AMATEURS [Tenya Iida x OC]

Chapter 2 - The One with the Apology

Peri stumbled down the stairs and tried to collect her thoughts, her racing heartbeat, her frantic feet. She couldn't believe her ears... Tenya thought she was a villain?

After everything she had done to get to this point, this felt like getting the wind knocked out of her when she was just learning to breathe. She had friends, real friends, at UA. She was free from her parents and their agenda. She had a facsimile of independence.

And then this.

She hid in the closest empty bathroom to collect herself, letting the sobs roll through her and the tears fall freely in the lonely dark. Her fingernails caught on the green-tiled floor as she fell to her knees, coughing and gasping for air. All of the bullies in elementary and middle school had prepared her for times like this... she just hadn't anticipated it coming from Tenya, of all people. Peri dug her palms into her eyes, and willed the new tears to stop, begged the tightening in her throat and chest to slacken, wished for an easy answer to her life-long question:

When will I be free?

As the sobs simmered down and the tears slowed, Peri stood in the shadowy bathroom, and walked to the mirror. Her mascara trailed down her cheeks in black rivulets, and her uniform was a crumpled mess. She dispensed herself some paper towels and wiped away the mascara stains, vowing to never again wear mascara to school, before steeling herself to head back to Book Club and finish the meeting.

As far as the others knew, she had never found Tenya.

And she would keep it that way.

-

Tenya's hands trembled as he stood outside of Peri's room that night, gripping a single white tulip in his fingers. If there was one thing he was good at, it was research, and white tulips meant "forgive me" in the lost language of flowers, according to the internet and the additional books he'd found at the library for fact-checking purposes.

He knew he needed to knock. But the impending embarrassment of the conversation about to happen was freezing him to the carpet. Maybe he should have brought more flowers? Dressed nicer? No, Tensei said to be comfortable... so Tenya had gone with dark jeans and an emerald green hoodie, and it wasn't making him feel any better.

Bracing himself, Tenya straightened up, and knocked on Peri's door. The buzz of chatter inside nulled, and he heard footsteps. Tsu answered the door and greeted him. Tenya felt his cheeks heat, and he bowed (both out of politeness and to hide his flushed face). "Hello, Tsuyu," he said, speaking to his feet, aggressively avoiding eye contact, "I was hoping to speak with Peri if she is available."

She turned into the room and muttered something, leaving the door cracked just enough for Tenya to steal a peek inside. A thread of tiny lights ran around the top edge of the room, casting the room in a warm glow. A deep purple armchair was in his view, draped with a cream blanket, the bookshelf next to it stuffed with books in French, English, and Japanese. "One second, Iida," Tsu smiled, and closed the door softly, disappearing.

Tenya swallowed his nerves and regripped the white tulip, hoping he wasn't crushing it in his sweaty palm. All he could hope was that she would hear him out, and that maybe she could forgive him. If not... then he wasn't sure what would come next.

The knob turned, and Tenya's heart leaped to his throat, choking him with a combination of anxiety and excitement and hormones. Peri appeared in the doorway, smiling softly up at him. "I'll be right back," she said to the girls, waving before shutting the door behind her. Tenya tried not to pay attention to her loose blonde curls around her shoulders, or her pink pajama shorts showing off so much of her fair legs, or her cream cabled sweater hanging off of her shoulder, revealing one black bra strap.