Burnt Hands. Warm Hearts.

Chapter Nine: Old Flames

Toshinori woke up Sunday morning, still a little confused about everything that had happened last night.

It had been strangely great, seeing Enji's family and seeing how he interacted with them. Surprisingly enough, Toshinori had had a lot of fun talking to Fuyumi and Natsuo, and he sort of understood why Izuku was so chatty when it came to Shoto.

And Toshinori had to admit, being in the middle of that little family, as odd and intense as they were...it definitely beat sitting in his dorm or being a third wheel in another outing.

Too bad there was no escaping that reality for a while.

It was a holiday week, so he'd be stuck here in the dorms until next Monday, and as much as the break was appreciated Toshinori knew he'd probably just end up being the extra person in some group hang out trying to not feel awkward and trying to not let on to the others that he felt unwanted.

Toshinori dragged himself out of bed and headed for the dorms kitchen, his stomach already grumbling loudly.

He blinked in surprise when he saw Hawks sitting cross legged on the counter eating a jar of peanut butter with a spoon.

"Hawks?" Toshinori stepped into the kitchen and tilted his head slightly.

Hawks looked up and waved at Toshinori via the spoon. "Sup Yagi! You're not dead."

Toshinori had no clue how to respond to that, so he decided to move on. "Good morning Hawks! I'm surprised to see you're still here, I thought you would've been gone and enjoying the break like everyone else."

"Meh, everyone else has their close friends to huddle up with and good old Todoroki is stuck with his family today so I've got nothing planned." Hawks shrugged before setting down the jar of peanut butter. "There's another jar in the fridge."

Toshinori smiled slightly as he made his way to the fridge. "I don't believe a jar of peanut butter is the best breakfast."

"Who cares it's delicious." Hawks smirked over at Toshinori, his wings fluffing up slightly.

Toshinori pulled out a carton of eggs, as he started to cook two eggs in a pan he found his mind start to wander. How did someone as angry and hostile as Enji end up being friends with someone as full of sunshine and sarcasm as Hawks? Toshinori paused a moment. "Hawks? May I ask a personal question?"

Hawks let out a breathy laugh. "Go for it!"

Toshinori grabbed a plate to put the eggs on before forcing the question from his lips. "How did you and Todoroki become friends?"

Hawks paused, looking at Toshinori for a long moment. For just a second Toshinori could've sworn he saw a brief flash of confusion in the boys eyes, but it was gone so soon he couldn't be sure.

Hawks leaned back, looking at the ceiling. "How we became friends huh...? That's not a question I hear often...hm...let's see..." Hawks straightened up, his wings twitching slightly. "We met in middle school but he never showed much interest in being anyone's friend. Me included if you can believe that...at one point we were partnered up in a science class, but he refused to talk about anything that wasn't our current project, you know how it is."

"I suppose I do." Toshinori thought about last night, trying to get Enji to open up and chat freely, it had taken at least a half an hour to get Enji to respond in something other then a grunt or one word.

"Yeah. Honestly I didn't try the hardest to get him to talk to me since I had other friends. So...I guess you could say we only started being 'friends' durning our second year of school together." Hawks hopped off the counter, starting to pace. "I experienced a bit of bulling, not anything really all that bad. Just cause I had something about my appearance others didn't have it was seen as a reason to pick on me I guess."