The first time she meets Todoroki Enji, Rei is fresh out of high school and looking forward to her future. She's always been kind of indecisive about what she wants to do, but it's easy enough to get a job as a receptionist at one of the local clinics.
"You should be a hero with that quirk of yours." Her coworker tells her in passing. "If I had a quirk that powerful, I'd go right into hero work."
"If everyone was a hero, there wouldn't be anyone left to do our jobs, don't you think?" She retorts, but her coworker just frowns and carries on.
The first time she meets Todoroki Enji, the city is falling apart around her. People flee, shoving and pushing, as a villain topples buildings, sending rubble and concrete raining onto the civilians below. Rei isn't a large person by any means and people spare her no expense. The ground is not a welcoming force, sharp with glass and rock shards.
Rei's first instinct is to panic. She's a soft soul; situations with high tension and stress are bad places for her to be, and being in the path of stampedes of people and crumblings buildings is certainly one of those situations. She's so busy dodging feet that she almost doesn't notice the massive piece of concrete plummeting towards her until the shadow of it covers her.
Her heart jumps into her throat and her hand instinctively flies up, head jerking away to hide. She's going to die here.
Her ice responds to her call, a curved wall of glace protecting her, but the rubble never reaches her.
The first time Rei meets Todoroki Enji, she is laying on her back in the middle of the carnage of a villain attack, and the sky is made of fire.
For a moment, everything sort of loses focus. The edges of her ice start to turn to water, dripping down the sides of the glacier, but her eyes are fixed on the sky above her and it's red and red and then a different kind of red, darker, and blue.
"You need to evacuate," his voice cuts through the haze, and suddenly everything comes rushing back, "can you stand?"
"I-" Her voice fails her momentarily. "I think so."
He doesn't wait. The redheaded boy tows her up to her feet again, glancing between her and the glacier with a furrow in his brow. He couldn't be any older than her, but there's something about him that seems leagues beyond her.
"That's an impressive quirk," he remarks offhandedly, "but you need to get to safety."
He releases her and her arms are cold where his hands had been. "Wait," she reaches out, snagging his sleeve, "what's your name?"
She can't think of eyes as clear and blue as his. There's dirt smudges on his face, but the flames that frame his costume illuminate his features like a halo. She thinks that he must be the type of person who carries the sun on his shoulders.
"Todoroki," he tells her, "Todoroki Enji."
And he marches back into the battle.
--
They call him The Flame Hero: Endeavor and Rei doesn't think for a second she'll ever see him again. She allows herself to think about him frequently for this reason alone, her knight in flaming armor.
"Oh," says someone on the subway, jostling her, "s- wait, I know you."
Rei lifts her gaze and meets the very blue eyes she's been thinking about. "Oh," she replies, eloquently.
It's a week later and he tells her, "You never told me your name."
Her heart ignites like his armor. "Rei."
