You panted as you made your way through the familiar hall. The light you'd taken from the lamp in your room shined brightly beside you. Though you'd been practicing non-stop to better handle different forms of energy, electromagnetic energy, like visible light, was the most difficult to manage. Keeping the glowing ball beside you took quite a lot of effort- it was exhausting. Still, you had to see if your friends were in the classroom. Ever since your night-light had broken, one of the boys (usually Touya, for the simple fact that he was quieter) would fetch you from your room so that you could walk together. Tonight, however, neither of them showed up. Melancholic thoughts began to sink in.
'They wouldn't've forgot about me, right? Okay, maybe Keigo would… but not Touya! ...right?'
You were approaching the caved-in entrance. The muscles in your arms and back strained as you struggled to keep the light from dissipating. As you got closer, you noticed that the desks, which were usually stacked into makeshift stairs, had been knocked over. Was it like that the last time you left? You felt your heart sink. Had neither of them made it? Standing directly underneath the hole, you allowed your light to die. There was a miniscule amount of relief as you let it go, but your muscles still felt as though you'd undergone an intense workout. You reached your arms over your head to feel around for the wall as you used your quirk to lift yourself into the room. Light from the moon and street lamps outside shone softly on your face as you entered.
"Touya? Kei?" You whispered just loud enough for anyone in the room to hear. There was no answer. You shakily raised yourself higher and gently landed on the floor. Though you hadn't been able to fly any straighter during training, you'd managed to gain more stability while using your quirk for mundane things like floating. To your surprise, someone was sitting on the scaffolding just outside of the crumbled wall. His back was to you, and the hood of his white jacket was pulled up over his head
"Touya? Is that you?" You called noting the absence of wings. "Hey, we missed you at lunch… and dinner. Is everything… okay?" You were put off by his initial unresponsive nature, but stepped closer. He eventually spoke when you were standing just a couple of feet behind him.
"Sorry I didn't come get you." He said plainly. You waited for him to continue; maybe give some kind of explanation, but he did not. The silence hung in the air. 'Awkward' was never something you'd felt around Touya before, but the feeling was growing stronger by the minute. After a few eternal moments, you spoke up:
"That's okay. I found my way here…"
Touya turned to look at you curiously. "Oh. Kei's not with you?" He asked, eyeing the room in search of your feathered friend. He looked a little surprised, but his sad tone persisted. This wasn't anything like his usual self.
You shook your head. "No. I just brought the light from my lamp."
Touya smiled faintly and let out a small huff. "Wow, that's some great improvement. You're really strong, you know that, (Y/N)?" Again with the unhappy voice. He sounded borderline dejected. Maybe you should pry just a bit.
"Is… everything alright?" Your words came out soft and nurturing almost instinctively, but you hesitated when asking for fear you might upset him further. His mood didn't change though. Not outwardly, at least. He simply hummed in response and stared straight ahead at whatever building was across the street from the school. Feeling unconvinced, you moved to his side. You only caught a glimpse of his face before Touya turned his head away from you. Was his lip quivering? You took a seat. You were sure you understood why he was upset. You hadn't seen him during mealtimes or group training today; his overseer must have had him practicing solo. Gently, you placed your hand on his back.
"Rough day?" You questioned politely. Touya stared down at the interlocked fingers in his lap, allowing you to see half of his disheartened expression. He nodded slowly, but didn't answer immediately. You rubbed small circles over his shoulder blade and waited patiently. If he didn't want to open up, you weren't going to push him. You were all too familiar with feelings of inadequacy and knew very well that they weren't anyone's favorite subject. Still, you wanted to help.
You cleared your throat. "Y'know… you're really strong, too, Touya. Way above me."
Touya's eyebrows furrowed. "You're just saying that. I've barely improved since I got here. I just…" His frustration became evident as he raised his voice. "Why am I so weak?!" He shouted.
"Touya, you're not-" You tried in a calm voice, but were quickly silenced.
"I don't get it! I try so hard to get stronger- to be one of the strongest heroes, but no matter how hard I try, I don't get any better." His breathing quickened, and you could see tears beginning to well in his eyes. On any other day, someone yelling like this might have scared you, but, maybe because it was Touya, you felt obligated to hear him out.
"You and Keigo improve every day, and I'm just stuck- as weak as I was when I first got here!" He brought his hands to his head and gripped his hair roughly, causing his hood to fall back. The sleeves of his jacket fell ever so slightly past his wrists, revealing carefully wrapped white bandages. You swiftly, yet delicately pulled his hand away from his head and rolled up his sleeve to examine his arm.
"Touya, your arm… what happened?" You asked with blatant concern. He pulled away and replaced his sleeve. The tears that had formed trickled down his nose and fell onto his lap as he looked down. "How can I be a hero if I hurt myself whenever I use my quirk. I'll never amount to anything with a body so weak."
His words weighed heavy on you. You were all doing your very best to become the heroes you wanted to be. It was obvious he wanted to be great, and that was likely why he was in the program in the first place, but there was one thing you couldn't understand for the life of you.
"Why… why would your parents enroll you into an intense training program if they know that your quirk hurts you?!" Your question came out angrier than you'd intended, but you figured 'so what?' It did make you angry. Touya sniffled and wiped his cheek with his sleeve.
"It was really more my idea…" He admitted with a quick embarrassed huff. "You know the hero Endeavor?"
You nodded eagerly. If he wanted to change the subject to feel better, you'd gladly play along. "Of course, he's the number two hero; everyone knows him!" In truth, despite his stern and intimidating demeanor, the Flame Hero: Endeavor was one of your favorites, and hero talk always had a tendency to get you overexcited. "He's super cool! I saw him in person with my mom once and he used his Flashfire Fist on a villain… man, I could feel the heat from almost a whole block away- hang on, you both have fire quirks. I bet you look up to him a whole lot, huh? Is that why you wanna be a top hero?" It wasn't until you'd stopped talking that you'd realized you might have been rambling. Touya didn't seem to mind, though. He chuckled a little bit.
"Well, you're not wrong, I guess." He wiped another tear from his face, but thankfully, it looked like they'd stopped falling. "He's my dad."
You brushed him off with a wave of your hand "Pfft, no way. C'mon, stop messing with me."
"I'm serious." He said with a straight face. You blinked in disbelief. After a moment of thought, it did make a lot of sense. Pretty much all of the kids in the program came from affluent families, and many of their parents were heroes, so it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that Touya would be no exception. Looking at the boy's physical features only strengthened his claim: the blue eyes, the fire quirk, the steadily fading streaks of red in his hair.
"Woah…" You were stunned, and had a million questions, but understood that now may not be the best time to do an indirect Endeavor interview. "Wait… wouldn't that make you a 'stuck-up rich kid' too?" You laughed, alluding to the way he'd cracked on the other students when you'd first met.
"Do… you really think I'm stuck-up?" The genuine worry in his tone shot an arrow of guilt straight through your chest, and you scrambled to correct yourself.
"No, no, no! It was just a joke; I don't think that about you at all." You said quickly, waving your hands in front of you. "Honestly, you're probably the nicest person here." You admitted turning your gaze to the floor. Touya didn't say anything, but he was smiling very faintly when you glanced at him. You took a deep breath and thought hard for a minute.
"I don't get it, though. Endeavor; he's fireproof, isn't he? So how come you get hurt by your fire?"
"Mm." Touya nodded. "It's a little complicated."
"I think I can keep up." You replied, scooting closer to him.
Touya sighed, seemingly trying to find the right way to begin. "Well, my dad… he's always wanted to be the number one hero. He worked really hard for it, too, but the fact that he overheats when he over-uses his quirk limits what he can do. He figured out, pretty quickly, that he wasn't able to match All Might's strength. At least, not on his own." You listened intently. It was interesting to hear more about the top hero, but the whole situation left a bad taste in your mouth. Touya went on: "So he decided to marry my mom- she has an ice quirk."
'A quirk marriage, then.' You thought to yourself. It was a concept you were quite familiar with. Though your parents were never officially married, you, too, were a quirk child. It had been your mother's idea to raise a hero, but, for whatever reason, when she died, your father relinquished custody of you to Mrs. Yamamoto. Now, you were here, but you were still curious about your friend's case.
"So, is your body built to handle an ice quirk?" You asked.
Touya shrugged. "Maybe? I'm sure you can guess why he had me. I'm supposed to be the one who reaches the heights he never could. Or… at least… I was." His face suddenly became very sad.
"You 'were'?" You asked.
"Mm. What my dad really wanted was someone with both quirks to combat his overheating. At first, he said that, even though I only had his fire quirk, he would still train me, but…" You could see the tears resurface in his eyes. "...once he realized I wasn't strong enough, he… rejected me." You winced as his voice cracked. You'd never heard him sound so heartbroken before, and if you were completely honest, you never wanted to hear it again. He attempted a deep breath through his nose, but was so congested that it was just a deep sniffle.
"I've got three siblings. A sister and two brothers. None of us have that 'perfect combination' that he wants, but my baby brother… he's got this weird half-and-half thing going on with his hair and his eyes and I think…" He stopped talking and stared rather venomously at the platform you were seated on. It was a cold and spiteful look. You moved your hand gingerly and caressed the back of his head, twirling a lock of his hair in your fingers. He scooted himself up, away from your hand, and straightened his back.
"Anyway," He began, seemingly brushing off your gesture in an attempt to appear composed. "...he didn't want to train me anymore. So when I heard about this program that was going to train top heroes, I begged him to sign me up. It took a while, but he eventually caved." A few more tears rolled down his cheeks, and he finally looked at you with a tiny smile. "If I can get stronger here- and prove to him that I can be strong, then maybe he'll train me again!" Hot tears poured down his face, not in individual drops, but in two constant streams, one falling right after the other. You couldn't help yourself. You reached out your arms as your own tears threatened to spill over and pulled him into a tight embrace. There was no resistance on his part. He wrapped his arms around you with something that bordered enthusiasm, but more closely resembled a longing for compassion. He pressed his face into the crook of your neck and sobbed quietly. You hugged him closer and rubbed his back.
"I don't get it!" His voice was muffled against your shirt. "This was what I was made for. Why do I even exist if I can't do this?!"
You felt your own tears spill over. You had no idea how to fix this. What could you say? Perhaps just telling him the truth- about what you thought of him. "You're plenty strong, Touya. You don't need to hurt yourself to prove that to anyone." Your voice was uneasy, but your words were genuine. You lifted your hand to pet the back of his head while he clung desperately to the back of your shirt.
"W-why do you th-think so m-much of me?" He stammered, struggling for air.
"Breathe, Touya." You urged. "I'm not playing up your abilities to make you feel better. This isn't some kind of pity party." You pulled away just enough to look him in the eyes. He continued to cling to your sleeves,face red and eyes puffy. "You'remy best friend, Touya. I'd never lie to my best friend." You moved a loose strand of white hair away from his face and cupped his cheek in your hand. "You're strong. And you're going to be a fantastic hero someday."
Touya sniffled a little more, and a few more stray tears slipped from his eyes, but on the whole, it seemed like the worst was over. He released one of your sleeves to wipe his nose on his jacket. He inhaled deeply and coughed out another breath.
"Thank you." He croaked out as best as he could. "Honestly, I… I don't know what I would've done without you here."
Sensing it probably wasn't the most appropriate time, you withheld your grin, but inside, you were beaming at the thought that you had helped him feel at least a little better. "I'll always be here."You affirmed, giving his hand a light squeeze. "I think what you need right now is some rest. It is getting pretty late, and I don't think Keigo is gonna show up tonight. I can walk you back to your room if you wa-"
"(Y/N)..." He interjected.
"Oh, uh… yeah?"
"Can we just stay here for a little bit longer." The way he looked at you made his request seem more like that of a begging puppy. You couldn't say no to those pleading eyes. You smiled gently and repositioned yourself.
"Of course." You said, patting your lap. "But you do need to get some rest, okay? Here: you can use me as a pillow."
Touya nodded and rubbed his eyes with his other sleeve. The metal of the scaffolding creaked as he moved to lay his head on your thighs. Without thinking, you began to run your hands through his now-more-white-than-red hair. After a few minutes, you felt Touya's breathing slow and deepen. His shoulders relaxed, and his grip on your pant leg loosened. Turning your head to the sky, you admired what few stars the light-polluted city allowed you to see. You knew that eventually, you'd have to wake Touya up and return to your rooms, but for now, you could enjoy a much-needed moment of peace.
