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The day was so close to being over. Tamaki had spent some quiet time studying in the library after his last class, and all that was left was to make it out of the building and bam, he’ll be safe in his dorm.
And then they swarm. He isn’t exactly sure who they are, only that there are a lot of them. Tamaki’s heartbeat is so loud in his ears that he isn’t even sure what they’re saying, but his mental mode is in fight, flight, or freeze, so he runs for his life.
Oh god, they’re chasing me.
“Tamaki! Over here!” He looks around him in surprise. A bunch of children are seemingly frozen in time. Is this…y/n?
“Tamaki!” He jolts.
“Y-Y/n?”
“Yes! Come on, I can only hold that many of them for a minute!” Tamaki’s still staring at the horde of what have to be late-elementary-age kids, all stopped mid sprint. Did she really use her quirk on kids? They were terrifying, but…
You gently lead him down the hallway by the wrist. No time for staring. Kids are scary.
“Okay, let’s hide in here until they pass! It’ll just seem like you disappeared, they’ll think you have a teleportation quirk or something, but we have to be quiet.”
You spy a storage closet and open the door, pulling Tamaki in after you and closing it again. It’s dark in there, and you can hear him shaking with nerves, so you squeeze his hand in what you hope is a reassuring manner.
“Hey, it’s alright. I’m going to release the kids now, so if we just sit quiet for a little while they should go away.”
“Okay,” He whispers, and you let the floodgates loose. There is the immediate sound of sneakers skidding to a halt and a few shouts.
“Hey, where’d that wimpy guy go?!”
“Man, how come he just disappeared like that…not cool!”
“He can’t have gone far! Let’s check around these classrooms!”
“Give it up, we’ll have to find someone else to bother. Besides, the teacher’s gonna catch up soon!”
Tamaki shifts slightly, backing up against the wall, and bumps into what must be a broom or mop handle. It clatters to the floor, startling both of you. You stumble away from the sound, accidentally kicking over a metal can of something, and wince at the additional noise.
“Sorry,” You and Tamaki simultaneously mumble.
“Hear that? He’s in there! Hey, look, this door locks from the outside! Hah, I locked him in!” Oh no.
“Students! Students! Come on, the bus is leaving soon, and from the way you’ve behaved today, it’s going to be enforced silence on the ride back! No protests, come on, single file…”
Whines are briefly heard, and then nothing. You look in the direction of where you’re pretty sure Tamaki is. He’s grateful you can’t see him well, because his cheeks are burning and you still haven’t let go of his hand.
“Do you think that kid actually locked the door?” You whisper disbelievingly, feeling around for a light switch, the door handle, anything. “I think I found the door handle…It…It’s locked. Sorry, Tamaki, I thought it’d be a good idea…there were so many of them, and you looked so scared…I…It’s my fault we got locked in here, I shouldn’t have dragged you into this mess.”
“No, it’s my fault for running and being scared. Do…do you think I’m wimpy? That kid…I ran from children, how weak is that?” You could feel him trembling through his hand, and it broke your heart.
“No! Not at all. You’re Suneater, Tama! You’re gonna be a super strong hero. Besides, even I didn’t want to deal with those kids…I was hiding and waiting for them to leave in an empty classroom when I saw them chasing you!”
“R-really?”
“Yeah! You’re definitely no wimp, Tamaki! Interacting with kids can be…terrifying. By the way, you wouldn’t happen to have your phone on you, would you? We can ask someone to come get us out of here.”
“I think it’s in my bag somewhere…” There’s a slight tremor in his voice. You’re slightly disappointed when Tamaki withdraws his hands from yours, even if it’s just to get his phone out of his bag.
“H-hi, uh Mirio, um, so I’m kind of stuck in a closet…no, a literal closet...um, the one on fifth…near the uh…what classrooms are we close to? Oh, okay, um, near the economics room…I uh, yeah, that was y/n…oh my god, no, Mirio, just get here, alright? How long? Okay…Uh, thanks…” The slight glow of the phone screen vanishes as Tamaki pockets it. “He says he’ll be here in seven minutes.”
You chuckle at Mirio’s obvious reference. It’s almost funnier knowing that Tamaki hasn’t made the connection.
“What…W-why’re you laughing?”
“Because…because Mirio…we’re stuck in a closet, and he said he’d be here in seven minutes!”
“U-uhm, wh-”
“Seven minutes in heaven!”
“What’s…I-I don’t really kno-”
“It’s alright if you don’t know it. Bit of a party game, I guess? I’ve never played it, but it’s kind of popular, so I’ve heard of it. It’s where you…um, go in a closet with someone else…and spend seven minutes together…” You pause, unsure if it’s a good idea to explain the main piece of the game. It wouldn’t do to embarrass him, but… “The point is to, um, make out.”
Crickets. Damn.
“Sorry if that made you uncomfortable! I, uh, well. Mirio was just joking around, I don’t expect you to…it was just a reference…joke…ha ha…”
“O-oh, I, uh…” Tamaki’s face was burning at the thought, and thanking every deity he’d ever heard of for the pitch-black dark of the closet.
“Here, I’ll try to find the lights. I think they’re-”
“N-no!” Tamaki exclaimed, his hands immediately seeking yours and flying out to stop them. “I-I mean, I just…feel more c-comfortable when it’s dark like this.”
“Oh. That’s fine, no problem!” You smile even though he can’t see you, overjoyed that he’s holding onto your hands again, and take a step away from the cramped corner by the door. Shit. It must be a lot smaller in here than you thought, because all of a sudden you’ve bumped into him and he’s tripped back into the cabinets and then he’s falling, and you’re falling because your hands are linked, and then everything freezes. You instinctually tear a hand away from his to protect Tamaki’s head, your decision saving him from what probably would’ve been a concussion or worse.
The only problem is…with one of your hands cradling the back of his head as it hits the floor, there’s not much left for you to slow down your momentum with, and your lips bump his as everything crashes to a halt.
It’s not a gentle kiss by any means, and you have to push with your lips to keep your teeth from clacking in a painful and potentially damaging way. All in all, your astonishing split second damage control has protected Tamaki’s skull and stolen his first kiss in a manner of seconds.
You pull away from the impromptu kiss, apologizing profusely as you hover over the poor boy in a dark closet, your hand still around the back of his head, your legs on either side of his. Tamaki is pretty sure his heart is going to give out at any point now, his brain rapidly trying to make sense of being kissed and laid on and the intimate environment, almost too busy blushing and thinking to comprehend your apology.
“—and I’m so sorry! I really didn’t…I didn’t want to kiss you like that, I mean, it’s not like I wouldn’t want to or don’t like you or anything! Because I do, I just, oh my god, what am I saying, I mean I’m so sorry for putting you in this awkward positionpleasedon’thateme!”
Tamaki is pretty sure that if you weren’t pinning him to the floor right now, he’d be hiding his face against a wall.
“Y-y-ou l-like me?” He repeats, his voice shaking dangerously from all of the rapid mental turbulence. She kissed me. She likes me? She’s literally on top of me right now, oh my god…
“Y-yeah…Sorry if that’s kind of sudden…I should get off of you, I’m not thinking straight, I’m so sorry!” You apologize again, gently extracting your hands from underneath the back of his head and trying not to get any hair caught in your fingers. It wouldn’t do to pull his hair out on top of everything.
“I-it’s okay…I um, I like you too…” His voice is almost too small to hear, but your ears wouldn’t miss a confession from Tamaki for the world. You almost jump at the feeling of a hand on your back.
“Really?” You ask, your nose brushing the tip of his as you grin widely, all attempts at getting up forgotten. Tamaki makes a small squeaky sound in response, and you feel like a melty puddle of mush. Your voice sounds just as small and wavery as his, but… “Can…Can I, um…Could I maybe, get a redo on that first kiss? If that’s too forward, I can totally get up, I justmmph-”
Tamaki leans up to cut you off, his lips barely brushing yours in a shy gesture of affection.
You close your eyes—not that it matters much in the darkness—and momentarily lose yourself in the oh-so-gentle kiss. It’s soft and awkward, but so sweet that he’s doing this with you, this thing that’s so out of his comfort zone. Your fingertips touch the sides of his face delicately, carefully, every action cautious of scaring him off.
You’ve never experienced anything like this butterfly kiss before. It’s like making out with a ghost, but in a good and totally amazing way, and it’s not actually a ghost and—terrible analogies aside, it’s wonderful.
—
Mirio arrives outside the closet with a brilliant smile on his face. He knows that you getting stuck in a closet with Tamaki Amajiki won’t have resulted in anything, but he hopes that his friend has managed to at least talk to his crush in the time they’ve spent in there. He and Hado have spent ages trying to convince Tamaki to confess, and here he is, probably standing with his face to the wall of a supply closet—
Oh.
The door swings open to reveal Tamaki and you making out on the floor in the dark. In a highly suggestive position.
Mirio’s mouth falls open in shock, his eyes widen, and he squeals.
“Oh! Well, the door is unlocked, but I’ll just…close it again for now, and um, see you guys later! Be safe!” He shuts the door, immensely proud of himself for not embarrassing his friend by cracking a joke about Tamaki changing his hero name to Faceeater.