PENUMBRA // Tamaki Amajiki x Reader Royal AU

Chapter 25

Maybe my speech encouraged him to try harder or maybe it was his lucky day, but the next morning we practiced again and this time it worked. He managed to control his quirk.

"Did I actually just... do that?" Tamaki stared at his fist in awe like it was one if my spells, after he ate some potato it did not manifest out of his fist, which trembled slightly from what I assumed was him fighting his quirk.

Reaching out, I covered his hand with my own to stop the trembling, sensing that his quirk was indeed active inside of him but there was no visible manifestation, "Is it difficult to do? What does it feel like?" There was much more I wanted to ask him, in fact I felt tremendously excited but I refrained from acting upon my emotions in case I overwhelmed him.

"It's feels like it didn't even happen at all," Tamaki remover his fist from my grip and continued to stare at it, "when I focused on stopping it, it just did this time but it isn't fighting to get out anymore... I can still feel the potato inside of me, like it has the potential to come out but it isn't fighting me, only resting."

"Can you draw it out - manifest it on your own I mean?"

His face scrunched up a bit and he focused intensely on his fist but there was no change. He let out a breath he was holding and dropped his head, "no, I can't do it."

"Not yet, you mean."

We tried a few more time and each time he successfully managed to fend off the manifestation the first big step to being able to fully control his quirk, I was quite satisfied with this progress and was not expecting anything else for a few days at least, proposing the idea that we took a break, but Tamaki was insistent on keeping going, determined to manifest his quirk on his own before the day's end.

Lunch came around and I had to leave but left the prince with a couple of potatoes to keep practicing, not expecting anything to have happened but when I came back there was a potato in place of each of Tamaki's fists.

"Did you eat two potatoes?" My first thought was that he had not managed to stop his quirk this time but he looked at me breathlessly and I knew this was not the case.

"I need to try bread." He gaze turned more serious and my grin faltered, "Please, if I don't do it now... I don't think I ever will."

I did not really believe that he never would, just today he had accomplished two things that he did not think he ever would, but I knew he was on some sort of high from said accomplishments and now of all times would be most productive.

"If you really think you are up to the task..." he nodded. "Then okay."

In the time we were speaking, his fists returned and a small loaf of bread dropped into his hands. Lacking his usual hesitancy but still holding onto his caution, Tamaki nibbled the loaf and handed the rest to me.

We waited in silence for something to happen before Tamaki spoke up, "I've stopped it now. It's not gonna come out but I can feel it still," it seemed the adrenaline from earlier was wearing off from his fear of hurting me or himself, "please promise me you'll protect yourself, and stop me if I try to hurt myself."

"I promise, there will never be a reoccurrence of last time."

He let out his quirk expecting strands of wheat to come flying out in all directions, but instead the grain slowly grew from his fingers, dropping to the ground once it got too long.

Watching intently, I dared not ask any questions in case I threw off his concentration. Tamaki and I looked at the wheat coiling on the floor prior to it climbing back up, withdrawing into his fingers before vanishing completely.