Toshinowa

14

I put my pencil down and looked out the window. The sun was coming up. Shit. I flipped through the pictures I had drawn. Eri running to Mr. Aizawa. Mr. Aizawa comforting her. Mr. Aiazawa holding her when she fell asleep. And the one I had just finished. The look on his face as she ate everything on her plate. He looked so happy. He really saw her like his own child. My alarm rang. Today was going to be a long one.

(-)

"Ki!" Shokya was violently shaking me. "It's time to go back to class." I rubbed my eyes and grabbed my things.

"Did you stay up all night drawing again?" I jumped at the sound of Todoroki's voice. I sighed.

"Yeah."

"What inspired you this time?"

"I saw Mr. Aizawa taking care of Eri for the first time yesterday."

"I guess that would inspire anyone. He cares about her so much. It's a wonder that he doesn't have children of his own." I couldn't help but feel a small pang at his words. I couldn't be upset with him, though. There was no way he could know.

"Yeah. I drew four pictures."

"All in one night?" I nodded. "You must be exhausted."

"I am. But I'll make it through today, then I can go back to my dorm and sleep." We'd reached my classroom.

"Don't fall asleep, loser." Bakugou slapped the back of my head as he walked by.

"Well, you should be a quite awake now."

I decided to draw in order to keep myself awake. I ended up drawing something that reminded me of Todoroki. It was a tree, but one half was dark and swirling with chaos. Finally, the last bell rang. I went straight to my dorm room and slept.

(-)

"Time for bed, Firefly."

"Where's Momma?"

"I'm here." She shut the door behind her. "I had extra chores today. Thank you for watching her."

"Of course. Goodnight, Firefly."

"Don't go yet! Listen to Momma's bedtime story."

"I really should get go-"

"Please, Dabi?" He sighed and looked at her.

"Ok." They tucked me in.

"Where were we?"

"The man came to visit the woman in America, then they had a date night."

"Right. Well, the next day, he had to go back to Japan. A few weeks later, she found out she was going to have a baby. She wrote a letter to him, but he never wrote her back. One day, she was walking home from work and disappeared. And no one heard from her again."

"Is that how the story ends?"

"Not really. That's what the world knows."

"Well what's the rest of it?"

"I'll tell you some day, when you're older."

"Ugh."

"I know, the suspense is awful. But it'll all make sense in time."