nearby tree and stood slouched.

"What? You expect me to work out in this?" He questioned sarcastically, pinching the fabric of his long black coat. You rolled your eyes.

"It's not even hot outside. And even if it were, you, of all people, shouldn't be allowed to complain about the heat." You teased.

Touya's eyes seemed to flicker with a hint of interest at your words. You didn't think you'd said anything particularly exciting. "Eh, I ain't built for it." He said. He pushed himself off of the trunk and stepped closer to you. "Speaking of heat, though…" He began, completely ignoring your comment. "...we should work on your quirk." His eyes met yours with an intense, almost distressed, look. They didn't waver. You weren't sure, but you thought you'd seen it on him before. Though he was much better at concealing any emotion now, this one managed to sneak through just enough for you to pick up on. He was deeply troubled by something.

"Alright, sure. I usually do that after my regular workout, though, so let's finish-"

"We should start it now." Touya interjected quickly. That same expression was still on his face, masking the worry. You furrowed your brows, feeling a little offended at being cut off in the middle of your sentence. Touya didn't miss the hint.

"Sorry." He corrected himself with a quick apology. "I just think it would be more practical."

You rolled your eyes with a smile. He'd always been one to place quirk training at the top of his list of priorities, but your years of tactical practice taught you better. "It's all practical, Touya." You insisted.

He took a step toward you and reached his hand out to gently take hold of your arm. "Sure, but…" He ran his thumb over your bandaged wrist. You looked down at your arm. All of the hair had been singed off, leaving behind wispy spots of burned skin that were beginning to scab over. "Martial arts and physical fitness isn't going to help with this type of thing." He said bitterly.

So that was it. Though he likely wouldn't say it outright, his tone gave away his concerns. You placed your free hand over his. "Touya, I'm fine. Really, you don't have to worry. I can take care of myself."

He didn't look up at your face. Instead, an expressionless look rested upon his own as he answered: "You say that, but I seem to remember I was the one taking care of you that's past few days." His comment felt like a jab to the gut- a direct attack on your pride. Your jaw sent slack as you were left stunned. You didn't think Touya would ever say something like that. You pulled your arms away from him. The look on your face expressed your disappointed disapproval. Touya sighed guiltily.

"I don't mean to sound like I think you're weak. You're not. I'm just…" He paused to take a breath through gritted teeth.

'Damn, don't choke on it…' You critiqued internally.

"I'm not particularly eager to go through that again." His tone was steady and serious, but his eyes displayed his genuine concern. Touya wasn't the best at conveying his feelings, but his words didn't make it sound like you were a load that was dumped on him; rather, they suggested he didn't want to see you hurt. It was comforting. You took a deep breath and exhaled with a tiny smile, finally giving in to him.

"Okay. What did you have in mind?" You asked.

Touya backed up a couple of steps.

"We should work on your ability to control heat." He said affirmatively. It was nice that he was trying to understand your quirk more and even nicer that he wanted to help you use it to protect yourself, but you couldn't help yourself. You had to correct him.

"I don't control heat." You stated simply.

Touya was visibly confused. "Uh, (Y/N), I've seen you move heat before. Even back in the program…"

"No, no, no." You laughed, knowing well he didn't understand what you meant. "You see, I control energy. Heat is just what we call the flow of kinetic energy between particles. See, you can calculate the amount of energy-"

Touya raised his arms and waved his hands defensively in front of him. "NO- no, god, no. No math. I get it. Whatever it is you can do, I'm sure you don't go through a whole equation in your head when you do it. I was thinking more along the lines of just using my flames to have you practice."

You chuckled, feeling awkward to have been so excited to give your friend a physics lesson. It seemed silly. Now that you were really thinking about it, you weren't sure he had even received a proper education since the program had been dissolved. It seemed, though, that he'd gotten along just fine without schooling. His training idea would definitely work, but you weren't exactly thrilled to be working with fire- even if it was Touya's. This training might be just what you were missing, though. Since the incident that resulted in Touya's supposed death, you made it a point to distance yourself from highly concentrated energy- especially fire. In lieu of superheated objects, you worked with more massive things; more mass meant more energy. Even chunks of ice would have more energy than a flame if they were large enough. Put simply: you were excellent with energy manipulation, but you were quite nervous regardless. Still, you didn't want to look so weak in front of your friend. He was only trying to help you out, after all. Using your quirk to propel yourself back a ways, you readied yourself with a defensive stance.

"Alright, hit me!" You called out with as much confidence as you could. Touya took the offensive, raising his arms and activating his quirk. The flames encircled his arms and palms and flowed almost like water through his fingers. You gulped. Though he was nearly twenty feet away, you could feel the intense heat almost immediately.

'Alright, calm down. This is just like the training you did with Stiller- you can do this.' You rationalized with yourself. You could feel your legs start to shake as your nerves began to get the better of you.

Touya stretched his arms out in front of him, and you braced yourself as best as you could. You weren't going to use a barrier; instead, you needed to focus on robbing his flames of their energy to put them out. The intensity of the flames increased in his right arm. Your heart pounded away in your chest, and you tightened your fists as if punching the flickering fire might keep it at bay. Quickly, Touya raised his arm and you felt your breath hitch in fearful anticipation. Just as you were certain you were about to be enveloped, Touya waved his arm to the side, directing his quirk at the brush a few feet away from him. Much of the dead vegetation on the ground caught immediately, sending large waves of blue flame up into the trees. At first, bewilderment had completely taken hold of you; he hadn't aimed his blast at you as you'd predicted. The deadly heat creeping its way along the forest floor and slowly up into the trees, however, was enough to bring you back to reality.

"T-Touya?"

Your friend stuck out his other arm and released another flamethrower-like stream from his body. More dead leaves and dry branches fueled the growing inferno.

'Why is there so much tinder here? Did he gather all of this on purpose?' You wondered in horrified amazement.

Over the crackling blaze, you heard Touya call out to you: "It's obvious by now isn't it?" He relaxed his arms and placed his hands into his pockets, looking up at you with a mischievous and cunning smirk. "Your job is to keep this forest from burning to the ground."

A large knot formed in the pit of your stomach as a thin sheet of despair set in.

'He can't be serious… can he?!' Your eyes darted frantically back and forth between the ignited ground and the high tree branches before you heard Touya's voice again.

"Might wanna hurry. Lots of stuff lives in this forest, y'know." With another swoop of his hand, he set his sights on a cluster of small trees. Given that most of the plants in this region of the woods were very much alive, you were shocked at how quickly the blaze was catching. You couldn't waste any more time, though. Smoke was beginning to fill the air and, if you didn't do something soon, the fire would become too much for you to contain. Targeting the flames to your left first, you drew as much energy as you could away from them. Lifting your hand to the sky in a swift motion, you dispersed it into the canopy evenly, heating up the air, but killing the fire. The blue glow faded on that side, but increased on your right. The fire was spreading.

'Damn, Touya's flames are no joke. They're way more energetic than any I've worked with before. It took a lot more effort than I thought it would to put them out!' You gritted your teeth as you mentally prepped yourself to tackle the other inferno. You preferred to stay as far away from it as possible, but with the speed at which the fire was spreading, you worried you may have to dive into the thick of it. You couldn't afford to be afraid now. Touya was watching after all. Summoning up some courage, you used your quirk to zip off to your left. Again, you robbed the flames of their energy, being careful to only allow it near you once you'd diluted it in the air. Being closer to the flames allowed you to make an interesting observation, though: as you extracted more and more energy from the flames, their color changed gradually from their intense blue to the more traditional orange-red.

You landed on a pile of incinerated detritus beside the cooler fire. Sweat began to form on your forehead as the heat found your skin, and you felt ashamed that it had taken you this long to realize that Touya hadn't been doing nothing all this time. This power was exceptional. In your opinion, he'd always been talented, but this was a far cry from the strained strength he displayed in the program. You readied your quirk once again and extinguished what was left of the flames. You smiled triumphantly and focused your attention on the final patch of fire. One final time, you repeated your energy-removing technique. You sucked in a large breath as you struggled to pull enough energy from the last fire. It was odd. The muscles in your arms were beginning to cramp. You'd only been using your quirk for a couple of minutes; were you really that out of shape after a few days? No. Touya's extraordinary energy output was likely to blame. You hadn't focused on high-temperatures in so long, and moving large quantities of energy took a much bigger toll on your body than moving simple matter. As the final flames dissipated, you spun around, feeling more excited than scared to take on the next patch of fire, but found none. You glanced over at your friend with a cocky smile painted on your face.

"Is that all you've got?" You teased, placing a hand on your hip.

Touya scoffed. "As if…" He retorted. Though it was through gritted teeth, his voice was confident. His body language, however, told a different story. As you took a closer look, you felt your heart sink.

'His arm… is it… smoking?' The stench of burning was all around you- there was no way to be sure it was coming from him. Even so, you rushed to his side, propelling yourself with your quirk.

"Touya!" You exclaimed as you stopped yourself abruptly in front of him. Before he could protest, you grabbed hold of both of his wrists and pulled his arms forward to examine them. Just was you'd suspected, small wisps of smoke trailed out from the stapled seam on his hands. Your eyes widened with anxiety as you gently guided your hands up the scarred skin on his forearm.

"I forgot…" You said sorrowfully.

"Yeah, I do, too, sometimes. Don't worry about it, I'm fine." He assured. His body wasn't made for his quirk. He knew that very well, and yet, he still insisted on using it.

"No." You spoke so softly you weren't sure if he'd even heard. You stated down at the blistering skin on his palm. Most people might turn away at such an unpleasant sight, but you felt no disgust. Instead, sadness filled your heart. Absent-mindedly, you began to trace the U-shaped suture on his hand. The heat from his scorched skin and metal staples nipped uncomfortably at your fingertips. Almost instinctively, you activated your quirk and worked to slowly pull the energy away from the source.

"(Y/N), I said it's fine. We should kee-" Touya stopped in the middle of his sentence, seemingly put off by the sensation. His chest rose gradually and fell unsteadily as he released a shaky breath. You continued to stare at his damaged hand through partially lidded eyes. The putrid smoke that had been emanating from his skin gradually disappeared, and relief set in. The feeling of satisfaction didn't last long, however, once you'd realized what you'd accidentally done. You snapped your head up to look him in the face with an apologetic expression.

"I'm sorry!" You exclaimed as you pulled your hands away from his. "I totally zoned out just now- I didn't hurt you did I?" You asked.

Touya's gaze was focused on his hand, brows furrowed. His cool and casual demeanor seemed to have been shaken from him once again. "No. It… doesn't hurt." He breathed quietly. Touya gently lifted his arm and turned it slowly, as if inspecting it. "How… how did you do that?" He wondered out loud.

"Oh, I just took the heat out. I do it a lot when I want to touch hot objects."

Touya smiled gently. "I thought you didn't control heat." He quipped. You huffed a soft laugh.

"You know what I meant."

Touya was quiet for a long moment, but slowly reached out for your retreating hand and laced his fingers with yours. He stared down, avoiding eye contact. What little wind that slipped past the protection of the trees stirred up the smokey air and sent ash swirling around your legs. The cool breeze caused goosebumps to form on your exposed skin. Touya brought his other hand back down and rested it on your shoulder for just a second before running it down your arm. A shy smile snuck its way onto your face.

'He's so warm…' You thought. Moments ago, he had been using his power to set fire to an entire ecosystem, but now, you were taking comfort in his cozy touch. You stepped closer to him, leaving only a few inches of space between your bodies. You felt drawn to his warmth like a moth to light. Still, he didn't look you in the face. His eyes were still focused on some imaginary object on the ground behind you, but you couldn't help but notice the content look he bore. You hadn't had the pleasure of seeing that in a while. For a moment, your body relaxed. It was peaceful.

"Touya…" You began sweetly. "What… Are you thinking?" It sounded like a silly question now that you were asking it, but you'd had such a hard time reading him so far. You were sure where the confidence came from, but now was as good a time as any to get a clear answer. Touya's eyes finally found your face, but you couldn't bring yourself to meet his eyes.

"I'm thinking…" Touya said, giving your hand a squeeze. "...we work well together. Maybe even better than I thought we would." His lips curled up into a rare, beaming smile. You immediately mirrored his expression.

"Whatever you did just now… it helped. Obviously, whatever damage was already done still hurts, but not as bad." He explained.

You beamed with pride. "That makes sense. Pulling all that heat away keeps it from doing any more damage." Your excitement grew with every word you spoke. This epiphany was opening a new avenue in your mind. As if he were reading your thoughts, Touya spoke up:

"Do you think you could do that while I'm using my fire?" He asked, a hint of hesitance in his tone. You nodded.

"I think so. We'd have to start off slow at first. Practice makes perfect, obviously, but… Touya, you'd be able to use so much more of your power!"

Finally, your eyes met. Touya's free hand rubbed small circles on your bandaged wrist. You continued.

"Makes you wonder how much better we could've done if we'd trained together more back in the day." For a moment you'd nearly forgotten the negative experience of the program. Once the words had left your mouth, however, you scrambled to try and correct yourself

"I mean- you know like… proper training. Obviously nothing like what they had us do." You averted your eyes awkwardly.

'Why would you even bring that up?' You mentally scolded yourself for your loose lips.

Touya didn't mind, though. He responded casually, as if your training mishap as children were nothing more than a summer-camp accident. "We'd be strong as hell. Especially if we'd known you could do that. Those commission brats wouldn't have had anything on us." He boasted happily. It was so good to see him smiling.

You nodded excitedly. "Yeah, if only we'd gotten that one-on-one training time we'd always talked about. I always was kinda bummed that I never got to go over to your house as kids." You mentioned, remember your childhood fantasies of Touya's house fondly. You hadn't gotten to see it. The two of you talked about it more than a handful of times, but you never had the chance to go. You shook your head, thinking about how silly your imagination was back then.

"Would you like to?" Touya asked.

"Huh?"

"Do you wanna see the place?" He repeated. You weren't sure how to respond. On the one hand, you didn't want to risk being seen in public by Stiller or one of his informants. On the other, you were filled with a burning curiosity that longed to be satiated. Perhaps it was your euphoric recollection of the past, or just your unwise side throwing caution to the wind, but you answered much more quickly than you intended.

"Absolutely."