Heaven, Hell

Part 3

Mom's spending time with Shouto again.

Yes, he's a toddler and incredibly cute but she's there too. Fuyumi wants to share stories about her day without Mom being distracted. She wants hugs. She wants quality time together. Plans were cancelled last time because of something with Shouto.

She can't remember things being like this when Natsuo was that young.

"Mom, I—"

"Sorry Fuyumi. Later. Okay?"

She feels her chest twists.

Dad's working again so he's ruled out. Touya and Keigo are in the training hall either running around or fighting. She doesn't want anything to do with that. She saw Natsuo sneak Tenko in. She doesn't know why. He's more than welcome to visit. She can also spend time alone, but after being dismissed she wants someone to see her.

She knocks on the half open door. "Can I join you?"

"Sure! You don't mind, right Tenko?" asks Natsuo.

"Why would I mind? It's your house. Your name's Fuyumi?"

Fuyumi looks at their mini fortresses they're building with LEGO. So many small pieces. She winces at the memory of stepping on one once when Natsuo played with them in the living room.

"You remember." Fuyumi is pleased considering they only had one short interaction. "Oh, but you don't have to sneak in."

"Yes, we do." Natsuo stops building to give her an intense look. "Touya-nii might beat him up if he sees him."

Fuyumi blinks. What?

Touya is competitive with Keigo, sure, but he's never randomly attacked people. She can't imagine Touya acting even more aggressive to Tenko.

"I'd like to see him try." Tenko puffs his cheeks. His hold on his fortress a little to strong, breaking a piece off.

"Please don't fight." Fuyumi thinks there's enough fighting as is.

"I won't start one. I may be learning how to fight but that's to end fights not start them." Of course he wants to be a hero too. "Plus, I'll have to listen to Katsuyu lecture me."

Fuyumi thinks. "Katsuyu?"

Tenko smiles and eyes sparkle. It must be someone he cares about a lot. "Katsuyu is great, kind, and fun to be around. From what Natsuo's told me you would get along well."

Natsuo talks about her even when she's not around. "Aw~" Fuyumi hugs her brother from the side. "Aren't you cute."

"Keigo compared her once as an emotional support animal, so I was forced to kick him." Didn't Tenko just get finish saying he doesn't start fights? "I don't really know how to put it, though she can often be a mother hen." Tenko takes out his phone.

"I don't have a phone," complains Natsuo.

"You don't need your own phone yet." Fuyumi crosses her arms knowing Natsuo is going to ask for one now.

"You only say that because you got one on your birthday."

"Here!" Tenko shoves his phone towards them, ignoring their phone conversation.

"A slug— ow! Why'd you have to poke me?" Natsuo rubs his arm where he was poked.

"Yes, she's a slug. Don't sound so grossed out."

Fuyumi takes the phone from Tenko and gets a close look. Katsuyu is a slug. A giant slug. The photo shows her as tall as a chair. She stares intensely. She's… "Cute." She wants a copy to put her stickers around. Natsuo looks offended at her choice of words, but Fuyumi is curious. Is she soft? Smooth? Forget hero figures. Plushies of cute animals is where it's at.

"Maybe Keigo wasn't so far off."

"Huh?" Fuyumi breaks out of her trance.

"I hate people comparing her to a pet, but she does offer a lot of emotional support. It does wonders. Maybe you should get an emotional support animal to deal with your horrible parents."

"Tenko!" Fuyumi sits defensively. No one talks bad about her family.

Tenko bites his lip. "I guess I could introduce you to Katsuyu, but she's my friend first."

"That's not what I meant! Mom and Dad are great. You shouldn't call them horrible." Natsuo scoots away from Fuyumi. They have the same quirk, but she's getting awfully heated.

Tenko frowns. "I thought you were looking for approval and attention." He looks down at his hands. "I don't know if this is better or worse."

Fuyumi sputters because yes she does want more attention, but that doesn't make her parents bad. They're just busy. "What would you know?"

Tenko looks back up to face her. "Isn't it worse that I can tell without knowing much?"

"No, it means you're making things up." Every family has some rocky bits. She knows because her friends say the same. Sometimes they complain they don't get to do something, that their parents' attention is split, that not everyone agrees on things, that one or both parents work late. Her family falls perfectly in scope with that. They're family. They're normal. She has a good family. They aren't bad.

"You're going to get hurt more and more thinking like that." Gah! Tenko is still insisting. How is she supposed to prove otherwise to someone purposefully ignorant.

"No I won't."

Why is Tenko looking at her with such a sad expression?

She doesn't have to listen to this. "Have fun on your own." She stomps out of the room and marches to her own. Right, this is what she was avoiding. Guess she's spending the evening alone.

"Did you have to say that?" Natsuo looks to the door sad that Fuyumi left.

"Do you disagree?"

Natsuo thinks about it. He's often frustrated, but calling them horrible is a little too much. "Not as strongly as Fuyumi-nee, but yes. Mom's gentle. You shouldn't say those things. Why did you say those things?"

"Gentle gives you hope and an escape from the bad." Tenko thinks about his own mother. How it felt to be embraced. How he could mention heroes around her without being reprimanded like Dad. "But because it offers you comfort it's easy not to notice that they're also the problem." False words. How can they not be false words when they let problems continue? When they don't stand up for you? Even if they mean it they do nothing about it as things get worse and worse for the person suffering. Even if she let him quietly mention heroes she never once told him he could be one. The line had been drawn. She wanted him to either let go of his dream or tip toe around others. He remembers Hana turning on him time and time again. "Empty niceties mean nothing to me."

Natsuo wonders how it came to this. He only wanted to build with LEGOs but instead he got his first taste of melodrama.