You sat on your couch, drinking tea and eating biscuits, absentmindedly watching whatever show appeared on your TV. It was Friday night, and training at UA today had kicked your ass. You were in a lull of pain and exhaustion, and keeping your eyes open for so long seemed to prove more and more difficult as it got later and later. But you forced yourself to stay up, knowing you could finally sleep in tomorrow.
You looked out the window and out at the street that was illuminated by your porch light. You thought you saw movement outside, something that was unusual for your small neighborhood. It was scary, it could have been a villain, it could have been anyone. As a hero, it wasn't nearly as scary as if you would have had not training and you hadn't been surrounded by heroes all day. So you casually got up and looked out the window, straining your eyes to see into the dark.
As your eyes adjusted to the dark, you saw a figure pacing back and forth, right on the sidewalk in front of your house. The figure was hunched over and had its hands in its pockets. It suddenly lurched towards your door, looking like every step was daggers in its feet.
You heard knocking on your door, so you walked over to reveal who the person was. You pulled the door open to see Tamaki Amajiki standing behind the door. His eyes were looking down, and his lips were trembling. His usual stance was even more hunched over than usual. "Tamaki, what are you doing here?" You asked.
He didn't respond. His shoulders trembled and his eyes started to water. You pulled him by his wrist into your house gently. You closed the door behind you and spun around to look at him. His back was turned to you but you could feel the sadness pouring off of him. "I-" he started. "I did something wrong. Nejire and Mirio are so mad at me. They don't talk to me and I'm worried if I said something wrong or if I did something mean. They aren't being mean but I just can't tell," he wavered. A tear ran down his cheek and fell off his chin.
"And I didn't know who else to g-go to. I'm sorry for imposing like this. But I can't deal with this on my own," he begged. You smiled softly and led him to the couch so he could sit down. He sat awkwardly and clasped his hands in his lap. His lips trembled and his shoulders shook. You went to get him a glass of water and then sat down next to him.
"Th-Thank you," he mumbled. He clearly didn't want or need the water right now, but he took a small sip anyway. He looked down at the glass as the water swirled around from his small movements.
"Tamaki, you can talk to me," you said as you scooted closer to him. His body went stiff and he looked like he could hardly stand being here.
"I-" he started. But he couldn't finish before he started to sob. His whole body seemed to break out of its stiffness as floods of tears ran down his face. His body shook and his eyebrows stitched together. You reached your arm around him to hold him close, but out of surprise at your touch he dropped the glass of water, spilling the water everywhere. That added to the mountain of his troubles, and he felt a tremendous amount of guilt as he dropped to his knees and tried to mop it up with his jacket quickly.
"I'm s-sorry. I didn't mean to. I-I am so sorry," he stuttered. You dropped down next to him and grabbed his wrists so he would stop scrubbing. He slowly looked up at you with his eyes still wet.
"Tamaki. Sit down. You're fine, let me take care of you," you said in a steady voice. He protested for a moment before reluctantly sitting back down on the couch. You got a rag and mopped up the small puddle of water. He watched you silently, not quite sure what to say. Whether to apologize or to say thank you, he had no idea. So he sat there silently and waited for you to finish cleaning. When you finally finished, you got up and sat next to him on the couch.
"Do you want to talk about it?" You asked after a moment of quiet.
"I'm not s-sure if I could get through it without crying," he mumbled. You nodded and pressed your lips together.
"Well we don't have to talk. Let's just put on a movie," you said, turning on the TV. You turned on his favorite movie as soon as you found it. The fact that you knew his favorite movie made him smile a little. He sniffled a little bit then pulled the blanket up to his chin and watching the movie in silence. You saw contentment grow back inside of him as you got further into the movie.
"Are you feeling better?" You asked. He nodded quickly and broke eye contact with the movie.
"Thank you so much, Y/N. I don't know what I would have done tonight without you," he said smoothly. The fact that he didn't stutter at all surprised you. Maybe he did have a calm side to him.As the credits rolled, you looked down at the sleeping boy on your shoulder. You could hardly imagine his red, tear streaked face you had seen only two hours ago. He looked perfect. You leaned your head on his and fell asleep as well, caving into the exhaustion you had been feeling for a while now.
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Hey y'all, thanks so much for reading! I decided a little angst might be needed for once in this book. I love this boy so much :)
As always, please leave suggestions for future chapters! And happy holidays to all of you!
-Liv💙
This chapter has been edited.