Rumi feels terrible.
She hasn’t seen Keigo in weeks.
Her amazing disaster of a best friend.
That’s unacceptable.
Sure, it’s kind of been busy lately.
Tartarus is more or less nonexistent.
There’s briefings everyday about the League and their latest sightings, apparently they pulled some stunt at a hospital. Rumi wasn’t included in that one.
Not to mention, she’s got her own stuff going on.
“Stuff” being this adorable, amazing teacher she saved from some two-bit nobody.
She can still feel the slight chill of ice running up her arms. Fuyumi apologized profusely of course but Rumi wasn’t paying attention.
Not when there were these gorgeous grey eyes looking into her soul.
Blurting out that she was gorgeous may have been the best mistake Rumi has ever made in her life.
Quite frankly, the whole incident may have been the best thing that’s ever happened to her.
She has a girlfriend!
However, that is no excuse to neglect her best friend.
She calls him.
“Oh, hey Rumi!”
“Keigo! How have you been?”
Just hearing his voice helps call her nerves. She hadn’t realized she’d missed him that much.
She grins as Keigo talks, he seems happy, she’s glad. There’s not as much barely contained stress in his voice as there usually is. Something good must have happened.
Her ears pick up the sound of a door opening.
“Hey! Keigo? Did you get rice?”
Who’s that? Rumi doesn’t know anyone that sounds like that. She would remember. And what is he doing asking her best friend if he got rice?
“Huh? Yeah, I’m on the phone.”
“My bad. Is it the Commission again?” The voice is tinny and far away but Rumi can hear anything the speaker picks up if she focuses, and she is.
“No. It is not.” Keigo hisses
“You know if they ever bring up Kyoto again, my offer to burn down the regional offices still stands.”
Keigo is clearly holding the phone against his shirt, the voice is even more muffled.
“No. You are not burning anything.”
“Whatever, offer stands. Thanks for getting rice… sorry for interrupting.”
“It’s fine.”
Rumi holds her curiosity as Keigo walks away and closes a door.
“Kei, bestie, who the fuck was that?”
“My roommate?”
“That sounded like a question Keigo, is it a question?”
“No…”
“Did you get a boyfriend Keigo? Are you living with him!?”
Keigo lets out a sound that may or may not be pained.
“It’s…”
“I wanna meet him.”
“I don’t…”
“We can make it a double date, I’ll ask ‘Yumi.” She pauses, don’t be overbearing, don’t be overbearing.
“You don’t have to, but…” deep breaths Rumi, communicating your feelings about people is important. “You’re important to me and I want to meet your boyfriend and I want you to meet my girlfriend.”
God that was awful.
Won't be catching Rumi trying that again.
“I-I’ll ask him, and I-, you’re important to me too. I just-, it’s kind of complicated…”
“Isn’t everything? We’re heroes Kei, I picked my girlfriend up and jumped half a block with her in my arms before I even knew her name.”
He snorts. “That’s very you Rumi.”
“Hell yeah.” She grins.
He sighs, fond and loud enough to make the speaker crackle. “I’d love to meet her.”
-
Rumi makes it to the restaurant first.
Fuyumi is running a little late.
She studies the crowds, hoping for a glance at the guy with the audacity to think himself good enough for her best friend.
She spots Keigo first, of course, he’s the one she actually knows.
He looks good, some of the tension he’s carried since the day they met is gone.
He’s walking with a lanky man with dark hair.
That must be the boyfriend.
He meets her gaze without flinching and raises an eyebrow.
Oh, gutsy, she can respect that.
She grins, the slightly bloodthirsty grin that makes people flinch.
It’s not her fault they hear rabbit and think cute.
She’s never wanted to be cute, doesn’t care to be underestimated.
Miruko is a force to be reckoned with, only fools think otherwise.
He meets her grin with a lazy smile of his own.
Oh, this one’s interesting.
His eyes drift over to her left and he pales so quickly Rumi tenses automatically.
She turns to see what caused that reaction and he grabs Keigo’s arm and drags him around a corner.
Rumi is scanning for threats, she doesn’t hear anything except…
“Sorry I’m late!”
She turns to see Fuyumi jogging over.
“Oh, did I beat your friends?”
“Uh…”
-
Dabi can’t do this.
He can’t do this.
There’s no way he can do this.
“Hey, Da-, are you okay? What’s wrong?”
“You didn’t say she’d be here.” He hisses.
That isn’t fair, Keigo doesn’t know. He never worked up the guts to actually tell him who his father is.
“Who? Rumi? I told you she was Miruko-”
“No, her girlfriend.”
“What? I don’t-, I didn’t know you knew each other.”
Of course he didn’t. He should have said something, they should have talked. Now he looks like an idiot afraid of a random tiny civilian woman.
He doesn’t even know what she does.
Does she have a job? A real one? Did she leave as soon as she could? Does she still live in that horrible house? Dabi doesn’t know.
The thought makes his heart stutter. He doesn’t even know.
They were supposed to be inseparable and he doesn’t even know anything about her anymore.
“Nope, I can’t do this.” He starts to walk away.
Keigo follows after him, confused and exasperated.
“What? We just got here!”
“There is no way.”
He can’t face her.
“Oh my god. Did you try to kill her? Is that what this is about? I swear to fucking-”
“I didn’t try to kill her!”
“Then what? Did you have a bad breakup with some random elementary school teacher in between all the arson?”
“No, gross.” He wrinkles his nose with disgust.
She’s an elementary school teacher.
She’s probably amazing at it.
“What’s gross about dating random elementary school teachers?” He sounds even more exasperated.
“Nothing-, god. She’s-, fuck Keigo she’s my sister.”
He can’t do this.
Dabi doesn’t deserve this.
He doesn’t deserve anything good.
He left them.
Left them all alone in that awful house.
But fuck if he doesn’t want to see her.
-
Fuyumi is very confused.
Rumi is just kind of standing there, her ears tilted in that way that tells her she’s listening to something Fuyumi can’t.
She tugs lightly on Rumi’s arm.
“Rumi? You know I don’t mind when you do that but uh? Are you doing alright?”
“Yeah, uh, they were here, they kinda ran off.”
“Oh.”
“Hey, why didn’t you tell me you had another brother?”
“What?”
Fuyumi turns abruptly.
“Yeah, like, Keigo’s boyfriend, he just said he’s your brother. I don’t know. He’s really freaking out about it. I thought it was just Natsuo and Shouto.”
“What?”
Fuyumi hasn’t mentioned Touya to Rumi. Why would she? It’s fairly common knowledge in the hero community for all it isn’t common knowledge to the general public.
Endeavour had a son die under mysterious circumstances.
No one ever did anything about it but… surely Rumi would have known.
Rumi would never try to mess with her or joke about that if she knew.
Fuyumi trusts that she wouldn’t.
After all, it would be the worst kind of betrayal.
“What?”
“Oh, they’re coming back! Hey! Keigo! What was all that about?”
Fuyumi strains her eyes.
There’s no way.
There’s no possible way.
He’s so much taller than her.
He’s lanky and pale and his hair’s different.
It’s just enough that she might not have recognized him if Rumi hadn’t said anything.
His eyes are the same.
Bright loud blue to compliment her quiet grey. That’s what they always said. Ice and fire.
“...Touya?” she breathes out, almost terrified of the answer.
He flinches, hard.
She can’t stand it.
“Shit.” His eyes are wide and starting to panic.
“Who the hell is Touya?” Rumi’s friend blurts.
“Fuck.”
“Is that your fucking name?”
“Touya…” Fuyumi is looking very upset, she knows that.
The friend is looking confused.
Touya is looking panicked.
Rumi is trying very hard to keep a strained smile plastered on her face.
“Nope, can’t do this!” Touya announces and starts backing away abruptly. “Lovely to meet you both. Have a nice life.”
No.
Absolutely not.
Fuyumi feels the chill before she really registers what’s happening.
“Have a nice life?” Fuyumi has the distant thought that she should probably say something relieved or happy or excited, her brother is alive. Right now she’s just pissed. “Have a nice life!?”
Oh, this isn’t good.
She can feel the air getting colder.
“Is that all you have to say? Really? After everything? Just, what? Fake your own death for years, come back dating some hero and run off again!? I thought you were dead Touya! For years! I fucking organized your funeral. Did you know that? I did. Because our father couldn’t be bothered and no one else knew anything about you!” She pants slightly and takes a deep breath, calm down, calm down Fuyumi.
You need to calm down.
“I have been placating and mediating and holding our family together with my fingernails for years Touya! You don’t get to do this. Not again.”
“‘Yumi…” Touya makes a pained jerked half movement.
Rumi makes wild eye contact with her friend, neither of them move. Fuyumi barely notices.
“No. We were supposed to be a team, remember? Ice and fire.” She makes a pained noise, almost like a sob. She can’t cry, won’t cry. “You left me. I won’t… I can’t do this again.” Her voice hardens.
“‘Yumi…” It’s even more pained this time.
“Sit down Touya.”
He does.
“I don’t blame you for leaving.” Fuyumi takes a deep breath and gentles her voice, finally managing to grasp some measure of calm. “I dont. I just-, Why Touya? Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you come back? At least to see us?”
“I-”
His eyes are wide and he’s choking on an answer.
He’s panicking.
Usually he’d be crying before it got this bad.
“Rumi,” she uses her teacher voice and almost smiles at how fast she jumps to attention. “Why don’t you and your friend check on our reservation?” It’s not a question.
Rumi and Hawks exchange a wide-eyed look but blessedly nod and leave them without comment. She sees the feather that sneaks its way into one of Touya’s pockets. She ignores it and moves forward.
She kneels in front of him.
She takes his hands in her own.
His breathing is still catching.
She hasn’t seen him in years.
They missed so much.
Are they really even siblings anymore? Or just strangers with a terrible history?
He still shudders with relief when she activates her quirk.
Just like when they were children.
“I’m sorry Touya.”
He chokes on a bitter laugh. “You’re sorry? you’re always sorry.”
She raises an eyebrow.
“I fucking left you. I didn’t even look back! Couldn’t even stand to think about you! You’re sorry.”
“I am.”
“Why?” He looks desperate, her older brother isn’t supposed to look like this.
“I don’t want to hurt you Touya.” She squeezes his hands lightly.
“You never want to hurt anyone,” he grumbles “even if they deserve it.”
“It isn’t about what you deserve Touya.”
He chuckles and she can feel his quirk bubbling up in her hands.
She missed it, she missed him.
“I missed you.” She whispers.
“Fuck, I did too.” He admits.
“I’m sorry for leaving.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry I never looked for you.”
“Wasn’t anything to find.”
She sighs, soft and weary.
“Are you going to disappear again?”
“I-, I don’t-, I’m not Touya anymore ‘Yumi. I haven’t been-, I haven’t been Touya in a long time.”
“I don’t care, I, I don’t want to be alone again. Shouto’s gone all the time, I think he’s been spending holidays with one of his friends. I barely know him. I feel like Natsuo hates me half the time and when he is home he’s yelling and arguing and I hate it. The house is always so cold and empty and I just-, I don’t care. I’m not asking you to come back or be the same I just-, I want my older brother back. Whoever he is now.”
“You don’t know that.” He sounds so sure of it.
“I do.” There is almost nothing he could confess to that would change that.
“I’m a villain ‘Yumi, I’m not a good person. I helped kidnap Shouto’s little friend, I helped burn Tartarus down, I’ve killed people.”
That… is a lot… good thing none of those things are deal breakers.
Todoroki Fuyumi has been under her father’s thumb for over twenty years, she has placated and soothed, she helped raise two children long before she was old enough to start thinking about whether she wanted her own. She knows now she grew up too fast, there wasn’t a single one of her siblings who didn’t. She knows she isn’t alright, she knows that none of her family is.
“Touya, Dabi, whatever, I want you in my life. Don’t you dare run away from me again.”
“Just like that?” He lets out a long breath.
“Just like that.”
She squeezes his hands again.
He squeezes back.
-
This was not how today was supposed to go.
Granted, Keigo wasn’t expecting a lot in the first place.
A slightly awkward double date.
A few uncomfortable pauses while Keigo tries desperately to come up with something to say at worst, covering for Dabi’s obvious criminal history at most disastrous.
They didn’t even need to worry about Dabi getting recognized.
Really, Giran is a life saver.
Unfortunately, apparently neither of them considered the fact Dabi hasn’t always looked like that, and apparently people still recognize Touya. Whoever Touya is, someone with a sister evidently.
This is not how things were supposed to go.
He sighs as Rumi comes over to stand next to him.
Dabi’s still talking to her girlfriend, looking wrung out and shell shocked.
“You wanna hit the bar for a bit?”
“Oh god yes.”
He is too sober for this.