Koto's POV
(Tuesday the 23rd)

The sound comes out as a barely audible croak, but it undeniably came from my mouth.

"Koto?" She asks, cocking her head to the side. "I haven't seen you in forever. Why are--what brings you back?"

She shuffles her feet, pretending to look busy, looking at the drinks, but I see that way she awkwardly glances my way. However, there's only one thing I can think: I just spoke.

"Look, I heard about what happened to your parents," she continues. "And I'm sorry. I mean given the circumstances, it was a little hard, but I mean nobody deserves to lose their parents like that. So I'm sorry you had to go through that."

I blink at her for a few moments before trying to summon whatever was inside of me that spoke, but it refuses. All I can make is a tiny whine. Her eyebrows furrow together and I resist the urge to scream with frustration.

Where did you go?!? You let me say one word and now you're gone?!? I mentally scream at my voice. Come back!!

Kati seems to sense my rising anger because she tries to casually take a few steps back.

I sigh and just use my illused voice, "I came back to visit their grave."

Her breath hitches, seeing me use my quirk again. "Oh," her voice squeaks. She takes another step back. "Well I should leave you to it, then."

"Wait," I illuse, stopping her in her tracks. Her big doe eyes watch me with trepidation. "I'm sorry."

She doesn't respond, instead looking away.

"Can we talk about it?" I ask.

"Will you use your actual voice?" She asks, trying to keep the trembling out of her voice.

"I can't."

She turns around and places her items on the counter, handing the man at the register a few bills before walking out. I hurriedly follow suit, running after her. Before she can get to her car, I catch up to her.

"I can't because I haven't spoken a word since the accident!" My illused voice exclaims. She tries to skirt around me to get to her car.

"You're lying, you just spoke!"

"I know! And I don't know how! It's not doing it anymore! But please!" I beg her, taking another step closer. She watches me with apprehensive eyes. "I really didn't want to hurt you and I'm sorry. I mean..." I shift my feet awkwardly. "...I guess I did sorta want to hurt you if I'm being terribly honest."

She immediately turns and tries to unlock her car door.

"Wait! Please let me finish!" I fight the urge to rip the keys out of her hand, knowing she would never listen to me if I did that. She pauses, one leg in her car, and looks back at me.

"You have thirty seconds," she replies cooly, putting her sunglasses on.

"I was so stupid! I really didn't like you and I guess I took that as enough of a reason to justify what I did. I know we never got along very well, but I always took it too far. I recognize that now. And I'm sorry! I realize how wrong it was for me to do that and I never should've. I'm not trying to justify it, because I can't! It's a horrible thing for me to try to justify! I'm just trying to say that since then, I've felt bad for it, okay?"

She sighs and glances at her feet, stepping back out of the car. "You broke my arm," she says with a wobbly voice.

"I know."

"I had to go to therapy."

"What?" I immediately ask, taken aback.

"After you left, people would come up behind me and speak in my ear, the way you always did with your quirk. It always made me have a panic attack."

My heart drops into my gut. I caused her so much more than just physical pain from what I did.

"Eventually, I just learned to put on a fake smile and laugh about it...cry later..." she looks up at me through her sunglasses. "I still have a fear of ventriloquists and anybody who speaks without moving their mouths."

That sends an extra punch to my gut. I gave this girl so much mental anguish.

I clasp my hands and bow my head. "I'm so sorry," I illuse. "I left so soon, I didn't know all you had gone through. And in Japan, I had no way to hear what had happened."

"Oh right, you live there now." She seems to fall into a more relaxed stance.

"Wait, how did you know that before now? After the accident, I moved to Tyson."

She rubs her forearm. "I saw the sports festival on TV. So you're in the hero program?"

"A lot has changed," I reply. "I don't ever want to hurt anyone again."

She looks away for a second before mumbling quietly, "do you have anywhere to stay for tonight?"

"Not yet," I reply honestly.

She climbs into the driver's seat and says, "c'mon, get in," before closing her door.

I walk around to the other side as she starts the engine. "Where are we going?" I ask, sitting in the passenger seat.

"My house," she replies simply.

•°•°•°•

The car ride is painfully silent. When she leads me through the door, she says, "my parents are still at work."

I nod and we stand there for a moment, awkwardly looking around. I take in her empty house, looking at the scuffed paint and squishy furniture. It looks cozy.

"Did you come all the way here by yourself?" She asks.

I nod. "Nobody knows I'm here."

She visibly jolts, her eyes wide. "You didn't tell anyone?" I shake my head. "You just up and left?"

I take a deep breath, illusing, "a lot of things happened."

"Do you need to...talk about it?" She seems incredibly uncomfortable, asking me that.

"Well I'd love to talk about it, but my voice has other plans," I respond sarcastically.

Her face instantly reddens. "Right, sorry."

"I mean, there's not really any other way to phrase the question, now is there?"

She shakes her head, but still looks uncomfortable.

"Yeah, I guess I'll tell you what happened."

She leads me into the living room with the squashy brown leather couches. I sink into the cushions as something appears to occur to her.

"Where are my manners?" She asks, agitated. "Umm...do you want something to drink?"

She walks into the kitchen and I illuse "water" from behind her. She grabs a glass and takes her time filling it, tapping her foot. She finally makes her way back to me, handing me the glass with a shaking hand.

"If you want to...umm...try talking," she says. "You can. I just figured you'd probably need some water. I don't know how difficult it is, but I'll sit here with you as long as you need. I can keep refilling your water glass. The bathroom's down there by the way," she adds with a smile, pointing through the kitchen to a little hallway.

My body wants to cry. Or hug her. Just do something, but I stay in place, finding my hand shaking slightly.

I take it slowly at first, trying to explain everything that has happened since she saw me last. My voice refuses to work for a while, so I just illuse it. I try to speak every sentence, but when I fail, I rely on my quirk, until eventually, I stammer out, "th-th-thuh ent-t-rance exammmm..."

My tongue feels like lead and my lips twitch with the unfamiliarity of the motion. I let out a shakey breath as Kati looks at me with pure excitement.

She gives me a huge smile, nodding her head as she takes my hands. "You're speaking!" She exclaims. I let out a tearful laugh and squeeze her hands tightly. It's as if my healing voice is healing our relationship too and all the tension between us, as if we could actually become...friends.

I continue my story, never able to get through more than a couple words every now and then, but Kati keeps reminding me that it's progress and that I shouldn't be discouraged. Around the time I reach the internships, my voice has stopped sounding like a garbled croak and starts to take on an actual tone. It sounds a lot like my mother's, the one I've been using with my quirk, but mine is much more abrasive. I guess that's to be expected though.

"I think this calls for celebration!" She says, checking her phone. "Oh my gosh! I didn't realize how late it was!"

I look over her shoulder to read 6:47pm on her phone.

"My parents should be home soon." She stands and motions for me to join her in the kitchen. "You said nobody knows you're here. Do you want it to stay that way?"

I nod my head frantically.

"Yeah, I'm not too sure they'd be happy to see you, not after everything that happened," she mumbles, her face reddening a bit. "We can hang out in my room tonight. They won't mind. I'll just tell them I have a friend over. C'mon, let's get some food to bring up there."

We reheat a couple plates of leftovers. She apologizes profusely, explaining that she can't really cook, but I assure her it's fine.

We sit on her bed, silently eating before I hear her sniffling. I look up to see her wipe a tear away.

"Sorry, sorry," she mumbles, seeing the alarmed look on my face. "I'm just a little in my head."

She puts down her fork and seems to think through her words before saying, "it's just...I remember always telling you to shut up. I can't help but think that I'm the reason you stopped talking."

"It-t was a l-l-lot-t of th-things," I manage to mumble out before switching to illusing, "but I don't want to lie and say that you didn't play a part in it."

"I hate myself," she cries, putting her head in her hands.

I blink a few times, wondering if this is what it's like to talk to me.

"I mean, I feel like everybody sucked as kids, but like I was just worse." I cautiously reach out to put a hand on her back. "I always used my quirk to push other people around."

"Don't forget how you'd get all the boys to kiss you," I illuse, interjecting, but immediately feel like it was the wrong thing to say.

She groans and seems to curl in on herself. "I was so stupid." For a moment, she's silent, but then she starts laughing. "I repressed that memory."

She looks up at me with a bitter smile.

"Hey, you can't be worse than that kid, Brady," I remind her.

She immediately mimes throwing up, smiling for real now. "That kid was gross!"

"Remember how he'd pick his nose with his pencil and then eat it or wipe it on his shirt?" I ask.

Kati fakes throwing up again. "I don't think he has a shirt that wasn't stained. 'Cause he used it as a napkin too."

"It didn't help that he only wore white shirts."

"Oh my gosh, I can see it!" She covers her eyes. "It's burned in my memory!"

"I wanted to bleach my eyes," I illuse, laughing hysterically.

"I would be right there next to you!" She exclaims, laughing along with me. "I'm not too hungry anymore."

"Me n-neith-ther," I say, wiping tears from my eyes, giggling.

She grabs our plates and heads back downstairs. I hear her talking with her parents, who must've gotten home during our laughing fit. After a while, she comes back up.

"They said it's cool for you to stay here," she says, resuming her position next to me. "Anyways, there's this big party on Friday. I wasn't really planning on going, but some friends talked me into it. Do you wanna come along?"

I blink for a few moments. "Y-you mean l-l-like..."

She cuts me off, saying, "drinking, dancing, honestly just a bunch of highschoolers just generally going crazy."

I think about it for a bit. I haven't actually been to any real parties. UA runs us so hard, we don't really have time for it. And I wasn't ever invited to any before. Other than the obligatory elementary school invite.

"If not, we can stay here too!" She says quickly. "I just thought I should offer."

"L-let's do i-it."