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violet-sumire · 5 days

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Okay writing the last post made me think that Yumi would actually be a good jewellery maker - specifically a metal or glass worker. And thinking about her journey into her craft is actually pretty interesting.

Fuyumi's pretty dedicated to her family, so maybe it starts because she wants to make something for her mother, if she ever sees her again. And she doesn't have the drawing or crafting skill to make what she wants, so she joins the art and design club at school after hearing that they have a kiln. It runs for about 2 - 3 hours after school each day, though she leaves early as it takes up a lot of time.

(It also keeps her away from the house and Endeavour, but she doesn't think about that)

At first, she keeps it a secret from her father, worrying that he'd be upset - art isn't exactly seen as a serious career, and she doesn't think he even knows hobbies exist - but it only takes a week before she realises that, not only does he not care, he barely even notices she's coming home later. As long as there's food on the table in the evening, he never says a word. The only person who notices is Natsuo, and he's started taking her lateness as an excuse to be late himself, goofing off with his friends or staying in the library to avoid coming home.

(She thinks that Touya would notice her, would ask about what she's doing, but Touya's not here, and she's trying not to think about that. Even then, it's partially wishful thinking - Touya had a one track mind towards the end, spent all of his free time training, would barely stop to have a conversation with his siblings, and Fuyumi really doesn't want to think about that.)

She starts waking up earlier to make dinner, and spends the whole three hours in the workshop.

---

After a while, she gets the attention of Sato-sensei, the school's head art teacher, and the art club supervisor. All this time, she's been making clay stars, and she's made a few every session. She's gradually gotten better, but Sato sees she's still struggling. He spends the session giving her pointers and guiding her through the process, and at the end, she makes the best one so far.

"Todoroki-san, why are you here?" Sensei asks, watching Sasaki-chan's attempt at using a pottery wheel with mild interest. Fuyumi questioningly hums, her tone rising, her hands forming another point. Maybe this time she won't leave any fingerprints in the clay...

"You're a good, behaved student, but you've never been particularly enthusiastic in my class. Besides this is the middle of the year - not the start." He turns to look at her. "I'd say that you just wanted something new, but you're acting almost bored in this workshop. And yet, you still coming back. So, I'd like to know why, if you don't mind telling me."

Fuyumi hums again in acknowledgement, her fingers stilling around the lump of clay in her hand. Why's she coming back? Why's she spending three hours in a room that always too cold, even compared to everywhere else? Why's she making small clay stars that aren't useful in the slightest? Art isn't useful, and clay isn't useful, and her spending her time here isn't useful either. She should be a home, helping Natsuo with his homework, or trying to spot glimpses of Shouto. She shouldn't be here. Father wouldn't approve.

And yet, why is it so hard to leave?

She lifts her hands from the clasp they've formed. The star in her palm has been flattened into a feeble lump of clay. Barely recognisable as the star it once was.

"Because it gives me something to do." She says, scraping the not-star off her palm with her nail.

"Ah the uni application route, of course. We'll, if you're ever curious about art, feel free to talk to me." Sato nods his head decidedly. Fuyumi nods too, still picking at her palm, then her fingers feel tingly and her chest tightens and she gathers her things and walks out of the room. She gets back home before Enji, and has dinner ready and waiting for him on the table. He walks in holding a case file and muttering under his breath. Even as he eats, he still doesn't notice her.

The next day, Sato gives her a mason jar. For your stars, he says, if you keep them in your cubby, they're going to get damaged. The jar will keep them safe.

---

(Everyone's heard the tale, that making 1000 paper stars would grant you a wish. But hers keep getting wet, or crushed, or torn, and besides, Fuyumi muses, 1000 probably isn't enough for what she wants.

So she switches to a tougher material, and joins the art club.)

---

"Err... Todoroki, right? Can you help me with something?" The blonde girl, Sasaki, asks. She's fiddling with her fingers, pushing them together in elaborate patterns.

"Oh, sure? Though, I'm not the best at," She glances down towards the pottery wheel, "making plates."

"That's fine, I just need some help with a design. How good are you with your quirk?" Sasaki says, as she leads her to her workstation, a small table to the right of the pottery wheel she's been hogging since before Fuyumi joined. Her sketchbook is on the table, filled with designs, though only two have been circled in red ink. "So, the jist is, I made a stencil for my plate design, but I... may have... madeitoutofthewrongmaterial.

"If I use it with our normal glazes, it'd basically disintegrate, and I have, like, a hundred plates to do!" She points behind her, and Fuyumi finally notices the plates on the shelves. It's not a hundred, it's barely twenty, but remaking the stencil twenty times would definitely be annoying. "Soooo, I was thinking, you could help with your quirk? You can ice things, right, can you ice in specific designs?"

"So I can make an ice stencil? I haven't done it before, but I can try." Fuyumi knows her mum is able to do it - remembering vividly when she used to make ice puppets for story time - but as alike as they are, their quirks aren't the same. At Sasaki's nod, Fuyumi studies the leftmost design, a cornucopia, quickly, then arms herself with thick workshop gloves and gets to practicing.

Her first few tries are horrible. She does them over tissues and her ice splatters everywhere, sometimes freezing the tissue to the table. Sasaki quickly arms herself with a pick and hammer to scrape the ice off the table between practice rounds, and spends the whole time cracking jokes at both of their expenses. Fuyumi's slightly annoyed, and frustrated, and she doesn't use her quirk a lot, is this how Touya felt whenever he failed during training, when he made a mistake; how Shouto feels right now, bring put through the same thing; how they would feel if father wasn't there, if everything that happened was their own choice, and she can't stop thinking, and the tissue is stuck to the table AGAIN-

"Hey, Todoroki? We can just take a break and come back to it later, I promise it's not a big deal." Sasaki's suddenly in front of her, clasping the frosted over end of the gloves in her hands. Fuyumi feels cold, or at least colder than normal, and she knows her cheeks and ears are red and her eyes are watering. An minor side-effect of her quirk, but one that always got too much attention: everyone always assumed she was upset. The other kids in the playground looked agast, and the adults would get worried and call her parents if she couldn't calm down. Because her fingers hurt. Because she was new at this. Because she couldn't do whatever it was someone asked of her. Her mother would come running, but her father wouldn't stand for it. Crybaby, he called her, childish. Stop wasting my time.

"I'm not upset," she explains tiredly, "That's just what my quirk is like. I'm not actually crying."

"Oh, err, I know..." Does she? Really? "I'm still thinking we should take a break, we've been at it for a while!" Sasaki pulls something out of her school bag, and ushers her to sit at the desk. "I've got sandwiches! I always have an afternoon snack, clay is hard work after all! Have some food with me!"

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Of course, there's more than enough! I made these myself anyway, I'll be upset if you don't enjoy my cooking!" She sets them down on the table, and points. They look neat, made by someone with lots of experience in eating sandwiches she likes. The crusts are even cut off, "What do you want? There's salmon and cream cheese, prawn and mayo, tuna mayo..."

"I don't like fish in sandwiches."

"WHAT! Oh, but that's all I have!"

This, more than anything else she's done, makes Fuyumi laugh. Just slightly, almost more of a huff than a laugh, but at the sound, Sasaki looks up in awe, and the look on her face causes Fuyumi to burst out laughing, doubling over. It's so... it sounds like sunlight through clouds, or rain watering crops, or the view of a sunset from the tallest point in town. It's so... something inside Sasaki tightens, and trembles, and she feels heat flood her cheeks. It's not embarrassment, or shame, but...

"Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to laugh at you!" Fuyumi assures as she quiets down, going back towards the sandwiches. Tuna is her least hated fish, so maybe Sasaki's wouldn't be to bad? "I'll try the tuna. Who knows, maybe I'll like it?"

"Yeah," Sasaki mumbles, "maybe you'll like it."

---

(She was a child, whose time was she wasting by being herself?

Her father's? He never had any for her to begin with.

Her mother's? She'd run out for anyone else years ago.

Her brother's? One dead, one lost, one forgotten? Does she dare even ask?

In the end, it was the small favours for friends that sustained her. The approving glance or verbal praise from teachers. The invitations to birthday parties, though she could rarely go. The inclusion in a dodgeball game...

It was everyone else but her family that kept her afloat, kept her going. All they did was drag her down. Make things worse.

And she knows that isn't true, knows that they're trying, knows that they care about her.

But, by God, that thought won't leave her mind.

She was a child, wasting time was her job!)

---

"Hey, Sasaki-san?" Fuyumi asks. She's finally figured out how to freeze the designs on the plates properly, and now they're working through the whole batch, slowly and painstakingly applying the design. "What are these for, anyway?"

"Hmm? The plates? I'm planning to go to art school, and this'll be my final part of my portfolio, hopefully."

"Art school? Like hero school?"

"Yeah! They're actually really old, some of them even pre-date the quirk era, but there's not as many left." Sasaki judges the design on the most recent plate, nods, then exchanges it with another plain one. "It's much more popular to do apprenticeships or personal study now days, purely because a lot of quirks kinda bypass the need for traditional practise. It's quite sad actually - a lot of people see others with artistic quirks, think 'I can't do that', and give up before they even try!"

"But anyway, let's hope I'll be accepted. If not, then I don't think I'll go to university at all."

"Huh." Fuyumi ponders, idly iceing the last plate. No university? Fuyumi's not entirely sure what she'll do - she's thinking maybe a teacher? - but she knows she'll need university to do it. Whenever anyone ever talked about the future, it was always university, or further study, or something along those lines. The idea of NOT going...

"Woo! That's all the plates! We just need to dip them in the glaze a couple of times, then you can take the ice off, and we'll fire them."

"Hmm? What do you mean? I can't take the ice off, it has to be melted..." Fuyumi's words fizzle away at the horrified look on Sasaki's face.

"Fuyumi-chan," Since when did they get that close!? "They can't go into the kiln like this, they'll die! We can't even leave them with ice still on, the melted water will soften the clay! FUYUMI!? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME!"

"You're the one who's been at the club from the start, you know more than me! I use air-dry clay anyway, I've never even been close to a kiln!"

They eventually figure out that if they gently apply heat to the top then quickly use tissue to mop up any water, they can save the plates with minimal damages. Sasaki almost cries when it works the first time, and though the plates will need to dry again, two days later, they're all ready to fire in the kiln (after Sato-sensei's furious inspection).

The plates all come out in gorgeous colours, though some combinations are better than others, and Sasaki beams because they're eat-off-able and her family can actually use them. After taking photos, she insists Fuyumi takes one or two home, and she eventually agrees, taking one in sunset colours, and another that looked like it was covered in stars.

Fuyumi walks home with the plates wrapped up in her bag, a sense of satisfaction, and for the first time, seriously ponders art school.

---

(She doesn't get much done those few days)

---

(She's thought about it before. Leaving. Packing up her bags and going to another country for university. It's a prestigious enough achievement that father wouldn't complain, and Natsuo would be upset, but not angry at her. He'd understand. So would mother, though she'd worry.

But Shouto's so young, will he even remember Touya when he's older?

Fuyumi refuses to abandon her family, not like Touya abandoned them.

And isn't that an interesting thing to think of the dead?)

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