Chapter Text
Fuyumi slowly ate the food she prepared- picking on the side dishes she made, sitting at the dining table she'd set, and she glanced at the tea she brewed.
Across her, in the relative silence of the Todoroki estate, Todoroki Enji sat, eating the same food she did and using the same things she did.
His chopstick clicked against his bowl.
Fuyumi didn't flinch.
He didn't mean anything by it, she knew, she could tell.
Her chopsticks was frozen halfway to her mouth.
From a pocket, he procured a metal bottle, and she watched him slide it between them.
"Take it." he grunted.
Her tone was careful and quiet, "I haven't finished eating yet."
"You can finish it after."
Turquoise eyes studied the whorls on the table as somewhere in the estate, a clock tic tocked.
Gingerly setting down her chopsticks, Fuyumi reached out to grab the bottle, and with a twist and turn, she set it back down, two large black pills in her other hand.
Outside, the sun had long since set, the Todoroki estate bathed in the dark because there was no reason to turn on any of the lights.
Somewhere in these halls, and she knew exactly how many steps and which boards to avoid, her youngest brother was sleeping, resting.
Somewhere out there in the world, one she didn't know as well, her last remaining brother was safe.
Something was missing and it's only inside her.
In the cold dining room, among the rapidly cooling dishes, the flecks of snow building up in the corners and the frost that was taking shape on the floor beneath her, Fuyumi raised her gaze over her father's shoulder, at the window darkened by night.
Hand clenching, snowflakes manifested in the air.
Fuyumi stared back at the blurry reflection of a brown haired, blue eyed, dark skinned girl, fading in the midst of a snowstorm.
Katara.
"Fuyumi." his voice rumbled, deep and pointed and he still wasn't looking at her.
He never did, not for this, and not for many other things.
She wouldn't be able to finish her food anymore, she wasn't a fan of eating cold beef.
Closing her eyes, she put the pills in her mouth and swallowed.
With a slow, measured exhale, Fuyumi opened her eyes and stared back at the palde, white haired, turquoise eyed girl.
The red flecks in her hair blended with the shadows.
Her gaze fell back on the table.
Enji's fire flickered to life, melting snow and ice and frost and erasing the puffs their breaths had become.
It consumed everything of Fuyumi's.
It warmed her.
She hated it.
She needed it.
The haze that faded in the room gradually fell over her mind, settling in her bones, and warming her skin.
And then Fuyumi was alone in the room.
She'll go to bed in a bit.
She just... needed to get her bearing.
Fuyumi eased herself to the side and laid down on the tatami mat and counted the seconds as her strength slowly but steadily sapped out of her.
She'll wake up tucked in her bed, the first stirring of warmth on her skin, and a weight over her mind.
X
"-sure you don't wanna come over and hang? Can't imagine either of them being particularly pleasant company today."
Titling the pot into the sink with her phone between her ear and shoulder, Fuyumi hummed, "Maybe later, I'll swing by before I go to the office."
The water swirled into the drainage. Behind her glasses, Fuyumi watched the patterns.
"
Dividing the noodles in the pot between two bowls,