‘ moonshine, sunshine and iceboy ’

━━━━━

One thing good about hospitals, Kaede notes, is that your friends bring you fruits. Baskets of them. Every single day. Baskets full of grapes, cantaloupes, watermelons, apples (you can see her eyes lighting up at this point), oranges and bananas.

They told her she would earn their trust and she did, they were just the ones spending money in buying these fruits, and stuff toys (Kaede raised an eyebrow at the first time they brought her one, but they said it was necessary so she had something to cuddle with, and while saying these facts, she saw the adoring look on Uraraka's face. It was obvious the brunette wanted the stuffed white bear more than her, so she told the girl she could have it, and cue the hugs. Tsuyu, who was always with Uraraka whenever she visited, seemed to balance everything out. If it weren't for the frog girl, she's pretty sure Uraraka and her would never make up. The brunette has a habit of burying everything with smiles and it's Tsuyu who unearths those truths, tell it right to her face. And Kaede is grateful for her— their presence).

Three weeks pass and all of them are actually doing a little better, and of course she's starting to get incensed at the clean white paint, immaculate tiles and aquamarine bedsheets changed every day, at Iida's behest that it was going to infect the wound (short and narrow, but definitely as deep as a ravine).

So she adores it when Kouda and Sero come, and takes her to the hospital gardens, not as flowery as she would expect, but it's a breath of fresh air from all the stark whiteness. The peonies in the flowerbeds are perhaps the most beautiful flowers she'd seen in her life.

Iida and Izuku don't take her around the gardens even when they promise to. The action is buried with piles atop piles of constant worrying over her physical condition.  Whenever they visit they're either busy spending the rest of their visits worrying how her healing is slower than expected and maybe the poison will act up again, or maybe they should get a quirk specialist to figure out how her quirk (Kaede smiles through it all, not telling them of the quirklessness tainting her bones) is affecting the poison or promising her that they'll try not to go into fits of rambling again and walk her around the gardens or take her to the hospital canteen.

Kaede's stopped complaining after day six. There's something worse than their incessant worries and it's the one-on-one redundant interviews regarding her personal life that she's mostly hesitant to answer.

Better days are when she smiles, throws shame away, put her hand on Izuku's [surprisingly] fluffy green hair.

Cue the blushing and her, overwhelmed by her charmed persona, pulling him into a hug and she'd mouth at Uraraka that she won't steal Izuku from him and Uraraka floating on air, with Tsuyu's side comments and Sero and Kouda chuckling.

Those are great days, but if Kaede's forced to pick a favourite— like strapped to a bomb forced— she'd say that days with the new addition to the short list of her friends is the best. Days spent with the girl whose smiles light up the world and brighter than the sun itself.

"I'm so glad you didn't kiss anyone while you had total control."

Akihisa Yuko.

Kaede raises an eyebrow— Yuko's the type of person who always makes her want to raise an eyebrow, "Oh really?" Among all of her friends, she may or may not also be closest to Yuko. They did 'share' a body for years.

"Oh really," Yuko repeats while Sero grins and covers Honoka's ears— the girl's eating watermelons and it's an adorable sight— and Kouda looks left and right as if he's not hearing anything.

"And even if you did," Yuko jokes, stands up, walks around and Kaede notes that she's been unable to move for years so she's been too jittery ever since she had her body back, like ADHD jittery, probably doing the best she can to stretch and flex all those limbs. "I was hoping it'd be the hot one."

"The hot one?" Kaede asks, eyebrows furrow.

"This isn't appropriate. We have a kid here, you know?" Sero teases, but he's laughing too much to even sound like he's chastising.

"I won't adjust," Yuko says, grins.

Sero sighs at that and Yuko is always so adamant about things that he— along with other people with the exception of Kaede— hardly tries to oppose her. The earth is her queendom and in her queendom, Yuko bows to no one. "Alright, alright, madam," Sero says, his personal nickname for Yuko used at the last part. "We'll take Honoka here to the canteen where none of your polluting gossip can reach her"— turns to Yuko, before carrying the fruit basket— "along with these fruits for company, of course."

"Leave the apples," Kaede says, with a pointed look.

"Alright, chill, and apple not apples," Sero says and throws the apple towards Kaede who catches it with ease. She can move her hands more freely now, but her legs still need assistance. "Come on, kids," he calls Kouda and Honoka, "the girls are probably going to have a conversation about the hot guys and we don't want any part in it."

"Because you're not hot," Yuko says with a smirk.

Then they leave, just as quickly as Kaede brings up the topic again. With the door shut tightly after them and the guards doing a little peek.

"So..." Kaede drones, raises an eyebrow. "The hot one?"

The taller, silver haired girl plays with yellow flower petals of the sunflowers spilling from the vase. "Yah," she says, "your dearest Shouto, honey cakes." Yuko likes putting together sweet words and creating pet names out of them. She has a bad habit of forgetting names regularly. She remembers Kaede's name, but prefers the saccharine filled nicknames.

"How about Katsuki?" Kaede asks.

"Chili peppers?" Yuko asks, now moved on to the side of the bed, playing with the cloth and trying to make rain dolls out of it. "No thanks. Delinquents are so passe. It's the cool as cucumber ones that win my heart over."

Kaede rolls her eyes, out of words to say, but there's a knock on the door and it may be the many police officers that guard her room, but Yuko beats her to it, "You're free to enter, honey waffles."

Surprisingly, Shouto's head pops out. There's one of the patches of the desert shoved into her throat again. But she won't complain. The first time Bakugou came, they were just staring awkwardly at each other and during that time, Kaede swallowed the whole Sahara. "Speak of the hot devil." Yuko comments, swings one leg over the other, while three of her fingers drum the side table. Kaede notes the teal nail polish on her fingernails and tries not to show her disdain.

"Hey," he says, takes two silent steps forward.

"Heyo," Yuko greets back, waves her hand and shows the nail polish that Kaede really wants to criticize.

"Hey yourself," Kaede says, not quite herself. Normally, she would just do a polite nod.

"See cupcakes? He's totes adorable," she says to Kaede.

"Am I interrupting something?" Shouto asks, looking from Kaede to Yuko. "I can wait—"

"Oh no, cream pie, you're not interrupting anything," Yuko is patting the chair she vacanted. "You can take this seat, sit close to peanut butter here, and I'll sit next to her— scoot!" she tells Kaede the last word and the ravenette is definitely not scooting. In this queendom of Akihisa Yuko, she is no commoner, so the moment Yuko's butt meets the fabric of the blanket, Kaede pushes her off the bed.

That makes a half smile claim Shouto's lips and Kaede smiles reassuringly in return.

"Not cool, berry meringue," Yuko says and the thud gathers a lot of attention from the guards outside, so they barge in the room, quirks activated.

"What was that?" one of the guards ask his quirk Telekinesis activated, followed by Yuko's mother with a frantic expression on her face.

"Nothing, sugarplum," Yuko answers at the same time Kaede says, "I pushed her off the bed."

"You did what?" the other officer asks, bulkier than the first one, but obviously more handsome. And his quirk had something to do with the moving crimson tattoo he had on his wrists.

"Relax strawberry mousse," Yuko says, on her feet again. "Kai— honeypie here's just being grumpy again. Between you and me, I think she's having her period."

"Crude," Kaede points out, but Yuko just shrugs it off.

"Anywho, it's not like buttercup here snapped and killed everyone inside, am I right?" she trails off, probably notices the what the heck expression on Kaede's face and adds, "That wasn't appropriate considering Kaede's under surveillance, isn't it?"

"You're an idiot," the only thing Kaede says to her who has moved next to her smiles.

"Apologies," Yuko's mom tells the officers, her silver hair loose on her shoulders and her ruby eyes solemn.  "My Yuko's always been so tactless. I'll take her out so she doesn't cause any more trouble"— turns to Yuko with an imperious look and in Yuko's queendom, this woman is God— "Honey, come here."

"No way mom," Yuko says, playing with one of the sunflowers from the vase, throwing the petals all over the room, but you can notice the way her body arced towards the woman. "Shouto is here and I need the scoop."

"Your daughter has a few screws loose," Kaede says, softly this time. What she doesn't say is: I felt how she loved you so much, how she cared so much and how overwhelming the hurt was when you were separated. Separated by me. "But she's a good person."

"I don't need you to tell me that," Yuko's mom says with a glare and Kaede bows her head in shame. Shouto puts a hand on hers and she takes it gratefully. "But thank you for saving my daughter."

"Mom!" Yuko screams and runs towards her mother. "Ugh! Don't fry my future BFF like that"— turns to Shouto— "I'll definitely duel you for her friendship blueberry tart or we can ditch snarky Kaede here and you and I— no, definitely not ditching her, but,"— bats her eyelashes at Shouto— "we can be more than just friends."

Shouto doesn't respond and by this point, Kaede wants to slam her face on a wall.

"Akihisa Yuko, how dare you flirt in front of your mother?" her mother asks, enraged, grabs Yuko— who is still batting her charming, silver eyelashes at Shouto— by the elbow. "Have you no shame?"

"Ugh, mom!"

"No more words, you coquettish young woman," Yuko's mother says sternly, turns to the handsome police officer. "I apologize, really, and now, we have to go."

Just like that, they were gone. Followed by the police officers who look like they both need two cups of coffee with more shots of espresso.

"She's crazier than you," is the first thing Shouto says when they're gone.

Kaede braves a smile, her grip on his hand tightening, her lips faltering before she mutters a proper response. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Shouto smiles at that and she almost melts.

"I came here to get all teary-eyed with you, be emotionally exhausted, but," his fingers, five of them, plays with her own, the four walls disappearing and she thinks they're underneath the canopy of stars again. "After that, I think this smile's been permanently etched into my face."

"Good," Kaede says. "I can't bear more emotional baggage now. I feel like I just managed to start making this porcelain vase from scratch and people are pouring lots of things into it. Good and bad things alike, and the porcelain vase is me and I'm going to break apart."

"That's a weird comparison," he says, playing with her thumbs.

She rests a head against the headboard, looks at the ceiling. "I'm all for weird descriptions. I have them for everything."

"I see," he says. "Do I have a weird description too?"

Tentatively, Kaede nods. "Todoroki Shouto— hot and cold, daddy issues"— he raises an eyebrow, but she passes over it with a smile— "sometimes, oblivious, dork"— a huh? escapes his lips— "autumn porch, takes a while to open up, cloudy and windy weather, sunshine on mountains, late nights, muted colors, shogi, tatami mats, perfect calligraphy, mint tea, clean bedroom, has rare, wonderful smiles and probably needs a non-toxic best friend, one who has no record of stabbing him in the back, needs a lot of love, but not from toxic best friends who still cares a lot, but she's an idiot, so he let him drift apart and let that toxic flame burn in his heart, pure for this world and not to be tainted by aforementioned bestfriends who are just horrible and apologetic— make that contrite, but by all means deserved to be incarcerated and—"

Kaede doesn't realize she's crying until he puts a hand on her cheek, wiping the tears that fall from her eyes in droplets.

"Stop it," Shouto says. "That's enough."

"B—But—"

"Never mind the talk about earning our trusts, you've been trying so hard for weeks," he points out and she nods at this.

"Listen Kaede— Kai sounds better," he says and she smiles at the nickname. She likes Kai, she loves that nickname and it's not the same as the way Tomoe said it, but it's also mellifluous in its own right. "Kai, I trust you. My trust, as naïve as it sounds, never disappeared. I tried to bury it with resentment and all those other things, but in the end"— he shakes his head and gives her a rare wonderful smile— "I will trust you with my life. Some people might think it's stupid, but so is trying to break my walls and being so persistent in friendships. We're just the same in that aspect. We always see the good in each other and trust it with our lives."

"So we're blind?" Kaede asks, an attempt at a joke, but considering the tears in her face and the dry look he gave her, it didn't have the appeal and the audience didn't like it.

"Stop crying, Kai."

She wipes her own tears this time, with the heel of her hand and she sniffles another sob.

"I'm so sorry, Shouto," she says, her feelings genuine and Tenko or All For One will definitely tell her this is how low she has fallen, but for the people she loves, she will even beg. She will let go of that thing called pride, because Kaede knows the more important things now. "I'm so sorry."

Shouto smiles at her, and the ice flowers that tangled in her hearts are melting along with every bit of resentment they have for each other. "You're forgiven."

( Somewhere, Tomoe Shimura is smiling. )

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E N D  O F  C H A P T E R
— s t a r t  o v e r

□ he's dead as hikigaya hachiman's eyes so don't even.

□ also, why do you guys see kai and shouto interactions as romantic? just genuinely curious because i've always written it as platonic.