Fuyumi stares at the message. She chews lightly on her lip, anxious and uncertain.
Deletes half of it.
Retypes it exactly the same.
Hovers over the backspace button again.
Do you have any plans for this weekend?
Is that too blunt? Not blunt enough? Will he misunderstand? She sighs, something world-weary and tired.
She sends it.
She sets her phone face down on the counter and turns to try and find something to distract from the anxiety.
She settles on the dishes, it’s routine and menial.
She lets her mind wander as she goes through the motions.
She’s heard from Mom that he has some friends, she hopes they’re nice. She wonders if one of them is the boy from the Sports Festival, Shouto did use his fire again. It must mean something.
She hasn’t asked about it, she isn’t sure she has any right.
She jumps at the sound of her phone chiming with a new message and wrestles her anxiety down as best she can as she rinses and dries her hands.
She shakes them out for a moment and does one of her breathing exercises before turning it over.
It’s him!
No.
Alright, no need to worry Fuyumi. Shouto’s always been a little blunt, it doesn’t mean he won’t be open to it.
Would you like to have lunch with me? I need to go shopping in the area and there’s a nice little cafe close to UA I’ve been wanting to try.
She forces herself to send it before she can start second guessing herself.
She watches for a response and wills her heart to calm.
It’s just Shouto, it’s only her little brother.
Except it’s never been that simple, not for their family.
She wonders sometimes if they’re always going to be like this.
In her worst moments she wonders if their family is going to really truly break someday. She can hear Natsuo in her mind yelling that it’s been broken for a very long time. She knows that, she isn’t blind to their problems.
It’s just… She knows that if things go on like this they will be alone.
She isn’t going to stay in the house forever.
She’s going to move into some apartment closer to the school or some nice little house someday.
Her father is going to stay, alone, and maybe he won’t mind it at first but… Fuyumi knows that won’t last. Someday he’s going to wake up and wonder where everything went wrong and it will be far too late to try to fix it.
He will be left with nothing but his terrible ambition and the knowledge of everything he burned for it.
Mom is going to stay in the hospital and Fuyumi will visit her, just as she always has. She will avoid certain topics and try to keep her smile warm and not at all strained.
They will chat, as they always have, a distance between them she doesn't quite know how to bridge.
Natsuo is going to have lunch with Fuyumi every once in a while. They won’t make it past standard small talk and polite inquiries. He will move on, maybe marry that girl he’s been seeing and their lives will stop intersecting in any meaningful way.
Shouto is going to move out as soon as he can, he’s already well on his way with the dorms. He’s going to be a wonderful hero, kind and good as Fuyumi can see he is. They might see each other sometimes but… he’s slipping away.
She doesn’t know her little brother, not really.
They’ve never… They’re strangers who live in the same house, and they don’t even share that most of the time anymore. She knows his favorite foods and when he likes to get up on the weekends their father is out. She doesn’t know him. They haven’t gotten any further than the oddly intimate knowledge of people who've lived in the same house for years.
She wants to.
She wants to find out what his sense of humor is like. She wants to know why he changed his mind about using his fire. She wants to know what kind of hero he dreams of becoming. She wants to be someone he can rely on for support. She wants to be his big sister.
She startles again at the sound of her phone going off and steadies herself to look at it.
Okay.
Fuyumi smiles, a relieved, excited little smile.
She sends the details and can’t quite keep the smile off her face the rest of the day, even her father’s ominous stomping through the house can’t quite ruin it.
-
She arrives early, rocking back and forth on her heels.
She hopes it goes well.
Shouto arrives right on time and offers a small quirk of his lips in response to her nervous smile.
“Shouto! I’m so glad you’re here!”
He nods, quiet as always.
“Well, shall we sit down?”
She gestures to their table and leads him over, slightly breathless.
They don’t say anything for a moment and she takes the time to look at him. He looks healthy, his clothes a little mismatched in the way that tells her he picked them out himself.
The waitress brings the menus and she fiddles with hers nervously for a few moments before she can’t stand it anymore.
“So, Shouto! How’s school been going?”
He glances up from his own inspection of the menu.
“School’s fine.” He nods, as if agreeing with his own assessment.
“That’s great!” She smiles again, a little strained and goes back to her menu.
Neither of them says anything for a while. They order and she tries again after a fortifying sip of her drink.
“Have you been enjoying any of your classes?” She tries.
He hums absently. “Training’s nice, it’s… fun.” His lips quirk in another almost smile.
Fuyumi almost giggles a little hysterically, fun, oh she’s so glad.
“I’m glad.” She’s more than relieved to hear that.
“They’re all so passionate, I think they’ll be wonderful heroes. Midoriya’s been trying a new move lately, he hasn’t quite gotten it down but I won’t fall behind.” He clenches his fist a little in determination.
If it were her father she would worry about the competitive statement but Shouto’s eyes are nothing but quietly admiring.
He takes a sip of his drink and she tries to think of a way to continue.
“Midoriya’s the green one, from the festival right? With the... bones.”
Shouto nods, a tiny real smile on his face now.
“Yes, he’s amazing.”
“What’s he like?” That turns out to be the right question as Shouto’s expression turns a little more fond and he starts to tell her all about his amazing friend.
She smiles encouragingly over her sandwich as he slowly tells her about his classmates, close friends, acquaintances, rivals and everything in between.
UA has been good for him. More good than she ever could have imagined.
“How has your work been?” She almost startles when he asks.
Talking to Shouto sometimes feels like pulling teeth, fighting for any kind of connection.
“It’s been good, I’ve got a great class this year.”
He nods and takes another bite of his meal.
“What-, How-.” He pauses and takes another bite, considering his words. “How’s that going? They’re pretty small right?”
Fuyumi smiles, delighted to talk about her kids.
“Oh, they’re so tiny Shouto, little menaces all of them. I swear, I don’t think I could handle much younger than this batch. There’s a field trip next week and they’re all so excited! They’ve started a little chant in anticipation…” He lets her ramble, occasionally asking a question but seemingly happy to listen to her chatter about her students.
By the time they’ve finished eating, Fuyumi is almost giddy. They talked! They had an actual conversation. A real one and maybe they’ve made progress, maybe they won’t always be strangers with too much history.
She pays for both of them and feeling a little emboldened by her success, offers to walk him back.
“Thanks for joining me today, Shouto, it was…” Important, wonderful, encouraging, meant more to me than you’ll ever know. “...nice.”
“Yeah, it was.” Fuyumi smiles, not awkward or nervous or strained for once. She’s just happy.
She leaves him at the gate and goes home with a little spark of hopeful joy sitting in her heart.