Play Nice (Tomura Shigaraki x Reader)

Chapter 14: Chance Meetings

"Tomura-kun!" her father greeted a little too happily (re: kiss-assey) as Shigaraki was led to the deluxe little camp the family had set up in the bleachers, "My wife just told me you were here. What a nice surprise!"

"Yeah, I guess..." he pulled his hand free to rub at his neck. A freedom that the younger brother seemed more than happy to grant.

"Onee-chan said he has to sit with us since he doesn't have any friends," he said, crossing his arms.

"That's not what she said!" Shigaraki snapped at him — probably a bit too harshly. But that only seemed to amuse the young boy more. It seemed that a desire to piss him off ran in the family.

"Don't be rude," her mother scolded with a light swat to the youngest child's hand before turning back to Shigaraki with a smile, "We'd love it if you'd sit with us, Tomura."

She patted the open spot next to her encouragingly.

"O-Okay. Thanks..." he bowed, quick and awkward, then moved to sit down as far away from her as possible while still on the blanket they'd laid out.

"Have you eaten anything?" she asked as he settled, taking him by surprise.

If he was being honest, he thought for sure that the family would pretty much ignore him once he actually sat down. And if he was being even more honest, he would have preferred it that way. He was completely ill-prepared to answer a question as high-stakes as "have you eaten" right now.

"Tomura?"

He quickly realized that he was taking entirely too long to answer, "Uh—"

A loud grumble interrupted and startled them both. He was pretty sure he'd never blushed this hard in his life as her mother laughed sympathetically.

"I'd say that answers that," she turned to pull a cooler bag into her lap, "What kind of onigiri do you like? Pickled plum, bonito flakes—?"

"N-No, you don't have to do that," he waved his hands up at her and pointed back towards the entrance, "I'll just grab something from the vending machine."

"Don't be silly! We always pack extra," she insisted, opening up the bag, "And a growing boy like you needs a fresh breakfast!"

Shigaraki considered pointing out that at nineteen, he was actually done growing now, but the way she looked him in the eye left very little room to argue. So that was where her daughter had gotten that look...

He looked down to her insulated travel bag to get away from it and, true to her word, there was probably enough plastic-wrapped onigiri and snacks in that bag to feed the entire swim team.

(When he thought critically about it, that was probably the reason why she had so much.)

And he'd be flat-out lying if he said it didn't look delicious. He genuinely couldn't remember the last time he'd had onigiri that wasn't from a convenient store — had he ever, even? Kurogiri was nothing if not dedicated. Everything he cooked was a full, decadent meal — usually western. Quick and simple were not in his vocabulary. And each meal was always portioned out perfectly so as to never have any meaningful leftovers, nothing to make onigiri out of.

Of course, he knew that he could request anything he wanted to eat, that Kurogiri would be more than happy to make him onigiri if he asked. But then that would involve actually admitting that he was missing something in his life.

So buying stuff from the convenience store was just easier.

"...do you have salmon?" he finally muttered.

"Oh, tons!" she smiled, pulling one of the rice balls right from the top and handing it to him, "That's my daughter's favorite flavor too."

The onigiri slipped a little in his hand at that, earning a knowing smirk from her mother. He kicked himself internally — what a stupid fucking thing to be so happy about. Who cared if she liked salmon? It's not like that meant anything, it was the best flavor after all. She'd be stupid if she didn't. Right?