A month passed. Toya went out to see Kasumi every single day. One day, he ran outside when he saw her drawing something.

The soft green grass felt nice underneath his pained skin. There were new burns that littered his flesh every day, but he didn't pay them much mind when he wasn't training. No, when he wasn't training, a surprising amount of his attention went towards Kasumi.

His blue eyes peered over her shoulder with curiosity. "How about you draw me?"

"Ok." She timidly grinned.

She still had trouble getting out of her shell within this timeframe. Whenever the topic would go about Toya being a prince, he would chatter on for hours about how he would be the next king.

The next king to prove his merit.

Not only that, the bullies stayed away from Kasumi whenever Toya would come around. They would be intimidated that he was royalty. Additionally, it creeped them out when his body slightly smoked.

She motioned herself to turn around to face him. "Can you sit in front of me?"

Toya did as he was told, sitting on the grass with his legs crisscrossed. The gentle breeze ruffled his hair a little bit as he wore a smile full of determination. He was posing, in his own way, to have a picture drawn that would be fit for a king.

It didn't take too long for her to doodle him. Kasumi was only 11 years old.

No one else at the orphanage knew how to draw like Kasumi did. Sure, her drawings were mediocre at best, but they did show a future potential.

At least one could tell it was a person, not some blobby mess.

She eyed Toya only once and drew with a pen. Some lines overlapped each other. She drew his head like a circular shape.

The eyes looked very anime style, but they were too far apart. The spikes in his hair were alright.

The hands....

Let's not talk about the hands.

Every beginner artist's nightmare. There was no way she could draw them right.

And his head was much bigger than his body. However, Kasumi didn't see anything wrong with her drawing. She smiled as she showed him it.

"There you go."

Toya wasn't as kind about it as she'd hoped. Once again, he gave a blunt reply. "It sucks."

His comment caused her to feel disappointed. Her smile suddenly disappeared. "Oh."

Feeling her pride hurt, her eyebrows furrowed slightly angrily with teary eyes. She ripped it out of her sketchbook to redo it.

She started the process to crumble it up.

Toya's eyes widened. That same sense of guilt returned from before. The girl was sensitive, and he knew that. Yet he still said things like that. It made him feel a lot worse than he thought it would.

"Don't do that. That'll only waste more paper."

He was trying to be comforting, but he wasn't very good at it.

He stood up and quickly snatched the pen away from her. He pulled one of her arms towards himself and began to draw on her skin. He drew tiny little stick people of horrible quality. Unlike Kasumi, he had absolutely no skill for art.

"There." He tried to keep from smiling as he worked. "Now you can see what real art looks like."

Kasumi started giggling. Every time he drew, it made her very ticklish. In fact, that was probably the first time he had heard her really laugh.

When she flinched from being tickled from it, it made one of the stick figures have a really long leg. That only made her laughing worse. "His leg is huge!"

The sound of Toya's laughter merged together with hers. Neither one of them had heard the other laugh before, so it felt like a weight had been lifted from their chests.

"That's because you keep moving!"

"Heeheehee! It tickles!" She squealed uncharacteristically loud as she went to go grab her pen back from him. "My turn to draw on you!"

He kept lifting the pen above her head so that she couldn't reach it. He was a good bit taller than her, so he had the advantage in that way. He gave her a teasing smile. "It doesn't work that way."

"Toya! Give it!" She waved her hands cautiously to try to grab it. That only made a smug smile appear on his face like it was some sort of new game.

"I already said no." He turned his back to her in order to make it more difficult. He felt amused to see her struggle so much. He tried to keep his lips pressed firmly together to suppress the laugh that he could feel bubbling to the surface.

Kasumi shifted her shorter frame in an attempt to move in front of him. She was trying harder to grab the pen. She was still laughing, but then followed with an, "Eek!"

Her ankle twisted the wrong way, causing her to clumsily fall into him. This was why she was trying to be careful as she's very accident prone with her balance.

Toya wasn't expecting the sudden weight. He didn't have time to brace himself, so his feet awkwardly gave out. He found himself tumbling to the ground.

"Ow!"

He landed on his side with his face a few inches away from hers. Her face was already red with embarrassment. His own face quickly mirrored the shade. He noticed some of her features.

Like the way her hair did brush against his face upon getting up. She didn't get hurt since his body cushioned her fall.

The way the wind subtly hit her from that moment.

He rolled to the side to sit up.

Upon moving away from him, she successfully grabbed the pen from his hand. Oblivious to his gawking, she motioned herself to draw on his arm. She made a mark successfully. "Got you."

Toya's mouth gaped for a second. He looked absolutely shocked that she was able to draw on him. "That isn't fair!"

"Don't move." She kept trying to draw on him. He was flinching. "I'm going to draw a cat on you."

It was strange how she was becoming more open to talking. Just a little bit more when she's in a giggling fit.

"I don't want a cat on me!" He argued. He pulled his arm away with a pout. He felt frustrated that he had been defeated, if it could even be called that. In his mind, that was exactly what it was.

"Oh..." She then clammed up a little bit once more.

Does he not like cats?

She then lowered her hand awkwardly, not knowing what to do. She felt a little anxious again.

The guilt had returned once more. Toya huffed before reaching his arm out again.

What am I doing? He failed to meet her eyes. It was hard to push past the embarrassment that he felt for a reason that was unknown to him. "Don't make it big, ok? And only one."

The smile returned to her face once more. That stupid, awkward smile of hers.

The pen made contact with his arm. She didn't press too hard nor too light. She didn't take notice of Toya's embarrassment as he was still looking away from her. Maybe she figured he was waiting to be surprised.

She drew the cat's head as a circle. The body and legs were just basic ovals. The ears were triangles. But the face at least looked kind of cute.

When she was done, he finally turned to look at it. He didn't give it more than a glance though. Then he looked away again.

Training entered his mind again. Strangely, he didn't feel like getting back to that. He would rather be with her than go through that torment at the time.

He had the mindset similar to an adult who had to go to work. He told himself that it needed to be done, but he didn't want to move from that spot. Kasumi was a source of gentle warmth to him, and he preferred that over the burning fire of his own heart.

Maybe there was a way he could get Enji's attention without training. A way that involved her. It was a selfish idea, one that was for his own benefit alone, but he didn't stop to care about the consequences when he wanted something.

Come here," he said suddenly. He stood up and grabbed her hand to get her up faster. "We're going inside the castle."

Inside the castle? Her eyes became wide at the anticipation. Not only that, Toya's hand was warmer than the average person's. It almost felt hot, but not too hot to burn.

Not that she would know that as she had never held anyone's hand before. Let alone a boy's hand.

She tried to keep up with him but she felt like she was going to trip over nothing. Her feet weren't well coordinated with themselves to keep up with his fast pace.

Along with her face involuntarily blushing, she somehow squeezed his hand so she wouldn't trip.

As they walked inside, they passed by the door that looked like a dungeon. Toya could hear footsteps heading down the stairs that would lead to the door. Shoto must have been trying to go see them.

Toya had spotted Shoto leaning against the window in his room and looking down at them. He obviously wanted a part in whatever was going on, but Toya wasn't planning on even letting him see Kasumi up close. It was sort of his way of saying, 'She's my friend, not yours.'

Toya pulled Kasumi along a little faster when they got to that area. He was determined to not let Shoto get any satisfaction. To his relief, they got past it before Shoto could see them.

That was Kasumi's first time inside. She gawked at how far away the ceiling was. The floors were plated with a checkered pattern of a dull grey and brown.

The window's interior had golden frames. It made her heart race. She was excited a prince was her friend - er - acquaintance.

He hadn't exactly called Kasumi his friend out loud yet, but she really felt that way about him.

The inside was so huge that their footsteps echoed around the empty hallways. It was bizarre that there was so much space, but hardly anyone around.

Well, aside from maids dusting every nook and cranny. There wasn't any dust at all to clean, but they still were cleaning. They paid no mind to the two children walking around. Toya still never let go of her hand.

This makes me want to draw a story about this. Her imagination went wild. It would involve a not-so-original story of two kids that would have cat ears.

Kasumi liked drawing herself with cat ears and a tail. Cats were her favorite animal, of course.

She wondered what fun things they would do inside. She even imagined him having his own personal playground to play in. That sounded like fun, too.

Instead, there was another young voice that caught their attention. Another girl whose hair was mostly white with a few strands of red came into their field of vision. She was also 11 years old - a year younger than Toya. Same age as Kasumi.

She gave a confused smile. "Hello. Who would this be?"

Toya scowled. "That's my acquaintance."

Kasumi lowered her eyes as she kept her hand clasped with Toya's. She pressed her lips together as her shyness was making it hard for her to even greet her in return.

She noticed the similarities.

His sister? Maybe?

Toya never really talked about his siblings. Well, he mainly bashed his other brother for being the worst. Nothing about having a sister.

Fuyumi's lips quirked to one side. She squinted her eyes suspiciously and then had to adjust her glasses. "Acquaintances don't hold hands."

"They do now," Toya argued back stubbornly.

"That isn't how it works, Toya!" Fuyumi giggled. She tried to meet Kasumi's eyes, but noticed that Kasumi had trouble returning the gesture. "What's your name?"

"Kasumi." Kasumi mumbled shyly, somehow wondering why Toya didn't let her hand go yet.

But the thing was, she didn't mind it. It felt very comforting, so it helped her talk more. "Are you Toya's sister?"

Fuyumi nodded once, adjusting her glasses again. "My name is Fuyumi. I'm glad we have a new friend around here!"

Toya simply rolled his eyes. It annoyed him that his sister seemed to try so hard to keep things peaceful. He almost wished that she would be more loud like him. "Acquaintance."

Kasumi frowned at that. She was a little more open with Toya.

Just a smidge for her to blurt out sadly and pouty, "Well, I think of you as a friend." Only to see Fuyumi smile wider towards Toya.

Toya growled. His fingers twitched slightly before tightening his grip on her hand. "I guess we can be friends."

"Really?" Kasumi's voice rose ever so slightly with a hint of happiness. Not realizing Fuyumi was studying the markings of drawings on each of their arms.

"I guess," Toya grumbled.

The more they stood by and talked, the more there was an uncomfortable feeling in Fuyumi's stomach. "Toya, you really shouldn't bring people in here, though. You know what dad will do if he sees."

"I want him to see!" Toya snapped. There was venom in his tone. "Even if he gets mad, I want him to at least acknowledge me again!"

Kasumi flinched. She had never heard Toya's voice have that tone in it before. Not only that, his hand was starting to feel hotter.

Was it really getting hotter? Was it her imagination?

She quietly listened more with a worried expression.

Fuyumi's eyes glossed over. She held her hands close to her chin in two tight fists. "He's just busy a lot. He will probably pay more attention to you when-"

"When what?!" Toya exclaimed. His hand started to get even hotter. "As long as that little moron is alive, our father will never even look at us again! He only cares about him now!"

Toya's eyes were becoming glossy too. The hatred and hurt was apparent in the way that his voice shook.

When he was younger, he didn't hate Shoto quite as much. He occasionally snapped, and even tried to harm him once, but he regretted it afterwards. As he got older, his hatred and jealousy only worsened.

"Toya, are you o-" The heat Kasumi felt against her hand worsened. It was actually burning. The more Toya was getting worked up over Shoto, the worse it got.

She felt the sting of pain that caused her to yelp. Toya felt her hand yank out of his suddenly, causing both him and Fuyumi to have surprised looks.

Kasumi became teary eyed. Her hand was slightly peeling from a second degree burn.

For a second, Toya just looked at her. There was a whirlwind of different emotions flashing through his eyes all at once. Then, with a single hiccup, tears started to trail down his cheeks.

He turned away quickly, ignoring Fuyumi to go off alone somewhere. He didn't know how to express the guilt that he felt, so he was left with an unbearable feeling inside.

Fuyumi sighed and turned her eyes to Kasumi. "He doesn't hate you, believe me. He is going through a lot right now. Come on. I'll take care of your hand, and then you should really get of here before our dad sees you."

"I'm fine- I-" Her mouth wiggled while forcing a smile. She knew it was an accident. Just by Toya's reaction, she could empathize that he was hurting.

She could understand that she could lose control of her quirk sometimes. Although, she had never seen Toya's quirk in action aside from his body smoking, and now, the burn on her hand. She knew his power had something to do with heat.