{COMPLETE} Should Have Realized Sooner [Miritama]

5. Future Changes

Mirio BARELY passed the hero licensing exam and was one of four first-years that passed that year and the only one in class 1B that passed. He could tell that most of his classmates were silently jealous and/or judging him since he was far from at the top of his class. Nejire was one of the three in class 1A to and was super excited about it, like she is about most things.

"Togata! Togata!" Nejire yelled, frantically waving her arms around to get Mirio to join her where she was in the lunchroom.

Mirio walked over to her and glanced around, she almost never ate alone so he was surprised that she was sitting there by herself. "Hi Nejire... Where's Yuyu?" He asked.

"Oh, she said that she needed to talk to Miss Midnight, but that doesn't matter right now," Nejire dismissed.

"Doesn't matter-"

"Mirio!" Nejire squealed, almost making him jump. "We've got our gosh darn licenses!"

"We do," Mirio chuckled.

"Oh-oh! Have you heard about the hero work studies?" Nejire blabbed. "I overheard it from some of our upperclassmen, apparently we're not gonna be able to do them 'till next year since not enough of us got our licenses, can you believe it?"

"Work studies?" Mirio questioned.

"Yeah! I think they're a lot like our internships but we actually get to do stuff," Nejire explained. "We could even solve sommmme disappearances??" She hinted, nudging Mirio with her shoulder. Mirio's chest tightened at her comment and he looked away sadly. "No... hey..." Nejire said softly. "I'm sorry, I'm sure he's fine,"

Mirio quickly looked back at her, smiling brightly. "Yeah, I'm sure, I just don't wanna think about what I'll find if I look, y'know?" He asked and Nejire gave him a, slightly disproving, worried look.

Nejire loved bringing up Tamaki ever since Mirio had told her about him, it was just that somedays, it affected him more than it should and it sometimes hurt to hear about Tamaki from any other source other than his own head. Speaking of Mirio's head, it had once again started to think about an old memory of the two of them, one he almost forgot he had.

"...and then Tomoyo, just, threw up all over my dad," Tamaki told, making a small "gushing" motion with his hands.

"Ewwww," Mirio laughed, scrunching up his nose and shaking his head. "That's so gross."

"Hey, at least you didn't have to see it, I was actually there when it happened," Tamaki chuckled lightly.

The two of them lapsed into a comfortable silence, both with small smiles on their faces. They were swinging on an old swing set that was way out of the way of anything so not many people ever went near it. Mirio looked up at the sky, he could tell that Tamaki was doing the same and a few more moments passed before either of them said anything.

"Hey Tamaki?" Mirio questioned, still looking at the sky.

"Hm?" Tamaki hummed in response.

"How much do you think things are gonna change?" Mirio asked, looking over to him.

"Mmm," Tamaki hummed, keeping his gaze on the sky for a few more moments. "It depends on what you mean by change," he said, glancing over at Mirio.

"What I mean?" Mirio questioned, he thought his question was pretty straightforward.

"Sure," Tamaki responded, swinging a leg over and then straddling the swing seat so he could look at Mirio better. "Most people are gonna be wearing different clothes tomorrow, that's a change," he said.

"Oh come on," Mirio rolled his eyes, doing the same as Tamaki and straddling the seat so he could look at him better. "You know that's not what I meant, the future,"

"But tomorrow IS the future," Tamaki remarked, the tiniest sly smile on his face. "But yeah, I think I understand what you mean,"

"Then? What do you think?" Mirio asked again, almost desperate for his answer.

"I think a lot will change, that's inevitable," Tamaki responded. "It's how it'll change that's important but that's the thing, we'll never know until it's happened,"

Mirio looked at him in silence for a second, searching for something in Tamaki's expression but if you asked him what he was looking for, he wouldn't be able to tell you. "I really like you Tamaki," he mumbled, unable to stop the words from coming out of his mouth.

"Well I'd hope you'd like me, we are friends aren't we?" Tamaki asked skeptically.

Mirio smiled tightly. "Best friends,"

Tamaki's face flashed with something Mirio couldn't quite interpret but it was quickly wiped away. "I was talking to my dad yesterday," Mirio said.

"Understandably, you two live in the same house," Tamaki joked.

"Oh h-"

"Togata!" Nejire interrupted his thoughts and was frantically tapping his shoulder.

"What?" He questioned, slightly irritated but he didn't show it.

"Look!" She said, shoving her phone in Mirio's face before taking it away again, way too close and quickly for him to actually register what was on the screen. "A foreign kid got snatched up at the airport,"

"Kid?" Mirio asked.

"Yeah, get this, "Nine-year-old Cecil Nevitt went missing yesterday at Haneda international airport, he was described by his mother as 'a shy, codependent child that would never wander off, especially in a place he didn't know' this description, if true, has led most to suspect the worse," isn't that crazy?" Nejire said, reading the article a little too enthusiastically then what was appropriate.

"Yeah... I thought you didn't like looking at the news, you said it was too depressing," Mirio replied, confused.

"Exactly!" Nejire exclaimed. "And that's just another example! A little boy got taken, not just a boy but a FOREIGN boy, and his mom probably needs to go home without him, that's so sad," she cried, harshly slamming her head down on Mirio's shoulder and pouting.

"Yeah, it is sad..." Mirio trailed off. "You don't think he knows any Japanese do you? Not many kids that age know a second language, let alone a language that's not spoken much in your country,"

"Miriooooooo," Nejire whined

"What?"

"Don't make it worse," she complained, flailing her arms slightly.

"Hey, I'm just saying," Mirio defended. "It's only been a day so far, I'm sure the kid is fine,"

"Ehhhh," Nejire whined even more.

Mirio chuckled and rubbed her back. "Come on, we're training so we can help people, if something like this happens again, we'll be there to help," he comforted.

"Okay..." Nejire pouted. "I wanna become a hero sooner," she said, sitting up.

"I know, we're getting there..." Mirio said.

"Yeah... we're getting there..."