Blue Butterfly | Amajiki Tamaki

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2nd POV

Tamaki was the epitome of worry.

His palpitating heart was loud enough to deafen the blaring alarm that had signaled the start of the Sports Festival, the frenzy fit his heart was throwing leaving him utterly breathless and more uncoordinated than usual. His chest felt stuffy, but all the while he sensed himself a little lightheaded from everything going on.

The familiar grotesque, gut-wrenching feeling found comfort deep within his stomach, guilt still weighing down his chest and mind.

He wanted to apologise.

He needed to.

He didn't mean to let his tongue get the best of him, but Tamaki knew that would be a ludicrous excuse to use; and mustered the courage to at least walk up to you with a high head. But the winter ice-cold look you scrutinised him with said otherwise, blowing out the lick of kindling fire blooming in his chest almost immediately without batting a single eyelash. The wariness bubbling in the pit of his stomach amplified by a tenfold.

The way you dismissed him with a sole glance cut him open like a bland knife; the blade unrefined, but sleek in a manner that left him exposed, slicing the corroded threads entangling his heart—it hurt, the words forming yet lying in slumber in his throat.

He gulped, averting his gaze in response.

You were mad, he knew that, and it was an understatement to even say that he wasn't bothered by it at all. He nibbled on his  protruding, lower lip, patronising guilt eating away at his conscience; piece by piece.

He was running before he knew it, Kenji's weight on his back firmly reminding him of what his role was. The sharp hissing of ice and the cacophonous clash of Quirks; Tamaki padded away through the dark tunnel and entered the new picturesque zone, his bird talons chipping away the thick layer of ice upon contact as he bolted after the rest of the teams, dark locks bouncing off his forehead. Beads of sweat trickled down his neck, eyes roaming the milieu.

Kenji muttered a few audible words while he slithered past the frozen pairs, only skidding to a halt at a small contour when his pointy ears perked up at an alarming sound: an explosion.

'W-Was that what I think it was?' He gasped, sweat-dropping after hearkening a series of thundering noises in the far distance. 'Were those the obstacles?'

Suddenly, without giving Tamaki a chance to elude, the ground underneath gave away, a fissure-like crack cleaving the soil with a distinct rumble.

He leaped just in the nick of time, only for the ground to ensue with its deep rumbling, another quake splitting the fine faults into wider gaps that resembled gashes. Gravity hauled him down with immense pressure, panic strewn across his face as the earth sank.

"Hang on, Amajiki-san!" Kenji hollered in assurance, outstretching his arms on either side. A spur of long, thick silk threads shot from the tubes sticking out from his wrists, coiling around the bark of two trees; he made sure that they were secure as all four of his arms firmly tugged onto them, adjusting his tight grip. "I'm gonna pull us up!"

"O-Okay," Tamaki drawled, albeit feeling terrified.

He was thrown into the air for a fleeting moment, feeling a wave of relief cascade down on him when he and Kenji were free from the ordeal, the mellow kisses of the wind brushing his skin. With another yank, Kenji and Tamaki oscillated non-rhythmically at first, but slowly swung into a steady pace. The threads snapped loose and Tamaki instinctively activated his Quirk in the air, pink wriggling tentacles catching a nearby tree branch and safely landing on the ground.