Play Nice (Tomura Shigaraki x Reader)

Chapter 15: Challenger Approaching

"Onii-chan!"

Mirio's face lit up, "Hey kiddo!"

Her brother didn't even need to ask to be lifted, as soon as Mirio saw the seven-year-old barreling towards him, he was already kneeling down with his arms outstretched, yelling, "Alright, who's ready to fly?!"

The boy leaped into his arms, and despite having just swam a meet that he'd finished almost exclusively on the podium in, Mirio caught him effortlessly and swung him around and behind his torso like a Globetrotter. He finished the trick shot by settling the boy on his hip with one arm, keeping the other free to do an elaborate secret handshake.

Because of course they had a secret fucking handshake.

"Mirio-kun!" her mother greeted happily, "Great job today! Are you hungry? I've got plenty of pickled plum for you!"

Shigaraki snapped to her mom, childish betrayal flaring in his eyes as she opened up the cooler for Mirio. Cheating bitch was at the forefront of his mind. Luckily, nobody but her daughter saw it, and she promptly gave him a gentle but firm warning in the form of a light swat to the arm.

"Ooh, thanks, Okaa-san— but I'm okay!" he chirped right back.

Shigaraki's jaw locked even tighter at that. He had legitimately never wanted to punch someone so much in his life. And he'd broken noses before.

She looked back and forth between the boys nervously. Shigaraki's murderous intent was almost as palpable as her boyfriend's beaming joy. She had no idea what to say in this situation, even less idea what to do. She was already trying to think three steps ahead into damage control mode. Because this was going to be a disaster — that part was inevitable. She could only try and figure out how to pick up the pieces of this situation and assemble something even remotely salvageable out of it. Even with that low bar however, prospects were not looking good.

Especially not when Mirio planted a painfully casual kiss on her cheek, like he'd done it a hundred times already... which he had.

"Was that a Toyo recruiter, babe?" he asked as he pulled away. She could practically hear Shigaraki bristle at the word "babe".

"O-Oh yeah," she answered, "It was nothing serious, but he did give me his card so we could set up a phone call."

Shigaraki snapped to her. Hold on a second, the conversation with the recruiter had gone that far? He'd thought that she just smiled and nodded and politely told him to go pound sand. She couldn't actually be considering it, could she?

"Mirio, you're committed to Toyo aren't you?" her Dad asked.

He grinned, "Sure am!"

"Well, that wouldn't be a bad deal for you two, if she got a scholarship, would it?"

The idea that she'd go to a different school had never crossed Shigaraki's mind, not even once. Her grades and test scores were never a barrier to entry. And if by some weird act of God or bureaucracy she didn't get in? Well, he'd fought and worked with those particular forces more than his fair share of times and he'd do it again.

She was always going to end up at Todai with him.

It's not like he had a specific vision for the future together or even a plan for what would happen when she got there. He'd never had to. She would just be there with him and then all of this pretense — Mirio, her popularity, her parents – all of this bullshit wouldn't matter anymore. They'd be there together and everything would just work itself out. It'd all finally be easy.

But if she went to a different college? And the college that her boyfriend went to? There was nothing fucking easy about that. She'd have even less reason to break up with Mirio.