Play Nice (Tomura Shigaraki x Reader)

Chapter 17: Two Truths and a Big Fat Fucking Lie

Izuku Midoriya didn't think much of it when one of the bathroom doors was locked. Didn't think about it all actually, the team "dinner" was a crowded event after all, it was perfectly understandable for the single stall facility to be occupied by one of his other teammates.

No, he just moved on to try the other bathroom door. But before he could touch the handle, it opened, a puffy-eyed Ochaco Uraraka emerging from the other side.

"D-Deku!" she squeaked, rubbing at her eyes to try and hide the tears away, "I-I'm sorry, were you waiting long?"

However, he'd definitely caught them, his brows furrowing in concern, "No, I just got here."

"Oh, th-that's good..."

"Are... you okay?" he prodded gently.

She quickly overcompensated with her smile, "Y-Yeah, of course! Why do you ask?"

"Well, I guess... You kind of look like you've been crying or something."

She waved him off, again, way too enthusiastically. Way too fake, "Oh, no, no, no! It's just irritation from the water, I'm fine! Really!"

He wasn't so sure. It'd been at least three hours since anyone had gotten in the water, let alone her. Any "irritation" should've been gone by this point. But at the same time, he didn't want to push her when she was so vehemently denying it. They were friends, he had to believe that if she needed to talk to him about it, she would.

"Oh... Okay..."

"Well then, excuse me..." she said, dropping her head and hurrying past him.

That really should've been it honestly, he had no place to pry. But something about this whole thing just didn't feel right.

"Wait, Uraraka!" he called, turning heel and jogging after her.

He caught her just around the corner, a few short steps from the entrance back to the dining room.

"If um... If you're ever not okay and you need to talk, just let me know," he smiled, "After all, we're friends right?"

She stared at him for a long time, at a complete loss for words. But before she knew it, her lip started to quiver, her eyes started to burn. And finally, she dropped down to the floor, head in her knees, with a not especially quiet wail.

"Waaaaaaaghhhhh!!!!!"

"O-Oh no, I'm so sorry!" Midoriya dropped down next to her, guiltily and frantically trying to calm her, "I shouldn't have pried! If nothing's wrong, nothing's wrong, I believe you—!"

"I completely choked out there!" she cried, stopping his panic in its tracks.

Midoriya frowned, "Uraraka..."

"All my individual times were total crap, and I almost lost us the entire relay! And in front of all those recruiters, too! I couldn't show them anything that I was made of!"

"Hey, that's okay," he cooed, patting her back, "It's the first meet of the season, there are plenty of other chances."

"I just don't know how I'm gonna be able to come back from this," she breathed, "Every time I think about swimming in another meet, all I can think about is how that might be my last chance, and then I completely freeze."

Midoriya's brows furrowed, "Woah, what? Why would the next meet be your last chance?"

"Something Senpai said," she answered, "About how the recruiters don't care what we do and that we only have so many chances to to stand out, so we gotta make the most of them."