A Song to Come Home to

Chapter Eleven

Rei watches the soft flurry of snow dance upon the wind from her window. A soft smile flickers across her lips as she remembers a memory from what seems to be a lifetime ago.

When Touya, Fuyumi and Natsuo had been much younger, they would play upon the snow. Rei would spend a lot of her time watching them flit around like little snow spirits with big smiles plastered on their rosey tinted faces. On the occasion, she would join them in making snow angels or take the time to construct big sparkling ice palaces for them to play in.

When she had been pregnant with Shouto and she was nearing her due date in the winter. Her belly had ballooned out and her ankles were always sore. Shouto, by far, was her most difficult pregnancy with the constant morning sickness, cravings and she was often left sore from his continuous kicking. She had frequently joked with her young children that their baby brother would end up either as a dancer or perhaps even a sports star. Despite the glowering glances from her husband, Rei would still insist this. His brewing disapproval had become something like an inside joke between her and her children. When she was younger, Rei was much more rebellious against Enji; her will had not yet been abolished.

Shouto would only calm his kicking when she would sit outside to bask in the comfortable cold of winter. Only then, when she would be embraced by the cold gusts would he settle. Rei would see this as a sign of yet another child born under the gift of winter's blessing. Even with Touya and his fire and Natsuo's absence of a quirk, they all had an affinity for the fridgetity.

Though she would still always worry greatly for Touya and fret over him. He had already been born frail and the bite of his fire had consistently proved that her gift of the cold had turned out to be his curse. In the dead of night, as Enji obliviously slept next to her- Rei would shed silent tears. She would pray to the northern spirits of her home prefecture for them to grant him mercy and protect him from the cruelty of the heat of fire. Out of all of her children, the northern spirits had seemed to have taken a shining to him the most. Had he been born with an ice quirk, he most likely would have been stronger than her own quirk.

Over the course of her young children growing up, Rei had become more devout in her faith. Her prayers had melded and morphed into daily mantras as she would leave out offerings for the spirits. At night, she would venture outside and look up to the stars to ask her ancestors for help and guidance. Comfort and confidence. Strength and bravery. Each night, she would ask of those traits Enji would often call her a fool for upholding such a primal religion in his eyes. To Rei, it was her lifeline in ensuring her children's, especially Touya's, safety.

She would only see Touya truly happy when he would dash across the frozen lawn. The gentle smile that would grace across his small features would make her heart sing out with sadness. She knew that his luck was dwindling down to just bare strands. All she could do was on watch in horror as each day Touya would return from his training and each time, it seemed that the three fates had cut yet another chip into his thread of fate.

Knowing that one day that now fragile and frayed thread will snap, she would find herself often calling her mom. Rei would beg for help, she would try to devise a plan to move herself and her children back up to her hometown of Aku in the very far reaches of Hokkaido. She was getting desperate, feeling nothing more than a cornered animal in her own home. Every one of her pleas had been ignored or declined. Her stories of who Enji truly is made her own family afraid of the man. Her mom's words were often of 'stay strong for your children but be meek for your husband. Don't give him an excuse to get angry.'

Never before had Rei felt so isolated in her life. She had to accept the unfortunate truth that her family would not help her in her and her children's greatest time of need. With each rise and fall of the sun and moon, Rei had only become increasingly more homesick.